JESUS: THE COMPLETE FULFILLMENT OF THE PROMISE
Acts 13:16-32a
Stephen H. Becker, M.Div.
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
July 22, 2007
8th Sunday After Pentecost
Often when people think of the Old Testament, they think of it as a book about God’s creation of the world, about Adam and Eve, about Noah, Abraham, Joseph and Moses. Often it’s thought of as a Book that details God’s Laws for us, like the Ten Commandments. And all of this is, of course correct, but have you ever read or thought about the Old Testament as a book of Scripture about Jesus Christ? When you read the Old Testament in light of Jesus, in light of God’s promise to send a Messiah to save mankind from our sin, you can find Jesus all throughout the Old Testament. In fact, it amazes me how anyone, even today, can read the Old Testament and not find the promise of Jesus throughout it. Today in our reading from Acts, the Apostle Paul talks about just this; Paul preaches that Jesus is the complete fulfillment of the Promise of the Old Testament and that that promise is for YOU. Let’s open with prayer…
Listen to this passage of Scripture which describes the suffering of the One God sent to save us from our sins: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering…He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God…But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each one of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all…He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away…He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and caused him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering…After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied by his knowledge; my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities…because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Friends, what a wonderful description of Jesus’ life, mission, death and resurrection! How clearly we read how Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And what’s amazing about this passage of Scripture is that it was written about seven hundred years before Jesus’ earthly life and mission. What I just read to you is a prophecy of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection by the Prophet Isaiah, received by Isaiah through the power of God the Holy Spirit 700 years before Jesus was born! Yet, if I didn’t tell you that this was written 700 years before Christ, you might think that it was from any of the Gospels or perhaps from one of Paul’s letters. That is the miracle of the Scripture that God has given us: it teaches Jesus Christ from cover to cover. We call this the unifying theme of Scripture. In fact, whenever I read any passage of Scripture from either the Old or the New Testament, I always ask myself, how do I see the unifying theme of Scripture here? How does this passage—any passage—teach Jesus? Listen again to a couple of highlights here from Isaiah 53
• Verse 3: He was despised and rejected by men
• Verse 5: But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. By his wounds we are healed.
• Verse 7: He was like led like a lamb to the slaughter.
• Verse 8: He was cut off from the land of the living
• Verse 9: He was assigned a grave.
• Verse 11: After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied
• Verse 12: He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah in a wonderful revelation saw the events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. And he wrote about them. In fact, note that he even wrote in the past tense, meaning he was writing about events that he—Isaiah—saw prophetically.
So in our reading today from the New Testament book of Acts, the Apostle Paul explains in detail how Jesus is this perfect fulfillment of the Old Testament promise. And moreover, Paul teaches that Jesus, being this perfect fulfillment of prophecy, brings us that fulfillment as well. Having been a Pharisee, Paul knew very well of the hopeless condition of mankind. Paul knew what God told Adam in the Garden, that sin would bring us death, that sin would separate us from God irrevocably and permanently. And as a Pharisee, as an expert in God’s Law, Paul knew the Old Testament very well and so knew of God’s promise of a Messiah. Here in Acts 13, Paul is preaching to the Jews in a synagogue in Pisidian Antioch that Jesus is this perfect fulfillment of the Messiah that all Jews knew was promised. Speaking of Jesus in verse 23, Paul says, “From this man’s descendants,” meaning the descendants of Jewish King David, “God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised.” God promised Israel that He would send them a Savior. That’s a wonderful promise of salvation to Israel—God’s chosen people, but what about us who aren’t Jews, or aren’t descended from Abraham? In verse 26, Paul directs this Good News message at all who have faith. He says, “Brothers, children of Abraham AND you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.” Who are God-fearing Gentiles? They are any non-Jew who believes that Jesus Christ is the Savior. They are you and me. “It is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.”
In verse 27, Paul makes several sound, profound theological statements. First he explains that the “people of Jerusalem”—the Jews—“and their rulers,” meaning the Jewish leadership and religious leadership of Jerusalem, like the Pharisees and even the High Priest himself, “did not recognize Jesus.” Paul’s statement here is important because remember that these religious experts and leaders prided themselves in knowing the Bible, which at that time was basically our Old Testament, and of knowing God’s Laws inside and out. And so knowing Scripture, these leaders should have known what I read to you a few moments ago from Isaiah, that Jesus was the perfect fulfillment of what God had been promising all along. Then Paul gives us the kicker when he explains, “yet in condemning him”—meaning Jesus—“they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath.” What a double-whammie! These experts read the prophets all the time. The ultimate goal was to memorize every single word. And even the common person heard the words of the Prophets every Sabbath. So in killing Jesus, they were in fact fulfilling what the Old Testament had been promising. But Paul’s not letting them off that easily. He’s not saying, “well it’s really o.k. that they murdered Jesus because it needed to happen anyway for our salvation.” No, Paul makes sure that what these “experts” did went against God’s Law, and that they are in fact, complete hypocrites. “Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence,” Paul says, “they asked Pilate to have him executed. When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.” If there’s any doubt before in Paul’s sermon that Jesus is that fulfillment of promise, Paul is really clear when he says that, “they had carried out all that had been written about him.”
So Paul, in this sermon, wants to make sure to “close the deal” as it were. His sermon shows how Jesus is the fulfillment of what God had been promising. Now Paul wants to drive the point home by proving that Jesus is God, and that God raised Jesus from the dead and that this resurrection is available to all. In verses 30 and 31, Paul appeals to many witnesses who saw the LIVING, RESURRECTED Jesus. Paul says, “But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.”
Friends, there were many people during Jesus’ time who refused to believe that He was the One. And sadly, there are even more people today who refuse to accept the miracle of Jesus. And for the people who reject Jesus today the verdict is the same as the verdict was to the people 2,000 years ago. The wages of sin are death. And without Jesus, there is no way to fulfill God’s Law. Without Jesus, there is no way to “get right” with God. And that’s sad because God’s gift to us of salvation through Jesus Christ is free to ALL who believe. There’s nothing we have to do; there’s nothing we can do, because GOD has done it all in Jesus. From the time of Adam to the time of Jesus to today, God’s promise to His children is the same: believe in Jesus and live. This is what we call “The Good News” of the Bible. Like Paul says, “We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus”
You know one of the greatest gifts anybody ever gave me in my life was teaching me about the unifying theme of Scripture…teaching me to look for Jesus Christ in every nook and cranny of both the Old and the New Testament. Indeed, you can’t help but find Jesus Christ everywhere in our Bible. What’s powerful about that to me is that it proves for me over and over and over again that Jesus is my Savior. He is the One! You see, The Bible is a very important part of our salvation because God’s Word has the power to save. Talking about Jesus, the apostle John says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” So friends, not only is Jesus the fulfillment of God’s promise to send us a Messiah, not only can we find Jesus everywhere in Scripture, but Jesus literally is that Word of God that saves. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God!” These are incredible words of Scripture that have the power to save us. For the Pharisees, they tried unrighteously to follow God’s Law to the letter to try to save themselves from their own short-comings. But for those who understand Who the Word is, the Law’s job is to point us to Jesus as the fulfillment of promise. In other words, the Law shows us that we alone are hopeless, but that Jesus is the One God promised, Jesus is the one who was pierced for our transgressions, and Jesus is the only way to salvation. Without the Words of the prophets and apostles telling us about Jesus, we can’t even know about Him. And then the real miracle happens: God the Holy Spirit comes to us and says, “Yes! Jesus is the Word made flesh. Jesus is the way to life. Jesus is the fulfillment of Promise. And that Promise is for YOU!” Friends, believe in Jesus and live! “What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus”!
So as we close friends, I challenge you to look for Jesus Christ every time you open your Bible. And in finding Jesus there, you are literally finding the divine lovgoV, the Word made flesh. And by finding Jesus, God the Holy Spirit comes to you and makes His dwelling within you. Jesus is the Word. Jesus is the Way. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise. And Jesus is for you. Amen.
Now may the true faith…
