In Acts 2, Peter took an opportunity to speak to a large crowd of his generation. The message that he delivered was about their great sin in killing the savior. He showed how the people had made themselves enemies of God. God was directly opposed to their sinful desires. This was clear because God had reversed their action by raising Jesus from the dead. Not only this, but God declared him to be Lord and Christ.

This confrontational message was the first statement any Christian ever made to his world. And it cut to the heart. Because it reached their hearts, the people were prepared to act, but didn’t know what to do. So they asked, “what should 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 2:38-40

This is an example of carrying out the great commission to disciple the nations. There is a stunningly direct declaration of the truth, including demonstrating that the people of this world are enemies of God in thought and action. There is the presentation of Jesus Christ as resurrected lord and savior.

We should notice that not only did the apostle instruct them to put their faith in Christ to be saved, but he used “many other words” to explain how they should live differently from the culture of the day. Their generation was crooked, it was perverse. God was calling men and women to completely change the course of their lives. They needed to denounce and repudiate their conduct up to that point. The needed to make a hard break from their culture.

Those many other words are not recorded, but we are told that they happened. We are also given the gist of them. It it important for the Christian witness to the world to “go all the way.” Teaching remission of sins is not the sum total of the message. After Peter spoke, the new converts had a radically different life style, as you can see from the following verses. That happened because they were taught to have a radically different life style. They were brought to the point of wanting to know what they should do, and then they were told what that was, with many other words.