OK, would you, would you pray with me?
Father in Heaven, we ask that you would send your Spirit to be
our teacher today. That as we turn our attention
and our affections to Your word, that we would hear the voice of
Your Son, our Savior, and that hearing Him, we would believe in
Him and that we would be built up in our faith.
Father, would you do for us what you did for our brothers and our
sisters that very first Pentecost?
Would you draw near? And would you help us to see
that Christ has been the plan all along?
And would you help us to marvel at Him and to love Him and to
trust in Him? We ask it in his name.
Amen. OK, so you are in Acts chapter
2. A couple of housekeeping things
before we dig in. First of all, man, it was glory
and fire to see you guys at Eli and Grace's wedding on Friday.
I just marvel at the community that God has built here and the
friends that we have in this church and and I was overwhelmed
with joy that my family who doesn't really get to live with
you guys like I do, just got to see all of you there and all of
you blessing our family and just being there and it was truly
heavenly. So thank you for thank you for
being there. Thank you for all of the all of
the work that you put into help care down and and all of the
kindnesses that you have given to Eli and grace.
We are humbled and really encouraged.
So we love you. We love you deeply and I don't
tell you that enough, but I do. I do so treasure you.
Thank you for that. Second thing I want to tell you
is that next Sunday, Lord willing, we're going to start a
study in the book of Joshua, just work our way through an Old
Testament book. And so if you want to prepare
for that, a good practice would be to to start reading the book
of Joshua. You can read it once a day this
week, or you can read it once throughout the week, or you can
read just chapter 1, whatever you want to do.
But that's what we're going to do.
And so just as a heads up, OK, so last Sunday was Ascension
Sunday when we remembered the anniversary where Christ who had
been crucified for our sin and risen from the dead or went into
heaven on our behalf. And we thought deeply about what
does that mean? How does that impact us?
What does it change? Does it change anything or is it
just an interesting story? Well, this Sunday is another one
of those Sundays that seems like an also ran holiday, and it's
the it's Ascension Sunday. It's the Sunday where we
remember, no, not Ascension, where we remember Pentecost,
where we remember that fifty days after the resurrection,
Christ poured out his Holy Spirit upon his people.
And So what we're going to do, what I want to do is it's not
going to be a strict exposition because we would be here forever
as I preached on a sermon, preach a sermon on the sermon.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to high point some of the
things that Peter's sermon that we can learn from it about the
about the reality of Pentecost. OK, the first thing I want to
show you about the about Pentecost and you heard Aaron
read this text to you is that in at Pentecost, Christ is really
and fully revealed to Israel. So the key to this entire text
is in in verse 32. If you look in verse 32, it's
towards the end of Peter's sermon to Israel and he says
this Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses being
therefore exalted at the right hand of God.
Really it could be rendered exalted by the right hand of God
and having received want you to watch this received from the
Father the promise of the Holy Spirit that is the Father gave
Jesus the gift of the Holy Spirit.
He has Christ has poured out this that you yourselves are
seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into
the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord,
sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your
footstool. Let all the House of Israel
therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and
Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
That's the key phrase. Let all the House of Israel
therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and
Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
OK, one of the mega themes if you want to write in your
Bibles, I'll write I'll I'll say the addresses of these texts.
But when you read the Gospels and you look at the ministry of
John the Baptist, his ministry was to the nation of Israel to
preach not just that somebody was coming, but he would be the
one that identified who it was that was to be the Messiah.
And so if you read Matthew chapter 3 verses 7 through 12,
Mark chapter 1 verses 4 through 8, Luke chapter 3 verses 7:00
and 9:00, and then 15 through 17, and then John chapter 1
verses 29 through 34, what you see is this mega theme that John
is saying they, they believed there's so much power and
authority in John who came preaching in the spirit of
Elijah, that they mistook him that he might be the Messiah.
This might be the one that we're waiting for.
And John repeatedly testified and it shows it's it's face in
all of the gospels that after me comes one who I am not worthy to
untie his sandals. And he says repeatedly, I
baptize you with water, but there's coming a one who will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
And there's always a threat to the nation of Israel that when
Messiah comes, he's going to do 2 things.
He's going to put his spirit on you if you trust him, or he's
going to kill you by fire. The axe is laid at the root of
the tree. And if you do not repent, you're
going to perish. So John the Baptist came so that
the identity of Christ might be revealed to Israel.
And just like in the Old Testament, on the evidences of
one or two witnesses is a fact confirmed.
So Israel was given John the Baptist as the first witness,
that it was Christ who would be the Messiah.
And then the second witness came, and it was Christ himself
with all of his works and with all of his wonders and with all
of his signs that he did in their midst.
Right? Peter says those words, A man
attested to you by God. This is up in verse 22.
A man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders
and signs that he did through him in your midst.
You saw it. So the testimony of John, the
testimony of Christ with signs and wonders.
And lastly, they are now at Pentecost given the last
testimony that the nation of Israel would have, and it's the
testimony of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles of Christ.
As a witness. Listen to the way the book of
Hebrews describes this idea of you had the witness of of John,
you had the witness of Christ. You have the witness now of the
Holy Spirit through the apostles.
This is Hebrews 2 one through 4. He tells these Jewish Christians
who had, who had started to come into the church, and now we're
saying, man, there's persecution here, Let's just go back to the
sacrificial system. Let's let's renounce Christ, or
maybe not even renounce him. Let's just quietly retreat from
the cross, go back to the sacrificial system.
The author of Hebrews says. Therefore we must pay much
closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from
it. For since the message declared
by angels talking about the Old covenant proved reliable, and
every transgression or disobedience received a just
retribution, how will we escape if we neglect such a great
salvation? It was declared at first by the
Lord. That's our witness.
Christ himself came and said, the Kingdom of God is upon you.
Declared at first by the Lord, it was attested to us by those
who heard it, while God also bore witness by signs and
wonders and various miracles, by the gifts of the Holy Spirit
distributed according to His will.
Do you see that Christ? And then the apostles under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit are testifying that to the House
of Israel that God has made him Lord in Christ, this Jesus whom
you crucified. Now the interesting thing is
they largely rejected that testimony.
And we're indeed just like John the Baptist said he would do.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Christ has baptized them at Pentecost with the Holy Spirit
and in 40 years those that did not repent of their sin and
trust in Christ, In 40 years He baptized them with fire exactly
40 years after the original Easter morning.
So first thing we need to know about Pentecost is that Christ
at Pentecost, Christ is revealed yet again to be the Christ, and
he's revealed that way to Israel.
The second thing we need to know, and this is super
important, is that the end times, because of Pentecost, the
end times have broken through. OK, Now our job as we come to
the Scriptures, it's really important is to let the
Scriptures interpret our theology, not the other way
around, not my system of theology teaching me to read a
text a particular way. That's that's, that's cart
before the horse, right? We want to come to the scripture
and say, what does the Scriptures say?
And then therefore, what kind of theology am I going to ascribe
to you? So what I would like to do is I
would like you to to use this verse in verses 1516 and 17 to
answer the following question. Use that text.
I'm going to read it to you to answer the following question.
According to Joel and according to Peter, what did God declare
to Old Testament Saints would be the sign of the eschaton of the
last day? Peter is going to preach at
Pentecost. He's going to quote Joel.
And so I'm asking you, what does the text say will be the mark of
the indication that God has indeed brought about the last
days? Look in verse 15 an answer from
the text, For these people are not drunk as you suppose, since
it is only the third hour of the day.
But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel verse
17. And in the last days, the
eschaton where we get our word for eschatology in the last days
at the end of the world it shall be God declares that I will pour
out my spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters
shall prophecy, your young men shall see visions, your old men
shall dream dreams. So again use this text to answer
the question according to Joel, according to Peter, what did God
declare to Israel would be the sign of the last days answer.
I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.
Pentecost meant that God had indeed initiated the end of the
world as they knew it and that world.
When you read the rest of the New Testament, you get the sense
that the apostles think that the end of the world is eminently
upon them. Paul tells the Corinthian
church. Think about this tells the
Corinthian church. Hey, in light of the current
distress, the coming of the end, I would counsel you not to get
married. Just just stay single because
we're about to go through a really hard time.
The great tribulation that Christ promised would come to
the men of that generation. And so either the apostles were
wrong and the day of the great Tribulation is still in our
future, or they were right when they said this is the mark of
the last days, that the eschaton has broken into our right now
and that we're living in light of the end.
That world was ended when the temple was destroyed and it has
been remade in Christ. And I'll show you some more of
that in a little bit. Third thing, I have 7.
So we're almost halfway done. The third thing you need to know
about Pentecost is that Pentecost means Babel has been
undone. OK, Pentecost means Babel has
been undone. You guys, just just to remind
you, they're in dwelling in Jerusalem.
Jews and devout men from every nation under heaven.
At the sound the multitude came together.
They were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak
in his own language. And they were amazed and
astonished, saying, Are not all those who are speaking
Galileans? How is it that we each hear, and
each of us hear each of us in his own native language?
And then he lists all the places Parthians means.
Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia,
Pontius Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene,
Rome, Jews, proselytes, Cretians, Arabians, we hear them
telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.
Now, if you know your Bible, you know that this is something very
significant that's related to a story in Genesis Chapter 11, the
Tower of Babel. So I just want you to listen to
some quotes from the story of the Tower of Babel.
This is this is what the men said when they were going to
build the Tower of Babel. Listen to these words.
It's a direct quote. Come, let us build ourselves a
city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a
name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the
whole earth. We want to build a tower into
the heavens to which we all sort of chuckle and say it's cute,
right? They're going to build a tower
into the heavens. Listen to how God responds.
He, he doesn't think it's cute. He doesn't chuckle.
He says, behold, they are one people and they all have one
language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do.
And nothing that they propose to do will be impossible for them.
Wait a second, God, I don't think you heard what they were
planning. They were planning to build a
building, a structure out of brick into the heavens.
And God says, yeah, I know. And they can do it because
they're created in my image, and I've given them power and
dominion and authority. When they have one language,
they can do it. Therefore God says, so they say,
come, let us build. God says, come, let us go down.
And they're confused their language so that they might not
understand one another's speech. So think about this, since God
confused language to impede the ability of man to successfully
rebel against God, making them unable to carry out all they
propose, then what would the unconfusing of language at
Pentecost mean for the Church of Christ?
What would that mean? If, if, whatever we purpose to
do, we can do? And so God confuses our language
so that we can't do it, and then Christ dies, rises, ascends,
pours out his Holy Spirit, and the first thing that happens is
there's no confusion of language anymore.
What is the logical conclusion of that?
He has now made things possible for His church to do anything
that they purpose to do. And so whatever we purpose to do
in the name of Christ, under His authority, by His word, is
possible for the people of God. And so let me ask you a
question, Christian. What might you propose that we
endeavor to do? What big work might we?
What might we undertake? I don't know.
Here's a good idea. How about we say things like
your Kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. So what if we proposed not like
Babel, to make the heavens like the earth?
We're going to build from the earth into the heavens.
Rather, what if we endeavour to make the earth like the heavens,
the earth like the heavens? So we are a heavenly people
seated with Christ in glory, filled with his Spirit, building
towards the earth, and now he's given us the power through his
Spirit to do it. Christ said, make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe and
obey all that I've commanded you, and I'm with you always to
the end of the age. So brothers and sisters, in the
name of Pentecost Sunday, we got to we have to repent of this
idea of this like Christian hand wringing, stressed out counsel
of defeat. When the when the foundations
are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Like they're, they're, you know, the help Lord for the godly man
ceases to be evil is on the rise and and righteousness dwindles.
What can the godly do? What?
How does the Psalmist answer that question?
The Lord is in His holy temple. That's the answer.
We can do anything. Our God does anything that He
pleases. So we need to, we need to
repudiate this tiresome and unbiblical idea that we just
suffer through and fail in this world.
Christ sent us on a winning mission, and Pentecost is proof
of that. He has poured out His Spirit
upon His people. What could possibly be too hard
for Him to accomplish through His church?
The fourth thing about Pentecost, it's very important
is that Christ has been the plan all along.
Look at what Peter tells him in verse 22.
It's marvelous. He says, 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 in your midst.
As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to
the definite plan and for knowledge of God.
That that Greek word there is where we get our word for
prognosis. It's to know something
beforehand and decree it the definite plan and foreknowledge
of God. You crucified and killed by the
hands of lawless men. God raised him up losing the
pangs of death because it was not possible for death to hold
him. They thought the men of Christ
generation really did think that they were in control.
Let's kill him and let's take what's his.
We can do this. Nobody can stop us.
They thought they were in control.
They were doing whatever they wanted to do.
So this is not coercion. This is not predestination.
That is determinism. This is predestination where God
knows the end from the beginning and has decreed, but then allows
in this mysterious way allows them to do everything they want
to do. It's it's called giving someone
enough rope to hang themselves. So they did everything that they
wanted to do to Christ and God worked it for good.
So just like Joseph's brothers attempting to thwart the
prophetic dreams of his dominion over them, remember, let's,
let's, let's kill him. Let's throw him in the pit and
kill him. Let's sell him into slavery.
And then we'll see what becomes of his dreams.
Well, what became of all of their best laid plans?
It brought about the dominion of Joseph.
What became of the best laid plans of the Pharisees who said
in John 11, I believe when the whole world was following
Christ, I think it was Caiaphas that said you guys know nothing
at all. It's better that one man should
die for the nation, that the whole nation perish.
What he was saying is we're going to assassinate him so that
the Romans won't get upset and come and take take us out.
And so they intentionally lied about Christ to get him
crucified. And all that they did, they
intended for evil, but God intended for good.
It is not possible for Christ to be held by death because in him
was life and the life was the light of man.
He is the resurrection and the life.
He did lay down His life for the sheep.
One of my favorite teachers said to me one time, he said, he said
if you look in the Gospels, there's only three times that I
know of that. That Christ raised somebody from
the dead. There are other things that is
it is death. People rose from the dead.
But but as far as the gospels telling a story where he where
he calls someone back to life after death, there's only three
times. And this man quipped that
because Jesus is the resurrection, you never see him
going to funerals because a funeral cannot be a funeral.
When the resurrection himself comes to visit, it's like a dark
room and you walk in with a light.
It's not a dark room anymore by the just the sheer presence of
light in a dark room makes it a light room.
And the sheer presence of the resurrection himself, Yes, Lord,
I know that my brother's going to raise up in the last day.
And he said I am the resurrection in the life, I'm
him, I'm the resurrection. And so Lazarus could not stay
dead in the presence of Christ. It's a marvelous thing.
Fifth thing about Pentecost is that there is a mutual receiving
look in verse 29 and I want you to see something marvelous.
Verse 29 Peter says, brothers, I may say to you with confidence
about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried in
his tomb is with us to this day. So David said he he just quoted
from David saying you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let
your holy ones see corruption and Peter says what gives?
David is dead his he was buried. His tomb is with us to this day.
Verse 30 being there for a prophet, knowing that God had
sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his
descendants on his throne. He foresaw David foresaw and
spoke about the resurrection of the Christ that he was not
abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh seek corruption.
This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.
Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having
listened to these words, this is marvelous.
Having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,
He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and
hearing. When Christ ascended and was
seated at the right hand, He received from the Father the
Holy Spirit, and having received him, He poured the Spirit out
upon His church. And so because we are in
covenant union with Christ, all that is His, all that has been
received by Christ becomes the property of His church.
This, by the way, has never happened before.
You see leaders in the Old Testament anointed by the Holy
Spirit and doing great work. Saul, David come to mind.
Elijah comes to mind. But the Spirit descends and
empowers one guy to go do things and lead the people.
But this has never happened. It's never happened that someone
would be anointed and so covenantally connected to his
people that so is everybody else.
So Christ receives the Spirit, pours the Spirit out upon his
people. And so you and I have the same
access to the same Spirit that Christ was given because he has
poured him out upon us. It's just a marvelous, A
marvelous thing. He indeed is the one who still
baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit is the
daily presence of God, abiding with us, filling the lives of
the people of God. And so the question is, what
power do you need? What what work has God called
you to that you can't possibly do?
Pete just took a bunch of oaths that none of us are manful
enough for. Yeah.
Just just be a great perfect example all the days of why it's
life like I can't I can't do that.
But God has given you his Holy Spirit who will work in you all,
all of his good pleasure. Eli and Grace swore oaths on
Friday that they can't in their flesh they can't accomplish.
Christ has given us commands that we and ourselves cannot
accomplish. No big deal.
Just go win the nations for me. Let's go do it.
It's fine, you know, be done by Tuesday.
No, we can't do it unless and until God pours out His Holy
Spirit upon His church. And then, brothers and sisters,
we can do that which is required.
He will do it in US. So whatever power you need, ask
the Lord daily, Father, would you fill me with your Spirit in
the name of your Son Jesus? Would you equip me and empower
me for whatever work you have for me to carry out?
Paul says it this way. Work out your salvation with
fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both
to will and to work is good pleasure.
So God is in us to will and to work through his Holy Spirit.
Sixth thing is mutual authority. So there's mutual indwelling of
the Spirit. Christ receives the Spirit,
pours him out on his people, and then there's also mutual
authority. If you look in, in verse 36,
this is wild. Peter says to Israel, let all
the House of Israel therefore know for certain that God has
made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
Now when they heard this from Peter, they said, who the heck
are you? You're not our priest, you're
not our Pharisee, you're not our leader, you're not our pastor.
You're just some fisherman from Galilee.
That's not what they say. That's not what they say.
They said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles Brothers,
what do we do? You, you have been placed in an
authority over us. You're speaking to us
authoritatively in the name of Christ, and so you need to tell
us what to do. OK.
He goes on to say Peter. Peter tells them in verse 38.
Peter says I don't know, I'm not a priest.
Go ask the priest, go ask somebody else.
I don't know. I'm not a spiritual authority
over you. No, that's not what he says.
Peter said to them, well, I really think you ought to know.
He says a command, repent and be baptized everyone of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and
you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is
for you and for your children. That's why we baptize our
children and for all those who are far off, everyone whom the
Lord our God will call to himself.
And just as an aside, with many other words, he bore witness and
continued to exhort them, saying, save yourself from this
crooked generation. And so those who received his
words were baptized and they were added that day about 3000
souls. OK, so Peter is exercising a
mutual authority, the authority he is ruling and reigning with
Christ. Christ has put him on a throne
over Israel. If you remember, every time
Jesus came and and taught authoritatively or did miracles
or cleanse the temple or broke their Sabbath traditions, they
would always say by what authority are you doing this?
Who are you? You don't have the right.
And he just assumed it because he is the son of David.
He is the king of Israel. And now Peter is doing the exact
same thing. This is a direct fulfillment of
Passion Week promise that Christ made to the ungodly Jewish
leaders. Listen to these words.
They're all red letters. During Passion Week, Peter,
Jesus said to the religious leaders in Israel, these words
quote, therefore I tell you, talking to the chief priests and
the Pharisees and the scribes who were days away from killing,
who they knew to be an innocent man.
He says, I tell you the Kingdom of God will be taken away from
you and given to a people producing its fruit.
To which we should all jump in and say, Jesus, that sounds like
a replacement theology, right? But it isn't.
It's fulfilment theology. Jesus also said he went on to
say the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces
and when it falls on anyone it will crush him.
Peter, we are watching him reign and rule in the name of Christ
on earth at Pentecost with King Jesus doesn't make him a Pope
because all of the apostles enjoy the same authority that
Christ has given them. But I just want you to see that
you need to reckon with that, that that Christ had really has
taken authority from an empty Jewish system that rejected the
life of itself and he's given it to those who are producing its
fruit. 7th And lastly, that Pentecost is the fulfillment of
a pattern of type and a promise. You have Babel undone in verse
6, right? This is this goes all the way
back to Genesis 11. You have a prophecy fulfilled in
verse in verse 17 where where an Old Testament prophecy Joel is
is prophesying about the end times.
You have a prophecy fulfilled in the Psalms in verse 25 through
328, a Davidic prophecy about about the coming Messiah.
You have another prophecy the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my
right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your
feet. You have patterns abounding the
pattern of, of just like Joseph rejected by the Jewish leaders
and he becomes the ruler of the Gentiles and therefore the ruler
of the Jews later on. You have all of these patterns,
all of these types, all of these things that are going on in
Christ is the fulfillment of all of them.
But there's one in particular that we really need to sit in
and I want you to try and follow me closely.
I'll, I'll try not to nerd out and I'll try and make it as as
clear as I can. Jesus is is being shown to be
the new and the better Moses that Moses was good.
He was, he was in God's house, faithful in God's house, but
Christ is the builder of God's house.
So Moses, think about this with me.
Moses was attested to be the deliverer of Israel to Israel by
signs and wonders. Remember he said, who do I say
sent me? God gives him his name.
What do I do if they don't follow me and he gives him a
magic wand, Throw it on the ground.
It'll become a snake. Put your hand in your coat, pull
it out. It's it'll be leprous that he
and Moses is given by God signs to attest to Israel and to
Pharaoh that he's the deliverer. And when Moses goes to them,
they see all of the signs and they reject him.
Like, no, this is not our guy. Well, Christ is the new and
better Moses who came with new and better signs attesting to
the fact that he was Israel's deliverer and they rejected him
too. Moses in in In Moses's day,
Pharaoh was killing babies and attacking God's Son in order to
in order to prevent any heroes rising up and striking down the
tyrant. Sirens always do that.
Christ, when he comes into the world as the new and better
deliverer, there is a more evil Pharaoh who's now the king of
the Jews inherit and he's attempting to kill the future
king of the Jews. Where is he who's been born king
of the Jews? The the wise men say.
And Pharaoh immediately pronounces, well after some time
pronounces a death sentence on all the baby boys injured in in
in Bethlehem in order to prevent doing the same thing that
Pharaoh had done. And when and when those babies
grew up, Pharaoh would falsely accuse and, and, and go after
Moses in the same way the new and the worst Pharaoh in Christ
today would falsely accuse and crucify an innocent man.
Moses and Israel were led through the baptism of the Red
Sea, right? They they were united together.
They were led through the the baptismal waters of the Red Sea
and they were brought out to salvation and all of God's
enemies drowned in the Red Sea. And now the new and better Moses
and his people have safely passed through the new and worse
baptism of the Red Sea, which is death itself.
And they came out on the other side in the resurrection of
Christ. We have been crucified with
Christ. We have been raised with Christ,
and so there's been a new and a better baptism.
Now think about this, exactly 50 days after that event, that the
event of the Exodus, they celebrated something called the
reason Pentecost existed was because fifty days after the
Exodus, Moses the man of God ascends on a mountain and God as
a representative of Israel and God meets with him on the
mountain and writes his law on 2 tablets of stone.
Well, fifty days after the resurrection, Christ has
ascended on our behalf into glory and is seated at the right
hand. And having ascended to the right
hand of the Father, he pours out his Spirit.
Who the Jeremiah told us and, and Hebrews quotes that when the
Spirit comes, he will take and the new covenant he will take
his Spirit and he will take his law.
And he won't write it on tablets of stone, but now he's going to
write it on our human hearts. And so 50 days after the exodus
you get the law. 50 days after the resurrection of Christ, you
get the law written on the Spirit, on the hearts of his
believers. Now think about this.
What happened when Moses was on Mount Sinai getting the law of
God written on tablets of stone? What was Israel doing at that
moment? They were following their Jewish
priest, their Jewish high priest, to make a golden calf,
to lead them into idolatry. And so when Moses comes down, he
throws the the tablets down, he breaks the covenant because they
had broken the covenant. And then something very
interesting happens. He tells the Levites, he says,
whoever's with the Lord to me, the Levites come and he says,
gird up your swords and go strike and slay those idolaters.
Do you know how many people died on that day?
When? When the the original Pentecost
3000 men of Israel were killed that day?
Does that number sound familiar? When in verse 40, with many
other words, He bore witness and continued to exhort them,
saying, save yourself from this crooked generation.
So those who received his word were baptized and they were
added that day about 3000 souls. This is just a recapitulation of
Old Testament, of Old Testament history, of Old Testament story.
But now instead of judgment, 3000 men die.
Now you have salvation, 3000 men get saved.
So I would ask you, do you mark that up as a coincidence that
the events of Christ directly parallel and dovetail the events
of Moses and the Exodus and the children of Israel?
Do you take that as a coincidence?
Or do you think God might be up to something a little bigger
than we can see at first glance? Well, of course he's up to
something. And so I want to continue to
read the story. Just give me 5 minutes.
The Exodus generation right in the Old Testament that failed to
believe the Lord and to rise up and take possession of the land
that they were given. They had a death sentence
pronounced upon them because of their unbelief.
This is numbers 13 and 14. God says you saw everything I
did in Egypt and then when you came to the promised land, you
said there are giants in there. We can't do it.
Remember the the 12-12 spies go in, they come back.
Caleb and Joshua say we can do it.
The rest of the 10 say we can't, and God swears to that
generation, the men 20 years old and upward, who saw my signs and
my salvation that I worked in in Egypt and then who disbelieved
me. I swear God swore in the Old
Testament they will not enter my rest.
So he pronounces a death sentence on them and a life
sentence on their children. When you die, I'm going to take
your children that you thought were going to be eaten by
giants, and I'm going to raise them up and conquer the land.
And we'll read about that when we read the book of, of Joshua.
And so listen to me, you had two parallel groups within the
covenant of God. You had one under a death
sentence that was they were not going to make it into the land
because of their unbelief. And you had one under a life
sentence that we're wandering with them until this generation
died off and then God took them up to inherit the land.
So those who had seen the Exodus but didn't believe were marked
to die. Those who were children would
rise up and take possession. This duality of the people of
God existed for exactly 40 years until the Exodus generation died
in the wilderness and their children rose up to take
possession of the land under Joshua.
In the same way, the generation that saw Christ failed to
believe in him largely when he came among them and he spoke,
he, he said he, he pronounced judgment on them.
He spoke a death sentence upon the men of his generation that
saw what what all of the law and the prophets longed to see,
namely God himself come in the form of a man as Israel's
Messiah. And this is the the sentence
that he pronounced on them. He said, this is Luke 12.
If you want to write this down, the blood of all the prophets
shed from the foundation of the world until now will be charged
against the men of this generation from Abel to
Zechariah. These are all red letters.
Yes, I tell you it will be required of this generation, the
generation that saw Christ and crucified him.
He says retroactively going back to Abel and Cain all the way up
to current Christ says I will require it of the men of this
generation. He says this in Matthew 24.
For then there will be a great tribulation such as has not been
from the beginning of the world until now.
No, and never will be. And truly I say to you, this
generation will not pass until all these things take place.
Christ pronounced a sentence of death on Israel for their
unbelief in Him and He also pronounced a sentence of life
and dominion over his church. And would you believe you can
guess it right that this duality of peoples both like the
apostles, you can read in the in the in the book of Acts.
They continue knowing Christ being filled with the Spirit.
They continue going to temple. They continue keeping Sabbath.
They continue in the dietary restrictions for a while.
Both of these peoples walk together keeping the Sabbath,
honoring the Lord, the Lordship of Christ.
One side is honoring Lordship of Christ, one has rejected him.
They walked together for exactly 40 years.
Just like the wilderness wanderings, the two together as
one people, the Christians seen as a sect of the the Jewish
religion, but but still very much part of it.
And they walked together for 40 years until Christ put an end to
the temple system once for all and gave his Kingdom and his
inheritance to his church. Who would bear its fruit.
Brothers and sisters, these meta patterns of redemptive history.
I don't know if that's the right word to call them or not, but
that's the word that came to my mind.
The meta, the meta patterns, all of these recapitulations that
Christ has over Old Testament stories, these are as binding as
chapter and verse. You cannot pretend like God is
not doing something here. Being slow or unwilling to
believe these things is what Christ rebuked the Emmaus
disciples for. Oh oh foolish ones.
And slow of heart to believe all that the law and the prophet
said. And then he said, was it not
necessary that the Christ must suffer and after three days rise
and enter into his glory? To which they should say, where
do we see that? It's these, it's these stories.
It's the, it's the continual pattern that we see in the Old
Testament of promise and a pattern of type.
And he rebuked them. And so let us therefore
acknowledge them and embrace them.
And yeah, let us rejoice in them, for they mean wonderful
things for us and for the world. And so let us know for certain
what Peter preached on the 1st Pentecost, that God has made him
both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
And when they crucified the Lord, they did not know that
they were providing manna for the world.
Jesus is bred from heaven that sustains his people.
Jesus is both. To take the Old Testament
picture of the wilderness wanderings, Jesus is both water
and the rock from which it poured.
But the water of the new covenant, like the water at
Cana, has been made into wine. And not just any wine, but the
best wine. Wine that intoxicates much more
than normal wine. But while intoxicating, this
wine never leaves us astray. This bread and this wine, they
feed us, they empower us, they guide us on the path of life.
For they testify of our covenant Head and of our union with Him,
of His manifold perfections becoming ours, of His love being
poured out upon His people, unstinted, full, measured and
totally free. Brothers and sisters, baptized
into union with the exalted Lord of the Ascension, filled with
the Spirit that he received from his Father, which He has poured
out upon you, I bid you come to the table in the name of King
Jesus. This is his body which was
broken for you. This is his bloodshed for the
forgiveness of your sins. The promise is for you.
The promise is for your children and for all who are far off,
everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself and He calls
you now. So come and welcome to King
Jesus. Let me pray for us, Lord Jesus,
we thank you for these things. We thank you for being in the
same way that you led your people, Jude tells us out of
Egypt and you fed them. You were the rock that followed
them. You gave them food.
You gave them water. Your presence never left them.
In the same way we come now to the to the to the aftermath of
your life and death and resurrection and ascension and
the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, and we come to your
table sustained just like them by the goodness and the grace
and the love of Almighty God. I pray Lord, as we come to this
table that you would send your Spirit new to minister the the
merits and the blessings of Christ to us.
Lord, I pray if there are any tender hearted souls here who
just can't believe that you have really purged their sin, you've
really pardoned them. You've really removed their sin
as far as the east is from the West.
Holy Spirit, would today be the day that those thoughts of
condemnation actually are silenced and that they hear the
voice of Christ saying that you forgive, you pardon, and you
welcome. So would you meet with us here
at your table? Lord, we ask it in Christ name,
Amen. Amen.