This Jesus Delivered Up

[0:00] Well, this sermon, as I said, was preached by Peter. It was delivered exactly 50 days after the crucifixion of Jesus. But the backdrop of the sermon was this unique outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God on the disciples in Jerusalem.

[0:21] And we're not gonna take the time to explore all of that tonight. You can do that in your own time, reading even just the first 13 verses of this chapter. We'll tell you what you need to know.

[0:31] But basically what had happened was the disciples, after Jesus had ascended back to heaven, were in Jerusalem, as Jesus had commanded, awaiting on the gift of the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised.

[0:45] And as they're there praying in the upper room, a unique outpouring of the Holy Spirit, different than anything anyone had ever seen before, this outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes on the disciples and it's witnessed by people all over the city in Jerusalem.

[1:01] And so you can imagine with such a magnificent display, the people that are witnessing this, that are witnessing the apostles experience this moment, begin to ask some questions.

[1:13] And we find in verse number 12 that they do actually specifically ask that. Look at it with me. Verse number 12, Some people assumed that what was actually taking place was that all the apostles, maybe perhaps out of some particular depression or just a riotous living at this moment in their lives, some of them began to spread the word that all of the apostles, the followers of Jesus were drunk.

[1:50] And so Peter in verse 14 begins to step up and he brings some clarification to exactly what is taking place. It tells us right there in verse 14, Peter standing up with the 11, lifted up his voice and addressed them in order that he could bring some clarity to exactly what they were seeing.

[2:08] And I want you to look with me at verses 16 to 18. Here's what he says. Peter says, This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

[2:29] Your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy.

[2:43] So what exactly is it that Peter does? Well, he takes the prophet Joel as his text for the day and he stands up before the people and he proclaims that that day was the inauguration of the last days.

[2:59] The last days, as Joel said in his quotation in verse number 17, the last days that Joel said would include a pouring out of the spirit of God on his people.

[3:13] But that's a problem for the Jews that are listening to Peter give that explanation. Because the Jews understood that whenever this pouring out of the spirit would come, that it would have to be preceded by the Christ, the Messiah.

[3:29] And so immediately, Peter knew that they would be perplexed by this statement. How could this be the inauguration of the last days if Messiah has not actually come?

[3:42] It was the Messiah who the scriptures had said would actually establish the kingdom of God and would be responsible for the pouring out of God's spirit.

[3:54] So you can see now where Peter's going with this. So he preaches about the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus to prove that Jesus is Messiah and that Messiah had come and that what the people were witnessing on that day was evidence of the fact that Messiah had come and these last days had begun.

[4:20] And this is the gospel preaching that characterized all of the apostles' teaching in the New Testament. You'll recognize this from Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 15.

[4:33] He says, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you. And then he goes on to define that gospel. That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

[4:54] This is the gospel of Jesus. And it is the very reason that Christianity exists. Were it not for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, none of us likely would have ever even heard the name Jesus.

[5:13] Christianity would not exist. We would likely not know one another and we would certainly have no reason to be gathered together here on a beautiful spring evening in April.

[5:25] But this was Peter's aim. He was showing Jesus as the Messiah by affirming the reality and necessity of the crucifixion and resurrection.

[5:39] And tonight we're going to focus in on his thoughts about the crucifixion. Three things I'd like for you to see in these verses we just read. The first one is this. I want you to see the divine power of Jesus.

[5:52] The divine power of Jesus. Look with me again at verse 22. Men of Israel, hear these words.

[6:03] Perhaps we could apply that personally tonight. Men and women of Lake Norman, Charlotte, Cornelius, wherever you're from, hear these words.

[6:14] Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst as you yourselves know.

[6:30] The divine power of Jesus. So Peter begins with an element of Jesus' life that could not actually be denied. It was his miraculous works.

[6:42] Now he lists three different elements here. He says there are mighty works. He says there are wonders and there are signs. And Peter doesn't mean to say that these are three different types of miracles, but they are three different perspectives of the same actions.

[6:58] Let me explain. Mighty works comes from the Greek word dunamis. It's where we get the English word dynamite. It's explosive power is the meaning of this word.

[7:09] Mighty works, explosive, supernatural is the implications here. And it describes the powerful nature of the things that Jesus did. That's the mighty works.

[7:21] And then he says, we could also consider these things as wonders, which refers to the way that people stood in awe and marveled at the power that Jesus displayed in his miracles.

[7:35] And then he uses this third word, signs. Signs is exactly that. They refer, they point us somewhere and it refers to the primary purpose of the Lord's demonstrations of power.

[7:51] Have you ever asked yourself, why did Jesus do all of those miracles? And indeed, he had a compassionate heart that desired to help those who were suffering and downtrodden, but that was not the primary purpose of the miracles of Jesus.

[8:08] The primary purpose of his power was to reveal his identity, who he is as the Messiah and the Son of God.

[8:18] John Pohill said, throughout Acts, the terms wonders only occurs in conjunction with signs, a testimony to the fact that mere marvels have no value in themselves except as they point beyond themselves to the divine power behind them and so lead to faith.

[8:42] That was the purpose of Jesus' miracles. And that's where Peter leads off in his sermon. He says, men, listen, this is what Joel said would happen and let me tell you why it's happening.

[8:55] Because this Jesus came and God attested to him by many mighty works and wonders and signs. Two things about this I would like to make note of.

[9:07] First, Jesus' miracles were publicly displayed. They were publicly displayed. Look back with me at verse 22. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God.

[9:24] Attested to you by God. Well, attest, you know what that means? It means to put something on display. It means to be a witness to a particular fact or event.

[9:36] And Peter's point, using those words in particular, is to say that God the Father has put his son on display. And the way that he has put him on display is through these mighty works and wonders and signs.

[9:52] God bore witness to Jesus' identity through supernatural miracles. miracles. That's what Jesus was doing. That's what God was doing through his son.

[10:05] And each of us can probably think of several incredible miracles of Jesus that maybe we love to think on or study after. Even if you have very little knowledge of the Bible, you've probably heard of some of the things that Jesus did.

[10:18] Let me just remind you of a few of them. They're amazing. The very first one ever recorded for us in the narrative is in John chapter two. And it had to do with a wedding feast.

[10:32] It was in the little town of Cana in Galilee. Jesus had gone there along with his disciples who were with him. His mother was there. Perhaps many people from his family was there.

[10:42] It was a wedding feast. Likely has lasted up to seven days. These wedding feasts would last. And they ran out of wine. And Jesus' mom comes to him and says, you should do something about this.

[10:56] And what does Jesus do? This is the first miracle recorded in the scripture. He tells the servants. He doesn't do it himself. He tells other people. He says, take these jars, six of them.

[11:08] Jars that hold 20 to 30 gallons worth of water or wine or whatever you're putting in it. Take these six jars and go fill them to the brim with water. And that's exactly what they did. After they filled them up with water, knowing what they filled them with, they bring them back to the wedding feast.

[11:24] Jesus still doesn't touch it. He doesn't do anything with it. And he just tells the people that had just filled them with water, he says, now dip some out. And they go to dip some out. And it's not water anymore. It's wine.

[11:36] It's amazing. Just like that, he doesn't even touch it. Does it say anything? Just like that, we see this supernatural miracle of Jesus. Perhaps you remember that one. I know you probably remember the time that he's on the hillside near Bethsaida, just north of Galilee.

[11:53] He had gone there with his disciples to try to actually get a little bit of rest. It had been a busy few days. But the people could see him. They could see him travel on the boat around the north side of the Sea of Galilee.

[12:04] And they rushed over to where Jesus was. 5,000 of them. And they sit on a hillside. And they listen all day as Jesus teaches them. Exhausted as he might have been.

[12:14] He continues to teach the people because he said they were like sheep without a shepherd. Somebody had to teach them. Somebody had to help them. But there was no place to buy food in that area.

[12:26] It's a remote area. And Jesus gathers his disciples. And what does he say? He says, you guys really need to give these people some food. They've got nothing to eat. He said the disciples didn't have any food either.

[12:38] But they went out and they found a little boy. And he had five pieces of bread. And he had two pieces of fish. And they brought it to Jesus. And they said, this is all we got. And Jesus takes five pieces of bread, two pieces of fish, and in front of thousands of people.

[12:52] This is not a secret miracle where he could go behind and backstage somewhere where he had a team full of chefs who were secretly preparing all these things. This is a hillside in Bethsaida.

[13:03] And in front of all of these people, Jesus has them sit down and some people in groups of 50, some people in groups of 100. And he just begins to break off the bread and break off the fish. And somehow through his power, he's able to feed more than 5,000 people to the point that the people were all satisfied.

[13:19] They were filled. They ate as much as they could eat. And then they had 12 baskets of food left over. It's amazing. What Jesus did was absolutely amazing. But not all of his miracles had to do with food.

[13:34] Some of his miracles had to do with other things. They demonstrated in one case, many cases actually, his power over disease. We read in Mark, this has been a while ago now, but we read in Mark chapter one, you'll remember, Jesus is teaching somewhere near Capernaum.

[13:54] And a man with a deadly leprous disease, contagious disease, comes in the midst of the crowd. All the people began to run away from this man because they don't want to die either.

[14:08] And what is it that Jesus does with the man? He embraces the man. Everyone else runs. They want to avoid him. Not Jesus. He embraces him.

[14:19] And immediately as he touches the man, the man is in front of the eyes of all the people that are there, they see immediately, he's cleansed of this leprosy. It's like he was never sick to begin with.

[14:31] Jesus had power over disease. Some of his miracles showed that he had power over nature. Remember as he's on the boat on the Sea of Galilee with his 12 disciples. This was right after the feeding of the 5,000 perhaps, or it was somewhere along those lines around that same time frame.

[14:47] They're out there and a big storm comes up on the sea, remember? These men who, some of them had been fishermen their whole life, are so scared at the size of this storm that they think they're going to die. Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat.

[15:00] And they wake him up and what is it they say? Master, do you not care that we're dying? We're going to die. And Jesus stands up and he says three words. Peace be still.

[15:11] And the Bible says that this storm that was raging so much that the water is filling the boat and the boat is beginning to fall apart that all of a sudden the sea just becomes like glass.

[15:21] The wind becomes silent. He harnesses creation with the sound of his voice. It's amazing. He has power over the spirits of the world.

[15:34] Remember the little boy whose father had brought his son who had been possessed by a demon that had tortured him since he was very young and he brought him to the disciples and the disciples couldn't do anything about it.

[15:46] And Jesus comes along and he heals the boy and he cast out this demon. Over and over and over we see the testimony of the scriptures. Hundreds and thousands of these moments that Jesus displayed these miraculous powers.

[16:02] So many times that John at the end of his gospel says this. John chapter 21 and verse 25. Now there are also many other things that Jesus did.

[16:13] Were every one of them to be written I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. What's John's point?

[16:25] Jesus did so much we can't even write it all down. And it wasn't private. It was publicly displayed. God attesting to Jesus.

[16:35] God displaying his son to the world through mighty works and wonders and signs. It's not only publicly displayed it's publicly acknowledged.

[16:47] Publicly acknowledged. Look with me again at verse 22. Jesus of Nazareth a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.

[17:05] And then Peter throws this in here. This little clause here is so awesome. As you yourselves know he says. It's not only that these miracles were on display publicly.

[17:17] They were actually acknowledged by the people publicly. They weren't performed in secret. The miraculous power of Jesus was undenied in first century Israel.

[17:34] It's not even that it was undeniable. It's that it was undenied. Nobody denied his works. They couldn't. There were too many of them.

[17:45] There were too many people that saw them. The people acknowledged. Yes. He has tremendous power. People traveled from countries outside of Israel to see it.

[17:58] To experience it. Even Jesus' enemies who eventually prepared the way for his execution did not deny the fact of his mighty works. John chapter 3.

[18:10] Remember Nicodemus comes to Jesus under the cover of night. He's a Pharisee and he says and John tells us now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews.

[18:21] This man came to Jesus by night and said to him Rabbi we know you are a teacher that has come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

[18:33] That's the testimony of Jesus' enemies even. So Peter's first point established Jesus' identity as the Messiah by pointing to his divine power as the Son of God which again was a key component of the apostles' witness.

[18:53] You still with me? Still with me? The divine power of Jesus. Number two. The divine purpose of Jesus. The divine purpose. Verse 23.

[19:05] This Jesus, Peter says delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

[19:25] Peter essentially says this Jesus the one attested to you by God through mighty works and wonders and signs is the same one that you crucified.

[19:38] God put his Son on display the long-awaited Messiah that you've been looking for and your response was to kill him Peter says.

[19:51] And we could stop right there and we could chalk up Peter's sermon here 50 days after the crucifixion we could chalk it up as a bitter airing of grievance against the Jews who put his favorite teacher to death.

[20:05] But that's neither Peter's point nor is it his tone in this. There's an essential note in this verse that introduces an important question. Here's the question.

[20:18] Who is actually responsible for Jesus' crucifixion? Who's responsible for this? Who did this? And the answer is here.

[20:30] Let's walk it backwards though. How about the Roman executioners? The lawless men Peter says. Roman executioners they were actually responsible for carrying out Jesus' crucifixion.

[20:45] Did they crucify Jesus? Yes. But there was a step before the Roman executioners. It was Pilate. We read about him in John 18 and 19.

[20:56] He's the Roman governor. He's the one responsible for sentencing Jesus to death on a cross. Did he crucify Jesus? Yes. But there's a step before Pilate.

[21:09] There's the Jewish leaders. They were responsible for handing Jesus over to Pilate and demanding that he be executed as we already read. Did they crucify Jesus?

[21:22] Yes. But there's a step before them. There's Judas Iscariot. He's the one that betrayed the Lord for 30 pieces of silver.

[21:33] He's the one that was responsible for setting up the arrest for Jesus. He assisted it. Did he crucify Jesus? Yes.

[21:43] All of these people played a role in Jesus' death. But it is God the Father who Peter ultimately credits for the Lord's crucifixion.

[21:59] Did those people do it? Were they culpable for their wrong? Yes. But it was God who did this. It was God's will for the Christ to be crucified.

[22:12] He carried out that will through the work of men, the evil work of men, without violating their will. But it was God who did this.

[22:24] What's amazing to consider is that God used the wickedness wickedness of these men to provide a means of redemption for those men.

[22:37] There's a song by City of Light. It's called Jerusalem. There's a line in that song that I love so much. It says, See the king who made the sun and the moon and shining stars.

[22:49] let the soldiers hold and nail him down so that he could save them. He uses their wickedness.

[23:01] He uses their will in which they are responsible and culpable in order that he might accomplish his will of actually providing redemption for the very people who crucified him.

[23:16] That's an amazing purpose. That's what Jesus did. Who crucified Jesus? Well, ultimately, God did. The crucifixion of Jesus was not God making the best out of a bad situation.

[23:32] Peter says, This happened according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. It was always God's plan and purpose for the Messiah. In fact, on three different occasions at least, Jesus explicitly told his disciples what would happen.

[23:50] We've studied this in the Gospel of Mark. Mark chapter 8, verse 31. He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again.

[24:04] He said this plainly, Mark said. Mark chapter 9, verse 31. He was teaching his disciples, saying to them, The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him.

[24:18] And when he is killed, after three days, he will rise. That's number two. Mark chapter 10, verse 33. Taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, We are going up to Jerusalem.

[24:33] The Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priest and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. They will mock him and spit on him and flog him and kill him.

[24:44] And after three days, he will rise. This was always the plan of God and Jesus knew it. That's why he could tell the disciples over and over again, This is what's going to happen.

[24:55] This is why I came. Just because it was the eternal plan of God doesn't mean Jesus was an unwilling participant. In perfect union with the Father, the Son, willingly laid down his life for us.

[25:16] Hebrews chapter 12, in verse 2. The writer says, We are looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.

[25:31] The joy. It was his joy to lay down his life for sinners. It was his pleasure to give his life as a ransom for us.

[25:43] He wasn't an unwilling participant in this. He was in perfect union with the Father. And he said so himself. John chapter 10. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd.

[25:55] The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And for this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

[26:06] No one takes it from me, Jesus said. I lay it down. I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.

[26:20] We read it a moment ago in his interaction with Pilate. Pilate says, Don't you realize that I'm the one in the position of power here? I'm the one that can set you free?

[26:31] Pilate says, And then the one in the real position of power responds in humility. And he says, You would have no power in this moment if I had not given it to you. His life wasn't taken.

[26:43] His life was laid down. It's a glorious purpose. The definite plan of God. God. But let's address why it's necessary.

[27:00] We can understand the things that we've said already, but that doesn't actually answer the question of why did it have to happen? Why did it have to happen?

[27:13] Let's deal with that. The crucifixion was a substitution. The crucifixion was a substitution.

[27:24] This is why it had to happen. Jesus took the place of every person who would believe and follow him. Now when we say that Jesus took our place, that he died our death, we don't mean that every one of us is destined to die by means of crucifixion.

[27:46] In that sense, Jesus died in the form of an execution, a criminal's death and crucifixion, that we then get to escape such a torturous and gruesome death.

[27:58] That's not what we mean by that. It means that we escape the wrath of God against our sin. It's not that we escape the cross.

[28:10] We escape something far worse than our cross. We escape the eternal wrath of God. He endured the wrath of God so that we could experience the peace of God.

[28:26] His death was an atonement, an atonement for sin that was promised again and again and again in the scriptures.

[28:37] that's why it was necessary. Had Jesus not died this death, we would have no hope of forgiveness.

[28:49] He took our place and I know we talk about this all the time because what else would we talk about? This is the reason that we gather.

[29:00] you realize when Jesus when you come to Christ in faith and you cry out to God for mercy it's not that God looks at you and decides okay I'm just going to turn a blind eye to the sin you've committed and we're just going to start with a clean slate.

[29:19] That is not what God does. He can't do that. You understand? He can't do that. That would violate His holiness. It would violate His justice.

[29:30] He must judge every sin. When we come to Christ in faith it's not that He turns a blind eye to our sin it's that He takes the sin that we've committed and He puts it on His perfect sinless Son.

[29:49] Christ's death was not a tragedy it was a substitution. That's why this is Good Friday. I laughed at Andy today.

[30:00] He texted me while he was working at the greenhouse and he said is it weird that I've been telling people happy crucifixion day? I said yeah that's weird. That's weird. Because what's happy about a crucifixion?

[30:15] Well in this case it's that it was the crucifixion the wrath that I deserve that you deserve but the perfect righteous Son of God took my place.

[30:31] That's why it was necessary and by the way this is pointed to over and over in the scriptures it was always necessary for the Christ to do this. Think about it.

[30:41] We talked about this in our Lakeside Connect group a couple weeks ago. Remember in your study of Genesis chapter 3 the first sin. Remember Adam and Eve? I said this is always weird to me especially when I was a kid I'd read this they were naked and they didn't realize it wasn't that they didn't realize it's that they didn't care but then as soon as they sin all of a sudden they realize their nakedness and they're ashamed of it.

[31:08] Their nakedness in that moment is symbolic of their guilt. It's not about their body in that moment it's about their shame their guilt for sinning against God and what is it that Adam and Eve did.

[31:22] They immediately began to work as hard as they could to cover their guilt to cover their nakedness to cover their shame so they sewed together some fig leagues but no matter how hard you try your efforts will never be good enough to cover your guilt.

[31:38] So what does God do for Adam and Eve? God provides a covering for them a covering of skins which meant that the first death had to take place God sacrifices an animal in order to cover Adam and Eve's nakedness.

[31:58] What is that a picture of? It's a picture of atonement. No matter how hard you work no matter how many times you come to these special services or services on a Sunday no matter how much money you might give or how many good things you do in your life no matter what type of good credit you amass for yourself it will always be fig leaves it will never be good enough to cover your guilt God has to provide a covering for us we are incapable of doing that ourselves and he did that in Jesus Jesus was the sacrifice to cover our guilt and we see it over and over in the Old Testament remember Passover that's what it was when the angel of death came through Egypt he only passed over those with the blood on the doorpost what is that all about atonement when God established the sacrificial system over and over the Jews would have you read Leviticus you'll see that they were they had to sacrifice a lot because one sacrifice was never enough they had to continually bring these sacrifices for atonement but Christ was the once and for all atonement for our sins the divine purpose of Jesus crucifixion was to atone for you and for me and this was the plan of God and it was fulfilled joyfully by Jesus of Nazareth it's a divine purpose we see his power we see his purpose all the love that drew salvation plan all the grace that brought it down to man all the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary or my favorite because the sinless savior died my sinful soul is counted free for God the just is satisfied to look on him but pardon me that's the necessity of the cross finally we see the divine perfection of Jesus we've seen his power we've seen his purpose now I want you to notice his perfection verse 24

[34:15] God raised him up loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it God raised him up and we're going to spend our time on Sunday focused on the resurrection we're going to deal with this verse again on that day but there's something about Peter's statement that is necessary as we consider the cross notice what he says it was not possible for him to be held by it that is death it was not possible for him to be held by death but what does that mean does that mean it's not possible for Jesus to remain dead we might come up with a few different answers for this we may say well we've already understood his divine power maybe his power was greater and that would be true maybe we would look to the fulfillment of the scriptures and say well he couldn't stay dead death had no claim on him because he was always the purpose of the

[35:21] Messiah to die and rise and that would be true but there's another option not even an option it's just in addition to those things I want you to consider for just a moment Jesus had no sin for which death could claim him you realize death is a result of sin but Jesus was the sinless son of God death had no hold on him he willingly laid down his life for sins he was the spotless lamb foreshadowed by all of those old testament sacrifice he was the spotless lamb that we will remember symbolically in this supper tonight and that's what John the Baptist said John chapter one in verse twenty nine the next day John saw Jesus coming and he said behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and in Hebrews chapter nine the writer of Hebrews using this metaphoric symbolic language of the sacrificial system in the old testament says

[36:29] Jesus entered once for all into the holy places not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by the means of his own blood thus securing an eternal redemption for if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify the purification of the flesh how much more the writer says will the blood of Christ who through the spirit offered himself without blemish to God and here's my point the resurrection of Jesus proves that his death on the cross was a sufficient sacrifice for your sin it was enough not for a moment but for eternity the fact that he rose from the dead means that you can trust him alone to save you to provide forgiveness to give peace with God to provide eternal life his resurrection proves that he can do that and that only he can do that without the resurrection of Jesus his crucifixion would be meaningless it would just be another tragedy on the pages of history but because he rose from the dead we know that his atonement was accepted by God the father and he can give you life forever don't you see the resurrection changes everything it changes everything it means that the purpose of

[38:21] Christ was actually fulfilled and that by faith we can receive the gift of life now I believe everything that I've said tonight is completely rational but rational thinking can only get us so far can't it simple reason can look at the Bible and discern at least within the pages of the Bible that all of these things point to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and the Son of God that it teaches his death and resurrection makes salvation possible that it affirms that he is the eternal Lord all of those things can be rationally discerned as we look at the scriptures and that's important but it is totally possible to see those things in the Bible without actually believing that it's true without actually following

[39:24] Jesus as Savior and Lord in fact many people consent to a form of Christianity without ever actually becoming true Christians God created us as rational beings in order that we could discern his rational truth in his word but at the end of the day it is faith that he demands of each of us faith Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6 without faith it's impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him this is what Paul meant in Romans 5 since we have been justified not by our rational assent to the things that we read but since we have been justified by faith we have peace with

[40:25] God through our Lord Jesus Christ through him we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and as we finish I want you to look back at the beginning of Peter's sermon specifically at verse 21 look at it with me verse 21 this is the end of Joel's prophecy that he quotes it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved so salvation comes to those who call on the name of the Lord who Peter proves in this passage is Jesus Christ Jesus of Nazareth but what does it actually mean to call on the name of the Lord what does that even mean it means that after acknowledging my lostness not just as it's described on the pages of a book but as

[41:34] I realize the truth of what is written in the pages of this book and I acknowledge the lostness that I have in my sin by faith I cry out to Jesus alone to save me cry out for his mercy realizing finally that I have no other hope my fig leaves won't count my goodness can't be good enough my faithfulness can't be faithful enough the only thing I can do is acknowledge the truthfulness of what the scripture says and by faith cry out to Jesus Christ for mercy acknowledging him as my savior and as my lord Jesus accomplished this salvation on the cross and he offers it freely to all who will believe that's why good friday matters that's why it's good if you're still trying to sort all of this out in your own mind in your own heart as to whether or not any of this actually means anything helpful at all at the end of the day it comes back to faith you can acknowledge the truthfulness of these things without actually believing them without actually surrendering to

[43:15] Christ in response to and I want to leave you with Jesus words in John 6 Jesus said I am the bread of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst but I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe all that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never cast out for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me and this is the will of him who sent me Jesus said that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me but raise it up on the last day for this is the will of my father that everyone and believes in him should have eternal life and

[44:20] I will raise him up on the last day notice what Jesus says whoever looks on the son and believes don't just look tonight believe and receive by faith this glorious gospel truth