And so please stand and open your scriptures to Acts chapter 2. Our focus this morning will be specifically verses 36 through 39, but I'll be referencing the whole sermon from which that comes. And so I'll step through that with you, but I won't be going into detail in the sermon. That'll be for another time. So please just follow along with me in verses 36 through 39 of chapter two. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said to them, repent. and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. Let's pray. God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we cannot think of a more important message and a more important question. that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ who is crucified, and what shall we do? We ask, Lord, that you would send your spirit to us, that you would teach us directly as our prophet and as our God. We ask these things in your name. Amen. Please be seated. When we are young, we don't really see who our parents are. We usually see them as parental units or things that provide for us. We're sitting there, we feel hunger, and all of a sudden this parental unit brings us things and it keeps us full. We think about our parents like that for some time. But as we mature, we begin to see our parents not as those who only give to us, but those to whom we can give and to whom we can relate deeply. It's a sign of maturity, for example, for a child to realize that mom and dad are real people. I actually know of a woman who reminds her children of that quite often. Remember, I'm a person too. That mom and dad have a past, and they have shortcomings, and they have scars. And as we grow older, we realize these things about our parents, and they become real flesh and blood to us, and we love them. Did you develop that way? I wonder if that was just my experience. I was looking at some of your faces and it seems like at least a handful of you thought of your parents that way and developed. Were you blind to the depths of your parents, but then as you matured, you related more deeply to them? Something like that is happening in our passage before us this morning. God's children, Israel, were blind to who God really was. Sure, they knew some facts, but they didn't see him in his person. The religious leaders were supposed to show them God, but instead they increased the blindness. Jesus said of these same leaders, they are the blind and they lead the blind. But now there's new leaders in town. Did you notice? There's a new leader who has arisen by the power of the spirit and his name is Peter and he gives a sermon and he's not blind. And he's fully aware of his relationship to God, and he wants all of those who are hearing to mature likewise. Peter's been through quite a bit by this point. He's grown by baptism by fire, you would say. Well, that's what we're hoping for ourselves this morning, that we would mature, that we would see more than words on a page, but we would see the God who spoke these words. And we'll do so under two main headings, a cutting realization. and a twofold response. It's a good summary of what's going on here in the climax of these verses that I read in 36 through 39, is that there is a cutting realization and a twofold response. Well, let's enter right in. Bring your eyes to verse 37. It's a famous moment here, isn't it? I mean, how many times have you heard this? And you see the humanity of it. Verse 37 begins with a famous moment saying, they were cut to the heart. It's at the pinnacle of what it means to be truly before this message and before God. And we have got to ask, what brought them to this? You could say that it's Peter's sermon that cut them to the heart because that's the way that the passage logically unfolds. Peter's sermon is set in Jerusalem, And those in the upper room, as you remember the story from the beginning of Acts, they emerge and they begin speaking multiple languages. I'm going to get you to scan through this whole sermon with me just for a moment. There was a festival happening in Jerusalem at the time. That's why many nationalities were there with different languages. And you can see that in chapter 2, verse 9. So flip there with me. We're just going to notice a few things. Just notice the naming of the different nationalities. So you can see that I'm following what the Lord has, in fact, said. The people from these nations were amazed at the preaching that they heard in their own language, and they asked a question in verse 12. Basically, what is the meaning of this? What is happening? Why is this taking place? And as you'll remember, some of them made fun and they said, well, they must be drunk. Too much wine. But Peter points out in verse 15, well, that can't be the case because it's only the third hour after sunrise. It's about 9 a.m. It's too early. Some of you would say it's five o'clock somewhere, but they didn't have that saying. So you get Peter's point. The meaning of the Pentecost event nevertheless still stood hanging in the air, and so Peter appeals to Job in the beginning of his sermon, or to Joel in the beginning of his sermon in verses 17 through 21. So take a look at that. It's set off in my Bible as stanzas, as a kind of poetry in 17 through 21. And he points to the prophet Joel and what Joel has said, and he says, no, they're not drunk. If you want to understand the meaning and the significance of what is happening, Joel's prophecy is being fulfilled before your very eyes. So then what we find is Peter settling in and giving them the overarching view in 17 through 21. He begins to reason through several Psalms to prove this fact to them. that this final day, the day of the Lord has arrived. He goes through Psalm 16 in verses 25 through 28. That's the next set of poetry that you'd see there in your Bible. And then he turns to Psalm 110 in verses 34 through 35. And I'll go through those another time when we go through Acts together, Lord willing. But for now, just know that Peter is assembling a sermon, an argumentation. And he takes those Messianic Psalms and he shows how, notice this adjective, this, this Jesus. There could have been others with that name, but it's this Jesus of Nazareth, he says, is the Christ. And he brings it all to a head in verse 36 where we started. This Jesus is the Christ that was spoken of in those Messianic Psalms. And then he adds another very important piece of information. Information isn't even the right word. Not only was this Jesus the Christ, but guess what? You crucified him. And that, my friends, cut to the heart. I want to say just a bit more because it wasn't just a nick to the heart. It was a cut. And the cut ran deep. And I'm hoping that as we back up in Scripture for just a moment, you'll see why it cuts so deep. A friend of mine, Dr. Mark Garcia, rightly has pointed out to me that in Peter's sermon, Jesus is much like Joseph in Genesis, and the crowds are like Joseph's brothers. And so what you have is a family matter. Joseph's brothers, you remember the story? I'll only share part of that, but Joseph's brothers threw Joseph into a ditch and then later sold him. But what they intended for evil, God intended for good. Do you remember that story, how Joseph moved from that, literally, he moved from the lowest point he could be in a ditch to the highest point that no one imagined? Because what they intended for evil, God intended for good. God rescued Joseph and eventually placed Joseph in an elite position at the right hand of Pharaoh himself, and it was from Joseph that all the land was fed and nurtured. God eventually, do you remember this? It's one of the pinnacles of the story that Joseph and his brothers are reunited. Now, I want you to listen for a moment to Joseph revealing himself to his brothers. It's in Genesis 45, verse three. It's up to you if you wanna read it, if you wanna have it right in front of you, because I'm gonna read it to you. Then Joseph said to his brothers, I'm Joseph. Does my father still live? And now listen to how the brothers respond. But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence. Can you see that? The one that you thought you had murdered, either by throwing into a ditch or selling off to a caravan, all of a sudden he's there before you again. Can you imagine the guilt and the shame that you had lived with for all that time, knowing through your conscience the wrath of God that abides on you? And yet here he is, dismayed doesn't capture it. Now not every detail matches the Pentecost from Acts chapter two, but that moment, the reason why I'm relaying the moment to you between the brothers is because that moment helps us to get in touch with how deep the cut is to this group of men in Jerusalem. Just as Joseph's brothers threw him in a ditch, so too did they throw Jesus into a ditch, so to speak. But what they intended for evil, God the Father intended for good. That's the whole message of the sermon. God raised Jesus from the dead, this Jesus, and he put him in an elite position. He has ascended to the right hand, not of Pharaoh, but of God the Father. What the crowd was realizing And the reason it cut so deep is that they killed their own. They killed their Messiah. Oh, how they had longed for the consolation of Israel. And it's put very personally in the book of Hebrews, their older brother, their elder brother. As Joseph's brothers saw Joseph and were dismayed in his presence, so too were they dismayed at the realization that it was this Jesus whom they crucified and is now risen that is the Christ at the right hand of the Father. What have we done? What have we done? So you can see, I hope you at least have some taste of how deep that cut was. The cut was as deep as if you murdered your own brother. And that from that pierced heart now arose questions that we see in the rest of the verses and answers. The immortal question, what shall we do? It is a question that I would pray that everyone here has already asked or is asking right now. What shall we do before God and His Christ? Peter gives a summary, and he gives a twofold response, and a twofold response here, and that brings us into our next point. You can see this unfolding right before your eyes in verse 37. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter gives them the very first Repent! Today, someone would have said, you need to see a therapist. But that's not the biblical answer. The first biblical answer to this realization of God's Christ is that we are to repent. Now, do you know what repentance means? I think we can keep it pretty simple. It involves a longer conversation if you'd like, and we can do that, but you can think of it as basically just doing a 180. I was moving in one direction, and now I'm going to move in a different direction. And that is a good metaphor for really so many different things within our lives, and particularly within this situation. What would it mean for this group of people who just said, under Pontius Pilate, crucify him? What would it mean for them to move from one direction to another direction? This group of people, to remain as specific to this passage as possible, they have got to turn from all of the attitudes and the assumptions and the thinking that led them to crucify Jesus. What were all of those attitudes? What was all of the entrenched thinking? What was all the teaching that they accepted that they should not have? What were all of the practices and rituals that they misunderstood? All of that needs to turn. And instead, they must submit to him as their king and recognize that they have committed regicide. They must turn to him to be forgiven as their priest and turn their back on the high priest that was offered to them in long robes, sitting in the front of the congregation. And they must meditate and obey all of Jesus' words, which they had all set aside once that trial began, because now Jesus is their long-awaited prophet. And as they realize that Jesus is not just a man, but the God-man incarnate, they must worship Him. They must sing their songs to Him. They must pray to Him. They must rely on Him and hope in Him. and they must love Him with all their hearts and all their souls and all their minds." Now, that's quite the reversal from what took place under Pilate and the way that they were thinking and carrying on themselves. And the same will be said across the world and in every age until the return of Jesus Christ. Many others, even to the present day, will face this exact same situation. You and I will not need to repent specifically of standing there while the trial was happening saying, crucify him, crucify him. But there are a million other things in our lives and in our past and in our attitudes and in our thinking, which require repentance, which have stirred the anger of God himself and have despised Jesus Christ. By God's grace, we would do such a thing. that we would say, with a recognition of our sin, with the preaching of Christ also before us as a remedy to our sin, we would say, what shall we do? And we would begin with repentance, a turning of one kind of life to another kind of life, rebellion against God to submission. We would kiss the son before he became angry. In verse 38, There is a second response, and it is intimately connected with what we have said so far, and it is intimately connected with what we are doing today, and it is baptism. Baptism signifies many truths. You can see a summary of those truths within the Westminster Catechisms. They'll take you through all of the scriptures. In this context, there are emphases on the meaning of the baptism and its signification. And I just want to point out that it signifies two present ideas in verse 38. Number one, it signifies forgiveness. Can't you see how cleansing water would show that you are forgiven from your sins? That it would be a perfect sign and seal of that fact that God has fulfilled His promises to His people and He has provided a way for them to be forgiven? It is through Jesus Christ, those who repent and believe are forgiven or washed from their sins. It must have been amazing for them to start to see the wisdom of God and how he had worked everything out. What shall we do? Repent and you may receive forgiveness. How? Because a sacrifice has been offered. Who? Oh, the one that we crucified. Who can understand the wisdom of God and what he has accomplished under our lawless hands? But there it was. sprinkled, as Peter would say, by the blood of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. But it will also be a signification of their repentance, an entrance into a new life that they have walked or gone through the Red Sea and out of Egypt, so to speak. It is through Jesus Christ not only that it signifies repentance and belief and forgiveness and washing of their sins, but baptism also in this case signifies that they are the repentant ones. They are the 180s. They are the ones who have been set aside. They are now considered holy and purified, just as pure as water. And they are purified from the world. They are set aside and consecrated by the water to be His special treasure and people." Those are two meanings of that second response for them to not only repent, but to also be baptized. Through the story of Joseph, you can see how deep they were cut to the heart. I pray that you can. I've been praying for days for you that you could see why they were so cut to the heart. They longed for the Messiah that would come from their family bloodline, but when he came, they crucified him, and they realized this. And we can realize that his crucifixion was necessary for our sins, too, and it can cut our hearts deep. What should we do, they cried. And Peter gave them a twofold response. He said, you must repent and believe. And you must receive baptism sealing that God washes you with the blood of Christ from your sins. And he sets you apart as a member of God's holy people consecrated unto the Lord. You are not your own. You have been bought at a price. And I'll represent that in the sign and the seal of baptism. Now from this point on, I would normally go on with words that are the application. But we will actually have the application this morning with a live baptism. And here's the thing that you need to get your head around. We are getting ready to have two young boys baptized. And last week you saw a baby baptized. At least one of them, I'll say Bear, he's way too young to discern his sin, at least as far as I could tell. If I did an examination of him, he just stares at me. He's too young, if I did an examination, to find out if he knows the remedy of his sin is Jesus the Christ. And here's the question, if Bear cannot see his sin, then he cannot repent. If he cannot understand that Jesus is the Christ, then he cannot believe. So why in the world are they being baptized this morning? And the question stands for last week, why was Isla Piercy baptized? The answer is that since they are the children of believers, God sets the children aside as holy to himself. And it signifies that fact. That just as the parents are holy, so too the children. Now, what I've said, there are some people sitting here, that's just not going to fly. What I've stated is exceptionally controversial. People have all kinds of Bible verses to quote for and against. People have died over this question. And you may think I'm going to say, well, you know, we could just do it either way. But actually, this is the right way. And you want to know how I know that? Here's my response. The problem with the baptism debate, and those who land not on infant baptism or household baptism, is that people study a bunch of Bible verses, and they never actually get to the heart of the God who spoke those verses. It is the essential problem in the debate. If you are reading your Bible well, in other words, you do not end up understanding a sentence or proof texts or paragraphs. You end up by the Spirit knowing God himself and his heart. You know who he is, as the catechism says, and what he requires of you. And so this is how I approach the whole debate. I mean, there are lots of ways to approach this, but this is essentially how I approach this. I ask a simple question. What is the character of God? And how has he treated the children of believers? What is his heart for them? Has he treated them as members of his people or has he not? Is God the kind of God that would give a sacramental mark to even the children of those who believe and yet they do not believe yet, at least as far as we know? And here's the answer to those kinds of questions, and those of you who really know God will know that my answer is true. The answer is that God is so gracious. He is far more gracious than we ever realized. He is so gracious that He always includes the children of believers in the covenant of grace, and He gives them the sacramental mark of baptism, therefore. Let me remind you that Noah believed, and who knows about the children, but they were included on the ark. And the Israelites believed, but who knows about the children, and they included the children through the Red Sea. And Abraham believed, and he was marked with circumcision, and so too were all of his children, even when too young to repent and to believe the promise. There is a revelation and a vital truth here, not a set of sentences. It is a truth about who God is and His heart. The vital truth is gathered just as any other vital truth. We search the whole canon of scriptures and guess who God is. He is a triune God. There is no one specific statement that says God is a Trinity. We gather the canon and we see who God is by the power of His Spirit. And in the same way, there is not a proof text that says, baptize your babies. But we gather from the canon and we see who God is, that He is one who grants the sign to all believers and their children. That is the essence. And so we have a vital truth. God is not less gracious today than he was in the past. And therefore, he continues to make all believers and their children members of his covenant of grace. And this membership is no longer signified by circumcision, but by baptism. God, in fact, I have their permission. has revealed this to the Hudson's, which is why they're not gonna be little babies coming up here. But God has been revealing himself to the Hudson's over some time now. You should have a conversation with them about how God has revealed himself to them. This is what I can say. If you were to ask them, if I understand you correctly, If someone were to ask them, why are you baptizing today? They're not going to quote a verse. Maybe they'll quote several verses, but in the end, they're gonna go beyond the verses, and they have discovered who God himself is, that he is far more gracious than they ever realized, and they have adopted, therefore, the doctrines of grace. They are a family that lives by grace, sola gratia, And so they have their boys baptized today. God is so gracious that even our children are set aside as holy to be raised with the promise and in the Lord's admonition and nurture. And that's how we do it. As a correct administration of the sacrament instituted by Christ himself here at Severn Run, we baptize today not because we understand a couple Bible verses. Don't try to put me in that corner. but because we understand the God of the Bible through those verses, throughout the entire canon, and his grace to our children. And so, we proudly stand with Lydia, and we proudly stand with the Philippian jailer who believed and then baptized their whole household. And, even more importantly, we stand with Jesus the Christ, who says, do not keep the little children from me. Please pray with me.