In the sermon 'Pierced to the Heart,' Scott Brown analyzes Peter's sermon from Acts 2, highlighting its significance as the first recorded sermon of the apostolic church. Peter's message emphasizes the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies through Jesus Christ, portraying Him as the Messiah and Savior. Peter quotes from Joel, Psalms 16, and 110 to illustrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the inauguration of the 'last days.' This sermon marks a pivotal moment in history, transitioning from the Old to the New Covenant, characterized by the Age of Grace. The sermon underscores the importance of a Christ-centered message, rich in scripture and historical context. Peter's boldness and unity with the apostles emphasize the power of the Holy Spirit. The response of the audience, pierced to the heart, leads to a call for repentance, baptism, and receipt of the Holy Spirit, resulting in the addition of three thousand believers to the early church. Scott Brown urges contemporary believers to emulate Peter's boldness, maintain a clear gospel message, and reject the perverse influences of the world.

Please open your Bibles. Acts 2 verse 14 But Peter standing up with the eleven, raised his voice, and said to them, Men of Judea, and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh.

Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And on my men-servants, and on my maid-servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord, and it shall come to pass, and whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.

For David says Concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of joy in your presence.

Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the Patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh seek corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear.

For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said to them, repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation.

Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about three thousand souls were added to them, and they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all as any one had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Those who were being saved. Well this text is the first sermon in the book of Acts. It's the first sermon that the brothers and sisters that had gathered together by an apostle that is recorded in Scripture. And this sermon is about a number of things, but it's primarily about the faithfulness of God to keep His promises by fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies and sending the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of His people. All throughout the Old Testament, prophecies were made about the Lord Jesus Christ.

And these prophecies, many of them, are fulfilled at least in a first deposit in the coming of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament is full of promises of God's blessing upon the religious people, upon the wayward people, and even upon the wicked pagan lifestyles that the gentiles had accommodated themselves to. But God always promised blessing, particularly in the beginning through the seed of Abraham, we see the Abrahamic blessing, in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. The Jews longed for the final expression of that blessing, and that was in the coming of the Messiah. They longed for the Messiah, and this Messiah would be for the outpouring of the Spirit of God on all flesh.

They knew that. They knew that the Messiah would wipe every tear from every eye, that their shame would be taken away, that the brokenness of their hearts, the brokenness of their lives would be mended back together by the Messiah, that the years that the locusts had eaten would be restored by this Messiah. And so this covenant that God made with His people way back in Genesis chapter 15 and earlier in chapter 12 made it clear that God had sworn on the strength of his own name to be a blessing to his people from one generation to the next and now we find this We find this sermon which connects all the Old Testament prophecies to this moment. Peter uses a really loaded term that would have fired up the minds of every Jew in the audience and that's the word last days. That word meant a lot to the Jews who were listening to this and their ears would perk up and it would bring to mind their longings for the Messiah, the suffering servant, the root of Jesse.

And this is exactly what Peter does. He proclaims that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah, that the prophecy of Joel, the prophecy in Psalm 16 and the promise in Psalm 110 is fulfilled here in the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter uses this loaded term the last days to make the connection. And then he quotes much scripture to prove it. And This sermon is of just tremendous significance in all of history because this is the launching and the initiation of the early church.

So this passage is just a tremendous text for us. Now let me just give you a few observations about this sermon that Peter preaches. First of all, it's a great sermon. Like we said, it's the first sermon, but it might be the most successful sermon ever preached on that day three thousand were saved and then it just this this just kept on going there in the early church it's it's it's a great sermon for a lot of different reasons Here's one reason it's a great sermon. Exactly 50 days earlier Peter denied the Lord.

He shrunk away at the condemnation of a servant girl. And now he's standing preaching this great sermon and it just is such a great testimony for the for the redeeming power of God. It's never too late to be used of God. Fifty days ago what did you do? Well What about today?

And here Peter rises up in the power of the Holy Spirit with this great sermon. Now, there are 19 sermons in the book of Acts. Eight of them are by Peter. Nine of them are by Paul. And one is by Stephen and another one is by James.

Now get this, 20% of all the text in the book of Acts are these sermons. If you add Stephen's sermons, It's 25% of the text of Acts. Are the written sermons. It's absolutely amazing. And here we're bumping into the very first one.

These sermons, I don't believe are perfect. They're not exhaustive manuscripts. They can't be. Well, it says here, you know, in the text that he just kept on exhorting them. So this was a lot longer than what we have right here.

It's a Christ-centered sermon. That's the second thing we see here. Christ is in every sentence, He is the object of all the testimony, and it should teach us about how our instruction, how our talking to our friends and relatives about the gospel should be. It's Christ-centered. Next, it is historically rich.

It's so obvious that Peter has been reading his Old Testament and he's been reading it very, very carefully. He's a student of all that has been written, the law and the prophets. And it displays a lavish use of Scripture. This sermon is absolutely saturated with Scripture and it should teach every person who ever preaches what sermon should be all about. Like for instance, if you just look at the number of verses that are dedicated to scripture quotation and number of verses that are dedicated to exposition and then the number of verses that are dedicated to application.

Here's how it goes. There are 13 verses that are just Old Testament quotations in the sermon. 11 verses are exposition, Peter's words. And then two verses are words of application. That's how it breaks down.

It's a tremendous example for how communication should happen in the church. This pattern that we see should help us keep our wits about us for how we should be involved in teaching in the church. It should be scripture saturated, it should have consistent, you know, reasonable commentary, and then it should be applicable. There should be movement of the feet, the heart, the hands, something. And that's exactly what this sermon gives to us.

You know, it's interesting in our common, current Christian culture, There's such an effort to be culturally relevant. And so the modern church has adopted all kinds of programs and dramas and sideshows and small groups and all kinds of things. Some of these can be good. But we often utilize a lot of management techniques, psychological improvement ministries and all kinds of things. But in the process, often set aside scripture, the way that you see this ministry here.

Of course, this sermon was not a church service. It was obviously out in the open, because there was enough room for 3, 000 people to respond. They moved outside of the home at some point in this narrative. So it displays a lavish use of Scripture, and it's composed of three texts of Scripture, Joel 2, 28-32, Psalm 16, 8-11, and Psalm 110, verse 1. Sixthly, it was given during a time of tremendous historical significance.

It's the dividing line between the Old and the New Covenant. It's a turning point in history, and the spirit is being outpoured and things are different they'll never be the same again because God is working in a new way. Also The historical significance is being felt by people because the emotions are running really high. In verse 7 it says the people were amazed, they were astonished. In verse 12 it says they continued in amazement and great perplexity.

In verse 13, some were mocking. In verse 37, they were pierced to the heart. And then in 42, everyone keeps feeling a sense of awe. And then in 46, they're continuing with one mind in the temple. And they're taking their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people.

It's a power packed emotional time for the church here as well. It's not business as usual. These are stunning, perplexing times of mocking and amazement. It's a time of tremendous historical significance. And then also you see Peter speaking with boldness and he's unified with the apostles.

He's taking his stand with the eleven. In the early chapters of Acts, it's really clear that Peter is a spokesman for the rest of the apostles. He's constantly standing and speaking. I don't think we should conclude that the other apostles aren't teaching and preaching, no. But at least what we get are concentrations of teaching by the apostle Peter.

But he takes his stand with the eleven, he's standing with his brothers, they're praying with him, they're praying for him there, he's unified. You have the hundred and twenty who had met in the house earlier. He is not alone. And notice who he is addressing. He, in verse 14, men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem.

He's speaking directly to the Jews and for all those who were witnesses of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ and they're experiencing mocking and the people are mocking and they're saying these men are drunk look at the way they're acting and then what's what was true here will always be true. There will always be scoffers. There will always be people who say these Christians are crazy. They're off balance. They're occult.

They're weird. They're drunk. And this is exactly what they did with the Lord Jesus himself. They said, He's a wine-bibber and a glutton. He's full of demons.

He's performing His miracles by the demons. That's what they said of Jesus Christ. And now they're saying the same old thing to Peter and the Apostles as they're standing. They're mocking them and saying these men are just drunk. They're drunkards.

Don't listen to them. And this is what the world always wants to do. It always wants to belittle and marginalize the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ and they'll use any any possible sign or evidence to do it and so Peter deals with this false accusation and he says this is he says it's crazy for you to say that these men aren't drunk with wine but they are drunk in the Holy Spirit. Later, Paul would say, do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. And there is a kind of control that happens when the Holy Spirit is operating in a person's life.

That's what they were drunk with, but it was not wine. It was only nine o'clock in the morning. Peter says, it's nine o'clock. Get a grip. So Peter, he's bold and he's unified with his brothers.

And this is the way it always ought to be. There should be much prayer and unity among the brothers for the efforts that are taking place. And then not only do we see this amazing sermon, we see the prophecy of Joel fulfilled and the gospel is preached. And this section, at least the way I have it structured, contains the rest of the content of this teaching for this morning. Now the first thing that we see is that the Holy Spirit is poured out on all mankind.

And This is an outpouring of the Spirit that is different than what occurred from the time of Adam and Eve when the Holy Spirit was working there until this day. In the Old Testament economy, the Holy Spirit rested on people for endumens of power. The Spirit of God was above the waters and the Spirit of God did anoint prophets and all kinds of people in the Old Testament era. But this, in Acts 2, we have something new. The Age of Grace is begun, and the Age of Grace spans the time of the first coming to the second coming.

This sermon is about everything that will take place in however many years will intervene during this age of grace. So far we're about 2, 000 years into it. This age of grace continues. And this prophecy of Joel, particularly, is a telescopic prophecy that includes things that happened during that intervening period. It doesn't all happen at one time and we'll get to that in just a minute.

So here the messianic age is inaugurated And this time frame is known as the last days. This is what made the Jews so upset because they knew what this meant. They knew that it meant that the Messiah had come. Well, what's that supposed to mean? Well, Peter's explaining what it means.

And they and many of them don't like it but obviously many of them are converted as a result of hearing it. So the last days is an important term. We ran into this phrase when we were in Hebrews 1 verse 2, God who at various times and various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by their prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his Son. Every Jew would have known what that meant. The Messiah has come, that's what it meant.

And the last days is just an important term because it indicates that we're in the last chapter of world history and, you know, history will not end in some dark cataclysm. It will end with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It won't end with a flood like it did in the days of Noah, but it will end with the second coming. The Spirit is poured out, it says here, during this age of grace. The term, I will pour forth my Spirit on all mankind, verse 17.

He uses a very interesting word. It's the word used for a heavy tropical downpour. Have you ever been in one of those? An inch a minute where it's just absolutely thick with water. That's the kind of terminology that's used here.

And It's a word that describes a generous gift, and all of God's people, not just the Jews, are the recipients of this. We see a number of the characteristics of the church age. Sons and daughters prophesy, according to this prophecy in Joel, and Peter affirms that this is happening and it's going to continue to happen. Sons and daughters, this is an interesting use of terms here. This is an outpouring of the Spirit in not just fathers and mothers, but sons and daughters.

The outpouring of the Spirit is for the whole family, for the littlest to the biggest in the family. It's not something that you separate from your normal life. It's all about what happens in the family. Sons and daughters are, in the age of grace, able to prophesy. This is one evidence that God desires to work for the whole family in evangelism and here we have the gospel at work in a family of course Peter said this promise is for you and what and who you and your children right not just you but you and your children and all who are far off, and as many as the Lord will call unto himself.

But it indicates the importance of the family and the spreading of the gospel, that the family is unified in the spreading of the gospel, that the Spirit of God fills the hearts of not just the fathers and mothers, but the sons and daughters. Now what is this prophecy? There's lots of debate about that. I'll tell you what I think it is. I believe that it is that God will give His sons and daughters a supernatural ability to communicate the truth of God.

Luther understood the prophecy like this, the knowledge of God through Christ, which the Holy Spirit kindles to make burn through the word of the gospel. Luther, along with Calvin, believed that prophecy was the speaking of, the effectual speaking of the word of God under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Not just a dead speaking of the word, not just quoting scripture like a deadpan, but it would be the giving of scripture with understanding under the power of the Holy Spirit. And Calvin said, it signifies the rare and excellent gift of understanding. They're speaking and understanding of what God is saying through the Word.

And, you know, Luther believed that the visions and the dreams were the same thing, and there are many that believe that this talk of prophecy and visions and dreams are all really the same thing. It's the communication of the heart of God to people through supernatural help so that there's good understanding. So it says, your young men shall see visions. Notice the emphasis on youth here. There's a lot of youth in this passage.

There's a little bit about old men, but there's a lot about youth here. It's interesting that it's that way. Not only are the old and gray going to be the witnesses, but also the youth, the young men, will see visions. They will see Christ. They will be given wisdom from on high they'll be filled with the Holy Spirit they'll speak the Word of God and it'll be effective even the young men you young men do not think this is your daddy's this is your daddy's religion this is this this promise is was for him and for you his children and this should cause all of us in the family to be more united in prayer in the work of the gospel it should help us to have have more passion together in the communication of the gospel we should be we should be laying hands on our children that God was filled with the Holy Spirit to speak the word of God it with might and power God had God Almighty has appointed them for this.

This is not just the business of daddies and mommies. It says that old men will dream dreams even in your old age, even when your brain goes soggy, you know, even when you forget things, you might start, even you might even get start going senile everything like that God can still use you God even uses old men and he doesn't put you on the shelf when you pass whatever age you think is shelf life. And then bond slaves, men and women, will receive the spirit of prophecy. Now this use of bond slaves here, I believe he's just saying, it's like saying even the people that that you think might be Insignificant are filled with the wisdom of God even your slaves Even the ones that you might not think have much position God will use them as well I believe this is just an encouragement to all who are in any station of life recognizing the fact that it doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter your status, it doesn't matter what your financial situation is. God can use you.

He's pouring his spirit out on all flesh. He's no discriminator of flesh He loves to pour his spirit out upon the bond slave the old man the young man and the sons and the daughters and In God God will use them So the ministry of the Holy Spirit brings all people together and is a means to exercise the gifts of all the people in the church, both the young and the old. You know, Paul said, the hand can't say to the foot, I don't need you. We all need one another's contribution. The Spirit of God comes upon all and he fills all he gives gifts to all now this back to this whole issue of prophecy and dreams and all this all this kind of stuff there are Let me just try to illustrate why I think prophecy is prophecy in this context.

Prophecy is the teaching of the Word of God. Let's take two different gifts and just compare them for a minute. If you take the gift of teaching, it is a gift and it's meant for the building up of the church and it should be exercised, but it's not the same thing as authoritative teaching of scripture. It's different. It's the work of a gift, but it's not the same thing as scripture.

My teaching is not the same thing as scripture. I think the same thing is true with prophecy. The prophets who speak in our day are not like Daniel, they're not like Jeremiah, they're not like the Lord Jesus, they don't speak authoritative scripture. I don't believe that these prophets that are here are the exact kind of prophets like the prophets in the Old Testament or the apostles teaching, but they are prophets who speak the word of God in an illuminating way with an illuminated understanding so that the hearer can understand. So this prophecy I believe Peter is referring to is this, Holy Spirit directed, biblically founded truth that is just right for the moment, spoken to by a person who is submissive and humble before God, ready to serve and speak whatever is right for that moment.

That's what I believe this gift of prophecy is. Now, we can wrangle about this forever and ever and ever, but that's what I believe this gift of prophecy is. I don't think that's the only kind of prophecy that's referred to in the book of Acts. And I'm just gonna have to admit, I think there's some difficult nuances here to try to figure out. Scholars have struggled over defining what this is all about.

This is not revelatory prophecy. And it's the same kind of prophecy spoken of in Acts 1 8 you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria in the uttermost parts of the earth it's being a witness witnessing in a prophetic way to the to the culture now let's talk about prophecy this does this does not mean that that that women will be prophesying publicly in the public meetings of the church. I believe the Bible teaches very clearly that this does happen, that women will prophesy. Philip had daughters who were prophets and women do prophesy in the New Testament. But where are they doing it?

Well, I would just say they're not doing it in the meeting of the church. Why do I say that? I say that because Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14, 34, he said, Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but they are to be submissive as the law also says. And if they have a question, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. So I don't think this prophecy was ever meant to happen in the meeting of the church where there was authoritative teaching, you know, what Peter calls the Apostles' doctrine.

We'll get to that next week. In 1 Timothy 2 verse 11, Paul says a very similar thing to Timothy. He says, let a woman learn in silence with all submission. By the way, this is in contrast to what he says to the men. I want men to lift up holy hands and pray.

I want men to be speaking in the meeting of the church but but not with women he says he says let a woman learn in silence with all submission and that means that a man doesn't learn in silence he has something He has something to say in the public meeting of the church. He says, I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first and not Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and fell into transgression. So prophecy. Women prophesy absolutely.

They are prophesists to the grace of God in the venue that God has opened to them. And there's much opportunity for that in their homes, with their sisters in Christ. There's just a rich opportunity there, but not in the meeting of the church, as Paul indicates to Timothy and to the entire church in Corinth. Now, in 1 Corinthians 11, there's a verse that seems to confuse the whole world about this and there's this very strange verse that seems to be out completely out of kilter to what we've just read. Paul says, but every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesies disgraces her head.

Okay, what does that mean? So that means that women were prophesying and praying. I just think it's easy to understand. They just weren't doing it in the meeting in the church. They were praying like every woman should pray.

They were prophesying like every woman should prophesy as she speaks the Word of God in the way that God has designed her to speak it. To her husband, to her children, to her sisters in Christ, and to her unbelieving friends, this is the rich ministry of the Word of God in the life of a woman. So their sons and daughters prophesy, young men see visions, old men will dream dreams, bond slaves, men and women will receive the Spirit and will prophesy. And then Peter turns to events in the sky, wonders and signs that perhaps have not taken place at all. It's possible some of these took place, have taken place already.

Maybe we saw some of this on Good Friday before maybe the mighty right mighty rushing wind was one expression of it but I'm not confident that I think this is telescopic and it's to the end of the age to the great and terrible day of the Lord when God's wrath is unleashed And the great and glorious day of the Lord will come and all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Well, when does all this happen? This happens between the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the second coming of Christ. And it's a telescopic prophecy that encompasses everything that will happen during the Church age. Then, in the sermon, Peter proclaims the risen Christ.

And there are four elements of Peter's Gospel presentation that I want to outline. Jesus' ministry, Jesus' death, Jesus' resurrection, and Jesus' exaltation. We'll just take these one by one. First of all, he speaks of Jesus' ministry in verse 22. 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." The first thing that Peter wants to establish is the life and ministry of Jesus, that the signs and wonders were the authentication of his Messiah ship.

Peter calls him Jesus the Nazarene. He identifies him with that city Nazareth and by the way this is the same term that was inscribed on the cross that Peter uses here. Jesus was a man with a name, with a family, with a town, with a historical location called Nazareth. He was not a ghost, he was not a phantom, he was not a myth, he was a real historical figure. He walked on the earth, he turned water into wine, he healed the sick, he raised the dead, he cast out demons, And his miracles were the authentication of who he really was.

And Peter is saying to these Jews, these men of Judea, he's saying, brothers, you saw the miracles, you saw them. And he's saying, you know that Jesus is the Messiah. That's his point. This is the beginning, this should be the beginning of all of our evangelistic work. Who is Jesus?

This is why it's such a, It's always helpful to recommend someone who's not embraced Christ to read the Gospel of John. Hey, just go get to know the Lord Jesus Christ, or read Mark, the short Gospel. But first of all, see the ministry and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Get to know Him first. In all of our evangelism this should probably be the very first step, saturating people in the ministry of the Lord Jesus.

And then He speaks of Jesus' death, verse 23, this man delivered over by the predetermined plan of foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. Now, God's plan for His people was to rescue his creatures by sending his son to die for them. The death of Jesus Christ is the expression of his love for mankind. And this is not a very welcome thought among the Jews. You say the term last days among the Jews, they're thinking Messiah.

They're thinking this reigning king who's going to destroy Rome, who's going to put them in power, get their money back. Some of them are thinking that. But for Jesus to die, for the Messiah to die, was an abhorrent idea. And Peter answers this objection here. And he says, if he is, then their objection is, well, if he is the Messiah, why did he die?

Why did this horrible thing happen? He was strung up. How could, this can't be the Messiah. If he was God, he would have delivered himself. And Peter is answering this objection in this verse.

Why did he go to the cross if he's a king? And Peter answers this objection with remarkable clarity and he takes two seemingly contradictory ideas and he puts them in the same phrase. What he says here is that he died according to the predetermined plan of God. That's the first thing he says. According to the foreknowledge of God.

And then he says it was also because of the works of wicked men. And he takes these two and he says Christ died because it was part of God's predetermined plan and men were wicked. He takes both of those and puts them together and makes a wedding out of those two ideas. He declares God's complete and perfect sovereignty over the death of Jesus. The worst event that ever happened in history, God determined, God planned it.

God himself caused the suffering of his son. Does God cause suffering? Yes, he does. He does it for his own glory and he does it for his own purposes. Why do bad things happen to good people?

Good people. Because God is sovereign over all things. And yet, wicked men are also held responsible for their actions. God does not violate the conscience of wicked men, nor does He withhold them the responsibility for their sin. He holds them responsible for their sin on the one hand and on the other hand he uses all events somehow for his own glory.

Peter uses this to explain the tension here. The greatest evil ever done was the crucifixion. Jesus was a perfect man. He did not deserve it. He did nothing but express love and it was matchless love.

Nobody ever did more good than Christ But God determined that his son would be rejected and would be crucified and would die for the sins of many. So he dies and then he speaks of his resurrection. Now it's interesting, you got one verse on Jesus' ministry, you got one verse on his death and now you got a whole lot of verses on the resurrection. Peter's emphasis is on the resurrection here in this sermon and he takes verses 24 to 32 to explain the resurrection. The resurrection is the final proof that Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus has an empty tomb. David does not have an empty tomb. That's why he takes the prophecy in Psalm 16, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand and then he will not allow his anointed to suffer decay. It's obvious what Peter says, it's obvious that David was not talking about himself in Psalm 16. He was talking about Jesus.

That's what Peter is saying. And he was talking about the resurrection. And he quotes one of my favorite Psalms, one of my favorite verses. You know, if I ever am signing something, my first tendency is to put Psalm 16-11. You've made known to me the path of life.

You will fill me with joy in your presence forevermore." It's a beautiful, beautiful verse, but it's about the joy of relationship with God. It's about the core, the core result, the true heart of the gospel, and that is the joy of the Lord in the heart. That's what the gospel is all about. When you die, what will be the first words that you'll hear? Enter into the joy of your master.

That's what you'll hear. Because it is, the gospel is the gospel of joy. Now we don't have any record of anybody contradicting Peter when he said that Jesus rose from the grave and the tomb was empty, But this is what he declares. And then he speaks of Jesus' exaltation, and he quotes Psalm 110, and he says, Let the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. He is Savior, you crucified him, and now he's sitting at the right hand of God and he's made all of his enemies a footstool.

And here Peter is presenting Jesus as Lord and Master, as the one who's sitting at the right hand of God. He has all authority upon him and he does whatever he pleases and he's setting Christ above all other constellations before them. So this was this was the sermon okay the ministry of Jesus, Jesus death, Jesus resurrection and then Jesus exaltation. That's the meat of the sermon, full of quotation of Scripture. It's a beautiful testimony to the gospel.

And then there's the response. The response was absolutely amazing. It was passionate. It was powerful. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, What shall we do?

They were pierced to the heart. You know the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and it pierces to the division of soul and spirit of joint and marrow. It, the Word of God pierced their heart And that is the value of the Word of God. In all of our life's work, we should always be using the Word of God. This should be what we should speak of the most.

Why? Because it's the only thing that can truly pierce the heart. You can use all your creative arguments that you want, but the Word of God is it. It's what we should use. It's the best witnessing tool.

You know, little tracts and things like that are fine. I think they're good to use. But there's nothing like this tract. It's full of every situation and every problem, and it should be used and read in all of our evangelism. But they were pierced to the heart.

In a way they were sort of passive. Something happened to them. They were pierced from the outside. They didn't finally wake up and logically figure all this out. They studied all the royal religions.

They came to the conclusion that Jesus was the Messiah. It's not how they got there. They were pierced. Something happened and it happened very quickly. God changed their hearts and said brother and what what shall we do this term?

Can be used as a stabbing okay? They were stabbed in the heart and they were going along maybe they were maybe a lot of these people were just hard as rocks during most of this sermon and then all of a sudden boom God pierces their hearts through the Word. It's a beautiful thing that happened to them. They said, what must we do to be saved? It's the same question that Paul asked on the road to Damascus, what shall I do Lord?

Acts 22 10. It's the same question the Philippian Jailer Act asked in Acts 16 20, sirs what must I do to be saved? It's the same old question. And you know just let me just stop here for a moment. You know there's this idea floating about that that people you people try God.

Hey go just try just you know try to believe and that's not that's not what happened here you don't try God he comes and he pierces your heart and he drags you into his kingdom. And that's exactly what happened to these people here. Then the cures explained, they asked the question, and he answers the question. Peter said, repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift. I love that part, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And they do receive the gift. He calls them to repent, to turn around. There's also an idea out there that to be saved you admit that you're a sinner. That's not it. That's not what he's saying here.

He's not saying admit you're a sinner. He's saying repent, turn around, make a change. You're going one way, you turn around and you repent and you're baptized and your sins are forgiven. Repenting is not the same thing as saying I'm sorry. My experience is sometimes when we are dealing with our children and they say they're sorry, they've never repented.

They've never had a true, heartfelt repentance before God. Until you get that, you get nothing good. And if you get children who just keep saying they're sorry over and over again, they'll get hard to their sins. Same thing with these people here. There are a lot of people that just say they're sorry.

They're sorry for whatever happened and what they did, but they've not fundamentally repented of their sins. And there's a big difference here. Salvation comes not for saying, boy, that was a dumb thing I did. I'm sorry. Salvation comes from a true repentance from sin.

You know, it's interesting. John Poli was in a bookstore quite a while ago, a couple months ago, and this Bible was in that bookstore. And it's a Bible, It's a very old Bible. What we've learned about this Bible is that it was carried around by Gilbert Tennant and his wife. This was Gilbert Tennant's wife.

Who was Gilbert Tennant? Gilbert Tennant was one of the great preachers of the Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Gilbert Tennant, Fraylinghausen and some others. But Gilbert Tennant was one of the fireiest of the Great Awakening preachers. Here's what Gilbert Tennant and all the Great Awakening preachers believed.

They believed that the churches were full of people who were just sorry for their sins, but they never repented. There was no fruit. There was no true conversion. And so they went around and preached the gospel of repentance. And that repentance meant you changed your life, that you were different, that you abandoned the gods that you'd worshiped all of your life.

And I believe this same message that was preached with this Bible is the same message that we need to be preaching in the church today. It's widely reported. Well, let's just take the Southern Baptist Convention. There are executives in the Southern Baptist Convention who are saying that maybe 5% of the people of the 16, 5 to 10% of the people of 16 million Southern Baptists are saved. Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention are saying this.

Why is that? It's because we've preached a gospel that gets people to raise their hand, to say they're sorry, to pray a sinner's prayer. Where's that? Is Peter asking them to pray a sinner's prayer? Absolutely not.

You will not find this anywhere in the preaching of the gospel in this book right here, the book of Acts. It's not praying a sinner's prayer, it's not saying you're sorry. It's repenting of your sins and turning to Jesus Christ and then be baptized, which would be a very threatening, very countercultural thing to do, to be baptized in this culture. It would be to spit in the face of all of your brothers to be baptized, to turn away from all the traditions that had grown up. That's what being baptized was all about and that's still what it's about.

You know, baptism is also, we've lost the meaning of baptism. I read the other day there's a church that they have this for their youth ministry, they've outfitted a fire truck and they've turned into a baptistry and they blow off fireworks and they shoot a thing of water and it's a big balloons go up. It's an absolute caricature of biblical baptism. But baptism was crossing a line that could mean your death. And in many cultures, even today, That's what baptism is.

It's your death warrant. But Peter is saying, repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. And they're turning away from their sins. You know, one of the most heartbreaking aspects of living in a relativistic postmodern culture is that most people will never experience forgiveness because they don't believe anything is wrong. This is a huge, if you don't believe, if you don't believe you're a sinner, you get no relief from your problems, from your real problems.

So this postmodern relativistic culture is so devastating because people never get relief from their real problem because they they don't think they have a problem they think that what's cool for you is cool for you and what's cool for me is cool for me and if you don't like something that I do I'll just say I'm sorry But there's no sin and there's no repentance. But that's what he is calling for here. And then the instruction is continued in verse 40, and with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. And here is the message. Be saved from this perverse generation.

Now notice a few things about what he says here. Notice the constancy of the message. He continually was exhorting. This is a constant exhortation that needs to be on our lips. First of all, it needs to be in our hearts, but that we truly are turning away from a perverse and wicked generation.

You know the tentacles of worldliness have wrapped around our hearts in ways that we're not even aware of. If we were aware of all of them, I'm sure we would die of sorrow. God hasn't revealed all of our worldliness to us. But thankfully He does do it slowly. But this is an urgent calling of the church to be saved from this perverse generation.

And this should be our message to the world and to one another. Because once we're saved, we're not done with the world. The world is not done with us. We need to continue to renounce the world, to renounce worldly philosophy, to renounce the worldly practices that have made their way in our lives. We need to name the devil's work as what it is and reject it and move away from it.

And that means that, you know, after five years, you've rejected some of the world after five years and some more after ten years and more after twenty years. That means that you're going to change. That means that you're going to abandon a lot of the wicked practices that have grown up around you. Some of the unbiblical philosophies that have gripped our hearts, and we could speak about a number of them, but the world has gripped the culture and our hearts, and we need to turn away from wicked propositions and unbiblical practices. And that's what he is saying, be saved from this perverse generation.

Now, what often happens in American Christianity is that people, when people are saved, it means that they pray the sinner's prayer and they accept Christ in their hearts. Accept Christ in your heart. Where did that come from? And they admit that they're sinners and then they get baptized. But there is no rejection of the wicked and perverse generation it's not salvation salvation salvation is jumping ship salvation is going one way and then turning around and going completely in the other direction.

What salvation is in America is you admit you're a sinner, you pray the sinner's prayer, and you get baptized, but you keep going the way of the world. That's what the church in America is doing right now. It's going just wantonly in the way of the world. You know all the Statistics that we're getting are telling us that there's no difference between the church and the world, statistically, in behavior patterns, in entertainment, in vibemence, in anything. There's just no difference.

No Difference in morality, no difference in divorce rate. In fact, it's worse in evangelical circles. There's a big furor in Colorado Springs. Christian Mecca of America, highest divorce rate in Colorado. What's that all about?

Okay. It's because the gospel, though it's often preached, it's not embraced. Something else is embraced. Sorrow for your sins, baptism, admitting you're a sinner, but no salvation from a wicked and perverse generation. No progressive rejecting of the world system and it's so critical and you know what if we're not rejecting the world system I just we're not saved.

It's possible it's quite possible that the same thing that happened in the days of Gilbert Tennant and George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, that the church was full of unbelievers. You know, Jonathan Edwards challenged this in his church and he had so many unbelievers in his church that 90% of them voted him out because he wanted to do away with the halfway covenant, which meant that unbelievers could take communion. They wanted to give unbelievers a chance to make them prospects, to help them hear the gospel more. But it's possible that we live in the same kind of day as Jonathan Edwards and Gilbert Tennant lived in. I think we should be praying for a great awakening in the church in America, that we should beg God that He would save His people.

Because they in many regards show no indication of true salvation as evidenced by the fact that they still embrace the perverse generation for the sake of their friendships, for the sake of their comforts, for the sake of their reputations. And they continue to live like pagans, they continue to poison their hearts with the same poisons that the world does. They're not being saved, they're continually being assimilated, they're not changing but they're capitulating And they're not being saved. The gospel is always disruptive to life. It always pulls you out of the stream of the world.

If it hasn't pulled you out of the stream of the world. If it hasn't pulled you out of the stream of the world, you can't be saved. You must not be. But Peter understood this and he said, be saved from this perverse generation. And then the ingathering was tremendous.

Those who had received his word, verse 41, were baptized. And that day there were added about 3, 000 souls. This was one of the greatest evangelistic gatherings in history. They were truly saved. Here's something interesting.

They knew the number. They knew the number who were saved in baptism. They were keeping track of who was in and who was out here in this passage of scripture. You know, it's interesting. I think somewhere around Tuesday of this week, the US population is going to hit 300 million.

You know, when I was born, I think we used to say that we were about 300 million. And then in my teens, it was about 350 million. And then for the last 10 years, I've been saying, we have about 385 million. Well, guess what? 300 million, probably somewhere on Tuesday, we have a baby.

We have a baby about every 11 seconds in America. But here we are, 300 million people. In 1900 there were 27 churches for every 10, 000 people, today there are 11. The church is in decline right now. Our population is growing and the church is declining.

And I don't know what the true decline is, but I think it's significant because I believe along with a number of executives in the Southern Baptist Convention that there are large percentages of people in our churches who are not truly converted, they're not truly part of the church and they need this message of Peter. Well, it's time for us to do, I'm just going to say three things. There's so much we could say about this for application. First of all, you know, Peter's example, Peter's boldly standing with the eleven, Peter's unity with the members of the early churches critical for us that we would stand with one another for what for the proclamation the gospel that we would do this vigorously secondly that that our message would be really clear and that is Christ and Him crucified, that our message is the same message that Peter preached here. Let's don't get distracted with a bunch of feel-good messages.

Let's keep true to the gospel that all that we have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The only hope is the blood of Jesus Christ. The only way to receive it is through true repentance and salvation from a wicked and perverse generation. A true repentance. And then thirdly, how important it is for us, first of all personally, in the microcosm of our hearts and then in our homes and then in our churches, in our businesses, that we are world rejecting believers.

That we are being saved from a wicked and perverse generation. That we think the thoughts of God after Him. And We do what David said, I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. I will set no worthless thing before my eyes, but that we would walk in purity as much as we possibly can to be saved from this wicked and this perverse generation. Would you pray with me?

Father, thank you for this sermon that you gave to Peter. Oh Lord, we pray that we would be like him, that our sons and daughters would be like Him, our wives, our grandmothers, our grandfathers, our old men, and, oh Lord, all of us together united in these great things. Oh Father, how much we need your help. Thank you for pouring out the spirit of prophecy in the church that we could communicate the precious truths of Holy Scripture. Oh, we need your help for this, Father.

I pray great energy for us in it. In Jesus name, Amen. Okay, let's open it up here. A time of continued instruction around these things that are here in this passage. It's also a time if you have any questions or any comments but this is this is a time particularly for the men to continue to teach one another.

I'm sure God has taught you some things or some thoughts in your minds that are important for the rest of us that I've not communicated. And so we want to open it up for that now. One thought on being culturally relevant is that we can't reject that entirely.