2  Paul  Preaches Jesus  (Acts 13:14–41)

But going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets the synagogue officials sent to them, saying, “Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.” And Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand, he said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen: The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it. And for a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness. And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance—all of which took about four hundred and fifty years. And after these things He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. And then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And after He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.’ From the offspring of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, after John had proclaimed before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And while John was completing his course, he kept saying, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not He. But behold, one is coming after me the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the word of this salvation is sent out. For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. And when they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead; 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. And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘Thou art My Son; today I have begotten Thee.’ And as for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ‘Thou wilt not allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay.’ For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers, and underwent decay; but He whom God raised did not undergo decay. Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. Take heed therefore, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you: ‘Behold, you scoffers, and marvel, 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.’” (13:14–41)

“If some homiletically inclined archangel were to permit me to select another time and place in which to live,” writes Warren Wiersbe,” I immediately would ask to be transported to Great Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria” (Walking with the Giants [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980], 51). Among the great preachers who flourished during that era, notes Wiersbe, were Charles Spurgeon, Canon Henry Liddon, Alexander Maclaren, R. W. Dale, Alexander Whyte, and Joseph Parker.

But for those, like Warren Wiersbe, who love great preaching (as all Christians should), an even more exciting time to be alive was during the early years of the church. It was then that the greatest preaching in the church’s history took place. Already in Acts, Luke has presented such masterful preachers as Peter, Philip, and Stephen. Acts 13 contains the first (and longest) recorded sermon of the greatest preacher of them all—Paul the apostle.

Although this is the first of his sermons recorded in Acts, Paul was hardly a novice preacher. He had preached in Damascus immediately after his conversion (Acts 9:20), during his three years in Arabia (Gal. 1:15–18), and while serving as a pastor at Antioch (Acts 13:1). Indeed, he could not help but preach (1 Cor. 9:16), since it was for that purpose that the Lord had called him (Acts 26:15–20; 1 Cor. 1:17, 21–23; 2 Cor. 5:19–20; Rom. 15:19; Eph. 3:8; Col. 1:25, 28; 1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11). Paul’s words to the believers at Rome reflect the importance he placed on preaching: “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher” (Rom. 10:14)? His words to Timothy are the classic call to this responsibility: “Preach the word.” (2 Tun, 4:2) To Titus he said, “Speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine,” and, “Speak … with all authority” (Titus 2:1, 15), emphasizing that preaching is to be doctrinal and authoritative.

Sadly, many in the church today do not share Paul’s commitment to preaching the Word. There is a dearth of biblically sound preaching, creating “a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11). From today’s pulpits come the uncertain sounds of psychology, relational chitchat, social commentary, storytelling, shallow homilies, and political rhetoric. Many view preaching as an anachronism in today’s era of userfriendly, entertainment-oriented churches. Programs, intractable church members, and administrative details eat away at the preparation time of those pastors who do want to preach.

While many downplay the significance of biblical preaching, it is nonetheless vital to a spiritually strong church. The preacher represents Christ to his people, reinforcing the concept of authority and submission within the Body of Christ. Turning the church into a therapy group or entertainment center undermines that authority. Strong biblical preaching also upholds the authority of God’s Word. How strange it is that many who affirm the inerrancy of the Bible fail to preach it expositionally (cf. John MacArthur, “The Mandate of Biblical Inerrancy: Expository Preaching,” The Master’s Seminary Journal 1 [Spring 1990]:3–15).

The New Testament repeatedly stresses the importance of preaching. Jesus told a prospective follower to “go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60), even as He Himself did (Luke 4:18–19, 43). Paul, in charging his young protégé Timothy to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (2 Tim. 4:2), stressed the singularity and comprehensiveness of this duty. “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor,” Paul commanded, “especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching” (1 Tim. 5:17). Paul’s own passion and calling was to preach the Word.

Biblical preaching has been the catalyst of every great revival in church history. The church Fathers took the baton from the apostles, and through their preaching Christianity conquered the Roman Empire. The preaching of the great Reformers Luther, Calvin, Knox, Zwingli, and Latimer brought the light of truth to the church after centuries of darkness. The powerful preaching of John Owen, John Bunyan, Richard Baxter, Thomas Manton, Thomas Brooks, Thomas Watson, and Jeremiah Burroughs, among many others, fired the Puritan revival in seventeenth-century England. John Wesley, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards led the eighteenth-century Great Awakening. The nineteenth century, as already noted, was blessed with the preaching of Spurgeon, Parker, Maclaren, and Whyte. Perhaps the church today knows little of revival because it knows little of strong, biblical, doctrinal preaching.

The church was born on the Day of Pentecost when Peter preached (Acts 2:14ff.). The gospel spread to Samaria through Philip’s preaching (Acts 8:4–5, 12). As the gospel spread to the Gentile world, the catalyst was again powerful preaching by God’s chosen messengers.

Having first visited Barnabas’s home island of Cyprus, the missionary team next visited Paul’s home region, Asia Minor. Leaving Cyprus, they sailed north nearly 200 miles across the Mediterranean Sea and landed at Attalia, the port of Perga. At that point, John Mark deserted Paul and Barnabas and returned to Jerusalem.

Paul and Barnabas apparently did not preach in Perga at this time, although they did on their return journey (Acts 14:25). Some have speculated that Paul was ill (cf. Gal. 4:13), possibly with malaria, and needed to leave the coastal lowlands for the cooler mountain regions (Pisidian Antioch was 3,600 feet above sea level). In any case, they did not remain there, but going on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch. This city was located in Asia Minor and is not to be confused with Antioch in Syria, from which the missionaries set out on their journey.

Luke’s terse statement passes over in silence what must have been an arduous journey (especially if Paul was ill with malaria). The road from Perga to Pisidian Antioch, some one hundred miles away, was difficult and dangerous. It wound its way through the rugged Taurus mountains, clinging to cliffs that ascended to dizzying heights. Travelers also had to cross the turbulent and flood-prone Cestrus and Eurymedon rivers. The Taurus mountains were notorious for the robber bands who infested them. Those brigands, who had plagued Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar, were still unsubdued in Paul’s time. When Paul wrote, “I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers” (2 Cor. 11:26), he may well have had this journey in mind.

After their difficult trip was over, Paul and Barnabas arrived in Antioch. In what became the pattern for Paul’s ministry, on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. In the synagogues Paul found a ready audience of people interested in religious truth. Further, it was customary to grant visiting rabbis, such as Paul, the right to address the synagogue. Both he and the synagogue audience shared the common ground of the Old Testament. Paul could and did make use of that common pool of knowledge as a departure point when he presented the gospel. Finally, his great love for his Jewish countrymen and burning desire to see them saved (Rom. 10:1) led the apostle to preach the gospel in the synagogues.

Verse 15 suggests the liturgy common to first-century synagogues. The service opened with the recitation of the shema (Deut. 6:4ff.)—the Jewish profession of faith. Following further prayers came the reading of the Law and the Prophets. Then came the teaching, usually based on that week’s Scripture reading. Since it was customary to invite prominent visitors to deliver the teaching—and all the more so since Paul was a student of the celebrated rabbi Gamaliel—the synagogue officials sent to them, saying, “Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.”

The Holy Spirit sovereignly arranged the circumstances, opening wide the door for Paul to proclaim the gospel. He stood up, and motioning with his hand to get the audience’s attention (cf. Acts 12:17; 19:33; 21:40; 26:1), he launched into his message. The men of Israel were the Jews present, whereas the phrase you who fear God refers to Gentile proselytes. Paul commanded them to listen, for what he was about to say contained the most important message they would ever hear.

Two main characters dominated Paul’s sermon: God the Father (vv. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 30, 33, 37) and the Lord Jesus Christ. Although He is mentioned by name only in verse 23, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection were the major theme.

Paul’s evangelistic message falls logically into three parts. He presents Jesus as the culmination of history, the fulfillment of prophecy, and the justifier of sinners.

JESUS: THE CULMINATION OF HISTORY

The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from it. And for a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness. And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance—all of which took about four hundred and fifty years. And after these things He gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. And then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And after He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.” (13:17–22)

Men have long wrestled with the question of where (if anywhere) history is going. Is there a purpose, goal, or culmination to history? Or is it merely a succession of sunrises and sunsets, a meaningless series of swiftly flowing years leading nowhere? Is history, as the Stoic philosophers of Paul’s day taught and Eastern religions of today teach, an endless series of cycles?

The French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre expresses the bleak hopelessness of such a view in his novel Nausea. In it one character comments, “While you live, nothing happens. The scenery changes, people come in and go out, that’s all. There are no beginnings. Days add on to days without rhyme or reason, an interminable and monotonous addition” (Robert Denoon Cumming, ed., The Philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre [New York: Random House, 1965], 58). Later in the novel he adds, “‘I was just thinking,’ I tell him laughing, ‘that here we sit, all of us, eating and drinking to preserve our precious existence, and really there is nothing, nothing, absolutely no reason for existing’” (cited in C. Stephen Evans, Existentialism: The Philosophy of Despair and the Quest for Hope [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984], 47).

Viewing history as purposeless appeals to sinful people, since it grants them freedom to do as they want with no fear of accountability to a divine moral judge. As one of the brothers in Dostoyevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov expressed it, “If there is no God, then everything is permitted” (cited in Evans, Existentialism, 17). Such “freedom” is in reality, however, a crushing burden of despair and hopelessness. For removing God from the picture reduces man to “a chance configuration of atoms in the slipstream of meaningless chance history” (Francis A. Schaeffer, Death in the City [Downers Grove, III.: InterVarsity 1972], 18).

But despite such cynicism and despair, history is going somewhere. And every Jew and Gentile proselyte in Paul’s audience knew exactly where: to its culmination in the coming kingdom of Messiah. Man’s fellowship with God, shattered by the Fall, would be restored when Messiah came and delivered men from the bondage of sin. History would ultimately resolve itself in the redeemed being back in full fellowship with God and giving Him glory. Jesus’ incarnation and sacrificial death, His second coming to set up His earthly, millennial reign, and His eternal rule over the new heavens and new earth are the climax of history.

Paul intended to present Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. But being a skillful communicator, he knew he must first get his audience’s attention. So he began by addressing a topic dear to the hearts of his countrymen, God’s providential care for Israel.

The history of that care began when the God of this people Israel chose their fathers. God is in total control of history. He sovereignly chose the fathers (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph) of the nation, and made His covenant with them. After the patriarchal age, God made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt. That phrase refers to His sovereign purpose effected in their increase in number and influence.

Eventually, “a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Ex. 1:8). Fearing the power of the growing numbers of Israelites, he enslaved and cruelly mistreated them. God did not forget His people, however, and with an uplifted arm He led them out from Egypt. The phrase with an uplifted arm, denoting His power (Ps. 89:10, 13, 21; 136:12; Isa. 40:10; 51:9; 62:8; Jer. 21:5; 27:5; 32:17, 21; Ezek. 20:33–34), became the common expression of God’s deliverance of the nation from Egyptian bondage (Ex. 6:6; Deut. 4:34; 5:15; 7:19; 9:29; 26:8; 2 Kings 17:36; Ps. 44:3).

After the Exodus, God continued to care for the nation, as for a period of about forty years He put up with them in the wilderness. The manuscript evidence is evenly divided between etropophorāsen (He put up with them) and etrophophorāsān (“He cared for them”) (Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament [London: United Bible Societies, 1975], 405). Both statements are true. God cared for the nation during the forty years of wilderness wandering (Deut. 1:31; 2:7; 8:2, 4; 29:5; Neh. 9:21) and put up with their sin and rebellion (Neh. 9:16–19; Ps. 95:7–11; Amos 5:25–26; Heb. 3:7–11, 17–18). God cared for His people in spite of their rebellion, enduring their sin because they had a key role to play in His plan for history.

After their forty years of wilderness wandering, God brought a new generation of Israel into the promised land. And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land as an inheritance—all of which took about four hundred and fifty years. Deuteronomy 7:1 lists the seven nations that were destroyed. Following their destruction, God distributed their land as an inheritance to His people. From the captivity in Egypt to the distribution of the land, noted Paul, about four hundred and fifty years elapsed—four hundred years of captivity in Egypt, forty years of wilderness wandering, and about ten years from the crossing of the Jordan to the division of the land in Joshua 14:1ff. Throughout that entire period, God showed His power, care, and faithfulness toward Israel.

After they took possession of the land, the people of Israel continued to be unfaithful, but God continued to be faithful. When they were oppressed by their enemies, He gave them judges (deliverers) until Samuel the prophet. Samuel links the period of the judges and that of the kings. He was the last judge, and he anointed the first king, Saul. Samuel was both a judge and a prophet.

Falling prey to their lack of trust in God and desire to be like the other nations, Israel asked for a king. In 1 Samuel 8:5, “they said to [Samuel], ‘Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” Although their request was a rejection of the Lord (1 Sam. 8:7), God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. Paul’s Jewish name, Saul, was undoubtedly given him in honor of Israel’s first king. And like Paul (Rom. 11:1; Phil. 3:5), Saul was a man of the tribe of Benjamin. There, however, the similarity ended. For whereas Paul was an obedient servant of God, Saul was proud, self-willed, and disobedient. His defiance of God’s explicit instructions led to his removal as king (1 Sam. 15:1ff.), though God graciously allowed him to reign for forty years. That is the only direct statement of the length of Saul’s reign in Scripture, and it agrees with the length of his reign given by Josephus (David J. Williams, New International Biblical Commentary: Acts [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1990], 232–33). The Hebrew text of 1 Sam. 13:1 omits the number for Saul’s age at the beginning of his reign. Accordingly, the NASB gives his age as “forty,” and adds “thirty” later in the verse to make the length of Saul’s reign thirty-two years. That, however, is pure conjecture and contradicts Paul’s explicit words here. Gleason Archer notes that 1 Samuel 13:1–2 should be translated,” He had ruled for two years in Israel when … Saul chose out for himself three thousand from Israel” (Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982], 171–72).

After God had removed Saul from the kingship, He raised up David to be their king. In sharp contrast to Saul, David was obedient, so much so that concerning him God testified and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.’ Some may question the designation of David as a man after God’s heart. After all, he was guilty of cowardice (1 Sam. 21:10–22:1), adultery (2 Sam. 11:1–4), and murder (2 Sam. 12:9). A man after God’s heart, however, is not a perfect man. He is a man who sees his sin for what it is and repents of it. That David did (Pss. 32, 38, 51); divine chastening had a perfecting work. David may justly be termed a man after God’s heart because (unlike Saul) his greatest desire came to be the doing of God’s will. It was from his line that Messiah came.

JESUS: THE FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY

From the offspring of this man, according to promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, after John had proclaimed before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And while John was completing his course, he kept saying, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not He. But behold, one is coming after me the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the word of this salvation is sent out. For those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. And when they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead; 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. And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘Thou art My Son; today I have begotten Thee.’ And as for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ‘Thou wilt not allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay.’ For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers, and underwent decay; but He whom God raised did not undergo decay. (13:23–37)

Not only does Old Testament history point to Jesus Christ, but so also does Old Testament prophecy (Rev. 19:10). He was the Seed of the woman who bruised the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). He was the virginborn Son whose name was “God with us” (Isa. 7:14). He was the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God of Isaiah 9:6. Micah 5:2 foretold that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, and Jesus was (Matt. 2:1). Messiah was to be a descendant of Abraham (Gen. 12:2–3), Jacob (Num. 24:17), and Jesse (Isa. 11:1), and Jesus was (Matt. 1:1; Gal. 3:16; Luke 3:32). He was to be a descendant of David (Jer. 23:5; 2 Sam. 7), and Jesus was (Matt. 1:1). Psalm 110:4 predicted Messiah would be a priest after the order of Melchizedek, and Jesus was (Heb. 6:20). Centuries before Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, Zechariah 9:9 predicted Messiah would do just that. Psalm 41:9 predicted Judas’s betrayal, and Zechariah 11:12 the exact amount of money he would receive for doing it. The fulfillment of those prophecies and dozens more provide overwhelming proof that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed Israel’s prophesied and long-awaited Messiah.

Verse 23 ties together Paul’s first two points. Historically, Jesus was the offspring of David. Prophetically, He was the One whom, according to promise, God brought to Israel as a Savior. He was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah. In Him God’s promise in the Old Testament was realized.

The first prophecy Paul mentioned was that of the forerunner to Messiah. Isaiah 40:3–5 describes his ministry:

In Malachi 3:1 God said of him, “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me.” Those prophecies were fulfilled in John the Baptist, who proclaimed before His coming a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. John’s baptism was not, of course, Christian baptism, which had not yet been instituted. It was a Jewish ceremonial cleansing, symbolizing true, heartfelt repentance. John called upon all the people of Israel to repent and prepare their hearts for the coming of Messiah. Repentance has always been a necessary element of salvation.

John was not the Messiah, for while he was completing his course, he kept saying, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not He. But behold, one is coming after me the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ His remarkable humility, although he was the greatest man who had lived up to his time (Matt. 11:11), kept him from any such pretensions. When confronted by the Jewish authorities, John clearly distinguished himself from the yet-to-be-revealed Messiah:

John did not even consider himself worthy to untie the sandals of Messiah’s feet—the task of the lowliest slave.

John’s ministry was well known to Paul’s hearers, since he had followers in Asia Minor then (Acts 19:1–3). All in the audience must have known of John’s identification of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah (John 1:29, 36).

Paul had reached an important point in his sermon, and he paused to emphasize it. Readdressing the two groups in the audience as brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, Paul declared that to us the word of this salvation announced by John is sent out. It was proclaimed and thus made available “to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16).

Paul now anticipated and answered two questions that might have arisen in the minds of his hearers, a technique he employed frequently in his writings (Rom. 3:3, 7–9, 21; 6:1, 15; 7:7, 13; 9:14; 11:1, 11; 1 Cor. 15:35; Gal. 3:21).

The first question was one Jewish people have wrestled with from apostolic times until now: If Jesus is the Messiah, why did the Jewish leaders fail to recognize Him as such? Paul gave the same answer Stephen did: because of their hardened, sin-darkened hearts. He explained that those who live in Jerusalem, and their rulers, recognizing neither Him nor the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning Him. The so-called experts in the Old Testament (scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, priests) failed completely to understand its teaching (cf. Matt. 22:29; John 5:39). Had they done so, they would have recognized Jesus as the Messiah. Those who are ignorant of the written Word will inevitably be ignorant of the living Word. Ignorance had become a way of life for them, as they substituted ritualism for the truth. Ironically, they then fulfilled the very prophecies of the Scriptures they didn’t understand by condemning Jesus.

Paul then answered a second question that would have arisen: If Messiah was rejected, does that nullify God’s plan? Far from it, replied Paul. Isaiah 53:3 foresaw that Messiah would be “despised and forsaken of men.” They hated Jesus without cause, so that even though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. They thus unwittingly fulfilled Psalm 69:4, “Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head” (cf. John 15:25).

Even the heinous crime of the crucifixion fulfilled prophecy. Paul declares in verse 29 that when they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross. Among the prophecies fulfilled on the cross were that Messiah would be a reproach, one at whom the people wagged their heads (Ps. 109:25; cf. Matt. 27:39); that the crowds at the crucifixion site would stare at Him (Ps. 22:17; cf. Luke 23:35); and that His executioners would divide His clothing among themselves by lot (Ps. 22:18; cf. John 19:23–24). Psalm 69:21 predicted He would be given vinegar and gall for His thirst, Matthew 27:34 records the fulfillment of that prediction. Jesus’ cry from the cross “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46) was the fulfillment of Psalm 22:1, and His words “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46) were foretold in Psalm 31:5. His executioners did not break any of His bones (John 19:33), just as Psalm 34:20 predicted would happen. Zechariah 12:10 foretold the piercing of His side with a spear, recorded in John 19:34.

Beside those prophecies, the very fact that the Old Testament predicted that Messiah would be crucified is amazing. Crucifixion was not a Jewish form of execution, if indeed it was even known to them in Old Testament times. Yet Psalm 22 and Numbers 21 picture such a death (cf. John 3:14).

Christ’s burial also fulfilled prophecy. Victims of crucifixion were commonly thrown into mass graves, since such an execution was normally reserved for the lowest classes of criminals. Yet after Jesus’ death, they laid Him in a tomb. That seemingly insignificant detail 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 Paul comes to the climactic truth of his sermon when he sounds the keynote of apostolic preaching by declaring that God raised Jesus from the dead (cf. Acts 2:24, 32; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40). Of all the proofs that Jesus is the Messiah, that is the greatest. As Paul was later to write in Romans 1:4, Jesus “was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.”

As evidence for the resurrection, Paul cited the fact that 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. There were more than 500 of those witnesses (1 Cor. 15:6), including Paul himself (1 Cor. 15:8). Nor is there any credible explanation for the events of the first Easter morning other than that Jesus rose from the dead. (For a discussion and refutation of the various alternative theories, see Matthew 24–28, MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 1989], 317ff.; Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict [San Bernardino, Calif.: Here’s Life, 1986], 1:232ff.; Frank Morison, Who Moved the Stone? [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1958], 88ff.; George Eldon Ladd, I Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976], 132ff.)

Paul concludes this section on the resurrection by showing that by it the good news of the promise God made to the fathers has been fulfilled. In verses 33–37, Paul lists three of those promises.

The first promise was fulfilled when God raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘Thou art My Son; today I have begotten Thee.’ Psalm 2:7, quoted here by Paul, predicts not only Christ’s incarnation but also His resurrection. The resurrection magnified and glorified Christ’s sonship.

A second promise, from Isaiah 55:3, came true when God raised Jesus up from the dead, no more to return to decay. He has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ A dead Messiah could not have been the channel for the holy and sure blessings God promised to David and his posterity.

The last, and greatest, promise comes from another Psalm, Psalm 16. David writes in verse 10, ‘Thou wilt not allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay.’ That David had Messiah, not himself, in view is obvious, for David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers, and underwent decay. That David’s body remained in his grave after his death is also obvious, since no one believed that he had already been resurrected. In sharp contrast to David, however, the One whom God raised did not undergo decay.

All those promises, and countless others, required the resurrection of Jesus for their fulfillment. A dead Messiah fulfills nothing. Thus those promises are also powerful Old Testament proofs that Jesus is the Messiah.

JESUS: THE JUSTIFIER OF SINNERS

Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. Take heed therefore, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you: ‘Behold, you scoffers, and marvel, 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.’” (13:38–41)

The Jewish people were profoundly aware of the ravages of sin and its consequences. They had clung to sin individually and nationally throughout their existence. All the people could echo the plaintive cries of David for forgiveness, which were expressed in the penitential Psalms (32, 38, 51). Solomon succinctly summed up their dilemma when he said, “There is no man who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46).

The critical issue for the Jewish people was what to do about sin. As the ancient book of Job expressed it, “How can a man be in the right before God? … How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of woman” (Job 9:2; 25:4)? The most common answer, adhered to above all by the Pharisees, was rigid external conformity to the law. But such legalism, being mere human effort, was powerless to restrain the sinful tendencies of man’s fallen nature. And it imposed a crushing burden that no one could bear (Matt. 23:2–4; Luke 11:46; Acts 15:10), since “cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them” (Gal. 3:10).

To those laboring in vain to earn their salvation through keeping the law Paul dramatically proclaimed the most glorious, liberating truth imaginable: through Jesus forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses. The atoning death of Jesus the Messiah fully satisfied the demands of God’s law (Gal. 3:13), making forgiveness of sins available to everyone who believes in Him. That forgiveness is from all things, that is, it brings complete pardon for all sins (Col. 2:13–14). How astonishing that the very sin of murdering the Messiah provided the sacrifice for all sin and the path to glory through the complete forgiveness of the sins of all who repent and believe.

As Paul the ex-Pharisee well knew, keeping the law freed no one from his sins. To the Romans he wrote, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Rom. 3:28; cf. 1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 2:16; 3:11; Phil. 3:9). The forgiveness offered in Christ frees sinners from that which they could not be freed through the Law of Moses. Paul affirms that truth in Romans 3:20–22:

Paul closed his sermon with a warning against rejecting the salvation offered in Jesus Christ. He solemnly charged his hearers to take heed therefore, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you, namely judgment on impenitent and unbelieving sinners. The Old Testament warned against rejecting the Messiah (cf. Ps. 2:12). Paul concluded his sermon by quoting one of those many judgment passages, Habakkuk 1:5: Behold, you scoffers, and marvel, 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. Those words were spoken about God’s judgment that was coming on Judah. God was going to use the wicked Chaldeans as His instrument to bring severe judgment on wicked Judah. Paul used it to illustrate the destruction that the Old Testament pledges to sinners who refuse to repent and submit to the Lord.

The choice with which Paul left his audience is the choice every person faces. Accepting the salvation offered in Jesus Christ brings forgiveness of sin and eternal bliss. Rejecting it brings judgment and eternal damnation. God’s grace and love do not cancel His justice and holy hatred of sin. The sober words of the writer of Hebrews stand for all time as a warning to those who reject the gospel: