Synagogue Sermon Pt. 2

Thank you so much for joining us. As we take a look at the book of Acts, we take things nice and slowly. As we look and see what God is doing in the big picture of expanding the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea and to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. My name is David Humphrey, and I'm the pastoral care admissions pastor here at United City Church in Ombalt, Texas. We're excited to be your church family while you're incarcerated, but we're gonna be even more excited when you get out and you can come and be a part of our church in person. We love you very much. Please grab your Bible and a journal, perhaps a pen, and be ready to take some notes and let's learn together through the book of Acts. - Let's hear it. - Are there any churches in Albania now? - Yes, good question. And yes, there are. Lane and I attended a church that was there. There are a very small number of what we would call evangelical churches, right? That's a good, broad term for Bible-believing Christians. It's just the word evangelical. So that's like in contrast, that we would say there are evangelicals and we would say there are Catholics. Catholics aren't generally included

under the word evangelical. So there are some churches there, but the church is small, right? The church is slowly beginning to emerge, but in a culture that for decades said there is no God, a lot of the Christians are first-generation believers. The missionary that we work with the most, his name is Aldo, and he is a first-generation Christian in his family. So some of you may be first-generation Christians in your family, and that's just a, it's just a different way of perceiving the world and not growing up with, like, I'm grateful that I'm not a first-generation Christian 'cause I had the privilege, right, of my grandfathers and my great-grandfathers all knowing the Lord and teaching me that, but God raises up new generations and they can be the beginning of a whole new season. So yes, thank you for asking about that, Michael. Absolutely, as we talk about Albania. For those of you that are greeting us online, we're talking about a mission trip to Albania that's happening in just a few days. So if you get this in time, you can be praying for our friends in Albania either way, but we're glad that you're here. Everybody in the room say hello. - Hello. - Yeah, I promise there's a room full of people here,

and they're glad that you're with us tonight as well. We are back in Acts chapter 13. Of course, last week we took a little break, but two weeks ago we began our journey through Paul's, I would call the synagogue sermon. We're gonna continue this this week, but I want to just get a little reminder of our context of where we are in the book of Acts, because, again, this is not just haphazard stories thrown together in a willy-nilly way. They were carefully placed. The book of Acts is incredibly structured. It's structured primarily around Acts 1-8, which is taking the gospel to Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. But what we found when we started chapter 13, we're beginning to see the missionary journeys, okay? And so a lot of you have probably got little maps in your Bibles, maps in the back of your Bibles. I've got one right here, I'm not study Bible. These, I used to think, were kind of, you know, when I was a kid, I can remember just going to the Bible in the back, I thought that's boring, the sermons. I'm just gonna look at the pictures in the back, right? But guys, these are helpful tools, because you know, I mean, these are real maps of real places today, and you can follow along. So it's good for you to read where we are, and then go find that place, 'cause a lot of the places had a name

that they were called back when the Bible was written. That's a different name now. But it's still a city, right? These are still very real places. So basically, I think about, you know, how we send mission teams all over the place, and we try to listen to the Holy Spirit. Where does he want us to go, and when, and how, and sometimes he shuts them down, like earlier this year, we thought we were going to Egypt, and everything kind of went crazy, and so we realized we didn't need to go. Now some of those that had been planning to go to Egypt are actually going to Albania this week. So God has a way of moving us where he wants us to be. So it's really the same as what was happening in the Book of Acts. So this shift happened in chapter 13, and now we're gonna pretty much spend the rest of the Book of Acts on missionary journeys. Like we're gonna go all over the Mediterranean, and here and there, and back again, and flip around, and go to this island, and go to that city, and we're gonna see how the church begins to expand. So that's gonna be very, very exciting. So in chapter 13 at the beginning, we had the church in Antioch listening to the Holy Spirit, and setting apart two very important men. Who are they? Paul and Barnabas, okay?

And that's Paul, who sometimes was called Saul, but from here on out, he's gonna be called Paul, and we talked about that a few weeks ago. When they get to Antioch, they're following the pattern that Jesus set, and Jesus usually would go first, where? To the synagogue, and why did Jesus go to the synagogue first? Number one, Jesus primarily went to the Jews. That didn't mean he didn't love the Gentiles, I promise. He loved everybody just the same, but he was sent first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. That's just the plan of God. We might, we don't have to agree with it, but that's exactly how God planned to work. He wanted to work through his chosen people and send the gospel forward, so especially, which we will see tonight, the rejection of the Jews becomes a blessing for the Gentiles. And that's just the way the plan of God worked. So they follow that Christ-like pattern, stopping in the synagogue, they arrive, they listen to the customary reading of the law and the prophets. Paul gets the floor. I'm going to, I want us to pick up tonight, and we're going to read verse 16 all the way down to verse 43. I don't think we're going to get that far in our study, but I want you to hear all of what's happening here, because this is kind of one big section. So this is, again, Acts 13, and I'm going to start by reading in verse 16 after I drink a glass of water here. Our microphone's not working tonight, so I'm just going to project. All right, so verse 16. So Paul stood up and motioning with his hand 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 uplifted arm, he led them out of it. For about 40 years he put up with them in the wilderness, and after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance." All this took about 450 years, and after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years. When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, "I have found in David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will." Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a Savior Jesus as he promised. Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel, and as John was finishing his course, he said, "What do you suppose that I am? I'm not he. No, behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie." Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. Though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and from many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem who are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus. As also it is written in the second psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. As for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he is spoken in this way. I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. Therefore he says also in another psalm, you will not let your holy one see corruption. For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, was laid with his fathers, and saw corruption.

But he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about, look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish. I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe even if one tells it to you. As they went out, people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. So we'll stop there tonight, I know the story goes on, but there is an awful lot for us to begin to unpack. Paul is taking an approach that I hope you will get better at. I really believe we need to be able to tell the Bible as one big story. This is not just the preachers and the teachers. he just layered one story upon the next and on the next and on the next? What Paul does is he's telling the Bible as one unified story that points to Jesus. Guys, you could do the same thing. You just might need to think about it a little bit. It was such a helpful thing for me to understand that this story leads to this story, leads to this story, leads to this story. And so that is a helpful way that he literally took. I mean, that was about three or four minutes that he would have spoken and he went all the way from Moses all the way to Jesus. So we used to do a lot of this when I was working for a missions organization called Aidsudan, we would story the Bible and we would begin by telling the big story and then we would go back and fill in a little, you know, expand out the stories. But it helped for them to see it as one unified story. So basically, these are stories they knew really well. I mean, he basically, he says, God chose people and made us great even in Egypt, right? He's talking about, he's talking to them and he says, God chose our people, right? God chose the Jews. Then he says he put up with us in the wilderness. I've got to chuckle out of you, didn't it? Because that's a really funny way. And we know how it is. Sometimes you just got to put up with your kids, right? Or your group, or whoever it is, right? Or whoever it is. So, yeah. Endured, yeah. Yeah. Sometimes we just endure. Exactly. I love the next thing he talks about is he ran nations out of their land just to get it to them. Remember that? Literally, he says, I'm going to give you this land. And then God just sent people out of there. It's just an amazing story. Then he says, he gave us leaders. Let us choose some bad ones. Let us live with the consequences of the bad ones that we chose. He deposed the bad kings, replaced them with good kings for us. I mean, God was so gracious. He made promises that he'd send us a Messiah.

As promised, he sent John to prepare the way for the Messiah. Guys, this is the way that he lays all this out kind of between 13 and 25. And that's the stuff that we went over a couple weeks ago. So, I want us now to really begin and start to dissect a little bit, starting in verse 26. Because you can tell, he's sort of starting, it's like he takes a breath, okay? And now he's going to go in. And of course, he immediately addresses the group again. And he addresses them because it's a group that's a diverse group. He says, brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God. When he says, brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, who's he talking to? The Jews, okay? You see how he's appealing, again, back to the fathers, to the fathers of the faith, to Abraham. That's like their key guy. So, he said, brothers, see, we're all in the same family, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God. Those are called the God-fears, okay? Those are people who work, many of them, Gentiles, but who believed in some of the Jewish understanding of the faith. And so, he's saying, I want you to understand to us, you see, he makes suddenly those two groups, when he says to us, we're actually on common ground, because it's the same message of salvation to all of us. It doesn't matter if you're living in Sri Lanka, or if you're living in Bangladesh, or if you're living in Chile, it's one message of salvation. Guys, we don't need to come up with a new, now we just come up with different ways to share the same thing, because it's only one message. So, I love how he says, to us, was sent this message of salvation. Does that remind you of a scripture, a beautiful scripture that we talk about a lot in the month of December? Unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is, give us one of my favorites, and the government will be upon his shoulders. I love that because it says he was born to us. And so, here he says, Jews and Gentiles, this message, this salvation was sent to all of us. Now, he says, look how he calls out the other guys in this verse 27. Now, for those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterance of the prophecies that are read every Sabbath, they fulfilled them by condemning him. Let's think about what he's saying. Who was it that he said? the people that you would think would be the most receptive were actually the least receptive. Okay? And that's what he's saying here. He says, "This message was sent to all of us, but God had purpose," verse 27, "in the fact that those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, they didn't recognize him and they did not understand the utterances of the prophets,

which are read every Sabbath." It's almost, he's trying to show them the irony. They're hearing these promises. They probably heard that promise from Isaiah, right? To us a child is born, to us a son is given, but they just, they couldn't see because what were they looking for? They were looking for a rule or a political figure that's going to come in and rescue them out from Roman occupation, but what God sent was an infant, right? A precious baby laying in that manger. So they didn't recognize the very things that they were even speaking with their mouths, all of these prophecies. And one of those prophecies that they did not recognize was the prophecy. He says they fulfilled them, the utterances of the prophets that they read every Sabbath. How did they fulfill them? End of verse 27. By condemning him, isn't that ironic? The people who should have received him actually fulfilled what the prophet said was going to happen by condemning Jesus. So Paul's laying out the case that nothing happened, it just happened stance. Oh no, they killed the Messiah, but that was always the plan. And Paul could see this, crystal clear. Paul knew that's exactly what was happening. And look at verse 28, he just tries to sort of almost dig in the irony a little more. Though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have an execute. Do you guys remember when we went through all of this, right? It was like, no, we don't want to condemn him, you condemn him. No, we don't want condemn him, you condemn him. And nobody could agree to it. And eventually it's washing his hands right, and eventually who prevailed? It was the crowds, right? The crowds finally, and they just like, well, if that's what you want, then that's what we're going to do. So he tried to act like his hands are clean, but now his hands weren't clean because it happened on his watch. So you can see here that it was coming. Does anybody remember, so this is where I'm trying to get us even more familiar with our Bibles from Old Testament to New, where one of the most famous chapters is, I'll give you the book, see if anybody knows the chapter. In the book of Isaiah, there's a very famous chapter. There we go. Thank you. I could have guessed it would have been Tim. If you don't know Tim very well, Tim knows his Bible. Tim loves the Lord and loves God's Word. I appreciate that. Isaiah 53, somebody go there and just, you know, since we're not in a hurry, let's just read a few verses from there. Isaiah 53 is, it's so crystal clear. Verses one through three, I think, would be the spot to read. Please. What you have heard, you have come to have the armor of the Lord to reveal three years in his run-up before the might of young man. Like a root out of his ground, out of his background,

he was not, had no form of the form-agistry that he used to forget him or he, but that we should desire him. He was the five, the rejected by man, the man of sorrow, and I'm the one who moved in, hyperphasing. He was the five, and we were, we were, we were not enough. Thank you. It did not feel like that was written after Jesus, like to describe what had happened. And that's written hundreds of years before Jesus came. So crystal clear. They could close that. Yes, absolutely. They've read it, probably thousands of times. That's right. And it's, that's exactly right. It's just like the scripture says there was a veil. And that veil until... [ Inaudible ] No, it's like you've been reading this stuff your whole life and it's just been going right over your head. And so this, I mean, I was thinking as you were reading that, you know how he listed how that he had raised up Saul, God gave them Saul, you know, Saul, so good looking and all those kinds of things. And then you see, that's not how we would see Jesus describe. We see Jesus described as, as a man of sorrows, from him men hid their faces. He did not have a beautiful appearance. So many of the pictures that we see, paintings, have him looking like it's really handsome, gentlemen. But I'm not sure that those are the most accurate pictures if we're going to base that on what Isaiah 53 tells us of our Savior. He was not the homecoming king, okay? You know, he was not most popular. (indistinct) Exactly right. And so I just appreciate Isaiah's understanding of that. And of course, thank you for reading that, Tim.

I want us to, as we continue looking down at this, it says here of course, because they did not recognize in verse 27, or understand the utterances of the prophets, which they were reading every Sabbath, they fulfilled them, the utterances of the prophets, by condemning him and then look in verse 28, they found in him no guilt worthy of death. They asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, what are they talking about? All that was written of him. Yes, exactly. When they had done everything that the Bible had predicted was going to be done. We're going to see a little bit more about that. It says they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. All of these things were predicted just moment by moment, the way that it weren't in verse 29 there. So it says they nailed him to the tree, they put him in a tomb, but God. That's always some of the best verse of scripture, right? When you got a good but God in there, but God raised him from the dead, because we see what Paul, the point Paul is making is that God was not absent from all of this, right? All of this was happening just as God knew that it would God in this moment, verse 30, God raised him from the dead.

And then as we got in the very beginning of Acts, right? He appeared to those for many days. Anybody remember how many days? 40 days. Yeah, just so happened, it was a nice clean 40, right? I mean, everything at the plan of God is so orderly, friends, you just look at the plan of history. It's all, all beautifully ordered. So it says for many days, that's 40 verse 31. He appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. Who are those people? Who did he appear to? He appeared to his disciples. He had appeared to his followers. He wanted them to see and it says, who are now his witnesses to the people? That word witness is the word that she used back in Acts chapter one, right? When the Holy Spirit comes, you will be my witnesses. And what is a witness? Yeah, they just tell what they've seen, right? If you had to testify in court, you just tell what you saw. And so that's who these witnesses were. So he says, he appeared to all of them who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. Now they're his witnesses. And then look at what he says, verse 32. And we bring you the good news.

And that what God promised to the fathers, he has fulfilled to us, fulfilled to us, their children. Think about that. He is tying all of this together for him to see, look, this good news, we are not telling you things that are taking away. We're telling you things that are fulfilling all that's been told. This is good news. They found it a threat. Why did they find Jesus so threatening? Right, because he was more popular than them. Okay, that's part of the problem. If we go all the way, if we get down and we didn't get there and we probably won't tonight, on down in here, that's what happens. The whole city gathers to hear the words of the Lord and the leaders are like, we don't like this. They're getting more attention than us. They liked the religious positions. They liked people to look up to them. And so what it says here is, this is good news to you, verse 32. Look at this. God made the promises to our fathers. And he kept the promises to us. You see that? I think that's so beautiful there. It's like, look, these are our parents. These are our ancestors.

He promised them and we, this is good news. could you miss it? Because Paul himself had been them, right? He'd been the one that missed it all together and he was trying to kill the Christians. And now once you see it, you can't unsee it, right? It's like, I want you to believe this with me. It says, we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, which are our fathers, he has fulfilled to us their children by doing what? Raising Jesus as also it is written in the second Psalm. And when it says the second Psalm, this is literally a quote from Psalm number two, which we could read the whole thing. We won't take time to do that, but Psalm number two is a very important Psalm pointing forward to the Savior. And what does it say? Somebody read just that little quote from Psalm two there. It's in our verse 33, but it's a quote from Psalm two. It starts with the word you. You're my son. Okay, let's just pause there for a minute. Again, that's Old Testament. This is written in the Psalms hundreds of years before. This is family language. I want you to think about this. The importance, the reason why Paul sticks this in right here, he is trying to make sure that these people understand Jesus is the son of the Father. Because they believe in the Father, right? The Jehovah God, yes, we're all for the Father, that we're just struggling to believe in the Son. So he's like, look, he's quoting the second Psalm, which look at that, who is speaking to whom in that verse? It says, you are my son, who is God's, who's speaking who? It is the Father speaking to the Son, right? Like I could look at my son and say, Jovary, you are my son. Because that's how we are related to one another, Father and Son. So this is, it's even when, can you imagine when David was penning this, what does this exactly mean that I'm writing inspired by the Holy Spirit? You are my son today, I have begotten you. What has begotten you? Bring forth, right? It's not created because Jesus wasn't created, right? Jesus has always been begotten, because this is a very common word, where do we hear that word begotten? John 3 16, right? We all grew up saying John 3 16, if you grew up in the church, but we probably thought, well, what is begotten? Jesus is the only begotten Son, because I'm looking around the room and I see a lot of other sons of God. I'm a son of God. I am an adopted son of God, okay? Just like Danielle and I do not have any begotten children. You understand? We have three adopted children. They're, they're as much of my children as your children are your children, but they came to us by adoption. It's a different way

of making a family, right? Not by blood. Jesus was begotten of the Father, and so that is what this important declaration from Psalm chapter 2 is all about, that when God raised Jesus from the dead, the Jesus that he raised from the dead is the Jesus who is the Son, the only Son, the unique capital S-O-N of the Father. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only, or his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So you can see here that that's an important point that Paul's trying to make. Look at verse 34, because he's going to keep going back to a couple of things. Now you're just going to see over and over and over and it's almost still a little bit redundant, but I think you're going to be able to make sense of why he says it again and again. As for the fact, verse 34, that he raised him from the dead. Now, didn't he just say that? He did. He just keeps saying it over and over. Verse 30, God raised him from the dead. Verse 34, as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to what? Corruption. He has spoken in this way. I will give you Jesus and Abraham, Jesus and David, Jesus and Old Testament, Jesus, he's trying to help them understand how Jesus is the fulfillment. He helps him see this and when he says that Jesus was raised from the dead no more to return to corruption, what does that mean no more to return to corruption? His body did not stay in the grave. We all know if the body stays dead what happens to the body? It decays. You cannot stop it, right? Because the only reason why our bodies are not decaying right now is because we have life in our bodies, right? And we don't have to do anything to make it happen but we have a pump right here that is pumping blood through all our extremities. The reason why you can feel that toe that's bothering you is because you've got nerve endings and all of those things. Your body is not seeing decay yet because you have life in your body but when a body dies it sees decay and that's what the word corruption is. We talked about this when we talked about the resurrection that Jesus being raised on the third day is important related to this. Does he mind remember why? It's when the body, they believe the body began to decompose on about day four. So it was important for them to see Jesus' body did not see corruption, okay? And he says then as for the fact that he raised him from the dead no more to return to corruption. He is spoken in this way, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. I'm just going to tell you I read this and I understand I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. That makes sense to me. I understand that. But I was having a hard time linking

why did the resurrection, how is the resurrection from the dead related to us receiving the holy and sure blessings of David? Does anybody think they know what the link is between those two? This is kind of a complex question I'm going to tell you. I kind of scratched my head for a while and I've tried to look at some different teachings on this. So the question again what is the link between Jesus being raised from the dead and why does that mean he could receive the holy and sure blessings of David? Yes he did. And he repeated it. Right. And God blessed him. That's right. He absolutely did. Maybe this will be an easier way to dissect this question. What are the holy and sure blessings of David? He said he would establish his kingdom that would last how long? Forever. I'd say that's pretty much the holy and sure blessing of David. Billy? He is a releasing of his power. I could not agree more. Great. Absolutely he is. Jesus was of the line of David. Yes there's no doubt about it. So as I understand it and as commentators and things that I looked at the point being made here is we could not the holy and sure blessings of David could not come if there was no resurrection. Okay you understand like the resurrection is the linchpin of the whole thing. Jesus could have taught wonderful things. He could have done a million miracles. He could have fed 40,000 people. But guys if he would have done all of that and not raised from the dead the blessings of David could not have come. Right. Because that's the hinge of everything for our faith is based on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It goes again in verse 35 and it says here the same thing. You see how he keeps saying this again and again. Therefore he says also in another psalm you will not let your holy one see corruption. So you see talked about this whole thing he was raised from the dead not to not to return to corruption. The holy and sure blessings of David came repeats it in another psalm. What is that psalm? Does somebody have the the note on that one? Psalm 16. Yes Psalm 16 in verse 10 because interestingly Peter so we've actually looked at Psalm 16 because Peter way back in Acts chapter 2 about a year ago. were right here in the room when we were there. Peter gives a really long sermon. I don't remember that sermon. It was the first Spirit filled sermon that had ever been preached except for the ones that Jesus preached. So here's Peter full of the Spirit and he pours out so much and we took several weeks on it just like what we're doing with this sermon because it's one of those really dense densely packed sermons. And in that sermon, Peter refers to Psalm 16 because this is a very important Psalm for understanding who Jesus was, the fact that Jesus raised from the dead not so

that he would not see corruption. Greg? Yes, that's right. That's right. Yes, that's right. That's right, Greg. Absolutely right. Yes. There's a couple of verses that I ended in. It said for since death came to a man and the resurrection of his age came also to a man and so in Adam all died but his price all were made alive. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah, yeah, we have no hope if there is no resurrection. Okay. It's why the Sadducees were so sad, you see, because they were, didn't believe in the resurrection, yes. He'd be another dead prophet. We got plenty of dead prophets, guys. We got plenty of, some of them were pretty good guys. He did some, did some okay things. So you see here, he did not see corruption and now I want you to see the contrast here. Look at verse 36, "O David, after he'd served the purpose of God in his own generation, he fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption." Was he what they're saying? He's tying it back to David. You know what, those holy ensure blessings of David? It's not because David was faultless because guess what? He lived in his generation, then they put his body in the grave and his body saw corruption. Melanie? That's why he's faultless. Yes. That's exactly, it can't be that, because David's line, it appears like, has ended, right? You know, David, David died, but exactly, that's the hope is that he's trying to reason with them. Paul, you may may see this, and as we go further in, especially as you get into Paul's writings like in the book of Romans, he has very complex arguments, right? He was a brilliant mind and we talked about that, but this one, he's trying to reason with them and help them to see it, but look, he says, "Oh, you know what, he was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption." How many times are he going to make this same point? I mean, he said it like five times, "Look, Jesus' body did not see corruption, let it be known to you therefore, brothers, 1st, 38, that through this man, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses, be where, therefore, lest what is said in the prophet should come about, look you scoffers, be astounded in parish. I'm doing a work in your days, a work you would not believe, even if one tells you, "Wow, do you see what he says here?" He's like, "It's for you, brothers." "This is our spiritual family," he says. "This was to come to you, and forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you through this man, through the God man, through Jesus." And look, verse 39, this is almost a, I almost feel like Paul is saying, "Look, everything that you could not be freed by the law of Moses, do you understand Jesus can free you from all of that legalism and all of that? I have to do A and B and C to be approved by God." He's like, "No, you can be totally freed the law of Moses." They esteem the law as the top of the top. It's like everything to them. And he says, "Look, Jesus can free you from things that the law of Moses never could." And then he gives them a warning. You might notice where it's from, verse 41. It's a quote from the Old Testament. Minor prophet, Habakkuk. Okay, that's one you probably hadn't done a lot of reading in, if I could guess. I liked it. Was it a few things? and kind of went to some of those, 'cause there's some really amazing stuff in the Minor Prophets. And this is one where he's looking at the Minor Prophets at which time this verse 41 was not about specifically the coming of Jesus. Anybody happen to know what it was about? In the time of Habakkuk, this was actually about the coming judgment when they were going to be, I want to be sure that I get it exactly right. This is when he spoke of the rise of Babylon and the judgment intended for Israel. That's what he's speaking of. He says, "Look, you scuffers, you're going to be astounded in prayers. I'm going to do something you would not even believe."

Like you can't imagine what's coming. Like Babylon is about to come in, it's going to be way worse than you think. But Paul uses it in a really interesting way. He's saying you don't want to be like that generation, that scoff that, "Oh, I don't believe any of that. God's not going to send judgment on us." He's saying, "Look, you scuffers, be astounded because God's going to do something." In fact, not just God is going to do something, but God has just done something and you didn't even believe it. You see how he uses that scripture which was about something else that was foretelling something that was coming that it actually makes sense in relation to that. It's an amazing scripture. And I've seen it used for prayer, like for motivation, for prayer, those last two verses. I'm doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe even if one tells you, but it really was about judgment, right? And so what he's saying is, look, there was a visitation. I mean, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, he came, the Messiah came and you didn't even recognize what God was doing. So that there is a judgment because you missed what God was doing. Guys, I don't ever want it to be said of me that I miss what God is doing in the generation

in which I live because I'm scuffing. Oh, God wouldn't do that. God couldn't bring those people to him. I mean, you know, he might bring these people, but not those people. Guys, we just want to be open to what God is doing. It's always going to be consistent with his word. Okay, God may be doing new things, what the scripture talks about. I'm behold, I'm doing a new thing. But guys, everything he does is just totally consistent with what he has always done. It might look a little different in one generation from another, but can't we see by now that God has fulfilled and is continuing to fulfill all of these promises? And so verse 42, we actually did get there. As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. Guys, they were like, can we please come back and talk more about this next week? And so that was the hope. And that's what we're going to do next week on next Tuesday. We will continue. And so I hope maybe you'll be begging for more and we'll continue. But guys, this is powerful stuff. I would say what is super important and what I hope that you can learn

as you learn from Paul and you learn from Peter and some of these others, is how to tell the story as one story. I promise I encourage you, practice that with a friend. It's just his story, right? History is his story, exactly. So I'm going to close in a word of prayer. We've got about five minutes left because I like for you guys to have a little face-to-face at your table. And my question to you at your table is what really stood out to you tonight? Like what did the Holy Spirit just really ring a bell or point out to you that you had not perhaps noticed exactly before? So let's pray together. Father, thank you again for your word. It's powerful. It is more than sufficient for what we need in our everyday God. I pray that we would not just be hearers, but that we would be doers of the word God. I pray that you would help us to be able to put together how the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament and how Jesus is the fulfillment of all that the prophets predicted that he would come and God let us not be scoffers. God let us instead welcome what you're doing in this generation.

Because you right now in 2026 are fulfilling the promises God. You are fulfilling every promise that you have made and God we will see it and I believe God. I hope and pray we can even see Jesus' return in our generation. But Lord your will be done, your kingdom come. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right guys. And Thanks again for joining us, verse by verse, through the Book of Acts. I hope that you have learned a lot. More importantly, I hope that you'll apply these things to your life this week. Share it with a friend. Great thing for you to just have some discussion with the other people around you, share the things that God is doing in your life. Again, remember the Bible is a book about God, far more than it is a book about us. So let's learn about him, let's grow to love him more and more. Here at United City, this is not the only thing that we have on the Pando app. We would love for you to follow some of our other content, watch some of our worship services, along with the music and the messages. As well as podcasts, we've got a lot of great content and we would love for you to follow that. And also, if you would like to be in touch with us

here at United City, the best way to do that is by writing us a letter. You can address that to prison ministry at United City Church, 1 9 9 0 1, Townsend Boulevard, UMBLE, Texas, 7 7 3 3 8. We'll read that, we'll pray for you and somebody will write you back. God bless you and we'll see you in the Word. [BLANK_AUDIO]