01 Feb

2/3/19     Acts 2:36-41      “There Is Only One Truth!”

In a few weeks our taxes will be due again.  Now I don’t know about you but I don’t like to do or pay the taxes.  I even have someone do them for me and I still don’t like getting all of the data together for him.  This is an annual ritual that most of us go through.  And it shouldn’t be like this because many people will be getting refunds so they should be happy to do this.  Unfortunately, in order to get a refund we will still have to pay a lot of money to the government which seems very content in not doing their job.  Today we are going to go on a little journey in the book of Acts.  This is a book of spiritual growth and church growth.  I happen to know from experience that many people do not like to talk or do something about either these topics.  But I think we need to be reminded once in a while, why we are here.  For those of you who equate church growth with giving more money, you are wrong.  Church growth is a matter of the heart.  People are the church and not a building.  Today we are going to look the end of Peter’s first sermon and try to see that this whole process is rather painless if we go about it in a way that is pleasing to God.

I would like to begin by telling a little tale from Charles Kettering who was an inventor who worked for GM and invented the electric starter.  He once said, “I don’t want a fellow who has a job working for me.  What I want is a fellow whom the job has.  I want the job to get the fellow and not the other way around.”  He goes on to say that after the job has a hold of the person, then the person will amount to something.  This is a totally foreign concept in our modern world but it sure does make sense.

Andrew Carnegie, who was a multimillionaire once said, “The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work.  The world thinks that it is really something when someone works at 50% of their capacity and they stand on their heads for those few and far between who devote 100% of their abilities to their work.”

I would probably say that this is true.  Most people don’t even come close to giving 100% to their work.  And most people don’t do this either for their Christian way of life.  Just think of the Christian revolution we would have if we started to put our energies into it.  I read one time that if all the Christians tithed their income, we would no longer need any welfare systems or any type of aid for the poor.  Plus we would have money left over to run the churches.  God blesses those who obey.  This is my stewardship sermon.  As far as I can tell, if you don’t tithe your income, then you are not being obedient to God.  I will leave the rest of this to a conversation between you and God.

Before we begin on the main parts of the lesson today, I would like to point out verse 36.  Peter doesn’t pull any punches here.  He tells the crowd that it was they, the Jews, who crucified the Lord and Christ.  On first looking at this you would have to think that this made the Jewish leaders angry or at least a little squeamish.  This is one of the hard things about presenting the Bible to someone.  We have to be telling the truth when we do.  I have studied the sermons in Acts and they are still, today, some of the best sermons ever given.

For the most part the crowd goes along with what Peter is saying.  They did kill Jesus.  They are now realizing that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah.  But not everyone went along with this and this would cause trouble later.  But the important part here is that Peter presented the truth.

I think that I have talked a little on this before.  Just about any time that Jesus was ministering to people, He presented them with a delicate balance of truth and grace.  What I mean here is that He would tell them the truth as to what they were doing wrong and then extend to them His grace.  For instance, we have read about the woman who had many husbands and the man she lived with now was not her husband.  But Jesus still offered her grace.  There is not a person who is too far gone in this world that they don’t deserve at least the offer of grace from Jesus.  He is more than willing to offer you grace but you have to know the truth about your actions first.

This is an important point to remember when we are ministering in this world today.  We cannot get carried away with too much truth or too much grace.  When we are ministering to a thief or slanderer, they need to know that what they are doing is wrong.  They also need to know that Jesus will extend His grace to them.  It is the same way with any sinner.  We are to do it just like Peter did it in today’s reading.  This is what makes his sermon so powerful.  We are to tell the one who covets that he is wrong, but we are also to extend the grace of Jesus to him.  This is a very hard concept for us because we have a tendency to be judgmental or at least I can be a little judgmental.  Please try to remember this in your ministry.

Now we know that we have done things wrong.  So now we come to the spiritual growth part of this Scripture.  The people ask what can they do because they know that they have done wrong.  They don’t deny it but accept their role in all of this.  You have to remember also to quit denying that you are a sinner.  Then Peter replies, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.’

The huge word here is repent.  If you are to truly repent, then you are to turn away from sin and turn towards God.  D.L. Moody said it like this, “A person is born with their face turned away from God.  When he or she truly repents, they are turned right toward God; they leave the old life.”

And this should not be confused with feelings of guilt or remorse.  Billy Graham once said, “If your sorrow is because of certain consequences that have come on your family as a result of your sin, this is remorse, not true repentance.  If, on the other hand, you are grieved because you also sinned against God and His holy laws, then you are on the right road.”

This is an important concept because so many people think that just because they are good people, they will go to heaven.  According to Greg Tabor, most people will tell you that they have never stolen anything, never killed anybody and they go to church.  These are all fine traits.  But have they really never stolen anything?  Have they never cheated a little on their taxes, or walked off with a pen, or taken an idea that wasn’t theirs?  Do any of these people ever tell a lie?  Is anyone here guilty of telling a white lie?  Or has anyone here ever looked at someone of the opposite sex and had thoughts about him or her?  After all, Jesus tells us that anyone who looks lustily at a woman has already committed adultery.  Now, we have just covered three of the 10 Commandments and I would guess that most of us are liars, thieves and adulterers.  The Ten Commandments not only show us the best way to live, but they also show us that we cannot follow them.  It is impossible to keep the Ten Commandments.   We need Jesus Christ to intervene for us.

We need Jesus to intervene as we confess to Him and repent.  A few years ago, 9/11 happened.  Most of us remember this tragic time.  Many people thought that we would see church growth as a result of these events because church attendance skyrocketed.  But it wasn’t long before it fell off again.  This is because people were remorseful and not repentant.  They came to church to show remorse.  They didn’t come to repent.  For the most part the people of our society are far too proud to repent.

There are many people in our world that we meet every day, that don’t know Jesus.  There may even be someone here today that doesn’t know Jesus.  Please present your life to Him and then ask that He live in you and that He help you to turn your life completely around.  Repent and live with the Lord.  It is the finest life I have ever seen and I’ve seen life from both sides.

Before I move to the second point that I would like to make from this Scripture, I would like to point out that Peter made Christians first and then he made a church.  It is pretty hard to have a church without believers.  We are the basic building blocks of the church.  As I said people are the church.  You are the church, not a building.  If believers aren’t present in the church, then we only have a social club.  We would be no different than any other worldly group.  Don’t get me wrong, everyone doesn’t have to be a Christian.  We need to be inviting new non-believers into our midst all the time.  This is what we are all about.  But we also have to have some believers as our cornerstones.  They need to be the ‘Rock’ like Peter.

Now, the second point I would like to make today is that we need to grow.  Notice that Peter added about 3000 new believers that day or I should say that the Holy Spirit did.  Anyway, this was the day of Pentecost.  This was a Jewish agricultural festival that was celebrated every year since the first day of Pentecost when Moses came off the mountain with the Ten Commandments.  Do you remember that story?  The people had built a golden calf while Moses was gone.  To make a long story short 3000 people died on that first Pentecost and now we have 3000 people coming alive.  I think that is just a very interesting little sidebar.

This little scene is church building at its best.  It will not be long before Peter and the group will add another 5000 people.  Now I don’t know if you are up to adding 5000 people or even 3000 people.  But if that is what the Holy Spirit wants, then that is exactly what you will do.

Peter built this early church by telling the truth.  He told the story of Jesus and what they had done and seen.  He told them the truth about what they had done.  They/we are all sinners and we cannot make it on our own.  He told them that they have to repent and follow Jesus and that is what they did.  This is how you build churches.  You are to go to the people with the truth.

Several years ago I was at a meeting of pastors and we got to talking about whether or not God belonged in the schools.  You know what my response was as I said the God belongs everywhere including the schools, plus our government and every place in the world.  One of my colleagues responded by asking, “Whose God are we talking about?”  I was astonished.  As far as I know there is only one God and one truth.  We are living in a society where even the pastors aren’t able to detect the truth anymore.  Many parts of this country are on a slippery slope leading to very bad things.  My friends and neighbors in Christ, don’t be afraid of the truth and you surely don’t need to be afraid to mention the Lord’s name.

So let’s not get distracted by the world.  Our goal should be to tell the truth to anyone who comes seeking it.  People are starving for the truth!  Your goal should be to love anyone and everyone that you meet, whether it is in the church or in your everyday life.  With just those two goals in mind, you should be busy all the time.

Many times we will be distracted by being a church.  We begin to think that the only important issue is to raise our membership to 100 people.  Or we may begin to feel a little pinched by the budget and feel that this is the most important issue we face.  Or we may feel that the children’s program is the most important part of our church.  Now all of these things are important and there are many other things that I didn’t mention that are important.  But the most important thing that you can do is to be telling the truth and ministering to any and all around you.  If you are doing these basic things right, then other things will begin to go right.

Steve Shepherd tells the story of a young boy in Chicago who attended a Sunday school.  One day the boy’s parents moved to another part of town because the father got a new job.  But the little lad kept on walking across the city to the old Sunday School.  One day someone asked him why he walked so far to Sunday school when there were many good ones close by.  The boy answered, “They may be good for others but they are not for me.”  The fellow asked, “Why not?”  To which the little boy replied, “Because they love a kid in my Sunday school.”

Wouldn’t it be nice or should I say isn’t it nice to be known as the church that loves the children and the adults?  I would guess that you do a pretty good job of this already.  I think that we all realize that the church is not a building.  The church is the love that comes from each of you as you go about your business of the week.  Peter reminds you today to stay on the right track.  Any time you are doing the right things for Jesus Christ, then you are doing the right things for the community and the world.  It just doesn’t get any better than a life in Jesus Christ.  Do I hear an ‘Amen?’  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.