And the children are welcome to take off to kids church now. And if you do have your Bibles, we will be in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 2. I was reading in a actually a secular publication psychology today recently and it was telling us I was saying to the reader that we all have a guilt problem. I thought this was interesting, you know, in this secular publication talking about guilt. Yeah, and in fact, it said not only that, but most people have excess guilt according to this this article.

Most people struggle with with too much of a guilt problem. And it even said that people live with guilt every day. And the article estimated that the typical person experiences five hours of guilt every week. Interesting. I I really thought that was interesting because when you think about over the past century and a half or so the the influence has largely been from Sigman Freud has been on this idea of guilt in in secular realms at least it’s that guilt is a problem.

Guilt is a problem and we need to in a sense treat it. We need to we need to treat it and and we need to you know find out maybe dig into your past and and find out why everything’s your parents’ fault for example. You know there’s are all all kinds of treatments for guilt but this this article was saying basically actually it has some good purposes so it’s not just a negative feeling we need to get rid of and in our passage in Acts two we’re going to look at this time when it describes Peter preaching to the crowds and it says that everyone there was cut to the heart and you you think about that’s a really good description of feeling guilty built being cut to the heart, pierced to the heart. And we’ll see that this is what happens when the Holy Spirit comes on this crowd, descends on them in a special and powerful way. And I think that that is the the purpose of guilt largely is to make us aware of our need for a savior.

That’s why the Holy Spirit does that. That’s why he convicts the world of sin. It’s because not just to leave us in our guilt and and make us feel horrible or, you know, experience five hours of guilt every week. It’s so that we would know we need a savior. We need to cry out to one who can rescue us.

So, if you’re able to please stand for the reading of God’s holy word. This will be Acts chapter 2 beginning in verse I I’ll read from verse 32 here. And here’s what we’ll see. True revival happens when the Holy Spirit is poured out and Jesus is proclaimed as Lord. So with me in your in the Bible, it says in Acts 2:32, “This Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.

He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “The Lord said to my Lord,” sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your foottool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Verse 37. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

And Peter said to them,”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. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. Thank you.

You may be seated. Throughout church history, we can see that there have been times where there was this, we could call it an extraordinary spiritual awakening to God. And we call this a revival. In American history, there is the great awakening in the 18th century. In the 19th century, there was a second great awakening.

And then if you fast forward all the way to the 20th century, in the 60s and 70s, there was something called the Jesus movement where a great number of people became aware of their brokenness and cried out for a savior. That’s what happens when the spirit goes to work on people’s hearts. People recognize, I have been living for myself. I I have been living for meaningless pursuits, and I need God. I need God.

I need to repent. I need to turn from what I am doing and live for him now. And they’ve they’ve recognized during these times, the only explanation is that God’s power is at work in our midst. We we didn’t conjure this up. We didn’t plan this.

We didn’t strategize and make this happen. This is God’s doing. We give all glory to him for this happening. And my contention is that all true revivals are patterned after this first revival here on the day of Pentecost in Acts two when the Holy Spirit descends and people are made aware of how badly they’ve gone wrong. All the crowds start forming around this house and and it says that, you know, the Holy Spirit had descended on these first Christians.

And then Peter, the bold Peter, he stands up and he begins to preach to this crowd that’s confused. What What’s going on here? You’re speaking in different languages. This doesn’t make sense. And he says, “Look, understand these people are not drunk.

They’re they’re not It’s only 9 in the morning. They haven’t been drinking too much. This is the power of God. This is what it looks like when God shows up and he does things like this.” And so the Holy Spirit is working not just through Peter’s words, but he’s working in the hearts of the listeners.

You see that they had to respond. Peter had to be bold and stand up and preach, but they had to hear and recognize he’s talking about us. We are the ones who need Jesus. And the meat of Peter’s sermon is all about the resurrection. He’s proclaiming Jesus as the crucified, resurrected, and ascended Lord.

He’s saying because Jesus rose from the dead, he’s Lord. He owns everything. Everything belongs to him. All authority is his. There is no contest.

He is Lord because he rose from the dead. And you, Peter says, you need to be reconciled to him. See, Jesus is Lord is not good news if you reject Jesus. It’s bad news for those who are rejecting Jesus. It’s good news for those who are reconciled to him.

And this proclamation of Jesus as the risen Lord is at the heart of every revival in history. Every time you see this these mighty workings of God and the spirit poured out in a special way, it’s because Jesus is being lifted up. It’s not because of, you know, great technology or because people in their wisdom figured something out and and, you know, figured out some kind of marketing strategy and, oh, we understand how to get at the human heart now. No, it’s not like that at all. It is all the Holy Spirit.

He’s the only one who gets the credit for this. And so, we’re going to look at seven marks of a true revival this morning. Seven marks of a true revival. And by the way, this is relevant not just for widespread revivals across whole communities and nations. It’s also relevant for your own personal revival, for your own reawakening or awakening to God.

So the first mark of a true revival is this. God sovereignly pours out the Holy Spirit. He sovereignly pours out the Holy Spirit. That’s the first thing to note is that this is all a work of God. It’s not something that Peter takes credit for.

Now, we should pray for revival. And I believe that’s one of the applications of this text. They were praying before this day. And there’s many times in in scripture where we’re called to pray for revival. Psalm 85 says, “Revive us, O Lord, that we might rejoice in you.”

And I believe that, you know, now maybe more than ever, but but we’ve always needed this. Our nation needs a revival. It needs to be woken up and the smelling salts of the Holy Spirit need to wake our nation up to its need for God. We need to see this and and we should pray for this. How awesome would it be in your own lifetime?

Just think about this. How awesome would it be to see a city like Tiger suddenly come alive to God where people are are just begging to to join with others to worship Jesus. They cry out to him for salvation. There’s prayer going on in the street. There’s prayer going on at the workplace.

Everywhere you go, people are saying, “Jesus is Lord.” How awesome would that be? That’s what we’re to pray for. Because notice this happens by the power of the Holy Spirit. Peter says, “God,” he’s already quoted Joel, “God will pour out his spirit on all flesh.”

There’s no discrimination here. On all flesh, everybody. And Peter says, “That’s what’s happening. That’s what’s that’s what we’re witnessing. It’s miraculous.”

And notice also at the end of this section in verse 41, we read, “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number that day.” And I think that just highlights the the work of God that they are they’re the ones being added in to the church. 3,000. That’s an incredible outpouring of the spirit. So when we pray for a revival, we’re first and foremost praying that God would pour out his Holy Spirit, that he would go to work on people’s hearts, that his kingdom would advance.

And the only explanation people would be able to give is th this is the power of God on display. This is amazing that we can see this. Secondly, second mark of a true revival is the Bible is preached with power. We see that this is what Peter does. He stands up and he doesn’t go into this long, you know, saliloquy about his own ideas.

He he starts preaching the word. He goes to the book of Joel and Psalm 16, Psalm 110. And throughout all of this, he’s saying, “Look at how Jesus fulfilled every single one of these prophecies. Jesus fulfilled the promises.” In fact, David, who was king a thousand years before this, David wrote about his his descendant, his son, who would rise from the dead.

And that’s exactly what happened. Peter says, “All of this makes sense. If you just look at the word of God, this is what God said would happen.” In the Old Testament, there’s something similar that happens when the word of God gets rediscovered. King Josiah, you remember this story from 2 Kings 22.

There’s a time when Israel has fallen into deep deep sin. They’ve they’ve neglected the word of God. They’ve lost the word of God. And it says that Jerusalem has imagine the city that should be, you know, known as this is where God’s name dwells. Jerusalem becomes this haven for pagan idolatry.

There’s temples going up to all these false gods. There’s pillars going up. There’s temple prostitutes that are calling people in to their place of worship. It’s like Jerusalem has has become Las Vegas on steroids at this point. And then what happens is King Josiah’s servants find the book of the law.

It was hidden in the temple. It was tucked away. What are they read? What are they even doing in the temple? I don’t know.

But they they hadn’t been looking at the word of God. And finally, they bring it out and they say, “Look, we found it.” And Josiah’s response is he tears his robes. That’s that same sense of sin. And he says, “We’re going to be destroyed.

We’re going to die because we have not obeyed this law.” And and then he brings out the word of God and he starts reading it to all the people. And there’s this massive national repentance. People tear down their idols. They close down all the strip clubs.

They they tear down everything that’s false worship. All of it. And they come back and they they serve the Lord and rediscover the word of God. That’s what happens when the Bible gets preached because we need to hear from God. We need to know what he believes.

We need to know what he thinks of us. We need to know why he made us. We need to know why or what he expects of us, what’s gone wrong, and what he’s done about it. All of this comes from reading the word of God. And the Bible says that it’s not enough just to have a spiritual experience.

And this is really important because sometimes you’ll hear people talk about, “Oh, I had this amazing spiritual experience, but it seems to deny what was written in the word of God.” And when you see that, you should be on alert. You should recognize, now wait a second. We’re to test every spirit. That’s what the Bible says.

Because just like there’s the Holy Spirit, there are also unholy spirits out there. And they are more than happy to give you a spiritual experience. So it’s not simply about having a a supernatural encounter just for the sake of the encounter. We need to know the word of God. And that’s when we will know when it’s of the Holy Spirit.

Many people will pick up a Bible and a lot of times it’s their first time reading the word of God or they’re first getting into it and their assumption is, you know, I’m going to I’m going to look at this book and I’m going to analyze it. I’m going to see if this book measures up to what I approve of and we’ll see. We’ll see. Then I’ll accept it. And before long, it dawns on them, you know what?

I’m not analyzing the Bible. The Bible is analyzing me. It’s searching my heart. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is active and alive, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.

It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” That’s exactly what happens here when Peter opens up the word. That’s what he’s doing. He’s proclaiming God’s message to these people. He’s saying, “This is what God thinks of all this.”

And they’re cut to the heart and they recognize this is all of God. It searches their hearts. Third mark of a true revival is Jesus is exalted as Lord and Savior. This is clearly this is what the Bible is all about. It’s about the message of Jesus.

The Bible is not first and foremost a message about me or a message about you. It’s first and foremost about Jesus. It’s about what he has done and it all points to him. That’s why in Peter’s message in verse 22, he says, “Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God.” In other words, there was clear and solid proof that Jesus was God’s man.

Jesus was God’s Messiah. We know that because of the miracles that were worked through him. We know that because of the prophecy he fulfilled. We know that because his character is pure and spotless. And he says, “Yet you guys rejected him.”

In fact, he even says in verse, look at verse 23, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and fornowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. So Peter is not mincing words here at all. He’s not concerned about being politically correct. He says, “You guys killed him. You should have known he was the Messiah.

You should have known. The evidence was there. You rejected it and you killed him. But he says it was the definite plan. It’s interesting.

Definite plan and fornowledge of God. He’s trying to make it clear the cross was not this tragic accident of history. If if we think of like, oh, this is this was where all things went wrong. We’ve not understood Christianity. We haven’t understood the gospel.

If we think that God didn’t plan the cross, we’ve misunderstood it completely. So Jesus was put on the cross by God. But at the same time, it was the the sinful men who acted. It was these these people who worked together. They worked with the Romans.

They were responsible. They were fully responsible for putting Jesus on the cross. They’re held accountable for that. That’s why he says, “You crucified him. So somehow we have to see that in God’s sovereign direction of history, Jesus was put on the cross by God his father and he was put on the cross by sinful people.

Now that is somewhat mind-blowing, isn’t it? To think this one act was done by both a holy and perfect, spotless, loving, merciful God and by evil, wicked people who just wanted to kill him. And yet that’s what the Bible says. Jesus was there by God’s providential work. So was the cross God’s doing or man’s doing.

The answer is yes. It was both. Now they had different motives when they crucified Jesus. God was motivated by love. These sinful people were motivated by hatred.

Now if you’re thinking that’s hard to wrap your mind around how could that be that both are responsible, both both did this. Well, welcome to the mystery of God’s providence. You know, join the club. It’s it’s not something we can fully understand, but it’s taught, so we know it’s true. God chose to exalt his son as king, but not through ascending a throne, but ascending a cross.

And Jesus stands at the pinnacle of the gospel. We we can’t understand the gospel if we don’t understand that Jesus died as a substitute. He was bearing our sins in our place. That’s at the heart of the gospel. It wasn’t simply to be a good example, although it was that.

It wasn’t simply because he was showing great love in his act, although he did. It was because he died in our place. He bore God’s judgment, which we deserved. That is the good news. That’s why Paul would later tell the Corinthians, you know, when I came to you, I came proclaiming nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified.

He said, ‘I don’t want you to think that it was because of my eloquent words. Although Paul was brilliant, he he could have used eloquent speech. He says, I don’t want you to get caught up in any other details and miss this central thing that Jesus Christ and him crucified is the gospel and he is raised from the dead. So, in every true revival, the message of the cross and resurrection is front and center. People can’t miss it.

This is what they’re talking about. It’s all about Jesus. He’s the Lord. But Peter says, “You killed Jesus. You shouted, crucify him.

Crucify him.” Even though he was an innocent man, you said, “His blood be on us and on our children.” And yet God raised him from the dead. The one you rejected, God vindicated. And we’re witnesses.

We saw this. And Peter caps it off with verse 36. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. And so forth, every true revival has this. There is spirit wrought conviction of sin.

Just imagine for a moment being in that crowd. Maybe you were there when they were shouting, “Crucify him!” and now you’re standing there and and you hear Peter saying, “You crucified him.” Just imagine the weight of that moment. He’s placing the responsibility squarely on their shoulders.

And don’t miss that Peter is even implying that they’ve made themselves God’s enemies because he quotes from Psalm 110 which says, “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your foottool.” Well, who are these enemies? It’s clear that he’s talking about them. Peter’s saying the very Jesus that you rejected, God raised. The one you you thought was nothing special, you disregarded completely.

You didn’t think of him at all. He is the one who right now he is seated on the throne of heaven. He’s ruling over everything. So just imagine the weight of guilt having the blood of the Lord of the universe on your hands. And after hearing all this, Luke says, verse 37, “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?”

You sense that? It’s like despair in their voice, “What have we done? What hope do we have knowing what we’ve done?” They’re completely wrecked. And this is because the Holy Spirit has opened their eyes.

He’s opened their hearts. He’s shown them the truth about their sin. And that can be a very painful process when God shows us our sin. But it’s necessary. It’s so important.

Later, we can look back and say, “This is a gift that God showed that I was a rebellious, wicked sinner. He showed it to me because he loves me. He wanted me to see the truth. He wanted me to see that I needed a savior. By the way, we shouldn’t think that these particular Jews living in Israel this time were the only ones responsible.

Peter may have been addressing people 2,000 years ago, but his message still rings true for us. Now, if you’re not a Christian today, that means that right now, according to the Bible, you are rejecting Jesus as Lord. You’re rejecting him and you’re you’re you’re disregarding him just as the Bible talks about this crowd. And the question isn’t is Jesus Lord. Jesus is Lord.

The question is have you submitted to him? And my hope in prayer is that you do that you cry out to him just like these people did and say what can I do? Where is my hope? These people didn’t want Jesus as Lord. That’s why they said crucify him.

But see, the same Jesus who made claims on their lives back then makes claims on our life today. If you’re a Christian, you should look at the cross and recognize that it’s not just the Jews that were responsible. Because when they were taunting him, when the people were taunting Jesus to come down from the cross, that’s what they said, he stayed. He stayed, not because he couldn’t come down, but because he wouldn’t. Not until he had drunk the full cup of God’s wrath and bore the full punishment for our sins.

So see, it was my sin and your sin that held Jesus there. It’s not just the Jews from 2,000 years ago. It’s all of us. The whole world is accountable for this. But thank God he stayed.

So just like those crowds said, what can we do? Well, what can we do? What can we do about this guilt problem? Well, in every revival, there’s this recognition of sin. Not just that sin has consequences.

Everybody recognizes that the immoral man, if he keeps going down that road, there will be consequences. The greedy woman who keeps living in that sin of greed, she’s going to hurt people. There’s always consequences for sin. But what the Holy Spirit does is he shows us the truth about our sin. Not just that it hurts other people or hurts us, but that it is an offense against a holy God.

That’s what makes sin so serious. And so that’s my question for you. Have you been cut to the heart by your sin? Has the Holy Spirit opened your eyes and shown you this truth? Shown you that it’s rebellion against a holy God?

When he does that, it can be painful. He shows us our sin. It’s it’s hard to look at the truth, but it’s the only hope. If we want to know what it is to be cleared of all our guilt, if we want to know forgiveness, we have to come to terms with our sin. And so, this is a gift of God.

Even though a lot of people wouldn’t think of it that way, it’s a gift of God when he shows us our sin. Thank you, Jesus, for taking my guilt. That’s our response. Thank you. Because when you’re on the cross, everyone’s mocking him, everyone’s blaspheing him, everyone’s saying all these terrible things.

And yet his response wasn’t to retaliate. It was to say, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” That’s the measure of God’s love. Fifth mark of a revival, there’s hunger for God’s glory. And this falls right on the heels of conviction of sin because the moment you recognize I have sinned against a holy God and then you know the forgiveness of God and and you know that his blood wipes out all that sin.

All that guilt has been canceled. That great debt that was weighing on you was put on Jesus. And you recognize that and you you cry out to him. Then you want to know him more. And before long in every true revival, there’s this sense of of wanting more of God, to be filled with his presence.

Look at Acts 2:43. It says, “And awe came upon every soul.” I think that’s that sense of realization. There is a God and he is at work in our midst. He’s here.

His glory is on display. We get to witness what he is doing and we get to seek his face in prayer. It’s like when Moses, remember when he was up on the mountain, he said, “God, show me your glory. Show me your glory.” He had already seen some powerful display of God on the mountain.

He had seen the fire, the smoke, all of that. He says, “God, I want more. I’ve seen your power. I’ve seen that you’ve given your law. I want to see your glory.”

That’s what Paul was talking about when he said, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection.” Well, Paul, you already know Christ. You’re a Christian. He says, “I want to know more. I want to get deeper into the heart of Jesus.

I want to know everything about him.” That’s what happens at revival. People are called out of themselves. They’re no longer fixated on all of my problems here and there and this and that. Instead, they’re called up into this sense of I want to be focused on God.

And they’re just filled with wonder over who God is. That he’s captivated them. That’s what happens in a revival. Awe comes on every soul. Sixth mark of a true revival.

The repentant receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. When the people tell Peter, “What shall we do?” Peter thankfully doesn’t just leave them in their guilt, right? No. He says to them in verse 38, “Repent.”

That’s the answer. This is what you need to do. 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 spirit that’s in me will be in you.

For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off. Everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. See, this is the good news that we as Christians have to offer a guiltridden world. And and don’t believe don’t believe that people don’t have a guilt problem. They may never bring it up.

They probably won’t. Most people, but most people are racked by guilt. Most people struggle with this. That article was right when it talked about that. And so, we have the answer.

We can tell people You know, it’s not just a cure that you need to go over here for. It’s in Jesus. It’s in the cross. He has borne that guilt that you struggle with. He has taken it on his shoulders.

It’s like the hymn that says, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emanuel’s veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.” What a gift to have all that. All those things that seem to be attached to your name forever. Those horrible things that you wish did not did not happen.

All of that, Jesus takes it away and Jesus is the allsufficient savior. This is really important. You don’t need to help Jesus pay off your sin debt. Many people think Jesus needs some help with this, you know, and they start, you know, that it’s it’s called, you know, self-inflicted punishment. They really they they start accusing themselves and and trying to punish themselves.

And the reality is Jesus took it all. There is nothing left for you to pay. So run to him. That’s what Peter says. Repent.

What does that word mean? Repentance. Is is that just, you know, a a really old school word that we don’t use anymore? No. It’s a biblical word we need to use.

Repentance means to think again or to change one’s mind to recognize I’ve gone wrong. In repentance, you say, “I’ve been going this direction and I see it that it’s wrong that I’ve gone this way. I need to go this way. I need to follow God’s way.” I mentioned before that it’s it’s painful when the Holy Spirit shows us our sin, but the way forward is repentance.

You see, this is the beautiful gift that God gives us. He doesn’t leave us in our guilt. You know, the cruel false gods of of history, they would show you your guilt and they say, “Look at all these things you must do to pay off that sin debt.” But the God of the Bible says, “Look at what you’ve done, and now look at what I’ve done for you because I’ve taken that guilt away.” And the resurrection should change everything for us.

Because if Jesus was still in the tomb, then we would never really know. Did he finish the job? Did he pay for all my sin? But because the tomb is empty, we can know for sure he completely paid for all of it. There’s nothing left to pay because he’s been raised from the dead.

He’s taken all our sins away. When you receive Jesus, this is also important to remember. When you receive Jesus, you get all of Jesus. It’s not just that you receive Jesus as savior but not lord. And there’s a very popular version of Jesus out there today where you know Jesus dies for your sins.

He loves you. He’s he’s your buddy. But he’s never going to confront you. He’s there to comfort you and show you how right you are, but he’s not going to tell you you need to change anything. You know, really this Jesus essentially, he’s the the guy who who sits there and says, “You do you, man.”

Right? That’s that’s this popular version of Jesus. But needless to say, that’s not the real Jesus. That’s why Peter said, “God has made him both Lord and Christ. He’s the King.”

And everybody will answer to Jesus. Every knee will bow just as we sang about every knee. Think about that. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess.

Nobody’s going to be saying, “I don’t know that Jesus is Lord.” Every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord. And so that is why Peter calls us to this today. He calls us to this now. So that it’s not too late.

Because for many people it will be too late. They will stand before Jesus and they had never submitted to him as Lord. They had never repented. They had never trusted in his sacrifice. They had said to themselves, “I’ll be my own judge.

I’ll be my own Lord and Savior. Thank you very much.” We need to recapture this view of Jesus. Just like what we see in the book of Revelation, Jesus is judge of all the earth and we shouldn’t be ashamed of that. Jesus is Lord.

And it says and the seventh point, last point, the mark of true revival is that the repentant are baptized and join the church. Look at verse 40. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. Peter tells them that true repentance is it’s leaving your old way of life behind.

It’s going in the new way of Jesus. It’s following him. It’s no longer going with the crowd. He says, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” In other words, you can’t just go with the world anymore.

You can’t just adopt the values of the world. You are a part of a new family, a kingdom of priests. So leave your old way and submit to Jesus alone. And what’s that first step of surrender? He says it’s to get baptized.

Now notice, everyone who received the word was baptized. One reason I hold to believers baptism and not infant baptism is because throughout scripture, every time you see baptism talked about, it’s it’s someone doing it of their own valition. They are called to it. It’s something they choose for themselves. They they choose to get bit to get baptized.

And baptism is for believers everywhere. And here’s why. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward commitment. It’s not a commitment that somebody else makes for you. It’s something that you make for yourself.

You are committing your life to Jesus. And so, you get baptized as an act of the will. And faith is what saves us. This is so important because people still sometimes will say baptism has some measure of salvation, some some part of saving you, right? Well, the truth is faith alone saves us.

Faith is what unites us to Jesus. But baptism pictures salvation. It portrays it for us. When you go down into the waters, you’re saying, “I identify with Jesus. I identify with his death on my behalf.

I I recognize that he has washed me clean of all my sins. And when you come up out of the water, you’re saying, “I have been raised with Christ. I am seated in the heavenly places already with Christ and he’s my Lord.” So baptism is that public declaration. It’s saying, “Jesus is my Lord and I want everyone to know it.”

It it’s that public statement where you’re calling other people to the same message that you believed. You’re going under the waters because you’ve united to Jesus. So, I’ll just say if baptism is something you’re interested in, I’d love to talk with you about that at some point. You know, it’s it’s something where often people will think, well, you know, I I was sprinkled as a baby. I I’ve got that taken care of.

I’d encourage you to think about this because I I see it as this is something that believers do. They commit to it of their own valition. So, if you would like to think about that and like to talk to me about that, I’d love to hear from you. So, here’s my encouragement that we would be living out this message that Jesus is Lord and praying for revival and not thinking of it as something that is only for bygone ages. It’s only something that happened back then or it’s only a Bible times thing.

This is something that all believers are to pray for. We’re to call upon Jesus, call upon God to pour out his Holy Spirit so that there would be revival. Let’s pray together. Father God, as I’m looking in your word and seeing what an amazing thing happened in Acts chapter 2, that your Holy Spirit was poured out in such a marvelous, incredible way. 3,000 people added.

And Lord, to to be there in that moment, that makes me long for it today to think about what it was like. And so God, we ask that your Holy Spirit would be poured out on our congregation. We pray that it would be poured out in our city, in our state, in our nation, and beyond. Lord, we pray that you would do a mighty work in all of our hearts. Help us to proclaim Jesus as Lord and to live in full submission to him.

We pray this all in Jesus name. Amen. At this time, I’ll go ahead and ask the servers to come forward for passing out the elements for the Lord’s supper. And after we do that, this is this is what we do as believers as a way of identifying with the death of Jesus for us, his substitutionary death. And so, we’ll take it all together as a church.

And I encourage you during this time if if you want to just get alone with the Lord and and whatever is on your heart, whatever he’s proddding you to think about, bring that before him. When Jesus was hanging from the cross, he shouted out those words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And the reason he did that was because in that moment he lost his relationship with the father that he had enjoyed for all eternity. And he was doing that so that we could be brought in and have a relationship with the father. This is the gift of his sacrifice.

And so we’re we’re remembering it and we’re we’re looking into this word of God as a way of saying we identify with Jesus. And we’re taking the cup and the bread for the body and blood of the Lord. It says this in 1 Corinthians 11, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you. That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” And so once more, Lord Jesus, we want to confess our sin. We want to recognize our great need for you.

We want to humbly commit ourselves to you in light of all that we’ve just heard from Peter. We want to be made alive to you. We want to be awakened and follow heart after you. And so fill us with your spirit, we pray. Thank you for dying on the cross to pay for all of our sins, every single one of them.

For rising from the grave and thank you that you are now leading and reigning from heaven a

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