Let's hear the Word of God this morning from the book of Acts chapter 17. The title of the sermon this morning is simply this, Three Sabbaths in Thessalonica. We'll hear the Word of God, Acts 17, 1 to 15. Let's hear the inspired Word of God together. Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them, and from the Scriptures explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, saying, this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also. And Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus. And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to them, as soon as possible, they departed. Well, the title of the sermon this morning is Three Sabbaths. I originally called this sermon Three Weeks in Thessalonica, but I changed it to Three Sabbaths in Thessalonica, which is what the Bible records to us. The Sabbath there was referring to the Old Testament Jewish Sabbath, slightly different by one day to the Christian Sabbath, which moved forward from the Saturday to what we call the Sunday or the Lord's Day, the first day of the week. And we are commanded by the Lord to worship Him on that day in remembrance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Are you thankful this morning for the resurrection of Jesus? You know, we can worship on a Tuesday and a Wednesday, but that's different to the ordained pattern that God has given for the church in particular, even though all men are commanded to worship him. But here, what we find is important for us, three Sabbaths, and then this remarkable work happened of a church being planted, people being born again, people turning from idols. Now, we ask ourselves, what impact does it have upon you this morning when you hear Acts chapter 17? Because when you've been a Christian for a while, Things can become very familiar, but as we've heard this morning from one Thessalonians, the gospel came with the power of God in a remarkable manner. And do we believe or do we dare to believe that God could do something similar again in our own day and generation? And boy, does our nation alone need this. We talk about Yemen, Yemen needs it. And all things are possible with the Lord. So hopefully the word of God will increase our faith, will increase our hope this morning as to the possibilities of what God can do. Now, before we get to the three headings for us, which are very simple this morning, it's simply this. Three Sabbaths in Thessalonica is the first heading. The second heading is more persecution. And again, it's not just for Paul and his team, but also for the church as well. More persecution. And then thirdly, Berea was where the team went following Thessalonica. But I'm going to read just one little mini-statement before we get to the first heading from someone called John Owen, who was a 17th century Puritan. Now, listen to this. It's a thought-provoking statement that he makes, which fits in with what happened in Thessalonica. And it's from John Owen's works. And he wrote this. He that would utterly separate the Spirit from the Word had as good burn his Bible. The bare letter of the New Testament will no more engenerate faith and obedience in the souls of men, no more constitute a church state among them who enjoy it than the letter of the Old Testament does, at this day among the Jews." Just think about that for a moment. If it wasn't John Owen who wrote this, we'd be thinking, who's written this? Who's written this? He's saying, he's not simply saying, burn your Bibles. He's not saying that. What he's saying is, is if we separate the work of the Holy Spirit with the work of the Word of God, we may as good as burn our Bibles. And what we see in John Owen's theology, as in the biblical truth, as in not only the Reformers, we find all the way through the Word of God, that we need this beautiful marriage of the Word of God and the work and the work and the person of the Holy Spirit. And I think in our generation sometimes we think, well, we'll simply sow the Word of God, which we do, and that's enough. Sowing the Word of God is absolutely essential. There's no work without the sowing of the Word of God, but we just as much need the work of the Holy Spirit to water that seed and call the seed to spring up. And that's exactly what we saw in Thessalonica. So our first heading is three Sabbaths in Thessalonica. Notice it says in verse one that they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia. They came to Thessalonica, which was around about 95 miles or thereabout from Philippi. So it was a journey. Paul passed through different cities, didn't go to those. He was heading towards Thessalonica. Why Thessalonica? We're in Macedonia now, we're in Europe, the Gospels already penetrated through the planting of the church in Philippi, and Thessalonica was known as the the mother of all Macedonia. It was a principal city in that region. And so Paul and his team were going to go there, and it says in verse 2, and once they got there, they also went there because there was a synagogue. And if there was a synagogue, Paul's method at that time was to go in and to explain to them Jesus Christ. Now, liberals will say, well, that's unfair. Why not just leave them to themselves? Why would he want to go and upset them and bring a different religion? Well, it's because we must tell of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And if somebody has a religion, but they're not following Jesus Christ, we must preach Christ. We must tell them of Christ. That's the most loving thing that we could do. And then we find in verse 3, Paul's method. What was it? How did Paul approach this potentially difficult task? He'd done this in Cyprus, he'd done it in different places, in Galatia, sometimes he'd just been totally rejected, but here we see in verse three, he was explaining, he was proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and he was saying, this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. Now, there would be people there who perhaps had never heard of Jesus. So it's one thing to get a message, but for some people, they may never have heard of Jesus of Nazareth, who was born at the other side of the end of the Mediterranean Sea. And Paul is now saying this Jesus, who was born and was suffered and was crucified, he is the promised Christ of God. You know, there are millions and millions of people today who have still never heard of the name of Jesus. Can you believe that? And if they have heard of Jesus, it may well be a false Jesus and not a right representation. I remember many years ago preaching in India, many years ago, And we were away from the more Christianized areas of India, of which there are in Kerala and so forth. It was much further north, not the very northern part of India, but it was an area which was much less evangelized. And we were having a pastor's conference, and I remember meeting someone and saying to them about Jesus. And, you know, because we're from Britain, you know, everyone in Britain has heard of Jesus, haven't they? They may not like Jesus, they may reject him, but they've heard of him. And I've never forgotten what this man said. I mentioned about Jesus, and he looked, I think it was through a translator, if I remember correctly, and he looked and said, this man does not live here. He wasn't known in this town. And I thought, boy, oh boy, oh boy, that person had never even heard about Jesus. And so therefore we must give ourselves to prayer. day and night until Jesus Christ comes back or we if we're Christians we go to be with the Lord because there is so many people who've still never heard of the name of Jesus but Paul here we find was reasoning from the scriptures that was the first thing it says he was explaining in the verse before he reasoned with them from the scriptures Reason. That's an important word for us, isn't it? Reason. It's not just simply proclaiming it, and if you don't accept this and turn, you're going to burn in hell. That's not the message of the Gospel, when people don't know the truth. We have to reason with people. We're applying the truth to people's minds, and it's from the Scriptures. And again, there were no New Testament Scriptures here. These were from what we call today the Old Testament Scriptures, of which there was an abundance. Paul's in a synagogue. Paul knows all about the book of Psalms and Isaiah the prophet, and he's taken the scriptures. And who knows what scriptures he would have used? If you were the apostle, Paul, what scriptures would you use to convince people, to reason with them, that Jesus is the Christ? What we find elsewhere in the Book of Acts, they use things like Psalm 2, Psalm 16, Psalm 110. There was somebody here when we were praying last night from Lincoln who brought this book and showed me a commentary of a book just on Psalm 110 alone. It was only one of two volumes. So Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, That's the father and the son. And Paul would take scriptures like this, perhaps Isaiah 53, Isaiah 42, and so on. In other words, people were being exhorted to be rational. They were not being invited just to jump off a cliff and just believe anything they were told. No, he was proving from the scriptures. So when they left, they weren't thinking so much simply of Paul's voice, but they were resting their life on the written word of God. And the written word of God can never be shaken. It's more sure than anything around us. Things will be shaken. The word of God will never be shaken. It's eternal. It's steadfast in the heavens. So Paul was reasoning with them. And then secondly, he was explaining and proving. Explaining and proving what? That it was necessary, it says in verse 3, for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. Have you ever thought sometimes, especially when someone's a new Christian, and you begin to explain to them about the sufferings of Jesus, sometimes this question comes up. Well, they may say, well, you're saying that Jesus is the son of God, and I can accept that, but if he's the son of God, surely he'd come into this world driving in a Rolls Royce. Why would he want to suffer so much? Why would God send his son to suffer? And it seems the very opposite of what the world would put forward. And everything about the gospel is the opposite of what the world says. And we're going to find out a little bit later on when there's persecution, what the kind of persecution was that came and why. Because Paul was not preaching a gospel for worldly appetites. Jesus says this, he says, the eye is the lamp of the body. And the question is, what is our eye focused on? Is it focused on the light? And if it's not to be focused on darkness. And the world promotes the very opposite of what the truth of God promotes. And so Paul was proving and explaining, but of course, like John Owen says, if the Holy Spirit is not going to help, he would have left town and no one would have changed. And thirdly, he says this in verse 3, this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ, is the Messiah. It's one thing from the scriptures to prove that to people, it's another thing for them to be convinced. And so, we're here to proclaim as well, here today, 2,000 years later, that this Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, he is the Christ. There is no other way and means by which we can get to heaven except through Jesus. That's the message of the church through the ages. That's the message what our covenant children need to be brought up in. Jesus is the way. We as parents, we can pass on the faith, but we can never save you. You children, you have to put your faith in Jesus if you want to have your sins forgiven and this wonderful gift of eternal life. Eternal life. So that was what Paul was preaching, and in verse 4 it says here, And some were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women. Notice that. A few of the leading women, just like the leading women in Philippi, one of whom is mentioned is Lydia. So we've got some of the Jews that were persuaded, we've got a great many of the Greeks, some of whom would have come from idolatrous backgrounds, and a great many of them, and not a few of the leading women. And what would we think would happen? Well, our second heading is more persecution. Severe persecution breaks out against Paul. Now, someone may say, well, look, is anyone surprised? Kevin, why would he be so surprised? Look, he's just wrecked the synagogue. Everything was fine in the synagogue. And now Paul comes, and half of the synagogue, or a large number of the synagogue, they're leaving to follow Paul and his Jesus. What do you expect? But the fact is, is that it's not so much Paul, it's, and his team, Luke, it's the truth of God that came, came in power. And people were persuaded Jesus is true. And so our second heading is more persecution. And as we see in verse five, what happens, it says, But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting." I mean, they're not just, you know, they're shouting. They're creating a huge uproar. What are they shouting? They're shouting, these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also. And Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus. Just think about that accusation that they brought, this violent outbreak of persecution. And what are they saying at the heart of it? They're saying this, that they bring in this message and that these men have turned the world upside down. Imagine that. Can the church in Britain be accused of that today? We'd have to say the answer is no. The answer is not, we're not being turned upside down, because sometimes too much of the world has come into the church. And the church is called to be salt and light. Would you agree? That's what Jesus said, we're to be salt and light. There's nothing wrong with a ship out on the sea. The ship is to be bobbing along on the sea. The problem comes if the water in the sea gets into the ship. And I think in many ways, some of the water of the world has come into the ship of the church, so that sometimes it's hard to know, is there any difference between the church and the world? And it'd be easy to take soft targets and say, people that now they endorse the whole same sex marriage agenda. Yeah, it's their problem. They're the ones that, but we need to take the plank out of our own eyes. has too much of the world and the world's desires and what the world offers come into your life, come into my life, come into our lives. Because we have to say, at this moment in time, in 2022, life is very easy for British Christians. For better or worse, it's a fact. And the danger of ease can be the danger of not taking the Lord and His words sufficiently seriously and Paul preached and Paul's team with Silas and Timothy and they were accused of turning the world upside down and saying they're saying there's another king and his name is Jesus and indeed he is a king and he's the most powerful king and he's a king who rules over everything. And he is a king, as we'll find a little bit later on, who's also appointed to be the judge of all mankind. And every human being will be judged by this King, Jesus. Are you preparing yourself for that day of judgment? Because we learn in Philippians that if we confess with our mouth, Jesus Christ is Lord, not just giving lip service and just saying, yes, I believe in Jesus, and then just living a completely different life, but submitting our whole lives to Jesus, God's appointed king, that the day will come when every one of us will be judged by him. You won't stand there with your mother, you won't stand there with your brother, you won't stand with your friends. will come and stand, not sit, before this great King, and our lives will be examined. Of course, if our faith is in Jesus, then we will enter into heaven a judgment of no condemnation, and we will hear from the lips of Christ, enter into the joy of the Lord. Are you looking forward to hearing that from Christ? What a wonderful gospel we have. You've got to be born again to even appreciate such a message, because you tell people sometimes, and give them this free offer, and they say, not interested, not interested. They will be interested on that great day, because whether they believe it or not, it's going to happen. God has appointed a day by which he will judge all people. And though we as Christians, our sins are forgiven, our lives will be examined. And we welcome that. We welcome that because Jesus is our King. And we love Him. And we thank God for Him. But nonetheless, this persecution reminds us, doesn't it, of the stoning of Stephen. Remember what happened there, that when Stephen was stoned, the Jews were jealous against Stephen. And we've just read here, they were jealous against Paul and his team and the preaching of the gospel. And their jealousy led them to this uproar and to anger, and even paying or recruiting some wicked mob to violently stir up the whole city. And the whole city gets stirred up and it says in verse eight, and the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And verse nine, and when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. Just think about that. Paul's only been there three Sabbaths in Thessalonica. And then this massive persecution and they leave. And then they go on to the next place, and our third and last hitting this morning is Berea. Berea, a nearby city, which we find in verse 10. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. That would have taken boldness, wouldn't it? Three Sabbaths in Thessalonica, and look at the pushback. And so what do they do? They go to the synagogue again in Berea. And what do they do? Well, there's four things that they are recording there. There seems to be a different spirit in Berea to Thessalonica. Seems to be a different in how Luke accounts the response here. It says in Berea, the people there, he says they receive the word with eagerness in verse 11. And this is a real pattern for us in the church, how we are to receive preaching, especially on the Lord's Day. It says, they received the Word with all eagerness. Secondly, they examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. They examine the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Thirdly, it says, many believed with women of high standing and men as well. So, you know, sometimes you do get, I'll just make a comment here, sometimes you do get people say, ladies can say, well, the Bible seems to be mainly focused on men. Well, what about us women? What about us women? It's a good question. And the Bible doesn't only focus on men. At the very beginning of the Bible, we see that both men and women are made in the image of God. Now, there are different gifts and there are different authority patterns. God doesn't permit women to be elders and to lead the church in that manner, but that does never mean that women are ever second-class citizens in the kingdom of God. And so we've seen a pattern here that Lydia is brought into the church and excised great hospitality. We see leading women as well as men who are brought to faith in Thessalonica. And here again we find in the Word of God in verse 12 in Berea, many of them therefore believed with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. And fourthly, it says that the Bereans did not stir up persecution. That wasn't the people who believed, but the town. It seemed to be a more peaceable place. They received the word of God with joy. But as we come to an end this morning, we've looked at those three headings. Three Sabbaths in Thessalonica was the first heading. The second heading was more persecution. But thirdly, Berea. And let's just take a moment before we close to think about the saints now in Berea as to how they receive the Word of God. And to ask ourselves, is that how we receive the Word of God as it's preached? He says they receive the Word with eagerness and enthusiasm, a joy, a delight. And it doesn't say they simply received Paul and Silas, which they did, but it was the word of God that they brought, that they received. And they did so with eagerness. But they didn't just uncritically take it and say, well, that settles it. We've heard it this morning. No, it says they examined the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. And though we have preachers in our denomination who are ordained and committed to the Westminster standards, that doesn't mean that our preachers, including me, are infallible. Far from it. But the Word of God is infallible. And we are to take what we hear, and we are to examine the Scriptures to find out, are these things so? In fact, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians later on in his first epistle, and what did he write? He said, test all things. And we are to test all things. We're to pray, we're to search the Scriptures. And that's never a quick thing that we can do. He says, they examined the scriptures daily, and then many people believed. But then we find what happens again. The Thessalonians find, well, hang on a moment. These men have now gone to Berea. And it says in verse 14, sorry, verse 13, when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea, they came there agitating and stirring up the crowd. They were not concerned only to stir up the crowds in Thessalonica. They were on a warpath against Paul, a warpath against Silas. And it was the message that was preached. And we need to be reminded that this message of the gospel will always be opposed. It happened at the very, very beginning of time, and it will happen through the ages. And as we close, Let me ask ourselves this question. Are we ready to face persecution? Because for much of our lives, persecution that many Christians face around the world has not touched us. There are Christians this morning who are in prison in places like China, who've been completely unjustly treated. They don't have a Christian institute to send an email to, to say our preacher's been arrested and is now in jail for seven years. They don't have a Christian institute, and even if they did, the Chinese authorities would have closed it down. And before China was communism, which viciously persecuted people who believed in Jesus Christ. There can be something wonderful about persecution, and suffering and difficulties and hardships, it makes you throw yourself upon Christ in a way you've never done so before. And I wonder if God was to work in our nation and in the church again, whether we would be strong enough at this moment in time to withstand the persecution that may follow. Bitter persecution, because biblically, persecution is part of the whole counsel of God. Biblically, persecution is part of the gospel message. Our Savior, whom we love this morning, He was nailed to a tree in Jerusalem, dying the death of a Roman criminal. suffering, bleeding, dying. There was nobody singing hymns on Calvary's hill on that day and singing, there is a fountain filled with blood. No, he was treated as a dying criminal, an enemy of Rome. But the message of the cross is the power of God for salvation to those who believe. And when the message of the cross comes with power again, there will be persecution. the world will not roll over and play dead. They may come and attack us, but will God, by His grace, give us the strength to endure for what might come? And may God help us by