This study first identifies what we find in the book of Acts that the original apostles and first evangelists preached to the lost. Second is the evidence they used to confirm the truthfulness of what they were saying. Third are some observations of the differences between their preaching and what is typically preached to the lost today. Please look up the passages in Acts to see for yourself.

The Truths They Proclaimed to the Lost

There’s an almighty creator and sustainer of all.

14:15-17; 17:24-29; 19:26

Jesus of Nazareth was the holy and righteous one.

2:25-28; 3:14; 7:52; 10:38; 22:14

Jesus’ death was according to God’s plan.

2:23; 3:13-15,18; 4:10; 5:30; 10:39; 13:27-29; 17:3; 26:23

God raised Jesus from the dead

2:24,32; 3:15; 4:10; 10:40; 13:30; 17:3,18,31; 22:8; 25:19; 26:23

God has exalted Jesus over all (He’s Lord, Christ, King, Savior, Ruler, God’s Son, Judge of the living and the dead, etc.)

2:33,36; 3:20,23; 4:10-11; 5:31,42; 7:37; 9:20,22; 10:36,42; 13:33,38; 16:31; 17:3,7,31; 18:5,28; 19:4; 22:14; 26:23

Jesus will return to judge the world and set things right.

2:20; 3:20-21; 17:31; 24:25

You’ve been in the wrong.  

2:23,36; 3:13-15,17,26; 4:10; 5:28-30; 7:51-53; 14:16-17; 17:29-30

What Jesus offers to all without partiality:

     Forgiveness of Sins

     2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18

     Freedom from everything the Law of Moses could not free you from

     13:39

     The Presence of the Holy Spirit

     2:38-39; 8:14-17; 9:17; 19:2

     Resurrection from the Dead

4:2; 17:18; 23:6; 24:15, 21; 26:8,23

     Eternal Life

     11:18; 13:46

What Jesus requires:

     Believe in Him

     2:36; 10:43; 13:39; 16:31; 19:4; 20:21; 22:18; 24:24; 26:18; 28:23

     Repent / Turn from your sins to obey Him

2:38; 3:19,22-23,26; 5:29-32; 8:22; 11:18; 14:15; 17:30; 20:21; 22:16; 24:25; 26:18,20; 28:27

     Call on His name

     2:21; 9:14; 22:16

     Be Baptized into His name

2:38; 8:12; 8:36-38: 10:48; 16:14-15; 16:32-33; 18:8; 19:3-5; 22:16

We have no hope if we reject Jesus

3:23; 4:12; 13:46; 26:18; 28:25-27

The first evangelists were not only evangelists but also apologists. “Evangelist” means one who proclaims the good news. An “apologist” is one who makes a defense for it. They preached good news and showed it to be true news with convincing evidence.

Evidence They Used

Reasoning About the Nature of God from What He has Made

14:15-17; 17:24-29

Capability of Our Creator

26:8

Prophecy

2:16-21(Joel 2), 25-31(Psalms 16), 30(II Samuel 7), 34-35(Psalms 110); 3:13-14(Isaiah 52-53), 22(Deuteronomy 18), 25 (Genesis 22:18); 4:11(Psalms 118), 24-28(Ps 2); 7:2-53 (Foreshadowing in Joseph, Moses and the prophets); 8:30-35 (Isaiah 53); 10:43; 13:23(Jeremiah 23:5-6), 27, 29, 33(Psalms 2), 34(Isaiah 55), 35-37(Psalms 16), 40-41(Hab 1:5), 47(Isaiah 49:6); 17:2,11; 18:28; 24:14; 26:22,27; 28:23,25-27(Isaiah 6:9-10)

Jesus’ Miracles

2:22; 10:38

Miracles Done in Jesus’ Name

3:6,12,16; 4:9-10; 5:12-16: 6:8; 7:36; 8:6-13; 9:33-42; 13:8-12; 19:11-20; 22:12-13

Who Evidently has the Holy Spirit

2:33; 4:13-14; 5:32; 7:51; 11:15-17

Eyewitnesses of Jesus Risen

2:32; 3:15; 4:20; 5:32; 7:55-56; 10:40-41; 13:31; 22:6-10; 26:14

Indestructibility of Christianity

4:25-28; 5:17-21; 5:33-39; 12:1-24; 26:21-22

Testimony of the Prophet John (John the Baptist)

13:25

Transformation of Saul of Tarsus

22:3-21; 26:4-20

Public Nature of These Events

2:22; 4:16; 10:37; 13:24; 26:26

There are some striking differences between their preaching and what is typically preached today.

What the First Evangelists did NOT Preach to the Lost in the Book of Acts

The Purpose of Christ’s Death

Whenever I’ve taught the gospel to an unbeliever I’ve tried to explain the theology of the cross. I’ve tried to explain how God is just and cannot let sin go unpunished. But He so loved us that He didn’t want us to have to pay for it. So Jesus paid our debt. Jesus took what we deserve, that we might be forgiven. And there are other purposes as well for the cross: providing the ultimate example of trust and obedience and love, also to attract us to God through demonstrating His amazing love for us. These purposes of the cross are clearly taught in the New Testament writings written to Christians. But interestingly, you do not find the evangelists in the book of Acts explaining the purposes of the cross to the lost. An exception might be Philip in Acts 8. You might deduce that he must of said something about how Jesus was the atoning sacrifice for our sins because he preached to the Ethiopian eunuch out of Isaiah 53, since the eunuch happened to be reading that passage when Philip came by and it describes the atoning sacrifice of the Messiah. But that’s the only possible exception in Acts. What we see throughout Acts that the first evangelists preached to unbelievers in regard to the death of Christ is simply that His death was no unfortunate tragedy, but was part of God’s predetermined plan and the fulfillment of prophecy (Acts 2:23; 3:18;  4:11…), and Jesus did not stay dead. He was put to death by God’s plan, and then was raised from the dead and exalted to God’s right hand as Lord and King over all.

Another example of what we commonly teach unbelievers that they, it appears, did not, was…

The Deity of Christ

I’ve typically explained to unbelievers how Jesus was God in the flesh, emptied of the prerogatives of being God. And that’s why His suffering and death was so powerful. But that’s not in any of the preaching to the lost in the book of Acts.

Now, you do see these truths in Acts, but they are in a talk Paul gave to the elders of the church at Ephesus. To those mature church leaders, Paul said in Acts 20:28, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.” So there you see some of the purpose of the cross and also the deity of Christ.

But when the apostles and first evangelists had one opportunity to preach to lost people, it appears in Acts they did not get into the purposes of the cross or the deity of Christ.

They also did not mention…

That We Can Go to Heaven

In typical Christian preaching today we hear that the hope Jesus offers us is that of going to heaven after we die. We have made going to heaven a central element of the gospel, but for the first evangelists it was more of a peripheral issue. It is a true NT teaching that when we depart our body in death, our spirit goes to be with the Lord (II Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; Revelation 3:26-27; 6:9-11). But you won’t find it mentioned anywhere in the book of Acts. The hope they preached was much less ethereal, much more tangible, much more exciting. They preached future resurrection from the dead and the restoration of all things. They preached bodily life in a new creation, one that will be like this world was before sin entered the picture (without death, thorns, thistles, shame, pollution, crime, etc.).

And then consider what I believe is a much more serious difference. They did NOT preach…

“Just ask Jesus into your heart.”

This has become a common exhortation to a lost person. But I’m afraid it can deceive unrepentant, uncommitted people into a false sense of security that they are saved. We must not, in our preaching, give people the impression that repentance of sin and a life of obedience are optional. We cannot have Jesus as our Savior unless we also take Him as our Lord.

Jesus Himself said:

• Luke 13:3,6, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.“
• Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.“
• Matthew 10:37-39, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.“