Acts 2:38-39 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. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off–for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

This is the invitation culminating the first sermon in the newly born Church, and as such it deserves every bit of the attention it’s gotten over the centuries. We need to remember what sort of a sermon it followed. This definitely wasn’t a “Your Best Life Now” sermon! Peter, and by extension Holy Spirit, pulled no punches, but boldly proclaimed that the people’s sins had sent the Son of God to the cross. Many churches today seem to have forgotten that when Jesus started His ministry His message was, “Repent and believe the good news.” (Mark 1:15) It’s fitting that Mark’s Gospel is the record of Peter’s experiences, for the most part. Peter not only remembered that Jesus had said that, he said it himself here. Today, even people who recognize they need to be saved often don’t believe, or at least acknowledge, that they got themselves into that situation. I have heard so many people say that they can’t believe a loving God would send people to hell. He doesn’t. We earn our own tickets to hell! We want God to pour all His blessings out on us without clearing out the junk we have accumulated in our hearts by ignoring and/or disobeying Him. That doesn’t work! The good news is that repentance is always available to us, if we will only do it. Materially affluent societies seem to have the most trouble with this, because we become satisfied with our lives and lose sight of where we’re headed. The vast majority of people in the world just try to ignore the terror of being on the precipice of death without a right relationship with their Creator. That might make for fun in the short term, but it never pans out. Like Peter, we need to trumpet the need and the invitation to repent, to turn as many as will accept the invitation away from the gates of hell and to the path to life. Some preachers make a big deal of Peter having said, “and be baptized” here. Baptism isn’t necessary for salvation, as witness the thief on the cross next to Jesus, (Luke 23:39-43) but repentance and obedience are. As James pointed out strongly, faith without obedience can’t really be called faith. We are to call people to repentance and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, and be sure we’re following that road ourselves.

Since I am a pastor in Japan, this is absolutely central to my existence. I have no hope for myself apart from the grace of God in Christ Jesus, and my commission is to call people to receive that grace for themselves. I haven’t been terribly effective in doing that to this point, but God isn’t through with me, despite this being my 75^th birthday. I am to ask God for the words and the anointing to get His message through to all who will hear, and I am to make full use of every opportunity He gives me to proclaim it, because He “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4)

Father, thank You for this reminder and renewal of my commission. Help me fulfill it in Your wisdom and power, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!