Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We're glad you joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig exists to connect you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times through verse by verse teaching of His Word. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others on air and online. Before we begin the program, we want to let you know that you can keep in touch and in the know about what's happening at Connect with Skip Heitzig when you sign up for email updates. When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email to instruct and inspire you in God's Word each week. So sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Back to what he said and what he did.
So he looks at a guy really intently goes, Oh, you son of the devil. Whoa, question. Think about it. Honestly, was he harsh? Because it sounds like it. Think if you tried that today, if I tried, let's say I'm talking to somebody after church and I said, You son of the devil. I'm sure the crowd listening around me would say, What's up with Heitzig? That dude is acting gnarly tonight.
Did he like eat something weird or what? I mean, that's harsh. But before you say Paul is harsh, you're going to have to you'd have to also say Jesus was harsh. Jesus who overturned tables and took a cord and made a whip out of it and drove people out of the temple in Jerusalem.
That's harsh. Jesus who in Matthew 13 time and time again said, Whoa, do you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. Or like Jesus in John Chapter 8, who said that you are children of the devil, same kind of phrasing, whose works you do. That doesn't happen to be the truth, because anytime you deceive a person or turn a person away from the truth, that is exactly what Satan wants.
Anything or anyone that tries to keep people from hearing truth can technically become an agent of Satan. So what's interesting about this guy is his name. Bar Jesus means son of Jesus. Not that that had any connotation to Christianity, but it's an interesting name that he's called the son of Jesus, but Paul calls him the son of the devil. So you can have a name that you're a Christian, but not really be one is my point.
In Revelation Chapter 3, Jesus writes a little postcard to the church at Sardis, and he says something very fascinating. You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. He says that to a church.
You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. This guy had a good name, son of Jesus. Oh, would to God that he was a child of God.
Paul said, not true. So now he says in verse 11, and I know I'm kind of creeping through this, and now indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you, not in a good way. Like, boy, the hand of the Lord is upon that guy.
That sounds good, but not here. It's a bad hand of the Lord upon you. And you shall be blind, not seeing the son for a time. Now, I wonder why Paul said that. If he decided to say that, if he could decide what the punishment will be, or if the Lord said, tell him this. But why would Saul tell a man who's turning somebody away from the faith, okay, just for that, you're going to be blind for a while?
Here's why I believe. Of all people, Paul, Saul, knew the power of darkness. Meaning, on the road to Damascus, he saw the Lord. He was blinded for a few days.
He couldn't see anybody. He had to be led by the hand. In that blind situation where he couldn't be distracted by anything visual, he was just sort of shut off from the world. His mind and his heart could think. And it was a powerful time.
Those three days of blindness for Saul were powerful moments. He knew the power of a situation like that. So he thought, I think it was a merciful act. And so he had to have someone lead him by the hand as well. Verse 12, then the proconsul believed.
Bingo, pay dirt. That's the glory. The proconsul believed when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord. He heard the teaching and he saw the effect of the miracle and the miracle equated to the teaching. So all of that together was the power of the teaching of the Lord. Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia.
Just go up, take the boat north on the Mediterranean Sea and you'll hit the southern coast of Turkey today in ancient times, Pisidia. And went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he sat down. Oh, verse 13.
Look at this. When Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia and John, that's John Mark, departing from them returned to Jerusalem. Now we've got to just look at this because this is going to come up again. And it's going to become a sticking point to this missionary team for a long time. John Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, is with them. He's their assistant. He was called a few verses earlier.
It means an under rower, somebody who would help out doing whatever. So he went from Antioch in Syria, went over to Cyprus with Uncle Barney or his cousin Barney and Saul Paul. Now they're going to another place and he decides, I'm out of here.
I'm not going to continue with you and be your assistant. I'm going back home to Jerusalem. The question is why? Why does John Mark leave them? We don't know. Don't necessarily think the worst, but we just don't know.
Can I give you a couple of possibilities? Possibility number one, he was not too excited that Saul of Tarsus, now known as Paul, is sort of upstaging cousin Barney. And he is seeing a change in the leadership and he takes umbrage to it. He didn't want to support it. He's not going to be part of that.
As long as Barney is in charge, he'll be part of it, but not this guy. That's a possibility. Number two possibility, he's a Jewish believer. He's already been stretched, seeing the gospel go to Jewish slash partly Gentile people, guys like Cornelius, et cetera. But now just to do this whole Gentile adventure and preach the gospel of grace without having to be Jewish or keep the law, that could have been a little too much for his Jewish sensitivities to handle. Number three, he was sick. Maybe he got ill, didn't want to go any further because Perga, Pamphylia, that Antioch of Pisidia that we're looking at was known for carrying malaria in ancient times. And in fact, Paul the apostle does get sick, we believe, around this time on his first missionary journey.
How do we know that? Well, in Galatians chapter 4 around verse 13, he says, the reason I preached the gospel to you is because I got sick when I was there. So maybe he had some sort of sickness like malaria that brought on severe headaches, eye aches, because he talks about you would have plucked out your own eyes and give them to me in Galatians. So it could be that Paul was starting to already get sick. He's going into malaria territory. John Mark didn't want to be a part of that, so he just bails out.
Here's another possibility. He's homesick. He misses mom. Maybe his mom's a widow.
Don't be too hard on him. His mom could have been a widow. We know that the church met in her home.
We looked at that last time. So he wants to go back home and care for his widowed mother. That's a possibility because her husband isn't mentioned. Whatever the reason is, though, good or bad, Paul doesn't look at it as good. Paul looks at it as really, really bad. Now, I think you need to know this because this is going to create a rift with Barnabas and John Mark for years that will not be resolved until later on in the ministry of Paul when he's like on his deathbed. But if you look at verse 13, there's a simple word. It says that John, departing, notice the word departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. The word is apakoreo, which simply means he left.
It means nothing more than that. However, turn with me to chapter 15. So this will make sense, especially when we read through chapter 15. This is after the first missionary trip is done.
They're thinking about number 2, verse 36 of chapter 15. Then after some days, Paul said to Barney, let's go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing. Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark. But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And the contention became so sharp that they, Paul and Barnabas, parted company from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus.
But Paul chose Silas and departed being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. Now look at verse 38. And notice in that verse the word departed.
Do you see it? That's a different word. That's a Greek word, aphistemi, which means to revolt or to rebel against.
Okay, it's somebody who runs away. That's the word Paul uses to describe the simple leaving of chapter 13. Paul says he's revolted.
He's deserted us. So whatever it was, Paul sees it as a desertion and not following through. Whether that was a weakness on John Mark's case or on Paul's case, I'm not going to pass judgment. Just so you know that whatever reason it was, Paul took this very personally.
And it won't be resolved for quite some time. So they departed. We've covered 13 verses. Verse 14 back in Acts 13. But when they departed from Perga and they came to Antioch and Pisidia, they went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. This is what he does. And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogues sent to them saying, Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation to the people, say on.
Now this is cool. And this is why Paul went to the synagogue. There was a liturgy service in every synagogue. It began with the Shema. Deuteronomy 6, 4, hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
They declared that. Shema Yisrael, Adonai Ocha, Adonai Elo, that was just part of their service. Followed by, after the Shema, the prayer. After the prayer, the reading of the law and the haftorah as they call it, different portions of Scripture, they would have the reading.
Followed by a section where it would be commented on either by the leader in the synagogue and then a visiting rabbi or just a visiting rabbi. Paul was a visiting rabbi. Paul, come on up here, man.
Share with us an encouraging word from the Lord. Okay, so why is this cool? Because we have now the first recorded, written down sermon of Paul the Apostle.
And it's big. I mean, the whole thing's written down, presumably. So if you want to study the preaching of Paul, study this sermon. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, we want to help you learn more about God's radical love for all people by sending you four booklets by Skip Heitzig that will encourage you in God's abounding love and challenge you to love even the unlovable, just like Jesus did. This resource is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share solid biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copies when you give at least $50 today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Now, let's get back to the teaching with Pastor Skip. It's him preaching the gospel, and it can even be outlined. I've looked at it, and I can see the breakdown of it. I could actually outline it. I don't want to presume to give Paul an outline, but I see an outline here where he begins by talking about the anticipation of the Messiah in Jewish history, followed by the action of the Messiah in coming, in dying, in rising, followed by the application and appeal to the crowd.
It's a very easy format, kind of a one, two, three punch, maybe a one, two, three, four punch. But it's cool because it's his first recorded sermon, and it seems to be in totality. So with that, let's see how we do. Verse 14. Oh, no, I already read the verse 16. Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, said, men of Israel, and you who fear God, that is Gentiles God fears who haven't fully converted. Listen, he says, the God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt.
And with an uplifted arm, he brought them out of it. Now, for a time of about 450 years, he put up with their ways in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he distributed their land to them by allotment. After that, he gave them judges for about 450 years until Samuel, the prophet. Now, by the way, when he talks about 450 years, he's counting 400 years in Egypt, 40 years in the wilderness, 10 years conquering and settling the land to the time of the judges. And afterward, they asked for a king, so God gave them Saul, whom he was named after, by the way, since he's of that tribe, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin.
Saul of Tarsus was also a Benjamite for 40 years. And when he had removed him, he raised up for them David as king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will. From this man's seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a savior, Jesus. After John first preached before his coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And John was finishing his course, he said, Who do you think I am?
I am not he, but behold, there comes one after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to lose. So that's the first part of his sermon, the anticipation for the Messiah. Now what Paul does here, you should know, was something the Jews were fond of hearing. It's called historical retrospection.
They would often rehearse their own history to other people, to other Jews. Psalm 107 is a great example. There's a couple of Psalms that do that. Psalm 94 and Psalm 107. But anyway, so they talk about their history.
Why? To encourage them. God worked in the past. God's going to work in the present. God's going to work in the future.
They would always tell their story from one generation to the next. He's employing that. By the way, Stephen did the same thing, chapter 7, right? When he preached, he went through a whole litany of their history, more detailed even than he does. Verse 26. Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not know him, nor even the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning him. His second point is the action of the Messiah. This is what Jesus did, this is how he was received, and this is how he was treated by people who read the Bible. He was maltreated and killed by Bible students. Okay, so he's trying to get their attention.
I think he's quite successful at it. You meet here every week in the synagogue and you read the Scriptures. So did the people in Jerusalem. But they killed the very one the prophets spoke about.
So you can have a full head and an empty heart. Jesus said, you search the Scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal life, but these are they which testify of me. So he's saying they ignored that testimony. Verse 28, and though they found no cause for death in him, they asked Pilate that he should be put to death. And when they fulfilled all that was written concerning him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead.
Now in New Testament preaching, in the sermons in the book of Acts, this is the common thread of all New Testament biblical preaching by Peter, by Paul, by all, by y'all, by them all. The resurrection. The resurrection is the capstone in the arch of Christianity.
Remove it, the whole thing collapses. You have a dead Savior, does no one any good. The resurrection is a necessity for there to be any victory over sin and death and promise for eternal life. So it's always central to, but God raised him from the dead. Atoning death, resurrection. That's the gospel, part of the gospel. And according to Paul, it is the validity that the redemption found in the death of Jesus Christ is real. And if somebody dies, oh, he died, and because he died, we're saved.
Well, you could say that about anybody, but the guy that rises from the dead, he gets the A on the test, right? He's the one, but God raised him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people, and we declare to you glad tidings, gospel. That promise which was made to the fathers, God has fulfilled for us their children. In that he has raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken thus, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Therefore, he also says in another Psalm, you will not allow your holy one to see corruption. So he's quoting lots of scripture, and again, he's just standing up, because he was asked, he's probably collecting thoughts because he knows the custom in the synagogue, but he's just, he's fired up, he's ready to go, and it's saturated with scripture. If you want God to use you, know as much of the Bible as you possibly can.
Then God has something to work with, and you'll be in a situation lying at Starbucks, on a construction site, in the OR at the hospital, and God can use you to speak into the lives of people the truth of God, because it's part of your life. For David, after he served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, that is, he died, kicked the bucket, but was buried with his fathers, and he saw corruption. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you.
Behold, you despisers, marvel and perish. I will work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you. There's a little too much for me to really do justice to that, so I'm going to save that for next time, but Paul, being an intelligent man, brings up a very important issue because it would become a concern. It would become an accusation, and that is, if you go back in verse 31, Jesus was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem who are his witnesses to the people.
Now, he addresses a very important issue. It will become an issue, especially in psychiatric circles in years to come. When people will say, as an explanation for the resurrection, Jesus never rose from the dead, people had hallucinations that he rose from the dead. And I don't know if you've spent much time with people in the mental health world, but I know people have seen a lot of things. I saw a lot of things for different reasons in my before Christ days, usually hallucinogenic drugs, but I saw things, and they were hallucinations. People have seen for a number of reasons hallucinations. People say, these people just saw hallucinations, that explains the resurrection. It does not because any psychiatrist worth his or her salt will tell you that hallucinations happen under certain cases to certain types of people, usually who are very imaginative and high strung for a number of reasons, and I told you my own reasons. But one of the things hallucinations don't do is happen the same way to a whole bunch of differently disposed people.
So you have Thomas a doubter, you have Peter who's astonished, you have Mary at the tomb weeping and other women who are weeping, you have the road to Emmaus' disciples who are just down and discouraged. All different emotional states, Jesus appears to them. Not only that, 1 Corinthians will tell us that Jesus appeared to over or to 500 people at one time. And any mental health expert will tell you, a group of people don't get a hallucination.
If 500 people at one time see the same thing, something happened. That's an event, not a hallucination. So when he's talking about the resurrection, it's as if he's anticipating what some will have as a false explanation for the resurrection.
It can't be a hallucination. It is a resurrection. Jesus is alive right now. We're glad you listened today and hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resource, the Jesus Loves Them bundle, which comes as thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your bundle when you call and give 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. We'll see you next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
