Intro: The Holy spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He comes to us for Salvation, Sanctification. It is however in the name of the Son that the Holy Spirit works. For Dr Luke in both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Holy Spirit his heart seems to beat to the drum of missions. At the very center of is the movement of the spirit to increase the word.
The word as we know it is Jesus Christ. At the sound of that name with the power of the Holy Spirit, “there is no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
It is with this statement that Christianity becomes very exclusive. In our day where people say all roads lead to heaven we learn that we must, or it is necessary to take only one road to God. That is the strait and narrow way of the cross is the only way to salvation. When we hear there is no other name we also ought to cry what must we do??!!
I. People Must see their need (v37)
But are you in very deed reconciled to God yourselves? Reader, are you cured of the awful disease of sin? Are you marked with the blood-red sign of trust in the atoning blood? Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? If not, the Lord have mercy upon you! May you have sense enough to have mercy upon yourself. May the Spirit of God instruct you to that end. Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
A) What shall we do?
1) A child does not know that it needs clothes until it is told by someone that it is naked.
2) So to do we not know we are sinful until someone preaches the Gospel and we recognize our nakedness before God much like Adam and Eve and the Jews that heard Peters Pentecost message.
3) God reveals to us our need for salvation.
a) Not past times or pals
b) not gadgets and games
c) not hobbies and house parties
4) Your greatest need is to realize “What shall we do”
a) Your greatest need is a realationship with God that affects you every day life.
b) You realize your need for a savior when you hear the gospel and like Peters listeners are pierced in the heart
They heard Jesus was crucified, dead, buried and on the third day He rose from the dead, and they were guilty.
1) Katanusso is only appears her in the NT
2) it means to pierce, or stab it thus depicts something sudden and unexpected.
Like a sucker punch to the kidneys so is God’s convicting Spirit
c) John MacArthur
“The hearers were suddenly stunned by their inability to evade the accusation that they were guilty of heinous behavior before God, they were overcome with grief and remorse.
d) What is the greatest need of people in this church, this county, this country?
To know God the Father by way of Jesus Christ and His finished work on the Cross!
B) All other needs spring from What shall we do? Need of a savior
1) How can that be
a) sin entered the world through one man in the garden of Eden because of his disobedience
Adam wanted to be in charge of his own destiny
2) Because of sin man hungers
But Jesus is the bread of life, He stops the hunger panges
3) Because of sin man Thirsts
But Jesus is the water of life, He removes the panges of thirst.
4) Because of sin man toils, and sweats as he works
But Jesus is Lord of the Sabath He gives rest from our weary labors
When we receive God’s gift of salvation by way of Jesus’ blood and His powerful name our needs are truly met!
II. People Must receive God’s Gift (v38-39)
A) Gift – Greek word Dorea
1) Free and unmerited (undeserved)
2) we can’t earn it be we can receive it.
Mel Fisher had a great sixty-fourth birthday. A treasure hunter, Fisher owned Treasure Salvoras, Inc. and had been looking for the Spanish galleon {Nuestra Senora de Atocha }for seventeen years. The ship, loaded with precious cargo, sank in 1622 during a hurricane. It was on its maiden voyage from Havana to Spain. On a July day just before his sixty-fourth birthday, Fisher discovered the ship and its treasure about forty miles west of Key West, Florida. Imagine his joy that day as his divers brought up from the deep an estimated 150 pounds of gold, including seventy-six gold bars, gold chains, and gold disks! In addition to this find, more than nine hundred silver bars and one hundred gold bars have been recovered. It is estimated that the ship’s fortune may contain a treasure worth more than $340 million. Finding a treasure like that is mind-boggling! What red-blooded American has not dreamed of doing the same thing? If he could find a treasure like that, he could make a down payment on his debts and pay the rest off in monthly installments! But there is a greater treasure waiting to be found. It’s neither silver nor gold, and it isn’t kept in a bank vault. It doesn’t need to be protected fromm thieves who would come at night and steal it away. It is free and everyone can have it. Multiplied millions of people have found this treasureand claim it for themselves, but its wealth has not been depleted one iota. There is as much of it today as there ever has been, and everybody can have it.
B) receive – lambano
1) To take for the purpose of using.
2) We are responsible for ours sins
3) What purpose is there in receiving Jesus
Power to be an overcomer.
We should receive Jesus so that we can
Look different
Act different
Think different
Live different.
Romans 12.2 don’t conform to the world
Be tansformed by renewing of your mind.
the power of God.
When native converts of the island of Madagascar used to present themselves for baptism, it was often asked of them, "What first led you to think of becoming Christians? Was it a particular sermon or address or the reading of God’s Word?" The answer usually was that the changed conduct of others who had become Christians was what first arrested their attention. "I knew this man to be a thief; that one was a drunkard; another was very cruel and unkind to his family. Now they are all changed. The thief is an honest man; the drunkard is sober and respectable; and the other is gentle and kind in his home. There must be something in a religion that can work such changes."
39 “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
3) God is soveign in salvation.
a) He is in control
He offers, yet we must receive.
b) We cannot remove our sinful responsibility, but God can because He has given the gift of life in His son. (forgiveness)
4) In a world that is very says they are tolerant it is amazing how many folks are intolerant that there is forgiveness in no other name.
The greatest problem that mankind has had with God’s control is obedience to it.
III. People Must obey the message (v40-41)
A) Obedience has always been the key.
1) Adam and Eve disobeyed leading to death
2) Jesus obeyed even to death leading to life.
B) Peters called them to repent and be baptized (38)
1) 41 Those that received his word, (Gospel) were baptized.
42 continually devoting themselves to apostles teaching and breaking of bread (fellowship) (foodship)
2) “The proff of the reality (salvation) is in the continuance.” Willaim Mcdonald Believers Bible Commentary.
The proof of the reality of you salvation is if you continue in God’s word obediently doing all that He commands
Go make disciples
Love you neighbor as yourself
Love the Lord You God with all you heart….
God forbid that someone on North stage coach road die never hearing the Gospel because we never received it by responding in faith with obedience.
When you obey God you open the door for Him to work on your behalf and to bless you.
Deutoronomy 30.8-9
“And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today.
Then the Lord you God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of you hands, in the offspring of you body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers!!!!
Put you finger on your wrist and find your pulse. Have you found your pulse yet? If not please have some one help you find it. For every pulse of your heart, one, two, three, four ---- someone in the world has died without Jesus as their savior. They are souls who have never had the opportunity to hear the message of GOD’S love for them in Jesus, or even worse, have heard and rejected it. Do still feel your pulse? God does. He is aware of each pulse, of each soul who has entered into Hell’s gates.
The commission is to go unto all the people groups and share the Gospel. To quicken every soul, unto internal life, through faith in Jesus. You can forever change the pulse beat of someone else, if you would just reach. To reach out and help them find the their heat beat, and their need for GOD’s love and forgiveness.
-- Thomas Knight
God forbid that someone on North stage coach road die never hearing the Gospel because we never received it by responding in faith with obedience.
Conclusion:
Have you responded to the Spirit by receiving God’s Gift of eternal life, and obeying the message?
What shall we do!!!
Trust in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved!
Obedience to His message is the clearest sign that you have received salvation.
Christian what shall you do to reveal the need for a savior to you friends, families, and even your foes.
Tell them the story of Jesus and let the Holy spirit save untold thousands
