You're listening to the teaching ministry of Harvest Fellowship Church in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. You can find out more about us on the web at www.harvestfellowshipchurch.org. We pray that through our teaching we may present everyone mature in Christ. Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we bow before You on this Wednesday night. We thank you, Lord, for bringing us through the week so far. Thank you for your promises, your unfailing love. For we love you because you first loved us. Lord, we pray tonight that as we study your word, that you will give us the zeal and the eagerness that we see even in the passage tonight of the Bereans. that we would love Your Word and that we would see the study of Your Word as necessary for our very lives. So help us now, O Spirit of God, we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. Last week we covered Acts chapter 16, verses 25 through the end of the chapter. Let's do a very brief recap. And we picked up prison, where we saw Paul and Silas, and at midnight, despite being bruised and battered and bleeding and hungry and all sorts of conditions. They pray and they sing to God hymns with a captive audience of prisoners, pun intended. But those prisoners had to listen to them singing, and it had quite an impact on them. But while they're singing, while they're praying, there's this sudden, magnificent earthquake. It shakes the foundations of the prison, and And the doors are opened. Everyone's chains are undone. The jailer awakes. He becomes distressed. And he decides the only thing that's left for him to do is to commit suicide. But Paul cries out. And he says, essentially, stop. Stop. Nobody has escaped. And so the jailer, he rushes into the cell. And with the lights that are brought into the cell, he can see that what Paul says is true. Not a single prisoner has escaped. And so he falls down. He's in great fear of these men, these messengers of God. This is a hardened man brought low by the power of God. And he says, what does he ask them? He said it a little bit louder than that, but he said, what must I do to be saved? And their reply was the gospel in summation. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. And this promise is not just for you, but also for anyone else who believes, you and your household. And then they went on to give him a more thorough exposition of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he became transformed. He washed their wounds. And then we see a believing family baptized, hungry prisoners fed, a household rejoicing at the grace of God to this man. Daybreak, the police show up and they have a message from the magistrates and it is, let these men go. The jailer says, hey, I've got great news. You can be let go. Go in peace. And Paul says, no, we're not going to go because we were publicly beaten. We never received a fair trial. We were imprisoned and we are Roman citizens. They need to come and bring us out directly." Well, the magistrates were terrified to discover that they had infringed upon the legal rights of Roman citizens, and so they come running over, lead them out of the prison, and beg them, please leave Philippi. And so Paul and Silas say, okay, we will, but first we're going to go visit some of the brothers and sisters in Christ. That's where we left off. That brings us to Acts chapter 17, which we are going to cover the first 15 verses of Acts 17. I hope you're there in your Bibles already, which I'm now going to read. Hear now the word of the Lord. Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out of the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them. And they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus. And the people in the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things, and when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. And may the Lord write the truths of His word, His eternal word, to our hearts this Wednesday night. We've reached our 40th teaching here in Acts, and we see here, as Paul and Silas go through Thessalonica and Berea, we see this especially in Thessalonica, a message that shakes the world, the message that shook the world. So I want to do what we did last week. I have written down several questions, questions for reflection as you read the Word of God, things that may pop into your mind. So does anybody want to ask aloud any questions that may have popped into your mind as we read through these 15 verses? How many of these disruptive Jews were there? OK. How many disruptive Jews? A great many. We're not answering yet, Gary. Yes? Who was this Jason guy? I don't know. It's not really clear. That's one of my questions. Who was Jason, and why was he attacked? Also, along with that, is Jason a Jewish name? Because I thought I read something in the Apocrypha about a guy named Jason. We'll get to that. Oh, we'll get to that? OK. Good. Did you have one, Jodi? No. Oh. You just moved your hand to your head. Grace? I said Parkinson's. What did? Because they mentioned leading women. Who are the leading women? Sharon? Yeah, I have down, who or what are the rabble? Not to be confused with Barney Rubble. Who are the rabble? Ben? Oh, you weren't here last week. If you listened to the one hour and three minute recording last week, just fast forward all the way till the end. But I made the assertion that Luke stays behind, and apparently for quite some time, maybe several years. Bob, you can't ask more than two, unless we have exhausted the room first. Anyone else? Okay, Bob. It looks like there is a bribe involved here on verse 9. I have down the question, what does it mean to take money as security? We'll talk about that. Other questions, why do Paul and Silas only pass through these first two towns, Amphipolis and Apollonia? How long were they in Thessalonica? Why does Paul keep going to the synagogues? What was the core of Paul's message? Where were Paul and Silas when Jason's house is searched? What do the people mean when they say they have turned the world upside down? Were Paul and Silas acting against the decrees of Caesar? And why was the city disturbed at these allegations? What did Luke mean, that the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians? And who were these agitating Jews in Thessalonia and from Thessalonica? And lastly, why does only Paul quickly depart from Berea, leaving Silas and Timothy behind? So let's move on now to the text with these questions ruminating in our mind. As we ended last week, we see that Paul and Silas suffered shameful treatment at Philippi. This is what Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians. But nevertheless, as you read in 1 Thessalonians 2.2, they had boldness in God to press on to Thessalonica. So they keep moving on to declare to these people the gospel of God even in the midst of much conflict. And this is, so they have the mindset that David Livingston had. If you're familiar with David Livingston, the missionary to Africa, he said, I am prepared to go anywhere so long as it is forward. I'm prepared to go anywhere so long as it is forward, and that's what Paul's doing, and that's what Silas is doing with him. Let's press on. Let's press forward. So let's go to verse 1 of chapter 17 again. Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. So the they, Ben, I have down here in my notes, is Paul, Silas, and Timothy, and not Luke, And so the three men now, they're passing through, hopefully you still have your maps, your treasured perhaps, maybe even you laminated it by now, I don't know, but your map. And so they were passing through these two places. So first, if you look to the top left, you'll see Philippi. Below that, you'll see Amphipolis. Amphipolis was a military post on this main road from Rome to Asia called the Via Ignatia. Well, that's the Latin word, but it's really the Ignatian Way, which is a major thoroughfare. And so Amphipolis is about 30 miles southwest of Philippi. And then you've got Apollonia. And this is about 27 miles west or southwest of Amphipolis. And so they go right through these places, probably staying the night at each place. but they get to Thessalonica. And this is the focus now, what Luke wants to talk about, Thessalonica. This is a Macedonian city on what was called, I don't know if it's still called this, but it was called the Thermaic Gulf. And it was named after this city called Therma. So Therma becomes Thessalonica. And it was the second largest city in Greece. So you can see that on your map there as well. Roughly Thessalonica is about 100 miles from Philippi. So they've traveled about 100 miles now, and so they're in this place called Thessalonica. Thessalonica had this very nice harbor, and it became a chief seaport there in Macedonia. Now, how did this name change come about from Therma to Thessalonica? Well, it was renamed after the half-sister of Alexander the Great, Thessalonica. And she was the daughter of King Philip II of Macedon. She married one of Alexander the Great's generals, whose name was Cassander. Her name came from Thessaly, so Thessaly was this region in Greece, and Nike, and some of you wear Nike sneakers, meaning victory. And it was put together because a great victory was won on the day she was born. So they put it together, Thessalonike. And that was a victory over the Thessalians, and so the town was renamed from Therma to Thessalonica. So this became the capital then of the whole province of Macedonia. In 42 BC it became recognized as a free city, which means it was not under the domineering control of the Roman Empire, even though there certainly was a connection to the Roman Empire. But this means that they were tax-exempt. They didn't have Roman guards stationed there. Remember all the presence of military people in Philippi? That's not here. And so this is a large, prosperous city. And every commentary I read gave me a different people count for how many people lived in the city at the time. But it was a lot, and perhaps as many as 200,000 people were in the city. The fact that Luke mentions that there was a synagogue, what does that tell us? It tells us that there were not many Jews in this city. If there's thousands upon thousands of people and there's a synagogue, not one of the synagogues, that means that there's not many Jews. But it also would be suggestive to us that there were no synagogues in the two previous towns that they passed through, Amphipolis and Apollonium. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that they don't even stop there. And so in verse two Paul went in to the synagogue as was his custom and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. So, Paul goes into the synagogue that's there. Of course, remember what he says in Romans 1.16, that letter to the Romans, he says, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. But this was his custom, Luke says, this is his custom to go into the synagogue. Remember it was just a few chapters ago that he and Barnabas had declared we are now turning to the But even though they had turned to the Gentiles, what was Paul's heart and desire to God for his people? It was that they might be saved. Where does he say that? My heart's desire is that my brothers might be saved. Where does he say that? Close. 10. Romans 10 verse 1. Really close. And so his desire was that his own countrymen might be saved, and this was in the face of malice from them time and time again, and yet he keeps going into the synagogues. And so here, Luke records that for three Sabbath days, or it could just be translated three Sabbaths, which could be a three-week time frame, and this kind of indicates that they gave him freedom to speak for at least three weeks. And so while he's there, he's reasoning with them. He's discussing with the people there. And how's he doing it? From the scriptures. He's not just pontificating. He's not telling them theories. He's reasoning with them from the Word of God. And of course, this would have been the Old Testament writings that the Jews were frequently accustomed to. And so by reasoning, we could define this as he's carefully answering the questions that they're asking to him. This is not just a monologue from him. So he's answering the questions. He's responding to their objections. Well, what about this? What about that? And he's then demonstrating from Scripture the validity of his claims. How long was Paul in Thessalonica? We don't know. But it seems like it was probably longer than three weeks, although his welcome in the synagogue seemed to be cut off after three weeks. And perhaps this is then, when he's no longer welcomed in the synagogue, that he relocates to Jason's house. And perhaps Jason hosts a home church here in his house for the believers. But we know that Paul stays long enough in Thessalonica, as you can read in Philippians 4.16, that he receives gifts, and that's plural, so they send him gifts more than once while he's in Thessalonica. And also, he spent time, as you can read in 1 Thessalonians 2.9, He spent time working there. He says, we toiled among you day and night so that we would not present a burden to you. So he's receiving money. He's also working. But while he's there, he's discussing, or he's reasoning, and he's also explaining. And what is he explaining? There's three things that he's explaining. We're going to get to them in just a second. But he's explaining, and he's proving. And what do we mean by proving? Well, proving is, so you can almost think of like a T-chart. He's going to outline all those Old Testament prophecies, and then he's going to go through and show how they were fulfilled. So he's going to prove how these prophecies were fulfilled. So what were the three claims? The first was that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer. or the Messiah, we could say, to suffer his suffering unto death or to be killed, that the Christ had to die, it had to take place. Now, of course, does that remind you of another passage? Yes. Written by the same author in Luke 24, the famous, I believe this is on the way to Emmaus. with the two, Clopas and the other unnamed, maybe it was Mrs. Clopas. But he said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory? And then they went on to expound on the greatest sermon ever recorded in scripture. But what types of things, like what type of suffering? Well, Luke doesn't say here. He doesn't say back there either. But surely you think Isaiah 52 verse 13 and the whole of chapter 53 would have come up? I think so. And of course, even if you go back to Acts chapter 318, we've already heard about this necessity of the suffering, but he's saying that these things had to happen or otherwise what? Scripture wouldn't be fulfilled. These things had to happen. So the Christ had to suffer. So this Messiah that you've been waiting for, he had to suffer and die. But importantly, number two, and to rise from the dead. So he had to come back to life. Remember, we've talked about that. I think it was last week. To believe that Jesus is Lord means to believe that he rose from the dead. 1 Thessalonians 4.14 Paul says, For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep or those who have died. So that's the second thing, that he rose from the dead. And thirdly then, well, who is it? So the Christ had to suffer and die. He had to rise from the dead, but who was it? He says that this Jesus who I proclaim to you, or you could say who I myself, this is a very emphatic guy, who I myself proclaim to you is the Christ. If you were wondering who it is, it's Jesus of Nazareth. So he reveals to them that this is the one who had to die to suffer death and then rise from the dead. It's a pretty huge revelation for these people who are so far away from Jerusalem, so far away from Judea, even so far away from Samaria, and he declares this to them. And so we could say that Paul preaches to them the mysteries of the Christ, everything that seemed to be so vague and mysterious in the Old Testament, he preaches these mysteries, but then he shows to them these mysteries are accomplished in Jesus Christ. And you see that thrust in Romans as well at the very beginning and end about the mystery of God's plan. This is the summation of what Paul preaches. If you remember back to when we were going through 1 Corinthians, at the very end of 1 Corinthians in chapter 15 Paul says, "...for I delivered to you as of first or primary importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scripture." There's the suffering. "...that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." It's the same message. It talks about the suffering, the raising, and the identification. And it's a good reminder to us that no matter how offensive the gospel is, or how much of a stumbling block it seems to be to the hearers that we're presenting it to, that it is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that must be at the core of our teaching. Always. It must always be there. Now, the way that we present it, the manner that we present it, that may vary. It doesn't always have to be the exact same word-for-word gospel message, but the content of the gospel always remains the same. And just thinking of the law-gospel distinction, but in here, the gospel being the second half of that law-gospel distinction, what does that have to do? The gospel has to inform people of the identity of who that Savior is. So we're offering that the sweetness of the good news, well, who can save you? We have to tell people who that is. We have to talk about His power. We have to talk about His accomplishments so that they understand the gospel. Well, what are the results of this message that Paul and Silas teach? Verse 4, some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did many a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. And so in the synagogue here, some, not all, we don't know what percentage, some are persuaded. They're convinced by the message of the gospel. Notice that it's a passive. This happens to them. They're persuaded. And because they're persuaded, they believe. And we should remember that. apologetics, or in our presentation of the Gospel, what's the goal? Persuasion. We want to persuade people, not through the cunningness of our words, but we want to persuade them through the power of the Spirit to believe. We're not just exchanging ideas. Oh, I think this, you think that. We are trying to persuade people by the power of God. And so these people are persuaded, and now they become in very close association with these men. They're now part of the Christian way, we could say. And so now we don't have to just see you at the synagogue. We'd love to meet with you tomorrow. How about the next day? And so there's this gathering together of the saints. And it's not just Jews who believe. Luke says, there's a great many of devout Greeks. Now, I tend to think here that he's using the word devout here to signify their devoutness to their wrong thinking. Now, if you think back to chapter 10 and the way Cornelius is described, he's described as a devout person, but it says afterward, who feared God. Here, I think, and I'll give you a reason in just a second, I think really Luke is indicating more of your total pagans who are being turned to Christ and through the gospel, converted to faith in Christ. Before we get to that, though, he also says, leading women, which is one of Luke's favorite expressions, or types of expressions, not a few, meaning a lot, many. And what is he showing here? That it's not just a certain type of people who are responding, it's not just Jews, it's not just a certain class of people, but it's the full spectrum. That's what Paul talks about in Timothy, that God desires all types of people to be saved, and they are. And so we see affluent, prominent women of this city of Thessalonica brought to faith, just like we saw back in chapter 13, verse 50. But the reason that I think that he's referring to pagan here with devout Greeks, and I think the majority of the converts are pagan, is when you read 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 9 and 10, he says, Concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turn so he's speaking collectively how you turn to God From idols. Well, that wouldn't be the Jews. They weren't turning from idols They're turning from the wrong understanding of Yahweh, but how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God And so obviously Paul's work was not confined to the synagogue he started in the synagogue, but he didn't stay there He went out and everywhere through this town. Verse 5, but the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. Notice those three verbs there, the formed, set, and attacked. And in a certain sense, you almost think like, what is this, deja vu? We just keep seeing this jealousy springing up over and over. So the Jews here, and of course these are unbelieving Jews, so these unbelieving Jews are filled with jealousy. We can't say conclusively who they are, but I would tend to think they're probably leading men of the synagogue, leading unbelieving men, probably the rabbis. And so you've got these men here who, again, they have a blind, misguided zeal. Do they think they're right? Yeah, they think they're right, and they think Paul is wrong. We're not going to lose control of our synagogue to this heretic Paul here, to this guy who's preaching the wrong message. They believe it's the wrong message. And they think, we're the true worshippers of Yahweh. We are the monotheistic worshippers of Yahweh. We don't worship this man named Jesus of Nazareth. And how dare this upstart Paul come in here and cause a commotion? How dare he steal our sheep, so to speak? This is pretty interesting here, is that they form an alliance or an allegiance with, it says, wicked men of the rabble. So this is, we could say, the evil loafers of the marketplace. The marketplace, you'd go down there if you had nothing to do. But they weren't looking for people who were sincerely desirous of work. They're like, let's look for the ruffians. Let's look for the rowdies, people who literally have nothing to do except to engage in evil mischief. I think there's a bit of a parallel to, if you remember from the Old Testament, the expression worthless fellows. I think these are the worthless fellows of the New Testament. And so they get these people here, and so they form this three-pronged antagonistic response. First, they form the mob, and we just saw that in the last chapter. Remember the attacking crowd in Philippi? They set the city in an uproar, which means that they are starting a riot in the city. So they're setting the city in turmoil, and maybe they're calling out, find Paul. And you can imagine lots of people chanting whatever it is that they're saying. It has a lot of influence on people who don't know what's going on. And thirdly, it says they attacked the house of Jason. It means they came up to it with bad intentions, harmful intentions. Well, we'd have to ask the question because Luke just says Jason like we know who he is. Who is Jason? And it seems from the context here that one, he's the host of them here in Thessalonica, or at least one of the hosts, that he certainly seems to be a believer by having welcomed them. What is he saying? He's saying, I have aligned my house with the kingdom of God, and that supersedes the kingdom of Caesar. That's what he's saying. Now his name here was a common personal Greek name. So Jason was a common personal Greek name, and it was equivalent to Jesus, or from an Old Testament perspective, Joshua, from a New Testament perspective, Jesus. But that's what the equivalent of his name here is in the Greek. And as I said, his house probably became a meeting place for the growing Thessalonian church. But here they come, this crowd, these ruffians, you've got a few Jews and a lot of worthless fellows, a lot of the rabble are here, and they have this purpose, and they're going to take Paul and Silas out of this house, and they're going to take them in for a legal proceeding. And when they could not find them, verse 6, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also. And Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying, there is another king, Jesus. So when it says they could not find him, I think this indicates they just burst right into the house. Hey, Jason, we're going to search your house. We're going to turn up every part of it. We're going to break down the doors. And where's Paul and Silas? Well, Luke doesn't tell us where they are. So either they're really well hidden in this house or they're not in the house. inability to find these men enrages these people. And so, what do they do? They drag Jason and some of the other believers. It's saying that they were violently, and it's really the connotation of dragging. So, you can see that this is a drawn out process. They're dragging them before the city authorities. Now, the word there that Luke used is a word that translates to polytarchs. which is fascinating because it caused critics of the Bible to say that Luke was mistaken because they said this word never showed up in Greek history. And then, of course, in the providence of God, over time, more and more archaeological things were discovered. And we found out, oh, wow, the Greeks did use that word. And guess what? They used it in Thessalonica. But these men, a little bit different than the magistrates, but overall, they ran the city. They ran the legal proceedings. And so Jason and these men, in lieu of Paul and Silas, they're dragged before the polytarchs. And it made me think, as I was reading, of what Paul himself did. Do you remember that? All the way back when Paul was an unbeliever? Chapter 8, Paul was ravaging the church and entering house after house. He dragged off men and women. He was dragged. Now Jason and these other believers are dragged here in Thessalonica, and all the while these people are shouting, these men who have turned the world upside down, or we could say the civilized world upside down. And world maybe isn't the best sense for us there, because by world they're not referring to the entire globe. They're really referring to what they know of the world, and that's the Roman Empire. So they're saying they put the entire Roman Empire into commotion. So they're talking about this radical social upheaval that's going on. Now, are they exaggerating a bit? Kind of. So this is, we could say, a hyperbolic, politically charged statement here. And it is a bit ironic, is it not, because who's the people currently turning the city upside down? They are. So they're the ones turning the city upside down. But at the same time, is there any truth to what they're saying? There is, right? Does the gospel have social implications? Does it have political ramifications? Sure it does. Now maybe not exactly the way that they're accusing here, but there is an element of truth. So there's some truth and there's some falsehood to what they're saying here. When you think about how far Paul has traveled, and he has traveled far, he's traveled nowhere near the breadth of the entire Roman Empire. There's so many cities in this Roman Empire, and especially where? Rome, that he hasn't been in. So they can't legitimately say that he's turned the entire empire upside down. But he certainly is challenging this peace that they love to proclaim, the security of the Roman way. And you'll see that at the end of 1 Thessalonians in chapter 5, verse 3, he talks about the peace that they cannot guarantee. Caesar has no power to guarantee peace to the Roman citizens. But guess what? Jesus can. Jesus does have the power. And that is sort of his argument. But they say here in their allegation, these men, and they're referring to Paul and Silas, they're now in our place, Thessalonica. And Jason, this guy here, one of us supposedly, he is an accomplice. He has hospitably welcomed them into his house. And they are all acting, so now they've lumped Jason in. acting together against the decrees, or literally the word is dogma, against the dogma of Caesar. So what are they accusing them of? They're really accusing them here of sedition, or we could say treason. Now when you think about the decrees of Caesar, here's an example of one. In AD 11, Caesar Augustus issued an edict, or decree, that explicitly forbid the use of astrology to predict his or anyone else's day of death. You do that and you die. That's an example. And so also there were oaths of loyalty that were presented to Caesar. And so there was a city called Papha Ligonia, and they had an oath of loyalty that they rendered to Caesar. It said, I swear that I will support Caesar Augustus, his children, and descendants throughout my life in word, deed, and thought, that in whatsoever concerns them I will spare neither body, nor soul, nor life, nor children. This is pretty extreme, right? that whenever I see or hear of anything being said, planned, or done against them, I will report it. You know, the communists of the 20th century did not come up with anything new. And whomsoever they regard as enemies, I will attack and pursue with arms and the sword by land and by sea. Let's recite that every day. And so this is what they're talking about. They said, these guys are going against our sworn loyalty. And they're saying, so now they're going to explain exactly how are they violating his decrees, that there's another king. There's another king, Jesus. Our king is Caesar Claudius. But they're saying there's another king. Hey, there's another king to whom you must swear your loyalty. That this man, Jesus, is the true king. and that he's actually going to come back in judgment. So in a very real sense, this is like the Pharisees who are standing before Pilate in John chapter 19 saying, we have no king but Caesar. Same type of message. And furthermore, they're probably inherently asking, and where is this king? We can't see him. They talk about this man. Where is he? And so this accusation of high treason, what does that mean? That means that Paul and Silas are in very grave danger here. In fact, the very suggestion of treason against the emperors or against the Caesars often resulted in death, just the suggestion of it. So verse 8, just keep that in mind, the people in the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things, and when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. This means that they don't feel right. They're not breaking out into a mob as a result of this, but they're agitated. They're stirred up. This is the same sense of the word if you remember all the way back to Matthew chapter 2 and the wise men, the Magi show up and they say, where is this king? And it says, when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled. And all of Jerusalem with him. So it's the same word there. It's the same sense. They're troubled in heart. Now the peace that this free town, this free city of Thessalonica had with Rome, that was very important to them and they wanted to preserve that. And they're also very well aware that just a year earlier that Caesar Claudius had expelled the Jews from Rome. We don't need that trouble here in our city. So it says they took money as security. This is essentially like a bail or a bond. And so they take this from them, and essentially, the message to them is, if this offense, Jason, happens again, you're not going to get this money back, and there's going to be further problems. And so after they do that, they let them go. They don't imprison. They don't punish Jason and the other brothers, at least we could say yet. But this pledge from Jason, it would ensure from him that he would make sure that Paul and Silas behave and leave the city. We could say a banishment. And if you were to look at 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 17 and 18, you'll talk about how Paul wants to come back to Thessalonica, but he says Satan prevented him. And perhaps this is what he's referring to here, this banishment from the town. In verse 10 we see, "...the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue." And so due to this severity of the situation, this is an urgent situation here. How many times has Paul had to escape somewhere at night? At the very beginning, he's in Damascus and they have to let him out by night. Remember that? In a basket? So now they get Paul and Silas away under the cover of night, and they go about 50 miles southwest to Berea, which you can see on your map there. It's right above where you see Mount Olympus, which is above Greece. But they go by night. They're worried about safety. They're worried about further mob violence in this city. Paul's life here is in danger, and so he does not want to place the lives of these new Thessalonian believers in jeopardy as well. And when you consider then what he writes in 1 Thessalonians 4.13 about those who have fallen asleep, maybe he's referring there to some who have been persecuted and died from the savage persecution that comes in Thessalonica against the Christians. But remember what Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 10. He said, when they persecute you in one town, do what? Flee to the next. Go to the next one. And that's what they do. So they come to Berea, and this is a city that is not on the Ignatian Way. And I think that was intentional here. So they go to, essentially, they're going to an out-of-the-way place that people are going to pursue after them. They're thinking, these guys are going to stay on the Ignatian Way. They're going to keep going west. But they send Paul and Silas south, and they go down to this place called Berea. A place that is still a Greek-speaking town, a Greek culture. And so when they get to Berea, what do they do? The exact same thing as they did in Thessalonica. They go into the synagogue. They're not worried about what just happened as a result of being in the synagogue. They go again. And so verse 11, these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness. examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them, therefore, believed with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men." So Luke uses a very interesting expression here. He says, these Jews were more noble. Now, if we just took that at face value, we might think, is this town filled with earls and dukes and lords? Is that what he means? Like all these noble-born people? Because that is how the word is used sometimes contextually. But obviously here, that's not quite what he's driving at. He's driving at being noble in character. These people here, we could say, were more open or high-minded to the presentation of the gospel. And so what happens? They receive the word. They accept the word. What word? This is the exact same message. They're here proclaiming the exact same message about Jesus, but these people have a much different disposition. They're eager. This means they have a readiness of mind and that they actually have integrity, which means as they hear the word of God proclaimed, that they do not have pride and they don't have prejudice. They don't have these ideas already formulated about Jesus or the message that Paul's proclaiming. And so what did they do? It says they study the word of God daily. We're not waiting for the Sabbath day to come around. We're going to look at the word of God every day. We're going to ask questions. We're not just accepting everything that Paul says. We're going to compare it to the word of God, and we're going to see if these things are actually true. Did the Old Testament Scriptures accord with what Paul is saying? Did Christ's suffering have to take place this way? Did He have to be raised? Is He the King? And they're asking these questions, and they find out that the answers are yes. So this is, we could say, a noble attitude toward the study of God's Word. You think that was a breath of fresh air for Paul and Silas? I'd say so. I'm sure the scabs on their back are not even healed at this point. So what a wonderful respite for a very short period of time. But as you think of these people here, let me ask you, how eager are you to receive the Word of God? The scripture that is breathed out to you by God himself, and as Paul says in Timothy, that's profitable for what? For teaching, for reproof. for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the result is that the man, or we could say the woman of God, might be complete, spiritually complete, equipped for every good work. So I could ask, how can you be equipped for every good work? Study the Word of God. Study the Word of God. And it has to be through an impartial study of the Word of God. We can't come into a passage of the Word of God and say, I'm going to bring all these ideas into it so that whatever God said has to fit with what I already think. It comes from an impartial study of what we call the sacred writings that Paul also says, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. So there's a lot of things out there that we can use to study the Word of God. There's commentaries, there's study guides, there's books, but none of those things can be a substitute for the study directly of the Word of God. We must study directly the Word of God. And as one commentator wrote, as you study the New Testament, what do we find in the New Testament? That as the apostles are revealing things, they're expecting you to know something. What do they expect you to know? The Old Testament. They're expecting you, so when they cite from the Psalms, when they cite from Isaiah, they expect, hey, you've read the Old Testament scriptures, you're acquainted with them, and they expect that you will know these things. Well, in this case, we could say, what was the result of this Bible study? Many, we could say on the one hand, many of the Jews, when it says many of them, this is referring to the Jews, therefore believed. Now, of course, this didn't mean that they were better believing people. This is just an indication of how the Spirit opened their eyes, opened their hearts for these Bereans to understand. Does anybody have a natural inclination toward the gospel? No. But again, Luke notes that there was many Greek women of high standing as well as men. So again, this is an encompassing response from the town, from the low to the high, and we could even say from the east to the west. And so we've got all these distinct subgroups in the town of Berea, but they're all coming together as a singular body of one, a body of believers in Jesus Christ. Verse 13, But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. So we said in verse 12 on the one hand we have people believing, but on the other hand now in verse 13 we find out that word is sent, hey people in Thessalonica, There's these guys here, and they're preaching this message, and so they come right down. They travel all the way to Berea, and it's not with good intentions. And so we could say that they're shaking the people, or it says agitating, shaking the people. It's a word used for earthquake. Shaking and stirring. Stirring with the implication of a tornado. So they come in like an earthquake and a tornado, and they get the people all riled up. There's an interesting thing here, is that In Thessalonica, the persecution came from within, and now in Berea, it comes from without, because it's coming from the same place that they were persecuted before. And as an older commentator from the, I think, the 1400s or 1500s wrote, he said, how restless the devil is. He's absolutely unable to suffer or we could say to endure the preaching of God's Word, so he must quickly stir up in other lands and in other cities people who will persecute the gospel. And hasn't that been the continual story of Acts here? Persecution, persecution, persecution. So this is a less descriptive event by Luke, but it's just as dangerous. But it's a reminder to us that just as the King, Christ, cannot be shaken, as it says in Psalm 16.8, neither can His people be shaken. No matter how much Satan is able to shake the unbelievers around them, the people of God cannot be shaken. Distress cannot conquer them. But if you remember what Pastor Barry said from Ephesians 6.12 on Sunday, it's a constant struggle. Remember that word wrestle? It's a constant struggle. Verse 14, then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. And so you've got these believers in Berea. They send Paul off right away. They remove him from the danger. Not a second to waste, and Paul has to go. Luke doesn't say exactly why Paul, but as we've seen over and over, who's been the main target? Paul. Paul was the one stoned seemingly to death outside the city. It's always Paul, and sometimes other people are caught up with him, but Paul's the main target. So they get him out right away, and Silas and Timothy stay behind. Evidently then, even though Luke doesn't say it, this means at some point Timothy showed up. Because remember it was Paul and Silas who leave quickly out of Thessalonica. At some point Timothy gets there because it's the three of them. Final verse, verse 15, those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. So now they have some escorts, or Paul has some escorts. and they take him all the way to Athens. Athens, which you look there, you go all the way down, follow the red line on your map, and you see that the tip of, I believe it's a peninsula there. But he goes down to Athens, which is the capital of Attica, which is in the Roman province of Achaia. And so Paul gives these men, these messengers who go with him, a command, and maybe even wrote it down for them. He says, I need Silas and Timothy to come be with me as soon as possible. This is the first time on his missionary journeys that he's been completely without fellow workers. And as John Chrysostom, the very old commentator, preacher, he said, even though he was Paul, he still needed Silas and Timothy. Isn't that true? That every believer needs encouragement from others? So did Paul. Paul did not want to be alone in his ministry. And so these men who conducted Paul safely out of Berea, they go back to Berea. And what's interesting is, as far as we know, Paul never returns to Berea. We know that he returns to a lot of these other churches that he visits, but he never, according to the writings of Luke, never returns to Berea, which seemingly had a flourishing church. So despite then, in conclusion, all this hostility that Paul and Silas experienced in places like Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, what do they do? They persevere. They push on. They persevere in profitable kingdom work. And it's amazing that in some of these places, how short they are there, they're planting churches. And they can't fret over, oh, well, we didn't get to spend three years there and do the church plant the perfect way that we want it. They trust in the Lord, but this is why Paul has to write them letters. So do you think that was emotionally difficult for Paul? I'd say so. He had a great desire. He says, we have a great desire in 1 Thessalonians 2.17 to see you face to face. And it bothered him and Silas so much that they did something and they sent Timothy back to Thessalonica. Go back Timothy. We have to know that these people are still persevering in the faith. And then after that we see Paul entering Corinth in weakness and fear and he says with much trembling and perhaps maybe it's not because of the Corinthian people, but because of these events that have taken place and the emotions that he's having over these Thessalonican believers. But even though Paul and Silas, they endure much heartache, they endure tragedy, suffering, what made their hearts glad? It was the reports that come back. The incredible spiritual growth that occurs in these Macedonian churches And so, especially the Philippian church and the Thessalonian church, they bring great joy to his heart. In 1 Thessalonians 3 verses 6 and 7, Paul says, but now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us as we long to see you for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction, we have been comforted about you through your faith." No matter how much pain Paul was in, no matter how much distress he felt, The news of their continuing faith, and of course that wasn't by Paul's power, that was the power of the Holy Spirit, brought him comfort to his heart. I'd like to give you a homework assignment. You won't be quizzed on it, but you will spiritually benefit if you go back and read. Now, thinking of this narrative, go back and read 1 and 2 Thessalonians. You may feel more of that emotion in the words of Paul, especially in 1 Thessalonians, which he wrote to them, I think it was somewhere between 6 to 12 months after having been forced to leave. You'll feel that emotion come through the pages a little bit more as you think about the way that he had to quickly vacate the city. But in 1 Thessalonians, there are several exhortations that he gives. I want to leave you with a couple as well. In 1 Thessalonians 2.12, Paul tells the Thessalonian believers, he says, walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. And I would exhort you, if you are in Christ, if you are united to Christ, If you have the same faith that these Thessalonican and Berean believers had, where they turned from the idols of this world to faith in Christ, then to walk in a manner that accords with that. And secondly, in chapter 4 verse 9, Paul says, Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you. For you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. For that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia, but we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more." It's quite a thing to have Paul commend you so highly that he says, we don't even need to write to you about loving one another because you're doing it so well. So I would ask you tonight, could that be said of us? And by loving one another, what I mean is that, are we loving the entire body? And I'm sure it's very easy, as you think of being here on a Wednesday night, or you think of being here on a Sunday morning, it's very easy to love certain people that you regularly talk to. Maybe there's some people that you talk to every single Sunday. But in the midst of talking to those people that you have such commonalities with, and they're easy to love, Are you looking around to see maybe people who are part of the body who don't have that, who are just kind of sitting off to the side? No one comes up to greet them in the same way, and maybe they don't feel the same way that you do about the body. Could Paul say to us that we are doing this in an exemplary way for other churches to look at and to model? Do we do this with visitors who walk through the door? Or is the greeting and loving of them just for a few of us to do? If you've been here for more than a few years, are there people here in the body that you don't know? How could you love people that you don't know? How could you care for their souls? How could you pray for them in a meaningful way if you don't know them? And so I would urge you tonight, brothers and sisters, as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4.9, to do this. I believe we are loving one another, and I believe we'll see expressions of that as soon as we conclude here. But I would urge you, as Paul says, to do this more and more. So I do thank you for your attention tonight. I want to close in prayer. We're not going to do anything drawn out tonight. I do want to just see if there's any urgent prayer requests. Next week, we are going to get into Athens. Much different feel there. There's a breadth to what Luke is recording here. Not everything is the same. What happened in Philippi was not the same as Thessalonica, which was not the same in Berea, which is not the same in Athens, which is not the same in Corinth. But it's all being brought together in a cohesive way. So let's pray, and let's pray especially for our body. There's a lot of things that are obviously changing, and as things change, there's opportunity for the devil to get his foot in, to cause dissension, to cause division, to cause all sorts of problems among us. And as we heard on Sunday, this wrestling is going to continue. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and we need to Be mindful of that and continually pray against that. So let's pray. Father in heaven, we bow before you tonight. We think of the marvel of the gospel and the mystery of it that seems now so clear to us. Things that the prophets of the Old Testament longed to better understand and to look into. And in your providence, Lord, you revealed exactly what you determined to in your timing over the course of the time that you revealed the gospel. We thank you, Lord, that the Messiah did suffer as was prophesied. And we believe in our hearts that he rose from the dead, that he ascended on high and is now reigning over his kingdom. We believe, O Lord, that you will come back. We believe that you will judge the righteous and the unrighteous. And so, Lord, until you come back, until we sleep in Christ, we pray, Lord, that we will be the same bold gospel proclaimers that Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke were. And we pray, Lord, that as we see such wonderful examples from the Thessalonian and the Berean believers, that you will provoke our hearts in such a way as well. Help us to walk worthy of the calling that you have given to us and also to love one another in spirit and in truth. Help us in these ways, O God, we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.