read as encouragement for those in a season of waiting: God will instruct, teach, and counsel with His loving eye on them
1 Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn’t impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.
5 I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
6 For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.
7 You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.
9 Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.
10 Many sorrows come to the wicked, but loving kindness shall surround him who trusts in Yahweh.
11 Be glad in Yahweh, and rejoice, you righteous! Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!
main sermon text covering Paul in Thessalonica and Berea
1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.
2 Paul, as was his custom, went in to them, and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
4 Some of them were persuaded, and joined Paul and Silas, of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and not a few of the chief women.
5 But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people.
6 When they didn’t find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here also,
7 whom Jason has received. These all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus!”
8 The multitude and the rulers of the city were troubled when they heard these things.
9 When they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.
11 Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
12 Many of them therefore believed; also of the prominent Greek women, and not a few men.
13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Beroea also, they came there likewise, agitating the multitudes.
14 Then the brothers immediately sent out Paul to go as far as to the sea, and Silas and Timothy still stayed there.
15 But those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. Receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy that they should come to him very quickly, they departed.
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.
17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him.
18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign deities,” because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.
19 They took hold of him, and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you?
20 For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean.”
21 Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
22 Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.
23 For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.
24 The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands,
25 neither is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.
26 He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
28 ‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’
29 Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.
30 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,
31 because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We want to hear you again concerning this.”
33 Thus Paul went out from among them.
34 But certain men joined with him, and believed, among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
cited to support that the scriptures will not return void but will accomplish what God set out for them
1 “Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness.
3 Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples.
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you don’t know; and a nation that didn’t know you shall run to you, because of Yahweh your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.”
6 Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahweh.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;
11 so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.
12 For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn the cypress tree will come up; and instead of the brier the myrtle tree will come up: and it will make a name for Yahweh, for an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.”
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Nathan opened Acts 17 by grounding it in the journey that brought Paul to Thessalonica and Berea, and he drew a straight line from what Paul did in those synagogues to how we should handle our own settled convictions and open questions today. The thread running through everything was the willingness, or the refusal, to examine familiar scriptures in the light of Christ. Communion followed as a natural extension of that theme.
What was said
Paul and his companions had already been blocked from going into Asia and Bithynia, and after a vision of a Macedonian man calling for help, the group crossed into Europe. Pastor Nathan pointed out that the vision did not come with overwhelming certainty. It says in the text that it "seemed right to them," and he used that to make the case that faithful direction often looks like believers pooling circumstances together and moving forward in reasonable agreement rather than waiting for a dramatic sign.
At Philippi there was no synagogue, so they went to the river and met Lydia, an unnamed slave girl, and a jailer. None of those were who Paul, a lifelong Pharisee who thanked God each morning that he was not a Gentile, a slave, or a woman, would have expected. The vision said "a man from Macedonia," and what he got was a businesswoman, a slave girl, and a jailer. Pastor Nathan held that contrast up as an illustration of how God's direction can look very different from our own categories.
In Thessalonica, Paul went to the synagogue and for three Sabbaths reasoned with the people from the scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. That was the core offense. Everyone expected a military or political deliverer, and Paul was saying their reading of the prophecies was incomplete. He connected this to the Emmaus road account in Luke 24, where Jesus himself walked two grieving disciples through the same scriptures and showed that the suffering and resurrection were not a defeat of the plan but the fulfillment of it. Their eyes were opened when he broke bread with them.
Some in Thessalonica were persuaded, including a large number of God-fearing Greeks and prominent women, but a mob formed, Jason's house was raided, and Paul and Silas were sent out by night. In Berea the reception was different. The people there received the word eagerly and examined the scriptures daily to check whether what Paul was saying held up. Pastor Nathan noted that the Bereans were not suspicious or hostile; they were genuinely open to the possibility that their understanding had been incomplete, and because of that, many believed.
He spent time with that contrast, the closed posture in Thessalonica versus the open posture in Berea, and turned it toward the congregation directly. He said he has written long papers and settled many theological questions himself, and he owns that. But he said the right posture before God is to hold convictions with humility and keep asking to be shown where you are off. He said that applies in two directions: toward anyone whose settled views have hardened into something more like legalism, and toward anyone whose sense of freedom has stretched so far past the scriptures that it has become license.
The sermon closed with Communion, and the prayer before the elements asked God to do what behavior modification on its own cannot do: bring genuine alignment with Christ's life, his fulfillment of the law, and his grace that both removes the penalty we deserve and gives the record we do not.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Carl talked about Paul and his companions being blocked by the Spirit from going into Asia, and said that a hindrance right now does not necessarily mean a hindrance forever. Has there been a time in your own life when a door closed and you later saw why? What did that experience teach you about trusting God's timing?
Paul reasoned with people from the scriptures over three Sabbaths, explaining his thinking and giving evidence rather than just declaring conclusions. What does that kind of patient, scripture-grounded conversation look like in practice, and where do you find it hardest to do?
Speaker 3Good morning, everybody. I know I'm late. I'm sorry. I like to visit. Hey.
Would you stand and join us in song? I'd love to worship together, and here's an encouraging word from first Peter five seven to lead us into worship. And it says this, cast all your worries and cares on him. Why? Because he cares for you.
Would you join us in singing, leave it there.
Speaker 2Leave it there. Leave it there. Leave it there. Take your burden to know you leave there. If you trust him with your gods, he will surely bring your honor.
If your body suffers pain and your health and your soul is almost
Speaker 1Yeah. Y'all can clap if you want to.
Speaker 2That's fine. Yeah.
Speaker 1We're worshiping. It's good. Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. We've got a couple of announcements. Road trip is the theme for Vacation Bible School this year.
June twenty third to twenty sixth, coming fast, nine to twelve in the mornings. If you want to sign up a child for it or if you wanna volunteer, I think there's probably still time. I know Amy Jordan was downstairs this morning. We are doing children's church just on the Sundays we do first b b q, and that's what you kinda walked through to get in here this morning. First b b q is four different Sundays.
It might be up here. Hey, look at there. There's that. Clemmer family send off potluck is June 22 between services, chicken and waffles, in honor of the trip south. You can bring a side along.
Carl is going to be packed and ready to go, so no overwhelmingly large gifts. Cards and memories are certainly welcome. So that's happening June 22. First BBQ, sorry. That's what I was looking for.
I thought that was next. First BBQ is happening today, July 13, August 3, September 7. That's between services. But on those days, we'll do children's church. Other than that, everybody's up here for the for the summer.
Community worship night is happening Wednesday, June 18. Do you have anything to say about that?
Speaker 3No. Come and join. If you love to worship in song with our surrounding churches.
Speaker 2The mourn and the angels cry. Holy, all creation cries. Only forever. Jesus, Jesus, your name is the highest in your day, is the greatest in your day, stands above all. And all thrones and the millions of all powers of you to will always be holy forever.
And you will always be, and you will always be. And
Speaker 3Lord, that is our prayer, but it's also our song. Hear your people sing. Hear your people sing. You are holy. You are other.
And we want to truly just give our praise, our adoration, our worship to you in Jesus' name. Amen. Daily, daily, I surrender.
Speaker 2Daily, daily, so I will trust I will trust you. Oh, morning morning by morning raise your
Speaker 3Some of you might be in that place of waiting and not knowing. And here's a good word from Psalm 32. It's I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go, and I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. God, thank you that you have your loving eye on us, that you counsel us, that you teach us, that you lead us, Lord, in your spirit. And even when we can't see ahead, Lord, would you help us to walk by faith and know that you are in control of all things and that you care deeply for your people.
In Jesus name, amen. That was unresolved, wasn't it? You caught it. You can have a seat here for a moment. It's the worship through giving part of the service, and I'll invite our ushers to come forward, and and we're gonna sing another song here.
But before we do, Ray, may I ask you to just take a moment here to pray?
Speaker 1Sure. God, thank you. Overjoyed to be in your presence this morning to wake up with breath in our lungs, overwhelmed with your goodness, with your grace. Like the song says, it's the only thing that makes me wanna change. Lord, it is the kindness of God that leads to repentance.
Lord, would you remind us of that? That the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God, not in ourselves and not in others. Would you allow us to be carriers of your grace, to be carriers of your mercy? Would you allow us that, Lord, to be a part of the advance of the gospel? That's what we're praying for right now.
It's from from this place, from these, your humble and obedient service, flawed as we are, seeking your will and your way, Lord. Would you take these funds and do with them whatever you want to do to advance the message of the forgiveness of God available in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Speaker 2Christ alone, my hope is found. He's my land mastering and my soul. This cornerstone, this fallen ground, firm through the fiercest drowned and stoop. What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are still, the ones No guilt and lie, no fear in death. This is the power of Christ in me.
From life's first cry to the final breath, Jesus commits my destiny. And no power of hell, no scheme of man can
Speaker 1Amen. It's time for children's church downstairs. And there they go. It was it was an emotional time away for me. I got to do last Saturday Not yesterday.
Yesterday's emotional time too. Graduation is yesterday. But last Saturday, Tanya and Pascal and I got to be in Georgia to do I was doing a wedding for and they were preparing and decorating and doing all the stuff that goes with the wedding for our goddaughter. And it was an amazing time. So thank you and thank you to Brad for preaching while I was gone.
I may at intervals this morning get overcome, but hey, what's different than every other Sunday? It was very very emotional and in this summer and in graduation season and in Jackson, how we plan for funerals ahead of time. That's not normal where I'm from. Usually, someone dies three days later, they're buried. But I've got two for the next two weeks that are just filling my heart because they are loving peep they were loving people that shared and expressed that faith that they had virtually everyone around them.
So I'm the reality, the realness of a relationship with Christ is just on top of me right now, and I'm overwhelmed by it and I'm thankful for it. So here we are back to the text. Acts 17 is where we are. And if I were to say, hey, what's Acts 17? Anybody who has any inclination would say, that's Paul in Athens.
Yes. It's eventually going to be Paul in Athens. We're not getting to Athens today or we're just barely getting there. This is before getting to Athens. If you remember from Acts 16, the last time I preached two weeks ago, that that Paul and his running buddies, Silas and Timothy, and eventually we found Luke with them, they were hindered by the spirit from going into Asia.
So they're coming across on the second missionary journey, the left from Antioch, they're going through Syria, Cilicia, probably through Tarsus, Derby, Lystra, Iconium, and then all of Galatia, Pamphylia, Phreesia, and they get hindered from going into Asia, which is where Ephesus is. It's not saying that Asians don't deserve the gospel. Okay? That may sound ridiculous, but it's not forever. It's just for now.
So if you're taking this into your own life and you go, it feels like God is hindering that from happening now. It's not that he's gonna hinder it from happening forever necessarily. Right? It's just not where you need to be right now. This hindered him going to Asia.
It says they were hindered actually, it says by the spirit of Jesus, spirit of Christ from going into Bithynia. So they're blocked there too, and they kept going, and they ended up at Troas, and they don't really know what's next. Paul goes to sleep and has a vision of a man from Macedonia that is calling out saying, come here, we need your help. And so what are they gonna do? Well, Paul sees the vision and it says, and it seemed to them to be the direction that they were looking for.
I think it's important collectively to recognize that it's not always gonna be a an overwhelming sign. It's gonna be believers getting together and taking all of the circumstances and all of the direction in and it seemed right to them. That's coming out of the scripture. It seemed right to them that this is what they do. This week, I've heard of multiple people who have said, it just feels like I need to start a Bible study.
Okay. Start a Bible study. That's what it is. And if there are other people gathered around you, that's really really good. Right?
It's a huge blessing when we will listen and recognize the hindrance of the spirit and recognize the leading of the spirit. So they cross over into Europe. This is a new barrier that they've gotten over. They enter at Neapolis, which is on the beach and then they go up to Philippi. And at Philippi, we see three vignettes.
One is Lydia, the seller of purple from Thyatira. She is Her background is a religious Jewish woman, but there are not enough religious Jewish men that we know about in Philippi to even have a synagogue. So Lydia of Thyatira, who sells purple fabrics, an unnamed slave girl, and the Philippian jailer. So that's what we see at Philippi. That's where we were last time I was here.
I did not mention it in this service. I don't know why. I remembered it in the second service. At Philippi, we saw these and I would say that they were converted. This unnamed slave girl was set free from the demon that she had that allowed her to speak utterances that were fortune telling.
So I'm not sure, but I think she was probably saved. At Philippi, Lydia, the business woman, an unnamed slave girl in Philippian jailer. Now, Paul is the main speaker for the group that has been gathered. And Paul has grown up his whole life a good Jewish boy. By his own admission, he was a Pharisee.
He was constantly constantly seeking to do right and be godly. So when we hear Pharisee, we think bad guy, but that's the best they had to offer. The Pharisees were the people who really were serious about it. They were church folk. They were the folks who really cared.
And every morning when Saul would wake up, he had a prayer that's the normal Jewish prayer for the time and had been for a long time and still is with a few modifications. Lord, thank you that you did not make me a gentile, a slave, or a woman. That's the morning affirmation? Lord, thank you and it's every day. It's every day.
Now, there's a way to look at that which is the way that I look at it when I hear it and the way that some of y'all looked at it when you heard it. But there's also another way of looking at it that is, Lord, thank you that you made me the way that I am. I'm specifically made wonderfully to be who you want me to be. Thank you that I'm not anybody else. I don't know how they do it, Lord.
But specifically, Gentile slave and woman, that was the norm for Paul, Saul waking up. And when he hears this vision in the night, it's a man calling from Macedonia. And when he gets there, it's a businesswoman, and it's an unnamed slave girl, and then it's a Philippian jailer. None of those were probably what he was expecting. It says that they went and there's no synagogue, so they went down by the river and they met the business woman.
The slave girl just attached to them and followed them around And then the Philippian jailer was because of that, the circumstances were horrific. They end up in jail. But they're ending up in jail is what brings the Philippian jailer to Jesus. So the circumstances are good. Alright.
Now, that's all groundwork. Here we go. Acts 17. Now, when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica. In Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews, he points it out.
There are enough Jewish guys in town that there is a synagogue there. So there is a standard format for the way that the law and the prophets would be presented, and there is a structure and a place probably. There was not one in Philippi, they just went down by the river to pray and here, there is one. So according to Paul's custom, he visited this synagogue and for three Sabbaths, he reasoned with them from the scriptures. From the scriptures is really important, that's why I highlighted it.
It wasn't just what he thought. It wasn't an idea he had invented. It wasn't even it wasn't even a vision that he had individually and he wanted to share with them. It says that he visited with them and for three Sabbaths in a row, he reasoned with them from the scriptures. So reason with them is important too because he's taken the text seriously, and then he's presenting his case from the text.
That's helpful. And he visited. He was there. He showed up for them. I think those three things are all important if we're considering in our lives how we are to do what it is that we do as church folk.
From the scriptures, let us reason together, be with people. Now, it says that he was explaining and that he was giving out. Explaining means he's reasoning with them. He's saying this is the way that I see this. In all humility, it looks like those suffering servant passages in Isaiah that we have been interpreting one way for a long time.
It seems to me that they're about Jesus. Jesus said as much. All of those things are about me to his disciples. So he's explaining his reasoning to them and he's giving evidence because he's pointing back to the Old Testament, not just the Old Testament. He's also pointing back to the words of Christ from the scriptures.
So there we are. What was he explaining and giving evidence? That the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. Now, y'all have heard it a 100,000 times if you've been in church for very long that what they were expecting in Messiah was a political or marshal. What do you call that?
Army. Military. Thank you. Sorry. I'm thinking in Spanish.
That that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. Is it gonna be a military victor? Is it gonna be a political victor? That's what they were expecting, but Saul says, what we were expecting was not right. Examine this anew.
Look at it again. The Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. So if you look Luke 24, do you all remember the disciples on the road to Emmaus twenty four seventeen ish? 17 is where he encounters them on the road, and they're walking back, these two disciples, at least two. They're walking back from Jerusalem the weekend of the crucifixion.
It's also the weekend of the resurrection, but they're unfamiliar with that at this point. So these folks have been following Jesus perhaps two years, three years maybe. And as they're walking home back to Emmaus, what a terrible situation they thought they were in. The one that they thought might be the one to deliver Israel is as far as they know dead. The guy they've been following, the hope that they had placed in him is gone.
And so Jesus comes up and I don't know how they didn't recognize him, maybe he shaved, I'm not sure. Glorified body, I'm not really sure. So they didn't recognize him and he comes along and he says, what's this conversation that you're having together as you walk this pathway? And they said, are you the only person that didn't hear about this? How could you be this close to Jerusalem and not hear what happened?
Jesus of Nazareth was killed. He was crucified like a common thief or traitor, insurrectionist, something else. The guy we had placed all our hope in is dead, and they're walking along as disciples with Jesus, and he's listening to what they're saying and he says, but didn't this have to come to pass? He explains to them, it says from the scriptures, same thing it says about Paul. He explains to them from the scriptures and from the law and the prophets everything that was about him.
He tells them all about it. Actually, he starts telling them about it on the road and then when they get to their house, their village in Emmaus, they said, come on inside. It's getting late. You come on inside. What were they doing?
They were doing exactly what Jesus had taught them to do. They're being hospitable. They're being loving and caring, and they were having a conversation with just some guy walking along the road. It's the equivalent of having a hitchhiker. Come on in, get something to eat, strengthen yourself.
It's too late in the day. We don't even know how far you're going, they didn't know. But they were doing what he had taught them to do. And it says when he sat down and he broke the bread, they recognized him for who he was. They recognized him for who he was because they recognized from the scriptures the authority that he was speaking with, all of those scriptures that were about him that were pointing them to him, and then it just hits them all at once, and then he's gone.
It's beautiful. That's a beautiful thing. So Luke twenty four seventeen is where he joins their little walking down the trail hike. So Paul was explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and he had to be resurrected, rise from the dead and he's saying, this Jesus, the one that I'm talking about because there are lots of different people named Jesus, Jesus, Joshua, Josh, whatever. This Jesus, the one I'm talking about, he's the Christ.
He I'm proclaiming him to you as Messiah Jesus. He is the answer to the prophecies. He is the fulfillment of the law. Examine it and you'll come up with the same conclusions I did. And some of them it says were persuaded.
Every single time that you present to a large group, you will probably persuade some. And then some will reject you out of hand and some will say, maybe I'll listen to this guy later. We're gonna see that later on in Acts 17. But some of them were persuaded and they joined Paul and Silas and along with a large number of the God fearing Greeks. This was not something that the good church folk, Jewish synagogue fillers were expecting, but a large number of God fearing Greeks were persuaded and a significant number of leading women were persuaded and they followed after Christ because of the advance of the gospel in Paul's reasoning, and his explaining, and his giving evidence, and because of the scriptures because the scriptures will not return void, but they'll accomplish exactly what Jesus what God had set out for them.
Isaiah 55. But, here it is, but the Jews becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace. Politics make strange bedfellows folks. When you have an enemy, anybody that is able to go with you, you'll take them with you. And this says that the hardliners that did not want to be convinced of a new and different way than of understanding, took with them some folks from the marketplace.
They formed a mob and they set the city in an uproar. So this is in Thessalonica, now set in an uproar, and they attacked the house of Jason. Do y'all think of Jason as a biblical name? I don't either. I got friends named Jason, and this one always surprises me.
I forget about it. They attacked the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. So here once again, we see the persecution, which means the chasing after of Paul and Silas and his running buddies. They're inside of Jason's house and they're seeking to bring them out to the people where and when they didn't find them, they began dragging Jason and some of the other brothers out before the city's authorities and these men who have upset the whole world, they've come here also. They're causing trouble everywhere they go.
These outside agitators upset the world. They've come here also, and Jason has welcomed them. Jason was being hospitable to the carriers of the gospel. I hope that we're always hospitable to carriers of the gospel. I hope we are.
Jason's welcome and they all act contrary the decrees of Caesar. Oh boy. Politics rearing its head again, saying that there's another king, Jesus. This was one of the same charges that they brought before king when it was before Pilate. It's like you gotta be scared of this guy.
He's he's your enemy too, I promise. They say that there's another king, Jesus. Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world. It's different than that. It's possible for you to be a part of the kingdom heaven on this earth right now.
And they stirred up the crowd. All the stirring up. There are so many different words in acts for stirring up. And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them. Okay.
Now, the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. He's had to sneak out of town a couple of different times that we know about already. He's lowered down over a wall from Damascus. Right? And he's been beaten with rods, and he's been beaten with switches, and he's whipped.
But at night, y'all need to get away from here. It was ugly today, probably gonna be uglier tomorrow. Get on down to Berea. So they did and when they arrived, they went immediately into the synagogue of the Jews. They're on a mission from God.
That's the best way to describe it. They're gonna roll forward through whatever. They're gonna roll with the punches and head on. They went into the synagogue of the Jews, just like it says according to Paul's custom up in verse two. Now, these people these people in Berea were more noble minded than those in Thessalonica.
That's nice. It's really nice. They were more noble minded. You'll see a lot of churches, you know, lot of small churches on the sides of the highway in the South, and there are a lot more Berea Church, the Berean church. There are a lot more Berean than there are Thessaloniac churches.
Because if you want to be named after somebody, be named after some that are a little noble minded. Right? For they received the word with a great eagerness. Amen. And they were examining the scriptures daily, not just on the Sabbath, they were paying attention to what it said throughout the week.
And they were checking in with what Paul said to see whether these things were so. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Check this out. Look into it for yourselves. You remember Isaiah 40 this?
You remember Isaiah 50 that? You remember Isaiah 60 that? Do you remember where that is? That one has always thrown me. Let me go back to that.
Let me examine it. It says that they were examining the scriptures daily. There is a malleability here. They're receiving the word with eagerness. It's not just some novelty.
They're paying attention to the good old scriptures that they've always had, but they're able to examine them in a new light, the light of Christ. We need to be able to do that. If you've settled every theological question and you just treat it like a like you're in court and roll your eyes at what the other council says over there and just sit there and go, objection, objection, ask and answer, move on in your head because you've already settled the question. Consider it. Consider what it is that's being presented in the light of Christ.
Therefore, many of them It said some in Thessalonica, now it says many of them believed because they were open to the possibility of having an incomplete understanding. Like those disciples on the road to Emmaus, with baffling circumstances in front of them, the scriptures expounded by Jesus, pointed to their truth and their reliability, and that all it was was our interpretation that was off. Let God be true and every man a liar. May we be holding on to the promises of God because they are the promises of God, but may we not be holding on to our opinions just because they're our opinions. Many of them believed and along with them a significant number of prominent Greek women and men.
Amen. But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out, oh, the but in this one too, but when the Jews of Thessalonica, these are not even the Jews of Berea. These are outside folks that came in. When the Jews with Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, we were gonna arrest that guy in the morning. And now he's down the road.
Let's go get him. They came there as well and they were agitating. Agitating is another like I said, there are four words that so far in Acts. And I think that Luke just had to had to have more words, just like the old thing about Inuit peoples or Eskimo people have so many words for snow. Acts just needs a lot of work for agitation.
They put in motion. They shook things up. They set in motion what needs to remain still. They caused trouble. They were causing an inner perplexity and emotional agitation from getting too stirred up inside.
They were stirring up the crowds. There's an intentionality about this. They're pleading with them to not accept the gospel. They're pleading with them to not accept a new way of understanding this. This one is used in the New Testament to describe physical shaking or metaphorical agitation.
It's like shaking someone like this. It can refer to literal shaking of objects or figuratively unsettling people in their situations. And if when we're reading in Galatians on Thursdays in the men's study down there, Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Right? Who has taught you though you accepted the grace of God in Christ alone, you accepted it that way and then someone came along and said, no, no, no, no.
It's not all that. You have to do this, that, and the other thing. All of these laws still apply to you. You still have to do it. Then immediately, the brothers sent Paul out to go as far as the sea and Silas and Timothy remained there.
We need Saul to be safe, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Well, they're both pastoral guys. We know that, prophetic and pastoral, but Paul was sent out to go as far as the sea and now, those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. They gang all gathered back up in Athens with their mission of God continuing, and that is a great passage. We have first b b q outside today.
We have the table that is set before us. And what I think that the text is suggesting today, and I I looking out, I've closed my eyes now, but looking out, I see that I have some pretty deeply held convictions about the way things actually are and I know that I do. I have settled a lot of theological questions. I've written papers, long papers about what I think about every theological option. And I'm pretty convicted the way that I believe, but I'm also humble before God to say, please show me if I'm wrong.
Right? Please, would you please show me if I'm off in any way? If if I have become a person of the ends rather than belonging to a people of the means, walk in holiness, walk in the righteousness that Christ provides, listen to him, pay attention to the scriptures with him in mind, Pay attention to the scriptures considering that he has fulfilled the law. Pay attention to the scriptures and recognize that I fall short, but God. I I pray that if you're a churchy person like I am, that you would recognize that for your maybe legalistic tendencies.
I also pray that if you find yourself here and you feel like you have such liberty that you can just do whatever it is that you wanna do and that's okay. Even if it's contrary to the scriptures, I'd say, can we like the Bereans dig in together and see if it be of God or not to have that kind of licentiousness and call it liberty? Can we walk away from our opinions and our preconceived notions and the things that we have been fighting for quite honestly. And say, God, show me your way. Show not just me your way, Lord individually, but show us your way.
Now, I'll ask the ushers to come forward, elders come forward, and the band to come forward. And as we sing, and as we get to ready to distribute this, this is an open table. So if you come from a different denominational background, you're not Baptist, this one's a wide open table to anyone who has put their faith in Christ. We we usually practice practice it as a remembrance, but thanks inside of the plates. Would you pray with me?
God help us. Help us. Show us. Show us when we get off the path. Lord, show us the path.
Illumine the path before us. Show us your way. Lord God almighty, would you allow us? It says we should not take this unworthily. It's a wide open table.
Yes. But we should have the chance to confess our sins, agree with you about our sins. You say in first John one nine, you say that if we are homo logeo saying the same thing about our sin that you say about our sin, you are already forgiven us, you're cleansing us from all unrighteousness. Lord God, I ask for my own individual self and soul, but I also am pleading with you on behalf of this congregation. You would forgive us our shortfall, and you'd bring us into alignment with your with your son, with your law, with your word.
In Jesus name, amen.
Speaker 2You paid for us is worth every scar. Still you meet us with mercy and shame. And I'll say, father's love poured
Speaker 1On the same night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread after supper and after he'd given thanks, he said to his disciples there and his words still ring true for us today. He said, this is my body which is given for you. Take this and eat of it and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Lord Jesus, thank you for your life that was lived out in perfect submission to the spirit without any sin. Thank you for the perfect record that you offered by walking it out, fulfilling the law, loving your father through the power of your spirit, and Jesus, we find our peace.
Lord God almighty, I pray that as we distribute this little plastic cup of grape juice that lord, you would bless each one who partakes. This is a symbol for the innocent blood that was shed on Calvary on behalf of all who would come to believe. In Jesus name, we gather. In Jesus name, we are called. In Jesus name, we want to live out our own purpose.
Would you bless this and everyone who would partake Lord. And if there's anyone in the room that cannot because they do not yet believe it, I pray that you'd use the witness of those folks sitting around them to bring them into a harmonious and good relationship, a right relationship with you. In the quiet, Lord, we sit and we think, and we're asking you to show us what it is that you'd have us surrender to you so that you can change it. Behavior modification fails as long as it's only human will involved. Would you show us, Lord, what your individually?
Here we are between the bread and the cup and we're considering though we do not deserve it, you gave that perfect record graciously. Though we do deserve it, you took away the penalty. Your grace and your mercy are overwhelming to us, Lord. In understanding that, would you allow us the grace of understanding the next right step that you'd have us take as we walk it out.
Speaker 2Amen.
Speaker 1In the same way that he took the cup, the bread he also took the cup after supper and after he'd given thanks for that, disciples there and his voice rings out to us today that this is the new covenant. This is the new covenant in my blood. He said, take this, drink it in, do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. I'm reminded the line from the song that says, be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure.
Lord, may this reminder be not just a reminder of our salvation, but may it truly be something that reminds us of our sanctification. We are a work in progress not yet finished. And Lord, we pray as we're headed towards glorification that the sanctification process would be easy, easier for us, easier for those around us, that the fits and starts would minimize, and that our trust in you would just grow. In Jesus name, amen. Would you stand with us?
We're gonna sing one last song.
Speaker 2Let's sing this song. What we believe. We believe in God the father. We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe in the Holy Spirit.
And he's given us new life. Let's sing that again. We believe in God the father. We believe in Jesus Christ. We
Speaker 1And now, let me say a blessing for the food out there. God, thank you. Thank you for those who have gathered in your name, Lord, and for those who are just along for the ride. Would you bless the food for all of us? Would you bring us to your table, Lord, together?
And would you allow us the grace to remember? In Jesus name, we ask for your blessing on this assembled crowd and on every life that they will touch in the next week. Amen. Now, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit accompany you all. Amen.
That. Yeah. So my my goddaughter, I couldn't go into it, but my best friend passed away.
