Acts 13:42-52: Reactions to the Gospel

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Intro

1)     In 13:14-41, Paul preached in the Synagogue to Jews and “those who fear God,” and he told them:

A)   God is the one who has always done things throughout history.

1)     You are never going to climb the Law of Moses ladder all the way into heaven.

2)     Instead, you need to step into the Jesus elevator and he will take you there.

B)    God has always displaced old and inferior systems with new and better ones.

1)     You were in Egypt, and he set you free.

2)     The Promised Land was filled with Canaanites and he gave it to you.

3)     He replaced Saul with David.

4)     He replaced John the Baptist with Jesus.

5)     POINT: And now, the old Law of Moses system has been replaced by getting forgiveness of your sins and being right with God by putting your faith in Jesus (v. 39).

2)     In this lesson, we will see the various reactions to the Gospel. What are we trying to learn?

A)   How to respond and how not to respond.

B)    What to do when people respond badly.

Reactions to Paul’s Sermon

1)     vv. 42-44 - Give me more.

A)   Text

1)     v. 42 – Begging for more

2)     v. 43 – Following Paul and Barnabas

3)     v. 44 – “The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.”

B)    Point

1)     No class or sermon is ever intended to be a speech that ends with “Amen.” It is only ever intended to be the start of a conversation, or the beginning of changing something about our lives.

2)     Sunday teaching is supposed to be a launch pad for the rest of the week.

C)    Questions for the car ride home, or dinner table:

1)     What did you learn from this lesson?

(a)   Did you learn anything about the text?

(b)   Better: Did you learn anything about God (who he is and what he is like)?

2)     How are you going to be changed by it?

3)     What questions do you have about it? What more would you like to know about it?

D)   Sunday is not supposed to be a consumer event.

1)     The goal is to ENGAGE the Word.

2)     1 Pet. 2:2 – “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation”

2)     v. 45 – Dishonest and bad reaction.

A)   Text

1)     “the Jews”

2)     “filled with jealousy”

(a)   cf. 5:12-18

3)     “contradicted what was spoken by Paul”

(a)   We know what this contradiction looked like. They did not like Paul’s conclusion in 13:38-39.

(b)   Acts 15:1-2

4)     “reviling him” = blaspheme

(a)   BDAG – to speak in a disrespectful way that demeans, denigrates, and maligns

(b)   L/N – to speak against someone in such a way as to harm or injure his or her reputation

B)    Point: We need to evaluate our reactions to the Gospel, and why those reactions are what they are.

1)     e.g. Adam and I were talking about my invitation last week that was based upon 13:39-39. I told him about how I feel uncomfortable saying, “Put your faith in Jesus and you can be forgiven of your sins and be counted as right with God.” I am having a personal reaction to something that I can read directly in the inspired word of God.

2)     BUT, we need to honest with ourselves about WHY we are having the reactions that we have.

(a)   “That’s not what my parents taught me”

(b)   “That’s not what I have always believed”

(c)   “What about grandma”

C)    Takeaways:

1)     Let’s take a good look at our motivation.

2)     Let’s have a real conversation about the Bible and not resort to jealousy, contradiction, and reviling.

3)     v. 46 – Bold conviction.

A)   Spoke out boldly = parrēsia (notes from 4:13)

1)     Multiple times now in Acts we have seen Christians come under fire for their faith.

2)     Note their reactions:

(a)   They have not de-escalated and complied for the sake of peace.

(b)   In this situation, Paul pours gas on the fire.

B)    v. 46b – “Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life.”

1)     The religious leaders thought they were judging Paul.

2)     Paul says that they were the ones on trial, and that they have judged themselves unworthy of Jesus.

C)    v. 47 – KEY: “The Lord has commanded us”

1)     Quotes Is. 49:6

2)     “We are turning to the Gentiles”

3)     Note an earlier lesson from Acts 5: We will not stop.

D)   Point

1)     I want peace, and I think we should be willing to do what we can to have peace.

2)     BUT this does not mean compromising or bending the Gospel to have it.

3)     The reaction that I’m looking for is conviction. This is the truth, and I’m not willing to compromise it for any reason at all.

4)     vv. 48-49 – Good reaction.

A)   Text

1)     v. 48a - Rejoicing and glorifying God

2)     v. 48b – They believed

3)     v. 49 – “And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region”

(a)   They shared it with other people.

B)    When you say the truth, some people will hate you and want you dead, and some people will rejoice and glorify God and share his truth with all their friends.

5)     v. 50 – Expect escalation.  

A)   When the Jews’ contradiction and reviling didn’t work, they escalated.

B)    Standard methodology

1)     This is what the Jewish leadership did to have Jesus killed.

2)     Acts 17:5-7; 18:12-13.

C)    “The Romans famously didn't care about theological disputes, but they cared intensely about order and the Pax Romana. The Jewish leaders leveraged their elite networks to cynically reframe a religious dispute into a political, civic crisis—convincing the magistrates that Paul and Barnabas were civil agitators. Power protects itself by uniting over a shared enemy rather than shared values.”

6)     vv. 51-52 – Keep going.

A)   Shake off the dust

1)     Jewish tradition was to shake off the dust from your feet after you have been in unclean Gentile territory.

(a)   Mishnah – “All dust which comes from the land of the Gentiles is reckoned by us as the rottenness of a dead carcass, and it pollutes the purity of the land of Israel.”

(b)   1st century: Hillel and Shammai - declared that even the air of gentile lands, as well as its soil, carried ritual impurity.

2)     Think about what this meant for Paul and Barnabas to shake off the dust from their feet after they were being run out of town by Jewish leadership.

B)    The left and kept preaching. Don’t stop.

C)    They were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.

1)     cf. 5:41-42

2)     Imagine planting a little seed, and the next day a Cat. 5 hurricane blows in. You would expect it to be gone, but instead it thrives. This is how the Gospel works when people genuinely truly accept it.