Okay, so if I get the opportunity to explain the gospel to a new believer, what do I say? Where do I start? Perhaps you think you need to testify to your own experience of grace, telling about how God has changed your life in a profound way. But Paul takes a completely different tack, failing to discuss his dramatic conversion experience. And while he does say that there were many witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus (v. 31), he doesn’t even bother to mention his personal vision of Jesus in a blinding light on the Damascus Road (9:3-4)
Instead, Paul doesn’t say anything that we couldn’t say ourselves. For he keeps his focus on Jesus, making it clear that He was a real person Who really was executed by His enemies, regardless of His innocence (v. 28), and Who really did rise from the dead (v. 30). No, in spite of what the unbelieving world continues to think, Jesus is not just a figment of someone’s imagination. No, what we believe about Him isn’t a matter of opinion – it’s a matter of well documented, historical fact.
And the real life and real resurrection of Jesus is critical for everyone to acknowledge. For He is, in fact, the fulfillment of thousands of years of Old Testament prophecy, stretching all the way back to the time of Abraham and Moses (v. 17). He is, in fact, the Son of David, the Messiah Whom God promised would save His people (v. 23). But Jesus didn’t come to be a political leader, or to change the material circumstances of His people in this world, in spite of what so many people want the Church to do these days.
Instead, Jesus came to change the way we live, to bring us to repentance (v. 24), and to save us from the consequences of our sins (v. 38). If we trust in Him as our Savior and bow the knee to Him as our Lord, we are justified by God, declared righteous in His sight (v. 39). But if we reject Him and despise Him, we will perish on the Day of Judgment (v. 41).
No, the gospel isn’t primarily about us, our experiences and our feelings. And it isn’t about changing the way the world works. No, such personal and political changes are simply byproducts of individuals and cultures surrendering to the Person and Work of Jesus. So, let’s keep the focus on Him in the way we live our lives and in the way we tell others the good news. For at the end of the day, it’s all about Jesus.
Acts 13:13-41 (ESV)
13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem,
14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.
15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.”
16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen.
17 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.
18 And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.
19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance.
20 All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet.
21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.
22 And 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.’
23 Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.
24 Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.
25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’
26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation.
27 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.
28 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed.
29 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.
30 But God raised him from the dead,
31 and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.
32 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers,
33 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.’
34 And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’
35 Therefore he says also in another psalm, “‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’
36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption,
37 but he whom God raised up did not see corruption.
38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you,
39 and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.
40 Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about:
41 “‘Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.'”
