Acts 2:37-41 ~ part 3
Acts 2:37-41
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter replied, "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. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call." With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acts 2:37-41)
Nothing can be as dead and dry, futile and frustrating as church work without the power of the Spirit. On the other hand, nothing is quite as exciting and exhilarating, alive and powerful as a church filled with the Spirit. The church which was born in the midst of Jerusalem in Acts chapter 2 was certainly such a church. It was a living, dynamic expression of the power of God to change lives.
We see God at work as the Holy Spirit descends on the day of Pentecost. We see God at work when Peter, a fisher of fish, too cowardly to confess Christ to a servant girl a few days earlier during the trial of Jesus, receives the boldness to become a fisher of men. We see God at work whenever three thousand people are added to the Church in one service. We see God at work, changing lives and performing miracles of forgiveness and deliverance in the hearts of men. The Church was born that day in Jerusalem, and what a Church it was! Through its ministry, the entire world would be changed. It truly was a great and dynamic Church.
We want to be a church like that, don’t we? We want to experience the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit of God. We want to experience the life which comes from a mighty move of the Spirit in our midst. But we have to ask ourselves, What made this first church so powerful? What made it the kind of church God could use? What were the marks of its greatness? What was the character of its people? How is it different from what we see today? And what can we do to follow their example?
Over the next few weeks, we will see from our text several marks of a growing and great church. But it is not enough to merely see them and note them as interesting features, we must ask God to make them a part of the fabric of our lives as individuals and our fellowship here in this local church.
The Church is Born
The events leading up to the Day of Pentecost were unique for this small band of disciples of Jesus. They had endured one of the most traumatic and bewildering times of their lives. Jesus had been crucified on the Cross. The one they believed to be the Messiah had been killed, an innocent man murdered! They thought it was over. They didn’t know what to do. Then they heard the news. Jesus was alive! He had risen from the dead. Then He appeared to them to confirm this fact. Even doubting Thomas was made a believer. Jesus then told them to wait in Jerusalem for the power of God to come upon them and after that they would bear witness to Him all over the world. After He said this, He ascended into the clouds before their very eyes. Wow! What a wild ride this time must have been. I am sure they must have felt every emotion that a person can have.
Then they went to Jerusalem to wait. They waited and prayed for ten days until the Day of Pentecost, a Jewish feast day, came. And God showed up that day. By His Spirit, God poured forth His power on the one hundred twenty disciples who were waiting in the upper room. It was a powerful demonstration of power with tongues of fire hovering above everyone and with everyone speaking in other tongues and the crowd understanding them in a multitude of languages. Something strange was happening. God had showed up and things were about to change.
One thing that changed was that timid men became bold, one in particular. Peter, a few days before not able to confess Christ to a servant girl, now stood up before thousands of people and preached a sermon. He was now bold as a lion and unafraid. He had the power that Jesus had promised. At the conclusion of the sermon, he told them just who Christ really was. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" (v. 37) This was right where God wanted them.
Peter replied, "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. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call." With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." (vv. 38-40)
A Regenerate Church
Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (v. 41)
The first mark of a great church is really foundational to all the others. They were a regenerate church. In other words, the people in this church were saved people. They had been born again by the Spirit of God, they experienced a renewed heart. This is what Jesus said that every person needed. He told Nicodemus, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3:3) He goes on to say, "You should not be surprised at my saying, You must be born again."
Jesus came to bring people to the new birth. He came to give us new life by the Spirit. This is what makes all the difference. This is what makes us Christians. We are Christians because we have received this new life. We are made part of the family of God because we are born from above.
Now, that may seem so basic as to not need to be say it, but it is important that we understand this clearly. Far too many people’s names have been added to church rolls without ever adding the people to the Church. To be in the Church of Jesus Christ is no mere formality of adding your name to a roll. To be in His Church, you must first be born again. It doesn’t have anything to do with church membership, denominational membership, or any such thing.
Admission to the family of God is offered to everyone who makes a personal, credible confession of their faith in Jesus Christ. And what is that? That is the recognition that we need a savior, and that savior is Jesus Christ. It is a commitment to live a Christian life, to the best that we can, as fallen sinners, depending upon Him for our salvation. Many are baptized into the local church as babies and grow up thinking that they are Christians because of that ritual. But the Scripture nowhere teaches that the application of water on the head of an infant makes that child a Christian. The Bible clearly teaches that salvation is by faith. In other words, there must be faith in the heart of the person trusting in Christ. And, then baptism follows faith. No one can believe for another person. Each person must come to Christ individually. And to lead people to believe that they are okay when they are not is deception.
Our text indicates that those who accepted his message were the ones who were added to the church. This speaks of our opening our lives up to Him. It speaks of our surrendering to Him. Before we can be added to His Church, we must agree with God concerning what His Word says about our sinful condition, our inability to save ourselves, and the necessity to trust Christ alone for our salvation.
Baptized Believers
The Scripture goes on to say that these people were baptized. In some sense, baptism is the initiation of the believer into the fellowship of the church in that it is an outward action that indicates an inward event. But it is far more than that. Baptism is the identification of the believer with Christ. Water baptism is more than just a ceremony. It declares that you have come to faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. It testifies of His saving grace in your life. It is the sign of your confession of faith. It is commanded by Jesus, and therefore not optional. It is the first step of obedience to Christ.
We believe in baptism by immersion. In other words, we believe that for baptism to take place, one must be a believer in Jesus Christ. The reason for baptism is that Jesus commanded us to do so. He commanded us to baptize those who became His disciples in Matthew 28:19 Jesus said, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Jesus Himself was baptized by John the Baptist when John was baptizing those who had repented. And here, when the first church was born on the day of Pentecost, Peter said to the multitude, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins." The order is always repent and then be baptized. It is evident from Scripture that only believers were baptized. The nature of faith itself indicates that each individual must believe for himself. We cannot believe for our children. We can only prayerfully lead them to the place where they may believe for themselves. When they reach the point that they can recognize that they need a savior, and he is Jesus Christ, and they want to make a commitment to live a Christian life, they are ready for baptism. What else do they need to know?
Baptism is a symbol of our faith. In Romans 6:1-11 this symbol is discussed in terms of our identification with Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. It speaks of our being “buried with Christ through baptism.” The very act of our going down into the water and coming up again is a symbolic representation of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, and our death to self, burial of the old man, and resurrection to walk in newness of life. It is a symbolic representation of what God has already done in our lives. He has set us free from our old nature and given us new life. Therefore, it is proper that only believers be baptized.
The symbolism of the baptism itself gives us an important key as to its mode. It is obvious that the symbol is one of being buried and raised again. The only way the effect of being buried and raised again can be properly depicted through a baptism is by being immersed in water. There is further evidence that this is the case from the word "baptism" itself. The word "baptism" or "baptized" is a transliteration from the Greek into English of the word "baptizo." "Baptizo" is a causative compound form of the root word "bapto." Where the root word "bapto" is found in Scripture, it always has the same meaning, that is "to dip" (see Luke 16:24; where the Rich Man in Hell pleads with Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool his tongue; John 13:26a; where Jesus dips the bread in the dish; Revelation 19:13, where Jesus robe is dipped in blood). Another compound form of "bapto" is found in several places in the New Testament. This form, "embapto," also means "to dip" (Matthew 26:23, John 13:26b and Mark 14:20; where Jesus speaks of the one who dipped in the bowl with Him betraying Him). The plain meaning of the causative form "baptizo" is "to cause something to be dipped or immersed" (Matthew 28:19).
At this point, you may be asking why the word was not simply translated "to dip" or "to immerse" instead of transliterated into English. When the Bible was translated into English during the reign of King James, the mode of baptism was to sprinkle. This presented the translators with a very touchy problem. Should they translate the word literally, and thereby incur the wrath of the established church, or should they be dishonest? They decided to do neither. Rather than translating the word literally as "to dip," they transliterated the word (which substitutes the English letter for the corresponding Greek letter), thereby making a new English word. The church then was free to give whatever meaning to the word baptism it chose.
But none of this changes the meaning of baptism nor the practice of the early church. It is evident, from archaeological discoveries of baptismal pools, that the practice of the early church was baptism by immersion. This indeed was the practice of the Jews. It was the practice of John the Baptist in the River Jordan. Jesus was baptized by immersion. The Ethiopian eunuch was baptized by Philip by immersion. There is no doubt that the proper mode of baptism is by immersion. Baptism, therefore, is very important for the believer. Everyone should be baptized because it is the first step of obedience to Christ, because of the example of Christ, because of the example of the early Christians, because it fulfills a symbol of salvation, and to tell the world that you are a Christian.
All of this speaks of commitment. There must be a commitment to Christ before we are truly added to the Church.
If a church is to be a great church, it must be composed of men and women who love Jesus supremely, who are committed to Him. Sadly, one of the greatest mission fields in the world today is the church. A church whose members are not fully committed to Christ, may be saved. However, will never be a great church. It has been said, "The early Church did something because it believed something. We would be trying to do what they did, without believing what they believed." For a church to be a great church, it must be a believing church. It must be a committed church, composed of those baptized believers who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God by the new birth. Anything else calling itself a church is not only not a great church, it is not a church at all.
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