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Antioch of Psidia (Acts 13:13-50)
Paul’s long message is recorded here. We will only touch on certain aspects of it.
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EgyptA place where God the nation of Israel great. 70 people grew to 2,000,000 in 215 years. 625,550 male Jews left for Exodus (Num 1:46; 3:39) |
WildernessA place where the Lord put up with them in the wilderness for 40 years. |
CanaanA place where He distributed their land as an inheritance. |
Offices: God leads His people
The people asked for a king. But God rejected Saul, the disobedient king, and gave them a good one, David. And yet there was to be one promised descendant that would sit on the throne forever.
The Gospel Presentation (Acts 13:30-41)
Many people are afraid of sharing the Gospel. But in fact, we can be like Peter and just tell what happened to Jesus and what happened to us as a result of believing these things about Jesus.
Resurrection from the dead (30-31)
Jesus personally rose from the dead. Paul and others witnessed this.
Promise made to the fathers (33-37)
From the offspring of David would come the Messiah. It was to be an actual descendent of David of which Jesus was.
Offer & warning of Gospel (38-41)
Paul warned his hearers. It is interesting that this warning is often not given in today’s gospel message. If it is, it is often softened down to be that one will not experience the love of God. Perhaps we need to add a real warning of great danger and peril.
Essence of Gospel presentation:
• “Through him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you”
• “Through Him everyone who believes is freed from all” things, from which you could not be freed through the law of Moses.
• “Take heed therefore, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you...”
Note the Process of Salvation“And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed“ (Acts 13:48). We see these special notes on the process of salvation distributed throughout the Gospels and Acts. Theology is important. In this case we must alter our beliefs so that God appoints people to be saved (election) and that only they can be saved or believe.
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The Responses to the Gospel (Acts 13:42-50)
Acceptance of the Gospel (41-44)
We might be surprised at the number of people that had great interest in the gospel and believed. We need to have a greater faith in God’s purpose of saving all sorts of people for His glory. God does all the work; we just tell people about Jesus.
Rejection of Gospel by Jews (45-47)
This rejection of the gospel by the Jews is going to be commonplace. The Jews will persistently persecute Paul in his journeys. There is no room for friendship evangelism here. Paul had all the qualifications to impress but little used them. He openly spoke the Gospel message.
Gentiles Rejoice while Jews Persecute (48-50)
In the end Paul declared that he was going to turn to the Gentiles. The word 'Gentiles' means anyone that is not a Jew. The Gospel was going to go to the nations with or without the Jews acceptance.
A few questions …
• Why did Paul preach to the Jews at all if they so regularly rejected the Gospel and caused problems?
• Wasn’t Paul commissioned to preach to the Gentiles? Why is he speaking to the Jews?
Basically, the answers to the questions above are answered in the three models below given in the New Testament. These three theological models show how the Gentiles can join God’s promises to the Jews. We should never think of salvation as if it is offered independent of what has happened in the past. All the nationalities can join the Gospel promises but it still must be through the same promises to the Jews.
The three theological models use different pictures to get across the same basic idea. There are not two ways to be saved but only one through faith in Christ. The Romans grafting shows the nations as being added as a grafted branch onto the people of God. Galatians shows that we are saved through the one faith in Christ. We are joined to Abraham’s seed through faith. Lastly in Ephesians we see that people of different nations can join in because of the reconciliation done at the cross, which broke down the partition dividing them.
Summary
Missions starts and ends in the local church. The local church must prioritize the work of missions because it is prioritizing what Jesus prioritized: discipleship making. Not only did Paul and Barnabas take great risk to disciple those they had seen come to the Lord but they made those centers reproducing centers.
God has His hand in the work of missions. If the church wants to be anointed with God’s Spirit, they had better be busy doing what God is intending to do.
Acts: Other BFF Articles |
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Acts Introduction and Outlines
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Acts_10:1-48: Intersecting in Time: Vision #1
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Biblical Foundations for Freedom
Paul J. Bucknell