Day 244: Acts 13:13–41

“Let it be known to you, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you, and everyone who believes in Him is justified” (vv. 38–39).

Barnabas and Paul traveled on to Pisidian Antioch (not the Antioch in Syria where believers were first called Christians). On the Sabbath they attended the synagogue worship and received a wonderful invitation. Sometimes we yearn for God to crack open a receptive door to share our faith. We scramble to grab an opportunity that never seems to come. Other times God swings open a door so quickly, we’re too stunned to walk through it! God swung the door open so quickly in Pisidian Antioch that He almost blew the beard off the rabbi! Practically by the time Paul and Barnabas found a chair, they were asked to share a message of encouragement.

Paul was not about to miss a golden opportunity. Like any good orator, he shaped his style and material to fit his audience. As he stood in the synagogue, he addressed Jews and those who believed in the God of Israel. He presented the gospel by rehearsing for them their history.

I am convinced that Paul had a very specific purpose as he introduced Christ to the Jews through their own history. Remember when Paul went to Arabia after his conversion and spent some solitary time trying to sort things out? You may recall that he returned to Damascus and “baffled the Jews . . . proving that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 9:22). As we saw earlier, the word “proving” means “knitting together.” In Arabia, Paul had been knitting together the old and the new and found the two strands of yarn to be a perfect match. Paul’s intention was to give the Jews in Pisidian Antioch a knitting lesson! He urged them to see how perfectly Christ knit the past with the present. They did not have to forsake their history. They just needed to accept the rest of the story!

But Paul was such a prodigy of grace, he could not preach a sermon without it. He charged the Jews with having executed their own Messiah with “no grounds” for what they did (v. 28), yet he extended the invitation to any “brothers” (v. 38)—fellow Jews—to receive forgiveness through Christ. What glorious news! If a person who had shared the responsibility for Christ’s death could be forgiven, can any person be beyond forgiveness?