Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Acts: Enlarging Our Vision
By Remembering God's Works 02/08/09
Sermon Series: Acts: Enlarging our Vision
Title: ‘By Remembering God's Works’ Text: Acts 13:14-52
Introduction: A man went to see a psychologist. He said, "Doc, you have got to help me with my wife." The doctor asked, "What’s the matter?" The husband said, "Well, every time we get into an argument she gets historical." The doctor said, "You mean hysterical." The husband said, "No, I mean historical. She drags up my past every time we get into an argument."(Jimmy Chapman)
That’s not helpful if you want a healthy marriage. But history does matters…especially when we’re sharing our faith. Scripture says that history is the outworking of the plan of a sovereign God. The Book of Acts shows how the gospel fits into the broader picture of God’s work in history.
Erwin McManus wrote a book about the Church titled ‘An Unstoppable Force.’ In it he wrote
· The indictment that we must receive is that the Christian faith as we express it is no longer seen as a viable spiritual option. Masses gave the church a try and left wanting. We accuse them of not being willing to surrender to God; they accuse us of not knowing him. People are rejecting Christ because of the church.
· Once we were called Christians by an unbelieving world, and now we call ourselves Christians and the world calls us hypocrites. Is it possible that it wasn’t the nation that was becoming dangerously secular but the church? We were neither relevant nor transcendent. We have become, in the worst of ways, religious. We are the founders of the secular nation.” (Rodney Buchanan )
Wow…I believe he’s right on because I have found that we often talk more about what we’re doing than what God has done, is doing and will do. In effect, we’re more interested in telling our story than God’s story.
Transition: Open your Bibles to Acts 13:14 (pg. 842 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you.) For it there will discover we enlarge our vision of God by remembering God’s works.
I. Acts 13:14-15 Setting the stage
Read: Acts 13:14-15
Paul and Barnabas are, as the title of a Willie Nelson songs says ‘On the road again.’ A couple of things to note here.
· First, this is not the same Antioch that had sent them out. This is Pisidian Antioch in the Roman province of Galatia.
· Second, notice that Paul and Barnabas went to the synagogue on the Sabbath.
· Third. Notice that Paul must have been a Baptist preacher because he took advantage of every opportunity to speak.
Transition: The scene has been set. Paul has been given the opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. Let’s see how he does it.
II. Acts 13:16-41 Remembering God’s works
Read: Acts 13:16-41
Paul message is saturated with God and his works. John Piper shows us 16 times Paul presses home the truth that God is the central actor in history. Let’s look more closely.
1. One, in the first part of verse 17, it’s God who chooses Israel from all the people of the earth for his special purposes.
2. Two, in the second part of verse 17, God made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt.
3. Three, in the last part of verse 17, God led them out of Egypt with great power. God meant to be seen as the mighty deliverer of his people.
4. Four, in verse 18, God endured the people’s conduct in the wilderness. Another translation says that God carried Israel like a father carries a child. God was their guide, sustainer and Father in the wilderness.
5. Five, in first part of verse 19, it was God who overthrew seven nations in the land of Canaan. Sure the people fought the battles, but Paul wants to stress the omnipresent hand of God in all human victories. Like Proverbs 21:31, "The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord."
6. Six, in the last part of verse 19, it was God who gave Israel the land of Canaan as an inheritance. He owned it. It wasn’t the Canaanites' land. It was God's.
7. Seven, in verse 20, it was God who gave them judges. These rulers were not chosen by the people, God raised them up.
8. Eight, in verse 21, it was God who gave Israel her first king, Saul.
9. Nine, in the first part of verse 22, it was God who removed Saul. Just like Daniel says (in 2:21), "God changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings." Ten, in the last part of verse 22, God raised up David the son of Jesse. God chose him.
10. Eleven, in verse 23, it was God who brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus. It’s not as though God were some impersonal force behind the natural flow of history. The verse says at the end, God did it "as he promised." In other words, God wasn't just active in the moment Jesus entered the world. He had planned and spoken of it long ago, so that when it happened, we would know he was doing it.
11. Twelve, in verses 24–25, we meet John the Baptist, a prophet chosen by God. The point of John's words are to show that Jesus is the center of the story, not anyone else.
12. Thirteen, in verse 26, Paul says, "it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent." Who sent us this message? The answer is God. God planned it. God accomplished it in Jesus, and God has sent it.
13. Fourteen, in verse 27, Paul goes out of his way to show that even those who did not know God, did what God planned and prophesied. What's the point of saying this?
If a person reads and understands God's
prophecies and fulfills them, you can say
that they partnered with God to get them
done.
But if you don't know the prophecies and
you do them, who is at work making sure
that it happens? God. That's the point. Paul
is on a mission here to make it clear that
history is God's story. God is the central
Actor whether we acknowledge him or not.
He is getting his work done, even through
those who don’t know him.
14. Fifteen, in verse 29, Paul makes the same point: "And when they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb." What was happening in the arrest, trial and death of Jesus was not mainly the work of man. It was God's plan laid out in Scripture. Paul shares the same God-centered view of history that Peter expressed in his first sermon in Acts 2:23, "This Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God" .
15. Finally, sixteen, in verse 30, it is God who raises Jesus from the dead: Paul's point is that God has been at work from the beginning and was at work in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and is now at work in sending the message of salvation to the world.
Do you see the difference between what Paul said and what we usually say when we share the Good News of Jesus with others?
· I am not talking about Paul’s use of the OT. He was speaking to those who could relate to the OT. It was appropriate. I am talking about the priority of God’s work in his message.
· Please don’t misunderstand, we need to tell people how our lives have been changed because of what God has done…but in our telling, the focus should be on God’s work and not us and how we feel.
· We need to be telling God’s story. And to tell God’s story we need to know it…It goes back to what I said last week. Can I remind you?
To know God’s story will require an intentional practice of worship, spiritual disciplines, and the study of God’s Word. And you can develop them all, here at CBC by faithfully attending Sunday worship and the many other opportunities for spiritual growth and development,
It’s important, it’s necessary. Knowing God’s story will not just happen, and it won’t happen if we’re more interested in our story than His.
Transition: Did you hear all that God had done in Paul’s sermon? So did all those present in the synagogue that morning. How did they respond?
III. Acts 13:42-52 Three responses
Read: Acts 13:42-52
Rather than follow the verses, I want to group the 3 responses together as I believe it will be easier to follow.
A. Those who believed
Hearing about God’s work touched many hearts that morning…both Jews and god-fearing Gentiles. So much so that Paul and Barnabas were asked to return the next Sabbath to tell them more about God’s work in and through Jesus.
When some of the God-fearing Gentiles heard Paul say that he was going to turn his attention to the Gentiles because the Jews had rejected the work of God in Jesus, the text tells us ‘all who were appointed to eternal life, believed.’
Now I don’t want to get into the doctrine of election, but considering the thrust of Paul’s sermon is about God’s work…it seems we need to be reminded that even salvation is God’s work and not ours. Just something to think about.
The text says ‘The Word of the Lord spread through the whole region.’ Many came to faith because they heard and accepted the works of God on their behalf. And I believe the same is true today.
It’s the work of God and not my clever or intellectual portrayal of the Gospel that draws people to Christ and saves these same people from their sin. May I, we, be faithful to God’s story.
B. Those who did not believe
The text also tells us of those who didn’t believe. And there will always be those who fail to accept the truth of God’s work because they are too interested in their own works.
They opposed what Paul and Barnabas were saying because they were jealous. God’s story was drawing more attention then their own, and they didn’t like it…as is true today as well.
Know that there will always be those who choose not to believe, who choose not to see the truth in God’s story and who choose not to accept the works of God on their behalf.
Transition: How do Paul and Barnabas respond to all of this?
C. The kingdom builders
The final group are Kingdom Builders, Paul and Barnabas who were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Throughout the Book of Acts we will find they were the chief characteristics of their lives.
· Did they wish more had accepted the truth of God’s work in Jesus? Certainly.
· Were they perhaps saddened in their heart that so many had refused to acknowledge God’s story? No doubt.
But, the text says ‘they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.’ Let me explain this odd gesture.
· When Jewish people would enter a Gentile city, when leaving the city they would shake the dust off their feet as a gesture saying ‘We don’t want to take anything from this Gentile city with us.’ So Paul and Barnabas were saying, ‘We don’t want to take their rejection of Jesus with us…we will rejoice in the great work God has done and then move on to the next place the Holy Spirit sends us.’
· This is not saying we should stop sharing the Gospel with those who reject it. Paul in Romans says that he continually prays for the salvation of Israel and as we will see next week, he still went to the synagogues first. Paul never gave up on the Jews, they were his people and he loved them.
· What it means is we’re not to let their rejection discourage us. We’re to move on to those whom the Holy Spirit brings into our path and tell them of the great works of God on their behalf.
Conclusion
Let me leave you with something you already know. Life can be pretty hectic. Family, work, church, school, sports and hobbies can all seem to overwhelm us at times.
I think part of the problem is that we live life as if everything revolves around us. Contrary to what I may think or how I may act, I am not the center of the universe, and neither are you.
But, there is One who is, and He is, for good reason. God is working in history to accomplish His purpose and a key part of that purpose is to bring many to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Friends, there is a great and glorious God.
· Get to know Him.
· Struggle with Him.
· Think about Him.
· Trust Him.
· Follow Him.
· Share Him.
We enlarge our vision of God by remembering God’s works.