ACTS 2.38 AND NEW BEGINNINGS

A message from Rick Mosher, Senior Minister

At the start of the year many think of new beginnings. Some perhaps made New Year’s resolutions. Some of you reading this may have experienced your life becoming totally messed up. You might even feel like giving up. Well, there’s a verse in the Bible that tells you how to have a completely NEW BEGINNING.

The verse I’m referring to is Acts 2.38: Peter replied, “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.”

If you have not received Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you need a new beginning in your life, this verse speaks right to you. To REPENT is literally to change your mind. It has the effect of changing the way you live. It is making a break with all the stuff of this world that has destroyed your relationship with God and, in its place, making Jesus Christ the center of your life. Just two verses before this, Peter pointed out that Jesus is Lord. If you want a new beginning, you need someone to be your Lord who will steer you away from all the damaging stuff and get things going better in your life. That one… the only one who can do it... is Jesus Christ.

Then, Peter says to be baptized. When you do this, he says, you receive the forgiveness of your sins. To put it another way, it’s the point in time when you become saved. In Romans 6.4, Paul tells us, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” When we are baptized, according to the Bible, we are immersed in water. It is like a death, burial, and resurrection because we momentarily cease breathing, we are lowered beneath the water, and raised up again. In having this done to us, we come into contact with what Jesus did in dying on the cross, being buried, and rising again to save us from our sins and give us the hope of eternal life. It’s not any power that’s in the water or any work that the one being baptized is doing. It’s something that God is doing to us and in us.

Peter also says that when we do this we receive not only the forgiveness of our sins but we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Part of this is the Spirit’s role in giving us this new beginning. Have you heard people talk about being “born again”? Well that’s what’s happening here! The Holy Spirit is working to give you a fresh start in life. In John 3.3-5 we read: In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. 4 “How can a man be born when he is old,” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” In baptism is where this working of the Holy Spirit combines with the use of water and one is born again, gets a new beginning! Then, going on to live the Christian life, one has the Holy Spirit as a constantly abiding presence in life to comfort and guide and help in many ways.

So, wait a minute, you might be asking. Aren’t we saved by FAITH. Oh, yes, and this in no way takes away from that or contradicts it in any way. In fact we see in the passage Acts 2.38 comes from that this is the outgrowth of faith and the result of faith that leads to salvation. In the verses just before, Peter had been telling thousands of first century Jews, many of whom about fifty days earlier had cried out for Jesus to be crucified, that Jesus was indeed the Messiah (Christ) their people had been expecting for centuries. He said that they had rejected and crucified Jesus, and that God had raised Him up from the dead. Peter told them that Jesus is Lord and Christ. Well, the people BELIEVED. They interrupted his sermon and asked Peter and the rest of the apostles what they should do. Peter didn’t have to tell them to believe. It was obvious that they believed. Now if just believing as a personal conviction is all one needed to do, Peter would have said, “You have it now. Since you believe you just became saved.” HE DIDN’T. What a person must do upon believing in order to get the new beginning is to repent and be baptized. This is in harmony with Jesus own words in Mark 16.16: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved…”.

In the process of obeying in this matter, one must also confess (acknowledge) faith in Jesus before getting baptized. Matthew 10.32 finds Jesus telling us, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.”

Jesus provided the way to a new beginning for you by dying for your sins and rising again. Now it’s up to you to receive Him as your Lord and Savior and obtain this fresh start by believing in Him, repenting from sin, confessing your faith in Jesus and being baptized (immersed) into Him. If we can assist your coming to Christ or point you to a church where you live, if you don’t live in our community, contact us at Licking Christian Church.

CREDITS: Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.