Vindicating Jesus - [Acts 2:14-21]

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I would invite you to take your Bibles and open them to Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2.
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Before I start, just a couple things. One is, you know, as Pastor Mike was reading from Galatians this morning,
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I thought, there was a time here not too long ago where I thought, man, I think I'd like to preach through Galatians.
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And then listening to Mike this morning, I'm like, I'd like Pastor Mike to preach through Galatians. I'd like to thank
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Andrew for preaching last week. Last week, Andrew was very dear to me, and I'm thankful he was able to fill the pulpit.
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Well, how many of you are history buffs? Because you may not know this, but I am.
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Some of you are laughing, and I hope that's because you know that I am. I like history. And I looked up a list.
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This is kind of an odd list to look up, but I looked up a list of the worst presidents, but you don't know where I'm going.
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And it turned out, I was kind of shocked, because they actually had on this list, they said that like an asterisk, formerly number two on their list of worst presidents was
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Ulysses S. Grant. I read that, and I thought, you must be kidding me.
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So then I started looking around about U .S. Grant, because I've read a couple of books about him, and I just thought, this is just crazy.
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Here's some of the things that he did that we don't really typically think about. When he was president, he endorsed the 15th
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Amendment, which prohibited any government, state or federal, from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's race, color, or listen, previous condition of servitude.
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He also signed three acts into law called the Enforcement Acts. They later became called the
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Klan Acts, because they were distinctly leveraged against the Ku Klux Klan.
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In fact, while he was president, his attorney general issued 3 ,000 indictments against Klan members and got 600 convictions against the worst of them.
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And when he left office, well, in fact, one more note about the Klan. The damage that he did to the
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Ku Klux Klan was so severe that it really wasn't a force in America again until the 1920s, and he left office in 1872,
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I believe. And when he left office, he was the most popular man in America.
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How many presidents can say that, right? And he was number two on their list of worst presidents ever. Here's my point.
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My point is this, that history itself, the facts, vindicate
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Ulysses S. Grant as a good president. It's not a matter of opinion, and see, that's what happens too often as we look back at people in history.
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It's our opinion gets in the way of the facts. To vindicate someone, in case you're wondering why
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I'm talking about vindication, vindication is kind of the theme of the message this morning. To vindicate something means to, or someone, means to show that someone should not be blamed for a crime, mistake, et cetera, to show that someone's not guilty, and you go,
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I don't get it. I don't know how that helps us. We're not talking about a trial this morning, are we? No. Here's the second definition.
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To show that someone or something has been criticized or doubted and was actually correct, true, or reasonable.
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And this morning we're going to see that Jesus Christ, though he was doubted in great ways, he was ultimately vindicated, proven to be correct, true, and reasonable.
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The reputation of Jesus on the day of Pentecost, because that's where we are, the reputation of Jesus in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost would have been pretty low.
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They didn't have polls or approval ratings, which is kind of nice because you didn't have, you weren't sitting at home, you know, with pollsters calling you.
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I just have one quick question in our poll. No. But even thinking about the disciples, where they were, you know, before the resurrection, did they doubt him?
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Yes. If you recall, even in John 14, he said, let not your hearts be troubled.
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Believe in God, believe in me, also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would
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I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? Why did he say that to him? He said that because he told, he told them he was going to leave and their attitude right away was to be downcast, to be distraught, to fret.
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Even when he says, I'm going to send you another like me. Did they go? Yes. Thank you. No, no.
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They didn't get it. They didn't understand it. They didn't trust Jesus until they saw him after he was crucified.
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Let me read our text. We're going to see this morning how Jesus is vindicated throughout this chapter, but especially this morning in, in terms of him sending the spirit and, and the, the work the spirit does through Peter.
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Let me read Acts chapter two verses 14 to 21. But Peter standing with the 11 lifted up his voice and addressed them, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words.
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For these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day, but this is what was uttered through the prophet
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Joel. And in the last days, it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.
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Even on my male servants and my female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy and I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
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The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the
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Lord comes the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the
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Lord shall be saved. Well, two weeks ago, we, as it were,
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I can't even stand this anymore, introduced, sorry, the
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Holy Spirit, uh, because it, that the Holy Spirit really is introduced to the church.
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He enters the picture as it were. He appeared to the church in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
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There was the theophany and you say appeared. Yes, appeared. We stressed the person in work of the
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Holy Spirit a few weeks ago. We talked about him being fully God, the third person of the
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Trinity. And I gave a list of, and don't ask me why I limited the list to 13, because I, you know, if I did really counted and gone, there are 13 here,
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I would have said, I either need to cut it to 12 or go higher or something like that. But I had 13 activities in which he participates through 13 divine activities in which he participates three divine attributes, plus the truth that scripture attributes to him all the divine honor.
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It elevates him essentially, or puts him on, I shouldn't say elevates, puts him on the same platform as the father and the son.
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There is no different in difference in essence or in attributes or in glory between the father, the son and the spirits.
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We even gave this example, Matthew 28, 19, Jesus talks about how all authority has been given to him.
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And then what does he say? Verse 19, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the
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Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, just as much as Jesus is
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God, as much as the father is God. Second Corinthians 13, 14 says this, the grace of the
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Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all again, our triune
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God, three persons, one God, one divine essence. We also eliminated any idea that the
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Holy Spirit is a force rather than a person. Again, he takes action.
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He works, he suffers grief, things that only a person can do. No force can do these things.
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And our text, as I said a moment ago, had a genuine theophany and appearance of God and appearance of the
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Holy Spirit. How can I say that? Well, it was in the text, verse three and divided tongues of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
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That's what happened when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Ultimately, Pentecost was the beginning of a newer and fuller relationship between the
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Holy Spirit and the church of Christ. The coming of the Holy Spirit really changes everything for the people of God.
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Christ now indwells them and works through the Holy Spirit in them.
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The Holy Spirit takes up permanent residence within every believer.
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And as we began looking at this day of Pentecost, this transformational, this really marker day is a notable day in the history of the church.
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And today we're going to start looking at Peter's sermon from that day. Scholar Darrell Bach said this, he said, this sermon is one of the most important theological declarations in the
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New Testament. It highlights who Jesus is and explains how one can know what
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God was doing through him. It highlights who Jesus is and explains how one can know what
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God was doing through him. And this morning I have two points and they are not alliterated.
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Sorry, Andrew. Two points. First, Christ is vindicated in his choosing of Peter.
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He's vindicated in his choosing of Peter. And secondly, Christ is vindicated by fulfillment of Old Testament scripture.
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Christ is vindicated in his choosing of Peter and Christ is vindicated by fulfillment of scripture.
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So firstly, he's vindicated by his choosing of Peter. Now, if you recall, on the morning of Pentecost, as they're all gathered in the upper room, 120 strong, basically a nice size for a church plant, the believers who were gathered there heard a loud sound like rushing of wind.
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But we know it wasn't just like a massive gust of wind because there's no damage.
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There's no reported feeling of feeling this wind sort of rush through the building.
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They just hear this extremely loud noise. And apparently it caught the attention not just of the believers in the building, but of unbelievers who were gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost, probably close to the temple, getting ready for the big days full of festivities.
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And they hear this sound, they start moving towards where the believers are.
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The believers start going out into the street. Why? Because they're excited. They've seen these signs, the sign of the
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Holy Spirit appearing on them, these fiery tongues. So they also start moving. And the two groups met probably close to the temple.
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The text doesn't tell us exactly, but scholars typically agree that Peter is standing as we'll see in a moment that he's standing on the steps of the temple as he addresses these thousands of people.
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Acts 2 verse 8 says this, because they're stunned. These unbelievers are stunned as they hear these believers speaking in tongues.
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They say, and how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? After all, they're kind of sneering.
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You know, they're looking down on these believers. They're like, well, what do they say? These are country bumpkins.
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These are Galileans, right? These people are uneducated rubes. How is it possible that they're speaking in all these different languages?
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And that would be one thing, right? It'd be one thing if they were just giving the news of the day or the sports scores, whatever they did back then, the weather, but that's not what they're hearing.
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These believers are telling them the mighty works of God. And in that context, as we think about what these believers have just gone through over the last 50 days from the resurrection to Pentecost, what are they talking about?
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They're talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They're talking about the ascension. Can you imagine just a few days before they'd seen
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Jesus Christ raised up into the heavens, they'd had heavenly beings standing right there telling them that Jesus is coming back the same way you just saw him leave.
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You think they'd be talking about that? I do. That's exactly what they'd be talking about.
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And that scene last week, a couple of weeks ago ended with some of the crowd, because there are always people who want to mock the works of God, right?
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There are people who are so hardened in their hearts that any kind of miraculous has to be explained away, has to be minimized, has to be put down.
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So what do they say? They say, uh, those people are just drunk.
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So that's a real long explanation. So we can get to our text. Peter starts this, but Peter, the first two words starts his, his sermon.
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He's going to refute this charge of drunkenness. And he does that and he does a lot more.
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In fact, this is the beginning of possibly the most powerful sermon that a human being has ever given.
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I should say only a human being, right? Because he's, Jesus is both divine and mortal, but Peter's just a mortal man.
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How does he do that? By the power of God. But consider the following.
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When we think about this sermon that he's giving, the audience was hostile. I said a couple of weeks ago that Jerusalem.
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And I said, even this morning, Jerusalem was, uh, if we, if we could put it this way, anti -Christian anti -Christ, right?
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They put him to death. This wasn't some kind of modern. How many have ever been to a, like a modern crusade?
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If you've been to a, like a, a crusade or some kind of harvest festival or something like that, because I went and you know what
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I found out that I think about 85 or 90 % of the people there, at least we're already
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Christians. And it was so weird because I was a counselor for this thing and people come forward afterwards, you know, after they call people forward and they call people forward.
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And so I have a couple of these guys come up to me and it turned out they were already believers. And I'm like, what are you coming up for?
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What are you answering the altar call? If you're already, but that's the reality. Most of the people who go to these events are already
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Christians. That's not the case this morning. That's not the case when Peter's preaching, he's got a hostile audience.
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Now, the same as we think about Peter and we think about what has happened to him was 50 days earlier.
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What did he do? Jesus is arrested and he does, he denies him three times.
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And as one commentator said, Peter, that night, while he was denying Jesus probably used language he hadn't used in years, right?
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He was just, he was just so afraid and so angry and so emotional that he just said things that, uh, over and above to just separate himself from Jesus.
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And if we consider again, the person of Peter, he had an oppressive record for, if I could put it this way, misreading the moment, saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing.
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I mean, he just, he was a walking manifestation of doing the wrong thing, saying the wrong thing all the time.
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Peter act acted rashly. He spoke rashly and he rarely showed leadership, but this morning's different.
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Also consider this. Peter had no notes. He didn't have a massive library of commentaries.
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This was not a scholar. This was not somebody who was well -prepared in terms of humanly speaking,
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Peter should have been terrified. He should have been petrified, but he had one thing going for him.
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He was filled with the Holy spirit and emboldened by the Holy spirit.
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Peter preached in such a way that 3000 people came to faith later.
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And he did all that without an altar call, without an anxious bench, without dramatic music again.
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Now that the 12, the apostles and probably some of the other disciples, the believers are on the steps of the temple facing thousands of Jews.
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We go to our text, but Peter standing with the 11 lifted up his voice and address them.
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Now you could just kind of picture this, right? And why does Luke make reference to the fact that the 11 are with him?
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I think it's because, you know, we might get the idea typically in the past that some of the disciples might have listened to Peter and Ken again, really, you know, really, but this morning they're with him.
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They're standing with him. This would be like pastor Mike preaching and, you know, Pradeep and Scott and I are, you know, we're all standing with him.
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That's the idea that they're unified, but the tongue speaking has passed.
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The accusation of drunkenness has been made. It's kind of hanging in the air. Maybe there's some laughter.
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Maybe that was kind of a joke accusation, but it doesn't really matter because for just a moment, there's silence.
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Everybody's waiting to see what's going to happen next. Right? I mean, after you see people speaking in tongues where they shouldn't be able to speak these known languages, right?
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And everybody understands what's going on. You kind of wonder what's going to happen next. Peter does not act rashly.
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He does not speak rashly. Instead, the text tells us that he lifted up his voice.
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He raised his voice. The way that you would do if you were going to speak to a large group of people, he didn't have amplification.
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He wants to be heard. He assumes leadership of the 12.
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He assumes leadership of this whole crowd. He's going to speak to them. He's going to address them.
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And he starts this way. He says, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words.
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You need to listen to me. And for the record, you know, that idea there where he says, men of Judea, some of you might be thinking, well, what about the women in the audience?
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Weren't there women in the audience? Yes. But at that time and in that culture, men of Judea would mean everybody in front of him wasn't exclusionary at all.
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So why does Peter say men of Judea? And then it's kind of repetition, right? He says men of Judea and those who dwell in Jerusalem.
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Why, why does he say that? There's an emphasis on Jerusalem. That's where they're supposed to go, right?
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Jesus told them that they should start in Jerusalem in acts one 80 says, but you will receive power when the
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Holy spirit has come upon you. Guess what? That's just happened. And you will be my witnesses.
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Listen in Jerusalem. And all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
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But there's a progression and that progression starts in Jerusalem. That's where they are.
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You can't help but think that if the gospel could take hold in Jerusalem, in the stronghold of Judaism, where the home, where the temples built, the very place where Jesus had been wrongly tried and crucified.
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If the message could be received there, then what? Anything was possible now addressing the charge.
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Peter addresses the charge. This idea that the believers are drunk says for these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.
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Now that's curious. I mean, I've dealt with people who've been drunk by nine o 'clock in the morning.
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It's pretty ugly, but the idea here is this, these are, these are devout
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Jews, right? These people that you're making fun of, spider, sorry.
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These people that you're making fun of and what would a devout Jew do on a
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Passover or holiday, which Pentecost is a holiday. They would not eat even at nine o 'clock in the morning, let alone drink.
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They would fast. They would give an offering at 10 o 'clock and then the first meal of the day would be noon.
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So this was a baseless charge. And Peter says, you know, this is, this is silly.
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You people are just being silly. Of course they're not drunk. There's no, there's nothing in them. They haven't eaten, they haven't drink.
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They've had nothing. Now when we think about what's going on here, they're being accused of drunkenness.
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Is there a force at work, a force that might control the believers? And the answer is yes.
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Ephesians 5, 18 and do not get drunk with wine. You know these words well from Paul. He says, do not get drunk with wine.
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And then cutting out the middle part, he says, but be filled with the spirit. There's a contrast there, right?
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To be drunk with wine is to be controlled by alcohol, to have your mind altered, to be given over to the power of alcohol.
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Instead, Paul says, be filled with the Holy Spirit. They were being accused of being controlled by alcohol.
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But the truth was they were controlled by the spirit of God. They were controlled by the second person of the
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Trinity. Instead of having their mind clouded, polluted, confused by alcohol, they had complete clarity, complete perfect thoughts because they were controlled by the
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Holy Spirit. So Peter gets up and the first thing he does is address that. And as we just think about the vindication of Jesus by choosing
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Peter, Peter the failure, Peter the one who attacked with a sword for no reason and was corrected by Jesus on the spot.
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Peter who denied Jesus three times. Peter who went out of the water and immediately sank. All the things that Peter did wrong and yet Peter did, or Jesus did what?
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We saw at the end of John, he patiently, calmly, with great love, restored
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Peter. Made it evident to the other disciples that in spite of all of Peter's failings, he was restored and in fact he was to be the leader of the church.
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So he's vindicated by his selection of Peter, but he's also vindicated by fulfillment of Scripture.
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How filled with the Holy Spirit is Peter? How filled, I mean, how filled is he?
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He's filled enough to say, you know what? That Old Testament prophecy in Joel chapter 2, it's fulfilled today.
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That's pretty confident. That's pretty full of the Holy Spirit. And as we'll see, it's not totally fulfilled, but he tells us enough that there is some fulfillment here in Pentecost.
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These Christians are not drunk. They're filled with the Holy Spirit. And we know that because the
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Holy Spirit is sent, as he says in verse 16. But this is what was uttered through the prophet
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Joel. And then he goes on to explain, And in the last days it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.
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And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.
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And even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy.
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Jesus is vindicated because he was the one who said, guess what? He said, I will send the
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Holy Spirit. He said, and I will ask the father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.
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You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. That promise of sending the
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Holy Spirit is now fulfilled here on the day of Pentecost. And Peter says that Old Testament prophecy in Joel chapter two.
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And this is almost a word for word copy of Joel chapter two is fulfilled today.
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Now, it's interesting. Some of what Peter says here might confuse us a little bit.
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Just talking about Joel, because even as we read this, what? That we're in the last days on the day of Pentecost.
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We're in the last days. What does that mean? How could they be in the last days and we're still in the last days?
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Because the last days, the church age, right? From the inauguration of the new covenant, which was sealed, what?
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In the blood of Christ, right? He told us that we're in the last times.
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Well, how long are the last times? I don't know. In fact, as we're going through this today, I would just say this. People are always trying to figure out where we are on the timeline.
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I would caution against that. We ought to spend a lot more time. I'll just kind of generally say this.
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Deuteronomy 29, 29 tells us what? That the secret things belong to the
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Lord, right? But those things that are revealed are for us and for our children. We have much that we can easily understand.
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Those are the things that we need to study. And study will, you know, when people start trying to figure out what grasshoppers are and all this other kind of thing, and where we are in a timeline,
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I, I don't know what to say. That's speculation. And I would just say, those are the secret things that belong to the
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Lord. Let's focus on what we can know. Okay.
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The old covenant is done. The old covenant has been fulfilled.
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The new covenant is in place. So the new, that the last days have begun. We're still in the last days.
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How do we know that? Because Peter, our speaker here says so. In first Peter chapter one, verse 20.
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He. Talking about Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.
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Hebrews one, one and two says this long ago at many times. And in many ways,
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God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son.
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Who he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world.
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First John two 18. There are many passages we could go to. Here's the last one I'll go to children.
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It is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming.
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So now many antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour.
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Well, it was the last hour for John. What does that mean? I mean, in the divine chronology, we might be in the last minutes.
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But we're certainly still in the last hour. The theological clock is ticking. The coming of the
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Holy Spirit shows how late the hour is. The Old Testament talks about the spirit being poured upon the people of God and.
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Of the new covenants and the idea of those two things coming together. Both of which are changes initiated in the divine plan by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
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Those events, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus basically kicks things into a new age.
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Jeremiah 31. 31 and 32 say this. Behold, the days are coming, declares the
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Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
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Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
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My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the
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Lord. What's different about the new covenant? What's different about the covenant that God through Jesus Christ is established with his people now rather than the covenant?
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The old covenant. Well, God says the old covenant they broke.
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Can we break the new covenant? Can we break the bonds that we have with Jesus Christ?
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Can those who are saved become unsaved? Can we stop being his people? We were once his people.
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We're no longer as people. And the answer is no. The difference between the old covenant and the new covenant is the new covenant cannot be broken.
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Why? Because, as I said, it's sealed in the blood of Jesus Christ. Isaiah 32 verses 14 and 15.
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Talking about the judgment on Israel for the palace is forsaken. The populous city deserted.
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Talking about Jerusalem. The hill and the watchtower will become dens forever. A joy of wild donkeys and a pasture of flocks.
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Until the spirit is poured upon us from on high. And the wilderness becomes a fruitful field.
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And the fruitful field is deemed as a forest. Here's the idea.
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When the spirit comes upon the people of God. God is going to move mightily.
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He's going to save people. And it's not going to be... The movement of the spirit is wrongly understood in the
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Pentecostal movement. And I think I have it in my notes somewhere. Just talking about the power of the
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Holy Spirit is not so that Christians can act like nitwits. Rolling on the floor.
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Doing somersaults. Throwing themselves up in the air. Laughing in the spirit. Vomiting in the spirit.
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Doing all that stuff that people claim that they do. That's not what the Holy Spirit does. He's not the author of confusion.
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In fact, if I could say it this way. He's the author of salvation. He causes people to be born again.
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This is what he does when he comes into the church among the people of God. And I can't go past these verses in Acts chapter 2 without noting some of the promises made here.
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The scope of the promises. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Now there are a lot of different interpretations of prophesy.
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The one I like best here. And especially given the context. How Peter is talking about Joel fulfilling.
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Being fulfilled. They've just seen. Men and women.
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Unbelievers. Sons of Israel. Doing what? Speaking in unknown languages.
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Proclaiming the greatness of Christ to these unbelievers. That's the idea that I think prophesy has here.
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Prophesying. But I want to just note this. See what it says here that.
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Your sons and your daughters. There's no limitation to the spirit of God.
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He's going to save men and women. He's going to move throughout the church in men and women.
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Also notice there's no limitation on an age. Verse 17 also says. Your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.
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What does that mean? Means the Holy Spirit is going to move among the young and the old.
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And there are several instances during Acts. We're going to see where people have dreams. Paul.
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Peter. Cornelius. All examples of that. We're seeing a new age, a new work of God.
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Where there are wonders, you know, should we expect those things now? And let me just clarify this. I've said this before.
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The miracles we see in Acts are not normative. They're meant to do what? To establish the truth, the veracity of what's being said.
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If we look at the history of miracles, and I'm sure you've heard this before. If we look at the history of miracles, we would see what?
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That basically most of them all. I don't have an exact percentage, so I'll just make one up.
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I won't do that. The vast majority of miracles recorded in the
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Bible happen in just a few eras. Three eras. Moses and Joshua.
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Elijah and Elisha. And then Jesus and the disciples. Those three eras comprise about 100 years.
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And all the miracles basically are. Squeezed into those eras.
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Well, why? They're to verify that these people are actually sent from God.
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And that what they're saying is true. I mean, Moses was terrified. The other men needed these things to verify what they were saying.
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Because they were vastly outnumbered. And then even Jesus. Why should they believe?
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Well, even Nicodemus, when he comes to Jesus at night. What does he say? No one can do the things that you're doing.
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No one can do these things unless he's sent from God. I know that you're sent from God. He doesn't believe yet.
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He will later. But that's why these miraculous things. They are not prescriptive.
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They are descriptive. In other words, they just describe what's going on. We're not to try to emulate these things.
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We're not to compare dreams and all the folly that goes on. The Holy Spirit moves without regard to gender.
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Without regard to age. And without regard to social status. You know, even as I think about all the strife that's going on in our country today.
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And I'm just like, here we go. Gender, age, social status. Verse 18. Male servants, slaves.
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Female slaves. These are people who would be the lowest of the low in society. Holy Spirit, the
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God is no respecter of persons. Nothing, not gender, age, nor social status, is going to prevent the
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Holy Spirit from being poured out upon anyone. Let me just emphasize this again.
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I said it's not normative. We think about the word miracle. What does that mean? Miracle.
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I mean, if you think the song is just popping in my head, which is dangerous. But miracles don't happen every day.
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Because guess what? If they happen every day, then what? They're not miracles. They're something else. A miracle is
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God intervening in the space -time continuum and doing only what only God can do.
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That's why miracles don't happen every day. They're not normative. You shouldn't expect them.
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The point that Peter is making through this citation is that salvation, full and free, the sealing of the
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Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1, is available to all. It doesn't matter where you're from.
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It doesn't matter if you're male or female. It doesn't matter how much money you have. It's available to all.
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Now, signs of the end. And this is where everybody's like, oh yeah, here we go. Signs of the end, verses 19 and 20.
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Prepare for disappointment. And I... And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
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The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
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These wonders will happen. But they didn't happen on Pentecost. They haven't happened yet.
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And we don't know when they're going to happen. So, you know, go out tonight and see if some of these things are...
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You know, I don't know what to say about this. God says these things will happen. They will happen.
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And Nody says, He says, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
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That's the key. You say, well, what about the blood moon and all that? Here's the key.
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The day of the Lord is coming. What does that mean? That means there's a day fixed.
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A day in which Jesus Christ is going to return and he's going to judge the living and the dead.
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That's what it means. He's telling his audience,
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Peter is, that you need to be ready when judgment day comes. You can look for all these signs all you want, but you have to be ready when judgment comes.
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What Peter does not say is something like... And, you know, talking about, well, why isn't it fully fulfilled?
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Matthew 2 .17. Listen to these words. Matthew writing, he says, Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet
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Jeremiah. Peter doesn't say here in Acts that everything is fulfilled. He just says, this is that.
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This is a fulfillment of that. And he's specifically, I think, talking about the work of the
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Holy Spirit and what he's doing. But Peter warns of judgment and he warns of it in 2
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Peter 3 .10. He says, But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
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What does that mean? If the Lord is going to come like a thief, what does that mean? Again, you better be ready.
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He's coming. Similar language to Acts 2 is given in John, or by John in Revelation 6.
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Verse 12. And this is 95 AD. This is the last book written in the New Testament. He says this. He says, When he opened the sixth seal,
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I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth. The full moon became like blood.
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There is a day coming. Be ready. How can you get ready?
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He tells us. Again, this is out of Joel 2. This is verse 32 in Joel 2.
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But he cuts off the second half, which is interesting. But let me read the first part. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the
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Lord shall be saved. Which, when you think about this judgment, these pictures of judgment that he's giving us, it's a good thing that there's a way out of it.
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In Joel 2, the verse continues this way. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be those who escape, as the
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Lord has said. And among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.
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Those whom the Lord calls. Those in whom we could say the
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Holy Spirit moves. Listen to what S. Lewis Johnson said. He said, one of the local fulfillments of this, of this prophecy, of course, is what happened on the day of Pentecost, when 3 ,000 people did respond to the gospel preached by Peter and were baptized in testimony to their faith.
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In other words, 3 ,000 people escaped the judgment of God, escaped the day of the Lord, on Pentecost.
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Why? Or how? By believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it mean to call on the name of the
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Lord? Well, in the Old Testament, it meant to trust Yahweh, to trust that He would, by a future sacrifice, pay for sin.
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Well, that future sacrifice now exists in the person of Jesus Christ. He's been sacrificed.
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Now, would Peter's audience, on this day of Pentecost, would they have understood that Jesus Christ was fully
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God? Would they have understood that? No, but they're going to. Listen, he just said, those who call on the name of the
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Lord, right? Listen to verse 36. So what does
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Peter do? He sets them up. He says, you know, you don't want to be judged? You don't want to face the judgment of God?
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You need to call on the name of the Lord. And then he walks through, and we're going to see this next week.
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He walks through who Jesus is. And he says, that name, the
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Lord, that you're going to call on, that's Jesus Christ. It's only by faith in His perfect life,
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His substitutionary death, and His resurrection, that you can escape the judgment that is coming.
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Jesus is vindicated in our passage today. Let me ask you, have you called upon the name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ? We're still in the last hour. Judgment day is coming.
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And you have one hope, and it's not your goodness. No matter how good you might think you are.
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Your only hope is Jesus Christ. And here's the good news. The good news is, you don't have to be good.
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You have to believe. You have to trust. And if you believe and you trust in His finished work, in His life, death, and resurrection, if you believe that Jesus is who
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He is, and that's what it means to believe in His name, to believe that all that the Bible says about Him is true.
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If you believe and you trust in that, then guess what? You have rest. Rest for your weary souls.
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That's what He promises. Judgment or rest?
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Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your goodness, sending the
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Holy Spirit to reside among those whom you have saved.
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We thank you even for this word today, and how, because of your work in and through Peter, because of your spirit moving among your people, you saved many from judgment.
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Lord, I pray that even as people listen to this, that those who are not saved would consider the claims of Jesus Christ.
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They would think about their own lives, their own sins, recognizing their own unworthiness, and flee to the cross.
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Flee from judgment into the arms of Jesus, we pray in Jesus name.