Sugar Land Bible Church

Dr. Andy Woods: All right. Well, let's open our Bibles this evening to the 17th chapter of the book of Acts. Acts chapter 17. Continuing our verse by verse teaching through the book of Acts on Wednesday evenings. You find, as I've mentioned many times, the outline of the book of Acts in chapter 1 verse 8, where Jesus tells his disciples, "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem" (that's chapters 1 through 7 of Acts), "in all of Judea and Samaria" (that's chapters 8 through 12 of the book of Acts), and then "to the remote parts of the earth" (that's the biggest section of the book of Acts, chapter 13 through chapter 28).

Looking at that third section, we had the first missionary journey, chapters 13 and 14, the "what are we going to do with all these saved Gentiles" chapter called the Jerusalem Council, chapter 15, and then Paul launches out on his second missionary journey, chapter 15 verse 36 midway through chapter 18. There's what the second missionary journey looks like. Paul has made it out of Philippi, which was studied in the last chapter.

He leaves Philippi, and the next place he goes to is Thessalonica. It's a bummer when you actually go there and figure out they don't pronounce it at all like we do. They call it Thessaloniki. That's painful because I've been saying it wrong all these years, but I'm just going to keep with what I know. Thessalonica is the way it reads to me, but if you go there, they'll call it Thessaloniki. That's in chapter 17, verses 1 through 9. Lord willing, we're going to try to cover that section this evening. Here's an outline of those verses. It begins with Paul's journey in verse 1.

He goes to Amphipolis, Apollonia, and then Thessalonica. Notice chapter 17, verse 1: "Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews." I don't know how good your eyes are, but I put a circle around all these different cities that he has moved through. You might see Philippi there, and then next on the list is Amphipolis. As he's continuing to move westward, he runs into Thessalonica. Here's another map that's equally as difficult to see. He was ministering here in Philippi, and he stops briefly in Amphipolis, and he's now making his way to Thessalonica.

One of the things you'll notice about the book of Acts is it's very precise with geographical information. It reads almost like Google Maps. Before the internet—young people don't realize there was a time in history that the internet didn't exist—we had to find our way around through Thomas Brothers maps. You guys ever use those? Yeah.

I was trying to explain to my daughter one time that we didn't always use cellphones. She was real little, we were in the Bush International Airport, and she was just staring at this payphone. They have a payphone over there. I was looking at her and saying, "Why is she staring at this payphone?" Then it occurred to me she's never seen a payphone. I was trying to explain to her how we used to do it. We used to put a dime in the slot and then dial the number. She says to me, "Why would you ever do that?"

Anyway, we use Google Maps today, but we used to use Thomas Brothers. That's how the book of Acts reads. It reads very precise geographically. The reason it does that is Luke is trying to show Theophilus, the addressee of the book, the growth of the church. These places of geography—how the church is growing geographically as a move of God—are very important in the development of Luke's presentation.

From Amphipolis, he goes to Apollonia. "Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica." There again is where those different cities are located. They finally get to Thessalonica, and there he stops. Remember the people on this missionary journey would be Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke joining the group in Philippi as one of the "we" sections in the book of Acts (Acts 16). Then in verse 40 of Acts 16, he stops saying "we" and he moves back to "they." We think Luke was left behind in Philippi to pastor the church that started there. That church started through the conversion of Lydia and her household and the Philippian jailer and his household.

Luke is left behind, and here come Paul, Silas, and Timothy, and they come to Thessalonica. The first thing it says is they stopped there because there was a synagogue of the Jews. Here's Thessalonica, where the events of chapter 17, verses 1 through 9 are going to transpire. Why does it keep saying Paul went to the synagogue of the Jews? The answer is in Romans 1:16, a book that Paul, from our chronology, hasn't even written yet, but he'll lay out his ministry philosophy. He'll say this in Romans 1:16: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

His ministry philosophy was to go to the Jews first, find out where they gathered, find out where they met, typically in the synagogue. They are the elect nation of God, and he is basically giving them constantly the first bite of the apple, so to speak, the first opportunity to receive the gospel. Typically, what happens is it doesn't go well for him. They end up kicking him out of the synagogue, and he goes among the Gentiles in the town, and he reaps this great harvest. The Jews get wind of it, and they get jealous of his success amongst the Gentiles, and they drive him out of the city, and he goes to his next destination.

Arnold Fruchtenbaum and myself, following Arnold Fruchtenbaum, are of the persuasion that this mandate "to the Jew first and then to the Greek" is still binding today. I don't see anywhere in the book of Acts or in the Bible where God says don't do that anymore. I think that missionary practice is a good one. He goes to this synagogue, and he starts to do his preaching in the synagogue (verses 2 and 3). This is very common with Paul. He has a custom in verse 2, and then he has content in verse 3.

Notice his custom. Acts 17, verse 2 says, "According to Paul's custom," in other words, this was habitual, "he went to them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures." A lot of people, a lot of commentators, I think make this mistake. They say Paul was only in Thessalonica for three weeks because it says he went to the synagogue and reasoned with them for three Sabbaths. That would be basically a three-week period of time. I don't think that's true. I don't think Paul was in Thessalonica for three weeks. I think he was in Thessalonica probably six months to a year.

Dr. Toussaint in the Bible Knowledge Commentary makes this point. He says the reference to three Sabbaths does not mean the missionary band stayed only three weeks in Thessalonica. Paul carried on the work with a Jewish emphasis for three Sabbaths, and then turned to the Gentiles and ministered to them for some weeks after that. This was the situation for three reasons.

Number one: the Philippian church—the church that he had just planted and left—sent money to Paul at least twice during this visit, implying a longer lapse of time than a mere three weeks. In this time period, if you got a gift from a church, particularly a brand new church, that was a big deal, and it's kind of unlikely that he'd get two financial gifts in a three-week period of time. He must have been in Thessalonica longer than three weeks.

Number two: in addition, Paul supported himself by manual labor. He was a tentmaker. Anybody that's started a business knows that it takes more than three weeks to get a business off the ground. You've got to develop clientele, word of mouth, marketing, and people need to trust you. He was one of these types of people that worked with his hands, and then he supported himself through this trade of tentmaking. There's a reference to it in 1 Thessalonians 2:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:7 through 10. From that money that he made through this trade, he was able to finance his ministry stay in Thessalonica. Dr. Toussaint says this may indicate that considerable time elapsed before the aid from Philippi arrived.

Number three: most of the converts at Thessalonica were not from the synagogue but were Gentiles steeped in idolatry. He's going to write to them a little later and say, "You've turned from idols to serve the living God." That's a statement that doesn't apply to Jews because one thing the Jews were not in the early first century is they weren't idolaters. There's something that happened in their history that purged their nation of idolatry. It's called the Babylonian captivity. They were idolatrous, worshipping all kinds of statues and graven images before the Babylonian captivity, which began about 605 BC and probably lasted to about 536 BC. By the time they came out of the captivity, they were a lot of things, but they weren't idolatrous anymore.

Paul obviously left the synagogue and went to the Gentiles or else it wouldn't say here, "You've turned from idols to serve the living God." That kind of statement wouldn't make sense for just a three-week ministry amongst the Jews. He spent a lot of time amongst the Gentiles outside of those initial three weeks in the synagogue. This was very helpful; I found this in the Scofield Study Bible. When Paul is going to write to the Thessalonians from Corinth not long after he's kicked out of Thessalonica—maybe six months to a year later—he writes to them his two letters, 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. He writes to them in such a way that it seems like these new believers in Thessalonica already understood a ton of information.

It's almost like when he writes the Thessalonian letters, he's reviewing ground he's already covered. He'll say things like in 2 Thessalonians 2:5, "Don't you remember when I was with you, I was telling you these things?" A very significant doctrinal foundation had already been laid down by Paul before he wrote a letter to them. The Scofield Reference Bible says they already had an understanding of the Trinity. These are baby Christians. Most seasoned Christians today are never taught these things. They already understood the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. They understood the Second Advent. They understood the Day of the Lord. They understood eschatology, which is the study of the end. They understood the assurance of salvation, the doctrine of conversion, the doctrine of election, the doctrine of future resurrection. They already understood sanctification, basic Christian behavior.

You can't develop a knowledge base like this in three weeks in the synagogue with no contact with the Gentiles. He was obviously with them for an extended period of time, teaching these new Christians in Thessalonica these basic doctrines. Keep in mind that the ministry was not his full-time job. He was working with his hands with his trade, and the ministry he was doing was something he was doing part-time on the side. Yet, he laid tremendous teaching down for these people when they were very fresh in the Christian life.

When I got saved at about the age of 16, very fast I got interested in the end times. A lot of people around me at the time said, "As a new Christian, you shouldn't focus on that stuff. You really need to focus on the big-ticket items like the Trinity, the virgin birth, the Holy Spirit, the Christian life, and then you kind of graduate into more advanced knowledge." For a long time, I believed that was true—that you just don't teach new Christians about the end times—until I read the Thessalonian books. Paul obviously taught them about the end times as baby Christians. He taught them advanced subjects like the beast, or the antichrist, or the lawless one in the temple.

Then he says in 2 Thessalonians 2:5, "Don't you remember that when I was with you, I was telling you these things?" This idea that you kind of hide the ball from people is not a game that we play here at this church. We just teach the Bible. If it happens to deal with an eschatological subject and if a person is two days old in the Lord, teach it to them. Teach them the full counsel of God's word. This little chart proves he couldn't have been in there for just three weeks. He was obviously there for a much longer period of time, I'm thinking at least six months to a year.

That was Paul's custom. This is how he operated. He goes to the synagogue for three weeks. He is trying to do something from the scriptures. Acts 17, verse 2 says, "According to Paul's custom, he went to them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures." What scriptures would those be? It can't be the New Testament because we don't have a New Testament yet. The only book that Paul himself has written by this time is the book of Galatians. The Thessalonian books have not been written yet, the two Corinthian books and Romans have not been written yet, the prison letters, of course, would not be written until he made his way to Rome, the pastoral letters would not be written until he got out of Roman imprisonment, and 2 Timothy would not be written until he was thrown back into prison again.

The Gospel of Luke probably doesn't even exist at this point. Maybe "gospell-ettes" were floating around that Luke would use as sources to compile his material, which he mentions in Luke 1:1 through 4. Probably the only Gospel that could have been written by this time was Matthew's Gospel, which church history believes is the earliest recorded Gospel. Maybe the book of James had been written, although it's hard to be certain. Other than that, you don't have a New Testament. The only Bible that he had, we're thinking, is what we call Old Testament. The Jews call it Hebrew Bible. Their name for it is Tanakh—T-N-K.

These are three Hebrew words. T stands for Torah, which is the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses. The N stands for Nevi'im, meaning prophets. K stands for the Kethuvim, meaning the writings. T-N-K, Tanakh, Torah, Nevi'im, Kethuvim. Jesus made references to all three sections. Those are the three major sections of Hebrew Bible. They organized their Bible differently than we as Protestants organize what we call the Old Testament. Their organization was organized according to Tanakh. Same material we have, but organized a little bit differently.

Why does Paul use Tanakh when he's in the synagogue? Because the synagogue is comprised of Jewish leaders and Jewish people that accept the authority of Tanakh. When he goes to Athens in this chapter and goes to Mars Hill and speaks in front of Gentiles, he does not use Tanakh. Why would he not use Tanakh with them? Because they're Gentiles and they don't accept the authority of Hebrew Bible. He appeals to the Bible that they did have, which is general revelation, creation. He uses different evangelistic strategies depending on who he's talking to. In this case, he's in a synagogue, he's with Jewish people, he opens Tanakh (which we call Old Testament, they call Hebrew Bible), and he starts to reason with them.

What's he reasoning with them about? That takes us to his content, which is given there in verse 3. Back to verse 2: "And according to Paul's custom, he visited with them for three Sabbaths and reasoned with them from the scriptures." What was he talking about? He was explaining and giving evidence that Christ (that's Yeshua, that's Jesus, the King that the nation of Israel, her leadership anyway, in the Gospels rejected) explaining and giving evidence that Christ had to—notice God's prophetic word had to be fulfilled—explaining and giving evidence that Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, "This is the Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you, he is the Christ." He wants to use their Bible to show them that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah. He's trying to get these people saved.

The Old Testament makes that claim, as does the New Testament about the Old Testament. It claims that the information contained in Tanakh points to Jesus. Jesus made an issue of this in John 5 with the religious leaders that he was engaged with. He says in John 5:39, "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these scriptures that testify about me. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me." He's making a claim here that his whole life is predicted in the Old Testament, which makes Jesus very unique. He's the only person that's ever walked the face of the earth whose life was framed as a script hundreds and thousands of years before he was born. This is what Paul is appealing to the Jewish mind to get these people to recognize who Jesus is.

Jesus also made reference to this in the Emmaus Road walk. If I could be a fly on the wall for one conversation or sermon from the life of Christ, this is my pick. He's walking with them on the Emmaus Road, he's in his resurrected body, and he's using Hebrew Bible to show the disciples that everything that's happened to them, him, was predicted in the pages of their own scripture. I want to know what scriptures he's using. The Emmaus Road walk is not an infinite walk, it's finite. What scriptures did he use? I'm kind of frustrated because Luke doesn't tell me. That's why I want to be a fly on the wall to hear this, and I guess I'll get a chance to ask Jesus himself when I get to heaven.

It says there in Luke 24:27, "Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in the scriptures." Then down in verse 44 it says, "Now he said to them, 'These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.'" The Law of Moses (Torah), the Prophets (Nevi'im), and the Psalms (a synonym for the Writings/Kethuvim). He just went through the three major divisions of Hebrew Bible. He went through Tanakh and he says the whole thing points to me and is fulfilled in me.

Luke talks about how as he was opening the scriptures to them, their hearts began to burn. The evidence is just overwhelming. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3 and 4 says, "For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures." The death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus is predicted hundreds and thousands of years in Hebrew Bible before Jesus ever showed up.

Josephus makes reference to this as he's describing Christ. Josephus, a first-century historian who wrote a little after the time of Christ, says about this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. He was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and Greeks. He was the Christ. The life of Jesus is not just spoken of in the Bible; it's spoken of by secular historians outside the Bible. "And when upon the accusation of principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life." That's the resurrection. "For the prophets of God foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of Christians so-called after him has still to this day not disappeared." Even Josephus is making reference to this Hebrew Bible script, prophets that foretold Jesus.

What scriptures was he referring to? We don't know, but here's my guess. I think he was referring to Isaiah 7:14, which describes his virgin birth, written 700 years in advance. Then he probably referred to Micah 5:2, written 700 years in advance, which tells exactly where he'd be born, the exact city. Then he probably referred to Numbers 24:17, written 1,400 years in advance, which says he has to be Jewish. He has to be a physical descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Maybe he appealed to Genesis 49:10, written 1,800 years in advance, which tells us what tribe he would come from of Israel's 12 tribes. The Messiah is going to come from Judah. He probably made reference to Daniel 9:25 and 26, written 600 years in advance, which tells the exact time he would—the exact day really. That's coming up this Sunday, Palm Sunday, that he would ride into Jerusalem and present his Messianic credentials to the nation and how they would respond to his message: they would reject him. Daniel tells you 600 years before it happened how it would happen. That's why on Palm Sunday, he's riding into Jerusalem crying. Luke 19 talks about that. Why is he crying? Because he knew what would happen. It's part of the script. They would reject him.

He may have referred to Isaiah 53:9, written 700 years in advance, which said he'd be crucified between thieves. He may have referred to Isaiah 53:5, written 700 years in advance, which indicated he would be pierced. He wouldn't be stoned to death; the prophets say he would be pierced. Maybe he referred to Psalm 22:17, written 1,000 years in advance, telling us that none of his bones would be broken. Maybe he referred to Psalm 22:18, written 1,000 years in advance, indicating they would gamble for his clothes.

Maybe he referred to Isaiah 53:9, written 700 years in advance, indicating he would be buried in a rich man's tomb. That's quite a walk. How would you like to walk with Jesus and have this whole explanation? No wonder their hearts were burning within them as he was opening to them the scriptures. That's what Paul's trying to do. He's trying to show the Jewish mind that, "Don't take my word for it. This whole Jesus thing—you call him Yeshua—it's right there in your own Bible." He doesn't do that with the Gentiles because they don't accept Hebrew Bible, but he does it around people that accept the authority of Hebrew Bible.

What are the results of this preaching? Verse 4: some favorable results amongst the Jews. Not most of them, but some of them believed. Verse 4: "Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas." He had some missionary success amongst the Greeks. It says there in verse 4, "along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks."

Who are the God-fearing Greeks? God-fearing Greeks are Gentiles that converted to Judaism because they believed in Yahweh and wanted to walk with Yahweh. They're called proselytes. The most famous proselyte in the Bible is Ruth, who was from Moab (modern-day Jordan) and she said to her mother-in-law, Naomi, "Your God will be my God, your people will be my people." That's a Gentile converting to Judaism, like the Ethiopian eunuch was doing when the Ethiopian eunuch encountered Philip to walk with God. Paul preached Jesus to those folks who would also be in the synagogue, and he had some success with them.

Then Luke is really good at pointing out women. At the end of verse 4: "and a number of the leading women" of Thessalonica. If you're looking for a pro-woman book, I would pick Acts and Luke because women are highlighted in those two books (prequel, sequel) written by the same author constantly. Luke is trying to show the universality of the gospel. The gospel is for everyone, even people who are considered lower on the social ladder in Greco-Roman times, like women.

That's why Jesus in John 4 is ministering to the Samaritan woman. She's the wrong gender, she's the wrong race, she's a Samaritan, and she's the wrong morality. She's had five husbands and her current partner she wasn't even married to. Here's Jesus going out of his way to minister to her and saying things like, "If you drink from this water, you'll thirst again, but if you drink from living water, you'll never thirst again," referring to the Holy Spirit.

The disciples are saying things in John 4 like, "Why are you talking to her? Why are you wasting your time with her?" In other words, "Why don't you go talk to someone important?" That's because to God, women are important. They're image-bearers of God on equal par with a man. My wife and I are headed to the exact same heaven. We're joint heirs of salvation, although in this life, we play different roles. Just because you play a different role doesn't mean you're not ontologically, somehow, inferior. The Bible teaches nothing like that. That's why Luke over and over again keeps talking about the women. Even when they were praying in Jerusalem in Acts 1, he mentions the women, and Lydia's conversion in Acts 16. This is Paul's first convert in Europe. This is how the gospel took off in Europe, in Macedonia. Lydia, a woman, is his first convert.

Sometimes in our conservative circles, we're so aggressive about man's role in marriage, woman's role in marriage, man's role in the church, woman's role in the church. Rightfully so, because there's a lot of feminism where a woman many times will want to usurp the role of a man as the head of the marriage, as the head of the church. We fight so aggressively against that, that we miscommunicate the opposite direction—that women are somehow inferior—and that's not a biblical understanding. Luke brings out a nice balance.

There's Paul's journey, there's Paul's preaching, and he actually had some results that are favorable. What happens when you win a battle? The Empire strikes back. Sorry to borrow that from Lucas or whatever that guy's name is that came up with all that cool stuff. I'm not endorsing everything, okay?

I've got people online that watch all my stuff and they just wait for me to make one mistake and they broadcast it everywhere. For example, some guy got a picture of me where I'm going like this with my thumb and finger, because this is a satanic sign. Did you know that? I'm thinking that guy had to watch hours and hours and hours of sermons to just catch me in the right position because this proves I'm part of a satanic cult. So I'm going to make it real easy on him. There you go.

That was a nice diversion. So no, I'm not endorsing Star Wars. All the hours this guy spent trying to catch me doing this—think of all of the time he could have spent in something productive like going and evangelizing your neighbor or something. But they want to get involved in these crazy conspiracy theories and talk about how pastors are really part of the Masonic Lodge and all this kind of stuff. Do I sound like I'm complaining? I should change the subject.

Here comes the Empire striking back, and the mob is described there in verse 5. My point is whenever you make any kind of progress with God in ministry, expect Satan to hit you. It kind of goes with the territory. If there's a lot of opposition and people getting upset at you, sometimes it tells you that you're over the target, you're doing something right. You don't want to get pushed back because you're rude, crude, lewd, and obnoxious, but if you're getting pushed back for doing the right thing, that's just an indication that you're probably in the right place.

Paul has a little bit of success there in the synagogue and he gets pushed back. There's this mob that's generated against him. You see that in verse 5: "But the Jews, becoming jealous," see the problem? He was successful and they weren't. "But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar." There were a lot of these kind of unhinged people walking around and they were easy to work up into a frenzy. That's what these unbelieving Jews did to Paul. They whipped up this mob against him.

They storm a house. The house was owned by Jason, a guy named Jason. We see that second part of verse 5 and into verse 6: "And attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren." It looks like there's believers now in Thessalonica. This is the beginning of a church. "They began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities." This crowd gets whipped up into a frenzy by the unbelieving Jews. They go after Jason's house because that's where Paul, Silas, and Timothy were staying. They couldn't find Paul, Silas, and Timothy in the house when the crowd arrived, so they grabbed Jason and they dragged him out in front of the city authorities. They start to hurl accusations against Jason. They hurl three accusations. The first is: "You're causing a disturbance."

Chapter 17, verse 6: "Shouting, 'These men who have upset the world have come here also.'" The word "world" is an interesting one. It's the Greek word *oikoumenē*. As you can see, it many times refers to the known world, not all of planet Earth, but just the habitable world, or the known world. Other times, even in this chapter, *oikoumenē* can mean the whole human race (Acts 17:31). *Oikoumenē* is one of those terms that you have to define by its context. Here it doesn't refer to the whole world, although it can refer to the whole world elsewhere. It refers to the known world, the habitable world, the Greco-Roman world. What they say about Jason is he and his missionary companions (Jason being the host) have turned the known world upside down with their teaching and with their Christianity. What a great compliment that is. Wouldn't it be great if the city council got mad at us at Sugar Land Bible Church and they said, "You've turned the whole city upside down with your doctrine and teaching"? That would be a sign that we're doing something right.

However, this is not the norm. The church typically doesn't turn the world upside down. The church has a tendency to become worldly. The world oftentimes turns the church upside down. That's what was going on in Laodicea, which literally means "the people ruling." *Laos* (people), *dikeo* (to rule). Jesus would confront them in Revelation 3:15 through 17. He would say, "I know your deeds, that you're neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." I don't think it's a loss of salvation there. I just think he's just nauseated with the condition of Laodicea. "Because you say, 'I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing,' yet you do not realize that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked."

We want to be a church that turns the world upside down. We don't want to be a group of people where the value system of the world comes into the church and turns the church upside down, as was happening in Laodicea. The first charge against Jason etc. is: "You're causing a disturbance. You've turned the known world upside down, the *oikoumenē*." The second charge is: "You're proselytizing." Verse 7: "And Jason," here's the charge, "has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar." According to Roman law, the law forbade proselytizing Roman citizens, and yet these guys came into town and they evangelized Roman citizens. So they broke the law is what is being said here against Jason.

The third charge is insurrection. End of verse 7: "saying that there is another king, Jesus." They interpreted that King Jesus as a competitor to Caesar, which was obviously a perversion of what they were saying, but they made it sound like these guys were insurrectionists. They were against Caesar because they keep talking about another King and another kingdom. These accusations, other than proselytizing and maybe the disturbance (which wasn't physical, it was theological), some of these charges like insurrection are just patently false.

That's what Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount: "When people speak ill of you and say all manner of evil against you, in that day rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven." Jesus prepped us for this kind of thing, and that's what's going on here in Thessalonica. What is the result of the mob action? Verse 8: it troubled the multitudes. "They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things."

The crowd is already agitated, now they're more agitated. The city officials are troubled because the city officials are saying, "We've got to do something about this because there's an actual charge on the table here of insurrection. If we don't do anything about this, like kick these guys out of here, out of Thessalonica, then we're going to be charged with insurrection or accommodating insurrection, allowing insurrection." This leads to verse 9, where the city council makes a decision. The first thing they did is they took security. Verse 9: "And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them."

They couldn't get their hands on Paul, Silas, and Timothy because they didn't happen to be in the house at the time the crowd arrived. So they took it all out on Jason. The city council basically says, "We're going to want you to take a pledge that you're going to get out of dodge. You've got to get these guys out of here, out of Thessalonica, permanently." Apparently, Jason said, "Okay, we'll do that."

This may explain why when Paul is going to write to the Thessalonians about six months to a year later from Corinth, why he says, "I kept wanting to come to you, but Satan stopped us." The church is going to complain against Paul that "You left us. You were our mother, you were our father spiritually, and you left us. You abandoned us. We're abandoned children." Paul will explain to them that no, that's not true. He was actually kicked out of Thessalonica, and he wanted to return over and over again, but Satan stopped him. What did Satan use to stop him? Arguably this pledge from Jason—that these guys are leaving and they're not going to come back.

This may explain why Paul says this in 1 Thessalonians 2:17 and 18: "But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while in person, not in spirit, were all the more eager with great desire to see your face. For we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, more than once—yet Satan hindered us." There was something that Satan used to prevent Paul from going back to his babies, the Thessalonian believers, and maybe it was this pledge that Jason took, just a theory.

The city took this pledge from Jason, and then they released Jason and others under the guarantee that Paul, Silas, and Timothy are leaving. Verse 9: "they released them." Then these unbelieving Jews and this mob, after Paul, Silas, and Timothy left, turned on Paul's converts. They turned on the baby Thessalonian Christians, the ones that had turned from idols to serve the living God, this mass of Gentiles that apparently got saved in Thessalonica. Paul is dealing with a bunch of newly saved people, he can't return the way he wants to minister to them, and they're suffering.

What do you tell a suffering Christian? That's what 1 Thessalonians 3:1 through 5 is about. It says, "Therefore when we could endure it no longer, we thought it best to be left behind at Athens alone, and we sent Timothy, our brother and God's fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions, for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this."

How do you minister to a brand new Christian that's suffering? You give them the doctrine of suffering—that this is part of growth as a Christian. That is so important that we communicate this to new believers. When I got saved at the age of 16, spring of 1983, the following year was my junior year in high school, and I have to be honest with you, looking back on it, it was probably like the worst year of my life. My life's been pretty good, and if I had some low points, that age, 11th grade, would be a low point for a lot of different reasons. I thought to myself, "What have I done wrong here? I have trusted in Christ and everything seems to be going wrong." Fortunately, I had a relationship with the guy that led me to Christ where he said, "You can call me anytime you want to call me." Sometimes I'd call him in the middle of the night and say to him, "This has happened, that's happened, this has happened. What am I doing wrong?"

Here was his response. He would say this over and over again, and I didn't like it when he said it, but in hindsight, I understand what he was getting to. He would say to me on the phone—this was like prehistoric days before we had Zoom calls, when we used to walk to school both ways uphill in the snow barefoot fighting Indians the whole way—he would say to me, "I'm grinning from ear to ear." After I told him all my problems. He goes, "You're exactly where you're supposed to be. What you're experiencing, you're actually destined for, and God is using these things to grow you up in Christ."

That is so important to communicate to new Christians because they don't know up from down. They don't have any biblical understanding or doctrinal understanding. They don't understand the doctrine of suffering. They think, "Gosh, if I'm a Christian, everything is supposed to be smooth sailing," and that's not the way it works. God immediately allows people to go through trials because he wants to bring them to maturity through trials.

This is what Paul is explaining in 2 Thessalonians and 1 Thessalonians. He says, "For indeed, when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction, and so it came to pass, as you know. For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter might have tempted you and our labor would be in vain." I'm really worried that Satan is going to come into your ear and whisper in your ear, "You're out of God's will because you're suffering," which is what I thought. I thought I'm out of God's will because I'm suffering, when I needed to understand that I was in God's will. Satan will just work havoc in your life and just try to convince you that you've missed God's will and Christianity works for everybody else, but it doesn't work for you, when in reality, you're right where you're supposed to be.

In 2 Thessalonians 1:6 and 7, he says, "For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you." As you're suffering at the hands of unbelievers, don't think that they're getting off the hook just because God is using their persecution against you to bring you to a new level of maturity. The Bible doesn't say all things are good. God uses all things together for good. Not everything is good, and God says even though I'm using this to bring you to maturity, I'm keeping a record of all of these people that are abusing you, and believe me, the time in history is going to come where God is going to deal with them in justice. Right now he's allowing it as part of your growth.

"For after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well, when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire." At the Second Advent, God is going to deal with all of the people that are troublemakers in your life. Right now he's allowing it as part of your growth. That's how the Thessalonian ministry ends.

Where does he go now? They're kicked out of Thessalonica, they move westward to Berea, and so we'll read about the Berean ministry next time. You might want to read chapter 17, verses 10 through 15 for next time. If time permits, we'll get into the Athens ministry also in chapter 17. Let's pray.

Father, we're grateful for your word, grateful for your truth. I pray that something spoken tonight might encourage somebody, solidify somebody, because we all need to understand this very important doctrine of suffering and how you use it. Be with us this week and help us to walk these truths out. We'll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name, and God's people said, amen. We'll see you next time.