After the birth of the early church, we looked at what the 3,000 new followers of Jesus were being taught, and it was simply “The Apostle’s Teaching.” Here is how Luke recorded it:

“Those who had received his (Peter’s) word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:41-42).

Again, notice the 4-fold focus of their devotion: 1) the apostles’ teaching; 2) fellowship; 3) sharing meals together; and 4) prayer. It is the Apostles’ Teaching that provides the essential content of our New Testaments. Last week, I provided some important historical and cultural guidelines that will help you understand the New Testament and properly interpret any text that you may be reading. There are two important historical and cultural truths that every Bible student needs to consider when reading the New Testament, and we discussed one of them last week, namely:

 THE PERIOD OF COVENANTAL TRANSITION

We discovered that this was the time between Jesus’ ascension in AD 30 and the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Rather than being an instantaneous change, the formal change from the Old to the New Covenant was a process, a process that took forty years to complete. We understand this to be true from the Book of Hebrews, where the writer in AD 64 (just 6 years before the fall of Jerusalem), recognized that the end of the Old Covenant was approaching and made reference to God’s prophetic words to Jeremiah concerning the coming of the New Covenant (Jer 31:31):

When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first one obsolete, but whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear (Heb 8:13).

Because all of the New Testament documents were written during the time of Covenantal Transition (roughly between AD 48-65), all of the writers were anticipating the end of the Old Covenant Age, as the writer of Hebrews makes clear. And that’s why we find references throughout the New Testament to the fact that the formal end of the Old Covenant was about to happen soon. And that brings us to another important interpretive truth that will help us understand the Apostle’s Teaching.

 AUDIENCE RELEVANCE

       By God’s grace, and certainly by design, the written documents contained in our Bibles have been preserved for us to read and to study, and for its truths to be applied to our lives. But at the same time, we must realize that these documents were not written to us. In reality, we are reading someone else’s mail! However, God fully intended for the truths revealed in His Word to be passed down to every generation, including our own. For example, the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts were written specifically to Theophilus, and all of Paul’s writings were addressed either to the “saints” at specific churches, to individual “pastors” like Timothy and Titus, or to “friends” like Philemon. Although written specifically to others, we believe that the fundamental truths revealed in these documents are applicable in every age.

      We must also be aware of the well-known axiom that a text cannot mean for us today what it did not mean to the original first-century audience. In other words, the correct interpretation of a text must be what the author intended it to be, and what the original audience understood it to be. An interpretation other than what the author intended is simply wrong. Therefore, although there may be more than one application of a text, there is only one valid interpretation of it. Thus, the task of every Bible teacher regarding a particular text is to determine the intended meaning of the first-century author. And because the intention of the author was to clearly communicate truth to his audience, the intended meaning of the text is what the original audience understood it to be. Therefore, to properly understand and interpret the New Testament, we must put on our robe and sandals (figuratively speaking) and read the text from the perspective of the original recipients, that is, the first-century audience.

      The concept of Audience Relevance necessarily includes those passages that have time connotations. This issue has been the subject of much debate and controversy over the years, and each student of Scripture must wrestle with the intended meaning of the author and the way in which the first-century audience would have understood his intention. Thus, if something were expected to happen “soon,” or if an event was described as being “near” or “at hand,” it is imperative that we place ourselves in their “sandals” and understand the text as the first-century readers would have understood it.

      Now we come to a very important truth. If, by inspiration, God intentionally guided the first-century authors to use words like “soon,” or “near,” or “at hand,” then that must have been what He wanted the authors to understand and then convey these timing elements to the recipients of their writings. If God had some other time in the distant future in mind, He surely could have, and would have, used appropriate language to indicate His intention. And yet, He inspired the writers of the New Testament to use language that would be understood by their audience as “imminent.”

      Indeed, whenever you and I read the New Testament and come across the words, “soon,” “near,” or “at hand,” let’s remember that the author was writing from his own perspective, that is, from the perspective of first-century human beings in which time was very significant. The authors were aware of the timeframe of the period of Covenantal Transition, and that timeframe, as Jesus Himself predicted, was within His own generation, or within a period of 40 years from AD 30-70.

The authors of the New Testament fully intended for their audience to understand that “soon,” “near,” and “at hand” meant that their expectations would be fulfilled within this time period. After all, the writer of Hebrews in AD 64 knew for certain that the passing of the Old Covenant would happen “soon.” Therefore, Audience Relevance requires us to honor the imminent time statements as being relevant to the original audience, and not to us living two thousand years later. In other words, “soon” for them cannot mean “soon” for us. In my opinion, to do so is to manipulate the text as well as the intention of the first century authors.

      But there is more to consider as we dig just a little bit deeper into what the Apostles were expecting to happen “soon.” We will take a closer look at this issue next week. I hope to see you then.