{"id":6290,"date":"2020-04-15T05:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T10:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/wp\/?p=6290"},"modified":"2020-04-15T09:30:14","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T14:30:14","slug":"acts-237-47","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/?p=6290","title":{"rendered":"Acts 2:37\u201347"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

37 <\/sup><\/strong>Now when\nthey heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of\nthe apostles, \u201cBrothers, what shall we do?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes we feel like we need to make\nthe Gospel friendly or fearful for those who have not given their lives to\nJesus. Romans 1:16 says that the Gospel is the Power of God for salvation. When\nwe try to make the Gospel something it is not, we interfere with the Power of\nGod. The people listening to Peter were deeply affected by the good news about\nJesus. Our job is to present the Gospel for what it is and let God work in people\u2019s\nhearts. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

38 <\/sup><\/strong>And Peter\nsaid to them, \u201cRepent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus\nChrist for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the\nHoly Spirit. 39 <\/sup><\/strong>For\nthe promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off,\neveryone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.\u201d 40 <\/sup><\/strong>And with many other words he bore witness and\ncontinued to exhort them, saying, \u201cSave yourselves from this crooked\ngeneration.\u201d 41 <\/sup><\/strong>So\nthose who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about\nthree thousand souls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to the people\u2019s question of \u201cwhat shall we do\u201d, Peter lays out how they should respond to the Gospel. They should repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus. Now this verse has led to some debate and division among different denominations. Some mistakenly view Peter as saying that in order to be saved you must repent and be baptized. While this verse does make it seem that way, the united voice of the rest of the scriptures and even Peter himself in the rest of Acts (3:19) show that in order to be saved you must Repent. The reason Peter adds baptism in verse 38 is because the people asked what the must do in response to the Gospel message. Repentance leads to salvation; baptism is the first step of obedience. Repentance is the turning away from sin and baptism is the first step toward Christ. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

42 <\/sup><\/strong>And they\ndevoted themselves to the apostles\u2019 teaching and the fellowship, to the\nbreaking of bread and the prayers. 43 <\/sup><\/strong>And\nawe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through\nthe apostles. 44 <\/sup><\/strong>And\nall who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 <\/sup><\/strong>And they were\nselling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all,\nas any had need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After being Baptized, the people devoted to\nthree things: 1. The Apostles teaching 2. Fellowship of believers and 3. Prayer.\n These three things became the things\nthat shaped the first century church. In the same way, these three things are essential\nfor every Christian to live out. Are you studying the teachings of the Bible? Are\nyou caring for other believers in your local church? Are you praying often and\nseeking God\u2019s guidance? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 46 <\/sup><\/strong>And\nday by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes,\nthey received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 <\/sup><\/strong>praising God and having favor with all the\npeople. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being\nsaved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The example by the first century church was to meet temple\nand gather at homes for meals. As Baptist we like to combine the two. (I can\u2019t\nwait for the next time we can meet and have a breakfast Sunday!)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0These two practices are essential to building faith and unity within the church. When we come together in a special building to worship, we show God he is worthy of our time and effort to get there. When we gather with other believers in homes, we show each other the importance of our personal relationships. Like the early church, we must make the most of our worship and our relationships as we grow in our faith. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScripture quotations are from the ESV\u00ae Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version\u00ae), copyright \u00a9 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":1167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","filesize_raw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6290"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6292,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6290\/revisions\/6292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}