Lord, Messiah, Risen King — What Will You Do With Him?

Introduction

Sitting in a community space during the week, I found myself listening to a fascinating discussion. A group of vintage men were chatting about life, life lessons and all the other fruits of their experience. It was surreal just to listen as they moved from talking about the war to the dangers of modern medicine, the benefits of the old, ancient ways of health and healing, and how all the hospitals were out to do was profit off the individual, unlike his aunt.

During the war, his aunt lived outside Belfast, and she had an old family recipe that could cure any infection for anyone who came to her. (She had a specific recipe for ringworm that infected farmers when they leaned on gates ) And she always treated them. When you arrive sick, she will rub it on the infected area, and in 24 hours, you will be healed. Yet, she could never charge! Because if she did, then it would no longer work. The discussion went from the healing powers of mud to the wonder of many different ways of healing; “_all ways that the government did not want people to know any longer!_” One person declared, and to that bold statement there was a collective hum of agreement, until that discussion seemed to conclude when the original instigator leaned in and declared: “And that is the truth of it that they don’t want you to know!”

It could be any conversation, discussion, or topic, and there will always be some claim to an unknown truth, or something that some group wants to keep from the world, because it is the thing the world needs to function or do well. We are always led to believe this truth is unattainable because it is what you need to succeed. Thus, Truth becomes controversial, confrontational, and almost dangerous. Today, we live in a culture where to make a truth claim is considered arrogant, and the idea of one truth, or what we might call an absolute truth, is dismissed as obnoxious and immature. Thus, no religion can be right because all religions make claims to something Absolute. You can follow a religion if you want, as long as you are humble to understand that to do so is simply your truth; you can benefit form it, you can enjoy it but don’t assume you can force it on someone else to try and change them or convince them because we live in a world of many truth’s and what works for you, won’t work for someone else. We live in a culture that has made the individual god and convinced us that what we need is within us or around us. Thus, our time tells us Pilot was right when he stood before Jesus and dismissed him by saying:

“What is truth?

Thus, we live as we have been shaped and spend our lives searching for the thing that will give our heart meaning, and we look everywhere, anywhere: We look internally and externally as we search for the thing we need to feel human. All you need to do is walk the streets around the church, to spend time listening and watching, and you will be met by a city searching for its truths and trying to express them via identity, sexuality, politics, profession, history, culture, or lifestyle choice. Then, as we pass those people, we will meet those who have given up searching and numb their longing via whatever means they can: Alcohol, drugs, partying, being successful, their image, career, and sometimes in ways that are not so obvious: religions, family, community, and more. We live in a culture claiming the individual pursuit of meaning is what life is about, a culture searching. Yet, it seems we are too afraid to admit that we are a culture of individuals who are lost. I am too afraid to admit that CS Lewis was right when he said, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” Too afraid to ponder what Jesus meant when he challenged the believing Jews to be confident that “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” In a world searching for purpose, meaning, identity and cause, for Truth. We are almost too afraid to believe that what we are searching for has been in front of us all along, not hidden, not withheld, but offered freely to all.

Last week, as the Holy Spirit descended in power upon the disciples in the upper room and moved them out to be the work of the Kingdom, the crowd where amazed and pondered: What does this mean for us?

Today, we consider Peter’s response and answer as he declares what his searching city needs to know, whether they want to know it or not – the truth about who Jesus is and what he offers. In a town busy with buzz of religious fever, Peter stands transformed by the Holy Spirit to declare the absence of their searching and serving and point them to the truth that their hearts have been longing for and looking for, a truth found not in a place, action, form or function but in one person – Jesus.

1 | A Voice Learns to Speak (Acts 2:14-16)

If we ever wondered what the Holy Spirit does in the life of the Church and the life of the believer, then we are not left waiting to understand what it means to know the power of the Holy Spirit and its direction in our lives. We are given that lesson in one moment, and in one person – Peter. When we ponder what it means to be a temple of the Holy Spirit, we must immediately remember Peter. The denier who became the proclaimer; the coward who became confident, the dissapperer who then stood firm; the turbulent one who becomes a rock; and the silent one who learns to speak. We read this scene as part of the grand narrative of Acts and the birth of the Church, and we do so with an image of the Apostles that suits – competent and confident. Yet, we forget their humanity, their normality, their sinfulness. We see Peter at this moment and raise this p to be his normal, that he was somehow superior, always bold and fully empowered, and we forget that at one point Jesus said to him: “Get behind me, Satan!” We forget that at one point Jesus told him that at his hour of greatest need, Peter would be nowhere to be seen, worse, he would deny him three times, and then the Rooster would crow. That was Peter in the upper room, regretful and unconfident! Yet, because of Pentecost, this is Peter no longer as the Holy Spirit moves him from the room to in front of the crowd who have gathered to see what all the commotion has been about. In Peter, we know what God intended to do. The crowd gathered because the work of God in the upper room was not a random extra; it was the same Spirit at work in the upper room, at work in the City gathering the crowd. Why? So that Peter might speak, and they might hear the truth and hope they needed to hear, even though they did not know they needed it.

Peter is a man transformed because he is now being formed by the Holy Spirit of God, who is at work in him, and in the same moments at work through him. He rebukes the dismissal of the crowd and begins to answer those who pondered, “What does this mean for us?” To those who dismissed him, he dismisses their dismissal by demanding they both listen, see, and understand. Firstly, that they listen to what he has to say because God is about to speak; secondly, that they see that theese men are not drunk because it is only the beginning of the day; finally, that they understand that what they have been witnessing and what they are about to hear has been the Plan of God all along – thus, they must understand that what they are seeing is the fulfilment of things God spoke long ago. Peter has been transformed, and because of the work of the HOly Spirit, his internal transformation becomes an external reality as Grace becomes real in him; it becomes real through him because this is how God works! We must grasp in confidence that in Peter, God is teaching us how He works today in us and through us. As we consider how Peter roots the work of God in the promises foretold long ago in the word of God, we are to see Peter as the Gospel reality for each of us today – God saves us to use it for His Kingdom, in our time and place.

2 Not Drunk but Fufilment (Acts 2:17-21)

What a scene that is unfolding, history being made before their eyes in the city of God as for the first time in Human History the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit comes in power and fullness upon humanity, and all that some in the city can do is dimissing this movement of God by claiming rather than something miraculous it is something scandalous – they are drunk.. Yet, as Peter stands empowered and emboldened by the Holy Spirit, he quotes the prophet Joel to reframe what is happening. To show that it is not Chaos, but rather fulfilment. Specifically, the fulfilment of something God promised long ago in the ministry of the prophet Joel hundreds of years before. Peter is showing that what the world is trying to dismiss as confusion is clarity, God’s promised act coming to pass.

Peter goes back to look forward, highlighting that this was promised/foretold/prophesied aeons ago! The Spirit of God came upon the prophet and spoke of a time when the same Spirit would descend not on a few select, but on all who would turn to God. Peter uses Joel’s quote to begin reframing what is unfolding before them, this is not a moment of Chaos – this is fulfilment! As that which has looked like confusion to the eyes of the world is clarity; God’s promises and plans are coming to pass, and those gathered in Jerusalem on this powerful morning are witnesses to it! Whether they believe it or not.

What does Joel’s prophecy tell us about this moment, as recorded in the book of Acts? Everything. The prophecy of Joel reveals the heart of Pentecost some hundreds of years before the moment – The Spirit of God is for all people. It is the most surreal of images and complex for us to comprehend in the age of the Church where we know all the truths about the Kingdom of God, we have been born into a world where we see what Grace is and that it is available to all who turn to Jesus by faith and repentance regardless of your background, ethnicity, religiosity, morality, sex, or infelucne on the word.

Yet, imagine the world these have lived in – where the wonder of God’s love and life with him has been lost under the burden of human religion and performance. The Old Testament had laws to be followed not as a burden but as a way to understand sin and the need for intervention from outside. Still, the religious leaders turned them into a code of morality and created hundreds more to help people keep the unkeepable law. Thus, Joel speaks of a time when the Spirit of God will descend upon all people, which is a radical change in how the people understand the presence and power of God at work in the world. Yahweh was to them a God who dwelled in the temple and worked only through a few people over the eons, He had been silent for centuries between the end of the Old Testament and the minsitry of John the Baptist, and now here stands Peter telling them the the Spirit of God who empowered John the Baptist will descend upon all all – sons and daughters, young and old, men and women, servants and leaders – all people who look to Jesus. Pentecost is Grace incarnate and the realisation that Grace is not just about God saving us but dwelling in us to use us for His glory. Pentecost is Effectual Grace. The boundary-breaking, radical work of God shows that there will be no class or human-made division that will stand in the way of the Spirit’s work in the world and the advancement of God’s Kingdom.

The Imagery of this radical working Grace in the world is paired with pictures of Blood, fire and billows of smoke, a reminder that the Gospel is both salvation and Judgement, and Grace will affect the lives of all people on earth – those who accept it and those who judge. As the Spirit of God comes to empower disciples of Christ in His way and to sanctify us more into his likeness, so it also comes to sift.** That beautiful Gospel sentence:

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”

It is both a statement of hope and an offer of truth to the gathered crowds of what Grace will be for those who accept it and those who reject it. Accept Jesus as Lord and know Salvation; Reject Jesus as Lord and know rejection. We live in a world that finds truth hard to deal with, and we see churches drift from the wonder of the Gospel because they worry about its offence, so they water it down to make it more palatable yet dilute its power. Yet, this Scripture is clear, as is Peter’s teaching about Jesus and the reality of the Kingdom – accept him and know abundant life, reject him and know the abundance of your self-trust and worship of idols.

3 The Gospel in a Nutshell (Acts 2:22-24)

What does it mean to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved? Or, contrary to that, what does it mean to reject the name of the Lord and know Judgement? Is Peter beginning to present some sort of philosophical or ethereal truth? No, this is not about ” what” it means to reject God; rather, it is about “Who!” Peter grounds this Gospel and the work of who in historical reality – the person of Jesus Christ; A Real man that many of them have heard about, some of them might have seen, and perhaps most of them had rejected until that point. This God is not far off, says Peter, he is not distant, nor distracted from the world, instead he was in the world and it rejected him. As Peter sums up the Gospel in a nutshell, he reminds all who are listening that this is a historical reality, and although they thought they had got rid of him, the crucifixion was always the plan.

Even the evil actions of humanity are not outside of God’s sovereignty and foreknowledge, as he set what the world and satan meant for evil and turned it into the ultimate display of his power and goodness. The Cross and resurrection of Jesus are the hinge of Christian hope eternally and are real moments in human history. Peter takes recent history and gives it its eternal context and meaning – Peter proclaims the Gospel. As Peter declares the events around Jesus’ death, he is showing that they happened and what these events mean – death could not hold him. Sin, death, and hell have lost their grip on this world as the Redemptive age of God begins. Thus, in our culture that denies the idea of Absolute truth we find confidence in knowing that when we proclaim the good news of Jesus in the power of the Spirit, we are proclaiming a historical, unshakable truth that has changed the world and challenged it for over 2000 years – Jesus Died, Jesus Rose, and Jesus reigns.

4 King David Knew: Do You? (Acts 2:25-31)

Now standing and preaching in the power of the Spirit, Peter is not just winging it! He is not making this up as he stands there, hoping for the best! He roots what is happening in the story God has told for ages. First, he used Joel to help the crowd understand, and then Peter turned to David. Not simply because he was Israel’s greatest king and a hero of the people, centuries later, almost messianic in his memory and their expectation of one to follow him. No, Peter turns to David because he knows, has walked with, and heard from God. Thus, again, Peter uses Scripture to show the crowd that Jesus would always be the way God worked in the world. He quotes from Psalm 16 and explains that David wasn’t just reflecting on his own life—he was looking ahead to the messiah to come, the one who would save them:

“You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.”

Those were David’s words about living eternally, yet here’s the thing—David did die. And they all knew it. His tomb was still there in Jerusalem. His bones had turned to dust like everyone else’s. So, Peter begins to show that David had a sense of something beyond himself, of someone greater to come. He was speaking prophetically. He was talking about another – the King of Kings! The King who would go into the grave and taste death, and then spit it out because it could not contain him! He was the holy one who would not see decay, but instead broke the curse of sin and reversed our decay!

Peter wants the crowd to grasp that what they’re seeing, hearing, and struggling to understand is not waffle or religious hype. Instead, it is the fulfilment of a promise. David, the greatest voice in Israel’s worship, had already declared that this day would come, and now, they stand in Jerusalem, witnessing its arrival! David believed that God would not abandon his Messiah to the grave; he did not know the specifics or the how, but he knew it to be true; and now Peter stands and says: it was Jesus!.

Consider the marvel of this moment as Peter addresses a crowd from around the known world that was mostly devout Jews. They honoured David. They sang his psalms. They taught their children about his victories. And yet Peter is declaring boldly that David is not the great one! Instead, he longed for the greater one who would come after him. He longed for the one who would go after him. He knew resurrection hope wasn’t in himself—it was in the promised messiah to come, and Peter hits home now that the choice is now. Consider this, David knew of hope because of the resurrection – what about you? Everyone’s trying to tell us who we are, where we belong, and what to build our lives upon. Yet, Peter is clear: true hope is found only in Jesus. Our hope can not be in our history, nor can it be in our culture, background, or achievements. It has to be in the one who rose again. So ponder again – What about you?

5 He Has Risen (Acts 2:32)

If there were to be a pinnacle verse of the passage, perhaps of the entire book, this would be it! What a verse 32 is! It is the Gospel and power of God in one sentence, as words are stretched to their limit. Peter’s declaration is bold and clear:

“God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.”

It feels like an amen moment. This isn’t theory; It’s not wishful thinking. Nor is this some scheme of a grieving group of disciples attached to some itinerant Nazarene trying to make sense of their loss with a collective delusion. No, this is testimony.  Peter isn’t preaching possibility—he’s declaring what happened. And not just him, but all those who had walked with Jesus, eaten with him, and watched him die now stand and say with one voice: He has risen, He lives, and he reigns! You don’t think God can change people? You wonder if even God can use you? Consider this: Peter, who once crumbled in fear at the question of a servant girl, now stands in front of thousands, unshaken, unstoppable and sure of the truth he proclaims. What changed? He saw the risen Christ.. Resurrection turned a denier into a preacher, and cowards into courageous witnesses.

And this is the heartbeat of our gospel faith: The resurrection is not just a doctrine we assent to—it is the defining event that reshapes our reality, living and eternity. In a world obsessed with personal stories, where everyone is searching for their truth and voice, Peter stands and says there is one story that changes every other: Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. The gospel is not just good advice. It is thee good news; and it demands a response. So in this Pentecost passage, what does your heart say as the Spirit sifts?

6 He is Risen Indeed! As king (33-36)

Here is the beautiful and all-powerful truth: it is not just that Jesus is risen and has escaped death. His Resurrection is his exultation, the vindication of his mission, identity, authority, and call to follow him. The resurrection was not the end of his mission, nor was the ascension the moment when he left the scene and hoped for the best! No! It was his enthronement and we must now grasp – Jesus rules at the right hand of the Father. The very outpouring of the Spirit that the crowd had just witnessed wasn’t a random outburst or a private spiritual experience—it was visible, tangible and powerful proof of what Jesus had done, and what God was about to do!

The King has ascended, and the Spirit is the gift he pours out on his people. Thus, the bold, unflinching declaration that echoes through the streets of Jerusalem and still rings through history:

“God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

Peter is no longer shy; he knows only the courage and the power of the Spirit. His statement is direct and to the point, as Peter makes it clear—this Jesus is not one option among many, not a good man or a moral teacher. As Lewis is famously quoted:

I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t take his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. This man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Peter said it first – Jesus is the Lord, and he is the Christ. So, to borrow from CS Lewis, how much of Jesus are you willing to accept? Is He on the throne of your heart and life? In a world where religion is often cultural, convenient, background noise, or irrelevant, Peter makes it clear that we cannot say of Jesus that he is normal but not God! Jesus does not allow us to only offer part-approval. He is either King or nothing to us. He does not come for fans but disciples, servants and Kingdom workers through repentance and faith, empowered by the Holy Spirit to see him and make him seen! So again, we must ask. What about you?

7 | What Does This Mean for You? (Conclusion | 37-41)

So we have asked and must ask again – What does all this mean? What does it mean for us individually? What does it mean for us as a Church? And what does it mean for the world? The claims Peter makes here are not truths that we can dismiss in the modern sense, or relative, or have nothing to do with ours. Peter claims to know the truth, and he enters it in the events of one person – Jesus. Furthermore, he argues that this absolute truth is not just for his time and place, for their cultural moment, but it will be a truth for everyone across the world, all cultures, and all time because Jesus is God! Hence, the reality of Jesus’ resurrection and exaltation hits home to the crowd’s ears and hearts that are being pricked!

He is not just alive — he reigns; He is not just vindicated, He is enthroned and ruling over all things eternally! He is the Lord and Life of death because he has mastered life and death. Then we see that as Peter proclaims this gospel with Spirit-given clarity, it does what no human speech or attempt at persuasion could: it cuts the heart because the Spirit is at work in the heart of those who hear. Do you see it? This is exactly what happens to the crowd in Jerusalem.. Just moments before, some had been laughing, scoffing, dismissing the Spirit’s work as drunken nonsense of grieving men early in the morning; They did not know what was happening, but rather than have their normal interrupted, they found reasons to dismiss it. But now? They can no longer dismiss; their eyes are being opened, their hearts are being pricked, and they are undone. The Spirit takes Peter’s words and drives them deep into the depths of their being – because that is where the gospel works, and as this truth hits home – They are convicted. Suddenly, their mind begins to see that which it sought to deny as they realise that Jesus, whom they rejected, is, in fact, the Lord they need. And so they ask: “What shall we do?” Not out of panic, but in the power of the Spirit who is at work in them and helping them to know the beauty of repentance as they long to be made right, and know the wonder of restored relationship with God.

Peter’s answer does not complicate things or seek to add to their moral burden; it is beautiful and straightforward because the Gospel is as such. Also, it is full of grace and urgency:

“Repent and be baptised, 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.”

What does Peter tell them to do? That which Jesus instructed his disciples, they would do in the work of the Great Commission. Believe it in their hearts and then declare it publicly in baptism and for the rest of their lives, as the Spirit will empower them to build the Kingdom of God. Or to put it another way, get off your thrones and turn from the idols of your lives and trust in the Lord. Let go of the false thrones you’ve trusted in. Come to the true King. Be washed clean. Receive the very Spirit who has opened your eyes. And don’t miss the wideness of this invitation — this promise is for you, your children, and all who are far off. That includes the religious and the irreligious, the cultural Christian and the hardened sceptic, the broken-hearted and the hard-hearted. No one is beyond the reach of grace. No one. That day, three thousand people said yes to Jesus. Three thousand bowed the knee to the risen King. Not because of emotional manipulation. Not because of clever words. But because they saw him. And now you’ve heard the same truth they did. The Spirit still speaks. The King still reigns. And the gospel still calls. So what about you?