Acts 13:13-37

Paul Preaches in Antioch of Pisidia

 ¹³ Paul and his companions then left Paphos by ship for Pamphylia, landing at the port town of Perga. There John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ But Paul and Barnabas traveled inland to Antioch of Pisidia.^[a]   On the Sabbath they went to the synagogue for the services. ¹⁵ After the usual readings from the books of Moses^[b]and the prophets, those in charge of the service sent them this message: “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, come and give it.”
 ¹⁶ So Paul stood, lifted his hand to quiet them, and started speaking. “Men of Israel,” he said, “and you God-fearing Gentiles, listen to me.
 ¹⁷ “The God of this nation of Israel chose our ancestors and made them multiply and grow strong during their stay in Egypt. Then with a powerful arm he led them out of their slavery. ¹⁸ He put up with them^[c] through forty years of wandering in the wilderness. ¹⁹ Then he destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to Israel as an inheritance. ²⁰ All this took about 450 years.
   “After that, God gave them judges to rule until the time of Samuel the prophet. ²¹ Then the people begged for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years. ²² But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.’^[d]
 23 “And it is one of King David’s descendants, Jesus, who is God’s promised Savior of Israel! ²⁴ Before he came, John the Baptist preached that all the people of Israel needed to repent of their sins and turn to God and be baptized. ²⁵ As John was finishing his ministry he asked, ‘Do you think I am the Messiah? No, I am not! But he is coming soon—and I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the sandals on his feet.’
 ²⁶ “Brothers—you sons of Abraham, and also you God-fearing Gentiles—this message of salvation has been sent to us! ²⁷ The people in Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize Jesus as the one the prophets had spoken about. Instead, they condemned him, and in doing this they fulfilled the prophets’ words that are read every Sabbath. ²⁸ They found no legal reason to execute him, but they asked Pilate to have him killed anyway.
 ²⁹ “When they had done all that the prophecies said about him, they took him down from the cross^[e] and placed him in a tomb. ³⁰ But God raised him from the dead! ³¹ And over a period of many days he appeared to those who had gone with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people of Israel.
 ³² “And now we are here to bring you this Good News. The promise was made to our ancestors, ³³ and God has now fulfilled it for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus. This is what the second psalm says about Jesus:
   ‘You are my Son.
      Today I have become your Father.^[f]’
 ³⁴ For God had promised to raise him from the dead, not leaving him to rot in the grave. He said, ‘I will give you the sacred blessings I promised to David.’^[g] 35 Another psalm explains it more fully: ‘You will not allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.’^[h] 36 This is not a reference to David, for after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his ancestors, and his body decayed. ³⁷ No, it was a reference to someone else—someone whom God raised and whose body did not decay.

Devotion
Well if you've ever looked for a brief, yet in-depth look at some of the history of how Jesus came and fulfilled the scriptures spoken about Him in the way that He lived His life, this passage sums it up very well.  Jesus is the good news, the promise that we've been looking for!  I love the part in this passage where the writer talks about John's ministry before Jesus came.  All these people looked to John to get baptized by him and they were following his teachings, but then he told them, I'm not the One you're looking for, I'm not even worthy to be His slave or untie His sandals.  What humility that shows, even when all of those people were looking up to John, hoping he could lead them to the promise they were searching for, he still pointed them to Jesus.  That's what we need to remember even today.  With all of the people and things we can be looking towards to fulfill the promise that we're searching for, we're going to come up empty, unless we place our hope in Jesus.  That is the great news that Paul was preaching here in this passage.

Prayer
Lord, thank You for Your life and love for me.  Help me to realize that You oh Lord and You alone are the fulfillment of the promise of the life I've been searching for.  Give me the wisdom and strength to follow Your commandments as I seek to place my hope in You and love You with all of my heart.
Amen.