Back to the Basics

Jeff Peper
Written By Jeff Rybacki
 

“’Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,“Sit at my right hand,until I make your enemies your footstool.”’

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 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.”  And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

Acts 2:29-41

Whenever I’m reading in the New Testament and I come across preaching I always pause to read closely what is being said, and while I’ve only selected a portion of what Peter has to say in chapter 2 you may want to spend a couple minutes before going on any further and read all he has to say beginning in verse 14 to get the full effect. The reason I watch closely the actual words spoken by the apostles/disciples is to make sure that I’m not off base when I deliver a message and, quite frankly, they are my favorite preachers. Just like I might travel to the cities if Alistar Begg or Chuck Swindoll were in town preaching, our eyes should open a little wider when we get to see the words our brothers Peter, Paul, Stephen, etc. spoken in defense of Christ. The actual sermons are usually buried amongst other things, such as historical backstories, teaching on Christian living, how the Church should operate, etc. so you do need to be on the lookout for them. 

There’s a wonderful simplicity and uniformity to the basic gospel message that is preached throughout the new testament from men who came from diverse backgrounds. All pointing to the Spirit’s work to insure the Gospel remains inerrant across all forms of delivery. Think for a moment of the diverse audiences that were delivering and receiving the message. The Gospel was delivered by scholars, lawyers, doctors and tax collectors, as well as fisherman. It was received by Jews, Samaritans, Gentiles (just as Christ said it would be). It was delivered in Greek, Hebrew and not long after in Latin. It was delivered in all languages on the day of Pentecost! It was communicated by Paul who was highly educated as well as by Peter who didn’t understand what Paul was even talking about sometimes! Yet amongst this diversity we see a common message.

I also love the response to the Gospel, “they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” We always need to be prepared for this question when presenting the Gospel. We can’t be so burdened by our anxiety of rejection that we forget the purpose of why we share the Gospel in the first place. Peter’s response is perfect, “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.”  There’s no higher education here, everyone can understand what Peter is saying. Peter is prepared for what the believer’s next steps should be and ready to act immediately on it. And one of the great miracles of the new testament happens immediately afterwards, “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” I love that, 3,000 souls were added! There was no alter call, there was no special prayer that had to be just right, there were no chants, no understanding of spiritual laws, nothing. Just, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Because after all that is the only way the souls of 3,000 people are moved! 

There is no mention of maturity level within those 3,000 either, so actually there were 3,000 mistakes just waiting to happen. Were they sharing perfect doctrine? Nope. Were they sinless? Nope. Were they eloquent in speech? Not likely. They were just 3,000 (unnamed) people that the Holy Spirit forever changed and then used to push the church forward.

 
Jeff Rybacki
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