Paul at Antioch

RIVERSIDE INDONESIAN FELLOWSHIP
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Paul at Antioch

Riverside Indonesian Fellowship
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2023 · 26 March 2023

We're going to study Jesus, the culmination of history. The Bible is the record of Jesus Christ. It is God presenting Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, the Savior of the world. In the Old Testament, God keeps promising a Deliverer, a Savior, a King, and a Messiah. And in the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth fulfills every single prophesy that God has ever made of a Messiah.

And the ones that are yet to be fulfilled by Him will be fulfilled in His second coming. Jesus Christ fulfilled prophesy after prophesy. There’s no way it can be manufactured; it’s a mathematical impossibility. Powerful arguments of prophesy sweep away all doubt that Jesus of Nazareth is not the Messiah. And as Paul is preaching here in the Acts 13, he focuses on Jesus as the fulfillment of prophesy.

The church has exploded in Jerusalem. When it was finished there, the Lord had designed that it would go to Judea and Samaria, which were the neighboring territories. Then a beachhead was established in the pagan world, and it was the church of Antioch in Syria. God designed that from that little congregation missionaries would be sent to reach the uttermost part of the earth.

In Acts 13 the Holy Spirit said, “Separate me Barnabas and Paul for the work unto which I have called them.” As we look at this passage, we will see how Jesus Christ is presented by Paul as the culmination, the goal, the climax of history. Our text for today is verse 14 through 37. Verse 14, “But Paul and Barnabas traveled inland to Antioch of Pisidia. On the Sabbath they went to the synagogue for the services.”

Now, that's not Antioch of Syria. Antioch of Pisidia was 3600 feet high on a plateau up on the Taurus Mountains. It was a hundred miles from Perga and it was a hundred miles up. Verse 15 says, “After the usual readings from the books of Moses and the prophets, those in charge of the service sent them this message: “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, come and give it.”

Paul just stood up to preach. He begins this sermon in verse 16 with the words, “Men of Israel,” he said, “and you God-fearing Gentiles, listen to me.” There are two kinds of people in the synagogue: Israelites and those that fear God. God fearers is really the proper term referring to converted gentiles. And in the sermon, he presents the fact that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth.

Now the sermon falls into three parts. Jesus Christ is presented first as the culmination of history. Secondly as the fulfillment of prophesy. Thirdly as the justifier of sinners. He is the only one that can remove the curse that separates men from God. He is the only one who can give meaning to life individually and life collectively. So in those verses, 17-22, Paul declares that history comes down to Jesus Christ.

Verses 17 -22, “The God of this nation of Israel chose our ancestors and made them multiply and grow strong during their stay in Egypt. Then with a powerful arm He led them out of their slavery. 18 He put up with them through forty years of wandering in the wilderness. 19 Then He destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to Israel as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years.”

“After that, God gave them judges to rule until the time of Samuel the prophet. 21 Then the people begged for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years. 22 But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after My own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.”

So God responded to their desires. Notice that the desires of people don't alter the plan of God's history. God plans that into His history and they wanted a king and they had a great way to choose one. Whoever’s tallest and most handsome, that's our king. So, they got a king, but he was not the kind of a king that God wanted. God wanted a king that would obey His will. Saul wouldn't.

Even before Saul was dead, David was anointed. "The Lord has sought Him a man after His own heart." A man who obeys. God either goes through you or around you, but He gets where He's going. He's running history and He chose this man David. What is a man after God's own heart? He's not a perfect man. A man after God's own heart is a man who fulfills God’s will."

Verse 23, “And it is one of King David’s descendants, Jesus, who is God’s promised Savior of Israel!” Jesus uses His human name. He is the seed of David. They did not expect to hear that. They live for the fact that they are in the plan of God. They have based their eternal salvation for centuries on the fact that God is their God. Yes, Jesus is a Jew, but not all Jews are saved.

God designed men to exist for fellowship with God and to give Him glory. Mankind sinned and fell. God said, “I want to recover them.” There is only one way He can recover them, and that’s through Christ. And so Christ is necessary as the apex of history. Only those who come to Jesus Christ fulfill the whole meaning of the world. Without Him, man can never be reconciled to God.

Jesus in verse 23, is the bridge to his second point. Through the line of Mary He had the blood of David. Through the line of Joseph, He had the right to the throne from David. So through both ways He was David’s seed. And now Paul moves into a sweeping statement secondarily. Why should I believe Jesus is the one?” So he says, “Because of the fulfillment of prophesy.”

The reason Jesus is the Messiah is because He fulfilled all the Messianic prophecies. That’s exactly what you have. God's saying all these prophesies about Messiah, every Jew knew that. Now Paul doesn’t expect those Jews to just believe that because he tells them, so he begins to mention all these prophesies. And from verse 23 through 37 Paul outlines the fulfillments of prophecies in the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

God said in 2 Samuel 7, “I will raise up a Savior according to the seed of David.” Jeremiah 33:17 says, “For this is what the Lord says: David will have a descendant sitting on the throne of Israel forever.” When the Messiah comes, it’ll be through David. Verse 24, “Before He came, John the Baptist preached that all the people of Israel needed to repent of their sins and turn to God and be baptized.”

This is the prophecies that there would be a forerunner to Messiah. Incidentally he is not called John the Baptist because he was a Baptist. He’s called John the Baptist because he was a baptizer. Verse 25, “As John was finishing his ministry he asked, ‘Do you think I am the Messiah? No, I am not! But He is coming soon, and I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the sandals on his feet.”

That indicates there were prophecies being fulfilled. John then was preaching repentance, “Get ready, Messiah is coming.” John’s baptism was not Christian baptism, it was a baptism of repentance. Christian baptism didn’t come in ‘til after the death and resurrection of Christ. Romans 6 tells us that when we are saved we are buried with him by baptism into His death and resurrection.

So John was getting a whole lot of people ready so that when Messiah came their hearts would be ready to receive Messiah. Before anybody really comes to know Messiah, there must be repentance. There must be the turning from sin in the heart and then the turning to Christ. Repentance is necessary to be preached, and that’s why God had John do it. So John was preparing for Messiah.

If the messenger came, the Messiah must be right afterwards. Verse 26, “Brothers, you sons of Abraham, and also you God-fearing Gentiles, this message of salvation has been sent to us!” Isn’t that great? “Don’t miss Him,” he says. “If Jesus is as you say the Messiah, why didn’t our leaders recognize Him?” If he is the Messiah and they did kill him, does that wipe out God's plan?

Verse 27, “The people in Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize Jesus as the one the prophets had spoken about. Instead, they condemned Him, and in doing this they fulfilled the prophets’ words that are read every Sabbath.” They killed him because they didn’t want to know who He was. You know what they did every Sabbath day? They read the Shema and then the law and the prophets.

But they were ignorant, and the reason they were ignorant was because they didn’t even understand the Scriptures they professed to read. You know that’s true in the name of Christianity where many people are reading Bibles and carrying Bibles who don’t know much about the meaning of the Bible? There are many people that instead take the Bible and pervert them and twist them.

They missed Christ because they didn’t even understand what they were reading. Too much sin, too much hypocrisy. The second question was this: If they killed him, did that wipe out God's plan? Look at the answer to that at the end of verse 27, “They have fulfilled them in condemning Christ.” God knew what they would do. All of the rejection of Christ was in the plan from the beginning.

In Isaiah 53:3, He was despised and rejected. Every detail was prescribed. God knew from the very beginning that He would be fully rejected, that He would be executed. In John 7:5, it says this: “For neither did his brothers believe in him.” Verse 48, when they were arguing about whether Jesus was Messiah, it says this: “Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed on him?”

Verse 28, “They found no legal reason to execute Him, but they asked Pilate to have Him killed anyway.” There wasn’t any legitimate accusation that could hold up, and Pilate repeatedly said, “There’s nothing wrong. I find no fault,” etcetera. Listen to Psalm 69:4, prophesy: “Those who hate Me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head.” That fulfilled God’s plan; He knew they would do that.

Verse 29, “When they had done all that the prophecies said about Him, they took Him down from the cross and placed Him in a tomb.” They thought they were so wise, they were getting rid of this imposter insurrectionist, but they were fulfilling prophesy right on schedule. And Paul says, “And when they had fulfilled all the prophecies, they took Him down.” Jesus is no victim.

Look at what He fulfilled on the cross. Psalm 109:25 says, “I also have become a reproach to them that when they see Me they wag their head.” Matthew 27:39, “And those who were passing by were hurling abuse at Jesus, wagging their heads.” Psalm 22:18: “They divided My garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots.” In John 19:23-24 the soldiers said, “Let’s not part his garment. Let’s cast lots.”

Psalm 69:21: “And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink and gall.” In Matthew 27:34, they gave him wine to drink mingled with gall. Psalm 22:1 says, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me,” In Matthew 27:46, Jesus said, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” Psalm 31:5 says, “Into your hands I commit my Spirit,” Luke 23:46, “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit,”

In Psalm 34:20, it says He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. John 19:33 says, “But coming to Jesus when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.” In Psalm 22:14, the Messiah says, “My heart is like wax, it melts within me.” John 19:34, his side was pierced and there flowed blood and water, indicating the breaking of his heart melting within him.

Zechariah 12:10 said, “They will look on Me whom they have pierced.” In John 19:34, a soldier took a spear and pierced His side. The Romans were in on the fulfillment. The Jews were in the fulfillment. Jesus was in on the fulfillment. The crowd was in on the fulfillment. Everybody was in on the fulfillment because God ordered it all. Jesus is the Messiah every way you see it.

Verse 30-31, “God raised Him from the dead! 31 And over a period of many days He appeared to those who had gone with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people of Israel.” “You killed him, God raised him,” said Peter. Here Paul says the same thing. The greatest proof that Jesus is Messiah is His resurrection. Why? Because all of the promises of God were fulfilled.

Verse 32-33, “And now we are here to bring you this Good News. The promise was made to our ancestors, 33 and God has now fulfilled it for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus. This is what the second psalm says about Jesus: ‘You are my Son. Today I have become your Father. God prophesied through David, “I’m going to have a living Messiah, a begotten in incarnation and in resurrection.”

Verse 34-36, “For God had promised to raise Him from the dead, not leaving him to rot in the grave. He said, ‘I will give you the sacred blessings I promised to David.’ 35 Another psalm explains it more fully: ‘You will not allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.’ 36 This is not a reference to David, for after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his ancestors, and his body decayed.

Verse 37, “No, it was a reference to someone else—someone whom God raised and whose body did not decay.” Psalm 16:8-10 says, “You shall not allow your holy one to see corruption.” God promised that Jesus would rise from the dead. Some Jews said, “That’s referring to David.” But no Jew ever believed in the resurrection of David. Jesus is the Messiah because God raised Him again to life. Let us pray.



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