Peter's Sermon: the Appeal and Results
Acts 2:37-42
The question that is posed by the message this morning dealing from Acts 2:37 through the beginning of 42, is the question how is a man to be saved? By what act? By what method? Through what person? What is the operation? What is the channel of salvation. You know there have been saviors since the year once. There have always been those who were going to save the world and redeem man from all of his trials and problems and so forth and there are endless, endless solutions offered to man's problem. But still the question goes on, how is a man to be saved. How is a man to come into a knowledge that he is secure both for time and eternity? That there is a life of bliss not only here, but there wherever that there may be.
Biblically, the question comes repeatedly. How can I enter the kingdom? How can I be saved? What do I have to do to inherit eternal life? And there are answers coming from all over the place with the scriptures as a reference. For example, the legalist says keep the law, that's how to be saved. The moralist says have your goodies outweigh your badies. And God's got scales. The racist says be one of God's chosen people. The universalist says don't sweat it, we'll all get in in the end. The ritualist says you've got to do the right ritual. Follow the right forms. And the strange part is that they all isolate scripture to prove their point. The legalist for example may quote from James 2:21, which says, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works." However, he will avoid Romans 3:20 which says "By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."
The moralist comes along and quotes from John 5:29, "They that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation, therefore it all depends on what you've done good or evil." He will avoid Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, "For by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast."
The racist may quote Romans 11:26 that says, "So all Israel shall be saved." And carefully avoid Romans 9:6 which says, "For they are not all Israel who are of Israel. The universalist will select Romans 5:18, "Therefore as by the offense of one," Adam, "judgment came upon all men so by the righteous of one," Jesus Christ, "the free gift came upon all men." And he will say it's the same all men. Therefore all men will be saved. And he will carefully avoid Matthew 7:13-14 which says, "There is a broad road that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in there at."
The ritualist will invariably find the scripture that accommodates his ritual. And one of the dominate things in theology today is ritualistic baptism. There are some people who believe you're saved by water. Others would say it's a combination of faith plus H2O, but basically it comes down to the same thing. And invariably for proof text, they will find their way to Acts Chapter 2, verse 38, which is in the context of what we're going to say. And they will rejoice exceedingly over repent and be baptized. Assuming that those are the two things that bring about salvation. Without either one, salvation is impossible. They will carefully avoid Romans 10:9-10, which says, that "You're saved when you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in your heart." And there's no water in Romans 10:9-10.
So it's very interesting, and incidentally, you can prove anything by the Bible if you're sure to take it out of context. And it's being done constantly. All of the people who espoused false doctrine from scripture do that. That's why you have to compare the scripture with the scripture so that you be sure you're accurate. Now that makes this passage important because it is one that is used by ritualists to defend the baptismal regeneration viewpoint that to be saved you've got to be baptized. That salvation is not simply by faith. It's by faith and baptism in water. But there's much more to this passage than that, but that alone would be enough for us to study it so we would have an answer adequate to that problem.
Now in this passage, of course, we're dealing with the wrap up of Peter's sermon. And it's a very, very important thing to look at what happens in response to Peter's preaching, because we're gaining real principles here for our own witness, for our own evangelism, for our own preaching. Now let me paint the scene for you by way of review, especially for you who have not been here for some time or at all. We're studying the book of Acts and we've learned several things. From our study of John, we learn that Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to equip the church to finish what He didn't finish.
And on the day of Pentecost, beginning at the very first verse of Acts 2, the Spirit of God came. The Spirit of God then baptized all of those disciples gathered there in Jerusalem into the body of Christ indwelt all of them, then filled them with the Spirit. In the meantime, there was a sound like a mighty rushing wind which had gathered all of these people and there were several hundred thousand, between a half a million and a million wouldn't even be a conservative estimate, in Jerusalem and these masses of people began to gather at the sound of the hurricane, because there wasn't any wind, just the sound.
And as they came together to the location here were all these disciples going about speaking the wonderful works of God in the native languages of all these people who had pilgrimaged to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. And they were astounded. So they Spirit of God had done a great job of publicity. He had gotten the crowd there. He had done it by advertising a sound like a wind. And then He did it by a sign, the miracle of speaking the wonderful works of God. And that was only a sign to point to the sermon that was coming. I told you before signs aren't the end. They're only telling you where the end is. You don't crawl up on the sign and say I've arrived. The sign's pointing somewhere else.
And the sign of the wonderful works of God was directing their attention to what Peter was going to say. But the Spirit of God had gathered the crowd, had opened their minds by the sign and the fact that they were speaking the wonderful works of God that means reciting the historic deeds of God that every Jew knew, made it hard for the Jew to admit anything but that this was of God, because there are only two supernatural sources in the mind of the Jew, God and Satan. And it's for sure that Satan wouldn't be extolling the wonderful works of God.
So they had to cope with the miracle and then the fact that these disciples were stating the wonderful works of God. And so they were confounded and immediately at that point Peter stands up and explains to them what's going on. And you can see how in such a fantastic way the way Spirit of God has prepared their ears to hear the message. And by the time Peter opens his mouth they're hanging on every word. What is this that we're seeing? They cannot deny the phenomena and now they're about to get the explanation.
Peter begins his sermon, verse 14 begins the passage that talks about his sermon. There are four parts, the introduction, the theme, the appeal, and the results. The introduction is explaining Pentecost. Peter bounces right off the living illustration that the Holy Spirit has provided for him. The second is the theme exalting Jesus. The third is the appeal exhorting the people, and fourth is the results examining the effect.
Now we saw to begin with the introduction several weeks ago. Incidentally, I timed this sermon to see how long it would have taken Peter to preach it and if he talks a little bit slower than I talk, which would certainly be to his advantage, it would take about two and a half minutes. Now I realize that nobody could preach an effective sermon in two and a half minutes. I mean, I have to believe that. You understand why. But I struggled with that and I'll show you a little while later that I believe that what you have here is just a very small portion of Peter's sermon. Why it must have gone hour after hour, praise the Lord. But anyway, we'll get to that.
But Peter begins to preach and first of all, he bounces off this illustration that the Spirit has provided, a beautiful illustration, explains to them that what they are seeing is the beginning of Messianic times in terms of fulfillment. Joel said that in the last days you would pour out the Spirit. They're beginning to see what I call the prefillment of the ultimate fulfillment which will come in the kingdom.
They're beginning to see the outpouring of the Spirit. It is Messianic times. Verse 17 says, "it is the last days." Now we know that eschatological the last days has already lasted 2,000 years. The last days is a Jewish term referring to the time of Messiah. And Messiah came once and everything in between til His second coming still embodies Messianic times. So he's saying you're seeing the beginning of the end. This is Messianic times. They all knew the meaning of the term the last days. They knew that was a Messianic reference. Their Messiah had arrived. Their Savior had come. Their Redeemer had come. Their deliverer was there. Their anointed king had arrived.
And so he says this is Messianic times. Well, if it's Messianic times, there's got to be a Messiah, right? So he moves immediately into the theme of his sermon in verse 22 which introduces the Messiah as Jesus of Nazareth. Now that's a startling thing, because they've just gotten through executing Jesus of Nazareth as a blasphemer. And what a shock it must be to realize that that hope of their hearts for which they had waited all those centuries was now crucified by their own design. They had actually killed the one they had been waiting for. And this is what Peter convicts them of. This great sin. And first of all, beginning in verse 22, he wants to prove to them that Jesus is the Messiah and he does it by taking first of all, the life of Christ in verse 22 and say that because He did miracles, wonders, and signs, He was being accredited by God as the Messiah.
In verse 23, he takes the death of Christ and says the death of Christ was no accident, it was no...Jesus was no victim, but rather this was ordained by God fulfilling prophecy explicitly. Then he takes the resurrection of Christ, verses 24-32 and he says, Jesus Christ is the Messiah because of His resurrection. And He shows how the Old Testament prophet David, who was a prophet, it even says he was a prophet right here in this passage. Verse 30, that David predicted Messiah would be a resurrected individual. And Jesus had done that fulfilling David's prophecy so he is Messiah by life, death, resurrection.
Then he goes on to show that He is Messiah by virtue of ascension in verses 33 to 35. He is the Messiah because He was exalted to the right hand of the Father, they stood there, were eyewitnesses and saw Him go. The conclusion then of his theme is in verse 36. Listen to it, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ or Messiah in the Hebrew." In other words, he has proven Christ to be Messiah. So the introduction explaining Pentecost and the theme exalting Jesus.
Now he has really indicted them as executioners of their own Messiah. And he hasn't pulled any punches. He doesn't play around in the periphery. He goes right to the core of the problem. You see the most blatant sin that a man commits is not lying or cheating or committing adultery or this or that. The blatant sin in which every sinner lives is the sin of rejecting Jesus Christ. And that's the cardinal sin of which the Spirit convicts. That's John 16:8-9, "When the Spirit of truth has come He will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment," verse 9, "of sin because they believe not," what, "on me."
In other words, the dominant thing that a man must recognize is that he is a rebel against God's plan and against God's Savior Jesus Christ. And so Peter shows them that they have executed their own Messiah and their own Savior. Now I want you to see his appeal beginning in verse 37. And it's exhorting the people. He exhorts them. Verse 40 says, "with many words." We'll get to that in a minute.
Now whenever you go into any kind of sale, some of you are probably in sales, you're told that when you go to sale your product, be sure that you don't just tell them about it and leave. The whole idea is get them to sign on the dotted line, right? And you never have a salesman come to your door and show you the product and then say isn't that a nice product. I'll call you some time if you're interested. Oh you'll never have a salesman do that. They want to get in there and get that little paper out, get that little pen out and here we go. Well, this doesn't mean anything. You're just signing here and you're in hock for the rest of your life, see.
The object of any kind of sales is when the promotion's going on, that's when you want to clinch the deal. Anyone knows that. So Peter doesn't just say that and say you're all dismissed. He doesn't wrap up with verse 36, powerful thing and say all right everybody that's it. If you'd like to know anything more call the office or there will be literature distributed. You know, he wants to clinch the deal obviously. Now watch what happens in verse 37. "And when they heard this," when they heard his sermon, "powerful sermon, they were pricked in their heart and said unto to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men, brethren, what shall we do?"
They call them brethren because that's a term used among Jews. Doesn't necessarily mean Christians, it means Jews. They were brothers in terms of Abrahamic ancestry. What shall we do? Oh I like that question. That's good. They're in the right spot, they're desperate. That's where the Spirit of God wants to take every man in terms of conviction. To the place of being desperate. Now notice it says they were pricked in their heart. The word that is used for pricked there is the only place it's ever used in the New Testament, interesting word, it means to pierce or to penetrate with a needle or a sharp instrument like a knife. It's a...it carries the idea of suddenness. It's like jamming a dagger into somebody. It's a very piercing sudden grief.
In other words, the idea is of them going along complacently, you know, in the traditions of Judaism and they were just doing what they always did and Christ came along and they executed Christ and they continued to go along and all of a sudden, wham, the knife came in on the day of Pentecost and they were just cut to the heart. And grief came as a result of it suddenly. You say well, what was it that messed them up so much. What was it that got to them? Well, I think there were several things. Let me suggest them. Number one, the sorrow that the Messiah had been put to death. I mean, that's a terrible thing. They'd been waiting for the Messiah for centuries and finally when the Messiah gets there, they have put Him to death through the hands of the Romans.
And that's a terrible thing for them to have to realize. And I think that cut them deeply. Those that were convicted were convicted because they saw the Messiah had come and they had executed the Messiah. Horrible thing, but on top of that secondly, I think that they were cut to the heart because they had a deep sense of guilt that they themselves had done it. Not only had the eliminated Messiah, but they had eliminated Messiah. See? They had actually done it. It would have been terrible to have lost Messiah had somebody else done it, but they had done it. And so there was a horrible sense of guilt.
And then thirdly, this, Peter had announced to them in no uncertain terms and there were multiplied witnesses to prove it that this same Jesus who had been crucified was now alive. And so they were afraid of His wrath. Why Peter had said down in verse 35 that some day He was going to make His enemies His what? His footstool. And that's the picture of the heel on the neck. There was going to be judgment on the enemies of the Messiah. And here they were realizing not only were they...had they lost their Messiah, but they had done the execution themselves and they were heaped with guilt because of that, and then they were of the tremendous response of God toward His enemies. We have killed the Messiah. What could be a worse sin in all the universe than that? Nothing in their minds.
Those who were really convicted, were convicted that they had done the worst thing imaginable. They were right, of course, and the fear of His wrath, they were scared of His vengeance. He was alive again and He was going to make His enemies is footstool. They were scared. Fourthly, I think they were grieved to the heart because they couldn't undo what they did. They couldn't do a thing about it. It was done and they were cut. And they made the right answer. Look at in verse 37. "Men, brethren, what shall we do?" See. Boy that's the spot to be in.
To avoid the wrath, to make right to wrong, what do we do? They were desperate. They had no where to go. They had nothing to turn to. They were stuck. What shall we do? Well, that's a beautiful thing, because it's just that kind of hopelessness that Jesus Christ can meet, you see. And as long as man thinks he can do it on his own, he can never the experience of real salvation. As long as a man brings any of his own works or his own thoughts or his own ideas to add to what he thinks is salvation, there's no way. It's all of grace, Paul said. It's not until a man is desperate and says what do I do? He has no where to turn and no answer that at that point God intervenes with saving grace.
The apostle Paul came to that point on the road to Damascus in Chapter 9 of Acts in verse 6, Paul was really breathing out threatening and slaughterings verse 1 says. On the way the Lord stopped him. And verse 5 says, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." Oh boy can't you read what's going on in Paul's head? The next verse says "And he trembling and astonished." You know he must have shook from top to bottom. A voice out of heaven, he's blinded and this voice says, "I am Jesus whom thou persecuted." You know what Paul said? "Lord, what will thou have me to do?" See, what do I right? He was scared as well as convicted. He had fear. But perhaps even a more graphic illustration is the illustration of the Philippian jailer.
In the 16th Chapter of Acts, you remember they were having a great time there in prison singing away and praising God and just having a lot of fun praying and the prisoners heard them and suddenly there's a great earthquake. And the foundations of the prison were shaking, immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loosed. The prison started shaking, doors flipped open, everybody was loose. The keeper of the prison knowing he'd have to pay with the loss of prisoners by his own life, waken out of his sleep seeing the prison doors open drew out his sword and would have killed himself supposing the prisoners had been fled.
Paul walks up and says "Do thyself no harm. We're all here." And this guy shocked. And it says in the next verse, "He called for light and sprang in, and came trembling." Again he's scared, he is scared. And fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" You see God exercised fear. He allowed fear to bring that man to a trembling place. He brought a measure of fear into the heart of Paul. He brought a measure of fear into the heart of these Jews over what they had done in rebelling against their own Messiah. And they came to that point where they had a deep sense of evil, a deep guilt where they feared the justice of God and the retribution of His Messiah. A desire to be saved from that judgment brought them to the place where they said to Peter what do we do.
And it is just that state in which the soul is prepared to receive the Savior. It is just that state which is ready to yield to Jesus Christ. Their guilt is fully exposed. They are feeling the pain of the apostles' words. Their consciences are stung by the sense of sinfulness and crucifying Jesus. They are convicted. If conversion is to be genuine, it is the offspring of conviction. I love the passage that illustrates this in Zechariah Chapter 12. Maybe to some of you an obscure passage, but very, very important. In Zechariah 12, we have some of the predictions of what's going to happen in the tribulation in the time when Israel is finally redeemed. And I want you to notice what happens.
Zechariah 12:10, "And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitance of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication." There's salvation for Israel. Now watch, "And they shall," here's the first thing, "look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son. Shall be in bitterness for Him as one that is in bitterness for His first born. In that day shall be great mourning in Jerusalem." Verse 12, "And the land shall mourn." In other words, to begin with in the restoration of Israel, there's going to be a conviction and a guilt over the execution of Messiah. During the tribulation, the Bible says that Israel will be saved. And at that time, the salvation is going to come about, first of all, by conviction as they recognize they have pierced their own Messiah. And the pain and the anguish will be like having murdered your own child. That's how sacred Messiah is.
And that's exactly the same pain and anguish those people must have felt on the day of Pentecost. Just as bad as if they had taken some weapon and executed their own first born son. And then I love this. In Chapter 13, verse 1 is says, "In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David." In other words, once conviction comes, it's followed by cleansing. But cleansing follows conviction and to bring anybody to Christ apart from conviction is not to bring them to Christ at all. It's an aborted birth. Conviction is the key in the hand of the Spirit that opens the heart to salvation.
And to everyone that you preach to, you need to preach with conviction. And we like to water sin down, you know. We like to hide from it and pad it a little bit so it isn't as gross as the Bible paints it. It's not right to do that. Men need to be convicted of sin. And you need to realize that you're a sinner, not only because you do sins, but you're a sinner because you live in rebellion against God. You say, I don't rebel against God. Yes, you do. You rebel against God by the very fact that you have committed your life to Jesus Christ. That's God's command that you do that and you've not done it. You live in rebellion against God.
For that you are the vilest kind of sinner. And so was I before I came to Jesus Christ. I spoke on this subject and young man came to me afterwards and he said, "You know," he said, "I'm not a rebel against God. I don't hate God. I don't feel like that at all." And I showed him from scripture that he that is not with me is what? He's against me. I said, "You may be moving that way my friend, but until you come to Jesus Christ, you're in open rebellion against God." And this is true. And so many times we let people off the hook on the basis of well, you know, you're a liar. You've told some lies. Yeah, I've told some lies. See you're a sinner, now repent of that. That's not what...that's superficial. The repentance comes in a repentance from the total life of rebellion against the principles of Go