Welcome to the 2007 Shepherds
Conference, General Session number 2, Stephen Lawson. We're looking
forward to hearing the Word of God from our beloved friend,
Dr. Stephen Lawson, who is a dear
and personal treasured friend to me in many ways. We get to
share a lot of time together. We did a little touring last
summer of Scotland and Ireland. through a little pastor's conference
in the midst of our golf. And the days are so long over
there that it doesn't get dark until about eleven, so you could
play around a golf and do a Reformation tour, eat a couple of good meals
and it still wasn't dark. It was a great time and we were
blessed to experience all that we experienced together. He is
faithfully served. this church and the ministries
of our seminary in a myriad of ways around the world, training
men on our behalf, as well as being a tireless, relentless
preacher who I think prepares four sermons for every week that
he delivers to his blessed people. We're glad to have Him here and
I know He enters into the paralysis of analysis with that many sermons
coming out of Him that fast, it's hard to pick one. So we
believe the Holy Spirit has aided Him and we're glad to have Him
here to minister to the Word of God. Before He comes, let
me lead us in a word of prayer on His behalf. Father, we thank
You for this faithful man, for his years of proven loyalty to
Christ and loyalty to the truth of Scripture. Thank You for the
way You've gifted and blessed him. Fill his heart with joy. Fill his heart with the awesome
privilege of being the intermediary between the great and the chief
shepherd and his under-shepherds, to express his mind to us who
wait so eagerly to know it. May He know that blessing that
attends the faithful proclamation of Your truth and we commit this
time and ourselves to You as we listen, in the name of Christ. Amen. Well, I want to first say
what a privilege it is to be here and there is not a gathering,
I think, of men like this anywhere in the world, men so committed
to the authority of Scripture to the Lordship of Christ, to
the centrality of the local church and from all over the world.
And I know that we are kindred spirits, our hearts beat together
for the same truths of the glory of God. And to have everyone
together here at one time under one roof It's quite extraordinary,
it's almost a foretaste of heaven and to be around the throne of
God. I want you to know how enriched I am just to have your fellowship
and to be able to spend this time together with you. I love
the Shepherds Conference. I first came here to a Shepherds
Conference twenty-five years ago when I was a young man just
out of seminary and quite overwhelmed with everything that I saw. And in those years, God really
marked me out for ministry. And what I heard from this pulpit
and what I heard from the seminars as I attended each of those,
it really has shaped my ministry for the last twenty-five years.
This really was not just a conference to get away. This was a place
where I came, where my soul was fed and where I was taught from
the Scripture how to carry out biblical ministry. And I will
always be embedded to this church, to John MacArthur, for the imprint
of this conference upon my life. I pray that you will drink in
everything. I was the first to come, I was
the last to leave each of the days and I trust that your cup
will be filled overflowing. I also want to just express my
love for John MacArthur and just say publicly I love this man
and love what he stands for and it puts strength into my heart
as I sit under the preaching that he brings. If you would
take God's Word and turn with me to the book of Acts, Acts
chapter 2, the title of my message today is, The Passion and the
Power of Apostolic Preaching. Acts chapter 2. I want to begin
reading in verse 14. I will read through verse 21,
though our exposition today will extend further. And I trust and
pray that God will stir up your heart and inflame the desire
that is no doubt already in your heart to be a preacher of the
Word of God. And my desire with this message
today is that you would not be just any kind of a preacher but
that you would be an expositor, but not just any kind of an expositor,
that you would have the thunder of the Apostles as they heralded
and proclaimed the Word of the living God. We do not need any
more mild and meek preachers in pulpits. We need men of God
to stand up and to preach and to herald with much love the
full counsel of God. We need the passion and the power
of apostolic preaching to be upon our lives. Acts chapter
2 beginning in verse 14, the Word of God reads, but Peter
taking his stand with the eleven. raised his voice and declared
to them, men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let
this be known to you and give heed to my words. For these men
are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only the third hour
of the day. But this is what was spoken through
the prophet Joel. And it shall be in the last days,
God says, that I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind. And your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your
old men shall dream dreams. Even on My bondslaves, both men
and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit. and
they shall prophesy. And I will grant wonders in the
sky above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vaporous
smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness
and the moon into blood before the great and glorious day of
the Lord shall come. And it shall be that everyone
who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." As the church advances into the
21st century, I see two deadly dangers that concern me greatly
that are threatening the very lifeblood of modern preaching. The first threat is the wholesale
devaluing of preaching itself that is occurring in so many
churches. In this radical paradigm shift,
biblical preaching is being displaced in favor of other things. Exposition,
once the main staple of the pulpit, is now being replaced with entertainment. Theology is giving way to theatrics. Sound doctrine is being exchanged
for sound checks. And the unfolding drama of redemption
is becoming substituted for just plain drama. God-exalting, soul-awakening
preaching is now out. And casual, comfortable dialogues
are in. Transcended worship services
are out. And trendy hip-hop gatherings
are in. And the straightforward exposition
of Scripture is being demoted to secondary status. I want you
to know, this concerns me greatly. But it is not my greatest concern.
What concerns me most is another danger that lies entirely on
the other end of the preaching spectrum. It is a threat far
more subtle and one that endangers those who value biblical preaching
the most. It is a stifling danger that
is encroaching those whose exegesis is sound, whose study is deep,
whose cross-references are dotted, whose manuscript is prepared,
but the problem is their preaching is no longer preaching. Their
expository preaching is all expository but there is no preaching. It
is little more than data dump. It is a lifeless lecture on the
Bible. The fact is, their preaching
has become clinical and cold and sterile and stagnant. It
is all light and no heat. It is precision without power. It is this second group that
most concerns me. Richard Baxter, that great Puritan,
once said, quote, nothing is more indecent than a dead preacher
speaking to dead sinners, the living truth of the living God.
R.C. Sproul has rightly said, dispassionate
preaching is a lie. It denies the very content that
it conveys. Walt Kaiser has weighed in on
this and has said, "'Away with all the mediocre, lifeless, boring,
lackluster orations offered as pitiful substitutes for the powerful
Word of the living God. If that Word from God does not
thrill the preacher and fill him with an intense desire to
glorify God, how shall he ever expect it to have any effect
upon his hearers?' It was the doctor himself, Martin Lloyd-Jones,
who defined preaching as theology coming through a man who is on
fire for God. And I believe that this is what
must be recaptured among us who are in this room. We are not
in danger of giving up the pulpit and inviting in the entertainment
into our worship service, but it is us who believe in the authority
of the Word of the living God. who at times become listless
and lifeless in our exposition of the Scripture. It was the
kind of preaching apostolic preaching that burst onto the scene in
the first century. Every reader of the book of Acts
should be impressed with how dominant this powerful, passionate
preaching was. There is no fewer than nineteen
major sermons or defenses of the faith in the book of Acts.
It's been suggested that the book of Acts could just as easily
be entitled, The Sermons of the Apostles. There are eight sermons
by Peter, one sermon by Stephen, one by James and nine sermons
by Paul, five are messages, four are defenses. And when all of
these nineteen sermons in the book of Acts are added up, twenty-five
percent of the entire text of the book of Acts is devoted to
recording the actual words of the apostolic preaching of the
Word of God in the early church. One out of every four verses
in the book of Acts is a sermon or is a defense of the faith.
And that underscores to us how important apostolic preaching
is. And it also suggests to us the
kind of preaching that we are to emulate. There are recorded
in the book of Acts that we might follow their timeless pattern
in our preaching. It is not just expository preaching
that we need, but expository preaching of a certain tone,
of a certain thrust. What we need is apostolic expository
preaching, to bring the thunder back to the pulpit as the Word
of God is heralded. As we look in Acts chapter 2,
I want to suggest to you, I want to bring to your attention four
marks of apostolic preaching that should mark every expositor
who steps into the text of the Word of God. And I want to give
you the overview. I want to lay out what these
four marks are at the very outset and then walk our way through
it. In verse 14 and 15, we see, number one, that it is bold,
authoritative preaching. Apostolic preaching is bold,
authoritative preaching. Number two, beginning in verse
16 and running throughout the entire sermon, it is text-driven
preaching. It is preaching that starts with
Scripture, it continues with Scripture, and it stays with
Scripture, and it concludes with Scripture, and the preacher never
deviates nor departs away from the central thrust of the Word
of God. It is text-driven preaching. And then third, beginning in
verse 22, we note that it is Christ-centered preaching. It is a magnification and an
exaltation in the presentation of the person and work of Jesus
Christ. This is the preacher's greatest
glory, to set forth the majesty and the supremacy of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then finally in verse 37
and following, it is heart-piercing preaching. These are the four
marks, I believe, of this sermon that Peter delivered on the Day
of Pentecost as it was delivered in the power and the energy of
the Holy Spirit. And I believe that we as preachers
are to stand on the shoulders of these Apostles and not only
preach what they preached, but also preach as they preached,
to preach in a manner that resembles their preaching. And so, I want
us to look now at the passion and the power of apostolic preaching. Beginning in verse 14, I want
you to see, number one, that it is bold, authoritative preaching. As Peter stepped forward to preach,
he was not offering suggestions to his listeners. He was not
laying out options for them and doing so in a flat, monotone
manner. To the contrary, Peter was assertive,
he was emphatic, he was confident, he was commanding, he was directional,
he was outspoken, he was compelling, he was arresting in his preaching. He stood as...at the fork in
the road and everyone would have to decide which way they would
go as a result of being...of encountering this proclamation
that came from Peter. Note beginning in verse 14. but
Peter taking his stand with the eleven. Peter took his stand
as he stepped forward to preach. This verb, taking a stand, histemi,
means far more than arising from a sitting position to...to stand
on one's feet. What is being described here
is he arises in order to take a firm stand and to establish
himself. John Calvin notes, quote, he
had something very serious to say and wanted to be heard, unquote. He assumes an authoritative posture. He assumes an authoritative stance. And He is standing with the eleven,
they flank Him on both sides, they frame Him as He steps forward
to preach. And it is their standing with
Him that even adds to the authority base as He speaks the Word of
God. And note in verse 14, He raised
His voice. He is passionate. He is proclamational. He is not soft-spoken. He is
firm and He is sure. And as He speaks, He is emphatic,
He is directional, and He is assertive. And Peter had to be
heard as he stepped forward. And by the way, he was discipled
by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And we read in John 7 and verse
37 that Jesus stood and cried out saying, if any man thirst,
let him come unto Me and drink. And so as Peter steps forward
and raises his voice, he does so as he has seen his Lord do
so many times. Now let me say this, you do not
need to be loud in order to be passionate. There is an ebb and
a flow in the volume as you speak the Word of God. But I would
rather you err on the side of being too passionate as you are
communicating the Word of Truth and we would need to reel you
back a little bit than to light a fire under you to get you going. I remember one day in class at
Dallas Seminary, a student in the preaching class just mumbling
out his sermon that he would preach in class. And I remember
Howard Hendricks going up to him and saying, you don't believe
that. And he said, well I do. No you
don't. Yes I do. And in the process
of this, this guy was getting worked up and getting mad. And
then Henrik said, alright, get up there and preach it just like
that. Let us know that you believe
what you're saying. And once you convince us that
you believe this, then maybe we will buy what you are selling. He continues here in verse 14,
notice these words, and declared to them. This word declared means
to enunciate plainly, to speak forth. Listen, Peter was plainly
heard and clearly understood. And if there is to be a problem
with those who are hearing, it will not be because they misunderstood
him. The problem will be they heard
exactly what he had to say. This word also means to speak
seriously. It means to speak with gravity. There is a gravitas, there is
a sobriety about Peter as he steps forward to preach. He preached
as if lives depended upon it. as if souls are hanging in the
balance. He is not playing games. As He
declared to them, and He said, men of Judea and all you who
live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you. He is confident. He is bold. There is no equivocation. There is no hesitation. He speaks
as a man who has been given a mandate by God Almighty and sent as the
Lord's ambassador to represent Him and to be His mouthpiece
upon the earth, a man through whom the truth will come to the
ears of men and women upon this earth. And He says, let this
be known to you. Peter is not like so many preachers
stroking their chin and saying, well it seems to me. You don't
want to listen to anyone that says, well it seems to me. I
don't care what it seems to you. You want to listen to a preacher
who says, let this be known to you. And then he says, and give
heed to my words. Peter is actually demanding that
he be heard. He is saying, listen up, pay
attention, do not ignore me. We must have a hearing as we
stand up to preach the Word of God. And then in verse 15 he
says, for these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only
the third hour of the day. They had never been to America,
I guess. But in verse 15, Peter is correctional. Here he is showing them the error
of their way. He is correcting them. He is
reproving them in their thinking. And so he is assuming this bold,
authoritative nature. And this continues throughout
the rest of the sermon. Look at verse 22. In verse 22,
men of Israel, listen to these words, verse 29, I may say confidently, look at
verse 36, let all the house of Israel know for certain. He's not dogmatic, he's bulldogmatic. Every gospel preacher, every
true expositor must preach with the same authoritative boldness. We must speak the truth in love
but we must speak the truth. This is how Jesus taught. This
is how Jesus preached. In Matthew 7 verse 28 at the
very end of the Sermon on the Mount, you'll recall that when
Jesus had finished these words. The crowds were amazed at his
teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority
and not as their scribes. Where are men like this today
who are marked and who are noted by the authority with which they
speak from the Word of the living God? This is how Paul taught
Titus to preach and us as well in Titus 2 and verse 15, Paul
writes, these things speak and exhort and reprove...listen to
this...with all authority. Let no one disregard you," unquote. This necessitates that our preaching
be a commanding and authoritative and a directional preaching of
the Word of God. Now we are to be kind, we are
to be loving, we are to be patient, we are to be long-suffering. But as we stand with the Word
of God, we are to be exactly as Peter is here. We are to take
our stand, we are to raise our voice, we are to declare to our
listeners, we are to call for the verdict, we are to call for
their attention. Men, this is precisely the way
that we must preach. Our preaching must be marked
by bold authority. First Corinthians 16 verse 13,
Paul says, stand firm in the faith. Act like men, be strong. There are too many men in pulpits
today who are tripping over their pantyhose. It's the feminization of the
pulpit today. Adrian Rogers has said, the problem
with preachers is today nobody wants to kill them anymore. Well I tell you, they were after
Peter and they were after James and they cut his head off and
they were after Stephen and they stoned him to death and they
were after Paul and they put him into prison. They were after
all of these apostolic preachers and all but John died a martyr's
death and even he was put into confinement on the island of
Patmos. It was bold, authoritative preaching. And if there are people in your
ear at your church who are urging you to tone it down under the grace of the Holy Spirit,
you don't listen to that. You preach the full counsel of
God in all that it says and affirms. That's what God has called us
to do. That's where this starts...bold, authoritative preaching. Now
number two, it must be text-driven preaching. And this is the real
authority of the sermon. This is the real authority of
the preacher. The preacher has no authority
apart from the Word of God, right? We are simply the messenger.
We are simply the conduit. And all of the authority is found
in this book that is open on the pulpit that stands before
us. Apostolic preaching is rooted and grounded in the biblical
text of the Word of the living God. It is thoroughly biblical.
It is entirely expository. As you will note, and just let
your eye glance at this, if you have a New American Standard,
as do I, where the Old Testament citations are in all capital
letters. You will note that there are
five major sightings of Scripture that Peter weaves together in
this message. And in just a moment, I'm going
to walk us through this. But note in verse 17 through
verse 21, it is simply the reading of Joel 2, 28 to 32. And then
in verse 25 through 28, that is Psalm 16, 8 through 11. And then in verse 30, that is
Psalm 132 verse 11, and then in verse 31 he goes back to Psalm
16 verse 10, and then in verse 34 and verse 35 it is Psalm 110
verse 1. This is a text-driven message. And I want to give you some hallmarks,
some signposts. that really define what expository
preaching is. A lot of people talk about being
an expositor and being a biblical preacher. I want us to examine
here what Peter is doing as he stands to preach. And there are
five things that I want to draw to your attention as we move
verse by verse through this. And let me say, we'll come back
through it one more time. and look at it through the lens
of Christ-centered, but text-driven. Notice, beginning in verse Read
the text. That's where expository preaching
begins. It doesn't begin with something
out there in the world. It doesn't begin with something
that happened to you on the way to church the other day. It begins
with the Word of God. The preacher has nothing to say
apart from the Word of God. The preacher is a parrot for
the Word of God. we are a cave that God has spoken
into and the echo comes out of us, we simply proclaim what is
in this book. And so he begins by reading the
text. And by the way, that is exactly
what Ezra did in Nehemiah chapter 8. It's what our Lord did in
Luke chapter 4. It is what Paul told Timothy
to do in 1 Timothy 4 verse 13, until I come, give attention
to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and to teaching.
So Peter is doing what Ezra did, what Christ did and what Paul
tells every preacher to do. You begin with the reading of
the Word of God. Everything that will be said
will originate from the text of Scripture. And so in verse
16, Peter says, but this is what was spoken of through the prophet
Joel as he points back to what has just occurred in the pouring
out of the Holy Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost and he
is going to use the Word of God to frame the picture of what
has just happened and to bring it into focus but there is...there
is a greater point that he is driving to and I want to show
you this. But there is no surprise element
from verse 16. He stands up, He announces basically
chapter and verse, this is that which is spoken of through the
prophet Joel. Beginning in verse 17, and it
shall be in the last days, God says, Here is the dual authorship
of Scripture. Verse 16 it says, Joel said it. In verse 17 it says, God says
it. And the inspiration of the Scripture,
there is a secondary author and there is a primary author. Joel
is the secondary author in verse 16. He was the instrument in
the hand of God that the Lord used to record His message. But
it was, Peter says in verse 17, it was God speaking through what
Joel is saying. In other words, the real preacher
on the Day of Pentecost was not Joel and it wasn't even Peter,
the real preacher on the Day of Pentecost was God Himself. It was God speaking through His
Word. In fact, as you look at verse
17, notice the second line, that I will pour forth of My Spirit. Those personal pronouns refer
to God. This is God speaking through
the text. Joel and Peter now are secondary
to what is primary, it is God who is speaking. God never speaks
more through us than when we preach His Word. Look at verse
18, even my bond slaves, both men and women, the my refers
to God, I will, verse 18, in those days pour forth of my Spirit,
referring to God, verse 19, and I will grant wonders in the sky
above. God is the real preacher here.
God is the one who is preaching on the day of Pentecost. Peter
is simply a mouthpiece for what Joel has written, but over it
all it is God who is preaching. Verse 20, the sun will be turned
into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and glorious
day shall come. It was not fulfilled on the Day
of Pentecost, only a precursor. The fulfillment of this awaits
the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ of what we heard
this morning. But now look at verse 21. This
is the key verse. And it shall be that everyone
who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." And this
now brings to climactic conclusion the reading of the Scripture
on the Day of Pentecost, or the quoting of Scripture by Peter. And now having read his text,
Second, after you read the text, explain the text. That's what
the word expository means. It means to explain the text. And in verse 22, what we see
is the explanation of the text of verse 21. There is an inseparable
connection between verse 21 and verse 22. And in verse 21, he says, everyone
who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And now in verse 22, he gives
us the name of this Lord. He gives us the name of the Savior,
the one upon whom men must call for their eternal salvation.
And so in verse 22, he now begins to explain the text of verse
21. This is what expository preaching
is. You read the text, then you explain
the text, what it meant to the...to the author who wrote this in
the original historical setting in the grammatical sense of what
he said to the original recipients. And so he says in verse 22, men
of Israel, listen to these words and this bold authoritative thrust
continues to come. Jesus the Nazarene, this is the
name of the Lord upon whom sinners must call upon if they are to
be saved. Jesus the Nazarene is the common
earthly name designated by His hometown. A man attested to you
by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed
through Him in your midst just as you yourselves know. And so as Peter preaches this
on the day of Pentecost so that there will be no possible misunderstanding
what name must be called upon in order for sinners to be saved,
he now elaborates and expands upon with precision who the Lord
is, His name is Jesus the Nazarene. Verse 23, this man. delivered
over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you
nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men." This continues
Peter's explanation of Joel 2...32, that this Savior whom God has
attested to to be His only begotten Son, in verse 23 He says, you
put to death the Lord upon whom you are to call for salvation. Verse 24, but God raised Him
up again, putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible
for Him to be held in its power. You put Him to death but God
raised Him up, this Lord upon whom you must call for salvation. This is what expository preaching
does. Verse 22 to 24 is the explanation
of the text that Peter just read, specifically verse 21. Now there's a third element in
expository preaching. One, read the text. Two, explain
the text. Three, support the text. And what Peter will now do, beginning
in verse 25, having explained the text, he now undergirds it
with other cross-references. And he supports this central
theme and traces it throughout the entirety of Scripture. He
shows that this truth runs through the course of Scripture and He
will now give us, beginning in verse 25, four strategic cross-references
that bolster His explanation. And what He will show is that
the full counsel of God speaks with unity and clarity on this
truth. that this Lord upon whom you
have put to death, God has raised, you must call upon Him for salvation."
And so beginning in verse 25, we read, for David says of Him,
and again here is the dual authorship of Scripture as he now quotes
Psalm 16 verses 8 through 11. And before I read this, what
is so amazing is is that Peter now is using Scripture to support
Scripture. He is cross-referencing to other
portions of the Word of God in order to reinforce what he is
saying. And so the issue on the table
at this moment is in verse 24. the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that God has raised Him from the dead. And Peter
now will support this with a walk through various passages of the
Old Testament. And so he says in verse 25, for
David says of him, I saw the Lord always in my presence And
when he says, David says of him, he is alerting us that David
is not speaking of himself, he is speaking of a greater son
of David, a descendant of David, one who will come in the Messianic
line, the greater son of David, Jesus Christ Himself. The speaker
in this psalm who is David is looking beyond himself and beyond
his own time to the coming of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so in this, Peter is putting
his arms around the full counsel of God and bringing it to bear
upon this issue. It's not simply an isolated text
that is speaking, but it is the full import of Scripture being
brought to bear on this. So, for David says of Him, I
saw the Lord always in my presence. Christ is ultimately the Speaker
here, for He is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken.
And it speaks of the trust Jesus Christ had in God the Father
as He approached the cross and even as He hung upon the cross,
He knew the Lord was with Him and would be until that time
at high noon when God snuffed out the Son and Jesus said, My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? But for the first three hours
upon the cross, he knew that the Lord was with him and at
his right hand, I will not be shaken as he approaches the valley
of the shadow of death. Now verse 26, therefore my heart
was glad and my tongue exulted. Moreover my flesh also will live
in hope. And that word hope looks to the
joy that was set before him as he endured the cross. He knew
he would not die in vain. but that His death would secure
the eternal salvation of all of those for whom He was dying.
Verse 27, because you will not abandon My soul to Hades. This
is an inner Trinitarian conversation. It is what the son is saying
to the father. because You will not abandon
my soul to Hades, nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You
have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full
of gladness with Your presence." And he knew that on the other
side of death, that His Father would raise Him from the dead,
would not abandon Him in the grave, there would be this resurrection
and in that resurrection there would be fullness of joy and
gladness in the presence of the Father. And so Peter now in his
preaching, having read the text, he explains the text and now
third, he is supporting the text and each of these cross-references
are like mighty pillars that are undergirding the central
thrust of what he is saying in his sermon. Verse 29, "'Brethren,
I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David
that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this
day.'" Peter reinforces this now with deep conviction that
David was not speaking of himself. David is still in the grave.
His grave is occupied. But the grave of the greater
Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, it is an empty tomb.
verse 30, and so because he was a prophet, referring to David,
and knew that, and now he begins to quote Psalm 132 verse 11,
God has sworn to him with a note to seat one of His descendants
on His throne. And Peter now inserts this text
strategically into his expository sermon to undergo...undergird
what he just said in verse 24 regarding the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. Now verse 32, this Jesus, and
there are four times in this sermon when Peter says, this
Jesus, so that there is no misunderstanding about who we are talking about
and what is the theme of this sermon. It is this Jesus, God
raised up again to which we are all witnesses. And in verse 31,
he re-quotes Psalm 16 verse 10. to go back to it to underscore
what was meant in that verse. Verse 33, therefore, having been
exalted to the right hand of God and having received from
the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth
which you both see and hear For it was not David who ascended
into heaven, but he himself says, and now he quotes yet another
text of Scripture, Psalm 110 verse 1, the Lord said to my
Lord. Now I want to draw to your attention,
the Lord refers to God the Father, my Lord refers to God the Son. And this goes all the way back
to verse 21, that whosoever calls upon the name of the The Lord
shall be saved. And so, Peter is networking this
sermon and connecting it very tightly and supporting not only
the resurrection, but now he is supporting the exaltation
of Christ and that it is this Christ who must be called upon,
this Christ alone is Lord. And so, he reads it, he explains
it, he supports it with cross-references and now in verse 36, he synthesizes the text. He summarizes the text. He brings it all down to the
bottom line. He pulls it all forward. He boils
it all down. He distills it down. And in verse
36, therefore, and this is the driving bottom line conclusion
to which this sermon is headed, and it all pulls forward from
verse 21, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. He has explained and supported
that this Lord is none other than Jesus Christ Himself and
now in verse 36, He says, therefore let all the house of Israel know
for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, kurios,
this Jesus whom you crucified. And so, this expository sermon,
this apostolic sermon is not a lot of just disconnected theological
thoughts and disconnected verses that are just like things thrown
into an omelet and just shaken together. There is...there is
precision of thought. There is progression of thought.
This is all building to what he says in verse 36, that this
Lord whom you must call upon in verse 21. is the very Lord
whom you crucified, in verse 23, is the very Lord whom God
has raised from the dead, in verse 24, and it is the teaching
of the entirety of Old Testament Scripture and it is God Himself
who has made Him both Lord and Christ. Now there's one more
mark I want you to see. And the sermon cannot be an expository
sermon, a text-driven sermon until we add this last fifth
element, apply the text. Read the text, explain the text,
support the text, synthesize the text and now apply the text. And now comes the crescendo of
the sermon. Now the bridge is connected at
both ends. Here is the action point of the
sermon. Here is the imperative voice
of the sermon. Verse 37, now when they heard
this, they were pierced in the heart and said to Peter and the
rest of the Apostles, brethren, what shall we do? They came to
the startling realization through the illuminating ministry of
the Holy Spirit of God and His convicting ministry that they
themselves with their own hands had put to death the Prince of
life. What must we do? We have killed
the Son of God. This sermon has been so arresting
that the sinners are giving the invitation here. Peter's not even finished preaching.
In verse 40 we read that He continued with many other words to solemnly
testify and kept on exhorting them. They have interrupted the
preaching. because they are under such deep
conviction as the authority of the Word of God has been pressed
to their heart and their conscience is now awakened and they are
under the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God. What shall we
do? And in verse 38, Peter gives
the application to the sermon. This is what you must do. He
becomes very directional now. Expository preaching must get
to the you. First it's God and Christ, but
now the plane must land on the runway of their hearts. He comes
to the you. Repent and each of you be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He now brings
the application to them. And it is...He tells them what
they must do. Our preaching must be directional
and we must give the application and spell out what the sinner
must do and what the saint must do as well. Look at verse 40, and with many
other words, He solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them saying,
be saved from this perverse generation, solemnly testified, kept on exhorting
them. Expository preaching involves
all of these elements. of solemnly testifying, keep
on exhorting. Expository preaching involves
persuasion, appeal, invitation, begging, pleading, warning and
exhorting. He was in this sermon assaulting
their will. He was calling for the verdict.
He was pleading for their decision. This is a necessary part of expository
preaching, It was said of Jonathan Edwards, that great Puritan in
New England, his great doctrinal preaching that he brought that
God used to spark the Great Awakening, his series on justification by
faith, 1734, God used it to blow it open. And it was said that
in his...the doctrinal section of his sermon. And the Puritans
had these main headings, doctrine and then application, that in
the setting of the doctrinal portion of the sermon, Jonathan
Edwards was merely bringing his cannons into place and merely putting the gunpowder
into the cannon. But it was with the application
that he fired. I wonder how many times we pull
short of firing our canons as we have set forth the doctrinal
truth from the text of Scripture, but an expository sermon must
include the imperative mood, it must include the you, it must
include the application and this is what God requires of you. George Whitefield, as he so many
times would come to preach, was off to begin his sermon by saying
this, I have come here today to talk to you about your soul. And there was this sermon that
he would give in preaching the Word of God that would be directed
all the way to the application to talk to you about your soul. This is what text-driven preaching
is. It is preaching that announces
the text, reads the text, explains the text, supports the text,
reinforces the text, synthesizes the text and applies the text. This is the apostolic preaching
according to the pattern of the first Christian sermon. It starts
with a text, stays with a text and drives home the text. John
Calvin has defined expository preaching as, quote, the explication
and application of Scripture. It is the explanation of a text
of Scripture combined with the application of it. So it was a text-driven sermon. I trust that in your ministry
as you prepare your messages and as you step behind the sacred
desk to deliver the Word of the living God, that your message
will be so saturated with the Word of God that your people
who sit under the influence of your preaching will literally
be overwhelmed with the the authority and the impact and the power
of Scripture that is coming upon them. There's a third element
of this sermon and I must hasten that I want you to see. And not
only is it bold, authoritative preaching, and not only is it
text-driven preaching, but in verse 22 I want you to see also
that it is Christ-centered preaching. The apostolic preaching of Peter
was centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ. In verse 22 we see the authentication
of Christ in a sermon. Men of Israel, listen to these
words, Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles
and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your
midst just as you yourselves know He says, listen, God has
authenticated and validated Jesus Christ before you with signs
and wonders and miracles. Every miracle that Jesus performed
was the finger of God from heaven pointing and saying, this is
My beloved Son, hear Him. You are without excuse, He says.
And as we preach, we have the ministry of the Holy Spirit who
brings conviction to the heart of the listener that brings authentication
and validation to their heart regarding who Christ is. Then
His crucifixion in verse 23, this man delivered over by the
predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. Jesus was delivered over
to Annas and Caiaphas. He was delivered over to Pilate
and Herod. He was delivered over to the
Roman soldiers. He was delivered over to death
upon a cross by whom? And he says, it was God Himself
who did this by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
slain from before the foundation of the world, Jesus Christ foreknown
by the Father, it was the eternal decree of Almighty God that Jesus
Christ be the sin-bearer of His people. and you nailed to a cross
by the hands of godless men and put Him to death." Peter now
binds their conscience and holds them directly accountable to
God for the most heinous sin of all of human history, the
first-degree murder of the sinless Son of God. He then moves to
the resurrection in verse 24. He says, but God raised Him up
again. You thought you could put Him
to death. You thought you weren't going to have to deal with Him
anymore. You thought you could rid your hands of the matter.
You thought you could bury Him and it would be over. But God
has raised Him from the dead since it was impossible for Him
to be held in its power. Verse 29, brethren. I may confidently
say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was
buried and his tomb is with us to this day. And he reinforces
that these Old Testament passages were looking beyond the writer
David to the coming of Christ that he would be raised from
the dead. In verse 31, he looked ahead, David looked ahead and
spoke of the resurrection of Christ that He neither...that
He was neither abandoned to Hades nor did His flesh undergo decay. They took Him down from the cross.
They buried Him in a borrowed tomb. He was there for three
days but the Father would not leave Him in that tomb. He would
be raised by the Father on the third day. He would come walking
out of there, a risen, triumphant, victorious Savior. And he says,
this Jesus, God raised up again to which we are all witnesses. crucifixion, the resurrection
and the exaltation in verse 33, therefore having been exalted
to the right hand of God, that place of highest honor and supreme
authority, that place of absolute unrivaled sovereignty over heaven
and hell, this is where God has exalted His Son And having received from the
Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured forth this
which you both see and hear." Listen, Jesus Christ is seated
and enthroned at the right hand of God, the Father, Peter says,
and He has authority to send the Holy Spirit. He has authority
to build His church. He has authority to convert His
enemies. He has authority to overturn
circumstances. He has authority to open eyes,
open ears and open hearts. He has authority to grant repentance.
He has authority to bestow saving faith. He has authority to build
His church. And the gates of Hades shall
not prevail against it. And this was the declaration
of Peter on the day of Pentecost. And it was Christ, Christ, Christ,
Christ. This is what Paul was speaking
of when he said, we preach Christ and Him crucified. We proclaim
Him. And verse 36, therefore let all
the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him
both Lord and Christ. Listen, in the truest sense,
you can't make Him Lord, I can't make Him Lord, there is only
one who can make Him Lord and that is His Father and the Father
has made Him Lord, we must now come and surrender and submit
our lives to this Christ. And he preaches lordship salvation. To come and now deny yourself,
repent of your sins, die to self, turn away from the world, renounce
yourself, embrace the Lord Jesus Christ, surrender all that you
are to all that He is. That was the proclamation on
the day of Pentecost and nothing less. This is the preacher's
greatest glory and joy. It is to lift up the name of
Him who has a name that is above every name. Ian Murray has written
an extraordinary book, a small paperback entitled, Forgotten
Spurgeon. And in that he tells us of the
greatest glory of Spurgeon's ministry. was the preaching of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He reminds us of that incident
that took place in the Crystal Palace where the...so many people
were coming to hear Spurgeon preach, they had to move into
the Crystal Palace and Spurgeon went in during the middle of
the week to test the acoustics. And one of the men said, say
something so we can test the acoustics. And what came from
his mouth is what was supreme in his heart. Spurgeon in a moment
said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world. There was a worker up on the roof who did not know
Spurgeon was in the building. He thought it was the voice of
God speaking to him. The man came up to Spurgeon,
a few minutes later startled, said, I must be saved, I've heard
the voice of God. Spurgeon said, what did he say?
Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But
it's so reflective that the preaching of Christ is what was supreme
in His heart. Iain Murray goes on to detail
in 1856 and 1857 just the sermon titles out of Spurgeon's ministry. Listen to these sermon titles
taken virtually at random. Christ about His Father's business,
Christ the power and wisdom of God, Christ lifted up, the condescension
of Christ, Christ our Passover, Christ exalted, the exaltation
of Christ, Christ in the covenant. He was on fire for Christ and
He preached the person and work of Christ. Murray notes one such
sermon entitled, The Eternal Name, preached early in 1855
when Spurgeon was 20 years old. In the course of the sermon,
he depicts what would become of the world if the name of Jesus
should be removed from it and unable to restrain his own feelings,
he explained. That's what he said, I would
have no wish to be here without my Lord. And if the gospel be
not true, I would bless God to annihilate me this instant for
I would not care to live if you should destroy the name of Jesus
Christ. Years later, many years later,
Mrs. Spurgeon reflected upon that
night when her young husband preached that sermon.
She said, oh yes, I remember that night. The text, his name
shall endure forever. She said, my husband drew no
greater joy than to preach the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
She said at the end of the sermon, after for the whole hour magnifying,
elevating, exalting the supreme Lordship of Jesus Christ, His
name shall endure forever. She said He made a mighty effort
to recover His voice and utterance will not...will not fail. He
just preached the life out of Him. He preached His voice out.
He preached the air out of His lungs. And she said, I'll never
forget at the end of that sermon, after an hour of just magnifying
His name shall endure forever. She said you could hear Him whispering,
let My name perish, but let Christ's name last forever. Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus, crown Him Lord of all. You will not hear me say anything
else. These are my last words in Exeter Hall for this time.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, crown Him, crown Him Lord of all." And Miss
Spurgeon said, her husband then fell backwards into the chair
that was behind the pulpit. It was His greatest glory. to
preach the name, the person, the work, the terms of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Men, this is what apostolic preaching
is. It is an arrow that is fired
like a laser to the very target of the heart of the glory of
Jesus Christ. that every sermon, every thought
in one way or another is taken to the obedience of Christ, to
magnify Christ. Finally, apostolic preaching
is heart-piercing preaching, just quickly to pull this together. It says in verse 37 that when
they heard this, they were pierced to the heart. This word pierced
means to stab as with a knife. I want you to know that it is
only this kind of preaching that brings about this kind of result. No skit, no drama is going to
bring this about. No little video clip is going
to do this. No little sermon series on how
to have a happy vacation is going to do this. It is only preaching that is
bold, authoritative preaching, that is text-driven preaching,
that is Christ-centered preaching will bring about this effect
in the hearts of sinners that they would receive a gospel wound
so that they might be healed and be saved. Now when they heard
this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter, what
shall we do? And Peter announces, repent. He preached repentance. You must
turn from your sin. You must acknowledge your sin.
You must come to the end of yourself and renounce self, your self-righteousness,
your self-works, and throw yourself upon the mercy of the Lord Jesus
Christ. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. for the promises for you
and your children and for all who are far off. As many as the
Lord our God will call to Himself the reliance that He had upon
the sovereign, effectual, irresistible call of God to call out those
sinners who were elected before the foundation of the world.
He believed in the sufficiency of the Word of God and the sufficiency
in the Holy Spirit that if He would uphold the text of Scripture
and uphold Christ that God would be pleased to call unto Himself
these sinners. And with many other words, He
solemnly testified and kept on exhorting, you've got to love
this about Peter. He kept on preaching the Word,
be saved from this perverse generation for this generation is going
to hell. You must be rescued, you must
be delivered and there is only one Savior and only one Deliverer
and His name is Jesus of Nazareth who died upon a cross but you
put Him to death. But God has raised Him from the
dead and God has exalted Him to His right hand and God has
made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified
but whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. Did God honor this preaching? And so then those who received
His Word were baptized and that day there were added about three
thousand souls. God is pleased to honor the preaching
of His Word that lifts up the name of the Son of God. Richard Baxter That great Puritan
said, I always preach as never sure to preach again, as a dying
man to dying men. May you preach as though it is
the last sermon you will ever preach every time you step into
the pulpit. Boast not yourself of tomorrow
for thou knows not what a day may bring forth. We must do the
work of the Lord while it is day, for night comes when no
man shall work. Preach as a dying man to dying
men. This is the apostolic preaching
of the Word of God. This is the passion and the power
of apostolic preaching. May God raise up from this number
expositors who will herald the Word far and wide. Let us pray. Our Father, thank You for the
glories and the majesties of Christ. Thank You for our Savior
that according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge that You
commissioned Him into this world. the fullness of time to be born
under the Law, to perfectly keep every demand and every requirement
of the Law. And as He set His face like a
flint towards Jerusalem, there He went all the way for us, lifted
up from the earth upon that cross to die for His people. Father, thank You for taking
our sins and transferring them to Christ that He might make
them His very own. We thank You that He bore our
sin and absorbed Your wrath for our sins. And we thank You for
the triumph of the resurrection and that as You send us out into
the world now, we proclaim the greatest message that there is
in the world. the message of salvation, the
message of redemption and may we do so, may we preach as Peter
preached on the day of Pentecost. May there be much passion and
may there be much urgency as we lift high that name that shall
endure forever, the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, bless us in these
days as we gather here, and may You send us back enflamed preachers
of the glories of Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.