B (2:45)

And Part of his sermon, in verse 38, he says, Therefore let it be known to you, brethren. Now that makes me think he specifically is talking to the Jews. Here in verse 26, he says, Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham. But then he also adds, and those among you who fear God.

C (3:04)

Now that God fearers are normally Gentiles.

B (3:07)

Yeah, I remember doing some study on this a long time ago that. Does this refer to proselytes or does it refer to just Gentiles who were.

C (3:15)

Thinking about, yeah, they could be Gentiles who were circumcised and had actually become proselytes. But normally, from my reading, God fearers were people like Cornelius or like Lydia in the book of Acts. And they were not proselytes.

B (3:30)

Right.

C (3:31)

They were simply worshiping in the synagogue.

B (3:33)

But certainly we would say the majority of the audience here are Jews. And he says, let's see. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man Christ is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. And then he adds, and by him, everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Which is another clue that he's talking to Jews here. So Chris's point here is that here Paul is preaching to Jews and we're going to look at a passage where Peter is talking to Gentiles and is talking about the forgiveness of sins. But here Paul is talking to Jews and he goes, in Christ you have the forgiveness of sins and you could be justified. Now even that raises a question. Are those the same thing? And I would say no.

C (4:23)

No. I would say no also. And I was saying, look, is it inappropriate to say when you believe in Jesus, you get the forgiveness of sins? No. Is it inappropriate to say when you believe in Jesus, you're baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ? No. Is it inappropriate to say when you believe in Christ for everlasting life, that the Holy Spirit permanently indwells you? No, but none of those are saving. But here is the point where people mess up when it comes to Acts 13. They don't keep reading. You see, A week later, they wanted to hear. The Gentiles in particular, wanted to hear more. So they came back and they preached again. And notice, what verse is it? Verse 44.

B (5:09)

On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.

C (5:12)

So now we're not just mostly Jews, we've got most of the city.

B (5:17)

Right. And in verse 46, Paul says 45.

C (5:21)

Says the Jews opposed what Paul was saying. Now that Means there were more than Jews present.

B (5:27)

Right. And then it says he's going to refer to the Gentiles here. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said it was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. The Jews. Right. But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life.

C (5:42)

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

B (5:44)

Behold, we turn to the Gentiles.

C (5:47)

Notice he doesn't say you judge yourselves unworthy of the forgiveness of sins, you judge yourselves unworthy of justification. He says, you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life or everlasting life. Why would he say that? Because that's the bullseye. And then notice verse 48, which a lot of people miss. This is where Calvinists really botched this verse. But could you read 48?

B (6:09)

Sure. Now, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as been, well then the new King James, many has been appointed to eternal life, believed.

C (6:21)

Yeah. And this is Tetagmanoi from Tasso. And it means to put or place. Often troops were put. It was a military term. Often where they would place troops, get information. Right. Well here it could be many people suggest that what Paul is saying, as many as were well positioned to eternal life, believed or who were open to.

B (6:42)

Eternal life, something like that, or even positioned themselves.

C (6:44)

Right.

A (6:45)

Just jumping in here to make you aware of our magazine Grace in Focus. It is a bi monthly, six issues per year, 48 page magazine, full color, and we want you to subscribe by emailing your name and your snail mail address to gesaithalone.org the subscription is free, it can be accessed electronically or it can be actually physically sent to you if you live in the lower 48 United States. That's our Grace and Focus magazine. Send your name and snail mail address to gesaithalone.org.

C (7:21)

And so the idea here is not that God, this is not one of the election words.

B (7:26)

Exactly.

C (7:26)

It's not a chosen word. This is a word that refers to being positioned. What it's saying is there were people, verse 46, who judged themselves unworthy of eternal, not God judging them unworthy, they judged themselves unworthy.

B (7:40)

And that's what Paul says.

C (7:41)

And so now in verse 48 he said there were people who did judge themselves worthy and they because they were open to eternal life and well positioned concerning eternal life, they believed. And notice verse 49.

B (7:54)

How about this? The way I would say it is they positioned themselves to be willing to believe.

C (8:00)

Absolutely.

B (8:00)

How about verse 49, 49 and the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their region.

C (8:17)

But the word spread through the whole region, primarily among the Gentiles. Right, yeah.

B (8:22)

What I would say about this, as far as the. The part about the forgiveness of sins and the justification, he's talking about the law of Moses. So when he's preaching in the synagogue, he's telling Jews who are well steeped in this concept of forgiveness of sins, their whole religious practices. What he's saying is, Jesus has come to do all these things. You couldn't be declared righteous by the law, but in him you can. Right. You're not going to find the forgiveness of sins and fellowship with God in the law or in the sacrifices. You're going to find it in him and you're going to find eternal life in Him. You need to believe in him for eternal life.

C (9:01)

Absolutely.

B (9:01)

And so the forgiveness of sins is very appropriate for a Jewish audience here who was looking to the law of Moses for these things.

C (9:08)

Now, are there people who have believed that by faith in Jesus, they're forgiven and yet they believe they can lose eternal life or lose their salvation? Lots of.

B (9:18)

Oh, lots of people. Every Catholic who goes to Mass.

C (9:21)

Right. Most people would say what I get is initial forgiveness, which actually is our view. Right. You start the Christian life with a clean slate. But the point is, the bullseye is eternal life verses 46 and 48. By the way, we see the same thing in Peter's preaching in Acts 10.

B (9:37)

That's the other one that we think Chris probably has in my Acts 10:43.

C (9:41)

Right.

B (9:42)

In Acts 10:43, in this case, Peter is talking to Gentiles Cornelius and his household.

C (9:47)

He was a lieutenant colonel like you. Right.

B (9:50)

A centurion. Yeah, probably pretty close to that.

C (9:53)

Centurion was somewhere between 100 and 600 men or something.

B (9:56)

Well, normally they say it was about 60 men. So this would be like, for you in the military? This would be like a company commander.

C (10:02)

A company. Is that like a major?

B (10:04)

A captain.

C (10:05)

A captain.

B (10:05)

And it says he preaches to them, to him, Christ. All the prophets witness that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins.

C (10:14)

Okay. So he says they're going to receive the remission of sins. And then the next verse says, while Peter was still preaching, Holy Spirit fell on them.

B (10:22)

Right.

C (10:22)

Coming back to Chris, question, how can that be if he didn't mention eternal.

B (10:26)

Life and we would say, of course he did. We know that the angel told Cornelius, go call him, and he will give you words of life.

C (10:35)

In Acts 11, he will tell you how you and your household must be saved, and words of life. And there's two options. One option is he had already talked about eternal life, and we just don't have it written in the transcript. The other option is, as soon as they heard, whoever believes in him receives the forgiveness of sins, since they knew he was coming to tell them the saving message. As soon as they heard this, they realized, aha, when I believe in him, I'm saved forever and I have the forgiveness of sin.

B (11:06)

In my view, this is the issue. The forgiveness of sins here is not the same thing as receiving eternal life. But the forgiveness of sins was. Peter was telling them, you're equal with the Jews.

C (11:18)

Yeah. In fact, that's why he goes on to say, who can forbid water? Who have received the Spirit, just as we have.

B (11:23)

Just as we have we Jews. That's right. Before that, Peter was like, I can't eat with you all. I can't come into this house. And God says, oh, yes, you can.

C (11:32)

In Galatians chapter 2 in Acts 9.

B (11:35)

Because I have forgiven their sins.

C (11:36)

Yes, you're right.

B (11:37)

And that's the point here in Acts chapter 10, that Gentiles are equal members within the body. The disciples knew that Gentiles could receive eternal life, but now they're saying, wow, they're equal with us. They've been forgiven of all their sins, just like we are. They have the Spirit. Yes. That's what's going on here. So this is something in addition to receiving eternal life.

C (12:00)

So Paul and Peter both preached eternal life. If you look in first Peter, chapter one, what is it about verse 24 he talks about? You have been born anew by the word of God. Isn't that what it says in 1st.

B (12:12)

Peter 1:23, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever.

C (12:22)

So there's him talking about the same message as John 3, having been born again by the word of God. And James does the same thing. In James 1:18, he brought us forth by the word of truth. So what you're going to find is everlasting life is in all of the apostles. Certainly if you read the Gospel of John, you're never going to find Jesus saying, whoever believes has the forgiveness of sins.

B (12:43)

He doesn't say it one time. No, that's exactly right. Well, thanks for the question. Chris we hope this helped and remember folks, keep grace in focus.

A (12:55)

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B (13:45)

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A (13:47)

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