As I did mention, we are going to begin our summer series a couple of weeks early this year. I've just concluded our studies in the cluster of psalms from 15 to 24 that I call the Cluster of the Presence of the Lord Psalms. I think that was a memorable series, at least for me, in studying it. I'm just thankful to the Lord that His word is so rich. And I don't think we'll ever read those Psalms again in the same way. But before we go back to the Gospels, God willing, in the fall, I do normally have a summertime series. And as I gave thought and consideration and prayer to the subject of what that series would be, For this summer, I decided that through the summer months, we would study together the sermons in the Book of Acts. By sermons, I mean the speeches spoken by the apostolic community, most often to unbelieving audiences, to bring to them the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, what we often would refer to as evangelistic sermons that we have in our New Testaments in the book of Acts. And it's a surprising thing. to read those sermons, and to study those sermons, and to recognize that of all the methods of evangelism, of all the kinds of evangelistic sermons we tend to hear today, the things that are called gospel sermons, evangelism sermons, we don't do it the way they did it in the Bible. We simply don't do it the way they did it in the book of Acts. And what I want to do is I want to acquaint you with these sermons. And first of all, I want to identify which sermons they are that we're going to be looking at over the summer months. First of all, the first sermon is in chapter two of the book of Acts, what we usually refer to by some name like the Pentecostal sermon. in Acts chapter 2. Pentecost, the day of Pentecost had fully come. The Holy Spirit fell upon the church. They spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Peter rose and he gave explanation of the meaning of these things in a very extensive sermon, a sermon after which some 3,000 souls came to faith and were baptized. So it's a very effective evangelistic sermon. The 3,000 souls were was saved that day. We want to know that sermon. We want to understand that sermon. We want to know what is it that they did then that we're not doing today. Because maybe one of the reasons we don't see the kind of fruit we'd like to see is because we just have determined we know a better way. We know a better way to preach the gospel than we even find in the Word of God, which is a horrible thing to consider. But I fear that that's the case. The second sermon we're going to look at is Peter's Temple Sermon. In Acts chapter three, after he had healed the man who was unable to walk in Solomon's portico. And we had a man who was a beggar man. They said, silver or gold, we have none. But such as we have, we give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. And Peter begins to preach. Don't think it's our virtue. Don't think it's our power that's made this man walk. And he began to explain the gospel in a temple sermon in Acts chapter 3. And then there's a couple of speeches or sermons that were given before the council. That is the Jewish law court called the Sanhedrin. They were brought up to be questioned. They were actually put into custody. They were arrested. There were temple officers that took them into custody. And then they brought them before the council. And Peter gives a speech before them in chapter four. And then Peter and The apostles in general are mentioned as also speaking in chapter five. So we're going to kind of put those both incidents together as speeches before the council. There it's not so much the proclamation of, although there is a proclamation of the gospel, but it's in the context of the defense of the gospel, defending what they're, what they're proclaiming before people that are telling them, don't do it. You can't proclaim any longer in his name. You're not to speak in the name of Jesus. And they make their response before that council. And then in chapter seven, we have the speech of Stephen. Stephen, the church's first martyr. offers up a speech in chapter 7, and you read through that, and you say, this is pretty negative. This is pretty, you kind of wonder that God upset at the things that he said, and yet there were reasons he said the things that he said, and they have importance, but sometimes we need to speak in such ways, to speak openly and honestly just about the reality of the world in which we live. And Stephen was an example of that, spoke right to the issue. of his present day. So we want to look at that speech before the council in chapter 7. And then we have the sermon that was preached first to the Gentiles in the household of Cornelius in chapter 10 of the book of Acts, when God had to go through all kinds of amazing things, visions, and commands that Peter himself argues with God. Peter, rise up and eat. And Peter says, not so, Lord. Imagine that. Just to God, not so, Lord. He would not. I've never eaten anything unclean. And don't ask me to go into a house of an unclean Gentile because I'm not going to do that either. And yet God puts the match together and brings Peter into the household of Cornelius and brings Household of Cornelius to welcome Peter for an evangelistic sermon. It's the first sermon preached to Gentile people. And then we have Paul's sermon in the synagogue of Antioch and Pisidia. It's a great example of Paul's synagogue preaching Chapter 17 of the book of Acts tells us that Paul's custom when he came to a new city was to go into the synagogue. And he'd go and he'd show in the synagogue what the Old Testament taught about the Messiah. And then he'd tell them about Jesus. And he'd say, this Jesus that I declare to you is the very same Messiah that God said he would send. And he matched up the two. Very powerful kinds of preaching. that Paul did, and we have a wonderfully full example of that kind of preaching in the 13th chapter of the book of the Acts. And then we have Paul's sermon to the Gentiles, both in chapter 14 in Lystra, when you had people that were actually looking to sacrifice to him and Barnabas as if they were gods. Then, of course, after Paul restrains them from doing this, and they're about to stone him to death. They stone him to death. How fickle the multitudes are, going away from worshipping them as gods, seeking to put them to death. We have that example in Lystra, and we have the more full example at Athens in chapter 17. So it's those seven sermons we're going to be looking at over the summer months. Pentecostal Sermon of Chapter 2, the Temple Sermon of Chapter 3, the Council Sermons in 4 and 5, Stephen's Sermon in Chapter 7, Peter in the Household of Cornelius in Chapter 10, Paul in the Synagogue at Antioch-Pisidia in Chapter 13, and Paul's Sermons to the Gentiles in 14 and 17 in Lystra and at Athens. That's where we're going. But we're not doing it this morning. This morning, my goal is to present an introduction to these sermons, and I'm going to do it by way of highlighting a number of characteristics that are common to all of these sermons, okay? So I have seven of these. Seven characteristics that are common to all of these sermons, and these are things that I'm not gonna mention them every week. It's just something we're going to assume is true of all of these sermons. Some of these things we are going to mention in the progress of our studies. But all of these things pertain to all of these sermons. And so the first thing that's common to all of these sermons, that they are all part of the Book of Acts. Hey, that's really, isn't that dumb to say that, actually say it? They're all in the book of Acts. Yeah, they are. But the fact that they're all in the book of Acts should tell us something about these sermons, because the writer to the Acts tells us in the first chapter, what Andrew read in our scripture reading this morning, here's what we're told this book of Acts is all about. Acts chapter one and verse one. The writer to the Acts refers to what he calls the first book, the first book. And then he addresses this book to Theophilus, which, interestingly enough, is the same name that the book of Luke is dedicated to. Luke wrote the first book. The Gospel According to Luke. He wrote it to the same man, Theophilus. And he tells us that in that first book, The Gospel According to Luke, our third gospel, he says, I've dealt with all that Jesus began to do and to teach. What's Luke about? Well, it's about the things that Jesus began to do and to teach. What's Acts about? He goes on to say, "...until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen, having presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking about the kingdom of God." So all of those things are matters covered in the book of Luke about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until He was taken up into heaven. Until he was taken up to the majesty of the Father's right hand. What is the book of Acts about? It's about what he continued to do. Through these disciples, whom he trained, whom he taught, whom he gave commandments to, whom he sent out into the world. We call this the Acts of the Apostles. At least that's what it says in my Bible. It says right up here, the Acts of the Apostles. But you know, I think that's so traditional, it's kind of misnamed. Because though the Apostles are acting, there's another actor in the Book of Acts. His name is Jesus. The Ascended Son of God is acting from the right hand of the Majesty on high. You see it in chapter 2. He sent forth this which you see in here. He has sent forth the Holy Spirit. It's Jesus who is the primary actor. The risen, glorified Jesus continues to work, continues to do, continues to teach. And so all of these sermons are part of what Jesus teaches, of what Jesus would say to the church. And as we study these sermons, we should be expecting to hear the voice of the risen Lord of glory. We should be expecting as His sheep. Remember how in the 10th chapter of the Gospel, when Jesus calls out His sheep by name, He says, My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me, and I give to them everlasting life. And where do we hear the voice of our Shepherd? We hear it in His Word. That's the wonderful thing, is that in the scriptures, we're given a picture that Jesus actually comes in the preaching. Ephesians chapter two says, he came. Not the apostles, he came. The context of chapter two, it's Jesus. It's the Jesus who ascended on high, let captivity captive, gave gifts to men. That's in chapter four. But in chapter two, he came and preached peace. to those who are far off and to those who are near. He made peace through the blood of the cross. And he came, comes to preach peace. Well, when did Paul, when did Jesus ever come to Ephesus? When did Jesus ever come to preach peace to the churches that Paul established? Well, he comes in the gospel. He comes in his word. That's why Paul writing to the Romans, he says in chapter 10, how should they hear him? unless a preacher is sent. Him, not just a message, is the personal voice of Christ we hear. I remember years ago I was working, when I was in seminary, I was working in a was actually the old age home of the Actors Studio, the Actors Fund home in Englewood, New Jersey. It was a great place to work. Met a lot of people who had all kinds of ties to the entertainment business. So it made it very interesting. But the man who ran the home, one night he stopped to talk to me, and he knew I was a Christian, and he began to ask me, he says, you know, I just don't understand why it is that, you know, you have such confidence in the things of the gospel. I go to an Episcopal church, but, I mean, you act as if God spoke to you. And I said to him, well, you know, actually he has. Not with some audible voice from heaven, not in a loud voice or a soft voice, but in his word. He does address us. He addresses our hearts, our minds, our consciences through his word. He writes his law upon our minds and upon our hearts. And so as we come to these sermons, they were spoken along years ago, centuries ago, and had an impact. Let's expect them to have an impact again. Let's expect us to hear the voice of the risen Christ as we study these sermons throughout the summer months. That's the first thing. They're all part of the book of Acts. The book that's designed by its author to further the account of volume one. The things that Jesus began to do and to teach. He continues to do and to teach in this book of Acts. The second thing that they all have in common is that all of these speeches are not dialogues. It's not two parties conversing. It's not discussions. It's not people meeting around a table to try to figure out what the gospel should be, what the gospel might be, what the gospel could be, what we want the gospel to be. It's not a debate. It's not an apologetic argument defending the gospel. It's not a carefully constructed sales presentation. That's the modern church. We find ways to sell Jesus. We find ways to sell the gospel to people. And you really can't differentiate, if you've ever been in sales at all, some of the ways in which the gospel gets presented with what is advocated in sales techniques. That's what we do. That's what we do. We want to fill the pews with bodies and we want to sell Jesus in order that the pews be filled. But it's none of those things. What are they then? What are these sermons? They're proclamations. They're declarations. They're reports of what God has done. Gospel's good news. When the presenter comes on for the 6 and 11 o'clock news, or whatever it is, the 24-hour news today, it used to say 6 and 11 o'clock news, and we all knew what that meant. But on CNN or whatever station you're watching the news on, They're not saying, well, let's get into a discussion about what the news should be today. Well, I mean, maybe you could discuss it and think that you've missed a lot. But everybody's going to always present their particular take on it. But the fact is, when they tell you there was a fire in Jersey City, they're reporting it. They're telling you something you didn't know. It happened in Jersey City. There was a fire, and x amount of people died, and x amount of people are homeless. And they're giving you a report. Hopefully, they're getting it right. Hopefully we're getting it right when we give the report, the report of what God has done. And what God has done, particularly as we read these sermons in the book of Acts, what he's done to fulfill his promises to Israel by sending his son, the Messiah, to die for the sins of men and women, to rise from the dead, to reign as Lord over all. It's a proclamation. This is what God has done. Christ has died for our sins according to the scriptures. He's been raised from the dead according to the scriptures. It's a message in the light of what God has done. It calls us to repent from our idols, to turn away from our rebellions, to submit to Jesus in faith and faithfulness, and to follow him in fellowship with his people. Not as the Lone Ranger going off with our Bibles to some mountain to take in the beautiful scenery of a Sunday and say, who cares if I'm ever with any other Christian. No, we want to be part of his people. And we're called to be part of his people. They continue together in the apostolic teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers. That's normative. That's not exceptional. That's what we're called to by the gospel. And so these are proclamations. Again, they're not debates, they're not arguments, they're not little syllogisms trying to convince people how they're sinners. It's not, well, what are you gonna, you know, what if you die today and, you know, why would you, why should God allow you to heaven? I know those are interesting questions to ask, and you could do it, but don't mistake that with proclamation. Telling people what God and Christ has achieved. Telling people the good news. And we don't determine the response. I know TV news, they're wondering, are people going to turn us off? We want them to come back tomorrow night. But we don't control that. That's in God's hands. So prayerfully and faithfully. We endeavor to be His ambassadors. We endeavor to be His spokesmen. Endeavor to speak forth the truth of the gospel. That's what they did in the book of the Acts. And they lived in expectation of God's blessing. They lived in a wondrous expectation that God would bless. I think sometimes they were amazed that God blessed. I think Paul in Corinthians, he speaks about, we were with you in weakness and fear and much trembling. And our speech and our preaching was not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and power. It's like Paul saying, wow. They actually believe this. They actually came to faith. These people, when he says in chapter 1, to the Jews, this message is a stumbling block. To the Greeks, it's foolishness. But then he says, to those who recall Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. He lived in expectation that the living God would meet with needy sinners who would hear the gospel. And God would change hearts. God would be his own advocate. That's the amazing thing. The greatest advocate of the gospel is not you and me. It's the Holy Spirit. It's the God who comes to sinners and people in their need and comes in the word of His grace. God is His own advocate. Give Him space to work. I don't think you have to clinch the deal. You're not the great closer. The Holy Spirit closes the sale. He closes the deal when he works in people's hearts. And then the third thing that I'm just falling out from that is that these, all of these sermons are preached in the power of the Holy Spirit. The disciples were told to wait for the reception of power to be his witnesses. And you know, we read that and oftentimes we think that they're to wait for power to overcome their reticence. to make them bold. We get the picture that they all fled Jesus at the cross. But why did they flee Jesus at the cross? I mean, when Peter said, I will go to prison or to death for you, you'd think he was just blowing hot air. No, he meant it. He would have gone to prison. He would have gone to death if Jesus had fought. But Jesus didn't fight. He took out the sword and cut off the servant of the high priest's ear. And Jesus healed it. That's not how it's supposed to go. Jesus was turning the apple cart. All expectations He was defying. And in that situation you would have fled too. But it wasn't cowardice. It was confusion. Total confusion. The whole world view of those Jewish believers were just overturned. They didn't have it on their charts or on their radar screen that the Messiah is going to die. Jesus knew who came to die. He knew he was to be obedient to death and death of the cross. Peter didn't know that. So it wasn't really reticence and fear that deflected these people. In fact, after Jesus was raised from the dead in the book of, see how the book of Luke ends. They're filled with joy. They're bearing witness in the temple. They know he's alive. They're filled with energy. So it wasn't so much that the spirit had to be some kind of subjective power to make them powerful, to make them bold, to make them loud. I mean, I think people confuse boisterous preaching with Holy Spirit filled preaching. Not necessarily true. There's the old story of Winston Churchill when he would preach, when he would speak before the House of Commons. In his manuscripts, he had little notes on the side. I believe it was William Manchester wrote a biography of Churchill. And he said as those manuscripts were reviewed, one of the notes he had in one of his speeches was, argument weak here, speak louder. I think sometimes we think that's the case. Arguments weak here, speak louder. I'm opposed to people raising up their voices with enthusiasm and with joy to speak forth the wonderful things of God. But the power is not so much some subjective power of fear and reticence, but it's the power of the Spirit through whom alone the mission can be successful. That's the need for the power of the Holy Spirit. It's a power that would break forth beyond the boundaries of the old covenant people of God to embrace the nations. Joel 2, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, not just Jewish people, all peoples. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, unto the uttermost parts of the earth. You'll bring my message to all the nations. How can we do that, Lord? They don't even know about the promises of the Old Testament. Well, I'm going to give you my spirit. I'm going to pour out my spirit on all flesh. It's the power that makes the mission successful. And again, it's interesting that tongues are included in this whole thing. to testify to the inclusiveness of New Covenant life. And our Pentecostal friends and brethren, they think that tongues is some manifestation of the Spirit itself. No, no. Tongues is a manifestation that all peoples speak the wonderful works of God in their own languages. Tongues testifies that this gospel is to go to the nations, and it will gather a multitude that no man can number from every kindred, tongue, and tribe." Tongues is an overturning of the curse of Babel. When everybody was separated from one another because of languages, now God's going to bring us all together in unity, even though we have different languages. Yet our unity is not in our language. It's in our Savior. It's in our Lord Jesus. All peoples, all languages are called to faith. And all peoples and all languages will be speaking forth the mighty acts of God. But then, because of that, because all peoples, all nations will turn back to God through the gospel, through Christ, these sermons all focus upon the restoration of God's kingdom. The restoration of the blessings of salvation. No, part of, I'm sorry, the restoration of the blessings of creation. You know, part of the mix in the creation account in Genesis is that man was to have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air. He wouldn't have dominion over other people. They weren't to enslave people. They weren't to abuse people. They weren't to run roughshod over the rights and freedoms and will of other people. They would have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air, over creation. Mankind was to be representative of the sovereign God, who as His image and likeness would exercise rule and sovereignty over the world. But sin entered in, and as a result of that, you don't want to put rule in the hands of rebel sinners. They would misuse it. Authority in Jesus' hands is good and right, but yet Jesus comes to restore the kingdom and restore us to the place where we reign and rule with Christ, where we are heirs of God, co-heirs with Christ. And this matter of the kingdom, it's interesting that the book of Acts begins in chapter one and verse six with this question. Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Now, there's many things you could say about that question, but I think the point that Jesus is getting at in chapter one is that you shouldn't be focusing upon timing. People have done that all the time. Jesus is going to return in the year 1000. Jesus is going to return in 1917, Jesus is going to return in 1914, Jehovah's Witnesses. Jesus is going to return in Harold Camping. Was it 1984? I don't remember what it was. Whatever it was, the camping said Jesus is going to return. And so, so many prophecies have been made about timing, timing, timing, timing, timing. In the face of the words of Jesus, that it's not for you to know the times and the seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. You should not be concerned about timing. Jesus says, get busy with the task. Not timing, but task. I've given you a task. You shall be my witnesses. That's what you need to be doing. Not trying to figure out times and seasons. But the reality is when the Holy Spirit is given and the work of the church begins, it seems that they get clear pretty quickly as to what this whole matter of kingship and kingdom is all about. It's not a question of where Jesus is going to reign upon the earth. whether it's going to be Salt Lake City, or whether it's going to be Jerusalem, or whether it's going to be some place in Missouri, where all kinds of crazy prophets have come up with so many strange ideas. It's the fact, not so much a place, but person. It's the kingdom is restored in the person of the king himself. Jesus is the king. And the constant refrain of these sermons is that Jesus has been exalted and enthroned at the Father's right hand. Our father David died. He's buried. And yet he knew that God had promised that of his seed, one should sit upon his throne. Being exalted. sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High. Jesus sits upon the throne of the universe. Jesus reigns. That's what we sang that hymn. Jesus shall reign where'er the sun does his successive journeys run. I mean right from the beginning of the account of the Gospels. Where is he was born? King of the Jews. He is the king of the Jews. He's the son of David. He's exalted at the right hand of God to rule and reign in the universe of God. All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth. And again and again and again in these sermons you see it Over and over again, Jesus reigns. He rules. And to him, every knee shall bow. Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So they came, and it's interesting. There's many passages I have written down here. I'm not going to do it with you, but the way in which the book ends, you know, we make a lot of what we call inclusives. It's a literary device. It's a way in which writers in the ancient world would sometimes tie their works together by putting something kind of bracketing the beginning and the end. So in the beginning, you have this question about the kingdom. And in the end of the book of Acts, what do you see? It ends with the kingdom. You have Paul in prison in Rome. And it says in verse 30, he lived there in chapter 28. He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. The idea of the kingdom is bookended. And you say, how in the world does God's kingdom come? We pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It's by the proclamation of the gospel. It's by the declaration of what God has done in Christ. It's calling all people to hear this wondrous reality that heaven has invaded this earth in mercy. Heaven has come to bring us back to God. All these sermons focus upon the restoration of the kingdom of God. through the exaltation and enthronement of Israel's king. But then, fifthly, you didn't know I got four done already, did you? I did. The fifth one is this. These sermons are all summaries. They're all summaries. Hey, Luke wasn't there. These sermons were not on sermonodio.com. That's a place on the internet you go hear us. We broadcast on sermonodio.com. gives you to know. So you can actually trace what I say and have a pretty good readout as to what I say and hold me to it. You actually did say that. It's recorded on sermonaudio.com. So you have my words verbatim. But Luke didn't hear these sermons that Peter preached. He didn't hear the sermons that Stephen preached. He was getting his report from either those who were there or those who had heard the words of eyewitnesses. And in the ancient world, when they told about the things Jesus said, when they told about the things that Paul preached, they were not people who knew they had a Bible they could run to and pick it up. No, if they wouldn't get it, they had to get it when they heard it. And so they had cultivated an ability to remember things far better than we do today. Because we have it all, you know, we have it on our bookshelf. We have it on a tape that we can hear. They didn't have that. They had to listen with rapt attention. They had to meditate upon the law of the Lord day and night. Rehearse it over and over and over again. And you know what happened at the end of that whole process? They knew what Jesus said. They knew what Paul said. They know what these sermons spoke of. You know, back in the 70s when I first came to hear really good Christian preaching, I could tell you today a lot of those sermons I heard back then. All the passage of time, I still remember. I can give you detailed outlines along with illustrations of things I first heard when I was a young believer. They made such a deep impression on my heart. You could go back and get a tape recording and discover that I didn't leave out a whole lot in terms of what I remember. So, you know, the reasons we cultivate memory is because something's important to us to remember. You know, when somebody gives you their phone number and you want to call them, you try to get it down. You can't write it down. You try to say it over and over and over again in your mind so you don't forget it. Because you want to remember it. You need to remember it. And so Luke lived in days when memory became a highly cultivated faculty. to pass on the valued traditions of a community, to pass on the words of Jesus, the words of Paul, the words of Peter. And these are summaries of those words. And it's not just that this is all they said. No, they're summaries. It says in chapter two, with regard to the Pentecostal sermon, It says in verse 40 of chapter 2, and with many other words, with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation. And he didn't just say, save yourselves from their crooked generation, amen, let's go home. He said, save yourself from this crooked generation and then elaborated and expounded upon it. We have summaries of that exposition. And so the fact that there's summaries requires us to be all the more careful to note what they highlighted. This is the cream of the crop. This is the cream of the coffee, whatever you put cream in. This is the cream. This is the stuff you really want to get a handle on, really want to understand. And then the sixth thing I wanted to say to you about these sermons is that all of these sermons are explanations. They're all interpretive. They're all explanatory of the history Luke is relating. In other words, it's in the light of the sermons we understand the narrative. You know, the narrative is the things that happen. And a lot of times people see what happens and they say, well, let me see how I think I should understand that. Oh, tongues being given at Pentecost. Those people were believers. They spoke in tongues. There must be some kind of a second experience of grace that we should be expecting in order to get the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues. Again, that doesn't seem to pan out with regard to the preaching. The preaching, he says, repent, be baptized, every one of you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you will receive the promise of the Father. Doesn't say there's some two-stage thing to get the Spirit. There was a group of people that had a two-stage experience because they knew Jesus before the Spirit was given. I mean, the strange things that happened in that transition period. There are people who are forgiven of their sins before Jesus died for our sins. And yet they had forgiveness of sins before he died. There were people that had the Holy Spirit before the Spirit was given. And yet there had to be that historic giving of the Spirit that would be poured out on all flesh. My point to you is that you don't make of the histories what you want to make of it. They say you can take history and it's like a nose of wax. You can shape it into whatever way you want it. And we can't, we're prevented from doing that by the fact that we have sermons here that say such things as this. This is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel. Peter's giving explanation, interpretation. Don't let your fancy just run free to kind of elaborate and come up with all kinds of strange teachings. No, this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. Peter knew what he was talking about. So let's see the sermon and the narrative in the light of what Peter teaches. Peter's teaching explains the narrative, explains the story we read about. It's not some latter-day movement that is what Joel was talking about. It's not the rise of modern charismatic denominations that Peter was talking about. It's Pentecost that Peter was talking about. This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And then the final thing to say is that these sermons are filled with Old Testament. They're filled with Old Testament. There are full citations of Old Testament passages. But not just that, there's allusions to Old Testament passages. It doesn't necessarily say, as was spoken by the prophet saying. And yet there's clear allusions to Old Testament passages. And then there were the echoes. The echoes are things that some of us can hear and maybe some of you don't. That gets to be a little bit subjective. But the fact is that this is fulfillment of all that God had promised. The first words of Jesus recorded by Mark in Mark 1 verse 15 is, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. The time is fulfilled. What time is fulfilled? Well, all the time in which the prophet said, and in that day, and in that day, and it shall be in the latter days, and it shall be. There's a time of fulfillment. Jesus says it's now. It's not the cock that will tell you that all things are lined up for Christ's return. No. All history culminates in Jesus. All history centers in Jesus. All the ages prior meet in Jesus. At least until they decided to call the age in which we live the Common Era. It was after Jesus. All time was considered. He's central to history. Jesus' first words after taking the scroll of Isaiah 61 in the synagogue in Nazareth in Luke 4 and reading it, about the Spirit of the Lord being upon him to preach good tidings to the poor. to open up the prison house and to heal the brokenhearted. He said, this day, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Let's see these sermons as they're given with the richness of this Old Testament background, the richness of the promises that are now in Jesus come to be fulfilled. You know, my ambition through this Summertime series is that we'll have a clearer view of what this gospel is, what this message that the lost need to hear is. I think sometimes we think we have to be apologists, we have to be smarter than we ever think we can be to answer everybody's question about every little thing. That's not your responsibility. I mean, you know, you can quote John 3.16 and you get much of it right there. Right there. Of course, some people need explanation. When you say God, maybe they don't even know who God is, and you gotta give some kind of explanation. You say the God of the Bible, the God of Israel, the God of the Old Testament, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You point them to the scriptures. That God, that God, that God who spoke in the Old Testament. Now it's come in His Son. In fact, He sent Him. That God sent His only begotten Son. And you need to give some explanation about the uniqueness of this Son and the uniqueness of what it means that He gave Him. and what that self-giving entailed. So there's, but I mean, you just have one passage that just summarizes so much of it that, and you're not responsible to then field all the objections. People object. Say, come to church, you'll know a little bit more in the future. Or maybe you'd like to sit down with my pastor and he can talk more. You can do it in so many different ways that you don't have to feel that there's so much pressure upon you. You tell the things you know. So I really want our understanding of the gospel to be clarified through this. It's Old Testament background to be clear, clarified in this. I would hope that in the midst of the sermons, we would have a greater sense of kingdom realities, greater sense of confidence in the presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit of God, that we're a community of the Spirit. And whatever we lack in ourselves, there's no lack in Him. Wherever our weakness is, there's no weakness in Him. He's the power that makes the ministry effective. This gospel is the power of God for salvation. Not this minister of the gospel. It's not the preacher that's the power of God. It's the gospel that's the power of God. And I really hope that these messages over the summer months will clarify a whole bunch of stuff that just seems and seems to me in the modern world gets so terribly, terribly distorted. And again, this is not meant to be criticizing what others do. I'm not concerned to waste my time to criticize. I can't affect what other people do. I'm just concerned with you and me, what we do and how we should serve and how we should see things and how we can be more effective in our faith and in our sharing of our faith and in our expectations of what God can do with a believing and a faithful people. So pray for me, pray for us as we pursue this ministry over the summer months that we would gather each Lord's Day with the fullness of the blessing of Christ and leave here rejoicing that the Lord has met with us. Let's pray together. Father, we are thankful for the gospel. We're thankful for what you have done in Jesus to reconcile a fallen world to yourself, to bring us back from our waywardness, to bring us away from our idols, to bring us to the God who is living and true. And we pray, Lord, that as we do consider these sermons in the book of Acts, that, Lord, we would come to understand through all the practices that really have no rootage in scripture at all, that things are just a bit simpler than perhaps we ever anticipated it to be. That our confidence is not in our wisdom, it's not in our ingenuity, it's not in our slick presentations. Our confidence is in the truths that you've made known, that you've declared, that you are the great advocate for the gospel. And we pray that we would simply be those channels through which you work for the glory of your name. and the salvation of multitudes. So we ask you to hear our prayers. We ask you to bless this church. We ask you to bless your word. Bless this world with Christians who are seeking not to be clever, not to be necessarily wise, but to be faithful. So we ask you to hear our prayers. We ask you to bless us as your people as we ask these mercies coming in Jesus' name, amen.