4 Building Blocks

Notes from Keswick at Portstewart Sunday 7 July 2019
Acts 2 verses 22 - 47

I want to start tonight to think through what Peter was saying in this sermon.  He is doing something different to what we do when we talk to people about Christ.  It is like when you have a jigsaw and you work to put all the pieces together to build it. We have different pieces that fit together in our lives - yes we can have that car, that holiday, that relationship. We are building our jigsaw, then we hear about Jesus and we ask 'would he fit into my jigsaw, would he add something to my life, can he make my life better?' Then we decide yes he might be able to, we hear he forgives sins and gives a place in heaven, so we decide he can be part of my jigsaw. Jesus does not want to be part of my jigsaw, he wants you to be part of his jigsaw. In our jigsaw when things get tricky we will chuck Jesus out. We are in danger sometimes of trying to sell Jesus to people. We tell everyone they need Jesus, tell them he can do this for you, he can make your life better, give you joy, freedom and peace. Are those things true? Yes they are all true but if that is the way we talk of him we end up being sales people. Peter does not do any of that.  Peter says Jesus is the Lord and he is Christ and you must follow him. Peter starts his sermon small and builds it to an amazing crescendo. He tells them God has made this Jesus whom you crucified Lord and Christ. There are 4 building blocks. The first thing Peter tells the crowd - Jesus lived. Jesus was a man, a real man. This is when we need to learn some doctrine. A great heresy entered into the church - they said Jesus was not real. They were nervous about the idea of him having a body, being flesh. Peter starts by saying Jesus was a man, born as a baby, grew up, learned to walk and talk, he lived a real life, he had to learn to study the scriptures but this man performed miracles wonders and signs. He did extraordinary things. We know the stories but have lost the wonder.  That he could quieten a storm from a boat, feed 5000 people with a couple of loaves, raise the dead, open the ears of the deaf but he was a man accredited by God.  God worked through him.  We are sceptical of miracles today.  We find throughout the book of Acts the believers did not deny them because they knew they were true.  He did do miracles.  If you stop there Jesus will end up being a friend, being nice to you.  We have to move on.  In verse 23 we read he was handed over to them by God`s deliberate plan and foreknowledge.  You put him to death by nailing him to the cross.  This man of Nazareth ends up dead on a cross because wicked people killed him - why - because God planned they would do it.  It was God`s plan.  In Isaiah 53 we read it was the Lord`s plan to crush him and make him suffer and through that to make his life an offering for sin.  This man who did wonders and signs, it was God`s plan to let him die on the cross, that he would be crushed so that our sin could be paid.  Imagine Jesus dying on the cross, bleeding because he is a man, dying, to be an offering for your sin.  You deserve to die and he took your place.  This is Jesus, the man who died according to God`s plan.  Jesus is the eternal son of God.  He was with his father in heaven.  He could see the world his father made was dying.  He decided to leave his fathers side to come into this world to plunge himself into the jaws of death to save you.  That Jesus would give his life that you might be saved.  It was the Lord`s will to crush him.  There is more though.  That is the first 2 building blocks.  He was a real man.  He lived and died.  Verse 24 God raised him from the dead ... because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.  Here is Jesus handed over to death, dies on the cross, his body is taken down from the cross and laid in a tomb.  He is dead.  Death wins every time.  Death has a 100% record always.  In the grave a battle takes place between Jesus and death.  Imagine death realising there is something about Jesus that is different. For any other victim death has been claimed.  This man will not stay dead.  He is too strong.  Death is about to loose, to experience its first defeat.  The body that breathed its last is breathing again, the eyes that closed in death are open again, the heart that stopped beating is beating again.  God raised him from the dead.  Peter quotes from Psalm 16 in verses 25 to 28.  He is speaking about David`s great confidence in death.  Peter then says "but David did die" so he cannot have been writing these words about himself.  He was writing about someone else.  God promised David that through him a kingdom would be established.  David was therefore speaking of someone yet to come.  The resurrection of the Messiah himself.  If this is true this is amazing.  We all crave something that will last and never find it in this world.  Here was a man who was risen from the dead and is not decaying.  There is something in this man that will be different to anyone else.    This is not the end however.  In verse 30 Peter takes the Old Testament figure they could identify with.  Out of him he brought Jesus, the greatest one of all.  He is seated at God`s right hand, has poured out his spirit on all men.  This is the one Peter wants to show us.  In verse 34 Peter quotes from Psalm 110.  David called him Lord.  Peter is painting in the biggest possible colours the greatest man who ever lived, Jesus.  He is at the right hand of God until all his enemies are made his footstool at his feet.  Verse 36 he has become Lord and Christ.  God whom you call on.  This Jesus of Nazareth is Lord himself.  Jesus is the man who is God.  Those 2 things are true in Jesus.  He is the Messiah.  Notice that Peter does not say here are all the things he can do for you.  He is Lord and Christ and you crucified him.  Do you not feel the weight of this?  There was probably a large crowd there that day.  Obviously they didn`t all crucify him.  To declare the Lordship of Christ is the gospel.  This is the good news our world needs to hear.  Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.  That is the gospel.  The people`s response is to be cut to the heart and ask "what shall we do?"  Peter tells them "repent."  Admit, turn your life over to him.  If that is who Jesus is then for us to look at Jesus as fitting into our jigsaw is wrong.  Repent  means to smash up that jigsaw, fall on our knees and say "you are my Lord, I will follow you."  That is what it means to call him Lord.  If that is true it means our lives need to change.  Will you follow Jesus when life is hard?  In the Old Testament we read of 3 men Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who were told they would be put into the fiery furnace if they did not bow down and worship a statue the king had erected.  They told the king "we will not bow down and worship your statue because our God is able to save us and even if he doesn`t we will not bow down and worship your statue."  Will you submit to God?  Will you bow before him and give your life to him.  That is life lived to the full.  That is where freedom is found.  If Jesus is Lord and Christ we can take risks.  One of the reasons many people find being a Christian boring and dull is because they have forgotten how to take risks.  When was the last time you did something for Jesus that made you nervous?  When did you get an adrenaline rush from following Jesus?  If he is Lord and Christ we should give him everything, we will do everything for him.  Do not get Jesus to fit in with your plans.  Will we repent, will we say "I will go where you will send me, go to people who have never heard of Jesus dying for them."  This is exciting.  This is scary.  It is something worth giving your life for.  Maybe you are not ready for this.  If Jesus is Lord and Christ you can trust him totally.  There is a danger in being reckless too.  Most of us however are not in danger of that.  If he is Lord and Christ we must love the church.  Yes church is frustrating and difficult.  There are people in the church who will irritate you and annoy you.  Answer me this - do you go to the church prayer meeting?  I would dare to say that our prayer meetings are made up mostly of older people - they know how to pray and young people don`t go.  Why?  Because there is not much fun there.  They are not convenient.  They are a pain at times.  If young people started to go to our prayer meetings they would transform the church.  Love your church.  Be someone who goes to church, who gets to know different people.  For older people, when the younger ones come into church love them.  Jesus is Lord and Christ.  He loves his church.  I am challenging you tonight to stop trying to build your jigsaw but fall on your knees before Jesus and tell him "I will do what you want me to do."