Remember

0:00 Well, brothers and sisters, this morning, the sermon is based off of Acts chapter 2, verses 14 and 36 to 41. I've entitled it, Remember. Remember. I'll start with a little bit of illustration. I have a t-shirt or a couple t-shirts that are actually tucked away. I pulled them out last night, but they're tucked away. They're old shirts from when I used to have certain bands, music bands that I really liked and loved and would go see them a lot. And the intention was that I would hold on to these shirts, give one to my son and one to my daughter. And these shirts meant a lot because there was something when I was much younger, what I enjoyed, what I appreciated. But they were just kind of tucked away for a long time. And so it wasn't until I pulled them out of that drawer that I remembered the significance of what that shirt meant and what those things in my time when I lived for music and going to visit bands and so forth. I bring this up because sometimes I think this may happen to us as Christians. We become Christians. We get saved.

1:14 For some reason, though, we forget how impactful our salvation gift is and all that Jesus provided to us. So like that shirt that was tucked away for me, we as Christians, we maybe have tucked away the powerful things that God did when he helped us see that we need to turn back to him, that we were baptized at one point, that we received the beautiful presence of the Holy Spirit in a significant way, a special way. And so today we're going to remember the powerful gift of salvation that Jesus provided to us. And to do that, we're going to look a little bit around chapter two with Peter's words. And let me give you a little feedback or perspective and context for chapter two of Acts. As we see, the Holy Spirit has come down and people were wondering why has this happened? What did it mean? And so Peter stands up to explain. Peter explained how the Holy Spirit's coming down was spoken of in the Old Testament.

2:15 There was always the hope that God had for reconciling with humanity that he always intended. Ever since Genesis, there was the harmony between humans and God. But as we know, that was broken. And God continued a way to make humans relate with him. He found ways through the prophets and scriptures. But again, because of the brokenness that humans experienced ever since Genesis, there was still a hard struggle relating to him. So the Old Testament scriptures, they started to see that God would send a special person. And this would be the Messiah. The Messiah was the one to resolve the brokenness in humans and the world. And when this happens, it would be a very special day. And God's spirit coming into the world to rest on people was a sign of the Messiah coming and being a part and changing things. And so it's a sign that humans can come back into harmonious place with God and God's presence. And so Peter explains how those days have come now in this speech. And it's possible because Jesus is that long foretold Messiah. Peter then describes the earthly ministry of Jesus and how that's changing the world. Peter elaborates on how Jesus' life has testified and bear witness about the Messiah.

3:36 And he tells us of the hopes and the dreams of this Jewish Messiah that's come in Jesus. And so he explains all these things. And then at the end, Peter explains the verses 38 and 39 and gives people an opportunity to accept Jesus as their Messiah, their hero, the person who will save them and is saving the world. So Peter declares loud and clear, if you believe this to be true, then you're going to turn from things that dishonor God, and you're going to show you accept Jesus, and then you will be baptized.

4:11 And from there, you receive the spirit, the Holy Spirit. Are you with me? Well, essentially what Peter told these folks is the good news. That's the good news message. And this is the way for folks who are Christians. Some of us are familiar with this good news message. We've heard it before countless times on Sundays and Sundays and Sundays. And that's because you're Christians. Jesus is your Messiah. Well, I still think it can still speak to us today. As Christians, we need to remember that moment, perhaps, when we had a moment of repentance, what your baptism was like, and how the Holy Spirit is still at work in your life. We should do this for kind of two primary reasons. One, remembering the powerful gift that salvation can still have every day. And then that, too, we need to remember that Jesus saved us from something. And we can share that with other people, both in speech and in action.

5:13 So first, repentance, turning from things that dishonor God. I'm sure many of you have been Christians for a long time. I know I have been. And you need to sometimes dig deep to remember, what was I actually saved from? Others of you, because you were born into a Christian family, you accepted Jesus at a young age. You've always been a Christian, maybe. This is a phenomenon for a lot of people. I know for my wife, she was born into a Christian family. She always went to church. She went to some different churches, but she never had this crazy moment, unlike me, where I had a much different story of salvation. But you need to remember that you were still saved from something. We all need to remember, myself included, that we were all separated from God's presence at some point before you came to believe in Jesus. Even if you weren't saved from a life of drugs or prostitution or addiction or crime or something dramatic, you were still rescued.

6:27 The Bible teaches that all humanity shares in this first turning away from God and that desire. And this is what took place with Adam and Eve when they decided they thought they knew better. From all of this, humanity is unable to live in a harmony with God as it was always intended. And to illustrate this brokenness that we can all, that we all share in, I'm going to talk about Donald Sterling. Is that familiar, that name familiar with Donald Sterling? Well, back in 2014, Mr. Sterling, you'll remember this story. He was the former owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. He made some very racist comments against the African-American community. In making those comments, he obviously got himself in a lot of trouble.

7:12 And that trouble indirectly affected the Los Angeles Clippers. The basketball team, there were sponsors threatening we're going to pull out if Mr. Sterling doesn't get out of here. And then the team was affected by that. And what this illustrated was that one person who represents a larger entity, what his actions could affect a whole group of people. And we see that with the players, the Clippers team and the fans, they themselves were not racist, but the person who owned the team was, and that affected them. Are you with me? And it's what I'm saying with sin from Adam and Eve. We're still affected by their choices. It was a long, long time ago, but it was a choice affecting a larger group of people, even all the way to history at this point, as we know it. And I'm saying to each and every one of us, myself included, the younger Christian, the older Christian, we were separated from God at some point.

8:17 We had to recognize we aren't with God. And at some point you recognize that you needed God. Whether you stole a candy bar or Cadillac, sin is sin to God. And so that's why as Christians, we recognize I was saved from something. You remember that. Think about that this week. Because you'll realize I was rescued. It's a beautiful thing. And then from that, you said, you know what? I want to make a commitment to follow Jesus. I want to keep following Jesus because as he declares, in the name of Jesus Christ, you receive the forgiveness of sins and you keep pursuing that forgiveness. So you're here today because Jesus saved you from something. Think about that this week. You're here today because Jesus is still working on you for something. For me, that's my patience. Ask my wife.

9:25 You're here today because you know you can't live a life without your Savior constantly guiding you and redirecting you and being your coach and saying, get up again. Keep moving forward. Keep moving forward. You're here today because you need to be reminded that that sin way back when does not define you today. Amen? Amen. And it's not over there because then Peter speaks of baptism. We all as Christians, we commit to trusting Jesus with our life and we start this new life. And a way to start the new life is to be baptized. Our baptism in a simple way is an outward symbol of what Jesus did for us to attain peace in peace in this life and the next. Baptism is illustrated with going down into the water and coming up. You died with Jesus, you come up with Jesus. You're lifted out of the waters. And as you come up out of the waters, you're representing new life with Jesus.

10:27 And so dying with Jesus. You decide to turn from those things. He's your Savior. You want to be like him. And then you're going to say that you're dying. You're no longer going to pay attention to the power of sin. And sin has a power over people. As we saw with Mr. Sterling, the former owner of Los Angeles Clippers. He has a product of sin. He has hate in his heart. And then we see that sin keeps Mr. Sterling from being in relation, not only with God, but with people. Because he's a racist. It's unfortunate. And so Jesus' death somehow makes it possible that Mr. Sterling, if he wanted to, he could turn from that, turn to God and love people.

11:14 And so we could see that repentance and baptism and dying to something and coming back is possible because Jesus did that. If this doesn't mean you won't sin, but it means the power of sin you've seen is no longer around you because you went into those waters and that washed you. And so we come up out of those waters, you rise in a new life, new opportunities, recognizing you're not bound by that anymore. No longer a hostage to that. There's life is possible and peace is possible through your baptism.

11:53 That's what it represents. That's what you're trying to remember. So what does it look like for you to come up out of those waters to remember that? Well, zombie movies are an interesting way to look at this and consider this. I know. You're like, what? First, there's some older films. Y'all might remember these. The Omega Man. Do you know Omega Man? Charlton Heston, Omega Man? Oh, wow. That's kind of a deep cut, I guess. But anyways, it's an interesting movie. Charlton Heston, Omega Man, 1971. Night of the Living Dead.

12:25 Yeah, that's quite a popular one. Kind of most recently, World War Z, Resident Evil, 28 Days Later. They made a bunch of different movies. But the point is this. The idea of a zombie is that something has infected the human race and this, quote unquote, kills the human, but yet they're still living. It's the dead living somehow. And they typically live on human flesh. Their existence is sort of a monotonous life of, need to go eat flesh, aimlessly infecting others. Their life is kind of pointless.

12:59 They're a zombie. As Christians, I'd suggest that we are infected by Jesus as we live again in his life. We do die. And then we come back to our life. But our life is no longer again affected by the life around us. We do not come back as zombies. We come back as the living, living, the fully alive. And that is made possible through salvation and peace. And ideally, if we're going to go infect people, we're infecting them with good things, with holy things, with peace, with kindness, with goodness.

13:40 And so we're resurrected again as a living, living. And I think a great way to think about this is when you walk into this church, there's a little baptismal bowl. And you go there and you're reminding yourself of I've died, but I'm living to live. Because he did. It's a great opportunity to remind you, maybe weekly, to I need to reinfect myself. I need to remind myself that I'm going to be a person who's going to live. Are you with me? Yes. Well, a way to think about that is we can face bitterness and hardened hearts because Jesus conquered the world of death.

14:22 Our hearts can forgive. If you died and you came back to life again with a renewed sense of life, that ideally says a new opportunity to forgive people is possible. Because when you forgive someone, it shows them that the world can be different, that I'm going to be living by something differently. That's what the baptism is helping us see and understand. When you forgive people who have hurt you, you are showing them what a new life coming out of the waters looks like. Baptism. And so we return to Mr. Sterling.

14:58 Mr. Sterling, in some of his tirades that make racist comments, he made comments about Magic Johnson, famous basketball player. And rather surprisingly, Magic Johnson did not repay evil for evil. Magic Johnson said he would be praying for Mr. Sterling. He said he would be praying for Mr. Sterling. He didn't go and say judgmental things on Twitter at that time or X. He didn't go and post negative things about Mr. Sterling. He said, I would be praying for him. What a way to respond. That is heaven and earth meeting.

15:35 Magic Johnson is saying that he's going to rely on another world to affect him and how he's going to pursue other people or respond to other people. His prayers for his enemies has testified that Jesus' new life is at work in his life, not defined by that man who's being racist. Magic Johnson saying he's going to pray for him is showing us that resurrection is possible in the world. So Mr. Sterling needs to realize his words are hurtful, not only to Magic Johnson, but to all the African-American community.

16:11 But Sterling needs to realize that forgiveness can be had in this world, and he needs it. So with that, we go now to the final piece of the Holy Spirit. Our new life from baptism reaches another level with receiving the Holy Spirit. And I think it's been there the whole time, but I want to highlight this today. As you stay in contact with God and this new life that's been made possible, you've turned from something, you've been baptized to something, your life's different, and there's a new energy within you.

16:44 I'd say that's the Holy Spirit energizing you. In verse 38, Peter says how they will receive the Holy Spirit gift. And the Holy Spirit there is to guide you and teach you, to help you live this life where you're continually repenting and recognizing you need God. You're getting better, but if it wasn't for God, you might not keep getting better. So friends, where is that salvation? Where did you place it? Where did you put it? What drawer in your house is it in? Is it in the tchotchkes drawer?

17:21 Is it way back where you're putting, I don't know, very significant photo albums? Where is it? This week, remember and pull that salvation out. Remember that moment. Was it that hymn and that song at a church service one day? Was it a conversation with a person you had that just said, oh, I got cut to the heart. Was it a conversation from a child, from your spouse, that the Holy Spirit used to say, you got to work on that. Keep going. You can grow out of it.

17:53 You can, with God. Remember, friends, that the Holy Spirit is there working and moving you more and more to be like Jesus. Are you with me? Well, friends, go and remember that we were saved from something. We died to something. And the Holy Spirit is continually with us. Amen? Amen. Well, let's go to...