Sermon Tone Analysis
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Scripture Reading (Carrie Stapleton)
Acts 13:42–52 (CSB)
42 As they were leaving, the people urged them to speak about these matters the following Sabbath.
43 After the synagogue had been dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and urging them to continue in the grace of God.
44 The following Sabbath almost the whole town assembled to hear the word of the Lord.
45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what Paul was saying, insulting him.
46 Paul and Barnabas boldly replied, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first.
Since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we are turning to the Gentiles.
47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us:
‘I have made you
a light for the Gentiles
to bring salvation
to the ends of the earth.’”
48 When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and honored the word of the Lord, and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed.
49 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.
50 But the Jews incited the prominent God-fearing women and the leading men of the city.
They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their district.
51 But Paul and Barnabas shook the dust off their feet against them and went to Iconium.
52 And the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.
Introduction (Gray)
Have you ever gone to a big sporting event, a Panther’s game or college football game, where you arrived late?
Walking up you hear the crowd erupt in a mixture of cheers and boos.
You run to get inside to see what happened, to ask the people sitting next to you, or to pull it up on your phone and watch the replay.
Our passage today is the response of the crowd.
Listening to the passage is like walking on the outside of the stadium and hearing the eruption of cheers and boos.
What’s happening?
Here’s the context: **QUICKKKKK!!!
Crowd gathered in Pisidian Antioch.
Not the Antioch we’ve read about before in Acts, which is “home base” for the early church’s missionary movement.
The key actors here are the Apostle Paul and Barnabas.
Barnabas had gone to Paul’s home of Tarsus hunting for him, because he wanted him to go with him on this missionary journey.
Barnabas is the “Son of Encouragement.”
Where would we be if Barnabas wouldn’t have gone to hunt for Paul?
Paul - who spread the Gospel throughout the entire Western world of the day?
Paul - who inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote 16 of the 26 books found in our New Testaments?
Do you have a Barnabas in your life?
Who could you be a Barnabas to?
You never know the outcome.
Paul and Barnabas go on what scholars now refer to as Paul’s First Missionary Journey.
He had three journeys.
This one led him mostly through the region of modern day Turkey, which was then a Roman province known as Galatia.
He travels from city to city, preaching the Gospel in the local synagogues where the Jews gather to worship.
Makes his way to the city in view here: Pisidian Antioch.
The capital of Galatia.
The most influential city in the region.
Here, Paul preaches his first recorded sermon in all of Scripture.
I remember my first sermon.
It’s not recorded anywhere for anyone to ever hear again.
But Paul’s is recorded for the world to read for all millennia, inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Acts 13:16-41 records his sermon.
Our passage in focus today highlights the response to this sermon.
Here are the questions we need to answer:
What did Paul say in his sermon that elicited the response we read about in verses 42-52?
Why did his message make some people want to kill him, and other people rejoice?
And is there any relevance to that message - or the response of the Jews and Gentiles - to our lives today?
Today I’m going to walk you through three truths we see in this passage.
The first has to do with the content of Paul’s message - the gospel.
The last two have to do with the responses that come from his message.
As you’ll see, I think these truths have relevance even for us sitting here today, several thousands of miles and years after the fact.
1.
The Gospel is the good news of God’s grace.
Acts 13:42-43
42 As they were leaving, the people urged them to speak about these matters the following Sabbath.
43 After the synagogue had been dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and urging them to continue in the grace of God.
What we find is that “the grace of God” is the main takeaway from his message.
Here’s Paul’s message in 60 seconds....
....
Then he said these words, which are the crux of his entire message:
Acts 13:38-39
38 Therefore, let it be known to you, brothers and sisters, that through this man (Jesus) forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you.
39 Everyone who believes is justified through him from everything that you could not be justified from through the law of Moses.
The heart of Paul’s message is that God will graciously forgive us of our sins and free us from the power of sin by justifying us through if we place our faith in Jesus Christ.
What does this mean?!
——
Justification by Faith defined
Justification is a legal term - God as Judge declares us to be right in His sight.
Two parts of justification:
1 - God forgives us of our sins.
God declares that we have no penalty to pay for sin, including past, present, and future sins.
Become morally neutral, but needing positive righteousness.
2 - God gives us Jesus’s righteousness.
Jesus led a life of perfect obedience to God.
He never once sinned, though he was tempted as we all are.
He always loved God and his neighbor perfectly.
Think about justification by faith like it’s your personal finances:
Think about sin like debt.
Justification by faith says that when you trust in Jesus - you believe in Him, his death for your sins, and his resurrection, and give your life to Him - he forgives all of your debt.
Past, present, and future.
Not only that, but he gives you access to a new debit card.
It’s a card with endless supply of money, so that should you ever get in bind because you still fall into sin, your bank kicks in an instant transfer to cover the debt.
No matter what you do, your future debts (or sins) are covered.
How amazing would that be if someone offered you that for your personal finances?
God has offered you that in Christ for your eternal salvation.
Think of the things that keep you up at night.
The decisions you’ve made, the regret or shame you carry, the motivations in your heart that make you cringe.
That - all of that and more - the Creator God looks at you and says, “Completely clean!
No sin here!”
On what basis?
—> On the basis of our faith in Jesus.
God is so effusively gracious that he actually wants to forgive us.
He actually wants to freely offer us this forgiveness and righteousness.
The gift of grace is there and available to us, if only we will trust in Christ.
We give him our sin, he gives us his life, his righteousness.
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