RELIVING PENTECOST: THE CHRIST STORY
THEME: TO RESTORE THE POWER OF PENTECOST THE CHRIST STORY MUST BE TOLD AGAIN.
TEXT: ACTS 2:22-36
Recently I had Bible study with a nice younger family in their home. The family stated that they needed to know the Bible better. The family had no church experience or religious background. The husband and wife had difficulty even finding some of the books of the New Testament. But this couple was hungry for the truth of God’s word. It was a Monday evening around 7:00pm. I showed up at the house with my bible and some source material. It was a perfect evening to study as the couple had two small children but the wife’s mother agreed to keep the children so we could study the Bible together. The husband and wife were not strong readers, but seemed to understand most of the verses we looked at. The couple expressed the desire to keep the study simple as they did not know much about God and the Bible. I did this to the best of my ability. The first verse we looked at was Romans 5:12 about Adam making all men sinners. I explained to them that the tern sinned is not an Aorist tense in the Greek language. In fact I showed them in my Greek New Testament. They seemed to agree with me, as I explained to them that the term sin is ’Harmation’ in the original language of the Bible and it is a omni-present tense in the Greek understanding of the action of the word. Then I asked them if they were sinners, which they admitted that they were. In fact the husband said he was a huge sinner. The wife did not go that far, but did admit she did a lot of things wrong in life. Since they seemed to have good hearts, I went to Acts 2:38 to prove that they needed to be baptized. I wanted them to understand first that the Methodists were wrong, even though they were not Methodist by proving that baptism was immersion. I showed them my Greek New Testament again to prove my point. They agreed it was a burial from reading Romans 6 too. Then I wanted to prove the Baptists wrong by defending the argument that the wording in the Greek language in Acts 2:38 is the same person. As the Baptist say that repentance is in the second person plural and baptism is in the third person plural which means to the Baptist that repentance and Baptist are not connected. I gave them a lesson in the endings for masculine, feminine, and neuter in the Greek language. That you could interpret these phrases as plural neuter or see them as different in a different person in the Greek. This seemed to agree. But after this the people seem to tune me out. They stopped listening to my words and they said they were tired and needed to end the study. I was disappointed that the people did not accept the simple Gospel.
Hopefully by this point, you noticed or hoped to believe that this is a fictional story. This study never took place. I never walked into a home to confuse people to way. But I wanted to illustration a power point about Pentecost. Pentecost is power because of the message that was preached. The message was simple and straightforward. It was "Jesus is the Son of God. He is the son of God. On the day of Pentecost, Peter does not preach theory, speculation, or philosophy, but he preaches Christ and Him crucified. Peter records the Jesus story for the people. The power of Pentecost is found by the preaching of Christ.
Acts 2:22-36 recounts the first Christian sermon ever. This sermon can tell us a lot about restoring the passion and power of the early church. To restore the power of Pentecost in the 21st century, we need to follow the example of Pentecost. Luke gives the sermon by Peter. "Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know-- this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. For David says of Him, ’I WAS ALWAYS BEHOLDING THE LORD IN MY PRESENCE; FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND, THAT I MAY NOT BE SHAKEN. ’THEREFORE MY HEART WAS GLAD AND MY TONGUE EXULTED; MOREOVER MY FLESH ALSO WILL ABIDE IN HOPE; BECAUSE THOU WILT NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW THY HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY. ’THOU HAST MADE KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE; THOU WILT MAKE ME FULL OF GLADNESS WITH THY PRESENCE.’ "Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. "And so, because he was a prophet, and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT one OF HIS DESCENDANTS UPON HIS THRONE, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY. "This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. "Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. "For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ’THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE THINE ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR THY FEET."’ Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ-- this Jesus whom you crucified."
The early Church’s most important message was Christ Crucified and raised from the death. The typical pattern of preaching was to announce that the age of fulfillment has arrived. Peter has done this in the previous section as he talks about the prophecy of Joel. The next element was to preach Jesus, and his ministry, death, and triumph over death. This was done through the Old Testament scriptures which proved that Jesus was the Christ. Finally, the preaching ended in a call to repentance or conversion from sin. This is the pattern that Peter follows. As he declares the Christ to the people, he begins with the ministry of the Lord. Jesus is the Christ because he performed all these miracles before the people. One would be hard pressed to deny that the Lord walked on the water, that he raised Lazarus from the death. Jesus fed five thousand people and he calmed the raging seas. Jesus healed the blind, the sick, and the weak. If God was not with him, there would be no way that he could perform these miracles, signs, with power. These signs point to the identity of Jesus being the Messiah of Israel. Peter goes to his next point in explaining the sovereign work of God. He mentions that Jesus death was not by accident or by weakness. It was the divine plan of God to sent Jesus to earth to die for the sins of mankind. He mentions the world predetermined which means to "set beforehand." It is the idea of marking out with a boundary. Peter tells the people that Jesus planned on dying. Man did not kill him, he sacrificed himself. But Peter still rebukes the people as he mentions that Jesus was killed by the hands of godless men. This was a stern rebuke to the people as the Jews considered themselves to be the most faithful people of God. The people who are listening to this message come be some of the same people who beat, spit, whipped, and mocked the Lord. These same people were the ones who laughed, cried out for his death. Imagine the guilt and pain at this moment.
But God did not end the story with the death of Jesus. Unlike every other religious or religious movement, the leader died and was buried. In the end the religious leader was just a man who could not over come death. Peter uses three arguments to prove the resurrection of Jesus. He mentions the prophecy of Psalm 16. The second argument is apostolic witness. The disciples of the Lord saw his resurrected body. The third argument is from David again which uses Psalm 110. Jesus rose from the day. There is no doubt about this truth. The people have murdered the Son of God and he has returned as a victor over death. This Jesus who you killed, he is the Son of God. Imagine the guilt and the regret on the hearts of the people. As the people hear the Christ story, as they hear about the power of God. How could they have rejected God himself?
Now the people hear about how Christ has been exulted. He is at the right hand of God. He will be judging the people who murdered him, who cried out for his blood, who rejected him. The power of Pentecost is through the power of the Gospel of Christ. If the power of Pentecost is to return to the church today, the message of Christ must be preached again. We can preach everything about Christ, and miss the mark. If Christ is not preached the church will not grow. We need to tell the story of the Lord again. This is where conversion takes place. It is a powerful story of conviction.
Don Hewitt, creator of "60 Minutes," on his special talent as a journalist: My philosophy is simple. It’s what little kids say to their parents: "Tell me a story." Even the people who wrote the Bible knew that when you deal with issues, you tell stories. The issue was evil; the story was Noah. I’ve had producers say, "We’ve got to do something on acid rain." I say, "Hold it. Acid rain is not a story. Acid rain is a topic. We don’t do topics. Find me someone who has to deal with the problem of acid rain. Now you have a story."
The assignment this week is to talk about Christ. Mention Christ in your weekly conversation. Have a conversation about the power, nature, and death of the Lord. We talk about some much that is not important compared to the power of the Cross. Bring Christ back into your conversations. Only through the power of the story of the Christ, will people be saved. As Paul said years ago in 1 Corinthians 1:23 "but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness." To preach Christ, is to simply tell the story of his life again.
And this is what Peter did, but he brought the message to a conclusion. He convicted the people of their sin of killing the son of God. He says in Acts 2:36 "Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ-- this Jesus whom you crucified." Imagine the conviction in their hearts, the guilt on their hearts. These are the people who rejected the Son of God and cried out for his blood. What shame!
These moments of shame are intense. A couple of weeks ago, one of my teachers told us this story about him and his father. His father ran a gas station in a small Tennessee town. My teacher, Clyde would help his father with the family business during the summer months. He said he was about 12 years old at the time of this incident. Across the road with another gas station which Clyde’s father did not respect? Clyde’s father was a Christian man, and the people across the street would mock his faith. One day, Clyde was over to the neighboring gas station, conversing with the workers who were far from being Christ-Like in their behavior. His father knew of their reputation for using dirty language and telling dirty jokes. But Clyde was over them laughing and participating in this sinful behavior. His father must have been watching him, because when Clyde came back to his Father’s gas station, all his father said to him was "I am ashamed of you." Clyde was spanked, punished, but he mentioned in class these were the most hurtful words he even heard. These words convicted his heart, because he brought shame to his father. This is how the Jews are feeling through Peter’s sermon. They should be ashamed of themselves. And all of us share in this guilt. All of us who have sinned, have placed Christ on the Cross. He went to the Cross because of all our sins. Do you not feel ashamed of your actions?
