Revive Us Again | Week 2 | Acts 2:22-41

Revival, Christian Responsibility, and the Call to Serve

If you would, at this time, please take your copy of the scriptures and turn with me to the book of Acts. We're going to be considering Acts chapter 2, verses 22 through 41. Acts chapter 2, 22 through 41.

This is the second message in this book. Let me pray. Oh God, merciful Father, Redeemer, Comforter, Lord, we call upon you, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to please, please, Lord, speak to your people through this broken vessel.

Lord, we need Christ. We need the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we need you. Please, please speak to us. In Jesus' name, amen. So our overarching theme for this series is Revive Us Again, right? We want God to revive us again.

And we asked the question, does the church need revival? And to that, I would answer, yes, absolutely. Look around. We are living in the unfaithfulness of Christians in our past. We need a revival. We need to be revived so we can leave the building, go out, and change the world around us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Without revival, there is no awakening. We talk about our world needs to wake up and see Christ. Well, how are they to do that? Through us. And if we sit on our hands, twiddle our thumbs, tap our feet, nothing is done.

We can know this word backwards and forwards as the Israelites did in the time of Christ, and we know that they do not know the word by Christ. They were called to be the light of the world. They rejected that responsibility.

Do we need revival? Is the church rejecting her responsibility? I'll leave you to answer that. I would say that we need a great move of God to convict the church of laziness and idleness. As true Israelites, we are called to be the light of the world.

That comes to us. Are you a seed of Abraham by promise? Do you have the faith of Abraham? Guess what you are? A true Israelite. And as the body of Christ, like I said earlier, we are called to be his hands and feet.

I want to tell you about two extremes, two books that were written. Me and my wife were talking about it. I believe it was Sunday night, one called Radical and the other called Ordinary. And so you had David Platt, who wrote a book called Radical, talking about all the things that we are supposed to do for God.

And then Michael Horton writes a book called Ordinary, speaking about the ordinary things that we do for God and how they are extraordinary. And both of them are true, but both of them are talking about something that are two extremes.

And I believe there's a middle road, just like I always talk about going down the road and you're on this one way, just one road highway, and there's a ditch on both sides. And on one side is Radical, the book called Radical, and on the other side is the book called Ordinary.

Both are true. They're not pinned against each other. Both are true. We are supposed to do radical things for the God who saves us, and yet we're still supposed to wash dishes. Hallelujah. Sometimes the radicalness is in the ordinary.

We have mothers here who are training, mothers and fathers who are training their kids, right? You are training your kids, you're catechizing your kids. Well guess what? One day that child is going to grow up, he's going to leave the house, and guess what's going to happen?

You need another ministry. There is no such thing as a Christian without a ministry. We are all walking ministries. We cannot be lazy. Jesus has not called us to be served, but to serve. I gave that illustration of when I was a kid, we played that game, follow the leader.

We had somebody on the bike, and whatever that guy that's leading us on the bike does, we who are following, must do. He jumps the ramp, we jump around. He rides with no hands, we ride. You see that? That was ninja skills.

He rides, we ride with no hands, right? It's follow the leader. Jesus says that he is the light of the world, and whoever follows him will never walk in.

Darkness, but will have the light of life.

Ladies and gentlemen, are you following Jesus? Are you following Jesus?

Christ's Authority, Servanthood, and the Body of Christ

Matthew chapter 20, verse 25 through 28 says this, but Jesus called them, speaking to his disciples, to himself and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and their great men exercised authority over them.

It is not this way among you. We are not to lord authority over one another. We are the body of Christ. Right now, as it stands, I am a mouthpiece, all right? The mouth is not greater than the ear. Oh, will you hear me speak notes?

My mouth cannot speak the notes if my hand doesn't turn the paper. A body functions together. We are not to look at a pastor and think, oh, if I had his plate. But sometimes, let me tell you what the pastor does, oh, if I could just sit down.

So much responsibility.

We're not to lord these things over one another. We're not to envy these things. Is God sovereign? Is God sovereign? And again, I said right now, this is where you're headed, because he's had me in a bunch of positions before.

We are the body. We are not to lord these things over. Let's finish that verse. It says, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first shall be your slave.

Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and he gave his life as a ransom for many. Let me ask you a question. Does anyone in here today want to be great? I do. It tells you how, you must be the servant of all.

A part of being conformed to the image of Christ is serving, serving while we are still here at this time. You see how my hand moved that piece of paper, right, for my mouth to speak?

It's a body.

We are the body of Christ. If you're too good to be a slave for Christ, then what good are you to the body? That's what we're gathered here today for. We're publicly professing that Jesus Christ is our master.

We are called to be there for one another. And as we get to Acts chapter 9, I'm really going to push this. Not so much today, we've got 20-something verses we're doing here, right? We are called to be slaves for Jesus.

When you become a Christian, guess what you're saying? Jesus can tell me what to do. When you become a Christian, you're saying, Jesus can tell me what to do. That's what it means. Jesus can tell you what to do.

And listen, Christian and non-Christian alike, everything you do, you do for someone. The majority might be for you. You are a someone, right? I have a honey-do list. And believe me, I don't do that for myself, right?

I work all week and stay up and study and I got this big old list. I just can't never seem to whittle down. It's like it just keeps growing, right? The Bible talks about you either worshipping God or money.

And it says that you cannot worship both, you can only worship one. If you attempt to do both, the one will keep you from the other. And normally it's the money that keeps you from God. For the visitors today, excuse me, there's a lot of streets in my life, right?

And so the saying that I like to say when it comes to pastors and ministers and those leaders in the church, like there's two things that we got to stay away from and that's the money and the honeys, right?

Listen, if I'm in this for the money, something's going wrong in my life, right? It's to turn me from my master, Jesus Christ. You are either a slave to God or to the devil, to your sin. Now we walk through this, John chapter eight, y 'all should all be very familiar with this.

Look at verse 38, John 8, 38, Jesus, Jesus speaking, he says, I speak the things which I have seen with my father. Therefore, you also do the things which you heard from your father. So he's speaking to the religious Jews here who had just professed to believe in him.

And verse 44 tells you who their father is. Look at verse 44, Jesus speaking. You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and he does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

Whatever he, whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature for he is a liar and the father of lies. You are either following Jesus or the devil, light or darkness. You are either a child of God or you are a child of the devil.

There is no in between, there's no fence to ride. You're one, it's one or the other. If you're a Christian, you are a child of God. If you're not a Christian, you are a child of the devil. And if you want to know who your father is, ask yourself, who do you serve?

Who are you following? Our theme for this Lord's Day is the power of the Holy Spirit. And oh, do we need this power, that if God has work for us to do, then God must give us the power to carry out the work.

It's his power with his promise, right? It's the promise fulfilled by his power. He has promised us the Holy Spirit and through this promise comes the power. My proposition today is that through the Holy Spirit, we are made one in Christ.

That is what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is. That's what makes us one in Christ. We are all baptized in the same spirit, right? The spirit that God gave me, according to Ezekiel chapter 36, 25 through 27, it's the same spirit that is in all of you if you're in Christ.

At the beginning of the ministry, excuse me, at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus, listen, as a dove. And that marks the ministry of Jesus. When did Jesus' ministry begin?

At his baptism as the dove descended upon Jesus. That's when his three and a half year ministry began. There was a mark given, a sign, something visible to the eye. Well, in the same way, at the beginning of the church's ministry, the Holy Spirit came upon the church as a fire, came upon Jesus as a dove, which marks his ministry.

It came upon the church as a fire, something visible that marks its ministry. The fire here should indicate to us that there is work that needs to be accomplished. In the same way that Jesus had works that needed to be accomplished, right?

He lived the life that we could not live. He took upon himself the punishment that we deserve. He also tells us what we need to do. Acts 28, I mean, excuse me, Matthew 28 and Acts 1 gives us our marching orders.

What is this work that we are to do? And it is the salvation of souls. In our outline, we're going to see that the fire sparked the revival that changed the.

World.

Remember, fire was a sign given to the church that represents the Holy Spirit. Point number one, we're going to see the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Point number two, the message that was preached. And point number three, the response to the message.

Excuse me, their response to the message. So the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the message that was preached and their response to the message. As we transition, if you remember in chapter one, the followers of Jesus were told to wait.

They were told to wait. Sometimes it's good to wait. There's a period between, I think it was 13, 14 years between my transition of preaching for the Trinitarian Pentecostals, Symbols of God, Churches of God.

And I realized that I didn't, God convicted me of that doctrine. And I sat down and then in 2020, he put me back in the pulpit. So there was a long, I think it was 2011 when I sat down, so it was a long sit time, right?

I needed to be sat down. There's no way that I could stand in the pulpit of a Reformed Baptist church once I left the assemblies of God. I needed to learn. I needed to feast. There's nothing wrong with sitting down.

Sometimes we have to wait. He tells them to wait. They are told that they were going to be sent, but that they were to wait for the promise of the Father, which was the Holy Spirit. Again, Ezekiel 36 and Joel chapter 12 tells us, shows us that the Father promises His Holy Spirit.

Now, in Acts chapter 2, as we read earlier, we saw that the Spirit did come and now they are to go out. So if you just go back real quick to Acts 2, look at verse, I have down here verse 8, and they were to go out, or is that, should have been, no, Acts 2, excuse me, Acts 2, 1, 8, forgive me.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, right? So as the book of Acts begins, it begins in Jerusalem.

We see as the Holy Spirit comes, they begin their ministry in Jerusalem, moves to Judea. It will move to Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth, talking about as the gospel goes to the Gentile nations.

That's the marching orders. They were to wait until they received the Spirit. The Spirit comes with power. We just, Tony just beautifully read to us that they received the Spirit, and now we're going to see them begin to go out, beginning in Jerusalem.

Make sense? We're all on the same page? Point number one, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Let's look at chapter 2, verse 1. Again, we're not expositionally going through every verse. If we were to do this, chapter 2 will at least be 10 messages.

All right, so chapter 2, verse 1. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all together in one place. The word Pentecost means 50, and in the case of our text, it's speaking about 50 days since Passover.

And what took place at Passover was the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Remember when John saw Jesus come, and we preached about this in the Gospel of John. John sees Jesus, and he says, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the.

World.

Right?

This is reflecting to the Paschal Lamb, the Passover, that they would gather together once a year on this day, and they would mark their door with the blood's lamb, like it would be on the post and the lintel, and then they would consume this lamb.

John sees Jesus, and he says, Behold, that's him. That's the guy. He's the one who takes away the sin of the world. And on this certain Passover, three and a half years into Jesus' ministry, where we were in the book of John, John chapter 8, it's six months from that moment, the perfect Lamb of God is sacrificed.

And then 50 days later, Jesus has already, so the third day, he rose from the dead on the third day, and so 50 days, he has already risen from the dead, and now he has ascended into heaven. And so a few days later, this takes place, right?

This is the representation of the gospel that Christ Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried, and on the third day, he rose again according to the Scriptures, and that he, Christ, ascended into heaven.

He who descended also ascended. Now, they are gathered together, listen, in one place to be baptized by the same Spirit. And what takes place right here as we're looking at it, right here in chapter 2, verse 1, this fulfills what Jesus says in John 17, verses 20 through 21.

Turn there with me. John chapter 17, this is the high priestly prayer of Christ. Look at verse 20. Christ is praying to his Father, he says, I do not ask on, excuse me, I do not ask on behalf of these alone, speaking of the 12, but for those also who believe in me through their word.

And we're going to see that take place in the book of Acts. Those who would believe in him through their word. Verse 21, that they may be one, even as you, excuse me, even as you, Father, and me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.

This baptism of the Holy Spirit that's taken place is the fulfillment of that, that they are one, and that through their preaching, those who hear and believe become one with them in Christ and the Father.

That through this baptism of the Holy Spirit, we are all made one in Christ. When you heard that language of Jesus speaking, I in you, you in me, and especially we get this from the book of Ephesians, that he is in us, and we are in him.

Right?

In Ephesians 2, it talks about whenever he saved us, and he sits us with him in the heavenlies.

Right?

How are we sitting with him in the heavenlies? Are you the body of Christ? Are you the temple of the Holy Spirit?

Right?

There's a weird mystery that sometimes our mind cannot fathom, but we are in him, and.

He is in us.

I won't go too deep into that. I don't have the time. I'm trying not to chase rabbits, but that is the fulfillment. And now, this promise of the Father was to be accompanied by power. Ezekiel chapter 36, 25, and 27 tells us that when the Holy Spirit comes into us, we will have the ability to keep God's law.

And just to read verse 27, this is God speaking. He says, I will put my spirit within you, and calls you, listen, calls you to walk in my statues, and you will be careful to do my judgment. This means that we will be able to truly love God, and according to 1 John chapter 3, verse 23, that is, believing in the name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.

The only way that we have the ability to believe in Jesus and to love and care for one another is if the Holy Spirit comes to us and dwells in us. There is no other way. There is no other way.

There is no other way.

You cannot believe in Jesus without the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The greatest way to show this kind of love to our neighbors is to preach to them the gospel. When the Holy Spirit comes upon, came upon them that day, the results was preaching and one-on-one teaching.

That's what it was. They received the Spirit. Through the Spirit, they had the power to turn the world upside down. Started with 12. Book of Acts, we see it was 120, 120, then in this chapter, we're going to see thousands come to Christ, and as we get through it, there's going to be thousands more come to.

Christ.

And how many more 500 years after that, 500 years after that, 500 years after that, right? It's still going. In our text, we have those that were filled with the Holy Spirit speaking the mighty deeds of God in languages of those Jews who were traveling to Jerusalem for Pentecost.

Pentecost was one of those festivals that you had to gather and meet at Jerusalem. And these Jews from all around the nation, right, who spoke in different languages, were gathered together, and when the Holy Spirit comes upon these Galileans, these what I would call the trailer park people of their time, right?

I say that because I am from the trailer park, right? This was the ghetto of Jerusalem in one sense, right? These were the unlearned people. They were speaking the mighty deeds of God. This now, scholars differ here.

I'm not picking a side, right? They could be speaking the mighty deeds of what God has done throughout the generations of Israel, of the Israelite people, right? The mighty works that God done through the Israelites, and this could, and also I think it's, I actually think it's kind of both, or some say that they're just preaching the.

Gospel.

But I think what they're doing is what we see Stephen, what Stephen does in Acts chapter 7, I believe it is, whenever he starts with the old covenant, which Peter will do so as well on the way, and he brings it to Christ.

But these Jews, they gather around, they don't speak the language, and these Galileans, these unlearned men are able to speak in such a way that these Jews who were gathered and that spoke different language could hear them in their own language.

Peter's Pentecost Sermon and the Sovereignty of God

Point number two, the message that was preached. Peter takes his stand with the 11, and he begins to speak. He starts by going to the prophet Joel and explaining this phenomenon, this tongues, how it is that these unlearned Galileans are able to speak the mighty deeds of God.

He starts with this phenomenon that has taken place, and then he, again, he's kind of, in one sense, explaining that they're not drunk, it's only the, what do you say, the third hour of the day or the, it's only nine o 'clock in the morning, right?

Of course, nowadays, we would say, well, it's five o 'clock somewhere, right? But he's trying to teach them, look, these unlearned men, they're not drunk, right? They're able to speak to you, you're able to hear because of what has taken place.

If you remember the story in Genesis begins in 10 and explains more in 11, you have the tower of Babel, right? They were all gathered together in one place. In Acts chapter two, they're all gathered together in one place.

In Genesis, the tower of Babel, because they all had everything in common, he separates.

Them.

He breaks them up. This cannot happen, but in Acts chapter three, he's taking these scattered people, Acts chapter two, he's taking these scattered people, and he's bringing them together, they're all in one place, and they're all able to understand.

In Genesis, he separates them. They all now have different languages. Acts chapter two, all those who have different languages can understand the language spoken by uneducated Galileans. It's powerful what Christ is doing here in this moment through the Holy Spirit.

And then he moves to preaching Christ from the old covenant, and then he brings it back to the Holy Spirit. Let's read what's taken place, Acts chapter two, verses 22 through 24. Peter says, man of Israel, listen to these words.

Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst. Just as you yourselves know, this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, listen, you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put him to death.

But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible to be held by its power. Hebrews chapter two tells us that Satan has the power of death and that Christ took that power from him.

I don't think revival will take place if the Christian, if God's people do not begin to see their need for the Holy Spirit. This is a rebuke for my own circle.

Hallelujah.

We have let people falsely teach on the Holy Spirit to where the Holy Spirit has become the forgotten Trinity. We don't speak about him as much because of some heretical teaching on him. We're scared to speak up.

We're scared to use his name. Notice with me that the first gospel presentation that began the revival that changed the world had to do with God's predetermined plan and foreknowledge of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It had to do with his sovereignty, his plan. The message that sparked the revival had to do with God's sovereignty. And that is a rebuke on not our circles, but those that claim Christ that reject his sovereignty.

They want revival, but they're not preaching the sovereignty of God. And we want revival, but we're scared of the Holy Spirit. Come on. We're baptized in one spirit. This means that him preaching God's predetermined plan and foreknowledge of the death, burial, and resurrection, this means that the gospel of Jesus Christ isn't a plan B.

In Hebrews 2, what I was referring to earlier, we see that Jesus was made perfect, Greek word teleotes, made perfect through his suffering. This means that Jesus had to come into time. In order for Jesus to be made complete, made perfect, he had to enter into time, take on flesh, live the life we could not live, and taste death in our place.

That is the purpose of the Son. God the Father purposed to save the people, God the Son accomplishes the purpose through his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, and the Holy Spirit applies the purpose through preaching.

That's the message we are to preach. This means that there had, listen, there had to be a fall because this event was predetermined. There had to be a fall.

There had to be.

It was never meant to make it. There had to be a fall. Christ had to be made complete, and that was only through the suffering that would take place in the life that he lived. The perfect lamb had to be sacrificed.

That was his purpose. The preaching Christ in this way sparked the single and greatest revival. Listen, it cannot be put out. It cannot be put out. Revival is what gives air to the fire that causes it to breathe, and if there's shrubbery around, a breathing fire will spread.

You're here today because of this revival in Acts chapter 2. We need for this fire to breathe so it can spread. Keep pushing everything away. Keep pushing away your neighbors, the shrubble, and it will never spread.

Keep being scared of the Holy Spirit. Keep being scared to preach the sovereignty of God, and it will never spread.

It will not.

Look at verses 25 through 36. For David says of him, speaking of Jesus, I saw the Lord continually before me because he is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue exalted.

Moreover, my flesh also will live and hope because you will not forsake my soul to Hades nor give your Holy One over to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.

So this is what was spoken by David, verse 29, Peter saying, Man, brothers, I may confidently say in regards to the patriarch David that he both died and was buried. And his tomb is with us to this day, meaning that David did decay, verse 30.

And so because he was a prophet and he knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to set one of the fruit of his bodies on the throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that he was neither forsaken to Hades nor did his flesh see corruption.

This Jesus God raised up to which we are all witness, meaning that they were there when they put him to death. They had to come, this group of Jews had to come to the Passover. We witnessed this, therefore, having been exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you both see, fire, and hear, languages.

They see the fire, they see the sign, and they hear in their own language. For David did not ascend into heaven, but he says, The Lord said to my Lord, Yahweh said to Adonai, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies as a footstool for your.

Feet.

Therefore, verse 36, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Right here, Peter connects Christ's resurrection to the Davidic covenant.

In the Davidic covenant, God promised David to sit one of his descendants on his throne forever. The only catch was that this son had to keep the law in order to do so, which is why Solomon and all of his sons did not sit on that throne forever because they could not keep the law.

Look with me in Psalm chapter 32, Psalm chapter 32, we're going to look at verses 11 and 12, verse 11 and 12, Psalm chapter 32, verse 11 and 12, it says, Yahweh has sworn to David a truth from which he will not turn back.

Of the fruit of your body, I will sit upon your throne if your son keeps my covenant and my testimony, which I will teach them. Their sons also shall sit upon the thrones forever. Does anyone remember where Jesus says something very similar with this?

Where he's talking about sitting on his thrones and then we will be with him and we will judge. This is that fulfillment. Jesus, son of God, son of man, Messiah. Son of God, begotten, son of man, Messiah.

Son of David, king, begotten, son of God, Messiah, son of man, king, son of David, kept the law. David was looking ahead. Peter, interpreting David, points to the resurrection of Jesus and says, that's the fulfillment.

That's the fulfillment. Jesus is the one who died but did not decay. He's the one who sits on the throne, the Davidic throne, at the right hand of God forever. Ruling and reigning, putting all of his enemies under his feet.

And we are in him.

We're his body.

We're in him.

He is in us.

We take part in this fulfillment that was prophesied to David. If we're in Christ. Only Jesus can sit on the throne. Just look in our verse. We're in Acts chapter 2, verse 33. I mean, excuse me, Acts chapter 2, 33.

It says, therefore, having been exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has now poured out that which you both see and hear. Jesus is at the right hand of God.

He is on the throne of David. He alone kept the law perfectly. And listen, as goes the king, so goes the kingdom. Think about that spirit that's in us. When the promise of the Holy Spirit comes to live in us, the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit will cause us to keep the law in order for revival to come.

His kingdom, people must do and teach the way we see Peter doing. Not afraid of the Holy Spirit and not afraid to preach the sovereignty of God. In verse 36, Peter goes back to the predetermined plan of God, the crucifixion of Jesus.

But he puts the blame on the Jews. We actually see it in two places. Verse 23, it says, this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you, speaking to the Jews, nailed to the cross by the hands of lawless man, speaking of the Romans, and put him to death.

Look at verse 36. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him, Christ, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified. Remember whenever Pontius Pilate says, who do you want, Barabbas or Jesus?

They said, give us Barabbas. What do you want us to do with your king?

Crucify him.

That although they put him to death, God has exalted his son, Jesus, the Christ, as Lord, and sits him on the throne of David. You know what this means? Jesus is king. And if you are his people, Jesus tells you what to do.

Show me a kingdom where if their people did not do what the king said, remained his people. Point number three, the response to the message. See the response in verse 37. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brothers, what should we do?

Ladies and gentlemen, oh, to be able to preach in such a way, for the lost to scream, what should we do? For them to say, we are guilty, please tell us, what should we do? And look at Peter's response, verses 38 and 39.

And Peter said to them, repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord God will call to himself.

First off, there is no repentance outside of faith. So right here where it says repentance, you can mark in your Bible faith, right? How can you turn from something to nothing? Repentance means, Greek word, metanoia, to change the way you think, to turn from.

I say this all the time, my hand cannot reach for this pen unless my brain tells my hand to grab the pen. That's metanoia. My hand is doing what my brain tells it to do.

Right?

Repentance is turning from something to something. You cannot turn from something to nothing. We turn from our sinfulness, we turn from worshiping ourself or worshiping the law of God or worshiping a false religion, and we turn to God by putting our faith in Jesus Christ.

Second, those that repent and believe are baptized. In the case of this book, the book of Acts, baptism was immediately after repentance and faith. Not before, not two weeks down the road. Very convicting.

For us Baptists who say, and I'm guilty of this, well, he's professed, let's give it a month and see what happens. It was immediate. There's no way you read the book of Acts, it was always immediate. The promise to them, the Jews, and to their children, the Jews, and to those who are far off, the Gentiles, was the Holy Spirit.