Acts 2:41–42

'Gladly' is the reading of the Received Text. Textual scholars reject it on plenty of evidence, because the oldest and best manuscripts do not have it... The gospel may be precious and comforting, but deep seriousness would mark souls who had only just repented, and for reasons that searched them to the bottom. A 'glad' reception would fit better with a revival movement and its usually shallow results. The work at Pentecost was both deep and wide. Three thousand souls in one day was no small catch, and it was in every way fitted to prove that a Divine person had just come in grace as well as in power, both to save and to gather.

They were a separate company. Baptism, as we all know, presents the idea of separation. In that day, and in this day, there is the great world system, ruled by the power of evil and the will of men. But God also formed a new circle, and the Holy Spirit lived in that circle... Baptism took the converts out of this world's circle and brought them into the Christian circle. Baptism is the figure of death. In effect they said, "We are dead to the world we once lived in. We have left it so that we could come into that new circle of life and love where God dwells."

The Jews as a nation were like a sinking ship. To be baptized was to cut your last link with them, and that meant salvation from their national doom. So Peter said in Acts 2:40, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation."

First, the word psuche clearly means "life," as in Matthew 2:20... Next, it stands for the general fact of conscious feeling and existence — the activity of the inner man — without saying where it comes from or what it is... And it stands for persons, as in Acts 2:41, 43 and 7:14.

The last verse of the chapter tells us who added them and what they were added to. The Lord Himself added them, and He added them to the Church... The closing words, "such as should be saved," do not mean that they were unbelievers, or that He added them so that they might be saved. The nation had rejected Christ and was heading for judgment. Those who believed and were baptized would be saved from that judgment... This matters greatly, because Catholicism, and those who follow it, tie salvation to belonging to the Church, instead of making the Church the Assembly of those who are saved.

The same day three thousand souls received Peter's word of testimony and were added to this company already formed (Acts 2:41). And it became a daily event that the Lord was adding together such as should be saved (Acts 2:47).

Moses brought down the law, carved on stone tablets, only to find it already broken. That day three thousand men died by Levi's sword. Three thousand law-breakers were thrown into eternity unblessed (Ex. 32:28). The Holy Spirit came down to bear witness to a Saviour who had gone up to heaven. That day three thousand souls were brought to that Saviour, and He blessed and saved them. Three thousand took their stand for the Lord. They had judged themselves, believed the truth, and received forgiveness of sins, and the Holy Spirit as the seal of their faith.