Walking Through Acts

We are now in chapter 17 in the book of Acts. We are now moving from the city of

Philippi, a prominent city in what was known as Macedonia at the time, and we

are headed eastward. Remember that Paul’s journey is taking him from West to

East. He is bringing the gospel further into the heart of the western world. Now, a

present theme in this chapter is that of turning the world upside down. In some

contexts, this phrase is used in the pejorative sense. In other words, you’re a

nuisance. You’re messing everything up. In the other sense of this phrase, it’s

viewed as a good thing. As is the case when Jesus preached the sermon on the

mount. The reason this sermon was so revolutionary was that it subverted all

expectations. Blessed are the poor? The meek shall inherit the earth? These

things were not in agreement with the colloquial or common understanding of the

way things worked in that day and even in our day for that matter.

During my time working at a paintbrush factory, I was working alongside a man.

He was in his early forties at the time and we were discussing the meaning and

purpose of life. What drives you? What motivates you? What would you like to

see happen as a result of the life you live here on earth? His response was, “I just

want to see the world burn.” Here’s a man who was married, had a young

daughter, had a steady job and presented well (had a confident and level-headed

demeanor about him). And yet, he could not see his purpose in the world. I

believe that because of his experiences and past hurts and disappointments in his

life led him down a path of cynicism and pessimism. He did not view the world or

his life in a positive light. Therefore, his solution to all the evil in the world is to

have it burn. To be brought to nothing. To be reduced to ashes. Now, many of us in

here may work alongside someone or know someone just like this. Competent

people, hardworking people, whom you would just assume are doing okay. But in

reality, somewhere, somehow down the line for one reason or another, their hope

has faded and their purpose in life doesn’t extend beyond mere survival.

And these are the people that need to hear the hope that is found in Jesus. And

with that hope comes purpose and a new outlook on life. And for us Christians inhere today, this is a great reminder for all of us. It is in our human nature to

backslide or to get off the path. Like the song says, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,

prone to leave the God I love.” When this happens, we tend to become selfish

instead of selfless. That just means, we start thinking about ourselves more than

we do others. “I’m tired. I’m hungry. I can’t believe that person did that to me

today or said that about me today. I can’t believe our world is going to hell in a

handbasket.” And then we turn on our TVs to Fox News or CNN, or we start

scrolling through social media on our phones because we all know that makes us

feel much better. And so, the downward spiral begins, and we start being molded

by the world and our surroundings more than by the Word of God. And we lose

track of our purpose as Christians. We as followers of Jesus are to be messengers

of hope. And that hope can only be found in the reality that Jesus is King. And this

is in direct contrast to the reality that most people live in today. And it is a reality

that has seen violent opposition throughout history. And we don’t find anything

different here in our text for today.

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. 2 And Paul went in, as

was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the

Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer

and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the

Christ.”

We are now in the city of Thessalonica. We have two letters dedicated to the

Church in this city in our Bibles and we find them in the books of 1st and 2nd

Thessalonians. Of course these letters were written later as the Church had not

yet been established at the time of our text today.

Paul goes into a synagogue of the Jews and Scripture says he reasoned with them.

One thing we can glean from this is that Christianity is a reasonable faith. We

don’t believe something just because someone said so. You don’t just believe

something just because Mark said so. Anytime I preach a sermon, the prudent

Christian will be following along and checking if what I say lines up with what the

Bible says. The Bible is our Authority.If we’re out shopping and someone notices we’re wearing a Union Christian

Church shirt and they ask, why do you believe what you believe? We don’t just

say, “I don’t know” and keep walking. If this happens to you, our response should

not be one of panic, but one of gratitude that God has handed you, on a silver

platter, an opportunity to share the gospel message. We must understand that the

hope we have in Jesus Christ far surpasses any kind of fear or anxiety or insecurity

that it is worth sharing even if it is at our own expense. And when you leave that

store after sharing about Jesus and the hope that is found in him, the groceries in

your cart become an afterthought. The investment in time and money driving to

the store, getting frustrated by the food being rearranged, the long lines at the

checkout, all pale in comparison to the investment of planting a seed in that

person’s mind that may one day sprout into a living faith that you have no idea

how God may use that to impact the world. The Apostle Peter reminds us that we

ought to be prepared to make a defense for the hope that is in us.

I would like to remind us about our three year plan. Reach One, Teach One, Lead

One. I’ve talked in past week’s about the importance of raising up the next

generation of believers and I’ve also talked about the importance of discipleship.

Today, I want to give some time to Reach One. Evangelism. And this one is perhaps

one of the hardest things for us to do. But it’s extremely important. Our metric for

success is defined this way. “Every believer at UCC builds a friendship with a lost

person and shares Jesus with them within three years.” How are we doing with

that?

When JJ and I lived in a subdivision in Camby, we were constantly getting knocks

on our door from solicitors; pest control, lawn care businesses, security system

salesmen, solar panel salesmen. And it could be any hour of the day. A lot of

times, we would see them at a neighbor’s house and JJ and I would tell each other

to pretend like were not home when they knock. Now, there’s a concept in sales

that one must believe in their product so much that it would be a disservice to not

share about it with someone. These pest control guys on their hoverboards surely

must’ve had quite the conviction.

I know that we aren’t in the sales business as Christians selling Jesus to people,

but in a sense, we have something to offer to the world and we must believe in it

to the point that we see it as a disservice to our neighbors if we don’t share Jesus

with them. “Every believer at UCC builds a friendship with a lost person andshares Jesus with them within three years.” And when this happens, we want to

celebrate this. We want to hear your stories about the situations and

circumstances that led to someone being brought into a relationship with Jesus.

And Paul brought the gospel of Jesus to the Jewish Synagogue proclaiming that

Jesus is the Christ. How do you think that went? Some of us may think, well it’s

Paul. It must’ve gone pretty well for him. He’s like varsity level preacher,

evangelist, missionary and hear I am riding the bench on the JV team. Let me

make one thing clear. We don’t think about Christianity this way. There is no JV

team or varsity team, but there is a bench. And some of us would rather sit and

watch rather take part in the action. Why do we do this? We’re scared. We’re

scared of rejection. Why? All of the prominent people we read about in the Bible

were rejected at one time or another whenever they brought the gospel

somewhere. Some, like Stephen were killed because of it. Paul was stoned in

Lystra to where they thought he was dead. What’s the worst thing that could

happen to us generally speaking? Get laughed at? Not be taken seriously? Get

ignored? That’s about the extent of it. Rejection simply means you’re doing

something. The lack of it may be an indication that you need to get off the bench

and get into game.

Acts 17:4

4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great

many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

I take great encouragement in this. Paul, one of the most prominent figures in the

New Testament preaches and teaches the gospel for three consecutive Sabbath

days and only “some” of the Jews were persuaded. How is his conversion rate not

a 100%? Surely, he built up a rock solid case for the Kingship of Jesus. As we find

many times in our Bibles, it’s not the amount of evidence that one gives to

someone that is the determining factor of whether they will be converted or not.

Some people simply don’t want to change. They simply won’t accept the message

even if the case that is built to support the claim is irrefutable. And we still see

that today. Don’t fear rejection, for if you do, you’re in good company. Now, many

of the Jews were opposed to Paul, but the same could not be said for the Greeks

that were there. Scripture says that there were a great many of devout Greeks

(most likely proselytes) were persuaded by Paul’s message.Acts 17:5

5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they

formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking

to bring them out to the crowd.

So the Jews see Paul winning many of the people over to Christianity, taking away

from the number of prospective converts to Judaism and they weren’t happy

about it. So what did they do? They needed to recruit some muscle in order to

enforce their opposition against Paul. And the men that were recruited, our

translation has “wicked” men that were found in the marketplace. Now these

were men who had no steady jobs and didn’t have anything better to do than

hang around in the marketplace. They would be the perfect prospects for these

Jews as they would be willing to make some quick money. So, these Jewish leaders

entice these low life men to do their bidding by bribing them. And so a mob was

formed and they went to Jason’s house. (We don’t know much about Jason, other

than he was housing the missionaries). So there was a search for Paul and those

were with him, but they couldn’t find him.

Acts 17:6-7

6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the

brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the

world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they

are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king,

Jesus.”

Here we see that phrase, “turned the world upside down.” Of course, said in an

accusatory sense. Little did they know how right they were. For the Jesus the

missionaries were proclaiming did in fact turn the world on its head. In that day,

you weren’t allowed to claim there was another king but Caesar. It was unlawful

to do so. That was the charge being brought against Paul and those who were

with him. For the Christian, no matter who occupies any earthly position of

authority whether it be President, or King, or Queen, Jesus is THE King. The King of

Kings. In this setting that we’re reading about, you couldn’t make a statement like

that and expect to get away with it without any resistance.Acts 17:8-9

8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these

things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest,

they let them go.

Acts 17:10-12

10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when

they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more

noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness,

examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 12 Many of them

therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

The Holy Spirit leads Paul and Silas to the city of Berea. They must have done what

was required by God in Thessalonica. Now it’s time for the gospel to fall on fresh

ears. So Paul, as we’ve seen before, goes to the Synagogue to teach the gospel to

the Jews there and the response is vastly different than in Thessalonica. They

received the word (gospel) with all eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to

see if what Paul was saying was true. This is exactly what we should all be doing

whenever we listen to someone preach. Does it line of with Scripture? Is that

what was meant by the original author? Was that verse used in its correct

context? Now, the people we’re reading about do not have the New Testament.

Their Scripture was the Old Testament. And no doubt, Paul was drawing parallels

between what was prophesied in the Old Testament and Jesus. Building a case

that he is in fact the promised Messiah. As a result, many of them believed. Again,

the Christian faith is a reasonable faith. It’s not just a religion amongst other

religions (just pick one and you’ll be fine). Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

Piano to play here.

Everything we need to know about how to be saved is right here in our Bibles.

That’s why we need to read it. For those of us who are saved, we then glean from

our study how to live our faith out. Our faith must have some bearing in reality.

James says that faith without works is dead. We must remember that the reason

we come to be fed every Sunday the Word of God is so that we may go out andshare it with others. The world needs more Christians who are bent on turning the

world around them upside down for the cause of Christ. You don’t have to be a

vocational missionary in order to do that. You can do that right where God has

placed you. We need more teachers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, law enforcement,

factory workers who know that God has them strategically placed right where

they are because there are people you work with, hang out with, have authority

over that desperately need to hear about the hope of Christ. The fact of the

matter is, “We’re all missionaries.” As you’re walking out of this church building

out the doors, you’ll notice a sign above your heads that says, “You are now

entering the mission field.” This serves as a reminder to us that we have an

opportunity to make a difference in the world that may make all the difference for

the people you tell about Jesus. We don’t have to go across the pond to do it. We

need only to walk cornfield to cornfield carrying the hope of Jesus.

Acts 17:13

13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was

proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up

the crowds.

Just as we saw in the Jews coming to Lystra to stir up the crowds in order to

oppose the gospel, the same thing happens here. The Jews from Thessalonica

traveled 50 miles to Berea to undermine what Paul and the other missionaries

were doing. We still see the same thing happening today. The lengths by which

those opposed to the gospel will go to in order to stop its influence.

Acts 17:14-15

14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas

and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as

Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as

soon as possible, they departed.

And so ends Paul’s time in Berea as he makes his way to the well-known city of

Athens. And there he continues on the missionary course set before him.