Introduction
We are
moving on into the second half of the book of Acts. First have of this book has
been primarily focused on Peter and some of the action that was taking place in
and around the city of Jerusalem. Remember Jesus told his guys that they were
going to the ends of the earth. The second half of the book of Acts, the action
focuses on the apostle Paul and on his travels all over the Roman empire. We
are going to have so many maps over the next several weeks of this study, you
are not going to believe it. Tonight, we are going to start the action in a
very influential city, the third largest in the Roman empire, a city called
Antioch which was located right on the major east-west road that cut through
the Roman empire. We are going to see our characters travel several hundred
miles before ending up in another city, also called, Antioch, located on that
same road. So, let’s read, Acts 11:19,
The
Church at Antioch
Meanwhile,
the believers who had been scattered during the persecution after Stephen’s
death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria.
Luke takes
us back, we are actually picking back up at the end of the story we skipped
last week, this is right after the conversion of Cornelius. Luke actually
rewinds to Acts 8, recalling when Stephen was killed, and the believers were
scattered out of Jerusalem. He says that some of these believers went as far as
Phoenicia (which is up the coast), Antioch of Syria (further up the coast,
where our story starts tonight) and also Cyprus (which is an island west of the
Israel, Jerusalem, Palestine area). Unfortunately, they continued this racist
practice.
They
preached the word of God, but only to Jews.
We saw
they had a problem with this, going to non-Jews and telling them about Jesus
too.
However,
some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene
Cyrene is
down in Northern Africa, Cyprus an island in the Mediterranean, some of them go
to Antioch and,
began
preaching to the Gentiles about the Lord Jesus.
I don’t
know if they heard about the whole Peter that happened with Cornelius and God
opening this door to the Gentiles, apparently, they didn’t know they weren’t
supposed to tell non-Jews about Jesus, they just started doing it. Syrian
Antioch (as referred to in our bibles to distinguish it from other Antiochs).
Some estimates put this at about 600,000 inhabitants, the third largest after
Rome and Alexandria. This was on a river almost 20 miles from where the river
dumped into the Mediterranean. There was a sizable Jewish population as well
(20,000 to 60,000 Jews). This was the largest of sixteen Antiochs in this part
of the Roman empire. There were a bunch of rulers named Antiochus. They kept
naming cities after themselves, so it gets a little confusing. That is how we are going to end in Antioch
tonight as well. You can see on our map (Jerusalem way down at the bottom)
comes all the way up the eastern coast of the Mediterranean up into what is
modern-day Turkey to this city of Antioch. This is actually part of Turkey
today, right up against Syria.
Who were
the believers who took the bold step of faith to tell the Gentiles in Antioch
about Jesus? Who were the believers who basically planted this church, this
very influential church, the best sending church in the New Testament, the
church that would launch the apostle Paul, the greatest missionary of all time,
who are the believers who started this church? The answer is: we don’t know.
Just some people that went there, some no-name Christians. A lot of the best
work that has been done in the history of Christianity has been done by no-name
Christians. This is why it is important that we be faithful to God and try to
please him alone, let him decide how much honor we get in this life, knowing
that he will tell us who these people were and all the other no name
Christians, he will tell us who they are when we stand before him and are
rewarded. They start telling Gentiles and things really start to roll in
Antioch,
The
power of the Lord was with them, and a large number of these Gentiles believed
and turned to the Lord.
People are
becoming Christians, they are putting their faith in Jesus, they are being
forgiven, they are being indwelt by the Holy Spirit, their lives are being
filled with joy and peace and all of the fruits of the Spirit. People start to
hear that there are Gentiles up in Antioch,
When
the church at Jerusalem heard what had happened, they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
His real
name was Joseph and he was from the island of Cyprus, a place we are going to
go later. They called him Bar- (which means son of) and Nabas- (which I guess
means encouragement), they called him Barnabas, the son of encouragement. He is
an important player in the book of Acts and rest of the New Testament. He is
known as a super encouraging guy, trusted, respected, generous, just a good
dude. They decide to send him up there, and it is a good thing that they did.
He was such a good Christian worker.
When he
arrived and saw this evidence of God’s blessing, he was filled with joy,
He wasn’t
so proud that he saw God working in someone else’s ministry that he felt
competitive ad critical. Good encouragers are pretty easy to please. He saw
that good, there were probably bad things too, but he was just so happy to see
God working that he was full of joy.
and he
encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord.
He knew as
well as anyone that it is one thing to become a Christian, it is another thing
to persevere without wavering. He is encouraging these people to stick it out,
not to give up, things get hard. Opposition will even arise. He tells them to
hang in there. Maybe that is the message that some of us need tonight who are
wavering. Hand in there, stay true to the Lord, I tell you with Barnabas.
Barnabas
was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. And many people
were brought to the Lord.
A lot
people were coming to Christ. This movement is growing. In fact, so many
people, that Barnabas decides that he needs to bring in reinforcements. And he
goes, not back to Jerusalem, but somewhere else.
Saul’s
Early Ministry
It says,
Then
Barnabas went on to Tarsus to look for Saul.
Remember
Saul? We have Antioch here, and Tarsus is another 100 miles up around the
corner on this major road up into what they called Asia, what we call Turkey
today. Barnabas, he had played an influential role in Saul’s life. When Saul
came to Jerusalem, no one trusted him. He was a former persecutor of the
church. And yet, Barnabas believes Saul is genuine, he got him and introduced
him to the other guys, he gained his acceptance. He saw something there, in
Saul. The last we saw of Saul, it was 37 AD, we are now in about 44-45 AD, so
it has been almost a decade since we have heard anything from this guy. What
was Saul doing for the past 7-9 years up in Tarsus. One thing he has been doing
is serving God. He hasn’t been just sitting there, wasting away, wondering when
someone is going to give him some kind of leadership position, wondering when
is going to get some recognition. No, he tells us in Galatians 1,
I went
north into the provinces of Syria and Cilicia.
Syria is
where Antioch was, around the corner you can see Cilicia (you can see it on the
map to the left of Tarsus) was the south-eastern part of Turkey. He says,
And
still the churches in Christ that are in Judea [around Jerusalem] didn’t know
me personally. All they knew was that people were saying, “The one who used to
persecute us is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy!” And they
praised God… (Gal
1:21-24)
He’s going
around telling people about Jesus. There is evidence here and later in Acts
that he was leading people to Christ, that he was planting churches that are
still there at the beginning of the second missionary journey. He is up there,
he is not waiting around, but he jumps right in, just like we saw at every
other point in his life thus far.
He is also
suffering. You have got to wonder what Saul’s family thought after he got back
from Jerusalem after being gone for several years. The great Pharisee, the
respected Sanhedrin member of the finest education (this family paid a lot
money for) and here he comes back, he’s thrown it all away to chase after some
crucified Messiah, this criminal? You can imagine his family wasn’t too happy
about the direction of his life or his career. What about his wife? There is no
way he could have gotten that far in Judaism without getting married. They were
married by the time they were 20, he was in his 30s by the time he became a
Christian. Yet, in 1 Corinthians 7, by the second missionary journey it says he
didn’t have a wife. Did she pass away or did she reject him when she saw his
‘apostacy’ from the ‘true faith’ that they had been raised in, in her opinion?
Did she reject him and leave him? I don’t know. What about 2 Corinthians 11:24
where it says, ‘five times I got 39 lashes from the Jews.’ None of those are
recorded in Acts. Is it possible that those happened here, during those lost
years in and around Tarsus? I think there is a good chance they did. Paul says
in Philippians 3:8, ‘I have lost all things for the sake of following Jesus.’
He says he doesn’t regret any of it, he traded garbage for treasure. He was
suffering up there in obscurity. Maybe he thought he had been forgotten about
by the other believers. Maybe he thought, this is how my life is going to end,
he had no idea that along is going to come Barnabas when Saul is in his mid 40s
and he’s just about to begin the great adventure of his life and become one of
the most famous people of all time.
He was
also growing. You can bet if you hang in there through suffering you are going
to grow, if you don’t, you’re not. You can just imagine him growing in his
relationship with God, God growing him in humility, bearing the fruits of the
Spirit. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 12 he tells of one instance, something
amazing that happened to him during these years in Tarsus. He says, ‘Fourteen
years ago I was caught up into heaven. I don’t know if it was bodily or just a
vision, but I was there, and I saw it and I am not even allowed to talk about
it. That’s all I’ll say about it.’ And yet, you see the eternal perspective that
he had. It would have been forged through his suffering but also through
experiences like this with God.
Serving,
suffering, and growing. Maybe some things that some of us in this room are
doing right now.
Barnabas
went up to look for him, I don’t know if he was out doing some Christian
ministry or what, but eventually, he found him,
When he
found him, he brought him back to Antioch.
Barnabas
convinced Saul to come back with him because of the ways the Spirit was working
there, there was work for them to do.
Both of
them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of
people.
This was
sometime around 46 AD. This would have been kind of a strange experience for
some of these Christians at Antioch. The last they had seen of Saul, he was
standing there at the death of Stephen, making sure he was good and dead. They
saw him going around persecuting and even killing, maybe some of their friends.
Imagine that first week, they show up and Barnabas is like, ‘we’ve got a new
teacher here, all the way from Tarsus, Saul!’ And yet, here he was, forgiven,
serving God zealously, serving alongside Barnabas. Barnabas must have thought
it was pretty important to get Saul to travel 100 miles to go get him and
convince him to come back, he was a busy guy. Yet, he went for it because apparently,
he felt like it was worth it, to get this leader up into a position where he
felt like God had called him. Also, to go and get a guy where there was a
decent chance that he was more gifted than him, and might even pass him up,
which is exactly what was going to happen. A guy like Barnabas didn’t care, he
just wanted to serve the Lord, he was a good man.
(It was
at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.)
They were
called disciples, they talked about following the way, there was a sect, a
cult, called The Way today, it’s not that. It’s just the name they had for
themselves in Acts. The term Christian actually looks like it was kind of a
derogatory term. You see it only on the lips of non-believers, you don’t see
them call themselves that. You see first century historians use this term in a
negative way. It just means, ‘the Christ people.’ It was like Jesus’s fan club,
always talking about him, and I guess we still use it today. It isn’t until the
second century that we see Christians use this about themselves.
During
this time some prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named
Agabus stood up in one of the meetings and predicted by the Spirit that a great
famine was coming upon the entire Roman world. (This was fulfilled during the
reign of Claudius.)
It’s not a
like a drought was coming on the whole Roman world, but specifically Egypt, but
Egypt was the breadbasket for the rest of the Roman empire. In 45 AD we learn
that the Nile hit the highest level it had for 100 years, it was like a
100-year flood and wiped out most of the grain crop. Prices started shooting
up. These things would have especially affected the poor. One of the many
places where something Luke mentions fits right in with our Roman secular
history.
Paul
and Barnabas go to Jerusalem
So the
believers in Antioch decided to send relief to the brothers and sisters in
Judea, everyone giving as much as they could.
They give
money knowing ahead of time this is happening, they save up and send it down to
Jerusalem when the famine hits.
This
they did, entrusting their gifts to Barnabas and Saul to take to the elders of
the church in Jerusalem.
They gave
their money to Barnabas and Saul and sent them on this long journey down to
Jerusalem. Well Galatians 2 actually tells us about this visit. This is where
we start to see some interlocking of the other writings in the New Testament,
here is what Paul writes in Galatians 2,
Then after
fourteen years, [after his conversion, 46/47 AD] I went up again to
Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in
response to a revelation [the prophecy from Agabus] and, meeting privately
with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach
among the Gentiles…
Not like
he was really worried about what other people thought, he got his gospel
straight from Jesus, but he wanted to talk to them and let him know what he was
talking about and compare notes.
As for
those who were held in high esteem… they added nothing to my message…
In fact, he also says that even though
Titus was a Greek, they didn’t make him get circumcised, they were fine with
that.
James,
Cephas [Peter] and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the
right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me.
A
handshake or a, ‘yeah.’
They
agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.
The
apostles would focus on the Jews, Paul and Barnabas would focus on the
non-Jews.
All
they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I
had been eager to do all along. (Gal
2:1-10)
That’s why
he was in Jerusalem, he had money for the poor. It’s cool to see this fitting
in with the rest of the new letter as well.
The
Church at Antioch Sends Saul and Barnabas
Acts 12 we
studied last week, that was from the 40s AD. We’ll pick up where we left off in
Acts 12:25,
When
Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission to Jerusalem, they returned,
taking John Mark with them.
John Mark
is another guy who is going to show up in Acts and the rest of the New
Testament. It says in Acts 13, he is going to give a list of five people who
were leaders in the church,
Among
the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria were Barnabas,
We already
know about Barnabas.
Simeon (called “the black man” [or “Niger”]),
Some of
our bibles just take the Latin lone word that is in the New Testament, Niger,
that’s what that means. He’s not the Simon from Cyrene who carried the cross
for Jesus, he spelled his name differently. He is a leader here, though. What
we see is a multicultural church at Antioch.
Lucius
(from Cyrene),
From
Africa. Not the Luke who wrote this, there is no reason to think it is and
there is good reason to think it’s not.
Manaen
(the childhood companion of King Herod Antipas),
He was
best buddies with Herod growing up! It’s funny, you hear all these inside
accounts from the Herod household in the gospel of Luke, and even some here, we
saw Herod last chapter. What a different path. Acts 12 ends with Herod dying
after trying to persecute the church and then his buddy is a Christian leader
up in Antioch. They were winning some big fish up here in Antioch. Some
Christians try to find the weirdest person they can locate. Weird people need
Jesus, but guys like Manaen do too.
and Saul.
These five
guys were the leadership team here in Antioch. It says,
One day
as these men were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Dedicate
Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.”
I don’t
know if it was an audible voice, if it was an impression that the whole team.
It looks like the whole church might have been present for this.
So
after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them
on their way. So Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit.
They are
going to leave Antioch of Syria. A couple of observations here.
God sent
these guys. You see that throughout this with phrases like, ‘The Holy Spirit
said,’ and ‘I have called them,’ and ‘Sent out by the Holy Spirit.’ It’s clear
that this is a move from God just like all the other moves he has made in Acts
to get his message out further, to tell people about Jesus, the good news,
forgiveness, the gospel.
The church
also sent them. The leaders there, after fasting and prayer sent them on their
way. But then it says they were sent by the Spirit. So, which one was it? The
church or the Spirit? It was both. They heard the call. A lot of modern
missions sending is very autonomous, some person just feels called by God to go
be a missionary and they just inform everybody else. This is the other way. God
tells the church and the leaders confirmed it right there. They also released
some of their best workers. I am sure there was a process where they didn’t
just drop their ministry, and yet at the same time, these were big names and
they sent them out anyways because this is what God wanted.
Paul and
Barnabas were willing to go into the unknown. It isn’t clear what the special
work is. He didn’t spell it out for them ahead of time, he just said, ‘Go.’
Kind of like when God called Abraham in the Old Testament, he explained more
along the way. They were willing to go into the unknown with the goal of
planting churches, just like in Antioch of Syria. They thought it would be nice
to see more of those all over the place so people could hear about Jesus
Missions
and Postmodernism
I would
like to pause here and say a couple of words about this whole notion of church
planting, of missionary sending. Missionaries have a pretty bad rap among
post-modernists. Some of that is justified actually, there has been a lot of
tragedies in the name of Christian missions. The way that the postmodern view
this whole area is this.
You have
one culture and they have their story of the way things are, they have their
own religion, they have their own gods, they have their own version of things,
and then you have other cultures and they have their own story. Every culture
is just beautiful and pristine, and they’ve got their version and these
different cultures. Culture A can’t go to culture B and tell them they are
wrong. Who are you, you colonialist, to go in and squash out this people’s
beautiful history with your missionaries?
They
view missions as one group saying, ‘this isn’t a story for us, this is THE
story, for everybody. We have to make people adhere to our story.’ They go out
and they mash down all these local cultures and they destroy them, and they
drive tanks and bulldozers and they ruin their history and they make them be
like us and dress like us, and talk like us. Colonizers. There has definitely
been messed up stuff in the name of missions, and from this perspective, it
would be wrong for this culture to just foist their person preference in that
culture. It’s like you get the sword out and say, ‘You must like chocolate ice cream,
or you will die because I like chocolate ice cream.’
Well,
the bible presents this very differently. You have all of these different
cultures, you see this from the beginning of the book of Genesis, scattered.
You have all these nations. But scripture says that there is a God, and
infinite personal God who speaks, who knows the way things are, who is truth. What if there is a God who actually reveals THE STORY the way things actually
are? If that was the case, if one culture found out about it, and that God
said, ‘Go tell the other cultures, the other people who haven’t heard, and even
people within your culture who haven’t heard.’ Wouldn’t that make a lot more
sense to go out and tell, especially if this is the way of salvation. In our
bibles we have good, solid, objective evidence that this is actually from God.
This is the biblical picture. It is very different than one culture putting
their preferences on another. It is God having revealed himself in history, and
he wants everybody to know. That is different. Who are we to disobey God?
Now some
will object, and they will say, “there is no objective truth that applies to
all people!” Which I would say, ‘Is that objectively true, what you just said?
Are you apply that to all people? What if another culture says there is
objective truth that applies to all? Are you going to tell them they’re wrong?
If so, your worldview is contradicting itself. You say there is no objective
truth, and yet that is an objective truth! So, it can’t be true. When your
world view starts doing that, it main tenets rule out its main tenets, you need
to rethink your world view.
Or, “you
can’t tell another culture that they are wrong!” Really? What if another
culture thinks they have revelation from the One True God, are you going to
tell them they’re wrong? And if so, you are contradicting your one rule. Also,
are you really saying we can’t look over at another culture practicing
something savage and inhumane and say, ‘Well who am I to say that Nazi Germany
was wrong, who am I to say that Stalin was wrong. That’s their culture, we
can’t even communicate with each other.’ That same person will be the first to
cry out that this is inhumane, and we need to do something about it. That is
the problem with this post-modern worldview is that it just doesn’t hold together.
They have assumptions that contradict their main tenets.
Properly
understood, Christian missions is nothing more than sharing the good news about
Jesus. Christian missions have also done a ton of good for the world.
Hospitals, educations, even things that non-Christians would say are
objectively good. Moving in, writing a bible in their language so their
language is preserved, teaching people, there has been a lot of good that has
come out of modern missions. Billions of dollars outpoured for the sake of
spreading God’s love around the world. That is what is happening here at
Antioch. God is sending them out to tell more people about Jesus.
The
First Missionary Journey
They
went down [16 miles] to the seaport of Seleucia
Where the
Roman fleet was stationed, you can usually get a ride from there anywhere in
the Mediterranean.
and then sailed for the island of Cyprus. There,
in the town of Salamis, [which is the inventor or Salami, that’s not true.]
they went to the Jewish synagogues and preached the word of God. John Mark went
with them as their assistant.
John Mark tags along, Barnabas’s
cousin. You can see Cyprus, that big island right there in the middle of the Mediterranean.
They left Antioch and went west, they landed at the eastern port of Salamis,
they preached there and moved through the island, it’s not clear what route
they took, they made several stops along the way telling people about Jesus.
They end up on the west coast in a place called Paphos.
Afterward
they traveled from town to town across the entire island until finally they
reached Paphos, where they met a Jewish sorcerer, a false prophet named Bar-Jesus.
Bar-Jesus,
son of salvation is what that means. And yet, he was some kind of blend of
Judaism and sorcery.
He had
attached himself [like a parasite] to the governor, Sergius Paulus, who
was an intelligent man.
Again, we
see Luke interfacing with Roman history. Luke was viewed as a laughingstock 100
years ago until Sir William Ramsey because his archeological quest around the
Mediterranean, not to show that the bible was right, he was not a believer. He
became one though, with what he found. He ended up concluding that Luke is a
historian of the first rank. Here is what Clinton Arnold says about Sergius
Paulus,
A Latin inscription discovered in Rome makes explicit mention of this man. His full name is given as “Lucius Sergius Paullus.” He is listed along with four other men as a director of water management for the Tiber river in Rome… The inscription explicitly mentions that he served in this capacity during the reign of Claudius… [because of the title is uses for Claudius] the inscription can be dated to the early period of Claudius’s reign, A.D. 41–47. [It is about 47 AD that Paul show up]. The dating suggests that Sergius Paulus served as proconsul of Cyprus either just before his position in Rome or just after.
He was an
intelligent man, so he wasn’t an idiot. Seems like a pretty sharp, powerful
dude. And it says,
The
governor invited Barnabas and Saul to visit him, for he wanted to hear the word
of God.
This guy
is not a God fearer like Cornelius was, who spent his life going to synagogue.
This is pure pagan, and he wants to hear what these guys have to say.
But
Elymas, the sorcerer (as his name means in Greek), interfered and urged the
governor to pay no attention to what Barnabas and Saul said.
He might
have been worried about job security here.
He was
trying to keep the governor from believing. Saul, also known as Paul,
And for
the rest of the book he will be called Paul, that would have been his Roman
name from birth. He would have grown up going by Paulos of Saul
He was
filled with the Holy Spirit, and he looked the sorcerer in the eye.
Then he
said, “You son of the devil,
You’re no
son of salvation, you’re a son of Satan!
full of
every sort of deceit and fraud, and enemy of all that is good! Will you never
stop perverting the true ways of the Lord? Watch now, for the Lord has laid his
hand of punishment upon you, and you will be struck blind. You will not see the
sunlight for some time [in
case you were wondering what blind meant].” Instantly mist and darkness came
over the man’s eyes, and he began groping around begging for someone to take
his hand and lead him.
It’s
actually almost identical to what happened to Paul at his conversion. Paul has
been through all of this and he is hoping it will have the same effect on
Bar-Jesus.
When
the governor saw what had happened, he became a believer, for he was astonished
at the teaching about the Lord.
The
miracle affirmed the teaching and that is what Luke really draws attention to
here.
Paul
and his companions then left Paphos by ship for Pamphylia, landing at
the port town of Perga.
From Paphos to Perga of Pamphylia.
Why did they go there next? First of all, why did they go to Cyprus in the
first place? Did they throw a dart on the map for the Holy Spirit to tell them
where to go? Or was it because Barnabas grew up there and spend a lot of his
life there, had contacts, knew the area, and they thought it would make sense
for them to go there first. Perga is the port in southern Turkey. Paul had
spent his life in southeast Turkey, had grown up in the area.
Pisidian
Antioch. Paul says in Galatians that it was because of an illness that he first
came to them. Some people think he might have gotten malaria and he had to go
way up high into the mountains to get better, I don’t know. But one thing that
is pretty interesting from archeology is at Pisidian Antioch they found this
inscription which refers to the son of Sergius Paulus, who was an important
government official there. Luke, not only does he get Sergius Paulus right in
Cyprus, he gets his son right too and it makes sense by they would go from
there up north. Maybe Sergius Paulus even wrote some letters of recommendation
for them, gave them some tips on where to go. They had an in with another place
and they went there.
They land
at Perga, when you look at photos of ancient Perga there are huge mountains in
the distance, the Taurus mountains, and Paul says, ‘Alright guys, we’re going
100 miles that way.’ Straight up over the mountains. Have you ever hiked even
one mile in a mountain? It’s hard. At this point we see that this is too much
for John Mark and it says,
There John
Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem.
It doesn’t
say why. It comes up later in Acts, Paul viewed this as desertion. John Mark
went half way, felt like he was done, that he didn’t sign up for that, and he
went back home. But Paul and Barnabas kept on moving.
But
Paul and Barnabas traveled inland to Antioch of Pisidia.
Notice
here that it is “Paul and Barnabas” did you notice the previous, “Paul and his
companions.” Paul is now first in this missionary duo. They make the 100-mile
journey, it would have taken many days. If Paul was sick it would have taken
even longer.
On the
Sabbath they went to the synagogue for the services.
They
always go to the synagogue first to talk to the Jews.
After
the usual readings from the books of Moses and the prophets, those in charge of
the service sent them this message: “Brothers, if you have any word of
encouragement for the people, come and give it.”
Paul might
have had a robe or distinction that wold have marked that he was a learned rabbi
from Jerusalem. They thought they would give this learned travelling rabbi a
chance to speak to them all. Paul says, ‘well if you insist…’
So Paul
stood, lifted his hand to quiet them, and started speaking.
What we
have here is a condensed version of this talk that he gave, the first lengthy
talk we have from Paul, we will see many more of them. We can read it in 60
seconds, he would have spoken a lot longer than this. You will recognize this;
it looks familiar to the speech of Stephen and the speech of Peter. This is how
Paul preached the gospel to the Jew.
“Men of
Israel,” he said, “and you God-fearing Gentiles,
Usually
you ignore the Gentiles who are there, Paul explicitly reaches out to them in
this speech
listen to me. The God of this nation of Israel
chose our ancestors and made them multiply and grow strong during their stay in
Egypt.
He is way
back in 1800-1700 BC. He has jumped back to how God worked in the Old
Testament. He has jumped back to really, the first books in the bible, Genesis
and early Exodus.
Then with a powerful arm he led them out of
their slavery. He put up with them through forty years of wandering in the
wilderness. Then he destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to
Israel as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years. [Taking us right up to about 1400
BC.]
After
that, God gave them judges to rule until the time of Samuel the prophet. [1050BC]
Then
the people begged for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the
tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years. But God removed Saul and
replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, ‘I have found David son of
Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.’ And
it is one of King David’s descendants, Jesus, who is God’s promised Savior
of Israel!
He starts
to bring up the prophecies, the prophecies made to David that one of his sons
would sit on the throne forever. The son of David, referred to later as the
Messiah, the Anointed One, the Savior, the Christ. The prophets predicted it.
Before
he [that savior] came, John the Baptist preached that all the people of Israel
needed to repent of their sins and turn to God and be baptized.
John was
so famous; he was like a rockstar. He was heard of all the way up here in
Turkey. He says, ‘Remember John?’ John was sent from God to tell people about
Jesus. If you believe John, believe in Jesus.
As John
was finishing his ministry he asked, ‘Do you think I am the Messiah? No, I am
not! But he is coming soon—and I’m not even worthy to be his slave and
untie the sandals on his feet.’ Brothers—you sons of Abraham, and also you
God-fearing Gentiles—this message of salvation has been sent to us!
We are the
privileged ones!
The
people in Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize Jesus as the one the
prophets had spoken about.
I wonder
if he went into some of these prophecies right here, from the Old Testament
Instead,
they condemned him, and in doing this they fulfilled the prophets’ words
I wonder
if he read some more of those prophecies here.
that
are read every Sabbath. They found no legal reason to execute him, but they
asked Pilate to have him killed anyway. When they had done all that the
prophecies said about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him
in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead!
That’s the
good news.
And
over a period of many days he appeared to those who had gone with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people of Israel. And
now we are here to bring you this Good News. The promise was made to our
ancestors, and God has now fulfilled it for us, their descendants, by raising
Jesus. This is what the second psalm says about Jesus: ‘You are my Son. Today I
have become your Father.’ [He
is quoting the Old Testament}
For God
had promised to raise him from the dead, not leaving him to rot in the grave. He
said, ‘I will give you the sacred blessings I promised to David.’ [Quoting more Old Testament] Another
psalm explains it more fully: ‘You will not allow your Holy One to rot in the
grave.’ This is not a reference to David, for after David had done the will of
God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his ancestors, and his
body decayed. No, it was a reference to someone else—someone whom God raised
and whose body did not decay. [Which can only be Jesus Christ]
Brothers,
listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus
Jesus who,
claimed to be the way, the truth, and the life. This is the heart of Paul’s gospel,
the heart of the gospel, what we see over and over again in his letter. And it
starts with Jesus and he says, it’s only through Jesus is that,
there
is forgiveness for your sins.
That is
the only way to get rid of that guilt you have before God. How do you get it?
By good work? No!
Everyone
who believes
in him
It’s by
faith alone! And that will get you what?
is declared right with God—
Justified.
Made right, just as if you have never even sinned because your sins are
transferred onto Jesus and he suffers for you. And he says, finally,
something
the law of Moses could never do.
It’s not
by works, it’s not by obeying the Law, it’s only by trusting in Jesus. He says
that he what they are there to proclaim to them. That’s why God sent them all
over the Roman empire to tell people about. That’s why he sent those no-name
Christians to Antioch to tell them about. And that, over the last 2000 years,
through a lot of no-name Christians, that message has come right down here to
this room tonight. And I stand here as a no-name Christian to tell you this;
that it is through Jesus that you can have forgiveness for your sins. That’s
available to everyone who believes in him. You can be declared right with God
and that is something that being good and obeying the Law can never accomplish.
Why not here tonight fall on your knees before Jesus, put your trust in him and
receive this forgiveness?