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 (Acts 13:40-41 KJV).
In my previous blog, I wrote about the invitation Paul extended to the congregation at Pisidian Antioch after his sermon.
After the invitation, however, Paul wasn’t quite done speaking. His final words came in the form of a brief warning, a warning of the consequences of rejecting the salvation he had just spoken of.
Why did Paul end his message with such a warning? Paul knew, as we know today, man’s propensity to reject salvation through Jesus.
Though Paul’s sermon at Antioch was his first recorded message in Scripture, it was certainly not his first time preaching.
He was seasoned by this point and had become well-acquainted with the rejection of his message.
He had preached the gospel in both Damascus and Jerusalem and in both places, the Jews conspired to kill him (Acts 9:23,29).
He was familiar with the typical Jewish response to hearing the message that Jesus was their Messiah. He anticipated that same response here, thus this strong warning.
The warning was, as Oliver Greene points out, “They could accept the Gospel he preached and be saved. They could refuse it – and face certain judgement …”
How did Paul illustrate the judgment they would face if they rejected his message?
Like he had done numerous times in his sermon, He took something they already knew and believed in, and used that to make his point:
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 (Acts 13:40-41 KJV).
In this case, he is quoting Habakkuk 1:5.
What was it about Habakkuk’s words that made them fit in this context?
Habakkuk had been called by God to warn the people of his day about the impending Babylonian invasion under King Nebuchadnezzar, a dark time in Israel’s history that every Jew was familiar with.
Habakkuk 1:6-10 outlines the destruction that would come, but to summarize, the Babylonian people were going to be used by God to punish Israel for their sin and rebellion.
The Hebrews would see their nation scattered, their people taken captive, and their beloved temple destroyed.
But the Lord told Habakkuk, as Paul referenced, that even though He gave sufficient warning, they wouldn’t believe it.
Why would they not heed the warning and believe Habakkuk?
Because in their arrogance, they reasoned, “We are God’s people. This is God’s temple. There is no way the Lord will let some pagan nation come in and take us captive, scatter our people, take our possessions, and destroy our temple.”
But guess what happened?
The Babylonians came and did exactly what God said they were going to do. The Hebrews' unbelief and rejection of the warning did not stop the reality.
Paul’s reference to this event in Israel’s history was not lost on these listeners.
Essentially, He was saying, “Judgment is coming, and if you don’t heed the warning when it comes, it will be too late, just like it was for your fathers.”
Paul’s warning was twofold – both a collective and an individual warning.
It’s likely that Paul had in view the coming destruction of the nation of Israel collectively.
Jesus had given a clear warning of such a time.
… See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down (Matthew 24:2 KJV).
And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. ... And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled (Luke 21:20, 24 KJV).
Of course, Christ’s words of warning were fulfilled in A.D. 70, when the Romans leveled the city of Jerusalem and destroyed their temple.
At the time of Paul’s preaching at Antioch, that coming destruction was just over two decades away.
So, in the same way the prophet Habakkuk warned of a coming national judgment, Paul, leaning on the words of Christ, certainly had a similar national judgment in mind.
By drawing a parallel between their day and the days of Habakkuk, Paul warned them not to make the same mistake.
The people of Habakkuk’s day had witnessed and even marveled at the hand of God providing for them and protecting them, yet they scoffed at the idea that they would face judgment.
Paul was warning his audience that history was about to repeat itself.
The Jewish people had followed Christ around in multitudes and even marveled at His works, yet, they scoffed at the idea that they would face national judgment if they didn’t accept Jesus as Messiah, even though there were many men of God faithfully proclaiming that very message.
In the same way that mocking and lack of belief in Habakkuk’s day didn’t stop judgment from coming, Paul warned his listeners that their mocking and disbelief wouldn’t stop it either.
While Paul was offering a collective warning, he was also presenting an individual warning.
By using the word “perish” in verse 41, Paul put his audience on notice that their very souls were at stake.
As Oliver Greene noted, the word “perish,” “… denotes physical judgement, but it also goes deeper and speaks of eternal damnation in the lake of fire.”
As bad as national judgment may be, it is only earthly and temporal, but the judgment that comes upon one’s soul at death is eternal.
John Phillips noted,
“Paul … was not thinking merely of the Roman invasion foretold by Jesus. He was thinking of the eternal horrors that await the Christ-rejecter. Well might he warn his listeners to ‘behold.’ They had better look well to their steps. Those who rejected Christ could expect sure and dreadful judgement. They would perish in their sin, having added to all their other guilt the sin of rejecting God’s Son.”
We are nearly 2,000 years removed from Paul’s warning to his listeners, but his warning still applies today in the same twofold context.
America is on a fast-track to judgment from God, and in many ways, are already seeing it.
Moral degradation abounds in every sphere of life. Our political system is overtly attacking Christians, is beyond corrupt and beyond repair. Churches are compromising, the biblical home is disintegrating, and sexual deviancy is accepted and promoted.
Then add abortion to the mix, which is nothing less than child sacrifice, not to the god of Molech, but to the god of selfishness and convenience, and it is painfully obvious that we are ripe for judgment.
I praise God for His longsuffering and grace, but I don’t know how long He will permit such blatant disregard for His ways before He says enough is enough.
Whether or not judgment will come collectively to us as a nation, or whether it will come in our lifetime, I don’t know.
But what I do know for certain is that all of us will face judgment individually.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment (Hebrews 9:27 KJV).
The choice that Paul presented to his listeners that day is still the same choice man is presented with today.
Man can accept Christ and live or reject Christ and perish.
We can accept His sacrifice and gain forgiveness and be justified, that we might stand before God clothed with a righteousness we can gain no other way, and be granted entry into eternity with Him.
Or we can reject Christ, stand before God with our own righteousness, only to find out that our own righteousness was inefficient to save, and then spend eternity in the torments of hell, forever separated from God.
Those were the only two choices then, and those are the only two choices today.
So how did they respond?
They responded the same way men do today. Some rejected the message (Acts 13:42,45), and some received the message (Acts 13:42,43,48).
If perhaps you are someone who has not yet given your life to Christ, that same choice Paul presented to them, is presented to you.
You can accept Jesus and be saved, or you can reject Him, and you will face certain judgment and perish for all eternity.
If you don’t know Him, I urge you to accept the salvation He offers.
You can do that by simply trusting in the things Paul so plainly laid out in his message.
Paul preached the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus – the gospel.
By simply placing your faith in the finished work of Christ – that He died for our sins and rose victorious the third day defeating death – you can be saved.
The moment you transfer the fate of your soul from your own hands, and you place it Christ’s hands by exercising simple belief, you will be saved.
“God not only woos, He warns. Such a salvation as He offers is not to be spurned: the cost is too enormous and the benefits too great, the terms of acceptance too simple and the alternatives too final and dreadful. To turn down God’s offer of salvation is to commit the ultimate unforgivable sin; it is to ‘crucify … the Son of God afresh’ (Hebrews 6:6), it is to do ‘despite unto the Spirit of grace’ (Hebrews 10:26), it is to trample under foot the blood of the covenant, it is to become a fitting candidate for God’s eternal and undiluted wrath.” – John Phillips
