In the sermon 'Demonstrating Jesus is the Christ,' Peter Allison explores Paul's strategic approach to evangelism as outlined in Acts 17. Paul, after being released from prison in Philippi, strategically chose to preach in Thessalonica where there was a synagogue, bypassing cities without one. His method involved reasoning with the Jews over three Sabbaths, using the Scriptures to explain and demonstrate that Jesus is the Christ. The sermon contrasts Paul's approach with modern emotional appeals in evangelism, noting that Paul relied on scriptural authority rather than emotional manipulation or extra-biblical evidence. The sermon emphasizes the importance of believing in the authority of Scriptures, presenting various Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. The sermon concludes by urging believers to live with the expectation of Christ's return, affirming that Jesus, born of a virgin and fulfilling numerous prophecies, is reigning and will come again.

When we move this morning into Acts 17, I'd like to read the first four verses. Hear God's word. Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, this, Jesus, whom I preach to you, is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded, and a great multitude of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women joined Paul and Silas.

May we rejoice that this is word as one who finds great treasure. Heavenly Father, I ask that You would sanctify my sinful lips that from a vessel of clay the riches of Your grace might be proclaimed. We ask, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit might work through this word to bring faith, to bring life, to bring comfort, to bring strength, and to bring a new obedience. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.

And we ask, Amen. Well this morning we wanted to look at Paul's method of evangelism. He's just been beaten, caned severely, and released from prison, and asked to leave the city, which he does after he strengthens the church, this new church at Philippi, where he comforts the brethren there. He then departs. It's amazing that he would be able to depart so suddenly, so soon, after being caned.

But he does, and he passes through Amphipolis and Apollonia until he comes to Thessalonica, where there's a synagogue for the Jews. So the first thing we see in Paul's method here is that he's very strategic about where he preaches and where he doesn't. He's just planted this new church in Philippi. There was no church there when he arrived. There was no synagogue.

There were apparently very few Jews. In the last chapter, Luke records a conversation of two households, and there were probably others or more converts, and the establishment of a new church, which seems to be meeting in Lydia's house or at least centered there. It also seems that Luke stayed in Philippi to provide leadership and teaching for the new church. Because we see right here in the beginning in verse 1 that Luke shifts from the first person, we, back to the third person, they. They pass through, meaning he's not a part of them.

He's not present with this group anymore. He doesn't seem to rejoin Paul on the road as part of his ministry team until Paul sails away from Philippi, the same city, after visiting the church there near the end of his third missionary journey, which is a number of years later. So it would seem that Luke is left in Philippi and he stays here several years to train officers and teach and establish this church upon a solid footing. And so Paul now leaves, he's down one member on his team, So he doesn't stop to preach in Amphipolis or Apollonia cities that don't seem to have a synagogue. But he presses on to Thessalonica where there is a synagogue.

These synagogues would have people that were grounded in the scriptures and who would be ready to provide leadership for a new church much more quickly. And so he passes through these these two cities wanting to use his resources wisely, realizing he doesn't have somebody else to leave. If he were to start a new church in one of these cities, he doesn't have somebody that he would be available to stay and provide the necessary leadership and instruction and teaching for that church. And so he goes through. He's strategic about where he preaches, and he doesn't try to preach everywhere that he possibly could.

He picked the low-hanging fruit first, and then he preached in more difficult places as he was able and had resources. And Philippi of course was a more difficult place on many fronts. The physical persecution, the predominantly Roman city, no Jew, no synagogue to build from. And so you see Paul skipping these next two cities and goes to one with the synagogue well then a mob forms and the brethren immediately get Paul and Silas out of the city out of Thessalonica and on to Berea They want to ensure Paul and Silas don't get cain'd again so soon after being beaten in in Philippi. So we see then Paul makes judicious use of his resources, skipping cities where that's wise.

He picks low-hanging fruit first, and he goes to the Jews first on principle, and he follows a pattern. You notice Luke says that he, as his custom was, Paul as his custom, verse 2, he went to the synagogue. So Paul had a pattern. Paul had a routine that he followed. Secondly, Paul is strategic in his ministry, but he's also, the second principle we see is that Paul reasons with people in presenting the gospel.

He reasons with people. In other words, he's engaging their mind predominantly. The Southern Baptist newspaper published a report in 2006 reporting on a recent SBC convention and the article said quote, Kerry Shook, pastor of Fellowship of the Woodlands near Houston, revved up the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference with a video of a professional motocross biker riding over several jumps in his church's sanctuary." Well, actually, quote, while seeing that, he said, I like to think that nobody here probably had a life-changing experience, Shuk told the crowd during an afternoon session focused on contemporary worship. But somehow God uses these crazy creative fun things we do to touch thousands of lives. And the motocross guy himself came to know Christ that very morning.

Motocross bike action and similar attractions draw the unchurched and cause them to drop their guard." He explained. I remember a work colleague at the time telling me how he was looking forward to going to church that Sunday because some famous stunt man was going to perform a motorcycle jump in the church and he wanted to see it. You see, these types of events can stir people's emotions. And when you stir people's emotions, you can get them to make emotional decisions to follow Christ. But that's not conversion.

That's not what Paul was aiming to do. Decisions that are made in the heat of manipulated emotions are often decisions that are unmade a few days or weeks later in a moment of heated emotions. Studies have shown that only 6% of people who quote unquote come forward, who respond to some emotional altar call, who walk the sawdust trail as Billy Sunday used to call it. Only 6% of those who do something at an evangelical crusade are any different in their beliefs or behavior one year later. And often in those who are, it's because someone else has already been witnessing to them.

Or someone does witness to them after they start coming to some church. And it's those other people who don't get the credit who are the ones who are reasoning from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. You see, Paul did not use such means of logic. He didn't go in and try to build relationships with people, although Paul was all about building relationships. And Paul was all about sanctified use of emotions I mean our It our emotions are a part of us and they are involved in our worship And Those who have no emotion in worship, we might have to wonder whether they know who they're worshiping.

But these are not the means of evangelism. These are not the means by which people are saved. Paul reasoned with people. He used logic to bring propositional truth to them. And the truth that He brought to them, thoroughly we see, was the truth of the Scriptures.

He reasoned with them from the Scriptures. He applied the logic of the Scriptures to the truth of the scriptures. He didn't argue from, he didn't reason from extra biblical evidence. He didn't show that Jesus was the Christ. He didn't try to argue or reason with them from archaeology or from probability or from physics.

He reasoned, he argued, from the authority of the Scriptures. Now people will often tell you today that they don't believe the Bible. And they tell you that because they think that when they tell any rational person that, then that person will then look for other sources. Right? If I say I don't believe in the Bible, well then, if you're a rational person, then you'll stop trying to use the Bible to reason with me, because I don't believe that.

But our response should be something to the effect of, yes, I realize that you don't believe the Bible. That's why I'm giving the Scriptures to you. Now we don't have to say that to them, but that should be what we think. Yes, unbelievers don't believe the Bible. That's why they need the Bible.

And so when unbelievers tell us, I don't believe the Bible, we need to say to ourselves, that's why you need the Bible. That's why you need the Word of God. So we shouldn't be put off or silenced by someone that tells us they don't believe the Scriptures because the Scriptures are the power of God unto salvation. And Paul said, I am not ashamed of the Scriptures. Because I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ because it is the power of God's salvation to everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.

And so when Paul is saying that he's not ashamed of it, because when people tell him they don't believe the Bible, he wasn't ashamed to keep using the Bible. You see, we stand on the authority of the Word of God. We don't stand on plausibility arguments. Too many times people make plausibility arguments about why Jesus is the Christ. Or we don't stand on popularity, what the majority of people think, what certain segments of society might think.

We don't stand on majority opinion. And we don't stand on so-called science. We stand on true science. Science just means knowledge, and all wisdom and knowledge is hidden in Christ. And all knowledge is revealed in the Scriptures.

So Paul reasons from the Scriptures. And Paul was persistent in his reasoning. He reasoned with the Jews on three consecutive Sabbaths. For three Sabbaths, he reasoned with them from the Scriptures. He says He explained and He demonstrated.

The word for explain is to open. To open. Luke uses that same word in chapter 24 when he records of the disciples on the way to Emmaus. They say to one another, did not our heart burn within us while He, that was Jesus, was walking with them, while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us. To explain something is to open it.

To demonstrate is to put something before someone, is to set it before them, to show it to them. Paul opened the Scriptures, means he revealed what the Scriptures had to say, explaining them, and He showed them that Jesus was the Christ. That Jesus was the Messiah, God's anointed one. Now, could you do that? Could you show somebody from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ?

Could you do it from the Old Testament? Because that's what Paul was working with here. And it's interesting, a little later on, of the Bereans, it says that they were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they received the word with readiness and searched the scriptures themselves to see whether these things were so that Paul was talking about. So Paul is coming and reasoning with them from the scriptures, and the response of the Brians, who are called more noble, is that they themselves searched the Scriptures to see whether those things that Paul was saying to them were true. They didn't just sit and take his word for it.

They didn't just say, oh, okay, Jesus is the Messiah, okay. They went into the Scriptures themselves. So I thought given this Advent time of the year and when we're approaching the day when Christ was born, the anniversary of that day, I mean that it would be a fruitful thing for us to not just talk about showing that Jesus is the Christ, but to actually go through these scriptures that Paul would have gone through as he reasoned with the Jews in Thessalonica and Berea. We don't know exactly what scriptures he used or didn't use, but we can go to the Scriptures ourselves and look. So what do the Scriptures say about the Christ?

What do they say about who he is and what he would do? And then what does the historical record tell us Jesus did? Well, the scriptures tell us that first of all that the Messiah would be the Son of God. The Messiah or the Anointed One or the Christ, remember those are all the equivalent words, would be the Son of God. Psalm 2, 7 says, I will declare the decree, the Lord, that's Jehovah, has said to me, that's speaking of the Christ, you are my Son.

Today I have begotten you. The scriptures say that the Christ would be the Son of God, and to be the Son of God is to be God. Jesus is God. In Luke 1.35, the angel told Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you therefore the Holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God and that and that Jesus baptism that's recorded in Luke and Matthew, God declares, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well placed. So the Messiah would be the Son of God Messiah would also be born of a woman The Messiah would be the seed of a woman In Genesis 3 15 God said I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.

And he shall bruise your head. The seed of the woman, he said, would bruise your head. And you shall bruise his heel. So the Messiah would be the seed of a woman. And we might think, well, that's not such a big prophecy because everybody is the seed of some woman.

But this is God that would be the seed of a woman. And this is, we read of this fulfillment about Jesus in the New Testament. And Paul says to the Galatians that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. But it wasn't just any woman. Christ was to be born of a virgin, a woman who had never known a man.

Isaiah came to King Ahaz and said he should ask for a sign. And Ahaz refused. He said, I don't want to tempt the Lord. And so Isaiah said, well the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.

Isaiah had encouraged Ahaz to ask for a sign and he specifically said ask any sign you want. Ask the hardest sign you can imagine. Ask for half of your kingdom. Ask anything. And Ahaz wouldn't.

So God gives this amazing sign that the Messiah will be born of a virgin. That prophecy was given over 600 years before Christ was born. But witnesses living 600 years later recorded the fulfillment. Joseph wanted to divorce Mary when he learned that she was expecting a baby. Mary was betrothed to him as his wife, and he knew the child that she was carrying was not his child.

But an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and urged him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, because the angel said, because that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. I think it would have taken no less than an angel to convince Joseph at that point. And the angel went on to say, and he shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. Jehovah saves. For he will save his people from their sins.

And Matthew records that this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet who had said behold the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel which is translated God with us So this is what the Scriptures are saying who the Messiah is. They also say that He would be the son of David and Abraham. All the way back in Genesis, when Jacob is blessing his family, his sons, At his death, he said of Judah that. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies, your father's children shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's whelp.

From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion who shall rouse him. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk." Jacob there is prophesying that Christ would come from Judah.

And Jeremiah also said, Behold the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch. That's Jeremiah 23 verse 5. I will raise up to David a righteous branch and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. Now this is being spoken after David has died.

Jacob's prophecy was long before David lived. David being a descendant of Judah. This is after David has died, God says that he would raise up a righteous branch who would reign as king and execute justice and righteousness in the land, and in his days God's people would be saved. And in Ezekiel 34, 23, And I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them and be their shepherd." This again was spoken long after David had died. So very specific promise here that given all the way back in Genesis that David would come from the line or that Jesus would come from the line of Abraham because it was in his him that all the nations would be blessed, but not just anybody from Abraham.

There are a lot of nations that came from Abraham, but would come through Jacob and specifically through Judah and then specifically through David. So very specific prophecies. Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, exactly what line he would be born from. And then, fifthly, he would be born in Bethlehem. Micah 5 2 says, In you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from You shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel." That's what God said.

Again, hundreds of years before Jesus was born, that He would be born out of Bethlehem. And He would also be given gifts. Psalm 72, which speaks of Christ's kingship, says, kings of Tarshish and the Isles will bring gifts. All kings shall fall down before him the Isles is a reference to the nations And in Matthew 2 we read and when they saw the child they fell down and worshiped him They presented gifts to him gold frankincense and myrrh gold remember was the metal that with which the mercy seat was covered. That mercy seat that was on top of the ark.

Where Speaking of Christ's work as our Redeemer myrrh was the first ingredient of the anointing oil used to consecrate the temple and Frankincense is the named ingredient in the incense that was to be burned representing the prayers of the saints. And these three gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, that were offered, brought to Jesus while he was still a young child. The scripture says the Messiah would also be called out of Egypt. Hosea 11.1, and when Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. So Jesus went down to Egypt to escape Herod and then when Herod died God told Joseph it was safe to come back and this happened so that it might be fulfilled which was written in the scriptures out of Egypt I called my son He would also Be greater than David He would be David's son and at the same time he would be greater than David.

Psalm 110. In verse 1 it opens this way. The Lord, that is Jehovah, said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. And Christ, remember, used this to question the Pharisees. He says, how can David call his son his Lord?

How can the son be greater than David? And that's because He is the Christ, the Messiah. David calls Christ his Lord, who is also his Son. And the Messiah would be preceded by Elijah. The very last words of the Old Testament before a silence of 400 years.

God said in Malachi 4, 5, and 6, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse." And in Matthew 11, we read that, "'For all the prophets in the law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who has come. And when the disciples ask him, well, don't the scribes say that Elijah must come first? Jesus answered and said Elijah does come and he will restore all things. The Messiah would also come riding on a donkey.

Zechariah 9, 9, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he. Humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. A very specific prophecy about the messiah he would come riding on a colt of a donkey you know on on Palm Sunday, the Sunday before his crucifixion, Matthew 21 says that this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophets saying, and he quotes exactly from Zechariah. You remember that Sunday, Jesus rode on a donkey, and all of the crowds threw down the palm branches in front of him and said, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord and so that's another prophecy actually that the Messiah would be publicly acclaimed Psalm 118 says save now I pray O Lord O Lord I pray send now prosperity Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.

God is the Lord and he has given us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God and I will praise you. You are my God and I will praise You. You are my God and I will exalt You.

O give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever." That's in Psalm 118. In Malachi 3.1 speaks of the messenger of the covenant referring to the Messiah, whom you delight in. So that's how Matthew records. The crowds that went before him and followed him were shouting to him, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, exactly as Psalm 118 prophesied hundreds of years before, almost a thousand years.

And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred, and they said, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. He was publicly acclaimed. And Luke adds even more detail, saying that as he was drawing near to Jerusalem, On the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of His disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, pleased in heaven and glory in the highest. Christ came to public acclaim.

He would also be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver. Zechariah 11. 11. So it was broken on that day. Thus the poor of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord.

Then I said to them, if it is agreeable, give to you, give me my wages, and if not refrain. So they weighed out for me my wages, thirty pieces of silver." And Matthew records that the Jews bought a potter's field for 30 pieces of silver. The 30 pieces of silver that they had given to Judas as wages for his betrayal, which He returned to them. But the Messiah would also be rejecting. The same Psalm 118 that said He would be publicly acclaimed speaks of Him being also rejected.

Open to me, verse 19, the gates of righteousness. I will go through them and I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous shall enter. I will praise you, for you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone which the builders Rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

This was the Lord's doing and it was marvelous in our eyes This is the day of the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it And Isaiah 8 14 says he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel a Trapanance and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem Of course Jesus quotes these passages of himself Isaiah gives other prophecies about him being rejected. He would be forsaken. Psalm 22, 1 opens with, why have you forsaken me? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And those are words of Jesus on the cross.

He was forsaken by all his disciples, but he was also forsaken of the Father. And the Psalms also prophesied that Christ would be crucified. Psalm 22, verse 12, Many bulls have surrounded me, The strong bulls of Bation have encircled me. They gape at me with their mouths like a raging and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart is like wax. It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue clings to my jaws. You have brought me to the dust of death, for dogs have surrounded me. The congregation of the wicked has enclosed me.

They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look and stare at me. They divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots." And you know all of these things were done exactly as it was written. And this was written at a time when crucifixion was not really known in Israel.

Crucifixion was something the Romans made popular. See these are the scriptures that Paul would have used to reason with the Jews that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. Now many professing Christians in the early 20th century didn't believe in a virgin birth. Science told them it was an impossibility. And in the early 20th century, that was a source of major embarrassment to ministers in the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

There were over 1, 200 ministers who should have been explaining to the people how Jesus was the Christ who was born of a virgin just as the prophets had prophesied. Instead, they were signing a document that declared it wasn't necessary to believe these things. And their reasons? Well, it's not mentioned in the rest of the New Testament. It was, they claim that historically it wasn't mentioned much in the first couple centuries.

They claim that Luke and Matthew were using a faulty translation. They were using the Septuagint, and it should really not be a virgin, but only a young woman that would conceive. Or they accuse the gospel writers of making up a story according to their own misunderstanding, or just imitating pagan myths about virginal conceptions of their heroes. And so on. Lots of excuses.

But the real reason, the real reason is these quote unquote believing Christians in the early 20th century didn't believe in a virgin birth and the other prophecies about Christ is because of the scorn that was heaped on them for believing something that science said was impossible. And science is the god of our day. It was the god in their day and it still is in many ways. Did you just think of how many times science, the God of science was appealed to in the last few years when they were wanting us to do certain things? And science said it wasn't possible for a virgin to conceive.

And if you believe that, then well, then you were like one of those evangelicals. You were a little bit stupid. You were backward. You were dumb. You were ignorant.

You weren't sophisticated. You weren't up with the times. And worst of all, you were unscientific. See, the laws of physics and science said that for a human to be conceived, you needed a man and a woman. And so the question to those people was whose word do you believe?

The authority of the Scriptures or the authority of men. Now this Auburn affirmation that all these ministers signed said that they believed all these things. And they quote lots of scriptures about things that they believed, that the writers of the Bible were inspired, that Jesus Christ was God manifested in the flesh, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to him, that we have redemption through his death, and so on. But the very next sentence after saying that is, some of us regard the particular theories contained in this document, which was affirming the virgin birth and the other miracles and so on. They say some of us believe that the theories are satisfactory explanations of these facts and doctrines.

What are they talking about? They're talking about the doctrines cardinal to the faith, the inspiration of this authority of the scriptures a deity of Christ The miracles of the Bible the sixth day creation the virgin birth and so on But then they say But we are united in believing that these aren't the only theories allowed by scripture and our standards. As these aren't the only theories to explain these facts and doctrines. This is all, this is classic double talk. And we hear this kind of double talk today.

It's classic double talk with all the diversity and exclusively language. In other words, when they say these aren't the only explanations and theories, They are saying it's possible to deny that the Bible is the infallible word of God. We can deny that it's without error. We don't believe he was actually born of a virgin. We don't believe that he bodily rose from the dead because science says that can't happen.

And they didn't believe in His bodily return either. Now these ministers in signing this document were simply reflecting what the people in their churches believed. And I know that because my grandfather and grandmother were some of those same people in that church at that time. That was in 1924. And they would have been in their twenties.

And they were a part of those people who didn't believe these things. And I heard those words from my own grandmother's mouth shortly before she died. They went to church every Sunday. They said they believed the Bible, but they didn't believe these facts about Jesus Christ. All these things have happened that it might be fulfilled, which was written about Christ.

But you know, there's one more thing that hasn't happened yet that the Scriptures say will happen. Hebrews 9.28 says, So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and to those who eagerly wait for Him, He will appear a second time without sin unto salvation. To those who eagerly wait for Him, He will appear bodily a second time, even as He ascended. Are you waiting for Him eagerly? Are you waiting for His bodily return?

That's what the Scriptures say will happen. Paul told Timothy that, "'Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, but not just to me, but to all who have loved His appearing." To all who have loved His appearing. So my question this morning is, are you ordering your life with the expectation of the bodily return of Christ? Are you looking for His appearing? Are you ordering all the affairs, your day to day living, with that expectation in mind?

You may remember Anna and Simeon. These are people who knew the prophecies about Christ in the Old Testament, and they were longing for Christ to come. They were waiting for Him. And they rejoiced to see that day come. Now that's not saying that we need to sell all our possessions and put on white robes and wait on a hill.

We are to occupy until He comes. We've been given gifts and talents, and we've been given a great trust as stewards. And the ones who were expecting their Master's returns were the ones who were using their talents that had been trusted to them to make more. So the question to us is, do we believe the scriptures in the bodily return of Christ and are we living, do we just say we believe that or are we living as those who believe that. Christ, Jesus Christ is reigning.

Says he will take his the Psalms speak of him reigning that He would reign, the Messiah would reign in the midst of His enemies. And Revelation says that He has taken that authority and has begun to reign. Do we believe that? Do we live as if Christ is today reigning, bringing all of His enemies under His feet? That's what the Bible tells us is happening, even if it doesn't appear to be that way in the newspapers.

It might not appear or look like Jesus is reigning, But He is the King of kings. He is sitting at the right hand of the Father. He has taken His authority and He is reigning. Peter talks about the people who say that thousands of years have gone by and things are always the same as they always have been. And his warning to those who think that way is the flood.

It came unannounced and took them all away. It didn't come unannounced. They ignored the warnings and it came and took them all by surprise. May Christ return, not take any of us by surprise in that way. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word that it is true that not one word that you have ever proclaimed or spoken has ever fallen to the ground unfulfilled.

We ask, Lord, that the authority of Your Word and the truth of Your Word might be impressed upon us this morning by your Holy Spirit. And that not only our thinking and our words, but our very actions and the conduct of our lives, and those things that we hold dear, and those things that we most seek after, or may all these things be governed by this great expectation that you are returning You are the Christ Who is who was born of a virgin? Who perfectly kept the law, who was crucified, was buried, died and was buried and rose again, defeating death and ascending into heaven and sanctifying with your own blood that heavenly tabernacle. And having finished your work, you have sat down at the right hand of the Father, where you are reigning. And you are coming again.

Father, may your reign, and your kingdom and your righteousness be that which we seek first above all else. This we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.