"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, AND BY WICKED HANDS HAVE CRUCIFIED AND SLAIN:" Acts2:23. Does THIS sound like good news? Does this sound like he is preaching the cross as good news and their salvation?
"Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear>" Acts 2:33-35. Read all three of those verses. Where is the gospel of the grace of God there?
Verse 36. Where is the message of Christ's DEATH as our REMISSION OF SIN? Where that message ANYWHERE in Peter's sermon?
When they heard Peter's words, they were PRICKED IN THEIR HEARTS. NOT happy or grateful that Christ had died for their sins. They were pricked in their hearts because of the guilt of knowing that what Peter was saying was right.
I'm not going to give any more of the verses. Read them for yourself. And tell me which one gives the cross as good news, as finished work for our sins, as remission for our sins, as justification, as sanctification, as being placed into the Body of Christ. They don't say that, because they didn't KNOW that. THAT was given to Paul to preach. He isn't saved until Acts 9 so how could they have known in Acts 1, 2,3,4,5,6,7,or 8?
They were repenting and being baptized because they knew they were guilty of their Messiah's death. Were they waiting to be told that they were now IN CHRIST? That the HOLY SPIRIT had placed them IN CHRIST AS SOON AS THEY BELIEVED? No, they were WAITING FOR THE RETURN OF CHRIST, to set up His Kingdom.
The gospel of the grace of God contains all those things I just gave you. The gospel that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost contained NONE of those things. NOT ONE> How, then, could he have been preaching the gospel of the grace of God? Obviously he wasn't. He was preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. Exactly what he was commissioned by Christ to preach. You'll find that in Matt. Mark Luke John and Acts, as long a God was dealing with His millennial people, Israel.
As a matter of fact, read Matt. 4:23,9:35, and every place that talks about God's covenant with David. That is what the gospel of the kingdom is about.
The difference between the prophecies in the OT concerning the kingdom and "the gospel of the kingdom" was that the kingdom, once predicted was NOW proclaimed "AT HAND".
The Gospel of the Kingdom IS the Kingdom of Heaven that John the Baptist, Christ, Peter and the 11 preached: Matt. 3:1,2; Matt. 4:17; Matt. 10:5-7, etc.
I'm sorry if you cannot see the difference. I cannot make it any clearer. Just as God cannot make it any clearer in His word. Read it as it is WRITTEN. NOT as you THINK IT IS WRITTEN> You'll be amazed at the differences you'll find.
Acts 3:
17 “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. 18 But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; 20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, 21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.
"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, AND BY WICKED HANDS HAVE CRUCIFIED AND SLAIN:" Acts2:23. Does THIS sound like good news? Does this sound like he is preaching the cross as good news and their salvation?
Well yes it is the good news. It is the brutal truth. Messiah had to suffer and die for sinners. Peter speaks truth here. We are all wicked and only the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ releases us from the bonds of Satan. Peter was giving the very people who yelled "crucify him, crucify him" weeks earlier the gospel of Grace right between the eyes. And some "were cut to the heart."
If you don't believe me, let's look at what Jesus Christ said was the good news:
Luke 24:
44 Then He said to them,“These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” 45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. 46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 And you are witnesses of these things. 49 Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
Now, with the Words of Christ presented, let's move to 1 Corinthians 15 once again to see what Paul said was the Gospel:
1 Corinthians 15:
15 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11 Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Now Peter in Acts chapter 3:
Acts 3:
17 “Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.
Jesus Christ, Peter and Paul preached the same Gospel. The death and resurrection and future return of Jesus Christ IS the Gospel of Grace. Without Christ's death and resurrection, there is no remission of sins. All three passages match.