9
Acts
Introduction:
In
our text today the Apostle Peter speaks to a great crowd of Jews and
calls
their attention to a promise that God had made back in the days of the
prophet
Joel. He said to them that this promise
was made to them and to their
children.
This is a promise that we would do well to give our own attention to
this morning.
I.
The setting of our text
According
to a previous text Jews from fourteen different nations had come
to
of tongues which the
Christians had been given by the Holy Spirit on that day.
When the Galilaean
Christians spoke in their Galilean dialect the people all
heard
and understood in their own native language.
The people then flocked to
see and her the
Christians. The Apostle Peter took
advantage of the opportunity
and preached Jesus to this
great crowd of people.
There
were several thousand people gathered together and he preached Jesus
to them. Peter told them that they were guilty of a
terrible sin. He told them
that with wicked hands they had slain the Christ, whom God had promised
to send
to
raised
Jesus from the dead.
Marvel
of all marvels, those Jews believed Peter. You would think that
after
they had slain Jesus the would not be inclined to believe His disciples,
but they did. They cried out to Peter and the other apostles, ?Men and
brethren,
what shall we do?? Peter could not have
asked for a greater
opportunity. The people asked him what they needed to do
and he told them what
they needed to do. He told them that they needed to repent of their
sin and get
saved. He told them that after they get saved they
ought to get baptized.
II. An old promise which was still good
In
his sermon the Apostle Peter had cited to them a quotation from the
writings
of Joel the prophet. Back in verse 21 he
quoted a promise which God
had made through the prophet,
Joel. The promise was: ?And it shall come to
pass, that whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved.?
In
our text today the Apostle
declares to them that this promise included them and
their
children. ?For
the promise is unto you...?
As
that great mass of people listened to the Apostle Peter they had become
aware
of the great sin that they had committed when they crucified Jesus. This
was, of course, but one of many
sins which they had committed in their lives,
but this one was a colossal
blunder and they were terrified because of what they
had done. They were now convinced that they had
crucified the Christ. All of
their
lives they had heard and read about the promises of God that He would send
the Christ to their
nation. Now they were convinced that God
had, indeed, sent
the Christ to their nation and
that they had played a major role in having Him
crucified.
Peter
had quoted to them the promise recorded in Joel to inform them that
their
sin could be forgiven. The promise was
that if they would call upon the
Lord
they would be saved. But this at first did not satisfy their
minds.
There was a problem. The problem was: How could they call upon the Lord to
save them when they had
crucified Him? How could they call upon
the Lord when
He was dead? That is, they thought He was dead. They had good reason to think
that He was dead. They had killed Him. That is, they had helped the Jewish
leaders
to persuade Pilate to crucify Him.
The
Apostle Peter cleared up that problem.
He cleared up the matter about
Christ being dead. He declared to them that God had raised the
Christ from the
dead. He even quoted to them the Old Testament
scripture to show them that it
had been prophesied that God
would raise the Christ from the dead. So
it would
now be possible for them to
call on the Christ and ask Him to save them because
He was no longer dead. He was alive.
God had raised Him from the dead and all
of the Christians were eye
witnesses to that fact. They had all
seen Him after
He had risen from the dead. He was now alive and they could, through
prayer,
call on Him and ask Him to save
them. This was the promise that God had
made
through
the prophet Joel.
But
there was another problem. How could
they believe that He would save
them even if they were to call
on Him and ask Him to save them? This is
what
our text today is all
about. The Apostle Peter was seeking to
persuade them
that the promise that God made
through the prophet Joel was still good in spite
of their guilt involving the
crucifixion of Jesus.
Joel
was a Jewish prophet. His prophecies had
all been spoken to the
Jewish people. The promise that had been made in Joel?s prophecy had been made
to Jewish people. These people, to whom Peter spoke, were of the Jewish
nation. Therefore, the promise that God had made in Joel?s prophecy applied to
them.
The
promise that God had made to them was still good even though the
Christ had been crucified. God had taken care of that problem by raising
Him
from the dead. It still applied to them.
The
promise that God had made to them was still good even though they had
been guilty of helping to bring
about the crucifixion of the Christ.
This was a
grievous
sin, a colossal sin, but if they would call upon the Christ for
salvation
He would save them and forgive them from all sin even including that
sin. God had promised and God would not go back on
His promise regardless of
that sin. . This
was the point that the Apostle Peter was making. God never,
never,
never goes back on His promises. When
God makes a promise, He keeps His
promise,
no matter what it is.
What
the Apostle wanted them to do was to repent of their sin and go ahead
and call upon the Lord and ask
Him for mercy upon their souls and he assured
them that if they would do so,
they would be saved.
God
does not save people because He sees in them some good that makes them
deserve
to be saved. God saves people in spite
of the fact that there is no way
in the world they could
deserve to be saved. What God wants lost
sinners to do
is to repent of their sin and
to place their faith in the promises which God has
made concerning His Son Jesus
Christ. God wants a lost sinner to trust
Jesus
Christ to save him from his sin. And when he does trust Jesus God keeps His
promise
and Jesus saves him from all sin.
III. A promise which also applied to their
children
?...and to your children...?
Not only was the promise of forgiveness of
sin and the salvation of the
soul made to them, but it was also made to their
children. Peter knew that anybody who gets saved would
then be interested in
seeing
his children get saved.
The
children would not be saved automatically just because the parents
were saved. But the promise that God made through Joel
was not only made to
these
adults to whom Peter preached, but it was made to their children. If one
of the children would call
upon the Lord, he, too, would get saved.
Now he must
repent
of his sin or he will never call on the Lord for salvation. But if he
will repent and call on the Lord
for salvation, he will be saved.
If
these people would now trust in Jesus and be saved, it would then be
needful
for them to seek to influence their children to be saved.
IV. A promise which applied to those afar
off
This
was great news not only for the children, but for the parents who
loved
them. But the good news does not stop
there. ?...and
to all that are
afar off...? Peter said that the
promise which God had made through the prophet
Joel was good for all who were afar
off. If they would call on the Lord they
would
be saved.
Now
this would be especially good news to those Jews who had come to
home. After getting saved they would be interested
in their relatives back home
getting
saved and, no doubt, they would carry the good news to them and let them
know that salvation comes
through trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ.
V.
A promise which applied to as many as the Lord shall call
?...
[even] as many as the Lord our God shall call.? There are some who
seek to explain this statement
by saying that God has picked out a certain few
to be saved and that He has
called those to salvation and that nobody else can
get saved. But this is not at all what Peter was
saying. The verse does not
say that as many as God has
called will be saved and that nobody else can be
saved.
What
it does say is that the promise that God made through Joel is good
for as many as God has called
to salvation. Therefore, what we need to
know is:
How many has God called? Instead of trying to answer that question
with our own
ideas,
let us turn to God?s word and let God Himself answer
that question for
us. Keep in mind that what the lost sinner needs
to do is to repent of his sin
and trust in Jesus Christ for
salvation. In Acts
of this ignorance God winked
at; but now commandeth all men every where to
repent.? God has called all men everywhere to
repent. In Isaiah 45:22 God
said, ?Look unto me, and be ye
saved, all the ends of the earth: for I [am] God,
and [there is] none else.?
Listen,
I want you to hear what the Apostle Peter is saying to every man,
woman,
boy and girl in the world that God has called all of them to salvation.
I especially want you to know that God has
called for everyone in this
congregation
to be saved. Peter is saying that the
promise which God made and
which
Joel recorded and to which Peter referred in verse 21 of this chapter is
good to each and every man,
woman, boy and girl in this congregation.
This
promise
to you is good no matter how many sins you have committed. The promise
which
God made through Joel is good no matter how great the sins you have
committed. This promise is good to you no matter how
many years you have been
in sin. The promise is that you can be saved. You can have all of your sins
forgiven
so that no sin will prevent you from going to heaven.
But
you need to be aware of what God requires of you in order for you to
be saved. You must acknowledge your guilt before God
and repent of your sin,
Luke 13:3, 5. Furthermore, you must call on the Lord Jesus
Christ and trust in
Jesus to save you, Rom. 10:13, Acts 16:31;
John 3:16.
God
has made you a promise. God will keep
His promise. But in order for
you to take advantage of His
promise, you must do what God requires.
Conclusion:
Who
will come this morning and call upon the Lord for forgiveness and
salvation? What Christian here this morning will come
and place your membership
here in this church?