In Acts 17 we are encouraged by the example of Paul as he faces hardship and relentlessly continues to spread the good news of Christ.

Transcript:

Probably one of the more surprising moments in my life was when I was told I was going to blow up a gas station. To be clear, I, I wasn't given instructions to do that -- I was just scrolling on my phone while I was filling up my van. A guy pulled up in his car and was quite insistent that my phone activity was gonna blow everyone up. He was very serious, he was so insistent that he actually became somewhat physically aggressive, approaching me, to the point that I thought he might, like, come at me. Now to be clear, I didn't respond sharply to him-- I was just on my phone during that time. I decided to choose diplomacy in the situation, put my phone away, figured it wouldn't be good for a pastor to get, get in a fight. And you know what, a quick search on Google indicates there's actually never been a case of phones blowing up a gas station. But this fellow was convinced I presented a danger. Now was it my fault that he got upset? In one sense-- yes, my phone use is what aggravated him. But should he have been so aggravated by my phone use? No. That was his problem.

But that's how life goes sometimes-- we can at one and the same time be at no fault, and also the cause of someone blowing up. If this applies generally, it certainly applies to sharing the gospel. Sometimes people really react badly to the Gospel message. And it can spook us and make us feel like troublemakers, like we're the bad guys. It can convince us to clam up and never talk about Jesus. That quiet decision on our part often makes sense in our heads, but if you consider it more closely it doesn't make much sense at all. It'd be like me deciding never to take my phone out again at a gas station even though I know the truth. It's a decision to live in fear.

In our reading of Acts, we find plenty of opportunities for Paul and his companions to decide that they will live in fear, that they'll stop talking about Jesus. We'll see a bad reaction today. But we also see a good reaction to the gospel, and both follow from Paul's testimony. There's a lesson in here for us, regarding both the Christian message and the resolve and basis in communicating it again and again to people.

So we turn to Acts 17, beginning in verses one through three. You'll recall that Paul's companions have moved on from Philippi, where they had experienced some trouble there also that stemmed from Paul casting out a demon from a fortune telling girl. And they got put in prison, and then an earthquake happened, and they got set free because the, the city rulers recognized they shouldn't mess with these guys, especially since they're Roman citizens. And so they're moving on here. Beginning in verse one, it says, when Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. This Jesus I'm proclaiming to you is the Messiah, he said.

So if we look at our map, we can see that Paul is proceeding kind of in a Southwest direction from Philippi. He's going through Amphipolis and Apollonia. Now, we don't know if he preached in those places, it's possible he could have spent a little bit of time there, Luke doesn't tell us. His ultimate destination is Thessalonica, which you can see here, it's right in that little kind of cove, this nice bay, which bodes well for its significance as a place of, of commerce. And it's also along a major route in the area, the Via Egnatia. Now, that journey was about a hundred miles. So quite a far distance, especially after you've been beaten up in Philippi. I mean, I wouldn't wanna walk a hundred miles, I think under any, any, any conditions, nevermind those conditions. But Paul and his companions are so committed to sharing the gospel that they walk a hundred miles to Thessalonica.

And when he gets there, he goes to the Jewish synagogue. So apparently there was enough of a Jewish population here where they had an actual synagogue. You'll recall in Philippi it was Roman colony, they didn't have a synagogue in the city, they were meeting outside the city by a river. Now, some things to know about Thessalonica is that it was a free city. Now that doesn't mean that it was entirely independent of the Roman Empire, it's just that they basically were friendly with the Roman Empire instead of putting up a fight, and so they had the privilege of issuing their own currency and electing their, their own officials and a Roman garrison, Roman soldiers, they didn't have to be in the city. Now, ultimately, they still answer to Rome. If, if things, if, if things kind of go sideways there, Rome's gonna have something to say about it. Thessalonica was a pretty large city. It was around 40 to 65,000 people, so pretty big. Now as they were, as Paul goes to the synagogue in Thesallonica, he spends quite a bit of time there. We, we know that he spends at least three Sabbath days, so he is there for about, at least three weeks. Now, he could have been there even longer, but Luke just tells us about the time that he was reasoning with them in the synagogues, reasoning with them from the scriptures.

Now part of Paul's reasoning from the scriptures may have been an oral recollection of the scriptures that he would've possessed and the people that were in the synagogue would've also possessed. It's important to remember here that not everyone, they didn't have bibles, they didn't have books. The Codex, which was kind of the first version of the book, was kind of a new invention at that time. Most of the writings were on scrolls, and so they might have had scroll, there's a good reason to think that they had some scrolls of the Old Testament here. And so if you're gonna reason from the scriptures, gathering on the Sabbath would've been a good time to do that so you had access to those scrolls. And more than likely the gatherings of the Jews there was probably limited to those Sabbath days. Now remember, part of the reason why Paul wants to go to them is 'cause they have familiarity with the scriptures. So it makes sense that they would have a greater understanding about the idea of Jesus, the significance of who Jesus is because of what God has already given in the Old Testament. Also because the good news should be first shared with them, because the Messiah has been promised to them. Now, what, who is the Messiah? What is the Messiah? The Messiah is God's promise that an anointed one, a promised king, would arrive of the tribe of, of Judah, of the line and lineage of David, this king who would rule forever and establish God's rule here on earth. And so that's what Paul is getting into as he's going into the scriptures, is he's demonstrating that this promised Messiah, this promised one, is in fact Jesus.

Now, that's not entirely intuitive at its, at the forefront because think about Jesus, what happened to him. He got crucified. Most of the Jews were expecting that the Messiah would actually overthrow the Romans, maybe liberate the land of Israel. That's not what happens, but Paul says that's not a problem. We do know that ultimately the Messiah is going to overthrow all worldly powers, but there's other things that are gonna happen too.

And, and we can imagine that Paul would've taken them to texts like Isaiah 53 and Psalm 16. Look at Isaiah 53. I'm not gonna read even all the verses here, it's worth reading the entire passage. But basically, Isaiah gives a prophecy regarding the Messiah, who could also be identified, who can also be identified as the suffering servant, indicating that he was gonna endure a lot of hardship. He was gonna be rejected. He was gonna be killed. We seen in verse nine of Isaiah 53, it says he was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Now, this was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born, and yet it seems like a perfect match for everything that we see happen in Jesus's life. You go to Psalm 16, nine through 11. This is a Psalm written by, by David. He says, therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; and my body will also rest secure, because you'll not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me the path of life; you'll fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Now, they would've, Paul would've pointed to that text and say, well, listen, David did die and he stayed dead. So who is he talking about here? Seems like he's talking, in fact, about the one who would follow in his line. And we see in the case of Jesus, that he did die and yet he did not see decay. He, he was only dead three days and then he was raised from the dead. So we can imagine Paul would've referenced scriptures like this in reasoning with the Jews. And his point being that Jesus is the man who matches the testimony of the scriptures regarding who the Messiah would be and what the scriptures really disclose is the mission of God, what is God's mission. It's not merely political restoration. It's an actual restoration of humanity, as such so that we become the people that we'...