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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.
Israel in the New Covenant Part 10
Series Israel in the New Covenant
| Sermon ID | 222212637970 |
| Duration | 1:09:15 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Acts 2 |
| Language | English |
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