Morning, everyone. Just another announcement. We will be observing the Lord's Supper at this evening's service. So if you're able to attend, please join us this evening for our Lord's Supper service.
You can turn in your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, we're going to read a portion of that particular chapter and expand our focus to many portions in the book of Acts. We sang a few hymns ago, when I survey the wondrous cross, on a day when we observe the Lord's Supper, certainly is a good exercise. Well, not only on the day when we observe the Lord's Supper, but any day.
It is a good exercise to survey the wondrous cross. We're going to do that perusing the cross as we find it displayed in the book of Acts. So I'm going to read from Acts Chapter 2, beginning at verse 22. Acts 2, verse 22.
Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know him being delivered by the determined purpose and for knowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. Amen. Well, let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for The Word, we thank you for its disclosure concerning Jesus Christ, our blessed Redeemer. We thank you for the fact that the Bible discloses our precious crucified and raised Christ from page to page, from chapter to chapter. We come to the book and we find it a book concerning Jesus as he himself said on that resurrection day to his disciples that the law, the prophets, and the Psalms, all these things speak concerning me. We pray that you would, Lord God, help us as we survey the cross in the book of Acts.
We ask that you would help us by your spirit to understand these things and to rejoice in them, that we would believe, Lord God, according to your power, the wondrous things concerning the cross. And Lord God, that we would rejoice in the truths of our Jesus, who came 2,000 years ago in the fullness of the times, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might save guilty sinners. Let's bless our time now, and we pray as we always should, Lord God, that this exercise of preaching and worship would be unto the praise of your glorious grace. And it's in Christ's name that we do pray.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, the book of Acts, generally speaking, is a book wherein we have the narrative of the works of the ascended Christ, sending forth his spirit, empowering his church, to proclaim His name, to proclaim His gospel, and to build His church. As we work through the Book of Acts, we ought to notice that when the mouths of the preachers are opened up, they proclaim Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The narrative of the Book of Acts is a book disclosing the crucified Christ as the one who is to be preached and as the one who ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high is currently building his church, the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Specifically speaking, the narrative content of the Book of Acts comes to us by way of the cross.
We're going to look at the Book of Acts, what it says with regards to the cross, but we have the Book of Acts by virtue of that redemptive work. Many theologians have noted that the New Testament is the covenant document of the New Testament Church. It's called the New Testament. But if the Old Covenant or the Old Testament was the covenant document, God's revealed covenant document for the Old Covenant community, while it is certainly and most certainly still applicable to us and we ought to read our Old Testaments, the New Testament is the covenant document for the New Covenant community because Christ, as the one who ratified the New Covenant in his blood, discloses the things by the Spirit pertaining to his precious cross work and the truths concerning him and his gospel.
So the Book of Acts comes to us and it is a narrative with regards to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and its implications for the Jewish and for the Gentile world. The preaching content of the Book of Acts is centered around the cross. When Peter opens his mouth to speak to the men of Israel, he says, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth. And he goes on to say concerning him, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death.
The proclamation of the early church, the proclamation of true Christians throughout the history of the church is centered around the cross of Christ. Before we get into the substance of preaching this morning,
What Is the Cross of Christ?
what is the cross of Christ? We've said this many times before. What is the cross of Christ? It is not, negatively, simply a symbol.
We ought not to think cross and then simply think a vertical and horizontal beams of wood or metal or, you know, be speckled or be jeweled with diamonds and rubies, according to the idolatry of man. We are not to think of it as symbology or symbols or idols or icons, but we are to think of it as Gil thought of it. With regards to the cross of Christ, his answer to what is the cross is this, the doctrine of salvation by a crucified Christ, or the doctrine of peace and reconciliation by the blood of his cross, and of righteousness, pardon, atonement, and satisfaction by the offering up of himself upon it as a sacrifice for sin is here intended. So maybe a shorter definition that you've heard before, when we think cross, and even when we think the blood of Christ, when you see that in our Bibles, that is theological shorthand for the sacrificial substitutionary atoning work. of Jesus Christ our Lord.
That is what we mean by the cross. So we're going to peruse the book of Acts and what it says with regards to the cross under six, yes, six points.
First Point: Divine Purpose
First is divine purpose, and we'll list them as we go, not first off. The first is divine purpose. The cross was planned by God in eternity before the foundation of the world. Preacher, We've heard this before.
Yes, you have. You'll hear it again, and you'll hear it again, and you'll hear it again. Why? Because it is a wholesome exercise to repeat the glorious truths of Holy Scripture.
The Apostle Peter, in his second epistle, writing to a Christian recipient, says, although you are already established in the truth, nevertheless, I write these things to you again because you need to know them. I'm paraphrasing. Trust me, that's what Peter was saying. You see, we are established in the truths of Christianity, but we are girded up, we grow, we mature, we bolster our rejoicing and we pad our rejoicing by filling our minds with the truths of Holy Scripture, the truths of the cross, the truths of the gospel.
So we often return to things so that we might glory in them and hold them close to our hearts. Divine purpose. The cross was planned by God in eternity before the foundation of the world.
The Cross Decreed in Eternity Past
That's what Peter speaks here in Acts 2, verse 23. Speaking of Jesus, he says, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. Let's stop for a moment and consider that. Remember only a handful of days before, let's say 50, and I'm not just throwing that number out there, probably around 50, between 40 and 50, well, closer to 50 days.
Many theologians say 50 days. But 50 days ago, 50 days before Peter spoke these words, remember what he did. Jesus said, the Son of Man must be delivered up by wicked hands, be crucified, and rise again the third day. Peter said, Lord, far be it from you to undergo these things.
You see, Peter was marked by a lack of understanding 50 days prior to this. But you see, on that resurrection day, Jesus comes. and he discloses himself in resurrected glory to his disciples. But he doesn't just say, have peace and be well, though he does say, peace be with you. He sits with them, he eats broiled fish and honeycomb with them, and he gives them instructions concerning the Bible.
Wouldn't that have been a glorious day? The resurrected Jesus sitting down with you and giving you a Bible study. See, that's what it says in Luke 24. He sat with them and he opened up the scriptures to them, and he opened up their minds to understand the things spoken in the law and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning him.
So Peter, on the other side of that resurrected Christ Bible study, having before said, Lord God, far be it from you to be delivered up by wicked hands, now says, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. Peter was well instructed by the resurrected Jesus concerning the fact that the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ was a plan in eternity past, if we can use that language, eternity past, but in eternity past before the foundation of the world, God purposed to send the second of the triune Godhead to die for sinners and to rise again. Now, by this text, or this text isn't by itself with regards to this reality in the book of Acts. Certainly elsewhere in our canon, we have that truth.
But turn to Acts 4 for a minute because there we have it also. Acts chapter 4, in the context here, the disciples had just been, two apostles had just been released from prison. They returned to their fellow brethren. They rejoice in their release, they rejoice that they were able to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ even in the midst of persecution, and they pray Psalm 2 back to God, and rightly interpret Psalm 2 with regards to Christ and their present circumstances.
Notice at chapter 4 verse 27, For truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. You see, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and this would be a blasphemous thing for anyone to assert, was not a haphazard accident in history. God didn't set the world in motion and then the thrust of history moved forward and it just happened to happen that the second of the blessed triune God was put to death as an insurrectionist upon that Roman gibbet. That wasn't the case.
God, before the foundation of the world, determined whatever Herod, whatever Pontius Pilate, whatever the Jews and Gentiles did, divine hand, the divine hand and the divine purpose determined that to be accomplished and to be completed. And kids, what does this tell us? This tells us that
God's Sovereignty and Purposiveness
God is sovereign. Right? Preachers, believe it or not, horrible Armenian preachers are on YouTube kicking their pulpit and destroying it because they hate the sovereignty of God. I'm not making this stuff up.
You can Google it or YouTube it. Preacher kicks pulpit because he hates the sovereignty of God. A horrible thing. A horrible thing.
Sovereignty is not in the Bible. The word sovereignty is not in the Bible. A lot of words aren't in the Bible. He sits in the heavens, and he does whatever he pleases.
Whatever he pleases, he does on earth and in all the deep places. You see, we use words, and hopefully we use them wholesomely, to describe theological concepts. The word Trinity is not in the Bible, but the Trinity is all over the Bible. But you see, this doctrine tells us that God has sovereign, unmitigated mastery over the entirety of his creation, including his creatures.
And this blessed truth that before the foundation of the world, the triune God deemed it well to send the second of their triune Godhead into time and in history, to be enfleshed in a virgin's womb, to come forth, to live righteously and perfectly, to die perfectly, to rise again victoriously, that is a truth that the scriptures speak clearly to. God had a plan before the foundation of the world. And after time and history comes into being, time and history moves to that central event. where a Jewish insurrectionist, falsely charged, would die a bloody death upon a Roman cross, but it would be for divine purpose. It would be to accomplish divine perfection in redemption to save a multitude of sinners to the praise of our glorious God.
And remember, not only does this tell us God is sovereign, but this tells us that God, here comes that word again, is purposive. What does that mean, preacher? Purposive means to act according to a purpose. God has a purpose in everything that he does.
He doesn't set the world a-spinning. God is at work in time and in history. All things are beforehand decreed by our triune God, and providence is that thing whereby God brings about that which he has decreed. He governs the world, events, and his creatures to bring about to bring about His holy ends.
We give too much credit to men, and obviously, infinitely, not enough credit to God when we speak of how people and how God act. And I'll explain that. You've heard this before, but hopefully I word it differently so it seems fresh. People plan.
People purpose. People don't wake up and you know, bump into walls and then just stumble across their toothbrush and stumble across, you know, the shower and stumble across the towel. Oh, towel, I should go have a shower. People wake up and they have a purposive mind.
This is what I need to do. I need to get to work. I need to take off my covers. I need to brush my teeth.
I need to get the towel. I need to get into the shower. I need to drive my car. I need to, well, eat at some point.
You can fill in the blanks. That's a skeletal framework for you. The point is, man wakes up and he has a purpose. Man has a purpose in things that, well, some people don't really have a purpose, i.e. teenagers.
I'm sorry, teenagers. Sometimes you do have a purpose. But even adults sometimes can just wake up and lay down on the couch. But you see, we give credit to men because they act according to a purpose.
But you see, we want to have, and we, spiritually speaking and, you know, so-called Christianity speaking, we want to have a God that just reacts, that he can't have a purpose because that's not fair. He can't, before the foundation of the world determined that Judas would betray Christ and hang himself and be gutted, that's not fair. It's not fair that God before the foundation of the world would reprobate Pharaoh and harden his heart so that he would not heed the things of the triune of Israel. That's not fair.
It's not fair that God would have vessels of wrath prepared for destruction that he might display the glories of his grace on those who were beforehand prepared for glory. That's not fair. So God doesn't act according to a purpose. He sets the world in motion and then he reacts to what...
That's just madness. That is just madness. He sits in the heavens and does whatever He pleases. Whatever He pleases, that is, whatever He decrees to be done, He does in earth and in all deep places.
Our God is sovereign, He is purposive, and God's sovereign purposiveness is most importantly and centrally displayed at the cross. You see, we don't have the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ on a shelf of purposive events of divine decree along with this and that, you know, Noah's Ark and Pharaoh and all these things, biblical events of history, David and Goliath, you know, fill in the blanks. We have Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world by divine purpose decreed to come and to save a multitude of sinners to the praise of the triune God's glory. And then we have all other purposive events, creation, time, and history structured by divine perfection to serve that redemptive event.
That is the central and the most important event in history. It is not one of many other important events, but rather the central, the most important act of God and the reason for time in history. Creation serves the redemptive purpose. The Abrahamic, before that, the fall of Adam and Eve, God decreed beforehand to serve, to set in motion the covenant of grace by which ultimately Christ would come to ratify and to perfect.
The Noahic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant. David slicing off the head of Goliath serves Jesus Christ upon the cross working out the salvation of men. All things in God's history find as the pinnacle and the point and the reason and the center put your important wording here, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Spurgeon in his sermon on Galatians 6.14 says something to the effect that with regards to the cross, all of God's history of grace and mercy prior to and all of the workings of the church and God afterwards have as its center, planted in the middle, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is the center, it is the focus, it is the nucleus and the point of time and history.
Second Point: Divine Promise
Secondly, divine promise. We have divine purpose, which was the cross was planned by God in eternity before the foundation of the world. Secondly, we have divine promise. The purposed cross was announced by God throughout the history that led up to it.
It makes sense, at least it should, right, to our minds. God purposes something, so then God will declare revelation concerning that purposed event. God purposed, so then he's going to promise to those who will be the blessed beneficiaries of the effects of that purpose. So again, divine promise, the purposed cross was announced by God throughout the history that led up to it.
Turn to Acts 3 with me. Acts chapter 3. Again, we're perusing the witness of the book of Acts in our Bibles, speaking to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Old Covenant Prophecy Fulfilled in Christ
Acts 3, beginning at verse 18. This language is great. It is the Bible. It is God's infallible revelation, so everything is great.
We have here a disclosure that the Old Covenant revelation, Genesis to Malachi, is Christocentric. The point of its revelation, the point of the Old Covenant, was Jesus. More to the point, Jesus upon a cross, working out the salvation of men. Acts 3, beginning at verse 18, But those things which God foretold, by the mouth of all his prophets, that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things which God has spoken, notice again, by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said to the fathers, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren, Him you shall hear in all things whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear the prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. He continues, verse 24, Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days.
You are sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. To you first, God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from your iniquities." You see what Peter is saying here, and this is striking language in verse 21 at the end. By the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world began, every prophet empowered by the Spirit of Christ, since creation, served a Christo-centric declaration. They all proclaimed concerning the coming Redeemer who, when the fullness of the times would come, would truly come to die for his people and to rise again in great victory.
The text is clear. The Old Covenant is not a Christ-absent document. Old Covenant revelation is not absent of a Christ. but full of Christ, and Christ is the point of it. Those things which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets, that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled.
You see, also, God's prophecies are not 75% accurate. They're not 85% accurate. They're not 95% accurate. You probably get the point.
They're 100% accurate. all of the prophets' declarations concerning the coming Christ, Christ has thus fulfilled. The cross of Christ in the Old Testament, our confession speaks well with regards to this particular reality. It says in the chapter on covenant theology, it says, this covenant, that is the covenant of grace, is revealed in the gospel, first of all to Adam, in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament. And it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the father and the son about the redemption of the elect." So you see the connectivity between divine purpose and divine promise.
God purposes. In that covenant transaction in eternity past, before the foundation of the world, it was determined that Christ would come and serve that glorious, redemptive purpose. And then by farther steps, after it's revealed to Adam, revelation continues to disclose that precious Jesus. If you're tonight at the Lord's Supper, I hope you, you see, when Paul said, when Paul, quoting Christ, so when Christ said, do this, the Lord's Supper, do this in remembrance of me, I hope you call to mind these propositions, these truths of Holy Scripture.
You see, because yes, we remember, and most importantly so, the broken body of Christ and the blood shed by him. But you see, remember also, call to mind scriptural truths, that this is an amazing divine plan before the foundation of the world. This wasn't just something that happened in time and in history. All these dispensations just didn't work out, so God thought he'd have this dispensation of Jesus coming, And because the Jews rejected him as king, he's going to die.
Now, this was before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 3.11, according to the eternal purpose which God the Father had in Christ Jesus before the world was. Remember not just the divine purpose, but the divine promise that our old covenant documents that we read in our own personal Bibles or that we hear at church or wherever or whatever, they are Christocentric documents that have to do with that event celebrated at the Lord's Supper. My body broken for you, my blood shed for you.
Divine purpose and divine promise. Now, just very briefly in a comment on our confession here, in the section on the covenant of grace, it's different from the Westminster. The Westminster trumps up, if you will, the primacy of the Abrahamic covenant in covenant theology. And they do that with a paedo-baptistic bent, of course, because they want to include the children of believers in New Covenant blessing.
The London Baptist Confession modifies it, and it says this covenant is revealed in the Gospel, first of all, to Adam, in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman. And then they go on to talk about the prehistoric, in eternity past, Decree of Christ to come and to save his people the point I'm trying to make is the governing principle in all of Christianity and redemptive history Is that eternity past? declaration of the triune God to Determine and to purposively save a multitude of sinners perfectly by Jesus Christ time in history comes and the governing covenantal principle is the promise to Adam not the promise to Abraham This covenant is revealed in the gospel first of all to Adam, the time in history promise of that prehistorical covenant of the triune God. And then all time in history follows this theme and this motif that the hero born of woman will crush the skull of the serpent. It's a glorious reality.
And in fact, that skull motif the promise in Genesis 3.15 that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent, that skull motif continues throughout the scriptures. Remember what J.L. does to Cicero, right? What does J.L. do to Cicero? She rams a tent peg with a hammer through his skull and into the ground.
A wonderful act of bravery and faith. rams the tent peg through the head of Sisera, through the skull. The seed of the woman that is those who are united to, you know, by implication of the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent, by implication of the Christian people's, God's people's unity to Jesus Christ redemptively, we are also the seed of the woman by virtue of our union with him. Biblical revelation shows the victory of God's people over the seed of the serpent. Jael and Sisera is an example.
A certain woman and Abimelech in Judges 9. Remember what happens there. Abimelech is a wicked, wicked man. That's putting it extremely lightly.
He has 70 of his brothers murdered on one single stone. Well, this certain woman comes along with a millstone and kills Abimelech with one single stone. Crushes his skull. We have David and Goliath.
You remember what happens there, don't you? This skull motif continues. David comes, doesn't put any armor on, and this wretch of a giant is blaspheming the name of the God of Israel. And David comes along with no armor and, you know, five feet shorter, or however many feet shorter, a whole lot shorter than Goliath was.
Some say he was 10 feet tall, some say he was 16. He was a tall, big man. He comes along with one single stone, whips it in his sling, dents it into his skull, and drops him. Goliath wasn't just the victim of war and a casualty of war.
For 40 days, he came before the armies of the God of Israel and blasphemed his name. David said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? So David goes out. This skull motif running through and woven through Old Covenant revelation, he crushes the skull of Goliath with the stone and then of course takes Goliath's own sword and cuts his head off.
The point is, victory for the God of Israel and this skull motif continues. We get to Jesus Christ, David's greater son and David's Lord, and we have the fulfillment of that skull motif, the whole point. of the skull motif. Jesus Christ crucified at Golgotha, which is what? The place of the skull.
The place of the skull. Jesus Christ, the intended, the purposed, the promised hero born of woman who would crush the serpent's skull, comes crucified at Calvary's tree, at the place of the skull. But you see, it's not a loss, it's not a defeat, it's not a tragedy, because in that dying, He has conquest over that serpent, over that devil, who is the serpent of old and the father of murder and lies. The point being, the purposed cross was announced by God throughout the history that led up to it, and God ordered and governed history to bring it to the perfection of its completion, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Third Point: Divine Providence
Thirdly, divine providence. Thirdly, divine providence. The purposed and promised cross was carried out through human means. The purposed and promised cross was carried out by human means.
Go back to Acts 2 for a moment. Acts chapter 2, verse 23. Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. You see, divine fore-destination, divine determination and purposiveness is brought about and fulfilled by human means.
God determined it beforehand, God purposed it beforehand. You, guilty and lawless and murderous Jews, have taken... Now by that I'm not being anti-Semitic. Hopefully you understand I'm talking about the unbelieving Jews of the Bible.
But you, human instruments of divine providence, have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. So the promised, the purposed and the promised cross was carried out through human means. The Lord God brings about His plan by providential means. Notice again in Acts 4, you may have noticed when we were focusing on purpose, But going back to Acts 4, notice with regards to providence as well.
Verse 27 of Acts 4, So you see, the determined purpose, the beforehand purpose and plan of God, is carried out by Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel. As it always is, since time began, enemies, one with each other, will unite in their rallying against the cause of God and truth. Enemies such as Herod and Pontius Pilate, enemies such as Gentiles and Israel, nevertheless will set aside their differences and their contentions and unite and mount opposition to the Christ of Holy Scripture and to his people. But the point is that the Lord God brings about his plan by providential means.
You know, not only does he bring it out by the means of human ministers, but he brings it about by himself coming into time and history and providence and bringing it to bear himself. Remember from John 10, 18, Jesus says No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. Speaking of his life, no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
You see, we very often think, well, maybe we don't, but just in thinking about this text, you know, we often think, okay, the lawless hands crucified the Lord of Glory, brought him to death in accordance with divine purpose. But also remember, Jesus, in the incarnation comes, participates in this providential redemptive plan himself. With the power to call a majesty and a host of angels to come and intercede and free him from this situation, he nevertheless says, ah, but the scriptures must be fulfilled. You see, so Jesus, as well as other human means, come into time and in history, or God uses human means in time and in history to bring about His holy ends and to bring about His redemptive purposes.
Divine Intention and Human Wickedness
We must note here God's intention and man's intention. You see, the question is very often asked of Reformed Calvinistic Christians, what about the problem of evil? What about the problem of sin? Is God the author of sin?
You see, God decrees evil actions. God decrees the wickedness of Herod and Pontius Pilate. He decrees the evil of the Gentiles in Israel in coming together. But you see, the difference comes with intention.
The divine intention is holy and pure and flows from the will and the counsel of God's immutable power. But you see, man's intention is wickedness. Isn't that the commentary, the theological commentary that the narrative of Genesis gives us with regards to Joshua and his brothers? You, brothers who engaged in wickedness against me, you intended that for evil.
But God intended that for good so that he might save many alive. God intended, purposively, the wickedness of Joshua's brothers. Joshua's brothers intended that wickedly, though, that they might cause problems, to put it lightly, for their brother. But you see, God intends things according to the purity and the counsel of His own will.
Men intend them for wickedness. We do not have a problem with the problem of evil. God decrees according to pure intention. Man engages according to the wickedness and deceit of his sinful heart.
The purposed and promised cross was carried out through human means.
Fourth Point: Divine Performance
Fourthly, divine performance. Divine performance. The purposed, promised, and providentially accomplished cross was completed by God. Turn to Acts 20 for a moment.
Acts 20. In some of the most amazing words in Holy Scripture, And hopefully you'll see why. In Acts chapter 20, when you get there, I want you to turn to verse 27. Or plant your eyes there once you've turned to Acts 20, verse 27.
For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the Church of God, which he purchased with his own blood." You see, the purposed cross, the promised cross, the providentially carried out and accomplished cross, was carried out and completed by God. God didn't purpose a human redeemer. I'll qualify that, of course, because Christ took on to himself humanity, Philippians 2, 5 to 11, 1 Timothy 3, 15 and 16.
But you see, God didn't determine before the foundation of the world that a man, ontologically or creatively speaking, a creature, man, would come in time and in history to redeem people. God did not promise that a man that is a created man of Adamic representation would come and redeem people. He did not providentially carry out the planned crucifixion by putting a human being on the cross insofar as it would be or he would be a created human being. God was manifested in the flesh.
Let this mind be in you. which is also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. He's found in the form of a bondservant. He comes enfleshed in humanity. And he comes and he gives himself on that Roman cross for the sins of his people.
But this language is amazing, isn't it? Acts 20, 28. The church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. God cannot bleed.
God cannot die. God cannot suffer. God cannot bear the Prince of Nails in hands and feet and in His side. Ah, but you see, by virtue of the Incarnation, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, bearing all the attributes of deity, all the attributes of humanity, save depravity and sin because He is pure and unblemished and undefiled, the God-Man can come and shed His blood. for guilty sinners.
And important on this topic, our confession speaks quite well to. You see, because the language in the Bible here is saying that God shed his blood. Of course, this needs to be theologically qualified because God is immutable. God cannot die.
God cannot suffer. God cannot bleed. In our confession on Jesus Christ, chapter 8, paragraph 7, the confession reads this way, Christ in the work of mediation acteth according to both natures, divine and human, by each nature doing which is proper to itself. Yet by reason of the unity of the person, that which is proper to one nature is sometimes in scripture attributed to the person denominated by the other nature.
So that's why they can say, and they cite Acts 20, 28 here, the Church of God, which He, God, purchased with His, God's own blood. But suffice it to say, God brought about, by divine performance, the completion and the accomplishment of the saving work of the cross.
The Deity of Christ at the Cross
This text, Acts 20, 28, does it not speak clearly and without contestation to the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ? The Church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Who died on the cross? Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is God. There's a better Aristotelian syllogism someone could probably formulate out there, but by virtue of this text, Jesus Christ is God. The Bible affirms everywhere, well, in many places, an exhaustive list of texts that the one who died upon Calvary's tree was very God of very God. This has to be elaborated upon and we'll close with of course with our two points here shortly I don't want to keep you too long Divine performance who was it was on the cross Right when we think tonight about the Lord's Supper We're remembering one Who is the second of the triune Godhead?
Co-equal, co-eternal, co-glorious with God the Father. Not 33% or one-third God, fully God, Jesus Christ. He departs from the splendor of His own heaven. Remember, He departs from the praises of angels.
Isaiah 6. In Isaiah 6, the train of Jesus Christ's robe filled the temple. And all the angels flew and said, holy, holy, holy. Depending on your Bible version, if you still have one from the 14th or 15th century, they said it not just three times, but nine times.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole world is full of his glory. The whole earth is full of his glory. Christ's, the train of his robe filled the temple.
The angels aren't even allowed to look at him. Not allowed. It's too majestic. It's too glorious.
Isaiah's allowed, but not because he's special, but for the purpose of his commissioned prophetic office. God allows him to open his eyes and look upon him. But he doesn't puff up his chest and say, the prophet of Israel gazes upon the majesty of the pre-incarnate Jesus. No, he says, woe is me.
Woe is me, for I am undone. I'm unraveled. I'm taken apart. I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.
Why was he undone? Why is he pronouncing this self-maledictory oath upon himself? Woe is me, because my eyes have seen the Lord, the King, the Lord of hosts." Wonderful, isn't it? But you see, that's the one who died upon Calvary's tree for the sins of his people.
If you're here and you're a Christian this morning, God divested himself of the praise of angels and heavenly glory. Now, the angels still praised him as a babe in a feed trough, but what I'm saying is he departed from the glory of heaven and from the praise of angels when the train of his robe was filling the temple, and he comes into our lower horror and ignominy of a world to die upon Calvary's tree, the one who set the galaxies in motion, the one who fixed the stars in place, as one second century bishop said, is fixed in place upon a tree. Do this in remembrance of me. Isn't that amazing?
The one who fixed the stars in place is fixed in place upon a tree. Glorious cross. Glorious cross. While he was on the cross, while he was suffering, He was still, according to Hebrews 1, upholding galaxies spinning in their orbit by the word of His power.
Glorious truth. Divine proclamation is the fifth, and we'll work through these two very quickly in closing prayer. Divine proclamation. The cross of purpose, promise, providence, and performance was heralded by God sent messengers.
The cross of purpose, promise, providence, and performance was heralded by God sent messengers. You know what? I actually do want to stop here and maybe we'll take up these two points this evening. I did have a sermon on 1 Peter 2, 24.
He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. But I want to touch on these because they are surveying the cross and they fit with the Lord's Supper. So let's look at that tonight. The final two points we'll look at tonight, divine proclamation and divine proficiency. with regards to the cross.
But let's close with this.
Application: Preparing for the Lord's Supper
As you prepare yourself to observe the Lord's Supper this evening, what are the things that you dwell upon in preparation? Have I been obedient to Jesus this week? Have I read my Bible enough? Did I miss a day?
You know, what will, you know, people think if I don't take? You know, have I, have I been faithful enough? Have I been loyal enough? Have I, you know, Paul does command us to examine ourselves.
But what's the point of the Lord's Supper? Do this in remembrance of me. The command of the Lord's Supper doesn't assume and doesn't ask for sinlessness. Again, or no one will be able to take.
Are you believing and are you seeking to repent of sin? Take the Lord's Supper. Take the Lord's Supper. You don't take it in an unworthy manner.
First of all, you don't take it drunk and seeking to go in front of others. But also, if you're not dealing with sin, sure. If you're not dealing with sin and you're unrepentant, well, repent. That doesn't mean leave and go through a three-month process of self-atonement.
Repent of your sins and take the Lord's Supper. Repent. When we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. His blood cleanses us from all iniquity.
We don't take sin lightly, but we take the sacrifice for sin so heavily. So heavily. If you have sinned, repent. Find forgiveness with Christ and do what he commanded.
Take the Lord's Supper. Do this in remembrance of me. But the point I was trying to get to, when we prepare ourselves to take the Lord's Supper, dwell upon these glorious truths of the gospel. His body broken for us and his blood shed for us is a reality before the foundation of the world.
It was a reality promised. It was a reality providentially accomplished. It was a reality performed by the divine person, the second of the blessed triune God. And as we'll see tonight, it is divinely proclaimed and it is something of divine proficiency.
But remember and dwell upon and call to mind the glorious truths of Holy Scripture as they pertain to the cross and with rejoicing, mingled with great, sincere seriousness, take the Lord's Supper and observe and remember the Lord Jesus who broke his body for us and who shed his blood for us. And if you're here this morning and you know Christ, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, these are the things that we are so often to call from the repository of our hearts and to dwell upon. Isn't it? When we want to find peace, and when our minds want to be satisfied, and when we want to fill ourselves consciously with information, what should we do?
We should think about Jesus, shouldn't we? Shouldn't we meditate upon the Lord Jesus Christ? We're not going to take pennies and nickels and dimes into the eschaton. We're not going to take, you know, what are they called?
Nintendo DSs into the eschaton. I'm not saying these things are sinful. Hopefully you get my point. We're not going to take magazines and, you know, televisions and computers and Roberto Luongo into the eschaton.
We're going to take Jesus Christ with us into the eschaton the abiding efficacy of the saving work of Jesus is the reason for the eschaton and is the subject matter of our praises in the eschaton so probably that's heaven by the way the Emmanuel's land the glorious paradise that we enter into so while on earth before entering heaven dwell upon the riches and the excellencies of Jesus Christ seen at the cross and And finally, if you're here this morning and you know not Jesus, if you're here this morning and you don't believe in Him, you need to know John 3.36. You need to know many other texts that speak to this reality, but John 3.36 does. He who believes in Christ has life. What does that mean, he who believes in Christ?
Well, 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that he who believes that he died for our sins according to the Scriptures, And He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. If you believe the gospel message, you will be saved. He who believes the Son has life, but he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. And I don't think it's stressed enough, the seriousness and the gravity of hell.
And we don't have eight and a half hours to talk about that. But the lot for those who do not believe in Jesus Christ is hell. You take your memories with you, don't you? You take your mind with you in hell.
God doesn't remove your mind and you just sit there in darkness and coldness, lobotomized. You have your mind in there. Kids, adults, you'll take the memories of preachers proclaiming the gospel with you into hell. You'll take the memories of mother and father with tears, with pleadings, The authority of God calling you to repent and believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life.
You'll take that with you. No reprieve. No solace. No peace.
No second chance. Today is the day of salvation. Do not tarry. Do not dangle.
Do not wait for a better day when you've experienced the passing pleasures of sins and you've exhausted the You've exhausted the fount of depravity, now I'll believe. No. You believe the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
Closing Prayer
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord God, for what it discloses. Your word discloses concerning the cross, concerning your divine purpose and the perfection of your plan, the fact that your revelation from Genesis to Malachi speaks concerning the cross, and then certainly from Matthew to Revelation speaks concerning the accomplished cross work of Jesus Christ.
And we thank you that in time and in history you did providentially and perfectly accomplish the cross, the perfect salvation that it brings to your people. We pray, Lord God, that you would help us to always have hearts that seek to dwell and to meditate upon the truths of Holy Scripture, upon specifically those things as they pertain to the cross, that salvation would be foremost in our minds, that Jesus Christ and salvation by him would be foremost in our minds, that we would be dwelling upon that and finding all that we need for joy and spiritual blessing in that. We just pray that you'd go with us as we seek to prepare for the Lord's Supper, that you would help us, Lord God, to meditate upon our Lord Jesus Christ, whose body broken for us and his blood shed for us. that we might, Lord God, rejoice in these things, and that we might take of the Lord's supper in obedience, in joyful obedience, to our Lord Christ's command. Go with us now.
Help us to glory in the cross and to live in light of it. And might all that we do be done unto your glory and unto the praise of your name. And it's in Christ's name that we do pray. Amen.