The Word Made Plain

Announcer: 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 25 through 35.

Host: 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 25 to 35.

As we continue our verse-by-verse study of the book of Acts on Sunday mornings, and as you know, we are in the book of Deuteronomy on Wednesdays. And we have a crowd very similar to this, even on Wednesday nights, going through the Old Testament, and it is just a fascinating time. A little more extended worship and just all kinds of things. So, Wednesday nights are just fascinating. I love Wednesday nights as well.

And Father, thank you so much for this opportunity to sit at your feet and learn from you. And Lord, you've been so gracious and so forgiving to us. And Lord, we pray that as we sit at your feet that you would teach us, that your Holy Spirit will show us things that we need to know about our lives and how to live for you. So, help us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Acts chapter 2, looking at verses 25 to 35. The title of this message is "Why This Is Why," part 2.

Now, in part one of this study, we saw how Peter gave the biblical, a biblical response to what took place on the day of Pentecost. And this was so important because one of the accusations brought against them was that they were drunk with new wine, according to verse 13.

And then Peter told them that Pentecost was a partial fulfillment of the prophecy in the book of Joel, where God said that he would pour out his Spirit on all flesh, according to verses 17 to 21. And then we finished the message last week with Peter telling them in verses 22 to 24 that Jesus dying on the cross for the sins of mankind was based upon the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God.

But they were still held accountable because it was done by their lawless hands, according to verse 23. Oh, Peter continues in verses 25 to 28. Look what he says there.

"For David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. And you have made known to me the ways of life, and you will make me full of joy in your presence."

Now, in these verses, Peter is once again quoting from the Psalms. He's quoting this time from Psalm 16 in verses 8 through 11. And even though David was speaking prophetically on how the resurrection was always in God's plans, but these words are actually the words of Jesus personally because he was and is the promised Messiah.

And Jesus was able to endure the cross because he said in verse 25, "I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken."

Oh, in other words, Jesus was able to stay focused on God no matter what came his way because he knew God was at his right hand. He would not be shaken or afraid.

See, the right hand symbolizes protection. This is why in a wedding ceremony, the bridegroom would stand on the right side of the bride. Also, a bodyguard would also stand on the right side of the person they were protecting so they could protect them with their shield in their left hand and fight off attackers with their sword in their right hand.

And so because of this confident protection, Jesus could say in verse 26, that my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad. And he said that, "I may not be shaken or afraid," because of this confident protection that Jesus had in God the Father.

Oh, there are a few things that I want to bring to your attention. Notice how Jesus was able to stay focused on the task of going to the cross because he always kept the Lord before his face.

How do you stay focused? What keeps you focused on the task God has called you to carry out? The task I'm referring to is enduring your cross. The task of being a parent, the task of being a spouse. How do you go through and stay focused on the difficulties you will go through in being a parent, because there are some difficulties we all go through as being parents.

There are difficulties we all experience and go through in marriage. How do you stay focused? For those of you who are single, the difficulties of being single, the difficulties of being a child, a teenager in today's society. The difficulty of being a parent trying to raise G-rated children in an X-rated world.

How do you stay focused? How do you stay focused? The only way we can endure the difficulties that come our way is by always keeping the Lord before our face, which means keeping our eyes on Jesus. Oh, the writer of Hebrews kind of gives us insights into this. In Hebrews 12 and verse 2, it says, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame of it, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

So when we are looking unto Jesus, always keeping him before our faces, we can stay focused and endure our cross and despising the shame of it. When we take our eyes off of Jesus and put them on the storm around us, we will sink just like Peter did. Oh, you remember in Matthew 14, verse 30? It's not on the screen for you note takers. When he began to walk on the water going towards Jesus. It says, when he saw that the winds and the waves were boisterous, when he took his eyes off of Jesus and put him on the storm, that's when he started to sink.

And when you find yourself sinking in despair, sinking in hopelessness, sinking in depression, it is a sure indication that you've taken your eyes off of Jesus, and the Lord is no longer before your face. Oh, just look at your life right now. If you're sinking right now in the midst of depression and hopelessness, and despair, your eyes are no longer on Jesus. Your eyes are now on the storm around you. Whether that storm is with your children, whether that storm is in your marriage, whether it's vocationally, on your job, your eyes are no longer on Jesus. Now your eyes are on the storm around you, and that's why you're sinking. Oh, Peter sank, and don't think you're any different. You will sink too.

Oh, Jesus said at the end of verse 25. He says, "For he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken." Now, if the right hand symbolizes protection, I wonder if our wives feel that protection from us men. I wonder if our children feel our protection. If the right hand speaks of protection, I wonder if those around us feel protected.

See, we're living in such a fatherless generation that today's men don't even know how to open a door for a lady. Whether that is a door of a car, or the door of a department store. You're walking in, you hear a thud. The door then hit your wife as you came in. There's a sound in the in the night, she wakes you up. "Did you hear that?" "No, I didn't hear it." "Dad, right there, did you hear? Go see what it is." "No, you go see what it is," as he turns over to go back to sleep.

I wonder if our families feel protected by us. If the right hand symbolizes that. Jesus said, "Because the Father is at my right hand, I will not be shaken or afraid."

Jesus says that his heart could rejoice and his tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope. And Jesus was so confident that the Father would resurrect him. He could say, "My flesh also will rest in hope." Oh, that word "rest" in the Greek is an amazing Greek word. It's Kataskenao, and it literally means to pitch a tent.

It means that Jesus was so confident that God will resurrect his body that he could rest in hope that he would do it. In other words, he pitched his tent in the fact that the Father will resurrect him. And so often, we pitch our tent in fear. We pitch our tent in worry. But Jesus pitched his tent in hope, and the Father resurrected him.

What are you resting your hope in today? Are you hoping that God is a school teacher who grades on the curve and your good deeds will outweigh your bad deeds? That's not how any of this works. If your hope is not in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, then you will be lost for all eternity. Why? Because God doesn't have a large scale in the sky where he will weigh your good deeds and bad deeds. God is not some merchant at a swap meet, or some flea market, that he has a giant scale in the sky, and you're hoping your good deeds will outweigh your bad deeds. No, our hope needs to be in Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:27 says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." In 1st Timothy 1, verse 1, Paul says, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope." And it's not on the screen, but Romans 15:13 calls God, the God of all hope. So if you're resting in anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ as your hope for heaven, then you will be lost for all eternity.

No matter how many people write on your social media page after you're gone, "Rest in heaven," or "God needed his angel back," all kind of dumb stuff I read on social media where "now they got their wings." Where you get this stuff from? People are so biblically illiterate that the dumbest things are being said after people died. It's just mind-boggling to me the things I read, and I'm just like, where did this folklore, this old wives' fables, where did this stuff come from? People just think what they want to think.

The Bible says in the last days, there will be a famine, not of food or drink, but of the Word of God. And because people are biblically illiterate, they're saying stuff like, "Tell my grandmama I said hi." Or "I know you're warring them up to there, 'cause you worried us here on the Earth." What cut it out. Cut it out with that kind of stuff. What that stuff is not in the Bible.

I constantly, "Just don't respond. Don't don't respond. Don't." Because I know people are just biblically illiterate. And so they think all because we live on this Earth and they heard about something called heaven, and that that's a good place people go, then we just assume because you lived on this Earth or you were an Earthling, you automatically goes there. That's not how any of this goes. Your hope must be in Jesus Christ and the finished work on the cross. That's where your hope is.

You don't get to go there just because you lived on the Earth, or you pay God a guest appearance every now and then. Or you know you, you know, you you're a CEO when it comes to the church, Christmas, Easter, and other. Maybe Mother's Day, or funeral, or wedding. That's not how any of this goes. I don't know why people think that.

I get weary of it sometime, and I I I I've learned over the years, "I don't have to I don't I don't have to get in every fight. I don't I don't." You know, and I just and I just say, "Lord, help us. Lord, help us." This is why I believe that God has raised us up for such a time as this because if anyone sits under the verse-by-verse teaching of the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation, you're going to know what God's Word has to say, and you won't be out there saying dumb things like that. Dumb things. I'm just like, what? What did you get that from? "Well, you got your wings now." Where did what where is that?

"God needed his angel back." The God who created all things needed something? He needed you? He needed me? Are you kidding me? God doesn't need anything. And but because we don't know, we say dumb things. "He needed them more than we do." Cut that out. Now, if anybody in here I see it on social media, I'm I'm going to point it out to you. I'm just going to write, "Sermon, Acts 2, 25-35."

Quit fooling around with that stuff. So, Jesus said that he could rejoice also because he said in verse 27, "For you will not leave my soul in Hades." Now, Hades is the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament Hebrew word Sheol. And although Jesus used this word specifically to refer to hell in Matthew 11 in verse 23, David used it in more of a broad sense, referring to the place of the dead.

And notice how Jesus could rejoice because he knew that God the Father would not leave his soul in Hades. Please take note on how God doesn't leave us in hellish situations. In the in the the what is commonly called the Lord's Prayer, in the part where it says, "And lead us not into temptation." That the word "lead" there in the Greek, it means to lead for the purpose of leaving. God will never leave us in hellish situations.

I bring this up because there are many of you here, and your earthly fathers have left the family in a hellish situation. And you and your siblings and your mom struggled, and you have anger, you have bitterness, and even hatred towards him for doing this. God the Father will never do this. He promises in Hebrews 13 and verse 5, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." And as you heard me say many times in the Greek language, it's more emphatic. It says, "I will never, no never, no never leave you, nor forsake you."

And this is why Jesus said that his heart could rejoice and his tongue was glad because he knew that the Father would never leave his soul in Hades. Let me just say this. If you're here and your father's done that to you, your walk with God will never progress to where it needs to progress until you deal with that in your heart.

You deal with the anger, you deal with the bitterness. The Bible says for us, we we we're we're called to be different. It says, "Pray for those who spitefully use us. Pray for those, pray for our enemies." See, that person is an enemy to you. Pray for our enemies. Why does God tell us that? Because prayer keeps bitterness from entering our heart and corrupting us because it's hard to be angry and bitter and hate someone you're praying for. This is why he tells us this. We're called to be different as believers. And this is one way that we show we're different when we're praying for our enemies and not out to get our enemies. Oh, somebody need to hear that. Somebody need to hear that today because you're plotting right now. You're plotting.

You're plotting, you're just waiting. Please understand. Satan will always open up a door for you to get somebody back. When you walk through, you think that you're going to receive a sense of satisfaction, you won't get it. Instead, a hardness will enter your soul, and you'll start to become a bitter, angry person. You think you'll be a satisfied person? No.

And that's always the indication that you're over something or over someone or over the hurt is when you can get them back and you don't do it. You're over it. If you can get them back and you do it, you're not over that thing. I don't care if it's been five years. I don't care. If you see that door open, "Ooh, I've been waiting five years for this." And you walk through it, you're not over it. Oh, some of you sitting here, you're not over it. You're not over it because you're waiting for that opportune day to come to get somebody back. Somebody needs to hear this today. God is speaking to someone's heart.

That let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Somebody needs to hear that. It's not worth it. Let it go. Lord wants you to let it go. Let it go. Because that satisfaction you're looking to get, you won't have it. It won't be there. And that'll make you angrier because then you'll be plotting on part two of your revenge, because part one didn't do it for you. Oh, boy, I can I I already I always know when God is speaking. Just let it go.

So, here's the Lord. He is saying very clearly, he knew that he can be his tongue could rejoice and be glad because he knew that the Father would never leave his soul in Hades, nor allow your Holy One to see corruption, which means to see decay. And during the three days that the body of Jesus was in the tomb, it didn't see decay.

And if you are a father, and you have children out there somewhere and you see them facing corruption and decaying spiritually, go after them. Because a real father doesn't allow his children to face corruption and see decay. And this is what Jesus is saying about God the Father. He didn't allow him to see corruption. He resurrected him. And you, if you have children out there, you need to resurrect that relationship with them. Now, somebody needs to hear that too. How about that? Yeah. Need to resurrect that relationship with them. Yeah, you need to do that. I know what you're thinking. I'm about to address that in a few minutes, but I know what you're thinking. But you need to resurrect that relationship with them.

Jesus also rejoiced because he said in verse 28, "You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of joy in your presence." And this part of Psalm 16, verse 11, Jesus is once again rejoicing in the fact,