1. Illus. of funeral
• Young man died under tragic circumstances.
• Left behind a broken hearted wife and two broken hearted parents.
• After the funeral, the father came and talked to me about his son.
• Never forget the comment he made. With tears in his eyes, he said, “the worse part is that, as far as I know, my boy died without Christ.”
2. . Are you here today and would say, “Pastor, that’s my greatest nightmare. I have a lost parent, a lost husband, a lost child or grandchild. I would give anything to see them become a Christian. I do not want them to die without Christ.” If this is you, then listen carefully. If you are going to help them, you need to understand what has to happen in a person’s life before they can become a Christian.
3. Text: In our text, Dr. Luke described for his readers the spiritual prerequisites that had to be in place before these people could come to Christ on the day of Pentecost.
4. Today: Your loved ones cannot come to Christ until certain key spiritual prerequisites are in place.
5. What are these prerequisites?
I. YOU CANNOT BE SAVED UNTIL YOU HEAR THE GOSPEL
1. In vss 22-36, Peter preaches to the crowd that came running in response to the commotion surrounding Pentecost. If you analyze his sermon, it breaks down this way:
Vss 22-23- You crucified Jesus, even though His miracles proved that He was the promised Messiah.
Vs 24- God resurrected Jesus from the dead.
Vss 25- 28- Peter quotes David’s prophecy concerning the resurrection from Psalms 16.
Vss 29-35- Gives the reason why this resurrection prophecy did not apply to David, but did apply to Jesus.
2. When you boil Peter’s sermon down to its irreducible minimum, this is what was said: Jesus was crucified and resurrected for your sins, just like the scripture promised. Folks, that is the Gospel!
3. Before a person can come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, they must hear the gospel! No matter how much you love them, no matter how much you want to see them saved, they will not be saved until they have heard the gospel.
4. Illus. of man in former church
• I was leading our church in soulwinning
training.
• “You know pastor, I don’t think we ought to spend all this money on tracts and New Testaments, and I don’t think we ought to go into people’s homes and impose on them with all this Roman Road junk. We need to just live the gospel before them.”
• I had to gently tell him, “Al, people can watch you live the cleanest life in the world and never know that God came in the flesh 2000 years ago, never know that He died on a cross as our substitute, never know that on the third day He was resurrected from the dead.”
• For a person to come to faith in Christ, someone has to communicate the Gospel to them.
5. This is a common theme in the book of Acts:
In Acts 8, an Ethiopian comes all the way to Jerusalem to find the way to God. God had to send Phillip out into the desert to explain the Gospel to him so that he could be saved.
In Acts 10, there was a gentile named Cornelius who wanted to know God in a personal way. God had to send Peter to preach the gospel to him before Cornelius could be saved.
6. What does this mean for the church? Since people cannot be saved until they have heard the gospel, we need to get the gospel out in as many different places and in as many different ways as possible!
• Need to saturate our town with gospel tracts.
• Every Sunday School class needs to be a place where the gospel is regularly explained.
• Every special event we sponsor needs to include a time for explaining the gospel.
• Evangelistic visitation where we sit down with individuals to explain the gospel.
II. YOU CANNOT BE SAVED UNTIL YOU ARE CONVICTED BY THE SPIRIT
1. See vs 37. The KJV says, “they were pricked in their heart…” The NKJV is a little better when it says, “they were cut to the heart…” The word is "katanugaysan"and literally means to stab or to pierce.
2. The Holy Spirit was convicting them in such a powerful way that, spiritually speaking, it was like being stabbed in the heart!
3. Illus. of Susan and quarter
• My girlfriend in 2nd grade dropped a quarter, and I covered it with my foot.
• When I went to bed that night, I felt different inside. I felt dirty. I had heard our Methodist pastor, Brother Stafford, preach about sin and what happened to unforgiven sinners.
• Up until that time, sin was something that I had heard about but that really didn’t have anything to do with me. That night I knew that I personally was a sinner, and that I was separated from God and needed Christ.
• What was it? The Holy Spirit was convicting me of sin and drawing me to Jesus.
4. Now there is an idea that has been around for some time. The idea is that we can just decide one day to become a Christian, just like we might decide to become a member of the Kiwanis Club or a vegetarian or change political parties. The Bible says, "not so."
• Romans 3: 10-11
• John 6: 44
5. What does this mean to the church? God sends conviction in response to prayer. If you have a lost loved one, one of the most powerful things you can do is to pray for them. Specifically, pray for God to convict them of their sins and to point them to Jesus Christ.
6. Do you have a lost loved one? Have you been praying fervently and regularly for them? Start praying and keep praying!
III. YOU CANNOT BE SAVED UNTIL YOU ARE WILLING TO REPENT AND BELIEVE
1. See vs 38. In response to their question, Peter tells them what they must do in order to have their sins forgiven and have the Holy Spirit come to live inside them (i.e. salvation).
2. “Repent…” means to turn around. We have taken this word and made it an emotional word. To us, someone who is repentant is sorry for something they have done. In the NT, it refers to a conscious act of will whereby we turn our back on our old way of life, and turn in a new, godly direction.
3. “Baptized in the name of Jesus Christ…” Today, we have someone make a public profession, and then they are baptized at later date. In the NT, baptism was the profession of faith. To be baptized in the name of Jesus was to publicly say, “I have believed on Jesus, I have accepted Him as my Savior.”
4. These first century Jews understood exactly what Peter was saying. “If you want to be forgiven, you must be willing to turn from your old life, and put you faith and trust in Jesus.” In other words, repent and believe.
5. Illus. of man who drove me back to airport in Kentucky
• Had a man on mail route who was pagan, and had been known to pull gun on people who tried to witness to him.
• This man witnessed at house, witnessed to him after diagnosis of cancer. When told he had to simply repent and believe, man said, “I’m not willing to do that now.”
• Went to see in hospital while in coma. God roused man long enough for my friend to press him with claims of gospel one last time. His answer, as he drifted back into coma from which he would not awaken in this world, was, “I told you I was not willing to do that now. Don’t bother me about this again.” Went into eternity lost.
• Before a person can be saved, they must be willing to repent and believe!
CONCLUSION:
1. What has to happen before my lost loved one can come to Jesus”
• They must hear the gospel. Will you commit to helping me saturate Jackson with the gospel? Will you pledge to give tracts, join evangelism training, make your SS class a place where the gospel is regularly heard?
• They must be convicted. If you have a lost loved one, begin praying earnestly and regularly for their salvation.
• They must be willing to repent and believe. No one can do this for you. Why not come today and let our counselors help you?
