Preaching That Doesn't Miss the Mark

[0:00] I'm going to start my next class for my doctorate on the 16th.

[0:15] One of the books I'm reading for that class deals exactly with what we see here in Paul's sermon. It's a book about biblical theology. Biblical theology and theology are related, but they're different.

[0:30] So theology looks at what all of Scripture has to say about a certain subject. So theology about salvation or the Holy Spirit or the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

[0:42] But biblical theology looks at each text throughout the Bible and sees how it ties back to Christ. So the Bible is 66 books, but it's really one book about one person, that person being Jesus.

[0:57] In the Old Testament, everything points to the fact that we are sinners and we need a Savior. And Jesus is that one who is going to come. In the New Testament, we see that Christ has come and how he has atoned for our sins.

[1:10] And through him, we're able to be saved for faith in what he has done for us. And then we see the rest of God's revelation regarding the end times and what we can look forward to.

[1:26] And we are living in the last days. I mean, we don't know how many of these last days there will be. There's been a lot. There could be more or maybe not.

[1:37] But all of the Bible has Jesus as its subject. And you can look in the Old Testament and you can find all of this foreshadowing and all of these promises and this revelation that God is progressively revealing that he is going to send this promised Messiah.

[1:55] And so with where we're at tonight, Paul and Barnabas are continuing their missionary journey. And they are brought to the synagogue.

[2:10] They go to the synagogue and Paul is asked to preach. And so we'll examine his sermon and see that what he's doing is going back to Israel's history and the Old Testament scriptures and showing his listeners that everything that has happened has been pointing towards this promised Messiah who has come, who has fulfilled scripture, and in whom and only through whom we are able to be saved.

[2:40] What I think is great about the Bible, of course, and there's many great things about it, is that we have sermons. We have sermons that Jesus preached.

[2:52] We have sermons that Peter preached. We have sermons that Stephen preached. And now here we have the first recorded sermon that Paul preached.

[3:03] And it's right here in Acts chapter 13. We know from Paul that preaching was something that he viewed as being very important.

[3:15] We know from his own personal testimony that he was called by God and compelled by God to preach. In 1 Corinthians 9, 16, he said, For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast.

[3:29] Since I am compelled to preach, woe is me if I do not preach. So again, he had a high view of preaching and was compelled to preach because he understood how important preaching was, which he says in Romans 10, 4.

[3:43] How then can they call on the one that they have not believed? And how can they believe in the one whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? Paul commanded other men who were called to ministry to preach and to prioritize their preaching.

[4:01] In 2 Timothy 4, 2, he encourages Timothy, He encouraged Timothy and other young men called to ministry to preach, and he also encouraged them to preach the right way, to preach truth that was sound doctrinally and that was preached with authority.

[4:29] So in Titus 2, 15, he encouraged Titus, These then are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you. Now, I think that we've seen a shift for some time, and especially today, in many churches who prioritize pastors and their personalities or their abilities to tell good stories or to share funny jokes.

[5:00] And I've seen churches prioritize those attributes over that man's ability to preach the Word. A long time ago, back when I was seminary, I remember looking at the job board, and there's this one church that said that the pastor had to have an outgoing personality.

[5:23] That was the first thing that they mentioned. And it's like, well, you know, we can look at Scripture and see that there's a lot of men God used that didn't have such an outgoing personality. Moses being one that comes to mind, you know, God, don't use me, I can't talk very well.

[5:35] And we see a lot of guys that were, you know, sometimes they're a little bit grumpy, right? And they were a little bit more kept to themselves, yet God used them in powerful ways. But we see that, I think, especially in those who are on TV.

[5:48] They tend to be men with big personalities who are entertaining. And oftentimes what people look for when they listen to a pastor or join a church is, you know, how entertaining are their sermons?

[6:04] They may not say it that way, but that's really what they're talking about. I want somebody who tells funny stories and good jokes that makes me laugh or that make me feel better about myself. So it shouldn't come to us as a surprise that many Christians don't know their Bibles all that well when they follow that kind of teaching because they aren't really being fed the Word of God.

[6:27] If we want to see revival, though, if we want to see revival, if we want to see God powerfully at work in our churches, then we need to stress the importance of developing men who can rightly handle the Word of God and who can help others rightly handle the Word of God.

[6:46] It was the preaching of God's Word, after all, if you remember, that gave birth to the church on the day of Pentecost. It was Peter who stood up and preached.

[6:57] And then we know it was the preaching of the gospel by Philip that led to its spreading from Jerusalem into Samaria. And now we see as the gospel continues to spread around the world, it's preaching.

[7:13] That's the vessel. That's the thing God uses to spread the gospel far and to spread it wide. So Paul and Barnabas, if you recall from last Wednesday, they visited the island of Cyprus and they preached there.

[7:29] And if you recall in the last verse that we left off on, that John Mark departed from them, he had deserted them. Later on, we'll see that he'll be restored.

[7:39] But before we get there, we won't get there in this study, but we know later on in Paul's life that he encourages John Mark to come to him because he's a good helper.

[7:50] But at this point, John Mark has fled the scene. And we will see in Acts that that caused a rift between Barnabas and Paul that would see them going their separate ways in ministry.

[8:04] So that has just happened. Not that Paul and Barnabas have separated. They're still together. But John Mark has said, see you later. I'm going home. Right now, this is too much for me.

[8:16] So now in verse 14, we see that their missionary journey continues and they continue to go as the Lord commanded them to make disciples by preaching the gospel.

[8:29] And that has brought them to Antioch in Pisidia. This was not the same Antioch that was located in Syria, which was the church that sent out Paul and Barnabas.

[8:42] This is an Antioch that was located in Asia Minor. And so in verse 14, we see Paul doing what would become his custom, which is when he would get to arrive in a new town or a new region.

[8:55] He would go to the synagogue first. And that's what he did here. He found the synagogue in Antioch in Pisidia. And it says there that he went and he sat down. Paul, we know from his writings, especially in Romans, had a great love for his countrymen.

[9:12] He desired that his people would come to salvation in Jesus Christ, that they would see and know that Jesus is the Messiah that had been long promised and through whom, and again, only through whom anyone is able to be saved.

[9:29] And so in verse 15, it says, after the reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them saying, brothers, if you have any word of encouragement to the people, say it.

[9:41] So it's helpful for us to understand that in first century synagogues, they would often read something from the law, the first five books of the Old Testament, and then something from the prophets.

[9:57] And then oftentimes there would be a rabbi maybe visiting, coming or going from town to town, and who was there that day, who then they would encourage to come up and explain what they just read, which is preaching, isn't it?

[10:15] And so Paul, as we know, was a rabbi. And that's what his profession was. He was a Pharisee before he was converted by Christ.

[10:27] And not only was he a Pharisee, if you remember, he says, I was the Pharisee of Pharisee. I had everything that you would ever want. I had the pedigree that people coveted. And he was taught by Gamaliel, who was a well-known and well-respected rabbi.

[10:40] So maybe, I don't know, they could have been aware that, hey, this guy, by the way he's talking, by the way he's introducing himself, or just by his body language, or maybe he even told them, or they knew something about him, here's a rabbi who has quite the pedigree.

[10:59] We wonder what you might have to say about what has been read. Whatever the case was, we do know that this was the Holy Spirit's doing. This was a divine appointment ordained by God to put Paul and Barnabas in this synagogue at this time, opening a doorway for them to preach the gospel.

[11:20] And that's what they did. So in verses 16 and 17, that's what Paul did. It says, Paul stood up and motioning with his hands, that's just a way to get the audience's attention, said men of Israel, that refers to those Jews who were present, and Jew who fear God.

[11:39] And there he's referring to the Gentiles who had become Jewish proselytes, who had become Jews. And so he addresses both groups that were in that crowd, and he asked them to listen.

[11:52] So Paul was about to say something that was of the utmost importance. And so he began by making sure that he had his audience's attention and that they would listen. Paul's sermon established a great blueprint for what our preaching and what our teaching in the church should look like.

[12:12] And again, we're talking about here biblical theology. The Bible is about Jesus. He is the main subject. Everything is pointing to him. Every passage reveals God's progressive revelation of the one who would come and the one who would set us free from sin's curse.

[12:31] So the main idea for this study tonight is that there are three components, three components in Paul's sermon that should characterize our preaching and our teaching today.

[12:47] And so I encourage you that as you listen to me preach or when we have Willard preach or Tom preach or anyone from our church preach here or whoever you listen to on the radio or whoever you listen to on TV or YouTube, look for these components and see are they preaching in a way that matches how sermons were preached in the Bible, especially right here in this occasion in Acts chapter 13.

[13:17] So the first component of Paul's preaching is he made sure that they knew that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Jesus is the promised Messiah. In these verses, Paul presents Jesus as the culmination of history and God as the divine orchestrator of history, revealing what God has done in promising and in preparing the world for the coming of his son.

[13:47] Many people today express fear over the future. And there's lots of things that people are afraid of right now. They're afraid of climate change or COVID or the potential for nuclear war.

[14:01] Even I remember recently, our government was going to release information about UFOs and they did. And I remember there was some fear about, oh, we're going to find out that there's a secret alien invasion going on of some sort or something like that.

[14:16] But we find all kinds of things to be afraid of, don't we? To them, history is moving towards an uncertain end. They're not sure how it is going to all play out.

[14:28] And so they fear what that end will be and they fear when that end will come. I think that there is an element about a purposeless history, however, and an uncertain future that they enjoy.

[14:43] So it's strange. People are weird. We are afraid of the future, yet people don't want to believe in the God who exists because they want to have and feel freedom that there's not going to be any kind of future judgment.

[15:00] And so they can live their present however they want because in their minds, if there is no God, then existence is without purpose. And if the future is without, if the future is uncertain, then that gives us liberty and freedom to do whatever we want in the present without fear of having to answer to anyone in the end.

[15:23] It's that attitude that says, you know, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we will die. Francis Schaeffer, the great Christian theologian said, removing God from the picture reduces man to a chance configuration of atoms in the slipstream of meaningless chance history.

[15:42] That characterizes the way a lot of unbelievers feel that we're just here by chance, that there's nothing special about us. Life has no purpose or meaning.

[15:54] We don't know where or how things are going to end, where history is taking us. And so no wonder we have not only people living their lives so sinfully without fear of having to answer for that before God, but who also are depressed.

[16:17] And we know, especially in our country, that the rates of depression are skyrocketing. And COVID has something to do with that because we're made for community and when we're isolated, I think people realize that, you know, it's not so fun to be alone with yourself.

[16:36] Even though we have social media and all these different things, it's not the same and it's bad for us. And if people don't see any meaning or purpose in life, then eventually they're going to ask the question, well, what purpose is there for me?

[16:50] And especially if they don't think they have anyone to answer to after this life is over. But the Bible tells us that history isn't without purpose. And the Bible tells us that history is heading somewhere.

[17:02] And everyone in Paul's audience that day who had possession of the Old Testament scriptures knew that their history was as God's chosen people. And they understood from the scriptures that they had that their history was moving towards the coming of a Messiah who would establish a kingdom that would have no end, who would undo sin's curse and who would restore mankind's lost peace with God.

[17:31] And we have now, us, have been blessed to have the complete record and account of God's revelation in His Word.

[17:41] We know that Jesus has come. We know that Jesus has fulfilled many of those promises recorded in our Bibles.

[17:51] And we know that He is coming again. And we know that when He comes again, He will establish a millennial reign on earth, which will eventually culminate with the establishment of a new heavens and a new earth in which He will be eternally ruling and there will be no sin and there will be peace and bliss and happiness and joy forever and ever and ever.

[18:17] But Paul begins here by showing how Jesus is this promised Messiah that their scriptures had pointed to. And so he begins his sermon with God's providential care for Israel throughout Israel's past history.

[18:33] So in the beginning of verse 17, as He's addressing them and preaching to them, He said, the God of this people, Israel, chose our Father. So right off the bat, He's making them aware of the fact that God is in control of history.

[18:46] He is in control of all things. He's in control of our history. He sovereignly chose Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, not because of anything special about them, not even because they were good men, but because it was His sovereign choice to do so.

[19:05] And it was with these men that God established His covenant. And at the conclusion of the age of these men, the patriarchs, Paul continues on by saying that God made these people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.

[19:23] So now he's moving a little bit forward to the time where the people were brought into Egypt while Joseph was still alive and they prospered there. And he's reminding them that again, it was God who sovereignly saved His people from starvation, from the famine that was existing.

[19:42] That it was God who was sovereignly orchestrating those events. Remember, it was Joseph's brothers. It was Joseph who said to his brothers, you meant this for evil, but God meant it for good.

[19:54] And so in Egypt, we know for a time that God's people prospered and they grew in number and they were safe for a time. And then Paul continues, and with uplifted arm, he led them out of Egypt.

[20:09] And that's what he says at the conclusion of verse 17. So now again, he's reminding his listeners that God is sovereign and he's reminding them there of His sovereign power, how He was the one who miraculously orchestrated and empowered the events that led to His people being led out of Egypt, no longer being under bondage to the Egyptians.

[20:36] After that, Paul continues on in verse 18 talking about their exodus. And for about 40 years, He put up with them in the wilderness. Now that word in the Greek for put up with them can also be translated, He cared for them.

[20:51] But however your Bible translates that word, both of those things are true, aren't they? God did put up with them and God did care for them.

[21:02] God provided for them physically with the manna that came down from heaven, if you remember, or was collected on the ground, I should say, and that they ate.

[21:13] He gave them the law to be governed by. He gave them the promises of what He would do and He continued to remind them that. He told them that He would give them a promised land and He brought them there and even when they rebelled against Him, He brought them back and eventually gave them that land.

[21:30] And throughout that time, people, His people, continually grumbled and rebelled and sinned against God, though He had saved them, though He had cared for them.

[21:42] But even though they rebelled against God time and time again, and even though they grumbled about God time and time again, we know that God still cared for them. And He endured with them.

[21:56] And He did so because He had a plan for them. They were going to play a key role in His sending His Son to save people from their sins.

[22:09] Then after their wilderness wandering, God brought up the next generation of Israelites to take possession of the land He promised. And that's where Paul goes to next in verses 19 through 20.

[22:20] And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, He gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years. So again, Paul has very quickly covered about 450 years and more, when we're counting the time of the patriarchs, of how God has been sovereign, how God has been in control, how God has been good, how God has been promising them this Messiah who would come.

[22:46] But notice, there in those verses, who Paul gives the credit to for Israel's victories. You know, we know that it was Joshua, right, who was the leader of those conquests where the people were taking possession of the promised land.

[23:02] But Paul doesn't mention Joshua. He doesn't say, you know, and God raised up Joshua, a man who was mighty and a great military leader, and it was through Joshua that that land was conquered, even though part of that is true.

[23:15] But ultimately, we know that without God, Joshua wouldn't have been able to do anything. That Joshua was God's chosen instrument, and Israel achieved their freedom and acquired the promised land, not because of who they were and what they did, but because God was on their side.

[23:32] Because God was the one doing it through them. God is always the achiever. When we get to heaven, we're not going to stand before God and say, well, you did a lot, but I did some.

[23:43] You know, He is the achiever in all things, not us. When someone is saved, we don't say, so-and-so saved me. You know, think of the person who shared the gospel with you.

[23:55] You don't say that person saved you. You might say something like, well, it was so-and-so who shared the gospel with me and I was saved, but you don't give credit to that person for being the one who saved you.

[24:08] Who do you give the credit to? It was God who saved me and God saved me through this chosen servant of His at that time who shared the good news with me of what God has done through Jesus Christ to save me from my sins.

[24:24] But again, throughout that 450-year period, God showed His sovereign power, His care, His faithfulness to His people. But even though God had been so good to His people, we know that once they took possession of the promised land, they continued to be unfaithful to Him.

[24:39] And so, in verse 20, Paul preaches and he says that God gave them judges who were deliverers until Samuel the prophet. Samuel was Israel's last judge and anointed, if you remember, Saul to serve as Israel's first king, which Paul goes into talking about in verse 21.

[25:01] Then they asked for a king. Why did they ask for a king? Remember? Remember? Because they were rebelling against God as their king. They wanted a king like the nations around them.

[25:14] And God told them, through Samuel, it's going to be really bad for you. This king is going to take from you. He's going to steal from you. He's going to impress you. These kings, are you sure that that's what you really want?

[25:25] Then that's what you will have. And so God, we know, gave them Saul, whose outward appearance was great. He looked very kingly, but we know inwardly his character was rotten.

[25:38] Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled over them for 40 years. It's interesting to note here that Paul, so Paul, his Jewish name is Saul, right?

[25:51] And Paul was his Gentile name. I think that's part of how he became all things to all people. And so, yet we know that Paul is Saul, and he shares the same name as this king.

[26:05] And so likely, very likely, Saul was named Saul by his parents in honor of this King Saul. Not only that, but Paul was also of the tribe of Benjamin, like King Saul was.

[26:19] But those are where the similarities they share come to an end, because we know that Paul was an obedient servant of God. But Saul wasn't. Saul was prideful, if you remember.

[26:31] He was selfish. He was disobedient. He defied God's explicit instructions when he saw his people getting scared and leaving the battlefield.

[26:43] And so he made the sacrifices instead of waiting for Samuel. And if you remember in that moment, that was the downfall of his kingdom, even though God graciously allowed him to rule for a while longer.

[26:58] In verse 22, Paul says, And when he had been removed, he raised up David to be their king. So again, if you remember, Samuel was commanded to go to the house of Jesse, where there, God would reveal to him Israel's next king.

[27:13] And Jesse had quite a few sons. And as Samuel was looking at some of them and thought, certainly this is the guy, certainly this is the guy, and none of them were the guy. Do you have anybody else that you can show me?

[27:25] Yeah, I got my little wiry, rugged boy out in the shepherd field that I can bring in. And that's who it was that God had chosen to be his next king over his people.

[27:39] Again, it wasn't anything about David that was special, just that he was God's chosen instrument. Though he was overlooked, David was different.

[27:51] And so Paul continues on in verse 22, of whom he testified and said, I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart who will do my will.

[28:02] And you know, David is an interesting person in the Bible because he's characterized as being a man after God's heart, own heart.

[28:13] But we know some things about David, don't we? That his life was marked by moments of tremendous failure and egregious sin, committing adultery, committing murder to cover it up, at times being a coward and not a very good leader, oftentimes not being a very good father.

[28:34] And he paid the price as did his nation for that many times. But I think what we need to understand is that a man after God's own heart is not a perfect man. We're not perfect people.

[28:46] Only Jesus is perfect. A man who is after God's own heart is a man who sees his sin for what it is and repents for it. And that's what we see time and time again in David, don't we? Even though he failed and he failed hard, that he repeatedly repented of those sins.

[29:04] He realized that he had sinned against God and he truly was remorseful and repentant over them. And we've got many of his psalms where his prayers and his words of repentance are recorded for us.

[29:20] Because again, at his core, David had a desire to do God's will. He was convicted and God disciplined him when he went astray. But ultimately, David serves as another reminder to us of how we all fall short of the glory of God and how as good of a king as David was, he had many faults and failures.

[29:47] And that should tell us that, you know what, we need a better king. And if David's a good king and he had all of those shortcomings, we need a much better king than that.

[29:58] And the Old Testament, again, continually pointed to a better king who would come and that better king would be the king of kings.

[30:08] So the second component now of preaching that doesn't miss the mark is to explain and to show how Jesus has fulfilled prophecy.

[30:19] How Jesus has fulfilled prophecy. So again, not only does Old Testament history point to Jesus, so does Old Testament prophecy. Jesus is the seed of the woman who bruised the serpent's head in Genesis 3.15.

[30:35] He was the virgin-born son whose name was God with us, recorded in Isaiah 7.14. He was the wonderful counselor, the mighty God of Isaiah 9.6. Micah 5.2 foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and we know that Jesus was.

[30:51] The promised Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham as Genesis 12.2-3 say. Jacob, Jesse, and David would be ones whom the Messiah descended from as well in Numbers 24.17.

[31:07] Isaiah 11.1 and Jeremiah 23.5 and 2 Samuel 7 tell us that. Psalm 110.4 predicted that the Messiah would be a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

[31:20] And Jesus was, as Hebrews 6.20 says. Centuries before Jesus' incarnation, Zechariah 9.9 said that the Messiah would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey where we'll be this coming Sunday.

[31:33] So I encourage you to come, right? And to sit up close because it'll be good. Are you going to bring in a donkey? Maybe. Maybe.

[31:43] If that will entertain you. If that will get you... If that will get you... I'm working on my jokes and my donkeys and we're going to get a lot of people in church on Sunday. Psalm 41.9 predicted that Judas would betray the Messiah.

[32:00] And Zechariah 11.12 predicted the exact amount that he would be betrayed for. The fulfillment of these prophecies and many more provide us with overwhelming proof that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the one whom God said would come.

[32:17] Verse 23 now back in Paul's sermon in chapter 13 of Acts is a transition point in his message. He's transitioning here from Israel's history which pointed to the Messiah's coming and now to the prophetic fulfillment that his arrival achieved.

[32:40] In verse 23 he says, Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior and now he tells them who is this Messiah, who is the Savior that was promised.

[32:50] His name is Jesus. The first prophecy Paul mentioned was that of Jesus' forerunner in the next verses talking about John the Baptist.

[33:03] And again, there's a prophecy there. We know back in Isaiah 40 verses 3 through 5 it told us who the forerunner of the Messiah would be or described his ministry.

[33:14] It says there, a voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make straight in the desert a highway for our God every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill shall be made low the uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plain and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

[33:40] Not only that, Malachi 3.1 recorded God saying of him behold, I send my messenger John the Baptist and he will prepare the way for you and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight behold, he is coming says the Lord of hosts.

[34:00] So again, those prophecies were fulfilled in John the Baptist which Paul talks about in verses 24 and 25. Before his coming John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel and as John was finishing his course he said, what do you suppose that I am?

[34:17] Am I not he? No, but behold, after me is one coming whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. And if you recall as well, Jesus had great things to say about John the Baptist in Matthew 11.

[34:31] He said, truly I say to you among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

[34:41] What made John so great was his proximity to Jesus' ministry and his being the final prophet in preparation of the Messiah's coming and he was humble in his service.

[34:55] When he sees Jesus come he doesn't think oh darn you know my church was getting big and now my people are leaving. What does he say? He must increase I must decrease.

[35:09] He's great for that reason as well. John's ministry would have been known to Paul's hearers because when we get to Acts chapter 19 verses 1 through 3 we're informed that John the Baptist had followers in that region and so they realized that this John was a great man.

[35:30] This was a prophet who declared Jesus as the fulfillment of his ministry. Then in verse 26 we see that Paul's sermon has reached an important point that he doesn't want his listeners to miss and so he readdresses them there so that they don't miss what he's about to say.

[35:48] In verse 26 he says brothers son of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear God to us has been sent the message of this salvation. So again what Paul is about to say next provides information about who this Savior is and that he's Jesus and what he's going to do is anticipate and answer in anticipation of two questions that he thinks that his listeners would have at this point regarding what he has already said.

[36:22] Their first question would have been maybe something like this if Jesus is the Messiah that history has promised as you've said then why did our leaders not recognize him and fail to receive him for who he truly was?

[36:42] And so Paul gave the same answer to them that if you remember Stephen gave in his sermon it was because the hardness of their hearts and he explains that in verse 27 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.

[37:06] And so this should be something that concerns us. You know the Pharisees and the Sadducees they knew the scriptures and you can know the scriptures and you can even have them memorized but still not truly know them if you know what I mean.

[37:24] Not truly know what they are about. And so we know the thing about the Pharisees was that they were moralists and they were trying to teach people to be a better person by following all of these rules so that God will love you and so that God will save you.

[37:43] But that's not the gospel. That isn't the gospel. That's anti-gospel. The gospel says that God loves you and God saves you by himself and for himself not based upon your works or how good you were before he saved you.

[38:04] So that was the first question. The second question that would have potentially formulated in their minds was that if Jesus the Messiah was rejected does that nullify God's plan?

[38:15] Is it too late? He died. You know? What hope do we have now? Isaiah 53.3 predicted that the Messiah would be despised and that the Messiah would be forsaken by men and that they hated Jesus without cause.

[38:29] And so in verse 28 Paul says and though they found in him no guilt worthy of death they asked Pilate to have him executed. Among the prophecies on the cross that were fulfilled by Jesus were that the Messiah would be a reproach and one whom people would wag their heads at which Psalm 109.25 said would happen and in Matthew 27.39 we see it happen.

[39:01] Again on the cross it was prophesied in the Old Testament that the crowds at the site of the crucifixion would stare at him and gloat and that comes from Psalm 22.17 and in Luke 23.35 we see the realization of that prophecy while Jesus was on the cross.

[39:17] Also it says in the Old Testament that his executioners would divide his garments among themselves by casting lots. In Psalm 22.18 we see the fulfillment of that prophecy in John 19.23-24 where the soldiers are casting lots gambling for the clothing of Jesus Christ.

[39:35] Psalm 69.21 predicted that Jesus would be given vinegar and gall for his thirst and then in Matthew 27.34 we see that prophecy fulfilled.

[39:48] Jesus cries from the cross my God my God why have you forsaken me in Matthew 27.46 which was a fulfillment of the prophecy in Psalm 22.1 and his words Father into your hands I commit my spirit recorded in Luke 23.46 were foretold in Psalm 31.5 we know that none of Jesus' bones were broken on the cross John 19.33 says that just as Psalm 34.20 predicted would happen Zechariah 12.10 foretold the piercing of his side with the spear which John 19.34 records Christ's burial also fulfilled prophecy typically a crucified person was thrown into a mass grave with other crucified criminals and forgotten about but as Paul points out in verse 29 Jesus was laid in a tomb in verse 29 he says 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 detail that Paul provides was a fulfillment of Isaiah 53.9 which says his grave was assigned with wicked men yet he was with a rich man in his death in verse 30

[41:04] Paul declares that but God has raised him from the dead so of all the proofs and there's many that Jesus is the Messiah this is the greatest one Paul would later say to the Romans about Jesus and Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead in verse 31 of Acts 13 Paul provides further evidence as if that wasn't enough of Jesus' Messiahship saying 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 in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 6 Paul mentions there that upwards of over 500 people witnessed Jesus in his resurrection form including Paul himself the evidence that Jesus is the promised Messiah of history has overwhelmingly been demonstrated by the prophecies that he has fulfilled and also by those who actually saw him alive from the dead in verse 32

[42:12] Paul draws their attention to three promises that God has fulfilled through Jesus in verses 32 through 33 he says and we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus as also it is written in the second psalm you are my son today I have begotten you so the first promise fulfilled in Christ incarnation is the fact that Jesus has come just as God promised that he would the second promise is mentioned in verse 34 where Paul quotes Isaiah 55 verse 3 and as for that fact as for the fact that he raised him from the dead no more to return to corruption he has spoken in this way I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David so a dead Messiah would not be able to be a channel through which holy and sure blessings could come

[43:13] God promised the throne of David and Christ's resurrection was the fulfillment of that promise ensuring that those blessings have come the final promise comes as Paul quotes from Psalm 16 10 in verses 35 through 37 therefore he says in another psalm you will not let your holy one see corruption or decay 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 so what Paul is saying is that you know when David died he stayed dead his body remained in the tomb but Jesus the holy one his body didn't on the third day he arose again and so Paul's point here is that a dead Messiah fulfills nothing but Christ is not a dead Messiah he lives and his life demonstrated the fulfillment of all that God had promised to Israel and the prophecies that he had given concerning him so we know that these prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus and the ones that have not yet been fulfilled are future but we know that the ones that have been fulfilled give us pretty good certainty and hope that the ones that haven't will one day be now we get to the third component which is is critical in preaching

[44:44] Jesus is our only hope for salvation Jesus is our only hope for salvation verses 38 through 41 none in Paul's audience could deny mankind's rebellion against its creator none of them could rightly think or believe that Israel had not been sinfully rebellious against God so there was no doubt I think in these people's mind that they knew that their history was plagued by sinful rebellion so now the question is what can we do or what should we do about it if you remember the Pharisees had told them or were telling them that what they needed to do was to be super religious people to be rigid external conformist to the law and all that it required but we know from scripture that God saw their good deeds and he viewed them as filthy rags deeds that were improperly motivated by those who thought or wanted to appear righteous to others but as

[45:52] Jesus said of the Pharisees they're whitewashed tombs on the outside things look good but on the inside it's full of corruption and death man is powerless to save himself man cannot save himself from the eternal consequences of sinning against his holy creator no one is righteous not even one so what hope is there then for us Paul tells us in verses 38 through 41 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 laws of Moses beware therefore lest what is said in the prophets should come about and he quotes Habakkuk 1 5 look you scoffers be astounded and perished for I am doing a work in your days a work that you will not believe even if one tells it to you so Paul concludes his message at this point with a proposition for the people a choice and it's a choice that everyone faces

[47:10] Jesus is the Messiah Jesus has proven to be the Messiah and the proof is remarkable are you going to trust in him to save you from your sins to be forgiven that you would have eternal life or are you going to reject him and face the consequences of that which is eternal condemnation and separation from God and hell forever and ever and ever and so when someone is preaching we should see some element of these components especially the last one and I'll confess that there's been at times I was thinking about that I can get into the I can get stuck in the thought well here's three ways to be a better this or three ways to do a better that and that's that can be helpful sometimes but really what is it it's moral it's moralism is what we're or not moralism it's legalism it is moralistic but you know we're saying you know hey you're not good enough here's some things that you can do to be better and yes we should always be seeking to be obedient and growing in our faith and our knowledge of

[48:27] God's word and following him and those kinds of sermons can be helpful but if the person is left thinking that well it's all up to me then we've missed the mark with whatever we've been preaching or teaching you can't do it but Christ has done it you can't save yourself but Christ has you can't do it but because you've put your faith in him he's given you his spirit inside of you he's using you he's conforming you he's making you more like Jesus Christ and yes we work in cooperation with his spirit and sanctification but I hope that you understand what I'm saying that if we're just teaching rules and laws and we're not doing anything different than what the Pharisees did we've always got to be pointing to Jesus as the answer Jesus as the hope Jesus as the solution whom without we would be totally lost oh man I've gone five minutes over but no one has left but you know we finished 15 minutes early last

[49:28] Wednesday yeah so I still got I got a 10 minute window to work with so application application what should we do with this right now or how does God want us to use this to be more like Jesus well we've got to understand that all the scripture points to Jesus the Bible is a Christian book it's about Jesus Christ all of scripture points to Jesus so I encourage you when you're reading the Old Testament you'll find Jesus there and sometimes it's real clear and it's easy to see other times you might have to dig a little bit but you'll see how at that point in time God was preparing his people for the coming of his son you'll find Jesus there secondly the proof we have that Jesus is who he claimed to be is reasonable and plentiful it's reasonable and it's plentiful we have reasonable proof to believe that Jesus is who he claimed to be Jesus is not just some guy who claimed things that people believe there was and is immeasurable reasonable proof that indicate that he is the one whom

[50:34] God promised and who saves his people from their sins third share the good news but don't forget the warning people need to know why they need to be saved people need to know what they're being saved from and so if we're just presenting the good news without reminding them or telling them of what the warning is listen if you don't trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior this is what will happen to you it's not a might it will people need to know what they're being saved from and then finally salvation is by grace not works without these things we are in danger of preaching again legalism like the Pharisees as the way to be loved and the way to be accepted by God but the gospel is a message of grace and how we have been saved by faith in Jesus Christ this isn't our own doing it's

[51:35] God's and so he gets all the glory and he gets all the praise in our lives and in his church amen amen let's pray heavenly father thank you for your word thank you for this time that we've had to be together God many of us in this room at some time or another have been teachers whether that's in a Sunday school class or in a Bible study or in a small group or just discipling hope for any of us he is the way he is the truth he is the life and there is salvation in no other and so

[53:06] Lord help us to be bold in making that proclamation and I pray that we would do it with passionate care and love for those whom we are sharing it with in the hopes Lord that you would save them and that they would know Christ as their Lord and Savior as well we love you father and we ask these things in Jesus name amen