Amen, so we're continuing this morning with Paul's second missionary journey.
One of the reasons why I'm doing this series and going through the missionary journeys
of Paul and Acts is that I realized that over the last many years that I've been preaching,
typically when I would preach out of the book of Acts, I was always emphasizing the doctrine.
When I did a series on Acts maybe 10 years ago or so where I went through every chapter,
I emphasized the doctrine and typically in my sermons when I go to the book of Acts,
I'm looking for the doctrine.
Typically, we would just kind of blow past the story to get to the doctrine.
Well, in this series, I'm kind of doing the opposite and really emphasizing the story
and understanding Paul's life and missionary journeys, the things that he learned, et cetera,
that we can learn from.
And I want to start with just an ultra-fast review.
If you remember on his first missionary journey, Paul took Barnabas and he went through modern-day
Cyprus and Turkey.
He comes back.
Then there's that doctrinal dispute where he has to go down to Jerusalem.
And when he heads out for the second missionary journey, he sets out to do pretty much the
exact same thing.
He wants to retread all the same ground, go the same route.
He's going to take the same soul-winning partner, but things don't work out, which is for the
best.
So now we have this split between Paul and Barnabas where Paul takes Silas, Barnabas
takes Mark, and they end up going their separate ways.
And I believe that God was actually in that split.
We ought not to always think that division or split is a bad thing.
This thing of just, we always have to stay unified and we've all got to unite.
It's not biblical anyway.
We're independent Baptists, and it's okay for people to split and go their separate
ways and do their own things.
And they can both be great people.
I mean, Paul and Barnabas are both great guys, but they had a split there.
And God used that split to double the team.
You know, now Silas has the opportunity to work with Paul.
Barnabas gets to give Mark a second chance.
And if you think about it, this was great for Mark because Mark did screw up by bailing
on them and going home early.
So he got punished in the sense that Paul rejected him on the second journey, but then
Barnabas is giving him a second chance.
So it's kind of the best of both worlds.
God works things out and we see that throughout the book of Acts.
So they go their separate ways.
But again, the apostle Paul's idea is going back and hitting a lot of the same cities
that they've already hit, doing follow-up.
And if you remember, the Bible tells the Holy Spirit forbade him to do that and stopped
him from doing that.
And he got that Macedonian call saying, come into Macedonia and help us.
So instead of retreading old ground on the second missionary journey, they ended up heading
into some fresh territory into Macedonia or northern Greece.
And if you remember, they went to the chief city of Macedonia, which was Philippi.
And we left them last week.
They're in Philippi, they're in Macedonia and they're in prison and they've been beaten
severely.
And so therefore they're having trouble sleeping because when you've gotten a severe beating,
you're probably not going to sleep very well in prison.
So they're up at midnight singing praises to God.
And that's where we left off.
Look at verse 25.
And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard
them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were
shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed.
And the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had
been fled.
Now this might seem like a bit of an overreaction when he sees that the prison doors are all
open.
He assumes that the prisoners have gotten away while he slept and he goes to kill himself.
But if you remember earlier in the book of Acts, there was a prisoner who was killed
by his superiors for letting the prisoners go.
That's right in the book of Acts where that was the punishment.
If you're the prison guard and your prisoner escapes, you'll be killed.
Okay.
And so he figures, I'm going to be killed anyway.
I might as well do it to myself.
So he goes to kill himself and thank God he doesn't go through with it because they
stop him.
He pulled out the sword.
He would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
Verse 28, but Paul cried with a loud voice saying,
Do thyself no harm, for we're all here.
Then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and
Silas and brought them out and said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved in thy house.
So what is it that prompted this man to run in there, fall on his knees and say,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
You know, what is it that prompted that reaction?
A minute ago, he was about to kill himself.
Now, all of a sudden, he's begging Paul to tell him how to be saved.
What's going on here?
Well, I think that there are a couple of different things that could be going on here.
I'm going to give you a couple different options here.
Number one, it could be that he was just, he was so impressed by the fact that they
cared more about him than escaping.
And when they see that he's going to kill himself instead of escaping, instead of trying
to get away or hitting him over the head with something and running out the door,
the fact that they ended up sticking around saying, Hey, don't hurt yourself.
We're all still here.
You know, it might've just been that he was overcome by that love and compassion for them
in caring more about them than about themselves.
And so then, you know, he just, he just kind of broke down.
He'd already been hearing their prayers and hearing their singing.
He'd heard about Jesus.
And so now he was just so impressed by that testimony that he said, Hey, I want to be
saved.
I think that's a very likely explanation of what's going on in the story here.
Another possible explanation here is that when he comes in and he's trembling and he
falls on his knees and then brings them out and says, what must I do to be saved?
It's possible that maybe he wasn't even talking about spiritual salvation.
Maybe he's just saying, what do I have to do so that I don't get killed?
You know, because he thought his superiors could kill him.
He's about to kill himself.
What do I have to do to be safe?
And that Paul then turned this around as a soul winning opportunity.
Hey, I'll tell you how to be saved.
I'll give you the real salvation, like a play on words.
He's thinking about his physical salvation, but Paul knows that what he really needs is
the spiritual salvation.
And so he's going to give him the gospel, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shall be saved and thy house.
So either way you interpret it, the result is the same.
No matter what he meant by that question, no matter what his intentions were or what
was going on in his head when he trembles and he's astonished and he falls on his
knees and asked to be saved.
The bottom line is the answer remains the same.
No matter what he meant by that question, they are telling him how to get to heaven.
They're telling him how to be saved.
And this is such an important verse in the Bible because it's just a point blank.
What must I do to be saved?
And the answer is believe, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, not join a church, not
clean up your life, turn over a new leaf.
No, it's believe on the Lord Jesus, not keep the commandments, follow God's laws.
It's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.
But then there's this phrase added at the end and thy house, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shall be saved and thy house.
And what Paul is doing here is he's asking for the opportunity not to just preach to
him, but to preach to the whole family.
He doesn't want to just preach to one man.
He wants to get this guy's whole family saved.
So he says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved and thy house, because
look at the next verse, and they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were
in his house.
So it's possible that he had lived just right next door or something, maybe because he's
the jailer, he lives right there.
And they say, hey, if we're going to take the time to preach to you, we might as well
preach to the whole family.
And this is a great technique out soul winning, by the way.
When you're out soul winning and you win someone to Christ, you can often get a
second or third person saved just by asking, hey, is there anybody else here that might
be interested in hearing this message?
And I've often been at a door, you get one person saved, and then you get someone else
saved, and then you get someone else saved.
And it's even better if you can kind of pull an apostle Paul and get everybody there the
first time around.
You know what I mean?
Like you see somebody in the back, hey, would you like to hear this as well?
Come on, you know, don't be shy, step right up.
And then if you can present the gospel to everybody at once, that's even better if you
can give it to a couple people at a time.
So when you're out soul winning, use this and thy house strategy out soul winning in
order to get more people saved and not just the one person, but try to expand that to
get their family saved, their relatives saved, the other people that are in the house.
So he spake unto them the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house.
He took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized he and
all his straight way.
And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his house.
So everybody gets saved.
They get baptized.
He cleans up their stripes.
They sit down, they have dinner.
It's all in the middle of the night.
Remember, this started at midnight.
At midnight, the guy gets saved.
At midnight, he's getting baptized.
In the middle of the night, they're eating, you know, fourth meal in the middle of the
night and having a party and everybody's happy.
Everybody's excited.
Now let me just stop here and deal with some false doctrine that some people will teach
out of this verse.
There are people out there who believe in infant baptism, you know, the Roman Catholic
Church, the Orthodox Church.
A lot of Protestants will practice infant baptism.
And it is foreign to scripture.
There's no Bible teaching on baptizing babies, all right?
You've got to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before you can get baptized.
Remember, the Ethiopian eunuch asked, what does hinder me to be baptized?
And he said, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
That's when he stopped the chariot and baptized him.
So baptizing a baby is a pagan practice.
It's foreign to Christianity.
And by the way, if you look at all the false practices of the Roman Catholic Church and
the East Orthodox Church, they come from paganism.
If they don't come from the Bible, they had to come from somewhere, right?
Like, where did they come from?
If it's not from the Bible, everything comes from somewhere.
Like, for example, there are monks and monasteries.
Where did that come from?
Well, Buddhism.
The Buddhists had monks and monasteries.
They even had nuns and convents going back to 500 BC.
So if all the way back in 500 BC you've got monks and monasteries, you don't find it in
the Bible, and then all of a sudden you have this so-called Christianity that's all about
monasticism, that is pagan.
That is of the devil.
It's of worldly, heathen religions.
It's not in the Bible.
Show me a monastery in the Bible.
Show me a nun.
Show me a monk.
Show me a hermit.
It isn't there, okay?
And yet, you know, as you try to preach the gospel to the East Orthodox, the ones who
are really deep in that religion, here's what they keep saying to us, because we just put
out the movie where we went to Cyprus and we're winning Orthodox people to Christ.
They say, oh, you've got to go to Mount Athos, and you've got to talk to those monks in Mount
Athos.
That's where you really need to make the documentary.
They're living out Christianity.
They're making all this spiritual progress.
Like, they think that basically religion is like a role-playing video game, and these
guys are basically just up to level 99.
Like, they literally locked up in a cloister, locked up in a monastery, just racking up
spiritual credits, spiritual XP, you know, spiritual experience points, and they're racking
up new levels.
Folks, that's Hinduism.
That's what the Hindus believe.
Read the Hindu books.
That's what they're into.
Buddhists, you know, they're trying to get to the next level, the next level, next level.
Hey, Jesus paid it all.
It's not about you, you know, racking up and making all this spiritual progress.
Folks, that is Eastern religion that has mingled in and corrupted the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Nowhere in scripture do you find monks, monasteries, nuns.
It's garbage.
It's a false doctrine.
So why would I want to go see somebody living out the Christian life in a monastery?
If I want to see somebody living out the Christian life, I want to see husbands and wives and
moms and dads and sons and daughters, brothers, sisters.
I want to see landscapers, plumbers, carpenters, electricians.
Hey, I want to see normal people.
That's who God uses, normal people.
He doesn't expect us to go beat ourselves in a monastery somewhere.
He wants us to be normal, okay?
Now, somebody said, well, you know, actually, monasticism has its roots in Judaism.
I'm not in the Bible, not in the Old Testament.
Why would I want some extra biblical teaching of Judaism?
But they say, well, it has roots in Judaism because of the Essenes.
You know, they say John the Baptist was an Essene.
No evidence of that, of course.
But they say, you know, John the Baptist was an Essene, the Essenes were these.
Okay, so let's say there was this group of people called the Essenes and they were so
spiritual and they were like the monks of their day.
Isn't it funny that Jesus didn't pick any of them to be his disciple?
I mean, if these people that were living out by themselves in Qumran or the Essenes or
wherever they think that these monks, these proto-monks were living, here's my question.
Why didn't Jesus go find some guy whipping himself and say, hey, come follow me.
I'll make you a fisher of men.
Why didn't he grab some hermit or grab some monk or grab some nuns to go with them?
No, you know who he grabbed?
Fishermen.
He grabbed tradesmen, blue collar guys.
He grabbed a tax collector.
He grabbed normal, everyday people.
That's who he uses.
That's who he calls us to be.
We're to be in the world, just not of the world.
He doesn't want us to be taken out of the world.
He just wants us to be kept from the evil.
And so monasticism is a false doctrine.
Baby baptism is a false doctrine.
It's not found in scripture.
So because they have these false doctrines that are foreign to scripture that they didn't
derive from scripture, they have to take these outside ideas and try to cram them into the
Bible or foist them upon the Bible.
So if you ask them, hey, what's the biblical justification for infant baptism, here's what
they'll say.
Well, you know, you have these examples where the whole household was baptized.
And so we're just assuming that babies are involved.
Folks, that is not what the Bible said, though.
That's just them reading that into the text, aren't they?
Well, you know, I mean, come on, the Philippian jailer probably had a baby.
Hey, we don't know if the Philippian jailer is 60 years old.
We don't know if he's 50.
We don't know if he's 40.
Quit basing things on what the Bible doesn't say based on what the Bible does say.
In fact, let's see what the Bible says.
It says in verse 33, and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes
and was baptized.
He and all his straight away.
So the Roman Catholic at this point jumps in and says, oh, you know, that includes the
babies.
Folks, there's no baby mentioned in the story.
But here I'll prove it to you that that's not what this is saying, because look what
it says in the next verse, verse 34.
And when he had brought them into his house, he sent me before them and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his house.
So were the babies also believing in God?
No, because there weren't any babies in the picture here.
Everybody in this house who got baptized was a believer.
This is believers baptism.
You see that?
Yeah, they all got baptized, but you know what?
They all believed.
So it was appropriate for them all to be baptized since they all believed in God.
So sorry, Orthodox and Roman Catholics.
Try again, because this is not going to be a scripture to back up your false doctrine
of infant baptism.
It's not biblical.
So the Bible says here that they all believed in God, the whole family.
For all we know, that could have been four people, five people, six, but we don't know.
It doesn't necessarily have to be a massive group.
It could be any size group, right?
But it's not talking about babies.
If there were any babies there, they're not included in the baptism because they didn't
believe.
When he says all the house believed, all the house are baptized.
Where are the babies, folks?
Don't read that in.
See, if you want to just have a false doctrine that you don't want to let go of, you can
find a way to cram it into the Bible if that's what you want to do.
Or you can read the Bible the right way, which is to let the Bible tell you what to believe
instead of trying to force your ideas into the Bible.
And if you read these ancient authors when they talk about infant baptism, here's what
they'll literally say.
Well, you know, we know it's right because we do it.
Because, folks, and I know that sounds stupid to us, but they're so into their tradition,
they're like, well, I mean, we're doing it.
So this had to come from somewhere.
Yeah, it came from the devil.
But they're like, oh, I mean, here we are.
Here we are, fourth century AD.
We're doing this.
It must come, you know, must be biblical, must be something that was passed down.
No, there was false doctrine creeping into the church from the beginning.
Okay.
So this guy got saved, his family got saved, they got baptized.
And then this is what's interesting.
He washed his stripes, they ate food, they rejoiced, they had a good time.
Verse 35.
When it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeant saying, let those men go.
And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, the magistrates have sent to let
you go.
Now therefore depart and go in peace.
Look, they're back in jail.
You notice that?
They're back in jail the next morning.
So they're out all night partying, and then they get home.
And then they get home and get back in the jail cell.
Okay, so now they're back in jail.
And now in the morning, the law has decided, okay, we're going to let these guys go.
They've gotten their beating.
They spent their night in the tank.
Now it's time for them to go.
And so the keeper of the prison comes and tells them, all right, great news.
You guys are free.
You get to go.
Depart and go in peace.
But Paul said to them, they've beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans.
So now he's asserting his rights and jumping in there and saying, you know, they've cast
us into prison.
And now do they thrust us out privily?
Nay, verily, but let them come themselves and fetch us out.
I want the bosses to come in here and pull me out of prison because I'm a Roman citizen
and I was beaten and jailed, uncondemned.
And now when I'm waiting the next morning to figure out what the charges are, they're
basically like, oh, no charges.
Go in peace.
So what was his beating about?
What was this jail sentence about?
And the sergeants verse 38, by the way, the modern versions, they, they take out that
word sergeants.
Cause it's, it's really hard to understand.
It's, it's, it's, it's super archaic.
So the modern versions all change this to something that's easier to understand.
In fact, let me, let me see what they say here.
Cause I, I don't want you guys to go away confused and this is going to bother you all
day.
Like what's a, what's a sergeant?
What is that?
You know, he's archaic.
Put the King James in a museum where it belongs, right?
Let me see if I can find it here or I'll have somebody here.
Somebody help me.
Help, help me out guys.
Was that act 1638?
Oh, thank God they cleared that up for us.
Is that what a sergeant is?
An officer?
Good night.
All right.
Oh, the policemen.
That's what the new American standards says.
Huh?
So the new American Sarah says that they sent some policemen over.
Okay.
Well that's helpful.
All right.
So anyway, I'm glad I could clear that up for you.
Sarge.
All right.
So the sergeants told these words under the magistrates and they feared when they
heard that they were Romans.
I like this part where it says that the police feared.
No, I'm just kidding.
It doesn't say the police, you know, where it says that the sergeants feared and the
magistrates feared.
You know, it reminded me of a quote by Thomas Jefferson.
He said, when the people fear the government, there's tyranny.
When the government fears the people, there's liberty.
So what you can see here is a degree of liberty in the Roman empire.
You know, the Roman empire, at least for some people, Roman citizens, uh, they have
some liberty here where the government's afraid to not overstep the boundaries and,
and take away their rights and so forth.
So it says in verse 39 that they came and besought them and besought them.
It, this is the past tense of the word beseech.
I beseech you.
It's basically sort of like a begging or a pleading or maybe if it's not begging or
pleading, it's at least asking nicely.
You know, if you beseech someone, you're saying please and you're asking nicely.
So basically they come in and they say, look, would you guys please just depart out of
the city?
Can you guys just leave quietly?
We don't want any trouble.
Uh, you know, I don't know how sincere of an apology they gave, but at least they did
come in person and say, you know, please move on and whatever.
So it says in verse 40 and they went out of the prison and entered into the house of
Lydia.
And if you remember, Lydia was this well-heeled woman that they were staying with.
Uh, she was a very wealthy woman, seller of purple.
They're staying at her house and so it was a nice place to stay.
So they entered into the house of Lydia and when they'd seen the brethren, they comforted
them and departed.
So when we see the word comfort in the Bible, uh, look at that root word there.
Fort, come Fort, right?
What's a Fort?
It's like a stronghold.
So when the Bible talks about comforting, it also has the idea of strengthening and
this older word of older meaning of the word comfort.
So basically they comforted them.
We would think of that as they made them not feel so bad.
Hey, cheer up.
But actually what they're doing when they comfort them is they're, they're strengthening
them also and, and, and saying, Hey, look, which is obviously a similar meaning to the
way we use this word today.
So they comforted them and departed chapter 17 verse one.
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where
was a synagogue of the Jews.
So here they are.
They started out in Northern Greece in Macedonia in Philippi.
They're heading South now.
So they're heading deeper into the Greek peninsula.
So they head South into Thessalonica, which is in modern day Greece.
Now when you get into Thessalonica and it says there was a synagogue of the Jews and
Paul as his manner was went in under them and three Sabbath days reasoned with them
out of the scripture.
So he's, he's preaching the Bible.
He's using the Old Testament and he's using logic, common sense.
He's preaching.
He's not just telling them, just follow your feelings.
Look for a burning in your bosom.
You know, he's actually reasoning with them from the scriptures and saying, look, here's
what the Bible says.
This is what it means.
Everybody got your Bible open.
You can see it for yourself right there.
So he's preaching this to the Jews in the synagogue, opening and alleging that Christ
must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and that this Jesus whom I preach
unto you is Christ.
He's saying, look in the Old Testament, if you look at the picture that is painted of
the Messiah, he's going to, he's got to suffer.
He's going to die for us.
He's going to be the savior of the world because they had this idea.
It's just going to be a political leader.
That's going to come in and restore the kingdom to Israel.
So he's explaining, no, you know, it was always God's plan that the Messiah would
suffer rise again from the dead.
So he's showing them all the pictures of this and all the prophecies of this in the
Old Testament and that Jesus is the one who fits the bill verse four.
And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas.
So notice some people believed the majority of the people in the synagogue are not getting
saved, right?
They're not listening, but some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas and of the
devout Greeks, a great multitude and of the chief women, not a few.
So the Jews in the synagogue, yes, some people believed you're going to get, you know, every
once in a while a Jew saved.
It can happen, but who got saved by the multitudes?
The devout Greeks.
So when it's saying your devout Greeks, it's referring to the fact that these were Greeks
who were already believing in the Old Testament God, or at least claiming to believe in the
God of the Old Testament that they knew from the Old Testament, but they didn't know about
Jesus Christ as their savior.
Okay.
So they believed in the Old Testament.
They're devout Jews in the sense that they followed the religion of Judaism, but they
were ethnically Greek.
These are the people that are getting saved by the droves.
You know, the people who are maybe newer converts to Judaism.
They're the ones who are getting saved by the multitudes, the Greek people that are
getting saved and of the chief women, not a few.
So there's some important women in the city that are getting saved.
Quite a few of them.
Verse five, but the Jews, which believe not moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd
fellows of the baser sort and gathered a company and set all the city in an uproar and assaulted
the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people.
So we see the same pattern everywhere Paul went on the first missionary journey, everywhere
he goes on the second missionary journey.
Who are the people that are persecuting him?
Riling everybody up.
Turning everybody against him.
It's always the Jews that are persecuting him.
Now Paul keeps wanting to reach the Jews.
First stop, let's go hit the synagogue.
That's not God's plan.
You know, God's plan, you can see through the book of Acts, every chapter we've looked
at, God's constantly opening doors to the Gentiles, showing them, look, the Gentiles
are receptive.
Talk to the Gentiles.
But Paul just keeps kind of defaulting to preach to the Jews.
And God's trying to get them off that throughout the whole book of Acts.
And he's the one who's getting it the most.
The other apostles are even more stuck on this.
Okay.
But it's the Jews that believe not, the unbelieving Jews, the Christ rejecting Jews that are the
enemies of the gospel of Christ that are stirring up the people.
But look what it says here in verse five, the Jews which believe not moved with envy.
So basically they're envious that Paul's message is getting more traction than their
message because they're preaching lies and he's preaching the truth.
But they don't like that.
You know, to them it's a competition.
It's about just how much success and glory and fame they can have for themselves.
So because they're moved with envy, they took unto them certain lewd fellows of the
baser sort.
Now this is their exact modus operandi today in 2019.
The Jews are still persecuting Christians today whether you like it or not.
It's all throughout the Bible.
Now when you read the Bible, when you read Acts, it's the Jews persecuting the Christians.
When you read the Bible, it's the Jews screaming, crucify him, his blood be on us and on our
children, all these things.
And then when you read in the epistles of Paul, he talks about you've suffered like
things of your own countrymen even as they have of the Jews who both killed the Lord
Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us.
They please not God.
They're contrary to all men forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be
saved.
And he said to fill up their sins always for the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.
And then you see him go on and on in Galatians chapter 4 about how the Jews are Ishmael and
Christians are Isaac and how just like Ishmael mocked Isaac, so the Jews persecute him that
is born of the Spirit, is persecuted by the Jews after the flesh.
And so we see that in the gospels, in the book of Acts, in the epistles of Paul, we
see that in every portion of the New Testament, the Jews are seen as antagonizing God's people,
don't we?
And then even when we get into the book of Revelation, the word Jews comes up twice.
Both times to call them the synagogue of Satan.
Okay.
So we see that this is a major theme in the New Testament.
It's very consistent from Matthew to Revelation.
But yet today people have this idea, oh, the Jews are like, you know, Christianity's older
brother and, and, uh, you know, we're Judeo-Christian and it's our greatest ally.
They're our best friends.
They're like half saved, sort of.
I mean, that's, that's what people think now.
Isn't that what you talked about?
It's like, well, they're God's people sort of, you know?
Yeah.
Well, are they going to heaven?
Well, no, but you know, I don't know.
Maybe, you know, folks, they're not saved.
If you don't have the son, you don't have the father.
You'd have the son at the father also.
But a lot of people today, even if they understand this, they think that everything's different
now.
You know, the Jews used to antagonize Christians, but now the Jews are these big victims now.
They're not persecuting anybody.
They're the victim now.
That's, that's what we're taught.
That's what we hear.
But is that really true?
Well, if you actually look around, you'll see that the Jews are behind some of the most
wicked things in our world that are used to antagonize God's people.
Now, what are the forces right now that are antagonizing God's people the most?
If we were to just in 2019, if we were just kind of ask Christians, even if they weren't
even our kind of Christians, even if they weren't even independent fundamental Baptist,
if we just asked Joe Christian and just asked a bunch of them, hey, who do you think are
kind of the big antagonists of Christians right now?
Who is it that's giving Christians the most grief right now, attacking Christians the
most, uh, you know, just pushing Christians and antagonizing them and persecuting them
and making things hard for them?
I think pretty much everybody would say it's the homos.
Don't you think?
I mean, they're not going to point out the Jews, but they'd say, well, it's the sodomites
because isn't that what we always hear about?
The sodomites are suing this person and they're suing that person and forcing this issue here
and they're forcing their way into the library and into the elementary school and they're
cramming it down our throat through the media and Hollywood.
But here's what you have to understand.
The homos are the lewd fellows of the baser sword here.
You see, you, you want to apply the scripture today.
You want the Bible to come to life with what we're seeing today.
Okay, here, let, let me decode this for you.
Okay.
Lude means that they're obscene.
You know, let's say someone were arrested today in 2019 for lewd behavior.
You know, this would mean that they probably expose themselves or just did something really
perverted.
Some, basically it's everything that a homo parade is, is lewdness.
Okay.
Just any, anything that's just dirty, filthy, obscene, that's lewdness.
These lewd fellows of the baser sword.
What's the base?
You know, what's the basement?
What's that mean?
Isn't that at the bottom?
So when it talks about the baser sword or base or we think of basement, the base is
the bottom.
So what happens is you go down, down, down, down, down and you get to the bottom, which
is basically just the worst scum.
The worst scum at the bottom, these are the baser sword.
So these are lewd fellows of the baser sword.
Now a lot of people would say, oh man, the King James is archaic.
I can't understand it.
Folks, this is a great phrase.
Say, well, I don't talk that way.
Well, you know what?
You probably don't even talk about this stuff.
Anyway, what do you, what do you call them?
LGBT.
You know, I mean, and we could probably, you know, L lewd, lewd guys of the baser type.
LGBT.
Huh?
I just came up with that right now.
See, I probably do better if I take a little time.
Okay.
So the point is, hey, these lewd fellows of the baser sword are basically what he's saying
is, look, these people are the bottom.
These people are gross.
These people are vile.
These people are obscene.
These are the worst scum.
And that's who the Jews have doing their dirty work for them.
They got the lewd fellows of the baser sword setting the city on an uproar.
And then they sit back and they're like, oh, don't look at us.
We're just here, you know, minding our own business.
We're just the poor little Jews, you know?
Yeah, except that they own Hollywood, except that they own the politicians, except that
they're behind the scenes pulling the strings and pushing all this perverted agenda.
Who's been pushing the sodomite agenda?
It's Hollywood.
Who runs Hollywood?
Every studio, all the major directors and producers and people, even the actors and
actresses, just spend time one day if you don't believe me.
Just, I've done this before.
Just go on Wikipedia and just start thinking of every actor or actress you can think of.
Every popular actor and actress you can think of.
And just go on, and Wikipedia is not some radical anti-Semitic website, last time I
checked.
But look, you just go on Wikipedia and just type in the names of actors, actresses that
you grew up with, actors and actresses that are popular now, and just type them in and
then just use control F on your keyboard to search that page for the word Jew.
And it's just so much, and keep in mind, what percentage of the population of the United
States are Jewish?
Less than 1%?
But yet when you go on those Wikipedia pages, it's like, oh, she was born to a rabbi and
his wife in New York, oh, this guy was born to this Jewish family, oh, she was raised
Orthodox Jew, oh, personal life, oh, he's a practicing Jew, oh, this, oh, converted
to Judaism here, convert, folks, it's ridiculous.
How inordinate this, and then look at the Supreme Court, that's supposed to represent
America, and every single person on the Supreme Court is either Roman Catholic or Jewish,
isn't that right?
Or has it changed?
Because I know there have been some new guys, I'm not up on politics, so did Trump appoint
anyone to the Supreme Court yet?
Kavanaugh?
So he appointed a Catholic, and then did he only appoint one?
Gorsuch?
So what's he?
Catholic or Jew?
I don't know.
But anyway, last time I checked, it was like, I don't know, five Catholics and four Jews
or something, and that's the Supreme Court.
Folks, why would half the Supreme Court be made up of Jews?
That doesn't even make sense.
When there's 340 million people in America, oh, it's just because they're so successful.
Well, they're very unscrupulous, and they'll do anything to get to the top, and they steal,
and they're greedy, and they cheat, and they lie.
You say, how can you say that?
Well, who's a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Messiah?
He's anti-Christ that denieth the Father and Son.
That's in the Bible.
If you deny that Jesus is the Christ, if you don't believe in the Son, you're the biggest
liar that there is.
That's what the Bible says.
It's already confused you with that, but that's what it says.
And so the point is that they are using someone else to do their dirty work, and this is what
people often do.
They sit back and let these disgusting scum of the earth be their tool to persecute God's
people.
So they, verse 5, but the Jews, which believed not, move with envy, took unto them certain
lewd fellows of the base or sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city in an uproar.
You know, they're surrounding the church building.
Does this sound familiar?
Holding up signs.
They're picketing.
They're doing a big parade.
They're doing a big civil disobedience.
They're making a big stink everywhere.
And they gathered a company, and set all the city in an uproar, and assaulted the house
of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
So this is where they think that the disciples are.
They think they're at Jason's house.
Okay?
So they go over to Jason's house, and they're like, bring these men out!
You know, we know them, right?
Or whatever.
But they're basically saying, bring these guys out!
You know, we want to hurt these guys.
We're going to tear these guys apart.
Whatever they're going to do.
They go there to attack and assault.
I mean, isn't that what the Bible said?
They assaulted the house of Jason.
So they go to this guy's personal home, because they think Paul's there.
They assault the house, and they sought to bring them out to the people.
And when they found them not, they drew Jason out.
You know, basically, they can't get what they want with Paul, so they just grab this rando
named Jason, and just grab him and say, all right, you know, let's get Jason out here.
And certain brethren under the rulers of the people.
Just because you guys are Christians, too.
We came here for blood.
We're taking somebody with us.
Right?
So they grab Jason as the consolation prize, and they bring him and just any random Christian
that they can grab.
And they drew Jason and certain brethren under the rulers of the city, crying.
These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also!
Folks, who's really turning the world upside down?
You know, who's the one who calls bittersweet and sweet bitter?
Who's the one who calls good evil and evil good, and puts light for dark and dark for
light?
It's the devil's crowd that gets it all back.
See, you know, a better way of saying it is, we don't turn the world upside down.
We're turning the world right side up.
It's already upside down.
Look around.
It's upside down.
We're flipping the thing back over where it needs to be.
Amen?
So all these that have turned the world upside down are come hither also, whom Jason has
received.
How dare he have these people over to his house?
And these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there's another king,
one Jesus.
And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city.
So there are pain in everybody's backside.
They troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things.
And when they had taken security of Jason and of the others, they let them go.
So basically, they get everybody all worked up like it's some political thing.
Is Christ being preached a political thing to Paul?
Is Paul coming in there and saying, all right, we're going to turn this city into a dictatorship,
and we're going to break off from Rome.
We're going to secede from the union, and we're going to have our own.
It has nothing to do with politics.
It's a spiritual thing.
He's not preaching Jesus as king in an earthly sense.
He's preaching in Jesus as being our king spiritually.
OK.
He's not telling them to rebel against Caesar.
In fact, later he says unto them, render tribute unto whom tribute is due.
Render custom unto whom custom is due.
And he said, look, be subject unto the higher powers.
There's no authority but of God.
The powers that be are ordained of God.
And what we see there is that the Roman Empire really isn't that bad of a place to live,
actually.
Because remember how they had some rights, and the sergeants had to come to them hat
in hand and everything like that.
So the Roman Empire at this stage is giving a pretty decent degree of freedom to the Christians.
All Christians want to do is just see the church grow, win souls, do missions.
They're not really trying to throw off the Roman Empire, because the Roman Empire is
fine, not that it's perfect.
It's of this world.
It's ungodly, but it's sort of like us in the United States.
We don't approve of the things that our country does, but we're allowed to go soul winning.
We're allowed to have a church.
That's our goal, is for the church to grow, win souls to Christ.
We're not out just like, we've got to overthrow the government.
That's not us.
That wasn't Paul.
But that's what they're being accused of, which is a dumb accusation.
So they're troubling the people and the rulers of the city, making them think that there's
a problem when there is no problem, just creating this conflict that shouldn't even be there.
Why would they do this?
Because they hate the Lord.
They hate Christ.
And what were they?
Moved with envy.
That was the real motive for all of this.
Now, what was the motive of the Jews, moved with envy?
What's the motive of the lewd fellows of the base or sword?
Well, they're just scumbags that hate Christ and hate the Lord.
And so they're pretty easy for the Jews to get them riled up, because they have them
at hello, you know, they, they're, they're just disgusting people, lewd fellows of the
base or sword.
So then it says in verse nine, when they had taken security of Jason and of the other,
they let them go.
So what does that mean when they took security of Jason and their fellow Christians, they
were letting them out on bail is what's going on.
So basically they took security of them like, okay, you guys promise you're going to appear
on the court date.
That's what that is.
So now Jason and his buddies are going to have to go to court and go through all this
junk, but at least thank God they got out on bail.
They got it.
They better get a lawyer or they're going to get railroaded.
But anyway, that's another story.
Verse 10 and the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night under Berea.
So basically they tell Paul and Silas, look, you know, this, it's getting too hot for you
guys here.
Let you know, you guys need to get out of here.
You know, they, they, they, they're arresting people that weren't even doing the preaching
just for being in the same house with you.
Okay.
So you guys for sure have to get out of here.
These lewd fellows are going to rip you apart.
So they take Paul and Silas by night onto Berea.
They send them there and when they get there, they go to the synagogue of the Jews.
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica.
So basically the Jews that they find in the synagogue and in Berea are better than the
Jews that they found up in Thessalonica.
It says these were more noble than those in Thessalonica and that they received the word
with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures, whether those things were so.
And then look at verse 12, therefore many of them believed.
Now look, if a Jew is truly a noble Jew or a good Jew or one who actually reads the Bible,
you know what they're going to do?
Believe in Jesus.
And then they're not a Jew anymore.
So isn't that what the Bible says?
I mean, the Jews that were in Thessalonica, you know, they're envious.
They're mad.
They're enlisting the weirdos to fight against Christ.
But then when they get to Berea, they get to the synagogue and they find some Jews that
are more noble.
These people actually received the word with readiness of mind.
They searched the scripture daily, whether those things were so and therefore they got
saved, therefore they got saved.
What kind of a Jew is the one who just rejects the gospel and rejects the gospel, doesn't
want to hear it, doesn't want to hear it, hates the Lord.
That's a bad person.
And that's what the Bible is showing us the difference.
He's saying, look, it's not all Jews that are bad.
It's that basically the ones who get saved, they're the good ones.
But the ones that just persist in a Christless religion and persist in a religion that is
anti-Christ, you know, these people end up doing some really bad things as we read the
Bible.
Now you say, what separates, and I know I'm kind of parking it on this issue, but you
know what?
It's really not me because I'm not the author of Acts chapter 17 and neither did I write
chapter 14 or 15 or 16 or 17.
This is happening in every single chapter where it's like, hey, let's go reach Jews.
Jews get mad.
Jews persecute Paul goes to the next town.
Hey, let's reach Jews again.
Jews get mad.
You know, it's just like the same thing.
So I, you know, I want to deal with this subject so we can understand the story.
You say, Pastor Anderson, Jews are no different than any other unbelievers.
What's the difference between the Jew and the Hindu?
What's the difference between the Jew and the Buddhist?
What's the difference between the Jew and, let me explain to you the difference.
The difference is that when you are Jewish, you basically have this form of knowledge
and of the truth and the law.
You know, you're being exposed to God's word, being exposed to God's word, God's word, God's
word, right?
You know, Moses is being preached.
You're hearing God's word.
You're claiming to believe in the God of the Bible.
And so what is the law our school master to do to bring us into Christ?
Now, Hinduism is not a school master to bring you to Christ.
Buddhism is not a school master to bring you to Christ, is it?
No.
But Judaism is supposedly this Old Testament religion, and they do readings in the Old
Testament, especially the law of Moses and so forth.
So for you to just sit there and say, well, I'm going to accept all this stuff, but just
not Jesus.
It's like a special rejection of Jesus.
Here, let me just get as close as I can to the truth and absorb as much as I can and
hijack as much.
Folks, it's a hijacking of the Old Testament if you use it for anything other than pointing
to Christ.
Because, I mean, like, if you read Genesis, I mean, look at my sermon I did, Jesus in
the Book of Genesis.
I didn't even have time.
I was like, oh, here's Jesus, Jesus everywhere in the Book of Genesis.
To be able to just read Genesis and read Genesis and read Genesis and just close your eyes
and plug your ears, bahhhhhh.
I'm not going to see it.
I don't want to hear Jesus.
Folks, it's people that develop a special rejection for Jesus, that do this year after
year, and not generation after generation after generation after generation.
And you say, well, they're not all bad.
Sure they're not all bad.
Let's go get the Good Ones saved.
Let's go get the Good Ones, I'm not saying they're all bad because you know what?
what you run into some that aren't bad and those are the ones that hopefully we
can pull out of the fire and get them saved amen and I've had a few of them
saved it's rare to get them saved but you can it happens let's get them safe
folks I'm not writing these people off I want to get them saved but I'm telling
you this let's focus on the people that are receptive the Gentiles and let's in
the process folks if you knock every door in Tempe you're gonna knock a lot
of Jewish doors like I have and like many people in our who's ever knocked
the door of Jewish people out so wanting put up your hand yeah see so it looks
like we're trying to preach the gospel to Jews in this church doesn't it so
there you go but we see here that they send them away by night they get to the
good synagogue they find a synagogue with some some basically sincere good
Jewish people and when they get to them these people actually check their Bible
to see whether Paul is telling the truth and when they check the Bible
because they check the Bible therefore they believe white because if you
believe Moses you believe Christ that's what Jesus said in John chapter 5 so we
see here that many of them believed so this is kind of new because a lot of the
time it was just some of them believed but this time many believed okay also of
honorable women which were Greeks and of men not a few so you know look even when
he's focusing in on the synagogue and putting all of his efforts or the
synagogue he still accidentally ends up getting like more Gentiles saved even
when he's not even when he's not even targeting them that's what we see
through the whole book of Acts okay verse 13 but when the Jews of Thessalonica
oh here you say you sure are repetitive in your preaching well again I'm not the
author of the book here okay well when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge
that the Word of God was preached of Paul at Berea they came thither also and
stirred up the people and then immediately the brethren sent away Paul
to go as it were by the sea but Silas and Timotheus abode there still so
basically look the trouble comes to Berea and they say all right Paul you
got to get out of here so Paul gets sent away but it says in verse 14 Silas and
Timotheus abode there still verse 15 and they that conducted Paul brought him
unto Athens so he's getting deeper in degrees going south and received a
commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed they
departed okay now what's going on here basically what happened is Paul got
shipped to Athens you know he has to get out of there fast because they're gonna
come rip him apart arrest him beat him you know we don't even know if his
wounds are even fully healed yet from the last time he doesn't want to get
another beating or incarceration or whatever so he gets out of there by
night and it seems that there's kind of a little miscommunication here somewhere
where Silas and Timotheus think hey you know we're just gonna stay and then Paul
gets to Athens and Silas and Timothy aren't there and so the first thing Paul
does when he gets to Athens is he says hey you go right back up there and tell
Silas and Timotheus to get down here with all speed so he's worried about his
buddies right so that's why it says there at the end of verse 15 receiving a
commandment meaning from Paul unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with
all speed they departed now while Paul waited for them in Athens his spirit was
stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry so we see Paul
here he's waiting for them he probably doesn't like being alone you know I
think part of it is that he's worried about Silas and Timothy but part of it
is they probably just doesn't want to be by himself you know it's not good for
the man to be alone and that's why ninety nine percent of people should
probably get married but then there are some people who are okay with being
single and they don't they don't get married like the Apostle Paul but it
doesn't mean he wants to be alone so he still wants to have his church his
friends his brethren and so forth so you know nobody likes to go soul-winning
alone at least I know I don't you know maybe maybe there's somebody out here
who likes to go by yourself soul-winning you know personally I don't like going
soul-winning by myself now I've done it a lot I've done it many times but it's
not preferred I think I think virtually all of us would rather go soul-winning
with a partner it's way easier to go soul-winning if you have somebody to go
with you and to stay motivated stay encouraged etc so while he's waiting for
his buddies to show up in Athens his spirit was stirred in him when he saw
the city wholly given to idolatry so he sees Athens right I mean Athens you've
got all these temples and you got the Parthenon you got these statues and
gods and goddesses and this is like the hub I mean this is like ground zero of
pagan religion here in Athens just totally given over to idolatry and so
he's stirred by that he stirred in his spirit by that and you know we ought to
also love and care about the heathen and want them saved so he's he's stirred by
that and then the verse 17 just blows my mind
therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews excuse me what oh man look
at all these unsaved people look how heathen this is look at all the the the
statues and the idols and the gods and gods boy we got to get these Greek
people saved all right let's head for the synagogue it's the same Paul is
there's three times in the book of Acts three times he says from henceforth I'm
going to the Gentiles the first two times he didn't really mean it he keeps
going back to folks and look I'm not over emphasizing something here this is
how the book of Acts ends you know I was just reading the book of Acts in my
personal Bible reading and I just finished it in chapter 28 yesterday
that's how it ends with him saying we're going to the Gentiles they're gonna get
it saved they're gonna hear it that's the message of acts it's a transition
from Jews to Gentiles that's that's a theme of the entire book okay and we see
how it's just so hard to get Paul off this okay yeah he's moved by the need to
do the soul winning amongst the heathen but instead therefore he disputed in the
synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons translation people who
are not Jewish but they believe in the religion of these are proselytes right
like we talked about earlier those that are devout meaning that they believe in
the Old Testament and in the market daily with them that met with him and
then watch the same pattern again and then certain philosophers of the
Epicureans of the stoic so these are the hardcore heathen these aren't Jews or
proselytes and counted him and said some said what will this babbler say other
some he seems to be set forth of strange gods because he preached unto them Jesus
and the resurrection again stranger doesn't mean weird necessarily because
it's being like foreign gods or just gods that we're not familiar with watch
this though in verse 19 and they took him and brought him unto Areopagus
saying may we know what this new doctrine is where of thou speakest is
for thou bringest certain strange things to ours we would know therefore what
these things be what are you talking about this is really interesting we want
to hear about it come tell us oh just now I'm talking these Jews no they grab
them they drag him to Areopagus let's get you away from the synagogue let's
get you away from the Jews we're gonna put you on our turn now preach to us
give the gospel to us what do these things mean we want to hear folks how
many times have we seen this I know it's getting repetitive but what's the Bible
showing us here you know it's showing us a few different things I'll close on
that because we're out of time but we learn a few things here number one we
learn that people are stubborn ourselves included you know we get an idea stuck
in our head and since like we can't get off that even when God is just showing
us and showing us and showing us you know we need to go to the Word of God
and re exam what does God want us to do what did God tell us to do instead of
just getting stuck on a certain true well we've always done this so it must
be right right there the baby baptizer mentality well this is what we I mean
we're doing it so it must be stay with the tradition folks there are a lot of
great traditions but if a tradition is contrary to the Word of God it needs to
be discarded and so we see here that the Apostle Paul is having trouble getting
on God's program here in many ways because of the fact that God said go
teach all nations and and from the very beginning folks you say well Paul wasn't
there when the Great Commission was given Paul got his own Great Commission
and you know when when Jesus appeared unto Paul on the road to Damascus and
when Jesus appeared to Ananias and explained to him what Paul's ministry
be consistently out of the mouth of God it's I'm gonna send you far from here
I'm gonna send you to the Gentiles I'm and then a said he said every city I go
to prophets are telling me don't go to Jerusalem bonds await you in Jerusalem
folks if you act folk you have to understand about the book of Acts the
book of Acts is a story not everybody in the story is always doing the right
thing all the time because any story that involves human beings is gonna
involve error I challenge you look at everything God told him to do and every
time it's Gentiles Gentiles Gentiles Gentiles that's what God's telling them
to do you know but but but here's an encouragement though even if we're
stubborn even if we're not doing exactly what God told us to do we could still be
greatly used by God because even though Paul is not perfect
Paul's human Paul burns up and wastes a little time arguing and disputing and
you know he wants to go debate the Jews instead of going out soul-winning okay
so even though he's not perfect even though he's making mistakes even though
God has to keep hammering this message go to the Gentiles and and literally we
see Gentiles begging him to tell them how to get saved dragging him away come
preach to us in virtually every chapter it's that way we see that God still used
him greatly so we see that number one we need to go back and examine things from
the Bible make sure that we're following what Jesus said and not just following a
tradition okay we need it we need to do things God's way get on God's program
and then I think that the the last thing that we can learn from this is go to the
people that are receptive if people don't want to hear the gospel shake the
dust off your feet and move on now if you run out of receptive people then
give the gospel the unreceptive people but as long as there are receptive
people out there as long as there are people out there who want to hear the
gospel as long as there are people out there they're open to it why wouldn't we
go through that open door and so you know the missions trips that I want to
spearhead or be involved in are to receptive places why go to Guyana
because it's receptive why go to the Indian reservations they're receptive
you know why go to Cyprus because it was receptive you know I mean why go to
Jamaica why go to Belize why go to these places because they're good places to go
I mean if we went to a place and everybody just get out of here we're not
interested you know what that we do we'd say okay well we're not interested either
because we got better we got better place we got other fish to fry man you
know we're gonna go somewhere else there's plenty of fish in the sea so do
what God tells you to do do what makes sense okay and do what is effective do
what works right do the soul winning in a place that's receptive but here's the
last point do something I mean even when Paul's not doing it exactly right at
least he's doing something folks even if you go soul winning to the wrong
neighborhood in the wrong country if you're at you know if there is you know
the wrong place hey as long as you're doing soul winning you're gonna get
somebody saved he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall
doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him so you
know the most important thing is this man just get out there and do it you
know get out there and do something amen as far as that word of prayer father
we thank you so much for this great history Lord in the book of Acts of the
Apostle Paul his missionary journeys Lord and we see so many parallels with
today there's nothing new under the Sun we see the same type of people today we
see the same type of issues the same types of persecution the soul winning
the the principles are all there Lord help us to apply these things to our
lives Lord and and Lord if there's anybody here today that thinks that this
sermon doesn't really apply to them and and they don't understand why we're
spending so much time talking about the missionary journeys Lord I just pray
that their spirit would be stirred like you stirred in Paul's spirit when he saw
the idolatry I pray that they would actually get involved in winning souls
and actually be stirred about reaching the loss then when they show up for a
sermon like this it'll actually apply to them because they're out living it on a
weekly basis as they seek to evangelize as Paul sought to evangelize help every
pastor to do the work of an evangelist and help every Christian to open their
mouth boldly and make known the mystery of the gospel in Jesus name we pray
amen