Acts chapter 17, and we're going
to be reading from verse one. Thank you to Randy and Barbara
for supplying a little map. We don't have the ability to
do that anymore. We're on the, how do you know
which one's the back page? We're on the page with just one
map, and that's where, up at that top left-hand corner, If
you see Macedonia and Philippi and Thessalonica, sort of buried
there under that first little cluster of names, that's where
the Apostle Paul is in Acts chapter 17. So let's read together Acts
chapter 17. Now when they had passed through
Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was
a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was,
went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them
out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must
needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that
this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. and some of them
believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout
Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
But the Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto
them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered
a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the
house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren
unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned
the world upside down are come hither also, whom Jason hath
received. And these all do contrary to
the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one
Jesus. And they troubled the people
and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And
when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they
let them go. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. Paul and Silas, we think perhaps
also Timothy and maybe Luke if our rationale is correct from
the previous chapter, a little band of preachers and ministers
left Philippi. You remember what happened at
Philippi, the story of the Philippian jailer. They had met with Lydia
and she had been converted. The Lord opened her heart. She
received the gospel. Later, because of the distress
of that young girl who was a soothsayer and made her owners lots of money,
The Apostle Paul was put in prison and from there the Philippian
jailers conversion took place but there was much opposition
towards the Apostles and these ministers in Philippi and so
the Apostle Paul decided that he would leave Philippi and move
down to Thessalonica and Thessalonica was the major city of Macedonia
at that time. and it still is a very significant
city in Greece today. It's got over a million of a
population today, so it's got more people living in the confines
of the city than the whole of Montana put together. It is still
a major thriving thoroughfare and probably the second largest
city in Greece at this time. but it was also the largest city
of Greece at the time of Paul. And we're told that the apostles
travelled down through Amphipolis and Apollonia. And these towns
are mentioned, but then that's it, they're gone. There's no
more mention of them in the whole of scripture. They simply seem
to have been places en route between Philippi and Thessalonica. There does not appear to have
been any preaching done there. It may be because there were
no synagogues there. It seems that Paul often liked
to begin his ministry in a town at the local synagogue. But be
that as it may, it certainly seems that there was no gospel
preached in these towns as the apostles made their journey.
Think about that for a moment. The Apostle Paul was in my town
and he didn't stop to preach. There were no children of God
in this town, at least none that the Apostle was to minister to. It is a blessed thing if the
Lord plants a congregation of his people in a town. It's a
wonderful thing if people who love the Lord can join together
with like-minded brethren and share in the gospel truth. Now there was a little church
at Philippi. Lydia was there. Perhaps that
young girl, if our suppositions were correct, the Philippian
jailer and others who had been converted by Paul. There was now a church at Philippi
and we find that the apostle later in his ministerial career
would write a letter to the Philippians. and that was to that little church
at Philippi. And we find that he writes a
letter to the Thessalonians also. So here he's coming to Thessalonica
and here we are told that there are many chosen vessels of grace
in Thessalonica. Paul visited the Jewish synagogue
there on three Sabbaths, perhaps consecutively, and there he ministered. He used the Old Testament scriptures
that these people were reading carefully, avidly. systematically,
no doubt, throughout the whole year and had done all their religious
lives. And he used those Old Testament
scriptures in order to describe and explain the nature and the
work and the person of the Messiah. The Jews were looking for the
coming of the Messiah. There was an anticipation. There
was this messianic feeling amongst the Jews that soon the Lord Jesus
Christ must come. Because of the blindness that
was upon them, they failed to see that indeed he had come and
it was Jesus Christ. But Paul took the Old Testament
scriptures and he showed that the Messiah that they were waiting
for, whom the Jews were looking for, he must die. that death was part of the Messiah's
ministry for his people, that he would die as a sacrificial
lamb, and that his sacrifice for his people would not be the
end of his life, but that he would rise again. And so from
the Old Testament prophecies, Paul established these facts
in the minds of his listeners for three Sundays there in the
synagogue. He proved that this would be
the true identity of the Messiah. And then his ministry took a
turn because he told them, not only do we know who the Messiah
or what the Messiah is going to do, We know who he is and
he has already come and he has already done these things that
were prophesied of him. And he shows them that this one
Jesus is the Christ because that word Christ is simply the promised
one, the Messiah. It's the Greek version of the
Jewish word Messiah. And it's interesting because
there in verse three, we see almost as if Luke, when he is
writing this book of the Acts, takes these words right out of
Paul's mouth. It's almost a direct quote from
Paul. And this Jesus whom I preach
unto you is the Messiah, is Christ. These Jews who heard him, Some
of them, we're told, believed what he was saying. And they
went on to hear more from Paul and Silas about this Jesus of
Nazareth, whom he claimed was the Messiah. Because believers
seek to know about Christ. That's why it's often very disheartening
when we see people stopping to come to church because we think
to ourselves, what's wrong in that person's life? What is wrong
that they are not gathering with the Lord's people? What's wrong
that they're not coming under this? Where has their appetite
gone? for the things of Christ, for
the righteousness of God. Where is their hunger and thirst?
And these people evidenced, once that spark of spiritual reality
came into their life, there was that desire after the truth.
And they cleaved to Paul and Silas. When we think about the ministry
here, Why is it that we come to this church? Why is it that
we share together in these truths? Why is it that we preach this
gospel? It's because it satisfies a need
that we feel in our souls. And so it was for these proselytes. It seems that many of those who
did come to hear Paul and Silas speak more of the Lord Jesus
Christ were Gentiles who had joined the Jewish fellowship
here. That seems to come across in
the way in which they are described. And perhaps these proselytites,
because they had identified with the Jews and heard about this
anticipated Messiah, realized that this was in fact the one
that they were waiting for. But the Jews became very envious. And we're told that a good number
of the chief women of the city, not a few, also believed in the
gospel. It's interesting when Luke goes
through the missionary journeys of the apostle, he often mentions
the ladies. I do think that's interesting
and useful. And it is often the ladies who
seem to have had a peculiar ear for the gospel when it was preached. Lydia and Philippi is an example,
of course. And here again in Thessalonica,
here in Europe, there is these ladies who are hearing the gospel
preached and believing. And the Jews become jealous and
they become envious and they gather together a group of troublemakers. This is rent a mob. And they
took these people and they pointed them at the apostles and they
said, now go and cause trouble. And where the gospel is preached,
there will always be that division. There will always be that distinguishing
grace appears in the lives of men and women. And Paul preached
with power and he preached with success. And some were saved
according to the election of grace. And some of those have
been in heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ for 2,000 years. and some were not saved and rejected
and repudiated the gospel. And they have been in hell for
2,000 years. And there is no end in sight
for either of those two groups. The troublemakers. attacked the
house of Jason thinking that the apostle Paul was there. Jason was probably a Jew and
he had given Paul and Silas and perhaps some others lodging but
Paul and Silas were not present at the time so these people took
Jason instead and they took perhaps some of the new converts as well,
who happened to be in Jason's house at that time, and they
noisily brought them to the magistrates and accused them of causing trouble. They accused them of turning
the world upside down and declaring that there was another king apart
from Caesar. It's interesting, isn't it? There
was some validity to those accusations. And because there was an element
of truth to the allegations that were made, half-truths, wrong
assumptions, it was easy for the people to hear something
that resonated with them and think to themselves, you know
what, maybe there is something here, maybe we do have to be
careful. And I think there's another lesson for us all here.
We all have to be careful what we say. We've all got to be careful
about the things that we say. You know, we can be part of a
problem if we perpetuate false stories, even without knowing
it. I think back, and I'm not going
to explain anything about the details, but I think back on
an occasion when I was a very young man starting one of my
first jobs, and I repeated a story that I had heard. It wasn't a
particularly good story. It should never have been listened
to. It should never have been repeated.
It was repeated. It was repeated in inappropriate
company, and I have had cause to regret that. for all of my
life, because I think back for all the things I've ever said,
and you just speak out of turn, out of place, and you can never
retract what you've said. We have to be careful. You know,
there's, I think, some coronavirus in Teton now, up in Shoto, and
I think I've heard four different stories about how it got there. They're not all true. Probably
none of them are true. So how do we repeat these things?
And how do we, how do we, we just have to be careful what
we're saying. And these troublemakers troubled
the city with these half-truths that they spread. Their allegations
were credible. There was some evidence there.
But the risk of those things seemed serious to the town leaders. And to their credit, these magistrates
in Thessalonica were more honourable than their equivalents in Philippi.
Do you remember what happened in Philippi? They ripped the
clothes off the back of Paul and Silas and they whipped them
with rods and they put them in prison. Well, here they didn't
have Paul and Silas, they had Jason and a friend or two. And
instead, the leaders listened to what their defence was. They heard their defence. Maybe
they took some securities, if that's the meaning of the phrase,
against their wrongdoing. Maybe they had to pay a fine
or some bond. And perhaps the character of
the individuals were attested to by some of these women, these
leading women in the town who spoke up for Jason. I'm making
some suppositions, but it seems as if the magistrates were content
having heard the evidence and seen the individuals concerned
to let them return to their home. And again, a young church was
founded here in Thessalonica. The letters to the Thessalonians
were written by Paul. They are thought to have been
some of the very earliest epistles written. I'm going to give you some homework.
Sometime in the next week, if you find yourself with a few
minutes, read Thessalonians chapter one and chapter two. And think
about what Paul says there in the context of the story that
we've just read together here in Acts. And I think you'll find
that there is a resonance in the verses of Thessalonians,
1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and chapter 2 to the things that
were being said here in Thessalonica at this time. One of the verses
in that chapter says this, 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, but as it is in truth the word
of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe. And the gospel was preached in
Thessalonica and sinners were saved. Thank you.