How Do We Handle Truth?

Rev. Mark C. Alvis, Union Congregational Church — Lent I, February 25, 2007

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When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.

But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason's house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go (Acts 17:1-9 NIV).

While I was in seminary I was privileged to room with students from several countries in Africa. One of my roommates from Swaziland, a pre-med student, had gone back to visit his family over the Christmas holiday. After returning to the United States he shared with me his frustration in trying to convince the leaders of his village that people have actually walked on the moon. The leaders laughed at him for being so naive as to believe such fairytales. No amount of photographs or written documentation would change their minds. In evaluating their reaction, we both concluded that truth about space travel threatened their belief system, and therefore they could not receive it.

Haven’t we all discovered that truth can be unsettling? And yet truth, properly understood and used, is what sets us free from our chains of ignorance. I doubt if anyone has ever been more humbled by truth than Saul of Tarsus, who became the Apostle Paul. Saul was a man consumed by his desire to exterminate Christianity. He saw the carpenter from Nazareth as a false Messiah who got exactly what he deserved — crucifixion. But then Saul was struck down by the ascended Lord Jesus on his way to Damascus and was forced to face the truth that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God. Saul’s carefully crafted system of theology was shattered by this discovery. Not only did he have to build a new world view, but the priorities and course of his life were radically changed. This morning we have an opportunity to observe how the Apostle Paul went about presenting the truth of the gospel and to examine the different reactions to that truth. Our passage for consideration is Acts 17:1-9. Paul and Silas have left Philippi and traveled about 100 miles south-west to Thessalonica. This city was the capital of Macedonia, located on the eastern coast of modern day Greece. It was one of the major trading centers of the world, with a population of about 200,000. Please follow as I read verses 1-3:

When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures [the Old Testament], explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ [the Messiah],” he said.

Did you notice in verse 2, that Paul reasoned with these people from the Scriptures. This may seem obvious, but Paul could not reason with people if he did not have a reasonable faith. By “reasonable” I mean that Paul was able to give verifiable facts and proofs to back up his claims concerning Jesus Christ. His primary source of authority was the Old Testament, which Paul believed to be the Word of God and could give solid reasons why he believed that. The people Paul reasoned with from the Old Testament also believed it to be the Word of God. There are pastors in mainline denominations today that I cannot reason with from the Bible because they do not believe it is the Word of God; only the parts they like are deemed to be true.

Verse 3 expands on how Paul reasoned from the Scriptures. It says he “explained” or literally he “opened up the evidence.” This is the approach our Lord Jesus also took. In Luke 24:27 we read, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” The response to this by the disciples who heard Jesus is recorded in Luke 24:32, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us . . . and opened [explained] the Scriptures to us?” Jesus helped them to properly understand the Old Testament. The Apostle Paul was doing the same in the synagogues of his day.

In particular, Paul was laying out the evidence from the Old Testament that the Messiah had to suffer, die and rise from the dead. The rabbis did not know what to do with passages of Scripture which spoke of the Messiah as suffering and dying — Isaiah 53; Psalm 22; Zechariah 12:10. They couldn’t make a suffering Messiah fit with a triumphant Messiah who would usher in world-wide blessings — Psalm 72; Isaiah 54; Zechariah 14. And so most of the Rabbis spoke only of a triumphant Messiah.

How influenced were the disciples of Christ by the teachings they had grown up with; teachings which ignored the truth about the Messiah’s suffering and death? Luke 18:31-34 tells us:

Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man [Messiah] will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again” [there was nothing unclear about what Jesus spoke, but it did not seem to fit the triumphant Messiah they had been told about]. The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.

This is a frightening fact, but if we build faulty theological systems to help us understand and organize truth, these systems will blind us to some aspects of truth. The disciples’ concept of the Messiah used only selected Scriptures and ignored others. Systems of theology are only as good as they are accurate in handling the whole counsel of God’s Word.

To Paul’s credit, not only did he give full explanations from the Old Testament of Messiah’s death and resurrection, but he did so in a gentle and loving way, according to I Thessalonians 2:7-11.

Let’s now consider how the Thessalonians handled the truth of the gospel — that Christ died and rose again. Look with me at verse 4, “Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.” These people were persuaded because their arguments against Paul’s position were shown to be weak and because Paul’s teachings about Christ incorporated all the Scriptures and not just some.

But not everyone was persuaded; some were quite threatened by what Paul taught. Notice verse 5: “But the [unpersuaded] Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the market place [low life lawyers who were more interested in making money than in seeking justice], formed a mob and started a riot in the city [their motto was: “If you can’t beat the argument, attack the person”]. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.”

People who are genuinely committed to truth don’t become furious or jealous when someone comes along and gives them more truth — especially if the person who does so is honorable, reasonable, gentle and backs up everything he says with Scripture. These Jews claimed to believe the Bible, but in reality they only believed parts of the Bible. Instead of humbling themselves, they rounded up some slime-balls and started a riot.

In verses 6-9, Luke records what next took place:

But when they did not find them [at Jason’s house] they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.

Were these unbelieving Jews exaggerating when they said that Paul and Silas, spokesmen for Christianity, were causing trouble all over the world? The Greek word translated “world” literally means the inhabited earth. However, in the minds of most people in the Roman Empire, the only civilized people on earth lived within the Roman Empire. And so this word translated “world” often meant the Roman Empire (Luke 2:1; Acts 11:28). Christianity, along with Judaism, was indeed unsettling for most people in the days of the New Testament because almost everyone on earth was polytheistic. Christians and Jews taught there is only one true and living God.

The second accusation was that Paul and Silas were “defying Caesar’s decrees.” Were they telling people to rob and pillage? No. Were they teaching people to ignore the laws of the land? No. (See Romans 13:1-7.) There was however an area where Christians could not go along with “Caesar’s decrees.” It was in regard to Caesar-worship, which Rome used as a means for bringing unity among the diverse peoples within the Roman Empire. Christians can show respect for civil leaders, but cannot view them as gods. Wherever Christianity spread, emperor worship suffered.

What about the accusation that Paul and Silas taught there was “another king, one called Jesus”? There are many Christians who would call this accusation a bold face lie. According to them, Jesus is not a king here on earth. His kingdom is in heaven and has nothing to do with this world; a term for this viewpoint is pietism. The golden texts for pietism are Matthew 4:8-10; Matthew 22:19-21; and John 18:36.

In Matthew 4:8-10, Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of this world if Jesus would worship him. The conclusion from this — according to pietism — is that Satan has the kingdoms of the world and there is nothing Jesus can do to get them back except to one day destroy this world, so He can become the king of the next world. Question: Who is stronger, Satan or Christ? Even during the time of Jesus’ humility, he was plundering Satan’s domain by casting out demons. And what was Jesus going to do to Satan at the cross? He was going to crush his head so He could plunder his domain in a far greater way.

The second golden text of pietism is Matthew 22:19-21, where Jesus says to a group of religious leaders to render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and render to God what belongs to God. According to pietists, this text teaches that civil government (Caesar’s domain) belongs to Satan and always will until Christ returns. What this text actually teaches is that Caesar, the emperor of the Roman Empire, had a right to collect taxes for the services he rendered. As a matter of fact, a coin the Jews used to pay these taxes had Caesar’s image stamped upon it. God has ordained civil government and civil leaders have a right to be paid. The more important question is – whose image does Caesar bear? Because all people are made in God’s image, including civil leaders, all people have a responsibility to serve and honor God. Any king who thinks he is above God’s authority will be rudely awakened. King Nebuchadnezar found this out the hard way. Because of his great pride, God made him eat grass like an ox. After a period of great humiliation, he finally repented, cried out to God and was restored to sanity. In Daniel 5:34-37 he testifies, “God’s dominion [rule], is an eternal dominion . . . He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand . . . And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”

The third golden text of pietism is John 18:36, where Jesus tells Pilate, “My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world” [RSV].

The source of Christ’s authority is from God in heaven, but His kingship and kingdom are destined to grow here on earth. This is why Jesus taught us to pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” In Matthew 16:18, Jesus promised to “build my church [where? Right here on earth as well as in heaven], and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” There are many who do not yet recognize Christ’s kingship, but the numbers who do are growing daily. Friends, there is another King and He is the King of kings (Revelation 1:5). If our nation continues to rebel at His authority and Laws, just see how long we remain strong! God humbles the proud. Let’s pray.

Sermon text ©2007 Mark C. Alvis
Bible text © as applicable