Recognizing Jesus

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

RECOGNIZING JESUS

Acts 13:26-31

26 "Brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. 27 The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. 28 Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.

NIV

Paul has finally reach his point that it is Jesus and that God raised him from the dead, which was all written about by the prophets. Paul has laid out a very compelling case, but he is not finished which we will see later. So for now we need to see the truth, the life lesson in this portion of his dissertation of the gospel message. Although the people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus for who he is, because of the love of God for all people throughout all of the history of mankind, he has made it possible for us to recognize Jesus. He gave them the words of the prophets, and he has given us all their words, plus those of all the men who lived during the time Jesus was among them in the flesh. We have those men who are witnesses to the truth of the gospel. How can we not believe? How can we ignore the witnesses who wrote their testimony of what he said and did? Just as the prophets were inspired by God so were all the witnesses to the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus inspired by God to pen their testimonies for generations that would follow. How some people can trust the words of human history written by men, not inspired by God, but merely inspired by man, and not trust the words inspired by God is beyond comprehension. Even if they were just words written by men, they still record the history of God and his relationship with man. The lives of those men who recorded the life of Jesus, and the truth of the message only gained a horrible death because of their testimony. They did not gain fame and fortune as so many men endeavor to do today with their words of history or other topics for people to believe in. Our faith is firmly placed in the words which were inspired by God. The testimony of those men is true because God inspired them to record it. Yet the truth of the matter is that it was not only those people of Jerusalem and their rulers who condemned Jesus to death, it is also our sin. We are the true reason Jesus had to die on that cross. He is our righteousness, as we have none, our righteousness is as a filthy rag. Without Jesus we are the ones condemned to death, but praise God, we recognized Jesus and accepted him as our Savior. Now, because he took our sin and the punishment, death for it, we are free of that condemnation. Because God raised him from the dead, we too will be raised from the grave. Because he ascended into heaven, he is coming back for us and we too shall raise up into the heavens to be with our Lord for all eternity. This eternal life is available to all who hear this message and recognize Jesus. Paul is telling them, and his words are available for all mankind for all generations to read and believe. What a blessing to recognize Jesus.