Cut to the Heart

The one whom all the sages and saints are seeking in their sacred places, he's found cast out on the cross in the midst of our suffering.

This is turning all the world upside down.

Everything the world is promising you, everything the empire is promising you, Peter says, it's empty.

It's found in this one whom the empire cast out.

The following message was recorded at Kingstree Church.

May the Spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.

So last week Pastor Sean led us through First Samuel, and we saw some, it's just really a gripping story that we're walking through in First Samuel.

And we will also be getting into those narrative elements in the book of Acts, but

Acts begins with a sermon that Peter gives, and we've been spending some time there, and we're going to look at that again this morning, just because there's so much for us to

draw out of what Peter's doing.

If you were can cast your mind back to the last time we were in Acts, we were looking at Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples.

And we said that with that coming, Luke is presenting this as the inauguration of the end-time temple.

The disciples are like the temple, and the fire of the Spirit descends upon them, filling them with the presence of God and empowering them to speak of Christ.

And then we saw this empowerment to speak of Christ bear its first fruits in Peter's sermon.

Peter stands up and gives a sermon.

The first Christian sermon, and we were looking at that last time.

And what this sermon does is really to encapsulate the essence of the apostolic message.

What did the apostles preach about Jesus?

And the essence of that can be seen in this final line that Peter gives of the sermon, kind of summing everything up in Acts chapter 2, verse 36, where he says, Let all the

Acts 2:36

house of Israel therefore know for certain.

That God has made him, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

That's that's at the very heart of the apostolic message.

And we're going to dig into it just a bit more today, specifically looking at the impact this message has on the hearers.

So in the last few weeks, we were looking at the message itself.

We're gonna do that a bit today, but we're especially looking at, okay, how does this then impact?

Those who hear it.

Specifically, I want to look at the content of this message, the very last line there.

What is the content that the apostles are preaching?

What is the effect that has in the hearers?

What is the response that leads to?

And then what are the results of that response?

You don't have to keep all that in mind, but that's going to be the structure.

The content, the effect it has in the hearers, the response it elicits from the hearers.

And then the results of that response.

Let me read to you the passage we're going to be looking at, and then we'll pray together.

So, starting in verse 36, with the very end, the summary of Peter's sermon, 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, 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 were added that number about three thousand souls.

So this week we're gonna look at the first part of that.

And then next week we're gonna look a little bit more at the promise and the coming of the Spirit, and then we'll be through Peter's message and we'll be on to the rest of the story

in Acts.

But let me pray for us as we prepare to look at this again this morning.

Father, we are, we confess to you this morning.

Weak, weak beings.

We're made of flesh and bone.

We are mortal.

We are easily broken.

We are easily confused.

We are easily thrown into uncertainty.

We are utterly needy.

I am, and my the people here, my brothers and sisters here are.

And so we come to you, Father, not in strength, not in a confidence in ourselves, not leaning on anything in us, but we come to you wholly because of you, having been called by

you, being dependent upon you, having no strength but to throw ourselves upon Christ.

And so, Father, I do that now as I begin to open your word, I cast myself upon you.

That I would be upheld and given the strength and the ability to speak truly and clearly to your beloved ones from your word.

And I pray, Lord, that all those in my hearing would be cast upon you and strengthened to hear aright and receive aright.

And that the result of this time, Father, we pray, would not be the result of just a helpful talk or an informative presentation.

But that your spirit would make this apart from my capacities, would make this a time of your working unto the saving and the healing and the raising up of your people into

Christ, because it's Him that we need and it's Him that we long for.

So I pray these things, Father, all now, in Jesus' name, amen.

So let's begin by looking one more time at the content of Peter's message.

He sums it up for us at the end.

I've already read it twice, but hear it a third time.

Here it is.

Here's wrapping up the apostolic preaching of the Christ.

He says, Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain, know this, that God has made him both Lord and Christ.

Who?

This Jesus, whom you crucified.

That's the summing up of the message.

Let's look at just two parts of that to try to get our hands around it.

Let's look at the second part first.

This Jesus, whom you crucified.

He's the one who's being preached.

The Holy Spirit, when the Spirit empowers the apostles to preach, they preach this Jesus whom you crucified.

They don't try to hide the crucifixion.

They don't try to say, yeah, forget about the fact that he was crucified.

Don't think about that.

That's weak.

That's embarrassing.

Think about this.

He's a conqueror now.

No, they hold up this Jesus crucified.

So the crucified Christ remains at the center of the apostolic preaching, the Holy Spirit.

When the Holy Spirit empowers preaching, the crucified one is at the center of it.

And Christ crucified is not just a historical fact.

Well, it happened, so we have to talk about it.

That's not that's not the way it works.

Christ crucified is the key to reality, the character of the gospel, the character of God.

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the very center of everything that's proclaimed.

It's the lens through which the gospel calls us to see everything.

Because

The crucified Jesus exposes the strength of this world as powerlessness.

Because all the strength of this world cannot save us from the fear of death.

All the strength of this world cannot free us from the guilt of sin.

All the strength of this world cannot bring us into the life of God.

But the weakness of the cross does what the strength of the world cannot.

And so the cross says the strength of the world is worthless.

It undermines all the wealth of Elon Musk that he's spending to make the perfect human.

The poverty of the cross exposes that as powerlessness.

The cross exposes the comforts of the world as fleeting, because here is a man stripped of every comfort the world can give, utterly abandoned and opened up with nothing that the

world offers.

And yet he is at the center of the peace that God gives.

He is in the bosom of the Father.

He is the beloved one of God.

And so all the comforts that this world, they're not bad, I'm not saying they're wrong, but the cross says they're passing.

They're not ultimate.

Because that right there, you can be hanging on a cross and have the reality that all the comforts of the world promise in counterfeit.

You can be at the heart of God, held by God.

Known by God.

The cross exposes the comforts of the world as fleeting.

The cross exposes the goals and the promises of the world as empty, because no one in this world says, that's what you want to be like.

You want to be like a crucified man.

The world says you want to be successful, you want to be rich, you want to be healthy, you want to be happy, you want to be fine.

But the gospel says there is the epitome of faithfulness.

There is the epitome of

Of what it means to be a human being faithful to God and gathered up.

Yes, he's lifted up in his sufferings, but to the eyes of faith, Jesus is lifted up into the arms of the Father, lifted up into the peace of God, lifted up onto the throne.

And so all the promises of the world are shown to be empty by the cross and the wisdom of the world, all the philosophies can't get to God, but the foolishness of the cross.

Brings us to God, says, here's where God is.

You want to see God?

Look at the cross on the outside of Jerusalem in 33 AD.

That's where you find him.

And the philosophies of the world cannot find him.

And so the crucified Jesus is not just a historical element in the preaching of the cross, it is the very center and character of what we believe.

And it's where the character of God is made known.

And look at it's not just that he preaches Christ crucified as something we see out there, something we look at, something that happened and we see it as spectators, but the

crucifixion of Jesus comes home to us.

This Jesus, he doesn't say this Jesus who was crucified, God has made Lord in Christ.

He says, This Jesus whom you crucified.

And so all

All of a sudden the crucified Christ stops being someone I see over there in that religious experience, or over there in that historical moment, or over there in that

factual event.

And the crucified Christ becomes someone right here in my face with whom I have to deal.

Because Peter says, You did this.

You did this.

Now, of course, he's speaking immediately most immediately to the Jewish people of his day.

The Jewish people having rejected their Messiah in their leadership, not every single one of them did, obviously.

But that extends to everyone because it is all of our sin, as the New Testament goes on to make very clear, that holds Jesus to the cross.

It is for the sin of the world that Christ is lifted up on the cross.

And so this Jesus who is crucified is this Jesus whom I.

Crucified, whom we crucified.

That's the preaching of the cross presses home there, presses down into us.

And so the cross does this.

When the cross is preached faithfully, it's doing this work.

It's touching upon us.

It's saying, I had a hand in this.

It's calling us to see my sin, my envy, my selfishness, my lovelessness.

Puts Christ on the cross.

And so Jesus crucified, again, think of the image of Christ on the cross, not just a pious image, that is a mirror of my sin.

Jesus on the cross is a mirror of my sin, where I'm looking at and saying, My God is crucified.

Why?

Because of what's what I've done, because of me, because of how I am, because of how I live.

So the cross is a mirror of our sin.

And that's what Peter is saying here.

He's saying it's not just Christ crucified, but Christ whom you crucified.

And maybe we maybe we've heard that before, you know?

It's my sin that put Jesus on the cross.

Okay.

But it's a different thing to have an apostle who knows Jesus look at us and say, This Jesus, whom you crucified, whom I crucified.

So there we see that.

That's at the center.

But then what else does he say about this Jesus?

This Jesus whom we crucified, what did we crucify him?

What did God do?

God has made him both Lord and Christ.

So I in my sin have crucified him.

God has vindicated him and said, He is this one who you crucified, he is Lord and Christ.

Over all the cosmos.

This is a moment that pins us.

I crucified him, but he is God of the universe.

That's the dynamic here.

This Jesus, whom we crucified, the Lord, God has made both Lord and Christ Lord here, meaning God's own unique name.

It's carrying that weight.

Lord here means God has declared the crucified one to be one with himself, to be one.

The one who bears his own identity and carries his own name.

This is not just one of the righteous people, this is our God Himself.

And Christ means King and Savior of the whole world.

So you can't get any higher than this: Lord and Christ.

And the very center of the apostolic message is that this one whose blood is on my hands is now raised up by God.

And shown to be one with God in every way and the ruler of the universe.

And that puts us in a difficult situation because we look now at the throne and we realize I put him on the cross by me saying, my way, not yours, I crucified the King of the

Universe and the Lord of glory.

That's this message.

That's the message that Peter's giving here.

That's the message.

That's the message that turns the world upside down.

As it says in Acts 17 6, this they're turning the whole world upside down.

And you can see how this turns the world upside down because the cross is the throne of God.

That's turning things upside down.

The defeat of self giving love is victory over the world.

God, the Holy One.

The one whom all the sages and saints are seeking in their in their sacred places, he's found cast out on the cross in the midst of our suffering.

This is turning all the world upside down.

Everything the world is promising you, everything the empire is promising you, Peter says, it's empty.

It's found in this one whom the empire cast out.

It's found in this Christ, who you thought was trash.

You threw out the the pearl of great price.

You know, you reach in your pocket, crumble it up.

This is worthless, throw it out.

And then Peter goes to the trash and says, Actually, look, this is what you threw out, everything you were seeking, everything everything life is about, you threw out because

you didn't see it.

And so that's what he's calling, that's what he's proclaiming to the people.

Now, what's the effect of this?

What's the effect of this on the hearers?

Verse thirty seven.

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

And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do?

So, what's the effect of this?

Two things.

They were cut to the heart, and then they said, What should we do?

They felt something, and they did something.

Those are the two effects that we're going to look at.

First, they felt something.

So part of the effect of the gospel going forth is.

A feeling of something.

Feelings are can be deceptive.

They can be deceptive.

They can take you all over the place.

But they can also be faithful servants.

And hear these people hear the gospel and it cuts them to the heart.

It cuts through their defenses.

It cuts through their brashness.

It cuts through their confidence and gets to the heart.

And they say, Okay, th this has a bearing on me.

Think about an example.

Maybe you're at work.

I don't know if you have this kind of work, but you can imagine that you do.

And your boss calls your team together and begins to reprimand them for something.

And you're part of it, you're in there.

But you know, this isn't my fault.

I didn't do it, I didn't do this.

And you also know your boss knows that.

I know it wasn't my fault.

He knows it wasn't my fault, but he's talking to the whole team.

You hear what he says, but it's kind of like going over your head.

You're kind of watching it happen, thinking, boy, I'm glad that's not me.

Okay, now another scenario, same situation, but you know this was actually my fault.

And you know that your boss knows this was your fault.

Now you hear those words and you're like, you're right in the spotlight, and you feel it, and you say, Wow, this is uncomfortable, this is painful, this is this is getting me.

That's what happens to Peter's hearers here.

They're they're not just standing there saying, Wow, look at that fiery preacher out there saying things about other people.

They're standing right in it and they realize, wow, this is me.

I did this.

I did this.

And that moment is happening for Peter's audience.

The crucifixion of Jesus and the resurrection of this crucified one is moving from an event that happened a few months ago in this city, isn't that too bad?

Into something that has bearing on them right now.

And they have to respond to it.

They're responsible for it.

And the gospel continues to do this because the crucifixion of Jesus isn't just something that happened in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, isn't that too bad?

It's something that is right here in our face right now.

And the gospel brings it before us.

And the gospel is meant to do this cutting work.

It's meant to cut through our defenses and to cut through our supports and our achievements and our mask.

And to get into our heart and lay us open before God, to God lifting up the body of Jesus Christ on the cross, broken and bleeding, and us seeing that and saying, This is this is

my soul reflected to me.

This is my sin put in front of me.

There's my envy wounding his body.

There's me saying, My way.

And not yours breaking my Lord.

There's my lovelessness.

There's my stubborn attempt to continue to do it my way.

There's me loving everything else in the world except Him.

There's my sin in His body.

And I can't run from it.

I can't hide from it.

I can't pretend I didn't do it.

It's there.

The gospel is intended to do that to us and lay us open before the eyes of God.

Now it's a healing word.

It's a good word, but it needs to tear first.

It needs to cut first.

Like when there's an infection, it needs to be lanced.

And that's painful.

You can't, you can't just get it better.

It needs to be opened so it can be healed.

And our souls are carrying an infection.

And just a bunch of balm on the surface isn't going to heal them.

They need to be lanced by the conviction: I did this.

I crucified him, and we're brought to the place where we say, What do I do?

What how am I to respond?

It's like it says in Hosea 6:1: the Lord tares in order that he might heal.

He kills so that he might make alive.

And if I say, I don't want to be torn, it's uncomfortable.

I don't want to be killed.

I don't want my old self to go away.

Then there's no healing and there's no life.

So this is what

Paul, what Peter preaches, they respond by feeling it.

The Holy Spirit does that.

Okay.

This is another piece we have to be clear about.

Everyone ought to feel this.

All of us have this guilt before the cross, but not everyone feels that.

Not everyone responds.

If we respond, it is grace, it is mercy, it is the working of the Spirit.

And that's what happens to this people.

But then they don't just feel it.

They say, what shall we do?

What should we do?

So Pastor Sean's message last week touched upon this, saying religious observance, nice feelings, holy intentions.

They're nothing if they're not supported by and if they're not giving the result of action, doing, doing.

What am I doing?

It's not enough to sit and hear the gospel week after week and feel good and convicted, feel good and challenged.

Feel repentant as you're sitting there or maybe as you go out.

Feel joyful.

That's great.

Praise God.

But that's not that's not the fruit.

What do we do?

What do how does that lead to a doing?

There needs to be a doing.

The apostolic message doesn't just make them feel, it leads them to do.

And that's that's what we're going to move on to then because they say they're cut to the heart, they feel it rightly.

And by grace, and they say, What do I do?

Okay, what does Peter say to do then?

We're moving on to the response.

What is the response called for?

Look at verse, end of verse 37.

Brothers, what shall we do?

Peter says to them, he gives them his response is two parts, but they are indivisible.

Okay?

Hold these two together.

Just like Peter holds them together, we hold them together, and that's going to save us from a lot of confusion.

He gives them a

One response with two parts: repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.

That's that's the response.

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

These two are indivisible.

Repent, be baptized.

Let me look at them one and then the next.

First, he says, repent.

This is what the gospel calls for.

This is what seeing Christ.

As the mirror of my sin calls for from me.

Repent.

Repent.

Now, repentance does not just mean feel bad about it, feel sorry about it.

Sometimes we can we can use feeling bad as a as a pressure valve to feel like, okay, there I did something about it.

I felt really bad about it.

Okay, now we're done.

We keep going.

Repent means turn.

That's what the word you've heard this before, but I'll press it upon you again.

Repent means turn.

It means not just saying, boy, I feel bad I was caught.

Boy, I want to avoid the consequences to what I did.

It's I am turning away from one pursuit and turning toward another.

Like we saw in our text this morning.

Put off the old.

Die and rise.

Everywhere in our faith you see this.

A dying and a rising, a going down into the water, a coming up from the water, a putting off of the old self, a putting on of the new self, a turning away from the old way,

turning toward the new way.

All of that is connected.

All of that is the s the death and resurrection of Jesus.

So he says, turn, repent.

So stop going one way, start going another way.

That's what the gospel is pressing upon.

This people.

And for them specifically, they'd never heard this before.

For them specifically, this repentance means acknowledging the crucified man, Jesus of Nazareth, is Lord and Christ.

So the repentance here involves faith.

That's at the center of this repentance.

And the implication, the addition to that is, and my lifestyle crucified him.

And so to confess that the crucified one is Lord is also to say, I'm turning from this way that crucifies my God.

And I'm turning to him to take his life on as my own, to enter into him, to submit myself to him alone.

That's what they're called to.

That's what we are called to.

And then, indivisible from that is the second part: repent and be baptized.

Repent and be baptized.

Now, this might surprise some of us.

Sometimes we are we place the emphasis so heavily on the idea that baptism is an external sign of an internal change that we can start to think, it's optional, you know?

It's not.

It's not a huge deal.

Sometimes you'll use the wedding ring analogy.

You know, the wedding ring is an external anal an external sign of my internal reality of being married.

But if this wedding ring got lost or if if we didn't have one when we get got married, it wouldn't be a huge deal.

I don't want to lose the wedding ring.

But you know what I'm saying?

It wouldn't change.

It wouldn't change.

It's ultimately it would be optional.

And we can think that about baptism.

Well, take it or leave it.

If you're really serious, if you really want everyone to know when you're good and ready, go ahead and get baptized.

But that's not what Peter does here.

And that's not what the New Testament does.

Peter says, no, the necessary response to the gospel, right together with repenting and believing, is be baptized.

He doesn't divide those two.

He says, he doesn't say repent and when you're really serious, get baptized.

Repent and when you feel like it's a good time, be baptized.

He says, repent and be baptized, holding them together.

And in fact, we don't have the time to look into this this morning, but you remember back at the end of his sermon, par when he quotes Joel, he says, Everyone who calls on the name

of the Lord will be saved.

Baptism here is being presented as what that calling looks like.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

And then he says, Every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

So he's presenting the way you call, the way your faith calls upon the Lord unto salvation is indivisible from that being baptized.

To be baptized in his name for Peter here is to call upon that name and say, You are my Lord, you are my savior, you are my king.

And this isn't unique to Peter.

Okay, Jesus in Matthew 28 19, I'll turn back to that for you quickly.

You know how this goes in the in the Great Commission, as Jesus sends out his disciples, baptism is part of what it means to make a disciple.

He says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name or into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

So for Jesus, baptism is part of what it means to trust him.

It's just right there, indivisible.

In that line we believe, we're baptized.

Same thing, Paul, a number of places, but one that I'll highlight for you this morning is Galatians.

In Galatians, the very verse that the chapter that or book that champions the fact that we're saved by faith, this is this is not in conflict with that.

But here's what Paul says in Galatians chapter three, verse 27.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

How do we enter Christ?

How do we put on Christ?

He says you're baptized into him.

That's just the categories that Paul and the New Testament are working with.

And so we know, we can know theologically, philosophically, experientially, God can and does save through faith alone.

We know that.

But

That's similar to the fact that a baby is truly alive in the womb and can be born through a c-section.

A baby can be born through a c-section.

And we can be paid, be in Christ apart from baptism.

That's true.

But the ordinary way that a baby is born into the world is through natural birth.

That's the ordinary way.

So too in the New Testament, the ordinary way someone enters into Christ is through their faith.

Manifesting in baptism through that process.

That's the ordinary way one enters Christ.

And the baptism matters, just like the birth matters.

You don't say, well, it doesn't matter if they're in the womb or out.

Well, it does matter.

It does matter, especially as time goes on.

It really matters that the baby's not in the womb anymore.

It makes a difference.

Baptism matters, matters for us spiritually.

And if we say, well, how does that work?

It can't really make any difference, right?

It's just water.

It can't really make any difference.

It doesn't really matter.

Well, think about the blood on the doorpost in the Passover.

They put the blood on the door.

That really mattered, that the blood was there.

If one of the Israelites had just said, well, the blood's there in my heart, I didn't put it on the door, just there in my heart.

Well, probably there's going to be death in that home that night.

Or again, Naaman, when he came to Elijah and sought to be healed of his leprosy, he was told to dunk in the Jordan River.

And he was kind of ashamed to do it, but he did it and he was healed.

The dunking healed him.

What if he'd said, Well, I've been dunked in my heart, I don't need to do that?

He would have still had leprosy.

Or Jesus, he can do anything, but he takes mud and he puts it on the eyes of the blind man.

And

Through that, through that means, he heals the blind man's eyes.

We don't say, well, it was a magic mud.

No, it wasn't magic mud, but that's what Jesus used to heal this man's eyes.

So there's no reason to be surprised if this same God would say, I'm going to now use the water of baptism as a genuine means by the working of the Spirit, together with our faith,

to bring us into Christ, to unite us with.

Christ.

And remember this: the church is the body of Jesus.

That's I tell you this all the time.

It's not just a metaphor.

The church is the body of Jesus Christ.

And so the water that the church baptizes with is as if it's really in Christ's hands.

When we baptize up here in Jesus' name, it's like Jesus is taking that water and really doing the baptizing.

And if mud in those hands can heal blindness,

Why is it surprising that water in those hands would work a real thing in the soul of the person, work a real good in the one who's being baptized?

So there's much more to say here, but I'll just say what Peter says.

If we're trusting Jesus, if we've repented, we need to be baptized.

And I'll put that out to all of you here as well.

If you're trusting Christ, be baptized.

If you say, I believe in him, but I haven't been baptized, you're in a category the New Testament knows nothing about.

There isn't a category for someone who's trusting Jesus, I'm in him, but I'm not baptized.

Those two go together.

Those two go together.

Okay, so he says, repent and be baptized.

And let me just say this very briefly for the sake of time.

I think most of us in here have repented and have been baptized.

And you might say, well, it doesn't have anything to do with me then.

But those two things are the pattern for the rest of our life in Christ.

We are continually turning to him.

It's not just one time.

I'm always turning to him.

And we are continually learning to go down with him into death, die to myself, die to my will, die to my preferences, die in the death of self-giving love, and find again and

again and again that's actually the way I come into life.

Giving myself up is actually the path into fullness.

So this.

Turning of repentance and this baptism, this going down and coming up with Christ.

That's the pattern of our whole life, Christian.

So if you've already done this, you don't say, I'm done with it, just like a baby doesn't say, I already breathed once.

I was born once and I breathed once.

Baby keeps breathing and the Christian keeps responding, repenting and dying with Jesus and rising again.

But now let's move to a close and look at the results that Peter promises.

He says,

Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit.

We're only going to touch on that last one because next week we're getting into it more.

So he says, Repent, be baptized, and receive the forgiveness of sins.

Now, many of us have heard that so much, it's empty to us.

We've Jesus forgives my sins.

But but may we feel what it is to have our sin forgiven.

One of the images scripture uses for sin is sickness.

It's not the only one, but it's one of them.

Sickness.

Think about the last time you were really sick, like unable to get up sick, unable to do anything, sick.

You're in your bed.

Everything is tainted by that.

Can you you remember those times you're looking up at the ceiling and you think, how was I ever frustrated by anything?

When I was healthy.

I mean, how was anything wrong?

If I could just get out of this, you are you are plunged into your sickness.

But then remember when you were healed.

It started to go away.

It got better.

And life was back.

You were given life again.

You weren't constantly coughing or blowing your nose or throwing up or whatever horrible thing it might have been.

You are free from it.

What a relief.

In those first moments, I can drink water again, I can keep down food.

What a relief.

Now, similarly, sin is sickness.

We've brought upon ourselves, we've infected ourselves with, and we infect ourselves with again and again and again.

And we might trick ourselves and think we're all right, but this sin continues to do its work in us.

This choosing my will, not yours, because really that's the essence of sin.

Not your will, mine be done.

That's the sickness under which we're all dying.

And that's the sickness that the whole world is sick with.

You could say the whole world is the disease ward for the plague of sin.

And we're all in it.

And all in one sense, from one perspective, all the movies and games and awards and parties and promises.

Of the world are shots of morphine to try to get us to forget how sick we are, to try to get us to forget how fevered we are inside of ourselves.

And nothing can heal this sickness except the man we crucified.

The forgiveness of sins is the healing of that, the healing of that fevered guilt, the healing of that emptiness, that healing of that plague.

Of sin, because on the cross, Jesus puts his hand, as it were, on our leprous soul and takes it into himself.

See the leprosy stripping off our soul and growing onto him, taking it, taking it, taking it, all the sin, removing it, going up to the cross, filled with the filth of my fevered

soul, dying in my place, leaving our sin defeated.

Rising again, healed, healed, and saying, This is your healing, this is your forgiveness, this is your purity, this is your life, because we're united to him.

And Paul Peter says that happens as we turn to Christ and are baptized into him, as we are united to him, united to him.

That's where this forgiveness comes.

And you might say, well,

Need to be baptized in order to have our forgiveness of sins.

That's part of what this verse brings up.

And we could talk about that if this was more of an academic context.

But I think the best answer to that is to say, Peter's not even asking that question.

Peter's not saying this, then this, but if you don't do this, this will happen.

He just says, repent and be baptized.

He holds them together.

And so it's enough for us to hold them together and to say, faith and baptism.

Are indivisible realities by which we are united to Christ, even as conception and birth are indivisible realities by which a child comes into the world.

And your father, I pray this is the case, and it is certainly the case with your Heavenly Father, your father loved you when you were still in the womb.

Your dad loved you, but he couldn't hold you and say to your face, I love you until you were born.

In a similar way, it is not until we are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that God speaks over us with authority.

You are my beloved child.

I am saying to you right now, I love you.

You are my child.

Hear his voice spoken in that moment and know I'm forgiven.

I'm forgiven of my sin against everything my conscience may throw at me.

I am forgiven of my sin.

I've heard him speak it to me, and I've I know that I'm united to this Christ.

So for the forgiveness of your sins.

And then lastly, and briefly as we wrap up, Peter says, and you will receive the Holy Spirit.

Now, I don't mind touching on this so short here at the end because we're going to spend next week on it.

But I do want to get here before we are done.

Because Peter says, here's part of the what is given to you, Christian: forgiveness.

Healing of that sickness and the Holy Spirit is given to you.

The Holy Spirit of God is given to you.

You become the temple of God.

You become the place where God lives.

This is a staggering thing that Peter is saying.

Probably right there in the precincts of the temple, he's saying, you will have the Spirit of God in you.

You will be the dwelling place of God.

Think about that.

Christian, you carry God with you at every moment.

That's what this means.

As a Christian, you carry God with you.

He dwells in your body and in your life.

Think about the brokenness, the pain of your body, the struggles that you feel in it.

Just feel your body and know God lives in this.

Not me.

I'm not a God.

I'm not saying, I'm the true God.

No.

The living God is not ashamed to say, I live there in your body with you, with all the problems, with all the brokenness, with all the pain.

I live there.

I count that as mine.

I have sanctified you to me.

And also, he lives in our life.

Your life, the whole story of your life, God says, I live in that.

That's my story too, because you're part of him.

That story is mine too.

He you're not figuring it out alone.

You're not going off on your own and God will get see you at the and say, wow, that was hard, wasn't it?

Glad you're here.

He's in it with you because you're united to him.

You're united to him.

So when you're sick, when you're worn down, when your body feels like it's falling apart, when life feels like it's falling apart.

God Himself says, of all that, it's mine.

I'm in it.

Like Adam said to Eve, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.

God in Christ is not ashamed to say that of you and your life and your story and the filling of the Spirit is how He says that.

He says, This is my life too.

This is my body too.

This is my story too.

Because I fill you with my presence.

And

At least one thing that that means, Christian, is that he feels everything with you.

Is there pain?

You can feel the pain in your body, right?

Uh Jess leads a karate class downstairs.

Pastor Sean and I are in that class.

Yesterday we're sparring and I go for a kick and Sean blocks with his elbow, hits the top of my foot.

I can feel that right now.

Right now, I can feel it.

I'm aware of that right now.

But your life is like that.

You hit something, you run into something, you're broken by something, you're shattered by something.

God feels that.

He feels that because you're his, you're in him.

You're in him.

His spirit is in you.

Like a branch in a vine, you are in Christ.

And he fills every moment of your life and every molecule of your being with love.

So do not despair.

Do not despair.

Nothing is unaware to him.

So that's the message.

That's the message the apostles preach.

We have crucified Christ, and he is Lord and King over all.

But if we respond, if we turn to him and are united to him by faith and baptism, then the blood on our hands that was a sign of condemnation becomes the balm of our healing.

And the spirit that we raged against in opposition

Turns and fills us in love and makes us his own, so may we respond to him.

And this table is a response to him, because right here is the witness to the Jesus whom we have crucified.

The bread is broken because I broke this body by my sin.

The wine is poured out because I spilled this blood by my indifference.

This table is the is the witness, this Jesus whom you've crucified.

But you're about to come to this table, Christian, and receive it as blessing to you.

You're about to come and eat these witnesses of your sin as promises of grace to you.

How?

Because if you repent and you turn and you come to Christ and you trust in Christ, then the body we broke in, we the body we broke by our sin is given to.

As food for our soul.

And the blood we spilled by our sin is poured out to wash us clean.

And the Christ we rejected by our sin says, Come, come to me.

I love you.

Come to me and be satisfied.

So may we respond in that way.

And if you have not trusted Christ, if you have not turned and been united to Him, trusting in Him and calling upon His name through baptism.

Let that be your response.

Let that be your response.

But if you have turned to him, then come again to this throne of our Lord and our God and receive from him all that he is for us.

Let me pray and commit this time into his hands.

So, Father, thank you.

Thank you for Jesus Christ.

What a wonder that you have filled us with your spirit, that you're not ashamed to call us your own, and you're not ashamed to call our lives your dwelling place.

We thank you, Father, for the Holy Spirit.

We thank you for Jesus Christ to whom we are united and who is all of our life, all of our hope, all of our good.

Father, take these words.

And let them find their home in our hearts.

And take now this remembrance of Christ at the table, and by the Holy Spirit, make it grace to us, make it life to us, and may we receive Christ afresh in it.

We pray in his name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabinah, Ohio, to see more of the beauty of God and the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.

Come worship with us on Sundays at 10 a.m.

or visit our website at Kingstreechurch.org.