Footsteps #18

What exactly did the disciples preach that “turned the world upside down?” “And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message: Jesus is the Messiah.” Acts.5:42 NLT again, “And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and preaching the good news of Jesus as the Christ.” Acts.5:42 NASB. But what was this preaching of Christ? Did the apostles proclaim merely the demands of the sermon on the mount? Did they present only Christ’s holy character and matchless life? If this had been the case, then Christ Himself, in the days of His Judean ministry should have gathered His followers by the thousands and His later preachers would have gathered only hundreds, in-as-much as the reality should have been more powerful than the mere report. But the opposite is true. The disciples won the 1000’s, not Jesus. Why? Because the disciples preached the significance of Christ’s life and death in a way that had not been possible before Calvary. They told of the forgiveness of sins, of the resurrection of the body, and of life everlasting – all made possible by the atoning death of God’s Son.

Look up these verses on their preaching about forgiveness: Acts.5:31, 2:38, 3:19, 10:43, 13:38-39 as examples. Acts 13 contains a full account of one of Paul’s speeches. Notice also the place of the resurrection in their public proclamation in the following examples: Acts.3:15, 4:2,10-12 NB v33. 10:38-40, 13:30,34, 17:3 etc.

This was the message. The method by which the church spread the good news is mentioned 71 times in this book, for this is the number of times the Holy Spirit is referred to. All so-called Christian work that is not “through the Holy Spirit” falls barren and lifeless to the ground. 
There is an old legend of a boy who was granted a wish. He wished for all his other wishes to come true. A comparison of Matt.7:11 and Luke.11:13 shows us that the gift of the Spirit is the richest treasure of heaven, bringing all other treasures in its train.