Acts 2: Community

This past Sunday, our text in Acts 2:44-47 called us to consider the beauty of the Spirit's work in the Body of Christ. This earliest church demonstrated that the Spirit's power brings unity, love and provision. Darrel Bock indicates in his commentary that the early church's preaching (just as Peter had finished preaching earlier in Acts 2) was matched by its community.

By God's providence, we discussed this text on the first Sunday of the month, and at Heritage we enjoy partaking of the Lord's Table together and then we have a meal together after the services. So, we recognized that the Lord has blessed us, and thousands of years after Acts 2 was written, the Spirit still causes us to enjoy one another in Christian fellowship.

Let us always find ways to increase in this sort of fellowship. May we enjoy hospitality and provision. Acts 2 displays the splendor of love demonstrated in the selling of individual goods for the needs of one another and the good of the whole Christian community. May God grant us wisdom to be stewards of what we have been given so that we are quick to meet the needs of others. Let us always be empathetic, always be loving, and always be seeking the Spirit's power to display Christ-like love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Acts 2: Devotion

The second chapter of Acts chronicles the incredible display of the power of the Holy Spirit as God poured it out upon these believers. We have looked at the salvation that was revealed, the judgment that was revealed, and the power that was revealed as promised by our Lord that these people would become His witnesses. In verse 42 we see that these believers were changed...they "continually devoted" themselves to the apostolic teaching of the Gospel, fellowship with one another including breaking bread together, and to prayer.

In verse 43, we see that the apostles continued to perform signs and wonders. This is the same phrase used earlier to describe the manner in which God attested that Jesus is the Messiah. I take from this parallel usage that God now was attesting that the apostolic teaching of the Gospel was the true message of the Messiah, the promised Good News of the New Covenant and therefore God was declaring the certainty of the hope that is, and that is to be revealed. In chapter 3, we will see a specific example of the apostolic signs and the validation that they bring upon the Gospel that they are heralding.

Such things are overwhelming. God demonstrated in power with wondrous events that Jesus is the Messiah, that His judgment is against those who oppose Him, even those who were once His people, but now are not His people if they continue in unbelief.

My friends, we need to be overwhelmed. We must be driven from our whimsical nature to lives of continual devotion. This passage calls us to consider the great events of those first days of the New Covenant and we ought to be amazed. Perhaps as we study these accounts we realize that reading about them may not bring the same amazement that we may have had if we were there, experiencing the rushing sound of the Spirit, seeing the manifestation described as the tongues of fire, experiencing the miracle of the tongues. But these signs testify of the reality that can overwhelm us with incredible power. These all attest that the Holy Spirit will empower the people of God to boldly proclaim the Gospel of Christ and that we will be driven to devotion when we are led by the Spirit.

Let us thirst for this power! Let us ask for this power! And let us seek this power in faith, knowing that it is the will of our God to display His glory through the Good News concerning the Lord and Messiah, Jesus Christ!

Acts 2: The Gospel

This past Sunday, we enjoyed fellowship and worship. Our text for the sermon continued to be Peter's sermon in the second chapter of Acts. This time, my purpose in the message was to focus upon the Gospel message from this text. Perhaps the aspect that stood out most to me was the Gospel's presentation of the person of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is not merely about Jesus, it is intrinsically centered upon Him.

Peter says, "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene..." He does not skip to what Jesus did or what Jesus has now made possible without immediately and primarily presenting to his audience Jesus himself. You do not know the Gospel if you do not know Jesus. You may have an understanding of sin, and understanding of repentance. You may know that faith is essential and that salvation is of grace. But if you do not know Jesus and therefore know these wonderful things that are also part of the Gospel, than you know nothing of the Gospel presented in the Scriptures. In John's words:

1 John 1:1-3 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

We may not have seen Him with our eyes, heard Him with our ears, or touched Him with our hands, but through faith, we know Jesus. We have fellowship with Him. May He grant to us this knowledge through His great grace!

Acts 2: Judgment

Since I am late again posting, here is a quick summary of the sermon last Sunday.

This past Sunday, we looked at Acts 2 and focused on the judgment of God the was revealed at Pentecost.

I laid out my approach in three headings:

1. The Pouring out of the Holy Spirit is connected with the beginnings of the New Covenant Kingdom. We have seen this over the past few months as we have started Acts and as we looked previously at the significance of the Holy Spirit in regards to the New Covenant.

2. The Coming of the New Covenant Kingdom is associated with Judgment on the old kingdom. As we saw from our previous studies in Isaiah 5 and Luke 20, the Kingdom of God was about to be revealed and given to a people who were not previously God's people. Instead, the Old Covenant people were being judged for their unfaithfulness through this.

3. The Pouring out of the Holy Spirit is connection with the Judgment on the Old Covenant people of God. We see Isaiah 28 (and other passages) being fulfilled with the extraordinary tongues of God spoke in a way that some of the Old Covenant people did not understand, even though others were able to hear the great deeds of God.

As we finished our time together, I took us to Romans 9-11 to see that we ought to have humility as we consider our faith and salvation. For just as God brought an end to the Old Covenant and poured out His promised wrath upon the Old Covenant people, so too there is a judgment to come for all. This fear should always keep us clinging to the Gospel through faith and also keep us proclaiming the Good News to others!

Acts 2: The Spirit and Salvation

"It will so happen that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

This past Sunday, we began looking at Acts 2. My plan is to continue in Acts 2 over the next several weeks and see the different themes that shine forth throughout this wonderful chapter. This week, we spent time looking at the salvation revealed as promised by the prophets.

The prophet Joel warned his people that though it seemed like things could not get any worse, they should take heed. God's judgment was near, "Who can endure it?" (Joel 2.11). Yet in the midst of God's judgment on the Old Covenant people, the prophet calls the people to repentance again and then states a glorious hope. One day, God has promised to pour out His Spirit (Joel 2.28) and it will come about that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Joel 2.32).

In Acts 2, we see the undeniable proof of the outpouring of the Spirit and Peter declares that Joel's words were now fulfilled. May God be praised! Selah.

Then the text shows us the power of the Spirit - the power of the Gospel - and 3,000 people called upon the name of the Lord Jesus by the mercy of God and were saved!

Truly our God is merciful and faithful! Truly the Spirit's power is real and effectual! Consider these disciples and the apostles. They had walked with the Lord for many years, experiencing his wisdom in teaching and seeing his glory. But now He has been put to death by those in political and religious power. The followers of our Lord had no power to respond. The risen Lord then appears to them and Jesus teaches them of the Kingdom and commands them to wait in Jerusalem until power comes upon them - the power of the promised Spirit.

Until this point, the followers of Jesus had no power, no ability, no wisdom to take the message of the crucified Lord, the atoning work of Jesus, nor even the news that He is risen and hold that message as a light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. But now, the moment the Spirit came in power, as Jesus promised, Peter stands and declares to those who opposed Jesus that they are guilty of His blood. They crucified the promised Messiah.

Now these believers have boldness. They have no fear of the religious and political leaders who just crucified Jesus and would want to do the same to them. Christ has now given power and authority to those in His kingdom. They will now go forth from here in Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, and then onward to the remote parts of the world. The Gospel will not be stopped. And all of this is due to the power of the Holy Spirit, promised to be poured out on God's people.

The text also shows us that God had gathered a remnant of Israel that had been dispersed. During Pentecost, many Jews had returned to Jerusalem from the list of many far away places as found in Acts 2:5-11. As God had promised, he would gather a remnant and bring them redemption through the Gospel.

We often look upon Calvary and see the atoning work of Christ...and we should often do this! Though we have been redeemed and we are forever secured by His grace as believers, in our weakness and in our sins, we continue to ever look to the blood of Christ and seek its cleansing power by faith. So too, though the promised Spirit has been poured out upon the Church (to the Jews in Acts 2, later to be given to the Gentiles) and the Gospel will go forth by its power, let us look back to Pentecost and be reminded that without the Spirit, we would not see the Gospel go forth. Without the Spirit, we would not have the boldness or wisdom to proclaim the Gospel to our friends, or family, our neighbors. And therefore, if we find that we are not as bold and faithful to share the Gospel as we should, let us beseech the Lord to empower us with His promised Spirit and send us forth as His servants to proclaim the Good News and see His kingdom expand!