Believe it or not, in the beginning there was no difference between being saved and being a member of the church. After Peter had finished preaching his sermon of the Day of Pentecost, those listening were convinced that what he had said about Jesus was the truth. So the people were cut to the heart and realized that they needed to do something to get right with God again. However, the question is what could they do, how could they undo all the damage already done? If what Peter said about God making Jesus both Lord and Christ was true, what would happen to them if no attempt to make restitution was made? The cry of the heart was, “Brothers, what must we do? Peter’s answer pulled no punches, it was simple and straight forward, “Repent and be baptized.” Inwardly and outwardly there needed to be visual evidence of one turning back to God. To repent is to be sorry for your participation in rejecting and nailing the promised one of God to the cross. Sorry enough to change your actions toward God and physically dramatize that change through baptism. Only if the united with the one they had rejected could God then forgive them. Having killed the forgiver of sins, they now found themselves without hope. Peter provides them with a message of hope the offers two very incredible promises, the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. As a result of Peter’s urgency, more than 3,000 were added to their number that day. They were baptized in the name of Jesus, and from that moment on they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teachings and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. They had been saved. To say that they were saved is not to imply that their eternal destiny was guaranteed. To be saved is to find wholeness and completeness. It is both to be rescued from the eternal consequences of sin and to participate on a daily basis in Christ’s victory over sin and Satan daily. To be saved is to become a member of Christ’s victorious team. Today I want to look at the implications of Peter’s message not only to the church but to each individual.
I. Salvation therefore is not strictly between God and the individual believer.
A. My personal experience with God is bound up with my relationship with others.
1. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:20-21)
2. Each believer on the Day of Pentecost was repenting and being baptized into Christ, thus being added to each other as they were being added to the Lord.
3. The church was being formed.
4. When we examine the accounts of conversion in the book of acts we discover that the terms of salvation and the terms for joining the church were identical.
5. Believers were not saved then at a later opportunity given the chance to join the church.
6. They were saved by Christ, baptized into Christ, united with Christ’s body.
B. Those who believed the Gospel message and acted accordingly were considered members of the church.
1. There are many theological disputes over the elements of conversion but it is obvious from the conversion accounts in the book of Acts assumes that a saving faith in Jesus Christ includes:
a. Belief in Christ as Messiah.
b. Repentance: turning from sin and toward God.
c. Baptism in His name.
2. Also involved are two promises that only God can perform: the forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
3. There is no distinction found in the New Testament to being in Christ and being a part of the Church.
II. A close look at the content of Christian faith.
A. The most popular name for Christians in the New Testament is believers.
1. This was not an empty faith; it was a belief in God and His saving work through Jesus Christ.
2. With the proclamation of Jesus as Lord and Messiah, Peter reaches the climax and conclusion of his sermon. The initial "therefore" shows that God’s resurrection and exaltation of Jesus accredits him as mankind’s Lord and Israel’s Messiah. (1 Corinthians 15:1-6)
3. Alexander Campbell defined a Christian this way; “Everyone that believes in his heart that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God; repents of his sins, and obeys Him in all things according to the measure of knowledge of His will.”
4. We live in a society where the view is that everyone needs to believe in something.
B. Christians believe in Jesus Christ; they accept Him as the Son of God and the source of salvation.
1. Like today the first century Christians lived in a very religious era in which gods in various forms were worshipped by their devotees.
2. Members of every religion claim to have faith but Christian faith has very distinctive content.
3. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is all the revelation of God man can understand and all of man that we can become.
4. We do not have faith in faith but in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and who God raised from the dead.
C. Christian faith is more than just a mental acceptance of the facts regarding Jesus Christ.
1. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
2. It is one thing to believe in the existence of God; it is quite another to so believe that you place your confidence, your trust entirely in Him.
3. Paul puts it this way, “We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)
4. We trust the God who acted in Christ to save those who believed.
5. Our faith needs to display these two aspects of faith: content and trust.
D. Early Christians accepted another aspect of faith that many modern day Christians have the habit of forgetting.
1. They believed the facts about Christ, they entrusted their lives to Him, they were faithfully obedient to the demands of the Gospel and they lived as members of the faith.
2. Those who held the common faith in Jesus Christ being the messiah and entrusting their lives to Him were thrown together in the company of believers.
3. It wasn’t just their common faith that brought them together but their allegiance to Christ.
III. A close look at God’s call to repentance.
A. When God called people to repentance through His message it was calling them to turn from the ways of the world and to His ways.
1. God wants to break the grip that sin, error, sickness and death now hold over mankind.
2. God’s plan is to banish fear forever making us permanent residents of His kingdom.
3. Peter calls on his hearers to "repent" (metanoesate). This word implies a complete change of heart and the confession of sin.
4. John the Baptist did not introduce anything new when stood in the wilderness of Judea crying, “Repent!”
5. The prophets of old often called the people to repent of their wicked ways. (Ezekiel 14:6, 18:30)
6. John’s warning was not new, but when he said, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” He was preparing the people for a new day.
7. God was about to make it possible for man to escape the clutches of sin and to dwell in a new and unprecedented kingdom.
8. As Christ taught about the kingdom during His days on the earth He never ceased calling them to a genuinely turning toward God.
B. Repentance there fore incorporates several meanings.
1. At it’s simplest it means to change one’s mind, to turn from one belief to another.
2. It is also moral in character reflecting a turning from delighting in sin to delighting in God’s purposes.
3. It is a turn about in attitude from rebellion to obedience.
4. Repentance also has an affect on one’s social life as it causes people to avoid company that may entice them to disobey God.
5. If repentance is genuine then it will be reflected in a godly and obedient life.
C. Once one believes that Jesus is the Son of God, he will want to bring himself under the Lordship of the King of Heaven.
1. A person can not limp along with partial allegiance to the word and partial loyalty to their new king.
2. Repentance requires us renouncing the things of the world and giving complete allegiance to Christ.
3. Since repentance was a central theme in Jesus’ message it’s no wonder that it was a central theme in the messages of the New Testament Church.
4. Paul does not use the word repent but his exhortation offers one of the finest definitions of repentance that one can find. (Romans 12:1,2)
There was a young civil engineer of western Kentucky who assisted his father in his business of railroad prospecting and surveying. As he traveled from place to place, he fell into the society of loose men and acquired intemperate habits, more than his father seemed to be aware of. He shrewdly managed to conceal his evil habits from his parents who were wonderful Christians, the father being the choir leader and the mother a soprano soloist. Once, while the young man was employed on a section of road forty miles from home, it became necessary to lay over from Thursday noon till Monday. His father would be detained till Saturday, reaching home in time for the choir rehearsal. The son, instead of going to his home, went to a bar to begin a spree. The bartender understood his case too well and kept him hidden in his own apartment. When his father came home, he expected to find the boy there. Trouble began when the question, "Where is Harry?" informed the startled mother that he should have come earlier. During the Sunday evening service she was to sing a solo, and by special request--because she sang it so well--her selection was to be, "Where Is My Wandering Boy?" It seemed impossible to her to sing that song under the circumstances. When on Sunday morning, a policeman found Harry, the certainty was no more comforting than the suspense had been. She was advised that he would be "all right tomorrow morning," and that she had better not see him until he sobered up. Toward Sunday night Harry began to come to himself.
His father had hired a man to stay with him and see to his recovery. When Harry learned that his mother had been told of his plight, the information cut him to the heart and helped to sober him. When the bells rang, he decided to go to church. He knew nothing of the evening program. He was still in his working clothes, but no reasoning could dissuade him. His attendant, after making him as presentable as possible, went with him to the service. Entering early by a side door, they found seats in a secluded corner, but not far from the pulpit and the organ. After the usual succession of prayer, anthem, and sermon, the time for the solo came. It was probably the first time in that church that a mother had ever sung out of her own soul’s distress:
Oh, where is my wandering boy tonight,
The child of my love and care?
Every word was to her own heart a cruel stab. The congregation caught the feeling of the song, but there was one heart as near to breaking as her own. She sang the last stanza,
Go for my wandering boy tonight,
Go search for him where you will,
But bring him to me with all his blight,
And tell him I love him still.
Oh, where is my wandering boy?
Just then a young man in a woolen shirt, corduroy trousers and jacket made his way down the aisle to the choir stairs with outstretched arms, and sobbing like a child, cried, "Here I am, Mother!" The mother ran down the steps and folded him in her arms. The astonished organist, quick to take in the meaning of the scene, pulled out all his stops and played, "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow." The congregation joined in the great doxology, while the father, the pastor, and the friends of the returned prodigal stood by him with moist eyes and welcoming hands.
