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Andy Stanley -Ekklesia Part 2 Opening Day · Andy Stanley Sermons

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So here's here's something that more and more Americans are turning to for a pastime
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and turning to for entertainment. Predicting outcomes for money. Yeah, gambling,
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it's just a different way of saying gambling, right, But I just felt
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like that's such a harsh term to open a sermon with, So we're just
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gonna go with predict outcomes for money. In fact, just real quick confession,
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how many of you predicted outcomes for money on the Super Bowl? I
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just kidding now, No, I don't raise your hand, just kidding.
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Yeah, we shouldn't confess then this early in the sermon anyway. And I'm
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not saying this sin. For most people, it's just kind of a you
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know, it's just a harmless pastime. But for others it is a dangerous
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pathway. And of course the problem is you don't know if it's a dangerous
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pathway for you until you start. So for many people, maybe it's why
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to never begin to begin with. But my reason for bringing it up is
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this, Jesus predicted some outcomes, but not for money, and maybe one
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of the reasons he didn't predict outcomes for money is nobody, and I mean
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nobody would have put any money down on his prediction. They were very bad
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odds. Now they were God odds, and I don't know if God odds
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is even a thing. But in terms of humanly speaking, in terms of
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what was going on, the things that Jesus predicted, nobody would have put
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any money on him. Nobody would have bet on them, because they were
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just unrealistic. They were incredible, they were undoable. It wasn't ever going
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to happen. But interestingly enough, in his lifetime, almost everything he predicted
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actually came to pass. In fact, pretty much everything came to pass he
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predicted would come to pass, except for a couple of things, which should
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lead us to believe that the other things will come to pass as well.
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Now, my favorite Jesus prediction, in fact, my favorite prophecy in the
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entire Bible, Old and New Testament, is actually us. Jesus predicted Us.
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Jesus predicted the Church standing in the middle of nowhere, literally nowhere,
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way way way north of the city of Jerusalem, surrounded by a bunch of
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nobodies. And when I say nobodies, I mean culturally speaking, the guys
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that followed Jesus in those early days. They were kind of nobodies, just
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standing out in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by these nobodies, Jesus says,
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hey, what's the word on the street about me? And they start
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telling Jesus what people are thinking about him. That's not a very safe question
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for most of us to ask, unless you really want to get your feelings
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hurt. But Jesus said, hey, what are people saying about me?
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And then he turns to his disciples. You probably heard this, We talked
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about it last week. And he said, what do you guys think about
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me? Who do you think that I am? And Peter raises his hand
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he says, I'll tell you who I think you are. I think you're
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God's final King. I think you're the King. I think you are Messiah.
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I think in some unique way, you are the Son of God.
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And Jesus replied to Peter and to his guys, he says, that's exactly
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who I am. And Peter, let me tell you who you are.
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I tell you that you are Peter, and he uses this little Greek word
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petross, which means a stone or a pebble. Basically, he kind of
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renames him Rocky, but not quite as brutal as Rocky because it's more like
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pebble or stone that you could hold in your hand. And then he smiles,
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and he says, and on this rock. And now he uses a
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different Greek term. He says, on this rock, and he's referring now
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to the statement that Peter made that you're the Christ, the son of the
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living God. He says, and on this statement you've made on this rock
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petra, which means bedrock, a massive outcropping the side of a mountain,
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something that is immovable. He says, I'm based on this statement that you've
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made about me who I am. Let me tell you what I'm gonna do.
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I'm gonna build my ecclesia, my movement, my assembly. I'm going
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to create a people who will gather in my name to do my will,
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to execute my mission. And guys, he's looking around, it's this hot
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Syrian sun. There're so far north, he says, And gentlemen, the
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gates of Hades, death itself will not overcome it. That when I'm gone,
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he says, even when I'm gone, my movement will maintain. Even
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when I'm gone, my movement will keep moving on that. My death,
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he is saying, won't be the end. And actually his death, jesus
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death and resurrection is what launched his movement, launched his eclaca. Now standing
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out there in that hot Syrian sun, this is crazy talk. I mean,
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this is ridiculous. You don't start new movements in fact pitting himself against
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the religious establishment and pitting himself against the Roman Empire. No way way it
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happened. Because here we are, two thousand years later, all over the
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world, in multiple languages, in just about probably every country in the world,
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in homes and apartment buildings and buildings like this, large and small people
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are gathering in the name of Jesus' So why is my favorite prediction? Jesus
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predicted a movement, a multicultural movement that would sweep the entire world, and
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it came true, and nobody saw it coming, and no one could have
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imagined it. Today, we're in part two of our series at Clesia,
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the Greek term that Jesus used to describe his movement. If you miss part
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one of this series, you really need to go back and listen to it
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as we unpack the significance of this word and the reason we're doing this series.
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This is our opportunity to take a look back to ensure that we as
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a group of local churches stay on track. Because while expressions of faith change
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from generation to generation, and while expressions of the Christian faith have changed from
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culture to culture, we don't all sing the same way, we don't all
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worship the same way, we don't even all use the Bible, and we
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don't even read the Bible the same way. In spite of all of these
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cultural changes and generational changes, there are some core things that have not changed.
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Jesus' original intent for his assembly, for his movement has not changed.
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And we as a church, and we as a network of churches, and
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we as believers dare not lose sight of his original intent for his movement,
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for his ecclesia. And the reason is there are multiple reasons why, but
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one is this when historically, and maybe you've experienced this personally, when the
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church veers, things just get weird. You ever been to a weird church.
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There's some weird churches and you're like, what in the world are you
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up to? And then you find out there's stuff going on behind the scenes.
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When the church veers away from jesus original intent, things get weird.
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When the church loses its way, or when a local church loses its way,
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people get hurt, abuse with a divine excuse, Jesus and God's name
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get stamped on behaviors that both of them find despicable. And so this is
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important and one of the reasons it's so important for us. And this is
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hard for us to imagine. If you're a Christian, this is for you.
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If you're not a Christian, here's what you're gonna think. You're gonna
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think, yes, exactly, it's about time you Christians figure this out.
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But if you're a Christian, here's why this is important. We are the
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church in our generation. We are responsible for the church and our generation.
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We are responsible or we're stewards at the church in our generation. We determine
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what Christianity looks like, what Christianity acts like, and most importantly, we
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determine what Christianity reacts like. And here's what I mean by that. As
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people from the outside look in, we are Christianity. We are the version
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of Christianity for our generation. And if we don't get it right, we
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misrepresent our Savior, we misrepresent the Ecclesia of Jesus. So every once in
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a while it's important to step back and to look back at jesus original intent
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and to study the behaviors and the responses of those first century Christians who sat
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at the feet of Jesus and got it right because they were right there in
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his presence. So we're looking back in order to stay on track. So
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today we're jumping right into the narrative. Last week we kind of set this
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whole thing up, But we're jumping right into the storyline today now. As
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I remind you, every Easter, nobody anticipated Jesus rising from the dead.
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Nobody, nobody standing outside the tomb three days later, counting down backwards from
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ten. You know, nobody expected Jesus rise. In fact, as we
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talk about all the time, when they gazed into the empty tomb, everybody
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assumed, even his mother assumed someone had stolen the body. Nobody expected a
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resurrection. In fact, the way that we say it on Easter, I'll
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see how many of you been paying attention. See if you can finish this
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statement for me. Nobody expected Look at that six of you got it right,
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Yeah, nobody expected nobody. That's Easter in a nutshell. Nobody expected
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no body. But that wasn't the only thing they weren't expecting. So here's
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the story. Here's what happened five weeks after the rests, not a few
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days, five weeks after the resurrection, after literally hundreds of people had seen
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the resurrected Jesus, according to Paul and First Corinthians, one of the earliest
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Christian documents. He says, oh, yeah, there are over five hundred
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people who saw him at one time. So about five weeks after the resurrection,
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Jesus gathers his followers for a farewell address, and there's a very short
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Q and A that's part of the farewell address. In fact, it's just
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one single question. Here was their question, they said. So, So
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Luke, Luke tells us in just little clarification, Luke actually wrote the Book
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of Acts. Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke Matthew mart Luke, and he
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wrote the Book of Acts, and Acts is the book of the Bible that
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tells us what happened in the church after the resurrection of Jesus. So Luke
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documents this for us. And Luke knew the people in the story because he
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spent time with all these people. So here's what he says happened. So
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when they met together all of Jesus' followers after the resurrection again about five weeks
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later, they ask him, Lord, are you at this time going to
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restore the kingdom to Israel? So this whole time, they're looking for a
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nationalistic movement, they're looking for an independent state. They're looking for Israel to
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be free of Roman domination and for Jesus to step in as a reigning,
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ruling military king to expel the invaders. So they're saying, hey, is
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are we going back to the days of David? Are we going back to
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the days of Solomon? I mean, surely that's what's next, But it
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wasn't. What was next was us. What was next was Ecclecia. What
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was next was much bigger than they ever imagined. Jesus responded, he kind
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of dodges the question, or so it seems. He says, it's not
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for you to know the times or days. He's not chastising them, but
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he's like, that's not where we're going. It's not for you to know
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the times or the dates the Father has set by his own authority. In
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other words, that's not going to have now. It may happen later.
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And then he changes the subject, and he basically says, let me tell
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you what it is time for again, something so much bigger than you could
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ever imagine. You guys, He was saying, you can't think outside the
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borders of Judea and Galilee. But what God has done in the world through
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me is not for Judea and Galilee. It only it is for the entire
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world. He says, Okay, so here's what's going to happen next.
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You talking about that group, You're going to receive power when the Holy Spirit
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comes on you. Now, this is kind of Old Testament language, and
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the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come down and anoint people for certain
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tasks, but then the Holy Spirit would withdraw. And Jesus says, the
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Holy Spirit that you've read about, and you know in the Old Covenant language
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and the days of Solomon, the days of the Kings, that same Holy
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Spirit is going to come down on all of you average people and you're gonna
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have power, to which they immediately thought of the Old Testament miracles, and
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they thought power, and what are we going to use our power for?
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Are we gonna use our power to expel the Romans? And Jesus said,
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no, you're gonna use your power to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in
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all Judea. Quick geography lesson, Jerusalem is a city, right, and
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Judea is the whole region. He says, you're gonna be my witnesses in
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Judea and Jerusalem. And of course when they hear the word witness, they're
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thinking somebody who testifies an a legal matter, somebody who goes to court.
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So they're like, wait, we're all going to court, and Jesus like,
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no, I'm not finished. Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, to
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which they thought, wait, those aren't our people. I mean, we
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don't even like Samaritans. We go around Samaria, those aren't Wait, those
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aren't our people. And then Jesus SA's and it's worse and to the ends
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of the earth, to which they thought, oh, you mean that kind
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of witness You mean we're gonna go all over the world and tell people what
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we've witnessed, what we've seen. You you really mean the whole world,
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like Egypt, like Rome. I mean, they're thinking, clearly, this
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is hyperbole. There's no way we're going everywhere in the world with this message.
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But it wasn't hyperbole. He was serious. Here we are, here,
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we are now, quick little cultural thing. In ancient times, nobody
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switched religions because there were no religions. There was no such thing as a
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religion. In ancient times. You know this, Every region had their own
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gods, Every household had household gods. So the whole lite you didn't really
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switch religions. If you moved, you might adopt the customs and the gods
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of that region. Because the way they viewed the world, the gods reigned
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over certain regions of the world. They were actually geo geographically in most cases
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confined. So the whole idea of taking the message of Jesus to all the
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regions of the world, this was unthinkable because every people group had their own
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gods. You worship your gods, I worship my god. Romans they didn't
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care who's god you worshiped, as long as you obeyed Caesar. And the
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problem with the Jesus way, the problem with this new thing that Jesus had
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inaugurated, this new covenant that he had initiated, The problem was it wasn't
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a you might also like kind of a thing. You didn't add it to
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what you already had. You didn't just put another idol on the mantle.
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You didn't just add Yahweh to your list of gods that you worshiped in your
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region. This was an either or proposition, and so Jesus was literally sending
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them out. We can't even imagine the complexity of this. He was sending
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them out, or he was going to send them out to the world.
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Here's what they thought. Anyway, you're going to send us out into the
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world, not simply to talk about you, Jesus. You're asking us to
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ask people to abandon their entire world view. You're asking us to go into
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regions of the world where they believe in multiple gods that say, oh no,
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no, you've had it wrong forever. Your parents had it wrong,
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grandparents had it wrong. You got it completely wrong. There's only one God,
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and all the other other gods that you worship, they're not really they
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don't even exist. You're expecting us to tell people that. And then you
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want us to tell people that the only God became a human to demonstrate what
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the only God is like, and then that one and only God actually died
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on a cross for the sins of the world. Again, the idea of
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sin was a new concept for Pagans. Pagans didn't have sins because the pagan
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gods did not require obedience, They just required sacrifice. So everything about this
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message was new. Everything about this message was unprecedented. This wasn't gonna go
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anywhere, especially outside of Judea. I mean in Judea it works because you
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got so many Jews. They already understand there's one God, they understand Torah,
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they understand law, so it kind of fits there. But Jesus,
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seriously, you think your message, you think this strange new worldview message is
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gonna make have any traction and the rest the world. But they're standing in
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the presence of someone they saw die. They're standing in the presence of someone
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they know where he was buried and sealed in the tomb, and now he's
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talking to them. So if someone predicts their own death and resurrection and pulls
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it off, and they say he's going to do something for the whole world,
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you're like, well, okay, we'll at least go along with it,
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because you've done something everyone else that thought was impossible, unprecedented, and
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no body saw it coming. So he said, you go back to Jerusalem
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and you wait and you'll see. So Luke picks up the story from right
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there. Here's what he said happened. He said they all went back to
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Jerusalem, and he gives us all this incredible detail. He says, they
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all joined together, this group of people whom Jesus had given these words to,
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they joined together constantly. This wasn't a thirty minute prayer meeting, a
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constant day after day in prayer along with and Luke gives us these details because
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once again, this whole movement is so unusual, it's so anti cultural.
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It's just no one would guess this is how it worked. So he includes
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this detail ladies along with the women. And why does he say that,
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Because men and women didn't pray together. Men and women didn't do much of
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anything together in this culture. But Jesus had already begun to change that,
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because throughout his ministry he elevated the dignity and the status of women. This
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is why I say, and I know it's offensive to some people, every
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woman in the world should love Jesus, even if you don't think he's divine.
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What Jesus did for women in the first century, he began something that
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took way too long to catch on, but it began with the teaching and
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the elevation and the dignity that Jesus ascribed to women. So it makes sense
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that in the early days of his movement, the women are right there in
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the same room praying alongside the men. And Mary, he says, the
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mother of Jesus is in that room praying with them, and Jesus brothers,
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to which is like, wait, his brothers, where have those guys been.
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They're not part of the twelve Disciples. I mean, they don't really
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do anything. But when you read the gospels, jesus brothers questioned his sanity.
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Which it's easy to be critical of them, but come on, if
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your brother claim to be the Messiah, your brother, yeah, you would
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question his sanity. Okay, so it don't be too hard on these guys,
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But why do they suddenly appear in the narrative. Because when your brother
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is crucified and you comfort your mother in tears, and then your brother is
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standing in front of you, you're like, okay, you are, in
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fact the Messiah. Yes, we used to play together and I noticed you
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always won. But anyway, you obviously you had something going on. The
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rest of us didn't, So now even his brothers are part of the Jesus
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movement. So they pray and pray and pray. In two weeks go by,
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two weeks later, it's a Jewish festival in Jerusalem called Pentecost, the
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Festival of Pentecost, and in this particular festival, men from all over the
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Empire who were sons of Abraham, we would say, who were Jewish,
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are to come to Jerusalem to celebrate this particular festival. So again there are
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sons of Abraham or Jewish people all over the Empire. They pay their own
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way and they travel in some cases many many, many many miles back to
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Jerusalem for this festival. So the city of Jerusalem is packed, but it's
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not just packed with people. It is packed with people from every nation are
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just about every nation in the Empire. And while they're praying on the day
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of Pentecost, exactly what Jesus predicted happens. The Holy Spirit comes down on
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them and gives them power, but not military power, a strange power,
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the power to understand and to speak the languages of all of the regions that
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these Jewish people traveled from to Jerusalem for the day. In the festival Pentecost,
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and why did God empower them with that kind of power, and why
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did God provide this kind of sign, Because this was in fact good news
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of great joy for all people. Jesus was not exaggerating. It wasn't just
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jew it wasn't just Judea, it wasn't just Galilee. It really was for
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the whole world. That when he said all, he meant all, and
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when he said everybody, he meant everybody. And so they leave the room
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where they're praying, and they go into the streets, and they all begin
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to speak in the languages of these Jewish people who've come from all these different
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regions in the Empire, and they're well, they're shocked. And Luke tells
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us how they responded. He writes, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans?
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Now again, we miss this because we don't live in that culture.
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Does this say Jewish? Does it say Judean? Galilean? These people who
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had followed Jesus, most of them were from way, way way up north.
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They were more of the working class, they were less education, they
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didn't live in the big city of Jerusalem. And these people from all these
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different regions, because they're sons of Abraham. Because they're Jewish, they recognize,
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Wait a minute, these aren't even Judeans. These certainly aren't Jerusalemites.
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These are people from kind of the outer the other areas of Galilee. And
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how is it they suddenly are able to speak our language? How is it
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that each of us hears them in our native language? And then Luke,
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because he loves details, actually lists the different regions from the Empire where all
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these people came from. Look at this, you can read the whole story
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for yourself. He said. There are people from Parthia, there were Medes
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and Elamites. He goes through all these different areas. There were people from
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Egypt, there were sons of Abraham. Jews had traveled from Rome to be
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in Jerusalem. So this is amazing. So God, to prove that this
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was for everybody, brought everybody to Jerusalem. When he unleashed has Eclicia.
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They go on and they say, we hear these Galileans, we hear them
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declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. Amazed and perplexed, they
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ask one another what does this mean? And Peter steps up and says,
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I'm glad you ask and then Peter preaches this amazing sermon. You got to
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read it for yourself. I'm just gonna give you some of the highlights.
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Here's what he preached to this group of people as hundreds and then hundreds more
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begins to gather because something amazing had happened in Jerusalem. Here's what he said.
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He said, people of Israel, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth
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was a man accredited by God to you. In other words, God put
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his stamp of approval on Jesus of Nazareth, and he did it in such
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a way that no one could dispute that he had come from God by miracles,
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wonders, and signs which God did among you. And here's you learned
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this as you read more from the Book of Acts, that what happened in
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Jerusalem didn't stay in Jerusalem, and what happened with Jesus and Galilee didn't stay
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in Galilee. Word of this miracle worker, this new rabbi, this maybe
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he's the Messiah person has spread throughout all of the Roman world in terms of
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where Jews traveled and carried messages from Jerusalem and from that part of the world.
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He says, you know, what's been going on here through him,
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as you yourselves know. And then he says this, He says, this
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man talking about Jesus, this man was handed over to you by God's deliberate
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plan. Now he's going to blame the entire nation for what happened, and
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of course Peter is one of them. This man was handed over to you
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by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge. And you, with the help of wicked
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men, maybe referring to the Romans, maybe referring to the high Priest,
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with the help of wicked men, you put him to death by nailing him
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to the cross. And you can hear a pin drop And he pauses for
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effect, and then he says, but God raised him from the dead,
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freeing him from the agony of death, because because just as he predicted,
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the gates of Hades would not be the end of his movement, His death
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and resurrection would be the beginning, because he says, because it was impossible
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for death to keep a hold on him. Then he gives them some of
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their own history, some of their own Old Testament background. Then he says
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this. He says later on the sermon, he says, God has raised
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this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Look
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around, there's dozens and dozens and dozens of us. We were there when
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he was crucified. We know where he was buried, and we have met
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with him, and he, in fact is alive, and we are witnesses.
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We didn't read about it, we didn't hear about it. We saw
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it. Then he rears back, and he says, therefore, therefore,
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speaking essentially to the whole nation, let all of Israel be assured. This
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God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, Lord and Messiah. He has
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made him Lord, and he has made him your king. He is God's
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final king. Not just for those of you who live in Judea, and
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not just for those of you from Galilee, and not even those of you
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who are from the regions of the world represented here in the city of today,
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but for every man and every woman, every tribe, every tongue,
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every nation, every nationality. And when the people this is amazing. When
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the people heard this, they were cut to the heart. You know what
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that means. It means their defenses melted, their resistance melted, all their
25:48
intellectual misgivings all the questions, all the what abouts, all of Yeah,
25:52
but I'm not so sure. It's like something on the inside of them just
25:56
folded and they realize they'd been They realized they hadn't heard the whole story.
26:03
They realized some of them who lived close they missed their king and their Messiah.
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And they said to Peter and the other apostles brothers, what shall we
26:15
do? And Peter replied, attend church regularly. That wouldn't have made any
26:27
sense. This wasn't a building, this wasn't a service, This wasn't an
26:32
hour on Sunday. It wasn't even Sunday. This was way bigger than that.
26:37
Peter replied. Come on, Peter replied, believe a list of propositional
26:41
truths. We're gonna have a class. Okay, We're gonna do a whole
26:44
systematic theology thing, and we're gonna sort out all of you know, the
26:47
mysteries around God and where God came from. Now this wasn't about This wasn't
26:51
about a what. This was about who I knew who. Peter replied,
26:59
let me tell you what you're to do. And now he's speaking to you,
27:04
speaking to you, now I speaking to me. Nice speaking to all
27:08
of us. Peter replied, repent and be baptized, every one of you
27:15
in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. Now,
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something really interesting is going on here that you don't see. This is
27:23
amazing. The men and the few women in the crowd, we don't know,
27:27
men and women, mostly men. The people in this crowd were good
27:32
Torah abiding, law abiding, you know, Jewish people, Judeans and Galileeans,
27:37
sons and daughters of Abraham. In fact, they were the best of
27:41
the best. They spent their own money to travel to the city, the
27:44
Holy City of Jerusalem, to the Temple to celebrate this festival. I mean,
27:47
these were good people. These weren't wild and crazy people who rebelled against
27:51
God and stiff armed God and didn't believe in God. These were good people.
27:55
So why does he say that you need to repent, be baptized in
27:57
the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. What sins was he
28:00
talking about? The answer is all their sins, all their sins, all
28:08
their sins up until this day. He would say to them, you have
28:11
come to the temple, or you have given God sacrifice in the regions of
28:15
the world from where you live, because up until this time, the blood
28:18
of rams, and the blood of goats, and the lives of pigeons and
28:22
grain were these peace offerings and offerings to make you right with God. And
28:26
God for a time overlooked your sin. But now someone has come who has
28:32
paid for your sin, and it's time that you repent. You change your
28:36
mind about how it works, because the temple days and the temple ways are
28:40
over. They were perfect for what they were designed for, but that age
28:44
has ended as a brand new age, and God has sent his son into
28:48
this world to pay for all of your sins, past, present, and
28:55
future. His death was the final payment for the sins of the world,
28:59
which means his his death was a final payment for my sins in your sins.
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The apostle Paul, once he finally got this all figured out, would
29:07
eventually write these words. He would say, Hey, there's no condemnation.
29:11
There is therefore now no condemnation for anyone who is in right relationship with King
29:19
Jesus. And you know what, when I read these words personally, if
29:22
I could just be personal for a minute, and I might have shared this
29:23
before. You know, I'm preacher's kid. I mean, I knew the
29:27
Bible backwards and for it, I could do the books of the Bible.
29:30
I mean, I was so ingrained in scripture, and you know what I
29:34
have. You know, the apostle Paul talks about being the chief of sinners.
29:37
At times, I feel like I'm not too far behind him, not
29:41
because of what I've done, but because I knew so much better than to
29:44
do it. By the way I was raised. I promised God so many
29:47
times and broken my promises. I promised to do better so many times and
29:51
not followed through on my promises. And I knew better of all people in
29:55
the world, people like mean we are without excuse. And when Jesus died
30:02
on the cross, he died for all my informed, inexcusable sin, and
30:08
he died for yours as well. He goes on to say this, You're
30:15
to repent, You're to think differently about who is Lord. You are to
30:19
be baptized, to publicly associate with this new movement, the ecclecy of Jesus.
30:25
You'll receive forgiveness of sin, and not only that, and this meant
30:27
so much to this Jewish audience. And you will receive the gift of the
30:32
Holy Spirit, the same holy spirit that came upon Samson for his mighty deeds,
30:37
the same holy spirit that would come upon a king for mighty deeds.
30:40
For a moment, You're going to receive the same Holy Spirit. And it's
30:42
he is going to stick round. And then Peter talks about you, and
30:48
he talks about me. Listen to this, he says. And these promises,
30:51
the promise of forgiveness, the promise of inclusion, the promise of the
30:55
Holy Spirit, these promises for you and your children, and for all who
30:59
are far off, and for all whom the Lord our God will call.
31:03
That's me, that's you. Because we are far off geographically, and we
31:10
are far off chronologically. And the promise citadel stands. And how do they
31:17
respond. That's amazing, Luke says. Those who accepted his message were baptized
31:23
that day. We're in the few days that followed. About three thousand were
31:29
added to their number that day. So day one, this was launch day
31:34
of the church. This is how it all started. This is day one.
31:37
Launch day. Day one was huge, and it launched as and it
31:44
must remain. It launched as and it must remain. That's why we're looking
31:48
back to make sure we stay on track. It launched as a outward facing
31:52
for the world multicultural. Everybody's invited multiply and it's not my foreign no more.
32:00
I'm not going to hunker down and wait for Jesus to come back and
32:01
hope, poor, poor, pitiful us. Look how awful the world is,
32:05
and why doesn't Jesus come back and deliver us? Uh? Uh,
32:07
you don't find that on the lips of Jesus. You certainly don't find that
32:10
on the lips of any of his first century followers. It launched as an
32:14
outward facing We're for the world multicultural multiplying movement, not a worship service,
32:20
not an hour on Sunday, not make sure I've got everything lined up so
32:22
God will answer my prayer and thank you for this day and help me to
32:25
find my car keys. They would be like, you're what, no outward
32:29
facing multicultural multiplying movement. And I realized not everybody likes a big church.
32:36
Day One was huge, and it was just as he predicted, because the
32:42
epicenter of this movement was exactly what Peter said, the thing that brought them
32:46
together, the thing that would hold them together, in the years that followed,
32:51
the difficult and challenging generations. Actually that followed. The one thing they
32:54
had in common was not language, it wasn't culture. The one thing they
33:00
had in common was the belief that Jesus, Jesus was the Messiah, He
33:05
was God's final king. And this new movement was anchored to one indisputable event,
33:10
the resurrection of Jesus Day one. But so what now what? Here's
33:22
what? Repent? Repent, Repent, turn to Jesus. You're king,
33:36
your Lord, your Messiah. Maybe your religion says you can work your way
33:39
into God's graces. Repent. Maybe you just have decided it's all a fairy
33:45
tale. It's not. None of it's real. No repent. The invitation
33:49
for you is the invitation that it was for the people in the audience that
33:52
day, is to repent, acknowledge Jesus as your king, and today submit
33:54
to his lordship. Just say yes, and then be baptized. You need
33:59
to be baptized, because that's how you publicly identify with an ecclecea of Jesus.
34:04
When I grew up, they said you get baptized to join the local
34:07
church. We just made that up. Okay, you get baptized to be
34:09
a part of the assembly, the growing, outward facing, multifaceted, multicultural
34:15
movement of Jesus. This is how you publicly identify. And if you think
34:21
it's awkward for you, let me assure you. The Judeans and the Romans,
34:24
and the Egyptians and the Parthians and the people from all these different groups
34:29
to be baptized as adults in Jerusalem after this message. It was so humiliating,
34:34
and they were proud to do it because they were part of something new
34:37
and something God done for them, for the world, and for the forgiveness
34:46
of your sins. Let me tell you what I know about you, and
34:49
we've never met. You've hurt people. You've hurt people God loves, which
34:54
means you've hurt God. See if you hurt one of my children, you
34:59
don't just fix with my children, You got to fix it with with me.
35:04
You've hurt people, and you know what, You've hurt people that God
35:06
loves, and you've hurt yourself who God loves, and you can't do anything
35:08
about it. You can't make up for it. You can apologize, but
35:12
you can't make up for it because you can't go back in time and undo
35:15
what you've done. It's done. You have a debt. You have a
35:19
debt with people you've hurt. You have a debt with yourself. More importantly,
35:22
you have a debt with your heavenly Father because you've hurt yourself he loves,
35:25
and you've hurt children he loves. And there's nothing you can do about
35:30
it. And so Jesus came and paid your debt so you could have a
35:36
clear conscience with God, your father. That's the gift of salvation, that's
35:43
the gift of forgiveness. And on Launch Day Day one, Peter said,
35:45
and it's for the whole world, the good people, the not so good
35:51
people, because all this, Paul would write later, all have sinned and
35:54
fallen short of the glory, the standard, the greatness of God. Have
36:02
you accepted that gift of forgiveness that comes by way of the death of Christ
36:07
for your sins? And when you do, he says this, and then
36:08
you will receive the gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit, who will
36:13
come and live inside of you and permanently stay inside of you as a seal
36:16
to the fact that you belong to God, to empower you to live the
36:21
life that God has invited you to live, to give you the power to
36:24
follow Jesus, which will make your life better and make you better at life.
36:30
Have you done that? Because if you're ready, the invitation is a
36:36
standing invitation. If you're ready, he's waiting. So when I try to
36:40
figure out how to end a message like this, I just think I got
36:44
to do it Peter did. Just like Peter invited his original audience to respond
36:47
immediately. I'm inviting you today, whether you're watching, it's sitting in one
36:52
of our churches, sitting by yourself somewhere, to respond immediately, to repent
36:59
and then decide to publicly join and publicly associate with you are King and his
37:04
movement for the forgiveness of all your sins, past, present and future.
37:08
To be empowered by the Holy Spirit to live the life that God has invited
37:13
you to live. So, if you're ready, He's been ready. And
37:19
maybe this is your day. And if while I was talking, something kind
37:22
of lit up inside of you and you're like, I understand that for the
37:24
first time. That wouldn't me. I'm not that good. That is the
37:28
Holy Spirit of God saying come on, come on, come on. So
37:34
here's what I want to do. I want to lead you in a prayer
37:37
just a minute, and I'm gonna ask you to pray a prayer out loud
37:39
because I want you to hear yourself say these words. And I'm gonna ask
37:43
every Christian in the room, or every Christian in the room with you.
37:45
I want us to all pray this out loud to give the people around us
37:49
the ability to pray this out loud without being afraid or too self conscious.
37:53
So we're all going to pray this out loud. If you're not a believer
37:57
and you're like I still don't believe, that's okay. We're so glad you're
37:59
heard it. But if this is your day, don't missus. So if
38:02
you would, everyone just bow your head and close your eyes for just a
38:05
minute. Would would you pray out loud with me? Would you say,
38:08
Heavenly Father, no more running, no more resisting. I'm yours. I'm
38:17
placing my faith in Christ's death on the cross as payment for my sin.
38:28
Thank you for forgiving me. I receive that gift. Thy Kingdom, Come,
38:36
Thy will be done in my life starting now in Jesus' name. Amen.
38:46
Sure, I'd love to pray for all of us. Heavenly Father,
38:52
thank you for preserving this powerful event. Forgive me, forgive us for taking
38:59
that church for granted goodness. Just give us eyes to see how magnificent it
39:06
is recreated us wonder at what you've done and the fact that you've invited us
39:13
to be a small part of it in our generation. We so want to
39:16
get this right. When people hear Christian, we want them to think of
39:21
Jesus in the New Testament. When people hear Church, we want them to
39:24
think of the movement, the eccuracy of Jesus that has rocked the world and
39:29
made the world better whenever Christians surrendered themselves to the lordship of Christ. To
39:35
give us eyes to see, ears to hear, the courage to follow through.
39:37
Father. For the men and women who know they need to be baptized,
39:40
just give them the courage to move forward with that. So, Father,
39:45
whatever at this moment means for us, first of all, thank you.
39:47
Second, help us to surrender and to take seriously the prayer that we
39:52
just prayed. Thy will be done in our lives in Jesus' name. Amen.