Acts 2:14-41, What’s This Mean?

Acts chapter 2 from verses 14 to 41 Hear the word of the Lord But Peter standing with the eleven 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

For these men 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

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 even on my male servants and 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

The Sun shall be turned to darkness and the blood in the moon to blood before the day of the

Lord comes That great and magnificent day and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the

Lord shall be saved men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth a man attested to you by God with mighty works and Wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst as you yourselves know this

Jesus Delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men

God raised him up Loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it

For David says concerning him. I saw the Lord always before me for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken

Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced my flesh also will dwell in hope

For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption

You have made known to me the paths of life and you will make me full of gladness with your presence

Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day

Being there for a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to to him that he would set one of his descendants

On his throne he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ that he was not abandoned to Hades Nor did his flesh see corruption this

Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the father the promise of the

Holy Spirit He has he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing

For David did not ascend into the heavens But he himself says the

Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both

Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter and the rest of the

Apostles brothers What shall we do? and Peter said to them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the

Holy Spirit for the promises for you and for your children and for and for all who are far off everyone whom the

Lord our God calls to himself and With many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying

Save yourselves from this crooked generation So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3 ,000 souls

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, what's your problem?

Say that with an attitude and becomes an insult. What's your problem? And say ask it with a sympathetic tone.

It can sound helpful. What's your problem? I Can say the insult one much easier than the helpful one house

It's just probably just my personality a few people are gonna say are gonna say, you know I don't have any unless they really mean none that I want to tell you about after all we all have needs

Psychologist Abraham Maslow developed what he called a hierarchy of needs from the observation that people's needs usually proceed upward

From the from the basics that the physiological the physical needs they need food. They need water. They need oxygen

Shelter so they don't freeze to death. Maybe maybe right now they need a shock to the heart to get it to beat again That's kind of an urgent need

They proceed from those basic needs to the needs for safety up one step

So they don't have then their their food and their water and the shelter or their life Taken from them and once they get those needs met, okay, they have the food in the water

They have the basics the physical needs and they're safe that people don't then say well,

I have no more needs. I'm squared away Thank you very much. They then go on to crave needs for for love for belonging for a relationship of family

Often these these people even if they have plenty of food and drink if they're healthy and well -clothed

They lived in a comfortable house. They have everything they need to keep their body living sometimes they'll

Despair of life itself will feel nothing is worth living for if they can't get that Relationship they long for I can't go on the cry if I don't have

Whoever my soulmate and then maybe they find the soulmate and now they need

What it's not as though they're perfectly happy. Everything's bad now they need children, maybe

Maybe a steam they need to be respected in their profession. They need to accomplish something.

They need to make a name for themselves So they work hard for that To get a reputation around town to be the president of the

Kiwanis Club or the Masons or an officer in their church They get articles published in journals.

Do you read mine came out last month? Win a trophy You know be somebody and if they if they can get that You know

Then they want in the words of that old army ad they want to be be all that you can be

So they want to reach their full potential they want to be the phrase self -actualized

They may want to be the ideal parent or the best basketball player the goat now is the new term the best runner

The artist the best artist there is there a writer They want to they want what our

Declaration of Independence calls the pursuit of happiness. The thing is you never seem to catch it

Those needs keep going up and up I like something being dangled above you and you reach for it and maybe you grab one, but it gets a little higher

Then if you just get it you think well if you can get this one thing that next thing that'll be enough

But there's always another one Left to ourselves. We don't ever reach a point where we say

I don't need anything not in our natural condition. Anyway, it's It's a pyramid

We're climbing up Abraham Maslow's pyramid of needs the problem is in a literal pyramid you can reach the top

But in this pyramid, we never seem to reach the top or we're satisfied where we have enough

Some churches have have sensed this and so tried to harness it for their own benefit

Packaging the church and God as a way of helping helping you get whatever it is

You think you need do you need food? Oh, we have a food pantry We have lots of pretzels in there.

By the way, you want some food? Do you need money? Oh, we host Financial Peace University Do you long to find that soulmate?

Come check out our singles ministry Do you need to improve your relationship? Well, our next sermon series is going to be seven steps to nurturing a great marriage

Does your family need help? Well, we've got the secrets to raising great kids. Just put them in our youth program

Do you need to tap your full potential? Our pastor, he's a guru.

He will lead you to the promised land of self actualization People probably won't say that around here

God has been sold as this ladder To get you up to that next step that you're trying to get to in your pyramid of needs what what you feel is your next need a secret of church growth

They say is meeting people's quote felt needs

The problem with that and that's true, it's a secret. That's how you grow a church the problem with that though Is it often what people feel are their needs?

Aren't really their needs What are your needs What's your problem?

The peculiar thing about this situation in Acts chapter 2 Is that many of the people's felt needs?

Were their real needs and that is peculiar that usually doesn't happen unless God has worked

Miraculously, and there's been a lot of miracles going on before this and that's why they're in this condition

But here that they know they have a problem Right first Jesus has been raised from the dead

Notice that that's not a debatable issue here No, no one raises their hand as as Peter was speaking in and says, you know,

I don't believe Jesus was raised prove it to me If they hadn't the people hadn't been there when it happened

Then they had heard about it They knew about the empty tomb. They probably could go visit there. They probably a lot of them probably literally did and stared in it

Where's the body that's not there? He didn't know where what they had known that the the tomb had been guarded and he really didn't make any sense

You know the story that made up but the disciples stealing the body He really didn't make any sense that those same disciples who had been too cowardly to to be with Jesus as he was being tried

Put on trial and as he was crucified the only one of them showed up at the cross There they were so cowardly then that they would then dare try to steal

Jesus's body with Roman guards all around and so risked their lives that didn't make any sense at all Come on, that's this is who believes that or that they could somehow get away with it or that Somehow all the guards would be asleep at the same time and yet somehow

Asleep, they could still say the disciples stole the body of Jesus How do you know the disciples stole the body of Jesus if you were asleep that didn't make any sense either

No that they knew Jesus had been resurrected Peter doesn't have to argue for the resurrection here.

He argues from it So the people then have a problem What does it mean?

Recently mega church pastor Andy Stanley has been has been arguing apparently if I understand him

Right that that we don't really need the Bible to know Jesus and to witness for him in fact

In the way, he's trying to argue that it's almost a handicap to use the Bible to witness for Jesus How does that sound because we only need the event of the resurrection?

All we need is to get people to believe that that Jesus was raised without bogging them down You know with all the controversies and questions that are engendered by the

Bible The resurrection is enough. He says But it's not really

Without an explanation of what it means It's just a problem It's a question

Indeed here it is the problem of the people who are listening to Peter The cross they knew about the resurrection now along with the giving of the

Spirit this this rushing Tornado like when they heard and and then they're hearing all these Galilean disciples of Jesus telling the gospel in their native dialects

You know, whatever language they're from there. They're hearing it This is this is all astounding and now that all spur all of that all of this together

Spurs three questions that Peter answers first What is this?

second what have we done and finally What are we to do?

The first question the first most immediate problem that the people have and that's it actually they

I literally asked this And I believe it's verse 13. What what does this mean?

Just before we started reading is you know, what is this? What's it mean? I remember

Luke emphasizes how amazed in that previous passage how amazed perplexed astonished bewildered

Uses several different phrases like that for what these people were thinking The people these people this in this audience in Jerusalem were just stunned.

It's all this mean They already have the problem about Jesus now. He's raised His body can't be produced to debunk his disciples

You know The disciples are telling all these stories about how Jesus came and ate with them and told them things and they can't proven wrong

The excuses for him for not having his body don't make any sense What does it mean?

Then there's there's this there was that what was that burst of wind all about? How are these Galilean disciples of Jesus speaking my native tongue?

Farsi or Latin or okien? Fuchsian or Cantonese?

That's astounding some scoff Some some scoff though. They're just they're just drunk that explains it

How did someone get drunk and then start speaking a language? They never learned that didn't make any sense either the miracles need explanation

Events alone are not enough. So Peter stands up the same Peter who was so weak and cowardly

Before that he was too intimidated by a little servant girl To stand up for Jesus now just 50 days later about about a month and a half

He stands up and he addresses the same men many of the same men who had been chanting crucify him crucify him and tells them

What it means Peter? Stands up before this formerly angry crowd

Mark Devere is one of my favorite contemporary Christian leaders says that when he was a young and not agnostic

Reading the Bible I guess just out of curiosity for the historical value or whatever. This is this is what struck him

Is he's reading Acts? This is One of the first steps that began to undo his agnosticism, you know, the the denial that we can know

About God that there whether there is a God Peter the same Peter formerly cowardly

Peter stood up Something had changed

What it would explains it You just go from slinking away before a servant girl

He just wanted to know whether you're associated with Jesus and slinking away Come cowardly like that and now standing up before a crowd

Some of them the very same men who had screamed for Jesus's death What does that mean?

Well Peter tells them what it means beginning of verse 14 pay attention Everybody let it be known

That these people his fellow disciples you're speaking your native language. It's here. They're not drunk

That doesn't explain it You know drunkenness doesn't again. You don't get to learn a new language by getting drunk.

It doesn't work that way and Besides he says it's only 9 in the morning But this is what the

Prophet Joel was talking about In the last days. He said this what you seeing

Pentecost is that this is that this is what Joel was talking about in the last days this

This Pentecost is a sign that the last days have begun And now notice that what is this in the last days?

This will happen Pentecost it will happen. This Pentecost didn't proves that the last days are now

They had begun when Peter they had already begun. I think they began actually with Christ himself They had begun when

Peter stood up and preached it put on Pentecost We've been in the last days ever since You know, some people have asked are we in the last days?

Yeah Peter says we are now some people don't find that very satisfying because they want last days to mean that the last few days

Last couple years maybe or whatever the last few rotations of the earth on his axis before the end Or actually before the

Lord Jesus returns That way if you know is only a little bit of time left. You can quit your job, you know and stop paying your mortgage splurge spin like crazy put everything on the credit card and you what, you know, you'll be able to keep doing that because you

Without suffering any long -term consequences since the end will come before Before you get evicted or before the card gets declined and you're not able to buy any more food

You know a great great thing, right? I think that's what some people want But that's not what it means last days.

It means that the last the last era the last epoch the last age

This is the last one Peter says Peter says Joel says that this is the last one Well, what good is that some people think you know, if it's the last age, but this age can last we don't know how long

What good is it? You know if I can't know that the end will be any day now But we're not supposed to know that like Jesus said you're not supposed to do that But you're supposed to be ready at any time because at any time in these last days

Christ can come That this is the last days tells us that there that there is and it is very important to know if there's a last day

It's good. It tells us that there's not another era There's not another age coming that we need to wait on or and so if some man in Arabia Says that God spoke to him in a cave and then we need to begin a new religion and a new epoch a new era this time of Islam Well, we know he's wrong

No some man in upstate New York says that he's found golden plates out in the woods and God enabled him to translate it in the

Bottom of a hat. Okay that and telling us that we need to start all over Another era of the latter -day saints.

Oh, you know, that's all false No more Testaments No more new revelations

No more new ages, you know the age of Aquarius or whatever. No, no, none of that Only Christ coming again

Could happen anytime But that's the age we're in oh, what's this he says this is proof

Pentecost is proof of the last days in these last days Joel said

God will pour out his spirit on all Flesh and that's the emphasis here all kinds of people

That's why he's empowering his people to speak in languages that they haven't learned Because speaking in the languages of all all kinds of ethnic groups because that's the kingdom of God is going out to them all

In these last days young people will be empowered to speak for God They will see visions by the gift of the

Holy Spirit older people will be given dreams From God even on the lowliest people, you know lowliest people in the eyes of the world the servants the hard help

Men and women men and women the emphasis is on that every all kinds of people. They will be empowered to speak for God They will be able to be able to tell the gospel with power

The God will distribute the gifts of the Spirit to To all the members of his church

So it's not like just during the in the during the Old Testament when only a few prophets had it You know the Isaiah is the Jeremiah's that kind Had the gifts of the

Spirit now in this last days the whole church gets them first Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7 says to each is given to each member is given the manifestation of the

Spirit for the common good Now someone argued that these gifts have passed away the signs of the last days now

Well on the one hand while God does seem to pour them out, especially here at Pentecost Sovereignly at key points when he is revealing himself, you know at great breakthroughs for the kingdom of God as it's invading this present evil age and perhaps no breakthrough was greater than Pentecost itself

While God does seem to concentrate his downpour of manifestations of his power at key events at key points

Never does the Bible say that these things are just for the just for the start of The last days, you know kind of like door prizes at the grand opening

No, the the implication here is that in the last days throughout the last days

God will do these things That this is how the Lord will move During the whole era from the first to the second coming of Christ first Corinthians chapter 13 says

Chapter 13 verse 10 says that it is when the perfect When Christ himself comes the one that we can see face to face when he comes that then the imperfect

The prophecies or the visions or the tongues that that can be misinterpreted can be abused can be misunderstood then then

They will be done away in these last days. God will pour out his spirit and With his spirit these gifts as he wills

It's when the last days end that they end In these last days in verses 19 and 20 he will show it says wonders and the heavens above And on the earth beneath below the

Sun will be darkened It was darkened When the Lord Jesus hung on the cross remember that they hung there

You got the dark doesn't say exactly how it was an eclipse or whether the clouds has got very thick This Peter is saying all these signs that the rushing wind the people declared the gospel in the local dialects of the people in the far -flung places

In their in their dialects the resurrection just about a month and a half before this

Or the cross when the sky grew dark The in the earth quaked remember that all these things

All of this were problems for these people. What do these things mean? So many strange things been happening

They asked Peter what does it mean and Peter says well Joel tells us It's the last days the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of God is invading.

This is this is he says the great and magnificent day of the

Lord When the Lord judges sin right in the Old Testament talks about the day of the

Lord What we would often say called Judgment Day And Peter is saying it's now

The Lord is judging sin now Paul in Romans chapter verse Romans 1 verse 18

Says that now in the gospel currently the wrath of God is being revealed

Against sin the kingdom of God is invading. This is the great and magnificent day of the Lord He judged the sin of his people on Christ on the cross

His kingdom is demanding you submit to his King Or your sins will be judged on you

That's that's the ultimate will your sins be judged on Christ on that great day of the Lord or will they be judged on you?

There will be signs again when he comes again So that these last days will have begun and will end with these signs signs that his reign that it that That his judgment is is here to be saved from that judgment in verse 21

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Which is now the name of Jesus Everyone who calls on that name

Will be saved from the from the wrath of the great and magnificent day of the

Lord What do these things mean Well, these people have now been awakened by the darkening sky on Good Friday The shaking ground the empty tomb the rushing wind the declaration of God's greatness in their local dialects they had been awakened to their real needs and It's not

Where to find a girlfriend or how to secure the career? They've always wanted how to make their business successful how to have a happy marriage or manage their kids

Those are those are real problems But there's short -term problems that will disappear into trivialities in Comparison to the real problem their real problem is

What these things mean? the these things mean That the last days are here that the judgment

Is next that the only way to be saved from that judgment is through the name of Jesus But What I mean

Well, why do I have to fear that judgment? Otherwise, what have we done? That deserves that judgment

You killed Jesus and the second part of the sermon he answers why they're in trouble

You killed Jesus Now surely many of these same people that Peter is talking to literally had been there, you know

Crying for Jesus's crucifixion just about 53 days earlier, but but not all of them

Many of them have probably had just arrived for Pentecost and they could protest. I didn't have anything to do with it.

I wasn't here But they did They killed Jesus So did you and that's your problem

Notice starting in verse 22 Peter starts talking about about Jesus Hear these words

He's talking about what what were these things mean immediately? They mean the last days are here.

But now this is why you're in trouble pay attention Jesus of Nazareth a man attested to you

By God, you should have known better about him God had given you evidence that he approved of Jesus The evidence was the mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him

In your midst, you know, every one of the miracles that Jesus did was the attestation That God was for Jesus that he wasn't casting out demons by Beelzebul that he wasn't a saucer

But God was demonstrating his approval of Jesus Sometimes people they all felt we can see the miracles then

I believe no these people had seen many of these miracles They had literally seen Jesus performed these miracles and they still crucified him

They just interpreted it as all we did it by Beelzebul. He's just a saucer or whatever The miracles by themselves are not going to make you believe

First for ourselves now, we haven't seen him do the miracles, but you think about it here

Here in this passage we see Peter Reminding this crowd which is full of people who had earlier rejected

Jesus full a lot of skeptics he's before a crowd of skeptics and he reminds them of the miracles and he says at the end of verse 22 as You yourselves know

You you know about the miracles and He could assume that the people in the crowd had either been eyewitnesses of Jesus's miracles or at their recent arrivals

They had heard about it from people who had been eyewitnesses and no one here interrupts him and protests

I don't know what you're talking about. I don't believe Jesus actually did miracles again that he doesn't

He doesn't argue for the miracles again. He argues from them Because they knew he had They just didn't know what they meant

The miracles the events Don't speak for themselves Peter here speaks for them

They mean he says that God endorses Jesus he attests for him.

He testifies for him God endorses Jesus Now will you what's this mean it means that you have a problem

Jesus was affirmed by God but killed by us this

Jesus Three times in the second part of the sermon Peter uses that phrase this

Jesus Pointing directly at Jesus of Nazareth this Jesus first and first time in verse 23

This Jesus was delivered up. It was to be killed handed over to be killed

Says according to the the definite plan and foreknowledge of God notice there by the way

That foreknowledge unlike what many people think is it just knowing about something beforehand that is just is tied up intricately there with actually planning it

Jesus was killed according to God's plan He wasn't just caught up in some, you know, tragic injustice as things spiraled out of control notice that that that here that it happened according to a

Definite plan. I'm just not like a spur -of -the -moment plan. It was definite. It was fixed.

It was set It was the purpose for which he came defined fixed set by God himself

Now does that mean that people who actually perpetrated it are innocent because What they what they did was definitely planned was it was fixed by God beforehand

No, they acted freely to do what God had set would definitely happen God fixed

That Jesus would be crucified But Peter says to the crowd You crucified him you killed him you

Did it and you did it by the hands of lawless men?

He says By Pontius Pilate who three times declared that Jesus was innocent but crucified him

Anyway, because he wasn't he was abound by any law of justice. He was just lawless

He could do whatever he wanted what his truth he scoffed He and his troops were the instruments through which they crucified

Jesus you killed him Peter says

But Again, God attested to him God raised him up in verse 24 God He loosed the pangs of death and then the image there

Loose the pains and notice look at verse 24 of loosing the pangs of death is that death is holding people back from life with with chains and They're painful

We're intended to be in a body That those who are dead are pained by being dead

But God loosed those pain inducing shackles from Jesus. He says because It was not possible for him for Jesus to be held by death

Death does not have the power to hold him back Peter proves that By quoting from the

Old Testament again this time from Psalm 16 Peter says that David wrote

Psalm 16 that he was writing for Jesus David didn't know he was seeing and expressing things from Jesus's point of view, but because he was a prophet

He was inspired by the Holy Spirit. He could speak of things that he didn't naturally know about here.

Peter says that Here Peter tells us that Psalm 16 is from Jesus's perspective

That it is Jesus here Who is speaking? It's kind of odd, isn't it?

hundred years beforehand, but David wrote Jesus's words from his perspective

I Jesus says saw the Lord Always before me for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken

Jesus will not be shaken because the Lord the Father is with him Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced my flesh also will dwell in hope

Keep in mind this is through the cross and the resurrection. He's talking about being glad and rejoicing and having hope for the joy set before him

He went to the cross He could have joy through it all because in verse 27 you father

Will not abandon my soul to Hades Does it mean like hell it just means the realm of the dead to being dead his life won't be left in the grave his soul

Won't remain in the realm of the dead. He won't be bound by the pangs of death you father

Psalm 16 says speaking for Jesus Will not let your

Holy One See corruption His body won't be left to rot instead in verse 28

You have made known to me the paths of life He will bring Jesus back to to life and you will make me full of gladness with your presence

That's the hope That he took to the cross. That's the joy that was set before him being full of gladness in the

Father's presence Once this is done It's amazing, isn't it?

Psalm 16 Jesus's words should put them in red letters and they Of course many people then and some people now would protest that David in Psalm 16 was just speaking about himself

That we have to interpret it according to to what David himself intended in his own circumstances.

It's about him Some people today, you know think that every verse of the

Bible at least all the good ones are like Psalm 16 And that's one of the great ones are all about them.

Everything's about me, but but here Peter says it's about Christ And you think about it.

He's reasoning with these people in verse 29 Right, the

Psalm says will not let the Holy One seek corruption, but David Peter says both died and was buried

His body decomposed since he says that his tomb is still among us you can go visit it.

It's an occupied tomb His body is there probably just bones by this point. They could visit the occupied tomb

But the Psalm promised that God wouldn't let the body of his Holy One decay

So You know, it was the Word of God wrong What does the empty tomb of Jesus mean?

The still occupied tomb of David proved that Psalm 16 was not About David, but about the

Christ about the Messiah the one who would fulfill the promise To David that one of his descendants would reestablish his throne forever

Be the Messiah so David being an inspired prophet He says Peter says he foresaw and then he spoke about the resurrection of Christ in verse 31

Christ was not abandoned not not left forsaken to Hades to death

His body did not rot It's all about Jesus Who's it about not

David not even first about you or me we get the benefits of it because of Jesus But it's about ultimate first about Jesus This Jesus second time

Peter does that this Jesus verse 32 not anyone else This Jesus God raised up That's what his empty tomb means of that He says we are all witnesses.

There's 120 of us here about to be a lot more. We're all witnesses of it again He doesn't have to argue for the resurrection.

He argues from it that they all knew it to be true They just didn't know what it meant it means

Peter says in verse 33 that this Jesus is Exalted at the right hand of God and that he has received from the

Father the promise of the Holy Spirit Right. Jesus said in chapter 1 wait in Jerusalem for the promise now.

Jesus has received it past tense that that that Promise of the

Holy Spirit the promise was to be baptized in the Holy Spirit not just in water Water baptism is a is a form.

It's a sign Baptism in the Holy Spirit is the reality What is this rushing wind?

Was this hearing these people speak in my native language by my home dialect was it all mean?

It means in verse 33 that this Jesus is now exalted and Is giving the gift

He's received the gift of the Holy Spirit and now he's giving it to us that gift that John the Baptist said he would he has

Poured out this Peter says that this filling of the Holy Spirit that you yourselves are hearing and saying

That's what it is they had the event Now they're told what it means that Jesus is pouring out the

Holy Spirit But that's a problem for them if They're just hearing and seeing

If they're just spectators not recipients the problem

Is that they killed Jesus? Who is he? this

Jesus Well Psalm 110 tells us Right third time he's quoted from the

Old Testament in this short sermon The Psalm 110 the Lord Yahweh God says to my

Lord my master Sit at my right hand on a throne besides God Judging and ruling with God the

Father Sit at my right hand Until I make your enemies a footstool

That's what God is doing right now in these last days making Christ enemies his footstool

Putting them under his feet crushing them Your problem

Peter tells this crowd Is that you killed him? You killed the one that God pledged to crush his enemies.

Think about that You made Christ your enemy and God said he would destroy all of Christ's enemies

That's a big problem. You're Christ's enemy you killed him and God has promised to crush you

Your problem isn't your relationship status or your income Or your health or anything else and the never -ending pyramid of needs your problem is that you are on Christ enemies list

You killed him you killed him by not endorsing him like God did

You you killed him by rebelling against God by having a heart that that feels that it that it needs everything under the

Sun Except God and it only really cares about God you think if you can get him

To give you what you want You know that soulmate or get the six -figure salary you want or cure the cancer

Make the wife more submissive or the husband more loving or the kids better behaved Heart that really only cares about God for what you can use him to get out of him

And if he won't do that, well, then who cares? But let the lawless men crucify him

He's not gonna serve me your sins Not only your sinful acts but that very attitude that is the essence of sin required a sacrifice

It was your sin that held him there You've acquired a sacrifice to be right with God a perfect sacrifice to bear the wrath you deserve to take the judgment

That is coming to you on that great and magnificent day of the Lord. Jesus was the only one who could do that And you killed him

Ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers

That's your problem So in verse 36 Peter shouts let all the house of Israel Therefore because of what scripture says because of how it answers their questions, what do these things mean?

No for certain That God has made him this Jesus both

Lord your master your King and Christ the the anointed one who brings in God's rule on earth who the third time this

Jesus Whom you crucify with that They were cut to the heart

In verse 37 this crowd of many of them Former skeptics and people crying out for Jesus to be crucified.

They were cut to the heart. They were horrified They were convicted Now they understood their problem

So they sounds like they they interrupt Peter if I a lot more to say they interrupted with their third question

What are we to do What are we to do Our problem is it physical a dying body or a lack of cash?

It's not psychological the the traumas of life that have scarred us and traumatized us.

It's not social the need for a partner or a family It is in the end our problem is with God Our most desperate urgent and eternal question is

What are we to do about our relationship with with God? What are we to do?

repent Change your mind not just your opinions, but your whole life

God attested to Jesus But you killed him or tried to use him to get rich or married or healed or whatever repent

Turn from that way of life and be baptized Show your repentance your change of mind

Toward Jesus by obeying him. He said his disciples will be baptized now

If you're following him follow him into that be baptized He says in the name of Jesus of was for him at his command because now you believe in him you accept

Attestation of the father about him that now he is your Lord. He's your master you do what he says

And he's your Christ He's the king who brings in the kingdom of God that now

You seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness And so you submit to him you surrender to that kingdom and that's all

That it means to believe in Jesus and if you do then you do that You really believe?

You will be saved You will then notice in verse 28 You're saved and you will verse 28 receive the gift of the

Holy Spirit Peter says you will Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You will not just you can and now you're eligible to get it

No, you will you will because the Holy Spirit is part of the package deal So from now on Peter himself proclaims on Pentecost that Pentecost Receiving of the gift of the

Holy Spirit is not something you have to recreate Not another step now that you have to pursue now

It comes with repentance and faith because in verse 39 the promise of the

Holy Spirit is for you if You believe and repent the

Holy Spirit's for you and for your children If if they believe and repent for all who are far off Assuming they believe and repent it's for everyone not just for our kinds of people it's for all kinds of people and Then Peter ends in the same way.

He began it by quoting Joel 2 You see earlier as He was quoting from Joel 2.

He actually cut the quotation short before the end of the passage in Joel He stopped before the passage ends

He said from Joel 2 if you remember everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved

But the passage in Joel goes on a little bit further and it ends saying That those who are saved to escape from the wrath of God those who survive are those quote

Whom the Lord calls? Right you call in the name of the Lord If you're one of those whom the

Lord calls So here Peter is saying that the the promise the Holy Spirit what what you see in here that you asking questions

Is for you if you call in the name of Jesus, which you will do If the

Lord calls you to himself It's whom the Lord calls Who call in the name of Jesus?

And with that and more Peter warned them No, save yourselves from this crooked generation this twisted world this present evil age

That we are all naturally a part of before we are called out of this world this world That killed

Jesus Save yourselves from the judgment that's coming on it now

From God as he's crushing all the enemies of Christ in these last days save yourselves from it because that judgment is your problem and Those who did

Who believed and so repented and were baptized? Were three thousand But what's this mean for us?

It means if Peter could tell a mixed crowd some of them recent arrivals that they killed

Jesus He can do the same for us it means

That's our problem not all the relatively Minor things in life that we sometimes get overwhelmed with our problem is our relationship with God How we have angered

God we we killed his son and Now the time of judgment is here.

He's crushing all of his enemies and we've been his enemies But what this also means is that we can be saved from this crooked distorted

Twisted world that is being crushed. We can if the Lord calls us to himself

We can then call on the name of Jesus and so with Jesus Have that joy set before us

Rather than being trampled and crushed and made a footstool. Our Lord will have us sit with him at his right hand

We can have eternal life we can be full of gladness at the