TRINITY – May 30, 2021 – Acts 2:14; 22-36
“FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD RESTORED”
Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Second Reading, from Acts 2. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- Almost everyone feels a great sense of gratification when a project is planned, implemented, and carried out to successful completion. For some folks, project planning and project management is their full-time job. For most of us, however, only a small portion of our lives requires such planning and management.
- It might surprise us somewhat, that God Himself is a great project planner and manager! I suppose it shouldn’t surprise us, once we come to know the vastness of God’s presence, power, and love for us. From our perspective, managing the entire universe – which we don’t even know the bounds of – would be an astronomically difficult matter. Especially when we take into consideration all of the dangerous things out there in the universe.
- But God not only has a plan for managing His creation, but also a plan to restore humanity along with creation – in view of Adam’s fall into sin, and the subsequent infection of every human being with sin. And I don’t really need to remind you that this sinfulness is fully displayed everyday in every human being.
- That plan, to have human “FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD RESTORED” is the principle message of Holy Scripture, it is the principle purpose for Jesus coming and for all He did, it is the principle message of the Christian Church, and it is the most important and consequential reality for every human being.
- Peter makes this clear in our text:
I. By His Own Definite Plan God Sent Jesus And Empowered Him To Be The Christ, Our Savior
Text: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that He did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know – this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”
A. His Miracles Demonstrate His Deity, And That He Is The Incarnate Christ – Both God And Man
Gospel: “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.”
Text: “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that He did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know.”
B. Our Redemption And Reconciliation To God Has Come About By This Plan
Text: “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. . . . Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus Whom you crucified.”
Gospel: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. God so love the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
1. Christ’s crucifixion takes away our sinfulness
John 1:29 “Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.”
2. Christ’s resurrection insures that we too will have eternal life
John 14:9 “Because I live, you shall live also.”
Romans 4:25 “He was delivered [into death] for our offenses, but was raised again for our justification.”
Text: “David, being a prophet, foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.”
Statement: This plan of God is perhaps even more difficult than the mere mechanics and natural laws of physical creation. It involves the great miracle of God Himself becoming man, the second Person of the Trinity, the only-begotten Son of God, becoming flesh. This includes what seems to our minds a suspension of natural law and reason – that the infinite God could dwell fully in a human being. But the Scripture, God’s own Word, assures us that it is so.
There is perhaps an even greater wonder in this plan of God. And that is that He would personally suffer and die for us, to take away our sin and guilt. He is, after all, the Almighty Creator of all things. Why would He take such care for us? He could easily have started all over again! But what we learn from Scripture, and from Jesus, is how precious we are to God, and how eager He is to have our “FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD RESTORED.” And so it has been done perfectly, at least from God’s side.
Application: So let us take great joy and delight in all of this. As we see in Peter’s sermon, all of this has been set forth in Holy Scripture, the Bible, long before it took place, that all might be certain that this is God’s doing, God’s gracious actions on our behalf! It was for us, and it is God’s will that we also know for certain that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of all humanity! And that we might be sure:
II. According To God’s Definite Plan And Purpose, The Father And The Son Now Send The Holy Spirit To Bless Us
Text: “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.” [the miracles of Pentecost]
A. He Confirms The Truth Of The Gospel
1Jn 5:8-11 “And there are three that bear witness on the earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God which He has testified about His Son. He who believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself. He who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he does not believe the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God has given to us everlasting life, and this life is in His Son.”
1 Cor. 12:3 “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.”
Gospel: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
B. He Provides The Power To Preach Jesus, To Preach The Gospel
Acts 4:31 “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness.”
Statement: The coming of the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, in order to bring human beings to faith in Jesus, by which “FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD IS RESTORED,” is also part of the “definite plan and foreknowledge of God.” And He continues to “project manage” this His great plan to this very day. Your baptism, your being born again of water and the Spirit, was part of this eternal plan of God. It is as the Scripture asserts:
Rom. 8:29,30 “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, and for Him to be the First-born among many brothers. But those whom He predestined, these He also called; and those whom He called, these He also justified. And those whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
Even our lives in Christ were all part of God’s eternal plan and purpose for us:
Eph. 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He before-foreordained that we should be walking in them.”
Application: The Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the only True and Living God, He made the definite plan for to have our “FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD RESTORED.” This is remarkable in view of how great He is and how seemingly small and insignificant we are! But we are not small to God – He so loved us that He sent His Son to be our Savior, so that we would not perish but have eternal live.
Conclusion: Thank God for His planning! Thank God for His excellent project management, in providing us with this salvation! Thank God for His ongoing project management in continuing to build the church. It is by Him that we have had our “FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD RESTORED.” This means all blessings in this life, and eternal life in the kingdom of heaven to come!
And we participate in His work and plan as we also build up the church and speak boldly the Word of God to others! May this be our greatest joy in life! Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.