The basic Christian doctrine
We are here concerned, particularly, with germs of truth. We are concerned with the basic Christian doctrine as presented to us and as preached by the Apostles and as recorded in the Book of Acts.
The earliest picture we have of the church gathered together as a living entity is in the second chapter, when they were all gathered together in one place on the day of Pentecost. Then the Holy Spirit descended and they were given this “power from on high” which enabled them to go out into the world and preach the Gospel. We have Peter standing up and preaching to the Jews on Pentecost and we read:
“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:42-47).
Here we have the early band of enthusiasts with the power of the Spirit openly manifested among them, continuing in the Apostles’ doctrine and teaching. All the aspects of the Apostles’ teaching would be involved here. Certainly the basic facts of the Christian faith. Their prayers were communal, and they broke bread from house to house. This may mean that they had a memorial of the Lord or may mean that they used to eat in one another’s homes — the phrase “the breaking of bread” has more than one meaning. It may mean both. It is quite probable that in these early times, in the first flush of enthusiasm, whenever they had meals together they remembered the Lord as part of the meal, and took some of the bread and said, “Let us remember our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us”; and some of the wine, which was a common feature of their table, which they would take and remember the Lord. So “breaking bread from house to house” may mean that they both had a meal together and shared the remembrance of the Lord’s sacrifice.
We notice:
- The gladness of their hearts, a characteristic of the early enthusiasm of these believers,
- The gladness that bubbled up in them,
- Their “singleness of heart” as those who had become changed men and women by the influence and impact of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The church, using the church in its more general sense, has for a long time associated the Apostles Creed with this verse. “They continued in the apostles’ doctrine”. It has been alleged by Dr. Blunt, that this is a reference to what is known as “the Apostles Creed,” a statement of Christian faith in its simplicity, which has been handed down certainly from as early as the third or fourth century. In fact, Blunt quotes writers of the fourth century who refer to the Apostles Creed as being then of great antiquity, so whatever we say about it, the Apostles Creed goes back very near to Apostolic times, and there has always been a school of thought that has felt that it was formulated by the Apostles in their day in order to give a solid platform of dogmatic belief on which the Christians could build.
Use of Old TestamentI think it is unlikely (and a great many writers agree) that it goes back as far as Apostolic times. It seems more probable that it was a production of the second century, when the church felt a greater need for defining its position, when more and more strange ideas had come in and the church had to state its position. Now I think that most of us would agree that the Apostles Creed could be accepted as a brief statement of the Christian faith as we understand it, and reveals at any rate that the church felt a need, as we ourselves have felt a need, for defining in some way its doctrinal position. A detailed study of the Apostolic preaching in Acts leads, as I have said, to some fairly general conclusions and simple propositions that I want now to look at.
Turning then to the record of Acts, there are two approaches evident in the preaching of the Gospel. When the apostles were preaching to the Jews we find that always they went back to the Old Testament Scriptures and developed their arguments from there, quoting the prophecies with which the Jews would be familiar. We shall see in one of the later studies, a lot of their preaching began in the synagogues. They went first to the synagogue, and when they were refused permission or when the atmosphere became too violent in the synagogue, then they went somewhere else and preached to the Gentiles. And when they were preaching to the Jews we find them over and over again going back to the Scriptures for the support of their statements and trying to demonstrate from the Holy Scriptures that “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah” (Acts 17:3 NIV). This was the burden of their message to the Jews, that “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36 NIV).
So in Acts 2, we find the Apostle Peter quoting directly from Joel 2, Psalm 16, and Psalm 110, somewhat lifting these verses out from their context, and saying this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; or here were fulfilled the prophecies concerning the Messiah which David himself foretold concerning him. So we see the Apostles again preaching to the Jews in Jerusalem. “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob,” (Acts 3:13), he says, thus bringing them back to the Scriptures, to the familiar ground of the Jewish church, and trying to lift them through that to an understanding of the Christian message — that Jesus, the crucified Jesus, is the Messiah. Again he appeals to the prophetic writings: “But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled” (Acts 3:18). Again, he quotes Deut 18:15: “For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me” (Acts 3:22). Then: “Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days,” (Acts 3:24). Then in the next verse he goes back to “the covenant that God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all kindreds of the earth be blessed”.
To the Gentiles
This is characteristic of the way in which the Apostles, with the power of the Spirit, were moved to preach the Gospel to the Jews. They took these Holy writings, these Scriptures that they believed in, that they held so dearly, and showed the Messiah-ship of Jesus. But when they preached to Gentile audiences we find very little reference back to Scripture. We do not find them quoting extensively from the Old Testament, but we do find them preaching the death and the resurrection of Jesus. This is the kernel of their message, that Jesus is raised from the dead; that he had been put to death by the Jews at Jerusalem and now he is alive; they preached that he is coming again and that God was calling upon all men everywhere, Jews and Gentiles, to accept the Lordship of Jesus.
For a characteristic example of this we should take Acts 17 when Paul was preaching on Mars Hill. A model, I should think, of how to preach the Gospel to unbelievers. A wonderful example of how Paul tried to find some basic ground, which he shared with his hearers, and then build upon that his Christian message. So to the Jews he finds his common ground in their acceptance of the Scriptures, and builds upon that. To the Gentiles at Athens when he was preaching on Mars Hill, the Areopagus, what did he do? He said, in effect, “Gentlemen of Athens, I see everywhere around me the evidence of your religiousness. (That is the meaning of the word ‘superstitious.’) And I see everywhere these altars, to all sorts of gods, showing how devout you are in your religion. And here I saw an altar to the Unknown God. Now that is the god I want to tell you about.”
Thus Paul develops his message, having some common starting point with the unbelievers. He even quotes, as we know, not from the Old Testament Scriptures but from the Greek poets. “As certain also of your poets have said, for we are also his offspring” (Acts 17:28) — quoting the Greek poet Aratus1. Then he comes to the crunch line as it were. He has built up from their religiousness, from the fact that they have this quest for God, and led them through to the revelation of the living God, and we can fill in, of course, with a little imagination, some of the things Paul said. These are only his notes. He fills in the picture, leads them on to the God he wants to tell them about and then comes to the great message that Jesus of Nazareth has been raised from the dead, and this is the assurance God is giving to you gentlemen of Athens, that one day He will intervene again, that one day He will call all men to account, and “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). See the basic simplicity of the message, the core of it to the Gentiles being Jesus Christ, raised from the dead; to whom men are now accountable; and who will come again in judgment in the fullness of time.
To the Corinthians
From Athens, Paul went on to Corinth, and we read, “He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks” (Acts 18:14). By “the Greeks” is usually meant the Greek converts to the Jewish religion.
“And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshiped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue” (Acts 18:6-7).
There is a bit of irony there, typical of this great apostle. He said, all right you will not have me, I will go next door. So he moved in next door, right next to their synagogue, and the Corinthians crowded in to hear him. God had already told him he had much people in this city and Paul was “fishing” for them and finding them.
We are told almost disparagingly in Acts 17 that he did not make many converts there. “Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them” (Acts 17:34). The plain inference of the text is that he did not make much headway there. They listened to him. They said, “Well it is interesting, we will hear you again someday”; but they were not very impressed, even though Paul had presented the message to them in what we would think was such a clever way.
In the wake of his disappointment at Athens Paul goes on to Corinth, and he says, “I am going to just get back to the basic fundamentals.” And he continued there 18 months “teaching the word of God among them.”
There is an interesting passage that suggests that Paul may have changed his tactics when he went from Athens to Corinth. “And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1Cor 2:1-2). As though Paul said to himself, with all this clever development of the argument at Athens, and trying to meet them on their own ground, it did not really cut much ice.
This suggests to me that having preached the simplicity of the Gospel, “Jesus Christ and him crucified,” the simple message of the redemption possible through Jesus Christ; of his coming again as the Messiah; and of the judgment which he will effect at his coming; he was 18 months there developing their understanding. Now what Paul said in 18 months teaching the Corinthians I do not know. We may be sure that when on one notable occasion he “continued his speech until midnight” (Acts 20:7), and went on till the early morning, he would not be just repeating the ABC of the Christian message. He would be developing it, as he does in his epistles.
The point I am trying to make is this. There was a simple structure of dogmatic truth that they went out and preached. Men having received that became Christians. And then there was fruitful soil on which a deeper, richer, fuller understanding could be developed, and was developed, by the Apostles — Paul particularly, in his epistles and in his expositions.
What he actually preached at Corinth we do in fact know, because he tells us, and you could not have anything much more basic and simple than this.
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15:1-6).
Now here is some more basic Christian preaching. But, of course, in this very chapter we see him developing a lot of the implications of these basic ideas. “If Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?” (1 Cor 15:12).
It seems incredible to us that Paul should write to a Christian church that he had founded, among whom he had preached the gospel and developed the theme for 18 months, and yet there were some among them that were saying that there was no resurrection of the dead. (We would have in his situation dealt with them very drastically if they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead!) The basic principle that Christ rose from the dead, that Paul had taught them, meant certain things in terms of doctrine, and the doctrine that he develops, for example, in this chapter, is man’s mortality apart from grace: “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Cor 15:17-19). So it is obviously correct to deduce from this basic preaching of the resurrection that man is mortal.
We also find Paul developing the doctrine of the second coming, because if Christ rose from the dead, and if those who believe in him fall asleep in faith, then they must wait for him to come again in order that they may be raised from the dead. “Afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Cor 15:23). So we have the second coming, the resurrection of believers, the kingdom of God on earth: (“For he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet”) and the ultimate triumph of God over evil (verse 24-28) together with the call to men to respond (verse 58), all hidden in this basic conception: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3-4).
It blossoms out, as it were, into these other doctrines, and leads on to the conclusion: there is something you have got to do. It is not just head knowledge; the doctrines have got to have some impact on your living.
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye sted fast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor 15:58).
This, I think, is an aspect of the preaching of the first century church which we ourselves ought to bear more particularly in mind. We have something of a reputation for being pure dogmatists. We have been accused of hammering away all the time at what we call “doctrine.” But there was always this element in the Apostolic preaching, of the impact of God’s word in men’s lives. It was a call to repent and be converted, and let it influence your living. “Be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” If you believe this, it must do something to you, and this is an aspect which I think we ought to give more thought to in our own .preaching of the gospel.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One