Bible Study 3/19/25

Acts 13:26–29 “Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. “For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. “And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. “When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.

After completing the setup, Paul now makes a change wth a fresh start to the conversation. This is no longer a history lesson, but an opportunity for those listening to make a choice that their fellow Jews and Gentiles didn’t make. Paul opens this section of his speech with a repeat of his earlier opening, calling the Jews and Gentiles listening to attention to hear what he has to say, though it is slightly different. He is now calling them to hear a particular message, a message of salvation that was given to the church, a message that the people of Jerusalem rejected. This message was given to the people of Jerusalem, but, as Paul says, they didn’t recognize who Jesus was and didn’t even realize that what they were doing against Him was the fulfillment of the prophecies that they knew very well. If they really knew the prophecies that well, then participating in their fulfillment should’ve helped them to know who Jesus was, but they still didn’t understand at all. Even the Jews knew they had no reason to put Him to death, so they tried to convince the Romans to do it, which they did. And as Paul notes once again, by putting Jesus to death, “they had carried out all that was written concerning Him”. Not only did Jesus fulfill plenty of prophecy while He was living, but the people fulfilled prophecy by sending Him to His death - and yet in all of it, despite sitting through the reading of the prophets at every Sabbath, they didn’t recognize Jesus at all.

Acts 13:30–32 “But God raised Him from the dead; and for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. “And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers,

And here Paul gets to the results of what their rejection of Jesus led to. For whatever reason, the people didn’t understand that all the prophets were talking about Jesus, and they didn’t even notice that they were the ones fulfilling the prophecies by putting Jesus to death, BUT God raised Him from the dead.

Howard Marshall Over against the hostile action of men (which was nevertheless part of the divine plan) is now placed the action of God himself in raising Jesus from the dead, and this is immediately followed by a reference to the repeated appearances of the risen Jesus to his followers. It is stressed that these followers were the people who had been with Jesus throughout his ministry; they had come up from Galilee to Jerusalem with him before the crucifixion, and they were thus qualified to be witnesses to the people.

Paul doesn’t mention his own experience as a witness of the risen Christ at this point, but rather references himself as an evangelist, as one who preaches the good news to others. And that’s the whole reason Paul was here. Not to give them a history lesson, but to share with them the good news that resulted from the promises that were made to their fathers many years ago.

Acts 13:33–37 That God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today i have begotten You.’ “As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ “Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ‘You will not allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.’ “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay; but He whom God raised did not undergo decay.

The promise that Paul refers to is referenced in verse 23 when he said that God had fulfilled His promise in bringing a Savior to Israel, which he now cites in these verses and the next couples as well. Paul, directing the good news of the promise to his audience, refers to himself and them as the children of those fathers to which the promise was made. The first instinct would be to assume that he is talking just to the Jews there, but in both sections of his speech he has added a focus toward the Gentiles there as well, so it is likely more a reference to spiritual offspring than physical. From here, Paul takes the listeners through three promises made in the Psalms. The first of which is Psalm 2:7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”

Howard Marshall This Psalm describes the opposition of the nations and their rulers to the Lord’s anointed one. The rulers tells what God decreed and said to him: “You are my son, today I have begotten you.’ In its context this refers to the way in which God legitimates the king as his son, in the same way as a father would accept his wife’s child as being really his son and so promise him loving care and protection; the idea of begetting i purely metaphorical.

This Psalm has been recognized as applying supremely to the Messiah and the early Christians applied it to Jesus. Similar words are also echoed about Jesus during His baptism when the voice comes from heaven saying, “This is my Son with whom I’m well pleased.” It is because Jesus was known to be God’s Son that Psalm 2 could be applied to him and then seen as a foreshadowing of the resurrection.

The second and third quotations that Paul makes here are closely linked together and they come from Psalm 16 and Isaiah 55.

Psalm 16:10 “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”

Isaiah 55:3 “Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David.”

Since David did in fact experience decay, it is only possible that Psalm 16 could be referring to Jesus since He was resurrected and David was not. Isaiah is a reference to Jesus in the everlasting covenant made with David that would have the Savior come through his line. Commentators note that “holy and sure blessings” or “holy things” and “Holy One” are both translations of the same Greek word, which could be why these two references are linked to get. Of some of the possible reasons for the point of linking these together, here are a couple of sound arguments given.

Verse 34 is a promise of the permanent dominion of the Messiah, which is possible only if he lives for ever and never sees corruption or decay.

The promise made to David in Psalm 16 has been transferred to you and therefore cannot refer to him, but must refer to the Messiah.

Of the two, I would argue for the first being the most likely, or at least the least arguable, though Paul could’ve had multiple reasons for bringing these passages together. A promise of an everlasting kingdom was made, but it’s ruler would also have to be everlasting to assume the throne and therefore could not experience corruption or decay.

Acts 13:38–41 “Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. “Therefore take heed, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you: ‘Behold, you scoffers, and marvel, and perish; For I am accomplishing a work in your days, A work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you.’”

The conclusion of Paul’s argument is that Jesus, whom God raised from the dead, is the one through whom forgiveness of sins has become possible, which he now offers to those who were there listening to him. At this point in his message, he is almost speaking more like Peter, who put an emphasis on blessings offered through Jesus, than himself as he would commonly put his focus on the message of justification, or the legal sentence of acquittal, which is essentially the same thought that Paul used to show that nobody could be declared to be in a right relationship with God on the basis of his own efforts to keep God’s Law. It is Jesus who frees them. The Law of Moses could not free them. It is only through believing in Jesus that a person can be put in the right with God, and that is exactly what Paul is getting at when he tells his listeners that everyone who believes in him is “freed from all things”. We should also notice where Paul says “everyone who believes”. We remember that his message is not just to Jews, but to “those who fear God”, the Gentiles. He is making plain to both people groups that salvation is available for all, without limitation, so long as they believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Paul closes this speech with a warning based on Habakkuk 1:5.

Habakkuk 1:5 “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told.”

While this passage was originally speaking of the danger of failing to recognize that the Chaldean invasion that took place at the time was actually divine judgment, Paul uses it here to warn of the danger of despising God’s offer of forgiveness and salvation. During his ministry, the Jews failed to recognize Jesus - Paul is warning these people not to make that same mistake again.

Acts 13:42–43 As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.

As Paul and Barnabas began to leave, the people were begging for them to return on the next Sabbath and share more of this good news for them. Apparently there were some who weren’t willing to wait, because a mix of both Jews and Gentiles began to follow them around after they had left. It would appear that Paul and Barnabas had compassion on the people, because as they were following them they urged “them to continue in the grace of God”. Paul and Barnabas must have witnessed a great deal of faith in these people when they were teaching them because they don’t tell them to do what they taught, but to continue in the grace of God that perhaps they were already living in. I hope it would be similar for us today if they were to come to our church and share. That they would be encouraged by our faith and that they would encourage us to continue in it.

Acts 13:44–45 The next Sabbath nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming.

Now we’re still here a week later, they did as the people asked and returned to share the good news some more. But this time it wasn’t just an audience of synagogue attendees, but “nearly the whole city” came out to hear them. Obviously word spread quickly amongst the people and they got excited. If we remember where they are from last week, this is a heavily populated Gentile area, particularly Greeks, with many Jews living among them. Not super surprising, the Jews became jealous of the crowd that had gathered to hear the gospel. So while the city had many Jews that were hungry for the gospel, there were also many that were not. They saw the crowds that Paul and Barnabas were drawing and I imagine their first thought was along the lines of “how come we never get a crowd like this?”. I can also imagine that some of their frustration came from seeing Gentiles convert to Christianity instead of Judaism. Rather than figure out what they were doing wrong, they simply decided to make it sound like everything Paul and Barnabas were teaching was wrong. But much like with Bar-Jesus earlier, it wasn’t going to be successful.

Acts 13:46–47 Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. “For so the Lord has commanded us, ‘I have placed You as a light for the Gentiles, That You may bring salvation to the end of the earth.’”

Paul and Barnabas fire back with a sharp response. While it was necessary for the gospel to be brought to the Jews first, since the Jews rejected the gospel it was time for them to share it with those who would receive it.

Howard Marshall They had fulfilled their duty of going ‘to the Jews first’; the basis of this duty is never made absolutely clear in the New Testament, but presumably rests on the nature of Israel as the covenant people of God to whom he continued to offer his promises of salvation. Now that the Jews as a body had said no to the gospel and disqualified themselves from receiving eternal life, the missionaries were free from obligation to them and could direct their full attention to the Gentiles.

They then make references to Isaiah 49:6 which says,

Isaiah 49:6 He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

In an earlier passage in Isaiah, the servant is identified as Israel, but here the Servant has a mission TO Israel, and should therefore be identified as a person or group within Israel. Of course, early Christians saw the fulfillment in the person of Jesus, but today the mission is tasked to the followers of Jesus. Israel failed in the task of bringing salvation, Jesus took up and accomplished the task of bringing salvation, and now the Church is tasked with bringing the message of this salvation to the whole world.

Acts 13:48–49 When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region.

While some of the Jews present became jealous because of the gospel, the response of the Gentiles was to rejoice and to glorify God as they heard and believed the word given to them.

Howard Marshall Those who believed are described as those who were ordained to eternal life. The phrase indicates that not all the Gentiles in the town believed the gospel. It could be taken in the sense that God had predestined certain of them to believe. But it could also refer to those who had already put their trust in God in accordance with the Old Testament revelation of his grace and were enrolled in his people, or perhaps it means that the Gentiles believed in virtue of the fact that God’s plan of salvation included them. Whatever be the precise nuance of the words, there is no suggestion that they received eternal life independently of their own act of conscious faith.

And now because these people believed and were appointed to eternal life, the gospel, which once again the Jews tried to quiet, “was being spread through the whole region”. Those who believed went forth to share the good news so that others might believe as well, just as those who had brought the message forth to them.

Acts 13:50–52 But the Jews incited the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city, and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

There were a number of upper-class women who worshipped in the synagogues, and it was fairly common in other cities, and the Jews thought it would be good to use them to influence their husbands to instigate some kind of action against Paul and Barnabas. The goal here was to run them out of town, which was successful, but not without making one more statement before they left.

It was customary for Jews to shake off the dust of a pagan town from their feet when they returned to their own land, as a symbol of cleansing themselves from the impurity of sinners who did not worship God. So for Jews to do this to their fellow Jews was basically regarding the latter as pagan Gentiles. By shaking the dust from their feet, they were essentially telling this group of Jews that they were no longer a part of the true Israel, but were now joined with unbelievers. But even in this rough moment in their ministry, they were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit who continued to lead them to where the gospel needed to go.

NEXT WEEK: Acts 14:1-28