"The Promise of the Gospel" (Acts 2:37-41)

Transcript:

Well, last week we ended the sermon text that we looked at in Acts, chapter 2, verse 36 with something of a cliffhanger. In that verse, Peter had made a great declaration. He said, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now, to understand what happens now, because again, this is the last word of Peter's sermon, but to understand the response that we are going to see in the rest of this passage, I think it helps to give a little bit of a reflection of what we mean when we say that Jesus has been made. Both Lord and Christ, those are two titles.

And it helps us to think about what those titles indicate about the relationship that we are to have with Jesus. Let's start first with the word Christ. It is something that we say reflexively and routinely to say Jesus Christ, so routinely perhaps, that people are often surprised when they first realize that Christ is not Jesus last name. It is a title, not his last name. Jesus is his name.

Christ is a title. It refers to the fact that that he is the anointed one of God, our ultimate prophet, priest and king. But then what about Lord? Well, Lord relates to Jesus as our ruler. It relates to the idea that he is our king.

But it's so much more. Again, whenever we think about these titles, these titles indicate relationships. And entailed in these relationships, there are both responsibilities and rights from both sides. Think about other titles that we use routinely in our lives. Think about the title of husband and wife, father, mother, son, daughter.

Again, these titles imply very specific relationships to very specific people. And therefore with those relationships come also responsibilities and rights. And let me give you an example of this. Just this last night, about 2 in the morning or so, I awoke as my eyes briefly opened, there was someone standing over me as I slept in my bed. It was a frightening thing until I realized that it was one of my children, my son.

And he had had a bad dream. And he expected that he could wake his father up to pray with him so that he could then go back to bed after his bad dreams. Now, I want to be very clear. None of you have the right to do this. This is something, this is a right that is restricted to my children alone.

But they have this right. And as a father, I have a responsibility to do my part of the deal, which is to pray for my children so that they can get back to sleep. These are again, rights and responsibilities on both sides that have to do with relationships which are symbolized, signified by titles Father, son, husband, wife, on and on. Well, as we think about the titles that belong to Jesus, that God has given him, the title, has made him both Lord and Christ. We are going to see what we are supposed to do, the responsibilities and the rights contained and signified by those titles and the passage that we are looking at today.

First, we are going to see that we have a responsibility that we have violated. If Jesus is Lord, he demands our obedience. And we have failed in every regard because of our sin. And so we are condemned on the basis of failure to respond rightly to his lordship. But then, as we think about Jesus as the Christ, now we are thinking about responsibilities that the Christ had to take up Jesus on the day of his resurrection so that the Christ had to suffer.

That's not a responsibility that we put on him. That's a responsibility that he freely took upon himself. But the Christ, as the Christ, had to suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, so that. And now we get into our rights so that forgiveness of sins might be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. It's a strange thing to think about that we have rights to the Lord, and we certainly do not in relation to anything that we can demand of ourselves.

But the Scriptures tell us that we have rights toward God, not because of us, but because of Jesus. In John, chapter one, we are told that all who receive Christ, that is who believe in his name, God gave the right to become children of God. And if children, then we have the same rights as children have to their fathers, although our Father is in heaven. What this tells us as we think about our relationship to the Lord and Christ Jesus is that the theme of this passage is that the promise of the Gospel cancels the condemnation of the law. The promise of the Gospel cancels the condemnation of the law.

And so we'll look at this short text in three parts this morning. First of all, the condemnation of the law in verse 37 and the promise of the gospel in verses 38 and 39. And then in verses 40 and 41, we're going to consider really the response to the response that is required of us. Two ways we might go in the wilderness wandering. We'll talk about why that's related to the wilderness wandering when we get there in verses 40 and 41.

But let's start with the condemnation of the law in verse 37. Again, we are condemned because of our rebellion against the lordship of Jesus Christ because of our sin. Again, verse 37 is a snapshot of true repentance. We read here. Now, when they heard this, this statement that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do now? Repentance is something that Peter will specify is required of them in the very next verse, verse 38, repent and be baptized. And on and on and on. But this gives a picture of repentance.

We're seeing the start of repentance happening right here. The Greek word for repentance again, the one that we find in the very next verse, is a word that has to do with a change of mind. But it means more than a new opinion. I used to really like this pizza over here, but now I've changed my mind, and I really think this is the best pizza. It means much more than just a change of opinion about something trivial and insignificant.

It's a change of mind that prompts a change of heart, or change of affections, we might say, that flows out into a change of life. It's a simple definition for repentance, a change of mind that prompts a change of heart that flows out into a change of life. The minds of these people who are at this original sermon on the day of Pentecost, their minds have been convinced and convicted by what Peter has said. They know that they are guilty because they were responsible for crucifying the one whom God had declared both Lord and Christ Jesus. Repentance, then, the Scriptures declare to us must begin in the mind.

We must have a change of mind. This is declared in many places in Scripture, perhaps nowhere more clearly than in Romans, chapter 12, verse 2, that we are to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. Repentance starts in the mind with a change of mind. Again, that's what that word means. And the Westminster Shorter Catechism question number 87, that we considered earlier declares this, that we are to change our mind, our perspective, where we gain a true sense of our sin and understanding, but not only that, also an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ.

That is, we are to recognize and to appreciate both how far short we have fallen from the glory of God because of our sin, but also the great mercy that God extends to us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But it's a change of mind that prompts a change of heart. These individuals were cut to the heart. That is, we are to feel the weight of the guilt and the shame that we have because of our sins. Now, again, this is something that we must feel but also recognize that we cannot fully resolve it.

That's part of the difficulty of this. As the Shorter Catechism question number 87 says, that we have grief and hatred of our sins, not just a change of mind. I think a little bit differently now. I've changed my opinion on that. We are to have hearts that are disgusted and desperate because of our sin and desperate in need of Jesus.

But again, the Scripture distinguishes between godly grief and worldly grief. Judas had worldly grief that leads to death. But godly grief is different in that it isn't just a change of mind that brings us to despair in our hearts and ends there. It is a change of mind that prompts a change of heart not only against our sin, but but also to cry out in desperation for God to provide the remedy that only he can provide through the life, death and resurrection of his Son Jesus. But all of that has to go then somewhere.

It has to move next into a change of life, to flow out into a change of life. And this is what we see that they are seeking when they cry out, brothers, what shall we do again? Westminster short of Catechism 87, that we are to turn from our sin unto God with full purpose of an endeavor after new obedience. If we're to have a change of mind and a change of affections or emotions or the heart, we also have a change in the will, a change in the purposes and intentions of what we are going to do. Now, they don't know what this is going to require of them.

Indeed, anyone who has responded in faith to Jesus Christ will learn the rest of his or her life how much repentance we need to continue to do. And yet we are called to turn from our sin and to turn to Jesus, desperate for the remedy. Whatever it takes, we're willing to pursue and follow after Jesus. So Again, in this first verse, in verse 37, we are seeing the effect of the condemnation of the law. And my question is, have you experienced true repentance unto life?

My story may or may not be like yours. My story is of someone who grew up in the church. But throughout the course of my life as a man growing a boy, then a man growing up in the Church, it took me a very long time to really understand the nature of true repentance, of repentance unto life. Again, I grew up in the church. I was here in the church every time the doors were open.

Because of that, I had a reputation, a pristine reputation as a very good kid. If I Were a Jew living in the first century, I would absolutely have been there on this day, because that's the expectation. The doors were open, come to worship, I was there. That's what my life was like. And I do think, as I look back on my life at that time, that I was a believer.

But I did not really understand what God had called me to in repentance.

And so in high school and college, the Lord opened my eyes really more fully, at least, maybe not totally fully, but more fully to the depth of my sin. And I came to realize that I had thought of myself as a good kid, but I wasn't a good kid. What I saw made me sorrowful because it was sickening. I was not a Christian as sort of a tack on or the outflowing of my goodness. As a good kid, I needed Christ because I was very bad.

Christianity could no longer be to me a hobby or a tribe or an association, a membership card that I carried around to show my great virtue. Christ needed to become my only comfort in life and in death. And that changed my life. What about you? Are you desperate?

Are you crying out, what shall I do because of this sin that burdens me this morning? Well, for those who are condemned by the law, you know the promise of the gospel in this second section, the promise of the gospel in Acts 2, verses 38 through 39. And again, shifting them from our failure and our responsibilities to. To the one who is our Lord now shifting over to what we have received because the Christ fulfilled the responsibilities that he took upon himself as the Christ. The Christ had to suffer on the third day and rise from the dead so that forgiveness of sins might be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.

What are we to do? Verse 38 tells us, and Peter said to them, now again, this is that same word that means a change of mind, but really a change of mind that prompts a change of heart that flows out into a change of life. But I think it's also important to understand the Old Testament concept of repentance. The Old Testament word that's translated as repent does not mean a change of mind exactly. The word very literally means turn.

And in other cases, it's not talking about a repentance from sin. It just means that someone turned, they went a different direction on the path. And this is exactly the picture that we need to understand what repentance requires of us to turn away from our sin and to turn toward Christ in faith. And the reason that is so important to see is because it helps us recognize that we can distinguish repentance and faith, but we cannot separate them. They are different size of the exact same.

You can't have one really without the other. Repent. But then Peter continues and says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, there are a wide range of interpretations about where exactly baptism is placed in our understanding of salvation. And you might understand that there are a couple of extremes on understanding this.

At one end, at one extreme, are those who say that baptism. Baptism is a work that is necessary for you to be saved. You cannot be saved unless you have undergone the rite of baptism. Of course, the Scriptures teach against this, as we have very clearly set out for us in the example of the thief on the cross. The thief on the cross cried out to Jesus, saying, lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And Jesus responded, I am so. There is no time for you to be baptized, therefore you are forever shut out. He didn't say that. He said, this day you will be with me in paradise. Baptism is related to salvation, but not as so essential that you cannot be saved without water baptism.

At the other end of the extreme are those who say that baptism has no real connection with salvation except as an empty, disconnected picture. It's sort of there. It's kind of weird. We wash people with water in front of other people in the church during a worship service. But we're called to do it.

So I guess we have to. That doesn't work either, because the Scriptures tell us that baptism is a very important means of grace that God has provided to us. The better explanation that we are given in Scripture is to insist first and foremost that Christ alone, alone saves, and that we are saved through faith in Christ alone. But that God uses means, avenues to draw us to faith in Christ. Tools you might say, that he uses to give us faith and then to strengthen and encourage our faith.

And the ordinary means of grace that God has given us is the preaching of the Word. The Word and prayer and sacraments. And just as preaching is given to call sinners to repentance and faith, so baptism serves the same purpose when we baptize. Especially our children, who really can't fully understand what we're doing at that moment. But let's be honest, neither can we fully understand what's happening in that moment.

What those children are receiving at a basic level is a promise from God that God will be God to them as he has been God to us. That the promises of the gospel of Jesus are for them and the way they will be saved is in the same way that we are saved, repenting from our sins, turning from our sins toward faith in Christ. God gives us baptism and the Word and the Lord's Supper to call us to faith and to confirm and establish and strengthen our faith through the course of our lives. Well, notice this. Baptism is in the name of Jesus Christ.

Now this does not contradict what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 28, where he says that we are to be baptized in the triune name in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And that is true in our baptism. We are to be baptized into that full triune name of God. What this is indicating, what Peter is indicating here is that baptism is an act of the lordship of Jesus. We are baptized on behalf of Christ's own authority as he is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ. The next element is for the forgiveness of your sins. This is the great benefit of God's covenant promises to us in Christ Jesus that our sins can be forgiven. Indeed, the Christ must suffer and on the third day rise from the dead so that forgiveness of sins may be proclaimed in his name on his authority to the end of the earth, beginning from Jerusalem. But when we think about forgiveness of sins, I think we might have too light of an understanding of what that means.

One commentator, Lenski, reminds us that it's not just. We're talking sort of a plea deal, sort of an agreement that, well, let's just, I guess, move on from happened. But. Well, I'm going to try really hard not to bring it up in the future. It might come out in a moment of anger when I bring it up.

Well, yeah, don't you remember when you did this? Some of your versions may have translated the remission of sins. And that word, we don't use it as often, but it better captures and conveys what we mean by this word that we maybe too weakly translate as forgiveness. The idea is not just God just sort of designs to move on from it. It's that our sins have been blotted out.

They have been sent away as far as the east is from the west. They have been buried in the inaccessible parts of the depths of the ocean. You know one of the gospel that you sometimes hear proclaimed by this world, this world has many gospels, all of them false. But one of the gospels proclaimed in this world, is that the real thing, the real place where you need to find forgiveness is you need to forgive yourself. Now, that implies that God is not the ultimate judge of what is right and wrong, but it's the idea that if we could just forget about it and move on with our lives, that that's really what we need at the end of the day.

And perhaps this morning you are trying to ignore your sins into oblivion. But God is not mocked. We will reap what we sow. If we do not find remission of sins, we will indeed sow judgment on the day when Jesus Christ returns. But the great promise we have in the Gospel is that what Jesus Christ has done, what he has accomplished through his life and death and resurrection on the third day, is that forgiveness, real forgiveness, real remission of sins is proclaimed to all those who turn from their sins and turn to Christ in faith.

That promise is for you this morning. But I'm getting ahead of myself. There's one more part before we get to the next verse in verse 39, and that's this, that you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now, as many commentators point out, don't confuse this with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, what the Holy Spirit gives us. This is the great gift of the giver himself, of the presence and the ministry of the person of the Holy Spirit. This is what Paul calls the earnest money or the down payment of the inheritance that we have in Christ. We are given the Holy Spirit. Well, who's this promise for?

Well, in verse 39, Peter continues saying, for the promise. Again, the promise of the Gospel. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. Understand the same Spirit who inspired Peter on the day of Pentecost. The same Spirit who inspired Luke to record the events of this day into Holy Scripture is the same Spirit who continues to speak through the words recorded in Scripture.

And this promise is as much true as it was that those who were there on the original day of Pentecost, that this promise was for them. This promise is also for you. This promise is for you. If you turn from your sins and turn to Jesus Christ, you will have remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you, but it is also for your children.

The language here, very carefully, very clearly, and again, remember, this is a group of Jews. The language here echoes language that Jews held of the highest importance, the language of Genesis 17, the passage where God is establishing his covenant with Abraham. And as Paul makes clear in Galatians 3, if we are in Christ we are Abraham's offspring. We are blessed according to the covenant promises that were given to Abraham. We are still and Abraham's covenant just brought to its fulfillment and fruition in Jesus Christ.

And in Genesis 17, verse 7. Again, the echo here is from this verse where God declared, I will establish my covenant between me and you. The promise is for you and your offspring after you throughout the generations, for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. The covenant that God makes is for believers, but is also for the children of believers. Children, I would encourage you to ask your parents today about your baptism, to ask about the covenant promises.

Again, all of these relationships that we have imply rights and responsibilities. And you have a right to access to the gospel of the covenant of Jesus Christ. And that has been sealed to you in your baptism. And it entails with it a responsibility for you to respond in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why we baptize our infants and then disciple them toward making a profession of faith for themselves.

Because the promise is for you and for your children. But this isn't just descended through bloodlines. It's also for all who are far off, that is, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. There is a missionary outlook to this, to call all those to faith in Jesus Christ whom God is calling to himself. Well, the bad news that this passage lays out is that we are condemned by the law because we have failed to keep our our relational responsibilities to Jesus as Lord.

But the good news of the promise of the gospel is that the Christ, according to his own responsibilities, has taken upon himself the penalty that we incurred so that he could give us the blessedness and righteousness and reward that He Himself deserved. The good news, the promise of the gospel. But now we come to the real question. Those are sort of what's held out in front of us as the entailments of our relational obligations to the one whom God has made, both Lord and Christ. How then will we respond to these?

And in the third section, verses 40 and 41, Peter draws from an Old Testament image to put very starkly in front of us what exactly we are looking at, what exactly we are talking about. And this brings us to the third section, the wilderness wandering. In verse 40, we read that, and with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation. Now, in the Old Testament, the language of generation, particularly when it's a sinful generation, is always talking about one particular generation. And in fact, these two words crooked and generation show up both in Deuteronomy 32, verse 5, and Psalm 78.

8 To talk about one particular generation. Which generation was considered the crooked generation? It was the generation of those that God had brought out of Egypt by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, through many signs and wonders, that God had brought up to the brink of the promised land. Who looked into the promised land, who saw fruit brought out by 12 spies, and who listened to the false witness of the 10 spies, who said, we can't do this, there are giants in the land, they'll devour our children. Let's go back to Egypt instead.

And God was furious with them. God dispossessed them of the promises. This is why their children were not circumcised. This is why their bodies fell dead in the wilderness. Because God disinherited them, because they were the crooked generation.

And Peter says the same thing that happened in the Old Testament. With a shadow, with a type, with a foreshadowing of a greater reality, of the reality of the ultimate issue. What Canaan was as a shadow. We now have the one casting the shadow, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who is our inheritance, who is the one who has been promised to us. Will you stand at the brink of your inheritance and turn around and go back into the bondage of your sin?

Don't do that. Save yourself from this crooked generation that marks the pathway of unbelief.

But of those 10 spies who bore false witness, for the Lord is not able to save us, there were two, Joshua and Caleb, who bore faithful witness. And because of their faith, they entered into the promised land. And so we read that not all the Jews on this day, but a good number of them believed. And in verse 41 we read about those who took the pathway of faith. So those who received his word were baptized.

And there were added that day about 3,000 souls who entered into their inheritance in Christ. The application we have repent and believe repentance is a two sided coin. Turn from your sin. Turn toward faith in Christ. Now the author of Hebrews also quotes Psalm 95, again with a warning against being like that faithless wilderness generation.

And he calls out to us to this day, saying, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. That's the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways as I swore in my wrath. They shall not enter my rest.

The author of Hebrews then goes on with a perfect application for us today. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share its inheritance language. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

Friends, brothers and sisters, don't let your heart be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Root it out, repent from it, exhort one another and most importantly, lay hold of Christ by faith. But the promises for you and for your children and for all those who are far off, for all who believe on his name will receive the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. What was begun proclaimed in Jerusalem continues to be proclaimed to the end of the age until our Lord Jesus will come again. Let's pray.