The Saturday after the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 8, 2025 by under
Scripture: Acts 13:26-41 (NKJV)
13:26 “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. 27 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. 28 And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death. 29 Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. 30 But God raised Him from the dead. 31 He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people. 32 And we declare to you glad tidings—that promise which was made to the fathers. 33 God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm:
‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’
34 “And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus:
‘I will give you the sure mercies of David.’
35 “Therefore He also says in another Psalm:
‘You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption.’
36 “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption; 37 but He whom God raised up saw no corruption. 38 Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; 39 and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. 40 Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you:
41 ‘Behold, you despisers, marvel and perish! For I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you.’”
Devotion
St. Paul speaks to those who “fear God” in Pisidian Antioch (in southwestern Turkey), both those descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Gentiles who had come to believe that the Lord would provide forgiveness, so that He “might be feared” as a perfect Father and not as a tyrant (Ps. 130). He explains how the prophecies that might mistakenly be referred to King David by Israel’s rabbis and priests were really about David’s greater descendant, Jesus, whom he proclaimed to them as the Christ, God’s Son and Anointed One. He declares the innocence of Jesus and the injustice perpetrated by those in Jerusalem, showing Jesus’ resurrection was both proof of this and the fulfillment of God’s promises. They should allow no one to water down these promises to make them fulfillable by David or anyone else, because Jesus fulfilled even the most amazing one: though He died, His flesh saw no corruption through three days, arising perfect from the tomb.
Paul then makes sure they understand that the resurrection doesn’t change who Jesus is: He remains true Man, our Brother in whom and for whose sake God’s forgiveness is given. Yet, he quotes Psalm 2 as further identification of Him: the One of whom God the Father could say from all eternity, “You are My Son,” is the One “who was made flesh and dwelt among us…full of grace and truth” (John 1:14) who had atoned for the sins of all!
Collect: Grant, we beseech Thee, Merciful Lord, to Thy faithful people pardon and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve Thee with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
