April 16th, 2022

This Sunday is finally here. It is Easter, the Resurrection of our Lord. Alleluia! Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia! It certainly is a special Sunday, and a huge number of Christians still meet together on Sundays because of what our Lord did on that special Sunday a long time ago.

For a significant amount of time I have been writing about St. Paul’s trip to Rome as it was laid out in Acts. And now, finally, he is there. Praise the Lord!

In some of the last few words in the book of Acts, there are some details given, and one of them is that Christianity is described as being ‘spoken against everywhere’ (28:22b). It was a good thing to look into how Christianity was spoken against in the book of Acts, and it will be a good thing, in the next few weeks, to look into how Christianity is very much supported in the book of Acts.

A positive ending is given in the last few words of this book. St. Paul will certainly have his say in the epistles of the New Testament. But the book of Acts ends with these words, with St. Paul ‘proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, with all boldness, unhindered (28:31).’

How positive is this summary? How helpful is it? It may be helpful to see where these words were used previously in Acts—although looking at the Gospel according to Luke would also be helpful.

This is almost like looking up the words in a dictionary. Now only the two verbs will be studied, ‘proclaim’ and ‘teach’. And the first one will deserve more focus, since the second is somewhat vague with the phrase ‘teaching the things concerning’. Some of the verses below have been summarized, so you may wish to look up some of these verses in a Bible. The words in bold are the basic things that were proclaimed.

PROCLAIMING (kingdom of God):
8:5       Phillip in the city of Samaria proclaimed to them the Christ.

9:20     In the synagogues Saul immediately proclaimed Jesus, that this one is the Son of God.

10:37   John proclaimed a baptism.

10:42   Peter relates that he was commanded to proclaim and solemnly witness to the people that Jesus was the one designated by God to be judge of the living and the dead.

15:21   Moses, for many generations, had the ones in each city proclaiming him.

19:13   It is said that Paul proclaims Jesus.

20:25   Paul was among the Ephesians, proclaiming the kingdom.
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TEACHING (Lord Jesus Christ):

1:1       In the Gospel according to Luke, there was a record made of the things that Jesus started to do and teach.

4:2       Peter and John were teaching the people about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

4:18     They were teaching ‘upon the name of Jesus’.

5:21     The apostles are teaching again in the temple.

5:25     The apostles are teaching the people, while standing in the temple.

5:28     The apostles were charged not to teach ‘upon this name’, and they are accused of having filled Jerusalem with their teaching.

5:42     The apostles did not cease to teach and evangelize the Christ Jesus.

11:26   Barnabas and Saul met with the Christian Church at Antioch for a whole year and taught a considerable crowd.

5:1     Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers that circumcision was necessary for salvation.

15:35   Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and evangelizing the word of the Lord with many others.

18:11   Paul ‘sat’ [this basically means ‘stayed’] for a year and six months, teaching the word of God among the people of Corinth.

18:25   Apollos was instructed in the Way of the Lord, and burning in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John. Priscilla and Aquila took him and more accurately explained to him the Way of God.

20:20   Paul did not keep back the beneficial things, to announce and teach to the people in Ephesus.

21:21   The zealous Jews were informed that Paul was teaching a rebellion from Moses throughout the nations that they should not circumcise their children and walk according to their Jewish customs.

21:28   Paul is accused of being one who is teaching all men everywhere against the people and the law and the temple.

I hope it is obvious that both words, ‘proclaim’ and ‘teach’, are strongly connected to Jesus. Two notable exceptions that start things in a different direction are Moses being proclaimed and that some people were teaching the brothers that circumcision was necessary in Acts 15. But that is an important chapter that eventually points to the importance of the gospel and the gospel accounts. And that connection could be investigated some other time. For now, we rejoice that Jesus is proclaimed quite clearly. Alleluia!