Sunday, August 21, 2022 AM

Hi, good morning, everyone. It's good to be together to worship this morning at Sunnyside Baptist Church. Beautiful weather outside, right? Nice and cool and rainy. We're thankful for that as well. A few announcements as we get started in our worship service this morning.

Our evening service is this evening at 5 .30 p .m. Come back for that. Also, just a reminder, we're still in the month of August, so there's no meal on Wednesdays, but there is at 6 .30 devotion and prayer time.

So come for that if you can. Looking ahead to Sunday, August 28th, communion during the morning service together. And then also, looking ahead to Sunday, August 28th, in the afternoon, we'll have a wedding shower for Joel and Nicole here at the church in the fellowship hall.

They're registered at Amazon, so you can RSVP if you're gonna attend that to Brittany Goulet. And then truth group that same evening after the evening service. And then looking ahead to the first Sunday in September, we'll have our Sunday school promotion for the kids.

So hopefully you've talked with teachers about that so far. All right, volunteers are still needed for TAG this year. TAG will be starting up before we know it. So if you're able to help with that, they have things like scripture memory and crafts and game time.

It's always a fun time to be with those kids. If you're interested in helping with that, speak to Brother Michael. He'll be able to outline you with a job there. All right, any other announcements before we start our morning worship this morning?

This week's fighter verse, we're still in Psalm 91, verses 14 and 16. Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him.

I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him. With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. We're gonna prepare our hearts for worship for a short period of time. And then at the conclusion of that, Michael will come and open us in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. A day that you have made, a day you have provided for, a day on which you have gathered us here to rejoice in your truth. We know that the joy of the Lord is our strength.

We have so many reasons to rejoice in you. We thank you for your son, Jesus Christ, for his life, death, and resurrection. We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit by whom we know you and live in you.

We thank you for this church. We thank you for sustaining us these many years and keeping your promises to wash us with the water of your word. We thank you for the many blessings and provisions and graces that we have enjoyed all this last week.

And now here again, Lord, we rejoice in the fact that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, that we live in his world, and we give him all the glory. We pray these things in his name, amen.

Would you please stand with me for our call to worship? We'll be reading in Psalms chapter 79, verses five through seven. Read with me together. Will you be angry, oh, excuse me, I'm sorry, let me start all over, I apologize.

Verse five through seven, will you be, I'm sorry, I did it again. Okay, let's worship the Lord together and I'll be with you this time. How long, oh, Lord, will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?

Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you and on the kingdoms that do not call upon your name, for they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation. So we'll turn to our Psalms for worship hymnal, page 79a, and we'll sing verses one, five, and six.

Keep that psalm book and we'll turn to page 145a and you'll recognize the tune for I'll give you praise, my God, oh, King.

Turn to the scriptures together, Isaiah chapter 31. We'll be reading the entirety of the chapter. Isaiah 31, beginning in verse one. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel nor seek the Lord.

Yet he also is wise and will bring disaster and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of evildoers and against the help of those who work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit.

When the Lord stretches out his hand, both he who helps will fall and he who is helped will fall down. They all will perish together. For thus the Lord has spoken to me. As a lion roars and a young lion over his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him, he will not be afraid of their voice nor be disturbed by their noise.

So the Lord of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion and for its hill. Like birds flying about, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending, he will also deliver it. Passing over, he will preserve it.

Return to him against whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. For in that day, every man shall throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, sin which your own hands have made for yourselves.

Then Assyria shall fall by a sword not of man and a sword not of mankind shall devour him. But he shall flee from the sword and his young men shall become forced labor. He shall cross over to his stronghold for fear and his princes shall be afraid of the banner, says the Lord whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

Lord God, we thank you for the truth of your word. Thank you for being to us a help and a refuge and a deliverer. Lord, I pray that you would grant repentance and forgive us when we enter into the folly and the foolishness of trusting in other things in men and armies that surely cannot save.

For how many times have you delivered your people by your strong right hand? How many times have your people called upon your name and you have heard and remembered those upon whom you have set your love?

And how much more is the fullness of your deliverance through your son Jesus to us, even conquering sin and death? Lord, help us to rejoice in your salvation and your deliverance through Christ this morning.

And it's in his name we pray, amen. You may be seated.

Soon we'll be hearing from Brother Michael preaching to us about life, ministry, and work of Christ. So if you would, turn to page 167. And this song not only proclaims his birth of Christ, but the whole life of Christ.

So sing with me together. Oh, sing a song of Bethlehem, wondrous mystery.

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you for gathering us today. We thank you for the joys of singing the promises and the truths, the comforts and the challenges of your word together.

Lord, we thank you that you are a good and heavenly Father who knows our needs, who makes provision for us, who knows that we need more than daily bread, more than seasonal rain, more than basic physical provision.

Lord, you know that you made us in your image. You made us for you. You've given us yourself and your son that we would have you, that we would know you, that we would live in the light of your word, rejoicing in your glory.

So we thank you that you've brought us here today. We thank you for the meal that you have prepared, a spiritual meal to nourish us. And I pray that it would do so to your great glory and our great good.

That as we hear your word from heaven, that we will be the amen upon this earth. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Acts.

And we will be reading in Acts chapter two, verses 22 through 24. Acts chapter two, verses 22 through 24. Peter, the apostle, the apparent first among equals with the apostles, is addressing hecklers in the crowd on Pentecost.

But he's also preaching to everybody else who was there who stand in amazement as they see these buffoons from Galilee and hear them proclaiming in languages that they had never learned the mighty works of God.

Men from thousands of miles away who had grown up with dialects that were far distant from this city of Jerusalem stand in the crowd and they hear the good news of Jesus Christ being proclaimed to them in the languages that they know best.

And it's not just one or two. 17 different dialects are being spoken in turn and orderly fashion so that they all are hearing the word of God proclaimed. They are in amazement. Some of them are just saying, what is this?

Others are mocking and saying, oh, they're drunk. Peter responds and explains what is going on so that all of those men of Israel, those Israelites, no matter where they grew up in the Roman Empire, so that they would understand the significance of what is happening right in front of them.

And as he begins to explain, Peter quotes the book of Joel and says that what you are experiencing just now in the power of the Holy Spirit to equip the likes of us to declare to you the mighty works of God, what you are experiencing is the fulfilled promise of God.

We are now in the last days of the old covenant because we are in the first days of the new covenant. And here are some really good news. And part of that good news is expressed very succinctly in verse 21, and it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

What a promise. Why is this such a precious promise? Because of the reality of God's judgment. The previous two verses are about God's judgment that he will in holy righteous power set things in order the way he desires.

And this will involve a coming war, a coming defeat, a devastation, that God's wrath is imminent. God's judgment is confirmed. And thus we see the need for salvation. When Jesus rose from the dead, he spent 40 days with his disciples, speaking with them the things concerning the kingdom of God.

He wanted them to know the realities of living in the new covenant. He wanted them to understand that Moses and the writings and the prophets were ultimately all about him. He opened their minds to understand the scriptures so that they would proclaim Christ as the fulfillment of the old covenant, the fulfillment of all of these promises and patterns of God.

He has shed his blood for his church. He has died upon the cross as the mediator of the new covenant. And he has promised the arrival of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit comes in a special way here on the day of Pentecost.

And so we find the beginning of the fulfillment of all of these prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the restoration of the kingdom. This will be a challenge for Peter's audience to understand. This will be a change from all of their previously held expectations.

They weren't ready for this. To be honest, perhaps the apostles weren't all that ready for this. But this is what the Lord has provided. And on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit arrives in the sound of the roar of something like wind, and in the expression of something like tongues of fire upon the heads of the apostles, and as they begin to proclaim in languages that they had never learned, the mighty works of God, the people begin to hear and they want to know what it all means.

And at this juncture, having declared that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, Peter now identifies just who that Lord is, so that they may know who it is who is their Savior. So I invite you to stand with me as I read from Acts chapter two, verses 22 through 24.

This is the word of the Lord. By his Spirit, through his servant Luke. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you, by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know.

Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken my lawless hands, have crucified and put to death whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. You ever wonder how you go from news to good news? Context, it's how you move from news to good news. When you read in your newsfeed, or the algorithm sends you a little bit of news that says something like this.

17-year-old placed 15th in Kansas triathlon. You say, whoop-de-doo. That's not a very high placement, number one. Number two, it's Kansas, so who cares? But then when you click on it, because you wonder why in the world is this here, and you watch the story unfold, and you discover that this 17-year-old had a massive car wreck when he was 16, and was paralyzed by the wreck, but now he placed 15th in a triathlon.

Well, now it's good news. You went from news to good news because of the context. And we have news here that Peter is declaring to his audience that Jesus of Nazareth lived, died, and rose again. This is news, but when we consider the context that he lived according to the Scriptures, and died according to the Scriptures, and he was raised according to the Scriptures, that his life, death, and resurrection was according to the promises of God, for the salvation of sinners.

Now we have good news. The folks that Peter's talking to wanna know how in the world he and his fellow Galileans with their strange accents are speaking in unlearned languages. That's news. If that's all that they heard that day, they would go home and share the news at supper.

There's some Galileans today out near the market just speaking in a bunch of different languages. I guess they're a language club. That's news. But it's good news in the context of the new covenant has come.

God has sent the Holy Spirit. Welcome to the last days of the shadow covenant. Welcome to the first days of the substance covenant. That's good news. What is needed at this moment is gospel preaching.

Gospel preaching. Peter knows that everybody has paid attention because of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, these signs and wonders right in front of them. So everyone's looking at them and saying, what does this all mean?

Peter says, these are the last days of the old covenant. Judgment is about to fall, but whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Thus, what needs to follow that up is the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of the good news, the preaching of the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

After all, we are reminded of this most essential need in Romans chapter 10. Verse 13 quotes the same passage that Peter quoted. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Straight out of Joel 2.

Same verse. Well, verse 14. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Now this is good news.

From the new covenant, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how will they call upon him? How will they make their appeal to him? How will they hang their entire life and eternity upon this savior, this sovereign?

How can they possibly do that unless they hear? And they cannot hear and believe unless there is a preacher. And so Peter preaches. Peter preaches the good news of Jesus Christ. Namely, his person and work.

He speaks of the life of Christ. He speaks of the death of Christ. He speaks of the resurrection of Christ. And so should we. We begin with the life of Jesus. Verse 22. Men of Israel, hear these words.

Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs. Which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Who is this Lord? None other than Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ, the son of the living God. To understand Pentecost, Peter says, men of Israel, you need to understand what's happening here. To understand Pentecost, in order to be saved from the pending judgment, which will bring an end to the old covenant.

And indeed, to be right with God, so that it is appointed to man to die once, and after this comes the judgment. To be right with God in the face of pending judgment, what is needed is to call upon the name of the Lord, and this Lord is no mystery.

God has set him forth in clear and plain fashion. These things were not done in a corner, so that all people would know who the Savior is. He is a man named Jesus of Nazareth. Now this is very specific.

For there was one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. There was no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, other than the name of Jesus Christ. There was only one Savior, and God did not make it difficult.

He did not make it mysterious. He set him forth so that we would know who the Savior is. And this is very specific. Notice the text. Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth.

Now, there are a lot of Jesus names in this time. Many who bore the name of the successor of Moses, ran around with Yeshua as their name. But this one is specific. This Jesus is the one who is from Nazareth.

This is the one who was attested by God, by miracles and signs and wonders. There's only one Jesus of Nazareth. There's only one Jesus who is the Savior, the Lord, whom we are to call upon. When we look over in Matthew chapter two, we are reminded of the significance of this specific name, Jesus of Nazareth.

In verse 19, we are reminded about Herod, who had murdered all of the infant children in Bethlehem, trying to fight against a perceived threat to his throne. Verse 19, now, when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph, in Egypt, saying, arise, take the young child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young child's life are dead.

A little bit earlier in verse 15, we hear that this was to fulfill, out of Egypt I called my son. In other words, what God said about Israel in the old covenant, He says of Jesus Christ in the new covenant.

And here, it is safe now for Joseph and Mary to take the young child, Jesus, and return to Israel. Now, verse 22, but when Joseph heard that Archelios was reigning over Judea instead of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there.

And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene.

This is interesting. Certainly in the prophets, we hear about a light dawning upon those who were in darkness, in the land of Naphtali, which is the region of Galilee. When we go searching in the Old Testament for the prophet who said, he shall be called a Nazarene, we have a hard time finding it because we do not read Hebrew.

This is not a Nazarite, like Samson was supposed to be. This is a Nazarene, a Nazarene. Now, it's interesting that when we go back to Isaiah chapter 11, and we're in the Christmas passages, you notice, but the Christmas passages help us because we're identifying who this savior is.

Those who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You must know who this Lord is, if you're going to be saved. This is the promise and the hope given to us in the new covenant. In Isaiah chapter 11, we read verses one and two.

There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

And we recall Jesus of Nazareth being baptized by John the Baptist, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending upon Christ to the witnesses there at the Jordan, and the Father speaking from heaven concerning his Son, anointed of the Spirit, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

And what is his name? He is a branch. A branch, which is the root word for Nazareth. Nazareth is branch town. You could even call it sprout town. The idea is that, as we find in other passages in Isaiah, that there is a judgment coming in which there will be a tree that is cut down, but out of the stump, they will grow a new branch, a new sprout.

Something new will come out of the judgment of something being cut down. And this is the way it is, that in the judgment of the Old Covenant, there is a sprout, there is a branch, there is a Nasir, one who is called a Nazarene, will grow out of his roots.

One who was born of David according to the flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He is called a rod and a branch. Do you remember in the Old Testament, and this is a trivia time, what three items were in the Ark of the Covenant?

We, of course, have the Ten Commandments that rested there, but there were two other items. A bowl of manna, the gift that God gave, bread from heaven. And we recall Jesus Christ as the end of the law unto righteousness for all who believe, the fulfillment of all the law of God.

And we recognize Jesus Christ as that bread of life, the bread from heaven. But what else was in the Ark of the Covenant? There was a branch, there was a rod, the rod of Aaron, that in a moment where his high priestly station was being challenged by rebels within the Israelite camp, when it was a question of whether or not he really was the high priest, the branch, his rod, was cast down, and others' rods were cast down, and only Aaron's rod budded and flowered like a living branch once again.

So it is not a throwaway line in the hymn, O Sing a Song of Bethlehem, when we read, for now the flowers on Nazareth in every heart may grow. Jesus Christ is a Nazarene. He is of Nazareth. He is the branch.

He is our life. He is our true high priest. He is the Lord upon whom we are to call if we are to be saved. We are reminded in Acts chapter two, not only is he of Nazareth, but he is a man. This by no means denies that Jesus is the Son of God, that he is God of very God, that Jesus Christ is as much God as God is God, but he is also man.

He is man of very man. He is as much man as a man is a man. He is of us so that he may save us. In Hebrews chapter two, verses 14 through 18, we are reminded of the importance of Jesus Christ being a man.

It is easy for us in our limited understanding, in our simplicity, to sway and think of Jesus as just being God, faking it as a human somehow. Or to think of him as just a human who was really in tune with God.

But the Bible robustly tells us, in more than one place, in more than one way, that he is the God-man. He has two natures in one person, fully God and fully man for us and for our salvation. In Hebrews chapter two, beginning in verse 14, we read, inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself, meaning Jesus Christ, likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

For indeed, he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. This is Christ. Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted. It is vitally important that when we hear that we are to call upon the name of the Lord, that the Lord upon whom we call is Jesus of Nazareth, who is the God-man, the man, the great high priest who stands in our place and for our sake is our advocate, is our savior, who knows how to bear us up, who knows how to keep us unto God, the one who fully, clearly, forever represents us before the Father.

Now this Jesus of Nazareth, who is a man, was attested by God. Not only do we see the name of the Lord, but we see the proof of God. He was not a mystery, a secret, where nobody knew what happened. Jesus Christ is the most well-historically attested person in the history of history.

If there's anything certain about history, it's the fact that Jesus of Nazareth lived and died and rose again. There can be no more certain historical event that we can talk about. And God attested this Jesus of Nazareth with miracles and wonders and signs.

He did that right in the middle of them all. And Peter says, as you yourselves also know. These Jews grew up anywhere from 1 ,000 to 2 ,000 miles in a full radius around Jerusalem. And yet here they are in Jerusalem, and they know all about this Jesus of Nazareth.

The signs and the wonders were so well attested. These miracles were centered on one man, and they were very clear in meaning. These were undeniable signs and wonders. These were inescapable miracles that even his critics could not deny.

The best they could do is say, oh, well, he's doing all this good by the power of Satan. That was their best line. These miracles not only were insurmountable, undeniable, these made all those who were witnesses accountable.

Jesus said, woe to Bethsaida and Chorazin. Woe to Capernaum, because if the signs and wonders that have been done in their midst were done in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Sodom and Gomorrah would have repented.

So these signs and wonders made the audience accountable to the revelation that God was making, saying this is my beloved son. This is the mediator of the new covenant. And the things that Christ did, the miracles and the signs and the wonders were especially crafted to give witness to the men of Israel.

Peter says, men of Israel hear these words. The signs and wonders that Christ did were not especially targeted to Gentile culture. His signs and wonders targeted Jewish culture. For the good news, the gospel was proclaimed to the Jew first and then to the nations, then to the Gentiles.

Consider in Matthew chapter 11, verses two through six, how it was that John the Baptist, the greatest of all the old covenant prophets, how John the Baptist responded to the miracles, to the signs and wonders that he was hearing about Jesus of Nazareth, the man he baptized in the Jordan River.

And now John the Baptist in prison for preaching the truth to a tyrant. Now he hears what goes on and he sends his disciples, his friends, to go ask Jesus a very important question. Matthew chapter 11, beginning in verse two.

And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to him, are you the coming one? Or do we look for another? Are you the Messiah? Are you the anointed one?

The Lord upon whom we must call to be saved. Are you really the one? Jesus answered, verse four, and said to them, go and tell John the things which you hear and see. The blind see and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear.

The dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of me. You know what Jesus just did there? He is accurately representing the signs and wonders that he had been doing.

But the way he says it takes John the Baptist on a tour through Isaiah. These were the promises that Isaiah gave about the coming Messiah. These were the very things that he was going to do. The signs and wonders so well attested to all the men of Israel were especially calculated to tell these men of the old covenant that the time had come for them to turn to the Messiah and be saved from the coming judgment that would extinguish the old covenant.

There is a mediator of the new covenant, Jesus Christ. He is all the Israel we ever need. He is Israel for the nations. Everywhere you read in the Old Testament about the nations pouring into Israel is fulfilled in Christ.

His specific significance matters to us all for there is only one savior. The promise of the new covenant, the spread of the good news is that not just Jacob is saved by Israel who is Christ in Isaiah 49.

It's not just the children of Jacob who find this new Israel, who find the Messiah their savior, but it's the nations, it's even to the islands, it's for the extremities of all the peoples upon the earth that they can find in this Messiah their savior.

That they may call upon the name of the Lord. That they may hang everything about their life on everything about his life and know that he is their righteousness before God, that he is their savior. There is just one savior.

And there's only one man about whom God said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Just one. And if we wanna be right with God, we wanna be all the way right with God. Not just a little bit right with God because that's never enough.

If you're gonna be right with the holy God who has no compromises in his character, then you wanna be all the way right with God. And there's only one about whom God has said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

And that is Jesus of Nazareth, the God man. And Jesus proclaims a salvation in which he is the lamb of God who dies upon the cross in our place and for our sake. So that God made him who knew no sin to become sin upon our behalf.

That we might have his righteousness, that he might be our righteousness before the face of God. That's what it means to call upon Jesus, is to trust in him as our savior, as our sovereign. Now concerning the death of Jesus Christ, this is the next point that Peter makes.

Him, verse 23 says, the one I just talked about, let's be very specific, the Lord upon whom you must call is none other than Jesus of Nazareth who was so well attested, him being delivered by the determined purpose and for knowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death.

It's so vitally important, this part of the message. Peter wants the men of Israel, men before him to know that the arrest of Jesus of Nazareth, the kangaroo trial that he endured, the scourging, the suffering, the death upon a Roman cross on a hill outside of Jerusalem, that all of this was not some sort of failure in the plan.

This was not some sort of problem for the Messiah. This was not an issue with God bringing forth his promises of the new covenant. Indeed, this was all according to the determined purpose and for knowledge of God.

This is exactly as God had scripted it. And all we must do is read the hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament that specifically declare that there would be this one who died outside of Jerusalem, counted among thieves, his hands being pierced, so many prophecies saying this is exactly how the Messiah will suffer and die and save his people.

This was all according to the determined purpose and for knowledge of God. This was always the plan. Albert Schweitzer and all the other apostate scholars of the scriptures are wrong. Jesus Christ was not crushed under the wheel of history as a failed prophet.

He was crushed under the hand of God, suffering under the wrath of God for our sins that we may call him Savior. God who gave us the horizon and a clock to watch it by is the same God who determined and delighted in the timing and the type of Christ's death, who ordered the events and assured the efficacy of Christ's death, all according to the sovereignty of God, which you will note in the text does not alleviate but only stresses the responsibility of man, the sinfulness of man.

Peter says, you have taken this man, you have taken him and you have used lawless hands as your wicked instrument and you have crucified the Lord of glory, you have crucified the Messiah, you have crucified the Son of God, you have put him to death.

You did that, Peter says. He says that to the men of Israel, to the men of Israel. Now, these men who were from 17 different regions around the Roman Empire, did they arrest Jesus personally in the garden of Gethsemane?

Were they there? Probably not. No, that was the locals who had been plotting and scheming for so long and had gotten that deal with Judas Iscariot. Were these men from these 17 different regions around the Roman Empire, these people who had traveled in for the holy days, did they orchestrate the trial?

Were they accused Christ of blasphemy and ordered his horrific death? Maybe some of them were in the crowd yelling crucify. It's possible. But you remember that Peter couldn't get into the trial. He couldn't get in, but John could because he knew people.

So these four probably weren't there at the trial. Did they help nail Christ upon the cross on the hill called Golgotha? Were they there assisting the Roman soldiers? Were they casting lots for his garments beneath the cross?

Did they orchestrate this? I don't think so. That would be rather strange. But remember, in the old covenant, in the old covenant, the mediator, the shadow mediator was Israel. And when part of Israel sinned, all of Israel was held accountable.

If part of Israel was down in the valley worshiping Molech and burning their children alive to the false god so that they could have better economy, all of Israel was called to account for that. It's the way it worked in the old covenant.

And so Peter is addressing those who are still part of the old covenant. Men of Israel, he says. You are guilty for crucifying the Lord of glory. Well, I didn't personally do that. You're correct. They didn't personally do that, but they are still accountable.