Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas

NT Framework - Appoint Yourself

• Jeremy Thomas • Season 6 • Episode 159

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You did it to yourself. Just as your personal sin can prevent you from having an open mind to believe in God, setting aside your own bias and having an open mind makes you receptive.

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01:

Therefore, Paul says, Let it be known to you, brethren, that through him, that is through the Messiah, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And through him, everyone who believes is freed from all things. But that's the Greek word dicaia, it is the word justified. The doctrine of justification by faith, right there in verse 39. Through him, everyone who believes is justified from all things, which you could not be justified through the law of Moses. The law of Moses couldn't justify anybody, right? Couldn't then, can't now, whenever. It can show you your sin and your need for faith, righteousness, faith justification, but it can justify you. Therefore, take heed so that the things spoken of in the prophets may not come upon you. Speaking mainly to the Jews, but also Gentiles in the background. Behold, you scoffers and marvel and perish, for I am accomplishing a work in your days, a work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you. As Paul and Barnabas are going out of the synagogue, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. When the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes, those are Gentiles who proselytes to Judaism, followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God. And the next Sabbath, here we go, the whole city, nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with what? Jealousy. By the way, in the book of Acts, if you read it, you will look for two types of filling. Those who are filled by the Spirit, also sometimes called wisdom, and so forth, and then those feared full of envy or jealousy. And it's an interesting contrast throughout the book. Filled with jealousy, they began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, in other words, speaking lies, because Paul's speaking truth, and they're blaspheming. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, It was necessary the word of God be spoken to you, that's the Jews, first. Since you repudiate it and you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we're turning to the Gentiles. They did not, okay, what I'm going to end up saying is they did not arrange themselves positively toward the message which Paul had concerning justification by faith in the Messiah who died and rose for them, which is the message he preached the previous Sabbath, right? They did not consider themselves or judge themselves worthy of eternal life. It was a self-judgment. God didn't say, you know, I didn't elect you guys before the foundation of the world, and that's why you're not going to believe. No. You didn't judge yourselves worthy of it. You did not arrange yourselves properly toward the message. And therefore, I'm turning to the Gentiles. So he says, For so the Lord has commanded, I have placed you, that's Israel, as a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. This is why Paul, every time in the book of Acts, he goes to the synagogue first. Why? Because Isaiah talks about this. Isaiah 40s talk about God setting up Israel to be a light to the nations. And so in the book of Acts, Paul says, Every time I go to a city, I go to the synagogue first because I'm giving the Jews the opportunity to believe first and become a light to the Gentiles in their area. That's why he's doing that. But, verse 48, when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord.

unknown:

Why?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, Paul's coming to them. He's turning to the Gentiles. It says, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. Is that what it says in your version? If you have New American Standard, that's what it says. Any other versions? Anyone want to volunteer anything?

SPEAKER_02:

Another translation there. And all who were appointed for eternal life believed. This word appointed is the Greek word tasso. Okay? It's in the middle voice. That's kind of important.

SPEAKER_01:

And this this verse is a contrast to verse 46. In verse 46, the judges the Jews did not judge themselves worthy of eternal life, did they?

SPEAKER_02:

In other words, it was their fault.

SPEAKER_01:

If they'd been judging some themselves worthy of eternal life, arranging themselves toward that, they would have believed. This is the contra response of the Gentiles. And the translation says in most of them, those who appointed themselves to eternal life believe. I'm sorry, those God appointed. It's implying God appointed them to eternal life believed. In other words, this is the idea that people get from this verse is that God chose certain people at Pisidian Antioch among the Gentiles to believe, and he didn't choose anybody else.

SPEAKER_02:

There's the problem. That's a middle voice. That's a middle voice. Now look, if I'm playing baseball, I'm going to tell you how the middle voice works. And I hit the ball.

SPEAKER_01:

That's an active voice. I hit the ball. Now, if the pitcher pitches and the ball hits me, so I gotta walk to first base. That's a passive voice, right? I got hit by the ball.

SPEAKER_02:

Passive. I was passive. I got hit. Now what if I hit myself with the ball? That's the middle voice. It's an action that you do to yourself.

SPEAKER_01:

I brush my teeth. Type of middle voice. It's active, but anyway. It's the idea that you do something to yourself, though. Middle voice. Now what this Greek word means, if you look at that and study this word very carefully, is it's talk, it's a word that means to arrange something. Now, since it's middle voice, they arrange themselves toward eternal life. In other words, they predispose themselves to the message. In fact, they're excited about it. It says when they heard this and began to rejoice and they're glorifying the word of the Lord. What are they glorifying? The word of God. They are predisposing themselves toward the message. It's not that they were appointed to eternal life, it's that they appointed themselves or arranged themselves toward it. Now, you say, I'm just not sure about you. You know, you're going against my the New American Standard Bible translators. That's fine, okay, whatever. Um, have you ever heard of the parable of the four soils? Did seed fall on all four soils? Yes or no? Did the first one receive it, or was it too hard because it had been trampled down? You know, if you if you've been a farmer, you know, there's this thing called a road, you know, on the side of the field, usually for your tractor or your truck or whatever. It's hard ground. I mean, is that where you want to put your seed? No, but something's gonna fall over there, right? It usually doesn't sprout up. Why? Because the birds come along and eat it up or something like that. It's too hard. The ground's not guess what? The ground in all four of those four soils is a picture of people's hearts and how responsive they are to the seed. And you ask yourself as you go through the parable, which of the which of the soils received the seed, right? It's talking about four different conditions of the human heart. One was so hard that it didn't receive the seed at all. They said the birds came along and picked it up, and when Jesus explains it, he says that's Satan. He, as they hear it, he steals it away, and they never hear it. They never get it, they never receive it, they don't take that message in. In other words, they don't believe. Then you've got three more. Now, the other three soils that all receive it, right? One among the rocky soil, one among the thorns, and the other on good soil, it says. It doesn't say good seed, it says it was good what? Soil. It's talking about a receptive heart. A receptive heart. The other two in the middle, they also received it, but it didn't last, right? It kind of grew up, but one didn't have enough water because it was rocky soil, so they withered. Another one grew up among the thorns and got choked out. But at least those soils did receive it. They just didn't do anything with it. It's like somebody who believes the gospel and then what? After a while they're like, eh, that was Christianity, I did that. Now I've grown up, I've figured more things out. Go on their merry way. They get carried away by the lust of their flesh or the temptations of the world. Right? By the way, you have the world, the flesh, and the devil in that parable. That's on purpose. But the point is to show that the human heart can be in a in different preparation states. What happens if we as parents take our children and we mold and fashion their hearts to be receptive to the gospel? Versus if we're parents that don't do that and just train them in the ways of the world, see. Is there gonna be a difference in how those kids respond, young young kids? Typically, in general, we would say, yeah, there's gonna be a difference.

SPEAKER_00:

You can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.