Acts 13 (ESV)
44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. 46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,
“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
This past Sunday at “BC” we continued our journey through the book of Acts and covered Acts 13:13-52. The above text was the main section we focused on however, because in this text we are told why it is that two people walk into a church gathering, sit in the same worship service, hear the same preacher and the same message and one believes the Gospel and becomes a Christian and the other rejects it. The reason is outside of ourselves. Yes we freely receive or we freely reject, but the Bible says that those who freely receive can take no credit in it. They weren’t smarter or more spiritual nor did they simply make the “right” choice. They believed because they were “appointed” to eternal life. They believed because God, before the foundation of the world, chose them (based solely on His love and good purpose) and predestined that Jesus would die for them to actually purchase them for God, that they might be adopted as sons and daughters and become like His Son, Jesus. This is the biblical doctrine of “predestination” or “election”. God has made a free offer of salvation through faith in Christ to all those who will repent and trust in Christ. He has also chosen some people out of the mass of sinful humanity and secured their belief and salvation through faith in Christ. For the rest, he allows them to freely reject the Gospel, worship idols and settle for conterfieights, doing exactly what ALL of our hearts, apart from God’s grace, desire to do.
This is not a popular idea among many Christians and defintely involves an element of “wrestling with the text” to come to terms with. For your benefit I’ve included a list of Bible references below, as well as a couple different messages and other resources to assist you in your studies.
Exodus 9:16 Exodus 33:19 Exodus 34:24 Deuteronomy 10:15 Joshua 11:20 1 Kings 12:15 Job 1:21-22 Job 23:10-16 Job 9:1-35 Psalm 25:12 Psalm 31:15 Psalm 32:5-11 Psalm 33:8-22
Psalm 110:1-7 Psalm 115:3 Proverbs 16:4-9 Isaiah 10 Isaiah 40:20-23 Isaiah 61:10-62:2 Matthew 10:22-30 Matthew 11:25 John 6 John 8:31-47 John 10:26-29 John 17:6 Acts 4:28 Acts 13:48
Acts 16:14 Acts 17:24-28 Romans 4:11 Romans 8:19-33 Romans 9:10-26 Romans 10:12-18 Romans 11:7-8 Romans 11:25-12:2 1 Corinthians 1:2 1 Corinthians 26-29 1 Corinthians 4:7
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 2 Corinthians 3:4-6 2 Corinthians 13:9 Galatians 1:1 Ephesians 1:4-10 Ephesians 2:10 Philippians 2:12-13 2 Thessalonians 2:7-15 2 Thessalonians 3:3 Titus 1:1-3 Titus 2
Titus 11-14 Hebrews 3:4 Hebrews 6:17-19 Hebrews 10:14 Hebrews 10:35 Hebrews 13:21 1 Peter 1:4-5
Some helpful messages to listen to are listed below:
Two wills in God -Matt Chandler (PDF notes)
Predestination -Mark Driscoll (notes)
Foreknown, Predestined, Conformed to Christ -John Piper
Also, check out this two-part article by Sam Storms:
