Acts 17. I want us to look at
the first four verses of Acts chapter 17. We read here now,
when they had passed through Amphipolis to Apollonia, they
came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
And Paul, as his manner, as his custom was, he went in unto them,
and three Sabbath days he reasoned. He spoke with them. He preached
to them. out of the scriptures. Here in verse two, we see the
source of our message. Paul preached in the source,
just as every true minister of the gospel, every true preacher
of the gospel, the source of the message is the scriptures.
Over 50 references in God's word to the word scripture. And Paul
here is preaching from the scriptures. Remember when Philip preached
to the Ethiopian eunuch? Turn back a few pages to Acts
chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. There beginning
in verse 29. Then the Spirit said unto Philip,
Go near and join thyself unto this chariot. Philip ran thither
to him, and heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understand
what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except
some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he
would come up and sit with him in the place of the Scripture. He was reading from Isaiah 53.
The place of the Scripture which he read was this. He was led
as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his
shears, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his
judgment was taken away. Who shall declare his generation?
For his life is taken from the earth." And the eunuch answers
Philip, and he said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet
this? Of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened
his mouth, and it began at the same scripture, and he preached
unto him Jesus. That message, Philip's message,
came from the Scriptures, our Lord's message. Our Lord's message,
it came. Of course, he inspired it. You
know, it's God breathed. But listen, when he spoke to
the Pharisees back in Matthew, they said, give us a sign, give
us a sign. And he went back to the Old Testament
Scriptures and he said, a Jonah was three days and three nights
in the whale's belly. So shall the son of man be three
days, three nights in the heart of the earth. He said, As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall the Son
of Man be lifted up. Turn to Luke chapter 24. Luke
24 verse 44, And he said unto them, These are the words I spake unto
you while I was yet with you, that all these things must be
fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets,
and in the Psalms." Those things written in the Old Testament,
what are they? They're concerning me. Verse
45, then, "...open he their understanding that they might understand the
Scriptures." Back to our text, Acts 17. Paul's message from the Scriptures,
Philip's message from the Scriptures, our Lord's message from the Scriptures,
and any man who's called to preach God's Word, his message will
come from the Scriptures. Isn't that clear? The message,
it's from the Scriptures, and he preached to them from the
infallible Word of God. Well, what was this message Paul
preached? Let's read on here. Let me ask
you, was it a message of self-righteousness that's common in our day? Was
it man needs to straighten up? Man just needs to pull himself
up by his bootstraps? That's the common message of
our day. Man needs to do something. That's
not the message of the Bible. The message from the scriptures
is just one subject and one subject alone. It's Christ. Look at verse
three with me here in our text. Opening and alleging. Look at this threefold message.
One, Christ must needs have suffered. Christ must needs have suffered.
Second, he's risen again from the dead. And third, this Jesus
whom I preach is the Christ. Jesus is the Christ. Opening
and alleging. preaching from the scriptures,
he's opening that which has been closed and alleging, he's setting
before and teaching Christ must needs have suffered. Without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission. He must suffer
and he must suffer like no man ever has or no man ever will. He suffered the shame and humiliation
of the cross and he suffered unto death. Why must he suffer? Why must
the Lord Jesus Christ suffer? Why must he be put to death?
Sin must be punished. We read in Romans 6.23, the wages
of sin is death. And what I've earned by what
I am is death. My sin. We're sinners. Sinners by birth, sinners by
choice, sinners by practice, But listen to what this verse
says. It says, I can understand why I should suffer. He says,
Christ must suffer. He must suffer to redeem his
people. God's holy. God's righteous. He's just. And he will in no
way clear the guilty. His law must be honored. His justice must be satisfied. And if he chooses to show mercy
to us, He must do it in a manner that's consistent with His holiness
and His righteousness. He can't just wink at sin. Our
little ones, they do things and we just kind of laugh and go
on. We wink at those things. God can't look at sin and do
that. He's too holy. He cannot do that. And listen,
sin must be punished. And the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
why He came. That's why He obeyed the law.
That's why he must suffer and die on the cross that God might
be holy and just and righteous. Christ must suffer. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was laid on him. By his stripes we're healed. He must suffer. Turn with me
to Matthew chapter 16. Look at verse 21, from that time
forth, verse 21, from that time forth
began Jesus to show unto his disciples how he must go unto
Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests
and scribes and be killed and raised again the third day. Peter
took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from me,
Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and he said
unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto
me. For thou savest not the things that be of God, but those things
that be of men." Our Lord Jesus Christ, He must go to Jerusalem
to suffer. He must die for our sins. Without
His death, we have no atonement. We had no advocate, we had no
substitute. Christ must suffer. And let's go back to our text,
again here in Acts 17. Christ must have suffered and
he must be risen again. You see that in verse 3? Risen
from the dead. He must die, but he must also
be risen. The Lord Jesus Christ, He that
was made sin for us, He must be risen. Turn to 1 Corinthians
15. Here in 1 Corinthians 15. Verse
12. Now if Christ be preached that
he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is
no resurrection from the dead? If there be no resurrection of
the dead, then is Christ not risen? If Christ be not risen,
then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea,
and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified
of God that he raised up Christ when we raise not up, if so be
that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then
is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain. Listen to this. If you be not
raised, your faith is vain, and you're yet in your sins. Verse 18. Then they also which
are fallen asleep in Christ are perished, If in this life only
we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from
the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since
my man came death, my man also came the resurrection of the
dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be
made alive. Every man in his own order, Christ
the firstfruit, afterward they that Christ The fact that he's risen from
the dead proves that in all that he did, he was successful. He's a successful Savior. Nothing
was left undone. Hebrews 1, just let me read this
to you. Hebrews 1, God at sundry times
and in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers
by the prophets. hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his
glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down, sat down on the right hand of the
majesty on high." How could he sit down? The work's finished. He said that. He said, it is
finished. The sin dead is paid. Almighty God is satisfied. Now back to our text again, Acts
17. Christ must needs have suffered. He's risen again from the dead.
And listen, thirdly, this Jesus whom I preach unto you, he is
the Christ. Jesus is the Christ. In our days, there's a lot of
preaching, a lot of talk about Jesus, a man named Jesus. There's
the Jesus who wants to save you, but just can't. There's the Jesus
who's done all he could, and he's left the rest up to you. I think it was Henry, I'm not
sure, that said there's thousands of little Jesus's running around
in Mexico, but none of them can save. Only one can. Only one can. A weak, impotent
Jesus cannot save. That's not the Jesus we read
of in this Bible, in God's Word. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Jesus that Paul preached, there can't be any confusion. Paul
says, this Jesus I preach unto you, he is the Christ. That one who's pictured and prophesied
throughout all the Old Testament, it's the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Anointed One. He's the Son of God. He's the
God-man. Paul says, he is the Christ. Turn back to Acts chapter 2. Acts 2. Peter's speaking here in verse
29. He says, Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you
of the patriarch David. Now, David was a great man. David
was highly esteemed. But listen, David is both dead
and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore,
being a prophet, and knowing that God has sworn with an oath
to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh,
he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He has seen this
before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This
Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore,
being by the right hand of God, exalted And having received of
the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth
this which we now see and hear, where David is not ascended into
the heavens, but he himself said, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit
thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. whom you have crucified, both
Lord and Christ." God has made him Lord and Christ. Let's look
at another scripture, Matthew 16. Matthew 16, verse 13. We read here in God's Word, When
Jesus came unto the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his
disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say thou
art John the Baptist, some Elias, others Jeremias, or one of the
prophets. He said unto them, Whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." The message,
he must suffer. He is risen. He is the Christ. And quickly look at verse four
of our text here in Acts 17, the effect. This message from
the scriptures, it's preached here and there's an effect. Over
in Isaiah we read, he says, So shall my word go forth out of
my mouth. It shall not return unto me a
void. It shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper
in the thing whereunto I sent it. To some, it's a savor of
death. To others, it's a savor of life. Look here at this text again.
I heard this message from the scriptures, this message that
Christ must suffer. This message that Christ is risen,
this message that Jesus is the Christ, what's the effect? Look, verse 4, and some of them
believed. Some of them believed, and they
consorted with Paul and Silas and the devout Greeks, a great
multitude, and the cheap women, not a few. Some of them believed. Not all of them. If we read on
in verse 5, there were some of those Jews that believed not,
but some of them believed. Some of them, what is it? What
is it to believe Christ? Well, first, to believe Christ
is to believe the record that he left concerning his son, that
which is found in his word. The word is the foundation of
faith. A man can't trust what he doesn't
know. He can't trust an unrevealed
Christ. He has to be revealed, and if
he's revealed, He'll be revealed through the preaching of the
Word from the Scriptures. Over in 1 John, listen, he said,
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not hath made
God a liar, because he believeth not the record that God hath
given concerning his Son. And this is the record that God
hath given us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
What's the record? The record is the word of God,
it's the scriptures. John wrote, these things are
written unto you that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ
and believing you might have life through his name. It's to
believe the record that God has given us concerning his son.
It's to believe, second, to believe Christ is to rely and depend
entirely on him. all things. Paul said, of God
are ye in Christ. It's by God's appointment and
it's by God's grace that we're in Christ. Who of God is made
unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. In other words, he's all we need.
He's all. Christ is all. Paul wrote in
Colossians, in Christ dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily
and ye are complete in him. It's not to trust my faith in
Christ. It's not to trust my works in
Christ. It's not to trust my feelings in Christ. It's not
to trust my church in Christ. It's to trust him and him alone.
It's to trust the Lord Jesus Christ and believe on him. Third,
it's to believe him in all his offices. according to the word
of God. He's that prophet promised in
the Old Testament scriptures. He's that great high priest,
like Melchizedek mentioned there in Hebrews. He's the king of
kings and Lord of lords. His throne is established forever. And he's going to be king. He's
not going to be king. He is king. He is king. You don't make him, Lord. We
read that earlier. God hath made him. both Lord and Christ. We
believe Him and receive Him. We'll receive Him as prophet,
priest, and king as He's revealed in God's Word. And fourth, to
believe on Christ is to continue to believe in Him. Over in the Old Testament, there
were thousands and thousands of people that flew out of Egypt
in that mass exodus, but only two above the age of 20 entered
into the Promised Land. The rest of them, they were left
there in their murmurings and unbelief and idolatry. The truth, the truth. God says,
he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. He says
Christ will present us unblameable, unreprovable, holy in his sight,
if we continue in the faith and be not moved away from the hope
which is in the gospel, which you've heard. What is it to believe
Christ? It's to continue to believe,
to continue to believe. Well, there were those that believed,
weren't there? They believed and they consorted
with Paul. They were united with Paul. They
weren't ashamed to be recognized with him. So Paul's message,
that message from the scriptures, that threefold message, Christ
must suffer, Christ is risen, Jesus, he is the Christ, it's
all of Christ, that's the message. And the results of that message
is some, some will believe, some will believe. All right.