The First Alter Call (2)

Acts 2:37–40 CSB

When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ 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 our God will call.” With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!”

So Peter preaches this first sermon and let's take a look at all the first. It's the first time the gospel of Jesus Christ was priest meaning the death burial and resurrection was preached , it's the first time a sermon is priest through someone filled with the Holy Spirit, it's the first time we see a sermon given with prophecy fulfilled from the Old Testament, not just prophecy fulfilled but fulfilled in the very moment, then it's the first time the Holy Spirit moves in a way that convicts people the way that we understand conviction and the Holy Spirit. I'm sure we could come up with more things that are a first. Let's look at what's happened here. We're still on the day of Pentecost. So they have I had the Holy Spirit come and fill them they being the 120 in the upper room. Then we have people that was accusing them of being drunk that's when Peter stood up and began to preach the first sermon and he tells us of Joel and he quotes David and preaches this magnificent sermon and then we pick up here at verse 37 where it says they were cut to the heart. I don't know about you but I can relate to this verse probably more than any other. I don't know about you but I've been sitting in a service where the Holy Spirit was convicting me where it was tugging at my heart, where my knuckles were white so to speak because the Holy Spirit was speaking to me in that moment and it was cutting me to the heart. It's funny because when the Holy Spirit is convicting you I believe the universal question is what should I do?

What shall we do?”

This was obviously a significant work of the Holy Spirit. The great crowd listening to Peter was deeply moved by Peter’s bold proclamation of the truth. They asked Peter how they should respond.

It is wrong to think that Peter offered no kind of invitation or challenge for his listeners to respond.

acts 2.40

Acts 2:40 CSB

With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!”

says, And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” Peter clearly did urge them to respond, and invited his listeners to “Be saved.” Nevertheless, the multitude responded with remarkable initiative.

ii. The response of the crowd also helps us to put the events of that Day of Pentecost into perspective. It wasn’t until the gospel was preached that conviction from the Holy Spirit came. This was the work God really wanted to accomplish.

b. Cut to the heart: This is a good way of describing the conviction of the Holy Spirit. They now knew that they were responsible for the death of Jesus (as each of us are), and that they had to do something in response to this responsibility.

Peter had some previous experience with cutting. When Jesus was arrested, Peter cut off the right ear of one of the men who came to arrest Jesus (John 18:10). All this was an embarrassing mess that Jesus had to clean up. That showed Peter in the flesh, doing the best he could with a literal sword of human power.

When the resurrected Jesus changed Peter’s life and when the power of the Holy Spirit had come upon him, he did some much more effective cutting; cutting hearts, opening them to Jesus. This is what Peter could do in the power of the Spirit, doing God’s best with the sword of the Spirit, God’s Word. Which sword was more powerful? The combination of God’s Scripture and God’s Spirit working through God’s servant had the intended effect. From their initial question What does this mean?

Acts 2:12 CSB

They were all astounded and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

(2:12), the people now progressed to specific response—Brothers, what shall we do? The phrase cut to the heart translates meaning “stung” or “stunned.” Had some people listening to Peter that day also screamed for blood in Pilate’s hall? While the word conviction does not appear in our verse, this clearly reflects that heart attitude. The New Testament uses this word to describe the work of the Holy Spirit by which we see ourselves as we are in God’s sight.

Men and brethren, what shall we do? When God is working on someone’s heart, they want to come to Him; they will act to come to God. It has been said that in normal seasons of Christian work the evangelist seeks the sinner. Yet in times of revival or awakening, things change: the sinner seeks the evangelist. This Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 was one of those great seasons of God’s work.

In response to the inquiry, What shall we do?, made by those of his audience who were convicted by the Spirit, Peter opens wide the door of salvation universally provided in Christ’s redemptive work on the Cross, and invites all to enter by the way of repentance, remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit thus completing the gospel sermon. Peter preached the death of Jesus burial jesus and preach direction of Jesus and he preaches the effects of those things which is conviction of the heart by the Holy Spirit and repentance of sin which is the whole gospel. You can't have the gospel without repentance without the surrender and being cut to the heart. When we realize we put Jesus on the cross it cuts our heart ! When we realize that Jesus still said forgive them they know not what they do it cuts our heart! When we realize that we not only put Jesus on the cross because of our sin but He willingly did it for us personally it cuts to the heart!

The answer is swift and to the point. With the force of a John the Baptist and out of the depths of his own experience with Jesus, Peter shouts, Repent! And also like John, he adds, And be baptized every one of you. But the new era has dawned and the name now is that of Jesus Christ. Then through him their sins may be forgiven; IN THE NAME OF JESUS not only that, but they also will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit through IN THE NAME OF JESUS! This is the first mention in Acts of doing things in the name of Jesus. From now on, this will be the authority and power for healing IN THE NAME OF JESUS, for salvation IN THE NAME OF JESUS; teaching IN THE NAME OF JESUS, for preaching IN THE NAME OF JESUS, and for casting out demons IN THE NAME OF JESUS !

Peter must have been pleasantly amazed to see what God had done in this situation. Instead of people wanting to crucify him because of Jesus, thousands of people wanted to trust in Jesus as Lord and Messiah. Repent, and let every one of you be baptized: Responding to the question, “What shall we do?” Peter gave them something to do. This means that we must do something to be saved, we must do something to follow Jesus; it doesn’t just “happen.” Peter did not say, “There’s nothing you can do. If God saves you, you’re saved. If God doesn’t save you, you’ll never be saved.” Though it was true that only God could do the saving, the people had to receive through repentance and faith, faith leading to action such as baptism. Repent: The first thing Peter told them to do is repent. To repent does not mean to feel sorry, but it means to change one’s mind and or direction. They had thought a certain way about Jesus before, considering Him worthy of crucifixion. Now they must turn their thinking around, embracing Jesus as Lord and Messiah.. Repent sounds like such a harsh word in the mouths of many preachers and in the ears of many listeners, but it is an essential aspect of the gospel. Repent has been rightly called “the first word of the gospel.” When John the Baptist preached he said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (When Jesus began to preach He said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” Now when Peter began to preach, he started with repent.Repentance must never be thought of as something we must do before we can come back to God. Repentance describes what coming to God is. You can’t turn towards God without turning from the things He is against. In this sense, repent is a word of great hope. It says, “You don’t have to continue the way you’ve been going, you can turn to God.”

In Acts 2:38, repentance means a radical reorientation of life with respect to Jesus, expressing sorrow for having rejected the one accredited by God as Lord and Christ. Repentance is a human responsibility—something we are commanded to do. But it is also the gift of God—repentance is possible only by God’s enabling.

The command to ‘be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ’ expresses the positive side of repentance, involving a calling upon him for salvation and allegiance to him as Lord and Messiah. Water baptism was offered by John the Baptist as a sign of repentance, ‘for the forgiveness of sins’. John was preparing Israel for the coming of the Messiah and his baptism with the Holy Spirit. He also clearly associated the Messiah’s coming with the fulfillment of scriptural promises about a definitive forgiveness of sins in the end time. When Jesus was raised from death, he declared that forgiveness could be preached in his name to all nations, and subsequently poured out the promised Holy Spirit on his disciples. So Peter proclaimed that what John had been preparing for was now available for all to enjoy.