Lesson 22: Prescription For A Healthy Church (1 Peter 5:1-5)

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Good churches are hard to find! I often hear from people, as I did this week, who were in the church I pastored in California, who have moved away, who say how much trouble they’ve had finding a healthy church. Sometimes the church lacks vital worship. Often, they could not find a pastor who faithfully preaches God’s Word. Sometimes the church is racked by dissention over petty issues or is shot through with legalism. This is not to say that our church was trouble-free, but by comparison to many other churches, they felt that it was the healthiest church they had ever been in.

What makes for a healthy church? Many scriptural elements could be listed. Especially important is a strong commitment to God’s Word, our only authority for faith and practice. But what makes a commitment to God’s Word happen? The answer is, strong leadership. Most churches rise and fall with the quality of leadership. But, of course, leaders can’t lead without supportive followers. And, even with strong leaders and supportive followers, that ubiquitous sin, human pride, often gets in the way and causes problems. With those factors in mind, Peter here gives us a prescription for a healthy church:

In a healthy church, the elders will shepherd and the flock will submit, all in a spirit of mutual humility.

The churches to which Peter wrote were facing intense persecution (“fiery ordeal,” 4:12). Such trials test the cohesiveness and strength of a church. To survive, they needed a prescription for spiritual health. Sandwiched between two sections dealing with trials (4:12-19 & 5:6-11), Peter gives this Rx (“Therefore” [5:1], in light of the trials). It focuses primarily on the elders, since strong pastoral leadership is essential. But there is also a word to the rest of the flock. And, the whole process must be wrapped in what is arguably the chief Christian virtue, humility.

1. In a healthy church, the elders will shepherd the flock (5:1-4).

In the New Testament there are three terms used to describe the same office of leadership in the church, each from a slightly different perspective. Elder focuses on the character qualities of the man, that he is a mature man of God. As 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 make clear, the main qualification for elders is not that they have impressive spiritual gifts. Rather, it is that they be godly men. Overseer (or, “Bishop”; Greek, “episkopos”) is used interchangeably with elder (Acts 20:17, 28; Titus 1:5, 7) and looks at the primary function of the office, to superintend matters in the local church. The third term, Pastor (which means “Shepherd”) looks at the function of the elder/overseer from the metaphor of the church as God’s flock. It focuses on the tasks of providing leadership, care, feeding, and protection for God’s people.

In the New Testament, there is always a plurality of elders (overseers, pastors) over the church in a given location. Acts 14:23 reports how Paul and Barnabas appointed elders (plural) in every church (singular). Acts 20:17 tells how Paul called to him “the elders of the church” in Ephesus. In Titus 1:5, Paul reminds Titus how he left him to appoint elders (plural) in every city. In the New Testament, the church in a city was viewed as a unit. Thus you have the church in Jerusalem, Ephesus, Antioch, etc. Each church may have been broken down into house churches that met all over the city on any given Lord’s Day. But over each church there was a plurality of elders or pastors.

Paul says that “the elders who rule well [should] be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching” (1 Tim. 5:17). “Honor” (in Greek) meant both “respect” and “price.” As 1 Timothy 5:18 makes clear, elders who labor at preaching and teaching should not only be respected, they also should be paid. By virtue of their full-time commitment to the work, such elders usually take on the role of leader among leaders in a local church. But they share the task of pastoring or oversight with other qualified men.

It is beyond the scope of this sermon, but I believe Scripture is clear that the position of elder in the local church is reserved for men. Many are arguing that women can serve in any capacity, even as the teaching pastor of a church. In passing I will just say that such an interpretation of the New Testament never occurred to Christians until the women’s movement became prominent in the world. To me, the arguments for feminism are reading the world into the Word.

Peter points out the requirement, the responsibility and the reward of shepherding God’s flock:

A. The requirement for shepherding is a close personal experience with Christ (5:1).

Peter models what he is exhorting: He does not lord it over these men, although as an apostle, he could have asserted his authority. “Apostle” referred to men entrusted with authority from Christ to establish churches. As an apostle (1:1), Peter had authority over these churches. “Elder” relates to a local church. But here he doesn’t flex his apostolic muscle, but exhorts them humbly as a fellow elder.

Peter begins by relating his own experiences with Christ as the basis for his exhortation. He had been a witness of Christ’s sufferings and he also was a partaker of the glory that is to be revealed. Some say that Peter did not witness the crucifixion, since he denied Christ and fled. But it is quite possible that Peter crept to the outskirts of the crowd and saw Jesus hanging on the cross. Even if he did not, Peter had witnessed the sufferings of Christ throughout His earthly ministry, including His agony in the Garden, His arrest and mistreatment at His trial. He had seen the scars in the risen Savior’s hands and side. He had personally witnessed the sufferings of Christ.

Also, Peter had seen a glimpse of the Savior’s future glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. Warren Wiersbe (Be Hopeful [Victor Books], pp. 124-125) points out the parallels between Peter’s experiences with Christ and what he writes in chapter 5. Verse 1 takes us to the cross and the transfiguration, as noted. Verse 2 recalls Jesus’ teaching on being the Good Shepherd (John 10), as well as His charge to the restored Peter to shepherd His sheep (John 21:15-17).

“Lording it over” the flock (5:3) recalls the silly debates the twelve had about who was the greatest, and the Lord’s teaching about the greatest being the servant of all. “Be clothed with humility” recalls Jesus taking a towel and girding Himself as He washed the disciples’ feet (John 13:1-17). The word about Satan (5:8) recalls Jesus’ warning that Satan would “sift” Peter like wheat (Luke 22:31). The verb, “to perfect” (5:10) is the same word translated “mending their nets” (Matt. 4:21) when the Lord called Peter to follow Him.

So Peter wrote out of his own experiences with Jesus Christ. He was a witness (5:1). A witness doesn’t speculate about religion. A witness relates what he has seen and heard. We have the apostolic witness recorded in the New Testament under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. An elder who wants to shepherd the flock conscientiously must be a student of the apostolic witness in Scripture, especially as it relates to the cross (“the sufferings of Christ”) and the coming kingdom of Christ (“the glory that is to be revealed”).

The cross is at the center of the Christian life and an elder must live by the cross daily and be able to help others to do so. Focusing on the suffering of Christ is the motivation for dealing with sin and for loving Christ more. Focusing on the glory that is to be revealed in Christ’s coming kingdom makes an elder live in holiness and hope in light of Christ’s coming. It is out of an overflowing personal experience of the cross of Christ and His coming kingdom that a man can minister Christ to His flock, the church. An elder must be a man who walks closely with the crucified, risen, and coming Savior.

B. The responsibility of shepherding is to exercise oversight with the right attitude (5:2-3).

The command, “Shepherd the flock of God,” calls to mind a familiar biblical picture, that God is the Shepherd and His people are His flock (Ps. 23; Ps. 100:3; Isa. 40:11; Ezek. 34:1-24). He has appointed undershepherds to tend His flock. For us, it is unusual to see a flock of sheep, let alone to know what is involved in caring for them. But shepherding was a familiar, everyday illustration in the biblical world.

The shepherd knew his sheep. Jesus, in talking of Himself as the Good Shepherd, said that He called His own sheep by name and they followed Him because they knew His voice (John 10:3-4, 14). At the very least, the task of shepherding involves getting to know people by name, and letting them get to know you. The larger a church, the less likely it is that one pastor can know all the people by name. But, as I said, there should always be a plurality of pastors (elders) per church. Between them, they should know every person. You cannot give adequate pastoral care to a person you do not know.

Jesus also said that He led His sheep out to pasture (John 10:3, 9). Shepherding means leading God’s people in the ways of God. Sheep cannot be driven like cattle. They must be led by example (3:3). Shepherding means taking the sheep to the rich pastures of God’s Word, where they can feed and be nourished. The shepherd binds up the wounded and corrects the sheep who cause trouble. He goes after strays and brings them back into the fold. The shepherd is always alert for and guards and defends the flock from enemies that prey upon them. Often such work involves great personal sacrifice and effort. The supreme example is Jesus, who laid down His own life for His sheep.

Peter here sums up the shepherding task with the term, “exercising oversight” (5:2; some manuscripts omit this phrase, but there is good evidence for retaining it as original). Oversight does not mean being overlords. The fact that it is “the flock of God” reminds shepherds that they are not the owners and that they must give an account to the Owner. But they must give oversight to the flock under God. The key to giving proper oversight is having the right attitude. Peter here describes this attitude with a series of three contrasts:

(1) “Not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God” (5:2)

A man should not be in leadership out of duty, but out of delight. Paul says that an overseer should “aspire to the office” (1 Tim. 3:1). Yet serving as an overseer is not a matter of self-willed ambition, but rather of the calling of God, as seen in the phrase, “according to God,” which probably means, “according to God’s will.” During times of persecution, an elder and his family would be the first targets. The rest of the time, pastoral leadership is more often the grind of mucking out the stalls rather than the glory of recognition. So an overseer must serve gladly because God has called him to the task, not grudgingly because he was forced into it.

(2) “Not for sordid gain, but with eagerness” (5:2)

The opposite of serving under compulsion is serving eagerly. But some serve eagerly for the wrong reasons, either financial gain (here) or power (next phrase). As I mentioned, Paul taught that it is proper for some elders to be supported financially for their work, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching, which takes a lot of time (1 Tim. 5:17-18). But a man’s motive must not be to make money through the ministry, but rather to serve God with eagerness.

(3) “Nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock” (5:3)

Some go into ministry because they like the power or status of leadership. I heard a well-known pastor say that he thought that most men in pastoral ministry were insecure and that they were after the affirmation they received from their people. I thought, “If he’s right, we’re in big trouble!” A man who goes into the pastorate or who serves as an elder because he wants power or strokes is not qualified to serve.

The word translated “allotted to your charge” meant “apportioned by lot,” and thus came to refer to anything portioned out. It underscores the fact that the flock belongs to God and is entrusted to overseers as those who will answer to God. Rather than leading by lording, they are to lead by example. This does not mean that elders can never exercise authority (Titus 1:11; 2:15). There are times when they must take a stand and say, “We are not going to allow this practice or this false teaching to go on in this church.” Sometimes they must enforce church discipline or confront spiritual bullies. But their normal mode of leadership should be their example of godly living.

We need to remember that leadership is more a responsibility than a privilege. If a man is into leadership for the perks, whether status, money, or power, he is abusing a sacred trust. Leadership, whether in the church, the home, or the government, means that you’re the one whom God holds accountable for the direction of things under your care. If that thought doesn’t cause you to break out in a cold sweat, then you’ve got wrong ideas about leadership!

Thus, the requirement for shepherding is a close personal experience with Christ. The responsibility of shepherding is to exercise oversight with the right attitude.

C. The reward for shepherding is the unfading crown of glory (5:4).

The rewards for the work don’t come until the Chief Shepherd returns. That Christ is the “Chief Shepherd” again reminds us that we are only undershepherds, accountable to the Chief. The word “appears” is literally, “made visible.” We presently do not see the Chief Shepherd, although He is present. But soon He will be made visible, when He comes again in power and glory, to shepherd the nations with a rod of iron (Rev. 2:27; 12:5; 19:15). Thus our motivation for serving as pastors must never be to receive the praise of men, but only the desire to hear on that great day, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” Then we will share in His glory! Unlike earthly rewards which fade, that crown will last forever.

Much more could be said. But, in a healthy church, the elders will actively shepherd the flock, which is an awesome responsibility! But the flock must willingly follow:

2. In a healthy church, the flock will submit to the elders (5:5a).

There is some debate over why Peter singles out “young men.” My understanding is that he assumed that the women would be in submission to the elders; but young men are more prone to resent their authority. Younger men are often more impatient and idealistic than the more mature men in leadership. They may not understand why the elders don’t move more quickly. So he singles them out as representing all in the church who are not elders and tells them to submit.

Submission does not mean mute acceptance of decisions. There is a place for expressing disagreement and voicing concerns. But submission is primarily an attitude of respect and a recognition of rank. If the elders go against a clear principle of Scripture, then the flock is responsible to appeal to them based upon the Word. If an elder is violating Scripture, he should be removed from office, since no human authority transcends God’s authority. But normally, the flock needs to submit to and cooperate with the elders as they seek to follow the Lord’s will for His church (Heb. 13:17). I fear that we, in democratic America, have gotten away from this important biblical principle of proper authority and submission in the local church.

3. In a healthy church, everyone will relate to one another in a spirit of humility (5:5b).

“Clothe” is a unique word that referred to an apron which a servant would put on before doing his tasks. No doubt Peter was recalling Jesus taking the towel and girding Himself as He washed the disciples’ feet. Humility (lit., “lowliness of mind”) is the robe with which we all must gird ourselves. So far as I know, the Bible never exhorts us to think more highly of ourselves than we do or to improve our self-esteem, as we’re being told to do by many Christian writers. But it often tells us that we need to humble ourselves.

I disagree with the comment often made that humility is elusive because, just when you think you’re humble, you’ve lost it. Both Jesus and Paul called themselves humble (Matt. 11:29; Acts 20:19). The best biblical definition of humility is 2 Cor. 3:5: “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.” Humility is being aware of our own insufficiency, but trusting in Christ’s all-sufficiency.

I suppose that Moses had “low self-esteem” when he told the Lord that he couldn’t speak well enough to lead Israel out of Egypt (Exod. 4:10-12). God didn’t say, “Moses, you need to work on your self-esteem. You’re really terrific! You can do it!” Instead, God confronted Moses with his lack of trust in God’s ability. God didn’t correct Moses’ low view of himself; He challenged Moses’ inadequate view of God. People with so-called “low self-esteem” are too self-focused. They need to focus on God’s adequacy.

Christian leaders have always recognized this. Chrysostom called humility “the foundation of our philosophy.” Augustine said, “If you ask me concerning the precepts of the Christian religion, first, second, third, and always I would answer, Humility.” Calvin, who regarded pride as the chief vice and humility as the preeminent virtue, said, “But I require only that, laying aside the disease of self-love and ambition, by which he is blinded and thinks more highly of himself than he ought [cf. Gal. 6:3], he rightly recognize himself in the faithful mirror of Scripture [cf. James 1:22-25]” (the above quotes are in Institutes of the Christian Religion II:II:11; see also, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology [Baker], p. 537). Jonathan Edwards says that the whole gospel and all of God’s dealings with us are calculated to bring about in us a lowly attitude toward ourselves and that those who lack this attitude are destitute of true religion, whatever profession they may make (The Works of Jonathan Edwards [Banner of Truth], 1:294).

If you think these men too strong, go back to 1 Peter 5:5b: He quotes Proverbs 3:34 which (bringing out the nuance of the Greek text) says that “God sets Himself in battle against those who lift themselves up, but He gives grace to those who see themselves as lowly.” Nothing could be worse than to have God set Himself against you! Nothing is more essential than receiving His grace! The way to be the object of His grace is to humble yourself before Him and before others. It also is the chief virtue for harmonious relationships in the church.

Conclusion

Thus I exhort myself and my fellow elders: Shepherd God’s flock! I exhort the church: Be subject to your elders! I exhort us all: Put on the servant’s apron of humility! That’s the prescription for a healthy church.

Discussion Questions

When does shepherding cross the line into authoritarianism? Is this a danger?
Agree/disagree: American Christians do not understand the concept of submitting to spiritual authority.
Do some people need to “improve their self-esteem”? Cite biblical evidence. What does true humility involve?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation

Lesson 23: Growing Solid Through Suffering (1 Peter 5:6-14)

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One of the most crucial lessons to learn as a Christian is how to handle suffering. In this fallen world, suffering is a certainty. It may be the physical suffering that goes with living in these frail bodies that get sick and die. It may be the grief of watching a loved one suffer and die. It may be problems stemming from your own sin or from others’ sins against you. It may be the common pressures of life, of providing a living and wondering how you’re going to pay all the bills. It may be the emotional suffering of struggling with feelings of inadequacy, loneliness, anger, worry, or fear. But wherever it comes from, suffering is inevitable. And, it will make you grow bitter or better, depending on how you handle it.

It is significant that in Jesus’ parable of the sower, two of the three soils that failed to produce a crop represent people who did not know how to handle suffering. The rocky soil, Jesus explained, pictures those who receive the word joyfully at first, but do not sink down roots, so that when affliction or persecution comes, they fall away. The thorny ground reflects those who seem to grow for a while, but then allow, among other things, the worries of the world to choke out the word so that it does not bear fruit unto eternal life (Mark 4:16-19). If you don’t learn how to handle affliction, worries, and other kinds of suffering, you will not persevere as a Christian. On the other hand, if you do learn how to handle suffering, you will grow solid through it.

Peter here gives us four strategies for growing solid through suffering:

To grow solid through suffering, humble yourself before God, resist the devil, trust the Lord, and stand firm in God’s grace with the saints.

1. To grow solid through suffering, humble yourself before God (5:6-7).

“Therefore” connects 5:5 with 5:6 & 7. I would paraphrase (bringing out the nuances of the Greek text): “Because God sets Himself in battle against those who lift themselves up, but gives unmerited favor to those who view themselves as lowly, therefore, lower yourself under God’s sovereign dealings with you, that He might lift you up in due time. You lower yourself by throwing all your anxieties on Him, knowing that He cares for you.”

The Greek word translated “anxieties” comes from a word meaning to divide. Anxieties divide our minds, so that we cannot concentrate on anything else. Someone has defined “worry” as “a small trickle of fear that meanders through the mind until it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.” Thus worries and anxieties distract us from the productive things God wants us to do and consume us by diverting all our thoughts into these channels of fear.

Why is there a need for humbling yourself in a time of trial? Because at the heart of anxiety is the proud notion that I can handle things by myself. We all have a sinful tendency to lift ourselves up and to pull the Lord down. Even we who have trusted in Christ as Savior, who talk about trusting Him for everything, when it comes right down to it, really trust in ourselves and in our ability to work our way through life’s difficulties. We’ll call on God for a little boost now and then, to get us through something. But we don’t know what it means to cast ourselves totally upon the Lord until He yanks the rug out from under us through some trial that is bigger than us. Even then we tend to scramble to regain control without submitting to God’s mighty hand over us.

At the root of this self-reliance is pride. Suppose you were on a ship which encountered a fierce storm at sea. You don’t know anything about handling a ship in such rough waters, but the captain is a seasoned veteran who has brought his ship safely through many such storms. Wouldn’t it be the height of arrogance for you to go up on the bridge and tell him how to run the ship or, even worse, to take the helm from him? If you were anxious in the storm, your fears would subside if you stopped to think about the captain’s competency. If you had a chance to talk to him, and he assured you that he had been through many such storms, you could relax and trust that he will get you through this one. You still may be in for a rough ride, but you can go through it without anxiety because you humbled yourself (by not taking control) and exalted the captain by trusting him.

George Muller used to tell the story of a boy who was walking along the road carrying a heavy load. A man came along in a horse-drawn cart and offered him a ride. The boy climbed in the cart, but he kept the heavy load on his shoulders. When the man asked him why he didn’t put the load down on the cart, the boy replied that he didn’t want to burden the horse! We’ve climbed into the cart of salvation through Christ. He is in fact bearing our load. Why don’t we let go and put it all on Him?

We’re prone to doubt two things in a time of intense trial: God’s sovereign control over circumstances: “Where is God in all this?” And, we doubt His concern for us: “If God is in control and cares, then why is this happening to me?” Peter says that we must bow and acknowledge God’s mighty hand—His sovereignty and power. He wasn’t asleep at the helm when this trial hit me. And, we must bow and affirm His loving care—He cares for me personally, in spite of how it may seem in the middle of my crisis. No doubt Peter was recalling Jesus’ teaching that if God cares for the birds and for the lilies of the field, then obviously, He cares for each of us (Matt. 6:25-30).

Having acknowledged these two things--God’s control and His care--we then cast all our anxieties on Him through thankful prayer: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6). F. B. Meyer (Tried by Fire [Christian Literature Crusade], p. 173) helpfully advises, “Treat cares as you treat sins. Hand them over to Jesus one by one as they occur.” I find that often I have to do it repeatedly all day long, confessing my lack of faith, praying at times, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

2. To grow solid through suffering, resist the devil (5:8-9).

No sooner has Peter got us to relax by casting our cares on the Lord than he yells, “Wake up! Be alert! There’s a lion on the prowl, and he’ll eat you for lunch if you aren’t careful!” George Morrison put it: “God does not make His children carefree in order that He may make them careless” (Morrison on James through Revelation [AMG Publishers], p. 34). The fact is, in a time of trial, you are especially vulnerable to the enemy of our souls. You must be sober and alert so that you can resist his attacks.

When it comes to dealing with the devil, Christians often go to one of two extremes: Either they see the devil behind every bush; or, they ignore him altogether. The former are more prevalent in Christian circles now than the latter. These folks see the devil everywhere. They go around casting out the demons of every common cold, the demons of car trouble, the demons behind emotional problems, etc. They often blame the devil for problems that stem from their own sin or mistakes. Many popular books teach elaborate methods to overcome demonic forces, both personally and as a church. But the Bible just tells us to resist the devil. While I enjoyed reading Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness [Crossway Books], I think we need to be careful to derive our understanding of Satan and demons from the Bible, not from such popular books.

On the one hand, Satan is a powerful unseen foe, so powerful that Michael the archangel did not dare to pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you” (Jude 9). We dare not get arrogant and start barking orders at Satan like some tinhorn general, or he will make quick work of us. Probably none of us has ever encountered Satan himself, although he has legions of demons to do his will. But on the other hand, Satan is neither omnipresent nor omnipotent. And, he is a defeated foe. The cross of Jesus Christ spelled his doom and the resurrection sealed it. So we can resist him, firm in our faith, and know that he will flee from us (James 4:7).

Peter describes him as “your adversary, the devil.” “Adversary” means an opponent in a lawsuit. “Devil” means “slanderer,” one who throws things against you. He is described as the “accuser of the brethren” (Rev. 12:10). His strategy is often to hit you when you’re under some intense trial by suggesting either, “God isn’t strong enough to deliver you,” or “Obviously He doesn’t care. If this is how He treats His people, then why are you following Him?” Or, if you’ve fallen into some sin, he will accuse your conscience, even after you’ve confessed your sin, by saying, “Some Christian you are! What makes you think you can be forgiven for that one?”

Or, as suggested by Peter’s reminder in 5:9b, the devil will get you to think that you’re the only one in the world going through the kind of suffering you’re experiencing. Your trial is unique! Surely, no one else understands! “They have slain your prophets, and I alone am left!” But Peter says, “No, you’re not alone. Your Christian brothers throughout the world are going through similar trials.”

Remember that verse 6 comes before verse 9: We must bow before God before we stand against the devil. Resisting the devil is a defensive posture. I don’t advise stalking him like a lion hunter. But if he roars against us, we stand firm in the full armor of God and he will flee. Also, we need to understand that we are to flee certain sins, but resist the devil. If you’re tempted with sexual immorality, don’t stand around rebuking Satan; get out of there (1 Cor. 6:18)!

Many of God’s people are vulnerable to Satan’s attacks because they’re not alert to spiritual danger. If a real lion were on the prowl and had just been spotted outside, would you go for a casual stroll, admiring the flowers? Would you let your children play out there? And yet so many Christians watch filth on TV or in movies, and let their kids watch it, and wonder why they aren’t more interested in spiritual things.

Or, they’re going through trials, but they forget that they are especially vulnerable. They tolerate their own grumbling or complaining, not realizing that they are playing right into Satan’s attack to devour their faith and to discredit the goodness of God. If my children always complained about how meanly I treated them, it wouldn’t speak well of me. As God’s children, we need to be careful to speak well of our Father, even when He’s taking us through trials. To grow solid through suffering, humble yourself before God and be alert so that you can resist the devil.

3. To grow solid through suffering, trust the sovereign Lord (5:10-11).

Trust is implicit in 5:6-7, is stated explicitly in 5:9 (be “firm in your faith”), and is strongly implicit in 5:10-11. Peter is saying, “God hasn’t forgotten you in your trial. He is the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ in the first place. Thus you can trust Him to use the trial for His purpose in your life, because He is the sovereign Lord who has all dominion forever and ever!”

But trusting God has fallen on hard times in Christian circles. It is viewed as about the most impractical thing you can do. If you came to me with a big problem in your life and asked, “What should I do?” and I said, “I think you should trust God,” you’d probably go away thinking, “What worthless counsel!” And yet from cover to cover the Bible extols the practical benefits of putting our trust in the living God as the way to deal with our problems!

You ask, “How can I trust God? It seems so hard to do when I’m in the middle of a crisis!” There are at least four ways to nurture your faith suggested in these two short verses (9 & 10):

(1) Put the trial in perspective. It will only last “for a little while.” You say, “For a little while! I’ve been going through this suffering for years!” But even a whole lifetime is a little while in light of eternity. Paul had this perspective when he wrote (2 Cor. 4:17-18), “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

(2) Put God in perspective. He is “the God of all grace.” He is not the God of a little bit of grace. He is not the God of a lot of grace. He is the God of all grace. His grace is like the ocean, a limitless supply, that keeps breaking over our lives time and time again. It will never run out. But remember, God withholds grace from the proud, but gives it to the humble (5:5), those who lower themselves by admitting their total need. So in your time of trial, come as a needy soul and ask, and He will give you abundant grace to meet your need.

Also, to put God in perspective, remember that He is the God of dominion or strength, both now and forever (5:11). He is mighty to save His people from every trial, if it be His will. Even more, He is mighty to save us from eternal destruction. Nothing can separate us from His love and care. In your trial, rehearse in your mind God’s mighty strength as seen over and over in the Bible.

(3) Put God’s calling and purpose for you in perspective. He “called you to His eternal glory in Christ.” You didn’t come to Him by your own strength or effort. He called you. He didn’t call you to condemn you, but to bring you to His eternal glory in Christ. You will dwell in His presence throughout eternity. In your trial, look ahead to what God has promised for those whom He has called, and you can trust Him to bring you through it.

(4) Put God’s purpose for trials in perspective. He Himself will “perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” Trials are to burn away the dross and refine the gold. “Perfect” means to equip, repair, or render complete. It was used of Peter “mending” his fishing nets (Matt. 4:21). God will put you back together after the trial so that you will be useful to Him. “Confirm” means to fix, set fast, or strengthen. Jesus told Peter that after he was restored from his denial of Jesus, he would “strengthen” [same word] his brothers. The next word, “strengthen,” occurs only here in the Bible and rarely in extra-biblical Greek. We don’t know how it differs from the previous word. “Establish” means to lay the foundation. Jesus used it to describe the house founded on the rock that withstood the storm (Matt. 7:25).

Thus the overall idea is that the sovereign God will use the trials to establish you in your faith and to equip you to serve others in His cause. So you can trust Him in the process. Thus, to grow solid through suffering, humble yourself before God, resist the devil, and trust the sovereign Lord. Finally,

4. To grow solid through suffering, stand firm with other saints in God’s true grace (5:12-14).

This section is the concluding greeting of the letter. But it contains a powerful truth, stated also at the end of 5:9, that you don’t go through suffering alone. And there is a strong testimony that what Peter has written is God’s true grace and an exhortation to stand firm in it.

Note first that we go through suffering with other believers. These final verses are brimming with warm relationships. Peter commends Silvanus (Silas), his secretary who probably bore the letter to the churches mentioned in 1:1. He was a faithful brother. He had served with Paul on the second missionary journey. He had sung hymns with Paul at midnight in the Philippian jail, as his back was laid open and his feet were in the stocks. He was no stranger to persecution. Here he is, faithfully serving the Apostle Peter. What an encouragement it is when you’re going through trials to have a faithful brother like Silas, who has been through it himself!

Peter sends greetings from “she who is in Babylon, chosen together with you.” This most likely refers to the church in Rome, going through the fires of Nero’s persecution. Peter probably used “Babylon” as a code name to protect the believers there, as well as for the symbolism of Babylon as the place of exile and wickedness, the epitome of that which is opposed to God. But there, in that center of evil, God had planted His church, and it was linked with these churches in Asia in the great cause of the gospel.

And there was Mark, whom Peter calls his son. He wasn’t his physical son, nor is it likely that Peter was Mark’s father in the faith. Rather, the younger man had become like a son to Peter as they served Christ together. Mark, afraid of persecution, had deserted Paul and Barnabas, but had grown now into a faithful man, ready to endure hardship for the gospel.

Peter concludes by encouraging the church to give the customary kiss of love, a warm greeting which consisted of a kiss on the cheek (men with men, women with women), as is still practiced in some cultures today. We need not violate our cultural norms by adopting this literally, but we should be genuinely warm in greeting one another. And he extends peace (“shalom,” well-being) on all who are in Christ. When we go through trials, we should go through them together, supporting one another as family in Christ.

But also, we are to stand firm together in God’s true grace. Peter is referring to all he has written in the letter. “True” grace suggests that there is a false grace. Jude 4 refers to those “who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” False grace portrays the Christian life as a hang loose, go with the flow, don’t worry about sin, be tolerant of everyone sort of thing. True grace exhorts us to be holy, even as the Lord is holy. False grace implies that the Christian life requires no effort on our part. True grace is not passive, but active. It teaches that we exert ourselves to stand firm in it, that we endure hardship as we live righteously in this evil world.

Conclusion

Elizabeth Hanson, a medical missionary in Central Africa, served the Lord faithfully for years. A rebellion broke out in the country and one night the rebels broke into her room and raped her on the dirt floor. As it was taking place, she cried out to the Lord, “Why are You allowing this to happen to me?” In an almost audible voice, the Lord replied, “When you chose to follow Me, you gave me not only your mind and heart, but your body. They aren’t just doing this to you, but to Me. I’m with you.”

She didn’t tell this story very often, but years later, in the U.S., she was lecturing on a technical medical subject when she felt the Holy Spirit leading her to tell her story. She did and then went on with her lecture. Afterwards, everyone left except two young girls. The older girl came up and said, “That’s my 13 year-old sister. Two months ago she was raped in the park and she hasn’t spoken since.” Elizabeth’s eyes and those of the young girl met and filled with tears. They embraced, wept, and talked for two hours. Elizabeth led her to Jesus Christ. That girl is serving Christ today because Elizabeth Hanson grew solid through her suffering and let God use her painful experience to minister to others.

Suffering is never easy. But if we will humble ourselves before God by casting all our anxieties on Him, resist the devil, trust in the sovereign God of all grace, and stand firm in His grace with other saints, we can grow solid through our suffering.

Discussion Questions

How do we draw the line between wrongful anxiety and proper concern?
How can we know if a temptation is from the devil, who needs to be resisted, or from the flesh, so that we need to flee?
Agree/disagree: Trusting the Lord is a very practical thing to do in the middle of trials.
Is licentiousness or legalism the bigger problem in evangelical circles? What is God’s true grace?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation

Lesson 1: The Church: Continuing What Jesus Began (Acts 1:1, 2)

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How do you launch a worldwide enterprise? In the last century, Coca-Cola did it. You can go just about anywhere in the world and buy a Coke. They are the world’s largest multi-national corporation. Right behind them is Microsoft. Last year when I was in Poland and Romania, I discovered that although the languages were different, their computers looked and worked just like mine, with the familiar Windows and Word screens.

The church is Jesus Christ’s worldwide “enterprise.” He prophesied that He would build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18). The Book of Acts tells us how His church began in Jerusalem and spread to the ends of the earth. It provides a vital link between the gospels and the New Testament epistles. How did the Christian faith that began with a few followers of Jesus in Israel spread to Rome and points beyond? How did an ardent Jew who was not even a believer become the apostle to the Gentiles? How did the early church, which was exclusively Jewish, begin to reach out to and incorporate the Gentiles? Without Acts, we would be hard pressed to answer these questions. While we have four gospel accounts of the life of Jesus Christ, there is only one Book of Acts.

The title, Acts of the Apostles, was probably added sometime in the second century, but it is a bit of a misnomer. “Acts” fits, since there is plenty of action. But “apostles” isn’t quite right, since the story does not tell of the deeds of most of the apostles, but primarily of Peter (chapters 1-12) and Paul (chapters 13-28). The book actually describes the acts of Jesus through the Holy Spirit in His servants.

Almost all Bible scholars agree that Luke was the author of Acts. He was a physician (Col. 4:14), and the only Gentile author of the Bible. An early writing, dated between A.D. 160-180, tells us that Luke was a Syrian from Antioch, a single man who accompanied Paul until his martyrdom, and who died himself at age 84 (cited by Simon Kistemaker, Acts [Baker], p. 20). Luke probably wrote Acts about A.D. 62-64, toward the end of Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome, where the book leaves off. There is no mention of the intense persecution launched by Nero in A.D. 64, or of the martyrdom of Paul in about 68, and so Acts was probably written before these events.

The first verse of Acts links it with the introduction of Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:1-4). Both volumes were written to an otherwise unknown man, Theophilus, who was probably a Roman official, to provide an accurate historical foundation for his faith in Jesus Christ. Together, Luke and Acts comprise about 30 percent of the New Testament, surpassing both the writings of Paul and John in size (Richard Longenecker, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Zondervan], p. 207).

Purpose: Why did Luke write Acts? Several theories are proposed, but probably his primary purpose was to provide an account of the beginnings of the Christian church in order to strengthen his readers’ faith and to give assurance that its foundation is firm (I. Howard Marshall, Acts [IVP/Eerdmans], p. 21). Perhaps a skeptic had tried to convince Theophilus that his faith was based on myths or legends. Luke wants to show through his gospel and Acts that the accounts were based on eyewitness testimony given by credible men who were not promoting it for personal gain. In fact, they proclaimed the message in the face of strong opposition and even death.

Luke also intended to explain how the church spread from Jerusalem to Rome, encompassing both Jews and Gentiles, in accord with God’s purpose. One key to understanding Acts is to see that it is a transitional book, showing how the worship of God moved from the Jewish temple, to the hesitant acceptance of Gentiles into the Jewish church, and finally to the Christian worship of predominately Gentile churches all over the Roman empire. Acts shows us how God went from working primarily with the Jews as a nation to working with the church, comprised of Jews and Gentiles on equal footing. In Matthew 21:43, Jesus had told the Jewish leaders, “The kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it.” Acts shows us the transition that lasted from the death of Jesus to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, which fulfilled Jesus’ prophecy.

Acts records many miraculous signs that were given to prove to Israel that they had been wrong to reject Jesus as their Messiah and Lord. The main message that the apostles and others in Acts proclaimed centered on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, which was the primary sign authenticating Jesus as the Christ, and on the offer of forgiveness of sins in His name. The apostles were given unusual miraculous power, authenticating them as God’s witnesses to Jesus Christ and His resurrection. While God obviously can and does work miracles today (after all, He is God!), to claim as some do that miracles should happen today with the same frequency as in Acts is to miss the transitional nature of the book. God had a special purpose for miracles, to authenticate the apostles within this transition period.

Themes: In addition to the transitional nature of Acts with miracles to authenticate the message and the messengers, and the central message of Christ and His resurrection from the dead, there are several other themes running throughout Acts:

 The sovereignty of God in the founding of the church and the spread of the gospel. Clearly, God is at work and nothing can stop what He intends to do.

 The power of the Holy Spirit, given to all who believe in Jesus Christ.

 The importance of prayer in the life of the church.

 The importance of preaching God’s Word. Acts contains numerous sermons and speeches, including eight by Peter, nine by Paul, one lengthy sermon by Stephen, and a shorter one by James. The addresses by Peter, Paul, and Stephen make up about 25 percent of the book (John Stott, The Message of Acts [IVP], p. 69).

 The importance of mission to all peoples. This outward thrust of the gospel is the main story line of Acts. Acts shows us how to do evangelism and missions.

 The reality of opposition and suffering in the spread of the gospel. Clearly, although God is sovereignly at work and nothing can stop what He is doing, His servants often suffer greatly, even unto death, in the cause.

 The life and organization of the church. Acts gives us glimpses of early church life that show us how the church dealt with problems as it grew.

Outline: A simple outline of Acts is contained in Acts 1:8:

The witness in Jerusalem—primarily to Jews (1:1-8:3).
The witness in Judea and Samaria—including the first Gentiles (8:4-11:18).
The witness to the remotest parts of the earth—to the Jew first, but predominately to Gentiles (11:19-28:31).

With that as a brief introduction to the book, let’s look at the first two verses, which develop an important theme:

By the power of the Holy Spirit the church is obediently to continue to do and teach what Jesus began.

Luke’s words about his gospel, that it contained what Jesus began to do and teach, have the strong implication that His work is not done. He was taken up into heaven, but His work on earth did not cease. Rather, His body, the church, continues to do and teach what Jesus began. Jesus was God in human flesh, dwelling among us, showing us what the Father is like (John 1:14; 14:9-10). While Jesus was totally unique, perfect in all of His ways, we are given the daunting task of representing Jesus Christ to the world as His body. Ray Stedman makes the point that whether in the Gospels or in Acts, God uses incarnation—His life manifested through human life—as His strategy to change the world. The book of Acts, he says is the record “of men and women possessed by Jesus Christ and manifesting His life every day. Anytime you find a Christianity that is not doing this, it is a false Christianity” (Acts 1-12, Birth of the Body [Vision House], p. 14).

To understand what we are to do as His church, we must first understand what Jesus Christ began to do and teach:

1. Christ’s work was to bring salvation to a lost human race.

As I said, Jesus Christ was totally unique in all history, in that He alone was God dwelling in sinless human flesh. John makes this clear in the prologue of his gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14). Christ’s mission was to come to this earth to offer Himself as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). When on the cross, Jesus cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30), He had completed that work of redemption, offering Himself as the sacrifice for our sins. In all these matters, Jesus Christ was totally unique. No further offering for sin is needed. Christ is the sufficient sacrifice (Heb. 10:12).

Christ’s mission was to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). Jesus was always focused on the task of reconciling sinful men with the holy God. He did this through His life and deeds and through His teaching of God’s Word.

2. Christ’s work is to continue through His obedient church.

Before Jesus was taken up into heaven, He gave orders to His apostles. This can refer to all that He commanded them over the course of the three years that He taught them. But specifically it focuses on the final command, the Great Commission, to take the good news to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). As you read through the Book of Acts, it becomes obvious that the apostles and early church were not doing their own thing, formulating their own plans, and building their own empires. Rather, they were instruments through whom the Lord was working His purpose and plan.

When they choose a successor to Judas, it is the Lord who chooses (Acts 1:24). When Peter explains the phenomenon of tongues on the Day of Pentecost, he makes it clear that it was the risen Jesus who did it (2:33). When we read of the early church growing in number, it is stated, “The Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved” (2:47). When Peter and John healed the man by the temple gate, they make it clear that it is not them, but Jesus Christ the Nazarene who healed him (3:6; 4:10). When Saul of Tarsus is converted, it is plain that the Lord sovereignly saved him and sent Ananias to open his eyes (Acts 9:1-19). And so it goes throughout the Book of Acts. Men are merely the instruments; it is the Lord who is at work through them.

This same truth can also be seen in the way that the narrative of Acts picks up and then drops various men according to the degree which they are for the moment the instruments of Christ’s power. If Acts had been written solely by Luke (apart from the Holy Spirit), do you think that he would have said nothing about the majority of the twelve apostles, or that he would have treated his main characters as he did? Peter, the most prominent apostle, slips out of the narrative without a word after chapter 15. James, another of the inner circle with Jesus, is mentioned only in the list in 1:13, and then in one verse when he is martyred (12:2). John, the other inner circle apostle, is only referred to in the first four chapters, once in chapter 8, and then in reference to his brother’s martyrdom, and he passes from the scene in Acts. Barnabas, who pioneers the first Gentile church in Antioch and who goes with Paul on the first missionary journey, slips into oblivion after chapter 15. Even the great apostle Paul, who dominates the last half of the book, is left in the final chapter in Rome in prison, with no account of his subsequent work or martyrdom. (For the above two paragraphs, I am indebted to Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, Acts 1-12:17 [Baker], pp. 12-14.)

Students of the Book of Acts have puzzled over the somewhat abrupt ending. The narrative is sailing along, telling of Paul in prison in Rome, when suddenly it stops. The best explanation of this is that Luke intended for the book to be viewed as an unfinished story. The followers of Jesus throughout the centuries are writing the remainder of the book. As G. Campbell Morgan (The Acts of the Apostles [Revell], p. 11) observes:

When we come to the study of this book, therefore, we must understand that it is not a merely mechanical story of the journeyings of Paul, or of the doings of Peter. It is intended to reveal to us the processes through which Christ proceeds in new power, consequent upon the things He began to do and teach, toward the ultimate and final victory, which we see symbolized in the mystic language of Revelation.

What kind of men does Christ use in His work?

3. Christ’s work continues as He works through:

 Chosen men.

Luke begins by stating that Christ had chosen the apostles. He wants us to know that these men were not self-appointed leaders. They did not even volunteer for the job. Jesus Christ sovereignly chose them, first to salvation, and then to apostleship (the word “apostle” means “sent one”). They were men under authority, laboring as bondservants. They were not entrepreneurs, building their own empires. They did not make up or preach their own message. Rather, they were witnesses, relaying to others what they had seen and heard.

Throughout Acts, Luke puts a distinct emphasis on the sovereignty of God in the progress of the gospel. This is especially seen in the case of Paul’s dramatic conversion, which is told three times for emphasis (Acts 9, 22, 26). But we also see it in the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8), of Cornelius (Acts 10), where God “granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life” (11:18). In Acts 13:48, after Paul preached, “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” In Acts 16:14, it was the Lord who opened Lydia’s heart to respond to Paul’s message. In Acts 18:10, the Lord tells Paul to keep preaching in Corinth, and explains, “for I have many people in this city.”

When salvation is genuine, those who come to the Lord know and testify that it was not their decision that saved them. It was God who mightily saved them when they could not save themselves.

 Obedient men.

Christ gave the apostles orders by the Holy Spirit (1:2). Everything that Jesus did, He did in obedience to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. Even so, we are never to live under self-will, but only for God’s will. The Book of Acts makes it plain from early on that being obedient to God’s will engages us in God’s mission, and that this often brings us into persecution. Peter and John were arrested and warned against preaching the gospel. They continued preaching, leading to all of the apostles being arrested and warned. They responded, “We must obey God rather than men” (5:29). When they were beaten, they rejoiced that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for Christ’s name, and they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ (5:41-42).

The book goes on to tell of Stephen’s martyrdom and of the many trials that Paul and his companions suffered as they sought to take Christ to the nations. Paul told the young churches, “It is through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God” (14:22). But the suffering did not deter these men from obeying the orders that Christ had given them. So also should we be obedient to our Lord, no matter what the cost.

 Spirit-filled men.

The great difference between the disciples before the crucifixion and after the Day of Pentecost is clearly attributed to the Holy Spirit’s coming upon them. Before, they were confused, often self-seeking, doubting, and fearful. After, they were clear, self-denying, bold and confident. The difference was the fulness of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Since the Day of Pentecost, all believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:2-5). But, we must learn to walk daily in the Spirit’s power, not in the flesh (Gal. 5:16-23). We must be sure that we are clean vessels, fit for God to indwell and use. We must seek the Lord to fill us every day so that He can do His work through us.

 Men working together.

While the Book of Acts emphasizes the ministry of two great men, Peter and Paul, it shows clearly that these men were not one-man shows. They worked together with many others to do the Lord’s work. Luke lists over 100 personal names in Acts. He shows that God has an interest in individuals and that He works through bringing these individuals together into His church.

Furthermore, Acts shows us that God is no respecter of persons (10:34). He cares about people from every walk of life and every racial background. In Antioch, the church leaders consisted of a former Jewish priest (Barnabas, 5:36), a black man, a man from North Africa, a man brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and former Pharisee, Paul (13:1). A major theme in Acts is that the gospel is not just for the Jews, but for all people. It is to God’s glory to save men and women from diverse racial and social backgrounds and to bring them together to labor for His cause. There is no place in His church for racial discrimination.

 Men with confidence in the power of God’s Word.

Another major theme throughout Acts is the power of God’s Word. The church is to continue teaching as Jesus taught. In Luke, we saw the emphasis on the teaching ministry of Jesus. He believed in and powerfully taught God’s Word. God’s Word is the seed of the gospel that has within it the power to give life to dead sinners (Luke 8:11). The Book of Acts contains 40 references to God’s Word. The apostles did not want to be distracted with administrative duties; they declare their priority: “But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word” (6:4). Thus we read that “the word of God kept on spreading” (6:7). We are not committed to the ongoing work of Jesus unless we are committed to teaching and preaching God’s Word.

Conclusion

We should come away from our initial study with two great truths that should lead us to ask ourselves a basic question. First, Christianity is a faith rooted in history. We saw this in our initial study of Luke also. Christianity is not the religious speculations of a bunch of brilliant thinkers. Christianity is God’s revelation of Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. The apostles faithfully handed down to us what they had seen and heard concerning the life, death, resurrection, and teaching of Jesus Christ. Our faith is built on “the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20). Thus we can have confidence about our faith.

Second, God is at work in history through His church. While the life and ministry of Jesus Christ is the historical foundation of our faith, God didn’t just send Christ, pull Him off the planet, and stop working. Jesus began the work; His church continues it. That’s why He saved us and why He leaves us here on earth. This leads to a basic question that each of us needs to ask ourselves:

Am I committed to God’s work through His church? There are many that profess to know Jesus Christ as Savior, but if you examine their weekly schedules, they are living for themselves. I realize that most people are not going to be supported by their labors for the Lord. But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about a mindset, a basic focus in life. Do you see yourself primarily as the servant of Jesus Christ, fully committed and obedient to His cause? Ask any pastor in America and he will tell you that one great frustration in ministry is that only 20 percent of those who attend church are doing 80 percent of the work. If you are a Christian, serving the Lord in His cause through His church is not optional. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we as His church are obediently to continue to do and to teach what our Lord Jesus began.

Discussion Questions

Is every Christian to be an evangelist, or only those so gifted? What is the difference between giftedness and responsibility?
How can those in “secular” jobs be engaged in Christ’s kingdom? What does this look like in everyday terms?
How does a Christian walk in the Holy Spirit? What does this involve in practice?
Why is it crucial to see that our faith is rooted in history, not in religious speculation?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Lesson 4: The Meaning of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13)

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When the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles and the other believers on the Day of Pentecost, those who heard them speaking in tongues were perplexed and asked, “What does this mean?” (2:12). The question persists in our day. Many claim that the meaning of Pentecost is that we should have the same experience as the disciples, namely, that we are to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit and to speak in tongues. You have probably had other Christians ask you, as I have, “Have you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit?” If you have not spoken in tongues, they are eager to help you have this experience for yourself. We all need to answer biblically, in light of the context, What is the meaning of Pentecost?

Acts 2 must be interpreted in light of Acts 1:4-8, where the risen Lord Jesus instructed the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit. Jesus explained that they would “be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (1:5) and they would receive power to be Christ’s “witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (1:8). Just as the ministry of Jesus depended on the Holy Spirit descending on Him at His baptism, so the ministry of the disciples depended on them receiving the Holy Spirit and relying on His power. While they had experienced a measure of the Spirit’s power before (John 20:22), now He would come to dwell in them permanently (John 7:37-39; 14:17).

Thus Acts 2 must be interpreted as a special historical event, signifying a new period in God’s dealings with His people. Pentecost signals the dawning of the age of the Holy Spirit. And the fulness of the Spirit in God’s people is to empower them for witness to all the nations. Thus,

The meaning of Pentecost is God’s equipping His church with the power of His Spirit so that He will be glorified among the nations.

The point of Pentecost is mission, and the goal of mission is that “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14). If we properly understand this great historic event, our hearts will be enflamed with cause of seeing some from every tribe and tongue and nation bowing before the exalted Lord Jesus Christ. Note four things:

1. God’s plan for being glorified among the nations was to form the church.

To understand this event, we must understand the Jewish Feast of Pentecost. It was not by coincidence that God poured out His Spirit on the disciples on that day. There were three great Jewish feasts each year: Passover (in the spring), celebrating Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, followed immediately by the Feast of Unleavened Bread; Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks, which occurred 50 days (seven weeks) after Passover; and, Tabernacles (in the fall). Pentecost was an initial harvest feast, where the Jews were to offer to the Lord the first fruits of the new grain. Among other rituals, they were to wave before the Lord two loaves of wheat bread, made with leaven (Lev. 23:15-21).

This picture came to fulfillment in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Until this time, the Lord’s people consisted of Israel, along with a few Gentile proselytes. Not all in Israel were believers, but it was through that nation exclusively that God worked through His covenant promises to form a people for Himself. But now the Lord formed the body of Christ, the church, made up of Jews and Gentiles on equal footing. Paul calls this inclusion of the Gentiles in the church a mystery, meaning that it had not been formerly revealed (Eph. 3:4-7), although it was typified in this Jewish feast with two loaves. That these two loaves were made up of leavened bread pictures the fact that although we are redeemed in Christ, we are still sinners who must learn to get along with those who, in the flesh, are very different than we are.

You will recall that the Lord had told Peter that He would build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18). Thus the church, founded on the apostolic confession and witness of Christ, is God’s means of taking the gospel to the nations, resulting in His being glorified in all the earth.

We need to remember that our purpose as the Lord’s church is not to focus on ourselves and our own happiness. Our purpose is to spread the knowledge of God to all the nations, beginning here in our own “Jerusalem.” If we lose our outward focus, with the overall purpose of God’s glory, we have lost our reason for existence.

2. The scope of God’s plan is all the nations.

As I studied this portion of Acts, I wondered at first why Luke goes through this long, somewhat tedious list of nations (2:9-11). He starts east of Israel and ends up encircling the land. While most of the men mentioned were Jews (a few were Gentile proselytes), they are representative of the nations that the Lord wants to reach. The key to the list is in verse 5, that it represents “men from every nation under heaven.” They were devout men, meaning God-fearing, as is obvious from the fact that they had made this pilgrimage to Jerusalem for this feast. But they did not yet know that their Messiah had come and had been sacrificed. Peter will shortly explain all of that in his sermon.

This list of the nations reminds us of the list of nations in Genesis 10, which led to the building of the tower of Babel. God judged those proud men by confusing their languages. Here, by His grace, God turned this confusion of tongues into a miracle of miraculous speech, resulting in great blessing. The gift of speaking in tongues was a special miracle to demonstrate God’s purpose in taking the gospel to all the nations. It enabled the church to be launched in all of these places when these men returned to their homes. But since then, missionaries (even Pentecostal missionaries!) must struggle to learn the foreign languages in the places they go. Later in Acts (14:11-14), even Paul and Barnabas did not understand the Lycaonian dialect. They could only preach to the people in Greek, which almost everyone understood.

But the point is, God’s plan is no longer to be bottled up with the Jews. His good news is for all the nations. As John proclaims in Revelation 5:9, Jesus purchased for God with His blood “men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” We cannot rest until all the nations have heard the good news about Christ. But how can we possibly fulfill God’s plan?

3. The necessary power for fulfilling God’s plan is His Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is not just a force. He is the third person of the Trinity, God is every way. We know that He is a personal being in that He can be grieved (Eph. 4:30); you cannot grieve an impersonal force. Jesus calls Him the Paraclete, or Comforter. The word means, “one called alongside to help.” We know that He is God in that He performs deeds, such as creation, which only God can do. In Acts 5:3, Peter accuses Ananias of lying to the Holy Spirit and then adds, “You have not lied to men but to God” (5:5).

Before the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit regenerated men and empowered them for serving God. But He did not permanently indwell all believers (Ps. 51:11; Luke 11:13). In the Upper Room, Jesus had told the disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to be with them forever. He added, “You know Him because He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17). Thus on the Day of Pentecost, the disciples were baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5), in fulfillment of Jesus’ promise. In Acts 8, the Spirit was poured out on the Samaritans through the apostles, so that both they and the apostles would realize that they were now members of the same body of Christ. The same thing happened with the Gentiles in Acts 10 and with the followers of John’s baptism in Ephesus (Acts 19). These transitional outpourings of the Holy Spirit follow the pattern of Acts 1:8.

Once the transition was completed, all that believe in Christ receive the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation (Gal. 3:2-5). Paul states, “You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him” (Rom. 8:9).

We need to be careful to distinguish several terms that are often confused. In Acts 1:5, Jesus said that the apostles would be baptized by the Holy Spirit, which occurred on the Day of Pentecost. Baptism refers to being totally identified with the Spirit and to the initial reception of the Spirit. Paul tells the Corinthians, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). If the baptism of the Spirit were a special experience for the spiritually elite, Paul would not have said such a thing to the Corinthians, who were not noted for their spiritual maturity! The New Testament nowhere commands believers to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, since it is not an experience we are to seek, but God’s action performed on the believer at the moment of salvation.

We are, however, commanded to be filled with the Spirit, which means to be controlled by the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). The disciples on the Day of Pentecost were not only baptized with the Spirit. Also they all were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4). While the baptism of the Spirit is a one-time event, being filled with the Spirit happens repeatedly (see Acts 4:8, 31; 6:5; 7:55; 9:17; 13:9). To be filled with the Spirit, we must empty ourselves by confessing all known sin and by dying to self. We must yield ourselves fully to the Lord and depend on Him step by step (“walking in the Spirit,” Gal. 5:16). Being filled with the Spirit is also called (in a parallel passage) letting the word of Christ richly dwell in you (Col. 3:16; see Eph. 5:18 and context). Thus the filling of the Spirit cannot be divorced from God’s Word being at home in your heart. The results of a consistent daily walk in the Spirit will be the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) manifested in our lives and relationships (Eph. 5:19-6:9; Col. selves fully to the Lord and depend on Him step by step (“walking in the Spirit,” Gal. 5:16). Being filled with the Spirit is also called (in a parallel passage) letting the word of Christ richly dwell in you (Col. 3:16; see Eph. 5:18 and context). Thus the filling of the Spirit cannot be divorced from God’s Word being at home in your heart. The results of a consistent daily walk in the Spirit will be the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) manifested in our lives and relationships (Eph. 5:19-6:9; Col. 3:16-4:1).

This initial outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost was marked by three symbolic phenomena. First, there was the sound of a violent rushing wind that filled the house. Then, there was the visible sign of tongues of fire resting on each person. Finally, there was the miraculous speaking in foreign languages which none had previously learned.

The sound of the violent rushing wind was primarily a picture of invisible power. As you know, the wind, which you cannot see, exerts incredible power in a tornado or hurricane. In this case, the disciples heard the noise, but there is no indication that they felt it blowing. It was rather a miraculous sound that came from heaven. The noise was loud enough that it gathered the crowd to find out what was happening (1:6).

Both the Hebrew and Greek words for wind and spirit are the same. In Ezekiel 37, God commanded the prophet to prophesy to the winds to breathe on a valley of dry bones. When he did so, the breath of life came into them. God explains that He will put His Spirit within His people and they would come to life (Ezek. 37:9-14). In John 3, Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about the need to be born of the Spirit. He explained, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (3:8). The Holy Spirit, like the wind, is a mighty power, but we cannot see Him. We can only see His effects. One of His most powerful effects is when He imparts spiritual life to those who were dead in their sins.

The second phenomenon was the appearance of tongues of fire resting on each person in the room. Throughout the Bible, fire symbolizes God’s holy presence. Moses in the wilderness saw the bush that was burning and yet not consumed. God Himself was in the bush. Later, Israel in the wilderness was guided and protected by the pillar of fire. John the Baptist predicted that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Jesus said that He had come to cast fire upon the earth (Luke 12:49). The final place of judgment is the lake that burns with fire forever and ever. Hebrews 12:29 says that our God is a consuming fire.

Fire brings both heat and light. The heat of fire consumes the dross, purifying those who come in contact with it or destroying those who have no gold in them. The heat of fire also pictures the zeal that should mark believers, who are to be hot, not lukewarm, in their devotion to Christ (Rev. 3:15-16). The light pictures the illumination that God brings to those in spiritual darkness.

The fire on the Day of Pentecost appeared in the form of tongues to symbolize God’s holy power through the proclamation of His Word, burning into people in a way that purifies them. As Paul later stated, the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). That gospel must be verbally proclaimed for the power to come through.

Down through church history, the sovereign Spirit has moved unseen as the wind, where He wills, to bring revival. Invariably, it starts with the church, purifying God’s people, igniting their cold hearts with a renewed passion for knowing God and burning off the dross of the world that had contaminated them. Through them, it spreads as the gospel is proclaimed and the Spirit imparts new life in Christ to dead sinners. Through His mighty Holy Spirit, God does what no humanly orchestrated “revival” could ever do. He brings lasting change by regenerating and purifying dead sinners so that He is glorified as people recognize His mighty deeds. Such revival is clearly a sovereign act of God, not the result of any human effort or planning. We should be praying that God would graciously send such a revival on our land!

Before we leave the subject of the power of the Holy Spirit, let me briefly deal with the question, “Should we seek to speak in tongues?” Some argue that the sign of being baptized with the Spirit is speaking in tongues and that if you have not done that, you are lacking a vital spiritual experience. This is a controversial subject; if you disagree with me, please try to set aside your emotions and reason with me from Scripture. As I said, there is no command to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit, although we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. The main evidence of being filled with the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit, which is godly character (Gal. 5:16-23; Col. 1:9-12).

First, we need to be clear that the genuine gift of tongues is the ability to speak a foreign language that you have not studied. It is not, either in Acts or in 1 Corinthians, to speak “ecstatic utterances,” which is a nice term for gibberish. In Acts the disciples were speaking languages which the native speakers could understand, but which the disciples had never learned. In 1 Corinthians, the tongues needed interpretation because native speakers were not present. But you cannot interpret nonsense syllables; you can only interpret language that has fixed, objective meaning behind the sounds that are uttered. This criterion alone invalidates 99 percent of what is called speaking in tongues in our day.

Secondly, we are never commanded or encouraged to seek the gift of tongues. Rather, the Holy Spirit sovereignly distributes gifts as He wills (1 Cor. 12:11). When Paul says to earnestly desire the greater gifts (1 Cor. 12:31), he is talking to the church as a body, not to individuals. He means that the church should seek gifts that build up the body, not those, such as tongues, that may edify the individual.

Also, the miraculous gifts were given to the church during the early period to confirm the apostolic witness, but they faded as time went on. The author of Hebrews wrote to a second generation of Jewish Christians. He tells them how the word of the Lord was confirmed by the apostles through various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will (Heb. 2:3-4). If these gifts were present in the churches at the time he was writing, he would not have needed to refer to them as a thing of the past. Their purpose had been to confirm the apostolic message. After that purpose was fulfilled, they passed off the scene.

Finally, as I hope you can see from the context of Acts 2, the meaning of Pentecost was not to encourage believers to have an ecstatic experience for their own edification. The meaning of Pentecost was that God gave the Holy Spirit to His church so that they would bear witness to the nations for His glory.

4. The goal of God’s plan is that He will be glorified among the nations.

These Jews from all of these nations heard the disciples “speaking of the mighty deeds of God” (2:11). Peter will shortly preach the gospel, leading to the conversion of 3,000 souls. But the goal of the gospel is the glory of God. As John Piper has put it, “The reason missions exists is because worship does not.” In Revelation 5, John has a vision of the nations worshiping before God’s throne. That should be our vision as well.

Note that not all responded positively, even though this was a “Class A” miracle. Even miracles will not convince mockers, who do not want to submit their lives to the Sovereign God. The Book of Acts is a record not only of might conversions, but also of fierce opposition to the preaching of the gospel. We should expect the same response. But we know that our God will triumph, that every knee will someday bow to Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9-11).

Conclusion

Last Sunday, Marla and I listened to a powerful sermon by John Piper, which he gave to 50,000 college students. He began by telling of two elderly women who had given their “retirement” years to go to Cameroon for the sake of the gospel. They had been killed when their brakes gave out and their car plunged over a cliff. He asked, “Was that a tragedy?” He answered, “No, that wasn’t a tragedy. Let me tell you about a tragedy.” He cited a Reader’s Digest article about how many Americans are taking early retirement so that they can pursue their own pleasure. One couple had bought a yacht and spent their time sailing off the coast of Florida, collecting seashells. Piper said, “Now, that’s a tragedy!” Can you imagine this couple standing before God at the judgment and saying, “Here’s our seashell collection, Lord”?

God’s purpose at Pentecost was to equip His church with the mighty power of the Holy Spirit so that we would be His witnesses to all the nations, resulting in His eternal glory. I want you to ask yourself these questions as you think about this purpose:

(1) *Is my focus on God’s glory in all things? Did I even think about that as I went through my week? Did it determine how I resisted temptation or how I spoke to others?

(2) *Is my passion that the nations would glorify God through the gospel? If my heart is not on world missions, it is not in tune with God’s heart.

(3) *Is my daily life consciously dependent on the Holy Spirit? Would I have missed Him if He had withdrawn from me this past week? Do I lean on Him for purity of life and power to obey God?

(4) *Is my daily desire to bear witness of Christ to those who are lost and perishing? The power of the Spirit isn’t given just to make me happy. It is given to make me holy so that my life and my words bring glory to God as I bear witness to His saving grace. That should be the meaning of Pentecost for you and me.

Discussion Questions

Does being a missionary require a special calling from God?
How can a believer be filled with the Spirit? Give biblical support.
How can a believer develop a passion for God’s glory?
Is it wrong to seek to speak in tongues? Give biblical support.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Lesson 5: The Sermon that Launched the Church (Acts 2:14-41)

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I have read that the number one fear that people have is the fear of speaking in public. It ranks ahead of the fear of death! The fear of speaking in public would increase if a person knew that he would be speaking to a hostile audience. Add to that the fact that the audience is not just a small group, but at least five to ten thousand hostile people, and you must address them without a public address system! To make matters worse, you have made a fool out of yourself just weeks before in such a manner that many in your audience would have heard about it. And, you have no time to prepare your message. The opportunity presents itself and you’re on—without any notes!

Such was the situation facing Peter on the Day of Pentecost. The sound of the rushing wind from heaven had drawn a large crowd, which then heard all the believers speaking of the great deeds of God in the many different native languages of the crowd. This perplexed them as they asked, “What does this mean?” (2:12). But others in the crowd were mocking and accusing the believers of being drunk. It was to this Jewish crowd in the city of Jerusalem, where Jesus had been killed just over seven weeks ago, that Peter delivered the sermon that launched the church. In terms of results—about 3,000 got saved that day—it was one of the greatest sermons ever preached.

Luke here only gives us the gist of that great sermon (2:40). But even so, there is far more here than I can deal with in the time allotted to me. Thus I plan to give an overview of the whole sermon today and then go back in future weeks and look more in depth at certain parts of it. I want to walk you through this sermon, explaining the flow of thought so that you grasp Peter’s method and argument. Even though you may never be called on to preach to a crowd, you will have opportunities to bear witness for Christ. Studying Peter’s sermon can help you be ready.

Peter begins (2:14-21) with the questions that the crowd was asking about the phenomena of Pentecost, linking what they saw and heard to the prophecy of Joel 2:28-32. He then (2:22-36) rather abruptly shifts to the person of Jesus, arguing as his bottom line that God authenticated Jesus as Lord and Christ, “this Jesus whom you crucified” (2:36). But he builds his argument inductively (a good method with hostile audiences), building his case point by point, but not giving the main point until last. When his audience responds with conviction of sin, asking, “What shall we do?” Peter tells them to repent and be baptized, and 3,000 did so. Let’s work through his sermon in more detail:

1. Joel prophesied about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that you have just witnessed (2:14-21).

Notice that twice Peter appeals to his audience to listen carefully to his words (2:14, 22). No matter how dynamic or dull the speaker may be, the audience has a responsibility to listen carefully. Even the Lord Jesus, the most gifted speaker in history, exhorted His audiences to take care how they listened (Luke 8:18). In other words, the responsibility for a good sermon lies not only with the preacher, but also with the hearers. We should always ask God to give us ears to hear what He wants to say to us through His Word.

Peter begins with a touch of humor. Some mockers were accusing the believers who spoke in tongues of being drunk. Peter could have ignored them or responded defensively, but instead he says, in effect, “It’s too early for us to be drunk!” The Jews would not normally have eaten or drunk at this hour during the Feast of Pentecost. Often, a touch of humor can disarm your critics long enough to gain a hearing. If you are called on to preach, your introduction should grab the attention of the audience and make them want to hear the rest of what you have to say.

Then, Peter explains that the phenomena they had seen and heard were “what was spoken of through the prophet Joel” (2:16). He proceeds to quote, with a few minor variations, Joel 2:28-32. Later Peter will cite Psalm 16:8-11 and Psalm 110:1. He did not have a Bible in book form, since books as we know them were not yet invented. And he did not unroll several scrolls to the right text so that he could read these verses. Rather, he recited them from memory! If you want to be an effective witness for Jesus Christ, you must memorize certain Scriptures that explain the gospel. You will not always have a Bible handy to look up the verses.

Peter’s citation of Joel makes three points:

A. In the last days, God will pour forth of His Spirit on all flesh (2:17-18).

Joel’s prophecy actually says, “after this,” but Peter changes it to “the last days.” The time from Jesus’ first coming until His second coming can all be referred to as the last days. The apostles did not know that it would stretch out to 2,000 years. But as Paul put it, we are the ones “upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11). Peter warned “that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?’” (2 Pet. 3:3-4). He goes on to say that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. But Peter’s citation of Joel is simply making the point, we are now in the end times when this prophecy will be fulfilled.

Peter’s use of Joel is in line with what biblical scholars have identified from the Dead Sea Scrolls as a typical form of Hebrew teaching, called a “pesher” (from the Hebrew word for “interpretation”). “It lays all emphasis on fulfillment without attempting to exegete the details of the biblical prophecy it ‘interprets’” (Richard Longenecker, Expositor’s Bible Commentary [Zondervan], 9:275). Thus Peter never specifically shows how prophecy, visions, and dreams are identified with the phenomenon of speaking in tongues that everyone had heard. But he seems to use this passage since it is “the nearest equivalent to tongues in Old Testament phraseology” (I. Howard Marshall, Acts [IVP/Eerdmans], p. 73).

Peter’s main point is not the particular form that the outpouring of the Spirit took, but rather that He was poured out “on all flesh.” Not just the prophets or rabbis, but even sons and daughters would experience this outpouring of the Spirit (2:17). Not just the older men, but also younger men would know the Lord and His will (“visions”). Not just the wealthy, but even bondslaves would know the fulness of the Spirit. Not just men, but also women would have the Spirit. As the apostle Paul later taught, “by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). No believer today lacks the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

B. This outpouring of the Spirit will be followed by a time of terrible judgment (2:19-20).

Peter did not know how soon these judgments would take place (since Joel does not indicate such). He was not claiming that they had been fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost; rather, he is saying that these things would precede “the great and glorious day of the Lord.” Since the prophecy had begun to be fulfilled, as evidenced by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it is reasonable to assume that the rest will come to pass in due time.

Some relate these signs in the heavens back to the darkening of the sky on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion, understanding them “as tokens of the advent of the day of the Lord” (F. F. Bruce, The Book of Acts [Eerdmans], p. 69). Others interpret these signs as symbols for any cataclysmic judgments, whether volcanoes, earthquakes, fires, or whatever. I might grant that there may have been an initial, symbolic fulfillment when Titus destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70. But Revelation 6:12 predicts these same signs when the Lamb breaks the sixth seal during the Great Tribulation. Thus the literal fulfillment still awaits that time just prior to the return of Christ when He will judge the whole world.

Peter’s point is that the outpouring of the Spirit predicted by Joel has happened. The Messianic age has begun. Can God’s awful judgment predicted in the same passage be far behind? Then Joel offers good news:

C. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (2:21).

Here is the great mercy of our God! He offers to those who deserve His judgment a means of escape. Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Up to this point, Peter has been rather generic. He has linked the phenomena of Pentecost to Joel’s prophecy about the outpouring of God’s Spirit in the last days. This hints that the day of Messiah has dawned, inaugurating the last days, but he hasn’t yet said that clearly. He has also brought up the subject of God’s judgment at the final Day of the Lord, but he hasn’t stated yet that his audience (good religious Jews) needs to fear that judgment. And he has set forth the offer of God’s mercy for anyone who will take it. But now he shifts from preaching to meddling! He gets specific about just who this Lord is that a person must call upon to be saved. He shows them that they had crucified their Messiah!

2. God authenticated Jesus as both Lord and Christ (2:22-36).

Although he doesn’t state the punch line until verse 36, Peter shows four ways that God authenticated Jesus as Lord and Christ:

A. God authenticated Jesus as Lord and Christ through His miracles (2:22).

Even Jesus’ enemies had to admit the fact of His miracles (although some attributed them to Satan’s power; Luke 11:15). But most people acknowledged, as Nicodemus did, that “no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (John 3:2). Peter reminds his audience that Jesus had done many such miracles in their midst, and they knew it.

While many in our day deny that miracles can occur, they are basing their denials on the assumption that God does not exist, contrary to much evidence in creation. In the mornings National Public Radio has a program called “The Pulse of the Planet,” which is totally naturalistic and evolutionary. Ironically, their motto is that they are bringing you “the miracles of science.” I would like to ask them, “How does science perform miracles?” What they are presenting are the miracles of God as seen in His creation! The miracles that Jesus did, attested by many eyewitnesses, including His enemies (John 11:47), authenticate Him as Lord and Christ.

B. God authenticated Jesus as Lord and Christ through His death (2:23).

Here Peter stomps on some toes: “This man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.” Jesus’ death at first glance may have seemed like something that invalidated His messianic claims. But Peter shows that Jesus was not killed because He was a victim of His enemies. He was killed because God predetermined before the world began that Jesus would die as the Savior of His people. Isaiah 53:10 prophesied, “But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief.” And so rather than invalidating Jesus as Lord and Messiah, His death actually validated Him, since it was a fulfillment of God’s eternal decree.

Does this mean that since God determined it, men are not responsible? No, Peter says, “you nailed [Him] to a cross by the hands of lawless [lit.] men [the Romans] and put Him to death.” Without violating their will, God used evil men to accomplish His eternal purpose, but those evil men were responsible for their crime. No one can blame God for his own sin.

C. God authenticated Jesus as Lord and Christ through His resurrection (2:24-32).

After spending one verse each on Jesus’ life and death, Peter spends nine verses on His resurrection, which is the main theme of the apostolic preaching in Acts. Note the implicit contrast between “you put Him to death. But God raised Him up again” (2:23-24). In other words, they were guilty of opposing God!

Peter cites Psalm 16:8-11 to show an Old Testament prediction of the resurrection. In that psalm, David declares that God will not abandon his soul to Hades nor allow His holy one to undergo decay. But, Peter argues, David both died and was buried, and his tomb was right there in Jerusalem. In other words, David’s body did undergo decay. Therefore, David as a prophet knew that God had promised to seat one of his descendants on his throne, and so he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of Christ. Peter identifies Jesus as the Messiah when he confidently states, “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses” (2:32). Perhaps the other eleven standing with Peter nodded in affirmation.

Thus Jesus’ miracles, death and resurrection all authenticate Him as both Lord and Christ. But there is a final evidence:

D. God authenticated Jesus as Lord and Christ through His exaltation and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (2:33-36).

Peter states that the ascended, exalted Jesus was the one who had sent the Holy Spirit as evidenced by the miracle of everyone speaking in foreign languages. Again, he cites David: “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’” (Ps. 110:1). Since David is not seated at God’s right hand, this must refer to Messiah. A not-so-subtle implication is that the enemies of Messiah are those who crucified Him! Then Peter comes to his punch line (2:36): “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”

3. The crowd’s response and Peter’s application (2:37-41).

A. The crowd responds with conviction (2:37).

Their address, “brethren,” shows that their hearts had been softened. To be “pierced to the heart” shows their feelings of deep anguish as they realized that they were guilty of killing their own Messiah. The Holy Spirit stabbed them with conviction of their terrible sin. C. H. Spurgeon said, “It is idle to attempt to heal those who are not wounded, to attempt to clothe those who have never been stripped, and to make those rich who have never realized their poverty” (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit [Ages Software], vol. 44, “A Far Reaching Promise”). The conviction of sin is often the missing note in our evangelistic efforts. We are too quick in trying to heal people who do not realize that they are mortally ill. We need to use God’s holy law to show sinners their desperate condition. Only after they feel that should we apply the promise of God’s grace in the gospel.

B. Peter applies the message: Repentance, baptism, and promise (2:38-40).

First Peter calls upon them to repent. There are many in our day who argue that repentance has no place in salvation; rather, all a person must do is believe in Christ. Repentance, they say, comes later. If so, Peter botched the gospel! The fact is, repentance and faith are flip sides of the same coin. You cannot have true saving faith without repentance. Others minimize the definition of repentance, saying that it means simply to change your mind about who Jesus is. Certainly it includes that, but it is more than that. I. Howard Marshall writes, “The word indicates a change of direction in a person’s life rather than simply a mental change of attitude or a feeling of remorse; it signifies a turning away from a sinful and godless way of life” (ibid., p. 80). Faith in Jesus Christ is implicit in repentance, as it also is in Peter’s next word.

“Each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” Peter is calling them to an individual response. Salvation always is a personal transaction, not a group plan. As with John the Baptist’s ministry, he links repentance, baptism, and forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:4). Baptism is never just an outward ritual, but rather is a public confession of one’s private faith in and commitment to Jesus Christ.

Those who argue that you must be baptized to be saved use this verse as their proof text. But they ignore both the context of this verse and the overwhelming testimony of Scripture, that salvation is by grace through faith, and that good works (such as baptism) are the result of salvation (Eph. 2:8-10). Granted, the notion of an unbaptized believer was foreign to the apostles, since it was assumed that saving faith would result in prompt obedience to Jesus Christ. But, in the next chapter (3:19), Peter calls his audience to repent “so that your sins may be wiped away,” but he never mentions baptism. When Peter called upon these people to be baptized, he was calling them to make a radical break with their culture and religion that had crucified the Messiah, and to be publicly identified with Jesus Christ. This outward symbol would prove the reality of their inward repentance and faith, and the fact that God had forgiven their sins.

Then, Peter proclaims God’s promise, that they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (i.e., the Holy Spirit Himself is the gift). When they repented and trusted in Christ, the Holy Spirit was a part of God’s gift of salvation. Peter extends the promise beyond them to their children and beyond them to those who are far off, “as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” While salvation, on the one hand, requires that a person call on the name of the Lord (2:21), on the other hand no one calls on the Lord unless the Lord first calls him to Himself (2:39). Although Peter may not yet have understood it, those who are far off no doubt referred to the Gentiles. Luke summarizes Peter’s further exhortations with, “Be saved from this perverse generation” (2:40). Salvation always demands a radical break from our wicked culture.

C. The result: 3,000 souls saved (2:41).

Much modern evangelism tries to make becoming a Christian as easy as possible. We dodge the issue of sin. We don’t talk about the cost of discipleship. We wouldn’t dare call on people to make a radical break with their culture. But Peter called them to repentance and baptism. For a Jew to be baptized was a traumatic thing. They generally looked on baptism as a rite for Gentile converts or for notorious sinners, not for “good” Jews (Longenecker, p. 286). But Peter preached boldly, God worked inwardly, and the church was launched, 3,000 strong! Peter’s message in a nutshell was:

Since God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ who will judge the world, sinners must repent.

Conclusion

Years ago I was reading Charles Simeon, a great Anglican preacher from the early 19th century. He stated that he had three aims in his preaching: to exalt the Savior, to humble the sinner, and to promote holiness. I thought that those were clear, godly aims, and so in a sermon, I shared that those were my aims, also. I was somewhat startled when a woman who had been on staff for 25 years with a Christian evangelistic organization came up to me and said, “I don’t agree with those aims. We don’t need to be humbled. We need to hear more how we are made in the image of God.”

Her comment reflects the man-centered focus of much modern evangelism. But the point of biblical evangelism is not to make people feel good about who they are or to feel that God loves them just as they are. Rather, it is to show them who Jesus Christ truly is, the Lord of the universe, the Christ of God who offered Himself for our sins and who was raised from the dead. It should show them who they are, sinners who crucified the Son of God, who are in danger of His impending judgment. It should show them God’s great mercy, that if they will repent and call on the name of the Lord, He will save them from His judgment. It should show them the need to live in obedience to Him, no matter what the cost.

Discussion Questions

Agree/disagree: Modern evangelism is too man-centered.
How can we get religious, “good” people to feel the conviction of their sins? (See Gal. 3:24; 1 Tim. 1:8-11; Matt. 5:21-48).
Why is repentance inseparable from true saving faith?
Can a person accept Jesus as Savior without accepting Him as Lord?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Related Topics: Christology, Soteriology (Salvation)

Lesson 7: A Life of Joy and Gladness (Acts 2:25-28)

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Everyone wants to be happy. The Rolling Stones complained years ago that they couldn’t get any satisfaction, but clearly satisfaction was their goal. Sixteen centuries ago, Augustine observed, “I am not alone in this desire [for happiness], nor are there only a few who share it with me: without exception we all long for happiness… They may all search for it in different ways, but all try their hardest to reach the same goal, that is, joy” (Confessions, X, 21, cited by John Piper, The Legacy of Sovereign Joy [Crossway Books], p. 70).

Probably you could explain all human behavior as a search for joy or happiness or satisfaction, although most search in the wrong place. People get married and pursue a certain career because they hope to find happiness through these things. They divorce and change careers for the same reason. People commit sexual immorality because they think that it will bring them happiness. They steal because they think that having material possessions will satisfy. Murderers kill because they think that they will be happier if they get rid of an enemy or take what belongs to the other person. Even suicidal people hope that death will bring relief from their problems.

One of Satan’s most successful lies is that God is a cosmic killjoy who wants everyone to be miserable. People view God as a great sadist in the sky, who gets perverse delight in making His creatures miserable.

But even a casual reading of the Bible reveals that, to the contrary, God is a being who has great joy and that everyone who comes to know Him enters into the only true and lasting joy possible. The Psalms overflow with joy and gladness. Jesus told the disciples that He spoke to them so that His joy would be in them and their joy would be made full (John 15:11). The fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in the believer is first love, then joy (Gal. 5:22). God has promised eternal, lasting joy for us in heaven (Rev. 21:4). The Puritans had it right when they said, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” So, rather than discouraging us from seeking joy and gladness, the Bible rather exhorts us to seek it, but to seek it in the right place. God Himself is the source of all joy and gladness. If we seek joy in God, we will find eternal satisfaction.

In his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, Peter cited Psalm 16:8-11, and applied it to Jesus Christ (“for David says of Him,” Acts 2:25). Peter is arguing that this psalm, in which the author says that God will not allow his body to undergo decay, did not ultimately apply to David, whose body did undergo decay. Rather, as a prophet, David was writing about his descendant, Jesus the Messiah, whom God raised from the dead. Thus while on one level the psalm applied to David, on another level it applies only to Christ.

What I want you to see is that the subject of the psalm, Jesus Christ, was full of joy and gladness. He says, “My heart was glad and my tongue exulted; moreover my flesh also will abide in hope” (2:25). “You will make me full of gladness with Your presence” (2:28). Peter left off the final line of the psalm, which reinforces the theme, “In Your right hand there are pleasures forever” (Ps. 16:11). Since Jesus was full of God’s joy and gladness, if we are growing to be like Christ, we will be growing in God’s joy and gladness. Our text teaches us that …

God wants us to be growing in His joy and gladness.

While true joy and gladness come from God, our text breaks it into three sources: Joy and gladness come from knowing God’s presence; from being conformed to God’s holiness; and, from the hope of God’s raising our bodies so that we can eternally dwell with Him.

1. Joy and gladness come from continually knowing God’s presence.

“For David says of Him [Jesus], ‘I saw the Lord always in my presence; for He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken’” (2:25). Peter is citing the Greek translation of Psalm 16. The Hebrew reads, “I have set the Lord continually before me.” It implies a deliberate action. To have the Lord at one’s right hand signifies protection. Advocates would sit to the right of their clients to defend them in court (R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles [Augsburg], p. 86). Bodyguards would stand on the right side so they could cover the person they were protecting with their shields and still have their right arm free to fight (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Acts 1-12 [Moody Press], p. 65). Jesus had God’s joy and gladness because He continually knew God’s presence. But before we go further, we need to define the terms “joy and gladness.” The best way to understand it is:

A. Joy and gladness are exemplified in Jesus.

At first you may think it strange to lift up Jesus as the great example of joy and gladness since He was known as a man of sorrows who bore our grief (Isa. 53:4). It is ironic and instructive that the shortest verse in the English Bible is John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” But the shortest verse in the Greek New Testament is 1 Thessalonians 5:16, “Rejoice always.” The two verses are not contradictory. Biblical joy and gladness do not deny sorrow and grief. In the garden, Jesus told the disciples that His soul was deeply grieved to the point of death (Mark 14:34). Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross. The cross itself was not joyful, but there was great joy ahead. Thus, biblical joy and gladness are the deep undercurrent or foundation in God that sustain the believer in and through times of sorrow and grief.

On my 36th birthday, I had to conduct the funeral of a 39-year-old man who had died of cancer. After the service, I was consoling the widow, who was weeping, when her former pastor bounced up with a big smile and said, “Praise the Lord! Scott’s in glory now!” I wanted to pop him in the mouth! What he said was true, but he was denying the biblical command to weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15). Biblical joy and gladness are not a superficial happy face that we paint over deep sorrow. Rather, they are the foundation that comes from knowing that our sovereign God works all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).

I am saying that if we want a picture of biblical joy and gladness, we should look at the life of Jesus Christ. Though He went through times of great difficulty and sorrow, especially as He bore our sins on the cross, He also had times of great joy and gladness. The word gladness is used in Luke 15:32, where the father of the prodigal son explains to his complaining older son, “We had to be merry and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.” Throughout that chapter, Jesus emphasized the great joy in heaven when a single sinner repents (Luke 15:5-7, 9-10, 23-24, 32). On another occasion, Jesus rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit over God’s sovereign grace in the lives of the apostles (Luke 10:21-22). The word used there is the same word in our text translated “exulted.”

Jesus told the disciples that He wanted His joy to be made full in them (John 15:11; 17:13). Although He acknowledged that they would be sorrowful when He was crucified, He also promised that when they saw Him alive again, they would rejoice, and no one could take that joy away from them (John 16:20, 22). Thus biblical joy does not deny times of sorrow and grief. But it does overcome such times because it rests on the sovereign God and His certain promises to every believer. I like the way John Newton, in his hymn, “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken,” called our legacy, “solid joys and lasting treasure.”

What was the source of Jesus’ abiding joy?

B. Joy and gladness result from continually cultivating God’s presence in our lives.

David says of Jesus, “I saw the Lord always in my presence; for He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken” (2:25). Jesus lived each moment aware of the Father’s presence. He never had a second when He lived unto Himself. The only time He did not know the Father’s presence was that awful moment on the cross when He cried, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Jesus always lived in God’s presence.

That is the key to joy and gladness, daily to cultivate a sense of God’s presence. Then, even if we go through trials, we will not lose our joy, because God is with us. Jonathan Edwards expressed it well in a sermon, “God the Best Portion of the Christian” (The Works of Jonathan Edwards [Banner of Truth], 2:106):

Hence we may learn, that whatever changes a godly man passes through, he is happy; because God, who is unchangeable, is his chosen portion. Though he meet with temporal losses, and be deprived of many, yea, of all his temporal enjoyments; yet God, whom he prefers before all, still remains, and cannot be lost. While he stays in this changeable, troublesome world, he is happy; because his chosen portion, on which he builds as his main foundation for happiness, is above the world, and above all changes. And when he goes into another world, still he is happy, because that portion yet remains.… But how great is the happiness of those who have chosen the Fountain of all good, who prefer him before all things in heaven or on earth, and who can never be deprived of him to all eternity!

We all face the danger of enjoying God’s gifts, but not loving Him as the One who gave these gifts to us. Augustine used the illustration of a man who made a ring for his bride-to-be, but she loved the ring more than her betrothed who made it for her. Certainly she should love the gift. But what would we think if she said, “The ring is enough. I do not want to see his face again”? Augustine concludes, “God, then has given you all these things. Love Him who made them” (cited by Piper, Sovereign Joy, p. 71).

As we go through our day, we should see God’s hand in every situation. Every trial He brings lovingly to shape us into the image of Jesus Christ. Every blessing He graciously gives to show us His great love. Every delight to our senses, whether the taste of food or the beauty of creation or the sounds of birds chirping, should cause us to rejoice in the presence of our God.

While I often fall far short of experiencing God’s constant presence in my life, I can offer three things that will help you move in the right direction:

First, spend time often with God in His Word and in prayer. Even if it’s a short time, get up early enough to meet with God before you head out the door. The godly George Muller used to say that “the chief business of every day is first of all to seek to be truly at rest and happy in God” (A. T. Pierson, George Muller of Bristol [Revell], p. 257; see also pp. 314-315). Memorize His Word and meditate on it throughout your day.

Second, relate everything, even little events, in your day to God’s providence. Everything is from His loving hand. Nothing happens by chance. As the hymn writer put it, “Every joy or trial falleth from above, traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love” (Francis Havergal, “Like a River Glorious”).

Third, take time often to enjoy God in His creation. I don’t know what people do who live in a place like New York City, where there are few opportunities to get out in God’s creation! I often sense God’s presence and am caught up in worship as I enjoy what God has made. A year or two ago, Marla and I were hiking in Weatherford Canyon on a fall day. The trail leads you into a dense aspen grove, where the trees are so thick, you feel as if you’re walking into a building. There was a yellow canopy overhead and a yellow floor beneath. It was snowing lightly, with big flakes floating down through the trees. If you can’t sense God’s presence and glory at a time like that, you may not know God!

Thus Jesus shows us that the first way to know joy and gladness is continually to know God’s presence.

2. Joy and gladness come from being conformed to God’s holiness.

Jesus is here called God’s “Holy One.” He was without sin, as even His enemies had to admit (John 8:46). Hebrews 1:9 says of Jesus, “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions.” Note how righteousness and gladness go together.

Again, Satan perpetrates a great lie. He makes us think that real happiness is found in sin, whereas holiness is a dull, wearisome matter. But God’s Word teaches that holiness and happiness are inextricably bound together. Sin may give momentary pleasures, but it always wreaks destruction and death.

Clearly, a person living in sin could not be happy in God’s holy presence. Men love darkness and want to hide from the God who is light, because their deeds are evil (John 3:19-21). When Jonah disobeyed God, he tried to run from God’s presence (Jonah 1:3, 10). So the only way to know the joy and gladness that come from God’s presence is to know that your sins are forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ and to be walking in obedience to Him, beginning on the thought level.

In our text, the Lord Jesus prays, “You have made known to me the ways of life” (Acts 2:28). This refers to God’s paths of righteousness that lead to true life—eternal life—that begins now. The one who lives for sinful desires is on the way that leads to destruction and death. The one who puts to death the sinful deeds of the flesh knows God’s ways of life (Rom. 8:13).

In his excellent book, The Legacy of Sovereign Joy, John Piper observes (p. 146),

The battle to be holy—the battle for sanctification—is a battle fought at the level of what we love, what we cherish and treasure and delight in.

To be sure there is real self-denial and real discipline and gouging out of the eye and cutting off of the hand—a spiritual severity of warfare that many have not attained. But it must be said—and let the apostle say it with all authority—that the secret beneath this severe discipline, the secret to severing all else as rubbish, is to savor Christ as gain (Philippians 3:8).

The battle for holiness is a battle to be fought mainly by fueling the fires of our passion for Christ. Sanctification is the triumph of “sovereign joy.”

When David sinned with Bathsheba, he was miserable until he confessed his sins and prayed, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation” (Ps. 51:12). If you lack God’s joy, examine your heart and make sure that you are not entertaining any known sin. Confess and forsake it and with David entreat God to restore to you the joy of His salvation. True joy and gladness come only as we continually know God’s presence and walk in His paths of holiness.

3. Joy and gladness come from the certain hope of God’s raising our bodies so that we can eternally dwell with Him.

The joy of Jesus in this psalm is the joy of knowing that God would raise Him from the dead before His body would undergo decay. We can rejoice because we have the certain hope that because Jesus was raised, even so we will be raised when He returns (1 Cor. 15). The instant we die, our soul goes to be with Jesus in heaven (2 Cor. 5:8). But our bodies await that great moment when “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

All of the blessings that God gives us in this life are just samples to whet our appetites for the eternal blessings that we will enjoy in His presence in heaven. Do you like to eat? Heaven is pictured as a great banquet. Do you like to rest from hard work? Heaven, as Richard Baxter put it, is the place of “the saints’ everlasting rest.” Do you enjoy your relationship with your mate? I used to be bothered by Jesus’ words, that there will be no marriage in heaven. I’ve said to Marla, “How can it be heaven if I can’t be married to you?” But then it dawned on me, that my earthly marriage is just a dim picture of the eternal joy that I will have when I am united with my heavenly Bridegroom forever.

Jesus says that His flesh will abide in hope (2:26). The literal meaning of “abide” is “to put down a tent.” The idea is that as long as we’re in this body, we will hope in God and the promise of the resurrection. But like a tent, our hope is temporary, until the resurrection, when we no longer need to hope because the promise is realized (Rom. 8:24-25).

Don’t miss the application: As the Lord’s people, we should be filled with the certain hope of His coming and the resurrection of our bodies, when we shall dwell with Him eternally. Such hope will fill us with joy and gladness. Only when you’re ready to die are you ready to live. You can have true joy in this life only when you know that you will have eternal joy in the next life, after death.

And the psalmist isn’t just talking about a trickle of joy and gladness in this life. He says, “You will make me full of gladness in Your presence” (2:28). Don’t rest until the Lord fills you with His joy and gladness. Of course, we won’t be totally full of His joy until we’re with Him in heaven. But we should seek Him continually, not settling for a trickle of joy, but asking Him for the fulness of His joy that comes with our salvation.

Conclusion

In a sermon, “The Christian Pilgrim” (Works, 2:244), Jonathan Edwards has a paragraph that I often have thought about, because it jars me as I see how far short I fall of Edwards’ knowledge of God:

God is the highest good of the reasonable creature; and the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the fountain. These are but drops; but God is the ocean. Therefore it becomes us to spend this life only as a journey towards heaven, as it becomes us to make the seeking of our highest end and proper good, the whole work of our lives; to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. Why should we labor for, or set our hearts on, any thing else, but that which is our proper end, and true happiness?

God desires that you be full of joy and gladness. You will find it only in Him. Aim for it, seek after it, and don’t rest until you enjoy a good measure of it! As you grow in God’s joy and gladness, He will be glorified through your life. As John Piper puts it, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

Discussion Questions

If God wants us filled with His joy, is it a sin to be depressed? Why/why not?
Is a sense of God’s presence a feeling, a mental recognition, or both?
Why do most people not associate holiness with happiness? Why is any unholy happiness fleeting at best?
Since Christians are to be filled with the hope of Christ’s coming, can we legitimately be pessimistic or cynical? If so, how?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Related Topics: Sanctification, Spiritual Life

Lesson 8: How to Receive God’s Forgiveness (Acts 2:37-38)

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Of all the uncountable lists of human needs, none is greater than the need for God’s forgiveness. Many people erroneously think that their main need is to get more money. But the richest man in the world is truly poor if he does not know God’s forgiveness, and the poorest is rich if he is forgiven.

Others think that their need is pleasure. But as Jesus said in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, those with the most pleasurable life on earth with be miserable for all eternity if they die without God’s forgiveness, but the most miserable beggar here who is forgiven will have eternal pleasure at God’s right hand.

In spite of the fact that God’s forgiveness is our greatest need, I find it rare to have someone ask me, with desperation in his voice, “How can I receive God’s forgiveness?” It is not the burning question in most people’s minds. Only the Holy Spirit can impress on a person his great need to be reconciled to God. But to be effective witnesses, we need to be clear on how to answer a person who needs to know how to receive God’s forgiveness. Some of you may need to answer that question first for yourself.

Peter’s audience on the Day of Pentecost asked him that question at the end of his famous sermon. He had demonstrated to them that Jesus Christ, whom they had crucified, was none other than the Lord and Messiah (2:36). “Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?” (2:37). Peter’s answer in verse 38 tells them how to receive God’s forgiveness. His words came to them as the greatest news that they had ever heard. Three thousand of them responded and were saved that day.

However, Peter’s answer also presents Bible interpreters with some difficult theological matters that must be explained. Many in our day want to avoid theology. Some say that emphasizing doctrine leads to fighting and division in the church. They think that theology doesn’t have much practical bearing on life as we live it each week. They think that it is boring and that studying theology will lead a person into dead orthodoxy. They just want “a simple faith in Jesus,” and so they avoid grappling with anything that smacks of theology.

But the fact is, everyone does theology. The question is, How well are you doing it? You cannot study the Bible properly without seeking to understand it as a whole. Scripture does not contradict itself. Thus every text must be interpreted in the light of all other relevant Scriptures. The minute you compare Scripture with Scripture to fit it all together harmoniously, you are doing theology.

Acts 2:38 demands that we think theologically. If we took the verse all by itself, ignoring other Scriptures, we would have to conclude that the answer to the question, “How does a person receive God’s forgiveness?” is, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” That’s what the verse says. Some denominations teach that a person must be baptized to be saved. But we have to understand this verse in the light of all other verses.

There are many other verses in Acts (not to mention other Scriptures) that say nothing of baptism as a requirement for forgiveness. In the next chapter, Peter exhorts his hearers, “Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). He does not mention baptism. In Acts 5:31, Peter tells the Council that Jesus is the Savior whom God gave “to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” Again, no mention of baptism. In Acts 10:43, Peter tells the Gentiles at Cornelius’ house: “Of Him [Christ] all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” Believing in Christ, not baptism is the requirement for forgiveness. In Acts 16, when the Philippian jailer asks Paul what he must do to be saved, Paul answers, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved” (16:31). Baptism follows belief, but it is not mentioned as a requirement for salvation. In Acts 26:18 & 20, Paul mentions repentance and forgiveness of sins, but not baptism.

So how do we explain Acts 2:38? I think that we must understand the close connection in the minds of the apostles between saving faith and baptism. The idea of an unbaptized Christian is foreign to the apostles because they assumed that every true believer would be an obedient believer. In the Great Commission, Jesus stipulated that baptism is a vital part of making disciples of all the nations (Matt. 28:19). It is basic to observing all that He commanded (Matt. 28:20). So in Acts 2:38, Peter adds baptism as the naturally understood consequence of repentance. But it is not the baptism, but repentance, which brings forgiveness. As I will explain in a moment, repentance and faith in Christ are inseparable. Baptism is the outward sign of inward repentance and faith.

We see the connection between faith and baptism in Acts 8:35-38, the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. No sooner had the man believed than he saw water and asked if he could be baptized. The same connection exists in Acts 10:43 & 47. Peter states that the one who believes receives forgiveness of sins. Those who heard him believed, as evidenced by the fact that the Holy Spirit fell upon them at that point. Since they had all believed, Peter immediately brings up the subject of baptism (10:47). We see the same thing in Acts 16, where Paul tells the Philippian jailer that he must believe in the Lord Jesus to be saved, and that this also applies to his household (i.e., if they believe, they will be saved). As soon as they all believed, Paul baptized them (16:33-34).

Also, in Acts 2:38 the gift of the Holy Spirit is connected with repentance and baptism. If you took that verse alone and interpreted it sequentially, you would surmise that a person receives the gift of the Holy Spirit after he has repented and been baptized. But when you go to Acts 10, it is very clear that the order was: they believed and received God’s forgiveness, the Holy Spirit came on them, and then they were baptized (10:43-48). Clearly, the Holy Spirit does not fall on people who are still in their sins. Thus water baptism could not be a necessary condition for forgiveness of sins, as some erroneously conclude from Acts 2:38. Galatians 3:2-5 also makes it clear that we receive the Spirit when we believe, apart from any good works. Thus in Acts 2:38, Peter is not being technical about the sequence of salvation, but rather is viewing repentance and baptism as a package, with baptism being the fruit of repentance. You receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit at the point of repentance. Baptism should follow soon after repentance and faith in obedience to Christ as Lord.

It was necessary to do all of that theological thinking to bring you to the main idea, which is:

To receive God’s forgiveness we must repent of our sins and obediently believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

In other words, baptism is an initial evidence of obedient, saving faith. Repentance and faith are often linked as the necessary requirements for salvation. Jesus’ preaching is summed up as, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). The apostle Paul summed up his message as “solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). Let’s explore these two crucial concepts:

1. To receive God’s forgiveness we must repent of our sins.

Note four things:

A. Repentance is not optional for salvation.

It seems odd that this point needs to be made, since it is so obvious from Scripture. Yet there is a whole movement (“non-lordship” salvation) among evangelicals that teaches that repentance has nothing to do with salvation. They even accuse those who hold that sinners must repent of adding something to faith alone. They view repentance as necessary for the believer to have fellowship with God, but not as essential to salvation (see Zane Hodges, Absolutely Free [Zondervan], p. 146). They claim to be in line with the Reformation doctrine of sola fide (faith alone; see Hodges, p. 163), although the Reformers would be aghast at their teaching (see John Calvin, Institutes, 3:14:1, 7; and 3:2:8-13).

If repentance is not necessary for salvation, Peter really blew his opportunity to make the gospel clear to these works-oriented Jews! He could have said, “You don’t have to do anything! Just believe in Jesus and you will be saved.” But instead, he said, “Repent and be baptized.” Not only did Peter blow it; Jesus also blew it. He preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). He told unbelieving audiences that if they did not repent, they would perish (Luke 13:3, 5). He commissioned His disciples to proclaim repentance for forgiveness of sins in His name to all the nations (Luke 24:47). Clearly, repentance isn’t optional or extraneous to salvation. It is at the very core of what it means to be saved. We need to be clear, then, on what it means.

B. Repentance means turning from a life of sin to Jesus as Savior and Lord.

John Calvin defines repentance as “the true turning of our life to God, a turning that arises from a pure and earnest fear of him; and it consists in the mortification of our flesh and of the old man, and in the vivification of the Spirit (Institutes, 3:3:5). This is something that God grants at the moment of salvation, but the believer must also practice it throughout his entire Christian life (3:3:6-9).

Louis Berkhof (Systematic Theology [Eerdmans], p. 486) says that conversion comprises both repentance and faith. Repentance is directly connected with sanctification, while faith is closely, though not exclusively, related to justification. He defines repentance as “that change wrought in the conscious life of the sinner, by which he turns away from sin.”

He points out that repentance has three elements: (1) An intellectual element, which is a change of view regarding personal guilt, defilement, and helplessness. (2) An emotional element, a change of feeling in which one feels “sorrow for sin committed against a holy and just God.” And, (3) A volitional element, “consisting in a change of purpose, an inward turning away from sin, and a disposition to seek pardon and cleansing.”

Charles Spurgeon said, “I do not believe in the faith that is unaccompanied by repentance…. Repentance and faith are twins; they are born together and they will live together, and as long as a Christian is in this world, both will be needed” (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit [Ages Software], vol. 54, “Heart-piercing,” Acts 2:37).

I have often said that repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin. Repentance looks at the aspect of turning from my sins. Faith is the hand that receives God’s free gift of eternal life. The thought that a person could knowingly hang onto his sins with one hand while he receives the gift of salvation from a holy God with the other is inconceivable!

Dr. Charles Ryrie defines repentance as changing one’s mind about Jesus Christ, not turning from one’s sin. In other words, he accepts the intellectual aspect of repentance, but he rejects the emotional and volitional aspects as necessary for salvation. He argues that to make turning from sin a condition for the gospel is to add works to faith (So Great Salvation [Victor Books], pp. 98-99).

But I think that his definition does not square with Scripture, where repentance “indicates a change of direction in a person’s life rather than simply a mental change of attitude or a feeling of remorse; it signifies a turning away from a sinful and godless way of life” (I. Howard Marshall, Acts [IVP/Eerdmans], p. 80). Also, Ryrie fails to see that both repentance and faith are God’s gifts (Acts 5:31; 11:18; Phil. 1:29; Eph. 2:8-9), which He imparts to the sinner at the moment of salvation. No sinner has the capacity in himself to repent and believe. The Bible says that we were dead in our transgressions and sin (Eph. 2:1-3). We were incapable of seeking God (Rom. 3:10-18), and unable to submit to God or to please God (Rom. 8:7-8). We were blinded by Satan so that we could not understand the things of God (1 Cor. 2:14) or the gospel (2 Cor. 4:4). Thus repentance and saving faith are not human works; they are God’s gracious gift. Repentance focuses on turning to God from sin (seen in 1 Thess. 1:9).

C. Repentance requires seeing who Jesus is.

Since repentance is God-ward, a sinner needs some idea of who God is, especially as manifested to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter has just spelled out who Jesus is in his sermon, showing how He fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies about Messiah. He conclusion is, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified” (2:36). In his sermon in chapter 3, Peter makes it known that Jesus is “the Holy and Righteous One” (3:14), “the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead” (3:15). His conclusion in both cases was, “Repent” (2:38; 3:19). When God opened their eyes to see that they had crucified none other than “the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8), it should drive them to repentance. To be saved, a person must realize that Jesus is nothing less than the Lord God who demands to be obeyed.

D. Repentance requires being convicted of how terrible our sins are in God’s sight.

Only the Holy Spirit can penetrate the hardness of the fallen human heart and bring true conviction of sin (John 16:8-11). It was the Spirit who pierced Peter’s hearers to the heart, so that in despair they cried out, “What shall we do?” Apart from God, sinners can take a moral inventory of their lives and decide to make some changes. But only God can pierce the heart and institute change from the inside out by imparting new life and a new heart.

Until there is conviction of sin, a person feels no need for a Savior. What is there to be saved from? Before the Holy Spirit brings conviction, the sinner thinks, “I’m a pretty decent person. I live a good moral life.” He compares himself with murderers, rapists, child molesters, and the like, and thinks that things must be okay between him and God. But when the Holy Spirit begins to convict the person about sin, righteousness, and judgment, he begins to see that God will judge not only outward actions, but also every evil thought and every careless word (Matt. 5:27-30; 12:36; 15:18-20). And He judges everyone, not based on a curve of human goodness, but by the perfection of His own holiness (Matt. 5:48). Through God’s Word, the sinner learns that his sin put the sinless Son of God on the cross.

When God reveals such things through His Spirit and His Word, sinners see their desperate situation and cry out, “What must I do? How can I receive God’s forgiveness?” The first answer is, “Repent. Turn from your sin to God.” The flip side is,

2. To receive God’s forgiveness, we must obediently believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The entire lordship salvation debate really boils down to the question, “What is saving faith?” Those who hold to non-lordship salvation say that faith is a one-time decision for Christ or assent to the truth of the gospel. It hopefully will result in a life of obedience, but it does not necessarily do so. But Scripture teaches that:

A. Saving faith is always obedient faith.

Salvation is a free gift, received by faith alone. But the faith that receives salvation implies a total commitment of the sinner to the person of Jesus Christ. He relies completely on Christ alone to save him. Good works are the evidence of saving faith, as James 2:14-26 argues. We are saved by grace through faith apart from works, but the faith that saves always changes the heart (2 Cor. 5:17) and imparts the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; Rom. 8:9), causing the believer to pursue good works (Eph. 2:8-10). “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3).

While it is the believer’s responsibility to walk in the Spirit, and while all believers struggle against sin and sometimes fall into it, the general direction of a believer’s life will be to please the Lord (Eph. 5:6-10). If a person claims to be saved, but lives in persistent disobedience to God, he needs to examine himself as to whether he is in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5). “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36, emphasis added; see also Acts 6:7; Rom. 1:5; 2:8; 16:26; 2 Thess. 1:8; 2:12; 1 Pet. 1:2).

B. Baptism is a basic step of obedient faith in Jesus Christ.

Peter’s audience had heard the preaching of John the Baptist and knew that baptism is a public confession of repentance. It was not easy for this crowd of religious Jews to submit to baptism, because they thought that it was only for Gentiles and notorious sinners. By exhorting his audience to be baptized in the name of Jesus, Peter was calling them to identify with the one who had just been publicly scorned and crucified by the religious leaders. He was not contradicting Jesus’ directive about being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). Rather, he was calling them to make a radical break from their religious leaders and to identify themselves publicly as followers of Jesus Christ.

Baptism is an outward act that pictures what God has done inwardly. To think that performing an outward act of going under the water could accomplish the inward cleansing from sin that was needed would have gone against everything that Jesus and John had preached. Even though the person who was baptized might be shunned or even persecuted by family and friends, he must obey Jesus Christ as Lord by being baptized. A person may be untaught regarding baptism (Acts 19:3-5); but once he is properly instructed, he will want to be baptized as a public confession of his faith in Jesus Christ, no matter what the cost.

C. Saving faith and baptism are an individual matter.

Peter exhorts his audience, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38, emphasis added). It was not a group plan. It never is. If you have not personally repented of your sin before God and trusted in Jesus as Savior and Lord, obediently following His command to be baptized, that is your greatest need right now.

By the way, there is simply no command or example in Scripture of baptizing infants. The order in Acts is always, first repentance and faith, then baptism. (See my sermon, “Why We Do Not Baptize Infants” [available on church web site, 9/8/96] for further treatment of this subject.) Each person must believe in Christ as Savior and obey Him by being baptized.

Conclusion

In his excellent book, Faith Works (Word, p. 204), John MacArthur states, “Salvation is absolutely free. So is joining the army. You don’t have to buy your way in. Everything you need is provided. But there is a sense in which following Christ—like joining the army—will cost you dearly. It can cost freedom, family, friends, autonomy, and possibly even your life. The job of the evangelist—like that of the army recruiter—is to tell potential inductees the full story.”

Charles Spurgeon wrote, “If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord’s will, but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumptions, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved” (The Soul Winner [Eerdmans], p. 38).

Have you repented of your sins and trusted in Christ alone for salvation? If you have, you will still be repenting of your sins and trusting in Christ, following Him as Lord. Have you confessed your repentance and faith through baptism? If so, then you can know that God has met your greatest need by forgiving all your sins.

Discussion Questions

How would you answer a person who used Acts 2:38 to argue that baptism is essential for salvation?
Why is calling sinners to repent not adding works to salvation by grace through faith alone?
Does persistent disobedience necessarily mean that a person is not saved? How would you counsel such a person?
Biblically, does assurance of salvation depend on the believer’s obedience? Are there other biblical means of assurance?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Lesson 9: Snapshot of a Healthy Church (Acts 2:42-47)

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Probably a majority of Christians have had a bad experience in a local church. I grew up in a fundamentalist church where the pastor used power and anger to run the church. When I was a teenager, my dad, who was on the church board, confronted the pastor because he was using the church office for counseling and was charging a fee, but funneling the money through a dummy account, which is against IRS regulations. When the church would not deal with the situation, we left the church. Shortly after, the pastor left his wife and five children and ran off with a young counselee.

I started going to another church, where I got involved with the college group. The college pastor recruited me for a planning group that would come up with clever programs to entice students to attend. If we had 50 come out, he would rave about what a great program it was. If only 25 showed up, we would rack our brains for a better program. I used to call it “Creative Programs for Carnal Christians.”

Meanwhile, at a Sunday morning church service they announced that there would be a meeting that night to discuss the future direction of the church. I stumbled naively into that meeting and discovered that the pastor had been wrongfully involved with a number of women in the church. The denomination quietly moved him to another pastorate.

About this time, I got involved with Campus Crusade at Long Beach State College. We would have 125 students come out on Friday evenings to study the Bible and be equipped to share our faith. There were no clever programs to entice them to attend. They came because the Lord was there and He was working in their lives. It wasn’t long until I thought, “Who needs the games that they’re playing at this church?” I dropped out of church for several years.

But even though I had these bad experiences, I knew that the church didn’t have to be that way. I would read passages like our text and think, “The church can be a godly, exciting place where the Lord’s presence is sensed, where He is at work.” I knew that Christ had promised that He would build His church, even against the opposition of hell (Matt. 16:18). I thought, “If Christ is building His church, then I want to be a part of making the local church what He wants it to be.” In a nutshell, that’s why I’m a pastor.

Our text gives us a snapshot of a healthy local church, the first church after the Day of Pentecost. It was not a perfect church, since it was made up of people. We will later see some of the problems they encountered. But God was at work in their midst. As we have seen, Acts is the record of what Jesus continued to do and teach through His people after His ascension. On the Day of Pentecost, He called to Himself (2:39) 3,000 souls, so that the church began with 3,120 members! Now we read, “the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved” (2:47). Jesus Himself was at work in this church! This snapshot shows us the marks of a healthy church so that we can measure ourselves by it and seek to follow its example.

A healthy church is marked by continual devotion to the Lord, to His people, and to His work in the world.

If these three marks look suspiciously like our church’s purpose statement, I’m sure that it is just coincidental! Our purpose statement was developed from the Great Commandment and from the Great Commission. It reads, in part:

Flagstaff Christian Fellowship exists to show how great God is by helping each person and family grow in fervent love for God, love for one another and love for those without Christ, both locally and globally.

We see these three priorities in the early Jerusalem church:

1. A healthy church is marked by continual devotion to the Lord.

The risen Lord Jesus was central to all that was happening in this new church. The word translated “continually devoting” points to constancy, purpose, or resolve. Out of ten uses of the verb and one use of the noun in the New Testament, six are connected with prayer and two with the ministry of the Word. We see their continual devotion to the Lord in four ways:

A. Devotion to the Lord means devotion to the teaching of His Word.

“They were continually devoted to the apostles’ teaching” (2:42). While 3,000 new converts all at once would be any pastor’s dream, it also would be any pastor’s nightmare. These people were from many different locations and backgrounds. While most of them had some biblical background, they were ignorant about the person and ministry of the Lord Jesus. So the apostles had a massive job on their hands, to ground these people in their new faith before they returned home. They must have done with these people what Jesus recently had done with them: Beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, they explained to them the things concerning Jesus in all the Scriptures (see Luke 24:27).

We live in a day where the evangelical church often minimizes and even disdains sound doctrine. Instead, it emphasizes emotional experience and feelings. Several years after I was in the ministry, I audited a church growth class offered by a nearby seminary. The professor had traveled around America in a motor home, visiting many large, growing churches. He came up with a list of 15 characteristics of growing churches. Conspicuously absent from the list was solid biblical preaching! When I questioned him about this, he shrugged and said that it didn’t seem to be a prominent factor in these growing churches!

But when you turn to the last three letters that Paul wrote to his younger pastors, Timothy and Titus, you find him emphasizing again and again the need for sound doctrine (1 Tim. 4:13, 16; Titus. 1:9). In his final appeal to Timothy, just before his martyrdom, Paul gives the strongest possible admonition: “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word” (2 Tim. 4:1-2a). He goes on to warn Timothy that the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but will accumulate teachers who tell them what they want to hear.

A healthy church must be devoted to sound doctrine, because God has chosen to reveal Himself in the written Word. If we are not continually growing to understand and apply the doctrines of God’s Word, we are not growing in devotion to the Lord.

B. Devotion to the Lord means devotion to corporate worship.

The preaching of God’s Word should result in worship, in that it should bring us to an encounter with God Himself, which is the heart of true worship. But in addition to the apostles’ teaching, there are several other aspects of worship that we see here:

1) The Lord’s Supper.

“They were continually devoting themselves to … the breaking of bread” (2:42), which refers to the Lord’s Supper. I wonder if the Lord’s Supper would be one of the four things that distinguish evangelical churches in our day. I’ve heard people say, “If you celebrate communion too often, it becomes routine.” Bible reading and prayer can also become routine, if you do them every day. But I hope that we don’t read our Bibles and pray less often so that they don’t become routine! The solution is not to decrease the frequency, but rather to ask God to shake us out of our spiritual dullness.

The Lord’s Supper should remind us of the greatest truth in the world, that the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me, so that I could be forgiven and reconciled to God! It should make us examine our lives, so that we confess and turn from any sin. I wish that we could have the time in our services to have the Lord’s Supper each week, because it is an important part of worship.

2) Prayer.

Literally, the text reads, “they were continually devoting themselves to … the prayers.” It refers to set times of corporate prayer. Whenever and wherever the church meets, whether in a large meeting (“in the temple”) or from house to house, prayer ought to be woven into the fabric of church life. Our singing can and should be directed to God in prayer. At our elders’ meetings, we often stop to commit a difficult matter to the Lord or seek His mind in prayer. In your personal and family life, prayer ought to be a normal, frequent response when a personal problem arises or when you talk about someone who is facing a problem. Prayer acknowledges our total dependence on the living Lord.

3) Praise and joy.

“They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart” (2:46). Their lives were marked by joy because of what the Lord Jesus had done for them on the cross. “Praising God” (2:47) is a present participle, pointing to the ongoing, common expression of praise to God. It no doubt marked their corporate times of worship, but it also oozed out of the cracks of their daily lives, drawing others to the source of their joy.

The only way to develop that kind of constant joy and praise is deliberately to focus your mind on God: “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1). In the Psalms, often the psalmist is in dire straits, but he resolves to focus on the Lord: “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises!” (Ps. 57:7). David wrote and sang that song in a cave, hiding from the mad King Saul. Even in the caves of life, God’s people must resolve to be people of praise and joy.

Thus the first mark of a healthy church is continual devotion to the Lord. It must be continual in the sense of a deliberate resolve to be in His Word and to be worshiping Him.

2. A healthy church is marked by continual devotion to the Lord’s people.

“They were continually devoting themselves to … the fellowship” (2:42, literally). We cannot be devoted to the Head, who is Christ, and at the same time cut ourselves off from the body, His church. That would be like a young man saying to his date, “I like your face, but your body is gross!” That would be his last date with her! Even though the body of Christ is not nearly as lovely as Christ Himself, the Bible commands us not to forsake assembling together with other believers (Heb. 10:25). There are many verses in the Bible that exhort us to bear with one another and forgive each other, since we often offend and get offended (Col. 3:13).

What does it mean to be devoted to the fellowship? The Greek word (koinonea) means “to share in common.” We read in verse 44 that “all those who believed were together and had all things in common.” The Greek phrase translated “together” is repeated when it states that “the Lord was adding to their number (lit., “together) those who were being saved” (2:47). Verse 46 underscores this sense of togetherness when it says that they were of one mind and took their meals together. So being devoted to the fellowship is a commitment to be built together with those who have joined God’s family by being saved. Note these four aspects:

A. To have fellowship, we must be truly saved.

Those added to the fellowship were those whom the Lord was saving (2:47). While some who were not saved may have attended both their large gatherings and their home meetings, they were not truly a part of the fellowship until the Lord saved them. To be saved means to be delivered from God’s wrath and judgment that we deserve because of our sins. We get saved by putting our trust in Jesus Christ as the one who bore the judgment for our sins on the cross. As soon as a person gets saved, he shares Christ in common with all others who are saved. Salvation by grace through faith in Christ is the basis of all true fellowship.

B. To have fellowship, we must be together.

You can’t have fellowship if you don’t gather with the church. Some people object to large churches as being too impersonal. But please observe that when the Lord started the church, He started it big! It began with 3,120, and soon it numbered over 5,000 (4:4) and it kept growing from there (5:14; 6:1, 7). While we should gather with the whole church for worship and teaching, we only enjoy deep fellowship with those we get to know personally. If you only attend the Sunday morning service, but never spend time getting to know the other saints on a deeper level (house to house or restaurant to restaurant!), you will not enjoy the fellowship that God intends for you.

There are two levels of Christian unity. There is the unity of the Spirit, which is a fact among all who have been baptized by the Spirit into the one body of Christ (Eph. 4:3; 1 Cor. 12:13). Paul commands us to preserve it since it already exists. Then there is the unity of the faith, which we are to attain to as we come into a deeper knowledge of Christ and grow to spiritual maturity (Eph. 4:13). Believers who know Christ and His Word well can have deeper fellowship than those who do not know Him well.

C. To have fellowship, we must share together in the things of God.

Too often, Christians get together and spend the whole time talking about news, weather, and sports. It’s not wrong to talk about these things. But at some point, the conversation needs to move to a deeper level. If the Lord and His salvation are at the center of my life and of your life, when we get together we will talk about Him. If we don’t, it may reveal that He doesn’t have the proper place in our lives.

There is something to be said for food and fellowship going together! These early Christians were taking their meals together (2:46). The fact that their meals are referred to as “breaking bread” might suggest that these were not elaborate feasts, but just common meals. If you wait to have people over until your house is just right and your table settings are perfect, you won’t ever do it. Just have other believers over and share a simple meal. Direct the conversation to the things of God and His Word. You will be built together with your brothers and sisters in the Lord.

D. To have fellowship, we must share together in material things.

Verse 44 is not prescribing communal living for God’s people in every situation. The Bible recognizes the right to personal property and the need for families to be distinct. Years ago, Marla and I enjoyed reading Edith Schaeffer’s book, What is a Family? [Revell]. The Schaeffers lived at L’Abri, a ministry center in the Swiss Alps where dozens of students would come to study. She has a chapter that describes the Christian home as a door with hinges and a lock. The hinges open the door to others, but the lock means that there are times when a family needs to shut out others and be together as a family.

The situation in Jerusalem was somewhat unique. Thousands of pilgrims had traveled there for the Feast of Pentecost. Many had been saved after Peter’s message, and they wanted to stay longer to get grounded in their new faith. They needed hospitality and financial help to do this. To meet these needs, the church opened their homes and their pocketbooks to help the needy. Some even sold land and donated the proceeds, although this was not required (4:37; 5:1, 4).

Before we say, “Whew, this doesn’t apply to me,” we need to remember that we’re all exhorted to be generous and ready to share with those in need (1 Tim. 6:18). We are told not to share with a lazy or irresponsible person who refuses to work (2 Thess. 3:6-12). But if a brother or sister is in need of the basics of life (that means food, shelter, and clothing, not cable TV or a six-pack of beer!), then we should be quick to share the blessings that God has bestowed on us (2 Cor. 8 & 9). If we have this world’s goods and see our brother in need and close up our hearts against him, we should question whether God’s love abides in us (1 John 3:17)!

Thus a healthy church is marked by continual devotion to the Lord and to His people. Finally,

3. A healthy church is marked by continual devotion to God’s work in the world.

Our text does not say that the church was devoting itself to evangelism. But the fact is, it was happening, and it did not happen apart from these new believers sharing their faith with those who did not know Christ. New believers are often the best evangelists, because they have the largest pool of unbelieving friends, and those friends can see the change in their way of life. New believers should learn a basic gospel presentation and the Bible verses that communicate the gospel.

Some of the evangelism took place through the miracles that the apostles were performing (2:43), and the preaching that accompanied these miracles (3:1-26). The ability to perform these miracles was limited to the apostles and their close associates (such as Philip). The miracles confirmed these men as God’s messengers and identified them with Jesus, who also had done great miracles. I do not believe that the gift of miracles exists today (Heb. 2:3-4), although at times God does perform miracles in response to our prayers, and He can use such miracles to bring people to saving faith. But our main focus should be on proclaiming the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation to all who believe.

Evangelism is primarily God’s work, but He does it through us. It is the Lord who adds to the church those who are being saved, but we are responsible to share the gospel. Note that the Lord added the new converts together with the church (literal rendering of “to their number,” 2:47). He does not save people without adding them to the church where they can grow, and people are not truly added to the church unless they are saved.

There is a sense in which a healthy church will be a reproducing church. Granted, there are special times of God’s sovereign working, where many hundreds, if not thousands, are saved in a short period of time. We cannot expect that as the norm; but we all should be entreating the Lord to add to His church often those whom He is saving. If we are not seeing conversions, we should examine ourselves to ask why. A healthy church is devoted to the Lord, to His people, and to His work in the world.

Conclusion

Many years ago, John Stott met a group of Christian students in Argentina who had visited all of the Protestant churches in their city, but could not find any that satisfied them. They had dropped out of the church. He asked them what they were looking for that they could not find. He was startled when, without realizing what they were doing, they went down the list of Acts 2:42 in order.

They said that they wanted a church where the pastor faithfully expounded the Bible and related it to where they lived. They were looking for warm, loving, caring, supportive fellowship. They sought a sense of the living God and His greatness in worship. And, they were looking for compassionate outreach (in Christianity Today [6/12/81], p. 21).

No church is perfect and none will come close this side of heaven. But as we continually devote ourselves to the Lord through His Word and through worship, as we devote ourselves to the fellowship of His people, and as we devote ourselves to His work in the world, He will use us to glorify Himself. I challenge you to be fervent in your devotion to the Lord and to His church, so that He uses us to reach many in this city and around the globe for His glory.

Discussion Questions

Which of the three areas is the strongest in our church and in your life? Which do we most need to work on? How?
Is our church purpose statement adequate? How could it be improved?
Should we be expecting conversions daily (or weekly) or is this unusual? What in us would hinder God sending revival?
Is it possible to get out of balance on any of the three priorities? If so, how?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Related Topics: Discipleship, Ecclesiology (The Church)

Lesson 10: The Exuberant Joy of God’s Salvation (Acts 3:1-10)

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John Stott tells of an English Salvation Army drummer who was beating his drum so hard that the band leader had to tell him to pipe down a bit and not make so much noise. In his cockney accent the drummer replied, “God bless you, sir, since oi’ve been converted, oi’m so ’appy, oi could bust the bloomin’ drum!” (Christianity Today [6/12/81], p/ 19.)

Our text records the first miracle in Acts that God enabled the apostles to perform after the Day of Pentecost. Peter and John, going up to the temple for the 3 p.m. prayer service, encountered a man in his forties (4:22) who had been crippled from birth. He asked for a handout, but Peter spoke a word of healing to him in Jesus’ name, reached out his hand and pulled him to his feet. Instantly, God’s miraculous power strengthened the man’s feet and ankles, so that he could walk. He followed Peter and John into the temple, but by now he wasn’t just walking, he was jumping for joy! It may well be that some stern religious leader told him to calm down: “Don’t you know that you’re in God’s holy temple?” But the man would have replied, “I’m so happy that I could jump and dance all night!”

I believe that the man was not only healed physically, but he also was healed spiritually, because he was now praising God. If he was not yet clear on the gospel, I’m sure that he responded to Peter’s sermon that followed. The man’s joy is a fulfillment of what Jesus the Messiah would do. Isaiah 35:5-6 says, “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy.” These words were fulfilled in Jesus’ ministry (Matt. 11:5).

So this story in Acts attests to the divine Messiahship of Jesus. It shows that Jesus was continuing to work through His apostles and that His name was still powerful to perform the same gracious miracles of healing that took place when He was on this earth. Luke shares it as a specific example of what he reported in 2:43, that many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. He picked this miracle because it led to Peter’s second sermon (3:12-26) and to the first persecution against the early church (4:1-22). But it was not just a miracle of physical healing; it is also a picture of the spiritual healing that God brings to a spiritually lame world. It teaches us that …

God’s miraculous gift of salvation should cause us to praise Him with exuberant joy so that others will marvel at His mighty power.

There are three lessons for us to consider:

1. Salvation is a miraculous gift from Jesus, not a human self-improvement project.

We often underestimate what happens when God saves a soul. We view it in human terms, as a human decision that requires human follow up so that the decision “sticks.” I’m not denying that a person needs to make a decision and receive proper follow up so that he can begin to grow in his new faith. Rather, I’m emphasizing, “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature…” (2 Cor. 5:17). Salvation is nothing less than God imparting life to a person who was dead in sin. God’s mighty creative power is involved in saving a soul! It’s a far greater miracle than healing lame legs.

A. The human race has been spiritually lame from birth due to the fall.

This man had been lame from his mother’s womb. He is a sad picture of the human race, maimed by the fall. This was not a day when there were concrete wheelchair ramps for those who were crippled. In fact, there were no wheelchairs or handicapped parking places! If this man left his house, it was only because more than one friend came over, put him on a stretcher, and carried him. They often took him to the gate at the temple called Beautiful, where worshipers would take pity on him and toss him a few coins so that he could survive. While the temple gate was beautiful, this man with his useless legs was anything but beautiful. He is a sad picture of how sin cripples humanity.

In 1987, Marla and I went to Hong Kong, Macau, and China on a ministry trip. We were walking around on some crowded back streets in Guangzhou, China. It had rained recently, so there were puddles and mud. As we walked along with the crowd, suddenly, we almost stepped on a poor beggar who had no legs. He was on the dirty street, pulling his torso along by his arms, crying out for money. He was a shocking picture of humanity, scarred by sin.

The Bible uses many different metaphors to picture the fallen condition of the human race: dead in our sins (Eph. 2:1); blinded by the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4); ignorant and unable to understand spiritual truth (1 Cor. 2:8, 14); deceived and deluded (2 Thess. 2:10-11); deaf and dumb (Mark 7:32-37); leprous (Mark 1:40-42); and, lame (Mark 4:1-12).

B. There is nothing that spiritually lame people can do to heal their spiritual condition.

There were no operations available that could cure his congenital condition. No physical therapy or efforts at self-improvement could help him. He had no hope that he could ever walk. And so he did the best he could to get by—he begged for money.

The Bible teaches that as sinners, there is nothing that we can do to heal our alienation from the holy God. We can embark on a program of self-improvement. We can give away all of our money and possessions to feed the poor. We can enter a monastery where we spend hours every day in prayer and fasting, denying ourselves the normal pleasures of life. We can devote ourselves to a life of selfless service, as Mother Teresa did. At the end of all our efforts, we are not one fraction of an inch closer to God, because we have not eradicated the sin that we inherited from Adam. The Bible says that “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isa. 64:6) in God’s holy presence. Presenting our good deeds to God only reveals the depth of our pride.

This attempt to save ourselves is probably the biggest barrier that keeps people away from God’s salvation. Except for biblical Christianity, it is an essential part of every religion, including Roman Catholicism, which teaches that we must add our works to what Christ has done in order to be saved. But the Bible plainly states, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

C. God heals the spiritually lame by His mighty power, as His free gift, apart from our merit or works.

The power for healing this man came from “the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene” (3:6). Peter attaches the despised name, “Nazarene,” both to show that God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise (1 Cor. 1:27), and to emphasize that it was the man Jesus from this village of Nazareth who is still living, who imparted from heaven the power to heal this cripple.

Sometimes in the Gospels and in Acts, a person was healed because he had the faith to be healed. But in many instances, the person was healed as an act of sovereign grace, without any indication of faith on his part. Here, there is no indication that the man had faith in Jesus to be healed. In 3:16, Peter explains to the crowd that it was on the basis of faith in the name of Jesus that this man was healed, but Peter seems to be referring to his own faith, not to the man’s faith. The man was not expecting a healing; he was only expecting a handout (3:5). Peter also makes it clear that the faith that he exercised “comes through [Jesus].” In other words, Jesus gave Peter the faith to believe that He would heal this lame man. Peter simply responded to the prompting of the Lord.

The healed man knew where his healing had come from. He didn’t shout praises to Peter and John. He didn’t praise his own mental attitude, saying, “I knew that if I kept a positive mental attitude, someday I’d be healed!” He didn’t boast in his great faith as the cause of his healing. No, he simply praised God. God and God alone, by His great mercy, was the cause of his cure.

When God mercifully saves your soul, He doesn’t do it because of anything that He sees in you. He doesn’t do it in cooperation with your best efforts. He doesn’t see great potential lurking beneath the surface of your life and save you because He knows that you’ll make a great disciple. He doesn’t see that you really mean well, in spite of your many mistakes, and save you because of your basically good intentions. He doesn’t see great faith and save you because He knows that you will be a model believer. He saves you because of one reason: His undeserved favor. It is totally by His power and grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). All the praise must go to God.

D. When God saves our soul, He always gives us far more than we expect.

This lame man was not expecting a miracle. He only wanted a handout to get him through another day. Isn’t that a picture of so many who come to God? They are overwhelmed by life’s problems. Perhaps their family life is a mess or they’ve failed in business or they have a life-threatening illness. They come to God just hoping for a handout, something to get them through another day.

But in His great mercy, God imparts to them the miracle of regeneration. They are born again to a living hope, and they obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for them (1 Pet. 1:3-4)! They just wanted a little handout, but they become joint-heirs with Jesus Christ of all the riches that God can bestow (Rom. 8:17)! As Paul exclaims, God is “able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” (Eph. 3:20). All that we can say is, “To Him be the glory!”

2. God’s salvation should cause those who have received it personally to praise Him with exuberant joy.

I love the description of this man, “Walking and leaping and praising God” (3:8). I realize that he didn’t leap down the street for the rest of his life. But I’ll bet that he often thought as he walked somewhere, “Praise God for His abundant mercy in healing me!” He often felt the joy of what God had done welling up within him. George Morrison observes,

It takes a little time to find one’s feet after a great experience like that. Give the man ten or twenty years of city life, and he will walk as sedately as any other citizen. First they shall mount up with wings as eagles, says the prophet; then they shall run (as children always do); and then, when time and experience have wrought their sobering work, they shall walk and (thank God) shall not faint. Do not object to preliminary leaping. Do not be hard on a little wild enthusiasm in the man who has really been healed by Christ. Time will convert that spiritual electricity into a driving and illuminating power. Emotion will be translated by the years into the strength of action and of character (Morrison on Acts [AMG Publishers], p. 34, italics his).

We see in this man three reasons why salvation fills us with exuberant joy:

A. Salvation fills us with exuberant joy because it is received unexpectedly.

God takes us by surprise. This man’s friends had been bringing him to the temple for years. He had been lying there when Jesus taught in the temple precincts, but for some reason Jesus had not healed him. No doubt Peter and John had walked by him on previous occasions, since they were still in the habit of going up to the temple to pray at the set hours for Jewish worship. But it had not been God’s timing. Even this day, Peter and John didn’t set out for the temple and say, “Let’s see if we can find someone to heal.” They would have passed the man by, except that on this day, the Lord sovereignly acted. The man caught Peter and John’s attention. The Lord prompted Peter’s heart that He would heal this man for His glory. Peter stopped and the man’s life was forever changed.

If we could go around the room and share testimonies, many of you would tell of how you did not see salvation coming until it hit you blindside. You were going through another day, trying to cope with your problems and scrape by, when by God’s providence, you heard the gospel. Maybe you had heard it many times before, but this time it was different. This time God took you by surprise. He moved into your life with His power and you were changed inside. You’ve never been the same. With the psalmist, you can exclaim,

When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with joyful shouting; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad (Ps. 126:1-3).

B. Salvation fills us with exuberant joy because it is received instantly.

This man was healed instantly. Peter grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet and before he was upright, the strength pulsed through his feet and ankles. He didn’t have to go slow until he built up his weak leg muscles. He didn’t have to go for months of physical therapy to learn how to walk (remember, he had never walked before!). He not only could walk, he could leap, and leap he did, over and over again! He was instantly healed.

That’s how God saves a soul—instantly. There is no process of being born again. You are born again in a moment of time, even if you do not remember that moment (as I do not). You could walk into this church service as a person enslaved to some of the worst sins imaginable, get saved, and walk out a new creature in Christ Jesus. The instant that God changes your heart, you are changed forever.

This is a major difference between the Bible’s teaching on salvation and the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. They teach that justification is a process in which we cooperate with God’s grace. But in this life, we can never be sure that we are justified because we can never be sure that we have done enough. Thus our relatives need to pray for our souls after death and give money to the church, so that we will be able to get out of Purgatory, where we need to suffer for our sins.

But Scripture declares that God instantly justifies the one who has faith in Jesus’ death on his behalf. As Paul explains in Romans 4:4-5, “Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.”

The one who has been justified by God’s grace through faith cannot go on living as he formerly did. He is changed within, so that he begins to pursue a life that pleases God. There is no going back to the old ways. This man would never go back to his friends and say, “Please carry me to my begging spot. I miss my old life.” They would say, “You don’t have any reason to beg now.” With his healing came new responsibilities. All he knew was how to beg for a living, but now he had to learn to work for his keep.

The healing of God’s salvation brings new responsibilities. We can no longer excuse our sins. We must face them and deal with them God’s way. But that new way of life can be traced back to the instant that God imparted new life to us in Christ by His sovereign grace. One minute we were congenital spiritual cripples; the next minute, we could walk and leap for joy. The pivotal change in our standing before God took place in an instant.

C. Salvation fills us with exuberant joy because it is received completely.

When God saves us, He gives us the whole package. Like a man who inherits a fortune from an unexpected source, it all becomes his at once. It may take him a lifetime to explore it and to enjoy the benefits of it. But he possesses it all at once.

In Ephesians 1:3, Paul tells us that God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Second Peter 1:3 tells us that God’s “divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” It will take us all of this life and maybe all eternity to realize the abundant riches of God’s grace in Christ. But the point is, He poured it all on us at the moment of salvation. For this reason, we can now “greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Pet. 1:8).

3. The exuberant joy of our salvation should provide an entrance for the gospel with others.

I love this man’s unrestrained expression of joy! Imagine, leaping in the sacred temple precincts! How improper! Can’t you see the disapproving frowns as he shouted, “Hallelujah! Praise God! Glory to His name!” “Hey, keep it down! You’re interrupting other people’s prayers!” But he would say, “Don’t you realize, I have never walked before this day, but God healed me! Praise His holy name!” He couldn’t keep it to himself!

The people who knew this man’s sad past were amazed. Their amazement didn’t get them saved, but it did open them to listen to Peter’s sermon that followed, and God used that sermon to save 2,000 more (4:4). People need to hear the content of the gospel message and repent of their sins to be saved, but a testimony of how God saved someone who was hopelessly lost can open their hearts to listen. If you have received God’s mercy in Jesus Christ, then you can and must tell others. Your joy that comes from being saved should provide openings to tell the good news, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.

Conclusion

I used to have a friend, whom I’ve lost track of, named Glenn. He was saved while he was in Tehachapi Prison, doing five years to life for drug dealing. His godly mother was at home praying for her wayward son at the very moment that he wandered into the prison chapel and got saved. This man in Acts 3 reminds me of Glenn. He was totally exuberant and open about what God had done for him. If you were easily embarrassed, you would be uncomfortable knowing Glenn. He would walk into a crowded restaurant, see you across the room, and yell, “Praise the Lord, brother Steve!” Then, having everyone’s attention, he would hand out tracts at every table on his way across the restaurant, telling people, “God saved me while I was in prison. Here, read this. It will tell you how you can be saved.” He always used to say, “I’ve been forgiven much, so I love Jesus much.”

This story of the healing of the lame man should make each of us ask ourselves three questions: (1) Have I received God’s gift of healing for my soul through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? (2) If I have received Christ, does the joy in my life reflect what God has done for my soul? (3) Am I looking for opportunities to share the joy of new life in Christ with those around me who are spiritually crippled?

Discussion Questions

How can a chronically depressed Christian recover the joy of God’s salvation?
If salvation depends totally on God, should we exhort people to do all that they can to pursue it? Why? What can they do?
How can a person who grew up in a Christian home and was saved as a child feel the kind of joy of the person who is saved out of a horrible past? (Hint: Are we all forgiven much?)
Why is it crucial to understand the difference between the Reformed doctrine of salvation and the Roman Catholic view?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Related Topics: Character of God, Glory, Soteriology (Salvation)

Lesson 2: Doing Jesus’ Work (Acts 1:3-11)

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I hate working on cars, but sometimes I do it to save money. Invariably, I get to a point where it is impossible to do the job without some special tool. Recently, I had to replace a power door lock on my car. A guy working at the parts department at the Chevy dealer told me that you could pry the panel around the lock off easily with a screwdriver. He lied. The panel was held on by some clips that had to be removed from the inside. I later discovered that to get to these clips, you need a special tool. Some design engineer in Detroit, making six figures a year, devoting his entire time to designing a door panel with a part behind it that invariably will break, makes it impossible to fix without a special tool! It’s frustrating to try to do a job without the proper tools.

When our Lord left this earth, He gave the disciples (that includes us) a daunting task: to proclaim the good news of repentance for forgiveness of sins to the entire world (Luke 24:47). As we saw last week, the church is to continue to do and teach what Jesus began. But Jesus did not leave us without the tools that we need to do the job. Our text reveals four essential tools for doing Jesus’ work:

To do Jesus’ work, the church must have a solid foundation, sufficient power, a sharp focus, and a sure hope.

The solid foundation consists of the resurrection of Jesus and the message of His kingdom (1:3). The sufficient power is that of the Holy Spirit (1:4-5, 8). The sharp focus is the Great Commission (1:6-8). The sure hope is the second coming of Jesus Christ (1:9-11).

1. To do Jesus’ work, the church must have a solid foundation (1:3).

A. The resurrection of Jesus gives us a solid foundation for our work.

Luke emphasizes the factuality of the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection that He gave to His disciples over the 40-day period between His resurrection and ascension. This is the only verse that tells us how long this period was. Jesus gave the disciples “many convincing proofs.” One proof was the visual: He presented Himself alive. He appeared repeatedly to them. If it had only been one occasion, we could perhaps conclude that it was a vision or mass hallucination. But there were multiple appearances, some to individuals, some to the whole group, and not on one day only, but over 40 days. Furthermore, there was the proof of His teaching them. As Luke 24:45 puts it, “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” Besides this, He ate with them (“gathered together,” 1:4, may have the nuance of eating together). They knew that He was not a phantom when they saw Him eat a piece of broiled fish in their presence (Luke 24:42-43).

The bodily resurrection of Jesus is at the heart of the Christian faith. If He is not risen, our faith is in vain. We may as well become hedonists (1 Cor. 15:17, 19, 32). Jesus’ bodily resurrection proves His deity and it is our guarantee that God accepted Jesus’ death as the satisfactory payment for our sins. Jesus had claimed before His death that He would be raised. He claimed to be one with the Father, so much so that He could say, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). He told His disciples, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). If Jesus were not God, then these claims were blasphemy. God would not have raised a blasphemer from the dead. But God raised Jesus, proving His deity. Since Jesus is God, everything He taught was true. Thus we can and must trust and obey His teaching. What did Jesus teach?

B. Jesus’ teaching about His kingdom gives us a solid foundation for our work.

He spoke to the disciples “of the things concerning the kingdom of God” (1:3). The word “kingdom” occurs over 40 times in Luke’s Gospel and 8 times in Acts (here, 1:6; 8:12; 14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 31). Some would limit this to the future Millennial Kingdom, but I think that while it includes this, it also is broader than this. It refers to God’s sovereign rule over all that is (Ps. 103:19; Dan. 4:17, 25, 32), and more specifically, to the realm where He actually rules. In the latter sense, God’s kingdom was manifested through His elect nation, Israel, to the degree that they followed His covenant laws. This reached its apex under the reign of David and the early reign of Solomon, who were types of the reign of Messiah the King. The kingdom was present in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ (Luke 17:21). In the present age, the kingdom is spiritually manifested when Christ reigns in the hearts of His people, the church. But there is a future sense in which His kingdom will come in fulness and power when the King returns to judge the world and to reign on the throne of David.

When Jesus began to preach the gospel, Mark 1:15 summarizes His message as, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” There are some who would divorce the message of the gospel from the message of the kingdom. In other words, they say that you can accept Jesus as your Savior, but you do not have to accept Him as Lord until later, and even then it is optional! They also teach that repentance is not necessary to be saved; the only requirement is to believe in Jesus. But the Bible clearly connects repentance, faith, and the lordship (or kingship) of Jesus with the gospel.

Paul preached to the intellectual Athenians, “God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31). He reasoned with the Jews and sought to persuade them about the kingdom of God (19:8). He summed up his ministry as going about preaching the kingdom (20:25). He wasn’t discussing nuances of Bible prophecy. He was preaching the rightful lordship of Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, and returning in power and glory to judge the earth and rule in righteousness. He was urging his hearers to repent of their sins and submit to Jesus as King before they faced Him as judge.

Thus the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the message about His kingdom rule are the foundation of our work for the Lord. We must proclaim to people that Jesus died for their sins, that He was raised from the dead, that He now sits at the right hand of God, and that He is coming again in power to reign over all the earth.

2. To do Jesus’ work, the church must have sufficient power (1:4-5, 8).

The disciples still seemed to be thinking in terms of political power, of Jesus restoring Israel’s power as an earthly kingdom. Jesus did not correct them by saying, “Don’t you guys get it yet? My kingdom is not and never will be on this earth.” Someday Jesus will restore the kingdom to Israel. If the disciples had been mistaken on this crucial matter, surely Jesus would have corrected them here before He ascended. What Jesus corrected was not the fact of His future rule over Israel, but rather their desire to know the timing of it. Instead, He emphasized their need for spiritual power to accomplish the task that He was giving them, of being His witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Jesus told the disciples not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which they had heard from Him (John 14-16). The Pentecostals teach that we need to wait for a dramatic experience with the Holy Spirit, which they call the baptism of the Spirit. But they fail to see that Pentecost was a unique, sovereign act of God in history. The reason Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem was that in God’s timetable, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit was to coincide with the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, fifty days after Passover. Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks, was a time for Israel to offer to God the first fruits of their harvest (Lev. 23:15-21; Num. 28:26-31; Deut. 16:9-12). By His resurrection from the dead, Jesus became the first fruits of those who have died (1 Cor. 15:20, 23). Through the new birth, brought about by the Holy Spirit, we become the first fruits of His creation (James 1:18).

Before the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit empowered many of God’s people, but He did not permanently indwell every believer (Exod. 31:3; Ps. 51:11). John the Baptist had prophesied that Jesus would baptize His followers with the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16; John 1:33). The word “baptize” meant to immerse a person in water or to deluge him with it (I. Howard Marshall, Acts [IVP/ Eerdmans], p. 58). It has the main meaning of being totally identified with something, in this case, the Holy Spirit. The passive “be baptized with” indicates that God did the baptizing; the disciples merely received it. With reference to sending the Holy Spirit, Jesus told the disciples that the Spirit “abides with you, and will be in you” (John 14:17). On the Day of Pentecost, the disciples received the permanent indwelling of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

In the Book of Acts, this initial reception of the Spirit’s indwelling follows the pattern of Acts 1:8. In Acts 2, the believers in Jerusalem receive the Holy Spirit. In Acts 8 and 10, the new believers in Judea and Samaria receive the Spirit. In Acts 19, believers in Ephesus (the remotest parts of the earth) receive the Spirit. Since then, every Christian receives the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation (1 Cor. 12:13; Rom. 8:9; Gal. 3:2-5).

But although every Christian has received the Spirit, we still need continually and repeatedly to be filled with or controlled by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18). This is also referred to as walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16) and it results in the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, rather than the deeds of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-23). The power of the Spirit that we need for witnessing is not just the power to speak the gospel boldly and clearly. We also need the Spirit’s power to live holy lives. Our godly lives are the foundation for our verbal witness. If you are not denying ungodly lusts and growing in holiness (Titus 2:12), then please do not tell anyone that you are a Christian, because your life will bring disgrace to the name of Christ. I am not saying that you must be perfect before you bear witness. I am saying that you must be walking in the Holy Spirit, seeking to please God with your life, and forsaking all known sin.

The power for verbal witness is not identical with being an effective salesman. An effective salesman may be able to talk someone into making a decision for Christ, but only God can impart new life to a dead sinner. We need to be clear and persuasive when we present the facts about Christ and the gospel, but the power to save a sinner lies with the Holy Spirit, not with us. Thus we cannot witness effectively for Christ unless we rely upon the Holy Spirit to produce godliness in our daily lives and to use our verbal witness as we have opportunity.

Thus, to do Jesus’ work, we need the solid foundation of Jesus’ resurrection and the message of His kingdom. We need the sufficient power of the Holy Spirit.

3. To do Jesus’ work, the church must have a sharp focus (1:6-8).

The disciples ask Jesus if it is at this time that He is restoring the kingdom to Israel. He replies, in a nice way, “That’s none of your business. Your job is to be My witnesses in every part of the world.” In other words, our focus is not to be on prophetic timetables, but on the Great Commission.

Commentators are quick to jump on the disciples for focusing on the earthly kingdom of Israel, whereas Jesus’ focus was on His spiritual kingdom. But this is to miss the point. Jesus did not correct the notion that He would someday restore the kingdom to Israel. He corrected their concern about when it would happen. He redirected their focus to the great task of the present age, to bear witness of Jesus Christ to all peoples.

Donald Grey Barnhouse calls the amillennial view (that God is through with the Jews as a people and that there will not be a future kingdom on earth) “one of the greatest heresies that men can promulgate” (Acts [Zondervan], p. 20). On the other side, I read this week from a web site called “Dispensational Dementia,” that dispensationalism is a terrible heresy that denies the gospel. I think that both Barnhouse and the anti-dispensationalists are greatly overstating their criticisms! There are godly Bible scholars who hold to all of the major views (pre-, post-, and a-millennial) of Bible prophecy. As long as they affirm the bodily second coming of Jesus Christ in power and glory, there is room for difference of opinion, and we must be charitable to those who disagree with us. While it is both necessary and profitable to study the prophetic portions of Scripture and to try to fit them into a consistent eschatology, we need to take heed to our Lord’s warning here. We should not get so caught up with our views of prophecy that we neglect the clear mandate of the Great Commission.

Jesus says that it is not for us to know the times or epochs. Times is the Greek word chronos, and refers to any length of time. It includes the other word, kairos, which means opportune moments or critical, epoch-making periods (R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament [Eerdmans], p. 211). Thus the Reformation or the great missionary movement of the past 200 years would be “epochs.” All such movements are already fixed by the Father by His own authority. This should give us great comfort, not only that history is under God’s sovereign control and plan, but that it is the Father who is our Sovereign! Thus whether we live in an age of intense persecution for our faith or in an age of revival, we can know that the loving Father is in sovereign control.

Note also that our witness must extend towards people that our culture (and even we, by virtue of being raised in our culture) may despise. The disciples were to be witnesses in Jerusalem, where Jesus had just been rejected and brutally, unjustly killed. They were also to bear witness in Samaria. The Jews hated the Samaritans and vice versa! But they were to go into Samaria. Beyond that, they were to go to the remotest parts of the earth. Perhaps the disciples at first thought that they were to go to the Jews who were scattered abroad. But they soon learned that the same gospel that converts Jews works on Gentiles! Even so, we must take the gospel to people we may not naturally like or be drawn to, remembering that it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe (Rom. 1:16).

One final observation on verse 8: the disciples were to be Christ’s witnesses. Is this a command or a prophecy? Both! There is a sense in which every Christian is a witness. The question is, are we effective witnesses or are we a hindrance to the cause of Christ? The word “witness” is a major theme in Acts, occurring 39 times. Since it is the Lord’s command and since we cannot escape being witnesses of some sort, it behooves us to seek by our godly lives and by our clear verbal witness to bring glory to Jesus Christ.

Thus to do Jesus’ work, we need the tools of a solid foundation in the resurrection of Jesus and the message of His kingdom. We need the sufficient power of the Holy Spirit. We need the sharp focus of the Great Commission.

4. To do Jesus’ work, the church must have a sure hope (1:9-11).

Luke succinctly repeats the story of Jesus’ ascension, which he told at the end of his gospel. The cloud that received Jesus out of their sight was probably the Shekinah glory of God. As the disciples, quite naturally, stood gazing up into the sky at this unusual sight, two men in white clothing, probably angels, suddenly stood beside them and in effect said, “Quit gazing into heaven and get on with what Jesus told you to do. He will return in just the same way as you saw Him leave, bodily, with power and glory.” Thus the certainty of Jesus’ ascension as witnessed by the apostles guarantees the certainty of His bodily return. If we know for sure that Jesus is coming back, we will be obedient to the work He gave us to do.

Before He comes, the gospel must first be preached to all the nations (Matt. 24:14; Mark 13:10). Our ability to carry out the Lord’s missionary mandate depends on the fact that Jesus is exalted to the right hand of God, where He possesses all power and authority (Matt. 28:18-20; Eph. 1:19-23). As we saw when we studied Jesus’ ascension in Luke 24, it not only means that He has all power and authority, but also that He has made one offering for sins for all time (Heb. 10:12-13). Thus we can confidently proclaim forgiveness of sins in His name to everyone who repents and believes in Him. His place at the Father’s right hand also means that He is interceding for His saints. Thus we can be assured of His care for us when we suffer persecution for the sake of the gospel. The fact that He is coming again and we must give an account to Him should also motivate us to be faithful to the mission He has entrusted to us.

Conclusion

To carry on Jesus’ work, He has left us with these tools: (1) the solid foundation of His resurrection and the message of His kingdom; (2) the sufficient power of His Holy Spirit; (3) the sharp focus of the Great Commission; and, (4) the sure hope of His coming again. They are simple and yet powerfully effective tools.

In 1941, the great Welsh preacher, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, spoke to a large audience of students at an Anglican church in Oxford. He preached to them as he would have preached anywhere else. After the meeting, it was announced that if anyone had questions, they could come to a room at the back of the church and ask Dr. Lloyd-Jones. He expected just a few, but the room was packed. A bright young student immediately got up and phrased his question with all the grace and polish of a union debater. He complimented the preacher, but then said that he had one great difficulty. He didn’t see but how the sermon might not equally have been delivered to a congregation of farm laborers. The intellectual crowd roared with laughter.

Lloyd-Jones replied that he could not see the difficulty, in that he regarded undergraduates and indeed graduates of Oxford University as just ordinary, common human sinners like everybody else, and that they had the same needs as farm laborers or anyone else. Thus he had preached quite deliberately just as he had done! He also drew a laugh and from then on had the full attention of everyone there. He goes on to say, “There is no greater fallacy than to think that you need a gospel for special types of people” (Iain Murray, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones [Banner of Truth], 2:pp. 76-77).

The point is, whether you are a farm laborer or a Ph.D., there is one and only one message that will save you from sin and God’s judgment: the gospel that Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead, and that He is coming again to judge the living and the dead. In light of that truth, all men everywhere must repent. If you have believed that gospel and if you will rely on the Holy Spirit’s power, you can tell it to a farm laborer or to a Ph.D., and God will use it mightily according to His purpose. He has given us the tools that we need. Our task is to use these tools to do the work that Jesus began.

Discussion Questions

Is it wrong or necessary to tell a sinner that he must accept Jesus not only as Savior, but also as Lord? Why?
How can we use the fact of Jesus’ resurrection in bearing witness?
We must rely on the Spirit’s power when we witness, but we also must use persuasion (Acts 28:23; 2 Cor. 5:11). Where’s the balance? Can we err by using too much persuasion?
Is it possible to be too caught up with the study of biblical prophecy? If so, how would we know it?

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation

Related Topics: Ecclesiology (The Church)

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Lesson 22: Prescription For A Healthy Church (1 Peter 5:1-5)

1. In a healthy church, the elders will shepherd the flock (5:1-4).

A. The requirement for shepherding is a close personal experience with Christ (5:1).

B. The responsibility of shepherding is to exercise oversight with the right attitude (5:2-3).

(1) “Not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God” (5:2)

(2) “Not for sordid gain, but with eagerness” (5:2)

(3) “Nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock” (5:3)

C. The reward for shepherding is the unfading crown of glory (5:4).

2. In a healthy church, the flock will submit to the elders (5:5a).

3. In a healthy church, everyone will relate to one another in a spirit of humility (5:5b).

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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Lesson 23: Growing Solid Through Suffering (1 Peter 5:6-14)

1. To grow solid through suffering, humble yourself before God (5:6-7).

2. To grow solid through suffering, resist the devil (5:8-9).

3. To grow solid through suffering, trust the sovereign Lord (5:10-11).

4. To grow solid through suffering, stand firm with other saints in God’s true grace (5:12-14).

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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Lesson 1: The Church: Continuing What Jesus Began (Acts 1:1, 2)

1. Christ’s work was to bring salvation to a lost human race.

2. Christ’s work is to continue through His obedient church.

3. Christ’s work continues as He works through:

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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From the series: Acts PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

Lesson 4: The Meaning of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13)

1. God’s plan for being glorified among the nations was to form the church.

2. The scope of God’s plan is all the nations.

3. The necessary power for fulfilling God’s plan is His Holy Spirit.

4. The goal of God’s plan is that He will be glorified among the nations.

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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From the series: Acts PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

Lesson 5: The Sermon that Launched the Church (Acts 2:14-41)

1. Joel prophesied about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that you have just witnessed (2:14-21).

A. In the last days, God will pour forth of His Spirit on all flesh (2:17-18).

B. This outpouring of the Spirit will be followed by a time of terrible judgment (2:19-20).

C. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (2:21).

2. God authenticated Jesus as both Lord and Christ (2:22-36).

A. God authenticated Jesus as Lord and Christ through His miracles (2:22).

B. God authenticated Jesus as Lord and Christ through His death (2:23).

C. God authenticated Jesus as Lord and Christ through His resurrection (2:24-32).

D. God authenticated Jesus as Lord and Christ through His exaltation and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (2:33-36).

3. The crowd’s response and Peter’s application (2:37-41).

A. The crowd responds with conviction (2:37).

B. Peter applies the message: Repentance, baptism, and promise (2:38-40).

C. The result: 3,000 souls saved (2:41).

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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From the series: Acts PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

Lesson 7: A Life of Joy and Gladness (Acts 2:25-28)

1. Joy and gladness come from continually knowing God’s presence.

A. Joy and gladness are exemplified in Jesus.

B. Joy and gladness result from continually cultivating God’s presence in our lives.

2. Joy and gladness come from being conformed to God’s holiness.

3. Joy and gladness come from the certain hope of God’s raising our bodies so that we can eternally dwell with Him.

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

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From the series: Acts PREVIOUS PAGE | NEXT PAGE

Lesson 8: How to Receive God’s Forgiveness (Acts 2:37-38)

1. To receive God’s forgiveness we must repent of our sins.

A. Repentance is not optional for salvation.

B. Repentance means turning from a life of sin to Jesus as Savior and Lord.

C. Repentance requires seeing who Jesus is.

D. Repentance requires being convicted of how terrible our sins are in God’s sight.

2. To receive God’s forgiveness, we must obediently believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

A. Saving faith is always obedient faith.

B. Baptism is a basic step of obedient faith in Jesus Christ.

C. Saving faith and baptism are an individual matter.