Acts 2:37-38 ~ Now What? Step 1: Repent!

THE FIRST “SERMON”PART SEVEN – THE NUMBER OF COMPLETION

Acts 2:37-47

Acts 2:14 (beginning)

“Men of Judah andall you residents of

Jerusalem, let me explain this to you

and pay attention to my

words…’

Acts 2:36 (conclusion)

“Therefore let all the house of Israel

know with certainty that…

“God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified,

both Lord and Messiah!”

LITERARY DEVICE: INCLUSIO

BROTHERS, WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

•Repent

•Be Baptized• In the name of Jesus Christ (Jesus Messiah) *•For the forgiveness of your sins •And the gift of the Holy Spirit *

REPENT• Change your mind and your life

• Turn right about and do it now

• Implies a complete change of heart and confession of sin

• A change of direction in a person’s life, not just a mental change of attitude or feeling of remorse

REPENT• Peter believes that without change, his Jewish audience faced God’s judgment for their sins…

•Not just outsiders of Gentiles need to be saved, but insiders as well…

• Especially those involved in Jesus’ death.

BE BAPTIZED• Submit to the humiliation of baptism

• Jews regarded baptism as necessary for GENTILE converts ONLY

• IN THE NAME OF the Messiah they had previously rejected

BE BAPTIZED“IN THE NAME OF Jesus Christ (Jesus Messiah)”

• “On the basis of the name of”• “To the account of”• “With reference to”• “In the authority of”

“Jesus was probably namedas the baptizing was being done.”

(Witherington, 154)

BE BAPTIZED“For the forgiveness of your sins”

• John the Baptist proclaimed a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mk 1:4, Lk 3:3)

• Jesus preached repentance (Mt 4:17; Mk 1:15)

• Jesus & Disciples baptized (Jn 3:22, 26; 4:1-2)

“Forgiveness, pardon, is not an act which takes place within the soul of the person who is guilty;

it takes place in the mind of the person who forgives,

and it cannot be known to the person forgiven except by some medium of communication…

When it is God who forgives,

it is an act of the divine mind in reference to the sinner,

and not a change within the sinner himself.

It is an act which from its very nature cannot take place

until there has already occurred within the sinner such a change of heart and purpose

as can make it proper in God, even on the ground of atonement in Christ, to extend pardon.

In other words, the whole inward change which the sinner is required to undergo

must take place before the sin can be forgiven.”

McGarvey, pp. 44-45

• Achtemeier, Paul J., Joel B. Green, Marianne Meye Thompson. Introducing the New Testament: Its Literature and Theology Hardcover. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001.

• Archer, Gleason. Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing Company, 1982. • Aymer, Margaret. “The Acts of the Apostles.” Women’s Bible Commentary, edited by Carol A. Newsom, Sharon H. Rindge, Jacqueline E. Lapsley,

536-546. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012.• Bruce, F.F. The Book of the Acts. The New International Commentary of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,

1984.• Gentz, William, General Editor. Dictionary of Bible and Religion. New York: Abingdon Press, 1986. • Longenecker, Richard N. “Acts,” in John and Acts. Vol. 9 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary with the New International Version, edited by Frank E.

Gæbelein, 205-573.  Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1981.• MacGregor, G.H.C. and Theodore P. Ferris. “The Acts of the Apostles,” in Acts and Romans. Vol. 9 of The Interpreters Bible, edited by George Arthur

Buttrick, 3-354. New York: Abingdon Press, 1954.• Marshall, I, Howard. Tyndale Commentary of the New Testament: The Acts of the Apostles. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,

1980.• Martin, Ralph P. New Testament Foundations: Volume 2. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1978.• McGarvey, J.W. New Commentary on Acts of Apostles, Volume 1. Lexington: Gospel Light Publishing Company, 1892.• Packer, J.W. The Acts of the Apostles. The Cambridge Bible Commentary, edited by P.R. Ackroyd, A.R.C. Leaney, J.W. Packer. Cambridge: University

Press, 1966.• Robertson, Archibald Thomas. Word Pictures in the New Testament, Volume III. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1930.• Stott, John R. W. The Message of Acts. Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1990.• Willimon, William H. Acts. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, edited by James Luther Mays. Louisville: Westminster

John Knox Press, 2010.• Witherington, Ben. The Acts of the Apostles : A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Eerdmans, 1997.

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