Solution (Acts 2:38-41)

And Peter said to them, “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 Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are afar off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3000 souls.

Acts 2:38-41

The gospel wouldn’t be “good news” if it didn’t offer a solution to humanity’s deepest needs. The message that bore a deep hole into the hearts of a Pentecost audience elicited a response: What do we do? Peter graced them with an answer, a solution that would change things dramatically!

Repent… What the epistles reveal is that “in Christ” everything changes. It simply will not make sense without a change of heart, a willingness to see things in a new light, a willingness to see things in a Christ light. Repentance paves the way for accepting the new approach to life.

Jesus’ ministry contended…without repentance, the kingdom of God wouldn’t make sense (Matthew 3). This is why so many missed it. They weren’t willing to see things in a new light. They wanted the kingdom as it was, just slightly modified. Any change that was too dramatic was too much. The unwillingness to see the kingdom break in with newness, life and light caused many to reject the offer of Jesus. It was going to take heart-born paradigm shift for any of it to make sense.

…and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins… Changing a frame of mind, though, doesn’t grant one placement into the kingdom. A new birth does (John 3:3-5). For Israel, everyone was born into the kingdom. In Christ, everyone is born into the kingdom through submission, the offering of one’s life upon the altar, and through death.

Death was Jesus’ course to resurrection life. He could not be resurrected without first dying. Nor can we find kingdom existence without first dying. Baptism was, and is, the expression of faith that makes kingdom existence a reality (John 3:3-5; Galatians 3:26-29; Romans 6:3-5). It was inescapable. The gospel would extend new life, but one simply had to be “born again” (John 3:3).

…and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit… Long before the days of the first century, God had made a series of promises that would come to fruition in Christ. Several of those promises centered on the Holy Spirit. Peter cites one of those promises as an explanation to his audience about what they were witnessing (Acts 2:16-21). But this was not the only promise God had made concerning the Spirit. In Ezekiel 36, He promised, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules” (vv. 26-27). God would infuse his people with a new “heart” and a new “spirit.” That spirit, though, would be Spirit. It would serve a special purpose. It would serve the purpose of causation. God would “cause” his people to “walk” in His statutes and “be careful to obey” his rules. God, in essence, said, “I am going to help you.” This is a gift I give to you!

So what happened? 3000 people, that’s right, 3000 people “received his word and were baptized.” Unbelievable. Followers of Jesus went from 120 to 3120 in the period of a day.

Solutions work. Solutions are wanted. Solutions are needed. Thanks be to God who offers the greatest solution to man’s need. Jesus. Gospel. Redemption. Discipleship.