Acts 2:37-41
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.
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and
for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom
the Lord our God calls to himself. And with many other words, he
bore witness and testified 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 3,000
souls. Let’s pray together. Lord bless
your word. May the seed sown fall on good
soil. Keep it from being snatched away
by Satan. Keep it from taking root in the
cares of the world, but burning up as soon as it sprouts. Keep
it from falling among the rocks. Let it fall on good soil and
produce good fruit in each of our lives. We pray this in the
name of Christ. Amen. You may be seated. Every week when we gather for
worship in God’s house, we gather for what we ought to see as a
divine dialogue. From start to finish, we ought
to see our service of worship as a conversation between God
and his people. If you go into various church
meeting houses across our land, there are vast differences these
days among the style, the architecture, what’s in them. But generally
speaking, there will be two very common things, a place for the
congregation to sit, and a pulpit or some sort of platform where
the preacher might speak. And we believe that as the congregation,
you come to meet with God and the minister assist in that meeting. It’s a divine dialogue where
our holy God, who is up in heaven, comes down into the midst of
his people. He comes and speaks to us. He comes and dialogues with us. He comes and renews covenant
with us. We are, of course, connected
to the heavenly court by spirit. We worship as Hebrews 10 says,
we’ve not come to Mount Zion that can be touched, but we gather
together with the festal gathering around the throne of glory. The
spirits who’ve gone before us made perfect. who worship before
God night and day. We connect in the spirit with
them in our service, and we are connected in Christ to all those
who around the world call on the name of the Lord Jesus. It’s
good for us to gather on the Lord’s day in the Lord’s house
with the Lord’s people, a sacred time, a sacred space, a market
day of the soul where God’s word, his spirit, and his grace Feed
us and nourish us so that we have plenty of stores, plenty
of fuel for the journey as we live another week and return
the Sunday next. Well, the central part of our
service, where God speaks to us, is the sermon. For sure, God speaks to us when
God greets us, grace to you and peace. God speaks to us in the
call to worship, come. Let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. God speaks to us after
we’ve confessed our sin through the assurance of pardon. God
speaks to us as we commune with him in prayer. But the sermon
is really the high point of a Christian service. How are God’s people
to be fed? It’s by the word. It’s through
the preaching of the word. And there’s two ways to think
of preaching. I’m sure you all have lots of other ways to think
of it. I can tell about 5 till 11, you’ve
raised up your seat tray and you’ve got your seat in an upright
position. You’ve gathered your bag from
under the seat and you’re ready to deplane, right? That’s how it
goes. Most churches have a big giant clock on the back wall
and it’s to let the preacher know when it’s going to be 12,
right? There’s a, there’s a clock up
here. I don’t know if y’all have ever seen it. It’s here. It hasn’t
worked mysteriously in about six and a half years. Uh, yeah. Anyway, uh, my job as a preacher
is to do one of two things. It’s to convince and convert
centers. And it’s to comfort and build
up the saints. Now that’s a simple way to think
about preaching. That’s a simple way to answer the question. Hey,
why do you go to church Monday morning around the water cooler?
Uh, Tuesday night at a soccer game. Where do you go to church?
Why do you go to church? Uh, when I was in first congregation,
I served down in the Charlotte area. It was an old church from
the 1800s and they referred to the morning service as preaching.
Are you going to preaching? Everybody’s leaving Sunday school.
You went to preaching today. That’s what they call the worship
service, going to preaching. But preaching does two things.
It comforts and builds up the saints or it convinces and converts
sinners. To say it another way, a church
father, an influence on me once said that the minister has two
jobs on Sunday morning. It’s to tell those who are in
Christ that they are in Christ and to take comfort. but it’s
to tell those who are not in Christ that they are not in Christ
and they need to be in Christ by coming to him in faith and
in repentance. And so week by week, morning
and evening and Wednesdays and other times when we serve the
word of God, it’s my job to tell you, to proclaim to you the goodness
of God, to either build you up or to save your soul. And so very often in the life
of a preacher, he has to think through, how’s he going to say
what’s in the passage on Sunday? Well, I have a little piece of
paper on my desk. It’s my preaching for dummies cheat sheet. I’m a forgetful person. I got
other things that get on my mind. And so sometimes I need to be
reminded, you know, like the Green Bay Packers back in the
day, this is a football, this is a sermon. So I think through
what’s the passage. I think through what’s the subject
of the passage. What’s the passage trying to
say to those who need to be saved or those who need to be comforted?
What’s the objective? Where’s Jesus in the passage?
Where’s the covenant of grace in the passage? Where in the
passage will people say, oh, he’s stepping on my toes. I love
my sin too much. Where in the passage in 2021
does this particularly speak to the way we live, think, do
whatever? But every sermon, every talk,
it needs to have a knockout, right? Some of you watch boxing,
you watch fighting. There’s always got to be a takedown,
right? There’s always got to be a right hook that comes from
nowhere. And you’re not going to like the sounds of this, but
every Sunday you ought to leave with a little pain in the cheek.
Boy, I got a left hook from the Lord today. I didn’t see it coming.
I didn’t realize the word was going to do its work. so powerfully. I didn’t know that when the preacher
was making his way through Acts or Luke or Romans or Genesis
or whatever the topic of the day was going to be, I didn’t
realize that it was going to hit me square between the eyes. But every sermon ought to have
a verdict. It ought to have a compelling,
what should I do? And that’s exactly what Peter’s
sermon here in Pentecost does. He’s preaching 50 days after
the resurrection of Jesus. He’s explaining to all those
gathered in Jerusalem who heard the sound of the mighty rushing
wind of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They heard these Galileans speaking
in their native tongues. They were scattered from among
the nations, but gathered into Jerusalem for Pentecost and for
Passover. And these Galileans, because
of the work of the spirit, are able to speak the gospel to them
in their own language. And they gather at the sound
and they see the tongues which have rested on the heads of the
apostles. And Peter takes opportunity to
say to the crowd, men of Israel, these are not drunk, as you suppose,
but they have been filled by the Holy Spirit, as was promised.
by the prophet Joel. And then he goes on and he preaches
from Psalms and from Joel to explain the person and the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he presents them with evidence
that demands a verdict. He presents them with facts.
This is God. This is his son, Jesus. and you
are sinners who put our Lord and our Savior on the cross. If you notice in verse 36, he
says very boldly, let the house of Israel therefore know for
certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus,
whom you crucified. He issues facts that are leading
to a verdict. And what is their response? They
say simply this, what must we do to be saved? And I want us to take a look
today and also next week at the question in our passage, what
must we do today? I want us to look at the question
of faith coming to Jesus and then the response, which is baptism.
But next week, I want us to look at the important verse, chapter
242, what the new converts did once they became Christians.
They became part of the church. They were devoted to the apostles’
teaching, to the breaking of bread and prayer. And so I want
us to see in this Sunday and next, the answer to the question,
what must we do? First, be saved. And then next
week come to church and God feeds the saved by his word and through
the apostles teaching. So today I want us to think about
the question that they ask Peter. They cry out, brothers, what
shall we do? The first thing to think about
as they ask this question, what is true? Well, what is true here
is the content of Peter’s sermon. Peter has explained to these
Jews who are standing somewhere in the open area of the temple,
and they have heard the sound of the mighty rushing wind. They’ve
seen the apostles with the gift of the spirit. They’ve heard
them speak the gospel. And now Peter has preached this
compelling sermon. Jesus is both Lord and Christ,
and you put him to death. Now, remember, this is Peter.
who just about 50 days ago was asked by a servant girl and then
another servant girl and then another on the night of Jesus
arrest. Aren’t you also a Galilean? Weren’t
you one of his disciples? And he says, no, no, no. Is she’s
a curse. Now here he stands probably on
Solomon’s porch or in some public place. And he says, Jesus is
indeed Lord. And you’re his killers. What
a bold change. What a great work of God, the
Holy Spirit and the life of Peter. But they were first cut to heart. They were cut to heart by this
truth. Peter doesn’t sugarcoat it. He doesn’t issue today’s
typical Evangelistic question. What do we say to people? You
don’t want to go to hell now, do you? And most people say no. And so we we sell them a little
fire insurance. And basically they stick that
fire insurance in their back pocket. And when the chariot
swings low, they say, well, I prayed the sinner’s prayer. Peter gives
a little more than that. And in verse 36, he says, you
need to know for certain that God has made Jesus, this Christ,
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. And it says, when
they heard this, they were cut to the heart. There has to be
in a gospel presentation, truth. There has to be the good news,
of course, that’s the gospel, but there has also to be the
bad news. You’re a sinner. You’ve fallen
short of God’s glory. You aim at the target, but you
missed the mark. You stand at the carnival line. You’ve got to be this tall to
ride the ride. And if you’re too short, you can’t get on. Well,
that’s what it means. You are not in conformity with
God’s standard. You’re too short. You aim at
the target, but you missed the mark. Sin is unrighteousness. Sin is unholiness. Sin is an
affront to God’s character. And in this particular sermon,
Peter says to the crowd, you nailed Jesus to the cross. You mocked him. You screamed
out, crucify him. He could have been set free,
but you were persistent in putting him to death. And so what is
true? The gospel. What is true? Your
sinners. What also is true? You will face the judgment of
almighty God unless you come to faith in Jesus and repent
of your sins. And so there’s a truth presented
in Peter’s sermon, the gospel, the good news, but also the bad
news first. So what is true? The second thing
we ought to see from this passage, what is necessary? And there’s
this phrase in our passage, they were cut to the heart. Sometimes
we say in our circles, I came under conviction. Y’all say that
ever? I was hearing the word of God
and I came under conviction. The preacher stepped on my toes
today or he went to meddling, right? That’s how it usually
goes. We come to church expecting the word to do its work. We want
the word, as the writer of Hebrews says, to penetrate deep within
our hearts. The word of God is a two edged
sword. It cuts both ways. It cuts to the joints and the
marrows and it exposes who we are. You can’t hide from the
word. You cannot hide from the eye
of God, the microscope of his righteousness. And so when the
word does its work, it shows us that we are sinners. And if
the spirit is at work, it cuts us to the heart. It pricks our
conscience. It helps us to see and to say,
I am poor in spirit. I mourn over my sins and in humility
and meekness, we come to God seeking his face. So what is
true? The gospel, both the bad news
and the good news. What is necessary? Well, we must
respond. We must come under conviction
of the truth of the word, the truth about ourselves by the
power of the Holy Spirit. But notice what else Peter says. in our passage, what is true,
the gospel, what is necessary to be under conviction, to be
cut to the heart. What is next? That’s the third
thing we want to think about from this passage. And it comes
up, brothers, what should we do? Peter says to them, repent
and be baptized every one of you. Now I want you to understand,
repent and be baptized are sort of connected here. A person who
repents of their sin will next in the life of the church be
baptized. Baptism is a sign of entrance
into the covenant community. It echoes the right of circumcision
from the Old Testament. How were Old Testament people
marked out for the promises of God? It was through circumcision.
Now under the new covenant, we are marked out for the new covenant
by baptism. What must we do? We must repent
and be baptized. There’s an urgency here. Think of the word repentance.
All of you men can get this very easily. You’re driving down the
road and your backseat driver or your co-pilot is with you.
And she says to you, you’re going the wrong way. No, I’m not. Yes,
you are. No, you’re not. We’re never going
to get there. Yes, we are. Trust me. Famous last words of
the husband, right? Trust me or watch this. Yeah. Or hold my beer. Isn’t that the
other one? But you’re going the wrong way. And what do you need
to do? Well, first of all, you need to listen to your wife.
Second of all, you need to turn and go the other way. And that’s
exactly what repentance is. You’re going this way in your
life and it’s wrong. And you need to do a U-turn and
go that way. This way leads to hell and everlasting
destruction. But this way leads to everlasting
life. And so repentance is a change of the mind where we say, you
know, my wife is right. I don’t want to be going to Durham.
I want to be going to Greensboro. Stop going east, go west. Or
more importantly, more spiritually, I am not living for God. I am
living for myself and for Satan and his kingdom. And so repentance
is a mental change of mind. Ascending to the facts of the
gospel, it’s saying, yes, I’m a sinner. Yes, I put Jesus on
the cross. It’s saying, yes, I’m headed
to everlasting destruction, and if I don’t stop, if I don’t change
my mind and so the word does its work, the spirit cuts us
to the heart and we realize we turn from our sin. We turn from
our wickedness and we come to the church to be baptized in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what is true? The gospel.
What is necessary? Well, to be under the conviction
of the spirit, to be cut to heart. What is next? Repentance and
baptism. What is promised? That’s the
fourth thing we want to think about from this passage. It says
in verse 39, the promises, the promises are for you and your
children, for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord calls
to himself. Well, what are those promises?
Well, when he says in verse 39, the promise is for you and so
on, he’s pointing back to two things. the promise of the Holy
Spirit. When you get converted, you get
the spirit. God pours out a spirit on you.
But there’s also a connection to the promise of the forgiveness
of sins. And so when you hear the gospel
and it is true and you come under conviction of the Holy Spirit,
you’re pricked or pierced in the heart. You do what is next. You repent, you turn, and you
are baptized. And the result, forgiveness of
sins, the blessing of the Holy Spirit poured out on you. Now he speaks here in covenantal
language. In verse 39, the promise is for
you and for your children, for all who are far off, everyone
who calls on the name of the Lord. Think of that in three
ways. The gospel is going to go from Jerusalem to Judea and
Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Those who are far off.
It’s in real space. It’s global. But it’s also in
time. God thus far has tarried some
2000 years since the promise of the return of Jesus. And so
we are far off in time, if you think of it. And if he carries
another 2000 years, that will be 4000 years of the Christian
church. I don’t know that it’s going
to be that I just give an example, not a prophet. But but those
who are far off in space geographically, those who are far off in time. But when he speaks of the promise,
it’s for you and your children, all who are far off, all who
are near. You see this as a quotation, as an allusion to the covenantal
language all throughout the Old Testament. God is at work in
households. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Joseph, the whole house of Israel,
God has a special relationship, a covenant relationship. And
it’s why we continue to this day, at least in the covenant
minded thinking of the Presbyterian church, we include the entire
family. It’s why we love children in
church. It’s why we open the covenant community to all. We
don’t have an age segregated church. We want to be together
as the family of God. And we want our children when
they grow old to say, I never knew a day. I never knew a day
when I didn’t hear of Christ, when I didn’t see Christ exalted
in my family or in the church. I was talking with my dad yesterday,
sitting at a football game. We were talking about college
kids and why they don’t go to church. And I was saying to him,
I think I could say this. Maybe somebody could say otherwise. I honestly don’t think I skipped
a Sunday during college. Now, it wasn’t for the right
reasons, let me tell you that. It was because a group was going.
It was because that’s how I grew up. It’s because I was going
to get a phone call on Saturday night or Sunday night at 8 o’clock.
Where’d you go to church today? And I couldn’t lie, because it
was Sunday. It was your parents. But I was thinking, over 44 years
and less providentially hindered in church, what does that do
for you? And the thing we talked about that illustrates this so
well, you walk along a country lane And you walk along a country
lane where it’s on the edge of a farm field and you see an old
stone wall. How did that stone wall get there?
Well, one rock at a time. One stone at a time. And you
can probably guess some of those stone walls are Well, they’re
generations old. One farmer plowed the field and
as a rock popped up, he tossed it over to the side or he put
it in the ox cart and he built that wall stone by stone, removing
them from the field so that his plow would not be dented, chipped
by these rocks. And these stones add up in our
lives, don’t they? We go to church. We take our
children to church. We read the Bible to them. We
teach them the catechism. We let them learn the hymns of
the faith, the grammar of the faith. And it pays off. Well, what is true, the gospel,
what is necessary, the spirit’s convicting work. What is next? Repent and be baptized. what
is promised forgiveness of all our sins and the pouring out
of the Holy spirit. Now, verse 40 is an interesting
verse with many other words, Peter bore witness, or he testified,
he continued to exhort them, save yourselves for this, from
this crooked generation. This is, this is his verdict.
He is preaching to the house of Israel in the temple. He is
preaching to the house of Israel who have rejected the vineyard
owner’s son. And when he came to collect,
to reap a harvest, to see a benefit from his vineyard, which had
been hired out to these servants Israel, they kill him. And Peter
is saying to them, It is you who killed the Lord Jesus Christ. And you need to save yourselves
out of this wicked nation who has rejected almighty God. Messiah
was in your midst and you have rejected him. And his verdict,
his plea is today, accept salvation. Get out of this crooked generation,
these rebellious leaders. who just 52, 53 days ago, put
our savior, our Messiah on the cross. Notice their response,
verse 41. Those who received his word were
baptized and they were added that day to the church. And so here’s the verdict. Here’s
the call. Give your life to the Lord. Escape
his judgment. Escape his wrath and his curse,
which is due to you for your sins. The gospel is true. And
the Holy Spirit may be at work stirring in your heart saying,
yes, you’re a sinner. Yes, you’re in need of God’s
grace. Yes, you’re in need of salvation to escape his judgment. What’s next? Repent, be baptized,
and receive the promises of God, the forgiveness of sins, and
the outpouring of his Holy Spirit on you and be added to his church. Pray with me. Our Lord and God,
we thank you and bless you for your word, which has done its
work in each of our lives. You have called us out of darkness
and into your marvelous light. We were chained in the dungeon
of Satan. We were held captive by his wicked
schemes. And at the cross, you broke open
our cell. You cut our chains. You relieved
our ankles and our risk of their fetters. And you have brought
us out into your great light to be your children, to follow
you into the heavenly city. And we pray now that for those
who do not yet know you, that the gospel would seem precious,
that it would show them the answers to all of their questions in
life, and that they would see the need of a savior and come
in faith. knowing this Jesus, whom they
crucified, is both Lord and Christ, Lord, Master and Savior. Lord, save us from this crooked
generation. We ask and pray in the name of
Jesus, our great Savior. Amen. We want to respond to God’s
word by singing together number 193, baptized into your most
holy name, and we’ll stand to sing.