Subject 12 : The Faith of the Apostles Creed
● Sermon on the Holy Spirit 6 : Then You Shall Receive The Gift of the Holy Spirit
( Acts 2:38 )
“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.’”
Do People Receive the Holy Spirit by Repenting?
What
is the most biblically sound repentance? It is to receive the remission
of one’s sins by believing in the Word on the baptism and blood of
Jesus.
No
one can receive the remission of sins and become sinless before God
through their devoted prayers of repentance. Moreover, it is even far
less the case that they received the Holy Spirit by doing so. Receiving
the remission of sin and the Holy Spirit is possible only for those who
know and believe in the truth of the baptism and blood of Jesus. The
Spirit of God comes as a gift to those who have received the remission
of their sins.
The
coming of the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Jesus is directly
related to the remission of sin given by Jesus. Acts 2:38 states,
“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.” This gift is given “to you and to your children, and to
all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call" (Acts
2:39). What is critical in these passages is the relationship between
the spiritual cleansing of sin and the blessing of receiving the Holy
Spirit: God the Father made His Son accept the sins of the world passed
onto Him, and it is by believing in this that we receive the remission
of sin; and as a blessed result of this, we receive the Spirit of God as
a gift. Have you received the Holy Spirit with such faith?
On
the Day of the first Pentecost, the Apostle Peter preached to those who
gathered around him that the resurrected Lord Jesus was the Savior of
every one of them. Pay attention to the fact that they were Jews, who
were well aware of the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. And most
of them might see the crucifixion of Jesus about two months ago.
Therefore, they could easily have faith in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit when they were enlightened by the brief sermon that Peter had
preached.
After
hearing his teaching, they repented and confessed Jesus as their
Savior. They all believed in Jesus’ baptism and His death on the Cross,
was cleansed of all their sin, and came to receive the Holy Spirit.
Then, Peter baptized those who believed. Moreover, from here and on, as
far as the Holy Spirit was concerned, the command to “wait” for Him was
no longer repeated to those who have received the remission of sin.
After the Day of Pentecost, receiving the Holy Spirit as a result of
believing in Jesus no longer entailed any waiting; rather, when people
believed in the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross as their
remission of sin, then they received the Holy Spirit the very moment
they believed so.
Today’s
passage clearly supports that the faith that believes in the baptism of
Jesus and the blood of the Cross is the condition to receiving the Holy
Spirit after the events of the Day of Pentecost.
By
repeatedly confirming the simple truth that the remission of sin was
fulfilled by the baptism of Jesus, Peter concluded that the Holy Spirit
was given as a gift to whoever believed in His Word of the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, saying, “For the promise is to you and to your
children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will
call” (Acts 2:39). We should not miss the main stream that since the
Holy Spirit was first mentioned in Acts 1, the baptism that Jesus
received is the baptism that forgives all the sins of the world. The
only condition of this “promise” in the Bible is to believe in the
baptism that Jesus Christ received, the blood of the Cross, His death
and resurrection. It is to those who believe in these that God has
enabled them to receive the Holy Spirit.
The
relationship between the faith in Jesus’ baptism and God’s gift of the
Holy Spirit is such that the Holy Spirit is given only to those who have
been washed of their sins by believing in the baptism and blood of
Jesus. We must believe in this truth. The real truth that the Holy
Spirit could come to this world is found in the fact that Jesus’ baptism
washed away the sins of mankind and His crucifixion bore the punishment
of these sins. We must know and believe in the truth hidden in the
remission of sin that enables us to receive the Spirit of God as the
gift of salvation (Acts 2:38-41).
There
are many debates going on among pastors and theologians about the
indwelling of Holy Spirit. All kinds of different claims are made on how
Christians can receive the Holy Spirit. But what we must remember here
is that in the Bible, it is written that when people believe in the
gospel of the water and blood of Jesus and of the Spirit, they receive
the remission of their sins, and they also receive the Holy Spirit as a
gift simultaneously. In short, the Holy Spirit infallibly comes to the
saints whose sins have been forgiven.
For
people to receive the Holy Spirit given by God, they must repentant in a
biblically sound way. The true repentance is for people to turn around
from rejecting God’s unconditional love toward them. It is, in other
words, to throw away all odds and ends that have stood against the true
gospel, and to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit in
heart. Only then can we receive the Holy Spirit as a gift.
The
repentance with which we can receive the Holy Spirit is for us to turn
around from disbelieving to believing in the gospel that enables us to
receive the Holy Spirit. Everyone went on his/her own way and had stood
against God. They all worshipped the creatures as their gods. When Jesus
Christ, despite this, saved them from their sins with the water and the
blood, far from believing in Him, they stood against the gospel that
enables them to receive the Holy Spirit.
Therefore,
in case of most Christians, the true repentance before God also means
to return to the true gospel that enables them to be born again of water
and the Spirit, turning around from their faith that believes only in
the blood of the Cross. This is the true repentance that the Bible
speaks of.
The
Bible tells us, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may
be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence
of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). Likewise, the way for people’s minds to be
refreshed is to believe that Jesus has given them the remission of their
sins through the baptism with which He accepted the iniquities of
sinners and the blood that He shed on the Cross. To receive the Holy
Spirit, all our sins must have been passed onto Jesus by believing in
Him and we must have no sin. And in our hearts we must believe in the
Word that Jesus has given us salvation by taking our sins upon Himself,
dying on the Cross, and thereby vicariously bearing all our condemnation
in our place. This faith is the right faith of true repentance.
The
Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Triune God. The son, the Father,
and the Holy Spirit are all one God for us who believe in Jesus. Though
they are each a different Person, they are nevertheless the same one
God for us who believe in Jesus. Because the Triune God is the same one
God for us, each of the Trinity planned together to save us from the
sins of the world. And each of them works in their assigned ministries.
Like this, the Holy Spirit bears witness to the truth that Jesus Christ
took upon all our sins of the world and was condemned vicariously in our
place.
Acts
2:38 tells us that those who have receive the remission of sin “shall
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Having planned to blot out the
sins of the world, God the Father sent His Son to this earth. By being
baptized to save sinners, Jesus the Son of God has given us the gospel
that has made the sins of the world disappear. And now to those who
believe, He made the Holy Spirit dwell in their hearts as God.
Those
who have received the gift of the Holy Spirit are the ones who have
been saved from all the sins of the world. Such people are God’s
children. They are the ones who have the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to
receive the Holy Spirit, one must first turn around from all his/her own
stubbornness that has stood against the truth. And, second, he/she must
most certainly believe in the baptism and blood of Jesus as his/her own
salvation.
Why
does the Bible treat the baptism of Jesus so importantly? Because the
baptism that Jesus received was absolutely necessary to blot out our
sins. It was because Jesus had accepted all our sins passed onto Him
through His baptism before being subjected to the punishment of
crucifixion that He could die on the Cross in our place. In short, the
baptism that Jesus received is important because it is through this that
He took upon the sins of the world. Because the baptism of Jesus is the
baptism of the cleaning of sin, faith in it is most required to receive
the Holy Spirit, and it constitutes the gospel that enables us to
receive Him. This is why Jesus’ baptism is so important.
The
Holy Spirit comes to us because we understand the reason why Jesus was
baptized and believe in it. To turn our hearts sinless, we must listen
to the Word of the baptism of that Jesus received and of the blood that
He shed on the Cross. Only then can we receive the Holy Spirit given by
the Lord. We must realize why Jesus, coming to this earth, had to be
baptized. Only when we know this and then believe in the blood of the
Cross can we have sinless hearts. Because Jesus came to this earth and
washed away the sins of the world by being baptized, as a result of this
He could pay all the wages of our sins on the Cross with His blood.
This is why in our hearts we must believe in the baptism of Jesus and
the blood of the Cross. Only then can we receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit in our faith that believes in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
The
hearts of those who have received the Holy Spirit may not get too
excited, but because they have the Holy Spirit in their hearts, they are
refreshed automatically. Like this, the hearts of those who have
received the remission of sin are always joyful. The hearts of those who
repent correctly are refreshed, for they infallibly receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit at the same time as they receive the remission of their
sins. And those who are born again receive their baptism unhesitatingly
as the mark of faith that Jesus has saved them from all their sins
through the Word of the water and the blood.
The
Bible tells us that the people who were told about Jesus went through
the kind of repentance that enabled them to become sinless. Have you
gone through this repentance, the one that enables you to receive the
remission of your sins and the Holy Spirit?
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