June 1, 2014
Scripture:
Let’s read Jude 11-13. These people are not saved. What a consequence! For us, the punishment is gone and we now remember the One who bore it for us. He didn’t bear it forever: it was three hours of suffering, bearing the waves and billows of judgement. He is so perfect that He could exhaust the judgement and bear it all away. He has brought us light and that light will be our eternal portion.
Hymn 26 – In rags and in ruins, without and within
Prayer
Luke 15:17 - 21
The prodigal son had come to his lowest point when he said, “I perish with hunger.” It was then that he thought of his father’s home, the place that he had turned his back on. Ever since he left home, things hadn’t gone well. He might have wondered if his family would ever accept him again, after what he did and how he looked. However, he thought it would be better to go home than to die in the pig pen. He said, “I will arise and go to my father.” He made a resolution to go back. He decided that the first thing he was going tell his father was that he had sinned. This is where Salvation begins, “if we confess our sin” (I John 1:9). Then he was going to ask his father if he could be a servant. He didn’t think that he was worthy to be in the place of a son.
Read v. 20. The son did what he resolved to do. He started home. Where do you think he met his father? At the door? At the garden gate? It says, “when he was yet a great way off.” I can just imagine that his father would look out each day and wonder if his son would ever come back. There is a story of a young man who ran away from home to ride the rails. One of the railways passed his family home and he expected to be riding by. He sent a letter to his family telling them that he would be passing by and if they wanted him to stop and come in, they should hang a handkerchief on the clothes line. The day came when he was to go by; as he neared his home, he probably wondered what he would see on the clothes line. When the clothesline came into view, he saw that is was filled with bed sheets. His family wanted him to come home and they accepted him back.
When we began this three part story, we said the first part with the sheep was about repentance. The second part with the silver was about redemption. This final part with the son is about reconciliation. The father saw the son when he was “a great way off.” Their relationship was mended and the son learned what the father’s heart was like. Next time, Lord willing, we will see what the father does.
Acts 13:16 - 43
Paul’s speech in this chapter is interesting and important because it’s the first recorded sermon that is for Gentiles as well as Jews. We’ve read how God used Peter to bring the Gentiles to salvation, and how Saul the Pharisee was saved. Now God has sent Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles. His sermon has a very Jewish flavour, but the Gentiles—at least proselytes—were included in it. He started speaking to the “Men of Israel” (v16.) but the message was for “whosoever among you feareth God” (v.26). That word “whosoever” was new for the gospel! This phase in Acts is one of transition from Judaism to Christianity, and we can learn a lot from it.
Paul quickly took his listeners through some of the Old Testament. He started in Exodus, and told how the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, suffered their manners in the wilderness, and then destroyed the nations in Canaan through Joshua. Then came the period of the judges, which ended with Samuel (the man between the judges and the kings), after which Saul was set up as the first king over Israel. After him, God raised up King David, a man after His own heart.
Paul linked the past to the present in this sermon. We are told that what happened in the past was written for our learning. With the mention of David we have the first mention of the word “raised” in the chapter. David was a special point in Israel’s history, and the word raised is a key word in this passage. God raised up certain people at different times to do His will. Another key word we find is “fulfilled.” The Gospel that we have is built upon prophecies—things like Isaiah 53 and the Psalms of David that Paul quotes here—that were fulfilled. No other religion can claim that.
Paul moved on to David’s seed and the gospel of today. God raised up Jesus as the Saviour of the world: the incarnation. Christ fulfilled prophecy as the son of David, and as such He was the man Christ Jesus.
Not only did God raise up Jesus as the Saviour, but He also raised Him from the dead when the Jews crucified Him (v. 30). Jesus being raised in incarnation is referred to once more in v. 33 (the word “again” shouldn’t be there), and we get the resurrection again in verse 37: Christ was raised again so as not to see corruption. It’s all linked together.
Vv. 24 - 27. As did so much else, John—the voice crying in the wilderness—fulfilled prophecy. So did the Jews—who had all this prophecy and read it every Sabbath day—by condemning the Lord. However, as a result of their evil, the Gospel now goes out to whosoever will.
When the Jews had fulfilled all that was prophesied about Jesus’ crucifixion, they took his body down and buried it. We have Christ’s condemnation, crucifixion, and resurrection here, and can see how God orchestrated all of it. The Jews didn’t fulfill prophecy; He fulfilled it through them.
Hymn 338 — I love my Saviour, my precious Saviour
Prayer