In Acts 17, the Apostle Paul and his evangelistic team took the gospel to Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens, learning important lessons along the way and giving us more principles by which we may conduct our ministries now. Hello friends, I'm Wayne Shepherd and we're glad to have you with us today on Encounter God's Truth from Whitcomb Ministries. The book of Acts is so interesting and so practical as we're learning in these studies that Dr. John Whitcomb presented over the course of six years at the Independent Fundamental Bible Conference in Middletown, Connecticut. We're so thankful to Middletown Bible Church for allowing us to share these timeless truths for changing times with you now on the radio. We're currently in Volume 6 of this ongoing series, Acts, Witness of the Early Church. You can go back and hear all the past broadcasts in this entire series in our archives at sermonaudio.com slash Whitcomb. And you can also download a free commentary on the Book of Acts on our website, WhitcombMinistries.org. This material was written by Dr. Whitcomb and Pastor George Zeller of Middletown Bible Church. Praise God that from the first century to the 21st century, his word remains true from the beginning to the end. So Paul's missionary journeys are just as relevant today as when he first took them. Let's learn from them now in Acts chapter 17, where we ultimately find the gospel in Athens. Here's the message from Dr. John Whitcomb. So turn to chapter 17, verse 1, please. The great ministry of Paul at Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens. And we saw how this happened. Amazing series of events. Paul and Barnabas were ready to launch out in their second great missionary journey across what is today the land of Turkey. And all of a sudden, the wonderful missionary team split apart. And for reasons we discussed this afternoon that were perfectly legitimate and understandable, one team became two teams and went in different directions. Barnabas took his cousin, younger cousin John Mark, and went off in one area. And Paul chose Silas, a highly qualified representative of the Church of Jerusalem, and they went off in another direction. And we discussed briefly why and how these apparently sad divisions, separations have to take place from time to time among God's people. And I mentioned an article that's available in the book room back there, Our Separatist Divisive by Mark Perry, very well done article. I think there's some left. And by the Middletown Bible Church, two papers, the beauty of separation, if done biblically, and for God's glory, and desiring to stand amidst departure. Now, I just emphasize this afternoon, friends, that Paul and Barnabas had no doctrinal differences, whatever. It was a procedural difference on how to handle a mission policy of workers and a team. You have to have a team that works together in very stressful situations that were often life-threatening. And you didn't want to have somebody on your team who was not able to handle that stress and pressure and those threats. So we suggested we should pray for our missionaries, shouldn't we? And watch what they're doing and be of help and hold them accountable before God and the supporting people for what they're doing many times in enemy territory. And how the gospel not only according to the 16th chapter of Acts went through the land of Turkey, but also burst through the boundary lines of what area of the world? Europe was penetrated, the door was opened by God. Now it was a very painful opening. as Paul and Silas were beaten within an inch of their lives and flung into a dungeon and put in stocks, and yet they praised the Lord and thus gave sort of an announcement to the continent of Europe, we're coming, get ready, we have a message that'll transform your lives forever. And that message we know has now not only covered Europe, 1,800 years ago, began to move into Europe, And then across, across to the new world where you and I now live. And from there, across to Asia and to China, where I was raised as a child and somebody asked me this morning, what about your great China project? Well, we're trying to circle the globe, you know, with the gospel. And so I was raised there and learned to speak that language, Mandarin, as a child. And God has laid on my heart to get every message we've ever proclaimed into Mandarin. As you probably know, Mandarin is the absolutely incomparably number one language of the world today, spoken by 880 million people. English, the next biggest, 350 million, and so forth. So we are now in the business of trying to get our lectures and other people's lectures into Mandarin to help Chinese house church pastors and other teachers in China where there are now an estimated 90 million Christians. and friends 57 years ago and estimated one million only. Look what has happened. It's almost like the day of Pentecost all over again. So we have beautiful gospel cards now in English and Chinese and the Middletown Church has copies for you if you're interested in these beautifully done cards. So look for every possible excuse to go to a Chinese restaurant and be part of the final chapters, the extended book of Acts, to circle the world with the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Acts 17, one. Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica. You say, I can't even pronounce all those names of cities. Well, friends, that's nothing. Did you know that in the Bible, 1,400 cities are named It's like God is interested in cities because that's where people are. And he says, I want you to focus on the great population centers of the world and train people to take the message out to the villages and towns and countryside around those cities. So that was the strategy, wasn't it? So they headed to Thessalonica, a hundred miles west of Philippi, where 200,000 people resided, ready, desperately ready for the gospel. So verse two, Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures. Now we have to be careful here, friends. You don't reason people into the kingdom. You don't argue them into the kingdom. You don't use mere human finite logic to get people out of the realm of Satan into the grace of our Lord Jesus. So it's important to notice where the reasoning came from. It came out of what? The scriptures. Just like Isaiah chapter one. God said, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Sins, transgressions, whiteness, and cleansing. Let's talk about it from God's perspective out of God's word. So verse three, opening and alleging, taken from God's revealed, recorded, inspired, infallible written revelation in the Bible. He said what? Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. What's that mean? It means the Old Testament, which is the only Bible there was at that time, really, the Old Testament predicts that the Messiah, the anointed one of Israel, will come as their king, and he will have to die. That's what suffering here means. and he will rise again from the dead. Now that's the heart of the gospel, isn't it? The price of redemption was paid, confirmed by his resurrection from the dead. We'll praise the Lord for this wonderful statement in verse four. Some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas and of the devout Greeks, a great multitude, notice this footnote, and of the chief women, not a few. As we've said before, Luke has special fascination with how women responded to the gospel as it was preached in Paul's ministries here and there, and we'll see that again in this same chapter, in the next town he went to, all right? And then here's another scenario you could have anticipated and expected. Opposition came. Everywhere God went, Satan was there to snuff out the light and to confuse the message and to attack and malign the messengers. You know, I've had a problem about this for years, teaching Old Testament history and theology. Namely, why does God put up with Satan? Ever thought of that? I mean, in Job chapter one, Satan came to God and reported to him along with other angels and God said, well, what have you been doing? Oh, going up and down across the earth here and there. Well, and so Satan said, God said, well, what do you think of my servant Job down here? And you know what Satan's response was? If you just take away that head you put around him, you're pampering him. No wonder he loves you. You just take away all those blessings and those material things that you've given him and that wonderful family and everything, and he will cut you to your face. In other words, his religion is a sham. He's getting out of you what he wants. He doesn't want you. Now don't you think at that point God would have said to Satan, you know, I don't like you. Be annihilated. But no, he said, go ahead, just take away everything Job has. Everything, his children, his everything, even his health. And you will see what kind of relationship we have together. And that's the whole book of Job. I mean, it goes on, friends, for 42 chapters. I just wish that the book of Job had sort of ended like this. And so Satan finally said, Lord, you were right, I'm sure sorry. But he's not sorry. He keeps on hating God, hating God's people. And here it is. Look at verse 5. But the Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city in uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason. He was the host for Paul. Paul stayed in his home. He turned out to be Paul's proxy, his representative, in fact, an obvious convert. to the gospel and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers. It's a polytarch, a special kind of ruler of that particular city at that time. An archeologist dredged up a monument that mentioned that exact word and referring to that time of history. Okay, these polytarchs. And they said, these have turned the world upside down and are come hither also. In other words, do you want revolutionaries? Do you want insurrectionists? Do you want your stability as a political entity destroyed here? Then do what you can to wipe out these messengers who've come here. Okay? Verse seven, whom Jason hath received, he's welcomed them into his house. And these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king, one Jesus. Now talk about a provocation, friends. Caesar Augustus and his successors in the Roman Empire down through Tiberius and Nero and so on were very, very frightened at the possibility of an insurrection to overthrow their power in the empire. They had armies everywhere. watching for such things to happen. Well, who's this Jesus, anyway, that's gonna threaten you? Well, you know, there is a sense, friends, in which this is true. Are you ready? Jesus is coming back. He will confront all the governments of the world. He will destroy them by the word of his mouth as a two-edged sword. And Jesus said 3,000 years ago how he's gonna handle world governments. Are you ready for this announcement? Psalm 2, 7. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said unto me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And thou shalt roll him with a rod of iron and break, dash him in pieces like a potter's vessel. All the nations of the world will be destroyed by you. That's Jesus. Well, I don't know how much of that particular truth Paul had announced in the synagogues those three Sabbath days. But it was easy to make out Jesus and his followers as what? A threat to the Roman Empire, okay? There's another king, one Jesus. And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. So when they had taken security of Jason, they made him make a deposit to guarantee, of course, that nothing would ever happen that would endanger this city and its government. and others also that are named his disciples here in Thessalonica and let them go. Well, friends, I don't know how many weeks it was that Paul was there, but you know, when you read the letter that he wrote back to the Thessalonians, in fact, he wrote two of them, he tells them some amazing experiences he had in Thessalonica, which is hard to imagine having for him to accomplish in three short weeks. Some think that maybe he spoke in the synagogue for three weeks and then for other weeks he didn't, but he packed an enormous amount of what? Discipleship and training for those people into that short period. In fact, he said in his letter to them concerning intricate details about the second coming of Christ, he said, you remember I told you all these things, okay? And I'm just committed to this proposition, friends, A local church must take seriously the great commission of the Lord Jesus, making disciples, yes, but teaching them to observe what? All things whatsoever I have commanded you, and that happens to cover 66 books of the Bible. You say, well, we don't have time to do that. In fact, it's impossible. to which Jesus added a footnote and said, and lo, I am with you always to the end of the age. It's gonna be a divine human operation. And when God says it's gonna happen, the impossible becomes possible. You see, friends, the enormous intensity of his what? Teaching ministry there in Thessalonica. I mean, a thriving church. See, well-taught in the whole counsel of God in just a few weeks. I say, Lord, I just want a videotape of Paul's ministry, that's all, I can't comprehend this, see. But the ministry came to a sudden halt, you see, verse 10, and the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night. 50 miles west they headed in the night. Must have taken them a couple days to get there, to Berea, an inland city. And they immediately went to a synagogue of the Jews. Now, of course, you're immediately expecting more problems. Every place they went, the synagogue of the Jews, a door of opportunity for some Jews to be saved, but an opportunity for the unbelieving Jews to create a tremendous volcanic eruption of opposition and hatred for Paul, and in this case, Silas, Timothy, and the gospel. Now, the big surprise is this one. This is a big surprise in the book of Acts, where Jews often turn out to be villains. Now watch this. Verse 11, this synagogue of these Jews in this city of Berea were what? More noble than those in Thessalonica. Now wait a minute here. Why were they more noble? because he received the word with all readiness of mind, now watch this one, and searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so. Now obviously, friends, Luke, who wrote this inspired document unto the Holy Spirit, is telling us something of supreme significance here. Because would you like to know the truth about God? Would you like to be absolutely assured that your relationship to him is established, that you know God's plan of the ages from creation to the end of the world? Would you like to know how to function effectively for God to reach people for the Lord? Well, here's the answer right here. One. Receive the word with all readiness of mind. Be open to the spirit of God's instruction because you have that capacity. You say, what do you mean? I have never been to Bible school. I've never been to theological seminary. What do you mean? I have the capacity. You and I have the capacity to know everything God has ever said because we have his image and likeness indelibly imprinted on our innermost being from creation. And therefore, the Holy Spirit can speak to us and show us through his, what, self-authenticating light and truth, everything we need to know about God. Well, that isn't all. It's not just an openness, a readiness to listen to God, but what else? And they searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so. Paul, you are telling us amazing things. You mean that for thousands of years, God has predicted the coming of Messiah and that he would actually die and rise again? And they searched their Bibles from Genesis 315 and Genesis chapter 12 and Genesis 49 and all the prophetic passages all the way through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, Malachi, and even in the Psalms. and they were convinced that he wasn't just deceiving them. This is a healthy form of skepticism. Thank you, Paul, for what you said, but I'm sorry we just don't believe you. We're going to find out for ourselves. Oh, how happy your pastor would be if you came to him and said, Pastor, that was a wonderful sermon, but I'm just going to have to study my Bible to be sure that what you said is what it says. Can't you just hear him saying, I can't believe this. I just think, praise the Lord. He's not gonna be threatened at all by your attitude of what? Inquisitiveness and the desire to be confirmed biblically in what your pastor's teaching. Marvelous. The last thing any pastor would want is just for people to say, well, you said it, it must be true. That's it. My pastor said so. That is a potential disaster. Is it not? Because I'm so sorry to say that the vast majority of pastors in the world today that claim to be Christian are not teaching the whole counsel of God. So what do you have to do? More and more. Search the scriptures daily to see what you're being taught is really there. And look what happened. As a result, what happened? Therefore, many of them believed. Thank you, Lord, for this. What a guideline this can be for our church. Praise the Lord. Now, are you ready for the opposition? You say, I'd hope Satan has retired by now. No. Verse 13, but when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also and stirred up the people. And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go, as it were, to the sea. He's heading east now to the Aegean Sea. But Silas and Timotheus, Timothy, abode there still. They stayed. Now, when Paul, of course, wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter three, verse one, here's what he said about this. Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it be good to be left at Athens alone and sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God and our fellow labor in the gospel of Christ to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith, that no man should be moved by these afflictions for yourselves know that we are appointed there into. And of course, Paul goes on to explain to the Thessalonians that he labored night and day not to be a financial burden to anyone. He didn't want any handle made available to accuse him of what, avarice, of just a desire for people's property and possessions and money, no. The reputation of the gospel was at stake in these new cities that were being reached for Christ, okay? So immediately, Paul was shipped off to the east and to the south for his security and safety. His life was at stake. Verse 15, and they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens, that's straight south now, you see, of Thessalonica and Berea. This is one of the greatest cities of the Roman Empire, not in size anymore, it had shrunk to a relatively small city, as a matter of fact, but it was famous for what? Its philosophers, its schools, It was a great university center and was recognized all over the world for the great philosophers who, especially in earlier centuries, like Plato and his disciple Aristotle, you see, and others who came along, and Socrates. but now it was sort of just a shadow of what it used to be. Nevertheless, still famous, okay, still famous, all right? Sort of like Oxford or Cambridge. So he came to Athens and receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy for to come with him with all speed, they departed. Now friends, here he is all by himself. Now his team, you know, when they first entered Europe consisted of whom? Of Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke. But Luke is left behind, you see, stayed behind in where? In Philippi. And now Silas and Timothy are up there in Thessalonica and Berea. And Paul's all by himself in Athens. What an opportunity God gave him. We'll have to pause there for now, just as we're on the verge of seeing Paul's important ministry in Athens, where Dr. Whitcomb will pick up next time in Acts chapter 17. You're listening to Encounter God's Truth from Whitcomb Ministries. I'm Wayne Shepherd, and we're currently in volume six of this ongoing series, Acts, Witness of the Early Church. Remember, you can always find our latest updates on our Facebook page at facebook.com slash Whitcomb Ministries. Please be sure to leave a testimony there and let us know how this program is impacting you. And we'd love to have you back with us next time. In the meantime, may the Lord continue to work in your heart and life and bless you through this encounter with God's truth.