Book of Acts Series - Part 3 | the Message — Jim Cymbala

Father God, as we open Your Word, I confess to You that I do have no ability to convey it the way I should, but I ask Your Holy Spirit to help me. I also ask that Your Holy Spirit would give us a hearing heart so that all of us would receive Your Word, that we would not just see the surface truth and the storyline, but we would be fed with the kernel of truth that's inside Your Word, Lord, so that the church would be built up and people would be encouraged today.

Take away all confusion from people's mind about what Christianity is and make it clear to us as we study Your Word. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. We started a series on the Book of Acts, and we went to part two on Tuesday, and we found out that the Book of Acts is the book that comes after Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which are called the four what?

Gospels. And they are biographies, more or less, of Jesus Christ, coming from different angles. Then Luke, who wrote the Book of Luke, also being a doctor and a convert to Christianity later on, he took up the task of writing the Book of Acts, which is the story of the early church.

By the way, all the other writers of the New Testament are Jewish. The only non-Jewish writer of any book in the New Testament is Luke, who was a Gentile, a convert, as I said, probably under the ministry of the Apostle Paul, who's not yet on the scene yet.

And Luke, very methodically, with that scientific mind, went back, interviewed people, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, put together the story of what Jesus continued to do through His church, or what the acts of the Holy Spirit were through His church, or what the acts of the early church were as the Lord worked with them.

Pentecost and the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit

And we found out that the Holy Spirit came down upon them, as the Lord promised, if they would wait and tarry, and they did that in Jerusalem, and the Spirit came with a lot of noise and a lot of commotion.

They began to speak in other languages, we learned, as the Holy Spirit enabled them to do it. And this drew a crowd. What made the crowd so interesting in the beginning of this story is the crowd was made up of people from all over the world.

Why? Because it was a Jewish feast. So you had Jewish people who came to the feast of Pentecost, which was 50 days after Passover. So Passover is around the time Jesus died, so now we're 50 days later, and they're waiting, and when that 50th day came, it coincided with the Spirit coming, and now this racket is being made, and a crowd gathers, and they start to say, what is this?

Because the people are in an ecstasy, and by the Spirit, they're speaking in languages they don't know. They're speaking syllables that they don't know what it means, but it's done by the Holy Spirit.

Some of the people from these foreign countries hear their own languages being spoken, and they know these guys. Well, there's 120, and there's women, too, probably the mother of Jesus, Mary, and some other women who helped minister to Jesus when he was preaching, and the disciples and other disciples and Jesus' brothers were there.

The Bible tells us they thought that they were drunk, and we talked Tuesday. That's a very interesting thing, why God would do that. He did something that made the early church ridiculed, ridiculed, but they took it, and they explained, no, no, no, no, we learned Tuesday.

They're not drunk. It's 9 o 'clock in the morning. It's 9 o 'clock in the morning, Peter said, and this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, and he goes back to a prophecy in the Old Testament in the book of Joel that says in the last day, God says, I'll pour out my spirit upon everybody, men and women, all different ages, and we learned Tuesday about the Holy Spirit now being universally available while in the Old Testament, the Spirit just came on certain people, a king, a prophet, a priest, but the rank-and-file people, for the most part, they knew nothing of the experience of the Holy Spirit, and even upon the prophets, the prophet would have the Spirit come upon him.

He would speak the words that God inspired, and then the Spirit would leave him, and now Peter says, no, it's a new day is dawning. So now we have, I'm calling this message the message, and it's really a sermon on a sermon, and I've analyzed this and prayed about it and thought about it.

But there's no way I can do this and make it important to you and accomplish what I feel God wants to do without us listening to this short sermon or reading it. So now let's get the picture. They were all sitting when the Spirit came, not kneeling, not standing.

They were in an upper room. Now the crowd gathers, and now the Bible tells us Peter did three things that every speaker has to do. He stood up, he spoke loud, and he spoke to the people. He wasn't speaking to the air.

He addressed the people. And now we have the first Christian sermon. We have now the end of the Old Testament. We have the end of making the main message, the law of Moses, and now we have the beginning of Christianity.

Peter’s Sermon in Acts 2

How did Christianity spread? It spread through the preaching of a certain good news, a certain message which you're going to hear now. And I say that with emphasis because a lot of us have grown up in, quote, Christian churches, but we haven't heard sermons that were Christian like are given to us in the New Testament.

We've added stuff. We've added culture. We've added white culture, republicanism, Democratic Party, black culture, Latino culture. We've had legalism invaded. We've had all kinds of traditions invaded.

But the pure gospel that has such power, you're going to see it now. We're going to hear the true gospel now, and we're going to analyze it. So Peter is standing, the crowd is gathered, made up of thousands, hundreds, and literally thousands of people, and Peter is addressing them, and he goes on all day speaking different versions of this same message.

So now let's read through the message. Men of Israel, listen to this. He gets their attention. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracle. See, Jesus was right there in Jerusalem doing a lot of his works, and he refers to that, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

This man, Jesus, was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge. I'm speaking now of his death. And you, see, God did it, but you did it. You, with the help of wicked men, the Gentiles, the Roman soldiers who did it, you, religious leaders, Jewish religious leaders, with the help of wicked men, Gentiles, you put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Now, David, who's David? The psalmist David from the Old Testament. David said about him, how could David talk about him when he lived hundreds of years before?

Now, we're going to learn something important. David said about him, and now he's going to quote from Psalm 16, I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices.

My body will also live in hope because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. Now, who is David talking about there? Keep going. You have made known to me the paths of life.

You will fill me with joy in your presence. Now we're back to Peter. Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. So he wasn't talking about himself.

But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants, someone from his line, on his throne. Seeing what was ahead through the Spirit, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ.

Now, that word Christ means Messiah. The Hebrew word is Messiah. The Greek word is Christ. Whenever you hear Christ, it means the counterpart to the Jewish expectation of that one day, that deliverer that would come who would be called the Messiah, the deliverer for the people of Israel.

But in the Greek of the New Testament, it comes across as Christ. The resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.

Now, further, exalted to the right hand of God, he's not here around us anymore. He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and he's poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, the Lord said to my Lord.

Now that's from Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Therefore, let all, it's conclusion, therefore, let all Israel be assured of this.

God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do? Peter replied, repent and show that you've turned from your old way and you're turning to Jesus by being 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, too. The same thing you saw coming on us, you'll receive that, too. The promise is for you and your children, the next generation, and for all who are far off, probably meaning the Gentiles, for all whom the Lord, our God, will call.

With many other words, he warned them and he pleaded with them. A good preacher, who the Holy Spirit is using, has to have two elements in his preaching. He has to be bold enough to warn people, but he has to have enough heart to plead with people.

Not just do a sermon and oratory and show off speaking skills. He has to be so concerned about the people that he has to warn them about judgment ahead and he has to plead with them, like you would with a wayward child.

Save yourselves from this corrupt generation. If he called when he lived a corrupt generation, what in the world are we living in? My goodness. Those who accepted his message were baptized and about 3 ,000 were added to their number that day.

Not a bad day for the church, what would you say? That's it. That's the first sermon of the Christian church. That's how the church started to grow. We just learned about the first growth surge of the church.

Christianity Spreads Through the Gospel, Not Coercion

Let's just analyze a couple things. How'd this happen? Notice, Christianity expands never by coercion. Other religions have sometimes conquered by the sword. Islam is one of those examples. Join it or you die.

That has happened in history. Unfortunately, Christians have done that, but it has nothing to do with true Christianity. You cannot force anyone to be a Christian. Jewish people in Spain in the Middle Ages were forcibly baptized or threatened with death and they were forced conversion and most of them relapsed and went back to Judaism.

People thought they were doing God a favor by forcing someone to do something. Militancy and violence has nothing to do with true Christianity. One of the reasons that the Muslims hate the Christians and the Christians hate the Muslims and all that through history is because of the Crusades where people went with armor and with the cross on their outer garment with a sword to go to Jerusalem and fought the infidel, fought the Muslim in the name of Christ and killed them.

This has nothing to do with true Christianity. This is one of the reasons why Christianity has a bad name because many things done in the name of Christianity do not reflect the New Testament message that we just read.

You can't coerce anyone to be a Christian. They have to believe the message, but they can't believe the message unless they hear the message. They can't hear the message unless someone speaks the message.

So that's why the Bible says, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Why? By believing the message, they were converted and were baptized and joined the church. Many others said, no, I don't want to know about this.

I'm not repenting of any sins. I don't believe in some Messiah who was crucified like a criminal. Don't tell me that's my Messiah. Christianity is propagated and goes ahead only by the preaching of the gospel.

You cannot coerce anyone to be a Christian. There has to be a miracle of faith, but faith comes by and hearing by the word of God, the word of the gospel. So remember that for your children, for your friends, even the ones you're praying for.

They will not be converted just by praying for them. They must hear the message. I'm just looking at, I think that's Sylvia Glover sitting in the second row. And years ago, she's a leader here in the church.

She walked in the other building that we used to meet in, sat up in the balcony, and she heard, thank God, I count that a privilege from my lips, the good news that God loves her, and said to his son, and then her life was transformed.

And in one moment, just like those people, her life was changed. No one could, you can't put a gun to someone's head. You cannot coerce anyone to be a Christian. And anyone who tries to do that is doing something horrible.

And unfortunately, the church through the ages has tried other ways than preaching the gospel to make people become Christian. And then when some famous emperor named Constantine, a Roman emperor, supposedly converted to Christ, he then declared the Roman Empire a Christian empire and commanded everyone to be sprinkled or baptized or whatever, because he said, everyone's gonna be a Christian because I'm a Christian.

Christianity does not spread that way. It has to be an individual experience. Jesus said, you must be born again. How many are happy you're born again and have an experience? Can we just put our hands together and thank God for the power of the gospel?

The Message of Christianity Is Jesus Christ

Now, let's analyze this here. Let's analyze this. What was the message? What is the message of Christianity? What is this gospel? We are now at the birth. You know, a baby was born named Canaan. We're at the birth of the church.

So, what's the first thing? What is the message of the church? Now, forget your culture. Forget the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Forget how you grew up. It could be wrong. Could be wrong. I certainly did not hear that growing up.

I did not hear that message. No, no, no, no. I did not. So, what was the message of the gospel? First of all, it's not the law of Moses. Nowhere in that message. We know that people got converted from that message.

So, what's not in that message? First of all, there's no law of Moses. If you obey the commandments, you will live. If you live a good enough life, you'll go to heaven. That is nowhere found in the gospel because that's not good news.

That's bad news. How many know you can't obey enough to go to heaven one day? Say amen if you've learned that. By the works of the law, nobody. So, first of all, the message of Christianity has nothing to do with the law.

Number two, it has nothing to do with ceremony. Peter never said that help these people be converted. Now, here's what you must do. You must bring your baby to a church. You must be sprinkled. You must be sprinkled.

You must attend church once a month. You must be served Holy Communion. You must tell a priest your sins. You must go to Pastor Cimbala and bow before him and kiss his ring. Nothing. No mention of any ceremony.

No mention of any ceremony. No mention of any joining any church. They joined a church later because they were Christians. Nowhere, join, be a Baptist. Be a Pentecostal. No, no such words. That's totally foreign to the scripture.

We do damage to the gospel when we use words like that. Evangelical, these means nothing to God. The message has nothing to do about join a church. You can join a church and be still lost in your sins and a member of the church.

The idea that, oh, come forward and you join the Brooklyn Tabernacle and then when you become a member, I made it. Or I became a Catholic or you become anything. That ceremony, church membership, denominational affiliation, thank God, back in those days, they had no denominations.

There was just one church, the Christian church. And that's the only church that God recognizes today. Every one of you here, every one of us, we're either in the Christian church or we're not in the Christian church.

If you're born again, you're in the Christian church. If Christ is your Savior, you are in the Christian church. If it's not, it doesn't matter if you're a Sunday school teacher or a deacon. You don't become a Christian by affiliation with a church or by position.

That's not in Peter's message. Boy, this is clearing up a lot, isn't it? See how simple the message is? But notice how powerful it is. So what is the message of Christianity? Jesus. Not church, not ceremony, not law, not Moses, not black theology, not white theology, not conservative republicanism, not liberal democrat, nothing, unknown to Peter.

Peter says, all right, everybody listen to me. Jesus Christ, and he just talks about Jesus. What does he say about Jesus? He says Jesus lived. He said to the guys and the people who were around there and a lot of the religious leaders in Jerusalem, he appealed to their own experience.

Hey, y 'all know Jesus lived. He walked among here. He'd been ministering for three and a half years. A lot of you heard him. So Jesus is real. He lived. They could have said to him, who you talking about?

We never even know about Jesus. He knew they knew about Jesus. So he said, you know Jesus lived. He lived right among you. He's just been gone not even two months. Number two, he says, Jesus was attested by God through signs and wonders and miracles.

In other words, Jesus did things that proved he was no ordinary man. He was the son of God. Now, if Jesus had never done those things, the people would have said, get out of here. He never did anything.

There's no sick people that were ever healed. There's no blind people that can see. There's no lame guy that can walk. But no, Peter said, you know the truth. You know that when he ministered, he was attested by God.

He was confirmed by God. Jesus lived. Jesus was validated by God. Then he says a third thing. And Jesus died. And then he says this interesting thing. Jesus died. He said, you did it and you used the Gentiles so he makes the whole world guilty.

We all crucified Jesus. He says, you plotted it, you religious leaders, but you used Gentiles to carry it out. Pontius Pilate, Roman soldiers, the ones who put the sword in his side, the ones who crammed down the crown of thorns on his head.

He says, but even while you did it, God knew you would do it, and God gave him up for that purpose. What you meant for evil, God was working out for good. You're responsible for what you did, but God knew it would happen, and in the mystery of free will and the sovereignty of God, it is what it is.

You crucified him. He lived, he was attested by God, and he died. This is the gospel. This is what saves people. Not a message about Elijah, not about Moses and the tent of meeting, nothing about Adam will save anybody.

Nothing about the life of David. It all has its place, but we're getting now to the fulfillment of all that Old Testament stuff. The fulfillment is in Jesus. Paul says in one place, when I was among you, I was determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

If you wanna help people, don't tell them about the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Tell them about Jesus. If they come here, they'll just see a lot of human weakness, but if you tell them about Jesus, oh my goodness, that's the message.

Notice why so few people are converted. How many churches have stayed with the simple good news of Jesus? Why was Billy Graham so successful? Certainly wasn't an orator, but analyze his sermons. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

Oh, I love the name of Jesus. Aren't those the two most beautiful syllables in the world, Jesus? Everyone just say Jesus. So he lived, he was attested by God, and he died, but God raised him from the dead.

Now we're getting to the real message of Christianity. It's not the cross, it's the resurrection with the cross. If he just died and never rose from the dead, he was just like another man. Peter says he was not like another man.

He, on the third day, rose from the dead, and he says this, we're witnesses of it. We saw him after he rose from the dead. How about that? Oh yeah, and this is what happened in history. You keep saying that we'll kill you, then you kill us, but we're not gonna lie, we saw him.

We saw the nail prints in his hands. We saw the spear mark in his side. We ate with him. He appeared to us. We're witnesses of that. How bold is that? Peter says we are witnesses that Jesus lived, died, and rose again from the dead.

For 40 days, off and on, he was appearing to us, and that's what we're testifying. That's what we're to tell people. Jesus is not dead. He's not on a cross. He's not something you wear around the neck.

He's alive. Come on, can we say amen to that? Jesus is alive. He rose from the dead. He's alive. We don't have a doctrinal statement and a dead God. We have a living Savior. Jesus is alive. Can I get an amen here?

Jesus is alive. He's not in a tomb. Muhammad's in a tomb. Buddha's in a tomb. Everybody's in a tomb, but not Jesus. The tomb is empty. So now, then he goes further. This is the gospel. Let's get to the close of this.

Christ’s Ascension, Return, and Final Victory

He says, someone could have asked, well, wait a minute. If Jesus lived and then died and rose again, we're like, where is he? Show us him. No, no, no. He was exalted to the right hand of the Father. The Bible tells us that after spending about 40 days off and on with the disciples, mostly off, not on with them, he would just appear and disappear.

He then led them to a mountain. And right before their eyes, he ascended vertically, violating the laws of gravity. And he went up into heaven from whence he came. And the angels who stood there, we find this in the first chapter of the book of Acts, that the angels appeared and said, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?

Like, you're going to spend the rest of your life looking up? And like, he's gone. No, this same Jesus who you saw go is going to come again. Now, get busy and do what you're supposed to do until he comes again.

So now, part of the gospel is this message. He was exalted to the right hand of the Father. That's why you don't see him. OK, so what's he doing now? Well, other parts of the New Testament, which we won't go into because that's not what the sermon is about.

He's making intercession for us. But suffice it to say, Jesus is in heaven until. Until when? Well, until a date that nobody knows. But in Psalm 110, which is quoted, David, again, says, the Lord said to my Lord.

Well, wait a minute, there's two Lords. If the Lord is the Lord, God, he said to my Lord, listen, sit here, stay here until I make your enemies your footstool. Jesus is not with us until the moment comes when God, in his mysterious, infinite mind, decides I'm sending him back and all his enemies will become his footstool.

You know what a footstool is. It's what you put your feet on. Who will he put his feet on and rest on? His enemies. Oh, this teaches us an interesting truth. Jesus has enemies. And because we belong to Jesus, there are enemies.

But we're not to fight them. We're not to kill them. We're to pray for them. We're to spread the good news. We're not to be militant like the Old Testament Israelites who went in and conquered cities.

That's not Christianity. It's a new day now. It's a new covenant. But a day is coming when some enemies will remain enemies, and then God will say, it is enough. Go back. But he's not coming in a manger, no more baby, no more going to Egypt, no more King Herod trying to kill him.

No, no, he's coming as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And his enemies, listen, his enemies will be his footstool. Every knee will bow. Your knee will bow. My knee will bow. Well, Pastor Simba, my knee won't bow because I don't even believe what you're talking about.

I have news for you. Your knee will still bow because it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you believe or what I believe. That's like saying two and two is not four. That's like saying December doesn't come after November.

It doesn't matter. You don't change reality. The message of the gospel is that right now, we don't know the moment. It could come at any second. God could say, return because I'm going to make now your enemies your footstool.

You will rule over them. Are there not enemies of Jesus right now? Let's talk real talk now. Come on, this is no flowery little speech. I'm okay. You're okay. This is real theology from the New Testament.

Jesus has enemies. The Bible says that. There are people who curse him every day. While we're meeting here, there's a drug deal that went down in some project not far from here, and someone sold some crack cocaine to a young person and said, for Christ's sake, would you give me the money, man?

Hey, give me the money for Christ's sake. They're using his name in drug deals. Some have written books that he was homosexual, other books that he had affairs with Mary Magdalene. Some deny he ever existed.

Some curse his name. There's a bumper sticker over in a certain country in the Middle East that has, in the language of that country, a play on his name, and it says, may his name be cursed forever. Play off the word Yeshua.

Oh, he has enemies. You think the media in our country are big fans of Jesus Christ? I'm asking you, from what you read and what you see on TV, do you think they glorify people and lift them up who serve Jesus Christ?

But if you do some bizarre ungodly thing, they'll glorify you, right? If you score baskets but punch out the girl you live in, they'll glorify you as a great basketball player. But Jesus, no. You can go on certain TV programs, they can tell you, say, Lord, say, God, do not say the name Jesus.

We'll get mail. Board of Ed is trying to pull down, you know, manger scenes. Why? Because there are people who just hate Jesus, and he foretold that. He said, if they hate me, they'll hate you. Did he not say that?

Ladies and gentlemen, did he not say that? I'm asking you, right? And there will be enemies. Not everyone will believe. It's not my job to convert the world. You know, there's no record of any city turning 100 to Jesus Christ.

Peter couldn't do that. Jesus didn't do that. There were some who followed him and others rejected him. That's not our business. Our business is to love people and preach the good news and pray with all of our hearts and trust the Holy Spirit to do his work.

And it's on all of us to do that because you can say the good news. You don't know that message? All you have to do is tell people this. Look at me because you're responsible. Don't put this on me and the pastors.

You can tell people Jesus lived, that he did miracles that people saw and they were attested to historically. There's much more proof that John wrote the book of John in terms of manuscripts than Shakespeare wrote any one of his plays.

Oh, the manuscript proof is far stronger for the book of John than anything that Shakespeare wrote. They're not even sure Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. No, he lived. He was attested by God. He died on a cross, but he didn't die because he couldn't fight the people off.

He gave his life so you and I could be saved. How many are so happy? Your sins are gone because Jesus died. Lift your hand up high. Aren't you happy for that? And he rose again from the dead. You can tell people that.

This is the gospel. Don't tell them about the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Don't talk about the five points of Calvinism. Don't talk about speaking in tongues. Don't talk about the culture of the church you grew up in.

Tell them about Jesus. There's power in the name of Jesus. There's power in the gospel of Jesus. Nobody gets set free from drugs hearing about that God is creator. We had a group here a couple of years ago on a Sunday.

It was recommended, a good musical group, kind of a transition-age kind of group. And they troubled me because they sang for 50 minutes, and they never mentioned once the name of Jesus. They're a very well-known group.

And I was sitting right over there. And God is creator. God is this. God is creator. God is awesome. God has all power. God created the heavens and the earth. And some of the songs, they had slides of the heavens and the stars and all of that, all biblically sound.

But for 45, 50 minutes to sing and never mention once the name of Jesus, what's up with that? I said, what's up with that? This is a Christian church. Nobody gets saved by hearing God is creator. Well, how will that wash away your sins?

So God is creator. So? Oh, no. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me that precious story of Jesus and his love. So I wrote a letter to the leader of it because they're very popular. And I said, what's up with that?

I've been doing this for a little while, and I noticed that you sang for 50 minutes. How could you not mention once the name of Jesus? I came on top to mention the name of Jesus. And I closed the meeting by having everybody sing, oh, hail the power of Jesus' name because I had to get that other stuff out of here.

And they said, well, that's old school. You're old school. I said, what are you saying? Hey, what are you saying? I'm old school. I'll show you old school. No, I didn't say that. That's the old me. But I am a new creation in Jesus Christ, right?

But the old me, the old me would have said, what are you talking about? All right, I shouldn't have gone there. But I said, what if somebody here was lost in their sins and they were going to die that night in their sleep and they never would have heard your whole presentation, they never would have heard one time the name that's above every other name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow.

Sins are forgiven. You can live forever. Oh, yeah, you know what? Death could not hold him. And if you receive Jesus, death can't hold you. If you have Jesus living inside of you, death can't hold you.

Oh, you'll die. We all die. But death won't hold you. No, to be absent from the body is to be, come on, present with the Lord. Let's say amen to that. So they said, no, no, no, that's old school. We do pre-evangelism.

I said, what's that about, pre-evangelism? I'm looking here to try to find some pre-evangelism. It's all nonsense. You know what they want to avoid? The stumbling block of the cross. Because if you mention Jesus, some people are going to come at you.

If you talk, God is creator, we're all together, happy, let's join hands, we shall overcome and all that, nobody will be bothered. But it's when you say Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Come on, Jesus. We love Jesus.

We serve Jesus. Jesus is our savior. It's the blood of Jesus that has washed away all my sins. I thank God that he's creator, but that message doesn't change anybody. If it would have, it would have changed people in the Old Testament.

No, it's Jesus. Jesus. So if you're here today, what's the summation of this? Whoever received the message, their lives were changed. The ones who believe that now, probably thousands didn't believe it.

They say there was close to a million people for some of these feasts that would invade Jerusalem. But on that first sermon, not bad for a fisherman. Peter was a fisherman. He never went to seminary. But he had something better than a seminary education.

He had Jesus. Because you can get so much education, you can drift away from Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. You can have Jesus or you could reject Jesus. You can accept the message that Peter, I just told you what Peter said.

You can accept that and be saved. You could have peace and joy tonight that you've never known in your life because of Jesus. And don't tell anyone I went to the Brooklyn Tabernacle and it's the bomb.

It's not the bomb. Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Amen. Jesus. Jesus. Now, for those of us who are Christians, shall we not celebrate as we close this meeting? Death can't hold us. And he's coming back again.