tonight at the 17th chapter of
Acts. The Lord willing, I'm going to preach tonight from Acts 17,
the first 12 or 13 verses. On the subject, this Jesus, whom
I preach is Christ. And I take that title from Paul's
own words. He said, this Jesus whom I preach
is Christ. Now tonight we'll look at the
first 12 or 13 verses of Acts 17. Then on Sunday morning, the
Lord's Day, I want you to to look at the rest of the chapter,
Acts 17, Paul's great sermon which he preached on Mars Hill. I've preached many times from
this sermon and plan to do it again. So Sunday morning we'll
look at Paul's sermon on Mars Hill. Let's go back to verse
40. of chapter 16, verse 40 of chapter
16. And they went out of the prison.
What we're talking about here is when Paul and Silas, Timothy
and Luke were cast into prison. The Philippian jailer, the earthquake,
all of these things. We talked about this last week. Well, when they were finally
released from prison, it says here they entered into the house
of Lydia. They went out of the prison and
entered the house of Lydia. The Lord had opened her heart
to the gospel. And having opened her heart to
the gospel, the Lord opened her home. and her hands and her provision
to God's people. That's the first place that the
disciples visited after they left the prison, was the home
of Lydia. And when Paul and his friends,
it says here, they went out of the prison and entered the house
of Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren,
who's he talking about? He's talking about the other
believers. You see, the Lord had ministered
to these people. And Lydia came to know Christ
and others did, and other people, the Philippian jailer and his
household. So there were a lot of people
there at her home. They all gathered together when
Paul and Silas came out of prison. They went to Lydia's house and
they had a meeting. The believers who were converted and baptized,
and they met together, and Paul talked to them about the earthquake.
I'm sure that he did. Paul talked to them about the
conversion of the Philippian jailer, and how he and his family
heard the gospel, and how that they were baptized, all of them,
confessing Christ. So that's what took place here.
They went out of the prison, they entered the house of Lydia,
And then they got together with all the brethren, all believers,
Lydia and her household, his jailer and his household, and
all of them. They spent some time together.
See, they had been beaten, and they had been mistreated, and
they had been set free, and the jailer had washed their stripes
and given them things to eat, and then the magistrates set
them free, and they came down to Lydia's house, And they were
comforted, that's what he said, they were comforted. They comforted
them, they comforted them. Paul and Silas and Timothy and
Luke, they exhorted these people now, they're going to leave.
Paul's leaving, he's leaving town. And he wanted to exhort
them to lift the cross. Look to Christ. Now these are
new believers. You look to Christ. And you continue
in Christ. Continue in faith. And abide
in the truth of the gospel. And the doctrine of Christ. And
with many, many words of comfort. That's the reason I read that
Isaiah chapter 40 a while ago. God says, comfort my people.
Say to my people that her sins are forgiven, her sins are pardoned,
her iniquities passed, she's received in the hand double,
Lord's hand double for all of her sins. Comfort my people. Comfort my people. Encourage
them. And then Paul departed. All right. Now chapter 1, chapter 17 verse
1, Paul departed. And he did what he did in chapter
16. He bypassed some places. He didn't
stop at all these places. It says in verse 1 of chapter
17, And when they had passed through Amphicolus and Apollonia,
the Lord evidently had gave Paul directions not to preach that,
not to come there now, later on maybe, but not now. but pass
by these places and go to Thessalonica. That's where the Lord wanted
me to go. Go to Thessalonica and there
is a synagogue of the Jews at Thessalonica. Now there wasn't a church at
Thessalonica now. There's going to be one. This
is going to be the beginning of it. And Paul in verse 2, and
Paul as his manner was. What was his manner? Well, this
is what he did everywhere. He didn't go to the synagogue
at Philippi because there wasn't one. But he went to the river
and met with some believers there who worshiped God, and that's
when the church started at Philippi. But in other places, Paul goes
straight to the synagogue, straight to where the Jews met together
and read the scriptures, and Paul preached to them, preached
the gospel to them. And here in verse 2, as his manner
was, he went in unto them, unto whom? Unto the Jews that assembled
there, and three Sabbath days, three Sabbath days, that didn't
mean he just preached to them on the Sabbath day, but it was
three weeks. Those were high days and special
days when people, many, many, many people came. You know, our
Lord Jesus Christ, it says in Luke 4, as his custom was, he
went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as the custom of
all Jews. And Paul went for three Sabbath
days. But I'm sure during those three
weeks he preached to everybody he could, everybody that would
lend him an ear. And what did he preach? Well, turn to Luke 24. This is what he preached. You
see, the New Testament wasn't written. It was the Old Testament,
the writings of Moses and the prophets. All right, Luke 24,
verse 27. And beginning at Moses, beginning
at Moses, and all the prophets, he expanded unto them, And all
the scriptures, the things concerning himself. And that's what Paul,
when he went to these synagogues, that's what he did. Three Sabbath
days, he ministered to these people concerning the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now, I want to give you an
example of the way that Paul ministered to these Jews. He'd
come in the synagogue, and he said, There may have been some
believers there, but most of them were not. And Paul would
come through and he'd preach to them. Now turn to Acts 13,
and I'll show you exactly how he preached to them, give you
a picture, a type, of how he ministered to these Jews in the
synagogue. Acts 13, verse 14. Here it is,
Acts 13, verse 14. But when they departed from Perga,
they came to Antioch, in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day and sat down. And after reading the law, they
always read the law, and later read the prophets. They did that
every Sabbath day. The rulers of the synagogue sent
unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if you have any word
of exhortation for the people, say only. Remember who Saul of
Tarsus is now. Everybody knew him. All of these
rulers of the synagogue knew Saul of Tarsus. He was a student
of Gamaliel. He sat under the top teachers
in the whole Judaism. He was a Pharisee. He was a member
of the Sanhedrin. He was a close friend of the
high priest. He got letters from the high
priest to go and persecute Christians. This man is like Ananas said
to the Lord. I've heard about this man. I've
heard about this man. Everybody's heard about this
man. So when he came to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, he wasn't
a stranger. He was one of the most renowned,
blameless, law-abiding, moral, religionist of the world. And
when they said to him, you got something to say, say it. All
right, here he is. Verse 16, then Paul stood up
and beckoned with his hands, men of Israel, Jews, you that
fear God, give audience, listen to me. The God of this people
of Israel chose our fathers and exalted the people when they
dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt. And with a high arm
he brought them out of Egypt. And about the time of forty years
he suffered, suffered he their manners in the wilderness. And
when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided
their land to them by lot, the twelve brothers. And after that
he gave unto them judges by the space of four hundred years,
fifty years. unto Samuel the prophet. And
afterwards they desired a king, and God gave them Saul, the son
of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin by the place of 40 years. That was King Saul. And when
he had removed Saul, he raised up unto them David to be their
king. to whom also he gave testimony,
and said, I found David, son of Jesse, a man after mine own
heart, which shall fulfill my will." Now, of this man, see,
hath God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior,
and that Savior is Jesus Christ, the man that I preached unto
you. It's Christ Jesus, Jesus. And when John had first preached
before his coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people
of Israel, remember, John the Baptist came, we read that a
while ago. Where he lifted up the high places
and brought down the rough places and prepared you the way of the
Lord, that's John the Baptist, read on. And as John fulfilled
his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not he, I
am not the Christ, I am not the Messiah, I am not the Redeemer. But behold, there cometh one
after me, whose shoes of his feet I am unworthy, not worthy
to loose. Me and him, brethren, children
of the stock of Abraham, who say, Among you saith God, to
you is the word of his salvation sin. And they that dwelt at Jerusalem,
and their rulers, because they knew him not, and didn't know
the voice of their prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they
fulfilled them in condemning him, and thought by Christ. And though they found no cause
of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be
slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him,
they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre,
but God raised him from the dead. That's what Paul preached to
them. That was his message. He did that for three Sabbath
days and all the other times, just kept talking to those Jewish
people about Christ, about Christ. Look back at verse 3 of my text.
verse 3. He says here, verse, and opening
and alleging, in other words, setting forth, setting forth. That's what Paul, setting forth. He reasoned with them. Verse
2 said, and Paul, as his manner was, went in to them and preached
salvation, reasoned with them out of the scriptures. Opening
and alleging, setting forth that Christ must means have suffered
Christ the Messiah must suffer and rise from the grave. He must
suffer and be risen from the dead. He's
got to be raised from the dead. This one is the Christ. He's
my subject matter. He's the sum and substance of
all the prophets. He's the only Savior. and the
redeemer of sinners. That's his message. What happened
in verse 4? And some believe, some of them
believe the power of the word of God preached by God's prophet
and preacher brought forth faith. They believe, some of them believe,
some of them believe that Jesus is the Christ. And they consorted
with Paul. They associated with Paul. They
associated with him privately and publicly. They joined hands
with him and forces with him. They heard the word. They learned
from Paul. They believed. They consorted
with Paul and Silas. And listen, not a handful now. Some of the devout a great multitude,
and of the chief women, not a few. What are we looking at here?
I tell you what, we're looking at the great beginning of the
church at Thessalonica. Listen to this. Someone said,
a great number of Greeks believed. Who were these Greeks? Well,
I named three. They were proselytes to the Jewish
religion. One was called Cornelius. Remember
Cornelius? He was a Greek. But he was a
Greek who believed the gospel. He was a Greek to whom God had
opened the heart through Peter's preaching. Another was the eunuch. He would be called a Greek. You
say, well, a Greek eats the open. Well, anybody's not a Jew's Greek. That's the Gentiles, see, that's
what we're talking about. What about Lydia? She wasn't
a Jew. She was a Gentile. And these
people all over the world, had read Moses, and read the scripture,
and read the law, and had come to the synagogue, and they met
there, and Paul for three Sabbath days, three Sabbath days, he
preached to them. Let me show you another example
of Paul's preaching, Luke 24, and this is what our Lord said. Paul, I know, said the same thing.
Listen to this. Luke 24, verse 44. Now here's
the Lord Jesus Christ preaching to his disciples. Luke 24, verse
44. He said to them, these are the
words which I have spoken to you while I was yet with you,
that all things which are written in the law of Moses. What's the
law of Moses? The first five books of the Bible.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. That's the first
five books. Moses, and the prophets, who
are the prophets? Samuel, all the other prophets,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, keep naming the prophets, all
of them, Christ's reason. And in the Psalms, 150 Psalms,
every one of them concerning me. That's what Paul is saying
here, and that's what Paul is reasoning with these Greeks and
And other people, and some of the Jews, and of the cheap women,
not a few, a great multitude, are listening. And it makes sense
to them. It's evident that God is teaching
them the gospel of the Messiah, the Redeemer. So then our Lord,
verse 45, opened their understanding that they might understand the
scripture. And he said to them, Thus is
written, thus it behooved Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, to suffer,
to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentant and remission
of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem." Go back to my text. I love that
verse 4, Acts 17 verse 4, and some of them believe. And they're
associated, consorted with Paul and Silas. Privately and publicly
and openly. And among the devout Greeks,
a great multitude, the chief women. Lydia is one of those
chief women. Many of them. They believed. They believed, they were convinced
that Christ is the Messiah. They're associated with Paul
and the apostles. They weren't ashamed of the gospel.
And on this foundation, God Almighty built the church of Thessalonica. Great church. Paul wrote two
epistles to this church. But I want to go to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1, just a moment. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. And
here is every man's experience. This is my experience and your
experience and all these believers. This is our experience. This
is every man's experience. in regard to saving faith. God
crosses his path, sends a preacher, sends the word, not a quartet,
the word of God. A faithful preacher, preaching
the gospel. The Holy Spirit attends the preaching
of the gospel, and people listen. And they compare scripture with
scripture, and study the word, and they listen to the preacher
preach the gospel of Christ, the truth of Christ. that's what
they believe now listen to this 1st Thessalonians chapter 1 verse
4 and Paul says knowing brethren beloved your election of God
number one because our gospel came not unto you in word only
it did come that way but not in word only it came in power
whose power power of God the power of the spirit of God awakening
revealing. In the Holy Ghost, in much assurance,
confidence, as you know what manner of men we were among you,
we were just people. Our gospel is the gospel of God.
And you heard it, all right? Look at the next verse. And you
became followers, consorted, associated with. You listened. You You're associated with the
public in Christ. You became followers of the Lord,
of us and the Lord, having received the gospel in much affliction
with joy of the Holy Ghost. How come you become a follower
of these people? Because you believe the gospel.
You believe the message. That's what unites us. That's
what identifies us. That's what identifies us together.
We believe the gospel, believe Christ. And verse 7, you became
examples. This woman Lydia, the Lord dealt
with her heart, opened her heart, and opened her home. She became
a witness. She became a person associated with the believers. You became examples to the people
in Macedonia and Achaia. And verse, you became a witness.
And from you sounded out the word of the Lord. Not only in
Macedonia, but in Achaia, and every place your faith to God's
word is spread abroad, so we don't need to brag on you. Just
tell it like it is. We don't need to speak anything.
You speak for us. And for you, they themselves,
show of us what manner of entering we had unto you, and you turn
from your idols." That's what a believer does. He believes
the gospel, hears the gospel in power, he becomes a follower,
he becomes an example, he becomes a witness, and he turns from
his idols to serve the living God. And what's next? And to wait for his son from
heaven. That's right. You wait. Up here in chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians,
Paul and Silvanus and Timothy. Well, Paul and Timothy was, they
were usually together with Silas and others, but Silvanus, we
believe that he's the first bishop at Thessalonica. He's mentioned
several times in the Scripture. God raised up a pastor to minister
to that church at Thessalonica. Now, here's a word I want you
to listen. I want you to listen to me a minute. A word to all
who preach. Would it not be more profitable
for all of us who preach to spend more time telling sinners how
the Lord saves sinners? how the Lord redeems sinners,
like this right here, what we just read. Knowing brethren your
election of God, our gospel came to you in word, not word only,
but power, the Holy Ghost, much assured, you heard the gospel,
you believe the gospel. Rather than spending our time
talking about how men are not saved, let's talk about how they
are saved. I've heard preachers before Start
out a message. Now I won't talk about how to
be saved, but first I want to tell you how you're not saved.
And they spend 30 minutes talking about how you're not saved. That's
not my job, to tell people how they're not saved. There are
a thousand ways a man can't be saved, and only one way he can. He has one way of saving his
inner self. I don't need to tell you all the many ways he doesn't
save people. Tell them the one way. Tell them
the one way. There is but one way, one truth,
one life. And I tell you, if I understand
the way, I don't need to engage my time about what's not the
way. That's right. And I say that
to all preachers everywhere. And I've tried to adopt that way of preaching, style, or whatever
you call it, preaching. Tell them who Christ is. Tell them what he did. Tell them
why he did it. Tell them where he is now. Preach
the gospel. The gospel of Christ. And don't
have to spend your time telling you what it's not. Tell them
what it is. And if they hear it, that's what
they heard it, and they believed it. All right, let's look at
verse 5, let's look at something here for a few moments, Acts
17, verse 5. But these Jews, these Jews at
Thessalonica, that believe not, they were moved with envy, took
unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered
a company, and set the whole city in an uproar. and assaulted
the house of Jason, sought to bring them out to the people,
to bring Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke out to the people. Who
is Jason? Well, I read some things people
said, but they don't really know. But Jason is another one of these
Cornelius, Enoch, Lydia, other people that believe the gospel. Jason was a believer in Christ,
a companion of Paul and Silas. He was a prominent man at a home
there, and a lot of people there. So the first thing they did was
go to Jason's house. Why? Looking for Paul. It's like
they went to Lydia's house, because Paul was there, and Silas, and
Timothy, and Luke. So they came down to Jason's
house, these marketplace fellows, these lewd, baster sort of fellows,
The Jews had stirred them up, and they came looking for Paul,
and verse 6 said they didn't find Paul. They couldn't find
him. So they drew Jason and certain
brethren, these believers, the church at Thessalonica, unto
the rulers of the city. And they cried, saying, These
that have turned the world upside down are come hither also. You know what kind of people
these are, just troublemakers, troublemakers. But these fellows,
they brought a charge here that's very interesting. Listen. Verse 7, listen. They got Jason
out there, and this is what they said. Whom Jason has received. Jason has believed and received
these disciples. And these do all do contrary
to the decrees of Caesar. saying, there's another king,
Jesus. Now this is dangerous. It's dangerous
here. These baseless thought, lewd
fellows, being stirred up by these Jewish Pharisees, they
took up a cry that troubled the people. Because it says in verse
8, and it troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when
they heard these things. What was the cry? They took up
this cry. And they troubled the people
and the rulers. Jason has received in his house
an entertaining seditious persons who are contrary to Caesar, who
are in rebellion against the government. And they're crying,
there's another king. There's another king besides
Caesar. You remember the Jews said we
have no king but Caesar. Well, these fellas got up this
crowd. There is another king. There
is another king. And they identified him. Jesus
of Nazareth is king. Well, they're telling the truth,
aren't they? writing on this, said this. Yeah,
he's the king. He's not a king, he's not another
king, he's the king. He rules, Richard Sibbes says,
he rules heaven and earth. Heaven is my throne and the earth
my footstool. He rules all things. Angels,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
each one. Angels and Principalities, each
one stands in his presence, awaiting his offers. That's our King.
He rules all things great and small. He closed the lenders
of the field. Not a sparrow falls to the ground
without Him. The hairs of your head are numbered.
The most, the least, minutest thing in His kingdom is under
total control. He rules over the kingdom of
his dear son, and gives it to whomsoever he will. He rules
over that which is good, and over that which is evil, and
will one day crush all evil under his feet. He rules by decree,
he rules by design, and he rules by death, and he has all preeminence
over all things, and he's my Lord." I'm amazed that these fellows
didn't carry this little puzzle, but they didn't. By God's providence,
look at verse 9. These people took up this cry,
there's another king. In verse 8 it says they troubled
the people and the rulers, and they heard these things. And
when they had taken security of Jason, What does that mean,
when they're taking security? These authorities, these magistrates. One writer said, they provided
bail. Security, they provided bail. They were satisfied with the
explanation that Jason gave them. and the explanation that the
brethren in his house gave them. And so, they let him go. Turned him loose. Provided satisfaction,
security, or bail. They just let him go. It's all
over. And so, in verse 10, so the brethren immediately sent
Paul away. Paul and Silas by night to Berea. Now here's another city, and
they sent them to Berea, who coming further went into the
synagogue of the Jews. I'm not going to weary you too
much longer, but I want you to see this point right here. They left Thessalonica and came
down to Berea. You might sometimes, when you
go to Berea, get some of those those brochures about Berea and
how the town of Berea got started. It was a religious group of people
that named the town Berea the way they named it because that
these Bereans searched the scriptures to see if these things would
be sold. There's a story about this. I've
read it somewhere, but somebody here will find that interesting
and take it up. He says here in verse 11, Paul's
talking about the Bereans. These were more noble than those
in Thessalonica. Now Paul is not comparing the
native inhabitants of Thessalonica and Berea, but rather he's comparing
the Jews. The Jews in Thessalonica and
the way they treated him in Thessalonica, and the Jews at Berea. and the
way they treated him there. That's what he's doing. He's
comparing these people in Berea like to those Jews down there
at Thessalonica. Their attitude and their response
to the gospel was terrible in Thessalonica. But here, let me
tell you about these people. These were more noble than those
in Thessalonica in that they received the words. They received
the word of God with joy as it is in truth, the word of God
and not the word of men. That's how they received it.
They received the word as it is in truth, the word of God.
They received it in their hearts. Secondly, they received it with
readiness of mind, eager to understand, eager to hear, eager to embrace
it like they did in Hebrews chapter They received it, they embraced
it, and held to it. And thirdly, and they searched
the scriptures daily, daily studying the word of God, studying to
show ourselves approved under God of work when we need not
be ashamed. Comparing spiritual things with
spiritual things. They wanted to experience the
power of the gospel. They wanted to experience the
peace of the gospel. They wanted to experience the
comfort of the word. They received it with a ready
mind and searched the scriptures daily, daily, to feel the power
and enjoy the peace and comfort of the word. Whether these things
be so, oh my, they rejoiced in the word written and the word
incarnate. Therefore, verse 12, many of
them, if you find this, if you find this kind of attitude, if
you find people who, whoever they are, people who are like
these Bereans, who hear the word receive it with joy, as it is
in truth the word of God, with a ready mind, with an eager heart
to embrace it and to understand it, and who will search the scriptures
daily, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things, and seeking
to experience the joy and peace and comforts of the word, they'll
believe it. Now you write it down, they'll
believe it. And many of them believe. Therefore many of them believe.
And of the honorable women, which were Greeks, and of the men,
not a few, they believed it. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He hath everlasting life. All
right, may God bless these words, our prophet.