A lot of people still refuse to see the distinction in the gospel preached by the 12 apostles and the gospel preached by Paul. They see Paul’s teaching as a continuation of Jesus’ teaching and see nothing new given to Paul by revelation. This perplexes me, so in order to reverse this trend, I will highlight Jesus’ and the twelve’s teachings after the resurrection of Jesus.
Let me first start with what Jesus told his 12 apostles to do. Starting with the book of Matthew(ch28:19-20), the only thing Jesus says(after his resurrection) to his 12 is “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Teaching them to observe all the things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen”
So, what were the 12 supposed to DO? Baptize people! Teach people to observe the commands given by God! After reading this again, is Jesus talking about water or spiritual baptism? WATER! How can we know this? Because Jesus told THE APOSTLES to DO the baptizing. If he was talking about spiritual baptism he wouldn’t tell the apostles to go baptize people, because that wouldn’t make sense. Either the spirit baptizes you, or a person does. In this instance, it is a person (the apostles) who are doing the baptizing.
Now, I will go to the book of Mark(ch16:15-16). These verses say “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”
We see again, that Jesus requires new believers to be baptized. From this verse alone, we cannot tell whether the baptism Jesus talks about is spiritual or water-based; that is why we compare it to like verses such as Matthew 28:19-20.
Jumping to Luke we have Jesus saying “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”
We see here that the 12 were to preach repentance and remission of sins in Jesus’ name. Again, this verse, alone, is very vague. What did the people need to repent of and how were the sins to be remitted? These questions will be answered shortly when we look at the book of Acts.
In the current passage we also se Jesus saying to stay in the city of Jerusalem until they are endued with power. At first this seems to conflict with the 1st two passages in Mark and Matthew (in those passages Jesus tells his apostles to teach all nations). But, we can reasonably assume that Jesus wanted the 12 to go to Jerusalem first, then once they got the power, they could then preach his name to all nations. So, remember, at this point in time the 12 were only allowed to go to Jerusalem.
Next, we move to the book of John(ch21:15-17). The few small remarks we see Jesus telling Peter is for Peter to feed Jesus’ lambs/sheep/sheep. But who are these “sheep”? A verse comes to my mind which tells us exactly who the sheep are. Matthew 15:24 “But he answered and said, I am not sent BUT unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This verse tells us that Jesus was sent ONLY to the house of Israel; no one else. Why are these sheep “lost”? Because “I(Jesus) came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”(Luke 5:32).
So, we see that Jesus told Peter to feed his sheep. But, using our knowledge of other verses we can see that Jesus wants Peter to feed only the “house of Israel”! Just as Jesus had been doing. Why had Jesus only been sent to the house of Israel? Because “for salvation is of the Jews” John 4:22!!!! Even Paul tells us that Jesus came unto the Jews only in Romans 15:8 “Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision.”
ACTS
Now I shall look at the book of Acts. Right off the bat in Acts 1:4-5 we read “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.”
Again, Jesus tells His apostles to “not depart from Jerusalem” until they are baptized with the Holy Spirit. Once they attain the Holy Spirit they are to be witnesses unto Jesus in “Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
So, it all lines up. After Jesus was resurrected the 12 were to stay in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. Then they would preach his name unto the uttermost part of the earth. But notice, the area of preaching was the only thing that changed! Jesus did not change what they were supposed to do. They were still to feed the sheep; preach to only the house of Israel. And, they were required to baptize people with water. No where does Jesus modify these instructions. Let me rephrase and repeat. Peter, and most likely the other apostles, were to preach and WATER baptize people in all the earth that were JEWS(members of the house of Israel).
Now, I shall continue with Acts but will be focusing on what the 12 preached. If we look at Acts 2:36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” we see that the 12 are keeping in line with Jesus’ instructions to feed only the house of Israel. If we fast forward a little bit to Acts 11:19 we see the followers of Jesus continuing with the instruction to preach to Jews only: “Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.”
When these members of the house of Israel heard the statement made in Acts 2, they were pricked at the heart and asked “what shall we do?” And this is what Peter says “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”(Acts 2:38) WOW! This verse tells us so much! First off, Peter told them to Repent. This is an act that these people had to do. Next, we see Peter telling them to be baptized for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost. This verse makes clear that the baptism Peter is talking about is WATER baptism. We can know this for 2 reasons. First, Peter tells them that baptism comes BEFORE receiving the Holy Spirit, so they obviously aren’t baptized BY the Holy Spirit. Second, where have we seen the wording “baptized for the remission of sins”? Mark 1:4 which says “John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” It can only be concluded that since John baptized with water and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, that Peter also is talking about water baptism.
Re-read Acts 2:38, please. What is remitting their sins? Jesus’ blood or the water they are baptized in? This verse says nothing about Jesus’ blood taking away their sins. In actuality, it tells us that the water baptism, in the name of Jesus, and repentance, is what remitted their sins. This is foreshadowing Jesus as a fountain of life that WILL(future tense) wash away the sins, but that’s another lesson. The point is that water baptism is still preached for remitting sins even after Jesus had died and been resurrected.
In Acts 3:19 Peter says “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” Repentance and conversion are requirements for the blotting out of sins.
It seems as though every time Peter speaks of obtaining everlasting life he tells his listeners to Repent; repent for what they did to Jesus by handing him over to Pilate and hanging him on a tree. Peter does not glory in Jesus’ death and he urges others to be sorry for causing such pain to befall the Lord. Does this sound anything like what Paul taught? Not at all! Peter wanted everyone to be sorry for their actions, while Paul gloried in Jesus’ resurrection! Peter’s was a message of sorrow and responsibility, while Paul’s was a message of grace and thankfulness!
Therefore, we can summarize Peter’s message as:
1) Water baptism
2) Repentance
3) only to the house of Israel
While Paul’s message consists of:
1) Spiritual baptism
”One Lord, one faith, one baptism” “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body” “For Christ sent me not to baptize” “I THANK GOD THAT I BAPTIZED NONE OF YOU”
2) grace through faith
”For by grace you have been saved, through faith” “NOW that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.”
3) unto the Gentiles, gospel of the uncircumcision
”when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter” “that we(Paul and Barnabas) should go unto the heathen, and they(the apostles) unto the circumcision.”
