May the Lord bless us together
as we continue our meditation in the 13th chapter of the Acts
of the Apostles. You will remember that the Apostle
Paul is preaching in the synagogue. He'd been invited to do so. The
rulers had said to him, ye men and brethren, if you have any
word of exhortation for the people, say on. And last week we traced
out the first part of that sermon where the Apostle traced back
the leadings of the Lord to his ancient people and it came up
to the time of the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course that's
what the Apostle was driving at. He gave them his background
to, as it were, whet their appetite and to prove to them that the
Lord Jesus Christ had been prophesied. He had been spoken of. And so
we come this evening down to the 24th verse, where we read,
when John had first preached before his coming the baptism
of repentance to all the people of Israel. This was John the
Baptist, who of course was just a few months older than the Lord
Jesus Christ, and he had been ordained by Almighty God to prepare
the way and to preach repentance and The words in the Gospel of
Mark are very clear in the first chapter and the fourth verse. We read, John did baptise in
the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance for the
remission of sins. How important this gift of repentance
is and how often it's difficult for us to come to a position
where we do repent of our sins. It's easy just to carry on in
our life and forget and have no desire and no conscious realization
of the great need there is to repent. The Lord Jesus, the first
words that he spoke, recorded, is to repent. therefore how needful
it is for all of us to know the grace of repentance in our lives. That means to be truly sorry
for our sins and sorry to God that we have offended his righteous
laws, that we have sinned against God, That's a great issue that
we need to recognise and to appreciate and to pray that we might be
blessed with that spirit of repentance. It is not something that comes
naturally, but true repentance is the gift of God and what a
favour it is when we are blessed with it. And so here we have
this statement, when John had first preached before his coming,
the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. It was a statement to all the
Jewish nation, all the Hebrews who had been brought up under
the Old Testament law, who had understood it very well, but
now here was this very significant word of repentance. And so we read, and as John fulfilled
his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he. But behold, there cometh one
after me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose. He was, of course, speaking about
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see here, in John the
Baptist, the humbleness of his spirit, and how good a sign that
is. Humbleness of a spirit. The Lord
had clearly ordained John to be that one who was to cry before
the people in the wilderness, the forerunner. And he doesn't
claim to be the Lord Jesus Christ at all. He clearly tells them,
whom think ye that I am? I am not he. He didn't want the
people to come to any wrong understanding. And we see him spelling out so
wonderfully, I am not he, but behold, there cometh one after
me, whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose." God had
clearly revealed to John the Baptist that there was his cousin,
the Lord Jesus Christ, whom the Father had sent into the world. And that was the one that they
were to be looking for. And that was the true Messiah. And that was the one whom the
Lord had prophesied should come throughout the history of the
world through the word of God and how fulfilling it was about
to be revealed. It was a wonderful time in the
history of the world. It was a very solemn time, but
a very wonderful and a very special time. And so he comes and says,
men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, remember
he was principally speaking to the Jews who were in the synagogue
therefore he can address them like this men and brethren children
the stock of Abraham and Then he includes the Gentiles who
were there and whosoever among you Feareth God to you is the
word of this salvation sent Well salvation is a lovely word, isn't
it? the saving of the soul how important it is and what a beautiful
word it was for these people and And it would have been a
tremendous blessing on this occasion when the Lord applied the word
that Paul was preaching to them. His great concern was to set
before the people the Lord Jesus Christ. And as he tells us, when
he wrote to the Corinthians, he determined to know nothing
among men save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I'm sure that
is the real desire of every true Servant of God they want Christ
to be raised up and they want men and women boys and girls
to look to the Savior to hear those words to be saved look
unto me and be saved for They that dwell at Jerusalem and their
rulers Because they knew him not Nor yet the voices of the
prophets which are read every Sabbath day They have fulfilled
them in condemning him Their eyes were blinded and our eyes
are blinded until the Lord sends light, until the Lord opens our
eyes and gives us those spiritual views of the word of God. You see these people that he
was preaching to, they no doubt have been brought up to read
the law and to hear the law. And as I told you last week,
The law was read every week and in the 52 weeks of the year they
read the whole law. And it was therefore read to
them and they would have heard it perhaps many times. But until
the light shone, the truth of the gospel, there was no saving
knowledge. And so here the apostle spells
it out to them, for they that dwell at Jerusalem and their
rulers, because they knew him not, Nor yet the voices of the
prophets, those voices which came forth so clearly in the
word of God. And yet you see, they didn't
realize that God was speaking, God was prophesying, God was
directing them to the Savior who would come. And therefore
he comes and says, and though they found no cause of death
in him, it had been prophesied to the Lord Jesus Christ how
he would die and what he would be like. And yet they didn't
realize, they didn't know The Spirit of God hadn't revealed
it to them. And it's the same today. We all need the blessed
Spirit of God to reveal Jesus to our souls as our all-sufficient
Saviour. Otherwise, we'll come and go,
and we'll come and go, and there won't be any true blessing. There
won't be any real spiritual favour. But oh, if the Spirit opens our
eyes, enlightens our heart to realise the great truth of the
Gospel. And so we should then understand
what the Apostle was driving at as he spoke these words to
these people. And though they found no cause
of death in him, no they couldn't find anything wrong in the life
of the Lord Jesus. Of course he lived that perfect
life, no sin. They could find no cause of death
within him, but there was the evil spirit they had, hatred
towards God, hatred towards the Lord Jesus Christ. What were
they really saying? They were really saying, we will
not have this man to rule over us. And that was what Paul was
telling the people. That was what their situation
had been when the Lord Jesus was condemned to die. Yet, and though they found no
cause of death in him yet, desired they Pilate that he should be
slain. Remember, they cried out, crucify
him, crucify him. Pilate said, I find no cause
of death in him. Didn't have any effect. Crucify
him, crucify him was the cry stirred up by the old devil.
And my friends, it's the same today, isn't it? We look around
and we see so many atheistic people, secularists and humanists,
what are they really saying? Away with him! Away with him! We don't want to hear anything
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what do we think? Is it
music in our ears? Do we say, how sweet the name
of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear? How sweet the name of Jesus
sounds in my ear? It's real music to my soul. Do we love to hear about the
Lord Jesus Christ? So the apostle goes on, and when
they had fulfilled all that was written, you see he's directing
them to the word of God, the truth of God, and it had to be
fulfilled, the prophecy had to be fulfilled, the people were
ignorant of it, there it was occurring before their face,
they didn't realise it, and now the apostle is speaking to these
people here in Antioch, in Pisidia, and telling them this great and
wonderful truth. And so he says, and when they
had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from
the tree, when he was crucified upon that cross. And when he'd
been there for those three days and nights, all in accordance
with the will of God, and when he then had given up the ghost,
The work of God was finished. It is finished. And he gave up
his spirit and died upon that cross. And they took him down
from the tree and laid him in a sepulcher. Well, the devil
no doubt thought he'd won. He thought he was the victor.
He thought that Christ had died. And so he had. And why had he
died? He died to atone for our sins. He shed his precious blood in
order that we might be set free. It had to be. The devil didn't
realise the true situation. But the Lord Jesus didn't remain
there. The tomb could not hold him.
Death could not hold him. He had to rise from the dead. And we read these wonderful words
in this 30th verse. But God raised him up from the
dead. And aren't we thankful today
that we have a risen saviour. And so here he was, the apostle,
in the synagogue here, telling these people, invited by the
rulers to speak a word. We see the apostle grasping the
opportunity and declaring to them very clearly the truth of
the gospel and speaking to them of what had occurred and the
truth that God had raised him from the dead, no longer dead,
and to live for evermore and to think today that by his grace
we shall live through him. He is all our hope. The risen
Christ is all our hope. for time and for eternity. So may you and I today go on
our way rejoicing, thankful for the good news of the glorious
gospel, to know that Christ died, yea, is risen again, so that
we might live forever. Amen.