We continue the sermon series, Earth, Wind, and
Fire, where we're looking at the first eight
chapters of the book of Acts, the start of the
church. And we just sang, again, one of my favorite
hymns, I'll hail the power of Jesus' name. And
power. And as I was trying to write this sermon
this week, that, I almost had the worship team
and the worship group change the hymn because
that word power just really, really threw me
for some reason. As being a lead pastor of a
church, do I have power and authority? Sure.
In a position of leadership, we do. Do I have
that as maybe a husband and a father? Sure. That
in these positions that the Lord has put me in,
there is power and authority. You in your job.
or your families, you may have that, right? Especially
if maybe you're an owner of a company or you've
climbed that corporate ladder. This understanding
of power is a great thing, but it can also be
devastating. That when we think power and authority
is assumed in of ourselves in a non -believer
way, I'm just going to call it the way I see
it. It gets tainted, it gets dark, it gets perverted,
it gets kind of D all of the above when it's
done through kind of sinful man. We just prayed
that the Lord be the lead of our households,
the lead of our lives, all of those things. And
in order to pray that prayer, in order to mean
that, that means we have to check our power,
our authority at the door. And for a lot of us,
that's hard. But we sing. Hail the power of Jesus'
name. Let angels prostrate fall. What that means
is they fall reverent on their face. Let me just
ask. If you are the breadwinner of your house,
whether that's male or female in your house,
that's not the conversation. When you come home,
do people in your household just fall prostrate
at home? When you show up, When you get home
from work, right, I'm just, who am I going to
pick on? A bunch of you are going like this,
right, and that's totally fine. So Randy, right,
brand new member of the church as of last week,
right, when you come home, does Brenda just fall
prostrate before you? That's the wrong answer.
That's now on the internet. Okay, he shook his
head yes, but it's opposite day. That meant no,
okay, that we don't do that because that would
be super weird. That would be an elder call for
sure if that was the case. Now, the same holds
true in church, right, when we are in our governance.
When I show up to an elders meeting, do the elders
do that when I walk into the room? No. That took
way too long. Way too long. Seven years in, that
has not happened once, right? Or if I show up
to a room of elders, do I have to fall? Good.
I'm glad you said no. No. Because that is designed
and destined and belongs to one person. And that
is the creator of the world, the savior of our
soul. That is Jesus the Christ. And that is the
church. The center of the church. And then it
got me thinking how... I want to say easy, and
I know that's not the case, how easy it would
have been to be the church in this time. And
I know that that culturally wasn't because you
had the Romans, right? You had the Pharisees,
the Sadducees. We learned that they wanted to
try to, you know, the religious elite wanted
to kind of hide the story of Jesus' resurrection
and now his ascension because they were scared
that the power was going to be taken from them.
Because how can any earthly power beat The death,
resurrection, and ascension of the Savior of
the world. It can't. But they were so scared.
They were so paranoid that the church of this
guy, Jesus, was going to spread and it was going
to take all of their power. All of their power.
But think about how easy it would have been to
believe back then. And that's where I landed.
It was actually, I think, easier to believe because
if I'm friends or mere acquaintances with, let's
say, doubting Thomas. Now, I doubt that that's
probably, that people didn't call him that. It
was probably just Thomas. But understand that
if I knew Thomas and Thomas and I were friends
and he sat down and was like, Jim, I saw him
with my own eyes. I saw his body dead on the
cross. I saw them put his body in the tomb. I
saw him alive. I put my hands in the holes in
his side, his wrists, his ankles, all of the
things. Is there any other response but belief?
Because it's so mind -boggling, even in the first
century. And remember, many people had claimed
to be Messiah up to that point, lowercase m.
That's a whole other history sermon. But many
people did. But Jesus doubled down on it, went
to the cross for it, rose again for it, and started
this movement. Now, it wasn't called Christianity
then. That was a few hundred years later. It
was called the people of the way. I wonder where
they got that from. How about John? I am the
way, the truth, and the life, Jesus says. But
at Pentecost, the Spirit fell. People were amazed
and confused. Some mocked. Some were curious.
Peter stood up and preached. Right? He wasn't
a preacher up to that point. He had foot and
mouth disease up to that point. All he did was
kind of wreck himself in front of Jesus. He denies
Jesus all of those things. They knew that. But
all he did was preach Christ. Crucified, risen,
and reigning. And friend, that's the heartbeat
of the church in its beginning, in its infancy.
The power of Jesus' name. So what does that look
like? We're going to be in Acts chapter 2, starting
with verse 22 this morning. So if you have the
Bible app or you brought a Bible, feel free to
get it out. It will be on the screen. Again,
we use the ESV, English Standard Version here.
Whatever version you have is fine, though it
may read a little different. We're going to go
a little verse by verse and then a couple chunks
here and there. But we're going to first look
at Jesus' ministry affirmed. Okay? That's a weird
way to say that, but verse 22 is going to help
us out. In Acts chapter 2, verse 22. Men of Israel,
hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested
to you by God with mighty works and wonders and
signs that God did through him in your midst
as you yourself know. That was the beginning
of his sermon. That was the beginning of a message.
It wasn't smoke machines. It wasn't laser light
shows. It wasn't a building campaign. It wasn't
anything like that. It was simply... Jesus of
Nazareth. You all know about him because they
all did. Died, resurrected. That was what he
started with. Peter begins with common ground.
Everybody there would have known this. Jesus
was known among them. His miracles, his wonders
were public. Undeniable signs and wonders that
not only does God exist, but God existed through
this person of Jesus Christ. What does this emphasize
as the start of the church? That the gospel is
rooted in history. It's not myth. It's not fable,
as the world would like you to believe. Or they'd
like to just put all of the religion, this kind
of, you know, cosmic soup that you could just
kind of pick what you want. Like you go to the
store and pick out what you want. But the gospel
is rooted in history. As you yourselves know,
he says, the crowd couldn't deny. what they had
seen. Again, this is the first layer of people.
These are the first church members, are people
that walked with Jesus or walked really close
to kind of first -hand accounts. There was trust.
What would it look like if the church really
trusted each other? What would it look like if
churches trusted other churches? Back in the
day, it happened a lot more than it does now.
That's a whole other rhyme for another time.
But to start the movement of the church, Jesus'
ministry is not only affirmed, but the plan is
laid out in verse 23. God's sovereign plan and
our human responsibility. I love this. Jesus'
ministry affirmed. Now there's going to be this
give and take. We need to recognize and we need
to do something about it. Verse 23. This Jesus
delivered up according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed
by the hands of lawless men. He's working through
the historical account of what had just happened
a couple months earlier. Okay? 40 days was the
ascension after the resurrection. This is a little
bit of time after that. Peter holds two truths
together. That Jesus was delivered up. according
to a plan. Not man's, not Rome's, not Sadducees,
not Pharisees, not Zebulites or Amalekites or
Babylonians or any of the ites. It was God's
sovereign plan. But the people were the ones
responsible for crucifying him. I paused here
this week and just thought to myself, what would
it have looked like if Jesus decided, no, we
don't need to do this. Maybe the midst of the
trial, the mockery, maybe even the flogging.
What if you were to just pause and be like, no,
I'm out. This is too much. We wouldn't have this.
That Jesus' sacrifice, fully God, fully man,
perfect sacrifice for your sin, my sin, the sins
we just prayed for in our congregational prayer,
the sins we're going to pray for next week in
our congregational prayer. He died for those
sins so we can do something about it. The cross
is not a tragic accident, but part of God's redemptive
design for you and for me. Because we needed
it. Your sin on the cross, or your death on the
cross, my death on the cross, would accomplish
nothing. But it was part of God's redemptive
plan. And yet, those who rejected him are accountable.
I find that fascinating. That Paul needed to
remind. the people. We had a hand in this. We're
not sinless. I think part of that is to undergird
and underline that Jesus is the only one sinless.
And the wages of sin are death, but yet death
could not hold him, we're going to hear in verse
24. We sing about it. We love it that death could
not hold Jesus, and that's the key point. Jesus
does, and we hear this in Paul later in the epistles,
if he doesn't rise from the dead, right, our
faith means nothing. Your faith is a joke. My
faith is a joke. We shouldn't even be here then,
but he does in verse 24. God raised him up. Loosening
the prangs of death because it was not possible
for him to be held by it. That is the ultimate
resurrectional flex I have ever heard. That death
could not hold him. Oh, death, where is your
victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? They
don't have one. It fell. It lost. Jesus won.
Death could not hold him. This language is vivid.
It is impossible for death to keep its grip.
on Jesus. And though one thing we all have in
common, we've all been born, and unless Jesus
comes back before our last breath, we will all
die. But death cannot hold us because we are
bought by the blood of Jesus. Those of us in
Christ, we have a second act, right? Though our
physical bodies in the earth today will be gone,
we will be with him in glory. That's why he's
using such vivid language. And think about it.
The resurrection was only a couple months old.
I think about Easter. And I remember my very
first Easter here. I've never preached an Easter
sermon before. I was always the associate or
one of the other teaching pastors. And the senior
guy always got Easter. And I had encouragement
from pastors that knew that this was my first
one. And some were hilarious and some not appropriate
to say from the stage. But understand that I
was just so excited to preach my first Easter.
And then I got excited for preaching my second
Easter. And I've done seven of those. And those
are exciting. And we need to be excited. But
being in the church now 20 years, sometimes Easter
can just feel like a regular Sunday. And I just...
I hate myself for having that mentality at times.
Or like, oh man, we just got to get through Easter.
Time out. No. Easter is, Easter's it. We call
it the Super Bowl Sunday and the church staff
for a reason because that is what everything
we do. Every Sunday, every day of the church
calendar points towards Easter Resurrection Sunday.
That's why I think the language here is so vivid.
That the resurrection is not just a reversal
of death, but a defeat of death itself. You all
in your families have tasted death some way earlier
than you wanted to. Family members, siblings,
loved ones, spouses. And for some of you, that
death was a sweet relief to a struggle. A physical
struggle. An earthly struggle. And though you
would never want to pray it out loud, you thought
it in your soul. Lord, if you could just take
them and relieve them from this pain. There's
a reason why we pray for that. Let me kind of
put the opposite in there. If Jesus didn't conquer
death, would you pray for that for a loved one?
Probably not. But there's a hope and a comfort,
as Lord's Day 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism says,
our only comfort in life and in death is our
faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. That the resurrection
is not a reversal of death, but a defeat of death
itself. Now he's going to go into a little bit
of history. He's going to go into David. He's
going to follow that line because there's going
to be people that want to make sure that the
Messiah, that's in fact what happened. That needs
to underline Messiah because that was the language.
So we're going to start in verse 25. For David
said concerning him, I saw the Lord always before
me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not
be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my
tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in
hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades
or let your Holy One see corruption. You have
made known to me the paths of life. You will
make me full of gladness with your presence.
Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about
the patriarch David that he both died and was
buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God
had sworn an oath to him that he would set one
of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw
and spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that
he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh
see corruption. This is messianic texts fulfilled.
That David knew it. David as prophet. You see,
even one of the very first sermons in the church.
He's quoting somebody else. Preachers, we do
that all the time. We just hope we give the right
credit to them. But he quotes Psalm 16, showing
that David was pointing beyond himself to Christ.
What I love is he goes to the physical example.
We have David's tomb. We have it among us. It
is a sacred place at that time for the Jews.
Still is. If you go to Israel, you go to Israel
and go to the Holy Lands. But I love the contrast.
David's tomb is still with us. You can go see
it. Take your shoes off. You can pray. You can
do all the things. But guess what? Jesus' tomb
is empty. The contrast here is the power of the
church proving that Jesus was the promised Messiah,
is the Lord and Savior of our lives, and is the
director of the church. But unfortunately for
some of us, we look at history, we look at all
that stuff, and we can be doubtful, we can be
cynical, we can be skeptical. And I love that
because even in the first church, even in one
of the very first sermons, he calls out the skeptics.
The resurrection witnessed in verse 32. As Jesus
God raised up and of that we are all witnesses.
We are all witnesses. That's the truth of the
church. It wasn't theological. It wasn't I'm
a Baptist. I'm covenant. I'm kingdom. I'm AG.
I'm CRC. I'm AT &T. I'm KFC. It's none of those
things. It was all about two things. Three things.
Jesus alive, Jesus dead, Jesus alive again. Amen?
That is the church. Yet, we've made it about
so much more. Peter goes in the New International
Gym version, we've seen this happen. How can
you not believe that? How can you not believe
someone who has conquered death? Peter declares,
this Jesus God raised up, and of that we are
witnesses. You see, Christianity, the way, I'm
not even going to use Christianity, the way at
this point, is what it was called, is grounded
in eyewitness testimony. The resurrection was
not private. It was public. It was attested to
by many. And that's one of those things why we
see the apostles martyred for their faith. Sitting
before a Roman emperor, sitting before people
that wanted to kill them, and they just said,
denounce what you saw and you'll live. We're
not going to denounce what we saw. We can't.
We're convicted. We saw him alive. We saw him
dead. We saw him alive again. And they were killed.
That is a martyr for the faith. And what does
Jesus do? He exalts. Jesus was exalted and he
will exalt us. Jesus is exalted at the right
hand of God. Peter's going to get practical now.
He's going to tell them what this means in verse
33. Verse 33 through 35, therefore being exalted
at the right hand of God and having received
from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.
He has poured out this that you yourselves are
seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend
into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord
said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I
make your enemies your footstools. They all praised
David. It was a what would David do culture back
then. It's not anymore. David didn't ascend.
David was flesh and blood. Was he anointed? Sure.
Jesus, flesh and blood, but conquers death. Why?
Because he is God. Jesus is not only risen, but
he's reigning. He has been enthroned. He is sharing
the authority of the Father. He is the one who
poured out his spirit, and the people saw and
heard the evidence of his lordship. I was talking
to a couple pastors about this passage and just
kind of what it brought out to them. And I think
you've heard it before where like if Jesus were
to come again, how would he come again? And there's
conversation about that. Or if Jesus came to
your church, would you even recognize him? And
again, that's kind of a cheap understanding of
things, but it made for an interesting conversation.
Maybe for some of us, we've gotten so caught
up in our theology, so caught up in our exegesis,
so caught up in church history, so caught up
in all of the things that we wouldn't even recognize
him if he was here. I don't know if I would.
Maybe I would. Maybe you would. I'm not sure
if the first day of him on earth, he'd come to
214 Ridge Road. I have no idea. But he's omnipotent
and omnipresent, so maybe he'd go everywhere.
But he's the one who poured out his spirit. And
the people saw and heard the evidence of his
lordship. The biggest thing is do you recognize
him as lord of your life today? I don't really
care about yesterday. I don't really care about
tomorrow because we're not guaranteed that. But
today, do you recognize him as the lord of your
life? Psalm 110 is applied to Jesus. David calls
him Lord, showing his superiority. And David
was the top of the top in the Israelite understanding
of their history. They worship David. They look
to him as the anointed one. They're now separating.
Peter is now separating. No, Jesus is higher.
Jesus is the reason. His life, his death, his
resurrection. That we all... like we just sang,
should fall reverent to his authority. And what
does that mean? That means we have to give up
our own. We have to give up our own authority,
our own understanding, our own narrative of church
history, our own narrative of theology, our own
narrative of interpretation, and fall at the
foot of Jesus and recognize his lordship. And
then... Peter starts landing the plane, as I'm
going to today, with verse 36. What I call the
punchline of Peter's sermon, verse 36. Let all
the house of Israel therefore know for certain
that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this
Jesus whom you crucified. There's some conviction.
Let all Israel know this. is that point, right?
This is where it's turning. This is exactly where
the Spirit was leading Peter to tell them, Jesus
is not only Savior and Lord, but he is the forever
King. What is he saying to the people? And when
the Spirit uncovered this for me, I read this
anew. Stop looking for another. He is it. Period.
End of sentence. End of paragraph. End of that
part of the book. Now on to the church. Pointing
to those parts. And the crowd becomes convicted.
As we should. We should be convicted in our spirit
every day. That his mercy and his grace convicts
us of where we fall short. The crowd was convicted.
Verse 37. Now when they had heard this, they
were cut to the heart. and said to Peter and
the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall
we do? This is not human persuasion. They didn't
come by this conviction on their own. It's by
the work of the Holy Spirit. I think it's hilarious
that Jesus said, wait for the power of the Holy
Spirit to come and bring the church forward.
And what does the church do? It doesn't bring
him out to all these places right off the bat.
No, he wrecks them right then and there. We need
to get some things covered. This is the mission.
This is the vision. This is what you need to
believe to be the church. Friends, there's a
belief system here. Notice the slides that Samuel
answered, the questions that he answered. It
wasn't about all these other world religions.
It wasn't about all these other ideas or theologies.
Do you profess Christ as Lord and Savior? Everything
the church believed at this point now, do you
believe that? Not because being a part of the
church brings salvation, but that the church
should be full of saved people pointing to the
resource, the person of Jesus Christ for that.
Because then from the conviction is the call.
The call to repent and be baptized, verses 38
and 39. And Peter said to them, Repent and be
baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ, who forgives your sins, and you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the
promise is for you and for your children and
for all who are far off. Everyone whom the Lord
our God calls to himself. Boom! Baptism. Now
we see baptism. John was doing it. We see Jesus
even baptized. But now it changes. Repentance
means turning from sin towards Christ. Why? Because
we can do it now. If Jesus didn't rise from the
dead, repenting to him would mean nothing. You'd
just be tacking it on. It wouldn't give you any
kind of freedom. You wouldn't be free from your
sins. Baptism is a visible sign of forgiveness
and belonging to God's family. We saw the culmination
of that today. And I would have loved to be able
to say that the Shankles and I had a hand in
crafting all this for this sermon. Totally didn't.
But isn't it great to see the culmination of
that? Now, some of you are going, well, why wasn't
he rebaptized? Because we're affirming the baptism
that Will and Bethany had for him and offered
for him when he was a baby. That's the difference
of covenant theology. We believe that God has
been working through their good, their bad, and
their ugly, through the church's good and bad
and uglies that they've been a part of, through
the life that Samuel has lived, good, bad, and
ugly. Why? Because he's in good community, because
we all have that, that we are affirming what
is being done. Fast forward to Romans. If you
confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and
believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead, you will be boom. That's what it is.
That's the church. That's the church message
at work. I love this. This promise is expansive
for you and your children and for all who are
far off. Already. First church sermon. Already
the gospel is stretching beyond Jerusalem. And
we're going to see the Gentiles. We're going
to see every tribe and tongue. Something we also
sang about. And now we have the birth of the
church. Verse 40 and 41. And with many other
words he bore witness. That's all he did. Bore
witness. And continued to exhort them saying,
save yourselves from this crooked generation.
So those who received his word were baptized,
and there were added that day about 3 ,000 souls.
Now we could all, oh, 3 ,000 souls, that would
be great. It's not about the number. It's about
the start of the church. Because those 3 ,000
souls, I'm going to say many of them maybe have
even seen Jesus in his ministry. But some of
them, it was just the power and the conviction
of the eyewitness accounts. Well, let's fast
forward to 2025. How many of you were there when
Jesus walked the earth? Nope. But it's through
the eyewitness accounts of those that have gone
before you, through the power of the Holy Spirit
at work in your life, that you have come to recognize
Jesus as Lord and Savior. And that is the church
at work. That is the Holy Spirit at work. If
the Holy Spirit is devoid of the church, the
church means nothing. The church is going to
do nothing. But it's the power. of the Holy Spirit
to bring filthy, dirty, no good sinners like
me and you together. That's the power of the
Holy Spirit. That is the birth of the church.
The Spirit's power brought immediate fruit. And
I think for a lot of churches, we kind of, we
really want that. Man, we'd love to have an altar
call and do all that, yet I did that here. It
makes all of us uncomfortable, right, because
we're just not used to that. But we're like,
man, look at the instantaneous power of the Holy
Spirit at work. Well, think about it. This was
the start of it. I look at the same awe and wonder
of that as this church has been around for 155
years. Not that we should celebrate that in any
kind of salvatic way, but that is perseverance
of the saints. 155 years of people being the
church, of going through all of the things. I
mean, one of the church struggles here, years,
decades ago. I don't want to have my church,
my main service, be in English. Are we having
that fight now? How many of you actually know
Dutch? Okay. And I love Max. He's never demanded
that this has been done in Dutch, right? Evie
has, but Max is not, right? And so, I mean, that's
just one person. But think about all the things
that we, think about all the churches that have
left each other or schism because of different
things. Again, I joked about this a couple weeks
ago, but we just saw the start of the church.
What was the church worried about? People recognizing
their sin, believing in the one who conquered
death to give them new life. In a couple weeks,
maybe a couple months, we're probably going to
vote on a building project. Whether we do it
or whether we not, is what we just read still
true? Absolutely. Well, if we don't build this
building, I'm going to leave. Well, friend, then
your faith is in the brick and mortar, and I
rebuke it. Well, if we build this building, then
I'm going to leave. Same thing. The church didn't
care about that stuff. They met on street corners.
They met in people's homes. They did all the
things because it was the start of it. Look what
we've made it. Some of that's really great. A
lot of it is not. Because if our mind goes anywhere
but the church's rhythm of life, what is the
church's rhythm of life? What should our rhythms
of the church be? If it's devoid of the Holy
Spirit, then it's not anything good. Verses 42
to 47. And they devoted themselves to the apostles'
teaching, which is witness teaching, and the
fellowship and to the breaking of bread and of
prayer. Seafood needs to be a part of it. It's
biblical. And awe came upon every soul, and many
wonders and signs were being done through the
apostles, and all who believed were together
and had all things in common. And they were selling
their possessions and belongings and distributing
the proceeds to all as any had need. And day
by day, attending the temple together and breaking
bread in their homes, they received their food
with glad and generous hearts, praising God and
having favor with all people. and the Lord added
to their number, day by day, those who were being
saved. They devoted themselves. They devoted
themselves to having the best GEMS and cadet
program ever. Nope. They devoted themselves to
having a women's Bible study that meets on Tuesday,
this Tuesday, 9 .30, in the basement. Well, I'm
not going because it's not called coffee break.
Ooh, I'm going to call that out. Friends, I love
you. That's ridiculous. People that drive down
the street, they don't know what coffee break
is if they haven't been in the CRC or the RCA
church. What are you doing? You're studying the
Bible. That's what they did. They studied Jesus.
They studied the eyewitness account of Jesus.
What do they devote themselves to? The apostles'
teaching. The doctrine, the scripture, fellowship.
They devoted themselves to fellowship. The breaking
of the bread and prayer. The results, awe, generosity,
gladness, favor with people, and daily growth.
None of that has to do with our thoughts and
opinions, our wants and needs of what church
needs to be. This is the model of spirit -filled
community, centered on Jesus, grounded on the
gospel, and lived out in love. Let's be about
those three things first and foremost. Let us
be a people centered on Jesus, grounded in the
gospel, and lived out in love. How are you going
to do that? How are you going to do that? Through
the power of the Holy Spirit, you're going to
do that. All hail the power of Jesus' name. It's
not just a hymn. It's an anthem of the church.
Because in his name, sins are forgiven. In his
name, the spirit is given. In his name, lives
are transformed. Munster Church, this is our
calling. To live out, or to live so that everything
we do points to Jesus, crucified, risen, and
reigning. To be a community where people are
cut to the heart, not by our cleverness, but
by the spirit's conviction. to be a family marked
by repentance, forgiveness, generosity, and joy.
And finally, and I swear we're going to be done,
here is the gospel truth. The Jesus who was crucified
is alive. He has conquered sin and death. He
reigns at the right hand of God, and everyone
who calls on his name will be saved. This is
our firm foundation. This is the song of the
church. And that is why we sing, crowned him
Lord of all. Please stand if you are able. And
we will close in prayers in unison. Prayer will
be on the screen. Lord Jesus Christ, you are
Lord and King. We confess our sins and turn to
you. We thank you for the cross, for forgiveness,
and for new life. Fill us with your spirit. Make
us a community of faith and love. And use us
to proclaim your name to the world. All hail
the power of Jesus' name. Amen. And as you go
out into your week.