Acts 13:13-25

God’s Gracious Family Story        

September 1, 2002

Family gatherings are fun if for no other reason than the remembering and retelling stories. When the Vogel family gathers and the siblings are sitting around, it doesn’t take long for someone to say, “Do you remember when…” and soon the anecdotes of years past are relived, sometimes embellished. Hardly a gathering goes by without some reference to being chased by the shark in the Sea of Cortez, or my father boasting that he could handle his new car on the country road, saying, “Boys I know this road like the back of my …” only to hit the breaks and roll the car on its side as he missed the turn. No Vogel family gathering would be complete unless someone began to recite a routine from Monte Python.

When families gather together they tell stories of the past. At times they may be embarrassing, such as the time when a sibling uttered imprudent words during a pastoral visit or climbed out of the tub and ventured onto the street. Yet these stories are often harmless and elicit laughter rather than discomfort.

While all families have those skeletons in their closets, those terrible incidents and painful episodes are left for Jerry Springer or a counselor’s office. They are not shared publicly. But the bad memories still causes pain, still torment with hurtful words or misdeeds done.

Interestingly, God’s Word is replete with stories of heroes’ follies and foibles. But not only are the events mentioned, they are retold with sufficient regularity that we can not forget that our spiritual ancestors have clay feet. From our first parents rebellion against God to Peter’s denial of Jesus, God’s Word does not mince words about the sinful past of our forebearers.

I can imagine Adam growing weary of having to tell for the umpteenth time how he disobeyed God and ruined life for the rest of humanity, and this done sans apparel. Abraham’s proclivity for passing his wife off as his sister to any king who intimidated him or bedding the concubine would not be the kind of story I would relish being told as the potato salad is passed at the family reunion. A family’s immorality is not often the topic for genealogies, but time and again the Bible reminds us that even the line of Christ is comprised of incest, prostitution, adultery and murder.

Our passage this morning reminds us once again that God’s grace works with rebellious people. For us to understand that we are a part of God’s family, accepted us as his own, adopted as his children, we are told those family stories which would otherwise embarrass us. But in God’s Word, these stories do not cause us to question our Father’s love, but to relish his marvelous, forgiving grace.

In Acts 13 Paul and Barnabas have embarked on the first missionary journey into the heart of the Gentile world. They go with the confidence that the gospel of God’s grace will change those who see their own sin and look to Christ as their only hope. Having been sent out from Antioch in Syria, they transverse the island of Cyprus and head north to Asia Minor, modern day Turkey, going from town to town in search of those who wish to hear this message. In Acts 13 they enter another town named Antioch and are soon invited to preach at the synagogue. This morning we’ll examine the first part of Paul’s sermon. READ Acts 13:13-25.

Having left Barnabas’ native island of Cyprus, they now enter Paul’s backyard, Asia Minor, not far from Tarsus. Interestingly, Luke records event which Paul has hard time forgetting – the departure of John.

In a day and age when people write tell-all exposés, surprising little information is given as to why John Mark left Barnabas and Paul. We know from 15:38 that John’s departure still infuriated Paul. Yet Luke is tight-lipped (tight penned?), not giving us details, leaving us to speculate as to the reasons.

• Scholars speculate that John Mark may have been homesick, missing his mother, Mary, her spacious Jerusalem home with the servants attending to his needs.
• Others point to the timing of his departure as connected with the change of leadership. No longer his cousin Barnabas is given top billing, but now this upstart Paul is listed first.
• He may have become uncomfortable with the implications of the gospel in reaching the Gentiles, as their obviously sinful lifestyles were not the issue of Paul’s message, but the completed work of Christ.
• The long hard trek over the Tarsus Mountains, the roads infested with bandits along the way may have elicited fear.

But at the end of the day, we just don’t know why, only that it upset Paul. Interesting, though, in a passage that focuses on the sins of Israel, John’s own sin is alluded to with little comment. As we will see in the opening of Paul’s sermon, God’s grace poured out on sinners is to be our focus.

After John leaves them, they enter the city of Antioch, a common name for a town in that part of the world. When the Sabbath day arrived, the leaders of the synagogue invited them to speak. What Luke describes here gives us an insight into the worship of Hellenistic Jewish worship.

The Diaspora synagogue was more than a house of worship. It was the hub of Jewish community: the center of education, justice, social gathering place, and general civic center. If one wished to make contact with the Jewish community in a town, the synagogue was the natural place to begin.

Rabbis described the elements of worship as including: 1) the recitation of the Shema; 2) prayers (the Tefillah); 3) the priestly blessing; 4) reading from the Torah; 5) reading from the prophets; 6) a sermon 7) concluding benediction.

Luke mentions the two readings in v15 and that the rulers of the synagogue requested Paul and Barnabas to give a word of exhortation.

The ruler or president of the synagogue was a chief elder responsible for the upkeep of the building and the organization of the service.  The message given was often a distillation from the two readings, seeking to show how they relate to one another. Scholars have sought to speculate from Paul’s sermon which passages those may have been, but such a task is the product of pure guesswork. But Paul does use the Old Testament to explain how the God of Israel brought the Savior to Israel just as he had promised. Paul’s sermon illustrates what we mean by Christ-centered preaching.

Paul reviews the history of the nation Israel from the time of its choosing by God—the days of Abraham—to the time of David’s enthronement. This review underscores God’s sovereignty and Israel’s sin, God’s faithfulness and Israel’s failures. The subject here is God, he is the central figure in this retelling. The focus is not on Israel’s failures, but their sinfulness is the context for God’s grace to shine out more brightly.

While we won’t go line-by-line of Israel’s ancient history, Acts 13 gives us a good overview of how God graciously worked despite our sin.

God is gracious in our rescue    v17

God’s gracious rescue is his own initiative

Paul reminds his Jewish hearers, as well as the God-fearers, those Gentiles interested in the God of Israel, that the first move in our salvation is all of God. God chose our fathers; Paul reminds them. This important first step sets the tone for the rest of the sermon. God made the first move.

There is a mistaken notion that to discuss election is first not a good move in an evangelistic message, as it is viewed today as some hot button to be avoided. But Paul begins with election for concept is one that should cause us to weep for joy rather than wrangle over doctrine. God’s choice of us, God’s initiative in our rescue from sin means is not a reason for spiritual pride. Election takes the spotlight off of us and keeps it on God. Election is about God’s grace poured out on unworthy people. To deny election is to demean grace.

God’s gracious rescue is by his own strength

What God started, God continued to do. Those whom God had chosen, he also made them great and that in the most unlikely of places – Egypt.

In order to magnify God’s power, God’s grace in making people his own, God increased their numbers while they were slaves in Egypt. It is one thing to grow when times are good, but to do so when they’re bad is a reminder who is in charge.

For you to brag about your wise investments during the 90’s would attract little attention. But if you’ve doubled the value of your portfolio during the last two years, you would have reason to say that God was watching over you.

All this points to God’s grace poured out on people. Yet the grace God gives to his family exceeds that which is expected in human. Unfortunately there are times in families, when those joined together not on the basis of performance, but by God’s providence, that ungrace is seen.

Philip Yancey in his book What's So Amazing About Grace? describes a story by Ernest Hemingway whose own troubled family life revealed his longing for this kind of gracious rescue. In the story a Spanish father decides to reconcile with his son who had run away to Madrid. Now remorseful, the father takes out this ad in the newspaper: "PACO MEET ME AT HOTEL MONTANA NOON TUESDAY ALL IS FORGIVEN PAPA." Paco is a common name in Spain, and when the father goes to the square he finds eight hundred young men named Paco waiting for their fathers. Hemingway knew about the ungrace of families.

His devout Christian parents detested Hemingway's libertine life, and after a time his mother refused to allow him in her presence. One year for his birthday, she mailed him a cake along with the gun his father had used to kill himself. Another year she wrote him a letter explaining that a mother's life is like a bank. "Every child that is born to her enters the world with a large and prosperous bank account, seemingly inexhaustible." The child, she continued, makes withdrawals but no deposits during all the early years. Later, when the child grows up, it is his responsibility to replenish the supply he has drawn down. Hemingway's mother then proceeded to spell out all the specific ways in which Ernest should be making "deposits to keep the account in good standing": flowers, fruit or candy, a surreptitious paying of Mother's bills, and above all a determination to stop "neglecting your duties to God and your Saviour, Jesus Christ." Hemingway never got over his hatred for his mother or for her Saviour. –(p.37,38)

Fortunately, God’s grace is not performance based, is not withdrawn when we neglect or hurt him by our sin. Rather God’s grace is seen in how he has rescued us by choosing us to be his own, by protecting us even in adverse circumstances of our own sin.

Can you look at your life over the past year, five years, twenty-five years and see how God protected you from your own sin? How he rescued you from yourself?

God is gracious in our rebellion          vv18-23

God’s grace is seen in his patience   18-21

God is patient with our sin.

Even though God graciously chose Israel as his people, protected and multiplied them while in Egypt and led them out of captivity, they were far from compliant. Paul describes God’s attitude toward Israel as “put up with them.” 

Maybe as a parent you can identify with this patient attitude. While it has been said that God made puppies and toddlers cute so we don’t kill them when they are naughty, there is nothing cute about our willful rebellion. God is not impressed with our occasional obedience, rather he patiently endures our constant grumbling. A quick glance at Exodus and Numbers which recounts Israel’s attitude toward God in the wilderness reminds us how we too love to complain about how little God has done for us lately. But all the while, God puts up with us, he graciously bears with our incessant sinfulness and even richly pours on us good things. His grace is greater than your disgrace.

God is patient with our demands.

Paul quickly passes by the judges with a brief reference which should remind us how patient God is as we rebel. The book of Judges in the Old Testament is a reminder how fickle we are. When times are good, we conveniently forget about God and congratulate ourselves at our own well-earned success. When times are bad, we cry to God for help only to forget him again when times are good. 

Paul next in v21 reminds his hearers how the people sinfully desired a king just to be like the nations around them. Saul, Paul’s own namesake as he too is from that tribe, is reminding his audience of his own ancestral skeletons. Despite God graciously choosing Saul as king, he rebelled against God’s laws, deciding on his own what to obey and disobey from God.

God’s grace is seen in our sinful choices   22-23

God’s grace did not stop with Saul, but continued with David, where Paul further elaborates. At last in David it seems we have someone to boast about. Paul reminds his audience what God himself said about David: “ a man after my heart who will do all my will.” Yet even though David was the man whom God would use to accomplish his purpose, David was far from perfect.

His adultery and murder, his dysfunctional family rife with rape and murder hardly makes him the poster boy for the next Father of the Year Award. But the focus here is not on David’s personal righteousness, but on God sovereign grace to take such a messed up family tree and from that fulfill his promise.

You and I no doubt can barely count the times God has been patient with us. Yet it would be wise sometime to consider your own history of rebellion and take time to thank him for the long-suffering patience of God in your life.

God is gracious in our repentance 

God provides those who call us to repent

Paul moves from David, skipping over the prophets and exile, to the final voice who preceded the promised Messiah, John the Baptist. With John, Paul points out that God through all the sinfulness and rebellion of his people, God’s grace continued to provide. In John, the call to repentance was but another evidence of God’s grace. 

Despite God using John as the vehicle to call people to repentance, Paul is quick to remind his audience that John did not take that role as a sign of his own goodness. In v25 he considered himself unworthy to perform the most menial of tasks.

Far too often we pay lip service to the gospel of grace, but live as though it is only by personal discipline and self-denial that will mold the perfect me. The emphasis is on what I do rather than on what God is doing. In this curious process God is a benign old spectator in the bleachers who cheers when I show up for morning quiet time. We transfer the Horatio Alger legend of the self-made man into our relationship with God. … At heart we are practicing Pelagians. We believe that we can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps—indeed, we can do it ourselves. (Brennan Manning, Ragamuffin Gospel)

God provides the gracious acceptance to those who repent

We will examine this more next week as we seek what God has done so that we might know we are accepted by him. This retelling of the family stories, of human sinfulness and God’s grace culminating in the work of Christ, which secures our acceptance, is a wonderful reminder how you and I must rest in God’s grace.

God accepts us not because he is forced, as though he sets our sin aside as he just can’t bear the thought of being wrathful. We are not to pit his mercy and justice against each other. The reason for his acceptance is found in Christ. Even with repentance we somehow seem to be able to twist something good into an awful tool to manipulate God.

Garrison Keillor spins a tale about "Larry the Sad Boy ... was saved 12 times in the Lutheran church, an all-time record. Between 1953 and 1961 he threw himself weeping and contrite on God's throne of grace on 12 separate occasions--and this in a Lutheran church that wasn't evangelical, had no altar call, no organist playing "Just as I Am Without One Plea" while a choir hummed and a guy with shiny hair took hold of your heartstrings and played you like a cheap guitar. This is the Lutheran church, not a bunch of hillbillies. These are Scandinavians, and they repent in the same way that they sin: discreetly, tastefully, at the proper time. ... Twelve times! Even the fundamentalists got tired of him. ... God did not mean for us to feel guilt all our lives. There comes a point when you should dry your tears and join the building committee and start grappling with the problems of the church furnace and ... make church coffee and be of use, but Larry kept on repenting and repenting." (What IBM Taught Me About Repentance, J. Ortberg, CT, 8/12/93)

It is here, at this table that we grapple with the power of God’s grace. At this table we hear once again of how God provides for us, how he feeds us despite our rebellion and sin. It is here that our life long repentance finds constant renewing acceptance … all because what Christ has done for us.

The retelling of family stories need not center on your constant failures, on disappointments and sins. The story that is to be retold again and again and each time bringing a smile to your face is that Christ suffered in your place. Those sins which plague your thoughts, actions you dare not speak to another were once and for all removed. Now as we hear once again the promise from 1 Corinthians 11, we can know that we belong to him.