Reasoning from the Scriptures - Acts 17:1-5

1:44The people are real kind and feel like family, and so you do every time we get to come here. It is a joy. We love being with the Gettermans. Their hospitality is so sweet. The fellowship with Tom and Nancy is a delight and an encouragement. I want to thank also my wife for traveling a lot with me because none of the things that we get to do with wretched TV and radio and anything that we do would not be possible without her. That's the truth. So thank you all for being here this morning. Let's turn our attention to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17. An encouragement to not unhitch our Old Testaments. Here's the scenario. In Acts chapter 16, Paul has been beaten. He's been put in a jail in Philippi in Greece, in the region of Macedonia, and he was set free, courtesy of an earthquake. You recall the jailer was saved. Lydia, the seller of purple, she was saved. But because the folks weren't so nuts about him, he had to skedaddle out of town. And that is where our text picks up in Acts chapter 17, verse 1. Now, when they traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, this is northern Greece, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul's conception, He visited them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ, the anointed one, had to suffer and rise from the dead, and saying, This Jesus, whom I'm proclaiming to you, is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a significant number of the leading women. Let's focus our attention on three points today. Where did Paul do his evangelistic work? How did he do it? And what were the results? And there is much that we can learn from this today. Paul revealing what the Bible explains to us, that at just the right time, the Christ was given to us to fulfill all righteousness, but it was done at just the right time. What made it so? Why 2,000 years ago? Well, correctly, we would say Roman roads that helped for the transportation of the gospel and people. The Greek language was certainly helpful, that you had a lingua franca that everybody could understand. But I think synagogues is another reason for the fullness of time. The Jews were scattered throughout the Mediterranean, and they built these little synagogues because they couldn't get to the temple in Jerusalem as the places of learning. And they were scattered, hundreds of them throughout the Mediterranean. How providential is that? Where did Paul go? He made a beeline to the synagogue. That's what it says in our text. There was a synagogue of the Jews. That's where he went. This was Paul's pattern. If you look at Acts chapter 18, verse 4, Paul is in Corinth, reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. Acts 18:19, he's in Ephesus. He left them there, and Paul himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. This is the providential hand of God being revealed at just the right time. The Messiah was sent so that his gospel could go out to the Jews scattered around the Mediterranean, and he didn't just stay inside of the four walls of a synagogue. Acts chapter 17, Paul is in Athens. He's wandering around and he's noticing and grieving. They've got a spiritual problem here. Paul was seeing that they were full of idols, verse 17 in Acts 17. So he was reasoning in the synagogue. There's our phrase, again, with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles. Please note this has a payoff at the end. Do you see the repetition? Jews and Gentiles, Jews and God-fearing Greeks, that women got saved as well as men. And Paul was in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present. These were total strangers. We're talking. Talking street evangelism, y'all. If you think that this was not done in the Bible, Paul did it in Athens and I suspect everywhere. But notice out in public, even people who were not professing Jews who should have known the Torah, not with God-fearing Greeks who were converts, proselytes to the Jewish religion. No, he reasoned with people from the scriptures in the marketplace. He used the Bible to preach and persuade people that Jesus is the Christ in the marketplace. Now, what do we take from this? Do we have to do it like Paul? Well, we can't do it like Paul because we don't have synagogues, but we do see the pattern and the repetition in Acts 17 and 18. Paul went to the synagogue. When he got to town, where's the synagogue? Oh, we can't find one. Let's go up by the river. There must be some Jews gathering there. He was strategic, so we can't do it exactly like him, but I do think that we should adopt Paul's modus operandi. Have a strategy. My question for you this morning is: do you have one? Do you have an evangelistic plan? Do you think, all right, God is sovereign. He's got me in this zip code at this time for this reason. He has me knowing these people. I'm surrounded by these neighbors. I have these opportunities. These are the gifts that God has given to me.

7:28What's my strategy? What is your plan to be obedient to the great commission and Paul's command in Colossians chapter 4, believe verse 6, that you make the most of every opportunity, make the most of it. We don't have to go gin something up. We just need to go find a sinner and reason with them from the scriptures. What's your plan? And what did Paul say once he started reasoning with them from the scriptures? That's what we see in Acts chapter 17, verse 2. And according to Paul's custom, he visited them, and for three Sabbaths, he reasoned with them from the scriptures. Paul reasoned with them. What does that word mean? We in the 21st century, we tend to think, ah, well, this could have been the tag argument, the transcendental argument for the existence of God. He reasoned with them. He used the teleological argument, the cosmological argument. He really reasoned and logic with them. That's not what the text says. First of all, the word itself, it sounds like he had a dialogue with people, kind of an exchange of ideas, a rather postmodern sensitivity. You share your heart, and I'll share mine, and your truth is your truth, and mine is mine. No, dialegomai is a Greek word with an intensive preposition in front of it. You hear the word dialogue, but it wasn't a chit-chat. The word dia means through. First of all, it intensifies the word that it's connected to. So this wasn't just chilling and chatting. This had some oomph to it. And the word dia means through or from one end to the other. So Paul was using his words to say, I know this over here. You're here. You need to be there. And I'm going to get you there by talking to you. And it was done with an intensification. Paul was not an apologist for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul did not go out to simply have his sharpened apologetic skills put to work so that he could be rocked on his heels, put on the defensive, and then explain, hey, well, hold on a second. I can tell you about textual criticism. You know, Caesar's Gallic Wars, nine manuscripts, 900 years later, but the New Testament within the first century, and we've got 5,600 partials or fragments. You can believe the Bible. No, that is not Paul's attitude. He delegamied. He wasn't on the defensive. He wasn't a sharer of his faith. Take a look at Acts chapter 17, verse 3. This Jesus, who I am catalangeloing, proclaiming to you, Paul had some force behind his evangelism. He wasn't a Nambi, Pamby, seeker-sensitive kind of guy.

10:31He had a goal and he laid it forth for them and he spoke it convincingly. That's the semantic range of our word. It's to preach, to lecture, to proclaim to people. Acts 17, verse 18. In Athens, Paul preached to them. In verse 19, in Athens, he proclaimed to them. In Acts 18, 5, Paul solemnly testified that Jesus is the Christ. In Acts 19:8, Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. We need to be like Paul and stop going out with a cowardice just because we're so afraid of what we're going to get hit by and just hope that we come up with the right remembrance of what I learned in my apologetics class so that I hopefully don't blow it. No, we go and we proclaim the gospel and we speak it as truth, as if it has power, because it does. Now, will we look exactly like Paul in the 21st century? I don't think so. I don't think that we have to perhaps speak the way that they spoke, say, in Martin Luther's time. Very forceful, very coarse, also. We live in a different era. So we're wise as a serpent. We're gentle as doves. So we're aware that people are very sensitive these days to somebody coming along and saying, Oh, no, no, there's not a truth. I'm going to tell you the capital T truth. We get that they are sensitive and defensive about that, but that does not give us license to neglect proclaiming the gospel. So, sharing your faith with somebody should have this goal, this desire, this purpose, not to enter into you tell me about your stuff and I'll tell you about mine, and then we'll just walk away shaking hands. No, I want to take you someplace. We do it sensitively, we do it lovingly, we do it thoughtfully. We don't want to come across as obnoxious jerks. We speak truth and love, and if you can't do both, you shouldn't do either. But we need to be like Paul, proclaiming the good news, not sharing it.

12:47There's another consideration when we see Paul, when he reasoned with them in the marketplace, when he reasoned with them in the scriptures, notice how he didn't do it, notice how he didn't use anecdotes or stories. Notice that his sermons didn't show movie clips first, and then he would exposit. That's verse by verse. He wouldn't exposit a movie. No, no, no, he was reasoning with them from the scriptures. Note also, he was not using what we think of as reason and logic. This was not an academic debate that Paul was embarking on, it was a spiritual rescue mission, and he reasoned with them from the scriptures.

13:31We need to be convicted by this and encouraged by this. You do not have to be a silver-tongued orator. Remember what we just heard about Paul? He came without any eloquency of speech. He didn't need it. He didn't need to have the pew, pew, pew, pew, answer for everything. He reasoned with them from the scriptures because the individual who is not saved cannot reason. You cannot reason and logic somebody into the kingdom. They can't get it. Their reasoning machines are broken. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. They cannot grasp the things of God. And if you and I, while being fully equipped to give a reason for the hope that lies within us, to do actual apologetics when asked, apologetics don't save anybody. Apologetics ministries are helpful. It is the Word of God that converts. We reason from the scriptures. Would you please turn your Bible to the text that Tom read for us this morning, 1 Corinthians 2:14? This should convict us that we put our trust in the word of God, and it should encourage us, because that's all we need to know. We just need to know the word of God.

14:51Take a look at this treatise. This is a three-chapter section of scripture in 1 Corinthians 1, 2, and 3 that blasts Christianity. Philosophy, as in we kind of combine worldly thoughts and ideas, and wherever we see truth, it's God's truth, but we'll grab and we'll use and we'll apply it because we're Christian philosophers. That is not what Paul permits. He rails against using logic and reasoning somebody into the kingdom. Take a look at 1 Corinthians 2:14. And you're going to see a compare and contrast here. A natural person does not accept the things of the spirit, for they are foolishness to him. He's experiencing the noetic effect of the fall. His brain is broken. He can't understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Verse 15. But the one who is spiritual discerns all things. For who has known the mind of the Lord? We have the mind of Christ.

15:53Atheists love scoffing at this because they think what's logical to them is: all right, you come up with enough powerful, persuasive arguments, and if I'm persuaded, it's logical and reasonable, then I'll believe. Not what Paul said. Paul just said, you can't. You can't logic it, and you can't reason it, leading to belief. You got to get saved, then you're going to get it. That's the order of salvation and how it works. You can't get it when you're under it. They can't get it. Their minds are darkened. Why? Makes them alive. Paul reasoned with them, not with logic. Because if we do try to persuade somebody into the kingdom using logic and reason, uh-oh, we've actually undermined God's purpose for sending His Son, which is to bring glory to Himself. Because if a person can reason and logic His way to God, guess what He can say to the Lord on Judgment Day? I got this figured out. I did this. I figured this out. That is not what Paul says. Take a look at 1 Corinthians 1:21. Same neighborhood. 1 Corinthians 1. For since the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. But God was pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Verse 29, so that no human may boast before God, but it is due to him.

17:27We cannot use presuppositional apologetics to persuade somebody that Jesus is the Christ. We must do what Paul did: circumvent this academic debate. We can talk about it when they ask correctly, but we need to get to the conscience and we need to let the Spirit, through the power of His Word, convict them of sin of righteousness and judgment. When should you, perhaps, respond apologetically? Well, if you're married, you You know how it goes when you have a little bit of a kerfuffle in your house. A little tension. Somebody sinned. The other person responded with sin. You can feel it in the air. Sometimes silence is so loud, isn't it? And then one of you decides to reconcile, and it goes like this. So, you're still going to be a knucklehead?

18:24Okay, how does that go? But if the person approaches the other spouse and says, honey, I hate it when we fight. Can we please talk through this? What happens? You actually do work it out. Why? Because there was an actual desire to work it out, a desire to understand, as opposed to a really angry heart. Same thing is true when you're evangelizing somebody. Yeah, yeah, what about the Crusades? Huh? What about the Crusades? Yeah, you're just wasting your air in responding to them because they don't want to hear. But if somebody says, all right, help me out. You know, I remember the Crusades. I thought that, you know, the Christians were really nasty and stuff. All right, first of all, we do not have to defend the Roman Catholic Church and its history, but nevertheless, we can explain those things to them. It's true. And we can explain the issue of evil when they ask with a desire to know. And it might satisfy to a degree their itch. It might scratch it a bit, but it's not going to get them saved. It will not get them saved. Paul preached nothing but Christ and him. Crucified. That's 1 Corinthians 2, 1 through 2. The Spirit of God regenerates, not using logic as we know it, but he uses the Word of God. And Peter agreed with Paul, watching the harmony of Scripture. In 1 Peter 1:23, you've been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable. That is through the living and enduring word of God. That's how you were saved, the word of God. That's why Paul reasoned with them from the scriptures. How did Timothy get saved? Paul tells us, you, however, 2 Timothy 3, continue in the things that you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings, which are able to give you the wisdom. Sacred writings, saved, wisdom, not wisdom, saved, study the sacred writings. That's Paul's clear and consistent order, the preaching of the word of God. And that's why Paul commanded Timothy, preach the word two times, in season, out of season. That's all the time. Preach the word. Faith comes from hearing, not apologetics, not presuppositionalism, not clever anecdotes, not clever stories. It comes from the word of God. So Paul reasoned with them from the scriptures because the scriptures have power to cut. And the scriptures have the power to heal. And it is the scriptures that the Holy Spirit primarily works with for the regeneration of human beings. Now, here's the challenge to this: you're going to look foolish. You're off the hook. You don't need to be the world's greatest apologist. You need to know the gospel story, and you're going to look very foolish to people. That's the challenge. And that's why we need to continue studying what Paul did to be encouraged to overcome our fear of looking foolish because Paul did it. He became a fool for Christ, preaching nothing but Christ and him crucified because he knew where the power resided. We have a more sure witness with our Bibles. There's a movement right now. It's called the NAR, the New Apostolic Reformation Movement. They have supernatural schools of healing all over the country. You go there and you learn how to go out into the streets and you can lengthen somebody's leg. You pray over people that God would heal them because they think the power is in miracles. First of all, that ain't happening. Second of all, that's not where the power is. We see in the Old Testament a few miracles that were being done. It was intended to authenticate the message of the messenger. Moses had a staff so that he could do miracles, so that they could believe that he actually was sent from God. We see Jesus doing an explosion of miracles to support his testimony that he is. God, and yet we are told you got something better. Just like the rich man who is in hell, saying, Would you please, Father Abraham, send somebody from heaven to tell my brothers and sisters, don't you got to believe this, don't go to hell. And Abraham responded, Nope, not how it works. They've got Moses and the prophets. If they do not believe them, they will not believe. Miracles, signs, wonders, tricks, parlor games, shenanigans, great oratory, none of it saves. The preaching of the Word of God is what saves. And so he reasoned with them from the scriptures about what? Let's take a look at our text. Verse 3, Acts chapter 17.

23:16Paul reasoned with them from the scriptures that the Messiah had to suffer, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer. Fast forward in your mind to Acts chapter 28. Paul is sitting in Rome. He is allowed visitors. And we see how Paul did this, how he reasoned with them from the scriptures. Look at the harmony of the Bible. When they had set a day for Paul, this is Acts chapter 28. I'll read it to you. People came to him at his lodging in large numbers, and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying, not sharing, testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law. Of Moses and the prophets. Aha! There he is, reasoning from the scriptures, if you will, two terms: Moses, the writings of Moses, the Pentateuch, Genesis through Deuteronomy, and the rest of the Bible. He did what Jesus did in Luke chapter 24 on the road to Emmaus. You'll recall, he revealed to himself to those two apostles, not of the internal circle, but two apostles himself from every book in the Old Testament. And that's what Paul did. He reasoned with them from the Old Testament. We don't unhitch the Old Testament, we utilize the Old Testament. There is power in proclaiming the Old Testament. Just imagine if Jesus had stood up. He goes to Austin and he would stand up and just announce, hey, everybody, I'm God, and you need to put your trust in me. Well, we used to take those people off the street and find them help. Why wasn't Jesus perceived as a crackpot? Because he used the Old Testament scriptures. That is about me, the one you've been waiting for. The sacrificial system, the shedding of blood. It's been pointing to me. And Paul did the very same thing. Let's ask a question. How might he have done that? How might he have reasoned with them from the books of Moses? I am certain Paul went to the fall, had to have. Because this is where we see the gospel proclaimed first, isn't it? He reasoned with them from the scriptures that what?

25:40That the Messiah needed to suffer. And so Paul could have reminded them about the fall and the consequences of their sin, that there was going to be thorns and thistles and labor, that there was going to be sweat on your brow because of work is going to be very frustrating. Madam, you're going to experience a lot of pain as a consequence of sin and childbearing. It's just a reminder of the fall and your need for somebody to crush the head of the serpent. And death, the wages of sin, it's death. The soul that sins, it shall die. And we see that fourfold consequence in the garden. And then Paul could have shown them the first gospel preached in Genesis 3:15 to say, There is one coming who is going to crush the head of the serpent, and his heel is going to be bruised. The consequences of sin, this fourfold curse, is so terrible. Somebody needs to come and they are going to pay a price for it because the wages of sin is great. Look at the effects of sin. And God promised that he was going to send a skull crusher, but his heel had to be bruised. Let me tell you about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to be the one who crushed the head of the serpent. And let me just tell you. How his heel was bruised so specifically.

27:05Just as there are thorns in labor because of sin and the fall, Jesus had thorns smashed onto his head as a consequence. He was taking the consequence of your sin on his head. And pain, he was beaten with fists to his face, so disfiguring him you couldn't tell that he was a human being. He suffered the pain that we should bear for the consequences of our sin. And he died. He died. He was so passionate about this when he was praying and he was thinking about the intensity of his suffering. He sweat drops of blood in a new garden, hearkening back to the old garden, reminding us that there's going to be sweat because of our sin. And then he died, and he was doing that to fulfill all righteousness, to take the consequences that we deserve for our sin. And that's why his heel had to be bruised because our sin is so damnable. It is certain he would have connected the first garden with the garden of Gethsemane to show the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ in fulfillment of that promise of one who is going to crush the head of the serpent, which, by the way, is what the entire Bible is about: the skull crusher, the Jesus Christ, who finally shows up after being promised again and again. And again, in the Old Testament, he shows up to take the consequence of our sin. No doubt, Paul would have reasoned with them in that way, but I think he would have also used typology. This is the study of types and shadows. Colossians 2:16, 17 tells us that there are things in the Old Testament that are fuzzy pictures. They're not clear. They give us some information. As Calvin said, as God prats with us, baby talks to us, he was giving us fuzzy pictures. Jesus is the technicolor reality. Let me show you, and I'm certain he would have used the scarlet thread of the Bible, beginning with the necessity of God to sacrifice an animal for the covering of the shame of the people who had just sinned against him. Hmm, that's an interesting detail. Is God a clothing designer? Nope, it was a fuzzy picture. You can't cover your shame, God must do it. Cain and Abel sacrifice a fruit without faith, sacrifice of an animal shedding the blood with faith. One was not acceptable. One was, hmm, what was that? It was a fuzzy picture of something to come. He could have taken him, the Jews, and the people in the marketplace, to say, I want to introduce you to a man named Abraham. He had a son, a beloved son. It was his only son. And God gave him an instruction to sacrifice his own beloved son on a mountain. As they're walking up, Isaac, the son, says, Father, where's the lamb for the sacrifice? And the father responded and said, God will provide. As the father is prepared to sacrifice the beloved son, God stops him. And then, as if to suspend tension for the next 2,000 years, there was not a lamb provided in the thicket, it was a ram, because the lamb had not yet come for the sacrifice. What do we see? We see the almost sacrifice of a beloved son. By the way, we think the same location in which Jesus Christ was crucified on our behalf. The father did not sacrifice the son then.

30:36The father sacrificed his son now in the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. That was just a fuzzy picture of the greater reality to come. He could have pointed them to Passover, that the lamb, an unblemished lamb, must come and live with the family for a short amount of time, have its throat slit so that blood could be put on the posts of the doors, so that death would pass over. He could have taken them to Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, the entire sacrificial system, blood being shed, blood being shed. Why? There's no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood, and yet it was merely a covering. Yom Kippur, it's Qatar. It's a covering. It's like the coating, like the pitch on the ark. It doesn't forgive sins, it just covers them. Why? Because there is no forgiveness in the sacrifice of lambs and of goats and of bulls. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Said John the Baptist, he takes away the sins of the world. He's the one that we've been waiting for. All of those fuzzy, insufficient pictures. We're pointing to the Lamb of God who takes away your sins. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You can trust him because he has been spoken about by Moses from centuries ago. Paul reasoned with them from the scriptures, proving that the Bible is axiomatic. It doesn't need to be defended. It needs to be unleashed. And Paul did it. I also suspect he could have done it from preaching Exodus chapter 17. Another type of Jesus, one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It's the Jews in the desert. Acts 15, they're complaining about water. God gives them water. Acts 17, they're complaining about water. And God this time puts an end to this. And he sets up a courtroom drama. The language is vivid. Edmund Clowney brings this out beautifully. God literally sets it up. Like, here's the Jewish people who are complaining: hey, hey, hey, where's the water? Would you take us out here to die? They weren't accusing Moses. They were taking a shot at God. So God lets these people gather to make a case against him. Moses is to stand in front of them with his staff of authority and the elders, and between them was a rock. God instructs Moses to do what? With the presence of God on the rock, Moses takes his staff of authority and smacks it.

33:01Do you have the picture? Guilty people accusing the one who is innocent, standing in the docket, receiving their accusations and receiving the punishment for them that they deserve on their behalf. And what does Paul tell us in 1 Corinthians 10? When the water gushed out, the rock was Jesus Christ. That was the gospel. That's why the Messiah had to be cracked. He was beaten with a rod. He was beaten with a staff because your sin is so great. The Messiah had to suffer. He most certainly would have used typology. He could have used the bronze serpent. He could have used a number of the types of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. But I am also certain that he used the laws of Moses, that he opened up not just the Decalogue, but the whole shebang, 613 laws, to do what? Well, Paul tells us if the law is used lawfully, not as a moralistic system, but as a schoolmaster, to do what? To grab somebody by the ear and say, Come here, get here, sit down, to bring them to Christ. That's what the law does. It silences the mouth. It brings the whole world guilty before God. It kills. Paul said, I had not known sin but by the law. He would have opened up the laws of Moses to say to his fellow Jews, Do you see why there's no forgiveness of sins without the Shedding of blood. We have biffed it repeatedly. And in Romans chapter 2, Paul actually shows how he did that. It was an interrogation, a question asking. It wasn't accusatory. It was question asking. Hey, you say you don't lie. Thou shalt not lie. Do you lie? Huh? Do you lie? He was opening up the laws of Moses. You who say that you don't do this, you shouldn't do this, do you do it yourself? He was using the laws of Moses to reveal you're in trouble. You have lied, you have lusted. And Jesus magnified, by the way, the sin of adultery by saying, You just look at a woman with lust, you've committed adultery in your heart. And the Bible also tells us, Jesus said that if you call somebody a fool, you're in danger of judgment. John says it's murder of the heart. You are condemned by these laws. The God of the universe has written those laws on our heart, our conscience, bearing witness. And he would open them up to help them to understand. You thought, perhaps, my Jewish friends, that you are going to keep the laws. You can't do it. You need one who will suffer for you, whose heel will be bruised. God picked the best of the best to keep the laws, the Jewish people, and they failed, and they need someone to suffer for them. Look at your history. We can't keep God's covenant, Deuteronomy 28. Look at the effect of not keeping God's covenant. Curse after curse after curse. Jesus be. Became a curse for us. Jesus fulfilled all of it. He always kept the covenant. And he had to suffer because we couldn't. But he did. Paul used the law, but he also used the prophets. He didn't just use the books of Moses, which, by the way, affirms the entire catalog of the 39 books in the Old Testament. He used the prophets. Now, let's think: where would Paul have gone in the prophets to say that the Messiah must suffer? Because he did it from the scriptures. I suspect Isaiah 53, he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our wrongdoings. He was so disfigured from being beaten, he was unidentifiable as a human being. Our Savior's skull was virtually crushed. He was hit on the head with a rod. He was hit in the face with fists.

37:01And I think that Isaiah 53 is describing this one that we thought, like a lamb being led to the slaughter, was being sacrificed for his own sins, yet the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. But this one, this person right here, 700 years before Jesus Christ, was being described as the sacrificial lamb who takes away sins, that it pleased God to crush his son. On our behalf, the Messiah had to suffer, and the prophets prove it. He could have taken them to Psalm 22, where this person that we don't know yet, I'm a worm and not a person, a disgrace of mankind, despised by the people, poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax, it is melted within me, my strength is dried up like a potsard, my tongue clings to my jaws, and you lay me in the dust of death. That's interesting. Take a look at Acts chapter 17, verse 3 again, our text. Paul was reasoning with them from the scriptures and explaining, giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. Well, now it's getting more complicated. Where would Paul have gone in the Old Testament to show not only did the Messiah need to suffer for your sins, not only did he need to die, but he needed to rise from the dead? No doubt, Psalm 16:10 would have done the trick. You will not abandon my soul to Sheol. You will not allow your holy one to undergo decay. Could have taken them back to Isaiah chapter 53, describing this one who was crushed on behalf of other sinners. He would die, but he would see the fruit of his labors. In other words, he would live again. Paul used these texts to say the Messiah had to suffer, his heel had to be bruised, but he's going to rise. Again, listen to this verse, and I want you to think, I want you to tell me what address this is. You tell me what book this is from. Okay. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, some to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. And those who have insight will shine like the glow of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. Anyone want to guess what section of scripture that comes from? That's Daniel chapter 12. Sounds a lot like Jesus preaching, doesn't it? Because it is. Jesus was really quoting Daniel chapter 12 when he talked about judgment day. And he talked about a resurrection and that people are going to live forever. And if you want to live forever, you need someone to fulfill all righteousness. And Jesus Christ is the firstfruits of the resurrection of a great harvest that is to come. He reasoned with them from the scriptures that the Messiah had to suffer, the Messiah had to die, the Messiah had to rise again. And then in 1 Corinthians 15, he says, not only that, but he had to rise again three days later. All right. Where do we find that in the Old Testament? Well, no doubt, Jesus helps us. Because if you recall in Matthew chapter 12, he says, just as Jonah needed to be in the belly of the whale for three days, so too must the Son of Man be in the earth for three days. In other words, That just as Jonah was a fuzzy picture of me, he was dead, if you will, three days, and so will I be. But after three days, God brought him out, and after three days, he's going to rebuild the temple. He is going to raise Jesus from the dead. He could have used Hosea chapter 6. Here's a section of scripture. We don't go through much, but if you recall, Israel is actually a type of Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter 12, Hosea is equating the nation of Israel with the Messiah. This is verses 1 to 2 in Hosea chapter 6, talking about Israel. For he has torn us, that he may heal us. So remember, he's talking about Israel, but later in Hosea chapter 11, Hosea is equating the Messiah and Israel together as a picture of one another. Listen to what he's saying. For he has torn us, that he may heal us, he has struck us down that he will bind us up. After two days, he'll revive us. And on the third day, he'll raise us up that we may live forever before him. Paul reasoned with them from the scriptures that the Messiah had to suffer, the Messiah had to die, the Messiah had to rise again from the dead three days later, and he reasoned with them from the scriptures, and he left Christ ringing in their ears. And this is precisely what you and I, if we want to see.

42:00People saved in our lives, study your apologetics, but reason with them from the scriptures and let the Holy Spirit do his convicting work to bring about the knowledge of sin and their need for the Messiah who had to suffer, die, rise from the grave in three days. And what will your results be? Take a look at our text, Acts chapter 17, verse 4. What were the results for Paul? And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a significant number of the leading women. Remember, we said that there was talk repeatedly about God saving different people. This is the mystery that Peter was talking about. There's a mystery. The angels, they wanted to figure out what this is all about. How is this going to go down? How is this going to play out? God had a chosen people who were to keep his covenant. They failed. So he sent one, the seed that was promised to Abraham, the one who had crushed the head of the serpent, to keep the covenant, to fulfill all righteousness, abolish it, and create a new and better covenant of complete forgiveness of sins, of the Lord Jesus Christ, not a heart of stone, but a heart of flesh. That is what Jesus accomplished for us when he suffered, died, rose from the dead. Dead, and the people who responded weren't just Jews, they were Greeks also. The attitude in the first century, if you think that there is animosity today between black and white, it pales compared to the attitude of Jews and the Goim, the unclean ones, the dogs of society. And by the way, sadly, in the first century, Jewish men had pretty much the same attitude toward women. And what do we see with this text? A large number of God-fearing Greeks and a significant number of the leading women were saved. Would you like to have some harmony in your home? Reason with your spouse from the scriptures that they might believe in the Messiah and you will have unity. Would you like to see our nation healed? You know what's not going to fix it? Critical race theory. And you know what else isn't going to fix it? Anti-critical race theory, which is why we don't want to spend our days just railing against a bad hermeneutic. We want to reason with people from the scriptures because God had planned all along, this is the mystery revealed, that what man cannot accomplish, what social programs cannot accomplish, what the government cannot achieve, Jesus does. And we see this seen in Revelation. Every tribe, every tongue, every language, every skin color, every socioeconomic level. No Jew, no Greek, no slave, no free, no rich, no poor, one in Christ. What you people couldn't do, Jesus did. If you would like to see the nation heal, reason with them from the scriptures, that the Messiah had to suffer, he had to die, and he had to rise from the grave three days later. God uses that message to regenerate their heart, bring them into the kingdom of God where those former identities are stripped away, and we are one in Christ. The power that our nation needs right now is the gospel, and that we reason with people from the scriptures.

45:34Question: What's your plan? Where's your synagogue and marketplace? Will you, now knowing that you have a sharp sword and the power of the Holy Spirit who works with the word, will you go and make a disciple of somebody, bringing them the great good news that was brought to you? What is your plan? Don't unhitch the Old Testament. Dive into it and reveal to people our sin is so bad that God had to rescue us and do for us what we can't do for ourselves. And Jesus did it. And he took the punishment we deserve. And he died and he rose from the grave. God's way of saying the payment is done with the death of Jesus Christ. The resurrection, it's the receipt of God saying, here, you can trust it. The debt has been paid in full.

46:30Who will you tell that to today? And finally, if I might say this, if you are here today, for whatever reason, and you have never repented and put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, my bad news for you today is your eternity in hell just got tremendously worse because you know it all now. You know everything that you need to know to be saved. There is not a problem or deficiency with your intellect. This is a will issue. This is your will. You have just been reasoned with from the scriptures, demonstrating they were written by God because man could not concoct such a play. And now your guilt has been increased. And the good news is Jesus suffered and died and rose from the grave three days later to forgive you and your stubborn, willful sin against him for decades. You're in your 70s. You're not too late. You've sinned grievously. You're not too dirty. I don't care who you are. I do not care what you have done. Whatever your sin is that is perhaps causing you to think, yeah, maybe Jesus forgives some people, but he doesn't forgive me. I'm telling you, he suffered and died so that you can be forgiven, and his payment is bigger than your debt. And so if you are here today and you are suffering, Struggling with sexual sins, and you feel the guilt and the shame of them. Come, you sinner, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus, he's able and he stands to save you. He's full of pity, mercy, love, power. Run to Jesus Christ. I would ask you, having heard that this is the plan that was concocted for you before eternity began, that Jesus Christ didn't go kicking and screaming. He told his father, I will go because the love of the Father is so great, he sent the Son who died for sinners, living a perfect life of righteousness at a miserable time in history, never sinned, never lusted, never lied, never dishonored his parents, never blasphemed God. And he then took the punishment you deserve to forgive you of your sins. And then, as if that isn't enough, he takes all of his righteousness and says, I'm going to credit it to you. You give me your rap sheet. I'll give you my resume. And you won't just be forgiven. You'll be the righteousness of Christ in God. I would ask you today: what is not to love about a Savior like that?

49:17Run to Jesus Christ today. He suffered. He died. He rose from the grave three days later. And this day, he bids you and commands. You come, you sinner, poor and needy. Let's pray. Our Father, we confess that we do not love your word the way that we ought. We do not esteem it like honey, sweeter than the sweetest thing, that we do not love your statutes the way that we should, and we sin by not loving your word that reveals you. And yet it is that word that tells us, you forgive those of us who do not love the way that we should. You forgive those of us who do not do what we ought. You forgive us even when we sin against you, and you even promise us that you love your children as much when we're sinning as when we are not. Would you please forgive us for not reveling in your word, which leads us to loving you? And would you please, please affect our hearts today, that we might be filled with joy and confidence, that we might take this message to a world that is aching and dying and damned and tell them from the scriptures that the Messiah had to suffer, he had to die, he had to rise again from the grave in three days, and that he did, and his name is Jesus. Help us. To love that Savior and to share him with the people that we love and with the people we don't know, that he might be glorified and you might be all in all. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.