How to Become a New Testament Christian!
(
Acts 2 : 32 - 41 )
How do you become a Christian? Different evangelists and different branches of the Christian church give confusing and at times contradictory answers to this question. Yet the first recorded account of conversion in Christian history, described in
Acts 2, offers normative guidance on this foundational subject, so important if we are to live an effective Christian life.
How do you become a Christian?
You might expect such a basic question to be easily answered. Not so. Many of today’s common answers - such as ‘By inviting Jesus into your heart’ - you won’t actually find in the Bible. Many Christians, myself included, have struggled and searched because of the conflicting answers we’ve been given by different parts of the church. Our church background or Christian upbringing may have helped, or hindered, a true understanding of how to become a Christian. We may have been inadequately or incorrectly counselled. Our Christian initiation - which should be the beginning of our Christian life - may have taken most of our life to get sorted out. Indeed, some of you may find from this message that your Christian initiation has still to be fully completed.
Normal Christian Evangelism
This episode was the first time in history that enquirers were counselled to respond to Jesus (2: 37-38). So it should be our benchmark or standard for what constitutes evangelism, conversion, and counselling for Christian commitment. All later practice should take its bearings from here. Our contemporary models of evangelism, from John Wesley to John Wimber, from Billy Sunday to Billy Graham, should be assessed in the light of this passage.
The Jewish leaders had not accepted, but rather murdered, their long-awaited Messiah. God had ‘accredited’ Jesus by signs and wonders ; but they had discredited him by putting him to death on a cross (
Acts 2: 22). God reversed their rejection by raising Jesus from the dead, showing that he truly was both ‘Lord and Messiah’ (
Acts 2: 36). Peter’s bold preaching produced a deep conviction of wrongdoing in his hearers: ‘What shall we do ?’ (
Acts 2: 37, NIV).
The Four Spiritual Doors
Peter answered not with Bill Bright’s four spiritual laws, but with what David Pawson calls the ‘four spiritual doors’ by which we enter God’s kingdom: repent from sin, believe in Jesus, be baptised in water, and receive the Holy Spirit. ‘The “normal Christian birth” consists of true repentance and genuine faith, expressed and effected in water-baptism, with a conscious reception of the person of the Spirit with power.’ (David Pawson, The Normal Christian Birth [ London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1989 ], p. 5). This was the robust foursquare challenge of early Christian evangelism.
Each of these four aspects of conversion is emphasised by a different branch of the Christian church: repentance reminds us of the Catholic confessional, faith is the Evangelical characteristic, baptism has been the Baptist emphasis, and the Holy Spirit the Pentecostal distinctive. Each is right in what they affirm, but wrong in what they deny.
1. Repent from Sin
Peter’s challenge was exactly the same challenge that John the Baptist and Jesus had already brought. John commanded them to ‘Repent’ and confess their sins in baptism (
Matthew 3: 2, 6). Jesus told them to ‘Repent and believe’ (
Mark 1: 15). John required proof of repentance - in evidence of changed lives expressed in sharing, honesty, and justice (
Luke 3: 7-14). Today we’ve come to accept cheap grace. Right down to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, John Wesley and Charles Finney required economic repentance of their converts.
‘To repent’ (shuv in Hebrew) means ‘to turn’ or ‘turn back’. Repentance is an about-turn. It involves turning from and turning to. You must turn from sin before you can turn to God.
2. Believe in Jesus
This is not explicitly stated, but is strongly implied, in Peter’s words. It’s presence can be seen in:
* the tremendous conviction of his hearers (
Acts 2: 37).
* their response to ‘the name of Jesus Christ’ (
Acts 2: 38)
* their acceptance of his message (
Acts 2: 41).
In the early church faith in Jesus was always the prerequisite of salvation. When the Philippian jailer asked, ‘What must I do to be saved ?’, Paul replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved’ (
Acts 16: 30-31, NIV).
Faith not a one-off decision. It’s an ongoing disposition. What saves us is not just an initial profession of faith but the ongoing possession of faith. You will need to go on exercising faith till your dying breath. It’s important not just to begin well but to finish well.
3. Be Baptised in Water
Peter commanded them, ‘Repent and be baptised’ (
Acts 2: 38, literally, ‘get yourselves baptised’).
The problem with the word ‘baptise’ is that it’s never been translated. ‘Baptise’ is Greek - a transliteration of the Greek word baptizo. If we were to actually translate the word, all our misunderstandings of baptism would disappear at a stroke. ‘To baptise’ means to ‘immerse’, ‘overwhelm’, ‘dip’, or ‘submerge’. The standard Liddell and Scott Greek-English dictionary says that it was used in secular Greek, not to describe water splashing over the deck of a boat, but when a boat sank.
The practice of baptism goes back to John the Baptiser, John the Immerser, who baptised in the River Jordan, the lowest place on earth, just before it enters the Dead Sea. The Bible pointedly tells us there was ‘plenty’ of water there (
John 3: 23).
Baptism is an instrument, rather than a sacrament. It is a means to an end, and the end is that we may know that we are cleansed and forgiven our sins. John’s baptism was ‘a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’ (
Mark 1: 4, NIV). Peter’s message is the same as John the Baptist: ‘be baptised... for the forgiveness of your sins’ (
Acts 2: 38, NIV). Washing of the body is the outside, cleansing of the conscience is the inside: they are two sides of the same action.
‘Every one of you’ means that repentance, faith, and baptism are personal, the response of an individual. Baptism is not the response of parents (infant baptism) or a nation (indiscriminate baptism); it is the response of an individual. The New Testament teaches what Karl Barth calls ‘responsible baptism’. It is a person’s voluntary choice, performed at their personal request ; what David Pawson calls a ‘moral act for immoral people’.
4. Receive the Holy Spirit
‘You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’ (
Acts 2: 38, NIV). Evangelicals have typically regarded ‘believing in Jesus’ and ‘receiving the Holy Spirit’ as the same thing. Pentecostals have traditionally regarded ‘receiving the Holy Spirit’ and ‘being baptised in the Spirit’ as different things - viewing the latter as a second stage or ‘second blessing’ after conversion.
Receiving the Holy Spirit is a conscious experience, accompanied by confirming evidence (usually audible evidence: laughter, speaking in tongues, praising God, prophesying). It is an experience to be prayed for with genuine seeking and confident expectation. Any one lacking this experience (as with the Samaritans or Ephesians described later in
Acts 8: 15-17, 19: 1-7) should be prayed for with faith and laying on of hands to receive it.
The promise of the Holy Spirit is for ‘You’ - the hearers (Peter expected them to receive), ‘Your descendants’ (the Greek word is not the word for babies or infants but for offspring, succeeding generations in time), and ‘All who are far off’ (people geographically separated in space). This anticipates the spread of Christianity described in Acts from Jerusalem to Rome - and ultimately to us at the ends of the earth.
Universal Offer, Personal Response
God’s call is universal: the Gospel offer is to all people (
Acts 2: 39). But our response must be personal. ‘Save yourselves !’ is not a ‘Do it yourself’ salvation, but a challenge to personal response, ‘Get yourselves saved !’ It is urgent, commanding - like the tone of a lifeguard to a drowning person: ‘Grab the lifebelt !’
The response to the first evangelistic message was amazing. 3, 000 people responded and were baptised in one day. This didn’t produce a church of 3, 000, since many of these converts were pilgrims visiting Jerusalem, and would have returned to their home countries, cities and districts to begin evangelising and planting churches there. Christianity began its spread from Day One.
How did they handle such a large number? Did they call in the Jerusalem Fire Department, and run them under a fire hose? - ‘In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit !’ Where was it done ? Possibly in the Pools of Siloam or Bethesda, but more likely in the ritual baths at the Ophel, today’s southern temple excavations. This was the temple entrance of Jesus’ day - amply serviced by water brought by aqueduct from the Gihon Spring (nearby) and from Hebron (far away).
Start Bar
You need these four things to become a New Testament Christian. The Christian life starts here. Evaluate yourself against these menu items: have you repented from sin, believed in Jesus, been baptised in water, and received the Holy Spirit ? If not, you haven’t met the requirements of the earliest Christian preaching about conversion. If you have, you can be assured of an effective Christian life.
Guess who wrote this Sermon?
My soul followeth hard after thee....Love one another with a pure heart fervently. 
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