Acts | The Gospel Has Come to Us - Acts 13 | August 31

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I'll be reading from Acts 13, verses 14 through 38.

Acts 13:14–38

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

As it is also written in the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

And that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption.

He has spoken thus, I will give you the sure mercies of David.

Therefore, he also says in another psalm, you will not allow your holy one to see corruption.

For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God,

fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption.

But he whom God raised up saw no corruption.

Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached

to you the forgiveness of sins. Thank you, Eric.

So, there was a time in my life when I was afraid, fearful, negotiating with

God rather than doing the good that He desired.

In my selfishness, running away from the things that I felt Him calling me to.

My fear, not trusting that He is strong and good.

But God, being rich in mercy, sent His Son for us, sent His Spirit into me,

that I might not live a fearful life, but live in the fear of the Lord,

in obedience to all that He's called me to.

And I know that this is not a complete presentation of what the gospel is,

but at its heart, that's part of it, is that we were all something.

Paul talks about this in Corinthians. Now, we wouldn't return to that way of

life, but in faith, we would turn to Him.

That we would trust in his spirit, we would trust in his power,

that we would trust in his finished work and not any of the works that we could possibly do.

As we begin this morning, I'm going to pose the same question that was posed to the kids to you.

What is the gospel? And don't just assume because you are a Christian or been

a Christian for a while that you understand it, that you know it that you have

for all the knowledge that you have may have to be able to articulate something

in the, in the scriptures.

Don't just assume that that means you understand the gospel. So what is the gospel?

Not a rhetorical question. The good news. What makes it good?

We're saved from our sins.

We can have a relationship with God Almighty, the creator of the universe. Amen. Is that it?

The kingdom of God is here and now, but also in fullness then.

This is summed up in a phrase that people use already, but not yet.

God is here now, right here with us in this room, in the quiet,

in the stillness, at work, in the busyness.

We also get to look forward to a hope for the future. These are all components of the gospel, right?

We can even go back all the way to creation and say that God created life.

He created us with purpose, with meaning.

The Bible talks about how God makes all things beautiful in its time in Ecclesiastes, right?

That God created beauty within us and pleasure that all of these things,

all of the beauty, all of the gifts, all of the good things in life might point.

Back to Him. That they point beyond the gifts that we are given and they point

to the one who has given them.

That God is a creator of all things. And we can point to that and know that we have purpose.

But also we can look back and realize that what we have desired along the way,

not just in Adam and Eve, but all of us have made this choice,

is that we have desired in our own selfish sinfulness to take these good things

and essentially say, thank you, God.

Now go on your way. I want to determine what I do with them on my own.

That we accept and settle for the gift and the stuff that he gives us.

And then we just want him to leave so that we can do what we want with it.

This is what we call sin. This is what we call the fall. The fact that whether

we acknowledge it or not, all of us in our sinful desires believe that we know better than God.

And we determine this not just in the things that we chase after,

but also in the things that hold us back.

Whenever we doubt that God's love is big enough for us, His strength is good

enough for us, whenever we doubt to trust Him,

we fall back into that same lie that the first humans believed,

is that God doesn't really know what's best for me, and I can't trust Him with my future.

And so what we end up doing as we live this life in this sinful selfishness is we me, right?

We me, and then when that doesn't work, we me harder. And so we just run from one thing to the next.

We're like, college, that's the next thing. I'm going to me in college,

and that's going to fulfill me. And then we realize it doesn't.

And then we're like, you know what?

The job. After I get out of college, I'm going to get a great job.

And that's gonna be what fulfills me, and it doesn't. And then we're like,

you know what, relationships.

And we pour ourselves into the next thing after the next, chasing after whatever our me desires.

Ultimately leading in this series of dissatisfaction unto death.

And we always talk about the fruits of the spirit and we have that funny song

about it, but we never really talk about the fruits of sin.

And the fruits of sin are sorrow and loss and shame and guilt and division and

suffering ultimately leading to death.

We are broken people who spread our brokenness around the world.

And we are all left in that state were it not for Jesus.

Were it not for these two strong words, all of us, the entire universe,

all of existence is left in that state of brokenness, perpetuating brokenness.

But then we have those two words, but God in Ephesians chapter two,

It says, But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us.

Even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ,

and by grace you have been saved.

And He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in

Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, He might show the immeasurable riches

of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace, you have been saved

through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God.

This is the good news of the gospel.

That into all of that, God shows up.

Not that he left, but he intercedes. He interjects himself constantly over and

over again into the course of human history.

He's not a God who created and then left. He's a God who inhabits our present.

Who has forever taken care of our sin problem so that we might experience life with Him.

And before we maybe get press in even further, maybe we should talk about what the gospel isn't.

As Galatians talks about, there are many false gospels out there.

And we too buy into some of these false gospels, not because we're necessarily

believing incorrect things.

That happens as well. But possibly just because we believe in part of the gospel

and don't live in the rest of it.

And you'll see those bumper stickers that say, Christians are not perfect, just forgiven.

That's buying into a false gospel, that it ends at forgiveness,

that it ends at that sin management is all that it has to do with,

that it's completely future focused, that I've got my sins paid for and now

I can look forward to eternity.

When we relegate it just to a future existence. That's a false gospel.

When what we end up doing is just trying to correct social injustice in the world.

No, these are good things. What we're believing is not the completeness,

not the fullness of the gospel.

And so we're believing in a false gospel that leaves us basically in the same

state that we were before.

Without a heart transformed by the grace of we just continue to manage our external

and our internal darkness and the darkness around us.

This is the gospel of sin management, not the gospel of Jesus.

The holistic gospel of Christ is the good news, yes, that our sins past,

present and future have been forever and fully dealt with.

And the way that plays out is that in our past, our sins are forgiven.

In our present, the Spirit enables us and empowers us to live for Him,

to be transformed into Christ-likeness so that in the future we might be with Him in glory.

This is what makes the good news good.

I said that right, I think. This is what makes the good news good,

that we have immediate access.

We don't have to wait for the kingdom of God. The kingdom is here,

Jesus came to proclaim. We have immediate access to experience God's reign in

this life, in every situation.

That we can experience real life change. This is what makes the good news good.

God's kingdom life brings transformation

of character and the power to actually live as Jesus taught.

It's not a conceptual message. It's reality. It's concrete.

The good news is good because there's a universal availability that everybody is available.

The kingdom is open to everyone. rich, poor, powerful, religious elite,

the poor in spirit, the weak, the marginalized.

It is a universal open call for everyone.

What makes the good news good is that the reign of God, his power,

his presence, and his life is available right here and now to anyone through Jesus.

This chapter of Acts 13, as Barnabas and Paul are appointed to go and preach

the gospel in the beginning, as they're raised up through prayer and they laid

their hands on and they go and they set out,

as they find their occasion in this synagogue to speak the good news,

to share the story of Jesus to the Jews and Gentiles who already were professing a faith in God.

As they share the good news. This is what all of our scriptures have pointed

to that Jesus has come, the Messiah is here and you can have life through him.

And even as they move on to the end of the chapter, which we didn't read,

but it talks about how the Jews and their jealousy rejected the gospel.

And so Paul and Barnabas turn as they were already told to do and bring that

good news to the Gentiles who are so willing and open for it.

The gospel permeates this chapter. And so when I read through it,

what happens for me, and I don't know if it has happened for you as we just

read through it, but I get to verse 26, and it's kind of like hitting a brick wall for me.

And this translation says, brothers, sons of the family of Abraham,

and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of salvation.

If I could paraphrase, the gospel has been given to us.

It has come. The gospel has been given to us. You see, Paul is talking to.

To people to which this promise had come and they rejected it.

He's speaking to those who had already been given the responsibility and had failed to uphold it.

All the way back at the beginning of the nation, when we get to Abraham,

and these are verses that all of these people would have known by heart.

God spoke to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12 and made a promise that he would

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

bless Abraham and that through Abraham, all nations would be blessed.

And all throughout their scriptures all throughout the history,

it confirmed this over and over again, that the nation of Israel was called out to be a blessing.

They were not called out to enjoy life by themselves with the only God looking after their safety.

They were called that the world might know who God is and that in knowing they

would come to worship him.

But they failed. They failed to trust God.

And what they did is they turned to other nations. They turned to things that

weren't God and they worshiped them.

And in that, they failed to point past the promise that they had given,

to the one who had made it, the promise maker, the promise keeper.

And time and time again, what they fail to do is remember.

They fail to remember all that God had done for them and the purpose and mission

he had given them as a result.

And this is a trap that we all fall in, or at least are prone to fall in as

well when we don't remind ourselves of the gospel.

Just because we're Christians doesn't mean we don't still need the good news,

that we still don't need to be reminded of the gospel just as much as before we were saved.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul starts out by saying, let me now remind you,

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

dear brothers and sisters, of the good news I preached to you before.

You welcomed it then and you still stand firm in it. It is this good news that

saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you.

Unless of course you believe something that was never true in the first place.

Paul is writing as he often does to believers, not to unbelievers.

He's not writing to people who have never heard the gospel.

And what he's saying to them is remember.

Remember what you believed. Don't forget the message you received.

You still need this message now to stand firm and to endure.

And you need it now just as much as you needed it before.

That there's life to be found as we remind ourselves of the gospel. And it's for all of us.

Whatever season of life we find ourselves, how long, ever long we've been believers. St.

Jerome talked about how the scriptures are shallow enough for a babe to come

and drink without fear of drowning and deep enough for a theologian to swim

in without ever touching the bottom.

That the gospel is for us in its depth and its simplicity. It is here for us.

As long as we don't give up. As long as we keep pressing in.

Holding firm to that truth that we believed in the first place.

I heard this phrase this past week, and then I'm going to adopt it.

This is going to be one of my new mantras. So if you hear it again, just be aware of that.

If I don't forget it, I'll remind myself of it. He said, if we don't quit, we win.

If we keep going, if we press in, If we don't give up on God, we win.

There's a verse in Jeremiah that talks about how that God would keep his covenant

with us and be faithful in doing good to us.

And then it follows it by saying, God says, I will put the fear of me in their

hearts that they might not turn from me.

If we just keep pressing into Jesus and don't give up, if we don't quit, we win.

This is, there is a deep abiding presence and there is a withness that comes

with Jesus that we would press in and never give up.

So the gospel is for Christians, but let me make this even more personal for

you. The gospel is for you.

The gospel is for you. You have heard it. You received it. Something happened.

Don't forget that.

Don't forget that the gospel is for you.

So, is there any gospel fruit in your life? What is the evidence of that?

Even the tiniest bud of obedience that goes against the grain of your desires?

Any hatred of the sin in your life and not just the effects of your sin?

Fruit or grain of desire and affection of Jesus?

What is the fruit of the gospel in your life?

Hear me rightly. I don't mean that you need to be raking in tons of fruit,

but is there any bud? Is there any evidence?

When we become Christians, what happens too often is that we forget the Savior

and what we move into in our sustained life,

in our salvation is the pursuit of moral betterment rather than a remembrance

and a return to the Savior.

We pursue living a more moral life. We pursue doing more good and we forget

about the Savior who saved us.

In 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 5 is a verse that I've read the past couple weeks and has been dear to me.

2 Thessalonians 3:5

It says, may the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

May the Lord remind us that the gospel is for us.

The gospel is for you, that the love of God has been given to you and that Christ

is faithful and he is steadfast.

May we never forget that. May we never quit.

That's what we need to be reminded of. That's what we need to let our thoughts drift toward.

This is the gospel to us, but if we stop there then we've missed the entirety

of the story because the gospel is for everyone.

And if we make it about us and we stop at us, then we've missed the point.

Just like Israel who failed to...

Glorify God among the nations, that all nations would be blessed.

If we stop with us, we fail in the same way.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I got to sit around with some college students and

what was asked of them as well is, what is the gospel?

And so I got to sit in that beauty and awkwardness of fumbling around for an

answer and getting it right mostly.

But there is this reality that takes place for all of us who,

despite the length of our time being Christians, that we've probably never really

been taught to share our faith.

And so what we do is we live in the faith that we inherited,

and it can never, without God radically intervening, really move past that.

And so we might be able to get it right occasionally, but what really needs

to happen is that it has to become a part of us.

It has to sink in. It has to become the single most dominant story in our life.

It has to get into our bones.

It has to be a part of us. And the thing is, we could teach you,

I could teach you, others could teach you a framework of the gospel,

a presentation of the gospel, and it would be successful, but it also needs

to be something that pours out of you and be genuine rather than just a rehearsed script.

Because some of us, you know, we need the script.

Some of us can wing it. It's not about the script. It's about what it's flowing out of.

It needs to flow out of the very core of who we are.

And you have to get it's so inside you that it pours out into other people.

Because the reality that we are talking about is the fact that everyone is an evangelist.

For many of us growing up in the church, we were taught that that's the work

of a professional who stands up and tells people about Jesus.

But the depth of the scriptures is that we are all called to share.

Everyone is an evangelist.

So we have to, that being true, we have to ask ourselves that question.

Have I ever shared the gospel with anyone?

When was the last time I shared the gospel? if I have.

The Bible says that this is what Christians are here for.

That the gospel came to us, as it says in Acts 13, 26, the gospel has come to us.

So we might pass it on to others.

And I know that there are seasons of life.

And I know that for some of us, we are raising kids, young kids.

And so in our minds, we think my responsibility is to disciple my children and teach them about Jesus.

And that will get you part of the way there, but it won't get you all of the way there.

Because if a disciple of Christ is someone who makes disciples,

which is what Jesus tells us, that if you are my disciples, then you will go

and make more disciples.

And if what we're doing is teaching our children about Jesus,

but we have never made a disciple in our life, then we're not really teaching them to make disciples.

And so we're taking them as far as we can go and no further.

So if we want to disciple our children to be disciples who make disciples,

then we have to be demonstrating that in our own life as well.

There is a sleepiness of the gospel that exists in American Christianity.

Doesn't exist in a lot of other parts of the world.

A sleepiness where we are blinded to the need around us, that in fear we shrink

back for our own reputation, for our own embarrassment.

And I've been really convicted of this because in our country,

what's the worst thing that's gonna happen to you? They're gonna think you're weird.

And for most of us, people already think we're weird.

So why are we afraid?

But we need to wake up. Ephesians also says, Awake, awake, a sleeper,

rise from the dead, and let Christ shine on you.

We need to be awake to the mission that we are all called to as evangelists,

as people who the gospel has come to.

And we have this mission statement at the church, and it's probably too long.

I get that for you to remember.

It's that we would be a place where heaven meets earth by proclaiming the universal

reign of God, inviting Jesus to our communities, inviting our neighbors to join

us in becoming real people who are part of real family and worship the real

God. I get it, that's hard to remember.

Let me kind of summarize it in a short phrase.

We tell people about Jesus and we do it with our words and we do it with our actions.

And if we're only doing it with our words, as James would say,

we're probably really not loving people.

And if we're doing it with our action, and we're not telling them about Jesus

with our words, the Bible says, how will they know if they don't hear?

Then we're not really telling people about Jesus. And if we follow that to the

conclusion, and what is the most important thing for all of us,

the dominant story in our lives, then we could also say we're probably not really loving people.

What I want to do is I want to see a radical shift in our town,

in our county, in the high country, and specifically in my own life,

a radical shift that this place would be radically changed by the gospel.

That our town, in all of its smallness, would be shaped by the gospel. The nations are here.

Don't doubt the small beginnings.

That my neighborhood, that my work would be radically shaped by the gospel.

That's what I want to see. Do you want to see that as well?

We're not going to see that if we just continue on with life as normal.

We're not going to see it if we are just discipling our kids,

though important that may be. And it is important.

You know, there's this passage that I have not got out of my head since I read it.

It's in Luke chapter 13. I just made the connection. That was also chapter 13 just now.

Luke 13 · chapter mention

If you want to turn with me to

Luke chapter 13, this is a parable that is probably skipped over so often.

Luke 13 · chapter mention

Chapter 13, starting in verse six. So then Jesus told this story.

A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there

was any fruit on it. But he was always disappointed.

Finally, he said to his gardener, I have waited three years and there hasn't

been a single fig. Cut it down.

It's just taking up space in the garden.

The gardener answered, sir, give it one more chance.

Leave it another year and I will give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer.

If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.

And I just sit and read those words and wonder to myself, how many of us are

in our third year, in our fourth year?

How often has God come looking for us for fruit?

How many people in your life right now, whether you know them or you pass them on your way?

How many of them are waiting for someone to share Jesus with them?

For a Christian, for you to share Jesus with them?

What if instead of just praying and wondering for a specific person and a specific

opportunity, what if we were a reckless gardener that just cast that seed wherever we went?

And it doesn't have to be a full gospel presentation, but if we met people in

their need and we told them why the good news is so good.

Jesus tells us over and over again that the fields are white for the harvest,

which means maybe there's some people that aren't ripe.

What you're going to be doing, like this gardener, is watering and fertilizing. It's not wasted.

There are people right now who are just waiting for the invitation.

Not to take the metaphor too far, but maybe there are people who are overripe,

and have been languishing on the vine waiting for us.

And to do that, we have to get the gospel inside of us and let it change us.

Let it change our hearts. Let it build within us a deep desire for Jesus to

be known among the nations,

among this town, among this county, among the high country, among the students

at ASU, that we would have a deep desire for the gospel to be known.

So here's what I want to do as we finish our time.

At the beginning of the book of Acts, it talks about how the Holy Spirit came

upon them and they were empowered to be bold in their witness,

to proclaim boldly the word of God.

Is that just for them or is that for us as well?

The Bible talks about the spirit coming in different ways, that the spirit is with us.

That's a general call for all people that God is here.

It talks about how the spirit is in us, that is specific for the Christian that

we are, we have the spirit as our helper, that we might be empowered to live

as Christ lived in this world.

And then it talks about how the spirit comes upon people.

And unless, unless I come across something that changes this,

the spirit only seems to come upon people to empower them to boldly proclaim his witness.

It comes as people step out to tell people about Jesus, that specific idea of

the spirit rushing upon people, to be bold and proclaiming.

So what I want to do is I want us to pray together.

I want us to pray that God would grant us that he would place his gospel so deep in our hearts,

that it would become the single most dominant story that defines our life and

all that our worldview is, that he would give us through it a deep desire for

others to know him, to make known his greatness among the nations.

And I just invite you to join me in praying every day this week for this,

for every day that the gospel would impact us, every day that God would change

us, every day that he would give us a deep desire for his name to be great among the nations.

And if he provides an opportunity to share the gospel that we would step out

in faith at that time, but just to pray that the gospel would affect us and

the gospel would change us.

And in the next week.

That prayer every day, that God would present us opportunity to share,

to share with ourselves, to share with our family, to share with our coworkers,

to share it with people that we pass, even if we've never met them,

that we would be compelled to stop and to pray with people.

I would be compelled to stop and share our story.

There was a time in my life when I was sinful and selfish, but God in his infinite

mercy showed me a better way.

God, I just pray that we would be your empowered witnesses in this world and

that we would be so affected by your word, by your gospel, that you would give

us a deep desire for others to know.

We care for them in genuine love and affections that they may know the greatest

thing in all of human history.

It's that you have come and that you are here in all of life's circumstances,

in all of life's seasons.

You are here. That we are not accidents.

We are loved. We have purpose and we have a mission. The church has a mission.

And if the church is not on mission, then we're just a social club.

Lord, I don't want to be a fig tree that doesn't produce fruit.

Music.