Read:
Reflect:
What was early preaching like right after Pentecost? What did the apostles emphasize? What was the content of the message they communicated to people? The first recorded “sermon” came after Peter and John had healed a lame man in the name of Jesus (Acts 3:1-10). The astonished crowds wanted an explanation and so Peter addressed them to provide clarification (vv 11-26). We turn to this passage to see what early Christian proclamation emphasized.
Who did it? Who healed the lame man? Peter (and John) immediately issued a disclaimer and affirmation: “We didn’t do it; Jesus did!” More particularly, it was the God of their ancestral patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, working through Jesus, that healed the man. He had gloriously exalted his special servant/child who had suffered rejection and a cruel death from his own people (reminiscent of the suffering servant of Isaiah 53). The people had denied the truly Holy One who had lived a fully God-centered life among them, and turned their backs on the Righteous/Just One who was totally innocent of any crime, requesting instead a known murderer, who went free (vv 13-14). Even worse, they had killed the Author of life (v 15), the very source of life; both physical and spiritual life. All the forces of evil had done their utmost to destroy the work of God, but to no avail. God raised Jesus from the dead in a resounding victory over evil and death, evils key weapon.
54…Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? (1 Corinthians 15:54-55)
And it was by faith in this risen, exalted Lord Jesus that Peter and John had been able to speak healing to the man in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (v 6); and the man himself was brought to perfect health by the faith that is through Jesus (v 16). Giving all the credit to Jesus, with a particular emphasis on the meaning of his holy life, substitutionary death and victorious resurrection, is a central mark of early proclamation, as it should be in our time as well.
This remarkable message about Jesus was not entirely new, for its roots stretched back in history to the distant past. The prophets of the old covenant, going all the way back to Samuel, had foreseen and spoken of these events which had now reached their fulfillment in and through the sufferings of Christ, Israel’s Messiah (see vv 17-28). Even Moses, Israel’s great deliverer at the Exodus, had spoken of a prophet like him whom God would one day raise up for an even greater deliverance from sin and death (v 22; cf. Deuteronomy 18:15). In fact, this message went all the way back to the promise God gave to Abraham that in his offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed (v 25). And this blessing, now available for the whole world, had come to realization in the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus, and the outpouring of the Spirit to turn people from their wickedness (v 26).
Finally, this message also holds great promise both for now and the future. For the repentant it offers the immediate blotting out of sins, and genuine spiritual refreshing when the Lord brushes all guilt from our consciences (vv 19-20). In addition, God will one day send the ascended Jesus back to earth for the restoration of all things (v 21). The prospect of this is astounding because it will mean the creation of the new heaven and earth where sin, corruption and death have no place, and where life with the triune God will be gloriously realized (Revelation 21-22). This also is a crucial part of full-bodied Christian proclamation.
Respond:
Let us pray for all who take the Word of God in their mouth that they will be faithful to their Lord and speak the message with clarity and Holy Spirit power in all its fullness.
15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautifulare the feetof those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10:15)