Reconciled to God

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 30 October 2016

Now, several weeks ago, we saw that Jesus was presented as the culmination of history in verses 17 - 23. History is the story of man and God created man for a two-fold purpose. One is to have fellowship with Him. God is a Trinity, consequently His very nature speaks of fellowship; and so He created angels. And God created man to have fellowship with Him, but man chose to go his own way and sinned, such that fellowship was broken.

God created man for a second reason, to give Him glory. But man refused to do that and after becoming a sinner, the possibility of man giving glory to God was over with. And now God has men whom He created for two purposes, fellowship and glory, but they have ceased to do either. So history now becomes the recovery of man's lost destiny. History now is God recovering what He initially created man to do.

From the beginning of the Bible to the end, we can see God's process of recovering men. He lost them in Genesis in the very beginning but He recovers them and draws them into a new heaven and a new earth in Revelation in the end. And the whole Bible is the story of God recovering man's lost destiny and the only way that it could ever be done was through the perfect work of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said this in John 14:6, “no man comes to the Father but by Me.” Jesus Christ is the only one who can bring man back to God, who can restore fellowship and grant man the capacity to give God glory. We were created for God. In Colossians 1:16, Paul said of Jesus, "All things were created through Him and for Him."

Now the key to all of this, is Jesus Christ. Paul went through history in verses 17 to 22 and he resolves it in verse 23, “From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus.” A savior is somebody who can bring men to God, that is Jesus. And there is his declaration, Jesus alone brings men to God.

Look at Hebrews 2:8, “You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” When God created man, He created man to rule for God in fellowship. Verse 8 continues, “For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him.” Man lost his purpose. God made him to be king of the earth but men forfeited all of it. There was no fellowship.

What happened when Adam sinned? The fellowship stopped, the first thing he did with Eve was hide. Instead of giving God glory, they were ashamed. And so Hebrews 2: 9 introduces us to the only one who can solve the problem, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He, by the grace of God should taste death for everyone.”

There is only one way to get back and that was to deal with men’s sin, because God can't tolerate sin. The wages of sin is death. Only death deals with sin. Somebody has to die for man's sin for us to get back into the presence of God and be restored to his original destiny. And so Christ had to come and He, by the grace of God, tasted death, not for Himself but for every person.

Hebrews 2:10, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” In other words, everybody ever made was made for God. Anyone who goes to hell is an intruder there. Hell wasn't created for man. It was created for the devil and his angels.

Now God wants to get all men from here to glory. And in order to get them to glory, somebody has to lead them, the captain, the leader, and in order for Him to do that, He is going to have to be made perfect through suffering. He is going to have to die for their sins. That is what the Bible says and so Jesus came and paid the penalty for sin; and because of that, He became the perfect leader to lead us back to God.

Jesus says in Hebrews 2:12-13, “I will declare Your name to My brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise to You. 13 I will put My trust in Him. And again, here am I and the children whom God has given Me.” Here is the group of people that Christ has won and is taking back to God. Verse 17 says, “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

Every Jew knew that history was moving toward the Messiah. But they didn't know that Jesus was the Messiah. In fact, they killed Jesus as a criminal. But Jesus restored the purpose of man's destiny, for it is in Christ that we are kings again in the kingdom on earth, and we shall reign with Him. History is God's recovery process and Christ is the only way it can ever happen.

So Paul says to the Jews, “Yes, the Messiah is Jesus,” and their question is, "Why should we believe that He is the Messiah?" And so Paul comes to his second point in Acts 13: 23 - 37, which we saw last week, because of the fulfillment of prophesy. Jesus is not only the culmination of history, He is the fulfillment of prophesy and that is the most devastating and greatest proof that Jesus is the Messiah. You can't see it any other way. It is absolutely overwhelming.

Jesus fulfills every issue of messianic prophesy in His first coming and will fulfill every-thing in His second coming. Paul gives three areas of prophesy. One, the forerunner. In verse 24 and 25, he speaks about John the Baptist who preceded Christ. They knew that from Isaiah 40:3, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the paths for the Lord." So when John announced the Messiah, that prophesy was fulfilled.

The second area of prophesy which we saw last time was during the crucifixion. When Jesus was dying on the cross, verse 29 says, "When they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they took Him down." All the time He was on the cross, He was fulfilling prophesy after prophesy. The third area of prophesy that Jesus fulfilled after the crucifixion is the resurrection. Look at verse 30, “God raised Him from the dead.” Verse 33, God raised Him from the dead, just as He said in Psalm 2. Verse 37, God raised Him. So Jesus fulfills all these prophecies.

And this is the message for tonight, Acts 13: 38 - 41. Jesus is not only the culmination of history, the fulfillment of prophesy, but He is the justifier of sinners. Oh, what an incredible point this is to give to Jews. Now, before we look at verse 38, we must realize that every Jew had his mind dominated by those three themes: God's plan for Israel, God's promise of a Messiah and God's provision for sin.

Jews were dominated by the concept of sin. In our world today, sin is kind of overlooked. We live in an age where people believe that we have to get rid of all the Victorian hang-ups and all the old Bible morality and there is no such thing as sin and go ahead and do whatever feels right for you. That is the morality of today. There is no ethic, there is now same sex marriage, free abortion, etc. Just break the law if you don't agree with it.

But in those days, there was a tremendous sensitivity among the Jews to sin. How could they escape it? Every week, they met in the synagogue and they read the Scriptures and and you know what it talks about? Sin, sin, sin. Look and read their history, you can hardly find a bright light. Just sin, centuries of it, and how God dealt with it and how serious it was. Jews were also aware of the consequences of it.

There are three things we can learn from David. No. 1, David was sensitive to sin. No. 2, he knew he deserved punishment. No. 3, he asked for punishment. Now most of us do all right on No. 1. We're sensitive to sin, right? We also do OK on No. 2. We know we deserve punishment. But we really do poorly on No. 3. Punish me God; I deserve it. And yet, the Bible is very clear about the fact that chastisement brings about maturity.

Some people want to get rid of the law because it condemns. No, it's a good thing, there is nothing wrong with the law. It just shows you how sinful you are when you try to break the law. All of us need to learn how to handle yourself. One thing about the New Covenant that is exciting is that you not only have the same orders, but you now have the power within you in the form of the Holy Spirit to carry them out.

Now look at verse 38, “Therefore let it be known to you, brothers that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins.” This is precisely the thing that has burdened every Jew for so long. What kind of forgiveness? Verse 39, “and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.” All the Law of Moses did was just cover your sin a little bit. Paul says, “Here comes Jesus and through Him all sins are forgiven.”

That is really good news to everyone. Peter had that in his sermon in Acts 10 about forgiveness of sin. Verse 39, says it clearly, “from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." The word "justified" means declared righteous. You are declared to be right before God, by Him, which Moses could never do. Moses just covered it up with animal sacrifices.

To expand on this, look at Hebrews 9:6, “Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services.“ That is the holy place. Verse 7, “But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance.” The sins of the past year were gathered up and he would sprinkle blood and take care of the past sins of the year in a general sense for the nation.

Well, it was temporary, right? Verse 8, “the Holy Spirit indicating this that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest.” That was only a picture and it couldn't be real while the first tabernacle was yet standing. Verse 9, “It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience.”

Now notice, one thing a Jew never experienced was freedom from sin in his conscience. As a Christian, the thing that I enjoy as much as anything is a conscience free from guilt. It's a glorious thing to know that my sin has been paid for by God's son, Jesus Christ. And that God sees me as pure as snow, and I have no condemnation because I'm in Christ.

Imagine the Jew tremendously pressured by the ever conscious presence of his sin. Like David says in Psalm 51, “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.” And as a Christian, the fantastic release to know that all my sin are dealt with. And so Paul says that the animal sacrifices were only a parable, there wasn't ever any clear conscience, right? Go down in verse 14 and he says, "It was Christ who was able to purge your conscience.”

Look at Hebrews 10:1, “For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.” We will use the word "righteous" instead of perfect. It means that in Hebrews. That was the Jew's dilemma and then verse 2 says, “For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.”

Verse 4, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.” But Jesus came and it says in Hebrews 10:12, “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.” The work was done. Verse 14, “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” See, the law of Moses couldn't make a man just and the Jew knew this.

Romans 3:21 is the greatest passage on justification in the Bible, it says, “But now the righteousness of God is apart from the law." So, how do you get righteous? You can't work on being righteous. The only righteousness that'll ever get you into heaven is God's righteousness, and you can't be that good. It is in verse 22, "The righteousness of God is by faith in Jesus Christ upon all them that believe," Then in verse 28 Paul sums it up, "Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law."

Now Paul closes with an invitation and a warning. Verse 40, "Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you.” Paul says, "Listen, if you don't respond to Jesus Christ, something's going to happen to you that was spoken of in the prophets and you better beware." What is it? Paul quotes Habakkuk 1:5 in verse 41, “Behold, you despisers, marvel and perish! For I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you.”

Some people asked Billy Graham, "Do you believe in heaven and that other place?" People use "hell" a lot until they start talking about the real place. Then they don't like to say the word. Billy said, "Yes, we believe that." They answered, "Well, I can't believe that God would send people there.” Here the Bible says that of course you can't believe it. The Bible says that God's going to do a work, a work of judgment, which nobody is going to believe.

It's unbelievable because we have misconstrued the character of God to begin with. God deals with sin seriously and that it's difficult to believe. There is a hell where in Mark 9:44, “the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched”, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. There is going to be a day of judgment and men don't believe it, but that doesn't mean it isn't going to happen. What God promises always comes true. Let's pray.