Acts 2:22-36

As Peter continues his sermon, notice:
1. The Seeming Contradictions
-A man from Nazareth who was crucified being declared as God’s Man? (particularly difficult for the devout men of Israel)
-God being sovereign and Israel (and godless men) being responsible for the death of Christ?
-David writing Psalms that do not seem to perfectly fit his own life…and this is Scripture? (c.f. v 29, 34 & Luke 20:41-44)
[ponder – Do you shy away from seeming contradictions in the Bible? Do you care to prayerfully search out the Scriptures even with difficult concepts?]

2. The Stark Contrasts
-The reaction of man to God’s self-revelation vs. the consistent and unchanging plan of God
-Israel (or godless man) crucifying the Messiah vs. God raising Christ up again and exalting Him, according to the Scriptures
-David dying vs. Christ dying and rising again, and this risen Lord being presently active
[ponder – Do you minimize stark contrasts in/from the Bible which may be uncomfortable for your heart?)]

With all this, Peter makes his point very clearly with:
3. The Solid Clarification
Founded on Scriptural Truth and centered on the resurrection of Christ Jesus. Notice how Peter, a witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, declares the risen Lord by turning to and relying completely on the Scriptures. The resurrection of Christ, the descendant of David, clarifies and fulfills the unchanging Scriptures.
[ponder – Do you close your eyes and ears to the sound clarification of the Scriptures? Do you let Scripture interpret what you are experiencing?]

And since it’s a sermon, we see:
4. The Sound Confrontation;
-With the clear Self-revelation of God [v 22]
-With the undiluted sovereignty of God [v 23a]
-With the violent death of Christ Jesus [vv 23b, 36b]
-With the triumphant resurrection of Christ [throughout, but explicitly vv 24, 31, 32]
-With the more sure word of God [throughout, but explicitly vv 25-28, 30, 31, 34-35]
-With the consistency and the faithfulness of God [v 23, 30, 33-36]
-With the Holy Trinity [33]
-With the fulfillment of Scripture in Christ [throughout]
-With the Lordship of Jesus (God, not us, has made Him Lord) [vv 33-36]

And this…with the contrasting deeds of man (Israel) [vv 23b, 36b]

[ponder – Do you muffle confrontation with/from the Scriptures?]

In this confrontation there is:
A. The Display of God
B. The pointing out of the contrary deeds of man (sin). Remember now that this proceeds from a contrary heart. [John 3:19-21]
C. The consistent connection to God’s word (it is as though there is a repeated refrain, “the Bible says”)
[Remember, this does not start from how it relates to “others”. As with the Israelites of the day of this sermon, today, it begins with your heart. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart!]

Acts 2:1-21 (with a slice of v22).

We broke the text up into four parts: The Resource, the Resolve, the Representitive and the Revelation.

The Resource: We see in Acts 2 the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, in His promise to send the Holy Spirit. We have from the Lord the expectation that when He (the Holy Spirit) comes, He will guide them in the truth (John 16:13) and will give them power (Acts 1:8), that they might be witnesses. We made the important note that ministry done without the truth cannot save (Rom 10:17; 2 Thes 2:13), and cannot sanctify (John 17:17). Nothing has changed since Pentecost (in regard to the primacy of the truth)! Today, Biblical ministry is done by men empowered by the Holy Spirit to understand and speak the truth! Any ministry done, which is not grounded on the truth, is not honoring to Jesus Christ. You might say however, "what's up with the gift of languages?". This leads us to out next point.

The Resolve: We see that the gift of languages was a testimony to unbelievers, which confirmed the validity of the message preached by the Apostles (1 Corinth 14:22, Heb 2:3-4). The use of the gift of languages on Pentecost paved the way for the truth, which was shortly thereafter preached by the Apostle Peter. The effect of the discliples speaking in languages they never learned, nor understood, was that the crowd was bewildered, amazed and perplexed; leaving some asking "What does this mean?", and others mocking them, saying that they were drunk (Acts 2:12-13).

The Representitive: Upon hearing the variety of responses to the gift of languages, Peter begins to preach! We made the note that he commanded the crowd to let his message be known by them, and to give heed to it! This is amazing boldness! We also see that when he mentions the prophesy of Joel, he acknoledges that the prophesy is still valid, and important (and still is today). Also, even though it was spoken through Joel, he was passive in doing so, for the prophesy is not his own words, but God's. In other words, Joel is not the source of this information, God is (2 Peter 1:20-21). We found these two things, by looking at the verb form of the word "utterance". Therefore, Peter is the representitive of God! He is an Apostle of Jesus Christ, and is representing Him to this crowd!

The Revelation: This part was kind of hard, but a lot of fun, and extremely delightful to understand! Peter's use of this prophesy out of Joel, referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, is done in order to tell the crowd that the time period known as "The Last Days" has come! This is the period that we currently live in now! We acknowleded that the NT authors understood that they were living during this time period (1 Peter 1:20; 1 John 2:18). However, we also saw that the prophesy foretold that the Spirit would come upon "all mankind" (Acts 2:17). We don't see this happening on Pentecost! Therefore, we understand that the first coming of the Lord initiated "the last days", but the complete fulfillment of this prophesy awaits a future event! We went back to Joel, and kept reading beyond the part that Peter quotes, and saw that there is to come a time when God will return to earth (that event described in Acts 2:19-20), gather all of the nations into one place called the valley of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat meaning "Yahweh Judges", and will "enter into judgement" (Joel 3:2). Jesus Christ told us that He will be the one judging (Matt 25:31-46)! Therefore, immediately after this judgement, only believers will be present on earth, and the part of Joel's prophesy referring to "all mankind" will be fully satisfied. All believers will then at that time enter into the Mellenial (100 year) Kingdom (Rev 20:1-6). Peter's point in using Joel's prophesy is that the presence of the Holy Spirit marks the beginning of the last days, and there is promised to come a great judgement upon the earth; and, only those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved (Acts 2:21)! At this time, Peter shifts to begin to teach the crowd from the OT, that Jesus Christ is God, and the promised Messiah! He is the one who is to Judge the nations, and He is the one to who sinners must call out for help; help to overcome the power of sin, and savlation from the judgement that sin rightfully deserves.

Have you called upon the name of the Lord? Have you ever been broken and contrite in heart over your sinfulness, and begged God for His salvation, trusting in the gospel? On the cross, Jesus Christ bore the full weight of guilt of all of those who will ever believe! Saving faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross (faith that includes obedience to God and repentence from sin) is the only way that God saves. Are you obedient to Jesus Christ? If you believe in Him, have you been baptized? If not, do you really have saving faith in Him? He commands those who believe in Him to be baptized. Will you obey Him, or reject His authory?

Acts 1:12-26

In this account of the choosing of Matthias as the apostle to replace Judas Isacriot, we talked about the fact that Peter relied upon the words of Christ in laying out the qualifications of the new apostle. Peter, knowing that Jesus' promises were for those who were with Him "from the beginning" and that his witnesses must have seen the ascension limited the choice to two men: Barsabbas and Matthias.

What we didn't have a lot of time to talk about was the apostles' prayer, wherein they say, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men..." (v. 24) The apostles go on to make it clear that the choice was God's choice, just as they all had been selected by Jesus. Further, the apostles are clearly demonstrating their reliance upon God to select the man with the right heart. The emphasis, here, is on a man unlike Judas the betrayer. In affirming that the new man will be God's choice, they are also showing their understanding that God had known Judas' heart, as well, and that the events leading to Christ's crucifixion were all within God's control and plan.

How do you react when events occur that cause you to wonder what God is doing? Do you rely on God's omniscient goodness, or do you rely on your own understanding and limited perspective?

Acts 1:3-11

Recovering from an impossible youth conference, we are back to focusing in on Acts, where Christ is proclaimed. In Acts 1:3-11, it is as though Luke takes a quick flashback (remember a similar account we visited?) with a view towards painting the manner in which the gospel of Jesus Christ would progress.

We considered a sample of introductory themes that continue through Acts:

1. The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is essential for the gospel (v 3); with convincing proofs, the apostles were witnesses of the risen Lord (c.f. Luke 24:36-48), and for forty days He continued teaching them about the kingdom of God.
2. Empowering by the Holy Spirit is essential for the effective proclamation of the gospel (vv 4-5); Christ promised the Holy Spirit (c.f. Luke 24:49) and He is clearly seen, particularly from Pentecost, throughout Acts. [Notice the Trinity?]
3. Jesus, the King of Israel, is to be proclaimed to all nations [peoples] (vv 6-8); the apostles ask about the timing of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel and Jesus, in response, redirects their attention to the authority of the Father, the focus of/on Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit for the present time for all peoples (c.f. Luke 24:47) and this is seen throughout Acts. [Notice the Trinity?]
4. The expectation of the return of Jesus Christ is essential for the proclamation of the gospel (vv 9-11); at the ascension, the apostles were given hope and confidence for preaching the gospel (c.f. Acts 10:42; 17:31). [When you think of the return of Jesus Christ, are you filled with joy, longing for sinless communion with the Righteous Judge and Savior…or do you dread eternal punishment in hell? Do you have right standing before God? Are your sins forgiven? Have you trusted in Christ Jesus, before whom all men will give an account?]

I do hope that everybody had an awesome time at the conference! It was a great pleasure and joy to serve you, and fellowship with you all!!! The other leaders and myself are richly blessed to have such oppertunity to serve the Lord in WonbyOne.! We look forward to the remainder of the year, and all that the Lord has for us! =)
I'll be training this winter, that I can be the ultimate "germ" next conference (if the Lord doesn't come before then)!

Tim =)