Can the Emergents Get Beyond the Gospels?

I think I've noticed something about emergent "theology." Many of them spend an extraordinary amount of time in the gospels but almost nary a word about anything after the book of John. And the result? Well, I've noticed several movements lately that leave out significant parts of the Bible. With the Third Wave Charismatics it's most of the NT. And with the emergents it's the epistles and the book of Acts.

So, let's examine what happened in the gospels. I've found a common problem with even [non-emergent] pastors when they talk about the gospels. We need to understand in each passage who Jesus was talking to and why . Jesus talked to and taught three groups of people in 1st century Israel.

One group was of course, his disciples. These were the future leaders of His church, but sometimes He talked to them in their present circumstances of being under the law and the animal sacrificial system, but sometimes He talked to them as the future church.

Another group were the common people. And again, at times He talked about His kingdom which would be realized on earth through the church AFTER his resurrection. And at times He talked them also as still being under the Jewish system. For instance, when encountering the woman with the issue of blood, Jesus told her she had a right to be healed BECAUSE she had the Jewish covenant of healing with God.

The third group were the Jewish leaders, for the most part those who had gotten entangled too much in the law and extra laws instead of the sacrificial faith system that God had set up for Israel.

Now here is the point. ALL of this was BEFORE the resurrection. AFTER the resurrection things changed somewhat. There was no more animal sacrificial system or importance of the physical temple because of the curtain tearing during the crucifixion. I find the emergents get entrapped in what was happening before the resurrection but they don't always grapple with what changed afterwards, especially the gospel to the Gentiles. It's nice to teach about the kingdom Jesus preached but frankly, when looking at the book of Acts and some of the epistles by various apostles to the Gentiles, you really don't hear about this because it would have made no sense to them. What the emergents desperately need to do IMO is get out of the gospels for a while and into the epistles. Who knows - it might just change their minds about process conversion. Why? Look at Acts 2:40-41,

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. . Note that it says THAT day they were baptized after they repented THAT day. Not "that day they began to grapple with the apostles' message and some eventually believed one day." Vs. 44 says all the believers were together.....NOT the believers and unbelievers who were seekers were together.