What’s Next

Acts 22:16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.

Sometimes we complicate life so much, when the direction forward is so simple and uncomplicated. We as humans like complexity in the things that we create. We like iPhones better than rotary dial phones. And our world is moving toward even more complexity.

We often make entrance into organizations or groups full of rules and complexity. If you want to get in the US Military, then you must pass a series of test, medical, physical, mental and relational. You have to be able to work with others, or military service is impossible.

The early Church faced the task of trying to figure out in practical ways how to live a life of unity even though the members of the Church were so diverse. Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, male and female. It was made of up every shape and size, intellectual abilities and socioeconomic classification.

We get a glimpse of how they solved this problem in some of these short lists of requirements for new believers. Earlier we learned that new believers were not supposed to eat meat with the blood in it, or food offered to idols. Simple requirements.

In our text today, we find the entrance requirements for new believers. Baptism and calling on the name of the LORD. These two represented the beginning steps to a life of faith.

Baptism was the outward sign of repentance, turning away from the old life, dying to its hold you us, and rising again to live a new life. All three of these were tied up in the act of baptism. It marked a person as a member of a new community. It was done publicly for all to see.

The second part of this is what happens when we come to the Lord. We have our sins taken away by the substitutionary death of Jesus. He took the weight and penalty of our sin on Himself on the Cross.

This is symbolized by the washing power of water. When we go into the waters of baptism, and then come out, our old life with its sin is taken away. We become someone new.

The final part is an active, continuous calling on the name of the LORD. We call on His name in order to draw closer to Him. We seek Him in order to know His will and direction for our lives.

And this is the list! No other things are recommended by this text. Too simple? I think not. There might be some things we would like to add, but there are not here. Some other texts flesh this out a bit more, but becoming a follower of Jesus is simple.