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Acts 17:1-15 "Explaining the Scriptures"
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ." (Acts 17:1-3)
My wife's father just bought a foreign-made car, so a
couple of weeks ago we went to Ome to take a drive with grandma and
grandpa. As we drove, grandpa kept asking me about different buttons
and switches on the dashboard. "What does this do?" and "What
is that for?" And we had a lot of fun learning what each button
does. Some of these buttons I could explain. "Oh, that is the button
that opens the window." But some buttons were more difficult. For
these ones I needed to demonstrate. I needed to push the button and
show grandpa the sunroof opening or the cd player turning on.
The language of the Bible has a wonderful word for demonstrating. The
Greek word means "to place side by side". It means to show
the connections between things that don't seem to be related. This is
what Paul was doing with the Bible. He was explaining the Scripture,
and then placing the life and ministry of Jesus right next to it, so
that everyone could see the connection. For us, we might think it obvious
that when Isaiah talked about the Messiah bearing our burdens and being
well aquainted with sorrows, that he was talking about Jesus. But the
Thessalonians had never put these two together before.
This is also what I try to do when I teach the Bible. Many people think
that the Bible is a difficult book. But it is not difficult in some
mystical way. It is not as if you have to reach some kind of spiritual
level before you can understand what the Bible teaches. The reason why
the Bible is difficult is that it is about people with foreign names
who lived in places that we don't know well and who had totally different
cultures than we do. But this kind of difficulty is easy to overcome.
A lot of what I am doing when I teach the Bible is explaining the difficult
parts, reminding you who the characters are, what the geography is,
how the culture relates to the story and what some words mean.
This is "explanation", but I also want to "demonstrate",
to place things side by side and show you the connections. And not just
any things. What I really want to show you is the connection between
the Bible and what Jesus Christ is doing today in our lives. I try to
place side by side the Word of God and the work of God so that you can
see clearly how they fit. I want you to be able to recognize, "Oh,
that's Jesus!" when He works in your life.
Last Sunday after the Westin service I went to the Sangenjaya service
to find that my wife, Rie had left a note on the door. She had forgotten
the key to the church and had to go all the way back to our house to
get it. Everyone was waiting around outside and it was time for church
to start. I felt so sorry for my wife, because I knew that she must
feel terrible, having to drive all the way home with my son and all
the way back to church again. I was also a little worried that she might
drive too fast and get into an accident. So I gathered everybody around
and we prayed. One of the prayers was that the enemy would have no chance
to attack or discourage her. Then, suddenly the owner of the building
of the church showed up with the key and we were able to start the service
only a few minutes late.
On the way home, Rie shared with me how as she was driving she kept
seeing a picture in her mind of people waiting and angry with her, she
would want to drive faster and be more and more nervous. But then suddenly
that picture changed into the face of Jesus. Except he was not angry,
he was smiling and his arms were open and welcoming. Rie could relax
and drive carefully.
This is a wonderful example of how Jesus answers prayer, protects us
from the enemy and loves us. How Jesus works in our lives. My job as
pastor is to demonstrate, placing the Bible and the works of Jesus side
by side so that we can grow in faith.
Now what was the result of Paul's explanations and demonstrations?
Some the them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. "Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king-- Jesus." And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. (Acts 17:1-9)
There were two results of Paul's teaching. First, there were many who understanding his explanations, and believing his demonstrations were persuaded that Jesus is the Christ. But there were also those who were not persuaded. And these made trouble for the Christians. Forcing Paul and Silas to flee to a small town called Berea to escape.
Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. (Acts 17:10-12)
What a difference between these two towns! I am sure Paul
taught in the same way, explaining the Word and then placing the works
of Jesus side by side so that people could see that Jesus is the Christ.
But whereas in Thessalonica only the Greeks believed, in Berea, many
of the Jews also believed. What was the difference? Luke tells us of
nothing except the attitude of the people. He says that they were more
fair-minded in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched
the Scriptures daily to find out if what Paul was teaching was true.
They eagerly received Paul's teaching, but then they opened up their
Bible's to see if what Paul said really matched what was written. Let
me challenge you with this kind of attitude towards the word of God.
If I can learn from the Apostle Paul's method of teaching the Word,
you can learn from the Berean's method of learning from the Word. Let
me give you three ways.
1. The Berean's had a strong desire to learn from God's Word. The original
language suggests that they embraced, reached out with both hands and
held onto Paul's teaching. Do you feel like this about God's Word? Sometimes
we start to feel guilty when we miss a Sunday message or a Bible Study.
But guilt is a tool of the enemy. Really what we should feel is HUNGRY!
Cup-a-noodle has run a very succesful series of ads on television about
a caveman who tries to get food. You know it I am sure, the caveman
tries to sneak past a sleeping saber-tooth tiger only to have it wake
up and start chasing him. And at the end of the ad, the voice says "HUNGRY?
CUP A Noodle" The Bereans were hungry for God's Word, they knew
that without it they could not grow. Jesus said, "man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth
of God." Our real food is the teaching of the Bible. Like the caveman,
we should be eager to get it.
2. The Bereans put their trust in the Word. Their idea was to live by
what they found in the Bible. We tend to err in one of two directions.
There are those who put their trust in Bible teachers. There are really
wonderful Bible teachers. I grew up as a Christian listening to a pastor
named Jon Courson. He is a wonderful teacher with a church that is now
6,000 members and has a nationwide radio and tape ministry in the United
States. What a blessing it was to sit in his church and hear him explain
and demonstrate God's truth. But it would be a terrible mistake for
me to trust Jon, rather than the Bible. There were some people who took
every word that Jon taught as inspired by God. I hope that none of you
make this kind of mistake concerning me. I will admit to you right now,
I am not infallible. There are times when I am off. And I am sure that
when we all get to heaven Jesus is probably going to laugh and say "You
dummy, how could you ever of taught that!" But he might also point
to you and say, "You dummies, how could you have believed that!"
The Bereans trusted the Word more than they trusted the teaching of
Paul. The other direction of error is to put your trust in the teaching
or tradition of the church. This results in the kind of ultra-conservatism
that Paul found in the Jews of Thesalonica. Even though they heard the
clear teaching of the Word and saw the obvious connections between the
prophecies of the Messiah and the life and ministry of Jesus Christ,
they still would not believe. This blind trust in the teaching of the
church, leads to a stagnant faith. No church is perfect, nobody has
figured everything out so well that there is nothing left to learn.
God wants to speak to us today through His word, that is why I preach.
If the teaching of the church was perfect then I would just point you
to the doctrine book and forget about you. The Bereans were fair-minded,
open to new ideas, but only if they meshed with the teaching of the
Bible.
3. Finally, they were diligent. They searched the Scriptures daily.
It means that they made a habit of studying God's Word. You know what
a habit is. It is an ingrained pattern of action that you don't really
have to think about anymore, you just automatically do it. I have a
peculiar way of brushing my teeth. When I am finished I turn on the
water and dip my brush into the water and suck the water off the brush,
back and forth rapidly many times. My wife keeps telling me not to do
this because it wastes water, but it is a habit. I have been brushing
my teeth like this since I was a kid and it is very hard to change.
Have you made studying God's word a daily habit? Is it something that
is a regular part of your day? I would challenge you to make it so.
Paul's method of teaching was to explain the Scriptures,
but not only this, he also demonstrated how Jesus fulfilled these Scriptures.
If you develop the attitude of the Bereans, a strong desire for the
Word of God, putting your trust in the Word and not what people say,
and the diligence to spend time in the Word every day, you will start
to see much more clearly what Jesus is doing now, in your life and your
situation.
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