Paul Tells of David's Son

A Sabbath morning. A synagogue full of people sitting on stone benches. The scrolls have just been read. And the leaders send a note to two visitors at the back: if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.

Paul and Barnabas are on their first great journey to spread the news about Jesus. They have sailed from Syria to Cyprus, then crossed to the mainland of what is now Turkey, and walked up into the highlands to a city called Antioch in Pisidia. Not the famous Antioch in Syria, but another one, far inland. On the Sabbath they go to the synagogue, where Jewish families and some Gentiles who worship Israel's God meet together. After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue invite them to speak. Paul stands up, motions with his hand for quiet, and begins.

“Men of Israel, and you that fear God, listen.” Then Paul tells them a story they all know, their own. The God of this people Israel chose our fathers. He made the people great while they were strangers in Egypt, and with a mighty arm he brought them out. For about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. He destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave them the land. After that he gave them judges, about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, from the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.

And then Paul comes to David. When God removed Saul, he raised up David to be their king, and said of him, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will.” Every listener knows what comes next in the story. God promised David a descendant. And Paul says it plainly. “From this man's seed God has, according to his promise, brought to Israel a Saviour, Jesus.” The whole long history, Egypt, desert, judges, kings, has been leading here. Paul tells them about John the Baptist, who preached to all Israel and said, I am not the one. There is one coming after me, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.

Then Paul speaks gently and directly. Brothers, children of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognise Jesus. They fulfilled the very words of the prophets read every Sabbath by condemning him. They asked Pilate to have him killed and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had come up with him from Galilee. “And we declare to you good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled the same to us their children, in that he raised up Jesus.” As it is written in the second psalm: You are my Son, today I have begotten you.

Pisidian Antioch was a Roman colony, founded under the emperor Augustus and settled with veteran soldiers from the Roman legions. Archaeologists have uncovered its streets, its temple to Augustus, and its aqueduct. Latin was used for its official inscriptions, even in a region where Greek and local languages were spoken. Paul was speaking in a little piece of Rome, set in the hills of Asia Minor.

Paul tells of David's son. You can read it in Acts chapter thirteen, verses sixteen to thirty-three. In one sermon Paul walked his listeners from Egypt to David to Jesus, and showed that God had kept his promise. At Christmas, Christians remember that the Saviour Paul preached was born in Bethlehem, the city of David, just as the angels said. So here is a question to carry with you. Paul showed how God had been working through history all the way to Jesus. How has God been working in your story?