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We continue in the exciting book of Acts. What happened in the book of Acts changed the world, literally. And I pray that God will still change the world. And the world needs changing, would you agree? Amen. And what an impact they had on the city of Thessalonica as we look at Acts chapter 17 together. Now following your Bible, Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them for three Sabbaths, reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ, that is the Messiah, had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, This Jesus, whom I preach to you, is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded, and a great multitude of devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul in Silas. But the Jews who were not persuaded became envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace and gathered a mob, set all the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, These who have turned the world upside down have come here too also. 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. Join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the tremendous saving work that you did in the city of Thessalonica. And I pray that our church will be inspired to be instruments in your hands to bring many more people to faith in Christ, to impact our city, our community. Show us how from this text of Scripture, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, in chapter 16, Paul was ministering in the city of Philippi, and now we see him moving to the city of Thessalonica. Thessalonica was the capital of the province of Macedonia. It was a large city of some 200,000 people. Very large for that day and time. And so Paul knew that if he could establish a church there, that church would reach out to others in the region. And so we read about their coming. But notice in verse 6 that a lot of folks did not welcome them. And they accused them of being troublemakers. They said in verse 6, These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Yes, everywhere Paul and Silas went, they made a big impact upon the communities where they shared the gospel. And they did turn the world upside down, so to speak. They did bring in tremendous change as people turned to Christ and as lives were changed. Paul wrote back to the Thessalonians and this is what he said there. Our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. Their ministry and their preaching and their teaching had a powerful impact upon many of the people in that city of Thessalonica. Oh, what can happen through the power of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit? Now all over the world revolutions are taking place just constantly. There's political revolution. There are cultural revolutions like what is taking place right here in America. But what I would like to see is a spiritual revolution. What I would like to see is Thousands and thousands of people right here in this community and millions around this nation turning to Christ and experiencing the life transformation that Christ can bring. And if individuals are saved and transformed, then communities will be transformed for the better as well. And what we're going to do this morning is share with you what Paul did to transform the city of Thessalonica. And I believe that if we follow the same pattern, that we can have a greater impact upon our community as well. Now the first thing I want to share with you is this, that if we're going to have an impact like Paul did, we must follow the manner of Paul. Again, Paul was a missionary and he would go from city to city, bringing the gospel, having an impact, and he followed a certain pattern everywhere he went. And I want you to see the pattern that he followed, and I believe it's a pattern that we should follow as well. First of all, we should witness through our weekly worship. It says in the last of verse 1 that there was a synagogue of the Jews there in Thessalonica. And verse 2 says, "...then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures." Now these synagogue services were not totally indifferent from our own worship services today. They would gather together and they would sing psalms and other spiritual songs. They would pray, they would read the scriptures and then one or two would get up and teach or what we might say preach there in the synagogue. And so Paul, since he was a renowned rabbi, a disciple of Gamaliel, when he showed up at the synagogue, they invited him to be the teacher. And for three weeks in a row, he was there in the synagogue sharing the Word of God with them. And notice it was his custom to do that. Every city they traveled, if there was a synagogue, He was in the synagogue worshiping with them and sharing the gospel with them. Not only was it a custom of Paul, but it was a custom of Jesus. In Luke chapter 4 and verse 16, we read that it was His custom to attend the synagogue. And we read of numerous times where He was given the opportunity to teach the Word of God in the synagogue of the Jews. And just as it was the custom of Paul and Jesus to attend the synagogue weekly, I believe it is good for us to, every week that we can, to attend a worship service of the Lord where we pray, where we read Scripture, where we hear the Word of God just as they did. And you know, Paul did it as a witness. He did it as a witness to the Jews and the God-fearers that were gathering there. He would share the gospel. And you know, we should come as a witness for the Lord in several respects. One is, I think, just by our going to church. I believe that's a witness for the Lord. You know, your neighbors will notice. Hey, that person goes somewhere every Sunday morning. And it doesn't take much for them to figure out where you're going. You're going to church. And it's part of our witness. And I tell you, a person who professes to be a Christian and yet doesn't go to church, it's not a good witness. for them. I think we ought to do what Paul and Jesus did and attend weekly when at all possible. But also, there at church is where people are already drawn to God. And there are going to be unbelievers gathering in worship services all over this country. And what an opportunity we have to share the gospel with those who come into the doors of the church. And we have that opportunity. We also have that opportunity to encourage one another and build each other up as Christians as we gather as believers on Sunday. Hebrews 10.25 says, "...not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a matter of some, but exhorting one another." We can encourage one another. We can help each other in our Christian walk as we gather together on Sundays. So we should witness through weekly worship. But we should certainly share the Scriptures as part of our witness. Notice, He didn't just go to the synagogue. He did what? He reasoned with them from the Scriptures, it says in the last part of verse 2. He shared the Word of God. And Paul reflected about this when he wrote to the Thessalonians in chapter 2 and verse 13. For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the Word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it, not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God which also effectively works in you who believe. Yes, the Word of God must be shared to have an impact because it's not us, it's not our personality, it's the power of the Word of God to change lives. It is the power of the Word of God to save souls. It is the power of the Word of God to transform lives. And so if we are going to have an impact, nothing takes the place of sharing the Word of God, the Scriptures. There has never been a great sweeping revival apart from prayer and apart from the preaching of God's Word. And if we're going to have an impact, we've got to share the Scriptures. Share it here. Share it... personally as we witness to people. Next Sunday, Gideon is going to be with us and share about the Gideon ministry of putting Bibles in hotel rooms and on the school campus, wherever they can. It is through the power of the Word that people are saved and lives are transformed and so we must share the Scriptures if we're going to have an impact upon the community. But how is it that Paul went about sharing the Scriptures? I think that's important that we see. Notice in the last of verse 2, it says that he reasoned with them from the Scriptures. He reasoned with them. And that word reasoned in this context means to persuade with arguments. And that's exactly what Paul did. He reasoned with them why Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah that God has sent and God has chosen to save us from our sin. And so, we need to reason with people. You know, we're living in a post-Christian world. We're dealing with a lot of people who did not grow up in church. They don't even understand a lot of things about the Bible like we do. And so it takes some persuading. It takes some persuasion in order to bring them to faith in Jesus Christ. And so as you look at verse 3, notice how this reasoning took place. And those of us that are teachers and preachers, I think we can learn something from verse 3 as to the approach that we should take. First of all, we need to share the Scriptures with explanation. Explaining and demonstrating, it says there in verse 3. The word explaining literally means to open. And it refers to opening our minds or their minds to understanding. Again, a lot of people don't automatically understand the Scriptures. I remember when I started reading the Bible for the first time, I'd run across a lot of things I didn't understand. and I needed someone to help me to understand it. And so, as we share the Scriptures, don't assume that they understand what we're talking about, but we need to make it clear, we need to explain it to them as Paul did. Explaining is the first job of a teacher, a preacher, or someone who is witnessing. But furthermore, we must share the Scriptures with argumentation. It says, explaining and demonstrating that Christ had to suffer and so forth. Argumentation. Now, you see, people, a lot of people are not going to just believe the gospel. They need convincing. There's some obstacles in their minds in order to believe in Christ. And so we've got to give convincing arguments as to why Jesus is the Savior, what He can do for us. And so we need to use argumentation as well as part of our presentation. And that word translated demonstrating literally means to place side by side or alongside. And this is what I think Paul would have done. as he was spending those three weeks in the synagogue, he would share a prophecy. For example, the prophecy said that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem of Judah. Well, Jesus, right alongside that, Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah. The prophecy says in Zechariah 14 that the Messiah will ride into Jerusalem being held as king on a donkey. Well, Jesus rode into Jerusalem, hailed as king on a donkey. And then they could share how the Messiah would suffer and die for the people in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. Well, Jesus suffered and died for the people. And those are just three examples out of hundreds of prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus Christ. And so with convincing argumentation, He presented the Word of God. We call that apologetics. And there's still a need for apologetics certainly in our unbelieving society today. And so if we're going to have an impact on our community, we must share the Scriptures with people. Help them to understand it. Show them its truth. and show them why Jesus is indeed the Savior God has sent. And so, we should follow Paul's manner of ministry if we are going to impact our city for Christ. But we must also, of course, share the message that Paul shared, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul said in Romans chapter 1, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. And here in verse 3, we have his threefold argument. He says there that Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and he said, This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ. And let's look at verse 3 closely now. What is the gospel? It is that the Messiah died for our sins, and His death was absolutely necessary. Notice again it says that Christ, the Messiah, had to suffer. That the Messiah had to suffer. Now why did Paul emphasize that? Well first of all, the Jews according to 1 Corinthians 1 and 18 and 23 found that the preaching of the cross was a stumbling block to them. They had a hard time believing in a crucified Messiah. They were looking for a victorious general type of Messiah who would defeat their enemies and establish a kingdom on earth. That's the kind of Messiah that they were looking for. But Paul had to show them from the Scriptures that before he would rule as king, he must first come and die as our Savior. And so I'm sure he shared Psalm 22. I'm sure he shared Isaiah 53 and other prophecies that the Messiah must die. He had to die. Why did He have to die to save us? Because Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is death. God is a holy and righteous God and sin must be punished with death. And the only way our sins could be forgiven was for a sinless substitute to die in our place. And so He would show from Isaiah 50 Three, that He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. He showed them that He had to die in order for us to be saved from our sins. But not only did He show that the Messiah's death was necessary, And by the way, the death of Christ is the core of the gospel. We must always share that Christ died for our sins because He loves you. He loves you. There was a boy whose mother had disfigured hands. And he asked his mom one day, Mom, why don't you wear gloves over those ugly hands? And she had never explained the story of why her hands were so scarred and ugly. She said, son, when you were just a baby, the house caught on fire and I went into that house to rescue you and in the process, my hands were burned and scarred and disfigured as you see them now. And having heard that story for the first time, he reached over and grabbed his mom's hands and kissed them and said, these hands are no longer ugly to me. And you know what happened at the cross was an ugly sight. It was a terrible sight that Christ suffered and His body was scarred like it was and He died and yet we see in that cross the very love of God. And we glory in the cross now because of what that cross means to us. But not only did He proclaim that the Messiah's death was necessary, but the Messiah's resurrection was necessary. He says, and He not only had to suffer, but also to rise again from the dead. The psalmist predicted in Psalm 16 verse 10, You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor allow Your Holy One to suffer corruption. And the body of Jesus was not allowed to remain in that grave and to decay like others. But on the third day, He rose again from the dead. Why was it necessary for Christ to rise from the dead? Well, it was necessary to demonstrate that God had accepted His sacrifice. It was necessary to demonstrate that Christ did not die for His sins. He had no sins. Therefore, the sentence of death was reversed and Christ rose again victoriously. And He's alive, seated at the right hand of God the Father, and someday He's coming again. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus died, but He rose again from the dead. And the Apostle Paul could say, not only is it true from the Scriptures, but I saw the risen Christ with my own eyes. on the road to Damascus. And so, he concluded in verse 3, based on prophecy, that this Jesus whom I preach to you is the Messiah. Again, for three Sabbath days, he shared prophecy after prophecy that was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. And for one man to fulfill several prophecies would be unlikely. To fulfill hundreds of prophecies, especially the resurrection, could only be explained that Jesus Christ is indeed the Messiah. I'm absolutely convinced that Jesus is the Savior that God sent to save us from our sins. And I trust that you are convinced as well. And so, this is the Gospel. And what we have in verse 3 is very similar to 1 Corinthians 15 verses 3 and 4 where Paul gives a brief summary of the Gospel. had the opportunity, and we all do, to share with someone how they can be saved, I hope you at least know the core of the gospel, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He rose again according to the Scriptures, and whoever repents of their sins and believes in Jesus as their Savior will be forgiven and have eternal life. Now we all can state that. That's not hard, is it? We can share the gospel and have an impact on the lives of others. Well finally, I want you to understand that if you are willing to share the Scriptures, share the gospel, you can expect similar responses to the gospel. I want you to know that not everyone you talk to about Jesus is going to believe. In fact, most people are not going to accept the gospel. Most people are not going to be persuaded. I mean, you and I that are persuaded, we wonder, how can you not believe in Jesus? I mean, the evidence to me is so overwhelming, and yet, most people will not believe the Gospel. And we need to be prepared for the responses that we are going to face as we share the Gospel. And what are those responses that we see here in chapter 17? Well again, one is unbelief. It says in verse 5, But the Jews who were not persuaded responded with hostility as we see in this text of Scripture. Notice that they were not persuaded. That word sometimes is translated word disobedient. And it really refers to a stubborn refusal to be persuaded. Those of you that are parents, have you ever tried to persuade your children not to do a certain thing? And it's like You can talk to them and they're blue in their face and they're still going to do it anyway. You know, they're just bent on doing their own thing, going their own way in spite of all your arguments, in spite of all of your efforts to persuade. And that's exactly what we see here in verse 5. And there's a lot of people that you can witness to and give convincing arguments and yet they're not going to be persuaded. And I can tell you why. Because giving your heart to Jesus means that you must repent of your sins and Jesus becomes Lord of your life. And most people don't want that. And so we can expect the response of unbelief as we see here. But one response we may see from time to time that's illustrated here is envy. Notice why they responded the way they did. It says in verse 5, "...and becoming envious." Now why did they become jealous and envious of Paul and Silas and the others? Well, here's what happened. Paul shared the gospel. Some Jews were saved, verse 4. Some God-fearing Gentiles were saved. They started a new church. It began to grow by leaps and bounds, as we'll talk about in just a moment. The synagogue was declining. The church was growing. And they became jealous of the success of Paul and Silas and the other missionaries. I want to let you in on a little secret. I'm ashamed to admit it, but preachers can get jealous of one another. Yeah, you know, a church seems to be doing well down the street, and their church isn't doing so well, and they can become jealous. And it's not just preachers, but other religious leaders across the spectrum can become jealous just like we read about here. In fact, if you look back in chapter 13 and verses 44 to 45, we read where the whole city turned out to hear the Word of God and the Jews became envious and jealous of the success of Paul and Silas. Oh listen, envy is a terrible thing. It led the leaders of Israel to crucify Jesus. It can lead to other sins as well. Oh, don't ever get jealous of someone else's success, of someone else's blessing. Folks, that's the sin of the flesh according to Galatians chapter 5. Don't follow their bad example that we read about here. So they became envious. And sometimes the world responds to Christians the way they do for the same reason. Listen, when you live a life under the blessing of God, you're going to have success. Things are going to go well for you many times. And sometimes unbelievers become very jealous of the success of believers and the blessing of God upon believers. Don't let that deter you from sharing the gospel. But another response that we see here is actively opposing the gospel. You know, it's one thing to not believe yourself, but to try to prevent others from believing, that is a terrible thing, and yet that is what was happening here. Look at it in verse 5. Because they became envious, they took some of the evil men, the rabble-rousers, from the marketplace, and gathered a mob, and set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. These from the synagogue gathered this mob together and they were going to attack Paul and Silas and the other missionaries and not finding them, they attacked one of the Christian leaders and a few others and dragged them before the leaders of the city and falsely accused them. Look at verse 6. These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Do you see something odd about that? When He says they've turned the world upside down, that means they're causing trouble. They're agitators. Who's doing the agitating here? Who's doing the trouble here? Who's stirring up the mob here? Boy, it's amazing what hypocrites people can become. And accuse them, verse 7, of acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king, Jesus. Yes, Jesus is another king, but not like the kings of this world. Jesus says, my kingdom is not of this world. He's on the throne in heaven. And I would like to say to any earthly leader who happens to be hearing me right now through internet or what have you, that you have no fear of Christians. The Bible teaches us to submit to earthly authority. We are peace-loving people. These were false charges that were leveled against these Christians, and yet Jesus warned that we would be persecuted, we would have all manner of evil spoken against us falsely, and that's exactly what was taking place here in this text of Scripture. But I want you to understand the seriousness of opposing the gospel. I realize in this audience, I doubt that anyone in this audience would do anything to hinder someone from hearing the gospel. None in this audience would actively oppose the gospel of Jesus Christ, but there are people like that, and some may be hearing this message, will hear this message. And I want you to see what Paul says about those who oppose the Gospel. He wrote back to the Thessalonians and said this, "...forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always, for the wrath of God has come upon them to the uttermost." Paul warns that those who hinder others from hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ will have special and greater wrath from God someday. And you ought to take warning from it. Jesus said, it would be better for a millstone to be hung around your neck and thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble who believe in me. Yes, if there's a husband that tries to keep his wife or children from coming to church and hearing the gospel, sir, let me warn you, you are treading with God. You are treading with the wrath of God. And might I say to any public official who does anything to hinder the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that you are treading with danger. You are going to face an extra measure of the wrath of God. Not just for your normal everyday sins, but this is a terrible sin and you will give an account for it someday. Yes. I'm thankful we live in a country where we don't face a lot of opposition to the spread of the gospel, but times are changing, folks. Times are changing. And we better be prepared for this kind of opposition even right here in the United States of America. But I'm thankful that the response is also one of belief and persuasion. Verse 4, And some of them were persuaded. Some of them were persuaded. I like that word some. When you share the gospel, when you share the Scriptures, at least some will believe. You can be sure of it. You know, a fisherman may only catch some fish, But He's going to catch a whole lot more than the person who doesn't go fishing. And it can be discouraging, you know, witnessing the people and people turning us off and rejecting the gospel, but at least some will be saved. Jesus said, Be fishers of men. And at least some were saved. And notice it says, And devout Greeks, a multitude of the devout Greeks, those God-fearing Gentiles, and not a few of the leading women joined Paul and Silas. Man, some of the aristocracy of society, wives of public officials, wives of the wealthy businessmen, some of them turned to Christ. Aren't you glad? There's something about women that seems to be drawn a little closer to God than us men so often. Some of these women came to know the Lord as Savior, and we rejoice in their faith. And notice what happened when they believed. They joined the new church. You say, where's that? It says in the last of verse 4, they joined Paul and Silas. Now granted, it doesn't say they joined the church because it hadn't been established yet. But as soon as they joined themselves and attached themselves to Paul and Silas with their newfound faith, you can be sure they started a church. And Jesus taught us not just to share the gospel, but make disciples. And disciple making takes place in the context of a church, a fellowship of believers. And so they joined that new church there in Thessalonica. And I believe it's important for you not only to profess your faith in Christ, believe in Christ, but join a church. Become a part of a local church. That's so important that we do that. Jesus said in John 8 31, you are my disciples indeed if you continue in the Word. You continue in the Word. And so it's important that we connect with the local church. But they also spread the gospel. Now when Paul shared in the synagogue for those three weeks, he shared mainly with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles. And there were a large number of God-fearing Gentiles according to the Scripture here. But in 1 Thessalonians 1-9 we read that many idol worshippers had turned to Christ. Now how did that happen? Idol worshippers weren't in the synagogue. What happened was when they started their own church, they spread the gospel throughout the community and many of the idol worshippers turned away from their idols and began to believe in Jesus and the God of Israel. That is absolutely wonderful. And as Paul wrote back to the Thessalonians, he said in chapter 1 verse 8, For from you the word of the Lord is sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Boy, they began to witness of their new found faith. Not just even in Thessalonica, but beyond. Let's be honest. How much of an impact? is our church having in this community? Not a lot. We're thankful for the people who have been saved over the years, but our impact is not significant. Nor could I say that the impact of a lot of churches is all that significant. What can we do to have the kind of impact that the Thessalonian church has? We've got to do what the Thessalonians did and what Paul did. Share the Scriptures, share the Gospel. You know, as long as we limit the sharing of Scripture to the inside walls of this church, our impact is going to be limited. But if we take the Gospel out to the community more than we're doing, then and only then are we going to have a greater impact. Would you bear with me in prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank You that You truly revolutionize not only Thessalonica, but the entire Roman world through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, help us to renew our faith in the Gospel. It's important to share testimonies. It's important to do good works in the community, but nothing replaces the Gospel and the Word of God. That is what impacts lives. That's what changes lives. That's what saves souls. And so, Lord, help us to recommit ourselves to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray and ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
The Impact of Spirit-filled Christians
Series Acts
In this expository sermon Dr. Felker shares how Paul and his missionary team made such an impact on a city that even his enemies said they were turning the world upside down (Acts 17:6). Even many idol worshippers were turning to Christ. By following the manner of Paul (witnessing through our weekly worship to those already drawn to God, sharing Scripture) and by sharing the same Gospel that Paul shared, we can still have an impact today. Dr. Felker also warns of the negative responses we can face as faithful witnesses, but that at least some will respond with saving faith.
Sermon ID | 1124181151520 |
Duration | 39:46 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | Acts 17:1-9 |
Language | English |
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