God the promise keeper! (Acts 13:13-52)

Cornerstone Mission Church, Sunday Sermon July 13, 2008

It is no secret how housing market has been doing poorly. Just few years ago, it was a completely different story when the real estate boom was at its highest. I don’t know all the complexities behind the current real estate crisis, but one thing I understand is the current crisis is fueled by people unable to fulfill their loan obligation for various reasons. It might be lost of jobs, reduction in income, or illness, only hastened by the economic downturn and devaluation of their home values. And, the predatory lending practices that had approved loans with high interests and hidden fees to people who cannot fulfill their promise to pay off their debts have also fueled the crisis.

And, just yesterday, I read that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two of the giants of the mortgage finance industry are facing major crisis. Together, they “own or guarantee about half of the nation’s $12 trillion mortgage market.”[1] The crisis stems from increasing delinquency rate and increasing loss, and shrinking cushion to absorb losses. And, if the losses are too big for them to back up their guarantee for the mortgages, then the government would have to step it, which translates into taxpayers having to pay for the bailout, national debt increasing, and investors suffering. It’s bad news!

The promising real estate boom just few years ago is now unfulfilled promise that is hurting a lot of people.

Unfulfilled promise hurts people. We can easily think about the ways we all have been affected by the unfulfilled promises of others. We can also think about the ways we’ve hurt others by failing to keep our promises. Today’s passage speaks about God who never fails to keep his promise. God is God of his word. Unlike many unfulfilled promises that disappoint and hurt us, God never fails to keep his promise.

1. God is the promise keeper.

Paul says in verse 32, “We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus.”

This is what makes our God very different than anyone we know. Unlike the world that is filled with broken promises and heart sickening disappointments, in the kingdom of God where God’s will is effectively carried out, his promise is never uncertain, for he is the promise keeper.

You see this rock solid character of God in Isaiah 55:10-11 where God says, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so it my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

What you see in Isaiah passage is that God’s promise rising out of his desire and purpose is what is best for humanity. And, the single greatest promise God made that is truly the best thing ever that could happen to us is his salvation plan through his Son Jesus Christ. And, he kept his promise. God is the great promise keeper.

1. God the promise keeper is God of the subject and the verbs.

For God to fulfill his salvation promise, for God to be the rock solid promise keeper, the history must know God as the God of the subject and the verbs. And, this is one thing that you cannot fail to notice in Paul’s passionate talk with the residents gathered in the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch. Verse 17 to 41 describes God in action; God is the subject and his activities are captured in the verbs. It is all about how God has moved and acted in the history to fulfill his promise.

• v. 17… It was God who chose the fathers, the generation of patriarchs, Abraham down to Isaiah, Jacob. God chose. It was God who made the Israelites prosper in Egypt. It was God who led them out.
• v. 18… It was God who patiently endured their rebellious and distrusting attitude for forty years in the desert following the great Exodus.
• v. 19… It was God who overthrew the Canaanite nations. It was God who gave their land to his people as their inheritance.
• v. 20… After some 450 years later, God gave them judges to rescue them out of distress, misery and oppression.
• v. 21… It was God who gave them what they wanted, Saul as their king, who proved to be unreliable, unfaithful, paranoid and unstable.
• v. 22… It was God who removed Saul. In place of Soul, God made David the king. It was God who found David, a man after his own heart who will do everything he wanted him to do.

God is the subject of each of these verses. And, it is God who is carrying out his will.

Knowing God means knowing God as the subject and the verbs in our lives. Can you look back in your history of this past year and speak passionately about how God did this and God did that? Is God the main subject and the verb? Or, are the main subject and the verbs all about you? Take time to listen to your own thoughts and your conversation with others and evaluate who or what are the main subjects and what the main subjects are doing.

1. God the promise keeper keeps his promise in Jesus Christ.

Again you cannot fail to notice Paul’s logic in his sermon to the residents of Pisidian Antioch that God is the great promise keeper who keeps promise in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is God’s one singular greatest promise. Many of the great promises of God in the Old Testaments get distilled into God’s singular promise in Jesus Christ.

v. 23… David was great but only as a precursor, a pointer to God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

v. 24… Jumping now all the way into the time of Jesus, John the Baptist was again a great man and a great prophet but only as a pointer to Jesus. John was in his element, he was most happy, not when he was on the front page, but only when he made much about Jesus Christ.

Can it be said about us that we are in our best element when we make much about Jesus Christ as John the Baptist made much about Jesus as apostle Paul did?

What does God promise? God promises salvation. How does he fulfill his promise of salvation? Verse 26 tells us it is by God sending the message of salvation. Jesus Christ is the message of salvation.

Yet, the tragedy was that the people of Jerusalem and their rulers not only failed to recognize Jesus as the salvation, but condemned him. But, even in this failing to recognize and condemning in part of the Jews, you cannot escape the fact that their action fulfilled the words of the prophets. Every Sabbath they read the words of the prophets, yet they failed to see Jesus as their long awaited Messiah. Not only did they fail to see Jesus as their Messiah, they conspired against him to execute him. But again, verse 29 makes it clear that they were not in charge of the history. It describes their actions against Jesus Christ as having carried out all that was written about him. And, it is always God who has the final say. Verse 30 begins with all important, “but” that vindicates Jesus Christ over the evil acts.

“But God raised him from the dead.” And, as any historical account is validated by witnesses, God’s great act of raising Jesus from the dead were evidenced by numerous eye witnesses of the risen Jesus.

Verse 32 to 37, you find the Old Testament promises fulfilled in Jesus’ resurrection.

V. 33, “You are my Son: today I have become your Father,” comes from Psalm 2:7.

V. 34, “I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David,” refers to Isaiah 55:3.

V. 35, “You will not let your Holy One see decay,” was a promise from Psalm 16:10.

Sunday after Sunday, we come and hear the word of God, and is there tragedy among us who fail to miss it all together. Are you missing Jesus, are you opposing Jesus? Have you failed to experience God who raised Jesus from the dead? Have you failed to experience God, the great promise keeper? Today, don’t leave church, without having met Jesus, without being touched by God, the great promise keeper!

Think of all the ways you have been disappointed and hurt by the unfulfilled promises by others, think of all the ways you have hurt and disappointed others by your unfulfilled promises. The only way we can be promise keepers is by falling in love with the great promise keeper.

1. God the promise keeper promises you forgiveness and justification through Jesus Christ.

Those of you who’s been studying Galatians from Friday Bible studies will appreciate greatly what Paul said in verse 38-39. “… I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.” In Galatians, Paul further unpacks this great truth in detail.

It is crucial to notice that God’s promise of forgiveness and justification is through Jesus. No amount of trying to be good, no amount of moral effort will do. Being good is not good enough. Forgiveness is possible if you and I can pay off the debt. Being righteous would be possible if we can possibly be good all the time. The problem is that no one can pay off the debt; no one can be good all the time without sin. We have insurmountable debt of sins only the perfect righteous Jesus can pay off.

So, as we do Christian life, each day, every day, we must begin our journey at the cross where Jesus Christ paid our sin debts with his blood as the only perfect righteous one. Each day and every day we must begin our journey at the empty tomb where Jesus is no longer there. We must begin each day with the conviction that we serve God who raised Jesus from the dead. One who can raise Jesus from the dead has nothing too difficult, too impossible. We must begin each day, every day with Jesus. Through Jesus, we are forgiven and righteous.

1. God the promise keeper warns you against unbelieving and hardened heart.

Unbelief breeds contempt. The Jews failed to recognize Jesus as their Messiah because they were unbelieving. And, in their unbelief, they hated Jesus and became “scoffers” as in verse 41.

As Christians we would be hesitant to see ourselves scoffers who has contempt for Jesus. But, the reality is that when Jesus Christ makes no differences, no bearing in our action today, it speaks to our hearts that feel indifferent to Jesus. Indifference, not being moved and touched by Jesus, renders us ineffective and powerless against sin. The result is sin dominates. And, every sin is contemptuous act against Jesus.

So, this goes back to my last point that we need to begin each day’s journey at the cross and the empty tomb, with Jesus who died and shed his blood for us, who is raised from the dead.

The greatest cure for unbelieving and hardened heart happens in relationship with Jesus.

1. God the promise keeper seeks to reach the world with you.

Verse 47, “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth,” comes from Isaiah 49: 6.

We must do all that we can to resist the temptation to reduce Christianity to strictly personal religion. The silent, unspoken, unshared faith is not what God has in mind when he appoints us for eternal life (v. 48). Verse 49 says, “The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.” And, verse 52, “And, the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”

Conclusion

Let me recapture what’ve learned from our passage.

• God is the promise keeper.
• God the promise keeper is the subject and the verbs.
• God the promise keeper keeps his promise in Jesus Christ.
• God the promise keeper promises you forgiveness and justification through Jesus Christ.
• God the promise keeper warns you against unbelieving and hardened heart.
• God the promise keeper seeks to reach the world with you.

Unlike us, God never disappoints or hurts by breaking his promise. He is the great promise keeper. If you’ve been disappointed by other people breaking promises to you, come to Jesus, God’s fulfillment to his promise. If you’ve been hurting others by breaking your promises, then come to Jesus, God’s fulfillment to his promise, will equip you to be a promise keeper.

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[1] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/07/11/business/20080711_FANNIE_GRAPHIC.html