FBC Morning Worship Service

Faith Baptist Church

0 views

February 22, 2021

Sunday morning service from Faith Baptist Church

02:12: Good morning, good to see you on this Lord's Day. So thankful for His grace,
02:17: His kindness to us, and for all He's done to enable us to be here today. You think about what
02:23: He's done. He's given us life and breath. He's given us the health and strength.
02:29: He's preserved us, He's protected us, He's provided for us in these last seven days, and allowed us to gather again together today.
02:40: Before we actually begin our service, just want to point out the coming up section in your bulletin.
02:46: There's some things there, some dates coming in March, and then of course around the
02:52: Easter season, that you'll want to get those on your calendar, be planning on those.
02:58: Those will be here before we know it, thankfully. Looking forward to spring, finally springing.
03:05: And then I also wanted to point out, we've been working for the last several months on remodeling the restrooms that are in the very back part of the building.
03:16: And at last, finally, the ladies room right next to the nursery is completed, and it is fully functional.
03:26: So that's a nice remodeled facility that you can use. Pop your head in there if nothing else, and just see the transformation.
03:37: We should have taken some before and after pictures. And if you've been back in that area of the building, you probably have some memories.
03:47: So it'd be nice to look at a reflection, reflect on those memories when you see what the guys have done.
03:54: I really appreciate Michael Bliss heading up that project, and he's had plenty of guys helping him with that.
04:03: And just so appreciative of it. And so we're planning to move ahead with, the men's room is about done, got a few things to do.
04:13: And we're also going to add a on -demand water heater for those restrooms, because some of you ladies who use those rooms, you know men too.
04:26: You turn on the hot water, and you can go out, take a couple of laps around the building, and come back in, and you might start to feel some warmth coming in.
04:35: So anyway, we're going to add that. But then we are going to be moving forward with converting one of the other restrooms to be a more handicap accessible facility.
04:47: So just want you to know we're planning on that. So we begin today, I want to read Psalm 134, which says,
04:55: Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the
05:00: Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord, the Lord that made heaven and earth, bless thee out of Zion.
05:09: So in a moment, we're going to stand as Jim will lead us to bless the Lord, but we're going to turn to number 36 in our hymnal.
05:17: It's been about 10 years since we've sung this hymn, I believe. So I asked
05:22: Kelly if she would to play the song for us while Jim comes and prepares to lead us in that.
05:28: So, number 36. Thank you,
05:50: Kelly. Let's all stand together as we sing, stand up and bless the Lord, number 36.
05:56: Sing all four verses together. ♪
06:05: Stand up and bless the Lord ♪ ♪ All people of his choice ♪ ♪
06:14: Stand up and bless the Lord your God ♪ ♪
06:20: With heart and soul and voice ♪ ♪
06:26: Though high above all praise ♪ ♪ Above all blessings high ♪ ♪
06:35: Who would not fear his holy name ♪ ♪
06:40: And Lord and magnify ♪ ♪
06:46: God is of strength and song ♪ ♪
06:51: And his salvation ours ♪ ♪ Then would his love in Christ proclaim ♪ ♪
07:00: With all our ransomed powers ♪ ♪
07:06: Stand up and bless the Lord ♪ ♪
07:11: The Lord our God adore ♪ ♪ Stand up and bless his glorious name ♪ ♪
07:21: Henceforth evermore ♪ Now would you come and lead us in prayer, please?
07:39: Father, again, we thank you for your grace and your mercy this past week. Father, we thank you for the word of God.
07:50: Be with pastor as he brings your word this morning. May the spirit of God work in our hearts and our lives, giving us wisdom and knowledge from you to understand what we're hearing.
08:05: And Father, as we sing these praises to you, lifting our voices, may we give you glory and honor.
08:15: We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. So if you would, on the back of your bulletin, we'll be reading
08:26: Psalm 96, verses one through eight, and then we'll follow up with that in our song supplement books with the song that has a tune to it, the psalm with a tune to it,
08:39: Psalm 96, one to eight. So, and that kind of sets the tone for this afternoon's service as well.
08:48: So after the morning service, we invited you to plan to stay for lunch, bring your own lunch, have some tables set up in the fellowship hall, you know, kind of spread around.
09:00: And then at one o 'clock, we'll have an afternoon service that will kind of be a psalm service.
09:08: Found, I found a new psalter, it's called, which is basically taking the psalms and setting them to music.
09:17: And some of the old psalters, I mean, they're very good, but they're also very difficult.
09:23: Some are very difficult to sing. And the tunes are totally foreign to us. This newer one has taken some of those, taken those psalms and set them to tunes that we know and we recognize.
09:37: So we'll be looking at half a dozen of those psalms this afternoon. We'll read some of the psalm together and then sing it, just kind of like what we're doing right now.
09:47: So in Psalm 96, follow along as I read these first eight verses. It says, oh, sing unto the
09:55: Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless
10:00: His name, show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the heathen,
10:06: His wonders among all people. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised.
10:12: He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the
10:18: Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.
10:26: Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the
10:32: Lord the glory due unto His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts.
10:38: All right, let's sing that psalm together. Jim? Thank you,
10:44: Pastor. And let's sing that psalm in song on page 74 in your songbooks.
10:52: Let's all, I guess we won't stand together. We'll be seated, but we'll sing all three verses together. Oh, sing a song, song to the
11:14: Lord, all earth sing to the Lord. Sing to the
11:20: Lord and bless His name. He saves each day.
11:27: We proclaim His glory to all nations.
11:34: Show His deeds, let peoples know.
11:42: The Lord is great, how great His praise. Above all gods
11:49: He feared. For heathen gods are in vain.
11:55: The Lord, the Heav 'n made.
12:02: Before Him honor, majesty, and strength and splendor be.
12:14: Oh, families of earth shall subscribe all glory to the
12:22: Lord. All strength ascribe unto the
12:27: Lord. The glory, His name give to the
12:36: Lord. To His courts come and bring an offering.
12:50: I know that song, that psalm, just said to us to bring an offering to the Lord. I haven't said anything about it for quite some time, but we're not passing the plates as an opportunity to give offerings.
13:03: And most, almost everybody, I think, knows the little box on the table in the foyer for those offerings, if the
13:10: Lord has provided for you to give. As we pray together today, we want to pray for our
13:18: Missionary of the Week, Chuck Kempf. Remember, Chuck is an evangelist in the
13:23: States, United States, and he and Ruby, they live in North Carolina. His wife,
13:29: Ruby, has some chronic ongoing physical condition that keeps her from traveling with him.
13:37: He has meetings one or two weeks a month, perhaps, that he's able to get away.
13:44: And those, of course, have been limited with the COVID restrictions. So I'm going to pray for Chuck and his wife,
13:51: Ruby. Also, speaking of our missionaries, want to pray for the Heinecks. I shared,
13:58: I think it was last week, at least in a prayer meeting service, about the Heinecks, the church situation there.
14:06: Next Sunday is the church vote regarding, well, let's just leave it like this.
14:13: The outcome of that vote will determine what the Heinecks do in terms of future ministry.
14:18: So we want to pray for that vote to be one that gives them clear direction and that they will be able to proceed in taking that direction.
14:30: Also, you're well aware of the crisis in Myanmar. If you watch any news at all, the military has ousted the government from Myanmar and is basically kind of establishing a military dictatorship.
14:47: And the civilians are in complete protest against that military dictatorship.
14:53: As a consequence of that, everything is shut down. I mean, banks, anything connected with the government, banks, schools, all of this is shut down.
15:04: And the reason we want to pray about this is there are believers in Myanmar and there's persecution enough for being a
15:13: Christian in Myanmar. But now the inability for them even to access their financial resources, to buy food, to pay bills, and all of that kind of thing is just a great hardship.
15:29: There is a mission organization or kind of like a church association that Scott Williquette, our missionary to a pastoral enrichment program, training third world country pastors, he's been connected with that mission organization there.
15:50: And they're not able to get support to their churches that are being planted and worked by missionary pastors.
15:59: So it's a very difficult situation and we want to pray for them as well. And also, we want to pray for the family of Carolyn Renner.
16:09: Some of you would remember Margaret Renner, Margaret was a member here for a long time, her daughter
16:16: Carolyn, Jim Renner. Carolyn passed away this past week and she lived in Ohio, is going to be buried out here by her mom sometime this week.
16:31: So I want to pray for that family and for Jim particularly. Jim, those of you who know him,
16:36: Jim has some serious handicaps, physical, mental handicaps and depended heavily on Carolyn.
16:45: So this is a pretty severe thing for him. Let's look to the Lord in prayer, shall we?
16:54: Our Father and our God, we are so grateful that we can sing praises to you because even in the difficulties and the problems of life, some of them we've even shared in the course of sharing prayer requests, that you are still our
17:11: God and you are good. And in your sovereign purposes and your providence, you bring or allow these difficulties and challenges into the lives of your people.
17:25: We praise you because you do so in your wisdom. We praise you because you control them with your might.
17:32: And we praise you because you have an outcome in mind that is for our good and for your glory.
17:40: So we praise you today, our Father, for who you are and for all that you do for your people.
17:47: And we pray that you would work in behalf of your people today. We think particularly of Chuck and Ruby Kempf and pray that you would provide the meetings and the resources that this couple need and think particularly of Ruby and her health and just continue to sustain her and give her physical strength and meet their spiritual needs as well.
18:13: We pray for this church in Grecia, Costa Rica, and its relationship to the
18:19: Heinecks and has come to a crisis point. We pray for your kingdom to come, for your will to be done on earth, even as it is in heaven.
18:30: And in relation to this church, it is an organism that is an expression of the body of Christ, but it has become diseased and infected.
18:43: And we pray that by your grace and by your miraculous power, you would bring healing to that corruption.
18:51: And I pray that this vote next week would be one that gives the Heinecks, Mark and Lynette, very clear understanding of their next step of ministry.
19:03: We also pray, Father, for the crisis in Myanmar and for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling just to make ends meet and to survive and to get what they need.
19:16: I pray that you would provide for them. I pray that you would bring a resolution to this crisis that would not result in yet another country falling under the grip and the control of the communists in China.
19:34: Father, we pray for Carolyn Renner's family. We pray that you would comfort them in her death.
19:41: Pray for Jim that you would provide for him that his needs might be met and that he would especially be comforted in the loss of his sister.
19:53: Father, we thank you today that we can bring these petitions to you. And we pray that you would work in each of these situations according to your perfect will.
20:05: Father, I pray today as we consider the beginning of the church, that you would encourage and challenge us as well as a
20:18: New Testament, a new covenant, 21st century expression of the body of Christ.
20:25: And this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, before our message,
20:30: Jim's gonna come lead us in another hymn. Jim. I do wanna remind you of our children's church, ages four to eight, if that would be dismissed at the end of the last verse of our song.
20:47: And that song is number 12 in your songbooks. Number 12, Chosen as His Children.
20:54: Let's all stand together please and sing verses one, three, and four.
21:00: One, three, and four of number 12. ♪
21:16: Chosen by the Father's mercy ♪ ♪ Set apart, served the
21:24: Son ♪ ♪ Sanctified by His own Spirit ♪ ♪
21:29: Praise the Holy Three in One ♪ ♪ And day by day, resurrection power ♪ ♪
21:39: Shielded in His faithful love ♪ ♪ Now in glen a meek and harnessed ♪ ♪
21:48: My inheritance above ♪ ♪
21:53: I'm born again, I'm God's own chosen child of mercy ♪ ♪
21:59: Born again, what love and grace ♪ ♪
22:09: Nothing worthy till I look upon your face ♪ ♪
22:15: Till I look upon your face ♪ ♪
22:21: Fixed upon this hope completely ♪ ♪ As obedient children fear ♪ ♪
22:30: For the Holy One who called you ♪ ♪
22:35: Just you with blood so dear ♪ ♪ Born anew from seed eternal ♪ ♪
22:44: By His loving kindness spurred ♪ ♪ Lay aside all tasteless yearnings ♪ ♪
22:53: Crave the true and living Word ♪ ♪ I'm born again,
23:01: I'm God's own chosen child of mercy ♪ ♪ Born again, what love and grace ♪ ♪
23:10: Father, keep me walking worthy ♪ ♪ Till I look upon your face ♪ ♪
23:19: Till I look upon your face ♪ ♪
23:25: Built on Christ, the sure foundation ♪ ♪ We are free from guilt and shame ♪ ♪
23:35: He is fitting us together as a house to praise
23:42: His name ♪ ♪ We are chosen God's people ♪ ♪
23:49: Called from darkness into light ♪ ♪ Oh, what mercy now entreats us to proclaim
23:59: His glory ♪ ♪ His glory's bright, I'm born again ♪ ♪
24:06: I'm God's own chosen child of mercy ♪ ♪ Born again, what love and grace ♪ ♪
24:15: Father, keep me walking worthy ♪ ♪ Till I look upon your face ♪ ♪
24:24: Till I look upon your face ♪
24:31: Thank you, please be seated. And if you would take your
24:38: Bibles and turn to Acts chapter two for our scripture reading this morning. Acts two, and we'll read a relatively lengthy passage for our text today.
24:56: Verses 22 through 42, Acts chapter two.
25:03: Follow along in your copy of scripture as I read beginning in verse 22. So just as a contextual reminder,
25:11: Peter is preaching this on the day of Pentecost. So this is the day when the
25:17: Holy Spirit came upon the disciples as they were gathered in that upper room and they all began to speak in foreign languages and people from all different places, different languages were able to hear them speak in their own language.
25:31: And this caused no small stir and it motivated and prompted Peter to preach this message.
25:37: We're kind of picking up the message in the middle of it in verse 22. He says, you men of Israel, hear these words.
25:45: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
25:51: God did by him in the midst of you, as you 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
26:04: God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden by it.
26:11: 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.
26:20: Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad, whereover 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.
26:32: Thou hast made known to me the ways of life, thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
26:39: 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 unto this day.
26:47: 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.
27:00: He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did seek corruption.
27:08: This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the
27:17: Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
27:23: 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.
27:33: Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
27:38: Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto
27:47: Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the
28:01: Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the
28:07: Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation.
28:17: Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about 3 ,000 souls, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers.
28:32: So a brief prayer. Our Father and our God, we thank you for the building which you have established and you have built.
28:42: I pray that you would challenge us from this message of Peter's today. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
28:51: Well, in late 1990, the church I was pastoring at the time began a building program that was really going to involve almost doubling the entire square footage of the existing building.
29:03: We had an auditorium, and then beneath that auditorium is a basement with Sunday school classes and so forth.
29:09: And so the project was to build a whole wing off to one side of that auditorium part of the building that would have offices and restrooms and nursery facility and some classrooms and a fellowship hall downstairs.
29:27: And it was really going to be quite an extensive project. But that project was not without some significant challenges and uncertainties and of this nature.
29:41: When that building was originally built, it was built on the side of a hill, and it sloped very quickly down into a very deep gully.
29:52: And so to make sure that there was plenty of land around the building, and also to provide space for parking, the builders brought in tons, tons of fill dirt.
30:10: And they just kept dumping and dumping and dumping and dumping fill dirt until there was enough space to do the building and to have an area of parking.
30:19: But we're gonna add on to this building. And so I was talking to the contractor about this because I mean, nobody really knew how far back the fill went before you got to the natural slope of the land.
30:36: And nobody really knew how deep the fill went. So obviously
30:41: I was a little bit concerned about this. And I'm talking to the general contractor when he came to look over the scope of it and he agreed to do the project for the price that we had.
30:50: And I said to him, I'm a little concerned because there's all this fill dirt out there.
30:57: What happens if we build this building and then you get a gully washer of a storm someday and the whole thing just kind of slides toward the gully?
31:06: And I still remember the look on his face and the little smile and his
31:14: Southern inflection. This was in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and he was a good Southern Tennessee boy, man.
31:20: And he said, well, pastor, you don't need to worry none about that. We're gonna dig down till we get solid.
31:29: And when we get solid, then we'll do the building. And I said, okay,
31:35: I'll trust you. And exactly, that's exactly what he did. He dug down till he got solid and built the foundation.
31:44: And I just checked the other day on, I typed in the address on Google and went to Google Earth and saw the building from above.
31:52: And then I did the street view and the building is still there in the same place where it was built 30 years ago.
31:58: So he did, he found solid ground and on that solid foundation, the building therefore still stands.
32:08: Well, and so it is with the church, with the church and its new beginning.
32:14: It needed to be built on a solid foundation. And in this passage of scripture, this sermon of the apostle
32:21: Peter, you notice how the church begins by the laying of that foundation, of the solid foundation.
32:30: The church is one foundation. You remember what that foundation is? Peter himself testified to that foundation.
32:39: We saw it in Matthew chapter 16, when Jesus asked his disciples, who do people say that I am?
32:46: And they said, well, people say you're Elijah or you're John the Baptist or Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
32:53: And then Jesus says, well, whom do you say that I am? And Peter spoke up for the disciples.
33:00: And he said, you are the Christ, the son of the
33:05: God, the living one. Literally, that's what he said. You, Jesus, are the
33:11: Christ, the son of the God, the living one. That is the foundation of the church.
33:20: But if this building, the church, is going to be built, the foundation has to be laid.
33:27: And so here in Acts chapter two, the apostle Peter lays three important, critical foundation stones for the church.
33:38: And the first of those foundation stones is the identity of Jesus.
33:44: Who is he? Well, verse 22, look at what he says again. He says, you men of Israel, hear these words,
33:51: Jesus of Nazareth, a man. So the first thing that Peter emphasizes is that Jesus is a man.
33:59: He had a birthplace. He had a hometown that he grew up in. He was a man, just like they are people.
34:06: They are human beings. Jesus is a man. But he goes on to clarify, he's more than a mere man.
34:15: He is a man who was divinely attested by God himself.
34:21: He is a man approved of God. Now, some translations, and there's a textual question about it, but I think the
34:31: ESV has in that verse that he is a man appointed by God.
34:37: And I think that's actually the better rendering. I think there's greater textual evidence that that would be the word to use.
34:44: But regardless, the point that's being made by Peter is that Jesus is a man who is divinely appointed or divinely approved by means of these miracles and wonders and signs.
35:02: So he was divinely attested by God and then divinely powerful.
35:08: Jesus performed these works that could be classified as miracles that produced wonder and had a point.
35:19: Let me explain what I've just said there. Because these three words, they all refer to the same action, if you will.
35:28: Jesus performed miracles. And that speaks of the powerful supernatural works that Jesus did.
35:38: A man has a withered hand. Jesus performed a miracle by telling the man, stretch out that withered hand, that limp, impotent hand.
35:47: And the man just stretched it out. Or the feeding of the 5 ,000.
35:54: Jesus takes a few loaves of bread and a few fishes and he performs the miracle, this powerful supernatural work of so multiplying the bread and the fish so that 5 ,000 men plus women and children could eat and have plenty to eat.
36:14: That's the work. It's a miracle. A wonder is the response that came on the part of the people who were recipients of that miracle or who observed that miracle.
36:27: They saw the miraculous work and they were like, whoa. They were awed by it.
36:34: It was a wonder. They wondered at it. And then it was a sign. They were signs in the sense that they pointed to a truth.
36:44: Jesus did not perform miracles just for the sake of performing miracles.
36:50: He performed miracles for a reason. There was a point to them.
36:56: So for example, let me give you a couple of examples of this. In the feeding of the 5 ,000, after the feeding of the 5 ,000, the breaking of the bread, multiplying it so everybody had plenty to eat,
37:08: Jesus went on in John chapter six to say, I am the bread of life. You think you just need food to eat?
37:16: I am the bread of life. So he performed this miracle, this supernatural work that everybody saw and they were stunned by it and they were so filled with wonder at it that they wanted to find him.
37:31: They wanted to stay with him because he could do this again and again and again. But he said, no, this was the point.
37:37: I want you to perceive that I am the bread of life. You need to feed on me. Let me give you another example.
37:44: You remember the instant where Jesus and his disciples are out in the middle of the Sea of Galilee and a storm comes up suddenly and Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat and the storm's raging, the waves are crashing over the side of the boat, the boat's filling up with water and the disciples come to him in a panic, waking him up, saying, don't you care that we're perishing?
38:09: And Jesus gets up, he says, oh, you have little faith. He just holds out his hand and says, be still, be still.
38:18: And all of a sudden, just like that. This powerful, supernatural work that Jesus performs causes the wind to stop and the waves to stop immediately.
38:31: Immediately. And the disciples, you can see this, can't you?
38:37: You see them bug -eyed? You see how big their eyes get when they see this? That's the wonder part of it.
38:43: And then they say, what manner of man is this that even the winds and the seas obey him?
38:54: Yeah, wonder that has a point. You need to see that this man who's lying in the back of the boat sound asleep is not a mere man.
39:05: The sea obeys him. So this one, Peter says in the sermon on the day of Pentecost is he's bringing out the identity of Jesus.
39:17: He says he's a man, but he's not a mere man. He's more than a mere man.
39:22: And you get down to verse 36 and he gets to his point where he clarifies that Jesus is
39:29: Lord. He is Lord. He says, this one whom you, this
39:35: Jesus whom you have crucified, God has made him Lord, master, the one to whom all must submit, the one to whom all will submit.
39:49: This is the identity that Paul refers to in Philippians 2 verses 10 and 11 when he says that every knee shall bow, things in heaven and things in earth, things under the earth.
40:01: Every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
40:07: Lord to the glory of God the Father. He is Lord. And that is a confession that every converted person needs to make, right?
40:18: Romans 10 verse nine. If you will confess with your mouth, Jesus is
40:25: Lord. Yes. Who is he? Who is this one?
40:31: Peter is laying the foundation to identify Jesus as a man who's more than a mere man.
40:39: He's is the God man who is the Lord Christ. He is the
40:44: Lord Christ. As he says in verse 36, he has made, God has made
40:50: Jesus both Lord and Christ. Christ.
40:56: Again, what does Philippians 2 say? Every tongue will confess that Jesus Messiah Christ is
41:07: Lord. He is Messiah. He is Christ. And that refers to his threefold offices of prophet, priest, and king.
41:19: So there is a ton of theologically important information that Peter is communicating in this message as he's laying the foundation stone of the identity of Jesus.
41:33: But there are more stones to be laid. He lays next the stone of the work of Jesus in verses 23 through 32.
41:45: The work of Jesus. He summarizes that work in verses 23 and 24.
41:52: So he says that Jesus was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.
42:01: You have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain whom
42:06: God hath raised up, loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that it should be whole and of it.
42:12: So what is he summarizing here? He's talking about the work of Christ who was crucified, buried, and rose again.
42:21: And one of the things he emphasizes right away, you notice this? This was not a surprise.
42:31: This work of Christ wasn't like a plan B. This wasn't something that came about because of the unexpected hostility of humanity to the king as he presented himself and they rejected him and oh, now they're gonna kill him and oh no, now what do we do?
42:52: Well, we'll have to raise him. No, this was all planned.
42:58: See that at the beginning of verse 23? This work of Christ was predetermined in eternity past.
43:06: It was accomplished, this delivering over of Christ was accomplished by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.
43:18: So before this world was ever formed, we're told elsewhere that Christ was crucified before the foundation of the world.
43:31: And what that's referring to is this predetermined plan of the
43:36: Godhead, the triune God, that Jesus would come into this world, the
43:42: Son of God would come into this world as the Son of Man and he would be crucified, he would die.
43:50: So this was predetermined in eternity past but it was carried out in the wicked present.
43:58: It says you, you have taken and by your wicked hands have crucified and slain.
44:08: So even though, now don't miss this, and this tension is often not held very well in check, that there is both divine sovereignty and there is human responsibility.
44:28: On the part of God, the Godhead in eternity past, he determined that Christ would die, would be buried, would rise again from the dead.
44:44: But who's going to kill him? Who's going to be responsible for that death? He says, you have been, you, wicked people, have taken him and put him to death.
44:58: So it's carried out by man and man is personally responsible for his death but, in verse 24,
45:08: God is wholly responsible for his life. You have taken him and with your wicked hands you've crucified him, you've put him to death but God has raised him from the dead.
45:21: He's raised him from the dead. Now what's the point of this summary of the work of Christ?
45:28: The point is simply this, that this work of Christ involved the eternal plan and purpose that he,
45:38: Jesus, die a cross -shamed death and be raised from the powerless grip of the grave, the gates of hell.
45:51: This work of Christ is foundational to the church, not only the identity of who
46:00: Jesus is but the work of Jesus as it's summarized here in verses 23 and 24.
46:07: But again, Peter goes on in his sermon to make the point that this, again, is not something that, it was a recent development because of the hostility that Messiah, that Jesus Messiah experienced on earth.
46:25: This was all prophesied and it was prophesied by the psalmist
46:31: David years ago. So in verses 25 to 31, Peter refers to this psalmist psalm of David and he shows how in this psalm,
46:46: David is prophesying this work of Christ. He prophesied his death when he says in verse 35, or verse 25,
46:56: David spoke concerning him. When he says in verse 27, you will not leave my soul in hell.
47:06: Well, what would his soul be doing in hell? They're in the grave, literally, there. What would his soul be doing in the grave?
47:14: That means he died. I mean, who do you put in a grave? You put in a grave one of the body of one who has died.
47:23: And so he's speaking of, David prophetically spoke of the death of the
47:29: Lord's Christ, the Lord Messiah. But he also spoke of his joyous resurrection in verses 26 through 28.
47:38: You will not leave my soul in the grave. You will not leave it there.
47:44: Instead, he says, you have made me know the ways of life. How will he make him know the ways of life when his body is lying dead in the grave?
47:56: You will raise him back to life. You will make me know the ways of life. You shall make me full of joy with thy countenance.
48:04: This is a reference to the resurrection of the Lord's Christ.
48:11: And he also prophesied in verse 25 of his exaltation. David said concerning him,
48:18: I foresaw the Lord always before my face. Now this is, in verse 25, David is expressing the words of Jesus, the son of God.
48:30: So Jesus says, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved.
48:37: Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad and so forth. So this is prophesying of his exaltation.
48:44: Now here's where Peter's going with this psalm. He says, look, this could not have been about Peter.
48:51: Look at how he says this. This could not have been about David. Look at how he says this in verse 29.
48:57: He says, men and brethren, let me speak frankly to you. David's dead. His graves,
49:03: I mean, we can point to his grave. We can go visit his grave. He's dead. So this could not have been talking about David.
49:10: Who's he talking about? Verses 30 and 31, he's talking about Jesus who is the
49:18: Messiah. Again, David was a prophet. He was speaking prophetically, knowing that God had sworn an oath to him that the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, would raise up Messiah to sit on his throne.
49:33: He's seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Messiah, that his soul was not left in the grave or in hell.
49:40: Neither his flesh did see corruption. It had to be about the Messiah. So the work of Christ is prophesied,
49:50: Peter says. And then verse 32, he brings it all home. And he says, this work of Christ is realized.
49:58: This Jesus, this Jesus, going back to verse 22,
50:04: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God. This Jesus, this
50:11: Jesus, God hath raised up. And let me tell you something. All of us,
50:18: Peter's saying, pointing to the other apostles with him there, the other disciples with him there. He says all of us are witnesses to that fact, that God has raised up this
50:28: Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the son of the
50:35: God. And get the emphasis here, the living one, the living one.
50:43: He is that, he is that foundation stone.
50:50: So he lays the foundation stone of the identity of Jesus and the work of Jesus. And then there's one more stone he lays.
50:58: And that's the foundation stone of the position of Jesus. And this is brought out in verses 33 through 35.
51:06: He, Jesus, is by the right hand of God exalted, having received of the father, the promise of the
51:14: Holy Ghost and so forth. So in these verses, what is Peter saying? What is he saying? That Jesus is the living, he's alive, raised up.
51:25: He's the living, exalted, verse 33, by the right hand of God exalted, working.
51:33: He's not up there loafing, he's working. How so? The end of verse 33, he's received of the father, the promise of the
51:41: Holy Ghost. And he, Jesus, has shed forth the Holy Spirit.
51:46: You're seeing the evidence of it here, he says. So he's the living, exalted, working and waiting ruler.
51:55: Waiting in what sense? David is an ascended, verse 34, beset himself.
52:01: The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool.
52:07: He is the living, exalted, working, waiting ruler.
52:14: All right, so Peter lays these foundation stones for the church.
52:22: The foundation is laid and upon this solid ground, the church can be built.
52:30: Take out any one of those stones, it'll crumble. This is the foundation, this is the foundation.
52:37: So the church begins by laying the foundation, but the church is built by the quarrying of living stones.
52:49: We'll not take the time to go there, but you remember in Peter's epistles, 1st, 2nd Peter, especially
52:54: I think it's 1st Peter. Peter talks about the fact that you, speaking of the church, the believers, you are living stones.
53:03: Well, the church is built by the quarrying of living stones. How are those stones quarried?
53:11: Well, let's look and see in verses 37 through 40. Those stones are quarried, first of all, through the convicting work of the
53:20: Holy Spirit. Verse 37, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and they said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, what are we to do?
53:36: What are we to do? They were convicted through the work of the
53:41: Holy Spirit. To be convicted means to be convinced of some things, and here's what they're convinced of. In the first place, they're convinced of the foundation.
53:49: They're convinced of the foundation. They have become convinced that this Jesus of Nazareth, whom they have crucified,
53:59: He is both Lord and Christ. He's been raised from the dead and He's both
54:05: Lord and Christ. They are convicted of the truth that Jesus is the foundation.
54:15: Now, contrast that with the crucifixion day attitude. Go back just a couple of pages in your
54:21: Bible to John 19 and look at verses 19 through 21. Remember that inscription that Pilate wrote, that title that he put on the cross regarding Jesus?
54:37: It says Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth.
54:44: Does that sound familiar? Peter's sermon, Jesus of Nazareth, the
54:50: King of the Jews. What was Pilate saying? Jesus, this man,
54:56: Jesus, this man from Nazareth is the Messiah, is the
55:02: Jews Messiah. All right, now look at verse 20. This title that read many of the
55:08: Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was night of the city and it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin. Then said the chief priests of the
55:15: Jews to Pilate, write not the King of the Jews, but that he said,
55:21: I am the King of the Jews. You see the contrast between what the chief priests were saying and what the people here in Acts 2 have come to understand.
55:31: The priests were saying He is not, this Jesus of Nazareth is not the
55:36: Messiah. He just said He was the Messiah, but He's an imposter. He's hanging on a cross. How could
55:41: He be the King of the Jews? How could He be the Messiah? He's an imposter. Peter lays the foundation in Acts 2, the foundation for this building of the church and the stones begin to be quarried as the
55:56: Holy Spirit does His work in the hearts of these listeners who come to understand and they are convinced that, ah, yes,
56:07: Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the
56:13: Son of the living God. They're convinced of the foundation, but they're convinced of more than that.
56:21: They're convinced of their guilt, of their guilt. Peter says in verse 36, look at it again, this
56:31: Jesus whom you have crucified.
56:38: Now there's not a person listening to Him who actually drove a nail into His hands or into His feet, but they are responsible.
56:50: They were all part of the call for the crucifixion of Jesus, the
56:57: Son of the living God. And they understand that, they recognize that because they are then convinced of their need.
57:05: What shall we do? This was a question of hopelessness. This was not a question, this was not a question of give us a bullet list of things that we need to check off here so that we can kind of mitigate against that, you know, what we've done.
57:20: This was a question of hopeless despair. What are we to do given what we've done?
57:26: You see the guilt, the feeling, the expression of guilt, the knowledge of their own guilt, and they are convinced of their need, that they can't do anything.
57:36: They are helpless and they are helpless. So these stones are being quarried as they're convinced by the convicting work, by the convicting work of the
57:48: Holy Spirit. But the quarrying continues through the free offer of the gospel in verses 38 through 40.
57:59: The free offer of the gospel. Here's how Peter responds. What are we to do?
58:05: What can we do? He calls in this free offer of the gospel, he calls to a repentant faith.
58:13: Repent, he says. Repentance and faith go together, by the way.
58:18: They're not contradictory. They're not in competition with one another.
58:23: A person of genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will be repentant because he will believe what needs to be believed about Christ and about himself.
58:33: And he can't but repent if he's got genuine faith. Repentance and faith are two sides to the same coin.
58:40: So when he's calling them to repent, he's calling them to turn from sin and turn to Christ. Repentant faith.
58:48: This is a call to full pardon. He says repent at the end of verse 38 for the remission of sins, for the full pardon of sins.
58:59: This is a call to obedient submission. Submission and identification.
59:08: Repent and be baptized, every one of you. Be baptized.
59:14: What's going on there? Why this emphasis on baptism? Well, for those two reasons.
59:22: One thing, Jesus said, be baptized. Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 28, 19 and 20, you know, make disciples of all people, baptizing them in the name of the
59:32: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Baptism is a step of obedience. Those who are truly converted will follow him in obedience and be baptized.
59:43: Repent and be baptized as a way of submitting to the Lordship of Christ. But it's also a way of identifying with Christ.
59:53: Baptism signifies a break with the past. It signifies death to the old self.
01:00:00: But it also signifies being buried into, immersed into Christ.
01:00:07: As your body is placed under the water, yes, it's a symbol of being placed in the grave.
01:00:13: You died with Christ. And when you come up out of the water, it's a symbol that you have been raised to new life with Christ.
01:00:20: You've been resurrected with Christ. But it's all with Christ, see? It's with Christ. Baptism identifies you with Christ as an act of obedience submission to your
01:00:33: Lord. It's also a call to new life, to new life.
01:00:39: Peter says, repent, be baptized on the basis of the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the
01:00:48: Holy Spirit. And that gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of life.
01:00:53: It's the gift of, it's a gift of a new, a new life, a whole new life.
01:01:00: This is a call, verse 40, to summarize it. This is a call to salvation from doom.
01:01:09: As he says at the end of verse 40, save yourselves from this untoward generation, this generation that is doomed and hopeless.
01:01:19: Save yourselves from it. How? By heeding this call.
01:01:25: So there's this free offer of the gospel as the stones are quarried.
01:01:32: But not all who are hearing Peter are quarried. Because a third component here of this quarrying of these living stones is the effectual call of God.
01:01:47: We see this in verse 39. As he says, Peter says, the promise is unto you, to your children, and to all that are far off.
01:01:56: And then he clarifies this. Even as many as the Lord our God shall call, those whom the
01:02:05: Lord our God shall call are the ones who receive this promise. So all of these work together.
01:02:13: There is the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. There is the free offer of the gospel.
01:02:20: But there also requires this effectual call of God for the stones to actually be quarried from the rock, to then be placed as living stones upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.
01:02:37: The church. So the church begins by the laying the foundation, the quarrying of these living stones.
01:02:44: And then it begins further by the establishing of a visible structure.
01:02:52: Verses 41 and 42. How does this structure take place?
01:02:58: This visible structure? How does it take shape? Well, in verse 41, it takes place.
01:03:05: First of all, I'm going to share four ideas. First of all, it takes shape by the public declaration of faith.
01:03:15: The public declaration of faith. It says, then they that gladly received his word were baptized.
01:03:25: That public declaration of faith is that they gladly received his word.
01:03:30: How do you know that they received his word? There was a gladness about that receiving of the word.
01:03:39: There was an evidence of it. You could see it on their faces. You could hear it from their voices. They made known that.
01:03:47: We receive that. I receive that for myself. I accept that. Jesus is the
01:03:54: Christ, the son of the God, the living one. I accept that.
01:04:02: There's a public declaration of faith. But then that visible structure takes shape.
01:04:08: Secondly, through public identification with Christ. They gladly received his word and were baptized.
01:04:18: And that baptism was another way of public declaration of faith.
01:04:26: Identifying with Christ declares the faith as well. But the two things are separate in the sense of sequence.
01:04:35: There has to be a public declaration of faith before there can be a public immersion in the water as an act of identifying with Christ.
01:04:45: Thirdly, the visible structure takes shape through, in verse 41, public unification with Christ's followers.
01:04:57: Look at the end of verse 41. Says the same day there were added unto them about 3 ,000 souls.
01:05:05: Now you notice if you're looking at the King James, it says it has the words unto them in italics.
01:05:12: That means it's not really there in the original. This is just understood to be the case.
01:05:19: And I think it's a correct understanding. But the point is if those two words weren't there, you would read it like this.
01:05:26: The same day there were added about 3 ,000 souls. And you would scratch your head and ask the question, well, added to what?
01:05:35: So the translators here, they wanted to help us out a little bit. And they put in these italicized words unto them.
01:05:43: But as you look further in the building of the church, you find further clarification of what that means.
01:05:54: So look at the end of verse 47. It says the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
01:06:07: Those that were being saved. The Lord added to the church those who were being saved.
01:06:13: And in chapter 5, over a couple of pages, verse 14. In chapter 5, verse 14, it says the believers were the more added to the
01:06:29: Lord. Multitudes, both of men and women. And that same phrase is used in chapter 11, verse 24, when it says he was a good man full of the
01:06:40: Holy Spirit and of faith. And much people was added to the Lord.
01:06:47: Well, you might ask, well, which is it? I mean, is it added to them in chapter 2, verse 41?
01:06:56: Or is it added to the church as in verse 47? Are they added to the Lord as in 514 and 1124?
01:07:03: What is it? And the answer is yes, yes. To be added to the church is to be added to the
01:07:11: Lord. How so? Well, because the church is the
01:07:17: Lord's body, right? It's the Lord's body.
01:07:23: And so you can use these ideas interchangeably, but the point is unmistakable here.
01:07:29: That those who received the word, they were baptized as a means of publicly identifying with Christ and then they were added to, they became part of this visible structure that we call the church.
01:07:48: They are unified with that visible structure of the followers of Christ.
01:07:56: And that visible structure takes shape fourthly, as we see in verse 42, through the public continuation with Christ's followers.
01:08:07: Look at this. They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers.
01:08:18: There is an ongoing engagement on the part of those who are added to the church.
01:08:25: An ongoing engagement of learning, continuing in the apostles teaching, of fellowship, that is communication and sharing with others, those of this faith that they have come to own and with Christ, they have identified with Christ together.
01:08:47: They continued steadfastly in breaking of bread. You might think of this as a code word for the
01:08:56: Lord's supper, for communion. They continued to steadfastly share the
01:09:02: Lord's table together and they continued steadfastly in prayers.
01:09:08: This doesn't just mean that they had prayer meetings. This is referring to the times of prayer set aside.
01:09:15: It can also refer to the worship of the people as they gathered together in worshiping the
01:09:21: Lord. This is the visible structure of the church that Christ said in Matthew 16,
01:09:34: I will build. He was talking in Matthew 16 clearly about that universal body of believers from the beginning to the end of this whole period of the new covenant, this church age.
01:09:55: He certainly was talking about that. But then you go over a couple of chapters in Matthew to chapter 18 and you have that little discussion about the person who caused the fence and what do you do about it?
01:10:09: You go to him and if he doesn't hear, you take a couple other people's witnesses and if you don't hear the witnesses, then you tell it to the church.
01:10:19: There needed to be and there became a visible structure of those who identified with Christ.
01:10:29: And here's how that visible structure takes shape. As those who had come under conviction by the
01:10:36: Holy Spirit and they heard that effectual call of God, they repented of their sin and they turned to Christ and they publicly declared their faith.
01:10:52: They publicly identify with Christ. They publicly unite with Christ's followers and they publicly continue with those followers of Christ.
01:11:03: So here, the church in its new beginning, it takes shape visibly as those whom
01:11:12: God graciously calls turn to Christ and publicly identify with those who are
01:11:20: Christ. So let's ask ourselves this question today. Where am
01:11:27: I in God's building program? You say, where am I?
01:11:33: Are you here today and hearing that call of God? Maybe for the first time.
01:11:40: Oh, you've been in church a lot. But maybe today for the first time you're hearing the call of God as you have become convicted about your own responsibility from your own sin.
01:11:51: You've become convicted about putting Christ on the cross. And as you've seen that he's died for your sin, what must
01:12:00: I do? Repent, turn to Christ, call upon him today to save you and then become part of the building, be a living stone in the building.
01:12:15: Where are you in God's building program? Our Father and our
01:12:20: God, I pray today that we would each take assessment, take inventory and see where we are in that building program.
01:12:33: Father, there may be some here today who need to take some steps, maybe a step of faith and trusting
01:12:39: Christ as their personal Savior, calling upon them to save them. Oh, Lord, do that work of calling in their heart and life.
01:12:49: Father, there are many other steps, many other approaches that can be taken here to be a part of the visible structure of your church that you are building.
01:13:00: Speak, I pray, to our hearts we ask in Jesus' name, amen. I want us to close with number 37 in your supplement book, number 37.
01:13:12: It's the song, I Love the Church. And I want to sing stanzas one, four and five, first, fourth and fifth stanzas, number 37 in the supplement.
01:13:29: Let's stand together as we sing, shall we? I Love the Church. I love the church, the flock bought with Christ's blood.
01:13:51: Sheep gone astray, he found and brought to God.
01:13:59: Guarded and fed by shepherds' guides.
01:14:06: We follow Christ, secure and satisfied.
01:14:14: May Christ be praised, preeminent, adored.
01:14:21: I love the church because I love her
01:14:28: Lord. On the fourth, I love the church.
01:14:33: One body, spirit -led. Each part distinct, yet one through Christ our head.
01:14:45: Each member serves, and thus our body grows.
01:14:53: Strengthened by gifts, the spirit wise bestows.
01:15:00: May Christ be praised, preeminent, adored.
01:15:08: I love the church because I love her
01:15:14: Lord. On the fifth, I love the church.
01:15:20: The temple God indwells. Built by our
01:15:26: Lord, we triumph over hell. Founded on truth, apostles' doctrines sure.
01:15:39: We build on Christ, our cornerstone secure.
01:15:46: May Christ be praised, preeminent, adored.
01:15:54: I love the church because I love her
01:16:01: Lord. Again, I hope you brought lunch.
01:16:08: You'll share together that time in the fellowship hall. If you didn't, come anyway and we'll share with you.
01:16:18: It's part of it. Fellowship, the breaking of bread together, we'll share. But anyway, one o 'clock, we'll reconvene here in the auditorium.
01:16:27: We'll sing some psalms together. Now, may you grow in the grace and knowledge of our
01:16:34: Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity.