Acts 17:1-15“Turning the World Upside Down”November 4, 2007
What do your enemies say about you?
You might be inclined to say, “I don’t have any enemies!”
But that’s not true.
You might not have any enemies living in South Bend
(and I truly hope that you do not have any enemies living in South Bend,
because we are to live at peace with all men – so far as it is up to us!),
but you do have enemies.
If you made it a practice of going for a walk down the streets of Baghdad at night,
I doubt that you would live very long.
For that matter,
if you made it a practice of going for a walk in downtown Los Angeles at night,
I suspect you could find some enemies as well!
What do your enemies say about you?
Do they tell the truth about you?
No.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they take something that is true about you,
and they twist it.
If you have ever had family difficulties, I suspect you know how this works.
Siblings are not supposed to be enemies.
Parents and children are not supposed to be hostile to one another.
But I suspect all of you have experienced situations where your family members
are acting like enemies.
And when they do, what do they say?
They take something that is true about you and twist it, enlarge it,
and turn it into a parody of the truth.
That is what happens to the apostle Paul when he comes to speak to his relatives in Thessalonica.
Paul comes to the synagogue and speaks to his countrymen,
telling them that Jesus is the Messiah.
They respond saying that Paul and Silas have turned the world upside down,
and that they act “against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”
This is profoundly true.
The preaching of Paul and Silas is turning the world upside down.
And Jesus is another king besides Caesar –
indeed, Jesus is a king above Caesar!
And yet the way it is put here,
it makes it sound like Paul is leading a political revolution against Rome.
Verses 1-4 tell us what Paul was saying,
verses 5-9 explain the response in Thessalonika,
and verses 10-15 explain the response in Berea.
- Paul Proclaims the Suffering and Resurrection of Jesus the Messiah (17:1-3)
What was Paul saying?
Verses 1-4 remind us of the basics of Paul’s gospel.
While these things are not repeated in verses 10-15 (when he is in Berea),
it is safe to assume that Paul is preaching the same message in both cities.
Paul went in, as was his custom,
and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
explaining and proving that it was necessary
for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying,
This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. (17:2-3)
We read Zechariah 3 earlier as an example of what the Jews were expecting.
The prophet Zechariah saw a vision of Joshua the high priest,
dressed in filthy garments.
And the angel of the LORD commanded the filthy garments to be removed,
and clean garments to be put on him.
There is nothing here about suffering and death.
The angel of the LORD commands, and Joshua is given new garments.
And God says that he will bring his servant, the Branch,
and he will removed the iniquity of the land in a single day. (3:9)
This says nothing about suffering and death.
Or does it?
What sort of garment was Joshua wearing?
A filthy garment, yes, but the high priest never took off his priestly garments.
Joshua is wearing his high priestly garments before the angel of the LORD,
the blood-stained emblem of his purity before God.
And yet the high priestly garments – the holiest garments known to mankind –
are called “filthy.”
The high priest, Joshua, must be clothed in new garments – “pure vestments” –
that only God can provide.
Think back to the Garden in Eden.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they also tried to clothe themselves –
making garments of fig leaves to hide their nakedness.
But when God cast them out of the garden,
he also clothed them in animal skins –
thereby showing them that they could not clothe themselves,
and that it was only through the shedding of blood
that humanity could be clothed by God.
The whole sacrificial system over which Joshua presided
was based on the principle of substitutionary atonement.
And even as the animals died year after year for the sins of men,
God was teaching his people that they needed a better sacrifice.
And so when God said that he would “remove the iniquity of this land in a single day,”
through his servant the Branch,
this should have caused them to think of an atoning sacrifice
better than that of the day of atonement.
Isaiah had spoken of that servant, the Branch, in Isaiah 11.
This was plainly the Messiah – the son of David –
who would come forth from the stump of Jesse.
But Zechariah had identified the Branch as “my servant”
which also connected with Isaiah’s portrayal of the suffering servant
in Isaiah 52-53.
In other words, it is not immediately obvious from Zechariah 3
that God is going to remove iniquity through the suffering of the Messiah.
The Jews had never before believed in a suffering Messiah.
They believed that Israel was the suffering servant
whom God would vindicate in the last days.
But Paul comes to Thessalonica and declares that it was necessary for the Messiah
to suffer and to rise from the dead.
And this argument requires three weeks to make.
Sabbath after Sabbath for three weeks
Paul lays out his case for a suffering Messiah,
showing from the Scriptures that this “radical” reinterpretation
is in fact the true and proper understanding of the Scriptures.
And then says, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
Paul’s basic message – the gospel that he proclaims –
is that Jesus is the Christ, the Jewish Messiah,
who has come to save both Jews and Gentiles.
You see, the message of salvation is not a message of timeless principles
or good advice for how to live a happy life.
The message of salvation is a proclamation of something that happened in history.
Paul could say that this is something that happened 20 years ago.
But one thousand nine hundred and fifty years later,
the message is still the same.
It was necessary for the Christ – the anointed Son of David –
to suffer and to be raised from the dead.
As we’ll next time when we get to Paul’s proclamation in Athens,
the resurrection is the very heart and soul of Paul’s preaching.
However he may structure the proclamation of the gospel,
it always comes back to the resurrection of Jesus!
All that we had expected would happen to Israel at the end of history
has happened to Jesus in the middle of history.
We had expected that the Messiah would come at the end of history
and that he would lead Israel against its enemies and bring vindication to all God’s people
In other words,
we had expected that the story of Israel would be the central story –
and the Messiah would simply be the final leading character in Israel’s story.
But Paul now comes to Thessalonica and says, “No, brothers, we got it wrong.”
It is not an Israel-centered story, with Messiah as the lead character.
It is a Messiah-centered story,
with both Jews and Gentiles called to repentance and faith in him.
Truly, Paul and Silas have turned the world upside down with their preaching!
- The Jews of Thessalonica Prompt a Riot (17:4-9)
And this is what gets them in trouble.
Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas,
as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.
It is interesting that the “leading women”
are neither categorized as Jews or Greeks.
They may be Jewesses who married Greeks, or Greeks who married Jews,
or perhaps the daughters of mixed marriages.
But they seem to occupy a sort of middle ground between Jew and Gentile,
which is not surprising, since women could not be circumcised,
and therefore could convert without the same difficulty as men.
These “leading women” will continue to play a significant role in the life of the early church.
Like Lydia in Philippi, leading women will serve as patronesses for the church,
offering their homes as meeting places,
providing hospitality for traveling preachers,
and training the younger women (Titus 2).
There is no indication that they ever served as elders,
but there is every indication that they were pillars of the church,
used by God to maintain and promote the gospel in their communities.
Michiana has been blessed over the years with many of these “leading women,”
and it is good to see another generation rising!
But in contrast to these “leading women”
we hear in verse 5 that the zealous Jews took some “wicked men”
and came after Paul and Silas.
In Greek you don’t need to use the word “man” to say “wicked men.”
You can simply use the masculine plural
“the wicked [and everyone knows you mean males]”
But Luke says “some wicked men”
which contrasts with the explicit use of the leading women in the previous verse.
They formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason,
seeking to bring them out to the crowd.
And when they could not find them,
they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities,
shouting,
These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,
and Jason has received them,
and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar,
saying that there is another king, Jesus. (17:5-7)
Jason was apparently the one who had taken Paul and Silas into his house.
Showing hospitality can be a dangerous thing!
But Paul and Silas remained hidden.
Why?
Why did they allow Jason to be dragged off, while they remained in hiding?
We’re not told this explicitly,
but one of the most basic rules of hospitality is that you protect your guests
If Jason had allowed them to suffer while under his roof,
he would have been shamed.
Further, Jason is not in any serious danger.
He is apparently a wealthy citizen,
and while the charges are potentially serious,
the city authorities are not going to accept such charges without evidence,
and the evidence is not forthcoming.
That is why, when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest,
they let them go.
Paul and Silas were strangers in Thessalonica.
They could have been beaten or even killed.
But the authorities would not permit that of Jason, because he is “one of them.”
But let’s look for a moment at the charges:
These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also,
and Jason has received them,
and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar,
saying that there is another king, Jesus. (17:5-7)
Like we saw at the beginning,
false charges very often contain a measure of truth that is twisted.
This is why you must always be careful when speaking of someone else!
It may be true that my wife is sleeping with the pastor,
but that way of putting it sounds very prejudicial!
It is true that Paul and Silas have turned the world upside down.
It is true that they say that there is another king, Jesus.
And it is even true that they are acting against the decrees of Caesar,
because Caesar forbade the spread of new religions.
And while Paul and Silas would say
that their teaching is simply the new revelation that completes the Jewish faith,
that is not what the Jewish authorities would say!
Practically speaking (from a Roman perspective) Paul and Silas are teaching a new religion.
And new religions invariably have political consequences.
When Islam burst on to the scene,
the political consequences for the Middle East were dramatic.
When Mormonism emerged in the 19th century,
its followers wound up migrating to Utah and establishing a new order.
The religion of secular humanism
has had tremendous consequences on American political life!
And there is a sense in which the Jews and the Romans in Thessalonica
both have a reason to be concerned.
The Christian faith will turn the Roman world upside down,
overthrowing the old religious order – therefore altering the political landscape as well.
When you believe in King Jesus,
your priorities change.
You might think that nations would want to see a Christian population.
After all, sincere, dedicated Christians are moral, upstanding people
who are a credit to any society.
But at the same time, Christians are dangerous
because they have a loyalty to a king who is above all earthly thrones.
And when the state’s demands run contrary to the call of Christ,
the Christian must follow Christ.
Your world has been turned upside down.
- The Jews of Berea Search the Scriptures (17:10-15)
And you see what this looks like in verses 10-12.
The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea,
and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica;
they received the word with all eagerness,
examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
Many of them therefore believed,
with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.
What is it that makes a person noble?
The word here is eugenesteroi – which means “good birth” or “good lineage.”
(we get our word “eugenics” from this word)
It is an interesting word to use.
Because neither group is more Jewish than the other!
They are more noble because they receive the word with eagerness,
examining the Scriptures.
Notice the way that this is put:
What are they scrutinizing?
The sermon?
Are they analyzing and dissecting the sermon?
No.
They are analyzing and dissecting the Scriptures.
They are studying and examining the Scriptures
to see if what Paul says is true.
What I say from the pulpit ought to drive you to the Scriptures.
Notice that they “received the word with eagerness” (v10),
and therefore examined the Scriptures daily.
It is helpful to see the relationship between preaching and Bible study.
Paul’s sermons drive them to the Scriptures.
That’s my goal as well.
It’s part of the reason why we have both OT and NT readings,
connecting the old and new testaments
as a way of training you and encouraging you to study the scriptures.
Perhaps you’ve heard that the mother of the seeker-sensitive movement,
Willow Creek Community Church,
has acknowledged that its methods have not produced disciples.
One of the biggest weaknesses that they have pointed out
is that their people don’t know how to study and read the Bible.
Plainly Luke is holding up the Bereans as an example to us.
We are to be like the Bereans, examining, searching the Scriptures daily.
How do you picture this scene?
After the service, everyone goes home and reads their Bibles?
One problem:
Bibles were very expensive.
Books were all hand-copied.
Imagine how long it would take to transcribe the entire Old Testament by hand!
Only the wealthy could afford to have a Bible in their home
So if the Bereans were going to examine the Scriptures daily,
they would have to meet together at the synagogue.
We have the great privilege of having our own copies of the Scriptures,
but we should remember that Luke is assuming that studying the Scripture
will be a corporate exercise.
After all, when you study and read by yourself, you may come up with a really wacky view;
but when you study and read together with other believers,
you are acting like the “more noble” Bereans.
For those of you with children, you can do this in your homes.
And as your children get older, teach your children to expound the scriptures.
But we also need times to study and pray together.
It’s not likely that we’ll ever succeed at getting everyone together
in the middle of the week at the same time – but that’s not the point.
You can get together, two or three or four families together