Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)

Luke’s Stories About Baptism

Luke is the author of the Acts of the Apostles. He is writing an orderly account of the early days of the church for a man named Theophilus. As a historian, Luke assembles the stories from his research and personal experience. Luke inserts himself into the story when Paul and Silas are called to go to Macedonia to preach the gospel, and Luke continues to travel with Paul in his travels. Paul will mention Luke in his letters to Colosse, Philemon, and his final letter to Timothy. The Acts of the Apostles is exactly what the title implies. Luke tells the stories surrounding the beginning of the church and the fulfillment of the Lord’s command to spread the gospel to all nations. The first part of Acts focuses on the work of Peter and the latter half on the work of Paul.

Jesus commanded the eleven to preach the gospel to every creature under heaven. He told them to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Those who believed and were baptized would be saved, and those who refused to believe would be condemned. Jesus instructs the eleven that the message of repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. After Jesus ascended back to the Father, the eleven went to Jerusalem as instructed by the Lord. Ten days later, on the first day of the week, the (now) twelve apostles were in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit came upon them, and the work of the church began.

During the Feast of Pentecost, devout Jews from every nation gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Harvest. A great sound drew the crowd to the twelve men from Galilee who began preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Luke records Peter’s sermon as the basis of the new covenant granted to all men by the grace of God. Jesus had promised Peter that he would be the one who would open the doors of the kingdom to the world. When Peter showed the people that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God and that fifty days earlier, He had been killed on the cross, three thousand souls responded to the message of the crucified Christ. When asked what they must do to be saved, Peter told them to repent and be baptized for the remission of sins.

Luke writes that God added to the church daily those who were being saved. As the story of the church unfolds, Luke shows how the gospel was preached in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. Philip went to the city of Samaria and preached the gospel, where both men and women were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. A sorcerer named Simon believed and was baptized. Philip taught a man from Ethiopia the gospel of Christ, and he asked Philip why he could not be baptized. They both went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

The apostle Paul began his story in the Acts of the Apostles as the great persecutor of the disciples of Christ. He imprisoned men and women who were Christians and persecuted them in foreign cities. On a trip to Damascus, the Lord appeared to Saul and instructed him to enter the city and learn what he must do. Three days later, Ananias tells Saul to rise and be baptized to wash away his sins. Saul becomes a devoted servant to the Lord God and will be known as the apostle Paul. Peter brought the gospel to the Gentile world when the Lord brought him to the household of Cornelius in the city of Caesarea, where he baptized Cornelius and all of his household.

Outside the city of Philippi, Paul baptized Lydia and her household. Imprisoned falsely, the Lord set Paul and Silas free from their prison in Philippi. The keeper of the prison was baptized along with all of his household. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue in Corinth, was baptized along with his household. Many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Aquila and Priscilla taught Apollos, a great orator but who was only versed in the baptism of John, the way of the Lord more perfectly about the baptism of Jesus. Paul found twelve men in Ephesus, whom he thought were disciples of Christ, but still followed the baptism of John. When Paul taught them the gospel, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Luke was a first-rate historian who told the story of the early church, showing the grace and mercy of the Father on sinful man. He shows the apostles did what Jesus commanded them. People were taught about the love and grace of the heavenly Father who promised eternal life to those who heard the word, believed Jesus was the Christ, and confessed His name, repenting of their sins, and washed in water for the remission of their sins. One of the key elements repeated in every story is the importance of baptism. Sins are washed away only in the waters of baptism, where the blood of Christ is found. Salvation comes through the grace of God. Belief, confession, and repentance are vital and necessary, and without them, there is no salvation. Faith leads the heart to accept the word of God. The new birth will not happen until one is immersed in the waters of baptism. If you deny baptism as necessary for salvation, you deny what the Holy Spirit wrote through the pen of Luke in the Acts of the Apostles. Why do you wait? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins.