I invite you to turn to our main scripture passage this morning in the book of Acts 2. Of course, this morning we are especially focused on the resurrection and the hope that it means for all who trust in Christ. And as we consider this passage, it will be beneficial to know something of the setting. We take up our text at a point 50 days after Jesus' resurrection, 10 days after his ascension, and you have thousands and thousands of Jewish people gathered in Jerusalem for the Festival of Pentecost. And they have no doubt been hearing at this point all of the stories about Jesus' crucifixion and then about his resurrection because there were many, many hundreds of people, many, many hundreds of people who had seen Jesus after the resurrection. And now on the day of Pentecost, they're near the temple and they hear a commotion and people begin to gather around to see what this commotion is. And it's because the Holy Spirit has fallen upon the apostles with an extraordinary power and he has enabled them to begin proclaiming the good news about Christ in all of the languages of these Jewish members of the diaspora that's spreading into the world, all their languages as they have come back. And this is a kind of reversal of what happened at Babel. This is a sign that God is now sending the gospel out to all the nations, gathering them in. But now, many of us here, I'm sure in this room, speak one, maybe two languages. And if we had been there and now we're hearing dozens of languages being spoken at the same time, we might recognize one or two of them, our own, but the rest would just sound like a commotion, like a rabble. And so people in the crowd who spoke only Hebrew or Aramaic or Greek, they're hearing these other languages, but they don't know what's going on. And some people are hearing from far off, they say, oh, they're just drunk. And sometimes that's what we think. We hear a language that is not our own and we think, oh, it just sounds like noise. Because our own language always sounds the most perfect to ourselves. But other people who knew the languages, whether that be Ethiopian or Syriac, they begin to say, no, no, no, this is my language. What is happening right now? And Peter stands to address the crowd, the same Peter who just a little bit earlier, had been so afraid to be identified with Christ, and he stands up in front of thousands and thousands of people, and he begins to explain to them what is actually happening in that moment. And we pick up in the middle of Peter's explanation. Before we even hear it, at verse 22, let's ask the Lord a special blessing. Father, you have gathered us as sheep to be fed out of your word. And we know that our appetite, our ability to truly receive it for our spiritual benefit comes through the work of your Holy Spirit. We confess our weakness, we confess perhaps even our indifference at moments, but we know that your love excels all of our faults. And we ask that not only for ourselves, but for all who are present, that you would please increase our ability to receive and to respond to the word in faith, and to live out of that faith in a way that pleases you. All of this we ask in Christ's name and for his glory, amen. Beginning at verse 22 of chapter two, Peter says, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs, that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me. For he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption. For you have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brothers, I say to you with confidence about the Patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Amen. Christ's resurrection shows us that, as we saw this past Friday, he has been to the bottom of the human condition, but not only that, he has come back out. And if Christ has been to the bottom and has come back out, then that means that he is able to lead anyone, he is able to lead you into everlasting life. And in this passage, the Holy Spirit wants you to fix your faith upon that fact. Christ shows us the path to life. And as long as you are living, you are on the path. And you must ask whether or not you are walking in faith toward life or getting off and exiting to death, or if indeed you have gotten on that path in truth. But as I speak to a congregation, our assumption, our heartfelt hope should be we are believers. And the Lord then is calling you to walk on that path with the joy of knowing that resurrection life is yours. Something better than you have ever yet known is ahead of you. What a sorrow to think that people at different times feel like their best years are behind them. Only an unbeliever at the end of the day can truly say that. Our best days are ahead of us, and we know that because of the resurrection. And in Peter's sermon that we're going to examine a little bit this morning, we're going to see that he makes two points. The first is that nothing about the resurrection was according to chance. None of it was random. It was according to God's purpose. And then secondly, because it was according to God's purpose in Christ, we can be certain that God has arranged the joyful conclusion of our lives. I want you to take a moment then and imagine again being there that day. If you had been there and you hear all of this noise around you, all these languages, how quick would you be to believe that it was a supernatural event? If you had been with Jesus and if you had been present when the Holy Spirit fell that day, perhaps we would have believed. But many other people who are there, it's not like this had happened before. And it takes them a little bit to realize through the confirmation of all of these witnesses saying, no, no, no, I'm hearing my language, I'm hearing my language as well. At a certain point, you give up thinking this is just a trick. hundreds and thousands of people recognizing God at work among them. And you wonder, what is going on? Is this just some freak thing? Is God just doing this, but we don't know why? And here, Peter's first point is that no, this is part of the demonstration, the confirmation about Christ's resurrection and ascension. This is the long-awaited Redeemer. I want you to see in the first place how Peter proves this in Psalm 16. Peter's first point here, that it's not accidental, he goes to the scriptures, and this is just one of many places he could have gone to show that Christ's death and resurrection and ascension were prophesied. So he quotes Psalm 16, and appreciate, this is written more than 900 years before Christ's birth by King David. And these Jews would have been very familiar with this. If there was any part of the Bible that people in the Old Covenant period were familiar with, it probably would have been the Psalms because they used them for worship regularly. And many of those Psalms were memorized. In fact, it was common among some families to make a point to try to memorize the entirety of the Psalms before a child turned 13. The idea of that now today, I think for most of us sounds impossible, but did you know there are still people who do this in the world? And here, he quotes in verse 27 from Psalm 16, he says, you will not abandon my soul to Hades. The word Hades there, it's translated out in many English translations as Hades, because it's the Greek term which simply means the place of the dead, where the souls of the dead are, but it can also be used for the grave as well. He says, you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. When he says corruption here, the idea is not moral. Sometimes we talk about, oh, what a corrupt person. But here he's talking about the body dissolving back into dust, being broken down and destroyed. And David says, you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption. But David could not have been talking about himself. How do we know that? How do we know David wasn't talking about himself? And Peter's argument is simple. He's saying, one, David was a prophet. And the group that he's speaking with there fully believes that, as we should as well. David is a prophet, but David returned to corruption. And Peter draws this out in verse 29. He says, brothers, I can say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. If we're certain of one thing about David, he's dead and he's dust and bones. His tomb is here even now. And yet, somehow, he says, you will not let your Holy One see corruption. And Peter explains, aided by the Holy Spirit, that this was spoken concerning his descendant, his heir, the long-awaited Messiah, The one who is described in verse 25 as, I saw the Lord always before me. David looked ahead, and though his view was dim, yet it was true. He was anticipating Christ to come. And so Peter's first main point here, God's plan, even though it seems surprising to them, was not a surprise to himself. This was all happening exactly as intended. As it says in verse 23, something I think we have to bring to mind in every circumstance of our life. It happened according, quote, to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. Now, what effect does that have upon us? To see that Christ's resurrection is according to the definite plan of God, and not only his resurrection, but the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. And this brings us to Peter's second point. and really where he's driving as he's dealing with a crowd who will soon ask the question, what must we do? And here you need to see that the certainty of Christ's resurrection leads to joyful confidence. It's entirely understandable, though in a sense not entirely excusable, if there are Christians here this morning who are not feeling much joyful confidence. You might even have a kind of confidence, but it's stripped of joy. But that, to me, is almost like a person who discovers that they have just come into a vast inheritance, but they don't feel any happier about it. And it raises the question, what is going on in our hearts? What are we fixed on? What's our priority? Here, Peter grounds his point in David's hope in verse 25, look there. What does David say? in light of this coming resurrection, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. The imagery of being at the right hand means being ready to help, somebody who is willing to help. And here David sees his Lord, this heir who had come from his lineage, and yet one whom David does not shy back from calling his God as well, and he says, He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope. What was giving David stability throughout his whole life? What gave David stability even as he went through a period of civil war and then later went through a period of great sickness and then ultimately was on his deathbed to die? What does he say stabilized him? That I may not be shaken. even in fact that he should feel glad. What gave him hope was the fact that he saw his Lord who would not be left in the grave, and that means that death is not the end. Are we looking at that, or are we looking at the ways that we feel like our life, or the good things in it, are ending? And here, the Holy Spirit calls you to look at Christ, to follow Christ in his lead, not to fix your eyes on the things of this world and of sight. There's an ancient, ancient Greek myth about the island of Crete and about how at one time, by the way, I don't buy into it that this is true, but I do think there's a reason why some of these myths were told over and over again, because they contain a germ of hope, a longing that is common among human beings. And in this story, there was a king who lived on the island of Crete and he built a labyrinth, a great maze, to contain this monster. And the monster was the Minotaur, and he had the body of a human, but the head of a bull, and he had a craving for human flesh. And this monster was constantly devouring people, and there was a fear that if he ever got loose, everybody would be in trouble. And the king's solution, he was not a good king, his solution was, we need to just allow people to continue to be fed to the monster at a regular pace so he doesn't escape and make havoc of our island. It's a horrible thought to be living on this island with the Minotaur. But then a hero comes, and this hero is Theseus, and Theseus volunteers to go into the labyrinth because he cares about the people who are going in. In fact, it's because some of his own loved ones are being forced in at that time And so he volunteers to go into the labyrinth. He brings with himself a ball of yarn, and he spools it out as he goes so that he can find his way back. And when he finally comes to the Minotaur, he defeats it in battle, slays the Minotaur, and then leads his others out of the maze, brings them back into life. That gets at a common human hope. Though it was not an inspired story, There's a natural longing to be delivered from death that devours, and to feel like we are trapped in this circumstance. That is what the world still feels. It's possible there are individuals here who feel that way, that you are trapped in your own mortality, you are trapped in your sin, that you're trapped in this life and what it is, and you're going further and further into the maze the older you get, and less and less likelihood of ever getting out of this thing. The great news of the gospel that Peter was declaring on that day is that not Theseus, but God himself took our nature and went into the maze. He's gone into the labyrinth. He has gone where no one else could go in order to bring us out, that he has fought the monster, that he has overcome all of the cursing power of the law. And how do you do it? Because the whole point of His coming in our flesh was to not only suffer the consequence in our place, but to live out a perfect human life of love and obedience. We heard earlier in the service, what does God require of us? Love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. Who did that this morning? It is Easter, and even on Easter we wake up and our hearts are divided. But Christ was not divided. and he suffered himself to be in that sense devoured by the law, and yet to raise again. Peter says he could not be held by death because there was no unrighteousness in him. Verse 32, you see it says, this Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. All of this is to confirm the fact that He has escaped from death. And not only escaped, but He has spooled behind Him, as it were, that thread. He has given us something to follow. He has given us the Word and His Spirit. And the promise to all people is that as we follow that thread of the Word and the Spirit by faith, we are headed for life. That is better than whatever you are looking forward to this year. I'm looking forward to some things this year. I'm not even entirely sure what they are. I have a relatively optimistic thought that there might be good things. And you might have the same thought. But I can tell you, whether it's some cruise you're looking forward to, or getting out of high school, or finishing up with college, or marrying somebody, or having a child, whatever thing it is that you think could be good in this life, It pales in comparison to arriving on the far shore of immortality and resurrection glory. In verse 28, see David's words quoted here. You have made known to me the paths of life. And so you have reason to rejoice. You know the thread. You know the way to be with Christ the Savior. I want to encourage all of you, but I think some in particular who are carrying a heavier burden at this time because of things going on in your life. Maybe things that are known to everybody or maybe things you are keeping entirely to yourself. It is possible to have a portion of joy that exists alongside the sorrow. It doesn't totally nullify the sorrow, but it makes it more complex. there is a sweetness that can dwell with that which is bitter. Maybe it is in particular that you are facing the difficulties of age, or simply where, because age is not the only factor. There are some who are younger who in a sense are older. But it could be that you are dealing with now painful joints, or the fact that your working memory does not function the way that it once did, You might be losing your sense of sound or of sight. In a group of this size, there are probably people who match all of those descriptions. And then there are those of you who are younger, and for the most part, you have been spared so far of those reminders, those gentle reminders, all things considered, of our mortality. But recognize that you are to follow the path as well. And the day may come where you feel tempted to say, what is the use of following this path? Look to the resurrection. There is a reason why Christians don't just celebrate this on Sundays. One of the reasons why we have chosen from early on to celebrate this as one special Sunday out of the whole year, not just something that we bring up every Sunday, but one out of the year, is to remind us of the historical character of the resurrection. That it is a real event, not just a symbol. And it is as we look at that event that we are able to say to our souls, as we read in verse 26, my flesh also will dwell with hope. Where is your soul dwelling? Where is it living right now? I encourage you, if it's not dwelling with hope, move back in with hope. Move in because Christ's arm is extended and he says, there is hope with me. Likewise, verse 28, you will make me full of gladness with your presence. Don't get me wrong, it's not as if Christians are spared of all grief in this life, and some of you I know, as a pastor and as a friend, are in hard times, and it's hard to feel joy. And Christ himself sweat blood and wept. But you aren't always going to be there. Verse 28, you will make me full of gladness with your presence. And I urge you, hold fast to that. And for others who are in sorrow, After a period of probably appropriate silence and not saying anything, this is what we point them to. We don't tell them just be happy. No, you will. God is going to make you to be glad for you will be in his presence and his presence is better than anything we could hope for. Focus on this and today will be a day of blessing. Focus on the outward circumstances of this passing life, and perhaps today will be a day of sorrow. I urge you by faith, let it be a day of hope. Let's ask for that help of the Spirit even now, let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for giving us the great certainty of our future by raising Christ as our Savior. And we thank you that even as death could not keep a grip on him because he was not unrighteous, that having satisfied your justice on the cross for us, there was no right in the curse to retain its hold on him. Knowing that then, if we are unified with him through faith, we have confidence that we are not condemned. That whatever struggles we have with sin, however deep they go, Christ has gone deeper to deliver us and that he has walked this path out, and that we shall emerge with him in glory. We thank you that you have not only done this for ourselves, but for so many, some whom we have already known and loved, and that we'll be gathered with them. We thank you for having given to us in Christ an inheritance incomparable in the heavens, and that will span across this world, remade and glorified. All of this, praise you for and we thank you for. And all God's people say, Amen.