I'd like us to continue our study in the book of Acts as we come in God's providence to the sermon, the first sermon preached after the resurrection and is therefore worthy of our consideration, substantially being the very sermon recorded for us upon the pages of scripture and is therefore intended for our instruction. But the very place that it holds in the history of the Church demands our attention. That Peter, at the time of Pentecost, when the Spirit of the Living God was poured out upon all who were present, he rose up to give explanation to those who were, as it were, onlookers, to explain this remarkable phenomenon that men and women, and no doubt boys and girls who were present, heard the message being proclaimed in their own native tongues. Men from Rome or from Pontus or Asia, from Cyrene, from Babylon, wherever they might have assembled together, though the Aramaic tongue was not their usual one, though they were not accustomed to speaking every day in Hebrew, they heard nevertheless the good news of Christ Jesus in their own tongues. Some mocked And we're not surprised that that would happen. There have been those who have derided the message of Christ in every generation. And we find it not peculiar that in the time of Peter and the preaching of the good news that is in Christ Jesus, men hearing the proclamation of the gospel scorned it. But Peter draws upon his accusers to make explanation and he seizes upon a passage which was known to him quite evidently from the book of the Prophet Joel. That portion which we have read together this morning in which God long before the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed that a day would come when the Spirit of God would be poured out upon the people and the old man would dream dreams, the young man would see visions, even the Serving men, the serving women, would have the Spirit of God poured out upon them. Now, in order to help fix in your memories that which God has set before us in His Word, I would give you three headings in which to commit to memory what we consider this morning. First of all, there is the promise, then there is the provision, and then there is the proclamation. The promise, the provision, and the proclamation I would draw to your attention, first of all, that what happened in Judea 2000 years ago was something which God had foretold in his words centuries before. Indeed, if we are reading our Old Testaments with understanding, we see that even from the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, God graciously gives provision of a Messiah promised long ago. we have oft-times remarked, but it bears repeating. It bears repeating because we would not have our children growing up without reflecting upon this, and as they gain in understanding, as they come to greater years of ability to comprehend God's Word, we want them to hear that the God whom we worship is a God of grace, a God who was promised redemption to his people. Adam and Eve in the story that is related to us in the opening chapters of Genesis, though they fell from their state of perfection and paradise, they had not even so much as left the Garden of Eden. But God is already promising that the seed of the woman would be raised up in order to crush the head of the serpent. They are right at the beginning. Adam and Eve not even out of the Garden of Eden, and God in His grace and mercy is already saying, I will give you a promise. It will not always be that my hand will be turned against you. There will be a time when my hand will be turned in blessing towards you. So as we read the Old Testament, our encouragement is always to say, God, when will you fulfill your promise? That was the hope of God's people down through the generations. God, when will you come and fulfill all that you have promised us in your word? So as Peter takes up the taunts of those who are round about him at Pentecost, he says, these men are not drunk. Far from it. This is the very answer to your prayers for generations. God has come in Christ Jesus. And now let me read to you from God's Word, or let me quote to you from God's Word, and show to you that what you are experiencing now is the answer, the consummation of God's gracious promise. You think that these things are strange, and certainly they are out of the ordinary, but I want you to know that God is at work. Everything that you have witnessed has an explanation, and that explanation is to be found in God's redeeming love. Everything that you have heard in recent weeks, you've heard of a man who was noted as a great healer and a great preacher, a man who was rumoured to have raised even the dead from the grave. And you heard that He was put to death upon the cross by wicked men. You have heard these things. You have probably heard the rumours that He rose from the dead. And we who are here stand and bear testimony in our hundreds before you that Christ rose from the dead Now you hear of these things. You hear the mighty rushing wind. You see the flames of fire. And you hear us speaking in your own languages. Now, what is the explanation of all these recent events? Well, let me explain them to you. God was in Christ reconciling the world. He has fulfilled His promises. The one who cannot lie has fulfilled his promise to you to send forth of a Saviour. And with that there is, even at the concluding of the quotation from the book of Joel, a wonderful promise of God's abiding grace. How is it that Joel completes that prophecy quoted now by Peter? And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. When we look back into the Old Testament, we find there that God graciously from the beginning reveals Himself to us as being slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. How many opportunities does He give to the children of Israel in the Old Testament to turn towards Him, to seek His face, to call upon Him. And the God whom we worship today is the same God, a God of grace. How do we proclaim that? We proclaim it by the very Word of God Himself. What is it that Peter is doing at Pentecost? He is saying, I am showing to you from God's Word that God remains a God of grace and of mercy. That everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Everyone. So that we can positively affirmed so that we can seek to persuade, so that we can urge you by every fiber of our being, everyone who is present, young and old, if you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then come to him. What proof do I have that God is gracious, that the one who does not lie, who cannot lie, has promised you that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved? Perhaps you have come, therefore, this morning with some burden upon your hearts known only to you, some particular struggle that you face day by day, and you are desirous of the Lord's blessing. What greater blessing can you have than to know that God looks upon you with favor? Why should God look upon me with favor? Because He's a God of grace, and has promised you in His Word that all who call upon Him shall be saved. The prophecy of Joel, then, the promise of the outpouring of the Spirit of God was fulfilled at Pentecost. Secondly, there is this provision. Peter, in seeking to expound the Gospel to his hearer, then begins to say, Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, you see how Peter is bringing out the events which were familiar to them. Sometimes in preaching, it can seem as though it is dealing with abstract thoughts and principles of theology. But Peter, when he was preaching to his hearers, did not hesitate to say, I'm calling upon your experience. What Jesus did was not done in secret. It was not done behind closed and locked doors. It was done out in the open. Thousands assembled together in order to hear Jesus preach. Thousands would come together to hear Him proclaim God's grace and mercy, that this was a day of grace. And as he preaches to his audience only a few weeks after the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, I'm going to draw upon your experience. What is it that you know? I am confident to be able to tell you that Jesus was attested among you by his signs and wonders. God showed himself to be gracious even through the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. But having drawn upon their personal experience, He goes on to explain the very nature of the events, of which perhaps they only heard by rumor, but which the apostles testified as they proclaimed that Jesus Christ is risen. He was delivered, says Peter. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. Jesus was not swept away by a tide of popular opinion, approval or disapproval. He was not overcome by the secular authorities of his day. God knew, God foreordained what was going to happen. because it was necessary for a man to die in our place, to take upon himself our likeness, to stand under the condemnation of God. This is the gospel message, that God came in the form of a man and humbled himself even to death, and that death the death of a wicked, notorious criminal, crucifixion on a cross, so that he would endure the penalty of our sins. What is it that Peter is saying? He is saying here, God planned this out long ago. It would take one who was fully manned. This man, Jesus, was God come in the flesh. God had worked out redemption even before Adam and Eve quitted the Garden of Eden. I'll raise up a seed of the woman and he will die in the place of his people. That is God's provision. He was put to death at your hands, says Peter. Peter is not one to pull his punches. He's not speaking a message which is tailor-made to make people feel comfortable. He's telling those who are present, he died at your hands. God foreordained that this was happening. This was God's purpose and plan. And yet it was accomplished through human instrumentality. And you are the ones that were standing at the gates of Pontius Pilate's palace, crying, crucify him. You were the ones that were doing that. But God raised him to life again. He says, quite bluntly, it is impossible for death to hold him. Why was it impossible? Because if Christ did not rise again from the dead, then we are of all men the most miserable. There is no redemption without a resurrection. Why is there no redemption without resurrection? The penalty of sin is death. If Christ had not been raised from the dead, then there would have been no fulfillment of God's promise to bring redemption. because the penalty would still be in place. The penalty has been paid in full by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, he having paid the penalty of our sins in full, he had to rise again. It was impossible for the grave to hold on to the Lord of life. And that's our confidence. that because Christ has been raised from the dead, our sins are forgiven, raised for our justification. And then thirdly, there is the proclamation of this word. I want you to note in particular, although it would seem almost a commonplace, the way in which Peter uses Scripture throughout. What is it that preachers are called upon to do but to hold forth the word of life and to proclaim what is to be found in the Scriptures? Peter, though an apostle begins his message as he draws the crowd's attention. You're seeing something that you don't understand, but here, let me explain it to you. And then he goes straight to quoting from the Book of Joel. He holds out the Word of God and says, I want you to explain it and I want you to understand it. Which throws us back to ask the question, why is God so intent to provide us with His Word in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament? It is because He would have us, even this day, receive the Word of God and receive it in faith and say, this Word of God was set for my instruction, set for my comfort. How might I know that I can be right with God? I can come to the Word of God. I can read the promises of God and see that these promises were given for me. That I can come to the Lord and know that He will not cast me out. Why not? Because Job prophesied long ago, and Peter affirms it in this preaching of God's Word at the time of Pentecost. Those who come to God, He will not cast out. and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The authority of God's Word is the comfort of the saints. And when the Spirit of the living God is poured out upon us, as upon those who believe in Christ Jesus, take the preaching of the Word and say, I receive this with thanksgiving. My sins, not in part but the whole, are nailed to the cross and I bear them no more. I come to the Word of God and I find that God comforts my soul. In that proclamation, therefore, there is an emphasis on the Word of God. In the proclamation of the Gospel of God's Son, but as the constant emphasis upon the Word of God. We preach from the Word of God. We seek to explain it. As we take up our Bibles, perhaps around the lunch table today, and do devotions with our families, we read the Word of God to our children. Why do we want our children to know the Word of God? Because this is the Word of Life, and will bring comfort to their souls. God did not keep his intentions hidden, therefore, and has proclaimed it even centuries, millennia before the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will come and I will do a great work in your midst. We see there is much encouragement for Peter, because it was God's purpose to redeem a people for himself. And he fulfilled those purposes in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we're turning to Scripture and say, what is God's great plan? What is the message of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation? It's the message of the grace of God. Not that we deserve God's forgiveness. But the God in whom we trust is a God of grace, who has promised and fulfilled His promises. And that message has not changed in the 2000 years since Pentecost. The message still continues to be the same, that the God whom we worship is a God of grace, that our encouragement is that to this day, men and women and boys and girls are coming under the side of the gospel and they're being converted. They're being led to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, Peter turns his attention to scripture and makes reference to the Psalms of David. Perhaps for Peter it was more obvious a connection than it is necessarily for us. If you go to Jerusalem to this day you can visit a place which is held to be the tomb of David. I have every confidence that that is indeed the case. I can't imagine that one generation of Jews would forget where the tomb of David, their great king, is in Jerusalem. You can stand by the tomb of David. Here it is. This is the tomb of David. What is it that Peter is doing 2,000 years ago as he preaches on the streets of Jerusalem? You know, if you go round the corner there and a hundred yards down the street, you'll come to David's tomb. It's as direct and as personal as that. But when he's talking about the words of David, he said David lived and he died and his tomb is still here. He was not talking about himself. He was talking about great David's greater son. So he wants to press upon his hearers. You have been reading your scriptures. How many times have you been to the synagogue and sung that song? And perhaps you have wondered what it meant. Well, let me tell you what it means. Great David's greater son has come in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why he says to his son, after the flesh, his great, great, great, whatever number of greats it might be, grandson, he calls him Lord. Which is the reversal of normal things, isn't it? We don't normally expect a grandfather, as it were, to be on his knees to a grandson. But when David speaks about the promises of God and the promised Messiah, he calls Him Lord. David died and his tomb is here. You know where it is. Perhaps you have passed by it often enough. But here David says in the Psalms, I saw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One seek eruption." Peter was saying, now to whom does this apply? It can only possibly apply to the one who is raised from the dead. And we are here to bear testimony of this. Jesus is the one who was promised. And all that you have heard, all the rumors are explained by focusing upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Promise, provision, and proclamation. Well, let me just very briefly, in conclusion, just say a word or two by word of application. And at the risk of making a fourth point out of a three-point sermon, let me say it's personal. It's personal. If you have time later on today, go back and read through this sermon and see the way in which Peter so often makes a personal application to his hearers. He's not just setting before his hearers biblical truths or theological propositions. He does that, of course. He explains the Old Testament prophecies, but he does more than that. He makes personal application so that his hearers should not escape the direct point of the Word of God. And I would not do anything less. than the example that is set before us in scripture. And make this personal also. Peter is speaking to the crowd and he says to the crowd, this man, Jesus, who was delivered up, who was attested among you as doing signs and wonders, you put to death. You put to death. He does not allow them to sit comfortably under the Word of God. He is making an accusation that the very one who was promised long, long ago, down through the generations, is the one that they called out against, that they despised, that they ridiculed, for whom they sought the death penalty. This Jesus, whom you put to death by mailing him to the cross. Now, we might perhaps seek to avoid the point or the pointedness of God's word by thinking to ourselves, well, we were not part of that crowd that cried out, crucify him. We were not, though, amongst those who preferred Barabbas to the Son of God. But when we despise the offer of salvation, when we treat it as though it had nothing to do with us, then we are doing no different to what these men and women did long, long ago. If there is not that pointed application then there is not that pointed application when it comes to salvation either. We come therefore to sit under the ministry of God's Word and we would ask this question, Lord, have I been even as one who has despised Thy Word? I have not lived as Paul would encourage us to live. We live by the Spirit We should therefore walk by the Spirit. Are we walking with the Spirit? Living by the Spirit? I would not hesitate, therefore, to make that same direct and personal application that Peter dared to make at Pentecost. What does this mean to you? Or to take that well-known expression from the Scriptures, What think ye of Christ? What think ye of Christ? If this morning, as you contemplate these truths, the preaching of Peter long ago, the same message which is proclaimed these two thousand years, Why? Because today is still the day of grace. God, who is the God of all grace, still extends his arm to you to save. Young or old, what is your confidence? My only confidence is surely this, that I'm not my own. but belong to my faithful Saviour, even Jesus Christ, my Lord. Let's pray together. Our gracious God and our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the boldness of the Apostle Peter as he proclaimed the good news that is in Christ Jesus, the same good news that has been proclaimed these 2,000 years, that is still being proclaimed in pulpits, in churches and on street corners around the world. that all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We pray that there may not be one person here present this morning who is not able to say in their heart, I call upon the name of the Lord. Show mercy to us all that our only confidence in life and in death might be that we are not our own but belong to our faithful Saviour, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Hear us, we pray, for the sake of thy dear Son, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.