Somebody ought to go, Mr. Mottick gave us this lovely set of maps. And we don't very often use them. Sometimes we have the occasion. This morning we have the occasion to use one of them. Now, I know you can't see them very well from the back, but it gives us some idea. We're going to turn to the seventeenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostle. Now, if any of you can hear me talking, just put your hand up, and I'll talk louder or do something with the VA system to make it come louder. But they're not taking enough advantage of the speakers that we have there. If you would like to have one little one of your own, we have some and I can let you have one, bring me a pocket each time, just plug it in. And those who use it tell me they can hear very well if they use those speakers there. Act Seventeen. Now, during the number of months now, when I have been speaking here on Sunday, Sunday morning, I have been talking about the Acts of the Apostles. And we've been trying to trace the movements of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, in the act, in the establishing of the church on the day of Pentecost, as it spread out. according to the Lord's rules, beginning at Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the other most parts of the earth. And we're, our last talk, was in the Paul's second missionary journey, and we're going on with that. Today, God wouldn't. Acts chapter seventeen. Now, when they passed through Antipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must lead the supper, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greek, a great majesty, and of the chief women, not a few. But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain leased sellers of the basis sorts, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and have plotted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they grew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down, are come hither also. whom Jason has to see, and these all go contrary to the degrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus, and a trumpet of people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And when they have taken security of Jason, and of the other they let them go. And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea. two, coming dither, went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in search of the Naira, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and scarce the scriptures daily whether those things were so. Therefore, many of them believed, also of honorable women which were Greek, and of men not a few. But when the Jews, the source of the Nica, had knowledge that the word of God was preached to Paul at Belia, they came with it also, and stirred up the people. And then, immediately, the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea, but started some promoters of their very spirit. And so you see God's blessing again. Blessed God, we thank you for this portion of thy precious word. We thank you for the wonderful story of the work of the Apostle Paul under the leading of the Holy Spirit. We thank you for his courage and strong will to go forward in thy will to keep the word with quite much persecution. And we pray as we talk about the visit to Thessalonica and Berea this morning that the Holy Spirit of God might reveal some truth to us from thy precious word. We keep our dressing in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, first of all, is this here? Is this in Word? It's not staying up at all? Is it fuzzy? I put this on because I want to go over there. You can get it without that. Not the fuzzy. All right. And we'd only put that out when we go over there. Well, let's go and talk about that first. We left for all our signs as insinified. Now, in the second missionary journey, they had journeyed from Antioch in Syria. right up over the mountain here through what we what's called the Sicilian Gap through the mountain he did down here his carcass at his home and they came over here through where they had been on the first mission together they went to Antioch, Lyftia where they'd shown him the dead he remembered and all through that part exhorting and helping the churches which the Holy Spirit had used them to establish on the first journey and they came through and they were up around here somewhere And Paul and Silas, and by now they've taken Timothy with them, picked up Timothy down here, Lister, and Luke had all, I mean, Luke joined them here. And Paul's idea was to go this way. First of all, he went to Asia, then further into Sicily. But the Holy Spirit said, no. And they waited here down this Coaz, for the Lord to tell them what to do. And there appeared a man at night to Paul, a man of Macedonia, Europe. Now, the dividing line between Asia and Europe is up to here what we call the Garden Elves today. It's called the Hellespont in those days. And through the Siam Marmara and the Bosphorus into the Black Sea. And this side is Asia and this side, in this division, is Europe. And so the Holy Spirit was saying, come on over into Europe. And this is how God was going to spread the gospel. He said, the roots of Judea, Samaria, and the other most parts of the earth. And he used, he chose Paul and Presley to go to the Gentile nation. And so Paul and his partner Luke, I think, joined them here. And they, in two days, sailed across first to the island, he swam a praetor, and then, and then he did Neapolis, and went up to Philippi, where he'd celebrated, he'd put in prison, keep in the shops, and spurred. Remember the story. Where he led the Christian journey to Christ, where he led Midget to Christ, and there's the church. formed there and they met in her house there and the last thing we saw of Paul was in the house of Lydia. Then he leaves there and comes, half in she places on the way, it comes right down to Sesson-Lennartre. Sesson-Lennartre is a port, a very active and good port. It's tilted up here in this new cup in here, it sits there. It's still a good port today. And that's to say, Salonika, Salonika was used so much by the, particularly the Free Troops and the Australian Troops in World War I. They landed here and went up into East Macedonia. And then from Kosovo, and I think it came on to Burial. It even there, just there this morning, I hope, that a nation came throughout and was encouraged. But this is the journey. the Lord is now bringing the gospel over into Europe and it's pretty. So give you some ideas of the journey he made. So as I said, if you look at the last verse of the sixteenth chapter, forty-first it says, when they went out for the prison, that's in Philippi, they went out for the prison and entered into the house of Lydia, and when they'd seen the president, they'd comforted them and departed. And they departed through Amphipolis and Apollonian came to Thessalonica. Now the city of Thessalonica, I've already told you, is a seaport. They acted today and have been down through the country and all came there. But there was a synagogue at Thessalonica. Remember we pointed out that at the Philippi there was no synagogue. And the two Jewish people that were at the Philippi, they met, apparently they went out by the river side. and held meetings, prayer meetings, by the riverside. That's where they met Lydia. There's no synagogue there. But wherever there was the synagogue, Paul went first to the synagogue. In the Thirteenth chapter, when he got to Antioch in Pithidia, he went to the synagogue. And here in Thessalonica says, and I like the word, because it frames it here. He came to first of the night, where was a synagogue of the Jews? And Paul, as his manner was, went in. Now, Paul said the gospel is to the Jew first, and also to the Gentiles. And as a Jew, he always worked that way. His system, his method, it's called here his manner, as his manner was. Remember in the twenty chapter of the Acts, he's talking to the elders, from Ephesus, he says, you remember what kind of manner, what my manner was there. Working night and day, his prayers, how he visited in the homes and publicly, he preached them for three years in Ephesus. But here he says, his manner was to go to them first. So they're in chapter seventeen. There was a synagogue and he went to the synagogue first. When he got to Athens, there was no synagogue. When he got to Beryl, if you look in verse, in verse ten, it says, the brethren they moved, he sent away Paul and Silas by night to Beryl. Coming later, they went into the synagogue. He turned over to chapter eighteen, when he gets to Corinth, it says, when he got to Corinth, First of all, he reasoned in the synagogue. That's what he did. He always went to the Jew first, and that day he found the trouble. It's the Jews they persecuted. So thank God, in each of those synagogues, many of the Jews released. It's not mentioned so much about Thessalonica that the Jews released, but evident they did, and compared by his writings, he wrote the two first epistles he wrote, or the Ephesus to Thessalonica. First and second Ephesus to the Thessalonians. And he shoots there about their help with him and blessing the way God blessed them there. Now it's just three Sabbath days. I think that's true. Paul, as his manner was, went in under them and three Sabbath days he reaped with them out of the scriptures. Three Sabbath days. I have heard preachers say that Paul stayed in Thessalonica three weeks. I don't think that's true. I don't think he could possibly have taught them all the things he says he taught them in the first and second chapters. If you look at second chapters of the Thessalonians and you see the amazing amount of stuff he taught them and if they wouldn't live in them in the synagogue, I think he stayed there quite a while. But I think the first three weeks He went to the Srinagar, then they turned him over. That's what happened, this angry offering for Srinagar. He went to the Srinagar, then they turned him over. And it says in the second epistle, says to Lil Yungan, I don't know where to put my finger on this now. He says that he had told them, he actually told them here. somebody says this, reminding them what he taught them about the coming of the Lord Jesus. So this is his coming in power. First verse itself, sir. Thank you very much. He says, Now we seek to gather him by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and are gathering together unto him that he be not shaken or troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter, as from us. In this case, if a someone were writing as from him, they were not seen. But he did write to them. And he even thought them all about the setting up of the Antichrist. And the false worship, the false set up that will take place after the church is gone. And he actually tells them, if this cannot take place, he that now hinders will hinder it to me be taken out of the way. And he's saying that the Antichrist cannot be revealed until the church is gone. He taught them all that in the time that he was down there in the midst of the night. I don't know how long he stayed. But I know, priests of us, we wait to the synagogue and preach to them. Now, I said preach. That's not quite true here. I want to look very carefully at the way it's put. You see, a preacher of the gospel has to adapt himself to a people to whom he preaches it. Paul said, to the Jew, I was a Jew. He's very careful. To the free I was free, and so on. He adapts himself to those people. and he was talking to the Jews. And it looked to me, he didn't get up and preached at them, but he sat down and reasoned with them. I've made a note here that he had Bible readings. It says, Paul, as his manner was, twenty hundred ends, and three Sabbath days, re-read with them out of the Scripture. I think Paul, took each Jews together, may not be only on the Sabbath days, but all those three weeks, probably, he was meeting with the elders of the synagogue there, and he was reasoning with it. He didn't go in and upgrade them. He didn't go in at two then with the murder of the Lord Jesus. That's what Peter did at twenty o'clock. That was a different story. That was very Jerusalem, just after the crucifixion. But here he gets these two people together, and he takes the old church and the scriptures, and he proves from the Old Testament scripture that Messiah, now look at it, opening in the legend that Christ must leave the suffer and risen again through the dead. So far you haven't talked about the Lord Jesus. He's talking about Messiah and every Jew was looking for the Messiah to come. And he's telling them they were looking for a king to come in power and glory as he will by and by. But he's trying to teach them that The Messiah will come by and by in glory. He had to come first as a self in that. Now I say here that Paul and Peter are very much on the same level. If you remember in First Peter chapter one, I think verse eleven, Peter says that the Old Testament scriptures wrote about the sufferings of Christ, the Old Testament prophet, wrote about the sufferings of Christ and the glory that it followed. And all the Old Testament scriptures were divided that way. First of all, the sufferings of Christ and then the glory that it followed. And here Paul rules his wisdom and said, Christ must lead the sufferings of Christ. I imagine he needs to take in the... types in Leviticus, the atonement, explained animals, the blood that was shed, and talked about the suffering this time. I imagine if you take the Psalm twenty-three and explain that Messiah, when he came, he was suffering. And he went into the details of that suffering and told to them this the Messiah would be crucified when he came. Because it speaks about his hands and his feet. They pierced my hands and my feet. All that he would take from Psalm Trinity. He'd take Isaiah fifty-three and explain the suffering of the coming Messiah. So far he hadn't talked about Jesus. He talked about the sufferings of the Messiah. And then when he got them so far that they understood that when the Messiah came, he's going to suffer first. And then the glory they should follow. Then he applies the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has come. And he says, this Jesus, the misneeds have suffered and risen from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is the Messiah. The Hebrew word for the Messiah. The New Testament word for Messiah is Christ. Christ is the anointed one. So is Messiah, the sent one. And so he's saying that the Lord Jesus spoke to all that the Old Testament wrote about the coming Messiah. And he told to them that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Now that's the message. You've got to get over to a Jew. The Jew is probably the hardest, probably the hardest person to win. But that's the message that we've got to get over to the Jews. And this is how Paul did it. He didn't shout at them. He didn't accuse them. He just quietly reasoned with them. When he got to, in the eighteenth chapter, you'll find in verse four, he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. That's how he did it. He reasoned with them. Had some Bible readings. Got the Bible over them. Now there's no better way to study the Bible. I owe back to the all I know from conversational Bible reading, when as a youngster, from ten years of age until I left home at twenty-five, except during a short period I was in World War I, every Wednesday night found me sitting at the feet of the elder brethren as they discussed the Scriptures, not preaching, but taking the verses and going by them verse by verse as we've been doing here and discussing and expounding the scriptures. That was my Bible school. That's where I learned. And I consider that the best place to learn. Wherever I have gone in my life, I've always set up a Bible reading, a conversation Bible reading. But we didn't do it at past the problems. There were reasons why we did it. Perhaps we ought to, even yet, set up a good conversational Bible reading one night in a week. and go through the scriptures verse by verse. That's the best way to learn the Bible. That's why I like to preach this way. So he raised me with him, opening and alleging that Christ, the Messiah, must meet his sufferers, and risen from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach is the Messiah. That's the message he brought to these Jews in the first of the nation. Now what was the result? It says, some of them believed and consorted with Saul and Silas. And of those that believed, of the devout Greeks, there was a great multitude. I don't know how many that is. A great multitude of the devout Greeks. And of the chief women, not a few. So here's a nucleus. formed by the Holy Spirit through the reasoning and the persuading and the talking of the Apostle Paul there in the synagogue. And a church came into being there in Thessalonica. And when we read the Thessalonian epistles, we can tell what a wonderful church it was and how they turned to God from idol to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven. That's what he taught them. Now then the Jews. In that synagogue there were many Jews that didn't believe. I suppose some did believe, yes. But they don't mention, it says, some of them believed. That's in the synagogue. But in the synagogue there were these people called Greeks. They were the, those who had embraced the Hebrew faith. and there were a lot of honorable women amongst them. You'll find in the next thing when you went to Berea, it speaks about the honorable women there who accepted the Lord Jesus as their Savior. And the Jews which believed not, these were the troublemakers. They were moved with envy. They took under them certain loomed fellows. And those who were the Greeks, it says certain... wicked men, certain wicked men, and gathered a company and set all the city on an uproar and assaulted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people. I tell you that Paul and Silas, in a strange year, if you don't mention Timothy, in the sixteenth chapter, when they left Lister, they took Timothy with them. And I'm convinced Timothy was with them all the way. And Luke joined them there as Troas too. But you don't mention... Now some of our argues that Luke wasn't in this. Now tell me why they argue. You see, we argue that Luke joined them in... At Troas, in chapter sixteen, it says, And after he had seen the vision, we endeavored to go into Macedonia. And that's the first time he gets this word we. And since Luke is the writer, it's considered that Luke joins them there, where he says, we endeavor to go in Macedonia. But when he gets to the end of the fifteen chapters and starts the certainty, he says, they had passed through Amphel and went to Cessna. They, as if he wasn't with them anymore. And some of our, he said, he wasn't with them anymore. But I rather think that Luke went all the way with the Apostle Paul. Greetings were his imprisonment in Rome. And that's how he wrote the book he was with him. But Timothy Adone's read of, although when he writes to the Thessalonians, he sends the greetings to them from Timothy. So Timothy was with him anyhow. I feel sure. But you don't get his name mentioned. And the brethren immediately, now then, then, when they found him not, it seems they fall inside of, for in the house of Jesus. And the rulers of the city... They went to the house of Jason and couldn't find them. And when they couldn't find them, they blew Jason out and certain brethren under the, certain of the brethren under the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also. Blew Jason has to see. These all built contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And then they took a bond of them with Jason, and they let Jason go, and of course the brethren went to. And the uproar ended there, and but the church was established, and the work at Thessalonica went on, as we can tell by the two epistles written to them. Now the next step was Berea. You see, the Holy Spirit is leading them on. And I want you to think for a moment, here Paul and Silas come to Berea. I was trying to think, as I've been reading this this week, if I put myself in Paul's place, and I came to a city like Berea, and I didn't know anybody there at all, What a job it would be. He's going there to preach the gospel. He's going there to establish a New Testament church. But Jesus put himself in that position. You're going to a foreign city. He's a Jew. These were Gentiles. He's a way in Europe. He'd always lived in Asia. And there's a perfect foreigner and a stranger. Bringing a message which was altogether unknown. And he finds himself in a foreign city all alone. It's just the two of them. Same thing, a pride at Athens. We should see that tonight, God willing. But here you go. How in the world would we start to do it? Typical problem is, how many of our brethren find themselves sometimes in these days in a city? They look around. I remember when I went to Wilmington, Delaware in the night in July, And I got a job at work there on nearby. It says, Newcastle, Delaware. And I had one object, one motion to get an assembly started in Wilmington, Delaware. I remember that very week when I got there, and I read the letters of interest which came out that week. It said that it mentioned the... All the great cities in the United States with over a hundred thousand population and no assembly, as we call it, in Shemleyville. And one was willing to go to Delaware. And I said, well, Lord, I know what you brought me here for. Now, how do you get about it? You say there's no assembly, so I go to some other church. Well, all right, if you're not convinced that the way we need is the right way, then that's the right. But I'm convinced the way we need it in a personal way, and the way that Paul is teaching here. And that's why I'm going through the Acts of the Apostles to try and prove that the Holy Spirit works this way. And we're trying to copy, trying to follow the pattern given us in the Acts of the Apostles. And in Ninety-two July, I landed in Wilmington, Delaware. And I just sat down on my knees and said, Lord, here I am. Use me just to do lunch. And we got a few friends together and had some Bible with me. And out of that, time came when I sent to all these friends a little letter, I have to copy now, saying that on a certain day, first Sunday in April, I went there in May, July, it was going to meet together to remember the Lord Jesus Christ. And we went into a little, beautiful little chapel in the YMCA in Delaware, and at our first raising of bread meeting there. I remember I asked the Lord, there'd be more men than women there, and there were. There was five men and three women, and that's how we found them. Today there's a nice assembly, a lovely chapel built, and they're going on well for the Lord up there. But how do we do it? I'm talking, I'm trying to talk, and why I'm talking in the Acts of the Apostles is to see how we have to do it. How do we get about voting the church in which day, in which we live? that all hasn't changed. He's the same yesterday, the day. Remember, God's message was the same. Men have brought in their organizations and their methods and their ways. But the few went forward and sent out by the church from Antioch in Syria. He didn't go around and go to lots of places and get his support as they do today. He had nowhere to go anyhow through the one he didn't go to. But he didn't do that. He went out in faith. and you'll find one of those who comes in here tomorrow night. She went out and said, he's got no support except what he asked the Lord for. You ever got some people lying and said, I'll send you thirty dollars a month, I'll send you thirty dollars a month. That's how they do it, but that's not how God did it. And that's why we're talking from the Acts to prove that this is God's pattern and this is what we should follow. And so Paul came to Berea, came by night. He's sent him by night to Berea. Now when he went there, he went to the synagogue of the Jews. Now, I'll talk about more about this, I hope, when we get to Karin, because I think at Karin, we get the ideal way to start a New Testament church. We'll talk about it more, but he went to the, he thinks, the only contact he could have with the Jews, because he was with you, and he had a right to go to the synagogue, and in those days, they had a right to speak to me. Because when he went to, in the thirteenth chapter, you remember, when he got to the synagogue, they said to him, after the reading of the law on the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent them to them, saying, you know, brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, stay on. And Paul stood up and threatened with his hand, and then he proved that. That was in Antioch in Tarsidia. So they went to the synagogue. That was the only contact they had. And But there was a great difference between Kershuvanaka and Berea. It says that they were more noble. Now, it doesn't mean they were aristocrats or new bloodies or anything like that. But the thing they gave in God's eyes was more noble than the Thessalonians. You see, Paul persuaded the Thessalonians. Paul reasoned with the modern scriptures. And when he got to Berea, it says they were more noble than in Kershuvanaka. in that they received the word that already used the mind and searched the scriptures. Now Paul leaves the wisdom in church and the right out of the scriptures, but leaves it for real. They cut their own Bibles, what they had of the Bible, they only had the old church in the book. And they searched it out for themselves. They searched the scriptures daily. They searched the scriptures daily to see whether these things were true. Now that's the only way to throw it. Get the Bible and search it on your own. And the Holy Spirit reveals it to you. And that's what they do. They search the scripture, they go to see it. These things will show. And God looked down from heaven to there. You know, those testimonies are wonderful. But these are more notable than the testimonies. Because they take my word beside you. And they're ruining it. And they're hurting it. And that's the way to learn. When you leave the soul to Christ, The first thing to do is get that source to start reading and searching the scriptures. And every one of us, I don't mind what our age is, how we're getting up there now, but we have to do it still. Search the scriptures daily to see if these things are so. Say, search the scriptures daily whether those things are so. Therefore, many of them believe. Now I write that therefore, so they link it up with searching the scriptures daily. Therefore, many of them believe. And I have I've learned a lot in life by this observation, watching. And I have observed that those people who have come to Christ, along with the Bible and the Holy Spirit, as we give to them the way of salvation, they are stronger Christians in those who've got to persuade to come to the front and lead to Christ and lead to Christ. The ones who learn it, along with the Holy Spirit in the Bible, they are stronger Christians. And I like the word, therefore. It says, therefore, they search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore, many of them believe. Why do they believe? Because they search the Scriptures daily. And God revealed it by the Holy Spirit from his book. And nothing to take that away from it. When you learn the way of salvation that way, you've got it for life. And for eternity. The church of Scripture said he, Therefore many of them believe, and among them honorable women which were Greeks and of men, not a few. So there's another New Testament church fall. In Berea. And once Paul and Silas, once they've won a couple of souls to Christ, they had friends immediately. They went there all alone. But as soon as they wanted to be to Christ, what wonderful friends they had. You see, when they got to Philippi, they went out to the river side where the prayer was wanted and they met Lydia. They made Lydia to Christ and then Lydia's home became the center. And I believe the first church was started in Philippi in Lydia's home. And when they came out of prison, they entered into the house of Lydia. That was home for them now. Another thing I often think when Pharaoh went on these journeys, I don't know how much money he could carry. I don't think he had any. He said, when he couldn't, got a job and worked in his hands. He said, Liz, but he had to rely upon the Lord's people. But then when he went there and there was none of the Lord's people there yet, nobody saved yet, it was just the position that he is. But he went and he kept on going. And a few get saved and then he's all right. They'll look out to him all right. He takes salvation to a person. They'll look out to him. But the Jews of Thessalonica, these same Jews, when they had knowledge that the word of God was preached to Paul at Berea, they came there, their orphans, stirred up the people, and then immediately the brethren sent away Paul. It goes that word is received of Silas and Timothy, so here's Timothy's living, Silas and Timothy abode there still. So that's how God used the apostle Paul. In those early days, on the second missionary journey, launching out now into Europe to bring the gospel into Europe. He goes to Philippi, he goes to Thessalonica, he goes to Berea. And God will in the night, we'll find possible, we'll possible in the city of Athens. I particularly love this chapter because Vera and I spent ten years in the city of Athens, and we know it on the back of our hand that we didn't know today. And many and many a time a week sat up there on Mars Hill and read this wonderful scripture. So may the Lord help us tonight as we go on to the story of the Father Paul in his second and second journey. Thank you, Lord. Our Father, we thank you for showing us from thy word, this simple plan thou hadst for building thy journey. We know, Lord, that every true born-again believer is in the body of Christ, and there is one body. But we have scattered all over the world, and there are little replicas of that body in each local church. And we are so that we here might recognize Christ as the head of the church, and all we as members, and that we work together according to the pattern laid down in the new church. Help us, Lord, to put these things into practice day by day, week by week, for the Lord comes. And we ask you, Lord, that thou shalt send to us choice men and women of thine own born-again believers here to have fellowship with us, to build us up, and to lead us on. We thank you for everyone here this morning, and we pray, Lord, that we might, like the inferions, search the swiftest day to see if these things were so. We ask thy parting blessing in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.