Acts 2:14-21 - The Dawn of the Last Days

Take your Bible and go to the Book of Acts.

The Book of Acts in chapter 2.

On the morning of January 8th, 1815, a British army moved across the cane fields just below New Orleans to meet up with Andrew Jackson's line.

The battle lasted for only about a half an hour.

But when all of it cleared, some 2,000 British soldiers were either dead, wounded, or missing.

And on the American side, 13 were killed.

The tragic part about that, in that War of 1812, is that all of those men who fought and fell on that battlefield that day were fighting for a war that had already been over.

Fifteen days before, in Ghent, Belgium, a treaty had been signed, and the news that the war was over was on a ship, and it would take six weeks for it to come to the United States.

Those men fell on that day, and they had never heard that news.

They were fighting for a battle and a war they thought was still raging, but it was already over.

They weren't cowards, they weren't fools, they were doing what soldiers do.

But what made it tragic is they didn't know what day it was.

And I say I share that this morning because it's possible to live exactly like that, even as a believer.

It's possible to live our life in a way that we affirm the resurrection.

We can even talk about it clearly to others, but and we can sing about it on a Sunday, but we don't live like it on a Monday.

We don't live in light of the truth that the victory's already been won in Jesus Christ.

And then there are others who are not spiritually drowsy, but awake.

Awake to the diagnosis that's just come, awake to the trouble that's ahead of us, awake to the relationship that's broken, awake to a world that looks like it's falling apart.

And we can take all of our anxieties and pour them into our trouble.

And some of us can even call our anxiety vigilance by tracing the line of the 24-hour news cycle, thinking that by keeping up with it, we're actually being vigilant.

And those two postures have something in common.

Those who are spiritually drowsy and not living in light of the victory are acting as though as nothing good has happened.

And those who are living in anxiety about the troubles that they're facing are living as though nothing good is happening.

Both of them, just like those men in 1815, are still out in the field, still aiming, still firing, not realizing a victory has already been had.

The passage that we're going to look at this morning talks about something called the last days.

The last days.

And a lot of people, when they hear that phrase, the last days, thinking about it like we we did just a few days ago, that there was a tornado warning and it's there's a tornado out there and it's headed our way.

We look at that phrase, the last days, as though it's something that we have to brace for.

What if we had it backwards?

What if the last days weren't about something to fear, but rather something to expect, something to be excited about, something to claim as victory, a victory that Christ has been raised, and that Christ rules.

And if it is true that He has and is, and it is true, then the question is: are we living in the light of that victory?

Let's look at Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

So we come into this passage that we'll be looking at, and we'll start in verse 14.

Jerusalem is crowded that day with pilgrims from every corner of the known world.

The spirit has just fallen on a room of ordinary men and women, and the sound has drawn a crowd.

And the people have come together with questions, astonished and perplexed and wondering, what does all of this mean?

And some of them have already started sneering, these men are drunk on new wine.

But Luke gives us a sermon inside of a story here.

Peter stands up and tells us what happened.

And we get to sit in Jerusalem for the next few minutes and listen to the first Christian sermon that was preached.

Let's hear it.

Verse 14.

Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, Fellow Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be known to you and pay attention to my words.

For these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it's only the nine in the morning.

On the contrary, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel.

And the rest of this part of the sermon is a quote.

And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all people.

Then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams, and I will even pour out my spirit on my servants in those days, both men and women, and they will prophesy.

I will display wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and a cloud of smoke, the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.

And then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

In the face of the question, what does this mean?

And in face of the statement, oh, they're just drunk on new wine, Peter stands up and notice what he doesn't do.

He's not panicking, he's not speculating, he's not trying to give a better argument to the crowd.

He opens up the scriptures and he tells them that the spirit's arrival that morning is not chaos.

It's actually the fulfillment of a promise that God had given long ago.

And that promise was that the Spirit would come in the last days.

And he uses that phrase to declare that a promise is being fulfilled.

And he leaves us no question as to why that promise has happened.

Just take a look for a second down at verse 32.

God has raised this Jesus.

We are all witnesses of this.

And then in verse 33, therefore, since he has been exalted to the right hand of God, and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you both see and hear.

That noise of a mighty wind, that fire in the streets, those languages that are spoken by people declaring the glorious things of God, Peter is saying, is all because Christ is raised from the dead, and all because he's seated in the place of authority.

So here's the message in one sentence.

Live like people that know what day it is.

Live like people that know what day it is.

This is the last days.

And because it is the last days through the risen Christ, there are three things that we should do.

First of all, we should live awake to his word.

And second, we should live active in his mission.

And third, we can live assured by his promise.

So we're going to move through each of those this morning.

We're going to look, first of all, that we are to live awake to his word.

The crowd is here.

They're looking at the very act of God and they're calling it something completely different.

These men are drunk.

And the only thing that's going to correct them is when Peter stands up and shares the scriptures with them.

They're reading everything at that moment before they hear Peter on a surface level of their own assumptions.

Something all of us can do.

But notice the moment when they're told something different.

Scripture interrupts them and tells them exactly what's happening.

And so Peter says to them in verse 15, these people are not drunk as you suppose.

They'd already drawn that conclusion.

And he wants them to know that look, this isn't what you think it is.

And their assumption seemed logical to them.

They're not silly people or stupid people.

Pardon me.

And they're thinking these guys have just come out of a rave party or something.

Maybe they've been up partying all night.

And Peter says, look, it's not that at all.

And then he tells them that only the word can give them an understanding of what they're looking at.

Take a look at verse 16.

Everything hangs on this phrase right at the beginning of that.

On the contrary.

Peter's not offering a competing theory, he's contradicting them flatly.

And what he's telling them is that the arrival of the Spirit here is because of something God promised many, many years ago.

And he brings the word to them and tells them exactly what they're looking at from scripture itself.

Notice how he deepens this.

Thank you, Brian.

Look at verse 17.

In verse 17, he says, Joel had prophesied that in the last days God would pour out his spirit on all people.

And so he combines together this occurrence of the Spirit falling on the people, and all of them speaking out the mighty acts of God with the coming of the last days.

The Spirit's arrival is not incidental to the last phrase, it's the actual marker of the last days.

And Peter is not predicting something about the future, he's announcing something about the present.

The clock has already started.

Peter is saying we're in the last days now.

Joel had promised it.

When the Spirit is poured out, when salvation is offered to all in the name of the Lord, you will know that the last days have arrived.

Listen to how Hebrews describes it, and we read this verse.

Long ago God spoke to the ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways, but he has in these last days spoken to us through the Son.

Hebrews chapter 1.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

So what is this telling us?

What is the teaching that's underneath all of this?

It tells us that the last days are not about a chart that somebody might bring up and talk about some distant future and start talking about lions and tigers and bears.

Oh no.

The last days are not about a chart.

You see, the last days are not a chronological question.

The last days are a monarchial question.

The last days don't answer the question, when will this end?

The last days answer the question, who is ruling?

That's the question that the last days are answering.

And the answer is Jesus.

That's who's reigning.

You think, wait a second.

Well, as we get into this, you'll understand that more and more.

But just think of it for a moment when you wake up bright and early in the morning.

And for those of you who are teenagers, that means before noon, right?

You get up in the early morning and most of the sky is dark, but there in the eastern horizon, the light is already starting to move.

Brian McLaughlin and I used to get up very, very early in the morning and go cycling in the dark, and we would watch that night turn to day, and it was a beautiful thing.

What's that saying?

The dawn is already hit the horizon, and soon the sun is going to dispel every whisper of darkness, and it will be gone.

And this is exactly that first day, the first day of the dawn of the last days.

The sky is looking dark, but don't be mistaken.

Christ is reigning and he's doing his work.

So what does all of this look like in this first point for us?

To live awake to his word?

What does it look like for us on the next week that has a Tuesday in it?

Not the kind of weeks my dad would warn me about.

He'll knock me into the second Tuesday of next week.

But what about those regular weeks that we have?

Those regular weeks that are filled with disappointments.

Those regular weeks where we draw an immediate conclusion about somebody's character or competency.

Those weeks in which we go through what is the beginning of a long, difficult season.

Those weeks in which we continue to hear the silence from somebody we love.

Well, it's easy for us to be certain and make assumptions about things.

It's easy to draw conclusions, just like this crowd mistakenly looked at what they were seeing and draw conclusions.

And Peter is telling them look, you need an answer to your question, but your answer is not going to come from your surface level assumptions.

Your answer is going to come by scripture and God's revelation.

And it's no different from us.

When we go into situations, we too need a perspective from God.

And without biblical data, we can bring an interpretation based upon our past experiences, our past hardships, and answer the moments already packaged with those presuppositions.

Listen to how James talks about it in James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

When you experience various troubles, what are you to do?

Well, just two days, two verses later, he says, Ask the Father for wisdom.

When you go into situations that are difficult, and when they're hard and troubling, the first thing to do is not to interpret them based upon your own history or your own presuppositions, but to ask yourself, does God have something to say about what I'm entering into?

And the wonderful thing is, is if we ask God for wisdom, he graciously gives it.

And so this week, take your moment, your hard conversation, the person you're already judging as incompetent or without character, or that situation that's filled with trouble, or that season that you're just entering, or perhaps deeply into already, and ask yourself does God have wisdom for me in the middle of that moment?

This is what Peter's doing.

He's bringing the light of scripture to people's presuppositions.

He's bringing an answer to their sneers, he's giving them God's wisdom in the face of their foolish reply.

But I want us to see something different here.

Not only are we to live in a light of being awake to God's word, but we're also to live in a way that's active in his mission.

Notice how Peter describes this in verses 17 and 18.

There he says that God was going to have his sons and daughters prophesy, his young men see visions, his old men dream dreams, his servants, both men and women, are going to have the Spirit poured out on them.

Just think about the categories here: sons, daughters, young, old, male, female, servants, all.

Every category of people that a first century listener could have dreamt up.

And notice the verb.

They're going to prophesy, everyone.

Now, prophecy in scripture is not primarily about telling the future.

Prophecy in scripture is primarily about standing up and speaking out God's word to someone who needs to hear it.

And this is exactly what they're doing in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

In every language that could could that was there, people were standing up and speaking a language that they did not learn, the mighty acts of God.

They were speaking the things of God to people who needed to hear it.

Something else we can learn from this passage is that God and access to God is not run through a middleman here.

This is something really different than the old covenant economy.

This is not just a modest expansion of the ministry either.

This is not like some churches and denominations who think they need to reproduce the Old Testament priesthood.

And you come through the mediation of their ministry to God and to his grace.

It is not like that at all.

Here, everyone has the Spirit.

Everyone can stand up and speak out the very word of God to the people who need to hear it.

Because they already have it.

And so we have an end of the need for an earthly high priest.

We have an end for the need to have a mediator on earth, because there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

There's no middleman.

But it also means, and this is why the second point means to be active in his mission.

There are no spectators.

Okay?

Do you hear that?

All right, there's no spectators.

God has given this work to all of his people.

Take a look at verse 17 again.

I will pour out my spirit on all people, and your sons and your daughters, and your young men, and your old men, and the servants, both male and female, and they will all speak out.

What is he saying here?

In the new covenant economy, God has called out every one of us to be a representative of him.

Every single one of us are given a responsibility to be messengers of God to people who need to hear it.

There might be some who need a word of comfort.

There might be some people who need a word of encouragement.

There might be some people who need a word of warning.

There might be some people who need the invitation of the good news of Jesus Christ.

There might be some people who need Teaching.

There might be people who need rebuke.

There might be some people who need to hear you speak out the glorious promises of God.

Every single one of us.

And this is what God's people have been longing for for a long, long time.

All the way back in the book of Numbers.

Moses says out loud these very words if only all of the Lord's people were prophets, and the Lord would place his spirit on them.

Well, Moses, it's happened.

In Ezekiel, the promise in its most intimate form is, I will place my spirit within you.

Within you.

Moses wished for it.

Jesus promised it, when I go, another comforter will come.

And here, Peter is standing up in a street in Jerusalem, and he's announcing it that it's happened.

So the church is not a people who gather to spectate.

The church are people equipped by the Spirit of God to be his representative all, every single one of us.

And when you read 1 Corinthians 12, when you read Ephesians chapter 4, when you read 1 Peter chapter 4, when you read all of these passages that talk about body life, there's not a single passage in there that says, defer to that ordained guy over there, and the rest of you just sort of sit back and wait till he tells you everything's okay.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention 1 Peter 4 · chapter mention

It says we all minister together, every single one of us.

Verse 39, Peter says it again, as many as the Lord will call.

Because the same grace that brought us to grace is the same grace that puts us into active ministry in his mission.

There's a term that we use, every member a minister.

And it's an important word.

Let's be specific about that because it's easy to nod at that and to ignore it, or to nod at that and carry our presumptions and our assumptions and our expectations with us.

Consider noticing perhaps someone who hasn't been here for five or six weeks, well past a good vacation, and you call them and say, Hey, I just wanted to pray for you.

I've missed you.

What's happening?

Every minute, every member of ministers.

Or someone's ill and you go visit them.

Every member a minister.

Or someone looks dejected and you side up to them in the pew and say, How's it going this week?

Can I pray for you?

Every member a minister.

Or you hear that there's a number of children who are longing to hear the word of God, and you go up to Ethan and say, Can I be in the rotation to teach?

And he'll talk to you about what that might look like.

Every member a minister.

Or you see that there's no toilet paper in the women's bathrooms.

And you go, Vic, how can I get this filled?

Let me go downstairs and get into the stock.

I'll do that.

Every member, a minister.

Or if we're in a fellowship luncheon and we've run out of forks, and instead of going, I wonder who's going to fill this up, every member, a minister.

We meet the need, every single one of us.

And so let me encourage you this week, not this month, not this year, but this week, find someone who might need a word of encouragement, or maybe the gospel.

Or find a need in the church that's standing in a gap and you recognize it.

Be the one who fills that gap.

Be the one who preaches that gospel.

Be the one who gives that encouragement.

Be the one who steps into that kitchen.

Be the one who comes alongside that discouraged one.

This week.

Just prayerfully ask the Lord to have you move toward that.

So God has given us the risen Christ, and it is the last days.

And because it is the last days, we're to live awake to his word.

We're to live active in his mission.

But last of all, we're to live assured by his promise.

Assured by his promise.

And I want you to see verses 19 to 21.

And again, this is a quote from the book of Joel.

And you might be looking at this and thinking, well, you know, Joel, Peter's just quoting Joel because he wants to get to the very last part of this in verse 21.

And, you know, he's he's got to quote this, but it's not really for those guys he's preaching to.

And it's probably not even for us.

And um, you know, let's just get to verse 21.

Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Don't think like that, please.

This is very important.

And Peter's quoting Joel because he sees these verses as as imperative and as applicable to the people that day as they are to ours, as they will be in the very last day.

We are to live assured by his promise.

And so he says this, speaking from Joel, I will display wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and a cloud of smoke, the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.

And then everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

One of the questions we all carry into this life is how is it all going to end?

How is it all going to end?

And Peter answers it.

He says, We're in the last days.

And what Peter does is he gives us the front door and the back door of the last days.

But he also gives us everything in between as well.

Now, watch what happens as he's quoting here.

He talks about blood, he talks about fire, he talks about smoke, he talks about a darkened sun and a red moon.

Peter's calling us to capture all of that imagery.

And what is he telling us?

He's telling us the last days from the dawn to the dusk.

He's giving us the scope of it all.

And notice how he describes it in verse 20 before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.

He gives us the front door of the last days when he said, This is what was spoken.

And the Spirit's arrival is the first day of the last days.

And then he mentions the sun going dark and the moon turning to blood.

And he said, This is the last day of the last days.

And so he straddles all of that in this quotation.

Part of it landing at 9 a.m.

in the morning in Jerusalem, and part of it landing still out ahead of us.

But in between is also covered every bit of it.

So he's telling us what day it is.

It's the last days.

But listen closely to this.

What he's also telling us through the sky that's coming apart is that he's telling us what kingdom is coming down.

Okay?

And I'm going to prove this from scripture for you.

And I think you'll understand this a whole lot better than simply saying, where was that chart?

Where did I put this clearance larken chart at?

I want you to hear something about this language.

Every single person hearing Peter speak is a Jewish person.

Every person listening to him speak had already read the book of Joel.

They had already read about all of this darkened sun and red blood.

And they had read other scriptures as well.

They knew what prophetic poetry was all about.

Listen to prophetic poetry.

This is Isaiah speaking about the fall of Babylon to the Medes.

Isaiah 13, 10.

The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shine.

Listen to Ezekiel announce the fall of Egypt.

Ezekiel 32.

I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light.

Listen to Jeremiah speak about the destruction of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in Jeremiah 4.

I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void, and to the heavens, and they had no light.

Jeremiah is saying that the destruction of Jerusalem is akin to the pre-creation chaos in the universe.

Listen to Isaiah 34 speak about the judgment that will fall on Edom.

All of the hosts of heaven shall rot away, and the skies will roll up as a scroll.

All their hosts shall fall, for my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.

Behold, it will descend for judgment upon Edom.

Did you hear all of that?

Babylon falls, Egypt falls, Jerusalem falls, and Edom falls, and the sun comes up the next day.

So this language is not just language about astronomy.

This language is about the collapse of an order of rebellion that was sure it was going to stand forever.

Babylon and all of its arrogance, Egypt and all of its pride, Jerusalem and all of its rebellion, Edom and all of its connivance against the people of God, all these kingdoms thought that they were sure that they would stand, that they could be strong in the face of the God of heaven.

And God says, You will fall, and your fall will be just like the whole creation crumbling.

So what's happening here?

Now don't mistake me.

Joel is speaking about a real day, also.

This is not just figurative language.

God will do what He's promised to do with the very Son we look at every day.

Peter himself speaks about it.

The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and on that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will burn and will be dissolved, and the earth and its works will be disclosed.

It's not just a figure of speech, it is talking about the very last day of the last days.

But I want you to grab something more significant here, because what's happening here is not just a statement about that very last moment of the last days.

This is a declaration to the people in Jerusalem and a declaration to the whole earth to this very day that there's a kingdom that's been brought down that lived in arrogance, thinking that it would constantly rule and reign.

And here what is happening is Peter is using prophetic poetry from the book of Joel to indicate that in these last days a new kingdom is rising, and an old kingdom is falling.

What's happening here is that there's a tearing down of one kingdom and a replacement of it by another.

And do you know what that new kingdom is?

For we have received the spirit of life.

It is the new creation.

If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old is gone, the new has come.

In theological terms, we call this the already and the not yet.

That there is already the reign of Christ.

There's already the new creation.

And by the Spirit of God, that new creation is living inside of people.

This is why we live by the fruit of the Spirit.

Love and joy and peace and patience and gentleness and meekness and kindness and perseverance and self-control.

What is all of that?

That's the eternal future kingdom punctuating itself into this king, into this kingdom, showing us that there is already a kingdom of life.

And the spirit reigns within people already.

Peter is crying out to the people in Jerusalem that a new day has dawned.

It's called the last days.

But he's also saying there's an old kingdom that's been put on notice, that it's about to fall, because there's a new king on the throne, and his name is Jesus.

It's no longer sin and darkness, it's no longer the devil.

It is God in Christ who reigns.

So the sun is going dark, and it's the end of the kingdom of darkness.

So when Jesus rose up out of the tomb, when he showed himself alive to all of these men and women for 40 days, and when he ascended into the heavens, and ten days later sent his spirit, he's putting this dark world on notice that Jesus reigns.

And he's putting this dark world on notice that the kingdom of darkness is falling, and the gates of hell will not prevail against the kingdom of God.

That's what he's saying.

And so he's speaking here the very words of the resurrected and ascended Christ, who put the words into Joel to speak about these days, that this world is coming to an end.

And the world of Christ is dawning, and his people are coming alive.

Now, let's take a look at this just a little more deeply, and this is where it gets personal for all of us.

How this day lands on us, whether it is going to be a glorious or a terrible day, all falls down to one name.

Jesus.

And take a look at verse 20 with me while I do it.

This is how the Hebrew puts it.

What does it say in verse 20?

Great and what?

Glorious.

It is both.

The last days are both terrible and glorious.

The Jerusalem crowd had grown up hearing the scriptures in Greek.

And they were hearing an invitation.

Something new about what that day would look like.

It would be perhaps a glorious day for them.

But if they didn't heed the warnings and the words and the invitation of Peter on that day, it would be a terrible day.

And that's why he says at the very end of this sermon, flee from the wrath to come.

Peter reads those verses.

He talks about that great and terrible and that great and glorious day.

And he pulls them both together because the day of the Lord is both terrible and it is glorious.

And Paul writes about it in 2 Thessalonians when he says this.

When he takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, and they will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord's presence and from his glorious strength on that day, when he comes to be glorified by his saints, and to be marveled at by all those who have believed.

The only way it can be glorious is not by becoming a church member.

The way it can be glorious is not by saying, I want to turn over a new leaf and do my life a little different than I've done it.

The only way to be delivered on that day and to find it a glorious day and not a terrible one is whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

That's how.

The judgment is real.

And Peter doesn't strike out a single syllable of how terrible that judgment is.

But the judgment is not the only message.

There's an invitation here.

An invitation to change your allegiance from self and sin and to follow the Lord by calling out on his name.

And this is why Peter, later in this sermon, says, Repent, every one of you.

Turn away from your allegiance to that kingdom that's been put on notice, that it's about to die.

Turn away your allegiance from the kingdom of darkness that it's going to be destroyed.

Turn away your allegiance from the disobedience that is sin, because that will be brought to an end on that day, that terrible day, if you still cling to that kingdom.

And go to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And on that day, you will join the new kingdom.

And on that day you call upon him, you will become a member of the kingdom of light.

When you come into that kingdom, you will be filled with a spirit of life.

And the promise of eternity.

When you enter that kingdom where Jesus is Lord, your life will be transformed and you will start to feel the power of that kingdom.

Because in you will be transformation.

In you, your old loves and your old desires will be transformed to become more conformable to this new kingdom.

And you will say, I'm a different person.

I don't understand it all, but God is making me something different.

Yes, He is.

He's showing you that you belong somewhere else.

You belong in His kingdom.

The apostles couldn't get over this word.

Paul, when he writes in the book of Romans, and he's talking about Jews and Gentiles both coming to the life and the Savior.

And a wonderful, wonderful truth.

He pulls from Joel and he goes, And whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

It is this very verse.

Let's get practical.

There are people waking up today, and waking up today without God.

And guess what?

Life is good.

The job's going well, the house is set out nicely, the mortgage is nearly paid off.

The college funds are already already full.

Life is good.

God?

He's a distant thought.

And why do I need him?

I'm doing well.

Babylon thought that for a while.

They had good years too.

Right up to the last day.

When Daniel stands up to the king and says, This night.

Smooth days are not a verdict about whether or not your eternity is going the right direction.

A good day is simply today's weather forecast.

That's it.

Your pleasant days lived without God under the rule of the old order, they'll come to an end.

And that old order will come to an end.

But verse 21 gives you a promise that if you call upon the name of the Lord, you will be delivered.

You don't have to fear that day.

You don't have to worry over which kingdom you're in.

Because you've been brought into the kingdom of life in Christ.

This is not information, this is an invitation.

And if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ as your Savior, and you've been living your life without God, please hear this.

You're living under the domain of darkness, and it's going to be destroyed.

And unless you turn from that kingdom, which is filled with disobedience and sin and ignorance and rejection of God, so will you.

Every one of us were under the threat of that destruction.

And the only hope of news is not anything other than this.

Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

That's the only way.

Well, let's go back to where we started here.

I asked you to do one thing this week.

Take one conversation, one situation, one perspective that you can't fully understand without the word of God.

Read it in the light of God's word.

And here, I want to give you the assurance of his promise if you're a believer in Christ.

What Peter is declaring here is that the new order has come.

And every trouble, brother and sister, every difficulty, every hardship that you're in the middle of, anything that's got you by the throat and is threatening your walk with the Lord, who is dulling your perspective of his person and his promises, everything that's clenching a hold of you that feels more powerful than you, God is going to put all of that down.

Every bit of it.

Amen.

There's not a single thing that troubles you now that will trouble you eternally if you're in Christ.

There's not any of it.

And like I said to Honey on Friday, and I told her, I said, the words from the scriptures are not going to make your loss any less in George's passing.

But one thing the word of God will do, Honey, is it makes your loss temporary.

Temporary.

And if you're a brother and sister in Christ and you're one of those ones who've called upon the name of the Lord, whatever it has that has its grip on your throat, it's temporary.

It's only temporary.

And so live assured by the promise of God.

He's already put the old order on notice.

It's going down.

And the day will come when the heavens will melt with a fervent heat, and it will be over.

And then will be said, those things, the former things, have passed away.

And so here we are, just at the beginning of this sermon, a sermon where we need to understand that we are to look at God's word and affirm the realities of things based upon it.

That as God's people, we should be active in service because the Spirit has landed on all who believe.

And we can all be representatives of God to people who need to know more about Him, whether we're praying or serving or speaking.

But also, as God's people, we can be assured by His promise.

Back in 1815, over 2,000 British soldiers were either killed or wounded or missing after a half an hour of battle, and 13 Americans were dead.

All for a battle in a war that had been won.

Already over.

And I want to say something to you, brothers and sisters, as we close.

Don't fight the battle as if it isn't decided.

Don't fight the war as if it needs to be won.

Hear the words that cry out at the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The war's won.

It's already won.

The world, the flesh, and the devil have been put on notice.

It's over.

And Christ will bring it all to a close one day.

Let's pray.

Father, we're so grateful that our Savior has risen from the dead, that he's broken into the heavens eternally, and there rules and reigns.

And that he has set this world on a new course, a course of life, ushering into a kingdom of life.

We pray, Father, that all of us who have heard these words might be careful to be found in him, that we would seek him with all of our heart, and that we would call out upon him for life, for deliverance, for home.

And Father, I pray that you might comfort your people through these words.

May it give them hope in the middle of their discouragements.

May they give them perspective in the middle of seasons filled with hardship.

May it activate us all to serve as you've gifted us through the Spirit, to be your representatives.

And Father, we also pray for those who do not know you.

They would awaken to the realization that they should flee that wrath to come and enter into the kingdom of life by calling upon the Lord Jesus, who welcomes all who do.

And we pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.