Acts 17_pt1 — Bill Gallatin

Paul's Grace-Driven Perseverance

Let's turn to Acts chapter 17. One of the things that I find so remarkable about Paul, first his great apprehension of grace, and he tells us that grace causes us to stand. It's the power of God to enable us to go on no matter what.

Now when we begin to glorify God, Satan seeks to come against us to discourage us, to cause us to look back. And it's interesting, Jesus, I think he, let's see in Luke 9, 62, he said, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is worthy or fit for the kingdom of God.

Now the amazing thing about Paul, and so often we see in our own lives until God brings us to that understanding, and he changes us within with his grace, his unmerited favor, and his love. So often when we feel or experience or face difficulties, we get hardened.

I look back at my life and as I was a younger Christian, there were times like the apostles as they struggled against the wind going across the lake, trying to be obedient to the Lord. You remember the Bible says their hearts were hardened.

And I can recall at times when I'd get nasty, and the poor people around me would be, you know, at the brunt of my nastiness or my reaction because of the struggles that I were going through. As you get older in the Lord, you begin to realize that God designs everything that happens in our lives, and it's his grace that keeps our hearts soft that we continue to go forward.

And we don't become hardened. We don't get nasty. And it's difficult to be around a nasty Christian or a mean-spirited Christian that just can't tolerate the slightest little thing that maybe upsets their agenda.

It's just difficult. Well, if anybody had a right to be maybe nasty and even take out his anger at the lost rather than share the love and the grace of God, it would be the apostle Paul. Now stop and think of his life.

Now we've all had our magnificent, glorious initial experiences with Christ, our Damascus Road experiences. And we can recall that glorious day that we were born again, particularly if there was some great supernatural phenomenon with it, like Paul's road experience.

But it's interesting, from that moment on, he faced nothing but difficulty and jail. And yet he's the man that had the greatest handle and understanding of the grace of God, the love of God. He's the man, as Jesus said, continue ye in my love.

Christ's Love in the Midst of Trials

So many of us, and because it's our human nature, we begin in the love of God. And Jesus prophesied that at the end of the age, one of the signs of the end was that people's hearts would begin to wax cold and get angry and nasty again as Christians.

The initial love and excitement of that experience with Jesus Christ would wax cold. Now the apostle Paul was so different. The amazing thing is, remember, he's had the vision to come to Europe, to Macedonia.

So he responds immediately. And as soon as he goes into Europe, Philippi, the very first place he stops, he's beaten and thrown in jail. He heeds the call of God. He's obedient to the vision, immediately responds to it, and he's beaten and thrown in jail.

And at midnight, he's singing praises to God, not ready to quit the ministry, not angry at the jailer, not getting nasty with the person next to him. You see what the grace of God can do in the heart of the human being.

It wasn't some special anointing more than anybody else. He had the indwelling Holy Spirit. But he began to apprehend the grace and the love of God that surpasses all knowledge. It's the power of God unto salvation.

It's the power, it's the strength that causes us to stand, Paul says in Romans. So you see, that's what defeats Satan. He knows that he gets out of jail, and he's now being led to Thessalonica, where we will see tonight.

And what happens in Thessalonica? The Jews get all stirred up, create a riot. They go to the magistrates. They run them out of town. Another riot. He's in the perfect will of God everywhere he goes. And his own countrymen.

He travels some 100 miles, and before it's all over, 200 miles by foot from village to village on this main Roman road from the west to the east. In the perfect will of God, he gets to Thessalonica. He has to go out of town at night, and he goes to a little village off by the wayside.

And as soon as he starts to share the gospel with a little place called Berea, and the Jews in Thessalonica, some, you know, 100 miles away, they get wind of it, and they stir up skinheads from the streets, and go down looking for him.

And another riot, and he has to leave Berea. I mean, that's his life. But you see, he put his hand to the plow. His love for Christ, and his understanding of Christ's love for him as he teaches in Corinthians, the love of Christ constrains me, overwhelms me, and there's no difficulty that Satan can send that could cause me even to look back.

I put my hand to the plow. I love Jesus Christ more than my own life, more than my closest human friend. And that enabled him to keep from getting hardened, and angry, and nasty. He drew out of that deep well of grace, and so when he preached the gospel, there wasn't nastiness, or threatening, or anger, or resentment in it.

It was love. It was a concern for all races of people. It's that marvelous grace. That's what God can work in any heart, if anybody's willing, and is willing to find out about it. Again, the scriptures tell us that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

And when you begin to apprehend that, and drink of that well, you can't get enough of it. You just want more and more. And it's wonderful to know that Satan can't cause you to get nasty anymore. Start taking it out on your wife, or your husband, or the children, or your friends.

The grace of God constrains. It's so powerful. Well now, he's responded. You remember, they have left Philippi. The jailer's whole house had been saved. A church has been established. And it's interesting.

He'd go from village to village. He's going from place to place. Some from Philippi to where he goes now. When they had passed through Amphipholis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews.

So now, there are Jewish males there, more than 10. And so, there's a legitimate, according to the Jewish law and custom, there's a synagogue there. And as his custom was, you know, to the Jew first. He said, I wish I could wish myself a curse from Christ, for the benefit of my countrymen, that they might come to know the Messiah, who he is, Jesus Christ.

And so, even though he was the apostle to the Gentiles, and he knew that. And he knew that Peter was the apostle to the Jews. Paul's desire was to the Jew first, to reach his countrymen. He ached inside, that they might know the very ones who would follow him around, and badger him, and beat him, and lie about him, and try to disrupt his Bible studies.

You see, the grace of God kept him from beginning, mean-spirited and angry. He still had a desire to share the love of God with them, because of what the love of God did for him. You see. So, he's gone from one village to another.

And I like the way he plants churches, not five miles from each other, eight miles from each other. He goes about 30 miles here, then he goes another 33 miles, another 37 miles. And before it's over, he, by foot, has gone up.

And if you look at your map, you see that the northern portion of the Aegean Sea, that separates the coast of Turkey and Greece. And that upper portion is what was known then, and even today, as Macedonia.

The lower portion, where the border of Yugoslavia met Greece. And so, he's planted a church. He's got a group of believers. He's met that very influential, wealthy woman from Thyatira. Her house has gotten saved.

God's Sovereignty in Paul's Mission

He moves on now, taking the gospel to another town. But God's using the persecution, and the attacks from the enemy, allowing Satan to do these things, to direct Paul. I think if we begin to learn the sovereignty of God, and the providence of God, and know that things aren't by chance.

That even if we do, in our decision making, and I've done this so often, make mistakes. It's so easy to make a mistake, and miss the direction. But God still has a way of working it to the good. He works everything to the good, to those that love him, and are the called according to his purposes.

So, no matter what Satan tries to do, God uses it for the gospel sake, and for the spreading of the gospel. And for the learning experience, for you and I. And to change our hearts, and conform us into the image of Jesus Christ.

I marvel at Paul, a man who before he was born again, before he was converted, was a deeply devout religious Jew. But he was bitter, and nasty, and angry. He could resent just as easy as he could show kindness in an instant.

He could be, go from a religious Jekyll to a Hyde. And how, as God worked in this man's life, how he was changed into the image of Jesus Christ. A man just like you and I. As James tells us concerning Elijah, he was a man subject to like passions as you and I.

A normal human being that the grace of God worked in, through these things, and made him like Christ. And so, the longer he walked with Christ, the more difficult the experiences, the more Satan attacked, the more he became like Christ.

He continued in the love of God, and grew in the grace, and the knowledge, and the love of Jesus Christ. No more nastiness. No more resentment in the man. No matter how difficult his situation, he was always pleasant to be around.

He didn't have to hide when Paul was going through a trial. God do that in us. Because that's what he wants to do. That's what he's willing to do. That's what he can do, and will do, through the work, and the beauty, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

If we don't look back. David Livingston, they ask him, where do you plan to go? He says, I don't know, but wherever I go, I'm going forward. I've put my hand to the plow. I'm not going to look back. Lot's wife looked back.

And what did it do? It paralyzed her. It stopped her from going forward. Just to look back. And so he comes to Thessalonica, and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scripture.

So he was there, it could be either two weeks or three weeks, depending on when he started. If he came the first day on a Saturday, he could have stayed till the next Saturday, and then the Saturday after, that'd be two weeks.

If he came on a Sunday, and spent the week with them, and then went in that following Saturday, he could have been there three weeks. Two weeks or three weeks, but he was there for three Sabbaths in the synagogue.

Reasoning with them out of the scriptures, as his manner was, his desire to convert the Jew. And he began to open and allege that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.

The Messiah is Jesus, Yeshua of Nazareth. The Anointed One, who all your Old Testament prophets spoke of, is Jesus. Now, here's the wonderful thing. They had no New Testament. So Paul proved to them and reasoned with them out of the scriptures, out of nothing but the Old Testament that you and I have to convert.

You can use nothing but the Old Testament to convert someone to Christ, if you know the Old Testament. There was no New Testament written yet. Everything was verbal and oral, and they're going about sharing.

Old Testament Prophecies of Christ

So he used in the scriptures, it was all Old Testament. Now stop and think of the wealth of the Old Testament scriptures. You recall, and it could be he took them down the same path that Jesus himself took the two men on the road to Emmaus when he began.

At the beginning with Moses, Jesus gave them this Bible study and brought them through the Old Testament from Moses all the way up to the present time, and then revealed himself to them, you remember.

And it says, did not our hearts burn within us when he was sharing these scriptures? And Jesus shared nothing but Old Testament scriptures. Now stop and think of the wealth and the pictures and the figures of the Old Testament that prove that Jesus is the Messiah.

Well, first of all, you start, you know, right in Genesis, and maybe Paul very possibly went right immediately to Abraham, where the very first mention of love in the Bible is where it speaks of Abraham loving his only son, and offering up his only son, and then having his son given back to him in a figure, the resurrection.

So immediately he could have gone there to begin to prepare them with the Old Testament scriptures, because they'd heard about this Jesus who died and rose again, who was claiming to be the only begotten son of God the Father.

You've got the whole second psalm that speaks about the Lord's son. He said, this day have I begotten thee. He's going to have him reign and rule on the earth, and the begotten in that second psalm speaks of resurrection.

Why do the heathen rage? And it says that God's going to raise him up, and he will rule and reign on this earth. He said, this day have I begotten thee. He's raised him from the dead, and he's coming back to reign again.

You've got the beautiful figure of Joseph, the son, the favored son, rejected by his brethren, cast into a pit for dead, lifted out of that pit as far as his brethren, the Jews, are concerned. This son that they hated, the father loved, but the brethren hated, rejected, dead, gone, and he becomes mighty with the Gentiles in Egypt.

The Jews are suffering. They need to go to the world. They go down to Egypt to survive in the famine, and here Joseph disguises himself and meets their needs, and they don't even realize it's the rejected son that's keeping them and meeting their needs, and it says, and a second time he revealed himself to them, the one they thought was dead, just as Jesus Christ, you see, is going to do again for the nation Israel, the one, the favored son of the father who's been rejected, who they think is nothing but a dead prophet, false prophet on the cross, crucified.

You look at Moses, the same thing. Moses, a common criminal, wanted to lead his people out, rejected, runs for his life, disappears for many years, lives with the Gentiles, takes a Gentile bride, just as Jesus Christ has taken a Gentile bride to church, and then comes back a second time with his Gentile bride and delivers his people, Moses.

The 22nd Psalm, the two-thirds of the beginning of the Psalm, describe crucifixion, our Lord on the cross, and then from verse 26 on is the resurrection, and the very last verse of the 22nd Psalm, the psalmist says, it is finished, the very thing that Jesus tried out on the cross.

Psalm 16, verse 9, thou will not leave my soul in Sheol, or the grave, the resurrection. Psalm 17, verse 5, when I awake, I will see thee, I will awake with thy likeness, speaking of resurrection. Daniel 9, 26, when he lays it out and he prophesies the coming of the Messiah, but it said he will be cut off, but not for himself, rejected, crucified.

Hosea speaks of him being rejected, and after two days he says, I will return to my place whence I came, and he will hide his face for two days, or two thousand years, and then he will return, and he said he will revive us again.

Hosea, chapter 5. Zechariah, chapter 12, speaks of, they will look upon me whom they have pierced, and then over in chapter 13, verse 6, it says, we will look upon and say, what are these wounds in my hands?

And say, these are the wounds which I received in the house of my friend. So, text after text, after text, and then the one that's so dynamic and so emphatic that the Jews to this day will not read it in their synagogues, you know, on their holy days at all since Christ came.

Isaiah 52, 16 through Isaiah 53, that they refuse to read in their own synagogues, the rejection and the accurate description of Messiah. Scripture after scripture, after scripture. You can just see Paul, the reasoning with them, they've heard of this Jesus, and knowing the scriptures well enough that the Holy Spirit could honor and open their hearts.

Opening and alleging. Notice, opening, giving understanding. Not angry, not bitter because of all of his trials and difficulties since he got born again and met Jesus. A difficult road, a difficult yoke, and this heavy cross I've got to bear.

Why did I ever even give my life to Christ? I've had nothing but trouble since I've been born again. See, the grace of God changed the man. He'd never look back. He said, this person that I speak of is Jesus, the Messiah.

Some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks, or Greeks who had converted to Judaism, and a great multitude, and of the chief women, not a few. But just as he shared the grace and the love of God with such a spirit, it's just like the Holy Spirit began to open our hearts.

Instead of attacking them, it says he reasoned with them, and opened the scriptures in such a way that they weren't defensive. He didn't go out and start slashing and, you know, attacking them because they were believing false things, and they were blind idiots, or that their religion was damned, and they'll be damned.

It's interesting, Jesus said, remember, in John, that if I just be lifted up, if you'll just share me in such a way, he said, all men will be drawn unto me. And naturally, he was speaking of the cross.

The true meaning of there is Isaiah's text, that he'll be exalted and highly lifted up on the cross. He said, if you do that, if you present the cross in my love, I can draw men to me. Not attacking or damning people.

Opposition to the Gospel in Thessalonica

And now, notice immediately. But the Jews, now, remember, Jews, that was a feather in their cap, to proselyte a Gentile, have a Gentile convert to Judaism. So here's Paul coming along, and now the Gentiles, who were these devout Jews, that had been converted to Judaism from Greek pagan thought, are now realizing, through their Jewish faith, that the Messiah that they were believing in, you know, going into Orthodox Judaism, the Messiah was none other than Jesus, and now these devout Jews, who are Orthodox, are saying, we're losing our converts.

They're following Jesus, and they're leaving our religion. We're losing control here. And notice what that usually does. How it stirs up envy and resentment. The Jews, which believe not, in other words, they believed in Messiah, but the Jews, not the Jesus of Messiah, the Jews that were blinded and hardened, you see, they took the 22nd Psalm, and they saw Jesus as being put to death as a false prophet, as a blasphemer.

They didn't see that it was fulfillment of Psalm 22. But the Greeks were saying, those whose hearts were open, were saying, wow, this has got to be Jesus. And so the Jews, which believe not, they were maintaining their faith in that Orthodox Judaism, they were moved with envy.

And they took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort. In other words, they went out and got some street gangs. These kids that just, you know, they're hanging around in the corners, maybe in a neighborhood, or in a shopping center, with their, you know, court bottles of beer, and their ghetto blasters on their fender.

And you drive through, and it's almost like they dare you to hit them, as they don't even get out of the street, you know. And you can feel the vibes. They're just looking for trouble. Just on a street corner, that kind of a crowd.

And isn't it interesting, the devout Jews went looking for them to create problems. They knew they could stir these kids up. Certain lewd fellows of the baser sort. This is some street gangs. They gathered a company, and they set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the real.

So Paul had befriended a Greek named Jason. They were probably staying at his house, teaching the Bible, and they'd become friends. And so they knew that that's where Paul was, and so they went after that house.

They sent these kids just to, you know, create a ruckus in the neighborhood, and stir up the city, and even the police. Not much different than today. We look at the things that are happening in the United States today.

You know, it's been, what, about 30 years since we said it was the constitutional law that says you can't pray in schools. And now they're deciding whether, you know, trying to figure out maybe they're going to arm the teachers so they can be protected.

The metal detectors aren't working. They're going to arm the public school teachers in the United States, even though they have police in the halls. I've got a few statistics. Just to show you, this is from the Children's Defense Fund, Washington, D .C.

Some of the late, this is what's going on right now in the United States with teenagers every 24 hours. So by this time tomorrow night, this is what will take place in the United States, 437 teenagers will be arrested for drunken driving.

1 ,206 unwed teenagers will have abortions by this time tomorrow night. We're talking teenagers, not the people in their 20s and 30s that are into lust and pornography. I'm talking about teenagers. 1 ,206 unwed teenagers will have abortions by this time tomorrow night.

1 ,365 unwed teenagers will give birth by this time tomorrow night. 1 ,512 teenagers will quit school by this time tomorrow night. 3 ,288 teenagers will have run away from home by this time tomorrow night.

135 ,000 teenagers will carry guns into schools by this time tomorrow night. That's the future of America, by taking God out of everything and thinking that secular humanism and education is the answer.

And you have, you see, you make your own morals. You allow secular humanists running the educational system to form the morals of a country. Well, these were the kind of kids that were always out hanging around.

Parents probably, you know, didn't know where they were, what they were doing, who they were associating with. And so it was very easy to stir them up. Just restless, no goals in life, no future, no absolutes, no moral standards.

Paul in Athens and the Clash of Worldviews

And you have to know the Greek culture in Paul's day, you see, the society was split between the Epicureans and the Stoics. The Epicureans were you live for nothing but pleasure. And so there was no creator to answer to.

So you're just on the animal plane living for sensual pleasure to the highest extreme without pain. And it led to nothing but degrading lust. That's all the society lived for was some new sensual pleasure to have without pain.

That's Epicureanism. That was Greek thought. And so they got them stirred up and they assaulted a house. No respect for the law, for authority. And they attacked this house where there was some Christians living, stirring them up.

The Jews stirred them up. Behind that, we know, is Satan stirring them up. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren under the rulers of the city crying, these that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.

So Paul wasn't there. As the riot started and all the trouble, the authorities came and they blamed it on the Christians and dragged them into court. And the Jews, you know, they accomplished their agenda.

They disrupted the preaching of the gospel temporarily. Now, here's the amazing thing. Now, you remember Paul in Romans, as he's writing to the Roman Christians, declared that as God would work in the Gentiles because they're being rejected, God would use that to stir the Jews to jealousy to get them to react.

The very purpose of God is being accomplished again in his sovereignty and his providence. Amazing how God is so sovereign in this universe, he controls all events and works it to the good eventually.

And he fulfills prophecy. He achieves his agenda. You wonder, when we look at our own personal life, is God achieving his agenda in your life, in my life? Is he able to work everything to good in your life?

Are you called according to his purpose? Do you love God? Is he being able to achieve that in your life? Turn to Romans chapter 11. Let's look at it. Verse 7, Paul is saying, what then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for.

Now, Israel is seeking for redemption, seeking the coming of the Messiah. Do you know anyone? But they've rejected him, Jesus. And so they're blinded. But the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded.

Paul was one of the elect. He was that man born out of due time. That's why he had this burning desire, knowing that as a Jew, you could know who Messiah was. But they hardened their hearts and rejected him, the Jewish people.

And so it says, the rest were blinded and are blinded to this day. According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, ears that they should not hear unto this day.

And David said, let their table be made a snare. Let all their ritual and their worship services be a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense on them. Let them just be trapped in their own religious system because they've hardened their heart against Jesus Christ.

Let it become a snare to them, their devotion, how devout they are, but devout in their error. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see and bow down their back always. Let it be difficult for them for a purpose.

I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? In other words, is God going to allow them to fall so far down that they'll not exist as a people and be finally destroyed as a race? God forbid. But rather through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy.

That's the very thing that was taking place wherever Paul was going. God's purposes were being accomplished. God, again, controlling all things at once. Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world and the diminishing of them, the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness when their eyes are finally opened at the end of the age, when the blindness is taken away.

But they're actually, they're being stirred to jealousy because of the success of Paul sharing the Christ and having people respond to it. And so here they're stirred to envy and they cause trouble, yet God still is controlling it and working it to the good.

Trusting God's Providence Without Full Understanding

Now, you see, that is very encouraging for me. I don't have to understand why. I don't need an answer why anymore like I used to have to have an answer. Lord, why did you let this happen? Why is this happening?

I don't like it. I don't understand it. It doesn't seem to go along with what, you know, the scriptures say. But if you look at the apostle Paul and you look at the plan of salvation and the sovereignty of God, that no matter what happens, God is working all things all at once to the good for his glory.

And so, you see, I'm not going to look back. I'm keeping my hand to the plow. I don't need to understand it. I know that God's in control and I'm trusting in him. And as Isaiah said, thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed upon thee.

What's your mind? What goes through your mind constantly? I see some people they've got everything going through their minds. This Babylon out there is racing, pouring through their minds, and they're trying to have a little space once in a while to think about Jesus in their life, in their activities.

And it's always this battle of this world, you know, racing through their mind. If your mind is stayed upon Christ, you can do your job, you can take care of your responsibilities, and you can be totally consumed with Jesus Christ.

Mind stayed upon him, and you'll have peace. Thou will keep him in peace. It says God will keep him in peace. So the job doesn't have to overwhelm me. The difficulty doesn't have to get to me that I quit.

I need an answer. You better give me understanding, Lord, or I can't trust you anymore. No, those aren't issues anymore. You see, you trust in God. He's controlling it. He's working it to the good. When they had taken Jason into the jail, or before the magistrates, they're probably questioning him.

Where is Paul? Where are these people that are turning the world upside down with their talk about this Jesus? Jason, when he received them, they said, these do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another King, one Jesus.

So they're lying about him. They're lying about what Paul is saying. Now, that's an absolute lie. You remember in Luke chapter 20, verse 25, you remember the Pharisees came to Jesus Christ to lie in wait to entrap him.

And they say, which is lawful? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or to give to God? What is lawful? And Jesus was aware of their craftiness and their deceit, because they knew that Jesus was getting a following.

But Jesus was designing a kingdom that he plainly said, my kingdom is not of this world. No threat to Caesar. Jesus didn't come to change the world. He came to bring people out of the world. As we shared last Sunday, remember, John heard a voice from heaven, another voice from heaven saying, come out of Babylon, O my people, that you not become partakers of her sins or receive of her plagues.

Jesus didn't come to Christianize the world. He came to call to himself a bride, a heavenly bride that wants to leave this world. He's going to destroy this world and all the governments of man. Remember, Daniel saw the beginning head of gold right down to the end of Gentile sovereign rule on this earth.

God's going to bring it all to an end, not save it, not Christianize it. And so Jesus caught them in their very words. He said, he saw through it. He said, and this is what I find interesting. He didn't say, render under God what is God's, and then Caesar unto Caesar's.

He mentioned Caesar first. You're down in, you're temporary, you're aliens, you're strangers, you're just biding your time in this world. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. He caught them. He said, you render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's.

You do both. You don't start some movement to overfill the government. You'll render unto Caesar's what is Caesar's. And then Paul later on devotes practically a whole chapter of Romans 13 about being subject to the higher powers and glorifying God, even if they're unjust, you obey the laws of the land.

And then Peter in first Peter chapter two, he picks up on it and he too says that we're to give honor to the King, the honor that is due in respect and obey the laws of the land. And this is, this is what's good in the eyes of God, even if it's unjust.

Remember Jesus said the meek are going to inherit the earth, not the revolutionists, but it's the meekness that causes the revolution. It's the walking in humility and loneliness and obeying the laws, no matter how unjust, not trying to start a movement to overthrow a government.

Jesus taught against that. He said, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. He wasn't trying to overthrow the Roman government and neither was the apostle Paul by sharing that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.

See, the problem was Augustus Caesar started it. He was the August one. He began to claim deity. He was God in human form on the earth, ruling the world. And he demanded worship. So to be a good Roman citizen, you worship Caesar.

And so that was the issue. People were beginning to worship Jesus Christ and they quit worshiping Caesar. They weren't trying to overthrow the government. They just weren't worshiping a man as God anymore.

They'd met the true God, Jesus Christ. But they lied about it. You see, true Christianity is always going to be lied about. Our responsibility is, is to live the life that my life isn't a lie, that the Christian life that I'm living is not a lie.

It is the truth, a true example of someone being led by Jesus Christ and also a good citizen obeying the laws of the land. So they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things, just stirring up trouble.

And when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they let them go. So they threatened them, broke up the gathering looking for Paul, and they made him post a bond and they released them and warned them.

And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night into Berea, who coming further went into the synagogue of the Jews. So that he right away, he finds another synagogue. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

The Noble Bereans and Searching Scripture

Now they just didn't believe immediately when it says they are more noble than the Thessalonicans. They listened to what Paul said and they searched the scriptures to see, are these things really so? Yes, it does line up with scripture.