In the sermon 'Persevering in Preaching Christ. Pt. 3' by Trent Moody, Acts 17:10-21 serves as the focal point for discussing the perseverance needed in preaching the Gospel. Paul and Silas exemplify this perseverance as they travel from Thessalonica to Berea, facing persecution and threats, yet continuing to preach boldly. The Bereans are highlighted for their noble character and readiness to receive and verify the Word of God, contrasting with the Thessalonians' hostility. Paul’s journey to Athens reveals a city steeped in idolatry, provoking him to reason with both Jews and Gentiles about Jesus and the resurrection. The sermon challenges believers to emulate Paul's boldness and perseverance, calling for a commitment to share the Gospel despite opposition. It emphasizes the power of the Gospel over human wisdom and traditions, encouraging believers to be diligent in their study of Scripture and to engage others with the truth of Christ's resurrection and salvation.

Acts chapter 17, we'll be looking at verses 10 through 21 and I'll bring us into context within the message just to grab some of that because we'll need it. But I want you to be thinking on this theme or this subject as I've continued in this same theme of persevering and preaching Christ. We see in verse 10, thus says the word of the Lord, then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

Therefore many of them believed and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea. They came there also and stirred up the crowds. Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away to go to the sea, but both Silas and Timothy remained there. So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens and receiving a command from Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed they departed.

Verse 16, Now while Paul awaited for them at Athens His spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. And then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him and some said, what does this babbler want to say? Others said, he seems to be a proclamer of foreign gods because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus saying, May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak.

For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean. For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time and nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, again, we come before Your throne of grace asking for help, even now in this time, Lord, that You would help us to rightly divide the Word of truth.

God, Your Word is truth. We stand here upon your word and we so desire Lord that you would give us manna from heaven that Jesus Christ would make clear and make known to us the word of life today and Lord my prayer is for these people here before me that those of which who have professed you as their Lord and Savior would be so emboldened and so full of zeal. Lord that you would strengthen them to continue and to persevere in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who do not know you Lord I pray today that they would come face to face with the Lord of Glory, Jesus Christ. Lord, that they would see Jesus Christ and in the power of His resurrection know that they too can be saved from their sins and raised from the dead.

And God, only you can do this work. Lord, I stand here as a weak and fallible man, but I stand upon the rock of Jesus Christ. And I pray that this word would penetrate the hearts of every person here this morning. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

You may be seated. Persevering in preaching Christ, one of the things that we've noticed with the Apostle Paul is this man was a man who certainly persevered even in the midst of grave difficulty. A man who was beaten, he was stripped, he was stoned, he was put in prison, he was put in shackles, he was persecuted from city to city, he was mocked, He had crowds and riots come against him. But this was a man who was steadfast and consistently following after the Lord Jesus Christ to take the gospel of Christ to the whole known world of his time. He was on mission for Jesus Christ and nothing deterred him from that great task of preaching the Gospel.

But before we get into this text to help us regather our thoughts in this context of Acts 17, I want us to remember that Paul and Silas had just recently been imprisoned and they were there because they preach the gospel. They were there because people were turning from their dead faith and idols and turning even from the dead religiosity of the Jews and they were turning to the Lord Jesus Christ. And here just before this in Acts 16 they were in Philippi and because of preaching the gospel they were thrown into prison. And you remember the story, they were in prison, and while they were there at midnight singing hymns and being chained to the wall, and they were praying and lifting up their voices to God that a great earthquake came, and it shook the very foundations of that prison. In fact, to the point that all the doors flung open and all the the bands were loose and they could have easily walked out of that prison.

But they did not because God had an opportunity of the gospel for the Philippian jailer. Not only for the jailer but also for his entire household who believed. They were then encouraged by the magistrates themselves to please depart out of this city, though we have arrested you wrongly, you being Roman citizens We're asking you to leave this city because you bring such chaos and uproar here to our city. But in doing this, they went past Amphipolis and Apollonia to the city of Thessalonica, where some of the Jews and many of the devout Greeks there who were persuaded and believed the gospel that Paul had preached. However, we see also that in the midst of any city of any size and really any congregation or any people that are gathered before the preaching of the gospel, and I would be willing to say even here this morning, there are those who gladly receive the Word of God as the very Word of God, and they take it down into their hearts, and they love it, and they want to live it out, they believe it, and they want it to change their lives, and it does.

And inevitably there are others who even here this morning may be sitting thinking that this is all just for show and that it is not really anything at all but just a man who's standing and telling us what he thinks about things. And they reject the preaching of the gospel. They do not see the glories of Jesus Christ. Their heart has not been turned to God. They are not softened, but rather hardened, or perhaps indifferent to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But there were Jews here that were like that. Though they heard the Gospel, they were not persuaded of what Paul was saying. And to that, They did not like what they were hearing. And we read later or earlier in verse 5, it says, But the Jews who were not persuaded, they became envious. They weren't content with apathy.

They actually became aggressive. And there are occasions when that happens. People become aggressive towards those who preach the Gospel. These men, they took some evil men from the marketplace, they gathered a mob, they set the whole city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason because Paul and Silas had been staying with him or at least thought to have been staying with him. And though they could not find Paul and Silas, they could find Jason.

And their indignation needed to be poured out upon someone. And then at night we read here in our text, then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night. These brethren, it's interesting we think about this, Paul and Silas was their preaching and many believe in all, I mean immediately there is a group of people called brethren. And these brethren had a new heart given to them. How do we know this?

Because they were concerned for the well-being of Paul and Silas, these men who had brought the gospel to them. They had hidden them to some extent because here they are sending them away at night and they're wanting them to go to Berea. They're wanting to send them away. They were wanting them to travel some forty-five miles to this new city of Berea where we pick up our narrative. Forty-five miles.

We've noted occasionally how many miles that Paul and Silas had traveled and this is actually just kind of a boy this is probably a half day journey for Paul knowing him I mean he's a man that goes on treks for the gospel he he is a man who preaches the gospel and and he does it through long travels and he everybody he comes in contact with he's taking the gospel to And so what we are seeing is the continued perseverance of a man named Paul who was commissioned with the gospel of Jesus Christ and he was he had seen the Lord Jesus Christ He had been thrown to the ground, had seen a bright light, and been totally and radically changed for the Gospel. And there was nothing that was going to deter him from proclaiming that Gospel everywhere he went. And here, leaving that night, he's traveling these miles, and we see this, that he continues to labor. And yet, in the wake of the apostle Paul We see little churches and congregations rising up We see that there are people called brethren Nearly any other man no doubt would have quit this mission I'd look at the the difficulties the troubles the persecutions the beatings and the imprisonments that Paul had received and experienced.

I would say that nearly any other man would have quit this dangerous and painstaking task and retired to a nice quiet Mediterranean seatown and lived out the rest of his days eating fish and whatever else they eat in the Mediterranean. I've not been there. You can imagine how tempting that might have been but not for the Apostle Paul. This man was a man's type of man. He was a man who had been commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ, and these men were not going to turn back, and they were not going to quit to what Jesus Christ had called them to.

Even as Jesus foretold of something like this happening to his disciples in Matthew 10 23 he says when they persecute you in this city flee to another. This fleeing though was not something because of fear but it was rather for the advancement of the gospel. In a sense was when they persecute you in one place and it seems as if the door is closed to the gospel, though there are converts there, by God's grace and by the Spirit of the Living God, He will sustain those people. And though the devil was coming against them to drive them out of every city they went into, what the devil thought he was doing in stopping the gospel, he was actually advancing the gospel because he was dealing with an apostle Paul who was persevering in the gospel and refused to stop preaching it. That's actually what we need in our day and age.

We need men who are going to stand up and face the persecution and be willing to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, come what may. This is what God had called Paul to do. And brothers and sisters, this is what God has called us to do. Not in the exact same way as the Apostle Paul, but he has called us to be faithful men and women of God, to not be fearful of speaking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone that we come in contact with. So often it's easy to speak of the gospel here in these four walls but boy when we get out of here things get really difficult and we seem to become timid believers we stand and we sing a mighty fortress is our God and then we leave here and it's real easy to you know to want to sing it in a low voice by ourselves in our car with the windows rolled up.

But God has called us to be bold for Jesus Christ. I don't mean in your face boldness, but I do mean persistent, persevering boldness to speak the truth of the gospel to those that we come in contact with. We see it a little bit later in our text. He's telling everybody about Jesus and the resurrection. And it says that in the marketplace daily with those who happen to be there.

He's just going about his daily business and everybody he comes in contact with, he's telling them about Jesus and the resurrection. It's an amazing thing, Matthew Henry writes this. He says, The constancy of Paul and Silas in their work, though they fled from Thessalonica, did not flee from the service of Christ. When they came to Berea they went into the synagogues of the Jews and made their public appearance there, though the Jews at Thessalonica had had been their spiteful enemy and for all they knew the Jews at Berea would be so too. Yet they did not therefore decline paying their respect to the Jews either in revenge for the injuries they had received nor for fear of what they might receive If others will not do their duty to us, yet we ought to do our duty to them." What is Matthew Henry saying?

Matthew Henry is saying, even though people may spitefully use us, though they may persecute us, that should not keep us from doing our duty to them though they try to stop us though they don't want to hear us they feel they're doing their duty to us I believe and then Matthew Henry believes and the apostle Paul believes that we should likewise do our duty to them and that duty is to take the greatest good news ever to enter this earth to all the world that we come in contact with to preach the gospel to every creature that when we see an eternal soul that we have vows of compassion for them and we do our duty to them. Calvin says this, he says the constancy of Paul is incredible. Calvin said this, he said it's incredible. Because having had such experience of their stubbornness and malice of his nation, he doth never cease to try whether he can bring any to Christ. Namely, seeing he knew that he was bound both to Jew and to Gentile, no injury of men could lead him away from this calling.

So all the servants of Christ must so wrestle with the malice of this world that they shake off not Christ's yoke with what injury soever they be provoked with." Don't ever shake off the yoke of Christ that says to take the Gospel to every creature that we come in contact with. This is our great commission, brothers and sisters, that we take the gospel to the world. Paul references this to the Thessalonians in 1st Thessalonians chapter 3. He references this suffering and how he endured it for the sake of the gospel. He says, therefore When we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone.

And we sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and to encourage you concerning your faith, that no one should be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. You're appointed to this. Don't be shaken by the afflictions. Know that they are there.

It is only by God's grace that we have not seen and experienced more in this nation. But guess what? We're appointed to this. If the Lord Jesus Christ was persecuted and all of his disciples were persecuted, why do we think we won't be? If we stand upon the same gospel as they did, you're appointed to this.

So get ready. For in fact, he goes on in verse 4 and says, for in fact we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation just as it has happened and you know. For this reason when I could no longer endure it I sent to know your faith lest by some means the tempter had tempted you and our labor might be in vain." He was so concerned for the Thessalonians because knowing that he had left in the night to go to the next town and city because of their care and concern for Paul, he did not leave out of fear but he left for the passion of the mission and the commission of the Lord Jesus Christ to take the gospel. Yet his heart was concerned for every little congregation that he left every little church that he left behind his heart was concerned about them and he knew that the tempter would want to come in and scatter the sheep and so he sends Timothy back he says but now that Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news of your faith and love and that you always have good remembrance of us.

You see, even though he left, he's now encouraged because he knows the Thessalonians, they did not look down on them, but they had great faith and boldness in the gospel, and they, it said, have good remembrance of us, greatly desiring to see us, and we also to see you. And Paul commends them, therefore brethren in all our affliction and distress we were comforted concerning you by your faith. For now we live as if you stand fast in the Lord. Paul's like, the spirit of the gospel which I preach to you is alive. We live if you continue in the faith because that same gospel that I proclaim to you, if you live by faith, is in you and it is going to go out and through that Thessalonica city and in the other cities.

It's not really just for the Thessalonians but it was for all those that Paul had preached to. And he says this, For what thanks can we render to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sake before our God, night and day, praying exceedingly that we may see your face and perfect what is lacking in your faith. He wanted them to grow up to maturity and he was giving God thanks for all that he had done. This was the heart of the Apostle Paul. I said all of those things just to get us ready for the first point.

How about that? This was his heart. He had a heart for the people of God and he had a heart for those who did not know God. You know, It's easy to come here and for us to have a heart for one another. We resemble one another, we love one another, we're spending our lives together, we're working together, we're praying together, we're doing all that.

But do you love those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ? We'll see later on Paul so provoked and grieved in spirit because of the idolatry that was taking place. His heart was for the gospel, his heart was for the glory of God, His heart was to see men and women come to faith in Jesus Christ. And though now he fled from Thessalonica to Berea, he found that God had already been there plowing the ground to receive the word of the Lord. What an encouragement after such difficulties that he had faced in Philippi and Thessalonica and now he goes to Berea and God brings such encouragement.

Even Paul I think needed some encouragement. You finally want to come to a place and when you preach the word they go I believe that that sounds good I like that let me go study and see if everything you said is true and they received it with gladness this is what happened here to Paul when he goes into Berea look at verse 10 then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Paul, when he went into Berea, he found that these people were opened to the Word of God.

They were as Paul describes or our translation says were more fair-minded. I play a little bit on these words of fair-minded. We find that some were fair-minded and the next group we were on a fire are fierce-minded and then we find the last group in Athens was high-minded so that's kind of where we're going. But we're going to start with these fair-minded Bereans. This first stop in this new city, as was their custom, Paul and Silas went to the synagogue of the Jews.

And as Paul says in Romans 1 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith." Paul lived upon that declaration. He knew that the righteousness of God was being revealed through the gospel, through him proclaiming Jesus Christ. It was the power of God. You know it's interesting as we see Paul advancing through these city after city after city, you would think this man with the boldness in which he had had a great army coming with him, but what he actually had was something greater than an army.

He had the power of God unto salvation with him. He was coming in the name of Jesus Christ. And to what comes of this next statement of surprising, we read that these Jews of Berea were more fair-minded than the Thessalonians. These were the people who had this fair mindedness or being open minded. They were in a sense of more noble character.

And they were ready to receive the Word of God. And they wanted to receive it. And it says here, with all readiness they received it. God had already plowed the ground for them. They were ready to receive the Word of God.

Have you ever tried to plant a garden on new ground? Boy, I have. There is some major work that has to be done to get that soil ready. I mean you got to get something out there and you got to beat up the ground typically you got a bunch of grass clods you might have weeds and briars thorns and thistles to tear up that ground but here this is saying that they were receiving the word with all readiness. God had already made the plow, he had made the furrow, the ground was ready, the seed was going to be sown, and these people were going to believe it because of the work of God in their hearts.

And I think that one of the things that this teaches us is that you're going to come in contact with different types of people when you're taking the gospel as you go and throughout the world. If you've shared the gospel at all, you've experienced this. There are occasions when you meet someone like a Berean. And they hear you with all readiness. They're like, it's just like you don't have to hardly do anything.

You just say Jesus. And they're like, yes, I want to believe this. God has already made the way for this. He's opened the ground. He's watered it.

It's fertilized. It's ready to receive the seed and grow. That's a glorious thing. One commentator notes he says of a more excellent disposition. In other words they were more open to conviction as being less blinded by prejudice.

They were he says teachable in the things of God. True nobleness in the sense of generosity of soul. They were ready. They were fair-minded, if you will, to receive the things of God, to believe what was spoken. They had a willingness and an eagerness and a zeal to engage with Paul and what he was telling them and to believe it.

I believe that this was born again out of a heart that God had prepared. I believe that it was a type of a person that God had worked in in the sense that they were Jews and I believe that this is not the first time they opened the scriptures to see if this was so. Though they did not have full understanding and revelation of Jesus Christ, I believe that this type of a person here, these fair-minded people, they had a mind to believe the Word of God and to study the Word of God. I just don't believe that this passage is leading us to think that this is the first time that they ever thought, let's go look at the Bible and see what it says. I think that these were the type of people who were doing that.

And I want you to know this this morning, if you're that type of person that says, you know what, I just want to stand upon the word of God. Come what may, whatever it teaches me, I want to do that. I believe if that is your heart, then you're going to be like these Bereans. You're going to have all readiness of heart to receive the things spoken by God and there's going to be an abundance of fruit that's produced in your life. But if you're here this morning and you're like these other ones, like the ones at Thessalonica, and if you're going to be like these Athenians, you're going to be the type of person who's always holding the word at arm's length, not really believing it, somewhat apathetic and maybe even angry at it, because it contradicts your lifestyle.

If that's you, there's not going to be any fruit growing in your life. It's the type of person by God's grace, by God's grace, who has a heart that has been transformed and ready to receive the gospel. And what do you do about that? You say, well, God is the one who has to soften my heart. Yes, but you know what you could do?

Oh, God, soften my heart to receive the things spoken by Paul and by Jesus Christ in the Word of God. I think that we can prepare our hearts as much as humanly possible and pray to God that He would do. God would never not answer that prayer. If you had a heart to pray, God open my heart that I can receive all the things that you have for me, do you think God's going to look at you and say, no, no, no, no, not you. Absolutely not.

God is going to fill you with so much wisdom and knowledge in His Word, it would be such a ready receiving and believing of the Scriptures. But they were the type of person, I think, that at least has two concepts here. One, they believe the Scriptures already. They were convinced as Jews that this Old Testament Scriptures were the Word of God. They believe what the prophets foretold, though they didn't understand it.

They didn't have a full understanding of what the Messiah or who the Messiah was and how it was going to come about, but they were the type of people that believed it and read it, not only after Paul's preaching but well before it. These were fair-minded, not full of envy as those in Thessalonica, not full of hatred for those who preach the gospel and the Word. They seem to have cared more for the truth than for their truth. That's the problem in our world today. People don't really want the truth.

They want their truth. And that's called idolatry. We need to be humble and faithful to the Scriptures alone in which we come before the Word of God and We want the truth of God, not my truth implied onto the Scriptures. But we hold up the Word of God and when that word right here contradicts me, I have a heart to change. Not to change yet.

I don't want to play around and try to manipulate the verses and manipulate the words and say, well, the critical takes, blah, blah, blah. What does the Word of God say? And I'm willing to turn my life to match what God says. Is that your heart? And if it is, your heart will be filled with the wisdom and knowledge of God.

It says that they searched the scriptures daily seeking to learn the truth by process of careful study. Can I just stop and ask you a question whether young or old are you doing that I mean today you're going to be confronted with the Word of God you are being confronted with the Word of God are you the type of person who are like these Bereans who who learn the truth you you hear the truth you seek the truth you learn it and you are in the process of carefully studying to see if what I'm saying is true? You should be. I praise God I look out and I see Bibles open and I love it when I say turn here and I hear pages start flipping. That tells me you're searching it.

You're seeing if it's true. Don't just stand on it because I say it. Stand on it because God says it. It is God's Word that we want to follow. Again, Matthew Henry says this.

He says the doctrine of Christ does not fear scrutiny. I'm not scared of scrutiny. Scrutinize it! Go ahead! It has stood the test of time and it will continue throughout all eternity.

Not one jot or tittle will fall to the ground. Jesus Christ and His truth is right here in the pages of the Word of God and it goes nowhere. He continues, he says, we that are advocates for his calls desire no more than that people will not say these things are not so till they have first without prejudice and partiality examined whether they be so or not. In other words, he's saying people should be willing to say, let me look into this. I want to see if this is true.

We're not scared of scrutiny. Scrutinize away. Searching the Scriptures, he says, must be our daily work. Those that heard the word in the synagogue on the Sabbath day did not think this enough, but were searching it every day in the week that they might improve what they had heard the Sabbath before and prepared for what they were to hear the Sabbath after. Does that sound like something we do around here?

We come to men's meeting on Tuesday mornings at 6 a.m. So that we can begin to study what we're going to hear. Many of you who were here on this last Tuesday, You knew right where we were going to be. You knew most of what we're going to talk about because we were there before. And that is what he's saying is, they believe that the word was so important that they not only wanted to study what had been taught, they were going to study what's going to be taught.

And he describes them, those are more noble and are in a fair way to be more and more so that make the Scriptures their oracle and touchstone, and consult them accordingly. Those that rightly study the Scriptures and meditate therein day and night have their minds filled with more noble thoughts, fixed to noble principles, and formed for noble aims and designs. These were more noble." That's what it means. These were the type of people Paul was dealing with. And so the question is, as we bring this from the pages of the Scripture in Acts 17 to Hope Baptist Church in 2026, can this be said of you?

Are you more fair-minded? Are you more noble? Are you diligently seeking the Word of God? Are you diligently seeking to see are these things true? Are you a constant critic, disbelieving and holding the scripture at arm's length or is your disposition to advance in the gospel and to grow and even as Solomon counseled his son in the Proverbs he said my son if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding.

Yes, if you cry out for discernment and you lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom From His mouth comes knowledge and understanding." Is that you? It should be all of us who love the Lord Jesus Christ that we are searching and digging into the Word of God so that we would be like the Fair-Minded Bereans. And the result of this fateful preaching and fair-minded hearing was that many believed and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men, they were converted to the gospel. They were moved from one place to another.

And this is always the goal of preaching. This morning, do you know my goal? I want to tell you. It's not a secret. I want to move you from one place to another.

Not from that chair to that chair. From one thought to another thought. I want to bring you from one place of living to a new place of living. I want you to be more like the Bereans. I want to take you from being a Thessalonian to being a Berean.

That's what I want you to be. I want to move you this morning. And I want you to see the benefit of being moved from where you are to being more faithful into the Word of God. God wants to move you from this place to a new place. He wants to expand your thinking and believing to a greater depth.

Oh, the wisdom and riches of God. I want you to know the love of Christ. I want you to know the length and the breadth and the depth and the height of the love of God. But that only comes through diligent searching as if it was hidden treasure. Some of us spend so much of our effort and time digging for treasure that will perish.

Temporal can be gone in a day. I was reading through the book of Revelation recently and speaking about Babylon. Babylon, Babylon, oh the great Babylon. And in one hour, they were brought to nothing. All the riches of Babylon gone in an hour.

But not the wisdom of God. It stands forever, brothers and sisters. It stands forever. And so many of these Bereans believed, but guess what? Not all of them.

Not All of them did. There are different types of soil in which the seed of the word falls. Many of them believed, but not all of them. Some of them were apathetic hearers. Some of them were sleepy hearers.

That happens occasionally even here, get a sleepy hearer. But then others were of a different sort, indignant. Paul ran into or should I say they came running after him, those who were indignant towards the word of God. In verses 13 through 15, I call these the fierce-minded. The Bereans were fair-minded, The Thessalonians, at least these Jews who were not persuaded, were fierce-minded.

And what I mean by that is this, but when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the Word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. You see, these who were not persuaded, these Jews who were fierce-minded and who were indignant towards the Word of God, these were not content with simply letting the seed fall to the ground but they were like the birds in the parable that Jesus was speaking of and they desired to devour the seed before it would take root into the heart of another. How far was it from Thessalonica to Berea? Remember what I said I told you earlier? 45 miles.

Imagine being so indignant about the Word of God being preached that you're willing to travel 45 miles to stir up a crowd to stop it. I'm going to skip work for the next three days and go shut this thing down what like this is how serious they were about stopping it what was it that made them so mad you see they were playing the part of Satan here hoping to take away the word and I want you to notice that it was it was the Notice that it was that it stirred them up. It was when they... Excuse me, let me say it this way. What was it that stirred them up?

He says, when they learned that the Word of God was preached. Why would that stir somebody up? What is it about the Word of God being preached that would so stir them up and cause them such trouble that they're willing to travel 45 miles to shut it down. I think it had something to do with what they were seeing in the wake of the preaching of the Gospel in Philippi and Thessalonica and other cities and towns along the way. I think that they were seeing that people were turning from false idols.

They were turning from the traditions of the Jews. They were turning from all of these things that had been set up, that they had been following for years, and they were forsaking those things as if they were rubbish. And now they had men and women who were living for the Lord Jesus Christ, and they were radically different. They were transformed. That's why I believe it stirred them up so much.

It was the Word of God they hated. You see, you can stand up in this world even today and you can say all kinds of things, but when you stand up and say, Thus saith the Lord, be ready to be hated. When you stand up and say, yeah, that's your truth, and this is their truth, and I have my truth, and we can all be friends, no worries. No tribulation, no persecution. But when you stand up and say, No, thus saith the Lord, this that you're doing is sinful.

You have just beat a bee's nest with a baseball bat. Get ready. Here it comes. They were upset that the Word of God was being preached because even these lost Jews understood the power of the Gospel. Even though so often professing Christians act as if there's no power there, these unbelievers understood that the power of the gospel was so intense and so powerful that it changed the lives and the livelihoods of the people that believed it.

And they were willing to go after it. They were willing to run after it and try to shut this thing down. I remember a woman one time when I was preaching I had come in and I had contradicted a tradition of a little local church and that was all it was was a tradition. It had no basis in Scripture. See Paul was coming through with the Word of God and he was tearing down all of these traditions of the Jews that had no basis in Scripture, had no power to convert.

And here I was standing in this little church and this woman confronted me right before the evening service about what I said at the first service and she was telling me that if her unbelieving husband had been there that morning he could not have been saved because I did not have an altar call and she was upset. I said well ma'am I just happened to be preaching on the sufficiency of Scripture that morning. It's kind of funny. Anyway she was upset and I said ma'am if you would show me in the scriptures an altar call that God wants us to do that I'll do it I actually want to live my life in accordance with what God's Word says and she said do you really believe that we should only worship God the way the Bible says? I almost didn't know what to say.

I said, yeah. She said, I knew something was wrong with you. Oh, if she only knew what was all wrong with me. There was way more. She literally said that though.

It was rather humorous. I had to laugh because then I also felt sorry for her. But I want you to understand something when you go to take an axe to a tradition that has no basis in Scripture, get ready that you're gonna stir some people up. Even people who would profess to be followers of God. And that's what happened.

These Jews were stirred up to the extent that they caused a riot. They were not content with just telling him to be quiet. They were going to stir up the whole town just like they had done earlier. And believe it or not, not everyone liked the preaching of Paul. They were able to find some to gather this riot.

Paul's preaching, remember, destroyed their traditions and stripped away all self-righteousness and self-reliance on keeping the law in order to please God. Keep in mind what I noted at the beginning, again they traveled 45 miles to do this. And it's amazing to think of what lengths people will go to to try to stop the proclamation of the Word of God. But remember that verse 5 tells us it was because they were envious. They were envious of what was taking place.

Point of application. What is your response when the Word of God contradicts your traditions? Have you ever experienced that? I have. What is your response to that?

Are you like a Berean and says you know what I'm going to test I want to go home and study the Word of God and see if that's true. Or are you like the Thessalonians, and you want to do everything you can to shut it down? I'll start a mob if I have to. I don't want to hear anything about you touching this sacred cow of mine. Well, as the mob was being assembled, the new converts, the brethren, immediately sent Paul away to go to the sea.

Again, this is no light trip. This was somewhere, depending on which port he went to, 20 to 40 miles away, They're sending Paul away out of this city of Berea because of what was taking place because of the Thessalonians following and coming after him. And then they wanted him to go on to Athens. And this, depending on the route in which they took, was some 300 more miles of traveling that Paul was going to do to get to Athens. And though it seemed like Paul was running out of town or being run out of town in defeat, again in reality it was the wisdom and power of the gospel that was advancing against the city of man at the epicenter of earthly wisdom, Athens.

Again, Paul was going forth as if he had a mighty army because he knew he had the mighty God. He had the mighty gospel. He had the mighty Savior who had died and been resurrected from the dead. And he was fearless. And when he went forth to the very epicenter of the wisdom of man, he brought with him the wisdom of God.

And he was ready to be called a fool for the sake of the gospel. Because I want you to know something, you will never share the gospel until you're willing to be thought a fool for the gospel. You will fear man. You will be feared to be laughed at. You will be feared to be made fun of.

You will be feared to be made fun of, you will be feared to be called ignorant. Guess what? God destroys the wisdom of this world. We're going to see that in just a moment. So next person he runs into are people and lots of them are those who were ignorant of the Word of God.

I don't mean that necessarily in a derogatory way. They were ignorant because they did not know God's Word. They had no understanding of it. They were high-minded, if you will. They were above such things.

They had more education and therefore would not lower themselves to believe in a Savior who had to die for their sins. What were sins anyway to them? Did they really believe that there was a sin that would separate you from God? Could you even know God? That was their thinking.

And so while Paul it says in verse 16 waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols and therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Remember, he's waiting for Timothy and Silas to come and he can't contain himself. He's walking around the city of Athens and as one man said, it was easier to find an idol than it was a man. And he was provoked within his spirit. What does it do to you when you see things like this?

When you see people given over to idolatry? I think we could say easily, yeah it provokes me, makes me mad. Why? Sometimes I fear this because of self-righteousness. We forget that we were saved by grace.

You see Paul I believe was provoked in his spirit not just in his flesh and I think he was provoked because he saw that this whole city this whole city of people who were created in the image of God, who were created to worship God, were worshiping idols. And he was provoked. So what is it that provokes you? You know it's easy to get provoked when things don't go our way. It's easy to get provoked when you're driving down Capitol or 401 and somebody cuts you off.

But I want to show you what provoked the Apostle Paul. Idolatry. Idolatry. He was angered, he was irritated, and he was distressed. That this city was given over to idolatry.

They were replete with images. Benson notes, he says, the Athenians always imported the deities and the superstitions of every nation along with their arts and learning. One man says their hospitality to strangers extended to their gods, being very ready to receive any strange object or form of worship. So that one man says humorously, it was easier as I said to find a false god than a man. And here then we have a full proof of the insufficiency of science and philosophy to guide men in matters of religion.

When man is left to himself to try to find God, this is what happens. Athens. And the danger is to become all inspired of what they're learning and what they're teaching. And guess what? Athens did not die at Athens.

Oh, the spirit of Athens is all over this country where we think the wisdom of man is greater than the wisdom of God. He said, even though there were barbarians and wild Indians and ignorant savages, this is written long ago you can tell, as Mr. Scott observes he says have never deviated further from the truth. He said these Indians and barbarians and these savages have never deviated further from the truth or sunk into grosser darkness in respect to God and religion than the ingenious and philosophical Athenians. Which ones are further from God?

Those who are living out in the middle of nowhere in a jungle who have never heard of God are those who are sitting in an ivory tower and in their wisdom they say there is no God. Which one's further? When the one true and living God was not worshiped rightly, Paul in his spirit was provoked. He was jealous for the worship of God. When he saw the depths of their depravity that would motivate men to carve out images of stone and marble and all sorts of other created things and crafts of hands of men, Paul was provoked as he walked down the streets and he saw them bowing down and burning incense.

He was provoked. I don't know that we can fully grasp all that he was seeing in this city in the idolatrous worship. Here he was waiting for Timothy and Silas to come to him. A few days for those men who escorted him to go back and a few more days for them to get back. And he was provoked.

But as was his custom. Look in verse 17. Therefore he reasoned. Therefore, because he was provoked in his spirit, because he had seen that the whole city was given over to idolatry, because he saw a people who did not worship God yet they were created in the image of God. He acted upon that provoking and he went to the synagogue of the Jews.

He went first to the Jews. He wanted to go somewhere where the Word of God was at least given some credence that he could begin to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And he knew there that if he could begin there and those Jews would be converted to the gospel, that those would then go out into the city and begin to change the whole city. Think about the foundation that they would have had in the Word of God. They could have gone forth.

But now in his movement, he didn't stay just in the synagogue. It says here that he went to the synagogue of the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers who were there and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. He was all over the place. He took it everywhere he went. He was ready to to tell the gospel to anyone he bumped into or who bumped into him.

And as they heard him, they were not immediately impressed. You ever share the gospel with somebody and they're like, wow, you know, They're just not impressed. They're not really impressed with what you have to say about the Gospel. You think, this is the greatest good news ever. Did you hear what I just said?

Jesus Christ can save you from your sins? What's so good about that? Apathy. High-mindedness. They think they know better.

They think they don't need such a thing as this. Look at what they said about Paul. Are you ready to be called an ignorant fool for the Gospel? Well, let's see. Verse 18, Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him, and some said, What does this babbler have to say?

These high-minded, arrogant philosophers who spent all their time in the worldly wisdom, and who could not find God, though they sought for Him in all the wisdom of man, but they refused to listen to the man who had direct revelation from God, and they call Him the ignorant one. How ironic. Epicureans, I'm just going to give you a brief little blip of what they believe. You may have studied this and can come up here later and tell us all about it, but here's a little blip of what they believed. Basically, to sum it up in a nutshell, to some degree, they were equivalent to, it is equivalent to hedonism.

It's the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the chief good. Thus it means devotion to pleasure, to comfort, to high living with a certain nicety of style. In ethics it's the basic concepts that the identification of good with pleasure and of the supreme good and ultimate end with the absence of pain from the body and the soul. Hedonism basically it was a pleasure seeking not so much necessarily in throwing it all off, but in just desiring to relieve yourself of all and any kind of pain. They often just sat around and talked about these things endlessly.

As it says down here, they spent their time and nothing else but either to tell or hear some new thing. Tell me some more way that I can find pleasure and get away from pain. What about the Stoics? Well, the Stoics, Stoicism is a philosophy that provides this framework, if you will, for an ethical self-improvement and for living a human life worth living. Its basic tenet is that we should live according to human nature, meaning using our ability to reason in order to improve our social living.

It's essentially a worldview and a set of moral values for seeking practical wisdom in life and at its core it and it accepting the calmness excuse me at its core principle is focusing exclusively on what is within our control, our judgments, our actions, and character while accepting with calmness and composure everything else such external events and other people's behavior, it aims to replace destructive passions like fear and anger with rational tranquility, asserting that true happiness comes from internal virtues such as wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance, rather than external wealth, status, or pleasure. You can see they had somewhat of an opposite effect. You can see why these two philosophies though appealed to the flesh. Simply we could say pleasure and pride. We could say pleasure and also one's ability to better himself which is pride.

Thought of in a most humble way because we're just going to deny ourselves in so many things and we're going to have self-control and we're going to do all things well and therefore people will think well of me. It seems like Paul had something to say about this. In 1st Corinthians 1 he says this and he this brothers and sisters the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God.

Is that not them in Athens right there? Yet through wisdom they did not know God. It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness.

But to those who are called, both Jew and Greek, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, And the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised. God has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence.

But of him you were in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God in righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. And I, brethren, when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but it should be in the power of God." If that is not why you are here, then why are you here?

We have not come to seek the wisdom of man. Brothers and sisters, we have come because the power of God through the gospel has transformed us and changed us. God has taken us from the kingdom of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the light. He has made us into the kingdom of the beloved Son that He has. Others said it seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods.

They were making fun of Paul. He's ignorant, he's a babbler, he's a show-off, he's proclaiming some foreign God to us. But what was it that he was doing? Verse 18 says, He preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. This was the content of His message, Jesus and the resurrection.

And in that statement is everything. Jesus Christ, He proclaimed to them God in flesh. That blew their mind. And he came to live upon this earth in a humble way. He came and humbled himself to earth.

He lived a perfect life. He died an atoning death for the sins of all of his people. And then he raised from the dead? Paul, you're crazy! You're beside yourself!

Much study has made you mad. No, it is the power of God unto salvation to believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. That is what we believe and that is what we preach and I will preach it to my dying breath. Paul's message was strange to their ears and therefore they brought him to the Areopagus so that they may hear of this new doctrine of which he spoke. For the nature of the natural man this would have been a dream come true.

Have some young wise person say, hey come up here to the high seats, come up to Mars Hill. Paul found no natural inclination to come there, but he had a spiritual one. He wanted to come face to face with the wisdom of God and declare to them the wisdom of man. He wanted to declare to them the wisdom of God. And it was going to show that everything that they believed was foolish.

Because they denied the one true and living God. You see, he was going to give them, These high-minded men, the wisdom of God and hopes that some of them would be saved. Paul was willing to risk it all for the sake of their conversion. When commentator makes an interesting observation, he says, it is observable that there were human learning most flourished, idolatry most abounded, and the most absurd and ridiculous idolatry which confirms that the Apostles, that when they professed themselves to be wise, they became fools. And in the business of religion, were of all other the most vain in their imaginations.

They were willing to become fools for the sake of the gospel. And I'll say it again, until you're willing to become one, you will never truly proclaim the gospel. You must be willing to be thought a fool. God has said it from the very beginning. Paul has said it.

He has described it. He has lived it. Are you willing to be thought a fool for Christ? Because that's what it's going to take in order for us to see transformation in the lives of other people. Can we not truly find a parallel in our own day?

Like Athens, throughout the universities of our lands, the hills of learning abound in nearly every city and likewise there this secular learning abounds and so does the ignorance of God and idolatry. It is everywhere we look, you go to any place of higher learning, and you're going to find the foolishness of idolatry flourishing. And too many Christians, listen, too many Christians are willing to send their children and pay those people to destroy their own faith. They are willing to pay them and send their children to sit at the feet of the worldly wise only to find out that when they returned they became fools. For the fool has said in his heart there is no God.

So what will it be with you? Will you be a fair-minded person like a Berean ready to receive the Word of God? Will you be a fierce-minded one who opposes with zeal the Word of God? Maybe not outwardly but inwardly you're opposing the Word of God, not willing to accept it. Or will you be a high-minded one who considers that the preaching of the cross is foolishness?

I've prayed for you. Some of you I didn't even know would be here today. Others who I thought would be here are not here, but I prayed for you. God knows you. I prayed that each one of you, and I am hopeful that each one of you will search the truth of the Word of God and that you will yield your life to serving Him for the rest of your life.

That you will give your all for the message, listen, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And I desire so earnestly that if you're here this morning and do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, that today would be the day of salvation and that you're here today in a high-minded way thinking that all of your wisdom and study has has put you above such things as this the foolishness of the cross I pray that God would humble you today and that you would receive the simple message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and that you would believe. Would you pray with me? Our Father in heaven we give you praise and glory for your glorious gospel that the world says is foolish and Lord I'm proud to proclaim a gospel that the world says is foolish because you have told us in your scripture that it is the power of God into salvation.

Lord I pray that your Word would have its perfect work today and Father by your Holy Spirit that you would implant it deep into the hearts of these hearers and that you would take them from where they were to where you want them to be. And Father, I ask this in Christ's name, Amen.