Thousands of people made the
pilgrimage to the "holy" city of Jerusalem to celebrate
Pentecost when all of a sudden a great sound of rushing wind
caught everyone by surprise. Curious all these people who
had traveled from all over came to check out what was going on.
Did they ever find out. God had fulfilled his promise and
had sent the holy spirit to help the apostles carry on where
Jesus had left off.
Peter began to preach. “Men of
Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by
God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through
Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— Him, being
delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God,
you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to
death..." and so Peter's sermon begins. As Peter preached
the people reached a realization. (Acts 2:22-23)
They had sinned against God. The
bible tells us in Romans 3:22-24, "This righteousness from God
comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is
no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."
The first step to becoming an obedient
child of God is to realize your current unsaved
condition. This realization causes us to continue in our
journey back to God by leading us natural to a desire to change.
We have faith that God did send Jesus to die on a cross for our
sins and our faith leads us toward that salvation and redemption
that comes only through Christ. So we must look to HIM as
the guide for our salvation and believe what he has laid out for
us to do.
That's what those devout men in Jerusalem
realized. They had heard Jesus teach. They knew his
message and they cried out to Peter...we know we are guilty of
Jesus death, "what must we do?" Peter responded in Acts
2:38, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name
of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins..."
Jesus gave the great commission call some
two thousand years ago and his message was simply that he came
to make a way back to God. God had longed to have an
intimate close relationship with his prized creation ever since
the entrance of sin in man's life in the garden long ago.
If we want to be a child of God our journey begins with hearing
the best news...Jesus died for all mankind. If we believe
that message and will repent (change) and confess Jesus to be
God's Son and are buried with Him in a watery grave of baptism
we rise a new creature.
Paul said it like this to the Romans, "What
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live
any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as
were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death,
that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
(6:1-4)
We would love to study with you about the
greatest decision you will ever be faced to make. We hope
this page starts you on your journey of study, please contact us
and let us study with you. At Tenth & Vine we strive to
look at the bible entirely as our guide for living a life
pleasing to God.
God's simple plan of
salvation:
Hear the Word and Faith:
Rom. 10:17, Matt. 17:20; Believe in Jesus as the Son of God,
Mark 16:16, John 3:16, John 7:38; Repent of your sins,
Luke 13:3, Matt. 3:1-2, Matt. 4:17, Luke 15:7; Confess
that Jesus is Lord, the son of God, Rom. 10:9, Luke 12:8,
Matt. 10:32; Be Baptized, Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, Acts
10:48, Acts 22:16, Matt. 28:19; Live Faithfully, I Cor.
15:58, I Tim. 6:12, II Tim. 4:7-8
