The Cycle Continues

The last couple weeks’ worth of messages seemed to show that the wheels came off the cycle...

...but the cycle has been righted and is now back on track

Paul knew what had worked before and would continue it, maybe toward the end of this series we’ll put up a graphic of the compete cycle as an example...but not for awhile

There is the reality that he had declared that he would go to the Gentiles; but we might understand this as the way he ultimately got to the Gentiles...by way of the Jewish community

We see that even by way of the synagogues he was reaching the Godly Greeks (term is synonymous with Gentile)

He enters a new city, goes to his own culture, the Jewish community, finds the synagogue and begins the dialogue

He gives the Gospel, gains converts among both Jews and Gentiles, and a church begins

Though the cycle seemed to have crashed in Philippi, he’s right back at it, going on to Thessalonica (current Thessaloniki, Greece), about 55 miles to the southwest

This morning we’ll look at the proof, the proclamation, the persuasion and the problem of the visit to Thessalonica

Proof

The text tells us 3 Sabbath days reasoning with them, so that’s 2-weeks, plus...no exact amount of time

Paul spend his time reasoning with them from the Scriptures

Reasoning--διαλέγομαι, converse, discuss, argue...can you hear dialogue in that word?

Within this process we might understand statements, questions, answers, rebuttals, more questions (the way some of our M4M sessions sound on occasion)

There is a give and take in the conversation

This in the aorist tense, showing completion of the act

His reasoning was from the Scriptures--the common ground was the Old Testament...that’s what he would have been using

Within the reasoning was:

Explaining--διανοίγω, explaining or interpreting

Proving--παρατίθημι--place something before a person, demonstrate or point out..we might say “saying it plainly” NASB, “giving evidence”

The Reality of Necessity

We refer to the call to worship from Luke 24: On the Emmaus Road, Jesus took the two disciples through the OT, explaining the facts of the OT history and the prophecy...and how all the events of those previous days had fulfilled all the OT had foretold

The need was to pay the price of sin, a perfect offering to appease (propitiate) the wrath..to redeem sinful men from the righteous vengeance of a Holy God--an eternity of separation from God and in the flames of Hell and the lake of fire

...to allow those sinful men to be reconciled to that Holy God

...to all the adoption of those same sinful men to be the sons of that God

Chapter 13:13-41 gives an example of how Paul had proclaimed it before in a synagogue

Maybe he used Isaiah 53:10–12 “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

Proclamation

This was not whispered

Underlying word, καταγγέλλω--to make known in public, for broad dissemination, within that is the same word from which we get angel, which means messenger

This was nothing that was to be kept secret, he was announcing the Gospel for any and all to hear

Persuasion

His reasoning, his explanation and proof was apparently convincing

Some among the Jews of the synagogue came alongside them

Some of the devout Greeks (among what we’ve described as God-seekers, though not having gone through the process of becoming proselytes,

Some of the leading women

Problem

The message spoken brings persecution SURPRISE!

The Jews became jealous, as we’ve seen in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium and Lystra--they saw the foundations of their tradition being shaken...and again we see a mob forming, literally “market people” ...(NIV) ...rounded up some bad characters...(KJV) ...lewd fellows of the baser sort…

The underlying ponērós has multiple uses, worthless and morally reprehensible are two of my favorites

They raised havoc in the city--we’ve seen that before...and we’ll see it again

They attacked the house of Jason

Who Is Jason?

All we know of him is here

He is apparently a man who welcomed Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke...along with anyone else who has joined on the team...into his home

No good deed going unpunished :) Jason get’s hauled before the local authorities and is required to post bond

A Twisted Message

The concept of a king to rival Caesar

There would have been no such claim

If true, the men could rightly have been accused of sedition...and subject to execution

Into the early church, Peter wrote: 1 Peter 2:17 “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”

The kingdom of heaven does not compete against any earthly kingdom

Jason posted bond and was released

WITFM?

The Cycle Works

A. W. Tozer tells of the conversation between a pastor and a communist leader; the communist leader claims (rightly) that they had adopted the pattern of the early church...and then said that the church had abandoned it! (from Success and the Christian)

Don’t Ditch the Old Testament

As B.B. Warfield put it, the Old Testament is like a room “richly furnished but dimly lighted,” such that “the introduction of light [from the New Testament] brings into it nothing which was not in it before,” but “brings out into clearer view much of what is in it but was only dimly or even not at all perceived before.”

Some parts of it may be tedious...but all valuable

Though we can clearly prove salvation and explain the Way the Truth and the Life from it, an understanding of the OT gives the back story...the reason that it was NECESSARY for Jesus, the Christ, the Anointed One, to die

Luther: We must go back to the Old Testament and learn to prove the New Testament from the Old” (The Catholic Epistles. Sermons on the First Epistle of St. Peter 1.26; LW 30:18).

We Must Know What is Necessary

Paul and Silas knew fully well the necessity of Christ’s coming

He was not a just good man, a moral teacher, a prophet...He was the Son of the Living God

It was necessary that he died to save us, as we cannot save ourselves

C.S. Lewis is famous for having said/written: “

Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”

We Need a Proper Understanding of the Kingdom of God

We understand it as “already, but not yet” as coined by Gerhardus Vos in the early 20th century

There is  a sense in which God’s kingdom is already in force. Hebrews 2:8–9  says, “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death” (ESV). In this passage, we have a “now” (we see Jesus crowned with glory), and we have a “not yet” (not everything has been subjected to Christ). Jesus is the King, but His kingdom is not yet of this world (see John 18:36). (Got Questions)

Think of it as extraterritoriality--like an embassy of the US in another country; the laws of the US apply, though surrounded by the authority of others

More of a light-hearted observation:

There Is Never a Shortage of Rabble

Always people with nothing better to do than raise a commotion against the truth

Going to leave that right there and let you see how that plays out almost daily in the culture

As we transition to the Lord’s Supper, there is the matter of

Persuasion

Have you been persuaded of your need for Christ?

Are you a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven--Kingdom of God?

Do you need reminders of the continuing need for the Gospel in your life?