The Proclamation of God’s Mission

From the moment the Holy Spirit begin to breath upon and indwell the early church in chapter two, the result was they began to proclaim the message of Christ’s life, death and resurrection. This started with Peter’s sermon in that same chapter and continued through the remaining chapters until the final verse of the final chapter. There we see the book aligning with God’s proclamation of His mission when the scriptures state Paul was “preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.” (Acts 28:30-31)

Because the overarching theme of the gospel message getting to the ends of the earth can be found throughout the New Testament, we are able to easily identify this theme of proclamation through the missionary journey of the apostles. Specifically, this is seen in the life of the apostle Paul as we follow his ventures in the book of Acts. The title of the book itself points to the proclamation of God’s mission. As we have already seen, God’s power was an enabler for the early church to proclaim. Next, we will see two direct and specific outcomes that was the result of this proclamation. Specifically, these are persuasion and persecution of God’s mission.