This Jesus is Lord | Myles Holmes

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to open them up to Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

We're going to be in verses 14 to 41.

And as you are opening there, I do want to again welcome you to our new meeting location, a new place for Redemption Church to call home.

In many ways, it is a special Sunday.

You kind of always remember these days, don't you, when you move into a new location, whether it's a first house or a new place for a church to meet.

In many ways, the everything we're doing is the same.

Now I'm going to invite these ushers to come forward with their Bibles.

I see them all staring at me back there.

You can open your Bibles to Acts 2.

If you don't have a copy of God's Word, you can flag down one of these ushers.

They'd love to get a copy into your hands, which you can keep as our gift to you.

In many ways, what we're doing this morning is the same, and find it incredible that the Holy Spirit has really set it up this way for us to be in Acts chapter 2, verse 14, in what is the first sermon ever preached to the new covenant church.

Acts 2:14

What a special Sunday for us to gather.

First, you know, ever we've kind of pointed this out a lot, haven't we?

It's kind of fun, whether it's your last or your first, first time we ever meet together, first time you ever sit in the chair, first time you ever walk through those doors.

Now, just by way of introduction, I want to thank so many of you that made it possible for us to be here this morning.

I found it astounding standing out there that many who walked in, it was not their first time in the building because over the last two weeks they had spent a lot of time here setting things up, setting up a storage room, bringing things over from the old tur uh old church.

And so just so incredibly thankful for so many of you that have served so faithfully over these past few weeks.

Especially if you see Joel and Julie this morning, would you just give them a pat on the back, a hug, tell them how thankful you are for them?

They have been working overtime to make sure that our getting into this place, this place is a warm welcome for our church.

And so I'm incredibly thankful for them.

We find ourselves, though, on this special Sunday in a special text.

At this point in an Acts, Jesus has risen.

He has met with his disciples and the apostles for 40 days, and they saw him ascend and take the throne.

The risen Christ is now reigning.

It is the message of Acts, and yet you and I find this sort of fascinating, don't we?

Whenever a new leader comes into power, the first question we have is, what will that power be like?

What kind of leader are they gonna be?

And whether it's a prime minister or president or a CEO, sort of all eyes, all ears are on that very first speech, what are they gonna say?

What is their leadership going to be defined by?

And as Jesus ascends into heaven and seats himself on the throne, the question that the world is asking is, what kind of Lord is this?

Now it's a very intense question in Acts chapter 2, because they're not only asking what kind of Lord is this, as they look at Jesus Christ specifically, the crowd in Acts 2 is asking this question: How will the risen Jesus treat the people who have rejected him?

Acts 2 · chapter mention

How will the reigning Lord, who is now seated on the throne, who is making his enemies his footstool, who has said there uh that I rule over all things, that there is not a square inch over all creation that I do not rule over, how will this crowd, the very ones who crucified him, who rejected him, who killed him, how will they be received by this Lord?

What kind of Lord is he?

And at the heart of the first Christian sermon, it is so comforting for us to hear this good news is this message from the risen Lord Himself through the servant that is Peter preaching the first sermon.

The heart of the first Christian sermon is this announcement that no matter what you have done to Jesus, he is the kind of Lord who saves.

What an astounding message of hope, of mercy, of forgiveness, that no matter what you've done, that that even if you have killed God's own son, even if you have murdered the Son of God, his first message to murderers, is that you can be saved, is that you can be forgiven.

Spirit has been poured out, the crowd has heard the mighty works of God, and Peter now stands to explain what it all means.

It's fitting, isn't it?

It's fitting here as at the first Sunday here at King Christian School as Redemption Church meets, that we study together the very heartbeat of the Christian church.

I want to read it with you, and as we do, I'd ask you to stand as we read from Acts chapter 2, verse 14 to 41.

Acts 2:14–41

But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them.

Men of Judah and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words.

For these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.

But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel.

And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even on my male servants and female servants, in those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy, and I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke, the sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.

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

Men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.

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

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

For David says, Concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.

Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced.

My flesh also will dwell in hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your holy one seek 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 one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of 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?

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 promises for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

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

So those who received his word were baptized.

And they were added that day about three thousand souls.

This is the word of the Lord.

You can grab a seat this morning.

The heart of the Christian message, since the very first sermon, the message that rings in our ears every time we hear the gospel is that no matter what you have done to Jesus, loved one, no matter what you have done to Jesus, he is the kind of Lord who saves.

What kind of Lord is this that people ask?

And before Peter will name what they have done to Jesus, he wants them to hear a promise that everyone, that everyone who simply calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

I want you to see this first.

What kind of Lord is this we're asking this morning?

The first thing I want you to see is that it is the Lord who promises to save.

It is the Lord who promises to save.

Now you will remember last week that we studied Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, where God's Spirit was poured out on 120 disciples, and there is a miracle of speaking in tongues where many who were gathered, speaking different languages, heard and understood the mighty works of God.

And at the end of Acts 2, you see there in verse 12 that the crowd stands amazed and perplexed, and they ask a really good question.

What does this mean?

What does this mean?

They need interpretation.

They need someone to stand up and preach and proclaim Jesus Christ.

Now, some of the other ones have already made a statement.

Look at verse 13, but but others mocking said they're filled with some sort of new wine.

Peter then stands up to say, Listen, this is not drunkenness.

This is not a party happening beside me.

These disciples on whom the Spirit has poured out, they're not saying, listen, it's 12 o'clock somewhere, okay?

No, it's not drunkenness.

This, Peter says, is what was uttered through the prophet Joel.

Pentecost is not just some amazing experience of people speaking in tongues.

It's not even about the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost, Peter says, is about the fulfillment of what God had always promised to his people.

So Peter then stands up and says, listen, if you want to understand Pentecost, you need to look at this through the framework of God's promise.

Look then at verse 17.

And in the last days, the prophet Joel says in chapter 2 of Joel, he says, In the last days it shall be, God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

That is the emphasis of the fulfillment of the prophecy, that the Holy Spirit would come to everyone.

How will you know?

Well, then He he distinguishes.

Well, sons and daughters, they shall prophesy.

They'll be filled with the gifts of the Spirit.

They'll see visions, they'll see dreams.

Verse 18 even on my male servants and female servants, I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy without discrimination.

And we will see this through the book of Acts.

Without discrimination, God will pour out his spirit, not on the high and mighty, not on the religious who have their lives together.

God will pour out his spirit on anyone who calls on the name of the Lord.

And loved one, if you want proof of that, all you need to do is read this sermon and consider who it was to.

It was to the very people who crucified Jesus.

And to those people, Jesus now comes reigning and ascended and says, Listen, if you will call on me, then you will be saved.

It comes to anyone.

Now listen, immediately our minds go to prophecy.

Well, how does prophecy work in the in the New Testament church then?

And I want you to know we will get there, but we're not gonna deal with it here.

Okay?

I want you to come back in like four months.

We'll get there, okay?

We'll get there.

But what Peter wants us to see in the prophecy of Joel is that this the Pentecost is the fulfillment of God's promise.

And listen, whenever we digest the good news of Jesus Christ, I want you to understand it is such a relief from what the world preaches, isn't it?

Everywhere you look in the world, people assign importance according to your ability to be.

Maybe it's successful.

Isn't it in our world that we give ear to the ones who have been successful according to worldly standards?

Isn't it in our neighborhoods that we we we assign importance to the ones who have money or at least look like they have money?

Everywhere you look in the world, people are categorizing people according to their perceived importance.

And here in the gospel, everything is laid low, and God comes at the very beginning to say that the overlooked are among those through whom he makes his mighty works known.

The promise has come to everyone.

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

Now, not only is this the fulfillment of God's promise, but Peter also wants these people to know that the promise comes with urgency.

Do you see that in verse 19?

The sun, he says, sorry, in verse 19, I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on earth below, blood and fire, vapor of smoke, the sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes the great and magnificent day.

Peter wants these this crowd to know, wants us to understand and through this prophecy that we are in the last days, that we're in the last days now.

And to this crowd that had just witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus, Peter starts pointing to some signs that show we're in the last days.

He says, There will be signs on earth below, blood, to which this crowd had at least witnessed the testimony of the apostles who saw the blood of Jesus dripping down his forehead, dripping off the cross, coming out of his side.

Blood would come fire, as tongues of fire have come, vapor of smoke, the sun shall be turned to darkness.

The dark, the supernatural, miraculous darkness covered the land when Jesus was crucified.

And these people knew according to these signs that it was the beginning of the end, that the last days had come, that they were being fulfilled and begun in their very presence.

That's the message that Peter has for us this morning.

We are in the last days.

The day of the Lord is coming.

And at the heart of Pentecost is good news, but I want you to understand that it's not just casual news.

It's not news that you can accept like you accept your favorite sports team winning the game last night.

It's so much more urgent than that.

That's why, if you look down at verse 40, notice how Peter is exhorting these people.

See that in verse 40?

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

Peter is pleading with us.

The Holy Spirit is pleading with us this morning.

Listen, the day of the Lord is coming.

I mean, this is the context of Joel's prophecy.

If you read Joel, in chapter one, Joel says this, listen, devastation has come upon the land.

Israel is facing some sort of famine.

Whether it was a plague of locusts that wiped out the farmland, they're facing famine.

But Joel stands up and he says, Listen, you think this is bad?

I want you to understand something: that the day of the Lord is coming.

There is a day where you will stand before God and he will be the judge.

And so listen, Joel says to Israel, if you think things are bad now, this is just a preview of the coming judgment.

And loved one, I can't help but to think that we find ourselves in the very same place, don't we?

That maybe you look at our nation and you think, man, things are getting really bad.

Maybe you look at the conflict of nations and you say, man, this is a mess that we're in.

Maybe you look at the economy, you say, how could it get any worse?

And I want you to understand the message of the scriptures is this that if things are bad here, they are only a preview of what is coming on that day where the Lord returns.

And so Joel says in chapter 2, verse 11, the verse right before Peter quotes, he says, For the day of the Lord is great and awesome.

Who can endure it?

Who can endure it?

And it's the message of Joel in chapter two is to return to the Lord because he is gracious and merciful and abounding in steadfast love.

The day of the Lord is coming, but loved one, look at verse 21.

Listen to the hope that the Holy Spirit wants to instill in our hearts this morning, and it shall come to pass that everyone, everyone, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

The promise is wide.

Everyone.

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

The message that Peter stands up to declare is not listen, the day of the Lord is coming.

Here's what you need to do in order to escape it.

The message is look how willing God is to save.

Look how willing God is to rescue.

And look who will be saved on that day.

And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.

What does it mean to you to be a Christian?

How do you know that you are saved?

Here is the question Have you called on the name of the Lord?

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

What do they what do they bring?

Jesus isn't asking for a worthy record.

Jesus isn't asking for a religious performance.

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

How do you know you are saved?

How do you know that on the day of the Lord you will stand before God and pass through judgment into eternal life?

Loved one, have you called on the name of the Lord?

Have you called out to him for rescue?

I love you hear in the news of a person that gets lost in maybe a national park and they've deployed the search and rescue team, and the search and rescue team is out to find that person.

You never hear any information about the person, don't you?

The search and rescue team, you imagine they don't even really care.

All they know is that someone is lost.

And the thing that qualifies that person for rescue is the fact that they are lost and that they need rescue.

There's no looking into their resume, well, they are they worthy of being rescued?

The thing that qualifies them for rescue is their need to be rescued.

And loved ones, when Jesus came, he said he came to seek and save the lost.

What was the job description of our Savior?

It was that to be a savior, to be a rescuer, to be a redeemer.

And so listen, if you find yourself In this place with sin.

If you find this yourself in this place with shame, if you find yourself in this place looking at your life and saying, I really gotta clean things up for the Lord, I know I'm not sufficient right now.

I'm in a mess.

I want you to understand you are lost.

And it is the lost that Jesus came to seek and to save.

And so we need to apply the gospel to our lives right now.

And you need to understand that your worthiness before the Lord, it has nothing to do with your worthiness to be rescued.

It has everything to do with your lostness.

It has everything to do with the character of the Lord.

That is what it means to call on the name of the Lord.

In our day and age, our names don't really mean anything, do they?

I wish they did because Miles apparently means mighty warrior.

And I wish that some of you would ask me about what that means more and believe that I'm a mighty warrior.

But we don't, right?

We don't assign meaning to our names, and yet in the Old Testament they did left, right, and center.

And to call on the name of the Lord was to call on his character.

That's how we know we're saved.

It's the strength of the one we call upon.

It's not about the reality of your sin, it's about the depth of the mercy of God.

And so we call on him.

And I love that in verse 39, again, look down with me at verse 39.

What Peter says as he summarizes this message for the promise, the promise is for you and for your children.

And I love this for all who are far off.

Everyone whom the Lord calls to himself.

Who does God want?

He wants the far off.

He wants those who are far off.

And it's what it means to be a Christian.

At the very heart of the Christian faith is the identity of the Christian who calls upon the name of the Lord.

That's why calling upon the name of the Lord is not just about your salvation, it's also about the continuation of your faith.

To be a Christian is to be one who calls on the name of the Lord.

That calling is not then just simply asking God for help.

In the Old Testament, calling on the name of the Lord is worship language.

In Genesis chapter 12, verse 8, Abraham builds an altar to the Lord, and there we are told he calls upon the name of the Lord.

Genesis 12:8

Read through the book of Psalms and circle every time you hear the psalmist cry out to God, call out to God.

All throughout the Psalms, calling on the Lord is joined to prayer, to thanksgiving, to sacrifice, to public praise.

To call upon his name is to invoke God because you know who he is.

You know that he is a God who is dependable, and so you call out to his name.

You know he is a God who hears you, and so you call out to his name.

You know who he is a God who, whenever you turn to him, he lavishes you with grace.

And so what do you do in a time of need?

You call out to his name.

That's what the people of God do.

Loved one, it's why when we gather together we worship.

It's why we sing songs of praise.

And it's something you're gonna begin to see as we work through the book of Acts that the way that we structure our services as a church, it's not by accident and it's not pragmatic because this will just be what serves our church best.

At its very heart, it's rooted in our identity of who we are as children of God.

To be a child of God is to be one who calls out to him.

It is to be one who has been rescued by him.

It is to be one who was once lost, but now is found.

And we make a habit, we make it our life, we make the foundation of our life calling out to God, calling out for help, calling out praise to him.

The people that God saves by calling on his name are a people that become characterized by calling on his name.

I wonder then, you know, in this new era of our church, in a season where the worship will be stripped back and we're gonna sit under these fluorescent lights for a little bit, we lost the stained glass window, but we found some fluorescent lights, and so here we are.

I wonder if in this season, in this new space, perhaps God is giving us a gift to specifically make this a season about calling out to the Lord.

You know, I find it fascinating about our worship.

We have a great worship team.

I love our worship team.

I love our electric guitar players.

I always tell Joel, we gotta give our electric guitar players like a huge solo.

Maybe Easter.

I feel like Easter Sunday, you could give the electric guitar players a big solo.

We could get the, you know, you we could put the stage out into the middle, they could come out and just like, you know, shred.

I tell them, we got great guitar players, they gotta do that.

I'm looking at some of the guitar players who are like, this is the worst idea ever.

Please don't talk to Joel anymore.

We've got great electric.

I I love our electric guitar players.

You know what an electric guitar can't do?

It can't call in the name of the Lord.

Electric guitars, they serve the music.

Piano, it serves the music.

The instruments serve the music.

But the most important instrument is the instrument of the congregation's voice.

The voice that calls out to the name of the Lord, the voice that declares, like we did this morning, God, I was lost, but now you found me.

You found me.

What we are doing is so important when we gather together.

And so, loved ones, church, could we make this a season where like together we call out to the name of the Lord, where we we sing with passion, where we sing with heart, where we sing with volume to say, God, you have saved me.

God, you have done a mighty work, not only in me, but in this church, and we marvel and astound at who you are and how great you are, and we are here to call upon your name.

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

But but notice that Peter has not yet named who that Lord is.

And so the very next question that this crowd has then is: who is this Lord?

And if this is Jesus, what's he gonna do with those who have rejected him?

Second thing I want you to see about Jesus and what kind of Lord he is this morning, that he is the Lord whom we have rejected.

When Peter gets into his sermon after quoting the prophet Joel, he really starts to compare what God has done with Jesus and what not only this crowd has done with Jesus, but with what we have done with him.

Notice in verse 22 that Peter tells the crowd listen, God attested to Jesus with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.

In the life of Jesus, Peter says, you saw that God attested him.

How?

He was performing miracles.

He was casting out demons, he was raising the dead to life, he was performing miracles of healing.

This is what God has done.

He put God Jesus forward, he made him known.

But look at verse 23, put your eyes on the text here.

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

God's definite plan and human rebellion at the cross, they meet.

Peter then has promised salvation to everyone who believes.

And then he looks to the crowd and he says, You know who you are?

You are the ones who crucified and killed Jesus.

Now, the amazing thing is that this crowd, in all reality, they didn't.

They weren't there.

They weren't the ones who nailed the crow the who nailed Jesus' hands to the cross.

And yet by their sin they were there.

And likewise we were not there.

But the very reality of the cross exposes the same heart in us.

That while we need Jesus to save us, we resist him.

While we need Jesus to rescue us, we constantly look at him and want to be in control of his rule over our lives.

We resist his rule in us.

I love the way that some of the songs that we sing as a church express this.

We sing it in Man of Sorrows, we will sing it in a few moments, that Jesus came to reconcile the very ones who nailed him to that tree.

And don't we sing it in how deep the Father's love?

It was my sin that held him there.

Loved one, I wonder where in your life you are resisting the Son of God who now reigns and is seated on the throne in heaven.

Maybe there are areas in your life where you long for the comfort of God, but you reject the correction of God.

Maybe as you look at your life, you are willing to cry out to God when things are hard.

You're willing to cry out to God when things are confusing.

But when life gets easy, you forget him.

And you live reliant on your own power.

Maybe you hear the call to be satisfied in Christ, but you reject him day in and day out as you seek the fleeting pleasures of sin.

And if none of those bring conviction to our souls, I'm convinced that on that day that we stand before the Lord, our phones will bring condemnation to us.

As we look at our screen time and we said, I don't know, I don't have time to hear the voice of God, and yet we see all that we really did have time for.

We are a people who, needing the rule of God and the salvation of God in our lives, have done nothing but resist Him.

We need this Lord to save us, yet we have treated His voice as optional and His rule as an intrusion onto our lives.

We've resisted the very Lord we need.

And the question that I have in light of that is what will God do with us?

What will God do with a people who have rejected and opposed his son?

I know what I would do as a father.

You know, this past summer we were vacationing and we took our, we have four girls, and so whenever we go, it's just a big public scene, and everyone's shocked and saying sorry to me.

We took him to get ice cream.

And there is this sweet old lady.

She seems sweet.

And she looked at us and she said, Wow, three girls.

That's a lot of girls.

And you know, we're used to this.

Then she looked at our youngest, Lucy, who was maybe nine months at the time, and she said, I hope this one's a boy.

And when she said that, she crossed the line.

She wished into existence a boy when we had a girl that we loved so I mean, we just love having four girls.

Honestly, I look at some of your boys and I can't imagine having boys.

Because you're out there in the lobby and they're kicking your shins, and you're like, you know, and I my girls they come and they just hug that I I've already gotten 10,000 hugs this morning.

I can't imagine it.

We love our girl, and immediately this lady was on the blocked list.

I mean, we did we had we didn't want to hear anything from this lady.

She had crossed the line.

I mean, you don't do that to our children.

And loved ones, you think about what you've done to Jesus, the Son of God.

What's the Father gonna do with you?

What's the Father going to do with the people who have rejected his son?

But but look, loved ones, look at verse 24.

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

God made his son known, they crucified him, and the father raised him up so that no matter what you have done to Jesus, it will not thwart God's plan of redemption.

You can kill God's own son, and God's mercy is so great that he will raise him to new life to bring you redemption.

Now, God wants us to have this rock solid confidence.

So notice what Peter does then.

He roots it in the promise of Scripture.

He wants us to understand this has always been God's plan.

God had always spoken of a resurrection, and he did it a thousand years earlier through David.

He says to David, in verse 27, this promise, you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your holy one see corruption.

David was promised that he, that one in his line would not taste death, that there was coming one who would sit on the throne, that would remain seated there forever.

Now Peter looks at this promise and he points out the obvious in verse 29.

I love, I mean, this just seems so obvious.

Brothers, may I say to you with confidence that David is dead?

I mean, I can't imagine if you're Israel, thousands of years after David died, saying, I mean, no duh, Peter.

We don't need to be scientists to figure this out.

We know David is dead.

But what is his point?

David's body did see corruption.

David's body did die.

So, verse 30, being therefore a prophet, knowing that God had sworn with an oath that that to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, verse 31, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Jesus.

Notice this loved one about prophecy.

Notice what prophecy is.

So much of the confusion that we have around the spiritual gifts can be sorted out if we just ask what the spiritual gifts even are.

We saw that last week at Pentecost with tongues.

We see that this week with prophecy.

David is doing the work of a prophet when he looks at the promise of God and can trace it to its fulfillment in Christ.

It's what prophecy is.

To be able to look at the promise of God and trace its fulfillment in Christ.

David looks at this promise made to him and he recognizes that he will die, that his kingship will come to an end.

And I just read through the story of David, and if you've ever read through it yourself, it's this constant ominous music that plays behind David.

He's a great king until Bathsheba.

When he commits adultery with Bathsheba and he murders Uriah, his kingship is a mess after that.

And you're reading through David's life and you're saying, just be a king, like just do something.

And it's really pathetic near the end of his life.

And then something ends David's kingship for good, and it's his death.

And David recognized that this promise was made to someone to whom death would not defeat.

That the promised son of David would not only defeat sin like David couldn't, he would defeat death like David couldn't.

What Peter does then in verse 32 is he looks at the promise of David and he traces its fulfillment to Jesus.

Do you see that in verse 32?

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

There are many today who look at what happened on Pentecost and want to make it all about the experience of Pentecost.

We need to experience the falling of the Holy Spirit again.

There are many who look at Pentecost and make it all about the work of the Holy Spirit.

When Peter thinks about Pentecost, notice that the center of Pentecost is ultimately Jesus.

The message of Pentecost for the church is that the Jesus that was rejected is now reigning.

He has been raised, verse 33, and in his resurrection, verse 33, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God.

He has received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost is about Jesus.

The crowd comes running because they hear the sights and the sounds of Pentecost.

They see the miracle, but the gift that Peter has for them is the gospel that Jesus now reigns.

He then quotes Psalm 110.

Again, a promise made to David.

David's Lord would be seated at God's right hand until his enemies are made his footstool.

And the news that Peter has to proclaim is not just that, hey, listen, Jesus went to heaven.

It's that Jesus is now reigning.

It's that Jesus is the king.

It's that Jesus has defeated our greatest enemy.

That the one that they killed is alive, that the one that they rejected is reigning.

Now that he is in heaven, there is nothing that they can do to undo what they have done to him.

They find themselves as those who have rejected Jesus, as those who have rejected his reign.

And there's this sense of hopelessness.

There's nothing you can do to make up the problem.

Verse 36, he summarizes everything.

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord in Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

Loved ones, we we stand before Jesus with a great problem, that we have spent our lives rejecting his reign.

That by our sin we have crucified the Lord.

That you have lived long enough to sin against the reign and authority of Jesus Christ, that you have made yourself by the way that you live, by your ignorance about God's law in your life, by the continual returning to what God has called sin, you have made yourself an enemy of God.

You stand before God as a sinner.

And there is nothing you can do to change that reality.

You can't just leave this place and ignore Jesus and hope everything will be okay.

The day of the Lord is coming, and there is a day where you will stand before him in judgment.

And David says that the king's enemy will be beneath his feet.

That means that right now that you can't just remain safely undecided about Jesus.

You must make a decision.

What will you do?

What can you do?

There's great application here if your faith is in Jesus Christ.

Loved ones, do you see the cost of your sin?

You see the cost of your sin.

We are so quick to make excuses for our sin.

I just lashed out in anger because I was tired.

I just fell into lust because I was so busy.

We make excuses for our sin, and yet here at the heart of it is the crowd seeing that it was their sin that nailed Jesus to the cross, that as the precious blood of Jesus poured down the cross, there was no reason for it but their own sin.

That as Jesus was in the garden and he was sweating blood, so filled with anxiety and awareness of what was to come as he was forsaken by God the Father, that it was their sin, loved one, that it's your sin.

Are you aware?

Do you connect the reality of your sin to the very reality that Jesus had to hang on the cross and cry out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why?

Why did he have to cry that out for you?

Because of the reality of what you keep returning to.

Would you look then at your sin and see how horrible it is?

See the disgusting nature of it, see the consequences of your sin.

It was my sin that nailed him to that tree.

What hope is there?

What hope is there for people who need this Lord to save them but have resisted and rejected him?

The hope is that Jesus is not only the kind of Lord.

That we rejected, that Jesus is the kind of Lord who offers forgiveness.

I want you to see that thirdly, that Jesus is the kind of Lord who offers forgiveness.

And in verse 37, the gospel does what it has to do in every believer.

It becomes personal.

And where this crowd once asked, what does this mean?

Notice what they ask in verse 37.

Being cut to the heart, they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

That's when life change begins to happen in life.

When you can no longer keep Jesus at a distance, when you see your sin, and you see the severity of your sin, and you stop trying to explain it away, and you are simply cut to the heart with conviction.

You know, I pray a lot of things for this church.

And in this new era, my mind has been on, Lord, what would you do in this people?

And I cannot help but to think that it must start here.

Praying that the Spirit of God would cut us to the heart, that we would stop making excuses for our sin and ask this question: what shall we, what shall we do?

And listen to the message of hope that Peter gives to us in verse 38.

Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, for the forgiveness of your sins.

There is a way for a people who killed the Son of God to be forgiven.

No matter what you have done to Jesus Christ, no matter the depth of sin that you have been in this week, there is a way, loved one, for you to experience forgiveness.

Will you repent of it?

Repent and be baptized, says Peter.

We must then repent.

We must see what sin is, agree with what God says about it, and do the work of repentance.

Literally, it means to turn away from sin.

I love what the Puritan says about repentance.

Thomas Brooks, and I'm sorry to be vulgar here, but nothing can make us hate sin more.

Thomas Brooks called repentance the vomit of the soul.

And that is exactly what it is.

Repentance is when you spiritually get rid of that which is making you sick, and it is what is needed.

Are there not some foods, loved ones, that when you think about right now, you can't eat anymore?

They were good.

I'm thinking about a dish right now.

I just wish I could eat it.

I can't anymore.

Because one time I ate it and then I got sick after.

And the taste is nude.

I just it repulses me.

As good as that had been, uh, repentance is the vomit of the soul.

When you repent, the sin that you once defended, the sin that you once excused, the sin that you once even enjoyed, the spirit comes and does a work and you see it for what it is, and you now reject it.

Love ones, where do you need repentance in your life?

What anger are you calling exhaustion?

What pride are you calling conviction?

What prayerlessness are you calling a busy season?

And what if today you stopped explaining it and just turned to the Lord and said, Lord, I've sinned against you?

Repentance is turning from your sin.

I want you to notice that to repent and be baptized is the two sides of the same coin.

Baptism then declares who you are turning to.

It is a declaration.

The one I have resisted is the one I belong to.

And so the question is not just, will they repent from their sin?

Will they turn from their sin?

But the question is, how can repentance possibly save a people who are this guilty?

And Peter says something very strange to them.

You must repent and then you must get in the water.

We say the same thing to people who are baptized in our church.

Listen, if you want to get baptized, you've got to get into a bathtub in front of everybody in the church.

It's a very strange thing to say.

And yet remember that at Pentecost, Israel was hearing the sights and sounds of Sinai.

When Israel came to Mount Sinai, how did they get there?

Do you remember?

They walked through walls of water.

It was this miraculous deliverance of God's people.

But when they got to the other side of the Red Sea, they turned around and the Egyptians were chasing them, and they saw the Egyptians face the judgment of God.

How were did they face it?

The waters came crashing over them in judgment, and God's enemies were defeated.

All throughout Israel's history, water meant judgment.

When Jonah rebelled against God, he was thrown into the waters.

Everywhere Israel turned in their history, they saw that water equaled judgment.

And now what does Peter say?

You must repent and you must be baptized.

You must enter into the waters of judgment.

How can people who rejected God's son pass through judgment by entering into the waters of baptism and uniting their heart to Jesus's who passed through judgment on their behalf?

That is why Paul says in Romans chapter 6: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

The reason that we can have life is not because water can take our guilt away.

It's because when we stand in the waters of baptism, we are united to the crucified and risen Jesus who can take our guilt away.

That is what baptism is.

It is the outward symbol of an inward reality that has happened in Jesus Christ.

And when Peter says, repent and be baptized, he offers to the people of God a way to pass through the judgment.

You know, it's fascinating as you as you continue to track the history of God's people at Mount Sinai that when Peter ends this, the summary that Luke gives us in verse 41 is that is this so those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls.

They had passed through judgment in the waters of baptism to eternal life.

You know, there's another time in Israel's history where 3,000 people died because of the judgment of God.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai and he found the people of God worshiping a golden calf, we're told that on that day 3,000 people fell in judgment of God.

What is the difference between those people and us?

The difference, loved one, is Jesus.

The difference is that there is one to whom you can call upon at this very moment.

And no matter what you do, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

And you will be forgiven.

And you will not only be forgiven, notice what the promises in verse 38.

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.

We have rejected Jesus, and he has given us so much more than forgiveness.

He has given us communion with him through his Holy Spirit.

Can't help but to think about the way that the prodigal son was received by the Father.

You remember when the prodigal son was returning to his father, he had just spent all of his father's riches, and he had found himself considering maybe I'll eat the same slop that the pigs are eating, but in that moment of darkness, he sees what his life has become and he says, I'm going to return to the father.

And he rehearses the speech, Father, just make me a servant in your house.

Just receive me in the lowest position in your house.

And what does he get when he comes to the Father?

He gets a welcome home.

And the Father not only receives him, the Father throws a feast for him.

We find ourselves before the very same Lord Jesus that we have rejected.

I pray by the hope that is given to us in the gospel that we have confidence to ask of this Lord for forgiveness.

But I want you to know that you not only receive forgiveness, and Jesus Christ He welcomes you into His people as His own Son, as His own daughter.

And He not only extends forgiveness to you, He offers the very Spirit of God to be placed in you.

It's our first Sunday in this new place.

And this is the first sermon after the Spirit was poured out and proclaimed Jesus crucified, raised, and enthroned.

I wonder in the years ahead who will walk through the doors of this church.

All kinds of different stories, maybe some curious, maybe some resistant, maybe some ashamed.

Maybe some convinced that they are too far gone for God.

What do we hear in the first message of the New Testament church?

And loved one, by God's grace, what will we hear every time we open up the Word of God to reveal the good news of Jesus Christ?

The Lord Jesus is alive.

And he calls sinners to himself.

And it doesn't matter what you have done to Jesus, he's the kind of Lord who saves you.

Could you pray with me?

Father, we thank you for your Son who is this kind of Lord.

God thank you that when we saw our sin for what it is.

Resistance against your kingdom, resistance against your rule.

That when we turned and called upon the name of the Lord, that you stayed true to your promise, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

And God, we praise you.

Thank you for bringing us from a kingdom of darkness to light.

And God, as we respond to your word and end our time together, Lord, we do this to say that we are a people who call upon your name, that you are worthy of all praise because of who you are.

And Lord, we see our sin for what it is.

And I pray that your Holy Spirit would continue to cut us to the heart, that we might see the wickedness of our resistance against you.

But seeing our wickedness, Lord, would we see to an even greater degree the depth of your mercy for those who have sinned against you?

And God, we praise you in this place that no matter what we have done, no matter what we have done in our life, no matter what we have done this week, Lord, you are a God who saves.

We praise your name.

We pray that's the name of your son.

Amen.

You stand and worship with me.