SATURDAY July 1, 2023

A Failure to Know Christ

“Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him.”
Acts 13:26-27

In the synagogue, Paul the Apostle continued to reveal Christ to his listeners. He spoke directly to the Jews––sons of the family of Abraham. He also spoke to the Gentiles––and those among you who fear God. His entire sermon gave them a way to be saved.

You see, even though God’s people had prophets who spoke to them, and the Old Testament Scriptures which they read every Sabbath, they still missed the day of Christ’s visitation––the time when the Messiah came. Jesus gave a prophecy about the destruction of the city of Jerusalem. Within the prophecy, He referred to the Jews’ lack of spiritual insight and the consequences. They should have known the time of His coming:

“For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:43-45).

Paul reiterated that in Jerusalem, the rulers lacked knowledge of Christ. From what they read in the Scriptures, they did not recognize Jesus, their Messiah, who was right in front of their eyes! They missed Him and rejected Him. What does the book of John plainly say? He [Jesus] came to His own, and His own did not receive Him (John 1:11). What did they do instead? The Jews told Pilate: “We have a law, and according to our law He [Jesus] ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God” (John 19:7). Can you believe that? They condemned Jesus to death. Yet the events of Jesus’ rejection and death fulfilled the Scriptures.

Everyone has a choice to accept or reject Christ. What will you do?

We live in a culture where the truth claims of Christianity are not only rejected, they are ridiculed.
~R.C. Sproul~

For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!