Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation (Acts 2:37–40, KJV).
Jesus had given the Apostle Peter the keys to the kingdom, and had said the salvation message would be preached starting at Jerusalem. When Peter got up on the Day of Pentecost, he preached the salvation message found in Acts 2:37–40.
But, Peter preached more than the Salvation message that day. He told the world that Jesus was the Messiah and that He was alive. It was in Jesus Christ that we would see salvation (I Thessalonians 5:9). When the people heard this message, they were convicted about what they had heard. They knew they could not hear the message of Calvary and do nothing with it. It was then Peter gave instruction as to the 3 steps they would need to follow.
Repentance
Repentance can happen in a moment once we realize the heart of God toward our sin. God is saddened by our sin every time that we fail, every time we miss the mark and fall short of God’s expectations. Repentance is an inward change of mind that will change our outward directions and actions. When we have godly sorrow about our sins, this will produce repentance in us (II Corinthians 7:10).
Baptism in Jesus’ Name
There is only 1 way to be baptized found all through the Scriptures—in the name of Jesus. We are baptized for the remission of our sins, evoking the work of Calvary. When we’re baptized, all of our sins ever committed are remitted as far as the east is from the west. The blood of Jesus washes our slate clean from all of our sins. We’re buried with Jesus through baptism so we can be raised up and walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).
Receipt of the Holy Ghost
The Holy Ghost is hard to measure, explain, and imagine because we operate in a finite world. But, God and His presence are infinite. We cannot dismiss anything that we cannot comprehend or explain; we must embrace the supernatural move the Lord wants to pour out in our life. Once the Holy Ghost comes upon us we will speak with new tongues in a language only understood by our Creator. This is the one thing we cannot do in life—if we had the ability to organize or orchestrate it, we’d mess it up. This is why it’s known as the supernatural! To complete our salvation experience, we must be filled with His precious presence!