Hey podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. And right now your generous gift will have twice the impact thanks to the Proclaim the Gospel matching challenge active right now through December 31st. To give a special year-end gift, go to ptv.org slash podcast and click the donate button or follow the link in our show notes. Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
This is Robert Jeffress. In response to the horrific attack on Israel, I've written a brand new book called Are We Living in the End Times? Go to ptv.org to order your copy. Where is your faith? What is the object of your faith to survive death and God's judgment? In the passage we're going to look at today, the Apostle Peter tells us that the life, the death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ make Jesus alone the object worthy of our faith for life and for eternity. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress.
You know, debates have raged for centuries over this weighty question. Who was Jesus Christ? Was he a narcissist who thought he was the Savior? Was he a religious charlatan?
Or was he actually who he claimed to be, the long-awaited Messiah? Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains why we can believe Jesus when he claimed to be the Son of God. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress? Thank you, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. All of us have watched in horror the gut-wrenching scenes coming from Israel.
The images are too much to bear as we witness the desperation of those who have been violated. Does anyone need any more evidence of the spiritual attack that is taking place in our world? This is precisely why I've chosen to spend the final month of 2024 giving our attention not to the enemy of our souls, but to the one who redeems us. My final teaching series of this year is called The Incomparable Christ, and my hope is that this study will infuse you with the hope of God's glory because we know as Christians how this story ends.
Well, along these lines, I'm going to ask you to grab a pen or pencil and get ready to jot down our contact information. At the end of today's program, we'll explain how you can request my brand-new leather-bound Pathway to Victory daily devotional for 2024. In more than 500 pages, I've provided an inspirational thought for every single weekday of 2024, and I'll be glad to send you the 2024 Pathway to Victory daily devotional when you give a generous gift to the matching challenge that's active right now. This is your opportunity to leverage your year-end giving while receiving our most treasured resource at the same time.
You can do that right now by going to ptv.org. But now, let's resume a message that I began on yesterday's program. I titled the message, This Man, Jesus. If you have your Bibles today, I want you to turn to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, as we look at this man, Jesus. Now, Acts 2 records the events at Pentecost.
And let me set up the scene here so you can understand exactly what is going on. Pentecost was one of the three feasts that the Jews celebrated in Jerusalem every year. Everyone was chattering about this man, Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth, they were talking about his death. They were talking about his resurrection. They were talking about his ascension into heaven that had just happened a week and a half earlier before this.
Everybody was talking about Jesus. And so when we come to Acts chapter 2, we have the Jews at the temple getting ready to celebrate the festival at Pentecost. You have the disciples in the upper room awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit.
And when they received the gift of the Holy Spirit, they left the upper room and made that short journey to the steps of the temple. Those southern steps where Peter stood up to preach the very first sermon that was ever preached in the history of the church. This is what the sermon was about. It was a sermon about Jesus.
Just think of it. The very first sermon that was ever preached in the history of the church was preached about Jesus Christ. That's what Peter did. He preached about Jesus. But interestingly, I want you to notice what he talked about. He didn't talk about the words of Jesus. He talked about the works of Jesus. That Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. Look at the heart of the message beginning in verse 22.
Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst. Just as you yourselves know, this man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and you put him to death.
But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death since it is impossible for him to be held in its power. The very first sermon in the history of the church that was preached was not about the words of Jesus, but the works of Jesus. It was not a sermon about Jesus, the great teacher.
Peter didn't stand before the people and said, now y'all be nice to one another. Why didn't he talk about that? Because he was talking to unbelievers. He didn't have the power to live by the words of Jesus. He didn't talk about Jesus, the great teacher. He talked about Jesus, the savior of the world. He said, this man Jesus, the one you are talking about, the one who just weeks ago died and rose again and you all saw a sin into heaven. You've got to make a decision about who this Jesus is. Was he just some self-deluded teacher who thought he was the Messiah? Was he the greatest religious charlatan in the history of mankind? Or was he who he said he was, the long awaited Messiah who came and died and rose again that we might have eternal life?
It's time, Peter said, for you to make a decision. And he said, before you make that decision, I want you to consider three things about this man Jesus. First of all, look at his miraculous life.
Look at verse 22. Men of Israel, listen to these words, Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know. Ladies and gentlemen, you cannot ignore the miraculous life of Jesus.
But Peter says, just don't recognize his miraculous life. Remember his atoning death. Look at verse 23, this man Jesus, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and you put him to death.
He said this was no accident. Jesus Christ was no victim. Jesus was delivered up. That word delivered means surrendered. That is, God voluntarily surrendered Jesus to be executed. He not only surrendered him to be executed, he planned for his own son's death. The Bible says in verse 23 here, Christ's death was no accident. Jesus was no victim. All of this was according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.
