The apostles didn’t preach the gospel like Christians today
Two of the most common ideas presented in modern Christian evangelism are “God loves you” and “Jesus died for you,” or variations of those points. They’re so ingrained in evangelical culture that many Christians insist that we must tell people this if we’re to win them to Christ.
In the debate over reformed theology, one of the arguments against the doctrine of definite atonement — that Jesus atoned for the sins of only the elect — is how can we preach the gospel to the lost if we don’t tell them that Jesus died for them?
Well, that’s a question for the apostles, because they didn’t.
When determining the best methods and message for evangelism, wouldn’t the most authoritative source be the preaching of the apostles — filled with the Holy Spirit, carrying out the great commission — in the book of Acts? If anything is Biblical evangelism, that is. So I’m going to, as briefly as possible, go through the messages that were preached to the lost in Acts. You may be surprised.
Throughout these examples, we’ll see certain recurring themes about Jesus — His resurrection, His Lordship, His return in judgment. To the Jews, the apostles also drew heavily from the Old Testament and held their leaders in Jerusalem responsible for Christ’s death. Paul gave his conversion testimony a couple of times. The messages concluded with calls to repent and trust in Christ for salvation.
But nowhere did they say anything like “God loves you” or “Jesus died for you.” In fact, did you know that the word “love” does not appear in the book of Acts even once?
There were many times the gospel was preached where we’re not told the content of what was said, so this will focus on the times where we do get to listen in. Let’s see what the apostles said:
Chapter 2: Pentecost
Evangelism began during a Jewish feast in Jerusalem, just two months after Jesus was crucified there. So Peter, newly filled with the Holy Spirit, took the opportunity to make his message very personal. He mentioned Jesus’ miracles (verse 22) and convicted his audience of putting Jesus to death “by lawless hands” (23). Then, the bulk of his preaching revolved around the resurrection, quoting Psalms 16 and 110. He made the case that “this Jesus, whom you crucified,” was “both Lord and Christ” (36) — both God and the Messiah.
That was enough for the guilty crowd to ask, “what shall we do?” Peter replied to repent and be baptized — which in their culture was an expression of faith and identification — in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins (38).
Chapter 3: The temple
In chapter 3, Peter and John healed a lame man at one of the gates of the temple in Jerusalem. This drew the attention of a crowd, and Peter preached to them several of the same things he said on Pentecost. He personally convicted his hearers of Christ’s crucifixion, telling them they “denied the Holy One and the Just” and “killed the Prince of life” (14-15). He said God raised Jesus from the dead (15), credited faith in Christ for the lame man’s healing (15-16), and said Christ’s suffering fulfilled the word of the prophets (17, 21-26).
He called the people to repent for the blotting out of their sins (19) and said God raised up Jesus to bless them first — speaking of Israel — in turning them from their sins (26).
Chapter 4: The Sanhedrin
Peter and John spent the night in jail for that, and the next day, they appeared before the very men who condemned Jesus. Peter said what he said the day before — that the lame man was healed by the name of Jesus Christ, whom they crucified and whom God raised from the dead (10). He quoted Scripture in saying Jesus was the “stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone,” and he boldly proclaimed, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (11-12).
There was no call to repentance, but Christ was preached as the only way to salvation.
Chapter 5: The Sanhedrin again
The apostles were arrested again, but an angel sprang them out of prison. They returned to the temple the next day and were then brought back before the high priest. Peter reiterated that God raised up Jesus, that they murdered Him, that God “exalted (Jesus) to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (30-31).
Peter consistently centered his preaching on the Person of Christ — that alone is enough to draw hearers to faith and repentance.
Chapters 6 and 7: Stephen
Acts 6:10 says Stephen spoke with wisdom and in the Spirit against those who challenged him, but we’re not told what he said. His accusers claimed he said Jesus would destroy the temple and change the customs of Moses, but their word cannot be taken as fact.
Stephen’s monologue before the Sanhedrin in chapter 7 was not evangelism, but condemnation. He laid out how Israel has rejected the Lord throughout its history, and convicted them of murdering the One foretold by the prophets. His witness to Christ was seeing Him standing at the right hand of God.
Chapter 8: The Ethiopian
This is where Philip the evangelist encountered an Ethiopian eunuch reading from the book of Isaiah. After explaining how Jesus fulfilled that Scripture, the man asked to be baptized. Philip replied, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The Ethiopian said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” Verse 37 is not found in many early manuscripts, but if the Ethiopian did say that, his faith was in who Jesus is.
Chapter 9: Newly converted Saul
Saul of Tarsus began preaching Christ in Damascus shortly after he got saved, and the only thing we know he preached was that — like the Ethiopian said — Jesus “is the Son of God” (20).
Chapter 10: Cornelius
The Lord called Peter to go see Cornelius, a Roman centurion, in the Gentile port city of Joppa. This was the first gospel presentation to a Gentile, so Peter didn’t refer to the Scriptures other than a mention of the prophets in verse 43. Instead, he focused on Jesus’ life and ministry (37-39). He preached about the resurrection (40-41) and that Christ “was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead” (42).
The call, however, was the same: “through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins” (43).
Chapter 13: Antioch in Galatia
This was during Paul’s first missionary journey. Although he and his companions were in the Gentile region of Galatia, this took place in a synagogue, so Paul recounted a brief history of Israel through David.
Paul taught that Jesus fulfilled God’s promise to David of a Savior for Israel (24, 27). Like Peter, he held the Jews in Jerusalem responsible for the crucifixion (27-29) and proclaimed the resurrection with multiple references to Scripture (30-37).
Paul’s call: “through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses” (38-39). He added a warning of judgment, quoting Habukkuk, to those who wouldn’t believe (40-41).
Chapter 14: No, don’t worship us!
Paul and Barnabas healed a lame man in Lystra, another Galatian city. The Gentiles there reacted by calling them Hermes and Zeus. They vociferously refused that worship, and their response was not a gospel proclamation (which they had preached earlier, verse 7) but an apologetic for monotheism. They preached the one true God as the creator of “the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them” (15), and said that “rain from heaven and fruitful seasons” were a witness to Him.
Creation became a common theme when preaching to Gentiles.
Chapter 16: The Philippian jailer
This is a case where the earth itself was a witness to Christ, as Paul and Silas were freed from imprisonment by an earthquake. The keeper of the jail, who no doubt heard Paul and Silas singing hymns in their chains, fell down trembling before them and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (30). Obviously, he was already repentant, so all they said was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” (31).
So simple, so brief, yet so deep: Trust in Christ.
Chapter 17: Thessalonica
As chapter 17 begins, Paul is back in a synagogue. Verse 3 says he was “explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ’” — the risen Messiah.
Chapter 17: Athens
Here we see, on the Areopagus (Mars Hill, named after a pagan god), Paul’s most extensive gospel presentation to Gentiles. He used the vast array of idols around him as the building block for his message, including an altar dedicated “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD” (23). Like he did in Lystra, he proclaimed God as the Creator “who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth” and who “gives to all life, breath, and all things” (24-25). As the world’s Creator, He sovereignly made and apportioned all nations (26), and He did that for a purpose: “they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (27).
Paul’s implication was that humanity has not sought the Lord, and that led to his call: God has graciously withheld His judgment, but that grace will end someday, when “He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained” (31). Who is this Man? The One who is risen from the dead — who Paul had previously preached in Athens (18), so they knew the name of Jesus. Until then, what does God do? He “commands all men everywhere to repent” (30).
The need for salvation. The resurrection. Judgment. Repentance. The same gospel essentials.
Chapter 18: Corinth
Again at a synagogue, Paul “testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ” (verse 5).
Chapter 19: Ephesus
In Ephesus, Paul encountered disciples of John the Baptist who had not been baptized in the name of Jesus. He reminded them of John’s instruction, “they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus” (verse 4). Trust in Christ, as Paul told the Philippian jailer.
Chapter 22: Jerusalem
In chapter 22, Paul returned to the temple in Jerusalem, where a mob tried to kill him. A Roman garrison saved him, but he asked them if he could speak to the crowd.
He gave them his personal testimony, from his history of persecuting Christians, to his spectacular conversion on the road to Damascus, to his calling through Ananias, that Paul “will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard” (15). He identified Jesus as the voice who spoke to him, and made clear that turning to Christ was the will of God (14). When he recounted Ananias telling him, “Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (16), that was his call to the crowd, just like Peter on Pentecost, decades earlier.
Chapter 24: Before the governor
Less than two weeks after that, Paul was taken to Caesarea to stand before Felix, the governor of Judea. An orator named Tertullus accused Paul on behalf of the high priest and the Jewish leaders, and Paul then presented his defense. He didn’t talk about Jesus other than saying he worshiped God “according to the Way which they call a sect” (14) — that’s what Christianity was called at the time. He also spoke of the “resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust” (15), and that “Concerning the resurrection of the dead I am being judged by you this day” (21) — referring to the future resurrection after the second coming of Christ.
Chapter 26: Before King Agrippa
Later in Caesarea, Paul was brought before Agrippa II, the last king of the Herodian dynasty. The bulk of his defense was again his testimony of his life before Christ and his Damascus experience. He described his persecution of Christians in brutal detail: “many of the saints I shut up in prison … when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them … being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities” (10-11).
That made his conversion story even more dramatic, and his gospel witness was communicated in what Jesus told him at the time: “I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me” (17-18).
He told Agrippa about his ministry to Jews and Gentiles, calling them to repent and turn to God (20), and that he preached “that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles” (23).
Hearing Paul’s masterful weaving of the gospel pillars of resurrection, faith, repentance, and forgiveness with his own testimony, along with references to the Jewish fathers (6) and the prophets (22), Agrippa knew that Paul was witnessing to him (28). This was the glorious climax of gospel preaching in Acts.
Chapter 28: Rome
The last chapter of Acts is a sort of epilogue, with Paul ministering from a house in Rome. It has two references to what Paul preached, both about the kingdom of God and both concerning Jesus (23, 31).
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As you can see — and please read the full accounts, as this was just a summation through snippets — neither Peter nor Paul was recorded telling anyone that Jesus died for them. The gospel preached in Acts proclaimed Jesus as the prophesied Messiah, the Lord, the Savior, ordained by God, risen from the dead, and returning in judgment someday. That was enough to demand a response — repent and believe in Him. That’s the gospel the Holy Spirit led the apostles to preach, and the gospel He inspired in Scripture for our example.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t preach the love of God and the means of the atonement — obviously, the gospels and epistles have much to say about both — but don’t let anyone tell you that you have no gospel without that.
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