23rd February 2025

New Testament Heroes 8 – 23/02/25 – Martin Mowat

Readings: Psalm 110, Acts 2:29-42

Last week we heard our current hero Peter, amusingly referred to as ‘Rocky’ in the video that we watched on Wednesday, quoting from Psalm 16, and also from Psalm 110, which Liz just read for us.

As he preached what I assume to have been his first sermon, he wanted his audience to be in no doubt about their contribution to the demise of their Messiah.

When the people heard this, Luke tells us, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”  

It’s easy for us, with 2000 years of hindsight, to think how stupid the Israelites had been, not to recognise their Messiah after all those centuries of eager waiting, particularly the spiritual leaders who knew, perhaps off by heart, all that the prophets had foretold.  

It’s easy for us, too, to say “well of course they needed forgiveness”. But as the old saying goes “Hark at the pot calling the kettle black”. Let’s not get too self-righteous about all of this. 

Cut to the heart, they said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 

This was certainly the reaction that Peter had hoped for, and he was not slow in answering their questions.  There were two things they had to do, he said, and with each of those two things there would be a reward.

Repent.  That was first and foremost what they had to do. A dictionary will tell you that that means “to feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or sin” and the word remorse, interestingly in decline, gives the idea of regret, contrition or penitence.  

But the New Testament word “repentance”, as well as talking about an emotional response, means “a change of thinking” and involves adopting a new perspective on reality, including a new view of sin, of God, and of oneself.

In other words, a complete change of mindset concerning one’s past, one’s present, and one’s future.  If you think about it, that’s HUGE. 

The second thing that they needed to do was to be baptised. It wasn’t one or the other, it was BOTH.

Three weeks ago, on 2nd February, I talked about baptism in some detail, so what I said is on the site and I don’t want to go into it all again, except to say this.  While different denominations have different thoughts and traditions, but there, in Jerusalem, on the day that the Holy Spirit descended and gave birth to the New Testament Church, in excess of three thousand adults were baptised by total immersion as a public declaration that they had repented in the way that I have just described, a declaration that their sins had been washed away, and a new life had begun.

With genuine respect to what you’ve been taught, can I just say that in my humble opinion, these two things are inseparable, and that’s why Peter said that day “repent and be baptised”.  Notice too, the order of events. Repentance comes first, baptism second. It can’t be the other way round.

So what were the two rewards?

Let’s listen again to what Peter had said “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.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

So, the two rewards are the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The forgiveness of sins does two things. It deals with our past, once and for all, and it assures us of an eternal future.  It’s repentance that does that, not baptism, not good deeds, notgoing to church regularly, but repentance – a decision to accept Jesus, God the Son, as both our Saviour, and our Lord, as we fall into his loving embrace. We understand that God the Father is so intent on pardoning our iniquity that he sent his son to die in our place, and we respond in gratitude, in praise and worship, in obedience, and with a commitment to change.

Clearly, we can’t go on living the way we did. As I said earlier, priorities have to be brought into line, some habits may need to change. Our vision of who we are, and our mission in the world, will be different now. 

And as we all know, only too well, change is hard, especially when we try to do it in our own strength, and that’s where God the Holy Spirit comes in. He comes into our lives, permanently, giving us assurance of God’s forgiveness, and helping us to make those changes, giving us the power to do it. We call that the ongoing process of “sanctification”.

I think that I’ve said enough about that now, from the lectern anyway. If you would like to talk about it further, less publicly, I’d be more than happy to do that with you. 

The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off Peter went on to say, for all whom the Lord our God will call”.

The salvation that God offers was never meant to be the exclusive to the Israelites present in Jerusalem on that unforgettable day.  The gift was for others, both later in time and further afield. Christ’s free gift of salvation knows no boundaries. His great commission is to “go and make disciples of all nations”, to “be his witnesses …. to the ends of the earth”.

In Matthew 24, which is a difficult chapter to understand, Jesus was teaching about the destruction of the temple and the signs of the end times. He said this, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

John, in his second book, Revelation, describing his vision of heaven, said that he looked, and there before him was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.  And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:“Amen! Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honour and power and strength be to our God, for ever and ever.Amen!” (Rev 7:9-12)

Just as an aside, it can be tempting, as look around us and hear about all that’s going on in our world and think that it’s the end of the world.  But some believe that the gospel has to have been preached to “every nation, tribe, people and language” before that can happen.

I think that those are fitting words to end on.  Next week we’ll move forward to talk about some of the things that happened as, with the empowering of the Holy Spirit, the church began to grow.