Just leave your Bibles open there
in Acts 17. Paul and his companions, Silas,
Timothy. That's a good missionary trio,
isn't it? It would be good to have a conference with those
three men. They leave Philippi. and leave quietly. After the magistrates there had
to apologize for putting them in prison and beating them, they had to apologize to them
and then they sent them out peacefully. But Paul had to suffer there.
He had to be beaten. He had to go to prison in order
to preach to that jailer. And I thought it's amazing how
God takes men and women from totally different
walks of life who would never have anything
to do with each other as far as friendship or anything. And
yet the gospel brings someone like Lydia and that jailer together
in the same church and no doubt they become friends for the rest
of their lives. That's amazing. And when I read
that, And I was going over this, and last night I thought about
that church in Philippi, made up of Lydia, that Philippian
jailer, and a lot of others there. God raised up a church there. And that jailer and Lydia never
had two words to say to each other. That old crusty jailer
and that businesswoman. And yet God brings that church
together and fellowships. I tell you, I think the gospel
is the greatest leveler of anything in life. Two things I think are
great levelers, the gospel and the grave. That's probably the
two great levelers in life. While we're on top here, walking
on the ground, we have our different levels of society. There's no
different levels of society in the grave. They all look the
same. And there's no different levels
of society in the gospel. In Christ, we are one. It doesn't matter if a guy makes
$10,000 a year or a man makes a million dollars a year. In
Christ, they're one. They're one. I titled this message, This
Jesus is the Christ. This Jesus is the Christ. The
Jews have been looking for Christ the Messiah, the Anointed One,
for a long time. Long time. Two thousand years. Long time. And when He came,
they missed Him. They completely missed Him. He stood in front of them, spoke
to them, and they didn't see Him. He came into His own And
His own received Him not. You think, how could that happen?
If God doesn't give you eyes, you'll miss Him too. If He doesn't
give you ears to hear, just like what Frank spoke this morning,
what I'm speaking, if He does not give you ears to hear, you
won't hear Him. It'll just be my voice you'll hear. You just
heard John. And He came and they missed Him. They were looking for a Messiah
to set up a physical kingdom. That's what they were looking
for. They were not looking to be delivered from sin. They had
their sacrifices. They had their bulls and their
goats. They had all that. They were looking for someone
to deliver them from the Roman government and set up a physical kingdom.
But the kingdom of Christ, he said, is spiritual. It's a spiritual
kingdom. He said it comes not with observation.
It's spiritual. You can't see spirit. And when they saw Him, when they saw the Lord Jesus
Christ, they were ashamed of Him. They were. They were ashamed
of Him. They said, don't put up there
King of the Jews. I said, don't put that up. He
said that. We didn't say that. Don't let
people think that we said that. He said that. No. He said, what
I've written, I've written. God looked that up there. This
is the King of the Jews. Jesus of Nazareth. King of the
Jews. They were ashamed of Him. This
cannot be our King. Our King would not look like
this. Our king would not look like
a poor man. Our king wouldn't be a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. They were too embarrassed. Do
you ever have anybody in your family embarrassed? They were
embarrassed to own him as king. They would not say to the world
or anybody, say, this is our king. Too embarrassed of him. That's a shame, isn't it? Oh,
that's a shame. Well, this Jesus whom you were
embarrassed of, whom you rejected, He is the Christ. He is the anointed
of God Almighty. It says here in verse 1, Luke
writes this, Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and
Apollonia, those two cities, had no idea that the gospel just
passed them by. They just passed right on through.
To me, those things like that just astound me. There goes the
Apostle Paul. There goes Timothy. There goes
Silas. There goes the gospel. There
goes the gospel. And they never knew it. It just
went right on through town. Passed them right on by. And they came to Thessalonica
because God has a people in Thessalonica. God has a church there He's going
to raise up. This church lasted for centuries. It lasted a long
time. They came there where it was
a synagogue of the Jews. You know, Paul never let persecution
stop him or deter him from preaching the gospel. He didn't do it. preached the gospel to the Jew
first. Every time he had the opportunity,
he preached to his Jewish brethren first. He said, my heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
And when he went to the synagogue, that was his heart's desire. His goal was that God would save
some of them, that he would open their eyes and they could see
that this is the Messiah we've been waiting for. You know something of that desire
for your own family. You know something of it. For
your own children, your own family, your own brothers and sisters.
Oh, that they could see what I see. Was it Paul said to us,
was it Agrippa or Felix? He said, Oh, I would to God that
you were all together as I am except for these chains. I wish
you knew the Lord. But he went there. And he went
to that synagogue and he wanted to preach to them. Even though
they hated Paul. Paul never hated them. No matter
what they did to him, he never hated them. Grace won't let you
do that. Grace will not allow you to harbor
ill feelings toward anyone. Not just toward your brethren,
but I mean it will not allow you to harbor ill feelings to
any man or woman. But by the grace of God, there
go I. And Paul always went to preach
the gospel where God's Word was read. He always went to preach.
Listen, they read the Word of God. They did not read from another
book or another version or another translation. They read from the
original. They read the Word of God. And he looked for an
opportunity to preach Christ to them. And although they missed
Christ when He came, completely missed Him, they still read the
Word of God. They read the Word of God, and
Paul knew that, and he used that to his advantage. He was wise,
wasn't he? Scripture says, Be wise as serpents,
harmless as doves. He was wise. He knew they read
the Word of God there, and he knew they were familiar with
the Word of God. And God sent them a preacher for years. No doubt for years
they took the Old Testament and they would read out of the Old
Testament. They'd read from front to back. It's hard to say how
many times they would read through it. And then one day, one day,
God sent them a preacher that was able to open the Scriptures
and preach Christ to them. That book that they had been
reading had been closed to them for all those years. And it is
a closed book until God opens it. Until God opens the Scripture. Remember those men on the road
to Emmaus? Look in Luke 24. Luke chapter
24. Let me find this. Okay, let me read in verse 25. Then he said unto them, O fools
and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into
his glory? And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the
things concerning himself. This is the same thing the Apostle
Paul does here in this synagogue. And they drew nigh unto the village,
whether they went, and he made as though he would have gone
further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for
it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went
in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat
at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and break, and
gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and
they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight. And they
said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while
he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the
Scriptures. And that word, they said in the
Greek, has the meaning of forcible. Forcible opening. Opened it.
He opened the Scriptures to them. Opened their understanding. And
this is the same thing that's going to happen here. Opened
it. God sent my preacher. And what
a blessing. What a blessing this was. They
didn't realize it. at that time. Now, I'm sure the church that
was raised up out of that, they realized it. But when Paul and
his companions walked in that service that day, they had no
idea that God showed up. Truly. And Paul, it says, as his manner
was. Our Lord did this. It says the same thing about
him in Luke 4.16. As his manner was, he went into
the temple. And Paul, as his manner was,
went in unto them. And three Sabbath days, three
weeks in a row, three Saturdays, he reasoned with them out of
the Scriptures. I like the way this is worded. As his manner
was. Oh, that this could be said of
us. That this could be said of us. As his manner was. Always found where the Word of
God is being read. Always found. and the worship
service. This is the manner of every believer. You will find the believer where
the gospel is preached. You know why? Hungry people have
to eat. Thirsty people have to drink.
Those who are not hungry, those who are not thirsty, they can
do something else. A hungry man or a hungry woman,
a thirsty man or a thirsty woman, they've got to be where food
and water is. And the believer, he must be where Christ is. Christ
is his life. Christ is his sustenance. Without
him we'd perish. And as his manner was, he went
in there for three weeks. Preaching Christ, and he reasoned
with them concerning the Messiah. That's what he reasoned with
them about, who he is, the Son of God. This Messiah, they was
looking for just a natural descendant of David. I have no doubt that
Paul said the Messiah is the Son of God. We need someone more
than just natural. We need someone that's of God.
This salvation cannot be brought out and produced. by a natural
man. He's a real man. Not like us. He knew no sin. This is the God-man.
This is the God-man. He reasoned with him about his
character. He reasoned with him about his
glory. God manifested in the flesh. His redemptive glory,
redeeming Israel. The Messiah came to redeem his
people from their sins. Not just the Roman government.
They're sins. You know, people want to be saved
from everything, but they're sins. They want to be saved from
hell and bankruptcy. But not sin. The root of all
problems. But when God saves a sinner,
He wants to be saved from his sins. That's what He wants. And then it says here in verse
3, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered,
he had to preach the fall. Ruined by the fall. Charlie had
this as his theme in the Bible school with the young children
there. Ruined by the fall, redeemed
by the blood, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. That's what
Paul preached. That's what Paul opened. He took
the Scriptures, opening the Scriptures, and alleging that Christ must
need suffering. Well, why? Why must the Messiah,
why must the anointed one suffer? They were not expecting him to
suffer. They were not expecting him to come riding in on this
white steed and just deliver them from the Roman government.
They were not expecting him to suffer. And especially for their
sins, they said, we be not sinners. They said that. We'd be not sinners,
like the Gentiles. But that Pharisee, he said, I'm
glad I'm not like that publican. You're worse. Worse. He opening and alleging that
Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead.
Therefore, he must die. If he's going to rise from the
dead, he must die. He must suffer. He must die. rise from the dead,
and this Jesus, this Jesus, whom I preach, whom I preach unto you." Not
these set of commandments. Paul didn't open up and read
the Ten Commandments. Paul opened the Bible up and preached Christ. Whom I preach unto you is Christ.
He took the Old Testament Scriptures, and I have no doubt He turned
to Genesis. I have no doubt he probably turned to Genesis with
the creation of the world, the creation of Adam, and then the
fall. And he showed how in Adam all die, including all the Jews,
along with all the Gentiles. We all came from Adam. You see,
the Jews kept running their heritage back to Abraham. Well, it doesn't
stop at Abraham. It didn't start with Abraham,
it started with Adam. They didn't go back far enough.
That's convenient, isn't it? Just stop here. That's what they
did. They just said, stop right here.
This is where the blessing is. Paul took them back to Adam.
He said, here's our beginning. You want to see our beginnings?
Right here in the garden. Rebellion. Rebellion. He took the Old Testament Scriptures
and he opened them. He gave them, here's what this
means, he gave them the true sense of their meaning. They
would read the scriptures and twist them. Paul didn't twist
them, Paul gave the true sense of their meaning. What he was
doing, I thought the word alleging, alleging, placing, you read this
in 2 Peter, placing, and this is what this alleging means,
placing scripture beside scripture. They would read a scripture.
And the way this supposedly went on, the Jews would have a conversation
with him. And he would talk with them.
And they would talk to him about the Scriptures. And he would
say, all right, here's a Scripture that goes with this Scripture,
and this is what it means. This is how this was going on
here. And he was taking Scripture and he was placing it beside
Scripture. Interpreting Scripture with Scripture. Paul, we don't
interpret Scripture with our Puny understanding. Scripture
interprets Scripture. No Scripture, as we read this
morning, is of any private interpretation. It doesn't stand alone. It does
not stand alone. And here's what he preached,
that Christ must not suffer because we all died an animal. Sin has
to be atoned for. They knew that. They knew sin
had to be atoned for, but the blood of bulls and goats couldn't
do it. The blood of bulls and goats
that they offered every week, Paul said, they never made the
comers there unto perfect. They pointed to someone else.
They pointed to the Messiah. Christ must not suffer. Paul
pointed out the types, the pictures. He pointed out, no doubt, that
Passover lamb. He took them over to their bondage
in Egypt and said, this is what sin is. Sin is bondage. We are
in bondage by nature. But we're set free through this
Passover lamb. The blood of the lamb, God's lamb, makes atonement
for the soul. He took them over there to the
scapegoats. That one that was killed and that one that was
let go into the wilderness. He taught them. and reasoned with
them that these were not sufficient to put away any man's sin. An
animal's not going to put away a man's sin. The same nature
that's sin has to be the same nature that satisfies justice.
I remember that in a message that Henry preached years and
years ago and I never forgot it. It just stuck with me like
glue. I thought that's it. The same nature that's sin has
to be the same nature that renders satisfaction. And Christ, as
the man, was able to do that. And Paul proved that to them.
He alleged and showed that to them. He showed the insufficiency
of the types and the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
showed that. He showed the inability of the
law and the ability of God's grace, the abounding of God's
grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. How that through his
righteousness, not through keeping the law. You can imagine when
he said to those Jews, your law, your righteousness is filthy
rags. You're doing, you're keeping
this law and that, you know, to a law man, he's like, you've
got to be kidding. You mean all these years I've
done this? That's like that prodigal son's brother. He was so jealous. He's like, I stayed home all
these years I constrained myself. I foregone all those pleasures
that my brother got to enjoy. And you mean it means nothing?
You mean that means there's no righteousness in that? No, because
God constrained you. God constrained you. Paul said all of that is gone.
All that is dumb. If sinners are to be saved, Jew
or Jedi, Christ must suffer. He must suffer. He must suffer
in the stead of His people. He must suffer the divine wrath
of God. He must suffer justice. He must suffer at the hands of
justice. He must. He must. I have no doubt he flipped
over to Isaiah 53 and preached substitution for them. He said,
now this is what substitution is. This is what it means. This
is who the substitute is. This Jesus. This despised Jesus. He's the one. He was made to
be sin for us. He who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. He looked over there
in Genesis, and he took Abraham, offered up Isaac. He says, that's
substitution. That's a picture of Jesus Christ.
Knowing the ark, Daniel, the Messiah shall be cut off, but
not for himself. Pre-substitution to him. And
then he must rise again. He must. He must rise again.
Why? He must rise again for our justification.
He was delivered for our offenses. He must rise again for our justification. He must rise again to reign and
rule over all things. He's the conquering Christ. He's
not the dead one. He's the conquering living Lord. That's who He is. He must rise
again to intercede for us and to bring us to glory. Christ
said, I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I'm coming back for you. I'm coming again to
receive you to Myself. And where I am, there you'll
be also. Oh, He must rise again. He must
rise again. And this Jesus, He said, whom
I preached unto you, is Christ. He's the one we're
looking for. Don't look any further. He's
the one we're looking for. This one from Nazareth, this
one who was despised and rejected of men, he's the Messiah. He is our salvation. He is our
salvation. He's the anointed one. He's the
branch. I'm sure he took every type, and for three Sabbaths,
and I'm sure he spoke Probably different times during those
weeks in private homes and things like that. He took all those types and he
said, this is the seed. This is the son of David, who
is David's Lord. This is him. Paul preached a
person. He preached a person to them,
not a set of doctrines or commandments, but Christ, who is the embodiment
of all truth, of all true doctrine. And some of them believed, and
consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks, a great
multitude. A lot of Jews. There were a lot
of proselyte Jews in this synagogue. I mean, proselyte Gentiles, Greeks,
in this synagogue. And a great multitude of them
believed. Very few Jews believed. Those Greeks, those Gentiles
who had joined up to this synagogue, God opened the gospel to them.
God opened their eyes. Those who God gave faith to,
they believed God. They believed God. They believed
on Christ. They joined up with Paul's house. They were not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. They were not ashamed of God's
service. They identified with Him. God saved a multitude of those And it says a lot of those principal,
chief women in the city, women of status, women of status, God
saved quite a few. It says not a few, it means He
saved many of them. He saved many of them. The gospel
came to them in power. I read that to you over here
in Thessalonians. Paul said in verse 5 in that
first chapter, For our gospel came not unto you in word only,
but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance,
as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake."
But he said the gospel came to you in power. Power. God's Word never returns void.
This morning, right here, I don't know what God will do with this,
but I promise you God's Word that has been read this morning,
spoken this morning, will accomplish everything He sent it to do.
He may accomplish to send it to comfort a heart, to fix the brokenhearted. He may use it to convict a sin
or to condemn. Who knows? God knows. It's the Savior of life unto
life to some, and the Savior of death unto death to some.
That's what the Scripture teaches. I know this. It will accomplish
exactly what He sent it to accomplish. It did not return to Him void.
God sent Paul to priesthood then, and God plucked some of them
out of the fire. And God raised up the church here. A powerful
church. But the Jews, which believed
not, you always have that. They believed not. They moved
with envy. They took unto them certain.
Now these are the people who go to church every week. These
are the ones who are supposed to be the outstanding people
in the community. These are the ones that are the
ones who cry out righteousness and right living and do's and
don'ts. You know what they did? They hired the local mafia. That's
what they did. They hired the local mafia, the
local street thugs. This is religion. This is religion. They moved with envy and took
of them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort. Somehow they
had gotten tied in to the local underground. You know, you need
dirty work, you call Tony. Tony Soprano in. That's what
you do. That's what they did. They called
Tony in. That's what they did. And they
gathered a company. These lewd fellows. These street thugs. They gathered
a company. They said, oh, we got a lot of
friends out here. We can get something started. For a certain
amount of money, we can get something started here. And they set the
whole city on an uproar. And assaulted the house of Jason.
And you'll see the providence of God here moving Paul now out
to go to Berea. God knows how to move the gospel
along, doesn't He? We get stale, but God knows how to keep that
wheel rolling. And he set the whole city on
uproar, and they assaulted the house of Jason, and he sought
to bring them out to the people. They were going to kill him.
They were going to go in and get Paul and those with him, Silas,
Timothy, and they were going to kill them. That's what they
were going to do. I tell you, the gospel divides.
It'll divide friends. It'll divide families. It'll
divide. And it did here. It divided that synagogue. It
divided them up. Some believed not. They remained
as they were in unbelief, and their actions proved it. It always
will. In time, it'll prove it. Your
actions will prove your faith. And they caused trouble, and
the root of that was this, envy. Envy. My soul. Envy. Wanting what someone else
has. Envy. They were losing their
following. And they were envious that Paul
and these Greeks, and I'm sure they had a lot of influential
Greeks there, and they were losing that. They were losing that income
and that influence in town. And God saved a great number
of them. And they went over here to Paul and Silas and they became
envious that they were having such success. I thought of John the Baptist.
John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God which takes away
the sin of the world. And it says they followed Him. You remember
that? His disciples? They followed
Christ. John didn't get mad, did he?
John was glad. It wouldn't make me mad at all
if you followed Christ. Leave me and follow Him. I tell you, you won't be disappointed.
If you follow me, I promise you, I promise you I'll disappoint
you. But if you follow him, you will not be disappointed. They got envious and they turned,
they said, that whole city into a lynch mob. That's what they
did. They assaulted the house of Jason. What they did, they just kicked
the door in. They kicked the door in and went in to get these
guys. You remember when the Lord raised
Lazarus? Afterwards, they wanted to kill
Lazarus. They wanted to kill him again
because he had brought so much attention to the Lord Jesus Christ
over his resurrection. And they wanted to kill Lazarus
along with killing the Lord. God's people are hated because
of the gospel. And they lied on Jason and made some stuff up. You know,
the gospel reveals the truth about men. That's why they hate
it. The gospel does not paint a pretty picture about us. Not
by nature. The gospel is light and men are
darkness. That's why they don't want to
come to the light. It reveals the real motives, it reveals
the real heart, that's what the gospel does, in the preaching
of the gospel. And when they found him, they
found Jason, they went into his house, they found him and they
dragged him out into the street. They dragged him and certain
brethren to the rulers of the city, the Roman government, crying
out. And they were, this emphasis
here on crying is they were crying out in a loud voice, this is
getting everybody's attention. They wanted everybody to hear
this. They were just getting everybody tore up. These that
have turned the world upside down are come here also. I wish
that God this charge was laid on us. I wish that we could preach
the gospel in such a way and in such power that it would turn
this place upside down. That's a good charge. Even though
they meant it for evil, it was a good charge. They have turned
the world upside down. I tell you, if God ever saves
a man, he'll turn his world upside down. I promise you, God will
turn your world upside down if he ever saves you. It will affect every fiber of
your being. Every fiber of your being will
be affected by it. When the gospel comes in power,
none can resist it. He said over there in 1 Thessalonians,
you turn from your idols. to serve the living God. That's
turning a man's world upside down, isn't it? If the gospel comes in power,
you'll know it. You won't be the same. You'll
never be the same. Never. The gospel is the dynamite of
God. The gates of hell, he said, cannot
prevail against it. And he says here in verse 7,
whom Jason hath received these These men who are trying to cause
insurrection, it says, Jason has received these men into their
house. It was against the Roman government to receive anyone
into your home who was trying to overthrow the government or
set up another government system or another king, even mention
another king. You didn't mention another king besides Caesar.
You didn't do that. Nothing there, getting you in
a whole lot of trouble. And they said, Jason has received
these men. And these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another
king, one Jesus. Now, they lied. They lied. Listen. They lied. The gospel
is not contrary to the government. Not good government. Not good
government. The gospel is not contrary to
it. The gospel promotes good government. God set up kings. God set up governments. The gospel's
not against them. The gospel makes the best citizens,
doesn't it? I wish all my neighbors believed
the gospel. Don't you? I tell you what, if they all
believed the gospel, you wouldn't have to have a police force.
You'd have to have a dog catcher. You don't have to have police.
You just have dog catchers, that's all you need. The gospel makes the best citizens.
It's not against the government. It's not against the government. And it is true, though, there
is another king. There is another king, God's
king, King Jesus. And this troubled those officers,
those Roman officers, magistrates. I tell you this, if they only
knew him, If they only knew him, they would have rejoiced that
there was another king besides Caesar. I'm glad there's another
king besides Caesar, our president that we elect. I'm glad there's
another king. I'm glad there's one who rules
and reigns over all things, who rules and reigns in righteousness.
I'm glad there's another king that's a merciful king and a
loving king, an all-powerful king, the God-king. I'm glad
of that. I'm glad of that. If they weren't
so ignorant, they wouldn't be so troubled. Now, let me close. When they had taken security
of Jason, when they had taken bail money, this is what he put
him out on bail, and of the others they let him go, after they were
convinced, they were satisfied that there was no trouble here,
after he explained to those And to those officers, the message,
they said, ah, there's no threat. This one that they talked about,
Jesus, he was crucified some years ago. They said, these are
religious fanatics. This is not a threat. And they
let him go. They said, he's talking about
someone that died. They're preaching someone that
died several years ago. He's dead. They were religious
fanatics, that's all it is. And they let Jason go. God overruled that situation.
He blessed the house of Jason. And the brethren immediately
sent Paul Silas away under cover of darkness to Berea. And coming there, What did Paul
do? He went into the synagogue of
the Jews again. Paul, don't you know what happened
the last time you did that? Yeah, God saved a lot of people.
God raised up the church. He did it in Philippi. He did
it in Thessalonica. He'll do it someplace else. As
his manner was, Paul went into the synagogue of the Jews and
preached again. And he always preached the same
message. I guarantee you that he took
the scriptures, opening and alleging that this Jesus is the Christ.