Peter 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.
Acts
2:38 NASB
Peter makes it
clear in his response to his hearers on the day of Pentecost that
baptism is essential for the forgiveness of sins and the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism
followed after several things occurred first. They had heard the
gospel message about Jesus. When Peter finished his gospel sermon
they believed in Jesus. “Now
when they heard this, they were pierced to the
heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "
Brethren, what shall we do?" Acts
2:37 NASB That
is when Peter gave them the answer in verse 38. Peters audience had
become convicted of their sins and wanted to know what to do about
it. Peter gave them a straight forward answer. He told them to do
just what Jesus had told His apostles to do to make disciples. Read
Mark 16:15,16 and Matthew 28:19,20. The day of Pentecost is the first
time we observe the disciple making process.They were making
disciples from all around the world that day, “Now
there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation
under heaven.” Acts
2:5 NASB
That
first gospel sermon produced thousands of new disciples. “So
then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day
there were added about three thousand souls.”
Acts
2:41 NASB Visualize
that, thousands converted in one day.
The
apostles also followed through on the other part of the great
commission, “teaching them to observe
all that I commanded you” Matthew
28:20a NASB The
apostles got right to work on teaching all of these
new
disciples what Jesus had taught them. “They
were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
Acts
2:42
As
we look at the making of disciples we have to realize it's not the
teacher that really makes a disciple and it's not the individual that
adds themselves to the body it is the Lord that does the adding. “And
the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being
saved.” Acts
2:47b
Did you catch the last part of verse 47 it says “those who were
being saved”? So it appears the way one is saved is through
baptism. Peter wrote about this later in his letter to the church.
Read 1st
Peter 3:20,21 “baptism now saves you”.
It
is obvious that baptism is significant for the removal of sins. If
one wants to be free of their sins, one must be baptized.
Tomorrow
we look at the importance of remaining faithful to Jesus.
©
2012 Leo J. Woodman
