Acts 2.1-21

Pentecost

Hymns:263, 176, 188, 184

You’ve heard of the mythical fountain of youth. Those who drink of its water are supposed to be eternally young. The only problem is that no one can find it. But that hasn’t stopped any number of people to keep looking for it in search of being youthful and alive and energetic and forever happy.

Realists know that there is no such fountain of youth. Realists spend their money elsewhere in search of youth: plastic surgeons, botox, fitness programs, diets, elixirs and creams, some in search of better health, which is good, but many in search of eternal youth, which is but a fleeting dream! There will be wrinkles! There will be birthdays! There will be an elevated blood pressure! There will be a funeral!

People tend to be drawn to miracle cures and miracle programs, and will spend millions of dollars in an effort to attain the unattainable.

Peter said at the end of the message he delivered to a crowd of people on Pentecost (v 21). Now here is a miracle! Peter has the answer to eternal youthfulness and it does not promise a longer life on earth but eternal life in heaven. His program is not a temporary stop-gap measure to slow down or cover up the aging process. He is promising an eternal life that is absent of sin or death in a place where there is no aging process...in heaven. Many millions of Christians throughout the world believe what Peter said about believing in Jesus, "calling on the name of the Lord," and being saved. But the vast majority of people in the world don’t believe in Jesus but are hoping to find the mythical fountain of youth or will rely on surgery or elixirs or some other program to have a temporary youthful appearance, followed by an eternity of suffering in hell. What a tragedy!

Today, on Pentecost Sunday, we observe a miracle that took place in Jerusalem 2000 years ago...the miracle of speaking in tongues. But we don’t focus on that miracle. ON PENTECOST WE FOCUS ON A MESSAGE RATHER THAN ON A MIRACLE, Peter’s message.

And what was his message? The message is referred to in at least three ways. First we are told that "all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them (v. 4). We aren’t told what the Spirit en-abled them to say. Then we read that the people heard what they describe as "the wonders of God." (v 11) but again we aren’t told what those "wonders of God" were. And thirdly we have Peter’s concluding words to his sermon, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (v. 21). We aren’t given the words of Peter’s sermon but it isn’t difficult to figure out what the content of his message was.

It had been ten days since Jesus ascended back into heaven. His work of salvation was complete. And that work involved his living his entire 33 years of life as a human being without having committed any sin. Jesus was the perfect son of Mary. That is impossible for us to imagine.

You who have children would never even suggest that they are perfect. They may not be aggressive as some people’s child-ren are; they may not be difficult to handle as some people’s children are...disrespectful, disobedient, challenging, selfish...in how many ways does sin show itself in a child? Yet you would not describe your children as perfect.

You who once were a child, you may have been quiet and pleasant, thoughtful and caring, helpful and respectful. Yet you would not describe yourself as a perfect child. There is no such person...no such child. Pretty good? Yes. Do children outgrow their terrible twos? Did you? Most children do. But no one is perfect except Jesus. He was a perfect child, a perfect teen, young adult and adult. This is what the Spirit would have enabled the disciples to say. This is truly one of God’s wonders that Jesus, his Son, came into the world and lived a perfect life.

No only that, but he did that as our substitute. Why would he do that? 1) Because you and I are sinful we can’t go to heaven when we die and there’s nothing we can do to change that, absolutely nothing because we can’t change what we are. 2) Because Jesus loves us and wants us to be in heaven with him he became a human being and lived a perfect life in our place and gives us the credit for being perfect. Who can understand that? I can’t. Some things would not hold up in a court of law. If you were stopped for speeding and the passenger in your car said, "But officer, I wasn’t speeding; can’t you give my friend credit for not breaking the law since I wasn’t breaking the law?" That argument wouldn’t go very far. What your passenger could do is pay the fine for speeding; the money would be credited to you. But it would still go on your record.

Jesus not only paid the fine for sin by dying on a cross. He was also charged with "speeding" even though you and I are driving our sinful self around through life and our sin never goes on our record! Such is the wonder of God.

And 3) Jesus lived a perfect life and paid the debt of our sin when he died on the cross not only a human being but also as being truly God. He had to be God because no fellow sinful human being can pay for the sins of other sinful human beings. If I can’t pay for my sins, I certainly can’t pay for anyone else’s sins either. But Jesus did.

This is the message that the Spirit enabled the disciples to tell people. This is the wonder of God that they shared so that Peter could say, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." To call on the name of the Lord means to ask him to take away your sins, to forgive your sins, not to hold you responsible for your sins! And he does that! This is why it has to be called a wonder of God because in no court of law is someone else going to be charged with your crime after you have been found guilty of committing that crime. Paul said all these things in a unique way (2 Cor 5.19,21).

The miracle of Pentecost is that Jesus’ disciples were able to share the message by speaking a language they never knew before. That is an amazing miracle. But we have focused on the message because there is nothing more amazing nor miraculous than the miracle that the message conveys. Jesus. The Son of God and Son of man paid for your sins. You are free to go to heaven when you die. Call on him and you are saved.