It is the first sermon of its kind. Never has there been an occasion like this. Never have there been preachers like these. Never had people heard what they were about to hear.
Fifty days before this gathering, Jesus had been killed. That happened on the Passover and the Lamb of God had been slain. Now it was the Feast of First Fruits. The Holy Spirit had come upon the Apostles and it was time to preach. It was time for these men to start declaring the good news of salvation through Christ to “whosoever will.”
Those “uneducated, common men” (Acts 4:13) stood before a multitude and fearlessly proclaimed that the same crowd had taken and, with their wicked hands, had crucified the Son of God. The sermon didn’t just point the finger at the guilty; no, it offered them forgiveness for what they had done.
Peter was one of the 12 who preached that day. Raised as a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, now he did what Jesus said he would do, and “fished for men.” Some say that the greatest fear people have is to give a public address. These men were not that experienced in public speaking, but they had been with Jesus. Shaky knees? I don’t think so. They were convinced that their Master was alive and well. He told them to preach. He gave them the message to proclaim. Now in front of a great and probably hostile crowd, they preached Jesus. Not the dead Jesus. No! The resurrected Jesus!
The message moved from the crucifixion to the climax of the Resurrection! The people were so moved that they cried out, “What must we do?”
Then came the answer: an unequivocal answer. This was an answer that should have set the standard for every preacher from then until the second coming.
“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. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself’” (Acts 2:38, 39).
He first preached repentance, a theme that God began proclaiming almost from the very beginning. But then Peter, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, talked about baptism “for the forgiveness of sins.” He not only told them to be baptized, but the reason for being baptized. He didn’t try to cover it up so as to not offend the denominationalists in the crowd. He didn’t try to soft pedal baptism so that people wouldn’t take offense. He told them “what” to do and “why” to do it.
Peter didn’t give a generic invitation to the crowd. He didn’t say, “Now if you have a decision to make or would like for someone to pray with you, just come forward.”
I hear preachers say that and I think, “Oh, maybe I should go forward. I’m struggling with a decision. Should I go to McDonald’s or Wendy’s for lunch? Surely these people can help me with my decision.” It also makes me wonder where they studied. Was it under Graham, Hybels, or Stanley? It sure wasn’t Peter!
What are preachers so afraid of that they won’t quote Acts 2:38? Acts 2:38 is important! This is the first time that the Gospel was being preached. That makes Peter’s sermon an answer to the question, “Brothers, what shall we do?”, foundational. Other answers may be given in the rest of the book of Acts that may say something slightly different, but it will never, and can never, be less than “repent and be baptized… for the forgiveness of your sins.”
It’s interesting that when Peter preached “repent and be baptized,” 3,000 responded. Three thousand were not driven away. They became the nucleus of the first church: a church that spread all over the world. No staging, no compromising, no new vocabulary for them! They had a simple message that Christ died for our sins and that people should repent of their sins and be baptized in order to have their sins forgiven as they take Christ as Lord.
If “repent and be baptized” was good for that first “unchurched” crowd, isn’t it good for the “unchurched” of today?
“Repent and be baptized” was the message of the first century. Let that be the message of the 21st century!
Amen!
Editor, H. Lee Mason; Restoration Herald October 2013