Discussing Acts 2:38

[DannLeavitt]

"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." Acts 2:38, NIV

This verse poses a lot of questions for me, and I think it would be cool to discuss (NOT debate) some of the possible meanings from this verse.

One thing that I think is interesting is the order in which Peter lays out these actions...

1. Repent & Be Baptized...
2. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit

Does this mean that believers can only truly been "Baptized in the Spirit" after they've been baptized in water?

Are there any verses where this progression happens in reverse, or in different order?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[ByTheSpirit]

Oh man so many possibilities here. I will share what I believe is the truth, though I doubt many will agree.

In Acts 10 with Cornelius the process happens, BotS - water baptism. IF you accept them speaking in tongues as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. I say if, because it is not outside of God's sovereignty to gift people with certain miracles at his discretion. The Jews & even Peter were not sure or convinced the Gentiles could even receive the Spirit. We know that by the context of the scripture (Acts 11:1-18). God had to intervene in a way they would clearly perceive so that they would begin preaching to the Gentiles, and he did. So it is possible God made an exception this one time in order to advance the gospel to all people, because this is the only time in scriptures that someone receives the Holy Spirit before being baptized in water.

I believe water baptism to be vitally important to the believer's life because all believers are supposed to be priests to God (1 Peter 2:5, 9; Revelation 1:5-6, 5:10). Jesus, as our High Priest, was baptized in water. Not to repent, he had no sin to repent of, but rather to take up his office of High Priest. God told Aaron and all priests to be washed with water before they put on their priestly garments and served him in the Temple (Exodus 29:4; Numbers 8:6-7) So when Jesus told John to baptize him to fulfill all righteousness I believe that was what he was referring to. So just as Jesus had to be baptized before he could serve as high priest, so too must we be baptized if we are to be priests unto God. And all believers are called to be priest. I would even go so far as to say that no sacrifice we make to God is acceptable to him without being baptized.

Even in Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus said that baptism was a necessary step, in fact the first step in the discipleship process. Go is not a command, rather the tense of the verb really means "as you are going". Make disciples is the only command of the passage. Jesus then explains immediately how we are to make disciples:

Baptize them in the name of the Triune God (into fellowship with him)
Then teach them Jesus commands.

We are only to share the commands of Christ with those who have committed to him. Baptism is a sign of that commitment. Thus baptism is needed to become a disciple of Jesus. In fact discipleship is a process of learning from another and immitating them. So pointing back to Jesus' baptism, we should be baptized as well as a sign of our discipleship.

Too many want to make sure people know fully about baptism before they baptize them. Others still want to indoctrinate people before they are baptized. We don't expect people to know Jesus completely before we tell them to be saved. The Apostles in Acts didn't hold weekly baptismal classes before baptizing people. In fact, they always baptized people on the spot as soon as possible. Paul baptized the Philippian jailer and his family at midnight, or at very least the same night the earthquake happened. Philip baptized the eunuch in the middle of no where as soon as he heard the gospel of Christ.

 

[Dave-W]

Dan - IMO you are confusing "gift" of the Holy Spirit with "baptsim" in/with/by the Holy Spirit. They are 2 different things that happened at almost the same time in Acts 2.

Peter and the rest of the disciples received the Baptism with the miracle of tongues. That is "Spirit Upon." Those who believed received the "gift" which is "Spirit Within." That happend to the disciples earlier in John 20.22.

 

[Biblicist]

"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." Acts 2:38, NIV

This verse poses a lot of questions for me, and I think it would be cool to discuss (NOT debate) some of the possible meanings from this verse.

One thing that I think is interesting is the order in which Peter lays out these actions...

1. Repent & Be Baptized...
2. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit

Does this mean that believers can only truly been "Baptized in the Spirit" after they've been baptized in water?

Are there any verses where this progression happens in reverse, or in different order?

Thanks,
Dan

If you take a look at Acts 10 where Cornelius, his family and friends (maybe 10 to 50 people) were Born Again with the evidence of speaking in tongues you will discover that this occurred before they were baptised in water. Much the same has occurred for many millions in more recent decades where probably only a few were ever baptised in water before they demonstrated their ability to pray in the Spirit.

The Day of Pentecost was an interesting event where I suspect that Peter saw the wisdom (or that the Holy Spirit directed him) with ensuring that these religious Jews knew what they were doing by declaring to the world through water baptism that Christ was their Messiah/Saviour. Was Peter making sure that these Jews did not simply 'play it safe' by showing their acceptance of God's power that they had just witnessed where they may have tried to add this to their Jewish faith - who knows. But with ensuring that the Jews went through water baptism was a sure marker that they were serious as the Jews fully understood the purpose of ritual water baptism.

We can tell from Acts that the order of Salvation along with the reception of the Holy Spirit is not all that critical though water baptism must certainly follow our conversion/initiation at the earliest possible moment.

 

[Juelrei]

"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." Acts 2:38, NIV

This verse poses a lot of questions for me, and I think it would be cool to discuss (NOT debate) some of the possible meanings from this verse.

One thing that I think is interesting is the order in which Peter lays out these actions...

1. Repent & Be Baptized...
2. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit

Does this mean that believers can only truly been "Baptized in the Spirit" after they've been baptized in water?

Are there any verses where this progression happens in reverse, or in different order?

Thanks,
Dan

In the Jewish culture repentance equals water baptism, as unto the baptism of John Mat.3:1-2,6,8.
In verse 11 John said, "I baptize you with water for repentance."

Therefore, "repent.." would be said because Peter was speaking to Jews who would be familiar with the process., but then Peter also said "and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ." (Rm.6:3; Gal.3:25-28).

Then be eligible for receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit (Lk.11:13; Jn.7:37-39; Acts 1:4-5,8, 2:1-4).

As John the baptist said in verse 11, "He who is coming after me is mightier than I, He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire." (He, referring to the Messiah, or Christ who is the Savior of both the Jews and the Gentiles).

After hearing the gospel the Eunuch made confession of believing that Jesus is the Christ, when they had come to water and so he was water baptized (Acts 8:35-38).

The process can be switched around. After the Gentiles had heard of Jesus, they began to speak in tongues, it was directed that they be water baptized (Acts 10:43-48). There is no mention that they confessed Jesus Christ as Savior, but their speaking in tongues indicates that they must have, perhaps in their heart, or quietly enough that Peter nor those with him heard it.

In that case, the water baptism was a way of officially making confession of repentance and making a confession of Jesus Christ as their Savior among witnesses.

 

[Purge187]

I was born again in 1998, but wasn't baptised (full immersion) until this past spring.

The UPC has taken Acts 2:38 and applied a strict letter-of-the-law interpretation of it.

 

[AGTG]

Repentance is key for anyone who is not saved because it's how we adjust our perspective on how we will live this life: We turn from our sin, and we follow Jesus, who leads us on the path of life.

Water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Spirit are two different things and it doesn't matter which happens first, though both should happen for every believer.

You cannot really make a doctrine that water baptism will bring about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as experience has shown otherwise, though it can most certainly happen that way. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit before I was water baptized.

The first century church, however, was very thorough. If they led someone to the Lord they water baptized them and then brought them to a place where they would receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's when discipling actually meant something, unlike nowadays where the focus is on coming on Sunday, giving a tithe, supporting a single leader, etc, etc, etc...