A Study of Acts: Paul Preaches the Gospel
Acts 13:26-43; Psalm 2:7 - BUT GOD!!
““Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.
But God raised Him from the dead; and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today I have begotten You.’ As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ‘You will not allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.’ For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay; but He whom God raised did not undergo decay.
Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. Therefore take heed, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you: ‘Behold, you scoffers, and marvel, and perish; For I am accomplishing a work in your days, A work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you.’ ”
As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.”
Acts 13:26-43 NASB1995
Paul now gets to the heart of the matter: The salvation promised to the people, the prophets and the kings has happened! Those in power in Jerusalem did not recognize Him nor did they understand what the prophets said. Instead, they fulfilled those prophecies by condemning Him. Although there were no ground to put Him to death they asked Pilate to have Him executed. They took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. Ray Stedman has some succinct words about this blindness quoted in Precept Austin:
Just last week a man said to me, "How is it, if Jesus was the Messiah predicted by the Old Testament Scriptures, and if he fulfilled these when he came, that the Jews did not recognize him when he came?" Paul gives the answer. There were two reasons, he says: First, they did not recognize him, i.e., they did not pay attention to him. They did not really see Jesus. They were misled by superficialities about him. They looked at his trade, his background, and saw that he was but a carpenter's son. They saw that he had no money and no influence or standing in society. They saw that he had no prestige. He had never been to school, had been taught at no great scholar's feet, and so they wrote him off and paid no attention to him. They did not hear his words, and they did not see his miracles -- or, if they did, they immediately forgot them. They put no stock in them. And thus he lived the most magnificent life that had ever been lived before men, but his contemporaries never saw it. They did not recognize him.
A lot of people are blind in that way today, like the Jews, because of the second reason: They did not understand the Scriptures. Here were people who had heard the utterances of the prophets every Saturday, read to them in the synagogue. They knew many of them by heart, but they did not understand them. The reason they did not understand is that they never asked any questions. They did not take them seriously. The reading of the Scriptures had become just a religious rite, a perfunctory performance gone through automatically every Sabbath. People went and did their thing in synagogue, and then went home again. That was all there was to it. And there are people like that in church today. But, you see, that was the reason why they missed the coming of the Son of God and did not recognize Him as the Messiah: They did not understand their own Scriptures. And so, as Paul says, they fulfilled the prophecies by condemning Him and turning Him over to Pilate. (Acts 13:13-52 The Radical Word)
Unless you are in the Word yourself on a daily basis, you can become blind to the Scriptures. I remember acting as a reader occasionally for the liberal ELCA church we attended for quite a few years. It was part and parcel of their weekly ritual to have an Old Testament reading, a reading from a non-Gospel New Testament book and then a reading from one of the Gospels. After a few years and more focused personal studies of the Bible, I discovered that this church never had one of the so-called “controversial” passages read or if they did have a rare reading from, say, 1 Romans (especially the verses on types of sin and depravity), the pastor would see to it that he “interpreted” that passage in the sermon or gave excuses as to why things have changed. This was one of the reasons we left, as we saw that church was conforming to the world and not to the Word.
BUT GOD…These are the powerful words spoken by Paul! God raised Jesus from the dead and He was seen by many reliable witnesses afterwards from Galilee to Jerusalem. I like this commentary from Enduring Word:
But God: These are wonderful words. Man did his best to fight against God – even to kill Him – but God was greater than man’s sin and rebellion, and Jesus rose from the grave, winning over sin and death.
But God raised Him from the dead: Here, the fact was simply stated. Yet, evidence from eyewitnesses was also offered (He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him).
We should not miss an emphasis on events in Paul’s preaching here; it is so evident that it can be missed. He focused on things that actually happened, not on philosophy or even theology. “Christianity is not just a philosophy or a set of ethics, though it involves these things. Essentially Christianity is a proclamation of facts that concern what God has done.” (James Montgomery Boice)
God has fulfilled this for us their children: Then Paul applied the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. The resurrection means that Jesus truly is the unique Son of God (Psalm 2:7), and it proves that He was utterly holy even in His work on the cross (Psalm 16:10).
Let’s look at the passage in Psalm 2:7:
““I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”
Psalms 2:7 NASB1995
This Psalm has been wrongly used by some groups to deny that Christ is equal to God and part of the Trinity. They see this as saying that He is a lesser creation of God. But the words used are important. Enduring Word has good commentary on this verse:
You are My Son, today I have begotten You: The LORD’s Anointed recalls what God the Father spoke to Him, identifying Him as the Son of the Father and emphasizing His standing as begotten of the Father.
The writer to the Hebrews quotes this passage in Hebrews 1:5 as evidence of the deity of Jesus and superiority to all angels. He mentions the more excellent name Jesus received, greater than all the angels. This is the “name” Son. While angels are sometimes called the sons of God in a generic sense (Job 1:6), the Father never said “My Son” to any angel in a specific sense. That is reserved for God the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity.
Begotten is also an important idea, as a contrast to created. Jesus was not created; rather He created everything that was created (Colossians 1:16-17). Begotten describes a relationship between two beings of the same essential nature and being, but we create things of a different essential being and nature than ourselves. A man creates a statue but begets a child.
Paul tells the brethren that through Him forgiveness is proclaimed and through Him believers are freed from all things, which they could not be freed through the Laws of Moses. This had to be incredibly startling to hear in that synagogue! A life lived in strict adherence to the law (trying to be “good”) would not gain them redemption or eternal life. Ray Stedman has more commentary quoted in Precept Austin:
That was a shattering statement (TO THE JEWISH HEARERS). Here were men who honored the Law of Moses, who thought the Ten Commandments were the greatest word that God had ever given to men. They were trying their best to live up to them, in one way or another, and many of them realized that they were failing. But they still thought that the way to God was to obey the Ten Commandments -- to do good, in other words, to try their best to be good. But now Paul comes to declare to them that they will never make it on those terms. They will never find acceptance by God in that way.
You cannot be accepted by God on the basis of trying to be good. The Ten Commandments will not help you a bit; they will condemn you, because you will not fulfill them -- no matter how hard you try! Rather, Paul tells them, God has found a way to accept mankind even though man cannot be good enough in himself, and that way is through this Man, Jesus Christ. Now, we are accustomed to hearing that. That does not shake us. But you can imagine how it shook these (JEWISH) people. They had never heard anything like this before -- this amazing news that God would accept them! Unfortunately our version somewhat diminishes its impact because it uses the term "freed" where Paul said "justified"; he really says, "Every one that believes is justified from everything from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." This is the first occasion that we have recorded of Paul's using that great word which is so frequent in the book of Romans, "justification by faith." (Acts 13:13-52 The Radical Word)
I agree with Stedman that the word “justify” is much more powerful than the word “freed” used in the NASB translation.
Paul ends his sermon by admonishing the listeners to take heed and quotes from the minor prophet Habbakuk to the scoffers and non-believers. More commentary from Enduring Word:
Beware, therefore: The warning is that if we do not embrace the person and work of Jesus with our whole lives, we are despisers who will perish. In this warning, Paul quoted a passage from Habakkuk regarding the judgment that came upon Jerusalem. If God judged them, He will also judge those who refuse and reject His offer of forgiveness through the work of Jesus.
“Although ours is an age of great grace, God is nevertheless also a God of great judgment, and sin must be judged if it is not atoned for by the work of Christ.” (James Montgomery Boice)
Some commentators complain that Paul here preached too much like Peter did on Pentecost. It is a strange complaint. This shows us that Peter and Paul preached the same gospel, and the same gospel was preached some fifteen years after Pentecost as was preached on that first day.
Others note similarities between Paul’s sermon here and the sermon of Stephen in Acts 7. That was a sermon that Paul heard when he still hated the name of Jesus. Perhaps the sermon of the first martyr of the church still rang in the ears of the man who presided over his execution.
God is a God of great grace but also of great judgment, which should be a sobering thought indeed! Also, it personally gives me comfort that Paul preached in a similar manner to Peter and Stephen. The Gospel message is consistent, even though this is 15 years after the martyrdom of Stephen.
Paul and Barnabas obviously make an impact with the people because they are followed out of the synagogue and begged to come back to preach again the next week. Paul and Barnabas urge them to continue in grace.
My next devotional examines what happens when Paul and Barnabas return to preach and are greeted by almost the entire city, as recorded in Acts 13:44-52.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - When I feel frustrated or discouraged by the events in this life and this world, all I should remember is “But GOD”... You have the power over sin and over death! Amen
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Precept Austin was accessed on 11/1/2024 and 11/2/2024 to review commentary for Acts 13:26-43.
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.