The Gospel According To Peter

Take your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2. I want to say a special thank you to everybody that was involved, that just does the ministry, and not like I'm indispensable, but when I'm gone, I just, it's just such a blessing to know that everything just continues on and flows, flows real well, and I praise God for everybody that's been involved. Thank you, Gary and Robbie and Steve and the deacons and all the heads of ministry and just all of you. Just, I praise God for you, and I thank you for your faithfulness and your prayers as well. I was able

to listen this week to the tapes of the three pastors that we had and was very, very blessed. I pray that you were ministered to as each one shared and spoke. I really wish I'd have had a video of Sean's to be able to see him enacting the book of James. I could hear the intensity on the tape, but I just wish I could have seen it, but it did inspire me, and I think I'm going to try and do First Chronicles here, enact the book of First Chronicles. I thank you.

Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahaliel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah, and the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. You know, that just really kind of, kind of grabs you. Maybe not First Chronicles, but I really was, that was a, that was a blessing, and I pray that you were all ministered to as well. As we come back to the, to the focus now in the book of Acts, it's kind of hard being away for several weeks to, to kind of draw us back in, but I want to, I want to take a minute just to do that, because while I was there, I was there, and I was there, and I was there, and I was away. I had an opportunity to, to just kind of think about where the Lord has taken us

over the last several years. We, we, I've taught clear through the Bible since I started in the ministry, and book, book by book, verse by verse, and it's, it's not bad when you know that when you finish John, you're going to Acts. When you finish Acts, you're going to Romans, but the last several years, we've gone a little deeper into the books, and so it's taken us longer, and as we finish, I haven't just gone consecutively to the next book, but prayed, Lord, where do you want us to go? I don't know how much time we have left, and, and so the Lord, just thinking about it, the Lord took us through Philippians a couple years ago, and the theme of that, if you remember, was

preparing for suffering, preparing to suffer, and understanding that, that that's part of what we are about as the church, that most of the church in the world right now is already doing that, and has done that, and, and by God's grace, we have been spared from that, and I'm not sure if it's just His grace, because I think we grow a little more when we suffer than when we're in times of plenty, so I'm not sure if that's been as much of a blessing as we'd like to think it is, but knowing that that's coming, as the Lord tarries, if the Lord tarries, this, the intensity of suffering is going to be here and increase. Already, you and I, for the most part, are feeling the pressure of

schedule. You feel that pressure of the day-to-day demands that, that seem like I haven't changed all those demands in the last few years, but it seems like the intensity of the pressure has increased, and that's normal. That's the times that we're in, and the longer we're here, the more you and I are going to move into the area of suffering for the Lord's sake. Suffering as believers in Jesus Christ, so God took us through Philippians to prepare, to prepare us for that, our thought processes for that, and then took us to James, so we could make sure our hearts are prepared for that, that not only do we know that we're called to suffer, but that our hearts are prepared, that

the only way we'll endure that is if we're genuinely the Lord's, if we belong to Him, if we're truly Christian, and so James was that heart-searching look at whether or not I really belong to God, whether or not I am saved, and if the workings of the Lord are going to be of faith are evident in my life, and having come through both of those books, now the Lord is bringing us to the book of Acts, which I believe is not just a book of the beginning of the church, but it's a book of the continuation of the church all the way up to the time that the church is removed, and so if you will, this is a kind of a refresher book to get us to put James and Philippians into practice, so that we're clicking along and about his business when he comes for us,

and it'll just be a transition period and not a total, you know, pull out of here. We'll be about his business. doing his work, suffering for him, knowing that our hearts are right before him, and then he takes us out, so I'm excited about the book of Acts. We have been called to be witnesses. Remember that. That's a theme that we'll carry all the way through our study of the book of Acts. We have

been called to be witnesses, and right off with the understanding of the calling comes the empowering, and that's been the first part of chapter two. He's called us to be witnesses. He's empowered us to do it. He's given us his Holy Spirit that empowers us to be able to do that. Now, if anything, our society, with the cushiness that we have as Americans, has allowed us for a season to exempt ourselves from that and leave that to

other people. You know, I mean, after all, I have things to do. I've got my household to build up and keep my children to raise and school to send them to, and all these things that we somehow have separated from the idea of being witnesses, and this becomes our focal point, and being a witness is something that missionaries do, that church people do, that pastors do, but I'm exempted from that responsibility. And if anything, that is a lie from the devil. You and I are called to be witnesses. That is our

job. This other stuff we function at while we're witnessing, while we're being witnesses. We maintain a home, we raise our children, and we are witnessing. We are being witnesses to them. Prayerfully, you are witnessing something to them. You're modeling something before them. Our jobs are a mission field. All of these places are mission fields that we have been called to be

a witness at, and that's the only reason you and I breathe. And once God is seen fit that our witness is finished, we are called to be a witness. And that's the only reason we are called to be a witness. We go home. That's it. So we need to understand that, and God has empowered us to do that. We need to take the responsibility for that. I am a witness. I have been called to be a witness.

You are a witness. You have been called to be a witness. And if there is something that in our society we have been allowed to do wrongfully, I think it's been to abdicate our responsibility. Everything we do is okay, but if I do something wrong, it's somebody else's fault. If I haven't done this right, it's not my fault. It's the way I was raised, you see, or it's my environment.

My environment has handicapped me. It kept me from understanding this or that. And we fail to take responsibility for our own action. Let me tell you, until you do that, you aren't saved. Until you come to the point of saying, I am a sinner, period. I need a savior, period. You can't be saved. So there's an area of needing to take responsibility as witnesses for Christ as well. I was emailed this song. It's a song.

I'm not going to sing it. I don't know the melody. But it was from someone who went to an anger management seminar, and they handed this out. And that's one of the things, if you go to anger management or stress management or AA or NA, one of the first things you have to do, is own your responsibilities. Realize that you are responsible for your actions. Nobody made you

do this. Flip Wilson's The Devil Made Me Do It. No, you chose to listen. You chose to follow. You chose to act on what you heard, but he didn't make you do nothing. And this song kind of hits that. It says, I went to my psychiatrist to be psychoanalyzed, to find out why I killed my cat and blackened my wife's eyes. He put me on the downy couch to see what he could find. And this

is what he dredged up from my subconscious mind. When I was one, my mommy hid my dolly in the trunk. And so it follows naturally that I am always drunk. When I was two, I saw my father kiss the maid one day, and that is why I suffer now kleptomania. When I was three, I suffered from ambivalence toward my brothers. And so it follows naturally that I poison all my lovers. I'm so glad

that I have learned the lesson it has taught, that everything I do that's wrong is someone else's fault. You and I have to own the fact that we are called to be witnesses. And as Steve Bliss said in his study that I listened to, that's what will stand before God's Bema seat, for his throne as believers to answer to him for is how we have done that, is to whether we have done that and to why we did not. And those of us that think we're just going to kind of skate now because we're saved, you and I won't go to the white throne judgment, but we'll be at the Bema.

And if you read 1 Corinthians 3, you find that there's going to be a lot of sorrow at the Bema seat as well as joy. And so we need to hang on to the responsibility of the fact that we are called to be witnesses. And so we better get with it, especially in the season that we're in, especially in the times that we're in. And he has empowered us. He has empowered us to do the job. That's what's so wonderful. He's not calling you to be a witness

in your own strength. He has empowered you. He's already given you everything you need to be that. Look with me, if you would, together in Acts chapter 2. We're going to start with verse 13. I have a battery going out, and so it does all that kind of stuff. I'll try not to move around too far away from the antenna here or it'll snap crackle. I apologize for that. In your study

Bibles, you have a division at verse 14, but we took ours at verse 12. And I purposefully wanted to pick up today with verse 13. The disciples have experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They've been waiting for Pentecost to come, set themselves aside for a 49-day period of purification, of prayer, of fasting, of reading the Word, of waiting upon the Lord, of seeking to set themselves apart under the Lord for this time of purification. Waiting for God's help, His divine help, remember, the Tacharata,

come upon them. And it has just happened. And in verse 12, you see the people that are gathering as a result of hearing all of this, and they asked one another, what does this mean? Verse 13, some, however, made fun of them and said they have had too much, too much wine, too much to drink. And then Peter stood up with the 11 and 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 men are not drunk as you suppose. It's only nine 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, and your sons and daughters will prophesy. I will pour out my spirit on all people,

and your young men will see visions, and 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. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Men of Israel,

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 set purpose 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. David said about him, I saw the Lord always before me, and 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 live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy ones see decay. You have made known to me the paths of

life, and you will fill me with joy in your presence. Brothers, 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 ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will live in hope,

God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God is 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, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this. God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. And when the

people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? And 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 your children, and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call. And with many other words he warned them, and he pleaded with them, Save yourselves from this corrupt generation. Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to

their number that day. Let me encourage you, as we begin looking at this section, that you and I witness by both our lives and our speech. I have shared before and have seen the bumper sticker, and you probably have too, or heard it taught or read it somewhere, that your life is the only Bible that some people will ever read. And it encourages the truth that we need to be living lives of holiness set apart unto the Lord, because we may not talk to a person, but they'll see from our actions that we love Jesus, and they'll be drawn to that. Now that initially drew

me to the guy that led me to the Lord. And I'm going to tell you a story about that. I'm going to tell you a story about that. I'm going to tell you a story about that. I'm going to tell you a story about that. I'm going to tell you a story about that. I'm going to tell you a story about that. So the first part of that, or part of that is correct. But it's wrong to separate that. See,

I think a lot of us feel like I'm not a good speaker. I can't remember everything that you talk about. I don't know the word the way I'd really like to. So for me to think about talking to somebody else about Jesus is scary. I'd rather just live that action out in front of them and not have to make contact with somebody else. And so we like to embrace that thought that my life is the

only Bible that some people may ever read. So I'm going to try and live my life the way I want to. I'm going to try and live my life the best that I can before the Lord. And that's good enough in my witness. And that's only half true because often, very often, although we may be the only Bible that some people will ever see, we need a table of contents to figure out what we're doing

because sometimes we're pretty erratic. Granted, we're just flesh, but there are some times we actually do need to speak to people. We need to talk to them to let understanding happen. And let me point that out by verse 13 here. Some of the people in verse 12 said, what does this mean? But some in verse 13, however, made fun of them, made fun of the disciples and said they have had too much wine. And stress to

you that had Peter not said something, all these people would have left thinking the disciples were merely drunk. So there is going to be some time that you have to speak to other people. And that's part of our being a witness. And rather than it terrifying you, I'm here to offer encouragement this morning in the life of Peter. And we'll look at that in just a second.

There needs to be a biblical reason for the things that we do as a church corporately, as well as in our daily lives individually. I mean, I have to have a biblical mandate or a biblical reason to wash the dishes. Well, everything that we do in our lives, we should be being obedient to the Lord's leading as he's guided us in scripture. And yeah, we're supposed to keep the home, you know, and all of that. So I don't think you necessarily have to have a Bible

verse for doing the dishes, but everything that we do in the practical sense of our daily live, and of our corporate living, especially as a church should have a biblical basis for it. There should be a biblical reason for what we do. When we got home this week, I had a new Newsweek in the mail. It's the one dated tomorrow. So it's the brand new and on the cover is a picture,

the artist's picture of Mary. I don't know if you take Newsweek or not, but I imagine this is going to be in the other magazines as well. And it just is a, the feature featured article in this Newsweek is it's called the meaning of Mary, a struggle over her role grows within the church. I don't know if you realize it or not, but the Roman Catholic church, according to the secular world defines your Christianity. What goes on in the Roman Catholic church is what goes on in the

church, according to the secular world. And so they are the spokesman for, for you, for the rest of the world. And to a certain extent, what happens there does affect you. And so you need to be aware of, um, in this article and in related articles, it says that, um, over four, the Pope has received over 4 million signatures. He's, he's receiving over a hundred thousand signatures a

month. From not only, uh, constituents within the Catholic church, but from priests and from bishops and from cardinals, even that are appealing to him to quote, exercise the power of papal infallibility to proclaim a new dogma of the Roman Catholic faith, that the Virgin Mary is co-redemptrix, mediatrix of all graces and advocate for the people of God. Now this is already kind of a, uh, an under the table accepted thing in Roman Catholicism. Now, a lot of, a lot of Roman Catholics will deny that, but there, and I've shared before, there are various churches, even in Rome, where you can go and, uh, and, uh, in front of that church will be a crucifix with

Jesus on the front and Mary on the back. So it's already in many parts of Catholicism and accepted fact, um, that Mary is co-redemptrix. In other words, Jesus alone isn't enough, that Jesus died for your sins really isn't enough. Mary, Mary did too. Mary was part of the redeeming of the redemption process. Not only part of the redeeming process, but, but mediatrix of all graces and

co-redemptrix. In other words, Mary used to go to Jesus on your behalf, but now she is the mediator. She's seen as the mediator between you and God. And not only that, but she's the advocate of, of the people, which is the job of the Holy Spirit and the job of Jesus before the Father. Uh, the dual job there is now given to Mary. Um, and the article goes on to say that, uh,

Mary is the patron saint of Poland. And so this Pope is very partial to the, to this idea. And they say that he may go ahead and affirm that and exercise his infallibility, where the dogma is concerned, even as early as 2000, maybe even next year, he'll go ahead and assign that. Now I want you to follow this because this is just, uh, it's one more little notch in, in, uh, a one world religion. It's one more little notch, uh, in what's coming together

where this is concerned. But the Pope has said that, uh, he's referred to Mary as co-redemptrix at least five times in speeches. He's reflected on her role, uh, more than in more than 50 weekly addresses, often emphasizing her cooperation in redemption. And there will be a million, who will go along with that because the Pope said so in the church. Now the Pope is the final

authority, not the scripture in the Catholic church, but we believe that the Bible is the infallible inspired word of God. So this is the measuring rod. This is the stick by which we're to measure the things that we do. And we need to have a biblical basis for everything that we do. It can't just be because it's fun or because a lot of other people are doing it. Like a lot of

the revival that's going on today, right now, it's, it has no biblical basis at all, but a lot of people are doing it. In the name of God. So don't criticize it. That's what they say. But if we don't have a biblical basis for what we do, we open ourselves up to all kinds of heresy and error, which is exactly what God warned us was going to happen in the final days and the last days. Now, Paul

wrote to Timothy in first Timothy chapter two, verse five, and said, for there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus, period, not Mary, nobody else, not the saints. The saints don't mediate the saints that are declared saints. You're a saint. We're saints. We're all saints. According to scripture, the believers in Jesus Christ are saints. There's one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus, verse six,

who gave himself as a ransom for us all, not himself and his mom, not Jesus and Mary, but Jesus period gave himself as a ransom for us all. Paul warned Timothy that in the last days, there would be a straying from the word of God. And it's not that like it hasn't been happening already, but it's becoming more overt. And I want you aware of that. You and I are called to be

witnesses. There's no more just kind of coasting anymore. There's no more just kicking back and being involved in the things that are going on in the world and not keeping that together with the fact that as I'm being involved, I'm a witness and I'm called to be a witness. And that's my primary calling, not just to do these things, not just to build up a retirement or a nice home or nice kids. It's all part of being a witness. And unless we see that and keep that before us,

we're going to be easily led astray. Paul told Timothy in second Timothy four, verses two through four, preach the word. And verse one in that chapter is prefaced with a long paragraph of a chart. I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ before God that you preach the word. And I don't think that's just a mandate to Timothy. Be prepared in season and out of season,

correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say, what their itching ears want to hear. And they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. And that's happening to a greater overt extent. What do I mean by overt?

Well, this fall in the, in the, according to the TV guide and all, there's a new ABC sitcom coming out that's called nothing sacred. And according to the releases on this, it's about a liberal priest who doubts God's existence, who counsels safe sex curses and says abortion is a matter of personal conscience. According to the article, one episode, he holds up a new Testament during a sermon and declares that issues such as abortion, contraception, homosexuality, and promiscuity are not in here. I was ordained to be, I was not ordained to be a sexual traffic cop. And the congregation explodes with applause.

That's overt. That's blatant. That's coming into your household. And that's just one. It will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. And that's happening in every, not just on TV. It's every, it's in the workplace. It's in the schools. It's in your home. And so we have been called to be witnesses. We have to have an understanding of what we do and what we believe. It can't just be the Calvary chapel

teaches this or the Protestants teach this or the Catholics teach this. It has to be an understanding that you have of the scriptures. Rick Ryan, who is the pastor of Calvary chapel in Santa Barbara, California, in his commentary on the book of Acts in this section where Peter stands up and gives his first sermon, Rick shares that what happens here was a time for Peter to give spiritual clarification. Peter was clarifying what was going on with this outpouring of God's spirit. And then he also points out that as we're at the end of this age, as we're coming to the end

of the age, that each of us is now called to do that. We are, God has placed you strategically wherever you work or live or go to school, because you are now his witness, his vessel that he's calling on to do just that, to give spiritual clarification to what's going on. You're not the only ones feeling the pressure of society. You're not the only ones feeling the pressure of society.

Everybody's feeling the stress and pressure. Stress management clinics are skyrocketing. Self-help books are the biggest sellers of books in the bookstores. Why? Because people feel pressed down, even Christians. And we're the ones that have the answer. And God has placed us strategically to be able to give spiritual clarification to what's going on. My goodness, the stock market dropped

260 points. It's kind of rocketing back a hundred and some points and another hundred and some points, then drops again. I mean, it's doing just what has been predicted by the Bible. It's doing just what has been predicted by the Bible. It's doing just what has been predicted by the Bible. It's doing just what has been predicted by the Bible. It's doing just what has been

the Christian economist. It's a top that's teetering, and it's just ready to finally fall over. It's going to collapse. But the stress that that causes in the marketplace, in people's lives, they're asking why, and they don't know what to do. And you have been placed in their vicinity to say, you know, the Bible talks about this. The Bible talks about this as

far as last days, end time stuff. And you may feel like, I don't know all there is to know about that. God didn't ask you to right now. He just asked you to be available, to be a witness. We're has enabled us by his holy spirit to do what he's called us to be we are to give this clarification to what's going on and he's placed you in that area to do that and when you say i'm too scared

or i can't do it or i don't know anything that there is to know that's wonderful because that's exactly where we are here in the book of acts and this morning i want you to see three examples of a guy just like you and me who feels that same way at this particular time but he gives us three three examples of a witness that i want you to pick up on now we're only going to go through verse 13 and part of verse 14 and so in your bulletin you'll notice that it says the gospel according to peter part one we'll be here for a while because i want us to get this this is peter this is not the apostle peter or the disciple peter or pope peter this is just peter a man like

you and me okay we're going to identify with this guy i want you to notice three things about this guy first of all peter trusted in the leading and the empowering of the holy spirit peter trusted in the leading and in the empowering of the holy spirit jesus had already told his disciples about the holy spirit coming in john chapter 14 we've already hit that several times in acts since we've started but i want to hit it again in john chapter 14 verse 26 jesus told them the counselor the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind you of the gospel of the holy spirit and will teach you all things and will remind you of the gospel

of everything i have said to you he will guide you and he will counsel you he will lead you and he will teach you now you and i affirm that but how many times during the day does god sorry i like to but i'm gonna turn that off and go to this one okay i want to move how many times during the day do you and i have an opportunity to listen to the holy spirit but we don't and rather than taking time in the midst of a stressful time the boss wants this now this person has said this to me and i'm hurt my kids are rebelling and ready to leave home you name the topic or the subject how many times when that instance hits do we not stop space but we first of all try and solve it on our own or call somebody else for advice call

somebody else for assistance rather than seeking the leading and the empowering of the holy spirit he's always last we always look there last and people call me and i and i'm saying you know i'm well let me pray with you and it's like oh yeah yeah that too you know but then i need to do something well usually the thing we need to do right then is just to wait upon the lord and let him lead and let him guide and let him empower and let him speak again in acts chapter one verse eight and we've seen that already before jesus told the disciples that they would receive power to be his witnesses when the holy spirit had come upon them god was going to give them power to do

what he wanted them to do not only was he going to teach them and guide them but then he was going to empower them to do what he wanted them to do and he was going to guide them and guide them and guide and understand what they were teaching and where he was guiding them. And this, Peter says at the end of this section, was not only available for them and their children, but for all those who would believe. That's us. God would give them the power to do what he was guiding them to do. Now,

let me encourage you. Peter knew what he was like on his own. Peter had already stuck his foot in his mouth several times while Jesus was here. And he knew what he was like on his own. He knew his own inconsistencies. But he also remembered certain times. One, like when he was in the boat with the disciples and Jesus was walking out to them on the water. And Peter said, Lord, if it's

you, bid me to come unto you. And Jesus said, come on. And Peter stepped out of the boat. Now, granted, he got his eyes off the Lord and he began to sink. But for an instant, listening to the leading of the Lord, following in obedience to his word, Peter experienced the miraculous. In walking on the water. So Peter knew his own limitations, but he'd also trusted the leading

of God before and was ready here now to trust the leading and the empowering of the Holy Spirit to stand and give this his first sermon. You may be thinking again, so it's really hard when you read the word to to decanonize the people in the home. I mean, that's Peter, you know, the apostle. No, that's just Peter. And if you're sitting there thinking, yeah, but I'm in this situation or

or I'm afraid where the. The idea of witnessing is concerned because I feel like I'm inadequate or like I may be inadequate for some particular situation that God's going to have me in. Let me take time to dispel any doubt. You are completely inadequate. Totally. Don't question it any longer. You are totally inadequate for whatever God's going to call you to do. Don't trust in your adequacy at

all. That's a problem that we have is we trust in. I've been a Christian for 20 years. Well, I don't care. Don't trust in that. Where's the Lord? See, God is our adequacy. God has given us his Holy Spirit. He is adequate. Him in us is the adequate part of it. Christ in me, the hope of glory. Greater is he in me than he that's in the world. See, the adequacy is not in you. God is not going to call

you to do anything that he is not equipped and empowered you to do. The thing that we have to learn to do is to follow and trust. And that's difficult because we are people who are show me people. We want to see it before we believe it. But you and I must. Learn to hear his voice. You have to learn what his voice is like. And that will only come from spending time together with him. I appreciated what one of the brothers shared on the tape. I

can't remember if it's Steve or Joe about Martin Luther and the fact that he was so busy and he knew that he was going to be busy with everything that was pressuring him during the day that he had to spend four hours in prayer before he started that day. Now, that seems like an awful lot. And and I know that. But I think too often as Christians, we excuse our work. We excuse our

work. We use that kind of genius to be more careful with our work. We need to have a sense of who has to be in that work at a time when we have that kind of lackiness in the name of God's grace. We'll put so much work into everything else. My my girls are both in college over in Missouri. Last weekend, we took Lisa over because she's a dorm steward this year. And so she had to go over

a week early for training and we to the stuff that we had to put together. We took three cars, carloads of stuff over there that she was just moving in. And then we got there and the apartment that she's in and Kara's staying with her, but Kara didn't get to go until this weekend. But we had to go in and we waited for her to get her then on the bus. What do you get out of that, brethren?

and we had to repaint the whole thing and paper and clean and move stuff in and move stuff out. And that took that weekend. And then this week, we've been preparing Kara to go. And Friday, Ann and Kara went over. We borrowed a van and crammed that thing to the gills with Kara's stuff and took that over there. And they unloaded that. And tomorrow, I go over with Kara's car

and swap out her car for the van so that she's got her car and we can bring the van back. And it's amazing what we'll do, you know, what lengths we'll go to to work out stuff like that. But if you had time to pray today and be with God, well, no, it's just been too busy. No, it's just not important. And if you and I are going to learn to trust and to follow the Spirit

of God like Peter did here, we're going to have to spend some time with him. We're going to have to learn to hear his voice. And that means spending time with him. And if you and I can work out those times for other things, we can work out that time for the Lord. And because of the times, it's absolutely imperative that we do that. That we put forth the effort now or you're going to be overwhelmed by the situations that are

coming. God's hand is releasing, I believe, on America. And we are soon to suffer the persecution and the sufferings that the rest of the church is suffering. I don't think we're going to be spared from all of that. I don't think we're going to go through the tribulation, but I don't think we're going to be spared from suffering either. So we better be hearing his voice and discerning

his voice so that we can learn to trust his leading and trust his empowering. Now, at times, at times, we're going to be in a situation where we're going to be in a situation where we're going as you come to hear his voice or learn his voice, you will experience kind of, I like to call it a nudging or a muzzling. Either he's going to say go or he's going to say shut up. And you need to learn to discern both of them because not following either one will get us into trouble.

When I was younger, I had just gotten saved. I worked at a grocery store in Colorado, in Denver. And I was in the break room and there was another group of people that were taking a break. And I was hearing them talking about what was going on in the world. And I felt and I heard go talk to them. And I was learning God's voice. And I knew that was he wanted me to go talk. Now, you may not have experienced this, but all of a sudden my hands

started sweating and I started shaking and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I felt like it was tightening around my chest and I was getting a lump in my throat. And I was thinking I couldn't, I can't go do that. Now, God will never force us to do anything. God's spirit was not doing that. It was my reaction to what he was asking me to do. I was causing that in my own physical person by resisting what he was wanting me to do. God's

spirit says, go talk to him. And I'm sitting here freaking out. I can't talk to him. The spirit of God's just sitting there. You just get up and go over there. I'll talk to him. So if you experience that, that's not the spirit of God that's making you freak out. It's resisting his spirit that causes us to freak out. I got up and I went over and I didn't know what I was going to say. And I

just walked over and I said, I heard you guys talking about this. And I just want to let you know that the Bible talks about that. And then out came the spirit of God. And I said, I'm going to stuff. And it was like, I was standing outside of me looking at me going, wow, you know, that's amazing. And I was able and see a lot of times as you follow the leading of the spirit, you won't

know what neck the next step is until you take the first step. God usually doesn't print it out like on caller ID. Oh, that's where it is. You know, it's, you got to take this first step and you got to learn to trust. And I don't think Peter had a prepared text to give his first sermon. He just trusted the leading and we'll get to, we'll get to how this all transpired here in a minute.

I don't know if you've ever thought about how this particular occurrence happened here in chapter two, but I want to give you something to think about where that's concerned, but he didn't have a prepared text. He just trusted the leading of God's spirit. And you and I have to learn to do that. And it only comes from spending time with him and spending time with the Lord. Secondly,

Peter's second example as a witness is that it was evident and obvious that he had spent time in the word of God. Not only did he trust the leading and empowering of the spirit, but it was evident that he had spent time in the word of God. God's spirit will lead you according to his word. He doesn't give you flaky, fluky things to do. You know, he doesn't do anything that contradicts his word. He will always lead you according to

his word. Peter quotes from three different sections in the old Testament in this, in this passage. It was obvious that Peter had spent time in the word. Now, most recently he had just spent the last 49 days. Remember we talked about the preparation for Pentecost and that they would gather together for that 49 day period. It would be a time of fasting and prayer, a time of setting

themselves apart in the Lord and a time of reading the word of reading the Torah until the day that last night, as they came into the 50th day, they would read the Decalogue, the 10 commandments again. And that's when the Holy spirit falls here at Pentecost. So he's just spent 49 days in the word of God, very intense time in the word and stands and speaks. I believe with an understanding that God's given him from being in the word. If you and I will just take the time

to spend those little increments of time with God and his word, he'll use it. That's why these little daily breads are so valuable. If you just take time to read that devotion, personally, once a day, you have something that God can use and maybe something that'll draw you into his word a little deeper. And when you get into his word, let me encourage you. Don't go into

it initially with the idea that you're going to have your concordances and your word studies and your commentaries all there to dig in and study. Just go with the idea. I'm going to sit down and meet with you. Lord, speak to me. Just meet with me. Just talk to me. I want to set myself apart into you. And I just want to meet with you here and read, just read, just spend some time with

it. Peter had done that. And it was obvious. That he gives a scriptural definition to clarify what is happening. As you and I do this, as we spend time with God and his word, we will be able to discern then what is real and what is bogus, what's real and what's counterfeit. And there's a lot of counterfeit that's out there right now. There's a lot of counterfeit going on in the name of revival that has nothing to do

with scripture, that has no biblical basis whatsoever. And when you tell people that, and I've already received flack, some of this has already been on the radio and I've already gotten flack from people that say, well, you just, aren't being kind. You know, these are just brothers and sisters in the Lord. And, and how do you know this isn't from God? And I'll say, I didn't see it in the scripture.

I don't see what they're doing, what's going on. I don't see it in scripture. Well, it's new revelation. Well, it's a new manifestation of the Holy spirit. That's not what I see scripture telling me is going to happen. Everything that God's going to do in the way that he's going to do it is going to be according to this. It's not going to be some wacko thing where you're barking or flapping around the room or glued to the floor. I don't

see that in here, leading people to Jesus. I see that opening it up for occultic activity, but not moving people towards a relationship with Jesus Christ. And as you take a stand for that, you become the enemy. People who seek to measure the experiences according to scripture are labeled as enemies by the people in these movements. And so anticipate that if you're going to have a life

that is clarified by scripture, you're an enemy to a lot of people who call themselves the church, to a lot of people within the church who are having these experiences. And measure their Christianity by experience. One of the first principles of the church you're going to see down at the end of chapter two with verses 42 through the end of the chapter, one of the first principles that will be demonstrated that we see modeled by the church is that it says they devoted themselves to the apostles doctrine. They devoted themselves to the teaching of the word. They gave themselves over to the teaching of the word. That means that

they daily, daily, daily size the most important thing of the day to spend time with the Lord and his word. And then it says, But let's just begin with just his word. They daily gave themselves to the apostles doctrine to spend time in God's word. It was a part of their daily schedule. Is it a part of ours? Is it a part of yours? If not, don't excuse yourself in the name of God's grace any longer. The time is too short.

You need to be in the word. You need to be taking that time out to set it apart with the Lord, no matter what effort it takes. Peter trusted in a leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit. And he spent time in the word. And the word of God is a witness. Thirdly, thirdly, Peter saw the harvest. Peter saw the harvest. Jesus had defined the harvest for the disciples in John chapter four. He'd been with

the woman at the well, sharing with her while the disciples had gone on into town to get some food. She realized that he was the Messiah. As the disciples came back and saw him talking to her, she was convicted and was running back to town to tell everybody that she had seen the Messiah and met the Messiah. And Jesus is talking to his disciples and they offer him food. And he tells

them that he has food to eat, that they know that he has food to eat. And they offer him food and he says, no, not of. And of course, John says, we wondered whether somebody brought him some bread already. Somebody already brought him some food. And in the middle of that dialogue, Jesus says in chapter four, verse thirty five, do you not say four months more and then the harvest? And I can

see the disciples going, who said anything about harvest? You know, we're just offering you some food. But Jesus says, do you not say four months more to the harvest? And practically speaking, that's how many more months it was until they harvested the wheat there. Do you not say this four months? OK, yeah. Well, I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe

harvest. And I don't know how you see this, but I see Jesus saying that as they see this woman from the well coming with the mass of people behind her from the town coming up the road towards him. And Jesus says, look at the harvest, see the harvest. It's ripe. It's ready. And so Jesus had already taught them that the harvest was referring to the people. It was the people that

they needed to keep before them. These are the people that need the Lord. They need to see Jesus. They need to know who Jesus is. Now, that's the last thing Peter wanted to see when he was on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. Peter, James and John went up on the mountain with Jesus and Jesus was transfigured before him, before them. And Moses and Elijah

stood there. And you remember Peter's reaction? This is a happening place. You know, let's build a house here. We'll subdivide it. Place for James, place for John, place for me. And let's just stay here. It is good that we are here. What did Peter mean? We're out of the rat race. We're out of all of the pressures down there. Let's just stay. Here. I'll tell you, when I was in Canada, it was real easy to say, let's just stay here. It's nice

here. We're out of the rat race up here. We don't have all of the pressures of the ministry and all that. Let's just stay here. Beautiful scenery. Then I noticed that not only our car, but all the other cars had these little plugs coming out the front end of engine block warmers because it gets down to 50 below up there. And the kids still go to school when it's 50 below. And I also

realized that that's not what we've been called to do. We've been called to be witnesses. We've been called to be witnesses. We need those times apart. We need those times away to be with the Lord, to refresh. But he's called us to see the harvest. Now, I don't know your situation. I don't know. You may have, you may have stress on your job. You may have people on your job that you

work with that are a real pain and you'd really like to seek to transfer out or you're praying that God will move them. Maybe you have a really stressful situation in your home. Maybe there's a conflict with a spouse. Maybe you have rebellious children. Maybe you're going through a particular illness in your home. Maybe you have a situation where you're in a situation where you're in a

situation now with the parent that is aging and you're looking now to make that decision on what to do. And you may be seeking to move them in with you. And the thought of that's scary. Maybe you have a married child who's going through a divorce and you're going to be coming back into your house. And that looks scary. I don't know your particular situation, but instead of seeing it

as a situation, see it as the harvest. That's the harvest. That's the field God has called you to. And in the midst of that field, he wants you to be a witness. He wants you to trust him for the leading and empowering of his son. In the midst of that situation, he wants you to spend time with him in his word so you can hear his voice so you can trust him for his leading and empowering in the midst of that situation.

And then third, he just wants you to see them as the harvest, not as the pain in the behind, not as that family member or that worker or that student at school. He wants you to begin to pray for them. Not that God had moved them out, that he'd save them, that he'd transform them. You begin to pray that. You begin to listen to his voice as you're in his word and you begin to see

them as the harvest and you'll begin to move out and God will move you out and you'll be saying things to them that you never anticipated. You know, the things you normally say to him, you tell him to get lost, go take a hike, go fly out the door, you know, but now you're telling him, you know, God really loves you and I'm praying for you. And you begin to do things for them that are not normal. You know, normally they're looking for you to stick them in the ribs and you're doing nice things and they don't understand that. See them as the harvest. I don't

know how you, this is what I was getting to earlier. I don't know how you see this particular event. Before I went to Israel, I, I saw the upper room as a, as a place where they were up on the second floor. So they had high visibility and it must've had a wraparound balcony all the way around it. So that when the Holy spirit fell, they must've all walked out on the balcony and they lined the

balcony out around the upper room, uh, singing and speaking in tongues, these praises to God so that the people would hear them. And the people gathered around and Peter just stood there on the balcony. Like he was at a pulpit and just began to talk to him. I don't know. Maybe that's how you see it too. Then I went to Israel, uh, no balcony. A matter of fact,

the upper room is, uh, I think it had a couple of windows in it. Um, and, and a door entrance, you know, just a main entrance into the upper room. Um, so how they heard all of this, the acoustics in that room were awesome. So the sound must've gone out through the windows cause they didn't have Anderson crank outs, you know, and probably went out through the open door and the people heard it and they came, but they wouldn't have heard the disciples inside. Wouldn't have

heard this conversation. Uh, they must be drunk unless somebody would have stopped and realized there were people out there and gone out to see him. And that's what evidently happened to Peter is he, the spirit evidently spoke to his heart and he realized there were people gathered out there and he went out either. He either, he did stand at the open window or I see him kind of going out to them and hearing them say, well, what's going on? You guys drunk or something? And being able

to answer with what he answers here. Now, the reason that's exciting to me is because Peter could have said, I mean, these guys are going to town, you know, what a worship service, what a neat time before God. Just tuned out the outside and just experienced. I mean, when God's moving, you just want to kind of bathe in that, just sit there and wow, drink it in because I just shut the doors, man. We're

going to worship God, but he stopped and he went because he saw the harvest and he told them about Jesus and he told them that they needed to get saved. And that's because he saw the harvest. I know the pressures I've been in them. I am in them. I know the attitudes that get bad. Mine's been bad. I had some time away, had, had an attitude adjustment and time with the Lord.

I know the time is short. I'm going to be sharing some things with you in the next couple of weeks about the last days, the times that we're in some things on the, uh, the Bible codes. I don't know if you've heard about this new book that's been written by a secular author on the encryption of the Bible coding. Some very interesting things going on where that is concerned. That guy is a

Jew by birth. He's an atheist by profession. And, uh, some of the stuff that's in there is just amazing, very accurate. And if that's true and times and dates are there, we don't have much time. We'll talk about some of that. Why? Should we think this is right and true? Um, let me just encourage you that the times are hot, that the pressures are intense, but you and I have been called to be witnesses.

You need to learn to trust in the leading and the empowering of God's spirit. You need to spend time with him and his word. You need to keep your eyes up and looking at the harvest, not looking at your own situation. Father, help us to do that. It's, it's something we need to be refreshed on over and over and over because the enemy wants us to take our eyes off of you and off of the harvest

and just focus them on ourselves. I know that. We all know that. Um, it's just a matter of now doing, taking that time apart unto you, learning to hear your voice, realizing that we can trust you. We'll not be ashamed by taking that time to trust you, to set apart unto you and help us Lord to see the harvest, not just in the town, the rest of the town outside of these walls here in Ark city, but those in our very own

households, in our school, in our job, you've called us to them, that we might be with them. We might be witnesses before them. So Lord, we commit them to you. We ask that you'd use us now in their lives, that you would empower us, that you'd speak through us, that we'd hear your voice and act upon it and that you bring forth that harvest. Lord, we pray for your glory in Jesus'

name. Amen. Let's stand.