Elevate - The Story Pt 29 - A Tale of Two Cities

Paul and Silas continue spreading the gospel and face opposition in Thessalonica. They go to the Jewish synagogue and reason with them from the scriptures, showing that Jesus is the Messiah. Some Jews and Gentiles convert, but others become jealous and start a riot. They can't find Paul and Silas, so they round up Jason and other believers. The Jews in Thessalonica didn't want to hear the scriptures and didn't want to change. This reminds us that sometimes we hear the word of God but don't allow it to change our lives. when God had this word written down for us, He was saying, I really mean this. He was saying, this is ironclad. You can count on this. You can take it to the bank. You can trust that this word is exactly how I want you to live. If you simply do it the way that I have prescribed in this book, you will become more like Christ. You will fulfill your purpose and you will stay out of reach of the enemies attacked against you. Welcome to Elevate, from Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama, with Pastor John DiQuatro. We hope it builds your faith and helps you to live a life of God that you've always wanted to live. We hope it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Enjoy the message and welcome to Elevate. Well, we are continuing today in our story series, and we've been in the book of Acts. It's telling the story of the young church, the first century church, the church that formed when Jesus ascended, and we see how the Holy Spirit is empowering the young believers of this church to spread the gospel throughout the known world. But we also see that they have faced much opposition. Last week, we looked at Paul and Silas and how they found the secret of overcoming even the most desperate situations in their lives. They prayed and they worshiped in the midst of a jail cell, in the middle of their imprisonment, and God brought freedom and purpose to their lives in the midst of their imprisonment. But today we're moving on as Paul and Silas continue to spread the gospel through the known world. And so we're in Acts chapter 17. I'm reading out of the NIV this morning, and beginning in verse 1, it says this. When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. And 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 am proclaiming to you is the Messiah, he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women. But other Jews were jealous, so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace. They formed a mob, and they started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason's house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting, These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus. When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. And they made Jason and the others post bond, and they let them go. So Paul is here on his second missionary journey. He did it three times where he he he took off and just went all throughout the known world and traveled to different cities and and built churches. And so he's on his second one of these journeys, and he's traveling with Silas and Timothy. Now he started with Barnabas. You may have read that, but but in Antioch, they had a bit of a disagreement about what direction to take the ministry. And so they parted ways and he he picks up Silas and Timothy on the way. So they're making headway throughout the areas of Asia Minor and parts of Eastern Europe. They're establishing new churches. They're visiting churches that they established on their former missionary journey. And to this point, they're having much success, but they're also facing a lot of hardship like we talked about last week, and there have been riots and they've been beaten and they've been thrown into prison and and they they've they've been run out of other cities. So when Paul and Silas on these missionary journeys, when they would come to a new city that they have not been to before, the first place that they would go is the Jewish synagogue. They started with the Jewish believers. And although although these cities were Gentile cities, there was always a a population of Jews that served God. And so they established a synagogue in the midst of those Gentile cities, similar to the way that missionaries go across the world into Muslim areas and they build Christian churches. Right. There was there's a remnant that's there. And so Paul always felt that it was proper to preach to the Jews first, because if they could be converted, you know, it was just a one small step from being a Jew to being a follower of Christ. They just had to believe that Jesus was the one that was foretold in their prophecies and that he was the Messiah. And so if they could convert the Jewish people in these cities, then they could be a real big help and they could evangelize and help disciple the new Gentile believers. So in this particular passage, their journey takes them to a city called Thessalonica, the city in northern Greece. And today, if you looked it up on a map, it would be called Thessaloniki. And as was their regular custom, they go immediately to the Jewish synagogue there in Thessalonica. And he goes three weeks in a row on the Sabbath. So he joins them in their church service and he begins to reason with them from the scriptures, the same scriptures that they have been reading for thousands of years, the same scriptures that they have over and over have rehearsed and memorized. And he was showing them in their scriptures how Jesus was the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies, that his life, his teachings, his death, his resurrections was the fulfillment of those prophecies and that he was the Messiah. And it says that a few of the Jews accepted their message, a few of them did, but it was mostly the Greek Gentiles who were being converted. But the Jews that did not believe, which was most of them, they were not satisfied with simply disagreeing with Paul. That wasn't enough. And just allow them to go on their way, stay out of our church. The Bible says that they became jealous and they rounded up some thugs and they start a riot in the city. And so the Bible calls them bad characters. These bad characters, they start these riots and they try to bring Paul and Silas into the chaos because they wanted to give them a good beat down. Like, don't you come here with that stuff. But they can't find him. They can't find Paul and Silas. They don't know where they are. So what they do is they round up Jason. Jason was the guy that was letting them stay in their house while they were in town. They round up Jason and some of the other believers and they rough them up a little bit and eventually they let them go. Now let's just stop here before we read on. The Jews in the synagogue in Thessalonica were clearly shown the scriptures that pointed to Jesus as being the Messiah. But they didn't want to hear it. These Jews were uncomfortable with it. They didn't want to hear it. And Paul and Silas, you know, they didn't come with a new religion. Right? They didn't come with a motivational speech. They didn't even come with the name of another God on their lips. They didn't come with their own ideas and they didn't come with their own words. They came armed with the Word of God. They came armed with the same Word of God, the same scriptures that these Jews in the city had read and memorized for their entire lives. But they didn't want to hear what was in the scriptures. They didn't like it. They didn't like what they were hearing. They felt threatened. And they did not want to make the changes that the scriptures required of them. They didn't want to change. They liked their little Jewish synagogue. They liked the way that they have done things for hundreds of years. They liked sitting in their pews. And they liked having the carpet color not being changed. And they liked everything remaining the status quo. And so they didn't listen to the Word of God as it was preached. Now how many times do we treat the Word of God just like the Thessalonians? We know the Word. We love the Word. We say that we believe the Word. But sometimes when we read something we don't like, Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm right and you know what he's dealing with something even you know all of these epistles in the Bible the New Testament they were written to address issues so you know James is dealing with something in the churches that he's writing to and it just shows us that people have not changed a whole lot in the last 2,000 years right they were even playing church then I mean we're talking Jesus rose from the dead the churches form and within within a couple of years James is writing and saying listen stop stop playing church stop just knowing what's in here and thinking that it's okay and thereby deceiving yourselves but actually do what's in the word and so what was happening back then it still happens today where folks kind of go through the the actions and the motions of coming to church right it's easy to come to church it's easy to hear the word preached right we know the truth and and sometimes when we hear the word of God it even inspires us but listen I've heard some really really good sermons that inspired me and did nothing to change my life whose fault was that was it because the pastor wasn't anointed was it because the message was not based on the word of God no it was because of me I didn't change at the preaching in the hearing of the word of God because of me it was my fault I heard the word and I didn't do anything about it I didn't do anything to change my life I didn't do anything with the word that I had heard and it's easy to slip into this to hear a great message to hear the word of God preached to get inspired and get your feelings all all turned up right even some people they like to say old pastor you preach the good one you know I know look at these goosebumps on my arm I don't know why we do that why do we use goosebumps as like the validation of something we do this to each other anyway I'm just pontificating now but it's easy to slip into that right to hear that great message to receive that inspiration to be stirred up right but we've all heard messages on forgiveness but boy when somebody hurts me oh boy it becomes a lot harder to forgive at that point we've all heard messages on striving to live in peace with one another yet we still allow ourselves to get offended and leave churches and slander people rather than work through the issues and strive for unity and peace which is what the Bible tells us to do right we've all heard messages about giving and being generous to the kingdom of God and to the poor yet when it comes to releasing God's tithe from our hands the thing that belongs to him to begin with when it comes to releasing it we just won't do it and I can go on about what the Bible has to say about prayer and when faith and healing and patience and the fruit of the Spirit and all the things that the Bible instructs us to strive towards as believers and I'm certainly not trying to shame anybody or condemn anybody I just want to point out that sometimes maybe we're not all as spiritual as we think right fill in the blank about what you know is in the word but refuse to do so James says these words he says don't merely listen to the world to the word and so deceive yourself listen there is nothing worse than a person who is self-deceived argument with a person who is so obviously wrong like that is the most I mean they're coming up with all these crazy reasons to support them and you're like you're so wrong it's almost comical self-deception I listen at 16 years as a worship leader us I've encountered quite a few self-deceived people self-deceived about their ability musically and I've had people come to me tell me about all the things that they've done in the past all the churches where they led worship in all the places and then all how good they can sing and then when you finally when you finally got to get with them and say all right let's sing and they start singing for you it's not much more musical than than a howling cat in heat you're like what is going on but yet they are so convinced that they're not making just a joyful noise although that's what it is you can't convince a self-deceived person that they're deceived it's kind of the nature of deception right hard to know when we're being deceived they're deceived and they can't see it so James is telling us that if we get caught up in self deception about our relationship to God and to his word then we're in big trouble we are in danger because our measure of spirituality is not how long we've been in church or or how many of these scriptures we have memorized how many times we've read it cover-to-cover doesn't matter how long you've been a deacon or a small group leader or how many ministries you serve in or how much you do around the church it is measured by how much like Jesus you look and you will find his image and what he looks like written in the pages of this book when we do the word we become more and more like Jesus so I James says do what it says listen we've got a place high value on the Word of God if we ever wish to become like Christ second Timothy remember Timothy was one of Paul's companions and he says this in chapter 3 in verse 16 he says all scriptures God breathed and it's useful for teaching rebuking and correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work says that the Word of God has been God breathed breathed out by his spirits but it's more than just spoken the Word of God is more than just spoken for us right if you if you sold a car to somebody would you just speak it and do a verbal agreement and shake hands and and and believe that that buyer would pay you know you'd want a written contract why because we place more value on things when they are written not just spoken right you receive an offer of a job right you want that in writing it's the first thing you say can you put that in writing I want to know everything you told me put it in writing when we give it a quote for some work in our house we want the written quote and a little clause that says nothing will change unless I authorize it right you want those things in writing when you put something in writing you are saying that is ironclad you're saying what's on this paper I really really mean it you can count on this so the Word of God was was breathed out by God but then written by the men whom God inspired and when God had this word written down for us he was saying I really mean this he was saying this is ironclad you can count on this you can take it to the bank you can trust that this word is exactly how I want you to live if you will be the most fulfilled and successful and purposeful in life if you simply do it the way that I have prescribed in this book you will become more like Christ you will fulfill your purpose and you will stay out of reach of the enemy's attack against you he wrote it down he said I mean this now in this passage that we've read we see the Thessalonians was a city that was not eager to embrace the word they were not eager to embrace what it says in pattern their lives according to it and and receive it as truth instead the word offended them it angered them it caused to dig cause them to dig their heels in and rather than doing the word they did the opposite made trouble for Paul and his companions and so Paul and Silas and Timothy they're like yeah I believe so they get out of Thessalonica and they go and they head to a nearby city in Greece called Berea and so let's look at what happens when they leave Thessalonica and they move on to Berea act seventeen beginning in verse ten as soon as it was night the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea on arriving there they went to the Jewish synagogue now the Berean Jews were more noble character than those in Thessalonica for they receive the message with great eagerness and examine the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true as a result many of them believe as did also a number of prominent Greek women in many Greek men when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God of Berea some of them went there to agitating the crowd and stirring them up the believers immediately sent Paul to the coast but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible my goodness what a difference between the city of Thessalonica and the city of Berea Paul goes into Berea does the same thing he always does right goes first to the Jewish synagogue goes straight there and preaches to the Jews that are in Berea and look we just read this but look what Luke says about the Bereans in verse 11 he says now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica for they received the message with great eagerness and examine the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true I love it he calls them people of great character because they they examine the Scriptures I love it and it says they received the message with great eagerness right as Paul was preaching there on the edge of their seat hanging on every word of the Lord listening to the word of God it excited them it motivated them it inspired them in fact it's so inspired them and they got so excited that they had to go home after church and open up the Bible to see everything that Paul said for themselves they wanted to make sure that they what what they were hearing was true and so they studied it and they searched it and they dove into those Scriptures and because of that they believed man as a pastor that's like a dream to know that the words that I speak that are that are coming from the Word of God are received with eagerness that they inspire that they motivate but not just that but that it would cause you to crack open your own Bible and make sure that what I've said is indeed true and I tell you I do my best to interpret this word faithfully for you I do my best to present it in a way that will be meaningful for you and that that it can help you to apply it to your life but also that it's not just good words coming out of my mouth but that it's true to the intention of the Holy Spirit when he inspired the biblical writers that is my goal every week when I come up here to you but I could be wrong there's some of you that have had that have come up to me afterwards and said you know what will you preach on I've studied that extensively and here's something that you missed from there that happens from time to time I mean I immediately go home and cry curl up in a fetal position and my wife has to comfort me I won't eat for three to know that doesn't happen I appreciate that I really really do but listen I want you to fact check me I really want you to fact check me go into the word and find out yourself if what I preach to you is true not just read it study it right get in there and I promise you that if you get deep into this word if you really get deep into it study it maybe go back and look at some biblical languages do some word studies let me give you a great website since we're all on the internet right Bible hub.com if you're reading scripture you go I wonder what that word really meant for the Greek person that wrote it just go in there click on that word right and it'll tell you what it means and you can say okay look at that he was saying that it meant all this stuff that I couldn't see but now that I go back and I see what this word means in Greek now I understand that what he said was true you understand what I'm saying write it down put it in your notes Bible hub.com it's a great great simple website to use to do your own fact-checking of me but as you get deep and deeper and deeper into the Word of God I promise you will love it more than you ever have it will transform you more than it ever has do it deep dive and let the word cleanse you and change you from the inside out so go ahead please check up on my preaching it'll make me better but I promise it'll make you better as well but don't just make sure that what you read is true do what it says do what it says let it change you let it transform you and be it be eager to be a doer of the word now let's go back to our scripture in James he says this don't really listen to the word and so deceive yourself do what it says look what he says next in verse 23 anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forget what he looks like what seems like a ridiculous analogy doesn't it like who really forgets what they look like when they walk away from a mirror exactly that's why this is a good analogy because if you forgot what you look like after looking in the mirror what would you have to do in order to be reminded of what you look like again you have to go back to the mirror but when we read the word we reminded of who Christ says that we are we're reminded of how the Word of God is asking us to live but then what happens is we walk away and we don't do it and then we start getting frustrated and we're getting confused because we're like but the Bible says this how come that's not happening in my life well it's because there's a whole bunch of stuff in there that you're supposed to be doing and living by but you're not doing it and living by it and so we get frustrated and so we go back to the word and we open it up again and we read and we're like ah yes once again that's who I am that's how I ought to be that's how I ought to be living that's how I ought to be seeking God that's how I ought to be worshiping that's how I ought to be surrendering my life for the kingdom all right I get it now but then we walk away and we keep on living according to how we want to live and so we find ourselves disappointed we find ourselves struggling unfulfilled going how come the promises in this word are not the promises that I'm seeing fulfilled in my life how come I don't feel any different how come I don't have a passion how come all this church stuff is so hard well because we're seeing what it says and walking away and doing our own thing and then we have to go back and be reminded once again this is who I am this is what I look like it's madness yet so many of us do this and then we wonder why our marriage is falling apart or our finances are a mess or we can't seem to have a clear direction and what where God is leading us in our life or we just have no passion whatsoever for life or for God for his kingdom or for his people listen it's time we get serious about the Word of God and do what it says in this church listen in this church I know what we preach in this church I know what is what comes across this pulpit and I know how faithfully we preach the Word of God whether it's me or anyone else that stands in this pulpit we ought to all be serving we ought to all be giving generously we ought to all be forgiving one another we ought to all be praying and worshiping and helping others and on and on and on if we are fully devoted authentic followers of Jesus Christ then it's this word that directs how we live the Bible is not a buffet with options it's not a McDonald's menu we are responsible for what we know of this word and our responsibility is to do it listen otherwise we're shortchanging the kingdom of God we're shortchanging our own transformation our own growth we're shortchanging our ability to walk in the very purposes and destiny for why God even created us in the first place the James continues in verse 25 I love what he says here but whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it not forgetting what they have heard but doing it so what it says they'll be blessed in what they do thank you for listening to elevate we hope this message encouraged inspired and challenged you authentic life church is located at 3750 Michael Boulevard in Mobile Alabama visit our website authentic life TV for more information about authentic life church to find out what we have going on or to make a donation you can also find us on Facebook we'd love for you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our weekend service we have excellent children's nursery and youth program so bring the family for pastor John DeQuatro I'm Scott Chestnut thanks again for listening and God bless you