Then Peter said to them,
“Repent, and let every one of you
be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins;
and you shall receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit.
(Acts 2:38)
Peter said this as an answer immediately after he proclaimed the good news of Jesus on that very first day, the day of Pentecost. Those who heard him speaking the good message of Jesus ask the question "What shall we do?" And this was Peter's answer.
I want you to really think about what happened that day.
That day, after four thousand years of human history, and all the words spoken by all the Lord's prophets, this day was the fulfillment of this reality that had been predicted through the whole Old Testament.
This Jesus was the long awaited King, the promised "seed of the woman" foretold in Genesis chapter 3, immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve.
Jesus had fully entered into His full glory just ten days earlier. And just as He had promised his disciples, that the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon them for the salvation of the world. This had happened earlier that very day, and a little later that same day three thousand people believed and were added to them.
Now I want to give a bit of the context, with the tail end of Peter's message, their question and his answer again.
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
(Acts 2:36-39 NKJV)
Peter's answer had two parts, "Repent" and "be baptized."
The Greek word for "repent" is "metanoeo" (μετανοεω), which is composed of two words, "meta" which means "with" or "after", and "voeo", a verb form of the word "mind", "to think".
So I like to describe it as "with-mind" (or "after-mind"). The idea here is, you need to think about this, you need to let this sink into your head and heart! And after-mind gives the idea that your thinking and action are forever after changed. You need to take this seriously! If you believe this message, it is going to change your life; think about that!
Now the second thing is "be baptized every one of you." Notice above as quoted in the NKJV, it says it as "let every one of you be baptized." Notice the word "let," I have left out here. There is no word in the Greek for "let" in this verse. In English a simple command, is always in the "second person." Allow me to explain a bit of grammar. "First person" is the one speaking. "Second person" is the one being spoken to. And "third person" is the one spoken about. So the English the sentence, "Eat." is a command (perhaps to a child) to eat your dinner. It is a command to the one you are speaking to, (second person.) In English there is no way to give a command in either first or third person. But in Greek grammar you can give a command in any of the three. So in our English translations what is typically done is to use the word "let." So when we have in an English translation "let us eat", "let him eat", or "let them eat", that is the best we can do in English to translate these Greek commands. So in these examples "let" does NOT mean to "allow", but rather, in our case, it is a command that "every one of you be baptized." It is not "I will let you, if you want to"; No it is a command in Greek. This use of the word "let" in our English Bible is in very many places. That is a good thing to be aware of!
So Peter is commanding them to repent, and to be baptized. These are the very first two things to do when you hear and believe the gospel.
In the New Testament, the gospel is the good news. It is amazingly good news."
So what was the news that Peter had just told the people that day, on the day of Pentecost?
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
(Acts 2:36)
This news is, Jesus has been made King, "Lord" essentially means "King", and "Christ" is a Greek word that means "anointed." So the news Peter is giving is, this one who you killed, (crucified) is now alive, and God has made Him the anointed King! That is why throughout the New Testament this news is called the "Good News of the Kingdom of God." There is now a new King! He is the King of Kings, the very best king imaginable. That is the news! It is really good news.
But today typically, when you hear the "gospel," you almost never hear the word "kingdom" or "king." What you are likely to hear is that if you believe (some things) about Jesus, then you can go to heaven when you die.
But now remember what Jesus taught us to pray:
"Our father, ... Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done On earth as it is in heaven. ..."
We are told, if we believe these facts, then we will go to heaven, after we die. But that has nothing to do with the "good news" of the Kingdom of God, because the news is that Jesus is King Now! The kingdom "comes" when we obey the King, Now! This is "salvation" by living in obedience to the King now.
Jesus is not a tyrant, He is the most gracious, kind and gentle King you can imagine. He does not "beat you into submission." He invites you to eat with him. He gives you the bread of life. That is the real life!
When I was very young, only four years old, my mom listened to the radio, a Christian station. One day I was hearing something on the radio, so I asked my mom what they were talking about. (Now I don't remember that part.) But I do remember my mom sitting with me at the dining room table explaining it to me and asking me if I wanted to accept Jesus into my heart. I did want to. So she led me in a simple prayer to ask Jesus into my heart.
From that time on, I considered that I was saved and a Christian. But I don't think I knew anything about the Kingdom, I didn't know anything about "repenting," And I was not baptized for about another decade. The gospel I heard at four years old was a very simplified version.
Today I understand how very woefully incomplete the typical gospel is. Perhaps that "gospel" was appropriate for a four year old. But it certainly was very incomplete.
God is very amazing in being able to work with our failures, our shortcomings, and our incomplete twisted understanding. So let us consider how He works with our simple prayer of "come into my heart." He comes in. Think of your heart (or your being, your life) as a house, you open the door and invite Him in. So he comes in, but your heart is full of all kinds of things. So He comes in and can barely shut the door behind him, and he stands there just inside the door with your stuff cluttered all around him. You may hear a very gentle voice, "could we move this object? Perhaps set it just outside the door?" But we think nothing of that thought, so He stays standing there leaning against the door. He is very patient. We are happy that He is now in our heart. We prayed the prayer and now we are "saved." "Mission accomplished." Then after a while we start tripping over things we left lying around on the floor. Then we hear that faint voice, "I could move that for you, if you like?" But again we have something more urgent to think about. So He stays by the door, nowhere to sit among the piles of clutter.
Even so, for many people who "invite Him into their heart", He eventually changes us, a little at a time, and we slowly grow somewhat.
Now let's think about Peter's message again. "Repent"; use your mind, think about the message that there is a King! The way you can be in that Kingdom is by obeying the King! When you first hear this gospel, this is huge! This is life altering! You have a choice to make. You better think about this decision!
When the message is presented well, it can be quite compelling. This is no small thing you're looking at. Repent means a major life change you are considering.
Now we get to "baptism." The Greek word means to "dip" or to "immerse" (in a liquid.) This act is very meaningful! It is symbolic. That is true, but think about what it means. Paul describes it this way:
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
(Romans 6:4)buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
(Colossians 2:12)
So you see when you are immersed in the water, your whole old life is dying as with Jesus' death, And when you come back up, your new life begins!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
This demonstrates that you have chosen to make this absolutely complete change of your life.
It only makes sense that when you first hear this wonderfully good news, you would think about it an right away make the decision to be immersed in this new Kingdom life.
It should be very obvious now, that "infant baptism" in no way has anything to do with what we are talking about here. An infant cannot "hear" the good news, he cannot understand any message. And he certainly cannot make any decision to want to be a believer or a disciple.
If you were baptized as an infant, no problem, it means nothing one way or the other. When you hear and understand the gospel, the choice to be in Christ by baptism is there in front of you. Do you want to be in Him, and Him in you?
One final comment I want to make, if you were "baptized" by "sprinkling," as I was when I was a teenager, Let me ask you, do you want only a little sprinkling of this kingdom life in your life, Or do you want to be "All in?" Years after my first "baptism" of sprinkling, I was baptized by immersion. I, at that time, I think, just wanted to do it the right way, then a few years later I was baptized again, by immersion, more as a renewed commitment to the Lord. Then in another setting, with a little more understanding I was baptized again "in the Name of Jesus." And I think there were two more after that. One would have been enough, if I had had the full understanding. Today it means I want to be fully immersed into Christ and His kingdom.
Do you?
Then Peter said to them,
“Repent, and let every one of you
be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins;
and you shall receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit.
(Acts 2:38)