Lessons From Acts – Lesson 21
Paul and Barnabas are on their first missionary journey and they have already seen God move in an amazing way to remove an obstacle so that a man could get saved.
They are off to a good start and then John Mark goes home. We covered all of that last week.
We know that Paul did not agree with that from his response much later, but Paul does a good thing, he does not let it stop him. And he does not let it interfere with his confidence and boldness.
And right there is a lesson for us. The Lord’s work is too important to let disagreements or discouragement or even the failure of others to slow us down. Anything we can do to be obedient to what Jesus told us to do, should be considered a privilege and it needs to be made more important in our lives than things like someone else quitting.
So Paul and Barnabas keep traveling and came to Antioch. This is not the Antioch that they left, this is a different Antioch in a different country.
Even though most of the Jews have rejected Paul and told him to go home, he still has a heart for them to be saved.
And he never loses this. Many years later Paul writes:
Rom 9:1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
Rom 9:2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
Rom 9:3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
Rom 9:4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
Rom 9:5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
Rom 10:1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
It was a great sorrow in Paul’s heart that his people refused to get saved. They had every advantage here. Paul brings up that they had been given the covenants and the law and the service of God and they were given promise after promise.
And finally God left heaven and came to this Earth and was born of a virgin. And Jesus was born an Israelite. Jesus went to them first. They had every advantage and the fact that they had all of that and still refused to get saved was a great heaviness to Paul.
And this is not the kind of thing that you see many other people do. They will made a good show with words and say something burdens them, but after they are done speaking, nothing. They don’t do anything about it.
Their actions actually showing that they are not really that burdened about it after all.
Around here we are burdened first and foremost about getting God’s precious word to the lost. And as you are all aware we do something about it. The burden is real. We also along with that are burdened about the fatherless and the poor. And so we make sure that we spend 16 to 18 percent on that.
We do that because we are genuinely concerned about it. It is not just lip service.
Wanting Jews to get saved was not lip service with Paul. And so you will see time and time again when Paul gets to a new town he goes to the Jews first.
Here is another lesson for us. A burden that is limited to only words is not really a burden at all. That is something else. A real burden will have attached to it doing something about it.
Acts 13:14 But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down.
Acts 13:15 And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.
In those days it was a custom in a synagogue to let visiting men speak.
It is different in our culture today. We don’t let someone who just shows up get up and address the congregation. We first have to know who they are and we have to know what they believe, and only let them speak if we agree with them.
It was different back then. Paul is a Jew and from out of town and shows up on Saturday to the synagogue and so he is invited to speak. That might seem strange to us but that is the way it was done back then.
So Paul stands up and preaches a sermon. And it is a great message.
All scripture is given by the inspiration of God. And this message is scripture. Paul is preaching this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
The message that Paul gives here and the other N.T. sermons that are recorded for us are what should be studied. Instead of what they call homiletics class in Bible College they should have N.T. sermons class.
Instead of studying man made humanistic rules on preaching, they should study how did the Holy Spirit have these men preach in the N.T.
Some of the things you should notice about the message that God had Paul preach are:
1 simple and to the point.
2 It is not long. He does not think that the longer the sermon the better. I have actually heard many times preachers put down others if they don’t preach for an hour. Their attitude there is absolutely not biblical.
3 straight forward. He is not talking down to people and not belittling people
4 no gimmicks
5 no entertainment. Jokes and funny story telling.
6 from the heart. Not only Paul’s heart that they get saved but this comes from the heart of God who is inspiring Paul with exactly the words to preach here.
7 And here is a big one. Paul uses scripture and more scripture and guess what more scripture. And not from just one place. Paul uses Exodus and Due. And Joshua, and Samuel and the Psalms. And Paul also uses what will be in the N.T. when it is finished.
This is not anything like many sermons that I have heard where they tell you to open your bible to a verse and they read it and then you never have to look at your bible again for the rest of the message. That is not the Biblical way.
8 We also see here that it is ok to paraphrase when referring to other scripture and it is ok to just make a quick reference to other scripture.
9 You can tell by looking at the overall message that Paul considered those he was preaching to as having intelligence and the ability to think and make a decision. And that they were knowledgeable about scripture.
Paul is going to start by bringing up their past history as a nation with God.
Acts 13:16 Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.
Acts 13:17 The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it.
Acts 13:18 And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness.
Acts 13:19 And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot.
He starts out by showing that they are God chosen people, and highlights how because that is true that God moved over and over again on their behalf.
Acts 13:20 And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.
Acts 13:21 And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.
Interesting detail there. Saul was king for about 40 years. That means that David did not become king until he was old.
If David was a pre-teen when Saul was king, O say 12 years old, then David would have been 52 years old when he became king. If David was 10 then he would have been 50 when he became king.
It throws a different light on the whole Bathsheba affair. David did not commit that sin the first year he was king. So David was not some young hormone driven inexperienced kid. His sin cannot be blamed on youth or inexperience.
David was old enough to be Bathsheba’s father. David was a good king. He did a lot of good, and a lot of what he did was in the will of God.
But he did have a couple of character flaws and one of the huge ones was women. In that area he never did go God’s way of one man and one woman.
David was God’s king and he was a huge deal to the Jews even in Paul’s day. And to David God made a promise.
Acts 13:22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
Acts 13:23 Of this man’s seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus:
Acts 13:24 When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.
Acts 13:25 And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. But, behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose.
Acts 13:26 Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.
Acts 13:27 For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him.
Acts 13:28 And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain.
Acts 13:29 And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre.
Paul is going thru the fact that Jesus is the promised Saviour from the line of David just like scripture foretold. And then the death and burial and resurrection
Acts 13:30 But God raised him from the dead:
Acts 13:31 And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.
Acts 13:32 And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,
Acts 13:33 God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
Another quote from scripture.
Acts 13:34 And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.
Acts 13:35 Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Acts 13:36 For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:
Acts 13:37 But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.
Acts 13:38 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:
Acts 13:39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
I mean this is wonderful. Jesus saves! The law cannot save but Jesus saves!
Now they have to make a choice. They have heard the truth in a beautiful to the point short, plain, clear sermon. Jesus is the one our God promised to sit on David’s throne.
He has come and lived and died and rose again.
And all that believe are justified from all things. That is total forgiveness of sin. And to finish Paul gives a warning from Old Testament scriptures about refusing to believe.
Acts 13:40 Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets;
Acts 13:41 Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.
Acts 13:42 And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
Acts 13:43 Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
So after the main crowd left, many believed. Some Jews believe and religious proselytes were Gentiles who were wanting to be a Jew religiously. And they would regularly attend the Synagogue.
So Paul and Barnabas spent more time with them after the service was over and they persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
In other words don’t keep trying to work your way to heaven. Don’t continue in that, instead continue in the grace of God.
The two are opposites. You cannot walk in Works for Salvation and also at the same time walk in the grace of God for salvation. It is either one or the other and one saves and the other does not. We are saved by grace.
When the Gospel is presented to a group of lost people as Paul did here, each individual has to make a personal choice. Not everyone there got saved. Far from it. But praise the Lord many did.
And those eternal souls are worth all the trouble of travel and all the hardship and all the work, and all the expense. And those that do believe are worth continuing on when others quit or even when people throw rocks at you.
God pre-saw this moment. So God at the exact right time called for Paul and Barnabas to go on this journey. And on this day God blessed the preaching and God opened eyes and some chose to believe.
And there was much joy in heaven when those souls were rescued from Hell.