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Acts 13:14-26  PAULS MEMORIAL DAY SERMON

Introduction:

	In our text last Sunday Luke told us about Paul and Barnabas arriving at 
the city of Perga in the nation that we now call “Turkey.”  It was from Perga 
that John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem.  
	In our text today Paul and Barnabas leave Perga and go to the city of 
Antioch in the province of Pisidia, which is also in the nation which we know 
today as Turkey, V. 14.  When the sabbath day arrived they attended worship 
services at a Jewish synagogue and they were invited to speak.  They were not 
being asked to preach a sermon.  They were being asked to bring news from the 
homeland.  They had not newspapers, radios or TVs to bring them news.  But they 
were very anxious to have fellow Jews to visit who could bring them news from 
back home and that is what they were asking for.  But Paul used the opportunity 
to, in effect, preach them a sermon.  I call it “Paul’s Memorial Day Sermon,”  
V. 15.  
	  His sermon was not delivered to commemorate the Memorial Day which we 
celebrate this week-end.  Nor was it designated to commemorate any specific day 
as Memorial Day.  But in his message Paul calls to the memory of his 
congregation several events from the history of Israel. 

I.  He called to their memory the fact that God had delivered Israel from 
bondage in        
     Egypt

	V. 16-17, “Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with [his] hand said, Men of 
Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.  The God of this people of Israel 
chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the 
land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought he them out of it.”  Paul said that 
God had chosen the people of Israel and had taken them to be a special nation to 
Himself.  This was a very high and exalted position in the world.  
	Paul, furthermore, said that God had with a “high arm” brought them out of 
Egypt.  By this Paul reminded them that God delivered their forefathers from the 
bondage that they had been under in Egypt.  In this he reminded them that God 
had worked mighty miracles at the word of Moses in order to persuade the pharaoh 
to let the people of God go.  He also referred to the high arm of the Lord which 
held back the waters of the Red Sea while the Children of Israel went across on 
dry ground.  

II.  Paul called to their memory the fact that God had been especially patient 
with 
     the people of Israel while they wandered in the wilderness 

	V. 18, “And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the 
wilderness.”  For forty years in the wilderness God provided food for Israel 
without them every having to plan a crop or reap a harvest.  He provided them 
food without them ever having to spend one penny for one crumb of food.  He gave 
them manna from heaven every day for forty years.  
	Paul said that God “suffered” the people of Israel during that forty year 
period.  That means that the people of Israel were not easy to put up during 
those forty years.  They were not easy even for God to put up with.  It really 
strained the patience of God to tolerate them.  But God was merciful and loving 
and God tolerated their rebellious ways for a full forty years.  This most 
certainly demonstrates God’s great love for this people.  

III.  Paul called to their memory that God helped the forefathers to drive out 
the 
       Canaanites and to give their land to Israel       

	V. 19, “And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he 
divided their land to them by lot.”   Paul said that God destroyed seven nations 
in order to give the land of Canaan to this one nation ---- to the nation of 
Israel.  These nations were greater than Israel in number.  These nations were 
mightier than Israel in the size and strength of their soldiers.  There were 
giants in those seven nations.  But God blessed Israel and gave the victory to 
Israel.  He gave their land to Israel to be divided among the twelve tribes.  

IV. Paul called to their memory that God had given them judges to rule over them 
      for many generations

	V. 20, “And after that he gave [unto them] judges about the space of four 
hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.”  For a period of four-
hundred years the nation of Israel had no king.  For four hundred years when 
they had a serious problem, they called upon God and God sent them a man to 
represent Him and to deliver them from their problems.  In other words, in 
effect, God was their king and the judge was God’s earthly messenger to 
represent God who ruled over them.    
	No other nation in the world had such a privilege as this.  No other 
nation in the world had such an exalted position.  This nation had God as their 
king.   This nation had God to protect them from enemy forces.  This nation had 
God as their provider to fill their barns with grain and their houses with food.  
God was their physician in times of sickness.  God was their comfort and 
strength  in times of sorrow and distress.  

V.  Paul called to their memory the time when the forefathers set out to get an 
      earthly king

	Not all that Paul called to their memory was good.  For instance, he 
reminded them of the time when the people were not satisfied to have God as 
their king.  They wanted to be like the other nations around them and have an 
earthly king.  God had it in His mind to send them a king, but not at that time.  
God was not ready to send them a king at that time.  Never-the-less, since the 
people rejected God as their king God let them have a king.  
	They got Saul as their king and that turned out to be a big mistake.  V. 
21, “And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of 
Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.”  Saul turned 
out to be a great big embarrassment  to the country.  He was a disgrace to the 
land.  For forty years he was their king.  As you will remember, forty years is 
the length of time that they had wandered in the wilderness.  Now they have Saul 
as their king for forty years.  It was almost as though they were wandering 
again in the wilderness for another forty years.  

VI.  Paul called to their memory that in spite of the big mistake of the people 
in 
       rejecting God as their king after Saul, God sent them the good king, 
David

	V. 22, “And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be 
their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the 
[son] of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.”   
After Saul’s notorious reign, God sent the nation a king after His own heart.  
He was, for the most part of his reign, a man who sought the will of God.  He 
sought to please God.  He sought to bring honor and glory to God.  He sought to 
get the people to live for God and to please God.  
	David was blessed of God in his own personal life and he brought the 
blessings of God upon the nation.  He won many mighty victories on the battle 
field.   He brought prosperity upon the land.  He was a man who loved the people 
and whom the people loved in return.  But most important --- he was a man who 
loved God and whom God loved.  He brought the blessings of God on the nation.  

VII.  Paul called to their memory God’s promise that He would send Savior 
through 
         David         

	V. 23, “Of this man's seed hath God according to [his] promise raised unto 
Israel a Saviour, Jesus.”   This is the message that Paul was so anxious to tell 
those Jews in that synagogue service.  He wanted to tell them that God had not 
only promised to send a Savior through David, but that Jesus is the Savior which 
God had promised.  
	V. 24, “When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of 
repentance to all the people of Israel.”  As an evidence that Jesus is the 
fulfillment of that promise, Paul reminded them that John the Baptist had been 
the forerunner of Jesus and had identified Jesus to the people of Israel, 
saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”  This 
was a fact that these Jewish people were familiar with.  But it was a fact which 
they had been inclined to forget because of the opposition of the Jewish leaders 
to Jesus.  John the Baptist had called upon the people of Israel to repent, to 
place their faith in Jesus and to demonstrate their faith by being baptized.  
	These people revered John the Baptist, and Paul reminded them that John 
saw himself as being but an unworthy servant of Jesus, the Christ.  V. 25, “And 
as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not [he]. 
But, behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of [his] feet I am not 
worthy to loose.”  

VIII.  Paul announcing to them that through Jesus they can be saved

	V. 26, “Men [and] brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and 
whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.”  
The Jewish people had long expected that whenever the Christ would come to 
Israel, He would save the nation of Israel out from under Roman rule much like 
Moses had saved Israel out from under Egyptian rule.  But what Paul was pointing 
out to them was that Jesus had not come to save the nation out from under Roman 
rule.  Jesus had come to save the individual man, woman, boy and girl from his 
sins.  He had come to save them so that they would go to heaven when they die.  
Paul was saying, “Men and brethren, you can be saved.  Jesus can save your soul 
so that you will go to heaven when you die.  If you will trust Jesus Christ to 
be your Savior then Jesus will save your soul.”  Furthermore, in effect, he was 
saying to them, “Jesus is the only Savior that God has ever sent and the only 
Savior that God will lever send.  Jesus is the only hope you have of going to 
heaven.”  

IX.  A word about our Memorial Day

	On this Memorial Day week-end we have all been reminded of the brave men 
who have served our nation and, who have, therefore served us personally by 
serving in the military forces of our nation to fight this nation’s enemies.  We 
owe all of them a huge debt of gratitude.  They have all risked their lives to 
protect us.  Many a man has given his life in order that this nation might be 
free.  Many a man has suffered terrible pain and has been lift in a crippled 
body in order that we might remain a free nation.  They have made great 
sacrifice that we who are present here this morning might be free.  
	But let us remember that the greatest sacrifice of all was when God the 
Heavenly Father sent His Son, His only begotten Son to the earth and to the 
cross of Calvary to shed His blood that we might be saved.  The brave men and 
women of our military could give their life’s blood for our national liberty and 
for our own personal freedom, but by the shedding of their blood whey could not 
provide for us the salvation of our soul so that we could go to heaven when we 
die.  But Jesus shed His blood on the cross and by His shed blood He has 
provided the opportunity for every man, woman, boy and girl to be saved.  
	That was about 2000 years ago that Jesus died and was resurrected.  Today 
He looks down from heaven and is ready to save you if you will only look to Him 
to be your Savior.  

Conclusion:

	Will you call upon Him and ask Him to save you?  Will you worship Him and 
serve Him?