Transcript

Helicopter pilot Iain McConnell, along with the rest of his air station crew, was summoned at 4 a.m. on the morning of August 30, 2005, to the Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Alabama.

The Center soon became one of the first bases of operations for Hurricane Katrina relief.

McConnell and his crew were told to keep five H-60 helicopters airborne on missions at all times, around the clock. The first airborne relief teams arrived in the affected areas before any news crews, and were completely unprepared for the devastation they saw.

A train track running parallel to the ocean had been pushed inland 15 feet off its gravel bed. A houseboat was floating down U.S. Highway 90. The entire city of New Orleans stood under water.

McConnell’s crew got right to work, airlifting stranded people from their rooftops and out of windows, and delivering them to the Superdome helipad. To their chagrin, however, they were only able to help a relatively few amount of survivors.

In an interview, McConnell shared why: On our first three missions, we saved the lives of 89 people, three dogs, and a cat. On the fourth mission, to our great frustration, we saved no one—but not for lack of trying. The dozens we attempted to rescue refused pickup!

Some people told us to simply bring them food and water. “You are trying to live in unhealthy conditions, and the water will stay high for a long time,” we warned them. Still, they refused.

I felt frustrated and angry, since we had used up precious time and fuel, and had put ourselves at risk during each rescue attempt. I felt like they were ungrateful. But, in truth, they did not know how desperate their situation was.

There is a rescue from sin and the lake of fire available for all through the Cross of Christ. But like those who refused to be picked up after Hurricane Katrina, many don’t know how desperate their situation is spiritually, and they refuse the gospel.

Knowing how desperate peoples’ situation is outside of Christ drove the Apostle Paul all over the world to share the gospel of the grace of God and reach souls in danger of eternal judgment. This often led to revival in the areas he went, such as in Thessalonica.

Acts 17:1-3: “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,

“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.”

We are in the midst of Paul’s second apostolic journey here in Acts 17. Paul had just left Philippi after being unjustly beaten and imprisoned there.

Leaving Philippi, they “passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia” and then “they came to Thessalonica.” They used the important highway and great military road called the Via Egnatia or the Egnatian Way to go to Thessalonica.

This road was built in the second century B.C. It was a nearly 700-mile road that went from the Adriatic Sea in the west to near the Black Sea in modern-day Istanbul in the east. It was about 20 feet wide and was paved with hand-laid stone slabs.

It’s been correctly stated, that “…it carried Roman troops to battle, taxes to the capital city, and merchandise everywhere. And now it carried the gospel into Greece.”

As Paul left Philippi, with Silas and Timothy, they traveled on the Egnatian Way 33 miles to Amphipolis. From Amphipolis, they traveled 30 miles to Apollonia.

And then from Apollonia, they traveled 37 miles to Thessalonica. This was a grand total of 100 miles from Philippi. And Paul traveled all these miles likely still in pain after recently being severely beaten with rods.

Thessalonica was the most important city in the province of Macedonia and its capital. It had an estimated population of 200,000. It was a major port on the Aegean Sea and an important commercial center in Paul’s day.

As such it was a strategic place for the evangelization of Macedonia. And though Paul did not stop in Amphipolis and Appolonia, because of the zeal of the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 1:7-8 teaches that they “sounded out the Word of the Lord” and their faith toward God spread throughout Macedonia and Achaia.

Thus, the Thessalonians who were won to Christ by Paul later were a witness to and evangelized those in Amphipolis and Apollonia in Macedonia.

Arriving in Thessalonica, as was his custom when entering a new city, Paul found “a synagogue of the Jews.”

Here Paul would find an audience of Jews and God-fearing Gentiles. And we see the presence of “devout Greeks” at this synagogue in verse 4.

And following his time in Philippi, Thessalonica was now the second place in Europe where the gospel of grace was proclaimed.

Paul “went in unto them” at the synagogue and for three sabbath days, or three weeks, he “reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.”

The word translated as “reasoned” is where we get our English word “dialogue.”

Paul had a dialogue with the Jews from the Scriptures. It was not a formal sermon but discussion where there were questions and answers.

Paul was “ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Pet. 3:15).

Paul gave them the facts and the truth, and he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. And he allowed the Holy Spirit to work and apply His revelation.

And he answered their questions and doubts and discussed the truth with them. He was reaching for their mind and heart.

By this reasoning out of the Scriptures, you find that proper interpretation and understanding of the Word played a key role in Paul’s message and ministry.

We need to follow this example in the Church today, as the Scriptures need to be front and center and faithfully opened, taught, expounded, and discussed, so people can understand their meaning and be rooted and grounded in the truth.

For three Saturdays, Paul made known Christ crucified and risen from the dead to the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles in that synagogue.

As he did so, Paul was “opening and alleging” verse 3 states. “Opening” speaks of opening their minds to cause to understand, or opening up the meaning of the Scriptures.

Paul took the time to make sure his listeners clearly understood what he was saying.

Paul was following the model of Christ when He appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus and “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27).

After the Lord revealed His identity and disappeared the two said, “Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He OPENED to us the Scriptures?” (24:32).

“Alleging” means to set before, or to present persuasive evidence from the Scriptures. Paul presented compelling evidence from the Word regarding the Messiah.

Paul’s Jewish hearers needed to be shown and convinced that their Scriptures taught that Messiah would suffer, die and rise from the dead.

Because the common Jewish view of the Messiah was that of His second coming, not His first. They looked for Him to come as a conquering political ruler who would defeat Israel’s enemies, and usher in a kingdom of peace and righteousness. It seemed inconceivable to them that a Messiah could die at the hands of His enemies.

But Paul convincingly showed them from Scripture that Jesus Christ fulfilled all the Word predicted of the Messiah. And Christ HAD to FIRST suffer, die, and rise again.

Paul used the Old Testament Scriptures to show that Jesus matched the description the prophets painted of the Messiah down to the last detail, and from places like Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 that “Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead.”

This all demonstrated “that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ” or Messiah.

Paul was simply establishing the identity of Christ so that they might come to trust in Him. This was the natural point of contact and logical place of beginning.

After making his opening arguments from the Old Testament, we know he went on to argue that “our Lord Jesus Christ” not only died, He “died for us” as he wrote these believers in 1 Thessalonians 5:10, and that we are saved “if we believe that Jesus died and rose again” as he wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4:14.

We know he preached these things in Thessalonica, for these are things that he reminds the Thessalonians of in the epistle he wrote to them shortly after leaving their city.

Pastor C. R. Stam also states this, “In this part of Acts we have a transition from the old program to the new. The old gradually disappears as the new takes its place.

“It is perfectly natural, therefore, to find Paul, here and elsewhere in the Acts record, proving to the Jews by the Scriptures that ‘Jesus is the Christ,’ that some may be won to trust in Him and that those who join the nation in refusing to do so may be left wholly without excuse as God continued to set the nation aside.

“This is where [Paul] had to begin, for if the Jesus who had been crucified was NOT the Messiah, He was an imposter and surely could not be the Dispenser of grace to a lost world, nor the Head of the Body of Christ.”

Acts 17:4-5: “And 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.

“But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.”

The preaching of Christ and the gospel resulted in a division between those who “believed” and those “which believed not.”

Paul’s convincing argument from Scripture, coupled with the Holy Spirit working through His Word, led to “some of” the Jews to be persuaded and believe. They believed that Jesus was the Christ and the Savior, and they believed that He died for them and rose again.

Some of the Jews believed but the majority stayed in their unbelief. And of these Jews that believed they “consorted [or joined, associated] with Paul and Silas.” They took their place with Paul and Silas as believers in Jesus Christ.

And not only did they, but “of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.” The majority of those who believed in Thessalonica were Gentiles. Many God-fearing Greeks from the synagogue were saved, but also many pagan Greeks believed.

We see that by Paul how wrote to them in 1 Thessalonians, that they had “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.”

Two of those saved in Thessalonica later joined up with Paul and served with him on his third apostolic journey: Aristarchus and Secundus (Acts 20:4). We learn about a third convert here in this chapter by the name of Jason.

As the result of three weeks’ ministry, Paul saw a large number of people believe, and a revival took place in Thessalonica with a throng of Greeks both God-fearing and pagan, some Jews, and not a few of the leading, prominent women of the city getting saved.

This reminds us how the gospel of grace is for both Jew and Greek, for men and women.

However, this revival did not bring joy to everybody. The Jews which did not believe Paul’s message concerning Christ and the gospel, “moved with envy.” The word “envy” here to be heated or to boil with envy, hatred, anger.

They hated Jesus Christ, they hated Paul, Silas, and Timothy, they hated the gospel of grace, and they hated all those believed it.

It made their blood boil and to see so many respond to Paul’s message about Christ and believe it. It was like this with the unbelieving Jews in Antioch earlier in Acts 13:45: “But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy.”

Their hatred and envy provoked the unbelieving Jews to take decisive action. Thus, they recruited “certain lewd fellows of the baser sort.” Breaking this down in the original Greek, it literally means some evil men from the marketplace.

The baser sort literally means “market-loungers.” They were idle men who lounged around the agora, or marketplace, in the city, and were open to or were looking for trouble.

They were overtly evil men with malignant character. They were the type of men who would not hesitate to inflict harm. The Jews knew exactly what they were doing in recruiting these men.

With these men, the Jews formed a mob and incited a riot and set all the city in an uproar. They stirred and riled up the residents of the city. And many were probably intimidated to join the mob or else by these wicked men from the marketplace!

All the people then traveled as a mob to the house of Jason with hostile intent to assault and attack it.

Jason was a new believer in Thessalonica. And his house was where Paul, Silas, and Timothy had been staying as guests. It’s also possible that his house is where the newly-formed church was meeting.

They went to Jason’s house looking for Paul and his co-laborers. And they “sought to bring them out to the people.” The mob intended to drag Paul, Silas, and Timothy before the city assembly.

And again in Acts, you see a mob scene of disorder, chaos, envy, and hate, bent on doing harm to Paul and his co-workers.

And Satan and his demons, were working behind the scenes of this riot, stirring up the crowd in response to the revival and salvation of the Gentiles and in an effort to silence God’s apostle to the nations and to hinder the spread of the gospel of grace.

Acts 17:6-9: “And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;

“Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. And 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 other, they let them go.”

John Phillips wrote, “Wherever Paul went, things happened. Souls were saved, people took sides, feelings were stirred, decisions were made, the lines were drawn.

“Paul did not slip into town, hold a few quiet meetings, enjoy some good home cooking…and slip back out of town again without the city knowing or caring that the gospel had been preached at all. Everybody knew when Paul came to town. Passions were stirred, things happened, the place was turned upside down.”

We see these very things in the account of Paul in Thessalonica in Acts 17.

Verse 6 says, “And when they found them not.” The word “found” implies that they did a thorough search for them at Jason’s home. They looked but to no avail. Paul and his associates were not to be found. God had providentially protected them from this mob.

When the Jews, the mob, and the evil men from the marketplace did not find Paul, Silas, and Timothy there, they attacked Jason himself, and some fellow-believers who were with him, and they “drew” them unto the rulers of the city.

The word “drew” means that they didn’t do this politely, they dragged Jason and the other believers through the streets of Thessalonica.

This word also tells us that Jason did not volunteer to go with the mob and stand before the rulers. He was not asked to go; he was made to go.

They were brought “unto the rulers of the city” or the politarchs, who were chief magistrates of the city. They performed administrative and executive functions, as well as exercised judicial authority.

The historicity of Acts was once attacked on the ground that the city authorities at Thessalonica were not called “politarchs.” Critics of the Bible claimed Luke was in error.

But now that argument has been silenced, because archaeologists have found inscriptions in Macedonia and even in Thessalonica from an old Roman arch, which mention politarchs. This inscription begins, “In the time of the politarchs….” and it goes on to list six politarchs.

Standing before the politarchs, or the chief magistrates, with Jason and the other believers, the mob made two accusations. First, they cried out, “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; Whom Jason hath received” into his home.

Without meaning to, they paid a genuine tribute and the greatest of compliments to Paul, Silas, and Timothy when they described them as men who’d turned the world upside down.

But how can a few men turn the world upside down? All they did was bring good news to others. They had no power in themselves. They had a message of a Savior who had come to die for his people and rise again from the grave.

All they did was talk about Christ wherever they went, and because of people believing it being given true hope and joy and being transformed by the Savior, the world was turned upside down!

And as it’s been said, “God willing and blessing, people would say such things about the effectiveness of Christians today.”

There is a story told of English evangelist who took this text for one of his open-air sermons. He began by saying, “First, the world is wrong side up. Second, the world must be turned upside down. Third, we are the ones to set it right.” This is really the purpose of the gospel. It is God’s way of making things right.

This team of men had quite a testimony! So far, they had only been to Philippi in Macedonia, which was located 100 miles away, and already had the reputation of turning the “world upside down.”

The irony is that these men of God who were boldly and faithfully proclaiming the gospel of Christ, they were actually turning the world right side up! But when you yourself are upside down, the other direction appears to be upside down.

When sin and the curse entered the world, the world was instantly turned upside down. Sin is deceiving and unbelievers think their version of the world is correct and right-side up, when in fact it is upside down in the sight of a holy and righteous God.

The world thinking the world is right side up is due to the fact as Ephesians 4:18 puts it, “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”

But when we trust the gospel, now we saw things clearly and differently from the world. Now the Word of God changes our thinking and values to be in line with God.

Thus, the world sees believers as strange, different, and upside-down, when in truth we have been turned right-side up.

The Gospel was revolutionizing and upsetting the world as the city of the Thessalonians knew it, but it was doing so in the best of ways because of those who received Christ’s life by faith and were now living by God’s Word.

Before the magistrates, this turning the world upside accusation was a vague charge of Jason harboring fugitives who were troublemakers that were disturbing the peace and were a threat to city order. And this is a hypocritical charge, when this mob were the true troublemakers who had just created a great disturbance in the city.

Their second accusation was more specific and serious: “and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.”

The Jews charged “these all,” or Paul, Silas, Timothy and Jason and all believers, with subversive sedition, treason, and rebellion against the Roman emperor, of undermining the decrees of Caesar and supporting a rival king (Luke 23:1-2).

To acknowledge any other king than Caesar was one of the most serious crimes in the Roman empire.

But as far as believers “saying that there is another king, one Jesus,” they would have had to say, “Guilty as charged.” We do believe that Jesus is the King. For the nation Israel, Jesus Christ is her long-promised King, who will reign over her in His kingdom on earth.

And while primarily Christ’s office today is as the Head of the Body of Christ, Paul did teach that Jesus was the King as well. As he wrote Timothy, that Christ is “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15). He rules and reigns over all creation. And as King and Lord, He has the right to rule over His people.

And as far as Caesar and Christ go, Caesar wasn’t the kind of king that Christ is. Caesar was just a man, a temporal king of a temporal empire. Christ is 100% God, 100% man, and an eternal King of an eternal kingdom. And unlike any of the kings of this world, Jesus Christ stooped low, became a servant, that He might lift us high.

The people of the city and the magistrates were troubled by these reports about treason.

Thus, the magistrates required Jason and those with him pay a pledge, a security deposit, to guarantee against any further trouble.

If trouble continued, Jason and the others would lose their money. If trouble stopped, they would receive it back.

Because of the likely possibility that trouble would persist, with the unbelieving Jews likely to continue stirring up the people against Paul, Paul and his companions had no choice but to leave Thessalonica. And thus, Acts 17:10 tells us that “the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea.”

In Paul’s epistle to the Thessalonians, he wrote of the persecution that the church was enduring for their faith and how they had “received the Word in much affliction.” We see an example of the persecution they faced here in Acts 17.

But in his letters to them, Paul held out the hope of Christ’s return to hearten and help them endure it. And it’s the same for the Church today.

As believers are hated and persecuted and come under attack for their faith individually and as a whole in the Church, like the Thessalonians, it should remind us to look up and to realize that this world is not our home and that Christ is coming back to catch us away and take us home to haven, and it could be today.

As Paul wrote, “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”