SUNDAY - OCTOBER 5, 2025

Today we'll be in Acts chapter 13.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

Begin reading in verse 13.

Over the past several weeks, we have talked about how God is providentially working, how God has in the first century church, how he was providentially working to within the church and through the church.

We saw how the Holy Spirit set Paul and Barnabas aside to go and fulfill Acts chapter 1.8.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Remember in Acts chapter 1.8, he says, For you, after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And we see that happening.

We see that playing out as Paul and Barnabas are sent out by the Holy Spirit, the church recognizing the work of the Holy Spirit.

They call him up, they pray over them, and they are sent out to share the gospel throughout the world.

And we've seen that playing out.

Today in our passage, we're going to see that Paul preached how that Jesus is the Messiah.

He was the one promised to come and to fulfill the prominence to the promises to their father.

But in that sermon message, he also provided a dire warning.

As we hopefully, as we become a church that carries out this Acts 1.8, that we become witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth.

I pray that we do that by being an Acts 242 church and a church who is dedicated to the Scripture, who is dedicated to the fellowship, who is dedicated to the prayers and to the table.

As we become an Acts 42, 242 church, we carry out Acts chapter 1.8.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

And I hope that we're careful from this message that we see today, that we're careful that we must be careful not to miss how God is working in our salvation.

But not just how he is working in our salvation, but he is also working in our sanctification.

It is the Holy Spirit who draws us to himself to save us, and it is the Holy Spirit who is working in us to carry out that salvation and to bring us closer to him.

It is the work of God in our lives.

And we don't, we need to be careful that we don't miss his working.

So the challenge for us today is to seek out how God is working and trust the working of God in our lives and in our church.

So we want to see that challenge today and be challenged that by by looking at the question, well, what did Paul preach?

If he preached that Jesus is the Messiah, and that is going to challenge us to see God working, what did he preach?

So today we're going to read Acts chapter 13, starting in verse 13.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

I invite you to stand with me as we give honor to the reading of Word of the Word.

We're going to read 13 through verse 41.

Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and became and came to Perga in Pamphylia.

And John left them and returned to Jerusalem.

But they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia.

And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.

After reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.

So 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 made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it.

And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness, and after destroy destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance.

All this took about four hundred and fifty years, and after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.

Then they asked for a king, and 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 David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart who will do all of my will.

Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.

Before his coming John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all people of Israel, and as John was finishing his course, he said, What what do you suppose that I am he?

I am not he.

No, but behold, after me one is coming the sandals of whose feet I am unworthy to untie.

Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been given the message of this salvation.

For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him, nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.

And they felt they and though they found him in found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed.

And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

But God raised him from the dead.

And for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.

And we bring you good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, You are my son, today I have begotten you.

And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in his way, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.

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

For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption.

But whom he but he whom God raised up did not see corruption.

Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that though this man that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about.

Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish.

For I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.

Let's pray.

God, as we open your word, your revelation of yourself to us, I pray that you would prick our hearts, that you will change us for all eternity.

Jesus, it's in your name we pray.

Amen.

So we asked the question then, what what did Paul preach?

What what was the message that he gave?

Well, the first point really here is this.

We found it in verse, end of verse 16 and verse 17.

Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen, the God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.

The first thing that we see is God chose Israel.

He chose them.

We see Paul and Barnabas, we see their actions even reflecting this.

We talked about it last week in Paul and Barnabas' missionary journeys, from starting last week and what they will carry on.

When they go to a town, if there is a synagogue in the town, they will go to the synagogue first and proclaim the message of Jesus.

So here they are in the synagogue.

So it really kind of brings up two questions for us.

The first question is this for what purpose did God choose Israel?

Why did he choose them?

We're going to get to that.

This first part that we see, what Paul proclaims, is not that why he chooses it.

We see that in the second part.

The first part is that he chose Israel.

The other question that we'll get to really next week is why did they go to the synagogues first?

We'll get there next week.

Spoiler alert, you have to come back to hear it, but um, or you can read Acts.

But anyway, we're gonna see today, we're gonna see for what purpose did he choose Israel.

But but first we see that he actually chose Israel.

How do we see that?

Well, well, Paul begins to describe really the history of Israel, and he he goes through and he talks, he begins with with God's sovereign hand rescuing Israel from Egypt.

Well, it kind of brings us to why.

Why, really, not why did he rescue them, but but why were they there in the first place?

Why was Israel in Egypt in the first place?

Well, if you go all the way back to Genesis chapter 15, you find an interesting story.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

In Genesis chapter 15, God is speaking with Abraham, and he's giving him the Abrahamic covenant.

Genesis 15 · chapter mention

Three things that he promises them, promises Abraham, I'm gonna give you land, I'm gonna give you descendants, and you're gonna be a blessing to the world.

And he promises Abraham this, and in chapter 15, he is sealing that covenant with Abraham.

But it in in verse 13 he says something interesting, 13 through 16, he says, Then the Lord said to Abram, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.

But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.

As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace.

You shall be buried in a good old age, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

Now hear that, hear what's happening.

God is telling Abraham that I'm going to send your descendants to a land that you don't know, and in that land they are going to be afflicted, and they are going to serve, be servants.

They're going to be slaves.

He's telling Abraham this long before, long before Moses.

This is what's going to happen.

And so God is, as they set this up.

Well, again, why would he do this?

Well, he says, because the sins of the Amorites is not yet complete.

What he means here is God is giving patience.

God is showing patience to the Amorites because He's giving them one either time to repent or He's giving them time where their hearts will be so hardened that there's no way of repentance.

And so he says, I'm going to let that, I'm going to give them that time.

In the meantime, Israel, Abraham, your descendants are going to go to this country, which we know to be Egypt.

They're going to go there and they're going to be enslaved.

But when I bring them out, they're going to have great possessions.

And then we see in verse 13, it says, He raised up, and in Acts chapter 13, he says, The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

And with uplifted arm he led them out.

With uplifted arm he led them out.

He led them out in a way of greatness and a way that brings glory to God.

And we see that happening in Exodus chapter 14.

Exodus 14 · chapter mention

In Exodus chapter 14, it's when Israel is coming out of Egypt.

Exodus 14 · chapter mention

And in chapter 14, we're going to see them cross the Red Sea.

We're going to see God part the Red Sea and they're going to cross through on dry land.

But in verse 4, before that happened, God says this to Moses, and I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his hosts, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.

And they did so.

The way that God brought them out, that he raised up and he brought them out and led them out the way that he led them out of Egypt, pointed to the glory and to the greatness of God.

What Egypt was going to recognize, what Israel was going to recognize, and what the world should have recognized, is that through the parting of the Red Sea, through Israel going through on dry ground, through through these slaves defeating the army of Egypt without ever lifting a sword, they should stop and look.

Wow.

This is truly God.

We need to look.

So God is moving and he's working in them.

And then it says that he leads, he put up with them in the wilderness.

He put up with them in the wilderness.

In Exodus chapter 32, it's an amazing story.

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

Moses has gone up onto Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments this way that Israel was going to be in a relationship with God.

While there, because he was gone for so long, the people went to Aaron, his brother, and said, Hey, we want to build an idol to worship.

So Aaron does.

He builds a golden calf, and God hears them and sees them.

And Moses comes down off the mountain and sees this, and God punishes Israel because they're worshiping this golden calf.

And then in chapter 33, starting in verse 1 and going down through verse 3, God says something very interesting to Moses.

In verse 1, he says, The Lord said to Moses, Depart, go up from here.

You and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt.

Now hear that.

You and the people you have brought up out of the land of Egypt.

Who brought them up out of the land of Egypt?

Not Moses.

But hear the language of God here, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your offspring I will give it.

I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Now hear the message of God.

He says, Moses, I'm going to fulfill my promises to Abraham, and I'm going to give you the land.

I'm going to send angels and they're going to destroy all your enemies and you're going to get into the land.

But hear this, I'm not going.

Because if I go, I'm going to kill you on the way.

You're a stiff-necked people.

You're not listening to me.

I'm not going.

But what you're going to find if you read on in Exodus chapter 33 is Moses goes to God and he prays to him and he says, God, we wouldn't be here without you.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

We wouldn't be a nation without you.

We would still be enslaved in Egypt without you.

Wouldn't even be put together because you never would have called Abraham.

God, without you, we are nothing.

God, we need you.

We're not going unless you go with us.

So God relents.

And he goes, He goes with them into the promised land.

But you see this, and then all through the promised land, you see how God put up with the people.

Then you hear, once they get to the promised land, Paul reminds them of how Joshua, through the hand of Joshua, God led them into the promised land and gave them their inheritance.

And then they were judged by judges until Samuel comes along.

And from the time of Samuel, they during the time of Samuel, they asked for a king.

So God gave them a king, Saul, the son of Kish, and he ruled for about 40 years.

And then God raised up another king, David.

And this was a king that scripture tells us was a man after God's own heart because he would do all of the will of God.

And so we see David come and we see him rule and reign, and we see God bless his ministry.

And what we see in Samuel chapter 2, chapter 2 Samuel chapter 7, what we see is David one day sitting in his palace, his warm, dry palace, recognizing how much God has blessed him and done for him.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

And as he is sitting there in that palace, he begins to think about the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle of tent.

And he says, Hey, I want to build a temple for the tabernacle.

I want to build a temple for this.

And he he speaks to Nathan the prophet, and Nathan says, Do all that your heart desires.

And so David is getting ready and making these plans.

And God gives Nathan a vision and says, Nuh-uh, David's not the guy.

He's not the guy to build my temple.

Go tell him not to do it.

And so Nathan goes back to David, and what God tells David is, God tells David, instead of you making me a house, God said, David, I'm going to make you a house.

No, he's not talking about a temple or a palace.

David has that.

What he is talking about to David is, I'm going to make you a dynasty.

I'm going to bless you so much that your descendants are always going to sit on the throne here in Jerusalem.

So in 2 Samuel chapter 7, verse 16, he says this, and your household and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.

2 Samuel 7:16

Your throne shall be established forever.

So God has promised David that one of his descendants will sit upon the throne, and his throne will be established forever.

Now, what Paul is telling us in Acts chapter 13 is that is Jesus.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

Verse 23 says, Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a Savior.

Jesus.

As he promised.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant.

Jesus fulfilled these promises that God made to Israel.

God chose Israel.

It is obvious because the way that he brought them up, here again the message.

He says God brought them out of Egypt.

God raised up and led them out of Egypt.

God raised up for them Saul.

God raised up for them David.

God put up with them how God, it was God who is the now.

God is doing the working.

God is doing the acting.

And church, what we need to recognize and what we need to understand and we need to trust God in his working.

Paul is telling me it is God who brought Israelite.

Why did God choose them?

Well in verse 26, he says, This, brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation.

Here's why God chose Israel.

To them has been sent the message of this salvation.

Jesus came to them.

Jesus came through them.

He was the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Testament.

Jesus came to them.

But let's follow what Paul says.

He goes on to talk about the religious leaders there and how they fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament, but it's not a fulfillment that we like.

Here's what he says in verse 27.

For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him, nor understand the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.

Now hear that.

Here's what he's saying that they did.

God gave the religious leaders and Jewish people the law and the prophets, and they had all these.

And every week they went in, every Sabbath, they went into the synagogues and they had these words read to them, and they heard these words, and they heard these words, and of all the people that should have recognized who Jesus was, it should have been them.

But they missed him.

They missed him so much that they condemned him to death.

Not only did they condemn him, they sent him to death, even though they didn't find anything, they sent him to a Roman to have him crucified on the cross.

And they fulfilled the prophecies.

Because they missed him.

Because they missed what he was doing.

May we not miss him.

But don't miss verse 30.

Don't miss it.

But God raised him from the dead.

But God raised him from the dead.

And you get asked all the time, Grant, how do you know?

How do you know that God raised him from the dead?

Well, what Paul tells us right here in Scripture is we know because there are witnesses.

In verse 31, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now witnesses to the people.

People saw Jesus.

Paul's going to tell us in 1 Corinthians that the number of people, the hundreds of people that saw Jesus after the resurrection.

They laid their eyes on him.

In any court of law, if you would take that number of witnesses that observed something, they would have to say, Whew, must be true.

People saw Jesus after the resurrection.

How do we know they saw him?

They saw him walking around.

They saw him talking.

Some of them put their hands in the places where the nails were, some of them put their hands where the spear was.

They saw him.

His flesh and blood.

That God had raised him from the dead.

And in that resurrection, they brought good news.

In verse 32, Paul says, And we bring you the good news.

What God promised to the fathers.

This he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus from the dead, as also it is written in the second Psalm.

So what we're going to see Jesus, or what we're going to see Paul doing, is quoting three Old Testament scriptures here that are going to point to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah.

The first is Psalm chapter 2, verse 7.

Psalms 2:7

He says, This, you are my son.

Today I have begotten you.

All Jewish people, it's been used in Acts already.

We saw it used in John when we were going through the Gospel of John.

Psalm chapter 2, verse 7 is a messianic psalm that the Jewish proclaim is a fulfillment of 2 Samuel 7 that we just talked about.

Psalms 2:7

You are my son.

Today I have begotten you.

And what Paul is saying is the resurrection.

What the resurrection did is it made Jesus the firstborn from the dead.

Not that he was the first to be resurrected, but he was the first to be resurrected and never die again.

He is the firstborn from the dead.

God has begotten him because he arose and never died again.

He is sitting at the right hand of the throne of the Father.

He is there.

After Psalm chapter 2, verse 7, he used it, he quotes Isaiah chapter 55, verse 3.

Psalms 2:7 Isaiah 55:3

But before he quotes that, he says in verse 34, and as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way: I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.

Because Jesus did not die again, because he arose and is still alive, seated at the right hand of the throne of God, because he is not to see corruption.

He's not talking about sin there, he's talking about decay.

Because Jesus is not back in the grave and hasn't decayed, because he is alive, he is the heir of David who is going to receive the sure blessings of David.

He is the Messiah, he is the fulfillment of the promises.

And then he quotes from Psalm chapter 16, verse 10.

Psalms 16:10

In verse 35, he says, You will not let your holy one see corruption.

He explains it.

We just said it.

For David, after he had served the purposes of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his father and saw corruption decay, his body decayed.

But he whom God raised did not see corruption.

Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

So what is he talking about being freed from here?

Well, let's understand what the law of Moses did for them and does for us.

The law of Moses was the covenant relationship.

God gave Israel the law and says, keep these, and I'm gonna be your God, and you're gonna be my people.

So Israel from that time began to strive to get to God by keeping the law.

Here's the problem: they couldn't.

They couldn't keep it.

Nobody was good enough.

And so what happened is because they couldn't keep the law, they kept living in their transgressions and they were enslaved to the law.

They were in bondage to the law because they couldn't do it.

They weren't good enough.

Even as hard as they may try, they could never keep it.

So they were in bondage.

They were enslaved to the law.

But here's how Jesus freed them from that.

Jesus came, the Son of God, the Son of David, he came and he walked upon this earth and he kept the law perfectly.

He kept it perfectly.

And then they sent him to the cross.

They condemned him to the cross, and he died upon the cross.

And on the cross, he paid the punishment for us not keeping the law.

And they buried him.

And God raised him.

And the resurrection, then, what it does is now God, through the resurrection, takes the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And for those who believe in him, he gives them Christ's righteousness.

We don't have to keep the law because Christ kept it perfectly for us.

And when we believe in him, he frees us from the law because Christ kept the law perfectly.

Our salvation is in him.

And not only is our salvation in him, now our sanctification is in him too.

Our desire, our wanting to, our striving, our growing to become more and more and more like Christ is dependent upon Christ and what he did at the crucifixion, what God did in him at the resurrection.

It is all dependent upon him and his working.

We must believe in him.

He is the one who came to free Israel.

He is the one who came to free us from the bondage of the law.

We must trust in him.

And then Paul gives a dire warning.

In verse 40, he says, Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about.

And he quotes part of Isa part of Habakkuk chapter 1, verse 5.

Habakkuk 1:5

Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells you.

Look, it says God is about to do a work among you that you would not believe, even if somebody told you.

And what we're going to see next week, I'll give you a hint to it.

What we're going to see is Paul and Barnabas come back to the same synagogue and preach, and the Jews reject him yet again.

So God does an amazing work.

He sends Paul and Barnabas to the Gentiles, to receptive hearts who are going to hear the message and believe.

May we never miss the working of God.

May we never miss him moving among us, miss him calling us, miss what he is doing.

May we strive to know him and see his work.

So what does this mean for us?

Because the first part of this message is really a history of Israel.

What can we gain?

What can we know from this?

Well, let me point you to a couple of things.

One is, remember how we talked about it was God who did these things.

God brought them out of Egypt.

God put up with them in the wilderness.

God raised up Joshua and gave them an inheritance.

God gave them judges.

God gave them prophets, gave them Saul.

God gave them David.

It was God working.

And what we need to do today, church, is see God still working and see how he's working and join him in that work.

We got to seek him out.

We got to find him and join him.

We see God working.

The second thing I think we see is Jesus is the fulfillment of these covenants.

He's the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant.

God promised these things to Abraham.

Jesus brought them.

He's the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant.

God promised that someone, your descendant, is going to reign on the throne forever.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant.

Jesus brought fulfillment to these promises.

But now, while we are not under the old covenants, there is a new covenant.

There is a new covenant that is written on our hearts that the Messiah has come, that the Messiah has died for us, that the Messiah arose.

And what we need to do is we need to trust this new covenant.

That Messiah has come and his name is Jesus, and we need to believe in him.

You can't.

But the good news is Jesus kept the law and he died in our place.

And God raised him from the dead.

So when we trust in him, when we believe in him, he frees us from that condemnation.

He frees us from everything that the law couldn't do.

Listen, as we enter into this time of invitation, I pray this morning.

If you have never believed in Jesus, that today is the day of salvation.

I pray that today you will trust in him.

I pray that today you will be freed from the bondage of sin, from the bondage of the law that condemns you.

We're going to stand and sing a hymn of invitation.

If that is you today, in just a moment, if that is you today, we invite you to come.

Or maybe if not, maybe if you've trusted in Christ, what does this mean for you?

Well, what Paul was calling is your what the Jewish people to do here was to remember the works of God's hand.

We just sang about it.

I will remember.

I will remember.

I will remember the works of your hands.

I will remember the day you saved me, the day I heard you call out my name.

Today, let's stop.

Let's pause and remember how God has worked in our lives, what God has done in our lives.

And allow what God has done in our lives to reinforce that we can trust him in what he is doing and going to do in our lives.

Let what he has done strive us to push us forward to know what he is doing and that we can trust him to continue to work.

Again, as we sing this hymn of invitation, if you need to come forward, if you need to use these steps to repent of something, I call you forward.

Whatever, however, God is leading you, during this time of invitation, we invite you to come.

If you're looking for a church home, we would love to have you here at DeSoda Hills.

However, God is working in your heart, let Him move.

Let's pray.

God, we are humbled in this moment.

We are humbled for this opportunity to come before your throne.

God, I pray that as you are moving and working among us, you will soften our hearts.

You will help us to trust you, to place our faith in you.

To follow you.

God, move us as only you can.

Jesus is in your name we pray.

Amen.

We invite you to stand.

If you have a decision to make, I'll be right down front.

Would love to receive you.

Bless you.