God-Honoring Sermon - January 23, 2011

A God-Honoring Response to a God-honoring Sermon
(Title of Bro Mike's sermon on January 23, 2011)

JUST NOTES:

Peter's sermon in Acts 2 could be called a perfect sermon. It was perfectly inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Now we look for God-honoring sermons.

God's work is spiritual -- it touches heart and soul.

Is there a physical response that can be made to a spiritual God?
70% of the people in the world today would likely say "N0," there is no way we can physically respond to a spiritual God.

But there are physical ways we can respond and show others that we know Him.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we are all baptized by One Spirit into one body...in fact, God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
I Corinthians 12

When God puts people together, He does it in a body. That body is the church.

Church membership is not a requirement for salvation.
If someone finds himself attending FBC and for whatever reason doesn't want to join, then he should just come. Make this a place where we can come together, members or not.

HOW DO WE RESPOND PHYSICALLY TO A SPIRITUAL REALITY?

Acts 2:37: When the people heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

Peter's answer: "Repent and be baptized, everyone 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."

Later, in Acts 3:19, he said: "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord..."

(Baptism was not a requirement, either.)

They were in downtown Jerusalem, Israel. The place the people identified with Judaism, sacrifices, law, legalism.

But Peter was not in the Temple.

This whole scene is not about guilt over the crucifixion.

Christ was the Lamb of God -- 1 time -- 1 sacrifice

HOW TO RESPOND

1. The outward cry to an inward conviction -- what shall we do? Did something happen in them or not?
2. The outward symbol of an inward reality -- "I invited Jesus into my heart"
3. The visible commitment to an invisible reality - "They devoted themselves to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer...they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts..."

Those who accepted his [Peter's] message were baptized and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acts 2:41)

There was a high price to pay for these people. They were walking away from the Temple and all the Judaic requirements and their family and friends and embracing the new Church.

John Stott: Commitment to the Messiah implied commitment to the Messianic community -- to His Body -- to the Church.

Bro Mike compared it to marriage -- walk up to the altar, a few words and it's done. But then there is the on-going, day-by-day struggle to keep that marriage intact. So joining a church is sort of like that. You walk up the aisle and join. A one time event. But then reality comes. The day-to-day situations that call for grace and patience. (Thanks be to God that grace and patience are in unlimited supply from Him.)

The Church is real people who are not perfect. We are those people.

(I didn't do a good job on these notes. It was a great sermon, but I was in the balcony --Art was working with the sound and light crew and so I sat up there with him-- and I wasn't as focused, or didn't follow was well as I do when we sit downstairs on the third row, left side, where we have, as Art says, "paid our rent"!) I will do better next time.