Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning Calvary Chapel Lake City!

Please turn in your Bibles to Acts 17!

Can you believe we are already in Acts 17? 28 Chapters in Acts… we’ll be finished before you know it!

Act 17:1-9 today.

As a recap… Paul and his party answered the Macedonian Call and travelled across the Aegean Sea from Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) to Macedonia.

And, they went to the chief city, Philippi, (now modern day Greece), where they had several encounters with locals on different days as they went to pray.

First, they met Lydia, a seller of purple and she and her household became the first recorded Christians in Europe.

On another day while going to pray, a demon possessed girl shouted, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”

And, she did this for several days until Paul commanded the demon to come out of her.

And, while this was a victory over the demonic… not all the people in Philippi rejoiced.

This girl was a slave, and her masters made much profit over the fortune-telling ability this girl had while demon-possessed.

Now that their hope of profit was gone… the slave masters laid hold of Paul and Silas and brought them before the authorities in Philippi.

Which led to accusations, and Paul and Silas being beaten with rods… then imprisoned and their feet fastened in the stocks.

How quick life circumstances can change?

They were just going to pray, and now all this.

But, God used this bad circumstance for good…

While imprisoned, Paul and Silas had a great attitude… they prayed and sang hymns to God, and all the other prisoners listened.

A great model for how we should act when life throws us a curve.

Suddenly, an earthquake shook the foundations of the prison… and all the doors and chains were loosed.

Seeing this, the jailer was about to kill himself instead of suffering penalties for neglect of duty, but…

Paul stopped him, and the jailer was broken before the Lord crying out for salvation.

And, he and his whole household heard the gospel and believed.

The following day, Paul let it be known that he and Silas’ rights as Romans were violated and the authorities apologized and released them.

And, before departing, Paul again encouraged the household of Lydia… which brings us to Chapter 17…

Where Paul’s party leaves Philippi and travels to Thessalonica… and, once again, their preaching stirs up a mob.

Our message today is “Turning the World Upside Down.”

Let’s pray!

Acts 17:1-4 “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” 4 And some of them [Jews] were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.”

Notice V1 begins “Now when they…” The pronoun has changed from “we” to “they.”

Acts 16:10 was the first time the pronoun “we” was used, and being that Luke is the author of Acts, it’s assumed Luke joined the missionary party in or near Troas.

And, he travelled with them as far as Philippi, but now his time with them has come to an end… at least for now.

We will see Luke again at Philippi where he again joins Paul in Acts 20:5 and travels with him to Jerusalem.

And, then a final time in Acts 27:1 from Caesarea to Rome.

It is interesting that… as Luke departs from the missionary party… we read of no hard feelings from Paul… a contrast to the time John Mark departed on the first missionary journey and returned to Jerusalem in Acts 13:13.

When John Mark departed, Paul was quite upset… and there’s a possibility Paul was being too rigid against John Mark.

Chuck Smith used to say, “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall bend and not be broken.”

So, maybe when Luke departed… Paul lightened up a bit, and exercised more grace.

Another possibility why Luke seems to depart with no hard feelings is maybe there was a different level of commitment made by Luke versus John Mark.

In Acts 15, as Paul and Barnabas planned the Second Missionary Journey, Paul insisted they NOT take John Mark.

A sharp contention over John Mark caused Paul and Barnabas to go their separate ways.

It seems Paul had an expectation that John Mark should have stayed the whole journey,… and expectation Paul doesn’t seem to have for Luke.

Maybe Dr. Luke was just along for a short-term journey?

Maybe his time with them was an unexpected surprise… a blessing of fellowship and laboring… or maybe just to watch over Paul as he was recovering from a suspected illness.

Whatever the case… certainly there are times and seasons of life.

Times to go… times to stay.

Pay attention to how God opens and closes doors, and wait on Him as you discern His will…

One last application before moving on… we don’t have the complete picture why John Mark left, but if he did depart prematurely… and broke a commitment… that’s a lesson for us on what NOT to do.

1 Cor 4:2 “Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.”

If John Mark was called to be a long-term missionary, but cut the journey short… this was a failure in faithfulness.

But later, he was certainly found faithful.

And, keep this in mind if you’ve ever messed up.

Has anyone ever messed up out there?

Three of you…?

well for you three…

Keep in mind… John Mark was not discarded as useless.

Even though Paul was done with him for a season…

God was NOT done with him… Mark would pen the Gospel of Mark… and he and Paul would later be reconciled.

Well… that was a lot to say about the word “they”… at this rate we’ll get out of here at dinnertime.

So “they” now being three… Paul, Silas, and Timothy… travelled further Southwest into Macedonia.

Let’s pull up a map of Paul’s Second Missionary Journey… find the red Asterisk for Acts 17.

From Philippi, they pass through the smaller towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and arrive at Thessalonica.

From Philippi to Amphipolis was about 35 miles…

Amphipolis is an ancient city and is still named this today.

It’s city name means “around city.”

“Amphi” means “around” and “polis” means “city”, as in a Metropolis… a chief city.

Amphi… as in amphitheatre.

Roman amphitheaters (like the Colosseum) had 360 degree seating… like modern football stadiums.

A Greek theater like we will encounter in Ephesus in Acts 18-19 had 180 degree seating…

Now what was around Amphipolis… at least on three sides was the Strymon river… which is a clue to the origin of this town’s name.

Next, the missionaries travel another 30 miles and pass through Apollonia a city name that means “belonging to Apollo”…

The same pagan Greek god we discussed a couple weeks ago who killed Python… the snake.

Which we discussed in looking at that word “divination.”

37 more miles down the road… a road that became the famous Via Egnatia… and they arrive at Thessalonica…

And, you say, “Thank you Lord”… because the geography lesson is over.

Kind of.

Thessalonica was the present capital of Macedonia and the largest and most prosperous city.

And, Paul will successfully plant a church in this city and would later write his epistles 1 & 2 Thessalonians to the church here.

In V1, It’s not surprising that Paul finds a synagogue of the Jews here.... being this was a larger city.

Synagogue means “a bringing together”… or an “assembly.”

Similar to the word “church” which also means “assembly.”

Unlike Philippi or Lystra… cities without Synagogues… Paul easily found Jews in Thessalonica…

Ten Jewish men are required to form a synagogue… or what Jews call “completing a minyan.”

A minion minyan.

Then Paul, V2… note the words “as his custom was… ”

I’ve said many times that Paul had a pattern of first visiting the Jews and then the Greeks or Gentiles, and this verse is confirmation.

As is the Bible… The OT is largely about the coming Messiah and the anticipation Israel had for their coming Messiah.

So, it makes sense why Jesus focused His ministry on Jews.

When Jesus sent the Twelve Apostles out on their first missions trip, Jesus instructed in Matt 10:5-6 “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans.

6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

To Israel the promises were given… from Israel the Messiah was born… and to Israel the Gospel would go first.

And, then to the Gentiles.

In Rom 1:16 Paul wrote, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”

So, as his custom was Paul enters the synagogue of the Jews.

And, V2 states Paul “for three Sabbaths” went into the Synagogue to preach to the Jews.

This gives us the minimum length of time the missionaries were in Thessalonica… 3 Sabbaths or three weeks of teaching… but the total stay in this city may have been longer.

And, we could just move on from here, but if we turn this stone over… we get a bigger picture of Paul’s life in Thessalonica.

And, I find this rich…

A couple cross references tell us more… in Phil 4:16 we see the church in Philippi (home of Lydia… our seller of purple)… they sent at least two gifts to support Paul while he was in Thessalonica.

Phil 4:16 “For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities.”

Even though the authorities of Philippi arrested and beat Paul and Silas unjustly, the church loved them… and would continue to bless and support their necessities… their needs… not their greed's.