Sermon Tone Analysis

This Jesus we proclaim!

This Jesus we proclaim!

, Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.

And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.

And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.

Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.

And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.

And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue.

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.

Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

God has a longstanding habit of calling those he loves into difficult situations.

God called Abraham to leave his home and wander around in foreign lands among strangers who, as far as he knew, might kill him on sight.

God called meek ole' Moses and his cowardly big brother to stand before the most powerful ruler in the known world and demand the release of the Hebrew people.

God called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to defy the Babylonian King's idolatrous command and subsequently be thrown into a fiery furnace — just as Daniel was tossed into a den of lions after God called him to keep praying despite King Darius' decree.

The Scriptures are chock-full of stories about God's many suffering servants.

But they all point beyond themselves to the beautiful, bloody story of the long Suffering Servant who was to come ().

This is the story of the gospel!

That God's own Son stepped away from his eternal glory to live a perfectly righteous life in human form so that he could gift that righteousness to wicked sinners, and take the sins of those wicked men upon himself and allow God's wrath to crush him instead of them.

Christ suffered more intensely than any person ever has or ever will — and he did all of this according to the will of his Father ().

God called Jesus to the ultimate discomfort so that we, the undeserving recipients of his mercy, could escape eternal discomfort.

So this means we're off the hook, right?

The Lord led lots of Old Covenant folks into uncomfortable situations.

But those of us who have received the pardoning benefits of the New Covenant in Christ's blood don't have to worry about him calling us to discomfort, do we?

Jesus paid the price.

His chastisement brought us peace.

The ferocious, fatherly love of God has been irrevocably unleashed on us in the gospel.

So it logically follows that life should be smooth sailing from here on out, doesn't it?

Some suppose this to be the case.

However, God doesn't call Christians to just be cloud floaters as much as he calls us to cross carriers ().

Christ himself commands us to embrace the difficulty and discomfort that accompany a flesh-denying, Kingdom-proclaiming life.

It's true that God will one day apply the fullness of Christ's redemption across the board.

The toil, struggle, and pain that characterize our present experience will be crushed to death by the glory of Jesus as he is revealed from Heaven.

But until that day comes, Christians must embrace God's good decree that we should "suffer with [Jesus] in order that we might be glorified with him" ().

Or do we?

Let's be honest —We don't like pain.

We don't like struggle.

We don't like difficulty.

So we avoid these things at all costs — sometimes even at the cost of disobedience!

Why do things like sexual sin, materialism, and missional apathy plague the American Church?

Because we love it, because we adore our fleshly comforts; more that we love God!

We want to satisfy our bodies with every carnal pleasure we crave, so we defy God's command for purity.

We want to gather into our laps all the shiny trinkets and toys we can get our hands on, so we ignore God's insistence that we live contently and to give generously.

We cringe at the thought of awkwardness or tension, so we don't speak the gospel to our friends whose earthly lives and eternal souls are being destroyed by sin.

Denying ourselves, picking up our crosses, and following Jesus would just be too uncomfortable — so in many cases, we just don't do it.

Children of God we need a change of perspective!

We need to look at God's call to costly obedience differently.

Why?

Because we sadly upon the difficulty, pain, or discomfort obedience brings instead of the blessings it will surely bring.

I'm not talking about getting earthly rewards in exchange for following the rules — I'm talking about experiencing more of God as we submit to his leading!

Every time God calls us to do something difficult or scary, he promises us something incredible: that he will be there with us.

Whether it's something as simple as opening the Bible every morning or something as dramatic as moving our family across the world to live in a village void of the many luxuries we currently enjoy, God promises to manifest himself to us as we obey ().

God is a good Father.

He doesn't usher us toward situations that cause us discomfort simply because he wants to make our lives hard.

He ushers us toward uncomfortable obedience so that we can experience his power, comfort, and joy — and be conformed to the likeness of Jesus as we do!

God's goal is to transform us into heavenly-minded people who cling to him in childlike dependence and bow to him in worshipful submission, like Jesus did.

He wants to pull us away from the slavery of self-preservation and bring us into the freedom of abandoning fleshly comfort for his glory and the good of others, like Jesus did.

When our good God calls us to difficult circumstances, he is prying us away from cheap happiness and inviting us into deep and vibrant joy — the same joy that motivated Jesus to embrace the Cross ()!

Let us pray…

In we focuses again on Paul’s synagogue ministry, and Paul’s once again being drawn by God into uncomfortable obedience.

We see here how God highlights the contrasting responses to the gospel of Jesus Christ in Thessalonica and Berea.

(1) This Jesus we proclaim to you is the Christ

Paul’s synagogue ministry essentially involves arguing from the Scriptures that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead and that He was the Christ.

Let pick us the conversation at the beginning, “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia…”

Amphipolis and Apollonia were on the way to their God’s given destination but they were not God’s given destination.

Both cities were in the same approximant area but they were not the city God appointed for the proclamation of the truth about His Son Jesus, who is the Christ.

Paul and his companions travelled west along the Via Egnatia, this was the road that I told you about three weeks ago, a road constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC.

A road that runs from Illyricum to Macedonia, a road that still exits today, in some places in disrepair, but without any potholes.

This road was the main route from Rome to the east, and passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia.

Amphipolis was the capital of the first district of Macedonia in which Philippi was situated, about 30 miles west-southwest.

Apollonia was further inland, a day’s journey beyond Amphipolis.

It is likely that these were the places ‘where the travellers spent successive nights, dividing the journey into three stages of about 30, 27 and 35 miles a piece.

Both Amphipolis and Apollonia was a day’s walk from each other but neither city had enough Jewish men to form a synagogue, so God set for then the destination of Thessalonica.

The text goes on to tells, “… they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews…” Finally, they came to Thessalonica, the most populated city in the region, capital of the second district of Macedonia and the seat of the Roman provincial government from 146 bc.

It was made a free city by the Romans in 42 bc, with the rights of self-government.

Luke’s tells us that there was a Jewish synagogue in Thessalonica there of the Jews.

Here, in this area that was a greater male presence that in Philippi and more than enough Jewish men who were the heads of their household living there to organize a synagogue for worship.

Verse 2a states that, “…And Paul went in in, as was his custom…” Paul always took the opportunity to preach in the synagogue first and reason with his Jewish brothers and sisters in the synagogue concerning Jesus.

Luke does not allow us to forget that this was Paul’s custom, wherever possible, was to preach to Jews first.

In , “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

The text tells us that Paul did not just speak to them on one occasion but on three consecutive Sabbath days.

The text says … and on three Sabbaths days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures.