The Acts of the Apostles 68

Subtitle: The Unknown God II

Acts 17:24-34.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on June 9, 2024.

We stopped last time with the Apostle Paul speaking at the Areopagus in Athens, Greece.  He tells them of a shrine he found in their city labeled, “To the Unknown God.”  He then says that he will proclaim this “Unknown God” to them.  Or, we may say that he proclaims the One True God who was unknown to them.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Greatness of the Unknown God (v. 24-26)

Paul begins by describing the greatness of Yahweh, this God who is unknown to them.  The gods of the nations always had a certain sphere of influence.  Even Zeus had to respect the realms in which Poseidon and Hades ruled (the sea and the underworld respectively).  No one god had control of everything.  In fact, none of these so-called gods had created the earth or the heavens. This is the backdrop to Paul’s opening statement.

Yahweh made all things that exist in the heavens and on the earth (this would include their so-called gods).  Yahweh is therefore the Lord over all of these things.  This would also challenge their philosophies (Epicureanism, Stoicism, et. al.) regarding their views on the origin of matter.

Paul is pointing out their penchant for building temples, fashioning idols, and giving worship to such things.  Of course, we may object to this with the fact that even Israel had a temple, which God had told them to build. However, this misses Paul’s point.

Paul is not speaking about God’s ability to manifest in a mediated form on the earth while still being Lord over all “seated” in the heavens.  He is challenging their culture of building temples and idols, and worshipping these lesser beings. 

The God who created all things cannot be fully contained by a building on earth, even by a throne room in the heavens. He doesn’t dwell in temples made by men. 

Verse 25 opens with a secondary point.  He doesn’t dwell in temples we make, and He isn’t worshiped with men’s hands.  The word for “worship” here has a sense of serving God.  It was used for everything men did in the temple (sacrifices, offerings, prayers, etc.).  The religious actions that they were doing would not be acceptable to the Creator.  The God who created all things, i.e., is the source of all things, doesn’t need us to be a source of something for Him.  He is the giver of all things: life, breath, and anything else you can think of.  In all our work, we are not supplying something God can’t create for Himself. 

Yes, we can serve God’s purposes, but our offerings are not fulfilling something that God lacks.  Rather, we are filling up something that we lack.  God doesn’t need our money, but we need to be givers so our wealth does not rule our hearts.  Ultimately, the things we do are not done for God, but rather with God.  It is a child wanting to be like its heavenly Father.

In verse 26, Paul tells them that the Creator made all the nations of the earth from one person (note: some translations have “one blood”).  These both mean the same thing.  From Adam, Eve was made.  Through them, all humanity springs forth.  We are all connected and related by this common human origin.  However, we should notice that God is the source of Adam.  Thus, all humanity is connected by the One who created all things.

Paul tells them that the Creator has preappointed when nations would come into existence, how long they would last, and how great they would become, i.e., their boundaries.  We can even recognize different forms of governance that have risen over the years as another layer to these preappointed times. 

This is where we see an intersection between the reality of our free will as individuals, and thus as nations, and God’s sovereign will.  In His sovereignty, God has not determined everything we may do, but He does determine some things.  These determined things will impact our lives in unforeseen ways. 

This is what is happening as Paul preaches Jesus in Athens.  The golden years of Athens are behind her, but in a different way, the golden days of the Gospel had come to them by the will of God and the cooperation of humans.  The Gospel being sent to the nations was a preappointed time of God that would begin to change things.

The Purpose of the Unknown God (v. 27-29)

Paul now moves to the purpose of this Creator God that was unknown to the Athenians.  This is an ancient issue that even these pagan nations wrestled with.  What do the gods want, and how can we appease them?

The nations had come into existence because of the judgment of God at the Tower of Babel.  Why would God scatter the people into these resultant nations?  Why would He turn away from them and turn to an individual named Abram to make a nation out of him?  This might appear to be a harsh judgment, but God has a purpose in it.

Adam was judged and cast out of the Garden of Eden.  A curse was put on the ground so that he would have to sweat with painful labor to bring forth food from it.  He would then die, leaving his body to return to the dirt from which it came.  Yet, Romans 8:20 tells us that God subjected the creation to futility with a purpose in mind.  In fact, He did so with a hope before us that God would fix it all.  God always has a good purpose in mind even when He gives judgments.  We can learn a lot by prayerfully paying attention to His judgments.

In verse 27, Paul says that God wanted them to search for Him.  God’s judgment at the Tower was not a full rejection.  Rather, He wanted them to wrestle with the results of the sinful choices they had made.  Some times you have to let people go who insist on poor choices.  They may even hate you.  By letting them go, God let them discover that the path they were on was not actually good.  Their searching and groping would cause them to see that they are in the dark without any hope of finding truth. 

This is similar to the story of the Prodigal Son.  The father let his son go off knowing that he wasn’t making good choices.  Yet, the son couldn’t see how good his father truly was until he had blown his money in a far country.  There he became destitute to the point that he wanted to eat the food of the pigs he was taking care of.  It was then that God blessed him with an understanding of how good his father was. 

Notice that no one actually found God by groping and searching for him.  It was not the great philosophers of Greece that figured out who the Creator was.  Our understanding of God has always been a gracious revelation from Him.  Athens was in the middle of a glorious day of revelation as Paul spoke to them.

Paul emphasizes that, even in our groping days of blindness, God is never far from us.  In the Prodigal Son story, the father was watching down the road for his son’s return.  Of course, God the Father has far greater powers than the human father of this story.  Yet, He watches for our turning back towards Him with the same desire.  Simultaneously, the Spirit of God is working out in the far country to turn the son’s heart back to his father.  God was never far from the Greeks even in their days of weak groping.  The opportune time had come.  I believe this is true for humanity as a whole, but also for each individual.  God was never far from each person throughout history.  His purpose was always being worked out for our good.

On this day, the time of hard labor underneath false gods was at an end.  The truth about the authority and kingship of Jesus was now going forth.  Yet, even that hard labor had prepared them to receive the truth.  This is not saying that all would believe, but that those who did would better recognize what Paul was saying.

In verse 28, Paul quotes from some of their poets.  “In him we live and move and have our being,” is a quote from  seventh-century BC Greek philosopher, Epimenides.  “For we are also his offspring,” is a quote from the fourth-century BC Greek poet, Aratus.  In their groping for truth, little nuggets of understanding had surfaced by the grace of God.

On one hand, Paul is using these quotes as a bridge to help these Greeks understand that the greatness of God and His relationship with us calls for them to cease their temples and idolatry.

However, I believe that Paul is also demonstrating that there was some culpability in how far away from truth they were.  If they had understood through such poets that God is the very atmosphere and foundation of all that we do, and if they had understood that they were the offspring of God in some way, then they should have questioned the temple and idol worship that they were doing.

If we are the offspring of God, then how could we think that God could be properly imaged by wood, metal, and stone?  God never intended humans to make these ignorant attempts at imaging Him.  In fact, He made us to be His imagers!

They can’t blame their ignorance on God.  They had been culpable along the way.  The first generation that was judged at Babel should have humbled themselves in repentance and held on to the truth of God far more strongly, but they didn’t.  As God gave them nuggets of insight along the way, they should have rebelled against the wicked traditions developed by their culture, but they didn’t.  Crafting wood into an image becomes a way of side-stepping truth.  “I don’t want to work on me so I craft this piece of wood and make God into an image that makes me feel better.”

They can’t blame their blind condition on God nor on their forefathers.  Yes, they are impacted by the decisions of them both, but they had made their own sinful choices.

This brings us to Paul’s last point.

The Judgment of the Unknown God (v. 30-31)

The point about their culpability in their idolatry makes a great transition to the warning of a coming judgment.  The God they didn’t know about has set a preappointed time at which all the nations are going to be judged by Jesus.

Up to this point, God had been overlooking their idolatry and ignorance.  He had given them freedom to grope, rather than destroying them.  He was letting them wrestle with their choices and the questions that surface through that.  Sometimes we have to eat some pig pods so that we can appreciate the grace of God.

Yet now, things have changed.  God is commanding all men everywhere to repent, even Caesar.  This is an important distinction.  We are in an Age of God’s Grace where the Gospel of Jesus goes out to the whole world.  Those who call others to repentance and faith in Jesus must live a life of repentance themselves.  Our culture has developed ways of rejecting Jesus and worshiping false gods.  The Church must be careful that it doesn’t let the culture change it.  Rather, we are called to redeem people.  If enough people are redeemed, then that will affect the culture of that people.

The spirit of antichrist wants to exalt cultural differences to the exclusion of the message of Christ.  Yet, Jesus is Lord over all culture.  This means that there needs to be a change.  Some things need to change by truncation.  They simply need to be stopped, cut off, or removed.  However, other things need to change by transformation.  I may still make music and play songs, but now I do them for the glory of God, not man.  We may still enforce the law or have a military, but we do not do these things for the glory of America.

Now, we all have a day of judgment personally.  It is called the day of our death.  However, Paul points to a time when all the nations will be held accountable.  The way the world operates now will come to an abrupt end as Jesus comes back to set things right.

This makes the message of repentance from sin and faith towards Jesus extremely important.  Imagine a person who has lived a life of stealing from others, and yet, now he is caught.  He then stands in front of the judge, is proven to be a thief, and the judge is preparing his decision.  It is too late to say that you don’t want to be a thief.  It is too late to beg for mercy and ask the judge to pretend that you are now innocent.

Jesus is the man who has been appointed by God as judge.  He will judge in complete righteousness, and not as we do.  Do you remember those pictures and statues of Lady Justice.  She has a balance scale in her hand and she is blindfolded.  Humans generally have to be blindfolded in order to give a righteous judgment, but this is not true of Jesus.  There will be no blindfold on him in that day, and he will see through every flimsy excuse that we might raise.  Now is the time for repentance and faith in him, not when we are standing before him giving account for our life.

Paul tells them that God has given assurance to this reality by raising Jesus from the dead.  The resurrection of Jesus is the keystone of our message.  This is the evidence that God has given us, and that points to his ability and right to judge us.

Think about it.  There is no other person in history that predicted their death and resurrection, and then did it.  Not only that, but had over 500 witnesses  to the reality of his resurrection and ascension into heaven.  This is not coming to us from a mythological age within pre-history.  It is the most attested reality of the ancient world that we have.

The wonderful news is that we can survive God’s judgment through our faith in Jesus.  Yet, the shocking news of the resurrection seems to shock the crowd.  They break out in a loud response that cuts the sermon short at this point.

The Response of the Athenians (v. 32-34)

We are told that some of the people mocked him.  Who ever heard of a man coming back to life from the dead?  Others were inquisitive.  “We will hear you again on this matter.”  Of course, philosophers love to talk and hear other people talk.  No amount of inquisition can save us.  We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  Lastly, some of them joined him and believed!

We need to be careful in America.  We can be too natural-minded in our work for the Lord.  God help us to quit looking at our culture and saying that it is too far gone.  Even if it was, so what!  Do we stop sharing the Gospel and believing that we serve the God of the impossible?

Believers need to have hope, and Jesus is the source of that hope.  Our hope is not that we will save everyone in town, or in the nation, or in the world, tomorrow.  Why does God still have us here?  Doesn’t He know that it is over?

I hope that you can see that this is what we are doing.  We are halting in the day of battle and questioning the general.  We are halting in the day of salvation and questioning Jesus.  We must stop this.  We must first get on our knees in prayer and ask the Lord Jesus to fill us with his Holy Spirit so that we can have the empowerment to share the Gospel like the Apostle Paul did all those years ago in Athens.  If Paul can preach with hope and receive a harvest in pagan Athens, then we can do so today in modern America.

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The Acts of the Apostles 67

Subtitle: The Unknown God

Acts 17:16-23.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on June 2, 2024.

Today, our problem is not that God is unknown, but that we have not taken time to know the God who is now known.  However, in first-century Athens, the One True God was all but known to them.

Athens was full of idolatry, temples and shrines.  We are not sure who made the first idols, but we do know that false gods were part of the Tower of Babel.  The people of the earth were rebelling against the instructions of God to Noah and his sons.  They built a city and a tower called Babel, which means “gate of god” or “a god gate.”  Since they are in rebellion to the One True God’s instructions, we know they are attempting to connect with fallen “gods,” which are not really gods.

They end up being judged by Yahweh and scattered through the confusing of their languages.  He also casts them off and gives them over to those spiritual beings that they were seeking.  He then turns to Abram and proceeds to make a new nation for Himself.

Being cast off is a theme within the Old Testament.  Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden eastward.  Cain was later cast out even further east.  This is most likely the reason for the orientation of the Temple of God.  It has him seated in the temple looking to the East awaiting the return of His wayward children.  Of course, the Holy Spirit is out there working on the hearts and minds of the lost to bring them back.

It is in this environment that the nations develop false religions that involve idols and sacrifices to spiritual beings that are actually demons, and or, fallen spiritual beings.  Most likely, these are the result of the “doctrine of demons” talked about in Scripture.  False religion and idolatry is not truly religion.  It is actually a permission system that allows spiritual beings to manipulate and control the individual.  If enough people follow these systems, then they can manipulate whole cities, nations, even a whole world.  Remember this.  When Jesus came, it wasn’t just the Gentiles who were completely manipulated by these fallen spiritual beings.  Even Israel had been corrupted and harnessed to do the work of these beings.  Yet, these spiritual beings are merely creations of God who are in rebellion to Him.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Gospel comes to Athens (v. 16-21)

Paul had left Silas and Timothy in Berea and sailed 300 miles south to Athens.  It appears that he planned to wait for them.

Athens was home to the Acropolis, a raised area within Athens that had the Parthenon, a large temple to the false goddess Athena (for which the city is named).  To the northwest was a smaller, rocky hill that was called the Areopagus (Greek for Mar’s Hill).  The Areopagus was an open-air forum for the philosophers of Athens.  They would gather there to present new idea and to debate.

While Paul is waiting for Silas and Timothy, he notices the heavy idolatry and false religion that it has.  Of course, this is no surprise for a city named after a false goddess.  Yet, let’s recognize that Paul preferred to minister with other people, rather than doing so alone.  We could imagine the help of the gifts of the Holy Spirit through others.  We could also imagine the encouragement in ministry when one labors with other believers.  Still, Paul’s default is to minister in groups, as opposed to going solo.

We are told that the city was “given over to idols.”  The words give the picture of being covered in idols, or inundated with idols.  They were everywhere he looked.  There were not only temples to the various gods that were recognized by the Greeks, but there were also shrines to these gods throughout the city to enable convenience in worshiping these false gods.

We are told that Paul was “provoked” by this heavy idolatry.  He is not provoked to anger.  Perhaps, if he saw such in Jerusalem, there would be cause for righteous anger.  This is a provocation to action that would be similar to waiting for the EMTs to arrive while noticing that the wounded person is bleeding out in front of you.  You would be provoked to action.

Such spiritual provocation is an evidence of the Holy Spirit within us.  These people have been lost for centuries, even millennia.  They are in dire straits and desperately need the good news about Jesus the Christ.

Have we become so anesthetized to the sin of the world around us that it no longer provokes us to action?  Is it not a big deal to the Church anymore?  We should desire and pray for the Holy Spirit to provoke within us a heart for those who are lost.  We need to have enough of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit within us that we cannot help but be provoked to evangelism.

Thus, Paul begins preaching Jesus.  It wasn’t the ideal situation, but something had to be done.  He was alone as a human being, but the Lord Jesus was with him through the Holy Spirit.  Paul first goes to the synagogue and reasons with the Jews and the Gentile God-fearers that were there.  However, he was also going into the marketplace each day and reasoning with the people there.

I love the phrase in verse 17, “those who happened to be there.”  Have you ever just happened to be somewhere, whether for good or for bad?  Perhaps, it was just the normal day that they went to the market, or perhaps, something had happened to change the day, delay the time, etc.  Regardless, some people “just happened” to meet a man named Paul in the marketplace, and he struck up a conversation with them.  Such coincidental meetings are not by accident.  The intersection of a Spirit-filled believer’s life with the lost is never by chance.  God works through such “chance” meetings.  We need to be quick at recognizing this.

At this point, several philosophers run into Paul.  Philosophers love to talk, to hear themselves talk, and to hear new ideas.  Luke mentions two different philosophical schools that he interacted with: the Epicureans and the Stoics. 

The Epicureans were materialists who saw happiness as the highest goal in life.  Though this meant they were into the pleasures of the flesh, they also recognized that such pursuits in excess always led to diminished happiness.  Thus, they promoted a moderated pursuit of pleasures that involved self-restraint.

The Stoics are best known for their great control under pressure.  Someone could be screaming and spitting in their face, and yet, they would remain calm, cool and collected.  They valued self-control, wisdom, justice, and courage.

Luke mentions two different responses to Paul by these philosophers.  Some said, “What is this babbler trying to say?”  This is a negative response.  “Babbler” was a term that referred to a small bird that would flit around the marketplace grabbing seed and food from whatever happened to fall on the ground.  When used of a person like Paul, it pictured him as a guy who traveled around and had gathered a large amount of curious ideas from other places.  He is not an original thinker, or the adept of a particular philosophical school.  He is just like that little bird picking up whatever has happened to fall in front of him.  They are clearly dismissively putting him down.

The second response is just on the positive side of zero.  They believed him to be proclaiming some foreign gods.  Thus, they wanted to hear more of what Paul was talking about.  A marketplace is not conducive to learning about new things, so they invite Paul to the place in town where such ideas could be heard and debated, the Areopagus.

However, notice that verse 18 ends with this, “because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.”  Paul did not change his message because he was in Athens.  He doesn’t water-down the message to make it more appealing to them.  He was telling them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 

We must never lose sight that all people need to hear about Jesus.  We can debate with people on the demerits of idolatry and false religions, but more than this, they need to hear about Jesus and what he has done for them.  No matter what culture the person you address comes from, the Gospel of Jesus has a way of cutting through to the heart of them all.  The life, death and resurrection of Jesus hits home on the great questions of life that all cultures can understand, even though the noise of that culture can make it hard to hear the truth.

Paul preaches at the Areopagus (v. 19-23)

We won’t get into the meat of Paul’s sermon today.  I will leave that for next week.  However, let’s recognize that God gives Paul the opportunity to address some of the most important thinkers of Athenian society, and Paul doesn’t hold back.

If you are worried about what gives you the authority to stand up within foreign cultures and call them to believe on Jesus, then understand this.  We are authorized by Jesus who has been given all authority over the heavens and the earth.  We don’t force people as individuals, nor do we seek to use the power of government to force the masses to conversion.  No amount of force upon the flesh can change the heart of a person.  Christians are not to operate in the power of the flesh, but rather, to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul first points out their high degree of religiosity.  Cities like Athens would have temples for each of the main gods of their pantheon, along with multiple shrines throughout the city for convenience.  This would be multiplied greatly in the cities that had a long history of rich commerce, and military stability.  Paul is not really complimenting them, but they most likely took it that way, at least at first.

Instead, Paul is trying to connect with their mindset.  He had been doing some reconnaissance while waiting for Silas and Timothy.  He noticed that they were so religious that they even had an altar with the inscription, “To the Unknown God.”  Apparently, six to seven hundred years earlier, a plague had come upon the city.  The elders were perplexed at what to do.  A man named Epimenides counseled them to release a flock of sheep.  Wherever the sheep would stop, they would then be sacrificed at the nearest temple or shrine.  Of course, some of these sheep did not stop within town and went into the country.  These were then sacrificed to “the unknown god,” in the hopes that it would be accepted as a humble entreaty.  The plague came to an end, and sacrificing to “the unknown god” became a part of Athenian culture.

Paul uses this to gain a better hearing from them.  They clearly do not know about Yahweh.  Yahweh is not just the God of Israel.  He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and everything that is within them.  He tells them that he plans to reveal who this God is that they have been ignorantly trying to worship.  Sometimes, it is better to find a place of common ground that can serve as a vehicle for gaining a hearing and delivering the truth.  We should not “find common ground” in order to dilute the Gospel.  This is not what Paul is doing.

In the end, no one can come to faith in Jesus, but by the help of the Holy Spirit.  Thus, a brute-force attack on people and their ideas is generally not effective.  It just riles up their flesh, which is already hostile to the things of the Spirit of God.  Paul is led by his love for Jesus, and the love that Jesus has for these Greeks.

There were good reasons why these Athenians didn’t know the One True God.  Their ancient fore-fathers had rebelled against Him at the Tower of Babel.  Even following their judgment, they refused to repent and wait for God’s salvation.  Rather, they cast off restraint and were led by demons into false religion and idolatry.  Later generations would be born into darkness without any true idea about how these religions had come about in the first place.  The truth of these false religions is that they are permission systems that enable spiritual beings to manipulate whole societies.

Notice verse 21.  “For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.”  We are not much different today.  Our culture is always seeking something new.  With the rise of the internet, we are able to drop into the modern equivalents of the Areopagus and hear all the latest and greatest trinkets from around the world.  In truth, we can become the babblers that the philosophers accused Paul of being.  We have become a people trapped in our sins and trapped within philosophies that do not give us the truth, but rather, give us a lie.

Instead of being a person trapped in bondage to sin and to philosophies, Jesus calls us to be a free person used by the Holy Spirit to set such slaves free.  May God strengthen our hearts to rise up courageously in this generation to share the Good News about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and what it means for our future!

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The Acts of the Apostles 66

Subtitle: Those Who Turn The World Upside Down

Acts 17:1-15.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on May 26, 2024.

We have made it back to the book of Acts.  We are in the middle of Paul’s 2^nd Missionary Journey.  It began at the end of chapter 15 following the Jerusalem Council.  This was a gathering of the apostles and elders of the early Church to make sure they were all on the same page regarding what Gentiles needed to do in order to be saved.  Thus, Paul’s 2^nd missionary trip serves to visit churches that he had started on the first missionary trip and share the findings of the Jerusalem Council.

This would be important because, up to that point, there were individuals that were telling the Gentiles that they needed to follow the Old Testament, i.e., become Jews through circumcision, and obedience to the stipulations of the Law of Moses.  Essentially, they were teaching Gentiles to first become Jews, and then, they could become a follower of Jesus.

After Paul had worked through these towns in central Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey, or Türkiye), the Holy Spirit leads him and his company to travel westward until they ended up in Greece.  In Chapter 16, Paul and company minister in Philippi where they are whipped and put in the jail.  However, an earthquake leads to them being freed and the Philippian jailor and household becoming Christians.  Paul then reveals that they have beaten him against the law of Rome because he has Roman citizenship.  This causes the magistrates to apologize and beg Paul to leave the city.  They then met with the believers, encouraged them and then, headed westward towards Thessalonica, which is where we join them in Acts 17:1.

The Gospel comes to Thessalonica (v. 1-9)

They travel west through two cities, Amphipolis and Apollonia, which roughly divide the 100 miles to Thessalonica into thirds (around 33 miles between).  Paul may or may not have preached in these cities.  It is not mentioned.  However, Luke focuses on what happened at Thessalonica next.

We have two letters (epistles) written by Paul to the Thessalonians in the New Testament.  Here is something that Paul later said of the church that would be started there.  1 Thessalonians 1:8, “For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place the news of your faith toward God has gone out.”

From this, we can see that Paul doesn’t have to preach in every city (whether he did or didn’t).  The churches that he started would become hubs of shining the Gospel into the region.  May our church be a church with such a strong faith that the area knows it, and they will have hear the “Word of the Lord.”

Now, Thessalonica was the main city of that region.  It had a synagogue and that is where Paul began.  We are told that he preached for three Sabbaths (weeks), reasoning with them from the Scriptures.

There are two verbs that are used to describe this.  In the NKJV, they are interpreted as “explaining” and “demonstrating.”  The first one has the sense of opening the Scriptures up for them, but also opening their understanding of the Scriptures that they no doubt knew.  The second word has the sense of setting something before the people.  In food contexts, it is used of a hostess placing food before guests.  In this setting, we are talking about teachings regarding Christ that are set before them, i.e., demonstrated to them from Scripture.

The two main teaching mentioned here are that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise again from the dead.  We are not told the Scriptures that Paul used, but Isaiah 53 could easily have been one, also Psalm 16:10-11.  The second teaching is that Jesus of Nazareth is that Messiah and fulfilled these things.  Notice the logic of this.  If you don’t recognize or accept the first teaching, then you will not be able to see Jesus as the Messiah because he did suffer, die, and yet, rose again from the dead.

The response is good, but it is split up into three parts:  “some of them were persuaded,” “a great multitude of devout Greeks,” and “not a few of the leading women.”  In light of the mention of Gentiles in the second part, we can safely assume that the first part is speaking about the Jews who attended the synagogue.  So, it appears that there was a better reception among the Gentiles than among the Jews.  We are told that those who believed “joined” Paul and Silas.  It is most likely that they were connecting with them throughout the week in order to learn more, and unknowingly laying the foundation for the first church of Thessalonica.

We are told in verse 5 that those who were not persuaded by the Gospel preaching became “envious.”  This envy leads to them stirring up a crowd, a mob, from the marketplace in order to apprehend Paul, Silas, and Timothy. 

The source of the trouble is envy, and would, no doubt, be led by the religious leaders of the synagogue.  The problem was not Jews.  Paul is a Jew as well as Silas.  Some Jews were persuaded by Paul.  The problem is envy, and envy plagues every ethnic group under the sun.

You can imagine that they had worked hard to share the Law of Moses in Thessalonica and had even drawn many devout Greeks to attach themselves to the teaching of the synagogue as God-fearers.  When someone else comes into town and begins to persuade people in a new teaching, it would be natural to be defensive.  This is the same dynamic that led to Jesus being rejected by the leaders of Jerusalem.  Yet, the problem is not that their lack of being persuaded.  It could have stayed at the level of arguing your case from Scripture and rejecting Paul’s teaching.  They might even stipulate continued synagogue attendance on the rejection of this new teaching.  However, something darker comes forth because envy is a dark vice.  You may not even know you are being envious as it happens.  Envy is never good, and only leads to overt sin and pain.

A mob is stirred up, and we should take a moment to remind ourselves about the spirit that affects a crowd.  A crowd takes on a nature that is larger than any one person within the group, even those who started it.  For example, when you push against a large rock that is on a hillside, you will notice that there is much resistance at first.  You are choosing to keep pushing, or get help from more people, etc.  In a way, you are still in control.  However, there is that moment in time in which gravity takes over, and you are no one is in control.  Dangerous things can happen, especially if there are unwitting people down the hill.  The same is true spiritually, for good or for bad.  People within crowds will often do things that they would never do on their own.  In fact, contrary to the analogy, there are often spiritual dynamics at work even in “pushing the rock” in the first place. 

There is a theme in Scripture: don’t focus only on what you can see because you will miss the spiritual things that are happening.  This can be the good work of God, the evil work of the devil and his angels, or the spiritual condition of a person we are dealing with.

We do not want to be a people who are easily motivated to riot and attack others (even metaphorically).  We must understand what spirit is motivating us in our decisions and actions.  Is it the Holy Spirit, or the spirit of this world?  Believers in God, in Jesus, are those who are led by the Holy Spirit, rather than the ill-winds of this world.

We cannot fault the Jews of Thessalonica for not having a relationship with Jesus, but we can see that they had not been tuned to the Spirit of God.  Otherwise, they would have responded with joy.  Yet, they respond with envy and seeking to banish or jail Paul and company.

This is the battle between a desire for truth and the envy of our ego.  We all have ego that gets hurt from time to time, but believers are called to purify their hearts through repentance and works that are worthy of such.

The group ends up at the house of a man named Jason.  He most likely had been persuaded and was housing them.  However, when they arrive, Paul is not there.  Then, they drag Jason and the “brothers” (i.e., believers in Jesus) before the city rulers to make accusation against them.

The accusation is that they are breaking the decrees of Caesar by saying Jesus is “another king.”  In some ways, Jesus is not a threat to Caesar.  He did not instruct his followers to defeat the Roman empire.  Instead, he told them to love their enemies and preach the Gospel to them.  Yet, Jesus is a threat to Caesars in general.  The kingdoms of this world are destined to belong to him.  The kings of the earth are warned to “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.  Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” Psalm 2:12.  Still, Jesus is not a threat in the way that they are presenting. 

They stir the pot through this aspersion, “these who have turned the world upside down have come here too!”  This is intended to be a negative, but it shows the powerful effectiveness of the early Church.  Actually, they were not turning the world upside down.  The world was already upside down from the way that God had created it due to human sin and spiritual interference.  Jesus Messiah was sent to begin righting the ship.  That righting of things begins in the heart of the individual.  He has come to set our hearts right side up before God. 

Yet, this creates a polarization in families, towns, nations, even the world.  Jesus said in Matthew 10:34, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.  I did not come to bring peace but a sword.  For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’” He is quoting Micah 7:6.  This is the polarization that we see happening in this synagogue and the city as a whole.  Some are embracing Christ, but others who were their friends were not.  This situation has continued throughout the earth to this day.

The rulers of the city take security (money) from Jason and send them away.  This security is probably not a bond for showing up to court.  Rather, it is most likely so that they won’t cause another riot.

The Gospel comes to Berea (v. 10-15)

“The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.”  The label of “brethren” means that these are people who believe that Jesus is the Messiah.  A good group of believers has been started, and the hot tempers among the town calls for Paul to move on.  However, the Gospel has not left the town.  It has been sown and taken root in many hearts.  Berea is a town that is about 45 miles west of Thessalonica.

Luke notes that there was a very different mind-set, or attitude, within the Berean synagogue.  Different versions describe them as “more noble,” “more fair-minded,” and “of more noble character.” The word literally means “well born.”  It pictures a person who has been born into a good family, has been taught good morals, and lives these out in society (aka Not the kind of people who riot).

What won them this descriptor? First, they were ready to hear what Paul had to say.  Yet second, they searched the Scriptures to check the veracity of his claims.  They were not ego-driven, but instead, desired to know the truth.  We can be a slave to passions that drive us.  In such cases, we can be blind to the truth.  However, what makes a person reject the Gospel one day, but accept it later?  There is a mystery to the way that the Gospel impacts people. 

We are told that many of them believed.  There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile this time.  Of course, Jesus and his apostles were not creating another religion by twisting Judaism.  The teaching and the work of Jesus flowed directly from the Law and the Prophets.  He is the fulfillment of all it points toward, which was there for anyone who would honestly seek out the truth.

Without any meddlers, there would not have been any problems in Berea.  However, the Jewish leaders from Thessalonica showed up and caused trouble for Paul and Silas in Berea.  No doubt, word had traveled back to them that Paul was in Berea and that many people were listening to him.  Again, the men from Thessalonica stirred up a crowd from the marketplace.

Note to self: don’t be the kind of person who is sitting around looking for a cause and a crowd to join.  Fleshly people, who are only focused on the lusts of their flesh, are easily stirred up.  If you are busy doing the work of the God, the Lord Jesus, then you will not be easily stirred up by others.

Again, the “brethren” send Paul away.  However, this time Paul goes by himself and leaves Silas and Timothy behind.  The heat seems to focus on Paul.  Silas and Timothy could stay under the radar and help the believing community of Berea grow in their understanding of the Scriptures and the work of Jesus.

Thus, Paul ends up on a ship to Athens, which is 300 miles away.  Most likely, they believe this will settle down the crowds rioting against Paul.

In some ways, we should recognize that, in order to turn your life right-side up before the LORD, it is going to feel like you are turning it upside down.  At salvation, a person senses the Holy Spirit calling them to put their faith in Jesus, but the flesh is generally scared at the thought of this.  Yet, for those who follow the Spirit, they enter into a life-transforming relationship with Jesus, the Spirit, and the Word.

When you feel that emotion of fear, or apprehension, towards something that the Holy Spirit is leading you to do or stop doing, take time to pray for clarity about the direction and courage to obey.

Paul could have focused on the negative.  Everywhere he went, people were causing trouble and mistreating him.  In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul lists all of the things he has endured in taking the Gospel to the nations.  Yet, these things were not enough to persuade him to quit.  He saw himself as a slave of Christ, even wishing that he could be cursed so that his countrymen could be saved.  The Holy Spirit had led Paul to these places to preach the Gospel.  Many wonderful people were saved through his ministry.

May God help us to see the need of a lost world and God’s love for them.  Yes, we will run into resistance and difficult things, but we will also see wonderful things.  Some will believe, and we will have fellowship with them.

How does a person turn the world upside down?  They do it by not focusing on trying to turn the world upside down.  Instead, they listen to the Holy Spirit and give themselves to the work that He gives them, no matter what the scope.  The Apostle Paul started by turning his own little world upside down on the road to Damascus when he believed in Jesus.  That became the foundation for what came later.  You can trust the Holy Spirit in you.  Just remain faithful to Jesus in your work.

Upside Down audio

Led By the Spirit

Romans 8:1-30.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on May 19, 2024, Pentecost Sunday.

Our passage today does not focus on the gifts of the Spirit, but on the leading and help of the Holy Spirit.

As we were walking through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 to 7, we recognized that it begs certain questions.  How can a person do these things?  How can I love my enemies?  How can I be perfect even as my Father in heaven is perfect?

The short answer to these questions is that it will take a miracle of God.  Similar to Abram and Sarah wondering how they were going to have a child, we wonder how God will do the impossible things that He says He will do in us.  Like Abram and Sarah did, we can try to accomplish it in our flesh, but this is not God’s way.  In the end, it would be Isaac who would receive the promises of God to Abraham and carry them into the next generation.  Thus, we must not look at ourselves, our abilities, and our strength to find hope.  Rather, we look to Jesus, the one who is doing this powerful work within us.

We are told that God gives His Holy Spirit to those who put their faith in Jesus so that we can then do the impossible.  I do not mean things like jumping over a tall building in a single bound.  These are the kinds of things our flesh dreams up when it thinks of doing the impossible.  No, I mean those impossible things that God has promised to do in us and through us.

So, let’s look at our passage today and see the hope that we have in the help of the Holy Spirit for us.

The Spirit helps us to fulfill the righteousness of the Law (v. 1-4)

This first point is one of the main points that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount.  Those who follow him will be enabled to fulfill the righteousness of the Law.  Paul sees this as the result of walking with the Holy Spirit.

The preposition that is translated as “with” has an added sense of something else that is in opposition.  We walk with the Holy Spirit as opposed to what we were walking with before.  In this case, Paul sees our flesh as the problem.  This shows the choice that is before everyone who hears the Gospel of Jesus and then responds in faith.  It is a choice between continuing to follow our flesh, or turning away from it in order to walk with the Holy Spirit.

This was always the weak point in the Law of Moses.  When verse three talks about the weakness of the Law, it is not pointing to a problem in the words themselves.  It is our tendency to follow our flesh.  The Law was perfect, but we are not.  Thus, we end up only condemned by those words.

Jesus boiled the whole purpose of the Law down to loving God with our whole being and loving our neighbor as ourself (even when that neighbor is our enemy).  When our flesh leads, we fail this all the time, but when the Spirit leads us, then we are enabled to accomplish what God was wanting.  Now remember, we wouldn’t have the Holy Spirit if Jesus hadn’t gone to the cross for us and won the authority and right to pour out this Holy Spirit upon his followers.

So, let’s delve a little deeper into walking with the Holy Spirit.  Walking has to do with how we live our life, the directions we go in, and the purpose behind what we do.  We are not intended to do this alone, but instead, to do it with the Spirit of Christ in us.  It is not up to my wisdom and my strength.  Like Adam and Eve talking with God in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden, so too, we can pray and receive the wisdom, the leading, of the Holy Spirit for what we face.

It is the Holy Spirit that teaches us to fulfill the purpose of God.  It is the Holy Spirit that teaches us how to love God and other humans in the way that Christ has loved us.  These things are not in contention.  To love God is to be helped by Him to know how to love others.  The world may try to put them in contention.  However, you do not help (love) people by bending God’s word or twisting it.

The Spirit helps us to focus on the things of God (v. 5-8)

When we follow the flesh, we are generally doing stupid things that we will need to repent over later.  Just like parents teach their kids to focus on a task, or teachers help students to focus while in class, we too are enabled to focus on the right things by the Spirit of God.

The power of technology is not helping us in this area of focus.  People may focus on a screen for long periods of time, but we are almost completely disabled in our ability to get our heads out of it and into what God is trying to accomplish.  Of course, focus has always been a problem, even before such technology.  It has been a problem because the flesh in in competition with the Spirit of God.  When a person is saved, they are given the Spirit of God; He dwells within them.  Yet, they still have a mind of the flesh that is hostile to the things of God.  If left to our own devices, each of us would become focused on the things of the flesh, not the things of God.

In this area of God’s things, i.e., things of the Spirit, versus things of my flesh, there are things that I need to get rid of, and there are things that I need to start doing.  Maybe, I didn’t read the Bible before, or I didn’t pray and gather together with Christians, but now I start doing those things.  Maybe, I used to be involved in sexual immorality in certain ways, but now I stop doing those things that are contrary to God’s design in my life.

However, sometimes it is not about the thing I am doing so much as it is about the reasons why I do it.  Helping poor people is a good thing.  However, I can do it for fleshly reasons.  I can do it because it makes me feel good about myself.  Perhaps, I do it because it makes me feel like I am better than others.  I might do it because I want to use it as leverage for manipulating them.  The Holy Spirit teaches us how to take those impure, fleshly motivations, and cleanse them from our heart.  Then, we can be enabled to do a good thing for the right reasons, reasons that are made clean by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus addressed this in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:1-4.  Sometimes, we simply want people to think that we are better than we really are, image control, branding. 

The flesh will do religious and virtuous things for fleshly reasons, but the Spirit of God is given to teach us to say no to our flesh.  The Spirit is the grace of God helping us to break free from the hold that the flesh has upon our mind and life.  The flesh will be hostile to losing its grip on your life.  It is used to getting its way.  Paul points to this hostility in verse seven.  The flesh cannot be submitted to the Holy Spirit.  We can only quit listening to it and start listening to the Holy Spirit.

Even now, we see this fleshly hostility surfacing within our society.  People will complain about the “horrible, vengeful God of the Old Testament.”  Yet, at the same time, they will complain about the evil in the world as if it is God’s fault.  What they refuse to see is the tension between the love of God, that withholds judgment for a time so that we may take hold of the solution He has given us in Jesus, and the justice of God, which will (even must) judge wickedness eventually.  In its hostility, the flesh makes many self-serving arguments as to why it should lead in your life.  To cooperate with it is to cooperate with what is destroying your life, but to cooperate with the Spirit of God is to cooperate with that which is giving you Life.

The Spirit gives life to us in these mortal bodies (v. 9-11)

This issue of cooperation is key to our spiritual walk.  Though Paul does not emphasize the baptism of the Holy Spirit here, let me simply say this.  When you believe in Jesus, the Spirit comes to live within you.  He comes to help us in all the ways we need help.  Yet, we are also instructed to pray and ask for the baptism, or infilling, of the Holy Spirit.  These are two different pictures of the same thing. 

Being baptized in the Spirit is an external picture of immersion into the Spirit.  Yes, I have the Spirit, but does the Spirit have me?  Being totally surrounded by the Spirit is a powerful picture of a person surrendered to His work in their life. 

Being filled with the Holy Spirit uses an internal image.  You are a container that has the Holy Spirit within.  However, the nature of the Spirit allows Him to increase in measure to the point of filling us up and overflowing our life into the world around us.  This is something that occurs as we cooperate and seek His filling of us.

When you became a Christian, a follower of Jesus, it wasn’t your flesh saying yes on that day.  It was that moment at which you heard the Holy Spirit pointing you towards Jesus, and you began to cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s leading.  The only question now is this.  Will I continue cooperating with, walking with, the Holy Spirit?  The Christian walk is one of daily walking with the Spirit, daily thanking God for His Spirit and inviting Him to fill you to overflowing for the purposes of God for that day.

This is that life which Paul is talking about.  The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is able to give life to us in these mortal bodies.  Notice that he uses a different term from the word “flesh” that he has been using up to this point.  The flesh refers to the more sinister aspect of our bodies.  “Mortal” sees our bodies in the fact that they are dying and we will surrender them one day.  These mortal, earthly bodies are impacted by sins that we have done in them and to them.  We can sometimes lose hope in the life of God because of these very weaknesses in our mortal bodies.  Yet, we can have life even now because of the work of the Holy Spirit within us.  My flesh might be slowly wasting away and slipping ever closer to death, but my spirit is growing in relationship and closeness by the Spirit.  I am no longer ruled by the flesh’s fear of death and sickness.  I am more than a conqueror in Jesus Christ who leads me forth into victory, even through the valley of the shadow of death itself! 

Of course, the Spirit of God will give life to our mortal bodies at the resurrection too!  However, I believe Paul’s point here is about the life we can receive and live out now, even while we are in sinful flesh, and sin-impacted, mortal bodies.

The Spirit makes us to be sons of God, and thus, His heirs (v. 12-17)

The phrase “sons of God” is important.  It is sometimes translated as “children of God.”  The point is not that we are not, or cannot become, mature.  There is a certain spiritual maturity that is possible within these mortal bodies.  However, it pales in comparison to the status of the mature sons of God that we will have following the resurrection.  The resurrection is an instantaneous change, but our spiritual maturity in these mortal bodies is progressive.  We come to faith in Christ as spiritual babies, but we are not intended to remain babies.  The Spirit works in us first to be the evidence that we are the “babies” of God, but then to also help us grow up into the adult sons of God (as far as it is attainable in this life).  Spiritually mature believers have learned to fight and win the battle against their flesh in order to follow the Holy Spirit.  That doesn’t mean it is no longer a battle, and they are no longer tested.  However, it does mean that they have experience and spiritual skills that they didn’t have as babies. 

We have been adopted into the family of God, and we have become joint-heirs with Jesus in the eternal life that God is even now giving to those who put their faith in Jesus.  Technically, Jesus inherits it all, but we inherit because of our close relationship with him (his bride, his disciples, his family).

Thus, our calling is not that of slaves, but that of His family.  In this passage, Paul is focused upon the motivation and hop that the believer will need to fight the flesh and follow the Spirit.  You are His family in Christ.  He is not going to jerk the rug out from underneath of you.  You were made to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, even the New Heavens and the New Earth. You will be glorified with Christ one of these days.  It is the Spirit of God that witnesses with your spirit that these things are true.

Yet, in other places (Romans 1:1, Philippians 1:1), Paul calls himself a slave of Jesus Christ.  He is not contradicting this point.  Rather, Paul is referencing the fact that he volunteers to be a slave serving the purposes of Christ precisely because he is so convinced of the call of God for us as His children.  Now is the day of battle for the souls of men trapped in darkness.  Now is the time of laboring in the field of humanity in order to draw all men into faith in Christ, and therefore, adoption into the family of God.  We can be sons working long hours (the hours that a slave would work) because it is the work of our Father, our Savior, our LORD!  This is not a contradiction, but a powerful understanding of what it means to be adopted into the family of God and how that frees us to completely offer our mortal lives to His glorious work of redemption. 

We will share in his glory.  We share in the glory of his humanity right now, but after the resurrection, we will share in his glory as the Highest One, the Anointed of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of lords.

The Spirit helps us in our weakness (v. 25-30)

In verses 18-24, Paul talks about how the creation was subjected to the futility, the emptiness, of the curse because of the hope of its undoing in Christ.  We are a part of that great restoring of all things back to a condition of being very good (Genesis 1:31).  When God’s earthly imagers have been restored, then too, the curse shall be lifted off of the earth.

In our weak, mortal flesh, it may seem hard to believe that these things shall be true.  To follow the Spirit is not to walk by sight (what you see), but to walk by faith.  Ask yourself, when you look at the world today, are you filled with a great hope that we are on the cusp of 1,000 years of peace, and the corrupt governments of the world being removed?  No.  Our hope is place upon Jesus himself.  The Apostle Paul even warned in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.”  Similarly, if it one day looks like this world will create peace on earth, then don’t believe it!  It will be short-lived because they mean to do it without the One-True, Anointed Son of God at its helm.

The weakness we have in these mortal frames to put faith in what we see is helped by the Holy Spirit.  He helps us to keep our hope in Christ when all is failing around us, or when the wicked pretend that they have fixed all things.

We trust that God is working all things to our good (vs. 28) because we have put our faith in Jesus Christ and are being led by His Spirit.  We have too many testimonies from the Bible to doubt that He is doing such.

Ultimately, Paul describes God’s will for each of us, for all of us together: predestined, called, justified and glorified (vs. 30).  “Glorified” is put in the past tense, but it is a verb that technically has no tense.  The emphasis is not on when these things happen, but that they are the sure purpose of God for us.  He has predestined (put a destiny before us) those who follow the Spirit of God to be conformed into the image of His Son, Jesus.  To do that, He is faithful to call out to those trapped in darkness.  “Look upon Jesus and be healed!”  “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men!”  Those who answer this call by faith are justified by God (made to be right before Him).  This grace is made available because of the free-will offering of Christ upon the cross.  Those He has justified, He will glorify.  Though there is a certain glory that we have in following Christ in his humility, this points to the resurrection and our coming with Jesus when He returns to earth in His glory!  This glorification though future is yet guaranteed because of Jesus himself.  God will not deny His Son.  All who have put their faith in Jesus and have become his will be made to be like Him completely at the resurrection.  This is God’s purpose in you, and this is why we follow the Spirit of God rather than our flesh.  All who follow the flesh are destined to miss out on all of those good things that God has planned (those things we know about, and those things that we don’t know about). 

You have too much to lose to give up now.  Yes, the devil, the world, and even your flesh will tell you to quit believing in Jesus and start putting your faith in the ability of man to save himself.  Right now we are given the choice.  What will I do with Jesus?  However, one day we will stand before Jesus and the choice will be his.  What will he do with me?  Choose Life today! (John 14:6).

Led by the Spirit Audio