Yeah.
Good evening.
We're gonna be in X chapter 2
Starting in verse 14.
Read our, portion here.
Just have a few thoughts after that. Ex chapter 2 starting in verse 14
But Peter standing up with the 11 raised his voice and said to them, Men of Judea. And all who dwell in Jerusalem.
Let this be known to you. Heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.
But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. It shall come to pass in the last days says God.
That I will pour out my spirit. On all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
Your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. On my men servants and on my maid servants I will pour out my spirit in those days.
And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs on the earth beneath.
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood.
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Men of Israel hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles.
Wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst. As you yourself also know. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God.
You have taken by lawless hands and crucified. And put to death whom God raised up having loosed the pains of death.
Okay.
Because it was not possible that he should be held by it.
For David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face. For he is at my right hand.
That I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad.
Moreover, my flesh was well My flesh also will rest and hope. For you have not for you will not leave my soul in Hades.
Nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption. You have made known to me the way of life.
You will make me full of joy in your presence.
Men and brother and let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David. That he is both dead and buried in his tomb is with us to this day.
Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his body according to his flesh.
Okay.
He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. He for seeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ.
That his soul would not was not left in Hades nor did his flesh see corruption.
This Jesus God has raised up. Of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God.
And having received from the father. The promise of the Holy Spirit. He poured out this, which you now see in here.
For David did not ascend into heaven. But he says himself. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand.
Till I make your enemies your footstool.
Therefore, let all the House of Israel know assuredly. That God has made this Jesus whom you crucified.
Both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. And said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, What shall we do?
Then Peter said to them, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off.
As many as the Lord our God will
So that's the portion that we're going to be. Considering tonight.
It's Peter's first. Sermon but before we get to that I
I was trying to wrap my head around XI was talking with Dan and Joel and my father-in-law before.
Right before and and acts as is a tricky book to kind of Sometimes understand everything that's going on.
And so I was trying to. I was trying to understand it as best as I could. And, I really think that axe is the genesis of the new.
Testament. So really Genesis through the end of John is the is the Old Testament I know Matthew Mark Luke and John are the New Testament.
It's dealing with it's like the culmination of the history of Israel up until the point of of Jesus and then like in the book of X like something different is happening.
And so, As I was trying to understand it, I was thinking about when the Holy Spirit comes. On the day of Pentecost.
It's kind of like in Genesis chapter 2. When God forms the man and he breathes into him.
And the man becomes a living being. We kind of see that here. There's a new man.
And God has formed this new man. And he breathes into it and now it's a living being.
Now we have the church, the body of Christ. And so once the body becomes animated with the life of God.
What does it do? And so that's what we're going to see in the book of Acts is this this new this new thing this new body that's moving in the world and it's accomplishing God's will.
The book of Acts is a book of. Of movement. We see things happen, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's the way it always is going to.
Or that's the way it has to happen. It's just documenting what took place. And so we have to be careful not to turn.
Some of the things we see into formulas. If we do it this way then this is going to be result because that isn't necessarily the case.
We.
We see the We see this group of believers accomplishing the will of God. That they they start Jerusalem and they go into Judea.
They go into Samaria and then they go to the ends of the earth. As that's exactly what takes place in the book of Acts.
Is the ink blot slowly bleeding out across the whole pages. By the end of the book of Acts, the Gospels are going.
This is the first. This is the first moment. Where this body of believers, this new man.
Is speaking and They're speaking to people as Dan was talking about last week. They're speaking to people from all over the world.
And so.
The apostles aren't necessarily the only ones who are going to be preaching the gospel.
They're preaching the gospel, people are hearing it, and then they're going back to wherever they're from.
Their own languages, their own tongues, their own tribes, wherever they're from and they're preaching the gospel as they're going in So we see the narrative from a mainly a couple people's perspectives.
But that's what's going on here. It's this new genesis. This new man who is going to be empowered by the Holy Spirit and there it's going to be moving and active in the world.
And, was thinking about how there's a couple instances. Specifically here where
God is is redeeming that which was fallen. He's redeeming. What was what was broken by the original fall.
Adam and Eve send in the garden. And they were frustrated and and senators the world and death enters the world and now all of a sudden We have this.
This this new thing that happens where Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. And he has defeated death and he promises eternal life to everybody who believes in him.
And so now there's this group of people who are tasked with taking that good that good news, that message of
Eternal hope and security in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and what he's accomplished. And we see this this little group of people who and go and do this.
Incredible amazing thing and share it all over the world. And so. What was what? Was God's intended plan.
That was, it seemed like. Frustrated or thwarted by men initially sinning. Now God, 3 through what Jesus Christ has done is redeeming all of this back for himself.
And so that's what we're going to slowly see is not only the gospel spreading, but this redemption.
Taking place. Where everywhere that these people go. The gates of health cannot prevail against it.
The good news is preaching people are saved and they come. To the knowledge of Jesus Christ and So we see.
For instance, like the Tower of Babel where the languages get confused and and and that seems to be Seems to be like sort of a punishment for their disobedience.
Here at at Pentecost. God is is specifically Speaking to them in all these languages and so like The language is redeemed.
Everything is redeemed. And God's purposes are going to be. Accomplished in this world and it's That kind of helped my understanding of like what's going on here.
In this book, it's this, it's this new man. Is empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Has been given life and now it's on the move. And it's moving. According to the Lord's will.
So really this is This is the first. Peter's sermon here is the first act. Of somebody who has the Holy Spirit in.
Right? I have to remind myself that sometimes I'm, watching, you know, watching.
The disciples and their lack of understanding or the things. They do or say when Jesus is right there with them and I'm like, how are you not getting this?
How do you guys not understand? What's going on here, but I have to remind myself they didn't have the Holy Spirit.
And so.
It's, it's different. We, I take it for granted. And it's easy.
For me to. It's always easier to understand something in hindsight. Anyway, but but then also to have the Holy Spirit who's illuminating these things like It's not fair for us because we have something that they did.
We have access to things that they didn't. And so. Really this is the first opportunity that we have to see somebody.
In the the New Testament. Who has the indwelling Holy Spirit. Who has the promise. Who's on the the cross side.
Or on the resurrection side of the cross. And they have this ability. To proclaim the truth and so Peter stands up and he preaches.
Remarkably, powerfully and with a an insight into the scriptures that Up until this point they hadn't really shown like a consistent grasp of.
There's a lot of times in the in the gospel accounts where we see them being like, Lord, you, you gotta explain this to us because we don't get it.
And, and, and now here they are with the Holy Spirit who's illuminating the Word of God that they understand.
He preaches and it's it's exactly what you would expect somebody who is under the authority of the the Holy Spirit.
And, and so he stands up and he says they're not drunk. What's happened here is that Just like God promised, the Holy Spirit.
And, I was thinking about the Holy Spirit. I am out of my depth talking about the Holy Spirit because I have to confess.
Of the Godhead. It's the one that I know the least about. He's the one that I know he's in that.
Like, we know a great deal about God the Father. Great deal about his son the Lord Jesus Christ and yet we have this in dwelling holy spirit.
Who has.
By his word, we have the Word of God by his
By him being in us, we have full and free access to the presence of God at all times. Like
The Holy Spirit is in us and yet I know so little about it sometimes. It's Kind of ironic.
But, so. I was glad for this. This passage because It made me have to kind of look at that.
Take a take a good look in the mirror as to my own understanding and and I was, I enjoyed studying.
Like the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.
Some in the in the gospel accounts but the Holy Spirit first mentioned is in Genesis chapter one.
First 2 and the spirit of God was hovering on the face of the waters. So he was there at creation.
He's, part of the the
Tryon Godhead, he's part of. He's a member of. Of the Trinity obviously.
So. Does anybody know who the first person? The Bible is who's said to have the Holy Spirit.
So Pharaoh says of Joseph. Is there anybody? Can we find such a one as this? A man in whom the Spirit of God is?
So Pharaoh. Saw that in him. Some people are like, I don't know, maybe, maybe not.
I would, I would suggest that perhaps Jacob because he prophesied about his children. But the first person who it's explicitly God explicitly says about is Basil in the book of Exodus that he's given the Holy Spirit.
He was filled with the Holy Spirit in order to build the. The tabernacle, which I thought was fitting.
That the first person that explicitly is said to be filled with the Holy Spirit is the person who builds the tabernacle.
The the meeting place of God, the where God was going to be dwelling with his people. That's the man who had the Holy Spirit because I thought that fit well with us.
God dwells in us and where his meeting place on earth where we are. We are God's representatives.
The tabernacle of God, our individual bodies, but the collective us. We God's representatives on Earth.
And.
So that was something. But there's a All throughout the Old Testament there's a bunch of people who are said to have had the Spirit of God.
On them. You see it, Moses had the spirit of God on him. And he was frustrated by the burden of leading the people.
And so God said, all right, I'm going to take the spirit that's on you and I'm going to divide it amongst the 70 elders and they're going to help you.
The 70 elders had the Holy Spirit on them. We see it in the book of judges. There's 4 specific judges that are said to have it.
King Saul has it. And then it's removed, which is. Put. Could potentially be confusing for some people.
Sampson had it and it was removed from him as well. David has the Spirit of God on him.
We see. Different priests, different prophets at different times are said to have the spirit of the Spirit of God that that comes on them.
I think perhaps the most confusing to me is Balaam is he raises at 1 point in numbers.
Bailam raised his eyes and he saw Israel encamped according to their tribes in the Spirit of God came upon him.
And I don't think that Balaam was. A I'm not sure that Balaam was a righteous person.
And so It's interesting that the Spirit of God worked. In that way at that time.
We see. We see in the the profits It's particularly Isaiah. The Spirit of God is, is, is oftentimes specifically used in reference to the servant and Isaiah.
There's there's a number of of times where this Looking forward to the coming Messiah, this suffering servant is said very specifically that the The Holy Spirit is going to be upon him.
And, One of the ones that I thought was The most interesting was in Isaiah, 48, 16.
When it says I have not spoken in secret from the beginning from the time that it was, I was there.
So this would be the preincarnate Christ talking and he says and now the Lord God and His Spirit has sent me.
And so God the Father and the Holy Spirit are. You know, here, Jesus would be saying that both of them are responsible for sending him in the world which of course, the, there's not disunity in the Godhead, but I'd never thought about, I think about it in terms of, Godhead, but I'd never thought about, I think about it in terms of, God sent his sons of
the world and Jesus willingly came, God sent his sons of, God sent his sons to the world and Jesus willingly came, but the Holy Spirit was a part of that too.
He's part of
His his point is to like not his point but What he does is point us to Christ. And he reveals truth to us, but he doesn't.
Okay.
Really point a lot at himself except for by way of whenever it kind of can't be avoided.
He doesn't, he doesn't attract a lot of attention, which probably is why we don't.
Have a whole lot of sermons on him. Because that he he's not saying hey look at me he's saying hey look at Jesus And so.
The Holy Spirit, I think. Can be something that we misunderstand, but I think that's to our detriment because if we really understood What it was that
Like the significance of having the Holy Spirit in our lives. Perhaps we would live differently. That makes sense.
God Himself dwells in us. Through the Holy Spirit. And, So the. At any time, day or night.
We have access to the power of God to help us. In overcoming sin and living in a way that's pleasing to him in loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Okay Yeah.
Being conformed into the image of Jesus. Any given time we have We have access to the Holy Spirit who helps us.
To do these things. And it's, I don't I don't know that I, fully grasped that sometimes.
I read things about, you know, I read some of the things that were happening in the book of Acts and I think, well.
I'm not. Like.
Okay. Okay.
My shadow isn't curing people, like they're not taking napkins that touched my skin and you know, leprosy is being killed or But that's not the point of the book of X.
That's not what, again, that's not what is going to always happen. It's what did happen.
Okay.
And there was a purpose for it. For the time and for the place. But. I have a lot.
I have all this to say I have a lot to grow in my understanding of who the Holy Spirit is and my understanding of who the Holy Spirit is and what the reality of the in dwelling holy spirit in my life.
Okay.
What that looks like. So, Jesus himself gives us probably the most clear understanding of who the Holy Spirit is and what his role is and John Chapter 16.
And I'll just read a few verses from there. You can turn there as well.
John chapter 16. Verse 5. Through about 15 And he says, but now I go away to him who sent me.
And none of you asks me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.
Okay.
But if I depart, I will send him to you.
I remember reading that for the first time and thinking How is it to our advantage that Jesus goes away? Because I would think If we can have Jesus, that would be.
Clearly better. Than not having Jesus. He, he understands that for the like for his purposes. In time and space, there's there there are physical limitations and if There is one G.
Jesus he can do. He can do so much. But if there were a million people. Who were being conformed into his image going all over the world, spreading the good news.
Living in a way that is pleasing to him and to his father, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Okay. Okay.
Like, that's better. It's better to have a million than to have one. That sounds funny to say and yet he that seems to be the way that he sees it is that this is better for you because you're going to get something that you might not understand everything at first, in the fullness of time, you're going to get it.
So nevertheless I tell you, unless I go away, the help will not come to you. Verse 8 and when he has come He will convict the world of sin.
And of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because they do not believe in me of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no more.
Of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
However, when he, the spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority.
But whatever he hears, he will speak. And he will tell you things to come. He will glorify me.
For he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has.
Mine. Therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you. So. We get a pretty clear indication here of the Holy Spirit's role in our lives.
And in the lives of in in the world. So for the believer, he's a helper.
Somebody who is going to always be illuminating Jesus, glorifying Jesus, lifting up Jesus, making things clear.
Like Dan was talking about last week. Like what's your gospel? That's the question.
That's, I think that's clear here too if people are claiming to be filled with Holy Spirit.
Is the Holy Spirit pointing at them and glorifying what they're doing in their works or is the Holy Spirit magnifying Jesus and the end of the individual isn't as isn't as significant because I think we see that a lot of times people who take on really high magnificent sounding names, you know, the profit of the whatever and the twice apostle of this that or the other thing but like
it's only to puff themselves up it's not because they're trying to make Jesus significant is because they're trying to be significant.
And the Holy Spirit doesn't do that. The Holy Spirit isn't about making us.
Be something significant. The Holy Spirit is always always pointing to Christ. And the Holy Spirit doesn't speak on his own authority.
That sounds a lot like Jesus when Jesus says, I don't even speak. On my own authority, I only say what the father tells me.
So there's this consistency. Of the Holy Spirit isn't even, again, the Holy Spirit isn't pointing at himself, the Holy Spirit is pointing us to Christ.
Chris is pointing us to his father. And, And so in our lives the Holy Spirit is a helper.
He makes He leads us into all truth and all godliness. And in the world, he's convicting people of sin and righteousness and judgment.
It's not our responsibility. To convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.
The Holy Spirit does it. There have been times where I've personally taken it upon myself to try to to play that role in in different people's lives.
Where like I think it's in my best interest or in their best interest if I were to, you know.
Point out. Like. Faults or failings or whatever and like
As you can imagine, those times don't usually end very well. I'm trusting the Holy Spirit that like he is working, he's going to do this work.
And that's what he's here for. He works in us to conform us into the image of.
The Lord Jesus Christ and he convicts the world of sin and we don't have to do that.
So. Back in the book of Acts. Here we are, Peter standing up. It's this first opportunity that we have to see this new man, this new body of believers.
Who are under the power of the Holy Spirit. In action. And what does he say? He clearly understands the scriptures.
Is the first thing that I noticed and in this this passage from Joel. The 2 words that are the 2 phrases that particularly suck out to me were
That I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. At the very end that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
All flesh. Whoever calls in the name of the Lord. With God there is no that was the, that's, that's the beauty of the cross.
The beauty of the resurrection was that these things are not just for it's not just for Israel, it's not just for the people who are of the bloodline of the tribes of Israel and if you want to participate in that then you have to you have to become you know, a proselyte and become Jewish so that you can enjoy these things.
It's, it's for everybody. It's anybody. That's another thing that we'll see as the book of X goes along is it's not just for the Jews, it's for the Jew first.
And then the Gentile, but it is for everybody. And we all get to participate in this.
Because the work of the Lord is so incredible and and so complete it's for everybody. And so Peter is saying.
Look, they're not drunk. What is what's happening here is the Holy Spirit is come exactly like the Lord said it was going to happen.
And so Then he, he says men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth.
A man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did through him in your midst.
As you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God.
You have taken by lawless hands and have crucified and put them to death. I used to think that
Perhaps there were Like. They didn't really know what they were doing maybe when they killed Jesus. But the older I get in the, the more I understand.
I think they knew exactly. I think they knew exactly who he was claiming to be. And I think they understood it and they didn't want him.
Like, we will not have this man for our king. It wasn't that they didn't understand that he was the son of God.
It's that they knew he was the Son of God and they understood that what he was saying was too high of a cost for them.
And so they rejected him because they wanted to keep. What they had and they didn't want what he had to offer.
And so, I mean. Peter saying, Jesus from Nathers, he did all these things as you know, like You all, you all knew this about him.
And yet.
Still, you took him and you crucified him, but this is part of the determined purpose and the foreknowledge of God, God knew that this was going to happen.
This was actually the planned. And and so he goes into the prophecies of David looking and saying, The Lord said to my Lord.
Sit on my right hand till the enemies become your footstool and and you will not allow your holy one to see corruption.
So this is David speaking. Prophetically of Jesus and And again, like. Peter's he's right on the ball.
He's right there like understanding the scriptures and and clearly presenting these things to these people and The result is that they are they're cut to the heart.
And they
You know, they look at Peter and they say, men and brother, what shall we do?
What shall we do? And II love that the response. It's not, it's too late.
You kill them, like. You're on your own now. Like that it's just too bad for you guys.
I'm just I'm just letting you know because I was his follower from the beginning.
We're still going to be part of the kingdom, because I was his follower from the beginning, we're still going to be part of the kingdom, but you guys, it's
The response is, is repent and and be baptized into Jesus for the remission of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Like the the mercy of God directed to the very people who were responsible. For crucifying him are the first people who hear the message of salvation.
Look, repent. You, this is for you 2. This is for everybody. And.
That's, That's what we get into in the next part is the response to that. I just, I was really touched by that.
That. These are the people, there's very likely these could have been the people. Only a couple months before who were shouting crucify him are the very ones that Peter's preaching to.
Repent and be saved and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and a great many of them.
Responded and
The the mercy of God directed toward us. Is an overwhelming thing sometimes. And, Were thankful for it.
And.
It's all I've got. I'll pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for sending us the Holy Spirit. Thank you that by it we have. Full and free access into your presence, we can communicate with you.
Even when we have no words. Even when all we can do is grow, the Holy Spirit translates and we're so blessed to be.
Your children and we're so fortunate to
Just be able to. To meet here together, to read from your word, to understand it by the help of the Holy Spirit.
And that these things are not up to us to do, but they are. They are the responsibility of the Holy Spirit to illuminate.
And so we just. We're just so thankful that all along the way we find that your hands are beneath us holding us.
And we just pray for continued help. And I'm just, again, thank you for this chance that we've had to open your word.
It's in Jesus name, we