The Spirit’s Work Testifies To His Finished Work

Amen.

Well, good morning, Sacred Mission.

Man, what a joy it is to be with you.

I love being in God's house with God's people.

It is such a delight to my soul.

As I was driving in this morning, I was just being filled with this sense of gladness that I was going to be with you here this morning.

And so my name is Justin.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm one of the pastors here at this beautiful and wonderful church.

And we are in our sermon series going through the book of Acts.

And so if you have a Bible or app, as you just saw, we're going to be in Acts chapter 2, verses 14 through 41.

Acts 2:14–41

And we're going to try and look at Peter's sermon at Pentecost this morning.

So make sure, open up, follow along.

But here's where I want to start with.

I want us to understand something very clearly.

A genuine move of the Spirit will always direct us to the finished work of Jesus.

A genuine move of the Spirit will always direct us to the finished work of Jesus.

Another way to frame this is that the Spirit's work testifies to Jesus' finished work.

The Spirit's work testifies to Jesus' finished work.

In John chapter 15, verse 26, Jesus actually tells his disciples that he is sending the Spirit, and when he comes, his work will be to bear faithful witness about Jesus.

John 15:26

He says this, but when the helper comes, the Spirit, the paraclete, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

This is what we see here in Peter's sermon.

Flowing from the disciples, being filled with the Spirit, and manifesting this grace gift of tongues, Peter, emboldened and filled with the Spirit, stands up to preach and testify to the person and work of Jesus.

You see, the coming of the Spirit isn't just about the manifestation of the gifts.

If it ends there, if it simply ends on the pursuit and manifestation of spirit gifts, we have reason to doubt the authenticity of the experience.

You see, I come from a Pentecostal background, a very charismatic background, where the pursuit was the manifestation of the gifts.

It was how much more wild and radical can our experiences with the spirit be?

But it rarely caused this testimony or this witness of the finished work of Jesus.

And so in the charismatic movement, you see an absence significantly of mission.

A movement without mission is not born of the Spirit.

You see, the gifts manifested are never an end in themselves.

They're a means by which God affirms, authenticates, and advances his gospel proclaimed.

The writer of Hebrews actually points to this truth in chapter 2.

Speaking of the gospel message, he writes this it was declared at first by the Lord, speaking of the gospel, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributing according to his will.

So the manifestation of spirit gifts and the preaching of the gospel are inseparable aspects of the kingdom of God advancing throughout the earth.

So having Peter stand up and boldly proclaim the gospel is what we ought to expect from a genuine move of the Spirit's presence and power.

This is the natural outflow.

This is the pattern that's actually first shown to us in Acts 2, and it carries itself throughout the entire book.

Here's what we see: the Spirit moves, the gospel is preached, and a community is formed.

This is what it looks like for the kingdom to continue to advance.

There's the movie of the Spirit, there's the proclamation of the gospel, and from that a community of people are formed.

We're going to look at that next week, right?

What does it look like when a community is formed because of the Spirit's presence and the gospel's power?

This is the rhythm of the inbreaking of the kingdom of God.

And Acts 2 opens this for us that we might see it clearly.

So as Peter stands up to begin boldly engaging the crowd before him, he actually begins by addressing their mockery and their disbelief.

Right?

He says this, for these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it's only the third hour of the day.

At the end of last week's message, it captured within the passage that many who were present witnessing this event, they said this.

They said that these people are filled with new wine.

And Peter wants to set the record straight.

We're not drunk.

I understand you think that we're just some lazy, ignorant, drunk Galileans, right?

But even we understand that there's an appropriate time of day for such things.

We're not drunk as you suppose.

But Peter isn't just pointing to an inappropriate time of day to refute their mockery.

What does he ultimately do?

He ultimately points to the fulfillment of God's promises regarding the last days that the Lord actually spoke through his prophet Joel hundreds of years earlier.

Peter tells the crowd that this isn't the result of drunkenness, but this is that.

This is that which was uttered through the prophet Joel.

And he stands up and he quotes Joel 2, 28 through 32 to them.

So we're gonna actually read Joel's prophecy that is from Peter's sermon.

Joel 2, 28 through 32 says this, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and even on the male and female servants, in those days I will pour out my spirit, and I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke, the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.

That's important, that word, that day of the Lord.

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Now, verse one of Joel 2, which we just read 28 through 32 from, says this.

It says, Blow a trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm on my holy mountain.

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming.

It is near.

This phrase, the day of the Lord.

It was a coming judgment upon Judah for their sin and rebellion.

But it wasn't just about Judah, it was eschatological in nature, meaning it was speaking of an end times that was bigger and more climactic than what was happening, particularly with Judah, here in this historical moment.

You see, Joel doesn't leave it though at just simply proclaiming judgment alone.

Throughout the entire prophecy of Joel chapter 2, he he calls for repentance from Israel.

Joel 2 · chapter mention

He promises restoration of what was lost and renewal of God's covenant blessing if they turn and repent.

And then in verse 28 through 32, Joel looks beyond the immediate restoration to a future one.

This climactic outpouring of God's Spirit and his final deliverance of his people.

And what that will look like in that prophecy is communicated in these three segments.

The first is this God's spirit will not be reserved for only a few select people of influence and prominence, but it will be poured out on all flesh.

All flesh.

Now, I really value the simplicity and the clarity that the reformer Martin Luther brings to this.

You see, he held the view that prophecy, visions, dreams are all one thing.

Namely, that it would be this it would be one gift, the Spirit being poured out on all flesh, equipping God's people with one ministry to prophesy.

And what we see is that this is the forthelling proclamation of the gospel.

So let me help us unpack this together.

When we think about the gift of prophecy, we see it on a spectrum.

There is the forthelling side of prophecy, right?

When Pastor Tyler got up this morning and he read the word of God, he proclaimed it to his people.

That is prophesying.

You are speaking the word of God.

That's a forthelling aspect of prophecy.

But we also see a foretelling aspect of prophecy, where you are revealing things that have not yet been revealed.

You're telling events of the future, you're predicting things to happen within history.

You are used by the Spirit to reveal what has not yet been revealed.

That's the foretelling side.

What I believe that Joel 228 is speaking about is minimally and essentially the forthelling proclamation of the gospel.

The Spirit will be poured out on all flesh, and all flesh who has been filled by that spirit shall prophesy, shall proclaim the gospel.

You see, Luther saw prophecy in its most simplistic and essential form as this.

He said, It is the knowledge of God through Christ, which the Holy Spirit kindles and makes to burn through the word of the gospel.

Now, though this is a simplistic view, it isn't any less supernatural.

That's what we have to wrap our mind around.

This is not any less spirit-empowered.

Because it's only the Spirit that reveals Christ within our hearts, and it's only the Spirit that emboldens us to proclaim his finished work to others.

We cannot see and behold the glory of Christ without the Spirit.

That is a supernatural event within the life of a believer.

And then we are not emboldened to preach such a dangerous gospel to the world around us without the Spirit putting courage within us to do so.

And so the forthelling prophecy of the gospel of Jesus is a spirit gift supernaturally enabled for effective ministry.

We need to appreciate that and hold that true.

But that's not all that prophecy is, but I believe in this context, that's what it is speaking to.

Now, the next segment of Joel's prophecies in regarding these cosmic signs, right?

Now, this language mirrors a lot of apocalyptic imagery, the kind used by prophets to describe these divine interventions within history.

Here's what I want us to understand.

This isn't about astronomy, right?

We're not trying to build some map with blood moons and star alignments and stuff.

That's not what we're trying to do here.

This isn't about astronomy, this is about theology.

And what the theology communicates to us is that the cosmos itself reacts to God's redemptive and judgmental acts.

In sacred mission, the reason that we have this weird-looking logo that looks like a coffee bean sprouting stuff.

No, what it is, it's actually the ring of Saturn that comes around this S because what we see is that the redemptive work of Christ is cosmic in nature.

It's not just about us as human beings, it's not just about our context or our time of history, but it is the cosmos will be redeemed.

It will respond to the finished work of Jesus.

And so we see this in the imagery of the prophecy of Joel.

And then finally, we have this third segment of the promise of deliverance.

When Peter quotes Joel 2, what he's not saying is that Joel's prophecy has been completely fulfilled at Pentecost.

Rather, he's saying, what you are witnessing is that.

This is that.

The very thing that Joel spoke of, it's beginning to unfold right here before your eyes.

The Spirit's outpouring at Pentecost is the inauguration of the day of the Lord.

So where do we live in redemptive history?

We live in the last days.

We live in the day of the Lord, where we are simply awaiting the consummation of his church at his second coming.

You see, the last days have begun, and we are in them within redemptive history.

So the Spirit who once came upon a few is now poured out on all believers, empowering the proclamation of the gospel and the advancing of God's kingdom.

Now, after addressing their mockery and disbelief, Peter calls for their attention once again.

He says, Men of Israel, hear these words.

He's going to set the record straight for them.

And Peter stands up and preaches the very first Christian, gospel-centered revival sermon ever.

We get to see what the content and focus of that message was here in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Now, his sermon can be understood in these five distinct sections.

And each section contains a set or a pair of these interconnected elements working to proclaim the truth of who Jesus was and is, and how we as people are to respond to him.

Because here's the reality of the gospel.

The gospel preach demands a response.

It demands one.

And Peter is going to walk through that at the end of his sermon.

But first, he's going to reveal who Christ is, and then he's going to call for a response to that truth.

And so Peter begins his sermon with this: the life and ministry of Jesus.

The life and ministry of Jesus.

He states that Jesus was actually proven to them.

He was proven to them by God through signs and wonders that God worked through him, even in their own midst.

Signs like the healing of the sick and the casting out of demons, even signs of nature, like the feeding of the 5,000.

And the Gospel of John says that he did so many signs that John couldn't even write enough books, nor could the world contain them if he attempted to.

And what did he do this?

He did this publicly.

This wasn't in private in some cave, and people had to come out and be like, you didn't see this, but something super cool just happened in there.

No, he was right in front of them, healing blind men and causing the lame to rise up and walk, raising Lazarus from the dead.

These were all things done in public, and he's saying that God did these signs and wonders through Christ to prove to you who he was.

So he starts with Jesus' life and ministry.

But then Peter moves on to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The death and resurrection of Jesus.

Regarding his death, Peter says this in verse 23.

This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Now, at first glance of this passage, this verse appears to present a tension to us, right?

And I want to sit in that tension for a moment.

How can God sovereignly plan Jesus' death while humans remain culpable for carrying it out?

Because this is what he says Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

You crucified him and killed by the hands of lawless men.

So here's these two things Peter puts before us the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, and they seem to exist in this tension.

But Peter sees no tension.

Peter sees no tension whatsoever, and neither should we.

Instead, what this passage reveals is this profound harmony between the two.

A harmony between God's sovereignty and human responsibility that coexists without contradiction.

Notice what Peter affirms simultaneously.

First, he affirms God's sovereignty.

Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

And he affirms human culpability.

You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

These two truths are not at odds with one another.

They're not in contention with one another.

They're held together in perfect unity.

You see, God ordained the crucifixion of his son according to his eternal purpose.

And he accomplished that purpose through the sinful choices of responsible human agents.

You see, the very sinfulness that makes these men culpable is the means that God governs to fulfill his redemptive plan.

The cross demonstrates that God's sovereign decree never eliminates human agency, but it also shows us that human agency is never able to frustrate God's purposes.

Let me say that one more time.

The cross demonstrates that God's sovereign decree does not eliminate human agency, nor does human agency have the power to frustrate God's purposes.

Both are real, both are true, and both operate in harmony under God's infinite wisdom.

I actually really value and love how John Piper communicates this truth in his book, Spectacular Sins.

He says this: he says, God did not just overcome evil at the cross, he made evil serve the overcoming of evil.

He made evil commit suicide in doing its worst evil.

That's how powerful our God is.

But the hope of the gospel isn't simply in the death of the resurrection or the death of Jesus, right?

But it's in the resurrection.

He didn't stay dead.

So Peter declares this.

About the resurrection itself in verse 24.

He says, God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Man, I love that last phrase.

It was not possible for him to be held by it, being death.

But consider that phrase for just a moment with me.

You see, this isn't merely saying that Jesus' resurrection was certain.

It's saying that death couldn't contain him.

The tomb had no power to keep him.

And Peter's word choice actually helps reveal why that is the case.

The word pangs, it means birth pains.

Peter's using this imagery of childbirth to actually describe the resurrection itself.

You see, when Jesus was laid in the tomb, the earth went into labor.

Death started to have contractions.

And nothing, nothing could stop the delivery of life.

Just as no force can halt a birth once labor has started in a woman's womb, no power could prevent life from breaking forth from that grave.

Death didn't just release Jesus begrudgingly.

Death couldn't hold him there.

The resurrection was an inevitable reality just as birth after the pangs have begun.

You see, the grave tried to contain the author of life, and in doing so, it sealed its own defeat.

New life was coming.

Death itself was in labor to bring it forth from the tomb.

Man, what a powerful imagery there.

Peter then quotes from three Psalms.

He actually quotes from two and he echoes or alludes to a third.

He quotes from Psalm 16 and 110 while echoing Psalm 132, and he does this to show this.

He does it to show how these prophecies with inside the Psalms were not prophecies foretelling about David or one of his sons, but they were actually messianic prophecies in nature.

What they were doing was pointing to their fulfillment in Jesus Himself.

This takes us to the third section of Peter's sermon, where he's ultimately establishing the testimony of Jesus upon the credibility of two witnesses, the prophets and the apostles.

For anything to be held with credibility, it had to come from at least two witnesses.

This was their culture, this was their law.

And so Peter beautifully and thoughtfully builds the case of Christ upon the evidence of these two witnesses.

And so he's going back to the Psalms and saying, you thought this was about David, or you thought this was about one of his sons, but what you didn't know is that they were foretelling the Christ who was to come, and their fulfillment would be in this man whom you crucified.

And so he uses the Psalms as the base of the prophetic witness and the reality of Jesus' public resurrection as the apostolic one.

He says this in verse 30.

Speaking of David being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath 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 seek corruption.

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.

Right?

So see the two witnesses that he gives the Old Testament, prophetic witness, and the New Testament.

It was a public resurrection.

We saw it with our own eyes.

And so he's building credibility into the account of Christ being the Son of God.

In this, the eyewitness testimony of the apostles and the written prediction of the prophets connect beautifully, giving us a credible and faithful witness to who Jesus truly was.

See, this has been Peter's path the entire sermon.

Peter is working to lead us down this road to behold the glory of who Jesus was and who Jesus is.

He was proven by God through his life and ministry.

He was crucified but resurrected from the dead.

He was foretold by the prophets and witnessed by the apostles.

He has now ascended and sent his spirit, of which they are all seeing and hearing now in this moment, all of this to display that Jesus is Lord and Savior.

That's what Peter's working to.

You want to understand why this is happening?

You want to understand why I'm standing up to preach to you?

I want to tell you this man, this Jesus is Lord and Savior.

And now a response is demanded.

You see, this here is the fourth and climactic section of Peter's sermon.

He's letting everyone know that Jesus is the true divine king and he is the true merciful deliverer.

Verse 36, he says this.

You see, Peter calling Jesus both Lord and Christ, Lord and Savior.

These aren't just labels.

These are loaded theological claims that define Jesus' identity and his role in God's redemptive plan.

You see, when Peter calls Jesus Lord, he's not speaking casually here, by any stretch of the imagination.

This word Kyrios, Lord, it was a title of sovereign authority.

And in the Greco-Roman world, it was actually one applied to Caesar, that he had sovereign authority over all of his kingdom.

But in the Septuagint, which is the Greek Old Testament, this same word, Kyrios, is the very word that they use for Yahweh, the sovereign covenant God of Israel.

So when Jesus says this Jesus is both Lord and Christ, when he calls him Lord, here's what Peter's saying.

Jesus has been exalted to the position of divine authority, that he rules at the right hand of God right now, and is not merely a prophet or a teacher, but yet he shares the divine role and identity of Israel's God.

In other words, Lord in Acts 2 means Jesus is the risen, enthroned, divine ruler, the true king, and the one to whom obedience is owed.

That's a big statement Peter's making.

But he doesn't just call him Lord, he calls him Christ as well.

Now, the word Christ means the anointed Messiah or Savior.

What it helps us understand is that through Christ, the forgiveness of sins is offered.

The deliverance from judgment is extended to those who call on his name.

And in being the true and merciful Savior, he accomplishes ultimate restoration into right covenant relationship with God.

He brings to us the removal of guilt through forgiveness of sins and the inclusion into the spirit-filled people of God.

So these titles, Lord and Savior, they work together to reveal that as Lord, the risen and exalted ruler has divine authority over all creation.

And we owe him submission to his absolute rule and reign.

Yet as Savior, he is the forgiver of sins, he is the rescuer from judgment, he's the giver of the spirit.

You see, if Jesus were only Savior, if he were only Savior, you might be tempted to treat him as just some spiritual helper in your life.

And if he were only Lord, you might fear him but never trust him.

But Peter's sermon forces both of these titles together, Lord and Savior.

And here's what he's saying.

The one who saves you is the one who rules you.

The one who saves you is the one who rules you.

And the one who rules you is the one who died and rose to save you.

That's the beauty of the gospel.

You see, that's a shocking statement to be made.

Peter is not holding any punches.

This is a sermon that has been striving to bring both clarity and confrontation to the very person and work of Jesus.

You crucified the Lord.

You rejected the Messiah.

The one you killed, he's now reigning.

The only way to escape his judgment is to actually repent and call on him as Savior.

So, Lord and Savior, they're not sentimental, affectionate titles given to Jesus by those who loved him.

They're a claim of cosmic authority, exclusive salvation, and covenantal confrontation.

That's who Jesus is.

And this truth, this revealing that Peter is preaching here before this crowd, it demands a response.

It forces this existential crisis on the crowd.

And they call out, Well, what shall we do?

Verse 37.

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.

You see, this is the only true and faithful response to the gospel: to repent and to be baptized.

There is no other faithful response to who Jesus is than this.

And so, in the conclusion of Peter's sermon, he actually shepherds their hearts in this faithful response to the gospel.

And the very first thing we must do is the very same first thing that Jesus began his public ministry preaching.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

You see, in the Old Testament, repentance communicated this turning away from sin and a turning back to God.

But in the New Testament, this word repentance carries a little bit of a different weight.

It means this deep transformation of our thinking, of our desires, and of our direction of life.

And so true repentance is this threefold change or transformation within our whole person.

The first thing that it does is it changes our mind to see sin as God sees it.

What God calls wicked, we see and we communicate as wicked.

What God calls evil, we see and we communicate what is evil.

We start to think like God thinks.

That is number one.

May we be renewed in our mind by the washing of the water of the Word.

That which He has revealed transforms this filthy mind to be able to think like He thinks.

But it doesn't just change our mind, it changes our heart.

It changes our heart to grieve sin and to desire God.

To grieve sin and its effect on others, on ourself, on the world around us.

And it rightly orders our affections to desire Him.

And lastly, it changes our will.

It changes our will to turn from sin and to obey God.

Sin no longer is our master, but God is our master.

And we obey Him.

This repentance is calling us ultimately to no longer be Lord over our own life.

That's the heart of repentance.

Stop being Lord of your own life and submit to the reality that Jesus is Lord over all creation.

We need to submit to the entirety of Christ with the entirety of our lives.

But they weren't just called to repent, they were called to be baptized also.

To be baptized is to be identified with his death and resurrection.

The very thing that Peter charged them with committing and gave us hope in revealing that Christ didn't stay dead, but he rose from the grave.

They're supposed to be identified with this truth, that they themselves might die with the one of whom they crucified and be raised to new life with him also in his grace and mercy.

You see, baptism is to unite us to our Savior.

In being united to him, we ourselves are delivered from the waters of judgment that we've been drowning in our whole life.

That's the beautiful portrait of baptism.

Now, Peter's sermon, this passage in Acts 2, it goes on to say, verse 40.

And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls.

Man, I love this.

In true Pentecostal fashion, in its most pure sense, Peter wasn't done preaching for quite some time.

It says that with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them.

This was probably like a four-hour service.

I don't even know what happened.

But a revival broke out.

3,000 people were saved at the outpouring of the Spirit and the bold preaching of the gospel.

These things going hand in hand, these inseparable realities of the inbreaking of the kingdom of God produces this revival of 3,000 people coming to faith.

Man, remember the manifestation of the Spirit's gifts and the preaching of the gospel are both essential aspects of the kingdom of God advancing throughout the earth.

We want both of those things here.

Because we want the fullness of the kingdom.

And we want to be governed by revealed truth that we might function in both faithfully.

That's the heart here at Sacred Mission.

We want to see the Spirit move.

We want to see the gospel proclaimed.

And from that, what do we want?

A community formed.

Right?

His last exhortation: save yourself from this wicked generation.

And what happens next in Acts chapter 2 is that we see the community that's formed of these believers who have all things in common and bear one another's joys and burdens, who love one another and serve one another, right?

Acts 2 · chapter mention

This community is formed because God's kingdom is being displayed throughout the earth.

We want this.

We want to function in this rhythm of the inbreaking of the kingdom of God.

So I'm excited for next week.

Where we get to see the community that is formed by both the Spirit and the gospel for the glory of God and the good of his people.