Acts 13:26-31\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 \u201cFellow children of Abraham\u00a0and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation\u00a0has been sent. 27\u00a0The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus,\u00a0yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets\u00a0that are read every Sabbath.\u00a028\u00a0Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed.\u00a029\u00a0When they had carried out all that was written about him,\u00a0they took him down from the cross\u00a0and laid him in a tomb.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cFellow children of Abraham\u00a0and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation\u00a0has been sent.<\/i>\u201d Paul wrote\u00a0Romans 1:16<\/b>\u00a0\u201cFor I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.<\/i>\u201d<\/b>\u00a0 It is right and proper that God sent Jesus first to the Jews.\u00a0 Though the promise of salvation is to all, and though Jesus died for all, it was the Jews whom God used to reveal Himself to the World and to be the keeper of the Holy Scriptures.\u00a0 They, with holy dedication kept and protected the Word.\u00a0 So Paul gives the Jews due deference.\u00a0 In this acknowledgement to the Hebrews, the Gentiles are not slighted.\u00a0 It is best to focus on the fact that all Gentiles are included in the offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus,\u00a0yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets\u00a0that are read every Sabbath.<\/i>\u201d Besides the scriptures that foretold the coming of the Messiah, there were also scriptures that foretold the rejecting of Him.\u00a0\u00a0Psalm 118:22<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThe stone\u00a0the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Isaiah 53:3<\/b>\u00a0\u201cHe was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering,\u00a0and familiar with pain.\u00a0 Like one from whom people hide\u00a0their faces He was despised,\u00a0and we held Him in low esteem.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 It is no surprise that He was rejected.\u00a0 As always, God who knows the hearts and minds of men and can use them to bring about His will for our benefit.\u00a0 He used the hard hearts of the Jews.\u00a0 Let us remember that then, as now, not all Jewish hearts were against Jesus.\u00a0 Many then, and now, love and follow Him.\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 So beautiful! Praise God!<\/p>\n
\u201cThough they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Isaiah 53:7-8<\/b>\u00a0\u201cHe was oppressed\u00a0and afflicted, yet He did not open his mouth; He was led like a lamb\u00a0to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.\u00a0 8\u00a0By oppression\u00a0and judgment\u00a0He was taken away. Yet who of His generation protested?\u00a0 For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression\u00a0of my people He was punished<\/i>.\u201d\u00a0 God, being omniscient, is never surprised. As previously stated, He used the sin in their hearts to accomplish His will.\u00a0 He did not make them do it, but He knew what they would do.\u00a0 Jesus gave a parable about how a vineyard owner kept trying to get the rent from a his tenants.\u00a0 Instead they beat and killed all sent messengers, and even killed his son. This was a parable about how the Jews would rebel against all messengers that God sent to them and it would culminate with them rejecting and killing His Son.\u00a0 We should have no doubt that Jesus was talking about the Jews and what they would do to Him.\u00a0 The Jews didn\u2019t (Mark 12:1-12<\/b>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>When they had carried out all that was written about Him,\u00a0they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 We see that Jesus, after His death on the cross (for our sins) was laid in a tomb (John 19:38-42, Matthew 27:57-60<\/b>).\u00a0 The fact that Jesus lived and was crucified is also verified by non-Christian documentation.\u00a0 An ancient Greek historian named Thallus wrote (about 52 AD) of Jesus that He lived, that He was crucified and that just before He died, from noon till 3:00, darkness came over all the land (Matthew 27:45-50<\/b>).\u00a0 Thallus confirmed the life of Jesus, the darkness and his death.\u00a0 Later, about 221 AD, early church historian Julius Africanus quotes Thallus.\u00a0 To see more non-Christian references of some biblical truths please see an article by J. Warner Wallace:\u00a0https:\/\/coldcasechristianity.com\/writings\/is-there-any-evidence-for-jesus-outside-the-bible\/<\/a><\/p>\n Our All-Knowing God, who knows the hearts and thoughts of every person, uses even the acts of the evil to bring about good for man and praise to Him, just as Joseph said (Genesis 50:20<\/b>).\u00a0 They become unwitting participants.\u00a0 The Jews, even though they knew the scriptures, were hard of heart and the Lord used that to bring about His will.\u00a0 God never permits evil, but He knows everything and so He can use anything for His purpose.\u00a0 Paul is showing, from the history of the Hebrews and from the written Word that Jesus was the Messiah.\u00a0 All the evidence is still available to all.\u00a0 There is no better evidence to any person than the Word of God revealed to us by His Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Praise God who had and has everything planned out and also praise God that it will work out exactly as He said.\u00a0 Exactly.\u00a0 Jesus will come back for His own.\u00a0 Doers of evil will find their home in the eternal Lake of Fire.\u00a0 Lovers of Jesus, will find eternal comfort, peace and love with God Almighty.\u00a0 What a wonderful future we have.\u00a0 What a wonderful present, in Jesus, we have.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 13:26-31\u00a0\u2013 \u201cFellow children of Abraham\u00a0and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation\u00a0has been sent. 27\u00a0The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus,\u00a0yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets\u00a0that are read every Sabbath.\u00a028\u00a0Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,1865,103,100,93,101,94,17,10],"class_list":["post-1720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-genesis","tag-isaiah","tag-john","tag-mark","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-romans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1721,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720\/revisions\/1721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}