Does Acts 2.38 Apply to the Jews Only?

Some in our Christian world believe that because Acts 2 involved only Jewish Christians, then anything that’s taught in this chapter “therefore” applies to only Jewish Christians—and no one else. The rest of us are free to ignore it.

In other words, given that there are less than 18 million Jews in a world of ~7.7 billion people (in other words, only one of every 428 people on earth are considered Jewish), this would mean that the vast majority of us can essentially ignore the vitally important teachings of Acts 2.

Acts 2 contains incredibly important information for today’s Christian. Why? Because it happens to describe the first day of Christ’s promised kingdom on earth, therefore containing some really important commandments regarding our eternal salvation. So, may we simply ignore these commands and teachings just because someone told us it’s OK to do so—someone who obviously has failed to understand the context (discussed shortly)?

The artificial logic that, “Because Peter’s commands of Acts 2 were spoken only to Jewish Christians, so only Jewish Christians need to obey them” is a bit like saying…“Because the parable of the Good Samaritan was originally spoken only to Jews listening to Jesus in the first century, then Jesus’ parable applied only to first century Jews and nobody else,” or that “Because Paul’s letter to the Corinthians was written to the Corinthians, then it applied ONLY to the Corinthians and not to us.” (Never mind that Paul plainly stated in 1 Corinthians 1.1-2 that his letter was addressed to “all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It sounds to me like that would include the rest of us!)

Acts 1.8

As with many other illogical attempts to whittle out of the Bible all the uncomfortable commands and teachings, so this Acts 2 theory ignores the surrounding context. Especially Acts 1.8, where Jesus explained this to His apostles just before ascending to heaven. In these opening verses to the Book of Acts Jesus said that His apostles would…

Acts 1.8 ESV
…receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses (1) in Jerusalem, (2) in all Judea and Samaria, and (3) to the ends of the earth.

And that is exactly how the good news of salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ unfolded to the world, per God’s Divine plan.

First, the gospel was revealed to the Jews in Jerusalem (see chapters 2.1-8.3). PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS INCLUDES ACTS CHAPTER 2, AND ALL THE VERSES THEREIN.

Second, we read of its spread to Judea and Samaria, and then to other parts of the world. Acts chapter 8 states:

Acts 8.1,4
[Due to Saul’s intimidation of Christians]…a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria…
…Those who had been scattered preached the Word wherever they went. (see also verse 14)

Third, we read of how—primarily through Paul and his companions—the “good news” message expanded all the way to Rome (see Acts 19.21), with talk of reaching even to Spain (Rom 15.24). Christ had already made such facts clear in His pre-ascension remarks of Matthew 28, when He said this:

Matthew 28.28-20
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

And Jesus’ apostles (along with other faithful men of God) certainly understood and executed Jesus’ plan for teaching Christ’s salvation first to the Jews and then to all the nations of the world. In fact, already in the first century the gospel, or “good news of salvation,” had advanced to the first century civilized world (Colossians 1.6).

The Jew first…then the Gentile

The “Jew first, Gentile next” model of gospel expansion was described in several other locations of Scripture as well. In Romans 1.16 Paul explained that he was “not ashamed” of the gospel, because it was (and still is), “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”

This God-ordained, Jew-first model of spreading the gospel was an integral part of God’s Divine plan, which had been constructed before the foundation of the world—as is also discussed elsewhere in Scripture (e.g., Eph 1.1-13).

The gospel to the Jew “first” was primarily because God’s divine plan determined that it would be unfolded through Abraham, through whom “all nations of the world would be blessed” (Gen 12.1-3; 22.1-18), and God had “…chosen [the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth...” (Dt 14.2; see also Amos 3.2, Romans 11.28–29).

The unfolding of God’s wise, Jew-first approach of gospel expansion would span the Spiritual Kingdom of the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ—and would be honored even when preaching to new areas of the world (for example, if Jewish synagogues were present, they were always the first to receive the good news of salvation through Christ – see Acts 17.1-4).

Finally, Paul explained in Romans 3 that the Jews were advantaged over the Gentiles “Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.”

Here’s the Main Point…

The fact that Acts 2 involved only Jews by NO MEANS suggests that it’s critically important teachings apply to the Jews ONLY.

Rather, it was only to the Jews because the gospel had to start somewhere, and that “somewhere” had been planned from the foundation of the world to be Jerusalem, Mount Zion, where the Jews lived. Some 750 years before Christ, Isaiah prophesied this:

Isaiah 2.3
The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Clearly, these facts had been prophesied by the prophets long prior to the day of Pentecost described in Acts 2. That’s because God had ordained the “Jew-first” model, and the characteristics of God’s new laws for men through Christ, before the world began.

Therefore, the fact that the good news of Salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was to originate through God’s people of old—the Jewish nation—is one of the most plainly obvious facts of the Bible.

Yet its obviousness hasn’t apparently been blatant enough for millions of modernists, who seem to continue their lemming-like, relentless march toward certain spiritual destruction—bolstered significantly by their self-issued spiritual licenses to blot from the Bible critical texts like Acts 2. Along with this chapter, they have also managed to distort the writings of Paul, and “other Scriptures” to “their own [spiritual] destruction…” (2 Pet 3.15-18). No wonder Peter warned his readers to “be on their guard” against the false-teachers who distorted the Word and propagated lies, and reminded them that the inoculation against being deceived was to continue to “grow in the grace and [accurate] knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

The ramifications for such critical Scriptural oversights has resulted in the granting of self-appointed pseudo-licenses to pervert and “justify away” the most basic teachings of the Bible—like Acts 2.37 & 38. There, we read of the first [Jewish] Christians essentially “calling upon God” for answers about “how to be saved.” When they asked the apostles (v 37), “Brothers, what shall we do?” (to get rid of their terrible sin of allowing Christ, the promised Messiah, to be crucified), Peter replied:

Acts 2.38
Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

These words apply to every man and woman of earth who care to obtain repentance of their sins, which will hinder them from eternal life. They were stated to the Jews only simply because only Jews were there (in Jerusalem) to hear Peter’s message on the Day of Pentecost, which was because Christ’s plan for gospel expansion was to preach it first in Jerusalem, where Jews live. That SAME gospel of Jesus Christ was soon taken to Judea (the area around Jerusalem), Samaria (the area just to the N of Judea), and then—primarily through the work of Paul and His companions—to the other (non-Jewish) areas of the world.

The conclusion is simple: The teachings and concepts of Acts 2 most certainly also apply to the men and women of our age—and the instructions of Peter regarding how men were to get rid of their sins, which was through water-baptism, apply to all men and women of our age as well.