The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 2, verses 36 through 47.

Tony Clark: All right, let's dive into the word of God together. Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 2. We're going to be looking at verses 36 to 47.

Father, thank you so much for this opportunity to study your word. We pray, God, that your Holy Spirit would teach us today. Lord, you love us, you sent Jesus to die for us, and you've sent your Holy Spirit to teach us and guide us into all truth. So we pray that you'd do this today in Jesus' name. Amen.

Acts chapter 2, looking at verses 36 to 47. The title of this message is Still Keeping It Simple. Still keeping it simple. I say still keeping it simple because I taught these verses at our 10-year anniversary as a church, and now here we are on our 22nd anniversary, and we're still keeping it simple.

For in these verses we see what the early church was involved in, and it is a blueprint to what the church should be doing today. Every church should have these ingredients in their DNA. Every church, any church worth its salt. When you're looking for a church, these things should be in every church because it's the blueprint we see laid out for us in the word of God.

Now, we left off last week with Peter giving the people some biblical answers as to what took place on the day of Pentecost. He quoted from Psalm 16 and Psalm 110 and showed them how Jesus was the promised Messiah and the fulfillment of these verses. Now we pick it up in verses 36 to 39.

Look what it says there. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said to them, "Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."

Now, Peter sums up his sermon by starting out in verse 36 with the word therefore. It is a word which takes us back to what was previously said. Because of what was previously said, this is now true. Peter in his sermon proved that Jesus was their promised Messiah and God resurrected him from the dead. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Was Peter's sermon effective? Oh, yes, it was, because verse 37 says, "Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do?'" Now, that Greek word for cut is katanusso, and it can be translated as to cut or to pierce or to stab. It is only used here in the New Testament, and it depicts something sudden or unexpected.

No doubt that they were shocked and stunned at how they were involved in the crucifying of their Messiah, Jesus Christ. I say this because Peter told them in verse 23 that yes, Jesus dying on the cross was based upon the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, but it was carried out by your lawless hands. The same is true for us. Whether you believe it or not, it was our sin that put Jesus on a cross.

It's easy for us to say, "Jesus died for the sins of the world," and it's another thing to say, "Jesus died for my sin." Your lust, your evil thoughts, your lying and stealing and adultery. He died for all of our sin. Our sin put him on Calvary's cross, and this fact should cut us to our hearts as well.

One of the greatest questions we can ask after hearing this is like they did: what shall we do? Peter tells them in verse 38, "Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." After hearing the sermon by Peter, the people sought desperately to make right what they had done.

Peter tells them that they needed to repent. That Greek word for repent is metanoeo, and it means to turn or to change direction. A change that affects the mind and the heart. Peter was saying to them, "You once thought that Jesus was a blasphemer or heretic or a dangerous individual." Peter is saying, "Change the way that you think and feel about him because you have just seen that he is your Messiah that was resurrected, and we're witnesses of his resurrection according to verse 32."

If this is true, and it is, then there are many of you that need to repent today as well. Change the way that you think and feel about Jesus Christ. Yes, he will forgive us of our sins, but we still need to repent, to turn away from our sin to God. This is when we will receive remission or forgiveness of sins.

We need to change the way we think and feel because there are many people who think or feel just because you acknowledge that Jesus was a person that lived and died on the cross that you're right with God and it doesn't matter how you live. It does matter how you live. Belief must affect your behavior. It must, or your belief is invalid. Your belief must affect your behavior. If you say, "I believe in Jesus Christ," and if you say, "He is my Lord and Savior," then it will reflect in your behavior.

He's either Lord of all or not Lord at all. So, we need to understand that we need to change the way we think and feel about Jesus Christ. "Oh, I believe in Jesus and I can live any old kind of way I want to live." No, you can't. Your life and you living your life shows what you truly believe.

Jesus said there are many people who draw near to me with their lips but their heart is far from me. So many people say, "I believe," but they go out and live any old kind of way they want to live. That's not how any of this works. You can't do it.

Then Peter invited them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, not allowing for any secret disciples. I say that because to be baptized at this time, you are publicly showing that you are identifying yourself with Jesus Christ. You're identifying yourself with the one you helped crucify, Peter is saying. And this was at a great cost.

You could lose everything if you did this. If you identified yourself with Jesus Christ at this time, you could lose it all. Peter says when you do this, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit refers to what Jesus told them in Acts chapter 1, verse 8. He says, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth."

The gift of the Holy Spirit is the power of the Holy Spirit to be a witness for Jesus Christ. Now, is this for a select few? Is this only for a certain group of individuals? No. Verse 39 says, "For this promise is to you and to your children, to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." This extends to us today. The power of the Holy Spirit is available to us and to our children and many who are afar off.

I have to ask, are you far from God today? Then God is calling you to repent of your sin today and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and you too shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit to live for him. God is still calling people to himself. Will you answer that call? The power of the Holy Spirit is the power to live for him and the power to speak for him.

We can't live for Jesus Christ in our own power, in our own strength. We will fail miserably. You can wish you can to the cows come home, you will not be able to live for Jesus Christ apart from the power of the spirit. So the power of the spirit is the power to live for him, that dynamic power to live for him, and to speak for him, not to do bizarre things in church.

Many people do weird things and they say the spirit told them to do that. Stop lying on the spirit. Spirit didn't tell you to do that. That's weird. The power of the spirit of God is to give us that dynamic power we need to live a dynamic life for him and to speak for him.

Look at verse 40 and 41. And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation." Then those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them.

Now, Luke, the author, adds in verse 40 that Peter with many other words testified and exhorted them. The earnestness of Peter's words is seen in how intense the verbs that he uses in these verses are. The Greek word for testified is diamarturomai, and it means to charge or to warn or to adjure. And the word exhorted is parakaleo, and it's a word that means to exhort or to plead.

These words were strong words in the Greek language and were used of a commanding officer exhorting his troops before they went out to battle. This is what Luke tells us Peter was doing. Then he said, "Be saved from this, notice, perverse generation." The Greek word for perverse is skolios. It means to bent or crooked. It's where we get our English word scoliosis, which is the curvature of the spine.

This world is crooked. It's bent towards evil. It is perverse. Peter is saying that they needed to be saved from this perverse, crooked world. In Matthew chapter 12, verse 39 and chapter 16, verse 4, Jesus called this generation an evil and adulterous generation. The same is true for us. We need to be saved, rescued from this crooked, bent, and perverse generation. If not, then we will find ourselves drowning in the sea of its wickedness and ungodliness.

So what was the result of them hearing these words? Verse 41 says, "Then those who gladly received his word were baptized and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them." The church that started with 120 believers praying in the upper room in Acts 1 and verse 15 is now welcoming another 3,000 souls.

What did they do for them? Look at verse 42. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayers. These 3,000 new converts showed that their salvation was sincere because despite hardships and persecution that they received by publicly identifying themselves with Jesus Christ, I want you to notice, they continued steadfastly.

Some people start well but they don't finish well. I was just talking to Bobby about this. Many of you love to sign up for something. You come one or two times then you're done. You start but don't finish well. It's like this throughout society. You start school then you quit. You start a job then you stop. You start this project then you quit.

Many of us men are good for it too. We start a project and that project is still left undone. I started clipping some of the weeds a couple of days ago and that pile of weeds is still sitting in the driveway. We love to start things but we don't finish. We don't continue steadfastly.

If you want to go to the top of the corporate ladder on whatever job you're in, just do a little bit extra. No one wants to do anything extra. No one wants to put in a good hard day's work. We're looking for every way we can skate throughout the day and just hide out and skate around and fool around throughout the day and still get paid the same amount. Then as soon as 5:00 comes, 4:59:50, 4:59:57, we're already in the car.

Some people do the same thing with Christianity. They start off with Christianity, but as soon as persecution or tribulations come for the word's sake, immediately they stumble, like Mark 4:17 says. These 3,000 souls continued steadfastly doing what?

Number one: in the apostles' doctrine or teaching. They had a commitment to the word of God, which is foundational to the health and growth of every church. I can tell you right now, any church that dies out, one of the reasons, there are several, one of the reasons a church will die out is that they no longer have at the top of the list a precedence of the teaching of the word of God. Somewhere along the line, they started fooling around and not teaching the word of God. Other programs and other things and other cute pop psychology and all kind of other stuff and feel-good messages and tickle-the-ears messages. That will kill any church.

It must be a teaching of the word of God. It's foundational for the growth and health of every church. First Peter 2:2 says, "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that they may grow thereby." That word desire in the Greek language is an amazing word. It speaks of an intense craving a baby has for milk. As newborn babes, that phrase is one Greek word. It's a word that means a just-now-born baby. A baby fresh out the womb that you think is just the most precious little thing you ever seen in your life.

You don't give that little sinner some milk, it will wail and scream and shake violently until it gets milk. Oh, I just wonder do we shake violently when we miss church and we are not in the word of God? We miss reading, are we crying and shaking violently? "What's wrong with you?" "I missed being in the word today." Or can we just go from day to day and not even care about being in the word of God?

As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that they may grow thereby. I'm telling you, when you sit under the teaching of the word of God, it creates a hunger and a desire for more of the teaching of the word of God. Then when you try to go around and fool around elsewhere, you're like, "I went to this church and, you know, he got up there and read a verse but he never came back to the verse." See, because you've been sitting under the systematic teaching of the word of God and you're growing and it creates an intense craving.

Let me tell you something: if you don't have an intense craving for the word of God, something isn't right. If a baby doesn't desire milk any longer, something isn't right. Paul told Timothy in 1st Timothy 4:13, "Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine." He says, "Timothy, listen here. I want you to read the text, explain the text, apply the text."

This is what we do from Genesis to Revelation, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. We read the text, explain the text, apply the text. This is what we should be doing, and what we've been doing for 22 years, and we're going to do it another 22 if the Lord gives us strength.

So these believers, they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. Number two: in fellowship. The Greek word is koinonia, and it means fellowship, partnership, or sharing. So koinonia is people sharing with one another about the things of the kingdom of God. So when we isolate ourselves from other believers, we are in direct violation of this word koinonia, or what it means to be in fellowship with one another.

So they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship. Number three: they continued steadfastly in the breaking of bread. Oh, yes, this is a reference to the Lord's Supper or communion. When we participate in communion, there's a oneness that is taking place between us and the Lord.

You heard me say many times when we partake of communion, we're eating with the Lord. In that culture, to eat with a person is to become one with him. This is why the religious leaders asked the disciples, "What is your master doing eating with sinners?" because they understood to eat with a person is to become one with them.

And so also what is taking place during communion is a purifying of ourselves because 1st Corinthians 11:28 says, "Let every man examine himself." So we're examining ourselves and confessing our sin, and so we're cleansing ourselves and becoming one as a church. All of this takes place with the breaking of bread of communion.

Number four: they continued steadfastly in prayers. Notice an S is at the end of prayers. I mean, there's different kinds and types of prayers. First Timothy 2:1 says, "I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, giving of thanks, intercessions be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority." So it shows the different categories of prayers. But in this context, prayers refers to corporate or collective prayer.

Twenty years ago when I said corporate prayer, everyone knew that I was talking about prayer as a church. Today, I say corporate prayer and they say, "Is that prayer at our job?" No. So I have to explain, corporate or collective prayer.