Sunday Morning Service

Acts 17 (Click title for audio access)

"A Tale Of Three Cities"  •  10.30.11  •  Sunday Morning Service, Calvary Christian Fellowship

Intro.

- In Charles Dickens' famous novel "A Tale Of Two Cities," the famous opening line "It was the best of times and it was the worst of times," would be appropriate for our section today.

- In our chapter today, "A Tale Of THREE Cities" it was the best of times for those in these ancient European cities. The gospel was marching forward. Gentiles everywhere were getting saved!

- For the gospel's greatest ambassador the cost for their best times, were cause for some of his worst times. He's been kicked out and just plain kicked, yet he has pressed on!

- In these three cities, the Holy Spirit gives insight into the work of His Word, which commonly invokes responses that we need to be ready to respond to. We'll begin in Thessalonica.

Text

•  Acts 17:1-4  :  "Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, 'This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.' And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas."  : The Apostles stayed near the coast of the Aegean sea, traveling over a 100 miles to get to Thessalonica.

- The Via Egnatia led right into Thessalonica, which was a prosperous city due to it being the headquarters for the Roman navy.

- Like any city serving as a naval center, there was a large group of men coming and going, making it a thriving town and an excellent city for ministry.

- Paul figured that if the gospel could be established there, the church would then reach into the smaller cities of Amphipolis and Appolonia.

- As was his custom, Paul focused his attention on the local synagogue. As a certified former Rabbi, Paul would have been an exciting Sabbath morning guest.

- Luke writes this to demonstrate that in spite of growing opposition, Paul worked hard to bring the gospel to the Jews first, to whom the promises of Messiah belonged! This wasn't hit and miss.

- Paul spent three Sabbaths reasoning in the synagogue. We get our  word "dialgoue" from the word that Luke uses here. Paul met the Thessalonians in a thought for thought running dialogue.

- Paul answered their thoughts and questions with thoughts that came from the scriptures. The Old Testament was the basis for Paul's authority. For every question there was a scripture.

- We may not have the acumen that Paul had, but we should strive to understand the scripture with as much passion as we have, paying attention to understanding God's Word in it's context.

- Why? For our own trivial mastery? Not at all! We need to have a good reason for our belief and a good for others to believe as well! It's not enough to say, "I believe."

- We need to be careful of the words "I believe." We are not authorities in and of ourselves.

- We need to commit ourselves to the phrase, "God's word says." If we do not know, then we need to commit to that answer, with the caveat, "But I will know soon when I've looked at the Word."

- The subject of their dialogue revolved around the Messiah. Paul in his response to their questions took pains to explain and demonstrate that the Christ had to suffer and rise from death.

- People have real struggles with belief and they need real answers from scriptures.

- I have told you often of the vigor that many Jews had taken to memorizing blocks of scripture. It was equally true that many of them simply held their favorite verses to be dear.

- A significant problem for the Jewish people revolved around the concept of Messianic prophecies relating to suffering, as well as to resurrection. How could Christ both suffer and reign?

- Paul set out to answer this by explanation, literally "opening their minds" and demonstration meaning to set something before them, akin to setting a table.

- He was exposing them to scriptures and setting the table for their discussion with scriptural evidence that demanded their attention.

- The Old Testament spoke of Christ's need to suffer and to rise from the dead. Many of these prophecies are very specific in nature, including details that weren't even practiced when written.

- There are over 300 specific prophecies that Jesus fulfilled in His life. For those on our mailing list, I will be sending those out this week, so that you will have them.

- Over time, Luke tells us that these people were persuaded, because of their study of scripture, to trust in Jesus, who they trusted as the one who had fulfilled those prophecies.

- This is often the case with gospel ministry. It takes time, patiently availing ourselves to answering questions, presenting thoughts that scripture presents against dissenting thoughts.

- This was the case in Thessalonica. Over time, some were persuaded to believe.

•  Acts 17:5-9  :  "But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, 'These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.' And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go."  : Then there were those who were not persuaded. This is the less attractive, but realistic part of the ministry of the gospel.

- The word "not persuaded" here comes from the word that we get "apathetic" from. This word refers to somebody who will not allow themselves to believe. They could see, but refused to believe!

- You need to recognize and respect that there are some who refuse to believe.

- When Paul came into these synagogues, that the Jews had spent significant time and energy in evangelism. When the people believed Paul's message, they were watching their work fizzle!

- Their jealousy caused them to consort with what the NLT terms them "troublemakers."

- It's interesting the bedfellows that are made from being an enemy of the gospel! These Jews would likely have otherwise ignored these men, but here, they are partners together!

- The crowd was disturbed, which may not have been that hard to do in a Naval town! This led to an all out assault against the house that housed the weekly church meetings, the house of Jason.

- Whoever Jason was his home had become a hub for the church in Thessalonica, well known even to this mob who were looking for Paul and Silas.

- Listen to what they said of them: "These who have turned the world upside down." What an amazing statement! Let it be said of us!

- The gospel turns the world upside down! You will share it and even in an apathetic environment, you are turning someone's world upside down!

- Jason believed he was practicing hospitality. The world called it "harboring" the church! Most other translations have this as received, which was contrary to Roman decree.

- Only Caesar was to be accepted as King. The Christians held to the real King.

- They brought the brothers into jail and then released them when they had provided sufficient funds to be bailed out. This brings us to our second city, Berea.

•  Acts 17:10-12  :  "Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men."  :  The Thessalonican believers knew that the mob would be back for Paul and Silas, so they sent them away in haste through the night.   

- Berea, known today as Verria, was 55 miles away. Upon arrival they went into the synagogue. Same custom, similar audience, but very different mentality.

- The people that they were speaking to were different than the Thessalonicans. They were more "fair-minded." These Bereans were noble minded.

- What made them this way? They received the word with all readiness. They took in the word with a zeal for it. They wanted God's Word.

- Where Paul had done the work for the Thessalonicans, the Bereans did the work for Paul!

- When Paul broke open the scrolls, they were ready with pen in hand, eager to hear from God. They were intentional about coming to ingest the word. But it did not end there.

- They left the service and searched through the scriptures to confirm what Paul had said. Every day, they investigated, pointing to a judicial search and interrogated. This was Bible CSI!

- I imagine them going home with their notes and cross referencing scriptures on their own time. When they came across a difficulty, they came to Paul and interrogated him.

- This zeal and thirst for knowledge made them a noble minded congregation. I would pray that that Berean spirit would invade our church. Lord, make us hungry for your Word!

- In this group, in this fertile environment, many believed, among them Greeks and prominent women, the word referrring to elegant, infuential women, and men of the same caliber.

•  Acts 17:13-15  :  "But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there. So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed." : In a world without the internet, the Thessalonicans discovered that Paul was preaching in Berea! Their envy brought them over 100 miles to stir up trouble.

- Paul left Silas and Timothy there to continue the work that had been started, faked toward the sea, but went down to our third city, Athens, alone.

•  Acts 17:16-21  :  "Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, 'What does this babbler want to say?' Others said, 'He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,' because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, 'May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.' For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing."  :  Paul's time in Athens spurred an exasperated spirit when he looked around and saw the idolatry of that city.

- If Rome was the military center of the world, Athens was it's intellectual counterpart.

- Paul again went into the synogogues to meet with those who believed in the One true God! Even here when the city was fully pagan, Paul first sought out the Jews. He was committed to them!

- He dialogued with the church and in the marketplace. It isn't long before he met up with these Philosophers who lived in Athens.

- Epicureans believed that pleasure was the greatest good, while the Stoics believed that keeping their emotions at bay was the way in which to live.

- The people who heard Paul listened, but with very different responses. Some called Paul a "vain babbler" referring to a seed picker or beggar, who grabbed attention from any who would give it.

- Others spoke about his content, being the Lord and His resurrection. The Athenians just heard it as another interesting topic! They heard this as they heard any new thing!

- Their response to this was much like any intellectual group today, who love to hear any new stimulating puzzle. Some people today just like something new to think about or figure out.

- This group invited Paul to the Aeropagus, Mars Hill, to speak to the audience.

•  Acts 17:22,23  :  "Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, 'Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:" :  Paul's first statement was that it was obvious that they were very religious. In our vernacular today, one might say, "I see you're spiritual!"

- Here's a lesson for us: If being religious, spiritual or devout was enough, then Paul would have left the Athenians alone!  Religion is not enough and is indeed a blasphemy against God.

- Any system that proposes a way for man to get to God, by Man's invention, is an insult and no matter how devout or noble it seems, it is an ultimate tragedy in it's nothingness!

- They were religious, but they were divorced from the life of God, even if they built a statue to honor the one that they did not know.

•  Acts 17:24-28  :  "God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’"  :  Paul begins with the beginning. The God that they do not know is the one that created everything and is bigger than their temples!

- God wanted their hearts and their beings, not some temple offering. God made all of the earth and God made each of them! He gave them their dwelling places so that they would seek Him.

- He makes one of the most amazing statements in scripture. In Him, all live and move and have their being! As humans, we are made in His image!

- Epimenides, one of the contemporary Athenian poets, had spoken of humanity's roots in God. Paul is affirming that truth.

•  Acts 17:29-31  :  "Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."  :  Paul's argument is that they were all complex living beings. If we are like that, how much higher and how much more is the God that made us.

- These gods that were in Athens were gold, silver and stone, all thought up by men and all made in his image! Before Jesus came to this Earth, God allowed this ignorance.

- God allowed them to live in their thinking, but now that Christ had come and become the Savior of all men, there was now a command to repent.

- That Savior that would bring them to salvation, would be a judge that would condemn them in their unbelief. That God proved when He raised Christ from the dead.

•  Acts 17:32-34  :  "And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, 'We will hear you again on this matter.' So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them."  :  The resurrection from the dead became the dividing issue. Some heard it and mocked.

- "How could you believe in something so ridiculous!? Who has ever been raised from death?"

- There will be some in your life who will mock you in the same way. No matter how reasonable you are, no matter how solid your scriptural point, they will mock what they refuse to believe.

- Others reacted with a desire to hear it again. "That was really interesting. I'd be interested in listening again." The gospel demands a response, not a repeat performance!

- The Gospel is not some new puzzle to figure out. It is an invitation to life with God, demanding more than mental assent and understanding.

- Preaching is meant to evoke a decision about Christ, not tickle ears and entertain!

- Paul left them, but when he left, there were two that followed after him. Dionysius was from that very area, in fact being one of the judges who governed what was heard at Mars Hill.

- This woman, likely a woman of ill-repute named Damaris also believed, as well as others.

Conclusion

- The Gospel is hard work. It requires patience and a commitment to His Word. Some will exasperate you, some will encourage you and others will just be entertained by you!

- But in each city, Paul's journey teaches us one thing: When there is much planted, some will produce!

- This week, if you share something, something MIGHT come. If you share nothing, nothing WILL come!