Acts 16:35-17:9

day is going. Let's go ahead and make sure that this is going live. Wonderful. Well, good afternoon. Good afternoon. It's so great to see you. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we get into God's Word, we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, No, it's 2022. You and I will make it from the book of Acts to the book of Philemon. It's so good to be with you today. We are, let's see, in Acts chapter 16 at verse 35.
So why don't we pray and we'll get into the Lord's word. Father, we thank you so much for this day and we thank you for your word. God, we pray now that you would watch over us. We pray that your Holy Spirit would attend to your word and that you would be moving in our hearts, that we would know who you are, believe in you, follow in your ways in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, here we go. Acts chapter 16 beginning at verse 35. There are my glasses. Give me one second. Acts chapter 15 beginning or 16 beginning at verse 35.
And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, Let those men go. So the keepers of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now, therefore, depart and go in peace. But Paul said to them, They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison, and now they put us out secretly? No, indeed, let them come themselves and get us out. And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out and asked them to depart from the city. So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
Well, this first part of the story, we need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, the best verse to summarize it, and C, what have we called to do in response to these words? Well, this part of the story is, remember, they've been beaten, they were flogged, they were thrown in stocks and put in prison. There was a great earthquake. And the Philippian jailer asked, what must I do to be saved? And so now it's the next day. The magistrates, they send those people, the officials to go and get them out. And Paul says, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on here, buddy.
I don't think so. That's not how this is going to work. We're Roman citizens. And you beat us, you disgraced us, and you sent us into prison without any trial. And now you're trying to send us away secretly? That's not going to happen. Now, under Roman law, these officials of the town, these magistrates of the town, could actually be recalled to Rome to answer for humiliating a Roman citizen this way. And so Paul says, nope, nope, you're going to come. and deal with this publicly. So it's not wrong to call the civil magistrate into account here. And so that's what they do.
They come and they urge them, please leave. They go from tearing their clothes and being mad and not caring about who they are to, will you please leave the town? Just go, please just go quietly. Just exit the town and everything will be okay. And they escort them out of the town.
First, they stop at Lydia's house though.
Remember, the Book of Acts is the Acts of the Apostles. They're being moved by the Holy Spirit. They're being sent out by the Holy Spirit, and on their way out, they stop at Lydia's house, the first convert in Europe, and they strengthen the church there. They care for the brethren there. They love the saints, God's people there.
And so now, instead of continuing to go west on the Via Ignatia, heading towards Italy, what is now Italy or Rome at that time, Italia, they head south instead. And so that's where we're going to pick it up here. Or no, I'm sorry, they continue along. It's tomorrow that they head south.
But today, they're going to leave from Philippi and continue down the Via Ignatia, headed west and head towards Thessalonica. Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as was his custom, went into them. for and for three sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures explaining and demonstrating that the christ had to suffer and raise again from the dead and saying this jesus whom i preach to you is the christ and some of them were persuaded and a great multitude of devout greeks and not a few of the leading women joined paul and silas and so they leave philippi They leave Philippi, they continue on to Via Ignatia, along the southernmost border of Macedonia there, bordering the Aegean Sea. They pass through Amphipolis and Apollonia and they stop at Thessalonica. And there in Thessalonica, they find a synagogue and they preach for three weeks. reasoning with them, going through the scriptures, trying to explain to them that the Christ must suffer and raise again from the dead.
And do you know who this Christ is? His name is Jesus. Jesus is the Messiah. What does that mean though? The Christ? Here it's ton Christon. Christon. Why is that important? This is the King. This is the Anointed One. This is the Prince of Peace, the Prince of Life, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the One who now sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
And He will come again one day to judge the living and the dead. And many people believe Him, especially of those Greek speakers in the synagogue. They believe Him. And notice here, just like in Antioch in Syria, where there was a very prominent believer, one of the teachers there, who was a friend of Herod Antipas, here, even some of the leading women, some of the first ladies of the town, follow Jesus Christ.
But it doesn't keep going all well. What happens in this next part, verses 5 through 9, But the Jews, who were not persuaded, became envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, they set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them. And these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying, There is another king, Jesus.
And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go." Well, what's happening in this part of the story? What is this A about? Well, in this part of the story, not all the Jews are persuaded and some of them are zealous, jealous, they're not happy that people are following Jesus Christ.
And so they find some of the rebel rousers in the marketplace and they move a crowd. They get people moving along and they drag them to the magistrates there. But they can't actually find Paul and Silas, so they go after Jason's house and the Christians who are there. Remember, they're going to the house churches. This is where they're assembling together, not just in the synagogue, but also in believers' houses. And so they go and the mob grabs them there. And listen to what they say.
When they go to the rulers of the city, they're crying out, these men have turned the world upside down. and have come here too. These itinerant preachers are going from town to town and they're flipping everything on its head. They're turning the world upside down. This message they're preaching is subversive to the way we know, to the things we believe, to how we live our lives.
Indeed, that is true. The gospel does that. But they bring another charge. How are they turning the world upside down on its head? while they're acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king, Jesus. And it's true, because that's what Christ means. Jesus is not Jesus's first name and his last name is Christ. No, Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the anointed. Jesus is the king. The crown of righteousness is upon his head. The angels in heaven bow down to him. He sits upon his throne of righteousness and he rules with a scepter of righteousness. It is Jesus Christ who is the judge.
And indeed, Caesar had made a decree. that there weren't allowed to be any more of these prophets or people coming around saying that someday a new emperor would come. And so there was a decree saying no more people saying that there was a king. So let me just point this out.
Even from the very beginnings of the church, the church has always brought social change. The church has always made the government uneasy. The church has never quite fit in buddy-buddy. because the gospel turns the world on its head. It was subversive to the way people thought and believed because when they were to turn away or come to Jesus Christ to repent, it also meant turning away from the emperor cult and turning toward Jesus Christ.
This is why in the second and third century, as persecution came to a boiling point, that Christians would not make a sacrifice to Caesar. They could not say Caesar est in curios. They couldn't say it. They couldn't say Caesar is Lord because there was only one Lord and one Savior and his name was Jesus Christ and they had been baptized into his name. It is at his name that every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
And so, well, how are we going to keep these rebel rabbisters out of here? What's going to happen? Well, they have Jason, they have other believers, and they make them post-bail. They make them have security money that they're not going to keep causing problems. What's the best verse to summarize these sections? In my Bible, I'm just going to say I have underlined verse 6 and 7 from the accuser's own lips. They're confessing the good news of Jesus Christ. Well, what are we called to do in response to this?
Let me ask you, where is your allegiance? Where is your alliance? Is Jesus Christ Lord of your life? Is he just the Savior of your soul or is he the one who is the commander of the armies of the Lord? And do you, do I obey Christ? Do we take our marching orders from him? Are we his warriors? Is he the one who gives us commands how to live our lives and do we follow after him? Is he the one who tells us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and we say we're going to try to do that, Lord? Is he the one who tells us to put on our helmet of salvation, to take up our shield of faith, to don our breastplate of righteousness, to gird our belts with the truth of the gospel, to shod our feet, or with the truth and to shod our feet with the gospel?
Are we ready to march out? Are we ready to go to warfare? Are we ready to follow our King, even when it means we might be going against the civil magistrate? Even when it means that though the government might say we can't do such and such a thing, we say, well, my King says something else. Do we follow Jesus Christ? Is He our Lord? Not just our Savior, but is He our King? Do we love Him? as the one who has not just ruled over us, but has also laid down his life for his people.
I hope he's your Lord. I'm so glad he's mine. Let's pray. Father, we pray, thanking you for Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior, and he is our Lord, our master, our maker, the one to whom we ultimately bow down to. Lord, we pray that we would follow after you. Please, Lord, let us love you with all of our hearts. In Jesus's name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you rejoice in the name of your Lord Jesus Christ. May you always stay true to Him because His Spirit is alive and active in His people. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.