Salvation And Damnation. Who Gets What And Why? The Epiphany Is Clear

January 9, 2022 Acts 13:46–49

46 Then Paul and Barnabas responded fearlessly, “It was necessary that God’s word be spoken to you first. But since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life, look: We are now turning to the Gentiles! 47 For this is what the Lord has instructed us: I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth.” 48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were rejoicing and praising the word of the Lord. All who had been appointed for eternal life believed. 49 And the word of the Lord was being carried through the whole region.

Salvation and Damnation. Who Gets What and Why? The Epiphany is Clear

Pisidian Antioch is in the middle of Asia Minor. More Jews lived down in Israel, but there were pockets of Jews spread through the Roman world at the time. Paul was on his First Missionary Journey with Barnabas, so his custom was to start out in the synagogue and witness to the people there. The first Sabbath went well. People asked questions. Paul and Barnabas had time to preach Christ crucified and risen from the dead. The next Sabbath, Luke writes that the whole town gathered there. What an opportunity!

But what happened? Acts 13:45 says, “But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with envy and began to contradict what Paul was saying by slandering him.” Slandering literally is “blaspheme” in the Greek. It means to “speak against someone in such a way as to harm or injure his or her reputation.” This is sometimes referred to as an “ad hominem” attack. When you can’t argue what someone is saying you then attack the person personally by making fun of their looks or their background. Jesus used to be mocked because he was from Nazareth. That’s what the Jews started doing to Paul.

So it’s interesting how PAUL described what they were doing. But since you reject it and consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life. He pointed the finger at them for rejecting the Gospel. It wasn’t as if Paul hadn’t tried to reach out to them. It wasn’t as if he didn’t preach the Gospel to them. Read through chapter 13 and you see it loud and clear. It’s not as if God didn’t want them. He was specifically commanded to reach out to them FIRST. God clearly says He wants ALL men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

And that’s the beauty of the Gospel. Jesus died for all. Jesus paid for all. God isn’t picky when it comes to WHO He wants to save. I think of the parable where the servant is told in Luke 14,

21 ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ 22 “ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ 23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.

You never have to worry that somehow, for some reason, God doesn’t want you. You don’t have to worry that you’ve somehow sinned too much or you’re just too ugly for God to actually want you in heaven. Jesus died to cover all your sins and the sins of the world. His salvation is based on grace and mercy in Christ, not on how good or bad you’ve been.

So what is it that leads to the damnation of Paul’s fellow Jews? How does Paul describe it? You CONSIDER YOURSELVES unworthy. Now that’s an interesting way to put it, right? The whole message of the Gospel is that Christ came for unworthy people. Paul said it loud and clear in 1 Timothy 1:15, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” of whom I am the worst. The whole way that God works in people’s hearts is to first of all crush them and show them how UNWORTHY they are.

So how could these Jews considering themselves unworthy make them unworthy? When you consider yourselves worthy, that’s what makes you unworthy of being saved. Isaiah 49 prophesied what the Messiah would come and do, the One who would be born of the Jews. I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth. Think about what this is saying. One guy, born through the Jews, would bring salvation to the end of the earth. He’s the only One who could save EVERYONE. That’s it. Apart from HIM, nobody is acceptable to God and nobody can be saved, not even the Jews through whom He came.