It is interesting to me that the
ways people witness today don’t seem to match up with what happened in the early
church. Today the primary focus is the avoidance of hell and the gain of
heaven. The opening question is often, “if you died tonight would you be in
heaven or hell?” Let’s take a cursory
look at the inducements or benefits given for conversion in the book of Acts.
Acts 2:38-39: Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized,
every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and
your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will
call."
The inducements given are
forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, the same gift that the
hearers were witnessing being poured out on the upper room. This alter call
followed the amazing miracle of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the
appearance of flaming tongues of fire and the ensuing of everyone speaking in
foreign tongues unknown to them, praising God (the tongues were not being used
to preach the gospel as many erroneously preach). Peter tells the crowd,
repent, and they can have the same thing- not only them, but all who are far
off. That would be us.
Acts 3: 16, 19-20, 26 It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes
through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see… Repent,
then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of
refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has
been appointed for you--even Jesus… When God raised up his servant, he sent him
first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.
Inducements: Healing, forgiveness
of sins, times of refreshing, blessing
Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in
no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we
must be saved.
Inducement: Salvation. Now most
evangelicals reads this verse and automatically narrowly define this to mean
getting to heaven when you die. But that isn’t what the text says, nor does the
context hint that is the meaning. In fact, the context (see other quoted
verses) indicates it is speaking more about a salvation that occurs in this
present life.
Acts 5: 19-20 But during the night an angel of the Lord
opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. "Go, stand in the
temple courts," he said, "and tell the people the full message of
this new life."
This is the angel speaking to some
of the apostles who had been thrown in jail. The angel is telling them what the
content of their evangelical message should be: tell the people the FULL
message of this new LIFE. Surprisingly absent (or at least to most
evangelicals) from this condensed gospel message is any mention of heaven or
hell.
Acts 5: 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as
Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given
to those who obey him.
Inducements: Repentance, forgiveness
of sins.
Acts 5:15-16 As a result, people brought the sick into the
streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might
fall on some of them as he passed by.
Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those
tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.
Inducements: healing, deliverance.
Acts 5:42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from
house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that
Jesus is the Christ.
Here is an unusual (by today’s
standards) inducement: Jesus is the Christ.
Acts 6: 8 Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and
power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.
Inducements: great wonders and
miraculous signs.
Acts 8: 6-8 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the
miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. With
shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were
healed. So there was great joy in that city.
Inducements: miraculous signs,
deliverance, healings, and great joy.
Acts 8:13b And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished
by the great signs and miracles he saw.
Inducements: great signs and
miracles.
Acts 8:35 Then Philip began with that very passage of
Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
Inducements: good news about
Jesus.
Acts 9: 34 "Aeneas," Peter said to him,
"Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat."
Immediately Aeneas got up. All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and
turned to the Lord.
Inducements: healing.
Acts 9: 37 About that time she became sick and died …
Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed.
Turning toward the dead woman, he said, "Tabitha, get up." She opened
her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up…
This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.
Inducements: resurrection from
the dead.
Acts 10: 36-43 You know the message God sent to the people
of Israel,
telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all… He
commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God
appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about
him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his
name.
Inducements: peace, Jesus is our
judge, forgiveness of sins.
Acts 10: 44 While Peter was still speaking these words,
the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message…for they heard them speaking
in tongues and praising God.
Inducements: speaking in tongues
to praise God.
Acts 11: 20 Some of them… went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also,
telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.
Inducements: Jesus is Lord is
good news.
Acts 13: 11 (Paul speaking to the false prophet
Bar-Jesus)“Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind,
and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun."
Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking
someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he
believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.
Inducements: cursing someone
with blindness prompted the proconsul’s conversion. Hmm, don’t see that one
being used much today.
Acts 13: 26, 32-33, 38-41 "Brothers, children of Abraham, and you
God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent…
We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us,
their children, by raising up Jesus… Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know
that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him
everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified
from by the law of Moses. Take care that what the prophets have said does not
happen to you: 'Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I am going to do
something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told
you.'"
This sermon was being preached
to a synagogue crowd, not to a pagan audience, so the hearers already had a lot
of theological understanding. The inducements were: message of salvation is
given, God’s promises are fulfilled in Jesus’ resurrection, forgiveness of
sins, justification through belief, warning to not disregard message at the
peril of perishing.
Acts 13: 46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly:
"We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do
not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.”
I include this to be fair,
though it technically was not given in the text as an inducement to convert,
but only mentioned after the message was rejected. Here we have a mention of
eternal life which normal evangelical rendering would automatically equate to
heaven. But the text does not use the word heaven, it uses life, and the Greek
word is zoe. To equate it to heaven is to shortchange the meaning. Here is
Strong’s definition of zoe:
1) life
a) the state of one who is
possessed of vitality or is animate
b) every living soul
2) life
a) of the absolute fulness of
life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, and through him both to
the hypostatic "logos" and to Christ in whom the "logos"
put on human nature
b) life real and genuine, a
life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this
world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be
consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last for
ever.
Something akin to heaven is
mentioned only in the last part of the last sentence of all the definitions.
Zoe life is not primarily about the afterlife, it is about the NOW life.
Acts 14: 3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time
there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by
enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.
Inducements: miraculous signs
and wonders. Anyone else see a pattern developing here?
Acts 14: 17 Yet he has not left himself without
testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in
their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with
joy.
This word is given to the pagans
at Lystra, who were trying to make Paul and Barnabas gods after they had healed
a cripple. Nothing deep or theological, Paul merely induces them by pointing
out God’s kindnesses, provision and bestowing of joy. And this is to pagans!
Those who don’t know Christ yet. Amazing. There’s no “you’re going to hell if
you don’t accept Christ.” Nope. Seems a little on the opposite end of the
spectrum to me.
Acts 16: 27-31 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the
prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he
thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself!
We are all here!" The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell
trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked,
"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They replied, "Believe in
the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household."
Believe and you will be saved.
Again, the text does not explicitly mention heaven or hell. And notice the
jailer’s response in verse 34: he was filled with joy because he had come to
believe in God--he and his whole family. It wasn’t because he knew he was now
going to heaven. His joy came simply from being connected to his Father. He was
experiencing that zoe life, real life, right then.
Acts 17: 2-4 As his custom was, Paul went into the
synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead.
"This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he said. Some of the
Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of
God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.
The inducements here are using
the scriptures to prove that Jesus was the promised Messiah. This would be the
so-called “Old Testament” scriptures, of course (I prefer to refer to them as the
inspired texts written prior to the advent of Christ). It is interesting the
Paul tends to use more reasoning methods in his approach, where the earlier
apostles used more signs and wonders. The results of the earlier methods seem
to be much more fruitful than simply reasoning.
Acts 17: 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the
world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to
all men by raising him from the dead.
It is difficult to separate this
from the message, but this is only one reference to a final judgment that is given
as an inducement to convert. However this text does not hint at eternal punishment
as a result of that judgment (i.e., hell).
The rest of Acts contains
various instances of Paul persuading/reasoning that Jesus is the Christ and
that there was a resurrection from the dead. The text does not indicate the
large numbers of converts compared to the earlier conversion experiences in Acts.
Conclusion: The methods of
evangelism used in the book of Acts don’t look anything like what is commonly
used in the American church today. Nor in my own life, though I’m trying to get
there. | 
