⁴¹So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.

Wow! What other superlatives can we exclaim at this point? Amazing! Three thousand people were added (to the one hundred and twenty enumerated in Acts 1:15) in one day’s preaching! No distinction is made between true or false believers; this was simply the number of people who began to identify outwardly with Jesus as the Christ. As leader of the movement, He was just recently executed for the charge of blasphemy and insurrection. One doesn’t identify with someone like that on a superficial whim. This was a risky thing, so we would conclude that they all were convinced of the truth of the message.

That band of believers was not weighed down in theological debate over the nuances of interpretation as we are today. They weren’t concerned about the doctrine of “election,” implied in Peter’s statement, “as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself” (Acts 2:39). That matter is left for readers of this story to debate. Nor did the apostles debate the nuances of whether the “church” officially began on the day of Pentecost, whether repentance is an absolute requirement for salvation or an add-on to grace, whether baptism is always required to be saved or an act of obedience to testify of one’s salvation. Nor does Luke concern himself to interject an entire set of systematic theological statements into the story. Not even a detailed, clear understanding of the “gift of the Holy Spirit” is given, to continual consternation and debate among denominations.

As the story reads, if we can hold our theologically informed understandings from later Scripture, the message of Peter and the apostles was straightforward and clear: repent and be baptized. And that is what three thousand people did; they “received his word.” They did what Peter said to do: they acknowledged their guilt, repented, and were baptized. What may we learn from this?

First, if we are to follow the apostolic example, we should keep the message of the gospel short and clear. At the heart of the matter, we should challenge people to own up to their guilt, that is, their rejection of God and His Christ, Jesus. Then they need to give outward testimony that they have truly identified with Jesus Christ. God has given us baptism as a symbol to use as this testimony. Most importantly, we must recognize that it is the Holy Spirit who calls people to God and who empowers the preaching of the message. He is the one who determines the results. We must testify, simply and clearly, to what we know about Christ and leave the results to Him.

Lord, thank You for giving us Your Spirit for the work of evangelizing others.