Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] I want to brag on our church for a minute, if you'll let me.
[00:00:09] Maybe you notice them, maybe you don't, but this church has the best safety team of any church in Northeastern Ohio.
[00:00:25] They quietly and alertly positioned themselves all over the church to keep us safe.
[00:00:36] And last week I had a problem, as you might have recognized. And our safety team helped me get right through it. And I want to say a special thank you to Mark and Dave for their kindness.
[00:00:58] I also want to say a personal thank you to everybody who served for Love Week Church.
[00:01:06] We are showing a cynical world the goodness of God.
[00:01:16] Our culture loves to think the worst of the church.
[00:01:20] They love to point out our failures and our mistakes.
[00:01:24] They love to imply that we're a little under educated.
[00:01:31] But when Christ is at work in us, we are at work with him in the world to help needy people. And that's exactly what you did this week. And I want you to know Christ is so proud of you.
[00:01:51] Our dear Heavenly Father, you loved the church and gave yourself for it.
[00:02:02] When you knew our flaws, when you knew our brokenness, when you knew our inconsistencies, you loved us and gave yourself for us.
[00:02:19] And now I pray that we can come to know the church the way you want us to know it, and we can feel about the church the way you feel about the church.
[00:02:32] And I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:02:36] We're studying Acts, Chapter two, the origin of the church on the day of Pentecost.
[00:02:43] And I shared with you last week that on the day of pentecost, pentecost means 50, 50 days after the Passover.
[00:02:54] God radically changed how he works in the world.
[00:03:00] Before Pentecost, he worked primarily in the Old Testament church, in the temple, in the priesthood, through the office of prophets and Kings.
[00:03:13] If you read the Old Testament, that's primarily how God worked in the Old Testament.
[00:03:19] But when Jesus came, that changed everything.
[00:03:26] And instead of God saying, I work exclusively through one nation and one place, he said, now I'm going to work through every nation and in every place.
[00:03:43] In the Old Testament, God worked primarily through male priests.
[00:03:48] But Peter quoted Joel and he said, in the last days, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy.
[00:04:05] God is at work in the church not just through an exclusive club of men, but he's at work in the church through a universal group of men and women filled with his spirit and ready to share his message.
[00:04:26] Now Peter continues his sermon this week starting at verse 22.
[00:04:32] Men of Israel, hear these Words.
[00:04:36] 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 yourself know.
[00:04:52] Now I want to recapture this image in your mind.
[00:04:55] It's the day of Pentecost.
[00:04:57] People have come from all over the Mediterranean world to worship at the temple.
[00:05:04] They're celebrating God's blessing on their business.
[00:05:09] When it was an agrarian culture, you would bring a loaf of bread and you would burn it on the altar to say, I recognize that my farm did good, better this year because God blessed me.
[00:05:22] But as it grew out of an agrarian culture, it became more of. I recognize that God has blessed me in my business this year, and I'm acknowledging that on the day of Pentecost.
[00:05:34] Do you hear this?
[00:05:36] There was a day every year in the Old Testament church where people took stock of how their business and how their economic life was. And based on that, they gave God a special offering that said, I acknowledge that my life is better because you bless me.
[00:05:59] Ah, we do that every Sunday. It's called tithes and offerings.
[00:06:03] All right.
[00:06:05] Ah, thousands of people are gathered together.
[00:06:12] All of a sudden, something happens that captures everybody's attention.
[00:06:18] There is the sound of a mighty roaring wind.
[00:06:25] And this sound focuses on the place where the apostles are.
[00:06:31] And then all of a sudden, Luke says that on hovering over the heads of all these Christians who was a little flame of fire.
[00:06:42] And they all began to praise and glorify God.
[00:06:49] And the people who heard them, they all heard in the native language that they were born with.
[00:06:57] So if you were from Rome, you heard it in Latin.
[00:07:00] If you were from Egypt, you heard it in Coptic.
[00:07:04] If you were from Athens, you heard it in Greek. Everybody heard them speaking in. In the language, their native language. And they heard them praising and glorifying God.
[00:07:18] Well, there's always a group in the bunch that has to be jerks.
[00:07:23] And somebody started saying, these guys are a bunch of drunks.
[00:07:29] And Peter stood up and said, what's wrong with you?
[00:07:33] Nobody here is drunk. This is a fulfillment of the promise of. Of Joel from 300, 835 years before Christ.
[00:07:44] And then Peter said, all of this is connected to Jesus of Nazareth.
[00:07:53] Peter said, you can't understand the church without understanding Jesus.
[00:08:01] Now, please listen. The church is different than every other organization in. In. In the world.
[00:08:09] I told you last week, there are a lot of good organizations, and they do a lot of good things, and the world is better off because of them. But there is no organization in the world that can take the place of the Church because we are the only organization that is the body of Christ.
[00:08:29] We're the only ones.
[00:08:31] So when Peter wants to explain the Church to people from all over the Roman Empire, he. He starts with Jesus Christ.
[00:08:40] And this is what he said.
[00:08:43] I want you to think about Jesus of Nazareth. A man attested to you by God.
[00:08:52] This word attested is not very often used in English, but it can also be translated demonstrated.
[00:09:01] God demonstrated something to humanity in Jesus Christ, Jesus that he didn't demonstrate in any other way.
[00:09:10] You will never learn from anyone else what you can learn from Jesus Christ. He is the demonstration of something unique about God.
[00:09:23] The Church is what it is because God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.
[00:09:31] God was in Christ saying to all of us who had lost our way, your heavenly Father is reaching out to you and calling you home.
[00:09:45] Ah.
[00:09:46] God did things in Christ that demonstrate his divine power and knowledge.
[00:09:54] His mighty works, wonders and signs that God did through him.
[00:09:59] I'm going to look at each one of these.
[00:10:03] The word mighty works is also a word for unique ability.
[00:10:14] In Jesus Christ, God shows his unique ability to do and to teach things that only God can do and teach.
[00:10:27] You see?
[00:10:29] Ah.
[00:10:30] Do you ever watch a cooking show?
[00:10:33] Anyone?
[00:10:36] Ah, alright.
[00:10:40] You have to be able to cook to do a cooking show.
[00:10:48] Trust me, if I did a cooking show, it would not make tv.
[00:10:55] Unless it's one of those shows where the worst cooks in America or whatever.
[00:11:00] It just makes sense. If you're gonna do a cooking show, you have to be able to cook.
[00:11:05] All right, now listen to what this is saying.
[00:11:09] If you're gonna be. If you're gonna claim to be God, you have to have the ability to do God things.
[00:11:18] Jesus claimed to be God and he lived a life that showed he had the ability to do God things.
[00:11:28] I could give you a whole list of them, but instead, why don't you read the Gospels? You'll be fascinated yourself.
[00:11:36] The second word is marvelous works.
[00:11:40] This is the idea of something that is so unique that it causes you to marvel.
[00:11:48] Ah.
[00:11:49] It's something you don't see every day.
[00:11:52] It's something that is so unique, when you see it, you go, wow, was that special When Christ lived among us, day after day, he went around village after village doing things that people say people saw and said.
[00:12:14] That is incredibly marvelous.
[00:12:17] Do you hear this?
[00:12:19] Ah. Ah. Ah. I love to tell Jesus stories.
[00:12:24] There was a.
[00:12:27] There was a small town near Nazareth and the name of it was Nain. It was just a small village and Jesus and his disciples were walking by it one day.
[00:12:40] And just as they were walking by, a small funeral came out the front gates of the village.
[00:12:51] Maybe a dozen people.
[00:12:55] It was easy to recognize the mother of the young man who had died.
[00:13:02] She was a wreck.
[00:13:04] She was a widow.
[00:13:06] This was her only son.
[00:13:11] And Jesus walked up and put his hand on the stretcher and said, stop, please.
[00:13:21] They stopped.
[00:13:24] They set the stretcher down.
[00:13:28] Out of the power of God to create life, Christ took that dead young man's hand, gripped it, raised him up to life and gave him back to his mother.
[00:13:47] A marvelous thing.
[00:13:50] Do you understand this? A marvelous thing.
[00:13:54] No one who saw that could ever seek the same about Jesus Christ after it.
[00:14:02] God proves something about his ability in Christ. God proves something about his power in Christ.
[00:14:11] But God also did signs.
[00:14:15] Signs mean God does something to point to something else.
[00:14:20] A sign is God does this to capture your attention.
[00:14:26] So you'll look at this.
[00:14:28] Ah.
[00:14:30] Ah. The signs of Jesus Christ.
[00:14:33] Ah.
[00:14:34] Jesus fed the 5,000.
[00:14:38] And you ask yourself, why did he do that? Well, they were hungry and he was a nice guy and he just fed them. No, it was a sign.
[00:14:45] And if you read John's gospel, it was a sign that. That Jesus himself was the bread of life.
[00:14:53] Jesus said, I am the bread of life.
[00:14:57] Feeding 5,000 was a sign that pointed people to Jesus as the bread of life.
[00:15:05] God's gift to give eternal life to humanity.
[00:15:10] Peter says the church begins with. With God demonstrating his divine nature in Jesus Christ, the creator of the church.
[00:15:27] Peter said, ah.
[00:15:30] All this happened in your midst.
[00:15:33] As you yourself know, the amazing life of Jesus was known to many of the people who. Who were listening to Peter preach that day.
[00:15:46] They had heard of him. They had been to his rallies. Many of them had heard him speak. But listen, listen.
[00:15:54] They missed the message.
[00:15:58] And now Peter is saying, you already know about Christ. Now I'm asking you to think about him differently one more time.
[00:16:10] Church. Peter has a message for us this morning.
[00:16:14] I'm not speaking to people this morning who have not heard of Jesus Christ.
[00:16:20] I'm not speaking to people who don't know the Christmas story, who don't know the Easter story.
[00:16:28] I'm not speaking to people who haven't looked at the Bible and found some interesting things there.
[00:16:36] But I am speaking to people who need to hear Peter say to you one more time, I want you to rethink Christ.
[00:16:46] He is much more interesting and much more important than you have imagined so far in your life.
[00:16:57] Peter said to every one of us, he's shown his ability.
[00:17:03] He's shown his power.
[00:17:06] He's given us signs, but we've often missed it.
[00:17:12] And somehow or another, Christ is not as compelling, he's not as necessary, he's not as edgy in our lives as he should be.
[00:17:26] And the day of Pentecost was a day where Peter asked people to rethink Christ's place in their life.
[00:17:37] I want to ask you the same thing this morning.
[00:17:40] Will you rethink Christ's place in your life?
[00:17:46] Have you become complacent?
[00:17:49] Have you lost your fascination with Christ?
[00:17:54] Do you find it easy to distract yourself with the things of life around you and rarely, rarely quiet your soul and seek the presence of this awesome Lord Jesus Christ who means everything to us in this world and even more in the world to come?
[00:18:21] It isn't a day for business as usual.
[00:18:28] Pentecost is a day of transition.
[00:18:31] And the transition began with thinking about who Jesus Christ is.
[00:18:38] Just like to ask you some plain questions.
[00:18:42] Have you ever really been introduced to Christ?
[00:18:46] Not talking about introduced in an intellectual way. I'm talking about has your soul ever been introduced to Jesus Christ?
[00:18:58] Have you had that moment in your life where the Holy Spirit whispered to you and the Holy Spirit said to you, ah, ah, come on to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest Church have you had that moment where in your heart you couldn't keep but saying from to Jesus Christ, I'm so sorry I've sinned. I'm so sorry I've fallen short of the glory of God.
[00:19:37] I'm so sorry I haven't been the soul that you have the right to expect me to be. And I ask for the saving grace of Jesus Christ to fix and heal and renew everything that's broken in me?
[00:19:54] Have you had that moment where you said to Jesus Christ, I trust in you without reservation?
[00:20:03] Maybe today could be your day of Pentecost where you receive Christ in a new way and the Holy Spirit comes to abide in you, the seal of your redemption.
[00:20:17] Another question.
[00:20:21] Have you seen the work of God in Christ in your life lately?
[00:20:28] What is Christ? If you're sure he is your Savior, what is Christ doing in your life lately?
[00:20:38] Can you hear this?
[00:20:40] If I ask you.
[00:20:46] How has God shown His divine ability in your life lately?
[00:20:52] How might you respond if I ask you what is when was the last time you saw Christ do something truly amazing in your life?
[00:21:09] If I ask you when was the last time that something happened in your life and the Holy Spirit used it as a sign to point you to Jesus Christ.
[00:21:23] See, living in the church is a week by week.
[00:21:30] It is a day by day relationship with Christ where his divine ability influences us, where his divine power changes us, where his divine direction guides us.
[00:21:47] Then Peter said, verse 23.
[00:21:51] This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
[00:22:06] God raised him up loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by them.
[00:22:17] As Christ lived to demonstrate the power of God, he also died to fulfill God's plan.
[00:22:28] Ah, Sorry.
[00:22:51] Well, we got this messed up, don't we?
[00:22:56] I can go on lost page three somewhere.
[00:23:01] Is it in one of your pockets? Look around. Maybe you can help me out.
[00:23:06] Ah, all right.
[00:23:10] Peter says God came in Christ and demonstrated to you the awesomeness of God and this is how you responded.
[00:23:36] Hey, only at Christchurch. Come on. Only at Christchurch.
[00:23:43] Ah.
[00:23:44] Peter said God did something wonderful and this is how you responded.
[00:23:53] You killed him.
[00:23:56] Lawless men with violent hands killed him, he said.
[00:24:04] But I don't want you to misunderstand the death of Christ.
[00:24:12] That Christ died because God had a definite plan based on his foreknowledge.
[00:24:21] This Jesus. You. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
[00:24:29] Christ did not die as a tragic mistake.
[00:24:34] He did not die as a foolish blunder.
[00:24:38] He did not die as a murder conspiracy.
[00:24:42] He did not die as a grand example. And he did not die because evil triumphed.
[00:24:49] He died because God purposed for him from before the creation for Christ to die for our sins and reconcile us to God.
[00:25:01] Peter, who knew Jesus very well, wrote this in his letter knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish or spot.
[00:25:26] He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for your sake, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. Listen to what Peter's saying.
[00:25:46] Peter saying Christ lived a life that demonstrated God and he died a death that accomplished God's plan.
[00:25:57] The church exists because God had an eternal plan that in Christ Jesus he would make everything right and create for himself holy people like you and I.
[00:26:12] Ah. Ah. Without spot and without blemish to abide with him forever.
[00:26:19] Ah.
[00:26:26] Verse 24.
[00:26:28] God raised him up losing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by them.
[00:26:37] It is true that when Jesus hung on the cross, he said, tetelestai, it is finished.
[00:26:47] And he bowed his head and he physically died.
[00:26:53] When Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus came to that cross, Jesus was dead.
[00:27:03] But that wasn't the whole plan.
[00:27:07] It wasn't the end of the drama of Christ.
[00:27:11] God would not permit his Holy One to see corruption.
[00:27:17] And on the third day, by the power of God, he rose alive.
[00:27:24] Now I want you to hear some. A unique word. It's easy to read over.
[00:27:28] God raised him up loosing the pangs of death.
[00:27:33] It's real easy to read over that word pangs. But if you're reading in the original text, it shocks you because the word that gets translated, pangs, is almost everywhere else in the New Testament translated as ladies. The pain of childbirth.
[00:27:59] Children do not come into the world in a comfortable way.
[00:28:08] When the world was the way it was supposed to be. I waited in the waiting room for Misty and Sharon.
[00:28:15] And then somebody got this knucklehead idea that men ought to be in there. And like I'm any help at all. I mean, I'm just taking too much oxygen. That's all I'm doing. Breathing up the good oxygen. All right.
[00:28:36] But Peter associates death as the pain burst of life.
[00:28:53] In the very same way you come into the world with your poor mom crying and moaning.
[00:29:01] We leave this world through the pangs of death to be born into the presence and to the eternal life of an infinite God.
[00:29:15] This is what Peter saying. Yes, his death was painful. Yes, there was sorrow.
[00:29:22] Yes, we wept.
[00:29:25] Ah.
[00:29:28] But our sorrow gave way to joy.
[00:29:31] Because on the third day, the pangs of death gave birth to the resurrected Christ who lives and reigns forevermore. Church.
[00:29:48] Christ died to create the church and he asks us to simply live well within the church he created.
[00:29:59] It isn't by accident that this church is named Christchurch.
[00:30:04] Most of you don't know the story.
[00:30:07] That wasn't the original name of this church.
[00:30:11] Ah.
[00:30:13] Ah.
[00:30:14] But very early on.
[00:30:17] Ah.
[00:30:18] Ah.
[00:30:19] Against weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, I said we need to change our church name.
[00:30:29] Ah.
[00:30:31] And it took a divine miracle.
[00:30:38] But by the grace of God, we changed our name to Christchurch.
[00:30:44] Ah.
[00:30:46] It was strategic.
[00:30:50] I want us to live up to our name.
[00:30:53] We are the church that is created by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
[00:31:02] We are a church that has a mission that focuses on attracting people to the excellence of Jesus Christ.
[00:31:13] Inviting People into the joy of ministry and serving Jesus Christ.
[00:31:19] Living the adventure of faith with Jesus Christ and believing in a lifestyle of generosity.
[00:31:27] Just like Jesus Christ.
[00:31:30] He who was rich for your sake became poor so that we, through him might be made rich. The greatest act of generosity in human history.
[00:31:42] Church.
[00:31:43] We exist as Christ Church, as.
[00:31:53] Partners, living partners with this awesome Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for us.
[00:32:03] And then Peter wants to say, all of this is an expression of God's eternal plan.
[00:32:13] And to do that, he goes back to an Old Testament psalm that David wrote a thousand years before he quoted it.
[00:32:24] I wish I had time. I would. I would share with you the differences between this psalm in the Septuagint and in the Hebrew. But I don't have time this morning, so.
[00:32:35] All right, listen what he says. Verse 25.
[00:32:38] For David says, concerning Christ, this is Jesus speaking, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
[00:32:55] Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced.
[00:33:01] My flesh also shall dwell in hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption.
[00:33:13] You have made known to me the paths of life.
[00:33:18] You will make me full of gladness with your presence.
[00:33:23] By divine inspiration, David spoke the thoughts and prayers that Christ felt when he faced the cross.
[00:33:36] By divine inspiration, David was saying, this is how Christ will be thinking and feeling as he faces the cross.
[00:33:48] For David says, concerning him. What is he saying? David is speaking by the Holy Spirit's ability and telling us an insight into Christ's thoughts and feelings.
[00:34:04] Look at them. I saw the Lord always before me.
[00:34:08] Jesus said, I live in the constant security of communion with God.
[00:34:16] When Jesus faced the cross, he wasn't insecure.
[00:34:20] Why? He said, I keep seeing God always before me.
[00:34:29] Ah, he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
[00:34:37] Christ's constant communion with God affected his emotions, his speech and his lifestyle. Listen, therefore. My heart, his emotions was glad.
[00:34:47] My tongue his speech rejoiced.
[00:34:51] My flesh his lifestyle shall dwell in hope.
[00:34:56] How did Christ die? He died with a glad heart.
[00:35:01] He died with a rejoicing speech and he died in hope.
[00:35:08] How does God want us to live?
[00:35:11] He wants us to live with a glad heart.
[00:35:15] He wants us to live with a glad vocabulary.
[00:35:22] And he wants us to live in the riches of hope.
[00:35:28] You are affected by your closeness to Christ.
[00:35:32] I want to say publicly, Christ makes me a better man.
[00:35:37] I am a better man because Christ reached out and saved me. I'm a better man because he sent His Holy Spirit to abide with me. I'm a better man because I learn how to think and live by following his example. I'm a better man because I have promises and hopes that I can only have through Jesus Christ.
[00:36:03] I want to remind you again, Church.
[00:36:06] Christ doesn't take anything from you. He gives you everything.
[00:36:11] Ah.
[00:36:15] Christ's constant communion with God divined his view of death.
[00:36:21] For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption.
[00:36:27] This is what Jesus said. I know I'm going to die, but I know my last breath is not the end of it.
[00:36:36] Because I have a promise from God Almighty that my soul will never see hell and that which is truly me will never see corruption.
[00:36:51] For you who have stood at the casket or at the urn, for you who have had to look death at its most ugly, Jesus Christ whispers to you.
[00:37:08] Jesus Christ holds your hand and he says, this is not it.
[00:37:17] I will not permit this one to see Hades and the soul of this one that you know and love so well.
[00:37:30] I will not permit it to be lost or corrupted.
[00:37:34] I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Church. This is our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:37:45] Ah. This is the one who created the Church. And he meets us in the moments of brokenness and sorrow and says, my grace is sufficient.
[00:38:01] Christ life. Christ's life models for the Church a healthy view of life. Listen what he says. You have made known to me the paths of life.
[00:38:12] You will make me full of gladness with your presence.
[00:38:18] How do I understand my way through life? The Christ of the Church makes plain the paths of life.
[00:38:27] You don't have to figure this out yourself.
[00:38:30] You have to draw near to him and let him draw near to you.
[00:38:34] You have to not lean on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path.
[00:38:42] The Church was created by Christ to fulfill God's eternal plan.
[00:38:48] You exist in the Church through God's brilliant planning. You didn't wander in here.
[00:38:56] It's not a mistake that you're here in his eternal plan. He knew your soul.
[00:39:03] By the grace of God, he redeemed your soul and his spirit has led you here to be part of the body of Christ and accomplish with us the things that he wants done in this generation.
[00:39:18] We exist as a church to partner with Christ in our generation in completing the divine plan for our lifetime.
[00:39:29] The Church is God's divine idea for accomplishing his will in the world.
[00:39:34] Our dear Heavenly Father, I look unto you, the originator and the perfecter of my faith.
[00:39:42] I look unto you, the Creator of the Church.
[00:39:47] I look unto you, the one who makes my life so much better in every way.
[00:39:54] And from my best self. I say I'm sorry for every time I've disappointed you.
[00:40:01] I'm sorry for every time I've gone astray and turned to my own way.
[00:40:06] Oh, but I'm so grateful that it is the goodness of God who leads us to repentance.
[00:40:13] I'm so grateful that you are faithful and you are consistent.
[00:40:18] I'm so grateful that in the riches of your grace and in the depths of your eternal goodness, you create hope again and again and again and again.
[00:40:34] I pray for us as a church. I pray that we would be the body of Christ.
[00:40:39] I pray we would live out our faith.
[00:40:42] I pray that we would serve and contribute and love and encourage and inspire.
[00:40:49] And I pray the world would be a better place because Christ has done his good work in us and through us.
[00:40:56] In Christ's name, amen.
