Sermon Tone Analysis

PRAY

INTRO:

Everybody’s a theologian.

R.C. Sproul accurately quipped, “Everybody’s a theologian.”

Theology at its core is thinking about God.

Even those who vehemently, and arrogantly, proclaim that there is no God, are thinking theologically.

They either don’t want God to exist because they don’t want to be accountable to him, or they wrongly conclude that if God is not the kind of God that they desire him to be (in the making of their own minds), he therefore must not exist.

Everyone is doing theology.

That theology is bad or good or somewhere in between, but everybody’s a theologian.

Particularly those of us who submit to the word of God as the authority (bc it is from God himself), for eternal life and for how we live life, we are always studying what God teaches in these pages… in the immediate context first, and then by comparing Scripture with Scripture (the context of the whole counsel of God).

We are always doing theology, and we are always clarifying that theology in careful articulation of what the Bible teaches, which we call doctrine.

(Our articulation of the theology we find in God’s word is what we call doctrine.)

Neither we, nor our Christian brethren, who differentiate by our doctrines, have a corner on perfect doctrine.

Church history has proven that we are always reforming, always seeking to grow in understanding and in faithfulness, and always seeking to more accurately articulate a true theology according to what God reveals about himself and his will for us.

Therefore, “Older” theology isn’t automatically better.

… Unless by older we are going all the way back to the Scripture itself.

The reformers made great strides in moving toward more biblical doctrine, which we have come to codify in Christian history as the five solas: Scripture alone (as authoritative), Christ alone (who accomplished everything necessary for salvation), faith alone (as the only means to receive redemption), grace alone (not because of anything in ourselves, but only by God’s unmerited favor), and glory to God alone (who alone is to be worshipped and revered and given the credit he is due).

Even some of the very reformers that helped toward this valuable end continued in a doctrinal tradition that we will argue today is incorrect: Baptismal Regeneration.

More on this later.

So it’s essential that we do the hard work of having our thinking about God grounded in careful study and right thinking from God’s word.

Our text for today in Acts 2, especially verse 38, will require of us careful study and deep theological thinking.

After Peter preached the first Christian sermon at Pentecost, this is what happened next:

Our passage begins with...

“When they heard this, they were pierced” (v.

37a)

What is “this”?

… Peter has laid out some key elements of the gospel.

We may note that he did not have to convince his Jewish audience of God’s holiness and that he created all things for his own glory and according to his own purposes.

Nor did he have to convince them that they were sinners in need of forgiveness.

What he did convince them of is that they had put their Messiah to death on a cross.

But that this Jesus of Nazareth rose again (because he his Lord, so death can’t hold him), and that he’s seated in authority on high.

Peter has convinced this Jewish audience that the pouring out of the Spirit is evidence that they (the disciples) were eyewitnesses of the Risen, Exalted, and Ascended Christ.

Peter has convinced them that the last days have come upon the earth and that soon to come is the day of the Lord, when Christ returns to judge his enemies.

The reality of the gospel Peter declares to them is like a stab in the heart.

So they asked Peter and the other Apostles…

“Brothers, what shall we do?” (v.

37b)

Peter answers by saying “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved...” (Acts 16:31).

Nope, that’s Paul and Silas giving answer to the Philippian jailer later, in Acts 16.

Peter actually answer here by saying:

“Repent and be baptized” (v.

38a)

I mean, it’s a good thing Peter is an Apostle and that Luke’s text in Acts is the inspired word of God, because otherwise we’d be like, “Peter, you just encouraged a line of doctrinal thinking that will take the church literally centuries from which to break free… and even then, only some will do so.”

Ok, so we know better than that.

We don’t blame God’s word; we blame ourselves for our ineptitude in understanding and articulating what it teaches.

Given the situation and his audience, and comparing with other calls to conversion, what should we understand that Peter means here?

A.T. Robertson, one of the foremost Greek scholars of his generation, argued that you can’t conclude whether or not baptism is required for salvation from the grammar itself here, but rather that your theological conclusions drawn from other texts will inform what you think Peter intends.

I think that’s right.

But we’re not completely flying blind in the context, and we certainly have help from other passages in Acts.

Peter’s sermon has been leading them toward whose name to call upon for salvation (see v. 21), so the question to be answered here is less “What is required for salvation?”

and more “Whose name do we call upon?” (v.

41a) The answer Peter gives does include a call to action (repent and be baptized), for each individual, but based upon a response of calling on the name of Jesus Christ to save them, who is able to forgive of their sins.

As a result, they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

What Robertson really is getting at though is that we interpret it this way, and not that baptism is required for regeneration (for salvation), because our theology informs us that “no works of our own at all can save us.”

We are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Martin Luther found in studying Romans that Paul conclusively clarifies that righteousness attributed to us can only come by faith in Jesus Christ.

It’s God’s righteousness we receive, not our own.

Even faith is not our work, but God’s own gracious work in us:

Or note too that we have an entire letter to the Galatians essentially written to contradict a false teaching that any work whatsoever might be required in addition to the gift of faith.

We could add baptism into that category.

Similarly, we are also inclined to look at the other occurrences in Acts and give them explanatory weight over against what it might sound like Peter says here.

The very first comes in first 41 here, where it says that “those who received his word/message...” (eg.

believed in the gospel) “… were baptized.”

See also shortly after this in Acts 3:19-20

While repentance is given as a condition of (or to be synonymous with) saving faith, baptism is not mentioned at all.

Perhaps what takes place in Acts 10 is even more clear:

So after this takes place and the evidence of the Spirit is already present, Peter says,

Acts 10:47–48a (ESV)

“Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”

And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Just one more example (there are still others): Back to that episode we spoke of earlier in Acts 16, where God miraculously freed Paul & Silas from prison, but they remained behind so that the Philippian jailer wouldn’t kill himself.

When he asked how to be saved, they answered,

This would have been a clear opportunity to stipulate that baptism is required for salvation, but it is not.

Instead, after preaching the gospel (“the word of the Lord”) to him and his household, they are then baptized (which we are left to presume took place because they had done exactly what Paul said: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”

We can therefore argue that the preponderance of evidence in Scripture which informs our doctrine seems clear enough to us, and that the other examples in Acts seem to indicate that baptism doesn’t save you but is an act of obedience, a public demonstration declaring the fact of one’s belief in Christ alone as the only Lord who can save.

So Peter’s call to repentance is in fact one and the same as calling on Christ by faith (two sides of the same coin - repentance is turning from sin and self-trust, and faith is throwing yourself upon the mercy of God and trusting in him alone), and then baptism is a public display of the sincerity of that faith & repentance.

Application in terms of whether baptism is necessary/required: “Baptism is necessary because we have been saved; baptism is not necessary in order to be saved.”

(Deffinbaugh) Does baptism save you?

No.

Is it required?

Yes, because it is a matter of obedience.

- “The idea of an unbaptized Christian is foreign to the apostles because they assumed that every true believer would be an obedient believer.”

(Cole)

Well, now we can finally continue.

“Everyone of you… In the name of Jesus Christ… for the forgiveness of your sins… and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (v.

38b&c)

Every one of you - Each individual person must decide to either respond in faith and repentance or to continue in their rejection.

In the name of Jesus Christ - Again, on whom should they call for salvation?

Who is the Messiah and Lord? - Peter will say soon hereafter before the council (the Sanhedrin), when he and John are being threatened to stop preaching: “This Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’”

(Acts 4:11)

For the forgiveness of your sins - How does this forgiveness occur?

How can it?

[explain the great exchange]

And if in true sincerity you call on Jesus in faith and repentance, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

- As we said previously and will see throughout Acts, this is not a guarantee that the Holy Spirit’s indwelling will always manifest itself by filling us to perform miracles as was the case here and in the Apostles, but we can have assurance that the Holy Spirit resides in us as permanent confirmation of salvation.

(That’s not all that he does in us, but that is likely Peter’s point here.)

To whom does this offer apply?

“For the promise… is for you… everyone whom the Lord our God calls” (v.

39)

What is the promise to which Peter refers?

It is one of forgiveness through Jesus Christ to be restored to God (even though you KNOW you don’t deserve it!)…