This Jesus I Preach Series

This Jesus I Preach

Text: Acts 17:1-9

Introduction

1. Next month, July 4th to be exact, I will celebrate my third anniversary as Pastor at Oostanaula Methodist.

2. In those three years, you may have noticed a reoccurring theme in my preaching – I keep telling you to tell people about Jesus.

3. Now, I want to demonstrate to you that it’s working. (Show examples of new people in the church). We have at least eight people in our church that weren’t here a year ago. That’s an increase of 30%, and most mega churches can’t make that claim.

4. So, obviously, at least some of you are listening. Now I want to show some ways that can make this easier.

5. Read Acts 17:1-9

Transition: First, let’s talk about…

I. Wise Witnessing (1-4).

A. Used the Scripture to Reason with People

1. So, Paul and Silas left Philippi and went down the road about 100 miles.

a. They came to a town called Thessalonica, and once there they did what they usually did, they went to the synagogue and told people about Jesus.

b. Some people accepted what Paul and Silas were saying. Some were Jews, but more of them were Gentiles.

c. As a result, some of the other Jews got jealous of Paul and Silas and caused a bunch of trouble.

d. But God caused good things to happen with what the devil tried to do for evil.

2. Now, let’s take a closer look. As Paul and Silas left Philippi, they traveled down the Egnatian Way toward Athens. Luke tells us in v. 1, “Paul and Silas then traveled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.”

a. First, they passed through a town called Amphipolis, which was about 30 miles from Philippi.

b. From there they came to a town called Apollonia, which was an additional thirty miles from Philippi.

c. Now, there is no mention of ministry taking place in these two towns. But we can safely assume, that if there was someone there to preach to, Paul took the opportunity to tell them about Jesus.

d. Then they came to a town called Thessalonica. It was one of the wealthiest cities in Macedonia, and it had a population of about 200,000 people.

e. So, just to give you an idea, it had about 160,000 more people than the population of Rome, GA. So, it was a pretty large city, especially for that time.

f. It was the first city where Paul’s preaching attracted a large crowd of the socially elite. The big shots came out to hear him preach.

g. Another thing about Thessalonica is it was culturally diverse, which means there were a lot of pagan religions there that would make it difficult for new Christians.

h. But an important thing that Luke tells us about this city is that there was a synagogue there. If you recall, I told you several messages ago that in order to have a synagogue you had to have at least ten Jewish males.

i. So, this tells us it had a significant Jewish community, and that’s where Paul would begin.

3. In vv. 2-3 Luke tells us what Paul did. He tells us, “As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. 3 He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.”

a. Luke tells us that Paul did what he usually did, he went to the synagogue first.

b. It was always Paul’s custom to go the synagogue first because he had an in there because he was a Pharisee, which would be like being a preacher today. He would typically be given the opportunity to speak.

c. Plus, since there would be Jews there, he had a familiarity with them and could speak to them using the Jewish Scriptures to talk about Jesus.

d. There are three important words for us to understand from these two verses. First, it says that he used Scripture to reason with them.

e. This comes from a Greek word which means “to discuss or converse” with someone. It means that he used Scripture to start a conversation with them. He didn’t shout at them and shake his finger at them. He just had a conversation with them about Jesus.

f. Second, he explained what Scripture said about Jesus. This comes from a Greek word which means “to open.” He opened up the Scriptures so they could understand them. It’s the same word that Luke uses of Jesus as he spoke to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, where it says Jesus opened up the Scriptures to them.