The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 17, verses 5 through 15.

Tony Clark: All right, let's dive into the word of God together. Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 17. We're going to be looking at verses 5 through 15 as we continue to go verse by verse through the book of Acts on Sunday mornings.

Father, we're so grateful that we can sit at your feet and hear your heart, hear your word, hear what the Spirit of God is going to reveal to us today. So we pray that your Spirit would illuminate the truths of your word to us in Jesus' name. Amen.

Acts 17 verses 5 through 15, the title of this message is Driven by Envy. Driven by envy. Now, envy, by way of definition, is not on the screen, is a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, their qualities, or luck. I say again, envy, by way of definition, is a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else's possessions, their qualities, or luck.

So envy and its close relative, jealousy, can cause people to go to great lengths to destroy other people's lives. And this is what we will see in these verses before us. Now, by way of background, Paul and his team left the city of Philippi and came to the city of Thessalonica. And as was his custom, verse 2 tells us, he went to the synagogue, and for three weeks reasoned with them from the Scriptures.

He was, according to verse 3, reasoning, explaining, and demonstrating that Christ had to suffer and rise again. Some of the Jews were persuaded by what Paul had to say, according to verse 4, and joined Paul. Now, what happened next? Look at verse 5: "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."

Now, the conjunction "but" that starts this verse shows us the contrasting reactions between those who were persuaded in verse 4 from those who were not in verse 5. But the Jews, which is a reference to the unbelieving Jews in this city, were not persuaded by the gospel message preached by Paul. Becoming envious—ah, there it is. There it is.

Becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace and gathered a mob and set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason. Now, these unbelieving Jews didn't attack the doctrine or the teaching of Paul and Silas, but watch this, but the popularity of it. Verse 4 said a great multitude of devout Greeks, not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas, and they were jealous over the gospel's popularity.

I just have to ask, have you ever become envious of someone on the job because of their popularity? And it has driven you to gather a multitude against them. This normally happens when a very attractive woman comes on the job, and then there are others that we call haters, who become envious of their popularity and everyone is talking about them.

And what ends up happening is now you start to post nasty things about them on social media. You feel compelled and driven to do such a thing because envy and jealousy is driving you to try to destroy them by destroying their reputation, by destroying their good name. Oh, have y'all heard? At her last job, this is what was happening. I heard that she kind of got around a little bit.

And now, all because of their popularity, you're jealous of them. And now, just like here, you have the whole work in an uproar. You have your family in an uproar because all of a sudden someone accomplished something that you didn't in the family. And now you're going to try to talk about them and stir up a coup and get some uproar stirred up in the family.

And you go after anyone associated with this person. You start attacking them as well, just like we see the mob attack Jason. Now, we don't know who Jason was. Nothing is known about him, but that he was an early disciple in the city of Thessalonica. And so often the Jasons on the job are people who are somewhat unknown.

They end up getting attacked as well, like we see in this verse here, all because you're driven by envy. You're driven by jealousy, carried about by envy and jealousy. Oh, I see this happen all the time. It has torn up families. It's torn up churches. Someone comes to church with, you know, got a little bit on the ball, they're a little bit spiritually, and all of a sudden other folks just been around.

Now all of a sudden, oh, why are they using them? What, I've been here for so... And I've seen churches get stirred up, churches destroyed. I've seen families destroyed. And you know what? It ends up coming out during holidays when folks are having cookouts in the backyard and stuff, and get a little drink in them, and all of a sudden it starts coming out.

You see this all the time. Nowadays, it's on display because now everybody is putting everything on social media, and we see this all the time. For family members acting a plum fool and stirring up mess, and "You, you remember," and stirring up mess. I've seen schools where catty little mess and stuff because some girl is popular, some guy made the team and they did... I've seen schools get destroyed.

Envy and jealousy, whatever it touches, destroys. I see it all of the time. And I sit back because I've been at this thing a long time, and I sit back and I say, oh boy, here we go. Here we go. And I see it. I see it happen. Look at verses 6 and 7: "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 that there is another king—Jesus.'"

So as the mob suspected to find Paul and Silas at the house of Jason, in verse 6, they instead they drug Jason and some of the brethren out instead to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too." Oh, then verse 7, they accused Jason of harboring them, of harboring these men.

And they're all been acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, that there is another king—Jesus. Now, if you would notice in your Bible, there is a dash in between King and Jesus. A dash in English acts as a type of period. It's as if the writer, as if the author, Luke the author, the way it's constructed in the Greek language, it's like, I want you to pause right here. Don't just run that sentence together and say there's another king, Jesus. No, there's another king—and His name is Jesus.

This mob wanted to really begin to expose to the authorities that this is what they were doing, that they're going around saying that there is another king, Jesus. You guys understand, in order for anyone in the Roman Empire to acknowledge or pledge allegiance to anyone other than Caesar, it was high treason. And so that's why they said there's another king, and His name is Jesus.

Oh boy, I tell you what. This, and on top of it, they said, guess what? And this dude here, Jason, he's been harboring them. So in other words, they're saying Jason has been harboring criminals. So this was serious here. Now, it is my job as a pastor teacher to prepare you for what's coming in the very near future in a greater capacity.

We as Christians are going to be accused of turning the world upside down as well. They're already starting to, you know, do this in a smaller level of arresting Christians who disagree with their lifestyle. See, the problem is that the world is already upside down from God's perspective. And as Christians, we're seeking to try to turn it right side up.

They are already dragging pastors and devout Christians away in handcuffs to the authorities, like they did here with Jason, because we're seeking to turn things right side up, to speak out against what the Bible calls sin. And this is happening in a lesser degree in our country, but the main thing is it's starting to happen. It's starting to happen where we're now being arrested for speaking out.

Our book is a hate book and speech is hate speech and all these things are starting to happen. Kids, Christian kids being kicked out of school for speaking out against what the Bible calls sin. And it's already starting to take place around our country. And I'm just here to prepare you. I told you when we started the book of Acts, I said we're going to start seeing what's happening in this book happen in our very own country.

And we started teaching this three years ago. And now look, it is even more so. Now we're really seeing the parallels between the culture in first century where the church was taking place in the book of Acts and our own country here. So we're going to be accused of turning the world upside down. It's already upside down.

We're just seeking to try to turn it right side up. But here's the thing. It's an old saying, but I think it's still a heart-penetrating question that we must answer in our own hearts. If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? That's something you gotta answer in your own heart about.

This is how hostile the world is getting towards us. To be honest with you, they were the ones, here in these verses, were the ones who were turning the city upside down because they were the ones who gathered a mob in verse 5 and attacked the house of Jason. They were the ones who dragged Jason to the rulers of the city in verse 6.

So they accused Paul and Silas of turning the world upside down and acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar. I told you the decrees of Caesar, one is to pledge allegiance to anyone else other than him was high treason. So these were very serious charges, which got the attention of the rulers because, you know, it got their attention big time.

And we're going to see, look what it says there in verses 8 and 9. It says, "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." Now the rulers had what the mob, you know, the rulers heard what the mob had to say because verse 8 says they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things.

The Greek word for troubled is *tarassō*, and it means to stir up, to agitate. So these unbelieving Jews stirred up and agitated the crowd and the rulers with these charges. This should not be the behavior as Christians. We should not be troublemakers but peacemakers. Matthew 5 verse 9 says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God."

In other words, as children of God, we should bring peace everywhere we go. People should not see us coming and say, "Here comes trouble." And those who haven't even turned around, they already know, you don't have to tell me who's coming. I already know who it is. That should not be said of us. We should not be troublemakers but peacemakers.

The only time this should be said is by people who misinterpret our peacemaking as troublemaking. Oh, like King Ahab did in 1 Kings 18:17, when he saw the prophet Elijah. He said, "Is that you, oh troubler of Israel?" And I love the prophet Elijah. He said, "Me, troubler? No, I'm not the troubler. It's you and your house and that little bit of roundabout wife Jezebel, that's y'all the troublers of Israel."

That was the Tony Clark translation. So just like they accused Paul and Silas of turning the world upside down, when they were really trying to turn it right side up. However, verse 9 says when Paul, but when they, should I say, posted bond, they forced them to leave. Now, there are times that this kind of unjust harassment is occurring on the job where envious and jealous people stir up a crowd against you to bring you to the rulers on the job.

And you, like Paul and Silas and the others, may have to leave. So there are times by which you may have to leave. Your season at that particular job is up, it's done, and you may have to go. That doesn't mean because all of a sudden a little opposition come your way, "Oh, Pastor Tony said it's time to go."

No, no, you may have to endure hardship as a good soldier. So you gotta be in prayer. Don't just be up and trying to run. "Pastor Tony, guess what? I was on the job for a day and they told me they didn't like me, so I gotta go." Whoa, whoa, it's not what I'm talking about here. I said unjust harassment where they're jealous of, envious of you and they've stirred up a coup, they've stirred up a crowd against—that's what I'm talking about.

It may, notice may, be time to move on. May. You just got there, they heard I was a Christian, they said I hate you, so Pastor Tony guess what? I'm looking for another job. How long you been there? Oh, I just got there this afternoon. Not what we're talking about, see. And people take this kind of stuff I say and they run with it and they come up with these kind of conclusions.

That's not what I'm talking about. Now look at verses 10 and 11: "Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now 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."

Now, as we can see from verse 10 that the brethren, they were hiding Paul and Silas from the angry and envious mob that came to Jason's house looking for them in verse 5. And they waited until it was dark to send Paul and Silas away to the city of Berea. Now, Berea was 45 miles south of the city of Thessalonica.

And when he arrived there, as was his custom, we see that in verse 2, he went to the synagogue there to preach. Now, how did they respond? Well, it said that they were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, according to verse 11. Now, the Greek word for fair-minded is *eugenēs*, and it means noble, generous, free from prejudice.

It speaks of being open-minded. Instead of attacking Paul and Silas like they experienced in previous cities, they listened eagerly to Paul's message. They were open-minded to the things of God. Instead of forming a mob to run them out of the city, they searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether those things were true that Paul was saying.

Oh, how we need Bereans today. People who will search the Scriptures—I want you to notice—daily. The Greek word for search is *anakrino*. It's a compound Greek word because the prefix *ana*, it means up and down, back and forth. *Krino* is a word that means to judge. And so putting it together is to judge up and down, back and forth.

It means to scrutinize, to investigate, to interrogate, to examine what Paul was saying backwards and forwards, up and down, to see whether what he was saying was true. So with this in mind, are you a Berean? Are you a Berean today? Do you search? Do you scrutinize? Do you investigate the Scriptures? Noticed daily.

I remember last service, first service, I said, "Are you a Berean today?" This one lady, she was looking at me. She said, "No." Well, at least she was honest. Some of y'all trying to look all super pious. "Yes, I'm a Berean." You ain't picked up a Bible in a year. But search the Scriptures, notice, daily. Not once a week when you come here.

Do your kids know you to be a Berean? Does your spouse know you to be a Berean? That you search the Scriptures, you investigate, you scrutinize the Scriptures. See, are you a Berean on your job? Oh, you know the manual, you know what the laws are. "Well, in section 24-46, it says you're not supposed to be doing that. Oh, you over there, you're in violation of section 42-37, 42-5."

Or you're a Berean of your favorite team. You know stats, you know when they were drafted, you know their career average, you know their dog's name. And you're a Berean when it comes to your favorite team. Or for those of you in the military, you can't get promoted without knowing that manual and you know your manual.

But do you know Emmanuel? That is what it comes down to because we got some crazy little jingles and things in our mind that we remember. But when it come to the Scriptures, we're not Bereans of the Scriptures. We can quote all the data and the stats and when they were drafted and born and all this sort of stuff and "It was a sad day when this happened. Oh, it was June 24th, it was back in 19 so-and-so that he had an injury and he's never been the same since."

Are we for real? Oh, I can quote you stats. I can quote you data and numbers on my favorite players and all that sort of stuff, but you better believe it's not at the expense of me knowing Emmanuel. So the question is, are you a Berean? Or are you a Thessalonian who stir up trouble and cause problems at church and cause problems on the job and everywhere you go, family reunions, they all of a sudden they see you drive up, they start to whisper, "Here comes trouble."

And all of a sudden you come there, "Hey, girl, what's hey," and you can kick up some mess. You're a messy person. That's what the Thessalonians—not all of them, but these unbelieving Jews were Thessalonians who just kicked up all kind of mess. So what was the result of Paul preaching in Berea? Look at verses 12 and 13: "Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.

But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds." Now, what an amazing distinction here, because in the previous cities, only a few Jews would believe the gospel message. But in Berea, according to verse 12, many of them believed.

Many Greeks believed. Prominent men and women as well. So here's the point. All because a previous group of people didn't believe and ran you away doesn't mean that this will happen everywhere. In Berea, the preaching of Paul was very fruitful. So if you got ran from some job or ran somewhere, your season there might have been up.

And now God has shipped you here and all of a sudden now you're sharing and your life and sharing the gospel, now it's very fruitful. Things are very fruitful. See, this is true in our lives as well. When we are like the Bereans where we search the Scriptures daily, the word of God will be fruitful in our lives.

You know what would be the fruit of it? We will anticipate coming to church. It won't be a drag to come. It won't feel like oh, this obligation, this thing you have to do. When you are a Berean, you can't wait to get here to see what else God is going to reveal to you from the word of God. It wouldn't be this spotty little, "Oh, do we have anything going on this weekend? Oh, I guess we'll go to church."

Are you kidding me? When you are a Berean, you can't wait to be here. When you are a Berean, we need to give you a key to open up because you can't wait to get here because you want to hear what God has to say to you today. That's if you are a Berean. That's if you are a Berean.

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