Paul's Polarizing Preaching — Acts 13:13–52 - video Dailymotion

Medical Lake Community Church

Imagine a man whose life was dramatically transformed on a dusty road, leading him to love those who once sought his death—what drove such profound change? Delve into the challenges of faith that demand unyielding bravery amid rejection and hardship, raising questions about how joy can flourish in the face of suffering. Witness the unfolding of ancient promises in a powerful message delivered by Pastor Mark Hudson that bridges history and hope.  ✉️ Check In: https://medicallake.church/checkin 🙏 Pray With Us: https://medicallake.church/pray 🔗 Next Steps: https://medicallake.church/next-steps  #mlcc #church #churchonline

Transcript

00:00We have been talking about the Apostle Paul for the last few weeks, and we saw him when he was

00:04on the road to Damascus. He was hunting down Christians, trying to murder them, trying to

00:09put them in prison or have them killed. God graciously saves him on the road to Damascus,

00:13and he's preaching in Damascus, and the last time we saw him preaching in Damascus, we see that the

00:20Jews wanted to kill him. In fact, there was a plot of the Jews to kill him, so they had to let him

00:26down through a basket out of the wall onto the ground so he could escape away. So here you have

00:32his own people, the Jewish people wanting to kill him, yet the heart of Paul, the heart of Paul was

00:38he loved his people. He loved his people. He loved Israel, and you kind of say, well, how could you

00:45love people who are trying to kill you? It's a good question. That is not a natural response. That is a

00:50supernatural response of the Spirit of God, how you can love someone that's trying to kill you.

00:54He had courage, and it takes courage to be a Christian. Ask these people around the world

01:01that are suffering for the gospel. It takes courage to be a Christian. You can't be a weak-willed,

01:07a weak physical body person to be a Christian. It takes courage and determination to be faithful

01:12to the Lord, especially in areas where you're persecuted. Paul loved his people. Even though they

01:19wanted to take his life, he still loved them. And you can see his love in a couple of passages,

01:25Romans 9 and 10. Look at what he says about his fellow Israelites.

01:31For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,

01:36my kinsmen, according to the flesh. He says, I'll go to hell if they would get saved. That's his attitude.

01:43I'd be cut off and accursed if they would just get saved. They are Israelites, and to them belong the

01:50adoption. These are all the things that God did with them or for them or to them. And to them belong

01:56the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them

02:03belong the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And from their race, according to the flesh,

02:08is the Christ, the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Messiah, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

02:15I love that. Deity of Christ is so clear right there. And then Romans 10, 1. Brothers, my heart's desire

02:21and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. Here's a man who, although his people want to kill

02:27him, he still loves his nation. He loves them, and he wants to see them saved. God had gloriously saved

02:35them, yet these people want to take his life. Whenever he could, though, he would go and he

02:40would preach in a Jewish synagogue. He wanted the Jews to hear the message because he loved his people.

02:46Even though they were rejecting the Messiah, they put him to death on the cross, he still loved his

02:52people, Israel, and he wanted to see them safe. And our text today is the first of the recorded

02:57sermons of Paul. He preached, I'm sure, a lot of sermons. This is the first one that's recorded for us.

03:02It's lengthy. We won't look at all of the pieces. We'll kind of just look at chunks and talk about

03:07what the chunk talks about. It's too much to cover in one section, but it's a great sermon,

03:11his very first sermon. And here, the rest of chapter 13 of Acts, we see this.

03:17Obedience to God includes physical hardships and rejection, but the joy a person experiences at

03:23salvation makes it worth it all. Makes it worth it all. You're going to see exactly these things are

03:30what's going to happen to him. He's going to experience some hardships. The rest of this

03:34chapter takes place in Antioch of Pisidian, which is different than Antioch of Syria. There's a map

03:38up here. We saw last week that he was in Cyprus. He left Paphos and he's going to go over to Perga.

03:44He's going to sail over to Perga. And then from there, he's going to travel a top left where you

03:48kind of see the Asia. You'll see Antioch. That's just to the left of Galatia. It's called Pisidia,

03:54Antioch and Pisidia. There's tons of Antiochs in the ancient world. They were all over the place.

03:58So Antioch of Pisidia. So you see him traveling and he travels up and they land right there in

04:03Perga, low lands, and they're going to travel across a mountain range, about a hundred miles

04:09up to Antioch. And you remember, this is the day there's no trains, there's no cars, there's no

04:15buses, no airplanes. The best you have would be a horse and most likely it's your feet. And so they're

04:22traveling a lot on foot. It's thought that when he landed in Perga, he, Paul may have gotten

04:28sick because there was some illness that he experienced. And when he, when he wrote to

04:32the people of Galatia, he talked about illnesses, what drove him to them to even meet with them.

04:38So something happened to him, perhaps in Perga. We're not sure exactly, but maybe he got sick

04:42there in the low lands before they traveled up to Antioch in Pisidia. So that's where we're at

04:48right now. So if you look in your Bibles, open up your Bibles, Acts 13, verse 13 and following.

04:54So turn on your biblical device. And so here's God's word. We want to look at it together.

04:57We're just going to set the foundation of what's going on here.

05:01Now, Paul and his companions, so there's a group of them, set sail from Paphos and came

05:06to Perga and Pamphylia. And John, that's John Mark, remember John Mark's mom, that's where the

05:11place where they were praying for Peter, his mom's house. And John, John left them and returned

05:17to Jerusalem. Just a short statement, Kurt, we don't really know much more than that. But they

05:22went on from Perga and came to Antioch and Pisidia. So they traveled northward. And on the Sabbath day,

05:29they went into the synagogue and sat down. Typical Lazarus' practice. After reading from the law and

05:34the prophets, that's the way they used to do it in the synagogues, they'd read from the law,

05:37then the prophets, and someone can give an encouragement to the people after that.

05:41So after reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them,

05:46to the group, brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it. So Paul

05:52stood up and motioning with his hand said, and we'll stop right there, we'll look at the sermon

05:55in a second. So he stands up, and some of them are going to be really happy that they invited him to

06:00speak, and others are not going to be so happy. Some of them are going to get really angry at him.

06:06So maybe they weren't so excited about having him preach. A lot of people were, but some weren't.

06:11So we're told right off the bat, just one little sentence, and John Mark left and went back to

06:16Jerusalem. And we don't know why. We don't know why he did that. We don't know, maybe his mom got

06:21sick. She lived in Jerusalem. Maybe he didn't want to travel over the mountain range. We don't know,

06:26and it's only speculation, and most of the speculation makes John Mark look bad. So we just don't know

06:31what happened. We do know that it caused a rift between Paul and Barnabas. So if you read in Acts 15,

06:37after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, let us return and visit the brothers in every city where

06:43we proclaim the word of the Lord and see how they are. So they're going on their second missionary

06:46journey. So that's the idea. I'm going to go back to the visit the city. Now Barnabas wanted to take

06:51with them John called Mark, but Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from

06:57them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement so that

07:04they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus,

07:08but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the

07:12Lord. So something Paul did not like about what happened. Now, later on, we're told that John Mark

07:19and Paul reconciled because Paul is asking for John Mark, come, he's useful to me. So at some point,

07:25they do reconcile. That's good to know. But right now, he's not real happy with what's going on here.

07:29So from the coast to Antioch was a hazardous 100-mile trek with bandit-infested areas. Yes,

07:37Rome, we have Pax Romana, we have the Peace of Rome, and Rome was doing the best it could,

07:42but there's areas where bandits would go and just waylay people on the road, steal their items. So

07:47a bandit-infested area they're traveling through. They're going to Antioch with a large Jewish population,

07:54and as was their practice, Paul and Barnabas went to the synagogue first. Then they would go to other

08:00places, but they always went to the Jew first. Opportunity, either down by the lakeside or

08:05riverside, where they're praying. Wherever the Jewish people gathered together, they would go

08:08there first, typically. We see in Romans 1.16 this idea, for I am not ashamed of the gospel,

08:14for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

08:20So they come and they arrive. They're sitting in the synagogue. They're reading from the law and

08:25the prophets, and then the rulers look at them. Now, Paul's a Pharisee. He would be considered a

08:30teacher, a rabbi. I don't know if he's still wearing anything that designated him as a Pharisee. We're not

08:34told, but they look at him and say, hey, would you come and give us a word of encouragement, Paul?

08:39And of course, Paul says, absolutely. Some are not going to be real happy with that, but he says,

08:44absolutely. So it seems Paul was invited to speak by the rulers, the leaders of the synagogue.

08:49They invited him to speak. It wasn't like just some, oh yeah, you get to talk today. No,

08:53they ask him, hey, would you come up and give a word of encouragement to us? Paul says, sure,

08:58I can do that. So here's his first recorded sermon. Again, we're just going to kind of read

09:03through blocks. We're not going to take a lot of time on it, but I'll kind of give you the ideas

09:06and the blocks that we look about. So this is the first sermon. It's from 16b all the way to verse

09:12number 41. It's very similar to Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost and Stephen's sermon.

09:17It's basically a sketch of the history of Israel is what we're talking about.

09:21And he's going to show certain things to the, to the Jews and the God fearers there in the

09:25synagogue that day. He wants them to see certain things. This is a sermon for Jews and Gentile

09:31God fears, which means they knew the old Testament well. And as we read that, you go, yeah, you would

09:36have to know the old Testament to be able to do that because other people wouldn't have a clue what

09:41he's talking about. They, they would have no context to put it in. So these Jews and God

09:45fearers, they knew the old Testament. So you can see he knew his audience. Well, he knew

09:50his audience. Well, and that sermon reflects that when you get over to 17 and he's preaching

09:54on Mars Hill to the Gentiles, completely different format of sermon. Some elements are the same,

09:59but completely different format because it's completely different audience. So he knew whose

10:03audience was in this sermon. Paul speaks about the grace of God. First of all, the grace of

10:09God demonstrated to Israel, God's favor and choosing Abraham, not because Abraham was

10:14something special. It was God's sovereign choice to choose him and to create a nation

10:19out of Abraham. He was gracious to the people. Paul wanted his hearers to understand that this

10:26was not a new message, but this is a continuation of God's dealing through Israel and what he's

10:31doing now in the church. So it's a fulfillment of the promises made. So he makes reference to

10:36the Old Testament to put a context to it. Paul uses the Jewish sketch of history to show God's

10:42faithfulness, not only God's grace, but God's faithfulness. They're stiff-necked, they're

10:48rebellious people, and yet God was faithful to them over and over again and kept his promises

10:54when they failed to keep theirs. He's a faithful God. And that faithfulness, all the promises

11:00point to Christ. That's the pinnacle of all the promises. Paul begins with a Jewish historical

11:06sketch showing God's mercy. So God's grace, God's faithfulness, and God's mercy. When they were

11:13stiff-necked and rebellious, God didn't say, fine, I'm just going to take you all out and start over

11:17again. No, he gave them mercy. He didn't give them that kick in the backside that they needed. He gave

11:22them mercy. So grace and faithfulness and mercy. So we see God's mercy, God's election of the nation

11:30of Israel, his exaltation of Israel above the nations, his gift of the promised land, Israel's

11:36inheritance of the promised land, his gifts of rulers and kings, all laid out in this history.

11:42And there's three parts to it. It's a three-part sermon. You'll kind of notice that sometimes my

11:47sermons have three parts. That's just because that's the way the text divides. That's just the

11:51way that the text is divided here. There's three parts to a sermon. And they begin with Israel or men

11:56and brothers or brothers. And that kind of gives us a clue that there's a new section going on.

12:01Throughout this, one of the key thoughts is that God displaced in the sense that God is doing

12:07something new is the idea that he's doing something new. He displaces one means for another means. He's

12:14doing something new. So in 16b, where he gets up and starts his preaching to verse number 25,

12:21we see God's prominence and promises to Israel. So I'll just read through there again. We won't

12:26spend much time commenting on it, but we'll just read through it. So men of Israel and you who fear

12:31God, again, so there's a great context of Old Testament. Listen, the God of this people, Israel,

12:38chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, prospered them

12:43into a nation. And with uplifted arm, he led them out of it. And for about 40 years, he put up with them

12:51in the wilderness. That's about right, isn't it? He put up with them in the wilderness. Stiff-necked and

12:56rebellious people. Sounds kind of like me sometimes. Okay. So for about 40 years, he put up with them in the

13:03wilderness. And after destroying seven nations, he displaced the nations in the land of Canaan and gave

13:09it to, he did something new. He gave it to Israel and gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about

13:15450 years. After that, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. So he started with judges and

13:21now he's going to bring on the prophets. So he's displacing the judges for the prophets. Again,

13:26prophets. Okay. Gave them prophets. Then they asked for a king and God gave them Saul. So the prophets

13:32are still there, but now we have a king too. And then, so a man, a son of Kish, a man of the tribe

13:38of Benjamin for 40 years. And when he had removed him, he was doing something new. He raised up David.

13:43He displaced Saul for David to be their king of whom he testified and said, I have found in David,

13:49the son of Jesse, a man after my heart who will do all my will of this man's offspring. God has

13:54brought to Israel as savior, Jesus, as he promised. So through the line of David, David being king,

14:00the king of Israel is coming in the savior, Jesus. Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of

14:05repentance to all the people of Israel. So he's closing out the prophets, John being the last prophet

14:10here we see of the old Testament. And as John was finishing his course, he said, what do you suppose

14:16that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me, one is coming the sandals of whose feet I'm not

14:22worthy to untie. The first section of God's providence and promises to Israel. So he displaced

14:28the nations and created a new nation with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Remember up to this point, he's

14:32working with the nations. We have the tower of Babel. Then he disperses the nations out. Then chapter 12,

14:37he makes a new nation with Abraham. So he displaces the nation and begins a new nation with Abraham.

14:42And he put up with them. It's interesting. Actually, it's a very good word. It means he nurtured them

14:48and had patience with them. Kind of like us parents do with our children, right? We put up with them.

14:55It sounds bad, doesn't it? When you say it like I put up with them, but it means idea of nurturing

14:59and being patient with them. Talk about patience with God. He's so patient, patient with Israel and he's

15:05patient with us. So the 450 years, easy, 400 years in Egypt, 40 years in the wilderness and about 10

15:13years to conquer the land, 450 years. There's our timeframe right there. So God displaced the judges

15:19and gave prophets. God was doing something new. God displaced prophets and gave Israel kings. Now

15:25the prophets were still there, but the kings now are the leaders of the nation. He was doing something

15:30new. God displaced King Saul with David. He was doing something new. And then with David, he made a

15:35promise to David. One from you is going to sit on the throne and his kingdom will be an everlasting

15:40kingdom. He will be the Messiah. 2 Samuel 7 is where it's recorded. When your days are fulfilled and you

15:46lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body,

15:51from the line of David, King David, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name

15:58and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. God made a promise. And that promise is

16:04fulfilled in the Messiah, Jesus Christ from the line of David. John the Baptist was that figure

16:11linking Israel's history with what's coming new. And that's the church that God was establishing both

16:15Jew and Gentile together in one body, something brand new. Now God demonstrates the proof of all of this

16:24through the apostolic witness, through eyewitnesses who saw these things and how God's promises were

16:30fulfilled. 26 and following. It's a little longer section. 37. Brothers. Again, remember the sections

16:37are brothers or men of Israel or brothers. Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who

16:43fear God. Again, a good Old Testament context. To us has been sent the message of this salvation through

16:49the Jews. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him,

16:54nor understand the utterance of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, which they had just done

16:59before he got up and gave his sermon, fulfilled them by condemning. So it was obvious in the scriptures

17:05that they were reading, but they missed it. They didn't see it. In fact, in their actions, they fulfilled

17:10the scripture by condemning him. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, that's Jesus,

17:18they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him,

17:22they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead. The

17:27resurrection is always a central point in Paul's preaching. But God raised him from the dead. And

17:31for many days, he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his

17:37witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to our fathers,

17:43this he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus, the fulfillment of everything

17:48is in the resurrection, exaltation. That means that when Jesus died, God, the father accepted

17:53his sacrifice, raised him from the dead and gave proof that he accepted the sacrifice of

17:57the son, laid him in a tomb. For many days, he appeared to those. And we bring you the good

18:03news that this he fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus, as it is also written in the

18:08second Psalm, you are my son today, I have begotten you. And as for the fact that he raised him

18:13from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, I will give you the

18:18holy and sure blessings of David. Therefore, he says also in another Psalm, you will not let your

18:24holy ones see corruption. For David, after he'd served the purpose of God in his own generation,

18:30fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruptions. But he whom God raised up did not see

18:36corruption. So Jesus's body did not corrupt. So we see the second one, all the roads that Paul's

18:42preaching leads to Jesus. He always is pointing people to Jesus. And that's what we need to do. We don't

18:47point people to medical aid community church. We don't point people to ourselves. We point people

18:51to Jesus. That's what they need. They don't need us. They need him. So everything was pointing to Jesus.

18:57So through the resurrection of Jesus, God showed he fulfilled his promises that he made. This is

19:01exactly what I said. And it happened just like I said, he fulfills his promises. But the Jews, they missed

19:07something that was so obvious. They read it each week in their synagogues. And how could they miss

19:13something that was so clear and so obvious? It just, how did it go by? How did they miss the obvious?

19:20Ted Sutherland tells a story. It's not a real story. It's just a story that's made up, but it's really

19:25pretty good story. It's about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a

19:31camping trip. After a good meal, they lay down for the night and went to sleep. Several hours later,

19:38Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend, Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.

19:44And Watson replied, I see millions and millions of stars. What does that tell you?

19:51Watson pondered, you know, Watson, the scientific guy, he pondered from it. Astronomically, it tells

19:56me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that

20:02Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three.

20:08Theologically, I can see that God is omnipotent and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically,

20:14I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does that tell you? Holmes said.

20:21Silent for a moment. He said, Watson, you meathead, somebody has stolen our tent.

20:27He missed the obvious.

20:34Granted, we are told that there's a veil over the eyes of the Jews until the fullness of the

20:40Gentiles has come. So yes, we understand that. But it was obvious to them. They should have caught it.

20:47Yes, we're missing the tent. Watson, the tent's gone. It should have been an obvious thing to them.

20:52Today, I've begotten you. Talks about the resurrection. That's not about a birth, but the

20:58resurrection, which is interesting. His exaltation, his kingship. Today, I've begotten you.

21:03Psalms, Psalm 2, 7. Now, he gives an invitation to accept the promise and a warning what happens if

21:11you reject it. Look at verses 38 through 41.

21:14Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, again, there's a little section, that through

21:20this man, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And by him, everyone who believes is

21:26freed, loosed is the idea, set free, loosed, freed from everything from which you could not

21:33be freed by the law of Moses. The law of Moses served a purpose, but it was never to free us.

21:39Never. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophet should come about. Look, you

21:49scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I'm doing a work in your days, a work that you will

21:54not believe, even if one tells it to you. So now he's starting something new. Now, I'm

22:02going to use a phrase, so don't throw anything at me until I fully explain what I'm talking

22:06about. In a sense, God displaced Israel with the church. I'm not saying he replaced Israel

22:13with the church. What I'm saying is that God had used Israel as a nation to bring his revelation

22:17and to bring the Messiah. Now God has started the church that's Jews and Gentiles, and it's

22:22now a new thing that he's working to touch the nations now. So yes, Israel still has national

22:28promises, and God is still working with the nation of Israel. He's not cast off his people.

22:32He's just started something new with the church. And if you stay back in this old covenant,

22:37you will not have a new heart or a new life. You need to believe the gospel and be saved,

22:41for God is doing something new. So that's a sense I mean by displacing the nation of Israel.

22:47So Paul offered to his hearers two blessings that the law could never offer.

22:52Forgiveness of sins and justification before God. The law could never give those things.

22:58The law stood there as absolute, you must do this. And we looked at it and said, I can't

23:05do that. The law condemned us. The law condemned us for being horrible, vile sinners in the face

23:12of a holy God that had a record of death that stood against him that was longer than your arm. In fact,

23:19we probably wouldn't have a sheet long enough to write all my record of debt that I had against

23:24God. And God comes along and he says, in my son, the Messiah, I will forgive you.

23:35And I will not hold these against you any longer. The law could never give forgiveness. It just showed

23:42us that we needed someone who could forgive us. He's now offering forgiveness of sins. And I'm not

23:48talking about what you've done in the past. I'm talking about the sins you're going to commit this

23:53afternoon next week. And in 10 years, if God tarries, I'm saying every one of your sins have been

23:58forgiven. I don't know, but I get God bumps when I think about that. See, I know my heart. I know

24:08what's inside and how often how rotten it is. And God's still working on me, making what I'm making me

24:15what I need to be. And to think that he has forgiven us. I will remember them no more, he said.

24:24Not only forgiveness, but justification. That now I can be placed from the position of being God's,

24:31under God's wrath, to being God's son. Part of his family with the spirit of God living within me,

24:38justified. Some have said, just as if I've never sinned, but just because my sins have been acquitted

24:43in Christ, forgiven in Christ. And now I stand justified before a holy God with his righteousness.

24:51The law could never do that for us. It never could do that for us.

24:57These are great news. How many people do you know that languish under the heavy burden of their sin

25:03and wish they could be in a different state than where they're at right now?

25:07We have the message of hope for them. It's called the gospel, the good news.

25:13In fact, it's great news. Colossians chapter two, which we're actually at right now in our study on

25:18Wednesday. We just covered this passage right here on Wednesday. This is what Paul said to the

25:24believers in Colossae. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,

25:31God made alive together with him, with Christ. You were dead. Now God made you alive. You didn't

25:38make yourself alive. God made you alive. Having forgiven us all our trespasses. It didn't say some

25:47and say a little bit of him. It said all of our trespasses by canceling the record of death that

25:54stood against us. In other words, it's that which the idea is that what you wrote with your own hand.

25:59I owe you. If I owed you five bucks, I'd write it. I owe you. That's my record of debt that stands

26:04against me. I owe you. So you and I wrote a record of debt that we owed God. This too long of a list

26:11that we can't possibly imagine how long it would be. And the legal demand said everything on that list

26:21demands judgment. That's the legal demands. Well, look what he did. He canceled the record of debt

26:29that stood against us with its legal demands. He wiped it clean. He took that list and he wiped it

26:38clean. In the old days, they used to use parchment paper. It was made out of reeds and they made it

26:44really flat and they wrote on it, but it was expensive. So when they were done with it, whatever

26:48they used it for, they would try to clean it off the best of their ability and rewrite it again.

26:52What this is saying is God took that record of debt, our IOU to him, and he cleaned it off

26:58completely. It's gone. There is no record of debt standing against us ever in Christ. We are

27:05completely forgiven of all of our trespasses. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. That's where

27:13it took place at right there on the cross. That great preacher and writer Charles Spurgeon said,

27:20we are now, even now pardoned. Even now are our sins put away. Even now we stand in the sight of God

27:28accepted as though we had never been guilty. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are

27:35in Christ Jesus. There is not a sin in the book of God even now against one of his people. Who dares

27:42to lay anything to their charge? There is neither speck nor spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing

27:49remaining upon any one believer in the matter of justification in the sight of the judge of all the

27:54earth. Let present privilege awaken us to present duty and now while life lasts, let us spend and be

28:02spent for our sweet Lord Jesus. We are forgiven and justified. At the close of the sermon, Paul presents

28:12us here with this stark contrast. You either believe and are freed and justified. If you reject,

28:19you're going to come under judgment. And that portion out of the Old Testament, we'll look in

28:23verse 41. We'll come back and look at that again, what exactly that's talking about. So look at verse 42

28:28and we'll go down to the end of the chapter. And as they went out, so the people after they heard this

28:34sermon, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. They were excited.

28:39This is great news. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts

28:46of Judaism, those are probably proselytized. They probably, men had gone through the circumcision

28:50process already. Gentiles, that is. Jews and devout converts of Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas,

28:57who as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. So these got saved. The idea of

29:03continuing the grace of God, they got saved. The next Sabbath, okay, so a week has gone by, next

29:08Saturday, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. Now that's hyperbole, yes. It

29:14just means a lot of people showed up, okay? The whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.

29:20But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what Paul,

29:27was spoken by Paul and reviling him. They blasphemed him as the idea. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out

29:34boldly saying, hey, they're not cowards here. This is boldly. It was necessary that the word of God be

29:41spoken first to you, the Jews, since you thrusted aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life.

29:48Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. And that made them even less excited. For so the Lord has

29:54commanded us saying, I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the

29:58ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word

30:04of the Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. So you have these ones that

30:10get saved. They're excited, glorifying God. That's the one side. And the word of the Lord was spreading

30:17throughout the whole region. That's the positive ripple effect of what took place. Yet the other side,

30:23verse 50. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city,

30:30the politicians of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of

30:36their district with the intent that it was a violent driving out. But they, Paul and Barnabas,

30:42shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with

30:48joy and with the Holy Spirit. So we're back now to the Sabbath. This dual reaction. Believe and be

30:55freed and justified or reject and be condemned. Paul warns that the rejection of Jesus will cause

31:03a judgment. And then he quotes out of the Old Testament. So if you reject Jesus, there's going

31:07to be a judgment that falls upon you. And he quotes out of the Old Testament. And what he's quoting out

31:12of the Old Testament is from one of the prophets. And this prophet received information from God that

31:19the Babylonians were going to come down out of the north because of Israel's disobedience to God.

31:24The Babylonians were going to come down and conquer Jerusalem and carry away people into exile.

31:30And God was saying, you know, you're not even going to believe. Habakkuk didn't even believe.

31:34Habakkuk goes, how could you use the Babylonians, these pagans, to judge your people, God? And God's

31:39going, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to use the Babylonians. There's judgment that's coming

31:44because of your disobedience is the idea. And this is found in Habakkuk chapter one, verses five and six.

31:52Look among the nations and see, wonder and be astounded for I am doing a work in your days that

31:59you would not believe if told. What? Babylonians? You're going to use them to judge us? For behold,

32:05I'm raising up the Chaldeans, that's the Babylonians, that bitter and hasty nation who

32:10marched to the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own. In other words, when

32:14you disobey God, there is a judgment to that. If you're not going to believe the gospel message,

32:19there's a judgment that comes along with that. That's, he's warning the people. Hey, remember

32:23what God told Habakkuk? Remember that? It's exactly what happens. But this is what's great. He didn't say,

32:31well, if you believe or you don't believe, it's not really a big deal to me. Just have a great day.

32:35No, he called them to a response. Respond today. Don't put it off for tomorrow. You respond today.

32:42You either believe the gospel message or you reject the gospel message, but don't tinker

32:46with this. Don't play around with this. And I would say the same thing to you. If you've never

32:49believed the gospel message and trusted Christ alone as your Savior, don't put it off for tomorrow.

32:55I'm calling for a response today. Respond today to Jesus Christ, because if we reject Christ,

32:59judgment's going to come, is what he's saying. So we want to call people to,

33:05to repentance and faith. So some believe, some didn't. Next Sabbath, a large number of Gentiles

33:13come to hear him causing, we are told, jealousy among the Jews. We're not told why they got jealous.

33:19We're just told that they're jealous. Jealousy is a horrible, horrible character trait. Dr. Gary

33:25Collins wrote about jealousy. He said, jealousy is the fear that something which we possess will be

33:31taken away by another person. Although jealousy can apply to our jobs, our possessions, or our

33:37reputations, the word more often refers to anxiety, which comes when we are afraid that the affections

33:44of a loved one might be lost to a rival. So some sort of power they're losing, a fear of power,

33:51a fear of losing power is what's going on. I don't know what the jealousy is. Maybe they had a good

33:55standing as Jews in Antioch and Pisidia, and they were well-respected and everyone liked it. But now

34:00this guy, Paul's coming along and half the city is following him. And now we've lost all of our power

34:05among, I don't know, but they got jealous. That's all we know. They feared of losing something.

34:11It's one thing to preach to the Jews, but to preach to the Gentiles, how dare you?

34:15Dare you, Paul? How could you even believe the Gentiles could accept Jesus like us Jews?

34:20Remember, they're unclean, Paul. He's the light. Jesus is the light. Jesus is the light to the

34:28Gentiles. And Paul preaches Jesus. Paul becomes the light pointing to Jesus. He is the light of the

34:35world. He spreads the light of Jesus pointing to people. Now there's a word down here in verse

34:42number 40. It says that as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. So this is one of those

34:56hard sayings in the Bible. It's saying that God appointed, it means to enroll. And the idea could

35:03be enrolled in the book of life, but the idea is to enroll. And it's a perfect verb and it's passive.

35:07So in other words, we're not enrolling ourselves. We're not appointing ourselves. God is appointing

35:12us. So God is appointing us and it's perfect. So it means he, when he did, it became a permanent

35:17thing to last forever. He says, those who were appointed to eternal life believed. Here we see

35:24the sovereignty of God in election. It's one of those things we have attention because we have

35:29human responsibility to God. We see in the Bible as well. And, and we see God's election of people in

35:35the Bible and, and our minds just can't grasp how they all go together. Both of them are true.

35:40Both of them are true. We see election and we see man's human responsibility to respond to, to God.

35:47So both of them are very, and we have to be careful not to let our theological framework say,

35:52oh, well, that, that can't be that. I mean, that's pretty clear. We're appointed, believed.

35:59They believed out because they were appointed. That's why they believed. So there's a tension we just

36:04have to live with in the scriptures. The idea of God's election and human responsibility.

36:08They're both taught in the Bible. God's election included Gentiles also. That's what the, that's

36:14what was so great. He had elected Israel as a nation, not individuals in Israel. The nation

36:20of Israel is elected. That's why we can disagree with what the individuals in Israel do and still

36:25honor the nation of Israel. And that's okay. We may disagree with the government of Israel,

36:29may disagree what Israelis do, but we have to understand God has elected the nation and made

36:33promises to that nation. As believers in the new covenant, we are individually elected, chosen by

36:39God. How do you know that? Ephesians one, glad you asked. Even as he chose us in him before the

36:48foundation of the world, before he created anything, he chose us in Christ. That's the appointment.

36:54That's the enrollment. That's what God did. That we should be holy and blameless before him.

37:02So the good news is going out. God's word is spreading life by life as a, like a ripple effect.

37:10He preached in the large city of Antioch, but the small towns and villages, those that got saved,

37:14went out and told people in the small towns and villages and the ripple effect went out and the

37:18whole area heard about it because they were excited to be forgiven and to become a new state in front of you.

37:24Son of a holy God, one that was condemned now to be in a son and daughter of God is great news.

37:29People wanted to hear that. This ripple effect. So they're thrown out of the city violently. It's

37:36again, persecution. How could he love them when they're treating him so? He does. He still loves

37:41his people. So they shook off the dust, whether it's off their feet, off the robes or cloak, whatever.

37:47They shook the dust. It's what Jesus said. If a city rejects you, shake the dust off your feet.

37:51Mark chapter six. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you,

37:57when you leave, shake the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. So they did just

38:01that. They shook the dust off saying, you deemed yourself unworthy for eternal life. We're going

38:05to the Gentiles then. So even though their preacher, Paul suffered, and maybe even some of them suffered

38:11to the violently throwing them out. Yes. The text says that they were filled with joy. How can you be

38:17joyful in persecution? For us American Christians, it makes no sense. We don't understand that. How can

38:23you be joyful in the midst of persecution? Ask them. They know. Joyful is not happiness. Joyful is not

38:32built around my circumstance. Joy is the fact that God has forgiven me in Christ and justified me, and I

38:38can live this life more than happy. Happiness is based on my circumstances, but I can have a joy

38:44inwardly that's there always in the midst amid persecution. That's how Paul is able to do this.

38:52G.K. Chesterton once said, joy is a gigantic secret of the Christian. So here, here's what we see today.

39:00This is the takeaways. Number one, remain steadfast in proclaiming the gospel. Don't let difficult

39:07circumstances hinder you because it can get hard. It can get hard. You'll tell someone about Jesus,

39:12they laugh at you. Tell them again. Tell them again. Keep telling them. Be steadfast, even though

39:20there's outward physical problems. Two, know your audience. If a person doesn't know anything about

39:29the Bible, please don't start with the history of Israel. They don't have any idea about it.

39:33Start with creation, and then the fall, and then the need of redemption, and then glorification. Start

39:39with just basic stuff. Know your audience. When we were in Germany, our landlord, Conrad Weidner,

39:45was having a difficult time with his brother. So he's explaining his circumstances' relationship

39:50with his brother, and he's going on and on and on and on. I said, oh yeah, that's just like Jacob and

39:54Esau. And he said, who? He didn't have a clue who they were. And I found that when I was preaching

40:00in Germany, I couldn't just assume the people that were listening to me knew the Old Testament

40:04stories because they didn't know them. In fact, I'd have to explain the story to use it as an

40:09illustration most of the time. Know your audience. If they have a good biblical understanding, you can

40:14go a little bit further. But if they have no understanding, start with the creation, fall,

40:20redemption. Just the basic stuff. So know your audience. Three, speak the truth found in God's

40:26word. Speaking the truth makes some people happy and others angry, and you won't know which one until

40:32you actually do it. So do it anyway. That's what I say. You're not going to know if we're going to

40:37make them happy or going to make them angry. Don't know. But do it anyway. Not everyone's going to

40:42respond, but we need to continue speaking the truth. And not just the truth of the gospel.

40:47The truth in God's word to society. Just keep speaking the truth. Simple truths like there are

40:53males and females. That's it. There are not 47 different sexes or genders. Gender is not the right

40:59term, actually, for biological. That's grammar, nevertheless. There's male. That's a truth in

41:04God's word. So speak the truth. It'll make some people happy, and it'll make some people very angry,

41:10and you won't know until you do it. So just do it. And then we'll pray for you.

41:17It's hard speaking the truth, isn't it? Because we know some people don't like to hear that. That's okay.

41:23That's okay. They need to hear the truth. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for this really

41:30long sermon and just what Paul did for people who understood. They knew all of this stuff. I mean,

41:36it was not unfamiliar to them, but he was able to bring it all together and point to Jesus and say,

41:41Jesus is the fulfillment of all of those promises, the one who can bring forgiveness and justification.

41:47That is the great news that you've given to us, Father. There are people around us who don't know you

41:51that need to hear the truth in your word, the gospel truth, the truth just generally speaking

41:56about what you've written in your word. And I know that not all of them would be happy to hear it.

42:01Some will get angry. That's okay. Because your truth is your truth. And we just pray. In fact,

42:07I've talked to people who were offended at a gospel presentation to them, but it was that offense

42:12that you used to drive them to you. So Father, even if they're offended, you can still call them and

42:18drive them to you. So we're asking that you would use us to continue to speak truth

42:22in our society. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Paul's Polarizing Preaching — Acts 13:13–52

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended