Such a summary may give the impression that the first Christian preaching was formal and stereotyped. But the age of credal formulae lay still in the farfuture. We may be sure that the message was delivered with a warmth of enthusiastic conviction by men who had experienced the blessings they proclaimed. They preached Jesus because through Jesus they had themselves received the forgiveness of their sins and membership in the fellowship of the Spirit. Jesus had imparted to them a new life, and they were concerned to share it with others. They testified to what they had seen and heard, because they had now become a part of all that they had witnessed. On the other hand, in doing justice to the spontaneity of their faith we must not assume that the members of the Jerusalem community were simple reporters of facts, who took no time to reflect on the significance of the experience they described. A full heart does not necessarily mean an empty mind. The first disciples would never have begun to preach at all unless they had believed that their experience was of universal significance, unless they had seen the events of the Gospel story against the background of interpretation....
- from page 38, The Apostolic Age