My kids wanted to watch the movie "Peabody and Sherman" with me. So I watched it with them. It was cute. Peabody of course is this genius dog, and Sherman is his adopted son and the story revolves around Peabody's signature invention "the way back machine." A Time machine.

Imagine if you had a "way back machine" - what would you want to see? The Boston Tea Party? The signing of the declaration of independence? Martin Luther nailing the 95 thesis to the Wittenberg door?

I know what I would want to see. I would want to hear the sermons of many famous preachers who have gone on to be with the Lord. I'd go to London in the 1860s and hear Charles Spurgeon preach. I'd go to Chicago in the 1950s and hear Harry Ironside. Maybe while I was there I would zip across town and listen to Bob Ketcham preach. I'd want to see D. Martyn Lloyd Jones in London and Harold Sightler and Vance Havner and A.W. Tozer. Maybe I would even go way way back and hear Jonathan Edwards or George Whitfield.

But I know two preachers I would definitely want to hear: Jesus and the Apostle Paul.

We think of the apostle Paul as a preacher, and we should, but do you know that there are only two full length sermons from Paul recorded in Acts? We are going to look at one of them tonight.

Turn with me to Acts 13 one more time and we'll look at one of those sermons. We've already studied this chapter twice, but we skipped over this part. Let's read verses 16-41

"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. And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners in the wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, he divided their land to them by lot. And after that he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. 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. 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 fulfil all my will. Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus: When John had first preached before his coming the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 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. Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead: And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption"

"Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish:for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you"

We can't hear the Apostle Paul preach. Even if we could, we wouldn't understand it, because he was preaching in Greek and none of us speak Koine Greek. But we can read what he said.

So what did Paul preach when he got this great opportunity. He preached three things, and they are all things we need to still be preaching today.

Let's pray and I'll give you those three things:

The first thing that we see that Paul preached is...

1. Paul preached the Bible.

Notice that...

His message was a Bible message.

I want you to notice that Paul went through the scripture with this message. He was just preaching what the Bible said. In verses 16-23 Paul gives a summary of the whole of Old testament history - up until David.

Paul was no dummy. Even secular people who look back at the apostle Paul recognize that the man was brilliant. He could have used any argument that he wanted to. He could have gone to philosophy, to current events, to history, to science. You know from the Bible that Paul knew all of that stuff - but he didn't - he went to the scripture and he drew his message from the scripture.

Church - listen to me. It is not the job of the preacher to make you feel good. It is the job of the preacher to tell you what God's word says. It's not my job to get up here on Sunday morning and preach to you from Time Magazine or from Reader's Digest. It's not my job to preach to you about politics or current events. It's not my job to give you pop psychology. It's the job of the preacher to say "thus saith the Lord" and the only place that we can find that is in the scripture.

Look - I have opinions. I have lots of opinions. But you don't need my opinions - you need the word of God. I could tell you stories till you were sick of hearing them - but you don't need stories, you need the word of God.

When you judge a sermon - don't judge it by how it made you feel. Don't judge it by how dynamic the speaker was. Don't judge it by how much he yelled and screamed and stomped his feet. Don't judge it by the number of "amens." Judge it by this and this alone "Did the preacher help me to understand better what the Bible says, and do I feel compelled to obey it?"

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His message was a Bible message. But notice it wasn't just a message drawn from the Bible...

His arguments were Bible arguments.

Paul is going to be making arguments about Jesus and who Jesus is. But with every argument about Jesus being the savior, Jesus being the messiah, Jesus being resurrected, with every one - Paul goes to the scripture and backs up his argument with scripture.

Do you know why? Because the scriptures have final authority. The word of God is the word of God.

Look - you can disagree with my opinions. If I stand up and preach my opinions - and you say "Ok, pastor, that sounds good and all but I don't agree." There is nothing wrong with that.

But if I carefully stick to the Bible and I give you what the Bible says and you walk away and say "I don't agree with that." Then you aren't disagreeing with me - you are disagreeing with the Bible. You are disagreeing with God.

It's my job not only to help you understand the Bible, it's my job to do so with such clarity and authority that you understand "this is really what God is saying and I can either obey this or disobey God."

That's preaching with authority.

Look - our authority isn't me yelling. It isn't me getting all emotional. Real authority comes when we see "this is the word of God and we better obey it."

So Paul preached a Bible message. Church, that's what the world needs to hear from us - the Bible. It's still as relevant today as it was in Jesus' day. Fashions may change. Moral's may change - but this is the book that will last forever. This book is the anchor that will keep us safe in the troubled seas of modern change.

On our logo, I don't know if you've noticed this, but there are words that are underneath it. Underneath it it says "it lives, it speaks, it changes lives."

That's not a reference to our church. That's a reference to the Bible. The Bible is the only book that is alive.

Hebrews 4:12 says

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

The word of God is quick - it's alive. And it speaks to us in a powerful way.

It's still speaking to the issues of today. It's still guiding us.

And do you know what? It changes lives. You find Jesus in this book, you find truth in this book, it changes lives.

There is a song I love and it's chorus says:

God's Word changes lives
Its power cannot be denied
The lost find salvation, the foolish become wise
God's Word changes lives

So Paul preached the Bible. But there was one specific message from the Bible that Paul wanted people to hear.

Notice that...

2. Paul preached Jesus.

In verse 23 Paul gets where he is going. He gets to the main point. Everything else so far has been runway. But this is what he wants to talk to these people about. Look what he says:

"Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus"

Paul preached the Bible - but in order to really understand what the Bible says you have to understand what the Bible is all about - and the Bible is all about Jesus. Everything from Genesis to Matthew points forward to Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tell the story of Jesus, then everything else looks back at Jesus. It's all about Jesus.

People need the Bible - but more than that, they need the Christ of the Bible. The Bible may be the vehicle for our message - but Jesus IS our message. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:23-24

"We preach Christ crucified, unto the jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

He said in Romans 1:16

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek"

He said in 2 Corinthians 4:5

"For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord."

I could go on and on. Because truly, this is the theme of the whole Bible. This is what it's all about. It's all about Jesus.

This book contains rules - but it's not all about rules. It contains prophecy - but its not a book about Prophecy. There is plenty of pithy wisdom in this book - but it's not a self-help book. It's a book about Jesus.

And when Paul got a chance to preach - 10 times out of 10 He was going to preach Jesus.

Somebody asked Charles Spurgeon, the famous british preacher to describe his method and here is what he said, "“I take my text and make a bee-line to the cross.”

Paul preached Jesus, but notice in our text HOW he preached Jesus:

He preached Jesus prophesied. (21-23)

He went to the Old Testament and went through Old Testament history and as you are reading this you are thinking - ok Paul, where are you going with this. He was trying to show these people that Christ was prophesied in the Old Testament. That's what the word "Christ" means - it is the same word as "messiah." Jesus is the promised one.

But Paul didn't stay there, He told them WHY the Old testament promised Jesus...

He preached Jesus the savior (23b-29)

In verses 23 Paul says:

"God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus"

He took them to the cross. He told them that the Jews senselessly took this promised one and killed him in the most unimaginable way possible. But - and you have to think like people who are hearing this for the first time like this audience was - He didn't present it as a bad thing.

Think about this - let me tell you some good news, the person that was promised to save us has come - WooHoo! Yes! Ticker tape parade! Dancing in the streets! The savior is come! Yes - and we killed Him! Woohoo! Yay! Wait - why are you not cheering???

Imagine how strange that must have sounded to be told messiah had come and that the Jews had killed Him and to be told it with a smile on your face like it's a good thing.

How could Paul preach Jesus this way?

Look at one more thing?

He preached Jesus triumphant (30-36)

I know I alrady read a lengthy passage but let me read verses 29-37 again:

"And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead: And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption"

Here was what Paul was getting at. Jesus. Jesus has come and He's fulfilled all of the promises. He's come to be our savior. And He was killed - but He also fulfilled another promise - one you forgot about - He rose from the dead.

He truly is the Messiah. He truly is the son of God.

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Now, I want to stop here. So Paul preached the Bible - He preached Jesus. But there is a question every preacher must ask with every message: so what? What does it matter to me? How does this effect me?

Look at the third thing Paul preached and we'll be done:

3. Paul preached the need to believe.

Look at verses 38-42:

"Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish:for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you"

Paul didn't leave these people hanging. He told them what God expected of them and he told them the consequences if they didn't do it. He told them the best news they could ever hear and then he told them that they needed to act on it. They needed to believe.