Sunday Morning Service

Acts 13:13-33 (Click title for audio access)

"The Gospel In Turkey!"  •  9.18.11  •  Thursday Night Bible Study, Calvary Christian Fellowship

Intro.

- When you consider your salvation, when do you consider that it began? Many of us will point to a moment in time when a response was given, perhaps at an altar call or a crusade.

- As I grow older and have spent many an hour considering this, I am more and more amazed at the lengths that God has gone to in order to secure the salvation of His people.

- As we come to the middle portion of Acts 13, I believe that you will see that this is exactly Paul's meaning as he gets to announce the word of salvation to an unsuspecting group.

- My goal this morning will be to present the heart of God in the act of your salvation, which I pray will impact you in a fresh way and inspire you for passionate service to Him.

Text

•  Acts 13:13 :  "Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia; and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem."  :  From the western edge of Cyprus, a shift in leadership has taken place on this team. To this moment it had been Barnabas and Saul. Now it is Paul and his party, who are setting sail.

- This was what was always going to happen, as Paul had been specially prepared by the Lord for this trip. Barnabas led long enough for that transition to take place naturally.

- They came to the capital city of the region of Pamphylia, which was Perga, located on the Mediteranean coast of Turkey.

- When they came to shore, John Mark took his leave, opting to go back to Jerusalem. Why did Mark leave? There are many who have attempted a guess. We know two things.

- First, there was no recorded divine call for Mark. He was an assistant, likely at the urging of his encouraging Uncle Barnabas.

- No matter who encourages us, without God's personal call and resource, we can not hope to be sustained in heaven's work.

- Second, when the second missionary journey begins, Paul has some very sharp opinions about John Mark, noting that he had "departed" or even deserted them.

- Whatever the case may have been for his leaving, it was an inopportune time to discover that he was not much of a missionary!

- He would really do better writing books, which I imagine came next in his life! Having said all of this, John Mark is not any less of a Christian.

- He will serve God another way, which is the beautiful thing about the Lord. He's not a God with only one job description for His believers. Each has a special call. Mark had one too!

•  Acts 13:14,15  :  "But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, 'Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.'" : John Mark having left them, the Apostle's destination was Antioch in Pisidia. This is not to be confused with Antioch in Syria, where the church of Antioch was.

- In fact, in the Ancient world, there were dozens of towns named after the Roman General.

- For those seeking greater insight into this particular section of scripture, you might give a read through the book of Galatians, for Pisidian Antioch and the next several cities are Galatia.

- Most scholars believe that Perga was a place of special hardship for the Apostle Paul and may have been the reason that no ministry is recorded there.

- In that sub-tropical location, it is believed that Paul contracted malaria and sought to relieve it by going from the tropics to the higher and dryer land.

- Pisidian Antioch was a remote location, reached only by scaling the Taurus mountain range, which was a daunting physical task, as well as a sincere security risk.

- When one looks at the area, you can see plainly how bandits could thrive there!

- Consider this: Paul had malaria or something like it, which featured a frequent burning headache. One commentator wrote that it was like having a red hot poker plunged through the eyes!

- He traveled on foot through an intimidating mountain range, known to be a frequent hideout for highwaymen!

- When one considers these factors, it's no wonder Paul considered Mark a deserter! It also highlights Paul and Barnabas' devotion to the gospel.

- Despite his pain, Paul entered the Synagogue and put himself into position to be used.

- Synagogues could be found in any town where there were 13 or more Jewish males.

- It was customary for the Jewish people to come together on Saturday in order to hear from the scriptures. Afterward, it was customary to open up the floor to any visiting Rabbi's.

- Can you imagine this moment: They looked to Paul and Barnabas and asked, "Do you guys have anything to share?" Can you imagine Paul's response?

- "Boy do I!" He must have been like the little kid who knows the answer in the class with his hand waving wildly in the crowd!  This was the invitation that Paul had been waiting for!

- What we see next is Paul's first and longest recorded sermon in the book of Acts.

•  Acts 13:16-19  :  "Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, 'Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen: The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He brought them out of it. Now for a time of about forty years He put up with their ways in the wilderness. And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land to them by allotment."  : Paul stood up, accepting the invitation and directed the synogogues attention to himself. He begins by noting his audience: Jews and God fearing Gentile proselytes.

- He begins with the history of God's choice of Israel, begininng with her Fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These were the men that God chose to represent His interests in the world.

- It was His idea to have a nation of people on the Earth that would witness to His reality.

- He picked Abraham over Nahor, Isaac over Ishmael and Jacob over Esau. It's interesting that each were younger brothers, not first born, which would have been the world's way.

- We know nothing of Nahor, but Ishmael was the result of Abraham's flesh and Esau best represented a man consumed with worldliness.

- Seems like God made some good choices, though His choice was not predicated on their perfection or their works. His choice of them is His business.

- Abraham had grown up in an idolatrous nation in Chaldea. Something occurred in his life that we are not told about, but in Genesis 12, God invites Abraham to go on a journey with Him.

- God revealed Himself to Abraham and promised to make a nation out of Him, a promise that He subsequently repeated to Isaac and Jacob, making them the Fathers of the nation Israel.

- God birthed the nation of Israel through them and then, Paul says that He exalted them. He raised them and caused them to be great when they were in captivity!

- Talk about a miracle, generally, captive nations dwindle and lose themselves in the culture of their captives. That was not the case with the Hebrews, a people who thrived in captivity.

- It was so that the Egyptians feared the Hebrews because they had multiplied so greatly. Their solution was oppression. But it was God's strong arm that delivered them from Egypt.

- He chose, He raised, He delivered them out of Egypt and He put up with them. That seems a very strange thing to say, though the word is much more tender than that.

- In the wilderness, God treated Israel like a Father would treat his son. He loved, protected, cared for and corrected them. Then He settled them by demolishing their enemies from before them.

- These had been great cities and a group of unarmed slaves saw them brought down!

- Paul rightly attributes the entire victory to God, having been the architect for the people of Israel. His plan for them was becoming more and more clear as history unfolded.

•  Acts 13:20-25  :  "After that He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’  From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus—after John had first preached, before His coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not He. But behold, there comes One after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose.’"  : After Joshua led the people into Canaan, the people had a series of leaders that God raised up to deliver them from trouble, though He was their King.

- That changed when the last godly judge Samuel got to be near an age where he could no longer be God's physical, judicial representative.

- The people did not care for Samuel's sons, so they asked Samuel for a King, something which I Samuel 8:7 shows, was a rejection of God as their King. This led to Saul's ascension.

- He was the people's choice and for 40 years, they had to endure his faulty, fleshly leadership. He was truly the leader that they deserved!

- He was a man with all the physical attributes that a King of that world would have had, but spiritually, the man had no real heart to obey the Lord, so God removed Him.

- The course that was Saul's life was increasingly sad. Out of insane jealousy, he chased his rival all over Israel, a futile exercise given God's favor of David.

- He lost all communication with God and eventually, being wounded in a battle with the Philistines, he was ignominously killed with all his sons.

- In essence, God allowed Saul's choices to ruin Him. In contrast, God began to raise up David and to rebuild the Kingdom of Israel that had been so divided prior.

- David was a King after God's heart. What made him or anybody after, a person after God's heart? Obedience to all of God's will! That was David.

- David was a man who sinned greatly, but he obeyed God's heart in confession and repentance. God is not looking for perfect people, just obedient people!

- When David sought to make a house for the Lord, the thought inspired God to reveal one of the greatest promises that he would ever receive.

- Turn over to II Samuel 7. God said to David, "You think you are building me a house? I'm building YOU a house!"

•  II Samuel 7:12-16 : "When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.'"

- Paul tells them that this Prophetic Son was Jesus Christ, the One who will rule on the throne of David for eternity! He was the embodiment of that promise.

- Paul sweeps their minds to more more recent days, just about 13-15 years prior when John the Baptist came and the fulfilment of God's promise was fulfilled.

- It was John's testimony that it was not he, but it was Jesus that was the Messiah! John testified that Jesus was the One.

- Among the Rabbi's, it had been determined that a Rabbi could ask his students anything except the removal of footwear. That was deemed to humiliating a task.

- John is saying, "I'm so low and He's so great, I'm not even worthy of that great honor!"

- Before we move on, I want to call your attention to Paul's point: God is faithful! From the founding of the nation to the sending of a Savior to fulfill His promise, God is faithful!

- His point to them is that He has not neglected them in any part of their history, whether it be during times when He put up with their character flaws or when He allowed Saul to reign.

- When Israel asked for a King, rejecting God, He remained faithful to them. How much does God's faithfulness to Israel pertain to His faithfulness to us? Such great parallels exist.

- LIke Israel, the Church is a chosen vessel thought of by God before the world ever saw it. Like Israel, God has delivered us, not from a physical enemy, but from sin itself, the greatest enemy!

- His faithfulness to the people of Israel in the past solidifies our trust in His faithfulness to us in the future! God cannot be anything but faithful to you and I!

•  Acts 13:26-28 : "Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death."  :  The word of salvation. The message of God's life, is first to the Jews, that the promises that God made to His people are fulfilled in Jesus, but just as clearly to those of the Gentile nations that fear Him.

- He is the promised Savior for their sins. He is the promise of life and the fulfilment of all things necessary for redemption. They might ask, "How do you know? Paul proves this in three ways.

-  First, Paul proves this by the way that Jesus was treated when he came. One would think that a positive response would have validated Christ's claim. Ironically, it was his rejection that did so.

- The people of Jerusalem, the religious rulers, did not recognize Jesus or understand the words of scripture that they had heard all of their lives!

- The Old Testament showed that the Messiah would be rejected and condemned. The religious leaders couldn't even see that their rejection of Jesus was proof that He was the Messiah!

- David wrote that Jesus would be despised and included the very taunts of his enemies in Psalm 22:6-8. Isaiah wrote that Jesus would be despised and rejected in Isaiah 53:3.

- They had no cause for death in Him and believe me, they looked! Every safeguard for justice was removed. False witnesses, immediate hearing and sentencing to death, impartial jurors, etc., were used to trump up charges against the Lord.

- After an examination of Jesus by Herod and Pilate, they could find no reason to kill Him, yet the religious leaders mounted a pressure filled campaign and got Pilate to agree to His death.

 - Jesus was truly the only innocent man to ever live, but His death was God's requirement!

•  Acts 13:29-33  :  "Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people. And we declare to you glad tidings—that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus."  : The first proof was the leader's rejection of Jesus. The second proof was the fulfilling of scripture. 

- Jesus' body was determined to be dead, something that every Roman officer would know how to effect.  Please turn in your Bibles to John 19.

- Jesus was hanging dead on the cross, but the Passover feast was going on, so there was pressure to pull the bodies from the cross, especially His.

- The Romans would expedite death by breaking the legs of the victims. Having seen that He was already dead, one of the soldiers pierced His side to make sure.

•  John 19:35-37  :  "And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, 'Not one of His bones shall be broken.' And again another Scripture says, 'They shall look on Him whom they pierced.'"

- When Paul mentions that they had fulfilled all that was written, John's account shows us that this was indeed the case! Every prophecy was fulfilled!

- A thinking religious leader might have looked and seen just a few of these moments and thought, "Wow, He just quoted Psalm 22:1. That's an odd verse to quote!"

- I imagine that that man was Joseph of Arimathea, who offered his tomb for the body of Jesus.

- For three days, His body was laid in that brand new tomb, guarded by Roman soldiers.

- Men were done with Him. Their hatred and rejection was complete. The tomb was full for a time, but God was not done. God raised Jesus from the dead!

- No matter what men tried to do, God invalidated their opinions and rejection, in faithfulness to His promise, God raised the only Savior that He ever sent!

- When people ask if there is another way to heaven, you might want to tell them this: "There is no way better than Jesus, otherwise God might have raised them too!"

- Paul's hearers might have said, "How can this be possible?" This is where Paul provides the third proof and final proof for us this morning: Living witnesses!

- There are many who had seen Him, several that were alive at that time, who would corroborate Paul's words.

- If there was any time in history when Christianity could be stomped out and disproven as false, it was that time! They had genealogical records in the temple.

- Was Jesus related to Abraham and David? To Abraham through Joseph, David through Mary! Was He of the tribe of Judah? Through Joseph. Just start there at that time.

- Do you know that the Jewish people cannot rightly discern who their Messiah is today? When the Temple was destroyed, so were the genealogical records!

- But more than any other proof, the proof of Christ's resurrection could have easily been ascertained. Many of the witnesses were alive at that very time.

- These witnesses were spread out all the way from Galilee to Jerusalem. Jesus had appeared to over 500 at one time! That is why Paul so confidently proclaimed this to them.

Conclusion

- Salvation. The very life of God, was conceived in the mind of God and carried out in time by the commitment of God, through the Son of God, dispensed to us over time by the Spirit of God.

- His grace chose us for justification, His faithfulness keeps us in sanctification and His power will deliver us to heaven, which is glorification!

- It's a God sized gift that is proven by Israel's rejection, scripture fulfillment and a body that would not stay in the ground because the ground was not worthy!

- That is what you and I stand on today, a sure witness of God's faithfulness to us. In light of this great salvation and this faithful God, how shall we then live?