And turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 2. This morning, Acts chapter 2, and we're going to read from verse 14 down through verse 36. But first, a few words. We all live in a certain reality. We wake up to our reality. Our reality is ordered by historical events. In other words, if you lived before the flood, you lived in a certain kind of world. If you lived after the flood, you lived in another kind of world. If you woke up in the morning after the great flood and you came off the ark, the world would have been way different than it was before the flood. America would not exist as it does without Yorktown. Yorktown was the critical battle at the end in which America gained victory over the greatest empire on Earth, and life would have been very different after Yorktown. We got our Constitution. We got our Bill of Rights. Now, you can pretend to ignore the reality of Yorktown. Maybe there were some who did. There were some people who really liked Britain in America, and they pretended Yorktown did not exist. But there was always the reminder each year that America was an independent republic. July 4th reminded us of this. It was a whole different country after Yorktown. So historical events are important. They establish for us our reality, the kind of world that we live in. It's a whole new day today because of what happened 2000 years ago. Now you can pretend to ignore the reality or you can accept it and you can be reminded of it again this morning that Christ is risen from the dead. Now today we're going to look at the greatest sermon ever preached in the history of the Christian church. It's not my sermon, somebody else's. Comes in Acts 2, beginning with verse 14. But before we go there, I want to give you a little bit of the context of this message. The context is Pentecost. This message was preached during Pentecost. Now the word Pentecost comes from the Greek word 50. That's all it is, 50. So whenever somebody says, we have a Pentecostal church, that means they have at least 50 members in their church. Well, that's what the Greek word means. It just means 50. So why? Why Pentecost? Well, Pentecost was the Greek word for the festival known in the Old Testament as the Feast of Weeks. And the Feast of Weeks came 50 days after the wave offering of the Passover. So in terms of timing, what's going on here? Well, Jesus rose from the dead 50 days earlier. Remember, his ascension came 40 days after his resurrection. And the Pentecost came 10 days after the ascension of Jesus into heaven. So that's the historical record of what happened. And so how many days were the 120 gathered in the upper room, roughly? Maybe it was a give or take, but it would have been how many days? Those of you who know your math. 50 minus 40 equals 10 days. Right. So it was a total of 50 days since Jesus had been raised from the dead. And that's when this sermon happened. It happened 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus. Now here's one more important element to the context of this message. The Spirit of God had come upon these people that were in the upper room. The Spirit of God had come upon all flesh or that outpouring had just begun and the promise of Joel had happened. Thirdly, third thing you need to know about the context is this, the whole world had gathered together. in Jerusalem during this festival. In God's providence, the most cosmopolitan city in the world during the day of Pentecost was Jerusalem. Jerusalem was at the center of the world. In the providence of God, it's an amazing fact about all of history. In the providence of God, Egypt was down here, Greece was up here, Rome was over here, Persia was down here, and India a little further east. But Jerusalem is right in the center of the world, and it is in the middle of the trade routes. And so for that reason, Jerusalem is a very cosmopolitan city. In the providence of God, he wanted his people right in the center of all the action. And that's where Jerusalem was placed. Now, let's take a look at verse 5 of our chapter. Let me read this briefly so you get, again, a feel for the context. There was dwelling in Jerusalem Jews. devout men from every nation under heaven and when this sound occurred the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language they were witnessing the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God on that day verse 7 then they were all amazed and marveled saying to one another look at are not all these who speak Galileans, and how is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya, joining Cyrene, visitors from Rome. both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them speaking in our own language the wonderful works of God. So the whole world is gathered. All of these nations are gathered together in this one place called Jerusalem, in the providence of God, and this some have called the reverse of Babel. happening right here, right now, at this time. Very dramatic time in all of world history. The world was scattered with battles. The world is gathered together during the Pentecost, and the greatest message in the world is broadcast to every tribe and nation out of the gate. So that is what is going on in this chapter. In some respects, we have here the most important sermon. ever preached the ultimate revival sermon in the sense that it comes directly after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the first sermon preached as we come out of the gates post-resurrection, and the sermon that results in thousands of conversions. It was no doubt the most controversial sermon ever preached as well. Fifty days earlier, the Jews and the Romans themselves had crucified their Messiah. If there was ever a call for repentance that would have been much controversial and been part of the Sermon of All Sermons, that's what happened on this day. It is, in many ways, an inaugurating sermon, the first sermon preached for the Christian church. It's a dramatic sermon that is very timely, very relevant. The first sermon preached in 4,000 years, very important in many respects. There are sermons that explain what happened or what is happening. There are sermons that are very relevant, very important. They're timed well. They have intense relevance to the situation at hand. And that's precisely what's happening out of the gate with this sermon from Peter. was a sermon preached after 4,000 years of waiting to inaugurate the next 2,000 plus years. And this is the sermon that was preached. Let's stand together and hear the word of God, the sermon preached that day some 2,000 years ago. Acts 2 and verse 14. Now hear the greatest sermon ever preached in the history of the Christian church. Acts 2 and verse 14. But Peter, standing up with the 11, raised his voice and said to them, men of Judea, And all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. This is what was spoken of by the prophet Joel. It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams, and on my manservants and on my maidservants, I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire, vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of that great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs. which God did through him in your midst as you yourselves also know him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God you have taken by lawless hands have crucified and put to death whom God raised up having loose the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it for David says concerning him I foresaw the Lord always before my face for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken Therefore, my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of joy in your presence." Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, in his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. He foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ. that his soul was not left in Hades nor did his flesh see corruption this Jesus God has raised up of which we are all witnesses therefore being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the father the promise of the Holy Spirit he poured out this which you now see And here, for David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Amen. Let's pray. Father, as we read these words, oh God, we pray you would turn them into life. in the hearts, the minds, the lives of each person here that these words would come spiritually alive and they would bring forth much fruit in us that we would believe them and live them out. Oh God, we pray that you would illumine the hearts of those who are here to better understand and to see your word today in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. So here, brothers and sisters, we have the greatest sermon ever preached. And I could say amen at this point, and we could be done. But I've got a little bit more to go to explain this sermon to you, because it is a sermon that so constitutes our faith and our life that I want you to be sure that you have it down. What is this message that is preached? Not so much on the death of Jesus, but on his resurrection. So why, why is this the message? Why is this the thing you want to believe and to be sure of and to live out day by day? Why is this so important? Why is the resurrection of Jesus constitute this great sermon brought by Peter on that day? First observation, let's just take a look at the sermon, 546 words of which more than half, 279 words are scripture. The sermon lasted for about five minutes. And granted, we speak a little longer these days. But sometimes we need to cut to the chase. Sometimes we need to get to the message itself. So Peter does here. The sermon is based on the word of God. First, observation. I think we say that immediately. What is a sermon? A sermon is mainly the word of God, the explanation of what God has already given in the Old Testament in this case, but also the New Testament in our case. The sermon must begin with God's word. It has to be mostly God's word. It's not our opinion. We explain it a little bit further, but we need to begin with God's word. That's a sermon. A sermon is rooted and grounded in the truths of what God said. Now the sermon here is a historical event. Basically, he's just speaking of what happened. That's it. The sermon is explaining what happened. That's what sermons are. What happened? Well, here's what happened. It's a historical record. I got a note from somebody who purchased our curriculum this week and she said her relatives don't like our curriculum because It does not confirm what Discovery Channel is giving concerning historical events in human history. And my response to her was this, well, who do you trust? God. Comes down to history, who do you trust? Historians lie. They always lie. People lie. That's the problem. There's so much deception in the world. Natural man is lying to himself all the time. The great empires are going to record histories that have very little to do with what happened in matter of fact. So who do you trust in history? You trust God in history. God's Word is far, far more authoritative and more true than eyewitnesses. Who are you going to trust, your eyewitness or God's truth? If you had a choice between one or the other, which would you choose? If you said, I absolutely need to find the truth to which I will hang my eternal soul, would you trust I don't know. Livy? Would you trust some historian who's written on the last 2,000 years of world history? Or would you trust God? Would you trust yourself as an eyewitness if you were standing there at the cross or by the tomb on that day? Or would you trust God? Who would you trust? Would you trust your own eyes? Would you trust your own eyes? I'm asking you, would you trust your own eyes? Would you trust yourself? Or would you trust God? God's Word speaks to historical events, and that's why we don't trust eyewitnesses in the ultimate sense. We trust God. We trust God's Word, and that's why God's Word tells us what happened, what really happened in history. And that's what is brought out in this sermon. The Old Testament is about what's going to happen. The New Testament is what did happen. So we trust the authoritative Word of God when it comes to these events absolutely that's why so much quotation from God's word not so much the eyewitnesses Peter doesn't say, I was there, I saw him. He never mentions that, not even once in the sermon. He saw the risen Christ. He never stepped forward and said, evidence demands a verdict, and I'm here, and these 11 apostles, and we all saw him. He doesn't mention it. Why? Because God's word is more sure than eyewitnesses. And if you don't trust God's word, you can't trust anything. Especially when it comes to something upon which you will hang your eternal soul So we begin here we begin in God's Word Okay, let's draw the first point from the sermon. The first point is Peter steps out and says, something happened. They heard a noise. They see all of this going on around them and people speaking in tongues and bringing out the marvelous works of God and people want to have an answer for this. Peter explains this phenomenon. That's the first point. The unbelieving nations all around are shocked. The world has never seen anything like this ever before. And if the Holy Spirit comes upon a people of God, the unbelievers are going to know it. They're going to see the love we have for each other. They're going to hear the testimony of God's powerful works, and the proclamation of this is going to come, and the whole world is going to hear this. They're going to see the conviction by which we witness to the Safeway checkout clerks and all the others. They're going to hear us running out into the world and testifying to these things we believe, and they're going to know that the Holy Spirit has come to a church here in Elizabeth. So they want to know an explanation for it. The world is taken back by what is going on. Peter says, hey, it's the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It's the fulfillment of what happened with The prophet Joel's prophecy in Joel chapter two, something unusual has come about in the first time in all of human history. There's been points at which the Holy Spirit was on a prophet here and a prophet there and so forth, but here now the Holy Spirit's poured out, His presence, His power, His gifting is all over the place amongst these people. Now you can't force it, you can't fake it, you can only wait for it, that's what they did for 10 days. There's a lot of churches putting the label on them, but no, we can't put a label on ourself. We have to wait for the Holy Spirit to come. And when he comes, we will see the effects. And the effect, of course, is consistent evangelism, daily discipleship, bold preaching, cross-cultural conveyance of a message. You're gonna have every tribe and nation gathering into our services here in the Denver metro area when it happens. and you're going to have a cross-generational effect where the children themselves will prophesy as well. The proclamation comes out by way of maidservants and nine-year-old daughters. That means this prophesying, this speaking of the word is not an occasional male Elijah, a male Elisha and a Moses here and there. No, the speaking of the word of God is coming out by way of the daughters, nine-year-olds, maidservants, et cetera. Why? Because the message has got to get out. The message has got to get out. It's not just one, it's not just two, it's not ten prophets. It's going to be millions of prophets around the world speaking the words of God and being sure, what is the message? The declamation, the proclamation of the mighty acts of God. That's it. That will be what happens when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon every nation. The message absolutely must get out. It demands it. It is such a good message. Once you've received it, once you realize it, once this paradigm shift has happened in your mind, you're going to say, I've got to get the message out. The message requires it. That's why the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that's why the tongues, that's why the message immediately out of the gate is getting out to everybody. Why was the Spirit pulled out at Pentecost? For the purpose of sharing the message, not some gibberish, some esoteric, uncertain, spiritual, angelic message that wasn't going to do anything to convert and disciple the nations. No! No, they're speaking in tongues. It was a miracle, of course, and able to converse with those of different languages. That's it! It's a cross-cultural ability on the part of the church that brings a real gospel such that it is the great unifying effect of all cultures into a building. Happens everywhere around the world today, and it happened then as well. This shall come to pass in the last day, says God, that I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And on my men servants, on my maid servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. And granted, there are some differences between the inspired word of God that's coming by way of prophetic revelation to the apostles and the prophets and the first generation, and what we see in terms of the prophecy that works its way out into future generations. John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Knox, others, most of the Puritans, all agreed that prophecy still exists today. But it doesn't exist in the same form that it existed back then. It exists in the form that we speak the relevant Word of God, the Scriptures, we base it in the Scriptures, and we bring it to bear in the relevant situation that's before us. That's the typical way church history has viewed this word prophecy from, I'm going to say, roughly the fourth century. The word prophesy, the Greek, does not mean to tell the future. And you can get your kittles out and do your word search if you need to. You don't trust me? Just do your word search. The word prophesy in the Bible, in the current Greek of the day, was simply to speak the very word of God. The source has got to be the word. And we have the inscripturated word of God in these 66 books. And this is the basis for all truth that we convey to anybody out there. We proclaim it in its relevance. But what is this Word of God that is proclaimed and prophesied according to the verses that come forward in verses 19 and 20, 18, 19, and 20. In Joel, what we find is the proclamation of the wondrous works of God, of course, whatever God did, and certainly that was in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what they're telling the world. It is the works of God. It is the amazing things that God has done. The people are so overwhelmed by it, so sure of it, so filled with conviction by it, they have to share it with others. Amen? And so, what is this Word of God? A few events in human history. The critical events in human history are shared by these people. The event that Peter speaks of here, that's already happened. The next event is the judgment of the Lord God that he will bring upon the earth. Some say A.D. 70, and certainly the judgments that God brings upon the earth, including the final judgment, verses 19 and 20 of our text. I will show wonders in heaven above, signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood. This is the great and awesome day of the Lord. And now this is the next event. In other words, we're talking about the previous event now. Peter brings up the next event immediately in the prophecy that Joel brings. And then he says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. So this is a message from God. This is the message. It's fairly short. Jesus is risen. A judgment is coming. Call on the name of the Lord now. Heads up! This may be your last. That's the Word of God to us. That was the Word of God to them. This message is something of an ultimatum. Your last chance, so to speak. Certainly it was for the Jews at that time. They would harden their hearts against them. No more hope for that people. And that's what we begin to see as they approached AD 70. But yeah, I mean, this is the great message. Reject the message, goodbye, see ya, forever and ever. This is the message from Joel. But let's get to the main content of the greatest sermon ever preached. Verses 22 through 24, men of Israel hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, A man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it." That is, here's the message. First point, what's going on? Explaining the phenomenon. Second point, is Jesus is risen from the dead. That's it. That's the greatest message ever preached. The resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not about the death of Christ, it's about the present state of Jesus Christ. That was the message. Again, not what happened, but that He is today risen. And we get to the final point, on the right hand of the Father. This is what matters. This is the Christian message. This is the thing to live by, to believe each and every day. These things were not done in a corner. They were done in the center of the greatest empire on earth. And I, again, remind you, this is a trade center. This is a place in which the trade routes are running east-west, north-south. This is a trade center for the whole world. It was not done in a corner. Jesus of Nazareth, everybody knew who he was. Not everybody knew where Nazareth was. Not everybody in America knows where Albert is. But they know who Jesus was. They knew who Jesus was. He was the most controversial figure on earth between AD 30 and AD 33. Who is the most controversial political figure today in America? Does anybody know? Everybody knows. He's been in the news for the last week. This is the most controversial political figure perhaps in the world today. I guarantee you people in Europe know all about the controversial political figure in the United States of America over the last six or seven years. Everybody knows he was in New York this week. That was Jesus in AD 33. Jesus was controversial. Everybody knew him. They knew who he was. It wasn't done in a corner at all. He was a very well-known person. Jesus is the most controversial person today as well. I'll tell you that. I'm not saying political person. I'm talking about, in general, the most controversial person in the world today is Jesus Christ. And I say that because of the 10,000 martyrs, roughly, in the world last year, 9,960 or 70 were Christians. There were maybe six or seven Hindus, four to five Muslims, but the other 9,994 are going to be Christians. Christians are the ones who are hated. Why? Because Jesus is still the most controversial figure in the world today. That's why Jesus of Nazareth, everybody knew who he was. Everybody knew about his miracles. Children, Jesus did many miracles. Signs and wonders. Moses performed how many? 22. Elijah performed how many? 16. Elisha performed how many? Twice as many as Elijah. 32, you can count them. Jesus performed hundreds a day, thousands a year. potentially 27,000 miracles, night and day, exponentially more than Elijah and Elisha. It was impossible to hide what he was doing. Jesus was the greatest miracle worker that ever existed or ever will. Jesus was well known by the secular historians of the day. Listen to this, Tacitus referred to Jesus, first century. The Babylonian Talmud references his miracles and assigned them to the devil still. That was in the first and early second century. Josephus, highly skeptical, huge historian of the first century. Josephus referred to Jesus as the so-called Christ. but felt forced to acknowledge that he was a man who, quote, wrought surprising feats. Everybody knew it. The Jews knew it, the Romans knew it, such that of the three secular historians in this period of the first century, Suetonius, Tacitus, and Josephus, they're three of the most important historians. Two out of three referred to Jesus. Oh, he was well known. Everybody knew who he was. This is not done in a corner. Did thousands of miracles, nothing like it in all of human history. Everybody knew about Jesus. Everybody knew that the Jews and the Romans had crucified Him 50 days earlier. It's on the front page of all the newspapers. But now the message of the greatest message comes in verse 23. God determined that Jesus would die And then God the Father would raise him from the dead. So that was determined by God. God is in control. This is God's agenda. This is God's program. This is God's plan. It's God's purpose working out in history. And here's the message. What is the message of the greatest message ever preached? I like to boil it down over and over. You know, what is it? Exactly what was it? Don't forget it. Walk away this morning with it. Jesus is alive. Jesus is risen. Jesus is very much alive. He died, He rose again, and He will never die again. That's the message. Do you believe that message with all your heart? Are you holding to it this morning? If you're not, you're not a Christian, and you're going to hell. It's just that simple. If you don't believe the core message, that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and God the Father raised Him from the dead on the third day, and He's on the right hand of the Father, and He will never die again. If you can't believe that, you're not a Christian. This is core, this is it. It doesn't get more core than this. Now let's talk about death for just a moment. Death, have you ever seen anybody die? Have you had a relative die, children? Do you know what death is? Death is where there is no more life. There's no more relationship. There's no more connection between you and that person. That person then rots in the grave and all that flesh comes off of him. The worms eat up his body and he will be nothing but a skeleton inside of 60, 80, 100 years under the dirt. That's death. Death is a hard nut to crack. Who's gonna fix death? Death is a horror. Death is a horrible thing. Nobody, no human being in nature wants to walk into the yawning jaws of death. People are deadly scared of great white sharks. Why? People are deadly afraid of the black mamba snake crawling around in this, you know, I was out in the jungles of Uganda and this, I think it was a cobra. I saw him chasing a little kid. He was afraid of that thing. Why is he so afraid of that thing? People are afraid of cobras, black mambas. Why? Because they're deathly afraid of death. That's why. People are terrified of COVID-19. Why? Because they're afraid of death. People are afraid of death without being anesthetized. That's the problem with the black mamba and the white shark. to chew you up slowly until you're just screaming and then you're dead. That's why people are afraid of it because they're afraid that they're going to have to face the fact of death all the way to the point at which they die. They're going to see that premonition of death and it will be imminent in their mind and it will be horrible, a horrible experience for them as they're slowly being chewed apart by the great white shark. They're deathly afraid of death. This is what constitutes humans on planet Earth. This is who we are by nature. Humans have to cope with it though, so Easterners hope that reincarnation and hypnotic meditations will soften the blow. It's what these religions are all about. Westerners, they put their hope in drugs. The opioids, endless distractions from media. They hope that will soften the blow for them. They're afraid of death. They may not admit it, but that's what they are. Absolutely afraid of death. That's why they're running towards their alcohol. That's why they're running towards their opioids. They're afraid to die. And that looming threat of death just hangs over them. Hebrews 2.15, all their lifetime, they are in bondage to that fear of death. It's all-consuming. Some can't stand the long and drawn out premonition, and so they end it quickly by suicide. That's why they commit suicide. But here's the message, verse 24. God loosed the pains of death for his son. What's that mean? Literally, this is what it means. God untied it. God loosed it. God dissolved the agony of death. He broke the back of death. He snapped the spine of death. Somebody say hallelujah. He killed death. He killed death for us. That's what God did. Broke the back of death. That upper hand, that fear that it would impose upon us, God broke it. He broke the back of death and he shifted all paradigms, opens up a new world for us. It's as radical as an event as Adam's fall into sin in the garden as I see it. You see, how important is the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ as important and more important than what happened when Adam fell into sin and received the curse of God, the curse of death upon himself in the garden? This is radical, friends. Well, what happened to the world when Adam fell into sin? Come on, think about it. Pre-fall, post-fall. What's the difference? Well, one difference is Adam wasn't dying. He had no fear of death. They would die after about 900 years. Post-fall. Death came upon all men. Death, disease, destruction, murder. Cain murdered Abel. Mayhem, a progressive downgrade into the worst possible situation you could ever imagine, to the point at which God had to pull the plug and bring a flood upon the world. There was just no hope. for those that were caught in the middle of all of that. One event changed everything. Death came to the animals. The genetic makeup of the human being changed from a condition of eternal life to death. Spiritually, physically, man died and began dying. at the fall, a very bad day. Now, I am saying today that yes, there was a metaphysical change, a fundamental change in human reality before the fall and after the fall. And the same thing is happening here at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. One event changed everything. It was a whole new day. That third day, it was a whole new day. It was a new world. It was a new narrative. It was a new future and a new eternity. I'm trying to find words for this. I call it a historical paradigmatic shift. A historical paradigmatic shift. Far more important than Yorktown for America. And more important than Adam's fall into sin in the garden. It was night and day. It was turning on the lights. It was phenomenal. I've been working over the last six months, reviewing other worldviews and world religions, and putting into a book called Worldview, where I contrast worldviews and religions, world religions. Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism, et cetera. But, wow, there's no faith like the Christian faith. Not even close, not even close. We are in a completely different realm. You know what the difference is? Hope. Hope. There is hope for those who believe this. Now, I'm not talking about people who just kind of fake it. I'm talking about people who believe it. There is undying, living hope in people that believe this. And they reflect it in their lives every day. They have a gleam of hope in their eye. What can possibly go wrong now? That's the question they're asking. Play the game, what's your worldview? Someone says, oh, I'm just cosmic dust floating on a universe of pure chance. There's no meaning, no purpose for life. Great, that sounds really good. No, it doesn't. That's the most hopeless religion of them all. Materialism, naturalism, the thing that constitutes apostate Americans is by far the most depressing. The absolute worst of all the religions in the world is what's taught in American universities. That's incredibly depressing. There is no purpose, no meaning for life. There is nothing good in the future. There is nothing but death, annihilation. There is no reason for you living today. That's terrible. And somebody needs to stand up in these college classrooms and say, that's so depressing. I've never heard of anything so depressing in all my life than the thing that you're advocating in this classroom. And then the Easterners step in and say, I've got a better idea. You live and then you die. and you turn into somebody's barbecue 20 years later, 40 years later, as some cow, and then you die again, and then you're reincarnated, and then you die again, and you're reincarnated, and you die again, and you die a thousand deaths. That's depressing. That's sick. That's just sick. That's a demonic dream, nightmare, that's been imposed upon billions of people around the globe. Buddhists, Hindus alike, terrible, absolutely terrible. Described by demons for the purpose of displacing the hopeful message of Jesus Christ and his resurrection is overcoming death for us. No other faith looks the problem in the eye. All other religions are living in la-la land. They minimize the problem, they minimize the solution too. The devil's message to seven billion people in the world, it's not that bad. It's not that big of a deal. It's just death, I mean. Shut up, demons. Not that big of a deal. Death is not that big of a deal? Nobody believes that. Nobody. In an honest moment, okay, they're on opiates. Okay, they're diverting themselves from thinking about it. I'm talking about people who are honest with themselves about the premonition of getting eaten alive by a great white shark. I'm talking to those people. They find death the ultimate horror. It's not that big of a deal. That's just one big deceptive lie. And everybody knows it. You press this upon any Hindu or Buddhist or naturalist or just pretending. No, no, they know that death is coming. And by the way, they know judgment's coming too. And it's the most horrible premonition that anybody could ever think of. All false religions and worldly worldviews are excessively optimistic about the nature of man. In this sense, they are humanistic. or man-centered, they deceive themselves about the problem with themselves. They refuse to come to grips with the impeccable holiness and uncompromising justice of God, their own moral devastation, and their need for a Savior. This aberrant view of man's nature leads directly to a fatally corrupted view of salvation. In every case, a weakened view of man's problem yields a weakened view of the solution. That includes the humanists, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Mormons, the Jehovah Witnesses, and the Buddhists. All of them. They have it wrong. They have it way wrong. Ask yourself, brothers and sisters, why all this death in the world? I want you to think about this. At least understand the biblical claims about this. A single disobedient action by Adam and Eve A single disobedient action has resulted in all the pain and all the evil in the whole world, all the agony, the broken relationships, the depressions, the suicides, the wars, the cruelty, the murders, death, universal death for all mankind, and that damnation of hell where the fire is not quenched and the worm never dies. Okay, now you come back and you say, wow, one offense brought all that upon the world. Come on guys, be honest with yourselves about this. What manner of offense would bring that degree of devastation upon the whole world? Upon all eight billion people? Here's the only answer. The law of God must be holy. And God must be so exceedingly holy Indeed, sin must constitute the most egregious defilement of the holy creation of God and the most infinite insult to the holiness of God, warranting utterly terrifying, severe judgment at the divine dictate. Could any human ever comprehend how God's holiness is offended by sin? especially in light of the sacrifice required for the satisfaction of justice and reconciling us to God and our Savior, the Son of God, Jesus. Such a severe exigency of this magnitude demanded the ultimate sacrifice of the eternally beloved Son of God and the power of God to raise Him from the dead. This is the point at which all the man-made religions of the world have it all wrong. They utterly miss it. They fail to come to grips with the fundamental problem with man and they always arrive at the wrong solution. But God did it. God got a solution for us. Jesus did it at the cross and by His resurrection. Stand at the cross and you ask yourself, what is this? Who is this? And I do believe that a little child can understand this. Children, it's a big deal. It's a really big deal. A little two-year-old child, any one of you could be a two-year-old child today. I'm not telling you, make it complicated. I'm saying, make it easy. Stand there at the cross, look up and ask yourself, what is all this blood dripping from this cross? Who is this person above me? This is the very Son of God. He's the creator of the universe, child. It must be a big deal. If the creator of the universe had to come down and bleed and die because you can't obey your mommy and daddy, your sin is a big deal, kid. The salvation of Jesus is a big deal. You look up at the cross and you see a big man on that cross and you say, this must be a big savior. And so therefore it must be a big salvation. That's all you need to believe in Jesus. That's all you need. You just have to see this as a really big deal. And then when somebody comes up from a false religion and this will happen to you, children when you're 17 years old or 20 years old, it really wasn't that big of a deal. Jesus isn't God. What are you going to say? If somebody says, Jesus is not a big deal, the cross wasn't a big deal, the resurrection's not a big deal, Jesus isn't a big deal, what are you going to say? What are you going to say? You're going to say, yeah, he's a big deal. And you're wrong. I think it's just that simple. Make it simple for yourself. Children, you have a big Savior because you're a big sinner. That's it. Here's the problem. Man fell into sin. Sin brings about corruption. And what you got is corruption. You get leprosy. Sin is like leprosy. You get leprosy, it starts eating away at your hand, chewing away on your ear, and pretty soon half your face, your cheek is all gnawed out by the corrupting influence of leprosy. You look horrible. You're being eaten alive by leprosy. That's sin. Sin's doing that to your soul. Sin's a corruption. It eats you alive. Sin eats you alive. It's corrupting. It corrupts your soul, it corrupts your body, your body breaks down as a result of it. And then the soul will burn eternally in hellfire. We don't know much about it, we just, Bible calls it eternal fire. But God brought about a solution for it. God says, I'm coming down, I'm gonna fix this. So the Son of God, deity. He is God. The second person of the triune God. The Son of God took upon Himself humanity. It's the same body, same kind of soul that we have, yet without sin, so that He could form a new humanity. You see, Adam was humanity 1.0, and Jesus is humanity 2.0. You guys know what computer programs and things are, right? You got a 1.0, you got a 2.0. Adam was humanity 1.0, Jesus formed a new humanity, 2.0. So last Adam, he's the last man. He's the beginning of a new creation. Adam was the beginning of the first creation. Jesus is the beginning of the second creation. And you're recreated in Him as you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to believe in Him, and you will be saved, and you will have eternal life. That's what the Word of God says. So Jesus took the problem upon himself, took sin upon himself, took death upon himself. He died in the process. He killed sin, killed death, fixed the problem for us. And then God raised his son from the dead. That's the message. Let's close with the third point of the sermon. This is it. It's the end of the sermon. I know we've drawn out the sermon a bit, but let's be sure we know the points in the sermon. Why the phenomenon? The outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. What is the thrust of the message? God has raised His Son from the dead, third point. Why did God raise His Son from the dead? It's the third point of the sermon. There's a reason God did it. It's brought out in the sermon here, verses 30 and 31. Peter quotes Psalm 16 and Psalm 110. You will not leave my soul in Hades. nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. And then Peter comments on that in verse 30. So here it is. Now look at verse 30. If you've got your Bibles open, I want you to look at this because this is the major point, the last of the major points in the sermon. Verse 30, David is dead and buried. His bones are still on the ground, but here it is. David knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. God raised Jesus from the dead, why? To rule. That's it. So this is the greatest sermon ever preached. God raised his son from the dead and he raised his son, why? To rule and ultimately to judge the world. Jesus came to be king. We knew that from the beginning when the wise men brought the gifts. They acknowledged him to be the king of the Jews. Foreigners had to come in to acknowledge Him, because the Jews would not. The Jews said, let's crucify our King, crucify our Messiah, let's crucify the Christ. But Jesus came to be a King. And the accusation brought against Jesus, remember what it was? He was usurping Caesar's role, claimed to be the King, the King of the Jews, Pilate put that above. On the cross, here is the King of the Jews. The Jews came forward and said, can you change that a bit, modify it? Get into your word program and add a little bit. He called himself the King of the Jews. And Pilate said, what I've written, I've written prophetically. He didn't just call himself the King of the Jews. He was the King of the Jews. And that sign remained there. The Roman soldiers, as my brother exhorted two nights ago, the Roman soldiers put a purple robe on him and bowed to him, mocked him, as if Jesus' intent to rule was a total loss. They treated him like a total loser. Now, my question to you this morning is this. Was Jesus a total loser? A ridiculous loser? Whose side are you on today? Who is Jesus from your perspective? Was Jesus a loser? That's the way the Romans treated Him. Was God a loser? Understand God's commitment to raise His Son from the dead. God was committed to follow through in the most ultimate follow through you could ever imagine. God was committed to follow through. From the death of Christ, to the resurrection, to the ascension, to the right hand of the Father, God is committed to finishing the story, fulfilling the prophecies, and bringing forth His plan and His promise to David. He would not allow His Holy One to see corruption. That was His son in the dirt. He would not allow the worms to eat his son. He cared for his son, loved his son, committed to the agenda to raise his son from the dead to be the king. What do you think was going to happen on the third day? Would the Romans and Jews be vindicated? Or would God be vindicated? What do you think would happen? I'm testing your faith. I'm pressing you right now. Do you believe that God raised his son from the dead on the third day. God won, and God rules. Verse 36, therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Know assuredly, be very certain about it. Oh, be very, very certain about it. No, certainly Jesus has won. The Romans lost. The devil lost. Jesus won. Jesus beat death. Jesus overcame Satan, who had the power of death. Jesus overcame the fear of death, the bondage to which we were enslaved for these, what, 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 years. Jesus won, and Jesus rules. My only question for you this morning is, have you conceded? Or are you still standing with the Romans and mocking? Have you conceded? Is He your Lord and Christ? 3,000 Jews on that day admitted, He is Lord, and He is my Christ, and He is my Savior. As did one Roman centurion. Surely, He was the Son of God. But what about you? Will you join the centurion? Will you be part of the 3,000? Will you acknowledge him? Or will you say it's just a big joke? Will you bow the knee to the King today? If you won't, you know every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord someday. That most definitely will happen. That's the end of the story. There is another event coming. And this warning was given by Joel, was given by Paul in Acts 17 at Mars Hill, that he has raised his son from the dead and he will come to judge the world someday by that man who he's ordained. That judgment is coming. God has exalted him, given him a name above every name. And he rules until his enemies are under his footstool. And that day will come, mark my words, he will come to judge the world in righteousness. by that man whom He's ordained. Everything is working out exactly to plan. God the Father is working it out exactly to plan. Yes, the death of Christ for our salvation, for our reconciliation with God, for that sacrifice we so badly needed, and the resurrection, and the ascension, and Jesus now is on the right hand of the Father. And he's holding all the kings, all the empires of the world, and all of us accountable to his rule. And now it's for us to plead His mercy. Yes, He is there to give us mercy. He came to save. Absolutely. And He has come to be our Lord and our King. He is both Lord and Christ. Receive Him today as Christ, Messiah, Savior, yes, and Lord, your Lord. Bow the knee to Him. Receive the words that He has to give you. If your Lord tells you to forgive your brother and sister, forgive them. If your Lord says, love your enemies, do good to those who despitefully use you, that's what your Lord is telling you. You say, yes, Lord. That's exactly what I'm going to do today. He is now both Lord and Christ for us. In Jesus' name, amen. Our Father God, we want to worship the King today. He is worthy of our worship. God, we have received His forgiveness. We've received His mercy. We've seen the gloriousness of His salvation, overcoming death and sin and the devil for us and robbing the strongman's house. Father, we've seen our mighty Savior and what He has done for us. Hallelujah. Praise You, O God, for this great salvation today. He is King. He's Lord. He's gone all the way to the right hand of the Father. He's there ruling today. It's for us to admit it. It's for us to bow the knee. It's for us to say, yes, Lord, to our Lord, Jesus Christ, and to worship the King. Ah, we worship Him. We praise Him. We bless His name forever and ever. The Lamb on the throne, all praise be to Him now in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's come to his table now, and those visiting, please take a look at the back of our bulletin for how we practice the Lord's table here at the church. But I want to talk briefly about implications. I didn't get to that very much in application or implication in the sermon, but I want to bring this in at the end because these things apply to us. They affect us. We're part of this. But how are we a part of all of this great paradigm shift that's occurred in the resurrection of Jesus? Well, it has to mean something to us. At some point, it's got to dawn on us. When you realize this new day has dawned, somehow the new dawning of the day has to dawn on me and you. I don't know how else to put it, but we have to wake up to the new morning. This is a new morning. This is a new day. Let's wake up to it and realize what it means for all of us. The Son of God is risen. He is dead. He was dead. He's alive, and He is alive forevermore. That's what Revelation tells us, forevermore. He cannot die. He cannot fail. In His reign, as we just sang, it's impossible for Him to fail in any of this. In John 11, Jesus says this to Martha there before the grave of Lazarus. It's what Jesus said. John 11, 25. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? He asked that of Martha. He asked the same thing of us. Do you believe this? If you believe in Him who is the resurrection and the life, you too will never die. It's just that simple. He is the very resurrection and the life. His life means our life. His resurrection means our resurrection. His resurrection means that we have the resurrection power of God working in us, Ephesians 1, such that we can walk in newness of life, Romans 6. His resurrection means ultimate hope. The most ultimately well-founded hope. You can't be more well-founded in your hope. You may hope for certain things. Your father says we're going camping next Friday. Doesn't happen. You can hope in a lot of things. But when God says, this is what I've done for eternal life for you, that is the ultimate hope because it's founded in the very word of God. He's promised it to me and to you, and you can take God for his word. So it's a well-founded hope. It's the ultimate hope. No other religion can give a hope like this. And God has said that it's happened, it's already happened, and it's going to happen. And as you believe this, you will never feel more alive. You will feel the resurrection of power of Jesus working in you. You will feel more hope. You will feel more joy, wild anticipation for the abundant life that continually is poured out upon you now and continues to be poured out upon you. You will feel alive, alive, hopeful, full of joy at this wild anticipation. And let's just say it, nothing can possibly go wrong. We go through trials and sometimes it's hard for us to say that. I understand. But nothing can possibly go wrong. All things will work together for good in Jesus. He's guaranteed the path for us and the word of God does as well. We can mock at death. Oh, grave, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? Remember giving the illustration of the great white shark coming at you in the waters. And I said, as a Christian, you fear God. You trust God. You're not going to scream. You're not going to panic. There's no fear whatsoever. And people have said, that's impossible. No, it's possible. It's absolutely possible. I believe it's possible. for you to be threatened by a 30-foot great white shark, and it's okay. You will mock at the shark. You will mock at death. You will say, oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, grave, where is your victory? You're going to mock at it. And unbelievers come to us and they will say, that's outrageously plethoric, extravagant, completely over the top. It cannot be this good. That's what they say. That's what unbelievers say to us. And we say, yeah, unless God. Unless God. Unless God is this good. Unless God is infinitely good. Unless God is gooder than anything you could ever imagine, unless God is true to His promises, unless God's promises are as good as they say they are in the Word of God, promised by the oath of God Himself, taking an oath on Himself to say, absolutely, these are good promises, you can take them all the way to heaven with you. We say, yes, it's outrageous, extravagant, over-the-top, unless God would resurrect His Son from the dead in the most powerful and the most glorious way and thereby guarantee the resurrection of every person who believes in Him unless God gets involved. If God gets involved, if God has gotten involved, then we say, eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has for those of us who wait upon Him. Let me close this exhortation with this. John 6, one more time, and I want you to catch the most assuredlies. Jesus brings out about 20 most assuredlies in the Bible. So if you're on a desert island and you can only grab, you know, 28 verses in the Bible and, you know, you can't get the whole book of John, grab the 28 assuredlies. And we like to go over the assured leads because this is the thing that Jesus said you got to get this You absolutely got to get this listen most assuredly Jesus says I say to you he who believes in me has everlasting life I Am the bread of life most assuredly I say to you Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you. I Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day, which means that we are so dependent on the life of Jesus that we are hanging on to him for dear life, and it is as if eating his flesh and drinking his blood, we rely upon his life, and sure enough, his life is bestowed to us through the sacrament as well. And we receive this in faith as we receive our very life. And that's what I'm saying. I'm urging you to faith as you receive the elements. You say, I believe in the life of Jesus. I believe that His death means my life and He is giving me that life through the Holy Spirit as I receive this cup and receive this bread. We receive the life more abundant for each and every one of us. But I'm challenging you to faith. Believe in Him today as you receive this cup and the bread. Let's pray. Once more, we come to you with thanksgiving. Oh God, what a great God you are to bring about this great salvation, to give the gift of your Son to us. Father, we thank you that we have the life of Jesus by His death. We have this new humanity. We have this resurrection power and this life that comes to us as we believe in Jesus. Father, we pray to increase our faith today. So we receive the bread and the cup. We say, we believe in Jesus. He is our only life. He is our only hope. We trust in Him. We trust in the great work He did by His death and by the resurrection power that raised Him from the dead. We believe in Jesus. We receive Him. In His name we pray, amen.