What you need to know is this, the last days begins at the first coming of Jesus and ends at the second coming. That's how they saw the second coming. Granted, they may have thought the Lord would come back at any moment. The church, the true church has always believed the Lord came back and he said he's coming back.
But the last days technically have lasted for 2000 years. But first, here's a resource that honors the heroific sacrifice of today's martyrs for the Christian faith. Today's modern martyrs actions mirror the courage of a long line of brave Christians. And as believers, it's important that we know the heroic sacrifice of those who gave it all for the Christian faith so that we too can boldly stand for Christ.
But most of these modern stories are unknown. We want to help encourage and strengthen you with the stories of those who paid the ultimate price. To share their faith so you can hold fast to the truth by sending you a copy of the New Book of Christian Martyrs. In this update to Fox's Book of Martyrs, Johnny Moore and Jerry Patengale highlight key martyrs of past centuries and feature stories of contemporary martyrs around the world.
You'll be encouraged and inspired as you discover that men and women are still standing firm for the truth. The New Book of Christian Martyrs is our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to keep messages like this one to you. And today on the air for you and others equipping you to know God's word and follow his will call 800 922 1888 or give securely online and connectwithskip.com slash offer.
Great. Now let's turn to Acts two as we joined Skip today. Let me suggest this as a possible strategy for missions. Jesus did say go into all the world and preach the gospel.
But what do you do if the world comes to you? Well, you know, if you think about it economically, you could sure save a lot of money instead of just sending mission groups out all over the world. If you actually discovered that here at UNM, we have international students from and they're the brightest from different countries in the world, the best and the brightest that come to American universities, they have different backgrounds, different cultures, different religions to be friend them to share with them to get them saved.
Imagine what will happen if they go back to their family in their country. So, yes, you could spend thousands and thousands of dollars and organize the trip and go out and and we should go this mean we shouldn't go but we could sort of rethink this and say, and since we all can't do that, there's some living right here. Let's pray through a strategy to reach local foreigners on our soil, love them, invite them to church, invite them over to coffee, tea, because that's more customary in their culture, dinner, etc. and see what the Lord could do with that.
I saw this and I thought, cool strategy, maybe we should employ this. So, crowds mocking saying they're drunk, full of new wine. Now you're about to hear the first sermon ever preached, and it's preached by? Ta-da! Peter! Peter? You mean that Peter?
Mr. foot in his mouth, sandal in his mouth, Peter? The guy who said a lot of stupid stuff, Peter? The guy who denied Jesus, Peter? Yep, the very same Peter, who now is fulfilling what Jesus said. Jesus said, Peter, Satan has been asking for you.
He wants to sift you like wheat. But I prayed for you, Peter, and when you are restored, strengthen your brethren. Jesus promised Peter that he would fail because he's being attacked, but he would be restored, and Jesus in John 21 restored him. Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep.
Commission him again. Now we see Peter filled with the Holy Spirit after seeing the resurrected Lord, and Peter the fisherman, the bumbling fisherman, is now a lean mean preaching machine. I mean, when I read this sermon, it's like this guy is all over it. It's an expository sermon, it's deep in scripture, the way he applies the text. Now, New Testament preaching in the book of Acts contained a couple of things. Number one, a proclamation of the gospel and an exhortation to repent. There was always the gospel, which included the death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ, and he'll do that in 20 seconds.
I mean, he'll just 30 seconds, boom, he'll cover all that. And then there's an exhortation to repent and be baptized. So he's going to not just give information, he's going to call for transformation, and you'll see this as a template throughout the book of Acts. So here comes the first sermon.
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's only nine o'clock in the morning. That's what it means by third hour of the day. These guys aren't sauced. The bars aren't even open.
It's nine o'clock in the morning. But this is what was spoken by the prophet. And I have to say, in this particular verse, I do miss the old King James, which I love to read in my devotions. Peter said, they're not drunk. This isn't them being drunk, but he goes, but this is that which was spoken of by the prophet. So they're going, well, what is this? And he goes, well, this is that.
This is that which was spoken of by Joel the prophet. Now, I'm bringing this up for this reason. Whenever you practice something as a Christian person and people say, well, why do you do that? Here's the wrong answer. Well, because I've always done it. Well, because I was taught to do that by parents, grandparents, or this is what my church believes.
Those are not satisfactory answers for you to say why you do what you do. The only satisfactory answer is a scriptural answer. This, what I'm doing, is that which was spoken of by the prophet. You are able to then point to a scriptural basis for whatever you believe in or whatever you do.
And so that's what Peter does. He points to the scripture, says this is that or this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days. Key thought, last days, says God that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions.
Your old men shall dream dreams. The last days, you see that little phrase? Peter says he was that they are in the last days. Two thousand years ago, they're in the last days.
Some of you read that and go, it's a little embarrassing. Because really, they weren't in the last days. I mean, two thousand years pass. It's kind of embarrassing to point that out to anybody who's prescient and who can think a thought and who is cognizant and say it's the last days. Because that happened two thousand years ago. Nothing changed.
But what you need to know is this. The last days begins at the first coming of Jesus and ends at the second coming. That's how they saw the second. Now, granted, they may have thought the Lord would come back at any moment. The church, the true church has always believed the Lord can come back and he said he's coming back. But the last days technically have lasted for two thousand years.
And here's why. The Old Testament are the old days. The Old Testament is over.
Behold, I make a new covenant with the house of Israel. Jeremiah 31. The last days are the days of the church and this is the birthday of the church. So the last days begin technically at the first coming of Jesus, flower at the birth of the church and end when Jesus comes back again.
So don't let that phrase throw you. Hebrews chapter one, verse one says, I'm just reading it in my head. God, who at different times and in different ways spoke in times past to our fathers by the prophets, listen, has in these last days spoken to us through his son, Jesus Christ. It is once and for all he has spoken through his son. So we're in the last days now.
You can even narrow that down. First John, chapter two, verse 18. Little children, it is the last hour. And you have heard that the antichrist is coming. But many antichrists have already come whereby we know it is the last hour. So the last days is that technical biblical phrase after the thousands of years of the other covenants, the old covenant, the final covenant that begins with Jesus and ends with his second coming embodies the last days. So we're still in the last days. Now, I happen to think we're in the last days of the last days. I think just by what seeing what's going on around the world is like, OK, so the clock keeps ticking. But we're on borrowed timing. We're like we're like leaning toward the edge. The Lord could come back at any moment. Something else.
I love this. He's quoting Joel, chapter two, and he says, your sons and daughters. Also in verse 17, your young men will see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.
Now, all types of people are included. But did you know that Christianity was largely and initially a youth movement? Do you think the disciples really look like they do in the pictures and in the holy cards? I've seen these pictures of the disciples, the apostles of the Last Supper and different events. What's striking about them is they're old men.
They've got like gray hair. Jesus, I'm following you slowly, but I'm coming. I mean, Jesus started his ministry at 30, died at 33. His disciples, his apostles later on, were probably not older, probably even younger than that. And typically, typically you find great movements of God, though there's always theological underpinnings and there's room for every age group. Thank God, because I'm not a young man anymore. But I find that the Lord works through in a special way and looks for the use of young men and women.
And why is that? Well, most people are saved at a young age. First of all, conversion, if you were to look at who gets saved at what age, almost down the line, it's somebody who's very young. That's when they're first impressionable, open, they open their hearts, they receive Christ at a young age. Movements, church plants, missionaries, though they can be at any age, any age, and we've seen some go up, typically it's with the young.
Why? Well, they have more energy. They have more energy and they don't have all the hang-ups that we have when we get older. I can say that now as an older person. The older you get, you get narrower, you have more hang-ups, you have more particularities about things, you get a little weird and wonky and goofy and reserved and even religious.
And all those things, I don't like, but I find myself even becoming like that. And so, yes, there are young and old, but thank God for the energy, the vision of the next generation. I'm always looking for sons and daughters who will prophesy. Yeah, just leave me home, I'll dream my dreams. No, I'll go out with you.
I want some of the action. Verse 18, and on my men servants and on my maid servants, notice, please notice, it's not just male, it's male and female. Men servants and maid servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they shall prophesy and I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth beneath. Blood, fire, vapor of smoke, the sun will be turned into darkness, the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. Now, he is quoting Joel 2, and Joel 2 is all about the day of the Lord, which is known as in the New Testament, the Great Tribulation Period.
He's not saying we're in the Great Tribulation Period. What he's saying is you are seeing a preview of coming attractions. You are seeing the Holy Spirit on the birthday of the church poured out, and it's starting now and it's going to continue, and it's a preview of what's really going to be poured out in the end of the last days before the second coming of Jesus Christ.
It begins now and it continues all the way through. You're seeing a preview of that. You're seeing a partial fulfillment of Joel, not a total fulfillment, because the total fulfillment will come in the tribulation followed by the millennial kingdom of Christ and in between those two events, the second coming. So notice in verse 20 that phrase, the day of the Lord. That is a reference to the return of Christ. And the day of the Lord includes tribulation and great tribulation and Jesus coming back and inaugurating, initiating the millennial kingdom. You'll find that written like that in the Old Testament.
That's understood in Jewish theology. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. What do you have to do to be saved? We've got to call on the name of the Lord. Yeah, some people, what do you have to do to be saved? Well, you have to be baptized in our church.
And you have to show yourself a stalwart member by participating in these covenant activities. That poor thief on the cross then. Maybe Jesus led him astray because he just said, today you'll be with me in paradise. He just called on his name. Remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Okay. That's faith right there. You believe?
Whoever calls on the name of the Lord. Now that, of course, embodies faith. Repentance is a part of faith.
Turning from and turning to. Not just I'm going to add Jesus to my little curriculum and do my deal. Oh, and God's a part of it too. It's not like I'm a Hollywood actor where I just feel obligated to say, I thank God for this award. I thank my, you know, whatever. There's to be a reality of calling on his name and trusting and believing in his name. Looking at the time. Okay, men of Israel, hear these words.
Now he's making up, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you. Stop right there. Peter is speaking to an audience that is what? What religion are they? They're Jewish. What are they expecting?
For thousands of years, they're expecting what? A Messiah. Well, they don't believe Jesus is a Messiah.
120 do. Peter's the spokesperson. He wants the Jewish audience to know why Jesus Christ is the Messiah. He gives three proofs. Proof number one, his signs and wonders, his miracles, his works. That's proof number one. 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.
You might try to talk about it and say we're drunk with wine and push it away, but you know better because you saw it happen. It happened in front of you in this town. So the proof is the miracles. Jesus himself said, John the Baptist bears testimony of who I am, but I have a greater witness than John. The works that I do bear witness of me. He also said, believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe for the very sake of the works themselves. Nicodemus, the Sanhedrin member in Jerusalem in John chapter 3 said, Master, we know that you're a prophet come from God, a teacher come from God, for no one can do the signs that you do unless God is with him.
So they knew it. His miracles attest to who he was. Proof number one, that Jesus is the Messiah, his works.
Him, verse 23, him Jesus being delivered, interesting. I'm telling you, Peter is like a brill dude. That means he's a brilliant man.
He's a brill dude. So look, he's a fisherman, but it's like, this is Peter. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands and crucified and put to death. Now, please notice that Peter in one sentence marries the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man in one package.
So would you quit arguing about that issue? I mean, it's been argued about for the last 1600, 1700 years, but can't we just figure that Peter was able to see both of them working in harmony together? God is sovereign. At the same time, man is responsible. Man is culpable just because God wanted it to happen for redemption that does not erase the culpability of mankind for killing Jesus. So there was a murder that went on, but there was redemption because Jesus said, nobody takes my life from me.
I give it of myself. Both things happen. One is from the divine perspective. The other is from the human perspective.
He puts them in one package. Him being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands or sinful hands, crucified and put to death. Verse 24, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by it. Proof number two, the resurrection. Proof number one, look what Jesus did. Signs, miracles, wonders, you saw it, you know it. Proof number two, resurrection. We saw it.
Now this is masterful. Oh, and by the way, why was the resurrection so important to Peter as a follow-up point to the miracles that Jesus did? Because they're listening, they're stroking their little Pharisee beards, listening to Peter preach, yeah, okay, cool. They would readily admit.
They would have to admit. They already have admitted Jesus is a miracle worker. So they will concede his first point, but they're thinking in their minds, yeah, he did miracles, but he's dead. He died. If he's God's Messiah, he died.
He's a miracle worker, but he died. So Peter, knowing their thinking, said, but God raised him to life. The resurrection becomes now the focal point of the preaching in the New Testament.
For David says concerning him, and I'll probably just be able to just brush into this and then stop. I foresaw the Lord always before my face. He's quoting Psalm 16. For he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart rejoiced.
My tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh will rest in hope. You will not leave my soul in Hades, the grave.
That's the Old Testament word that is equivalent to the New Testament sheol in Greek, Hades, the grave. You will not leave my soul in the grave in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. Now David wrote Psalm 16. 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 and his tomb is with us to this day. And when you come with us to Jerusalem, if you'd like, when we go to the upper room on the area known as Mount Zion, remind me and I'll point out to you where David's tomb is celebrated or kept to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, you didn't know David was a prophet, you always thought he was a psalmist. 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, for he foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
We're going to stop there because the time is up. But I am often asked and I want to explain next time. I'm often asked, well, where does the Bible predict the resurrection in the Old Testament? I want to show you clearly and plainly where the Old Testament predicts the resurrection of Jesus.
And this becomes Peter's whole point. That's Skip Heintzic encouraging you to live for Christ as you await his return. It's a message from his series, Expound Acts. Find the full message as well as books, booklets and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Right now, listen as Skip shares how you can share life changing teaching from God's word with more people around the world. I believe the Bible has something to say about absolutely every experience in life.
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800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity. Join us next time as Skip looks at Peter's bold sermon on the day of Pentecost. So Peter's giving his sermon. He preaches the gospel.
He does quite well, but then he makes application. And that is his goal. His goal isn't to just dispense information. Dispensing information is not his goal. Getting them to transformation is his goal. He wants change to occur. He calls a choice has to be made. Repent and be baptized. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications. Connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
