Turn this morning with me to
Acts chapter two. Our text this morning is Acts
chapter two verses 22 through 41. Before we begin, let's seek
the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, what a privilege
it is to bow before you, to open your word, to hear a message
from you. We do pray that your name be
glorified and sinners called repentance, that your saints
be edified and strengthened today. Father, I pray that you bless
this message, that your sheep hear and that it accomplish your
will. What we pray for ourselves here,
we pray for the classes In the back, as the teachers are opening
your word to our children, we pray for congregations, those
that we know about and those that we don't. In fact, across
the world, wherever your name is being declared this morning,
we pray that you get all the glory. We pray this thankfully
in Christ's name. I'll give you the outline of
the message. So you can kind of look for the points as we
read through the scripture together, as we're reading, look for these
three points, the message of Christ, the center's response,
and the result. We'll start in verse number 22
of X two, you men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth,
a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs.
which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also
know. Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and
slain, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death,
because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For
David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before
my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover
also, my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave
my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to
see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy
with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely
speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and
buried. His sepulcher is with us unto
this day. being a prophet, knowing that God had sworn with an oath
to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh,
he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He, seeing this
before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, and neither his flesh did see corruption.
This Jesus, this Jesus, hath God raised up, whereof we are
all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right
hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and
hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith
himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand
until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this same Jesus
whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they
had heard this, they were pricked in their heart. And they 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 baptized 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 far off, even as many as the Lord our
God shall call. And with many other words that
he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward
generation. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized. And the same day there were added
unto them about 3000 souls. So verse 22 begins with Peter
addressing some say up to 30,000 people that were gathered together
in Jerusalem. And these were the Jews that
had gathered for the feast of Pentecost. It was an annual celebration
of the first fruits and look at the beginning back with me
a page at the beginning of chapter two, When the day of Pentecost was
fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And
suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty, as of
a rushing, mighty wind. And it filled all the house where
they were sitting. There appeared under them cloven tongues, like
as a fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled
with the Holy ghost and began to speak with other tongues.
And the spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem,
Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. And look
down at verse 12. And they were all amazed and were in doubt,
saying one to another, what meaneth this? So the giving of the Holy Spirit
here at Pentecost was both audible and visible. The people that
were gathered here could both hear it and they could see it.
There was the sound from heaven, a mighty rushing wind. They saw
the cloven tongues that were on the disciples. And this group
of people that were there in Jerusalem, they came to where
the disciples were and they said, what meaneth this? So there were
up to, again, 30,000 people meeting there and they saw this and it
drew them to the place where the disciples were. And they
asked, you know, what meaneth, meanest this? And in through verses 12
through 21, Peter shows them that what they're seeing is,
is, is Christ's giving of the Holy spirit as Christ had prophesied
in Joel. Peter went straight to the scripture.
He went to Joel and said, well, you know, what mean is this?
This is the giving of the Holy spirit. And Peter is preaching
to them out of Joel. In verse 22, he begins the message of
Christ. Peter begins by preaching who Christ is, and to answer
who Christ is, you answer who Christ is, what Christ did, and
where Christ is now. In verse 22, he starts, says,
ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs,
which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also
know. Peter declares two things. One, the Christ they've been
looking for. Christ is Jesus of Nazareth.
And secondly, that Christ is approved of God. Now these men
at this time, they didn't have the New Testament like we do.
We can tell if a man is speaking on behalf of God, he's following
God's word. We have the New Testament. We
can, we can see that Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies
by what he did in the New Testament. We have that. that blessing now
that we can tell if a man is speaking, you can tell if I'm
speaking on behalf of Christ right now is what I'm saying
consistent with the scriptures. But these men that Peter's talking
to, they didn't have the New Testament. So often God would give people
special, um, special abilities, if you will, as a, as a sign
of his approval. The Old Testament tells us that
the Messiah is common. It describes who he will be by
prophecy. And the New Testament shows us
the works of Christ and that they meet each description given
in the Old Testament. So we have to at least give mental
assent, right? We can look at the New Testament
and we have to at least give mental assent to the fact that
this Jesus of Nazareth is in fact the Messiah that was prophesied
in the Old Testament. We have it clearly in front of
us. These men didn't and Peter calls them our brethren. These
brethren didn't have the New Testament. So again, it was common
for God to show his approval of a man's message by giving
him unusual abilities. Turn back to John three with
me, if you will. Verse one, there was a man of
the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This same
came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that
thou art a teacher come from God. Why? For no man can do these
miracles that thou doest except God be with him. These people
in Jerusalem that Peter was speaking with, they recognized that Jesus
was a man of God based on the miracles that he was doing. He
showed himself to be approved of God. So first, Peter identified
that he was speaking of Jesus of Nazareth. Then he declared
what he did, starting in verse 23, him being delivered by the
determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. Ye have taken him by
wicked hands of crucified and slain whom God has raised up,
having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that
he should be holding of them. Peter declares that this same
Jesus of Nazareth was both sacrificed and that his sacrifice was accepted
of God. First Christ was, was sacrificed.
Now these Jews had just seen Jesus of Nazareth, Nazareth be
crucified on the cross, but at least two other criminals and
Peter's declaring to them, yes, he was, he was crucified. He
was sacrificed. And he pointed out Christ was
sacrificed by God, him being delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. not merely that God, if
you will, allowed it, but that God, the father determined it
to be done. Christ's crucifixion was by the
determinant counsel and for knowledge of God. Christ was also crucified
by man. So he was sacrificed by God.
He was crucified by man. We have taken by wicked hands,
have crucified and slain. Second, Christ's sacrifice was
accepted. verse 24, whom God has raised
up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible
that he should be holding of it. And also in verse 32, this
Jesus have God raised up where we are all witnesses. This Jesus
of Nazareth, Nazareth wasn't merely crucified as the other
others had been, but this Jesus of Nazareth was sacrificed and
his sacrifice was accepted. So Peter has identified who Christ
is, this Jesus of Nazareth, shown himself to be approved of God.
And he's identified what Christ did, whom you wickedly crucified. He was sacrificed by God's will.
His sacrifice was accepted. He was raised up by God. So Peter
has declared both who Christ is and what Christ has done.
Now Peter begins to declare where he is now. So again, until now,
Peter has been identifying Jesus of Nazareth and his crucifixion. But in verses 25 through 35,
he's now declaring that this same Jesus is Lord and he's equal
with God. So in 25, and before I read that,
if you'll notice for Peter to show Christ's Lordship, his title,
his equalness with God, what does Peter do? He goes straight
to the scripture. Peter goes straight to the Psalms,
he goes straight to David, just as we do every week. We go through
the scriptures verse by verse. Peter is filled here at Pentecost
with the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit leads him to the
scriptures, the scriptures who always, always point to Christ,
because faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
And I was struck that even Peter, who obviously we hold in such
high regard, who was an apostle, who walked with Christ, when
Peter talked of Christ's lordship, He went right to the scripture.
He went right to the psalm for David speaking concerning him. I foresaw the Lord always before
my face. He is on my right hand that I
should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice
and my tongue was glad. Moreover, also my flesh shall
rest in hope because that will not leave my soul in hell. Neither
will thou suffer thine Holy one to see corruption. Thou has made
known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy
with thy countenance." Of course, you noticed in verse
27, you know, thine holy one, David would never refer to himself
as thine holy one. Um, let me flip over to Mark. There was in the synagogue a
man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, the spirit
cried out for the man, saying, let us alone. What have we to
do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. Christ Jesus
of Nazareth is the Holy One. David wouldn't have been referring
to himself as thy Holy One. Of course, this refers to Christ,
and that's what Peter is pointing out. So we're very blessed to
see that David wasn't speaking of himself. Scripture refers
to the Messiah. Peter is declaring this scripture
that it does, of course, refer to the Messiah. And it refers
to specifically this same Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had crucified
less than two months ago. Starting in verse 29, men and
brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch, David,
that he is both dead and buried. And his sepulcher is with us
under this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God
had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins,
according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his
throne, he, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of
Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh
did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up,
whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Ghost, ye hath shed forth this which ye now see and
hear. For David is not ascended into
the heavens, but he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. Again,
as I mentioned earlier, this gathering may have been up to
30,000 people and Peter has been answering their question, what
meaneth this? He's been explaining that the
Holy Spirit has come as prophesied because Christ has risen. Furthermore,
he's again identifying and that Christ is Jesus of Nazareth,
approved of God, who you wickedly crucified, who was sacrificed
by God's will. And that sacrifice was accepted
and raised by God. This same Jesus, he says, this
same Jesus is the Messiah. He's one with God, the father
he's equal with God. In fact, he is God. And the verse
33 says, it is this same Jesus that sent the Holy spirit, and
that is why all these people are congregated there now. So
Peter then goes on to say in verse 36, this same Jesus who
is Lord, you crucified. So Peter delivers the message,
which is that you are responsible for rejecting and for killing
the Messiah. This same Jesus who you crucified,
he is the sin sacrifice. All the other sacrifices that
they've been doing point only to him. This same Jesus, he is
Lord in Christ. The response. So we've seen Peter's
message. It's, it's that Jesus of Nazareth,
Nazareth, the Christ, the son of God, he was crucified. Now,
now what, what are the, the people of Jerusalem? What's, what's
their response starting in 37. Now, when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart and said under Peter and to the rest
of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Peter said
unto them, Repent, and be baptized, 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, 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 baptized, and the same day there were added unto
them about three thousand souls. So what is the response to the
message? And there were many responses. Of the 30,000 people there, 3,000
believed. 3,000 were called. 3,000 had
their hearts pricked. So what of all the others? There
are 30,000 people there. What of the others? So all of
them, the entire 30,000, including the 3,000 that the Lord called,
all of them came to see this event. They heard the sound from
heaven. They saw the cloven tongues.
They heard the disciples speaking in other languages. All of them
came out of interest, if you will, out of curiosity to be
entertained because it's what everyone else was doing. It was
the responsible thing out of obligation. Maybe they came to
see if the gifts would somehow rub off on them. Maybe they came
for socialization. And it's not difficult to imagine
the crowd doing this because this is what our flesh does.
So many, we all have friends that have no interest in Christ. And this is what they, they accuse
religion of. And I have to agree with them. Our flesh will come to religion
and seek these things. We will seek socialization. We'll
seek companionship. We'll seek a guide for our life.
We will seek structure for our children. Maybe we're seeking
these spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit. Our flesh will,
by our sinful nature, seek anything but Christ. And that's what these
30,000 people came to see. And it reminds me of the time
that Christ was speaking to the multitudes regarding John the
Baptist. And three times he asked them,
what went ye out to see? A reed shaking in the wind, a
prophet, a man in soft clothes. What went ye out to see? What
came ye to see? What came we out to see? All
these things, the companionship, the guide for our life, the structure
for our children, all these things, what come we out to see? By nature,
that is what we came out to see. And that's what these 30,000
came to see. Matthew 6.32 says, for your heavenly father knoweth
you have need of these things. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness. And all these things should be
added unto you. What came we out to see? Turn over, if you
will, to first Corinthians 13. Starting in verse one, what came
out to see? Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels and have not Christ, I'm become a sounding
brass or a tinkling cymbal. Though I have the gift of prophecy
and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, though I have
all faith so that I could move mountains and have not Christ,
I'm nothing. Though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, though I give my body to be burned and have
not Christ, it profit me nothing. What came they to see? What is
the difference between them and the 3,000 who believed? Look
with me again in verse 37. Now, when they heard, when they
heard, they were pricked in their heart. They were pricked in their
heart. This shows an act done in them,
an act done on them, an act done to them, specifically an act
done in them. Not something they themselves did, but something
that was done in them. They were pricked. Language is
important in their heart. There's also clear distinction
here between our fleshly sinful nature in our new spiritual man,
the spiritual man within us who is born of God. I'm going to
turn over to Ezekiel in the sake of time. Just let me turn. A new heart also will I give
you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of
flesh. So these in Jerusalem, the 3000 who heard and believed
and repented and followed Christ, they were pricked in their heart.
And I was thinking about this, the difference between that fleshly
heart and the stony heart. A stony heart can't be pricked,
right? I picture the arrows of the gospel
hitting that stony heart and just bouncing off. It's stone. And even if it did go into the
stony heart, there's no difference. It's stone. It's dead. Whereas
the fleshly heart that the Lord gives us, I picture Christ giving
that fleshly heart, giving the spiritual heart that responds
to him, and the gospel piercing it, just as it says it did. Turn over with me, if you will,
to Acts 5. Let me see if I can kind of contrast this with something
else. I was really blessed by this.
I hope through this that you are as well. So those that heard
they were pricked in their heart. Acts five verse 33. Now Peter
has just finished delivering an almost identical message to
the one in our text, but this is how they respond. When they
heard that they were cut to the heart, cut to the heart and took
counsel to slay them. So their response, They were
cut to the heart. Their heart wasn't pierced. They
weren't given a heart to be pierced. Only their flesh was affected.
So their sinful flesh then took counsel to slay him. And no matter
what the fleshly response is for those that are cut to the
heart, no matter what that fleshly response is, whether it's anger
or indifference or curiosity or whatever the response is,
it's a, it's a dead fleshly response. Unless the new, a new heart born
of God is given. So what makes the difference
with the 3,000 who believed? And the scripture says, who maketh
thee different, right? It's Christ that gave the new
heart, and it was Christ that pierced it with the gospel. So
we've seen the message of Christ, this same Jesus who you crucified. He's the sin sacrifice. He is
Lord and Christ. And we've seen the response.
And when they heard they were pricked in their heart. So what
then is the result? The end of verse 37, and they
said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren,
what shall we do? So first they saw their utter
helplessness. What shall we do? Utterly helpless.
They saw their guilt. They saw their sin against God
and they consented to it. They didn't try to cover it up.
They didn't try to hide it. They didn't try to make amends
for it. They admitted their guilt before God. Now Peter had just
told them that they had crucified Christ. So he said that to 30,000
people, 3000 of whom believe he had just told them you crucified
Christ. We're all 3000 of those personally responsible. Did they
drive the nails in our Lord's hands and feet? Did they pierce
his side? Did, did those 3000, were they the ones that put the
crown of thorns on his head and mocked him? No. Now, On a side note, I'm convinced
some of them were, because from the cross, Christ prayed, Father,
forgive them, they know not what they do. On a side note, I happen
to believe some of those people were here, and Christ's prayer
is being answered. They're being forgiven right
here. But all 3,000 of them, they weren't personally, they
didn't personally hold the nails and do that themselves. So how
then did they realize their helplessness? What was their guilt? How had they crucified Christ? And surely some of the 30,000
walked away from Peter and said exactly this to themselves, I
didn't crucify him. And isn't that us by nature?
And whether it's us or our unsaved loved ones who we have a burden
for that just hear the message and have no interest. I didn't
crucify him. He's not talking to me. And that's,
that's our fear, that's our prayers, that the Lord does talk to them,
and that we do hear that we crucified Christ. Of these 3,000 in their
new heart, they saw that even if they didn't personally commit
the act, it was indeed their sin that did kill Christ. So
these saw that Christ was sinless, yet God sacrificed him. So is
God unjust? These saw that that Christ bore
their sin in his body on the tree and that Christ was therefore
justly, justly crucified by God, unjustly by man, but justly crucified
by God and that their own sins were worthy of death. These saw
that their sins deserve death and even their own physical death
couldn't satisfy the requirement. The scripture says the soul,
the soul that sin it, it shall die. So they knew that scripture
in Ezekiel. They saw that they needed a sacrifice
and that it was their own sin. It was their own sin that necessitated
Christ's death, that their sin made Christ's death necessary.
Just as we see, each one of us knows that if we were the only
redeemed sinner in the world, in history, if we were the only
redeemed sinner in the world, our sin by itself would require
Christ's death. Because of Christ's grace, in
taking my sin and his body on the tree, my sin did cause Christ's
death. And these people saw that as
well. They saw their guilt. They crucified Christ as we have.
These saw their helplessness. And is that in and of itself
saving knowledge? No. Judas saw his helplessness
and then he quickly went about trying to make it right. He gave
the money back. He tried to make it right. He
went so far as to kill himself trying to make it right. He saw
his helplessness. Adam saw his nakedness. What
was Adam's response? He covered himself with fig leaves.
In the end times, men will say to the mountains and rocks, fall
on me. Hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne
and from the wrath of the lamb. We're trying to cover ourselves
and hide our sins, not come to Christ for mercy. That's our
natural response. A knowledge of our helplessness
before Christ isn't a saving knowledge unless it drives you
to Christ to seek mercy. Of those 3,000 who believed,
what did they do? They cried, what shall we do? They admitted their sin openly,
honestly, and without defense unto the Lord. They weren't asking
what shall we do as give me a task to do. They weren't trying to make it
right. They weren't saying, how can I get out of this? I saw a billboard. We were driving
on Greenup Avenue the other day towards Cattlesburg. I saw a
billboard for a lawyer's office that said, just because you did
it doesn't mean you're guilty. And what that lawyer's office
knows is, well, We can skirt the law this way. We can skirt
the law that way. There's a thousand technicalities.
We can get you off so that the law can't prosecute you. And
if you're not guilty under the letter of the law, then in their
book, then you're not guilty. Is that what these 3000 are trying
to do? What, what can I do? Are they trying to skirt the
law? Not at all. They're not trying to conjure
a way out. They've come to Christ to be cleansed from sin. To be cleansed from sin. They're
saying, what shall we do without defense, without argument? They're
coming guilty before the Lord with nothing to offer. And as
centers, as those called of Christ, we don't come to Christ with
a solution, with a proposal or with any sort of argument. We
come to Christ defenseless. We confess our sin against God,
and that's who our sin is against. Our sin is against God. We openly
say, Lord, I'm helpless. In verse 38, after they openly
admit their helplessness before the Lord, Peter tells them to
repent. Repent and be baptized. We know
that repentance is a turning away and is a turning toward,
turning away from their sin, turning toward Christ. Repentance
is also siding with God against yourself. God is right. I am wrong. His will be done.
I repent of my sin. They're turning away from their
sin and turning to Christ. Peter's telling them to. Peter's
also telling them to repent of their hope. Turn away from their
hope. All 3,000 of these were religious.
They were in Jerusalem for the Pentecost. They traveled to Jerusalem. They had been raised knowing
the scripture, knowing the law. They belonged to the nation of
Israel. They had hope in that. Peter tells them to repent of
that as well. Turn away from your hope, your fleshly hope.
Turn away from the law to the sacrifice. Turn to the sacrifice
of Christ. Christ is all and in all. Peter
points them, repent back to Christ, to Christ. We turn away from
any hope, any hope we have in the flesh. And as one who has
been fortunate to be raised under the gospel, literally from the
time that I was an infant, I was almost disappointed to
learn that you never stop turning away from the flesh. I think
I imagined that when Christ revealed himself that I wouldn't struggle
with that anymore. And that's the furthest thing from the truth. We repent
of our flesh, we repent of our sin, and we repent of the comfort
we take in the flesh as it distracts us from Christ continually over
and over and over. We always turn from the flesh.
We always turn to Christ. The flesh is always with us.
You were also baptized with Christ. So we see that he took our sins
to the grave, took our sins to the grave, and he rose without
sin. We see ourselves dead, buried, and resurrected with Christ. We turn to he who by himself
purged our sins. The same Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth,
he is Lord. Jesus, whom was both sacrificed
and accepted by God the Father. the remission of sins, for my
own sins as well as the sins of all of his people. Peter said
unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name
of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins. Ye shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost. I pray that that blesses you.
The study blessed me. I pray that it does you as well.