The message of salvation (Acts 13:13-52) // On mission with the risen Jesus

So it's Acts chapter 13, carrying on where we left off

Acts 13 · chapter mention

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.

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.

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.

Freddie Mercury. Johann Sebastian Bach.

Johann Sebastian Bach, as we call him.

Yes. Led Zeppelin.

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

Acts 13 · chapter mention

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.