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The official audio library of sermons preached at Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio.
The hallmark evidence of the Spirit's presence is not a bunch of, you know, celebratory
sound and movement and flashing and and and signs and things happening.
That that may be, I'm not saying that's all false.
I'm not saying that.
But the evidence of the Spirit's working is Christ.
In all of this, Christ is on display.
Jesus Christ, slain and risen, is lifted up.
Before the eyes of his people, and his people are being united to him.
They're being built up into him, and they're building one another up into him.
Where the Spirit is, Christ is central.
The following message was recorded at King Street Church.
May the Spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified
and risen Jesus Christ.
oh
We are going to be in Acts chapter 2.
There are, I believe, this sermon and one more sermon left in Acts chapter 2, which is
nice.
We should be able to finish up this second chapter before Pastor Sean gives his customary
last of the month message.
So look with me if you can at Acts chapter 2.
If you recall, last week we were looking at the message, the sermon is
That Peter gives at Pentecost.
And we were specifically looking at some different elements there.
The content of the sermon.
So what it, what was the essential content of that message?
What was the effect that it had on the lives of the people?
What was the right response to that sermon?
And then what was the result?
What were the results that were promised to the people?
That's what we looked at last week.
This week, again, we're finishing up this.
examination of Pentecost and the sermon given at Pentecost.
And I want to look with you more closely at the results.
The second half of what Peter says, this is what comes to those who respond to the
apostolic message.
This is what comes to those who turn and are united to Christ through faith and baptism.
That's what I want to look at today.
And doing this is going to help us to see where does Peter
As an apostle, where does he understand the gospel to fit into God's plan, the overarching
plan of God through history?
How does the gospel fit into that?
And then for us, it'll help us to see how our being united to Christ through the gospel
folds us into that same plan, lifts us up out of the storyline of our life or our culture
or this moment, and folds us into the storyline.
Of God's people throughout time.
So that's what we're going to be looking at today.
And we're going to do that by considering two main parts.
First, we're going to ask: what is the gift that is given to those who respond to the
gospel?
What is the gift that Peter says is given to those who repent, they turn from their sin,
and they are united to Christ through faith and baptism?
What is the gift given to them?
And then who
Are those that receive this gift?
Who is this gift for?
So a what question and a who question.
That's what we're going to be looking at today.
And for us sitting here in the pews, this applies to us because it's helping us to
understand who am I in Christ?
Because everything, everyone is trying to give us an identity.
You are this degree, you are this job, you are this age group, you are.
This ethnicity, you are whatever it might be, we find our identity in who God has declared
us to be in Christ.
And so today, as we look at who the gift of the Spirit and who that's given to it, it
helps us understand okay, who am I?
And it'll help us to understand what I have really received?
What is actually mine?
Because you think about so often we go around as the person who has received an
inheritance from a
Deceased uncle they never knew about, didn't even know they had this inheritance, are
living on a, you know, whatever it might be, a shoestring budget when this whole
inheritance is theirs.
And we want to know what what have we received as Christians?
And how do we live according to that?
So that's what we're going to be looking at this morning.
And it comes at the end of uh Acts, Acts chapter two, verses thirty-eight through
forty-one.
So let me read this for us, and then I'll pray.
It begins with Peter saying to the to the people who have said, What do I do?
I've been cut to the heart by your message.
What do I do?
Peter says in verse 38, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins.
And you will receive, here's where we're going to look at today: you will receive the gift
of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are
far off.
Everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.
And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save
yourselves from this crooked generation.
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three
thousand souls.
Let me pray and we'll look at these things that Peter talks about in this passage.
Father,
So here we are, here I am, in need of you, Lord.
I say this every week, but it is true, and we confess it again this week.
We are in need of you.
I am in need of you, Father, to strengthen me and equip me now to rightly handle this
word, to rightly speak your word to your people as one who will give an account for what
has been said, an account for their souls.
Father,
strengthen me by the Spirit to faithfully and and anointedly bear witness to Christ.
And I pray for your people to have the discernment of the Spirit, to discern what is said,
and to receive the word you have for them, the conviction you have for them, the comfort
you have for them, the encouragement you have for them.
And I pray, Father, that in all this, our Savor for Christ
Would be increased.
Our understanding of him would be deepened.
His weight in the scales of our affections would be intensified.
That he would be given his rightful place in our lives.
That we'd be realigned now as we look at your word and see what you have for us here.
So come, Father, and grant the lifting up of Jesus Christ.
By the working of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of your name and the help of your people
and the salvation of the world.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So let's begin by asking okay.
If we repent, if we are united to Christ by faith and baptism, Peter says, we will receive
something.
You see that in verse 38.
Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness
of your sins, and you will receive.
So here's a promise turn, trust, be baptized in Christ, you receive.
Will receive something.
What?
You will receive the gift.
What's the gift?
Okay, that's our first question.
What?
What are we receiving?
The gift of the Holy Spirit.
Now, when Peter says here the gift of the Holy Spirit, he's not saying the gift that the
Holy Spirit gives, like this is the gift of me, giving giving you something.
He's saying the gift that is the Holy Spirit.
Those who repent.
And turn and are united to Christ, will receive the Holy Spirit.
So I'm assuming that applies to most of us here.
I'm guessing, I and I know for many of you, we have repented, and by grace we are
continuing to repent.
We have been united to Christ by believing in him as Lord and God and Savior and being
baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit.
This applies, and therefore.
You can be sure I've received this gift.
I've received this.
So we're talking here not about something.
Hey, if you do really well, you might get this.
Hey, if you pass with flying colors, maybe you'll attain to super Christianity, and this
will be true of you.
That's not what we're talking about.
This is given to the ones who are in Christ.
So if you're in Christ, this is yours.
You have received the Holy Spirit.
So
I want to ask then, what does that mean?
What is this gift that we've received?
It's like if somebody says, you have received the the entire retirement savings of your
uncle.
And you say, What's retirement saving?
I don't even know what that means.
Well, that would help to understand.
That would understand that would help you know how to use this gift, how to benefit from
this gift.
So Peter says, You have received the Holy Spirit.
And we say, What does that mean?
Well, let's see what we can discern about that.
Three things that might help us get our hands around this gift we've received.
The first thing is the spirit is God.
Now, twice now I've used the analogy of an of a financial inheritance just because that's
easy for us to get our minds around.
But the spirit is not like a financial inheritance because that's just dead impersonal
money.
The spirit is God.
The spirit is uh
We are Trinitarians.
We believe there is one God.
We believe in one God who eternally exists in the communion of three persons: the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
That's essential to our faith, which means the Spirit, together with the Father and the
Son, is worshipped, is glorified, is God.
So that's the first thing for us to see here.
Now you say, okay, show me that from the text.
Hopefully we we know this is true.
But one of the simplest places to see this, you know, you could do a large all scripture
argument showing how the spirit is God.
But a very simple place, if you just want to say, show me a verse that shows us the
divinity of the Spirit comes in Matthew 28.
And this is fitting for our text today because it deals with baptism.
Jesus says, as he sends out his disciples in Matthew 28, verse 18, Jesus said to them, All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
What's this look like?
Baptizing them in the name, or really into the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit.
Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son.
And the Holy Spirit.
Now, in a context like that, you don't just throw in another name that doesn't fit.
You know, you wouldn't say baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Apostle Paul.
That that would be that would be strange.
That would be dissonant.
The Father is God, we know.
The Son is God, we know.
And to put in the Spirit together with the Father and the Son is putting him at the same
level as the Father and the Son.
And so just the baptismal formula that we hear every time someone is baptized into the
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Spirit is included there by the authority of
Christ in the identity of God.
And you see that there also, because he doesn't say baptizing them in the names of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as if it's three different entities.
He says baptizing them in the name, the one name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.
The Father, Son, and Spirit share the single name.
God is not sharing his name like this with a creature, with a force, with an impersonal
entity.
And so that passage right there is a simple way for us to see.
Now, again, there are much more longer arguments we could make, but here's a simple way
for us to see the spirit is God.
He's not a force, he's not a power, just an impersonal power.
He's not a created essence.
He is the Spirit of God.
So long as God has existed, which is from all eternity, God has had a spirit.
And that spirit is the Holy Spirit, the spirit that you have been given.
So when Peter says, repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit, he's saying, receive
God given into your life.
Receive God Himself coming to dwell in
In your life.
That's the first thing to see.
That's a weighty thing to see.
And that's worth meditation for years, for a lifetime.
What does it mean?
What are the implications of God taking up residence in our lives?
That's the first thing.
The second thing for us to see about the Spirit is that the Spirit is about Jesus.
The Spirit is about
Jesus.
We could see this as we look at examples all throughout Acts.
I'm not going to do again an exhaustive study here.
I'll just give you a few quick examples.
The simplest one is the one that's right in front of us.
Remember, Peter is here preaching by the power of the Holy Spirit.
His sermon that he's giving here at the beginning of Acts, this is the Spirit k giving the
inaugural message, the Spirit empowering him to preach.
And what is the climax?
What is the spear point?
Of Peter's message, Peter's spirit-empowered message.
Looked at it last week, verse 36: Let all the house of Israel know, therefore, God has
made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you have crucified.
So the message that the Spirit gives is the crucified Christ is Lord and God.
That's the work the Spirit does.
That's the message he gives.
We can see this again.
In Acts chapter 4.
You don't have to turn to these, I'll just kind of go through quickly.
Acts chapter 4, verses 8 through 12.
Peter again is speaking, and it says, Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said,
Rulers and peoples and elders, we're being examined today concerning a good deed done to a
crippled man.
By what means this man was healed, healed?
Let it be known to all of you.
That by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised up, by
him this man is standing before you well.
This Jesus is the stone who was rejected by the builders, and he has become the
cornerstone, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under
heaven among men by which we must be saved.
The point here is the Spirit empowers Peter.
And what does Peter do?
Speaks about Christ, points to Christ, lifts up Christ.
That's what the Spirit does.
Peter doesn't say, Let me tell you guys all about the Holy Spirit.
No, when the Spirit fills him, he speaks of Christ.
And there are other examples we could point to.
Acts 5, 30 through 32, the Spirit is called a witness to Christ.
And then in Acts 13, 2, it is the Spirit who sets aside Paul and Barnabas for the work of
Evangelizing the whole world.
The Spirit works to say, these two are my vessels to go out and speak of Christ to all the
world.
And so the point in all this is that at every turn in the gospel and in the in Acts, in
the Gospel of Luke and in the second book, Acts, the Spirit is about Jesus.
He's pointing to him, he's empowering people to speak of him, he's convicting hearts.
Concerning him, he's exalting Christ.
And you see that most in in its most concentrated form, in the first appearance of the
Spirit, in the two-volume work of Luke and Acts, the first thing the Spirit does is to
conceive Jesus Christ in the womb of Mary.
The Spirit's work is to bring about Christ in the world by bringing about the incarnation
in the womb.
Of Mary.
And that is not only something the Spirit actually does, that's a picture of what the
Spirit is always doing.
He is always bringing about Christ in the lives of his people, in the world.
He works to bring Christ about, to present Christ, to exalt Christ.
That's the work of the Spirit.
So an example that helps me as I think about this dynamic here.
Imagine that Jesus is a statue, a sculpture of the glory of the Father.
And imagine he's standing there in the middle of a town, town square, and it's nighttime.
And the spirit, then, is the spotlight shining on that statue.
It's all dark, we can't see it.
The spirit is the spotlight shining on that statue.
You see that in your mind?
And you don't say, wow, what a light.
Look at that light.
If the light is shining, the brighter the light is, the clearer the light is, what do you
say?
Look at that statue.
Look at look at its detail.
Look at its beauty.
Look at its excellence.
You couldn't see that without the light.
You would not be able to see it without the light.
You need the light.
And at every moment, the light is there, enabling that sight.
But the light, the better it's working, the less you're thinking about it.
And the more you're looking at the statue.
You don't run up and say, whoa, look at this light.
Blind yourself.
And the light doesn't want you to do that.
The light says, look at the statue.
That's what I'm here for.
Look at it.
Similarly, similarly, of course, the you see where I'm going with this, the spirit, the
work of the spirit is to illumine Christ, to point to Christ, to exalt Christ.
That's what he rejoices to do.
And where the Spirit is working powerfully, the way that is known is Christ is lifted up
boldly.
Christ is lifted up, the crucified Jesus.
Whom God raised from the dead is exalted and proclaimed and given to his people and to the
world.
That is the evidence of the Spirit working.
Just like the clarity of the statue is the evidence of the light working.
Now, since the Spirit is invisible, He's in our midst working powerfully.
I mean, how foolish are we to think?
Well, if something's invisible, you know, maybe it's not really there.
Gravity's invisible, and that's a big deal.
Everything, nothing would work without it.
But since the spirit is invisible, one of the things that means is that it's easy for
people to say, the spirit is here.
You can't really disprove them.
I mean, okay, the spirit is here.
The spirit told me something.
The spirit said this.
The spirit wants this.
The spirit is doing this.
It's easy to say things about the spirit because he's you can't see him.
And and there are whole branches of the church that are fixated on the spirit.
The spirit, the spirit.
And to that I say, wonderful.
I'm not going to say, don't be about the Holy Spirit.
Of course, He's God.
Wonderful.
But here's the thing: if someone is really fixated on the Holy Spirit, then that person
will be fixated on the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.
That's what we see in Scripture.
The the hallmark evidence of the Spirit's presence is.
Is not a bunch of you know uh k celebratory sound and movement and flashing and and and
signs and things happening.
That that may be, I'm not saying that's all false, I'm not saying that.
But the the evidence of the spirit's working is Christ.
In all of this, Christ is on display.
Jesus Christ, slain and risen, is lifted up before the eyes of his people, and his people
are being united to him.
They're being built up into him, and they're building one another up into him.
Where the spirit is, Christ is central.
Christ is central.
So that's the second thing to see here.
We've been given the Spirit, who is God.
We've been given the Spirit who is all about Christ.
And where he is, he is pointing hearts and minds and lives to the crucified one.
Who is risen.
So that's the second thing for us to see.
And then the third thing for us to see is that this Spirit, who is God and who points us
to Christ, exalts Christ, this Spirit folds us into God's own life.
That's what the Spirit does in us.
In exalting Christ, he's folding us into God's life.
And you say, okay, well, where do you get that?
Let me set it up a little bit.
Remember, in the text we're looking at today, Peter is talking about baptism.
He says, be baptized and you'll receive the Spirit.
That's generally speaking, that's what he's saying.
Where do we see that?
Elsewhere in Scripture.
Where do we see a baptism and the Spirit?
And if you cast your mind back into the Gospels, you'll remember the baptism of Jesus is
united with the coming of the Spirit upon Jesus.
in the form of the dove.
We see that in Matthew and Mark, we see it in part in John, and we see it in Luke.
Remember, Luke is the one who's writing Acts.
Let me read for you what it says back in Luke chapter one, oh I'm sorry, chapter three,
verses twenty one through twenty two, it says this.
Now, when all people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
so there's the baptism piece, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended.
So look, Jesus is baptized and then comes the Spirit.
That's the same pattern Peter gives us.
The heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove,
and a voice came from heaven.
Saying, you are my beloved son.
With you I am well pleased.
So, in this baptism moment, the baptism is linked to God's own triune life.
Christ is baptized, and the Father speaks his love over the Son.
And the Son receives that love as his identity.
And the Spirit is given as the
Personal presence of that love, mediating that love with his presence.
That's what happens at the baptism.
And that is a glimpse of God's own life.
That's an opening up of the life of God.
To the extent that we dare even speak about these things, we can say: God's life consists
of this: the Father pours himself out in love to the Son.
The Son receives.
Everything he is as the love of the Father and pours himself back to the Father in love.
And the Holy Spirit is the living love, eternally uniting, eternally whole being the bond
together of the Father and the Son.
This is God's life, to the extent that we can speak of things like this.
In Psalm 36:8, it says it speaks of the abundance of God's own house.
And the river of his delights.
That's what this is.
The Father loving the Son, the Son receiving himself as the love of the Father, and the
Spirit uniting as the love between them.
This is the abundance of God's house and the river of his delights.
Now, here's the point: if the Spirit is the love that binds together Father and Son and
beats as the heart of God's own life, and if
That spirit is given to you, given to us.
Then by that spirit, we're gathered in to that same life.
Do you see that?
The spirit is at the center of God's eternal life.
And he takes this spirit and says, You come in too.
You be folded into this too.
It's like the current of life flowing between Father and Son is all of a sudden brought
out and passed through us.
And now we are gathered in.
To this life, to this love, to this joy.
You, Christian, as insane as it sounds, are made participants in God's own life.
That's what the Spirit is doing here.
And it's not just extrapolated from the baptism.
Look what Paul says in Romans.
He says, God's love, God's own love, has been poured into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit, who has been given to us.
Or again, a few chapters later in Romans 18, listen to what Paul says is true of the
Christian.
You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received
the spirit of adoption as sons, the spirit who brings you in as a child.
The spirit of adoption is sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father.
What right do we have to call God Father?
That's Jesus' language.
You remember that?
Abba Father is what Jesus says in the garden.
How dare we enter into that most intimate of Father and Son moments and take those same
words on our lips?
The only way we do that is because the same spirit that finds the Father and the Son is
given to us.
And now we are part of that life and say with the Son, Abba.
Father, it goes on, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children
of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, provided
we suffer with him, in order that we might also be glorified with him.
So Christian like a thread taken up into a tapestry, like a note gathered up into a
symphony, like a wedding guest.
Drawn into the dance around the bride and the groom, we by the spirit are being brought
into God's own life, gathered into God's own life.
That's what you're made for.
We are made to become participants in the life of the triune God through union to the
slain and risen Jesus Christ by the Spirit.
That's what you're made for.
Not the
Petty things that we're presented with, not the little needles of needs that pierce us all
the time.
gotta make ends meet, gotta do this, gotta get this.
We are here for a vapor, vapor.
And then it's the life of God, ever spiraling into the life of God.
That's what we're made for.
Little, little dust moats gathered up into the beam of his life.
That's
What we're made for.
And it begins now, as the Spirit is leading us to fight sin and obey God and love one
another.
Do you think that we just have to do that?
I'm a Christian, so I just have to do that.
This is my religious duty, just have to obey.
This is rehearsal for eternity.
Our our growing in love, our growing in obedience, our learning to be the kind of people
who respond like Christ.
That is fitting us.
For this union for which we're made, that's that's already walking on the foothills of
this fellowship in the life of God, God's own self-giving love, God's own all-satisfying
joy.
That's why we love one another.
That's why we obey.
That's why we fight sin, because we're going into God.
We're moving into God.
We're united to Him now, and that union will ever.
Evermore increase, spiraling into him.
So may that vision be set before us.
The Bible holds out awesome things to us.
The Bible doesn't say, hey, suffer for 80 years and you'll get a golden harp, have a good
time.
That is not the presentation here, even though that's almost often how it's how it's
given.
And when you present it that way, boy, all the stuff in the world sounds pretty good.
The Bible is saying you are going to join the life of God.
You're going to live in him for eternity.
And all the fascinating implications that has that boggles the mind.
May it be the vision for us, Christian, and may we lift our eyes then from the deadening
screens of our cell phones.
And I'm not saying that as someone who's free of this, but how often you know you pull it
out and think, I'll check something, or I wonder how that's going, or I wonder how that's
doing.
And I'll tell you when I.
When I don't do this all the time, I'm not this great guy, but when I say, I'm not gonna
do that right now, I'm gonna think about the Lord.
I'm gonna think about something else.
It is never a comparison with am I am I disappointed I didn't find out that spoiler about
this movie?
Or you know, I'm not I'm not disappointed.
I'm never disappointed when I say I'm I don't need that.
Never disappointed.
Only ever grateful.
May the hope.
Into which we're going, lift our eyes from deadening screens.
May it lift our eyes from the dulling noise of what's new, what's new, what's new, what's
new.
Who cares?
Who cares what's new?
Because it'll be old in five hours.
Live for eternity.
May it lift our eyes from the misdirecting urgency of the podcast.
It's happening.
It's happening now.
Just a few more years.
it's going down.
No.
Don't get sucked into this worthless stuff, the conspiracies, the popular media.
May we instead turn our eyes to the horizon of our hope in Christ, union to God in the
Spirit.
That's what's set before us.
That's what's set before us.
So may we live with this hope.
So that's the first thing.
What is the promise?
The Holy Spirit.
And we're sharing in Him.
Now,
Peter clarifies this a little bit.
He says, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And then he says, for, you see in the in the second half of the verse there, for the
promise is for you and for your children.
And so he he clarifies for us the idea of the Spirit by saying, the Spirit is the promise.
The Spirit is the promise.
Okay.
Okay.
What promise are we talking about here?
Look, look at Acts 2 again, verse the con the the the
Transition between verse 38 and 39.
You will receive the gift of the Spirit, for the promise is for you and for your children.
And just so we're clear that the promise there he's talking about is the Spirit.
Back in verse 32, he says this: Jesus, God raised up from the dead, and of that we are all
witnesses, being therefore exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the
Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.
He has poured him out.
So when Peter says here at the end of his sermon, you will receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit, for the promise is for you.
The promise he's talking about is the Spirit.
The Spirit is the promise.
Okay?
All right, now that leads us to say, well, what is this promise?
What is this, where is this coming from?
Touched on this a few times in the last few weeks, but.
When to a Jewish audience you say the promise, as Peter does here, pretty much one promise
is in view.
And that's the promise that is given to Abraham in Genesis.
That's what the promise that kind of kicks all this off.
The promise that comes in Genesis chapter 12, and it reads like this, chapter 12, verses
two to three.
I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great.
So that you will be a blessing.
I will bless the listen to all this blessing language.
So that you I will bless you and make you great, so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse.
And in you, here's the key: in you, Abraham, all the families of the earth shall be
blessed.
That's the promise that Pete that Peter is linking together with the Holy Spirit.
Now you might say, well, where's the spirit there?
I don't hear the spirit there.
Look at what Paul says.
You know, Peter and Paul, they're working together.
We can bounce them off one another here.
Look what Paul says in Galatians, speaking about the same promise, the same promise made
to Abraham.
Galatians 3, I'll read it for you.
It's Galatians 3.13.
He says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
That's awesome.
We have to move on beyond it.
As it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanging down a tree.
And this cursing of Christ happened why?
So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham, what we just read about, that promise
made to Abraham, through you all nations will be blessed.
What's that blessing that has been promised?
Here we go.
So that in Christ, the blessing that was promised to Abraham might come to the Gentiles,
so that we might receive the promised Spirit.
Through faith.
So let me disentangle this for you and help you see what's going on here.
Peter says at the end of his sermon, you will receive the Holy Spirit for the promises for
you.
What's that promise?
Well, it's the promise of blessing made to Abraham.
Well, what's that blessing?
Paul says, that blessing is the Spirit.
The blessing that was promised to Abraham is the Holy Spirit.
From the very beginning.
When God said, I will bless all nations through you, God's purpose was, I will give the
Spirit.
I will give myself through you, Abraham, through your seed, I will be given to all the
world.
And Peter is saying that promise is the Holy Spirit.
That it was always going to be the Holy Spirit.
God was saying to Abraham, through you, Abraham, I am making a channel through which the
Spirit will be poured out.
To all the world.
That's the blessing.
The blessing is God Himself poured out through Christ in and as the Holy Spirit to all the
world.
That is the purpose of God from the beginning, as He's bring gathering His people back to
Himself, to take wayward, dustborne, mortal flesh, to fill it with His own breath and
unite it to His own life of joy.
That is what God is after.
And this, again,
Is why we exist.
This is what every longing in your soul is aimed at.
To be filled with God in Christ by the Spirit, to be gathered into the life of God.
All our longings are for that.
And they are splintered and fragmented and going everywhere.
But when we receive Him, when we enter into Him, we see He's what I've always been after.
There's nothing else.
If you've been given God, you don't say, well, God is helpful for these things, but for
this, I really like this over here.
No, He is the satisfaction of all our longings.
He's the healing of that ancient wound dealt in Eden, that wound of unbelonging, that
wound of being cast out, that wound of being exiled.
The spirit is the end of that because the spirit is the gathering into God's life, not
just back to the garden.
into God's own life.
There's so much I wish we could say about that.
The Spirit is the one whom every glimpse you've ever had of pleasure or beauty or wonder
or love or a weeping joy that breaks in on you in the midst of sorrow, every taste of
these things that are kind of around the world and we bump into them, pointing to this,
pointing to union to God in the Holy Spirit.
Through Jesus Christ.
And Christian, you've received this spirit.
We've received this spirit.
And as Paul said, remember what he says back in Romans every hardship, every hardship is
gathering us into this life.
You have received, he says, the spirit of adoption as sons, the spirit himself bearing
witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer
from.
With him, in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Every one of your sufferings, Christian, as one who is united to Christ, as one who is
filled with the Spirit, every one of your sufferings is a stepping stone into the life of
God, into the place he's taking you.
None of them are detours, none of them are accidents, none of them are things where God
says, Oh, that was terrible.
I'll try to fix that.
The Spirit holds us as we suffer meaningfully into the life of God.
Even as he held Christ, as Christ suffered all our sufferings and brought us into the life
of God.
This is what we're a part of.
Now, let me conclude here briefly.
What we've seen is that the gift that is given to the one who trusts the gospel, who
trusts Christ, who's united to Christ.
That gift is the promised Spirit of God who empowers us to know and speak of Christ and
who gathers us into the life of God.
But then lastly, let's ask this question: who is this gift for?
Well, Peter said, we might say, well, it's for anyone who repents and be is baptized.
Right.
But remember, Peter's speaking to a Jewish audience here, a Jewish audience.
And
He says this gift is for you and for your family.
Can we just take this and apply it to us?
Well, yes.
Let me show you how.
The first thing he says is the promise is for you and for your children.
That's the Jewish element.
Paul Peter is saying, Listen, people of Israel, descendants of Abraham, this promise is
for you and your physical offspring.
The people of the Jewish people whose Jewish Messiah has fulfilled these things, this is
for you.
So that's clear.
But as soon as he says that, he expands it.
And he says, and for all those who are far off.
And that's the Gentiles.
That's not just the Jews now.
This promise made to Abraham has suddenly broken open.
It's for the Jews, but it's also now for the Gentiles, for everyone.
And then you might the the Jewish person could say, Well, that's that's upsetting.
We are God's chosen people.
We are heirs to the promise.
But the fact is that God's chosen people is Christ.
And the heir to God's promises is Christ.
Very briefly, for the sake of time, I'll just read this for you in Ephesians chapter 2,
verse 12 and following.
It says this Remember, you were at that time separated from Christ.
You were the ones far off.
You were the Gentiles, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel.
Strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
But now, in Christ, you who were once far off have been brought near by his blood.
He himself is our peace, who has made us both, that is, Jew and Gentile, one, and has
broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.
And so this promise is for the Jews, but it's also for the Gentiles, because it's
Only for Christ.
And if anyone is to come into this promise now, come into Christ, Jew and Gentile, all of
God's people come are found in Christ.
A farmer in rural Ohio is an heir to the promises of Abraham more truly than even the most
devout Jew who rejects Christ.
Because it is in Christ that these promises are given.
Now, the very end of this verse.
Peter then takes the Jew, it's for you, the Gentile, it's for you, because it's all in
Christ.
And then he sums up this group of people, Jew and Gentile, near and far, by this everyone
to whom, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.
That's where Peter ends.
Listen, call on the name of the Lord.
And if you call, it's because you've been called.
It's because he's calling you.
Everyone who comes to him are those whom he calls to himself.
It is not that humanity makes a great appeal and God from his height says, I guess I'll
listen.
It's that God calls humanity and those who hear respond in faith.
And in saying this, Peter's not trying to bring up the question of sovereignty and
responsibility and all these sorts of things.
We can talk about that offline.
In saying this, Peter is saying the initiative is with God.
He's acting to bring you home.
He's acting to bring you in.
And if your heart is cut by the gospel, then he's calling you.
So come home.
That's what Peter's saying.
If you feel the need for Christ, God is calling you.
So come home.
Come home to Him.
Because this call comes through the gospel as it's proclaimed, and it comes supremely
through the cross.
Cross, God Himself in Christ becomes the call that draws us to Him.
Look at Christ, crucified and raised.
See Him in His own flesh, summoning our souls to wake from their stupor and see the
reality of my sin in His flesh.
See the reality of the wrath I am due in His broken body.
See the reality of the love that swallows everything up in him dying in my place.
And see the glory of God in this one who takes all and rises up and gathers me in.
Jesus Christ is the call upon our hearts.
And if you see him, if you hear him, respond to him.
For the first time, saying, He's my Lord, I have to trust him.
Respond.
If he's calling you.
And for the thousandth time, respond.
See again the glory of Christ and say, Lord, I cast myself on you.
You're my only hope.
You're my only healing.
You're my only wisdom.
And if we hear his call, may we not harden our hearts.
And this table, this table is the most immediate way for us to respond to this call.
Because how does Peter go on?
He says, Save yourselves.
From this crooked generation.
Well, as we come to this table, we are coming out in a real way from the crooked
generation of which we're a part.
As we come to this table, we're coming out of the passing fears and petty goals that the
world impresses upon us.
We're coming out as you come to this table.
For a moment at least, you're coming out of the race and the squalor.
Of making more and doing more and being more and getting more, coming to Christ, coming
out of Babylon, coming to Zion, and saying by faith, He's my life.
Here's my center.
Here's the truth.
So you're responding.
But also at this table, he's calling you because here's the body, like I said last week,
broken for our sin.
There's the witness to my sin.
And yet this same body bears my sin, covers my sin, heals my sin, and is given to me now
as food.
Here's the blood that my sin spilled.
It's a witness against me.
And yet, here is this same blood poured out to wash us clean, poured out to speak a word
of mercy, mercy over you.
Drink it as a word of mercy spoken to you.
And so this table is also calling, calling.
Come, come and receive Christ afresh.
So by grace, may we hear that call at this table.
By grace, may we respond to that call at this table.
And by grace, as Paul says, may we save ourselves, depending on him, save ourselves from
this dying generation through union to Christ.
Let me pray for us.
Father, we are like trees, silent and unmoving, unless the wind of your spirit blows
through us and awakens us.
And so, Father, we pray for the working of your spirit.
We know we have received the Spirit if we've trusted Christ.
And I pray that we would be a people who are living in the fullness of that gift.
Thank you, Father.
Thank you for the Holy Spirit.
May everything you will to do in us individually, in us as a community, through the
presence of your Holy Spirit, may it be unleashed, may it be worked, may it be carried out
in this people, unto the glory of Jesus Christ, unto our union to Christ, unto our being
made like Christ.
And as we come to this table, Father, may this be part of what you're doing.
May this bread and this cup.
Now be tools in your hands to work in the souls of your people to conform us to Jesus
Christ.
We come to you, Father, hungry and thirsty and needy and knowing that everything is found
in you.
We pray all this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabinah, Ohio, to see
more of the beauty of God and the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.
Come worship with us on Sundays at 10 a.m.
or visit our website at Kingstreechurch.org.