So it's Acts chapter 13, carrying on where we left off
last week, and we're beginning at verse 13.
From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in
Pamphilia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem.
From Perga, they went on to Poseidian, Antioch.
On the Sabbath, they entered the synagogue and sat down.
After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the leaders of
the synagogue sent word to them saying, Brothers, if you have a
word of exhortation for the people, please speak.
Standing up, Paul motioned with his hand and said, Fellow
Israelites, the new Gentiles who worship God, listen to me.
The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors.
He made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt.
With mighty power, he led them out of that country for about 40
years. He endured their conduct in the
wilderness, and he overthrew 7 nations in Canaan, giving their
land to his people as their inheritance.
All this took about 450 years. After this God gave them judges
until the time of Samuel the prophet.
Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son
of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled for 40
years. After removing Saul, he made
David their king. God testified concerning him.
I have found David's son of Jesse a man after my own heart.
He will do everything I want him to do.
From this man's descendants God has brought to Israel the
Saviour Jesus as he promised. Before the coming of Jesus, John
preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel.
As John was completing his work, he said, Who do you suppose I
am? I'm not the one you are looking
for, but there is one coming after me whose sandals I am not
worthy to untie. Fellow children of Abraham and
you, God fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of
salvation has been sent. The people of Jerusalem and
their rulers did not recognise Jesus, yet in condemning him
they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every
Sabbath. Though they found no proper
ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him
executed. When they'd carried out all that
was written about him, they took him down from the cross and laid
him in a tomb. But God raised him from the
dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had travelled
with him from Galilee to Jerusalem.
They are now his witnesses to our people.
We tell you the good news. What God promised our ancestors,
He has fulfilled for us their children by raising up Jesus.
As it is written in the second Psalm.
You are my Son today. I have become your Father.
God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to
decay. As God has said, I will give you
the holy and sure blessings promised to David.
So it is also stated elsewhere. You will not let your holy ones
see decay. Now when David had served God's
purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep.
He was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.
But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.
Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus,
the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
Through him, everyone who believes is set free from every
sin, a justification you are not able to obtain under the Law of
Moses. Take care that what the prophets
have said does not happen to you.
Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I'm going to do
something in your days that you would never believe even if
someone told you. As Paul and Barnabas were
leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak
further about these things. On the next Sabbath.
When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and
devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who
talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.
On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the
word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds,
they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what
Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him.
Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly.
We had to speak the Word of God to you first, since you reject
it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal
life. We now turn to the Gentiles, for
this is what the Lord has commanded us.
I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring
salvation to the ends of the earth.
When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honoured the
word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life
believed the word of the Lord spread through the whole region.
But the Jewish leaders incited the God fearing women of high
standing and the leading men of the city.
They stood up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and
expelled them from their region. So they shook the dust off their
feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium.
And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy
Spirit. So kind of just to begin our
time in Acts 13, I wonder, have you ever wanted to see one of
the greats of history in action? So what I'm going to ask you to
do is to turn to the person next to you and say who you would say
was the greatest athlete who ever lived.
It could be living or dead. You're about 30 seconds.
Turn to the person next to you who is the greatest athlete
who's ever lived that you would love to see in action 30
seconds. Go tell the person next to you.
That's roughly 30 seconds. So can I have some suggestions?
Put your hand up. I will bring a microphone.
Who's the greatest athlete you would love to have seen in
action in human history? Yes.
Oh, Jamie Vardy. Oh, Jamie Vardy.
Lovely. Yep.
Chloe someone.
Who won the skiing Olympics while being blind?
That's very specific, but yes, that is a great one.
It's only one that's king. Limits for being blind, Amy.
Novak Djokovic. Novak Djokovic, yes, OK.
And he played tennis, is that right?
So my aunts for my children because they don't want to go on
the microphone, so Anna, said Simone Biles.
Yes. And Rowan said the first guy to
run a marathon, which I don't think it was that great because
he fell over. And died.
Died, but still, that was still quite impressive.
Simone Biles, gymnasts and first guy to run a marathon.
Johnny Wilkinson kicking the world.
Cup. In 2003, it was healthy in days.
Oh, yeah. Sorry.
Bear. Michael Jordan.
Basketball.
Yes. Very good.
So for me, I know you're already desperate to know what I think.
I would say George Best playing football for Man United in the
60s. He wasn't necessarily an
athlete. He didn't look after his body
very well, but he was very good naturally.
So I think George Best. OK, same question.
The person next to you who's the greatest musician you would love
to see in action to be living or dead, could be a a solo artist,
a band. Turn to the person next to you,
the greatest musician ever. Go enough.
Can any suggestions? Hands up the musician you would
love to have seen in action. Is it Huxley?
Michael Jackson? We SK, We've got Chloe.
Someone from Blink 182? Someone from Blink 182.
That's great. OK, Is is that hand there?
OK, I'll maybe come back to you if you want.
Here we go. Freddie Mercury.
Johann Sebastian Bach.
Johann Sebastian Bach, as we call him.
Yes. Led Zeppelin.
Louis Armstrong.
Louis Armstrong, Yeah. Of Satchmo.
Yeah, yeah. Rick Astley.
Rick Astley of most of those names, Henry, you still have a
chance to see. OK, so I played it very safe.
I went for like, The Beatles live in concerts.
That'd be great. But actually, my mother-in-law
actually did see The Beatles live in concert when they were
very early in their days. And I said, what was it like?
And she went, they're all right, very hard woman to impress my
mother-in-law. I've discovered this.
OK, last one, maybe a bit more niche one.
The greatest artist, visual artist could be a film director,
could be a painter, a sculptor. Who would be the greatest artist
you'd love to see in action? I'm not going to give you very
long in this because it's a bit high, bro.
OK, so the greatest artist, Mummy.
The greatest artist. Brilliant.
OK, so there's Lisa Wallace is a very good artist.
Grim Hideo Miyazaki. Yes.
I Yeah. Who?
Who is that? Sorry.
Studio Ghibli. Studio Ghibli.
Thank you very much. So an artist there from the
great animated films. Any other artist to add?
Got you. Go for it.
Leonardo da Vinci. Leonard da Vinci, not DiCaprio,
but da Vinci yes and ASA final one Banksy Banksy he could be
here we don't know he's mystery, but yes so and again I played a
fairly safe. I went for a Rembrandt.
This is an amazing painting. You can't receive how clearly
look look behind you. It's about a picture on that
screen but but yes so it's this is like this the calming of the
storm. Amazing, amazing painter.
Rembrandt, OK, I'm out of breath, but I introduced that
way to say, actually, it's really exciting if we ever got
the privilege of seeing one of the greats in action, a great
athlete, a great musician, a great artist.
And I want to suggest our bit of Acts this morning, Acts chapter
13, the second-half, Luke is letting us see one of the greats
in action. This is the first time in Acts
where Luke records one of the apostle Paul's sermons, Paul
preaching the good news of Jesus that would extend across the
whole world. And Paul, he's one of the most
influential leaders in the history of the Christian Church.
Read over the book of Acts. He actually wrote more letters
than anyone else in the New Testament, 13 letters in the New
Testament and you begin to see how the living God equipped Paul
and worked through Paul to build Jesus church in the ancient
world. The Apostle Paul is one of the
greats of church history. He was a great Bible teacher,
theologian, missionary, pastor, church planter, mentor, friend.
And here we get to see the possible doing what he loved
best, telling the people around him about Jesus and the good
news about Jesus coming to save us.
So as Chris already said, we're near the beginning still of Paul
and Barnard's first missionary journey there on a place called
Pisidian Antioch. And we know from other records
of the time there was a large Jewish population in Pisidian
Antioch. So this sermon of Paul's is
addressed to largely Jewish people.
He and Barnabas go and visit the local synagogue and they're
invited to speak by the synagogue leaders.
That's verse 15. And later in Acts we're going to
see him speak mainly to non Jewish people.
So next week he's going to be a place in Lystra and then you've
got to go to Athens. A few bits after that in Acts
17. And so bearing all that in mind,
if Paul is one of the grits in proclaiming the good news of
Jesus, what is Paul's message all about?
Well, very simply, we need to see that Paul's message is
Jesus. He wants us to know that Jesus
offers us forgiveness and freedom.
And then he says to everyone who hears that message, how are you
going to respond to that? Actually, this past, we've
learned a lot about the preaching of the early church.
They proclaimed a person Jesus. They proclaimed a gift,
forgiveness and freedom. And they looked for a response.
They wanted people to respond to that message.
We want to think this morning, what can we learn about how we
might, if we're Christians, communicate the good news of
Jesus, but also how are we responding to the good news of
Jesus today? So the first thing we we want to
see is that Paul's message is Jesus.
His message is a person because, because because Paul knows that
the message, Christianity is all about Jesus, who he is and what
he's done for us. It's not just good advice of how
to live a good life. It's not just an amazing
philosophy or a way of living. It's about this person, Jesus,
knowing him and being known by him.
Remember years ago hearing a story of a guy in London who was
looking into whether Christianity was true, and he
asked the pastor of the church he was attending, look, can you
give me a watertight argument that shows that Christianity is
the truth? And the pastor thought over.
But he said, well, what if God hasn't given us a watertight
argument? He's given us a watertight
person. He's given us a person we can
rely on. And for a lot of people, you
might not get every one of our questions answered about
Christianity, but what God has done, he has sent his son Jesus.
And the message of Christianity is Jesus, Jesus who lived, Jesus
who died, Jesus who rose again. So that's Paul's message in the
synagogue is Jesus, but actually doesn't start with Jesus
straight away. If you look at that and verses
17 onwards. So speaking to this Jewish
audience, he kind of gives them a quick overview of the Bible, a
quick overview of the Old Testament.
So look at verses 17 to 22, and he kind of speeds through the
history of ancient Israel. He says they the ancient Israel
was chosen by God as his people. That's when God called a man
called Abram to follow him. They spent 400 years in Egypt.
They spent 40 years in the wilderness after God rescued him
from Egypt. They spent 10 years conquering
Canaan, the land God gave them. And he said that all took about
450 years. Nice round figure from Paul.
And once they're in the land of Canaan, God eventually gives
them a king. His first king is King Saul
verse 21. But eventually God makes David
their king and and Paul reminds them from the Old Testament that
David was a man after God's own heart.
King. David was God's special king
come to lead and save God's people.
And why does Paul emphasize David so much?
Because he wants his hearers to see verse 23.
It was from this man, David's descendants.
God has brought to Israel the Saviour Jesus, as he promised.
So God's always promised to save his people through a special
king he was going to send. And David was a great king in
the Old Testament. He wrote the Psalms, he killed
Goliath, he led God's people. But David wasn't perfect.
Bible's really clear about that. David made some really bad
choices. David committed things like
adultery and murder. Even he killed a guy because you
want to get rid of him so he can sleep with his wife.
And the big problem, Paul says, is that David didn't live
forever. Actually, towards the end,
verses 32 to 37, he just says, well, David, he, he died.
He was a great king, but he died just like the rest of us.
See, David was only ever a picture, a trailer of God's
special king to come. So why does Paul begin by giving
this kind of overview? The Bible didn't just cut
straight to Jesus. What Paul wants us to see here,
that Jesus didn't come out of nowhere.
He didn't just appear completely by surprise.
Paul wants to see that the whole Bible points us to Jesus.
Every story in the Bible whispers Jesus name.
And actually you guys in Sunday club will know that better than
the rest of us. You're doing like a big Bible
overview at the moment in Sunday club, learning how all the
stories of the Old Testament points to Jesus.
That's what Paul reminds us of here.
And actually, the coming of Jesus was planned by God from
before the creation of the world.
Jesus is the fulfillment of everyone of God's promises to
his people. It's because of Jesus we can say
God is a God who keeps his promises because he promised to
send Jesus, and then he sent him.
And then once Paul's compainted that background and laid that
foundation, he goes on to teach us about Jesus, who he is, and
what he's done for us. So Paul wants to see that that
Jesus lived, Jesus died and Jesus rose again to save us and
he did all those things to rescue people who need rescuing
and that is every single human being on this planet.
So verse 23, Paul describes Jesus as the saviour.
Jesus basically says saving people is just what Jesus does.
It's even in his name. The name Jesus literally means
the Lord saves. And in verse 26 he says the
message about Jesus is the message of salvation.
Again, the gospel of Jesus isn't just good advice or moral
instruction. No, the gospel of Jesus is that
we need rescuing. God has sent us a rescuer, and
his name is Jesus. And Paul begins the story of
Jesus by talking about the ministry of John the Baptist,
and that's in verses 24 and falling.
And he says that John the Baptist prepared the way for
Jesus by teaching repentance and baptism.
And John the Baptist makes it clear, actually, we all need
Jesus to rescue us. So John the Baptist didn't go to
Gentile nations, he went to the Jewish people.
Remember, the Jewish people, they're God's special people.
But John the Baptist came to say, actually, if we want to be
ready to meet the Messiah, we need to say sorry for the sins
we've we've committed and we need to be washed clean by God.
So John the Baptist says we all need Jesus.
We all need to be reconciled to God through Jesus, whether we
are Jewish or Gentile. We needed Jesus to come to save
us and then we learned that Jesus did amazing things for us.
Jesus was rejected, verse 27 by the people of Jerusalem and the
rulers, just as the Old Testament said he would be.
Jesus died. Verse 28.
They asked Pilate to have him executed.
They nailed him to a cross, literally, verse 29, a tree.
Jesus was buried. Verse 29.
They laid him in a tomb and Jesus was raised from the dead,
verse 30 and then he was seen by witnesses, verse 31 for many
days He was seen by those who travelled with him from Galilee
to Jerusalem. This is the message of
salvation. Jesus lived, Jesus died, Jesus
rose again and Jesus was seen by his followers.
And they then went on to tell other people who Jesus is and,
and Paul's always very careful to talk about what was going on
when Jesus died. Look at verse 29 again.
They say they took him down from the cross, literally from the
tree, and laid him in a tomb. The fact that Jesus died on a
cross on a tree is really significant because to die on a
cross, that was a slave's death, that was a criminal's death,
that was a shameful death. And Paul wants us to know that
Jesus took all our sin and all our shame on himself on the
cross. It was a cursed death.
Later on a letter that Paul writes to people in Galatia,
it's exactly where sitting in Antioch is.
He says this Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by
becoming a curse for us. For it's written cursed is
everyone who is hung on a tree that's quoting the Old
Testament, Deuteronomy 21. Jesus died this horrible,
shameful death so that our sin and our shame could be washed
clean, taken away from us. Far as far as the east is from
the West. Jesus took the punishment our
sins deserve on himself so we can be forgiven and set free.
Paul's message is all about Jesus and you Fast forward to
the present. That's why Christians talk about
Jesus a lot. That's why Christians sing songs
about Jesus. That's why Christians pray in
Jesus name. That's why Christians .1 another
towards Jesus. Because the Christian message is
all about Jesus and what he has done for us and what he offers
to us. And that's what Paul tells us
next. He says, what?
What does Jesus offer us? Well, Jesus offers us
forgiveness and freedom. That's verses 38 to 39.
He's wrapping up his sermon now. And he says, therefore, my
friends, I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness
of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him, everyone who
believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were
not able to obtain under the law of Moses.
What is this gift that Jesus offers us?
He offers us forgiveness of sins and even more, He offers us
freedom from the power of sin, forgiveness and freedom.
Through Jesus, every one of our sins can be forgiven.
Because remember, Jesus went to that cross in our place.
He was cursed in our place. No matter what we have done,
Jesus will forgive everyone and anyone who comes to him in
repentance and faith. He's paid the price for all our
sin. Paul's really clear about that,
but it's as if that wasn't enough for Jesus, He also wants
to set us free from the power of sin.
Because in the Bible, sin isn't just bad things we do or say or
think. Sin's often described as like a
slave master, or like a disease or an addiction that we cannot
free ourselves from. No matter how hard we try, we
can't cure ourselves. We can't set ourselves free.
But now Paul tells us through Jesus, everyone who believes is
set free from every sin. Sin's no longer our master.
If we belong to Jesus, we can now say no to sin and say yes to
God because Jesus is with us. He's given us his Spirit and
he's changing us. And that's amazing news for
everyone who follows him. What does that look like?
It's really it's clear and and important to say that Christians
still struggle with sin. Christians still mess up.
We still need God's forgiveness every day of our lives.
But actually, sin isn't our master anymore.
We can't say no to him in the name of Jesus.
And Jesus can change us through His Word and by His Spirit.
Often it's small quiet ways, and maybe we struggle to see it in
the short term, but over a longer period we see the Holy
Spirit changing people who trust in Jesus and making them more
like Jesus. Three good times, 3 hard times
through every day. Life with God is now possible
because Jesus has set us free. He's forgiven us our sins and he
set us free from the power of sin.
So the Christian life is 1 where we're completely forgiven by God
for what we've done in the past, but also we are able to live for
God now because God hasn't left us alone.
He sent us his Spirit, and the living Lord Jesus through his
Spirit is with us now, helping us to say no to sin and say yes
to him. So that is the gift that Jesus
offers us. And I guess the last bit, so
we're saying, how do we respond to that gift?
So as we kind of wrap up this little bit of Acts 13, what do
we learn from Paul, one of the greats in history as he
proclaims the good news of Jesus?
We learn actually that Paul's message is Jesus.
It's a person, Jesus, who he is and what he's done for us.
That Jesus offers us all forgiveness and freedom if we
come and put our faith in him. But the final part of Paul's
message is a really important one.
He basically wants to say to this crowd of Jewish people in
Basilian, Antioch, and through them, everyone who hears this
message today, how will you respond to Jesus?
Because preaching the book of Acts, it always looks for a
response. It's never just information or
facts about Jesus. No, actually the only question
is you that people need to respond to this good news.
And the response we need to make is to is repentance and faith.
That's what the Bible calls it, to turn away from a life of
ignoring God and turn and said towards God in response to all
that Jesus has done for us. So I guess we need to think,
well, how did Paul's first hearers respond to this message?
In Acts 13, Luke describes a wide variety of responses.
He says that some were interested and he wanted to hear
more. That's verse 42.
People invited them to speak further about these things.
They're kind of intrigued. We want to know more Paul.
Some actually believed. Verse 43, we're told they start
following Paul and Barnabas. They believed what he was
telling them and then some rejected his message.
In particular, Luke tells us the Jewish religious leaders
rejected Paul's message about Jesus.
They actually spoke against it. They felt threatened by what
Paul was saying about Jesus. Verse 45.
They were filled with jealousy and as a result, Paul and
Barnabas actually take their message to the Gentiles out of
the synagogue to non Jewish people as well.
They no longer limited themselves just to speaking in
the synagogue. Then I proclaimed the good news
of Jesus throughout the whole region, verse 49.
And many Gentiles came to believe in Jesus as a result.
But looking back at verses 40 to 41, actually, Paul warns his
Jewish readers, don't miss out on the salvation offered you
through Jesus. Don't become what he calls
scoffers. That's why people like eating
cakes. That's one definitely scoffers,
but scoffers are more people going this isn't for me.
I'm not interested. I don't need this.
I've got other things going on and he's he quotes a bit of the
Old Testament, the prophet Habakkuk.
And he says don't become scoffers.
Actually don't miss out on the new life that Jesus can give
you. Watch 13 shows is the word of
the Lord. The good news about Jesus.
It's powerful and it provokes different responses from
different people. So as we kind of prepare to
leave this bit of acts, the question really is, what about
us today? How will we respond to this
message about Jesus? Because Paul wants to actually
don't miss out on this. He tells us all that Jesus has
done through his life, death and resurrection.
He shows us all that Jesus offers us, forgiveness and
freedom, and he says don't miss out.
Don't miss out on this good news that Jesus offers you.
Don't miss out on this gift that he offers you.
You don't have to earn it. You don't have to pay for it.
You just have to receive it. But you need to respond to be
able to receive it. I remember there was a guy I
knew years ago which sort of sum up how we should respond to the
good news of Jesus. I guess it's a very simple
acronym of ABC. So admit, believe, and come
first. Admit that you need Jesus.
That's what Paul wants these people to know.
Some of them reject it, some of them accept it.
But he says admit that you need Jesus.
Admit you need what only he can give you.
Admit you need forgiveness and freedom from the power of sin,
and then believe. That's the second part.
Believe that Jesus is who he says he is, that he is the Son
of God who fulfills all God's promises, that he lived, died,
and rose again to save you, that he loves you and he offers you
forgiveness and freedom in his name.
And then very simply, come, come to Jesus and ask him to save
you. And actually, that's what you do
at the beginning of the Christian life, but also what
you do to live the Christian life.
You come to Jesus and you keep coming to Jesus.
You never graduate beyond coming to Jesus.
The Christian life begins that way, but also that's the way you
live the Christian life. Lord Jesus, I need your help.
I admit that I need you. I believe that you are who you
say you are. I want to come to you.
Please help me live for you. And we're moving into your time.
In a few minutes. We're going to take the Lord's
Supper together, bread and wine. And, and actually, that response
to the good news of Jesus is also at the heart of how
followers of Jesus take the bread and the wine that we're
going to do in a few minutes. We admit that we need Jesus.
We needed Jesus to give himself for us.
We believe that he is who he says he is, that he did die and
rise again and is seated at the right hand of the Father right
now. And because we admit our need
and we believe Jesus who he says He is, then we come to him and
we ask Him to help us and to keep us living for Him.