Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome back. This is our daily devotional for October the 5th, 2023, and I am delighted to have this time with you, and I welcome you. I'm excited because of where we find ourselves today in the book of Acts. If you are new around here, this is all we're doing. chapter by chapter, verse by verse through the book of Acts. And I hope it thus far has been a blessing to you like it's been to me. It's been fascinating as the one preparing for these things and presenting these things. It never ceases to amaze me how the Lord has worked those things that he has done. And in Acts, I mentioned that Acts is really like the Genesis of the New Testament in some ways. It's the Acts of the Apostles, the Acts of the early church. It's the building blocks of who we are today in the modern church. And so it never ceases to amaze me. There are times where we see this very clearly in moments of theology. where teaching is given, per se, and we learn from that teaching. Rewind back to some of the things on the Holy Spirit, giving the basis of certain things, theological things. Other times, the Lord establishes the building blocks of his church through stories. And I don't mean fake stories. I don't use that in a derogatory sense. I use it in its purest sense. It's the story of how God worked. It's the tale of his faithfulness that establishes certain things, right? We've seen this even this week, where we've seen the establishment of ordination and commissioning and the church sending out the Holy Spirit, empowering, those sorts of things. Where we found ourselves yesterday was the building blocks of the church in that Paul, in his great sermon. Now, realize chapter 13 is where we are in Acts. This is where we first see Saul really referred to as Paul. And he's gonna, you know, the remainder of his time, he's gonna be referred to as Paul. Don't read too much into that, but nevertheless, he's referred to as Paul. And instead of Peter preaching the great sermon, as we've heard several times, now it's Paul. And it's fascinating. You can see the difference in personality between Peter and Paul. I don't want to reduce it to emotion because it's the word of God, right? It's the Holy Spirit speaking through Peter, like for instance, when he offers his great sermon at Pentecost. So I'm not saying this in a derogatory sense, but Peter's appeal is much more emotional, right? Peter, in his great sermon at Pentecost, he talks about Jesus being affirmed through signs and wonders and you killed him. You killed them, that's what he says to the crowd there. And then of course he leads them to repentance, well the Holy Spirit does, but in his preaching he builds up to that point. What we saw yesterday, and we got through the grand majority of Paul's sermon, we're picking up today in verse 38 with the very, very end, with the therefore, right? But what Paul does is this systematic approach to God's grand redemptive plan. And he links Jesus to King David, right? One of the greatest heroes of Judaism. He links him to him And he says that Jesus is the fulfillment of God's promise to David, but also God's promise to the entirety of his people, that there will always be a descendant of David on the throne. And Paul makes that link with Jesus. It's not unemotional, but at the same time, it's much deeper theologically speaking. And that makes sense given where Paul and Barnabas aren't. They are in the synagogue after all. They're teaching the Jews. There are God-fearers, right? There are Gentiles there amongst them that fear the God of Israel. However, the majority of the people that Paul is preaching to are Jews. Now, where we pick up today is with the therefore of his great sermon, but also the aftermath. And y'all, we've been building to this moment. We've been building to it, right? Remember rewinding all the way back to Peter's vision on the rooftop, Cornelius calling Peter, Peter then having to go to Jerusalem and explaining the fact that he went into a Gentile's house and ate and drank with him and baptized the Gentiles. How dare he? The brothers in Jerusalem accepted it. But we've been building to this point, talking all about Christianity, going to the Gentiles. Well, today we see a fundamental moment in the life of the church as it relates to these things. But first let's pray and then we'll dig in. Our Father, we thank you so much for all the ways that you have worked, whether it is through the contents of great sermons that were preached or What we see taking place, it's all the building blocks of who we are. You have shown us how you would have us function as your people, how you would have us function as your church. Let us be faithful in these things. If we're gonna be faithful and we first got to see them, and we've got to be convicted by them, and that's your business. So please, convict our hearts, work in us now, guide us by your Holy Spirit. And we pray it all in Christ's name, amen. All right, so we're picking up in verse 38. This is after Paul, his priest, or really it's at the end of Paul's great sermon, linking Jesus to David, saying that Jesus is the fulfillment, not only of God's promise to David, but of all of Israel. Everything, the great nation, the land, that which they will possess. Paul is saying, hey, it's not just about this physical dirt in Israel that is being contended over. This is about everything. This is about the kingdom of God itself. And it's all through Jesus. Verse 38, therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Now, pause. Y'all, do you remember the problem that Jesus ran into over and over and over and over again when he went to his people? Well, there's some obvious ones, right? Like the whole, they wanted to kill him thing. That's a problem. I'm not saying it isn't a problem. Those statements Jesus ended up making to them that he came not to save the righteous, but the lost. Now, Jesus wasn't saying, hey, you guys are good, you don't need me. No, no, no, no, no. No, what he was saying is by your own estimation, you are righteous. You know, the biggest problem that the Jews had with Jesus is that he didn't fit into their plans as the Messiah. They wanted a Messiah that was gonna come in and overthrow Rome, right? They wanted a Messiah that was going to establish them exactly the way that they were. What they missed was that they really needed a Messiah that would come and forgive them of their sins. What they missed is that the system that God had given them of sacrifice of all of these things, it was always temporary, y'all. It was not supposed to be permanent. From the very first sacrifice, it always pointed forward to Jesus. All of the laws, all of the ceremonies, all of the feasts, all the celebrations, they all pointed forward to Jesus, who would come and fulfill all of those things, and then, oh, and then we would live by faith. then our righteousness would not be us and the works of our hands, our righteousness would be Jesus Christ. Fast forward to Hebrews chapter 11, you find out that all those that were faithful in the Old Testament, the reason they were faithful is that they were looking forward to Jesus. They didn't know who he was exactly, but they knew that God would keep his promise and they trusted in the Messiah. You see, people have always been saved as a result of Jesus, by Jesus, through Jesus. There wasn't some switch flipped in the New Testament where all of a sudden it's John 14, six, Jesus says, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life, no man comes to the father but by me. It was that way from the beginning, right? But they missed it. They missed that. They thought that a Messiah, a Christ was supposed to do something entirely different from them. And the one thing that they definitely thought they didn't need was forgiveness of sins. Why would they? Jesus is dealing with these Pharisees who by their own estimation, they're good to go. There, they've got their checklist. It's arbitrary. They made it up, but they've got it. And they're doing the things that they think that they need to do. Y'all, in essence, if you don't see your sin, then you'll never see your need for a savior. I don't know if you recognize that. If you can't admit fault, if you can't admit guilt, then why do you need atonement for sins, right? The reason I bring all of this up is because, though I'm not, obviously, we can't transport ourself back 2,000 years ago to Pisidian Antioch. We can't be there in the midst of everything that was taking place, but here's the interesting thing. The impression that you get from reading this is that they're tracking with him, right? I mean, Paul, he's in the synagogue, he's preaching, he's teaching these things, and they're hanging in there with him. They're right there along with him. They especially like the David part, you know? And then he starts talking about Jesus. And then he gets to their need for forgiveness of sins. Y'all, you know, this is where the jazz music stops, okay? This is where, if this were a party, you'd hear the record go in the background and the music completely cuts out. Why do I say that? Well, this is the whole gist of his sermon. Why did Paul preach these things? This is why. To tell them, therefore, my brothers, verse 38, I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. You see, Paul and everything he has said up to this point comes down to this. As a side note, when I preach on Sunday morning, Everything that I preach, while there are different things to be taught, while there are different theological applications, without a doubt, while there are things that should inform us, the ultimate thing that it points to is that we're sinners and we're in need of God's grace. If you've been saved, good, continue to trust in him. If you haven't been saved, I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Y'all, if I had to choose a vocational life verse, if I had to choose one passage to explain why I do what I do and the ultimate reason for and behind my sermons, my greatest desire is that it is this. This is what I aim for every time I preach, to proclaim the forgiveness of sins that is for you. And then he continues, I'll read it again. Verse 38, therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him, everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses. Now y'all, pause again. Paul has gone from preaching to meddling. Not only did he talk about how they needed forgiveness of sins, now he's daring to suggest that, like I just said, the law of Moses, the priests, the tabernacle, later the temple, the sacrificial system, the feast, the ceremonial washings that Jesus rejected, by the way, that all of these things are unable to fully provide forgiveness. And you might say, well, whoa, whoa, are you saying that God made a mistake? No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that y'all people have always only ever been saved by faith. Rewind to the father of Judaism, Abraham, what saved him? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. People have always been saved by faith through grace. But what Paul is simply doing here is he's saying, hey, listen, what Judaism could never accomplish what all of the law of Moses and all of the requirements and the rules and the regulations that were always meant to be temporary, that the force of them was always to point to Christ, that you would believe in him, now he's come. And now you can have forgiveness that the old law of Moses could never provide. It could point to it, and you were saved by believing in Christ and the coming Messiah. Now he's come. and I proclaim this to you. And then he says, as if he is reading their minds. You know, Paul is so good at this. Read later today, read Romans nine. He is so good at writing people. Now in this case, he's actually preaching a sermon, okay? He's talking to people there, but it's the same principle. It is as if he knows what is in their minds and he addresses it before they can even say it. And of course, this doesn't have anything to do with Paul. This is the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, right? Of the Holy Spirit. Remember John chapter two, Jesus wouldn't entrust himself to men for he knew what was in a man's heart. The reason that Paul can do this is because the Holy Spirit is speaking through him and the Holy Spirit knows. And to that end, because the Holy Spirit knows what's on their minds, Paul said, take care, verse 40. Take care, be careful, watch out that what the prophets have said does not happen to you. And in the spirit of Jesus, who looked at Jerusalem as he rode into the city and said, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I long to draw you to my breasts. Jerusalem, you who stone the prophets. You know, Jesus told all those parables about the landowner sending his son and they even killed his son when he tried to collect the payment. He told all of these things for a reason. Paul is doing the same thing that Jesus did. He's saying, hey guys, again, you read the prophets all the time, but think about what you did to them. All of the prophets, you ran out on a rail. Isaiah, Jeremiah, they didn't listen to him. They rejected them. Jesus, the prophet, priest, and king, what did they do? They rejected him. And so yet again, Paul says, take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you. Verse 41, look, you scoffers, wonder and perish. "'For I am going to do something in your days "'that you would never believe even if someone told you.'" He's quoting Habakkuk chapter one right there. What Paul is doing is saying, hey guys, this is the message that all of you have rejected before. I'm telling you, you read the prophets every week. Don't become the subject of their prophecy. Don't reject this. Interestingly enough, that's how Paul ends his sermon. You know, maybe you've heard me say before, and I don't do this often, but I do it sometimes where I'll just end on a rather hard note, and I've said, you know, the scriptures are perfectly comfortable leaving things on the edge of the cliff. So am I. Y'all, realize how Paul ended his sermon. It's a warning. There's no poem. There's no him quoting the lyrics of an old hymn or anything like that. There's no, now I want everybody to bow their heads and close their eyes. No, mm-mm, no. Paul pulls the pin on the grenade and rolls it out there to explode on them. He has put them in the position where they either accept Christ or reject him. And good for Paul. Because y'all, we can argue over stuff all day long, but what it really comes down to is either you belong to Jesus or you don't. Paul leaves things right there. And what happens next? Verse 42, as Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. Very good sign. Verse 43, when the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism, talking about the Gentiles, followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. Verse 44, on the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. Y'all, do you see what's happening? What we find here is the power of the gospel. When people get excited about the good news of Jesus, it's infectious, it spreads. So it's gone from the typical synagogue crowd to almost the whole city is there. But verse 45, When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly, we had to speak the word of God to you first, since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. And y'all, that's what I was talking about earlier. This is that fundamental moment when Paul and Barnabas recognized the same problem that's been going on for, well, since the desert, really, when God's people rejected him. Now, all those that rejected him and refused to cross the Jordan to go into the promised land, died in the desert, their children went in, but you still had this problem. And over and over and over and over again, the Jews rejected what God had for them. We see these bright spots, we see him preserving a remnant for himself, but by and large, we see that God's chosen people reject him at every turn, ultimately rejecting Jesus Christ. And so what Paul has said here is, we've got to preach the word. We've got to reveal the word. And so as a result, now we turn to the Gentiles. And while for you and me, I'm mainly Gentile, but nevertheless, that's a different story. For us, in the modern church, this is a moment of rejoicing. But y'all, what a moment of sorrow. The apostle himself, the greatest of the Lord's missionaries, says then, now I have to turn to the Gentiles. I'm turning away. Interestingly enough, as another side note here, this concept, I talk about it all the time, right? That they didn't know they were writing the New Testament. They didn't know this was scripture. That is garbage, y'all. That's liberal trash. Did you hear what he said? Verse 46, we had to speak the word of God to you. First, Paul knew what he was doing, was revealing the word of God, and he knew he was empowered by the Holy Spirit to do it. So don't give me any of this garbage that he didn't know that this was the Bible, that this was scripture that was being revealed. He did, everybody did, except for those who rejected it. But nevertheless, He says, this is the turning point. And this is, y'all, we've been building to it. We've been building to it, Peter, Cornelius, all of that stuff, Jerusalem, everything has been building to this moment where we see a fundamental shift in the apostle Paul's ministry away from the Jews and to the Gentiles. Verse 47, why? For this is what the Lord has commanded us. I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. quoting there what Jesus said, but also quoting Isaiah 49. Paul has now recognized his mission. Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, knows what he has to do. Verse 48, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. I don't wanna spend too much time on this, because we've already gone 21 minutes, but y'all, Realize this whole Calvinism debate thing, did you just catch that? No, no, no, no, God doesn't choose us. All who were appointed for eternal life believed. What do you think appointed means? But that's a side note, okay? This isn't a sermon, this is a devotional. Realize what has just been revealed here. Again, a great moment of triumph for the Gentiles. They heard, they believed, they were gladdened. but in the same way that it's a great moment for Gentiles, it's a horrible moment for God's people, the Jews, God's chosen people who rejected God. This is not an issue of God rejecting them, it's them rejecting God, like it always was, like it was as Jesus pointed out. Verse 49, the word of the Lord spread through the whole region, but The Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their region. You get the dynamic here. The Gentiles are glad about this. Paul and Barnabas keep on preaching. They turn away from the Jews. They turn to the Gentiles. The word is taking off, but the Jews come after them and they made it such that they could not stay any longer. So what did they do? Verse 51, so they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Y'all, what they did was exactly what Jesus said. Jesus sent his disciples out and said, go into the city, and if they reject you, knock the dust off your sandals and go, because there will be others who are ready to hear. What we see here is a very sad tale, a tale of rejection, a tale of ultimate rejection. You know, there are really two ultimate rejections of the gospel in the New Testament. The first is when the Jews cried out, we have no king but Caesar, and desired that Jesus be crucified. It was at that point, you know, just prior to that, Jesus said he was going to tear the temple down. Titus might've been the physical one, but it was Jesus that carried it out. That's the first. The second is right here. The second is right here where Paul and Barnabas knock the dust off their feet and take the gospel to the Gentiles. It's a sad tale, but it's a beautiful tale. It's a beautiful tale because the gospel always goes out. And remember that grand redemptive plan, God lets us be a part of it. Take heart and rejoice if you know him. If you don't know him, Turn to him today. Let's pray. Our God and our Father, we praise you for this time that you have given to us, and we ask that you would impress your word on our hearts. And we pray it in Christ's name, amen. Well, I'd like to thank you all for being a part of this time. I should have said it earlier, but there will be no daily devotionals next week. No, and I am actually headed out of town, got a wedding to go to, spending a little time away. But we will return the week after next, Monday morning, 6 a.m. Until then, I hope you all have a fantastic, fantastic week. Enjoy the fall. Oh, it's getting beautiful out there. Thank you all for your faithfulness and being a part of this time with me. And Lord willing, we will return soon. Take care.