Why Acts 2:38-39 is Only a Baptist Passage

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September 10, 2025

This is a sermon excerpt from Pastor Allen in his expositional series through the book of Acts. In this segment he walks through why Acts 2:38-39 cannot support the Church of Christ, Oneness Pentecostal, or paedobaptist positions .

00:00: So to call upon the name of the Lord is entails certainly repentance. You see that right?
00:06: So they say what shall we do verse 38 Peter said to them repent but then he says and be baptized repent and Be baptized.
00:18: So let's work through this Now we should say this baptism in the text
00:25: Probably blame William Tyndale for this but it's it's immersion Baptism is just a transliteration.
00:33: The Greek word is baptizo. So we have a new English word baptize But it means immersion.
00:39: There's a lot of studies Done on the word, but you really you can't get around the fact that baptism means the immersion or our confession says dipping
00:49: And by that it's to illustrate what? Immersion is you put the whole body under the whole body comes out out.
00:55: That is that is baptism now This verse verse 38 has caused no small controversy in our even in our town
01:07: But I'll use Stuttgart, Arkansas as an example, so in Stuttgart, there's a huge Church of Christ building
01:14: As a it's beautiful building at the top of the building. It has these words obey
01:23: Acts 238 What was it talking about? It's talking about this verse repent and be baptized
01:31: Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the
01:37: Holy Spirit so the Church of Christ argues They believe that baptism is a necessary mechanism for the forgiveness of sins
01:49: Where do they get that? Well, listen to the verse just listen to it Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins
01:59: You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit Well, if you're not careful if you're not thinking through this and you don't know the context you just blindsided
02:09: Well, this maybe it sounds like case closed, right? Well, what is what does Peter mean?
02:15: What is this right? Well, I'm gonna make the argument today. Hey, this is really gonna surprise you I'm gonna make the argument this morning that acts 238 and verse 39.
02:23: They are Baptist verses Kind of like the rest of the Bible, right? Now let me push back the idea that baptism is a mechanism for the forgiveness of sins
02:35: I'll do this in a few ways first We're just gonna take a quick survey if you want to flip here
02:40: You can I've got them already printed out so I can read them quickly just a brief survey of acts a few places that discuss salvation and clearly
02:51: Show that baptism is not a necessary mechanism so acts 531
02:57: God exalted him at his right hand as leader and Savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins
03:04: Acts 1043 to him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name
03:12: Acts 13 38 and 39 let it be known to you therefore brothers That through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses and then
03:27: Acts 16 31 and They said believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved you and your household
03:34: I'm arguing that it is a it is clear from an understanding of the book of Acts itself that Baptism is not a mechanism is not the mechanism for the forgiveness of sins
03:45: Secondly, I'll make a grammatical argument so the text says
03:52: Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for The forgiveness of sins so a
03:59: Church of Christ person would argue you get baptized for The forgiveness of sins in the sense that it's baptism.
04:09: That is the mechanism for the forgiveness sins But but the word for is not always used in that way and I'll give you an illustration
04:18: Let's say oh, wouldn't this be wonderful. Let's say let's say a Huge cold front was scheduled for Thursday or forecasted for Thursday So Thursday, there's gonna be a cold front.
04:31: I'm talking about cold front. It's gonna be a high of 55 Low of 42.
04:36: I'm just gonna stop and dream for a minute So you see me on Thursday and the cold front hasn't come yet, but I'm carrying a jacket
04:46: I've got a jacket and it's 80 degrees outside, but I've got a jacket and you say brother
04:51: Quatro Why are you why do you have a jacket? I say I've got a jacket for the cold weather
05:00: Now, what am I saying? Am I saying I have a jacket that is going to cause The cold weather, right?
05:08: So that's the Church of Christ argument back baptism causes the forgiveness of sin. No No, I'm saying
05:13: I have a jacket what for the cold weather meaning The cold weather causes the jacket meaning
05:20: I have a jacket on the account of the cold weather you understand That's that's what
05:28: Peter's saying. That's the argument I'm saying but if you don't like grammatical I mean, I think grammatical arguments are helpful and they're good if you don't like that Okay, I think it can be even simpler and that is listen any average
05:41: Bible reader. Just read the Bible in its Context and you understand now remember the context what is happening here next to that?
05:50: Who is Peter preaching to he's preaching to the Jews? So how could these
05:56: Jews? Demonstrate that they're being cut to the heart was real. How could they demonstrate this by publicly?
06:04: identifying with King Jesus that is baptism is an evidence of true repentance and How far do you really have to read to get that argument?
06:18: Well first you have to read a whole nother three verses to get to verse 41 look at verse 41 Look what it says
06:24: So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3 ,000 souls
06:31: And then from Acts 2 41 you have to read a whole nother 25 verses to get down to Acts chapter 3
06:37: Just read this for me right together read this with me right here together This is one,
06:43: I mean just think about it look at verse 19 Repent therefore this is same guy
06:49: Peter repent therefore and turn again that your sins may be blotted out
06:54: The times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the
06:59: Christ Appointed for you Jesus whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things
07:05: How could Peter preach in one sermon that baptism is a mechanism for the forgiveness of sins
07:12: But in another sit and in another sermon just 25 verses later in in Luke's Putting this together.
07:19: How could he talk about its repentance? because the reality is he's not preaching that baptism is a mechanism for the forgiveness of sins, that's the whole argument if You are an average
07:34: Bible reader and you read the Bible in context and you trust the Holy Spirit You'll not get confused on this matter.
07:41: You say well, I'm still not sure. Well good I'm gonna keep pressing you for a minute in first Peter 321 Peter says this
07:48: Baptism which corresponds to this he's talking about the flood Baptism which corresponds to this now saves you now a lot of people want to stop right there and say see no
07:56: Listen read the whole verse now saved you not as a removal of dirt from the body
08:02: But as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
08:08: What is Peter saying? He's a Baptist Baptism is an appeal to God from the believer
08:14: Baptism points us to Christ. That's why it's for believers only this is why it's by immersion
08:20: It is a sign that we believe the picture of baptism, which is the gospel the resurrection of Christ You really want to obey acts 238?
08:30: Well, this is what we should do Preach to people to repent and believe the gospel and as a sign of their repentance that they will be baptized
08:38: I hate to say baptized by immersion. We do have to say that I really hate having to say that because it's redundant
08:45: It's like be it be immersed by immersion But we say it for clarity's sake
08:53: You understand it had been very easy for the Jews to just verbally say to Peter Oh, yeah, we believe we believe we believe but Peter was showing that true repentance will lead to a person
09:05: Willing to publicly identify with the Lord Jesus Christ in believers baptism
09:11: So Sam Waldron, he says it is the teaching of Scripture that baptism Symbolizes a saving response to the gospel and I am arguing you see this
09:22: Clearly if we understand the text you see it clearly in Peter's preaching
09:29: Now historically, let me say this Baptists have done a great job at defending the biblical position that baptism is not a mechanism for forgiveness of sins but I think that We're good on that where we're guilty at sometimes is to act like baptism is not important at all
09:49: No, no, no, no, no, no, no listen to this Peter puts all this together in our text and Peter said to them repent and be baptized
09:58: Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the
10:04: Holy Spirit I'm arguing that Peter is putting this all together in this way. I'll just give you kind of three quick points first He's giving us a precept a precept.
10:14: What's the precept? What is the command? repent Okay. In fact, let's just turn back to Luke 24 for a second
10:21: Keep keep Acts 2 but I'm gonna go the end remember Luke I'm for some of you that are have forgotten or hadn't been here need to know this
10:30: Luke writes Luke and acts so in Luke chapter 24 Luke chapter 24, he says this in verse 45
10:39: Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem and This is exactly what
10:55: Peter is doing, right? This is the precept repent Repent Peter is carrying out the
11:02: Commission. He is preaching repentance and there is no hope for salvation Apart from repentance from sin
11:10: That's the precept secondly the promise The promise what's the promise?
11:17: Forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit by the way, not the gifts of the
11:22: Holy Spirit but the gift of The Holy Spirit that is who's the gift.
11:29: It's not what the Holy Spirit can give you. It's the Holy Spirit himself Now think about the kindness of God for just a moment, please just hear me for a second
11:39: I know we've done arguments grammar and tenses of verbs and I get it, but just listen to me for a moment just consider
11:47: You've broken the law of God You've you've committed Atrocities against a good and Holy God or you've broken his law the things that you've thought this so big, you know
11:58: Just think about this the Paul gives a long line of sins in Romans 1 and you know one that you may not expect to See their disobedience to parents
12:08: Children, just listen to me for just a second You understand that when you roll your eyes at your mommy or your daddy or when you disobey what they have said to do
12:17: That God considers this a heinous offense against him Now now not just children, but all the way up consider.
12:25: We've done these these things. We've broken God's law We've we've sinned and we deserve judgment, but here's the promise
12:32: Forgiveness of sins and the gift of God the Holy Spirit So the Jesus Christ is the answer to these things the
12:40: Son of God has taken on human flesh He's been born under the law. He has stood up to the test of perfect righteousness
12:48: He was obedient to the point of death even death on the cross He was crucified for sinners the wrath of God the sinners deserve with every breath fell upon our substitute fell upon Christ There's been arguments in the last couple of weeks on social media about penal substitutionary atonement that Jesus Christ paid the penalty
13:07: Do our sin? absorbing propitiating I should say the wrath of God in our place and people have been arguing that makes
13:14: God a God of cosmic child abuse. No, it doesn't it makes of God a God of holiness and love
13:22: This is the reality of the gospel Jesus Christ died on the cross Propitiating the wrath of God against sinners and then they laid his body in the tomb with the dead
13:32: And on the third day he rose again in triumph God raised him up God seated him at his right hand and here's the promise for you
13:40: Listen, here's the promise from the text twofold one your sins will be forgiven your sins
13:48: Your sins will be forgiven Cast away as far as the
13:54: East is from the West. Don't you love that illustration that the Bible uses it? Don't you understand that if you keep going north eventually north meets south
14:03: You got it. You keep going north long enough Eventually, you'll start going south and then you'll start going north, right?
14:10: But you head off here going east and you never change you just keep going
14:15: East right you keep going east Whatever direction that is you keep going
14:24: You'll never start going West Just keep going
14:29: East Come around the globe. You're still going East Cuz East never meets
14:34: West in that sense because your sins are forgiven like that You never meet them again in Condemnation You'll be forgiven
14:47: Have you considered the hope for sinners in our verse You call upon Christ.
14:53: You're forgiven You're justified by faith alone You're credited and clothed with the righteousness of Christ as he cries upon the cross.
15:03: It is finished Listen to me here. I don't know your state some of you this morning, but there really is grace for you
15:10: You say I could never believe I could never repent. I could never be a Christian. I can't do this
15:16: Maybe some of your children, maybe some adults. Hey, I want to be a Christian. I don't know how
15:21: I'll never be a Christian And I say to you that's true in and of yourself actually
15:27: That's true. You're left to yourself. You're not gonna become a Christian, but guess what? We preach a gospel that is full of grace even for you
15:37: Even for you to change even you this is an amazing reality
15:42: That those who've offended God are those who God will clothe in his own sovereign grace
15:51: Here again verse 40 and with many other words He bore witness and continued exhort them saying save yourselves from this crooked generation this crooked generation
16:02: All these people telling you and bringing you along these paths. Hey do these things with me.
16:07: Hey get drunk with me Hey sleep around with me. Hey, let's let's let's cheat on our our finances when they do these things with me
16:15: This generation will perish No, Peter says save yourselves from this crooked generation
16:22: Don't you understand that Jesus Christ is coming back and that there is judgment that awaits those who refuse to heed our text who
16:30: Refuse to repent who refuse to reject the Savior who refused to to leave their sin
16:36: But here the beauty and the promise of the text there's forgiveness of sins Even you can be forgiven in Christ but then
16:48: That's not all there's another promise repent be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and You will receive the gift of the
17:00: Holy Spirit You will be given the gift of God himself Your sins are cleaned out and a new home is made for God to live within you
17:14: Reconciled to God United to Christ by the Holy Spirit your slate wiped clean your heart made new and God makes that heart his abode
17:25: I mean Honestly part of me just wants to stop and let's just sing let me make one last argument here
17:38: About baptism not being the mechanism. I'm just gonna flip over to Acts chapter 10 I have this one just written down the address if you will but listen to this in Acts chapter 10
17:51: Verse 47 Peter preaching to the Gentiles Cornelius He says can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the
18:04: Holy Spirit Just as we have friends in no shape form or way is
18:15: The New Testament trying to teach us that baptism is the mechanism by which we receive these gifts
18:22: It is not So you have the precept and you have the promise. Well, then what is baptism?
18:27: Well, thirdly, let me just mention this you have the picture That's the whole point be baptized an
18:36: Outward picture of these inward realities. You've received the forgiveness of sins.
18:41: You've received the Holy Spirit within you Is there anything that can confirm this? Is there anything that will picture this?
18:48: Is there anything that will show this? Yes, sir Yes, ma 'am. It's baptism the picture the sign
18:55: Outwardly immersed in water because inwardly you've been immersed in the Holy Spirit outwardly
19:02: Signifying death because inwardly you've died to self Outwardly raised up out of the water because already inwardly you've been brought to newness of life
19:12: And the whole act is a picture of the life death burial and resurrection of Christ This is exactly friends.
19:21: I'm not trying to be tongue -in -cheek. I know it's kind of funny to say ha ha It's a Baptist verse, but I'm just telling you Contextually, this is exactly what
19:29: Peters preaching repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the
19:38: Holy Spirit Now what do you do with someone who rejects this?
19:48: Any of it the precept the promise the picture What if someone says I'm not repenting but I'm a
19:55: Christian you say not according to the by the way, you understand It doesn't matter your definition or cultures definition or your neighbors definition or frankly
20:04: I mean no offense to your grandparents and they may have been godly, but in case they weren't not even your grandparents definition
20:11: No, none of those definitions of a Christian matter. You know, what matters the Bible's definition of a Christian And If you say well,
20:19: I'm a Christian. I'm just not a repenting Christian not according to the Bible Alright, what if someone says
20:25: I'm a Christian, but I don't yet have the Holy Spirit, you know, that's not biblical
20:30: Christianity either Okay, and what if someone says I'm a Christian, but I refuse to be baptized
20:38: Well, let me say this in the New Testament Be careful here, but we can work through this in the
20:45: New Testament. There's not a category of unbaptized Christians, you understand the
20:50: New Testament pattern unfolds like this you get saved and soon thereafter you receive
20:57: Baptism, so if you say that you've received Christ, but baptism is not important to you.
21:02: I'm arguing with you You're not in line with the Bible verse 38 Repent and be baptized every one of you and I hate to always be giving the tip of the hat here to the
21:16: LSB But it translates it better because it's each one of you each one of you each one of you
21:25: Baptism is a command to be followed by each and every individual Christian now,
21:31: I've got a couple more things. I've got to address First baptize it says in the name of Jesus Christ now
21:41: This opens another can of worms. You've probably heard of churches Jesus name only churches oneness
21:50: Pentecostal ism They would take this verse so Church of Christ would take this verse and say look this is what you have to do
21:58: Jesus name only one is Pentecostal take this verse say look You have to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ only
22:06: I obviously disagree with that our confession talked about this morning, but i'm gonna explain why first guess what i'm going to talk about Context the preaching here has centered around who?
22:22: Christ It's all about Christ Christ is the fulfillment Christ is the one that is sitting on the throne of david.
22:30: Christ is the one who has tasted death for all men Christ is the one who is uh, uh bore our burden to calvary
22:37: Christ is the one who has died but is sold to not see corruption as david promised Christ is the one who is resurrected from the grave
22:44: Christ is the one who is ascended into heaven and christ is the one who is seated at the right hand of god the father
22:49: Almighty upon the davidic throne. It's all christ The point here then
22:59: In verse 38 you just completely whiff If you say well, that's a form see that's a formula
23:05: Peter's giving us a formula There's a there's a mechanism here. You have to be baptized in the name of jesus and say it that way
23:13: That's not the that's not the point at all, right? And certainly the point is not a trinitarian heresy
23:20: That's that's not to be unkind But the one is pentecostalism if they understand what they believe they set themselves outside of the christian faith
23:30: Because they deny the trinity They would say that jesus is the father son holy spirit.
23:36: That's not true Now the point is
23:41: That true saving the point of verse 38 true saving repentance acknowledges the kingship of christ
23:51: And that his accomplished work alone is the way whereby we are made fit
23:58: For heaven the whole sermon centers around jesus christ So it makes perfect sense for peter to say it this way
24:05: And then even in the acts the apostles are very careful to distinguish between there's another baptism out there, right?
24:11: When you read acts you understand we'll get through that. There's another baptism out there. What baptism is it? It's the baptism by john the baptist.
24:18: So it makes perfect sense that they're drawing a A strong line in the sand here.
24:24: It's not the baptism of john the baptist You need to be baptized in the name of christ
24:30: That's what that's that's their argument. They're they're they're making an argument, uh distinguishing these
24:36: So you say okay? Well, why today when you get baptized so piper's going to be presented at the end of service as a candidate for baptism
24:42: We're going to vote on her in september And if we approve her as a church that we're going to vote on or that we're going to baptize her when she's baptized
24:50: She'll be baptized in the name of the father son and holy spirit. Why you do that? Well, I have two reasons one jesus told us to Jesus told us to baptize that way secondly
25:04: This understanding of baptism is a whole bible understanding of baptism
25:10: You know when you're really going to get bad in your theology is when you cherry pick a verse here or there and then you
25:15: Try to make everything else fit into the verse that you've cherry picked They're not cherry picking a verse here or there.
25:22: We're understanding the whole bible has a whole bible understanding of salvation
25:27: Focusing on christ, but it is a full trinitarian work Okay, and one more one more
25:37: So These first two are very serious We work through these and i'm not just trying to say that You know, i'm not trying to label everyone not a christian or whatever, but look
25:50: Church of christ have a very serious error One is pentecostalism has a very serious error.
25:57: Now. There's a third category here It's less it's still an error Less of an error, but it's still a very important error
26:06: So let me address that I need to mention pato baptism that is uh infant baptism
26:15: Because our text is used to support that It's not a biblical practice by Our believers are believers like conservative presbyterians conservative anglicans, which that's growing more and more or less and less conservative dutch reformed conservative lutherans
26:36: Hopefully I didn't miss any but people who are actually and really born again, but they get baptism wrong
26:43: Well, some of them will use as a proof text verse 39 for their practice. So look at verse 39
26:49: For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off everyone whom the lord our god calls to himself now first of all first of all
27:00: The word baptism you can't get around that it cannot mean Sprinkling even john calvin.
27:06: He's got a great quote. I don't have it here for you He's got a great quote. And by the way, he sprinkled babies. So we strongly disagree with calvin on that And he said that you
27:16: Baptism means immersion Yes, I just wish he would have practiced it. It means immersion, right?
27:23: You cannot get around that meaning so you cannot sprinkle To be faithful to our texts.
27:29: So that's one problem but The pedo baptism is the infant baptizer Those who sprinkle infants they argue that look in verse 39.
27:38: The text says the promise is for you and for your children So therefore the logic is what if the promise is is if you're supposed to get baptized and the promise is for you and for your children
27:49: Ah, the logic is then you and your children should be baptized It's not it's not airtight
27:59: Why? Because what does the text say it doesn't actually say it that way unless you just truncated the verse it actually says it this way for the promise is for you and for your children and for all
28:11: Who are far off everyone whom the lord our god calls to?
28:18: himself So this text if this text means that you should baptize your unconverted children, then logically it also means what?
28:27: You have to go baptize the unbelieving nations right baptize the unconverted people who are far off Okay, find the unconverted baptize them and then give them the gospel.
28:39: But what's the problem with that? It's completely backwards to our text What does verse 41 say so those who what received his word they weren't baptized and they received his word, right?
28:51: They received his word and then they were baptized That's the whole point
28:57: Baptism is for believers those who've received god's word It is as verse 39 says for who everyone whom the lord our god calls to himself
29:07: God doesn't have grandchildren There are no there's not as covenant children. That's not a thing
29:12: That's not a thing Okay, your children are not in your unconverted children are not in covenant with god other than being in the broken covenant of works
29:23: They're not in the covenant of grace The it they need to be saved
29:29: It's for believers Those who receive the effectual call of god and thereby cry out to jesus christ in faith and repentance
29:38: It's only those that the promise is for only those I'll read the text again quite plain for the promises for you and for your children and for all who are far off Everyone who whom the lord our god calls to himself who is baptism for it's not for believers and unbelievers
29:56: It's for those who god calls to himself Those and thereby they call upon the name of the lord.
30:02: I heard it put this way who should we baptize? Only the true sons and daughters of abraham
30:09: That's who should be baptized Well, wait, what does that mean? Galatians 3 7 know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of abraham
30:19: So who should we baptize those of faith? Circumcision was given to the physical offspring of abraham, but it was never a sign of the covenant of grace
30:28: Never it was a reminder of one who The need of one to keep the whole law and the one who would keep the whole law and that those who broke god's covenant
30:38: Would be cut off see genesis 1714 but here we have baptism. It's not a replacement for circumcision.
30:46: Okay circumcision, by the way It's a kind of a silly argument not to be mean but it's kind of a silly argument because it was only for males
30:52: Anyway, right? so Baptism is a sign of the new covenant and it is only for the true sons and daughters of abraham
31:01: Which are who those of faith not the physical offspring? But those who call upon the name of the lord because the lord our god has called them to himself
31:10: Again, right from the text for the promises for you and for your children and for all who are far off Everyone whom the lord our god calls to him
31:20: Self A lot of work We've done a lot of work
31:30: Please don't miss the point of the sermon Just spoiler alert.
31:35: I'm going to preach acts 238 like a baptist, right? But it's true
31:41: I hope i've shown you that's true But don't miss the point of the sermon and this next point's not going to be as long