As the Apostle Paul preached the gospel to a crowd in Antioch, he warned his listeners that they were responsible for how they received the Word of God. In this sermon, R.C. Sproul reminds us that we are similarly accountable for how we hear the preaching of the Bible, and he urges us to consider whether we have truly responded in faith to the good news about Jesus Christ.

Our text today is Acts 13:40–52:

“Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you:

‘Behold, you despisers,
Marvel and perish!
For I work a work in your days,
A work which you will by no means believe,
Though one were to declare it to you.’”

So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us:

‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,
That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and came to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Those who have ears to hear the Word of God, let them hear it.

Our Father, as we come to the conclusion of this first recorded sermon by the Apostle Paul, we ask that the same Holy Spirit who originally inspired that sermon and its recording be present now to grip us with the power of its truth, that we may not be numbered among those who contradict and blaspheme against this Word, but that we may be numbered among those who embrace it with all of our hearts. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Entertainment Culture

In the last few sermons, we have been eavesdropping on Paul’s sermon and presentation of the gospel at Pisidian Antioch. Today, we come to the conclusion of that message. But before we look at the text, I would like you to exercise your imagination with me for a moment.

Many of you have read Neil Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, in which he noticed that in contemporary American culture, for people to have their attention spans held, every bit of information and communication must be framed in forms of entertainment, or we will not listen. Even the nightly news has been framed in this entertainment model, as Postman has pointed out.

Postman went on to write Technopoly, which describes a culture that is determined by high-tech methods of communication. The technocracy that became Technopoly began with the invention of the telegraph—or, going even earlier, with the invention of the printing press, and then later with photography, radio, television, the computer, and so on.

We are living in a culture that is vastly removed from that of the first century, which was the setting for the sermon whose conclusion I just read. I ask you to use your imagination, go with me back to Pisidian Antioch, and let us suppose that Paul, in the first century, had at his disposal all the technological advancements that we have in our culture today. How might this sermon have been preached?

I suppose that if the rulers of the synagogue asked Paul to preach at the meeting on their Sabbath, he would have said: “I’ll be happy to give a sermon this morning. But before I do it, I ask for a couple of favors.” They would say, “What’s that?”

Paul would say: “First, please remove this plexiglass podium that we have in the middle of the church, and let’s have a drama skit to add some entertainment to the message I’m about to preach from the Word. I would also ask that you put it up on the screen at the back of the synagogue, where we can have a multimedia presentation that will also enhance the preaching of the Word. Please ask the people who are assembled here at Antioch, before I start, to turn off their beepers and their cell phones. I’d like to ask those of you in the back with the broadcast media, who are beaming this event back to Jerusalem and around the world, both by radio and television, not to interfere with the delivery of the message with your cameras and microphones. I would also ask the press corps in the back not to report this sermon by way of soundbites. Please don’t simply count how many times I smile or scowl during my address to determine the trustworthiness of my words.” That is probably what Paul would have done.

But I think, when Paul came to the last part of the sermon, his speechwriters would have descended upon him and said: “Paul, you’re not really going to include this warning and this quotation from Habakkuk at the end of your sermon to the people here in Jerusalem. That will plunge your popularity in the polls and ratings. We’ve got to excise that. It’s too negative. People don’t want to hear about the judgment of God.” I think, in one way, Paul was fortunate not to have to deal with all the forces assembled to defuse the truth of God’s Word that we face in our day.

Paul’s Warning

Let us stop with the imagination and hear what the Apostle said to the people assembled in Antioch after he proclaimed the gospel to them. Verse 40 says, “Beware.” What does that mean? That is a warning. He is saying to his listeners: “Be very careful. Watch out for something. There is a negative consequence that could result from your being here today that you need to be aware of.” He says, “Beware, lest what is spoken in the prophets come upon you.”

Then Paul compresses a citation from the book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament. The book of Habakkuk starts with a protest by the prophet when he sees the armies of Israel’s enemies amassing to invade the people of God. He is astonished and says: “God, I thought You were on our side. I thought You were too holy to even look at iniquity. Yet You are allowing these ruthless pagans to invade our people.”

God stops Habakkuk in his tracks and says: “There’s a coming moment of judgment. A moment coming upon My own people, Israel. A moment coming on the Chaldeans, who I’m using temporarily to chasten My own people. There is a day of violence coming that no one would believe, even if you told it to them in advance.”

Paul remembers that warning from Habakkuk, and he uses it in the first century. He warns the people about an impending day of doom for those who reject the gospel. At this point, he sounds so much like his Lord. It seems that Jesus never tired in warning the Jews of His generation of the consequences that would follow if they rejected the breakthrough of the kingdom of God that came in His person.

Jesus said, “This generation won’t pass away until every stone in the temple will be torn down, and the city of Jerusalem will be left unto you desolate”—no more temple, no more Zion. “The holy city will be trampled underfoot by the gentiles, until the age of the gentiles is fulfilled.”

In less than forty years, Jesus’ words were fulfilled in the first great holocaust of Israel. In the destruction of Jerusalem, 1.1 million Jews perished as the holy city was leveled. Never was there a prophecy in human history that seemed more unlikely to be fulfilled as that prophecy of Jesus. When Jesus Himself, the very incarnate Word of God, gave it, they did not believe Him.

Remember, they came to Jesus, and He told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man died and went to hell. Then the rich man made a plea, asking: “Let me go back to earth so I can warn my brother. Can I say to my brother, ‘Brother, beware of the consequences of rejecting the gospel’?” Jesus said: “It’s too late for that. Besides, they won’t believe even if someone comes back from the dead.”

At that point Jesus, along with Habakkuk and Paul, was speaking about the hardness of the human heart. Our hearts are so calcified, and we have become so immunized against the truth of the gospel, that there is no fear of God in our land.

At the end of his gospel, Paul did not give an altar call; he gave a warning. He said: “Behold, you despisers. Be amazed and perish. For I will work a work in your days that you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you.” Even when he finished his sermon on that scary note, the people were still interested to hear more.

Beyond the Land of Israel

After Paul’s warning, we read that when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged for more of this the next Sabbath, and “when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and the devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.” Now the whole city gets the report of this incredible message that had been delivered by this disciple of Gamaliel, who had come up from Jerusalem and preached there in Pisidian Antioch.

We read that “on the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.” The Jews looked out the door and said, “We’ve never had an attendance like this in the synagogue.” They were not coming to hear the rabbis. They were not coming for the normal program at the synagogue. The whole city was coming out, though they would not come out before, because they wanted to hear Paul.

When the Jews saw that, they were furious, because they were filled with envy and jealousy. They were not filled with a holy passion for the success of the kingdom of God or the Torah. So, they contradicted, blasphemed, and opposed the things spoken by Paul.

“Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, ‘It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first’”—that is, to the Jews—“‘but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.’”

They then say:

For as the Lord commanded us:

“I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,
That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Beyond the shadow of the synagogue, beyond the land of Israel, to the ends of the earth. That is the mission.

Love for the Word

Listen to this: “Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord.” Let me ask you for a moment to be honest with yourself. How much do you love the Scriptures? How much time do you devote to the study and searching of the sacred Word of God? Do you have such a passion in your bones for the truth of God’s Word that you have read the Bible from cover to cover twenty times? I am sure there are not twenty people here right now who have read the Bible from cover to cover once. How can that be? How can you receive a Word from the living God and not be interested?

I have people say to me, “I try to read the Bible, but it’s boring.” I have never said this to them, but I want to say, “Maybe why it is boring is because you’re spiritually dead.” I cannot see how it is possible to have been regenerated by God the Holy Spirit, raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, and be bored by the Word of God.

The people whom the Spirit quickened in Antioch went away from there glorifying the Word of God. There are people today who have spent the better part of their lives taking the Scripture to the most remote corners of the world at the danger of their personal lives and livelihoods. There are people today whose mission is to get the Bible translated into every tongue and every dialect that exists in the world.

When I was in college, I read a book by the Wycliffe translators entitled Two Thousand Tongues to Go. Do you know how long ago it was that I was in college? It was in the 1950s, and the book was titled Two Thousand Tongues to Go.

Not too long ago, I asked a member of Wycliffe: “How far have you reduced that number? How many languages are there left to go?” He said, “We have about two thousand to go.” I said: “Wait a minute—that’s what you said fifty years ago. Haven’t you got anything done in the last fifty years?” He said: “They’ve done all kinds of translations into different tongues over the past fifty years. But every time they get one finished, they discover a new tongue, a new tribe, or a new group that does not have the Word of God.” Do you care about that? I care about it because, apart from Christ Himself, there is no greater gift that God has given to His church than His Word.

Let us be done with religion. Religion is simply the external trappings. Religion is what people get involved with in order to hedge their bets. But if your life has been changed by the living God, then, like these folks in Antioch, there will be a fire in your bones to glorify the Word of God. You will not be satisfied with a cursory reading or a superficial passing over of a few texts here and there.

Appointed to Eternal Life

This will make you start reading the Word of God: “And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” Everywhere I go, at every conference and seminar, there is someone who will come up to me—usually more than one—and say, “When I became a Christian, I was Arminian at first.” I say: “We all are. We’re by nature Arminian. We’re born semi-Pelagians.”

They tell me: “But I’ve read your books, I’ve listened to your radio programs, and I have been persuaded of the truth of the biblical doctrine of election. Since I became persuaded, I find it on every page of the Bible.” There is a little bit of hyperbole there, a little bit of exaggeration. I don’t think you can find the doctrine of election on every page of the Bible. But it’s not hidden in some obscure, esoteric text that only a few scholars discover from time to time. It’s everywhere, pervasive throughout the Bible. It is so clear. I really do not understand how any Christian can fail to be overwhelmed by the biblical evidence of the sovereignty of God in the distribution of His mercy.

Here is one of those texts: “And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” It would be nice if we had the liberty, under God, to go back into the Greek text, change the syntax, and move the words around like a shell game, hiding the peas, until we get the syntax arranged the way we want it. What many commentators would like to do with this Greek text is change the word order and structure and say, “Have it read like this: ‘As many as believed, were appointed to eternal life.’” But beloved, that is just not what the text says.

Recently, I was reading some of the work of Horatio Hackett, who was the most celebrated Greek scholar and New Testament exegete of the nineteenth century in America. I believe he was a graduate of Amherst. Before he went to Amherst, in his graduating class from his preparatory school was Oliver Wendell Holmes. But it was Hackett who was the valedictorian of his class, not Holmes.

Hackett wrote the most decisive commentary on the book of Acts of the nineteenth century, and he made an observation about this text. He said the only possible correct translation of this text is the one I just read to you—that is, “As many who were appointed, believed.” As many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. It cannot be translated, “As many as came that day.”

In that multitude, some came despising, contradicting, vilifying, and blaspheming the Word of God. Every single person who came that day as an unbeliever had the same hostility in his soul to the truth of God as the rest of them—before Paul even opened his mouth. But as Paul preached, God used the power of the gospel and joined with it the power of the Holy Ghost to quicken those whom He had appointed unto faith.

Election is not by faith; it is to faith and unto salvation. Every single person who showed up that day, whom God determined from all eternity to be saved out of that motley crew, walked away and went to their homes justified. That does not in any way minimize the responsibility of those who rejected what they heard.

Dust Shaken Off

The Word of the Lord spread throughout the whole region. The Jews continued their opposition. They stirred up the devout and prominent women, the wives of the leaders of the city, and the chief men. They raised enough persecution against Paul and Barnabas to have them expelled. The Jews took them to the border and said, “Get out of town and don’t come back.”

Paul and Barnabas went to the edge of town and said goodbye to the converts. They looked at the authorities who escorted them and made a gesture. When they crossed the border, they looked back at Pisidian Antioch and started visibly shaking their feet, following the mandate of Christ to shake the dust off of their feet.

The significance of that Hebrew idiom was that this place responded with such wickedness and such great evil that the sinful hearts of those who heard the gospel actually polluted the ground on which they stood. So, when Paul and Barnabas got to the border, they shook off the dust and went somewhere else.

This is the thing that scares me about America. I have had people from foreign countries come to me and say: “Why do you keep preaching and teaching to America? America’s been exposed to the gospel year in and year out, at all kinds of times. And there are places in the world today that have never heard the gospel. Why do you keep preaching to people who have had the opportunity to hear it one thousand times, or even ten thousand times? Why don’t you shake the dust off of your feet and go where the fields are ripe unto harvest?” Ladies and gentlemen, it would be one thing if a preacher shook the dust off his feet, but what would happen if God shook the dust off His feet because of you?

Invisible Church

The odds are that there are people today who are members of the visible church but have never entered the invisible church. That distinction was made by Augustine to communicate Jesus’ thoughts, when Jesus said: “In My church, there will always be tares or weeds growing along with the wheat. Be careful that, in your zeal to make the church pure, you don’t pluck up and ruin the wheat along with the tares.” Jesus warned that the church would always be a mixed body, made up of both believers and false professors who, Jesus said, “will honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.”

Who are you? The visible church is easy to see. Everyone here today that I can see is part of the visible church. I can watch you raise your hand at the front of the sanctuary. I can watch you sign a register. But what I cannot possibly do is look into your heart or your soul. I do not know what is in there—but God does. Those who are true believers, who are invisible to us, are visible to God. For with God, there is no ambiguity regarding the members of the visible and invisible church. The invisible church is made up of all who are truly regenerated by God the Holy Spirit.

What church do you belong to? Are you a member of the invisible church? Have you responded to the gospel, or have you hardened your heart and been satisfied with the outward appearance and respectability that goes with membership in the visible church? Beware of what God will do to those who harden their heart against Him. Let us pray.

Father, please wake us up where we are asleep. Raise us up where we are dead. In this age of Technopoly, in which we are immunized by image overload, help us to hear the clarity of Your Word by the power of Your Spirit. Amen.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.