Acts 2:37-47 - Birthday Party And Baptism
Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)
Welcome to Tabernacle Talk, a Bible Study Podcast hosted by Bryon Self, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church. We hope this time in God's Word will be an encouragement to you. Let's dive right in.
Hello, welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Yesterday, we began Acts chapter two and looking at the incredible day of Pentecost of Peter and how he preached the gospel and read through some different portions of the Psalms.
He read through Joel two and quoting that for people and all of the suspicions and curiosities that they had of hearing the sound of the Spirit coming and seeing all of these people so passionately talking and them hearing God's works in their own
languages. And one thing I didn't do last time, but I meant to read in this portion of scripture yesterday and today from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.
And this is a amazing translation out of print now, sadly, but this is one of their reference ultra-thins, ultra-thin reference Bibles. And just a great little Bible would encourage you.
If you ever see one of these out in the wild, maybe you see one at Ollie's or you see one at a thrift store or something, definitely pick these up. These are wonderful. We're gonna go now into verse 37.
So Peter's preached, he's given the call, he ends with verse 36. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. It's a pretty big statement.
Let's see what happens. Verse number 37, when they heard this, they came under deep conviction and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what must we do?
Repent, Peter said to them, and be baptized each 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, as many as the Lord our God will call. And with many other words, he testified and strongly urged them, saying, be saved from this corrupt generation.
So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about 3000 people were added to them. And they devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
Then fear came over everyone and many wonders and signs were being performed through the Apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common.
They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all as anyone had a need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex and broke bread from house to house.
They ate their food with a joyful and humble attitude, praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved. Man, so many incredible things in this passage.
I wanna highlight a couple of things for us today. Number one, sometimes people can misunderstand or misrepresent what's being said here in verse number 38. So those that fell into the conviction of the Holy Spirit, they knew they were in the wrong.
They knew that Jesus was the Messiah. They ask Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what must we do?
Peter says, repent and be baptized each of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
There can sometimes be a confusion here of, all right, so I believe I repent, but then I also need to be baptized in order to have forgiveness of sins. And that's not what the word for here means. This is as a result of.
It is because this has happened, I'm going to do this. So if I'm leaving today for my daughter's birthday party, well, I am not going because the birthday party is making me go. I'm going because of the birthday party.
And here it's that same thought of, I'm being baptized because of the forgiveness of sins. It's realizing this, that no action I can take, no work I can do makes me right before God. If I get baptized, I am not more forgiven than I was before.
If I give money to the church, I'm not more forgiven than I was before. If I sell all of my possessions and give them all to the poor, I'm not better off with God than I was before.
That's because my righteousness is nothing compared to God's righteousness. And God has given all of his righteousness through Christ. It's not something that we have to earn or work for.
Instead, it is a free gift that we say, God, thank you for what you've done. Thank you for purchasing my salvation. And I must repent.
It is turning from my way, turning from my belief into relying and turning holy to Christ. Some people view salvation as simply a get-out-of-hell-free card.
It is something that, okay, I can pray a prayer and once I pray that prayer, I'm all good with God forever and I'm set. But that's not how scripture talks about salvation.
It's not how scripture talks about conversion, about those that truly know Christ. The word that's used over and over and over again is that we repent, it is we turn from our way to Christ.
It does not mean that we suddenly have to have a perfect life and that perfect life then proves that we became saved, that we were converted. No, no, no, no, no, not that at all.
But if you have no intention of turning from your way to Christ, if there is no desire from God that you would, that you would repent of sin, that you'd say, I'm gonna keep all of it, I'm just going to tack on my get out of jail free card.
Well, that would be completely against the words of Scripture, how Scripture talks about salvation. We cannot expect that if we deny what God has said, if we ignore what God has said, that we have a relationship with God.
You can say, oh, but I believe that Jesus did those things, I just don't want it to affect my everyday life. Can I encourage us? James chapter two says this, you believe that there is one God?
Great, the devils also believe and they tremble. They're scared of God, they at least have the sense to go, all right, I know we're in rebellion against him, but we know that judgment is coming one day.
And so often we don't look at life in that same mindset. We think we'll be just fine, we have no fear of God. We don't realize that he is holy and that he is just and that he sees our hearts and our intents.
So Peter calls them to repent. He tells them because of the forgiveness of sin, that you should be baptized. This is following in Jesus's example.
Why are we baptized? We identify with Jesus and with all believers for the past 2,000 years. We are doing it as an identification both with Christ and with his church.
That if a person says, I don't want to be baptized, it's fine, I could pray a prayer, but I'm not going to stand out and be baptized. What they're saying is I refuse to associate myself publicly, visibly with Jesus Christ.
Across our world today, there are many people, those in especially Muslim countries or enclosed countries, that if you believe something privately, if you believe something about Jesus as Lord or Messiah, that's okay.
They're not maybe happy about it, but it's okay. But if the person chooses to be baptized, they can be cast out, they can be attacked, they can be disowned. And today, may we view baptism with a seriousness.
May we see that because Jesus did this, because he commanded, I think of the Great Commission that says that we are to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all things that Jesus commanded us. One of those teachings is that we must be baptized. So he gives all of this and then gonna look at verses 41 through 47, this is how a church grows.
Sometimes people can think if we have great enough music, if we have enough programs, if we've got a pretty enough building, then we can grow. This early church had none of those things.
They had the Holy Spirit and they had a bunch of fishermen and tax collectors that were turned into apostles. How did they grow? Well, the word was preached, verse number 41, 3,000 people were added to that number.
What did they do? Verse number 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
So there you have the apostles' teaching, this would be the doctrine, this would be the things that Jesus had said. They teach them to observe everything I've commanded you.
This is the early church listening to the apostles' teach about what Jesus had said. We have to listen to what Jesus has said in his word, what the apostles taught. That is the rule of our faith.
We cannot divorce ourselves from that teaching and still have any expectation of being truly Christians. So he says, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship.
It is being together, partnering with one another, loving one another.
He says, to the breaking of bread, and this would, I would think, include both meals that they ate together, they spent time together, very common practice in the first century, but also the breaking of bread as in the sacraments, that is communion,
the Lord's table, the Lord's supper. And we're gonna observe that here this weekend at Tabernacle, and it is in continuing with this tradition that Jesus instituted that would say, hey, remember my body that was broken for you, remember my blood that
was shed for you. Let it affect how you live your life today, and remember that one day we are all going to partake of the Lord's table together with the Lord.
Then, verse number 44 and 45, you have, this makes maybe some Americans a little bit nervous where they sold their possessions and they gave it so that everyone had what they needed, and this is less talking about a governmental structure.
This is talking about the sacrifice of individual Christians that they said, whatever God has for me, I'm going to do. If God wants me to be baptized, I'll be baptized.
If God wants me to sell my possessions and give to someone that's less fortunate, I'm going to do that. May we have that same heart that says selfless generosity, sacrificial giving is part of who I am. Whatever God tells me to do, I'm all in.
There's nothing that he can tell me that is off limits. If he says it, I'm going to do it. And then verses 46 and 47, they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex.
Sometimes there can be a misunderstanding because the church isn't a building, but the church is a people.
And if you never gather yourself together with the local church, with the local assembly, then how can you say that you are a part of the assembly if you never assemble with them?
From the earliest portions of the church, they were assembled together. They were assembled together in the upper room. Jesus called them together when he ascended.
There is this assembly that is happening here in the temple complex. May we be those who would put an importance on gathering with the assembly. Maybe that's the corporate assembly.
Maybe it's in the smaller assemblies or small groups or Sunday schools or whatever your church has. But let's place an importance on the assembly. It's how God designed the church to work.
Then we have here, they broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with a joyful and humble attitude. Joy and humility is what categorized these people.
It wasn't a, hey, I'm so much better than you. I'm so much better than all these people that didn't listen. No, no, they were joyful and humble.
They were praising God. It was a wonderful thing to praise our God, to lift him up. One great way that we do that is in song.
Another great way we can do it is just in testimony to other people, maybe on our Facebook, maybe just in conversation. Someone goes, how was your weekend? It was wonderful.
Got to be in church this weekend, was really encouraged, was able to spend some time with a friend and just have some good, a good time together. We can praise God, we can lift him up, say, God's been so good to me. God bless me with this job.
God bless me with this family. We can do that. And it says, having favor with all the people.
And every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved.
That's my prayer as a church that we would have that same heart, that we would have that same goal of, as we are following what Jesus has said, as we are doing what Jesus has called us to do, as we assemble together, as we praise, as we have joy and
humility, that the Lord would add to the church those who are being saved. Today, the call is to you. What does God want you to do today? How does he want you to love today?
How does he want you to communicate the gospel today? Whatever it is, have the same heart as these people that says, I'm going to listen and I'm going to obey. Hope you have a wonderful day.
Talk to you tomorrow as we begin Acts chapter 3.
