Acts Chapter 2:11-38

The Bible points out Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 that it is by grace we receive forgiveness. God's unmerited, unearned favor when we pray that prayer. Jesus please forgive me of my sins.

That's it. And then God begins to change our lives. Repenting is turning to God. And when people begin to hear that God loved them so much that he sent his son to die for him and he's willing to forgive them if they will ask and he will begin to change their life, they will respond. A lot of people have already tried to change their life themselves.

And when you say, you know what, you got to change your life, they go, well, I can't do that. I guess I can't do that Christian thing. And we've built a wall. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Today we have one of David McGee's associate pastors here at the bridge with us. And that is D.A.

Brown. Welcome Pastor D.A., glad to have you with us today. Bob, this is good stuff. As a Christian, I've received grace in my relationship with the Lord. And now because of that, I should be giving grace when it comes to relationships with others. Today, Pastor David explains how we can show grace to others as we continue in the Book of Acts 2.

Sounds good brother. So let's continue with David McGee teaching part two of Spirit Led, Simple, Powerful. We're in Acts chapter 2, verse 11. Cretans and Arabs, we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God. So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, whatever could this mean?

Now just a little background here. This is the day of Pentecost. They're in this place and these guys start speaking in these other languages and other tongues. Sometimes tongues are an unknown language and we'll get into that another time.

But at this point, what they're doing is they're speaking in these languages that these other guys are recognizing. There's 15 nations made up in this group that builds the church. Verse 13, others mocking said they are full of new wine. 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.

So it's 9 a.m. Peter's saying, you know what, it's too early to be drunk. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. So Peter goes on to explain what's happening there by referring back to the Hebrew scriptures from verse 17. It says, and it shall come to pass in the 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 and your old men shall dream dreams. And notice it talks about visions and talks about dreams.

Now you may get a little uncomfortable at this point. That is a Christian concept. Five times in the first two chapters of the New Testament in the book of Matthew, five times God spoke to people through dreams.

Five times. Verse 18, and on men's servants and on my maidservants, I will pour out my spirit in those days when they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and the signs on the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

Obviously not all these things are going on in this day. Part of what Peter's saying is that the Holy Spirit that God said he's gonna pour out, he's pouring out, and he's here at this point. But these other things aren't going on, so this is a partial fulfillment, if you will, of what Peter was referring to. But this is the Holy Spirit that God told us was gonna come. Verse 21, and it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. So who are the very select few that can meet up to God's strident standards? Which one of us can earn our way so that God might bestow this forgiveness upon us? Whoever. Whoever. Everybody in here is a whoever. Or if you're in the King James, you're a whosoever. But you're either a whoever or a whosoever, depending on your version. Anybody.

Do you realize that? Oh, loved ones. Nobody is beyond the reach of God's grace. Maybe the person that some of you just thought of, just flashed in your mind, you thought, oh, this guy, this girl, that ain't gonna happen.

They are not beyond God's grace. I used to be one of those people. I used to be one of those people that everybody at Discount thought, man, I had a school teacher in high school say, you know, the best thing that could happen to you is somebody hit you over the head and leave you dead.

At least it'd be over. But God will take a whoever and change them. Be encouraged. Romans chapter 10, verses nine and 10 says, for if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God and it's by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. Awesome passage. Awesome passage. I want you to notice that passage does not include baptism.

I don't know if we're gonna get to talking about that this week or next week, but notice that it's absent there. There's a reason. Whoever. Peter continues, verse 22. 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. That's an interesting verse, because it talks about the sovereignty of God and that being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge, and it also talks about the responsibility of man.

You've taken him by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. Those truths are not exclusive. They're not exclusive to one another.

You have God's sovereignty and you have the responsibility and the free will of man. These things go together. They have to go together.

I've heard people be in error by overemphasizing one or the other. Verse 24. Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. Look at the boldness of Peter. Peter's standing up in the midst of these guys going, you killed him. It's not a very seeker-sensitive message, I don't guess, but he's standing up in the midst and going, look what you guys did. This was the son of God and you killed him.

Now, Peter very easily at this point in his life could have said, you know what, I just need to take a few years off. I just need to process what happened and maybe figure it out why I denied Jesus. Maybe there was something that happened to me in my youth or perhaps I wasn't held enough as a baby that caused me to act in a sinful nature.

If you're still wondering why you've done some of the things you've done, let me save you hours of counseling, hundreds of dollars possibly, maybe thousands of dollars. You have a sin nature. You were born with it. Nobody gave it to you.

You came into the world with it. If you don't believe that, volunteer for the children's ministry for just a season. None of the teachers are in there going, look Johnny, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to hold your breath and I want you to stomp up and down and say mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. You don't teach children that, hopefully. That's that sin nature.

But Peter said, you know what, I realize this, I messed up, but you know what, there's more important things to focus on. I need to be telling people about Jesus. You may not be as mature in the Lord as you'd like to be, maybe even as you should be, but you need to be telling other people about the Lord. The life lesson here, you're a Christian now because somebody cared about you.

Now it's your turn. If you're a Christian in here this morning, you're a Christian because somebody cared about you and now it's your turn. It's not okay to look at the world and say, you know what, I don't care if you come. As Keith Green said, to say not to care if you come, you close your eyes and you pretend the job's done.

How can you be so numb? There's people out there that don't know Jesus. Somebody cared about us enough to share the good news with us. He continues on talking about the prophecies of the Old Testament in verse 25. 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 is glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you see your Holy One to seek corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life.

You will make me full of joy in your presence. Verse 29, he explains, 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. Wasn't very far from where Peter was speaking at that point. Also, tradition suggested that David died at the feast of Pentecost. And so he's explaining these things. Verse 30, therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that at the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. He, for seeing them this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, for his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh seek corruption. So Peter is going through the scripture and he's explaining that this was not talking about David, but David was talking about Jesus.

I want you to notice something. What's Peter talking about? Peter's talking about Jesus.

What's he not talking about? Well, interestingly enough, he's not talking about the Holy Spirit. If there was ever a day that somebody could have really gone on and on about the Holy Spirit, man, this is the day. He could have explained a whole lot and basically talked about the Holy Spirit the whole time.

That's not what he did. Why? Because the Holy Spirit always points to Jesus. Always. If you've been in meetings where the focus was on the Holy Spirit, I wonder, was it the Holy Spirit? Was it the Holy Spirit? Because the Holy Spirit always points to Jesus. When somebody's talking to me and they start talking about a meeting and the Holy Spirit did this and the Holy Spirit did that and the Holy Spirit did this, that, and the other, I begin to wonder, was it the Holy Spirit?

Or is it people letting their flesh loose? Because the Spirit always points to Jesus, always speaks of Jesus. That is a good litmus test if spiritual activities are of God or of the flesh. Peter's speaking about Jesus.

He's talking about Jesus. And now we will talk about the Holy Spirit. We have talked about the Holy Spirit. We will be talking about the Holy Spirit again in depth next week because of some things in the last part of this chapter. And every church needs to talk about what the Bible teaches about the Holy Spirit. But there needs to be balance. There needs to be the biblical balance that's presented just as Peter does it here. Look, any church that focuses so much on the Holy Spirit or the gifts that Jesus becomes secondary is in serious error.

Serious error. And probably grieving the Holy Spirit. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

Brown. We want to take just a couple minutes to pray for some cities in our listening audience, specifically Williston, North Dakota, and Hamler, Perrysburg, and Toledo, Ohio, and Clinton, Elk City, and Carnegie, Oklahoma. Lord, we thank you for everyone who lives in these cities. We pray that you would draw them to Jesus even right now. Lord, I pray that you would fill them with the faith that they need to say yes to what you're wanting to do in their life. Lord, we pray for the leaders in these cities, that you would give them wisdom and discernment.

Help them to put their trust in you. Help them to turn to your Bible for answers. And God, we pray that the churches will be full of people wanting to get to know you, to be taught, and to use their gifts to be a blessing to people in their community. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 31. He, for seeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh seek corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we were all witnesses as they had seen it. Verse 33. 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 hear. And it comes back to the Holy Spirit. Now, we're going to talk more about this phrase, the promise of the Holy Spirit, next week. We're not going to get all the way through the chapter this week. But he mentions the promise of the Holy Spirit. That's an important phrase, and there's an important phrase that's used in the latter part of this chapter. We'll go into next week.

So, coming soon, attractions, kind of thing. Verse 34. 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. 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. 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. Now, we'll discuss the baptism thing more in depth next week.

In the Greek, there's the aorist passive tense that he's using here. Just know that the emphasis is on coming to Jesus. The emphasis is on repent, not necessarily baptism. There's some belief that you're not saved until you're baptized. If that's true, everybody in Hebrews chapter 11 is not in heaven. If that's true, then Jesus lied to the thief on the cross.

There's more reasons for that, but we'll get into that next week. I want to look at this one word, repent, repent. Everybody in here is getting a mental picture of what repent means. May I suggest some of us are getting the wrong mental picture. Even the word, for some of you, brings up a guy at an intersection with a bullhorn, with a placard, with a sign, repent, the end of the world is near, stuff like that. And this is one, tragically, that the body of Christ, us, we've done kind of a poor job of explaining what this word means to people. I believe.

If you don't believe that, do me a favor. Go ask somebody what repent means that's not a Christian. You can ask a Christian what they think that word means. What do you think repent means? And listen closely to the answer you receive. It'll be interesting, I guarantee you. If you ask somebody that doesn't know Jesus, what does repent mean?

The answer will probably go something like this. That means that you never do things wrong again. Uh-oh, guess what? I guess none of us are saved. I mean, the day that you asked Jesus to repent, asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, did you stop doing anything wrong? I was actually shocked that I still sinned.

Why? Because I thought this repent thing, once you did it, that was it. You didn't sin anymore. As a matter of fact, I thought that had to come before I asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins. Now stick with me, because I might lose some of you on this. Well, don't you have to? Don't you have to really, really be sorry and mean it when you pray that prayer with 100% of your heart? Let me ask an honest question. You don't need to answer out loud.

How many people in here prayed that with 100% of their heart with no doubts whatsoever? You don't need to raise your hand. That's a convicting question though, isn't it?

So if we didn't do that, why should we paint to other people that that's what they're supposed to do? Because you see what happens? Well, you gotta be sorry enough for your sins and you gotta really, really, really mean it. And if you don't, the whole thing's caught off.

It won't work. Well, guess what we've just done? We've just built a wall around the gospel that nobody can climb. I've seen people. Well, I prayed with them, but I don't know if he meant it. He wasn't crying or anything.

You know what? I've seen people come to the Lord that didn't shed a single tear, that their whole life was changed immediately. And I've seen people get all weepy that nothing happened.

You can't, there's no tear thing. You can't see into somebody's heart. The whole word repent, metanoia in the Greek means, are you ready for this? To change your mind. Oh, pastor, you're twisting that. No, I'm not.

That's just, that's the Greek. You can do a word study on repent. It means to change your mind. Change your mind about what? Change your mind about Jesus.

Let me ask you a question. This crowd that was gathered around Peter, what kind of people were they? Well, verse five told us devout men, very religious men that would make this pilgrimage.

This wasn't like they hopped on a commuter plane. They took a long time to walk some of them to Jerusalem. Very devout religious men. And yet Peter stands up and says, repent.

Change your mind about God. See, we've gotten this really twisted notion about what a Christian is. Again, ask people that don't know Jesus, hey, what do you think a Christian is?

Listen closely to their answer. Well, that's somebody that does mostly good things. It's somebody that doesn't break the 10 commandments. It's somebody that goes to church. You understand none of those answers have anything to do with being a Christian? Let me use this example.

I've used it before. This is a chair. You're sitting on chairs. This is a chair. This is a good chair. It's a good chair. This chair will never say, it never used profanity. This chair will never drink.

It'll never smoke dope. This chair is always in church. This chair is not a Christian.

What makes a Christian? Asking Jesus to forgive you of your sins. Changing your mind about who Jesus is. Even the Hebrew, going back to the word repent in Hebrew, is shub. It means to turn back. To turn back. Well, now, Pastor, are you saying that they don't need to turn away from their sins?

No. I'm saying that's not the important part. Now, listen closely.

Listen closely to what I'm saying. The important part is turning to Jesus. Because you can turn away from your sins and still not be going to heaven. There's Islamic people in the world that, you know what, they probably live a more righteous or holy life than you do. They probably never see some of the things you do. They would not watch the television programs that you watch. They would not go to some of the places you go to. Are they going to heaven? No.

Why? Because they've not changed their mind about Jesus. And we've placed this emphasis on turning from the sins.

Well, there's lots of people that turn from their sins that didn't turn to Jesus that aren't going to heaven. Now, it's two sides of it. It's like taking a penny and going, okay, well, on a penny, does it have a picture of Lincoln or does it have the Lincoln Memorial?

Well, it has both. It's two sides of the same coin. As you turn to Jesus, you turn away from your sins. But the emphasis is turning to Jesus. Changing your mind about Jesus. And let me ask you a question. I know what some of you are thinking.

I almost hear you thinking, out there. You're thinking, well, if we do what you're saying, there's going to be false conversions. And that will be different how? Do you think they're not false conversions now?

Oh, yeah, there's false conversions all the time. You think you can stop that? Oh, if you can, we need your help here. And lots of other ministries really need your help.

We can't stop that. So how do we get people to do this turning to God? Well, we talk about hellfire and damnation and judgment and we breathe heavy in the microphone. Some of you are going, I didn't know you could do that, Pastor David. What does the Bible say will lead people to repentance?

You may be surprised. Romans chapter 2 verse 4 says, Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Not hellfire, not damnation, the goodness of God. The New Living Translation puts it like this. Don't you realize how kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you?

Or don't you care? Can't you see how kind he has been in giving you time to turn from your sin? The Bible points out, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, that it is by grace we receive forgiveness. God's unmerited, unearned favor when we pray that prayer. Jesus, please forgive me of my sins.

That's it. And then God begins to change our lives. Repenting is turning to God. And when people begin to hear that God loved them so much that he sent his son to die for him, and he's willing to forgive them if they will ask, and he will begin to change their life, they will respond.

Because, see, this is the thing. A lot of people have already tried to change their life themselves. And when you say, you know what, you've got to change your life, they go, well, I can't do that. You've got to quit smoking. Well, I've tried to quit smoking. I can't do that. You've got to quit doing this. Well, I've tried to quit doing that. I can't do that. I guess I can't do that Christian thing. And we've built a wall when Jesus came to tear it down, because none of us could earn it through the law.

None of us could earn it through ourselves. Maybe you're sitting here this morning and thinking, I've been trying to change my life. I've been trying to change things so that I could get cleaned up enough to come to God.

You can't get that clean. You come to God, God begins to change your life. God begins to do a work in you.

And he forgives you for the asking. If you'll believe, God will help your doubt. And if you'll confess, Jesus will forgive you of your sins. Well, that sounds almost too good to be true. That's why they call it the good news. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at PO Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life.

You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much he would have you give either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge. Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God, with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the book of Acts.