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Acts 2:40–41
“With many other words [Peter] bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this crooked generation.’ So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That is the promise made in Joel 2:28–32 in the prediction of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the new covenant, and it is the promise that Peter extended to the Jewish pilgrims in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1–39). Who is this Lord on whom we must call for salvation? Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel. Under the new covenant, however, we know that the covenant God of Israel has become incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ, who has been made “Lord and Christ” (v. 36). To call on the Lord for salvation, therefore, requires calling on Jesus Christ. “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (4:12).
Peter, in his Pentecost sermon, exhorted the Jews to believe in Jesus and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins (2:38–39). Yet the sermon recorded in Acts 2 is not the only exhortation that the Apostle gave that day. We read as much in today’s passage, where Luke tells us that Peter bore witness to the people with many other words (v. 40). It may even be that the sermon recorded in Acts 2 is Luke’s summary of the many truths about Jesus that Peter preached that day, for the biblical authors sometimes condense and summarize the words of those whom they are describing. In any case, the point is clear: Peter spoke diligently to the people the truth of Christ, and he presented Jesus to them as the means by which they would be saved from that “crooked generation” (v. 40). Jesus frequently referred to the generation in which He conducted His earthly ministry as “evil,” “sinful,” and “adulterous” (Matt. 16:4; Mark 8:38). Indeed, that first-century generation earned those designations, for they committed the great evil of rejecting and crucifying Jesus even though they had a direct encounter with Him as He conducted His ministry. By extension, however, all people who follow the ways of the world, the flesh, and the devil constitute “this crooked generation.” Peter’s message, therefore, remains in force: the only way to be rescued from this present evil generation is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God blessed Peter’s preaching on that day, for Luke tells us that about three thousand souls were added to the company of believers. This was a far greater number of people than had persevered as disciples during Jesus’ earthly ministry. The Apostles, as Jesus had promised, were doing greater works than He (John 14:12).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The success of Peter’s preaching on Pentecost helps us see the primacy of proclaiming the whole counsel of God. People are not saved through inventive techniques or clever marketing. They are born again by the preaching of the Word (1 Peter 1:22–23). When Peter preached the gospel plainly and accurately, three thousand people were saved. We can trust that God will continue to save through the plain and accurate preaching of the Word today.
For further study
- Psalm 119:25
- John 21:15–19
- Acts 2:42–47
- James 1:18
The bible in a year
- Exodus 2–4
- Matthew 16:5–28