Sunday, February 25, 2024 AM

Let's go together to the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we do come today and we want to give You thanks and praise

for the mercies.

The mercies that You have promised, You do perform.

The mercies that You offer.

The mercies You have secured.

The mercies You perform, Father, are great indeed.

And we thank You for giving us this clear word by Your Spirit of Your Son.

We may put our attention here where You have directed our hope,

and that we may know as Your creatures

a nearness to You, our Creator, the One that is mediated in grace.

One in which we may come to the table of Your Son.

Because of Him, we would know Your favor.

We would know Your welcome.

By Your Spirit, we would know Your love.

We pray that You would give us the grace today

to rejoice in Your truth and be transformed by it.

To commune together here in love and in good faith

with consciences made clean by the blood of

Your Son, Jesus Christ.

And it is in His name that we pray.

Amen.

I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 13.

Acts 13, and we will be reading verses 30 -41.

As we continue to consider the glad tidings of the resurrection of Jesus,

Paul preaches the glad tidings of the resurrection to

Jews and to God -fearers.

It's the Sabbath day, and they have all gathered together in the synagogue

in Antioch at Pisidia, a Roman colony,

an example to the whole region of Galatia of what a Roman city or colony should

look like.

And there, in that synagogue, far from Jerusalem

and the temple, they hear preaching from Paul that details their history.

A history of covenant breaking and sorrowful loss.

Oh, for the days of David!

But those glory days are through.

They are far from those days.

And in their veiled understanding of the Scriptures, they are far from knowing the true

life of God.

They are far from Him.

How can they ascend the holy hill of the Lord?

Who among them can stand in His holy place and

commune with Him?

The gates are down.

Their heads are down.

The doors are closed.

Those everlasting doors.

These people are far from God.

They are far positionally.

They are far covenantally.

They are far spiritually.

But Paul and Barnabas stand before them, and they preach the risen Christ and His

good news.

He came preaching.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

It has come near.

It has come within reach.

Why?

Because Christ has been raised and He has ascended.

The King of glory has come in.

The Lord strong and mighty.

Mighty in battle.

The Lord of hosts.

Victorious over Satan, sin, death, and the grave.

The King of glory has come in.

And the gates have lifted up their heads.

And those everlasting doors have been lifted up.

Because Christ Jesus is the King of glory.

These are glad tidings of the resurrection.

That those who are far off would know that God and His Son has drawn near.

I invite you to stand with me as I read Acts 13

verses 30 through 41.

The preaching of this good news.

But God raised Him from the dead.

He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His

witnesses to the people.

And we declare to you glad tidings, that promise which was made to the fathers.

God has fulfilled this for us, their children, in that He has

raised up Jesus.

As it is also written in the second psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus, I will give you the sure

mercies of David.

Therefore, He also says in another psalm, you will not allow your Holy One to see corruption.

For David, after he served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers

and saw corruption.

But he whom God raised up saw no corruption.

Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of

sins.

And by Him, everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be

justified by the law of Moses.

Beware, therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you.

Behold, you despisers marvel and perish.

For I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

You may be seated.

A work in their days, a work which they will by no means believe,

though one were to declare it to you.

What was that work?

The work of Christ?

The work of the resurrection?

How could it be?

That these who had been raised with these hopes, these who had

even seen and heard from witnesses the magnificent ministry

of Christ, those who had so long waited and

anticipated the arrival of the King that they so desperately desired and

needed, that they would not believe?

Jesus said in Matthew 8 verse 11, I say to you that many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

But the sons of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness.

They will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

How could this be?

They need the grace of God.

To the having ears, they would have ears to hear.

Having eyes, they would have eyes to see.

It is the reason why we may gather around this table here today.

The singular reason being the grace of God.

Eyes to see, ears to hear, the grace of God that we would rejoice

in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most vital, happy, and serious news.

And if the news of a baby conceived, or the news of a marriage proposed, or

the news of a life well -lived would rightly compel us to feast

and remember in celebration, how much more?

The resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

This would compel us to the table again and again.

We've considered the power of the resurrection in verse 30, the proof of the resurrection in verse 31,

the preaching of the resurrection in verse 32, what it includes and how it is done, and now the

prophecies of the resurrection in verses 32 through 37.

Paul has declared to those in Galatia that those who dwelt in Jerusalem

did not know the prophets.

They did not know the prophecies.

Oh, they could quote them and they could write them, but they did not understand them.

And thus they killed the Lord of glory.

They put to death the prince of life.

And Paul says by doing so, they ended up fulfilling those very prophecies that they did

not understand.

Those who dwell in Jerusalem have rejected the Messiah.

But what about those who dwell in Antioch at Pisidia?

Well, these fellow Jews and God -fearers who sit there in synagogue on this Sabbath, they sit there in need of

salvation.

What will they say?

Will they reject the Messiah?

Or will they believe these folks are exiles in

need of return?

They are covenant breakers in need of renewal.

They are spiritually dead in need of resurrection.

And so Paul preaches the glad tidings of the resurrection of Jesus from the prophets.

He preaches Christ as God's yes to all of His promises.

These were far from God positionally, covenantally, and

spiritually.

Such is the condition of all men in their sin.

Such is the condition of all people outside of the grace of God.

But the gospel is proclaimed that God draws near to us because of Christ

through the Spirit.

Will they believe it?

Do we believe it?

Will we rejoice in this?

These are glad tidings.

We begin by looking at the nations and Christ in prophecy.

Verses 32 and 33, Paul preaches, and we declare to

you glad tidings, that promise which was made to the fathers, God has

fulfilled this for us, their children, in that He has raised up

Jesus.

As it is also written in the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

That promise, that promise made to the fathers, that promise,

Paul states, God has fulfilled this.

It's singular, not in instance, for there are many, many prophecies in the Scriptures concerning the completion of the work

of Christ.

It's not singular in its instance, but it is singular in its intent.

That promise made to the fathers, God has fulfilled this to their children.

Such are all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God in Christ,

that the apostles, each in their own way, in agreement with Christ, declares that the Son of

God, Jesus Christ, proclaimed among us, is not yes and no, but in

Christ is yes.

Why?

For all the promises of God in Christ are yes, and in Him, amen to the glory of God

through us.

2 Corinthians 1, 19 -20.

In other words, all of the power of that promise, its defining

of faith, its shaping of hope, its compulsion of love, is yes in

Christ.

All the peculiarities of that promise, the shapes, the smells,

the sounds, the colors, all of it is yes in Christ.

Paul preaches that God fulfilled this promise, not to the fathers,

but to the children, not to the patriarchs, but to those who were the recipients of the

same covenants that God made with them.

God made promises to Noah and Abraham and Israel and David and those that

received those promises.

The following generations, the children received the same promises from the patriarchs and that all

combines and consolidates into that promise which God has fulfilled in

particularly the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This is what Paul is saying.

That promise made to the fathers, God has fulfilled this for our children.

How?

In that He raised up Jesus.

In that He raised up Jesus.

If we were to take all of the particular instances of promises and prophecies throughout the

entirety of the Old Testament, and if we were able to consolidate them into

one grand promise, that promise to the fathers handed down to the children, that is what Christ

fulfills.

God fulfilled that promise in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Why is that important?

Well, God had fashioned Israel into a peculiar covenantal shape, one which declared

His glory to the nations.

If anybody out in the world would want to know who God was and what He looked like, all they had to do was turn around and look at Israel and Israel

was supposed to declare, this is God and there's only one.

Not the God of the river and the God of the storm and the God of the desert and the God of the river and the God of the moon and the God of the dead.

No, there's one God.

This is who He is.

This is what He looks like.

And by the way, we're all made in His image.

And so here's how we're supposed to live.

And because we don't, here's a picture of redemption.

That was the message of Israel in every generation.

And even when Israel did it pitch perfect, they were only ever a

shadow of the substance.

They were only ever a picture and a sign of Christ.

Now, what about these Jews in Galatia to whom Paul preaches?

Why are they in Galatia?

That's not their homeland.

Why are they off in Asia Minor?

Why are they off in the depths of what we know today as Turkey?

Why are they in Galatia?

Shouldn't they be somewhere around Judea, even Galilee, somewhere where the

homeland was?

They were there because of judgment.

They were there because of exile.

They were there because they were displaced.

In the judgment of God.

And they were not a very clear shining light.

They were very far away from that center of brightness that God had established in Jerusalem.

The Gentiles, among them, they also grew up distant, distant from the promises of God.

Yet here they are mingling with the children of the Jews.

They are hundreds and hundreds of miles away from the center of God's covenant dealings with Israel.

They are nowhere near Jerusalem.

They don't have the temple next door.

They don't get to witness the priesthood, offering sacrifices daily.

They can't even make their sacrifices and observe the feasts properly because they are so far away from Jerusalem.

What kind of a light are these Jews?

If they tried to walk to Jerusalem 12 hours a day, taking off for the Sabbath,

and if they had perfect health and good terrain and perfect weather, it would take them 24 days to get there.

More likely somewhere around a month or more if they wanted to travel to Jerusalem.

That's a long ways away.

And then Paul preaches glad tidings of the resurrection of Jesus that brings the kingdom to their

very doorstep.

They don't have to travel a month through difficult terrain and risk their lives to arrive and put their

eyes upon the kingdom because even Nicodemus, who lived in the city, to him Jesus said,

unless you're born again, you can't even see the kingdom of God.

It doesn't matter if you're in Jerusalem or in Galatia.

The need is to be born again.

And so Paul quotes Psalm 2 and verse 7.

He quotes from Psalm 2, the second Psalm that describes how the nations rage and the people's

plot against God, against His Messiah, His anointed.

And yet we read in Psalm 2 that God shepherds all of history into the Christ -shaped fold of His glory.

And He derides the derisive with wrath upon the wrathful, and He denies every man's

violent play for Adam's seat.

The kingdom of humanity is given to Christ.

The nations are given to Christ.

Only one belongs there, the Son of Man, the last Adam.

And so in verse 7 and verse 6, God says, yet I have set my king on my holy hill

of Zion.

No matter how the nations rage,.

How they vie,.

How they do violence, yet I have set my king on my holy hill.

Here's His answer.

And verse 7, I will declare the decree.

This is David.

David himself writes not of himself.

I will declare the decree.

The Lord has said to me, says David, by the spirit of the true David.

The Lord has said to me, you are my son.

Today I have begotten you.

Today I have begotten you.

God the Son is eternally begotten of God the Father, not made.

God the Son took on flesh, and in His incarnation, Hebrews 2 .10, says He learned

obedience and was made the perfect captain of our salvation by what He suffered.

In other words, when all was accomplished and Christ died upon the cross, God raised Him from the dead.

It was the Father's amen on the, it is finished of the Son.

And when Christ was raised, what did He say?

Behold,.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto Me.

In other words, we're talking about the role of Christ not in the sense of Him being God the Son,

eternally co -equal in glory and power with the Father.

This is true.

But we're talking about the moment in which God incarnate, Jesus Christ Himself,

was given the kingship of all mankind.

The kingship upon earth.

The status afforded to Him and Him alone.

Today I have begotten you.

Paul says that happened in the resurrection.

That happened in the resurrection.

So we're talking about Christ's role as the last Adam.

The fulfillment of God's global promises to Israel.

His royal promises to David.

And Paul states that God fulfilled this, that promise He made to the fathers, He fulfilled to the

children through Christ's resurrection.

And then he quotes Psalm 2, to show that Jesus Christ is even now reigning where?

On the holy hill of Zion.

On the holy hill of Zion.

So Paul is not saying,.

You know,.

One day Jesus will reign.

Or that there was a moment in time when Jesus did His thing.

He's saying right now, in the present, He is enthroned.

This is the good news.

He's raised from the dead.

This is brought to bear on His audience in that moment.

Why does that matter to those who are far off?

God gives the nations to the royal son as His inheritance.

Christ rules with His rod of iron.

Today, every smashing failure we see as evil and prideful men are

decimated and their plans are shattered, is evidence of the rule and the reign of Jesus Christ.

Let the prognosticators give their socio -political analysis of why this

empire went down or why this evil man could not succeed.

But we know the truth.

Jesus Christ is reigning from the right hand of God.

And He has a rod of iron and He's smashing clay pots.

Zion's slopes own the horizon.

Her borders press upon all men.

The kingdom has come near.

Psalm 2, verses 10 through 12 concludes, Now therefore be wise, O kings, be

instructed, you judges of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, do homage to the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in the way

when His wrath is kindled but a little.

Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Blessed are all those who find refuge in Christ.

You do not have to make a pilgrimage to the Middle East to find refuge in Christ.

The kingdom has been brought near.

The kingdom of heaven has been brought near.

It is at hand.

Repent and believe in the glad tidings, the good news of Jesus,

His person and His work.

We are to find refuge in Christ.

Positionally, this is the place we need to be, so that our acceptance with God is based

upon the righteousness of Christ and not where we happen to be or what we've happened to

accomplish.

Not only were these folks that Paul's preaching to, not only were they far from God positionally,

they were also far from God covenantally.

They are where they're at because of covenant failures on their part.

Verse 34, Paul preaches to them the new covenant.

He says, "...and that He raised Him from the dead no more to return to corruption, He has spoken

thus, I will give you the sure mercies of David.".

I'm preaching to you the glad tidings of the resurrection.

This isn't new and novel information.

This comes from the promises of God Himself.

This comes from the prophecies of God.

He says,.

"...I am bringing to you the very prophets and prophecies that those in Jerusalem rejected,

but I preach the same to you," He says, "...that He raised Christ from the dead no more to

return to corruption, He has spoken thus.".

And then he quotes Isaiah 55, "...I will give you the sure mercies of David.".

Now, Paul has been preaching about David already.

He has told them in verse 23 of this chapter that from this man's seed, from David's seed,

according to the promise, God has raised up for Israel a Savior, Jesus.

And that's good news.

After all, the Davidic lineage sitting on the throne of Israel

has been long done away with.

They've not had a son of David reigning upon a throne for centuries.

Why?

Because they broke covenant with God.

And God kept His promises and so He brought curses upon them.

In Deuteronomy 28, we are afforded a look into the nature of the covenant that God made with Israel.

If they adhere to Him and follow Him, God would bless them.

But if they rebelled against Him and did not keep covenant with Him, then He would be faithful

and He would do all He promised in bringing several layers of covenant curses upon them.

In verse 36, we read, "'The Lord will bring you and the

king whom you sent over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have

known, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone.

And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.'.

And He drove them to Assyria and He drove them to Babylon and they were scattered throughout Persia.

And they did not have another king from the line of David sitting in rule over them

from that point on.

And that is made clear by the fact that the following 30 verses in Deuteronomy 28

say nothing of their king ever again.

God is keeping His promises.

And these Jews are displaced from their homeland in Antioch at

Pisidia in the Roman province of Galatia with no king on a

Jewish throne, all because God keeps His promises and Israel

did not.

This is judgment upon them.

They are far away covenantally.

And yet Paul comes and he says, do you remember those sure mercies of David?

Do you remember the mercies of David?

God has not forgotten those.

In fact, God keeps those sure mercies of David and He accomplishes those

sure mercies of David in this that God raises Jesus from the dead.

Ethan the Ezraite wrote the Psalm we know as 89, a ballad in

which he recalls God's covenant promises to David and Ezra.

Ethan, he wrestles with the realities of the curse.

We have no king.

The throne is empty.

Where is the lineage?

God, what are you doing?

In verse 49, he says, Lord, listen, where are your former loving

kindnesses, mercies, which you swore to David in your truth?

He's saying, where are the mercies of David?

It's a legitimate question from a man who believes and is burdened by the trials of the moment.

Where are these mercies of David that you promised?

Where are they?

When and how and in whom will God keep His promises?

We know that answer.

God promises to showcase all His mercies.

Every covenant promise He ever made wrapped up into one new covenant with one mediator.

One that is made up of all the fabric of the old covenant.

Jeremiah 33 verses 20 through 22 describes how God is going to keep His promise in a new

covenant.

Thus says the Lord,.

If you can break my covenant with the day, my covenant with the night, His promises to Noah, so that there will not be

day and night in their season.

You can read about that in Genesis 8 and 9.

Then my covenant may also be broken with David, my servant.

There's the Davidic covenant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne.

And with the Levites, the priests, my ministers, there's the covenant at Sinai.

Make a nation of priests.

Verse 22, as the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, there's the Abrahamic covenant.

So I will multiply the descendants of, hello, David.

I thought it was Abraham.

He says, no, David, my servant, and the Levites who minister to me.

So God takes His covenantal mercies promised to Noah, Abraham, Israel, and David,

and He weaves them all together and lays them upon the shoulders of one who is greater than them all,

the true shalom, seed, servant, and sovereign Jesus Himself.

In other words, if we want to know how the mercies of David are kept, God says, I keep them in the resurrection of

Jesus Christ.

This new covenant is centered on a king who will not die and leave a vacant throne.

Wasn't that the problem?

Wasn't that the problem?

You read through 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles.

Someone was always dying.

And what about that next king?

Is he going to be a good king or a bad king?

And as God had centered all of His covenant dealings with Israel down to the man who stood in their place,

the covenant blessings and curses rolled according to whether the king was keeping covenant or not.

Having understood that, the Jews in Paul's day, the Jews in Christ's day were looking for a king to

come and rescue them.

They needed a king to stand in their place and to please God and deliver them from these curses and to

bring the blessings of God upon them.

They were so hungry for the king.

They were so hungry for the Messiah.

And then He came and they weren't ready for Him and they didn't believe Him and many of them rejected Him.

But Paul keeps preaching the gospel.

He keeps saying that this Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises that God made to the

fathers.

The fact of the matter is that the risen Lord Jesus reigns in New Covenant Jerusalem today.

He reigns on New Covenant Zion today.

And the fulfillment of the sure mercies of David means that those who are far away from the covenantal blessings of God

find them all brought near, full and free in Christ.

He has borne our curse.

He was hung upon the tree.

He has borne the curse.

He has taken it out of the way so we may have all the blessing to the promises of God in Him.

And so Paul quotes from Isaiah 55.

We read from verse 1.

Oh, everyone who thirsts,.

Come to the waters.

And you who have no money, come buy and eat.

Yes, come buy milk, wine without money, without price.

Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to me.

And eat what is good.

And let your soul delight itself in abundance.

Verse 3, incline your ear and come to me.

Here and your soul shall live.

Here's the quote from Paul.

And I will make an everlasting covenant.

With you,.

The sure mercies of David.

The sure mercies of David.

I'm going to use those as building blocks to make an everlasting covenant with you, one

that will not be broken, that has no end.

The new covenant.

Verse 4, indeed,.

I have given him as a witness.

To the people,.

A leader and commander.

For the people.

Surely you shall call a nation you do not know and nations who you do not know shall run to you because the Lord your God and the

Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

And so,.

The sure mercies of David are given.

And what is the result?

The Jew is addressed first.

All those promises God made to your fathers,.

He has kept them.

In the resurrection of Jesus. The Gentile is addressed next.

Behold,.

The glory of the Lord.

Is seen in the true Israel.

Come to the light of Christ.

Come to the brightness of his rising, Isaiah 60 says.

In him, we have all the blessings of God's covenant.

We have the grace of his renewal, the renewal of the image of God.

We're being shaped into him who is the image of the invisible God.

Thirdly, no corruption.

Verses 35 through 37.

Paul says, therefore, he also says in another psalm, you will not allow your Holy One to see corruption.

For David, after he had served his own generation.

By the will of God,.

Fell asleep, was buried with his fathers and saw corruption.

But he whom God raised up saw no corruption.

So Paul brings home the point that in the Psalms,.

Which focus on.

David's covenantal position, clear evidence is offered that it wasn't ultimately

about David.

He was just the shadow.

Why is that?

He quotes Psalm 16.

He quotes Psalm 16, verse nine says, therefore, my heart is glad.

My glory rejoices.

My flesh will also rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul and shield.

David is writing that of himself.

You will not leave my soul and shield, nor will you allow your Holy One, your anointed one, your Messiah to

see corruption.

You will show me the path of life and your presence is fullness of joy.

At your right hand, our pleasures forevermore.

And so Paul points to that.

And concludes.

That the mercies of God, the mercies of God concerning David, cannot be realized in David, since the Holy One

of the Psalm does not stay in the grave.

His body does not rot.

The Holy One in whom the promises of God that are made to the fathers, He Himself sees

no corruption.

But David did see corruption.

He went into the tomb.

He rotted away.

His tomb was with him in that day.

And so Paul says, no, it wasn't David.

The sure mercies of David are accorded and fulfilled in Christ who was raised who

forever reigns.

Why is this good news?

That Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God, was raised incorruptible.

We who are far off spiritually, those who are dead in their trespasses and sins,

are raised with Him in new life.

A new life in which we commune and abide with our Lord.

A new life that is incorruptible, unfailing because our Mediator is incorruptible

and He is unfailing.

He ever lives to make intercession for us as our high priest, as our royal high priest.

So what do we do here?

What do we do here?

We gather in Christ to have communion with God

and with one another.

We who were far off have been brought near.

How?

The portions of the bread and the cup remind us of our purchased position

with God.

The preaching of the Word renews us into the image of our Mediator, the Mediator of a new covenant.

The presence of Christ by His Holy Spirit reassures us that He

ever lives to make intercession for us.

He is ever incorruptible for us and for our salvation.

Which is why when we gather to Christ's table, we proclaim His death until our risen Lord

comes.

Christ's resurrection is the verily of our salvation.

This supper is our amen to the glory of His name.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank You for the time You've given us in Your Word, that the promises of Your Word, the prophecies that You have

given by these holy men moved by the Holy Spirit are unfailing, unfailingly true.

They are Your words given to us to increase our faith and strengthen our faith

in Jesus Christ, that we would be stayed in Him.

And I pray that You would be with us in a special way as we partake of this supper and truly bring us into loving union

with one another as we rest all of our hopes upon Christ.

It's in His name that we pray.

Amen.