Acts Chapter 2 Verses 18 – 21

• Welcome to the New Covenant! Sacrifices?  Baptisms?  Circumcisions?  Burnt offerings?  Unleavened breads?  Nothing is required now…the only requirement now is that you would call upon the name of the Lord!  That doesn’t mean to dial God up and order a pizza…to call upon the name of the Lord is to place your faith in the finished work of the cross…where sin was dealt with finally and completely!!  One step further…to call upon the name of the Lord is to make the finished work of the cross MATTER in YOUR life!!  You may be intrigued, you may even believe it happened, you may even understand and comprehend why it happened and what the cross accomplished, but DOES IT MATTER?  That is to call upon His name…

Acts Chapter 2 Verses 22 – 24

• This is cool! What Peter just said is fantastic!  Extreme!  Intense!  He said that God through Jesus loosed the pains of death!  Here’s the thing though…what the Bible does not say is that the pains of death (and think of that as “assurity and finality of fate” – “every man’s destination,” because that word for “pains” is the same as birth pangs which mean there is an inevitable outcome) but the Word of God is so amazing, so cool, what the text did not just say is that the finality of fate of death was loosed (dissolved, destroyed) for Jesus…it simply says it was loosed!
• That is awesome! I missed it the first couple of times just reading and studying through but the fact is and the message left for us here wonderfully and strategically by the Spirit speaking through Peter is this…the defeat of death is done!  Jesus dissolved the inevitability of the grave for all of mankind!  And why?  Because there was a man in the grave, and yet the grave had no authority over Him.  Why?  Because He was a man that was without sin!

Acts Chapter 2 Verses 25 – 27

• Peter is trying to show them that this Psalm, written by David, which they to this point may have assumed was about David, could not have been! Verse 28 maybe but definitely not verse 27!  Take a look…

Acts Chapter 2 Verses 28 – 31

• In this scene and the few previous scenes which were all encapsulated within the span of minutes, Peter has quoted Psalm 69, Psalm 109, Joel Chapter 2, and Psalm 16. Does he have his iPhone out?  A pile of scrolls under his arms?  All of this he is quoting from   I’ll go a step further.  All of this he is quoting from understanding.  What good is memorization if you have the wrong understanding or application?  What’s my point?  Men and women that are used mightily by God, if you want to have eyes to see, ears to hear and a life that is on-point usable?  You have to know the scriptures. 
• Not head knowledge! Head knowledge is, by itself, annoying and worse than useless because it will puff you up and make you think that you know something when you know nothing as you ought to know.  Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 8, “We know that we all have knowledge.  Knowledge puffs up but love edifies.  And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.  But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.”  That’s the one that has entered into knowing/understanding…
• And so memorization is good…but to what end? Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12 that he would rather speak 5 words with understanding then ten thousands of words with a tongue.  Peter is not just regerging memorized verses but his understanding is being unlocked by the work of the Holy Spirit and therefore he is able to apply the Word of God correctly to what is going on in his life today, right then and there and the result which you’ll see in just a moment is thousands coming closer to God, even to salvation!!

Acts Chapter 2 Verses 32 – 36

• Not very seeker friendly, eh? Peter just, in effect, preached the first sermon of the church we have recorded in all of history and it’s fantastically remarkable!  Delicioso!  I have no idea why I said that, I just love the way that sounds!  HA!  He begins with scripture…prophecy…links it all to Jesus and makes Jesus the center of attention.  The main attraction!  He then speaks of His birth, life, death and resurrection…reveals the deity of Jesus Christ (the most quoted Psalm in all of scripture – 25 times) and finishes with a call to repentance!!
• A solid teaching, containing all of the elements necessary for folks to hear the truth, receive the truth and be set free by the truth! Some would seek to rewrite this sermon to speak of God wanting you to be happy…wanting you healthy and wealthy…but a sermon is not a sermon until the scriptures are opened, Jesus is preached and folks are called to get to Him!! 
• The result? Everyone walked out…nope…I think that…my flesh says that and many pastors and Bible teachers struggle with this but listen you who teach at church or serve at church or go to church (that’s all of y’all) – how will you know that this Jesus is the one spoken of by the scriptures if the scriptures aren’t the tool of preaching?  And how will you know that Jesus can feel what you’re feeling, right where you’re at right now and doesn’t spit in your general direction because of your hurt if you don’t hear about Him being born a man and living amongst us…and how will you know the price and penalty and weight of sin unless you hear of His death of which He in no way was deserving and in no way was defeated by…and how will you know of His deity and His discriminatory details (things that set Him apart from all others) if you don’t hear of His rising from the grave!  And how will you know what to do with all of this informative stuff unless one was to call you to understanding?  (I could have said repentance and salvation but “understanding” is the same thing…)
• My people perish…God said in Hosea 4:6, “My people, my children, my creation, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” I want to bring the Word alive, I want to be funny and interesting and ridiculously fantastic in terms of entertaining…but I know…and you need to as well…it’s simply not a sermon without the truth of Jesus preached relentlessly and without apology…

Acts Chapter 2 Verse 37

• Quickly, two things I want to note here. First, the message pulls no punches and covers the essentials of the gospel and the result, note this, the response is…the people begged for the alter call!  The point of every preacher and the target of every Bible teacher should not be to impart wisdom of life or secrets of psychology…those things last for a night but sorrow comes in the morning…the purpose is to free people unto Christ…
• Second, you can have an awesome teacher, but unless you are an awesome student then the result is going to be less than awesome! Isn’t that stupid!?  HA!  But it is SO true!!  Does the Word matter to you!

Acts Chapter 2 Verse 38 – 39

• Peter responds by saying, “Repent,” which is to say, “Believe,” “Change,” “Leave where you are today and MOVE towards truth – FACE truth,” and, “Be baptized in the name of Jesus.” Literally what he said is for them to be baptized into Jesus…relationship with Him.  And the gift of the down payment will be delivered…the indwelling presence of God Himself…in accordance with your return call.
• Did you notice that? In verse 21, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” and then here in verse 39, “The Promise is to as many as the Lord our God will call.”  There is a call that has gone out to all of you…a call through Jesus Christ and it is the responsibility of man to respond…No response, no salvation.

Acts Chapter 2 Verse 40

• I LOVE this word in the Greek because it truly unlocks so much more than the English does. In the Greek, the word for “Perverse” is skolios and it means crooked, out of place, unfair and untoward…this world is “untoward” God…period…and repentance is to turn toward God…I love that!

Acts Chapter 2 Verses 41 – 47

• They studied the Word, they shared life, they broke bread and they prayed together…and what was the result? Praise, favor (with all of the people), gladness (a word for joy…not ever used in secular writings because this joy is no known) and simplicity of heart!  Literally this means singleness of heart…not conflicted, not confused, just simple…aphelotes…a word used only one single time in all of the scriptures…a purity of simplicity!
• Oh how we have made things so difficult when simply loving God and loving each other…putting God first and putting others second and taking self and entrusting that part to God, truly the result is a heart of praise, a life of favor and a faith that is filled with the ease of simplicity!! I’m all in on that!  The thing is though, will any of this profit you personally…will any of this matter for you…or will you stay right where you were when you arrived in the presence of the King…