Luke recorded three of Paul's evangelistic messages to unbelievers: here in Pisidian Antioch, in Lystra (14:15-17), and in Athens (17:22-31). This is the longest of the three, though Luke quite certainly condensed all of them.549This sermon is very similar to Peter's sermon in 2:14-40 and Stephen's in 7:2-53.550It contains three parts marked off by three occurrences of direct address: preparation for the coming of Messiah (vv. 16-25), the rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection of Messiah (vv. 26-37), and the application and appeal (vv. 38-41).551
"The variety in these missionary sermons and the speeches of Christians on trial before Jewish and Roman bodies is no doubt meant to illustrate the different ways in which the gospel was presented to different groups of people, Jews and Greeks, cultured and uncultured, and it is hard to resist the impression that the sermons are presented as models for Luke's readers to use in their own evangelism."552
Luke probably recorded this address to help us see how Paul preached to people who knew the Hebrew Scriptures.553
"Speeches in Acts are differentiated less with reference to the speakers than with reference to the audience."554
13:16 Paul stood up and motioned with his hand, both gestures typical of synagogue exhortations. He addressed his Jewish hearers as "Men of Israel,"and he called the Gentile God-fearers who were present "you who fear God."
13:17-22 Paul first reviewed God's preparation for Israel's redemption from Abraham through David (cf. 7:2-50; Matt. 1:2-17). He highlighted five important points that the Jews often stressed in their confessions. God was the God of the Israelites (v. 17). God chose the patriarchs (v. 17). God created the Israelite nation, redeemed His people out of Egypt, and patiently led them through the wilderness (vv. 17-18). He then gave them Canaan as an inheritance (v. 19). The "about"450 years mentioned (v. 19) probably refer to Israel's 400 years in Egypt, the 40 years in the wilderness, and the 10 years of conquest and settlement in the Promised Land (1845--1395 B.C.; cf. 7:6).555Finally God gave the Israelites faithful King David after a succession of lesser leaders (vv. 20-22). It was particularly David's heart for God resulting in his carrying out God's will that Paul stressed (v. 22). These qualities marked David's successor, Jesus Christ, too.
13:23 Paul then announced that the promised Messiah had come and that He was Jesus. The promise in view seems to be the one in Isaiah 11:1-16, which speaks of Messiah coming from David's descendants.
13:24-25 Most of the Jews of the dispersion knew of John the Baptist's ministry. Often the early Christian preachers began the message of Jesus with John the Baptist, who announced and prepared for His coming (cf. Mark 1:2-8). John clarified that he was not the Messiah but was His forerunner (Luke 3:15-18).
"It may be that followers of John the Baptist, believing him to have been the Messiah, and constituting a sect which had spread outwards from Palestine, presented more of a problem to Christian missionaries about this time than the NT evidence would suggest; a hint of this is given in 19:3-5. If such were the case, it would account for Paul's strong emphasis here on John's role as merely the herald of the Messiah."556
13:26 Before proceeding to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, Paul paused to address his hearers by groups again (cf. v. 16) and to personalize the gospel message to them. He noted that the gospel is for both Jews and Gentiles.
13:27-31 He then proceeded to narrate the rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus (cf. 1 Cor. 15:3-5). He pointed out that all these experiences were fulfillments of Old Testament predictions, which most of the Jews living in Jerusalem did not recognize at the time (vv. 27, 29). He also noted Jesus' innocence of the charges brought against Him (v. 28). Paul stressed Jesus' resurrection particularly as God's vindication of Him (v. 30), and he highlighted the apostles' personal witness of His resurrection (v. 31; cf. 2:32; 3:15; 5:32; 10:39-41). God had vindicated and prepared Him to reign by raising Him from the dead.557His point was that David's promised heir, the Messiah, had come (cf. v. 33).
13:32-37 He supported the fulfillment of this promise by quoting three Old Testament Messianic passages: Psalm 2:7 (v. 33), Isaiah 55:3 (v. 34), and Psalm 16:10 (v. 35; cf. 2:27). These Old Testament texts all found fulfillment in the raising up of Jesus. However, Paul used "raised up"in two different senses in this speech. In verses 33 and 37 he spoke of God raising up Jesus as the promised Messiah. Psalm 2:7 refers to God similarly raising up David as Israel's king. Second, Paul spoke in verses 30 and 34 of God raising up Jesus from the dead. Jesus was always the Son of God ontologically, but God declared Him to be His Son when He raised Him from the dead and made Him the Davidic ruler (Ps. 2:7). Similarly God had declared David His son when He made David ruler over Israel (cf. 2 Sam. 7:10-14).558
"Paul did not say Jesus is now ruling over the kingdom of David, but only that the Son of David is now in a position to rule forever when He returns."559
Since Jesus rose from the dead, God can give people the blessings that He promised would come through David (v. 34; Isa. 55:3; cf. 2:25-32). The blessings mentioned in this Old Testament passage are those of the New Covenant. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead and did not undergo decay proves that He is the Holy One of whom David spoke in Psalm 16:10 (v. 35).
Paul's argument was that God had raised up David and had promised a Savior from his posterity. God had fulfilled that promise by raising up Jesus as the Messiah, whom He identified as His Son by raising Him from the dead.560
13:38-39 Paul ended his exhortation (v. 15) with an application and appeal to his readers. He now addressed his two types of hearers collectively as "men brethren"(v. 38, Gr. andres adelphoi). When it comes to responding to the gospel, all people, Jews and Gentiles, are on the same level. Through Jesus, Paul asserted, everyone who believes (the only condition) has forgiveness of sins (cf. 2:38; 10:43) and justification (God's judicial declaration of righteousness, cf. Deut. 25:1). Justification could not come through the Mosaic Law, he reminded his hearers.561
"What we have in the application of Paul's message (despite its cumbersome expression in its précis form) are his distinctive themes of forgiveness of sins,' justification,' and faith,' which resound in this first address ascribed to him in Acts just as they do throughout his extant letters."562
Paul later developed the truth of justification and forgiveness apart from the Mosaic Law in his epistle to the Galatians. He probably wrote Galatians to the same people he spoke to here shortly after he completed this first missionary journey. Later he set forth these themes more fully in his epistle to the Romans.
13:40-41 Paul concluded by applying Habakkuk's warning to all who reject the good news about Jesus Christ. God's working in their day (i.e., providing the Messiah) was something they could not afford to disbelieve and scoff at or they would perish.
"Habakkuk 1:5, which Paul quoted here, refers to an invasion of Judah by a Gentile nation that would be used as God's disciplinary instrument to punish Judah for her disobedience. Paul evidently saw his generation in Israel under a similar disciplinary judgment. Paul's message, like Peter's [on the day of Pentecost] was delivered to a generation in Israel under the judgment Christ had predicted [in Luke 21:24, i.e., the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.]."563
In a larger sense, of course, unbelieving scoffers perish eternally for rejecting the gospel.
"Parallel with the positive theme of the preparation for the coming of the Christ through Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David and John the Baptist, he [Paul] has interwoven an admonitory reminder of those who have failed to recognize the divine plan and purpose--the Canaanites, Saul, the Jerusalem Jews and Pilate. Now he presents the Dispersion Jews with a similar challenge to accept or refuse the Gospel message."564
