January 26, 2025 • 40 mins
In this message, Pastor Ron Hamm delves into the significance of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, as articulated by Peter, emphasizing the core message of repentance and the blessings of salvation. Listeners are inspired to embrace their role in sharing the Gospel while understanding the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
• The importance of Peter’s eyewitness accounts
• The foundational truths about Jesus as Lord and Savior
• True repentance as a transformative decision
• The blessings of forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, and eternal life
• The call to actively share one’s faith and witness for Christ
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
able to share the Word of God today.
Today's message is called JesusChrist of Nazareth.
That's my favorite topic topreach on in the whole world and
actually that's the words thatPeter used in this message.
So in Acts 2.22, you see wherehe said men of Israel, hear
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these words Jesus of Nazareth.
You know, I remember when I wasa teenager there was a movie
that came out and it was calledJesus Christ of Nazareth and I
didn't know the Lord at the timeand it was on the weekend, I
remember and I spent.
This movie was six hours longand I watched this whole movie
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and it sowed a lot of seed ofthe word of God into my heart.
I think it came out in 1977.
There's something very powerfulabout the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth.
I have the privilege today ofpreaching another man's sermon.
Peter did all the work.
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He was one of the 12 disciples,he walked and he talked with
Jesus.
Now here's an important point.
Peter was an eyewitness of themiracles of Jesus Christ, the
death, the crucifixion of JesusChrist, the resurrection of
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Jesus Christ, the ascension intoheaven of Jesus Christ, and he
even talks about the exaltationof Jesus Christ, which Hunter
talked about during communiontoday at the right hand of the
Father.
So Peter was an eyewitness ofall these things.
Now, sometimes I'll discusscreation versus evolution with
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people and you know they'llargue that the earth is 13
billion years old.
Now I ask them well, how do youknow that you weren't there?
So well, they say how do youknow?
How do you know that it's not13 billion years old?
I said I have an eyewitness.
Well, who is it?
Well, it's God, amen.
So God is an eyewitness of hisown creation, wouldn't you say
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so?
And he gave us the historicalaccount in Genesis 1 and 2.
And I think God's a prettyreliable eyewitness, don't you?
We can take his word to thebank, and Peter is an eyewitness
of all these events.
And we can take this to thebank today.
What a change we see in Peteronce he is filled with the Holy
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Spirit.
Does that make a difference inour life?
And that's not the purpose oftoday's message, because we're
going to be going through thatfor a whole year.
But I do want to make thatpoint that this same man who
could not preach to one littlegirl and confess Jesus Christ he
could not confess Jesus to oneperson is now preaching to
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thousands of unbelievers, evenat risk of his own death.
In that day and time that helived.
It was at risk of his own life.
And Peter is boldly proclaimingthe gospel of Jesus Christ Now.
That cannot be explained exceptby what?
The power of the Holy Spirit.
You may say, well, god can'tuse me.
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Look, god is not looking forability.
You've heard this before,probably right.
God is not looking for ability,he's looking for availability.
So we will offer ourselves tothe Lord.
He can use every single personin here.
Amen.
With the power of his spirit,peter is taking the message of
Christ to sinners.
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He took the words of Christ tosinners.
He took the words of Christ toheart, for Jesus had said for
the Son of man came to seek andsave the lost.
The mission of Christ has neverchanged.
He came to seek and to save thelost.
Jesus Christ did not tellsinners to go to church, he told
the church to go to sinners.
We can learn that from Petertoday and that's what Peter is
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doing.
Peter just can't quit talkingabout Jesus Christ of Nazareth
to the people.
He actually gives us the who,what and how of the gospel.
Okay, the who is Jesus Christ,the what is the gospel message
and then the how.
He shows us how to do it.
And if you can't rememberanything else about how to do it
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, share Jesus Christ of Nazarethwith people.
That's how you do it.
Share Jesus, and we see thatpattern all through the book of
Acts.
They share Jesus Christ, lordand Savior, and that's what
Peter did.
Peter makes it clear that thiswas all part of the plan of God,
the Father, in sending his onlybegotten Son to the world.
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God is sovereign over allcreation.
He's also sovereign oversalvation.
Amen Today.
My hope and prayer for all ofus today is that we will come to
know and love Jesus Christ, theLord, and get to know him
better.
The key point today in Peter'smessage.
I said the title was JesusChrist of Nathers.
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I did want to tell you, I didwrestle with a possible
alternative title.
You could also call this thesermon that was heard around the
world.
Amen, this sermon was heard allaround the world.
Amen, this sermon was heard allaround the world, these people
from everywhere.
So the key point is since Godhas made Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, both Lord and Christ,who will judge the world?
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Sinners must repent.
That's the message.
Since God has made Jesus Christof Nazareth, both Lord and
Christ.
Sinners must repent.
Now, that's with authority,isn't it?
That's with authority tocommand those that are lost to
repent.
He commanded it even at risk ofhis own life.
So today I want to answer threequestions from this text.
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What can we know for certain,what can we do to be saved, and
what are three beautifulblessings of salvation?
In verse 36, I'm going to jumparound in these verses, but I
will let you know where I'm atbut he used an inductive sermon.
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Peter did so.
He didn't start out with JesusChrist as Lord and Savior.
So you know, if you got ahostile crowd and you don't know
how they're going to react,don't give them the hard part of
the message right at thebeginning.
That's what he did.
He started out with prophecy.
Then he got to Jesus Christ isLord and Savior, and so he
begins with that message inverse 36.
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He says he uses the word whatwe can know for certain.
He says let all the house ofIsrael know for certain.
Let's say that together today.
Let's say we can know forcertain.
Together, we can know forcertain.
Let's say it again we can knowfor certain.
This is what Peter is tellingus today that God has made him
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both Lord and Christ, this Jesuswhom you crucified yes, he
points the finger at them.
They had violated the law Thoushalt not murder.
And they missed the Messiahwhen he came.
They not only missed theMessiah when he came.
Peter is telling them andmaking it clear to them, they
murdered their own Messiah.
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They are guilty of this.
And guess what?
Let's raise our hands.
We're all guilty of the bloodof Jesus Christ.
As sinners, we all were in thatcrowd today saying crucify him,
crucify him.
So the first question what canwe know for certain?
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Ben Franklin once said there areonly two things that are
certain in life death and taxes.
That's a solemn life, isn't it?
Now Job actually added anotherthing to the list.
Okay, 3,000 years ago, jobadded one thing to death and
taxes.
Here's what Job said man who isborn of woman is a few days and
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full of trouble.
That's Job 14.1.
So death, taxes and trouble.
Do you feel good today?
It's a feel-good message, right?
So death, taxes and trouble.
Do you feel good today?
It's a feel-good message, right?
So death, taxes, trouble.
Is that all we have to lookforward to?
Just bad things?
Is there anything good to lookforward to?
What can we know for certain?
Let's be honest we are inconstant search for constants.
You like that play on words?
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We are in constant search forconstants.
We want to know something forconstants.
You like that play on words?
We are in constant search forconstants.
We want to know something forcertain, and Peter is telling us
what we can know for certain.
It's important to note thatJesus is Lord, whether we
believe it or not.
Hunter read that scripturetoday.
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He is Lord and every knee shallbow and every tongue shall
confess that Jesus Christ isLord to the glory of the Father.
Whether we believe it or not,it's certain that he is Lord.
Amen.
What's in a name?
Everything when we're talkingabout the name of Jesus Christ
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of Nazareth.
Name Everything when we'retalking about the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth.
Imagine two people trying to getto know each other and love
each other without knowing eachother's name.
Some of you might not get thisreference, but some of you will.
As Vicente from the PrincessBride movie would say
inconceivable if we don't knoweach other's names.
I knew Matt would know that.
If we don't know each other'snames, I knew Matt would know
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that we need to get to know thename of Jesus and who he is, and
we need to be willing to makethat our favorite topic to talk
about.
Just like Peter, jesus Christ ofNazareth is Lord.
The word for Lord is master,and it's attributed to Jesus
Christ in the New Testament.
Now think about this.
700 times he is called Lord andwe see, you know.
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They ask Christ.
We won't take time to turnthere for the sake of time, but
they ask Christ, will you, atthis time, restore the kingdom
to Israel?
They knew he was Lord.
What does that mean?
To be Lord?
He's king over all the earth,he's king over all creation.
That's what that means.
Will you restore the kingdom toIsrael at this time?
He said no.
The Father has that in hishands the seasons and he will
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come again.
But in his first coming he cameto die as the Lamb of God for
the sins of the world.
So he is Lord, whether webelieve it or not.
Now also, jesus.
Peter says Jesus is the Christ.
Now, what is Christ?
Christ is not a last name, eventhough I like saying Jesus
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Christ because it's verypowerful.
Christ is a title and it's thesame as the word Messiah from
the Old Testament.
So recently I've beenmeditating on the name of Jesus.
So this message came along at agood time.
Some of you a while back, maybethree months ago, I was doing a
teaching on 100 names of Jesus.
Some of you were at that.
I mean, that wasn't a Sundayschool class, it was a Wednesday
night service.
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So that's a long Wednesdaynight service to get through in
15 minutes was it 100 names ofJesus?
So I actually gave you ahandout, okay, but I've been
meditating on that.
So Christ, it means three titlesof Jesus from the Old Testament
he is anointed prophet, he isanointed priest and he is
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anointed king.
And I got to thinking aboutthat and I came up with 100
names of Jesus in the Bible andI thought, well, how can I
organize that?
So I took the word God, becausewe know Jesus Christ is God
right from everlasting.
I took the word prophet, I tookthe word priest and I took the
word king.
Interesting, I was astonished.
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I tokayed this at the time 25names under each title.
25 names.
Now, it was subjective.
That was Ron Hamm's version.
I did try to make it fit, I'lladmit, but it's still pretty
close, okay.
So 25 names as prophet, priest,king.
So Jesus Christ.
We can know this for certain.
We can know for certain alsothat Jesus Christ of Nazareth is
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the Savior of the world.
The very name of Jesus meansthe Lord saves, and we go back
to verse 21 on this.
What does it say in verse 21?
And it shall come to pass.
I love this that everyone,everyone who calls upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved.
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Can we underline everyone.
I remember going to see.
I'll tell you a little story.
I was it was about this time ofyear and I was in my 20s and my
mom and dad live on a one-laneroad.
It was gravel at the time,solid ice, so I'm being very
careful.
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So I park my car, there's acurve, I park my car at the top
of the hill and I stop to peekaround the curve down the hill
and I won't use the word I'mthinking of to call this guy a
name.
But this guy comes flyingthrough there and he slides up
this long hill and hits me headon.
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I was so mad because I wasreally actually being careful.
It was not my fault.
Well, I got really mad at him,so I sued him.
He's going to fix my carbecause hams only keep
liabilities on the car.
I always drive an old car.
I let my wife drive a littlenicer car, but I always drive an
old car.
The point of the car is to getyou from point A to point B.
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That's my philosophy on it,okay.
So liability, so my insurancewould not cover.
So I got really mad at this guy, I sue him and I'm really upset
.
Well, the day comes for thecourt case and my dad calls me.
He said man, you sued myneighbor.
He said he's having a hard timeMarried, his wife's getting
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pregnant, he's out of work, youknow.
Then I got to think maybe I'llforgive him, you know.
And so I thought about it.
I didn't want to, I'll behonest with you.
So I thought about it andthought about it.
So I go to the court case and Idecide to forgive him in my
heart and I told him I forgiveyou, don't worry about this.
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Well, the Lord actually hadanother purpose for that day.
Even though I was mad about theguy hitting me head on, the
Lord had another purpose and itwas my grandma on my mom's side.
It was her birthday that dayand she didn't know the Lord.
So the Holy Spirit spoke.
The real reason you came overhere was to talk to your grandma
.
She's 63 years old, which I'm63 right now.
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Time flies when you're havingfun, doesn't it?
She was 63 years old.
So I go to see my grandma andshe felt like she was too old,
that she had done too much, justtoo much water under the bridge
.
But I shared with her about howChrist loves her.
I shared Jesus Christ ofNazareth, you know.
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And as I began to share, tearsfell down her face and she was
saved.
Amen, praise God.
So Jesus Christ is the Savior ofmy grandma.
He's the Savior of the wholeworld.
The Bible says that he is thepropitiation for our sins.
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That means that he has paid theprice through his blood to an
angry God for our sins, thewrath of God.
And it says he himself is thepropitiation for our sins, and
not for ours only, but also forthe sins of the whole world.
1 John 2.2.
So what else can we know forcertain Now?
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I love this.
We can know for certain thatJesus Christ is the fulfillment
of prophecy.
Now, this is an amazing thing.
Did you know?
Peter was a prophecy teacher.
Everything he says is prophecy.
Here he is sharing prophecy.
Now prophecy was written 400years to 1500,500 years before.
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My definition of prophecy ishistory written in advance.
Only God knows the future right.
So all these things werewritten from 400 to 1,500 years
before, and Peter is quotingprophecy.
So we know for certain thatJesus Christ of Nazareth is the
Savior of the world, that he isLord and that he is Christ
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through prophecy, and that'swhat Peter preaches.
So I'm going to share with youan interesting fact.
There was a man named PeterStoner and he wrote a book
called Science Speaks.
He wrote this in 1957.
And he calculated the odds ofJesus fulfilling just eight
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prophecies foretold of himduring his life.
The odds of one personfulfilling just eight prophecies
in the history of the world is10 to the 17th power, that's 10
with 17 zeros.
Now that's a big number.
I don't even know what it is.
Anybody know Any mathematicians, and I want to share this too.
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Peter Stoner was not a preacher, he was a mathematician.
So this is called statisticalprobability.
And so he calculated it was 10to the 17th power.
Now what he did is he gave us aword picture.
He said the odds of one manfulfilling just eight prophecies
is the same.
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He said you take a quarter andyou mark one quarter with a red
X.
You fill the whole state ofTexas two feet deep.
That's about knee high, thewhole state of Texas.
Now that's the largest state inthe lower 48.
Fill the whole state two feetdeep with quarters and you mark
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one quarter and you put a blindman in Dallas, texas.
He does not know where thequarter is at and he randomly
will select one quarter out ofthe whole state.
The first quarter he picks upout of the whole state of Texas
two feet high will be the onewith the red X marked on it.
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That's the odds of one manfulfilling eight prophecies.
Then he calculated if a manfulfilled 48 prophecies.
He said the quarter is way toosmall.
You have to use somethinginvisible to the eye, use an
electron.
He said the quarter is way toosmall.
You have to use somethinginvisible to the eye, use an
electron.
So he said if you take anelectron and you send out
electrons six billion lightyears in all direction and you
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could mark one electron whichyou can't do it scientifically,
we know that but if you couldmark that one electron, it would
be the odds of one personfulfilling 48 prophecies.
If you could grab that oneelectron that is going out in 6
billion light years, it would bethe odds 48 prophecies.
Now let me share with yousomething.
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This is why we can know thisfor certain that Jesus Christ is
Lord and Savior.
What can we know for certain?
Jesus Christ fulfilled 109prophecies, very detailed
prophecies, from his birth tohis ascension, to his exaltation
into heaven.
Can we know these things forcertain?
We can, amen.
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And the odds of the electron Ijust want to give that to you
math nerds out there is 10 tothe 157th power, 10 with 157,
zero.
So mathematically speaking,mathematically speaking, jesus
Christ is Lord and Savior.
We know that for certain.
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So Peter lists several thingshere.
He lists verse 22, mighty worksand wonders and signs that God
did through him in your midst.
So he's telling us here thatGod confirms that Jesus Christ
is Lord Savior and Christ.
He says by the miracles that hedid.
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Only God can do the miracle andwe remember.
We won't take time to turnthere, but we have the witness
of Nicodemus, and Nicodemus wasa very religious man, a Pharisee
.
He came to Jesus by night andthe first thing he said to Jesus
he had heard about his miracles.
He said Rabbi, we know that youare a teacher from God, for no
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one can do these signs that youdo unless God is with you.
And John said he was speakinghyperbole, but he was speaking.
He said all the books of theworld probably couldn't list all
the miracles that Jesus didwhen he was on earth.
He did so many miracles.
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We don't know how many becausea lot of times it doesn't tell
us.
It'll just say the whole crowdwas healed, right, we don't know
how many were in the crowd.
Jesus is a miracle worker.
Amen, that we can know that forcertain.
I love the story of Bartimaeus,don't you?
He had been blind from birth.
Can you imagine that You'vebeen blind from birth?
And he hears all these miraclesthat Jesus has done, how he's
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healed the sick.
And he heard how Jesus raisedLazarus from the dead.
And then one day you know he'sbegging for alms.
You imagine how hopelessBartimaeus must have felt.
That was his lot in life tojust beg for his daily bread.
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And he hears that Jesus Christis passing by and he cries out
Jesus Christ, son of David, havemercy on me.
He cries out and the crowdtells him be quiet, bartimaeus,
they might have called him BartPoor nickname.
I don't know, bartimaeus.
They might have called him BartPoor nickname.
I don't know.
Bartimaeus, be quiet.
You know what, when you need amiracle from God, it's not a
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time to be quiet.
Amen.
Bartimaeus shouts out louderJesus Christ, son of David, have
mercy on me.
And Jesus comes over to him andsays what can I do for you,
bartimaeus?
Pretty obvious question, isn'tit?
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Bartimaeus said I want toreceive my sight.
And Jesus touched him andhealed him, a blind man.
It was a miracle.
And that song we sang today,amazing Grace.
You know, I once was blind, butnow I see.
The words from that song weretaken from Bartimaeus.
But you know, there's somethingfar worse than being physically
blind, and that's to bespiritually blind, and that's
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what Peter's talking about.
We need spiritual sight that wecan see who Jesus Christ is.
But we know that through hismiracles that God attested that
this is the Lord and the Christ.
We know also through thecrucifixion that was prophesied
and I'm not going to take timeto turn there for the sake of
time, but Psalm 22, it givesvery specific details that his
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hands and his feet would bepierced.
Isaiah 53, one of Hunter'sfavorite scriptures.
It prophesies the crucifixionof Christ.
And then we know theresurrection of Jesus Christ.
We can know for certain thatJesus Christ was raised from the
dead.
We talk about that at Easter.
Look, god put his stamp ofapproval on Jesus Christ.
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We can know this for certain.
No other man has ever beenraised from the dead and not
died again.
Jesus.
We know he raised Lazarus fromthe dead and there's been others
raised from the dead, but he'sthe only one that was raised
from the dead and he ascendedinto heaven.
We know through hisresurrection, we can know that
for certain that he is Lord andChrist.
And then also Peter says herein verse 24, it says heart was
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glad and my tongue rejoiced.
My flesh also dwelt in hope,for you shall not abandon my
soul to Hades or let your HolyOne see corruption.
So that's prophesying thatJesus Christ would be raised
from the dead 1,000 years beforehe was raised from the dead.
And then we see Peter says inverse 34 and 35, this is a
prophecy from Psalm 110, verse 1.
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He said the Lord said to myLord, sit at my right hand until
I make your enemies myfootstool Now.
So those are things that we canknow for certain.
This world is very uncertain,but Jesus Christ is our constant
in a world of very uncertaintimes that we live in.
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So second question what shall wedo to be saved?
Peter said in the last I thinkverse 41 or verse 40, he said
save yourselves from thiscrooked generation.
The world and the lust thereofis passing away.
We don't want to put our trustin this world.
This world is a sinking ship.
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It's like the Titanic.
It's already hit the iceberg.
Go ahead and you know.
If you want to just get richand have power and pleasure in
this world, look, I'm tellingyou.
But you're on a sinking ship.
It's already hit the iceberg.
It's doomed.
This world system is doomed andthe Bible tells us not to love
this world, but it says he thatdoeth the will of God shall
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abide forever.
So what do we need to do to besaved?
They asked him this questionhere in verse.
Well, peter tells him in Acts2.38.
Let me turn over there, acts2.38.
Well, verse 37, let's startthere Now.
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When they heard this, as he waspreaching Jesus Christ, they
were cut to the heart and saidto Peter and to the rest of the
apostles Brothers, what shall wedo?
They were saying what shall wedo to be saved?
And Peter said to them repentand be baptized, every one of
you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your
sins, and you will receive thegift of the Holy Spirit.
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So what does it mean to repent?
Repentance from sin and faithin Jesus Christ are two sides of
the same coin.
You cannot have true faithwithout repentance and you
cannot have repentance withouttrue faith in Christ.
To repent means to change yourmind and your purpose in life.
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It's to get on a different road.
Jesus talked about the narrowroad and he talked about the
broad road.
If you're still on the road ofsin, you have not repented.
You got to get off the road ofsin and death and get on the
narrow road of life and peace.
Repentance is an action verb.
Notice the crowd says to Peterwhat shall we do to be saved?
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It means to say God is rightand I am wrong.
It means to forsake the worldand to follow the word.
I like what Bernard of Clarivaxsaid.
I think this is attributed tohim in 1150 AD.
He said the road to hell ispaved with good intentions.
So people have intentions torepent.
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But that's not repentance.
I'll get around it to someday.
How many times have you talkedto somebody and they say I'm not
ready yet.
They have intentions, but theyhaven't repented.
Peter commands this crowd torepent and believe upon the Lord
Jesus Christ and be baptized.
And we got to remember that tobe a Christian in this day.
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They were in a hostile culture.
The religious crowd had justput Jesus Christ to death on the
cross and, as Christians, look,we're not going to be on Easy
Street.
There's an old country songthat says I did not promise you
a rose garden.
I mean, god does not promise usa rose garden when we choose to
follow Christ.
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He says we'll have troubles inthis world, amen, but it's worth
it all.
It's worth it all, and thiscrowd was willing to sacrifice
everything, to repent, to departfrom their culture of their day
, to make a radical departurefrom their culture, and we need
to do the same Now.
Many people have a false ideaabout what repentance is, and
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I'm going to list seven things.
Sometimes, to help usunderstand what something is, we
have to understand what it isnot, what repentance is not,
because there's many falseconcepts.
Who do you think is spreadingthese lies about what repentance
is.
In our culture, one word Startswith a D the devil.
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Okay, because he does not wantpeople to truly repent, so he
spreads these lies about what itmeans to be saved or to repent.
So here there's many, many,many more lies than this, but
here's seven.
What repentance is not?
Repentance is not regret.
It's not just sorrow overgetting caught and suffering the
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consequences of your action.
That's not repentance.
Repentance is not penance.
Now, what is penance?
Penance is the false idea thatself-punishment and good deeds
will pardon the soul from theguilt of sin.
In other words, if I've sinned,okay, from now on I'm going to
start doing what's right.
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I'm going to start doing what'sright.
Well, we may try to do what'sright, but it doesn't take away
what we've done wrong.
Only Jesus Christ can do that.
That's penance and that's afalse idea of repentance.
Here's an important oneRepentance is not saying a
sinner's prayer.
Just saying a sinner's prayer isnot true repentance.
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You know how?
I know Because I said asinner's prayer but I didn't
repent.
I remember saying a sinner'sprayer and if I would have had
people come around me and say,oh, you're saved.
But I wasn't saved because Ididn't repent in my heart, I
didn't change course.
When you get saved, there'ssomething we've got to do.
When you get saved, there'ssomething we've got to do.
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It's an action verb.
John the Baptist said you'vegot to bring forth fruit for
repentance.
Amen, the evidence show someevidence that you've repented
and so that a sinner's prayer isnot repentant.
Now you could pray a sinner'sprayer and truly repent.
I'm not saying you can't, butyou can also say a prayer, a
(31:04):
sinner's prayer, and not repent.
So you've got to repent on theinside.
Repentance is not cheap grace.
Now, this is a word thatDietrich Bonhoeffer talked about
.
This is a very common falseidea about repentance in our
culture today.
Cheap grace is the idea thatone can receive forgiveness
without repentance.
(31:25):
You talk to somebody and theysay, oh, I ask God for
forgiveness every day, but thentheir life?
They're still on the broad wayof destruction, they're still
living the same life, but theyask God to forgive them every
day.
That's not repentance.
You can be religious and stillnot have repented of your sin,
can't you?
The Pharisees were.
They knew the scripture, theyasked God for forgiveness, but
(31:47):
they never repented.
So cheap grace is notrepentance.
Now here's another common onein our culture today Repentance
is not selective obedience to aGod of your own imagination.
This is very common in ourculture.
I call this Jesus buffet style.
So I just make up my own Jesus,make up my own Bible.
(32:11):
But repentance is on my terms,not God's terms.
Peter's telling us repent andbe baptized every one of you for
forgiveness of sins.
Repentance has to be on God'sterms.
God makes the rules, we don'tmake the rules.
We can't make up a God of ourown imagination.
And then repentance is now.
(32:32):
This is an important when Jamestalks about this.
Repentance is not a sayingfaith, it's a saving faith.
There's a difference and Jamestalks about when he says faith
without works is dead.
He's talking about a person.
He says if a man says I havefaith but has not works, that's
a saying faith Because thatperson's not repentant.
(32:54):
Because if they truly sorryabout that, if they truly repent
it, they would have a savingfaith.
There would be evidence oftheir confession.
So we must have a saving faith.
(33:15):
So now baptism.
What is the purpose?
So he tells them to be baptized.
What's the purpose of waterbaptism?
So, water baptism.
He says be baptized every oneof you.
In verse 38, in the name ofJesus Christ, for the
forgiveness of sins.
So baptism is called thebaptism of repentance in the
Bible.
There is no forgiveness withoutrepentance.
(33:37):
If one is baptized in waterwithout repentance, they will go
down a dry center and come upwhat A wet center.
So without the repentance,baptism does not wash away our
sins.
We got to have repentance.
It's the repentance that washesaway our sins and we should
follow in obedience to baptism,in obedience to show that our
(34:01):
sins have been washed away.
So baptism is an outwardexpression of our inward
confession, an outwardexpression of our inward
confession.
Our inward confession ofrepentance towards sin and faith
in Christ is what saves us,praise God.
But baptism serves as a publicconfession of our inward
confession of the heart.
(34:24):
Now I'm going to go through thispretty quickly.
What are three beautifulblessings?
The third question I want toanswer from Peter's message
today.
He gives us this in 39 through41.
Forgiveness of sins, now, sinceI've been 18 years old.
That is a beautiful blessing ofrepentance and faith in Christ,
our confession in the Lord, now, since I've been 18 years old.
(34:48):
I was saved in July 1979.
And I'm going to tell you thetruth.
I've known my sins are forgivensince July 1979.
I've not went to sleep onenight worried about going to
hell or worried that I'm notsaved, because the Holy Spirit
(35:13):
bears witness with my spiritthat I'm a Christian.
And so I will just say to youwhat a beautiful blessing to
know your sins are forgiven.
If we would do what Peter saysrepent, believe in Jesus Christ,
be baptized in obedience, wecan know that our sins are
forgiven from the Lord.
It's just a beautiful thing.
(35:35):
Christ has paid the total priceof the forgiveness of our sins
if we put our trust in him.
The Bible says whoever keepsthe whole law but fails in one
point has become guilty of allof it.
So we're not ever saved bybeing good enough.
We're saved because Christlived a perfect life and paid
(35:56):
for our sins.
The old hymn says what can washaway my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh precious is the flow thatmakes me white as snow.
No other fount I know, nothingbut the blood of Jesus, the
(36:16):
second blessing of salvation.
So we talked about forgivenessof sin.
Peter tells us about the giftof the Holy Spirit.
Now we're going to be spendinga whole year on the filling of
the Holy Spirit.
So I'm just going to saysomething just to explain what
he's talking about here.
I'm not going to spend a lot oftime on the gift of the Holy
Spirit, because it's what thewhole book is about.
(36:44):
But when a person is saved, theyreceive the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit.
They are born of the Spirit.
Can someone say praise God, andI've had that indwelling of the
Holy Spirit since I was savedin 1979.
As Pastor Chris shared, thereare some disagreements and some
nuances on the indwelling versusthe outpouring of the Holy
Spirit.
(37:05):
I think sometimes we're tryingto put God in a theological box
and figure out things that heleft a mystery on purpose.
We have our nice theologicalboxes, don't we?
We want to put God intheological boxes, don't we?
We want to put God in.
I love what Brother Jack sharedwith me, what his wife Gracie
(37:27):
said years ago.
I love this and I think it'strue.
Brother Jack's wife Gracie saidthis God blessed a Christian
who has not yet met a theologian.
There's a lot of truth in that.
Sometimes we really try to putGod in our theological box and
when it doesn't fit, we're goingto make it fit, amen.
So the important thing toremember when it comes to the
(37:48):
Holy Spirit.
Here's two things that allBible-based Christians believe.
All Bible-based Christiansbelieve the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit happens at salvation, when a person is born of the
Spirit.
Can we say amen to that?
And all Bible-based Christiansbelieve that Christians can ask
(38:10):
for and receive subsequentfillings of the Holy Spirit.
Can we all say amen to that?
We all agree with that.
And then the last.
So what I'm sharing with you?
So you have forgiveness of sins, we have the Holy Spirit to
help us.
What a beautiful blessing ofsalvation.
And we also have another promise.
That these promises that we canknow for certain through Jesus
(38:35):
Christ, our Lord, it's not forjust us, it's for our children,
our children's children and toall generations, even people in
the uttermost parts of the worldRichmond, kentucky, amen.
The gospel found its way here,to the uttermost part of the
world, richmond, and so the lastverse here says for the promise
is for you and your children,for all who are far off,
(38:58):
everyone whom the Lord, our God,calls to himself.
We should never stop prayingfor our family and friends.
Amen, because everyone whocalls upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
Our prayers are eternal.
We can believe God for thesalvation of our household.
Just like Peter says, thesepromises and these blessings are
for our children and to allgenerations.
(39:19):
Now, when I pray for ourchildren and our grandchildren,
I don't just pray for those thatare alive today, and I'd say
many of you do the same thing.
The Bible says that those thatfear the Lord, that the
blessings of the Lord andsalvation will be upon the
household.
For how many generations?
One thousand generations forthose who fear the Lord, amen.
(39:42):
So we can pray for theblessings of God upon our
heritage for 1,000 generationsor until the Lord returns.
Amen.
What a great promise.
So today, if you're anunbeliever today and you're here
today, repent.
We shared with you what thatmeans.
(40:02):
Repent.
Today is the day of salvation.
Repent, believe in Jesus Christand follow him in obedience to
baptism, water baptism.
And as Christians today we needto follow the example of Peter.
Today we need to be witnessesof the Lord Jesus Christ.
(40:24):
Peter showed us exactly how toshare the good news of Jesus
Christ, to share Jesus Christ ofNazareth.
He shared with us how to do it,but we need the outpouring of
the filling of the Holy Spiritto be witnesses in this dark
world that we live in, praiseGod.
(40:45):
So I just want to invite youtoday to come and pray.
able to share the Word of God today.
Today's message is called JesusChrist of Nazareth.
That's my favorite topic topreach on in the whole world and
actually that's the words thatPeter used in this message.
So in Acts 2.22, you see wherehe said men of Israel, hear
(00:23):
these words Jesus of Nazareth.
You know, I remember when I wasa teenager there was a movie
that came out and it was calledJesus Christ of Nazareth and I
didn't know the Lord at the timeand it was on the weekend, I
remember and I spent.
This movie was six hours longand I watched this whole movie
(00:47):
and it sowed a lot of seed ofthe word of God into my heart.
I think it came out in 1977.
There's something very powerfulabout the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth.
I have the privilege today ofpreaching another man's sermon.
Peter did all the work.
(01:08):
He was one of the 12 disciples,he walked and he talked with
Jesus.
Now here's an important point.
Peter was an eyewitness of themiracles of Jesus Christ, the
death, the crucifixion of JesusChrist, the resurrection of
(01:30):
Jesus Christ, the ascension intoheaven of Jesus Christ, and he
even talks about the exaltationof Jesus Christ, which Hunter
talked about during communiontoday at the right hand of the
Father.
So Peter was an eyewitness ofall these things.
Now, sometimes I'll discusscreation versus evolution with
(01:54):
people and you know they'llargue that the earth is 13
billion years old.
Now I ask them well, how do youknow that you weren't there?
So well, they say how do youknow?
How do you know that it's not13 billion years old?
I said I have an eyewitness.
Well, who is it?
Well, it's God, amen.
So God is an eyewitness of hisown creation, wouldn't you say
(02:14):
so?
And he gave us the historicalaccount in Genesis 1 and 2.
And I think God's a prettyreliable eyewitness, don't you?
We can take his word to thebank, and Peter is an eyewitness
of all these events.
And we can take this to thebank today.
What a change we see in Peteronce he is filled with the Holy
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Spirit.
Does that make a difference inour life?
And that's not the purpose oftoday's message, because we're
going to be going through thatfor a whole year.
But I do want to make thatpoint that this same man who
could not preach to one littlegirl and confess Jesus Christ he
could not confess Jesus to oneperson is now preaching to
(02:59):
thousands of unbelievers, evenat risk of his own death.
In that day and time that helived.
It was at risk of his own life.
And Peter is boldly proclaimingthe gospel of Jesus Christ Now.
That cannot be explained exceptby what?
The power of the Holy Spirit.
You may say, well, god can'tuse me.
(03:23):
Look, god is not looking forability.
You've heard this before,probably right.
God is not looking for ability,he's looking for availability.
So we will offer ourselves tothe Lord.
He can use every single personin here.
Amen.
With the power of his spirit,peter is taking the message of
Christ to sinners.
(03:43):
He took the words of Christ tosinners.
He took the words of Christ toheart, for Jesus had said for
the Son of man came to seek andsave the lost.
The mission of Christ has neverchanged.
He came to seek and to save thelost.
Jesus Christ did not tellsinners to go to church, he told
the church to go to sinners.
We can learn that from Petertoday and that's what Peter is
(04:08):
doing.
Peter just can't quit talkingabout Jesus Christ of Nazareth
to the people.
He actually gives us the who,what and how of the gospel.
Okay, the who is Jesus Christ,the what is the gospel message
and then the how.
He shows us how to do it.
And if you can't rememberanything else about how to do it
(04:29):
, share Jesus Christ of Nazarethwith people.
That's how you do it.
Share Jesus, and we see thatpattern all through the book of
Acts.
They share Jesus Christ, lordand Savior, and that's what
Peter did.
Peter makes it clear that thiswas all part of the plan of God,
the Father, in sending his onlybegotten Son to the world.
(04:51):
God is sovereign over allcreation.
He's also sovereign oversalvation.
Amen Today.
My hope and prayer for all ofus today is that we will come to
know and love Jesus Christ, theLord, and get to know him
better.
The key point today in Peter'smessage.
I said the title was JesusChrist of Nathers.
(05:12):
I did want to tell you, I didwrestle with a possible
alternative title.
You could also call this thesermon that was heard around the
world.
Amen, this sermon was heard allaround the world.
Amen, this sermon was heard allaround the world, these people
from everywhere.
So the key point is since Godhas made Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, both Lord and Christ,who will judge the world?
(05:42):
Sinners must repent.
That's the message.
Since God has made Jesus Christof Nazareth, both Lord and
Christ.
Sinners must repent.
Now, that's with authority,isn't it?
That's with authority tocommand those that are lost to
repent.
He commanded it even at risk ofhis own life.
So today I want to answer threequestions from this text.
(06:05):
What can we know for certain,what can we do to be saved, and
what are three beautifulblessings of salvation?
In verse 36, I'm going to jumparound in these verses, but I
will let you know where I'm atbut he used an inductive sermon.
(06:27):
Peter did so.
He didn't start out with JesusChrist as Lord and Savior.
So you know, if you got ahostile crowd and you don't know
how they're going to react,don't give them the hard part of
the message right at thebeginning.
That's what he did.
He started out with prophecy.
Then he got to Jesus Christ isLord and Savior, and so he
begins with that message inverse 36.
(06:49):
He says he uses the word whatwe can know for certain.
He says let all the house ofIsrael know for certain.
Let's say that together today.
Let's say we can know forcertain.
Together, we can know forcertain.
Let's say it again we can knowfor certain.
This is what Peter is tellingus today that God has made him
(07:13):
both Lord and Christ, this Jesuswhom you crucified yes, he
points the finger at them.
They had violated the law Thoushalt not murder.
And they missed the Messiahwhen he came.
They not only missed theMessiah when he came.
Peter is telling them andmaking it clear to them, they
murdered their own Messiah.
(07:34):
They are guilty of this.
And guess what?
Let's raise our hands.
We're all guilty of the bloodof Jesus Christ.
As sinners, we all were in thatcrowd today saying crucify him,
crucify him.
So the first question what canwe know for certain?
(08:00):
Ben Franklin once said there areonly two things that are
certain in life death and taxes.
That's a solemn life, isn't it?
Now Job actually added anotherthing to the list.
Okay, 3,000 years ago, jobadded one thing to death and
taxes.
Here's what Job said man who isborn of woman is a few days and
(08:21):
full of trouble.
That's Job 14.1.
So death, taxes and trouble.
Do you feel good today?
It's a feel-good message, right?
So death, taxes and trouble.
Do you feel good today?
It's a feel-good message, right?
So death, taxes, trouble.
Is that all we have to lookforward to?
Just bad things?
Is there anything good to lookforward to?
What can we know for certain?
Let's be honest we are inconstant search for constants.
You like that play on words?
(08:42):
We are in constant search forconstants.
We want to know something forconstants.
You like that play on words?
We are in constant search forconstants.
We want to know something forcertain, and Peter is telling us
what we can know for certain.
It's important to note thatJesus is Lord, whether we
believe it or not.
Hunter read that scripturetoday.
(09:03):
He is Lord and every knee shallbow and every tongue shall
confess that Jesus Christ isLord to the glory of the Father.
Whether we believe it or not,it's certain that he is Lord.
Amen.
What's in a name?
Everything when we're talkingabout the name of Jesus Christ
(09:23):
of Nazareth.
Name Everything when we'retalking about the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth.
Imagine two people trying to getto know each other and love
each other without knowing eachother's name.
Some of you might not get thisreference, but some of you will.
As Vicente from the PrincessBride movie would say
inconceivable if we don't knoweach other's names.
I knew Matt would know that.
If we don't know each other'snames, I knew Matt would know
(09:47):
that we need to get to know thename of Jesus and who he is, and
we need to be willing to makethat our favorite topic to talk
about.
Just like Peter, jesus Christ ofNazareth is Lord.
The word for Lord is master,and it's attributed to Jesus
Christ in the New Testament.
Now think about this.
700 times he is called Lord andwe see, you know.
(10:12):
They ask Christ.
We won't take time to turnthere for the sake of time, but
they ask Christ, will you, atthis time, restore the kingdom
to Israel?
They knew he was Lord.
What does that mean?
To be Lord?
He's king over all the earth,he's king over all creation.
That's what that means.
Will you restore the kingdom toIsrael at this time?
He said no.
The Father has that in hishands the seasons and he will
(10:34):
come again.
But in his first coming he cameto die as the Lamb of God for
the sins of the world.
So he is Lord, whether webelieve it or not.
Now also, jesus.
Peter says Jesus is the Christ.
Now, what is Christ?
Christ is not a last name, eventhough I like saying Jesus
(10:56):
Christ because it's verypowerful.
Christ is a title and it's thesame as the word Messiah from
the Old Testament.
So recently I've beenmeditating on the name of Jesus.
So this message came along at agood time.
Some of you a while back, maybethree months ago, I was doing a
teaching on 100 names of Jesus.
Some of you were at that.
I mean, that wasn't a Sundayschool class, it was a Wednesday
night service.
(11:16):
So that's a long Wednesdaynight service to get through in
15 minutes was it 100 names ofJesus?
So I actually gave you ahandout, okay, but I've been
meditating on that.
So Christ, it means three titlesof Jesus from the Old Testament
he is anointed prophet, he isanointed priest and he is
(11:38):
anointed king.
And I got to thinking aboutthat and I came up with 100
names of Jesus in the Bible andI thought, well, how can I
organize that?
So I took the word God, becausewe know Jesus Christ is God
right from everlasting.
I took the word prophet, I tookthe word priest and I took the
word king.
Interesting, I was astonished.
(12:00):
I tokayed this at the time 25names under each title.
25 names.
Now, it was subjective.
That was Ron Hamm's version.
I did try to make it fit, I'lladmit, but it's still pretty
close, okay.
So 25 names as prophet, priest,king.
So Jesus Christ.
We can know this for certain.
We can know for certain alsothat Jesus Christ of Nazareth is
(12:26):
the Savior of the world.
The very name of Jesus meansthe Lord saves, and we go back
to verse 21 on this.
What does it say in verse 21?
And it shall come to pass.
I love this that everyone,everyone who calls upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved.
(12:46):
Can we underline everyone.
I remember going to see.
I'll tell you a little story.
I was it was about this time ofyear and I was in my 20s and my
mom and dad live on a one-laneroad.
It was gravel at the time,solid ice, so I'm being very
careful.
(13:06):
So I park my car, there's acurve, I park my car at the top
of the hill and I stop to peekaround the curve down the hill
and I won't use the word I'mthinking of to call this guy a
name.
But this guy comes flyingthrough there and he slides up
this long hill and hits me headon.
(13:28):
I was so mad because I wasreally actually being careful.
It was not my fault.
Well, I got really mad at him,so I sued him.
He's going to fix my carbecause hams only keep
liabilities on the car.
I always drive an old car.
I let my wife drive a littlenicer car, but I always drive an
old car.
The point of the car is to getyou from point A to point B.
(13:50):
That's my philosophy on it,okay.
So liability, so my insurancewould not cover.
So I got really mad at this guy, I sue him and I'm really upset
.
Well, the day comes for thecourt case and my dad calls me.
He said man, you sued myneighbor.
He said he's having a hard timeMarried, his wife's getting
(14:14):
pregnant, he's out of work, youknow.
Then I got to think maybe I'llforgive him, you know.
And so I thought about it.
I didn't want to, I'll behonest with you.
So I thought about it andthought about it.
So I go to the court case and Idecide to forgive him in my
heart and I told him I forgiveyou, don't worry about this.
(14:38):
Well, the Lord actually hadanother purpose for that day.
Even though I was mad about theguy hitting me head on, the
Lord had another purpose and itwas my grandma on my mom's side.
It was her birthday that dayand she didn't know the Lord.
So the Holy Spirit spoke.
The real reason you came overhere was to talk to your grandma
.
She's 63 years old, which I'm63 right now.
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Time flies when you're havingfun, doesn't it?
She was 63 years old.
So I go to see my grandma andshe felt like she was too old,
that she had done too much, justtoo much water under the bridge
.
But I shared with her about howChrist loves her.
I shared Jesus Christ ofNazareth, you know.
(15:24):
And as I began to share, tearsfell down her face and she was
saved.
Amen, praise God.
So Jesus Christ is the Savior ofmy grandma.
He's the Savior of the wholeworld.
The Bible says that he is thepropitiation for our sins.
(15:44):
That means that he has paid theprice through his blood to an
angry God for our sins, thewrath of God.
And it says he himself is thepropitiation for our sins, and
not for ours only, but also forthe sins of the whole world.
1 John 2.2.
So what else can we know forcertain Now?
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I love this.
We can know for certain thatJesus Christ is the fulfillment
of prophecy.
Now, this is an amazing thing.
Did you know?
Peter was a prophecy teacher.
Everything he says is prophecy.
Here he is sharing prophecy.
Now prophecy was written 400years to 1500,500 years before.
(16:28):
My definition of prophecy ishistory written in advance.
Only God knows the future right.
So all these things werewritten from 400 to 1,500 years
before, and Peter is quotingprophecy.
So we know for certain thatJesus Christ of Nazareth is the
Savior of the world, that he isLord and that he is Christ
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through prophecy, and that'swhat Peter preaches.
So I'm going to share with youan interesting fact.
There was a man named PeterStoner and he wrote a book
called Science Speaks.
He wrote this in 1957.
And he calculated the odds ofJesus fulfilling just eight
(17:10):
prophecies foretold of himduring his life.
The odds of one personfulfilling just eight prophecies
in the history of the world is10 to the 17th power, that's 10
with 17 zeros.
Now that's a big number.
I don't even know what it is.
Anybody know Any mathematicians, and I want to share this too.
(17:31):
Peter Stoner was not a preacher, he was a mathematician.
So this is called statisticalprobability.
And so he calculated it was 10to the 17th power.
Now what he did is he gave us aword picture.
He said the odds of one manfulfilling just eight prophecies
is the same.
(17:51):
He said you take a quarter andyou mark one quarter with a red
X.
You fill the whole state ofTexas two feet deep.
That's about knee high, thewhole state of Texas.
Now that's the largest state inthe lower 48.
Fill the whole state two feetdeep with quarters and you mark
(18:11):
one quarter and you put a blindman in Dallas, texas.
He does not know where thequarter is at and he randomly
will select one quarter out ofthe whole state.
The first quarter he picks upout of the whole state of Texas
two feet high will be the onewith the red X marked on it.
(18:32):
That's the odds of one manfulfilling eight prophecies.
Then he calculated if a manfulfilled 48 prophecies.
He said the quarter is way toosmall.
You have to use somethinginvisible to the eye, use an
electron.
He said the quarter is way toosmall.
You have to use somethinginvisible to the eye, use an
electron.
So he said if you take anelectron and you send out
electrons six billion lightyears in all direction and you
(18:56):
could mark one electron whichyou can't do it scientifically,
we know that but if you couldmark that one electron, it would
be the odds of one personfulfilling 48 prophecies.
If you could grab that oneelectron that is going out in 6
billion light years, it would bethe odds 48 prophecies.
Now let me share with yousomething.
(19:16):
This is why we can know thisfor certain that Jesus Christ is
Lord and Savior.
What can we know for certain?
Jesus Christ fulfilled 109prophecies, very detailed
prophecies, from his birth tohis ascension, to his exaltation
into heaven.
Can we know these things forcertain?
We can, amen.
(19:38):
And the odds of the electron Ijust want to give that to you
math nerds out there is 10 tothe 157th power, 10 with 157,
zero.
So mathematically speaking,mathematically speaking, jesus
Christ is Lord and Savior.
We know that for certain.
(20:00):
So Peter lists several thingshere.
He lists verse 22, mighty worksand wonders and signs that God
did through him in your midst.
So he's telling us here thatGod confirms that Jesus Christ
is Lord Savior and Christ.
He says by the miracles that hedid.
(20:22):
Only God can do the miracle andwe remember.
We won't take time to turnthere, but we have the witness
of Nicodemus, and Nicodemus wasa very religious man, a Pharisee
.
He came to Jesus by night andthe first thing he said to Jesus
he had heard about his miracles.
He said Rabbi, we know that youare a teacher from God, for no
(20:45):
one can do these signs that youdo unless God is with you.
And John said he was speakinghyperbole, but he was speaking.
He said all the books of theworld probably couldn't list all
the miracles that Jesus didwhen he was on earth.
He did so many miracles.
(21:06):
We don't know how many becausea lot of times it doesn't tell
us.
It'll just say the whole crowdwas healed, right, we don't know
how many were in the crowd.
Jesus is a miracle worker.
Amen, that we can know that forcertain.
I love the story of Bartimaeus,don't you?
He had been blind from birth.
Can you imagine that You'vebeen blind from birth?
And he hears all these miraclesthat Jesus has done, how he's
(21:31):
healed the sick.
And he heard how Jesus raisedLazarus from the dead.
And then one day you know he'sbegging for alms.
You imagine how hopelessBartimaeus must have felt.
That was his lot in life tojust beg for his daily bread.
(21:52):
And he hears that Jesus Christis passing by and he cries out
Jesus Christ, son of David, havemercy on me.
He cries out and the crowdtells him be quiet, bartimaeus,
they might have called him BartPoor nickname.
I don't know, bartimaeus.
They might have called him BartPoor nickname.
I don't know.
Bartimaeus, be quiet.
You know what, when you need amiracle from God, it's not a
(22:14):
time to be quiet.
Amen.
Bartimaeus shouts out louderJesus Christ, son of David, have
mercy on me.
And Jesus comes over to him andsays what can I do for you,
bartimaeus?
Pretty obvious question, isn'tit?
(22:34):
Bartimaeus said I want toreceive my sight.
And Jesus touched him andhealed him, a blind man.
It was a miracle.
And that song we sang today,amazing Grace.
You know, I once was blind, butnow I see.
The words from that song weretaken from Bartimaeus.
But you know, there's somethingfar worse than being physically
blind, and that's to bespiritually blind, and that's
(22:55):
what Peter's talking about.
We need spiritual sight that wecan see who Jesus Christ is.
But we know that through hismiracles that God attested that
this is the Lord and the Christ.
We know also through thecrucifixion that was prophesied
and I'm not going to take timeto turn there for the sake of
time, but Psalm 22, it givesvery specific details that his
(23:19):
hands and his feet would bepierced.
Isaiah 53, one of Hunter'sfavorite scriptures.
It prophesies the crucifixionof Christ.
And then we know theresurrection of Jesus Christ.
We can know for certain thatJesus Christ was raised from the
dead.
We talk about that at Easter.
Look, god put his stamp ofapproval on Jesus Christ.
(23:42):
We can know this for certain.
No other man has ever beenraised from the dead and not
died again.
Jesus.
We know he raised Lazarus fromthe dead and there's been others
raised from the dead, but he'sthe only one that was raised
from the dead and he ascendedinto heaven.
We know through hisresurrection, we can know that
for certain that he is Lord andChrist.
And then also Peter says herein verse 24, it says heart was
(24:29):
glad and my tongue rejoiced.
My flesh also dwelt in hope,for you shall not abandon my
soul to Hades or let your HolyOne see corruption.
So that's prophesying thatJesus Christ would be raised
from the dead 1,000 years beforehe was raised from the dead.
And then we see Peter says inverse 34 and 35, this is a
prophecy from Psalm 110, verse 1.
(24:50):
He said the Lord said to myLord, sit at my right hand until
I make your enemies myfootstool Now.
So those are things that we canknow for certain.
This world is very uncertain,but Jesus Christ is our constant
in a world of very uncertaintimes that we live in.
(25:13):
So second question what shall wedo to be saved?
Peter said in the last I thinkverse 41 or verse 40, he said
save yourselves from thiscrooked generation.
The world and the lust thereofis passing away.
We don't want to put our trustin this world.
This world is a sinking ship.
(25:34):
It's like the Titanic.
It's already hit the iceberg.
Go ahead and you know.
If you want to just get richand have power and pleasure in
this world, look, I'm tellingyou.
But you're on a sinking ship.
It's already hit the iceberg.
It's doomed.
This world system is doomed andthe Bible tells us not to love
this world, but it says he thatdoeth the will of God shall
(25:57):
abide forever.
So what do we need to do to besaved?
They asked him this questionhere in verse.
Well, peter tells him in Acts2.38.
Let me turn over there, acts2.38.
Well, verse 37, let's startthere Now.
(26:20):
When they heard this, as he waspreaching Jesus Christ, they
were cut to the heart and saidto Peter and to the rest of the
apostles Brothers, what shall wedo?
They were saying what shall wedo to be saved?
And Peter said to them repentand be baptized, every one of
you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your
sins, and you will receive thegift of the Holy Spirit.
(26:44):
So what does it mean to repent?
Repentance from sin and faithin Jesus Christ are two sides of
the same coin.
You cannot have true faithwithout repentance and you
cannot have repentance withouttrue faith in Christ.
To repent means to change yourmind and your purpose in life.
(27:05):
It's to get on a different road.
Jesus talked about the narrowroad and he talked about the
broad road.
If you're still on the road ofsin, you have not repented.
You got to get off the road ofsin and death and get on the
narrow road of life and peace.
Repentance is an action verb.
Notice the crowd says to Peterwhat shall we do to be saved?
(27:27):
It means to say God is rightand I am wrong.
It means to forsake the worldand to follow the word.
I like what Bernard of Clarivaxsaid.
I think this is attributed tohim in 1150 AD.
He said the road to hell ispaved with good intentions.
So people have intentions torepent.
(27:49):
But that's not repentance.
I'll get around it to someday.
How many times have you talkedto somebody and they say I'm not
ready yet.
They have intentions, but theyhaven't repented.
Peter commands this crowd torepent and believe upon the Lord
Jesus Christ and be baptized.
And we got to remember that tobe a Christian in this day.
(28:12):
They were in a hostile culture.
The religious crowd had justput Jesus Christ to death on the
cross and, as Christians, look,we're not going to be on Easy
Street.
There's an old country songthat says I did not promise you
a rose garden.
I mean, god does not promise usa rose garden when we choose to
follow Christ.
(28:33):
He says we'll have troubles inthis world, amen, but it's worth
it all.
It's worth it all, and thiscrowd was willing to sacrifice
everything, to repent, to departfrom their culture of their day
, to make a radical departurefrom their culture, and we need
to do the same Now.
Many people have a false ideaabout what repentance is, and
(28:58):
I'm going to list seven things.
Sometimes, to help usunderstand what something is, we
have to understand what it isnot, what repentance is not,
because there's many falseconcepts.
Who do you think is spreadingthese lies about what repentance
is.
In our culture, one word Startswith a D the devil.
(29:18):
Okay, because he does not wantpeople to truly repent, so he
spreads these lies about what itmeans to be saved or to repent.
So here there's many, many,many more lies than this, but
here's seven.
What repentance is not?
Repentance is not regret.
It's not just sorrow overgetting caught and suffering the
(29:40):
consequences of your action.
That's not repentance.
Repentance is not penance.
Now, what is penance?
Penance is the false idea thatself-punishment and good deeds
will pardon the soul from theguilt of sin.
In other words, if I've sinned,okay, from now on I'm going to
start doing what's right.
(30:00):
I'm going to start doing what'sright.
Well, we may try to do what'sright, but it doesn't take away
what we've done wrong.
Only Jesus Christ can do that.
That's penance and that's afalse idea of repentance.
Here's an important oneRepentance is not saying a
sinner's prayer.
Just saying a sinner's prayer isnot true repentance.
(30:21):
You know how?
I know Because I said asinner's prayer but I didn't
repent.
I remember saying a sinner'sprayer and if I would have had
people come around me and say,oh, you're saved.
But I wasn't saved because Ididn't repent in my heart, I
didn't change course.
When you get saved, there'ssomething we've got to do.
When you get saved, there'ssomething we've got to do.
(30:41):
It's an action verb.
John the Baptist said you'vegot to bring forth fruit for
repentance.
Amen, the evidence show someevidence that you've repented
and so that a sinner's prayer isnot repentant.
Now you could pray a sinner'sprayer and truly repent.
I'm not saying you can't, butyou can also say a prayer, a
(31:04):
sinner's prayer, and not repent.
So you've got to repent on theinside.
Repentance is not cheap grace.
Now, this is a word thatDietrich Bonhoeffer talked about
.
This is a very common falseidea about repentance in our
culture today.
Cheap grace is the idea thatone can receive forgiveness
without repentance.
(31:25):
You talk to somebody and theysay, oh, I ask God for
forgiveness every day, but thentheir life?
They're still on the broad wayof destruction, they're still
living the same life, but theyask God to forgive them every
day.
That's not repentance.
You can be religious and stillnot have repented of your sin,
can't you?
The Pharisees were.
They knew the scripture, theyasked God for forgiveness, but
(31:47):
they never repented.
So cheap grace is notrepentance.
Now here's another common onein our culture today Repentance
is not selective obedience to aGod of your own imagination.
This is very common in ourculture.
I call this Jesus buffet style.
So I just make up my own Jesus,make up my own Bible.
(32:11):
But repentance is on my terms,not God's terms.
Peter's telling us repent andbe baptized every one of you for
forgiveness of sins.
Repentance has to be on God'sterms.
God makes the rules, we don'tmake the rules.
We can't make up a God of ourown imagination.
And then repentance is now.
(32:32):
This is an important when Jamestalks about this.
Repentance is not a sayingfaith, it's a saving faith.
There's a difference and Jamestalks about when he says faith
without works is dead.
He's talking about a person.
He says if a man says I havefaith but has not works, that's
a saying faith Because thatperson's not repentant.
(32:54):
Because if they truly sorryabout that, if they truly repent
it, they would have a savingfaith.
There would be evidence oftheir confession.
So we must have a saving faith.
(33:15):
So now baptism.
What is the purpose?
So he tells them to be baptized.
What's the purpose of waterbaptism?
So, water baptism.
He says be baptized every oneof you.
In verse 38, in the name ofJesus Christ, for the
forgiveness of sins.
So baptism is called thebaptism of repentance in the
Bible.
There is no forgiveness withoutrepentance.
(33:37):
If one is baptized in waterwithout repentance, they will go
down a dry center and come upwhat A wet center.
So without the repentance,baptism does not wash away our
sins.
We got to have repentance.
It's the repentance that washesaway our sins and we should
follow in obedience to baptism,in obedience to show that our
(34:01):
sins have been washed away.
So baptism is an outwardexpression of our inward
confession, an outwardexpression of our inward
confession.
Our inward confession ofrepentance towards sin and faith
in Christ is what saves us,praise God.
But baptism serves as a publicconfession of our inward
confession of the heart.
(34:24):
Now I'm going to go through thispretty quickly.
What are three beautifulblessings?
The third question I want toanswer from Peter's message
today.
He gives us this in 39 through41.
Forgiveness of sins, now, sinceI've been 18 years old.
That is a beautiful blessing ofrepentance and faith in Christ,
our confession in the Lord, now, since I've been 18 years old.
(34:48):
I was saved in July 1979.
And I'm going to tell you thetruth.
I've known my sins are forgivensince July 1979.
I've not went to sleep onenight worried about going to
hell or worried that I'm notsaved, because the Holy Spirit
(35:13):
bears witness with my spiritthat I'm a Christian.
And so I will just say to youwhat a beautiful blessing to
know your sins are forgiven.
If we would do what Peter saysrepent, believe in Jesus Christ,
be baptized in obedience, wecan know that our sins are
forgiven from the Lord.
It's just a beautiful thing.
(35:35):
Christ has paid the total priceof the forgiveness of our sins
if we put our trust in him.
The Bible says whoever keepsthe whole law but fails in one
point has become guilty of allof it.
So we're not ever saved bybeing good enough.
We're saved because Christlived a perfect life and paid
(35:56):
for our sins.
The old hymn says what can washaway my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh precious is the flow thatmakes me white as snow.
No other fount I know, nothingbut the blood of Jesus, the
(36:16):
second blessing of salvation.
So we talked about forgivenessof sin.
Peter tells us about the giftof the Holy Spirit.
Now we're going to be spendinga whole year on the filling of
the Holy Spirit.
So I'm just going to saysomething just to explain what
he's talking about here.
I'm not going to spend a lot oftime on the gift of the Holy
Spirit, because it's what thewhole book is about.
(36:44):
But when a person is saved, theyreceive the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit.
They are born of the Spirit.
Can someone say praise God, andI've had that indwelling of the
Holy Spirit since I was savedin 1979.
As Pastor Chris shared, thereare some disagreements and some
nuances on the indwelling versusthe outpouring of the Holy
Spirit.
(37:05):
I think sometimes we're tryingto put God in a theological box
and figure out things that heleft a mystery on purpose.
We have our nice theologicalboxes, don't we?
We want to put God intheological boxes, don't we?
We want to put God in.
I love what Brother Jack sharedwith me, what his wife Gracie
(37:27):
said years ago.
I love this and I think it'strue.
Brother Jack's wife Gracie saidthis God blessed a Christian
who has not yet met a theologian.
There's a lot of truth in that.
Sometimes we really try to putGod in our theological box and
when it doesn't fit, we're goingto make it fit, amen.
So the important thing toremember when it comes to the
(37:48):
Holy Spirit.
Here's two things that allBible-based Christians believe.
All Bible-based Christiansbelieve the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit happens at salvation, when a person is born of the
Spirit.
Can we say amen to that?
And all Bible-based Christiansbelieve that Christians can ask
(38:10):
for and receive subsequentfillings of the Holy Spirit.
Can we all say amen to that?
We all agree with that.
And then the last.
So what I'm sharing with you?
So you have forgiveness of sins, we have the Holy Spirit to
help us.
What a beautiful blessing ofsalvation.
And we also have another promise.
That these promises that we canknow for certain through Jesus
(38:35):
Christ, our Lord, it's not forjust us, it's for our children,
our children's children and toall generations, even people in
the uttermost parts of the worldRichmond, kentucky, amen.
The gospel found its way here,to the uttermost part of the
world, richmond, and so the lastverse here says for the promise
is for you and your children,for all who are far off,
(38:58):
everyone whom the Lord, our God,calls to himself.
We should never stop prayingfor our family and friends.
Amen, because everyone whocalls upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
Our prayers are eternal.
We can believe God for thesalvation of our household.
Just like Peter says, thesepromises and these blessings are
for our children and to allgenerations.
(39:19):
Now, when I pray for ourchildren and our grandchildren,
I don't just pray for those thatare alive today, and I'd say
many of you do the same thing.
The Bible says that those thatfear the Lord, that the
blessings of the Lord andsalvation will be upon the
household.
For how many generations?
One thousand generations forthose who fear the Lord, amen.
(39:42):
So we can pray for theblessings of God upon our
heritage for 1,000 generationsor until the Lord returns.
Amen.
What a great promise.
So today, if you're anunbeliever today and you're here
today, repent.
We shared with you what thatmeans.
(40:02):
Repent.
Today is the day of salvation.
Repent, believe in Jesus Christand follow him in obedience to
baptism, water baptism.
And as Christians today we needto follow the example of Peter.
Today we need to be witnessesof the Lord Jesus Christ.
(40:24):
Peter showed us exactly how toshare the good news of Jesus
Christ, to share Jesus Christ ofNazareth.
He shared with us how to do it,but we need the outpouring of
the filling of the Holy Spiritto be witnesses in this dark
world that we live in, praiseGod.
(40:45):
So I just want to invite youtoday to come and pray.
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