We haven’t
had a test in a while. I think that there is some basic perquisite knowledge
that would help us understand Acts (especially Chapter 13 which we are looking
at today) so I included a test for us in our bulletins today… Let’s take two or
three minutes and complete them if we haven’t already and then we will review
them
1. Who was
Israel? (Jacob)
2. Who was
Judah? (Jacob’s 4th oldest son)
3. What was
Israel? (Nation)
4. A united
Israel had two kings: who were they? (David and Solomon)
5. What
happened to Israel after Solomon died? (United Kingdom dissolved)
6. What
were the names of the two rival countries descended from Jacob? (Judah and Israel)
7. What was
the capital of the Southern Kingdom of Judah? (Jerusalem)
8. In the
NT what are descendents of Judah called? (Jews)
9. What was
the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel? (Samaria)
10. In the
NT what are descendents of Israel called? (Samaritans)[1]
11. There
is another ethnicity or two mentioned in Acts and the NT: What is a Gentile?
The word
Gentile (sometimes translated Hellenist) means Greek. But the term can also be
used more globally to apply to anyone who is neither a Jew nor a Samaritan.
Thus the Roman Centurion that we met in Chapters 10 and 11 is referred to as a
Gentile. He isn’t Greek but he isn’t Jewish and he isn’t Samaritan so he is
referred to as a Gentile by default and these are three of the big categories
that we deal with in the book of Acts. There is one more definition we need for
today: what is a proselyte? (Religious convert). You may need to keep this as a
reference sheet for today’s talk.
Now if you
flip over your test sheet, you will see a couple of maps. On one map you
can see Judea and Samaria and the city of Jerusalem highlighted. Those of us
who were in Bible Study on Monday night looked a little bit at how the Good
News of the resurrection of Jesus spread throughout the world: first in the
city of Jerusalem, where they are gathered when the Spirit of God sends them
out; then to Judea which is the province that the city of Jerusalem is located;
and then to Samaria, descendents of the nation of Israel; and then to the
Gentiles, the Greeks and everyone else in the world.
Now if you
look at the other map. The other map shows you the extent of the Roman Empire
of which both Judea and Samaria are a part. It is in this area that the people
have more or less easy mobility and we remember from when we were looking at
Acts 2: what happened when the Holy Spirit arrived to release them for sharing
the Gospel? There were Jews from all over the Roman Empire gathered in
Jerusalem for Pentecost and all of these Jews from all over this Roman Empire
and beyond heard the Gospel in their own language; so then as all of these
people who were in Jerusalem returned home they were able to witness in their
own language to everyone at home.
Last Sunday
we looked at Acts 10 and Cornelius. Does anyone remember last week’s message?
What was the significance Cornelius, the Roman Centurion, coming to faith?
After the resurrection, he was the first person to become a Christian without
first becoming a Jew.
This event,
someone becoming a Christian without first becoming a Jew – especially as it relates to Acts 2 – is really significant because it really does change
everything. We know that both Jews and Samaritans would gather every Saturday
in synagogues to read and discuss scripture. So this is where the
Jewish-Christian evangelists would go to share the Good News of Salvation and
the commencement of Eternal Life. It is the Jews who were expecting the Messiah
and it was the Jews who were expecting a new age (a.k.a. eternal life) when the
Messiah would rule and so it is the Jews that one would reasonably expect to
understand that that age is now.[2]
So here we have these Christian Jews (the
apostles and others) traveling around from synagogue to synagogue and telling
the Jews who were living all over the Roman world about how the Messiah has
come and ‘eternal life’, the Messianic Age has begun already.[3]
This is what it is like when we come to our text today. I will re-read Acts
13:44-50:
44 On the next Sabbath
almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 When the Jews saw
the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul
was saying and heaped abuse on him.
46 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. 47 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.’”
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. 49 The word of the Lord spread through the
whole region. 50 But the Jewish leaders 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.
Here the appearance of the
Church changes forever. We have a major split among the Jews. Some Jews reject
eternal life while others become Christians, serve Jesus and accept eternal
life in the Kingdom to Come (cf. Revelation 3:9). Then something else
interesting happens in our text. As is the case with Cornelius, whom we looked
at last week, so this week we see people who are neither Jews nor proselytes
being welcomed into eternal life. Others are being saved too.[4]
They are inheriting eternal life, thus proving right Jesus, Matthew 8:11-12, “I
say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their
places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven. But
the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” We are all welcome to be a part
of Jesus’ Kingdom as long as we serve Him as King. Acts 10:34,35 records: “I
truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who
fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
Paul writes,
·
1 Corinthians 12:13: For we were all
baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave
or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
·
Galatians 3:28: There is neither Jew
nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are
all one in Christ Jesus.
·
Colossians 3:11: Here there is no
Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or
free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
And Luke
writes, Acts 11:17: “So if God gave them the same gift [of the Spirit] as He
gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could
oppose God?”
Salvation is open to everyone? Are we?
Let us pray.
---
[1] Now both the
Samaritans and Jews claimed a certain racial purity but the Bible is clear that
that is not necessarily true for either group. The Jews were very clear about
what they think of the Samaritans and we need look no further than the
Moabites, Canaanites, Hittites, Chaldeans and others in the lineage of the
Jewish Messiah himself to disprove their claim to racial superiority through
ethnic purity.
[2] N.T. Wright, Acts for Everyone Part 2 (Louisville, Kentucky,
USA: WJK, 2004), 20
[3] cf. Richard N. Longenecker, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Acts/Exposition of
Acts/Part II. The Christian Mission to the Gentile World (12:25-28:31)/Panel
4-The First Missionary Journey
[4] Marshall, I. Howard: Acts: An Introduction and Commentary.
Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1980 (Tyndale New Testament
Commentaries 5), S. 244: “the
task of Israel, which she failed to carry out, has passed to Jesus and then to
his people as the new Israel; it is the task of bringing the light of
revelation and salvation to all the peoples of the world (cf. the clear
allusion to Isa. 49:6 in Luke 2:29–32
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