Through This Man
Acts 13:13-52
The message of Jesus, what he has done and what he has accomplished has been the message of all eternity. From the moment of the fall of man, God forecasted this king that would come. And that message has gone out. And many of you who are here this morning have heard the message and have embraced who Jesus Christ is. That message is a precious message that right now is being taken to the ends of the earth.
The specific message that Jesus had arisen from the dead, and who he was, the fulfilled messiah, that message began to spread like wildfire 2,000 years ago as a result of a church understanding those truths and beginning to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.
If you were here last Sunday we saw the first mission trip recorded in the Scriptures. It’s when the apostle Paul, and his cohort Barnabas, are launched out from a city in Syria – Antioch – and they blast off with a specific mission in mind; namely, to take the message of the gospel global. They get in a boat and set sail and land at an island known as Cyprus and begin to preach Jesus Christ from one end of the island to the other.
That was the first stage of the missionary venture and today we will be studying the account of the second stage of this missionary journey. Last week really focused more on WHO he preached to. This week in Luke's account we'll see WHAT he preached. This is the first recorded sermon by Paul in the book of Acts. Luke has preserved for us the content and how the apostle Paul presented Jesus to the world. If we are going to be a church on mission, this is very valuable truth for us.
But before we even begin to look at the sermon, let’s catch the setting. Let’s paint the backdrop upon which this sermon is preached. 13Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.”
That’s the setting, the backdrop of Paul’s message. It’s at this point that Paul takes the lead position on the mission team. Up to this point they were referred to as “Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul.” Barnabas was the one that everyone looked to. But after their visit to Cyprus and God’s working through the gifts of Paul, now it becomes Paul who is the leader.
Paul enters the city of Antioch of Pisidia, and as his normal custom was, he goes to the synagogue. He goes into the synagogue and he sits down. Just like many of us came in here and sat down on the Sunday, he goes into the synagogue and simply sits down. Now their worship service had elements that would be universal no matter what synagogue you went to. They would quote the Shema – "Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one." They would have done it in Hebrew; there would have been a reading from the Law and from the prophets. And normally the custom was that someone would give a sermon or an exegesis of part of the text.
Well two visitors were there that day. And one of them, Paul, had been brought up under the tutelage of one of the greatest Jewish teachers of their day – Gamaliel. So they turn to Paul and they ask them, do you have something to say? Do you have an exhortation for the people? And Paul says, “No, I don’t really have anything to say.” Of course not – Paul takes the opportunity that’s been presented and uses that platform to proclaim Jesus to them.
How do you present Jesus? How should we present Jesus? Well today we’re going to see in this passage how Paul presented Jesus and we'll discover some timeless truths about how we can share Jesus with the world. I thought about entitling this message "The Secret to Successful Witnessing." In fact, by the end of this message I'm going to give you the fundamental and foundational secret of being a successful witness.
I. SEIZE Opportunities
After being asked, Paul seized the opportunity to speak. Look at verse 16:
16So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. Sitting there, he stands up and he addresses two groups. First, he addresses the Jewish people who are there. That seems normal. But what would have been surprising is he addresses the God-fearers. We’ve talked about this term “God-fearers” before in our study through Acts. These are Gentile people who had not grown up in the Jewish religion, but they were monotheistic; they were interested in the Jewish God; they saw the credibility of monotheism as opposed to the paganism and polytheism they would have grown up believing. So they are attending the synagogue for the express purpose of learning more about the God of Israel.
So Paul addresses them too. Normally the God-fearers would not be addressed. They sat in the back, and were not talked to. He addresses them particularly. He seizes the opportunity & he's going to make the most of it. He wants everyone present to know the message is intended for them.
Now when was the last time you were somewhere and someone says to you, "We'd like you to address this group of people about your faith in God." Would you be willing to do that?" I dare say, that doesn't happen very much like it happened here to Paul. Now throughout this sermon today, instead of giving you just one big application point at the end, I've got four points of application throughout. Here's the first one:
Opportunities don’t just happen, they’re PLANNED.
Like I said, situations like this oftentimes don’t just happen; they don’t just arise out of nowhere. Opportunities like this are a result of some work that has happened ahead of time, some groundwork was laid out.
In wrestling, as I'm sure in other sports, you hear coaches tell their athletes they've got to create opportunities to score. That looks a lot of different ways. The way you train, the way you lift, your diet, your habits, your discipline – that is preparing your body in such a way that it gives you a greater opportunity to score. In the course of a wrestling match there are set ups, fakes, footwork, creating angles, all of which are ways you create opportunities to score. Now doing all those things doesn’t guarantee you’re going to score; but doing those things increases the likelihood that you’re going to score – you’re creating opportunities.
That’s exactly what the Apostle Paul does. The text says that… on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. Paul put himself in a position where he would have a greater likelihood of being able to talk about Jesus; he put himself in a position where he’d be able to proclaim the gospel to an audience of interested listeners.
Think about all that Paul had already done just to create this opportunity. He'd traveled hundreds of miles by foot, then by boat, and then by foot again across rugged, mountainous terrain to get to Antioch of Pisidia. It took planning, effort, prayer, sacrifice, it took money out of his own pocket and it took a willing heart. There was some planning that took place.
You & I don't normally do things that we don’t plan? If you don’t plan a vacation, you probably won’t take one. If you don’t plan a birthday party, there won’t be a birthday party. If you don’t plan your retirement you won’t have any retirement. We often don’t do things we don’t plan. We need to be people that plan situations where we have the opportunity to tell someone about Jesus. Instead of just waiting for that moment to magically or mystically appear out of nowhere, create opportunities to score.
Have you planned your next witnessing encounter? It didn’t just happen for Paul. He put effort into it. When we go on mission trips we plan the trip so we can create opportunities to share the gospel. This whole week of VBS is a massive opportunity we’ve created in order to share the gospel. But we need to be creating opportunities in our own lives. Just like our missionary Mike shared last week – they’re doing in SE Asia what we should be doing in Chattanooga – creating opportunities.
Paul not only created opportunities, he seized that opportunity. But what do you do when you seize it, when you capture it?
II. SHARE Jesus
Share Jesus! Tell them about Jesus. Tell them the gospel. What is the gospel? In this text Paul specifically calls it good news. And it is good news – it’s the greatest news in the universe. Paul begins to share Jesus.
Now it’s possible that Paul modeled his sharing of Jesus after Stephen. Paul’s pattern here, his sermon outline, is strikingly similar to Stephen’s. If you’ll remember when we looked at Stephen I told you there’s a very good possibility that Paul was in the synagogues where Stephen presented Jesus as the Messiah; it’s very likely that the pre-converted Paul even debated Stephen at those synagogues; and that Paul was present when Stephen presented his case before the high court of Israel, the Sanhedrin. We do know for certain that Paul was present at his stoning and was giving hearty approval to it. It’s my belief that Stephen was someone that Paul never really got out of his mind; that he replayed in his mind the masterful defense of the gospel that Stephen had given as recorded in Acts 7.
And now here years later as Paul shares Jesus, you see a lot of similarities with the way he did it and the way Stephen did. I love history. It was my favorite subject in school. Most people that love history don’t love math and those who love math usually don’t love history. I’m a history person – not a math person. Paul takes the people in the synagogue here in Antioch of Pisidia and he gives them a history refresher course.
In so doing he’s creating a large foundation of agreement in the room. What did they all agree on? They all agreed on the belief in a monotheistic God. They quoted the Shema. They also agreed in God's presence and activity throughout their history. And this really goes to the next point of application for us when we are sharing Jesus with someone:
Begin from a point of AGREEMENT.
Evangelist Ray Comfort is a master at finding a point of agreement with those who he’s sharing Jesus with. He does this by simply getting others to admit their personal guilt when it comes to the law of God. Watch This...
Paul starts at a point of agreement by taking them through the major elements of Israel’s history. But just like Ray Comfort, he does this with great intentionality. He recounts their history for them with the destination already in mind – the destination is Jesus. Look at how he recounts their history with that destination in mind:
17The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. 19And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet
Where does he start? He starts with God. He starts with what both Jews and the gathered God-fearers agreed on – the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, sovereign God.
Paul presents God as the one who directed all the events of Israel’s history. "Who chose our fathers? God did. Who made them great during their stay in Egypt? God did. Who led them out with an uplifted hand? God did. Who put up with them for 40 years in the wilderness – God did? Who destroyed the 7 nations before them and gave them the land as an inheritance? God did. Who gave them judges to rule them? God did. Paul presents God as the one who has presided over and directed and performed all that has happened in Israel’s history.
As we go through the text today you’ll notice that Paul continues to build his case that God is performing all these things. Make no mistake about it – history is HIS STORY! It’s God’s story, and he is directing the play, he’s the captain of the ship sailing on the sea of time. And I have no doubt that as Paul is recounting their history, they’re nodding their heads in agreement, they’re saying “amen!” That’s right! Preach it!
Paul then presents to them their first two kings:
21Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’
God gave them a king like they wanted. Israel realized, “Ok, maybe this isn’t the type of king we need.” So God gave them a king like he wanted; a king after God’s own heart who will do his will.
He brings David to the forefront and he reminds them of a promise. David was a man that said, “God, I want to build you a dwelling place; I want to build you a house.” And God came back and said, “David, I’m not going to let you build ME a house, but I’m going to build YOU a house.” “From your seed, from your descendants, I’m going to establish your house; I’m going to establish your throne forever. It’s going to be an eternal position; an eternal person. You may want to build me a house but I’m going to build you a sure house.
Now why did Paul begin at this point of agreement? Remember, I said he had a destination in mind. And that leads to the next point:
A. All history CULMINATES with Jesus
He uses David - this huge point of agreement - to plant the seed which culminates with Jesus: 23Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.
And let me tell you about Jesus! Paul begins to tell them all about the greatness of Jesus Christ. God has brought him forward, the offspring of David, the Christ, just as he promised.
Let me ask you a question – do you believe there is a divine plan behind all of history? Is God orchestrating all that happens to accomplish his purposes? Does this world really make sense to you? If you’re a believer in Jesus you understand that God is sovereign and that he is orchestrating all the events on the planet up to the coming of Jesus. But God’s sovereignty in the world’s history did not stop at Jesus’ first coming, God is still orchestrating all the events of history which are leading up to Christ’s second coming to this planet where he sets up his eternal rule forever. That is where history is going. And it’s not going there haphazardly, randomnly it’s going there under the direction of a Sovereign God.
Here’s another question – what if history leads to nothing? What if Jesus isn’t the one? Well, the obvious conclusion Paul came to in 1 Corinthians 15 is that if Jesus isn’t alive, if he’s not the savior, if history is not leading to an ultimate conclusion, then “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” There’s no use in anything. Just live a life of complete and total debauchery and self-indulgence. Eat and drink, party and live a decadent, full-on hedonistic life if this is all there is.
If we approach life as if there's no divine plan, as if there's no point in all of this, then we'll find a point. And do you know what the point of life will be? Me. I become the center of the universe; I become the point of human existence. Everything all of a sudden begins to revolve around me - my wants, my desires, my interests, my goals, my success - and all of a sudden it becomes a very selfish world. Mmmm - sounds kind of like the world we live it, doesn't it?
But what Paul says is that all history DOES lead to a destination, and that destination revolves around the son of God, Jesus Christ. He is the nexus that brings it all together. He brings order to our chaos; He brings clarity to our confusion. All of History CULMINATES in Jesus.
B. Credible witnesses CONFIRM Jesus
Now Paul turns to the present. He brings some present-day witnesses to the stand to testify of Jesus; to testify to the authenticity and the reality that Jesus is the Messiah and the Savior.
The first witness he calls to the stand is John the Baptist. Many of the Jews believed that John the Baptist was a prophet. Notice what the testimony of John the Baptist is in verse 24: 24Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’
What John the Baptist was saying is that he's not even worthy to be a servant that removes the sandals of Jesus because this one is none other than God in the flesh. So who's the first witness? John the Baptist.
Now he brings in the next present day witnesses. These witnesses are actually those that put Jesus to death. You may think, “how do the people who put Jesus to death testify that he is the Messiah? They killed Jesus precisely because of his Messianic claims!” What Paul does here is like a brilliant attorney on cross examination. He takes the opposing attorney’s star witness, and turns their testimony to actually support his own case.
26“Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. 27For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.
Right there is the brilliant cross examination. One might think, “Well the rulers of Israel, those that God placed in spiritual authority had Jesus put to death." And what Paul says is, “That’s exactly right. And in so doing they were fulfilling the prophecies about the Messiah that they didn’t understand.
Look at that last phrase of verse 27: they fulfilled them by condemning him. Their condemnation of Jesus is actually a testimony to the validity of Jesus, because they were fulfilling the prophecies foretold about Jesus.
28And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29And when they had carried out all that was written of him, Look at that phrase again - And when they had carried out all that was written of him
The religious leaders who rejected Jesus actually become Paul’s best witness in his case for Christ – because they fulfilled to a T all that the prophecies predicted would happen. That verse concludes: they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30But God raised him from the dead,
Paul always brings this truth into the equation when he's presenting Jesus, we need to present the resurrected Christ. He is alive. He is alive today.
Now Paul is going to bring up his next present day witness. You have the witness of John the Baptist, the witness of the rulers who killed Jesus and in so doing fulfilled the prophets. Now notice this next group of witnesses he presents to them: 31and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.
These are people that are still alive as Paul is giving this address. You can go talk to them. I've talked to them, Paul could say, and they've told me how Jesus walked with them, ate with them, taught them, for 40 days he did this. And trust me, they're not backing down from their testimony. Trust me, Paul could say, before my conversion I put immense pressure on them to deny their claims that this crucified man had risen from the dead - but not one of them would change their story. Their testimony is a reliable testimony. Their witness is strong.
Now Paul is going to return to the prophets and once again, in greater detail, demonstrate how the OT prophets testify of Jesus as the messiah. Jesus was the fulfillment of all the promises given to Israel:
32And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 33this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’ 34And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ 35Therefore he says also in another psalm, “‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’ 36For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, 37but he whom God raised up did not see corruption.
Paul quotes three different texts. Psalm 2, Isaiah 55, Psalm 16. Ok, let me show you that the messiah was going to rise from the dead. David's bones are still in the tomb.
At that time they likely knew where David's grave was located, you could have gone and visited it. He's saying, this Psalm is not talking about David, it's talking about some who never saw corruption, it's talking about Jesus. Everything points to him.
Every prophecy, every prediction, every type and shadow - they all find their fulfillment in Jesus. So not only does history CULMINATE in Jesus, the witnesses present CONFIRM Jesus.
Paul's whole message was about clarifying in their minds an accurate view of who Jesus is. And that’s what we must do. Clarify in people’s minds an accurate view of Jesus. As Christians, our whole purpose for existence is helping people come to the right understanding about who Jesus is. That’s what we’re called to do - Share Jesus, Seize opportunities. Here’s the third thing…
III. SUMMON A Response
After sharing Jesus with them, Paul calls them to do what is necessary for all of us to do Paul summons a response from them beginning at v. 38.
38Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, At the end of the day, all of us need forgiveness of sins. The Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God
Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. Eccl 7:20
Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”? Proverbs 20:9
The answer is a clear, “none of us can. All of us need forgiveness of sins. And here’s the practical application for us as we share Jesus with others:
Expose our deepest NEED.
We must expose the deepest need of humanity. The deepest need of humanity is not a political need, an educational need, not a relational need, not an economic need. Our deepest need is a spiritual need. We all need forgiveness of sin – that is our deepest need. And our sharing of Jesus will be incomplete if we don’t communicate this.
Well exposing our deepest need leads to this obvious question: If forgiveness of sin is our deepest need then, how can we have our sins forgiven? Paul tells them in verse 39: 39and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
Everyone who believes is freed. And that freedom comes by him, by Jesus. The only way to receive forgiveness of sins is by Jesus. And who is it available to? Everyone – every person.
Twice Paul made distinctions between the Jews who were gathered and the God-fearing Gentiles. He addressed both groups. But here, there is no distinction between people groups. Everyone can be forgiven. Who does what? Who believes. You have to believe this truth, you have to believe that Jesus is who he said he was, that he accomplished your salvation on the cross. You have to believe it, depend upon it, accept it, rely on it. What happens when you believe? It says you will be freed. That word is the common Greek word that’s normally translated “justified.” Declared not guilty, righteous in God’s sight.
Then Paul puts forward the insufficiency of the law in the last phrase of verse 39: from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
You ask any lost person, “Why do you think you would be allowed into heaven?” They’ll respond 99% of the time, “Because I’m a good person.”
There is no amount of good deeds, no amount of keeping the law, no amount of being a good person that can free you from the guilt of sin. This is a call to repent from the life of self-sufficiency and to put your full trust and belief in the finished work of Jesus.
Then he puts up a warning sign for them; he hammers a beware sign up. I know there’s going to be a natural tendency for you to respond to this message of grace: 40Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: 41“‘Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’”
He’s quoting the OT prophet Habbakuk here. Habbakuk prophesied that the Babylonians were going to come in and take the Jewish people. And do you know what the Jewish people did in response to that message of Habbakuk? They scoffed and laughed. Some of you, you’ll hear this message, and you’re laughing, you’re scoffing. Beware! Don’t turn your back on Jesus.
When we tell people about Jesus, we must summon a response, we must tell people what they must do with the message, how they should respond. Stop trusting in yourself and trust in Jesus; stop believing in your own acts of righteousness to make you acceptable to God, trust in Jesus.
But finally, after we seize the opportunity to share Jesus where we summon a response, we need to make sure we do this final thing:
IV. SURRENDER The Results
Are we responsible to make people accept Jesus Christ? No, we are not responsible for that. God is responsible for that.
The worst thing we can do at the end of our VBS is to say, “We only had X number of people give their lives to Jesus this week.” We have got to surrender the results to God. We need to rest in God’s sovereignty and let him do whatever he’s going to do in people’s lives. We present Jesus and let him do his work. Paul would later say to the Corinthians: 6I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7
We don’t try to manufacture results or manipulate results. We just lay the truth out there and surrender the results to God. And here’s the point of application for us:
Be FAITHFUL to do your part, TRUST God to do His part.
So what happened to that crowd? Did any of the them respond to the message? Did any of them believe? Let’s keep reading in verse 42:
42As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. We want to hear this again. Let’s put it on the calendar, next Saturday, we’ll meet. Same bat time, same bat location. We want to hear more. Some evidently believed and Paul and Barnabas encouraged them to continue in the grace of God: 43And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.
As they walked with them they encouraged them to continue in the grace of God. And isn’t it awesome that the work of salvation in these people’s lives is referred to as grace. It’s all of grace.
But the following Sabbath, quite a crowd showed up on the scene. In fact, this message of Jesus shook the city of Antioch of Pisidia to the core. Look what happens: 44The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. 46And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
We saw this last week. When someone goes on mission to share Jesus, opposition will come. It’s a given. When there’s opposition, you don’t stop, you just keep proclaiming the message and surrender the results to God. The Jewish leaders there rejected the message, but the Gentiles received it:
48And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
The Gentiles rejoiced that this salvation from God had come to them. Then notice, the last phrase of verse 48 is one of the strongest phrases in all the Bible that affirms God’s sovereignty in salvation. as many as were appointed (ordained KJV) to eternal life believed.
Back in verse 39 it said, everyone who believes is freed
Here in verse 48 it says: as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
Here you have two great truths that run parallel to one another, not perpendicular to each other. The truth of human responsibility, everyone who believes. You’ve got a responsibility to respond to the gospel message, you’ve got to exercise your will and believe in Jesus. But the other great truth is Divine sovereignty, “as many as were appointed to eternal life.”
God is the one who chose us in him before the foundation of the world; God is the one predestines to eternal life. These two great truths are not presented as contradictory to each other, but here in this one passage they are presented parallel truths that are complementary to each other. Both exist together, even though our finite minds might not be able to comprehend it.
The text ends by concluding that the truth continued to be shared, and opposition continued to arise. That’s how it has always been and that’s how it will always be.
49And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. 50But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. 51But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. 52And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
What a contrast between Paul and Barnabas and the Jews. In verse 45 Luke tells us the Jews were filled with jealousy. In verse 52 he says Paul and Barnabas were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. What a contrast. Even though they incited violence against them; even though they drove them out of the region, even though not everyone received the message, they were filled with Joy and the Holy Spirit. Why? Because they knew they had been faithful to do their part and God had been faithful to do his part.
I told you that at the beginning of this message I was going to give you the #1 secret to being a successful witness. You ready for it? Here it is, three words: Just Do It!
Last Thought: God has called EVERY BELIEVER to TELL OTHERS about Jesus.
