Acts 13:13-25
13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said:“Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. 19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ 23 Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. 24 Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’
Reflection
Saul —also called Paul (Acts 13:9) —and his company now head into modernday Turkey where they enter a synagogue on the Sabbath day. When the visitors are asked if they have a “word of encouragement for the people” (v. 15), Paul takes the opportunity to provide a brief overview of Israel’s history, explaining that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to bring Israel’s Savior from the family line of King David (vv. 16–23).
The Bible is much more than a collection of ancient spiritual writings. It is a unified and unfolding story about God and his eternal kingdom that carefully points and leads us to Jesus Christ (cf. Mark 1:14–15; Luke 24:27). The better we know the story of the Bible, the fuller we’ll see the glory of our Savior.
Revelation 1:9-20
9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. 19 Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
Reflection
One consistent New Testament theme related to the gospel is that those who embrace it will face tribulation (Rev. 1:9; cf. Matt. 5:11–12; Mark 10:29–30; Acts 14:22; 1 Thess. 2:4; 2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Pet. 2:21). John himself has been exiled to Patmos because of “the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 1:9) —probably a reference to his personal gospel ministry. In the midst of John’s suffering, the risen Christ appears to him in glory (vv. 10–20). John is not to fear, because Jesus is eternal (v. 17), and also because of the victorious gospel. Jesus tells him in verse 18 that he died and yet is alive forever. This means that even if those united to Christ are put to death, he can guarantee that death will not hold his followers just as death could not hold him — as the firstborn from the dead (v. 5). Jesus declares that he has “the keys of Death and Hades” (v. 18). Death and hell cannot bind the followers of Jesus.
In Christ, death itself has been undone. Those who are in him have nothing to fear on earth. Our eternal future could not be more secure.
Psalm 56:4
4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?
The power of death has been conquered by Jesus through his resurrection. Pray, therefore, that God would help you live your life for the purposes of his kingdom, unhindered by the fear of death.