How did Peter go from denying Jesus to preaching to thousands?
WATCH
Sparking the Flame, 2 of 7 from September 13, 2026
“Jesus' plan includes the Holy Spirit empowering people.”
Acts 1:15-2:47 by Ryan Gagnon (@RyGagnon)
SUMMARY
This sermon teaches that every follower of Jesus has a role to play in God’s mission, and we need the Holy Spirit’s power to do it well. Through Pentecost, Peter’s sermon, and the 3,000 people saved, Pastor Ryan shows that God uses prayer, obedience, Scripture, and repentance to redeem people and build His church.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 What role do you have on the team? Are you playing it well?
💬 How is your prayer life going? Are you trusting Jesus’ plan for your life?
💬 Is the path you’re walking being lit by the Holy Spirit or the world? Can you see clearly?
💬 Is Jesus confronting you aggressively this morning? If so, what are you gonna do about it?
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Do you guys have, like, a favorite time of year? Fall. Okay. All right. Anybody else?
Christmas. Okay. Who loves summer? So hot. It's so hot.
You're crazy. You're all crazy. So this time of year is, like, it's, like, secretly, like, kind of my favorite time of year for. For a couple of reasons. Okay.
So right now, the kids have been back in school for a little bit of time. We're starting to get a little bit of, like, a cadence in our family lives. In all reality, it's still crazy, but it's better. Right? There's a promise on the horizon that I don't believe, but that it's going to get cooler.
I've heard this every year. I feel like it just extends out even longer. But there's that promise. It's going to get colder. It's like, oh, it's not going to be your laundry room outside anymore.
Right. That's coming. But there's another reason that I'm really excited about this time of year. It's football season, and I'm unapologetically a psycho. I love football.
I love watching football. I love everything around football. I clearly love chicken wings, like, I love football. And for those of you in the crowd that also love football, you know that we had a couple of games this week. College season started a couple weeks ago.
We got some NFL games today. Like, this is an exciting, exciting time. And for those of you that are blessed to have one of us in your house, you're like, right. But it's a great. There you go.
There you go. Now. But why do I talk about football? Okay, we're talking about Jesus, and Jesus and football are two very different things. But part of the reason that I love sports so much is because it's a really cool illustration about what a team is.
And a team is a group of individuals playing their roles with a common goal in mind. And the teams that listen to their coaches and run their plays effectively and have good discipline tend to be the teams that win. The teams that don't do those things tend to be the teams I root for. That's just how it works. Right?
So a church is actually really similar to that. It's really, really similar. Okay. So last week, Pastor Michael started a new series. We're going to be in the Book of Acts.
So if you guys want to flip over in the blue Bibles, it's going to be on page 1050. We're going to be finishing up chapter one and doing all of chapter two today. But, yeah, we're Going to go cover a lot of scripture. But while you're flipping through those pages, just want to think with me for a second about the whole idea of being a team, right? So not everyone's the quarterback.
Not everyone's an offensive lineman. Not everyone is the wide receiver or the running back. There's different attributes. There's different things that people bring to the table. But a team uses each of those qualities from each of those people to achieve that goal.
God built the church in a very similar way. We are very different people. Just look around real quick. We are very different people. We have different skills.
We have different qualities. We have different qualifications that we bring to the table. But we, we as a body, have decided to serve Jesus together with this mission of inviting our neighbors to meet and follow Jesus. Now, the cool thing is, is it didn't start in acts. It started back at the fall, back in Genesis.
That's where it began. It began when humanity said, no, God, we got it. We don't need to listen to you. And that's when sin came in. God's been dealing with that problem of sin ever since.
But now we get to acts, we get to Jesus, we get to Jesus doing some crazy stuff, which we're gonna cover here in a second. And then all of a sudden, you got these people sitting around going, what now? The coach is gone? Now that there's no one in my headset telling me what place to run, what am I gonna do? How does this work?
But God used this time to spark this flame that would then go across the world, to invite neighbors across the world to meet and follow him. But he did it locally first. It started and then went from there. So that's what we're going to be covering this morning. You guys ready?
Super weak. Y' all ready? The kids need to hear you. Are y' all ready? That's so good.
I love it. Okay, so as is our custom, before we're going to get into the passage, we're going to cover, we're going to read through and pray the disciples prayer. Now, the reason that we do this every single week is because we believe that if Jesus said, pray like this, we surprise you. Pray the prayer like that. So we're going to do that together.
So we have the words up on the screen. As Pastor Michael says every single week. These aren't magic words. The words aren't going to change. It's your heart, the heart behind the words.
Are we asking God to intervene with what it is that he's doing this morning? And Inviting us along into Amen. All right, so together we'll read out loud. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Okay, so if you guys want to be there in page 1050, let's just kind of quickly introduce the idea.
Jesus's plan includes the Holy Spirit empowering people. Pastor Michael talked about last week the whole idea of we follow Jesus's plan because it's kind of the plan, right? Jesus is the one who created the plan. We believe that Jesus is who he says he was. So we're going to follow that plan.
But part of that plan is the Holy Spirit empowering people. But up until this moment, we haven't really talked in detail about the Holy Spirit. So as opposed to talking around the passage, let's kind of give a little bit of context here. So where we left off, you had Jesus coming back from death. Okay?
Stone is rolled away. Jesus is alive. This is craziness. Okay? This is the guy they saw.
He was then crucified. And now they're seeing him walk around. He's teaching them, he's talking to them. He. He's telling them that there's going to be a helper that's gonna come that will actually be better equipped for the next stage in the plan.
Does that sound nuts to you? Jesus is saying, part of my plan is me leaving. Anybody who wanna put up their hands and go, no, Jesus, let's cut that back. Let's just. You stick around.
And he's like, no, trust me. Part of my plan is me leaving and sending you a helper. Then they see him ascend to heaven. Now, I think sometimes in our church world, we read that and we just move. Right or wrong, He's Superman to heaven.
Just pause and think about that for a second. They're there. They're standing with him. He died. Now he's back.
And now they're talking to him and he's teaching them. He's with Peter, eating breakfast by the Sea of Galilee. All of a sudden, bum, bada bum, Jesus is gone. That's crazy. And then they stare up in the sky, because that's normal.
If you see that, that's a normal thing to do. But then the angels come and they're like, what are you guys doing? Didn't you listen to anything he said? He kind of talked to you. Remember, go back to Jerusalem.
So then they go back to Jerusalem. As Pastor Michael talked about last week, the first direction that they got was to wait. That's not fun. I just watched you superman to heaven. I don't want to wait on anything.
What's going to happen here, God? What's the plan? But then they go and they wait and they do what God asked them to do. So that's where we're going to begin in verse 12, Acts, chapter 1.
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying. Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. All these were with one accord, were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and the brothers and his brothers. Verse 15.
In those days Peter stood up among the brothers. The company of persons was in all around 120. And he said, Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry. Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all of his bowels gushed out.
And it became known to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language, Akodama, that is, field of blood, for it is written in the book of Psalms. May his camp become desolate, and let there be no one to dwell in it, and let another take his office. Verse 21. So one of the men who had accompanied us during that time, that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us, one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection. And they put forward two Joseph, called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias.
And they prayed and said, you, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And they cast lots for them, and the lots fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. So a couple of things to notice here that that's last week's presentation. So that's last week's. So a couple things to notice here.
The disciples listen to the angels and they go back to Jerusalem. Now, they're in a holding pattern, right? So in this holding pattern, they have no Jesus. They've been promised the Holy Spirit, which that's supposed to happen. So they go and they get together in the upper room and they pray together.
Now, while they're praying together, Peter stands up and says, hey, there's a couple of scriptures here that I think tie into this. And he reads through Psalms 69, 25 and 1089. But what he does is he points out that they need to replace Judas. But there's some qualifications that have to be a part of this replacement. The qualifications that he rolls out are that this needs to be someone who's been with us since the beginning and has witnessed the Resurrection.
Now, why, why, why have those qualifications at all? Well, you have the qualifications because Peter points out our role is to be his witnesses. You cannot be a witness if you didn't witness. You can't be the one who says, I saw him resurrected when you didn't see him resurrected. So they bring these two, and then they select who is going to be stepping in for Judas.
The idea behind this is that every Christ follower has a role on the team. Every single one of us. If you are a follower of Jesus and you are a part of his team, you have a role to play. Now, qualifications are different, though. There's different qualifications for being an elder, for being a pastor.
There's different qualifications for a lot of the roles that we play on a Sunday morning. You do not want me in that sound booth. Your eardrums will explode or you won't hear anything. I do not have the qualifications to do that job. You also don't want me on the couch.
You don't want me standing at. I can't play a guitar. And poor Dale has to listen to me every single week. The joyful noise thing doesn't work out of this one. I can't.
I am not qualified to do those things. But there are things that I am qualified to do. And there's a place for every single Christ follower on Jesus's team. If you're in this room and you've decided to follow Jesus and you want to partner with what God is doing here, there is a place for you, there is a role for you. And I don't know what it is, but I trust that the God who said that there's a place for you knows what it is.
There is a place for you and you have a role here.
The point is that we follow Jesus plan together. Everyone plays their role on the team now. It doesn't stop there. We're going to continue. We're going to continue reading now in Acts, chapter two.
So now you have. The group here is together. They've been praying and we're 40 days with Jesus post resurrection. And now we're in this room just praying. Now I want you to think with me for a second.
Let's say we started a prayer group where we just hung out and prayed starting tomorrow. And we prayed Monday, all day, and then we prayed Tuesday all day, and we prayed Wednesday, all day Thursday, all day Friday, all day Saturday, Sunday. Are you falling asleep yet? They did this together for 10 days. They prayed together for 10 days.
They locked arms because God called them to get together and. And to pray because he promised the Holy Spirit was coming. Day 5 I'm probably scratching the back of my head a little bit. I mean, maybe, maybe you guys are a lot more patient than me, but I'd be like, what are we doing? But they prayed together and they continued praying.
And that's when chapter two starts. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind. And it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each other.
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound, the multitude came together. And they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished.
And they said, are not these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius, Asia, Figria, Pamphya, Egypt, and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene. And visitors from Rome, both Jews and Proselytes, Cretians and Arabians. We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty work of God.
And all were amazed and perplexed and sang to one another, what does this mean? But others mocked them, saying, they are filled with new wine.
So now they've been praying. And while they've been praying, all of a sudden everything goes crazy. Winds come rushing in. We're feeling like Earthquake kind of stuff. This is like the craziest Disney ride you've ever been on.
This is nuts. Then all of a sudden, they see tongues of fire come in and rest on each other. So think about that for a second. Your 10 days. Remember?
We could barely make it. Me just saying the days. There were 10 days. And then all of a sudden, boom, this happens. The doors get blown off.
Tongues are now resting on them. And then what happens? All of a sudden, they start speaking the word of God in different languages. Because you know what happens when, like, the windows get blown out, the neighbors come running? So now you have a group of people all around them going, what the heck is going on?
And they're speaking in different languages. I counted them. We're talking, like 12 plus languages. And by the way, this would be like someone from Bellevue speaking Mandarin. I thought that was a pretty funny joke.
I'm from Bellevue. I can make fun of Bellevue. Wow, what's going on here? But it's crazy. Everyone is, like, listening to all of their God's word in a wholly different language, the language of their past.
So not only is it confrontational, but it's comforting because it's the language they knew growing up. You hear that? How cool is that? So they're listening and they don't understand it. And they're saying to each other, how is this happening?
What is going on? This makes no sense.
And the reason for that is because Jesus plan requires Holy Spirit involvement to be successful. The Holy Spirit is the big gun. Calling in the big guns is literally us being where we're supposed to be when we're supposed to be there, and then the Holy Spirit showing up and doing Holy Spirit stuff. That's the difference between what we do in following Jesus and everything else. Everything else, we can just put lipstick on it and make it look good.
But the Holy Spirit is the one that does the work. No one in front of that group could claim credit because they saw what God was doing.
We as Christ followers are called to play our role now in the idea of sports. There's this idea of playing your position, being in position to make your play. Anybody here seen sandlot? Got some hands? Okay, so what's the line in sandlot where he says, go out, stand there and do what?
Hold your glove up and what? I'll take care of the rest.
That's what the Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit tells you, pray, trust, go. I'll take care of the rest. God uses the Holy Spirit in miraculous ways. We sometimes really want to over like, indulge this and make it out to be this big thing.
We read the Great Commission every single week, and it says, in your going, make disciples pray, trust, go. These guys had sat in a room for 10 days. Their going was listening, they prayed, and God showed up in an incredibly miraculous way. He brought in the big guns, and that's what made it successful. Far too often we Christians want to think that we got to come up with the perfect phrase, that we gotta have the right argument to talk to somebody about Jesus, that we gotta do, do, do, do, do, as opposed to listen, pray, trust, and go.
In the context of sports, that's called playing out of your position. And when you play out of your position in sports, you give up big plays because you're not in the position that you were supposed to be in because you didn't listen to the coach. And then when that happens, you lose. The God of the universe who has a place for you, who has a role for you, is calling you to be in your position, is calling you to listen to him, to trust him, and he will show up, pray, trust, and go. Are you praying again?
We skip this way too often. Are you praying?
Are you trusting what's happening in your going?
Are you going where he's called you to go? Well, you can't go where he called you to go if you didn't pray first, if you didn't listen. It's so important, but it doesn't end there. Now, this passage just continues. We're going to be in verse 14.
This is Peter responding to what everyone is seeing.
But Peter, standing with the 11, lifted up his voice and addressed them. Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem. Let this be known to you and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk as you suppose, C. Since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel.
And in the last days it shall be. God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, even on my male servants and female servants. In those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy, and I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below. Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood. Before the day of the Lord comes the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Read that again, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel, hear these words.
Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. And you yourselves know this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You crucified him and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosening the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life, and you will make full of gladness with your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set on his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ that was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
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 so 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 a footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
So Peter responds with this sermon. And before we get into the meat and potatoes of the sermon, just want to make sure we point something out. Did everyone notice that the opening of the sermon was that they weren't drunk?
You can laugh at that. That's silly. That's kind of funny. They said these guys that were speaking in different languages, the languages that they knew from birth, maybe they were drunk. Peter's response to that was that it was nine in the morning.
That's his opening to this sermon. Think about that for a second. This sermon from Acts 2 that we read through and we see what God is doing opens with, they're not drunk. It's nine in the morning.
The reason I really want to camp on this for a second is that over and over again in my life, I've talked to so many people who have said to me that the Bible is made up. That's not God's word. It's just a bunch of people writing some stuff down. It's not real. I've heard this my entire Christian life.
One of the ways that I respond to them is that read Acts 2, because if I was gonna make something up, I wouldn't put that in there. It's just kind of weird, right? That's not a point that I would make. But Peter opens the sermon with that. He opens it by saying that you're missing the point completely.
But then he continues while he's addressing the crowd, giving this incredible sermon where he takes them to the Scriptures and he takes them to the prophet Joel and goes back through this passage in Joel that many of them would have been familiar with, and. And shows that that passage was pointing to Jesus. He says to them, guys, guys, guys, we knew this was going to happen. I knew it was going to happen. He told me it was going to happen.
I didn't believe him. But now that it's happened, I can go back and I can look at Joel and I can say that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. I can point to the Scripture to show you the example of what you just witnessed, where you heard God's word being spoken from all of these people. And he continues and says, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So he notices that in this passage, not only does he talk about the fact that they're going to see some miraculous stuff, but that they're going to see miraculous stuff, all with the idea of pointing them towards salvation, all pointing back to Jesus.
And then tells them that you crucified him, but your crucifixion was predetermined by my Lord. You thought you were snuffing it out, but really you were just a piece of the plan. God was going to use that as part of his plan. Peter completely flips them on it.
And he points out to them in this confrontational thing that they should accept Jesus. You see that? And all shall come to pass, that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But then he continues, and he jumps in to the next section with David, and he points out that David was also pointing to Jesus.
Their response was to crucify Jesus. And he calls upon them to accept the person that they killed.
By God. Resurrecting Jesus, he had conquered sin and death and he had paid the price for all the sin of the world, including them.
By referencing David from Psalm 16, he points out that he's been promising a ruler that would come on David's throne. And Peter in his Peterness is just going, it's Jesus, guys. This whole time, all of this was pointing to Jesus. All of it. It's Jesus.
I see it now, I understand it now. I didn't get it before, but I'm a witness. Jesus is Lord, the one that you crucified.
The reason that Peter understands it is because the Holy Spirit illuminates the path that we walk. Peter didn't get this before the Holy Spirit. He couldn't have delivered this sermon before the Holy Spirit. He could have made these connections before the Holy Spirit. He was with God, with Jesus, telling him, I'm going to go get killed.
And then Peter still fought back.
It took the Holy Spirit illuminating the walk that he had for them. Peter did not know 45 days in what Jesus plan was.
He knew that he was supposed to follow it.
This is 53 days after Peter was denying Jesus three times. Just think about that. 53 days before this sermon, Peter, in front of everyone was denying that he even knew Jesus completely denying him. The difference is the Holy Spirit illuminated the path that he had for him. That's the difference.
He ate with Christ and still denied him.
I'm going to send a helper that will make it better for the next path in this plan. And he did that for Peter. And by doing it for Peter, he was doing it for all of these people in Jerusalem.
So for us, are we praying? Are we trusting? Are we going?
I don't know what your life is going to look like in 53 days.
Sure as heck don't know what mine's going to look like.
But I know Peter's was completely different. 53 days.
Now we get to read the Response in verse 37.
Now, when they had 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. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread. And the prayers and awe came upon every soul.
And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the possessions to all as any had need. And day by day attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved.
Now this, this past, this verse here, they were pierced to the heart. They were cut to the heart. For many of us we've heard this over and over and over again. But what's interesting is the word that is actually used there was used by Homer to illustrate the hooves of a horse beating the ground.
That's the image. The image when we hear pierce the heart or cut the heart is horses hooves beating the ground. Now for some of us that may not, we're in Ocala horse everything, hooves beating the ground.
That's how he's describing the Holy Spirit interacting with their heart. That's how hard our hearts are. That's what it takes. The Holy Spirit doing that work. Because Jesus plan includes aggressive confrontation with the world.
Now this may feel uncomfortable, but just think with me for a second. The gospel, which is the best news that anyone will ever hear in their entire life, also says you cannot be the king or queen of yours. It says that your life is designed to be in worship of Jesus, to follow Jesus, to put Jesus first in everything you do, to give of yourself for his plan and to follow him. That's a confrontational message. That's an aggressive message.
Especially when we live in a world that says everything is the opposite and it should be all about you at all times, no matter what the circumstances. It's about how you feel about things, what you care about. It's not about anybody but you.
But the Holy Spirit does what it takes to get through to our hearts and pierced their hearts, stomped their hearts, got through to them. And the response that they had were 3,000 people were saved. Now these 3,000 people, what do we do? For them it was so confrontational because they killed Christ. For us it's so confrontational because he had to die for us.
He had to die for our sins. And their response was what do we do? Okay, we get it, Peter. We understand. We were wrong.
We did this. He's the God of all and we crucified him. What do we do? He says, repent and be baptized. Repent is to turn away from sin, to follow Jesus.
Remember the last thing Jesus said to Peter in the passage that we read before the sermon? Follow me, follow me, repent, Follow me, be baptized. 3,000 people. That's their response? The Holy Spirit showed up in an incredibly powerful way.
So what intervention or confrontation did Jesus allow in your life to get your attention?
What proof print do you have on your heart?
I got a feeling mine.
Think about the people that you love that don't know Christ. What's it going to take for the Holy Spirit to get through to them? And I would just challenge you that one of the things it's probably going to take is you praying, trusting, going, you're not the one who's going to save them. God is. But he calls you to be in the place that he wants you to be for the play that he's going to run.
It's all here.
Now closing this up though, we serve a God who does. I mean, miraculous things. I mean crazy miraculous stuff. Just indulge me for a moment. We're going to go back to Egypt.
Okay? So back Moses comes and God calls him to get the Israelites out of slavery. The last plague is the death of the firstborn. Part of the way that they were called to make sure that no Israelite had a firstborn die, was taking the blood of a lamb and rubbing it on the post around their door so that death would literally pass over the Israelites and the Egyptians would be the only ones that would be affected. After that plague happened, the Egyptians were like, get out.
Kicked them out, Boom. Israelites are now going, they're now in the desert. Roughly 50 days later, Moses receives the law on Mount Sinai. So Moses is on Mount Sinai. God writes down the law on the tablets.
Now that's the story probably most of us know. But there's another follow up to that that sometimes we don't talk about enough. Moses comes down from the mountain. In the time that he's been up there, the Israelites have decided that they're going to take all that gold that the Egyptians gave them to just get out of here. They're going to melt it down and they're going to make a golden calf.
And they worship a golden calf. They create an idol and worship an idol. Less than 51 ish days from the time that they've now Been taken out of slavery.
Moses comes down, sees this tablets get broken. Roughly 3,000 people are killed. 3,000 people die. Now fast forward to where we are now. Jesus was celebrating the Passover meal when they were doing the Last Supper.
Jesus then is resurrected. He's with them for 40 days. They pray for how many days? 10 days. So now we're like roughly how many days?
50 days. Now we've gone from Passover, we've now gone to Pentecost, which is what we're studying right now. 3,000 people are now brought to life. God wrote his law on tablets of stone. The Holy Spirit would write his law on human hearts.
3000 killed, 3000 alive. That's the God we serve. Roughly 1400 years later, that is who God is. That is the God that is pursuing you and has pursued me and is telling us to pursue our neighbors.
He calls us to pray, to trust, and to go.
His plan is perfect and his plan involves Holy Spirit empowered people. Let's pray together. Father in heaven. You were good, Lord. The story that you've written is incredible.
Lord, we just pray that you would make it abundantly clear to those that don't know you how much they need to.
Lord, if there's someone in the sound of my voice that does not know you, I just pray that in this moment, Lord, that you would do some trampling, That you would pierce a callous heart.
Not to hurt, but to heal.
Lord, show them that they need you.
They were designed by you to be in fellowship with you.
Everything else that we would try is futile.
But your gospel, your son dying on that cross, you resurrecting him, you showing that you have conquered death, you calling us into repentance and into baptism, That's everything.
We submit ourselves before you, Lord. And we just pray that if there's someone that we should be reaching out to, that you would equip us to pray, that you would help us to trust you and you would get us to go.
It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Got just a couple of questions for everyone. First is, what role do you have on the team? Are you playing it well? How is your prayer life going? Are you trusting Jesus plan for your life?
Is the path you're walking being lit by the Holy Spirit of the world? And can you see clearly? And finally, and most importantly, if Jesus is confronting you aggressively this morning, what are you going to do about it?
Let's just sit for a couple minutes. You can put those questions back up and just give some time for the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us. I just ask you to consider how he's speaking to you this morning just in a couple of minutes.
LINKS
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
