Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends on this Thursday,
Law and order / security and safety are two of the biggest issues facing our human race in every city, every village and hamlet in the world, do you agree? Why is that? Simple… our human natural tendency is to want our own way. From the time we are kids we want to be in control of our lives and circumstances around us, right?
That’s why one of the most important words we can learn from infancy is the word ‘NO’…especially when we speak ‘NO’ it to OURSELVES and our selfish desires! Have you learned to say ‘NO’ to the dark side of you that wants to rebel against what is right and good?
I left you yesterday standing in a large crowd of stunned people in Jerusalem about 2000 years ago. Why are they stunned? Because these are devout Jewish people who had traveled from all over the Roman empire, coming to Jerusalem for one of the great Jewish festivals called Shavuot/Pentecost. It occurred 50 days after Passover, and many if not most of this crowd had been there in Jerusalem at Passover when Jesus was crucified and rose again.
Now at Pentecost, 50 days later, God had once again done something spectacular. God had sent the Holy Spirit to Jerusalem by a great wind and even tongues of fire and Galilean fishermen were speaking God’s truths in languages they did not know but were spoken in the far regions of the Roman empire and known by these travelers who had come for Shavuot!
For the past few days, we’ve been watching the disciple Peter making a bold, powerful speech explaining this phenomenon. (Acts 2:14-36) Peter concluded his speech with this shocking statement: “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” (Acts 2:36) If someone had opened fire with a machine gun it would not have been more penetrating and impactful!
My ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends, one of the great advantages you and I have is that we have the complete Bible. Those standing in the crowd that day had only what we call the Old Testament. Just today I noticed how similar Peter’s words were to the announcement of the angels in the sky at Jesus’ birth. Have you noticed? “I bring you good news of great joy for all people. Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you, He is Messiah the Lord.“ (Luke 2:10,11) Now watch this, friends. God Almighty was making BOTH proclamations. The first through Angels, the second through Peter, and both statements proclaim the very same, life changing, lifesaving truths. Do you see them?
* First… Jesus is the ONLY, God sent Savior of the world, and He saves people individually, one at a time, and Jesus saves us from our sin bondage and sin condemnation! He saves us through His atonement death and His resurrection!
* Second… Jesus is Lord overall. Jesus, God the Son, is Lord over the universe; Lord over all humanity; Lord over the past, the present and the future. By the way have you noticed my friends there is one word that you and I can never speak to God IF Jesus is Lord in our lives. Do you know what that word is? The word “NO”! Peter tried that once and Jesus called him Satan, remember? (Matt. 16:23)
* Third… Both the angels and the disciple Peter declared that Jesus is Messiah! As you know the words “Christ” and “Messiah” are synonymous. For that huge crowd of Jews that Pentecost day in Jerusalem they each felt as though someone had hit them in the head with a sledgehammer! Messiah??
Peter’s shocking words made it very clear: GOD declared this Jesus of Nazareth to be the God sent Messiah they were waiting for, but instead of recognizing Jesus as Messiah and honoring Him, they had rejected Him, treated Him like a common criminal and called for His crucifixion! Surely if Jesus was God’s Messiah, this crowd deserved God’s judgment and of course that should be a death worse than they had inflicted upon Jesus. They knew there would be only one death worse than that and that is PERISH… eternal separation from God in the place reserved for Satan and his demons, the lake of fire! That terrifying thought moved the crowd to cry out for God’s mercy: “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37)
We don’t know how long Peter waited to respond, but Peter’s words became historic as soon as he spoke them: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ [Messiah] for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38,39) My friends, it’s very important we understand Peter’s words, do you?
It begins with REPENT. Repent is NOT the same as CONFESS. Now watch this: Confess is my agreement with God’s assessment of my sin. Repent is me rejecting my sinful behavior; me making changes so as not to repeat my sin, and me turning to God for His mercy! God’s forgiveness of my sin is only possible if I confess it and repent of it. Why should God forgive sin I enjoy and continue living? The authenticity of my repentance is seen not in my remorse but in my being repulsed by my sinful behavior and my refusal to continue that sinful behavior, as I REPENT! Pause. Did you get that?
How do you and I FEEL about our sin and what do we DO about our sinfulness…Confess and Repent or make excuses? Years later John the disciple wrote this: “He (Jesus) appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him… No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.” (1 John 3:5,6,9) Oh my, what does it mean?
Is John declaring that those who are born of the Spirit achieve sinless perfection? No! But John IS saying that anyone who is authentically born again of the Holy Spirit will, from that time on, be quick to repent of their sin when the Holy Spirit of God convicts them to confess and repent. Confession and Repentance is evidence of the wonderful, loving, convicting work of the Holy Spirit. Someone who sins without any sense of conviction, or experiences conviction but refuses to confess and repent of their sin, is giving evidence that the Holy Spirit of God is NOT active in their life and they are NOT yielded to Jesus as ‘Lord’!!
Oh, we need to pause right here. Yes, there’s still more in that remarkable Act 2 Pentecost experience/event, and we’ll return here tomorrow, but let’s be very careful we don’t rush past all we’ve looked at today, especially our need for Confess and Repent in response to Jesus!
“Lessons learned” notes will help you dig more deeply and I’ve found a great worship song that draws us into God’s throne room of repentance…
Today’s Scripture: Act 2:36-39.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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