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Joby Martin is the founder and lead pastor of The Church of Eleven22 in Jacksonville, Florida. Since launching the church in 2012, he has led a movement for all
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0:00 Can you reach forward and grab a bible in the chair in front of you if you didn't bring 1? Or you can if you'd like to meet somebody, raise your hand, and somebody will bring an open to you. We are in week 3 of this deal0:10 called r to the start. And how would you like to be the guy that cut Michael Jordan for the basketball team and forever be known as that guy? So this this series is about humble beginnings, about the the art of the0:22 start, the church had a very humble beginning. It was Jesus and 12 guys standing outside of Caesarea, and Peter saying that you're the Christ, the son of the living God. And that's where the idea of church started. And0:33 it was very humble. 13 men standing outside of this little town. And Jesus said that upon this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And then today, over 2000000000 people will0:44 claim Jesus Christ as lord. And so there are lots of things that have these little humble beginnings, and then god used us to grow into these magnificent movements. And so you, by being here today, you are a part of0:55 that. And so we are studying the book of Acts for the next couple years of your life. And so that's where we'll be. So I hope you're in Acts 2 by now. Wanna say a couple of things. We don't we don't pass the plate here,1:06 so we do tithes and offerings at the end of the service by taking them to the boxes either back here or back by the door. And last week, I I just kinda shared with you a little anxiety on my part. And just to let you1:17 know, Lord showed up in a mighty, mighty way. God flexed his generosity on us, and last week's giving was more than the other weeks combined together. So I just well, I would need them to even
1:29 know that. Way to go. Also, I wanna say, hey. Our students in our student section. Excited students. Good. You should see the 9 o'clock crowd. They're like, hey. It's early. Give
1:41 us a long. So, Chris, hey. Wanna make sure you guys sign up for the fall retreat. If you're high school and middle schoolers, if you're going on the fall retreat, there's information around you. If you're in high school
1:50 or middle school and you're not in our student section, our students sit right over here. But in the connect center, that room in the back when we're finished, you can sign up to go on the fall retreat. And the cool
1:59 thing about fall retreat at the church of 11 22 is we don't have a youth group. We just have a church, and some of our church people are students. And so all of our staff is going on the fall retreat, so that'll
2:11 be cool. Right? So the Martins and the Williams and the whole staff, the band will all be there with you guys. So please please sign up for that. If you wait and get up, I'll kill you. Alright. Here we go. Acts chapter
2:23 2 beginning in verse 1. We're gonna talk about the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes upon everybody and some stuff happens. So I just wanna see who I'm talking to real quick because this will help me out. How
2:35 many of you grew up in church? If grew up in church, would you raise your hand? Raise your hand. Alright. Praise you out for Jacksonville. That's a lot of people. I didn't. So I'm in that. I didn't grow up in church
2:44 camp. How many of you grew up either Baptist and I know there's, like, 100 different types of Baptist, so we're just gonna pretend like you are our own group. Okay? So how many of you grew up, like,
2:55 Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, that kind of deal? Right? 1 of those mainline pros and nonlations. Okay. Good.
3:54 That just means 50 days after the Passover. It was a Jewish festival or feast. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in 1 place. And suddenly, they're coming from heaven, a sound like a mighty rushing
4:06 wind. Now this is the coming of the Holy Spirit. In John chapter 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that the spirit of God is like the wind. You can't see the wind, but you can you can see the effects of the wind, but you can feel
4:18 the wind. And the spirit's that way too, that you can't see the holy spirit, but you can feel the effects of the spirit, and you can see where the spirit is at work. And so they sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it
4:29 filled the entire house where they were sitting. Verse 3. And divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and
4:41 began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. So we're gonna talk about the coming of the Holy Spirit. Now there's there's a couple of things here. 1st of all, this is the
4:52 the unleashing of the Holy Spirit to everybody who is a believer. So all of the believers in Jesus, all the disciples of Jesus, there's about 120 people in this room. The spirit falls on them
5:04 all. And now you know that spirit manifests himself in different ways in different parts of the scripture. But from now on, from this moment on, from the day of Pentecost on, the holy spirit is available and has been
5:16 deposited in everyone that surrenders their life to the lordship of Christ. Now if you remember at Jesus' baptism, the spirit descends in what way? Anybody remember?
5:28 A dove. The front row always knows. Okay? Dove. Spirit of God sends the dove and rest upon Jesus, the Bible says that the heavens open and God the father says to God the son, behold, this
5:40 is my son in whom I am well pleased. And then from that moment, Jesus goes out into the desert and proclaims the word of God 1 on 1 with the enemy. What you're gonna find out here in in Acts chapter 2
5:52 is that the spirit descends on everybody. They profess the mighty works of God, and then they go out and they proclaim the word of God. Big picture. You need to know this. There's 2 things that the spirit does
6:03 when the spirit descends and we are full of the spirit. 1st and foremost, God wants you to know that you are his, and in you, he is well pleased. That when Jesus was baptized this is very important. Some
6:15 of you, this is all you need to hear this morning. That when Jesus was baptized and the heavens opened up and the spirit descends on him like a dove, God says, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. And it was before
6:27 his ministry began. He did this is not like a midterm where he checks out, hey. You're doing pretty good, son. Keep up with good work. And then maybe at the end, I'll be pleased in you. This is before he's done anything
6:38 for the kingdom. Before he's preached the message, before he walked on water, before he did anything for the kingdom. By the power of the holy spirit, he knew that he was the almighty son of God and that father was
6:50 pleased in him. Listen to me. If you are a Christian, if you have surrendered your life to the lordship of Jesus Christ, then you have the Holy Spirit living in you, and you need to hear this. Before the rest of this day
7:01 is over, you need to know that you are a son or you are a daughter of the most high God, and in you, he is well pleased. You don't have to earn what has already been paid for. If you have the spirit,
7:13 it's been paid for. And so that's the 1st thing that and that's a part of what comfort means. When Jesus said, I'm gonna send the comforter, then that's a part of what that means, that that you don't have to
7:25 earn this favor of God anymore. That's a part of what Jesus meant when he said, come to me all you who are weary and heavy burden, and I will give you rest for your soul. Part of that rest for your soul is that you have
7:36 the Holy Spirit living in you, and you need to know within you, God is well pleased. And then the the next thing that happens in Jesus after Jesus' baptism is he goes out and preaches the
7:48 word of God, and you'll see here, verse 4, and then we're all filled with the Holy Spirit and get begin to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. Okay? So the spirit of God descends on the
8:00 apostles and the disciples as a tongue, a tongue of fire. Why? Because you remember from the 1st week of ours at start in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, And the bible says that you will receive power when the holy spirit comes
8:12 upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. And so the spirit comes in the form of a tongue of fire and rests on this. Why? Because the other thing the spirit
8:23 empowers us to do is to do evangelism or share our faith or proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to the very ends of the earth. And then it very clearly says right here, and
8:35 they began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. So we're gonna talk about what does the Bible mean when it talks about speaking in tongues. Alright? So those of you that raised your hand with the
8:45 Baptist group, don't get nervous. Because what I wanna talk about 2 extremes 1st. If you raise your hand in that, like, Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, and kinda over here,
8:57 then then there are some extreme points of view within that within those denominations that are what is called dispensationalist. And a dispensationalist believes
9:09 that the the gifts of the Holy Spirit or the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is not available to the church anymore. That when the apostles died and when the bible was canonized,
9:21 that we no longer needed the manifestation of the spirit, like gifts of miracles or gifts of prophecy or gifts of tongues, etcetera, etcetera. Right? So that's kind of that camp. Now I didn't grow up going to church,
9:33 but when I did go to church, I could go to this little Southern Baptist church. And
10:05 because Christians are notorious for getting together and voting on whether on whether God can do what he's already done. Right? Christians love to do that. So that's that's sort of 1 camp called dispensationalism. So I
10:16 am not that. And in fact, the the Bible the Bible talks about the spirit of God being here and being among us. And that where the where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
10:28 Now there's another extreme too. And so if you raise your hand kind of in the tambourine clap crowd. Right? Like, if you're holding this assemblies of God, that kind of experience, there are not not everybody, but there
10:39 are pockets of that that sort of are on the extreme the other way. And they will take the gift of tongues and elevate it to be like the premier gift. And if you have
10:51 that spiritual gift, then you're varsity and everybody else is JP. And that is the only evidence of being a true Christian. And everybody else is kinda riding pro coats, but if you speak in tongues, you're
11:03 like in 1st class. And so in essence, the problem with that is that if you if you elevate the gift and make much of the person, then it's essentially, what you can do is worship the gift instead of the 1 that
11:14 gave the gift. So at the church of 11 22, let me tell you where we are just so because I know there's still people kinda checking out and seeing, you know, if you're fit in here. Let me let me tell you where we are. So
11:24 we're at neither extreme. Okay? We believe in the full gifting of the Holy Spirit, full manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And so
11:36 you are free to be who God called you to be and to express the gifts God called you to express. Now there's there's some things that that means though. That does mean
11:48 that it requires it requires a a great deal of maturity, of discernment, and you need to know what the Bible is talking about. And so when the bible talks
11:59 about speaking in tongues, it primarily is talking about 3 different types of speaking in tongues. The 1st 1 is what's going on here in acts chapter 2. It's called glossolalia. And in acts chapter 2, we're gonna study it
12:11 in just a minute, It's really about evangelism. It's not speaking in a language that nobody can understand, but what we're gonna see is that these men and women spoke, and all the people that were
12:23 there in the crowd, they heard not an unintelligible language, but they heard the gospel presented in their own language. And I can tell you, I've prayed for this gift before.
12:36 2 years ago, we were in Uganda. Did you just build a house for this guy? And then Uganda, a lot of 3rd world countries can't do everything without a dedication service, so we're about to dedicate this guy's house. And so
12:47 before I prayed for the guy's house, I asked, is this guy Christian? And our translator asked him and he, nope, he had not surrendered his life to the lordship of Christ. And so I I asked our our god that was
12:59 translating for us. I was like, hey. Why don't you just share the gospel with this guy? And then I'll get out of the way, and you just tell him about about what Christ did on the cross for him. And so our guy, our friend
13:09 named Paul, he starts sharing in Luwondan with this new homeowner, the gospel. And so as he starts speaking in Luwondan and sharing the gospel, I am praying, God, I have read the book from
13:20 beginning to end the whole thing. I know that you can move in a mighty way and that I could, like in Acts chapter 2, I could begin to understand what Paul is saying, not the apostle Paul, our
13:32 African friend Paul, that that I can understand in my own tongue. And I am praying, Lord, let me understand this. And all I heard was say, yeah, but never do. Right? That's what I got. And I'm begging Jesus. Come on. Let
13:42 me hear this. And he didn't want me to. So but that that's 1 1 time speaking in tongues that that the Bible talks about. And but I will tell you this, that while
13:54 while he was sharing the gospel in Lougantin with this guy, then I I didn't understand the word, but my it was like my bones were on fire. Like, my heart was beating fast. I knew that the
14:06 gospel was being presented, and this guy that lived in that we were about to dedicate this house to, I knew that the holy spirit was working on his life. And then at the end of that gospel presentation, that man received
14:16 Jesus Christ as his lord and savior. And it was a bigger miracle than me getting to understand a language that I don't really know what they're saying. So that's 1 that that in the 1st
14:28 century in at Pentecost, a guy was speaking. Lots of people were speaking, and other people were hearing it in their own language. So that's 1 type of speaking. The apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8, he talks about
14:40 what we would call a prayer language. He says that when you pray, prayer is really trinitarian. You pray to the father in the name of Jesus by the power of the holy spirit. And there are times when you're praying and
14:52 you just kinda run out of words. You just don't have the words to pray anymore. Like, the English language can only take you so far. And then the spirit, Paul says in
15:04 Romans 8, the spirit gives you utterances or groanings deeper than words. And that would be what we would call like a prayer language to God. That's just between you and God. Now if you've
15:16 ever been on a mission trip with us to a 3rd world country or you've been to, like, a Pentecostal charismatic church, and there's somebody next to you and and and they're speaking in a language sort of privately between
15:26 them and God that maybe not quite so private so you can kinda hear it a little bit too, that's what the Bible is talking about there. And so Romans chapter 8, very biblical and and yes and amen. I would just say,
15:38 long as it does not disrupt corporate worship, As long as it doesn't disrupt corporate worship. That's where some maturity and discernment is required. And then the 3rd thing the 3rd thing is direct revelation of God.
15:51 That particularly in the 1st church in the 1st century, there would be and and particularly before we had the word of God, like, that you can carry around in your hand, that God would give direct revelation and still
16:02 does give direct revelation to his people. And somebody would say to them and say, I have a word from the Lord, and they would speak in tongues, but it would always require an interpreter. Now you can imagine some of the
16:13 confusion that that could cause. Because how do you know, is this a word from the Lord or was it just bad pizza from last night? I'm not sure. So you needed an interpreter to help you discern that. And so in 1st
16:24 Corinthians chapter 11 12 and 13, the apostle Paul speaks specifically about churches dealing with this issue. Now at the church of 11 22, where are we? Well, we believe
16:35 again in the full manifestation of the gifts of the spirit. And yet it requires that well, well, here's what we wanna do in our worship service. We want to be a spirit filled, God glorifying, point to the
16:47 cross, gospel centered kind of worship
17:00 So if you want to if you feel like, you know, your gift in worship is the tambourine and the banner, then praise God. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So run around with the banner. I would just ask
17:11 that you you know, we have, like, a banner section back over here so it doesn't cause so much distraction. And let me just tell you this too. If you think that's weird, if you think it's weird, like, to get some
17:23 spirit weird. Let me let me assure you. The spirit's not weird, but people are weird. There are some weird people, and spirit fill people.
18:02 That I worship in ways now that 10 years ago, I may have thought were weird. Some of you stand in the back and you see the hand raisers in the front and you go, that's weird. I can't wait till you're up here with us.
18:13 Alright? So it's cool. Yeah. Okay. It's gonna get on you and in you and through you, and your hands are gonna go up. And so just be prepared. It just might be that you just don't know what you're talking about yet. But
18:25 but in our church in our church, what we wanna do, it's gonna be weird, but we want we we we're gonna worship God the way God leads us to worship him. And so in our church, there is the the we believe where
18:37 the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom, but it just requires maturity, discernment, and you gotta be rooted in the word of God. That we never wanna exalt
18:49 the person, but we want to exalt Jesus. And the gifts of the spirit always exalt Jesus and not an individual person. Here we go. Verse 5. So the spirit came upon them and
19:01 they started speaking in tongues. Verse 5. Now they were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound, the multitude came together. At what sound are these hundred and 20
19:12 people speaking in in tongues, speaking in these languages? And they were bewildered because each 1 was hearing them speak in his own language. So you get what's happening? There's this big festival at
19:23 Pentecost. The the disciples and the apostles, the spirit points upon them, and they start they essentially start speaking the gospel. And all of these men and women from all of these different cultures, they hear this
19:35 in their own language. So these people filled with the spirit aren't speaking gibberish here. They are speaking in their language, but the other folks are hearing the gospel presented in their
19:47 language. And and it's just I mean, obviously, that would be bewilderment. Verse 7, and they were amazed and astonished. Say, are not all these who were speaking Galileans? In other words, look, I speak
19:58 Spanish. And that guy is speaking Spanish, but he don't look Spanish to me. That's what's going on here. And if there was an Italian guy there, he would hear it in Italian. And and if there was a a person from Brooklyn,
20:09 South Carolina, they would hear it in native American redneck. You know what I'm saying? So that that's how it would work. They're safe. It's how it is that we hear each of us in his own native language.
20:35 Both Jews and proselytes, Cretans, Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues, the mighty works of God. That word there, mighty works from God in in the Greek is
20:47 megalalia. It it literally means the mega works of God. That these men and women are gathered together and they are proclaiming the mega works of God. That is what worship is to be
20:58 about. That when we get together in this place and in this room, that we proclaim the mega works of God. Pastor Ben talks about it all the time. The band's up here singing. It is not karaoke. It's not sing
21:10 along. It is we are proclaiming the mega works of God. We're not proclaiming us. We're not proclaiming how good we are.
21:32 And the cool thing about this is that when any when any church planter plants a church, they have some contextual decisions to make. And the style in which they do church will
21:43 determine in great part the type of people that they reach. For instance, at the church of 11 22, we decided to preach and teach in English. That was kind of an easy decision for me because it's the only language
21:55 I know. But as soon as we did that, we knew there were some other people that we were not gonna be able to reach. Now I am not opposed to to preaching and teaching in another language, and there may be a
22:07 day here where we have a Spanish service, but it won't be led by me. You know? Can you imagine that?
22:29 Spanish or any other language, so we go English. At the very 1st church service, when Jesus was the 1st church, planter, you know what language he decided to preach the gospel in? You know how he decided to
22:41 contextualize the gospel? That it would be available to every person, to every tongue, to every race, to every tribe, that there were no barriers so that that that would hinder
22:53 people from experiencing the good news of Jesus Christ. In fact, this miracle of gospel, or speaking in tongues, was was a fulfillment partial fulfillment of acts 1 8, and
23:05 you will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and into the earth. I'm sure the apostles heard that and said, how in the world are we gonna do this?
23:15 And then in in Acts chapter 2, Jesus says here, I'll show you. And they preach the gospel, and men and women hear it. Men and women from all over the world, they hear it in their own
23:27 language. Verse 11. So both Jews and fossilized Pietans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. Verse 12. And all
23:39 were amazed and perplexed, saying to 1 another, what does this mean? The NIV, the New International Version says, and many were filled with awe. Do you know this
23:51 should still be the expectation of the church? Do you get this? 1 of the greatest sins in our country right now is boring church. The very 1st church service wasn't
24:03 boring. Many people, even people that didn't believe in Jesus, but they showed up and they were filled with awe. They were filled with wonder at the mighty works of God. They
24:14 nobody walked away from that going, well, that was a little boring because it wasn't. Because they were declaring the mighty works of God. And so when you come to church, you shouldn't be filled with awe like, oh, that's
24:26 amazing. Because I know there's sometimes you've been to church and you're filled with awe like, awe. That was long. Right? And so it's it's why and I might say I get this right all
24:38 the time, but it's why we take these worship gatherings so seriously on our staff and on our team. Because if we are here to proclaim the Mecca works of God, then then we need
24:50 to do that with excellence. I know I'm not the best preacher in the world. Okay? I'm not even I mean, I'm not I'm not even very good, but I I try very, very hard to study hard, to know the scriptures, to be
25:02 prepared, to try to deliver the gospel in a way that's both engaging and true, understanding and trusting in in such of the holy spirit to do with it, what he will do with it. It's why pastor Ben leads an
25:13 amazingly talented band
25:56 on purpose. That's just that's just how I do. Okay? So our our goal, what we're trying to do at church is to proclaim the mighty works
26:08 of God, and it should be done in a way where people walk away going, wow. That you wonder not at us, not at the people on stage, but that we what our job is just to direct you to to
26:20 just be filled with all the mighty works of god. And that's what church should still be. Not like, oh, that was long. Gosh. I've got to go again. I just got a text
26:31 in between services from Gretchen saying that he's the flu this last week, and we prayed on Thursday
27:18 man that's ever lived, and know that you will never not love us is the proper use of a double negative. And then he said, let us pray. And then he prayed. And then he says, and now, Regan, you come do your
27:30 part. And then Regan, who preys 3 years old, she gets up on the bed.
28:26 I'm gonna lean in to our our children's ministry staff and say, way to go, guys. Way to go. That you've created an environment that you can engage the compassion of God, the love of God, the truth of God
28:38 in such a way that my 2 kids don't see today as sweet. We don't have to, but dang it. We don't get to go to church. So we're from 2 churches right here. Okay?
28:50 That should be what church is supposed to be. I mean, you mean that this is just free. You can guarantee you,
29:02 your kid not going to church when they get to college, then make them go to a church that you secretly wish that you didn't have to go to either. Do
29:21 here, I know it's not for everybody. And there's all kind of different types of churches that all honor God and makes different people and praise God for every different type of style church. Alright? We're not talking
29:33 about 1 style is better than the other. But every 1 of those need to be full of the spirit and full of truth, glorifying Jesus, and being fueled and filled by the holy spirit. And so these people
29:45 are filled with all. Verse 13, but others but others mocking said they are filled with new wine. Do you understand? These guys are drunk. These guys are just
29:57 drunk. Ain't that awesome? Do you know that happens every week right here at this church? I I don't know if they accuse me of being drunk,
30:33 handed it to me before the very 1st weekend here and and just handed it to me. And I put it on my desk. Glacias 1 10 says, am I now trying to win the approval of men or of god? If I were still trying to please men, I
30:44 would not be a servant of Christ. And so every week when I stand up here, my job is to win the approval of God, and that approval has already been purchased by by Christ's life, death, and resurrection.
30:56 That my job can never be to please everyone here. You know why? Because it's in it's impossible. It's even the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost didn't please everyone. The
31:08 the over educated redneck from Dillon, South Carolina doesn't have a shot. Last weekend in 1 of our services, right over here, there was this family that said that their lives are changed. They would never be
31:20 the same. That God ruined their lives in the best way possible. And after the 9 o'clock service, there was a guy that fell asleep so hard and back there towards the back. We had to wake him up because the
31:32 11 22 crowd was coming in in the same service. It's why after every sermon, I get quite honestly, you guys are really, really encouraging. I get lots of Facebook, email stuff like, way to
31:44 go. Here's how God spoke to me. And I still get that 1 or 2 that be like, I think you were just drunk. Here's how you didn't do it right. You know? And and that's just that's just how it is. That there are some
31:56 there are some people that receive it, and there's some that aren't that won't. Jesus gave this parable. He he talked about the parable of the sower. The word of God is like a farmer who goes out to sow seed. And Jesus
32:07 said he throws the seed in all different directions, and there was only 1 1 little batch out of the 4 different environments that produced the crop. That the seed went out the same to every different
32:18 environment. There's only 1 environment that received the seed, and then it produced a crop. And I think what Jesus is talking about is that it is it's not the delivery of the word, but the condition
32:30 of the heart that determines whether you get something out of it or not. And then again, I'm not advocating my responsibility. I have a very, very high responsibility of what happens here every time we gather gather
32:42 together and worship the Lord. And I promise you, I study hard to try to be ready. And I do my best to try to deliver the truth of God, full of grace in a compelling way, but always full of truth.
32:54 But once it passes this stage, it is no longer my responsibility. It is the condition of your heart. Just like on the day of Pentecost, there were some people that saw the evidence of what happened, and they were filled
33:06 with amazement. And then there were other people that mocked. Let me just push on you a little bit, especially you church hoppers. Listen. If you keep showing up to church after church after church,
33:17 going, well, I didn't get anything out of that. I didn't get anything out of that. And I didn't get anything out of that. Well, guess what the guess what the common denominator is? It's you. It's you. As long as you're
33:29 in a church where the gospel is rightly proclaimed. Now I get style wise, you know, you won't match up with every church in town, but you need to find a place and be submitted under the authority of that church, those
33:41 local elders, and then not just show up to get fed all the time. But at some point, Christian, you've got to learn to feed yourself a little. Don't be a big fat Christian baby that just walks into
33:53 church crying and making a mess with your big diaper on and your umbilical cord ready to plug in going, feed me. Feed me. Feed me.
34:14 And any little bit of seed that falls in there will produce a crop. And so that's what's going on here in the 1st century. The Holy Spirit manifest among the people of God, and there's still some
34:26 people mocking. Verse 14, but Peter, standing with the 11, lifted up his voice. And he addressed them. He's gonna preach a sermon. Every good preacher. Right? There's that big old
34:38 crowd, so he's gonna preach. And here's the sermon. Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk as you suppose
34:50 since it's only the 3rd hour of the day. You know what he says there? He's like, hey. Those of you who think these guys are drunk, you're not drunk.
35:15 So these people are, like, drunk. It's only 9 AM. Now he's gonna preach a sermon here. If you ever have to preach a sermon, here's what you do. Ready? This is a beautiful model of a sermon. It's this 1st sermon at the
35:26 very 1st church service. He starts out with an introduction. Alright? He's he's gonna meet them where they are. Hey. You guys thought he was drunk. They're not drunk. It's too early for that. And then he's gonna go
35:35 straight to the bible. So if you'll notice, every time I preach, we do an introduction. My introduction is usually something like, if you've got your Bibles, turn to, and then my intro is over. And then you go what? You
35:45 go straight to the Bible. Verse 16. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel, and he's got to dig into the Bible. By the way, so grab your notes real quick and
35:57 just open them up and look real quick. K? We've always got this little tear off that's for you to let us know what's going on and how we can serve you better. If you look at the notes that are for you, what is it what's
36:08 the predominant thing that you see on the notes? Sounds your question. Scripture. Right? The Bible. See all these Bible verses? Now you get 1 thought from me. It says
36:20 the point, and I got 1 sentence. I had to work all week to do that 1 sentence together. Ain't that amazing? But we made it real big, so it looks like I work hard. But here's here's the reason. It's because even if I
36:32 have a lame sermon, I figured at least you could just read the Bible, and the word of God will do what the word of God promises that it will do. Sharper than any 2 edged sword, and the word of God will pierce you exactly
36:43 where you need to be pierced. And quite honestly, I'm not that smart. I I don't think it's a good idea for you for you to just hear my opinion on how you should live life better.
37:06 For those of you that didn't have the opportunity to study this passage for 18 hours this week. And that's what we do week after week after week. This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. By the way,
37:19 Peter's gonna stand up. We're gonna be tapping these thousands of people. And if you'll remember, if you've been in bible study before, that just about 6 weeks prior to this event, Peter was the same guy who couldn't
37:29 even admit it that he was a follower of Jesus in front of people. And now fast forward 6 weeks, he's standing before thousands of people, and he's gonna boldly proclaim the gospel of
37:41 Jesus Christ. Well, how in the world does that happen? Well, couple of things. 1 is that Jesus has been crucified and resurrected, and Peter has experienced the resurrected Jesus, and Peter has been filled with the
37:53 holy spirit. Let me scare some of you. There are some of you right now, and you're just kinda on the edge of your faith. You're not sure if you're gonna put your faith in Jesus or not, and you don't even fully know why
38:04 you keep coming back every single week. In fact, you you look at the person that brought you and said, I don't believe any of that stuff, and they go, well, can I pick you up next week? Yeah. That'll happen. Yeah. Okay.
38:12 I'll see you there. Alright? This is happening, Nathan. 6 weeks, there are some things that you think are crazy, and you're gonna be leading the way on them 6 weeks from now. So you just gotta trust me on this. Just
38:24 believe me. Jot it down and tell God no Just so I can laugh at you in 6 weeks and say I told you so. And you know how I know? Exhibit a. Exhibit a. I was an incredible
38:36 mocker, especially in the church and and God's people at 1 point in my life. Never in 1000000 years did I think that God would use me to do this, and he's gonna use some of you. And the more nervous you are
38:48 right now, the more right you are to be chosen. He's gonna come after you and call you and draw you and fill you with the Holy Spirit, you're gonna be 1 of the people that you you make fun of now. Just watch me. I know
39:00 it. And so Peter stands up. He turns to the book of Joel in verse 17. He's gonna read from the book of Joel. He says, and from the last days, it shall be, god declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and
39:11 your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And this was a big deal in the 1st century. Listen, daughters. Everybody's my daughter. Listen to me. In the 1st century, you didn't get a place in in in the church. Right?
39:23 Until the church started. And the Old Testament and Peter wants you to know and the Holy Spirit wants you to know that you have a significant place in the building of the kingdom of God. That the
39:35 Holy Spirit will be poured out on men and women to prophesy. And while our roles can be different, the the the advancement of the kingdom is for the men and women of God. And in the
39:46 1st century, this would have been I mean, this was big, big news that your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And prophesy doesn't necessarily mean tell the future. It means tell the truth. And the cool thing about
39:58 the truth is it's also true in the future. And your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And even on my male service, the female service in those days, I will pour out my spirit, and they
40:09 shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. And the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon the blood before the day of the Lord
40:19 comes. A great and magnificent day. Verse 21. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That everyone do I wanna underline that word?
40:31 Everyone. That everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Because there were men and women in this audience
40:50 The gospel. Just like the words are going out from my mouth, that every person is understanding it in their own language, that the gospel is for everyone. Now Jesus says in Matthew, Jesus says that all who
41:02 call out Lord, Lord will not be saved. But you see the difference? All who call out in the name of the Lord. Not just everybody that cries out Jesus. You see, would be like in our context, in our culture, it would be
41:13 like the difference between somebody that just goes to church and believes that there's a God and somebody who has surrendered their life to the lordship of Jesus. That's why we talk about this all the time. That you
41:23 have to surrender your life to the lordship of Jesus. Not just believe that there is a God, but surrender your life to the lordship of Christ. And so he says, everyone who calls upon the name of the
41:35 Lord shall be saved. Verse 22, men of Israel, hear these words. Now he's gonna go to Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through
41:47 him in your midst as you yourselves know. In other words, everybody remembers Jesus. He was talking to a group of people that were around when Jesus was doing his miracles and teaching and had been
41:59 crucified and resurrected. So he's just reminding these people of what they'd seen and heard in verse 23. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
42:11 You crucified and killed by the hands of all his men. Now, 2 things about this. 1st, it's part of what we talked about last week. How can it be the foreknowledge of God and you crucified him? Well, God
42:23 is sovereign over not only his own will, but our sin too. And then secondly, this is like the most nonseeker sensitive sermon ever of all time. Remember, this is opening
42:34 day, and they've drawn a big crowd. I mean, they got the whole parking lot's full. Overflow's full. Everybody's packed in to hear the message. And most most church growth strategies would
42:46 say, well, what you wanna do is you really wanna make sure that people feel cared for. And so Peter goes, okay. So here's how we're gonna start this. Everybody remember Jesus said, God said, uh-huh. Killed him. Uh-oh,
42:57 Peter. That's not very nice at all. I mean, I don't know that I would lead in with the you killed Jesus part. But here's the thing. It's
43:09 true. It's true. We're gonna come back to it because not only does he open his sermon with he killed Jesus, he's gonna close with it too. Verse 24. And God raised him up, loosing the pain to death because it was not
43:20 possible for him to be held by it. This is very important. That when the when the church 1st started in the 1st century, it only had 1 message. It was the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The
43:32 church, when it started, just preached the gospel. It wasn't here's 5 ways to be a better friend, and here's 3 ways to improve your marriage, and here's 2 ways to have kids and move out when they were supposed to. ItShow more
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