Acts 2: The Pierced Heart and the Path of Conversion

Introduction

"God is not a little old man you can kick in the shins because he'll give us candy anyway." That is how Ivano opens his sermon at the Chiesa Battista di Milano on Sunday, October 11, 2026. God is a loving Father, the merciful Father, but he does not give up on raising his children. His word comforts and encourages. It can also correct, and sometimes sharply.

Today's text, Acts 2:37-42, comes at Pentecost. The preacher notes that the reading skipped the hardest part of Peter's speech: "We set aside the vegetables, the bitter herbs, to get to the sweetest part, the dessert," the joy of fellowship and of a new community. Yet he chooses to go back to those bitter herbs.

This message belongs to a reflection on the path of discipleship: how does someone become a disciple of Jesus, and what place does baptism hold on that path?

Message Outline

1. A hard sermon, not a motivational speech

Peter's speech, filled with the Holy Spirit, is "not simply a moving, emotional, motivating sermon." It stings, and according to Ivano it is not even very polished rhetorically.
Peter has just spoken about the responsibility of the Romans, those uncircumcised men who nailed his Master's hands to the cross (Acts 2:23). Then he turns to those listening to him: "You crucified him" (Acts 2:36).
Peter is himself a Jew among Jews. And he speaks with confidence, he who fled Golgotha and denied his Master. "This is not the lovely message after which you go home saying: what joy!"
Yet you will go home happy, the preacher assures us, "a bit like someone who went to the dentist and goes home happy because the toothache is gone. Sometimes the remedy is bitter and painful."
The listeners thought their conscience was clean: the bad guys are the Romans. Peter tells them they are accomplices in the death of a righteous man.

2. Conversion is a process

Ivano is convinced that many of those listening to Peter that day had nothing to do with the condemnation of Christ. They had probably followed Jesus and listened to him teach in the temple, day after day.
He does not want the baptism of 3,000 people in one day to suggest that you become a Christian from morning to night. "The journey of faith is a process." In one day you can reach the decision to follow Christ, but that decision normally takes time.
Baptism is the expression of that choice, "a bit like the choice to sign a contract, a bit like the choice to hold a wedding." We met, we talked, and then comes the moment when you say: "I choose you, I choose which side I stand on."
It is not only a matter of looking on Google Maps at the route of the good disciple and his destination, but of starting to walk with Jesus. Jesus leads his disciples into the waters of baptism, just as he himself went down into them when John the Baptist called the people to repentance.
Conversion, the metanoia, is a change of mindset, a renewal of thinking: leaving a life given over to sin, to evil, to aggression and violence.

3. It is easy to see evil in others

The day before, Ivano had preached the Gospel at Opera prison. We readily assume the call to conversion is meant for those criminals, among them men who killed their wives. In the church, a chair even stands as a reminder of violence against women. "But me, what wrong do I do?"
Among the inmates themselves, one spoke with fierce condemnation: that man killed his wife and has not repented. During the greeting of peace, a man shook the preacher's hand and then held his hand out to that inmate, who refused to shake it.
Ivano shares that judgment on the moral level, but as a Christian he is called to question it. "It is easy to see the evil, the disgust in others, the disgust at society." We can complain every Sunday about the state of the world and of politics, here or across the Atlantic.
Peter does something more complicated: he looks squarely at the people in front of him.

4. A word that pierces the heart

Where does Peter's authority come from, he who ran away? It is not human. When the prophet proclaims the word, it is not with personal authority: it is the Holy Spirit of God who addresses this word to the people.
"It is always too easy to say: nobody can judge me, because everybody has sinned. You sin, I sin, that's how it goes." God has a word against sin, a word that leads to responsibility.
"They were cut to the heart" (Acts 2:37): the Greek verb is a compound of the verb meaning "I pierce," the one the evangelist uses for the Roman soldier who pierces the Lord's side with his spear (John 19:34). The word pierced them at the center.
They understood that if something happens to a righteous person and we turn the other way, we are responsible. Peter's authority is born there: he was the first to realize that he had fled to save his own life, and he wept bitterly (Luke 22:62).
We eat ourselves up over the sins of others at every news broadcast. The discipline of confessing sin, by contrast, frees us from these toxins by acknowledging our cowardice and our inattention.
The preacher shares his own testimony: the first time he heard this word and began to grasp his responsibility in society and in his family, it burned him and irritated him. It was "the healing, therapeutic discomfort of a father who corrects you."
This guilt is not meant to kill us. The fire of God's judgment comes down on hearts at Pentecost and burns away sin. Baptism becomes the place of grace and refreshing, where this burning can be put out and soothed.

5. Save yourselves from this crooked generation

The word translated "crooked" (Acts 2:40) comes from the Greek skolios. Ivano points out the echo with scoliosis: a generation that is twisted, bent over, staring at its own navel.
He defends these texts against the charge of antisemitism: they speak of a historical sin of Israel at that moment. But in the place of Peter's hearers, the brigands, the Roman soldiers paid to enforce the law, "there is also us."
There is every police officer in Paris facing rebelling students, and we have to choose which side we stand on. "Not taking a position means standing on that side. You are responsible too through your silence."
The preacher mentions a capital execution by firing squad that is soon to be broadcast on television. The Romans loved the spectacle of death, and crucifixion was part of it. The cross, now transformed into the glory of Christ, was in reality a place of infamy.
If games in which people are killed were organized today, thousands would want to attend and would pay very high prices for tickets. There is something visceral, animal, in us that pushes us toward it.
The first Christians refused this barbarity. Augustine and other great figures of the Church condemned it, and the councils did too. "You are a Christian? You cannot go to the circus to watch people be killed. You are a Christian, you cannot watch that program on television, you cannot rejoice that a man is killed."
"And if, deep down, you are nursing that joy, know that it is your unconverted part." The old self keeps living in you as in me. Feeling a visceral desire for revenge does not make it right. God's word is there to free us from this old self, which has to be pierced every time.

6. Three thousand who live: a new community

Luke tells of an entire people, 3,000 persons, who go down into the waters of baptism because they take responsibility, their share of guilt. They do not simply go home happy: they change the way they live.
Those who each lived on their own come together. Ivano dares the image of a party, "a party of good, a non-political one": a community that is part of society but refuses to bend to its rules and chooses to live by the law of God, not that of Rome or of the dominant culture.
This pain in the heart can also be the Spirit of God writing his commandments on the heart (Jeremiah 31:33). When Moses comes down with the tablets written by the finger of God, the people worship a golden calf, and that day 3,000 men die (Exodus 32:28). At Pentecost, when the Spirit writes the law on the heart, 3,000 people live.
This new life shows over time: they devote themselves to the apostles' teaching, which is none other than the Gospel, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayers (Acts 2:42). The miracle of Pentecost continues today, in 2026, every time the Gospel is heard.
The final call is made with the same authority as Peter's: "Save yourself from this crooked generation that stares at its own navel. Save yourself from being co-responsible for so much violence and give shape to a new world, a new society, a new community, not an ideal one, but a real one."

Key Takeaways

God is a merciful Father who raises his children: his word can comfort, but it can also correct sharply, like a bitter medicine that heals.
Conversion is a process. Baptism expresses a mature choice: to walk with Jesus and to choose which side to stand on.
It is easy to see evil in others. The Spirit's word pierces our heart to make us responsible, including for our silences.
Confessing sin is not meant to crush us: the Spirit's fire burns away sin, and the grace of baptism soothes the burn.
The 3,000 of Pentecost form a new community, devoted to teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer.

Personal Application

When God's word corrects you, do you receive it as a father's care, or do you try to shield yourself from it?
Do you complain about evil in others more easily than you acknowledge your own?
In what situation do you turn the other way when someone is suffering, and what choice is your silence asking of you?
Is there in you an "unconverted part," a desire for revenge or a taste for violence, that you need to entrust to God?
Have you made the public choice to follow Jesus and to belong to a real community, and how do you live out that perseverance day to day?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "they were cut to the heart" mean in Acts 2:37?

Ivano explains that the Greek verb is a compound of the verb meaning "to pierce," the one the evangelist uses for the Roman soldier who pierces Jesus' side with his spear. Peter's listeners were pierced to the heart by the word: they understood that turning away when a righteous person suffers makes you responsible.

Were the 3,000 people baptized at Pentecost converted in a single day?

For the preacher, you can decide in one day to follow Christ, but the journey of faith is a process. Many of these people had probably listened to Jesus in the temple during his ministry. Baptism expresses a mature choice, like signing a contract or holding a wedding.

What does "Save yourselves from this crooked generation" mean?

The Greek word comes from the same root as "scoliosis": a generation that is twisted, bent over, staring at its own navel. Ivano clarifies that this text is not antisemitic: in the place of Peter's hearers, there is also each one of us, called to choose which side to stand on and to join a new community.