Acts 17 verse 1. Now just look at your map quick as I go through the introduction here. By the way, keep that map. I don't know what to do with the outline, but keep that map. You'll be using that again a few more times. You recall now Paul, Silas, Timothy, and also Luke are on the second missionary journey. Paul's gone on one missionary journey already all around the Mediterranean. Back in 16, he said, let's go see how they're doing. So Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke take off on this journey. Look at your map there, the line. They start in Athens. Actually, Antioch on the right. See Antioch? That's in Syria north of where Israel is today. It was then, too. They go from Antioch up into Asia Minor. Now, Paul's goal was to keep going north. Remember, the Holy Spirit stops them twice. and sends him west. And it's interesting, God is sending Paul into the heart of the Roman Empire. God tells Paul, no, you're not going north, you're going west. And he goes way out west to Macedonia, which is the Roman Empire. And he's not sending him to these little tiny towns. He's sending Paul. Paul ends up in all these major cities, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, and other places. He's sending Paul into the heart of the Roman Empire. Paul will eventually Go to Rome. But for right now, he's in what today is Greece. So again, we saw last time, Paul goes to Philippi. See it there on your map? Way up in the top, in the middle, right in the middle? That's a long, long way from Israel. He sent Paul right into the heart of the Roman world. I love that. And in Philippi, you recall, we saw last time, a church starts. Many people get saved. And as usual, Paul and Psalm get beat up and arrested and thrown in jail. God rescues him with a miracle of an earthquake, gets him out. But then we saw at the end of chapter 16 how when Paul gets out of jail, the leaders of the town in Philippi beg him to leave because of all the trouble that it caused. So Paul heads on to Thessalonica. See on your map there where Thessalonica is? He's going further and further west. Now having said all that, let's read the first four verses of chapter 17 where we pick this up. Now, when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul's custom, he went to them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, this Jesus, whom I am proclaiming to you, is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. Let's take that apart. Now note, notice first of all here in verse one, now and they. Now we saw back in 16, for the first time we read we, Luke includes himself in their travels. Well here Luke apparently isn't with them. At least he's not talking about, he says now and they. Now what probably happened was, this is speculation, back in chapter 16 you recall, it's Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke. and a riot breaks out, and Paul and Silas get beaten and arrested, but where are Timothy and Luke? Well, Timothy and Luke are Gentiles. It's very possible in the big confusion, the riot, because they were Gentiles, they were overlooked, or they got away somehow, but they're not involved in this, and here we read they. Apparently, Luke isn't with them at this point, but he will be again, but he's not there right now. Luke is probably not with them. But notice, they go from Philippi to Amphipolis, which is 33 miles, They go from there to Apollonia, which is 27 further miles, and from there to Thessalonica, which is 35 miles. That's a 95-mile journey. Back in those days, you didn't have little cars to drive around in. You either walked or had horses. It was a long, long journey. 95 miles. But they're going to Thessalonica. Now get that. Thessalonica is a very large city. Thessalonica is the capital Macedonia. Macedonia is a province of the Roman Empire, one of the largest provinces. Thessalonica is the capital city. There's well over a hundred thousand people there. Paul's not going to just small little towns. I'm sure along the way they probably stopped and talked, Paul did that, but he's going to the capital of Macedonia. When he had that vision back in chapter 6, remember Paul had a vision and a dream of a man from Macedonia saying, come and help us. Paul goes right there. He's like a beeline. He shoots right into Macedonia. Now he's going right to the capital city of Macedonia to preach. That's a pretty cool thought. Now Thessalonica is a large city. It's a capital. It's a major port city. Major trade went on with Thessalonica. It was also very loyal to Rome. If you're on horseback from where Paul was in Philippi, it's at least a three days journey. If you're walking, it's probably more like a week and a half or two. It's a long walk. It's a long way to go. But that's where he is. Now Thessalonica, as you know, there are two letters in our New Testament written to the Thessalonians. We saw last time Paul started a church in Philippi. There's one letter to the Philippians. There's two to Thessalonians. We're going to focus on that tonight. But also it says, as was Paul's custom, he goes right into the synagogue. Now all Paul's doing here, I believe, because Paul, there's many Jews at Thessalonica, many Jews. Because it's a large city, it was probably a very large synagogue. Paul has an inn because he's Jewish. Paul was a Pharisee. Paul is a teacher. Paul had high credentials. He learned under Gamaliel. He could walk into any synagogue, throw his credentials around, and be asked to speak. And so he does. In every place he goes, at least for a while. He's going to stop doing this in a little while. He goes into the synagogue. He begins preaching, as was his custom. And it says there he preached over three Sabbaths. I'm assuming that's three consecutive Sabbaths. It doesn't say that, but probably is. That means he's there for at least three weeks, maybe four. But notice what he does, and this is neat, and we can have a lot to learn from this. Verse two again. According to Paul's custom, he went to them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, saying, this Jesus, who I'm proclaiming to you, is the Christ. Here we get another glimpse of what the Apostle Paul's message was, every place he went. This Jesus is the Christ. Let's take that apart of what he said. It says he reasoned from the scriptures, that he reasoned from the scripture. Remember, the New Testament doesn't exist yet, but the Old Testament does, do you? Could it also say that he is the Messiah? Yeah, when you see Christ, think Messiah. Okay, yeah. That's probably even a better way to translate that word here, the Messiah. Dorcas? When it says the scriptures, would he be talking about Isaiah where it says how he's beaten up so they can continue to recognize he's a man? I'm sure that was probably one of Paul's chief texts, and many others, many others. But I'm sure that's probably one of the places he probably started with. That's what I would do in a Jewish synagogue. But anyway, he's reasoning from the scriptures, from their Old Testament. He's taken the scriptures that they know very well and saying from those scriptures that Jesus, the Messiah, had to suffer. The Messiah would rise from the dead, and Jesus is that Messiah. That's his message. He reasoned. The word there, he says explaining. That means opening. He would open up God's word to them. Here's what it says. Here's what Isaiah said. Here's what Moses said. Here's what David said. He would open up the word to them. That's how you handle a scripture. And then my verse says, giving evidence, literally placing before them, laying out the truth before them from their own scriptures, and then preaching Christ from it. I have a verse there on your sheet. As you know, the Old Testament is to be read like that. The New Testament tells us how to read the Old Testament. Acts does. Jesus did this. Hebrews especially tells you, here's how you read the Old Testament. You see Christ in it, because Christ is everywhere. There's a quote there from Jesus himself. This is after he rose from the dead, Luke 24. He said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe. Notice this. All that the prophets have spoken. What was it that they spoke? Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Jesus took the Bible from Genesis to Malachi. Let me show you now what it actually says about me. The Old Testament preaches Christ. And then later, he said in the same passage, it's on your sheet. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written, the scriptures say this, Jesus said, that the Christ should suffer on the third day rise from the dead. Now that's how you read your Old Testament. And that's all Paul is doing. Paul's going into these synagogues, opening the Hebrew scriptures, and preaching Christ. And you can do that very easily, because the scriptures do preach Christ. They do teach these things. This describes what all Bible-based Christian preaching should do. Open God's word. and display Christ, teach Christ. And note the six verbs here. We've only seen the first four so far. It says he reasoned from the scriptures, he explained what they meant, he presented Christ through them, and he proclaimed him as risen Lord and Savior. That's preaching. That's Christian preaching. And he's using the Old Testament to do it. That's why it's so important for us to know our Bible. Don't just read your New Testament. New Testament, if you know anything, you need to know your New Testament. But you need to know the Old as well. It's one book. And Christ is all through the Old Testament. And the more you think like that, the more you start to see him. I just covered this in Sunday school when Cain killed Abel. And I was just listening to a preacher this week in a rave, and he said, you know, I see a picture there. A sheep being slaughtered and the shepherd being killed. I thought, wow, I never thought of that. That's so cool. It happens all the time, these pictures of Christ, all through the scriptures. The shepherd being killed, the sheep being slain. Dave? Just like you were saying, I probably heard the same one. He says you can go to the first few chapters of Genesis and there's a whole lot. Yeah. David Morris calls that God's seed plot book. Everything in the rest of the Bible is found in Genesis. It's all there. It all starts there. But notice here what Paul is doing. This is important. We're going to come back to this more later. Paul's taking the scriptures, opening them up, explaining them, laying before his hearers what the scriptures say, and then telling them about Christ from those various scriptures, preaching Christ. Paul didn't really realize this until he met Christ. And Christ is the one who put this into establishment. When he was those three years that he learned, that's where he actually saw you know, the correlation between the old and the new. Can you imagine the revelation of Paul when Paul finally, because Paul knew his Old Testament well. When he finally realized this is the Messiah, he could go back into all those scriptures and now they start coming alive. It must have been quite a thing. Isn't that what Christ did to those two men on the way to Emmaus? Yeah, on Emmaus Road. They knew these things, the Jews knew these prophecies, but they just didn't know how to put them all together. Christ fulfilled all of that, and I'm sure for all the apostles, when they finally figured out he's the one, Isaiah spoke of him, David spoke of him, Moses spoke of him, way back in the garden it spoke of him, and all those pictures and types, you'd read your Bible with new eyes for then, like we're supposed to do. But I'll note what this preaching does, and this is the neat stuff here. Again, note verse 4. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas along with a large number of God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. Now think about that. Now he says some, meaning some Jews, not a lot of Jews, some Jews. That's going to be important in just a few verses. Luke's making a contrast here. Some Jews here believed. But it says there are a large number, literally a multitude of God-fearing Greeks, Gentiles. Remember, God's purpose, I mean, God loves to save Jews, but his purpose in this is to save Gentiles. There's a church starting now, and all these Gentiles, and here are a large number of Gentiles. He calls them God-friendly. We've seen that phrase now several times. These are those Gentiles who would come to a Jewish synagogue. I was trying to look this up, but I couldn't get much information on it. In Israel, Gentiles were not allowed in synagogues. But for some reason, we're reading now back in Antioch and other places, there's a huge number of Gentiles there. So apparently, outside of Israel, Gentiles were allowed to listen in in synagogue. As Paul here is preaching in a synagogue, this is what we saw back in Antioch. And there's many Gentiles hearing this. I'm trying to look that up. I haven't found it yet. But that probably seems to be the case here. Somebody had a hand up? I was just going to ask you that question. Were Greeks allowed into synagogues? Apparently outside of Israel they were. In Jerusalem they weren't. In Israel they weren't allowed to, but apparently outside all the mother synagogues they were, because the Jews were a minority there. I imagine that's probably how it went. What does it mean by the leading women? Prominent. These were women who were married to the prominent men. That means wealthy men, that means the businessmen, that means the political leaders of the city, important men. These were their wives, which is another phenomenon. We saw this back in Antioch. These prominent women liked to go to synagogues for some reason. These are Gentile women. Gentile women, we'll get to that in a second. What else he sees? First of all, a whole multitude of Greeks, Gentiles, believe Paul and join with him. And also the last one that Dorcas just mentioned. Literally, as Luke says, not a few of the prominent women. That's a way of saying a whole lot, a whole lot of wealthy, well-connected women. These are women who had important husbands, mayors, and who knows what they were, senators, and rich people, and important wealthy business people. But note here, the gospel, every place it's going now is getting not only to the people in the street, but to the leaders. Remember when Paul went to the island of Cyprus? The governor gets saved. Remember that? The governor and his household get saved. It's not just the gospels going into the streets, it's going into the government. It's going into the big business center. We saw the same thing in Antioch, so the same thing here now. Very important people. Remember back in Antioch, the jailer gets saved. He's a soldier. He had an important position. He gets saved, and his whole household. The gospel's spreading, and it's spreading, not only, it's spreading to these important people, people who had some influence, people who had some money, which is a good way to get a church started in this pagan city. These prominent women were the wives of leading men of the city. But remember, back in Pisidian Antioch, we saw that before. In Pisidian Antioch, back in chapter 13, this same class of women violently opposed Paul. Remember that? Way back in chapter 13. Pisidian Antioch, look, there's two Antiochs, one all the way to your right and one a little bit to the left there. When Paul was there, this same kind of women, women who were married to important men, withstood Paul. made great trouble for Paul. They were the reason he had to leave, because they used whatever power and influence they had to get Paul out of there. But here in this city, a whole lot of these women get saved. That's pretty cool. And the point is, a church is now started in Antioch. There's, not Antioch, Thessalonica. There's believers now, born again believers in Thessalonica, and not just two or three, Many, some Jews, not many Jews, but a whole lot of Gentiles and a whole lot of this class of wealthy women are saved. Because later Paul will write to the Thessalonians. It's an established church. It's going to grow from here. But as you might expect from our readings, it's not long before the Jews riot. And they do. Look at verse 5. Remember back in verse 4 it said only some Jews, not many Jews, some Jews. Verse 5. But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar, and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, these men who have upset the whole world have come here also, and Jason has welcomed them. And they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there's another king, Jesus. They stirred up the crowd, and the city authorities who heard these things, and when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them. Right away, the Jews inside a riot. Now we're gonna see this often in the Book of Acts. This is normal for Paul. Paul will go somewhere. What's also normal for Paul is great success in his preaching. Remember, Paul's not saving anybody. Jesus is. The Lord's doing this through Paul, but he's using Paul to call his elect to eternal life. And here in Thessalonica, he calls a whole crowd of them over a period of three weeks. A whole crowd of these people get saved. There's lots of them. But also, what you often see, this is going to be Paul's life, basically. The Jews, the rest of the Jews, the Jewish leadership, don't like this at all. Remember how they hated Jesus for this? They saw Jesus as a threat. Luke uses the word jealous. We've seen that before in Acts. They get jealous. Well, jealous of what? Well, Paul, I'm sure, is causing these very popular. The people are listening to Paul. People are getting saved. He's actually preaching people out of Judaism. Think about that. Saul was the same way before he became Paul. Yeah. Someone, one of the commentators said, Saul, from this point on, gets a taste of his own medicine. God often brings his right back on him. Not that God is punishing Paul. I don't think he is. But this is what Saul used to do. Now he's on the other end of that kind of thing. But it says that he became jealous, just like he did with Jesus. And notice what it says they did. This is nothing new either. Verse 5. Taking along some wicked men from the marketplace formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. Now Thessalonica is a large city. It's a large seaport city. And probably there was a very large marketplace right in the center of town where unemployed guys would hang out, rabble. These are a bunch of lowlifes just hanging out in the center of town. Remember that parable Jesus gave of the landowner who was calling all these, you need a job, come work for me. Some worked 12 hours, some worked, I remember that. Guys would hang out in the center of town looking for work, just hanging out, or just hanging out, getting drunk, whatever. These Jews went down, these guys would probably be Gentiles, probably, went down to the center of town and told these guys something like, these Jews have just come in here from places. They've caused trouble and riots every place they go. Now they've come here. And these guys, oh we can't have that, we won't have that, and that kind of thing. And they said they go downtown, they start a riot. They form a mob and start a riot. And now the whole city's in an uproar. Back in those days, when you didn't have everybody home with the doors locked watching TV, When something happens out in the street, everybody shows up. What's going on? The whole city of Thessalonica, that's 100,000 people. They're not all out there, but of course, the whole city's here. This riot, there's this shouting, this rabble. These men have come here now. They've caused all that trouble that the Jews are telling them about. And they formed this riot. It's an amazing thought when you think about it. They're wicked men, troublemakers. And notice what they do. 6, I'm sorry, verse 5, but the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in uproar and attacking the house of Jason. They were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren out. Now, Luke mentions a guy named Jason. We have no idea who that is. It's interesting, Luke here doesn't explain who Jason is, so apparently, The crowd he believes he's writing to would know who he was. Luke doesn't feel the need to introduce Jason. They would know who he was. We don't. Now, Paul and Silas and Timothy were staying at Jason's house. The people knew that. The Jews somehow knew that. Of course, he's been here now for three weeks. So they go to Jason's house to try to find Paul, Silas, and Timothy to drag them out of there and have their way with them. Paul's not home. They're not there. I don't know where they are. They're not there. So they drag Jason out, and the brethren who are with him, those are the brethren, Jason and the brethren, probably when Paul came to Thessalonica, the early church started in his home. Now, there is a Jason that Paul mentions in Romans 16. We have no idea if it's the same one. Paul writes in Romans 16, 21, that Timothy and Jason who are with me greet you. Don't know if it's the same Jason. Jason was a common name in the Roman Empire. Who this Jason is, we just don't know. They knew. They would have known who he was probably. He didn't need an introduction to them, but we just don't know. Didn't you say this was their second missionary journey? Yeah. Could he have been there before and met him? Not in Thessalonica. Paul hadn't been here before. This is the first time the gospel ever came to this city. This is the first time it's been there. Now, where Jason comes from, we don't know. That's all we know about him, but apparently he was that well known, Luke didn't bother to introduce him. He just tells us he was there. But they go to Jason's house, kick in the door, probably, where is Paul, where are these men? And they're not there. So they grab Jason and the other brother, notice the word there in verse five, in verse six, dragging. That's literal, dragging. Probably grabbing him by the shirt and dragging him through the streets, down to the city square. Every city square had a tribunal. a place where judges sat, a place where you could hear cases. They dragged these guys, we don't know how far, onto the city center before the judges, throw them down the street, and condemned them. They were attacking the House of Jason. Notice that there's three charges here. Read them again. Here's six. says, they were shouting, these men who have upset the whole world have come here also. And Jason has welcomed them. And they all, get that, they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king, Jesus. There's basically three charges here they charge him with. And Paul gets this a lot. Jesus got the same thing. First of all, notice it says, these men who have upset the whole world have come here. That's a charge of disturbing the peace. That's an exaggeration. They haven't upset the whole world. Now, these Jews probably know about what happened back in Philippi. There was a riot. They were beaten in the streets. They were thrown in jail. Remember, there was a huge earthquake. That whole town has probably never gotten over this yet. Several places Paul has gone, riots have broken out. Remember, Paul was beaten with canes. Paul was stoned earlier. These Jews probably know this. In fact, we'll see here in a minute. Some of these Jews follow Paul every place he goes. And they're probably telling the same story. This guy's a troublemaker. Every place he goes, riots break out. He's been arrested. He's been beaten. He's a troublemaker. That's what they say. This guy, who we've heard about, who's upset the whole world, has now come here, and Jason had him in his house. And what's probably upsetting them is, I think I have this on your sheet, or I have it on my sheet, anyway. They're disturbing the peace. In 1 Thessalonians 1.9, you can turn there, Paul said how the gospel when it came to Thessalonica had such an influence because they turned from dead idols to the living God. That's the same thing they were accused of back in Philippi, back in chapter 60. Remember it says how they're teaching things unlawful for Romans? When Christians get saved, when this crowd gets saved here in Thessalonica, one of the first things they did was stopped worshiping idols. Now Rome, the Greek world was full of idols. There were idols, gods and goddesses all over the place. And it was normal. That's just how Romans lived. Now these Christians renounce all of that. No more idolatry. They're probably smashing up their idols. Well, that would upset a lot of people. That would get a lot of people concerned and mad. They're changing the whole structure of society. Remember, we'll see later in 17 when Paul goes to Athens, he says, you have gods to everything. You even have an unknown god. They have just gods, gods, gods, all these fake gods. Well, Christianity puts an end to that. And that would be a very upsetting factor. And they're saying, these men are turning the world upside down. They're ruining everything. These men are destroying our society. You often hear that verse used like how Christianity turned the world upside down. I mean, everybody's getting to say, they're not saying that. They're saying, these men have come here now, and look at the trouble they've started. The Jews started this trouble, by the way, not these guys, but that's just how it goes. All this trouble. So the first charge is, disturbing the peace. The second charge, he says, they teach things against Caesar. Now that's not true. Paul never did that. For example, there's a quote there from 1 Peter. Peter taught, honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor. Jesus was accused of that, remember? He's against Caesar. He teaches contrary to Caesar. Did Jesus ever do that? If you want to ask him a question about paying taxes, what did he say? Show me a coin. Give Caesar his taxes. Give it to him. It's his. But give God what is his. Jesus never preached anarchy or any of that stuff. The apostles didn't either. And every time they mentioned government, they'd tell you, be respectful. Pray for your leaders. Peter says here, honor the emperor. That's talking about Nero, by the way. You be the best citizen you can be. That's always Christianity. No one can tell you to do something evil. If it comes to the church being God and man, you always stand with God. But every Christian, no matter what country you live in, you should be the best citizen of that country. I often wondered about this. The government should love us, because we're the best citizens they have, aren't we? But they'll never see it that way, because they're lost. They see us as crazy people and worse. But they're saying here, he's against Caesar. I mean, he's not against Caesar. But remember, Paul did teach in Thessalonica that Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord of all. That they could probably misinterpret as saying, well, there's this other king that says that next. The third one is treason. There's another king, Jesus. When a Roman citizen, they were required to take an oath. I don't know what age it was. You're required to swear allegiance to Caesar. And in that oath, you promised in that oath to never allow treason or anything against Caesar. You would turn him in. If you heard of anything going on against Caesar, you would speak up. That was part of the oath. I don't have the exact words, but they would swear to that, a loyalty oath to Caesar to report treason. Well, they're hearing Paul talking about Jesus is Lord. That was always his message. That was Peter's message earlier in Acts. suffered and died according to scriptures, is risen from the dead, and now he's Lord of all. And he'll say in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, there's a kingdom coming, which you're a part of. If you are in Christ, you're part of this kingdom. Well, of course, they would hear that as he's against Caesar. That's not true. Christians do not go around overthrowing governments. But they were saying that they're against Caesar, and this riot starts Now keep your finger here, because essentially Paul mentions this. Turn to 1 Thessalonians, chapter one. Let's just read a few verses. I love doing this when I read it in Acts. It's like I read Philippians now differently because of what happened in chapter 16. I read Thessalonians differently now because of what I'm seeing here. Let's just look at some of the things Paul said, Paul's version of this. And Paul will mention this, by the way, this trouble he has and everything that the Jews are doing. 1 Thessalonians, let's start at verse nine. Chapter one, verse nine. He starts out by saying how he's so thrilled that when the Word of God was preached, you accepted it as God's Word, the Holy Spirit did His work in regenerating you, proving your election and calling of God. Paul's so thankful for these Thessalonians who got saved. Verse 9 he says, about other churches talking about you, we'll go back to verse 8, for the Word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith towards God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything, for they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we have with you. Notice how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, that is Jesus. who rescues us from the wrath to come, chapter 2. For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. I can imagine as Paul writes this, he's seeing the faces of these people, these prominent women, these Jews who got saved, these gentiles. He knows, he sees them, wouldn't you? He's writing a letter to them. This is probably only a few months to a year or more after this, hard to say. Verse 2, but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, that's Acts 16, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel amid much opposition. Paul's talking about what we just read. We were beaten up in Philippi, but that didn't stop us. We came to Thessalonica and we preached the gospel amidst much opposition. They were trying to shut us up. They were trying to arrest us and on and on it goes. That's what you're reading. Read on. For our exhortation does not come from error, or impurity, or by way of deceit. That's what these wicked Jews were saying about Paul. He's only here for your money. He's lying to you. He's a deceiver. But just as we've been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak. Not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. Notice verse 5. We never came with flattering speech, as you know. Because they were saying that. These guys are just flattering you. They're lying to you. Verse 6, nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority. Again, that's what they're being accused of by these evil Jews. But we proved to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her child. Notice verse 10. Or verse 9, because I'm sure they were also saying, these guys only want your money. They're only here to exploit you and take your money. But notice how Paul mentions that in verse 9. You recall, brothers, that our labor and hardship, how we worked night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you. Paul said, we didn't take any of your money. We worked to support ourselves while we were there. Verse 10, you are witnesses, and so is God. How devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behave towards you believers. Get that. Paul's defending himself against what, because Paul was kicked out of there. So Paul's saying, remember how we lived among you. We didn't take your money. We didn't ask for money. We were righteous. We cared for you like a mother cares for a young child. We loved you while we were there. That's powerful stuff when you think about it. Go on to chapter, well, I don't want to go here. Verse 18. Verse 17. Here he mentions what's about to happen. I'm sorry. Go back a little more. Go back to verse 14. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you also endured the same sufferings at the hand of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews." And here he mentions what these Jews are doing, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out. Get that? They kicked us out of there, Paul says. They are not pleasing to God, but are hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. With the result that they always felt the measure of their sins, but wrath has come upon them to the utmost. We brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while." That phrase in the Greek literature says we were ripped away. We were ripped out of there. We had to leave. We were thrown out. They were going to kill us. But then Paul says, we'll go back to Acts, I long to see you again. That's cool stuff. When you read that now, you see the background of what Paul's talking about. How these men would come in there and complain about Paul. Even after he left, I'm sure they're saying, don't listen to that guy. He just wants your money. He's no good. They're charlatans. They're liars. Paul says, no we weren't. You know how we were, Paul said. You remember how we were among you. Even though it only was for three weeks, you recall what we were doing there. It reminds him how the Jews had cited these riots and we had to leave. We were ripped out of there. It's kind of neat stuff. I love when you can get the background to these things and see more about it. So these accusations are all wrong. And Paul mentions all of this. It says there back in Acts 7 how they stirred up the crowd, brought them to the authorities, and here it says they made Jason pay some kind of a bond. Notice again there verse 9. Verse 8, they stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things, the authorities are worked up too, And when they had received a pledge or a bond from Jason and the others, they released them. They don't get Paul and Silas and Timothy. Don't know where they are. They're probably hiding somewhere. The Christians probably have them in hiding. Jason won't tell them where they are, but they threaten Jason. And what they do is they post some kind of a bond. In other words, If you ever bring them here again, or if we ever see you with them again, here's the fine you're going to pay. It's like putting up money, like protection money kind of thing. You will pay this fine if we ever see you with them again. You can't do this again. And they forced Jason to promise to pay this penalty if Paul's ever seen here again. That's sad, isn't it? But again, think about it. That's to be expected. Anytime you preach the gospel of Christ, people are going to get angry. someone's not going to like it. That's been the history of the Christian Church since day one. The preaching of Christ makes those who are getting saved glad, but those who are not getting saved fills them with rage, fills them with anger, fills them with hatred. Didn't Christ tell if a town won't accept you to shake off the dust of your sandals when you go to leave? That's what Paul does here. Against them. That's been Paul's basically the way he operates. If he goes through a town and a riot breaks out, he leaves. Of course, here the brethren ask him to leave. They help him to leave. But he leaves. He goes on somewhere else. Paul's in other places to preach. But we're going to read that in the very next verse. Look at verse 10. The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. Now, we don't know where Timothy is. But Paul and Silas sent away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now, these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness. examining the scriptures daily to see where these things were sold. Therefore, many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men." Just stop there. Get your map out again. Paul, the brethren help him get out of there. They send him off, they probably give him supplies and help him on his way, but find Thessalonica. Paul then heads to Berea, even further to the west, further in to the Roman Empire. He's not looking for an escape route here. He's further into the Roman Empire. They send Paul away by night. This is a hasty, secret exit. Probably the only way to calm this crowd down is to get Paul out of there. They were probably going to kill him, or beat him again, or arrest him again. Who knows what they were going to do? The Jews had power in these kind of things, and it probably would have gone very bad for them. In fact, Paul says there again, it says, we were torn away from you. We were just getting started. We preached for three weeks. People were getting saved. He says, then we were ripped out of there. In fact, when Paul writes back, I don't know how many months or years later, he's writing 1 Thessalonians. He is just so full of praise for that. The fame of you is going out, he says, throughout all Macedonia. You witness to your neighbors, you're kind, you love the Lord, you're eager for his return. He just loves what happened there. It's amazing how God can do that. In only three weeks, Paul was there. It's a neat thing how the Holy Spirit operates and what God is doing here. But you always see this mob and riot and they're shouting. It's like when that kind of thing happens, what are you going to do? Yeah. Yeah. It's just out of control. They're probably going to, what's that? It is it is it is back in chapter 16 in Philippi Paul could have spoke of he speaks up afterwards in jail But he probably couldn't get a word out there beating them in crowds and shouting and yelling. It's that's a bad scene And Jason and the rest of them guys might have got in trouble as well and Paul did the right thing as Dean said Jesus said move on and he does now he goes to Berea and Now Berea, it's interesting, Berea in Greece today is called a modern-day town called Veria, Veria. That's about 45 miles away. He leaves at night to get there, 45 miles away. Now Berea is a much smaller town than Thessalonica. In fact, there's a main road, if you follow your map, Paul is traveling the main road that goes through all these cities, the main travel route. Berea is way off that main road, back a few miles off the road. In fact, there's an old, a Greek writer named Sisera who described Berea as an out-of-the-way town. In other words, if you're on the main road, you don't see Berea. This is where he ends up, he's in Berea. Today, I saw a picture of him, there's a colorful marker today in Berea to the Apostle Paul, that he was there in the center of town, that he would have been there preaching where the synagogue was. They know where the synagogue was. There's a marker there commemorating the Apostle Paul. But those again, verse 10, as usual, Paul has his, Same modus operandi, verse 10. The brethren immediately sent Paul and his house away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, what's he do? He went into the synagogues of the Jews. This is what Paul does. He's there to preach, and the synagogues were an open door to a Jew like Paul. That's his greatest, easiest opportunity, even though he knows what could happen. In fact, it's gonna happen again. He knows what could happen. I often wondered in the Gospels how Jesus was always, well, of course, a faithful Jew was in synagogue on Saturday, but Jesus, Most of the, a lot of the places he got in trouble was in synagogues. But that's just how it goes. They're being faithful. Paul goes to the synagogue, and notice, let's read this again. Verse 11, now these, meaning these Jews, were more noble-minded than those Jews in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Notice verse 12, therefore, Many of them believed along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. Just look at that before we come back to some more of this. Many, remember back in earlier it says some Jews believed in Thessalonica. Here it says many. God, and why is that? God's opening their hearts. God is opening their hearts. The Holy Spirit is working here. Remember, no one gets saved unless God opens your heart to believe and understand and throw yourself on Christ. Paul preaches, I'm sure, the same message here as he preached back in Thessalonica. There, some Jews got saved, but most of them turned against him. Here, many Jews get saved in Berea. Paul probably went there because Berea had a pretty large Jewish population, but many Jews here believed. Verse 12, and notice also, Again, literally, Luke Lex used this phrase, not a few prominent Greek men and women. Here, many Greeks get saved, again, Gentiles. Jews and Gentiles get saved in Berea, meaning a church now starts in Berea. That's cool. And also here it says men and women, prominent. That means they were rich. They were governors. They were business people. They were the upper crust. of society, not just the people on the street. Many of them got saved, and Luke sees a need to point that out every time. Many Gentiles got saved, and among them were these wealthy men and women, these influential, prestigious men and women, believed and got saved. And a church is started in Berea. That's so cool. I mentioned this a couple weeks ago. You see what the Lord's doing here. He said, I will build my church. Because again, have you ever read the history of missionaries? And I've read and heard a lot of those. Most missionaries since Paul have never had this kind of success. I mean, many missionaries have done great things. I mean, great things. But usually, a missionary gets sent out, and it's years of hard work and frustration and danger until they start seeing their first few converts. And then usually, it's towards the end of their life, some of these missionaries, you start seeing great works. Here, every place Paul goes, bang, they're getting saved, saved, saved, saved. The Holy Spirit's doing that. He's building a footprint throughout the Roman Empire of Christian churches. He's filling the world with Christians. And that's only through the Spirit of God. That's a neat thing. Christ is doing here in a big way what he said he would do. He's getting the church off with a bang. It starts off big. Because you know, all these churches are witnessing churches. The Thessalonians were. Telling all of Macedonia about Christ. Many more got saved because of them. That's pretty cool. Let's go back now to this. Verse 11. This I want to spend some more time on. Verse 11. It says, now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica. You can say, now these Jews were more noble-minded than the Jews of Thessalonica. Why? What makes them so noble-minded? And noble-minded means they thought much better. They used their minds much better. Noble means good or honorable. These were more honorable in their thinking than the Jews back in Thessalonica who rejected Paul and tried to kill him. Notice what he says why. For they received the word with great eagerness. Now that can only be a work of the Holy Spirit. Remember, Paul will say later to the Corinthians how the gospel is foolishness to the Gentiles. It's foolishness. It's a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet these Jews and Gentiles, they just receive God's word with eagerness. Their hearts are open like Lydia to receive the words of Paul. Do you think there have been Pharisees inside the Jews? I would doubt. Not many. I don't think there were many Pharisees outside of Israel. I don't think so. our Sadducees. There are Jerusalem and Israel. I don't think there are many of them outside of Israel. These just be Jews. I mean the Jews, every synagogue has a synagogue official, but they weren't Pharisees. They were just like high ranking Jews in town. Like the guy who came, remember when Paul was struck blind, what was his name, Jason? So he was a well spoken among the Jews. He was probably one of those higher ranking elder Jews in town. That's what you'd have in a synagogue. You'd have the elder Jews who ran the place, but they weren't Pharisees. They weren't Sadducees. But they received God's word with great eagerness. But notice what it says here next. They received the word with great eagerness. That's always a work of the Holy Spirit. But this next phrase I want to spend some time on. Verse 11. Examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. That is teaching something the Bible says all over the place. These Jews in Berea, the reason Luke wants us to see this. The reason he says they were more noble minded, they were using their minds in a much better way than the Jews back in Thessalonica did. Because when Paul would say something, remember what Paul is saying, the Bible says the Messiah must suffer and die and rise again and he'll be Lord of Lords. And Paul would take all those verses we know so well, Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, many other places, and preach the Messiah is Jesus Christ. These Berean Jews would hear that, go home, and just check it out. Check it out. And of course, once you start doing that, you've got them. God's working in a big way. And these Jews, they listened to Paul. They didn't take what he said without thinking. Let's go home and see if that's true. He said Isaiah said it. Look up Isaiah. It does say that. Psalm 22 does say that. It does say that in our scriptures. That's it. They're confirming what Paul said. They're examining their scriptures. Notice the word there, daily. Now get that. The word to examine is a legal term. It's a courtroom term. When you examine a witness, you ask questions. You cross-examine. One of the commentators said, they use their Bible like an x-ray machine. Let's see if what Paul said is really true. And it may have been with an idea of, if we can catch him misusing scripture, we can go back and get him for it. But they couldn't. They couldn't do it. Remember how many times the Pharisees in Israel tried to confound Jesus, and he was right every time. Paul would preach the scriptures. They would go home daily. You want to know how long Paul was in Berea? Maybe a little while. And they would get their scriptures out. Paul said, let's see if that's true. And as they're reading, remember the Bible is the word of God, living and active, like a two-edged sword. They would get to their hearts, and God would say to them through that. Would they all have copies of the scriptures? Available. Not every house had a copy of the scriptures, but the synagogue had them. And they were available for public reading. You could go in there privately and read the scriptures. They would have access to them. Not everybody would own a copy of the Bible. They were very expensive, but they would have access to them. And they would all just check and read. It's a neat thing that's going on here. And what this does is describing a major Bible doctrine, as you all know. We, as Christians, are never to take anything anyone says just because they say it. Don't you ever say, well, I believe that because Rick believes it, or Pastor Paul believes it. That's why I believe it. Now you should listen to your pastors and your teachers if they're good, but everything that comes out of this pulpit, you have the obligation to say, is that really in the scriptures? Anything you hear on television or on the radio, I get so disturbed sometimes when people bring these little books around, well so-and-so says like, well show me that in the Bible. Show me that in scripture. That should always be your response. When someone says anything, it sounds a little off the wall or crazy or whatever, show me that in God's word. If you can show me that in God's word, I'll believe it. If you can't, then I'm not going to believe it. This is a major Bible doctrine that everything in the Christian world has to be settled by the standard of scripture. God's word is the standard by which every teaching must be compared, not vice versa. I don't care what some scholar says or some Bible teacher with five letters behind his name, he's only right if the Bible agrees with what he's saying. And if it doesn't, I don't care who he is, you reject it. I don't care how well their ministry is or how friendly they are or whatever it is or how powerful that video was, what does God's word say? And you'll hear that here. I've done this with people. You tell me, I think this is going to happen. I think, show me that. Just show me that. Back it up with scripture. what you have to do. Some verses there, and of course I could have given you literally dozens and dozens of verses on this, just a few. Isaiah 8.20 says, to the teaching and to the testimony if they will not speak according to this words because they have no done. Isaiah was complaining, God's complaining to the prophet about these false teachers. And he says, alright, you go to the testimony, to the word of God. If what they say agrees with the word of God, fine, but if not, they're blind guides, don't listen to them. Take these false prophets, take them to the scriptures. And if they don't agree with this, they have no light, he says. Matthew 22, Jesus said to the Pharisees, you are deceived because you don't know the scriptures. That's why they were wrong. Christ always took them back to the scriptures. You've got it wrong. You teach the doctrines of men and not the scriptures. John 17, Jesus said, never sanctify them by the truth, Your word is truth. The truth is God's word. 1 Corinthians 4, 6, Paul says, he's writing to them that you may learn by us not to go beyond, notice, what is written. Paul said, one of the things I'm going to do for you is just teach you to stick by the word of God. Don't go beyond that. Don't add things to it. Stick by the scriptures. Walk by the word of God. Jude 3, beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for, notice, the faith. that was once for all delivered to the saints. There's one faith, the faith that God once for all gave to the church, that's what he says you contend for. Everything has to go through this filter. The Bible is an x-ray machine. Every doctrine, every teaching has to go through the scriptures. John 10.35, Jesus said, the scripture cannot be broken. If it doesn't agree with this, it's wrong. If something contradicts scripture, it's wrong. It's that simple. That's why the devil can't destroy it. That's not exactly right, though he wants to. Psalm 119, 128, a verse I love. Therefore, I esteem right all your precepts concerning everything. David says, everything your Bible says about everything, I know it's right. Why? Because it's your word. Because God can't get it wrong. Even though it doesn't seem right, it's right. And of course, Ephesians, Paul's talking about maturity and growing up until we all attain to the unity of the faith. and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children. In other words, read your Bibles. Grow up. Don't be dependent on some evangelist on television or some latest book that's out. Read your Bibles. Learn your Bibles. Get in church. Sit under sound teaching and learn your Bibles. There's nothing good that comes from a Christian who doesn't know their Bible. Obviously, a new Christian takes time to learn, but learn your scriptures. You're not safe with that. And of course, he says there's that we may longer be children tossed to and fro by the ways and carried about us by every wind of doctrine. I've been saved 40, I don't know, six years. I'm amazed at all these false teachers that come along every couple of weeks, every couple of months, some new thing, some new something. Dave's the only like this money. He's right. These televangelists always have some new angle, some new thing. The charismatics are always finding some new weird teaching somewhere. Guess what we just figured out? Some new book just comes out. They see the Bible as some kind of a code book. There's things hidden in here that only I can find. Forget that nonsense. This is not true. Luke here wants us to see this. Luke here is specifically telling us these Bereans were really something special, because they searched the scriptures. That pleased Paul and Luke very much. I can't. Go ahead. Who was the one, I think it was Paul telling them, you guys should be on meat by now, but you're still on milk. I can't think. You should tell them that. Well, Hebrew says that. Yeah. By now you should be teachers and you're still meat. Yeah, that's what I mean, because they're not studying. That's a rebuke to an older Christian. But still, it's telling you, be in the Word. That's all right. There's no substitute for knowing the Word of God. You don't know it well, being able to go to someone and say, they're telling me this. I don't think that's right. Is that true, to have someone sit down with you and go through the scriptures? That's so important. Let's move on. Verse 13. Of course, you can guess what happens next. It's just a pattern of things. Verse 13. But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul and Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Here the same bunch of Jews follow Paul all the way to Berea and make the same kind of trouble. Stirring up the crowds are arguing about Paul. He's a liar. He's a deceiver. He only wants your money Don't listen to him etc. Etc. Trying to get Paul arrested or beaten up or whatever so read on verse 14 then immediately the brethren that's those who are saved now in Berea the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as the sea and Silas and Timothy remained there Now those who escorted Paul, there's a crowd going with him now. There's brothers traveling with Paul, so Paul's not being alone. Those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. Now again, grab your map. Look where he's going. Paul leaves Berea. Instead of going at some small village or some small countryside, he's going to Athens. You know what Athens is? Yeah, probably the most Athens is the intellectual capital of the Greek world. Athens is where all the scholars lived, all the Greek poets were, all the Greek philosophers, all the Greek teachers, the great men of Greek thinking were all in Athens. Athens had a long history. Greek oracles and Greek prophecies and Greek this. We'll see here Paul goes to where these guys would stand around and they'd love to talk and philosophize. Kind of like an old version of a coffee shop where everybody's sitting around spouting off their opinions. Remember in the Gospels Jesus mentions that centurion who was a benefactor of the Jews. He would give money to these kind of things. But notice here Athens is the Greek capital of just philosophy. It's 195 miles south. That's a long trip. And notice, Luke here doesn't mention a boat. He usually mentions when they get into a boat. Here he doesn't mention a boat. Speculation, Paul, instead of taking the easy route by hopping on a boat, probably went by land. Probably get away from these Jews. Doesn't say that, I'm guessing. But Paul, doesn't say Paul hopped on a boat and went to Athens. And he must be a real good swimmer. Of course, then Silas and Timothy meet up with him later, but Paul, the next thing we're going to see, Lord willing, next time we're together in Acts 17, is Paul is now in Athens. What a place to be. It's kind of like, there are no places in the world today quite like this, but going to Athens, this is where all the Greek thinking, the great thinkers and the great philosophies of the Greek world come from. That's where Paul is, right? Well, he's going to, but he's also going to make converts. Some thoughts, there's a lot to this, a lot we could say. This is amazing history, isn't it? And again, you gotta know the Holy Spirit's guiding Paul every place he goes. He's telling him to go to Athens. Some thoughts, letter A. The work of missionaries, evangelists, pastors, teachers, I could add there's Sunday school teachers, nursery workers, is clearly described in the scriptures. And here's one example of it. From the scriptures we are to reason with everyone Explaining the scriptures and laying out or proclaiming before them Christ's death and resurrection as well as his lordship and many other things. We'll see when Paul leaves Ephesus. I gave you the whole counsel of God. Lay it all out before them. Whenever you're going to teach scripture, that's your job. Take God's word, open it up, lay it out before them and use that to preach Christ. That's what we're called to do. And if you do teach the Bible, let it say what it says, you will preach Christ. It will have its effect. God will use it. But the whole account, remember Paul said to the Galatians, don't you remember how Christ was publicly crucified before you? When Paul would preach, he would preach so vividly as if Christ was hanging on a cross right in front of them. That's what he's saying. He would preach Christ that they would understand his death and his resurrection. That's what he did. That's Christian preaching. Letter B. Of course, this is in all of this. Persecution against the preaching of the gospel is to be expected. If you're preaching it right, someone's not going to like it. Someone's going to get offended. Paul says in Romans, the natural heart is enmity against God. When you're preaching a gospel where Christ is Lord, you must bow, humble yourself, submit to him as Lord. That's not a popular message. It just isn't. Let her see. We are all to be like the noble-minded Bereans. They're here as an example for us. The Holy Spirit included this through Luke. We see this. That's your call. That's my job description. That's your job description. Know your scriptures. Learn the Bible so that you can take everything you see around you and compare it to this word. But if you don't know this word, you're like a ship tossed at sea without a row. You're just going to be back and forth. We are all to be like the noble-minded Marines. We are to know the scriptures well and compare every teaching and belief with the word of God. The Bible must be our final authority in every matter. That's where churches always go wrong. There's a dozen churches here in Paso, and there's very few of them that believe that now. The Bible must be the final authority. Everything you do, say, teach, expect of people, if it doesn't come out of this book, you've already come off the rails. It has to be scripture. Pray for Paul and I. Pray for this church that we never lose focus on that. God's word must be central in everything we do. Not just here, but in your lives. All of us have this obligation. The Bible must be the final authority. Whatever you say you believe, you better have Bible authority for it, or change your beliefs. It's that simple. It really is. Again, some verses there before we close. 2 Corinthians 10, Paul says, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lost opinion. Notice what? Raised against the knowledge of God. How do we do that? Through God's word. These great hotshot professors and deep thinkers and book writers all have this to say about this. We can destroy all of that because God's word says. And of course, Ephesians 6, Paul said, with all of the Christian armor, take up the sword of the spirit. What is the sword of the spirit? Word of God. That is what you fight with, the word of God. And I love what Paul said last Sunday, if any of you heard it. It's not because the Bible says, it's because God says. This is God's Word. We should be saying then, here's what God said about how you get to heaven. Here's what God said about how you have your sins forgiven. Here's what God said about this or that or this or that. How do I know God said that? It's in here. That should be our message. And then the second one on that, do you really believe this? There we go. And there's lots of reasons why. Give me some time and I'll tell you why I believe that. We should all be able to do that. Remember Peter says in 1 Peter 3.15, is that right? Always be ready to give an answer for the hopeless. How do you do that? Here's why I believe this is God's word. Here's why I believe Jesus died. Always be ready to give an answer to that. Let's close in prayer. Our Father, we thank you that you have given us your word that we can walk by and live by. We thank you, Lord, you haven't left us to our own devices, to our own reasonings, to our own emotions. Lord, you have clearly spelled out the way to go, the path that we're to walk on. You've made it so clear through your word, and we know that it's true, it's right, it's precious. Lord, we esteem your word right about everything because it is. Lord, help us to be like these noble Bereans. Help us, Lord, to take everything we hear and examine everything through the lens of your word. Give us the power of your spirit to do so. Help us, Lord, here in this church to grow in our understanding of your word and what it teaches. Lord, I thank you as we read in Acts how the gospel spread and how you were so eager and powerful to save Jews and Gentiles throughout the Roman Empire. And because of that, Lord, your gospel, the good news of your son, spread throughout the world. And Lord, one day it reached us right here where we live. Lord, thank you for sending your light to the nations, for lifting Christ up as a standard and destroying all men to himself. Thank you, Lord. It's thrilling to see this happening. Lord, it's still happening. Thank you, Lord, for the saving work of Jesus Christ and for your desire to save lost sinners like us. Lord, help us to appreciate this, to think of these things often, to love your gospel, to love how it came to us. Thank you for opening our hearts to believe. Lord, thank you especially for our Savior whose plan this all was, who made this all possible by dying on the cross and rising again. He is Lord right now of the church. He is Lord of all these salvations taking place. Thank you. We ask all of this in his name. We thank you for this in his name.