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A Reason to Hope (Acts 2:22-24)
8 Plays1 day ago
Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3:15 that we should be prepared to give a defense to anyone who asks us a reason for the hope that they see within us. Of course, the Holy Spirit gave him these words when he was writing his epistle, but I am curious if perhaps he had one particular day in his life when he was asked about the hope within him.
Acts 2:22-24 is part of Peter’s response to the crowds in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost when he was asked, “What does this mean?” Acts 2:12. The crowds heard them speaking of the wonderful things of the Lord, and they could only think of four reasons why neither they nor Peter and the disciples should be speaking with confidence: they saw Jesus die on the cross, they heard Peter himself deny Jesus during the trials, they had shouted to Pilate their decision for the execution of Jesus and they knew from experience that no one has ever come back from the dead. They assumed that the Jesus movement was over.
Peter speaks out boldly and gives the skeptical yet curious crowd four reasons why hope still filled his heart.
The Authentication concerning Christ in the Gospel, 2:22 (a)
The Authentication of Christ by God, 2:22 (b)
The Atonement of Christ by Grace, 2:23
The Assurance in Christ beyond the Grave, 2:24
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Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Blessings
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message.
00:00:22
Speaker
If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org. And now, take your copy of God's timeless Word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
Joy of Resurrection and Readiness to Share
00:00:43
Speaker
Hey, I've got some good news. Christ is risen. a lot of people I know would probably be answering me back by saying, He is risen indeed.
00:00:54
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How exciting. that each year we get to reflect upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Man, it's one of my favorite times of the year. And I just want us to be ready to explain to others why we have hope within us.
Peter's Response at Pentecost: Reasons for Hope
00:01:10
Speaker
You know, Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3.15 that we should be prepared to give a defense to anyone who asks us a reason for the hope that they see within us.
00:01:23
Speaker
Of course, the Holy Spirit gave him these words when he was writing his epistle, but I'm just curious if perhaps he had one particular day in his life when he was asked about the hope within him.
00:01:40
Speaker
I would like to invite you to turn with me if you're at home. If you're on the treadmill or driving, just stay steady there. But I want us to look at Acts chapter 2, verses 22 to 24, and look at one of the very first public Easter messages that was ever delivered. Peter gave it.
00:02:01
Speaker
Peter is part is giving his response to the crowds in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. And one of the questions that they ask him in Acts 2.12, they said, what does this mean?
00:02:19
Speaker
Those crowds were hearing all of these you know believers going out across the city talking about the wonderful things that the Lord had done. And I wonder if maybe they were thinking to themselves, wait a minute, that Jesus guy, didn't he die?
00:02:36
Speaker
Hold on a second. And so I think what Peter does here, when they said, what does this mean? He was trying to give them a reason why his heart had hope.
00:02:49
Speaker
His heart had not lost hope.
Explaining the Resurrection and the Gospel
00:02:51
Speaker
And so think about the different reasons why maybe, you know, he and the the crowd that was there, why they all could have lost hope.
00:03:00
Speaker
For example, I thought about these things. Well, one thing was, They saw Jesus die physically on the cross. They saw it. Some of the people that was there in Jerusalem, they probably saw him on the hill and they knew, I saw him die, he's not alive.
00:03:17
Speaker
Then secondly, they heard Peter himself deny Jesus during the trials. I just wonder if there were some people there that day hearing them talking about the wonderful things of the Lord, and they were thinking, yeah, but Peter, you blew it.
00:03:33
Speaker
I remember you saying you didn't even know him. But then a third possible thing is perhaps some in that crowd there in Jerusalem that day when Peter's giving them his response,
00:03:46
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his defense and the reason for hope within him, he knew that some of those people out there actually shouted to Pilate their decision, crucify him, crucify him.
00:04:00
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So they were actually advocating for the execution ah Jesus. And so why should they have hope? I mean, even if there is something miraculous about this Jesus, he's going to know that they voted against him, let's say.
00:04:16
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But then they also knew from experience that no one No one has ever come back from the dead. So maybe Peter knew that's where their minds would just logically, rationally go.
00:04:30
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They'd never seen anybody overcome death before. And so what they were probably thinking was, why are they so happy? Why do they seem to have such hope?
00:04:41
Speaker
Why are they reaching out with such love and compassion? They should be all downcast. They assumed that the Jesus movement was over. So Peter speaks out boldly and gives the skeptical yet curious crowd four reasons why hope still filled his heart.
00:05:04
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Listen to these three verses. Acts chapter 2 verses 22 and 23 and 24. Men and twenty three and twenty four men of israel Hear these words.
00:05:16
Speaker
Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
00:05:43
Speaker
"'God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death "'because it was not possible for him to be held by it.'" That's so much information. We need to unpack this together.
00:05:59
Speaker
This is a great way. These are great verses. If you have an opportunity sometime during Passion Week or Holy Week, if you have an opportunity to talk to a family member or friend or a coworker or a neighbor,
00:06:13
Speaker
about the hope that you have about Christ, man, I recommend these three verses. Let me give you four different reasons why Peter was saying we still have hope.
00:06:25
Speaker
Here's the first one. The authentication concerning Christ in the gospel. The authentication concerning Christ in the gospel. I'm sorry, the announcement concerning Christ in the gospel.
00:06:39
Speaker
Not the authentication, that's coming up next. But verse 22 says, the announcement concerning Christ in the gospel.
Miracles as Authentication of Jesus
00:06:47
Speaker
You see, when Peter spoke up, he cleared his throat and he spoke up to that crowd that day in Jerusalem.
00:06:53
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And he said, men of Israel, Hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth. Now let's just pause it right there. Think about that for a second.
00:07:04
Speaker
You know, they've got some good news they could share. God's got good news he wants to share. And that good news is Jesus may have died on the cross. Jesus may have been placed in the tomb.
00:07:17
Speaker
but he's not there now, he's alive, he is risen. And so there's great news. All of this is a part of what Christians call the gospel, the announcement concerning Christ in the gospel.
00:07:30
Speaker
You see, the gospel message has all of it in a nutshell. All of this information, all of these facts, all of these truths are all wrapped up about that. And so i couldn't help but think how significant it is that we have the communication of the gospel.
00:07:47
Speaker
This is the first time it's been publicly proclaimed like this. they're They're actually communicating and sharing the gospel message. Think about if they would have said, you know what? These people don't deserve to be in eternity with us in heaven, and they don't deserve salvation with through Jesus.
00:08:09
Speaker
They could have thought, let's just be silent. But you know what? Peter stood up there and said, men of Israel, I've got something I need to announce.
00:08:19
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I've got something I wanna communicate to you. We are the same way. Across every community, there are people who still have never heard the gospel message.
00:08:31
Speaker
And so we should say, it's on me. I know the truth. And the truth has set me free. And I need to tell other people that Jesus died on that cross for my sins and for their sins.
00:08:46
Speaker
So definitely you see the communication of the gospel, but along with the announcement, you also see the call of the gospel, the call of the gospel. You see, the gospel is unique.
00:08:57
Speaker
It's not a message that should be ignored. It says, men of Israel, Hear these words. It's not obvious, perhaps, in English, but in the Greek, that's called an aorist imperative.
00:09:13
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An aorist imperative. I'm sure you understand the word imperative. It means it's a command, right? But when it's an aorist imperative, the idea is this is so important, this requires immediate attention.
00:09:28
Speaker
So listen up carefully, hear these words. You know, the call of the gospel says to a man, says to a woman, says to a boy or a girl or a student, it says to them, to all of us, myself included,
00:09:43
Speaker
You're moving in the wrong direction. You need to readjust your life to line up with what God has done for you in Jesus Christ, his son. And that's why he's saying, hear these words.
00:09:57
Speaker
And so we have the communication of the gospel, the call of the gospel. But there's one more thing that's very important. If you're ever going to announce the gospel message, and you're going to have to put Christ in there because the core message The core of the gospel is what he said next.
00:10:16
Speaker
He said, men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth. Man, you know, the gospel message is really about one person.
00:10:28
Speaker
It's about Jesus Christ. I love to invite people to come to our church. I'm glad that Church members invite people to come to our church, but the gospel is not inviting someone to come to my church.
00:10:42
Speaker
If I'm going to announce the gospel, then I'm going to have to tell other people what Jesus has done, because it's not about what I can do for God. It's what God in his son, Jesus, has done for me.
00:10:57
Speaker
He died for me. and we're going to look at that in just a moment. But all throughout the book of Acts, we see the church of Jesus Christ. It's just been born. They're just getting started.
00:11:09
Speaker
And one of the ways they get it started is they're saying, we've got a great message, a message about Christ that we want to announce. And so if you keep going, many times they could they referred to Jesus as Jesus of Nazareth.
00:11:26
Speaker
Isn't that amazing, really? When you think about how John tells us in his gospel that Jesus always has been with the Father. There never was a time when Jesus was not.
00:11:38
Speaker
He's always been. but yet Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us. And where did he go? Did he go to Jerusalem? Did he go to Rome?
00:11:49
Speaker
Did he go to some of the other great cities around this great planet? No, he didn't. He went to a humble Galilean village and to have that in his name,
00:12:01
Speaker
Jesus of Nazareth. You know, I believe God's making a statement there. And what God is saying is, no matter who you are, no matter how small you may feel, I've come for you.
00:12:13
Speaker
Jesus, the son of God has come for you. That's a message worth announcing. But let's move on to the rest of verse 22 and look not only at the announcement concerning Christ in the gospel, let's also look at the authentication of Christ by God the Father.
00:12:35
Speaker
Did you catch it when I read it through?
Atonement and Fulfillment of Divine Plan
00:12:37
Speaker
it said, men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst as you yourselves know.
00:12:53
Speaker
you know, that word attested is an interesting word. It means to display with evidence in order to verify that something is true. And so I got to thinking, what is the how did God establish the truth?
00:13:10
Speaker
Well, it says he established the truth about Jesus all by himself. he said It says, God attested this to you. In other words, God laid it out there and said, I want you to look at the facts and I want you to know the truth.
00:13:27
Speaker
Jesus even stood before his disciples and said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. But here, i want you to see not only that God himself established this truth, but also God gave evidence of the truth.
00:13:45
Speaker
How do we know? How do you know that Jesus is different than, let's say, your friends, or let's say, than me. How do we know that Jesus is totally different than any of us that have ever walked the face of this earth?
00:14:01
Speaker
Well, God gave evidence. You know what the evidence is? The evidence is sprinkled all across his word, and it's across there with things like the words he uses here.
00:14:14
Speaker
Well, let's look at them again. Mighty works, wonders and signs, mighty works, wonders and signs. And who was doing the attesting?
00:14:25
Speaker
Who was doing the proving? Well, it says mighty works and wonders and signs that God did, that God did through him in your midst as you yourselves know.
00:14:38
Speaker
So I was thinking about that and i thought, you know what? God's given the evidence that we need because no one did the things that Jesus did. Have you ever seen anybody walk on water?
00:14:48
Speaker
My younger brother thought he saw a shark at Gulf Shores, Alabama, and he almost walked on water, but he eventually sank. But you know, walking on water, turning water into wine,
00:15:00
Speaker
multiplying loaves and fish. I mean, what was it? Five loaves, two fish and feeding 5,000 people. Think about anybody you've ever known who was able to cast out demons.
00:15:12
Speaker
Somebody that you've ever known who was able to heal the sick or raise the dead. i mean, these are things that only Jesus did. And why did God do it through him?
00:15:23
Speaker
Why doesn't God do that through me? Because I'm not the son of God. Jesus was the Son of God. He is the Son of God. And so the Father was saying, just look at the record that I've given you ah of real people in real time who were who came in contact, had a personal encounter with the true and the living God, with the Son of God. And the Father was saying, I will authenticate.
00:15:53
Speaker
that he is the way, the truth, and the life, that no one comes to the Father but by him. He was proving to the Jewish people that this was the Messiah, that they had been promised long ago by the Father.
00:16:08
Speaker
So the Father definitely established the truth of who Jesus was. He gave evidence of the truth. But you remember, there were eyewitnesses to the truth.
00:16:19
Speaker
You know, for sure, like John the Apostle says, we saw him, we heard him, we touched him. we We were there when he did all of these things. He says to the people of Jerusalem, you see, Peter knows, maybe he recognized some of the crowd that day.
00:16:35
Speaker
And he says, God did this through Jesus in your midst. as you yourselves know. So he was saying, you saw this.
00:16:47
Speaker
This wasn't done in a corner somewhere. It was done all across the land of Israel. And it was done even here in Jerusalem. God did mighty things. And so I'm thinking, wow.
00:16:59
Speaker
The authentication of Christ by the Father, by God the Father, is an incredible reason to have hope. Hey, you're putting your hope in someone that God said, not just another man, not just a religion, not just some church somewhere.
00:17:17
Speaker
I'm saying God said, I'll prove it to you. that Jesus is who he is, that's a message worth sharing, right? Well, what is that message? Well, we have to go to verse 23, where we see the atonement of Christ that came to us not based on our deeds and all the good things we've ever tried to do for God.
00:17:38
Speaker
I mean, try your best. I try my best every day. to live for God. But do you know what? My salvation is not based on my good works. It's not by good works that we have done, but by the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
00:17:53
Speaker
And so that's why his blood was what they call an atonement. He atoned for our sins. In other words, the punishment for our sins, Jesus took upon himself.
00:18:06
Speaker
So I want us to look at verse 23, and there's two particular aspects of this that stood out to me in this verse. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
00:18:21
Speaker
You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. You know, it's been debated for many years. Who actually killed Jesus?
00:18:32
Speaker
Was it the Jews? Was it the Romans? Was it me and you? Who was it that killed Jesus? Well, that's just a loaded question. So Peter takes it on.
00:18:44
Speaker
And Peter says, I'll tell you, whenever you're talking about the the cross of Jesus Christ, there's two things you need to know. It was like the perfect convergence. of this horizontal and a vertical.
00:18:57
Speaker
The vertical is the sovereign will of God was coming down and accomplishing his plan that he foreknew that he was accomplishing. But at the same exact time, the the horizontal plane was, he says, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
00:19:21
Speaker
So isn't that a beautiful blending of two things that are really hard to understand, way beyond my pay grade, way beyond my ability to figure out, but two things, the sovereign will of God and the sinful works of man.
00:19:36
Speaker
How is it that the cross of Jesus Christ sort of brings together those two things? It's probably a lot like The mercy of God and the justice of God both came together on the cross.
00:19:53
Speaker
And I think, wow, that's an incredible thing. We deserve this judgment. And yet God says, in mercy and grace, I'm going to provide a way for your sins to be atoned, a way for you to be cleansed of your sins.
00:20:09
Speaker
and all of your sins ah wiped away. And so I thought, wow, thank you, God. It's right here in this passage. That's what Good Friday's all about. You know, even on Saturday, think of Jesus.
00:20:21
Speaker
His body was dead physically. He was placed in the tomb. But you know what the Father did? The father raised his son from the dead for a very important reason.
Assurance of Salvation and Eternal Life
00:20:33
Speaker
Let's read what he says in verse 24. Remember, this is Peter talking. He doesn't exactly have a friendly crowd that he's delivering this to, but he he's got a crowd that's willing to listen.
00:20:44
Speaker
Are you willing to listen? What about your family and your friends? Are they willing to listen? Verse 24 says, God raised god raised him up loosing the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
00:21:07
Speaker
Boy, there's three impossible things that I think are covered in this last point. The last point is very simple. If you're looking for assurance that you are in God's family, looking for assurance that God has has cleansed your sins, if you're looking for assurance that one day you'll be in heaven with the Father, then I know how to find it.
00:21:30
Speaker
The assurance you're looking for is found in Christ. And you know what it goes beyond? goes beyond the grave, it goes beyond the grave. What Jesus did for us on the cross out of grace, it goes beyond the grave.
00:21:46
Speaker
And so we need to talk about three impossible things because someone, and you go through Holy Week, as you approach Easter Sunday and you're with family and friends, someone's liable to say to you nobody ever rose from the dead.
00:22:03
Speaker
So I want us to just talk about three impossible things. The first thing that we need to decide that we all agree on, okay, is it's impossible for a dead man to rise up.
00:22:16
Speaker
Wouldn't you agree with that? I've never seen anybody just rise up. out of the grave, ah ah you know right here in our town of Columbus, Texas. I've never been driving by the graveyard. I've never been walking by the graveyard.
00:22:30
Speaker
And all of a sudden, someone just rises up out of out of the grave. I've never seen it. Of course, I'm not trying to base everything on my experience, but I'm just saying my experience tells me that's not something that happens.
00:22:43
Speaker
I don't know if you've ever seen anybody just get up, but I think it's impossible for a dead man to rise up, right? I tell you something else that's impossible. It's impossible for the death penalty because of our sin to just give up.
00:23:00
Speaker
That's not gonna happen. You know, the Bible says that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's everybody. That's me. That's every religious person, every good guy, every good old boy.
00:23:13
Speaker
That's every moral person that you know. All of us, we cannot be good enough to enter into the holy presence, the perfect presence of God. We can't do it.
00:23:26
Speaker
And so the Bible says we've all sinned. There's something that you've done wrong. You've been selfish. You've been prideful. you know you've You've hurt someone else. You've stolen something. You've said a bad word.
00:23:37
Speaker
The list is endless of possible ways that we've disobeyed God, but we have done things our own way. And so that's why we needed Christ to come. See, it's impossible for the death penalty to give up and just say, oh, it's okay.
00:23:54
Speaker
And the reason it's impossible is because Romans 6.23 tells us, for the wages of sin is death. The wages of sin is death.
00:24:06
Speaker
See, all of my sin has been building up to one final climactic conclusion when I'm going to stand before a holy God and I'm going to be guilty. There's nothing I'm going to be able to say.
00:24:17
Speaker
i didn't do those things. Maybe I could claim I didn't do those things, but God knows better. He's omniscient. He knows all things. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere.
00:24:28
Speaker
So he's already going to know all those things. And that's why the death penalty, because of our sin, we all deserve it. That's the truth. I'm telling you the truth. So it's impossible for that death penalty that is just impossible.
00:24:42
Speaker
to just give up. It's also impossible for a human life to measure up. There's just no way that we're ever going to measure up to the perfect standard that we need to measure up to in the Lord.
00:24:56
Speaker
We can't do it because God's perfect. And so none of us are perfect. But here's where Jesus was different. This is why you can have assurance in Christ that goes beyond the grave.
00:25:10
Speaker
Because even though it is impossible for a dead man to rise up, I agree 100%, this dead man got up. How did he get up? He didn't rise up by himself. It says, God raised him You see, for God, nothing is impossible.
00:25:31
Speaker
If God can make the whole universe, every planet, every star, every tree, every plant, every flower, every man, every woman, every boy, every girl, if God can do that, God can do anything, right?
00:25:45
Speaker
So God raised his son, Jesus, up from the dead. And even though we would both agree, it's impossible for the death penalty on the human race to just simply give up and say, okay, it doesn't count anymore.
00:26:03
Speaker
No, there's a good reason why. Romans 6.23 says, for the wages of sin is death, but... The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
00:26:16
Speaker
When you or I commit our life to Jesus Christ, we're depending on his righteousness and not our own righteousness. And so that's why whenever we come to the last impossibility, impossible for a dead man to rise up, that's true.
00:26:32
Speaker
Impossible for the death penalty on the human race to just simply give up and not be applicable. That's true. It's also impossible for a human life to measure up.
00:26:45
Speaker
I've never met anybody that's just completely perfect. I might've thought that they were, but they weren't. But I'm going to tell you something. Five times in the New Testament, it tells us that Jesus was without sin.
00:26:59
Speaker
You know, 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, he who knew no sin became sin in order that we might become the righteousness of God. Man, that's good news.
00:27:11
Speaker
That's good news. You see, even though it was impossible for any of us to measure up, it wasn't impossible for Jesus. 1 John 3, 5, 1 Peter Hebrews Hebrews this one that all five of those references tell us the same exact things about this one life that came to this planet.
00:27:36
Speaker
That one life is Jesus Christ and his life was perfect. That's why the father said, you know what? He doesn't deserve death. I'm going to raise him up.
00:27:49
Speaker
That's why, even though we all deserve the death penalty, the father looked at Jesus and said, he doesn't deserve the death penalty. He deserves life. And that's why, because he had lived for the Lord, that the Lord said, you know what, even though it's impossible for any of these broken people to measure up,
00:28:08
Speaker
My son, my son, the Lord Jesus, he measured up. I wanna close this time that we share together with one last passage. It's found in 1 John 5. Listen to these great verses that summarizes what we just learned from Peter on the day of Pentecost right there in Jerusalem.
00:28:26
Speaker
1 John 5, verses 10 through 13 says, "'Whoever believes in the Son of God "'has the testimony in himself.'" Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar because he's not believed in the testimony that God is born concerning his son.
00:28:45
Speaker
And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life. And this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life.
00:28:57
Speaker
Whoever does not have the son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
Conclusion: Significance of the Resurrection
00:29:09
Speaker
Oh, friend, let me tell you, that's the reason we have hope right there. It's all summarized by Jesus Christ. Wow. That is a message that needs to be announced.
00:29:23
Speaker
Jesus was authenticated by God. The atonement of Christ was sufficient for the Father. And let me tell you, if it was sufficient for him, it should be sufficient for us.
00:29:34
Speaker
And so we can have assurance. How can we handle it have assurance? I'll tell you why. Because Jesus paid for your sins and my sins in full. And you know what he did?
00:29:45
Speaker
The father said, I'll give you people the receipt. I'll raise my son from the dead. And so the risen Lord Jesus Christ, over 512 people saw him.
00:29:57
Speaker
The risen Lord Jesus Christ is our receipt that we can have hope that goes beyond the grave. You have a great day, friend. God bless you. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.