chapter 2. And we're going to read from
verse 37. Acts chapter 2 and verse 37. Now when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest
of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter
said unto them, repent and be baptised every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is
unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many
other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves
from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptised, and the same day there were added unto
them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of
bread and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul,
and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles, and all
that believed were together and had all things common. and sold
their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every
man had need. And they, continuing daily with
one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to
house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
praising God and having favour with all the people. And the
Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. Last week we spoke about this
sermon that had been preached on the day of Pentecost. Pentecost was one of the main
feasts of the Jews and it was at this time, at Pentecost in
Jerusalem, that God gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to the
disciples and to the apostles, a preparatory work for the great
expansion of the gospel. And so this sermon in Acts chapter
2 is a very important point. It's a very important occasion
in the life history of the church. Who can remember who preached
this sermon? Yeah. I was hoping one of the
younger ones might tell me, but that's okay. That's okay too. It was Peter. Peter preached
this sermon. And who did he preach it to? Now this is probably something
that the older ones will need to contribute. To the people
of Israel, that's right. To the people of Jerusalem. He
preached this sermon to those who had gathered from all over
the region. In fact, from a great distance. and they were there in Jerusalem
for this feast of the Passover. And so they were able to hear
the gospel in what? What was the point about them
coming from many countries far away and hearing the gospel in
their own? Good, good. I'm glad you've all
been keeping up with the story. Right, so these people heard
the gospel in their own tongue. And these are the people that
are pricked to their heart. The Holy Spirit came upon these
people. The Holy Spirit came and applied
the message, simple as it was. He applied the message to their
hearts. And suddenly there was this period
of conviction. It was just a very straightforward
and simple account of what the Lord Jesus Christ had done, who
he was and what he had done. Indeed, we see something in here
of the fact that God sent the Lord Jesus Christ, so we're remembering
the fact that he was born. We're remembering the fact that
he was crucified, that he was raised from the dead, that he
went back into heaven and that he was glorified by God in heaven. And Peter simply, very simply
tells them that story. No great theological explanation,
no amazing profound ability in his language or his message. Just a simple, straightforward
declaration of who the Lord Jesus Christ truly is and what he had
accomplished and now where he was in glory. But the realisation
that this was the true Messiah suddenly dawned upon these people. Their eyes were opened. Their
understanding was given to see by God the Holy Spirit that this
was the true Son of God and they had killed Him. And they were pricked in their
hearts. It went straight to their hearts. They heard Peter saying,
let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
that same Jesus whom you crucified Lord and Christ. He was the Lord
God and he was the promised Messiah that the Jews had been waiting
for for centuries and they had killed him. And we're told that the people
who heard that sermon that day were touched in their hearts
by the power of the message and the Holy Spirit applying it to
them. They were convicted of their
sins. That means that they realised
that they were guilty before God. And they repented of their
sin. They told God that they were
sorry for the things that they had done, for taking the Lord
Jesus and crucifying Him. They believed because they received
the words that Peter spoke. They received it as the true
gospel, the good news of the gospel. and they were baptised. They were baptised as a witness
to the new faith that spoke of a new beginning. It spoke of
a cleansing from sin. It spoke of a new life that had
been given to them and they bore witness to the fact that they
were repenting and believing the gospel that Peter preached
to them. And here's an amazing thing.
We're told that on this day of Pentecost, as this sermon was
preached, around 3,000 people believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
and were brought into the church. About 3,000, so many people believed
and joined the new church at one time. And in order to show
the authority and the power of the apostles with this new Holy
Spirit that they had received, the apostles were given the ability
and the power to do miracles there in Jerusalem. And we find
that this conversion altered and changed the lives of these
people because they listened to the apostles' teaching. They
were eager to be where the apostles were teaching the things about
the Lord Jesus. They remembered the Lord's death
because we're told that they had communion together, they
broke bread together in accordance with the instructions that the
Lord had given. They prayed together, they worshipped
together. They were generous and loving
to those that were in need. They cared for one another and
they set in place the principles for the Gospel Church in all
places and in all ages. they demonstrated the alteration
that had come into their life, the change and conversion that
had come into their life, and with a gladness, they showed
their commitment to the Lord. And we're told that the numbers
of the believers grew quickly. They grew as the Lord God added
new worshippers every day. They were brought in and it seems
that these were very happy and exciting times in the church
in Jerusalem. The believers were united, they
rejoiced in the Lord and they cared for one another for Jesus'
sake. It wasn't always going to be
like this. Soon there would be times of
persecution and trouble and hardship, but for a little while, here
on the day of Pentecost and in the immediate aftermath, the
Lord was pleased to bless these new believers in him who were
brought by the preaching of the gospel into the experience of
grace and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening.