Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
Good morning. So Peter just told them that basically they were responsible for the death of Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. As we will see much later, it seems that at this point in time they believed that you could not receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit without first being baptized in water. It appears that that idea did not change until chapter 10 after God baptized Cornelius and his family in the Holy Spirit before they were water baptized. Now lest someone think that this was just for the people in the first century Peter then says, for the promise (of the Father - baptism in the Holy Spirit) is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself. That means us! And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, be saved from this perverse generation! So then, those who had received his words were baptized; and that day there were added about 3000 souls. Notice that they were first water baptized. It does not say whether or not they received the baptism in the Holy Spirit after that. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Father help this to be a beautiful day for the reader and his/her family. Help them to come closer together to each other and to You.
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