All right.

Welcome, Rancho.

Welcome, Westco.

Welcome, San Dimas.

Welcome, everybody, everywhere.

Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Acts chapter 2.

We're going to be dealing with that chapter.

It's an oldie but a goodie about a guy that had been stranded on a desert island for many, many years, and finally he was discovered.

And when he was discovered, the people who discovered him...

I found out he had actually built three huts on the island, and they were just curious.

You've been here for 15 years on this island.

Why did you build three separate huts?

He goes, well, that hut over there was my house.

It's where I lived.

I had to have a place to live, to sleep, to eat.

And he said, what are the other two?

And he said, well, the other one is the church.

I'm a religious man, so I built myself a hut in a church, and that's where I worshiped.

And then they said, well, what's the third hut all about?

And he goes, well, that's the church I used to attend.

And it's an oldie but a goodie.

It's a goody because...

Sometimes you can't even get along with yourself.

And when I was younger, you know, everybody went to church on Sunday.

Do you remember that?

Anybody remember that?

I mean, it was the thing to do.

As a matter of fact, everything in my hometown was closed on Sundays.

So the only thing you could do was either stay home or go to church.

You weren't allowed to sell alcohol on Sundays.

Anybody grow up in a city or state like that?

Probably California was never like that.

And even if you got upset with your church, That's okay because there was another one just down the street, sometimes right across the street, and you could just find another one.

But it was never an option not to attend church.

Worship was a high priority.

In fact, after the Second World War, the church was so strong and it was flourishing.

Seventy-five percent of Americans in those days said that church was a very important aspect of their lives.

Now, that's three out of every four people, folks.

80% said that Christianity answered the most important questions of their lives, origin, meaning, morality, destiny.

But at the end of 1960s, we're told that almost half of the American population, half, attended church at least three times a month.

That's amazing, isn't it?

We're talking about the 1960s here.

We're told that faith flourished among every class, every race, every denomination.

Protestants, Catholics, Evangelicals were all thriving.

The Christian churches, Churches of Christ, and I mention that because that's the movement from which our church has descended.

They were booming and all of their buildings were built right down in the city centers.

They were flourishing.

Their schools, their institutions were of the highest prestige.

They had endowment funds that were enormous.

That's the 60s.

But the turn started in the 70s. by the mid 1970s.

Most churches had stopped growing and people began to ask why.

Were people losing the interest in God?

Were they losing confidence in the church?

Did they no longer believe that Christianity offered the answers to the deepest, most penetrating questions of life?

So in 1972, a man by the name of Dean Kelly wrote a book called Why Churches Stopped Growing.

He was a legal scholar, worked for the National Council of Churches.

Here is his explanation for why churches stopped growing.

Now, stay with me.

I'll tell you why we're doing this in a second.

Number one, he said, the church began considering other faith systems and beliefs and practices as equally valid and mutually compatible.

In other words, all religions are the same.

Let me give these Eastern religions a try now.

Maybe I'll toy around with Buddhism or Hinduism or even Islam.

Second, he said, the church stopped making demands of those who desire to join and belong.

It wasn't really important what you believe or how you lived your life.

What really matters is you just attended some kind of church somewhere of some kind.

Third, he said, the church began to consent to, encourage, and indulge behaviors that violated the Christian ethic.

Those are the top three reasons, he says, that the church began to decline in the 70s.

And most Christ followers, he said, self-proclaimed Christ followers became so detached from the Bible and its teachings.

that there was really no longer a distinction between people who were in the world and people who were in the church.

But worse yet, he said, the church stopped teaching what a Christian actually is, what a Christian actually believes, and how one becomes a Christian in the first place.

I remember having a debate.

This is back in my New Zealand days.

I was in Hawaii, and I'd agreed to debate a history professor who taught history at Pepperdine.

Now, don't Throw Pepperdine under the bus.

This is years ago.

I'm sure he's no longer there, and I'm sure they're not like that anymore.

So don't get me in trouble by saying Pastor Jeff was condemning Pepperdine, okay?

Wow.

So I debated this history professor, and after about 25 minutes of debate, I realized a couple of things.

Number one, this professor that taught at Pepperdine, which is supposed to be a Church of Christ school, did not believe in objective truth.

He believed that truth was totally subjective.

You couldn't take a stand on any truth, that truth was really up to each individual to discover for himself or herself.

Second, he did not believe in objective morality.

He did not believe there was a right and wrong, ultimately, that every person has to decide what is right and wrong for them.

And third, he believed that there were other ways to God other than through Jesus Christ.

As long as you were sincere, then God would credit you with salvation.

So finally, after about a half an hour of debating and talking through this, I said, wait a minute, it's just dawned on me that the reason you and I have differing worldviews is because I'm a Christian and you're not.

Would you like to know his response?

He said, no, I'm a Christian too.

Wait a minute, you're a Christian, you don't believe in objective truth, objective morality, and you believe there are other ways to God.

He goes, yeah, that's my definition of a Christian.

Now listen to me.

If it's true that Jesus died for our sins, and that he rose from the dead and defeated sin and death, and those who follow him will go into eternity and the renewal of all things, then it seems to me that one of the most important questions we could ever ask, how does one become a Christian in the first place?

What is a Christian?

What types of things do Christians believe?

Now, during COVID, in August 2020, The Gospel Coalition, a senior writer by the name of Joe Carter, decided this was a good time to learn about the state of the church in America.

He discovered that 50%, that means half of you, 50% of evangelicals who attend church in America do not understand or believe the gospel.

50%.

Now, folks, I want to take you into three very deep issues in the book of Acts.

I mean, these are things that I've been wanting to deal with for a long time.

I think you wait till you get a little older before you do, but we're going to do that.

But before I take you down this road in the book of Acts to deal with some pretty heavy topics, I have to, first of all, make sure that you know where you are.

Because if...

If you're not a Christ follower, the next three sermons after this are not going to make a lot of sense to you.

Now, if you're a seeker and you've come now after Easter and you would like to discover what Christianity is about, this is the perfect time for you to come.

You're about to learn.

But I want you in this message, this message this weekend is totally for you to do a survey of your own life.

Because when we go to Acts 2, we read the very first sermon.

And in the very first sermon, we discover what a Christian really is and how someone becomes saved.

And I don't care if you've read this passage a thousand times or more, this is a great time to do some introspection.

Because remember, according to Joe Carter, 50% of people who sit in churches do not understand or believe the gospel.

So Peter gets up on the day of Pentecost, Thessalonians chapter 2.

Verse 22, and here's what he says, fellow Israelites, listen to this.

Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

That's what we celebrated last week, right?

David said about him, I saw the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices.

My body also will rest in hope because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead.

You will not let your holy one see decay.

You have made known to me the paths of life.

You will fill me with joy in your presence.

Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.

But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.

Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay.

God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.

Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and has poured out what you see now and hear.

For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

Verse 36.

Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this.

God has made this Jesus, whom you've crucified, both Lord and Messiah.

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

Peter replied, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The promise is for you and all your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.

Okay, I know you've read it before.

We're going to do some dissecting here, and I've seen some things that I've never seen.

This is the thing about the Bible.

The more you go into it, the more you realize context, the more you realize what's happening.

This is the first sermon that launched the church, and it began to flourish among the Jews and the Gentiles.

It would end up capturing the entire Greco-Roman world, and ultimately you and me.

And in this sermon, we are told how one becomes a Christian.

and what a Christian looks like.

I'm asking you, who have been sitting in church all your life, or maybe just over the last five or ten years, to ask yourself, what Pastor Jeff is describing, has that happened to me?

Did this happen to me?

Maybe is it right now happening to me?

Because here, according to Acts chapter 2 in the first sermon, is how one becomes a Christ follower.

First of all, becoming a Christian involves the intellect.

The primary audience to which Peter is speaking are Jews.

Passover has passed.

Jesus, the Passover lamb who takes away the sins of the world, has now given his life, has been crucified on Passover.

And now we are 50 days removed from that.

That's what Pentecost means, 50.

50 days after God delivered the nation of Israel out of bondage and slavery in Egypt, 50 days to the exact day.

He took them off Mount Sinai and gave them the old law, the old covenant.

So now the Holy Spirit is taking advantage of this situation where all these people are in Jerusalem celebrating Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus has been crucified, to deliver to them the new covenant.

And as he delivers the new covenant, he has Peter explain that what's about to happen here is only fulfilling the prophecy written in the book of Joel, where God has promised to write his law not on tablets of stone, but on the hearts of men and women in every generation, every people group.

And in the first part of Acts 2, something interesting happens.

The Jews would have recognized this because when the Holy Spirit shows up, God is speaking, and the Holy Spirit descends, so God needs to make sure the Jews know this is from Him.

So in verse 2, when the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place, and suddenly...

A sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues.

This is a very clear Greek word that means other languages.

In other words, instantaneously, the disciples were given the ability to speak in a language they had not previously learned.

So that all the people from all the different nations and all the different dialects could hear the good news of the gospel, the very first sermon preached in a way they could understand as the spirit enabled them.

So Peter begins to preach.

And as he does, he first of all, and I want you to notice this, he first of all appeals to the intellect.

He makes a logical argument about the gospel.

Verse 29, he says, fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day.

So the argument is he can't be the one that David was talking about that would not be abandoned to the grave.

Verse 30, but he was a prophet, and he knew that God had promised him, I note, that he would place one of his descendants, not David himself, on his throne.

Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of Messiah.

And he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay.

God raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.

So 50 days after the resurrection, Jesus had already made hundreds and hundreds of appearances.

So the audience knew, hey, word on the street is, and some of us have seen him.

We saw him crucified, but now he's been raised, 33.

Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out.

What you now see and hear.

For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, The Lord said to my Lord, Crucial statement.

David said, the Lord said to my Lord, you got two Lords.

Who are the two gods?

God, the father, God, the son sit in my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

Therefore, let all Israel be assured.

God has made this Jesus whom you've crucified, both Lord and Messiah.

So Peter is asking them to reason.

And he quotes Psalm 16 and Psalm 110.

And he says, David and all of his other relatives died and their tombs are not empty.

There's only one tomb that is empty.

Who is it?

The King of Kings, Jesus Christ.

And he says to his audience, you are aware of this.

There's only one that has come back from the dead.

There's only one who's no longer in the tomb, Jesus Christ.

Now, Peter speaks into their own belief system to prove that Jesus is the one they've been looking for.

And then Peter challenges them to Repent.

Repent of what?

The Greek word is metanonia or noia, and it means to change their mind.

But to change their mind about what?

He's asking them to change their mind about Jesus.

Now, yes, repentance of sin is something that the disciples and apostles will talk about later on.

But in Acts 2, he's asking them to change their mind.

And he's saying, you know that Jesus was vindicated by his miracles and by his resurrection.

So now you must make an intellectual decision.

This is Jesus, God's Son, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

He is the way.

Christianity, first and foremost, makes you think.

You have to determine who Jesus really is.

Someone who was really good at this was during the Second World War.

C.S.

Lewis was very frustrated with people continuing to put Jesus in the good moral teacher category.

Yeah, Jesus, good moral man, good moral teacher.

Just like...

Gandhi and other great religious leaders.

And C.S.

Lewis became so frustrated, he came up with a very clever way to present Jesus.

And he would say, look, Jesus is either Lord or he's the biggest liar who ever lived.

Or worse yet, he's crazy.

Good moral teacher is not an option Jesus gives you.

Because he said before Abraham was, I am.

He claims to have pre-existed Abraham and Adam and Eve.

He claims to have been part of the Trinity and the creation of the world.

He sustains it and holds it all together.

And he prophesied his own resurrection.

So St.

Louis said, you can't call him a good moral teacher because that would make him a liar if he's not the Lord of the universe.

Or worse yet, it would make him a lunatic.

Far too many self-proclaimed Christians do not do this.

They never think...

about intellectually, what do I believe about God?

What do I believe about Jesus?

Instead, they say, I just want to feel as though I'm connected to something bigger than myself, or I know there's something out there and Jesus seems to be the way to connect to it.

That's not enough.

When I was in New Zealand, we first went to New Zealand in the mid-90s, and there were some crazy things happening in New Zealand at the time.

And I remember going to this church conference.

And I sat there and I thought, what have I done?

Where has God called me?

There were people, Christians, doing the craziest things on the floor that I've ever seen in my life.

And I finally, I was inquisitive even as a young man.

And I went over to the leader and I said, hey, what's going on here?

And the pastor said this to me, don't think about it, just feel it.

That is not what Peter is doing here.

Even with the tongues of fire that are descending, that would have seemed strange to them, he still speaks clearly and explains it.

Verse 14, Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd, fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you.

Listen carefully to what I say.

These people are not drunk, as you suppose.

It's only not in the morning.

No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.

In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

They will preach the good news of the gospel.

Your young men will see visions.

Your old men will dream dreams.

Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy.

Christianity does not begin with feelings.

I am not saying that the entryway sometimes deals with your emotions.

I'm not saying that you will not feel something supernatural.

I'm not saying that there won't be a heaviness in your heart.

You may even weep.

You may feel like that you've come into contact with the transcendent, but you are not a Christian until the intellect is reached and you discover.

Who Jesus really is, Christianity begins with the mind.

Until it makes its way to the intellect, it's just a supernatural, some kind of eerie, eerie experience.

It has to have clarity.

In Romans 1.16, Paul, who had an incredible experience on the road to Damascus, but until with his intellect, he decided who Jesus is, and he wrote in Romans 1, For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes, first the Jew, then to the Gentile.

For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed.

He understood that you and I are separated from God.

We are unrighteous.

And the only way to be good with God is to be righteous again.

But you can only be righteous by keeping the law perfectly, or by paying the penalty for breaking the law of God.

The penalty for breaking the law of God, which we've all done, is the wages of sin.

What?

Death.

So we're in big trouble because we can't live a perfect life.

Christ lived a perfect life and died in our place.

Therefore, his righteousness has been accredited to us.

Until that reaches your intellect, you are not a Christ follower.

Acts 4.12, salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which a man must be saved.

There's only one way to be saved, folks.

Now, I've got a lot of friends now who struggle with that.

I've got one right now who says, Pastor Jeff, you're too exclusive for me.

Surely, there's all kinds of ways.

We're all on different roads and we're making our way to God.

Let me say what I've said before.

If that is your position, you are not a Christian yet.

And here's why.

You're making God out to be a masochist.

Because if there are other ways to be saved, why did God do that to his son?

God poured his wrath out on his son and deemed that that sacrifice forgives you and me of our sins.

So once the church starts believing that there are many roads to God, what you're basically doing is you're calling Jesus a liar and you're belittling the value of the blood of Jesus Christ.

essential to save you from your sins.

Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this.

God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah and Savior.

Now, you know what Lord is, right?

Lord means master.

It means he is now your boss.

He determines the way you live.

Tim Keller, amazing man, Gospel Coalition, amazing website.

I told Michael about it and there's so many great articles you can read.

I want to give you a quote that Tim Keller read on Easter Sunday years ago.

This is what he said.

Over the years, people tell me I can never become a Christian because I don't like this about the Christians.

Before, I didn't like what they said about money.

Now, I don't like what they say about sex.

Tomorrow, I may not like what they say about gender.

So people say I could never be a Christian because there are parts of the Bible I find offensive.

Keller says, listen carefully.

Are you saying that because there are parts of the Bible you find offensive that Jesus Christ could not have risen from the dead?

If Jesus rose from the dead, you're going to have to deal with everything he said.

Your likes and dislikes.

If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then don't vex yourself over all this.

I would say, then don't worry your rectangular head.

If he didn't rise from the dead, don't worry about it.

But if he did, wow, you kind of got to deal with everything Jesus said and taught.

And the reason the church began to decrease in the 70s is because it began considering other faiths, nullifying the but of Jesus.

It stopped making demands of those who joined and said, it doesn't matter what you believe or how you live.

The important part is you belong to a church.

And then the church began to consent, even encourage and indulge in behaviors that violated the Christian ethic.

Now here's why.

Because so many people had an emotional experience and thought this was the same as conversion.

And they never really made Jesus Lord and Messiah, Lord and Savior.

God has raised this Jesus to life.

and we are all witnesses of it.

Because Christ came back from the dead, he's the boss.

What he says goes.

His commands are not optional.

They're all based on design, though.

See, that's the beauty of this.

You know, the example I've used many times is a sailboat.

You know, if you're a sailor, you can go out and sail the boat on the open waters.

You can raise the sails.

You can ride like the wind.

It's a beautiful thing.

But if you try to sail the boat near the rocks, it's probably not going to go well for you.

The design of the sailboat is meant to be sailed in open water, not near the shore.

Everything you and I possess is a gift of God to be used within His parameters.

My eyes.

refuse to look at what God has determined should not be seen.

My ears refuse to listen to what should not be heard.

My mouth refuses to speak words that God has determined unworthy of speech.

It has nothing to do with my rights.

I got news for you.

God is not primarily concerned about your rights.

You and I have nothing in our possession that has not been given to us from heaven.

Therefore, as the tenant, not the owner, I govern my life and my resources according to the will of the true owner.

And that's why I've said in the past, I am not a racist for the same reason I don't engage in sex with anyone other than my wife.

Race is sacred, given to you by God, and is held in the highest regard.

Sex is also sacred and given by God.

It is to be held in the highest regard and is reserved within the confines of marriage between a man and a woman because that's what Jesus said.

Are you a Christian?

Do you believe that every person should be able to determine what is right and wrong for them without any objective morality?

Okay, that's good.

If you do, you deny the lordship of Jesus Christ and his right to speak objective moral values based on the design into your life.

See, if you're sitting there right now, and I love you, I do, this is my job, but if you're sitting there right now saying, I don't know, there's some things I just don't I don't know, well that's the...

That's because he's not Lord of your life yet.

You love Jesus talking about love your neighbor.

You love social equity.

You love all the things Jesus teaches, feed the poor.

But as soon as he crosses a line that you don't like, he's out.

That's because he's not Lord and Savior of your life yet.

The second thing is, and this is beautiful, and sometimes people see it, if they don't understand it, it's contradictory, but becoming a Christian involves, second, the doctrine of grace.

Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this.

God has made this Jesus whom you've crucified, both Lord and Messiah.

Now, there are many of you in the room.

If I were to ask you, this is important now.

I mean, do not, you got to lean into this.

If I were to ask you, will you go to heaven?

And you say yes.

And I ask you, why do you think you'll go to heaven?

And you say, because I'm a good person.

You're not here yet.

I've never heard anybody.

I read my Bible and pray.

I don't lie, cheat, and steal.

Your underlying premise is, well, I'll go to heaven because I'm basically a good person.

I'm not perfect.

Thanks for sharing that.

We didn't know.

I'm not perfect, but who is?

Why would you say this?

Because deep in your heart, you really believe that in the end, God is going to come back and gather up all the good people.

And you think that because you're not a Christian yet.

I've never heard anybody say, I believe in heaven.

Good people are going there.

I'm not one of them because everybody thinks they're good.

And there is some merit where we're concerned with this system because the way life works, we think this is fair.

Good people get what they deserve.

Bad people ought to get what they deserve in home, in society, in life.

That's just the way it is.

So obviously, it's the same way in eternity.

And of course, If you're a good people go to heaven type of guy, you automatically classify yourself as good and whatever the cut is, which you don't know or can't identify, you make it.

And it can motivate you to do good things because if you've lived your whole life and you've been bad, you try to spend the last years doing a lot of good stuff to make up for it.

I know people who are doing that right now.

In your mind, it all makes sense.

Good people go to heaven.

That system...

On the surface, it's logical, practical, easy to buy into, common sense, but here's the problem.

Jesus' entire ministry was to expose the problem with it, because you never can answer the question, how good is good enough?

How much does one have to do?

How good does one have to be before they get in?

I've asked that question before, and I love it when somebody will grab a Bible.

It's got dust on it.

They haven't opened it for years, but they'll say, hey, write the Ten Commandments right here.

Keep the Ten Commandments.

That's it right there.

You keep the Ten Commandments, you're in.

Really?

Well, first of all, you don't.

You're delusional.

But if you read Matthew 5, Jesus says in verse 21, you've heard it said, To the people long ago, you shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.

But I say to you that anyone who's angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.

Who can live like that?

Hey, how about this one, guys?

You've heard it said, you shall not commit adultery, but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Who can live like that?

You may not be guilty of murder, Jesus says.

But the same emotions of bitterness and anger and hatred that lead to murder are already in your heart.

You may not be guilty of adultery, but the same emotions of lust, desire, and coveting someone who doesn't belong to you already reside in your heart.

And the point Jesus makes is if the law is your standard, you're in big trouble.

If that's the target, you're not good.

If good people go to heaven, then nobody's going.

Because the Bible says very clearly, Romans 3, all have fallen short.

of the glory of God.

Interpretation, there ain't no good people.

Romans 3.10, there is no one righteous, not even one.

Interpretation, everybody tried, nobody made it.

Jack Johnson wrote a song, where'd all the good people go?

The answer, they were never here to begin with.

Romans 3.20, therefore no one will be declared righteous by observing the law.

Interpretation, when you die, God is not going to say, man, you did a good job at being good, keeping the law, you're in.

No, the Bible says no one's going to be righteous by law keeping.

Romans 3.20, the second part of the verse says, rather, through the law, we become conscious of sin.

The reason God gave the law was not so that he could save you, but it would show you your need for a savior.

There's something about us here in America that believes that this is a good book and God is a good God.

He lives in a good heaven, and I'm going to do my best to do what the Bible says.

I'll be just fine.

After all, nobody's perfect.

But the Bible says if that's your standard, you're in big, big trouble because there are no good people.

The benchmark is way up high.

No one can reach it.

So who gets in?

But now, Romans 3, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify.

I love it because the Bible says, the Old Testament, as we've said for the last month or so, all the law and the prophets testify to Jesus.

And we've given examples, but my favorite always will be the battle that David fought on behalf of Israel against Goliath and won that battle.

He became the champion of Israel because his victory was accredited to their account.

Because he beat Goliath one-on-one, they went free.

And if you think about David killed Goliath at the risk of his own life, and his victory was attributed to the entire nation of Israel.

David's victory meant the entire nation of Israel escaped slavery and bondage and were able to go free.

But Jesus is the greater David who destroyed our greatest enemy of sin and death, not at the risk of his life, but at the cost of his life.

He is your champion and my champion.

And his victory, his victory, this is amazing, his victory is accredited to my account.

When God looks at me, he does not see my sin.

Hallelujah.

What he sees is my sins have been paid for.

He sees me as righteous.

Righteous.

Not pragmatically, I got issues.

But legally, my standing before God is I have been justified through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Here's what I've learned.

As you mature in your faith, you know what you learn?

You learn that the Bible is not about you.

The Bible...

It's not about you and what you have to do to be saved and what hill you have to climb, what laws you have to keep.

The Bible is about Jesus and what he's already done, right?

That's why it's called good news.

Good news means something has already been done and I'm going to present it to you.

Here you go.

Now, think carefully before you answer this next question.

I'm going to ask you an important question.

Are you certain, don't say it out loud, but are you certain that you will go to heaven when you die?

And if the answer is no, you need to get saved today.

You need to give your life to Jesus.

If you are certain, then I'm going to say, on what do you base your certainty?

And there's only one answer that's the correct one.

What is it?

The cross of Jesus Christ.

That's it.

So now listen, becoming a Christian involves the intellect.

Becoming a Christian involves the doctrine of grace.

But neither are enough.

You can acknowledge both of these in theory.

In the abstract, you can say, yes, I believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.

Now, the devil also believes that.

Yes, I believe he died for the sins of the world.

Yeah, devil believes that.

But do you believe he's your Messiah?

Did he die for your sins?

Have you made him your Savior and Lord?

And that's why there's the third part of this.

Becoming a Christian involves the heart, the heart.

When the people heard this, Acts 2.37, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

Becoming a Christian does not merely concern the intellect and the doctrine of grace.

There must be a cutting of the heart.

Has that happened to you?

The Greek word is karenouso, which means to be stabbed.

And carried with the term is the idea that suddenly something unexpected comes upon you.

And the text says that they were suddenly overcome by a truth that pierced their hearts.

So imagine...

Imagine you go to the doctor and you've been told now that you have cancer.

What happens to you?

It's a shock to the system.

Your mind starts turning and you play the what if game and what now game and all the emotions come into play.

Cancer to you is no longer a theory or something that happens to somebody else.

Now it's personal because it happens to you.

The people in Acts 2 suddenly realized.

They were responsible for handing God's Messiah over to the Romans to be crucified.

A people whose significance, self-worth, and claim to fame were all wrapped up in being the people through whom God would send the deliverer, killed the deliverer.

Think about what that would have been like for them.

For the people who believed they were the chosen and protected of God, suddenly realized, we killed the Messiah.

Well, here's what happened when the people heard this.

They were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what will we do?

And Peter replied, listen to this, repent.

Again, repent of what?

Repent of what?

Metaneo.

It means change course.

Repent of handing the Messiah over to be crucified.

Repent of refusing to believe in Messiah despite the signs and wonders.

Repent of looking for a ruler and a king rather than the suffering servant.

I think all of those are included, but context is king.

And Peter's message would have them to repent for refusing to understand the scriptures because it did not fit their worldview.

That's it right there.

And that's what goes on in the evangelical church now.

Christianity does not fit my worldview.

I think these things are wrong.

These things are right.

I think I ought to do this.

These are my rights.

You're still your Lord and your master.

And it's because your heart has not been melted yet by the truth of the gospel.

Please hear me now.

If you ever hope to become a Christian and have your eternity secured, your heart must be changed.

You cannot be saved by association because your parents or grandparents or your priest or regular church attendance.

You cannot be saved by a mere intellectual agreement.

Yeah, Jesus is the Son of God who died for my sins.

You can't take Christianity up like it's a self-improvement program.

I need a little bit of direction in my life.

I need a taste of the divine.

I need a little inspiration.

I need a little Tony Robinson Christianity.

No, you don't take Christianity up.

It takes you up.

A power comes over you and your eyes are open.

Open to what?

The truth that you have significantly underestimated your sin and how great it really is.

And you've overestimated your goodness.

And you've underestimated the holiness of God.

And you've overestimated God's tolerance for your sin.

And suddenly, your sin becomes personal.

Peter lied that he even knew who Jesus was.

Remember?

He denied that he even knew Jesus when Jesus needed him the most.

Do you think Peter felt guilty after that?

I'd say he did.

But why?

Because he broke one of the Ten Commandments.

But if you know the story, when Peter's eyes locked with Jesus, he was cut to the heart and began to weep.

Why?

Because it's one thing to know that you've broken the rules.

It's another thing to know that you've broken his heart.

Do you know what Christ has done for you?

When my kids were little, we went on a little bit of a vacation about two hours south of Auckland to a beach called Whangamata.

I must have been in my mid-30s, and there was a little island.

I think I have a photo.

Yeah, so you could walk from the beach to this little island.

So I decided I would take my two small kids.

I think they were six and eight.

And I would just march out to that island.

Now, what's the problem when an island's in the middle of the ocean and you walk out to it?

The tide comes in.

But if you're from the south and you've not seen the ocean, you're just stupid.

And so you take your two small children and you walk out there and you think it's going to be a fun time until you turn around to walk back in.

And when you take that first step, you realize things have changed.

Now, I got to tell you, folks, I almost killed my kid.

I was so angry.

But what do you do at this point?

You've only got one thing to do because the tide's not, you can't stay.

You got to go.

I put one kid on each arm.

This is back when I had muscles and I was working out regularly.

I put the kids on my arm and I said, kids, we're going to play a little game because I didn't want them to know.

Let's see, you stay on my arm all the way to the beach, okay?

And so I started walking and the water got up about this far at one point.

And when I hit that next step that realized I'm going uphill now, the relief that came over me, and when I got to the sand and I delivered the kids back to their mother, who at this point wanted to kill me only after hours of torture, I sat on the sand with my head in my hands and I kept saying, you are a stupid man.

I was so angry.

But the kids had no idea what I had done until Oh Until your heart is just, I mean, it is overwhelmed with the situation that you and I are in.

And then right after that, somewhere along the line, you have this shock experience of where, wait a minute, God really does love me.

He really does forgive me through the cross.

I've heard about it, but I've had a hard time really understanding it because I'm not a good person.

I got all kinds of issues.

But now I get it, and the light comes on, and everything changes.

That's how you know.

Just recently, I went to the East Coast, and I think I shared this.

I went to three different cities, and there's an organization called Waypoint that asked if I would come out, and they got about 200, 250 pastors together in three cities, and I would do one-day event, then we'd go the next day, and then the next day, three different events.

And my job for three hours was just to talk about how I construct a sermon from the time I get the text to the time it's finished.

That's hard to do.

And I realized how hard that was to do when I was there.

Because how do you do that?

I mean, it's like asking Kershaw to help me throw a fastball.

You either have it or you don't.

And so I'm thinking, you know, how do I do this?

So I did the best I could.

But you know the question all of these pastors asked me at the end of the...

I mean, this is uncanny.

All three groups, we had a Q&A.

And the question they asked me at the end was this, Pastor Jeff, how do you motivate your people to worship and pray and to pursue Jesus and to serve and to give?

What's your secret?

This is the greatest lesson I have learned in 40 years right here.

I can't.

My job is to give you Jesus and hopefully one day you'll fall in love.

And when you fall in love, you'll give and you'll serve and you'll pursue him.

Until then, everything I say is just coercion and manipulation.

I'm out of time and I can't believe it.

I'm almost done.

I'm not going to go long.

George Whitefield.

George Whitefield was an Anglican priest in the 18th century in Britain.

And he was so captured by the gospel.

You know, everything I read of Whitefield, I like to think, man, we must have been similar.

Now, he was a lot smarter.

He was an Oxford grad, a lot smarter.

But when I read things of him and his passion in preaching, and he loved the gospel, and there's no message I enjoy preaching more than this kind of message.

I love the gospel.

But he was frustrated because he didn't have that many people coming to his church and he wanted to preach to more people.

So he did something that was radical in those days.

But it was the beginning of the great awakening, George Whitefield.

And he lived in the town of Bristol in England.

But outside of Bristol, there was a place called Kingswood and it was a coal mine.

So he decided he was going to go out, he's going to go out to the coal mine.

And the coal years who worked in the coal mines worked in horrible conditions.

I mean, most of them died before the age of 40 with black lung.

They were considered unclean, dirty, the low lives, the bottom of society.

So imagine they're surprised when they walked out of the coal mines one day and there standing before them was the famous George Whitefield.

I mean, he had his clerical garb on, he stood at the podium, brought a podium with him, Oxford grad, and he said, come over here, I want to preach to all of you.

And they all came.

And there were witnesses, because again, this was the beginning of the Great Awakening.

Hundreds of them heard him preach the gospel, and he preached the gospel much like that I've just preached in the gospel of grace.

When the colliers were listening, witnesses said their faces were black with coal dust, and suddenly little white splotches began to appear on their faces.

And the witnesses suddenly realized that their tears were creating little white gutters on their cheeks.

They were cut to the heart.

Did that ever happen to you?

Has it ever happened to you?

Kind of a serious question.

Or did you just come because your parents came?

Or you came because your girlfriend came?

Or your husband came?

Did it ever happen to you?

If it did, here's what you did.

If you understood the gospel, here's what you did.

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

Peter replied, repent.

Repent of what?

Listen, in this context, repent of thinking you could earn your way to heaven by being good.

That's what you're repenting of.

And then you're being baptized.

Why would you do that?

Well because you're dying to the old way of thinking that you're good enough and being resurrected to the way of knowing you're saved by grace through faith.

And then the Bible says after that you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

who actually comes on the inside of you to make you holy.

Not so that you can be saved, but so that you're honoring the Father God who's already saved you.

And you're being a light to the world so that others who are far off will come near.

Isn't that the last part of the text?

All who are far off for whom the Lord our God will call.

Are you a Christian?

And please don't say, if you say, well, I'm trying to be.

You don't get it yet.

Being a Christian is not something you do or try.

It's a standing that you get because of Jesus Christ.

So becoming a Christian involves the intellect.

Have you decided who Jesus is for you?

Becoming a Christian involves the doctrine of grace.

Have you understood that you will never be good enough?

And becoming a Christian involves the heart.

Has your heart been melted by the reality of what Jesus has done for you?

And as a result...

You've given your life to him.

And if you can say yes, then the closer you get to the end, the closer you're just getting to the beginning, right?

Father, I pray in Christ's name that there may be some odds are open this weekend, that maybe there are those who have been on the fringes who have been here and they appreciate God.

They actually believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.

They believe that there are good morals taught at church, so they want to be part of it.

But they have never made you their Lord, their Savior, and gotten down on their knees and cried out, thank you, God, that you have secured my eternity because I am a sinner and I need all the grace and mercy I can get.

And you've accredited to my account what Jesus did for me.

And now I will live my life for him.

He's become my Savior and Lord.

Because if I can trust him with my eternity, I can trust him with my life now.

So I will trust and obey.

In Christ's name, everybody said.