Revival Starts With Repentance
August 18, 2024
Acts 2:14-41
James Allison
Key Verses
Acts 2:21 “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Today, we’re gonna look at one of the most miraculous events ever recorded in Scripture - Jesus pours out His Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Peter gives a sermon, and 3000 people place their faith and trust in Jesus. There are several events in the Book of Acts, as Luke is recording how God established His church, that are descriptive and not prescriptive. They are describing how God worked and moved among His people in this time. It’s not always a prescription for what we can expect today.
There are other areas in the Bible that help us understand this. When we look at the virgin birth - the life of Jesus - His death, burial, and resurrection.
Each of these events described how God worked - and it impacts every area of our lives today - but it doesn’t mean we need Him to repeat those events again in our time - And that is often the thought when we talk about how God poured out His Spirit at Pentecost. I’ve heard it said - we just need another pouring out of God’s Spirit. But God has already poured out His Spirit.
We don’t need another Pentecost. What we need is revival.
Revival is described as sudden awareness of God’s nearness, which awakens an awareness of our sin. Throughout church history, revival always starts with confession and repentance. Which leads to a deeper experience of God’s grace. But “Repentance” sounds like such a harsh word in the mouths of many preachers today, but it is an essential aspect of the gospel and experiencing a heart relationship with Jesus. Repentance isn’t something we must do before we can come back to God. Repentance describes what coming to God is. You can’t turn towards God without turning from the things He is against.
What we need is to understand and to experience the gospel of the Kingdom. We need an invasion from heaven that brings a conscious awareness of God. We need to be awakened and restored to a deep sense of God’s closeness and His holiness. We need an overwhelming awareness of our sins, which leads to a deeper appreciation of His forgiveness and a profound trust in His heart towards us - And when we experience that we can live in the power of an ungrieved, unquenched Spirit that filled us. It will fill us with praise, and love, and joy that will flow towards others.
Today, we’ll see that revival starts with repentance.
This is the Holy Spirit. (vs 17)
This Message is for Everyone. (vs 17-18)
You Killed Him. But God Raised Him from the Dead. (vs 22-33)
Peter has been changed (vs 32-33)
Jesus is Both God & Messiah (34-36)
Repentance is a word of great hope (vs 38)
Revival starts with Repentance. (vs 37-41)
All who call on the name of the LORD shall be saved (vs 21)
Questions for Family Discipleship
- What did Peter say about Jesus of Nazareth? (Acts 2:22-24)
- Who sent the Holy Spirit? (Acts 2:32-33)
- What does it mean to repent? (Answer below)
- What is the significance of baptism to you?
- What is your testimony?