Aftermath

You know, people often ask themselves, "What's my purpose in life?" I know you've thought about this. What is my purpose on this planet? And you know, you can spend a lot of time thinking about it. You can spend money on books, seminars. You can hire someone to coach you. But as a Christian, if your life does not involve bearing witness to Jesus, then you are missing out on the purpose of your life. And so today, we're gonna talk about living that purpose out. The passage we're gonna see involves a lot of things, but it involves this as a central part of our purpose for being here.

And we've been in a series called 77. We're gonna wrap it up today looking at the aftermath of the resurrection. Last weekend, René delivered a phenomenal message from 1 Corinthians 15. One of the main points of 1 Corinthians 15 is that if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, this is all a massive waste of time. It's a waste of time, except for the fact that Jesus came back from the grave, defeating death and sin, and the resurrection is the bedrock of our faith. Amen? But something happened in the aftermath of the resurrection that is of supreme importance. In fact, if it had not happened, the church would have no life, no power. I don't even think the church would exist apart from this event that we're gonna see today.

We're gonna be in the book of Acts, and if you brought your Bible, you can find the book of Acts. If you didn't bring your Bible, don't worry because if you noticed in today's message notes, I put like half the Bible in there, and so you're in good shape. It's only gonna take us like an hour or two to get through it. So, you know, I promise you, we're gonna fly through this. The book of Acts was written by Luke, who also wrote the gospel bearing his name Luke, and it just picks up right where the gospel leaves off. The resurrection is the ending of Luke, and then it just kind of spills right into the beginning of the book of Acts.

And Luke tells us, right at the very beginning of Acts, that Jesus appeared to his disciples, he appeared to them over the course of 40 days from Easter Sunday on. And during those 40 days, Luke says he gave them many convincing proofs that he was alive. I love that. Like one proof wasn't enough. We need many convincing proofs. Like, come on, Jesus, can we just like check out those scars like one more time? Just one more time. And really, when they're feeling the scar on the wrist, they're checking for a pulse. They want to know that he is really, really alive.

And John's gospel tells us early into that, Jesus reaches out to Peter to reinstate him, because Peter thinks he's disqualified. You know, he denied Jesus the night he was arrested in the strongest possible terms. So he's like, you know, what does God have to do with me now? And yet Jesus says, come on, get back in the game. Got plans for you. He ate with them. He taught them. And then at the end of those 40 days, he says, now I want you to stay in Jerusalem and wait. Wait for a very important promise and prophecy to be fulfilled.

And that brings us to Acts 1:8, where it says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." Everything that follows in the book of Acts traces itself right back to these words right here. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses." Now, let's move up to day 50. 50 days after the resurrection. Acts 2 begins. It says, "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place." Pentecost means 50th. And it's the 50th day after Passover, actually starting on the day after Passover, which in the case of the Lord's resurrection was a Sunday.

So 50 days after that, Pentecost, it is one of the three main holidays on the Jewish calendar. Very important day. It celebrates the first grain harvest of the year, but it's also connected to the tradition that Moses received the Ten Commandments 50 days after the Exodus from Egypt. So this is a massive celebration. Very, very important. And Luke says that, "Meanwhile, while people are coming to observe Pentecost, the followers of Jesus are gathered together in a room together of about 120 of them." So are you tracking with this? 50 days after the resurrection, the church, or what will become the church, can fit in a room about the size of your average classroom. All 120 of them.

And then it says this, "Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be like tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." Now when we started this series, we started with John the Baptist the day that Jesus comes to him to be baptized. And one of the things that John says in Luke 3:16, he says, "I baptized with water but there's one coming after me, Jesus, who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire." And here it is right here, the fulfillment of those words.

God's Spirit, which in Greek and Hebrew is the same word as breath. And you see pictures of this, God breathes into Adam giving him life. Or we even, there's a faint reference to it in one of the songs we sang about Christ's breath being in us and these bones will sing. In Ezekiel 37, there's the dry bones that are breathed into life. And I don't know about you, but at one time I was in a tropical storm down in the Yucatan Peninsula and the winds reached about 75 miles an hour, which is just the beginning of hurricane force winds. And man, I thought that house was just going to blow over. I mean, it was kind of terrifying all night long, this violent wind. And some of you have experienced worse. So you can imagine the sound of God's Spirit being poured out and into these believers.

And then if, you know, we were there and we not only heard that, but then there's these flames that are like appearing over the heads. And again, we see in the Old Testament the burning bush, the presence of God signified by fire. It's spreading out above the, let's face it, we would be freaking out if we were in that room. And not only that, but I'd be going, "Okay, I see it's starting to go over and a little tongue settles on Peter's head and John and James, like all the important people, but it separates and settles on all of them. The Spirit indwells all of them and then enables them." In fact, by the way, the same is true for you. When you receive Christ, the Holy Spirit enters into you.

And in this particular occasion, He empowered them to do, to speak in these different languages. What kind of language were that? Well, we're going to see it. It says, "Now that we're staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven," and every nation under heaven, that's Luke's way of saying the known world, basically the Greco-Roman Empire. These are Jewish people by heritage, by race who we'd call them expatriates today. Their grandparents, their great grandparents. Somebody went off and settled in these distant lands, but they're still tied to Jerusalem, they're still tied to Pentecost and Passover, and they're there in Jerusalem.

And it says that when they heard the sound, a crowd came together. Aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? There's something about the Galilean accent that the other Jews could recognize, and they didn't really think real highly of people who spoke with that accent. Then how is it that each of us hears them in our own native language? Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." You know, there's always one in the crowd, right? Or in this case, several, and it says, "Then Peter stood up." Okay, time out. You mean Peter, who when a little slave girl noticed his Galilean accent and said, "Oh, here must be one of those followers of Jesus," he uses every term he can to disavow, to deny that he ever knew Jesus.

Same Jesus who made, or same Peter who made sure that the doors were locked whenever the disciples would gather together in the aftermath of the resurrection. Same Peter who wanted to quit, and now Peter rises and addresses this somewhat rowdy crowd. He says, "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, these people are not drunk. It's only nine in the morning," and they're like, "Ha ha ha, you know, he's got addition back at them." Like, who does this? And these quotes from their own scriptures, and I didn't put all this in your notes, I couldn't do that, but if you read this for yourself, he goes, "Let's just see your own scriptures, guys." He takes them back to the book of Joel, the prophet Joel, where God says that a day will come when he will pour out, he says, "I will pour out my spirit on all people, your sons and your daughters, on men and women," and Peter's saying, "Fellow Israelites, today you're seeing that prophecy fulfilled right before your eyes."

And then he goes on and says, "Not only that, but let's face it, you know, there's been some miracles and things going on here in these last couple years. For example, Jesus of Nazareth, a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did among you through him as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge, and you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross." Now, you know how when you're speaking with your own family or your inner circle, you can speak in ways that are more candid than you do with maybe other people? You know, you're a group, you in most cases we're more direct, we're more frank, and that's part of what's going on here with Peter, because Peter, a Jewish man, speaking to a totally Jewish audience about a fully Jewish Jesus, and he's kind of going, "You know, I actually saw, I remember seeing you, and I saw you, and I saw you." And that was true, but what was also true is that there were many people, perhaps even more, who could say, "Wait, time out Peter, I wasn't there, I don't even live around here. I live hundreds of miles away, I've been traveling, we just got here, we just heard about this."

How in the world can Peter look at this audience and say, "You were there, you handed him over to be crucified." How can he say that? It's because in a very real way, we were all there. It wasn't just their sins that Jesus was dying for, it was for your sins and for my sins. It's not just coincidence that Luke says there were people there from every nation under heaven, because they're representing the world on our behalf. Peter gone, and again, this was all part of God's deliberate plan. Peter says, "God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all what? Witnesses, there it is, of it. God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Messiah, and when the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said, 'Brothers,'" there it is, this is a family discussion going on here, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

And Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." You may feel that you are beyond God's grace at some point in your life. Maybe not right here in this moment, I mean you're sitting at church, so you got that going for you, but there's probably been a time where you were alone with yourself, or you were in the aftermath of some kind of decision or mistake that you made, and you think, "I think I may have crossed the line here." I want you to bear in mind that while there were many, perhaps most people that in this story that were not at the crucifixion, some of them were. Some of them actually did mock Jesus. Some of them actually did hurl their insults at Him, and yet what does Peter do? He doesn't come with a club, he comes with grace and says, "Now God is calling you to repent and find forgiveness in Jesus Christ."

And if I was there, I'd be going, you know, as a fellow pastor, I'd be going, "Like, 'Pake Peter?'" You know, that's a powerful sermon because look what happens. It says, "Those who accepted His message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number in that day." Wow. On day 50, the church grows by 3,000 people. It's like, "Wow, Peter, preach that sermon again." You know, it preaches, it's a good one. And that's essentially what He does on day 51 and beyond. And for the sake of time, I'm gonna summarize this story, but it begins with this. One day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer, and again, I'm gonna invite you to read the rest of the stories. Just read these four chapters. You're not gonna be able to put it down, but at the beginning of three, they go up to the temple at the time of prayer, which is 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

So this is broad daylight. No more fear, no more hiding behind locked doors or, you know, slinking around that people might notice. And they're right out in the open, and when they arrive at the temple, they go through this particular gate, and there's a guy there who has been crippled since birth. He's never been able to walk, and someone who cares for him takes him to that gate every day and puts him down so that he can beg for money, which is his only option in life. And most people, and you've experienced this perhaps, most people, they don't want to deal with it, so they just don't look at him. They just walk right by, but when Peter and John look him right in the eye, he kind of perks up like, "Okay, this happens right before someone gives me something."

And that's when Peter says one of the greatest lines, I think, in the Bible, because he looks at the guy and he says to him, "Silver and gold, I do not have, but what I do have, I give you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, walk." And he grabs him by the hand, and he pulls him up, and it says instantly his ankles, his feet are strengthened, and he starts walking and jumping and screaming and praising the Lord. I mean, this is amazing miracle, and he's like, it's this kind of human grasshopper, he's just like springing all over the place, like, "Yeah, this is amazing!" And of course, this draws some attention, and so people run up and they're rubbing their eyes. We've seen this guy so many times, look at him. I mean, he's got like a three-foot vertical leap now, he's incredible, and then they look at Peter and John like, "You guys did this? You're like superheroes, are you gonna fly next?" or something like that, and that's when Peter says to them, "Why do you stare at us if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of our fathers has glorified his servant Jesus."

And here he goes again. He's kind of like, "Remember him? You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the holy and righteous one and asked that a murderer be released to you." And again, Peter knows he did the same thing the night of the arrest, that he disowned Jesus, but now he's saying, "You guys got to deal with your part in this too. Remember when some of the chief priests started shouting, 'Bravas! Bravas! Give us Bravas!' And some of you chimed in." He brings them back to that moment and says, "You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this." Now watch the turn here. Now I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders, but this is how God fulfilled, not how you fulfilled, how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer.

Repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out." You see the balance of grace and truth in his message? It's like, "Yeah, these things really happened, but God offers you grace." And so even though he calls out his own countrymen somewhat forcefully here, he does so to introduce them to the grace and the forgiveness of the Lord for their role, but not just theirs, for ours. And we need to be really, really clear on this, because this is where the church at various points in history has lost its way and to its shame by laying an undue amount of blame on the Jewish people. And the results are terrible. That kind of thinking has been a catalyst for evil. Atrocities inspired by hell, including presumably what happened outside of San Diego yesterday. That is satanic, where there's a church, a synagogue, a mosque. We need to be really clear. Christ died for all of us, because we were all of equal need.

I mean, when this conversation was going on, my distant relatives somewhere in Europe were full on pagans sacrificing other humans into the peat bogs. That's how my ancient relatives were. Bear in mind, it was Roman soldiers who pounded the nails through his wrists and his feet, and it was Pilate who gave the order even though he didn't even think Jesus was deserving of death. He has him executed anyway because it's the line of least resistance for him. So how's that for a lack of conscience and conviction? Here's the point. The point of the gospel is not whether or not you or I were physically there in that particular point in time. The point is that our sins were in a very, very real way. And if they weren't, then how can we say that Jesus died for us? We were there, and yet God offers us his forgiveness and his grace because that's where Jesus willingly and deliberately, according to God's plan all along, took our sins upon himself so that they would be wiped out.

Chapter 4, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking. They were, so this is big disturbance, grabs their attention. And they were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus, the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John and put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed, so the number of men who believed grew about, grew to about 5,000. Notice he specifically mentions just the men there, 5,000, so just conservatively extrapolate from that. We're talking with women and children, 20, 25, 30,000 people. The church is very much on the radar of the people who led the opposition to Jesus, the religious rulers and the Sadducees who controlled that whole temple system. And now they've got these guys in their crosshairs.

And imagine the very same temple guards who arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. There they are again. This time they grabbed Peter and John, thrown in jail overnight, and then look who they bring them to. It says the next day the rulers, the elders, and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there and so were Caiaphas and others of the high priests family. Now Annas and Caiaphas, man you know anything about these guys? That's like facing Voldemort and Emperor Palpatine at the same time, okay? I mean these are bad dudes. These guys, this is the capo de capo, man. They are the kingpins. They are the power brokers and John and Peter, they know very well that what happened to Jesus could happen to them in short order.

It says they had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them. By what power? No, by what power or name did you do this? Now if I was Peter or John's lawyer I would jump up in that moment and say do not answer that question. That's incriminating. Plead the fifth. It says then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, "If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this. It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth who you crucified but whom God raised from the dead that this man stands before you healed." Wow. That's some boldness. And notice it's just so on message every single time it's Jesus crucified, Jesus raised.

And then there's this wonderful detail. It says when they saw the courage, the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus. You know it's not always easy to bear witness to Jesus. You know last weekend it was fun. We had to hand people donuts and pastries and welcome them to our Easter services and it was you know we were free of persecution but it can be hard even here. It can be hard in your work, your workspace where you're like the only Christian. It can be hard in your neighborhood. It can be hard in your family. It can be hard in your college dorm room where God calls you to bear witness and man it is not appreciated or asked for by the people around you.

It was hard in this moment when they knew that what they said next could lead to their death but they were empowered by the Holy Spirit. They were different men and Anas and Caiaphas, they're so dumb found it's like stunned like who are these guys? They gather together with the other leaders and they have a little board meeting and then they call back Peter and John and it's kind of hysterical because they go all right all of our great minds have gathered together and this is what we've decided don't do this anymore okay no no no no we mean it don't just just don't talk about Jesus anymore don't stop it okay you can go Peter and John they're walking out and they kind of look over their shoulder and like yeah sorry guys but we answer to a higher authority than you and for the rest of their lives they bore witness to Jesus with boldness and with power because of the Holy Spirit.

Now what does that have to do with us today two thousand years later? Everything. This isn't just some story from church history this is our story we're here today because that generation empowered by the Holy Spirit bore witness to Christ to the next generation and the next and the next until it reached us and we received the blessing of Jesus Christ into our lives that was their day this is our day they testified then we testify now and if not us who this is our moment in history and you may be thinking to yourself well hey man I could never be like Peter and main preaching sermons and standing up to these you know major power figures I can't do that well you could have the Spirit empowered you to but it could be you know the good news is there's all sorts of things that God calls us and empowers us to do some of them as simple as as just welcoming people.

In fact in the New Testament it talks about what are called the gifts of the Spirit how the Spirit enables us to serve God's purposes you can read about this in if you want to write this down Romans 12 1 Corinthians 12 Ephesians 4 and 1st Peter 4 Romans 12 1st Corinthians 12 Ephesians 4 1st Peter 4 if you forget all that just Google it you'll find it the point being that we're not all called to do the same thing one of those spiritual gifts is as simple as the gift of hospitality hospitality really don't sound very glorious anyone ever take one of those spiritual gift like classes or inventories a lot of us have okay I bet you did not go into that process going okay I just hope that this all reveals I have the gift of hospitality come on there we go nobody does that you go on going I hope I have the gift of leadership right or wisdom or something like that but hospitality actually a very powerful gift and I'll prove it as we wrap up and I'll do it at some risk of embarrassing my mother.

But when we were growing up my mom had a knack she had a gift for making our home the one that all our friends wanted to hang out at and they did this our friends were always there and my mom had a soft spot of fetch especially for our guy friends even though she had you know two boys that were a handful in and of themselves she had a soft spot for for other young guys like our age and especially those who didn't have all the blessings in their home that we enjoyed in terms of family and stuff like that those are special she just got a locked on to them just just it brought them into our family life and she celebrated birthdays for them baked them cakes and include them in holidays and brought them to church on a very regular basis basis we had a couple stops that we would make on the way here and my mom was just at the four of all of that.

And so as years went by there came a point in time some of you were here for that that the church was putting together a pictorial directory remember those kind of pre-internet you wanted to know like who's who well we would make like a little directory with people's pictures in our in their names and in order for you to to be a part of that you schedule a time you'd go over to Munski Hall and it was very strongly suggested that you dress up for that you know look nice and proper and it was families and couples and singles and that's how they put this book together and when we did that my mother invited as many of those guys who were around to be a part of that portrait and so here it is it's from late 80s here I can assure you that my mother did not give birth to all of those boys okay you can see there's me over on the left there there's my brother Paul he's a pastor here beneath me I know what's going on with the look on Paul's face I think that they they tightened his braces too much he's just all he's like oh glazed over like he doesn't know where the camera is I don't know pray for him but then there's all these other guys that are all part of that story.

And the funny thing was that again it was strongly suggested that you wear a tie and a coat but you know we got the ties okay every one of us so we're on board some of those guys some of those guys still call my mom mom without even thinking about mom mom this mom that one of them in particular his kids call my parents Mimi and Papa just like my kids do and all their grandkids do grafted into our family in a very real way through my mother's heart of hospitality that's power that's generational impact that's bearing witness to the love that we have in Jesus Christ.

You know again maybe you're here today and you're going you know what is what is my purpose I'm here to tell you you know you're not alone okay you Peter I'm sure the night of the arrest after denying Jesus three times he's going what why am I am I am excuse me why am I even here if not to just disappoint you Lord and yet Peter finds his purpose Peter lives out his purpose in the same way that you will and you will find it by participating in God's plans in the power of the Spirit.

You want to find your purpose that's how you're gonna find it just just participating in God's plans in what God is doing in this world because God is calling people in Jesus Christ into the fullness of life in every respect redeeming and restoring us to what he created us to be on this planet and what he created us to be about and we have a part of that so you want to know you know what's your plan for me Lord I'm pretty sure that in my case God doesn't sit up there going hmm how will I dressmark today where will I park his car no God invites me to be a part of what he's doing that's the plan and so if you want to be a part of that is as simple as asking this question how can I be a witness to Jesus Christ today you can't go wrong how can I be a witness in the power of the Holy Spirit because let me tell you that's where the joy is that's where we find meaning and purpose in life and so let's pray that God would give us the power through his Spirit to live it out amen amen.

Let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you for this day we thank you for your goodness and your grace and now Lord I pray for us your church here your church everywhere that Lord we would live in the fullness of what you have for us that we would eagerly Lord follow you into this amazing calling you have for us that you would empower us through your spirit to serve you and most of time it's just ordinary things we deliver a meal we listen to someone who's had a rough day we pray for people who don't even know that they're praying for us we help someone with their kids or we help them with some sort of practical need we tell them about Jesus as you give us an opportunity to do so however and wherever we do it Lord we pray that you would empower us to bear witness to Jesus today so that our world would be reached with your gospel we pray this in the matchless name of Jesus Christ our Savior all God's people said amen amen.