Then he showed me another vision. I saw the Lord standing beside a wall that
had been built using a plumb line. He
was using a plumb line to see if it was still straight. And the Lord said to me,
“Amos, what do you see?” I answered, “A
plumb line.” And the Lord replied, “I
will test my people with this plumb line.
I will no longer ignore all their sins.
Amos 7:7-8(NLT)
But everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord will be saved. Acts 2:21(NLT)
I must face the obvious facts: This preacher and any type of tool don’t mix
well; especially power tools! But one
thing I have discovered is that plumb lines are amazing. Until several years ago when Dad was cleaning
out his toolbox, I had never even held one.
I also never knew that things you built could actually stand straight. Before I had a plumb line, everything I’d
ever put together looked pretty much like the Leaning Tower of Pisa[1].
The Lord showed Amos a line, a plumb line
He had drawn to show Israel
where they had gone wrong. This nation
of God’s people had grown cold and indifferent about serving God. They were also guilty of oppression of the
poor. They were as cold and indifferent
to people as they were to God. And the
Lord wasn’t pleased.
All of Amos’ prophecy is a warning of God’s
judgment warming up; if you want to sleep after turning out the light, don’t
read it at bedtime!
One thing about plumb lines – they are always
right. Gravity will always draw the
weight directly to the center of the earth’s axis. You will always have a straight-up-and-down
90o angle.
God’s plumb line for us is the same. That plumb line is God’s Word, revealed truth
with no error whatsoever.
This morning I would like to share with
you that part of the plumb line we call the Gospel. In particular it is the preaching of the
Gospel which we find (for the first time) in Acts.
Now, aspects of the Gospel can be seen
from the first chapter of Genesis, all the way through Revelation. But, the New Testament preaching of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ began on the day of Pentecost.
For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving
everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. Romans 1:16(NLT)
According to the apostle Paul, the
centrality of the preaching of that Gospel is the cross, and the preaching of
the cross has always brought about two responses of opposite nature; we either
respond with unbelief or faith.
Depending on a person’s response, it leads to equally opposite results:
The message of the cross is foolish to
those who are headed for destruction! But
we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18(NLT)
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a plumb line;
the cross of that Gospel is a plumb line.
This plumb line requires that you line up on one side or the other of a
perfectly divided, straight-up-and-down choice.
There are only two options, no fence upon which to sit:
·
Option #1 is foolishness, which is responding with rejection to the Gospel. Every week, perhaps in every church in the
world there are people who reject the Gospel as a foolish story…religion that
has no relevance. People who do so
eventually perish!
·
Option #2 is responding to the Gospel in faith, which becomes the power of God to
be saved from the kind of judgment Amos preached. And to receive the gift of eternal life and
the indwelling of God’s precious Holy Spirit!
What exactly is the Gospel? There is a lot of confusion these days about
what Christians believe.
So many preachers; so many ideas – so how
do you tell which is genuine and which is false?
I read an article in a Lexington newspaper a friend sent me some
time ago about a local man who published books about Christianity and
reincarnation.[2] He believes Jesus taught it – that we die,
then are reincarnated over and over. The
man, a retired engineer, has a website promoting his views, and even rented a
hall in Lexington several years ago to lecture on reincarnation as part of
Christian belief, because, in his own words:
It's the
kind of atmosphere that we have right now. There are great differences politically...the
whole religious question is the most confusing it has ever been...It's the
general picture that young people, more than ever, cannot make sense of
religion.[3]
Now, friends, if this man thinks putting …reincarnation
and Christianity back under the same roof[4] [as
he put it] will clarify Christian doctrine and make the Gospel of Christ more
available, well, we have a lot of work to do!
The Bible clearly says that it is
appointed once for a man to die[5] –
not die and live over and over again.
Buddhism and other forms of eastern mysticism believe in that, but Jesus
promised us ONE resurrection, and then to never die again.
There is a lot of hype, style and fizz out
there today about mysticism, spirituality and faith. We need to make certain we are careful to not
mistake style for substance! The real
Gospel comes from the real truth, God’s Word.
Jonathan Edwards was a little man who wore
glasses an inch thick, barely peering over the pulpit as he read his sermons in
a monotone. He had little in the way of
style…but you could always count on the substance of the Gospel plumb line when
he preached two centuries ago.
Most churches these days would never want Jonathan
Edwards as a preaching pastor because he would not hold the attention of young
people; he wouldn’t be interesting to anyone in our impatient,
entertainment-driven culture. In the
future our 21st century will be known as the
Attention-Deficit-Disorder era.
But Jonathan Edwards’ sermon entitled Sinners
in the Hands of an Angry God touched off the Great Awakening in America, where
hundreds of thousands came to the altars to be saved by the real Gospel of Jesus
Christ.
Presenting the real Gospel, Jonathan
Edwards was interrupted often during his sermon by intense sobbing and loud
weeping of those convicted of their sin by the Holy Spirit of God; they were
convicted of their need to get right with a holy God!
Today even most Christians sit in today’s
churches, stone-faced, unwilling to even admit their hearts are at odds with
God; much less make a trip to the altar.
We are as cold today as in the days of Amos’ plumb line.
We desperately need a dose of the
old time Gospel!
There are five basic elements present in
the preaching of the genuine Gospel of Jesus Christ. In Acts (chapters 2,3,4 and 10 especially)
you can see all five. For today we will
concentrate on that first sermon preached by Peter to the crowd gathered on the
day of Pentecost. In that sermon we will
see all five elements of real Gospel preaching.
If you will please open your Bibles to the
second chapter of Acts, we will see these five elements, starting at verse
14. Our purpose is to see the genuine
Gospel, so that when we hear the spurious and false claims of this age we will
be equipped to be defenders of the faith.
Element #1 is…
1.
The Promised Time of God Had Come
Then Peter stepped
forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen
carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you
are assuming. Nine o’clock in the
morning is much too early for that. No,
what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old
men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out my
Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike—and they will prophesy. And I will cause wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below—blood and fire and clouds of smoke. The sun will become dark, and the moon will
turn blood red before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives. But everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord will be saved.’
Acts 2:14-21
This beginning to Peter’s sermon is
largely a direct quotation from the prophet Joel. Peter said in unmistakable words (to that
crowd) that God’s promise of sending a Savior was no longer in the future
tense. He began with the promise of God. That’s a good way to begin a sermon!
The first promise that God would send a
Savior appears in Genesis after we find Adam and Eve had sinned. God handed out the punishment of death for
sin, but also promised that the offspring of Eve’s “seed” would bring a
Messiah, a Savior:
And I will cause hostility between you and
the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike
his heel.”
Genesis 3:15(NLT
Well, God always keeps his promises, so
Peter could announce this as the truth…the promised time had come.
Element #2…
2.
Summary of Jesus’ Life, Death and Resurrection
“People
of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed
Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him,
as you well know. But God knew what
would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed
him to a cross and killed him. But God
released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death
could not keep him in its grip. Acts
2:22-24(NLT)
The first element says that it was God’s
timing; this one says it was God’s plan for Jesus to come, be crucified and
resurrected. If you pay close attention
to some of the wording in Peter’s sermon, you see the importance of God’s
plan…it is the substitutionary death of Jesus; the just for the unjust.
Three phrases:
1. The perfect (sinless) life of Jesus of Nazareth.
2. Betrayed and crucified unjustly…Each of us is guilty [because we are all sinners
before God]…and so each of us possesses wicked hands. And, therefore we are all guilty of the
crucifixion.
3. Jesus could not be held by the grave.
So far, we have God’s timing, God’s plan –
the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Element #3 is…
3.
Claim That
This Fulfilled Prophecy
King David said this about him: ‘I see that the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside
me.
No wonder my heart is glad, and my tongue shouts his praises! My body rests in hope. For you will not leave my soul among the dead
or allow your Holy One to rot in the grave. You have shown me the way of life, and you
will fill me with the joy of your presence.’
“Dear brothers, think about this! You can be sure that the patriarch David
wasn’t referring to himself, for he died and was buried, and his tomb is still
here among us. But he was a prophet, and
he knew God had promised with an oath that one of David’s own descendants would
sit on his throne. David was looking
into the future and speaking of the Messiah’s resurrection. He was saying that God would not leave him among
the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave.
“God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this. Now
he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand. And the Father, as he had promised, gave him
the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today. For David himself never ascended into heaven,
yet he said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit in the place of honor at my right
hand until I humble your
enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.”’ Acts 2:25-35 (NLT)
The David that Peter referred to
was King
David who lived many hundreds of years before Jesus. Peter quotes from Psalms 16 which was written
by David. In that Psalm the coming
ministry of Jesus is predicted.
Peter makes the point that David
prophesied the resurrection of Jesus the crucified. David had long been dead at that time. David was looking forward to the cross as the
fulfillment of God’s promise.
Gospel preaching shows us the plumb line
of God’s promised time, and God’s promised Messiah, Jesus, and God’s
fulfillment of his promises.
And there is a fourth element…
4.
Assertion
That Jesus Would Come Again
“So let everyone in Israel know for
certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and
Messiah!” Acts 2:36(NLT)
Christ in Aramaic means anointed one. It is the picture we will see in January,
when the next president of the United
States is recognized in Washington.
We, the people will choose him.
To be chosen in the sense of Christ
means the choice is God’s.
The Jews knew of the promise.
They knew Genesis; they had the prophets. To them, the chosen, the Christ would come to
set up His kingdom, and reign as Lord forever.
Now, unfortunately, the first coming was
misunderstood. Peter announced that
clearly when he said, whom you crucified! There will not be that possibility in the
next appearing! The next time Jesus
comes there will be no sweet little manger child with cattle lowing in the
background. There will be no chance to
miss the King’s next entrance…it will be with battle cry, with graves shaken
open and the whole earth will see it!
Look! He
comes with the clouds of heaven. And
everyone will see him—even those who pierced him. And all the nations of the world will mourn
for him. Yes! Amen! “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning
and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am
the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.” Revelation 1:7-8(NLT)
Gospel preaching shows us:
·
the plumb line of God’s promised time
·
God’s promised Messiah, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection
·
God’s fulfillment of his promises.
·
The promise that God’s plan has more to come…and it is coming!
And then, a fifth element…
5.
An Urgent
Invitation to Repent and Receive the Holy Spirit
Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and
they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of
your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins. Then you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This
promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been
called by the Lord our God.” Then Peter
continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save
yourselves from this crooked generation!”
Acts 2:37-40(NLT)
Up to this point the Gospel message has
been largely a story. Up to this point
rejecting or receiving seems to make little “personal” difference.
Up to this point!
Peter saw that the ones hearing all this
were stung in their hearts. The big
fisherman knew it was now time to draw the net.
He gave them an urgent invitation – Repent
(turn around from your past)! Be
baptized to show you’re serious about turning from your ways to
Jesus. God will show you how serious He
is by giving you the gift of Himself – His Spirit taking up residence inside
you, guiding you, loving you, blessing you, giving you a life with eternity,
and an eternity with a quality of life you never even imagined!
Now, the rest of the story is church
history.
The first altar call saw three thousand
souls converted to Christ. The Bible
tells us that those who had never committed their lives to Christ did so…and
the church was born.
This was the birthday of the church of the
Lord, Jesus Christ…fifty days after the crucifixion…on Pentecost Sunday!
Points to Ponder
Two questions to roll around in your mind today:
1.
HAS CHRIST SPOKEN TO OUR HEARTS ABOUT OUR PART IN THIS?
2. HAVE WE SURRENDERED THOSE HEARTS TO
HIM?
The answer can always be found in that
with which we began…the two responses:
faith or unbelief!
·
If you are one who has never committed your life to Christ, do you
believe?
·
Are you convinced in your heart that you are the sinner Christ came to
die for?
·
Are you willing to offer yourself to Him as one who is ready to turn his
back on the former life, and serve him with the rest of the days he grants you
to live?
This describes the process of being
obedient to the Lord Jesus with your life.
·
You repent first; it is an act of communication to God, and that you
want to be saved.
·
Then you bury the old person you used to be in baptism, and Christ
brings you out of the baptismal to live a brand-new life.
This is his plumb line – it is clearly the
straight-up-and-down way He wants us to come to Him.
Let the church say “Amen”!
Our Prayer
Father, we thank you that this Gospel plumb line is
understandable, even to a child. We are
all sinners, separated from you by our natural desire to have self be in
control. We have heard this story and
the mere fact that you loved us enough to leave Heaven and become like us…die
for us in our place…does what it did to the first hearers of the Gospel…it
stings our hearts with overwhelming grief and guilt to know the King of Glory
would suffer and die because of our evil.
May we repent like they did.
May there be a new Pentecost this day…with spiritual
birthdays in this place.
We pray in Your Son’s Name;
help us to cooperate with Your Spirit…Amen!
Go to VIDEO
[2] Eric Frazier, The Dispatch, Man
says reincarnation is compatible with Christian faith, Aug 28, 2004
