Pentecost June 28th, 2020
Believe on the Name of Jesus
Hello, I am Pastor Greg of Calvary Reformed Church, and this week we are going to continue studying from Acts chapter 2, about Pentecost Sunday. We have spent the last few weeks looking at the outpouring of the Spirit and the workings of God.
This week we are going to look at one verse of what Peter has to say to us in his amazing sermon. But before we look at the verse let us just have a prayer, “Lord we
ask for your grace to fill our lives, we ask for your Holy Spirit to fill us and to change us to grant us power to step
forth and to do that which you have called us to do with our lives, in Your name we pray. Amen.
I find it interesting that the Pentecost took place 50 days after the Passover-- so fifty days prior Jesus did his last Passover meal with the disciples. That night he was arrested and the next day he hung on the cross, he was buried, and we know --- not just because of biblical
evidence but also there is secular evidence that he rose three days later.
It's interesting that within those 50 days Peter the Apostle, Peter and the rest of the disciples went from being very fearful to being very bold. The night Christ was arrested Peter denied Jesus three times and now at Pentecost Peter stands up in front of thousands of people in the temple proclaiming who Jesus Christ is.
Friends we have a society right now that is asking, “what is the answer in life where do we turn what do we do we have a society right now, some are saying we need to burn it all down, we have a society that says we need all changes within the economic status of who we are and yet the reality is friends, change is only going to happen when we understand what Peter says to us, here in Acts chapter 2.
I love the fact one when the disciples were at the temple ---and I believe the temple is where they were when the Holy Spirit came down. And the people in temple started saying, what does all of this mean?
Here you have the disciples and others who were speaking in different tongues what does this all mean?
Peter then raises his voice we are told in Acts chapter 2 he raises his voice--- he speaks out loudly and he says something of importance not just for 2,000 years ago---but importance today. Peter quotes the Prophet Joel, I'm not going to read it all, but I encourage you to open up Acts chapter 2 and read all the way from verse 14 through 21 through 38. Really, read all of Acts chapter 2 and you will get the full picture
What Peter here has to say--- he says listen carefully to me. Friends we tend not to want to listen
carefully to each other, especially we do not think we need to listen carefully to scripture and yet scripture is a call to how we are called to live our lives. How we can love one another. Peter quotes from the book of Joel chapter 2, written about eight to nine hundred years prior to Jesus Christ. “your young men and
your young women will prophesy, and your old men will
dreams. In the Reformed / Calvinistic tradition we believe in the priesthood of all believers, but here we also have the prophethood (not a word😊) of all people who have the Holy Spirit within them. But the only way to have the Holy Spirit---- Acts chapter 22 verse 21 Peter says---- and it will come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!!!
It does not matter your race, it does not matter how you have been brought up, it does not matter where you live, it's the simple aspect of calling on the name of the Lord. And then our life trajectory--our eternal trajectory where we are going changes.
Friends you see everyone, whether we want to admit it or not everyone is born with a virus--- today we are concerned with eh corona virus and yet the reality is that every one of us is born with the virus of sin. And this virus of sin we are told in Romans chapter 5, “therefore just as through one-man Adam and Eve sent into the world and sin and death through that one man all have sinned.” Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Friends the reality is we have a sin virus within our lives, in our hearts, within our bodies and the only way that that sin virus is eradicated is when we believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus himself says to us and in John chapter 3, when he's talking to Nicodemus, “whoever believes in the Son whoever believes in Me will have eternal life, but whoever rejects me--- whoever rejects the son God's wrath remains on him.
We have that choice to believe or to reject. We're not we're not going to read Peters entire sermon, but you need to realize this sometimes we forget--- Peter Simon Peter ---was by a Jew ---Speaking to Jews--- about the Jewish Messiah.
Do you get that Peter Simon is by a Jew to Jews who were gathered in Jerusalem for the festival of weeks, of what we call Pentecost ---about the Jewish
Messiah, the one who Yahweh God said would come the Son of David but just not for Jews but for all who believe.
Peter Simon gives one of the greatest sermons ever preached. It is interesting to me that all through the New Testament, whenever the Apostle Paul is giving his
sermon or others they tend to follow this sermon.
Simple outline of Jesus was a man / God. Chosen by God to pay the price of our sin, Christ was buried, resurrected, ascended to heaven and now we have CHOICE…accept or reject.
So Peter, who 50 days prior ran, now is calling out the Jewish people in the temple, saying you killed the Messiah Jesus who was chosen by the Father, you killed him, he died and yet we know how Peter says that Jesus rose from the dead. Paul says in Romans that, “the wages of sin is death”, Christ did not sin so the grave could NOT hold Him. The Father God rose Him from the dead. Christ is exalted, He is the Jewish and Gentile Messiah--- “every knee will bow, and every tongue confess one day that Jesus Christ is Lord”.
And then there is the excitement ---the change of people's lives. The disciples of fifty days earlier ran and hid, now spoke with power that Christ was exalted, He is the Messiah and the disciples were CHANGED. But not just the disciples, but three thousand more people. They
believed in Jesus Christ with the simple sermon ---Christ died ---He rose from the grave-- He is exalted ---He is our Messiah and He will come back again.
This change can also happen within our lives. and that excitement we are called to have, and that we are called to understand that change can only come as
we believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The people said to Peter, “what does this all mean?” Peter says you know---- you simply need to call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!!!
The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 10 says, “whoever will call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved.”
To call upon means--- to call upon within the Greek to call upon a deity--- for a purpose!! I call upon the deity, the one true God the Triune God.
To call upon God is different than simply saying you know God. Jesus himself says in Matthew chapter 7, “many will say to me on that day the day of judgment Lord, Lord did not we prophesy in your name, in your name we cast out demons, in the name we performed all these miracles”. In other words---- we used your name Jesus to get whatever we wanted.
We have people in society that will hold up the Bible will say we are a Christian, and yet the reality has their heart changed? Political Leaders / religious leaders use Jesus’s name in a selfish motive, and this is sad!
Jesus says, “I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me”. Friends there is a major difference between calling upon the name of the Lord, giving our lives over to Jesus Christ, being in a close relationship versus simply knowing about Jesus.
I know 100’s, no 1,000’s of people-- but it is not the same type of relationship as with my wife, with my family, we are together. This is what Jesus Christ wants from you, from me---to walk with Him, to have the Spirit
within our lives--- so there is that closeness.
We are the bride; he is the groom. And when that beautiful --the greatest wedding we Christians will be united with Christ who is the groom.
But our society today is calling on---looking to other “gods” all other areas for life and for goodness and for healing. we've got people that say burn it all down, we have people that say we can have some things open and other things have to be closed, marijuana and abortion clinics are essential but other things are not essential. We have statues that are being toppled, we are starting to look friends--- like Isis overseas. We even have now faith statues that are being toppled. Friends it is not a political, it's not a Republican it's not a Democrat issue. It is an issue of the heart, an issue of
our hearts of where will we stand with each other, how do we love God first and I know I keep hammering on this the last weeks, how do we love God first and then love our neighbor as ourselves?
As Christians we are all in the same family, the family of God. Paul says in Galatians chapter 3, “therefore there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave or free male or female.”
Friends it does not matter the color of our skin, what matters is the position of our hearts!!! Paul says if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs
according to the promise. The Jewish Messiah came to give life for all and if we call upon his name, we will be
saved friends.
We are in trouble; I have the virus of sin and the only way that virus is taken away is as I call upon the name of Jesus Christ. All I need to do is trust him and ask him to take over my life.
Friends in your life right now I encourage you to call on the name of Jesus, to give your life over to the Lord Jesus Christ, to see each other through the spectacles ---the glasses of Scripture as we have equality as members of the Bride of Christ.
May the Lord bless each person listening to this today. Amen.
