Ordained By God
Notes
Transcript
Acts 13:44-52
Acts 13:44-52
The next Sabbath
The next Sabbath
After hearing the Gospel in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch, many of the devout Jews and Gentiles urged Paul and Barnabas to return on the following Sabbath to tell them more.
And a crowd turned out to hear these men preach such as the Jews had never seen before for one of their gatherings.
Verse 44 says “almost the whole city” came to hear Paul preach. But the synagogue leaders were jealous because they had never had this happen for them before and they were envious. So their envy and pride caused them to do the unthinkable: they contradicted Paul and spoke blasphemies against Jesus.
Verse 46 then says Paul and Barnabas “waxed bold.” This simply means they found boldness to say the hard truth, knowing it would be taken worse than the words they had already been speaking. And that truth was the word of the Gospel was given to the Jews first by necessity: it was part of God’s plan. Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
They then said, “but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life...”
Paul (or Barnabas) is telling the Jews that by their actions and hardness of heart, they are judging themselves. Yes, God is the ultimate Judge and it is by His decree that any receive everlasting life, but the Jews are refusing mercy.
Remember John 3:16-18
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
The message of the Gospel is clear and simple: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved! It’s not improbable that Paul and Barnabas preached these very words that Jesus spoke to Nicodemus. John had not written these words yet, but it’s not unlikely that Peter and James could have shared these words with Paul and Barnabas, and Barnabas was likely living in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus and may have heard them from Jesus Himself. Nevertheless, the truth of this was undoubtably shared with the Jews in Pisidia, but they rejected it. And as Jesus said, they were condemned already. Their unbelief judged them to be remaining still in their state of condemnation. And the same is true for all men. If you do not fully trust in the saving power of Jesus Christ, you are already condemned. You do not have to do anything else to deserve or go to Hell. A lifetime of works that seem good to men is not enough to wipe away the condemnation of unbelief. And so you will perish alongside the murderers, sodomites, liars, practitioners of witchcraft, and all other vile and wicked people because God is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34), but He judges the heart (Proverbs 21:2 “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.”).
Paul continues by saying, “because you put it from you...we turn to the Gentiles.” (read verse 47)
Paul quotes Isaiah 49:6 as the verse that the Lord used to show him the calling upon his life and ministry
I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
To sum up Paul’s words in a different order: “God has called me to bring the light of salvation to the Gentiles. But first, it was necessary that I bring it to you and preach it in your synagogues so that you might be converted. Since you have rejected it and prefer to live in condemnation, I turn to the Gentiles once and for all.”
Paul will continue to preach in synagogues in different cities, because he never turns his back on his own people, but the focus of his ministry is to the Gentiles, many of whom were never converted to the religion of the Jews first.
Verse 48 opens with the Gentiles rejoicing at this proclamation by Paul.
they were overjoyed at the message of salvation
and they were excited that God had chosen to save them
their joy was not in the rejection by the Jews but in their acceptance by God
It is amazing how quickly these Gentiles are converted. Here is a multitude of people who are hearing the gospel for the very first time; not a single soul can say that they heard Grandma talk about this a long time ago, or that there was one elderly man in the village who talked about how a missionary came a lifetime ago with a message from God.
In the early 1960s, Don and Carol Richardson moved to Papua to reach the Sawi people, a tribe known for violence and treachery. When the Richardsons arrived, they thought they were bringing the gospel to a people who had never heard it before. However, as they learned the language and culture, they discovered something astonishing.
In a neighboring village, older tribesmen recounted the story of a missionary who had come many decades earlier, possibly in the early 1900s. This missionary had tried to share the gospel, but due to disease, hostility, and logistical challenges, his efforts seemed to fail and he either died or left the area. Despite this, some fragments of the message had remained—especially the name of Jesus and vague memories of "a powerful story" from a white man who spoke of peace.
When Richardson shared the full gospel, these memories resurfaced with amazement and awe among the elders. They recognized the connection between what they were now hearing and what they had heard in their youth or from their parents.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is coming to the Pisidian region for the first time IN HISTORY! And they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord! Why would so many be converted so quickly and easily?
There are two answers to this question.
The first can be found in Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The second answer is found in this phrase “as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.”
The Will of God
The Will of God
The Father had appointed these men and women to eternal life, and not in that moment, but before the foundation of the world had been set (Ephesians 1:4 “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”).
Article 6 of the First London Baptist Confession (written in 1644) that our church affirms is titled Salvation by Grace Alone and it states:
“All the elect, being loved of God with an everlasting love, are redeemed, quickened, and saved, not by themselves nor their own works, lest any man should boast; but only and wholly by God, of His own free grace and mercy; through Jesus Christ, who is made unto us by God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, and all in all, that he that rejoices might rejoice in the Lord.”
All people, and certainly God’s people, are known by Him long before they are born (Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 71:6). Life itself is one of the greatest miracles God has shown, and He reveals that each time a child is conceived. For each one of us, there are:
2 parents
4 grandparents
8 great-grandparents
16 great-great-grandparents
since the time of Noah, millions (maybe billions) of ancestors
YOU are not here by accident!
of all the wars, disease, murders, accidents and other factors that have decimated and damaged the human population since the creation of man, YOUR ancestors survived because God’s plan included YOU and YOUR salvation
Paul and Barnabas were not in Pisidian Antioch by accident!
they had endured hardship and persecution
rejection and little success
but the Holy Spirit let all that happen to lead them to Antioch because there were people there who were ordained to eternal life that needed to hear the Gospel
The Responsibility of Man
The Responsibility of Man
Article 25 of the First London Baptist Confession is titled Saving Faith Without Qualifications. The first sentence says:
The preaching of the gospel to the conversion of sinners is absolutely free, no way
requiring as absolutely necessary any qualifications, preparations, or terrors of the
law, or preceding ministry of the law
The scripture that it references for this point is found right here in Acts 13:48. One has to look no further than the Scripture itself to see that nothing about the Gentiles qualified them for salvation, but two things were necessary for salvation to occur:
God’s ordination
Man’s belief
There is a great struggle in many people’s minds over the doctrine of election. How can we be responsible for our actions and sins if our salvation is only possible when God appoints or ordains us to salvation? And how can we be condemned if God does not make salvation possible for us? For many people, the answer to this is to ignore the question entirely. You may say, “Man has free will to reject God and there’s nothing God can do about it.” Well, you may not say that out loud, but your system of belief or doctrine bears that out. However, our duty when faced with such dilemmas is not to ignore or explain away the Scripture, but to dig deeper into it to better understand it. So for the next few minutes, that is what we will do.
God’s Ordination
verse 48 says “as many as were ordained to eternal life”
in various English versions the word “ordained” has been translated as
designated
appointed
ordained
some critics of the Doctrines of Grace (commonly called Calvinism) insist this verse means to say “as many as determined to have eternal life believed”
the only way to reach this conclusion is to come with the presupposition that God does not foreordain, predestinate, or elect His people to eternal life. However, that is antithetical to the whole of Scripture
throughout Scripture, God exercises His right to choose (elect, ordain, destinate) individuals and nations for His purpose
Noah
Abraham
and through him, the nation of Israel
all of Israel was not chosen for eternal life, but to bear the Eternal One
Joseph
Moses
David
the list is too long for us to go through every name
Some who hold to a different viewpoint will argue that this choosing or ordaining by God was only for Israel insomuch that it was chosen to be blessed among the nations of the world
I read to you Ephesians 1:4 earlier, but let us go ahead and turn there and read Ephesians 1:3-14.
underline every time we see “HE” or “HIM”
circle every time we see “US” or “WE”
also, look to see who this letter is addressed to
the saints which are at Ephesus
saints are the believers, and Ephesus was not a Jewish city
this is addressed to Gentile believers
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
This passage is just one of many that explicitly outlines the reason that any person is able to come to Christ for salvation: it is by God’s own good pleasure of His will. This is known as the Grace of God: God giving us something that we do not deserve and cannot earn.
Man’s Responsibility
So the next question that often gets asked is “if God ordains some to eternal life, where does man’s responsibility come in?”
this is a valid question, especially in light of all the commands by Jesus, John, Peter, Paul, and others to “repent,” and “believe,” as well as the judgement against those who reject Him
verse 48 in our text says that “as may as were ordained to eternal life believed”
this means that all of those who were ordained believe
all those who were not ordained did not believe
even though they were ordained by God eternal life, they still had to believe
in other words, their responsibility to have faith was not absolved
yet without their ordination, they could not believe, nor would they desire to
Remember: in our natural state, we:
do not desire God
do not believe on Jesus
have no inclination to do good works
may perform what man sees as good works, but they are as filthy rags in God’s sight
Ephesians chapter 2 continues the truth about the relationship between grace (God’s will) and faith (man’s responsibility)
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
so we are saved through our faith in God that is only made possible by the grace of God
if it were by any other means, we would have a reason to boast
but God by His own good will and pleasure chose to give grace to some and not to others. That much is abundantly clear.
What is also clear is that all of mankind has a duty to obey and honor God.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
All of us have broken the law of God, and that makes us lawbreakers and blasphemers of God. But for you, your duty is to repent of your sins (that is to have a change of heart: “Repentance (metanoia, 'change of mind') involves a turning with contrition from sin to God; the repentant sinner is in the proper condition to accept the divine forgiveness.”) and believe on Jesus Christ. Be baptized in accordance with the example set forth by Jesus as the sign of the covenant with him (Acts 2:38 “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” ).
Conclusion
Conclusion
After these Gentiles in Antioch believed on the Lord, they began to spread the word of the Lord throughout the region.
Read verses 49-52
Read verses 49-52
