ACTS 13:14-52 BASIC ELEMENTS OF THE GOSPEL2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Acts 13:14-52 Basic Elements Of The Gospel

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016. All right, well, we're going to look at Acts chapter 13 again this evening, and we'll start by reading verses 1 through 4, but then we'll jump down to verse 14 and work our way through the end of the chapter as we continue working our way through Acts chapter 13. But let's begin by reading verses 1 through 4. Here's what it says.

Now in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away.

So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. As we look at Acts chapter 13, we're looking at the beginning of Paul's missionary trips. Here, Paul and Barnabas are together. It's their first missionary journey. Not really just like their first missionary journey, but in general, it's the church's first missionary journey.

that's sent out, Barnabas and Sulla, sent out by the Holy Spirit here in Acts chapter 13. The Holy Spirit says, "...set them apart and send them out for the work that I have called them to."

And so we've been looking at these first few verses for the past couple weeks. Last week, the title of the message was Called to God's Work. And we looked at this portion as we saw that you and I are called in a similar way, that we're set apart to the gospel and set apart to make disciples, that God's word or God's work needs senders and goers, those who will support and send us.

You know, the Barnabas and Saul's, but then also those who stay back and do the missions work in the hometown there at Antioch that was going on as well. We also talked about the transformation that happens while you work, that none of us feel ready for what God ultimately has in store for us. And none of us are ready for the things that God wants to do through us.

But God prepares us for that work as we do the work, as we're involved in the things that God wants us to be involved in. He transforms us to be more like Christ and ready for the things that he wants to do. And so Barnabas and Saul are experiencing that. They're on their way now. And we got to see a few stops. Just a quick look at the map here to kind of follow along with their mission trip.

They started in Antioch there at the top, and that was their home church. That's where they were fellowshiped. They'd been ministering for several years, and then they're sent out by the Holy Spirit. And so they go to the coast to a city called Seleucia, and from there they board a ship, and they're going to cross over to the island of Cyprus, which is just a little bit offshore there in the Mediterranean Sea. And so they land on Cyprus in a city called Salamis, and they're going to cross over to the island of Cyprus,

And then they begin to make their way across the island and they're preaching the gospel in all the towns and villages and cities all across the way. They go all the way across to the other side, which is Paphos. And from there they get on another boat and they make their way north to Asia Minor, which is, well, they land right around the city of Perga there and they begin to minister there.

Now once they land in Perga, things change a little bit, and that's where we talked about the transformation, because no longer is it Barnabas and Saul, but it's Paul and his party. And so now Paul is leading this mission trip from here on out, and he's really the one that the Holy Spirit has anointed to lead the way as they continue on in this mission trip.

But then there's also those who are resistant to change. And so we see as they went to Perga, there was also the John Mark who decided, you know what? This mission trip is too hard. I don't want to continue. And I don't want to let God do the work in me that he wants to do. And so he abandons. He goes back down to Jerusalem. And later on, that becomes a point of contention for Barnabas and Paul. And we'll see that when we get to Acts chapter 15.

Now, as we go forward into the rest of Acts chapter 13, we will see them move from Perga and go farther north up to Antioch. Same name as the city they left, but it's a different location. There was actually several cities. I think it was seven cities named Antioch in that whole region based on one of the emperor's names. And so Antioch is a city that was

They go up there, and they're going to be ministering up there. That's what we'll be looking at here in this passage this evening. Starting in verse 14, it says, But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch and Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down.

And so they're going to go in there, they're going to minister to the Jewish people. And here what we have as we go on in verse 14 through the rest of the chapter, we really have Paul's first recorded gospel message in the Bible. He's going to, you know, throughout the rest of the book of Acts, share the gospel several times. This is the very first one.

Again, we got to see some transformation take place. God's been preparing him. And now there's new ministry that's happening and taking shape. And this is the first time that his message is recorded and written down so that we have some insight into the gospel message that he shared. And so as we look at this recording of his first gospel message, the title of the message this evening is Basic Elements of the Gospel.

And we can look at Paul's message as a pattern for us, as an example for us to note and pay attention to some of the basic elements that he included so that we, because again, we are called to God's work. We saw that last week. That's part of the Holy Spirit's work in our life to help us to go out and be witnesses to Jesus and

And so we need to know these basic elements of the gospel because the work of God is centered around the gospel. And that's not just for quote-unquote missionaries because in God's economy and the way that God sees things, we're all missionaries. Just some of us are sent to our hometown or wherever we happen to live at the time. And some of us are sent out from where we live to somewhere else to live somewhere else and be missionaries in that way. But

In all cases, we are called to make disciples. And so we need to know these basic elements of the gospel. There's four points that we'll look at as we work our way through the chapter this evening. The first element that I would say is a basic element, an essential element of the gospel is we need to have in the gospel message a bridge to people where they are.

The gospel needs to include a bridge to people where they are at that time. And Paul sets a really good example for us in this. Let's read through a portion here, verse 14 through 23, and see the first part of Paul's message there in Antioch. It says in verse 14, But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down.

And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them saying, men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. Then Paul stood up and motioning with his hand said, men of Israel and you who fear God, listen.

Verse 18. Verse 18.

After that, he gave them judges for about 450 years until Samuel the prophet. And afterward, they asked for a king. So God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years. And when he had removed him, he raised up for them David as king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who will do all my will. Verse 23.

Here is Paul begins his first evangelistic message. Now, that's not actually true. You know, Paul's been evangelizing all across Cyprus. He's already, you know, been sharing the gospel. He's been ministering. He's been involved in the church for many years. But in this first recorded message that we have of him, Paul begins his first evangelistic message.

He goes to great detail, to great lengths, to make sure that the people that he's ministering to are on board with this message that he's about to share. We see in verse 15, Paul is given an invitation to speak here. He's just traveling through, he's visiting, but he goes to synagogue on Saturday, which was their normal day of meeting, and the synagogue leader gives him an opportunity to

to speak. This was very common and normal for their synagogue services.

Typically, the synagogue services would go like this. They would start with an opening prayer. They would have different kinds of prayers and such they would offer throughout the year. And then there would be a reading from the law that is the first five books of the Old Testament. So they would read some portion from that, and usually it was on a schedule. They would kind of read through the law. And then they would also do a reading from the prophets. And so you see that mentioned, after the reading of the law and the prophets. Okay?

And then after they'd done that, so they'd spent some time in prayer, they'd spent some time in the word, then the ruler of the synagogue, the leader of the service would look out amongst those who were attending. And if he noticed, you know, there's some notable visitor, then he would say, hey, Pastor Pule is here. Pastor Pule, do you have anything that you would like to share with us while we're gathered together here, you know, for the synagogue service?

And he would give opportunity to notable people like Pastor Poulet, Reverend Poulet. He would give him an opportunity to speak and to bring forth whatever the Lord had been doing or speaking or ministering to him.

Really, it's not that unlike what we do, like when Pastor Tom is here, and so we give him an opportunity to speak on a Sunday morning, to give an opportunity to share, you know, what's on your heart and what's the Lord saying to you. And we do that with other missionaries who come through and such as well, that

that there's that opportunity to speak. And so the ruler of the synagogue sees Paul, and we don't know how much he knows about Paul, or if he's heard about him, or maybe if Paul is kind of still wearing the robes and the such that he would wear as a Pharisee before. And so he stood out and was given this opportunity, or maybe just it was a small synagogue, and

You know, someone new's there, it's like easy to spot right there. Okay, new guy, you want to say something, new guy? You know, kind of a risky move. And yet Paul is given this opportunity. And so Paul takes this opportunity and he is going to share the gospel. But he doesn't go straight to Jesus was crucified upon the cross, right?

Notice how he starts. He addresses the people in verse 16. It says, Paul stood up and he motions with his hand and says, men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. So he says, yes, I do have a message. And it's a message for you, men of Israel. He's there in synagogue speaking to Jewish people. And so he addresses them and he says, hey, Jewish people, men of Israel, I'm speaking to you. Now, we also know that there are Gentiles there in the synagogue.

We'll see that later on in the chapter. There were Gentiles who were interested in the God of the Jews. And so they would attend. They would be part of the service. And so he says, those of you who fear God. So speaking specifically to the Jewish people, as well as, hey, the rest of you Gentiles who are here, you fear God, and that's why you're here. I'm speaking to you. And so he's addressing that. It's very clear. He's speaking to people who,

who are Jewish or very interested in Judaism. They haven't converted quite yet, but they're, you know, along that path. They're going that way in attending synagogue and being a part of that.

And so because that's the people that he's addressing, he begins now to recount the history of Israel. In verse 17, he said, And so Paul takes them back to the book of Exodus.

And he says, remember when we were in Egypt and how God chose our fathers, our parents, parents, parents, parents, parents, parents, parents, who were slaves in Egypt. God chose them and uplifted them and led them out of Egypt. And he's going to go on from here and recount some of the history that takes place after God brings his people out of Egypt.

It's interesting as you look at this message, there's a lot of similarities to the message that Stephen presented in Acts chapter 7. And that's interesting because Stephen also was preaching to Jewish people and Saul was one of those people. Remember it says that Saul was holding the coats of the people who stoned Stephen. And so he was there, he was present for that message of Stephen and he presents a similar message today.

today. Having been transformed by the message by this time though, so he presents it in a different way than he perceived it when Stephen spoke it. But it's very similar because he's speaking to a similar group of people. And so he goes on from here and he follows history a bit. You'll notice in verse 18 he says, "...for a time of about 40 years he put up with their ways in the wilderness."

And so he's kind of covering that time period of Exodus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, the time where the people are out of Egypt, but they're wandering around in the wilderness because they wouldn't go into the promised land. And then verse 19, he destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan. He distributed their land to them by allotment.

Now, if you're following along in your Old Testament table of contents, you know, we're just going along chronologically. Exodus, Numbers, or Exodus Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and then what comes next? Joshua, who leads the people into the promised land, conquers the nations of the land of Canaan, and distributes the land by allotment to all the tribes of the nation of Israel. So he's just following along their history. Verse 20 says,

After that, he gave them Judges for about 450 years until Samuel the prophet. So Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua. Anybody know the book that comes after Joshua? Judges. And that's what he says, for 400 years. He's kind of just summarizing. Let's look at the book of Judges. Okay, there was Judges for 400 years. And then after that comes Ruth, but then first and second Samuel. Okay?

the records of Samuel the prophet. And so he's just following along their history, reminding them of their history as a nation and as a people. And Samuel the prophet ministered for a time until the people said, you know, everybody else has a king. We want a king. In verse 21, Paul says, and afterward they asked for a king. So God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years.

That's also recorded in 1 Samuel. And then in 2 Samuel, the kingdom is handed over to David, which he talks about in verse 22. And when he had removed him, he raised up for them David as king, to whom he also gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who will do all of my will.

So as you look at your Old Testament table of contents, you just see that Paul goes just, you know, book by book, recounting briefly, here's the history of that book, here's the history in that book, here's the history in that book, here's the history of our people. But then it's interesting. You can see he's going very detailed, very chronologically. He gets now to David, and now he skips a bunch of history.

Because he's talking about David in verse 22. And then verse 23, he says, Now from David to Jesus, there's a huge period of time. Just as you think about, you know, the Old Testament, you get to 1 and 2 Samuel. There's a whole bunch of stuff that happens between 1 and 2 Samuel and then the end of the Old Testament.

You could ask, what about Solomon? I mean, that's noteworthy. David's son Solomon established the kingdom even to a greater degree and, you know, expanded the boundaries and brought the kingdom to great glory as well as built the temple. I mean, that's a huge thing in Israel's history. Paul, why not mention the temple? I mean, that was huge, this glorious temple that Solomon built for the nation of Israel.

After that, a major event happened after Solomon's life and his reign. The nation of Israel was divided into two kingdoms. You had Israel and Judah. The two kingdoms were split. That's a major event, a major thing. Why not recount that in your history summary?

There were some major revivals that took place by King Hezekiah or Josiah. There was a bunch of other kings who reigned. There was all these notable prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Micah and Hosea. There was the Babylonian captivity where, I mean, that was huge. You know, everybody was just emptied out of the land. And then later on, incredibly miraculously brought back to the land and returned to Israel and rebuilt the temple and rebuilt the walls. I mean, there's some major things that happened there.

between, well, there was David and then there was Jesus. He skips a bunch of history. Why would he skip all of this really important and fascinating history? Well, I would make the simple point that Paul wasn't trying to recount their history. He was building a bridge. He was sharing those things not because he wanted to give a history lesson, not because he wanted them to, you

They knew their history. He was sharing those things to kind of like get them on board for the message that he was about to present. And so he gets to the part where he talks about David, and now he has an immediate link from David to Jesus because everybody knew that God had promised David that the promised Savior, the Messiah, would come through the line of David. And so he gets to David, and he has this opportunity now to connect them to Jesus.

It's the bridge that he builds to help the people understand who this message is for and why he's sharing this message. He started out with things that they could all relate to. He started out with things that they could all agree on. And so as he's recounting their history throughout the congregation that's assembled there, people are nodding their heads. There's some amens being shouted out, you know, as he's talking about the judges and then Samuel and, you know, the people are right on board with him.

Because these are things that they agree on, that they celebrate, that they know about their history. But then when he gets to David, he says, okay, now I've established enough of a base. Now let's connect it to Jesus. And so he says in verse 23, from this man's seed.

We're talking about David and from David's seed, according to the promise, you guys remember, he was promised that the Messiah would come. God did that. He raised up for Israel a savior and his name is Jesus. He's establishing a relationship with these people. He doesn't know them. This is his first time there for all we know. I mean, maybe he was there before, but we don't have any record of that. He's just a guest in town, right?

And so he establishes some connections between them. Let's talk about our history. Let's talk about things that we can agree on. And then he leads it from there into the conversation about Jesus. Now, ultimately, that's what Paul wants to talk about, but he doesn't go straight there. He takes some time to build a bridge, to bring people to a place where they are ready to hear about Jesus.

He builds a bridge to help them understand why are we talking about Jesus? If Paul would have just began with, you know, Jesus loves you. He died upon the cross for your sins. There would have been no connection. They would have been confused. What are you talking about? Who's Jesus and what does that mean? And why do we need this Jesus? And so he goes back. He connects the gospel message to things that they knew, things that they could understand and relate to.

He took this time to build a bridge. And I think that's really important for us to pay attention to in this example that Paul sets for us. Taking the time to build a bridge, or as we often would refer to it, establish that connection with someone around us, that we would build a relationship a bit to be able to enable us to lead that relationship, to lead that conversation into the gospel message.

I'm sure you know what it's like to have people say just completely random things at weird times. I'm sure you've had that experience, right?

I was at Costco one day a couple months back, and I was wearing the prayer shirt, you know, and so I'm walking around with this, and a guy comes up to me, and you know how it is when you're wearing the shirt, right? Like, you forget that you're wearing it. So things happen, and it's just like, that was kind of weird, and then later you go, oh, I forgot I'm wearing the shirt. Okay, so this guy walks up to me, and he says, did you know that God is equal to the square root of negative one? I was like...

I'm not good at math on the spot, so I'm like, my mind's just like kind of crunching, like, what on earth are you talking about? Like, what does that mean? I don't get it. He's like, you better look that up. And then he walked away, and I was like, I looked at Kim, and I was like, this is the strangest thing that ever happened. It's just random, right? Now, I don't know what his message was. I don't know what he thought about that. I don't know anything about that. It was just this random encounter. And you know, sometimes I think that the way we approach things

bringing forth the gospel can be as random like that. And we walk away thinking, all right, I shared the gospel. And the people are left with like, what on earth just happened? Like, that was weird. What's wrong with people? You know, it's like we got to be careful to pay attention and to build up a little bit of a bridge. Now, I'm not saying there has to be some huge formalities or anything like that, but

But look at the wisdom here of bringing these people on board. And he's like, you know, he's bringing them along. And as they're following their history, there are things that they know. And then connecting that to the promised Savior. In a lot of ways, we really need to have a missionary mindset as we think about the gospel in our own lives. You cannot go on the mission field and expect everybody else to learn your language so that you can share the gospel.

If you are called, you know, to Africa or to Peru or wherever, you're not going to go and expect, okay, you know, somebody teach all these people English so that I can tell them the gospel in English. No, no. If you're called out, if you're sent out by the Lord, guess what? He wants you to learn the language so that you can communicate to the people. That's how we need to be. We need to learn the language so that we can communicate. So many times I think we're just...

waiting for everybody else to understand what we're talking about, as opposed to working on our side so that we can bring forth the message in a way that the people understand it. Pastor Tom has often shared with us some statistics about the nation of Japan and the gospel message and how, you know, the majority, like the vast majority, I think it's like 1% of the people have heard of Jesus and know who Jesus is.

So, you know, with that in mind, you walk down the street and you say, Jesus loves you. And you're like, I'm sharing the gospel. You know, Jesus loves you. They don't have any idea who that is or what you're talking about. That's not very effective. So what? Who's Jesus? I don't care. You know, it's not very important.

And so you have to start from somewhere different. Now, Jesus loves you here in America isn't always that effective either because, well, I remember us doing some ministry at the skate park many years ago over on 6th Street. And, you know, that was one of the messages that we would bring forth and we would share with the kids there at the skate park. And

I remember having a discussion with the group because the kids were like, yeah, I know that already. So we're attempting to reach out. We're looking to share the gospel and love on these kids. And Jesus loves you. And they're like, yeah, I know. Thanks. While they go, you know.

do all their sinful stuff that they're doing. So I know Jesus loves me, but that doesn't change my behavior. That's what their opinion was. Yeah, Jesus loves me. That's why I just do what I want and live the way I want. And so that's not maybe very effective in that context. But for others, that might be exactly what is needed. And so there has to be some effort on our part. So it's not just

Okay, I want to share the gospel with you. So let me tell you about the book of Exodus. You know, that's not the opening to every gospel presentation. That's the opening of this gospel presentation because Paul is speaking to who? Men of Israel and those who fear God, those who are thinking about converting to Judaism.

So if you're speaking to Jews and those who are thinking about converting to Judaism, well, then it's appropriate to start, let's go to the book of Exodus and talk about the history of Israel, you know, get to David, cross over to Jesus and build that bridge and make that connection for people. But in other contexts, well, the bridge is going to look very different. We get to see examples of this throughout the book of Acts as Paul ministers to different people.

You know, he uses a lot of times as a bridge, he uses his testimony. We'll see that several times in the book of Acts. When Paul's not ministering to Jews, but sometimes when he is ministering to Jews, he uses his testimony. He's just telling his story. He's bringing people along with, let me tell you what happened in my life.

And he says, I used to be like this. And they're like, okay, wow, wow, you used to be like that? Okay, that's interesting. And as he's walking them along, then he tells them about his encounter with Jesus. And then that leads him into the gospel message. It's one of the tools that can be used for us to build a bridge, to share what God has done in our life, and then use that to connect to the gospel message. In Acts chapter 17, Paul is there in Athens, and we'll see him

ministering to the Greek people. And he talks to them about their gods in order to talk to them about his God. And so he uses that to build a bridge to then be able to communicate the gospel to them in a way that they're connected, that they understand where he's coming from. It's not random, but they've been brought along. They understand the approach. They understand what's being presented to them. And so he is effective at building a bridge.

Other opportunities that we possibly have for building a bridge and giving us that connection to be able to share the gospel, of course, that there's endless variety in God's plan. Sometimes, you know, ministering to someone, just acts of service, acts of love, acts of

is effective at building a bridge, you know, because sometimes people just need to know that you care about them so that they'll be open to the gospel message, even if they've heard the gospel message before. But just the demonstration of your love and care many times will be an effective bridge to give you an avenue to be able to minister and share in a different way.

For others, it might be current events. You know, people are freaked out about the news, they're freaked out about the Middle East, they're freaked out about the elections or whatever. And perhaps, you know, that's a possibility for you to be able to come in and connect those things to the prophecies of the scripture, to what the Bible says, and then bring that around to the gospel. And on and on and on we could go. Endless variety in the kinds of bridges that could be built. But the point is...

it's a basic element of the gospel, rather than just random announcements of, you know, facts and information. Not just random announcements of, well, did you know when you blush, the lining of your stomach turns red also? Did you know that? Just wanted you to know some random information. Jesus loves you. It's out of the blue. It's not really connecting, right? People, who cares? It doesn't make sense. But

but to build a bridge, to bring people along, to reach them in a way that captures their attention and helps them understand what it is we're talking about and why we're sharing this message with them. And so build a bridge to share the gospel. Don't make people come to you

Don't make people, well, you got to learn Christianese so that you can come to me and hear the gospel message and understand what I'm talking about. No, you bend your ways. You change your words. You change your methods. You work. Don't just stand up far off and, you know, okay, you jump over the chasm and get to me and get to my side and then we could talk. Rise up to my level, you know. No, no, no.

We need on our side to build the bridge, to do the work. It takes effort. This is hard work. You got to actually care about people is the real hard part. You got to actually care about these people that you want to minister to so that you care enough to know, okay, I can share it this way and it's going to connect with them.

I can share it this way, and that's going to be something that they can agree upon. That's something they're going to be able to understand and then use that to take it into the gospel message. It takes effort on our part. It takes love and care for people. Paul expressed this in Romans chapter 9. He expressed this great love and care that he had for his people, the Jewish people, and you can see that reflected here. This message was targeted to them.

He wanted his people to be saved. He wanted his people to receive the gospel. And so he goes out of his way. He makes a great effort to connect them to this savior that has been promised to them and now has arrived. And his name is Jesus. Well, as he goes on in verses 23 through 37, we have the second point, the basic elements of the gospel. Point number two is the death and resurrection of Jesus.

I'm sure that's really shocking to you. You can't believe that's a core element of the gospel message, but it is. Let's read through some of these verses. Verse 23 says, From this man's seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior, Jesus. After John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel, and as John was finishing his course, he said, Who do you think I am?

You see this connection that Paul has built here. He's introducing Jesus to them, and he's saying, this is for you. This is

He mentions John the Baptist. Now, John the Baptist probably was familiar to them because even though these people were far away in Antioch of Pisidia, they were still in the city of Pisidia.

They would travel to Jerusalem, many of them, for the feasts. And even if they didn't travel, others would travel, and they would hear the word back when the people came back and say, yeah, there was this crazy guy preaching in the wilderness, and he was talking about repentance, and the kingdom of God is at hand. They probably had heard about Jesus also, because Jesus was there for three years ministering during the feasts, and so they

They had some awareness, but Paul is taking, okay, you have this general awareness. Now let's connect it. This salvation, verse 26, to you, the word of this salvation has been sent. This isn't just general information, but this is a message for you, a message to you. He makes the message personal to them. Verse 27 says,

So Paul makes some real quick comments here. So the rulers of the Jews said,

did these things to Jesus because they didn't believe, but these things were written about in the prophets. There was prophecies about the things that the rulers did. And so even though they didn't believe, they fulfilled the prophecies by condemning Jesus. And even though there was no cause for death, and so he's pointing out the fact that Jesus is sinless. He was perfect. He was undeserving of this. Yet they asked Pilate to put him to death. He was crucified. And then in verse 29, it

They took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. So you have the basic elements of the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross, undeserving, sinless death. He's buried in the tomb. And then verse 30, 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. Here you have the core of the gospel message, the death and resurrection message.

You can throw in the burial in there too if you want. It adds a little bit of finality to it. He actually died. It wasn't fake. He died upon the cross. He's laid in the tomb, and then he's resurrected. God raised him from the dead on the third day. This is the basic example

parts, the core of the gospel message. We see Paul also recount this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And so just to kind of reiterate, this is the gospel message. The gospel message, he says, I delivered to you, first of all, that's what, which I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. And

And so Paul is connecting these events to the scriptures. This is what the Bible said would happen. This is what happened. Jesus died upon the cross for our sins. He was buried, and then he rose again the third day. And so Paul here is establishing this is the gospel. This is the message. This is what you need to know about Jesus. He died upon the cross. He was buried, and then he was resurrected.

Now, Paul, as he goes on, he's going to kind of reinforce these things with some scripture quotations. He's still building bridges, really, because he goes on to quote from three passages of the Old Testament, passages they would know and be familiar with. They weren't just random passages, but they were passages that they knew because they were part of their scriptures. They were part of the things that they studied. In verse 32, he says, and we declare to you glad tidings,

Verse 35. Verse 35.

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. Here Paul drives these things home for this Jewish audience. He says, we declare to you glad tidings in verse 32. That's what the word gospel means. It means good news or glad tidings.

Here's the gospel I'm presenting to you. He says it's the promise which was made to the fathers. This is the fulfillment of the things that we've been promised. To our fathers, we're the children. We're the recipients of this promise. And so he quotes from Psalm chapter 2 verse 7. He quotes from Isaiah chapter 55 verse 3. He quotes from Psalm chapter 16 verse 10 to say, look, God said these things and now they've been fulfilled in Jesus.

And just to drive the point home a little bit further, in verse 36, he says, look, when David wrote Psalm 1610, you will not allow your Holy One to see corruption. That wasn't about David. David, he lived his life. He fell asleep or died. He was buried and he saw corruption. His body decomposed there in the tomb.

That wasn't about David. Psalm 1610 is not about David, but verse 37, but he whom God raised up saw no corruption. This is about Jesus. And so he's connecting again his people to the scriptures, to Jesus, and helping them understand Jesus is the fulfillment of these things. This is the fulfillment of these promises. Jesus Christ was crucified, buried, and raised from the dead. That's the core of the gospel message.

It's the core content of the gospel. And these are facts that Paul is sharing with them. You'll notice also in verse 31, he said, He was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people. He adds some credibility to this message and said, look, there's eyewitness testimony that this indeed happened. Jesus rose from the dead. And in addition to that, it was a fulfillment of prophecy.

Again, in verse 32, that promise which was made to the fathers. We had these promises and they've been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And so as we look to our calling, we're called to God's work. We're called to be part of the declaration of the gospel and making disciples. We need to make sure we have a good grasp on the death and resurrection of Jesus. That we are able to share that Jesus died.

Well, another element of the gospel as we continue on in verses 38 through 41, we have point number three. The third element is an invitation to believe. As Paul shares the gospel, he makes sure to let them know that there is a decision that must be made.

Now, he doesn't give an altar call like we might think about this coming weekend is the harvest crusade. And so if you've been to those, you have, you know, that picture in your mind of, all right, if you want to believe in Jesus, you know, get up from your seats and come down to the field and then we'll pray this prayer. We'll give you a Bible. You know, there's that altar call.

And I'm not speaking against altar calls. I'm just saying this wasn't that. That's not the only way for there to be an invitation to believe. And so he's not giving an altar call, but it's a clear call to a decision. As you see in verse 38 and 39, he says, therefore...

He says, let it be known to you. Here's what you need to know. Here's the facts about Jesus. He

died, he was buried, he rose again. And so here's what that means. Here's the offer that God now extends to you, forgiveness of sins. This is the offer that's being extended to you. You're invited to believe in Jesus to be forgiven of your sins. He goes on in verse 32 to use the word justified. By him, everyone who believes is justified. That word justified, it means to be made right with God as if you had never sinned.

If you like to rhyme that in your head, justified, just as if I'd never sinned. That's what it means to be justified. That God sees you just as if you had never sinned. If you had been perfect from birth, that's how God sees you when you believe in Jesus. It's a right relationship with God. And notice he points out in verse 39, justified, not just in general, but justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

In the law of Moses, there was declarations of what you had to do. Here's some sacrifices to offer if you've done these particular types of sins. But there were also types of sins that you could commit that had no sacrifice that you could offer to be covered for that sin. But Paul says, look, the forgiveness that's being offered here, the justification that God is offering by faith in Jesus Christ is so complete that there is no sin left

that's not covered by the cross. There's no sin that you cannot be forgiven of. And so it's an invitation to believe and those who believe are justified even from the things that were not covered by the law. Everyone who believes is justified. And again, he says in verse 38, therefore, let it be known to you, brethren. Here's his call. Here's his invitation. Will you believe? Here's what you need to know. Will you believe?

Will you make a decision to believe in Jesus Christ? Now you can also see that it's a call to make a decision because he includes a warning of not believing in Jesus. In verse 40, he says, Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you. Verse 41, he quotes from Habakkuk. 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. Here's what Paul's saying. You have to make a decision. And if you believe in Jesus, you have forgiveness. You're justified from even everything that the law can't justify you of. But if you don't believe, there's a warning. Beware. Watch out. Because if you don't believe, then you won't believe. Sometimes we think about believing in Jesus as, yeah, maybe I will, maybe I won't, maybe I will later.

What Paul is pointing out, though, is when you make a decision, I'm not ready to believe. I'm not going to believe right now. When you make that decision, you're pushing yourself the other way. You're pushing yourself. So maybe there will be another opportunity for you later, but you're more likely later to not receive that. You will not believe because you did not believe. That is, every time the gospel message is presented, there's a choice that is made.

We kind of think of it as like not making a choice. I'm not going to make a choice to believe right now. But when you make a choice to not believe right now, you're making a choice to not believe, which inclines your heart to not believe. And so that builds up that hardness of heart so that, well, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you. And so he calls them to make a decision. He says, believe. And if you don't believe, watch out because, well, there's another prophecy that

When you don't believe, well, even when someone tells it to you, even when it's right there in front of your face, you won't believe because you did not believe. And so there's a warning here. He gives an invitation to believe. There's an urgency to it. You need to make this decision. Here's the offer that's available to you. Forgiveness and justification by faith in Jesus Christ and not believing is a dangerous thing to do. And so it's not an altar call.

It's not a, you know, stand up and come forward or raise your hand. Everybody keep your eyes closed and let's pray. It's a call to believe. It's a call to take these things to heart and say, I believe that Jesus Christ died upon the cross for my sins and that I'm forgiven by faith in his finished work there upon the cross. And

As we have opportunity to share the gospel, to minister the gospel, we build the bridge, we declare what took place, we declare who Jesus is and what he did and how he died and was buried and rose again. But then there also needs to be that invitation. And it doesn't have to take the form of perhaps invitations that we might think of in our head and the kind of the model that we have set for us in our mind. But

But there needs to be that understanding. You have to make a decision. And even not making a decision is a decision. To not choose Jesus Christ is to choose to be against Jesus Christ. Jesus said, you're either for me or against me. And so there needs to be that expression of this is a decision that must be made and that invitation to believe. Well, we finish it up now in verses 42 through 52.

Here's the final elements of the gospel as presented by the Apostle Paul here. The final elements are God's sovereignty and man's choice. These are elements of the gospel message. Now, these are not like the previous elements that we were talking about where, well, the bridge, you got to think about the bridge. You got to work at that. You got to, you know,

understand where people are coming from and care about them enough to know how to shape the message and begin the conversation and build bridges and make connections so that you can help them get on board and understand why they need a Savior and why that's important and what you're talking about. But as we look at this point, these are not things that you need to so much fashion or form or think about or work out, but realities that you need to know exist.

involved in the gospel message is the sovereignty of God and the choice of man. Now, there's a long-lasting debate, and I'm not going to resolve it tonight, but the free will of man versus the sovereignty of God, and, you know, which one is more important, and which one is it, or

Well, I think as you look at this passage, it's pretty clear both are taking place here in this passage. Both are being exercised. God's sovereignty is being demonstrated and man's choice is being exercised. We'll look at verse 42 through 45 first. It says, so when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.

Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who speaking to them persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul."

Here is Paul brings forth this message. He kind of concludes it with this invitation to make a decision. And what we see happen is people are making decisions. Gentiles are desiring to hear the gospel. They're begging, hey, please share these words with us.

In verse 43, it talks about Jews following Paul and Barnabas. This is probably an indication that they had believed this message that Paul preached. They believed in Jesus because it says in verse 43, they persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. So they became participants in the grace of God, believing in Jesus. And Paul said, all right, now continue on. Don't go back to legalism, but stick around in the grace of God and continue to believe in Jesus.

But then also in verse 45, we see other Jews are opposing the gospel so that next week as they gather and the whole city is gathered together, the Jews filled with envy, their decision is to reject the gospel. And so now they're fighting against Paul and the message that is being preached. Verse 46, then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first and

He quotes there from Isaiah chapter 49, verse 6. Paul and Barnabas grew bold, it says. They now deal with this crowd of Jews who are fighting against the gospel.

And they said, it was necessary that we spoke the word of God to you first. But notice what he says, since you rejected, you've made a choice. Now, some of the Jews had decided to believe and followed Paul. And he encouraged them to continue in the grace of God. But some decided to reject. The decision had been made. Some believed and some rejected. And he said, I brought the gospel to you guys first. That's what the Lord commanded. In Romans chapter 1, verse 16, Paul says the

gospel is the power of God into salvation for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Jesus, being a Jew, ministered to Jews. He was the promised Savior to the Jewish people. The Jews had the first opportunity to receive the gospel message. That's the way that God has designed it. And as the gospel spread,

Out from Jerusalem to the rest of the world. That's how it continued. And so Paul and Barnabas, when they ministered, they went to the synagogue first. And they preached the gospel to the Jews until the Jews rejected it. And then they brought it to the Gentiles of that area also. And so he says that I did what I was supposed to do. God called me to bring the gospel to you guys, but you've rejected it. And so now I'm changing focus and I'm going to be ministering more to the Gentiles here in this area. Verse 48 says,

Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many had been appointed to eternal life, believed. Notice that. Here we have the sovereignty of God clearly. People were making decisions. They were choosing to believe. They were choosing to reject. And yet in verse 48, it says, as many had been appointed to eternal life, believed. So they were people who had been appointed by God to eternal life. God had chosen them, appointed them, and they had chosen him.

but some had chosen to reject him. And so that is the debate. If God chose them, did they have a choice? Did they really choose or did they not have a choice? And if they have a choice, then doesn't that mean that God's not sovereign and people fight all over that? But I think they're listed throughout the scripture in this way, showing both are true. Man chooses and God chooses. I always like to consider the marriage proposal as a good illustration of this.

Marriage proposal is two people choosing. When I proposed to Kim, I chose her, and then she had the opportunity to choose me. So I said, will you? And she said, yes. We both got to choose. That's the way it works with salvation as well. We both get to choose. One way it's often been described is a sign over a door that says, whosoever will may enter.

And those who believe, they enter in through that door. But then when you look back over the door, there's a sign on the other side that says chosen from the foundations of the earth. Both are true. You chose and you were chosen. And that's the reality. The sovereignty of God is at play as well as the will of man. Verse 49. And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.

Verse 51. Verse 51.

Paul and Barnabas continue to minister, but those who rejected Jesus have stirred up this large commotion against them. There's this persecution now, and it says that they expelled them from their region. They kicked them out from the area. And so Paul and Barnabas now move on to Iconium. It's a little bit further down. They go and minister in this different region. We'll see that in chapter 14 as we continue in the book of Acts.

But I think it's interesting in verse 51, it says they shook off the dust from their feet. And this is something Jesus instructed his disciples to when he sent them out. He said, look, if people don't receive you, just shake off the dust and move on to another place. I think this is an important part of the gospel that we sometimes have a hard time dealing with. But here's the reality that's presented for us. There comes a point where you shake the dust off

and you move on to others who will receive. Sometimes, I mean, when you care about somebody, you want them to be saved. But sometimes we need to come to a point where we shake the dust off our feet and we say, okay, I'm done. I can't be part of this. And you move on. There needs to be that point. There is a point where that needs to happen. We have to let people choose. We can't force them.

and thrust the gospel down their throat and no, you will believe and I'm gonna make this happen no matter what and we can't do that. That's not gonna work. It's not gonna be effective. Now, there's a caution here. That doesn't mean we give up easily. The first time someone says, no, okay then, all right, well, you know, and we move on. That's not what it's saying but notice they were expelled from the region, right?

Now, you know, Paul and Barnabas didn't then start protesting and holding up signs, you know, receive Jesus, receive Jesus, you know, marching around, whatever, you know, they were expelled from. It wasn't, they didn't try to force it. Okay, you're not receptive to the gospel. Okay, I'm going to move on. Now, this is tough. I don't imagine Paul and Barnabas were doing this with joy. This was great sorrow to them. There's a serious rejection of Jesus. But this, again, is where the sovereignty of God comes into play.

They're leaving them in God's hands. They're in God's hands, and God loves them more than we do. It's not up to us. And so, well, at this point, they're not receiving from us. We need to just let it go and move on and go to others who will receive the message that we have to share. And so that can be really tough for us, but there are those times where we need to shake off the dust from our feet. Jesus also shared the principle of not casting your pearls before swine, that

When you recognize it, just this is a closed door. Again, it doesn't mean we give up easily. It doesn't mean we give up after the first or second or third rejection. But there comes a point we need to recognize. It's time to shake the dust off our feet and to focus our attention on those who will receive the message and the ministry that is being brought forth. Verse 52, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Rejection and opposition doesn't keep God's work from going forward.

Paul and Barnabas are thrust out of the area, but the disciples are filled with joy in the Holy Spirit. There's still a work. God's still sovereign. He's still on the throne. He's still going to keep his work. I could imagine Paul and Barnabas thinking, oh, what's going to happen to all these people that we just preached to if we're not there to, you know, minister to them and lead them? But the Holy Spirit's at work. God is sovereign. And so the disciples were filled with joy in the Holy Spirit. God is still at work.

As the gospel is being presented and even rejected, God is still at work. And that's an essential element of the gospel that we need to recognize. There is man's choice, but there's also God's sovereignty. And there is God's sovereignty, but there's also man's choice. There's the balance of both. Both are taking place as the gospel message is going forth. Now again, going back to the beginning, all of this is really important because you and I are called to God's work.

And God's work centers on the gospel. And so these are the elements that we need to be familiar with and know about. We build a bridge to people where they are. Don't make them come to us. Don't make them jump over chasms and learn our vocabulary and figure out why they should care about the message that we have for them. We need to do the work, put in the effort to build the bridge so that people understand what it is we're sharing with them.

And we need to be sharing the death and resurrection of Jesus. There's a lot of things that we could talk about. There's a lot of moral values. There's a lot of things that we could address. But the message really needs to come back to the death and resurrection of Jesus. That's the core of the gospel. And there needs to be an invitation to believe and understanding. You have to make a decision. And if you decide, there's great benefits. And if you don't decide or decide not to, there's also great warning there.

The invitation to believe needs to be part of the gospel message. But then also we need to recognize there's God's sovereignty and there's man's choice. Make a choice. But also when you make a choice I don't like, well, I have to leave you in God's hands. And God's at work and I can trust him. I can know that he's going to be at work and he's going to do everything he can to reach you with that gospel message. And it's up to you to receive it. You get to choose. And yet God's sovereign. And God's sovereign and yet you get to choose. He's at work and

but you need to believe. And that's the message that we bring to the world around us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, for the salvation that you offer to us. God, thank you that we, by believing in you, get to have the forgiveness of sins, that there's no sin that is not paid for by the cross, that there's no sin that's not covered by your blood. But Lord, we get to have that relationship with you just as if we had never sinned, not even one time in our whole life.

And that's incredible. Thank you, Lord, for the relationship that we have with you. And Lord, for the opportunity to now represent you to the world around us. God, I pray that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit, that we would be empowered by you to be your witnesses.

to the people around us. Lord, that we would represent you well, and I pray, God, that you would give us opportunities to share your love and your gospel with people around us. And I pray as we do that you would bring these things to mind. Help us, God, to build bridges. Help us, Lord, to stick to the truth and the core of your crucifixion and resurrection, the reality of what took place there on the cross and in the tomb.

God, I pray that you would help us to present an invitation, that you would help us, Lord, to present it, that choices need to be made. But Lord, also help us to rest in your hands and to allow those that we minister to to be entrusted into your hands. Lord, it's not up to us to convert them. But Lord, we deliver the message. We give them the choice. And then it's between you and them. And they have to choose and you get to choose. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us

Help us to not interfere with those choices. But Lord, to entrust the people that you bring to us, that you've set around us, help us to entrust them to you, to know that you're good, that you're loving, and you will do your best to reach them, to give them the opportunity to choose you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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