The Gospel of the Forty Days: Baptism, Part 1       “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:20). The verse tells us that Christ (now resurrected and speaking with His Apostles before His ascension) commanded them to baptize all peoples as they became disciples. With the same words, Jesus also spoke of God’s revelation of Himself: baptism was to be in the Name (singular, one God) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (three Persons), thus reinforcing what the Apostles had learned being with Jesus: that God had, in Christ, revealed Himself to be three divine Persons possessing simultaneously the one divine nature of the one God as revealed to Israel. So Jesus’ command (Ac 1:2) and teaching (Ac 1:3) here are part of his “gospel of the forty days.”       Jesus spoke on different occasions during the forty days of the baptism He was commanding the Apostl...

The Gospel of the Forty Days: Apostolic Teaching Office       In recent articles we’ve seen that Jesus’ “gospel of the forty days” included that the Apostles would appoint their successors, what today we call bishops, priests, and deacons. Interestingly, St. Paul states that these different offices of ministry (charisms) are gifts of the risen and ascended Christ (Eph 4:7-8), indicating again a likelihood that Jesus’s instruction during the forty days would include both the nature of the charisms and the ministerial office.       Now St. Paul also says the function of these charisms is that the Church attain “the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” so we no longer be tossed around by human doctrines and deceits. (Eph 4:12-14). Such refers to doctrine, clearly part of Jesus’ teachings given during the forty days (Ac 1:2-3; cf., Lk 24:26-27, 45-46).       The doctrinal function of the ministeri...

The Gospel of the Forty Days: Priesthood       We again consider the “gospel of the forty days” (Ac 1:2-3), and consider what Jesus may have taught the Apostles after His resurrection about their priesthood.       In the New Testament (NT) the Christian community is described as a “holy priesthood” (1 Pt 2:5), a kingdom of priests to God (Rev: 1:6, 5:10, 20:6). This fulfills God’s original intention for Israel to be a kingdom of priests (Ex 19:6) but which they lost through idolatry. This NT “holy priesthood” we call the “common priesthood” or “priesthood of all believers.” So St. Paul can appeal to all to present themselves “as a living sacrifice,” our “spiritual worship” (Ro 12:1).       Yet, as St. Paul put it, “all the members [of the Body] do not have the same function” (Ro 12:4), and so we distinguish between the “common priesthood” and the “ministerial priesthood.” The book of Hebrews develops wonderfully Ch...

The Gospel of the Forty Days: Bishops and Presbyters       Last week we saw that the “gospel of the forty days” after Jesus’ resurrection (Ac 1:2-3) included that the Apostles would appoint their successors, and we discussed the origin of the terms “bishop” and “deacon.” There is a third term from the Greek which the Apostles adopted as a title for an office in the early Church. The Greek OT and the NT refer to “elder” in many different contexts, but the first time it is used as a designation of an office in the Church is in Acts 11:30 where St. Barnabas and St. Paul (Saul) brought famine relief to the Judean “elders.” The Greek term is presbuteros , or in English, “presbyters.” Also in Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appoint presbyters in all the mission churches, and there are presbyters with the Apostles at the council of Jerusalem (Ac 15:2, 4, 6, 22, 23; 16:4; cf., Ac 21:18).       In Paul’s farewell address to the presbyters of Ephesus (Ac 2...

The Gospel of the Forty Days: Appointing Bishops and Deacons       Imagine you are one of the Twelve – well, eleven now – and you are with the other followers of Jesus – 120 of you together – praying for the coming of Holy Spirit (Ac 1:15). Peter now stands up and you see he has a new air of authority, or maybe it’s new confidence. So you have a hunch about what’s coming. You remember during one of Jesus’ talks after His resurrection (Ac 1:2-3) that Peter had asked Him about His saying that they would sit on twelve thrones (Lk 22:29-30) – but now there were only eleven and – (no one wanted to think, let alone speak, of Judas, that traitor). (Remember, this is just your imagination now....)       Jesus had replied, “Elect the twelfth. It is your duty, Peter, to do so.”       “Mine? Not mine, Lord! I ask You to choose him.”       “I elected My Twelve once and I formed them. Then I appointed t...

The Gospel of the Forty Days:  The Church as the Restored Kingdom       Last week we developed the theme of the Messianic expectation of the restoration of the Kingdom of David, and asserted that in Jesus’s teaching about the “kingdom of God” during the forty days between His resurrection and ascension (Ac 1:3), He would have taught that this kingdom is now the Church. Let’s explore that a bit more.       David’s kingdom was based on covenant with God (2 Sam 7:1-29), which included God’s promise to establish an eternal kingdom with a descendant of David, and “I will be His Father, and He shall be My Son.” Luke’s Gospel makes it clear that Jesus, in the flesh, is a descendant of David (Lk 2:4-7, 3:31); and in previous articles we have discussed some of the Bible’s evidence that Jesus is, at the same time, in His Divinity, the Son of God.       Now at the Last Supper, Jesus says to the Twelve, “As My Father appoin...

The Gospel of the Forty Days: The Church Is the Kingdom        Two weeks ago we looked at the disciples’ Messianic expectation of a restoration of the kingdom to Israel as they had asked just before Jesus’ ascension into Heaven (Ac 1:6), and that Jesus’ speaking about the “kingdom of God” during those forty days (Ac 1:3) must have spoken of that expectation, and we asserted that the kingdom is the Church.       By “Church” (capital C), we are referring to the whole universal assembly of all those who believe in Jesus Christ, and are known by Him as His. Catholics believe the Church subsists in the Catholic Church, but the full universal (“catholic”) Church is certainly broader.       What might Jesus have said about prophecies of the restoration of the Kingdom being the Church He was forming?       First, we already know from the four Gospels that Jesus’ entire message of repentance, ne...