Mineral Springs Church of Christ Podcast
Mineral Springs Church of Christ Podcast
Access Versus Availability: How Baptism Connects You To The Promise
Start with the jolt the crowd felt at Pentecost: realization that the crucified Jesus is now both Lord and Christ. That shock still asks us the same question—what should we do? We follow Luke’s careful storytelling into Acts 2, where Peter moves from prophecy and proof to a clear path forward, showing how repentance and baptism open the door to forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, and a new identity under the Kingship of Jesus.
We walk through Peter’s logic as he quotes Joel and David, then anchors the promise in the resurrection. With the keys of the kingdom, Peter doesn’t offer vague comfort or private spirituality; he binds an action that matches heaven’s will. The crowd receives the word and is baptized, and that response becomes the pattern for entering the kingdom. Along the way, we unpack a crucial distinction: Jesus’ blood makes forgiveness available; obedient faith accesses it. Think of it like a gift placed within reach—you still need the key. Repentance turns the heart, and baptism unites you with the name, the cross, and the empty tomb.
We also explore what “Christ” truly means. It’s not a surname but a royal title—Messiah, the anointed King. That shifts baptism from mere ritual to allegiance and belonging. Drawing from Matthew 28, we show how disciples are made by going, baptizing, and teaching—and what it means to be baptized “in the name” as an act of ownership by Father, Son, and Spirit. If you’ve been baptized, take courage: your sins are forgiven, you are saved, and you belong to God. If you haven’t, consider the invitation with urgency and hope. The door is open. Step through.
If this message challenged or encouraged you, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review telling us how this changed your view of repentance and baptism. Your story might be the key someone else needs.
Number two. Number two. Oh, the four. But all the health of the fire knows the coating. The God has made him both Lord and Christ. The Peter whom you crucified.
SPEAKER_02:Now, when they heard this, they will cut to the heart and set to Peter. And the rest of the apostles.
SPEAKER_01:Reverend, what shall we do?
SPEAKER_02:Peter said to them, 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. If you read that statement, the essentiality of baptism. The essentiality of baptism. The book of Acts is a two-part volume, or it's part of a two-part volume, with Luke being volume number one, and Acts being volume number two. The author of both of them is Luke, and Luke wants us to have a historical account of Jesus and of the early church. He says this in the opening chapters of his book in Luke, chapter number one, verse number one. He says, For as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are more surely believed amongst us, even as they were given unto us from eyewitnesses and ministers of the world. It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto you, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein we have been instructed. That's Luke 1, 1 to 4. And what Luke is saying is, I researched everything, and the things that I researched are now writing it out so that everyone could know that Christianity is real, that Jesus Himself is real. To this end, what Luke does is he gives us a historical account of the life of Jesus, but also the beginning of Christianity. As Luke ends his first volume in chapter 24 from verse 44, Jesus is risen and he appears to his disciples and he wants them to understand these are the things that I was preaching, these are the things that I was wanting you to understand before my crucifixion. These are the things that the Old Testament talks about, that the Christ must be crucified and resurrected on the third day. And then you will preach repentance and remission of sins to all men beginning in Jerusalem. That's how the book of Luke closes. When Acts opens, Acts opens with the disciples in Jerusalem waiting for the promised Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes in chapter number two on the day of Pentecost, and as a result, the disciples begin speaking in tongues. They're speaking in languages they did not previously study. And then because this was noised abroad, a crowd is there, and this crowd is trying to figure out what happens, and they begin to mock them, saying that these men are drunk or filled with new wine. And Peter was able to make an argument that we can't make today. Peter's argument was it's impossible for these men to be drunk because it's too early in the morning, it's just the third hour of the day. There is no way these men are drunk. You can't make that argument today. Nevertheless, after Peter makes that argument, he says, This is that which was written and spoken by the prophet Joel, and he quotes Joel. But as you drop down to verse 22, Acts 2, from verse number 22, this is where Peter begins to preach the gospel sermon. I don't want to spend too much time here because I want you to see the essentiality of baptism, but Peter begins to preach from verse 22. Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, 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 already know. He, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it wasn't possible that he should be holding of this. For David speaks concerning this. Before I get to David, here's what Peter just said. I'm going to tell you about the Jesus whom you crucified, a Jesus that you saw perform miracles. And I'm going to tell you that this Jesus whom you crucified, God has done something special with. And then he begins to say, David speaks concerning this. I foresaw the Lord always before me, for he's at my right hand, and I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh shall rejoice in hope, because you will not suffer thy holy one to seek corruption, neither will thou leave thy soul in hell. Here's where Peter gets excited. He quotes the Old Testament, he quotes a psalm, and then he says, Brethren, men and brethren, let me speak to you freely of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is here with us today. He being a prophet and receiving a promise from the Father that the Lord God would raise up descendants after him to sit on the throne, speaks of Jesus Christ. Now I know I ran that through really quickly. Peter's sermon is the Jesus whom you crucified, God has done something special with. Well, where did God make that promise? 2 Samuel chapter 7, verse 12 to 14. In 2 Samuel chapters number 7, from verse 12 to 14, God came to David through the prophet Nathan, and he told David that when you go to sleep with your fathers, I will raise up seed after you. He will be a son to me, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. He will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. So ever since God made that promise, everyone has been looking for the son of David that's also the son of God. And whoever this son of David is, he was going to build a house for God, but he was also going to be king. When we read and say that Jesus is the Christ, most of us use Christ like a last name. So it's Jesus Christ. But Christ comes from the idea that he's Messiah. Christ actually is the Greek word for the Hebrew term Messiah. And Messiah means anointed one. In the case of Jesus, it's the anointed one who is King. If I had time, I'll tell you that there were two anointed ones in the Old Testament commonly, the king and the priest. And Jesus is the anointed one who is king and priest. But I don't have time. So when you say he's the anointed one, you're not just saying he's sent, you're not just saying he was commissioned by God to say he is Messiah, or if you're Hebrew, Meshiach, or to say he's Christos, if you're Greek, is to say that he's king. When we say Jesus is the Christ, what we're actually saying is he is king. So that's what Peter explains here in this text. And I want you to see it. I know I was quoting it, but I want you to see it just in case you doubt me, you don't doubt your Bibles. Verse 29. Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on the throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of Christ. That he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh suffer decay. This Jesus had God raised up. We are all witnesses. That's Peter's sermon. This Jesus, God has raised up, has resurrected. We've seen it, and he is the son of David, who is also the son of God. Now we could start the sermon. Said that to get everybody jumpy. You're fine. Verse 36 is where he ends the sermon. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, this Jesus whom you crucified, God has made both Lord and Christ. That's the sermon. Jesus is Lord and King. He's the resurrected Lord and King. Now, when they heard this, well, what did they hear? Jesus is Lord and King. Not the Old Testament system, not Rome, not Caesar, Jesus. When they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and they asked, men and brethren, what shall we do? Now that we understand who Jesus is, what shall we do? The reason why they asked this question is because evidently they want to know how do we respond to the fact that Jesus is Lord and King. What shall we do? But I need to pause for a Bible commercial so that you can understand the fact that they ask this question is them wanting to know is there anything we need to do? But also to understand whatever Peter says is what everyone needs to do. Does that make sense? Whatever Peter says, because Peter is the one who's preaching. Peter is the one who's currently inspired by the Holy Spirit. Baker is going to be a preacher. He's currently inspired by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, whatever Peter says is necessary to do. Okay, watch this. Peter could say, Don't do anything you believe already. Peter could say, say the sinner's prayer. Peter could say, I need you to tarry for the Holy Spirit. Peter has the keys to the kingdom. So whatever Peter says is what is necessary for everyone to do. So whatever Peter says must become important. Because the question they're asking is, What shall we do? I could even get technical and say, What is an interrogative word that makes the phrase a question? Shall implies necessity. Is a first person personal pronoun in the plural that says whatever one person does, everyone does. And do demands action. They're looking for a response, and Peter is the one to tell them what is necessary for them to do. I'm going to make a claim now to tell you that whatever Peter tells them to do is necessary to be saved. Now hold on, you might say, I didn't read anything about being saved in the text. They simply say, What must we do? Just stick with me and I'll tell you that this is connected to how do we save ourselves if Jesus is Lord and King. So now that you know, Peter could say anything. He has the opportunity to say anything, whatever he says is necessary for all of them to do in order to be saved. What Peter says is repent and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. That's what Peter says. He didn't say anything else. What that means is this excludes by nature every other response. That's what it means. Now you're looking at me funny. All right, let's work on this. In Matthew chapter number 16, from verse number 13, Jesus comes to the coast of Caesarea, Philippi, and he asks his disciples, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they offered several questions. Eventually he turns to the 12 and he says, But who do you say that I am? And Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. What did Peter just say? You are King, the Son of God. And then Jesus said, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you, but my father which is in heaven. And I said unto you, Adou art Peter, upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Here's the important part. He then says, And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom. And whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Peter has keys to the kingdom. Keys, the last time I checked, open doors. So when you come to Acts 2, 38, and persons are saying, What shall we do? They're talking to the man who has the keys. How do I get in the door of the kingdom? Does that make sense now? And because he has the keys, whatever he binds on earth shall have been bound in heaven, whatever he loses on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. That's just language to say whatever he says is already decided by heaven. Well, what does Peter say? Repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. So the guy with the keys says the way to enter is through repentance and baptism. I think that's simple enough that everybody gets it, but it doesn't work. So let me work on it now. After Peter says that, he doesn't stop preaching. Peter is a true preacher, he doesn't stop preaching. Says, Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and the promises unto you and to your children and to your children's children, as many that are afar off, and as our Lord our God will call. What I'm interested in is a verse that says, Truly, with many other signs, verse 40, he testified, saying, Save yourselves from this corrupt or untoward generation. I don't want you to miss this. Peter told them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And then, two verses later, a minute later in his sermon, he says, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Here's what that means: it means whatever they do after Peter says, save yourself, is what you need to do to be saved. You all can agree with that. Okay, let me say it again because you're not sure you all can agree. Up to this point, they're not saved because he says save yourself. I wouldn't tell somebody who's saved to be saved. So the fact that he says, save yourselves means he's talking to people who are not yet saved. One, two, before he said save yourselves, he told them repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ. What I am looking for is what do they do. Because whatever they do is what must be done to be saved and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord and King. Well, how does the text read? Let's see, we're in Acts 2, verse number 40. Look at your Bibles, and your Bibles say, and with many other words, Peter did somely testify, saying, Exhort yourself, saying, Save yourself from this untoward generation. The text then says, and they that gladly received his word. Hold on, let's break this down. They, well, who's the they? The same people who asked, What shall we do? What did they do? They received his word, they understood the word, they believed his word, received. Well, what was his word? Repent and be baptized and save yourself. They that gladly received his word were baptized. That makes my point that whatever you do after Peter says save yourself is what you need to do in order to be saved. And the only thing we read them doing is receiving his word and being baptized. I said all of that to get to this point. You could call yourself whatever you want to call yourself, but as it pertains to your spiritual identity, the way you are identified as one of the saved is if you responded to Jesus being Lord and Christ the same way the saved do. Does that make sense? And the way the saved did was they received the word and they were baptized. Let me also put something else on you. Peter in Acts 2.38 says that you're doing this for the remission or the forgiveness of your sins. So there's some aspect of repenting and being baptized that is connected to the forgiveness of your sins. If you turn quickly, Matthew 26 and verse 28, Jesus, a passage we normally refer to as a Lord's Supper passage, is having Passover with his disciples, and he breaks Passover to say, This is the blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of your sins. So now we have these two words, and we have two parts of the words: remission of sins, forgiveness of sins. Jesus shed his blood so that I could have my sins forgiven. Peter then says, Be baptized so you could receive what Jesus did. Let me say it again. Jesus is over here in Matthew 26, verse 28, saying, I am shedding my blood so that your sins can be forgiven. Well, how do I get it? Peter is over here saying, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, so you can have your sins forgiven. In other words, what Jesus did was make forgiveness of sins available. Peter is telling you how to access what's been made available. Oh, I wish I had a church. My mom is probably going to watch this video later, uh, so I should bad talk her. Um, my mom is a very special woman, and I don't mean special in a good way. Um, she had a habit every time I came home from elementary school and even early days in high school, she would ask me how my day was, and she would take my bag and she would look to make sure I went to school and not around the school. Some of you would catch that on the way home. So she would peruse my books to make sure there are notes in them as a way of proving I went to school and not just around the school. What fascinated me is that she would see when my copybook, my notebook, is a few more pages before it's done, and she would just put that notebook back in the bag. Here's why that confused me. My mom was very proactive, and so when summer came around, she would buy dozens of notebooks and stationary items and she would store it in a cupboard. So I know that we have three notebooks. I know she knows that there are notebooks available for me to use when this one has one page left on it. But this woman called my mom would wait until I verbalize this notebook is filled. Could I have another? See what she wanted me to know is that while it was available, I needed to access it. And the way that I accessed it in this case was by asking, so I received what is available. Some of you look like you still miss that. Okay. If I am to tell you that in the 2004 Toyota Camry outside, not the one that says advisor, the other one, is a sum of$300, and it is available to any one of you. The moment I say it, you don't have it. I just told you it's yours if you want it, but it's not yours yet, because what I just did was make it available. You now need to be able to access it. And so, what I do is I tell you to access it, you just come and grab this. The last time I did this, there were some children running up to the stage. I'm I'm I'm glad there's no one running because you'll be disappointed. There's there's like five dollars in the car, nothing. But let's just say that to access it, I told you come take the keys from my hand, unlock the car, sit in the passenger seat, front passenger seat, open the glove box, and you'll see it. Nobody do that now, please. Please. Then it's yours. You now know how to take what's available and access it. Does that make sense? Scripture is doing the same thing. Jesus made it possible for you to be saved. You just need to access it. The way you access it, Peter says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. One more thing, then we'll go home. So baptism is necessary, is essential for me to have my sins forgiven. Baptism is essential and necessary for me to be saved. Third thing, you can't claim to be belonging to Christ if you've not been baptized. Now I'm not trying to be mean to anybody, I'm actually trying to encourage anyone who has not yet been baptized to be baptized. You can't claim to be God's until you've been baptized. Could you prove that? Sure. I'm glad you asked. Matthew 28, 18, 19, and 20. Jesus says, All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go make disciples of all nations. How do you make a disciple? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let me be technical for two seconds. When he says, Go make a disciple, the command is make a disciple. And then he gives you three words that helps you understand how a disciple is made. He says, Going, baptizing, teaching. Going, therefore, do what? Make disciples. How? Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe whatsoever I commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always to the end of the earth. So going, baptizing, and teaching are the ways that you make a disciple. So if someone didn't go and someone didn't baptize, and someone didn't teach, there's no way a disciple could be made. But baptism does something special in this text. He says, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the Greek language, what he says here is baptizing them epitah anoma. Epitah Nomma. In Greek, epitah anoma, which is in English, is on the name or upon the name, epitahonoma in Greek is how somebody would normally say, This is my possession. This is the only reason I'm speaking Greek to you. Because you would walk around in Greek, and if I wanted to say, This wallet is mine, I would say that this wallet is epithet in the name of Anderson. So I would say epitahanoma to say this is my possession. Here's why that's important. Baptism is not just about having your sins rolled away. Baptism is not just about being saved. Baptism is how you become into the family of God and a possession of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Baptizing them epita anoma into the possession, into the ownership of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is why baptism is essential. If you've not yet been baptized, you're close, but you're not there yet. Because baptism, number one, remits your sins. Baptism, number two, saves you. And baptism places you into the possession of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So if ever there was a case made for the essentiality of baptism, it's the one made in this text, and then again in Matthew 28, verse number 19. Again, I did all of that because sometimes we could miss why baptism is important. And so I just wanted to pause, take a break to just remind you that this is what it means to be baptized. If you are already baptized, you could claim that your sins have been forgiven and are continuously being forgiven. You could claim that you're saved, and you could claim that you are the possession of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If you're not yet baptized, you could claim that you believe. You could claim that you believe Jesus is Lord, but you don't have the benefits and the privileges or the rights that come with it. Here's my last argument. If you were to open it, it would say that I am a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. By virtue of being a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, all the rights and the privileges that belong to a citizen, I get because my identification validates who I am. This is my Arkansas driver's license. It is sure to state on it that I'm only here on a student visa because I'm a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. What that means is when an official looks at this, he determines what privileges and rights I have access to based on how this identifies me. Does that make sense? God has a spiritual passport or spiritual ID, if you will, that allows Him to know those that are His. What you want to be sure is that your passport or your ID has a note that says you were immersed for the remission of your sins so that you now get access to all the rights and the privileges of someone who belongs to the kingdom of heaven. And as you consider it, let me give you one more thing. Scripture says, today, if you hear his word, harden not your heart. And so don't delay, tomorrow might be too late. Make that decision today. Let's all stand. Let's hold stand. Don't sing it, but let's stand. If you're a Christian, your baptism is special. It reminds you that you have received the grace and the mercy of God's forgiveness. It reminds you that you are now counted as one who is saved. And it reminds you that you are now his own. There's a song we used to sing like that, My God and I. And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me that I am his own. Baptism is what allows him to say, You are my own. If you're not yet baptized, you're missing out on some rights and privileges. So would you consider doing that today, even today, as we sing?