=(1) The Missionary Preaching of the Jerusalem Church.=--The early chapters of The Acts preserve a number of speeches that were addressed to Jews. As might have been expected, these speeches are intended primarily to prove the Messiahship of Jesus. If that could be proved, then--among the Jews--the rest would follow. The Messiahship was proved first by an appeal to the Scriptures, and second by the fact of the resurrection. Even the death of Jesus on the cross, which was to the Jews a stumblingblock, was predicted by the prophets, and so served to prove that Jesus was the promised One. The resurrection was also predicted; and the resurrection was established first by the simple testimony of eyewitnesses and second by the wonderful works of the living Christ.
These early speeches contain only a little of the full truth of the gospel. In them, for example, the significance of the death of Christ as an atonement for sin is not fully explained. Such omissions were due no doubt to two causes.
(a) Limitations Due to the Hearers.--In the first place, the peculiar needs of the hearers had to be considered. The hearers were Jews; to them the death of the Messiah was an unheard-of paradox; to them the cross was a stumblingblock. Before the inner meaning of the crucifixion could be explained, obviously the objections derived from it needed to be overcome. The first task of the missionaries was to show that Jesus, although he had been crucified, was the Messiah. That was done by an appeal to prophecy and to the plain fact of the resurrection. After conviction had thus been produced, it would be time enough to show that what was at first regarded as a stumblingblock was really the supreme act of divine grace.
(b) Limitations Due to an Early Stage of Revelation.--The omissions in the early speeches were due, however, not merely to the peculiar needs of the hearers, but also to limitations in the knowledge of the apostles. Christian truth was not all revealed at once; undoubtedly the full explanation of the cross, the full exposition of the atonement, was revealed only when the disciples could bear it. Such is the divine method, even in revelation. The disciples were brought gradually, by the gracious leading of the Holy Spirit, into ever richer knowledge of the truth.