This is a part of a sermon series in the book of Acts. You can watch more here.
This morning we will be in Acts 2. You can turn to page 94 in our devotional but I put in the wrong passage, so you will still need your bible but you can still use the devotional for your notes.
We are continuing in a short vision series to remind us who we are as a church family, because we have all these areas in life; work, children, friends, relationships jumping up and easy to get distracted.
In Acts 2 Jesus has ascended into the heavens, the Holy Spirit has come, the church has been launched. Just to be clear, when I say, “church” I am not talking about 10:30 on a Sunday morning.
The word “church” comes from the Greek word “Ekklesia” which means “assembly or the called-out people of God.”
The “church” are the followers of Jesus around the world. The church isn’t a mom and pop operation but the church is a global movement of God. The means by which the glory of God is ushered into the world. It’s the church!
In verses 1-13 we see the Holy Spirit show up in a powerful way, people are speaking different languages, the church is established, and as a result the people around them are curious about what the Lord is doing in their midst.
We saw this last Sunday, verse 47 says, “And the Lord was adding to their number day by day” so that the assumption is that the church is taking the glory of God into the nooks and crannies of the world, so that the people are responding in awe and wonder and curiosity. That’s the dream!
The church isn’t just about creating a great worship service with coffee, great children’s ministry and sometimes serving people in the community. That’s one part of the church!
But as a whole, the church are the scattered people of God, the sprinkling of salt and light all over our city for His glory, so that the people of this city would be curious.
Listen to me, this is what I love about dabbling in this stand-up comedy. Every time I meet people, they find out I am a pastor and 90% of the time they say, “What are you doing here?”
I love talking with Faith Chou in our church family about how she’s serving her neighbors, caring for their needs, inviting them into her home, so that the neighbor is thinking, “What are you doing?”
I love talking to Buddy Henderson working with people in construction, sometimes on the fringe of life, caring for their needs, sometimes having hard conversations, so that they might ask, “What are you doing?”
I love talking to Meg Cazin in our church family about how she approaches her job as a barista; meeting people, asking about their lives, so that the customers are asking, “What are you doing?”
Every follower of Jesus lives, eats, and breathes in different nooks and crannies of our cities and God’s Word is casting this vision that our mindset would be everywhere we go, every day is with the hope of provoking curiosity in the people around us. Amen?
Let’s look at God’s Word. Look at Acts 2, verse 22:
Acts 2:22, “22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—”
Remember, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection has already taken place. The Holy Spirit has come, vs. 1-13, church is launched, and non-followers of Jesus are watching this take place and they are asking themselves back in verse 13, “What does this mean?”
In response, the Apostle Peter stands up and says, “Men of Israel, listen to these words.” I love it! In this moment Peter is going to frame the conversation for the people.
Listen to my words, the context of our passage is a different context for us today in 2025 but that doesn’t mean we aren’t still inviting our friends, our family, our city to “listen to these words.”
The Apostle Peter is going to call these men and women to listen, and still today we are inviting men and women to listen. Our wording might be different. Our approach might be different, our delivery might be different, but the invitation to listen and learn about the awe and wonder of God hasn’t changed.
In the context of our passage, these are men and women who would have grown up reading the Old Testament forwards and backwards. These are men and women who would have been taught from an early age to look forward to the day that the Savior would come and in our passage this morning the Apostle Peter is going to connect those dots so as to show that Jesus is that Savior. Does that make sense?
That’s not our context today in 2025. In our context today, we have people who “think” they know the bible, but in reality, they know very little, so that listening and learning is one of our biggest challenges today.
Just to be clear, the hearing challenge we have today isn’t an auditory problem, it’s a heart problem. Does that make sense? It is a posture of the heart to humble ourselves and listen.
But because most people in Austin, in my experience, have some biblical exposure, so they “think” they know the bible. Sometimes I will meet people and they will say things like, “Oh, I grew up going to church as a kid.” AKA – I know!
They will say, “Oh, I have an uncle who is a deacon.” I am not sure why that matters, but that means – I know! The worse is when an adult says, “I was a leader in my youth group.” I know! Do you understand how quickly someone becomes a leader in their youth group? If you are a teenager that can hold a conversation, you just became a leader in youth group!
But they have heard some things about Jesus, maybe they know a reference about Moses, maybe a story here or there and they genuinely think, “Yeah, I know the bible!” What? That’s like me listening to some songs, going to a concert and telling you, “Yeah, I am basically a musician.”
Reminding people to listen was important in Acts 2 and reminding people to listen in 2025 is just as important. Praying for people to listen, praying for the Holy Spirit to soften hearts, humble hearts, stir up an openness to of Lord, an awe of the Lord and embolden our words to speak His Word, so that people will listen.
Haven’t we all had those moments in our life or a friend where we “hear the goodness of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection?” There is such enthusiasm.
It’s likely they have (quote) “heard” about Jesus before through different avenues but then there is that moment when eyes are opened to our sin, we see our need for Jesus, so that it is like we are “listening” for the first time. Maybe we even say, “How come nobody’s ever told me?” Amen?
God’s Word teaches us that faith in Jesus comes by hearing. (Romans 10:7) We need to hear of our sin, we need to hear of our need for a Savior, we need to hear of the rescue that comes in Jesus, therefore, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news, so we might we who are in Christ call out to the nooks and crannies of our city, “Men and women of Austin, listen to me.” Amen? Look at verses 23-24:
Acts 2:23-24, “23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24 But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”
Look at that phrase “predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” Listen to me, Jesus taking our death at the cross was always the plan. It’s not like Jesus got Himself in a jam and died on a cross.
It’s not like people throughout history we’re really creative and made up a story about Jesus dying on a cross. All throughout Scripture we see the plan is that One would come to take the sting of death in our place and His name is Jesus.
In the first phrase we see God’s overall power to accomplish His purposes and then look at the next phrase, look at the weight of the next phrase as Peter says, “you nailed Him to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.” Sit in that for a second.
God’s Word is showing us that He is completely in control of all things and at the same time our sin is why Jesus is nailed to the cross and put to death. Does that make sense?
In verse 23 the Apostle Peter is making Jesus’ life, death and resurrection personal. Listen to me, I think this is the hardest idea in our context today in 2025. Jesus’ death on the cross isn’t some obscure event to debate in human history. Jesus’ death is because of our sin.
All of humanity is created in the image of God, Genesis 1-2 but we all have gone astray, Genesis 3. We all have gone our own way. It’s called sin.
In Genesis 2, you can read this on your own, the God of Scripture says to Adam and Eve, “If you eat of this tree you shall surely die.”
The word “die” in the original language is an emphatic “die, die.” It is a physical death, which we experience and a spiritual death, which we see in the world, so that when Peter says, “You nailed Him to a cross” it is Jesus taking the physical and spiritual death that we deserve because of our sin. It’s personal.
You know the story of the prince who walks into the room where his newborn child should be sleeping and instead of seeing his baby, the prince sees the baby is gone and there is blood all over the sheets.
Immediately the prince turns to his dog standing on the other side of the room with blood all over his snout and fur, so that in anger the prince pulls out his sword to immediately kill the dog.
And, then suddenly the prince hears his baby crying in the next room, so that when the prince opens the door he sees his unharmed baby and a dead wolf lying next to him. The prince had missed it!
Now, I think it’s possible that some of us feel a greater connection to a made-up dog in a story than we do Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
And, that isn’t to make us feel bad. It’s just the reality that sometimes we struggle to see the offense of our sin. We struggle to see the holiness of God. We struggle to see the pain our sin inflicts upon others, upon ourselves and upon God. We struggle to see Jesus is the One who has come to bring rescue.
At the end of verse 24 Peter is playing with language in the phrase “Jesus has come to put an end to the agony of death.”
It’s literary language of being entangled in the chains of death, entangled in the exhaustion of life, the instability of life, the offense of our sin, but Jesus comes to set us free, Jesus comes to break those chains, but if our sin never becomes personal we won’t understand the glory of the gospel. Look at verse 25:
Acts 2:25, “25 For David says of Him, ‘I saw the Lord always in my presence; For He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken.”
In verse 25 we see the Apostle Peter references Psalm 16 about King David in the Old Testament. Now, you might not know a lot about King David off the top of your head, but King David was and still is considered one of the great leaders in human history.
In fact, King David is such a great leader, when we read those words in verse 25 we should be thinking to ourselves, “Why is King David, this great leader, calling someone else Lord?” Do you see that in verse 25?
I want to go slow here because this is the Apostle Peter quoting King David in the Old Testament, and Peter is going to connect the dots that King David is talking about Jesus, the eternal Jesus, saying that David’s hope, David’s confidence, authority wasn’t in himself, his strength, wisdom, or his power but David’s strength and authority was in Jesus. Let me just let that sink in a little bit.
Psalm 16 is dated around 1,000BC, so the Apostle Peter is making the point, 1,000 years before the birth of Jesus, King David, this great leader, was putting His trust in Jesus, so Peter is saying to his primarily Jewish audience, “If King David was trusting in Jesus, why would we not trust in Jesus?”
Now, that doesn’t carry weight for us today, because most of us don’t grow up with an awareness of King David and most of us don’t grow up with an affection for the Old Testament, but in a similar way we want to suggest this question to our friends and family, “Why would you not trust in Jesus?”
That’s been one of the best parts of the last few years. We can’t trust in our medical professionals. We can’t trust in media. We can’t trust in our politicians. We can’t trust in our economy. We can’t trust in weather predictions.
And yet, still most people today have the audacity to say, “I trust in myself.” While I am thinking to myself, “That’s really bold.”
Most people struggle to balance a checking account, struggle to eat healthy, up and down in romantic relationships, waffle on accomplishing specific goals in life, but think to themselves, “I probably am an expert on eternal truth.” That’s bold right?
Because they read a book, because they listened to a podcast, because they took a class they have determined to put all their trust in themselves, therefore, in the most loving way we want to ask our friends and family, “Why would you not trust in Jesus?” Because look at verses 26-28:
Acts 2:26-28, “26 ‘Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted; moreover my flesh also will live in hope; 27 Because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. 28 ‘You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.’”
Now keep in mind, the Jewish people of the day, and even today would protest that David is speaking about Jesus in Psalm 16, but instead Jewish people will say, “David is just speaking to Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God in general, so these verses don’t point to Jesus, but look closely at these words.
In verse 27 David says, “You will not allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.” Who is David talking about in that phrase? This is the Apostle Peter speaking to a Jewish audience to show them the authority and validity of Jesus who just resurrected from the dead, which they would have heard about and Peter is asking, “Who is David talking about in that phrase?” Look at verse 29:
Acts 2:29, “29 “Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.”
In verse 29 the Apostle Peter is saying, “Uh, well, we know where David is buried?” You can visit his tomb then, we can visit the tomb of David today! His bones are still there. They are probably a little ashy at this point, but David wasn’t talking about his body being holy and never going through decay, therefore, these verses couldn’t just be a prayer between David and Yahweh. Look at verses 30-31:
Acts 2:30-31, “30 And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay.”
I mean, can we just pause for a second and glory in the Holy Spirit working in Peter to go to the Old Testament as validity and authority of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Isn’t that amazing?
Peter doesn’t know about 1 Corinthians 15, the most powerful chapter on the resurrection of Jesus, because 1 Corinthians hasn’t been written at this point. Peter isn’t a literary scholar on the Old Testament. Peter works as a fisherman by trade but indwelled with the Spirit and hiding God’s Word in his heart, we Peter call people to listen, make the gospel personal, ask them questions, and doing it all through the Old Testament! That’s amazing!
Listen to me church family, our understanding of the people who live in this part of the city is that they see the organizational church as skeptical. They see pastors as unreliable. They see God’s Word as impersonal but they will deeply value a conversation with a friend about anything.
Eventually they will talk to a pastor, eventually they will trust a church family, but in the beginning the Holy Spirit is empowering His people to take His name into the nooks and crannies all over Austin.
Our dream as a church family, it almost seems impossible, but our dream has always been to have someone from our church family on every block in 78757, so that we become little lighthouses of hope on every block.
I hesitate to share that dream because it feels so far off, but I share that because that isn’t some dream we came up with as a church. That’s the dream in Acts 2!
We don’t have time to get into it this morning but Peter is going to show them that the church isn’t built on the authority of humanity, but Jesus’ authority.
Matthew 28 Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, so go and make disciples.” That’s the church!
Jesus tells us the “gates of hell won’t prevail.” Jesus has been exalted at the right hand of the Father. His Spirit has been poured out. He is going to make His enemies a footstool for His feet, so go!
Invite people to listen, pray for people to listen. We can’t make them but as followers of Jesus, we don’t want to ever stop calling people, “listen to these words.”
Find ways to make the gospel personal. Spend time with people. Pray for wisdom. Expose the idols of our day, topple them over and then humbly ask people, “Why not Jesus?” Honestly, is there anything better than Jesus?
North Village Church
This sermon is brought to you by North Village Church, a non-denominational church in Austin. established in 2009 and built around Jesus and Bible teaching.
Are you looking for a church in Austin? At North Village Church we put Jesus at the center of our church family. We worship together every Sunday at 10:30am, encourage Christ centered fellowship through groups, and host special events such as Bible studies and Theological Training, to ensure that we are rooted in in God’s Word. We also serve our local community in association with several Austin based organizations.
North Village Church is made up of professionals, married couples, singles, and families who are wanting to experience the life-transforming power of Jesus. If you are a family with children or teens, we can support you with either or both our Kids Ministry and Youth Ministry.
You are welcome to contact us if you would like more information.
NVC Online
Unable to attend this Christian Church in Austin? Don’t worry, because, through God’s provision, we have created NVC online, an Online Church streaming a worship service every Sunday from 10:30am Central Time. You can also watch our short, powerful sermons on demand and follow us on Instagram for daily Christ centered content.