INTRODUCTION
Today, we start a new four-part series called “More to The Story.” This series is designed to examine some of the events that followed Jesus's resurrection and ascension. We’ll look in the books of Acts for these key events. Today, we’ll look at the message preached after the events of the resurrection.
Some find it difficult to enter into a relationship with God. They are sort of like the boy whose hand got caught inside an expensive vase. His upset parents applied soap suds and cooking oil without success. When they seemed ready to break the vase as the only way to release the hand, the frightened boy cried, “Would it help if I let loose of the penny I’m holding?”
So it is all too often with us. We cause ourselves and others great anguish and risk the truly valuable because we will not let go of the insignificant things we possess today. We miss the more abundant life just ahead because we are stuck in the moment.
Post-resurrection, the disciples and followers of Jesus began to understand what He meant when He said He came to give us life more abundantly. Peter now understood what Jesus meant and how to get there, and so he preached the first message.
SCRIPTURAL REFERENCE
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.
15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.
16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
17 “ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
25 For David says concerning him, “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope.
27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 35 until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
SCRIPTURAL ANALYSIS
Peter’s first sermon was his best. Aside from Jesus’ sermons, it is perhaps the greatest sermon ever preached. Greatest because of the place it occupies in the history of redemption as it is the inaugural sermon of the age of grace. Greatest by its pure results (there were 3,000 converts) and greatest by virtue of its being a model for preaching. That it was even a good sermon is amazing because Peter had committed the greatest denial of Christ in history just fifty days earlier. It was great because it was a simple proclamation and example of The Gospel.
VERSES 14-16
Luke is true to his intention in Luke 1: to record what Jesus continued to do and teach. Verses 14–16 form the introduction to Peter’s sermon, marking the transition from the Spirit-filled utterance of the Christians to Peter’s explanation of the event. Peter stood up along with the eleven other apostles. Peter, no longer afraid to own his Lord, stands up to speak to those gathered to witness the amazing phenomena that had been manifested in Pentecost.
Peter began with a rebuttal of their accusation of drunkenness, which was a reaction to the events of Pentecost. Instead of being drunk, the believers were experiencing what was described in Joel 2. In Peter’s words, this is what was spoken by the Prophet Joel.
VERSES 17-21
Joel’s prophecy was originally given after a locust plague had ravaged the land, creating a severe famine. Joel called the people to repentance, promising the restoration of their prosperity and going on to foresee the coming of the Day of the Lord, the dawn of the messianic age when the Spirit would be poured out on all of Israel. Joel undoubtedly had seen the Spirit’s outpouring only as a gift to Israel, and perhaps many of those Jewish Christians at Pentecost saw it the same way. Pentecost was not the fulfillment of Joel 2 but only a sneak preview of coming attractions.
When Joel first spoke these words, the prophet saw it as a warning, in the light of which he called on the people to repent. Repentance, he said, would be met by forgiveness; rain would fall on the land; wheat and oil would abound; and “after these things,” God would pour out his Spirit, not on a few, but on all people. Peter is saying this should not be a surprise as God had already said that the Spirit can inspire them to speak languages they do not know and prophesy the word of the Lord in their own language, which is what happened at Pentecost.
VERSES 22-36
Acts 2:22–36 is the heart of Peter’s sermon. It begins with an introductory summary of God’s action in Christ's ministry, death, and resurrection. Jesus’ miracles, Peter said, were God’s way of verifying Jesus’ claims to you, the Jews. Peter tells them their problem: sin. Acts 2:22, “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” Peter tells them that they are responsible for Jesus’ death. His miracles and teachings verified Jesus, yet He was rejected. Their basic problem, he says, is that their sin of rejecting Christ has cut them off from God. Their sin had nailed Jesus, an innocent man, to the cross. Peter then publically proclaims for the first time the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection of the Lord is a basic doctrine in Acts. Death was impossible to keep its hold on the Messiah.
Peter says they are at fault, and God was at work. In the paradox of divine sovereignty and human freedom, Jesus died due to deliberate human decisions made in exercising their God-given freedom of choice. The Jewish crowd at Pentecost could not avoid their responsibility in Jesus’ death. Nonetheless, in the mystery of the divine will, God was working in these events of willful human rebellion to bring about his eternal purposes, bringing out of the tragedy of the cross the triumph of the resurrection. The Jews were not alone in their responsibility for Jesus’ death, however. They worked through the agency of “lawless men,” a term used by Jews to designate Gentiles. Peter answers the question, is God sovereign, or is a man free, with a resounding yes to both.
God is sovereign, yet man is responsible. God’s will is worked out, yet man is held accountable. In the words of J. B. Phillips, “If God were small enough for us to figure out, He wouldn’t be big enough for us to worship.”
VERSES 37-41
These verses contain the application of Peter’s sermon. This is a strong affirmation of Christ’s deity. If the Jews had crucified their Messiah, and He was now exalted, what was left for them to do? What could and must they do? Peter’s answer was forthright. They were to repent. This verb means “change your outlook” or “have a change of heart; reverse the direction of your life.” This obviously results in a change of conduct, but the emphasis is on the mind or outlook. The Jews had rejected Jesus; now they were to trust in Him. Repentance was repeatedly part of the apostles’ message in Acts. Repentance for the Judeans involved rejecting their former attitudes and opinions concerning who Jesus was. In faith, they had to accept Him for who He declared Himself to be while on earth, a declaration that was confirmed by His resurrection and ascension. The result of this repentance: the gift of the Holy Spirit is God’s promise to those who turn to the Lord.
TODAY’S KEY TRUTH
The First Word of The Gospel is Repentance.
The first sermon of the church was just a few minutes long. It was preached by a hot-headed guy who repeatedly stuck his foot in his mouth. But the result was that 3,000 people became Christians. When Peter explained what had occurred in Christ's life and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the people who had gathered asked an important question, one we should all ask: “What shall we do?”
There are two important questions we should be able to answer in life. First, Jesus asked of His disciples and also asked of us. When He was walking with them in Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked them, “Who do you say that I am?” This is a question of significance because our whole destiny depends on how we answer that question. The second question we must answer is what they asked of Peter here, “What shall we do?” No matter how correct a person's belief may be, a wrong answer to this question will lead to eternal tragedy. And Satan has worked his hardest to bring confusion to the minds of people when it comes to this question.
We all know there have been a plethora of wrong answers to this question over the centuries. To clarify the question, we need to go back to Peter’s comments in the first sermon. The Bible says they were pierced to the heart after they heard from Peter. The Greek word here depicts something sudden and unexpected that stunned them. They realized that their guilt and behavior before God had indicted them.
They realized they had crucified their Messiah. They had been looking forward to the Messiah for centuries, and now they came to the realization that the One whom they had hoped for they had now executed. Instead of welcoming Him when He walked among them, they had instead rejected Him. They now had fear of the Messiah’s wrath. Peter told them, unquestionably, that the Jesus they had killed was now alive. They were devastated by what they had done. They realized there was no way they could undo what they had done. I think all of us know how that can happen in our lives.
What happens to us when we come to a place where we have done something wrong? If we do not have a dead conscience, when conviction comes, then we begin to feel guilty. That is where those who had heard from Peter came on their journey. Overwhelmed with anguish, despair, remorse, and guilt, they asked Peter what we should do. An indictment of sin is important in any presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Without conviction, one will never see the need for a Savior. So they ask Peter what they must do, and he responds. You must repent.
Repentance is the Greek word that means a changing of purpose, a complete change of the direction one is heading and going the opposite way. A person who is truly repentant hates what they have done strongly. They hate sin because they know it to be an affront to God. False repentance dreads the consequences of sin, while true repentance dreads sin itself. A person who is truly repentant forsakes their sin, turns, and is committed to Jesus Christ. Repentance is an important and essential part of a genuine conversion. You cannot be a Christian without being repentant.
The Holy Spirit is ready and able to convict you of sin so that you will be able to walk in the beauty of His holiness. He was given to stand with you as A Helper and Comforter. He will take all things of Christ and make them precious to you. He is able to empower you as He did those disciples of the 1st century. The Spirit is ready to do His work in you. If you want to live a life as world-changing as the disciples, if we want a church that impacts the world as the early church did, then belief in Christ followed by repentance is a necessity for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit, there is nothing that cannot be accomplished. The Holy Spirit comes to us through repentance.
The First Word of The Gospel is Repentance
CONCLUSION
The first words preached by John the Baptist were repent. The first words Jesus preached were repent. The first words proclaimed by the church were repent. That is not coincidental. Repentance is the key element of true faith and the first step to peace with God. Repentance is a serious matter. To be used by God in mighty and marvelous ways, repentance must come first. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit relies on a repentant heart. It requires a serious heart and a serious commitment.
There is a great difference between repentance and remorse. When Judas Iscariot betrayed the Lord, he was overwhelmed by remorse and hanged himself. When Simon Peter denied the Lord, he wept bitter tears of repentance. The remorseful sinner runs and hides from Jesus as Adam and Eve did from God; the penitent sinner flees to Jesus as Peter did.
The First Word of The Gospel is Repentance
The Bible does not treat repentance lightly or as an option. The Bible calls for genuine repentance. Genuine repentance involves a change of mind. It is exchanging a mind focused on self and the flesh and having a mind focused on God. Genuine repentance involves a change of affections. A repentant person loves God first and last. A genuinely repentant person has no other loyalties but God. No person who is in love with the things of the world, material possessions, or the flesh can truly be repentant. Genuine repentance involves a change of will.
People are resistant to the process of repentance for two reasons. First, they think that repentance means they should never struggle with sin again. That’s not true. Even as a repentant Christian, you, me, and everyone will continue to struggle with sin. It may be a particular sin you struggle with regularly. You don’t overcome your sin, then come to Jesus to repent. You come to Jesus by repentance, and through a process of molding and shaping, He overcomes that sin in you. The second reason people are resistant to repentance is because they believe their sin has uniquely taken them beyond the reach of God’s grace. In other words, they sinned too often and terribly and went too far. The man preaching this sermon in Acts had denied Jesus after being told he would. You have never gone too far. God’s grace is greater than your sin.
The First Word of The Gospel is Repentance
A genuine repentant person declares:
I will turn and fight against my sins.
I will follow the teachings of my King.
I will love Him with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength, and all my mind.
I will follow Him despite persecution, trials, and troubles.
And I will endure until my final breath.