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The Eternal Sufficiency of Christ I. God’s eternal plan of salvation (Acts 13:13-32) Side note (Remember Antioch spoken of here is not the same Antioch we started with. This Antioch is in Asia Minor. North of Mediterranean, not East of Mediterranean. Paul starts the sermon emphasizing the latter portion of the patriarchal period This was period where Jacob was leader, whose name was changed to Israel Jacob has a 4th son named Judah whom God promised to send the lineage of a savior through. Moses also occurs during this 450 year period. The giving of the law. Then God gives Judges Then God gives a King, (Saul for 40 years) Then God raises up David (a man after God’s own heart A man after God’s own heart, “He was referred to this because of His willingness to forgive His enemies in the same way God is compassionate and willing to forgive His enemies. John the Baptist fulfills His work God raises up Jesus our Savior from the lineage ****Why is Paul taking time to go through these things…. Hasn’t this sermon been preached enough already in the book of Acts. It sounds a lot like Stephen’s sermon in Acts chapter 7, and we all remember how well that sermon turned out. The people in Jerusalem wanted to praise Stephen and have him write a book about it. Not hardly. They killed him by stoning him, so why are we seeing yet another sermon like this here. 1. I believe two reasons, first, Paul is preaching in a synagogue where Jews are present, and He is explaining the process of their history. 2. Second, I believe the Spirit of God is showing us that this plan of salvation has been in works since the beginning of time. Often our Christian culture would mislead us to think that Christ going to the cross was a sort of plan B. In other words, Adam sinned, and so God had to improvise and come up with a new plan. Not thru the salvation of man from the wrath of God due His sinfulness has been the plan of God from eternity. This is what we see Paul explaining to these men. This has been God’s prophecy. This has been what God’s men have preached in their temporary moments in time. However, the significance of this message is that God was pleased to communicate this eternal plan of salvation through the lives of sinful men. Ultimately, God knows what He is doing. He has His reasons, and He has His plans to fulfill His reasons. Let me give you an example. I didn’t think I would ever share this from a pulpit. Over the past few years I’ve been struggling with some health concerns relative to my heart and resistant infections. I have been feeling a lot better, but yesterday it hit me like a ton of bricks, and I had no strength. I was unable to get out and do some of the things I wanted to do. I wanted to go to the seafood festival. I heard some of you had a great time down in seaside yesterday. I wanted to be there, but I didn’t have the strength. I was forced to be stuck at home, and I became somewhat bitter about it because. Well, just to be honest I’m tired of being sick. So, I was somewhat sinfully bitter about it. Yet, I found myself yesterday afternoon forced to stay at the house, so I decided to start reading of Acts chapter 13. I started praying through the text, and I started praying for Pastor Neil to be anointed to preach a strong Word. Not because I’m a super Christian, but because I didn’t have strength to do anything else. The next thing I knew I was captivated by Acts chapter 13 and I couldn’t put it down. You can ask my wife I stayed up late into the night reading this passage because God began to show me great things about it. I got excited, and I text Neil telling Him I was praying for Him for today, and I was looking forward to hearing what God had to say through Him. I had no idea that God was preparing me to preach this morning. But, and don’t miss this. God knew the plan all along. He knew what would happen, and He was faithful to make sure we were prepared to worship Him in Spirit and Truth this morning, and He was prepared to offer the grace needed to CeCe and Neil in these moments we are gathered in worship. God has plans, and they will not be thwarted according to Job 42. The patriarchs fulfilled their work on Earth and they died, Judah and His brother Joseph fulfilled their work on Earth and they died. Saul completed his less than stellar work on Earth and He died. John the Baptist completed His work and He was beheaded unto death. Then Paul highlights even the great King David fulfilled His purposes and saw corruption. Now that word corruption is somewhat misleading. A better Greek translation of the work is decay. What it means is David fulfilled His work to God, and his body decayed in the grave. Then Paul says an astounding thing. Christ fulfilled His work, in the life, death and resurrection on the Cross, but He did not see decay, and this brings us to our second point. II. Christ’s eternal sufficiency for this salvation (Acts 12:33-29) All these men saw decay of body, but Paul exalts the reality that Christ did not see decay. He was and is eternal. He is supreme over all things. John 1 says in the beginning was the Word, and He was with the Word, and He was what. He was the Word. Colossians 1, says all things were created by Christ, Created through Christ and created what? They were created for Christ. Now this present a little bit of a challenge. Here we see Paul quote Psalm 2, where God says today I have begotten you as my son speaking as a prophecy regarding the resurrection of Christ. So, what is it? Is Christ eternal, or is He a created being according to Psalm 2. Here’s what I believe God is showing us. Scripture clearly teaches that Christ is eternal, and that He is sustaining everything at this very moment. When God prophesied in Psalm 2 and what He is bringing to light in Acts 13 is that the day Christ came out of the grave was the day God declared to the world that here He Is!!!!!! This is my begotten son. The one of eternal that I promised through, Jacob, Judah, Joseph, Moses, Saul, David and most evidently through John the Baptist. Here is the eternal sufficiency of salvation most clearly displayed in Christ Jesus, and today my begotten Son I have made known to the world, so that all who believe in Him will never taste eternal death, but will join in the angels in singing His praises for all eternity. As we prepare to conclude our time of studying this eternal Message of salvation I want to bring to light the urgent reality that it also communicates. III. Man only has a temporary opportunity to respond to God’s gift of eternal salvation (Acts 13:30-52) What you see is Paul quoting a passage from Habakkuk chapter 1, the prophecy was be careful lest what was told by the prophets come true, “I’m preparing to do a thing among you that you would not believe even if I told you. ***The scary thing is I have heard of missions conferences that actually use that prophecy in Habakkuk chapter 1 to encourage that God is getting ready to good a great thing among the nations. The reality is Habakkuk and Paul wanted no part in a mission’s conference that used this verse in a positive light. This was a prophecy in Habakkuk’s day and in this setting in Paul’s day to warn of the reality that this Truth of what God is doing among the Gentiles, and who Christ is as the Sufficient Savior would not be received by some of you even if it were told. In other words, be careful that this Message of salvation by faith alone in Christ be not rejected even if it is shared to you. Second, we see the Gentiles joyfully receiving this message, and it says that all who were appointed to believe accepted, by faith, this message of salvation. Now, I want to be abundantly clear here. This word used that says as many as were appointed or some translations say ordained to believe they accepted, by faith, the message of Christ. The word used here for appointed is a Greek word only used 7 other times in the New Testament, and it is not a word that is associated with Paul’s teaching on the doctrine of election. Rather, each time it is used it is used in the context of the reality that an external force moves in such a way to propel us to action. In other words, what Paul is speaking of here is the reality of what we see in the book of Titus chapter 3. It is the reality of how the Spirit of God works in and through our hearts to wash with us with His Spirit and produce a regenerated heart that desires to accept the message of Christ. So, it isn’t speaking directly to the doctrine of election. However, if you want to know more about what we believe regarding the doctrine of election here at Coastline I want to reference you to take time to go to Pastor Neil’s sermon series on the book of Romans found on the website, in particular his sermons on chapter 7-10, and you will get more than your fill of what we believe regarding God’s work in salvation. The greater picture I want you to see here is that God is putting before the city of Antioch in this region of modern day Eastern Greece/Western Turkey two choices. Those choices are life and death. The dangerous reality is this morning there lays a possibility that some of you will fall prey to the prophecy and reject this Truth that even though it is being clearly communicated, will walk away from it. However, the beauty is some of you are going to respond, as the Gentiles in Acts 13, with great joy to love and cherish Christ. The call is simple. Will you repent from yourself and trust Christ. What does that mean? Does that mean you go out of here and you clean up your life and get things in order and next week trust in Christ, no it means you lay before Christ everything in your life most importantly all the sins, and you say I want Christ not these sins, but I can’t do that on my own. I put my faith in the blood of Christ to cleanse me of all sinfulness. Because here’s the great reality of Acts chapter 13 God allows His people a temporary Moment to declare an Eternal Savior, and then God gives all men a Temporary Moment to respond to this Eternal Message.