“A History Lesson”
Acts 13:13-43
November 25, 2007
Growing up Baptist, as I did, I regularly came into contact with men who were traveling evangelists, men not as well-known as Billy Graham, but who had committed their lives to preaching revival services and evangelistic meetings in one town after another. As a young preacher, I found it hard not to envy traveling evangelists. They’d come in, preach their best sermons, and then leave—and then go and do the same thing over and over again. They didn’t have to deal with any messes they’d make; their best messages, honed to a fine finish by continued use, generally are better than those of the pastor who composes a fresh message from scratch every week. The only glimpse I get of this kind of life is when I get called to speak in another church, and then I can call on my trusty sermon file and deliver a message previously preached, choose from my “greatest hits” file, if you will—ahem—and preach away. Paul had the same advantage; he went from town to town preaching in synagogues, and could repeat a message over and over again. Then again, Paul didn’t generally get a nice honorarium for his trouble; sometimes, he got beat up and put in prison, or shipwrecked, or starved, or… Hmmm…we’ll call it even!
Today’s message is a sermon about a sermon, the first sermon we have of Paul’s that’s recorded in the Bible. And as is characteristic of other sermons in the book of Acts, it entails a lesson from history to demonstrate God’s working in salvation; many NT sermons followed a similar script, recounting God’s dealings in history with His people Israel, and then a tie-in to His greatest work in sending His own Son to die on the cross. Someone has said that “Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them.” And if history is what the Bible proclaims it to be—the outworking of the plan of a sovereign God—then be sure of this: history matters!
Acts shows how the gospel fits into the broader picture of God’s acts in history. Julius Scott said that this books rests on “the basic assumption that God works out salvation within a special history that is also a part of general world history…Luke is intent to present the Jesus-event not as just another event in God’s special saving history, but as the event in that history.” And thus we consider Paul’s sermon, a history lesson pointing to Christ. Notice
I. The Setting of the Sermon
:13-16a
We know from Galatians 4 that Paul first preached the gospel in the area of Galatia because of some illness; one commentator suggests that he had possibly contracted malaria during his time in low-lying territory; perhaps! We do know that the family of Sergius Paulus, of whom we learned last week, was one of the wealthiest business families in the city of Antioch, and since he’d become a convert to Christ, it’s likely that he had suggested to Paul that Antioch be his next port-of-call, and done some things to smooth the way for Paul and Barnabas to go there.
A couple of brief items of note here: one, we don’t know why there is no talk of preaching the gospel in Perga; maybe, if he had malaria, Paul wasn’t up to it. Two, we’re told that John (Mark) left them and went home. We don’t know all the reasons: was he homesick? Was the travel too rigorous? Was he unhappy that Paul had begun to upstage his cousin Barnabas? Some suggest that John Mark disagreed with the direct nature of Paul’s speaking with Gentiles, and was afraid of how this might play in the church at Jerusalem. We don’t know, but we do know that Paul considered his leaving to be a sign of weakness, so much so that eventually Paul would split with Barnabas over the issue of including John Mark again on a subsequent missionary journey.
At any rate, with some questions unanswered, we learn that Paul and Barnabas go to Antioch. Isn’t that where they left from? But the mystery is easy to solve; just like there is a “Greenville” in every state, seemingly, so this is another city by the name of Antioch; it’s Antioch near the region of Pisidia, or “Pisidian Antioch”. Antioch was the most important city of southern Galatia, a cosmopolitan city with people from many different regions, including a sizeable Jewish population. And as we said last week, Paul demonstrates a pattern here that was almost always his: he would begin preaching the gospel in the Jewish synagogues, taking the gospel “to the Jew first”. There would be both Jews, who’d understand the context of the gospel, and God-fearing Gentiles, who’d have connections with other Gentiles, in attendance. Once he’d established this connection, Paul would feel free to branch out with the message and go directly to Gentiles. Since Jews and Gentiles stood on equal footing before God, they could be appealed to directly.
The synagogue service followed a set liturgy, with certain prayers offered and two Scripture readings given, but that liturgy also included a time of open address from a competent speaker, and Paul, who by this time was known to be a traveling teacher, was given the opportunity to be that speaker on this occasion.
II. The Outline of the Sermon
:16b-37
Basically, the entire message recorded here is in outline form; if we read the sermon out loud, it takes us about 2½ minutes, hardly the length of Paul’s original message, and this is true of the other two messages of Paul recorded in Acts as well: they’re given in outline form, basically. In another place in Acts, we read of a fellow named Eutychus, who fell asleep during one of Paul’s messages, fell down from the windowsill in which he was sitting, conked his head, and died; Paul restored life to the embarrassed young man. Thankfully, we have no worrisome windowsills here. But the point is that Paul’s messages took awhile, while what’s recorded here doesn’t take long at all. Paul addresses both Jews and Gentiles, beginning his address by talking about how
A. God Prepares Israel for the Messiah
:16b-22
Paul gives a history lesson, one of particular pride and interest to Jews. John Stott rightly said that “Paul’s emphasis is on God’s initiative of grace…for He is the subject of nearly all the verbs.” Look at the number of things that Paul says God did:
• Chose the patriarchs
• Made the people great during their time in Egypt (great in number)
• Led them out of Egypt
• Showed them mercy in the wilderness
• Displaced and destroyed seven nations in Israel’s way
• Gave them the land of Canaan
• Gave them leadership in the form of judges
• Gave them a king, Saul, when they griped
• Removed Saul and replaced him with David, a great king
Four themes come through:
1. God is the God of Israel.
2. He chose the patriarchs of Israel.
3. He redeemed His people from Egyptian bondage.
4. He gave them a land all their own.
These four themes would have resonated with Paul’s Jewish listeners, because for hundreds of years, since the establishment of the Jews in the land of Canaan, worshippers would acknowledge these very things. Paul shows that the things that he was preaching about Jesus were the natural sequel to OT events.
Paul’s last point was about David, and how God rejected Saul and chose this man to be the new king. David was a “man after God’s own heart”, Scripture says in I Samuel 13:14, and God said this of him, in Psalm 89:
19 Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said:
“I have granted help to one who is mighty;
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
20 I have found David, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him,
21 so that my hand shall be established with him;
my arm also shall strengthen him.
27 And I will make him the firstborn,
the highest of the kings of the earth.
28 My steadfast love I will keep for him forever,
and my covenant will stand firm for him.
29 I will establish his offspring forever
and his throne as the days of the heavens.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? God’s going to do all of this wonderful stuff for David and His people Israel! Problem: these words were written during a time when terrible disaster had overcome the house of David; how would these words ever be true? The contrast between God’s promises and the situation at hand was too hard to bear, see what the Psalmist says in that same chapter:
49 Lord, where is your steadfast love of old,
which by your faithfulness you swore to David?
God, what’s up with this? You made us a promise, God! But the answer is found in this: in later times, people came to recognize that God would fulfill the promises through a man in the line of David, a Messiah, not David himself. And this is just what Paul says next:
B. God Sends the Messiah
:23-25
Announced by John Baptist, the divinely-foretold forerunner of Jesus, everything culminates in Jesus Christ. He represents the fulfillment of God’s promise. In developing his doctrine of justification in Galatians, Paul sets in contrast the law of God, given to the Jews but never able to accomplish their salvation, and the promise of God, fulfilled in Christ, Who by His work was able to save. Here, Paul doesn’t even mention the giving of the Law, which to pious Jews was the very zenith of their history, because the Law, important as it was, served only to demonstrate man’s sinfulness, much like a “wet paint” sign draws us to touch, a “don’t enter” sign awakens our curiosity, and a speed limit sign signals to most of us the minimum acceptable speed at which to cruise I-285! We can’t keep the Law, and thus we can’t find salvation through law-keeping, but God sent the One Who could achieve our salvation, the promised Messiah.
C. Israel Responds to the Messiah
:26-29
The first part of the gospel involves the crucifixion of Christ. Notice that while Paul has spent the beginning of his message talking about all of the things that God had graciously done on behalf of Israel, he then moves to the ways that Israel failed:
• They did not recognize Christ
• They didn’t get what the prophets were saying about Him
• They condemned Christ, fulfilling the very things that they didn’t understand
• They asked Pilate to execute Him, though there wasn’t any real reason to
Though it was part of God’s eternal plan for all of it to happen, nonetheless the Jews were themselves guilty of all that they did in causing the events of the crucifixion to take place. The means of salvation was sent and summarily rejected by the Jews who didn’t fancy salvation on such terms as Jesus proposed. Paul wrote in I Corinthians 1 that this message of the gospel, the good news, involving belief in a Man who was crucified, represented to Jews “a stumbling block” and to Gentiles utter “foolishness” (I Cor. 1:23), but to those of us who are being saved, that same gospel is the power of God.
Using the word “tree” in verse 29 emphasizes the link with Deuteronomy 21, which says that everyone who is hanged on a tree is cursed. This Messiah suffered the shame of this curse, hanging on the cross shamefully for the sins of mankind, a curse brought on by the Jews, yes, but ultimately by God, as Jesus, who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us, that we, in turn, might be made the righteousness of God in Him (II Corinthians 5).
D. God Fulfills His Promise
:30-37
God would not be stymied. He reversed the sentence pronounced by sinful men. Notice the note of fulfillment that carries through both of these last two points: everything happened just as God had planned it. This was the very purpose of God in creation: to redeem people who are sinners from their sin to new life in Christ!
God had raised up the Messiah, the One in David’s line Who’d be the fulfillment of the promises made. Peter explained in his message to Cornelius’ household that Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, a reference to the time when, at Christ’s baptism by John, there came from Heaven the words of God the Father, “this is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased”. Jesus met the requirements as the One to Whom all of the Psalmist’s words had pointed. He was the Messiah promised to Israel. David, esteemed king of Israel, was not the ultimate fulfillment of a deliverer; he died and his body corrupted away in the tomb (:36), but Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise that God’s Holy One would not see corruption.
God not only raised up Jesus as the Messiah, He raised Him up from the grave as well. And there were witnesses to the event of the resurrection; it’s as if Paul is saying, “you can ask people; there are people who saw this resurrected Jesus!”
III. The End of the Sermon: Invitation
:38-41
The law of Moses wouldn’t get it done, wouldn’t get forgiveness of sins accomplished. Moses’ law shows us how far short of God’s standard we fall in our sin. Just try to keep the Law in its entirety. I read of a fellow who wrote a book recently, about his attempts to do just that, to live by all of the ceremonial law of Judaism for a year, to keep every single precept. He couldn’t do it, and even if he could, he’d not meet the righteous standard of a holy God. But through Jesus, forgiveness of sin is possible. And it happens through belief, through faith! Note Paul’s words in Galatians 2:16:
“…we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”
But there is a warning as well: ignore God’s provision to your own peril. Paul quotes Habakkuk’s warning of judgment for those who scoff at the salvation God offers. And that warning still stands!
IV. The Response to the Sermon
:42-43
Their words resonated with some, who wanted to hear more. But it’s more than a matter of hearing, as we know from James; it’s those who do that are promised God’s blessing. These are either curious or believing or a mixture of both; Paul urges them to continue in this display of grace which had caused them to follow Barnabas and Paul home.
Points to Ponder
• History matters
o Nihilism comes from a view of history that it’s “one ____ thing after another” (Elbert Hubbard)
o Hinduism suggests that history is a cyclical affair, going round and round in circles (hence reincarnation), with no inherent meaning, no purpose, and no ultimate end to which it is progressing
o These understandings lead inevitably to despair, to “what’s the point?”
o The Bible says that history, whether we understand how or not, is the outworking of the plan of a sovereign God
• The content of the gospel matters
o We say that our first key value is to be “Bible-centered”, and surely, a key part of this involves getting the gospel right.
o In our pluralistic world, the whole concept of “truth” has taken a pounding.
o Thinking has become almost extinct; how easy it is to parrot what others are saying rather than thinking for ourselves!
o The gospel of Christ has nothing to fear from thinking and from honest questions!
o It’s God’s Word to man about how to be rightly related to Him
o We have no right to tamper with it, to water it down, or to exchange it for pseudo-gospel ear-tickling messages
o The gospel isn’t about how to cope or succeed or prosper in this life
o The gospel starts with God, not man’s lostness, and God’s act in creating man, not man’s action in sinning
o The gospel involves God’s provision for lost mankind in the form of Jesus Christ, the only way to be reconciled to God
• Personal response matters
o The gospel message calls for a personal response
o There are consequences to ignoring God’s call to salvation
