Receiving the Gift

This morning the sermon will come from the book of Acts, chapter 2, beginning in verse 22.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

You'll find the text printed in your bulletin if you'd like to follow along there.

As I read these words, my prayer is that you won't lose what you just heard.

That you'll hear these words and read these words with that same sense of understanding that this is all true.

Nobody here this morning is making any of this up.

What we read in the Word of God is true.

And so we give full attention.

This is the first sermon that Peter preached in Jerusalem after the resurrection.

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.

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 therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath on 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 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 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 promise is for you and for your children, 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 to that day about three thousand souls.

This is the reading of God's perfect and precious word.

Would you join me in prayer?

Lord God Almighty, you are alive.

And this is the living word that we turn to this morning.

And we come to hear the living Son, but we can only understand by the living Holy Spirit.

So, Spirit of God, open up in us everything that would otherwise obstruct the message that you want us to hear and receive and live by.

We pray this in the name of Christ.

Amen.

The theologian A.W.

Pink had this to say about Easter.

The devil's principal, deceitful tactic is to make us satisfied with an Easter celebration instead of experiencing the power of Christ's resurrection.

I want to think about that this morning.

The devil's principal, deceitful tactic.

Today, think of all the people that are filling the churches in Alexandria and Washington, D.C.

and around the world.

Driving back from Old Town this morning after the sunrise service, I just passed a lot of churches and people were out.

People were streaming about celebrating Easter.

But what is it that will satisfy us this Easter?

What is required for an Easter celebration?

Is church on your list?

Well, I guess it is.

You're here.

Easter dinner?

Does it have to be a certain good Easter dinner for it to really be Easter?

Kids, do you need the Easter egg hunt?

Is it just not Easter without that?

New Easter clothes, inspiring music, all of which is fine.

All of that's good.

However, all of this can be present, but we may not experience the power of Christ's resurrection.

And I'm here today to tell you, don't miss that.

Don't settle for everything else.

But what Tozer said was the power of Christ's resurrection that he wants you to experience.

The same power of God that touched Jesus on the first Easter, that raised him from the dead, is touching people today.

Today?

And if so, how does that happen?

How does this Easter become different from other Easters?

The first sermon that Peter preached after Jesus' resurrection certainly touched a lot of people.

The New Testament church multiplied 26 fold.

It went from a church of 120 to 3,120.

And you might say, well, that was quite a sermon that Peter preached.

We're going to talk about that.

We're going to look this morning at the sermon, the preacher, the congregation, the place, and the response.

The sermon.

Now hear me carefully.

It was a pretty unremarkable sermon.

I mean, did Peter really know how to preach?

I mean, he, oh no, he didn't go to seminary, did he?

I mean, there's no really inspiring stories.

There's no cute outline.

It's pretty underwhelming.

He does something that relatively few preachers today will do on Easter.

He just quotes Scripture.

He so believes in the power of God's word.

He so believes that when God's word comes to you and the Spirit opens you up, that powerful things happen.

No slick outlines.

No five steps to your best life.

So many of the sermons in so many of our churches today really are not about Jesus Christ.

They're about us.

The five steps to getting your life together.

Isn't that true?

So much of the preaching today is about, it's man-centered.

It's not Christ-centered.

And you see, Peter's sermon was exactly about Christ.

It's not about us.

Until we understand that, we will never experience the power of Christ's resurrection.

Look at Jesus' life.

He just lays out some very certain facts.

Jesus' life.

He talks about his life.

He talks about the mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Jesus.

And did you catch that phrase?

In your midst.

He's preaching downtown Jerusalem.

A very public place.

In your midst.

What Peter is saying, no doubt, as he's looking out at that crowd.

Oh no, you were there, right?

You saw.

You saw him crucified on that cross.

Some of you have seen him alive.

His life, secondly, his death.

The one whom you crucified.

Boy, talk about courage for a preacher.

You crucified, but he was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

Verse 23.

What Peter's saying to the crowd is this Jesus' death and resurrection was God's plan, God's plan A, because God doesn't have plan Bs.

We do, but He doesn't.

The scriptures attribute God's giving up of His Son and Christ's death to the purpose of God, but also to the evil acts of men.

We all put Jesus on the cross.

Martin Luther said that we all carry the very nails that crucify Jesus around in our pockets.

Did you know that you were responsible for his death?

Maybe you've never heard that before.

You say, but I wasn't there.

I wasn't yelling out, crucify him.

But the Bible says so many places and so many times that we all have sinned and fall short of God's glory.

It was my sin, it was your sin that sent Jesus to the cross.

Jesus' resurrection.

He goes on to say, because it was impossible for death to keep hold on Jesus.

Why was it impossible for death to keep its hold on Jesus?

Because God acted.

And where God acts, life comes from death.

God wanted him alive, God made him alive.

And then Peter quotes from Psalm 116 that we read.

And that wasn't about David, although David prophesied it about a thousand years before Jesus came.

David prophesied, he said, the Lord said to my Lord, the first word for Lord in that sentence in your reading is Yahweh, the Lord, Lord God Almighty, God the Father said to my Lord, Adonai.

Well, Adonai is his master.

God the Father said to God the Son, You are going to go through a horrible experience so that my people might be saved.

But it's not going to end badly.

It's going to end well.

And one day I am going to take all of your enemies and I'm going to put them under your feet so as to be a footstool.

You will conquer your enemies, Jesus.

His resurrection.

But it doesn't stop there.

Then Peter goes and quotes Psalm 110.

Another psalm by David.

His ascension.

After Jesus is raised from the dead, God promised that he was going to exalt him to the right hand.

And that's where he is right now as I speak.

I mean, you know, of course you know that Jesus is no longer dead.

He's alive, but do you know where he is?

He's in heaven.

He's seated right next to the Father.

Boy, was your heart stirred by that anthem that we just heard?

I was looking for the Kleenex.

It's true.

Jesus was receiving praise and glory and honor once again.

Because that's what he deserves.

Because that's who he is.

He is Lord of Lords and King of kings.

His ascension proved it.

Jesus today, exalted, sitting on the right hand of the Father.

This sermon was about Jesus of Nazareth.

Again, not man-centered, not about us primarily, but about the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

What I am presenting to you this morning are simply the facts.

I am not here this morning to give you some beautiful little allegory about springtime.

I'm not here this morning to give you just a little warm feeling that so many churches are preaching right now this morning.

So many churches today are saying it's really not important whether you believe the facts.

It's really not essential whether Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.

It's a beautiful word picture.

It's a metaphor.

When you get down in life, when life is hard, just think positive thoughts.

Think that God loves you just as you are without anything you need to believe.

And all this, they're not preaching the facts.

Like Peter did.

Some of you are old enough to remember, like me, that great TV show back in the 60s, Dragnet.

Remember Joe Friday, Sergeant Cannon, every time he would go to investigate a crime scene?

A lot of you don't remember right now.

Some of you do.

Who remembers Joe Friday when he would investigate the crime scene?

All right.

When he would investigate the crime scene, and how many times did he say he would it seemed like he was always interviewing a woman?

I'm not sure why.

But he would say, just the facts, ma'am.

Don't give me the incidentals, don't give me the extraneous.

I don't care what you had for breakfast that morning.

I don't care what you had on your list to do.

Just tell me exactly what you saw.

That's what this sermon is about.

Just the facts.

That's the sermon.

What about the preacher?

Peter.

Of all people, did Jesus pick the wrong guy to preach the first sermon in Jerusalem?

Most of us know the story, right?

Three times the night Jesus died, before he died, three times Peter said, I don't know who he is.

As if once was not enough.

A second time, no, no, your accent gives you away.

You're a Galilean, you're part of Jesus' crowd, right?

No, no, I'm not.

The third time he says, I swear I don't know him.

Can you believe that this is the preacher that Jesus chose to preach this sermon this day?

What could possibly explain the change in Peter?

Only one thing.

Peter saw Jesus alive.

He knew that Jesus was raised from the dead.

He saw him with his own eyes and he touched his resurrected body.

And that's the only thing that it can explain the unbridled courage that Peter had to go downtown Jerusalem right where the events took place.

He's not going out on a preaching tour out to some other county or country.

These people knew this was true.

Some of them didn't want to deal with it, but they knew it was true.

We looked at the preacher, we looked at the place.

What about the congregation?

Men of Israel.

Again, many of them eyewitnesses to Jesus' death.

He says, a man attested to you by God with mighty works that God did in your midst.

In your midst.

Irrefutable, irrefutable facts.

What did John Adams say?

Facts are stubborn things.

They don't go away just because you wish them.

Who is this Peter preaching to?

The same crowd, knowing full well that just weeks ago they put his leader on a cross.

Surely they knew where to find other crosses.

Are you looking for change this morning in your life?

You say, I don't need to be a preacher.

I don't need to be Peter.

That's not what I'm asking.

Do you just know deep down that not everything's alright in your life?

Do you just know deep down that God wants to do more in you?

Do you just know that you don't have the faith or the joy or the peace that God wants for you?

Look, if he did this for Peter, I promise he can do this for you and for me.

I'm going to close with the final thought, the response.

What was the response of the crowd?

These are some of the most remarkable words in scripture.

Verse 37.

Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart.

And they said to Peter and to 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 promise is for you and for your children.

Are you looking for promises for your children?

Are you looking for promises for your grandchildren?

Are you looking for promises for your great-grandchildren?

Look no further.

There's no greater promise in the entire Bible than right here, right here in front of you.

How do you make it yours?

How did such a large crowd respond to such plain truth?

No, they're not saying crucify him.

What gives?

This is what they were shouting a month earlier.

What could possibly explain the same crowd not shouting crucify him?

But saying, brothers, what did we do to have what you have?

They were cut to the heart.

That little word means they were pricked to the heart.

They were struck.

How do we account for such a radical change?

Listen carefully because I really I'm going to guess that there's some of us that have never heard this before on Easter, okay?

Listen carefully.

This is not about the work of the preacher.

This was not about the work of Peter's preaching then or my preaching today.

This is not about the preacher.

It's about a risen Savior who received and poured out.

Did you see that in the text?

It's in verse 33.

Well, let's go back to 32.

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God.

But look at that phrase.

And having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.

He has poured out everything that you see.

There's two things.

Theologians talk about two things that happen when you receive Jesus.

You receive the forgiveness of all of your sin, but the second thing you receive is the fullness and the blessing and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And I think that's what many people don't understand today.

Being exalted, having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, once Jesus was resurrected and ascended to heaven, the Father gave his son the gift of the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

Did you know that?

You say, I thought Jesus had the Holy Spirit before.

He did.

But something happened.

We call this, theologians call this the enthronement of Jesus.

When Jesus went to heaven, the Father gave him the fullness and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

He poured out the Spirit upon his son in a new way.

And what did Jesus do?

He poured out his spirit upon his people.

That's what I think a lot of people probably aren't thinking about today on Easter.

And there's no power.

This is exactly what Joel prophesied earlier in the text that we didn't print for you.

The two blessings we receive because Jesus received the removal, the taking away of all of our sins, and then the bestowal, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

These two great gifts are given to every single Christian.

If you have not received these gifts, you are not a Christian.

You heard me?

Every Christian receives from the Son who received from the Father forgiveness.

Have you received his forgiveness?

That's what he offers to you.

Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow.

Like crimson.

Jesus makes the darkest heart white as snow.

Because he died for people like us.

But he not only offers you forgiveness, he offers you the fullness of his Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the one that made Peter's sermon remarkable.

It wasn't Peter's education, it wasn't his preaching training.

Did you see the word?

And I just read it a moment ago in verse 33.

He has poured out the Holy Spirit upon his people.

Until the Holy Spirit is poured out in your life, you will never be excited about the power of Jesus Christ unless the Holy Spirit is poured out in your life.

Your Easter celebration will be like Tozer remarked.

You will be too easily satisfied.

But when the Holy Spirit is poured out into your heart, and for the first time in your life you see that my sins crucified Jesus.

I am the rebel.

I committed treason against the holy God.

And instead of striking me and punishing me, he offers me new life.

He offers me forgiveness.

What kind of God is like that?

But our God.

But then he says, I know you're not going to understand this.

You're not going to understand any of this.

You're going to explain it away.

You're going to be critical.

You're going to be distant.

You're going to be kind of like just going to be the critic like so many people today are about the things of Jesus Christ.

Well, let me study it.

Let me examine the evidence.

I'll give it some consideration.

It's time to stop giving it consideration.

It's time to stop being an armchair quarterback.

It's time to cry out like these 3,000 people did that day at Jerusalem.

It's time to ask the question: what must I do to be saved?

And you must repent of your sin.

I must repent of my sin.

And receive the fullness of the Spirit that God gives to every person who comes to Jesus Christ.

This is what Easter is about.

The age of the Holy Spirit is one of abundance.

Poured out.

This is a picture of a heavy tropical storm.

There's no trickle here.

This is not a light mist.

This is a gushing river.

This is Niagara Falls.

Niagara Falls has nothing on the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit can bring you love that you've never experienced, and the Holy Spirit can give you a peace that you've never had.

And the Holy Spirit can give you hope where you need hope.

And he doesn't bring trickles.

When you come to Jesus, he pours out all of these things.

John Calvin, the theologian, said the apostles at Easter were only sprinkled with his grace, while at Pentecost they were saturated with his grace, with full power.

The change does not come from within us, folks.

As though one day we just wake up and turn over a new leaf or decide that we're going to change something about our lives.

That's not how it works.

You don't have that kind of power, and neither do I.

This kind of change can only come from the outside, from above.

But when it comes, it changes us on the inside.

This is the only explanation for the change for 3,000 people that day.

Many of those 3,000 people hated Jesus.

Many of those 3,000 people were there to scorn and ridicule Peter.

And they went home different people.

And this is this gets me, you know?

They not only went home different people, but future generations would be changed because they went home different people.

You want to impact your kids?

You want to impact your grandchildren?

You believe the promises of Jesus Christ.

You admit the truth about yourself and open yourself up to what God wants to do in your life.

If God raised his own son from the dead, what is there dead in you that he can't bring alive?

Oh, friends, this is true.

These are facts.

Jesus poured out his spirit, and his spirit is poured out on all who call out to Jesus.

Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ.

It's as true today as it was then.

As I close this morning, I just would ask.

Even more than asking you, my prayer is going to be asking the Holy Spirit to pour something new inside of you and me.

I need more rivers of living water in me.

Theologians call this the gift of regeneration for those of us who are not Christians.

The Holy Spirit can do that.

The Holy Spirit can cut your heart right now this morning and show you your need for Jesus like you've never seen it before.

And the Holy Spirit can give you faith to believe, and the Holy Spirit can change you from the inside.

And you can become a Christian this morning.

We also talk in theology about renewal and revival.

And how many of us here this morning need that?

I'll be at the head of the line.

More joy, more peace, more love, more humility, more faith.

You can't do it without the Holy Spirit.

This is what Easter is about.

Would you just pray with me right now?

Father, send your spirit.

May your spirit fill this crowd and this sanctuary this morning.

May your spirit fill my heart and the hearts of my friends.

Father, some of us here this morning, surely there are some among us this morning who have never received the forgiveness that you offer and the power of the Holy Spirit to change the things within us that we cannot change.

So, Father, for our friends here this morning who have never done that, would your spirit please, right now, give them faith to believe to come to Jesus as a risen Lord.

Father, for many of us who have received Jesus.

Lord, when we wonder why we wonder why there's not rivers of living water flowing through us, Father, we ask your forgiveness for that.

Holy Spirit, would you give us grace to believe, to come to Jesus again this morning and to yield the dead things within us, to yield to you.

Father, we we repent of trying to be in control of our lives.

Father, forgive us all.

Receive us in the power of your Son.

Jesus, thank you for so loving us.

Holy Spirit, thank you for giving us faith to believe and power to change.

And may we go out of this place today, renewed, new people in Christ.

Amen.