WWUTT 1082 Paul's Sermon at Antioch?

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This gift of salvation that we have is exactly that. It is a gift.

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It has been given to us by God. We do nothing to earn it. He gives it to us by His grace when we understand the text.

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You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to the sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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And don't forget our website, www .utt .com. Here's our host,

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of Acts chapter 13. And I'm going to pick up where we left off yesterday.

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That's verse 13. And read through about verse 41 here. So starting in Acts 13, 13.

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Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia.

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And John left them and returned to Jerusalem. But they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia.

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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,

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Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it. So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand, he said,

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Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. The God of this people

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Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.

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And with uplifted arm he led them out of it. And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.

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And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance.

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All this took about 450 years, and after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.

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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.

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And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said,

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I have found in David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.

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Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.

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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,

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What do you suppose that I am? I am not he, no, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet

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I am not worthy to untie. Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear

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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

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Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked

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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.

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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.

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And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising

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Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, You are my son, today

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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,

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I will give you the holy and sure blessing of David. Therefore he says also in another

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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.

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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.

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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 you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.

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And I'm going to stop there, at least as far as this sermon that Paul is delivering, and I'll pick up in verse 42 tomorrow.

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This sounds very similar to things that Peter has preached. One of the other things this demonstrates to us is the genuineness of Paul's conversion.

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Now we've already seen, even as far back as Acts chapter 9, the same chapter where we read about Paul's conversion, we saw him there proclaiming in the synagogues that Jesus is the

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Son of God. So that proclamation itself was enough to affirm that Paul was no longer this man against the church, persecuting the followers of Jesus Christ, but he had become a follower himself, for it is only those who believe in Christ and the words that he spoke in fulfillment of the law and prophets who say of him that he is the

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Son of God. But here you have a more robust presentation from Paul, demonstrating not only the belief that he has in Christ, but even his understanding of Christ having fulfilled the law and the prophets.

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And so let's come back to verse 13 here. Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia.

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John left them and returned to Jerusalem, but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia.

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Now where we were reading yesterday, Paul was in Antioch. So it almost makes it look like he went full circle.

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This is actually a different Antioch. So they set sail from Paphos.

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Paphos was on the island of Cyprus, that little island that's on the northeastern portion of the

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Mediterranean Sea. The Antioch where they were at the start of chapter 13, that's on the northeastern end of the

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Mediterranean. Again, right where that eastern bank or eastern shore meets the

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Asia Minor, kind of that corner right up there. That's where Antioch would be.

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That was the starting point of this journey. They went from there to Salamis on the island of Cyprus and traveled across the island over to Paphos.

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That's where they set sail from. And they go up to the southern end of what is modern day Turkey and landed at Perga.

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Now they go from there inland. John leaves them there. He goes back to Jerusalem, likely bypassing the island of Cyprus altogether, but he just sails right back down to Jerusalem.

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Whereas those that had landed, the rest of them that landed at Perga, they journey northward into what would be

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Asia Minor at that time. Of course, we look at it on a map and it would be Turkey to us. But the

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Antioch that they went to was there in the middle part of Turkey. So this is a different Antioch than the one that we had read about yesterday.

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That's why this one is qualified as Antioch in Pisidia. And on the

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Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down. As I mentioned yesterday, common practice for Paul, he goes into his city, he finds the synagogue, and that's where he begins his preaching.

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First to the Jews, then when they reject him, he goes to the Gentiles. But this is where the scrolls were.

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So as Paul's going to be preaching from the Old Testament to demonstrate that Christ is the fulfillment of everything that was written about in the prophets and in the law, he's going to use those

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Old Testament scrolls in order to make that point. And so this is where he goes, to the synagogue.

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He's got a message he's going to preach to the Gentiles, but first he's preaching to the Jews, and we have it later on in this chapter, the explanation as to why.

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In verse 46, Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you, to the

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Jews, since you thrusted aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life.

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Behold, now we're turning to the Gentiles. So it is being spoken to the

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Jews first that judgment might come upon them, that the judgment of God upon them would be complete because they had rejected the word of God.

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And so it must go to the Gentiles, for many nations would come before the throne of grace and bow before Christ through this gospel that was being proclaimed.

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So after the reading of the law and the prophets there, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.

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So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand, he said, and something we actually see come up a few times in the book of Acts.

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I'm not really sure why. But before somebody gives some eloquent speech or explanation or testimony of some kind, they first raise their hand and get everybody to be quiet.

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We saw Peter do this after he had escaped from prison in the previous chapter. And when there was kind of a commotion at the house of John Mark's mother, it says

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Peter raised his hand and silenced them and then explained to them what had happened. So here, Paul's doing the same thing.

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He's raising his hand. He's silencing the crowd or calling their attention to him.

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And then he preaches this sermon. Men of Israel and you who fear God. So the

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Jews are present in the synagogue, and also Gentiles are present in the synagogue. And that point is made more clearly as we get closer to the end of the chapter.

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But we have the Jews that sat in the most important seats. They would have been gathered there closer to where the scrolls would have been read.

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The Gentiles would have had to sit further back or not even in the synagogue at all. Some of them probably had to sit outside and hear what was being said.

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But Paul addresses them, addresses all equally. Men of Israel and you who fear

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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 an uplifted arm he led them out of it.

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So this people that God had set apart for himself, the descendants of Abraham, who had multiplied and become great in the land of Egypt, the

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Lord delivered them out of their slavery. And this was going to be a picture of the way we would be delivered out of slavery to our sins in Christ Jesus.

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Paul even makes that point a little bit later on. We have been freed in Christ.

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Let him and everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

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That's later on in verse 39. So he's setting this up to show that the Israelites were set free from slavery.

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We have been enslaved to a law that we cannot fulfill. And it is through the law comes knowledge of sin.

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It awakens sin in us. And the only way to be freed from this is faith in Jesus Christ.

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This is the connection that Paul is attempting to make here. But, first of all, talking about how this began with the

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Israelites enslaved in Egypt. And for about 40 years he put up with them in the wilderness.

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After they were freed from Egypt, they go out to the wilderness, which they're supposed to be marching across to get to the promised land, but they grumbled and complained against God in the wilderness.

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Many of them even rebelled against God. Some of them worshipped idols. And so God cursed them by forcing them to wander around in the desert for 40 years.

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This was a discipline upon the entire nation of Israel, waiting for that generation to die off.

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And then their offspring would be the ones that would ultimately inherit the land. So for 40 years he put up with them in the wilderness, giving their inheritance to their children.

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And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance.

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Now there should have been more nations destroyed than that. Joshua had told the

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Israelites that they needed to continue this progress of conquering the promised land, but they kind of slowed down in that effort.

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Judah continued to do it, but they did not have the assistance of the rest of the tribes of Israel.

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And so that effort to overthrow these other kingdoms that were there eventually just kind of stifled.

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It's like, hey, we're settled into this land. We're happy here. We're not going to go through this hard work or risk life and limb to drive out these other nations as though the

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Lord wasn't on their side anymore. That was kind of the attitude that they had. But nevertheless, the Lord did give them that land as an inheritance.

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And all of this took about 450 years from the time that the Israelites entered into Egypt to the time that they entered into the promised land.

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And after that, he gave them judges. And that's the book of judges. So it's almost like we're traversing from Joshua to judges until Samuel, the prophet.

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And then we get to first and second Samuel. Then they asked for a king and God gave them

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Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years.

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By the way, do you know where the apostle Paul is descended from? What tribe he's a part of? He's part of the tribe of Benjamin.

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Jesus is descended from Judah, which was David's tribe. And so you have these two tribes, which previously were at odds with one another between Saul and David, Benjamin and Judah.

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And here they have been reconciled and are working together between Paul, who is a servant of Jesus Christ, Jesus using

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Paul to take the message of the gospel to the nations. Saul was king over Israel for 40 years.

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And when God had removed him, he raised up David to be their king of whom he testified and said,

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I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart.

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He will do all of my will. And indeed we have in first Kings 15, five

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David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the

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Hittite. That was certainly the one area where, where David had failed, but this to demonstrate that he was not going to be the savior of Israel.

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There was going to be another who would come from his line, who would be the savior. And that of course is Jesus Christ.

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Verse 23 of this man's offspring of David's offspring. God has brought to Israel, a savior,

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Jesus, just as he promised before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

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This was a baptism that was preparing Israel for the savior. That was to come before a priest was going to enter into the

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Holy of Holies on the day of atonement on Yom Kippur. He had to be washed. He had to be cleansed before a priest sacrificed on behalf of the people.

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He had to wash. And so they were about to be, uh, they were about to be visited by the ultimate high priest who is

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Jesus Christ. And so Israel was washed of their sins through this baptism that was preached by John the

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Baptist. And as John was finishing his course, this is verse 25.

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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

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I am not worthy to untie. John the Baptist was a prophet and he was preparing the way of the

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Lord, make straight his paths. As he preached there in the wilderness, verse 26 brothers, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear

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God. Once again, Paul addressing those who are Jews, those who are Israelites and those who are not are in fact

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Gentiles, but still fear the Lord. They are there because they weren't or they want to learn about this

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God of Israel to us has been sent the message of this salvation.

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Paul says 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

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Sabbath, they fulfilled them by condemning him. The prophets, the law, all of these things that spoke of Christ, which he fulfilled.

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These things were proclaimed in the synagogues every single Sabbath. And yet when Jesus came, the

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Messiah, whom the prophets and the law pointed to when he came, they did not recognize him.

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And so they fulfilled the law and the prophets by condemning Jesus, which was exactly what the prophets foretold.

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And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked pilot to have him executed verse 29.

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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.

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Now this is going to be important for what we're going to cover tomorrow as we finish up acts chapter 13, but you see this continued pattern of demonstrating the predestined plan and foreknowledge of God.

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That's what Paul is showing here. They carried out all that was written of him.

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They fulfilled all the law and the prophets by condemning him. All of this had been foreordained.

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God had set this divine decree in motion with the

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Israelites that rejected him and the Romans that likewise put him to death Jew and Gentile together condemning the son of God who was dying for the sins of the world, whether that be a

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Jew or a Gentile. God had foreordained this. It had been written about in the scriptures, not because somebody concentrated real hard and had a vision, but because the

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Lord revealed through his prophets, the plan of redemption that he had for mankind verse 29.

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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.

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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.

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And Paul doesn't put himself in that category. He's talking specifically about the apostles who pout around with Jesus.

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They were actually with him. And though Paul himself is an apostle, he does not include them in this group that he makes mention of.

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It says God raised him from the dead. 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.

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That's not Paul. Paul referred to himself as to one untimely born the least of the apostles because he was not with Jesus during his earthly ministry.

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And because Paul had persecuted the church, whereas the previous apostles or the other apostles did not.

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Verse 32. Paul does say this, though he's not one of those eyewitnesses, at least to the things that happened during the life and time of Jesus Christ.

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He says, we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children by raising

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Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm. You are my son today.

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I have begotten you. And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption.

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He has spoken in this way. I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.

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Therefore, he says also in another Psalm, you will not let your holy one see corruption for David.

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After he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption.

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Remember that Peter talked about this also in the sermon at Pentecost, and he was probably just a stone throw away from the tomb of David.

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So he could have pointed to it and said, see, that's where he's, that's where he's setting right now. And his body and his bones are corrupting verse 37, but he whom

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God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you.

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Therefore, brothers, that through this man, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

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And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

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We cannot receive the forgiveness of sins by trying to be good, by doing it right, by keeping

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God's law. You don't find forgiveness for that. You have the forgiveness of sins by faith in Jesus Christ.

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Only he has done the work. Only he has accomplished the atonement necessary for the forgiveness of sins.

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And God in his grace chooses to transmit that forgiveness to us by faith in Jesus Christ.

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We wear the righteousness of Christ before God, the father, and he looks at us as justified, declares us as innocent because of what

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Jesus has done for us. And we receive all of this once again, by faith,

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Paul goes on verse 40, beware, therefore, less what is said in the prophets should come about. Look, you scoffers be astounded and perish for.

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I am doing a work in your days, a work that you would not believe, even if one tells it to you.

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And that's where we'll stop for now. We'll come back and finish up acts chapter 13 tomorrow, starting in verse 42.

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But once again, the theme we've got that continues to roll here is that God is predestined.

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All of this. God is the one who has chosen for salvation. Those who are going to be saved. And we'll see that point made even further tomorrow with the

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Gentiles who will come to believe and rejoice in that. God had elected them for salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.

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It is never our work. We have nothing to boast of in ourselves for this salvation that we have received is completely by the grace of God.

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Amen. Thank you for listening to when we understand the text. Pastor Gabe is the author of the book, 40 of the most popular

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Bible verses and what they really mean available in paperback or for your Kindle. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word.