Jesus: Good News For Churched & Unchurched Alike

How many of you remember the old hymn “Tell me the story of Jesus”?

The lyrics go like this: “Tell me the story of Jesus // write on my heart every word; Tell me the story most previous // the sweetest that ever was heard. Tell how the angels in chorus // sang as they welcomed his birth. Glory to God in the highest // peace and good tidings to earth.”

“Fasting alone in the desert // tell of the days that are past. How for our sins he was tempted, yet was triumphant at last. Tell of the years of his labor // tell of the sorrow he bore. He was despised and afflicted // homeless, rejected and poor.”

“Tell of the cross where they laid Him // writhing in anguish and pain; tell of the grace where they laid him // tell how he liveth again. Love in that story so tender // clearer than ever I see; stay, let me weep while you whisper, “love paid the ransom for me.”

“Tell me how he’s gone back to heaven // up to the right hand of God; how he is there interceding // while on this earth we must trod. Tell of the sweet Holy Spirit // He has poured out from above; Tell how He’s coming in glory // for all of the saints of His love.”

Tell me the story of Jesus. The story of Jesus. What you’ll notice in that song, is that the story of Jesus is one that begins long ago in the past, and one that if it ever ends, it will end in the glory of heave after all of this has passed away and been made new.

The story of Jesus is the subject of this passage this morning. The apostle Paul preaches his first recorded sermon here in Acts 13:13-52. And in this sermon, Paul tells us the story of Jesus. Will you walk through that story with me?

#1: The Story Of Jesus: preparing the way

Will you look with me in your Bibles at vv. 16-21? Just read along with me. And notice with me what Paul does. Both of these are essential if you’re going to come with me to the end of this sermon and still know what’s going on. First, look with me at the second half of verse 16, right before verse 17:

To churched & unchurched alike (v. 16b)

“Men of Israel” are ethnic Israelites

= Lifelong churchgoers

“You who fear God” are Gentiles/non-Jews

= Nor Christians yet, but seeking

Notice with me, first, who Paul addresses it to: “Men of Israel, and you who fear God...” Those are Jews who have always been, ethnic Jews. Men of Israel. These are those of you in the room this morning who have been Christians so long you don’t ever remember a time when you were not Christians, or a time when you didn’t go to church.

Then there’s a second group: “you who fear God”. Those are Gentiles.These are seekers. Are there any seekers here today? In the room today we have churched and unchurched people.

Now Paul, in order to preach this sermon to churched and unchurched, to Israelite and Gentile, this sermon that’s about the story ofJesus, starts with the nation of Israel coming out of Egyptian slavery. That’s centuries before Christ came. What gives?

He keeps doing it, too. First it’s Israel in Egyptian slavery. Then it’s 40 years of the wilderness wanderings — the book of Numbers. Then he has the Israelites finally in the promised land of Canaan, centuries before Christ.

And on and on he goes — from Canaan until Saul and through Saul down to King David. Why tell us all of that?

The sermons that we read in the Bible — here’s the thing about them: they almost never begin with time present time. Why is that?

Well, it’s because the story of Jesus is not a fairy tale. It’s not “Once upon a time, Jesus was born and then He died for our sins and rose again and here we are.” That’s what a fairy tale would do. But when Paul wants to tell the story of Jesus, he doesn’t start with Jesus Himself — He goes way back to into the history of Israel and then traces that history all the way up to Jesus. He does this — are you ready? He does this in order to fix in our minds that these things really happen. And all of it has led us to Jesus.

[SLIDE: WHO IS JESUS?]

Who is Jesus? (vv. 17-23)

The greater and better Joshua

The greater and better Samuel

The greater and better Saul

The greater and better David

We read about Joshua - Jesus is the greater and better Joshua. We read about Samuel the prophet — Jesus is the true Prophet, the One Samuel pointed to. Same with Saul. Same with David. Jesus is the Greater and Better David.

And here we find the most important verse in this first section of Paul’s sermon, a verse that summarizes everything I’ve been saying the last five minutes, and that’s verse 23: “Of this man” — speaking of David — “of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, as he promised.”

The story of Jesus is the culmination of hundreds and hundreds of years of history in which God was working in and through real people who you can read about in history books, in actual places in the world you could point to on a map, with actual events that you can read about or that archaeology has confirmed for us.

We cannot understand Jesus, who He is, why He came, unless we understand the preparation for His coming. Next, we cannot understand the story of Jesus without understanding the fact of His coming.

#2: The Story Of Jesus: His coming

I know we say this every year, but this year Christmas has come upon us so fast. Shannon and I were talking the other day and I asked her, “Does it feel like Christmas and Thanksgiving and cold weather — does it feel like all of that has been imposed upon us before it was time? And of course the answer is, no, it hasn’t been imposed on us. It’s just that every year we become busier and busier, and so we feel like time passes so much more quickly every year.

Oh my goodness, Christmas is in three weeks, now it’s in two weeks, now Christmas is ten days away, five days, three days — and then all of a sudden its December 26 and I’m feeling like it never really happened. But it’s still coming and it’s our job to find a way to be present so that we don’t miss the whole reason why we celebrate it. s

[SLIDE: ADVENT = COMING]

We are people who inhabit time. To live in this world, is to live within the constraints of time and space. I cannot walk through the pulpit. I can’t back time up and go redo something I wish I had done differently.

God exists outside of time and space. He has none of those limitations. He is timeless. And part of the wonder of Christmas is that at Christmas we celebrate the coming of the Timeless One into the world of space and time, and taking on those limitations that we have. Christmas is the coming of the Timeless God into the world of space and time and living as a human being bound by space and time.

Advent = “Coming”

“The arrival of a notable person, thing, or event.”

Season of Advent: The period of time on the church calendar beginning four Sundays before Christmas

Google: Advent devotional

We actually find that word in verse. 24: “Before His coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.”

Did you know the word Advent means “coming”? The church calendar season of Advent. Did you know Advent means coming? ]It’s when we pause our busy lives and stop our going and coming so that we can find joy in the One who has come and is coming to us to bring us salvation.

The story of Jesus is the story of His coming. But the story of Jesus is also the story of His message.

#3: The Story Of Jesus: His death

If you’re a casual reader of Acts and you’re reading this text of Paul’s sermon you might think he made a mistake. He goes from John the Baptist to Jesus’ coming into the world and then skips right to His crucifixion and resurrection. In other words, Paul skips from Jesus’ birth to Jesus’ death.

“But wait a minute, Paul. You skipped Jesus’ life. His miracles and His healings. What about those? What about his teachings?” Alot of people think Jesus’ life is more important than Jesus’ death. They think the story of Jesus is a story about a nice man with special powers who went around making people feel better, as if that’s all He did, as if you can reduce His significance to the three-and-a-half years of his life that the gospels in the NT record for us.

But the fact is this: Jesus’ life means nothing apart from His death. And it’s so easy to understand why.

Look with me at verses 26-29. And then we’re just going to look at just two verses.

Acts 13:26–29 ESV

“Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear 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 Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked 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.

Acts 13:28 ESV

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

How many of you drink diet soda? I can’t do it. I know one day I’ll probably have to, and I probably should be now.

Well, there is such a thing as “diet Christianity.” It’s watered down. It’s not the same. “Diet Christianity” says, “Oh, when Jesus was on the cross, He wasn’t dying to pay for our sins or dying to appease an angry God. Jesus was simply dying on the cross to show us how much He loves us.”

Now let me tell you why that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Let’s say that Shannon and I are taking a walk on the Carolina Thread Trail. You guys have heard of that if you run or bike or walk. And let’s say that we’re walking hand in hand, reminiscing about our 16 years of marriage. Looking deeply into each other’s eyes. All of that stuff.

And then let’s say that, out of the blue, I’m overcome by feelings of love for my wife so much so that I throw myself into the raging First Broad River and I begin to get swept away. Shannon is running along and she’s asking, why did you do that? And I say, as I’m being pulled further and further from love’s grasp, I somehow manage to muster the strength to say, “I jumped in the river to show you how much I love you.”

Shannon would have to be standing there just scratching her head. “What…?” “Aren’t there other ways he could have shown his love for me? Why didn’t he just buy me dinner?”

In the same way, if Jesus on the cross wasn’t paying for our sins, aren’t there other ways He could have shown us His love in our place on our behalf? It’s a question mark in the middle of the story. An abrupt end.

But if He was doing all of those things for us, if our sins were resting upon Him, if our guilt were resting upon Him as He hung on Calvary, if as He hung on the cross He was offering Himself as a perfect, sinless offering to the Father to satisfy His law the said we must die for our sins, then that makes the story of Jesus an absolutely unbelievably good story with implications for all of us that can turn our lives upside down.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1 John 4:10 ESV

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

We cannot understand the story of Jesus without understanding Jesus’ death. But we also cannot understand the story of Jesus without understanding His resurrection.

#4: The Story Of Jesus: His resurrection

Just as Jesus’ life doesn’t make sense apart from his death, in the same way Jesus’ death doesn’t make sense apart from His resurrection. If Jesus just died and that was it, then there wasn’t anything special about His life.

The significance of the resurrection

It is historically verifiable = it really happened!

It was prophetically promised = it is part of the story!

Paul seems to hint at that when he moves right from Jesus’ death to His resurrection. Look at verses 29-30 with me: “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.” — That’s not the end of the story. He goes right on without missing a beat, “But God raised him from the dead”.

And we don’t have to take it on faith alone. Did you know, church, that the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead was a verifiable event? Look at verse 31: “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”. Paul is saying there were eyewitnesses of Jesus after His resurrection. We read elsewhere in the Bible that there were over 500 eyewitnesses.

Do you know what that means? That means the resurrection of Jesus is not a fairy tale; it’s not “once upon a time”. It’s, “this is real guys; this really happened. You can ask this person, you can ask that person, they saw him alive.” Do you understand that, church? If Jesus isn’t risen, then we might as well pack up and go to lunch. But He is. And that changes everything.

The other thing we see here about the resurrection is that it was prophetically promised. Look at verses 32-33: “And we bring you the good news” — good news of what? “good news that what God promised what God to the fathers, this” — the promises of the OT — “this he has fulfilled to us their children” — how? “by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm.” It was always promised. The resurrection was not a fluke. Not a one-off. Not a mystery. Always part of the plan. And now it’s part of the story. It really happened.

And if it really happened, oh man, that means that everything Jesus said was true; it means that Jesus really is Lord. More than a teacher. More than a wise and godly man. There’s a reason why when Thomas the doubting disciple placed his hands in Jesus’ wounds, he then truly believed in Jesus. And He said, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:18 ESV).

And you can see how it’s part of the story. Paul shows us straight from the OT itself. If you look at your Bibles from about verse 33 — look there with me — from verse 33 down to verse 35. One of the passages he quotes from to show that the resurrection was promised long ago is Psalm 16:10. It’s on your screen. David is writing this psalm.

Acts 13:35 ESV

Therefore he says also in another psalm, “ ‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’

And the question becomes, can David really be talking about himself here? Who is it that will not see the corruption of death (corruption means decay) the decay and rot of death? Didn’t David die? Paul shows us that in verses 36-37. Right after he quotes from Psalm 16. “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. But he whom God raised up did not see corruption” — decay, death.

David died. He was buried. He did not rise from the grave. So when David says “you will not let your Holy One see corruption”, David must be looking beyond himself and seeing someone else — one who would really and truly die and yet then be freed from death and corruption. Paul tells us Jesus is that One.

You cannot understand the story of Jesus without understanding His resurrection. But you also can’t understand His story without understanding His forgiveness.

#5: The Story Of Jesus: His forgiveness

Paul brings it all home for us in verse 38. His conclusion. If Jesus has died and risen again, then, verses 38-39, here’s the good news: “Let it be known to you therefore” - that’s an authoritative statement — “know this for sure”, he is saying, “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.”

Kids learn many things as they grow up and it’s our job to teach them those things. But if there is one thing you do not have to teach a child to do, it’s blaming others. We don’t get over it in childhood. It continues into adulthood. It’s our gut reaction.

If you’re sitting at work and your boss comes up to you and says, “Hey, I need to talk to you about what you said earlier. I think your comments could be taken as being rude or dishonest.” Doesn’t have to be your boss. Substitute anyone there — your spouse, your kids, your siblings. How many of you would be honest and say that when someone comes to you with something you’ve done wrong, your initial reaction is either anger, denial, or blame-shifting? It seems that there is nothing we fear worse than accepting blame.

Why is that? Why this universal tendency beginning from the crib to point to someone else say, “not me — him”? I’ll tell you why. It’s because we know, deep down, that we are guilty. We know we have done wrong. We know we deserve to be taken to task for what we have done. And yet we seem to sense that being truly taken to task for all the wrong that we’ve done — well, that’ll be something that is entirely too hard to bear.

Church, Christians, friends — let me encourage you to do something. Accept the blame when it’s yours. Because of Jesus, you don’t have to be afraid to face your sin and your guilt. You say “Pastor Dustin, you don’t understand, all that I’ve done, it’s too much to face.” I absolutely do understand how you feel, and I’m here to tell that there is no sin, no matter how dark it is, no matter how secretive it was, no matter how many times you indulged in it, there is absolutely no sin that the forgiveness Jesus purchased for you on the cross will not obliterate.

How does Jesus’ death result in our forgiveness? I’m glad you asked.

[SLIDE: JESUS DEATH = OUR FORGIVENESS]

How does Jesus’ death = our forgiveness?

He condemns it

He carries it

He cancels it

He crucifies it

He casts it away

He chooses to un-remember it

To understand the story of Jesus is to understand His forgiveness. And if we grasp the reality of Jesus’ forgiveness, we must respond.

#6: What will be our response?

The sermon title is good news for churched and unchurched.

If you think you can’t be forgiven, you need to remember one thing: if ever there were people that we would think beyond redemption, disqualified from being forgiven, it is the people who crucified Jesus. And yet, even as they were crucifying Him, He said, “Father, forgive them; they do now what they do.” You can be forgiven. And if you trust Jesus, you will. And you will never be the same.

But, you see, to be forgiven — you must respond to the offer of forgiveness. It is not automatic. We are not born forgiven. We are born out of relationship with God. And we remain out of relationship with God until we come into relationship with Him through faith in His Son Jesus. You must respond.

How do you respond? Believe in Jesus.

[SLIDE: ACTS 13:38-39]

Acts 13:38–39 ESV

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.

Look carefully at verses 38-39: “through this man” - by who? Jesus — “through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and” — here it is again — “and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses”.

Jesus alone provides salvation. Jesus is the only way of salvation. We will not follow those churches who say that Jesus is not the only way of salvation, that God will save anyone if they merely are sincere in whatever they believe. That’s not salvation by grace. It’s salvation by works. And it’s wrong. It’s counterfactual to the claims the New Testament makes about how salvation comes to us. We must make a conscious choice to turn from our old way of life — God will help us in that — and turn to God.

[SLIDE: TO CHURCHED & UNCHURCHED ALIKE]

To churched & unchurched alike (v. 16b)

“Men of Israel” are ethnic Israelites

= Lifelong churchgoers

“You who fear God” are Gentiles/non-Jews

= Nor Christians yet, but seeking

Church, the good news of the gospel is not the news that we are good people after all. That won’t change your life, it’s not good news, because you and I both know it’s not true. Do you want to know what the good news of the gospel is, for churched and unchurched?

[SLIDE: GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL]

The good news of the gospel is that you and I are far, far worse than we ever thought we were, but God’s love and grace and mercy and forgiveness are so much better than we ever dreamed.

The good news of the gospel is that you and I are far, far worse than we ever thought we were, but God’s love and grace and mercy and forgiveness are so much better than we ever dreamed.

But there are consequences if we do not trust in Jesus for our salvation. If we reject the way of salvation that God has provided, we leave ourselves with no other option but to be excluded from God forever. That’s what the Israelites did — the churched people of Jesus’ day rejected Jesus and were shut out. Acts 13:46-47

Acts 13:46–47 ESV

And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

But there’s a way to avoid that exclusion. There is a way we can be included in eternal life. By trusting in Jesus.

How do you trust in Jesus? What does it mean to trust in Jesus? What do you do to trust in Jesus?

The OT tells a story about the Israelites in the wilderness. God disciplined them by sending sakes into the camp. People were bit by the snakes and it was a poisonous bite. God is merciful, and He provided an antidote — not a pill or a potion, but a bronze snake on a post. Anyone who merely looked at the bronze snake was healed. They didn’t have to get better first. They didn’t have to get up and walk to the post with the bronze snake. All they had to do was look to the snake, and they would be healed.

That’s how saving faith works. We don’t have to clean ourselves up before we come to Jesus. We don’t have to try to work our way to Him when we’re mired in sin. He comes to us. And He merely says, “Look to me.” “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15 ESV). “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other” (Isa. 45:22 NASB).