by weareclctinley on Nov 05, 2023
In this sermon, I discussed the importance of the Holy Spirit and obedience in accomplishing incredible things. I highlighted the message of the book of Acts, emphasizing the new power, purpose, and plan given to us. I also spoke about Peter's first salvation message, which was not a feel-good sermon but a call to repentance and baptism. I stressed the importance of being devoted to the apostles' teachings, fellowship, and community. I also touched on the life of Paul, who despite facing trials and persecution, remained steadfast in his purpose to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Key Takeaways:
- The Holy Spirit plus our obedience can accomplish incredible things. [ 09:14]
- We are called to be devoted to the apostles' teachings and to fellowship. [ 14:12]
- We cannot follow Jesus in isolation; we were created for community. [ 15:13]
- Peter's first salvation message was a call to repentance and baptism. [ 11:37]
- Like Paul, we should remain steadfast in our purpose to testify to the gospel of the grace of God, regardless of the trials we face. [ 30:31]
Bible Reading:
1. Acts 1:8 #!!09:14!!#
2. Acts 2:1-4 #!!10:25!!#
3. Acts 2:42 #!!16:57!!#
Observation Questions:
1. What does Acts 1:8 tell us about the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers?
2. In Acts 2:1-4, what significant event took place and how did it impact the early church?
3. What are the four key practices of the early church as described in Acts 2:42?
Interpretation Questions:
1. How does the power of the Holy Spirit, as described in Acts 1:8, influence the actions and decisions of believers?
2. What does the event in Acts 2:1-4 reveal about the transformative power of the Holy Spirit?
3. How do the practices in Acts 2:42 reflect the priorities and values of the early church?
Application Questions:
1. How can you cultivate a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit in your daily life, as suggested by Acts 1:8?
2. Reflecting on Acts 2:1-4, how can you be more open to the transformative work of the Holy Spirit in your life?
3. Considering the practices of the early church in Acts 2:42, which of these practices do you need to devote more time and energy to in your own life?
4. How can you foster a sense of community and fellowship within your own church or small group, as described in Acts 2:42?
5. How can you keep the sacrifice of Jesus at the forefront of your faith, as suggested by the reference to the breaking of bread in Acts 2:42?
Day 1: Devotion to Christ's Teachings
Devotion to Christ's teachings is not a pick-and-choose affair. It requires a full commitment to the entirety of His teachings, even those that may seem politically incorrect or offensive. This devotion is a personal choice, not imposed by any external force. It involves studying the Word of God and being fully committed to it ([14:12]).
Bible Passage: 2 Timothy 2:15 - "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth."
Reflection: Reflect on your level of devotion to Christ's teachings. Are there any teachings you struggle to accept or apply in your life?
Day 2: The Importance of Christian Community
Following Jesus cannot be done in isolation. We were created for community and fellowship with other believers. This community is not just about attending church services, but about genuine interaction and mutual support among believers ([15:50]).
Bible Passage: Hebrews 10:24-25 - "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
Reflection: How are you actively participating in your Christian community? How can you deepen your involvement and support for fellow believers?
Day 3: Keeping Jesus's Sacrifice at the Center
Jesus's sacrifice must remain central in our faith. We must constantly be reminded that it is only because of His grace and sacrifice that we have salvation. The cross and the empty tomb should always be at the forefront of our faith ([16:57]).
Bible Passage: 1 Corinthians 2:2 - "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."
Reflection: How do you keep Jesus's sacrifice central in your daily life and faith practices?
Day 4: The Power of Prayer
Prayer is a crucial part of following Jesus. The Bible instructs us to pray without ceasing. Prayer is a powerful tool that connects us with God and strengthens our faith ([17:30]).
Bible Passage: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 - "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
Reflection: How is your prayer life? How can you make prayer a more integral part of your daily routine?
Day 5: Repentance and Baptism
Repentance and baptism are the first steps towards salvation. We must acknowledge our sins, turn away from them, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins ([12:14]).
Bible Passage: Acts 3:19 - "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord."
Reflection: Reflect on your journey of repentance and baptism. How has this journey shaped your faith and relationship with God?
Thank you.
Alright, hey! So, he always tells me, you know, make sure you turn that thing on. It only works when the power button is flipped.
But hey, we are walking through the New Testament as a church, and today's message is going to be a little bit different than some of the others in this series because we're going to only look at one book of the Bible today.
This means, theoretically, we can walk a little slower, but you're going to notice I'm going to talk really fast because we're also going to go a little bit deeper into this section. I think that this is, Carlton says maybe, I think definitely, the most important book of the Bible.
I'm going to give you a few reasons why I feel that way. But today, we're jumping into the fifth book of the New Testament. This is the book of Acts, or the Acts of the Apostles.
And this is a sequel. How many of you love a good sequel, right? It's the sequel to the book of Luke, written by the same guy, a man named Luke, who's a physician traveling with the Apostle Paul.
He's writing for us maybe about 25 years after the resurrection. The great thing about Luke is he doesn't make us guess why he's writing. Luke tells us why he's writing, and I love somebody that's upfront with their motives.
So, Luke actually tells us in Luke chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, that "in as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us."
What does he say in there? He's saying a lot of people have tried to explain what happened, and now he's saying, "Me too." Right?
"It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past." Remember, he's coming at this from a physician's mindset, so he's detail-oriented. He wants to get things written down the right way.
So, he's followed all this closely, and now he wants to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus. He wants to put all of this information into proper order so that we can best understand.
In fact, he goes on to say that "you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught." While we don't really know who Theophilus is exactly, we assume that he must be either a new convert or somebody that's right on the verge of converting or dedicating their life to Jesus.
And because he's new, Luke wants to give him some certainty, which is great for us today because, 2000 years later, how many of you would like to have a little bit more certainty about the things that you're believing?
Well, that's why we have the Book of Luke and the Book of Acts. In any case, this Book of Acts is both a history book and a transitional book, and we have to understand both aspects of the Book of Acts.
Because it is a history book, it is the history of the birth of the church, right? It's telling us what happened after Jesus resurrected and left. How does this small group of followers in Jerusalem then all of a sudden spread to a worldwide movement?
How does that happen? It's a really important question for us to have answered, and it's really only answered in the Book of Acts for us. That's why the history aspect of this book is so important.
But why I think it's actually the most important book of the Bible is that it is the transitional book. It is the transition from the Old Covenant into the New Covenant.
And that means that as we go through the Book of Acts, it's bringing us out of the old and into this New Covenant. There's a lot that we could say about this, but let me just kind of highlight a few things about this New Covenant and why it's so important.
First of all, it gives us new salvation, right? What we have to understand is that in the Old Covenant and in the New Covenant, you need salvation in either case. Nobody's good enough. Nobody lives up to the standard of God. None of us do, preachers included.
We all are in need of a savior because the penalty for us not being good enough is death, right? So, if none of us can be good enough and the punishment for all of us, big sin or little sin, is death, then we all are in need of salvation.
But under the Old Covenant, the Old Covenant wasn't really a great method for salvation. It was really just pointing down the road. Under the Old Covenant, you had to sacrifice animals. Something had to die in your place, but the animal wasn't the same as you.
So, you had to do that over and over and over and over again. If you messed up today, you better sacrifice something quick, right?
And then all of a sudden, into the New Covenant, we see this transition from the way we're saved from being what we do, right, in sacrificing the animal. Now, under the New Covenant, it's not about what we do; it's about what Jesus has already done when he became the perfect Lamb of God, the sacrifice once and for all.
We don't have to keep killing things because Jesus took the punishment for us on our behalf. So, that man right there, that should be enough for us to say New Covenant better than the Old Covenant, right?
But we don't stop there. This New Covenant also provides us new life in Christ. In fact, Scripture says that the Old Covenant led to death. Your Bible tells you that this New Covenant we have leads to life.
Jesus said that "I came that they might have life to the fullest," right? Under the Old Covenant, death; under the New Covenant, life. But it's not just life for the Jewish people; it's now a life for a new people.
In the Old Covenant, salvation was only available to the Jew. There was no hope for the rest of us. But under the New Covenant, now all of a sudden, there's a new people of God, and it's not just people that are born into the family; it's people who are born again into the family.
How beautiful is that? Now there's this new people in the New Covenant, and the new people leads us to a new temple. In the Old Covenant, there was one physical temple. It's the place where the presence of God would dwell.
In the new, we have all become the temple of God where the presence of God dwells. We've got to understand that now we're the temple. Sometimes I think we get this idea that we would never dare commit a certain sin at the altar in church.
You would never dream of sinning in that way here, but you're fine with it back at home. If that's the case, then you've misunderstood what the temple is all about because it's not about this space; it's about this space.
We're in this new temple, and with the new temple comes new access. Under the Old Covenant, only the high priest, a certain select few men over the course of history, could approach God.
Under the New Covenant, we can all come boldly before the throne of grace. Why? Because we've got new access as the new temple and the new people with this new life in Christ, all provided to us because of the new path to salvation.
Old Covenant, New Covenant—it's beautiful. It's in the Book of Acts that we first see this transition. The followers of Jesus walk out this transition from the old into the new.
The Book of Acts is an incredible book for us, and as we walk through its pages, we're going to learn that the Book of Acts shows us what God can do in and through individuals and churches who are fully committed to God and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
This is what we're going to learn, and this idea is what I want you to keep in the forefront of your mind as we go through these pages.
But here's the problem: this is a little wordy, so let me shorten it for you. The Holy Spirit plus my obedience can accomplish incredible things. That's the message of the Book of Acts.
The Holy Spirit plus my obedience can accomplish incredible things. So, we're going to start off with one verse that can actually summarize the entire Book of Acts. It's Acts chapter 1, verse 8, that says, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."
This one verse summarizes everything that we're about to read, and it gives us, talking about that New Covenant, it gives us some new things, right? It's the new power, right? It's the new power; it's the Holy Spirit power at work within us.
It gives us a new purpose to be Jesus's witnesses, and it's giving us a new plan to be his witnesses everywhere, right? So, right here in the first book of Acts, we get a new power, we get a new purpose, and we get a new plan.
We see that set into motion in the very next chapter, in Acts chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, which is a Jewish holiday. We don't have time to get into it, but when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
This is a statement of the unity of the body of Christ that we need to continue today. Suddenly, there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
Divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
So, in Acts 1, Jesus promises the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2, we receive the Holy Spirit. It's a beautiful moment. Right here, we have the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit, followed by the first evangelistic sermon in your Bible, and it's preached by a man named Peter.
Anybody remember Peter? As we were going through the gospels, Peter was kind of a wild guy. He did a lot of dumb things, but this is the most beautiful moment because Peter preaches the first salvation message, and the church is birthed in this moment.
This is what he says. He talks for a while; we're going to jump in at verse 36. He says, "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."
Peter's very first sermon is not a feel-good sermon. It's not all about how Jesus loves you and died for you so that you can have a beautiful life. Peter's first salvation message is, "You killed your savior."
I love it. It's like Peter doesn't play. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. Was it the words that Peter said that cut them to the heart? I don't think so.
I think the hardness of the hearts of the Jewish believers at that time, it wasn't his words that cut them; it was the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm praying that today the Holy Spirit would do a little bit of surgical work in us as well.
But they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" They got the message: "You killed your savior." They said, "Oh no, what do we do now?"
Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins." For anybody asking, "What should I do about this problem of salvation that I need?" Repent and be baptized. The answer is the same 2000 years later.
"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."
What's the promise here? It's the promise of salvation, that salvation is available to you, to everyone, right? So, he continues with many other words. You think my sermons are long? Peter's sermon was so long they couldn't write it in the Bible.
With many other words, he 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 three thousand souls.
The birth of the church! It's the start right there. You've got 3,000 new converts in one day off of one sermon. In the very next verse, so this is verse 41, we have the church birthed.
In verse 42, we get the blueprint for how the church is supposed to operate. In my opinion, this is the most important verse for you to know. This is the—I know we all love Acts 1:8, the power is coming, right?
But this next verse, verse 42, is actually what you need to grasp today. Acts 2:42: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."
This verse is the blueprint for how you are to follow Jesus. If you are a follower, if you are a believer and you are saying, "Jesus, you are Lord of my life. You are both Messiah and Master," this is what you should be doing.
Number one, you're devoting yourself. This idea of half in, half out, this idea of picking and choosing and saying, "Well, I like these things about Christianity. I like those things about Jesus, but I don't like this other stuff because it's not politically correct and it's a little offensive."
So, I'm going to take the stuff I like and I'm going to leave the rest. That does not work. We have to be devoted. And I don't make you devoted; it says they devoted themselves. The followers chose, "We're going to be devoted."
Then it says that they're devoted to the apostles' teaching. That's not a sermon; that's not what I do on the stage, okay? In fact, you could remove your pastor from the equation, and you can still follow Jesus.
Devoted to the apostles' teachings—the apostles' teachings are now recorded for us in the New Testament. What we're saying here is the same thing we're saying with this series: you need to become students of the Word of God.
You need to study his Word and be devoted to the Word of God. That's why we're going through the New Testament together. So, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship.
What's the fellowship? That's community, okay? The idea here is that you cannot follow Jesus in isolation. You cannot follow Jesus in isolation. You were not designed to do life alone. You were created for community.
Here's the challenge: I don't think you're in community when you show up to church, don't talk to nobody on your way in, sit in the chair that you have left your butt print into because it is your chair and nobody ever better touch it.
The only time you talk to anybody is when Carlton puts 30 seconds on the clock, and so you force yourself to say hi to three people. Then, as soon as service is over, you get up and you walk out to the parking lot, you get in your car, and you drive home.
That is not community. You checked off your to-do list: "I went to church today, so I'm a good Christian." But you miss the community. You miss the fellowship. You miss the interaction with other believers where you bring your gift and they bring their gift, and you work together to edify the body of Christ.
When they're hurting, and you're praying, and when you're hurting, they're praying, and when you're working together, this is the community. This is the fellowship of the believers.
And to the breaking of bread, this was phrasing for communion. Anytime communion was referenced, it's either the table or it's the breaking of bread. What this is telling us today is that Jesus's sacrifice must remain center in who we are and what we do.
We can never get to a place where we think we've been good enough. We can never get to a place where we put it all on ourselves. We have to constantly be reminded that it's only because of the grace of God.
It's only because of the sacrifice of Jesus that I even have salvation. We've got to keep the cross and the empty tomb forefront in our faith at all times. It's the breaking of the bread.
And then the prayers. You want to follow Jesus? You need to be devoted. You need to be studying your Word. You need to be fellowshipping with other believers. You need to be keeping the cross and the tomb forefront, and you better be praying.
The Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. Alright, we got to pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. That's the blueprint. You want to know what it means to follow Jesus? There you go. That's what it means. That's what we're supposed to do.
Acts chapter 2, verse 42—most important verse for you today.
Alright, but Acts continues. After this beautiful moment of the birth of the church, it continues with a series of miracles and persecutions, right? You remember A Tale of Two Cities? It was the best of times; it was the worst of times, right?
That's kind of the Book of Acts, right? You get a series or several stories of miracles and several stories of persecution. Usually, the miracles would lead into or out of the persecution. It's like God would do a miracle, and they'd get persecuted because of it.
Not crazy? Then, in their persecution, God would work another miracle, and amazing things would happen. It's just kind of this beautiful, I don't know, circle of life moment.
But here's the interesting thing: the persecution did not catch any of Jesus's followers off guard. They all knew what they were signing up for. They knew that in following Jesus, they were going to be persecuted.
I mean, Jesus was crucified because of what he taught. Why would they think that they'd get away easy, right? In fact, Jesus even told them, "The world is going to hate you because of me."
Yet the persecution didn't slow them down. If anything, it actually increased the spread and the speed of the gospel even faster, partially thanks to a man named Stephen.
We get Stephen, the first Christian martyr, in the Book of Acts in chapter seven. It tells us his story. The Jewish leaders at the time are really mad at Stephen. They're angry at him because he's been seen doing miraculous things—miracles followed by persecution—and he's preaching the gospel with boldness and with wisdom.
So, they get some people together to claim false witness against him. They bring him to the court of public opinion to put him on trial. Guess what Stephen does while on trial? He preaches the gospel with boldness. I love it!
This is what happens in Acts chapter 7. It says, "But he, being Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit," remember that's the theme of this whole thing, "the Holy Spirit plus your obedience," he gazes into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
He said, "Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.
Then they cast him out of the city and they stoned him. The witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. We're going to come back to Saul in just a moment.
But this is the first Christian martyr. He preaches the gospel with boldness, and what does he get as a reward? Does he get a mega church and a nice car? Oh no, no. He gets killed for it. That's what he gets. That's waiting for him at the end of his obedience.
Luke tells us that as a result of Stephen's execution, the followers of Jesus are scattered, but they're not silenced. I love that! It's almost like God could use the tragedy in a strategic way.
Now, these followers who are preaching the gospel in Jerusalem, now all of a sudden, they're preaching the gospel in a bunch of places. It scatters them but doesn't silence them.
Luke even tells us in Acts 8, "Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word." I love that! There's no hesitation; there's no delay. You could not stop, even at the threat of death, you could not stop the early believers from telling everyone they could about Jesus.
Man, I wish that was true today. I'm not going to go there, but this whole thing just really upset that young man named Saul because Saul had taken it upon himself to eradicate the Christians from Jerusalem.
He wanted to wipe them all out. He viewed them as false prophets coming against Israel and leading Israel astray. So, he is doing everything in his power to kill them off, and he's on this journey to a place called Damascus.
He's on the road there to go kill Christians, and Jesus shows up. The blinding light knocks Saul to his butt, and for three days, Saul can't see. Jesus says something so amazing to Saul. He says, "Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
This man that thought he was defending God realized he was offending God instead. It's this powerful moment; it's like a wake-up call for Saul. But Jesus didn't do that to end the persecution; he actually had something bigger in mind.
He wanted a job for Saul to accomplish. While he's blinding Saul on the road to Damascus, he's meeting with another man named Ananias. Ananias gets this message from God: "Go to Saul, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel."
So, Saul is being chosen for a special job, and it's a really important job for us because he's supposed to carry the name to the Gentiles. If you don't know Hebrew, you may not know what a Gentile is. It actually just means nations, and what it's referring to is anyone that's not Jewish.
So, Gentile wasn't an offensive word; it was just "all y'all." Right? Like, if you ain't Jewish, you Gentile. And so, Paul here, Saul, who is soon to be referred to as Paul, he is chosen by God to bring this message of salvation to the Gentiles.
This is where we get the most important transition in the Book of Acts: the transition from one people to all people. See, up until the 10th chapter of Acts, everything that we read in Scripture is really God and his people, the Jewish people, right?
There's a favoritism that's happening because God is creating this model, this image that he's focusing on this one group so that we can later look back and see his hand at work in them and that they would be the first messengers.
But his plan from the beginning was to include everyone else. We get glimpses of that promise of salvation coming to the whole world, but up until Acts chapter 10, your Bible is Jewish.
Up until Acts chapter 10, you don't apply; you don't qualify for any of the promises, for any of the amazing stories and the great things in the Bible. Without Acts chapter 10, you don't apply. It has nothing to do with you.
But in Acts chapter 10, we get the first Gentile convert to this new belief in Jesus, a man named Cornelius. Cornelius is described in Scripture as a good man. He's giving to the poor; he's praying to God; he's trying to follow God.
But there's a problem: Cornelius is Roman, not Jewish, right? Not Jewish at all, and that's a problem. So, what God does is God sends an angel to Cornelius to tell Cornelius to go find a man named Peter.
At the same time, God is visiting Peter in a dream, giving him this dream so that Peter will be prepared to do something no Jewish man would have done—that is, accept the dinner invitation to go to Cornelius's home, to go to the home of a Gentile.
Peter would have outright refused if it wasn't for God giving him this vision and speaking to him in the dream. So, Peter agrees; he goes to Cornelius's home, and there Cornelius tells him about this angel that had visited him and what the angel had said.
Then Peter makes a statement that you might have just skipped over in your Bible, but it is so vital. Acts chapter 10, verse 34: "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality."
Because up until Acts 10, verse 33, God showed partiality. God showed himself to the Jewish people and the Jewish people only. Pharaoh wasn't saved; Potiphar wasn't saved. All these people in the Old Testament that are outside the Jewish faith, it's not for them.
But all of a sudden, there's this removal of the partiality of God, and now from one people to all people—all people who will accept Jesus's sacrifice for them.
Peter, having heard from Cornelius, does something absolutely crazy. He preaches the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ to a Gentile crowd for the very first time, and the Holy Spirit comes on them, and they're baptized.
The door is opened in Acts chapter 10 of the gospel to you and to me, that salvation is available even to us. Even though he's the Jewish Messiah, he came to save all of us. It's a huge moment.
But while it's great for us, it wasn't very popular in Jerusalem because the Jewish people had thousands of years of saying, "We're the only ones." Like, this is well established in Scripture: "We're the ones."
Now, Peter, you've gone and invited other people into our home. That's messed up. So, they object, and then Peter tells them about the Holy Spirit coming upon them, and it's like everything changes.
Acts chapter 11, verse 18: "When they heard these things, they fell silent." It was a mic drop moment. Like, they're like, "Peter, you can't tell the Gentiles to come to Jesus. He's Jewish, right, Carlton? Right? He's not for everybody else."
Peter says, "But they've got the Holy Spirit," and it's like, "Well, why didn't you say so?" I mean, we can't argue with that.
So, they glorified God, saying, "Then to the Gentiles also, God has granted repentance that leads to life." So, God has given us the opportunity to repent as well.
The door to the gospel is thrown open, and the whole world gets to hear about Jesus, a savior. That man Saul, who—that's his Hebrew name; his Greek name is Paul. You see him referenced in both ways in Scripture.
But Paul goes on three missionary journeys throughout Asia and Europe, preaching the gospel and planting churches. Later on, he's going to write letters to those churches, giving them instruction and correction and direction, and those letters become the Pauline Epistles that we're going to look at next week.
He goes on these three missionary journeys, and we see from here chapter after chapter after chapter of miracles and persecution—miracles and persecution—as the church is expanding.
But despite the persecution, the gospel is continuing to be preached, people are continuing to be saved, and churches are continuing to be planted.
Then Paul, knowing what danger is going to await him if he does, decides to travel back to Jerusalem where he's got a lot of enemies. This is what he actually says as he ends his third missionary journey.
He says in Acts 20, "Now behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit," meaning the Holy Spirit just will not let me rest. It just keeps pulling me back to Jerusalem.
"And not knowing what will happen to me there, except," so he knows something's going to happen, "that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me."
However, you want to sign up for that missions trip? Like, I'm not buying that ticket. But Paul does. Not only does Paul go, but Paul has this beautiful moment—one of my favorite scriptures—but I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Paul was not shaken on his purpose in life. Paul got it. Paul knew it doesn't matter what happens to me; my life isn't about me anymore.
I went from this persecutor of Christians and of Jesus to now this is my life's work—to be the messenger, to be that special instrument that Jesus called me to be, to preach the gospel to everyone.
What's beautiful about Paul's statement here is Paul has the same purpose that every single one of us as followers of Jesus have. If you want to know what it is you're supposed to do in life, you're supposed to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
That's what you're supposed to do in life. Paul was willing to do that regardless of public opinion, regardless of what friends it would cost him along the way, regardless of what family members would turn their backs on him, regardless of how politically correct or incorrect the message was.
Paul said, "Nothing will stop me from doing what God created me to do." I'm convicted by that. If the Holy Spirit is doing any cutting in my life, it's that right there. What about you?
Is the Holy Spirit kind of poking you right now, saying, "Will you testify to the gospel?" So, Paul travels to Jerusalem, and to absolutely no one's surprise, he's almost immediately arrested for preaching the gospel.
So, he's taken onto trial, and you know what he does while on trial for preaching the gospel? He preaches the gospel.
Then he claims his Roman citizenship, so they ship him off to Rome to await trial in Rome. While on house arrest for two years, you guessed it, Paul preaches the gospel even more to anyone who will visit his home there for two years.
He just preaches and writes. This is what we see in Acts chapter 20, verse 24. Paul is preaching in his home, and some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved.
I wonder if there's kind of a mixed audience here today, or some of you have heard the gospel and you've been convinced by it, while others disbelief.
And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement. Paul said something they didn't like. The Holy Spirit was right and saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet.
So, Paul is going to quote the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. He says, "Go to this people and say, 'You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.'"
What the prophet was saying to the people of Israel in that moment is, "Look, you've turned away from God, and if you would just turn back to him, he would heal them."
Then Paul takes that Old Testament prophecy and brings it to the then-modern Jewish audience and says, "Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen."
How offensive of a statement to a bunch of Jewish guys is that? He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him.
So, for two years, he just preaches the gospel. But I'm wondering, 2000 years after that moment, I'm wondering how accurate this still is today. Will you listen to the gospel?
I wonder if maybe there's a lot of people, a lot of Gentiles, who are now functioning like the Jews of 2000 years ago, and you've heard it, but you didn't really hear it.
You've been presented the gospel, but you haven't accepted it. You haven't received it for yourself. You've seen it, but you don't perceive it. You can barely hear because you've been closed off to the gospel.
What you need to know today is that this incredible news, that even though he was the Jewish Messiah, he came to save each of us. He came to save you.
The gospel is for all people everywhere. The gospel is the good news we looked at last week, that Jesus became our salvation. He became our sacrifice, died the death that we should have died so that we could live the life we could never live.
That's what Jesus does for us. The gospel is this good news that even though we are all guilty of sin, and God says that the punishment for any and all sin, big or small, the punishment for all of it is death.
But because of Jesus's death on the cross and the resurrection, salvation is now available to us. It's what Acts 4 told us, that there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
In 2023, this isn't a very popular idea, but this is the truth of God's Word. There's salvation in no other name. I'm sorry for whoever told you that all religions lead to God; they don't.
Jesus told us himself he's the way. There's no other alternative; there's no other option. Salvation is available in no one else but Jesus.
Peter lays out for us what our response to this message should be: repent and be baptized. So, right here at this close of the service, I got one more thing I want to say.
But before we get there, I want to give an opportunity for you to do at least one of those two things and get you set up to do the other. Because maybe you're here, and maybe you've heard the gospel since you were a kid, or maybe this is the very first time you've heard anything about your need of a savior.
I want to give you an opportunity to do what Peter taught us to do, what Jesus told us to do: to repent. Repentance isn't just saying, "I'm sorry." Repentance is recognizing; it's an awareness that what I was doing was wrong.
So, I'm going to turn away from that thing. That's repentance—saying I was heading towards this thing, and I realized that thing is wrong, and I'm going to turn and go the other way.
When we do that, that's how we receive this salvation. Jesus, he died on the cross for you, and all you have to do is follow him instead of following yourself.
So, I'm going to ask every head bowed, every eye closed in this room. Maybe you're online and you're joining us, and the Holy Spirit's been cutting you today.
This message of salvation, it's so simple, but it's so vital in our lives. It's the most important thing you could ever do is put your life into the hands of Jesus.
So, I'm going to lead a prayer, and you can repeat this prayer after me, but I want you to know there's no magic words. It's not about who's saying the prayer; it's really about you and God.
This is a heart decision, not a verbal one, really. But I'm going to lead you in a prayer. I just want you to repeat this with me if you're ready to repent and follow Jesus.
Say, "Dear Jesus, I need you. I need your forgiveness because I've messed up. More accurately, I've sinned, and I know the punishment for my sin is death.
But today, I repent. I turn away from those things to follow after you. So, Jesus, thank you today for dying on the cross for me so that I can have new life."
In Jesus' name, amen. Amen! I love that moment for you. It really is. It says that there's a party in heaven every time one sinner comes back to faith in Jesus.
I think it's a beautiful moment. But here's your next step, and I want you to—if you prayed that prayer with me, text the word "life" to the number on the screen. You can scan the QR code.
Maybe you're here and you prayed that prayer with us at a different service, maybe a while ago, but you never took your next step. I really want to encourage you to do that right now, to actually take this step.
Because Peter said you got to repent and be baptized. We want to help you take that next step in baptism. But also, at the beginning of the service, I gave you Acts 2:42, right?
The blueprint of what it means to follow Jesus, right? That you would devote yourself to him, that you would study the Word, that you would be in fellowship and community with other believers, that you would keep the cross and the empty tomb forefront, and that you would pray.
We want to equip you to be able to do those things. We look at this salvation prayer as a starting point, not a finishing point—not the finish line; it's a starting line.
We want to help give you some resources and put some things in your hands to help you walk out the decision that you just made. We do that by technology methods.
So, if you prayed that prayer with me, whether you're in the room or online, I just want to follow up with you and help you take your next steps.
But for everybody else, we're not done yet because not only can you be saved, you can also be used by God. I mean, that's the message of Acts, right?
Whoever you are and whatever past issues or character flaws you think keep you from being able to be used by God, the Book of Acts is beautiful because think of the two central figures that we looked at: Peter.
Peter is a fisherman, just an ordinary guy with some anger management issues, right? Read through the gospels. He's the one that pulls out the sword and cuts a guy's ear off.
He repeatedly, in the gospels, when you read Jesus teaching something, it's almost always Peter that misses it, that doesn't understand. He is selfish. He shows his own selfish ambitions, and several times he is repeatedly corrected by Jesus.
Even to the point where Jesus looks at Peter and says, "Get thee behind me, Satan!" Like, this is—okay, Jesus, it's pretty harsh. Peter says some straight-up foolish things in the gospels. He acts without thinking, and then he kind of ends that journey with Jesus being too scared to admit to a little girl that he even knows Jesus.
And that's the same Peter that God uses to establish the church and preach the gospel. How does that happen?
And then you got Paul. Paul's even worse than Peter. Paul tells us he is the chief of all sinners, right? Like, if you want to talk about who's the worst, Paul was the worst.
He was a Jewish religious leader, the kind of man that Jesus repeatedly rebukes in Scripture. I mean, nearly every interaction Jesus has with a Jewish religious leader is negative. He calls them hypocrites, brutal vipers, and this is who Paul is.
While the first Christian martyr is being stoned, he's standing by watching. He makes it his life work to eradicate Christianity from Jerusalem. He is a Christian-hating murderer, and God uses him to take the gospel to the Gentiles and spread all over the globe.
How does that happen? It's a great question. I'm so glad you asked. Jaden, we finished where we started. This is how it happens: Acts 1:8.
You will receive power. The Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
How does God use incredibly flawed people to change the world? Through the same power of the Holy Spirit that is now at work in you.
The moral of the story in the Book of Acts is that the Holy Spirit plus my obedience can accomplish incredible things. Holy Spirit plus Peter started the church. Holy Spirit plus Paul spread the gospel around the world.
The Holy Spirit plus you will do what? Can the Holy Spirit do with your obedience? See, God can and does do the same thing in us that he did in Peter and Paul. He changes our hearts, empowers us by the Holy Spirit, and gives us a mission to accomplish on this earth.
You plus the Holy Spirit can do incredible things. We're going to close with prayer, but then it's really the ball's in your court.
I was trying to figure out, you know, what's the application? What's the next step in this? But it's really on you. It's on you to say, "Holy Spirit, whatever it is you want me to do, I'll do it."
He actually already told you the what, right? It's testify to the gospel, the grace of God. That's what he wants you to do. All you have to do is ask him how he wants you to do it and then give him your obedience.
So, let's pray. Father, we thank you that you so carefully put together the Book of Acts for us. You preserved it over time so that, 2000 years after it was written, we could sit here and study it and learn more about you and learn more about the church.
That in this moment, we could have confidence in what we know in the gospel that's been preached. Father, we thank you that in the Book of Acts, we get to see that the Holy Spirit plus our obedience can do incredible things.
But God, we don't want to just read about incredible things; we want to experience them for ourselves. So today, across this room and online, we're just saying, "Holy Spirit, use us. Holy Spirit, whatever it is that you need us to do, however it is you need us to testify to the gospel, the grace of God, we're going to do it."
So, Holy Spirit, today, collectively as a church, we offer you our obedience. In Jesus' name, amen.
1. "This idea of half in, half out, this idea of picking and choosing and saying well I like these things about Christianity, I like those things about Jesus but I don't like this other stuff because it's not politically correct and it's a little offensive and so I'm going to take the stuff I like and I'm going to leave the rest, that does not work. We have to be devoted." - 14:09
2. "You cannot follow Jesus in isolation. You were not designed to do life alone. You were created for community. You miss the community, you miss the fellowship, you miss the interaction with other believers where you bring your gift and they bring their gift and you work together to edify the body of Christ." - 14:09
3. "Paul was not shaken on his purpose in life. Paul got it. It doesn't matter what happens to me, my life isn't about me anymore. I went from this persecutor of Christians and of Jesus to now this is my life's work to be the messenger to be that special instrument that Jesus called me to be to preach the gospel to everyone." - 29:58
4. "If you want to know what it is you're supposed to do in life, you're supposed to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. That's what you're supposed to do in life. And Paul was willing to do that regardless of public opinion, regardless of what friends it would cost him along the way, regardless of what family members would turn their backs on him, regardless of how politically correct or incorrect the message was." - 29:58
5. "The persecution didn't slow them down, if anything it actually increased the spread and the speed of the Gospel even faster further. It's almost like God could use the tragedy in a strategic way that now these followers who are preaching the gospel in Jerusalem now all of a sudden they're preaching the gospel in a bunch of places and so it scatters them but doesn't silence them." - 18:54
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