SERIES: “LESSONS FROM THE EARLY CHURCH”
TEXT: ACTS 2:14-41
TITLE: “RESTORING THE PREACHING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH”
INTRODUCTION: A. Several years back, the Dallas Morning News did a report on Elvis impersonators.
When Elvis was alive, there were only 34 Elvis impersonators. At the time this
article was written, there were over 8,000 Elvis impersonators
The same article estimated that at the same growth rate, 1 out of every 35 people
will be Elvis impersonators by the year 2037.
1. There are a lot of imitation preachers today
2. Some preach what the Bible terms as “another gospel”
3. They have a form of godliness but deny its power
B. A Bible college student was asked to fill the pulpit of a congregation located not
too far away from the school while their minister was on vacation. He worked very
hard on a sermon for that Sunday and really thought he had an outstanding sermon.
When he stepped into the pulpit that morning, he was surprised to see his
homiletics professor sitting in the congregation. Even though he was a little nervous,
he went ahead and delivered what he considered a good message.
After the service was over, the proud young man asked his professor to critique his
sermon. The professor said, “Young man, I have three things to say about that
sermon. Number one: You read your sermon. Number two: You didn’t read it very
well. And number three: It wasn’t worth reading.”
C. As we study the church of the New Testament, you begin to see that preaching had a
pre-eminent place.
1. The church started with dynamic preaching on the day of Pentecost.
--God poured out His Spirit so that His Word might be declared
2. Preaching is indispensable to Christianity
a. Rom. 10:13-15 – “for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be
saved." 14How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And
how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can
they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach
unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who
bring good news!"”
b. 2 Tim. 4:2-4 – “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season;
correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction. 3For
the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to
suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to
say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the
truth and turn aside to myths.”
D. Preaching is essential to God’s purposes because it performs two important functions:
a. It tells those who are lost in sin how to find salvation
--It tells those who are stumbling around in darkness and confusion how much God
loves them and cares them and that He wants a relationship with them.
b. It tell those who are saved how to enrich their relationship with Him
--It tells those who are already supposed to have a relationship with Him how to
grow in mercy, grace, and servanthood.
E. Let’s look at God’s Word from Acts and see what elements comprise New Testament
preaching.
I. THE 1ST ELEMENT OF N.T. PREACHING: A RECOGNITION OF GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY
A. Dictionary definition of “sovereign” – “above all others; greatest’ supreme in power, rank, and authority;
independent of all others”
1. Dt. 4:39 – “Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the
earth below. There is no other.
2. Acts 17:24-28a – “"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth
and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed
anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he
made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set
for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and
perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28’For in him we live
and move and have our being.’"”
B. Whether we choose to accept it or not, God is in control
--The gist of Peter’s sermon let’s us see that clearly
1. He tells the crowd that what they are witnessing is an act of God
2. He tells them also that God had promised it would happen
3. He also tells them that what happened to Jesus was not just something done by foolish people but that
God had established this plan long ago
--Even though they have responsibility in what happened, God was moving the events of history in
that direction
C. A man rushed into a train station one morning and breathlessly asked the ticket agent, “What time
does the 8:01 train leave the station?” The agent replied, “At 8:01.”
The man said, “It’s 7:59 by my watch, 7:57 by the town clock, and 8:04 by the station clock. Which
one should I go by?”
The agent answered, “You can go by any time piece you wish but you can’t go anywhere by the 8:01
train because it’s already left the station.”
1. There are a lot of people who believe they can live their lives by any schedule they choose
2. Simple fact of the matter is that God’s timetable is moving forward
3. And He has warned us that there is a day coming very soon when it will be too late to voluntarily
conform to His schedule.
4. Where will you be and what will you be doing when it’s too late?
II. THE 2ND ELEMENT OF N.T. PREACHING: IT’S BASED ON SCRIPTURE
A. Peter builds this proclamation on the foundation of God’s Word
--He quotes from several Old Testament passages
1. In vss. 17-21, he quotes from Joel 2:28-32
2. In vss. 25-28, he quotes from Ps. 16:8-11
3. In vss. 34-35, he quotes from Ps. 110:1
B. Any sermon which purports to proclaim God’s message must be built around His Word
1. 2 Tim. 4:2 – “Preach the Word…”
--If a preacher cannot support each thought and statement in his sermon with scripture, he has
nothing important to say.
2. 2 Tim. 3:16-17 – “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and
training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good
work.”
3. Rom. 15:4 – “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through
endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
III. THE 3RD ELEMEMNT OF N.T. PREACHING: IT’S RELEVANT
A. There are a lot of people in our post-modern society that do not care if biblical Christianity is true
1. And even if we could prove to them that it is true, they would not embrace it.
2. What they want to know is: “How can a 2,000 year old belief system be relevant to a world in
which space travel is a common occurrence?”
a. How can it apply in a world where organ transplants, laser surgery, genetic research, and
quintuplet births are no longer a big deal?
b. The gulf between the 1st century and the 21st century almost seems to be insurmountable.
3. John R. W. Stott said that preaching must build a bridge between antiquity and the modern [or now
post-modern] world.
B. Preaching must fit what is happening now.
1. True New Testament preaching ties ancient truth to current situations.
--It has to answer the question, “How does this apply to my life?”
2. Peter’s message on the day of Pentecost does just that
a. Speaks to what the audience is experiencing at the moment
--the amazement and confusion about what the Holy Spirit was doing
b. Years later in 1 Pt. 3:15 – “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to
give the reason for the hope that you have.”
c. Someone: “To be always relevant, you have to say things that are eternal.”
IV. THE 4TH ELEMENT OF NEW TESTAMENT PREACHING: IT’S LOGICAL
A. The pattern of preaching shown in the book of Acts shows that it follows a pattern of thinking
1. It goes in a definite direction
2. There is a logical progression to the process
3. It picks a starting point and then leads the listeners from the starting point to a conclusion.
B. Let’s look at Peter’s sermon on Pentecost:
1. The starting point: the events that the crowd was currently experiencing – this move of the Holy
Spirit
2. Then follows with the prophesized plan of God in the events.
3. It then moves to the reason that the events happened: so that they could testify concerning the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth
4. Peter then moves on to tell his listeners that this same Jesus is God’s Promised One – the Messiah –
and was God Himself.
5. Peter reaches his goal through this logical procession
--The listeners are lead to a place where they must make a decision about what they would do about
the things they had heard.
V. THE 5TH ELEMENT OF NEW TESTAMENT PREACHING: IT’S CHRIST-CENTERED
A. Jesus the Christ is the centerpiece of the Bible
1. One person called Jesus the “scarlet thread” that runs throughout the whole Bible
a. He is at the center of creation
b. He is at the center of redemption
c. He is at the center of the consummation of all things
2. Peter focuses on who Jesus is:
a. Shows Jesus’ credentials – v. 22
b. Tells about Jesus’ crucifixion – v. 23
c. Talks about Jesus’ resurrection – v. 24
d. Focuses on fulfillment of prophecy found in Jesus – vss. 25-35
e. Testifies about Jesus’ ascension back to the Father – vs. 33
f. Points to Jesus as still active in what was happening – vs. 33
g. Reports that this same Jesus both Lord and Christ – v. 36
--Not only God’s promised Messiah, He is also God Himself
B. Garrison, Keillor: “I’ve heard a lot of sermons in the past ten years or so that made me want to get up
and walk out. They’re secular, psychological, self-help sermons. Friendly, but of no use. They didn’t
make you straighten up. They didn’t give you anything hard…At some point and in some way, a
sermon has to direct people toward the death of Christ and the campaign that God has waged over the
centuries to get our attention.”
1. Peter did get their attention.
2. Francis DeSales – “The test of a preacher is that his congregation goes away saying, not ‘What a
lovely sermon!’ but ‘I will do something!’”
C. We see the people listening ask the question: “What shall we do?”
--And Peter shares simply about what their response should be
1. They have expressed their faith in Jesus by asking the question.
2. Peter tells them that their faith should express itself through repentance and baptism.
3. When they had done that, they would receive the indwelling presence of the same Spirit they saw at
work in the
lives of the apostles that day.
CONCLUSION: A. Preaching is literally communication.
--Communication is the process of effectively transmitting an important message
1. God is a God of communication
a. He walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
b. He has communicated with people through dreams, angels, written communication,
and spoken communication.
2. But His greatest communication was through His Son – Jesus the Christ.
a. Jn. 1:1 & 14 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God.” “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among
us…”
b. Heb. 1:1-2a – “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at
many times and in various ways, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his
Son…”
3. What God says through His Son is: “I love you. I want to help you. I care about
what happens to you. I want to be a part of your life. I want a relationship with you
because you’re important to me.”
B. In his book Mortal Lessons, physician Richard Selzer describes a scene in a hospital room
after he had performed surgery on a young woman’s face:
I stand by the bed where the young woman lies…her face, postoperative…her mouth
twisted in palsy…clownish. A tiny twig of the facial nerve, one of the muscles of her
mouth, has been severed. She will be that way from now on. I had followed with
religious fervor the curve of her flesh, I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the
tumor in her cheek, I had cut this little nerve. Her young husband is in the room. He
stands on the opposite side of the bed, and together they seem to be in a world all their
own in the evening lamplight…isolated from me…private.
Who are they? I ask myself…he and this wry mouth I have made, who gaze at and
touch each other so generously. The young woman speaks. “Will my mouth always be
like this?” she asks. “Yes,” I say, “it will. It is because the nerve was cut.” She nods and
is silent. But the young man smiles. “I like it,” he says. “It’s kind of cute.”
All at once I know who he is. I understand, and I lower my gaze. One is not bold in
an encounter with the divine. Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth, I am so
close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers…to show her that their
kiss still works.”
1. God accommodated Himself to us by coming down from heaven as a little baby.
--He came to us, and then allowed His body to be twisted on the cross to show us that
the love of God still works.
2. Regardless of the scars that you bear from the ravages of sin, you are love by God.
--You are beautiful to Him
3. Rom. 5:6-8 – “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died
for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good
man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in
this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
4. What is your response to this kind of love?
