EARLY PREACHINGS OF THE GOSPEL
J. Renton
Acts 2: 36–38; 3: 19–21; 4: 8–12; 11: 20–26
I would just like to say a few words about these early preachings. I would like to refer to chapter 2 of Acts because that is the first preaching, and there is a certain freshness and power about that preaching. I did not read the whole preaching; it is the longest of these preachings we have read about in these chapters. Peter goes over the whole history, the whole matter of the intervention of God in the Lord Jesus, how He was, it says, delivered up “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye, by the hand of lawless men, have crucified and slain.
Whom God has raised up” (Acts 2: 23, 24). The great subject of the first preaching was the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from among the dead. That was the great testimony rendered that called for faith on the part of souls. Now that is still the subject of the gospel, because the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ involves a work completed.
We read of the Lord Jesus in the gospels and it is very interesting to read about His movements; but all the gospels end with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and His burial too. So the gospel goes out in the book of the Acts from the standpoint of the work undertaken by the Lord Jesus being completed, and His being highly exalted; showing God’s satisfaction. His complete pleasure in that finished work, and then proclaiming it, so that there can be the meeting of any need. If there is any need with men, women, or young people it can be answered in the Lord Jesus Christ raised from the dead. He is the One who undertook the sin question and who answered to God for the departure and lawlessness on the part of men. It is wonderful that the Lord Jesus should make Himself available as Saviour! In fact He made Himself answerable to God for the departure of mankind. He Himself was perfect, of course, a Man of another order, come from heaven, not one of Adam’s fallen race, but One who was in every way in accord with the will of God. But He took the sinner’s place, that is a tremendous transaction which only He could undertake. He took it vicariously on behalf of others. We were in the sinner’s place, we were all sinners, but He took the sinner’s place to establish on the ground of redemption a claim upon all. This great work was completed to God’s satisfaction, and gave Him a righteous basis to recover man to Himself. All has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ at infinite cost to Himself. In fact, scripture tells us He was made sin. It is difficult to understand but that is what scripture says, “Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that we might become”, believers might become, “God’s righteousness in him”, 2 Corinthians 5: 21. I am not attempting to explain all that, but let the truth of it sink into our souls, the immensity of the work undertaken by our Lord Jesus Christ and accomplished for God’s satisfaction.
His resurrection and His present position are evidence of how God is satisfied with that work. That is the basis on which God will build His universe, the righteous basis has been secured through the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are great things to think about, the tremendous undertaking on the part of the Lord Jesus. As it says, “coming into the world he says ... thou hast prepared me a body”, Hebrews 10: 5. That was a body of flesh and blood in which He could suffer, in which He could die, to undertake the work of redemption, to satisfy God as to the whole matter of departure, and answer to God regarding the enemy’s work too; the enemy’s work was involved in the departure. So Peter begins by saying, “This Jesus”, the One who was here among men. He was speaking to persons who knew Him, he was speaking in Jerusalem where the Lord was crucified. That was a great public matter. Peter said, “This Jesus has God raised up, whereof all we are witnesses”. Then he says, “Let the whole house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him, this Jesus”, this Jesus, the One whom they knew, the One whom they had seen, the One whom they had seen crucified, “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. He is in a position of glory and exaltation and authority.
Now it says, “And having heard it they were pricked in heart”. That was a good thing; I suppose they were convicted. “They were pricked in heart, and said, to Peter and the other apostles, What shall we do, brethren?”. They virtually said, Is there any remedy? We can see how wrong we are, we are convicted as to the tremendous sin we have committed, is there any answer to it? “What shall we do, brethren?” And Peter says, There is an answer, an answer to that great sin of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is God’s answer to it in the resurrection of Christ, and there is to be man’s answer in repentance. “Peter said to them, Repent”. First of all there was conviction, that is how we begin, we begin as being convicted sinners, and then the next step is we are to repent, take our true place of repentance before God as guilty sinners. There were three thousand converted, but each one had to have this personal experience with God, because repentance is towards God. He is the One whom we have offended, our offences and sins have been against God, and our repentance is towards God. How otherwise could a sinner approach God? He cannot approach God on his own righteousness because he has none, but he repents and approaches God on the righteousness of Another, and on the basis of the work accomplished and completed by Another. But repentance is a deep work, it is not a superficial thing, it is the work not only of our minds but of our hearts, our affections. The whole being of a man, woman, or young person is affected in repentance. It is not only being sorry for our sins, although it includes that, it includes a review of our history and viewing our state as God views it. “Repent”, that is the first word, “and be baptised”, well that would be committal to the death of Christ. A person who truly repents does not continue in his course of lawlessness. A person who repents is not happy in continuing a course of lawlessness, because he has reached something in his soul about his lawless course, and repentance involves a committal to the end of that.
So if repentance is real, he is no longer happy in a course of lawlessness, but counts on the Lord’s help to be here for the will of God. That is in principle what baptism is, “Repent, and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins”.
I often refer to this, remission of sins. Now they found themselves guilty of one sin, and very often in a person with a sense of guilt, it would be one sin that is in the person’s mind. That was so here. But remission of sins is not only for that one sin. I may be convicted of one sin, but not only is God prepared to remit that sin. He would remit my whole course of sins. A sinner coming to God could never recount all his sins, they are so many; in a lifetime of so many years of lawlessness, he could never count all his sins, but maybe one sin might convict him, and God would say, I will remit all your sinful history. Is not that magnanimous on the part of God? How gracious God is! He is prepared to forgive all our sins. He was ready to forgive all the sins of those persons, not only the sin of the crucifixion of Christ, which actually Peter later mentions as a sin of ignorance, a sin of inadvertence, but he says, “for remission of sins”. It is a tremendous thing to have our sins remitted. It is forgiveness, but it is more than forgiveness. Forgiveness could be attitude, but remission means that the matter is finally and fully settled and will never rise again in our lifetime here, and never rise hereafter.
Then he says, “and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”, that is what is available in the glad tidings, available for all men at the present time, “the gift of the Holy Spirit”. It was looked forward to in the Old Testament, but is available now because of the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ and His resurrection, and His exaltation. The Holy Spirit is available now as a gift and is offered in the glad tidings. Now this preaching was to the house of Israel, and is based on the great matter of the gift of the Holy Spirit. What aroused the interest of persons, what had brought them together to listen to the preaching, was the fact that the Holy Spirit had been given and there was evidence of it in persons, whom they had heard speaking in their own tongues the great things of God. There was evidence of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and that became the basis for the first preaching.
Now the second preaching, in Acts 3, was based on a lame man who was made to walk; that is, a witness here to the power of God in the glad tidings, one who had been carried daily at the gate of the temple and was made to walk. He was known to be a cripple, and there was evidence of the power of God’s kingdom in that he is made able to walk, and that became the basis for the second preaching. Peter says, “Repent therefore and be converted, for the blotting out of your sins, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and he may send Jesus Christ, who was foreordained for you ...”, that is an appeal to the nation of Israel that if the nation repented there could be times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord and He would send Jesus Christ. That was the outlook at that time, if the nation had repented, but the nation did not repent, and that gave God the liberty to extend the glad tidings further. The first gospel was to Jews. The assembly was formed by a remnant of the Jews, but God was justified in extending the glad tidings further because the favoured nation of Israel refused the glad tidings. God used that to extend the glad tidings further.
The third preaching I read of, in Acts 4, was preached to opposers. In the first three chapters of the Acts there is no opposition. There is testimony based, as I said, on the gift of the Holy Spirit, based on the man who was made to walk, evidence of the power of God, there was no opposition. In chapter 4 the opposition began, and what Peter stresses in this third preaching is this, “salvation is in none other”. He gives them an opportunity, but he says, There is no alternative. He says, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are called upon to answer as to the good deed done to the infirm man, how he has been healed, be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaraean, whom ye have crucified, whom God has raised from among the dead, by him this man stands here before you sound in body”, and then he says, “And salvation is in none other”. He brings before that nation that there is no alternative. That is important in the glad tidings, there is no alternative. There is salvation in no other. If He is refused, there is no salvation, nothing left but judgment. How solemn that is. He says, “salvation is in none other, for neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved”. There is no alternative but to accept God’s terms, accept the Saviour of His providing and His finished work; there is no alternative.
Now in chapter 11 you can see that certain history has elapsed which gives God the liberty for the word to go out to other nations. There were those who preached to Jews only, Acts 11: 19, but there were others who went into Antioch and preached to the Greeks also, preached to the nations. God is justified in extending His glad tidings, and so since then the gospel has been preached worldwide to all men. It is God’s thought that all men should be saved. Think of the outlook God has, God “desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Timothy 2: 4. Not only does God desire that all men should be saved but He has made provision for all men, because of “the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all”. That is, there is God’s desire for all men and God’s provision for all men, so that the glad tidings come to Antioch here, and it says that these persons announced “the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus”. Think of that coming to Antioch, coming to a gentile city, “the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus”, what glad tidings that would be! It was the first time in that city the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus were preached, and then it says, “the Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord”. That is a fine word, “turned to the Lord”. We have the
Thessalonians who “turned to God from idols”, 1 Thessalonians 1: 9. Here they turned to the Lord, they found their outlook in the Lord, their resources in the Lord. How fine that is! It says, “a great number believed and turned to the Lord”, and they found in Him all the resource they needed, “And the report concerning them reached the ears of the assembly which was in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go through as far as Antioch—who, having arrived and seeing the grace of God, rejoiced, and exhorted all with purpose of heart to abide with the Lord”. That is, the preaching was of the Lord Jesus, and the Lord’s hand was with the preachers, and the converts turned to the Lord and Barnabas exhorted them with purpose of heart to abide with the Lord. It is a great thing to know the Lord, to be subject to the Lord, to come into the kingdom of God, and to come under the Lord’s authority and protection. That is what these persons did, and it says that “he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith; and a large crowd of people were added to the Lord”. You see it is the Lord who is emphasised, the Lord Himself, the authority of the Lord, they come under a new authority, come under a new Master. That is an important step in a believer’s life. He may be convicted, and repent, and receive the remission of sins and the gift of the Spirit, and then come under the Lord’s authority. He is no longer lawless, but comes under the Lord’s authority. That is a very important matter, coming into the kingdom, coming under the authority of the Lord.
Now it says that Barnabas went away to Tarsus to seek out Saul and found him and brought him to Antioch, “And so it was with them that for a whole year they were gathered together in the assembly and taught a large crowd”. I want to come to this, the importance of teaching.
First of all there is to be subjection to the Lord in the kingdom, and then divine teaching is required to provide instruction for believers. These were two servants, Barnabas and Saul, working together, both of the same mind, both advocating the same teaching. It
says, “for a whole year”, which is a whole course of teaching. It is not an overnight matter.
These believers must have committed themselves to this course of teaching, and I suppose week after week for a whole year, “so it was with them that for a whole year they were gathered together in the assembly and taught a large crowd”. Now a large crowd became an assembly, they became one under the teaching of Barnabas and Saul, these able teachers. It says, “and taught a large crowd: and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch”.
There was something of testimony. It was what others called them, I suppose unbelievers called them Christians because they were different, they came under this teaching and they were different persons. The kingdom is important, involving subjection in mind to the Lord so that we take in divine teaching. These persons would all be taught the same way. It formed their way of thinking, and that forms assembly character, that is, we think the same way because we have been subject to the same Lord and subject to the same teaching. I just want to impress how important that is. So these persons were stable, having had a whole year’s course of instruction, and they were first called Christians in Antioch.
We read in Acts 13, “Now there were in Antioch, in the assembly which was there”. There was the formation of assembly character in these persons through divine teaching. The gospel has in mind that we should have remission of sins, the gift of the Spirit, and come under the Lord’s authority, then come under His teaching so that our minds are formed, how we think.
We would be formed according to God, not in independent thinking but, as Paul writes to the Philippians, thinking the same thing, thinking one thing (see Philippians 2: 2). That is the result of divine teaching. May the Lord encourage us, for His name’s sake.
Preaching at Plainfield
14 November 1993