Let's stand together and attend to the hearing of the word of God. We do pray for his blessing upon this word and its reception. The reading comes from 2 Samuel chapter 7. Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture from following the sheep to be ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make you a great name like the names of the great men who are on the earth. And I will also appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly, even from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men. But my loving kindness shall not depart from him as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever." In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David. This is the word of the Lord. All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Amen. It's always good to have the right notes. Let's pray as we begin. Gracious God, we thank you for your word as it's been read. And we thank you for the promises that you have made to David of old. And we pray, O God, as we read your word and have it preached this day, that we would see these glorious promises fulfilled even now in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. For this man, Jesus, who was crucified, has now been raised, and you have made him both Lord and Christ. And he rules, awaiting that day when all of his enemies will be made a footstool for his feet. His kingdom, even now in the world, through the prayers of the saints and the eternal purposes of God, is making advance against the kingdom of darkness. And though we have yet to see the full manifestation of the glory of his kingdom, We believe that even now the Lord Jesus Christ reigns and rules above. And I pray, O God, this day that we would see this as a great comfort and a great encouragement as we walk through this world, this valley of the shadow of death, that we indeed need fear no evil, for you are with us. You rule and reign above us. Father, we ask this day that you would point us to Jesus, help us to see him, help us to delight in all that we see. We ask this in his name. Amen. Well, it is good to be back today after a few weeks of being out of the pulpit. I'm thankful for Brother Julius, who preached for us a few Lord's days ago, and Brother David Bain, a blessing from our brothers and sisters at Heritage. We're thankful that we had him on loan for a week. And I'm always just grateful to see the gifts that Christ gives to the church. And I pray that those men who preached were a blessing to your heart as well. Well, I want us to come back today to Acts chapter two, Acts chapter two. My dad continues to ask me if I'm still in Acts chapter two. And everybody else keeps asking me if we're still in Isaiah 65, and the answer to both snarky questions is yes. And so that's where that is, all right? We are still in Isaiah 65 and 66, and we're trying to make our way back there by looking through several texts in the book of Acts that I hope will set somewhat of a backdrop, it may not really be Clear until we get back to Isaiah 65 how these texts have been helpful But in the meantime, I pray they're a blessing to us and encouragement to us the prophets look forward to a future day a day that we have referred to as a day of the restoration of Israel a A day when the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel were brought back together and through that restoration of God's people, God would then use them as somewhat of a missionary force to carry the gospel to the nations of the world. The Old Testament saints and prophets spoke of a day of the regathering of all the tribes of Israel to their land. a day when many from these these far-off lands where they had been dispersed would would come back and be gathered in from the nations from the north and the south and the east and the west they saw a future day of the outpouring of the holy spirit that they might have thought of as the age of the spirit sometimes they would refer to this period as the last days and we observed that several weeks ago as we looked in Acts chapter 2 and Peter preaching of the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy about the spirit being poured out upon all flesh in the last days. They saw a future day when the promises that God had made to David in the Davidic covenant would indeed be fulfilled, when the seed of David, the greater son of David, would be exalted and enthroned and he would rule over that Davidic kingdom. That future day that is seen by the Old Testament Saints we have been trying to make a case over the past several studies as being fulfilled at least inaugurally and initially in the coming of the days of Christ and the establishment of the church through the apostolic witness. We have found in Acts chapter 2 that Israel, in the new covenant as we have referred to her, is grounded on the apostles, gathered from the nations, gifted with the Spirit, and governed by a king. So I want to take us back today to Acts chapter 2, and I want us to look at these particular statements in a little more detail. We're going to just review briefly, I hope, points 1 to 3 that we've made already and come to a fourth and final point. And then, Lord willing, we'll have some time to make some points of application on each of these to show their relevance for the church today. And let's just kind of begin by turning our attention to Acts chapter 2 and reading again from this particular passage. I want to read from Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 36. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. Suddenly there came from heaven a noise, like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem. devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished saying, why are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya, around Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them in our own tongues, speaking of the mighty deeds of God. And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, what does this mean? But others were mocking and saying, they are full of sweet wine. But Peter, taking his stand with the 11, raised his voice and declared to them, men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel. And it shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind, 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 bond slaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will grant wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come. And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst just as you yourselves know this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held by its power. For David says of him, I saw the Lord always in my presence, for he is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue exalted. Moreover, my flesh also will live in hope, because you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow your Holy One to undergo decay. You have made known to me the ways of life. you will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh suffer decay. This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, But he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. We have looked at this particular text under these four headings that are printed for you at the back of your bulletin. If you're a note taker, you can use that, and hopefully that will help kind of guide you along and keep you on track. What we've tried to argue for and continue to do is to argue that this particular section of the Book of Acts coupled also with Acts chapter 1 and our brief studies that we have had there, is picturing for us the virtual reconstitution of Israel in the days of the new covenant. They are reconstituted under new tribal patriarchs, new tribal heads, the 12 apostles. they are constituted or they are made up of of of Israelites of Jews that are gathered from the virtual nations of the world. If we were to have a map up here on the wall and we were to take Acts chapter 2 and look at where these Parthenians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the districts of Libya and Cyrene, visitors from Rome and Jews and proselytes. If we were to look at where they were coming from, it would be it would be like a almost like a sunburst. If you can remember those days when you were a little kid and you drew a picture of the sun, you know, just a little circle with rays kind of going out in all these different directions. Those of you that are like me that draw simple drawings, that's what it would be like, like a circle and little bitty lines. And if we made the circle right there at Jerusalem, we would see that the little rays of the sun are extending out from that circle all around the circle. But the rays aren't going out. They're coming in. They're coming in from all these virtual directions of north and south and east and west. And they're coming back to Jerusalem. They're, in this sense, coming back to their land. This is a picture of God drawing back his people that have been dispersed. And this Israel in the days of the new covenant is not only grounded on the apostles as new patriarchal heads, they are gathered from the nations of the world. And when they are gathered, in Acts chapter 2, the spirit of God is poured out upon them. And this is exactly what the prophets said would one day happen. They would be gathered in from the nations and I will pour out my spirit on all flesh as we see in Joel chapter 2. They would be gifted with the spirit. This is spoken of in various prophets in different ways. We saw this in Ezekiel 36 and 37 and and even 38 and 39 where he talks about the northern and southern kingdoms coming back together one stick for Judah and one stick for Ephraim and he's to put them together in his hand as one stick the Spirit of God was going to be poured out upon them from on high they would be taken they'd take their heart of stone and he'd take that out and he put a fleshy heart in they'd be like a whole new people At the very beginning, in Ezekiel 37, they were like a valley of dry bones. But through the preaching of the word, Ezekiel is told to prophesy to the bones, prophesy to the breath. He's to preach. And as he preaches, the bones gather together, the sinews and the flesh begin to gather back together. They're clothed. They're filled with breath. And it all happens through the preaching of the Word of God. And here we have in Acts chapter 2, what is the means by which God brings about the restoration of the people? It is the proclamation of the gospel of Christ by Peter. It was interesting, even this morning I got up and I thought, what am I going to do? You know, I always wonder, what do I do in these hours that I have? And I'm trying to make sure I'm ready, and I'm trying to think through things, and I'm getting anxious, and I'm doing, you know, I'm making notes, and I'm making sure I've got things together, and I'm coming out of my office every 45 minutes or so and asking Janice, are you praying? Go pray some more. She'll assure me she's praying. I'm like, well, just go get everybody and pray again. And I thought, I'm just going to listen. I'm going to listen to the book of Acts. And I just opened my Bible. I listened to Acts again. And one thing that was amazing is I just listened and read through the book of Acts again this morning. to see the similarity in the preaching of Peter over and over again when he preaches in Acts chapter 2, when he preaches before the council in Acts chapter 5, when he preaches before Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, when Paul comes along and preaches in Acts chapter 13, and then they all get together and have their council in Acts chapter 15, and then Paul is preaching again in Acts chapter 28 speaking to people about the kingdom of God. Such similar proclamation centering around the death the resurrection, the exaltation, and the enthronement of the Lord Jesus Christ, as fulfilling the promises that God had made to the patriarchs, and in specific, promise made to David. Here we find in Acts chapter 2, this apostolic band of men brought together. These 12 men. Very striking to me, again, that it's 12. And we've mentioned before Matthias. Remember Matthias? He's the 12th man. He's brought in to replace Judas. And we've mentioned that it's always 12. And later on in the book of Acts, just a few chapters in, James, the brother of John, one of the apostles, he dies, and they don't replace him. They just keep it, now it's just the 11. And over time, pretty soon it's like the old 10 Little Indians song that we used to sing when we were kids. Probably not a very politically correct song, I understand that today. You just can't sing songs like that now. But for those of us that grew up in the era of non-political correctness, it was a kind of fun little song to sing as a kid, you know, especially if you were like the cowboy, you know, because the Indians just, anyway, that's all. I'm going to get, like, feedback. Fortunately, we're a small church, and nobody listens to my sermon audio sermons, and so, you know, we're good. There's something to be said for a lack of popularity. And do you have a comment, Tom? I said it's OK. You're most honored. OK. Bless you. But they just keep shrinking down. And as they shrink down, they don't replace them. But I want you to look back with me in Acts chapter 1. There's something else interesting here. Because somebody might sit there and say, well, they didn't replace them because they didn't have anybody. But in fact, I noticed, and this was this morning, as I'm reading through this, I thought, I never saw that. I've read Acts I don't know how many times in the last couple of months. And I just noticed this. Look down in Acts chapter 1, verse 21. They're trying to pick somebody to take Judas's spot, and they say, therefore, it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John until the day that he was taken up from us, one of these men must become a witness with us of his resurrection. So that's the criteria. That's the job description. They're like, you know, who are we going to get? We've got to get people that meet these criteria. They've been with us since the baptism of John and They were with us until the day he was taken up from us So they got to basically span the time John's baptism all the way to Jesus's ascension. All right You notice what they come up with they come up with two guys there are two guys that meet the description of There are two guys that meet the job requirement. I mean, the more the merrier, right? We got 13 guys here. Let's just get an extra. Let's make this next guy. What's his name? Well, actually, what are his names? Barsabbas, Joseph, Justice. This guy had, you know, an identity issue here. All right? His name is Joseph. He's called Barsabbas. His name is Joseph, but he's called Barsabbas, but he's also called by other people who don't like Barsabbas. They call him Justice. He's got three names. Three ways that different people referred to him. What's interesting to me is the second guy, Matthias, he's the guy they pick because they end up casting lots and they say, God, please show us the one that you want to call. From a human perspective, though, why not sit there and just say, let's just make Joseph Barstabas justice. Let's make him a token apostle. Let's make him like an appendix. Let's make him an extra guy. And let's just keep him in reserve because you never know what's going to happen. One of the other guys might defect. One of the other guys might not make it. And in fact, remember James, the brother of John, dies, killed by Herod with the sword just a little later on. But not only do they not replace James, they don't add Joseph Barsabbas Justice at the beginning. Why? Because they don't need 13. They just need what? Why? Because we're doing something here. We are reconstituting the tribal leaders of the new Israel, of the new covenant. Now, I know everybody doesn't agree with that, but that is why I think they don't add this other guy. And that's why I think they don't add another guy later on. Don't you know? Joseph, Barsabbas, Justice might have just been sitting back there chomping at the bit. James died. Yes, it's my time. He probably didn't say that, but it wasn't his time. Why? Because we already had the 12. Judas was always on the way out. He was supposed to be on the way out because Christ had chosen him, yet he was a what? He was a devil, John chapter 6. He was never truly one of the 12. he went to the place that had been assigned for him. So we see this new formation of this new Israel and the new covenant grounded on the apostles but also gathered in from the nations. They're gathered in from these areas that they have been dispersed from or dispersed to we should say over the years a history of many dispersions many diaspora we might say but here they are brought in from the north and the south and the east and the west and they are brought in and so comprehensive is this group that is gathered that they are referred to several times as all israel most notably in Acts chapter 2 in verse 36, therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. And this verbiage of the whole house of Israel or all of Israel is used in multiple places in the Old Testament. And it doesn't necessarily have to mean every Israelite. It simply means maybe like we might say today in our parlance, we have a business meeting. And we get enough people that we call them a what? We've got a quorum. We've got enough people to have a meeting. So if we were going to have a business meeting today and maybe three of you showed up, we'd probably look at that and go, I don't think we can really have and call this a business meeting. So we simply need representation. And that is what we have in these men and women coming back on the day of Pentecost. We see there are many thousands. 3,000 are saved on this day and added to the number of the church. But there are probably many, many more that were there that were probably the mockers and the disbelievers. So not only are they grounded in apostles and gathered from the nations this new formation of israel the new covenant is gifted with the holy spirit We won't take time to go into joel chapter 2, but this is the text that peter uses in acts chapter 2 verse uh, verse verse 16 To say that this is what was spoken of through the prophet joel Let me direct your attention though to verse 12 of chapter 2 Remember the question? This is like the fundamental question that Peter is trying to answer throughout this entire section. And the question is this, what does this mean? These men get up on the day of Pentecost, they begin to speak in tongues, unknown tongues, unknown to the ones speaking, but known to the ones hearing. Speaking in tongues is not gibberish. And this is a side note, all right? But we have a lot of things that go on today in the church under the banner of speaking in tongues. You know, if you watch Kenneth Copeland, which you probably shouldn't, but if you happen to be watching him, whatever, and he just all of a sudden begins to go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you go, wow, that is so cool, right? That is not cool. That is a bunch of gibberish. It's not a known tongue. Speaking in tongues in the apostolic age was the speaking, not in gibberish, but the speaking in known glossolalia, known foreign languages, not known to the speaker because they were spiritually gifted with this ability to communicate the gospel or to be assigned to unbelieving Jews that judgment had come upon them. And again, this is just a side note. It's not a whole sermon, but the point being that when these men stand up to speak, they're speaking in unknown tongues to them, but known to others. That's how they can say that we hear them each in our own language, or maybe even our own dialect, a particular subcategory of a language. How does this happen? They're all Galileans. They don't know all the languages. The Galileans didn't. These are fishermen. These are not linguists. Peter was not a linguist major. He didn't know multiple languages. I want these guys to be on my team because they know. They're bilingual. No. Peter spoke Fisherman, whatever that was, right? And didn't speak it very well sometimes and was constantly putting his mouth on his foot. These guys were not educated men who knew multiple languages. They were just guys from Galilee that fished. But God had blessed them with the ability to speak these multiple languages. And here we see the church. gathering together, gifted by the Spirit. And these men are addressing this particular question, what does this mean? And Peter says very emphatically in verse 16, what this means is what Joel said. In other words, this is what? This is that. This is that which Joel said was going to happen. And like we mentioned several weeks ago, before you try to take all the particular things that Joel says in the prophecy and fit them exactly with what's going on on that day, or even in the book of Acts itself, I think we need to start with the premise that what Peter says is this is the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy. From there we can then go on to discuss how do all these particular elements, you know, sons and daughters prophesying, people dreaming dreams and seeing visions and things such as this, How do we see this in the apostolic age? I think we do see this in the apostolic age, but again, the initial premise is Peter is saying this is the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy. And by the way, when Peter is saying this is the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy, he is also implying and indicating that this is the fulfillment of the expectation of Joel that Joel shared as a prophetic expectation with all the prophets. In other words, the prophetic expectation of Joel that there's coming a time, a latter day, when the Spirit of God is going to be poured out upon the people, the people are going to be regathered. It's the expectation of Amos. It's the expectation of Ezekiel. It's the expectation of Jeremiah. It's the expectation of Isaiah. It's not just Joel's expectation. There's only so much room on a page that you can quote prophets. But he quotes Joel here in particular because it fits best. But there's a final point we need to note about Israel in the New Covenant, is that this is that they're governed by a king. Notice Acts chapter 2, verses 22 to 36. Now, I want to try to be brief here because I have several things I want to say by way of application. So let's see if we can look at this. Generally speaking, this particular point is that this particular section is the sermon of Peter. Now he has made the connection between the experience of being gifted with the ability to speak in tongues and the prophecy of Joel. But now he directly turns to address his listeners. He refers to them in verse 22 as men of Israel. He refers to them in verse 29 as brethren. He's speaking to them as fellow Jews. Now, the conclusion to the sermon is in verse 36. So, in some sense, we want to give the big reveal before we kind of look at the sermon. The big reveal at the end is, Now, it's important to notice the phrase, this Jesus. this Jesus whom you crucified because it links us back to verse 22. Verse 22 and 23 are important to notice they're kind of the lead in here and he says men of Israel listen to these words Jesus the Nazarene a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst just as you yourselves know this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death at this point All we know about this Jesus is he's a what? He's a man. He's a man that worked miracles. In fact, God had done that through many men, hadn't he? God had worked miracles through Ezekiel. God had, or I'm sorry, Elijah and Elisha. God had worked miracles through Moses. And in the days of Moses and Aaron and the days of moving through the wilderness and going into the promised land, There are many periods throughout history that God had worked miracles through various individuals. But at this point, all we know is, okay, this is another man. This is why I think Peter refers to him in verse 36 as this Jesus, this Jesus whom you crucified. Or in verse 22, as Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested. Or verse 23, the NAS has this man. simply emphasizing the fact that this is a man that God apparently was working through. But the significance of this man has yet to be revealed. Peter desires on this day to speak to them not simply about Jesus the man, but how Jesus the man is in fact the Messiah and the reigning king of heaven. He is Lord. He is the Christ. Now let's see how he does this, and we'll try to be as brief as I can, and you already think you're not brief. This isn't going to happen, but we're going to try. Acts chapter 2 verses 22 to 33 point to the fact that Jesus, this man Jesus, is the Christ. Acts chapter 2 verses 34 and 35 point to the fact that this man Jesus who is the Christ as shown in verses 22 to 33 this man Jesus is also Lord reigning in the heavens. Now there is some overlap we could just like not have two points and just almost take the whole thing together and see how Peter demonstrates both Lord and Christ because there is some overlap in the two but Generally speaking, we're going to use these two sections, verses 22 to 33, to show Jesus is the Christ, and verses 34 to 35 to show that he is Lord. Now, each one of these sections is kind of dominated and driven by an Old Testament text. So Peter, like a good preacher here, he has a text. His text is from the Old Testament, and he is going to then bring that Old Testament text to apply to the New Testament revelation. In this first section, verses 22 to 33, the dominant text is from Psalm 16, verses 8 through 11, to be specific. Now he uses, also in this particular section, another psalm, Psalm 132, in verse 11, to support what he's going to say out of Psalm 16. But again, it's a supportive text, so the principal text is Psalm 16, 8 through 11. In verses 34 and 35, demonstrating that Jesus is Lord, the principal text is from Psalm 110, specifically verse 1. Well, let's see this first point here, that Jesus is the Christ. We're going to begin in, we're going to begin in verse 24, since we've already read 22 and 23. But now we're turning now, we're turning now from the presentation of Jesus, the man to something else. Jesus, the man attested by signs and wonders and miracles, but Jesus more than a man, but God raised him up again. putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held by its power. This is new. This is different. Moses was just a man, but God attested to him with miracles and signs and wonders. Elijah was just a man, but God attested to him with signs and miracles and wonders. But Moses is what? Dead. Elijah's dead. These prophets are dead. But Jesus is what? Jesus is alive. but God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. It's not just that God raised him up again, but in the raising of Jesus from the dead, the agony of death has been what? Brought to an end. Think of the text from Hebrews chapter two that says that Jesus came to what? He came to set free those who were held by the fear of death. How? By dying. and by being raised. Now, that's the statement that's made in verse 24. God raised him up again, putting him into the agony of death, and it was impossible for him to be held by its power. How do I know this? Peter finds support. Peter finds support for his affirmation about Christ from Psalm 16. For David says of him, I saw the Lord always in my presence, for he is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue exalted. Moreover, my flesh also will live in hope, because you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow your Holy One to undergo decay. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence." Now, if we were to go back to Psalm 16, we would find in that nice little header that the editors have probably put in there for us, or maybe that goes back to the Masoretic text, the Masoretic scribes, that it's a psalm of David. And we would read that psalm, and we would think on first reading that David is the main voice in the psalm, that David is saying, you did not allow your Holy One to see decay, but then you have to what? You gotta stop, right? Because David did what? David died. David is dust by this point. All right. And in fact, Peter knows it and everybody he's speaking to knows it as well. Notice what he says in verse 29, brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch, David, that he both died and was buried. And his tomb is with us to this day. I mean, he's preaching here in the city of David here. He's preaching in the city of the Kings. He's preaching where David's been buried. I don't know exactly what the proximity was of the tomb of David to where Peter was preaching, but we could probably venture to say within a very brief amount of time, they could have all taken a little field trip and they could have gone and found David's tomb. And everybody there would have said, yep, that's Dave. There he is. Peter says, look, David wasn't talking about himself. Verse 30, So because he that is he David the patriarch was also a prophet and knew that God God did what? In the NAS it's it's a little helpful because you you can see it's all caps That's a quote from the Old Testament. This is the quote from Psalm 132. This is the supportive text. I God had sworn to him. He had sworn to who? He had sworn to David with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne. Now, if we were to go back to Psalm 132, verse 11, we would see that in Psalm 132, standing in the background of Psalm 132 is the text that we read from just a moment ago in 2 Samuel chapter 7, which we typically think of as the Davidic covenant. One from David's own line, David's own seed, his own son would be seated on his throne. Now we might sit there and read 2 Samuel 7 and think, oh, he's talking about Samuel. He's talking, you know, Not too wise, he's talking about Rehoboam, that was a bad deal. He's talking about maybe Ahaz, that's a bad deal. Maybe he's talking about Hezekiah, good king, but still didn't end too well, no. 2 Samuel 7 isn't talking about all the kings that came from David. 2 Samuel, listen, 2 Samuel chapter 7 is talking about one man. It's talking about Jesus, the greater son of David. This is why he brings in this supporting text. He finds support for the point that he's trying to make. Remember, he's trying to make the point that Jesus is more than just a man. Jesus is the man that God raised from the dead, and by way of Jesus, he has put an end to the agony of death, and he has raised him up. He is the living Davidic Messiah. And he says here, God is interposed with an oath. God swore with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne. He, David verse 31, looked ahead. This is why I was saying in second Samuel chapter seven, David's not thinking about the son of Bathsheba. David is looking ahead and speaking in Psalm 16. You will not allow your Holy One to undergo decay. He is speaking about the very resurrection of Let me do a word change here. He's speaking of the resurrection of the Messiah We have the Christ in our vitals. That's fine. Christ means the Anointed One. It means the Messiah. Standing in the background of this particular term are texts like Psalm 2, where it says that God has placed his king on Zion, his holy hill, his anointed one. There's a sense in which all the Old Testament kings pictured this one, but they were not this one. And they are not the one that David was speaking of. David was speaking specifically of the Messiah himself and the Messiah's resurrection. Notice it says that he was neither abandoned, now we're back to Psalm 16, he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh suffer decay. Now, verse 32, we're back to this Jesus. But notice how this Jesus is now gonna take on a whole new meaning. This Jesus, what Jesus? The Jesus that we were talking about earlier in verses 22 and 23, yes, but more. It's not just this Jesus, the Nazarene, the man attested by God with miracles, wonders, and signs, which were performed through him and you're seeing. No, this Jesus God raised up again to which we, speaking again here, he's referring to himself by representative way of the apostles, which we are all witnesses. Remember back in Acts chapter one in verse Mmm, I Gotta see verse 22 Remember the men the man that they chose to replace Judas was to join them and be a witness what of his resurrection? It's the way the Apostles referred to themselves over and over again. We are witnesses of his resurrection. I Back in 232, this Jesus God raised up again to which we are all witnesses. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured this which you both see and hear. This is Peter's demonstration of Jesus as the Christ. The resurrected, anticipated Messiah of old. The one looked to and pointed to by David himself in Psalm 16. The one pledged to David in 2 Samuel chapter 7. Jesus is the Christ. But there's more. Verses 34 and 35. For it was not David who ascended into heaven. Now we're moving from resurrection to what? To ascension. We have the death and the resurrection of Jesus. These are the things that Peter uses to emphasize the messiahship, if you will, of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the resurrected reigning messiah. He's the living messiah. But it was not David who ascended into heaven. But he himself says, this is our second text, our second main text. The Lord said to my Lord from Psalm 110.1, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." Now this is a text that is cited many times in the New Testament in many places. Here it is being used to highlight a second truth about this man, Jesus. Not only is this man Jesus, the living Messiah, whom David anticipated, whom David prophesied about, who is the very son of David himself. Not only is he David's son, he is also what? He is David's Lord. If we were to look in Matthew chapter 21, this is the one that David says, the Lord said to what? The Lord said to my Lord. Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Now we've moved from the first portion of the sermon to David's son. Now we move to what? Now it's David's Lord. He's not only the branch that comes from the root of Jesse, he is also the very root of Jesse himself. If we were to go back to Isaiah chapter 11. He is not only after David, as David's greater David. He is before David, as David's greater Lord. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." Peter wants those that have gathered in to know that God is doing a work in their day that has been anticipated from of old. He is reconstituting his people under 12 new patriarchal heads. He is calling them from the nations to gather back in and to be restored. He has blessed them with the spirit and inaugurated that latter day period that the prophets all look forward to. And that new reconstituted Israel and the new covenant will be governed by their long anticipated King, a Davidic King, who will rule and reign as Lord and Christ forever. I love that section there in 2 Samuel 7 that we read just a little while ago. In 2 Samuel chapter 7, oh, I think it's in verse 16. Notice what he says. Notice what he says about this kingdom that is now established through this Davidic one. In other words, 2 Samuel 7 is anticipating the coming of a Davidic king who will reign on David's throne over a reconstituted people. Acts chapter 2 is telling us that happens what? It happens in the coming of Christ. It happens in the first advent, not the second. And notice what he says in 2 Samuel chapter 7 about David's house and David's kingdom through this new king. Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever. Not for a thousand years. Not just for a little while, but forever. That's the kingdom that Christ rules over. It is the fulfillment of the covenant promise to David. Now quickly, let me mention a few points of application. You didn't think I was going to get there. Neither did I. But I got six pages, so we'll see what happens. Number one, Israel in the New Covenant is in the early birth of the church. This is its new early picture of the church in the New Covenant. And as such, these things are fully applicable to the church in every age. Number one is this. The church is grounded upon the apostles. It's not only that Israel in the New Covenant is grounded upon the apostles. This is true. But Israel in the New Covenant in these early days of Acts chapter 2, this is what we often call the birth of what? The birth of the church. We might say this is the church in some sense in infancy, but the church itself in every age is to be grounded on the apostles. The apostles' unique place and authority must be affirmed as a blessing and a safeguard for the church in every age. In Acts chapter 2, verse 42, we find the church devoted to the teaching of the apostles. This must remain the characteristic mark of the church even today. We must remain devoted to the teaching of the apostles. They teach us doctrine through their writings. They teach us how to address and how to handle the Old Testament itself by the way they handle the Old Testament. They're unique in their number, and they are limited by that number. Their writings are final. Apostolic succession in the early church was not a continuance of office, but a continuance of doctrine guarded by the writings of the apostles. what has developed in the history of the church through Rome into apostolic succession, succession of office, that we might see apostles or the pope, if you will, passing on this office from one pope after another that is not rooted in scripture, and it is not taught by the earliest records of the church. It is something that develops, or we could say it is something that develops and degenerates into what we have today. But what's fascinating to me is this problem of apostolic succession is not just a problem that Rome has. There is a fascination by the apostolic, or with the apostolic, that we find even in Protestantism. I was interested. This past week, I had a guy come to my house. And we met once, and we'll never meet again, probably, at least in this life, because his bid was too high. We've decided we want to paint our house. And we thought, I don't want to do it. But after this bid, I think I'm going to do it. And this guy came in. He was really nice. And he's a Christian brother. And he obviously is part of the health, wealth, prosperity gospel. And he wanted to get some prosperity from me. And that's not going to happen, because that's just not going to happen. But we're talking. And he begins to tell me about his pastor. And I knew the church, and I knew the pastor. And I said, didn't your pastor retire? Oh, well, yeah. He's now the, he's retired, but he is now, here it is, the senior apostolic pastor. I see things happening here. I'm like, that sounds good. The senior apostolic pastor. What is that? That's some kind of perverse obsession with the early church and the apostolic, to think that somehow just because you put apostolic on your name that you're somehow connected to the apostles. We have 12 apostles that are the foundation for the early church. And that is all we need. And somebody sits here and says, well, what about Paul? Well, even Paul would say he was born out of due season. And he is not even fit to be called an apostle. But he is an apostle. But that's a whole different category. And let's not make the what? Let's not make the exception. The what? The rule. The rule is 12. And that's it. Senior apostolic pastor. It may look good. And apparently, this guy that came to my house was encouraged by it. And I thought, no. You know, sometimes we're just encouraged by things that are wrong. Sometimes we're encouraged by things that should actually discourage our hearts, because falsehood is not encouraging. The church is ever to be grounded on the apostles. This is true for our church. As you think about our church, our church needs to forever be grounded on the apostles. Oh, Pastor Jason, he started the church. Oh, what a great thing. There's a Greek word for that. Big whoopie doo. I am in the end of things. I am nothing. I am nothing. I will one day get old and die. And I pray this church is still here. And I pray it's still grounded on the apostles and their doctrine and that alone. It was good enough for the early church. It's good enough for me. The church is forever grounded upon the apostles. Secondly, the church is gathered in from the nations. And this speaks to our identity and our task. Our identity as a church is truly multi-ethnic. No longer are the people of God from one nation, but they are indeed from many. Indeed, they are from all nations. The scripture posits a picture of the people of God from every tribe and tongue and language and nation. There is no place for pride. What a message for the world today that is so full of tension and so lacking of peace. Wondering if we can somehow politically manipulate peace. We can somehow get us all together and we'll just, we'll just, you know, hug hands, hug hands again, hold hands and hug, and we'll just remove the tensions. It doesn't happen. What breaks down the barrier walls between people is the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, we are all one in Christ. And not only does this speak to our identity being gathered in from the nations, the fact that the church is to be gathered from the nations reminds us of the great need we have today for missions. Missions still is the pressing need of the church. The proclamation of the gospel is the greatest task to which we have been called. Now surely there's no higher task than worship, and we've mentioned this before. But if worship was indeed the greatest thing that we were supposed to be engaging in all the time, then let's just go to heaven. Why? Because worship there will be perfect. But you know what won't happen in heaven? Missions. There's no missions. After the return of Jesus, there's no need for missions. Why because we're with him And the wicked have been judged and cast away Currently I Revisited this I've looked at this again, but it was just striking to me again. I just want to share it with you briefly Currently beloved the population of the world is almost 8 billion people 8 billion If you've read any on missions or studied some on missions, perhaps you've heard of people groups. The Luzan Committee on World Evangelization that met in 1982 in Chicago came up with this as a definition for a people group. A people group is the largest group within which the gospel can spread as a church-planting movement without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance. I'm just going to read that again. Just listen to that. A people group is the largest group within which the gospel can spread, or we might even say flow, the gospel can move somewhat unimpeded, without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance. What are these barriers? Typical barriers to missions, language. If you meet a guy or a gal that speaks English, you're good so far. If I meet somebody that speaks Spanish, I am toast after hello. And if I say hello very convincingly, then they might think I know what I'm talking about. And then they come back with something. And then I go, I got nothing. I got nothing. German, I got nothing. When I was in the third grade, I knew some German, don't have it down anymore at all, probably didn't know very much then. I've taken Greek, I've taken Hebrew, I've taken Latin, I've taken German. Can't speak any of them. Can read a little bit from all of them, a little more from some, but I'm still trying to master English. You know the feeling, right? Language is a barrier to the gospel. Subdivisions based on dialect. Sometimes language isn't enough. You know, one summer I went to Michigan. That's another culture. And we were with a bunch of youth. And I was a college guy, and I was there to do summer missions work because I was holy, and I went there for the summer. And after the Bible study that we had, a few of the kids looked at me and said, hey, man, You want to go with? You going to finish your sentence? Go with? With where? With who? With what? For what? To them, it was perfectly clear. Just go with. Come with us. We're going to go over here. All right? I get it now. All right? When I went north, I just asked people if they wanted to get a Coke. That was good enough for me. They were like, what do you want to get? I want to get a soda. I want to get something to drink, like a pop, you know? A Coke. We just called it a Coke when I was a kid. But up there, you had to have the actual specific name for the beverage. We had a dialect problem. Cultural variations, economics, the caste system. If you go to some nation like India where there's a caste system, or some other country where there's a caste system, where everything's broken up by way of economics and various things, You're going to find yourself some cultural barriers to the spread of the gospel. Religious traditions. What's so interesting about this is many of these barriers are the very things that Paul sees, what? Coming down as the gospel goes out. Religious, economic, gender barriers. These people groups, missiologists have numbered at approximately 18,000 people groups in the world. So if 8 billion is hard to get your head around, 18,000 is still pretty hard. Let me break it down a little more. Only about 3,000 of these 18,000 people groups, or 20% of these, have been significantly reached with the gospel. 20% of the people on the planet have been significantly reached by the gospel. Another 7,000 or less than 40% of the remaining ones, they tell us, have been varyingly reached by the gospel. They categorize these 7,000 people groups as partially reached, superficially reached, minimally reached, and normally they're broken down by what percentage of the population of that people group is evangelical. And then you have to have another question, what is evangelical? Because oftentimes in these kinds of surveys, evangelical just means something like you say you're a Christian. You may not know the gospel at all. If you've ever used a book known as Operation World, it's put out, I think the Joshua Project puts that out. Operation World has some pretty minimal definitions for what an evangelical is. And they put a lot of things into that category. That leaves us though with the remaining 42% over 7,000 additional people groups that are unreached. Did you hear that? 42% of the planet is unreached with the gospel. In an unreached people group or a UPG, there are by this categorization less than 2% of the people in those groups that would pass as evangelical. Less than 2% of 42% of the planet. is considered evangelical in these unreached people groups. Just let that sink in. At this point, 2,000 years after Christ said that we were to be his witnesses to the remotest parts of the earth, over 3 billion people, 3 billion people of the planet still have practically no access to the gospel. And we sit here with our Bibles in our cars, our Bibles never opened. Of these three billion, it gets worse. Of these three billion, two-thirds of them, or two billion, I'm speaking in generalities here, we could break this down to numbers, but I'm trying to keep it a little more simple. 2 billion are classified as what they call frontier people groups. Now we're in the unreached people group category. These people barely have access to the gospel, if at all. And again, let's say somebody in that category knows a Christian by name. In many of these parts of the world, what is often called the 1040 window, which takes us right through the center swath of places like Africa and India and Asia, one of the movements that is rampantly on the rise in that 1040 window is the health-wealth-prosperity movement, and that is no gospel at all. It's a fleecing of sheep, if they're even sheep. In other words, the access these people have to the gospel is Kenneth Copeland and Todd White. and Joyce Meyer. That's their access to the gospel. Maybe Christian television through the internet. You turn on Christian television today, and you ought to be disgusted in about five seconds. If you're not, come talk to me. I'll tell you why you should be. Of these 3 billion, 2 billion are in frontier people groups living in areas of the world with less than 0.1% of the population knowing Christ. Less than 0.1%. Missiologists estimate that there are 4,984 frontier people groups in the world with a total population of 2,001,461,000. I gotta pause to even read those numbers because they're just so big. This represents, brothers and sisters, one-fourth of the world, listen, that has no access to the gospel. No access. The church is to have an international identity. But it doesn't yet have one. Do you hear that? The church is supposed to have an international identity, men from every tribe, tongue, language, nation. But we don't. But all is not lost. I don't want to just be discouraging. Not only is the church to be grounded on the apostles in every age and gathered from the nations, There is means by which Christ has blessed his church for the accomplishment of the purpose of reaching every man and woman in the sense of people groups from every tribe and tongue and language and nation. And that is that the church is gifted with the spirit. The same spirit that was prayed for that came down upon the gathered souls there on the day of Pentecost is the same spirit of God given to the church in every age. Jesus had given the Great Commission in Matthew 28 18 to 20 which in Acts chapter 1 8 is simply reiterated a little bit differently Remember acts or Matthew 28 18 to 20 all authority on heaven earth has been what? given to me therefore go and make disciples of all nations and Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo I am with you always to the end of the age or in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 You will be my what my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost part of the earth How would Christ be with us always by the sending of his spirit and Ascending of his spirit giving power to the church power to witness power to preach power to live holy lives And finally what assurances are we given that the church in every age? Is actually going to be brought to the intended end of Christ as she is governed by a king. I She is ruled by Christ. Christ now sits on David's throne. He, the Davidic Messiah. He, the Davidic Lord. He, Christ, seated at the right hand of the father, having all of his enemies made a footstool for his sovereign feet. And one day he is going to come again. First Corinthians chapter 15 says that when he comes again, he will put to an end the last enemy. In other words, he's not going, when he comes again, he's not going to begin to put his enemies under his feet. He's doing that even now, as the gospel goes out. We saw this morning, or this afternoon, sorry, in Sunday school, the idea of binding and loosing. As the gospel is preached, as the gospel goes out to the nation, souls are bound and souls are set free. Souls that respond to the gospel are set free with the forgiveness of sins. Souls that refuse the gospel are bound and they will be given over to judgment on the last day. Christ is even now seated at the right hand of the Father. Having all of his enemies being made a footstool for his feet, he will indeed put that last enemy to death at the end, death itself. The gospel goes out, the gospel of the apostles, the gospel for all the nations, the gospel made effective by the Spirit, the gospel of our King Jesus. An answer we might say, and I'll sum up with the words of a brother that I've read here recently, an answer to the question, what does this mean? This means that Jesus is Lord. And his enthronement as the Davidic king has ushered in the last days, the new age of the spirit and fulfillment of God's ancient promises for his people. Israel is being restored the exiles are returning to God in the promised age of the Spirit is here now because Jesus is Lord and is reigning even now from the right hand of the Father Beloved let your heart be encouraged let your heart be encouraged that we are grounded and standing on the Apostles themselves and We are seeing the gospel continue even in this age to reach all the nations of the world. Just trace, just trace the history of the progress of the gospel from that day on Pentecost. There they are standing up preaching. 3,000 are saved. That's the early church. 3,000 plus maybe a few more. 12, maybe 120 more. 3,120. Or if we want to add it in, 3,132. That's the church. Beloved, that's not the church today. The church today has indeed spread and continues to spread and the kingdom of Christ indeed is coming. May he, as Zachariah says, pour out a spirit of supplication upon the church that we might pray for the spirit that the gospel might indeed go out further into the world. We stand on the shoulders of the apostles. We stand on them as the very foundation of the church We have a gospel for all the nations We have the promise that christ gives his spirit will come to the church Live in the church and give the church power to to accomplish the mission that he gives her And we do it all We do it all under the banner of our king who rules reigns and promises that he indeed will defeat every enemy. He will indeed bring his kingdom in full into this world. This we can say with Peter. This we can say with certainty. He is indeed coming again. And may he, as John says, may he come quickly. Let's pray together. Father, we bless your name. And we thank you so for the reign of Christ, We thank you so for the gift of your spirit. We thank you for the gathering of the nations, and we thank you for the apostles who serve as a strong and glorious foundation upon which the church can rest. Father, we ask this day for your glory and for our good, that you would encourage our hearts with this sermon from 2,000 years ago, preached by a fisherman who didn't know much But he knew that this man, Jesus, was more than just a man. He was indeed Lord and Christ. We thank you for your word and we ask your blessing upon it as it's been proclaimed in Jesus' name.