Pouring on the Church

Some of our fondest and clearest memories are our firsts. A parent will usually and always remember a child's first words, a child's first steps. The things that happen the first time we remember are our first car, first job, first date, first kiss. We oftentimes remember these things that are first, especially the pleasant ones. But there's a unique first experience that only some people get to enjoy, and that is preaching your first sermon. My first sermon was preached at Bloomfield Baptist Church. And it just so happened there were two services. So I got a trial run, and then what I consider the real first sermon. And on top of this, the Monday before, I had my wisdom teeth pulled out. A unique, memorable service in many ways. As I've taken a little bit of a survey and I hear what preachers say, there's an almost universal truth that a preacher never forgets his first sermon, but he hopes that everyone who heard it will. As I think about this, I think we have an exception to that rule today. Today we're looking at the first Christian sermon ever preached. We're going to meditate upon the first proclamation of Jesus Christ raised from the dead. This is probably the most well-known sermon not preached by Jesus Christ. Peter proclaims the gospel and the power of the Spirit. The Luke includes numerous messages, and they're typically summaries of messages. Even as you heard Joe read Acts 2, this isn't everything Peter said. He's typically giving us a summary. And we have numerous evangelistic sermons. We have other sermons that are given to the church. But there's many messages, little mini-messages, summaries given. And today we're looking at the first Christian sermon. Because here we see that the church is born in Acts 2. Last week we looked at the things that need to take place in order for the church to be prepared to be born. Christ is risen. The Spirit is promised. Christ is ascended. And the disciples are waiting to have the Holy Spirit so the church can be born. Today we see that the Spirit comes to power the church. The Spirit comes to empower. Christ is proclaimed. And the people respond with repentance. These are three ingredients of church. The Spirit comes with power, Christ is proclaimed, and the people respond with repentance. As we look at our passage, we're only going to be going through verse 41 today, but we have a seven-point sermon as I explain and exposit the short sermon of Peter. That only took about five minutes to read. Let me walk through the sermon points very quickly, just so you can see the basic outline. The heart of our sermon today is the Sermon of Peter, but point one, the Spirit is poured out, that's the context. First, the Spirit is poured out, that's verses one to 13. Two, the Spirit is for all people. So the first two things we're gonna look at is the Spirit is poured out, And two, it's for all people, and that is unique and significant. That's 14 through 21. And then as we look at the heart of Peter's sermon, we're going to see four truths about Jesus Christ. Jesus was a man affirmed by God, verse 22. Jesus was a man affirmed by God. Jesus was crucified according to the plan of God is the fourth point, verse 23. Jesus was a man affirmed by God, verse 22. Jesus was crucified according to the plan of God, verse 23. In verse 24 through 32, Jesus was raised from the dead by God. And then fourth, the fourth point of Jesus, point number six of the sermon, Jesus has ascended to the right hand of God. You see here, there's a unique relationship between Jesus, the Son of God, and God, the Father. He was a man affirmed by God, he was crucified according to the plan of God, he was raised to the dead by God, and now he is a sin to the right hand of God. And our final point is going to be, respond with repentance. Respond with repentance, 37 through 41. Peter Simmons' main focus, that's points two to six, where Peter explains what's happening with the Holy Spirit, and then he makes sure we understand it's all about Jesus Christ. Well, see, he begins by explaining who Jesus is. He was of Nazareth. He was a man, just like you and I. But he had works that attested he was unique. And notice that it goes from Jesus of Nazareth to Jesus, he is Lord and Christ. He begins with what they know. Jesus was a man. And then as we look at all the work that Christ has done, the only conclusion is that Jesus is Lord, that is Yahweh, the one true God, and Christ the Messiah. If you're not a Christian today, I hope you see something. I hope you see who Christ is. I hope you see who Jesus Christ is and that what Peter says about him is true because, quite frankly, we oftentimes misrepresent him. It's hard to know exactly who Jesus is because so many people who claim to be Christians misrepresent him. And my prayer for you today is that you would see who Jesus is based upon the eyewitness account of Peter and the Holy Spirit appointed declaration of who Jesus Christ is. You would see your need for him. You believe in him. That you would be saved. If you're a Christian today, I hope you see who Jesus Christ is today. I hope you see your need for Him. I hope you see Him in His glory, in the powerful work that He accomplished for you on the cross, that you can have assurance that He has ascended and He's coming back. I hope you know more of Christ today from what Peter declares about Him. Let's look at our passage. First, verses 1 to 13. The Spirit is poured out. Now this is really the setting for our chapter. That the main focus of this chapter is Peter's sermon. And this really functions as the setting. Jesus in chapter 1 said, wait. Don't do anything. Your action is to trust me by waiting. Wait until the power of the Spirit is poured out upon you. That the baptism happens. The disciples have gathered together. As we look back at chapter 1, verse 41, they're devoted to praying together, and they're waiting. They are obeying their master's commands. Now this specific day that they're waiting on, that we're having recorded before us, is Pentecost. This is a day of celebration according to the Jewish calendar, according to God's Word. Fifty days after the Passover, they gather back in Jerusalem and the Jews celebrate it. So God's taking the opportunity here to pour out His Spirit as many of the Jews have come back to Jerusalem. According to the Christian calendar, Pentecost happens fifty days after Easter Sunday, the day Christ rose from the dead. It happens ten days after Ascension Thursday. We can kind of have an understanding of where we are in the timeline of Christ. What's really amazing with this passage is the Spirit comes with a great demonstration. Let's look at the text. They're there on the day of Pentecost. They're all together in one place. And suddenly, from heaven, there was a sound of a rushing wind. There was something that they heard that came down from heaven and it filled the house. Now look, verse three. And divided tongues as a fire appeared to them. And they said on each one. As they're gathered together, one group waiting, they hear something and they see something. The Spirit comes with a great demonstration so that they know this is what you've been waiting for. It's a great, clear, observable, audible demonstration of the power of God coming to give birth to the church, to begin the work of the Holy Spirit. This fulfills what we heard in Acts 1. This is the pouring out. This is the baptism. Now what's amazing about this is that it appears that the disciples went from this one room altogether, one place, that they went out in the streets eventually. And the Spirit has brought a crowd to draw their attention. All these Galileans are speaking in all different kinds of tongues, which are really just languages. It's very clear these aren't foreign tongues. These are literal other languages from all the other people. They say, you're speaking in my own language. And it's surprising that there are Galileans speaking in their own language, because Galileans weren't known to be the educated type. That would be multilingual. So the Holy Spirit comes, and He draws a crowd with this great event. And everyone heard their own language being spoken by these different people. They were bewildered, amazed, astonished. Luke says amazed again. They were perplexed. What's going on? God has set up a wonderful opportunity to make sure that people come, they see what's happening, they're drawn in by this pouring of the Holy Spirit so that they are ready to hear the gospel. Jesus told them to wait, wait for this power to happen, and it's a demonstration. Now, before we move on, I have to address the issue in that this demonstration is not normal. This demonstration appears to be very unique. Now, this demonstration of the power of the Spirit, it is repeated, but that doesn't mean it's normal. You see, this kind of demonstration took place so that all the other Jews that God was calling to himself, who were there in Jerusalem, would see God is at work. He's doing something unique. They heard of the mighty works of God in their own languages, they said. This is to bring in God's called people. That the next few times that these tongues descend upon believers, it actually isn't to convince the Gentiles or the Samaritans that the gospel's true. God uses that to convince the Jewish Christians that these Gentiles are also called. The tongues, the languages, is a demonstration that God is doing something mighty. He's doing something different. He's expanding His kingdom. And so I want to say it's not normal in the sense that it seems to be something that God has decided to do at this particular time in history when He's giving birth to His church. Now if it were to happen today, I think when it would happen is when somebody came to Christ. These tongues are a demonstration that somebody new has been brought into the kingdom, a new kind of person, a new kind of people group. And so if we were proclaiming the gospel today and somebody's heart was converted immediately and they started speaking in tongues, I would say that sounds like what's happening in Acts. But we don't see that normally happening. It seems like God has used this at this time to expand His kingdom and to convince His people the Holy Spirit is truly at work. Now Luke uses the phrase, filled with the Spirit. We should all long to be filled with the Spirit. But the way this happens is by repenting of sin. If we want to be filled with the Spirit, we have to stop filling ourselves with sin. If we want to be empowered by the Spirit, to be used by the Spirit, what we have to do is say, I'm going to quit using my life and my time and my energy and my thoughts and my desires to love things in this world. And I'm going to say, I want to be used by the Spirit. I want to be filled, which means I've got to get all the garbage out. So there's somewhere to fill. Paul says, do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. If we want to be used by Christ, we simply have to seek to live a life that's glorifying Him and proclaiming Him, as Pat read earlier, according to the model of Paul. Now, you can ask more questions about the normativeness of this. These are great conversations to have. But it's interesting. They're amazed, they're perplexed. Some people are saying, what does this mean, verse 12? And other people are mocking, saying, oh, they're just drunk. Look at these people out there talking in a variety of tongues. This is kind of interesting because what I love about what God does, He acts with great clarity. And this is to make sure we get what He's doing with great clarity. He tells us what He's doing. There's an event and then there's an interpretation. Let me try to exemplify, let me try to give you an example of why this is important. My wife and I, our first few dates were public events. They were birthday parties. I don't know why, God just ordained that like our first few times together, there was a birthday party to go to. Our first time together on a date, just her and I, we came to the big city of Charlottesville. And I can't remember the name of the restaurant because it's changed 20 times. It's a restaurant that's right there in front of Bounce Play and Create, whatever that place was a long time ago. So we're eating there, and we're leaving, we're at that stoplight now. Outback is on your right if you want to picture this. It wasn't there then. You're gonna take a left on 29. I'm at the stoplight. And she's looking at me. And I'm reading this look as if she wants me to kiss her. Now, We had had the discussion. We're going to keep ourselves from a physical relationship, but she's looking at me. And so I think, all right, I'm going to lean over, and I give her a peck on the cheek, and her facial expression changed. And I'm reading it like, wow, she's amazed at either my self-control or the amount of passion I can put into a little peck on the cheek, and then she speaks. She gives an authoritative interpretation of what these facial expressions have meant. And she says, don't do that again for a very long time. You see, there's an event, and then there's an authoritative interpretation. We sometimes, and oftentimes, we miss what the event means. We don't understand what's happening. Without the Word of God, we would not have understood what happened on that horrible day when God was murdered on the cross. That's an event. And then we get the authoritative interpretation so that there's no confusion. So then an event happens. This is a crazy event. All these Galileans, they're talking in all these different tongues. Some people are saying what is going on. Other people are saying they're drunk. And so Peter speaks with the power of the Spirit to bring an authoritative interpretation. Point two, the spirit is for all people, verses 14 to 21. But Peter, standing with the 11, 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, for these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered to the prophet Joel. And I want you to hear this. I'm only going to read 17 through 18, but I want you to hear that he mentions, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And then he articulates very clearly what that means. In the last days, it shall be God declares that I pour out my spirit on all flesh. The spirit has been poured out on all these disciples. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And your young men shall see visions. And your old men shall dream dreams. And even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy." Now some people look at Joel and they see the visions and the dreams and the prophecy and they get focused on what's happening and they miss what's actually going on here. You see, in the old covenant, the Holy Spirit would only come down and anoint a prophet, or a priest, or a king, and usually for only a temporary time. But here, in the new covenant, the Holy Spirit's going to come down on everyone who believes. It's for all believers. Not just the males, but the females. Not just the high and mighty prophets and priests and kings, those who are really being used by God, but on every single believer, their sons, your daughters, even your servants. The Holy Spirit is going to be something that everyone who believes in Christ universally gets. It's not just for a few. All will receive the gift. This is what we're thinking about in the New Covenant. As Sam walks us through Hebrews, he's helping us see how the New Covenant is better. And here we see something that's better in the New Covenant. The Spirit is now with everyone who believes. And this is why every believer is a priest. We're on Reformation Day. We're a priesthood of every believer. We all can speak directly to God in the name of Jesus Christ. We all have access to go boldly into the presence of God. Every believer is an ambassador of the King. We represent the Kingdom of God here on earth as the Church. Every believer is a prophet. In the sense that what the Son heard the Father say, we have heard, and therefore we're supposed to say it as well. We are all ministers of reconciliation with the power of the Spirit. So what Peter is telling these folks is that we're not drunk. What you're saying is just a fulfillment of what Joel said. Everyone who's a believer They're going to have the power of the Spirit to do the work of God. Every believer. Which means every believer has a responsibility because every believer has the power. Now He tells us who it is we're to call upon. He continues in that Joel, now it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And I want to just pause here for a moment The Holy Spirit rarely ever draws attention to himself. I want to help you understand, the role of the Holy Spirit, it's a spotlight ministry. He's always redirecting so that whenever you hear about the Holy Spirit, it's usually the Holy Spirit is changing us so that we can see Christ more clearly. Or the Holy Spirit is spotlighting Christ so that we know who he is in a greater capacity. And here, it begins by explaining what's happening to the Holy Spirit, but then he quickly turns to Jesus. You see, the Spirit's work is to enable and empower evangelism. The Spirit's work is to highlight Jesus Christ. Notice what Peter says next. After he's explained what's happening, this is disfulfilling what Joel said, that everybody's going to get it. The Holy Spirit. Verse 22. He turns to them. Men of Israel, hear these words. Here we see the third point. Jesus was a man affirmed by God. 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. Now, this passage is really fantastic in the sense that we've already mentioned. He begins with Jesus as a man and he ends with Jesus as Lord and Christ. He begins describing him as we would describe any man, David of Bethlehem, Saul of Tarsus, Jesus of Nazareth. He's a man who did things that most men don't do. He's been attested to you by God, verse 22, with mighty works and wonders and signs. You know this. You know who Jesus is and what he did and how God affirmed him through his works. And I wanna be clear here that what Peter's going to say next about Jesus is more important than what he just said about Jesus. He's trying to explain to them, you already know this, and they're not believers. See, a lot of folks like Jesus, the wonder worker. A lot of even religions will affirm Jesus as a wonder worker. Islam, Mormonism. Jehovah's Witnesses, they all love Jesus as a wonder worker, they just don't want him to be God. They cannot affirm that he's Lord and Christ. Christians, what follows next, are essential to who we believe Jesus must be for our own salvation and identity. But before we get there, I want to think about Christmas. I know it's before Thanksgiving. I know it's even before October 31st. But here we are. I want us to think about Christmas. Christmas is a day that we think about Jesus of Nazareth. God came down from heaven. God came and walked among us. And I want to praise God that Christmas falls on a Sunday this year. You see, that allows us to order our Christmas season around worship. Because just like Christmas, or most like other things, we as Westerners, we just ruin stuff. Christmas is a time that we reflect, we stop and we realize, God had to come down to save us. Christmas is a wonderful opportunity to gather as a church to worship on the day he rose, Sunday. And I want to encourage you to prioritize that worship, to reflect upon Christ coming to die for us and rise again. Fourth point, Jesus was crucified according to the plan of God. This gets very meaty, very quickly. This Jesus, notice what he says here. There's three basic parts. This Jesus, one, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You, crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. There's three different kind of people here. There's three different agents, rather. He was crucified according to the definite plan of God. You crucified him at the hands of lawless men. The Jews are the ones who were held responsible for crucifying him. I believe the hands of lawless men are referring to the Roman government. As we look at this, we see a few things. I want to simplify it. and focus on first, God planned the death of his own son. God is sovereign. He has a definite plan. We can go back to the Old Testament and we can see all the images that he gave to show this was always his plan. He told Adam and Eve, your savior's gonna be crushed. Your savior's going to be bitten on the hill before he crushes your enemy. We see Abraham having to take Isaac and having a replacement, Ram, so that Isaac doesn't die. We see Israel saved because a number of lambs were slaughtered and put over the doorpost. We see the entire sacrificial system. It was clear that a substitute was going to have to die. We're just amazed that God the Father sent his own son so that we could kill him, his plan. was to send his son so that he might become like us in every way, yet without sin, so that he could live that perfect life we've refused to live, so that when he died, the wrath of God could be poured out upon him who did not deserve it, so that those of us who do deserve it could be set free. If you're not a Christian, that's what you need to understand right now. Jesus Christ, at the most focused point, is your Savior because you have sinned. Everyone in this room has sinned. And we deserve the wrath of God, but Jesus who does not deserve it because he was perfect, he bore the wrath we deserve. So instead of God looking at us and saying, you're guilty, God can look at us and say, I poured out my wrath on my son for your guilt. You are now forgiven. That is the only way your sin can be removed and washed so that you can once again know God. God planned the crushing, the crucifying of His own Son so that we can know Him again. Believe in Him. Believe in Jesus Christ. Do not leave here without talking to somebody near you about what that means. We see God planned it, the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, and then Peter makes it very clear, you, you, the people, the Jews especially, Crucified. He makes it clear you are still culpable and responsible for the murder of God's own son. The innocent man died by your hands. Yes, God planned it, but you are responsible. This is a beautiful picture of how God is sovereign over all our actions and yet we are finally and ultimately responsible for our actions. It's actually really encouraging to see this because it shows us God is sovereign over our sin. Praise God he keeps us from being as sinful as we would be otherwise. Praise God he's able to use even our sin for his glorious purposes. As he used the murder of his own son for the most glorious purpose, our salvation, he's able to even sovereignly use our sin for his purposes. In Joshua, in Genesis, Joshua declares what man intended for evil, God used for good. That's amazing. What man intended for evil, God used for good. Here we see something stronger. God has always planned that his son would die at your hands for your good. Think about this. Peter is preaching the good news that Jesus died for sinners to the sinners that put Jesus to death. That's how gracious God is. Remember what Jesus said on the cross. Father, forgive them. They do not know what they're doing. They do not see they're putting to death the one who gives them life. Grace. Grace greater than our sin. We can look to the cross and we can see at all times, as Pat said earlier, we can see that God is always using suffering for His greater purposes. He used the suffering of Jesus Christ to remove our guilt. He now uses our suffering to remove our sin and our sin patterns. As we look and we wrestle with sin and we think about sin, we think about this evil world, we have to always trust God has a definite plan and we praise God that we, at the end of that plan, receive the blessing and the good of Jesus Christ. The good news doesn't stop there. Jesus was a man attested by God. Jesus was a man that was crucified according to the plan of God. And Jesus was raised from the dead by God. Now this is verses 24 to 32, and we're not gonna go into all the details here, but I want you to see here, the resurrection receives most of the attention. God the Father raised up his son who was murdered. Look at verse 24. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to die. What follows here is that now Peter's going to quote David. And he's gonna quote David saying, the shield did not hold me. And Peter's gonna say, we know where David's buried. We know it did hold him. So he obviously isn't talking about himself, he's talking about somebody else. He's talking about Jesus Christ, the resurrected Savior that you killed, that's who David's talking about. The promised one, the true king, he's finally come. David foresaw this. We focus on the resurrection every week. That's why we gather today. This is the day that Jesus Christ rose. It's worth repeating here that if Jesus Christ isn't risen, we are to be the most pitied people in all the earth. We're setting all our hope on one man who we believe really rose from the dead. It's not a myth. It had to really happen and praise God. He gave eyewitnesses. He gave prophecies from before to tell us it was gonna happen. He gave us eyewitnesses that saw that it happened. He now gives the Holy Spirit that convicts us that it happened. Verse 24, let's go back to it. It was not possible for him to be held by. Jesus could not be held in the power of death because he is the God of life. Friends, we always have to remember God is the most powerful. He is greater than death. He's greater than sin. He is abundantly powerful. Jesus is the God of life. Death could not contain him. God, death could not hold him. He conquers death. As we've just heard, we've lost friends. Many of our members have lost loved ones. In the midst of mourning, the resurrection is the only thing we can think about here with hope. Death is painful. Death is horrible. You lose people you love. You know you're going to die. This is why this promise is so sweet. Jesus came because he could not be held by death. He came and conquered it so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. Sixth point, Jesus has ascended to the right hand of God. Notice the transition here, verse 33, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God. Again, we cannot forget that Jesus is the ascended Lord in Christ. This is why we can pray to God as Father. We have confidence in salvation. We can trust His sovereign rule. He is the ascended Lord who has now poured out the Spirit from the Father, and this is what you're seeing take place. Being therefore exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. Peter again saying, you see it and you hear it. Folks, you can't deny the reality of what God is doing right here in front of you, Peter's saying. He brings it back to the Pentecost event. Verse 34, for David did not ascend to the heavens, but he said, The Lord said to my Lord, said to my right hand, this is a reference to Jesus Christ who has conquered all his enemies. This conclusion is important. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. Lord here will be Yahweh, the covenant name of the one God of Israel. He is Yahweh. He is the one God and Savior. God the Father has made it clear that His Son has come down, and He Himself is God. That's a great mystery, but it's clear. This Jesus, whom you crucify, again, Peter's making it very clear. You killed Him, and He's your only Savior. You killed him, and here's grace. You can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and believe. I want us to pause here, church, and I just want us to reflect upon something because we need to start making clear we are praising a risen Savior. Jesus Christ was the perfect man who walked among us and did great works. Praise be to God. Jesus was crucified according to the plan of God to forgive us of our sins. Praise be to God. Jesus was crucified at the hands of lawless men. He submitted himself to die at the hands of those who came to save. Praise be to God. He's alive. Death could not hold Him. He's risen. He's our victory. Praise be to God. He's now exalted at the right hand of the Father. He's our mediator. He's the perfect representative for us because he turns to the Father and says, this one's mine. We're gonna listen. We're gonna incline our ear. We're gonna help them. We're gonna send our Holy Spirit to them. We're going to be with them. Our love is with them. Praise be to God. And something that Peter doesn't mention, but we have to always remember, he's coming back. That's actually referenced here in the enemy of the footstool. He's going to come back and He's going to bring order to all things. Every enemy will be crushed. Praise be to God. We have to see and know who Jesus Christ is so that we know how to respond appropriately. Our final section, our final verses, verses 37 to 41, respond with repentance. This was a very direct and harsh sermon hard sermon to hear think about it What you're seeing demonstrates Jesus Christ is is who he said he was son of God He died for your sins. He rose again. And and now you have to realize you killed him Look how they respond Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart I believe this is saying the Holy Spirit's at work after pouring out the tongues, the Holy Spirit's at work convicting and converting. And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, what shall we do? This is one of the most fantastic responses one can have to the gospel. A lot of times in pastoral counseling, I'm trying to confront and talk to somebody about their sin, and what some people like to do is tell me what they're going to do. And I always get worried about that situation because that's somebody who's still trying to be in control of their sin. But when somebody is truly cut to the heart, when somebody is truly converted and changed or convicted of sin, they simply say, just tell me what to do. Show me in scripture where it tells me what to do. This is what conviction does. It simply says, I will submit to whatever God has to say to me. Tell me what to do. Peter's first word, repent. Repent. Now notice, he doesn't say believe. It looks like they're already believing. But by asking the question, they're already saying, we believe this, what do we do now? And I don't want to separate faith and repentance. I don't want to separate belief and repentance. Two sides of the same coin. They believed, and so they want to know what to do, and so Peter makes it very clear, repent, which means change your direction. Repentance and faith always go together. And this is what happens. When we come to Christ, repentance must happen. It must, and it must continue to happen. Because the only reason you come to Christ is when you see that you are running as fast as you can straight to hell. Your destruction is apparent because what you see is your life in light of a holy God and you know that judgment is coming at the end. And so the only logical thing to do when you see that Jesus Christ came to stop you from going to hell by dying on the cross for all your guilt is to say, I've got to stop living like this because it's destructive. Repentance takes place. How can I stop living in such a way that I'm going to hell now that Jesus Christ has saved me to live forever? We say, Jesus, You're my Savior and You're my Lord. We become His disciple. We deny ourselves. We follow Christ. We submit to Him. We do what He says. We observe everything He commands. He says, Repent and be baptized. Baptism is that mark of a believer that says Christ has changed who I am. Baptism is the ordinance that Jesus Christ gave to the church to mark off everyone who says I believe in Jesus and I'm committed to live for Jesus. That's why it's in the name of Jesus. I'll briefly just explain verse 39. For the promise is for you, and your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord your God has called to himself. Now notice, the promise is for you and your children and for everyone who is far off and called. It doesn't say baptism is for you and your children and those who are far off. It's the promise. It's the promise that you can be saved if you believe in Jesus Christ and you'll receive the Holy Spirit. He's saying salvation is promised to everybody that God calls out there and in the future. I actually really appreciate the two directions here, verse 39. It's for you, okay, you've believed and you've been saved, and it's for those who you're gonna have to go out, outside of your geographical boundaries, to save, and it's for your future generations. We're looking out geographically, and we're looking forward generationally. But the ultimate clause is everybody God calls. The promise of salvation is for everybody who God calls out there and looking forward. I believe this should really challenge us in the way we're thinking about evangelism. One, we need to be thinking, who's out there that needs to hear the gospel? It goes out, and we've got a lot of children. What a fantastic mission field to plant seeds in. The children are the future generation and I pray that the future church of Jefferson Park is going to be healthier than this church as we plant seeds and we see them growing. We want to see them more faithful. But that only happens if we commit to making disciples of them, teaching God's word according to all it says. Be my witnesses out there and looking forward. I want to conclude because today is Reformation Sunday and I want to make two claims about Jefferson Park. What we do here is amazing and common. It's simultaneously amazing and it's common. It's amazing because we get to be about the business of the kingdom of God. That's amazing. Those of us, as we sang, we can hear our mocking voice as Christ is being crucified. It's amazing that we get to be part of the kingdom of God. We get to sing His praise. We get to know Him. We get to be witnesses of Him. That's amazing that we, as people who deserve death, get to be part of the business of the kingdom of God. It's common in that it's the same thing the church has been doing for 2,000 years. Reformation Sunday was Luther just simply saying, guys, I look back at the Bible, and we're not doing what the Bible says anymore. Let's get back to reading God's word, praying God's word, proclaiming God's word, and making Christ central, rather than this priest system you've got. I pray that what we do is common, and that it's common among all evangelical churches. We're not a clever church. We're supposed to be a faithful church. And as we're faithful, what we're going to be doing is something amazing, expecting God to empower it. As we look back and we see these three ingredients of the church, it's empowered by the Spirit, Christ is proclaimed, and people repent. We wait upon the Spirit to empower us still. We work waiting for that spirit to empower us. We try to faithfully proclaim Christ as much as possible, and here's where we can really have some control over what's gonna happen. We can repent. That's actually what's in our power this morning. We can repent. We can pray, God, will you show me some part of my life that is out of line with your will so that I can say, I wanna move that out so the Spirit can further fill me so that I can be more faithful in your work with your people so that this church is more faithful. That's what you can do this morning. You don't have power of the Holy Spirit as to when he's gonna empower you. We can proclaim Christ, but here's the real one. We can repent. We can repent of sin to become more like Christ, to be more faithful, hoping that He will then bring His blessing. So I pray as we leave and we talk, we will be asking, how can I be more faithful to following Christ so that we can see more of His glory as it's being revealed? Will you pray with me?