1 00:00:00,130 --> 00:00:13,174 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. 2 00:00:13,174 --> 00:00:16,084 That that may be, I'm not saying that's all false. 3 00:00:16,084 --> 00:00:17,675 I'm not saying that. 4 00:00:17,995 --> 00:00:21,726 But the evidence of the Spirit's working is Christ. 5 00:00:21,726 --> 00:00:25,357 In all of this, Christ is on display. 6 00:00:25,357 --> 00:00:29,506 Jesus Christ, slain and risen, is lifted up. 7 00:00:29,506 --> 00:00:33,108 Before the eyes of his people, and his people are being united to him. 8 00:00:33,108 --> 00:00:39,112 They're being built up into him, and they're building one another up into him. 9 00:00:39,112 --> 00:00:43,654 Where the Spirit is, Christ is central. 10 00:00:43,954 --> 00:00:47,537 The following message was recorded at King Street Church. 11 00:00:47,537 --> 00:00:56,001 May the Spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. 12 00:00:56,001 --> 00:00:57,542 oh 13 00:00:58,574 --> 00:01:01,125 We are going to be in Acts chapter 2. 14 00:01:01,125 --> 00:01:07,278 There are, I believe, this sermon and one more sermon left in Acts chapter 2, which is nice. 15 00:01:07,278 --> 00:01:16,061 We should be able to finish up this second chapter before Pastor Sean gives his customary last of the month message. 16 00:01:16,102 --> 00:01:20,663 So look with me if you can at Acts chapter 2. 17 00:01:20,663 --> 00:01:26,882 If you recall, last week we were looking at the message, the sermon is 18 00:01:26,882 --> 00:01:28,824 That Peter gives at Pentecost. 19 00:01:28,824 --> 00:01:32,226 And we were specifically looking at some different elements there. 20 00:01:32,226 --> 00:01:34,197 The content of the sermon. 21 00:01:34,197 --> 00:01:37,070 So what it, what was the essential content of that message? 22 00:01:37,070 --> 00:01:40,432 What was the effect that it had on the lives of the people? 23 00:01:40,432 --> 00:01:44,595 What was the right response to that sermon? 24 00:01:44,695 --> 00:01:46,717 And then what was the result? 25 00:01:46,717 --> 00:01:49,882 What were the results that were promised to the people? 26 00:01:49,882 --> 00:01:51,440 That's what we looked at last week. 27 00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:54,164 This week, again, we're finishing up this. 28 00:01:54,164 --> 00:01:58,296 examination of Pentecost and the sermon given at Pentecost. 29 00:01:58,316 --> 00:02:00,828 And I want to look with you more closely at the results. 30 00:02:00,828 --> 00:02:08,662 The second half of what Peter says, this is what comes to those who respond to the apostolic message. 31 00:02:08,662 --> 00:02:15,866 This is what comes to those who turn and are united to Christ through faith and baptism. 32 00:02:15,866 --> 00:02:18,427 That's what I want to look at today. 33 00:02:18,888 --> 00:02:23,290 And doing this is going to help us to see where does Peter 34 00:02:23,584 --> 00:02:32,798 As an apostle, where does he understand the gospel to fit into God's plan, the overarching plan of God through history? 35 00:02:32,798 --> 00:02:35,099 How does the gospel fit into that? 36 00:02:35,159 --> 00:02:48,694 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 37 00:02:48,694 --> 00:02:52,842 or this moment, and folds us into the storyline. 38 00:02:52,842 --> 00:02:54,473 Of God's people throughout time. 39 00:02:54,473 --> 00:02:56,674 So that's what we're going to be looking at today. 40 00:02:56,674 --> 00:02:59,665 And we're going to do that by considering two main parts. 41 00:02:59,665 --> 00:03:07,528 First, we're going to ask: what is the gift that is given to those who respond to the gospel? 42 00:03:07,528 --> 00:03:17,953 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? 43 00:03:17,953 --> 00:03:20,114 What is the gift given to them? 44 00:03:20,114 --> 00:03:21,634 And then who 45 00:03:21,982 --> 00:03:23,883 Are those that receive this gift? 46 00:03:23,883 --> 00:03:25,723 Who is this gift for? 47 00:03:25,723 --> 00:03:28,024 So a what question and a who question. 48 00:03:28,024 --> 00:03:30,444 That's what we're going to be looking at today. 49 00:03:30,444 --> 00:03:38,837 And for us sitting here in the pews, this applies to us because it's helping us to understand who am I in Christ? 50 00:03:38,837 --> 00:03:45,008 Because everything, everyone is trying to give us an identity. 51 00:03:45,008 --> 00:03:51,244 You are this degree, you are this job, you are this age group, you are. 52 00:03:51,244 --> 00:03:59,088 This ethnicity, you are whatever it might be, we find our identity in who God has declared us to be in Christ. 53 00:03:59,088 --> 00:04:07,563 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? 54 00:04:08,184 --> 00:04:11,746 And it'll help us to understand what I have really received? 55 00:04:11,746 --> 00:04:13,607 What is actually mine? 56 00:04:13,607 --> 00:04:19,564 Because you think about so often we go around as the person who has received an inheritance from a 57 00:04:19,564 --> 00:04:28,769 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 58 00:04:28,769 --> 00:04:30,400 inheritance is theirs. 59 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:34,482 And we want to know what what have we received as Christians? 60 00:04:34,522 --> 00:04:36,443 And how do we live according to that? 61 00:04:36,443 --> 00:04:38,665 So that's what we're going to be looking at this morning. 62 00:04:38,665 --> 00:04:44,988 And it comes at the end of uh Acts, Acts chapter two, verses thirty-eight through forty-one. 63 00:04:45,368 --> 00:04:49,150 So let me read this for us, and then I'll pray. 64 00:04:49,260 --> 00:04:53,311 It begins with Peter saying to the to the people who have said, What do I do? 65 00:04:53,351 --> 00:04:55,152 I've been cut to the heart by your message. 66 00:04:55,152 --> 00:04:56,292 What do I do? 67 00:04:56,292 --> 00:05:05,754 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. 68 00:05:05,975 --> 00:05:18,428 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 69 00:05:18,428 --> 00:05:19,454 far off. 70 00:05:19,454 --> 00:05:23,995 Everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. 71 00:05:24,015 --> 00:05:31,597 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. 72 00:05:31,718 --> 00:05:39,459 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. 73 00:05:39,660 --> 00:05:44,441 Let me pray and we'll look at these things that Peter talks about in this passage. 74 00:05:47,222 --> 00:05:48,192 Father, 75 00:05:48,450 --> 00:05:52,483 So here we are, here I am, in need of you, Lord. 76 00:05:52,483 --> 00:05:56,617 I say this every week, but it is true, and we confess it again this week. 77 00:05:56,617 --> 00:05:58,778 We are in need of you. 78 00:05:58,970 --> 00:06:11,570 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 79 00:06:11,570 --> 00:06:15,253 has been said, an account for their souls. 80 00:06:15,574 --> 00:06:16,534 Father, 81 00:06:16,648 --> 00:06:25,565 strengthen me by the Spirit to faithfully and and anointedly bear witness to Christ. 82 00:06:25,966 --> 00:06:37,645 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 83 00:06:37,645 --> 00:06:40,377 you have for them, the encouragement you have for them. 84 00:06:40,958 --> 00:06:46,242 And I pray, Father, that in all this, our Savor for Christ 85 00:06:46,242 --> 00:06:47,803 Would be increased. 86 00:06:48,083 --> 00:06:50,805 Our understanding of him would be deepened. 87 00:06:50,805 --> 00:06:57,288 His weight in the scales of our affections would be intensified. 88 00:06:57,408 --> 00:07:03,432 That he would be given his rightful place in our lives. 89 00:07:03,432 --> 00:07:09,445 That we'd be realigned now as we look at your word and see what you have for us here. 90 00:07:09,445 --> 00:07:14,498 So come, Father, and grant the lifting up of Jesus Christ. 91 00:07:14,530 --> 00:07:23,596 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. 92 00:07:23,656 --> 00:07:25,558 We ask it in Jesus' name. 93 00:07:25,558 --> 00:07:26,408 Amen. 94 00:07:28,582 --> 00:07:31,023 So let's begin by asking okay. 95 00:07:32,064 --> 00:07:40,479 If we repent, if we are united to Christ by faith and baptism, Peter says, we will receive something. 96 00:07:40,479 --> 00:07:42,190 You see that in verse 38. 97 00:07:42,190 --> 00:07:49,894 Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive. 98 00:07:49,894 --> 00:07:58,198 So here's a promise turn, trust, be baptized in Christ, you receive. 99 00:07:58,198 --> 00:08:00,960 Will receive something. 100 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:01,561 What? 101 00:08:01,561 --> 00:08:03,583 You will receive the gift. 102 00:08:03,583 --> 00:08:04,864 What's the gift? 103 00:08:04,864 --> 00:08:06,305 Okay, that's our first question. 104 00:08:06,305 --> 00:08:07,305 What? 105 00:08:07,466 --> 00:08:08,767 What are we receiving? 106 00:08:08,767 --> 00:08:12,309 The gift of the Holy Spirit. 107 00:08:12,350 --> 00:08:21,958 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. 108 00:08:21,958 --> 00:08:25,401 He's saying the gift that is the Holy Spirit. 109 00:08:25,401 --> 00:08:26,614 Those who repent. 110 00:08:26,614 --> 00:08:32,799 And turn and are united to Christ, will receive the Holy Spirit. 111 00:08:32,999 --> 00:08:36,302 So I'm assuming that applies to most of us here. 112 00:08:36,422 --> 00:08:43,948 I'm guessing, I and I know for many of you, we have repented, and by grace we are continuing to repent. 113 00:08:44,169 --> 00:08:53,516 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. 114 00:08:53,516 --> 00:08:55,840 This applies, and therefore. 115 00:08:55,840 --> 00:08:59,212 You can be sure I've received this gift. 116 00:08:59,212 --> 00:09:00,832 I've received this. 117 00:09:00,893 --> 00:09:02,624 So we're talking here not about something. 118 00:09:02,624 --> 00:09:05,195 Hey, if you do really well, you might get this. 119 00:09:05,195 --> 00:09:11,249 Hey, if you pass with flying colors, maybe you'll attain to super Christianity, and this will be true of you. 120 00:09:11,249 --> 00:09:13,040 That's not what we're talking about. 121 00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:16,321 This is given to the ones who are in Christ. 122 00:09:16,321 --> 00:09:19,863 So if you're in Christ, this is yours. 123 00:09:19,863 --> 00:09:24,325 You have received the Holy Spirit. 124 00:09:24,586 --> 00:09:24,916 So 125 00:09:24,916 --> 00:09:27,268 I want to ask then, what does that mean? 126 00:09:27,268 --> 00:09:29,819 What is this gift that we've received? 127 00:09:29,819 --> 00:09:38,476 It's like if somebody says, you have received the the entire retirement savings of your uncle. 128 00:09:38,476 --> 00:09:40,101 And you say, What's retirement saving? 129 00:09:40,101 --> 00:09:41,026 I don't even know what that means. 130 00:09:41,026 --> 00:09:42,568 Well, that would help to understand. 131 00:09:42,568 --> 00:09:49,523 That would understand that would help you know how to use this gift, how to benefit from this gift. 132 00:09:49,523 --> 00:09:52,055 So Peter says, You have received the Holy Spirit. 133 00:09:52,055 --> 00:09:54,176 And we say, What does that mean? 134 00:09:54,328 --> 00:09:56,590 Well, let's see what we can discern about that. 135 00:09:56,590 --> 00:10:02,043 Three things that might help us get our hands around this gift we've received. 136 00:10:02,043 --> 00:10:05,746 The first thing is the spirit is God. 137 00:10:05,746 --> 00:10:12,630 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. 138 00:10:12,630 --> 00:10:19,875 But the spirit is not like a financial inheritance because that's just dead impersonal money. 139 00:10:20,055 --> 00:10:22,457 The spirit is God. 140 00:10:22,657 --> 00:10:24,358 The spirit is uh 141 00:10:24,718 --> 00:10:27,459 We are Trinitarians. 142 00:10:27,519 --> 00:10:29,529 We believe there is one God. 143 00:10:29,529 --> 00:10:41,743 We believe in one God who eternally exists in the communion of three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 144 00:10:41,743 --> 00:10:53,266 That's essential to our faith, which means the Spirit, together with the Father and the Son, is worshipped, is glorified, is God. 145 00:10:53,368 --> 00:10:55,719 So that's the first thing for us to see here. 146 00:10:55,919 --> 00:10:58,860 Now you say, okay, show me that from the text. 147 00:10:58,860 --> 00:11:01,140 Hopefully we we know this is true. 148 00:11:01,220 --> 00:11:09,042 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. 149 00:11:09,042 --> 00:11:18,365 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. 150 00:11:18,365 --> 00:11:21,876 And this is fitting for our text today because it deals with baptism. 151 00:11:22,250 --> 00:11:31,473 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. 152 00:11:31,473 --> 00:11:35,674 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. 153 00:11:35,674 --> 00:11:37,154 What's this look like? 154 00:11:37,254 --> 00:11:47,697 Baptizing them in the name, or really into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 155 00:11:48,557 --> 00:11:52,066 Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son. 156 00:11:52,066 --> 00:11:53,007 And the Holy Spirit. 157 00:11:53,007 --> 00:11:58,030 Now, in a context like that, you don't just throw in another name that doesn't fit. 158 00:11:58,030 --> 00:12:02,693 You know, you wouldn't say baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Apostle Paul. 159 00:12:02,693 --> 00:12:04,914 That that would be that would be strange. 160 00:12:04,914 --> 00:12:06,215 That would be dissonant. 161 00:12:06,215 --> 00:12:08,285 The Father is God, we know. 162 00:12:08,285 --> 00:12:10,417 The Son is God, we know. 163 00:12:10,417 --> 00:12:18,572 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. 164 00:12:18,572 --> 00:12:27,698 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 165 00:12:27,698 --> 00:12:30,910 Christ in the identity of God. 166 00:12:31,231 --> 00:12:40,857 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. 167 00:12:41,118 --> 00:12:47,874 He says baptizing them in the name, the one name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 168 00:12:47,874 --> 00:12:51,835 The Father, Son, and Spirit share the single name. 169 00:12:52,055 --> 00:12:59,577 God is not sharing his name like this with a creature, with a force, with an impersonal entity. 170 00:12:59,577 --> 00:13:03,318 And so that passage right there is a simple way for us to see. 171 00:13:03,318 --> 00:13:10,000 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. 172 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:15,212 He's not a force, he's not a power, just an impersonal power. 173 00:13:15,212 --> 00:13:16,942 He's not a created essence. 174 00:13:16,942 --> 00:13:20,025 He is the Spirit of God. 175 00:13:20,025 --> 00:13:25,669 So long as God has existed, which is from all eternity, God has had a spirit. 176 00:13:25,749 --> 00:13:31,693 And that spirit is the Holy Spirit, the spirit that you have been given. 177 00:13:32,034 --> 00:13:42,342 So when Peter says, repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit, he's saying, receive God given into your life. 178 00:13:42,403 --> 00:13:46,982 Receive God Himself coming to dwell in 179 00:13:46,982 --> 00:13:49,323 In your life. 180 00:13:49,823 --> 00:13:51,304 That's the first thing to see. 181 00:13:51,304 --> 00:13:53,465 That's a weighty thing to see. 182 00:13:53,465 --> 00:13:58,167 And that's worth meditation for years, for a lifetime. 183 00:13:58,167 --> 00:13:59,728 What does it mean? 184 00:13:59,828 --> 00:14:05,090 What are the implications of God taking up residence in our lives? 185 00:14:05,090 --> 00:14:06,091 That's the first thing. 186 00:14:06,091 --> 00:14:11,553 The second thing for us to see about the Spirit is that the Spirit is about Jesus. 187 00:14:11,733 --> 00:14:13,614 The Spirit is about 188 00:14:13,728 --> 00:14:14,248 Jesus. 189 00:14:14,248 --> 00:14:16,799 We could see this as we look at examples all throughout Acts. 190 00:14:16,799 --> 00:14:19,660 I'm not going to do again an exhaustive study here. 191 00:14:19,660 --> 00:14:22,021 I'll just give you a few quick examples. 192 00:14:22,502 --> 00:14:24,923 The simplest one is the one that's right in front of us. 193 00:14:24,923 --> 00:14:30,065 Remember, Peter is here preaching by the power of the Holy Spirit. 194 00:14:30,065 --> 00:14:40,169 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. 195 00:14:40,169 --> 00:14:41,609 And what is the climax? 196 00:14:41,609 --> 00:14:43,610 What is the spear point? 197 00:14:43,958 --> 00:14:47,499 Of Peter's message, Peter's spirit-empowered message. 198 00:14:47,920 --> 00:14:59,905 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. 199 00:14:59,905 --> 00:15:07,228 So the message that the Spirit gives is the crucified Christ is Lord and God. 200 00:15:07,228 --> 00:15:08,519 That's the work the Spirit does. 201 00:15:08,519 --> 00:15:10,729 That's the message he gives. 202 00:15:10,810 --> 00:15:12,148 We can see this again. 203 00:15:12,148 --> 00:15:13,529 In Acts chapter 4. 204 00:15:13,529 --> 00:15:16,321 You don't have to turn to these, I'll just kind of go through quickly. 205 00:15:16,321 --> 00:15:20,083 Acts chapter 4, verses 8 through 12. 206 00:15:20,964 --> 00:15:32,661 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 207 00:15:32,661 --> 00:15:33,851 crippled man. 208 00:15:33,851 --> 00:15:36,393 By what means this man was healed, healed? 209 00:15:36,393 --> 00:15:38,414 Let it be known to all of you. 210 00:15:38,700 --> 00:15:50,196 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. 211 00:15:50,196 --> 00:16:00,192 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 212 00:16:00,192 --> 00:16:03,543 heaven among men by which we must be saved. 213 00:16:03,543 --> 00:16:07,205 The point here is the Spirit empowers Peter. 214 00:16:07,345 --> 00:16:08,702 And what does Peter do? 215 00:16:08,702 --> 00:16:12,384 Speaks about Christ, points to Christ, lifts up Christ. 216 00:16:12,384 --> 00:16:14,125 That's what the Spirit does. 217 00:16:14,125 --> 00:16:17,486 Peter doesn't say, Let me tell you guys all about the Holy Spirit. 218 00:16:17,627 --> 00:16:21,148 No, when the Spirit fills him, he speaks of Christ. 219 00:16:21,589 --> 00:16:24,531 And there are other examples we could point to. 220 00:16:24,531 --> 00:16:30,574 Acts 5, 30 through 32, the Spirit is called a witness to Christ. 221 00:16:30,854 --> 00:16:38,358 And then in Acts 13, 2, it is the Spirit who sets aside Paul and Barnabas for the work of 222 00:16:38,358 --> 00:16:40,199 Evangelizing the whole world. 223 00:16:40,199 --> 00:16:48,421 The Spirit works to say, these two are my vessels to go out and speak of Christ to all the world. 224 00:16:49,001 --> 00:17:01,664 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. 225 00:17:01,664 --> 00:17:07,746 He's pointing to him, he's empowering people to speak of him, he's convicting hearts. 226 00:17:07,746 --> 00:17:10,628 Concerning him, he's exalting Christ. 227 00:17:10,628 --> 00:17:23,487 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 228 00:17:23,487 --> 00:17:27,520 conceive Jesus Christ in the womb of Mary. 229 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:36,992 The Spirit's work is to bring about Christ in the world by bringing about the incarnation in the womb. 230 00:17:36,992 --> 00:17:37,602 Of Mary. 231 00:17:37,602 --> 00:17:42,294 And that is not only something the Spirit actually does, that's a picture of what the Spirit is always doing. 232 00:17:42,294 --> 00:17:48,207 He is always bringing about Christ in the lives of his people, in the world. 233 00:17:48,207 --> 00:17:53,208 He works to bring Christ about, to present Christ, to exalt Christ. 234 00:17:53,208 --> 00:17:55,129 That's the work of the Spirit. 235 00:17:55,810 --> 00:17:59,991 So an example that helps me as I think about this dynamic here. 236 00:17:59,991 --> 00:18:06,824 Imagine that Jesus is a statue, a sculpture of the glory of the Father. 237 00:18:07,052 --> 00:18:13,165 And imagine he's standing there in the middle of a town, town square, and it's nighttime. 238 00:18:13,586 --> 00:18:17,948 And the spirit, then, is the spotlight shining on that statue. 239 00:18:17,948 --> 00:18:19,379 It's all dark, we can't see it. 240 00:18:19,379 --> 00:18:24,011 The spirit is the spotlight shining on that statue. 241 00:18:24,011 --> 00:18:25,552 You see that in your mind? 242 00:18:25,552 --> 00:18:27,843 And you don't say, wow, what a light. 243 00:18:27,843 --> 00:18:28,914 Look at that light. 244 00:18:28,914 --> 00:18:34,817 If the light is shining, the brighter the light is, the clearer the light is, what do you say? 245 00:18:34,817 --> 00:18:36,468 Look at that statue. 246 00:18:36,588 --> 00:18:38,279 Look at look at its detail. 247 00:18:38,279 --> 00:18:39,389 Look at its beauty. 248 00:18:39,389 --> 00:18:40,739 Look at its excellence. 249 00:18:40,739 --> 00:18:43,460 You couldn't see that without the light. 250 00:18:43,460 --> 00:18:45,711 You would not be able to see it without the light. 251 00:18:45,711 --> 00:18:46,701 You need the light. 252 00:18:46,701 --> 00:18:50,762 And at every moment, the light is there, enabling that sight. 253 00:18:51,102 --> 00:18:56,023 But the light, the better it's working, the less you're thinking about it. 254 00:18:56,023 --> 00:18:57,984 And the more you're looking at the statue. 255 00:18:57,984 --> 00:19:00,465 You don't run up and say, whoa, look at this light. 256 00:19:00,465 --> 00:19:01,785 Blind yourself. 257 00:19:01,785 --> 00:19:03,645 And the light doesn't want you to do that. 258 00:19:03,645 --> 00:19:05,740 The light says, look at the statue. 259 00:19:05,740 --> 00:19:07,031 That's what I'm here for. 260 00:19:07,031 --> 00:19:08,191 Look at it. 261 00:19:08,772 --> 00:19:20,368 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. 262 00:19:20,368 --> 00:19:22,619 That's what he rejoices to do. 263 00:19:22,679 --> 00:19:31,184 And where the Spirit is working powerfully, the way that is known is Christ is lifted up boldly. 264 00:19:31,324 --> 00:19:34,886 Christ is lifted up, the crucified Jesus. 265 00:19:34,904 --> 00:19:42,576 Whom God raised from the dead is exalted and proclaimed and given to his people and to the world. 266 00:19:42,576 --> 00:19:45,977 That is the evidence of the Spirit working. 267 00:19:46,057 --> 00:19:51,637 Just like the clarity of the statue is the evidence of the light working. 268 00:19:52,099 --> 00:19:58,154 Now, since the Spirit is invisible, He's in our midst working powerfully. 269 00:19:58,154 --> 00:20:00,111 I mean, how foolish are we to think? 270 00:20:00,111 --> 00:20:02,301 Well, if something's invisible, you know, maybe it's not really there. 271 00:20:02,301 --> 00:20:04,992 Gravity's invisible, and that's a big deal. 272 00:20:04,992 --> 00:20:07,804 Everything, nothing would work without it. 273 00:20:07,964 --> 00:20:14,369 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. 274 00:20:14,369 --> 00:20:15,669 You can't really disprove them. 275 00:20:15,669 --> 00:20:18,311 I mean, okay, the spirit is here. 276 00:20:18,631 --> 00:20:20,453 The spirit told me something. 277 00:20:20,453 --> 00:20:21,854 The spirit said this. 278 00:20:21,854 --> 00:20:23,555 The spirit wants this. 279 00:20:23,555 --> 00:20:24,896 The spirit is doing this. 280 00:20:24,896 --> 00:20:28,498 It's easy to say things about the spirit because he's you can't see him. 281 00:20:28,678 --> 00:20:34,370 And and there are whole branches of the church that are fixated on the spirit. 282 00:20:34,370 --> 00:20:36,331 The spirit, the spirit. 283 00:20:36,452 --> 00:20:38,794 And to that I say, wonderful. 284 00:20:38,794 --> 00:20:42,156 I'm not going to say, don't be about the Holy Spirit. 285 00:20:42,156 --> 00:20:43,578 Of course, He's God. 286 00:20:43,578 --> 00:20:44,878 Wonderful. 287 00:20:45,019 --> 00:20:56,989 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. 288 00:20:56,989 --> 00:20:59,191 That's what we see in Scripture. 289 00:20:59,191 --> 00:21:03,892 The the hallmark evidence of the Spirit's presence is. 290 00:21:04,106 --> 00:21:12,913 Is not a bunch of you know uh k celebratory sound and movement and flashing and and and signs and things happening. 291 00:21:12,913 --> 00:21:17,417 That that may be, I'm not saying that's all false, I'm not saying that. 292 00:21:17,717 --> 00:21:21,470 But the the evidence of the spirit's working is Christ. 293 00:21:21,470 --> 00:21:25,103 In all of this, Christ is on display. 294 00:21:25,104 --> 00:21:32,920 Jesus Christ, slain and risen, is lifted up before the eyes of his people, and his people are being united to him. 295 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:38,853 They're being built up into him, and they're building one another up into him. 296 00:21:38,853 --> 00:21:43,375 Where the spirit is, Christ is central. 297 00:21:43,396 --> 00:21:45,297 Christ is central. 298 00:21:45,297 --> 00:21:47,698 So that's the second thing to see here. 299 00:21:48,619 --> 00:21:51,680 We've been given the Spirit, who is God. 300 00:21:52,181 --> 00:21:56,303 We've been given the Spirit who is all about Christ. 301 00:21:56,303 --> 00:22:02,496 And where he is, he is pointing hearts and minds and lives to the crucified one. 302 00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:03,730 Who is risen. 303 00:22:03,950 --> 00:22:05,561 So that's the second thing for us to see. 304 00:22:05,561 --> 00:22:18,015 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. 305 00:22:18,015 --> 00:22:20,195 That's what the Spirit does in us. 306 00:22:20,195 --> 00:22:24,667 In exalting Christ, he's folding us into God's life. 307 00:22:24,667 --> 00:22:27,337 And you say, okay, well, where do you get that? 308 00:22:27,518 --> 00:22:29,288 Let me set it up a little bit. 309 00:22:29,568 --> 00:22:33,520 Remember, in the text we're looking at today, Peter is talking about baptism. 310 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:36,802 He says, be baptized and you'll receive the Spirit. 311 00:22:36,802 --> 00:22:39,744 That's generally speaking, that's what he's saying. 312 00:22:40,184 --> 00:22:42,385 Where do we see that? 313 00:22:42,586 --> 00:22:44,267 Elsewhere in Scripture. 314 00:22:44,267 --> 00:22:47,868 Where do we see a baptism and the Spirit? 315 00:22:47,889 --> 00:22:57,600 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. 316 00:22:57,600 --> 00:22:58,791 in the form of the dove. 317 00:22:58,791 --> 00:23:03,977 We see that in Matthew and Mark, we see it in part in John, and we see it in Luke. 318 00:23:03,977 --> 00:23:06,940 Remember, Luke is the one who's writing Acts. 319 00:23:07,321 --> 00:23:16,460 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. 320 00:23:18,208 --> 00:23:33,122 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. 321 00:23:33,122 --> 00:23:36,523 So look, Jesus is baptized and then comes the Spirit. 322 00:23:36,523 --> 00:23:38,903 That's the same pattern Peter gives us. 323 00:23:39,004 --> 00:23:47,820 The heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven. 324 00:23:47,820 --> 00:23:51,811 Saying, you are my beloved son. 325 00:23:51,932 --> 00:23:55,453 With you I am well pleased. 326 00:23:55,713 --> 00:24:03,596 So, in this baptism moment, the baptism is linked to God's own triune life. 327 00:24:03,637 --> 00:24:09,319 Christ is baptized, and the Father speaks his love over the Son. 328 00:24:09,699 --> 00:24:14,501 And the Son receives that love as his identity. 329 00:24:14,641 --> 00:24:17,166 And the Spirit is given as the 330 00:24:17,166 --> 00:24:22,109 Personal presence of that love, mediating that love with his presence. 331 00:24:22,109 --> 00:24:25,130 That's what happens at the baptism. 332 00:24:25,130 --> 00:24:29,473 And that is a glimpse of God's own life. 333 00:24:29,533 --> 00:24:32,575 That's an opening up of the life of God. 334 00:24:32,575 --> 00:24:43,601 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. 335 00:24:44,081 --> 00:24:45,640 The Son receives. 336 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:53,993 Everything he is as the love of the Father and pours himself back to the Father in love. 337 00:24:54,214 --> 00:25:05,948 And the Holy Spirit is the living love, eternally uniting, eternally whole being the bond together of the Father and the Son. 338 00:25:05,948 --> 00:25:10,420 This is God's life, to the extent that we can speak of things like this. 339 00:25:10,580 --> 00:25:15,482 In Psalm 36:8, it says it speaks of the abundance of God's own house. 340 00:25:15,532 --> 00:25:17,423 And the river of his delights. 341 00:25:17,423 --> 00:25:18,883 That's what this is. 342 00:25:19,004 --> 00:25:28,347 The Father loving the Son, the Son receiving himself as the love of the Father, and the Spirit uniting as the love between them. 343 00:25:28,347 --> 00:25:31,959 This is the abundance of God's house and the river of his delights. 344 00:25:31,959 --> 00:25:44,214 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 345 00:25:44,214 --> 00:25:49,597 That spirit is given to you, given to us. 346 00:25:50,238 --> 00:25:54,201 Then by that spirit, we're gathered in to that same life. 347 00:25:54,201 --> 00:25:55,322 Do you see that? 348 00:25:55,322 --> 00:25:58,184 The spirit is at the center of God's eternal life. 349 00:25:58,184 --> 00:26:01,806 And he takes this spirit and says, You come in too. 350 00:26:01,806 --> 00:26:03,587 You be folded into this too. 351 00:26:03,587 --> 00:26:11,272 It's like the current of life flowing between Father and Son is all of a sudden brought out and passed through us. 352 00:26:11,353 --> 00:26:13,774 And now we are gathered in. 353 00:26:13,774 --> 00:26:17,427 To this life, to this love, to this joy. 354 00:26:17,427 --> 00:26:26,044 You, Christian, as insane as it sounds, are made participants in God's own life. 355 00:26:26,044 --> 00:26:27,605 That's what the Spirit is doing here. 356 00:26:27,605 --> 00:26:31,288 And it's not just extrapolated from the baptism. 357 00:26:31,288 --> 00:26:32,870 Look what Paul says in Romans. 358 00:26:32,870 --> 00:26:43,254 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. 359 00:26:43,254 --> 00:26:51,276 Or again, a few chapters later in Romans 18, listen to what Paul says is true of the Christian. 360 00:26:51,276 --> 00:27:04,920 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. 361 00:27:05,381 --> 00:27:09,804 The spirit of adoption is sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. 362 00:27:09,804 --> 00:27:11,765 What right do we have to call God Father? 363 00:27:11,765 --> 00:27:13,337 That's Jesus' language. 364 00:27:13,337 --> 00:27:14,478 You remember that? 365 00:27:14,478 --> 00:27:19,822 Abba Father is what Jesus says in the garden. 366 00:27:20,022 --> 00:27:27,348 How dare we enter into that most intimate of Father and Son moments and take those same words on our lips? 367 00:27:27,348 --> 00:27:34,254 The only way we do that is because the same spirit that finds the Father and the Son is given to us. 368 00:27:34,254 --> 00:27:39,838 And now we are part of that life and say with the Son, Abba. 369 00:27:40,034 --> 00:27:53,039 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 370 00:27:53,039 --> 00:27:58,112 we suffer with him, in order that we might also be glorified with him. 371 00:27:58,112 --> 00:28:08,994 So Christian like a thread taken up into a tapestry, like a note gathered up into a symphony, like a wedding guest. 372 00:28:08,994 --> 00:28:22,130 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. 373 00:28:22,130 --> 00:28:24,000 That's what you're made for. 374 00:28:24,060 --> 00:28:35,025 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. 375 00:28:35,305 --> 00:28:36,646 That's what you're made for. 376 00:28:36,646 --> 00:28:37,410 Not the 377 00:28:37,410 --> 00:28:43,632 Petty things that we're presented with, not the little needles of needs that pierce us all the time. 378 00:28:43,773 --> 00:28:46,473 gotta make ends meet, gotta do this, gotta get this. 379 00:28:46,934 --> 00:28:51,275 We are here for a vapor, vapor. 380 00:28:51,696 --> 00:28:58,539 And then it's the life of God, ever spiraling into the life of God. 381 00:28:58,539 --> 00:28:59,999 That's what we're made for. 382 00:28:59,999 --> 00:29:06,321 Little, little dust moats gathered up into the beam of his life. 383 00:29:06,402 --> 00:29:07,148 That's 384 00:29:07,148 --> 00:29:08,359 What we're made for. 385 00:29:08,359 --> 00:29:16,851 And it begins now, as the Spirit is leading us to fight sin and obey God and love one another. 386 00:29:16,851 --> 00:29:18,596 Do you think that we just have to do that? 387 00:29:18,596 --> 00:29:20,017 I'm a Christian, so I just have to do that. 388 00:29:20,017 --> 00:29:22,989 This is my religious duty, just have to obey. 389 00:29:23,109 --> 00:29:27,031 This is rehearsal for eternity. 390 00:29:27,232 --> 00:29:34,377 Our our growing in love, our growing in obedience, our learning to be the kind of people who respond like Christ. 391 00:29:34,377 --> 00:29:36,338 That is fitting us. 392 00:29:36,376 --> 00:29:50,622 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 393 00:29:50,622 --> 00:29:51,132 joy. 394 00:29:51,132 --> 00:29:52,443 That's why we love one another. 395 00:29:52,443 --> 00:29:54,294 That's why we obey. 396 00:29:54,294 --> 00:29:58,495 That's why we fight sin, because we're going into God. 397 00:29:58,495 --> 00:30:00,556 We're moving into God. 398 00:30:00,556 --> 00:30:04,518 We're united to Him now, and that union will ever. 399 00:30:04,830 --> 00:30:09,572 Evermore increase, spiraling into him. 400 00:30:10,212 --> 00:30:12,772 So may that vision be set before us. 401 00:30:12,772 --> 00:30:16,055 The Bible holds out awesome things to us. 402 00:30:16,055 --> 00:30:20,356 The Bible doesn't say, hey, suffer for 80 years and you'll get a golden harp, have a good time. 403 00:30:20,356 --> 00:30:26,259 That is not the presentation here, even though that's almost often how it's how it's given. 404 00:30:26,259 --> 00:30:29,860 And when you present it that way, boy, all the stuff in the world sounds pretty good. 405 00:30:30,060 --> 00:30:34,942 The Bible is saying you are going to join the life of God. 406 00:30:35,320 --> 00:30:39,093 You're going to live in him for eternity. 407 00:30:39,093 --> 00:30:44,376 And all the fascinating implications that has that boggles the mind. 408 00:30:44,557 --> 00:30:51,321 May it be the vision for us, Christian, and may we lift our eyes then from the deadening screens of our cell phones. 409 00:30:51,321 --> 00:31:00,488 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 410 00:31:00,488 --> 00:31:00,788 doing. 411 00:31:00,788 --> 00:31:03,750 And I'll tell you when I. 412 00:31:04,044 --> 00:31:12,326 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. 413 00:31:12,326 --> 00:31:15,237 I'm gonna think about something else. 414 00:31:15,757 --> 00:31:22,439 It is never a comparison with am I am I disappointed I didn't find out that spoiler about this movie? 415 00:31:22,759 --> 00:31:24,820 Or you know, I'm not I'm not disappointed. 416 00:31:24,820 --> 00:31:27,841 I'm never disappointed when I say I'm I don't need that. 417 00:31:27,841 --> 00:31:29,301 Never disappointed. 418 00:31:29,401 --> 00:31:31,021 Only ever grateful. 419 00:31:31,362 --> 00:31:33,044 May the hope. 420 00:31:33,044 --> 00:31:37,756 Into which we're going, lift our eyes from deadening screens. 421 00:31:37,756 --> 00:31:42,708 May it lift our eyes from the dulling noise of what's new, what's new, what's new, what's new. 422 00:31:42,708 --> 00:31:44,059 Who cares? 423 00:31:44,059 --> 00:31:46,199 Who cares what's new? 424 00:31:46,199 --> 00:31:48,460 Because it'll be old in five hours. 425 00:31:48,841 --> 00:31:50,541 Live for eternity. 426 00:31:50,541 --> 00:31:55,283 May it lift our eyes from the misdirecting urgency of the podcast. 427 00:31:55,283 --> 00:31:56,624 It's happening. 428 00:31:56,624 --> 00:31:58,004 It's happening now. 429 00:31:58,004 --> 00:31:59,855 Just a few more years. 430 00:31:59,855 --> 00:32:01,245 it's going down. 431 00:32:01,706 --> 00:32:02,550 No. 432 00:32:02,550 --> 00:32:08,695 Don't get sucked into this worthless stuff, the conspiracies, the popular media. 433 00:32:08,895 --> 00:32:19,264 May we instead turn our eyes to the horizon of our hope in Christ, union to God in the Spirit. 434 00:32:19,264 --> 00:32:21,065 That's what's set before us. 435 00:32:21,065 --> 00:32:22,887 That's what's set before us. 436 00:32:22,887 --> 00:32:24,970 So may we live with this hope. 437 00:32:24,970 --> 00:32:26,709 So that's the first thing. 438 00:32:27,250 --> 00:32:28,551 What is the promise? 439 00:32:28,551 --> 00:32:29,652 The Holy Spirit. 440 00:32:29,652 --> 00:32:31,574 And we're sharing in Him. 441 00:32:31,574 --> 00:32:32,384 Now, 442 00:32:32,782 --> 00:32:34,513 Peter clarifies this a little bit. 443 00:32:34,513 --> 00:32:37,715 He says, the gift of the Holy Spirit. 444 00:32:37,715 --> 00:32:45,629 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. 445 00:32:45,629 --> 00:32:51,652 And so he he clarifies for us the idea of the Spirit by saying, the Spirit is the promise. 446 00:32:51,752 --> 00:32:53,753 The Spirit is the promise. 447 00:32:53,753 --> 00:32:54,814 Okay. 448 00:32:54,954 --> 00:32:55,774 Okay. 449 00:32:55,774 --> 00:32:57,575 What promise are we talking about here? 450 00:32:57,575 --> 00:33:03,018 Look, look at Acts 2 again, verse the con the the the 451 00:33:03,128 --> 00:33:05,159 Transition between verse 38 and 39. 452 00:33:05,159 --> 00:33:11,100 You will receive the gift of the Spirit, for the promise is for you and for your children. 453 00:33:11,100 --> 00:33:15,521 And just so we're clear that the promise there he's talking about is the Spirit. 454 00:33:15,861 --> 00:33:28,725 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 455 00:33:28,725 --> 00:33:33,186 Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. 456 00:33:33,410 --> 00:33:34,951 He has poured him out. 457 00:33:34,992 --> 00:33:42,780 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. 458 00:33:42,780 --> 00:33:45,483 The promise he's talking about is the Spirit. 459 00:33:45,483 --> 00:33:48,056 The Spirit is the promise. 460 00:33:48,056 --> 00:33:48,898 Okay? 461 00:33:48,898 --> 00:33:51,910 All right, now that leads us to say, well, what is this promise? 462 00:33:51,910 --> 00:33:53,792 What is this, where is this coming from? 463 00:33:53,792 --> 00:33:56,434 Touched on this a few times in the last few weeks, but. 464 00:33:57,954 --> 00:34:06,817 When to a Jewish audience you say the promise, as Peter does here, pretty much one promise is in view. 465 00:34:06,817 --> 00:34:10,478 And that's the promise that is given to Abraham in Genesis. 466 00:34:10,478 --> 00:34:13,338 That's what the promise that kind of kicks all this off. 467 00:34:13,338 --> 00:34:20,060 The promise that comes in Genesis chapter 12, and it reads like this, chapter 12, verses two to three. 468 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:26,792 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great. 469 00:34:26,996 --> 00:34:29,889 So that you will be a blessing. 470 00:34:29,889 --> 00:34:32,551 I will bless the listen to all this blessing language. 471 00:34:32,551 --> 00:34:38,106 So that you I will bless you and make you great, so that you will be a blessing. 472 00:34:38,106 --> 00:34:43,320 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. 473 00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:50,985 And in you, here's the key: in you, Abraham, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 474 00:34:51,226 --> 00:34:56,690 That's the promise that Pete that Peter is linking together with the Holy Spirit. 475 00:34:56,898 --> 00:34:58,600 Now you might say, well, where's the spirit there? 476 00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:00,061 I don't hear the spirit there. 477 00:35:00,061 --> 00:35:01,682 Look at what Paul says. 478 00:35:01,682 --> 00:35:03,414 You know, Peter and Paul, they're working together. 479 00:35:03,414 --> 00:35:05,105 We can bounce them off one another here. 480 00:35:05,105 --> 00:35:11,150 Look what Paul says in Galatians, speaking about the same promise, the same promise made to Abraham. 481 00:35:11,731 --> 00:35:13,832 Galatians 3, I'll read it for you. 482 00:35:13,832 --> 00:35:15,103 It's Galatians 3.13. 483 00:35:15,103 --> 00:35:22,330 He says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. 484 00:35:22,330 --> 00:35:23,781 That's awesome. 485 00:35:23,781 --> 00:35:25,620 We have to move on beyond it. 486 00:35:25,972 --> 00:35:28,723 As it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanging down a tree. 487 00:35:28,723 --> 00:35:31,483 And this cursing of Christ happened why? 488 00:35:31,804 --> 00:35:42,026 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. 489 00:35:42,105 --> 00:35:44,247 What's that blessing that has been promised? 490 00:35:44,247 --> 00:35:45,387 Here we go. 491 00:35:45,447 --> 00:35:55,570 So that in Christ, the blessing that was promised to Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit. 492 00:35:55,736 --> 00:35:57,447 Through faith. 493 00:35:57,447 --> 00:36:02,209 So let me disentangle this for you and help you see what's going on here. 494 00:36:02,870 --> 00:36:08,833 Peter says at the end of his sermon, you will receive the Holy Spirit for the promises for you. 495 00:36:09,334 --> 00:36:10,180 What's that promise? 496 00:36:10,180 --> 00:36:13,306 Well, it's the promise of blessing made to Abraham. 497 00:36:13,306 --> 00:36:15,137 Well, what's that blessing? 498 00:36:15,297 --> 00:36:18,419 Paul says, that blessing is the Spirit. 499 00:36:18,419 --> 00:36:22,881 The blessing that was promised to Abraham is the Holy Spirit. 500 00:36:22,881 --> 00:36:24,514 From the very beginning. 501 00:36:24,514 --> 00:36:31,579 When God said, I will bless all nations through you, God's purpose was, I will give the Spirit. 502 00:36:31,740 --> 00:36:40,427 I will give myself through you, Abraham, through your seed, I will be given to all the world. 503 00:36:40,487 --> 00:36:44,110 And Peter is saying that promise is the Holy Spirit. 504 00:36:44,110 --> 00:36:46,913 That it was always going to be the Holy Spirit. 505 00:36:46,913 --> 00:36:54,098 God was saying to Abraham, through you, Abraham, I am making a channel through which the Spirit will be poured out. 506 00:36:54,136 --> 00:36:55,427 To all the world. 507 00:36:55,427 --> 00:36:56,968 That's the blessing. 508 00:36:56,968 --> 00:37:03,934 The blessing is God Himself poured out through Christ in and as the Holy Spirit to all the world. 509 00:37:03,934 --> 00:37:16,605 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 510 00:37:16,605 --> 00:37:19,327 unite it to His own life of joy. 511 00:37:19,327 --> 00:37:21,749 That is what God is after. 512 00:37:21,749 --> 00:37:23,328 And this, again, 513 00:37:23,328 --> 00:37:24,799 Is why we exist. 514 00:37:24,799 --> 00:37:29,161 This is what every longing in your soul is aimed at. 515 00:37:29,461 --> 00:37:38,206 To be filled with God in Christ by the Spirit, to be gathered into the life of God. 516 00:37:38,206 --> 00:37:40,187 All our longings are for that. 517 00:37:40,187 --> 00:37:43,529 And they are splintered and fragmented and going everywhere. 518 00:37:43,529 --> 00:37:50,643 But when we receive Him, when we enter into Him, we see He's what I've always been after. 519 00:37:50,643 --> 00:37:52,694 There's nothing else. 520 00:37:52,694 --> 00:37:59,197 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. 521 00:37:59,197 --> 00:38:03,618 No, He is the satisfaction of all our longings. 522 00:38:04,319 --> 00:38:14,203 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. 523 00:38:14,203 --> 00:38:21,716 The spirit is the end of that because the spirit is the gathering into God's life, not just back to the garden. 524 00:38:22,002 --> 00:38:24,842 into God's own life. 525 00:38:24,842 --> 00:38:27,944 There's so much I wish we could say about that. 526 00:38:28,024 --> 00:38:41,217 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 527 00:38:41,217 --> 00:38:51,022 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. 528 00:38:51,022 --> 00:38:52,173 Through Jesus Christ. 529 00:38:52,173 --> 00:38:54,825 And Christian, you've received this spirit. 530 00:38:54,885 --> 00:38:57,507 We've received this spirit. 531 00:38:57,567 --> 00:39:07,435 And as Paul said, remember what he says back in Romans every hardship, every hardship is gathering us into this life. 532 00:39:07,435 --> 00:39:15,602 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. 533 00:39:15,602 --> 00:39:20,748 And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer from. 534 00:39:20,748 --> 00:39:25,261 With him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. 535 00:39:25,802 --> 00:39:38,303 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 536 00:39:38,303 --> 00:39:41,346 God, into the place he's taking you. 537 00:39:41,346 --> 00:39:47,671 None of them are detours, none of them are accidents, none of them are things where God says, Oh, that was terrible. 538 00:39:47,671 --> 00:39:49,022 I'll try to fix that. 539 00:39:49,282 --> 00:39:56,566 The Spirit holds us as we suffer meaningfully into the life of God. 540 00:39:57,106 --> 00:40:06,071 Even as he held Christ, as Christ suffered all our sufferings and brought us into the life of God. 541 00:40:06,151 --> 00:40:07,782 This is what we're a part of. 542 00:40:07,782 --> 00:40:12,034 Now, let me conclude here briefly. 543 00:40:12,495 --> 00:40:19,478 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. 544 00:40:19,692 --> 00:40:32,092 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. 545 00:40:32,113 --> 00:40:36,836 But then lastly, let's ask this question: who is this gift for? 546 00:40:37,017 --> 00:40:40,870 Well, Peter said, we might say, well, it's for anyone who repents and be is baptized. 547 00:40:40,870 --> 00:40:41,561 Right. 548 00:40:41,561 --> 00:40:46,946 But remember, Peter's speaking to a Jewish audience here, a Jewish audience. 549 00:40:46,946 --> 00:40:47,756 And 550 00:40:47,860 --> 00:40:50,002 He says this gift is for you and for your family. 551 00:40:50,002 --> 00:40:52,634 Can we just take this and apply it to us? 552 00:40:52,634 --> 00:40:54,896 Well, yes. 553 00:40:54,896 --> 00:40:56,117 Let me show you how. 554 00:40:56,117 --> 00:41:00,521 The first thing he says is the promise is for you and for your children. 555 00:41:00,521 --> 00:41:02,241 That's the Jewish element. 556 00:41:02,402 --> 00:41:10,149 Paul Peter is saying, Listen, people of Israel, descendants of Abraham, this promise is for you and your physical offspring. 557 00:41:10,149 --> 00:41:17,194 The people of the Jewish people whose Jewish Messiah has fulfilled these things, this is for you. 558 00:41:17,934 --> 00:41:18,494 So that's clear. 559 00:41:18,494 --> 00:41:21,116 But as soon as he says that, he expands it. 560 00:41:21,116 --> 00:41:26,680 And he says, and for all those who are far off. 561 00:41:26,840 --> 00:41:28,021 And that's the Gentiles. 562 00:41:28,021 --> 00:41:29,362 That's not just the Jews now. 563 00:41:29,362 --> 00:41:33,425 This promise made to Abraham has suddenly broken open. 564 00:41:33,425 --> 00:41:39,329 It's for the Jews, but it's also now for the Gentiles, for everyone. 565 00:41:39,329 --> 00:41:45,533 And then you might the the Jewish person could say, Well, that's that's upsetting. 566 00:41:45,533 --> 00:41:47,784 We are God's chosen people. 567 00:41:47,820 --> 00:41:50,252 We are heirs to the promise. 568 00:41:50,252 --> 00:41:56,016 But the fact is that God's chosen people is Christ. 569 00:41:56,377 --> 00:42:00,641 And the heir to God's promises is Christ. 570 00:42:00,641 --> 00:42:07,046 Very briefly, for the sake of time, I'll just read this for you in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 12 and following. 571 00:42:07,147 --> 00:42:11,260 It says this Remember, you were at that time separated from Christ. 572 00:42:11,260 --> 00:42:12,751 You were the ones far off. 573 00:42:12,751 --> 00:42:16,128 You were the Gentiles, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. 574 00:42:16,128 --> 00:42:20,480 Strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 575 00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:28,024 But now, in Christ, you who were once far off have been brought near by his blood. 576 00:42:28,024 --> 00:42:39,230 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. 577 00:42:39,291 --> 00:42:46,068 And so this promise is for the Jews, but it's also for the Gentiles, because it's 578 00:42:46,068 --> 00:42:47,559 Only for Christ. 579 00:42:47,719 --> 00:42:55,903 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. 580 00:42:55,903 --> 00:43:07,770 A farmer in rural Ohio is an heir to the promises of Abraham more truly than even the most devout Jew who rejects Christ. 581 00:43:07,770 --> 00:43:11,652 Because it is in Christ that these promises are given. 582 00:43:12,193 --> 00:43:15,342 Now, the very end of this verse. 583 00:43:15,342 --> 00:43:22,867 Peter then takes the Jew, it's for you, the Gentile, it's for you, because it's all in Christ. 584 00:43:22,867 --> 00:43:34,815 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. 585 00:43:34,996 --> 00:43:36,067 That's where Peter ends. 586 00:43:36,067 --> 00:43:39,079 Listen, call on the name of the Lord. 587 00:43:39,079 --> 00:43:42,101 And if you call, it's because you've been called. 588 00:43:42,101 --> 00:43:43,902 It's because he's calling you. 589 00:43:44,074 --> 00:43:48,457 Everyone who comes to him are those whom he calls to himself. 590 00:43:48,457 --> 00:43:54,361 It is not that humanity makes a great appeal and God from his height says, I guess I'll listen. 591 00:43:54,481 --> 00:44:01,926 It's that God calls humanity and those who hear respond in faith. 592 00:44:02,047 --> 00:44:07,770 And in saying this, Peter's not trying to bring up the question of sovereignty and responsibility and all these sorts of things. 593 00:44:07,770 --> 00:44:09,692 We can talk about that offline. 594 00:44:09,692 --> 00:44:13,314 In saying this, Peter is saying the initiative is with God. 595 00:44:13,314 --> 00:44:15,856 He's acting to bring you home. 596 00:44:15,856 --> 00:44:17,797 He's acting to bring you in. 597 00:44:17,797 --> 00:44:23,320 And if your heart is cut by the gospel, then he's calling you. 598 00:44:23,320 --> 00:44:24,170 So come home. 599 00:44:24,170 --> 00:44:25,421 That's what Peter's saying. 600 00:44:25,421 --> 00:44:30,244 If you feel the need for Christ, God is calling you. 601 00:44:30,324 --> 00:44:31,764 So come home. 602 00:44:31,905 --> 00:44:33,986 Come home to Him. 603 00:44:34,026 --> 00:44:40,870 Because this call comes through the gospel as it's proclaimed, and it comes supremely through the cross. 604 00:44:41,294 --> 00:44:48,519 Cross, God Himself in Christ becomes the call that draws us to Him. 605 00:44:48,519 --> 00:44:52,822 Look at Christ, crucified and raised. 606 00:44:52,822 --> 00:45:04,890 See Him in His own flesh, summoning our souls to wake from their stupor and see the reality of my sin in His flesh. 607 00:45:05,131 --> 00:45:09,844 See the reality of the wrath I am due in His broken body. 608 00:45:10,286 --> 00:45:17,068 See the reality of the love that swallows everything up in him dying in my place. 609 00:45:17,228 --> 00:45:25,090 And see the glory of God in this one who takes all and rises up and gathers me in. 610 00:45:25,090 --> 00:45:29,511 Jesus Christ is the call upon our hearts. 611 00:45:29,511 --> 00:45:33,652 And if you see him, if you hear him, respond to him. 612 00:45:33,652 --> 00:45:38,554 For the first time, saying, He's my Lord, I have to trust him. 613 00:45:38,554 --> 00:45:39,894 Respond. 614 00:45:39,968 --> 00:45:41,219 If he's calling you. 615 00:45:41,219 --> 00:45:44,902 And for the thousandth time, respond. 616 00:45:44,902 --> 00:45:49,646 See again the glory of Christ and say, Lord, I cast myself on you. 617 00:45:49,646 --> 00:45:51,067 You're my only hope. 618 00:45:51,067 --> 00:45:52,589 You're my only healing. 619 00:45:52,589 --> 00:45:54,369 You're my only wisdom. 620 00:45:54,790 --> 00:45:59,053 And if we hear his call, may we not harden our hearts. 621 00:46:00,135 --> 00:46:06,180 And this table, this table is the most immediate way for us to respond to this call. 622 00:46:06,180 --> 00:46:07,341 Because how does Peter go on? 623 00:46:07,341 --> 00:46:09,240 He says, Save yourselves. 624 00:46:09,240 --> 00:46:11,171 From this crooked generation. 625 00:46:11,171 --> 00:46:19,566 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. 626 00:46:19,566 --> 00:46:28,262 As we come to this table, we're coming out of the passing fears and petty goals that the world impresses upon us. 627 00:46:28,262 --> 00:46:30,823 We're coming out as you come to this table. 628 00:46:30,823 --> 00:46:35,776 For a moment at least, you're coming out of the race and the squalor. 629 00:46:35,776 --> 00:46:47,830 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. 630 00:46:48,090 --> 00:46:49,670 Here's my center. 631 00:46:49,670 --> 00:46:51,131 Here's the truth. 632 00:46:51,131 --> 00:46:52,311 So you're responding. 633 00:46:52,311 --> 00:46:59,633 But also at this table, he's calling you because here's the body, like I said last week, broken for our sin. 634 00:46:59,753 --> 00:47:02,124 There's the witness to my sin. 635 00:47:02,326 --> 00:47:10,168 And yet this same body bears my sin, covers my sin, heals my sin, and is given to me now as food. 636 00:47:10,228 --> 00:47:12,989 Here's the blood that my sin spilled. 637 00:47:12,989 --> 00:47:15,229 It's a witness against me. 638 00:47:15,390 --> 00:47:24,072 And yet, here is this same blood poured out to wash us clean, poured out to speak a word of mercy, mercy over you. 639 00:47:24,072 --> 00:47:28,213 Drink it as a word of mercy spoken to you. 640 00:47:28,213 --> 00:47:31,918 And so this table is also calling, calling. 641 00:47:31,918 --> 00:47:36,582 Come, come and receive Christ afresh. 642 00:47:36,582 --> 00:47:40,865 So by grace, may we hear that call at this table. 643 00:47:40,865 --> 00:47:45,389 By grace, may we respond to that call at this table. 644 00:47:45,389 --> 00:47:55,167 And by grace, as Paul says, may we save ourselves, depending on him, save ourselves from this dying generation through union to Christ. 645 00:47:55,167 --> 00:47:56,588 Let me pray for us. 646 00:47:58,626 --> 00:48:11,730 Father, we are like trees, silent and unmoving, unless the wind of your spirit blows through us and awakens us. 647 00:48:12,030 --> 00:48:14,731 And so, Father, we pray for the working of your spirit. 648 00:48:14,731 --> 00:48:18,272 We know we have received the Spirit if we've trusted Christ. 649 00:48:18,272 --> 00:48:23,833 And I pray that we would be a people who are living in the fullness of that gift. 650 00:48:23,833 --> 00:48:25,254 Thank you, Father. 651 00:48:25,254 --> 00:48:27,276 Thank you for the Holy Spirit. 652 00:48:27,276 --> 00:48:39,953 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 653 00:48:39,953 --> 00:48:49,638 in this people, unto the glory of Jesus Christ, unto our union to Christ, unto our being made like Christ. 654 00:48:49,638 --> 00:48:54,201 And as we come to this table, Father, may this be part of what you're doing. 655 00:48:54,201 --> 00:48:56,930 May this bread and this cup. 656 00:48:56,930 --> 00:49:03,333 Now be tools in your hands to work in the souls of your people to conform us to Jesus Christ. 657 00:49:03,333 --> 00:49:11,676 We come to you, Father, hungry and thirsty and needy and knowing that everything is found in you. 658 00:49:11,716 --> 00:49:13,557 We pray all this in Jesus' name. 659 00:49:13,557 --> 00:49:14,537 Amen. 660 00:49:14,818 --> 00:49:25,062 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. 661 00:49:25,262 --> 00:49:28,652 Come worship with us on Sundays at 10 a.m. 662 00:49:28,652 --> 00:49:32,602 or visit our website at Kingstreechurch.org.