INTRODUCTION
• When the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact America, leader after leader—from the local mayor to the governor to the president of the United States—made daily public speeches about the virus and its effects on their respective communities.
• And oftentimes, the leader would issue a proclamation.
• For example, nonessential employees were sent home, restaurants and bars were closed, schools were shut down, and parks were closed.
• Each of these proclamations affected the people to whom they were directed, both in their daily lives and their relationship with the world.
• While each of these proclamations might have been different, depending on geography and the leader’s judgment, they were all related to the central idea of protecting the community from coronavirus.
• Today we’re going to start a series called “Proclaim,” looking at some of the many public proclamations made by the early church found in the book of Acts.
• Though different, these proclamations all had a central point in common: the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
• If applied to the life of the hearer, all of them could have a profound effect on their daily life and their relationship with the world. (Ministry Pass- Message 1 on Proclaim Series).
• Big Idea of the Message: The first sermon of the church was about the passion of Christ.
• The message today builds on the thoughts from last week concerning whole-hearted belief in the resurrection.
• The first proclamation we’re looking at today is right at the start of Acts.
• It is Peter’s famous first sermon of the church, found in Acts 2Delivered on Pentecost. “Described in Leviticus 23, The Feast of Weeks is the second of the three ‘solemn feasts’ that all Jewish males were required to travel to Jerusalem to attend (Exodus 23:14–17; 34:22–23; Deuteronomy 16:16).
• This important feast gets its name because it starts seven full weeks, or exactly 50 days, after the Feast of Firstfruits.
• Since it takes place exactly 50 days after the previous feast, this feast is also known as ‘Pentecost’ (Acts 2:1), which means ‘fifty’” (“What Is the Feast of Weeks?,” Got Questions? https://www.gotquestions.org/Feast-of-Weeks.html).
• Because this was a pilgrimage festival, when Peter spoke, he was addressing people from all over the Roman Empire (Acts 2:5).
• The sermon takes up the majority of Acts 2, but for our purposes today, we’re going to home in on the last part of it, in Acts 2:22–36.
• We will see three direct appeals Peter makes that were relevant for his audience and are still relevant for us and those around us today.
• As we are trying to appeal to people to give their lives to and follow Jesus, we must not neglect the appeals Peter offers to the crowd in this first gospel message recorded in the book of Acts!
• Let’s turn to Acts 2:22 together.
Acts 2:22 CSB
22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to these words: This Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through him, just as you yourselves know.
SERMON
Our Message should include:
I. An appeal to the power of Jesus.
• The first appeal Peter makes is to the hearers’ experience of the power of Jesus. Jesus, Peter says, was a man who did mighty works and power.
• Peter says that Jesus performed miracles, wonders, and signs.
• These are not three separate events but rather three results of the same act.
• Miracles are powerful deeds that demonstrate the mighty power of God.
• Wonders excite the wonder in those who witnessed the event.
• Signs are designed to present evidence to convince the people concerning the person and message of Jesus.
• Peter goes on to point out that the audience is well aware of the fact that Jesus performed the miraculous acts (Acts 2:22).
• Jesus did these miracles in their midst.
• Peter doesn’t have to prove the power of Jesus: his contemporaries were witnesses to it.
• We do not have that luxury when we proclaim the good news of Jesus.
• We have something just as powerful!
• What we do have, however, is a knowledge of our own transformation: the person we were to the person we have become.
• We are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
• What Peter is doing is a form of personal testimony: he uses firsthand experience to point to the power of Jesus in our lives.
• This type of proclamation requires honesty: “I once was … but now I am…”
• It isn’t a matter of trying to impress people with our sins' depth; this isn’t a tell-all biography.
• The point isn’t to dwell on our sins, but on the deliverer: the man who is mighty and wonderful, Jesus. (Ministry Pass- Message 1 on Proclaim Series).
• When we are aware of our past condition, if we understood that we were sinners in need of grace, forgiveness, and salvation, we should be excited to tell others about the miracle Jesus performed in our life to make us whole again!
• Peter stressed to his audience that Jesus performed the miracles in such a manner that others could see them.
• The miracle of your changed life is something to behold, something that all who know you can see!
• Let’s look at verses 23-24 and 32-33
Acts 2:23–24 CSB
23 Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him.
24 God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death.
Acts 2:32–33 CSB
32 “God has raised this Jesus; we are all witnesses of this.
33 Therefore, since he has been exalted to the right hand of God and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you both see and hear.
Our Message should include:
II. An appeal to the authenticity of Jesus.
• Jesus is the real deal. Peter's audience saw Him; some knew Him, most knew that He was crucified and performed many miracles.
• Jesus was not some made-up fairy tale from a time and place that never existed.
• The story of Jesus isn’t a made-up story about someone whom we wished had lived or an allegory for how we should live; he was a real person.
• He was born, he lived, and he was crucified and rose from the dead.
• That’s the next appeal Peter makes: to the historicity, or the authenticity of Jesus.
• He was handed over, was killed, was raised—and we have seen it, Peter states.
• The proclamation of the gospel is rooted in a firm point in history.
• It isn’t something we vaguely suggest may have occurred at some point in time: it happened outside of Jerusalem when Pontius Pilate was governor and Rome was in charge of the known world.
• It really happened, and Peter makes that point clear.
• Why does this matter?
• What difference does it make if the crucifixion and resurrection are grounded in history?
• It matters because it shows us that God cares about our world enough to enter into it, and he chose a certain time and place to do so.
• The difference it makes that Jesus was a real person of history is that fairy tales and stories that never happened can do anything for you.
• When you go to Israel, you can walk in the steps Jesus walked, see the Jordan River in which He was baptized.
• Jesus was not some story that someone made up; He is a real person of history, He is Jesus, Son of God!
• We need to make sure those we are seeking to reach understand this and that the Bible is RELIABLE!
• We need to give people some background as to why it is reliable and that we can trust what it tells us!
• Peter’s audience got to see Jesus, some spoke with Him, and some of the crowd witnessed His miracles, and maybe some were healed by Him!
• Folks, make no mistake about it, Jesus is real, and He is a real person of history; he is authentically real!
• Let’s move to verse 25-25
Acts 2:25–35 CSB
25 For David says of him: I saw the Lord ever before me; because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. Moreover, my flesh will rest in hope,
27 because you will not abandon me in Hades or allow your holy one to see decay.
28 You have revealed the paths of life to me; you will fill me with gladness in your presence.
29 “Brothers and sisters, I can confidently speak to you about the patriarch David: He is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
30 Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn an oath to him to seat one of his descendants on his throne.
31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke concerning the resurrection of the Messiah: He was not abandoned in Hades, and his flesh did not experience decay.
32 “God has raised this Jesus; we are all witnesses of this.
33 Therefore, since he has been exalted to the right hand of God and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you both see and hear.
34 For it was not David who ascended into the heavens, but he himself says: The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand
35 until I make your enemies your footstool.’
Our Message should include:
III. An appeal to the scriptural fulfillment through Jesus.
• Time will not allow me to direct this passage a deeply as I would like, but here is what we need to know.
• Peter spends the bulk of the last section appealing to Scripture.
• What’s worth noting is that the point of appealing to the Scripture in this passage is so the hearers would understand that the resurrection of Jesus is true and is from God (v. 32).
• This is the point of his message, upon which all the rest hangs: Jesus rose from the dead.
• It doesn’t matter if He merely did mighty works among them.
• That didn’t stop people from crucifying Jesus.
• It doesn’t matter if they were witnesses to his death.
• In the Roman Empire, public execution was very common.
• Remember: Jesus wasn’t the only criminal executed that day (Luke 23:32).
• What matters is that the end wasn’t death but rather life after death.
• Resurrection! Jesus rose from the dead!
• And because he rose, the apostles now have God’s Holy Spirit in them (v. 33), as do all who are baptized into Christ!
• That is why they were able to speak boldly to the crowd that day.
• As we look at the proclamations of the first church, one theme we’ll see repeatedly is an emphasis on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
• It’s worth pausing to ask: How important is the resurrection of Jesus to your daily life?
• In a nutshell, Peter quotes Psalm 16:8-11A passage the audience would be well acquainted with.
• Peter points out that David was acting as a prophet when he wrote this Psalm.
• David could not have been speaking of himself since David died and is still dead; Jesus is the one of whom he writes!
• Jesus defeated death!
• The Psalmist David tells us that Jesus had hope knowing that His soul would not be left to rot in the ground because His soul was going to reside in Hades!
• There is so much more depth to the passage, but we will move to our last observation found in verse 36.
Acts 2:36 CSB
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
Our Message should include:
IV. An appeal to the position of Jesus.
• Finally, Peter gives his audience the good news of the gospel.
• He does it interestingly, though: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (v. 36).
• It’s easy to mistake this and read here an anti-Semitic passage, something akin to the Bible saying, “The Jews killed Jesus.”
But as Tim Keller points out, “Rather, this is part of the gospel message for every human being. Until we see that our sins cost Jesus his life, that we were the cause of his death—we will not be ‘cut to the heart’” (Tim Keller, Evangelism: Studies in the Book of Acts [New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2005], 24).
• Peter wants to make sure all his hearers understand how their sin made them participants in the crucifixion of Jesus.
• He wants his words to cut to their heart so they will want to repent and commit themselves to the Lord.
• And that is exactly what happened (Vv. 38–41).
• This is the goal of all gospel proclamations to all people.
CONCLUSION
• The resurrection of Jesus is important, so much so that the first sermon of Acts emphasized the event!
• Our application point for today is, If you are a follower of Jesus, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus must be central to your faith.
• When we share the Gospel, we need to include the fact that Jesus is alive and seated at the Father's right hand!
