THE FIRST CENTURY GREAT AWAKENING - III

Acts 2:37-41
Bob Bonner
May 2, 2010

Shortly after I became a Christian more than forty years ago, I became aware of the difference of opinion and the discussion among evangelists as to the proper manner in which one should present the Gospel. At the root of this issue was the very real problem of presenting the Gospel in such an irresponsible manner that the presentation itself would lead to what some have called “easy believism” or “cheap grace.” The seriousness of the discussion warns that if one does not present the Gospel properly, others could respond in a manner that would leave them short of truly being saved. 

One of the key issues concerning the presentation of the Gospel is what the Bible calls “repentance.” It is absolutely true that without true repentance, one cannot be saved. But what does it mean to repent? What is included in true repentance? This morning, as we continue our study of the Apostle Peter’s first sermon in Acts 2, we will see a great example of the manner in which the Gospel should be presented and what Luke says is true repentance. 

Before we begin to examine our passage, allow me to remind you once again of its historical backdrop. The scene of our text takes place on the Temple Mount on the day of Pentecost, fifty days following Christ’s crucifixion. The Temple Mount is filled with Jews who have traveled from all over the world to worship at this annual feast. When Peter preached his sermon, an estimated 100,000 Jews filled the Temple Mount. The Jews who were present were made up of two geographical groups. One was those who lived in Israel and who had seen and or heard of Christ’s ministry throughout the previous three years. The second group was those who lived outside of Israel and who had traveled, in some cases 1,000 miles. Of the latter, few knew little of Jesus Christ. Upon their arrival during the previous week to celebrate Pentecost, they no doubt heard about the crucifixion of Christ, but were probably still trying to figure whose religious/political spin on the events was most accurate.

According to Luke 2:5, those who were there and listening to Peter preach were “devout men.” Typically, this expression “devout men” does not refer to individuals who are living rebellious lives of wickedness. Although sinners, they were not dabbling with sin. They were serious about living upright lives. These were sincere men who desired to honor God.

Peter’s speech comes in response to the false accusation raised by these devout men that the 120 disciples of Christ, who had just been filled with the Holy Spirit and were praising God for His mighty deeds in foreign languages, were drunk. Please keep in mind that those who were accusing the 120 of being drunk were not religious hecklers who were out to put down these followers of Jesus.  They were “devout men.” Having observed what they thought were drunks stumbling around the Temple Mount, babbling away as though they were inebriates, they felt this inappropriateness needed to be rebuked. Such behavior would have been considered by any Jew as dishonoring to God.

Hence, Peter turns to those devout men who were near him and directly responds to them as well as to all whom he could reach with the sound of his voice. His sermon begins in verses 14-21 with an explanation of the phenomenon which had just taken place. In those verses, which we looked at two weeks ago, he explained that the 120 disciples of Christ were not drunk, but were manifesting the effects of being filled with the Holy Spirit. From there, Peter in verses 22-36 explains to his Jewish audience Who Jesus is and let’s them know what a horrible thing it was to hand Jesus, their Messiah, over to the Romans to be executed. To these devout Jews Peter declared that they were guilty of murdering their resurrected Messiah. The tone of Peter’s sermon was not that of a fanatic--it was calm, pungent, clear, logical, and most importantly, Biblically supportable. He proved to them the truth of what he was saying and thus prepared the way for his listeners’ response, which we want to study this morning in verses 37-41. Their initial reaction came in the form of a question, “What shall we do?” Peter concludes his message with some directions in response. Follow along as I begin reading our passage at verse 37. 

³⁷Now when they [these devout Jews] heard this, they were pierced to the

heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what

shall we do?” ³⁸Peter said to them, “Repent and each of you be

baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;

and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹For the promise is for

you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord

our God will call to Himself.” ⁴⁰And with many other words he solemnly

testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this

perverse generation!” ⁴¹So then, those who had received his word were

baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.

In verse 37, Luke uses a term that is used nowhere else in the New Testament to describe what motivated the initial response of Peter’s audience. It is the word “pierced.” It depicts something sudden and unexpected.  It describes their being suddenly convicted and deeply affected with anguish and alarm at what Peter had said.

They had been stunned by Peter’s indictment of their having murdered their Messiah and could not evade the truth of their guilt. They were suddenly overcome by grief and remorse. It would have been bad enough to learn that their Messiah had been killed by others, but far worse was this knowledge that they were all guilty of having killed their own Messiah! Even though their Jewish leadership had led the drive to execute Christ, none of them did anything to stand up or speak out against the actions of their fellow Jewish leaders. Hence, they were equally guilty.

An additional cause of their being pierced to the heart so that they would ask, “What shall we do?” may have been their fear of Christ’s wrath against them. Having been resurrected and seated at the right hand of God and given the authority and power to judge and damn the entire entire human race, this Jesus could and would damn them to hell if something were not done. They were rightly afraid of His vengeance.

Hence, they turn not just to Peter but to the rest of the apostles and address them in a significant manner: “Brethren, what shall we do?” This expression “brethren” denotes respect as well as affectionate earnestness. It tells us that those who were asking this question were very sincere. They were hurting, convicted, and wanted to repent, to be forgiven, and to be saved from the wrath of God that they justly deserved. Keep in mind, earlier in the day these same devout men had mocked the 120 and charged them with being drunk.

Over the years of speaking to many about Jesus Christ, it has been interesting to observe the views of those who hate God or reject Jesus Christ and who love to run their own lives, even in violation of their consciences or in a manner in which fits the Biblical description of “sinners.” Their attitudes toward Christ and those who speak to them about Christ greatly change when they are under conviction for their wrong doing. Before, they may mock you. But when they come to Christ, they often embrace and even cling to you and will do anything for you out of gratefulness that you shared with them the Good News of Jesus Christ. Such it was for these devout men.

In a similar situation, months later another mocker of God, when confronted with his rejection of Christ, a man named Saul, would cry out with the same question to the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus. “What shall I do, Lord?” Likewise several years later, a non-Jew, the Philippian jailer, when convicted by the Holy Spirit would respond to the truth of the Gospel by asking, “What must I do to be saved?” When the lost realize the truth and the consequences of having rejected, hated, and been party to the execution of Jesus, they in turn will demonstrate a strong desire to be delivered from God’s wrath against them and are willing to do anything to submit to God’s will. That is a sign of true belief. This is not a simple waltzing down to a baptismal pool, thinking it will somehow save them and allow them to go on living the same old way they were before they were presented with the claims of Christ. A legitimate candidate for salvation recognizes his or her need and will respond in like manner as these devout men do in our text. 

As we can tell from verse 37 and later in verse 40, the Jews’ response to Peter’s sermon probably takes place throughout the rest of that day. We know this because verse 37 makes it clear that the crowd turns not just to Peter but to the other apostles and probably the rest of the 119 disciples for help. And in verse 40 Luke, the author of Acts, lets us know that this is not the complete text of Peter’s sermon. It’s just a brief summary of what happened that day. So in the midst of Peter’s sermon, he was probably interrupted more than once to answer questions. As would be natural in such a situation, Peter could not field all of their questions and the other apostles would have had to step up. Hence, this was not a simple five-minute sermon, a gospel invitation, and the salvation of 3,000 people in ten minutes. There was a great deal of discussion going on about Peter’s sermon with some follow-up exhortations by Peter. Luke simply gives us a brief synopsis of what took place that day.

In verses 38-40, Luke capsulizes Peter’s answer to their first response and recounts his further instruction about the Holy Spirit. First, Peter tells them that they must “repent.” The Greek verb "to repent" literally means “to change one's mind, thinking, or perspective.” But by the way the author of Acts uses this Greek verb, it comes very close to the Hebrew verb for “repent” which literally means “to turn or turn around.” In the end, true repentance results in a change of perspective, involving the person’s total way of life. 

In fact, Luke demonstrates how repentance works in his gospel, in 3:8. Here John the Baptist is preaching to the Jews who are coming to him by the river Jordan to be baptized because they are afraid of God’s judgment or coming wrath for the way they have been living. In 3:7 we read, “So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’” Wow! That kind of sounds a bit harsh, doesn’t it? It is not the recommended way to win friends and influence people. However, the next verse helps us understand the common problem John the Baptist was addressing and how discerning he was of his audience’s intentions. They were coming to him to get baptized, thinking that if they did this religious thing all would be cool between them and God and they could go on their way, living life just the way they were before they got baptized. Realizing this, John adds in verse 8, “Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.” In other words, “Don’t hope you can evade God’s wrath by simply getting dunked in water and then claim that you came from a good Jewish home. That doesn’t cut it. We are talking about your need for such a turn around in your thinking and perspective in life that it produces an obvious change in the way you are living.”  That command to “bear fruit” stresses the commitment of the truly repentant to make some changes in the way they are living.

This passage is significant, for it makes very clear what “repentance” is and what it is not. It points out true repentance (which refers to a genuine change in one’s view point or thinking) and what it produces, its “fruit,” or the change in one’s actions or lifestyle. John made sure that these people understood that true repentance will always be followed by a change in lifestyle. The change in thinking comes first and then the change in lifestyle. It is not correct to demand a change in lifestyle first, before one repents. But then again, it also is not correct to suggest or leave out of the equation that if you come to Jesus there is an expectation by God for you to live righteously. It is clear from Peter’s sermon here that there was going to be some expected actions to follow for those who truly are repentant.

If a person thinks of repentance as simply turning from sinful practices, then repentance becomes a good work that a person can do to earn salvation. This kind of repentance is not necessary for salvation for two reasons.  First, this is not how the gospel preachers in the New Testament used the word. Second, other Scriptures, like Ephesians 2:8-9, make it clear that good works, including turning from sin, have no part in justification. They are the fruit or results of having been justified. Paul makes it clear when he writes, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  God does not save us because of what we do for Him but because of our having put our faith in what He has done for us in Christ. 

When a person trusts Christ, he or she abandons false notions about Jesus and embraces the truth about His being Master and Lord. As a result of putting faith in Christ, the way we live is changed, because now someone else is in charge of our lives. Living in submission to Christ will bear fruit or evidence that we are living differently. If there is no change in one’s lifestyle, attitudes, or perspective toward living, then the only conclusion which can be drawn is that that person is not saved. 

Keep in mind who these men were. They were the devout ones up front making accusations against Peter and the rest of the 119. They were not rebels. They were religious men who were dedicated to serving God. These were not men who would be living overtly wicked lifestyles. Hence, when Peter calls them to repent, he is not asking them to change their lifestyle. They were already “devout.” The real issue for these men was their view of Christ. They needed to change their thinking about Who He was.  And rather than reject Him, they were to believe the truth about Jesus and submit their lives to Him properly as their Master, their Messiah, and their Savior. 

Notice that Peter did not tell them that they needed to pray more, give more, stop carousing, work harder at being holy, or turn from a specific sin. At this point, Peter simply said to these devout men, “Repent,” or, “Change your thinking about Jesus and put your confidence in Him and his finished work on your behalf.”

But let’s not forget that true repentance always bears fruit in the way one lives. And we will see that “fruit of repentance” as Luke describes it not only in the rest of these verses but later in Acts 2:42-47, which we will come to in a few weeks. But in the rest of our verses for today, Peter points to the first fruit of repentance for those who have submitted their lives to Christ. They were to be baptized.

This morning, at this point, we don’t have enough time to do justice to the subject of baptism and how this verse has been misused. In two weeks we will come back to this subject of baptism and look at it in depth. Until then, let me simply state that public water baptism was historically used for the purpose of the individual declaring their allegiance to someone or something. For many self-righteous Jews, the rite of baptism was a humiliating event, reserved for only gentiles who wanted to convert to Judaism. The gentiles were obviously sinners and needed to declare themselves such and in need of Yahweh’s forgiveness.

For the relatively few brave Jews who humbled themselves to be baptized by John the Baptist, this was a very significant move. That’s why few of the self- righteous Jewish leaders got baptized by John, because they were too proud to admit their sin or their need for recommitting themselves to live holy before God. 

But now Peter is asking these Jews to go one step further. He is telling them to be “baptized in the name of Jesus Christ,” the very person they had previously rejected. Because of what religiously was taking place among the Jews, God was requiring that “each one” of these Jews demonstrate that they had changed their minds about who Jesus was. They were now identifying Him as their Messiah and Lord. To publicly declare alignment with Jesus was not only going to be embarrassing, but it could possibly be frowned upon by the reigning Jewish leaders, resulting in their excommunication from the Temple. And to be excommunicated from the Temple would result in a huge change in the way they had been accustomed to living. Hence, being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ was no small order. But in doing so, Peter promised they too would receive the Holy Spirit’s filling in their lives. Whether or not they fully understood what this meant, we can only surmise that this subject was one of the topics discussed throughout that day and is part of what Luke has left out in his account. 

But Peter does give them a hint that this filling of the Holy Spirit was not going to be just for the devout men on the Temple Mount that day. He tells them that it will be for their children and for “all who are far off.” Those “far off" included not only those geographically far off, the Diaspora Jews who were still in their distant countries, and those Jews who were not yet but would be living far off in the future, but it also included those considered to be spiritually far off, the Gentiles or non-Jews. Hence “far off” is being used in all senses of the word. It refers to all of the present and future lost, both Jew and Gentile who will be saved. All who commit their lives to Jesus Christ as their master and savior will experience the promise of the “filling of the Holy Spirit.”

As we continue to read down through verse 40, we recognize that this was not Peter’s only instruction concerning the “fruit of repentance.” For there we are told that he “kept on exhorting” or challenging or giving them instruction as to what they must do as followers of Christ. He says they must take steps to “be saved from this perverse generation!” This command “to be saved” is not a command to spiritually work at being justified or accepted and forgiven by God for sin. This verb “saved” literally means to “be delivered or rescued from” something. In this case, Peter explicitly tells us what they were to rescue themselves from. It was their “perverse generation.”

That word “perverse” is the Greek word “skolios” from which we derive our English word “scoliosis,” meaning an abnormal curvature of the spine. The word “perverse” literally means winding, bent, and twisted. It evolved into meaning “crooked” as in evil, wicked, and dishonest. Here it is used to point to crooked, wicked, and evil people. 

This meaning is further emphasized by Peter’s use of the term “generation.” This word has a wider scope of meaning than simply all the people living within the same generational period. It also refers to a class or group of people very like each other in endowments, pursuits, and character. In this case, it points to those of an evil character.

Peter’s use here of “perverse generation” references those unbelieving Jews who, out of fear of losing their position of power and control over the people and out of hearts driven by jealousy, had Jesus put to death. They were men of perverted hearts. Hence, this second fruit of repentance is Peter’s calling them to separate themselves from the unbelieving Messiah-killing Jews. He is calling them to break away, to alienate themselves from their teachers and friends who would try to get them to turn their backs on Christ.

God knows and so does Peter from his own experience of failure that the chief danger of those who were now awakened, now saved, was from those who surrounded them. He knew their secular and religious leaders and friends would deride, denounce, persecute, and try to get them to abandon their savior and return to their previous sinful lifestyles. And so Peter exhorted them at once to break off from them and give themselves fully to Christ. To put it another way, here “be saved” means to take steps to separate oneself from that which would take one away from Christ and then give themselves fully to Christ. 

By the end of that day, verse 41 tells us, there was a second response from only certain Jews who first responded by asking, “What shall we do?” Peter tells us that out of the many thousand, possibly 100,000 that day who heard the claims of Christ, only 3,000 devout souls “received” or accepted or believed or put their confidence in Peter’s gospel. Only these 3,000 repented, proving such by identifying themselves through the waters of baptism, stepping away from their fellow Jews who would reject Christ, and taking steps to not return to their past evil ways.

As in all revivals, historically, there are many who become alarmed and are anxious about their souls, but refuse the gospel. They refuse to change their thinking about Christ and refuse to submit their lives to the rule of Jesus Christ. In the end, they return to their thoughtless, godless ways and are ruined.

Where are you personally today, as it concerns Peter’s sermon? Have you initially responded to the truth with alarm, anxious about your eternal destiny? But have you not turned your life over to Jesus Christ as your Master? Are you still holding back? Or are you like the 3,000 who changed their minds about Christ and the way they were living? Have you truly repented? Are there fruits of repentance evident in your life so that all can see?

To those of you who have, what is the evidence of the ongoing production of the “fruit of repentance?” Can you point to anything in your life that the Holy Spirit has placed his finger of conviction upon that God is asking you to deal with? Honestly, are you even listening to the convicting voice of the Spirit? If you were to turn to a friend or loved one who knows you well, would they be able to honestly say, “Yes, I continue to see growth in your life, the fruit of repentance?”

Give your best attempt to explain to someone what “true repentance” means.

Can someone who knows you well point to evidence in your life that would qualify as a “fruit of repentance?” What might that be?

In the last six months, can you identify one area in your life in which the Holy Spirit has been convicting you concerning a needed change in your life? An area of character transformation? An area of submission? Specifically, what would that be?

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