Acts 17:2-5

DISCOURSE: 1788
PROOFS THAT JESUS IS THE MESSIAH

Acts 17:2. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar.

THE dispersion of the Jews through every part of the Roman empire greatly facilitated the diffusion of the Gospel in the apostolic age: for in all the capital cities of the empire there were synagogues, to which the Apostles had access, and where on the sabbath-days they were sure of meeting a large assembly of their countrymen. Of these advantages St. Paul invariably availed himself: for though he was “a minister of the uncircumcision,” and was sent principally to the Gentiles, yet he in every place addressed himself in the first place to the Jews, and only turned to the Gentiles when the Jews had rejected the gracious tidings which he delivered to them. In discoursing with the Jews, he constantly appealed to the Holy Scriptures, which they themselves acknowledged to be of Divine authority; but, if in many instances he succeeded in convincing them, in many instances he failed.
In the passage which we have now read, we see,

I. The means he used for the conversion of the Jews—

Two things he laboured to establish;

1. That the Scriptures represented the Messiah as one who should die and rise again—

[To establish this, he adduced a multitude of passages which he knew to have been generally received, as descriptive of the Messiah. On other occasions we are informed what particular passages were cited: and from them we may guess what passages the Apostle insisted on at this time. He no doubt shewed the Jews, that the death and resurrection of the Messiah were declared in the plainest prophecies, and shadowed forth in the most significant types.

In speaking of the prophecies, he might well appeal to that very first promise that was given to man [Note: Genesis 3:15.]: what could that mean, but that Satan was first to “bruise his heel,” by bringing him down to the grave; and that Christ should afterwards, by his resurrection, “bruise his head,” and destroy his empire in the world? In the Psalms these truths are yet more plain and express. It was said that the potentates of the earth should combine to destroy him; but that he should be seated on God’s holy hill of Zion; and, being exalted to the right hand of power, he should dash in pieces his enemies as a potter’s vessel [Note: Psalms 2:1.]. Again, “His soul was not to be left in hell, nor was this Holy One to see corruption [Note: Psalms 16:9.].” Does not that clearly shew that his soul was first to go into hell, i.e. the place of departed spirits; that his body was to be consigned to the grave; and that he was afterwards to rise from the dead, and go into the presence of his Father, where there is a fulness of joy for evermore [Note: Psalms 16:11.]? Again; his sufferings are, in the 22d Psalm, minutely described, as preparatory to that exaltation which he was to receive, when “the kingdom should be his, and he should be the Governor among the nations [Note: Psalms 22:1; Psalms 22:22; Psalms 22:27.].” The Prophet Isaiah speaks of these things in as plain language as the New Testament itself. The Messiah, according to him, was to have his visage marred more than any man, previous to his sprinkling of many nations, and converting to himself the kings of the earth [Note: Isaiah 52:14. See also 53:9–12.] — — — Daniel also speaks to the same effect, saying, that the very Messiah, who was to possess an everlasting kingdom, must nevertheless be first “cut off,” though not for himself, but for his people’s sins, to make reconciliation for their iniquities, and to bring in everlasting righteousness [Note: Daniel 7:13. with 9:24, 26.].

Now the Apostle would ask. Are not these passages contained in your Scriptures? and have not the most pious and learned men of our own nation considered them as predictions relative to their Messiah? And do they not in that view proved indisputably, that Christ must die and rise again?

We may conceive him, then, as proceeding to the types, by which these things were shadowed forth. What, he would say, meant the restoration of Isaac from the dead, but the restoration of God’s only dear Son from the dead, after he had been offered a sacrifice for sin [Note: Hebrews 11:17.]? What meant all the Mosaic sacrifices, and the carrying of their blood within the vail, but the shedding of Christ’s blood, and his going afterwards, as our great High Priest, with his own blood, into the holy place not made with hands; himself being shadowed forth, both by the victim that was offered, and the priest that offered it [Note: Hebrews 9:7; Hebrews 9:11.]? What meant that peculiar offering, the two birds; of which one was killed, and the other, dipped in its blood, was let loose into the air [Note: Leviticus 14:49.]? or that of the two goats, whereof one was slain, and the other, with all the sins of Israel put upon its head, led into the wilderness, that it might never more be seen of men? Were these of doubtful signification? Do they not prove clearly what the Messiah was to do and suffer; even that, for the accomplishment of our redemption, he must die, and rise again from the dead? Did not Jonah too, that noted type of Christ, descend to the depths of the sea, before he was brought forth again on dry land?

Methinks he would dwell with delight on these unanswerable topics, and strive with all his might to fix conviction on their minds.]

2. That Jesus, whom he preached unto them, was the Christ—

[That Jesus answered to all these predictions in his sufferings, they could not doubt. It was a matter of public notoriety, that he had been put to death, even the accursed death of the cross. His resurrection indeed the Jews did attempt to deny: but the Apostles, who had seen and conversed with him after his death, and were endued by him with a power of working miracles in confirmation of their word, attested, with one voice, that he was risen, and had ascended up to heaven in their sight. This testimony they were ready to seal with their blood: and therefore they called upon all to believe in Jesus, as the person in whom the Scriptures had received their full accomplishment — — —]
One might have hoped that all should have been convinced by such testimonies; but, alas! there was a great diversity in,

II.

The effects produced by them.

Some, we are told, believed—
[The word came to some of them “not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” These united themselves to the Apostles, and boldly professed their faith in Christ. Among these there was “a great multitude of Grecian proselytes, (who were more open to conviction than the native Jews;) and “of the chief women also not a few.” Who does not congratulate these happy converts on the change that then took place within them? Even in this world, their happiness was greatly augmented; but what has been their state since they entered into the eternal world? Who can reflect on that, and not rejoice on their account? or who must not wish that all who now heard the Gospel, might experience the same blessed effects upon their souls? — — —]
Others opposed the truth with all their might—
[Here we see how “Christ came, not to give peace on earth, but rather division.” As amongst his own hearers there were divisions, “some saying that he was a just man, and others, that he deceived the people;” so it was wherever his Gospel was preached by the Apostles; and so it is wherever it is preached at this day.
But who were his opponents? Who? they were “certain lewd fellows of the baser sort.” It is true that many of a different description were amongst the fiercest opposers of their doctrine; but the people here described were ever ready to lend themselves as instruments of persecution, and to carry into effect whatever the malice of their superiors should suggest. And such is the description of people who at this day are foremost in opposing the Gospel of Christ. The most abandoned characters, people who neither fear God nor regard man, will unite together to disturb the worship of Christ, or to procure the intervention of the civil power to suppress it. Not that they will oppose the Gospel as good: no: they will decry it as evil: they will represent the preachers of it as “turning the world upside down,” and as enemies to civil government. This has been the device of wicked men in all ages [Note: Compare ver. 7. with Esther 3:8.]: and it is still the ground of accusation which they bring against the godly, wherever the Gospel is attended with success. They are envious at the influence obtained by those who preach the Gospel, and at the happiness of those who embrace it; and therefore they labour to silence the one, and to turn aside the other. To effect their purposes, they raise “an uproar,” and then represent the godly as the causes of that uproar: and endeavour to incense against them every one who may be able to obstruct their progress. Let not such conduct then surprise us; for it was foretold, as soon as the Saviour came into the world, that he should be a butt of contradiction, “a sign that should be spoken against,” and that he should be “set, no less for the fall, than for the rising again, of many in Israel:” and therefore we must expect to find, wherever he is exhibited in his true character, that he is a stumbling-block to those who will not flee to him as their sanctuary [Note: Isaiah 8:14. with Luke 2:34.]

From this subject we may learn,
1.

That the Scriptures are the only just standard of truth—

[It is curious to observe, how continually, and how confidently, the Apostles refer to the Scriptures of the Old Testament. “What saith the Scripture?” is the question to which they recur for the settlement of every difficulty and every dispute [Note: Romans 4:3; Romans 11:2.Galatians 4:30. So also Romans 9:17; Romans 10:11 and 1 Timothy 5:18.]. Happy it is for us that we have a standard so plain, so accessible, so universally received. Let us bring every sentiment to that test, and try it by that touchstone — — — “If men speak not according to the written word, there is no light in them [Note: Romans 8:20.].”]

2. That the knowledge of Christ, as dying and rising again for us, is the one appointed mean of salvation—

[It was with Jews that the Apostle argued: yet the Jews did worship the only true God, and professed to reverence his holy law. But when the Gospel was fully preached, the Jew could no longer be saved by the observance of his own law: he must embrace the Gospel, and look to Christ as the Messiah, the Saviour of the world. Thus also must all act who bear the Christian name: they must not be contented with an outward conformity to the Gospel, but must embrace it as “all their salvation and all their desire.” As for the opposition that is made to the life and power of the Gospel, it is rather an argument in its favour than otherwise: for thus the Gospel ever has been treated; and thus it will be, as long as there shall be an ungodly man upon earth. But, if the whole world should rise up against it, let it be our endeavour to receive it in our hearts, to confess it with our lips, and to adorn it with our lives.]