“ Change of mind. ” Peter preaches repentance: a change of mind regarding Christ whom they crucified. Jesus was really made Lord and Christ by God and they had now to confess that.
“ Great salvation. ” Glorious exchange: Christ bore our sins on the cross and His righteousness was imputed to us. All these things are from God, through Christ and for us.
“ Great sermon of Peter. ” Taught by Christ, after His resurrection, Peter knows how to argue from the OT the death and resurrection of the Messiah. The fulness of the Spirit make us to proclaim Jesus as Messiah and Lord to a lost world.
“ Fulfillment. ” It is amazing how the apostles, in Acts 1 and 2 continually are arguing from Scriptures, basing their acts on its and demonstrating how the Scriptures were fulfilled. We see again that The Spirit leads to the Scriptures.
“ He is faithful. ” We cannot play with sin and expect God's blessings. How wonderful that God will keep His own and purify them and make them to serve Him in righteousness!
“ Christ exalted. ” The scope of the day of Pentecost was to give the apostles the power and the opportunity to proclaim and to exalt Jesus. This is the role of the Spirit: to exalt Jesus. The day of Pentecost demonstrates again that Jesus reigns. The coming of the Spirit makes people to go to the Word of God. Today, being filled with the Spirit makes us to go to the Word and to proclaim it, not to pretend some new revelations.
“ Jesus is Lord. ” Jesus is departed, but He is still here, reigning over His church, through His Spirit. He is fulfilling the Scriptures, restoring the number of 12 apostles, signifying the new Israel, the people of God. The Lord is choosing the 12th apostle. The Lord is today still reigning over the world, ruling in the church and working in her and through her.
“ Great salvation. ” Christ died as our substitute, bearing the wrath of God for our sins, not as an abstract demonstration of God's love to move us to imitate Him. John's declaration about the Messiah as being a Lamb was a shock for all those who waited for a different Messiah.
“ Excellent interpretation. ” I agree with this interpretation of Saul's personality: he had no spiritual sensitivity. After hearing God's Word, after seeing the 3 signs coming true, after the Spirit using him to prophecy, he still doesn't believe God. He was not regenerate. God gave him a new heart in the sens of making him qualified, naturally, for the office of an earthly king.
“ Christ reigns. ” The end of a beginning and the beginning of the end. The last days have begun, history is marching to the moment of Christ's return. In the while He is establishing His spiritual Kingdom.
“ Great contrast. ” Great contrast between our weakness and the Gospel. We are dispensable - this has the role of working in us humility. We are weak, but God's power in us is sustaining us. So we must look to our weaknesses, but to the excellency of this Gospel.
“ The Lord is active. ” Halleluiah! Jesus is alive and He is Lord! He continues to work, through the apostles in Acts, by the power of the Holy Spirit. He work in these 2000 years in the Church and through it - and He is working now and He will work until the end. This is our hope and the strength of our lives.
“ Living for His glory. ” Vital union with Jesus, the pruning of the Father, the remaining in the Word, bearing of fruits for the glory of God - this is true religion.
“ God's providence. ” I like this series because it gives you not a simple explanation of the OT text, but the application of the lessons are so relevant for my life. In this message I saw how God, in His providence, orchestrates the ordinary acts of our lives also. Our days are in His hands.
“ God highly exalted. ” The centrality of God's throne in universe. God is sovereign Lord over all the world, over all the affairs of our lives, over the Church and His circumstances. This message warmed my heart. I learned that in my prayers I must give central thing to worship God.
“ Sad story. ” The people departs from the Lord, wanting to be like the pagan nations. They do not want God to rule over them. God, in His wrath, grants them the desire of their heart. I am afraid of this: that God might leave me to the evil of my heart when I seek after sin...
8/3/11 9:11 AM
