The Initial Apostolic Preaching

1

• The Initial Apostolic Preaching
• General audience of November 8, 1989

2

• Before his return to the Father,
• Jesus had promised the apostles
• "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
  come upon you
• and you shall be my witnesses
• in Jerusalem
• and in all Judea and Samaria
• and to the end of the earth"
• (Acts 18).

3

• "On the day of Pentecost this prediction was
  fulfilled with total accuracy.
• Acting under the influence of the Holy Spirit,
  who had been received by the apostles while they
  were praying in the upper room, Peter comes
  forward and speaks before a multitude of people
  of different languages, gathered for the feast.
• He proclaims what he certainly would not have had
  the courage to say before."
• (John Paul II Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem)

4

• It is the first witness given publicly and one
  might say solemnly to the risen Christ,
• to Christ victorious.
• It is also the beginning of the apostolic
  preaching.

5

• We already spoke about it in a previous
  reflection, examining it from the point of view
  of the teacher
• "Peter with the eleven"
• (cf. Acts 214).
• Now we will analyze the content of that first
  sermon,
• as a model or schema of the many other
  proclamations which will follow in the Acts of
  the Apostles,
• and later in the history of the Church.

6

• Peter addressed those who had assembled near the
  upper room
• "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem"
• (Acts 214).
• They were the same people who had witnessed the
  phenomenon of the glossolalia, and heard in their
  own languages the apostles speaking of
• "the mighty works of God"
• (cf. Acts 211).

7

• In his discourse Peter began by defending or at
  least explaining the condition of those who,
• "filled with the Holy Spirit"
• (Acts 24),
• were suspected of being drunk because of their
  unusual behavior.
• From the opening words he gave the answer
• "These men are not drunk, as you suppose, since
  it is only the third hour of the day but this is
  what was spoken by the prophet Joel"
• (Acts 215-16).

8

• The passage from Joel is extensively quoted in
  Acts
• "And in the last days it shall be,
• God declares,
• that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
  and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy"
• (Acts 217).

9

• This "outpouring of the Spirit"
• on both young and old,
• on menservants and maidservants,
• will have therefore a universal character.

10

• And it will be confirmed by signs
• "I will show wonders in the heavens above and
  signs on the earth below"
• (Acts 219).
• These will be the signs of the
• "day of the Lord"
• which is approaching
• (cf. Acts 220).
• "And it shall be that whoever calls on the name
  of the Lord shall be saved"
• (Acts 221).

11

• In the mind of the speaker the text from Joel
  aptly explains the meaning of the event of which
  those present saw the signs
• "the outpouring of the Holy Spirit."
• It was a supernatural act of God
• joined to signs typical of the coming of God,
• foretold by the prophets
• and identified by the New Testament
• with the coming of Christ.

12

• This is the context in which Peter concentrated
  the essential content of his discourse, which is
  the very nucleus of the apostolic
• "kerygma"
• "Men of Israel, hear these words

13

• Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God
  with mighty works and wonders and signs which God
  did through him in your midst, as you yourselves
  know

this Jesus, delivered up according to the
definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you
crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
But God raised him up, having loosed the pangs
of death, because it was not possible for him to
be held by it" (Acts 222-24).
14

• Perhaps not all those present at Peter's
  discourse, having come from many regions for the
  Pasch and Pentecost, had taken part in the events
  in Jerusalem which ended with Christ's
  crucifixion.
• But Peter addressed them also as
• "men of Israel,"
• belonging to an ancient world in which,
• by that time,
• the signs of the Lord's new coming were clear for
  everyone.

15

• The signs and wonders to which Peter referred
  were certainly still within the recollection of
  the people of Jerusalem,
• but also of many others of his hearers.
• They must have at least heard Jesus of Nazareth
  spoken about.

16

• In any case, having recalled all that Jesus had
  done, Peter passed to the fact of Jesus' death on
  the cross, and spoke directly of the
  responsibility of those who had consigned him to
  death.
• However, he added that Christ
• "was delivered up according to the definite plan
  and foreknowledge of God"
• (cf. Acts 223).

17

• Peter therefore introduced his hearers into the
  vision of God's salvific plan which was fulfilled
  precisely by means of Christ's death.
• And he hastened to give the decisive confirmation
  of God's action through and beyond what had been
  done by men.

18

• This confirmation is Christ's resurrection
• "God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of
  death, because it was not possible for him to be
  held by it"
• (Acts 224).
•  It is the culminating point of the apostolic
  kerygma concerning Christ the Savior who had
  vanquished death.

19

• At this point Peter again had recourse to the Old
  Testament. He cited the messianic psalm
• "I saw the Lord always before me,
• for he is at my right hand that I may not be
  shaken
• therefore my heart was glad,
• and my tongue rejoiced
• moreover my flesh will dwell in hope.
• For you will not abandon my soul to Hades not let
  your Holy One see corruption.
• You have made known to me the ways of life
• You will make me full of gladness with your
  presence"
• (Acts 225-28 (cf Ps16 vv. 8-11)).

20

• It is a legitimate adaptation of the Davidic
  Psalm which the author of Acts quotes according
  to the Greek text of the Septuagint.
• It emphasizes the aspiration of the Jewish soul
  to escape death,
• in the sense of a hope of liberation from death
  even after it has taken place.

21

• Doubtlessly Peter was at pains to stress that the
  words of the psalm do not refer to David,
• whose tomb, he remarked, was with them to that
  day.
• They refer, rather, to his descendant,
• Jesus Christ
• David "foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of
  Christ"
• (Acts 231).

22

• The prophetic words are therefore fulfilled
• "This Jesus Christ God raised up, and of that we
  all are witnesses.
• Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God,
  and having received from the Father the promise
  of the Holy Spirit,
• he has poured out this which you see and hear....
  
• Let all the house of Israel therefore know
  assuredly that God has made him both Lord and
  Christ,
• this Jesus whom you crucified"
• (Acts 232-33, 36).

23

• On the day before his passion Jesus had told the
  apostles in the upper room,
• in reference to the Holy Spirit
• "He will bear witness to me...
• and you also are witnesses"
• (Jn 1526-27).

24

• "In the first discourse of Peter in Jerusalem
  this 'witness' finds its clear beginning
• it is the witness to Christ crucified and risen,
• the witness of the Spirit-Paraclete and of the
  apostles"
• (Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem n. 30).

25

• In this testimony Peter wished to remind his
  hearers of the mystery of the risen Christ.
• But he also wished to explain the facts of
  Pentecost at which they were present, by showing
  that they were signs of the coming of the Holy
  Spirit.

26

• The Paraclete really came by virtue of Christ's
  Pasch.
• He came and transformed those men of Galilee, to
  whom was entrusted the witness concerning Christ,
  
• exalted at the right hand of the Father"
• (cf. Acts 233),
• that is to say,
• exalted by his victory over death.

27

• The Paracletes coming was therefore a
  confirmation of the divine power of the risen
  Christ.
• "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that
  God has made him both Lord and Christ,
• this Jesus whom you crucified"
• (Acts 236).
• In writing to the Romans Paul also proclaimed
• "Jesus is Lord"
• (Rom 109).