The Better Covenant Commentary: Acts-Revelation

By Dr Jonathan Welton

While bringing Better Covenant Theology into focus throughout the NT, there are eleven things that this commentary emphasizes:

1. A quality understanding is the goal of the commentary

2. The context of surrounding verses will be considered

3. The historical context will be considered

4. The entire New Testament was written pre-70AD and the destruction of Jerusalem was looming in the background

5. A covenantal understanding will be applied throughout (5 Covenants, 3 types of covenant, BCT)

6. The New Covenant replaced the Old Covenant

7. The covenant transition from old to new is the backdrop to the New Testament (From the cross until the destruction of Jerusalem, 30-70AD)

8. The kingdom is here now and increasing

9. The supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit and the church continues

10. We are covenantal marriage partners with Jesus, our choices matter, we are not in abusive relationship where He controls us and all things

11. We will examine difficult and interesting passages in the light of the previous ten presuppositions

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781737644330

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Part 1: Early Church History

Acts

The book of Acts, which is a continuation of the gospel of Luke, was likely written by Luke between AD 60 and 64. Scholars are unsure exactly where Luke was when he wrote it, but probably he was in Antioch, Ephesus, or Rome. Luke—who was a physician—traveled with the apostle Paul and wrote an orderly, detailed account with eyewitness testimony. Like the gospel of Luke, Acts was expressly written for Theophilus, who was most likely a government official who had become a believer.

Structure and Main Themes

The book of Acts picks up the story started in Luke after the death and resurrection of Jesus, and it tells the story of the early church. Because Acts is a story, like the Gospels, it does not have as much rhetoric or structure as the New Testament letters. However, the timeline of events in Acts does give us a basic structure. Here is a simple breakdown.

Acts 1–8: This is the earliest story of the church. It begins in Acts 1, when Jesus leaves the disciples forty days after His resurrection. He had appeared to them over and over, and now He is about to ascend into heaven. He gives his last instructions and ascends. Then, ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is poured out on the disciples in tongues, fire, and wind. From that experience, the apostles begin preaching and performing miracles in Jerusalem, and many people are saved.

Acts 9: This chapter marks a shift, as it records the salvation of Saul, who had been persecuting the church.

Acts 10–20: These chapters tell about the traveling ministry of Saul, who became known as the apostle Paul. This is his public ministry that occurs while Paul is free.

Acts 21–28: In Acts 21, Paul is arrested, and he spends the rest of the book of Acts being passed from government leader to government leader, eventually ending up in Rome.

Paul’s story continues from there, but we do not have that story written in the New Testament. The book of Acts stops while Paul is imprisoned in Rome, but we know from history that Paul lived several more years. While we don’t know exactly why Acts ends so abruptly, with no real conclusion, we do know that it is not just the story of Paul or even the early church—but of the expansion of the Kingdom, and that story is still unfolding.

In this commentary, we will look at the book of Acts through its presentations of the gospel. Depending on how one defines it, Acts contains somewhere between 12 and 18 of these presentations. In the book of Acts, we find the actual sermons that the early church used, and we can read how the apostles presented the gospel to new people. Before we get into the text, it is important to note a common thread among the gospel presentations of Acts. In them, the apostles over and over again referred to the Old Testament covenants and explained how Jesus related to them. The Old Testament contains many shadows that point to Jesus. It also contains three main covenants: God’s covenant with Abraham, God’s covenant with David, and God’s covenant with Israel/Moses. Each of these covenants was still in play when Jesus arrived on the scene.

Matthew 1:1, which says, This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham, makes it clear that both the covenant with Abraham and the covenant with David were fulfilled in Jesus. God promised Abraham an heir or seed through whom the whole earth would be blessed. And God promised David an heir who would sit on an eternal throne. Both of these are fulfilled in Christ. This idea is unpacked throughout the New Testament, as we will see in the sermons of Acts and the New Testament letters. In the book of Acts, the early church leaders consistently preached Jesus as the fulfillment of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants. That was their gospel message.

But the Mosaic covenant, also known as the old covenant, was different. The Mosaic covenant is complicated, and we do not have space to fully cover it here.³³ However, it differs from the other two in that it was not a promise of a future blessing. Instead, the Mosaic covenant was more of a set of rules for how to be blessed, accompanied by curses for disobedience. The old covenant is spelled out in Deuteronomy. The only future promise it contained was the promise that God would someday circumcise their hearts which, by doing so, would enact a new covenant (Deuteronomy 30:6). When that time came, it would be the end of the old covenant, which was always intended as temporary. So when Jesus came and introduced the new covenant, He was announcing the end of the old covenant and replacing it with the new. This backdrop regarding the covenants of the Old Testament is essential to understanding the gospel presentations in the book of Acts.

Finding the Better Covenant

The first sermon in Acts begins in Acts 2:22, right after Peter quotes Joel’s prophecy about God pouring out His Spirit on all people. That was a day of manifestations. People spoke in tongues, heard the wind, and saw flames of fire. Then, three thousand people got saved. This was essentially the first day of the early church. So, we have to ask ourselves, How did they know how to get saved? And what did saved mean? The answer is found in the first gospel presentation, which Peter preached. We find the first section of it in Acts 2:22–33:

Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him: I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.

Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

Here, we see that Peter starts out the very first gospel message by declaring that Jesus is the person David wrote about in Psalm 110. Peter claims that in Psalm 110, David was prophesying about his future descendant, Jesus, who would be resurrected from the dead. In His resurrection, Jesus fulfilled God’s promise to David that he would have a descendant who would sit on an eternal throne. Simply put, Jesus fulfilled the Davidic covenant. This was the good news that Peter proclaimed in the very first gospel message. He concluded in Acts 2:34–41:

For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. ’ Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, Brothers, what shall we do?

Peter replied, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, Save yourselves from this corrupt generation. Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Peter uses the resurrection as proof that Jesus had fulfilled the Davidic covenant because God promised David an heir who would live forever. When Jesus came back to life, He qualified Himself for that role because He was the first human who could live forever. In response to Peter’s declaration that Jesus had fulfilled the Davidic covenant, people start repenting. They realized that Jesus is the promised son of David, the one they had been waiting for, and they had killed Him! They responded in grief, shock, and horror to the reality that they had killed the one who fulfilled the Davidic covenant. This was the first presentation of the gospel, and it caused three thousand people to respond.

The number three thousand is significant. On the day Moses received the Law, he descended the mountain carrying the Ten Commandments only to discover people having an orgy in worship of a golden calf. Moses responded by saying, Separate them from us, and he instructed the Levites who sided with him to start killing the people involved in the orgy until God told them to stop. When they were done, the number of people who died that day was three thousand (see Exod. 32:28).³⁴ On the day the Law was given, three thousand people died. On the day of Pentecost, when Jesus had taken His throne and the gospel of the new covenant was preached, three thousand people were saved. Peter says we can know Jesus is sitting on His throne in heaven, the eternal throne of David, to reign and rule, because He has fulfilled the promise of pouring out the Holy Spirit. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear (Acts 2:33).

The second gospel presentation is in Acts 3:12–24, after Peter and John heal a lame man who is begging by the Temple gate. In response to the onlookers’ amazement, Peter preaches a sermon to help them understand what has just happened.

Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. For Moses said, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.

Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days. And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed. When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.

This passage contains a lot of information. Let’s highlight a few things. First, Peter mentions a suffering Messiah, which possibly points back to Isaiah 53. In Acts 3:18, Peter says, But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. This was not what the Jews expected. They weren’t looking for a suffering Messiah but rather a kingly Messiah who would push back the Roman legions. However, Peter points out that Isaiah had foretold that the Messiah would suffer, just as Jesus did.

Second, Peter quotes God’s promise to Abraham: Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed. Peter’s first gospel message was about the Davidic covenant, but in his second gospel message, Peter points to the Abrahamic covenant, in which God promised that through Abraham’s offspring or seed the whole earth would be blessed. Peter claims that Jesus is that offspring that would bless the world and that He came first to Israel to bless them by turning them from their sins. So Jesus not only fulfilled the Davidic covenant but also the Abrahamic covenant. This is the message Peter preached.

The next gospel message occurs after Peter and John are arrested and brought before the religious leaders in Jerusalem to explain themselves after they heal the lame man. The Jews ask them, By what power or what name did you do this? Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, responds boldly in Acts 4:8–12:

Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

Peter’s reference to the chief cornerstone comes from Psalm 118:22, which says, The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The cornerstone was the first stone set in place when building a new building; it was significant. But the Jews did not consider Jesus to be significant, even though He was the cornerstone of the new covenant. By quoting this, Peter is saying two things. First, the religious establishment had rejected Jesus. Second, the fact that Jesus is the chief cornerstone also means He is building a new establishment. Peter is telling them that they are the old establishment, and they had rejected the new. Now, Peter declares, God is taking that rejected cornerstone and using it to build the new establishment.

In these first three gospel presentations, we see Jesus declared as the fulfillment of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants—and the replacement of the Mosaic. Also, an important pattern starts to emerge that will continue throughout the book of Acts. Over and over, the gospel presentations of the early church emphasized Jesus’ resurrection. In modern Christianity, our focus is often on the fact that Jesus died for our sins. But that is only half of the story. Jesus did not just die to forgive us. When He left the grave, He united us with Him, making us into new creations. We are united with Him in resurrection. This is the full gospel message. Not only are our sins forgiven, but we die to our sinful nature and are resurrected with Christ into a new nature.

This theme continues in Acts 5:27–32, where Peter and the other apostles respond again to questioning from the religious leaders:

The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, he said. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.

Peter and the other apostles replied: We must obey God rather than human beings! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.

Here the apostles point not only to Jesus’ death and resurrection but also to His ascension. Jesus is now sitting at the right hand of God. He has taken His place as the heir to the eternal throne of David. This is not some future eschatological event as some suppose; it is a fulfilled gospel fact.

The next Scripture passage is not really a gospel presentation, but it is a report of how the church was preaching the gospel. In Acts 6:12–14, we read:

So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses, who testified, This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.

The accusation against Stephen is important. It tells us why he was arrested and why he would eventually be stoned as the first martyr. Here, we find that Stephen was preaching that Jesus had changed the customs of Moses and that Jesus was going to destroy the Temple. This was a common accusation against the early church—that they had rejected the customs of Moses—because they were fellowshipping with Gentiles, they were willing to eat meat offered to idols, they were not observing the Sabbath and feast days, they didn’t value circumcision, and many other differences. As these changes happened, the Jewish people began coming against these new believers—who were also Jewish people. Later, in Paul’s letters, we will see this issue clearly. The early church soundly rejected the customs of Moses and the old covenant, and they preached the message of the new covenant. This instigated the great Jewish persecution against the church. It began with Stephen, as we saw above, and it continued until AD 70.

In the accusations brought against Stephen, we also see the idea that Jesus was going to come to destroy the Temple. In Matthew 24:2, Jesus prophesied that not one stone of the Temple would be left upon another. And that happened, exactly when He said it would, forty years later, within one generation. In AD 70, Jerusalem was burned to the ground. As the city burned, the gold-coated roof of the Temple melted and ran in between the cracks of the stone walls. After the fire had subsided, the Roman general Titus commanded that the Temple be dismantled stone by stone. Not one stone was to be left on another because he wanted to remove all the melted gold. Jesus’ prophecy was literally fulfilled. The early church believed this event was coming within forty years after Jesus’ death, but such a declaration was an offense to the Jews.

The next gospel presentation comes when Stephen defends himself against these accusations. Since his presentation is quite lengthy, here we will summarize it. In just fifty verses, he gives an Old Testament overview:

1. Acts 7:1–19: Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph

2. Acts 7:20–44: Moses and Israel

3. Acts 7:45–50: Joshua, David, and Solomon

Then, in Acts 7:51–53, Stephen concludes by suddenly rebuking the Sanhedrin:

You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.

These extreme statements angered the Sanhedrin and led to Stephen’s death, as we see in Acts 7:54–60:

When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Look, he said, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he fell on his knees and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. When he had said this, he fell asleep.

To the modern reader, the Jews’ response to Stephen seems extreme because we do not know the context. When Stephen said, You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised, he was referring to Moses’ charge to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 10:16: Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. Moses said this to the people at the time they were receiving their covenant with God just before entering the promise land. However, at the end of the Mosaic covenant, which is laid out in Deuteronomy, we find the only promise of the Mosaic covenant. In Deuteronomy 31:20, God promised the Israelites that they would fail at keeping the covenant and be sent into exile. Yet He also gave them the promise that in the future, He would bring the people back from exile and circumcise their hearts (see Deut. 30:6). By referencing this, Stephen was telling the Sanhedrin—all the religious leaders—that God’s prophesied new covenant had arrived, but they were refusing to accept it. Just like their ancestors, they were still stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart. This was a terrible insult to their pride. They became so angry they actually gnashed their teeth. When Stephen saw an open vision of Jesus at the right hand of God, their fury boiled over, and they immediately killed him.

Stephen’s gospel presentation was the declaration that the new covenant had arrived, and it involved the circumcision of the heart—which the Jewish leaders rejected. Interestingly, the apostle Paul—Saul at the time—was present to hear Stephen. It is fascinating to consider that this might have been the first time that Saul/Paul heard the message of the circumcision of the heart preached. Later, Paul would become the master of that very message—using it against the Judaizers, i.e., the circumcision group. Yet here, he was among those who approved the stoning of Stephen when he preached about the circumcision of the heart.

We find another gospel presentation in Acts 8:30–35, this time from Philip:

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you are reading? Philip asked.

How can I, he said, unless someone explains it to me? So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.

The eunuch asked Philip, Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else? Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

The passage does not tell us exactly how Philip shared the good news, but we can guess that he told the eunuch about the suffering and death of Jesus. He likely connected the dots by explaining the resurrection as well. Whatever Philip said, it ended well, because they pulled the chariot over, Philip baptized the eunuch, and then Philip was caught away in the Spirit.

In Acts 10, we see the next gospel presentation, and this one finally reaches outside of the Jewish people. In Acts 10:39–46, Peter preaches to the household of Cornelius in Joppa, a group of Gentiles:

We are witnesses of everything he [Jesus] did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Here, the message finally spreads beyond the Jewish people, and the Jewish believers are shocked. Peter does not yet realize that the gospel is for all people, and if the Holy Spirit had not fallen in that moment, he probably would not have preached salvation to them. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit interrupted Peter as he was giving his personal testimony about Jesus. Suddenly, all the Gentiles started speaking in tongues and praising God. This was a revelation moment for Peter. He could not deny that God was inviting the Gentiles into the new covenant too.

It is interesting to note the difference in the way Peter presented the gospel when talking to non-Jews. With the Jews, Peter emphasized their role in crucifying their Messiah, but here he simply mentioned that it happened and placed his focus on the resurrection. After all, the Gentiles were not the ones who had crucified Jesus. For his Gentile audience, Peter pointed to the resurrection as proof that Jesus has been appointed as judge over the living and the dead, because He had overcome death. He didn’t mention that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Davidic and Abrahamic covenants, as this would not have meant anything to his Gentile listeners, but instead he focused on the resurrection as the crux of the gospel message.

In Acts 13 we find the next gospel message, which is also the first recorded sermon from Paul. Paul preached this sermon in Pisidian Antioch (a town in modern Turkey). In it, Paul first gave an overview of the Old Testament, beginning with Israel’s slavery in Egypt and leading up to the reign of King David. Then, he uses David as a starting point to introduce Jesus, saying, From this man’s descendants, God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised (Acts 13:23). Like Peter, Paul preaches that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. The sermon continues in Acts 13:26–39:

Fellow children of Abraham and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. 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. Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, 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.

We tell you the good news: What God promised our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: You are my son; today I have become your father. God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. As God has said, I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.

So it is also stated elsewhere: You will not let your holy one see decay. Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.

Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.

Here, Paul focuses on the Davidic promises about Jesus and how Jesus fulfilled them in His death and resurrection. Near the end, Paul also speaks negatively about the old covenant Law of Moses, saying that it was incapable of helping people. Instead, Paul declares, the forgiveness that Jesus offers is able to do what the Law of Moses was never able to do. Paul’s sermon is so successful that many Gentiles accept the gospel, but the Jewish religious leaders become jealous of Paul and his influence. As a result, they persecute him until he leaves their city.

After leaving Pisidian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas travel to Iconium and then to Lystra, where they encounter a lame man. When Paul heals this man, the people begin to say that Paul and Barnabas are Roman gods and attempt to sacrifice to them. Paul and Barnabas, of course, stop them, and Paul declares the message we find in Acts 14:15–17:

Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.

This gospel message is very different from the former presentations in Acts because this is the first record of the gospel being preached to fervent pagans. Cornelius and his household were not Jewish, but they feared God and prayed to Him. By comparison, these people in Lystra worshipped Zeus and Hermes devoutly. When they saw a miraculous healing, their automatic assumption was that Zeus and Hermes had come down to earth in human form. Because this group of people had no knowledge of the Jewish history or covenants, Paul takes a very different approach and gives them a gospel presentation focused on God’s superiority as the living God and creator of all. The miracle they had performed was a proof of God’s power. In his sermon, Paul is essentially saying, God has shown Himself to you in creation, and now He is inviting you to turn from these worthless idols to worship the real God. Paul does not even mention Jesus or their need to repent for their sins. That might surprise us, but that is how Paul chose to explain it here. The first step in winning the pagans was to turn them from worshipping nature and their pantheon of gods to worshipping the one true creator God. And what is this creator God like? Paul points out His kindness, His provision, and His giving of joy. This is what Paul considered the necessary foundation for them to begin to understand what the gospel of Jesus was all about. Initially, the pagans were open to listening to Paul, but then some Jews come and persuade them to turn on Paul, and they stone him and leave him for dead. Thankfully, Paul didn’t die, or is perhaps resurrected, and the next day he left for a city called Derbe.

After that, Paul and Barnabas made their rounds to several other cities, eventually returning to Antioch, where they had previously planted a church. While there, they discover that some people have been teaching the believers, Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved (Acts 15:1). Paul and Barnabas sharply disagree with this teaching. The pure message preached by the apostles in the early church was the new covenant of forgiveness, confirmed by the death and resurrection of Jesus. This group of people wanted to mix the customs of Moses, or the old covenant, with the new by requiring the Gentiles to be circumcised. In the end, the church at Antioch sends Paul, Barnabas, and some other believers to Jerusalem to confer with the apostles and elders about this issue. In the early church, this group, sometimes called the circumcision group, is a significant problem, and nearly every letter in the New Testament addresses them in some way.

In his letters, Paul is often very upset with them because of the way they undermine the gospel. In fact, in Galatians 5:12, he even writes, As for those agitators, I wish they’d go all of the way and emasculate themselves! In Philippians 3:2, Paul warns the believers to watch out for those dogs, those evil-doers, those mutilators of the flesh. These statements may seem harsh, but they show the level of frustration Paul felt toward these individuals who were deceiving people and leading them back to the old covenant. This was an ongoing war in the early church. Much of the early church was made up of Jewish converts who had grown up under the Law. It was a hard transition for many, to leave the old covenant behind and fully embrace the new covenant. One of Paul’s greatest passions was to see new covenant truth fully