Good evening.
Chile must be kicking in because this side of the room cleared out pretty quickly.
I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry. We're in X 17 tonight.
Hmm.
We're next 17. I'm just going to read the whole.
Well, no, I won't. I'll just read the first. 9 verses and we'll we'll start with that
Act 17, verse one. Now when they had passed through and Fipolis and a Polonia.
They came to Thessalonica. Where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul as his custom was.
Went into them and for 3 Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures. Explaining and demonstrating and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer.
And rise again from the dead. And saying this Jesus whom I preached to you is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded.
And a great multitude of the devout Greeks. And not a few of the leading women joined Paul and Silas.
But the Jews who were not persuaded becoming envious took some of the evil men from the marketplace and gathering a mob.
Set all the city in an uproar and attack the house of Jason. To bring them out to the people But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brother into the rulers of the city crying out, These who have turned the the world upside down have come here too.
Jason has harbored them. And these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying there is another king.
Jesus. And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
I'm just gonna pray again. Heavenly Father. Thank you for this opportunity that we have to open your word.
Pray that you would just give us clarity of thought and just, snapshot and you know a piece of practical truth that we can take from from this portion and go and apply it to our lives and and live lives that are pleasing to you.
It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen.
So in this section of. Act 17 we're gonna see Paul go to 3 different cities. He's gonna pass through 2, so we're not gonna count those, but he's going to spend time in Thessalonica.
He's going to spend time in Berea. And he's going to spend time and Athens.
And, as I was sort of reading this and setting it. I was thinking about Matthew chapter 13.
Which is, Jesus telling the parable of the sower. And so the sower goes out and he spreads seed around.
And some of it falls on. The path and the enemy comes and, you know, plucks it and takes it away and it doesn't take any roots, nothing happens, it doesn't grow some falls into pretty bad soil and with varying results and then some seed falls into good soil and there's Bountiful harvest, 30, 60, a hundred times what's
planted. And so I was thinking about that as I was reading these sections. It's interesting how, There's kind of different, the different fields that that Paul is going to find himself in as he's out scattering seed.
And, really when we're thinking about Thessalonica here, It's interesting because There are some, there are some people who receive the gospel, but there's a lot of folks who they were not persuaded and, and,
We might say that they had really hard, corrupt hearts. They weren't, they weren't interested in the things that Paul had to say.
And as we get to some of the other areas. Well, we'll sort of see what the response is from the different people.
But, something, the first thing that jumped out to me. Was inverse to as I started studying this.
It's a then Paul. As his custom was. Went into them and for 3 Sabbaths Reasoned with them from the scriptures.
Explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead. So it was Paul's custom to go into the synagogues wherever he went.
And so this was his habit. Was characterized his life. Wherever he would go. He would find the synagogues and he would go in and he would reason with the Jews.
From the scriptures. So. It was his custom.
He would go and he would seek out a particular group of people. And he would reason with them. From the scriptures.
So he would meet them. Where they were at, right? So the Jews. Would understand the scriptures.
And so he would go, he would seek them out, he would communicate to them. In a way that they would understand.
Hoo Jesus was and what he had come to do and and He came. As his customers, this is what he always did.
So wherever he went, this is what he would do. So to sort of put a mental bookmark or mental underline or an actual underlying in your Bible because we're going to see this.
Sort of. This is the pattern for this chapter. So, Paul, as his custom was, went into them for 3 Sabbaths.
He reasoned with them from the scriptures and he was explaining to them about who Jesus Christ was and everything that he came to do.
And So that's the, that was the first thing that kind of jumped out to me.
So without getting ahead of myself sort of keeping in the in the context of the this particular portion of the scripture I thought it was interesting.
That there's really 3 groups of people that are kind of Always at work. In this section, but we see it all throughout the book of X.
We see the Jews. We see the crowd or the mob. And we see the brethren. Those are kind of the 3 main.
Groups of people that that we're going to sort of like constantly bump up against as we're as we're going through.
Going through the book and I was thinking about the Jews It's not across the board, but it's interesting to me that the like.
And the Gospels, we kind of get the zoom in and we see very, intimately.
Some of the different sects that work, we see Pharisees, we see Sadges, and we see the scribes and we see, like, It's almost like an axe.
Maybe there's a little bit of a step back and it's just kind of like the juice, like the religious.
It's not that they're they're never mentioned or those groups, but like. It it isn't quite so It isn't quite such an intimate look.
And it's kind of like the Jews. So like. The religious.
Zealous for the traditions of the of the, you know, the historical people of God. We see them at work.
And they're always working contrary to the brethren which is, which would be the other group.
So these are, you know, the Jews would be you know, that. They're the historical, you know, the historical people of God who have.
Positions of influence or positions of power positions of of, you know, whatever it is and, they're the the religious authorities and they are not pleased that people are following.
Jesus and They are at work in this particular section. To sort of undermine the work that Paul and Silas are doing.
And, so there's the Jews. There's the crowd or the mob that we were going to bump into them again.
And this is just. The nameless faceless group of people who are seem to always be sparked into negative destructive actions.
Like we see this in our world today. Crowds of people that that There's just chaos in their wake.
It's just, A collective group of people can do. Unimaginable damage and for Not even really significant.
Like reasons. Sometimes it just seems like they just want to see the world burn. And we, we see that, that group, at work here.
Where the Jews persuaded. Evil men, to just set the world and set. That's like on fire and it doesn't seem to It doesn't seem like they're particularly interested in.
The fact that, you know, Jesus is or isn't the Messiah, it just seems like they're a group of discontented people who just want to.
You know, cause havoc and, so That's a that's a group of people.
And then we see the brethren. So that would be a group of people who are interested in the will and the kingdom of God.
And they're always acting in support of the people of God. Through tangible acts of love and provision and protection.
And so we'll see that group of of people sort of as as we, you know, continue on.
As well but I was interested I was interested to read. About Jason. In this section because there's not a lot mentioned about him.
But it's interesting to me that This mob comes and they attack his house. And. His, his response.
To them. Is interesting that well the things that they say about him I thought was interesting They said that these who have turned the the whole world upside down have come here to Jason has harbored them.
And they're all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying there's another King Jesus.
I was thinking about when Jesus was on trial. Before pilot, like, like these are some of the same things that they were saying about Jesus.
And I was interested to, to sort of see that like. Jason in verse 9, so when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
Like there wasn't this big like monologue of Jason about how they had They had, you know.
Infringed on his rights as a citizen and he wasn't going to stand for this and this was outrageous.
He has, He paid his security and he went home and like I was just thinking about that, like.
How Jesus says, you know, In the world you're going to have trouble but take heart I've overcome the world and and he like he tells them like The servant's not greater than the master, like the same things that the shovels that you see I have like you're gonna have these same things too And, like this is a tangible way that Jason was sharing in the sufferings of
Christ. The same. The same sufferings that Christ had. The same unjust treatment the unfair treatment the same thing like That's exactly what was happening here.
And.
I thought I thought it was also a really practical. Just interesting, like he just paid the security and he left.
Have these. You know, these moments where people are going to treat us unjustly.
They're going to treat us unfairly. They're going to judge us on Jessie, they're going to whatever.
Like. What is our response? Is, is. Is my knee jerk reaction going to be?
That's unfair. Like you shouldn't like. You shouldn't treat me like this. Like I didn't, I didn't do anything wrong.
Or to just accept the fact that. There's people who are going to treat us this way because they treated Jesus this way.
Like, I don't know that it does. I don't know. I don't know that it's.
It's productive to our ultimate end if we Like, fight this stuff. Sometimes we might just need to accept it and and and move on with our lives like You know?
Is Jesus wasn't above suffering, Jesus wasn't above this, so. We're not either.
And,
We're just going to take it. Because, that's what That's what our great high priest did.
That's what the the one that we have our eyes fixed on. That's what he did.
And maybe that's what we ought to do too. Just a thought. I don't know.
So. Moving on to verse 10. Then the brethren. Immediately sent Paul.
And Silas away by night to Berea. So here's the brother and here's his group of people who are interested in the kingdom of God who are interested in the will of God.
Protecting Paul and Silas. They're they're watching over them. They're providing for them.
Very tangible. A very loving way. They shelter them and they send them away. To Berea and when they arrived They went into the synagogue of the Jews.
That sounds familiar. So when Paul arrives He goes into the synagogue of the Jews.
As was his custom, he went into them. And these were more fair minded than those in Tesla.
And that they receive the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things are so.
Therefore, many of them believed. And also, not a few of the Greeks. Prominent women as well as men.
But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned, that the Word of God was preached by Paul in Berea.
They came there also and stirred up the crowds. Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away to go.
To the sea, but both Silas and Timothy remain there. So those who conducted Paul. Brought them to Athens and received a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him.
With all speed and they departed. So again, we see these groups of people working. We see the Jews.
We see the brethren working. We see the mobs working. And they always act and They always act in the same way.
You'll never see the brethren. Like acting ridiculous and acting like a mob. They always act.
In the same way. The brethren are always doing the same thing. Their eyes are focused on the kingdom.
And they're, they're protecting and they're providing and their loving and their nurturing.
And the mob is always doing what a mob does and the Jews are always doing what the Jews do. And.
I thought it was interesting that Here we would, Berea, we might say, is the good soil in our you know in our initial sort of looking at Jesus parable about the parable of the sower.
You know, these people receive the word and they search the scriptures daily to confirm that this was what what Paul was saying was true and in light of what the scripture said many of them believed they believed it I don't know that Paul knew.
Going into Berea like Here's a bunch of fair-minded people who are rooted in the scriptures.
I'm going to have a successful like planting and sewing ministry here like He was his faithfully.
Planting the seeds everywhere he went. His pattern was consistent. As was his custom, he goes into the synagogues.
He speaks to the Jews from the scriptures. And he was fulfilling his obligation. Which was to preach the gospel.
Everywhere that he went, this was his responsibility. His responsibility wasn't to only plant. Seeds and good soil.
Right. It wasn't up to him to decide. Like, these people clearly want to hear the gospel, so like, I'll plant, you know.
I'll do a really good job here. These people not so interested, so I'm not going to do as good of a job here.
Like, He's just faithfully planting seed wherever he's going. He doesn't.
The result means nothing to him. The thing that matters is the action of fulfilling the his purpose, fulfilling his ministry.
Like he's going to plant sea and it doesn't matter what kind of soil it's on.
I think that there's probably a lesson in there for me. I don't know about you.
What ever, wherever we're called. Do the work of the day and do it faithfully, right?
Be faithful in what the Lord is calling to you today. Because The, the results don't matter.
Cause the results are dependent on him. What matters is our faithfulness to plant, our faithfulness to work, our faithfulness to do.
Do the thing of the moment. And we trust that. When we plant the seed that the Lord is going to do something with it anyway.
It's not up to us. So here we have, again, we see Paul as his custom was.
He goes into the synagogue, he reasons with the people from the scriptures. Again, we see that here in Berea.
As his custom was, he goes into the synagogue, he's speaking to the Jews, he's speaking from the scriptures and they receive it and many of them.
Were convinced that that Jesus is the Christ. And. We're gonna see Paul now leave from Berea because there was trouble.
And in verse 16 we read, now while Paul waited for them, which would be. Timothy and Silas to come to him when he's in Athens.
While Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.
Therefore, he reasoned in the synagogues with the Jews. And with the Gentile worshippers.
And in the marketplace daily with those who happen to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him.
And some said, what does this babbler want to say? Others said he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods because he preached to them Jesus in the resurrection.
And they took him and brought him to the Eropagus.
That's the pronunciation I've landed on. If it's wrong, I apologize.
May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak. For you are bringing some strange things to our ears.
Therefore, we want to know what these things mean. For all the Athenians and foreigners who were there spent their time and nothing else but either to tell or to hear something new.
Then pulse it up in their midst. And said men of Athens, I perceived that in all things you are very religious.
And he's gonna, he's gonna go into monologue, but before we get to that.
I just want to point out again therefore he reasoned in the synagogues with the Jews and with the Gentile worshippers and in the marketplace daily with those who happen to be there.
Wherever he goes, it's the same thing. Doesn't make any difference whether he's in Athens, whether he's in Jerusalem, it doesn't matter if he's in.
Some far off. Point of where the gospel had never been to, he was always doing the same thing.
As his custom was. He goes in and he speaks to the Jews in the synagogues and he reasons with the Gentiles in the marketplace, the the people who Who they Don't.
Maybe they don't know a thing about the scriptures. But we're gonna see what what like how he then deals with with individuals like that.
There's 2, 2. New groups of people who we encounter here, the Epicureans and the Stoics.
So epicureans would be sort of, the idea of Like we're gonna seek.
We're going to seek. Not necessarily like Like if there's 2 ways to do things, one that's like that could bring us pleasure and one that could bring us pain.
We're going to always default toward the one that's going to always default toward the one that's going to bring us pleasure.
Doesn't necessarily mean that they're, they're heating this where they're only pursuing pleasure, their their general thought was like if we can do something and it makes us that we can get pleasure out of it, then we're gonna, we're always going to take that route over the painful route.
So for them, virtue. Was a means to an end. Like living a virtuous life would have just been.
Like they might have done that because it was more pleasurable to be virtuous, but not because virtue in itself was.
Like a good thing. If that makes sense. Stoics, however, sort of looked at life a little bit differently, they would have thought that you know, you do what's right.
It doesn't matter if it brings you pleasure, it doesn't matter if it brings you pain.
We're kind of indifferent to that. We're just going to try to do the right thing because the right thing is worth doing.
So you have these philosophers who are real high-minded and they're thinking about the ways that we ought to live and and all this this stuff and so People who wouldn't necessarily be familiar with the scriptures.
And so how does Paul? Talk to people who aren't particularly familiar with the scriptures. But are thinking about religious, you know, religious concepts or religious ideas.
Like, how is he going to, how is he going to talk to to somebody like that whenever he encounters that and we get We get that exactly here.
So in verse 22, then Paul stood in the midst of The Eropagus and said, Min of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious.
But as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar. With this inscription to the unknown God.
Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing Him, I proclaim to you. God who made the world and everything in it.
Since he is Lord of Heaven and Earth does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is he worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything.
Since he gives to all life breath in all things.
And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth. And he has determined their preappointed times.
And the boundaries of their dwellings so that they should seek the Lord. In hopes that they might grope for him and find him.
Though he is not far from each one of us. We're in him we live and move and have our being.
As also some of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone.
Something shaped by art and by man's devising. Truly these times of ignorance got overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.
Because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained.
He has given assurance of this. To all by raising him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, While others said we will hear you again on this matter, So Paul departed from among them, however some men joined him and believed.
Among them, Dionysus. The Arapagite, a woman named Demaris and others with them.
So Paul would go into the synagogues and he would reason with the Jews from the scriptures and he would point them to the Christ.
And then he did that in That's alike. And then he goes to Berea and he does the exact same thing.
And then he goes to Athens and he does the same thing. But then he encounters this group of people who don't know the scriptures.
And he he meets them where they're at, he encounters them. They're religious people so they're gonna have religious concepts he sprinkles in their own what their own poets are saying he's he's using ideas that they're going to be able to understand.
And he points them to Jesus in ways he's going to speak to them in a language that they're going to be able to recognize, That's what the gospel is.
It's not. Trying to get people necessarily to like meet us. Exactly where we are, but like Jesus comes to us and we bring the Gospel to somebody and we we put it in a way that they're going to understand.
If somebody spoke Chinese I wouldn't come to them in English and be like hey have you ever heard of Jesus Christ because they would look at me like I was somebody who was speaking of foreign language to them because I was.
You speak to them in a language that they're going to understand. You speak in a way that they're going to understand.
And. Doesn't mean that you demean it at all, it just means you put it in terms that they're going to be able to relate to.
And so here he is, he's talking to them. About things that they're concepts that they're going to be familiar with.
It was interesting and
27. So that they should seek the Lord and hopes that they might grope for him.
And find him, though he is not far from each of us, for in him we have life and move and have our being.
And I was just thinking about how here's these 2 groups of people who are really concerned with how we live, right?
Where the, what's the better way to live? We're going to either live. Trying to sort of maximize pleasure and avoid pain or we're going to we're going to try to do the right thing.
Whether it brings pleasure or pain, we don't, we're not really concerned about that. We were concerned about doing.
So 2 groups of people who are really like really concerned about the way that they live. And here, Paul's telling them, like, the point of life.
Is that we should seek the Lord. Like that's the point. Like that's all that you're talking about, all that you are discussing, like the point is to seek the Lord.
And he's near to you and he and and He's not far off. And he's the reason why we live and we move and we have our being and it's all about him and so he's bringing Jesus right into their livings.
And again, again, we see. You know, a different soil. Some of them heard and they thought this guy's an idiot.
Some of them heard and they they said you know, we'd like to hear you again on this matter, but that's more just like.
Seem to be more like an intellectual response. But there were a group of people who did believe him and they wanted to know more about Jesus and they they became followers.
It wasn't Paul, Paul's primary concern was not. Maximizing the harvest. His primary concern was spreading the seed.
And. That's the, I mean, that's essentially the application that I would like.
Personally to take away from this. I would suggest that it's it's a worthy application for all of us.
Is that, we. Keep the first things first. We, our responsibility is to do the work.
We put We put the the harvest. As a secondary thing and we give that to the Lord. We're just responsible to do what we can do today.
That's all that that's all that we can do. Okay. The second application would be.
Wherever, whoever we meet, whoever the Lord brings along our way. We meet them where they're at.
We We bring Jesus to them in a way that they're going to be able to understand it. Because everybody is different.
Everybody is going to have a different point of view. And. You know, it's getting to know.
People getting to know what their point of view is, getting to understand. Where different people are at and and finding ways.
To bring Jesus into you know, bring it to them in a way that they're going to be able to appreciate and understand it.
That's, those are. Kind of the 2 main applications that I've personally
After kind of reading and studying this that I thought were profitable. So. That's it.
If anybody has any additional comments that they like to add, go for it.
Since you're at the mic, would you? Reading.
3 6. That's New Testament, right?
First Corinthians 3 6
I planted. Apollo watered, but God gave the increase.
And you could read, like. Couple so then neither he who plants is anything Nor he who waters but God who gives the increase.
Now he who plants and he who waters are one. And each one will receive his own reward according. To his own labor.
That's good.