Pentecost: Acts 2:22-47
Peter announces Jesus’ death, resurrection, and lordship. Cut to the heart, the hearers ask what to do. Peter answers: repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness, and receive the Holy Spirit. Those who accept the message are baptized and enter a shared life of teaching, meals, prayer, and generosity.
Samaria and the Ethiopian: Acts 8
Philip proclaims Christ in Samaria; men and women believe and are baptized (Acts 8:5-17). Later he explains the good news about Jesus to an Ethiopian official. When they reach water, the man asks to be baptized. They go down into the water, and Philip baptizes him (Acts 8:26-39).
Saul: Acts 9 and 22
Saul encounters the risen Jesus, fasts, and is visited by Ananias. Acts 22:16 records Ananias telling him to rise, be baptized, and wash away his sins, calling on Jesus’ name. The passage does not present calling on His name as a scripted prayer.
Cornelius: Acts 10:34-48
Peter announces Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and authority. The Holy Spirit falls while he speaks, astonishing the Jewish believers. Peter then commands that the hearers be baptized. This account warns readers against forcing God into a mechanical sequence.
Lydia and the jailer: Acts 16
Lydia responds to Paul’s message and is baptized with her household (Acts 16:11-15). The jailer asks what he must do to be saved. Paul and Silas tell him to believe in the Lord Jesus, speak the word to his household, and baptize them that same night (Acts 16:25-34).
Acts reports different details because these are accounts, not fill-in-the-blank scripts. Taken together, they center on Jesus, faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Spirit, and a new life among disciples. None uses a sinner’s prayer. Read where the sinner’s prayer came from and how to become a Christian.