Acts 2:37-47: The Pattern of a New Believer

"Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' And Peter said to them, '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.'. . .And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." Acts 2:37-38, 42

What is the pattern of a new believer? Or better yet, what does the pattern of a new believer ought to be? In Acts 2, we see three thousand souls coming to Christ all at one time. What did it look like? And where did they go after their conversion?

Well, let us examine scripture this morning. First, these three thousand were "cut to the heart." This is a biblical euphemism for the term "convicted." After Peter had preached Christ at Pentecost, the three thousand knew that they were not living in accord with God's plan for them. After receiving revelation of the truth from Peter's preaching, they knew they were in sin. Thus, they were cut to the heart; they were convicted. They knew they had done wrong, and they felt as if they needed to do something about that.

Thus, they ask Peter what they ought to do in response to this conviction, and Peter had a two-fold answer: repent and be baptized. First, he told them to repent. Repentance, my dear reader, is the doorway into Christianity. Apart from repenting and believing in the Gospel (which are ultimately two sides of the same coin), we will not enter the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:15). Those who believe they are in Christianity yet have not repented of their sins are not believers, they are deceived. Thus, this is the first step of any new believer: repentance.

Yet after repentance, Peter tells us, comes a step that many of us have forgotten: baptism. Baptism, simply put, is a public confession before the body of Christ by which one is fully immersed into water, symbolizing that he has died with Christ, and raised up again, symbolizing how he is raised with Christ (Romans 6). And here is where I want to be honest with you all today: if you call yourself a believer and you have not been baptized, you are living in sin. I do not say this lightly, but with biblical warrant. All throughout the New Testament, we see the command for new believers to be baptized. Jesus commanded baptism (Matthew 28:18-20), and so did his apostles. To forsake baptism is to forsake a command of Christ.

Yet there is one more step in this process of new conversion--a step that many often miss, and thus down the road prove that they were never fully converted after all. This final step is devotion. In Acts 2:42, we find that after repenting and being baptized, these three thousand devoted themselves to four things: teaching, fellowship, bread-breaking, and prayer. In short, these three thousand devoted themselves to the local church. They realized that they couldn't live out the Christian life as an island--they needed others. So, they sat under the teaching of their pastors. They fellowshipped with one another, enjoying one another's presence even in their own homes. And they prayed. And their devotion to the local church gave them a means by which they could grow in holiness, and thus prove their own salvation.

Thus, the process is clear: conviction, repentance, baptism, devotion. Let me first ask you to apply this pattern to yourself: where has your process stopped? Have you been baptized? If so, have you followed up that baptism with a public commitment to your local church through church membership? Or have you simply been "dating" church and haven't gotten "married" to it yet? Dear Christian, let me encourage you: devote yourself to a local church. Without it, you will not grow into the man or woman God desires you to be. For the local church is the primary means of your sanctification.

Lastly, let me encourage you to teach this process to others. Have you ever brought someone to Christ? Do you know anyone who has recently come to Christ? Let me encourage you to do the following things: encourage them to be baptized, and encourage them to devote themselves to a local church. Without baptism, believers live in sin. And without devotion, believers end up wilting away because they are not growing. Let us then seek to be devoted to God by means of devoting ourselves to our local church.