February 1, 2011

Acts 17
Paul’s 2nd Missionary Journey

“As usual, Paul went into the synagogue. He explained and showed them that the Messiah had to suffer, die, and come back to life, and that Jesus, the person he talked about, was this Messiah” Acts 17:3, 4

Why was it necessary for Jesus to die and come back to life?

Pastor’s Reflection

Paul had a tough job. Jewish people never imagined a Messiah who would die. They felt he would come in power and liberate them from Roman oppression. How could Paul reach them?

He would certainly have referred to Isaiah 53

1 Who has believed our message?
To whom has the LORD revealed his powerful arm?
2 My servant grew up in the LORD’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.
3 He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all. Isaiah 53:1-6 (NLT)

Furthermore, Jesus’ death and resurrection were what God has been doing all along. Israel, suffered, then was delivered. Jesus suffered then was delivered. But the Good News that we see in Jesus is that what God did for Him, God is doing for the whole world. He is resurrecting it and will finish the job.

This includes you if you allow him to put your sins on the cross. Have you? If you have do you believe that his resurrection is at work in you right now and that your destiny is to live forever in God’s New Creation?

PS. Isaiah 53 is a good passage to which you might want to refer your Jewish friends.