2022-07-10 Preaching Jesus (1): The Problematic Rupture Acts 13:13-25

PREACHING JESUS (1): THE PROBLEMATIC RUPTURE (Acts 13:13-25) July 10, 2022 Read Acts 13:13-25 - After Cyprus, Paul and his team move to the mainland to Perga. But somewhere, John Mark left - deserted, such that when it was time for the 2nd journey in Acts 15:36-40, Paul wouldn't take John - resulting in a split with Barnabas. We're not told why Mark deserted. 1) Perhaps he didn't like Paul taking command. 2) Perhaps he didn't like the emphasis on Gentiles. 3) Perhaps he feared the upcoming dangers. Perga to Pisidian Antioch was 100 miles of the dangerous Taurus mts, and flood-prone rivers, infested with bandits. 4) Paul was likely ill at this time: Gal 4:13: "You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you." Sir Wm Ramsay speculates Paul got malaria in Perga, known for such infections, and thus moved on to Antioch. Perhaps all the hardship was too much for Mark. 5) Or perhaps he was just homesick. His mother was likely a well-off widow, and John may have longed for the comforts of home. In any case he left. So, Paul rejected him for the 2nd journey. But in his final imprisonment in Rome, Paul wrote Timothy, II Tim 4:11: "Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me in ministry." God is the God of second chances. Like He promised Israel when calling them to repent in Joel 2:25: "I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you." If you think you failed and it's over, look at Joel; look at Mark. In any case, P&B arrive in Pisidian Antioch (different from the Antioch they started from). They go to the synagogue, sit thru the reading.Then, during a break, "the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them saying, 'Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it'" (15b). It was common for a visiting rabbi, like Paul, to be asked to explain a Scripture reading. In this case, "word of encouragement" was a drastic understatement. They had staggeringly good news about the fulfillment of all that had been read. And they were only too willing to share it. It's why they were there. So, Paul begins a 3- part sermon, each introduced by a phrase like "Men of Israel" (16) or "brothers" (26, 38). Jesus, of course, is the central theme and we might well call the three parts: I. Jesus: The Focus of History (16-25) II. Jesus: The Fulfillment of Prophecy (26-37) and III. Jesus: The Forgiver of Sinners (38-41). It is the staggering story of God entering human history as Jesus of Nazareth. We'll examine the 1st part today and the other 2 next week. I. Jesus: The Focus of History (16-25) Jean-Paul Sartre in Nausea wrote: "I always knew I had no 'right' to exist at all. I appeared by chance and existed like a microbe. So, we eat and drink to preserve our precious existence, and there's absolutely no reason for existing." That's despair! Yet if you really believe there is no God and mankind has just sort of evolved with no meaning or purpose, Sartre deserves credit for facing the desperate implications of his worldview. Yet, even he doesn't really believe it. Something inside insists his existence is precious. Naturalism can't explain such feelings. But God does. That's the focus of the first part of Paul's sermon. History has a purpose, and the focal point of it all is a person - one extraordinary man whose life was so compelling that everything before pointed forward to Him and everything after points back to Him. It all centers in JC, sent by the Father to save us. A. History Demonstrates the Faithfulness of God Paul's review of history is God-centered. God chose (17); God made great (17); God led (17); God put up with (18); God destroyed 7 nations (19); God gave the land (19); God gave judges (20); God gave Samuel (20); God gave Saul (21); God removed Saul (22); God raised up David (22); God brought a Savior (23). A grace-filled God is involved every step of the way. At the time of the first sin, God promised a redeemer in Gen 3:15 - a seed of the woman who would defeat Satan. From the start, history had a purpose. At one point, God destroyed the whole world by flood, finding only one believing family. But human nature soon took over again; corruption became rampant; belief in God was replaced by human wisdom and the seed was in danger. So, by pure grace, God called a moon-worshipping polytheist named Abram, and made a covenant with Him. It was pure grace. There was nothing in Abram to recommend him above anyone else. But God chose him. Paul says, "God chose our fathers" - Abe, Isaac and Jacob. Paul's audience knew Jacob prophesied that the seed would come thru his son Judah, and God preserved him alive by sending Joseph on ahead to Egypt where he spearheaded efforts to combat a severe famine. The story of Joseph is about many things, but it is mainly about preserving the line of Judah thru whom the seed must come. Jacob's descendants became slaves in Egypt, but God delivered them and protected them thru 40 years in the desert. Then He got them into Canaan where He defeated 7 nations greater than them - the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites (Deut 7:1). Thru 450 years of political and spiritual ups and downs, God protected them until the time of a great prophet, Samuel. But I Sam 8:19-20: "But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, "No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." They want a king like everyone else. So God gives them Saul of the tribe of Benjamin, not the tribe of Judah. Why the wrong tribe? God's grace again, showing that looks and power aren't everything. When Saul fails, God unveils a man after His own heart - David - who is of the tribe of Judah. When David wants to build a house for God's presence, God says, "No, you're too bloody for that. You won't build me a house - but I'll built you a house." II Sam 7: 12 "When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. . . . 16) And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever." Solomon partially fulfilled that, but he was not forever! So, Paul jumps all the way to Jesus: "23 Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised." That would have startled Paul's audience. Jesus - who is this Jesus? They know the others, but Jesus? So, Paul mentions John the Baptist, who was well known to this Jewish audience -- more famous than Jesus for a time. But great as he was, he himself knew he was nothing beside Jesus. "I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie." Paul's point is God directed history to a focal point in Jesus. The seed came. God is faithful. It's easy to miss God's faithfulness. His ways are so different from ours, it often seems He's lost His way - at least as relates to us. But not so. Lincoln was with his cabinet one day when a strange knock came on the door. Three quick wraps; then 2 slow wraps. Lincoln opened to his son Tad, 10. Tad had learned the secret code at the War Department. Abe said, "I promised never to go back on the code, no matter how important the meeting." He never did. Neither does God! Psalm 100:5: "For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations." He never fails! B. History Demonstrates the Faithlessness of Man But if God is faithful; we're not. Our basic bent is rebellion against a gracious Creator, even when His goodness is front and center, as so often in Jewish history. God created Israel, made them great and delivered them from slavery in Egypt, and put up with them for 40 years in the wilderness. Yet, after all His goodness, their complaints drove God to wipe out a whole generation before they entered the promised land. Then came repeated cycles of turning from God, worshiping idols, being overtaken by warring tribes, being rescued by God's judges only to repeat the cycle all over again. Seldom did reverence for God last more than one generation, and the period of judges was marked by incremental moral decline, even in the lives of the judges. Samuel was a breath of fresh air, but Israel wanted a king - to be like their neighbors. Saul proved a great failure, so God raised up David. But even that man after God's own heart, became entangled in adultery and murder. Yet when he offered heartfelt repentance, God forgave and cleansed his heart. But all of history recounts God's faithfulness and man's faithlessness. History began with man in a perfect environment - every need supplied. Yet Adam and Eve fell for the Temper's lie. Then comes the end of history in Rev 20. Satan is bound and Jesus reigns in perfect conditions for 1,000 years. But look what happens: Rev 20:7 "And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth . . . 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them." History is bookended with man in rebellion, even in perfect conditions. This is a sobering lesson. God's faithfulness is all around. Every morning the sun comes up, crops grow, we know not how. We have jobs and health and the ability to enjoy life. Yet we take it all for granted. Were it not for God choosing some based on the atoning death of Jesus, no one would ever be saved. God's faithful; we're not! C. History Culminates in the Faithful God-Man So why preach Jesus? Bc there's a problematic rupture in the relationship between God and man. God has been faithful; man has not. Paul's got a solution. 23 "Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised." This was an amazing statement to Paul's audience. God's faithfulness had at long last revealed itself in human form in a humble carpenter from Galilee. Really?! But while everything from His parentage to His upbringing to His occupation suggested nothing out of the ordinary, this Jesus was, in fact, the most extraordinary man who ever lived. He alone of all men was faithful, not faithless. He alone of all men was sinless, not sinful. He alone was not just man, but God in human flesh. He alone was the promised seed. He alone was the focal point of history. Jesus is the culmination of a faithful God's plan to save a faithless humanity. A Savior has come to save us from Satan, sin, death and even ourselves. Prior to Jesus was born, an angel assured Joseph that Mary's conception was indeed a work of the HS. Then Mt 1:21: "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." The promised seed has arrived by divine intervention. A play on words emphasizes the point. "Jesus" in Aramaic is Jeshua (as in Hebrew); "to save" is yasa. Thus Joseph is told, "His name will be called Jeshua for he will yasa his people." How would He do that? By sage advice? By political conquest? No, the need went far deeper than that. The mission was to pay the penalty for the sin of the world, for "the wages of sin is death". Jesus knew that. Mark 10:45: "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Of all the men who ever lived, only Jesus could do that. This Savior had to be a man in order to die. He had to be sinless so that He could die for others, not Himself. And He had to be God to make the payment of infinite value. And there He is - Jesus, the promised Savior of the world. Conc - God's view of history is this: A faithful God has provided to a faithless race a faithful Savior who "is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God thru him" (Heb 7:25). Have you drawn near to Him? English humanist, Marghanita Laski, said on her deathbed in 1988, "What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me." What a tragedy, for she did have someone to forgive her had she just asked. He's the purpose of history, available to all who will come. D. L. Moody saw a man in Brooklyn one day who had no arms. A friend said he'd been engaged to be married when the CW broke out. He enlisted and often exchanged letters with his beloved. After the Battle of the Wilderness, she waited eagerly for a letter; it came in a strange hand. It said, "We have fought a terrible battle. I was wounded so badly I shall never be able to support you. A friend writes this for me. I love you more tenderly than ever, but I release you from your promise. I will not ask you to join your life with my maimed life." That letter was never answered. Instead the young woman was on the next train. She found his hospital, then found his cot and hurrying over threw her arms around his neck and said: "I'll never desert you. I'll take care of you." The friend said he knew no happier couple. For that to happen, that man had to accept his condition, had to accept her unconditional love, had to believe what she said and believe she'd do it - believe in her! So, we must accept that Jesus loved, that He died in our place, will forgive our maimed condition, and cleanse us if we but come to Him. The promised Savior has come. Now the decision is ours - accept or reject. Let's pray. DONE 7