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                    ||                       How beautiful on the mountains
                    ||                       are the feet of those ... who
                    ||                       proclaim salvation, who say to
                                             Zion, "Your God reigns!"
          Pastor RALPH & GENE ANN WOOD                  --Isaiah 52:7 (NIV)
          E-mail:  randg.wood@encode.com
          FRESH MANNA, 07/11/1995, 04/02/1998 ................... ACTS 2:38
             {38} And Peter [said] to them, "Repent and be baptized, every
          one of you, on [= calling upon] the name of Jesus Christ, for the
          forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the
          Holy Spirit ..."   --ACTS 2:38 (RLW)
             This verse is a key Scripture in helping us to understand one
          very important aspect of baptism.  When you are baptized, you are
          "calling upon" the name of Jesus-- i.e., trusting Jesus Himself--
          for the forgiveness of your sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
             In ACTS 2:1-37, we see this:-- when Peter preached the first,
          great Christian sermon, in Jerusalem, at Pentecost, all the vast
          crowd were brought under deep conviction of sin.  Their resulting
          cry, "What shall we do?" was their confession of sin, declaration
          of repentance, and petition for forgiveness, all rolled into one.
             Peter exhorted them to do what John the Baptist had prepared
          them to expect, "... repent and be baptized ...".  But he added
          something new, "... [calling] upon the name of Jesus Christ ...".
          This was a reference to JOEL 2:32a, from his main preaching text,
          cited in ACTS 2:21, "And it shall come to pass [that] whosoever
          shall call on the name of the LORD shall be saved" (KJV).  This
          may soon have become a custom, in the Church; at least, we see
          Ananias exhort Saul, "... Arise, and be baptized, and wash away
          thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord" [ACTS 22:16b (KJV)].
             When we are baptized, calling upon the name of Jesus Christ,
          we are confessing our faith in Him as Saviour, and our fealty to
          Him as Lord of our lives [see ROMANS 10:9-10].  We are calling
          upon Him for forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.  We are
          trusting in Him as God [LORD, JEHOVAH]-- God the Son, by whose
          death and resurrection we are saved, in the Holy Spirit's power..
             THIS, then, qualifies a person to be baptized by the Church,
          according to the command of Christ in the Great Commission, "in
          [= into] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
          Spirit" [MATTHEW 28:19b].  For, when we "call upon" the name of
          Jesus as Saviour and Lord, God the Father adopts us as His own
          children [see JOHN 1:12-13], and we are prepared to receive the
          Holy Spirit, and the church can baptize us into the full name of
          God.  Let us then be encouraged by this; that in baptism we call
          upon Jesus, and trust Him for everything!   --RLW & GAW
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