 repentance for the remission of sins. So in this video we'll be looking at the repentance that Peter preached in Acts chapter 2, but we will briefly look at Luke 24-47 as well, because I don't really think that verse warrants an entire video on its own. I think it can kind of be grouped together with Acts chapter 2, and I'll explain why. So let's start with Luke 24, and I'll start at verse 45. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, and he said unto them, that this is written, and that this is behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead at the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things, and behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry you into the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. Now sometimes in the past when I've discussed Luke 24-47, some of these sit-at-home keyboard warrior theologians love to trap you on this verse and say, actually, in the correct Greek sources, it says repentance for the remission of sins, not end the remission of sins. But by being pedantic about this one word, they're trying to distract you from the real issue at hand, and they like to look like and know it all with all of their Greek language and so on, to throw you off guard with the real issue. Let me show you an example of this. Someone commented on my documentary saying that Luke 24-47 is very clear that repenting is from sins, as apparently did Peter in Acts 2. I then point out to him that it doesn't very clearly say repentance from sins, because it doesn't say repentance from sins. It says repentance and remission of sins. But then instead of trying to defend himself by showing where it actually says repentance of sins, because it can't, he goes into this discourse about the older, more reliable manuscripts than the Greek, and he can even quote the Greek in his comment because he's so smart. So it's amazing to me how he understands all the manuscripts and he knows the Greek language, but he can't even read a basic sentence in English. Anybody who can read English can see plain as day that Luke 24-47 doesn't clearly say repentance of sins or from sins. It says repentance and, or for, the remission of sins. Even if what he said was true that it should say for the remission of, it still doesn't say repentance from sins. Now my regular viewers will understand that I'm King James, only on this channel, although at least Textus receptors only, I don't expect a non-English speaker to use the King James obviously, but it's important that we don't get too high-minded on our high horse about the King James only issue. Because even if we agree for the sake of argument that this verse should actually say repentance for the remission of sins, instead of and the remission of sins, it still doesn't change the meaning of the sentence. Even the King James Bible uses the phrase repentance for the remission of sins in Mark 1-4 and Luke 3-3 and Acts 2-38. So there is no need to make a conspiracy or doctrine based on Luke 24-47 saying for the remission of instead of and the remission of, that this somehow changes the definition of repentance. It makes no difference whatsoever. And just in case people want to say that the King James Bible is mistaken here, because modern Bibles are more consistent with those aforementioned verses. Well in Acts 2-38 there is actually a break between the repentance and the remission of sins, with baptism squeezed between the two. So there is repentance and be baptized for the remission of sins. So there's no inconsistency here. There's no conspiracy. There's just two different things being pieced together. We don't need to strain it a net and swallow a camel over this issue. And as much as I reject modern Bibles and the Alexandrian manuscripts, I don't really have a problem with either way that this verse would be translated, because it doesn't change the outcome anyway. To bring Luke 24 to a conclusion, Jesus is not preaching the gospel. He's not even preaching repentance as an instruction in of itself. Rather, he is instructing his own disciples to go out and preach the message of repentance for the remission of sins beginning at Jerusalem. This will be fulfilled in Acts Chapter 2, when Peter will do exactly that. He will be in Jerusalem in Acts 2-5, and he will preach repentance and, or for, the remission of sins in Acts 2-38. When we study what Peter's message of repentance was in Acts Chapter 2, we will simply apply this to what Luke 24-47 means. So the key verse in question is Acts 2-38, and it says, Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now as I very often do, as I already have done, I will just state the obvious. It doesn't say, Repent of your sins. Now, people might point to the bit where it says, For the remission of sins, and say, Well, what about this? Well, these words affect meaning. It doesn't say, Repent of sins. It says, Repentance for the remission of sins. That's what it says. So of sins is not defining what repentance itself is, rather it's the outcome of repentance. That is the forgiveness of sins. So whatever repentance is, or whatever it means, forgiveness of sins is the purpose or the outcome of that repentance. It doesn't define what the repentance itself is, though. So you don't repent of your sins to be forgiven of sins. You repent, whatever that means, and consequently your sins are forgiven. We can understand what Acts 2-38 means simply by comparing scripture with scripture in two ways. First, we simply read Acts 2 and let the context of the passage tell us what Peter meant. And second, we can use the phrase, remission or forgiveness of sins. And we can compare this with other verses across the Bible that use this exact same phrase. And actually we could also compare giving of the Holy Spirit and baptism as well. At the beginning of chapter 2, at Pentecost, the apostles spoke in various tongues. And in verse 13, some mocked, saying that these men are full of new wine, or drunk, in other words. Now they weren't shaking around or, you know, acting spiritually drunk as all of these, this drivel that Pentecostals and Charismatics about. They were able to preach in multiple languages to multiple different types of people, despite the fact that they were Galilean. And people were amazed that they could understand what these men were saying, even though they're Galileans. Now the men that called them full of new wine didn't actually think they were drunk. The passage explicitly states they were mocking them. Between verses 14-20, Peter gives his defense stating that they are fulfilling prophecy from Joel, and various signs will be made manifest. Peter gives the ultimatum of this prophecy in verse 21, as it pertains to salvation. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Notice it doesn't say whosoever shall repent of his sins and turn their lives around and call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now I'm sure that somebody wants to say, well calling on his name includes the turning from sins. You know, you don't know what believing in faith means. You know that old chest none. Well let's just take a look at a complimentary passage about calling on the name of the Lord. For background, the context of Romans 10 is that Israel has a false zeal for God in verse 2, for they seek righteousness by the law rather than faith in verses 3 and 4. Well sin is the transgression of the law according to 1 John 3-4. So if calling upon the name of the Lord means turning from sin, well then that would mean that righteousness is by the law then, wouldn't it? Paul then explains that righteousness by faith is by definition not law. It's not faith plus law because to be justified by the law you have to do the whole law, verse 5, which even James 2, which the legalist loved to parrot says the same thing. But what is the righteousness by faith? Does it have a changed lifestyle? What does it say? Well verses 6 to 8 are maybe a little bit cryptic in how they read, so forgive me, I'm going to paraphrase it, but obviously you can see it on the screen of the Baton. Essentially these verses are saying that if righteousness is by faith, don't doubt that Jesus ascended into heaven or that he descended from the dead. It's the word of faith, faith that Jesus descended to the dead and ascended into heaven. So by faith we believe in what Jesus did. We don't doubt what Jesus did. It's the testimony about Jesus. It's not about you. And so it goes on to saying, verse 9, that if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Once again this faith in what God accomplished by Christ raising from the dead. It has nothing to do with your radically changed lifestyle. And it says, confess the Lord Jesus. It doesn't say surrender or submit to his Lordship or make him the Lord of your life. Christ already is Lord. You don't make him, Lord. You either confess that he is Lord or you deny it. Verse 10 confirms what the purpose of confession of the mouth is, because there is a controversy going on around this topic, but that's outside of the scope of this video. For with the heart man believes on to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made on to salvation. And then verse 11 ties this all up for his by quoting scripture, that whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed. Notice it doesn't say, whosoever repents of his sins and surrenders to Christ and radically changed his lifestyle shall not be ashamed. So what does it mean to believe on him according to verse 11? Well, verse 6 to 8 in this chapter already told you, the death, the resurrection, the ascension. This is about Jesus, not about you. And we get to verses 12 to 13 where it uses this same phrase, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's almost exactly what Acts 221 says, except that it says upon the name rather than on the name. So Romans 10 clearly explains how faith and belief and calling upon are defined. It's available to Jews and Gentiles. It's not by works of the Lord. It cannot even be mixed with works. Don't say within your heart that Christ did not descend or ascend. Confess the Lord Jesus, not make him Lord. Believe on him. Believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. What does any of this have to do with a changed lifestyle or your fruits and works of obedience? Zilch, nada, nil, nothing. Acts chapter 2 is also perfectly consistent with Romans 10 as we will continue to see. So returning to Acts chapter 2, then Peter says on to the new men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Natharath, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves know. So just like Romans 10, they are being told to hear what Jesus did. They are not being told to look introspectively at themselves. In verse 23, Peter continues to talk about the things that happened to Jesus. And you can see the similarities again with Romans 10, just as Paul was telling his readers not to doubt the dissension and ascension of Christ, Peter is likewise telling his listeners to hear about the things that happened to Jesus, that he was taken by the council, and this was all foreknown by God, that this is a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, and he was crucified, but death could not keep hold of him. And there is, of course, one matter where Peter did point to the audience in saying that they crucified this Jesus. So we'll consider that as we understand the chapter in a while. We carry on reading verses 24 to 26. These are all about Jesus. So the things that happened to him, how he fulfilled David's scriptures. Same thing in verses 27 to 29. We're still being told about Jesus and his references to David. This is not about you. And then verses 30 to 32 are still talking about Jesus. They're not talking about you. And then when we get to verse 33, it's still talking about Jesus, not you, but with one reference to the audience that they need to see and hear. Verses 34 to 36 are still talking about Jesus, although there is one reference to you, the people that Peter is preaching to. You have crucified Jesus. So it's quite similar to what we saw in verse 23. And it's not until we get to verse 37 that the perspective has now changed to the audience of Peter's message, because prior to this, most of the emphasis was on Jesus, not on the audience. So I know I've rushed through a lot of this really quickly, and I'm sorry that I'm speaking quite fast in this video compared to some of the others. It's just so much to get through. We've not really dwelled on those verses, but hopefully, you know, you've got your own Bible. You can read them more slowly for yourself. So let's just take a summation of the things that we've skimmed through that Peter is saying here, that he's said to the crowd, what he has said and what he hasn't said. Peter did not say Jesus came telling the adulterous woman to sin no more, and that marriages between one man and one woman, yet you continue your adultery, taking on for yourselves many wives, repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. Peter didn't say this. Peter did not say John came onto you neither eating nor drinking, yet here you are being drunk on much wine and being gluttonous, indulging in your excess. Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. Peter didn't say this, and in fact some of the people that he's speaking to were mocking him and saying that he was full of new wine. Peter did not say Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers and the merciful, yet here you are showing no mercy and trying to kill me. Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. Peter did not say this. Peter did not say Jesus said that your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, yet I find you here completely given over to your iniquity. Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. Peter did not say this. Now I could go on with more and more examples, but I'm sure you get the point. Peter did say Jesus was approved of God among you by miracles, wonders and signs in verse 22. He did say that God has raised up Christ from the dead in verse 24, and we are all witnesses, verse 32. He did say that David speaks concerning him in verse 25. He did say that God raised Christ to sit on his throne in verse 30. Peter did say that Christ's soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh seek corruption in verse 31. Peter did say that God has made this same Jesus both Lord and Christ in verse 36. So Peter's emphasis in all of these verses was on Jesus. He was telling his audience all these things about who Jesus is, what he did. So why are all these Christian so-called preachers and teachers making this passage all about you and the things that you've got to do, like you've got to turn from your sins and you've got to turn your life around and put away the alcohol and the pornography and submit to his lordship, and you need a new heart and a new attitude and blah, blah, blah. If I was Peter, and I was the one who said all of this stuff in Acts chapter 2, I'd have to be looking down on these idiots thinking, how on earth did we get from me talking about Jesus to it becoming all about you? The only things that Peter says to his audience directly are, you yourselves know that Jesus did miracles, wonders and signs among you in verse 22. You have crucified him who is the Christ, verse 23 and 36. You see and hear David is not ascended into the heavens, but he says to himself, the Lord said unto my Lord in verse 33. Now in response to this, people obviously say, well Peter, accuse them of crucifying Jesus. Crucifying Jesus is a sin, therefore they have to repent of their sins. But this is as ridiculous as saying that a cat and a dog are the same because they are both mammals. They're not equivalent. Even if Peter pointed out that they crucified Jesus, they're not going to go home from this conversation thinking, oh I better throw away my alcohol, or oh I better stop fornicating, because there's no evidence here that Peter addressed their lifestyle. This was something very specific. And Peter made no reference to the laws in the Old Testament that are against murder, or the laws about killing innocent people. He wasn't accusing the crowd just of killing innocent blood, because that would be an understatement. Because it wasn't about the crime itself in relation to the law, or in relation to sin. It was specifically about the person who they did it to, the Christ. Why? Because Peter was talking about Jesus, not about you. So let's summarize what Peter was saying here. This is who Jesus is, a man approved of God among you by miracles, wonders and signs. He is raised from the dead. David spoke concerning him. God has made him Lord and Christ. Now this is what you should have done. You should have done, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But this is what you actually did. You crucified him by delivering him to a council of wicked hands. That's what he's saying to the people in this crowd. But then this happened. They were pricked in their heart and asked, What shall we do? So this is what Peter told them to do. Repent. Repent of what you did do onto what you need to do. You crucified Jesus. He wasn't just some ordinary dude. He was a man approved by God. He's raised from the dead. So call upon his name and be saved. So okay, they repent. They call upon his name to be saved. All right, what happens next? What do they actually do then? Well, we get to the crucial verse, don't we? Upon their repentance, the first action they physically take anyway is that they get baptized. Usually most people assume that it's baptism by water just because of verse 41 saying that they were baptized. So we assume that it's water. We will look at that in a moment, but first let's take a look at verses 39 and 40. Where it says for the promise is on to you and to your children and to all that are far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call and with many other words did he testify in exhort saying save yourselves from this untoward generation. So in verse 40 where it says that they testified and exhorted with many words, we don't know what these words are because it's just summarizing them in one verse. Other than that he said save yourselves. So obviously people, oh it does say save yourself but we can't really delve too much into what that actually means because we don't have the dialogue behind that. It's just that it summarizes that Peter said things to them on top of what Acts 2 is actually recording for us. So we're just going to have to assume that whatever that means save yourselves is just however this passage defines what it means as it did in verse 21 where it says to call upon the name or as it's going to say in verse 41 in the next verse which will define save themselves. But what can we make of verse 39 that as many as the Lord shall call? We see a connection here between repent and as many as the Lord shall call, right? Well this is not the first time in the series that we have seen an association with God's calling and repentance. If you've seen video number seven where we looked at I came to call sinners to repentance, we looked at this issue and it's Jesus doing the calling, he's doing the action, not the sinners themselves, we saw that in that video. You may also remember from video eight when we looked at the joy over one sinner that repent. We looked at the parables, we looked at how Jesus was defining this, and we saw how he illustrated it that the shepherd goes out for his lost sheep. It's the father seeing his son from afar often having compassion on him. It's not about you turning your life around, Jesus is the one doing the calling, he's doing the action, he's doing the things which bring about a person's salvation. And although strictly speaking he doesn't use the word called in this context, it is more or less the same idea. So what about the promise then? Well it's maybe not entirely clear what Peter meant by this, but he says a promise is available to his audience and it's also available to their children. So obviously that's going to be the future generations that will inherit this same promise. And as many as the Lord our God shall call. So there are going to be other people not related to this audience that God is going to save. For example the Gentiles, because Peter at the moment is talking more to a Jewish audience. And remember that Ephesians 118 says that after you believe you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. So that promise is being associated with salvation and a promise is being given here in Acts and they are also being given the Holy Spirit. And you know there are going to be many believers that get saved after this who are going to inherit the same promise even today. So there's a lot that could be said about that but it would be far outside the scope of this video and we just don't have time. So moving on then in verse 41 and this is how we're defining save yourselves then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day were added on to them about 3,000 souls. So upon their repentance this is the first action they take in verse 38 they get baptized. And these are the people who were baptized. It's those who gladly received Peter's words. He doesn't say those who turned all of from all of their sins and promised to live a holy new life and poured their alcohol on the fire in the presence of the apostles. They gladly received his word. That's what it says. And this is further qualified in verse 44 where it says all that believed were together. Now the legalists are going to start getting desperate now and they'll point to all the wonderful stuff that they did in this chapter towards the end like how they sold their possessions and did this, that and the other. Of course the legalists usually haven't sold their own possessions but they still want to use this as an example of what we should be doing for some mysterious reason. But this was really kind of a one-off instance. This was tied with the wonders and signs that the apostles did and that's something that not every Christian is accustomed to seeing. Now I'm sure if somebody did go around doing all of these amazing signs and wonders there probably would be some sort of following where this kind of thing is happening. But it was a one-off instance. This didn't necessarily happen every single time people were getting saved. And the thing is all of these good things that they were doing were not really associated with sin anyway. I mean the good works but they're not sin issues. So when we look at this passage in a more honest way we start to see an association between baptism and belief, not baptism and a changed life. Now famous preachers have obviously confused baptism with a changed life and sometimes will even insist that a changed life must be made evident before baptism. So as an example some of you will be familiar with the late David Paulson. He was fairly well known. He believed that he could lose salvation and that faith was work by the way. But he said and this is an exact quote on the left that in early baptism they were always asked to renounce the world the flesh and the devil. That's an exact quote. But then and I'm paraphrasing on the right quote it's not an exact one but he said that he that repents of sins and produces fruits of repentance by which he mean works that this should precede baptism. And I even heard him give an anecdote where he was talking about not baptising somebody until that person went away and sorted out his life first. But all they did was sensationalise and just frankly make these things up because we've just looked at Acts chapter 2. We can see that Peter said repent and be baptized and he baptised them. There is no reference to their personal sins other than that they as a group crucified Jesus although that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with themselves as individuals or their personal sins. But he didn't send them away to first go and clean their lives and come back later so he could baptise them. That's not in the story. And again the good works that are commended for them at the end of the chapter that happened after baptism not before. So Peter couldn't personally know whether they had all of these fruits worthy of repentance before he could baptise them. He baptised them and then the rest is up to time. So this idea that you need to produce fruits first before you can get baptised is ridiculous. It's not biblical. So our investigation into the definition of repentance in Acts chapter 2 is consistent with what we saw when we looked at John's baptism earlier in the series. Remember that John the Baptist also tied baptism of water with repentance and I'm sorry if I keep repeating myself about this in the series but I'm going to say it till I'm blue in the face. Matthew 21 32 and Acts 19 4 prove that this repentance was believing not turning from sins. You can see it on the screen right there. And we see the same thing in Acts 2. Repentance is tied with baptism again and also the remission of sins of course and this repentance is tied with believing or terms that are synonymous with believing like calling upon or gladly receiving. So baptism is tied with believing. Repentance does not contradict this and this is perfectly consistent with other passages in the Bible about baptism such as Mark 16 16. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. Doesn't say he that believes and repents of his sins shall be baptised. Or you've got Acts 8 36 to 37. What hinders me to be baptised? Believe with all your heart and you may be baptised. And he said I believe. Philip didn't have to fruit inspect him first. Earlier in the same chapter in verse 13 Simon believed and was baptized. Now Simon was told to repent of a specific wickedness later in the chapter but this was after baptism and belief not before. Now as well as baptism we also have the giving of the Holy Spirit of course which is a little bit more complicated because sometimes this happened after baptism such as in the earlier half of Acts chapter 8 after that verse we've just looked at with Simon but then towards the end of Acts chapter 10 the Holy Ghost was poured out on the Gentiles before they were baptized not after they were baptized. So we ought not to get too wrapped up in the order of things that that should happen but if we compare this to say John 7 37 39 this would also tie in the giving of the Holy Spirit with believing not works or turning from sins. However there is a discrepancy on that matter because in Acts chapter 5 it says that the Holy Spirit is given to them who obey him not those that believe him and it also mentions repentance in that chapter. Now there's not going to be enough time for me to cover that in this video. Acts chapter 5 is going to need its own video so when I get round to that in the series we can look a little bit more into the issue of the Holy Spirit. So I know this is taking a bit of time but there is one more thing that we need to address. Mentioning the giving of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 10 leads me on to a final issue and this is how Acts 2 38 and the remission of sins ties in with other passages across the Bible further proving that repentance for the remission of sins is about believing and trusting in Jesus and the things that he did not you turning from your sins. If we have to repent for the remission of sins well then we can simply look at other verses that say do something or understand something for the remission of sins and then we can understand how the Bible defines repentance for the remission of sins even outside of Acts chapter 2 itself. So I just made reference to Acts chapter 10 where it said the Holy Spirit was given just like in Acts chapter 2 well right before that happened we are told to him or Jesus gave all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. We can go to Matthew 26 28 where it says for this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins it's about what Jesus did not about what you do so let's not mix our blood with Christ's blood here. Luke 1 77 says the knowledge of salvation onto his people that ties in with the remission of sins and 2 Timothy 2 25 defines repentance as being to the acknowledgement of the truth which kind of complements what Luke is saying here in is defining repentance for the remission of sins for us. Romans 3 25 faith in his blood to declare his righteousness not your righteousness for the remission of sins and the forbearance of God again it's about Jesus it's about God it's not about you other than believing and having faith and we get to Hebrews and again it's about Christ's offering he shed blood and that brings about the remission of sins so feel free to pause the video on this slide here and just look again at these verses that we've just looked at because we can see by comparing all these verses about the remission of sins what repentance for that remission means believe and you shall have remission of sins it's about Christ's blood it's the knowledge of salvation it's declaring his righteousness Christ's blood shed for you so on the left you can see repentance and baptism for the remission of sins and on the right you can see the definition of repentance and the precursor of baptism for the remission of sins so to bring this video to a close we see very clearly what's repentance for the remission of sin means we can see from Acts chapter 2 itself that it means to call upon him receive the word believe in verses 21 41 and 44 and that it's about Jesus not about you Peter was talking about the things that Jesus did not about the things that his audience did other than that they crucified Christ that's it we can compare scriptures with others about baptism to see that it is belief that precedes baptism we can compare scriptures with others about remission of sins to see that it's associated with either faith or knowledge or the blood of Christ with this remission and although this is more questionable because of the discrepancy in Acts chapter 5 we can also compare the giving of the Holy Spirit with John 7 37 to 39 in Acts 10 43 to 47 to see that belief preceded this now I'm sure after pointing all of this out to people that somebody out there is going to watch this video get to this point right now and say well I still think this is about turning from your sins and having a new attitude and a changed life and blah blah blah well you know what if you think that you are an incredibly self-righteous sanctimonious self-absorbed I am to take a passage where Peter is talking about Jesus and make it all about you it's that simple this is no nonsense Christianity reminding you that nowhere in the bible does it say repent of your sins to be saved