AN URGENT EXORTATION TO ALL

Subscribe our bibles, thanks bro, describe our Bibles, and turn to Acts

Chapter two, Acts two this morning. If you don't have a Bible with

you, just raise your hand. We're passing those out right now. So

if you if you need a Bible, just raise your hand. And also

if you didn't get a bulletin on the way into the worship center, we're

passing those out two. Those are gonna be hand because there's a place to

take notes and follow along with a sermon. Turned to Acts chapter two.

We're gonna read this morning from verse twenty two all the way through forty one.

But really we're gonna focus our sermon text this morning on just a few

verses, really Peter's exhortation, how should one respond? How should one respond

to the truth of the Gospel? What does it look like to respond biblically

to the truth of the Gospel? And we'll be just focused simply on that.

It's a one point sermon this morning. That's all I've got time for.

I'm gonna sneak in some subpoints, but it's all i've got time for.

Because then we're gonna hear from five different baptism candidates their testimony of the

grace of God. You guys are going to be out of control this morning.

Out of control. We're gonna hear from five different baptism candidates, and

then we're going to celebrate the grace of God in their lives and hours.

So turn with me to Acts chapter two. Sister, would you come and

read our text for us, Acts Chapter two, verses twenty two through forty

one. 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 four knowledge 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 to

him that he would set out against his descendants, 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 that those who received his

word were baptized, and they were added that day about three thousand souls.

This is God's word. Amen, Amen, yeah, out of control,

go for it. We're going to praise the Lord. What do you do

when you've rejected God? What do you do when you have cast him aside?

Can you then become his follower? Can you then be a recipient of

His forgiveness and his favor? That is the situation and into which Peter is

preaching this first sermon of the Church. These were people who as a nation

had seen God, the person of God, heard the word of God,

seen the character of God, and had rejected him and cast him aside.

And now in the preaching that Peter does, their eyes are open, they're

cut to the heart, and they realize Jesus Christ is Lord and king.

What should we do? Of course, they're not the only ones who have

rejected God. In fact, the posture of rejecting God is kind of like

that's our default posture, like that's that's the way we start. We start

on team self. And so the question is for all of us, what

should we do? And Peter answers it, and that's where we're going to

be focused this morning. What is the right response when you realize who God

is and what He's done? And here it is, repent and be baptized

every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your

sins. That's how Peter puts it. That's my one point sermon. Now

I'll break it down. I'm explaining the pieces of it, but that is

what my aim is this morning, to persuade you to that, to repent

and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the

forgiveness of your sins. I may not persuade you while I'm speaking this morning.

You may not be persuaded. You may be persuaded this morning while someone

else is speaking, that the Spirit of God may use the words of a

another person who's testifying to the grace of God. You may hear your own

story in the mouth of another person who's getting in this water. And I

would just say, you have no idea. If you don't know Jesus,

you have no idea the joy it is to follow him in happy allegiance as

a forgiven sitter. I want to persuade you now. I know that you

are different in different situations here. Some of you would say, I know

that I'm walking in repentance. I know that I am forgiven. I know

that my sins have been removed as far as the east is from the west,

and I have publicly proclaimed I'm all in on Jesus. I am so

in like as far in as you can get into this water. That's how

far in on Jesus. I am as wet as you can be. And

if if that's you this morning, then what I want you to hear in

This message is a call to celebration, to celebrate the grace of God in

your life, to celebrate the grace of God in the in the life of

this church, to celebrate the grace of God in these baptisms. Celebrate.

But there are others of you who are here, and you would say,

I know, but I can't say those things. I know that I can't

say that I'm in joyful allegiance to King Jesus, walking in repentance before him.

I know that I can't say that I'm trusting in His work for the

forgiveness of my sins. That's just not where I'm at. I'm thrilled you're

here. We're all thrilled you're here. And I would encourage you to take

my message this morning as an exhortation. And that's how the Bible speaks about

Peter's sermon here. He exhorted them, and I want to exhort you,

persuade you know him, become truly his. You can you can become truly

His, and you become you can become publicly His in baptism. There's another

group who would say, I don't even know, I don't know. What

I do know is that I think I believe in Jesus. I think I've

believed in Jesus for a long time, but I'm starting to realize there's a

difference between believing true things about Jesus and in trusting myself to him, to

trust him for the forgiveness of my sins, to entrust my life to him.

I don't know, or you might say, I know that I've had

a baptism ceremony at some point in my life. But if baptism and being

all in on Jesus, if that's what that communicates, then I think that's

gotten disconnected. For me. Then for you, I would say, take

this exhortation as a call to resolve that. Let's resolve it. So here's

Peter's exhortation. Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name

of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. The first word in

there is repent. And I promise I'm not gonna take this word for word,

like we're not just gonna do one word at a time, but we're

gonna do the first word repent. It means to have a change of heart,

to do a one eighty to go in the opposite direction. I like

to explain it, like you were playing for one sports team and you walk

off the team and you go and you join another team, or you you

go from one one army to serving in another army. Repent. Like as

a kid, I thought I was on team Jesus because my church had faithfully

taught me the truth about Jesus. My parents had faithfully taught me the truth

about Jesus. I believed all those things, and so I said, all

right, I guess I'm on team Jesus because I believe all those things.

But then my real loyalties began to show. I believe true things about Jesus.

But what I hadn't done was repent and placed my faith in him.

That happened much later, and Peter's call to this assembly starts right there.

Repent. Jesus is king. Christ is king, and he's been treated like

a criminal. He's been cast out by you, but he has risen and

he is reigning. Repent and live in joyful allegiance to the true King.

That's the call. Coming to Christ always involves repentance, because we start off

on team self, and so coming to Christ means walking away from self and

sin and coming to him. There's always repentance involved. But I would also

have you know that it's not one and done either. Like they know,

repentance is the daily work of the Christian. That's what Martin Luther says.

Repentance is the daily work of the Christian. I'm embarrassed to say that,

even though I walked off of Team self a long time ago, Team Self

keeps calling, and I keep taking their calls. Sometimes I show up for

practice and then Jesus calls me back. In fact, there's an ordinance in

the church, the Lord's Supper. Taking communion is a time us, a

prescribed time of repentance, where we sit and we contemplate. Is there a

way in which I have dishonored my King? Or I am living in a

way that's dishonoring my King and coming to him in repentance. The fact of

matter is this is what stops most people from becoming Christians. It's not disbelieving

that a miracle could ever happen. What stops most people from submitting their lives

to Christ is that it is an act of repentance, a refuge usual to

give up Team self. I get it. I held out too that jersey

for a long time, and because I get it, I want to ask

gently, truly, how is team self going for you? I know what

it's like to be committed to yourself and your sin, and I just want

to welcome you to repent. Now. The second part of Peter's exhortation is

this, be baptized. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Be

baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Baptism is an outward sign of an

inward reality. It's a public proclamation of a faith that you hold. Right.

In that sense, it's like a wedding ring, right, it's it's

it's an outward sign of an inward reality. You can wear a ring and

not be married, and you can actually be married and not wear a ring,

although I wouldn't advise it, especially if your spouse says that's important to

me. I want you to wear that right and this sign, this sign

is I'm all in. This sign is I'm all in. I'm all in

on who Jesus is, I'm all in on on what Jesus has done,

I'm all in on what Jesus says. Let school that real quick I'm all

in on who Jesus is. That is to say, he is Lord,

he is King, he is God and man and therefore the mediator between God

and man. I'm all in on what Jesus has done. He has died,

he has risen, he reigns. I'm all in on what Jesus says.

That is, I'm living out his instructions and commands about love and money

and sex and generosity. I'm living out his instructions about truthfulness and prayer and

community and hope. I'm all in. And this is also where people can

get tripped up in disconnecting baptism and being all in, or that is to

say, disconnecting the act of baptism and the meaning of baptism right right,

just like like I said, when I was seven years old, I had

a baptism ceremony, but that was me just wearing a ring without being married.

My faith wasn't in Christ, my allegiance wasn't to him, and that

might be you. Baptism without faith is like a ring without a marriage.

It's just jewelry. Now, you can also have faith without baptism, just

like you can be married and actually not wear your ring again. Wouldn't advise

it, especially if you're married to my wife. But I can understand,

I think the idea of someone who says, you know what, I have

genuine faith in Christ. I'm all in on Jesus. And if I'm all

in on Jesus now, I don't need to be baptized to make that more

real. And in one sense, you'd be right. Being his is a

matter of faith, not water. Baptism is something that Christians. Doesn't make

you a Christian. It's something that Christians do right. But I think it

would demonstrate a misunderstanding. It would be a misunderstanding of marriage, because when

you're married, you're not just joined at the heart. You're joined in life.

You publicly stand with your spouse. You're together on this and the same

thing is true in faith. You're not just joined with Jesus at the heart,

definitely that, but you're joined with Christ in life and beyond life.

Your faith is both personal and public. You stand with him, and more

importantly, he stands with you. I mean, furthermore, if you say

you're all in on Jesus, but then when he says I want you to

be baptized, you're like, I don't think so. I don't think you

understand what being all in is. But listen, if you're here this morning

and you're like, I think my faith and baptism have gotten disconnected. For

me, I think in my mind the act of baptism and the meaning of

baptism need to be joined. Let's talk. Right after this service. Right

outside those doors, there's a table we call Step one, which is where

just people go to say, Hey, I want to talk about that.

Whatever that is, whatever we talked about today. If you want to talk

about it, go to Step one. We talk about that. Let's talk.

You talk to me or anybody else's there. Here's the last phrase from

Peter's exhortation. His exhortation is overall like, here's the response to the gospel

that Peter says. This is the right way to respond to the gospel.

Repent and be baptized all of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for

the forgiveness of your sins. For the forgiveness of your sins. In other

words, there's good news if you walk away from team self, if you

walk away from self and sin and you come to Christ saying, can I

get on this team? Guess what his answer is yes. The Bible says

that he receives all who come to him in genuine repentance and faith. He

forgives all your prior rebellion. He forgives all the harm that you have done

to the people who are made in his image. He forgives your denial of

who he is. He forgives your denial of what he said. Everything he

will cover. And that's what we celebrate in the Cross. That is what

we celebrate in the Cross, that Jesus laid his own life down in judgment

for sins. Payment has been made. The question is will you trust him

on that basis leaving team self behind and trusting his work on the Cross as

all the judgment for your sins. And if you're here this morning, you're

like, yes, I want that. Let's talk. You know where to

find us, right outside those doors.