All About Jesus (Acts 2:14-47)

[0:00] Yeah, Acts chapter 2, verse 14 to 47. Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd.

[0:10] Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning.

[0:22] No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. In the last days, God says, Fellow Israelites, listen to this.

[1:01] Jesus of Nazareth was 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.

[1:21] But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him, I saw the Lord always before me.

[1:32] Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead.

[1:44] You will not let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence. Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.

[1:59] But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay.

[2:15] God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

[2:28] For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this.

[2:41] God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, Brothers, what shall we do?

[2:54] 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. The promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.

[3:12] With many other words he warned them, and he pleaded with them, Save yourselves from this corrupt generation. Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day.

[3:26] They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.

[3:37] All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.

[3:48] They broke bread in the homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

[4:00] That is the word of the Lord. And we welcome William to share with us today. Thank you, Isaac, and thank you, everyone. Great to see all of you here, and some back up in Auckland for holiday, or back from holiday.

[4:13] It's great to see each of you. Let me pray. And as we hear from God's word, let us ask that he would change us now as we try and understand and listen and apply his word.

[4:26] Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you that your word is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, and this incredible description of your church.

[4:41] May that description move us, encourage us, challenge us to repentance and faith in your Son, Jesus Christ. Father, we pray all these things in the name of the Lord Jesus.

[4:53] Amen. I'd love to invite you to imagine you were sitting at our dinner table at home around this time last week. So we'd just finished church.

[5:04] We'd sat down to have some dinner, and we were just about to tuck in to some amazing food, and then suddenly we heard some pops in the distance.

[5:15] Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And it was very mysterious. We didn't know what was going on. I wonder if you heard it too. And immediately at the dente, we started to do two things. One, we described the sounds in great detail, what they sounded like, how far away it was.

[5:31] You know, was Russia invading New Zealand? I don't know, what does it sound like? What's going on? And then we started to wonder, okay, I think those are fireworks, but I'm not so sure. And then we started to come up with some theories, right?

[5:44] Who lit them? What does it mean? What's going on? So I don't know if that went through your minds at dinner time at this time last week, okay? But that's what we did, right? We described the sounds and what was going on in great detail.

[5:56] And then we tried to explain why there was this fireworks. And obviously we looked up the Herald later on and yeah, mystery fireworks in central Auckland, okay? So it turns out that was what was going on.

[6:09] So this is what happens in the book of Acts. Last week in the first part of Acts 2, we got that detailed description, didn't we, right? Of some fireworks that went off on the day of Pentecost.

[6:23] Tongues of fire resting on Jesus' 120 followers and then who then quickly pour out of the upper room, I think, and declare the wonders of God as the Spirit gave them utterance.

[6:36] And in our passage today, right, now that we're seeing the description, we get the explanation of who lit the fireworks and what does it mean.

[6:46] And so some of you are thinking, oh, we're going to get a sermon on a sermon. Relax. I want to try and help us work through this and challenge us from the Scriptures. This is an amazing sermon though, isn't it?

[6:58] First sermon of the book of Acts. And from Peter's lips, I think he answers the question that people have been wondering, what does this mean, right? We see that in verse 12. What does this mean?

[7:09] And now it would be logical to expect a sermon on Pentecost to be all about who? The Holy Spirit.

[7:19] Surely, right? After all, that's who shows up. That's who we see the miraculous signs and wonders from. And yet I think I found it surprising that actually the very first sermon at Pentecost is all about Jesus.

[7:37] It's not that the Spirit is unimportant. He's crucial. He opens up people to the ability to tell the wonders of God. But when Peter's sermon, I wonder if you listen, as he mentions the Spirit four times, he actually mentions someone else a lot more, right?

[7:56] Who does he mention in verses 22, 23, 24, actually 25, 6, 7, 8, and so on. It's actually all about Jesus. And there's actually a specific word that Peter uses that should catch our attention.

[8:10] And as Isaac read it, that the word Messiah or Christ, Messiah and Christ, they're just Hebrew and Greek for the same word. It's the first time actually this word appears in the book of Acts.

[8:23] And Peter mentions it in verse 36, verse 38 as well. And it's a key phrase. It clues us in on what's going on. Now look, Christ is not a surname like Smith or Sun.

[8:37] It's a royal title. It's Jesus, God's chosen king. Jesus, the Messiah. And this is significant. That gives us a clue into why Peter is preaching this sermon.

[8:50] You see, at Pentecost, yes, God lit the fireworks. But Peter tells us it's all about Jesus, the Messiah. And so we're going to break down the sermon.

[9:02] I want to see from our passage two truths from Pentecost and the Psalms. And then we're going to think about two lessons, right, from the response to Peter's sermon and the community that shows up straight after that.

[9:16] So we've got two truths of Pentecost and two lessons from the response to this sermon. Right. The first truth that Peter announces to the crowd at Jerusalem is that Pentecost proves that Jesus is God's crucified Messiah.

[9:36] Pentecost is proof that Jesus is God's crucified Messiah. He steps up, right, he greets his fellow Jews, and Peter calls him to listen carefully.

[9:46] And the first thing he does is he addresses an objection that's already come up, right? We've heard people say in verse 13 already, this miracle, that's just people playing around. They're drunk. We live in a skeptical age today, but look, we're not the only skeptics, it seems.

[10:02] It seems like some in the crowd are trying to shake off this amazing occurrence as some kind of drunk phenomenon. But Peter says, don't suppose that. I mean, think about it.

[10:14] It's only nine in the morning. It's too early. Yes, they may look excited. Yes, they may seem under the influence, but it's not alcoholic spirit that's responsible here.

[10:24] And Peter, right, in verse 16 to 17, he starts to reveal the true purpose of this outpouring at Pentecost. He says, no, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.

[10:38] In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Here, Peter's speaking to a Jewish audience, so he talks about one of their well-known prophets.

[10:50] Joel is one of the later prophets in the Old Testament. He shares his prophecies about 500 years before Jesus shows up, before the events that we see today. And Joel is talking to a bit of a rebellious country, Israel.

[11:06] They were openly wondering, doubting whether the Lord truly ruled. I mean, they'd just seen themselves taken into exile, for example, conquered by opposing foreign armies.

[11:19] Was the Lord really king? Did he really rule? This was on their hearts. And it's in this context that Joel, one of the minor prophets, warns his listeners of a coming time of judgment called the day of the Lord.

[11:35] But that afterwards, a new era in God's kingdom would come. A new day would one day come, Joel says, is that when God's reign will be truly set up in this world.

[11:50] What a day to look forward to. And if you were a faithful Jewish person who would walk into Jerusalem each year with that kind of hope, one day, one day, this year now, this year's going to be our year.

[12:03] Waiting for the kingdom of God to finally arrive, Peter stands up and he makes the bold claim. The moment you've been waiting for has arrived.

[12:15] God's long-awaited kingdom is here. This uncontrollable deluge of God's spirit that's pouring out over all these people, this is a sign. A new age has come.

[12:28] God's marvelous deeds being spoken in different languages by sons and daughters, by men and women, young and old, this is what Joel talked about. A new age has come.

[12:40] God's Messiah is here. And crucially, right, Peter ends his quotation of Joel where he foretells a time, Joel 2, 32, right?

[12:50] And we see this in verse 21. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. It's had this line that Peter then switches from talking about Joel to talking about Jesus.

[13:06] We see that, don't we? Verse 22, 23. He says, look, these signs and wonders that Joel foretold, we see right now, that's to point us to Jesus. Look at Jesus.

[13:18] You know of his miraculous birth. You know of his incredible teaching, his healing ministry, right? But Jesus, you need to know this, is more than a talented tradie.

[13:30] Peter is explicitly telling his audience that God's people must call upon Jesus to be saved. Friends, Pentecost is a powerful experience.

[13:45] There's nothing quite like it in the Scriptures. And yet it presses us forwards to see the person of Jesus. He is the one who fulfills God's plan, his promise to establish a new kingdom, a new rule.

[14:01] For Peter, as you can see, Pentecost points to Jesus. It's all about Jesus. Doesn't sound like rocket science to many of you who have been in church, but consider how unbelievable this would have been if you were a faithful Jewish person, listening at the time.

[14:21] We read this, right, the sermon after 2,000 years, but on the church's birthday, all that these devout Jews would have known about Jesus is what Peter tells them, right?

[14:33] He's an astonishing teacher, miracle worker. Yet, remember guys, he suffered humiliation, death by wicked people, and in fact, it was a shameful death that according to Jewish law meant that he was cursed, he was hung on a tree, he was rejected.

[14:54] And what Peter's doing here is just recounting the truth about what happened to Jesus, what other historians have done over and over again since.

[15:05] There are plenty of non-Christian historians who will tell you that there was a man named Jesus. He did live in Palestine in this time. He really did amazing things.

[15:16] He was really crucified by Roman soldiers. I think Peter invites us to read the words and acts of Jesus again, right, and to ask ourselves, can you doubt that Jesus claims God's authority himself?

[15:35] And yet, I think I want to zoom in on verse 23 because I think it gives us two important, unique things about the cross of Christ, about what happened on Good Friday. Firstly, it looks like that Peter wants to tell us that all this happened in the predetermined plan of God.

[15:55] Right? This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge. You see, what happened was planned out by a sovereign God. And one way we can understand this is if we know our Bibles because right from the first book of the Bible, we see God laying out a plan to save his people through a Messiah, a promised one.

[16:20] To know and retell the Old Testament is to do what Peter does and to do what we should be doing. To have our minds open, right, to see how every word of God, every book of the Bible in the Old Testament points forward to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[16:37] Right? As we wade through our Bible readings, we go through the history books and the poetry and the prophecies. We want to tell ourselves, look, this is all headed somewhere. It's all pointing to Jesus.

[16:48] This is what Peter does with Joel. This is what we should do when we read the Old Testament. Through Jesus' death and resurrection, the predetermined plan of God is being put in motion.

[17:01] That's what we're reminded of in the first half of verse 23. And then secondly, though, verse 23 kind of holds this true as well. Peter pulls no punches when he tells his listeners, you are responsible for his death.

[17:23] He doesn't hesitate to say it. It is human sin, human wickedness that caused the death of Christ. That is responsible.

[17:35] When we reflect on the cross, when we sing about it, we need to hold both truths. Humankind was responsible for the death of Jesus Christ.

[17:46] And at the same time, God planned it out according to his good purposes to save us through his promised son. Here in the first sermon of the Bible, right, of the New Testament church, there's a paradox, isn't there?

[18:02] There's human responsibility, all of us sharing the blame for Jesus' death. And yet there is God's sovereignty. And yet God is planning all these things, making things happen according to plan.

[18:17] As Luke put it, in his earlier account in the book of Luke, everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms.

[18:28] Pentecost proves that Jesus is God's crucified Messiah. Peter wants us to know, firstly, it's all about Jesus, and all who call upon his name will be saved.

[18:43] But you'll notice, actually, after verse 23 comes verse 24, right? But God raised him up from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

[18:56] I know the NIV puts a but there, right, in a new sentence, but in the original language, actually, verse 24 just keeps flowing on from the previous phrase. It's all part of the same sentence.

[19:08] For Luke, he does not separate Jesus' death from his resurrection, you see. As Christians, we don't just celebrate and remember that Jesus died, but we honor the fact that he rose again to life.

[19:23] Good Friday is always followed by Easter Sunday, isn't it? And so that's why Peter's next point is just as important as his first one. And to do that, he dives into a few different scriptures, but what we see from Peter, right, is that the Psalms prove that Jesus is God's risen Messiah.

[19:43] This is the second half of his sermon, sermon summary. To his Jewish audience, look, Peter now argues that Jesus' resurrection is something that even their own songs looked forward to.

[19:56] From verse 25 to 36, we get kind of a bit of a playlist recap, right? He quotes and references three different Psalms by my count. These were song lyrics, okay, the Psalms, the book of the Bible in the middle of your Bibles.

[20:09] These were songs that faithful Jewish people would sing, and they would have heard them since they were kids. And Peter says, look, sprinkle through all these Psalms, friends. Did you realize that there's hope, there is a promise, there is looking forward to a Lord that would reign with his people?

[20:28] And Peter's claim is that the songs that King David wrote and others wrote, they speak of a greater king, King Jesus. That's how we want to see the Psalms. That's how we want to respond to God's word.

[20:41] Everything that's happened since Easter Sunday, God had already pointed to through the playlist of God's people. It's a bit of a mind shift, I think, especially if you were a Jewish person.

[20:53] Look, let's try and visualize it for us. Imagine it's the year 4000 AD, all right? We're still around. For some reason, Maccas is still around, and I don't know, it's probably just really futuristic.

[21:06] I don't know what you would want to do on a weekend, different kinds of activities and sports, I'm sure, but it's the year 4000 AD, all right? And archaeologists, they dig up a dusty old copy of maybe lyrics from a song.

[21:23] Okay, so try and imagine this, you know, dust it off, and it's, wow, an ancient treasure, and they're going to read it, and it says, let it go, let it go.

[21:35] Can't hold it back anymore. This is amazing. This is ancient culture. Let it go. Turn away. Slam the door. Wow, amazing.

[21:47] So, try and hold that in your head for a bit. At first, perhaps they'll think, this is a song about letting go, isn't it, right? This person, don't know what they had to let go of, but they had to let go.

[22:00] So, there's that curiosity, right? Incomplete knowledge. Reading these lyrics. But then next, the archaeologists, they dig up the album cover, okay? The album cover.

[22:11] And then they realize, okay, they see the face of the Disney ice princess, and they go, ah, this is us. These words are about an emo ice princess on her journey of self-discovery. Now we know what these words mean.

[22:25] What I want to say to you, friends, is that Peter wants his Jewish listeners to make the same mind shift with the Psalms. He wants them to go. You think they're just lyrics about God's reign and rule, just generic stuff?

[22:38] No. I'm going to show you the album cover, and his name is Jesus Christ. And let me prove it to you. He has risen again. We've seen him. Jesus' resurrection is the album cover that proves that he is God's promised one.

[22:56] And the first Psalm that Peter brings up is Psalm 16. He quotes these lyrics. We see that in the sermon, right? It's a joyful ballad, Psalm 16, where David sings about the Lord's presence and his care, and yet Peter, he points out the obvious, right?

[23:13] Look, you can sing those sounds all you like. You can join David and sing all kinds of nice things through Psalm 16, but fellow Israelites, verse 29, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David is dead and buried.

[23:29] His tomb is even here to this day. You see, so now we realize this line, these lyrics, they can't be just about David.

[23:40] They must point to someone greater. What does Peter then do next, right? Acts, verse 30, tells us, okay? Here it sounds a little strange, right?

[23:51] Why is David called a prophet? I thought he was a king, verse 30. But what the original wording here in verse 30 picks up is a reference to another psalm.

[24:02] This psalm is called Psalm 132. It's a song about David that others have written, about him as a faithful servant. And in those lyrics, we see, right in verse 11, the Lord swore an oath to David, one of your own descendants I will place on your throne.

[24:20] Who is this holy one who's not going to die, who that the Lord himself has promised them to? Who is this king figure who's going to rule God's new kingdom?

[24:33] Peter's answer is that it is Jesus. It is Jesus. God has raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of it.

[24:45] For Peter, it's all about Jesus. Christ is risen, friends. His tomb is empty. In him, friends, God has given us a faithful one that David and his people sung for, longed for, hoped for.

[25:06] It all happened and these lyrics give us a clue into it, a real window into it. All this happens according to God's plan. Peter then brings up a final lyric from Psalm 110, verse 1.

[25:21] He says here, and we see it in Acts 2.34, for David did not ascend to heaven and yet he said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

[25:33] This is a very popular psalm and it's one that the early disciples will sing over and over again. All right? And here, Peter points out the obvious, right? How can David sing this about himself?

[25:46] Makes no sense. He's dead and buried, but not Jesus Christ. That's Peter's point. Hundreds of witnesses saw him ascend into heaven after his resurrection.

[25:58] It all appeared according to what these lyrics are about, according to Scripture, according to plan. This is Peter's approach, right?

[26:09] This outpouring you see at Pentecost, it's proof that Jesus not only rose again, he's now ascended, he rules on high, he is God's chosen king.

[26:20] The one that you killed is now the king of the world. Be assured, says Peter, God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.

[26:33] What a sermon, right? Wouldn't it have been amazing to be there when he first shared these words? I mean, when I was reading and hearing the sermon over and over again this week, I was just struck by how simple yet Scripture-dependent Peter's preaching was.

[26:52] Think about Peter for a minute, okay? Working-class fisherman, didn't have a Bible college degree, didn't bring out a beautiful, fancy PowerPoint, there's no savvy cultural analysis, probably didn't know many other things besides what he was taught from a young boy, and yet there is just this spirit-empowered confidence to preach Jesus from the sights that people have seen, from the scriptures people know.

[27:22] And so I want to assure you, if you are here, you love Jesus, but you feel, I could never tell people about Jesus, I want to assure you that if God can use Peter in this way, he can use you.

[27:38] If Jesus rules your life, if his spirit lives in you, you have everything you need, friends, to share the good news of Christ. Whether you are a working-class person like Peter, whether you are a mother like Mary, one of the 120, whatever station of life you're in, if what comes out of your mouth is all about Jesus, you're on the right track.

[28:03] You're in good company with the greatest first preacher that we've just heard. And from the rest of this chapter, I want to leave us with, I think, two lessons from immediately what follows what's described from Peter's first sermon.

[28:19] Lesson one is this, repentance, not works, is the right response when you hear about Jesus Christ. I love this, but this is so powerful.

[28:31] When the people heard this, verse 37, they were literally pierced to their hearts and they said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

[28:44] Can you see that? Is that your first reaction when you hear about Jesus? What shall we do? I love how Peter responds. He doesn't give them a list of things to do, actually, or people to visit or a job to do or a habit to fix.

[29:02] His first action point is for them to change their hearts. He calls them to repent. Verse 38.

[29:15] To repent is to agree with the Lord Jesus that you need to turn away from your sins. It is to go a different direction to a self-centered life that you were living before.

[29:28] It is to admit your sinfulness, something that is so deep that it is a heart issue. To repent is the first and most important step when we are confronted with the Lord Jesus Christ.

[29:45] And look, following on, okay, a lot of people debate this issue, repent and be baptized. What's going on here? To follow on, I think, simply put, where Peter says here to be baptized, this is Peter's way of describing an outward demonstration of repentance and faith in Christ.

[30:05] I think, actually, the more important phrase in the sentence is not repent and be baptized. The most important bit is actually in whose name?

[30:16] In the name of Jesus Christ. This is the world-changing thing that all these people who were devout all their lives had to then start to do completely differently. To repent and get baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

[30:33] To be baptized is to declare openly, publicly, that only God's Messiah has the authority over your life and no one else. I think this means that it will not do to get baptized just to tick a box.

[30:49] It will not do to, yeah, go through a baptism class just because everyone else in your group is doing it. Because without repentance, you have no real response to the Lord Jesus.

[31:03] Without repentance and faith in Jesus' name, your baptism is just getting wet. That's all. Without repentance and faith, our good works, they're just filthy rags before a holy God.

[31:19] Without repentance, all the ways we try to fix our lives, control the universe around us come to nothing. Friends, we want to be a church that believes in Christ alone a hope is found.

[31:35] Which means we need to repent from thinking in something else alone my hope is found. Because lurking deep in every single human heart, including mine, is this nagging feeling I can do something, I can achieve something to assure myself of eternity, to make my name great, to find a way for myself to survive.

[32:00] That's not the gospel, though. That's not the good news of Jesus. The good news is this. Jesus of Nazareth died for our sins.

[32:12] He rose again on the third day. All authority in heaven and earth belongs to him, not me. And he calls all of us, including you, to repent from your sins, to give your life over to King Jesus.

[32:31] And I don't want to mince my words or sugarcoat it. Following Jesus, we will see in the following chapters, may cost you. Sometimes it costs you everything. You'll have to certainly stop living for your own self because you have to live for King Jesus now.

[32:47] You may lose friends and family who don't want you to live for Jesus. Following Jesus is right, but it is not easy.

[32:59] And yet in Christ, you can be assured, right, it says here, that there is forgiveness of your sins, that you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[33:13] So what must you do, friends? You must repent. You must repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. Join his family. Give your life all over to Jesus Christ.

[33:25] And you can do that today even. I'm sure Peter's sermon went on for a lot longer, right? You look at verse 40, right? With many other words, he warned them.

[33:36] So this is really a summary, isn't it, of what Luke gives us. And yet from the response, one thing is clear. It seems like it's those who accepted his message, verse 41.

[33:49] Those who agree that repentance and faith in Christ was the way forward. those are the ones who are added to their number. And it says 3,000 in a day. Sounds incredible, doesn't it?

[34:01] And yet that is what happens when God shows up, when God calls people to himself. And that brings us to briefly our final point, which is this. Revival and not revivalism creates real community in Christ.

[34:17] I want to define some words soon. Revival, not revivalism, creates real community in Christ. Just earlier, actually, in that room, we prayed over these words, using these words to help us and fuel our prayers.

[34:32] Verse 42 to 47, a beautiful description, isn't it, of the early church community. And it tells us they're devoted to four things, right? To the teachings of the apostles, which they learned from the Lord Jesus.

[34:44] To meaningful fellowship with each other. To the breaking of bread, right? Eating together. Perhaps it means here the Lord's Supper together. And then, finally it says they're devoted to prayer.

[35:00] I wonder if those four priorities shape our church today, shape your Christian life today. I wonder if we love one of those more than the others.

[35:13] devoting ourselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to breaking of bread, to prayer. Which of those do we love most and which of those do we neglect?

[35:30] Luke goes on to tell us how generous and united this early church was, right? There's a voluntary sharing of their possessions. Not forced, voluntary. It just says it comes out of them.

[35:40] And the phrase that we saw for unity that we saw last week shows up again twice. All who believe were one together, verse 44. This is a really compelling Christian community, isn't it?

[35:54] To the point where, verse 47, it says, they win the favor of people around them. These are people who worship God openly and gladly and it shows. It draws interest.

[36:06] It wins favor. This is an amazing description, isn't it? And yet God places this description straight after Peter's sermon. And so that tells us that what we see here is because God has moved in an incredible way at Pentecost.

[36:23] This is what we sometimes call a revival. And a revival is this, God's saving and renewing work happening with many people at the same time.

[36:35] That's what true revival is, when God is saving and renewing people with many people at the same time. And true revival must be a work of God.

[36:49] It is a miracle of the Holy Spirit. It is not something that you can manufacture. You can't buy a HelloFresh recipe for it. There's no blueprint for God's revival or how to engineer it.

[37:01] It is all God. And so we want to be careful revival. If we start to believe that it's our responsibility to create revival, then that's not revival.

[37:14] I think that's revivalism. That's where we believe maybe there's going to be a certain kind of method or a certain way to do church or a special event that's going to just produce spiritual results.

[37:29] That's not what we see here. If we go for that, then I think we've lost our way. Then we're looking not to God's work, revival, but man's work, revivalism.

[37:41] If you and I believe in revivalism, we would say things like, wouldn't it be great if we had so-and-so preaching at our church? Then God will move. Or, I know, this works all the time.

[37:55] Let's do this song, this prayer, this production tool, let's just shape it all perfectly. God will show up. That's for sure. No. The mark of a true revival from God's words here is not how many decisions or raised hands we get, not how many clicks or likes we see.

[38:19] True revival, we can count if there is repentance and if there's a people who make life all about Jesus. Don't we long for that?

[38:31] Don't we long for that true revival? Don't you want to pray for that regularly like the 120 did? We can do that. We can do that. This is the blueprint for us, for true revival.

[38:43] Let's show Christ from the scriptures week after week. Let's make an effort for genuine fellowship. Let's break bread together. Let's go and eat lots together.

[38:55] Let's share the Lord's supper together. Let's pray. Pray together. This will give us the chance to call sinners to repentance.

[39:06] This will give us the chance to keep following the crucified king. Then we get the only measurement that matters in God's kingdom. How many people are added to the church long term?

[39:17] How many people keep devoted to teaching, fellowship, to breaking of bread, to prayer? Those are the things that truly count in Jesus' name. God will bring this kind of change through us, in us, and because he is great.

[39:36] Would you join me now? I want to pray for revival where it's all about Jesus. Let's pray. great God and Father, we praise you.

[39:50] We praise you for this church that we see in the book of Acts. We praise you that it is a beautiful picture of what we could be. And we thank you that this is not something we can manufacture.

[40:05] Oh, we would be so lost. But this is a church that you build, you revive, you bring about. Thank you that this is a church only possible when people repent and believe in the name of the Lord Jesus.

[40:20] Would you help us to do that? To keep pointing back to Jesus Christ. Father, forgive us any time we make a church all about us and encourage us that when your spirit is at work, when you show up, you do point people back to Jesus Christ.

[40:39] You build a church. You build an amazing community in his name. Father, we long for this here at PCBC English. We long for this here and the other churches around us here in Auckland.

[40:51] New Zealand. We long for this all over New Zealand. Ask and we plead, Lord, that you would revive our hearts, you would revive this land, you would revive your people, that your kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven.

[41:06] We pray all these things now in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.