Repent and Be Baptized (Acts 2:22-41)

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Semper Fidelis

2 Timothy 2:24-25
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» Repent and Be Baptized (Acts 2:22-41) Central Baptist Church, Okinawa, Japan: Spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Okinawa

...I fear that, today, many people don’t actually see the power to save as coming from the Gospel but see the power to save as coming from within. Many of the most popular preachers on TV and in books today are proclaiming a message that man’s problem is not tapping into something that God has made available to every man inside of them. The power of salvation, they say, is found in our sincerity or in our experience of God. The idea that the power to save comes from outside of us is now a foreign idea to many. The reason it is foreign is that it is not being taught like it used to be. Preachers no longer talk about Christ and His work - instead it’s our sincerity that becomes the work that improves our condition.

Even the words we use about the Gospel can communicate whether or not we believe salvation rests on the inside of us or comes from the outside of us as an announcement. Too often, men talk about an invitation to believe. An invitation, though, is something you get to a special event and you have the option to accept or refuse. We might not say it out loud but many probably believe that the invitation is given because God will just spend eternity in misery if we don’t make Him whole by accepting Him.

But God is not made whole by us. No, we are made complete by Him.

What if the Gospel was not an invitation at all but a command? What if the Gospel had within it the power of salvation to actually convert the hearts of men? What if the God who said “Let there be light” and there was light was able to raise dead men to life by the preaching of the Word?

Honestly, I don’t think there’s any if about it.

Romans 1:16 calls the Gospel the power of God for salvation. There’s a reason why we preach the Gospel to the world: because the Gospel saves and if men had it within themselves to save by coming to God then we would not need to go to them as ambassadors of Christ. The Gospel is much more than helping men come to a self-realization that God loves them. Christ didn’t have to die on a Cross for the message that you just need to wake up and realize that God loves you...
...Try to put yourself in the shoes of the hearers of this news. Remember that they put Jesus to death and were deceived into thinking they were pleasing God while they were doing so. Can you just imagine that the hair on the back of their necks is starting to stand on end as they begin to feel the weight of their guilt? If you think that’s bad, wait until Peter really nails them with the Ascension of Christ that we talked about two weeks ago.

In verse 33 Peter proclaims the Ascension of Christ to the right hand of God in heaven where the resurrected Jesus assumes His place of power and majesty on high. Christ had promised His disciples at His ascension that, after He went to the Father, He would send the promise of the Holy Spirit to them. Just as He promised, the Spirit has been poured out on His disciples. Men of Israel have witnessed this power, which attests to Christ’s place of power and glory on high.

He quotes David again with a Psalm that would have scared the life out of the Pharisees. It’s the same Psalm that Christ Himself had quoted to them in Matt 22:44.

THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.”

It’s from Psalm 110 and Christ asked the Pharisees: “Who is David talking about?”

Of course it was Christ but, in their hard-heartedness the Pharisees only wanted to kill Christ for claiming to be God.

Do you understand that? The Pharisees and, indeed, the men present had put Christ to death for claiming to be God.

And they thought they were honoring God for doing so.

But here is the bad news for these men in verse 36: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ - this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Verse 37 says very simply that when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart.

What pierced them?

The Gospel did. The power of the Gospel cut them to the heart. The Word that is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword laid out the plain truth: These men were guilty of putting the Son of God to death on a Cross.

Guilty! Deserving of judgment! Deserving of condemnation! God had every right to destroy them, to judge them for their great sin.

But God was rich in mercy toward them. Even as Christ was in agony at the hands of these wicked men - men just like you and just like me - He prayed for them: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

That prayer was about to be answered for them.

They asked: “Men and brethren, what must we do.”

We’re guilty of treason against God. We know we’re toast. How can we escape the wrath of a Holy God. Tell us, please, what must we do?

38Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39“For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

What?

Are you serious?

That’s it?

Repent and be baptized in the name of Christ and this great offense will be taken away?

God intends to bless me?

God intends to save me by the work of this Man?

This is the truly mind-boggling thing about this News they receive. It is the mind-boggling thing about the Gospel: Sinful men intended to kill the Son of God and they succeeded. They were under the judgment of God for killing the Son of God. But the very act that condemned them is the work that saved them!

It is Christ’s death on a Cross that saved these men! It was His work for them and not any work they could do in return to make up for their wicked deeds that covers overed their wicked deeds.

It was His resurrection on a Cross that pointed to the acceptance of that sacrifice for their great sin that paved the way for their eternal life.

It was His ascending on high where He interceded for them powerfully and prayed that these men be saved by the power of the Gospel and, so, the power of the Gospel went forward and cut them to the heart. It opened their eyes so they could see their sin. It opened their eyes so they could see the Son of God who had died on a Cross.

And now, the Man they once hated because they were dead, they now loved because they had been made alive by the power of the Gospel. The man they once hated because they were blind, they now loved because they could see. Though they were once under condemnation for putting the Son of God to death, they now ran to the very Cross of offense and held onto it for dear life because only in that sacrifice of Christ would they have any hope of forgiveness. The place of the Curse was the place where the Curse was taking away. The stone of stumbling that would have crushed them became the very Rock of salvation...
 
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