Since the first Christians were all Jews, they presented their message about Jesus in terms of the promised Savior of God’s people: “Jesus is the Messiah (Christ).” In their preaching to Jews, the apostles emphasized the resurrection of Jesus more than his death because it demonstrated that the man executed as a criminal was nevertheless God’s Messiah. Following guidelines laid down by Jesus himself, the apostles pointed to Old Testament passages that had been fulfilled in his career and in the beginnings of the church. “This is what was prophesied” was frequently on their lips. In describing
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