God’s Word for You
Acts 17:3-4 Jesus is the Christ
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, October 9, 2020
3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” 4 Some of them were persuaded. They joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few of the prominent women.
The way that Paul reasoned with the believers of Thessalonica was to open the Scriptures in order to show them that they had been fulfilled in a man named Jesus, a man who had died in Israel less than twenty years before, and had risen from the dead. Luke doesn’t tell us which Scriptures Paul explained and proved his point by using, but the more obvious choice would be Isaiah 53.
Jesus was a man rejected by men, by his own people. “He was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3). The people of Israel were looking for a king who would seize power, drive out the Romans, and establish a throne like Solomon’s. Instead, Jesus let himself be seized, was captured by the Romans, and established a different kind of throne altogether. So he was despised by his own people, and Paul could admit that, at the time, Paul was one of those who personally “esteemed him not.”
Jesus “took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. We considered him stricken by God, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:4). Jesus had compassion on everyone who is grieving, who is sad, who is infirm, unhealthy, and afflicted in every way. He came to heal—not only bodies, but spirits. He gives healing in hearts as well as in flesh. He gives us peace between us, our sinful shame, and God’s wrath over our sins. Jesus got in between all of that impossible and terrible trouble and took the trouble on himself in our place.
Jesus “was pierced for our transgressions. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). God does not punish the sins of mankind, or individual sinners, in this lifetime, apart from what he has said in his word: “The wages of sin is death.” There are three kinds of death: spiritual, physical, and eternal. Spiritual death is unbelief. Physical death is the end of this earthly life. Eternal death is the agony of hell. So while certain sins might have consequences in this lifetime (a fine to be paid, getting fired from a job, facing time in jail, etc.), God is not punishing sins in these ways, as if a person’s suffering somehow made up for a sin. No, the punishment of the agony of hell, separation from God and from God’s love and mercy is the payment for sin. And Jesus Christ bore that punishment in our place. So Isaiah says, “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Paul also explained it this way: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). That is to say, Christ the sinless one became our sins on the cross. Our sins were punished through his body and his pain. He didn’t just represent our sins, he became those sins. All of them. And now, because of his sacrifice which was carried out to its only conclusion (his death), he has given us what his death achieved: the payment for our sins means that we are free of them all, all their guilt and shame is wiped clean forever (even the sins of today, this morning), and we are righteous before God because we put our faith in Jesus.
This is the message that won the hearts of the Thessalonians, Jews, Gentiles, and even “not a few of the prominent women.” We can hope that through their faith, their husbands would also have been brought to faith later on.
The message of the Gospel does not change. It’s a terrible pity when another message is spoken from the pulpits of churches. Be sure, dear Christian, that the message of the forgiveness of sins is what you are hearing from your pulpit, which is God’s own pulpit. Your pastor needs to preach it, and your pastor needs to hear it himself. You need to hear it, too. So go listen. Go receive the sacrament, too. Go and be forgiven because you stand forgiven in Jesus. You are the dear child of God.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.