Apostolic Preaching in Acts: A Decisive Period in Earliest Christianity
A foretaste of Volume 2 of Christ of the Consummation. A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Testimony of Acts and Paul.
Introduction
In the progress of redemptive history, the preaching of the Apostles preceded any writing of new covenant scriptures by at least a generation. The apostolic preaching of the gospel began immediately after the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, which would have been about 33 A.D. But the first writings of new covenant scriptures came approximately twenty years later, with Paul's letters to the Thessalonians in about 50 A.D. For approximately a whole generation the newly forming church of Jesus Christ depended for its inspired directives primarily on the preachings of the Apostles. The God-inspired new covenant canonical writings were not completed for another 40 to 50 years, until about 90 to 100 A.D. The extent to which this original proclamation of the gospel permeates the book of Acts testifies to its significance.[i] The writings of the old covenant scriptures continued to provide direction for the church's self-definition. But the proper application of these prophetic scriptures in a new covenant context depended heavily on the ongoing analysis of their significance as provided by the preaching of the Apostles.
The question may be appropriately asked, Why did God order that these years must pass before the inspired scriptures of the new covenant could finally be produced for the direction of the church? Several observations may be offered in response to this question.
(1) Time for “occasions” (“situational circumstances”) to arise.
The new covenant documents, even the four gospels, must be read as occasional documents. That is, each of the writings of the New Testament were composed in response to certain concrete circumstances in the life-experience of God's new covenant community. Paul's letter to the Galatians addresses in the most stringent terms one of the first and most persistent heretical challenges to the true Christian gospel. His first letter to the Corinthians deals with numerous problems related to a proper Christian lifestyle, including party spirit which divides the body, sexual immorality, discipline in the church, the use and abuse of spiritual gifts, the freedom of the Christian conscience, order in worship, the nature of the bodily resurrection, and the collection of offerings. His later pastoral epistles address the question of the maintenance of the “faith once delivered to the saints” as well as church traditions that must extend beyond the apostolic age.
All these challenging circumstances would not present themselves within each of the various churches immediately upon the first re-formation of a people of God under the auspices of the new covenant. Lengths of time would have to elapse before all the “occasional” challenges of the emerging church would present themselves. In its proper time, the apostolic response to differing challenges to the well-being of the church would anticipate many aspects of the subsequent, prolonged history of Christ's church. In the meantime, the public proclamation of the basic apostolic gospel could and must run to the ends of the earth.
(2) Time to allow the Old Testament to establish its foundational role.
As the speeches of the Apostles demonstrate so clearly, the faith and life of the new covenant people of God must rest squarely on the revelations found in the old covenant scriptures. With few exceptions, the messages of the Apostles recorded in the book of Acts look back to the prophecies of the Old Testament as the basis for their proclamation. A delay in the formation of the canonical scriptures of the new covenant would keep the way clear for this principle to be firmly established in behalf of future generations living under the new covenant. If the significance of the old covenant scriptures is widely ignored or altogether lost among numerous groups of Christians today despite the clear directives found in the preaching of the Apostles, how much more would their significance be obscured if the new covenant people of God had had access to a completed new covenant canon immediately upon the birth of the church? So it was quite appropriate that the gospel found its first formation through the apostolic preaching of the gospel in clear dependence on the old covenant scriptures apart from a completed canonical scriptures of the new covenant.
(3) Time for “chosen witnesses” to confirm their testimony.
So long as eyewitness reports by "chosen witnesses" of the realities of the gospel were still available, the need for an inspired, written record of the new covenant regarding the life, death, resurrection and ascension of the Christ was not so pressing (Acts 10:39-41). The Apostle Paul could appeal to the testimony of "more than 500 brothers,” most of whom were still living, to affirm the reality of Christ's resurrection (1 Cor. 15:6). But as time passed, the need for an inspired, written record of these testimonies became obvious. As a consequence, in accordance with God's good ordering, the writings of the new covenant emerged to serve as the permanent witness to the truth that continues even today as the foundational base of the gospel on which the new covenant rests.
Because of the generational gap between the establishment of the new covenant church at the day of Pentecost and the writing of the new covenant scriptures, the speeches of these early witnesses who had been with Jesus during his life on earth and seen him personally after his resurrection have a most crucial role to play. Principal figures in this period are Peter, Stephen, Philip and James, with additional testimony provided by Paul.[ii]
(4) Time to establish the spoken character of the original apostolic messages.
The simplest, most obvious aspect of the original apostolic messages is that they appear in the form of the spoken word. It is the word spoken, preached, declared, proclaimed that defines the essential form of the original “apostolic” message.
For virtually a whole generation, the message of the apostles took the form of a spoken rather than a written word. Contrary to the common assumption, neither the gospels nor the epistles nor the books of Acts or Revelation represent the original form of the apostolic message. Implicit in this fact is a basic reality regarding the progress of redemptive revelation regularly overlooked and generally minimized. It is a fact disregarded, most likely on the assumption that since redemptive revelation has gone beyond its original proclamation, that moment in the progress of redemptive history need not be revisited.
But this proclaimed form of the original apostolic message needs a careful revisiting. Serious revisiting, for a number of reasons.
1. First, the pattern of God’s revelation as initially spoken and then written is regularly repeated across redemptive history. Moses first spoke to Israel and to Pharaoh. Then he wrote. The prophets first spoke and then wrote. Jesus first spoke and then his gospellers wrote. Paul first spoke and then years later he wrote his letters to the churches. This standard, undisturbed pattern of redemptive revelation prevails throughout the history of redemption. For this reason, if for no other, the initial preachings of the new covenant message must be carefully analyzed for their distinctive contribution to the progress of redemptive revelation.
2. Secondly, the Word of the new covenant gospel must forever be proclaimed. Through all the ages and even into eternity, the gospel must be verbally declared. Particularly by those select people called and commissioned to the gospel ministry, the Word shall be spoken. It must be articulated for people to hear. But even further, by all the disciples, all the brothers and sisters, all the followers of Jesus as their Lord and Christ, the gospel must be spoken. Nothing can ever replace the speaking out of the good news of the new covenant. “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.” Speak it out! Proclaim it to the nations! This spoken Word embodies the true and abiding hope of the world.
3. Thirdly, the Holy Spirit perpetually empowers the spoken Word of the gospel. As redemptive truth is spoken, God the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, of a sufficient Savior, and supplies the essential gifts of repentance and faith. The spoken Word serves as the instrument of the Holy Spirit to bring salvation to the nations. Do not deprive the people of the world the hope that comes from hearing the proclaimed Word.
Of course, the written Word forever serves its critical role in the spread of the gospel and its establishment among the nations. But the written Word will never usurp the vital role of the spoken Word. Always in every generation, the Word, the logos must be openly declared.[iii]
It is not accidental or incidental that the good news of the gospel was first preached, spoken, declared, proclaimed, and then written a generation later. God the Lord of redemptive grace purposed it this way.
An underscoring of the original and ongoing significance of this spoken form of the original “apostolic” message appears in an older work now buried beneath the larger tomes of the present day:
It is of some importance to remember that our holy religion originated in a spoken not a written Word. In the days of old, God spoke to Abraham, to Moses, and to the prophets; and they spoke what He spoke to and through them. The record of those words was an after arrangement for the preservation of the truth so revealed, and its transmission in an authentic form to future generations. We open the New Testament, and find John the Baptist preaching, not writing, then our Saviour speaking such words as no mere man spake, not writing—projecting Himself orally on the world which He would save, and leaving it to others to put those words on record. So the Church began with and by the word of God—an oral testimony not a written book. Christ spoke; then His apostles and prophets spoke. At least a score of years passed before the primitive Church had any authorized written report of those sayings and discourses. The word of the Lord which grew and multiplied was the word spoken by those who had the mind of Christ. It was “the word of good tidings preached,” and to be preached, to every creature. After the Church was formed some of the more important speeches of the apostles were put on record by St. Luke, and several of the apostles themselves wrote or dictated letters which have been reverently preserved, for the admonition and edification of the saints.
This original characteristic of our religion [we] cannot afford to lose. It may be greatly served by the pen, but it can never lay aside the sword of the mouth. Let Christian periodicals and books be ever so much multiplied, let copies of Holy Scripture be ever so widely diffused, nothing can supersede personal oral testimony to Jesus Christ and the Gospel. It is often said, and truly, that the Church needs more Power from on high, such as she received at the beginning. Rely upon it, that the Power will use the same organs and instruments as at the beginning, viz., apostolic men and apostolic speeches.[iv]
Let us of the current generation consider most carefully the first proclamations of the new covenant as presented in Scripture. By the public proclamation of these original preachings, the heart and focus of the “apostolic” gospel will come alive for each new generation.
[i] Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles. A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), observes that by comparison, Acts has more speech material than other ancient historians. He concludes: “This is because Luke is chronicling a historical movement that was carried forward in the main by evangelistic preaching.” Cf. the discussion of Craig S. Keener, Acts. An Exegetical Commentary. Volume I. Introduction and 1:1-2:47 (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012), 261-263. Concludes Keener, “Most important, the quantity of speech material reflects again the centrality of preaching in the story that Luke recounts” (263).
[ii] Cf. the classic work of C. H. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching and its Developments (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1936). For a more balanced treatment, see H. N. Ridderbos, The Speeches of Peter in the Acts of the Apostles (London: The Tyndale Press, 1962). An older work of significant worth is Donald Fraser, The Speeches of the Holy Apostles (New York: MacMillan, 1882).
[iii]Cf. the Westminster Larger Catechism, Q. 155: “The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the word” an effective means of communicating the various elements of the grace of salvation.
[iv] Donald Fraser, The Speeches of the Holy Apostles (New York: MacMillan & Co, 1882), 257, 258.
An extract from O. Palmer Robertson’s forthcoming, The Testimony of Acts and Paul. Vol. 2 of Christ of the Consummation. A New Testament Biblical Theology. P&R Publishing.
Image by Marcantonio Raimondi, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons, ‘Saint Paul preaching in Athens’