The Supremacy of Jesus

SERMON: 2009-04-26--ac0919--the-supremacy-of-jesus SOURCE DURATION: 00:35:20.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with expository sermon material ([0]). The ending section contains a prayer and is followed by sustained acoustic music (Hymn), which is authoritative evidence of the end boundary, even though the last transcribed segment [350] precedes the full musical conclusion. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:27:06.740-00:29:19.660, 00:29:26.640-00:30:36.420, 00:33:03.540-00:35:18.580 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- Well, we began last Sunday morning looking at Peter's Pentecost sermon, and if you were here then, you may remember that I pointed out that the events of that first Pentecost Sunday have to be understood in the context of God's redemptive purposes for the world. Ever since the world fell into sin, God has but had one agenda for all of creation, and that is to bring it back to himself. And in order for that to be accomplished, there are two things that have to happen. He has to first of all raise up a people who will love and serve him with all of their hearts, and then secondly, and this is the negative side of the gospel, he has to get rid of or remove all those who do not love and serve him. And the Bible tells us that by the time the curtain falls in history, God will have gathered for himself a people who are an accurate reflection of who he is, and the angels of God will separate the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats, and the weeds from the wheat. And the key to all of that, Peter goes on to point out earlier in Acts chapter 2, is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, because by his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and the outpouring of his Holy Spirit, he has accomplished everything that needs to be accomplished to reclaim all of creation for God. Paul puts it this way, when he quotes 2 Corinthians 5 19, "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ." And so the key is the person of Jesus, and that is why Peter now, as he really winds up and gets into his incredible Pentecost sermon, walks us through the redemptive stages of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus. And in the time that we have this morning, let's see how far we can get in terms of trying to understand the reasoning that Peter develops. Notice how Peter begins by pointing out the credentials of the Lord Jesus. He says in verse 22, "Men of Israel, listen to this, Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through him as you yourselves know." He was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs. What's always one of the first questions that arises when somebody stands up and says, "I speak for God." Well, the first question that always arises in our minds is, "Who do you think you are? And why should I listen to you? Why should I believe that God sent you and that you're not just pursuing an agenda on your own?" God knows how hard it is for us to discern the truth. And so throughout scripture and throughout history, God always accredits or affirms the credentials of those who represent him. And in the case of Jesus, that is, as Peter says here, miracles, wonders, and signs. John chapter 14 verse 11, Jesus puts it this way to his disciples, he says, "Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. Even if you don't believe a word of what I'm saying," he says, "then look at the miracles that I accomplish and those will point you to the true and the living God." The Gospels tell us the story where John the Baptist was locked up in jail and he was beginning to have doubts and he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask the question, "Are you the one that we have been expecting or should we be looking for somebody else?" And Jesus' response is intriguing because here is how Jesus replies. He says, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see, the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor, blessed is the man who does not fall away or take offense on account of me." It's always the lame walk, the diseased are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and good news is proclaimed to the poor. Satan can imitate miracles. How do you discern true miracles, true signs of God from deceptive signs? The work that is truly of God will always make people alive towards God and increase love for God and a love that will be translated into service one to another. So Jesus, in his life, says Peter, was a man who manifested God's approval. He was credentialed by God and he speaks to the crowd and he says, "You all know this." Becomes important because it sets the stage for the reality of his exaltation at the right hand of God the Father. So that's the first thing Peter talks about in this particular passage and then he goes on to talk about his death. Verse 23, "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge and you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross." Notice two things there, Jesus died on account of two things. The first is this, it is people who put Jesus to death. Peter says, "You with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross." You there are the Jews, wicked men literally in Greek, those without the law are the Gentiles and it answers forever the question who is responsible for the death of Jesus on the cross. In fact, it is all of humanity, it is your sin and my sin that put him there. And it's easy for us to point fingers at the Jews and to say, "Well, you know, they were wicked or the Gentiles, the Roman soldiers, they didn't know what they were doing." I want you to know that if Jesus were to stand in our midst today and he were to uphold the values of the kingdom, every place in your heart and in my heart that is not yielded to Jesus would also rise against him and put him to death. Don't ever think that apart from God's grace, any of us is any better. As the old hymn says, "Our dear is Jesus, how hast thou offended that man to judge thee hath and hate pretended? Who was the guilty, who brought this upon thee? Alas, my treason, Jesus has undone thee. 'Twas I, Lord Jesus, I, it was, denied thee, I, crucified thee." So very much people are the ones who put Jesus to death. But Peter goes on to point out that it was more than just people, it was also willed by God himself because he says in the first part of verse 23, "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge." No matter how wicked the human race is or was, they alone could have never put Jesus to death on the cross if there wasn't a greater reason behind it. When Pontius Pilate said to Jesus, "Why aren't you answering me? Don't you know that I have the power to set you free or to crucify you?" Jesus says to him in John 19 verse 11, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above." And so throughout scripture we're told that the death of Jesus on the cross was not merely the circumstances of a bunch of very nasty people ganging up on Jesus, no, it was ordained by God from the foundation of the world. Jesus is the Lamb, says scripture, slain from the dawn of creation. When Jesus was struggling in the garden, he said, "Now my heart is troubled, what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour." No, it was for this very reason that I came to this hour. Why did Jesus die? Because in the wisdom of God, it was the only way whereby the universe could be reconciled to God. Man had sinned. Man needed to pay for the sin. And so God used the wickedness of mankind to accomplish his incredibly redemptive purposes. Now that immediately raises a huge question, doesn't it? How do you square the sovereignty of God with human responsibility? Do you ever ponder that in your more philosophical moments? If it is true that God ordained the death of Jesus on the cross, then why complain? Why hold people accountable for putting him there? Doesn't that logically make sense? Well, of course, the answer is very complicated in the sense that God lives beyond time and space. You and I live in time. We can't even conceive of a world without time. God is above time. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the beginning and the end. He is everywhere present all at once. And if that confuses your mind, be assured that the world's brightest physicists are still trying to figure out how that all works because it's beyond their scope of experience. But at the end of the day, it really boils down to this. God still holds us responsible for what we do. And just because God has planned for Jesus to be put to death on the cross is no excuse for us to give ourselves as instruments of wickedness to make that happen. Listen to these words of the Lord Jesus with regard to Judas. He says, "The Son of Man will go just as it has been written about him, but woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man, it would have been better for him if he had not been born." There is serious guilt attached to being the agents of the crucifixion of Jesus. And every time the Bible says when you and I give in to sin, step into places where we ought not to be stepping into, the Bible says we crucify the Son of God afresh. And that's why we always need to live in repentance and we always need to walk in faith before God because on the day of judgment, to have been responsible for the death of Jesus is an incredibly weighty matter. So here's Peter, he begins with a life of Jesus, particularly his credentials. He moves on to the death of Jesus. He points out that it was a combination of God's eternal purpose and human responsibility. And then of course he goes on and he talks about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Verse 24 in our text, "God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him." We talked about that extensively two weeks ago, Easter Sunday morning. The Bible says sin came into the world and because sin came into the world through one man we all die because sin spread to all of us. Jesus was without sin and therefore death could not hold him. I love the way Peter phrases it here when he says it was impossible, impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Now the chances are you have never heard of a book called the Gospel of Nicodemus, have you? The Gospel of Nicodemus falls into a category of literature that is known as, and it's a big Greek word, pseudepigrapha. It's the New Testament version of the apocrypha. And pseudepigrapha refers to a body of literature that has not been written by the names that are attached to it. It literally means false inscription. And so the Gospel of Nicodemus was definitely not written by the Nicodemus in the Bible. In fact it was written many hundreds of years later. The Gospel of Nicodemus has this fascinating exchange between Satan and Hades. Now Hades is the realm of the dead. And in this story Hades is personified and Satan is bragging to Hades how he managed to put Jesus to death and for Hades to get ready to receive him. And Hades is not too excited about that because Hades has heard rumblings about Jesus' ability to heal the sick and to raise the dead. And so here is how Hades responds in the Gospel of Nicodemus to Satan. He says, "For I not long ago swallowed down one dead Lazarus by name. And not long after, one of the living by a single word dragged him up by force out of my bowels. And I think it was he of whom you speak. If therefore we receive him," and that's of course Jesus, "here," that is in Hades which is the realm of the dead, "I am afraid lest perchance we be in danger even about the rest. For lo, all those that I have swallowed from eternity I perceive to be in commotion. And I am pained in my belly. And the snatching away of Lazarus beforehand seems to me to be no good sign. For not like a dead body, but like an eagle he flew out of me. For so suddenly did the earth throw him out." And the story then goes on to relate how he tells his demons, "Secure well and strongly the gates of brass and the bars of iron and attend to my bolts and stand in order and see to everything. For if he come in here," that is Jesus, "woe will seize us." And then there is this big loud thunderous voice that cries out, "Lift up your gates oh you rulers and be lifted up you everlasting gates and the king of glory shall come in." And then it asks the question, "Who is the king of glory?" And the angels reply, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." And immediately with these words the brass, the brass gates were shattered, the iron bars broken and all the dead who had been bound came out of the prison and we with them. And the king of glory came in in the form of a man and all the dark places of Hades were lighted up. You see Peter says, "It was impossible." Get that. I mean do you get that? Impossible. Impossible. Did I say it clearly enough? Impossible for death to hold him. And the story goes on to say that Satan was now bound by the angels and thrown into Hades and Hades is mad as ghetto at Satan because all the dead have been released. And so Hades says to Satan, "Turn and see that not one of the dead has been left in me but all that you have gained through the tree of knowledge," back in the garden when he gained power over the human race, "all have you lost through the tree of the cross and all your joy has been turned into grief and wishing to put to death the king of glory you have put yourself to death." You see Paul writing to the Corinthian church says, "The powers of this age would have never put Jesus to death if they had recognized the wisdom of God that by death God was going to destroy the power of death up from the grave he rose with a mighty triumph or his foes." Well, there are two more things in that passage about the resurrection that I just sort of lightly touch on and move right on by. And the first is this, the death of Jesus is prophesied prophetically for you'll notice that Peter goes on to quote now Psalm 16 where David says, "My heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body also will live in hope because you will not abandon me to the grave nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You've made known to me the paths of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence." And if you read the scripture whether in the handout that I've given you or in the Bible then you will discover that his argument is very simple. He says David could not possibly have been talking about himself because David died and his tomb is here. And so he says David was a prophet and as a prophet he saw that his greater son the Lord Jesus would not have his body stay in the grave and it would not experience decay. In other words, the resurrection of Jesus was forecasted, was predicted in the Old Testament scriptures including Psalm 16. Not only that but then he goes on to say the resurrection was witnessed by the disciples. God has raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of the fact. In fact one of the most witnessed to events of history has been the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And Paul, as you know, talks about that in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, "I received what I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, that he appeared to Peter and then to the twelve and after that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, although some have fallen asleep and then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles and last of all he also appeared to me as to one abnormally or untimely born." Peter talks about the life of Jesus, particularly his credentialing. He talks about the death of Jesus. Then he talks about the resurrection of Jesus, the first time in human history where somebody has come back from the dead with immortality. And then just very quickly, but very importantly, he talks also about the exaltation of Jesus. Verse 33, "Exalted to the right hand of God, he is received from the Father, the promised Holy Spirit, has poured out what you now see and hear." Two things there that are very important. The first is the exaltation of Jesus exalted to the right hand of God. To be exalted is to be lifted up. The Bible tells us in the first chapter of Acts that forty days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven and when he ascended into heaven, the Bible says he sat down at the right hand of God the Father. The right hand of God the Father is a position of power and authority. And so Jesus, because he was faithful unto death as a member of the human race, could be entrusted by God with ultimate authority and ultimate power. Listen to how Paul puts it in that classic passage in Philippians chapter two, being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. I wonder this morning do we catch the incredible significance of what Paul says there and what Peter means when he says that God has exalted him at his right hand. Remember he created Adam for one purpose, to have dominion over the world. Adam sat at the right hand of God as it relates to this creation. Adam sold out to the devil, placed himself under Satan's dominion, lost control over all creation. That's why you and I struggle with sin and with sickness and with death and with hell. And here's Jesus, here's Jesus faithful to the Father even to the point of death. And because he is faithful to God the Father even to the point of death, therefore God the Father can entrust him with responsibility and authority over all the universe. And here for the first time in human history you have a member of the human race who has been given the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every new should bow. "Know therefore assuredly," says Peter, "that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ." To be Lord means that he's bigger and stronger than everybody, bigger than the nations, bigger than the politicians, bigger than the rebels, bigger than sin, bigger than the devil himself. And the fact that he is the Christ means that he is the Messiah, he is the anointed one. He is the one ordained by God to solve all the problems in the universe. And the outpoured Holy Spirit was a demonstration. It was proof positive that this Jesus whom you crucified God raised from the dead. He exalted on high. He gave him the name that is above every name so that at the mention of the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Now as we'll see next time in a couple of weeks Lord willing when we come back to this, this has incredible implications but in the meantime I want to wind this up with a short video clip that some of us have seen before. It's entitled "That's My King" and it captures if that doesn't put you to your knees or onto your feet or whatever it is that we need to just exalt Jesus, well then we better just really pray for ya because it is all about Jesus. Take a look at this. [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:27:06.740; remove through 00:35:20.000] The [CUT] Bible says my king is the king of the Jews, he's the king of Israel, he's the king of righteousness, he's the king of the ages, he's the king of heaven, he's the king of glory, he's the king of kings and he's the lord of lords, that's my king. I wonder, do you know it, my king is a sovereign king, no means of measure can define his limitless love. He's enduringly strong, he's entirely sincere, he's eternally steadfast, he's immortally graceful, he's empirically powerful, he's impartially merciful, do you know him? He's the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world. He's God's son, he's a sinner's savior, he's the centerpiece of civilization, he's unparalleled, he's unprecedented, he is the lostest idea in literature, he's the highest personality in philosophy, he's the fundamental doctrine of true theology, he's the only one qualified to be an all-sufficient savior. I wonder if you know him today, he supplies strength for the weak, he's available for the tempted and the tried, he sympathizes and he saves, he strengthens and sustains, he guards and he guides, he heals the sick, he cleanses the lepers, he forgives sinners, he discharges debtors, he delivers the captives, he defends the feeble, he blesses the young, he serves the unfortunate, he regards the aged, he rewards the diligent and he beautifies the meek. I wonder if you know him, he's the key to knowledge, he's the wellspring of wisdom, he's the doorway of deliverance, he's the pathway of peace, he's the roadway of righteousness, he's the highway of holiness, he's the gateway of glory. Do you know him? Well, his life is matchless, his goodness is limitless, his mercy is everlasting, his love never changes, his word is enough, his grace is sufficient, his reign is righteous and his yoke is easy and his burden is light. I wish I could describe him to you, yes, he's indescribable, he's incomprehensible, he's invincible, he's irresistible, you can't get him out of your mind, you can't get him off of your hands, you can't outlive him and you can't live without him. Well, the Pharisees couldn't stand him, but they found out they couldn't stop him, Pilate couldn't find any fault in him, Herod couldn't kill him, death couldn't hang him and the grave couldn't hold him. Yeah, that's my key, that's my key. Oh Father, how our hearts stir as we contemplate the incredible reality of what Jesus has accomplished. We confess that not infrequently we lose sight of it, we focus on all the trouble that is in the world and all the trouble that is in our own lives and we see the sin and the brokenness and the war and the darkness and sometimes we become hopeless, but Lord the reality is that Jesus has overcome. He sits at the right hand of God the Father, he is ever making intercession for us and he has poured out that which you see and hear. We live in the age of the Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit we invite you into this place and we pray that you will sovereignly invade all the recesses of our hearts and of our lives so that whatever is dead may come to life, whatever is broken may be healed, whatever is disobedient may yield to obedience, whatever is cold may be worn by the reality of the gospel and Lord that whatever is rebellious may bend its knee before the authority of Jesus because the reality is he is coming back and every knee will bow and it will either bow obediently or it will be made to bow rebelliously, but even death itself will be thrown in the lake of fire, even so come Lord Jesus do your work in us, among us, through us, heal those places of pain, those places where we listen to the whispers of hell, those places where we are deaf to your voice, let your Holy Spirit move and let him move now that Jesus may live in us and through us, among us and that the sacrifice of Jesus will not have been in vain and Lord we'll be careful to give you the glory for we pray in Jesus name, amen. Lord I lift your name on high, Lord I love to sing your praises, I'm so glad you're in my life, I'm so glad you came to save us. You came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross my debt to pay, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high, Lord you came before your own, bowed in humble adoration, we're so glad to be your own, so we sing in exultation. You came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross my debt to pay, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high. You came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross my debt to pay, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high, Lord I lift your name on high. [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:35:20.000; resume after this marked segment]