to call your attention first to verse 41 and to the edition that was made to the church. This was the first edition. It says that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. Now prior to this edition, I've already alluded to this, but prior to this edition, there were about 120, 120 Christians that made up the nucleus of the church. They gathered together in this upper room, all 120 of them, and the Holy Spirit descend upon them. Now we are told that there is this edition that made the church in numbers 3,000. So we're looking at about 3,120 people, Christians who have gathered together. Some obvious or what I hope will be obvious questions to you, these are the questions we want to answer this morning. What did those 3,120 look like? How would you describe them? If they are now newborns, going to be in Christians, then how do you describe what sort of people they were? And then a second question, how do I measure up? You ask yourself that. How do I measure up? If this is what a Christian is, if this is the way that this text describes what it means to be saved and be a Christian, then how do I measure up? Am I saved? Am I a Christian? So take some courage on your part to ask yourself these sorts of questions. Let's imagine that you're being asked the question to your face, point blank to you, describe for me what a Christian is. Let's say I'm the inquire and I'm saying to you, I'm asking you, can you tell me what it means to be a Christian? Can you describe for me what is the portrait, what is the picture of what it means to be saved? And let's say I'm asking you that and I'm looking at you and I'm saying you say you're a Christian, do you measure up? Are you what I'm looking for? Are you the picture of this individual that can say to me or show to me what it is to be saved to be a Christian? What sources would you use? Some would use the newspaper, some would say you the radio or the television. There will be a lot of different answers and what does it mean to be a Christian? For some people they would say, well it's something you decided to try. You've heard that before. Well I tried this side over here and I tried this cult over here and now I think I'm going to give Jesus a try. I think I'm going to give the church a try and a try Christianity. That would be some description of Christianity. Others would be solely in the realm of the intellectual. The individual sees Christianity as some intellectual hobby and they might say, well in the same way that you take up art or this individual takes up drama. There are these odd individuals who take up Christianity. They take up religion as some kind of intellectual hobby and for them again that's Christianity. That's the way they would describe it. Others would say it hinges on what you do. They would say, oh it's the way that you live your life is the deciding factor. Do you do good to humanity? Do you have humanity at the forefront? Do you know that there are pulpits, mini pulpits on this Easter morning that will crease that very message that that is what Christianity is? They will tell their people that Christianity is simply doing good to humanity. Again, there are those who would say it's how much sacrifice you make. Are you willing to sacrifice your lucrative career in becoming missionary and do for others? If you're willing to do that, if you're willing to serve, it doesn't matter what you believe. You're no doubt a Christian because you're willing to give of yourself. Still others would say are described Christianity as something they do out of fear. They might even describe it as something that spoils their life. A lot of times high schoolers, college age might even say, yeah I'm a Christian but I'm a Christian but I see it as something that's negative, it's something that's prohibitive, it's something that restricts me but I'm still going to do it because I'm afraid nothing. I told my parents, I would go to church, I told my parents, I would live the Christian life and Christianity is seen by many to be a chain and ball and ball and chain. And if you really ball it down, what you find after that is a lot of people who are just hoping they're doing the right thing. They just hope they do enough to get to happen. They hope they're found in the right place of the right time. Word Jesus to come back and I just hope I'm scared but I hope I'm going to happen. And again that's their Christianity. Describes a lot of people who are not happy who don't have joy. They live their whole lives like Pilgrim and Pilgrim's progress before the load was dropped off his back. Again like that's Christianity. I wonder if I could be describing you this morning that that might be one of your descriptions. I would describe you in that vein because if you were asked what it means to be a Christian that would be one of your answers. You've seen as burdensome, where is something? And then others of you perhaps are not Christians. You would miss. You're not given this sort of thing. It seems fanatical to you and you have witnessed in others when you see someone who claims to be a Christian, your perception is something that I've just described. So perhaps for you over the years you have very carelessly, even nonchalantly. Looked at Christ and looked at the resurrection and said, I'm not interested in that. They're done doing anything for me. I'm just not into that kind of fanaticism. Well our text this morning describes for all of us. It doesn't matter where you are. We're all at different places in our spiritual pilgrimage. It doesn't matter where you are. The Holy Spirit speaks to you in this passage this morning and describes for you what happened to those 3,000 individuals. What is it that made them, what is it that made what happened to them real? I think that what you're going to find is a very sharp contrast between what I've just described and what is real Christianity. And again you might have to have the courage to ask yourself, you may be, you may be an inquisitive kind of person about Christianity. I encourage you to ask how is it that these 3,000 were converted? Similar to last week's question for those of you who are here, but it's a different twist this morning. The twist this morning is what happened to them, what was their response to Peter's message? What was their response to their understanding that what Peter was saying was true. Jesus was a lot. He is a lot better. And so how did those 3,000 people respond to that sermon? And if you really have courage, then what does that mean to me on April the 23rd, the year 2000? What does this really have to do with me on Easter morning? This is the morning. I want you to notice first, the first response is recorded for us in verse 37. They're convicted of their sins. Notice what it says, when they heard this, when they heard what? When they heard the gospel message and it was very simple. It was very straightforward. Peter had simply preached Jesus Christ, his life, his resurrection. And it says, when they heard this, they were cut to the horse. And they said to Peter, the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? They were, your translation makes they were pierced to the horse. The meaning of this word can house this sharp pain that is associated with anxiety. It's associated with remorse, but it's a sharp inward pain. The meaning of this word pierced or cut is broken, hearted, and convicted are coming under the conviction of sin. And it's not that the person is just simply convicted, they're convicted and they're broken by that conviction. The only way I know to describe it, I'd like it when you know you have hurt your spouse. Here's this one that you love, it's your best friend on the best, the best friend on the base of the earth, and this one that you love more than anybody else in the world, and you hurt that person. Or when you neglected your children, man, you know that feeling, and you come under conviction, they all have neglected my children, and you're convicted by it and it gives you this inward pain, I wish I'd been there feeling. That's the inward pain, a sharp pain, and it is a hurt, and it is the first emotion that one feels when they are saved. It's the first emotion to salvation, it's this real imagination of who I am and who Christ is, and I'll know. I can't believe what my eyes are seeing, and it hurts. It's one of the first questions for membership in this church, is this, do you believe? Have you come to the place in your life? Have you come to that initial place in your Christian life that you recognize, that you are a sinner in the sight of God, and you justly deserve his displeasure, and that you are without hope except for his sovereign mercy? My friends, that is a point you must reach. It is a point you come to where you don't make any more excuses. There's no matter in no more, is it the fault of my teacher, or the fault of my parents, or the fault of my environment, or the fault of the fact that I have this unique set of circumstances in the life you come to the point in your life when you say, I'm a sinner, I'm a sinner, I'm well, period. You must get there before you can be saved, and that's what happened to these 3000, completely broken over their sins. They're not making any excuses, you don't see any blame shifting in it. In fact, they humbly address these myths, the very ones that they accuse of being drunk. Now, at the end of this moment, they address these myths as brethren, interesting twists and turns, and they say, brethren, what shall we do? They're saying, how can we be saved if you ever come to that slice in your life? Have the life and the death and the resurrection? How many eaters has this been for you? Well, have the resurrection done its work in your life so that you come to this place that I'm talking about, that this crowd came to the place when you recognize the futility of your own efforts and you cry out, God, what must I do? That's the only response, that's the response that God wants every one of you to have in response to his sins being raised from the dead. It's the only first response, it's the only appropriate response. It's the first step, the first step is not admiration, you realize that? The first step to being saved is not being lost in wonder, it's not even curiosity, it is a heart-wrenching, brokenness, conviction that I have neglected God's son, that I have lived my whole life and in rebellion to God's son, in rebellion to what he did for me on that cross, in rebellion to this law and lived outside of his will all these years of my life. Do you want to be rid of that guilt? Do you want to have that guilt removed? Do you want to have that brokenness restored? Because, you know, unbelievers, unbelievers don't know what it's like to have that guilt removed? And they feel guilty, they don't act like it, but they do, and I know they do, and you know you do, and you want to have that guilt removed. You want to have that broken relationship with God restored. So how do you do it? Peter tells you how. In verse 38, he says, Peter said to him, repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. First, you've got to repent, repent simply means you change your mind, it means you change your ways, you change the direction in which you were going, you turn around, and you've had in another direction, and it involves sorrow, it involves conviction, and it involves change, it involves all three. You must change. You have to change your way, you have to turn from going this direction 180 degrees and turn back towards this direction, and it's not that you turn necessarily away from these evil works, and now I'm going to turn to these good works, and I'm going to be saved by my good works. Retent is moving in this direction as an unbeliever, and this is the wrong path, and you've turned, but you've turned toward Christ and what he did for you on the cross, but it always involves a sorrow and a conviction and a change. If all you do is confess your sin, but you're never sorry for it, it's superficial. If you are sorry, but you never confess your sin, then that's just emotionalism. It's not true, repent, it's not Christianity. If you change, but you never confess your sin, you never, you never sorry for it, that's apparent to you. It takes all three. The gospel is always demanded, all three. It always willed them. It demands the change. The adulterer must renounce his adultery. The blasphemer must renounce his blasphemy. The crooked, dishonest, the immoral, the irreligious, the idolatrous, all must renounce their sin and turn away from those and turn to Jesus Christ for salvation, and they must be baptized. We tend to make too little of this, too little of our baptism and what baptism means and our church membership because the church has bought in, which strokes those individuals, has claimed that their religion is private. Where do you find that in the Bible? Oh, yeah, I believe my religion is just a personal thing to me. It's just a problem. Only times that I heard that. I didn't know you're a loved one. Well, it's because he didn't come to church. His religion was private. It doesn't, it doesn't mesh. It doesn't go together. It's not Christianity. It's not biblical. Christianity, baptism. It goes against the very reason for your baptism and your baptism is a public statement that I am putting all of my leeches towards Jesus Christ. I put my faith in Jesus Christ. I'm committed to Christ and to his church. And I'll say it publicly that that's what I stand for. That's what I believe in. That's what the Christian does. Baptism is an unnecessary right into the church. The church lays a major part in your salvation, in your Christianity. It identifies you with people in God's church and the cause of Christ that we're not saying that you have to be baptized to be saved. We're not saying that baptism saves you. But we are saying that the New Testament would never imagine an unbaptized Christian. It's a contradiction in terms. The person is baptized because they make that public statement and then notice the verse says, let every one of you, every one of you be baptized. It's not something you inherit from your parents. It's not something you kind of rub within yourself. It is every single one of you individually must be baptized. You must repent. You must turn to Jesus and you must be saved and join the church. Another favorite statement. Yeah, I'm a Christian. I just don't go to church. That's wrong. That is wrong. You can't say that. You cannot say it because in fact, the Christian is defined in the book of Acts in terms of his membership in the church and his involvement in his participation in the church of Jesus Christ. So when you become a Christian, you make a conscious decision. Either I will follow Christ and I will name the name of Christ and be a part of the fellowship of the church of Jesus Christ or I'll go my own way, which many have done. But let me warn you that you choose the latter. To choose to grow your own way is to force it, the blessing. That's all I'm saying to you. It's to force it, the benefit of being a Christian. What are those benefits? Look at the second part of verse 38. The remission of sins is that the use I receive, the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off as many of the Lord our God will call. The first benefit is simply being forgiven for of your sins. These three thousand were they to repent and be baptized, they would be forgiven of their sins. The meaning is they would be released at the meaning of the Word. They would be set free. They would be let go. The crowds, those three thousand would be set free from their guilt. They set free from their sins. That burden would be lifted from them. They would be released from the debt they owe. The same thing can happen to you two thousand years later. Christ is still making that offer. People are still coming into the church by the thousands, you say, but not me, pressure, you don't know me. You don't understand that I have gone too far, you might say. I've been gone too long. I'm here to tell you, God promises to forgive you. He promises to remove your guilt as far as the aces from the west. He will cast it into the depths of the sea, into the sea of forgetfulness. And he'll remember your sins no more. And it can happen to you. You say, but then I'll be alone. This life comes. That's why people don't come to Christ. They think, I'll be so alone, I'd lose my friends. And I couldn't handle this struggle that would be mine in the Christian life. I couldn't do it alone. You'll never be alone. Besides all these brothers and sisters in Christ, that would become a part of your spiritual family. And we are a family here. This is our family. But you would actually receive something greater than that. And that is the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is a gift, bought, paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ so that He might grant you, He might give you this Holy Spirit who will never, ever leave you. That's what would happen to these three thousand. They wouldn't have to struggle to the Christian life on their own. The Holy Spirit would be there and give them strength and give them guidance. Again, someone may be here to say, but again, you don't know me. And I just can't do that. I'm addicted. I have addiction. I'm addicted to alcohol. I'm addicted to drugs. I'm addicted to sex. I'm addicted to pornography. And I just, I wouldn't be able to win the battle. And God would be the first to say to you, you are right. You are addicted. But I'm greater than your addiction. And my spirit is stronger than any addiction, any immorality, any weakness you have. Brethren, or my friends, we all have weaknesses. If that's what's holding you back, come forward because we all are sinners. But that's the irony of being a Christian because you come in all your weaknesses. And it's when you can open your sights. When you notice your weakness, if you cannot reform yourself and you can't do it on your own, that's when you open yourself up to the power of the Holy Spirit. His power is perfected in your weakness. And for the first time in your life, you'll live this Christian life. And you'll say, when I'm weak, I finally realize, when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Her people say that for years. I've never said what they meant. Now I know. And Christians have been saying that for centuries. And it can happen to you. It doesn't matter who you are, how old you are, how young you are. That's why I love hearing the testimonies on Sunday nights. Because you get to hear this other individual stand up and say, I'm not doing this alone. And I for one like to hear that, I like that message. For someone to stand up and say, I am where I am by the grace of God. That's an encouraging thing. Tonight will be no different. I encourage you to come back to hear this young lady. It's forgiveness. It's the Holy Spirit. And it's not only for yourself, but look at the promise. This ought to wake you up. It's for your children. For the sake of your children. That's the beauty for these three thousand. They didn't have to leave their children on the church doorstep. They could bring their children in. They could bring their children into the covenant community. And you know what was an early church practice when you love to say this at Trinity Church. The early church practice was to bring households into the church at one time and baptize the whole household. They would come in by the numbers. The same thing again can happen to you. It's a great prayer to pray for your family. A great, a great grounds upon which you can pray to God for that lost loved one. But this is exactly what he has done in the past. This is the kind of God. Yet some of you sit here this morning in families. You've got your whole family together, possibly. And every single one of you at the family unit are saved. Why is that? Why is that true for you and not another family? The grace of God. You ought to say, oh, but the grace of God, if you're sure or say, just maybe turn your hands up like this right now. Oh, God, thank you. Because it's because God is a God of promises. It's because he's a family God. And the promise is to you and your children and your children after you. And not only your children, but the Gentiles as well, just into all who are far off. That's a reference to the Gentiles. Even the Gentiles. Even the Gentiles would have their sins for dinner. That's now large. The covenant would be we would be included in the number. And then Peter in verse 39 asserts the sovereignty of God every chance against. As many as the Lord our God will call you. He's just praying again that the sovereignty of God and the free offer of the gospel go hand in hand. The only ones who are going to repent. The only ones who are going to turn to Christ and be baptized were those that God had called. And evidently God called 3000 to be saved. Well, the question would they? Would they respond appropriately to the resurrection? Peter then let up on them. Look at verse 40. He continues to plead in verse 40. And with many other words, he testified and exhorted them saying, be safe from this perverse generation. Can you see? Can you feel and hear the urgency in his words? Where it says he testified the meaning of that word is he solemnly warned them. Says he exhorted them and he pleaded with them. Peter knew that this was no trivial matter. This was a matter of heaven and hell. And then what happened? So how did they respond? In verse 41, those who gladly received his word were baptized. And that day about 3000 souls were added to them. You know what this word received means? They gladly received his word. The meaning of the word is they welcomed it. They enjoyed it. They accepted it. They heard the word of God. They sat in the preaching of this man, Peter, and they just laughed it off. They just wanted all every bit of it they could get from it. Because that's the way of Christian reacts to the preaching of God's word. Not so the non-Christian. They want to win this sermon going to be over. When can we get out here? When can we get to Easter lunch? You know, they're not interested. They don't care about the word of God. But do you understand? That's what happened at these 3000. They loved the word of God. And they accepted it with a sense of cheerfulness and joy. It's another part of that meaning. And then implies they're repentance. And then it tells us they're baptized. They make this public professional faith in Jesus Christ. And they're baptized into the fellowship of the church. And so they're brought into this new community. They're taken out of this other community, this community of wicked people, unbelievers, and they are placed into this other community of Christians, people, faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. That's what happens when you become a Christian. You're taken out of that community and you're placed in another one. And so I ask you, how have you responded to the message of the resurrection? Again, how many Easter's has it been for you? And so how have you responded over the years? How have you responded to this message? This message is very similar to Peter's message, very simple, very straightforward. How are you going to respond to the message? This crowd, and I said, they heard the warning. And you know what they did? They cried out, what shall we do? And you know what Peter said to them? He said, save yourself. By all means, save yourself. His message, again, was so simple. He said, God is the latest Jesus. And you crucified both Lord and Christ. Some of you, and we talked about this in the weeks past with this regard of this sermon. Some of you may look at that verse and say, well, I'm not in that crowd. I didn't crucify him. Didn't you?
You can't get off the hook by saying he weren't there and he didn't crucify him. I want to read for you. Just listen. Three men, I just want to read what they thought about, whether they crucified him or not. Isaac Watts, a Latin did my Savior bleed. He said, was it for my sins that I have done? He groaned upon that tree. Charles Wesley said, and can it be that I should gain an interest in a Savior's blood, died he, for me, who caused his pain? For me, who him to death persists? Amazing love. How can it be that thou my God should die for me? Johann Hirman, who wrote our holy Jesus, he couldn't say any more clearly. He said, who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee? A last night's reason Jesus had undone thee. Was I, Lord Jesus? I it was denied thee. I crucified thee. The truth is you did crucify him. I did. You did. And your only only hope is that you turn, that you run, you flee his last. Your only hope is that you repent of the direction you're going and you turn and you be baptized. You be brought into the church, into the church fellowship. Your only hope is that you take a span with Jesus Christ and leave this world behind you. It's your only hope that you take up the cross and follow him no matter the cost to you. You say, but what about my friends? They'll disown me. They won't have anything to do with me. You're right. They probably won't. You said they won't recognize me anymore. You're right. Some of you high schoolers, college age, home for the Easter weekend. You go back and you're a different person. Back is good. They say, what happened to you? They've told you they won't understand. You'll have new friends. They won't have out my family. My family, they love me, but they don't love Jesus. And then I'm going to have this. They'll think I'm a fanatic. So what? So what? They're going to die. You're going to die. And we're talking about your soul. What value is your family's acceptance of you if you were to lose your soul? Who knows? You'd be saved. And God works in the family and starts saving one after another within your family. Jesus said it this way, what is the profit of man if he gains the whole world? What if he gains the whole world and yet forfeits his soul? The message is so clear, repent. Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children and to all who are far off as many as the Lord our God will call as we pray together. And before I pray, I want to make a couple of comments that I would ask you that your heads be bowed and your eyes closed, that you not be concerned about your sins.