Books of the Book: Acts

Saul & Barnabas Sent

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Jim & Mark Howard

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Series Code: ABOTB

Program Code: ABOTB00015B


00:01 Welcome back to Books of the Book.
00:02 We are in the book of Acts chapter 13 and we had just
00:05 studied right before the break, Jim, we were talking about
00:09 Elymas the sorcerer and how the Lord through the Apostle Paul
00:14 had shown Sergius Paulus that he was with Paul and his power
00:18 was with Paul and kind of confounded, more than confounded
00:23 Elymas the sorcerer as Paul pronounced a blindness on him.
00:27 Of course, it says the proconsul believed as a result of that.
00:32 Now we're moving on into verse 13 and verses 13-15 are kind of
00:36 transitional here. It tells us in verse 13 that Paul and his
00:40 party set sail from Paphos and then they came to Perga and
00:44 Pamphylia and John, this is John Mark, departing from them
00:47 returned to Jerusalem. Now we're going to see that later on I
00:50 believe this caused a little contention with the departure
00:53 of John. Now in verse 14 it says They departed from Perga and
00:56 came to Antioch in Pisidia. This is not the Antioch where they
01:00 moved headquarters to, but this is another Antioch, Pisidian
01:03 Antioch, where they went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day
01:06 and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the
01:09 prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent to them saying,
01:12 Men and brethren if you have any word of exhortation for the
01:15 people say on. Now it was customary in those times that
01:18 the ruler of the synagogue or the leader could appoint whoever
01:22 he wanted to for the service and it seems here that there perhaps
01:27 was knowledge of Paul's rabbinical and not knowledge of
01:30 Paul's defense of Christianity. So, hey, here's a guy who has
01:34 rabbinical training. Maybe he has something to say today and
01:38 could lead out and so they invited him to speak and you
01:41 might want to pick up in verse 16 there and tell us what
01:44 happened when Paul was invited to speak.
01:47 Right. When we get to verse 16, Paul stands up. It says he
01:52 motions with his hand and he begins to recount similarly to
01:56 how Stephen recounted the history of Israel. He begins to
02:01 recount similarly and he talks about how God chose the fathers
02:06 and they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt and they were
02:11 in slavery there, but ultimately he rescued them out and they
02:14 were in the wilderness for a period and then he ultimately
02:18 gave them the land of Canaan. He goes on to talk about how
02:21 they had judges that ruled them and then finally the king, Saul
02:25 the king, and then after Saul he raised up David. And he's
02:29 trying to get to this point of David because from David comes
02:33 the lineage of the Messiah. He's trying to get to show the
02:38 progression to Christ. So he says in verse 22, And when he
02:42 had removed him he raised up for them David as king to whom
02:46 also he gave testimony and said I have found David the son of
02:49 Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will. Verse
02:53 23, From this man's seed according to the promise God
02:56 raised up for Israel a Savior, Jesus, after John has first
03:00 preached. He talks about John and how John said that he wasn't
03:04 the Savior. Then in verse 26 he says, Men and brethren, sons of
03:08 the family of Abraham, he emphasizes that they were sons
03:12 of this whole lineage that they just described, and those among
03:17 you who fear God to you the word of this salvation has been sent.
03:21 So notice he's telling an account but then he makes it
03:26 very personal and he's now saying this is a personal appeal
03:29 a personal invitation; to you the word of this salvation has
03:33 been sent. Verse 27, For those who dwell in Jerusalem and their
03:38 rulers because they did not know him, that's know Jesus, and he's
03:42 talking about those who dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers,
03:46 those who were involved in the crucifixion, because they didn't
03:49 know Jesus nor even the voices of the prophets. Of course, the
03:53 prophets had pointed to Jesus as the Messiah. Then it makes
03:56 this interesting statement, nor even the voices of the prophets
03:59 which are read every Sabbath have fulfilled them in
04:03 condemning him. Here's what he's saying, ultimately because they
04:07 did not know Jesus, they did not know what the prophets had
04:13 written about Jesus and because of that they brought about the
04:17 crucifixion. Well the prophets had pointed forward to that
04:20 crucifixion, so by ignoring the prophets they fulfilled that
04:24 prophecy. Well yeah and did not know isn't
04:26 weren't acquainted with. In other words, he's not saying
04:28 you did not know because you never heard. They heard every
04:31 Sabbath. Exactly right. And that's one of
04:32 the biggest points of this particular passage is that this
04:36 is something that they should have known. They were acquainted
04:40 with it. It had been read every Sabbath. You know I think about
04:44 how... it takes me back to the story of Peter when Peter denied
04:48 Christ. Remember that Christ told him beforehand that he was
04:52 going to do that. He said, I tell you Peter, you're going to
04:56 deny me three times and Peter said, Oh, I'll never deny you.
05:02 Even though Jesus told him that and Jesus was in the judgment
05:06 hall and Peter followed at a distance and there Peter was and
05:10 he was being asked, Are you with the Galilean. Oh no, oh no. You
05:15 would think maybe after the second time that Peter said no
05:18 that he would have gone, Oh I better not do this again, right.
05:21 He said three times. It just totally leaves his mind.
05:24 The pressures of his reputation and potential persecution are
05:28 too great and he goes right through and does exactly what
05:32 he was told he was going to do. It was a character issue.
05:35 It was a character issue and ultimately he denied Jesus that
05:39 third time. You know, there are some people who read prophecies
05:44 of Revelation and they see what's going to happen at the
05:46 end. We just looked previously at Revelation 13 how there will
05:51 be persecution. There will be it appears a compelling of people
05:55 to follow civil legislation or civil laws that are contrary to
05:59 the law of God. And so they say, Oh I see that that's going to
06:03 happen, I just won't do it. But just we know something is going
06:07 to happen doesn't mean that we'll have the character to
06:11 actually respond to it. Just because they heard these
06:15 prophecies every Sabbath didn't mean that they knew and
06:18 understood them, it didn't mean that they had accepted them or
06:22 searched them or taken them to heart. So we need to be very
06:25 clear that, you know what, we may hear things every Sabbath
06:29 we may be learning all the time and think that well we know what
06:33 we need to know but the reality is we could find ourselves just
06:36 as void of true knowledge as they were here.
06:39 Absolutely. And he emphasizes that point as he goes on. If we
06:44 look at verse 28 it says, And though they found no cause for
06:48 death in him they asked Pilate that he should be put to death.
06:51 Now when they, that is the religious leaders and the Jews,
06:55 had fulfilled all that was written concerning him they took
06:59 him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. So all the things
07:04 concerned, Paul is drawing attention to the prophecies of
07:07 Christ. You know David had said, They're going to shoot out the
07:10 lip at me, they're going to mock me, they're going to give me
07:16 gall to drink, they're going to tell me if he is the Son of God
07:20 then let him come down and save himself, or if God is in favor
07:24 of him let God save him. All of those things were fulfilled by
07:29 the religious leaders of the day even though they heard them in
07:34 the synagogue every Sabbath, they fulfilled them. Paul is
07:37 making a point and I think it's important for us to note again
07:40 that he keeps going back to scripture. It's not just his
07:43 experience but he is bringing them back to what has been
07:47 written in scripture and he goes on to say, But God, verse 30,
07:53 has raised him up from the dead Then he goes on to share some
07:59 other prophecies of the psalms that have been fulfilled.
08:03 I'd love to go through them but sake of time we're going to jump
08:07 ahead to verse 35. We're going to see something else here.
08:09 It says in verse 35 he says, It also says in another Psalm, you
08:13 will not allow your Holy One to see corruption...
08:15 We've already seen that in Acts chapter 2.
08:17 for David after he had served his own generation by the will
08:20 of God fell asleep and was buried with his fathers and saw
08:23 corruption. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption.
08:26 So he gives the same argument we saw that Peter gave and
08:30 confirming that Jesus is the Christ. Then he goes on to say
08:33 in verse 38, Therefore let it be known to you brethren that
08:36 through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins
08:40 and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things
08:44 from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
08:48 Beware therefore lest what has come upon you in the prophets
08:51 or which has been spoken of in the prophets comes upon you.
08:55 And he quotes from Habakkuk where Habakkuk foretells
08:58 judgment. In essence he says that we have on every Sabbath
09:02 heard the prophecies pointing forward to what we have just
09:06 seen happen. Everything's been fulfilled just exactly as you
09:10 have learned it would be growing up if you just take a look at
09:14 these prophecies. And now here's this man Jesus who I'm
09:18 presenting to you. Salvation is through him, forgiveness of sins
09:21 is in him, he is able to justify us from the things that the law
09:24 could not justify us from, which is nothing. The law can't
09:27 justify, it was never given to justify. Justification was
09:30 always to be through the lamb that would come, Jesus Christ,
09:34 the Lamb of God. And Paul is urging them to accept the Son
09:37 of God as their salvation. Amen, amen. So now we're here
09:42 in verse 42 where we see the response that is given and it's
09:45 a fantastic response. It's the kind we like to get after a
09:49 sermon. It says in verse 42, So when the Jews went out of the
09:52 synagogue the gentiles begged that these words might be
09:55 preached to them the next Sabbath. They begged! That's
09:58 exactly right. And they took advantage of it. It says now
10:01 when the congregation had broken up many of the Jews and devout
10:04 proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them,
10:08 persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. So they saw it
10:11 as their responsibility to persuade both Jews and Greeks.
10:15 You know, I think of the text where the Apostle Paul said
10:19 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men.
10:23 There's a lot of people who feel well we'll just let the Holy
10:25 Spirit bring people to a decision. But they saw that
10:29 the Holy Spirit brings conviction but he uses us to...
10:33 When the Holy Spirit comes upon us we will be witnesses.
10:35 That's right. And in doing that he wants us to give clear reason
10:40 that will cause someone to be available for the Holy Spirit to
10:44 pierce their heart convince them of the truth. So then it says in
10:48 verse 44 something very interesting. On the next Sabbath
10:52 almost the whole city came together to hear the word of
10:54 God. Now we're going to pause here for just a moment and
10:58 notice that the Sabbath all through the book of Acts Paul
11:01 and the apostles are meeting on the Sabbath and it doesn't
11:05 matter if there are just Jews or if gentiles are involved and
11:09 they don't seem to try to meet on a different day. There's no
11:13 intimation of that. They just meet every Sabbath.
11:15 Yeah you figure that if people begged that they'd preach more
11:18 they'd say hey we've got meetings every day, we've got
11:20 meetings on the first day of the week, come over. But that
11:22 evidently wasn't the practice here.
11:24 Week after week they came on the Sabbath. So after this we see
11:27 the Jews saw the multitude and were filled with envy, which
11:31 we've seen before and ultimately the Apostle Paul said, Hey
11:36 because of what you've done and because of your rejection, I'm
11:40 taking this to the gentiles. As we might say the gentiles were
11:44 glad and the Jews were mad, and Paul and Barnabas shook the dust
11:49 off their feet. Wow! What a powerful story. Unfortunately
11:53 we're out of time for today but join us next time on
11:56 Books of the Book.


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Revised 2014-12-17