*WHAT ARE PASTORS LEAVING OUT OF THEIR SERMONS THESE DAYS? IS IT CONVICTION OF SIN?

The first work of gospel proclamation is conviction. In Acts 7 Stephen preaches that great sermon to the Jews in Jerusalem, and essentially it ends the same way as Peters does in Acts 2.

In Acts 7: 51, the end of Stephen’s sermon it reads,

“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You’re doing just what your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.”

You’re just like your fathers. They killed the prophets, and you’ve killed the ones the prophets spoke of. And you, who received the law as ordained by angels, and didn’t keep it. And when they heard this, they were cut to the quick again, and began gnashing their teeth at him. And what did they do? They stoned him to death.

So what do you do? Change the message? Conviction is the first and primary work of gospel preaching. So, they said, brothers, collectively to one another: what do we do? At this point, the first expression of amazing grace appears in apostolic preaching.

Verse 38. 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.” Is that not shocking grace? How fast did they go from this massive overwhelming trauma, this indictment, to this compassionate, merciful word of grace? “For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” So then, those who had received His word were baptized; and that day there were added about 3,000 souls.

Three thousand had been stabbed to the heart for having murdered the Messiah. They felt the burden of that crime so profoundly that they were fearing the vengeance of God would fall on them instantaneously. They’d cry out, “What shall we do?” Knowing they can’t undo what they did.

They hear this staggering word from Peter, repent, be baptized, receive forgiveness, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit from the one that you executed, who rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, and sits at the right hand. He will give you the same Spirit He has given us.

Peter invites them to repent. But we know what that means, don’t we? Turn and go the other way. Turn and go the opposite way in what you think about Christ, and turn from your sin, the horrible sin of your life which culminated in you killing the Messiah. Turn, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Make a public profession of Christ, and symbolize it by baptism. Open, public baptism.

That would have been some testimony. In the city of Jerusalem, 3,000 people were baptized, and all 3,000 of them were saying to the entire population of Jerusalem, “We committed a massive crime against the Messiah, and we are now confessing Him as Messiah, Savior, and Lord, and being baptized in His name.” Being united with Him in His death burial and resurrection.

Change your view of Christ. Flee the horror of your wretchedness, culminating in the sin of murdering the Messiah. Peter doesn’t allow for secret disciples. Change your association. Demonstrate a clean break with Judaism. In the name of Jesus Christ. This is a public act of severing your ties with Judaism and a new identification with the Messiah. Big step. Alienation. You will be thrown out of the synagogue, dispossessed from your family. You will be persecuted, and that’s what happened, wasn’t it?

Peter insists on the ordinance of baptism to make the repentance full and public. There’s no salvation in the water. In fact, the better way to translate this, would be to translate it this way: repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of your sins. When you repent and confess the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven sin. Baptism is the obedient act that makes that public. That is consistent through the whole of the New Testament.

For example, Acts 10, Cornelius and his friends believe, receive the Holy Spirit, and then are baptized. Believe, receive the Holy Spirit, and then are baptized. That’s always the pattern. But the magnanimous grace that is here is just absolutely shocking.

You might say, well, I’m a pretty bad sinner. I don’t know if the Lord could forgive me. Well, I don’t think you’re any worse than this group. I don’t know what you’ve done to other people, but you didn’t kill the Son of God. You didn’t murder the Messiah. They did. And grace is extended instantaneously to them, and complete forgiveness if they will repent for their crimes against God, and if they will embrace Jesus, confess Him as Lord, be identified with Him in His death and resurrection, and baptism. Complete forgiveness will be theirs. They will receive forgiveness, and they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, who will come to dwell in them as He did those believers on that same day earlier in the day when it all began.

Throughout the whole New Testament baptism always follows salvation. That’s the pattern. If you haven’t been baptized, you’re disobedient. You don’t have any price to pay. You’re not going to get thrown out of something. You’re not going to be alienated from your family, most likely. It’s not going to maybe cost you your life, but it did them.

Baptism’s just a matter of obedience. Not just you, he says, verse 39. “For you and your children all who are far off,” that’s Gentiles. Middle-wall, partition broken down, Ephesians 2. Jew and Gentile, went in the church. This is for everybody. For everybody. For everybody. You, your children, everybody who’s a far off, and oh by the way, as many as the Lord God will call to Himself, and we’re back the sovereignty of God again, aren’t we?

Back in verse 21, did you notice? Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That’s verse 21. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, from Joel 2. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And in verse 39, as many as the Lord Our God will call to Himself. There are those two things put together without any explanation. DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY AND HUMAN WILL!

Those who had received his word were baptized, and that day there were added 3,000 souls. Somebody wrote a doctoral dissertation on: was there enough water in enough pools in Jerusalem to baptize 3,000 people in one part of a day? There was. I’m not sure how that all works out, but that’s what they did. They must’ve used every available pond, pool. You say, well, why would they need that?

Because there weren’t any Presbyterians yet, so they had to put them under. Do it right.

Can you imagine what was going on in Jerusalem, where all of a sudden 3,000 people in every available part of that city, wherever there was water, there was mass immersion going on of 3,000 people. You’re fairly well into the day by now, and this is going on all over everywhere, and they’re all confessing Jesus as Lord, and Savior, and Messiah, and repenting. Shocking. They listened to Peter and wanted to escape this perverse generation. They needed to escape, because in just a few decades, that whole city would be destroyed in 70 AD. Escape. Escape while you can.

The final results are wonderful. 3,000 people. Nobody, and then 3,120. They kept going from there, and thousands more were added.