Paul’s First Message | Justified Through Christ: The Resurrection
Lessons from the 1st Century Church | A Study through the Book of Acts • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 7 viewsFor one to find freedom and hope there is but one place to seek, Jesus Christ. For He is the only source of justification and hope.
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Introduction |
Last week we discussed the introduction or the building of the foundation for Paul’s first recorded message. Within that build up and introduction we found a few truths that are worth mentioning again:
First, ministry is not without hardships. We see where Paul and Barnabas were abandoned by John Mark right as their first missionary journey was beginning. Paul faced an ailment that almost derailed his journey.
Second, within the ministry and its hardships, there is no excuse not to Be On Mission. We may want to rest, recoup, and be revived, but God wants us to stay On Mission. This does not take away the importance of refreshing, but rest will come when God provides the time.
Third, we, as the people of Pisidia Antioch, have been extended an opportunity and called to the attention of Who and How God has been toward the Jewish people:
God is faithful and patient (Ac 13:7-8) ‘…For a period of about forty years He put with them…’
God is sovereign (Ac 13:21-22)
God is faithful to His plan of salvation (Ac 13:23) ‘…God has brought to Israel, a Savior, Jesus...’
Jesus Christ is God’s plan of salvation (Ac 13:25) ‘…What do you supposed that I am? I am not He. But behold, one is coming after me…’
This Jesus, the man that John the Baptist was telling the religious leaders of his day, I am not He…the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie, was the man that Paul was telling those searching for hope and comfort that day. Just as Jesus was the answer then, He is the answer today. It is He, Jesus Christ, that we can find, forgiveness, freedom, and justification in. It is He, Jesus Christ, that we can find a hope for a future in glory through His resurrection which is the guarantee of our resurrection to come!
Opening Passage | Acts 13:26-30
26 “Brothers, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. 27 For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the declarations of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. 28 And though they found no grounds for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. 29 When they had carried out everything that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. 30 But God raised Him from the dead;
Focus Passage | Acts 13:26-41
The message has been… (vv. 26-27)
26 “Brothers, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent. 27 For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the declarations of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him.
The message has been the same from the beginning - ‘…to us the message of this salvation has been sent…the declarations of the prophets which are read every Sabbath…’
Paul, within his first message, goes to his people, Brothers, sons of Abraham’s family, and those who among you who fear God. He does not deviate from the message that was presented over and over throughout the Old Testament, the only Bible they had at that time, the message of Christ. He tells them that the message of Christ, the coming Messiah was right there before them. The message to deliver has always been the same. It was the same in the OT, the Gospels, Acts, all the epistles of the NT and Revelation…Christ Jesus. The Old Testament spoke of a Messiah to come. The gospels told of the Messiah who was. Acts speaks of a Messiah who ascended. The epistles through Revelation speak of a Messiah who will return. All of them speak of One Messiah. The message has always been about this One Messiah. The message has never changed. The focus of the message has never changed. The centrality of the message has never changed. So, who is this One? Who is this Messiah that the Old Testament and New Testament speak of? Who is this One that at the core of sixty-six books, scribed by 40 different authors from different back grounds (socially, economically, historically), over two thousand years that has one central focus? Who is this One. It is as Paul writes…
5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,
It is this message that I preach and every other Bible believing, Bible teaching/preaching pastor, and Paul preached that day.
31 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. 32 And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers,
Why? Why do we preach it? We preach it because it is the power of God unto salvation.
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.
The message of Christ, the good news of Christ, saved then and it still saves today. It is the only message that matters.
The message has been about Christ all along - ‘…Him…’
We are not to be about our agenda, our preferences, our message. As John writes, He must increase, but I must decrease (Jn 1:30). The problem is that we do not want to decrease. But if we are to be useful and fruitful for kingdom work, we must decrease. The message is not about CBC. The message is not about you. The message is not about me. Paul stated that message was not about him. The message was then and still is today, about Christ Jesus and Him crucified, buried, and resurrected.
There is a problem before us today. That problem was the same problem that Paul had back then. People today are rejecting and overlooking the message of the cross..
The message has been rejected and overlooked from the beginning - ‘…recognizing neither Him nor the declarations of the prophets…’
Many within the church today, maybe even here this morning, guilty of overlook the message of the cross. Maybe you are guilty of rejecting the changing power of Christ. You know the truth. You have heard the truth, but you reject the truth. You overlook the truth every time you curse, drink, gamble, send that erotic text, play that immoral and erotic TikTok, or search instagram or send dm on instagram or the snap that you sent thinking it was gone but in reality it is still there.
Why are you rejecting the gospel? Why are you overlooking the gospel? Why are you overlooking the only salvation there is? the only hope there is? Just like the people then, people are rejecting and overlooking the gospel. While you are rejecting Christ, you are rejecting the only hope and salvation that is afforded to us, Christ Jesus. As Paul states, Therefore let it be known…that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you (v. 38).
The scariest truth is that when you reject Christ, you ultimately reject the sovereign will of God. Because the cross, the tomb, the resurrection…It was all according to…
The sovereignty of God (vv. 28-29)
There was no foundation found among men to crucify Christ - ‘…they found no grounds for putting Him to death…’
There request of Pilate was by divine design - ‘…they asked Pilate that He be executed…’
23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
Man exalted Christ when they thought they had humiliated Christ
32 It is this Jesus whom God raised up, a fact to which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore, since He has been exalted at the right hand of God, and has received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out this which you both see and hear.
The hope and proof of the resurrection (v. 30)
The resurrection is the hope of the believer
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,
The resurrection is a verifiable fact
20 But the fact is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
How do we know the resurrection took place?
The Empty Tomb
Variety of sources (Mt 28:11-15; Mk 16:1-8; Lk 24:1-12; John 20:11-18; 1 Cor 15:3-8)
Paul heralds this truth within his first message as he states…
33 that God has fulfilled this promise to those of us who are the descendants by raising Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm: ‘You are my son; today I have fathered You.’ 34 As for the fact that He raised Him from the dead, never again to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you the holy and faithful mercies of David.’ 35 Therefore, He also says in another Psalm: ‘You will not Allow Your Holy one to Undergo decay.’ 36 For David, after he had served God’s purpose in his own generation, fell asleep, and was buried among his fathers and underwent decay; 37 but He whom God raised did not undergo decay.
The time and place of the first preaching
Within seven weeks of the crucifixion of Christ, the message of the resurrection was being preached.
Why wait seven-weeks? Would it not be self-defeating to delay the message for seven-weeks unless it was truth. Would people not wonder why?
No veneration of Jesus’ tomb
Within Palestine, at least fifty tombs of prophets or other holy persons were being venerated, during the time of Jesus. However, no veneration of Jesus’ tomb. Why not? Because it was an empty tomb.
The early church
The transformation of the disciples | from hiding in fear to dying in courage
The change in key social structures in Judaism | from the law to grace
Five keys were instilled in the social/moral structure of Judaism: the sacrifices, keeping the law, keeping the Sabbath, non-Trinitarian monotheism (God is one), the Messiah was pictured as a human figure but not God Himself. Yet, a new faith, made up of primarily devout Jews, was now trusting in on Sacrifice, Jesus Christ. They were following one source of salvation, grace. They were maintaining a day of worship, not the Sabbath, but the first day of the week, Sunday, resurrection day. They were trust in a man, the God man, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. They were teaching of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (the basis for the Trinity)
The ordinances of the early church | The Lord’s Supper and Baptism (both of which are pictures of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ)
The existence of the Church herself (she should not be here, but she is)
38 And so in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and leave them alone, for if the source of this plan or movement is men, it will be overthrown; 39 but if the source is God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God.”
She should not be here, but she is…
As C.F.D. Moule, a Cambridge New Testament Scholar, states, If the coming into existence of the Nazarenes, a phenomenon undeniably attested by the New Testament , rips a great hole in history, a hole of the size and shape of the Resurrection, what does the secular historian propose to stop it up with. (J.P. Moreland, Scaling the Secular City: A Defense of Christianity (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1987), 181.)
Conclusion |
At the end of his message, Paul closes with a warning. It is the warning that I give you today…
40 Therefore, see that the thing spoken of in the Prophets does not come upon you: 41 ‘Look, you scoffers, and be astonished, 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.’ ”
One day, each and every one of us will stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ and give an account (Ro 14:12).
When that day comes WHO are you going to be trusting in? Are you going to be trust in self or trusting in the only mediator between man and God, the man, Christ Jesus. As Paul preached then, I preach now, through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses (v. 39).
