03/24/2025 – Day 267 – Acts – Chapter 1 and 2 // The First Christian Preaching – Acts 2: 14 -42 – “This ‘kerugma’ follows a pattern which repeats itself over and over again all over the New Testament.”// Fourteen consecutive Monday Acts readings.// 1 of 2
If y’all haven’t gone through it already, I recommend the two prior cycle posts on today’s readings. Use the search tool on “Day 267”
We have covered the Holy Spirit, the Comforter lightly in the 11/21/2022 post. But there is so much more.
Today, I am going to share excerpts from William Barclay’s commentary on “The First Christian Preaching , Acts 2: 14 – 42:
“Acts 2: 14-42 is one of the most interesting passages in the New Testament, because it is an account of the first Christian sermon ever preached. In the early church there were four different kinds of preaching.
(i) There was Kerugma. Kerugma literally means a herald’s announcement and is the plain statement of the facts of the Christian message, about which, as the early preachers saw it, there can be no argument or doubt.
(ii). There was didache. Didache literally means teaching and elucidating the meaning of the facts which have been proclaimed.
(iii). There was paraklesis which literally means exhortation. This kind of preaching urged men the duty of fitting their lives to match the kerugma and the didache which had been given.
(iv). There was homilia which means the treatment of any subject or department of life in light of the Christian message.
In Acts we shall meet mainly with kerugma because Acts tells of the proclamation of the facts of the gospel to those who had never heard them before. This kerugma follows a pattern which repeats itself over and over again all over the New Testament.
(i). There is the proof that Jesus and all that happened to him is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy… But this stress of early preaching on prophecy conserved the great truth that history is not haphazard and that there is meaning to it. To believe in the possibility of prophecy is to believe that God is in control and that he is working out his purposes.
(ii) In Jesus the Messiah has come, the Messianic prophecies are fulfilled and the New Age has dawned. The early Church had a tremendous sense that Jesus was the hinge of all history; that with his coming, eternity had invaded time; and that, therefore, life and the world could never be the same again.
(iii). The kerugma went on to state that Jesus had been born of the line of David, that he had taught, that he had worked miracles that he had been crucified, that he had been raised from the dead and that he was now at the right hand of God… Jesus was not merely someone about whom they read or hear; he was someone whom they met and knew, a living presence.
(iv). The early preachers went on to insist that Jesus would return in glory to establish His kingdom on earth. In other words, the early Church believed intensely in the Second Coming….
(V). The preaching finished with the statement that in Jesus alone was salvation, that he who believed in Him would receive the Holy Spirit and that he who would not believe was destined for terrible things.
If we read through Peter’s sermon as a whole we will see how these five strands are woven into it.”
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Soli Deo Gloria!
Questions for fellowship generation, the lifelong sanctification process:
- What does the text reveal about God’s character?
- How has this reading generated prayer for you and/or us?
- What themes stand out to you in this bible study?
- How does our reading fit into the bigger picture (creation, the fall, restoration, etc.)?
- What verse(s) jumped out at you like never before? Is it explainable at this point?
- Do you have any questions you would like to put before the group as to how to interpret any particular verse(s) in our reading. Let scripture testify to scripture: Share with us where you sense contradiction between passages elsewhere.
- What did you find convicting and inspiring at the same time? Share with us how the Spirit of God is working within you as a messenger, both within and outside of our fellowship group.
- Share with the group how our study is calling or confirming to you a new mission to glorify God in our times.