You are planning movie night out with your friends but you
can’t decide which movie to watch. What do you do? You settle the dispute with
Rotten Tomatoes and choose the one that has the highest rating. Or you’re
deciding where to go for dinner. There’s an app for that, too: TripAdvisor
lists the best restaurants in Cambridge complete with reviews, rankings and
most importantly, the ability to filter by price!
Whether it is a new book, a cheap hotel or the latest iPhone;
whether it is a university course, a new career or a church community - our
first instinct is not to look at that place, person or thing for ourselves. No,
we read the reviews, we check up the ratings, we Google for fan reactions to
form that first impression.
Why? Because if millions of Facebook friends say it’s good, it
must be good! Because it’s a way of filtering out the noise - of saving time -
and focusing our attention on those top few choices to decide on. If we are
honest, it is because we need to know what others think before opening our
mouths to say what we think. And if we aren’t careful, those tiny decisions we
make every day based on what everyone else is doing, based on what everyone
else says we should do, might just lead to big decisions being made the exact
same way: without weighing the evidence for ourselves.
Today’s passage is about reactions and reviews of the gospel -
how they are to be expected, how they can both positive and negative, but most
importantly, how the gospel shapes our expectations and not the other way
around.
All the promises of
God
Paul begins with the gospel in verse 32: “We tell you the good
news,” he says. And he summarises the gospel like this: “What God has promised
our fathers, he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising us Jesus.” Everything
that God promised in the bible - to Abraham, to Moses and to David. Everything,
including the promise of the land, the promise of his blessing, the promise of
the kingdom. Everything - including salvation, eternal life and final judgement
- is fulfilled for us in Jesus.
What is the gospel? It is a lens that focuses everything God is
doing on Jesus Christ. Or put it another way: The gospel is God’s review of
Jesus Christ. Paul gives us three bible references - or three reviews - from
God’s word about Jesus.
33
As it is written in the second Psalm: ‘You are my son; today I have become your
father.’
34
God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. As God
has said, ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’
35
So it is also stated elsewhere: ‘You will not let your holy one see decay.’
Acts 13:33-35
These three reviews were written down hundreds of years before
Jesus lived and died. Yet here are three Old Testament text talking about Jesus
in pretty specific terms, describing what God was doing when he raised Jesus
from the dead. Notice that in verse 33, “He has fulfilled for us… by raising up
Jesus,” verse 34, “God raised him from the dead,” and verse 37, “But the one
whom God raised from the dead.”
Furthermore, Paul connects this event of Jesus’ resurrection
with the description of how his body did
not see decay. He keeps repeating the phrase “never to decay” in verses 34,
35 and 37 (the ESV uses the word “corruption”). Paul is describing what would
naturally happen to a dead body. The cells break down. Bacteria starts eating
away at the flesh. It is like one of the cheap packets of expiring meat you get
from the discounted section of the supermarket. It looks pale. There’s a thin
layer of slime. The moment you open the packet and you are hit with that awful
smell - bleagh!
So it is a rather strange thing for Paul to say about Jesus -
that God did not allow Jesus’ body to see
decay - but it is an important point he is making about the resurrection. He
is saying that the resurrection is final. It is irreversible. It is one thing
for a doctor to heal a patient of a disease, even a serious disease like
cancer. It is quite another for a doctor to say to his patient, “You are never
going to fall sick ever again!” The
resurrection of Jesus Christ, which involves God raising Jesus from the dead,
does not simply mean that God brought Jesus back from the dead (Zombie Jesus!);
no, it means that God raised Jesus never
to die again. It is a reversal of the processes of death. Unlike King David
who died in verse 36, “he fell asleep; he was buried… and his body decayed,”
God did not allow Jesus to see decay.
The bible teaches that death is not one-off. (We tend to think
of death as something that happens at the end of life: You live, live, live,
live, live…. and one day, you die!) Rather, death is a reality we live with
every day and the evidence of that is decay
- the process of death is seen in aging, in pain, in sickness. Decay means we live with these symptoms
of death every day. Every time we go to the dentist; every time you girls put
on your makeup, every time you guys go to the gym, you are attempting to
reverse that decay, that process of death. But all you are doing is treating
are the symptoms, not the disease.
The resurrection of Jesus is God’s solution to death that is
more radical than a sticky plaster and a Get Well card. Through the cross,
Jesus defeated death. He destroyed death. Those three bible references are
there, Paul says, to explain three outcomes of the resurrection - three
important statements God is making about Jesus when he raised Jesus from the
dead.
God’s approval rating
Firstly, the resurrection means Jesus is God’s chosen King.
That is the significance of Psalm 2, which Paul quotes in verse 33, “You are my
Son; today I have become your Father” (which sounds a bit like what Darth Vader
said at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, “I am your Fathheeerr!”). But for readers of the bible, this ought to be a
familiar statement; because, if you remember, it is what God said again and
again at Jesus’ baptism, “This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well
pleased,” and at his Transfiguration, “This is my Son, whom I love… Listen to
him!” Psalm 2 is a statement of God’s approval on his Son and is sometimes
called a coronation psalm because it
is used at the coronation of a new king.
When God says, “You are my Son,” he is speaking to the King of
Israel, saying: I have chosen you as my
king. Hence, that strange second half of the verse, which reads, “Today, I have become your Father.” These
were words spoken at the coronation of a new king of Israel. On this day, God has poured out his approval
on the king. Notice how Paul connects these words with the resurrection, as
if to say: Jesus was crowned through the cross. His death, his burial and his
resurrection were necessarily for Jesus to be recognised a God’s chosen king.
Secondly, Jesus is fulfilment of all of God’s promises in the
bible. And this is the second bible reference in verse 34, “I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David”
(quoting Isaiah 55, verse 3). There is a connection between every single
promised made by God in the bible with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Notice
how verse 34 begins, “The fact that God
raised him from the dead, never to decay is stated in these words.”
Again, Paul is pulling together the strands of every promise
made by God, every covenant found in the
bible - made to Abraham, Moses and finally, to David - and pointing us to the
fulfilment of every single one of those promises in Jesus Christ. That is a
bold statement! These includes the promises that had to do with God’s blessing;
promises that had to do with the Promised Land or heaven; promises that had to
do with eternal life, joy and forgiveness. What is Paul saying? I think he is
saying this: Death prevents us from these blessings. The one thing that
prevents us from receiving a single one of these promises is death.
35
So it is also stated elsewhere: ‘You will not let your holy one see decay.’
36
“Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep;
he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. 37 But the one whom God
raised from the dead did not see decay.
Acts
13:35-36
David did not receive these promises, neither did his fathers
did not receive any of these promises. Why? Because all of them died, all of
them were buried and all of their bodies decayed. But Jesus was raised from the
dead. Notice, it does not say that Jesus did not die, it does. What it says is:
God raised Jesus from the dead. That
is really important because it tells us what is unique about Jesus is not that
he didn’t die but that he died a unique death. Jesus died for our sins.
“Therefore,” Paul begins in verse 38:
38
Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness
of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is justified
from everything you could not be justified from the law of Moses.
Acts
13:38-39
Recall how verse 32 began: We
tell you the good news! All the promises of God are fulfilled for us in Jesus!
Now look at how the sermon ends - with death and forgiveness of sins. It ends
with a word of warning verse 40: Be careful not to reject this offer of
salvation.
40
Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you:
41
‘Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish,
for
I am going to do something in your days
that
you would never believe, even if someone told you.’
Acts
13:40-41
The sermon ends with a warning not to reject Jesus. If all of
God’s promises come to us through one person, namely Jesus, then it stands to
reason that none of these promises make sense outside of Jesus. That is not to
say that only Christians receive blessings from God, only Christians enjoy good
marriages, only Christians make good parents - not at all. It is a testament to
God’s common grace that we can think of non-Christians who make better
husbands, wives, sons and daughters than many of us here in the Chinese Church.
The world would be a pretty horrible place if only Christians did good, obeyed
the law and loved their neighbours.
But my point is this: Remember that Paul is speaking a roomful
of pious Jews, telling them, “Be careful that
you do not reject Jesus.” “Take care,” Paul says, “that what the prophets
have said does not happen to you.” He
describes these “scoffers” - these critics,
if you like - as those who reject something that is standing right in front of
them. “Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish.” They hear of something
clearly yet cannot bring themselves to believe it. “That you would never believe even if someone told you.”
Here is a response that is conditioned; a response that is
learned over time. These scoffers
have learned to reject the gospel over a prolonged period of time; over
prolonged exposure to the bible. It’s not talking about first impressions: You
hear of something so fantastical, so unbelievable, that you go, “That’s just
nonsense!” It’s not that. Rather, here are individuals who see this with their
own eyes, who hear it with their own ears, and yet because of their years and
years of rejection, can’t bring themselves to accept truth that is standing
right in front of them. “Look,” he says to them, “wonder and perish.”
In other words, it is describing what will happen at God’s
judgement (which is the context of Habakkuk Chapter 1) whereby Jesus returns to
judge the world, when everyone can see him for themselves - you won’t need
someone else to explain to you who he is or why he has come - and yet… and yet,
even then, men and women will refuse to acknowledge him as Lord. What is the
reason for that? The reason is that they have learned to reject Jesus right
here in their gatherings. Their have innoculate
themselves with gospel. That is, they hear just enough about Jesus in order to
reject him, just enough about God in order to deny him; just enough about
Christ in order excuse themselves before him; just enough about their Saviour
to scoff at him.
But friends, that, too, is a response to the gospel. I want you
to notice that it is a response the bible fully expects and warns us of. Paul
does not assume for one moment that just because he is speaking to a group of
people who know their bibles that they know Jesus Christ as Lord. Rather he
says to them, “You guys need to repent.”
First impressions
42
As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to
speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. 43 When the congregation
was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul
and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of
God.
Acts
13:42-43
So, first impressions of Paul’s sermon are surprisingly
positive! “Good sermon, Pastor! Your message really spoke to me.” So impressed
were the leaders that they invited Paul for a repeat performance. “You must
preach again at next week’s Mid-Autumn Festival.” In fact, as soon as the
congregration was dismissed, a crowd was gathered around the two missionaries,
Paul and Barnabas, bombarding them with questions about Jesus. They went down
to Weatherspoons, had coffee and talked some more about the gospel. This was an
impressive response. This is an encouraging response. Considering that
Paul and Barnabas are on a mission, this was a successful response: Lots of people staying back after the service,
asking the speaker questions about Jesus. Wow!
And yet, it doesn’t end there. When it says at the end of verse
43 that Paul and Barnabas “talked with them and urged them to continue in the
grace of God,” I don’t think it means that this large group of enquirers had
suddenly been converted by the gospel. I think it means that Paul and Barnabas
were hesitant about the response they got. In effect, what they said was,
“You’re in the right direction guys, but you need to keep going all the way
till you reach Jesus. Continue in the grace of God.”
The reason I say that is because of the reaction of this same
crowd of people just one week later, this reaction which had turned to
rejection and scorn. This same group of enquirers, so keen to find out more
about the gospel, so keen to invite their friends over to hear Paul and
Barnabas speak at their church, had now become enemies of the gospel.
Appointed for eternal
life
44
On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the
Lord. 45 When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and
talked abusively against what Paul was saying.
46
Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God
to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of
eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. 47 For this is what the Lord has
commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation
to the ends of the earth.’”
Acts 13:44-47
Acts 13:44-47
Why this sudden change in response? Did something happen to
them during the course of the week? Did some of them go, “Hmm, after thinking
about what Paul said at church last Sunday, I’ve decided that I don’t agree
with his final point.” No, it wasn’t anything that changed at home but
something that happened in church. This same group of God-fearing Jews turned
up at church one week later to find the whole city of Cambridge gathering at
their front entrance. And the problem was, this crowd wasn’t Chinese, I mean,
Jewish. The problem was, this crowd was made up of Gentiles. This was a big
crowd, yes, but it was the wrong
crowd.
The regulars turned up at their church meeting hall, saw “the
whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.” What was their reaction? Jealousy. Now that is very interesting. Their reaction to the
crowds was not the inconvenience of having to fit everyone into the hall that
morning - Haiya! So Mah Fan having to sit
at the back of the hall! It was jealousy.
That is, they saw something in the crowd they did not see in
themselves: A hunger for God’s word. Verse 44: The whole city “gathered to hear
the word of the Lord.” Wasn’t it
their custom in the synagogue read God’s word out loud every week? And yet what
Paul did when he spoke from the Scriptures - when he preached about Jesus - was
something entirely different. He connected the dots. He pulled together the
strands of Scripture and he pointed in one single direction: Jesus. All of God’s promises are fulfilled for us
in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The sad thing is: They should have got it. Of all people who
should have understood this, it ought to have been these men. It is not as if
Paul left anything out in last week’s sermon. He says, in fact, in verse 46,
“We had to speak the word of God to you first.” They were fellow Israelites.
They had the Scriptures which pointed to Jesus. And Paul says, “We owed it to
you to tell you first about Jesus!”
Yet at the same time, Paul says quite clearly to them in verse
39, “Through him everyone who believes
is justified from everything you could be
justified from by the law of Moses.” You cannot earn your way to
salvation, not even by obeying Moses. You need Jesus. They didn’t get it.
Instead, verse 48 tells us, it was the Gentiles who were appointed to eternal
life.
48
When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honoured the word of the Lord;
and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
Acts
13:48
Compare the two reactions in verses 46 and 48. In verse 46: The
religious men reject God’s word and do not consider themselves worthy of
eternal life. In verse 48: The Gentile outsiders who honour the word; who are
appointed to eternal life.
When the bible talks about eternal life, it’s not describing
quantity but quality. Eternal life
does not mean life that goes on and on, forever, amen. The phrase literally
translates “life in the age to come.” (zoen
aionion) I would rephrase it as life under the Lordship of Christ. The
gospel is not saying to us, “Do you want to live forever?” Rather, “Are you
willing to place your life under the lordship of Jesus Christ?” Putting it that
way, I suspect, many of those religious men would say, “I not having any of
that.”
The resurrection, the life in the age to come and the kingdom
of God were all teachings from the bible that were not new to the synagogue. As
long as these were vague concepts in the bible, the members were happy to hold
on to these principles. But what Paul did was tie each one of these truths to
Jesus. Eternal life means Jesus rules over your life. The kingdom of God means
Jesus is King. The resurrection means Jesus is Judge of the living and the
dead.
These were the same group of leaders who were impressed with
Paul’s preaching. These were many of the same members of their community who
stayed back after church to ply him with questions about Jesus. What were they
doing now? Verse 45: Talking abusively against Paul. Verse 50: The were
inciting hatred towards the gospel.
49
The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. 50 But the Jewish leaders
incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city.
They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from
their region. 51 So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and
went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy
Spirit.
Acts
13:49-52
These guys wanted Paul and Barnabas out! Out of their synagogue. Out of
their city. Notice the reason why. Verse 49, “The word of the Lord spread
through the whole region.” The reason was the gospel. People were hearing about
Jesus all round the country.
Remember that Paul and Barnabas were just two guys backpacking
round the country, telling anyone they met about Jesus. Paul gives one talk at
the local synagogue and the next week, the whole city turns up. It does not
make sense! What happened? God’s word happened. When the gospel is preached,
the gospel draws people to itself. The
response to the gospel is a result of the gospel.
What we see here in Acts 13 are the different responses to the
gospel. Some are positive - like the Gentiles coming to faith. Some are
negative - the Jews kicking Paul and Barnabas out of town. But both are
genuine. Both the positive and the negative responses are honest, genuine
responses to Jesus. Remember the parable of the four soils - the farmer
scatters the seed and some fall on the path and birds ate it up, some fall on
rocky places without much soil, some fall among thorns and some fall on good
soil producing a crop. It is the same seed, the same gospel. Four completely
different reactions.
The measure of the
gospel
This teaches us how dangerous it is to measure ministry success
through response. How many people come to
your church? How many new converts did you make last year? You can’t do
that. For one thing, because you’re fooling yourself - think of the amazing response
Paul got after his first sermon at Antioch - that didn’t last long, did it? For
another, we’ve conveniently neglected the negative
responses - Paul and Barnabas were persecuted and reviled by their own people.
What are you going to do? Have response cards that ask how much people hated your sermon last week?
The measure of the gospel is actually pretty simple: Did we
preach it? Not: Did we get the music right or did we cater enough food or will
our friends turn up again next year? But: Did we open the bible and point to
Jesus as God’s solution to sin? The response to the gospel is the response to
the gospel. We focus on preaching of the gospel and let God take care of the
response. Look again at verse 48: All those who were appointed to eternal life believed. It is not your job to
completely transform a person’s life from the inside out such that he or she
confesses Jesus Christ as Lord and turns away from sin. You can’t even do that
yourself. But what you can do is preach Jesus.
Some of us are bit rusty when it comes to the gospel. We
haven’t done it before. We think it’s someone else’s job. Think about this: How
was it that Paul preached one week and the next, the whole city hears about it?
People got talking about Jesus. The first thing you need to do is to start
talking about what you do know about Jesus. When someone asks you what you did
on the weekend, don’t leave out the fact that you went to church. You don’t
need to give them the whole outline of the sermon, but if they ask you what you
did in church, tell them: You read the bible and we were reminded of the
resurrection. All I’m saying is: Be honest. Don’t be shy. And make a start.
But for those of us who are involved in the work of the gospel,
it is hard not to get discouraged by negative responses. It is scary to think
that people might oppose us violently because they don’t like hearing about
Jesus. We want to be faithful. We know that only God can change hearts. And yet
we want to know how to deal with friction when it arises; how to handle
rejection, especially from those we care about. If that’s you, have a look at
the last couple of verses in the chapter.
Salvation to the ends
of the earth
51
So they shook the dust off their feet in protest against them and went to
Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
Acts
13:51-52
The shaking of dust off their feet was a sign of warning and
judgement on the people of Antioch. Jesus actually prescribes this symbolic
action in Matthew Chapter 10, saying, “It will be more bearable for Sodom and
Gomorrah on the day of judgement than for that town.” So, it’s pretty serious.
It’s not OK for people to persecute missionaries and react in a hostile manner
towards the gospel. Yet at the same time, Paul and Barnabas did not retaliate.
Even their warning was symbolic, notice that, of God’s final judgement. The
warning meant there was still time to turn back to Jesus.
And neither did it mean that Paul and Barnabas gave up on that
city. Later on in Chapter 14, they make it a point to come back to Antioch to
encourage the new Christians and to appoint new leaders. Verse 52 reminds us of
this. “The disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” God had
appointed those who would hear the gospel and respond to the gospel and God
filled these disciples with joy and the Holy Spirit. God knows what he is
doing. Paul and Barnabas began with a synagogue full of Jewish men, they ended
up planting a church full of Gentiles. They reasoned and talked all week with
guys who knew their Old Testament but ended up converting a whole bunch of
people who were biblically illiterate.
How did Paul and Barnabas react? When the synagogue rulers
started bad-mouthing them they didn’t go, “Oh no, we’ve wasted all this time
evangelising them.” When the whole city turns up to hear Paul preach on the
Sabbath, he didn’t say, “What are these guys doing here?” Instead look at their
reaction in verse 47:
For
this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the
Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’
Acts
13:47
What they said, in effect was: God knows what he is doing. Your rejection, as Jews, we warned you
about that last week, didn’t we? And your reception, as Gentiles, was Jesus’
mission plan all along. Now let us tell you what this gospel is all about.
And those who were appointed for eternal life believed. In
season and out of season, these two guys just preached the gospel trusting in
God to bring in the fruit.
