“It is a sin to be good if God has called us to be great.”
For the last three weeks we’ve been looking at how God took the early church from good to great and some principles that we can apply so that God can do the same thing with our church.
So far we’ve seen that sometimes God calls us to wait for Him to pour His power into our lives. We’ve also seen that we plug into that power through the filling of the Holy Spirit. And although we’ve covered a lot of material over the last three weeks, we saw last week that we can really boil everything we learned down into just four things that we need to be doing in order to wait on God and to provide the right conditions for Him to fills us with His power through the Holy Spirit:
• Spend time in God’s Word
• Pray
• Obey what God reveals
• Confess any sin
I still remember the first sermon that I preached quite a few years ago. I’m not sure anyone else remembers it, but I sure do. It was in one of the largest churches here in Tucson, back when they still had a Sunday night service. But not only was it a Sunday evening service, it just also happened to be on Super Bowl Sunday. I guess the pastor figured I couldn’t do too much harm since there wouldn’t be very many people there to hear what I had to say.
The title of my sermon that evening was “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”. I know that was probably a pretty ambitious topic to pick for my first sermon, but that’s what God laid on my heart as I prepared for that night. And even if no one else took away anything from my message that night, at least God used it to teach me some pretty important things about life.
In Acts Chapter 2, we find the very first sermon in the early church. Unlike my first sermon, Peter hadn’t had a lot of time to prepare. He didn’t have commentaries to study. He couldn’t go to the internet to see what others had preached. He didn’t have any place to go to find jokes or illustrations. But he had something much more important. As we saw last week, he, along with the other disciples, had been filled with the Holy Spirit, who had given him the power to boldly proclaim the word of God.
Peter had all kinds of topics he could have preached that morning. Had God led him to, he could have even preached on why bad things happen to good people. But instead, the Holy Spirit led Peter to focus on just one topic in that message. And it seems to me that Peter’s focus, since it was obviously also God’s focus, ought to also be our focus. So let’s look at Peter’s sermon and see what we can learn.
You’ll remember that the sermon actually began in verse 17 when Peter used a passage from Joel to describe the coming of the Holy Spirit. But let’s pick up this morning with verse 22:
Read Acts 2:22-36
It’s obvious from reading the words of Peter that day, that he had just one focus – the resurrection. And no wonder. That’s the historical event on which all of our faith is based. If the resurrection didn’t happen, then our faith is futile. But if it did indeed happen, which I believe with all my heart that it did, then it is without a doubt the most significant event in human history. It is the resurrection that makes it possible for us to have an intimate, personal relationship with God. If Jesus had just come to this earth, lived a good life and died on a cross and there had been no resurrection, then we would have no hope. It is the resurrection that makes it possible to deal with my past sins, live an abundant life right now and guarantees that one day I’ll get to spend eternity in the presence of God.
I think that today, we sometimes lose our focus on the significance of the resurrection. Sure, we believe it, but is the resurrection really the focus of our faith? Sometimes we get so caught up in our programs, plans and ministries that I think we kind of push the resurrection aside. But I’m also convinced that one of the most important things that Peter and the early church did in order to move from good to great was to keep a single-minded focus on the resurrection. So the question we need to ask is “how do we focus our faith on the resurrection?” Let’s see what we can learn from Peter.
HOW TO FOCUS OUR FAITH ON THE RESURRECTION
1. Ponder the proof:
Peter begins his sermon by asking his fellows Jews to ponder the proof of the resurrection. It’s interesting that in the Old Testament, God established the principle that matters must be attested to by two or three witnesses before they were proven to be valid:
A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Deuteronomy 19:15 (NIV)
And since Peter is speaking here to Jews who would have been very aware of that requirement, he is very careful to give three witnesses of the resurrection:
• The witness of the Father
The first witness is God Himself. Look again at verses 22-24:
Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Peter stressed that God was a witness of the resurrection in several ways. First, He showed that Jesus was His one and only Son by exhibiting His power through the miracles, wonders, and signs that He did through Jesus.
Secondly, God made it clear that it was his purpose for Jesus to die on the cross. While it may have been the Jews and the Romans who were responsible for the crucifixion, they were really only carrying out God’s purposes and his plans which He had made before the creation of the world.
And then those two words which just reach out and grab our attention: “But God”. I just love that phrase. It’s one that is used 61 times in the NIV translation. It shows a clear contrast between the ways of men and the ways of God. Men may have found Jesus guilty of crimes He never committed; men may have even nailed Him to the cross. But God had another plan in mind – the resurrection!
Now for most people, that would have been enough. If God is a witness of the resurrection, then it must be a fact. But Peter wants to make sure that there isn’t even the slightest bit of doubt among his listeners, so he gives two additional proofs:
• The witness of the Word
When Peter began his sermon, he obviously did not have the New Testament, because none of it had been written yet. But he did have what we know as the Old Testament. So he used the Scriptures as a witness to the resurrection of Jesus.
In his sermon Peter uses two different Psalms as a witness of the resurrection. Both of these were well-known Psalms of King David. But as Peter so clearly points out in his message, there is no way that David had spoken these words about himself. They were undoubtedly prophecies of the Messiah. These are just two of over 300 Old Testament prophecies that were literally fulfilled through the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
The first Psalm he uses is Psalm 16:8-11. He quotes that Psalm in Acts 2:25-28. That Psalm revealed that the person being spoken about would not be abandoned to the grave and his body would not see decay. David obviously couldn’t have written that about himself, because, as Peter points out, he had died and the location of his grave was well known to his Jewish listeners. But those words are a witness to the fact that Jesus’ body was raised from the dead by God.
Then in Acts 2:34-35, Peter quotes Psalm 110:1. Again, this could not refer to David, since he did not sit at the right hand of the Father. But Jesus, having been resurrected and having ascended into heaven was and is in that position of honor and authority.
Today, we not only have the witness of all these Old Testament prophecies, but we also have the testimony of the New Testament writers.
First there is the witness of God the Father. Second, there is the witness of the Word of God. That would be enough to satisfy the requirements of the Jewish law, but Peter wants to leave no doubt at all, so he cites a third witness.
• The witness of the apostles
Notice what Peter said in Acts 2:32:
This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
Peter says that not only had God provided proof of the resurrection, not only did the Scriptures prove the resurrection, but that the apostles that were there that day were also all eyewitnesses of the resurrection. They had witnessed the life of Jesus and had been with Him. They watched as He was nailed to a cross. And then they had seen Him and touched Him and talked to Him after His resurrection.
To me, this is the most compelling evidence of all. It’s not that I don’t believe God or the Bible. Maybe it’s just that this proof is so tangible and believable to me. Every one of those apostles who were there that day, with the possible exception of John, would die a violent death because they believed in the resurrection. That was a belief that every one of them held onto throughout their lives, even when that belief would cost them their lives.
It’s not that uncommon for people to lie, or even to stick to their lies when confronted with them. But I don’t know any sane person who will stick to a lie if it means they are going to die a painful death for that lie. If the resurrection was a hoax, if it wasn’t a fact, it’s possible that all 12 apostles would have lied about it for a while, although even that doesn’t seem likely. But it’s inconceivable to me that they would have all been willing to die for that lie.
So the first thing we need to do if we want to make the resurrection the focus of our faith is that we need to ponder the proof – the witness of God Himself, the Scriptures and the apostles. That’s some pretty overwhelming, incontrovertible evidence.
But it’s not enough just to believe in the fact of the resurrection. The second thing we must do is:
2. Seize the significance:
I’ve already talked a little about the significance of the resurrection. It is the one event that separates Christianity from any other religion in the world. The Apostle Paul wrote about the significance of the resurrection in his letter to the church at Corinth:
But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith…And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
1 Corinthians 15:12-14, 17
No wonder Peter, when he could have preached on just about any topic for his first sermon, chose to focus on the resurrection. Without the resurrection our faith is futile and we would still be dead in our sins. In his sermon, Peter summarized the significance of the resurrection in Acts 2:36:
"Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
As believers, we often speak of Jesus as our Lord or as the Christ, but let’s just pause for a minute to make sure we understand the significance of what Peter says here.
• Jesus is Lord
Because of His willingness to be completely obedient to His Father and to humble Himself and die on a cross for our sins, God, through the resurrection, exalted Jesus to the position of Lord. Here’s how Paul described that process:
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:9-11 (NIV)
The Bible is clear that Jesus is Lord, and that one day every person will acknowledge Him as Lord. But as we’ll see in a moment, I can either chose to acknowledge Him as Lord right now and put Him in charge of my life, or I can decide to just keep living my life the way I want to, and be forced to acknowledge Him as Lord when it’s too late to make a difference in my life.
• Jesus is the Christ
The word “Christ” comes from a Greek word which means “anointed”. It is the Greek form of the word “Messiah”, which also means “anointed”.
The Jews to whom Peter preached that day were very familiar with the concept of a Messiah. The Jews viewed the Messiah as the one who would be sent by God as their deliverer, to liberate them from their bondage. In Jesus’ time, most Jews believed the Messiah would be the one who came to free them from the domination of the Romans.
But God had a different plan. As the Messiah, or the Christ, Jesus came to free the people not from the oppressive Roman government, but from the oppression of their sins. And it is the resurrection that allowed Jesus to fulfill His role as Messiah, or Christ.
The Bible is clear that I also have to make a choice about whether or not I will make Jesus my Christ and rely upon Him alone as the means for dealing with my sins and being made right with God or whether I’ll try to take care of my sins through my own efforts.
But it’s not enough to just ponder the proof of the resurrection and believe it as a fact. It’s not even enough to seize the significance of the resurrection and recognize that through the resurrection God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ. I still have to:
3. Render my response
When we’re brought face to face with the reality of the resurrection, a response is required. Peter made that clear even before he spoke about the resurrection in the passage we read today. Remember the words of the prophet Joel that Peter had quoted right before this?
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Acts 2:21 (NIV)
Although the resurrection makes Jesus Lord and Christ in a general sense, not everyone will choose to respond to that truth in a manner that makes a difference in their lives. It is only those who call on the name of the Lord who will be saved. In other words, I have to make a choice about how I’m going to respond to His resurrection.
So how do I call on the name of the Lord, so that Jesus can be become not just a Lord and a Christ, but that He can become my Lord and my Christ? We’re going to deal with the answer to that question in much more detail next week. In the next few verses in Acts, we’ll see that people were cut to the heart and they recognized their need to respond to the truth and the significance of the resurrection. We’re especially going to focus on the whole concept of repentance and what that means and how we can live a life that is characterized by repentance.
The Apostle Paul described how we call on the name of the Lord in his letter to the church at Rome:
Say the welcoming word to God—"Jesus is my Master"—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not "doing" anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!"
Romans 10:9, 10 (Message)
I think that’s pretty clear, but let me boil it down to the basics for you:
How to call on the name of the Lord:
There are three things I need to acknowledge and three things I need to ask for:
• Acknowledge my sin
The Bible is clear that every one of us is a sinner (Romans 3:23). God wants me to admit that to Him.
• Acknowledge that with God’s help, I want to turn away from my life of sin
This is the whole idea of repentance that we’ll talk more about next week. But for right now, let me say that it’s not enough to just be sorry for our sin. We have to also have the desire to turn our lives around.
• Acknowledge that I am helpless to do anything about my own sin
Since the bible says I’m dead in my sins (Ephesians 2:1), I can’t save myself. I am completely dependent on what God has already done for me.
• Ask God to forgive my sin.
God has promised to forgive our sins if we confess them to Him (1 John 1:9).
• Ask God to be the Lord of my life
This seems to be the part that most of us struggle with the most. We want to be the one in charge of our life. But as we’ve already seen, we need to put Jesus in charge – to make Him the Lord of our lives.
• Ask God to accept me as His child based on what Jesus did for me by his death and resurrection.
Since I can’t do anything to save myself, I have to trust that in what Jesus did on the cross when He paid for all the sins of the world. I make Him my Christ by trusting in Jesus Christ alone for my salvation.
“It is a sin to be good if God has called us to be great.”
If we’re going to be a great church, then we must constantly make sure that the focus of our faith is the resurrection of Jesus.
