In this episode, Paul and Barnabas preach the gospel in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch and meet with an initially positive reaction.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to two journeys.org. Now on to today’s episode. This is episode 25 in our Acts Bible Study Podcast. This episode is entitled Paul and Barnabas at Pisidian Antioch, where we’ll discuss Acts 13:13-43. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis.
Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
So, this is one of the most extensive examples of apostolic preaching of the cross that we get in the Book of Acts. For the most part, the sermon samples are shorter. We’re going to get the same thing in Acts 17 in Athens, but this is an example of kind of synagogue-based preaching, whereas in Acts 17 we’ll see that more kind of gentile-based preaching, a kind of a different approach and we can compare them. But here we see Paul presenting the gospel to Jewish people in a synagogue and saturating with Old Testament scriptures and proclaiming to them the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, it’s going to be very instructive for us.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read verses 13-43 in Acts 13.
Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos 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 the 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 destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 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 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 the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me, one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’
Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent 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 though they 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 the 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 this 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 he whom God raised up 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. 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.'”
As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.
Andy, what significant thing does Luke tell us happened in verse 13 at the outset of this passage we’re looking at.
Andy
So, we’re getting the movement of Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. They leave Cyprus and go to the mainland to what we know as modern day Turkey and they go inland. They land at Perga and Pamphylia which is on the coast, land a southern coastline of Turkey and move more inland. Pacific and Antioch were following Paul and Barnabas on their journey. We also learned something very significant in verse 13, that John, John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. And this is going to end up being a very significant issue in the relationship between Paul and Barnabas. But later, so we’re not going to get into that, but later, sadly, Paul and Barnabas will have to split up because of a disagreement over this very same man, John Mark. But here in verse 13, he leaves them to go to Jerusalem.
Wes
What did Paul and Barnabas do when they reached Pisidian Antioch?
Andy
Well as always, and we have this expression that we see in Romans 1, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. And so, their strategy was to go to synagogues first. So, they went on the Sabbath to the synagogue. And the custom was that really any Jewish man who had had his bar mitzvah, anybody who had a man who had reached the age of majority, he had gone through his bar mitzvah, was able to comment on the word of God. So, they wouldn’t have a single preacher, a central preacher always, but they would have various ones from the community and especially those that were coming from other communities, traveling scholars would be very welcomed and urged to speak. And so, Paul and Barnabas take advantage of this. They go to the synagogue, and they’re invited to speak on the word of God.
Wes
Let’s talk a little more about synagogue life. What do we learn about synagogue life from verse 15?
Andy
Okay, so central to the synagogue life was the reading of the Scripture, the reading of the law and the prophets. We also have synagogue rulers. So, these would be individuals in that community who are leaders in the community, pillars in the community who would run synagogue life. So, the centerpiece of synagogue worship was the reading of the Old Testament scriptures. These scriptures are read in all of these places all over the diaspora where the Jews have been scattered. This is going to be a significant feature by the way, on the issue of in Acts 15 about circumcision, and then the meat sacrificed to idols and eating of blood. Especially the issue of eating of blood because Moses was preached in all of these places. So, there was a widespread dissemination of the Scriptures, the Jewish Scriptures, and I think that’s providential. God went ahead of the gospel and spread the Scriptures around so that Paul and Barnabas and other preachers could come along afterwards and say, look, the very things that you read every Sabbath at the synagogue have been fulfilled in Jesus.
So, this was providential, it was pre-evangelism by the power of the Lord. So, in this synagogue life central to it was the reading of law and of prophets. Now we need to stop and just say what an incredible gift we have to each of us have so many copies of the word of God written. We have paper Bibles that we can pick up. And we certainly have electronic copies with our devices, our smartphones, and we have personal access to the word of God at every moment. That’s something that average Jewish people didn’t have. They got it when they went to the synagogue
Wes
After the reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to Paul and Barnabas saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” Now the word paraclasis, translated word of encouragement in verse 15, is related to the word for comforter that we also find in John 14 and 16. And really it has a range of meanings from consolation to exhortation to warning, how is the gospel all of these things?
Andy
Oh, it’s all of them. It’s marvelous, but let’s just zero in on the way that most English translations translate the word encouragement.
The circumstances are that we are sinners in need of salvation. There is no more important message that we could ever hear than this.
There is nothing more encouraging than the gospel of Jesus Christ, that our sins may be forgiven, that we may spend eternity in heaven and not in hell. Nothing could be more encouraging than that. But we also see there is a word of exhortation in the gospel. God commands all people everywhere to repent. So, it’s a word of command. So, it’s just a strong word. The idea is paracaleo means to call alongside literally. And so, the Holy Spirit is the comforter, same translate, the Paraclete, et cetera, translation. The idea is that the gospel comes alongside us to speak to us what we need to hear in our circumstances. The circumstances are that we are sinners in need of salvation. There is no more important message that we could ever hear than this.
Wes
Now why do you think as Paul begins his message to them, why do you think he’s giving the Jews a recounting of their own history, which they would’ve known so well?
Andy
I’ve said many times in my teaching before, and I continue to say it now, I think this is vital. There is no religion in the world for which history is so important as Christianity.
Second would be Judaism. But I put Judaism second to Christianity because they stepped aside from the history of Jesus and didn’t believe in it. But we accept also the history of Jesus as recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and in the Book of Acts and the Gospels, but we also accept the foundational history of God’s dealings with the Jewish nation. There is a developing story of God’s working with the human race in general and then specifically working with the Jewish people. Salvation is from the Jews, Jesus said to the Samaritan woman. That the foundational working of God is with the Jewish nation. And so, the call of Abraham, and then in this case he begins with the exodus from Egypt, that’s the beginning of the Jewish nation under Moses and the Mosaic covenant. So, he calls them out of Egypt and gives them this history.
What he wants them to know is the coming of Jesus was the development or the fulfillment of a developed history that God had with the Jewish nation. And they would’ve loved hearing their history. This was important, the recounting of these things. This was vital to the Jewish piety- that fathers should teach their sons what God did in the Exodus, what God did through Moses, that the fathers would train the sons Deuteronomy 6. Talking about the word of God when they sit at home and when they walk along the road, when they lie down, when they rise up, they’re going to go over Jewish history with their sons, the fathers are. And so, Paul just fits right into that and says, now let me tell you what’s happened. There is a fulfillment of that history in the coming of Jesus.
Wes
Why is it significant that Paul addresses not only Jews, but also God-fearing Gentiles at the beginning of his message?
Andy
Well, I think by this time it’s very, very clear to Paul that he is called as the apostle to the Gentiles, and he’s always going to go to the Jews first. But even in this very chapter, he is going to turn to the Gentiles. He knows that’s coming and he knows that God in his wisdom and in his kindness has gone on ahead of him preparing good works for him to do. And he did that even for centuries before the gospel came there by the diaspora of the Jews scattered among the Assyrian and the Babylonian exiles. And so, they’re out and about in the gentile world and they’re living out their monotheism and their hope in the prophetic promises and all of these things. And a number of God-fearers, Gentiles who are interested in the Jewish religion, start attending worship as best they can. They probably would’ve been a division where they couldn’t physically come in, but they were there listening to the messages; they were interested. Some of these would even be high placed Roman officials like Cornelius in Acts 10. These would be individuals that would be very strategic, and Paul wants to address them.
Wes
So, Paul begins with the patriarchs and specifically God’s election of the patriarchs. What’s his logic here?
Andy
Alright, his logic is that through the election of ultimately David, God is bringing a Savior to the world. So, who is David? Well, he traces out the history. So, we’ve got King Saul and then God rejecting Saul and choosing instead David a man after God’s own heart. This was the hero to the Jewish people, Abraham and David, Moses. These are the key heroes. And so, Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise made to David, the son of David who would reign forever on David’s throne.
Wes
In what way did God exalt or bless or prosper or even make great the people of Israel during their stay in Egypt, especially in that they were slaves? And how is that exaltation of fulfillment of promises made to Abraham?
Andy
Well, I think the only way they were made great during their slavery was by biological reproduction. They got to be a huge nation. So, when you think about, I forget the number like 78 that go into Egypt in the time of Joseph, and they are probably, there are 650,000 men as counted by the census plus women and children we’re looking at a couple of million coming out. That’s the answer to your question. That’s how amazingly they prospered. And so, this happened in just four generations. Now they were long generations, but it was, if you look at the list of Moses’s genealogy, it’s just four generations from those that went into Egypt and those that came out under Moses. So, in a very short time, 450 years, he exploded their population from 78 or so to several million.
Wes
So, when we read that he made the people great, we should understand that to mean he made them many or a large number of them.
Andy
People prosper. Yeah, I mean just not prosperous, but yeah, a huge nation. And again, that’s fulfillment of the prediction that he made to Abraham saying, “I’ll make your descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky.”
Wes
What does Paul say about the relationship between the Jews and God in verses 17-20?
Andy
Well, it says he endured their conduct. That’s what my translation says. Other translations say he cared for them, but what do you say in verse 18?
Wes
Yeah, so I’m reading out of the ESV: he put up with them in the wilderness.
Andy
Yeah, so they really were pagans. I mean the Jews coming out of 450 years of life in Egypt with the Egyptian gods, they were drawn after the Egyptian gods. They didn’t know who the Lord was. Maybe the fathers hadn’t told the sons about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the promises. They were like Esau, they didn’t care about the promises, et cetera. And so, they acted like pagans and most of them died in the desert. As Paul says in Corinthians, their bodies were scattered over the desert. 1 Corinthians 10, God was not pleased with most of them. And he endured their paganism, he endured their idolatry, they made the golden calf, he put up with them. They also were constantly murmuring and complaining against God, hating the manna, arguing against Moses and Aaron. And so, God put up with them for 40 years in the desert.
Wes
Andy, you alluded to this a moment ago, but Paul goes on to recount the history of the kingship leading up to David, and really, he’s setting up the history of Jesus that he’s about to unfold in verses 23-31. Is there anything else we need to understand about the history of the kingship leading up to David before we look at the history of Jesus?
Andy
Well, here’s the thing. When you look at this sermon, you know that there’s code language for all kinds of history behind it. There are just all kinds of things. It’s almost like Paul’s saying, go back and look at it. Go back and look what led to them asking for a king. Go back and look to the era of the judges. So basically, as Stephen is doing, but Paul is more subtle, not as in your face as Stephen became openly said, you stiff neck people with uncircumcised hearts and ears. That was Stephen. Paul’s basically saying, look, the history of our people is a history of rebellion. It’s a history of disobedience against God and the need for a Savior. And so, God is ultimately bringing a Savior to this nation who so need it, need it so much. Verse 23, from this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus.
So, if you go back to let’s say just the word judges, God gave them judges. Have you read the Book of Judges? What is going on in that book? That is what the nation of Israel looks like when the law of God is not taught, and the people are, they’re just no different than pagans. They’re no different than Sodom and Gomorrah. They’re just as bad as any other nation. And that’s why the judges came. God had punished them. God brought military delivers who would deliver them, but in those days, they had no king. And everyone did what was right in their own eyes. It’s very sad history. And then along comes Saul who ruled for 40 years, and he was not a godly man. He basically I think went crazy and tried to kill his own son, tried to kill David, et cetera. So, the fact is the Jews, as much as anyone else on earth need the Savior who is to come, Jesus.
Wes
Verse 23 is really where Paul makes that shift looking back at David, but then looking forward at David’s offspring ultimately culminating in the coming of the Messiah. Now before Jesus there was another John, what role does John the Baptist play in this message of Paul’s?
Andy
Well, I don’t know if they knew about John, but John was very famous. People came from all over Palestine to hear John preach and because people came from all over the Greco-Roman world to Jerusalem, God-fearers would come then. It must have been that many had heard of John and the preaching he did. But John was a clear prophet testifying to the coming of Jesus and he preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel. And as he was finishing his work, he pointed to or testified to the coming of the Savior, Jesus Christ, this one is coming whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He’s coming after me. So, he was heightening expectation. What Paul’s doing here is, he’s saying whether you heard of John or not, this happened. And now I want to tell you about the one that John predicted, the one who’s coming was foretold. The one John said, I’m not worthy to untie his sandals. So again, Paul’s using John here to heighten expectation of the coming of Jesus.
Wes
In verse 26, Paul says, “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation.” So, he’s unpacking the reality that this gospel, this good news has been entrusted to them, and they need to hear this. They need to listen and respond to what he’s about to unfold for them. Why does Paul mention so prominently the Jewish rejection of Jesus in verses 27-29? And what other themes does Paul weave into that rejection?
Andy
Well, it’s foundational to the salvation of the world that the Jews would reject Jesus. I mean, why did he die? It’s because the Jewish authorities rejected him and accused him of blasphemy and turned them over to the Gentiles to be executed. But this very thing was predicted. “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:22-23). Or again, Isaiah 53:1-3,
Lord who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering; like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
It’s clearly predicted- the rejection of Jesus the Messiah by the Jewish nation was predicted in many places. And it was essential to the salvation of the world because he had to be killed. And it was essential to God’s wisdom because Jews and Gentiles together, they work together to kill the Savior of the world so that the guilt is spread equally because all of us need this Savior. And so, the rejection of Jesus by the Jews is essential. Also he knows where we’re heading. He’s not foolish. He’s actually done this ministry many times in a lot of synagogues. He says, I know what’s going to come. There are going to be a few of you that will believe and the rest of you’re going to persecute. So, he’s trying to get out ahead of that to say, look, this is the very thing that had happened. They had rejected the Messiah.
Wes
This rejection that showed itself in the crucifixion ultimately though would lead to Christ’s resurrection, not just dying and being buried but rising again. How does the resurrection of Christ and the witness to this resurrection factor into the message of Paul?
Andy
Yeah, it’s remarkable. If you go through the Book of Acts, you’re always going to see in any extended preaching of the gospel they’re always going to mention the resurrection. It’s central. And so, the resurrection is what vindicates Jesus. It sets him apart. It vindicates everything he said about himself. And it completely refutes the rejection of the Jewish nation, which Paul said by their rejection, they fulfilled the very words of Scripture they read every week. So, he’s going to write later in Corinthians that whenever Moses is read a veil covers their minds, they cannot see the truth. But the very thing that the prophets predicted would happen, they have fulfilled. And so, this, their crucifixion was done, the handing over of Jesus to the death sentence was done unjustly. There was no ground for it, but it happened. And then after all of these prophesied things had been carried out, they killed him and he was laid in a tomb, but God raised him from the dead. And in so doing, he vindicated Jesus and gave us all of us a hope for salvation.
Wes
And Paul speaks of witnesses to Christ’s resurrection. But it goes on to say that they’ve been given this good news to proclaim. What is the good news that Paul is telling the Jews? And why do you think Paul focuses so much on this promise fulfillment motif in his message?
Andy
Well, he doesn’t really get to the good news until the end of his message. He gets to it in verse 38, therefore my brothers, here it is. Here’s the good news. I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
Alright? That’s the good news. The good news is that our sins can be forgiven. It’s implied in verse 23 where he says, from this man’s descendants, God is brought to Israel the Savior Jesus. Save from what? Well, we know from Matthew 1:21, he’ll save his people from their sins. So, this is the good news, but he doesn’t get to the good news right away. He just says there is good news. I’ll tell you what it is in just a minute but let me say a few more things about Jesus in terms of fulfillment of prophecy.
Wes
Let’s talk about that fulfillment of prophecy a little bit here. How do Psalm 2 and Isaiah 55:3 that are quoted in verses 33-34 relate to the resurrection?
Andy
It’s very deep. Actually. I’ve thought about this a lot. The quotation of the second Psalm, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you” (Psalm 2:7), is very interesting because the author to Hebrews quotes it as well, but I’m just going to keep to Acts 13 here. Paul’s basically saying that by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, he was publicly portrayed and presented to the world as the Son of God. It kind of finished the resume, the evidence that Jesus was the Son of God as he claimed to be. That’s the theme, the entire theme of the gospel of Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And so, by raising him from the dead, he declared Jesus to be his own Son, his Son, his only begotten Son. You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Now, the word today seems in this preaching to be linked to the resurrection, and yet the author to Hebrews links it to his birth.
When God brought his firstborn into the world, he testified saying, today you are my Son…. Today I begotten you. And so, everything connected with Jesus’s physicality, the taking on of a human body through the Virgin Mary, and then the taking again of a resurrection body by his resurrection from the dead. All of that was part of him being proclaimed to the world as the Son of God. So that’s the first, Psalm 2, and then Psalm 2, all of it is clearly Messianic where he warns the kings of the earth to kiss the son lest he be angry with him. And so, the Son is the Son of God, and by kissing him in Psalm 2, it means to believe in him and trust in him. And there’s a warning that Paul gives right here in Pisidian Antioch to not disbelieve in Jesus fundamentally. And then he goes on in verse 34 to refer to Isaiah 55, the fact that God raised him from the dead, never to decay stated in these words, “I’ll give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.”
Now what I think is this, Isaiah 55:3 and Isaiah 55 is so amazing. The whole chapter is a gospel proclamation. And it’s like, “You who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you have no money, come buy and eat! … Come, buy… without money…. Why spend your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare” (Isaiah 55, paraphrase). God’s word will not return empty. You’ll go out with joy and be led forth and peace. The mountains and the hills will break forth before you. Isaiah 55 is the gospel chapter, and I think what Paul’s doing is he’s saying, yeah, all of it, Isaiah 55, and frankly not just Isaiah 55, but that whole section of Isaiah, that whole region of Isaiah’s prediction goes to substitutionary atonement and Isaiah 53. And then his resurrection from the dead, the fact that God raised him from the dead never to decay is in Isaiah 53. And then on it to 54, extend the tent and make the tent bigger, it goes out. That’s a gospel spreading out. And then Isaiah 55 is the invitation, come drink. So, I think he’s saying the fact that God raised him from the dead not to decay is stated in the whole package of the promise made to David as predicted in Isaiah the prophet.
Wes
Now the connection to Psalm 16, which is also quoted here, seems a little easier to make even than the ones that you were just elaborating for us. How do verses 35-37 really sense the argument that Paul is making?
Andy
Yeah, so in Psalm 16, he says, you’ll not let your Holy One see decay. So, this is the very thing that Peter had preached on as well on the day of Pentecost. And that is, look, there is no one else other than Jesus who died and didn’t decay. And so fundamentally, these words, you’ll not let your Holy One see decay cannot refer to David. But instead, as Peter said plainly on the day of Pentecost, David was a prophet and he predicted that God would raise his Son from the dead, and he did that in Jesus. So, Paul doubles down on that same approach saying, now look, when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep. He was buried with his fathers, and guess what? His body decayed. So, he wasn’t talking about himself. Who was he talking about? Well, the one whom God raised from the dead, Jesus, did not see decay. So, he’s saying, look, go back and read Isaiah 55. Go back a little further than that. Read Isaiah 53 and you’ll see the prediction of the resurrection. Then look at Psalm 16. There’s no doubt that God predicted that he would raise from the dead. He would be raised from the dead. By the way, I think that’s what he’s doing with Isaiah 55:3. He’s not just saying, read Isaiah 55. He’s saying the holy and sure blessings, promise to David, such as Psalm 16.
That’s a promise made to David that’s fulfilled in Jesus. That’s what he’s getting at here. So, it’s just evidence that Christ is the Messiah.
Wes
Now, as any good teacher would, Paul wants to make application to his hearers and specifically his Jewish hearers here. How does Paul apply this sermon? What commands does he give his hearers and what does the overall tenor of his comments teach us about evangelism?
Andy
Alright, so now he’s going to cinch the deal. I do find it interesting. It’s like, all right, what’s the point? Why are you telling us all this? Well, here it is. Here’s the punchline, here’s the application to the sermon. Therefore, my brothers speaking in that Jewish familiar language. We’re brothers together, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. I mean, that’s it. That’s the gospel message for you here at Two Journeys. This is the good news for all of us: in every generation, our sins can be forgiven. Nothing is more important than that. Nothing is more encouraging than that. Through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is preached. It’s proclaimed to you. So, if you listen to the preaching and believe it, your sins will be forgiven through him, through Jesus. Everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses, we know how much theology there is behind that.
This is the good news for all of us: in every generation, our sins can be forgiven.
That is the clear assertion of forgiveness of sins, justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law. The law of Moses could not justify us. We could not receive forgiveness of sins, but we do get it by faith in Jesus. And then he gives a warning. He says, look, you’ve heard it. You’ve got the gospel. Now I’m going to give you a warning. Take care. Be very careful 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 as someone told you – that’s Habakkuk 1:5 and he’s talking. He’s just giving a warning there that if you don’t believe this, you are going to be condemned. So, it’s very, very important that you not be a scoffer and wonder. Wonder, meaning I don’t think it’s true and perish.
Wes
How do we account for the initial reaction to this message that Paul has just delivered? And what does he mean when he says continue in the grace of God?
Andy
Alright, so they want to hear more. They don’t reject immediately. I think there’s going to be rejection across the week when the message settles in similar to the difference in the persecution, if you could call it that between Acts 4 and Acts 5. Acts 4, they arrest Peter and John after the healing of the lame beggar, and they just warn them and let them go. Acts 5, they beat them. So, they’ve had more time to think. And so, I think the same thing’s going to happen sadly here in Pisidia and Antioch. The initial reaction is, huh, okay, I want to hear you more about this, and so please speak next Sabbath on these things. But then there is a small number of Jews and devout converts to Judaism who follow Paul and Barnabas and want to know more. You can tell they’ve come to faith. And so then to that smaller number of people that remnant Paul is saying, you need to continue in the grace of God. And by the way, that expression gives us a sense of why Paul always be in his epistles the same way, grace to you in peace. So, he’s saying, continue in the grace of God.
I’m going to send you one of my epistles, and if you read it, it will be a vehicle of God’s grace to you, but you have to continue in the grace of God. You had to continue to grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ as Peter said.
Wes
Andy, any final thoughts for us on this passage that we’ve looked at today?
Andy
Oh, it’s very rich and powerful, isn’t it? And how encouraging to us to know that all of these things that we believe they’re not coming up like some myth or fable out of thin air. But there is a developed history that is recorded for us in the Bible that no man could have ever made up. And that’s been validated by archeology and by other aspects, but especially by Scripture itself, that there is a story of human sinfulness and of God’s working with sinful human beings to bring about a Savior and salvation through faith in Jesus. And I’m personally encouraged when I read this, Acts 13 is a great chapter and a testimony to the truth of the gospel.
Wes
Well, this has been Episode 25 in our Acts Bible Study Podcast, and we want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 26 entitled The Gospel in Antioch and Then Iconium, where we’ll discuss Acts 13:44-14:7. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to two journeys.org. Now on to today’s episode. This is episode 25 in our Acts Bible Study Podcast. This episode is entitled Paul and Barnabas at Pisidian Antioch, where we’ll discuss Acts 13:13-43. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis.
Andy, what are we going to see in these verses that we’re looking at today?
Andy
So, this is one of the most extensive examples of apostolic preaching of the cross that we get in the Book of Acts. For the most part, the sermon samples are shorter. We’re going to get the same thing in Acts 17 in Athens, but this is an example of kind of synagogue-based preaching, whereas in Acts 17 we’ll see that more kind of gentile-based preaching, a kind of a different approach and we can compare them. But here we see Paul presenting the gospel to Jewish people in a synagogue and saturating with Old Testament scriptures and proclaiming to them the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, it’s going to be very instructive for us.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read verses 13-43 in Acts 13.
Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos 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 the 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 destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 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 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 the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me, one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’
Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent 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 though they 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 the 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 this 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 he whom God raised up 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. 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.'”
As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.
Andy, what significant thing does Luke tell us happened in verse 13 at the outset of this passage we’re looking at.
Andy
So, we’re getting the movement of Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. They leave Cyprus and go to the mainland to what we know as modern day Turkey and they go inland. They land at Perga and Pamphylia which is on the coast, land a southern coastline of Turkey and move more inland. Pacific and Antioch were following Paul and Barnabas on their journey. We also learned something very significant in verse 13, that John, John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. And this is going to end up being a very significant issue in the relationship between Paul and Barnabas. But later, so we’re not going to get into that, but later, sadly, Paul and Barnabas will have to split up because of a disagreement over this very same man, John Mark. But here in verse 13, he leaves them to go to Jerusalem.
Wes
What did Paul and Barnabas do when they reached Pisidian Antioch?
Andy
Well as always, and we have this expression that we see in Romans 1, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. And so, their strategy was to go to synagogues first. So, they went on the Sabbath to the synagogue. And the custom was that really any Jewish man who had had his bar mitzvah, anybody who had a man who had reached the age of majority, he had gone through his bar mitzvah, was able to comment on the word of God. So, they wouldn’t have a single preacher, a central preacher always, but they would have various ones from the community and especially those that were coming from other communities, traveling scholars would be very welcomed and urged to speak. And so, Paul and Barnabas take advantage of this. They go to the synagogue, and they’re invited to speak on the word of God.
Wes
Let’s talk a little more about synagogue life. What do we learn about synagogue life from verse 15?
Andy
Okay, so central to the synagogue life was the reading of the Scripture, the reading of the law and the prophets. We also have synagogue rulers. So, these would be individuals in that community who are leaders in the community, pillars in the community who would run synagogue life. So, the centerpiece of synagogue worship was the reading of the Old Testament scriptures. These scriptures are read in all of these places all over the diaspora where the Jews have been scattered. This is going to be a significant feature by the way, on the issue of in Acts 15 about circumcision, and then the meat sacrificed to idols and eating of blood. Especially the issue of eating of blood because Moses was preached in all of these places. So, there was a widespread dissemination of the Scriptures, the Jewish Scriptures, and I think that’s providential. God went ahead of the gospel and spread the Scriptures around so that Paul and Barnabas and other preachers could come along afterwards and say, look, the very things that you read every Sabbath at the synagogue have been fulfilled in Jesus.
So, this was providential, it was pre-evangelism by the power of the Lord. So, in this synagogue life central to it was the reading of law and of prophets. Now we need to stop and just say what an incredible gift we have to each of us have so many copies of the word of God written. We have paper Bibles that we can pick up. And we certainly have electronic copies with our devices, our smartphones, and we have personal access to the word of God at every moment. That’s something that average Jewish people didn’t have. They got it when they went to the synagogue
Wes
After the reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to Paul and Barnabas saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” Now the word paraclasis, translated word of encouragement in verse 15, is related to the word for comforter that we also find in John 14 and 16. And really it has a range of meanings from consolation to exhortation to warning, how is the gospel all of these things?
Andy
Oh, it’s all of them. It’s marvelous, but let’s just zero in on the way that most English translations translate the word encouragement.
The circumstances are that we are sinners in need of salvation. There is no more important message that we could ever hear than this.
There is nothing more encouraging than the gospel of Jesus Christ, that our sins may be forgiven, that we may spend eternity in heaven and not in hell. Nothing could be more encouraging than that. But we also see there is a word of exhortation in the gospel. God commands all people everywhere to repent. So, it’s a word of command. So, it’s just a strong word. The idea is paracaleo means to call alongside literally. And so, the Holy Spirit is the comforter, same translate, the Paraclete, et cetera, translation. The idea is that the gospel comes alongside us to speak to us what we need to hear in our circumstances. The circumstances are that we are sinners in need of salvation. There is no more important message that we could ever hear than this.
Wes
Now why do you think as Paul begins his message to them, why do you think he’s giving the Jews a recounting of their own history, which they would’ve known so well?
Andy
I’ve said many times in my teaching before, and I continue to say it now, I think this is vital. There is no religion in the world for which history is so important as Christianity.
Second would be Judaism. But I put Judaism second to Christianity because they stepped aside from the history of Jesus and didn’t believe in it. But we accept also the history of Jesus as recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and in the Book of Acts and the Gospels, but we also accept the foundational history of God’s dealings with the Jewish nation. There is a developing story of God’s working with the human race in general and then specifically working with the Jewish people. Salvation is from the Jews, Jesus said to the Samaritan woman. That the foundational working of God is with the Jewish nation. And so, the call of Abraham, and then in this case he begins with the exodus from Egypt, that’s the beginning of the Jewish nation under Moses and the Mosaic covenant. So, he calls them out of Egypt and gives them this history.
What he wants them to know is the coming of Jesus was the development or the fulfillment of a developed history that God had with the Jewish nation. And they would’ve loved hearing their history. This was important, the recounting of these things. This was vital to the Jewish piety- that fathers should teach their sons what God did in the Exodus, what God did through Moses, that the fathers would train the sons Deuteronomy 6. Talking about the word of God when they sit at home and when they walk along the road, when they lie down, when they rise up, they’re going to go over Jewish history with their sons, the fathers are. And so, Paul just fits right into that and says, now let me tell you what’s happened. There is a fulfillment of that history in the coming of Jesus.
Wes
Why is it significant that Paul addresses not only Jews, but also God-fearing Gentiles at the beginning of his message?
Andy
Well, I think by this time it’s very, very clear to Paul that he is called as the apostle to the Gentiles, and he’s always going to go to the Jews first. But even in this very chapter, he is going to turn to the Gentiles. He knows that’s coming and he knows that God in his wisdom and in his kindness has gone on ahead of him preparing good works for him to do. And he did that even for centuries before the gospel came there by the diaspora of the Jews scattered among the Assyrian and the Babylonian exiles. And so, they’re out and about in the gentile world and they’re living out their monotheism and their hope in the prophetic promises and all of these things. And a number of God-fearers, Gentiles who are interested in the Jewish religion, start attending worship as best they can. They probably would’ve been a division where they couldn’t physically come in, but they were there listening to the messages; they were interested. Some of these would even be high placed Roman officials like Cornelius in Acts 10. These would be individuals that would be very strategic, and Paul wants to address them.
Wes
So, Paul begins with the patriarchs and specifically God’s election of the patriarchs. What’s his logic here?
Andy
Alright, his logic is that through the election of ultimately David, God is bringing a Savior to the world. So, who is David? Well, he traces out the history. So, we’ve got King Saul and then God rejecting Saul and choosing instead David a man after God’s own heart. This was the hero to the Jewish people, Abraham and David, Moses. These are the key heroes. And so, Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise made to David, the son of David who would reign forever on David’s throne.
Wes
In what way did God exalt or bless or prosper or even make great the people of Israel during their stay in Egypt, especially in that they were slaves? And how is that exaltation of fulfillment of promises made to Abraham?
Andy
Well, I think the only way they were made great during their slavery was by biological reproduction. They got to be a huge nation. So, when you think about, I forget the number like 78 that go into Egypt in the time of Joseph, and they are probably, there are 650,000 men as counted by the census plus women and children we’re looking at a couple of million coming out. That’s the answer to your question. That’s how amazingly they prospered. And so, this happened in just four generations. Now they were long generations, but it was, if you look at the list of Moses’s genealogy, it’s just four generations from those that went into Egypt and those that came out under Moses. So, in a very short time, 450 years, he exploded their population from 78 or so to several million.
Wes
So, when we read that he made the people great, we should understand that to mean he made them many or a large number of them.
Andy
People prosper. Yeah, I mean just not prosperous, but yeah, a huge nation. And again, that’s fulfillment of the prediction that he made to Abraham saying, “I’ll make your descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky.”
Wes
What does Paul say about the relationship between the Jews and God in verses 17-20?
Andy
Well, it says he endured their conduct. That’s what my translation says. Other translations say he cared for them, but what do you say in verse 18?
Wes
Yeah, so I’m reading out of the ESV: he put up with them in the wilderness.
Andy
Yeah, so they really were pagans. I mean the Jews coming out of 450 years of life in Egypt with the Egyptian gods, they were drawn after the Egyptian gods. They didn’t know who the Lord was. Maybe the fathers hadn’t told the sons about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the promises. They were like Esau, they didn’t care about the promises, et cetera. And so, they acted like pagans and most of them died in the desert. As Paul says in Corinthians, their bodies were scattered over the desert. 1 Corinthians 10, God was not pleased with most of them. And he endured their paganism, he endured their idolatry, they made the golden calf, he put up with them. They also were constantly murmuring and complaining against God, hating the manna, arguing against Moses and Aaron. And so, God put up with them for 40 years in the desert.
Wes
Andy, you alluded to this a moment ago, but Paul goes on to recount the history of the kingship leading up to David, and really, he’s setting up the history of Jesus that he’s about to unfold in verses 23-31. Is there anything else we need to understand about the history of the kingship leading up to David before we look at the history of Jesus?
Andy
Well, here’s the thing. When you look at this sermon, you know that there’s code language for all kinds of history behind it. There are just all kinds of things. It’s almost like Paul’s saying, go back and look at it. Go back and look what led to them asking for a king. Go back and look to the era of the judges. So basically, as Stephen is doing, but Paul is more subtle, not as in your face as Stephen became openly said, you stiff neck people with uncircumcised hearts and ears. That was Stephen. Paul’s basically saying, look, the history of our people is a history of rebellion. It’s a history of disobedience against God and the need for a Savior. And so, God is ultimately bringing a Savior to this nation who so need it, need it so much. Verse 23, from this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus.
So, if you go back to let’s say just the word judges, God gave them judges. Have you read the Book of Judges? What is going on in that book? That is what the nation of Israel looks like when the law of God is not taught, and the people are, they’re just no different than pagans. They’re no different than Sodom and Gomorrah. They’re just as bad as any other nation. And that’s why the judges came. God had punished them. God brought military delivers who would deliver them, but in those days, they had no king. And everyone did what was right in their own eyes. It’s very sad history. And then along comes Saul who ruled for 40 years, and he was not a godly man. He basically I think went crazy and tried to kill his own son, tried to kill David, et cetera. So, the fact is the Jews, as much as anyone else on earth need the Savior who is to come, Jesus.
Wes
Verse 23 is really where Paul makes that shift looking back at David, but then looking forward at David’s offspring ultimately culminating in the coming of the Messiah. Now before Jesus there was another John, what role does John the Baptist play in this message of Paul’s?
Andy
Well, I don’t know if they knew about John, but John was very famous. People came from all over Palestine to hear John preach and because people came from all over the Greco-Roman world to Jerusalem, God-fearers would come then. It must have been that many had heard of John and the preaching he did. But John was a clear prophet testifying to the coming of Jesus and he preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel. And as he was finishing his work, he pointed to or testified to the coming of the Savior, Jesus Christ, this one is coming whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He’s coming after me. So, he was heightening expectation. What Paul’s doing here is, he’s saying whether you heard of John or not, this happened. And now I want to tell you about the one that John predicted, the one who’s coming was foretold. The one John said, I’m not worthy to untie his sandals. So again, Paul’s using John here to heighten expectation of the coming of Jesus.
Wes
In verse 26, Paul says, “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation.” So, he’s unpacking the reality that this gospel, this good news has been entrusted to them, and they need to hear this. They need to listen and respond to what he’s about to unfold for them. Why does Paul mention so prominently the Jewish rejection of Jesus in verses 27-29? And what other themes does Paul weave into that rejection?
Andy
Well, it’s foundational to the salvation of the world that the Jews would reject Jesus. I mean, why did he die? It’s because the Jewish authorities rejected him and accused him of blasphemy and turned them over to the Gentiles to be executed. But this very thing was predicted. “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:22-23). Or again, Isaiah 53:1-3,
Lord who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering; like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
It’s clearly predicted- the rejection of Jesus the Messiah by the Jewish nation was predicted in many places. And it was essential to the salvation of the world because he had to be killed. And it was essential to God’s wisdom because Jews and Gentiles together, they work together to kill the Savior of the world so that the guilt is spread equally because all of us need this Savior. And so, the rejection of Jesus by the Jews is essential. Also he knows where we’re heading. He’s not foolish. He’s actually done this ministry many times in a lot of synagogues. He says, I know what’s going to come. There are going to be a few of you that will believe and the rest of you’re going to persecute. So, he’s trying to get out ahead of that to say, look, this is the very thing that had happened. They had rejected the Messiah.
Wes
This rejection that showed itself in the crucifixion ultimately though would lead to Christ’s resurrection, not just dying and being buried but rising again. How does the resurrection of Christ and the witness to this resurrection factor into the message of Paul?
Andy
Yeah, it’s remarkable. If you go through the Book of Acts, you’re always going to see in any extended preaching of the gospel they’re always going to mention the resurrection. It’s central. And so, the resurrection is what vindicates Jesus. It sets him apart. It vindicates everything he said about himself. And it completely refutes the rejection of the Jewish nation, which Paul said by their rejection, they fulfilled the very words of Scripture they read every week. So, he’s going to write later in Corinthians that whenever Moses is read a veil covers their minds, they cannot see the truth. But the very thing that the prophets predicted would happen, they have fulfilled. And so, this, their crucifixion was done, the handing over of Jesus to the death sentence was done unjustly. There was no ground for it, but it happened. And then after all of these prophesied things had been carried out, they killed him and he was laid in a tomb, but God raised him from the dead. And in so doing, he vindicated Jesus and gave us all of us a hope for salvation.
Wes
And Paul speaks of witnesses to Christ’s resurrection. But it goes on to say that they’ve been given this good news to proclaim. What is the good news that Paul is telling the Jews? And why do you think Paul focuses so much on this promise fulfillment motif in his message?
Andy
Well, he doesn’t really get to the good news until the end of his message. He gets to it in verse 38, therefore my brothers, here it is. Here’s the good news. I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
Alright? That’s the good news. The good news is that our sins can be forgiven. It’s implied in verse 23 where he says, from this man’s descendants, God is brought to Israel the Savior Jesus. Save from what? Well, we know from Matthew 1:21, he’ll save his people from their sins. So, this is the good news, but he doesn’t get to the good news right away. He just says there is good news. I’ll tell you what it is in just a minute but let me say a few more things about Jesus in terms of fulfillment of prophecy.
Wes
Let’s talk about that fulfillment of prophecy a little bit here. How do Psalm 2 and Isaiah 55:3 that are quoted in verses 33-34 relate to the resurrection?
Andy
It’s very deep. Actually. I’ve thought about this a lot. The quotation of the second Psalm, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you” (Psalm 2:7), is very interesting because the author to Hebrews quotes it as well, but I’m just going to keep to Acts 13 here. Paul’s basically saying that by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, he was publicly portrayed and presented to the world as the Son of God. It kind of finished the resume, the evidence that Jesus was the Son of God as he claimed to be. That’s the theme, the entire theme of the gospel of Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And so, by raising him from the dead, he declared Jesus to be his own Son, his Son, his only begotten Son. You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Now, the word today seems in this preaching to be linked to the resurrection, and yet the author to Hebrews links it to his birth.
When God brought his firstborn into the world, he testified saying, today you are my Son…. Today I begotten you. And so, everything connected with Jesus’s physicality, the taking on of a human body through the Virgin Mary, and then the taking again of a resurrection body by his resurrection from the dead. All of that was part of him being proclaimed to the world as the Son of God. So that’s the first, Psalm 2, and then Psalm 2, all of it is clearly Messianic where he warns the kings of the earth to kiss the son lest he be angry with him. And so, the Son is the Son of God, and by kissing him in Psalm 2, it means to believe in him and trust in him. And there’s a warning that Paul gives right here in Pisidian Antioch to not disbelieve in Jesus fundamentally. And then he goes on in verse 34 to refer to Isaiah 55, the fact that God raised him from the dead, never to decay stated in these words, “I’ll give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.”
Now what I think is this, Isaiah 55:3 and Isaiah 55 is so amazing. The whole chapter is a gospel proclamation. And it’s like, “You who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you have no money, come buy and eat! … Come, buy… without money…. Why spend your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare” (Isaiah 55, paraphrase). God’s word will not return empty. You’ll go out with joy and be led forth and peace. The mountains and the hills will break forth before you. Isaiah 55 is the gospel chapter, and I think what Paul’s doing is he’s saying, yeah, all of it, Isaiah 55, and frankly not just Isaiah 55, but that whole section of Isaiah, that whole region of Isaiah’s prediction goes to substitutionary atonement and Isaiah 53. And then his resurrection from the dead, the fact that God raised him from the dead never to decay is in Isaiah 53. And then on it to 54, extend the tent and make the tent bigger, it goes out. That’s a gospel spreading out. And then Isaiah 55 is the invitation, come drink. So, I think he’s saying the fact that God raised him from the dead not to decay is stated in the whole package of the promise made to David as predicted in Isaiah the prophet.
Wes
Now the connection to Psalm 16, which is also quoted here, seems a little easier to make even than the ones that you were just elaborating for us. How do verses 35-37 really sense the argument that Paul is making?
Andy
Yeah, so in Psalm 16, he says, you’ll not let your Holy One see decay. So, this is the very thing that Peter had preached on as well on the day of Pentecost. And that is, look, there is no one else other than Jesus who died and didn’t decay. And so fundamentally, these words, you’ll not let your Holy One see decay cannot refer to David. But instead, as Peter said plainly on the day of Pentecost, David was a prophet and he predicted that God would raise his Son from the dead, and he did that in Jesus. So, Paul doubles down on that same approach saying, now look, when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep. He was buried with his fathers, and guess what? His body decayed. So, he wasn’t talking about himself. Who was he talking about? Well, the one whom God raised from the dead, Jesus, did not see decay. So, he’s saying, look, go back and read Isaiah 55. Go back a little further than that. Read Isaiah 53 and you’ll see the prediction of the resurrection. Then look at Psalm 16. There’s no doubt that God predicted that he would raise from the dead. He would be raised from the dead. By the way, I think that’s what he’s doing with Isaiah 55:3. He’s not just saying, read Isaiah 55. He’s saying the holy and sure blessings, promise to David, such as Psalm 16.
That’s a promise made to David that’s fulfilled in Jesus. That’s what he’s getting at here. So, it’s just evidence that Christ is the Messiah.
Wes
Now, as any good teacher would, Paul wants to make application to his hearers and specifically his Jewish hearers here. How does Paul apply this sermon? What commands does he give his hearers and what does the overall tenor of his comments teach us about evangelism?
Andy
Alright, so now he’s going to cinch the deal. I do find it interesting. It’s like, all right, what’s the point? Why are you telling us all this? Well, here it is. Here’s the punchline, here’s the application to the sermon. Therefore, my brothers speaking in that Jewish familiar language. We’re brothers together, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. I mean, that’s it. That’s the gospel message for you here at Two Journeys. This is the good news for all of us: in every generation, our sins can be forgiven. Nothing is more important than that. Nothing is more encouraging than that. Through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is preached. It’s proclaimed to you. So, if you listen to the preaching and believe it, your sins will be forgiven through him, through Jesus. Everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses, we know how much theology there is behind that.
This is the good news for all of us: in every generation, our sins can be forgiven.
That is the clear assertion of forgiveness of sins, justification by faith alone, apart from works of the law. The law of Moses could not justify us. We could not receive forgiveness of sins, but we do get it by faith in Jesus. And then he gives a warning. He says, look, you’ve heard it. You’ve got the gospel. Now I’m going to give you a warning. Take care. Be very careful 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 as someone told you – that’s Habakkuk 1:5 and he’s talking. He’s just giving a warning there that if you don’t believe this, you are going to be condemned. So, it’s very, very important that you not be a scoffer and wonder. Wonder, meaning I don’t think it’s true and perish.
Wes
How do we account for the initial reaction to this message that Paul has just delivered? And what does he mean when he says continue in the grace of God?
Andy
Alright, so they want to hear more. They don’t reject immediately. I think there’s going to be rejection across the week when the message settles in similar to the difference in the persecution, if you could call it that between Acts 4 and Acts 5. Acts 4, they arrest Peter and John after the healing of the lame beggar, and they just warn them and let them go. Acts 5, they beat them. So, they’ve had more time to think. And so, I think the same thing’s going to happen sadly here in Pisidia and Antioch. The initial reaction is, huh, okay, I want to hear you more about this, and so please speak next Sabbath on these things. But then there is a small number of Jews and devout converts to Judaism who follow Paul and Barnabas and want to know more. You can tell they’ve come to faith. And so then to that smaller number of people that remnant Paul is saying, you need to continue in the grace of God. And by the way, that expression gives us a sense of why Paul always be in his epistles the same way, grace to you in peace. So, he’s saying, continue in the grace of God.
I’m going to send you one of my epistles, and if you read it, it will be a vehicle of God’s grace to you, but you have to continue in the grace of God. You had to continue to grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ as Peter said.
Wes
Andy, any final thoughts for us on this passage that we’ve looked at today?
Andy
Oh, it’s very rich and powerful, isn’t it? And how encouraging to us to know that all of these things that we believe they’re not coming up like some myth or fable out of thin air. But there is a developed history that is recorded for us in the Bible that no man could have ever made up. And that’s been validated by archeology and by other aspects, but especially by Scripture itself, that there is a story of human sinfulness and of God’s working with sinful human beings to bring about a Savior and salvation through faith in Jesus. And I’m personally encouraged when I read this, Acts 13 is a great chapter and a testimony to the truth of the gospel.
Wes
Well, this has been Episode 25 in our Acts Bible Study Podcast, and we want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 26 entitled The Gospel in Antioch and Then Iconium, where we’ll discuss Acts 13:44-14:7. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
