The Basic Gospel Sermon

Introduction

Good morning, good morning. Glad to see everyone here, especially those that are visiting with us. And we had we do have several in our audience this morning visiting here, and we would ask that after service that you stay around, introduce yourself and let us get to know you and you get to know us a little better. Our service this morning will begin with a song and then in a minute here with just Justin will be leading us, and so we’re just thankful for him. But again, it’s an opportunity this morning. We’re here to worship our Heavenly Father. As I always say, I’d ask that you put the things of the world from your mind, open your mind and your hearts to this service and give everything you have to our heavenly Father who gave everything He had, His Son, for us.

So as we prepare to worship God, if you’ll bow at this time, we will go to our Heavenly Father in a word of prayer, and then I’ll turn the service over to Justin. Our Almighty Gracious Father, we’re thankful for this time that we have to come together as a family, to come together as though you’re children, to worship and praise you in song and service. Father, we’re so grateful for all the blessings we have. We’re blessed by you in so many ways. And Father, each moment that we have is a blessing to us. May we take not for granted the blessings we have, that we will consider where those blessings come from. Father, as we go through this service, we pray that we will put the things of the world from our mind.

Open our hearts, Father, and praise you with our all that we have. For you are truly the one and only living God, the one that created the heavens and the earth, and the one that breathed life into us. Father, we’re so thankful for the blessings of this time again to come together. And we’re so grateful most of all for your Son, Jesus Christ, who gave his life upon the cross, who carried our sins to that cross, that we may always remember what was given for us, that we may have the hope and the promise of eternity with you in the end. Father, be with us as we go through this service, through this day and through this life, and guide us and direct us in your Son’s holy name we pray.

Amen.

This morning, our songs will center around the story of our hope and our salvation. The plan, the life, the sacrifice, and the resurrection of Jesus. We have a living hope because we have a Savior who lives. So we’ll start this morning by singing Living Hope.

My name no more that you love us your every out of the sight of us in my God in every brain has only one king no more every night in my brain as of me Jesus I sent me free that has lost his grip on me you have broken everything that salvation in your name Jesus Christ my set me free I death has lost his grip on me you have broken every chain there’s salvation in your name Our next song will also be on the slides only stronger. Following this song, we will have a prayer, a contribution, and then our scripture reading.

You are stronger, you are stronger. Save his wrong. You have saved me.

Jesus and no end. You’re my whole and mighty.

You are stronger. Savis. You have saved me.

Jesus. You are stronger. You are stronger. Savision. You have saved me.

Jesus.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we’re thankful for this day, and we’re thankful that you allowed us another first day of the week to gather and worship you. We ask that this worship we give is pleasing to you. And we pray that those who are sick or they’re traveling and unable to be with us. We pray that they’ll return soon again to be among the number. We are we also pray that the lesson that’s given is in accordance with your word and we can apply it to our daily lives. We’re thankful for you sending your son Jesus who died on the cross. It’s in his name we pray. Amen. Set aside this time in our worship service to give back a portion of what we’ve been blessed with, but before we do that, I just want to say I sound amazing this morning, and I can’t wait to hear what it sounds like when we’re singing all together with the angels.

It’s gonna be pretty close to I think what this is. So let’s let’s give thanks. Our Heavenly Gracious Father, you breathe life into us, and that would have been enough. But you also gave us houses to live in, food to eat, the life that sustains us, and that would have been enough. You also chose to love us, take care of us, and give us this meaningful, wonderful beauty that surrounds us, families, friends, congregation, and that would have been enough. But you loved us so much that you knew that there was a separation there. So you gave your son’s life on our behalf. And that was more than enough for us to be one with you again, to be made perfect in your sight, to be inheritors of this wonderful creation, the kingdom that you established.

We’re so thankful for that.

But we want to give back something with glad and cheerful hearts, as much as we can.

Amen.

Scripture reading this morning will be Romans 1 verses 13 through 14. So if you’ll be turning your Bibles there, Romans 1, verses 13 through 14. Let us begin. Verse 13. I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you, and have been prevented so far. So that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as you among the rest of the rest of the Gentiles. I’m under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed, from faith to faith, as it is written. But the righteous man shall live by faith.

This is on the slides only. And let’s be standing together as we sing the song.

It is my joy, my righteousness and free. I step as long, I need my foundless please.

And he was raised to hold the throat to this I won my sin as indeed as my beauty. All that chains are released. I can see I am free and not I but through life in me with every breath I want to follow Jesus for he has said that he will bring me home and take my day I know he will be new me until I stand with joy before the road to this I hope my hope is only When my race is complete, so my lips shall be not I but through my race is complete, so my lips shall be not I but through price in me I but through price in me but through the song selection this morning. We actually covered quite a bit of what’s going to be in the sermon just in what we sang, which makes a lot of sense since the singing is gospel centered, and that’s what we’re talking about, this basic gospel message in the book of Acts.

I’m not going to just cover the first sermon, Acts 2. Actually, I want to read part of the what is probably the second one in Acts 3 here in just a few moments. But what I’m really trying to grasp is just the reality that the Gospel of Acts, the sermons have a lot of similarity that becomes evident as you’re reading through. As you’re reading through and you’re encountering the various sermons as they’re being preached by various people, Peter and Paul and others, they follow almost the same format, it seems, or very similar format.

But overall, it’s still big picture, the same basic concept. And my thought here is maybe this is helpful for us in framing in our minds the way we can talk to people, the way we can proclaim Jesus as the Son of God, his resurrection and the power of his resurrection, particularly as we are working this year on this idea of making disciples.

So they aren’t perfect. Sometimes the font is small, but it’s almost kind of the visual aspect that I want you to see in some of these. And if you really want to see the detail later, I’ll be glad to send these to you. These two sermons in Acts 2 and 3 are very clearly following a format. You know, they’re saying the same basic things with the same patterns, and we’re going to kind of see those patterns as we work through this, and then I want to get a big picture concept with some points here in just a moment. But I’m going to read part of this in Acts 3. You can, if you can read the screen behind me, then you’ll you can see some of these as I read through it.

But I want to start in chapter 3 in verse 11. This is after Peter and John have healed this lame man at the temple. He’s begging for money, and they say, We don’t have money, but we have something better. We have the authority, we have the power of Jesus, and we’re going to tell you to rise up and walk in the name of Jesus. And of course he does. Everybody is amazed. And this guy’s clinging to Peter and John. I mean, he’s you probably would too if someone healed you of some debilitating disease of being lame. You would want to be close to that person because you know they have power. And that’s what’s happening here in verse 11. It says, While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s.

And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people.

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. In his name, by faith in his name, he has made this man strong, whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, and as did also your rulers.

But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and turn back that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. Moses said, The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. He goes on to continue to make this point about the prophets here. But this sermon really picks up most of what we want to talk about this morning and most of what is mentioned in many of these other sermons.

And as I’ve portrayed for you here on the screen, well, let me go back to that before we go to the next one. You can see some of these similarities. And I think the main one I want you to pick out on this screen is in the blue and the red. I tried to do a little color coordinating to make it a little easier. But this phrase, whether it’s you crucified him or you killed him, and then God raised him up, it’s in almost all of these sermons. He just keeps coming back, whoever the preacher of these sermons is, whether it’s Peter or Paul or others, they keep uttering these phrases. You killed him, God raised him up. This is the center point of the gospel message.

This is the power behind everything that’s being said, essentially. You can kill somebody, but you can’t keep him in the grave. And if that’s the case, you ought to listen to what he says. That’s sort of the bottom line of what he’s getting at here. And there’s other parts of this as well, like the apostles are unique witnesses of the resurrection. That can is continually brought up. There is the connection to the prophets that are mentioned frequently, and we’ll come back to that here in a few minutes. And then the fact that Jesus is Lord, He is master, He’s King. He’s also the anointed one. He’s the Christ. And he is this prophet that Moses said was going to come back in Deuteronomy. He is the one that God has been speaking of for so long.

And there’s this call to repentance. And so I put this chart up here.

And so some of these principles and concepts are in the other ones as well. But you can see the patterns of how these themes and concepts really go through all of these sections. If you’re familiar with Acts 17, many of you probably are, you know that is a Gentile-focused audience in Athens. And so some of these may be a little bit different. So there’s little nuances to how you may address a Gentile audience who doesn’t have a Jewish background. But even still, there are many similarities between how all of this works. Alright, so in this next chart, I know this is a little bit academic, so just bear with me. We’re getting to the points here. I just want to show you some examples of this.

I just pulled out three of these themes, three concepts from that chart I just showed you, and I just want to run through a few examples. Almost all of those chapters have something like this. So I just chose three or four in each section to demonstrate. So this pattern or these similarities in these sermons, the idea that Jesus fulfills scripture. Some of these you’re very familiar with. Acts two, you probably know very well. And so I used it in each example. But he begins his sermon with this is what Joel was talking about. He’s talking to Jewish people, and he says, the things you’re seeing and what you’re experiencing, this is that. It’s what Joel said. Remember what Joel talked about, that the Spirit would be poured out and all these amazing things would happen.

That’s what Joel said, and this is that. Right? That’s where Peter starts his sermon. Acts 3, it’s very similar. What we just read numerous times in that text, as we just read, and I hope you heard it. It’s talking about God foretelling. Right? God said before, the prophets told us. All of these things were going to take place. And then all the way in Acts 13 in Paul’s sermon, he says, We bring you the good news that what God promised, this he has fulfilled. There’s really two points in some of these verses here that I’ll come back to when I get to some of the main points in a minute, but I want to focus here on the fact that Jesus is fulfilling scripture. And that’s part of these sermons.

That’s what they want people to understand. All the things you’ve been told in your past, particularly a Jewish audience, or here in the synagogue with God fears, sometimes these were Gentiles, very familiar with Jewish thinking and the Jewish scriptures. All of those things, Jesus is fulfilling it, and that’s important. Right? That’s part of these sermons. Then I already mentioned this idea of you killed him, God raised him up. And so just over and over again in all of these sermons. He keeps making this point. And of course, as we just noted and in Acts 3, he makes this point. You crucified him, you killed the author of life, but I know you did it in ignorance. Right? So there’s a solution. He’s getting to a solution here, which is in that third column, the focus on repentance and forgiveness in all of these sermons.

1. The One True God Is Acting in History

Now, this is gonna be kind of the foundation of what I want to do moving forward here with the rest of what we’re gonna do this morning. but the points may be a little bit more broad. And so the first of those, if I kind of take these sermons and I boil them down and say, what are the overall points? What’s the big picture that these preachers are getting at in the sermons and acts that Luke is recording for us? The first of these is that the one true God is acting in history, he is making things happen, he’s taking the initiative. This is not because men have come up with ideas and they’ve got some great ideas about how to follow God and what people should do and all that.

No, this is God taking action. We looked last week at how this is a spirit-filled community. The origins of it come from the Holy Spirit. They’re just waiting, and then the Holy Spirit descends, and the Holy Spirit is beginning all of this. This is not something that Peter and the other apostles came up with, or part of the hundred and twenty people in the upper room said, you know what we should do? Let’s go out and preach to people in their own languages. This is not derived by man, this is God taking initiative, God making things happen. And so all of this is very important to the concept of what these sermons are all about. I’m not making this up. That’s what Peter’s trying to say.

Or Paul or Stephen or others as they preach. This is not coming from my mind. Paul makes a similar point in Galatians, right? When he kind of goes through all of his history and how he was converted and where he went and where he lived and how he wasn’t influenced by Peter and the others, and this came directly from God. He’s making the same point. It’s not from man. And I want us to understand that this gospel, the good news, is not something that men have created. We would never create something like this. Can you imagine? Well, I guess we could because we’re so immersed in it in our culture, that you would sacrifice yourself for others, and that’s how you would save them, that you would die a shameful, horrible death.

I mean, this is unheard of in the ancient world until Jesus. This is not the way stories go. Jesus changes everything. And so now we have this kind of story arc that we hear all the time in the modern world. But this comes from the story of Jesus. We would never have our Savior die in an electric chair. You know, or be killed in a firing squad. That’s that’s not you know, peak narrative concept that you know our hero is gonna be the one that people hate and kill. And so we this is not something derived from the mind of man. And this is what all the sermons are trying to get us to see. God has been talking about this from the beginning, but from the foundation of the world.

He had this plan. And God is doing what God said he would do. That’s what the message is to the Jews specifically. He continually, these preachers, they continually appeal to scriptural fulfillment. We already talked about Joel II and how he quotes that in Acts 2, 16. But he continues on, he is talking about David says things about the Messiah. You know, David said he will not see corruption, he’s not gonna remain in Hades. Right? He talks about the Lord, and he says he’s not talking about himself because here’s his grave. He’s not talking about himself. He’s talking about someone else, and that someone else is Jesus. And this is all by the initiative of God. Where we read in Acts 3, he said, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, glorified his servant Jesus.

Now there’s some interesting things that I wish we had an hour and a half to go into all of this, but we don’t, that are kind of little echoes or hyperlinks in the text that are interesting here. He talks about his servant Jesus in Acts 3 13. He talks about the holy and the righteous one. These are all to a good Jew who knows his Bible, these are all signals to Isaiah 53 and to the other servant sections of Isaiah. And Luke uses Isaiah frequently. We’ll see that throughout Luke and Acts both, actually, where he uses the book of Isaiah pretty thoroughly as he’s making his argument. But not only is he explicitly referencing David and Joel and Moses, he’s also kind of having this underpinning of the story of Isaiah and how this servant is going to come and he’s going to give himself for the good of the people and save everyone.

And so even in these little phrases, he’s highlighting this is the story that God has been telling us for centuries. This is not new. To the Gentiles. They say things like in Acts 14 and verse 15 we bring good news that you should turn from these vain things, speaking of Zeus worship and pagan worship, to a living God who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is then them, something very similar in Acts 17. Rather than appealing to Scripture, you know, God is a living God who is active in the world, and he is writing and he is dictating history and where this is all going to go. And so, yes, Scripture has told about this forever, he tells to the Jews.

To the Gentiles, he says, This is the God of creation. He made all of this, and he’s ordering it, and he’s going to make it happen the way he wants it to happen. So whether it’s Jew or Gentile, as we already read from Romans 1 this morning, the gospel is the power of God to salvation to any or all who believe. To the Jew first and also to the Greek.

That in it, in the gospel is also revealed or made manifest the righteousness of God, that God is just, particularly appealing to Gentile audiences. That what these sermons, they don’t just talk about judgment, they don’t just talk about removal of sin or life, but also justice. And so these preachers, these teachers are appealing to the things that they know or matter to whether it’s a Jew or a Gentile, to help them understand that there is a God that is living and active, that is ordering and operating the things that are taking place. These are not just the ideas of man. They are not random events. But this is exactly what God wanted. In chapter 2 of Acts, it talks about how this is all according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

2. Through the Appointed and Exalted Savior, Jesus Christ

And in all of that, both of those sermons talk about how what takes place through Jesus, the Messiah, the anointed one, who God appointed, is the fulfilling of the promise to Abraham. It’s a powerful argument to any Jew. To any Jew who understands Yahweh and what his plans were and what he was trying to accomplish. All of this comes back to what he promised Abraham in the very beginning, and Jesus is it. He’s the one. That’s the point being made in these sermons. And furthermore, as we go to the second point, as they’re kind of building this logical thought, right? God is ordering history.

And he’s doing this through the appointed and exalted Savior, Jesus Christ. And the proof of that is the resurrection itself. God fulfilled his promises through Jesus. Jesus does mighty works in their presence. Right? In Acts 2, he mentions that, right? This guy who was attested to you by God. You saw the miracles. You saw the healings. You saw people raised from the dead. You all know this. He points to the evidence and says, you know what this guy did, and that is evidence of who he really was. But even more than that, you killed him and he didn’t stay dead. That is powerful proof. That this is somebody you need to listen to. That the things that he taught and the things that he did, they matter.

If someone dies and they don’t stay dead, they resurrect from the dead. I want to know some more things about that person. Because that’s power. This is part of the message that these preachers are giving to the people. He’s now seated on the throne of David. He’s ruling and he’s reigning. And over and over again, they keep talking about this reality that Jesus, this resurrected being who came in the flesh as God, he is now at the right hand of God, but he is the Christ. He is the Messiah over and over again. Even to Gentiles. This Jesus, whom I proclaimed to you is the Christ. Testifying to the Jews, it says in chapter 18 and verse 5. This is Paul in Corinth, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.

Jesus Christ, we’ve made this point before, is not a name. It’s not one name. Christ is a title. And so when they’re saying this, Jesus is the Christ. They’re arguing and persuading people. Jesus is the Messiah. He’s the Christ that God talked about for centuries. He’s the one. God appointed him, he exalted him. He is king, he’s ruler, and he is the anointed one who God appointed to fulfill all of his promises. You killed him, you tried to stop him, but God raised him up, and you know it. Now the crowds are rather large in some of these events, but it is interesting that Peter could make this point in Acts 2, and thousands of people respond. I mean, they know. They’re aware of the things that took place.

Thousands in subsequent days, are responding to this message.

And then he’s not in the grave anymore. And this proves all the things he said about himself, along with all the miracles that testified to the reality of who he was. And you can’t deny it. They keep making this point. Go for it. If you can deny it, deny it. Show me. The rulers themselves a number of times say, we can’t deny what happened. I mean, Peter or someone else heals somebody. They can’t deny the reality. The blind man was healed or the lame person is healed. So we’re just going to threaten them and beat them and try to tell them not to speak in the name of Jesus anymore. Amazing. They can’t deny the reality of what’s taking place just for their own nefarious reasons.

They want to keep people from actually believing it. Later on, Apollos says he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus. Acts 18 and verse 28. The resurrection is proof of divine power. I think my favorite in regards to this is the story of Cornelius, though, because he is a Gentile. He’s not a Jew. But he’s closely enough associated to everything that Peter can say, as he’s starting to tell him about the gospel, you know what happened in Judea. You’re aware of this. I don’t have to tell you all the details because you already know it. And then he goes on to make similar points he’s made to Jews. You know that Jesus healed people and did good. You’re aware of that.

You know that the Jews put them to death and that God raised him up. And not only that, he appeared to us, Peter says, to the apostles, to his chosen witnesses. Jesus appears numerous times, not just to them, but specifically to them as witnesses who can then go and proclaim this to the world. And not only that, Peter says, he ate and he drank with us. He wasn’t just some ghost. No, he came back to bodily life, and he sat there and he ate a meal and he drank with us. He says he commanded us to preach that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. And Cornelius was baptized that day, immediately. He didn’t say, I don’t know.

I mean, I’ve heard those things, but I just don’t think they’re true. Cornelis knew. He is aware of what happened. And when Peter preaches to them immediately, he is baptized based on the evidence and the information and a response to Jesus Christ calling upon his name, as it’s called in Acts chapter 2 and in Joel 2. Paul was preaching Jesus and resurrection in Athens in Acts 17. Interesting statement. They think he’s preaching deities. So in your Bible, Jesus and resurrection are probably both capitalized. That’s just their kind of pagan way of thinking. They’re hearing Paul preach this, and they think these are deities of some sort, some strange new teaching, and they want to hear more. And toward the end of his sermon, he starts with kind of a creation motif, right?

God is the creator of the world.

He actually quotes some of their poets, stoic poets, to confirm the reality. Hey, you even your own poets say these things. Right? That God is the creator. He has given us life. But then he throws in a little twist that their poets wouldn’t have said. Toward the end, he says, God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world and righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. Now keep in mind, he’s already preached Jesus and resurrection. This is the basic gospel message, Jesus and resurrection. He’s coming back to that and saying, God has appointed this man, Jesus. And by this, he has given us assurance to all by raising him from the dead. This is the proof. This is the reality that he is salvation, that he is the judge, that he is just, that he is righteous, and that God is going to fulfill all the things that he wants to do through him.

3. There's a Response, Something You Need to Do

If people will follow him, they will be judged rightly, and they will be delivered. They will be freed, even is the language used in some of these sermons. And so in the basic gospel messages, there is then the conclusion that there’s a response, there’s something you need to do. God has initiated all of this, he has made it all come to fruition. It’s all happened because of his servant Jesus, who has gone and he has done all the things God said he was going to do, he’s fulfilled Old Testament prophecy, and so what should we do about it? Right when Peter preaches to the multitude in Acts 2, and they realize, yes, we killed him. And now God raised him. What do we do about it?

When he heals the man in Acts 3, and in the crowds, they surround him and they’re amazed. They’re in awe of what just took place. Because they knew this guy. He sat there all the time and he was always begging for money and needing help because he was lame. And yet now he’s not lame anymore. He had been resurrected from this life of debilitating disease to a new life. And they knew there was something powerful going on here. Peter says, repent. In Acts 2.38, you’re familiar with this. He says, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, by his authority, by his power, for the forgiveness of your sins. In Acts 3, he tells them to repent and to turn to Jesus that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that their sins may be blotted out.

Over and over again, the message is to turn, to change, to follow Jesus, to live the life that he said to live. And over and over again, the response is essentially the same in the book of Acts. Okay, another bad chart. But I’m doing my best here, alright? So the little red circles are helpful because I’m going to tell you what they do. In each of these, well, all of the references have to do with the name of Jesus. And I can’t get into depth on that right now, but it is a powerful point all throughout the book of Acts, the importance of the name of Jesus. But in red is connected the idea of how you respond to the reality of who Jesus is by the authority of Jesus.

So, for example, we’ve already talked about Acts 2.38. In the red, it says, be baptized, so repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. Jump down to Acts 8.12. Sometimes they kind of speak in generalities, right? Like if you believe, you will be saved.

These are kind of broad things. But then there’s other times they’re more specific about this process and how it takes place. In Acts 8 and verse 12. And when they believed, Philip, as he preached the good news, which is just another way to say the gospel, it’s the same word there, preached the gospel about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. For he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. So this is a little bit later. Some of the apostles come and they say, Do you have do you have the Holy Spirit? No, we don’t have the Holy Spirit. We’ve just been baptized into Jesus Christ.

And then he gives them the Holy Spirit. Down into Acts chapter 10 and verse 48, and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Acts 19 and verse 5. They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now, there’s all kinds of other times that people are mentioned to being baptized, but I’m just combining here the reality of being baptized by the authority or by the name of Jesus Christ. This is how you respond to this basic gospel message that we’ve worked through.

He has something in mind from the very beginning that is playing out throughout history, and now it is coming into its culmination through his appointed exalted Son, Jesus Christ. And if you believe in him and you submit to him and you die with him in his death, and you are resurrected to new life, this happens through baptism. This is what they’re saying over and over and over again. Now you are in Jesus Christ and you are a part of his people, his ecclesia, which we talked about last week. This is how you respond. This is what takes place as a response to the gospel message. And so over and over again, we see these instructions.

Philip preaches to these people in Samaria, and they are baptized. Even Simon is baptized, it tells us. The eunuch, Isaiah 53, right? I told you, Isaiah is the undercurrent running through this. He’s reading Isaiah 53. And Philip shows up in his chariot and says, Who is this? He preaches Jesus to him. Right? He preaches the good news of Jesus. And how does the eunuch respond? They come up on some water and he says, Hey, why can’t I be baptized right now? And he is. Saul tells this story three times in the book of Acts, but we have here in Acts 9 and in the last one in Acts 22, those go together. He has this encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. When Ananias comes to him and heals him of his blindness, he tells him that he needs to be baptized.

So it says he arose and he was baptized. We’ll come back to that one here in a minute. Cornelius’ story is interesting. These are Gentiles, and Peter’s kind of opening the door here to the Gentile ministry. And the Jews are here with him, and the Holy Spirit, interestingly, kind of like at the very beginning, the Holy Spirit falls on them in a way that’s different than what typically happens. And so Peter’s just saying, can we withhold water? Can we not baptize these Gentiles when the Holy Spirit has fallen on them? We have to. God is telling us that this is what needs to happen. Paul speaks to Lydia. She’s baptized. The Philippian jailer asks, What do I need to do? They say, be baptized. Over and over again.

This is the message in Acts. We’ve already seen this in Acts chapter 18, but he’s preaching to the people in Corinth. It says, Many hearing Paul believed and were baptized. The last one, Acts 22 in verse 16. Paul is now making a defense, and he’s talking about his conversion to the way. I want to come back to that actually next week. I’ve talked about the way of Jesus, and we’re talking about the way forward. And I want to spend some time next week. I realize I haven’t really done this, talking about why the way. Why is this called the way? And I think you will find very interesting why that is. I’ll just give you a little preview. The word Exodus means the way out. The way.

It’s about being on the way and you’re heading somewhere. You’re heading to the promised land. This is a path. It’s a road that you’re following. Right? And this is from the essentially the beginning. And actually, even in Genesis 1 and 2, even in the creation accounts, there are echoes and signals of this idea of the way. Right? So we’ll come back to that next week. But Paul’s talking about how he got connected with this group that’s called the way. And he’s telling about how Ananias comes to him. It’s the same story as Acts 9. Acts 9 has less detail. But again, he’s healed from his blindness. And Ananias says, Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins. His sins were not taken away on the road.

Makes it very clear that happens when he submits to the will of God and he is baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And so I just want us to kind of see all of these similarities that take place in these sermons. I know that’s very broad, and we went through a lot of texts, and it’s maybe hard to kind of take all that in. Sometimes that’s just the way it needs to happen. I prefer to stay in single text most of the time. But I just want us to see what’s happening in all of these sections and what the gospel message is and what people are doing with it. And then I want us to think now what do we think about Jesus? Do we believe this message?

Do we believe the good news about Jesus and what are we doing with it? The simple gospel message is that the living God is acting in history. God has exalted Jesus as Lord in Christ, and the resurrection of Jesus is proof of his power, and everyone should repent and turn to Jesus and submit to him through baptism. And the presence of God through his Holy Spirit is with those who follow Jesus.

4. Event, Kingdom and Allegiance Centered

I’m going to give you three reasons, and we’re going to be done. Because the gospel is an event-centered thing and not just a concept.

This one is through the incarnate divinity of Jesus Himself.

And all of this is happening because God cares about me and He cares about you. This is not just a concept. It’s not just an idea. These are actions that took place at the initiating of the Creator, God Himself. And so the gospel is event centered. It’s the action, it’s the love of God being made manifest and real to us. The gospel is kingdom centered, not just forgiveness centered. This needs a lot more attention, a lot more time. But it’s not just about your personal salvation. That’s one element of it. But also he’s preaching the good news of the kingdom. This is about the people of God. This is about God’s righteousness being revealed, about God’s justice. It’s about him. It’s not just about me and about you.

That’s a part of the puzzle, but this is a kingdom-centered idea, and Jesus is king and he rules, and we better listen to what he says. And the gospel is allegiance-centered, not just belief-centered. This isn’t just about being right or having the right doctrines. It’s about loyalty to Jesus. It’s about turning your heart to him. Just like those people when they listened to the message of Peter and they were cut to the heart, they didn’t have any answers. But they knew they needed to do something. Maybe that’s where you are this morning. Maybe you don’t know the answers. I tried to supply a lot of them this morning through the basic gospel message, but there’s a lot there. And maybe you just don’t actually know the answers, but you do believe that Jesus is the Christ and He’s the Son of God, and you know you need to do something, and we would love to help you with that.

Just like these people in the day of Pentecost, what do we have to do? Whatever it is, this is an allegiance centered, a loyalty centered thing, right? Whatever it is that the attitude that we bring to the table? Whatever I need to do, even if it’s completely different than what I’ve ever thought before, whatever I need to do to follow Jesus, that’s what I’m gonna do. That’s about loyalty and allegiance. That’s about trusting Jesus and about his message and doing things in the name of Jesus and not in the name of somebody else or in my own name or what I want to do. This is about doing what Jesus gives us authority to do and what he says we need to do to follow him.

Conclusion

Are you ready to do that this morning? Are you ready to give your life to him to submit yourself to baptism for the remission of your sins so your sins can be washed away? And follow this primitive message in the book of Acts about what it means to be a Jesus follower. Can we help you this morning? Why don’t you come now as we stand and we sing?

There’s wonderful power in the blood. There is he’s hearty power in the law in the blood of the Lord.

If you were not able to pick up the elements for the Lord’s Supper this morning, please raise your hand, and someone will come by and get one for you.

Nor was the seafulness my words our salvation has come yet my suffering our freedom is wall for Good morning. If you’d like to read along with me, I’ll be reading a little bit from Hebrews chapter nine. But before we start, I just want to say it’s been awesome to be here this morning. Thank you, Justin, for the thought you put in the songs you put out. we’ll let us say thank you, everyone, for singing out. and encouraging me. Thank you, Brand, for the lesson this morning. we go to Hebrews a lot as we prepare to partake of the Lord’s Supper, and rightly so. But I wanted to read a passage starting at verse 24. If you want to read along with me, maybe it’s a familiar passage to you, but just something jumped out to me that hasn’t before.

And the scriptures are rich in doing so. But again, we want to honor our Lord Jesus this morning. So let’s start in verse 24 of Hebrews chapter 9. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor is it that he would offer himself often as a high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood not his own. Otherwise, he would he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now once, at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men once to die once, and after this comes the judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him.

My understanding is this the Greek word that’s used there is means the entirety, the incomplete of all these ages. But notice that the ages is plural. It’s not just the plan from the beginning. But if you have you ever seen one of those Venn diagrams, don’t worry, it’s just those intersecting circles. It’s kind of cool looking. But it’s interesting that this is talking about more than one age, right? The way it’s phrased. What Jesus did was at the intersection of the ages. It’s at the intersection of this age leading up to the coming of the Messiah that Brent was talking about. The gospel’s been the prophets have been foretelling from the very beginning. But also is the intersection of the age where God’s grace was made manifest in Jesus.

We’ll talk about that again here in just a moment. But he’s at the very center. He’s at the intersection of these two moments in time, the consummation of the ages. Manifested, he used the word manifested, and God has rendered apparent. He’s declared, he’s made visible, made clear. That’s exactly what Paul and Peter and Stephen and all these gospel messages in the book of Acts were trying to say. By God raising from the dead, he proved, he made manifest who Jesus was. He was the Messiah, he was the coming one, those foretold. And he appeared to put us put away sin by sacrificing himself once and for all. Verse 28 talks about appearing so that we could have salvation without reference to sin. And the writer emphasizes that unlike the high priest in the tabernacle, who has to go every year to sacrifice blood, not his own, but he has to sacrifice for the on behalf of the people.

But unlike that, Christ appeared once to sacrifice his own blood and to make sacrifices for us. And but when he comes again, the second time he comes, he will receive his own, those who eagerly await him. So today we celebrate that. We recognize what he’s done for us, but we also celebrate that we can eagerly await his return. We can legally await for this to happen. Jesus appeared in the flesh for the first time to offer his own blood. But today we take this supper to remember that first appearance that we eagerly await his second one. When every knee will bow, and those who are in heaven, those are on earth, and those are under the earth, as Paul says in Philippians 2 10. Please bow with me as we pray for the bread.

So that we can be set free. We can be set free from our sins. We can be set free from the bondage of death and have the hope of resurrection just as you raised him from the dead. And it’s in Jesus’ name that we pray these things. Amen.

Please pray with me again.

Heavenly Father, we continue this memorial feast you’ve given us. Again, we’re thankful that we can easily wait for Jesus to come again. We’re thankful that he gave his own blood so that we could have the forgiveness of sins.

Amen.

Good morning. It’s been great to worship with everyone here today. For those of you who are visiting with us, we’re so happy that you’ve chosen to spend this time to worship God with us. We will be back at 5 PM this evening for Bible classes, and then we also maybe 7 30 on Wednesdays for Bible classes as well. So we’d love to have you return and visit with us again.

So let’s welcome them. I think they’re sitting over here somewhere there. Yep, hello. Lucy Irwin has been sick for a few weeks, and they have discovered assist on her liver. So please check with Lucy to see what needs she might have. Ross Harkwriter’s father, Paul, passed away this week. there will be visitation and memorial service on Friday, February twentieth. The details for that are in the bulletin, and I believe that they’ve also been emailed out as well. So let’s keep the Hark rider family in our prayers. There will be a members’ meeting on Sunday, February 15th. That will be after evening services, so I’ll make sure that you’re aware of that. Group six meets upstairs tonight after services. That’s the group that’s led by Clayton and Micah.

So if you’re in that group, plan to meet upstairs. We have a gospel meeting coming up in March with Jonathan Banning. That’s March 1st through 4th, so mark your calendars for that. The last thing I have is there’s an elders deacons meeting today at the building at 4 p.m. That’s all I’ve got. So we’ll be dismissed now. Let’s stand together if you don’t mind.

We’ve been out the past couple of Sundays to try to keep Abigail away from the cold and the sickness. And it feels like we’ve been gone forever, even though it’s only been a couple of weeks. But it’s truly a blessing to be with you. And as we prepare to depart, let’s consider living the life that we are called to live, a one that is not ashamed to be who we are called to be.

Let us bow. Almighty God and Father in heaven, with humility and reverence that we bow before your throne this morning, Lord. We thank you for this. Another first day of the week, another day that we can assemble together to give you all glory and praise as the one creator of all things. Lord, we thank you for this. We thank you for the fact that we can come together without fear of persecution. We know that there are other Christians throughout the world who may not have the same privilege. We pray that you would be with them, Lord, that you would strengthen their faith and keep them supporting you and doing your service. Lord, we thank you. We’re so thankful that you’ve given us your word, that we have your Bible, that you have communicated with us both the history, the prophets, your plan, your will, and the good news that you’ve given us through your Son Christ Jesus, Him coming and living a perfect life, and becoming that perfect Lamb, the sacrifice for each one of our sins, Lord.

We are so thankful that you love us and we love you for that. Lord, we pray that as we would depart from this place, that you would give us strength to continue in your service, that you would build up us, our faith, that you would help us to grow, and that all that we do is in your name and in your glory. It’s in Christ’s name we pray. Amen.