Acts 2 - The First Revival Meeting
Tom Shrader examines Peter's powerful sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2, where three thousand people came to faith. He shows how Peter boldly proclaimed both the bad news of sin and the good news of Christ's death and resurrection, without compromising the message despite knowing his audience personally. Shrader emphasizes that true conversion involves genuine repentance and a transformed life, not just praying a prayer.
“The only way to truly empower people is through the Holy Spirit.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: The Rest of the Story
Recorded: July 16, 1992
Duration: 37 min
Themes: revival, evangelism, repentance, conversion, boldness, preaching, transformation, hope, new believer, struggling with sin, pastor, evangelist, preacher, young adult, seeking salvation, church leader
Scripture: Acts 1:8, Acts 2:1-41, Psalm 16, Romans 1
Theological Themes: pentecost, holy spirit, pneumatology, spiritual empowerment, gospel proclamation, true conversion, biblical preaching, acts apostles
Full Transcript
Well, in the second week of our little parenthesis, when we finished the Gospel of John, at least for me, I found myself really getting into the person of Peter, really studying Peter. I found myself, just out of habit and desire, moving right into the Book of Acts, which is the very next book after John. So I thought we would take four weeks as we head to summer vacation and do a little series that we're calling the rest of the story. What happens between Peter and Jesus?
Last week we looked at our marching orders—what Jesus told you and I to do, the disciples to be sure, but you and I as well. Today we look at the first revival meeting ever. Next week we look at your biography. One of those great moments for me in my Christian faith is when I opened the Book of Acts and saw that my biography was there. I couldn't believe it. There it was, right there. And yours too.
The week after, since I'm leaving town then, we'll talk about what should a church be because I'm going to be gone and I can't take any of your phone calls. So those will be the four topics that we'll look at over these weeks.
The Promise of the Holy Spirit
Let me bring you up to speed as we work our way through the Book of Acts in a very sketchy manner. Last week, Jesus said to the disciples, "Wait, stay in Jerusalem, don't leave the promise that the Father has given you." And the promise that the Father had given them was what? The Holy Spirit.
In fact, in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, Jesus says this—it's the key verse in the Book of Acts: "When the power of the Spirit comes upon you, you'll be my witnesses all over the world." The two words there, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit is the key character in the Book of Acts. The phrase "Holy Spirit" or "Spirit" with a capital S occurs over a hundred times in this book.
True Power and Hope
The issue of power—I am a political junkie in terms of, I just love to watch this stuff, so this is kind of a great time for me to watch this. What you've seen on Monday and Tuesday and last night as well is the Democratic Party in almost every speech talking about empowering the people, preparing people. Let me tell you, the only way to truly empower people is through the Holy Spirit.
In fact, last night, Mario Cuomo said, "Bill Clinton is the hope of America." What I try not to do is get political because I don't want to do that, but let me tell you this: Bill Clinton is not the hope of America, George Bush isn't the hope of America. Two weeks ago on tape—I look like a wizard now—I said Ross Perot isn't even going to run. The hope of America is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only hope there is. That's the only hope we have. And that's the certainty. There's our hope. There's our rock.
It's important to participate in all this, and please don't interpret this as something negative. Let's not lose focus. Let's look at the core issue—the person of Christ. And He says, "You'll have power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you'll be my witnesses."
The Day of Pentecost
So they go to Jerusalem and they do something that you and I don't need to do. They wait. They wait for the Holy Spirit. And then in Acts chapter 2, it happens.
Acts in the second chapter, beginning in the first verse, Luke writes this: "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like a blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on them. All of them."
At this moment, the Holy Spirit was delivered to the church. The Holy Spirit lives today in His church, His people. If you're here today and you're a Christian in the true sense of the word, if you know Jesus Christ is your Lord and your Savior, the Holy Spirit lives in you.
Someone asked me not long ago, "Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit?" And my response was, every Christian is baptized with the Holy Spirit. That's kind of like saying, "Are you a born-again Christian?" You're stuttering. There's no such thing as an unborn-again Christian. There's no one who's been born again that's not a Christian. And no one who hasn't been born again that is a Christian. That's what it means to be a Christian, to be born again. And that word I know has a negative connotation and has been so misused by our society, but remember, those are the words of the Lord Jesus. Those aren't my words. To be born again.
Peter's Powerful Sermon
And the Holy Spirit comes and now there's power. Our focus today drops down to verse 22 of Acts chapter 2, to this guy named Peter. Again, I think Peter over the years has gotten a pretty bum rap. We look at him as kind of the big dumb fisherman and we look at him in all sorts of different ways. But Peter now delivers a powerful sermon.
I'll tell you the ending up front. Three thousand people enter the kingdom this day as a result of Peter's words and the power of the Holy Spirit. Three thousand people. It's the first revival meeting.
I've never been to a revival meeting. The closest I came is we had a guy that came through town that did a crusade. This is my dark side and I admit it up front. I went the first night and he was fine, he was eloquent. But apparently he hadn't hit quota or whatever, so we're singing "Here we go again" and we're going "one more time, one more time, one more time." I was praying and then I looked up and I looked at him and I realized he's leading us singing "Just as I am." And he had on a toupee. And I thought that seems odd to me. A dark side I admit. "Just as I am." What are you doing? Give me a break here. "Just as I am and that is the way I come."
Well Peter stands up and—
All of us in this room who know Christ as our Lord and Savior can really learn a lesson from Peter today. He's going to communicate number one, a change to life. Number two, he's going to communicate his message. And he's going to do it without compromising.
I'm going to try to paint the picture for you and yet I know I can't. Peter is going out. You see in verse 22, men of Israel, these are Jews. These are fellows who probably know him and he knows them very well. They've seen him. They may even well know of his gigantic failure when he denied Christ three times. They may well know that Peter has suffered defeat after defeat after defeat and yet Peter stands up, sin and all, and shares his faith in an uncompromising way. That's a valuable lesson to you and I. And yet I'm sure he does it in a way that is filled with love.
But his desire and love and graciousness for the people does not overcome his desire to produce a sound and true message. That's what we have to do. You and I live in a time where churches are reaching out to lost people, trying to attract them to the church. And the great temptation there is to compromise the message, to change the message, to alter the church service itself even. And that I don't think should ever happen.
Reaching Out Without Compromising Truth
Should we be sensitive to those that are lost? Obviously. Should we reach out to them? Obviously. I'm sitting in a bar at 7 o'clock on a Thursday morning. I mean, that's part of what I've given my life to. But we can't do it at the expense of the message.
Look at this. Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene. And they know Jesus well. He's going to remind them of how well they know Him. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God. He was attested to you by God who did miracles and wonders and signs.
Remember we said the Greeks were looking intellectually, philosophically at Jesus. But the Jews were looking for miracles. Give us miracles. Give us signs. Peter said Jesus did those miracles and signs and wonders by the power of God. He performed them in your midst. Look what He's doing. He's saying you can't deny this. They never sat around and denied that the blind guy could see or the lame guy could walk or the deaf guy could hear. That was never an issue.
In fact, He's going to say in a minute, the resurrection isn't even an issue because you witnessed that as well. He loves these people enormously, but He doesn't change the message. In fact, He starts, you know that the word gospel means good news. But before I can give you the good news, I've got to give you the bad news. Before I can tell you that Jesus died on the cross for you, I've got to tell you that you're lost and sinful.
The Bad News Must Come Before the Good
Look at what he says. This man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. He had this. He said, I don't want you to think for a second that somehow God blinked and that's how Jesus ended up on the cross. Jesus was on the cross for one specific reason. Because God wanted Him there. From the very beginning, He determined He'd be there.
Some of you, this isn't going to mean anything. Others of you, this will drop like a little hand grenade right in the middle of your table. Jesus had to go to the cross because there was no other way for you and I to be redeemed. We have this idea that God can do everything. Well, can God do everything? No. Can God sin? Absolutely not. Can God act contrary to His character or His nature? Absolutely not.
He could not sit in heaven and say, ah, their sins are forgiven. He couldn't do that. And maintain His justice and His holiness and His purity. There had to be a sacrifice and only a perfect sacrifice. Only Christ. Christ had to die on the cross. Men and women, there was no other way.
In fact, Jesus said the night before, what did He say? Father, if there's another way, let's do it. If there's a plan B, now's the time to bring it forward. Because Jesus was beginning to understand what was going to happen on the cross. He was beginning to understand that He was going to be separated from God. And sin of men and women, of all of history, that would ever, ever, ever come to Him in repentance of faith, was thrust on Him at that moment. And it had to happen so the wrath of God could be satisfied.
The Core Message of the Gospel
You don't hear that message a lot anymore. But it's absolutely true. It's the core message of the Gospel. That is the Gospel. Paul says in Romans 1, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel. I'm not embarrassed by the Gospel. He really says, in a negative sense, we would state it positively this way, I'm proud of the Gospel because it's the only way out.
For the wrath of God is being revealed. God's angry. God's not happy. God's angry at sin and sinner. But we sterilize that. Don't do it. In fact, look at the next phrase. You nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men. You nailed Him and put Him to death.
Some of you have had this experience, so you'll relate quickly. A few weeks ago, there was a man who for years has been trying to get his wife to come to his study. Not this one, but another one. And she wouldn't come, she wouldn't come, she wouldn't come, she wouldn't come, she wouldn't come. Finally, she decides to come. She's Jewish. And she came on the day that we were speaking about the crucifixion of Christ. And essentially teaching what those words said.
And she walked out of there saying, Those people are hate mongers. They hate Jews. Nothing could be further from the truth. And I asked him, in fact, I begged him, Get the tape, because I don't think you heard it. I think what happened is, she came in with reservations. You came in filled with tension. You've had that. You bring somebody from the first time and you just say, Oh, Tom, don't screw it up. Don't talk about money today. Oh, please don't say anything about money. Don't say anything about this. Don't say anything about this. And I said, once I said something, your mind slammed shut. And you never heard the rest of it. Because what I said right after that
The Weight of Sin
Martin Luther says that in our pockets, we carry the very nails that were used to crucify Christ. Because we crucified Him. Not the Jews. In fact, technically, the Romans crucified Him. But Peter is speaking to the Jews. And look what he does. He doesn't dilly-dally around. In love and graciousness and concern, he smacks them right between the eyes with their sin. Let's just get our cards on the table. The problem that the man or woman who's not a Christian has, the singular largest problem they have, is sin. And there's only one remedy for it, and that's the point he's going to make.
There's some great lessons here, as God works to incarnate through Peter. But Peter never talks, nor does Paul, about the crucifixion without talking about the resurrection. And he says this, and God raised Him up again to put an end to the agony of death. An end to the agony of death.
Many of you have had people you love dearly die agonizing deaths. You've watched people just literally begin to deteriorate, rot away with cancer. Very agonizing. Christian men and women. He's not talking about physically. He's talking about spiritually. He's saying if Christ doesn't come out of that tomb, if Christ doesn't make a provision for us, then there's no hope. When we die, we're separated from Him. When you die, if you know Christ, you're going to heaven. Forever. How good can it get? He said, you know this.
Peter's Compelling Argument from Scripture
Now look at what he does. This is beautiful. Big dumb fisherman Peter. He's talking to these Jews. So he quotes—we won't spend a lot of time on it. I'm not sure I understand all of the psalm. If I remember, it's Psalm 16. He quotes to them a psalm that's very familiar to them. In fact, Paul quotes it a couple times later on in the book of Acts when he's speaking to Jewish audiences.
David says, "I was always beholding the Lord in my presence. He is at my right hand. I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad, my tongue exalted. Moreover, my flesh will abide in hope. Because thou wilt not abandon my soul to go to Hades, nor allow thy Holy One to undergo decay."
This was a psalm that they probably prayed and sang regularly. And yet, we're a little bit foggy about what this meant. They were wondering if it applied to David. They were wondering how it applied to all, but they sensed it spoke to Messiah.
And now Peter says, "Brethren, may I confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is there." They said, hey, obviously David's not talking about himself because he died, he buried. Go down there, make a left, over to Main Street, make a right, and there's his bones. So, he's not talking about himself. His body underwent decay.
The Resurrection Revealed
And so, because he was a prophet and knew what God had sworn to him on an oath to a seat of one of the descendants of His throne, because God was moving David to write this, he wasn't writing it on his own, he was a prophet, moved by God, he knew, he looked ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of Christ, he knew His flesh would not decay. "This Jesus God raised up again, which you all witnessed."
What a powerful and compelling argument. He said, you saw the resurrection, you saw the crucifixion, let me try to tie it together for you. Jesus becomes your Messiah. "Having been exalted at the right hand, received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you both see and hear."
Again, very familiar to them. He goes back to the prophet Joel. He said, Joel talked about a time when the Spirit would be poured out. He said, you just saw the Spirit being poured out. You've heard of it before. Now you've seen it. "For it wasn't David who ascended into heaven, but the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand."
"Therefore, that all the house of Israel know for certain that God made Him both Lord and Christ this Jesus that you crucify." He says this. He's the Messiah. These people got up every day and prayed and prayed and prayed for Messiah, and Peter's saying to them, He's it. He died on the cross. He's what you've been waiting for. He's at the right hand. He is the Lord and Christ. He's God come in the flesh for you.
Pierced to the Heart
And look at this. "When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the disciples, or apostles, what should we do?" See, this is what happens when the Word of God is used and moved by the Spirit of God. You're pierced to the heart.
Three Types of Objections
We had a meeting a couple of weeks ago talking with some people, and we were making this point that when you're talking to a non-Christian, they essentially have three types of objections. Number one, they have intellectual objections. Intellectually, they question. I remember when I sat down with Larry Wright, I said, wait a minute, you believe the Bible's really the Word of God? You believe in Adam and Eve? You believe in a flood? You really believe it? They were intellectual questions. And virtually every intellectual question you can probably come close to already answering, and with a little bit of research, you can quickly answer.
When you're sitting and talking to somebody, and you're pouring out your heart, you're sharing your Christian faith. They're coming with three kinds of objections, and the first one is intellectual. And you can deal with those.
Emotional Objections
The second one is emotional. It gets a little tougher. A couple of weeks ago, on 20-20 or 48 Hours or one of them, I don't remember which, they had a group of about 30 men and women who were in their early 40s, late 30s, early 40s, and they had all been molested by this same Catholic priest. Now, this is not a criticism of the Catholic Church, okay? This is the point. This is an illustration.
And as they went around the room, and they interviewed these people, all many of them made observations that sounded like this. "I felt like my church turned its back on me. I felt like they denied me." Ted Turner, who is obviously one of the kings of secular humanism...
Listen to Turner—we'll go back to a time when his sister was very sick. And if I remember the story, she died. And Turner's never been able to forgive God for that. Those are emotional objections. Those are steeped in the heart and the mind. Yet, I think you can deal with those, too.
I can deal with the intellectual objections, and I can deal with the emotional objections. Because once I remove myself, I see that that doesn't speak for everyone. Obviously, Jim Bakker is an embarrassment to the Christian faith. Jimmy Swaggart is an embarrassment to the Christian faith. But I've got to rush out and say, do you understand? Everybody's not like that. That's not what everybody's all about that claims the name of Christ.
The Third Type of Objection
Intellectual objections, emotional objections, and the third one: volitional or will objections. And men and women, you can't change that. That's not your job. That's God's job. So that when you're sitting down and you're sharing your faith, and the person on the other side is not responding, and you've dealt with the intellectual, you've dealt with the emotional, then here's what you know. God's not working in their life. Maybe never, certainly not now.
When God's working in their life, something happens. They are pierced to the heart. And if you've ever been around it, where you've seen the Word of God taken by the Spirit of God and applied to a person, it is an awesome sight.
A Personal Testimony
I used to teach a Wednesday night study in a room all about this size down in here. And we'd pack a hundred plus people in there, and it was wild. We really had fun. And one night there was a gal, and she brought her sister. And they were sitting over here. And I went over, and the sister was there.
And I said, "Hi, how are you?" "Fine." "What's your name?" "Oh, my name's Kathy." "And oh, where are you from?" "I'm from Michigan." "Oh, Michigan. How do you like it down here?" "Oh, it's really hot in the summer." But it's all those same nothing conversations. But she's peppy, and she's cheery. She said, "Oh, I've heard a lot about you. I've heard a lot about this group, and I can't wait to experience what goes on. And I'm really looking forward to this. And this will be fun." Real peppy and bouncy, kind of like one of the pom-pom girls or a cheerleader type.
So I started to talk, and she had her pen and her paper. And after a few minutes, I saw her pen went down. And then the paper went like this. And then, as I kept talking, all of a sudden, she just closed up. And I've done this enough to just know it when I see it. I mean, this gal was closed. Almost, I thought she was going to go fetal on me over there. She was all... So I'm bothered by that, and you would be too.
The Confrontation
And so when I finished, somebody came up with a question, and I turned around, and they were gone. And I felt badly that I didn't get over to say something or see what the problem was. But I figured whatever, God's in charge. So I'm walking out to my car, parked under a light, and there are these two sisters, nose to nose, fingers just pointing right in each other's chest. I'm saying, this is kind of like mud wrestling without the mud. This is kind of exciting here. So let's figure out. And they're standing right by my car. So I figured, whatever.
So up I came. I said, "Hey, how you doing?" "I know not so well." I said, "Okay, anything I can do?" "No." And then the sister that was here said, "Will you tell her something for me? Will you tell her..." And then the other sister interrupted and said, "I know exactly what went on there tonight." I said, "Well, okay, what went on?"
"My sister called you this week. She told you what's going on in my life. She told you the problems I've got. And you took a whole lesson. And you took that lesson, and you worked it all around me, because she got me here, and you knew she was never coming. I was never coming again. And you took that whole lesson, and you built it around me, just to try to get me, didn't you? That's what that was all about tonight, was to try to manipulate me and get me, wasn't it?"
The Reality of God's Work
I said, "Well, sure. No." I said, "Kathy, you'll never believe this. I know you won't believe this, but your sister didn't call me. You were there tonight because God wanted you there. What happened is, we were at one of those nights where we were teaching the Word of God, and His Spirit was applying it to your heart. You were pierced to the quick."
You've had that experience. I'll bet every one of you have had some experience like that, where you say—I've even heard you say it—"It was like this morning time, it was just you and I in the room talking." Well, that's God at work. You want to see something exciting? Try this: Try the Spirit of God to a child of God. Now it's really exciting. Now it's really transforming. Now it really changes things.
The Power Behind Peter's Preaching
And that's what goes on in this scene with Peter. Peter's not bowling these guys over with his eloquence. You know, sometimes we think of Paul in the same way. Paul says of his own speech, "I came in fear and trembling," and they said, you know, Paul wasn't even a very good speaker. And that's probably good.
Jonathan Edwards, who's considered the greatest preacher that we've ever had in this country, when he delivered a sermon called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"—they say that at that point in time, Edwards was losing his eyesight. And as Edwards delivered that, he was reading it monotone. And they said people were so being moved by the Holy Spirit that they were clinging to the pillars in the church for fear that they were falling and slipping into hell by that little thread that was holding them out. Well, that certainly isn't delivery. That's the Spirit of God moving.
The Evidence of Conviction
And oh, for the moment when that happens, they're pierced to the heart. How do you know they're pierced? Interesting. Peter didn't have to manipulate them. Peter didn't have to move them. Peter didn't have to coerce them. They said, "What do we got to do now? What do we need to do now?"
The Philippian...
jailer says the same thing a little bit later. What must I do to be saved? They said, that's Peter. All we know is what you just told us. All we know is Jesus has been crucified. We were part of what did it. What do we do? What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?
And Peter says, repent. Interesting. And again, I don't mean this critically, but Peter didn't say, pray this prayer. He didn't give them a four spiritual laws. He didn't say, ask Jesus into your heart. He didn't say, make a decision right now. That seems to be more an American phenomena than a biblical phenomena. He said, repent.
The Nature of True Repentance
That means change your mind. Moody drew the picture of repentance this way: From birth on, we're walking away from God. We're filled with sin and we're walking away from God. And when we repent, we turn around and the rest of our life is walking back toward Him. Repentance is ongoing. It's continuous.
You and I live in a time where we got somebody and they say, what should we do? And we say, pray the prayer. And the minute they pray the prayer, we say, now you know you're in the kingdom. You don't know if they're in the kingdom or not. You don't know if I'm in the kingdom. Most of you don't even know if there's a Susan or a Sarah or a Haley. You don't know anything about me. You don't know if I'm in the kingdom or not.
Are you in the kingdom? That's the question. Is there in your life repentance? It isn't just a decision. It's a whole transformed life.
Evidences of Saving Faith
Here's some of the list and then we'll adjourn. Evidences of a saving faith. Number one, there's a love for God. Do you love God? Do you truly love God? Is He your heart's desire?
After that is true repentance. Not these fake tears. I used to think guys never cried. Well, now I've discovered guys cry and maneuver you just like a woman cries and maneuvers you. Guys are terribly deceitful and filled with ego, but so are their counterparts so it works out well.
I've had guys sit and say, I'll do anything. Oh, just to get her back. Anything, anything, anything. Oh, I don't want to lose her. Oh, she's the greatest wife I've ever had. She's terrific. What a mother to the children. I'll do anything. Give up your girlfriend? Well, I'm not gonna do that. I'll do anything else. Oh, I don't want to lose her now. It's a phony repentance. I can kid you and you can kid me. This is the changed heart and it begins to exhibit itself in genuine humility.
The Challenge of True Humility
This probably will come as a shock to none of you, but I wrestle all this time with humility. Drives me crazy. And I think I'm starting to get it in a box, which is good, I think. I went through this time of saying, what can I do to be humble? And you know how that works. The minute I figured out what I needed to do to be humble, I became so proud of how humble I was.
Harry Ironside, great story of Harry Ironside, great old preacher in Chicago. One day a man who knew him enough and loved him enough and cared about him, came to him and said, Harry, you're fine and all this, but I'll tell you what, man, are you getting proud? So Ironside said, what should I do? And he said, well, I'll tell you what I think you need to do. Get a big sandwich board, two sides of them, and go down by, in the center of Chicago, busiest time, all day long, and just with the big signs that say, repent, repent, repent, and just stand there all day and call people to repentance as they go by.
Ironside said, that's perfect, that's what I'll do. And down he went, all day. Came back that night and his friends stopped by and said, well, how did it go? Harry said, it was really something. I don't think there's another guy in Chicago that could have done that. And that's the way we are. Humble.
How True Humility Comes
Here's what I think, humility, here's how it comes. Let me tell you another thing, I don't think we even know it when we see it. We think the guy that's setting up the chairs or cleaning the toilet is humble by his duty. He can be a proud, arrogant guy cleaning the toilet, just like the guy in the front can be proud and arrogant, or he can be a humble servant.
Here's how you get humble quickly. Know God. Just look at Him. Nothing to do, just know Him. And as you know Him more and more and more, and He gets bigger and bigger and bigger, you get smaller and smaller and smaller, and you'll have genuine humility.
Additional Evidences of Saving Faith
Devotion to His glory. As those accolades come, and they will, if you're a child of God, who's received a spiritual gift and you have, and you begin to use it, people are going to notice that. When those accolades come, you're devoted to giving the glory to God, to seeing His will displayed, His majesty displayed. That's what glory means, God on display.
Prayer. Prayer. Just time in prayer and communication with Him. Ongoing, all day long.
Selfless love. This is so contrary to the culture in which we live. Selfless love. A love that says, I'm really concerned about you more than I am myself.
The Nature of Selfless Love
I met with a husband and wife not long ago, and the wife identified early on her problem, and her problem was that she just loved too much. And I assured her quickly, that wasn't her problem. Whatever her problem was, it wasn't that. And I know what we mean, and I have all this idea, and I got all this psychology stuff figured out.
How much are you supposed to love? Love like Jesus loved the church. How did Jesus love the church? Did Jesus say, well, I'll love the church as long as the church is responding? I don't believe so. He loved the church so much, that He became obedient to the point of death, even a humiliating death on the cross.
Selfless love. Love that says, I really truly care deeply about you and about others. I love God, I love His Word, I love His people.
Separation from the World
Separation from the world. Separation from the world system. We've got to work in the world system. It's not a call to get out of the world system, but it's a call to function in the world system without playing the game, without buying into the system, without believing the lie that says a bigger
house, or a different car, or a new spouse is going to make you happy. Separation from the world system, and then these last two grow hand-in-hand.
Spiritual Growth and Obedient Living
Spiritual growth and obedient living. What has God called you to do? How has God called you to live? He's called you to be honest, straightforward in your business dealing. He's called you husbands to love your wives, and you wives to love your church, or your wives to submit to your husband, and you singles to stay pure sexually.
He's called us to share our faith. He's called us to be part of the local body, the church. What should a Christian do? The Scripture is filled with those charges.
See, that's a sign of real faith. It's got nothing to do with praying a prayer. It's got nothing to do with the decision. You know you're a Christian based on a changed heart and a transformed life. That's how you know.
The Evidence of Real Faith
That's what He says to them. Not a criticism. There may, for many of you indeed, be a point in time where you saw it, and you just committed your life to Christ. But if there's none of these other characteristics, it wasn't real. Whatever it was, it wasn't real.
For Peter, it was real. His life was changed. Immediately, his desire to share His faith, and it wasn't, don't try to model just His action. It was His desire to do what God had called Him to do. That's what it was, and it changed His life.
Hey, next week, your biography is right here in the book of Acts, and it's a good one. Let's pray, and we'll see you next week.
Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You that it's true, that we can believe it, and that it speaks to us. Father, we hunger for the day that Your Spirit continues to apply Your Word to our lives. God, there may be men and women who are here today that aren't Christians. Father, we pray that the one who invited them, or one of the people that they meet can answer their intellectual and their emotional questions. But God, don't let us play Holy Spirit. We pray that You would touch their hearts and bring them to You in repentance and faith.
Father, we praise You. What a joy to look around on a hot summer morning, the middle of July, and see a room filled. The people that You want are here, Father. We ask You now to energize us, to make us bold. At the same time, make us gracious and loving as we present the Gospel. In fact, as we live the Gospel. Father, You've called us to that, and we strive to live that way. We do it in the precious name of Your Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. See you next week.