The five times that Peter stood up to speak are recorded in Acts, in chapters two, three, four, five, and ten. Four times he spoke to the Jews, and the fifth time to the Gentiles. If we consider what he spoke on those five occasions, we can see that he did not teach theology, philosophy, morality, ethics, human behavior, human character, science, or psychology. His speaking had nothing at all to do with any of these things. Rather he spoke concerning the incarnation of Jesus and His human living. When he said that God had raised up One out of the descendants of David, he was speaking concerning the incarnation (Acts 2:29-30). When he told us that God anointed Jesus and that He worked and traveled through all the places, he was speaking concerning the human living of Jesus (Acts 10:38). It is the same when he told us that Jesus preached the gospel, healed the sick, and released the ones oppressed by Satan, as recorded in the Gospels. He had been crucified by those who were now listening to Peter, but God raised Him up, because death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40). Furthermore, God exalted Him to the throne, making Him the Lord and the Christ (Acts 2:32-36; 5:31). In addition, Peter said that the Lord Jesus became the cornerstone of God’s building, which is the church. In the beginning of Peter’s ministry in chapters two, three, and four of Acts the church is not mentioned, but the church is indicated in his reference to the stone for God’s building in 4:11. (The best manuscripts do not have the word church in Acts 2:47, as found in the King James Version.)
From these points we can see that Peter’s ministry was simply a continuation and a repetition of the ministry of Jesus. When Peter preached the gospel, he did not use illustrations and parables as we often do. The reason we need to use parables and illustrations is that we are short of the resurrection life and short of the Spirit’s power. Due to this shortage, our poverty compels us to pick up parables from different sources. If we are saturated with the resurrection life, even soaked in it, and if we are clothed with power from on high, we have no need for such parables. Rather, it will be sufficient simply to point out the facts to the people. This was exactly what Peter did. His preaching did not distract anyone; it was frank, direct, and very much to the point. He told the people that Jesus was raised up out of the seed of David, He was anointed, He worked, He preached the gospel, and He released the ones who were oppressed. They rejected Him and put Him to death by crucifying Him, but death could not hold Him. God raised Him up and exalted Him to the throne, and He made Him the Lord and the Christ.
In this light we need to check our own so-called ministry. We have to confess that our ministry is not so pure and that there are many distracting elements in it. In a pure way, without any distractions, Peter referred to the Old Testament, but he did not expound any part of it. He was not teaching the Bible or holding a Bible study class, because he did not need to do that. Peter was a person replaced by Christ and with Christ, and he was empowered with the Spirit from on high.
We need to spend time to consider carefully those five messages of Peter to see what kind of ministry Peter was carrying out. Actually, it was the same ministry which was carried out in the four Gospels, even an extract of the four Gospels. Just as the church was mentioned in the section of Christ’s ministry in the four Gospels, the church was also indicated in the section of Peter’s ministry. The mention of the church in the Gospels indicated that the ministry of Jesus would lead to the producing of the church, and Peter indicated the same thing when he said that God had raised up and exalted the very One whom they had rejected to the throne, and that this One had become the cornerstone of God’s building for the church to be built up.
Of course, the ministry of Peter was not the ministry for the producing and building up of the church in full. Such a church-producing and church-building ministry came in with the apostle Paul. After the first twelve chapters of Acts, the ministry of Paul is initiated in Acts 13. Acts 14 tells us that Paul preached the gospel to many people in many cities, and that he came back to visit them and to establish elders in every church (v. 23). From this we can see that the ministry of Paul was more than a continuation of the ministry of John the Baptist, the ministry of Jesus Christ, and the ministry of Peter. Paul’s ministry went on from the incarnation of Christ, His human living, His all-inclusive, terminating death, His germinating resurrection, and His ascension to the producing and the building up of the Body of Christ.
Before Paul’s ministry, the church was not revealed in full in the New Testament. There was some indication in the word of the Lord Jesus and then in the word of Peter, but the matter of the church began to be fully covered when Paul came into the New Testament ministry. Therefore, in the sixteen chapters from chapter thirteen to chapter twenty-eight of Acts, Paul repeated the ministry of John the Baptist, of Jesus, and of Peter in a number of messages that he gave, but there was also something further in his part of the New Testament ministry.