Devotion - Acts 2:38 (KJV)

"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

Peter says a word that has been lost in the relevance movement over the past few years. I hear it less and less the older I get and quite frankly I am shocked. I know we are intelligent people. I know that today we have more words available to us than ever before. However, with the loss of this word comes the lack of acknowledgement of your relational position upon this earth to a holy and righteous God.

Twice Peter tells the crowd, “Christ whom you crucified”. Twice he places a bloody horrible murder of the Savior of the world into the hands of men. Twice he makes you the responsible party for the slaying of hope and love. Peter heaps the guilt and shame that is rightly deserved upon them. They are stricken in fear. The previous scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit has tore at their heart and toil and labored at making a change from within…so much that they cried out, “What shall we do?”

Repent!

[Repent means to feel sorry, self-reproachful, or contrite for past conduct; regret or be conscience-stricken about a past action, attitude, to be disposed to change one's life for the better; be penitent.]

Repentance is the call to action. The Holy Spirit has drawn and quickened the hear t with soul conviction and revealed the true nature of a man’s heart…its wickedness, it’s enmity against the things of God. But rejoice! Jesus has made a way. In the same respect as Joseph…what you men have done as evil, God has turned it for good. This same Jesus, whom you crucified, whom you live a life at war with by your actions, your lust, your greed, your pride, and on and on…This same Jesus is Christ and Lord! So repent. Turn from your former ways. Repent and be transformed. Set your heart into action. Be baptized…be fully wet and saturated in the name of Jesus because of your forgiveness, deliverance, and freedom you have been given over your sin…and you shall receive this gift of the Holy Spirit.

Repent. This very word sums up the Acts 2 church. This is the great secret to the Acts 2 church. Repentance…it is the secret that isn’t a secret. We marvel at the Acts of the Apostles and their ministries…their message, however, is summed up in one word. Repent! Having been in church after church, denomination after denomination, sat under preacher after preacher…the greatest ministries I have been a part of all have this one thing in common. They preached an Acts 2 message. Repent and be baptized. Receive forgiveness for your sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is a simple message eludes us…because of its simplicity.

Listen…I love going deep into the word. I love broadening the message out so that it is more applicable, but if we lose the word repentance as our anthem we will struggle to be effective and impacting. The Apostle Paul said it this way…

1 Corinthians 1:17 (NKJV)

"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect."

I can be as colorful as you would like. I spent the greater part of my working life as a salesman. I know how to use words to create emotion. I can write a sermon that is far more happy and entertaining, but that would be ignoring the call of God on my life. It also wouldn’t be effectual. Sure some would come and be drawn by their emotion. But it would be only temporary…not everlasting, not effectual…because it wasn’t from God. It wasn’t God drawing and calling men to His Promise…Paul says it best here in that he declares that the reason he doesn’t use any fancy words to spice up his speech is because the Cross of Christ doesn’t need it…

Now listen…this doesn’t mean we preach one way and that there isn’t any other way to preach. What we must do as we evangelize the Gospel message is find ways of making sure that all roads lead to the Cross of Christ…because it’s there that the heart of God is. Sure there are a lot of things we need to glean from the Bible. But God’s heart is that we never stray far from the Cross.

Don’t take my word for it…

Revelation 2:4-5 (KJV)

“Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”

What a prophetic word that can so easily be seen with the Church in America. We have long since left our first love. What is our first love? A repentive heart…a broken heart…a contrite heart. A heart God cannot despise. A heart that is broken for the things of God. A heart that is set upon the redemptive work of the Cross. A heart that is like Jesus’ own heart.