Latest / Reformed Thinking / For You, Your Children, and the Far Off: Repentance, Baptism, and the Spirit (Acts 2:38–39)

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For You, Your Children, and the Far Off: Repentance, Baptism, and the Spirit (Acts 2:38–39) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  This is the deep dive. Today we're looking at, well, a
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  really pivotal moment in the book of Acts.
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  It's Peters answer to that desperate question from the
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  crowd at Pentecost. That's right.
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  Acts Chapter 2 specifically versus 38 and 39, It's a
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  incredibly dense theologically. You've got commands, promises,
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  the scope of God's work. It really sets a pattern for the
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  early church. It does, and this happens right
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  after Peter has delivered this powerful sermon.
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  Maybe we should set the scene a bit first.
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  Pentecost was something else. Absolutely.
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  You have these incredible phenomena that sound like a
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  violent wind, these tongues that looks like fire resting on the
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  apostles, speeding in other languages, total confusion among
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  the gathered Jews. Right.
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  Jews from all over the known world were there for the
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  festival. Parthians.
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  Me Elamites, Luke lists them out.
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  They're bewildered and. Peter stands up.
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  He doesn't just explain the phenomena, he connects it
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  directly to Jesus of Nazareth, the one they had crucified.
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  Yeah, his sermon traces Jesus life, death, resurrection,
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  showing it was all part of God's plan fulfilling Old Testament
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  prophecy. And it builds to this absolute
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  hammer blow in verse 36. Therefore let all the House of
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  Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and
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  Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
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  Imagine hearing that Lord Curious placing Jesus on par
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  with Yahweh, Christ the promised Messiah King, and this Jesus
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  whom you crucified. It's a devastating verdict.
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  Luke says they were cut to the heart.
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  That sounds like more than just feeling bad.
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  It's deep conviction, isn't it? Oh, absolutely.
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  It's a spiritual awakening. They suddenly understand their
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  sin wasn't just against a man, but against God's anointed,
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  enthroned king. Cosmic treason?
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  Really. So their question in verse 37,
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  Brothers, what shall we do? It's the only possible response,
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  isn't it? They're convicted.
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  They know they're in trouble. Exactly.
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  They need the remedy, and that's what Peter gives them in verses
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  38 and 39. So our goal today is to really
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  unpack that remedy. Peter's 2 commands the two
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  divine gifts promised, and then this crucial boundary that
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  defines who the promise is actually for.
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  Right, let's dive into the Sermons Foundation first, verses
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  14 to 37, because that context shapes everything.
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  OK, so Peter stands up. He's not just offering some
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  opinions here, is he? He's claiming these wild events
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  are scripture being fulfilled right before their eyes.
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  Precisely. He's arguing from Scripture.
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  He shows that the outpouring of the Spirit, the resurrection,
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  the ascension, none of it is accidental.
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  It's the unfolding of God's sovereign promises.
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  He starts with Joel, right? Connecting the tongues and the
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  prophesying they're hearing directly to Joel's promise about
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  the Spirit being poured out. Yes, Joel chapter 2 I will pour
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  out my spirit on all flesh and Peter quotes that extensively
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  sons and daughters prophesying young men seeing visions it's.
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  This picture of the Spirit breaking out beyond, you know,
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  just specific prophets or kings. It's becoming available more
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  broadly. And crucially, Peter includes
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  Joel's condition for salvation. Everyone who calls upon the name
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  of the Lord shall be saved. So right away you have God's
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  action, the exalted Jesus pouring out the Spirit and the
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  required human response calling on his name.
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  The events they were witnessing were proof that the last days
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  Joel spoke of had arrived. This wasn't just noise, it was
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  the sign. Then he moves to Jesus himself.
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  He has to prove the resurrection, doesn't he?
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  That's the linchpin. Absolutely critical and he uses
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  Psalm 16. Brilliant argument, really.
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  How does he lay that out? Well, he points out that King
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  David, who wrote the Psalm, died.
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  He was buried. His tomb, Peter says, is with us
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  to this day. Everyone knew that.
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  So David couldn't have been speaking about himself when he
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  wrote about not being abandoned to Hades or his flesh not seeing
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  corruption. Exactly.
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  David's body did see corruption. Therefore, David must have been
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  speaking prophetically about someone else, the Messiah, the
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  Christ. And Peter as an eyewitness
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  connects the dots. This Jesus, God raised up, and
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  of that we all are witnesses. He's putting the evidence right
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  in front of them. Scripture and testimony.
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  It's compelling. And then he adds another layer
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  with Psalm 110 verse one. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at
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  my right hand. How does he use that?
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  He argues David didn't ascend into the heavens to sit at God's
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  right hand. So again, David isn't talking
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  about himself, he's talking about his Lord, the Messiah.
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  So Peter uses the Psalm to confirm Jesus's current status,
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  his enthronement. He's not just risen, he's
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  reigning. Right, he connects the
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  resurrection to the ascension and current heavenly reign.
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  It's a complete picture. It's really masterful how he
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  weaves Israel's own scriptures together to point directly to
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  Jesus from God's plan to the cross.
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  They participated in the empty tomb, now the throne.
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  Leading inescapably to that verdict in verse 36, God made
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  this crucify Jesus, both Lord and Christ.
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  Lord and Messiah, authority and identity all wrapped up.
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  No wonder it cut them to the. Heart It exposed their sin in
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  the starkest possible terms. They had rejected and killed the
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  one God had appointed as sovereign King.
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  Their whole world view, their religious practice, it was all
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  fundamentally wrong because they missed the King.
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  So they're convicted, they're exposed, they know they need
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  help. Brothers, what shall we do?
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  And that sets up Peter's answer in verse 38.
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  OK, so the crowd is convicted, asking what do we do?
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  And Peter gives them two clear commands.
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  Acts 2.38 starts Repent and be baptized, everyone of you.
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  Two imperatives. They structure the response.
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  First, repent Matano, he said. Second, be baptized everyone of
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  you baptisaito. He Costas himo 1 inward, 1
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  outward. Let's tackle repentance first.
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  What does matanoate say really mean here?
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  It's not just feeling sorry, is it?
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  No, not at all, the sources emphasize.
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  It's an aorist, active imperative.
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  The granicle form calls for a specific decisive action, a
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  complete turn around. A reversal of mind and will.
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  Yes, a fundamental reorientation towards God.
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  It's not just regret over consequences, but a change of
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  direction, turning from something to something.
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  So for this crowd, what are they turning from and to?
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  They're turning from their prior unbelief, the rejection of
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  Jesus, their participation, direct or indirect, in his
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  crucifixion, and they're turning to embrace him is exactly who
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  Peter just declared him to be, Lord and Messiah, the promised
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  King. So the content of the repentance
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  is shaped by the content of the sermon.
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  Turn from rejecting this Jesus and turn to submitting to Him as
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  Lord in Christ. Precisely.
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  It's a God word turn, intrinsically linked with faith
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  in the risen Christ, Peter proclaimed.
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  Now, there's often this discussion about repentance.
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  Is it something we do or something God gives?
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  How does that fit here? Well, it's commanded here is
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  something they must do. It's their required response.
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  But later in acts like chapter 5 verse 31, Peter says the exalted
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  Jesus gives repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
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  So it's both commanded and a gift.
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  It seems so. The ability to make that
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  genuine, decisive turn ultimately comes from God's
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  grace enabled by the Spirit. Christ's exaltation makes
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  repentance possible, but the command remains firm.
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  You must repent. OK, so that's the inward turn.
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  Then comes the outward action. Be baptized, everyone of you.
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  There's a grammatical shift here that scholars point out.
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  Yes, it's subtle but significant.
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  Repent is second person plural. You all repent, addressing the
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  crowd collectively, but then be baptized shifts to the third
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  person's singular imperative, applied distributively.
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  Let each one of you be baptized. Picasso's Hyman.
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  Why the shift? What does that tell us?
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  It suggests that while the call to repent addresses their shared
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  guilt as a community that rejected Christ, the act of
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  baptism is an individual, personal confession.
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  Each person must step forward. Person by person, and it's done
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  in the name of Jesus Christ. What's the significance of that
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  phrase? It signals public allegiance.
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  It's a declaration of submission to Jesus's authority as Lord and
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  Christ. Baptism becomes the visible
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  seal, the public marker of identifying with him, the one
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  Peter just preached about. It links the ACT directly to the
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  personal work of Christ. Exactly.
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  And notice the passive voice. Let each be baptized, not
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  baptize yourselves. So it's something received, not
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  performed by the individual for merit.
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  Correct. It highlights the reception of
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  the ordinance administered by the church, signifying entrance
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  into the community. It guards against seeing baptism
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  as a human work earning salvation.
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  It follows the inward change. So the sequence is clear, inward
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  repentance and faith, then outward individual baptism as a
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  confession of allegiance to Jesus Christ.
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  All right, so Peter lays out the commands, repent, be baptized.
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  Then he immediately states the results, the benefits that
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  follow. What are those?
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  He promises 2 essential divine gifts.
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  These are the direct outcomes of responding in repentance and
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  faith sealed by baptism. First, the forgiveness of fins.
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  A first centurion, Hamak Tishin. Forgiveness offices.
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  What does that word convey? It carries the idea of release,
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  remission, cancellation of a debt.
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  It's about the guilt of sin being completely wiped away,
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  pardoned by God, based of course on the work of Christ that Peter
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  just preached. Now here we had probably the
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  most debated grammatical point in verse.
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  Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.
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  That little word for is in Greek causes a lot of discussion.
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  It certainly does. Some have tried to argue it
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  means because of like be baptized because your sins are
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  already forgiven. But the sources we looked at
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  strongly push against that reading, don't they?
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  They do, grammatically, when you have commands like repent and be
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  baptized, followed by ease plus a noun like forgiveness.
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  The most natural meaning of ease is purpose or result.
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  Meaning in order to receive forgiveness or resulting in
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  forgiveness. Exactly.
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  The actions are taken with a view toward attaining the goal
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  of forgiveness. Reading it as because of would
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  disconnect repentance from forgiveness, which goes against
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  the whole flow of Peter's message.
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  And there's a syntactical link too, isn't there, between
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  repentance and forgiveness? Yes, this is quite important.
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  The command repent is second person plural and it lines up
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  directly with forgiveness of your fins, also referring to the
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  plural audience. So grammatically, the plural
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  command to repent is tied to the forgiveness of their plural
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  sins. Baptism being singular, let each
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  be baptized, is the individual expression that follows.
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  Precisely, it strongly suggests that forgiveness is principally
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  connected to the corporate and individual act of repentance in
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  the faith. It implies not primarily to the
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  water of baptism itself, although baptism is the
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  commanded sign associated with it.
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  That helps clarify things. Forgiveness is God's gift
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  grounded in Christ's atonement, received through faith filled
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  repentance. Baptism is the sign and seal of
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  that reality. Right assurance rests on God's
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  promise linked to repentance, not the ritual act alone.
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  OK, what's the second gift promise?
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  And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit from Julian to
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  Hajunomatos. You will receive.
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  That sounds like a firm promise from God.
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  It is. It's a future indicative verb.
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  This isn't something they manufacture.
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  It's a divine bestowal. God guarantees this to those who
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  respond correctly. And the gift of the Holy Spirit.
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  What does gift Deuteria mean here?
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  Is it a gift from the Spirit or the Spirit himself?
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  Good question. In Acts, Deuteria often refers
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  to the Spirit Himself as the gift.
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  The grammar here, the gift of the Holy Spirit is likely what's
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  called an apexigenic genitive meaning meaning the gift is the
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  Holy Spirit. The Spirit Himself is the
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  promised gift bestowed by the exalted Christ.
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  So every person who repents and is baptized receives the
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  indwelling Holy Spirit. That's the promise.
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  This is the sign of the new covenant reality.
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  The Spirit unites the believer to Christ, regenerates them,
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  empowers them. This answers the crowd's initial
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  question about the strange phenomena.
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  The Spirit is now being given to all who come to Christ.
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  And just like forgiveness, the spirit is received through
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  faith, right? Not earned by the ritual.
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  Galatians 3 makes that very clear.
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  Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing
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  with faith? The Spirit is received through
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  faith in the Brooklyn Christ. So the pattern holds.
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  Repentance and faith lead to forgiveness and the gift of the
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  indwelling Spirit publicly confessed and sealed in baptism.
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  2 commands leading to two divine gifts.
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  So Peter has given the commands, repent, be baptized and promised
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  the gifts forgiveness the Spirit.
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  Now in verse 39 he addresses the scope of this offer.
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  Who is this actually for? Right.
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  This is crucial, he says. For the promises.
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  For you, that word promise connects back, doesn't it?
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  It seems to gather up everything he just offered, the forgiveness
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  and the Spirit, anchoring it in God's prior pledge, like in Acts
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  1.4 where Jesus spoke of the promise of the Father.
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  Exactly. It's the comprehensive New
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  Covenant promise centered in Christ, and Peter lays out who
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  it applies to in three expanding circles.
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  First, he says. For you.
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  Who's the you? His immediate audience?
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  Those Jewish people standing right there in Jerusalem, The
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  very ones who are just cut to the heart.
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  It shows the offer is genuinely for them despite their recent
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  rejection of Jesus. An offer of immediate mercy,
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  then, he says. And for your children?
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  This addresses the generational aspect.
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  It assures the Jewish believers that God's covenant faithfulness
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  extends to their offspring within the frame work of the
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  gospel call. It brings comfort, suggesting
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  continuity of God's kindness. OK, so the immediate audience,
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  they're children. And then he broadens it
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  significantly. Yes, dramatically and for all
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  who are far off. Far off.
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  Who does that refer to? The consensus is that this
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  points primarily to the Gentiles, the nations outside of
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  Israel. He uses language reminiscent of
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  Isaiah, Speaking of those distant being brought near
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  through the Messiah. So Peter, even at this early
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  stage, is anticipating the worldwide expansion of the
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  gospel from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria and the ends of the
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  earth. It's embedded right here in the
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  foundational sermon. The scope is potentially
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  universal. Jews, their descendants, and
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  Gentiles. But there's a qualifier, isn't
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  there? A very important one at the end
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  of the verse. Absolutely essential.
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  It's the boundary clause that governs all three groups.
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  The promise is for you, your children, and all who are far
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  off. Everyone whom the Lord our God
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  calls to Himself, Who's Who's and Porscalicitai.
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  Everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.
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  What does that clause do theologically?
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  It prevents us from reading the wide scope you, your children,
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  all far off as automatic inclusion or some kind of
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  universalism. It makes the promise definite.
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  How so? What's special about the Greek
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  phrasing? The structure who?
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  Susan's plus subjunctive emphasizes contingency and
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  selection, but the verb proscalicity is key.
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  It's a middle voice verb, often suggesting God's personal
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  initiating action. God calls people to himself.
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  It signifies his sovereign initiative.
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  The effectual call. Precisely.
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  God sovereignly summons people to Himself.
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  The promise applies broadly to all categories of people, but it
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  lands effectively only on those whom God draws by his specific
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  effectual call. So this connects back to what
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  Peter quoted from Joel earlier. Everyone who calls upon the name
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  of the Lord shall be saved. How does the divine call relate
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  to the human calling on God? Peter places the divine cause
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  behind the human response. People call on the Lord because
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  the Lord first calls them. God's sovereign summons enables
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  and produces the faith filled response of calling on His name.
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  See this elsewhere in Acts like Acts 13.48.
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  As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
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  So God's appointment, his call, leads to belief.
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  Yes, the divine initiative is foundational.
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  This means salvation isn't based on ethnicity or family lineage,
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  or just being physically present where the Gospels preached.
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  In this boundary clause, everyone whom the Lord calls
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  applies to your children too, right?
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  It's not automatic for them. That's the crucial application.
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  Including your children in the promise doesn't bypass the need
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  for conversion. They too must be called by God
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  through the gospel. Repent and believe, just like
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  the first generation. Are those far off?
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  The promise extends to them conditionally upon God's call
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  and their response. So the offer is why Jews,
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  Gentiles, future generations. But the reception is definite.
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  Only those effectively called by God inherit the promise of
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  forgiveness in the Spirit. Exactly.
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  Wide in scope, definite in application, grounded in God's
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  sovereign call. OK, let's try to bring this all
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  together. We've traced Peter's argument
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  from the conviction of the crowd to the commands, the gifts, and
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  the scope defined by God's call. What's the overall picture?
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  You see a really clear logical flow, don't you?
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  God's sovereign calling determines who the promise is
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  ultimately for. This divine initiative enables
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  the necessary human response. That decisive turning of
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  repentance coupled with faith and that response sealed in
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  baptism, results in the guaranteed divine bestowal of
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  forgiveness and the Holy Spirit. Calling response gifts.
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  It's a coherent framework. Very coherent and it grounds the
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  believers assurance not in their own feelings or the perfection
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  of their actions, but in God's objective promise.
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  The enthroned Christ guarantees forgiveness and the Spirit to
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  those who truly repent and believe.
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  So, thinking practically, if this is the pattern set forth in
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  Acts 2, how should it shape gospel ministry today?
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  What are the takeaways for preaching and pastoral care?
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  Well, the preaching model seems clear.
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  We need to preach Christ crucified, risen, enthroned,
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  just like Peter did. Connect the historical events to
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  their saving significance. And then press for a response.
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  Absolutely, without hesitation, the commands remained.
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  Repent and be baptized. There's an urgency in Peter's
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  message that shouldn't be lost. We call for that decisive turn
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  and public allegiance. What about when someone says
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  they've become a Christian? How does this passage help in,
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  say, pastoral counseling to discern genuine conversion?
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  It gives us categories to explore.
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  We should ask questions that probe the reality of repentance.
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  What specifically are you turning from?
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  What does your new allegiance to Christ as Lord look like?
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  Is there evidence, fruit that lines up with this claimed
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  change of mind and heart? True repentance as commanded
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  here should lead to transformation.
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  And the call to baptism remains urgent, too.
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  Yes. Jesus himself linked making
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  disciples with baptizing them. While salvation is by grace
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  through faith, express and repentance, baptism is the
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  commanded public sign of that reality, the oath of allegiance.
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  It shouldn't be delayed unnecessarily.
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  It's part of basic obedience. Now we can't really discuss Acts
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  2.3839 without touching on the debate it fuels regarding who
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  should be baptized, especially because Peter mentions your
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  children. We need to represent the main
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  views fairly. Crudo baptism and paedo baptism.
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  Right. It's a significant point of
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  difference, often stemming from how different traditions weigh
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  the elements in these verses, the command sequence versus the
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  covenant promise language. Both sides are trying to be
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  faithful to the whole Council of God, so we need to state their
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  cases clearly. OK, let's start with the Credo
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  Baptist position. Believers Baptism.
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  What's their main line of reasoning from this text and
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  others? Credo Baptist focus heavily on
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  the sequence in verse 38. Repent first, then be baptized.
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  They point to that grammatical shift we discussed.
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  The plural repent linked to plural your sins.
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  Then the singular let each be baptized.
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  They see this as requiring individual faith and repentance
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  before the sign is applied. And they look at the pattern in
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  the rest of acts. Yes, they argue, the narrative
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  consistently shows people hearing the word, believing and
• 19:16
  then being baptized. Acts 2.41 itself says so.
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  Those who received his word were baptized.
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  They point to the Ethiopian eunuch Lydia, the Philippian
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  jailer. Belief precedes baptism in the
• 19:27
  narrative examples. What about passages like
• 19:29
  Colossians 2? Colossians 2.1112 is key for
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  them. It connects baptism with
• 19:33
  spiritual circumcision and explicitly links being raised
• 19:37
  with him in baptism through faith.
• 19:39
  For Credo Baptist, this ties the sign directly to active personal
• 19:43
  faith in the recipient. They also emphasize New covenant
• 19:46
  passages like Jeremiah 31, suggesting the covenant
• 19:49
  community is defined by those who truly know the Lord and have
• 19:52
  forgiveness, meaning the sign should only mark those who
• 19:55
  confess faith. And how do they handle acts
• 19:57
  2.39? The promise is for you and for
• 20:00
  your children part. They emphasize the final clause.
• 20:04
  Everyone in the Lord our God calls to himself.
• 20:06
  They argue this boundary governs all groups, including your
• 20:09
  children. So children are included in the
• 20:11
  promise when God calls them to the gospel and they respond in
• 20:14
  faith and repentance, at which point they're baptized as
• 20:16
  believers. The call is necessary for all.
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  OK, that's the Credo Baptist view focusing on individual
• 20:22
  faith preceding the sign. Now, what about the Pedo Baptist
• 20:24
  perspective advocating for infant baptism?
• 20:27
  Pedo Baptist read Acts 2.39 through the lens of covenant
• 20:30
  continuity. They see strong parallels
• 20:33
  between Old Testament promises and the New.
• 20:36
  For them, the promise is for you and for your children.
• 20:40
  Directly echoes God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17,
• 20:43
  where the sign of the covenant, circumcision, was applied to
• 20:47
  infants. So, they argue, baptism replaces
• 20:50
  circumcision as the new covenant sign.
• 20:52
  Correct. And since infants receive the
• 20:54
  sign in the Old Covenant as part of the visible community, they
• 20:57
  argue, infants of believers should receive the sign in the
• 21:00
  New Covenant as well, unless there's an explicit command
• 21:03
  against it, which they don't find.
• 21:05
  How do they view the purpose of the sign for an infant who can't
• 21:08
  yet express faith? They see the sign as marking the
• 21:10
  child as belonging to the visible covenant community,
• 21:14
  placing them under the hearing of the Gospel, the prayers of
• 21:16
  the church, and the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
• 21:20
  It signifies God's claim on the child with the expectation of
• 21:23
  future faith nurtured within the community.
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  What about the household baptisms mentioned in Acts?
• 21:28
  Paedo Baptists see passages like the baptism of Lydia's
• 21:31
  household, Acts 16.15 or the Jailer's household, Acts 16.33
• 21:36
  as supporting their view. They argue these likely included
• 21:40
  infants and children, showing a pattern of the whole family unit
• 21:42
  being brought into the visible church through baptism when the
• 21:45
  head of the household believed. They also point to 1st
• 21:48
  Corinthians 7.1 Teen where children of believers are called
• 21:51
  holy, suggesting a special covenant status.
• 21:54
  And how do they interpret the for the forgiveness of sins, the
• 21:58
  set of forgiveness clause in relation to infants?
• 22:01
  They understand baptism is placing the infant into the
• 22:03
  sphere where the promise of forgiveness is proclaimed and
• 22:06
  offered, a promise they apprehend personally when they
• 22:08
  come to faith. Regarding Colossians 2, they
• 22:11
  emphasize the connection between circumcision and baptism,
• 22:14
  arguing if infants were circumcised and baptism replaces
• 22:17
  it, then infants should be baptized.
• 22:19
  So fundamentally, it's a difference in emphasis,
• 22:21
  individual confession versus covenant continuity in the
• 22:24
  nature of the visible church community.
• 22:26
  That's a fair summary. Both views agree salvation is by
• 22:30
  grace through faith alone, and baptism is commanded by Christ.
• 22:35
  The debate is over the proper recipients of the sign based on
• 22:38
  their understanding of covenant theology and the specific
• 22:41
  commands and examples in Scripture.
• 22:43
  OK, one last clarification from verse 38.
• 22:45
  The gift of the Holy Spirit. Does it receiving this gift
• 22:48
  guarantee that every single believer will speak in tongues
• 22:52
  or have some other dramatic manifestation like on the Day of
• 22:55
  Pentecost itself? No, the sources are very clear
• 22:58
  on this. The gift jury of promise here is
• 23:01
  the Holy Spirit Himself, His personal indwelling presence in
• 23:04
  every believer. This is universal for all
• 23:07
  Christians. Whereas things like speaking in
• 23:09
  tongues are spiritual gifts. Karzmata.
• 23:11
  Exactly as Paul explains in First Corinthians 12, the Spirit
• 23:14
  distributes various charisma sovereignly, and not everyone
• 23:17
  receives the same gift. Not all speak in tongues, not
• 23:19
  all prophecy. The phenomena at Pentecost and
• 23:21
  later in Samaria and Caesarea serve specific foundational
• 23:25
  purposes, authenticating the apostles message and marking the
• 23:28
  inclusion of new groups. Samaritans, Gentiles into the
• 23:31
  church. So the promise of Acts 2.38 is
• 23:34
  the indwelling spirit for all believers, not a guarantee of
• 23:38
  specific miraculous signs for every individual.
• 23:40
  Conversion assurance comes from the Spirit's presence, not
• 23:44
  necessarily from phenomena. That's right, indwelling is
• 23:47
  universal. Specific manifestations are
• 23:49
  varied and sovereignly given. Well, we've certainly covered a
• 23:51
  lot of ground in these two verses.
• 23:53
  Let's try to pull the main threads together one last time.
• 23:56
  Peter's answer in Acts 2.3839 really is a foundational
• 24:00
  statement. It truly is.
• 24:01
  You have this incredible blueprint.
• 24:03
  A sovereign God initiates salvation through His call.
• 24:07
  This call enables and requires a specific response from humans,
• 24:11
  repentance and faith publicly declared in baptism.
• 24:14
  And this response leads directly to God's promised gifts,
• 24:18
  forgiveness of sins, and the indwelling Holy Spirit.
• 24:20
  Call response gifts, and it's all centered on the person and
• 24:24
  work of Jesus Christ the Lord and Messiah, Peter just
• 24:26
  proclaimed. Absolutely, and understanding
• 24:28
  this framework helps guard against errors.
• 24:31
  It counters baptismal regeneration by tying
• 24:34
  forgiveness primarily to repentance and faith in Christ.
• 24:38
  It counters universalism with the crucial boundary clause of
• 24:41
  God's effectual call, and it defines repentance robustly as a
• 24:45
  decisive turn, not just emotion. It gives shape to what the
• 24:49
  church is and how people enter it.
• 24:51
  It's a community defined by a shared call, a shared
• 24:54
  repentance, shared forgiveness, and the shared indwelling spirit
• 24:58
  visibly marked by baptism. Yes, and that vision immediately
• 25:02
  pushes outward. Peter starts with you in
• 25:04
  Jerusalem, includes your children, but then points to all
• 25:07
  who are far. Off that Gentile inclusion right
• 25:09
  from the start. Covered by the same principle,
• 25:11
  everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself, that sovereign
• 25:15
  calls what bridges the distance, whether it's generational
• 25:17
  distance or geographical and ethnic distance.
• 25:20
  It means the mission of the church isn't dependent on human
• 25:23
  ingenuity or finding just the right technique.
• 25:25
  It's dependent on God actively calling people out of darkness
• 25:28
  into his light. That's the engine of mission.
• 25:31
  We go, we preach, we call for repentance and baptism, knowing
• 25:35
  that God is the one who ultimately draws people to
• 25:38
  Himself. Our confidence is in his call,
• 25:42
  not our eloquence. It fuels the witness, doesn't
• 25:45
  it, knowing that God is still calling those far off today from
• 25:48
  every nation. Precisely.
• 25:49
  The promise holds, the call continues.
• 25:51
  This has been incredibly helpful, really unpacking the
• 25:54
  density of Peter's words from that initial conviction to the
• 25:57
  final scope of God's sovereign grace.
• 25:59
  Thank you. It's a vital passage, glad we
• 26:01
  could spend time on it. So for you listening, here's a
• 26:03
  final thought to consider stemming from that boundary
• 26:05
  clause. If salvation fundamentally rests
• 26:08
  on God calling people to himself, and this call enables
• 26:11
  the repentance Peter commands, how should that reality shape
• 26:15
  your prayers? Think about praying not only for
• 26:17
  your own ongoing need for repentance, but also praying
• 26:20
  with specific hope for others, those near you, those far off
• 26:23
  asking God to issue His effectual call into their lives,
• 26:27
  knowing that His call is the ultimate source of their turning
• 26:29
  to Christ. Let the certainty of God's
• 26:32
  sovereign call fuel the urgency and hope of your prayers and
• 26:35
  witness. A powerful application.
• 26:37
  That concludes this deep dive. Join us next time on Reformed
• 26:41
  Thinking.