The Power of God's Word

Something I want us to see and appreciate this morning as we gather as Christians is that we are a book religion. Doesn't that sound exciting? It's true, and it actually is encouraging when we understand what that means and why it's so important. We are a book religion. Now, religion, at first, has really gotten a bad name, and if we just go back to what the word means, it means to bind, to connect. Religion, at the heart of it, is a relationship. Christianity is binding us to God, who is personal. It's a commitment. It connects. It involves communication. It involves duty and responsibility, just like every relationship does. It also involves reverence. Christianity is a religion because it's a binding relationship that involves reverence. Because it's a relationship with God. Now, I want to step back a moment and think about something a little bit broader here, because we're talking about how the Bible is God's word to us to bind us to Him who loves us very personally. I want to make it very clear, especially if you're not a Christian here this morning, we're all religious. Because God designed us to be religious, everyone has a center of commitment. We all have things that we consider as sacred, and they're typically relationships. But oftentimes, because we choose to worship things that are not God, sometimes those relationships that we look at as sacred, they're not even with people. You can have a sacred relationship with a substance. You can have a sacred relationship with success. You can have a sacred relationship with finances and security. We can have a sacred relationship and a commitment to other people. And I say that to help us see that we all have sacred commitments to someone or something. But God, he designed us to have a sacred relationship that binds us to Him and He alone is satisfying. He alone is truly worthy of that kind of commitment. So I want to make it clear, Christianity is not a unique religion in that we're a book religion. We're a unique religion in that God has spoken to save us and unite Him with us so that we can know Him and be known by Him. It's personal. It's a religion that calls us to be His people, to have a commitment. First and foremost, it's a religion that says what God says is true. Now, I want to start out with this very clear affirmation. God is the most effective communicator. God is the most effective communicator. He speaks. He speaks with clarity. He speaks with power. He speaks with love. When God speaks, He is able to communicate what He wants to speak. There's a problem. And it's not ever with God's ability to communicate. The problem lies with us. We have a problem with listening. We have a problem with receiving. We have a problem with hearing and responding. And so I want us to approach today as we're looking at Acts 17, which is really bound up with the importance of the Scriptures. I want to go in, I want to point back and really show you what you've already said to God in song today. On page six, we sing, help my unbelief. We've already confessed that we don't listen all that well. We don't respond as we ought. We've already said and confessed to God and repented, help my unbelief. And then we sing amazing grace. We affirm to God and to one another, God's grace is sufficient. He is able to help my lack of faith and response. And then we looked up to God and we asked him to speak. We've repented, we've acknowledged he's able to help us, and then we ask, speak Lord, renew our minds, help us to grasp the heights of your plans for us. By faith we'll walk as you walk with us. Will you pray with me again these truths? Father, we come in and we are full of ideas and thoughts and desires because there are so many things seeking to grasp our attention in this world. And Lord, we ask that you would bring us to a moment here where we can hear you, the great God who speaks. We come with a weak faith. We come not having a right reverence for you. We come ready to hear you. We ask that you give us help. so that we might receive what you have to say with all eagerness, expecting you to say something today that will help us to see you as you are, help us to see us as your children needing to be changed. We thank you, Lord, that your grace is sufficient, that amazing grace that took us out of darkness into light and it moved us from being blind to who you are and what we were worshiping to now seeing you, the one true God. So we ask, Lord, that you'll speak. Speak to us because we need to hear from you. Speak to us, give us hearts to receive. Speak because your words are life and we need to delight in them. In Jesus' precious name we pray, amen. We're in Acts 17 this morning. That's found on page 926 if you're using a pew Bible. This is Paul's second missionary journey. If you flip back, he began this journey in our text last week in chapter 16. There's two missions, and it's very important to see that the word of God is central to those missions. Paul, the church, is taking God's word out. They're saying what God has said, and the people are receiving it who are saved. This is really amazing as well, if we think about it. We're blessed to hear God, and then He entrusts us to actually represent Him and speak on His behalf. At one level, that's an amazing opportunity and privilege, but think about that responsibility we have. Those who hear the Word get to be blessed by it and receiving it, but then we have that responsibility to make sure that when we speak, and live, we're representing that same great word of the righteous and gracious God. In the second missionary journey, we're going to be going, we're going to continue to Macedonia. We're going to see that Paul goes to the city of Thessalonica, and then to Berea. Here's the one sentence thesis that we can pull together from these two stories. What we're going to see this morning is how God's Word teaches us that the Gospel is necessary, persecuted, and proven. God's Word teaches us that the Gospel is necessary, persecuted, and proven. So first, the necessary Gospel. Look to verses 1 to 4. Now they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia. Sorry, I'm supposed to say those very boldly as if I know exactly how they're pronounced. They came to Thessalonica. There was a synagogue of the Jews there. And remember, in previous cities, there was not a synagogue. A synagogue requires 10 men to form a synagogue. So there is a good group of Jews already present in Thessalonica. 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 who suffered 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. Now before, we had a we. Remember Luke was with them, and he was referring to we were traveling, but Luke is apparently not with them anymore. He's reporting what Paul and Silas are doing in this new city. He goes as is custom to the synagogue, and the reason he does this is because if he goes to synagogue, he already has a common starting place with them to share the gospel. It's not like we're going to see in Athens, where he has to start referencing the great God of creation. He kind of has to do some more building of basic framework that there is only one God. No, he gets to go to the synagogue, because the Jews in the synagogue, they already have God's Word. They already know there's one God who is the Creator, and He alone is to be worshipped. And he also is able to point out how that God has made many promises. So he goes and he begins reasoning from the Scriptures, verse 2, because that's what they already have in common. And I want to make it clear, God's people have always been a people of God's Word. Abraham. He believed when God spoke. He acted when God spoke. Now he didn't have it in writing, but he was completely dependent upon what God said for his life and his instruction. We get Moses. For the first part of Moses' life, there is no writing. It's just God speaking and him responding and leading the people to follow. But then Moses writes. And it's at that point that God's people became a book religion. The point being we've always been a people that are completely dependent upon what God says. Now there's a phrase in Luke that he uses continually throughout the book of Acts. that draws our attention. And that phrase is in verse three for our passage. It was necessary. That's a phrase that Luke continues to come back to and repeat, and it should draw our attention because he's saying something is very important. It's beyond important. It's necessary. It is necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. He's showing the Jews in the synagogue from the Old Testament that Jesus Christ had to die on the cross and rise again. He's going to go to the Old Testament and he's going to preach the gospel. This is what Jesus did on the road to Emmaus. This is what Peter and Paul have done. And again, I really wish they would have shared these notes. It would have been very helpful to see how they worked through this. But we do have a lot of information. And if you're a child, or if you're an adult, the key verse I want you to write down and think about, if you're a child, write this down. It was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. That's our key verse this morning. Let's look at the parts of this. First, Christ must suffer. Christ must suffer. You can go all the way back to page 3 in your pew Bible. Genesis 3.15. Where God first makes the declaration that the Christ must suffer. A child will be born of the woman, and the serpent's child will strike his heel. He will suffer. He will be injured. It will be a great injury. But through that injury, he will bring victory. And this is important because it's right after Adam and Eve's sin. And God's way of responding to their sin is to give a promise of grace and salvation. And that grace and salvation can only come if the Christ, the child who will come to reverse the curse, if he suffers. We can go to another key passage that will help us see the importance of the suffering Christ by looking to Isaiah 52 and 53. You can find that on page 613. 613. Please turn there if you have a pew Bible. And I'm gonna be reading verses four to 12, sorry, 614. This is a passage quoted often in the New Testament to help us see the importance of Christ's suffering. Again, this is written before Christ came. These are texts that Paul would have reasoned from. Surely, the suffering servant, the Christ, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his stripes, we are healed. And we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation, who consider that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When a soul makes an offering for sin, he shall set his offspring. He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. And he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many. And he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Because he has poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. As we consider this passage, we need to first realize where we are in this passage. We are the sheep who have gone astray. We're the sheep that have decided to do everything our own way, and God has said, no, I'm not going to let you keep running away from me towards destruction. So he sent his son, Jesus Christ, the perfect righteous one. He knew no sin, but look what he does. He's wounded for our transgressions. He's crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with His stripes we're healed. He suffers the death that we deserve so that we will not have to suffer that death. He is punished by God as a substitute for our sin. You see here that this isn't just some, some, some second plan. This isn't some, some, some thing that just happened to, to occur that God said, this is good. No. Look at, look at verse 10. It was the will of the Lord to crush him. He was put him to grief. The father he planned, he chose to send his son to save us. It was necessary because this was what he promised. And then look at verse 12. Through his death he shares with us his inheritance. He brings life because he died. This is one of the many and most clear Old Testament passages that point to the death of Christ that shows that He had to die on our behalf to wash away our sin. We can also look to how it was necessary that He would rise from the dead. That's on page, we can look to Psalm 110 on page 509. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand. We see the New Testament authors, we see Peter quoting this to show that that Christ who came down is now exalted because he's risen from the dead. He is now exalted at the right hand of God. He is risen. Thank you. We got to practice Easter soon. He is risen. Friends, these two truths He died in our place. He rose again to give us new life. These are the two central truths of Christianity that were necessary for our salvation. God says a whole lot more throughout all of his scripture. There's been other truths, been other commands, but everything we think, everything we do must constantly coming back to circling these two truths. They define us. They demand our allegiance. They tell us who we are. Notice what Paul does next. This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, He is this Christ. The Father has made many promises from the Old Testament. And I'm telling you that that Jesus who recently was murdered, that Jesus who recently rose, it's Him. He has come to fulfill all that God set. Now, I want to look at the third part of this, this great declaration this morning. It was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise again. I just want to think about this, this declaration. It was necessary for a moment. It was necessary. Why was it necessary? First and foremost, God made promises and He always keeps His promises. God made promises. It was necessary for the Christ you suffer because God made promises that He would bring us back to Him safely in His love and God made promises and He had to keep those promises. In Genesis 15, you can look to how he made a promise. There was a way in the Old Testament times that many cultures would make promises, and what they would do is they would cut up an animal in half, and they'd put those halves on each side, and the two people making a promise would walk through, and they would state their promises to one another. And what they're saying in that event is that if I don't keep my promises, I'm as good as dead. Well, God follows this custom to make a point to Abraham. It's an interesting scene where God has many animals cut up in half and they're both on each side and God puts Abraham to sleep and has him sit next to him. And then God alone walks up and down, making promises. He alone is the promise maker that defines who we are. He is the promise keeper We have to realize that it's necessary because God said, I'm gonna save you. If you follow along the children's bulletin, there's something you learn about God. He's the promise maker and He's the promise keeper. Secondly, it was necessary because of us. We're just that bad. That a perfect, righteous Savior, Jesus Christ, He had to come down and be beaten, spat upon, and suffocated on the cross. This shows how sinful we are. This shows how far we've gone astray. The great God, who is infinite and perfect and righteous, He's showing us, He's trying to show us how great our debt of sin is. And here's something that you're never gonna know. You will never know how great your sin debt is, but this is what you can know. It's fully paid for in Jesus Christ. You'll never, we will never know how we've sinned in every possible way, but if we've confessed with our lips and our hearts are agreeing in our mind that Jesus Christ has died for our sins, that sin debt is washed. It's done. So this is what you can learn about yourself today if you're following along the children's bulletin. We need to be saved. And what you can learn about Jesus Christ is that he died and rose again to save you. So it's necessary because God made promises. It's necessary because we're that sinful. It's necessary, thirdly, because God loves us. And really this is the same point as the first one. See, when God made promises, nothing compelled Him to make those promises other than His choice to say, I'm going to love you. That is something that Christianity teaches us in this book, the Bible, in that love is not a feeling. We do not just love those who are lovely or those who make us feel good. No, love is a choice that is a choice based upon what God says. He doesn't look at us and say, I'm going to love those because they love me. No, he says, love me because I've loved you. His love is not earned. His love is a gift. It's a commitment that he makes. It's necessary because God simply committed to loving a people and he made them promises. Therefore, he had to send his son to save us. What we should all ask now is what does God expect of us? This is the amazing part about this story. He says, trust me. He says, trust me. I've told you who I am. I've told you who you are. I've told you what I've done for you. I've sent my son to die if you rise again. He simply says, trust me. That's the beauty of what God says to us. And that is the gospel. If you're not a Christian here this morning, that is what you must believe to be saved. That is what you need to hear. Christian, I hope you're encouraged by that good news, but right now we're gonna be praying that if someone is not here and they do not know Jesus Christ as their Savior, and if that's you, ask God to help your unbelief. God just told you everything you need to know. I pray you will ask God to help your unbelief so that you might believe that. I'm gonna change gears here for a moment. And I'm gonna look at this last phrase in verse four. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas. Many did come to faith, as I hope some of you will, who don't know Christ today. As there are a great many that are about Greeks, so it's not just the Jews that came to faith, but Greeks did. And then Luke says that a few of the leading women, and I'm gonna pause here and I'm gonna think about women, especially in the book of Acts. Because something Luke is doing is he's showing how the gospel of Jesus Christ is not only going into the church and now is going out into the world, he's showing that the gospel is for everybody. He's constantly mentioning women in the book of Acts. And if you were to go back and read other documents that are written at this time, they wouldn't mention women that often. And if they did, it wouldn't be in the most pleasant way. Acts is unusual in this way. The Bible is unusual in the history of documentation of man, in that it is very pro-woman. Let me actually make the better statement. The Bible is the most pro-woman document ever written. God has made the most pro-woman declarations ever said. And so I want us to see here that Luke is intentionally pointing out Lydia was a woman who was saved. The gospel is for those who are oftentimes considered outcasts and unworthy. No, the gospel is for those, the culture looks at that way. The gospel is seeking to address two main problems we see in the history of man, that is racism and sexism. Luke addresses the issue of racism with the Jew-Gentile issue, and I think he's constantly pointing out that the gospel is for women. And so I just want to pause here, and I want to think about what the Bible says about women. First, women are created in God's image, equal in dignity and honor with man. You can look to Genesis 1, 26 and 27. Man and woman. Male and female, both created with the same dignity and honor, being made in the image of God. Secondly, we can see they're saved by the same precious blood of Christ. We just have to go back and look at Lydia. She believed in the same gospel and has the same salvation. Maybe even more pointed is Galatians 3, 25 to 29. Galatians 3, 25 to 29, women are adopting the same family and receive the same inheritance as the firstborn of God. They're given the same Holy Spirit, so they too can have the same mind of Christ and have an equal, equally important role in His body. We see this in Titus 2. Now that's what the Bible says is equal, but women are different. Women are different one way in that they have the privileged position of having babies. That is a great blessing and honor, and yes, that great blessing came with the curse after sin and having pain, but the ability to carry another human being. To have that human being develop in your womb, that is a remarkable blessing God gave to women. And let's just kind of focus in a little bit more. God gave a woman the great blessing of actually giving birth to God. Mary. I realize it's almost Easter, but we can think about Christmas. A woman was given the great blessing of giving birth to God. Second, men, we need to remember that in Genesis 2, God reminds us and tells us very clearly that women came to help us. I.e., we needed help. The clearest declaration of who needs the help is men needed the help from the woman. And yes, women have different roles. in the home, in the church, but they're not less important or less influential. The Bible is pro-woman for us to see, women so that you can see you are precious in the eyes of God, you're valued and honored by our Heavenly Father, your equal in dignity, co-heirs with Christ, called the most important job that anyone has ever been given in all the world, and that is to worship God. Men. God says these things very clearly for us so that we can repent of being knuckleheads. To esteem women for who God created and saved. They're created the same dignity, they're saved by the same blood. To acknowledge that he's gifted them in many ways to do things that we cannot do. That's okay, God's in control. What this really calls is going beyond being polite to women, while that's important. It goes beyond us just being thankful for women. That's important. It goes beyond promoting a women's ministry. That's also very important. It goes to the point of just being convinced by the Word of God, which is binding to esteem women. That's precious, important, and necessarily influential. One of the job responsibilities of elders is to equip the members. And one of the things we've actually tried to focus on is how do we equip women for the work of the ministry? Because we have to realize is that women are necessary, not just serving, which too often we think about. No, women are called to speak. We need women to speak. You go to Titus 2 and women are commanded to speak. It's important. Okay, there is a limitation on women speaking. In 1 Timothy 2, it says women not to teach men. We're trying to be as careful about that as possible. We also don't want to make it to where we're so focused on that we limit women and the important influence they can be in a church. Now I say all this because our culture, in case you've missed it, has a real bad confusion about gender. Our culture needs some guidance when it comes to gender. And the church, if we actually look at what God's word says and we live it out, we don't just kind of go, yeah, that's right. No, we live it out in the way we treat one another, we can be a beacon of light to the culture. But I want to say more important than that, we can be a healthier church. We can be a healthier church if we actually look to what God says and consider women highly esteemed and important and necessary for the work of the church. If it feels like I'm getting off a soapbox, I may have just done that. The persecuted gospel. The second point, the persecuted gospel. Now, notice the gospel is effective as Paul is reasoning that it is necessary for Christ to suffer and rise from the dead. We look at verse five and we see how the gospel is so regularly persecuted. And notice verse five, it gives us an insight. The Jews were jealous. How Luke knows this, I don't know if he looked at their fruit and just said they must be jealous or if the Holy Spirit's just giving him a unique divine insight. But the Jews who did not believe were jealous. Maybe they've lost influence, we don't know. But what they did was they took some wicked men and they formed a mob. The city became an uproar and they attacked the house of Jason. Assuming this is where the disciples must have been living or Paul and Silas were staying. They could not find them. They dragged Jason and some of the believers before the city. Authorities shouting, these men have turned the world upside down and have come here also. And Jason has received them. And they're all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying there's another King Jesus. Now, let's just first say, it's really easy to just promote a bunch of people being against something. I mean, it shows how easy it is to rally an opposition. I mean, in our culture, in order to rally people to oppose something, you just have to give them a sign and a reason to write something on that sign. To protest against something, that's really easy. To actually seek to build up and be proactively for something, that's hard work. You've got to roll up the sleeves for that one. It's a little more than just writing a sign and making a protest. Here it's really easy. They just get the wicked men of the rabble for a mob. And listen to these accusations. They've turned the world upside down. The world's not completely turned upside down yet, but the world's gonna be forever different because a man died on the cross and rose again. that they're seeing the effects of how this gospel changes everything. And I just want to ask you a question. Doesn't the world need turned upside down? Nobody's happy with the way the world is. We just all have different complaints and different solutions. And God, when He speaks, tells us the one real problem and the one real solution. I'm the problem with my sin, and Jesus Christ is the solution. That's it. It is just that simple. Then he says they're saying there's another king. Yeah. He's a different kind of king. His throne's in heaven. And all the other kings that exist, they are there because that king has put them in charge. He is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the one who truly has glory and authority. So we see here the gospel goes out the gospel has a an attack and that's just normal as we look through Acts But then we look at the proven gospel. This is 10 to 15 Paul and Silas they leave in haste they end up in Berea and they continue to go to the synagogue first and notice what Luke says these men were more noble than those in Thessalonica the the Jews here are more faithful than And verse 11 tells us two important things about these Jews and what makes them more noble. They received the Word with all eagerness, and they examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were true. That's how he's qualifying what it means to be more noble. It's to be more dependent upon the Word of God. They received the Word with eagerness. They examined the Scriptures. Now, notice what Luke just did. Paul has come, and he's preaching a word of God, and the Bereans, what they do is they go to what has been previously written, and they're wanting to make sure that these two things align. They're not standing over Scripture trying to figure out what's true. No, they're sitting under Scripture, and they're saying, God, is what's being told me true according to what your word says? See, the posture of the Bereans is what is so important. They're willing to receive with eagerness, and they're willing to examine, not to say this is true or not. They're willing to say, this is true. Whatever it says is going to be above me, and I'm going to submit to it. And if what Paul is saying as the gospel agrees with what God's Word had previously said, it must be true. They receive it with joy. This is the posture we must have. It's one that seeks to receive the word with eagerness. We hear something, we wanna eagerly pursue God and His word, examining it so that we can be changed by it. And the fruit of this action is that many came to faith, many were saved, but then those wicked men from Thessalonica, they decided they were going to cause trouble again. As we conclude, I want us to see the importance and the power of God's Word. One simple declaration, God's spoken. This is such good news because God has spoken in the midst of our world of lies and darkness and confusion. He has spoken so that we stop going our own way so that He can put us in His way. We don't have to be creative. God's spoken. We don't have to be novel. God has spoken. We don't have to be in the right mood or figure out if we feel right. No, God's simply spoken and we just have to respond and obey. This is why God's Word is not just important, it's necessary. It tells us what we need to know, to believe, and to do. Now, I want to be very clear, God's Word, the Bible, is not a simple book. It's written over thousands of years by different men and in different cultures, and it's very diverse. And more than that, the simplicity of it is that it is about God, but it's also very difficult in that it challenges everything about us. Our words, our actions, our thoughts, our desires. I also praise God that his book is important. It's a healing book. It comforts us, it cares for us. God's Word's a demanding book. It corrects us, constrains us, controls us, commands us. It's a powerful book. It brings the dead to life. It declares the truths that turn the culpable and the guilty to forgiven. It tells the slaves of sin, you're free. So we call you to take it and read it. There's a simple acrostic I want everyone at Jefferson Park to, to memorize. The acrostic is this, it's SCAN. SCAN. And it stands for this, sufficient, clear, authoritative, necessary. Sufficient, clear, authoritative, necessary. Those are the four words that really describe the Bible well. It's sufficient. Everything you need to know about God, yourself, salvation, how to live, it's right here. God's Word is sufficient for worship. It's clear. Yeah, there are some difficult parts, but everything we need to know, it's written very clearly for us. And not only do we have the Holy Spirit who has given us these words, the Holy Spirit resides in us so that we can understand it. Third, it's authoritative. We may not understand it, but we can never question it. We don't get to choose what we like out of it. No, it's, it's authoritative. Then finally, it's necessary. We need it. We need to be like the psalmist who says, I love your law. I delight in your precepts. We need to be like the psalmist who cries out, God, speak because I need you. We need to realize that the words contained in this book are more important than the air you breathe and the food you eat and the water you drink. The challenge is to want to be like that tree we read about in Psalm 1 earlier. that's so near the waters that the roots go down deep, and it soaks in the nutrients, and it bears great fruit. What it requires of us is that we take, and we read, and we consume, and we seek to be changed by the Word of God. What does God expect of you? To live by His Word. To trust Him. To obey Him. It means reading it daily, reading it with others, praying through scripture, committing to being a people who are built up on the truth of scripture. It's recognizing we need God to speak and praising him for the God who speaks so powerfully for us. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise you and we thank you that you are the God who has not remained silent. You've spoken a word of correction, you've spoken a word of grace, you've spoken your great gospel, and Jesus Christ has obeyed and followed, and he has died for our sins and risen again. We thank you that we can be confident in what you have said. Help our unbelief. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.