Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter
17. Chapter 16 closes with Paul and
Silas leaving the town, the city of Philippi, to spread the gospel
in another city. Before they left town, they went
and visited with Lydia. Lydia, verse 40 of Acts 16. When they went out, out of prison,
went out of prison, entered into the house of Lydia, and when
they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed."
Philippi, that city, was never the same again. When Paul came
there and preached the gospel there, and God saved sinners
through the preaching of the gospel, God raised up a church
there in that city of Philippi. It was established there for
many years. And that city, those people in
that city were never the same because of the gospel that was
sent there and God's servant. Well, leaving that city and Paul
seeking other places, other opportunities to preach the gospel, it says
in chapter 17, verse 1, and when they pass through Amphipolis and this other city of Apollonia,
now, according to the commentators, the old writers of Scripture,
they say that these two cities were larger cities, bigger cities
than Thessalonica, but Paul passed through those cities and God
led him to this city of Thessalonica. Now we can see the hand of divine
providence directed Paul from city to city. He said, don't
preach there, somehow, and go here and preach. We see God will
send His gospel to whom He will, where He will, when He will,
for His own purpose and His own glory. They came to the city
of Thessalonica where a synagogue of the Jews had been established.
Now one of the greatest blessings any city, any people can have
is a God sent preacher with God's message. That's right. That's
right. When we read in Ephesians chapter
4, when He ascended up on high, He gave gifts unto His church. And the gifts that He gave there
are apostles, prophets, pastors, and teachers. It's a gift from
God. To have a God-sent gospel pastor,
gospel preacher, it's a gift from God from His heart to you. To you. What a blessing. to have
the gospel and a faithful servant of the Lord to preach the gospel
of God's grace. And that's what these people
were given. And God blessed the message there. Now, verse 2 and
3 of Acts 17, and Paul. And Paul, as his manner, as his
manner was, his method, his method of operation, went into the,
he went in unto them three Sabbath days, he went into the synagogue
of the Jews, and he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.
Verse 3, opening, alleging, presenting that Christ must need to have
suffered, He must be risen from the dead, and that this Jesus
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, He is the Christ. He is the Christ. He is Lord and Christ. Paul, as his usual method was,
he sought out these assemblies of religious people, and he used
that as a springboard to launch the gospel in various cities.
Now, when he went to Philippi, there wasn't a synagogue of the
Jews, but he sought out those who were trying to worship God.
But here in this city, there was a synagogue full of Jews. Jews, religious people, self-righteous
people. I give you several reasons why
he went among those people. The first is found in Romans
9. Paul was a Jew. Paul was a Jew. Look at Romans
9. And he wanted to take the gospel
to his home people, his native people. Romans 9.1, I say the
truth in Christ. I lie not, my conscience also
bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great heaviness
and continual sorrow in my heart, for I wish that myself were a
curse from Christ, separated from Christ, for my brethren,
my kinsmen, according to the flesh. He had a great burning
desire, although he was a chosen apostle unto the Gentiles, He
still had that burning desire in his heart to go among his
own native people and present to them the gospel of the Lord
Jesus. In Romans 10 verse 1, turn there. We see again his desire to see
his own people saved by the grace of God. Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is they might be saved. They were most religious, but
they were lost. They needed to hear the gospel.
He said, I bear them record. They have a zeal, but not according
to knowledge. They're ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness and have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. And
that's Christ. That's the gospel. So you can
see his desire to go among those Jews, to go into the assembly
of that large congregation, those very religious lost people, and
to stand up and to preach the gospel of Christ to them." Now
notice what he does here. He reasons with them three things
here, three or four things he does here. First of all, it says
there, he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. He reasoned with them out of
the Scriptures. Now here's what he did. Turn
back to the book of Acts chapter 8. He took the very Word of God
that they were reading and preached unto them the Lord Jesus Christ.
Acts chapter 8. And this is the story of the
eunuch and the place where he read. Acts 8.32. The place of
the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to
the slaughter, like a lamb done before his shearer, so he opened
not his mouth, In his humiliation, he's reading here from Isaiah
53, his judgment was taken away, who shall declare his generation,
for his life is taken from the earth, cut off. And the eunuch
answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet
of this of himself or some other man. See, he had the Scripture
reasoned with him out of the Scripture. And Philip opened
his mouth and began the same Scripture and preached unto him,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this word here, reason, is
where we get our English word, dialogue. If you look it up in
the Greek, it's almost spelled the same way we get our word
dialogue. A conversation takes place. Turn to Acts chapter 18. So He
reasoned with them from the Word of God. Acts 18, 28. This is speaking
of Apollos, he mightily convinced the Jews and that publicly showing
by the Scriptures. By the Scriptures that Jesus
is Christ. He is the Christ. Now turn to
another Scripture, Acts 28. This is Paul's method. And this
should be our method too. To take the Scriptures and to
preach the Gospel from the Word of God. Acts chapter 28, Luke
verse 23. And when he had appointed him a day, now this is Paul in
prison now, in Rome, there came many to him into his lodging,
to whom he expounded and testified of the kingdom of God, persuading
them concerning Jesus, both out of the Law of Moses and the Prophets,
from morning till evening. He expounded and testified out
of the Scriptures, the Law of Moses and the Prophets. Some
believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.
So He reasoned with them from the Word of God. He took the
very Scripture that they were reading, and as they read that
Scripture, He preached unto them Christ. Now I want you to find
this scripture. I thought about this in Isaiah
1. Turn to Isaiah chapter 1. This word reason. Isn't it reasonable
to hear God and God's gospel and God's servant? God says so.
In Isaiah chapter 1, look at verse 18. Isaiah 1, 18. Come now, let us reason together. Say it to the Lord. Though your
sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. It is reasonable
to hear God's message, God's Word, God's Gospel. You see, faith comes by the message
of God's truth, and the foundation of faith is the Word of God.
He said, I'll bless my word. Now I want you to find the book
of Psalms, Psalm 19. So He reasoned with them out of the Word of
God. He took the very Scripture they were studying and preached
Christ to them. The Word, the Word of Truth,
the Word of God. Thus saith the Lord. Psalm 19. Turn there. Psalm 19. The law of the Lord is perfect.
That is, the Word of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord is
perfect. Converting the soul. Now, if we're going to have any
conversions, God must do it, and He does it with the Word
of Truth. Of His own will beget He us with the Word of Truth.
Converting the soul, the Word of God is perfect for that. It's
tailored to that. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean
forever. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More
to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. What
would you rather have, Fort Knox or God's gospel? Silver and gold
will perish. This will never pass away. More
to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter
also than honey and the honeycomb. So he reasoned with them out
of the Word of God. Now this is necessary. Now look
back at the text again. So here's his manner. He found
this religious gathering. They were reading the Word of
God. Let me give you another example of that. I'm thinking
about, turn over to Luke chapter 4. Look at this here, Luke chapter
4. Here's another good example. And Paul is following the example
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice, if you will, Luke chapter
4. Look at verse 16. And he came to Nazareth where
he had been brought up, and as his custom, his method was, he
went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day he stood up for to
read. You see, Paul is just following the example of the Lord. And
there was delivered unto him the book of Isaiah the prophet,
and when he had opened the book, found a place where it was written,
from Isaiah 61, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He
has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent
me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captive, recovering of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."
And He closed the book and gave it to the minister and said,
I am. And the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue
were fastened on Him. And He said, He preached Christ
Himself. He began to say unto them, this
day Is this scripture fulfilled in your ears? And all bare him
witness and wondered at the gracious word which proceeded out of his
mouth. And they said, well, this is Joseph's son. How can he say
that he's the Christ? So Paul had a good example to
follow as he followed the example of the Lord. Now look back to
the text, Acts 17. So we reason with them out of
the scripture. Secondly, Acts 17, opening. Opening the Word. Opening it
up. Now, how difficult it is to read
this book and you keep it closed? It would be pretty hard, wouldn't
it? It would be impossible, wouldn't
it? Well, that's what the Word of God is until it's opened up. And the Word of God is preached.
And the Spirit of God opens up your understanding. I'll give
you another good example of that. Turn back to the book of Luke,
this time chapter 24. He opened it up. He opened it
up by the Spirit of God. He revealed unto them that the
message of this book is Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 24,
verse 25. He said unto them, O fools, slow
of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things, to must and to enter into His
glory and beginning of Moses and all the prophets? He expounded
unto them, He opened up unto them in all the Scriptures a
thing concerning concerning in all the Scriptures a thing concerning
What's that word there? What's it all about? Christ Himself. Now, notice down verse 32, Luke
24, verse 32. It says, Their eyes were opened,
verse 32, and they said one to another, Didn't our heart burn
within us while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened
the Scriptures unto us? Now, stay right there in Luke
24, notice verse 44. And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be written, fulfilled, which are written
in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then he opened their understanding,
that they might understand the Scripture. And thus it is written,
and thus it became necessary for Christ to suffer, to rise
from the dead the third day, that repentance and remission
should be preached in His name, among all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem, and you are my witnesses." Reasoning out of
the Scripture and then opening up the message of this Word of
God. What is the message? Jesus Christ
and Him crucified is everything in all of salvation. Now look
back to the text. So he reasoned with them out
of the Word of God. He opened unto them the message
of the Scripture. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And then thirdly, it says, alleging. Alleging. And this word here
means proving or presenting the message. Proving. You see, it's
line upon line, precept upon precept. The best commentary
on Scripture is Scripture. Scripture is interpreted in the
light of Scripture. And that's what he's saying here.
Opening the Scripture and then presenting and proving the message
by the Word of God. By the truth of God. He argued,
he expounded, and he proved. Three things. Now let's look
at these three things. So he reasoned with them, he
argued with them, he expounded unto them, opening to them and
then proving. It's like that old black man
I told you about several weeks ago, who was a minister in Richmond,
Virginia, back a couple hundred years ago. He had a very successful
ministry. And someone asked him, well,
how come the Lord has so blessed your ministry? And he said, well,
here's what I do. I tell them what I'm going to
tell them, and then I tells them what I done told them. And that's
what Paul's doing here. He's opening, alleging, reasoning,
and proving three things. The first one is this, found
in the last line of verse 3. The first and key essential to
understanding the gospel and having hope in the gospel is
understanding who is the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, and this
Jesus, now this one, this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, He's
the Messiah. Now that must have been a shock
to those Jews. I mean it must have been a shocker
to them. They were still looking for the
Messiah, and Paul said, now wait a minute, He's already here.
He's already come. Already accomplished salvation.
And He's already gone back to the Father. Jesus of Nazareth,
He is the Christ. Now, you remember how Peter started?
Same way. Turn back to Acts chapter 2 again. This one, Jesus of Nazareth,
crucified in Jerusalem, He is the Messiah. He is the Savior. Acts chapter 2. Notice verse
29. Acts 2 29. Men and brethren,
let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David. They
all knew who David was. King David. That he's dead. He's buried. His grave is with
us today. Therefore, being a prophet, and
knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit
of his body, his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise
up Christ to sit on the throne, he saying this before spake of
the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in the
grave, neither his flesh did seek corruption. This Jesus hath
God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses, therefore being
by the right hand of God, verse 33, having received, exalted,
having received the Father, the promise of the Holy Spirit, He
hath shed forth this which you now see and hear. For David is
not ascended unto the heavens, but he saith himself, The Lord
said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand. This is from Psalm
110. till I make thine enemies thy
footstool. Therefore let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom
you crucified, God hath made him Lord and Christ." So first
thing he did is presenting the Messiah. Jesus Christ is the
fulfillment of all that was written. The Old Testament prophets said
someone's coming. The apostles preached it. He
has come. He has accomplished salvation.
Salvation in no other than the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's
the first thing. Remember now, He argued, He expounded,
proving that Jesus, He is the Son of David. He is of the loins
of His house. Trace it out. He is the Messiah,
Son of God. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. The second
thing he shows is this, not only that Christ has already come
and that this Christ is Jesus of Nazareth. Secondly, he says
this, Christ must needs have suffered. He must die for our
sin. Sin demands a payment. Now I
want you to look at these scriptures with me. Please follow me along
now. Turn to John chapter 3 and then we'll go back to the book
of Matthew. John chapter 3. Jesus Christ crucified is a must. Would we have salvation without
a substitute? Without the shedding of blood?
No! Jesus Christ crucified is a must. John chapter 3, look at verse
14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Now, you remember the story back
in Numbers, chapter 21, that people were bitten with serpents,
dying, and God instructed Moses to make a serpent of brass and
lift it up on a pole? That was a remedy for the venom.
Everyone that was bitten was commanded to look to that lifted
up serpent. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
remedy for sin. Lift it up. Look and live. That's
what He's saying here. The Lord Jesus Christ must be
lifted up. He must be crucified. Now I'm
going to show you another scripture, back to Matthew 16. Turn to Matthew
chapter 16. When the Lord Jesus was headed
toward Jerusalem, the scripture said in Isaiah, He set His face
like a flint. You know, a flint is something
very hard. Very hard. No one could turn
Him. He knew why He came. He knew
why He was going to Jerusalem, Matthew 16. Now notice this,
verse 21, "...from that time forth began Jesus to show His
disciples how that He must go to Jerusalem." He must. He must
come. He must go. He must die. "...suffer many things of the
elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed."
and be raised again the third day. And Peter took him and began
to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall
not be." Peter didn't want him to die. Our Lord said, It's a
must. Look what he says next. Verse
23, But he turned and said unto Peter, Get behind me, Satan,
thou art an offense unto me. Thou savourest not the things
that be of God, but those things that be of men." He said, I must
die. I must die. I must go to the
cross. Matthew 26. Turn over there. Follow with
me now. Matthew 26. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
died for our sins, and He died for our sins according to the
Scriptures. And it's who He is that gives
value to what He did. Matthew 26. Notice Matthew 26,
verse 54. when the Lord Jesus was arrested
in the garden. There came an army, remember?
And they arrested the Lord Jesus. Well, Peter, here Peter again,
he tries to prevent this. He takes out a sword, verse 51, drew out his sword and struck
a servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Now he wasn't
aiming for his ear, he was aiming for his head. Going to take his
head off. Peter wasn't a swordsman, he
was a fisherman. The Lord said, Put up thy sword into the place,
for all that take the sword will perish with it. You can't fight
your way out. Salvation is by grace. Thinkest
thou that I cannot now pray to the Father, and He shall presently
give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall
the Scripture be fulfilled? Thus it must be. See, he must die. for our sin. Now you think with me, where
would we be without Jesus Christ coming and dying for our sin? We have no atonement, we have
no covering for our sin, He appeared once in the end of the age to
put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. We have no atonement,
no blood on the mercy seat. We have no advocate that prays
for us. We have no intercessor. Had He
not died in my room and my stead as my substitute, you see, it's
a must. And that's what Paul here is
emphasizing to these Jews. Salvation in Christ is a must. We'd have no justification without
Jesus Christ crucified. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote
to the Corinthians, said, I'm determined to know nothing among
you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. No salvation apart
from Him. There's no pardon and forgiveness
of sin apart from Jesus Christ crucified. Is there? The blood,
it's the blood that makes atonement for the soul. And it's just not
that some Jew died, and he was a Jew, But He is God Almighty. That's what gives power to what
He did. God bought us with His own blood.
We'd have no salvation without Jesus Christ crucified. You see,
it's a must. It's a must. That's our hope. Now look back to the text. So
here is His argument is that Christ came and that Christ died
for our sins according to the Scripture. that He was the fulfillment
of that Day of Atonement, the brazen serpent lifted up, the
smitten rock. He's the fulfillment of all Old
Testament Scripture in Christ crucified. But now wait a minute. It goes on to say this. Acts
17, verse 3. Risen again from the dead. He's risen from the dead. Did He really die? Yes. What does sin demand? Death. Did He really die? Yes. God made
Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. Now you check me out on this.
I want you to find Romans chapter 1, but all through the book of
Acts. The central theme that rings
throughout all those sermons preached by the apostles, God
raised him up. God raised him up. God raised
him up. You see, we would have no salvation
unless he's risen victorious. Romans chapter 1. Notice this. Romans 1.1. Paul, a servant of
Jesus Christ, called an apostle, separated unto the gospel of
God, God's gospel, which He promised afore by His prophets in the
Holy Scripture, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who
was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, declared
to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead. The resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ declares, vindicates, proves everything He said was
true. Everything He did was successful,
accepted of God. When He by Himself purged our
sin, He sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. Now
how important is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's
a guarantee of mine. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. It's a guarantee. He's the first fruit from the
dead. The first fruit is a guarantee that the whole harvest will come
in. He will be successful. He's the
first fruit from the dead. Now, 1 Corinthians 15, this chapter
deals all with the resurrection. All about the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ. in the early church questioned
the resurrection, whether it was valid and true. Some doubted. In 1 Corinthians
15, verse 12, now if Christ be preached that he rose from the
dead, and that's what we preach, that's what the scriptures teach,
how say some among you that there is no resurrection from the dead? But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen,
our preaching is vain, your faith is also vain. Yes, he said, we
are false witnesses of God, because we testified of God that He was
raised up. Whom He raised not up, if so
be the dead don't rise. For if the dead rise not, then
is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised,
now underscore this, if Christ be not raised, your faith is
vain, And you are yet in your sins. And you know what? I can add this. If he be not
raised up, he's an imposter. That's right. If he's not raised
up, he's an imposter. I won't say the rest. That's just too horrible. My
pastor used to say that, but I just can't get it out. But if he's not raised up, he's
an imposter. And he's in big trouble, in trouble
with God Almighty. Then they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we're of all men most miserable. But now is
Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruit of them
that slept. For in Adam all died, even so
in Christ shall all be made alive. That's our message. Resurrection
from the dead. He resurrected, we have a spiritual
resurrection of our dead spirit, but there's going to come, not
only He bought us body, soul and spirit, there's going to
be a resurrection of this body! You think of the thousands of
believers who have died, and they're dust. Their body is nothing
but dust. Now they're with the Lord. To
be absent from His body is to be present with the Lord. But
their body, their tabernacle, their flesh is nothing but dust.
One day that dust is going to live, have a new body, just like
His glorious body. Now the resurrection, I preach
and believe a real resurrection, a bodily glorious resurrection,
just like the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what He preached. The
resurrection is a must. Now, verse 4, look over there.
I'll have to wind this up. Look at verse 4. Acts 17, verse
4. You know what happened? They heard this message. For
three weeks they heard Paul preach each week. Some of them believed and joined with Paul and Silas. The Greeks, a great multitude,
devout Greeks, a great multitude, and the chief women, not a few,
a multitude believed. Paul conducted these meetings
three weeks and God gave him these converts. Remember what
we read in 1 Thessalonians? He said, brethren, he's reminding
these people who believe, brethren, we know your elections of God.
How do you know anything about your election? How do you know
you're one of the elect? God called us by the gospel. That's how election's known,
by your calling. You heard the gospel, but not
in word only, and in power, and he called us with the gospel. and a great multitude believed. Some of them believed, and you
know what happened? Those who believed identified
with Paul, confessed Christ in believers' baptism. It doesn't
say it there, but if you read back through the other conversions,
they believed the gospel, they heard it, believed it, and confessed
Christ in believers' baptism. But you know what else happened?
Some of these Jews here got mad, verse 5. The Jews which believed
not moved with envy, took to them certain lewd, low lives,
and caused a riot. You see, when the gospel is preached
to a mixed crowd, to a mixed crowd, believers and unbelievers,
Jew and Gentile, and I've experienced this, when the gospel is preached
to a mixed crowd, two things always happen, rejoicing and
rebellion. Now you read that all the way
through the book of Acts. Riot and revival. God takes that message
of truth and He drives it home to the sheep of Christ and they
rejoice in it. And those who are steeped in
their idolatry and who have a refuge of lies, and when that refuge
is exposed, what happens? They get angry. They get disturbed. Well, you've disturbed my refuge.
Well, if it's not a good hope in Christ, it needs to be not
only disturbed, but destroyed to cause you to flee from the
wrath to come unto the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll look at this statement
a little bit closer next week. These men have turned the world
upside down. You know, that's conversion.
That's conversion. It's a turning upside down of
your world. Have you been turned upside down by God? I pray that
you have. If not, I pray that He would
do it soon. Do it soon.