Common Ground

Common Ground

Acts 17:1-5, 10-12, 22-23

The New Testament in a Year sermon series

Rev. Brian North, Westminster Presbyterian, Chehalis, WA

February 5th, 2012

This morning we’re looking at three different instances of Paul persuading people of the truth of Jesus as the Messiah. There are similarities and differences between all three in what he does and says, and there are similarities and differences in the people to whom he’s speaking. And as we compare and contrast these three episodes, we’ll see some things that impact us in our discipleship to Jesus and impact our efforts to reach people for Christ, too.

So, with that, let’s read this morning’s passages from Acts 17. We’ll read verses 1-5, then 10-12, then 22-23. This is God’s Word to you and me today.

After Paul and Silas 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 argued with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, ‘This is the Messiah, Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.’ 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 became jealous, and with the help of some ruffians in the market-places they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. While they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly, they attacked Jason’s house (Acts 17:1-5).

That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas off to Beroea; and when they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue. These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, including not a few Greek women and men of high standing. (Acts 17:10-12)

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, ‘Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god.” What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you (Acts 17:22-23).

So the first thing to note and apply to our lives is the response of the people to Paul’s preaching: Some people were open to the gospel message, while others were not. Now this is true in each of the three cities in this passage – there’s a range of responses to the message Paul brings. But Luke notes for us that there is a general receptivity in Berea that was not present in Thessalonica, and not in Athens, either – though Thessalonica was the most physically hostile.¹

So while all three cities had some people who were receptive to the message of Christ crucified and resurrected, and others who weren’t, each town also had some general leanings one way or the other. Luke particularly notes this difference between Thessalonica and Berea. He says in verse 11, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). What I think God would have us consider is this: Could the same thing be said about us? Do we come to worship, do we approach our personal Bible Study, do we come to The Stand…or wherever else we have opportunities to receive a Biblical message and study the Scriptures…do we do so with great eagerness?

When we come to the Bible with eagerness, we are much more likely to be impacted and drawn closer to God than if we come with a sense of reluctance or skepticism. And I am fortunate to be pastoring a church that comes to the Bible with a sense of eagerness. I still remember interviewing with the Pastor Nominating Committee over five years ago, and their emphasis on a desire for Biblically based sermons. That was a heritage of this church from its previous pastors, and that was something this church wanted to continue. That excites me. It makes me eager to prepare the sermon and to deliver it on Sundays. I know that when I stand up here each Sunday to speak to you all, I know you are people who desire to hear something from Scripture that will encourage you or comfort you or challenge you or somehow else move you forward in your journey with Jesus. You’re not like the young man in Acts 19 who fell asleep during Paul’s preaching. At least, most of you aren’t!  Of course, I’m not preaching for hours on end until midnight, either. But your attentiveness and eagerness is a fantastic quality for a church to have, and I’m grateful that it’s a quality of WPC. And it’s a quality that the people of Berea had as Paul spoke to them about Jesus. Let’s make sure we continue to be eager for God’s Word in our discipleship to Jesus.

The next two items have to do with how we then take that message out into the world. The first of those two things to note and learn from is that everywhere Paul went he spoke to people about Jesus. Always. St. Francis of Assisi is credited with saying: “Preach the gospel always; when necessary, use words” (St. Francis of Assisi). The implication is that the usage of words in our “preaching” should be limited, and allow our actions to do most of the preaching. The older I get, the more I think that this quote does a grave dis-service to the gospel, because so many Christians rarely give any verbal indication to anyone that they’re a Christian. But that’s not what we see throughout the New Testament.

Instead, we see that action is always accompanied by preaching. Jesus models this for us all the time. For instance, I don’t think Jesus ever heals someone without giving them some kind of spiritual teaching. If he does, it’s a very small percentage. Get a red-letter Bible (Jesus’ words in red) and see what percentage of the Gospels are in red. It’s a lot. We see this continue with Peter and Paul and the other Christians of Acts, too, as they intentionally look for people to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with.

Jesus said, “Let your light shine before all people so that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). More often than not, it takes words to connect our deeds to our heavenly father so that others would glorify Him. Without the words, most people just don’t make the connection.

Do we look for opportunities for our words to accompany our actions? The occasional opportunity may “fall into our laps” but we’re going to miss a whole bunch more that we could have if we intentionally stepped out with a little boldness and courage to preach with words. Do we talk about our faith, our church, the ways we serve Jesus? Words are important and necessary, and we see that here as Paul speaks to people about Jesus.

The question then, is, “What words do I say?” And the answer to that is: It depends on who you’re talking to. This is the second point about taking the message out to the world. Paul was the master of this. When he was in front of a Jewish audience as he was in Thessalonica and in Berea, Luke tells us that he “reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead” (Acts 17:2-3). He turned to the Scriptures, because his audience was Jewish. They respected the Scriptures. So Paul could turn to passages that prophesied about the lineage of the Messiah, such as Isaiah 40 which prophesies about the Messiah being preceded by a messenger, which was fulfilled by John the Baptist; Zechariah 9:9 which prophesied of a king riding into town on a donkey; Isaiah 53 which speaks extensively of his death: that He was despised and rejected…that he took our infirmities and carried our sorrows…that he was pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities. All of these and more would be verses Paul could appeal to in his preaching to a Jewish audience.

But then in Athens he finds himself among Greek philosophers. And here, amongst these Greek intellectuals who know nothing of Scripture, Paul doesn’t refer to Scripture at all. In fact, he starts with the spirituality of their culture, and an altar he found in town that was dedicated to “an unknown god.” And he uses that, rather than Scripture, to tell them that what they don’t know is in fact knowable, and proceeds to tell them the gospel. He even quotes some of their own poets of their day. (“As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”) Paul is sensitive to his audience and uses whatever is best to reach them with the gospel message. And we can be just as sensitive. In fact, in American culture in the 21st Century, it is imperative to be sensitive to that, and realize that most people have no knowledge of the Bible. We are in a Biblically illiterate society. The people of Athens are much closer to our society than the people of Thessalonica and Berea, and Paul’s conversation with the people of Athens is particularly helpful for us.

This past August or so I told you that I was going to my 20 year High School reunion, and that I was hoping to meet up with one guy in particular who I wanted to extend some condolences to, and see how he’s doing. His dad made some poor decisions in running a Seattle-based bank that ended up going under, and while he certainly shoulders much of the blame, I saw it as an opportunity touch base with his son and perhaps be a light during a dark time for him and his family.

Well, he wasn’t at the 20-year reunion. But God had something else in mind for me that night. I ended up meeting a guy named Kyle who married one of my classmates. They now live in Colorado, where he is on the ski patrol at Steamboat Springs Ski resort. We immediately started talking skiing, since that was a place of common ground. And as usually happens in the course of conversation, he asked what I do for a living. When I told him I am a pastor, he was absolutely fascinated at the idea of a ski bum becoming a pastor. He wanted to hear all about my faith journey, how I sensed the call to the ministry, how my faith intertwined with my skiing, how I live out my faith now, and so forth.

I don’t know what has happened since that night, but I do know that in the course of our conversations – he actually sought me out later on in the evening after we had first met, to continue the conversation…and I don’t know what has happened since then, but I know that at that moment he felt convicted to reconnect with the faith he once had, and to reconnect with Jesus. It was a very heartfelt conversation that we had, and it was clear that God was working on his heart and using the time that he and I had together to move Kyle closer to Jesus. And I didn’t quote Scripture once. But it was an opportunity God gave me to speak about Jesus, how God had moved in my life, and what I believed, and it all started because of our shared love of skiing.

You know: For most all of us here this morning, the reason we are here (the reason we have a relationship with Jesus Christ) is that someone once took the time to share the gospel message with you in a way that resonated with you. It might have been a parent, it might have been a Sunday school teacher, it might have been a neighbor or a classmate or a co-worker or someone else. But someone put their arm around you in your time of need, and ultimately told you about Jesus who holds all things in his hands. Someone shined a light in the darkness when you couldn’t see, and told you about Jesus, the light of the world. When you were lost, someone showed you Jesus, who is the way. Someone took the time to help you see your need of a savior, and told you about Jesus. They might have started with Scripture, or they might have started with some other point of contact with you. But someone had sat in a worship service or a Bible study, and eagerly listened to what God was saying to them through that passage, and then, like Paul, looked for ways to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with someone. And at some point, the opportunity they had was with each of us.

Now it’s your turn, and my turn to look for those opportunities. Let’s be like the people of Berea and eagerly receive what God has to say to each of us every Sunday and every time we open our Bibles this week and beyond. Let’s eagerly seek God moving in our lives. And then let’s be ready to look for common ground with the people around us so that we can be the hands and feet of Jesus in their lives and preach the gospel. As St. Francis said: “Preach the gospel always, and when necessary use words.” My friends, words are almost always necessary. God will give you the words. So let’s say them. Join me in prayer…Amen.