8
Acts
Introduction:
In
our previous text the Apostle Peter preached his now famous sermon on
the day of Pentecost. In our text today we read about the reaction
of the
people toward his sermon and we learn what
everybody in the world ought to do.
.
I.
The guilty conscience of the people
V.
37, “Now when they heard [this], they were pricked in their heart..”
It would not have surprised me if this
verse had read that they became very
angry at Peter. In fact, it is very surprising that they were
not angry with
them.
But they were not. They were not
angry at all. Instead, they were
pricked in their heart. A deep sense of guilt had swept over
them. They were
pricked in their conscience. They were pricked to the depth of their
heart.
These
people had played a major role in bringing about the death of Jesus
and Peter in his sermon told them that it
was a wicked thing which they had
done.
He had accused them of committing murder. He said that they had slain
the very Christ of God.
Furthermore
the miracle of tongues which had taken place that very day of
Pentecost
gave evidence that the power of God was upon these Christians. These
people spoke and people from fourteen
different nations understood them in their
native language. They were convinced that the Apostle Peter
and his Christian
friends had the approval and blessings of
God. In addition, the Apostle Peter
had pointed out to them that the miracles
which Jesus Himself had done was much
greater than the miracle of tongues and
that those miracles gave evidence that
Jesus, whom they had crucified had the
approval of God. Peter told them plainly
that Jesus, the man whom they had slain,
was the very Christ of God. And he was
so convincing. All the evidence that Peter called to their
attention was so
convincing. Peter had cited to them Old Testament
Scripture to prove his point.
He not only reminded them of all the
mighty miracles which Jesus had performed
during His lifetime, but he had declared
that God had raised Jesus from the
dead.
What
a tragic mistake they had made! They had
blindly followed the
leadership of the chief priests and other
members of the Sanhedrin Council and
they had helped to bring about the
crucifixion of the very Christ whom they had
hoped would deliver their nation from the Romans. They thought: “God has sent
the Christ to deliver our
nation and we have crucified Him.”
II.
A question asked in desperation
They
also thought, “We
have angered God. We have offended God
by
crucifying the Christ whom He has
sent. We are in big trouble with
God. What
in the world are we going to do? What can we do?”
Then
they cried out to Peter and to the other apostles. (V. 37), “...and
said unto Peter and to the rest of the
apostles, Men [and] brethren, what shall
we do?” Let me say to you that they are now headed in
the right direction.
First of all, they are disturbed to the
very heart that they have sinned against
God.
They were disturbed that by their sin, they had offended God.
Let
me say to you that every sin offends God.
Men ought to be disturbed
about their sin. We all ought to be disturbed about our
sin. The sin that we
have committed offends God. It disturbs God. It angers God. I know that
nobody present here this morning
participated in the crucifixion of Jesus as
those people had done. But we have all sinned and sin of any kind
and of any
size offends God. God is a High and Holy God who cannot
tolerate sin of any
kind.
When Adam ate that forbidden fruit it offended God. When anyone of us
stretches the truth and tells a lie, it
offends God. If and when we tell a
dirty joke, it offends God. If and when we take something that rightly
belongs
to somebody else, it offends God. Even when we do not take the other person’s
property, but merely covet and wish it
were ours, it offends God. When we lust
sexually after somebody we were not
married to, even though we never perform the
deed, we offend God. When have opportunity to do good to others
and fail to do
it, it offends God. When the day of worship of comes and we
choose not to go to
church, we offend God. When we fail to show the proper respect for
our father
or mother we offend God. Let me tell you that each and every one of us
have
done some many many
sins that we have good reason to be pricked in our hearts.
Our conscience ought to bother us
deeply. We have good reason to bow our
heads
in shame.
Let
me also point out to you that when those people became deeply pricked
in their heart, they were headed in the
right direction, because that direction
could lead them to repentance of sin and
forgiveness of sin. And when one of us
is deeply pricked in the heart because of
his sin he is headed in the right
direction because that deep feeling of
guilt before God can lead him to
repentance of sin and forgiveness of his
sin.
When
they inquired of the disciples what they ought to do to get right
with God, they were also headed in the
right direction. By inquiring of the
disciples they were turning to the right
source for counsel and advice. They
were not turning to the scribes and
Pharisees for an answer to this question.
They were not turning to the political
leaders for the answer to this question.
They were turning to the people of God who
could give them the word of God and
who could give them their own personal
witness of Jesus Christ the Savior.
Let
me tell you that when unsaved people are willing to turn to God?s
people for the answer to their spiritual
questions, they are heading in the
right direction. These are people who, like themselves, have
also sinned
against God, but have turned to God in
repentance and have received forgiveness
of their sins. They are able to say, “Here is what I have
done to receive
forgiveness of my sins and here is what
God requires of you. I repented of my
sin and I called on the Lord Jesus Christ
and I trusted in Him to save my soul.
Now you need to do the same thing.”
The
problem is that so many people who really desire to go to heaven is
that they turn to the wrong source to get
the answer to their question. They
turn to the philosophers who may have
brilliant minds, but who have the wrong
answers.
They turn to the scientists who have made great advances in scientific
knowledge, but who know little about
spiritual things. They turn to the
politicians to whom they are accustomed to
turn to solve many of the problems of
society,
but many of the politicians do not have the answers to man’s spiritual
problems.
But what they need to do is to turn to the born again people of God
who serve God in a good scriptural New
Testament church to find the answer to
their spiritual problems. These are the people who can give them the
word of
God and who can give them their own
personal testimony of faith and trust in
Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
III. Peter’s answer to their question
Those
Jews in our text had turned to the Apostle Peter and to the other
Christians for spiritual counsel and the
Apostle Peter was quick to give them
the right answer. But before we take note of the answer that
Peter gave to
them, let us take another look at the
question which they asked.
They
asked, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
They did not ask, “What
shall
we do get saved?” The question which
they asked was much broader than
that.
It included the question, “What shall we do to get saved,” but it did
not
stop there. It also included the question, ”What shall we do to please God
after
we are saved?” Can you see that?
With
that understanding of what the question really is, let us look to the
answer that the Apostle Peter gave
them. V. 38, ?Then Peter said unto them,
Repent, and be baptized every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins, and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost.?
If they had asked only, “What shall we do to
get saved?” then that is all
the Apostle Peter would have told them
. He would have only told them how to
get saved.
But what the Apostle Peter told them answered more than the
question,
“What shall I do to get saved?” Peter
told them that they ought to
get baptized. This is something that they ought to do after
they get saved.
The Philippian
jailer asked the Apostle Paul the question, ?What shall I do to
get saved?? and the Apostle Paul did not
tell him that he must get baptized in
order to get saved. Instead, Paul told that jailer, ?Believe on
the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved...? After the jailer believed in Jesus then Paul
talked to him about baptism and baptized
him. But the jailor was not told that
he must be baptized in order to get
saved. He did not need to get baptized
in
order to get saved and neither did those
people to whom Peter preached.
Peter
did tell these people that they must repent in order to get saved.
This is in harmony with what Jesus had
earlier said. In Luke 13:3 Jesus said,
?...except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish.? Jesus repeated that
same
statement in verse 5. What Jesus said is that unless a man --- any
man ---
repents of his sin he will perish. He will not go to heaven. But what Jesus
implied is that if a man does repent he
will not perish. He will be saved and
he will go to heaven.
Yet
we should understand that the person who is on his way to heaven has
trusted in Jesus Christ as his Savior.
Nobody could ever get into heaven
without trusting in Jesus as Savior. In John 14:6 Jesus said, ?I am the way the
truth
and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by
always
brings true faith in Jesus Christ, the Savior.
So if one has truly
repented he has also truly believed in
Jesus Christ and he is truly saved.
Listen to what is said in John 3:18: ?He that believeth on him is not
condemned...? If he is not condemned, he is saved.
So
if one has truly repented of his sins, he has also trusted in Jesus as
Savior and he is already saved. If he has trusted Jesus for salvation then he
is saved whether or not he is
baptized. He is saved whether or not he
ever gets
baptized.
But that does not alter the fact that if he is saved, he ought to be
baptized and that is what the Apostle
Peter told those people that they ought to
do.
They ought to repent of their sin and trust in Jesus in order to get saved.
Then they ought to submit to scriptural
baptism at the hands of a New Testament
church.
Baptism
is not at all necessary for forgiveness of sin and for the
salvation of the soul, but it is necessary
for the saved person to be baptized
if he is going to do what God wants him to
do. God not only wants a man to
repent and be saved, but he wants him to
be baptized. When one is baptized, he
is telling the world by that act that he
has trusted in Jesus Christ for
salvation and that Jesus has saved his
soul. He is further telling the world
that he intends to live his life for the
honor and glory of God.
III.
What everybody ought to do and questions that everybody ought to answer
That
is what every person ought to do. That
is what every man, woman, boy
and girl in the world ought to do. Each and everybody in the world ought to
repent of his sin. He will never make it to heaven if he does
not repent of his
sin.
Along with repentance and as a result of his repentance he ought to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as his
Savior. He ought to trust in Jesus
Christ to save His soul. And if he truly repents of his sin he will
trust in
Jesus to save his soul. But he ought not stop with getting
saved. Each and
everybody in the whole wide world ought to
get baptized after he is saved. God
wants everybody to get saved and God wants
every saved person to get baptized
and get into the membership of a good New
Testament church. This is what God
wants and this is what everybody ought to
do.
This
means that there are some questions that everybody in this
congregation ought to answer this
morning. I do not mean that you ought to
come
before this congregation and tell
everybody the answers to the questions, but I
do mean that in your heart and mind you
--- just between you and God --- you
ought to answer these questions. Question
#1: Are you aware that you have
sinned and that your sins have put you in
trouble with God? Are you aware that
unless you repent of your sins to God that
you will not go to heaven? Are you
aware that unless you repent of your sins
and get forgiveness of your sins that
you will be cast into the Lake of Fire and
Brimstone where you will spend
eternity?
Are
you aware that by repenting of your sins and trusting in the Lord
Jesus Christ for salvation that you can be
saved? Are you aware that the
Scripture says, ?Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved?? Are
you aware of Romans 10:13 which says, ?For
whosoever shall call upon the name of
the Lord shall be saved??
There
is another important question for you:
Have you ever called on the
Lord Jesus Christ and trusted Him to take
care of your eternal destiny? If you
have never trusted in Jesus to save your
soul, are you ready now here this
morning to call on Him and to ask Him to
be your Savior? If so, would you come
and make your let it be known publicly
that you are trusting Jesus Christ to
save your soul?
If
you are saved and you need a church and would like to place your
membership in this church, would you come
and let your desire be made known?