Introduction
The truth is, bad news generally travels faster than good news. Within two hours the whole world knew that President John F. Kennedy had been killed, who killed him, where he was killed and how he was killed.
Today, still more than half the world does not know the good news that Jesus died, where He died, and the purpose of His death. 64 million people die every year that don’t know that Jesus died for them.
Surveys tell us that about 98 percent of the Christians do not regularly introduce others to their Savior. We are going to talk about this today, not to beat you guys up, not to get you down, but to build you up, to encourage you to share your faith. Before we get into our study though, let’s pray.
PRAYER
Background
Last week we saw what great lengths Paul went to so share the gospel, even being humiliated and thrown into prison in order to minister to a bunch of other guys in jail.
By worldly standards, many people would believe that Paul trip to share the gospel in Philippi was a total failure. He didn’t start up some big revival, he led a few notable people to Christ, and it is extremely likely that the church at Philippi was very small when it started out.
Today, we are going to get to see Paul’s perseverance pay off, The mission field in Thessalonica was white unto harvest, and God used Paul to touch the lives of many, many people there.
More important than all this historical stuff though, I want to try and quantify this, to make this real to each one of us, so that we can apply it in our own lives.
By the way, that’s what we are here for, to apply the principles in God’s Word to our lives. If we are just reading this book, and not applying it to our lives, then we are missing out on what God had for us. So, let’s get into our study.
Turn with me to Acts chapter 17, and we are going to look at verses 1 through 15 this morning, as we continue through the book of Acts.
Study
Intro
1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 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." 4 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. 5 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. 6 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. 7 Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king--Jesus." 8 And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. 9 So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 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. 12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. 13 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. 14 Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 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.
The first thing that I notice when I read this passage is that Paul is doing a lot of moving around. He has covered a lot of ground this week, moving on from Philippi to Thessalonica, a journey of roughly 200 miles, then he goes on to Berea, and to Athens, the capitol city of ancient Greece.
This was actually one of the better journeys to make in the ancient world. Paul would have traveled along the Via Egnatia. This was an ancient highway that is still there today in some parts. It ran from Neapolis, to Philippi, through Amphipolis and Apollonia, and on to Thessalonica, and from there to the Adriatic Sea, where travelers could take a boat to Italy.
In our study today, I have broken our passage down into six points, to kind of break things up so we can get a better handle on them.
Today we’ll be looking at the Customary Visit, Christ Proclaimed, the Crowd, the Charges, Checking it Out, and finally, Out to Sea, as we look further at Paul’s Second Missionary Journey.
Our first point has to do with Paul’s usual mode of operation when he gets to a new town to spread the gospel. We see this in verses 1 through the first part of verse 2.
The Customary Visit (Acts 17:1 – 2a)
1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them,
So we see here that Paul bypassed two cities on his way to Thessalonica. It is most probable that Paul was focused on getting to Thessalonica. That’s not to say that there was no ministry done in these cities, but if there were, it simply isn’t mentioned.
Most scholars agree that the period of time we are looking at is the summer and fall of the year 51 AD. Paul would have been approximately 46 years old at this point, he was getting up there in age for a person of that day.
So, as he journeys along the Roman highway heading west, he comes to the ancient of Thessalonica, which is still there if you go to Greece today.
The city of Thessalonica was the major city in the area of Macedonia. It was a city that had flourished in the Roman Era. It was made a free-governing city in 52 B.C., and it was a run with a Greek, rather than Roman form of government. So, it wasn’t a Roman colony, just a free Greek city.
We also see in verse 1 that there had to be a somewhat sizeable Jewish population there in Thessalonica. We know this, because we see a synagogue there, and a synagogue required at least ten Jewish males to establish.
This is another item in the Bible that has been verified by archaeology. The ancient cities of Amphipolis and Appolonia have been dug extensively, with no synagogue ruins found. But, the ruins of a synagogue have been found at Thessalonica, oddly enough, just like the Bible tells us here in verse 1.
For Paul, it was his mode of operation to first go into the synagogue to teach. It was a relevant jumping off point for him if you will. There are really two reasons for this.
First, is that God made himself known and eventually sent His Son to the Jewish nation. They were God’s chosen people from ancient antiquity, from Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and on to Moses, King David, Solomon, so on and so forth. For the most part, and most definitely at this point since there was no New Testament, but for the most part, the Bible was a Jewish book.
Paul would later write in Romans, not once, not twice, but three times - For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
So, the first reason is that God wanted to present the plan of salvation to the Jews first, and then the gentile nations of the earth, The second reason that Paul frequently visited synagogues preaching the gospel is that they had common ground.
They both believed in the Holy Scriptures. They both believed in the God of Israel. Paul could and did teach a message out of the Old Testament that pointed to Jesus being the long awaited Messiah of the nations.
These people already had and inclination towards the Holy things of God, and they were seeking God, they just didn’t know all of the story.
We get a peek at Paul’s message and we get to see how long Paul gave the synagogue in the next two and a half verses.
Christ Proclaimed (Acts 17:2b – 4)
and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 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." 4 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.
So, the first thing we see here is that Paul stuck around for three weeks. Good round number, gave people plenty of time to argue and get mad, if they decided not to believe in Jesus.
It was customary in those days for the synagogue ruler to turn over a part of the service to a visiting rabbi, and Paul was afforded this honor.
Paul taught them out of the Scriptures, and we see here that he reasoned with them. That word translated reasoned there is the Greek word dialegomai, we get our word dialog from it today. What it means is that there was some back and forth interaction going on, the kind f thing to get people talking and interested about the Lord.
When I read this passage, I thought about the time that I spent leading a small group, and how people grew spiritually in that environment.
When people have a chance to dialog, to go back and forth and ask questions, it healthy! Healthy sheep produce more healthy sheep. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 27, verse 17 this - As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.
We are praying that sooner or later, we can get some home groups going, so that we will have a chance to encourage one another, to sharpen one another.
But, there’s one thing I want us to notice. Paul reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. He didn’t tell them about some book on theology that he read. He didn’t talk about what was popular at the time, the latest fads, movies, no, he simply talked with them by using the Bible.
Colossians 3:16 tells us - Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
That is a guideline for our conversations as Christians. We are supposed to exhort and build one another up with the word, just as Paul was doing here.
Verse 3 here is the gospel in a nutshell. Jesus suffered and died for the sins of all mankind. But our hope this morning is in the fact that Jesus rose up from the dead.
God Incarnate, Jesus Christ, conquered death. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 8 tells us that when Jesus rose, when He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men."
The gifts is the person of the Holy Spirit He sent to dwell in us, so that we could be His witnesses here on earth like He commanded us to do, we saw that back in Acts chapter 1, verse 8.
Paul is walking out that commandment here in Thessalonica. He is taking the gospel to those who would not otherwise hear it. We see here in verse 4 that some of the Jews of this particular synagogue believed, and accepted the Word.
Also, we see that there were a lot of Greeks that came to the Lord as well. Now, as we have covered earlier, these folks were what were known as “God fearers” by the Jews. They weren’t Jews, they hadn’t been converted, but they could attend the synagogue.
We also see that there were numerous women that became involved with the ministry of Paul and Silas there. This was not all that uncommon then, just like today.
In the next two verses though, we get to see some folks that weren’t too happy about what was going on at their synagogue.
The Crowd (Acts 17:5 - 6)
5 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. 6 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.
So, we saw that Paul and Silas had some evangelistic success there in Thessalonica. But, some people didn’t buy what Paul was saying. There’s going to be people like that that you minister to, people that just don’t get it. It’s sad, but it’s a fact of life that not everyone is going to get into heaven, and not everyone who hears believes.
That would have been fine if they had just simply not believed, and went about their business. But, they became angry and bitter at Paul and Silas, they were jealous of all the people leaving the synagogue to follow Jesus.
These folks wanted to keep the status quo. These are the same kinds of people who cause church splits over the color of the carpet, or get upset about the number of new faces in church.
You see, as people, we tend to fear and shun change, and that is what making a decision to follow Jesus is all about – change. You make a decision to change the direction in your life from the way you are going, to the way God wants you to go, towards Him.
Many times though, we see situations like this in ministry, people get angry and make accusations. People gossip about this person, or run down another. When people bring accusations, almost invariably it is because there is a deeper reason that what appears on the surface. Therefore, if you’re working with people, it’s wise not to listen to the charge itself, but to seek the Lord concerning the underlying problem.
The underlying problem here was that they were unbelievers and they were jealous of what was going on. If you’ll notice our next point outlines their charges against Paul and Silas, and it has nothing to do with what the real problem is, which is listed here in verse 5.
So, these guys are mad, and they go out and find some more guys to be mad with them. That’s another sure-fire sign of someone who is out of line – they try to enlist people to “buy in” to their anger.
So, they go down to the marketplace, and pick up a bunch of guys that were sitting around. These were the kind of guys that sit around looking for some trouble to get into; things haven’t changed that much in 1900 some-odd years.
Their plan, as we see here is to go and attack the house of Jason, so that they could drag out Paul and Silas. Jason was a Christian who lived there in Thessalonica. We aren’t told if Jason was a Jew or a gentile. Some scholars think Jason was a gentile that gave the apostles work and a place to stay that later became converted, but we aren’t told.
Nevertheless, we see that Paul and Silas were staying with Jason and his family there in Thessalonica. Remember back in our first point, when I told you that Thessalonica had a Greek governmental system. That might have seemed like a minor point, but here it actually has some significance.
The people mentioned in verse 5, that they sought to drag them out to was the Greek ruling council of the city, called the demos in the Greek. We get our word democracy from it today.
It says in verse 6, that because the mob didn’t find Paul and Silas in the house, they took Jason and some of the other Christians and drug them in front of the rulers of the city.
Now, the word we translate as rulers there is the Greek word politarchs. This was a different body, more like judges. Maybe since they had Thessalonians, Jason and the other brethren, they thought it best to go in front of the judges rather than the ruling council. We aren’t told.
Just as a footnote, the term politarchs used in verse 6, was thought to be fictitious up until about 50 years ago, when they found an arch in Thessalonica, naming the politarchs of the city. There’s another case where archaeology backs up the Bible’s accounts.
When they get the believers in front of the judges, here is what they said - These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
It is my sincere prayer – for that to be said of us. That we would so impact our community around us that we would be accused of turning the world upside down.
This is one of the most profound verses in the Bible. It really speaks to the total change that happens to us when we come to Christ.
If you think about it though, it came down to a matter of perspective. What Paul and Silas were doing is turning the world right side up. But, when all you have ever known all your life was that upside down world, it seems to you that when things get turned right side up, they seem upside down. What this upside down world needs is more people going around turning things right side up.
They bring their charges against Paul and Silas in the next three verses.
The Charges (Acts 17:7 – 9)
7 Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king--Jesus." 8 And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. 9 So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
Jason was accused of harboring traitors. The charges against Paul and Silas were for supposedly making treasonous remarks. Since they said that Jesus was king, which is true, Jesus was the ruler of their hearts.
This definitely did trouble the rulers of the city and all of the people gathered there, because they thought that their city may become a hotbed for rebellion against Rome.
Their fears were unfounded, because though the gospel has definite political implications, Christians are better citizens than before, and their prayers for officials of government are more helpful than most could ever imagine.
The decree of Caesar that the Christian church was contrary to was this - The Roman Empire used the words “Caesar is Lord” to embody the Roman Empire in one man, the Emperor. Caesar worship became compulsory throughout the Empire. It held the Empire together. Every man had to go to an Empire shrine and burn a pinch of incense to the image of the Emperor and say, “Caesar is Lord.”
It was a test of loyalty to the Roman Empire. After the person did that, he could go away and worship any god he so chose. However, he had to prove his loyalty by declaring, “Caesar is Lord.” That is precisely what the Christians refused to do. For them only Jesus Christ could be Lord. Nothing could force them to say, “Caesar is Lord.” They chose to die the most terrible, agonizing deaths imaginable for their faith in Jesus Christ who is the Lord.
Church historians report to us that over six million Christians were killed for their faith in the first 250 years of the church, because they refused to say – “Caesar is Lord”.
The aged Bishop of Smyrna refused to yield to the demands of the Empire and paid the ultimate price on February 22, A.D. 156. Two city officials pleaded with Polycarp to comply with the demand to declare, “Caesar is Lord.” They said, “What harm is there in saying, ‘Caesar is Lord,’ and burning a little incense . . . and saving yourself?” As the fires were lighted at his feet and began to rise up around his body he declared, “For 86 years I have been Christ’s slave, and He has done me no wrong: how can I blaspheme my king who saved me?”
The question to us this morning is this – Who is your Lord? I believe that there are far too many people that claim to be Christians don’t know that Jesus is their Lord, their ruler, their king. This unbelieving rioting mob knew, but it troubles me to see so many folks not giving it all over to Him.
I know it’s hard, and to tell you the truth, I struggle with giving everything over to Him all the time as well, but the fact of the matter is, He paid that price, and if I want to be a follower of Jesus, He has to be my Lord, my ruler, my king.
Well, they didn’t have Paul and Silas to charge with anything, so the Jews made a deal with Jason, saying something like this – “We won’t press charges against them if you get rid of them, but we need some money as security for the agreement.”
Jason complied because he didn’t want to see Paul and Silas harmed. Seems pretty corrupt, maybe this wasn’t the best thing to do in this situation, but it is understandable.
So, Jason posts the bond, promises that he wouldn’t let Paul and Silas stay with him any longer, and we see what happens next in the next four verses.
Checking It Out (Acts 17:10 - 13)
10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 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. 12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. 13 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.
The believers at Thessalonica were pretty worried about mob violence happening again, so they send Paul and Silas away to Berea. When they arrive at Berea, where do the go? The local Jewish synagogue.
You have got to be amazed at Paul and Silas. They just don’t give up. They get knocked down, and then they get up again, and again, and again.
The Jewish community there at Berea was more open to hearing about the gospel than the Jews at Thessalonica. The Old King James says that they were more noble than the Thessalonians. They were willing to listen and see for themselves if the gospel was true.
They listened and they did their own research. They weighed what Paul said against the Scriptures. We would do well to take a lesson from the Bereans here. We should do the same. Whenever you hear a message, you should be a bit skeptical. You should want to try and find out if you’re being deceived.
The Bereans did the research, and many of them came to the conclusion that Paul was right. He was telling the truth. Paul was teaching the Word, and they were weighing with the Word.
We see that the end result of this was that many of them believed, we see this in verse 17. All this from the Word of God. Simply the Word of God.
Hebrews 4:12 says this - For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The Word divided hearts there in Berea, just like it did in Thessalonica. The main difference between the two was the willingness of the people to hear, and also the attitudes of those who didn’t believe, but we see that all of that changes.
In verse 13, we see that the malcontent Jews in Thessalonica weren’t happy with Paul and Silas gone from their city, they wanted to drive them out there, too.
They eventually succeed in doing the same thing at Berea that they did at Thessalonica, which is to stir up the crowds against Paul and Silas, to make it dangerous for them there.
We see what happens in the next two verses, and we will close there this morning.
Out to Sea (Acts 17:14 - 15)
14 Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 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.
The Christians at Berea agreed with the believers at Thessalonica, that it would be safer for Paul to leave. So, they put Paul on a boat, and Timothy and Silas stayed on in Berea to encourage and teach the believers there.
The Bereans themselves took Paul to Athens. When he got there, he called for Silas and Timothy to come to him, in a hurry, so they took off heading towards Athens.
Athens was the center of philosophical thought and earning in the ancient world. This was the city of Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates.
The Athenian architecture alone was overwhelming. To this day, the Parthenon is considered the most architecturally sophisticated building in history. To allow for optical illusion, it was constructed in such a way that the roof-lines are concave and the columns lean inward so that the structure looks perfectly straight when viewed from any direction at any distance.
This was the intellectual pinnacle of the ancient world, and next week, we will see God at work in Athens, as he uses Paul to reach these very intellectual people.
Point Summary – But, there are two main things that I want us to get out of this message. Two things, which if you don’t take anything else away from here, get these.
Number one is that salvation is a radical change in a Christian’s life.
Number two is that we need to weigh everything we hear from a teacher concerning God through the Word of God.
I‘d like to close with a short story.
Conclusion
A Pastor in Russia recently spoke at a church in Minneapolis, Minnesota during a US visit. He described his personal journey to faith in Jesus Christ. Listen to his struggle:
His parents were atheistic university professors at a local university who raised their son to “think for himself”. During his teen years, he struggled with many spiritual questions. When the communists told him there was no god, he reasoned that their might be a God and so began a search for reading material where he might find the answers.
The only books of religion available at his local library were atheistic, but they often quoted verses from the Bible to mock or refute them. His greatest discovery was a set of encyclopedias on atheism from which he copied every Bible verse by hand from.
It was not very long before he began to pray to God and ask Him to forgive his sins. You know, God’s Word is powerful enough to turn the world upside down for that Russian boy I pray that each one of us here would have that same power working in our lives.
Let’s Pray.
Closing Prayer
