This is the last of our recent series of posts which have tried to summarize our previous sermon series on Membership and Immersion. We've seen the nature of the church, the importance of church membership, and the meaning of baptism. In this post, we want to bring all of these things together. To do this, I want us to think through the experience of a believer, from faith to sharing their faith. And we want to think about this as seen in Acts 2:22–47.
Believers Follow Christ as His Disciples
This is how the Christian life begins: looking to Christ in faith and following him as a disciple.
Our first step on his journey begins when we hear Christ proclaimed in the gospel. In order to be a disciple of Christ, the gospel of Christ must be preached. Christ must be embraced as Savior. Specifically, Christ must be trusted by faith. The crowd here’s Peter’s explanation of Jesus’ death and resurrection and ask, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (2:37).
The gospel calls for a response. You either hear of Jesus as the Savior of the world and reject him or embrace him by faith. The New Testament is clear that we are not saved by what we do, but what Jesus has done for us (cf. Gal 2:16; Rom 3:21–26).
This leads to our response; namely to see Christ obeyed in life. This gets to the meaning of the word disciple. It’s about someone who follows after Jesus, learning from him, and obeying him.
It’s no surprise that when Jesus called his first disciples to himself it was a simple command: “Follow me” (Matt 9:9).
The Christian life is more than God-talk and Scripture memes. It’s a call to die to ourselves and live a life obedience to Christ. That doesn’t sound all that enticing until we understand, as Trip Lee says, “The good life is the life that’s been laid down.” This is why after Jesus said to follow him by taking up our cross, he explained, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt 16:25).
Believers Proclaim Christ through Baptism
Baptism is the second step on the believer’s journey. Baptism is often called the believer’s first act of obedience. Luke tells us that those who received his word were baptized (2:41). Those who responded to the gospel with faith in Jesus were baptized. Baptism is the physical act which symbolizes the inward reality that has taken place in the person who trusts in Jesus.
So, we understand that baptism makes faith public. Who is baptized in our passage? Those who repented (2:38). Those who received his word of the gospel with faith. And these are those whom the Lord has called to himself (2:39, 41). That is, those who knowingly trust Christ as Savior. And there is no example of anything else in the New Testament. This makes sense when we understand that part of the function of baptism is to publicly announce our faith.
Jesus said, "everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven" (Matt 10:32-33). Christians do not hide their faith. Thus, the call to be baptized is a call to make public one’s submission to Jesus as Savior and King (2:36).
More than that, baptism pledges the new covenant. Hebrews 9 says that Jesus offered his life to ratify and establish the new covenant with this own blood (Heb 9:13-15). His people enter that covenant through faith (1 Pet 3:21).
This is a key difference between the old and new covenants. One could be a member of the old covenant in Israel apart from genuine faith because it was rooted in ethnic identity. Therefore, children were brought into the covenant as infants, but they had to be trained to know the Lord and live by his law. Now, on the other hand, Jeremiah says that the members of the new covenant have no need to say to one another ‘Know the Lord’ (Jer 31:34; cf. Heb 8:7–13). Why? Because only those who know the Lord and pledge their allegiance to the covenant are in the covenant.
So, when Peter says the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off (2:39), he doesn’t mean baptize your kids. No, he means the promise of salvation was given to the Jews in his presence, and any of their descendants, along with the Gentiles—those who are far off. And who will this be? He says, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself (2:39). The new covenant is not a mixed covenant; it has no genealogical principle. It is only for believers—repentant, called by God, and publicly marked out by baptism.
Baptism bring us into the church—one of the greatest blessings of the new covenant is Christ’s church. And that leads us to our next step in our journey as Jesus’ disciples.
Believers Serve Christ with the Church
To serve with the church we must first unite with the Church. Luke says those who received Peter’s word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls (2:41). Added to what? Added to the church. Though the term membership is not used in the New Testament, the idea is clearly there. Jesus made it clear that his saving work would be a people gathered together as a church (Matt 16:18). His apostles employed multiple metaphors for the church, which all emphasize believers as parts of a whole—a body, a family, a house, and a temple.
Local church membership during the time of the New Testament may not have looked the same as today, but each church could tell who was in and who was out. We see that from the numbering of believers in Acts as well as passages that reference lists of widows that needed care. Thus, as with baptism, local church membership is a matter of obedience to Christ.
Once united with the church, believers worship with the Church. The meaning of the word church is tied to the idea gathering or assembly. Being with other believers is essential. Luke says the thousands who were newly saved devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers (2:42). All of this could easily be a description of the Sunday morning gathering for the early church. And this is more than a description; this is an example.
But we don’t stop being the church when we walk out the door. Jesus also calls us to love with the Church. We are saved as individuals who are made to be part of a people. As a people, we are called to love another. Think about what that looked like in Acts 2. We see that all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need (2:44-45). This wasn’t something forced. The church willingly, joyfully loved each other like this.
This is God’s design for our life together in his Christ’s church. On our journey with Christ, we are called to unite with, worship with, love with, and, finally make disciples with the church.
In addition to many ways we serve, the most essential is disciple-making. We teach believers how to obey all that Christ commanded (Matt 28:19). This also bring the process full circle.
Just as we heard someone preach Christ in the gospel, so now we join together and support one another in preaching Christ in the gospel so that: people inside the church will be built up, and people outside the church will be called to faith.
Luke says thousands were saved, baptized, and joined to the church. Then—in verse 47—from their life together, the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved (2:47). The number of disciples multiplied as many more started their journey as disciples. And so it should continue today.
Where Are You?
So, where are you in this journey? Do you need to begin by trusting Christ for salvation? Has your obedience been delayed? Do you need to be baptized? Or allow your believing children to be baptized? Proclaim the Lord's grace by being baptized.
Maybe you’re dragging your feet on membership? The Lord desires you to unite with a church body and live closely with other believers.
Maybe, you’ve been slack in your calling to make disciples? Are you preaching Christ and living for Christ in ways that show his glory and call sinners to turn toward him in faith?
Perhaps you are walking fine on this journey but have those around you struggling? Come alongside them and encourage them.
Wherever we are, let us pursue the Savior together!
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