THE WINDOW
Bible Teaching Ministry of
CEDAR LODGE BAPTIST CHURCH
Thomasville, NC
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September 5, 2004
7Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.
8And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel:
I will not again pass by them any more:
Amos 7:7-8 (KJV)
Plumblines are amazing. Until several years ago when Dad was cleaning out his toolbox, I had never even held one. I also never knew that things you built could actually stand straight. Before I had a plumbline, everything I’d ever put together looked much like the leaning tower of pizza. I have to face facts: Tools and I don’t mix well!
The Lord showed Amos a line, a plumbline He had drawn to show Israel where they had gone wrong. The nation of God’s people had grown cold and indifferent about serving God. They were also guilty of oppression of the poor. They were as cold and indifferent to people as they were to God. And the Lord wasn’t pleased. All of Amos’ prophecy is a warning of judgment to come; if you want to sleep after turning out the light, don’t read it at bedtime!
One thing about plumblines – they are always right. Gravity will always draw the weight directly to the center of the earth’s axis. You will always have a “straight-up-and-down” 90o angle; it will always divide perfectly. God’s plumbline for us is the same. That plumbline is God’s inerrant, infallible revealed truth, the Word of God.
This morning I would like to share with you that part of the plumbline we call “the Gospel”. In particular it is the preaching of the Gospel which we find (for the first time) in Acts.
Now, aspects of the Gospel can be seen from the first chapter of Genesis, all the way through the Revelation. But, the New Testament preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ began on the day of Pentecost.
16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:
for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16 (KJV)
According to the apostle Paul, the centrality of the preaching of that Gospel is the cross, and the preaching of the cross has always brought about two responses of opposite nature; we either respond with unbelief or faith. Depending on a person’s response, it leads to equally opposite results:
18For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18 (KJV)
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a plumbline; the cross of that Gospel is a plumbline. This plumbline requires that you line up on one side or the other of a perfectly divided choice. There are only two options, no fence upon which to sit:
• Option #1 is foolishness, which is responding with rejection to the Gospel. Every week, perhaps in every church in the world there are people who reject the Gospel as a foolish story…religion that has no relevance. People who do so eventually perish!
• Option #2 is responding to the Gospel in faith, which becomes the power of God to be saved from the kind of judgment Amos preached. And to receive the gift of eternal life and the indwelling of God’s precious Holy Spirit!
What exactly is the Gospel? There is a lot of confusion these days about what Christians believe. So many preachers; so many ideas – how do you tell which is genuine and which is false?
I read an article Joe Alexander sent me from a Lexington newspaper about a local man who has published books about Christianity and reincarnation. He believes Jesus taught it – that we die, then are reincarnated over and over. The man, a retired engineer, has a website promoting his views, and even rented a hall in Lexington last week to lecture on reincarnation as part of Christian belief, because, in his own words:
• "It’s the kind of atmosphere that we have right now," he said. "There are great differences politically ... The whole religious question is the most confusing it has ever been ... It’s the general picture that young people, more than ever, cannot make sense of religion. [1]
Now, friends, if this man thinks putting “…reincarnation and Christianity back under the same roof” [as he put it] will clarify Christian doctrine and make the Gospel of Christ more available, well, we have a lot of work to do!
The Bible clearly says that it is appointed once for a man to die – not die and live over and over again. [2]
Buddhism and other forms of eastern mysticism believe in that, but Jesus promised us ONE resurrection, and then to never die again. [3]
There is a lot of hype, style and fizz out there today about mysticism, spirituality and faith. We need to make certain we are careful to not mistake style for substance! The real Gospel comes from the real truth, God’s Word.
Jonathan Edwards had little in the way of style…but oh, the substance when he preached 2 centuries ago. The little man wore glasses an inch thick, barely peering over the pulpit as he read his sermons in a monotone.
That kind of preaching would not be given the slightest consideration in the showbiz of what passes for church these days. However, Jonathan Edwards’ sermon on “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” touched off the Great Awakening in America, where hundreds of thousands came to the altars to be saved by the real Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Presenting the real Gospel, Jonathan Edwards was interrupted often during his sermon by intense sobbing and loud weeping of those convicted of their sin by the Holy Spirit of God; they were convicted of their need to get right with a holy God!
Today even most Christians sit in today’s churches, stone-faced, unwilling to even admit their hearts are at odds with God; much less make a trip to the altar. We are as cold today as in the days of Amos’ plumbline. We need a dose of the old time Gospel!
What is the Gospel?
There are five basic elements present in the preaching of the genuine Gospel of Jesus Christ. In Acts (chapters 2,3,4 and 10 especially) you can see all five. For today we will concentrate on that first sermon preached by Peter to the crowd gathered on the day of Pentecost. In that sermon we will see all five elements of real Gospel preaching.
If you will please open your Bibles to the second chapter of Acts, we will see these five elements, starting at verse 14. Our purpose is to see the genuine Gospel, so that when we hear the spurious and false claims of this age we will be equipped to be defenders of the faith. Element #1 is…
I. The Promised Time of God Had Come
Acts 2:14-21
14But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: 15For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 16But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: 20The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: 21And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
This beginning to Peter’s sermon is largely a direct quotation from the prophet Joel. Peter said in unmistakable words (to that crowd) that God’s promise of sending a Savior was no longer in the future tense. He began with the promise of God. That’s a good way to begin a sermon!
The first promise that God would send a Savior appears in Genesis after we find Adam and Eve had sinned. God handed out the punishment of death for sin, but also promised that the offspring of Eve’s “seed” would bring a Messiah, a Savior:
15From now on, you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head, and you will strike his
heel.” Genesis 3:15
Well, God always keeps his promises, so Peter could announce this as the truth…the promised time had come. Element #2…
II. Summary of Jesus’ Life, Death and Resurrection
Acts 2:22-24
22Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
The first element says that it was God’s timing; this one says it was God’s plan for Jesus to come, be crucified and resurrected. If you pay close attention to some of the wording in Peter’s sermon, you see the importance of God’s plan…it is the substitutionary death of Jesus; the just for the unjust.
Three phrases:
Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved...ye…know He lived his life perfectly, miraculously among us.
Ye have taken, and by wicked hands… Each of us is guilty [because we are all sinners before God]…and so each of us possesses wicked hands. And, therefore we are all guilty of the crucifixion.
…it was not possible… Jesus could not be held by the grave.
So far we have God’s timing, God’s plan – the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Element #3 is…
III. Claim That This Fulfilled Prophecy
Acts 2:25-35
25For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: 26Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: 27Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 28Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. 29Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. 30Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; 31He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. 32This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 33Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. 34For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 35Until I make thy foes thy footstool.
The David that Peter referred to was “King David” who lived many hundreds of years before Jesus. Peter quotes from Psalms 16 which was written by David. In that Psalm the coming ministry of Jesus is predicted.
Peter makes the point that David prophesied the resurrection of Jesus the crucified. David had long been dead at that time. David was looking forward to the cross as the fulfillment of God’s promise.
Gospel preaching shows us the plumbline of God’s promised time, and God’s promised Messiah, Jesus, and God’s fulfillment of his promises. And there is a fourth element…
IV. Assertion That Jesus Would Come Again
Acts 2:36
36Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
“Christ” in Aramaic means “anointed one”. It is the picture we will see in January, when the next president of the United States is recognized in Washington. We, the people will choose him.
To be chosen in the sense of “Christ” means the choice is God’s. The Jews knew of the promise. They knew Genesis; they had the prophets. To them, the chosen, the Christ would come to set up His kingdom, and reign as Lord forever.
Now, unfortunately, the first coming was misunderstood. Peter announced that clearly when he said, “whom you crucified”! There will not be that possibility in the next appearing! The next time Jesus comes there will be no sweet little manger child with cattle lowing in the background. There will be no chance to miss the King’s next entrance…it will be with battle cry, with graves shaken open and the whole earth will see it!
7Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. 8I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Revelation 1:7-8 (KJV)
Gospel preaching shows us
• the plumbline of God’s promised time
• God’s promised Messiah, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection
• God’s fulfillment of his promises.
• The promise that God’s plan has more to come…and it is coming!
And then, a fifth element…
V. An Urgent Invitation to Repent and Receive the Holy Spirit
Acts 2:37-40
37Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Up to this point the Gospel message has been largely a story. Up to this point rejecting or receiving seems to make little “personal” difference. Up to this point!
Peter saw that the ones hearing all this were stung in their hearts. The big fisherman knew it was now time to “draw the net”. He gave them an urgent invitation – “Repent” (turn around from your past)! Be baptized to show you’re serious about turning from your ways to Jesus. God will show you how serious He is by giving you the gift of Himself – His Spirit taking up residence inside you, guiding you, loving you, blessing you, giving you a life with eternity, and an eternity with a quality of life you never even imagined!
Now, the rest of the story is church history. The first altar call saw three thousand souls converted to Christ. The Bible tells us that those who had never committed their lives to Christ did so…and the church was born.
The question for us today: HAS CHRIST COMMUNICATED TO US? And, just as important: HAVE WE COMMITTED TO HIM?
The answer can always be found in that with which we began…the two responses: faith or unbelief!
If you are one who has never committed your life to Christ, do you believe? Are you convinced in your hear that you are the sinner Christ came to die for?
The insert in your bulletin describes the process of being obedient to the Lord Jesus with your life. You repent first; it is an act of communication to God, and that you want to be saved. Then you bury the old man in baptism, and Christ brings you out of the baptismal to live a brand new life.
This is his plumbline – it is clearly the way He wants us to come to Him. Let the church say “Amen”!
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ENDNOTES
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1] Eric Frazier, The Dispatch, Man says reincarnation is compatible with Christian faith, Aug 28, 2004
2] Ibid.
3] Ibid.
4] Hebrews 9:27
