Forgiveness Of Sins Is Proclaimed To You

Don Bunce died a couple of weeks ago. He was a classmate of mine and an old friend. Don was a local football hero in his high school and college days. He led Stanford to an unexpected Rose Bowl victory. He went on to become a prominent physician in the community. He took good care of himself, yet he died unexpectedly of heart failure at age fifty-four.

Leslie and I went to the memorial service last Thursday at Stanford Memorial Church. The place was packed with hundreds of people. We were on one of the side balconies very high up, and as I was looking down on the congregation below and observing the events, I couldn’t help but think of Jesus’ reaction to the crowds who gathered around him: he felt compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36; Mark 6:34). He saw people with unfulfilled hopes and longings and no sure knowledge of where to go for help. The people at the memorial service were successful, educated, elite by most standards. But one like them had died too young, without warning. Concern about death was in the air. We were gathered in a church with beautiful stained glass windows depicting Bible stories, visual evidence of the gospel message. Yet there was no shepherd for the congregation. A clergy person offered vague prayers and recited watery religious language. There were occasional moments of uninspired music that had no meaning. Half a dozen eulogies extolled a life well lived, drawing these conclusions: Don was successful, caring, and much admired. We should cherish our memories and celebrate life. That was the extent of what was offered by voice after voice.

There was one exception. Don’s son Cameron, twenty-two years old and a senior at the University of California, stood to speak of his father. Cameron came to Christ in junior high school when a friend invited him to a weekend event at Hume Lake. Against some tough odds and with the help of caring friends, Cameron has grown in Christ in years since. He spoke clearly, easily, beautifully of his father. He loved him very much and respected him tremendously. Don Bunce raised Cameron and his sister as a single parent, their mother having died sixteen years earlier. Now this young man was standing there as an orphan, bereft of both parents. But he was grateful and hopeful, not because of a vague enthusiasm for the strength of the human spirit, but because he knew the Savior who had conquered death, and because he believed the Scriptures. He spoke clearly of both in a setting where no one else would speak to those who needed a shepherd. Cameron was given a spontaneous, loud, long, ovation, although there was no response of any kind for the others who spoke.

The scene I’ve just described has similarities to the scene we are going to read about in the text of Acts 13. Another congregation gathered with some hope that truth might be spoken, that life-changing news could be imparted, and at the end of that occasion there was something like an ovation. Paul the apostle spoke to a synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia, and here is what happened at the end of Paul’s sermon, in Acts 13:42-44:

What Paul said made enough difference to people that they responded immediately and brought back greater crowds the following week. I hope we will be stirred with the power of the gospel as we consider this account.

Let’s read verses 13-16, which will set the scene a bit before we look at the message itself.

The burden of the love of Christ

Let’s recall the context of these events. In the last message (Discovery Paper 4759) we studied the first part of chapter 13, the beginning of the first missionary journey. It’s an important point of demarcation. For the first time Christians were sent by a church, who laid hands upon them, at the direction of the Holy Spirit, to go with the gospel to the lost. This strategy went beyond giving testimonies in reaction to events that stirred up questions. They were to take the message not knowing at all what they would find. They were simply to go with the burden of the love of Christ. Paul would later say he was controlled by the love of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14). He could not help himself. “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16).

The geography is worth noting at this point. It says they sailed from Paphos to Perga and then traveled to Antioch of Pisidia. I mentioned in the last message that the trip to Cyprus, where they went first, was not particularly difficult. Both Barnabas and Mark, two of the three people on this trip, were from Cyprus. We can assume they had relatives there and would be welcomed.

But now they are going through much more difficult country. They have gone onto the mainland, to cities that are more lawless and unsafe, to a plateau in the foothills at an elevation of about thirty-five hundred feet. The roads are difficult. There are robbers and other dangers.

The region of this Antioch (not the city of the same name where they began their journey) and some of the other cities we will come to in the next couple of messages was known as Galatia. Paul’s letter to the Galatians, one of the earliest books of the New Testament, was written to the believers in these cities. Paul says in Galatians 4:13, “It was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time….” There is scholarly debate about this verse, but the best guess is that Paul probably contracted malaria or some other significant illness. It is thought that one of the reasons he left the region of the coast where Perga was and traveled some distance to Antioch was that the climate there was a little better, and he would have a better chance of recovering.

We are told that John Mark has left the team, deserted them (that word is used later in the story). This observation again underscores the courage of Barnabas and Paul, at least one of whom is probably very sick, as they continue on the journey.

There is every reason to believe that these men are lonely, having come to a place where no one would welcome them or know them. They have come with only the compelling love of God for unbelievers.

In verse 16 there is a small point worth noting. It says that Paul motions with his hand and then speaks. The synagogue would meet every Saturday and visitors were often invited to speak, especially if they had credentials as a trained rabbi, as Paul did. But I wonder if Paul motions before he speaks because he is unable to project his voice, because he has been feverish and weak. We can imagine he would have difficulty thinking clearly. He stands there, perhaps at times leaning on Barnabas so he can stay on his feet, and begins to tell these people about how much Jesus loves them, and about the purpose of God now fulfilled for them.

The last point on background regards the nature of the synagogue itself. (We will speak more about synagogues later on in this series.) The synagogue system, found throughout all of the Jewish dispersion, had a unique genius. The synagogue was a place where Jews gathered to affirm their own story, to read the Bible, pray. But it was also a place, unlike the temple, where Gentiles were welcome to listen and learn. So there are those whom Paul addresses here as God-fearers. This is a technical term for Gentiles who have grown heart-weary of the wicked idolatry they were raised with and of the violence of the Roman world, and have gathered to “listen in” as the Bible is read and taught. The status of “proselyte” is the most they can ever hope for; they will never become Jews completely and many of them not even proselytes. The Scriptures and prayers of the Jews had created a longing for God among those who would always be outsiders, not invited to the banquet.

So Paul in his weakened voice and with wobbly frame begins to address Jews and God-fearing Gentiles. But in this telling of the truth of God no one needs to remain outside.

I am certain that we live in a world that is much more like that than we sometimes believe. Those who take the Bible literally are used to ridicule. We are seen as contemptible. We get used to haughty rejection, claims of the superiority of science and higher learning, and a glorying in the false freedom of immorality. Perhaps we don’t realize how often our detractors have been hurt somewhere along the line, lied to, burned by false teachers; how they wanted to know God at some point and couldn’t find a way. Many of them still wish they could get into the banquet. Les and I sat in that memorial service and watched a room full of people break into applause because a young man spoke of hope based in faith. These were elite, sophisticated, dismissive people, but they had been reminded that fifty-four-year-olds can die unexpectedly. The gospel still resounds in settings like these.

The gospel proclaimed

This message is filled with history. It’s even a bit technical, with references to fulfillment of prophecies from the Psalms and elsewhere. It’s very much like Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost. It’s also like Stephen’s sermon on the day of his martyrdom, in which he told the long history of his people and how God was at work. There is benefit in studying this in detail, but we are not going to be able to do that in this message. However, I do want to make some points about a few particulars.

First, God is the sovereign of all the events of history. Events occur because he decides they will. People are raised up or put down at his choice. He is the Lord of history going back hundreds of years before Rome was established, before the language of the Greeks was spread around the known world, before the mystery religions were established. The Lord God of Israel is completely without rival.

Second, we can see that though this is a recounting of historical facts, all of the recorded events are pointing to something, anticipating a great day to come. The exodus, the freeing of the slaves, is referenced here. The exodus anticipates the day when the enslaving power of sin will be broken. There is a reference to kings’ being raised up, first Saul and then David, because David would someday have a son who would be the great King, the Lord of lords and King of kings. As Paul tells the story, we keep anticipating what is to come. Israel’s history was designed to make us wish for its climax.

Third, Paul tells the events of Jesus’ story. He begins with John the Baptist, the last of the prophets who came and pointed to Jesus. Then he tells how Jesus entered Jerusalem and should have been worshiped, but they didn’t recognize him and they killed him. But his death and resurrection had been predicted. Each of these events served the purpose of God. Jesus died as a sacrifice, not as a victim.

Forgiveness and freedom

Look again at verses 39-41, which is probably the most useful text for our sakes: “Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you….” Forgiveness of sins can become too familiar; we can hear of it as if it were common and routine. But we should never let that occur. You will hear nothing greater in your lifetime than the certain word of one who speaks in the name of Jesus and says, “Your sins are forgiven. You don’t carry the burden any longer. There will never again be anything about you that causes God to recoil from you. Whatever failures you may experience in the future, your sins are forgiven.” That word is proclaimed again and again. It is a glorious word. So let me reinforce it again: You are welcome at the banquet! The door is open!

Another word of application in verse 38 is that through Jesus, everyone who believes is freed from all the things they could not be freed from through the Law of Moses. The failures that have made your life terrible, that you’ve struggled with over and over again, the patterns that are grievous to you, don’t have to remain. The chains of bondage can be broken.

William Bennett, the author of the Book of Virtues (1), has been in the news recently. He advocates that children especially, as well as others in our culture, read good literature and be presented with the best possibilities that promote good living and right thinking. The reason he has been in the news recently is that it came to light that he is probably a gambling addict. I admire a lot about William Bennett, and I think his political advocacy is important. I don’t think that he ever claimed not to be a gambling addict, so I’m not sure anybody should say he is a hypocrite. But what struck me is this: It is a good idea for a culture or a family or an individual to read good literature rather than defiling material. It is good to be presented with hopeful versions of being human rather than wrecked versions. But neither the Law of Moses nor the Book of Virtues can change your life. In the long run, holding up what it means to be good is not enough. We need somebody who can forgive us of our sins and break the chains, as Jesus does. So to find out that someone who can put together a book about good living is himself addicted to something that he ought not be, assuming that is the case, shouldn’t surprise us, because wanting to be better or declaring that people ought to be better doesn’t change anyone.

That’s what made Paul’s sermon so powerful. They had heard the Law of Moses over and over again in the synagogue, and now they were hearing that God had sent the Savior for people like them. It was the best possible news.

The last point in this is a warning to take heed and not miss out. Any good message has to end with that. Basically Paul is saying, “You can either hear this and walk away, or you can hear it and believe it. There have always been scoffers. Don’t be like them.”

Do you remember the familiar old gospel song I Love to Tell the Story (2)? There is a day coming when we are going to sing a new song in heaven, and it’s going to be the old story of Jesus and his love. Paul stood there trying to say it so people could believe it, because they needed it, because everywhere there were sheep without a shepherd. Even in those who are hardened there is a longing that someone would care. And there is no other way for that to happen except Jesus and his love.

Scripture quotations are taken from New American Standard Bible, ã 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

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