Ladies and Gentlemen...

Here are extensive notes from last night's message...

Ladies and Gentleman…
DANGEROUS CHURCH – Part 4
September 7, 2008 • Chris Goins

This past Wednesday night almost 40 (37.2) million Americans tuned in to watch a virtual “unknown” deliver her first speech on a “national stage” to the Republican National Convention.

This speech pulled in more viewers than the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, this year’s American Idol final and the Oscars.

Experts indicated that the political future of Sarah Palin was riding on that speech. If she blew it, her running mate and presidential hopeful, John McCain, would probably suffer and irreparable blow. If she nailed it, then maybe the race for the White House might get a little more interesting…

This was a night of political “high drama” as only the second woman to run on a major U.S. party ticket delivered a 40-minute acceptance speech to the RNC.

Many believe that the former mayor of Wasilla and the current governor of Alaska had one shot to deliver “the speech of a lifetime” and that the political future of her party was riding on that speech…

How did she do? Even most of her critics, as well rivals, Joe Biden and Barak Obama, indicated that she delivered a great speech.

Rewind 2,000 years…

It’s 50 days (almost 2 months) after Jesus’ crucifixion…
47 days after Jesus’ resurrection…
10 days after Jesus’ ascension…

120 believers are gathered in a small upper room – PRAYING… They feel overwhelmed, exhausted, inadequate and incompetent… They’ve been given a huge assignment, but still lack the “know how” as to how to pull it off…

All of a sudden their lives were interrupted! First, there’s a “hurricane howl” that sounds like its gong to blow the roof off… It’s the sound like the “roaring of a mighty windstorm.” Then there’s the appearance of “flames or tongues of fire” that come and sit upon the heads of everyone present…

Then all 120 believers are miraculously “filled with the Holy Spirit” and begin to speak in languages they’ve never studied or known… At least fifteen different languages were spoken by this group of uneducated, incompetent, inadequate and overwhelmed group of Christ-followers...

These guys and gals immediately pour out on to the streets of Jerusalem where a huge crowd has gathered for the celebration of a Jewish feast day called Pentecost… The streets are jammed packed. The moment this group of 120 Spirit-filled evangelists hit the streets they are loud and clear in their declaration of the “wonderful works of God”

Talk about “high drama.”

Some people in the crowd are “amazed and perplexed.” These guys were scratching their heads wanting to know more…

Some people in the crowd were cynical… They began to mock what they couldn’t understand… They looked at this group of radical Christ-followers and said, “It’s just breakfast beer… That’s all! These guys and gals are just all jacked up. They’re high…”

That’s when a totally unknown, completely uneducated, certainly not properly “vetted” fisherman takes center stage…

Almost two months ago this same guy had stood before a similar group of people and copped out… He had denied even knowing Jesus, not once, but three times…

Flanking him are eleven other guys who, when the chips were down, just seven weeks earlier, had ran like a scared group of kids, just to save their own skin…

Peter stands up and shouts for the crowd’s attention… All eyes are fastened on this thirty-year old former fisherman… The future – not of some political party – but the future of the church rests on what will happen next… If Pete blows it, Christianity will have had a very short run…

This is “high drama” with “huge stakes.”

Peter looks over this crowd and begins… “Ladies and gentlemen… Fellow Jews and all of you living in Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this… You’ve got to get this story straight! These people aren’t drunk like some of you suspect… Are you kidding me? It’s only nine o’clock in the morning, for heaven’s sake! It’s pretty tough to get drunk before breakfast…” (Acts 2:14-15a)

Peter went on to deliver one of the most simple, straightforward, Scriptural, Jesus-centered, no holds barred messages in the entire New Testament…

The result?

It revolutionized the lives of three thousand people.


THOUGHT: Here’s why this message is so important. At some point, one of your friends is going to come to you with a marriage that's gone south in a big way... At some point, your next-door neighbor is going to ask you a question about life after death... At some point, the guy or gal in the next cubicle at work will confide in you that they have this nagging feeling that something's just not right...

What will you say?


What To Say When You May Only Have One Chance To Say What Really Matters:

1. You Can Depend On God’s Word (Joel 2:28-32; Psalm 16:8-11; 110:1).

Peter’s message is jammed with quotations from the Word of God. Pete quotes Joel (2:28-32). He quotes David (Psalm 16 and 110).

Peter intuitively knows that “God’s word will not return to Him empty or void. It will accomplish what He desires. It will achieve the purpose for which He sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

So Peter looks at a primarily Jewish audience and he points them back to their own sacred texts… He points them back to God’s Word.

Acts 2:15-21 (NIV), These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.”

This is crucial. At the outset of Peter’s message, he says, “The last days are here… They just began…”

Acts 2:17-21 (NIV), “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” (See Joel 2:28-32)


Here’s the gist of Peter’s introduction: “The last days are here! This is the age of the Spirit, expect miracles!”

• Expect the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to impact everyone (vs. 17-18a)!

Men and women…
Young and old…
Rich and poor…
Educated and uneducated…

In one fell swoop God erased EVERY BARRIER that had kept men and women from the fullness of the Spirit for centuries.

• Expect completely ordinary people to do totally extraordinary stuff (vs. 17-18).

Acts 2:17-18 (NIV), Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.

• Expect awesome occurrences in the sky and on the earth (vs. 19-20).

• Expect salvation available to EVERYONE (v. 21).

Salvation would no longer be just the national hope of a select group of people…

Acts 2:21 (NIV), “‘And EVERYONE who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”


“Because the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon all mankind, the merest cry from the sinner to God is enough.” ~ Watchman Nee


2. Remember The BIG IDEA: It’s All About Jesus!


Peter’s Bio of Jesus:

• He was “publicly endorsed” by God (v. 22).

Acts 2:22 (NIV), “Men of Israel, listen to this: 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.”


• He was destined to die on the cross (v. 23).

Acts 2:23 (NIV), “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”

Peter says, “Guys, the cross wasn’t an accident… The cross was always part of the PLAN OF GOD…”


“The thought of Acts safeguards us from two serious errors in our thinking about the death of Jesus. (a) The cross is not a kind of emergency measure flung out by God when everything else has failed. (b) We must never think that anything Jesus did changed the attitude of God to men. It was by God Jesus was sent. We may put it this way – the cross was a window in time allowing us to see the suffering love which is eternally in the heart of God." ~ William Barclay, Acts, 26-27


The Gospel (PURE and SIMPLE):

1) God is loving (1 John 4:16).

People who aren’t Christians need to know where the story begins… The story begins with the fact that God loved the whole world…

1 John 4:16b, “…God is love...”

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…”

I love the way C.S. Lewis described it.

God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them… ~ C. S. Lewis

2) God is holy and completely sinless (Leviticus 19:2; Isaiah 6:3; 1 John 1:5).

By "holy" I mean "absolutely pure." “Holy” means that God is completely separate from everything that is impure. He is without sin and altogether good. In fact, the holiness of God is the most frequently mentioned attribute of God in all the Bible.

3) God is just.

This means that God is a good and perfect judge. Not only does God's HOLINESS expose and reject anything impure or sinful, but His JUSTICE has to deal with it.

4) God created us good, holy and without sin, but we became sinful (Psalm 53:3; Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8).

Despite the fact that God made us sinless and good, everyone but Jesus is a sinner by nature and by choice.

Romans 3:23, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Our sin includes our words, deeds, thoughts, and motives. Our sin also includes OMISSION (not doing what God commands) and COMMISSION (doing what God forbids).

I don’t know of a rational, thinking person who doesn’t agree with this statement, “We are sinful…”

5) We deserve death, both spiritual and physical (Genesis 2:16-17; Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:22; Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13).

At its core, sin is us separating ourselves from God. Because God is the living God and the source of all life, sin results in DEATH – both physical and spiritual.

Romans 6:23, For the wages of sin is death…

When my iPod remains unplugged from its power source for an extended period of time, it continues to exist, but it’s functionally dead.

In the same way, we might be physically alive, but until we come into contact and relationship with the source of life, we are SPIRITUALLY DEAD (Ephesians 2).

Furthermore, the debt we owe God requires payment, and that payment is our DEATH. This death is not just physical, it is also spiritual. It is separation from God for all eternity in a place the Bible refers to as hell.

6) We are helpless and morally bankrupt (Isaiah 64:6; Ephesians 2:8-9).

Isaiah 64:6, All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags . . .

7) Jesus is sinless, but became sin for us (John 8:46; Hebrews 4:15, 7:26; 1 Peter 2:22; Isaiah 53:6; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

Isaiah 53:6, All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NAS), He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

On the cross, as our substitute, Jesus was made to be the worst of what we are. He never sinned, but he “became sin for us.”

While hanging on the cross, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In that moment, Jesus became the most ugly, wicked, defiled, evil, corrupt, rebellious, hideous thing in all creation.

IMPORTANT THOUGHT: In that moment, Jesus became an alcoholic, addict, thief, pervert, adulterer, pedophile, homosexual, idol worshiper, whore, glutton, thief, coveter and self-righteous jerk.

The theologian Martin Luther called this truth, “the great exchange.”

On the cross, Jesus exchanged his perfection for our imperfection. He exchanged his obedience for our disobedience. He exchanged his intimacy with the Father for our distance and separation from God. He exchanged his blessing for our curse. His life for our death.

8) Jesus died for us (Isaiah 53:5, 12; Romans 4:25, 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 John 2:2; Galatians 3:13).

The idea is called “penal substitutionary atonement.” In other words, Jesus took the penalty for our sins in our place so would never have to suffer the “just penalty” ourselves.

Isaiah 53:5 (NIV), But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:12b (NLT), He bore the sins of many and interceded for sinners.

Romans 4:25 (NIV), He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Romans 5:8 (NIV), But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 2:2 (NAS), He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

Galatians 3:13 (NLT), But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing.


• He was miraculously raised from the dead (vs. 24-32).

Acts 2:24 (NIV), “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.” (See Acts 2:25-32; Psalm 16:8-11; 1 Corinthians 15:3-6)


• He rules and reigns as Sovereign, King and Lord (v. 33a, 34-36)!

Acts 2:33 (NAS), “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.” (See Philippians 2:9-11; Psalm 110:1)


• He “pours out” the gift of the Holy Spirit (v. 33).


3. Your Life Can Change.

Our dilemma is the same as Humpty Dumpty’s. Do you remember the Nursery Rhyme.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

That Nursery Rhyme is “downer”, but it's the truth about mankind's predicament, unless you bring in the story of redemption.

According to those who know about such things, Humpty Dumpty isn’t a recent nursery rhyme. In fact, it’s a relic that is thousands of years old. Versions of it have appeared in eight different European languages. The story of our brokenness goes back to the beginning of time.

When our first daughter, Chelsea, was born, our home church gave us a book filled with “Christian paraphrases” of the popular Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes. I love the way Humpty Dumpty reads in that book:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
Humpty Dumpty shouted "AMEN!"
God can put me back together again!

The message of the gospel is that God has made a way for broken people to be put back together again!


That’s exactly what Peter says in Acts 2. Check out Verse 37.

Acts 2:37 (NIV), When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Acts 2:38 (NLT), Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”


• Repent. Do a 180 with your life! – “…turn from your sins and turn to God…”

• Go Public – “…be baptized…”

• Receive the Holy Spirit – “…receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”


Acts 2:38 (NIV), “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

Acts 2:40-41 (NIV), With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.


Sources:
Vintage Jesus, Mark Driscoll
Acts, James Montgomery Boice
The Book of Acts, Robert Girard and Larry Richards
Acts, R. Kent Hughes