In Acts 2:38, where Peter responds to a question posed by those under conviction after his Pentecost sermon, “What shall we do? (2:37), he says: ““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 Apostle’s response raises a question:
What is meant by “Repent and be baptized”? It sounds like baptism may merit our
forgiveness of sins. Is this what Peter is teaching? To answer that question, we must look
throughout the book of Acts to see what is taught in its twenty-eight chapters
about how a person truly responds to Jesus Christ and also to what are they
responding (what is the evangelistic message?). When we understand these two
matters, we will not only be able to understand what Peter is teaching here, we
also will have very helpful guidance in how we are to reach others for Jesus.
So, let’s look briefly at what we discover.
The
Evangelistic Message In Acts
There are two ways we can look at this
topic in Acts. First, we can study the sermons or speeches found in the book to
see if we can discover a pattern. Second, we can look at summary statements in
the book about what the apostles did as they went about proclaiming their
message.
A Preaching Pattern In The Sermons
John Stott, focusing on all the sermons or speeches,
concludes that Luke supplies five sample evangelistic sermons total by Peter
and five by Paul.[1] Even
more importantly for our purpose is that Stott concludes that “there was a core
to the proclamation of both apostles….” Stott, in basic agreement with most
other Acts commentators, identifies that core or the pattern of preaching this
way:
Jesus was a man who
was accredited by God through miracles and anointed by the Spirit to do good
and to heal. Despite this, he was crucified through the agency of wicked men,
though also by God’s purpose according to the Scriptures that the Messiah must
suffer. Then God reversed the human verdict on Jesus by raising him from the dead,
also according to the Scriptures, and as attested by the apostolic
eyewitnesses. Next God exalted him to the place of supreme honor as Lord and
Savior. He now possesses full authority both to save those who repent, believe
and are baptized in his name, bestowing on them the forgiveness of sins and the
gift of the Spirit, and to judge those who reject him.
So, in essence, based on the sermons in
Acts themselves, the apostles proclaimed to others the life, death, burial,
resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Additionally, they call people to
repent and believe in him for forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit—a
response the outward sign of which is baptism.
When we look at brief summary statements
about the proclamation ministry of the apostles and early New Testament Church,
what do we find?
A Pattern In The Summary Statements
Here is what we discover.
1. The
apostles and early Christians testified and spoke the word of the Lord (8:25),
teaching or speaking it in many different settings (13:4; 16:32; 18:11; 19:10),
and including the entire counsel of God—all that is profitable (20:20-21, 27).
This Word proclamation was important since it is by the Word people are set
apart unto God, built up, and by which God’s people receive their inheritance
(20:32).
2. Several
of the passages we just cited, when understood in context, demonstrate there
was a core to this Bible teaching: the gospel (16:32; 18:11; 19:10). So we
should not be surprised that the apostles and early Christians preached the
gospel (8:25, 40; 14:7, 21; 15:7; 16:10), also known as the gospel of the grace
of God (20:24), which includes the death and resurrection of Jesus (17:22-31;
26:23).
3. This
gospel proclamation also included the following:
a. They
regularly taught and preached Jesus is the Christ (5:42; 17:2; 18:28).
b. They
proclaimed Jesus is the Son of God (9:20).
c. They
reasoned from the Scriptures, proving it was necessary for Christ to suffer and
rise, also affirming Jesus is the Christ (17:2, 17; 18:4-5, 19), and also
persuading hearers about the kingdom (19:8-9). Paul testified to all things
surrounding Jesus, including what he did and claimed—both in Jerusalem and Rome
(23:11). Here is a clear indication of where apologetics intersects with
evangelism. If we base our apologetics on Acts, however, we will eventually
seek to focus upon Jesus Christ and proclaim the gospel.
d. They
taught the good news of the kingdom, that in Jesus the Christ the kingdom had
been inaugurated (19:8-9; 20:25; 28:23, 30-31). In fact, we learn that
proclaiming the kingdom is the same as proclaiming the gospel of the grace of
God (20:25).
c.
Flowing out of this proclamation was also a call to repentance (17:31; 20:21
[toward God]) and faith (20:21 [in the Lord Jesus Christ]), that is, they
persuaded others to become Christians, followers of Jesus (26:28-29; 28:23).
Conclusion
In Acts 1:8 Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will
empower his followers to be his witnesses before other people to the ends of
the earth. This is exactly what we find in the rest of the book. The Spirit
came upon them to move them out and to empower them to proclaim the gospel of
the grace of God. This involved teaching about the life, death, burial,
resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ—and doing this in the context of
other Bible teaching (e.g. among Jews: showing that Jesus fulfilled the Old
Testament Scriptures). Even when they reasoned with people, sought to persuade
them, and dealt with seeking to demonstrate the truthfulness of the fact
surrounding the life of Jesus (what today we call apologetics), the ultimate
goal was to call people to repent and to trust in Jesus Christ alone for
forgiveness of sins and true life.
The
Evangelistic Response In Acts
Since Acts 2:38 and several of the passages
we are about to cite include the noun “repentance” or the verb “repent,” we
should provide a definition. The terms in the New Testament that stand behind
both the noun and verb mean literally “to think afterward,” in other words to
“change one’s mind.” When the Bible
calls us to repent it is calling us to change our mind concerning how we view
God (he is God we are not),[2] how we view our sin (we should grieve over it rather than take it
lightly, and we should turn to Christ for forgiveness),[3] and how we view salvation (we cannot serve as our own savior).[4] It is no surprise, then, that repentance involves our turning
toward Jesus Christ to trust him as Savior, and it results in a changed life
since we follow him as Lord.[5]
Now that we grasp a basic understanding of
repentance, let’s discover what Acts teaches about how a person responds in a
saving way to the evangelistic message as we outlined it above.
1. People are called to repent and be baptized, or we see them engaging
in this dual response. 2:38
2. People are called to repent, or we see
them engaging in this response. 3:19; 14:15
3. People are called to trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation,
or we see them engaging in this response. 4:12; 9:42; 13:12, 38-39; 14:1, 27;
15:5, 7; 16:31; 17:12;18:8; 21:20, 25
4. People are called to repent and trust in Jesus Christ alone for
salvation, or we see them engaging in this dual response. 10:43 (in light of
11:18); 11:20-21; 16:14-15; 17:4 (in light of 30-34); 17:30-34; 20:21; 22:16;
26:18-20
5. It is made clear that baptism should follow repentance and saving
faith, it does not lead to it. 8:37; 9:18 (see in light of 22:16); 10:43-48 (in
light of 11:18); 16:14-15, 31-34; 18:8; 22:16
6. However, baptism so much serves as the outward sign of the inward
reality or response that it can stand alone in a text to speak of repentance
and/or faith. This not only shows how baptism functioned in the New Testament,
but also its importance as a public profession of faith. 8:37; 9:18
Evangelistic Response Conclusions
1. Based on what the rest of the book teaches about responses to
Jesus, the command to repent and be baptized in 2:38 cannot mean that baptism
saves. This is the only time it is given such prominence in the book. Many
places it is not mentioned at all. It is mentioned enough, and with clarity
about when it takes place, to know that: It is an outward sign of what happens
to us inwardly and thus can stand for one’s response to Jesus Christ; those who
trusted Jesus Christ as Savior were baptized as their public profession;
baptism follows repentance and faith.
2. Since faith and repentance can be used interchangeably to refer
to the same saving response (for example compare 11:18 and 14:27), we conclude
that all true repentance includes faith in Jesus Christ and all true faith in
Jesus Christ includes repentance.
3. Because of #’s 1-2, Luke and the early church could speak of
baptism, repentance, or faith by themselves and mean virtually the same thing.
If either of the latter terms stood by themselves, most likely they implied the
other one. If baptism stood by itself, the intent is that a person is engaging
in the initiatory rite that is the outward profession or sign of what they have
done—to repent and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior.
4. Any faith that does not involve an outward turning, an outward
transformation, should be called into question.
Study Conclusions
Though we have discovered Acts does not
teach that baptism saves in any manner, it is an important public profession of
faith, an outward sign of the inward reality of repentance and faith. It should
function as the public profession that one has trusted in Jesus Christ alone
for salvation. If you have not been baptized, you should be as your outward
profession and in obedience to the Lord Jesus (see Matthew 28:19).
We also discover that if a person is to
respond in true saving faith to Jesus Christ (which includes repentance), they
must hear the Word of God, the core of which is the gospel (Acts 18:8). This
means we, like the early church, must very much be about teaching the gospel to
others and calling them to respond in repentance and faith. This
Christ-exalting, gospel-centered approach that is seeking the saving response
of others should mark us as a congregation.
The question we are left with, then, is
this: Are you currently involved in any
relationships where you are seeking to love a person who may not know Jesus as
Savior, praying that you can share the good news with them? Regardless of our
place in life, this is the calling of all Christians. But sadly I recently learned
that only 1/100 Christians actively pursues sharing their faith. Can you imagine
the difference it would make if that became 2/100 or 3/100? Will you be part of that growing 1-2%?
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