Would you open up Acts chapter 17 on page 926 in the Bible so you can see what we're going
! to be learning from this morning. And if you're a child, I hope you've got a sheet. If you haven't
! got a sheet, then somebody can bring you one if you put your hand up. Has every child got
a sheet? And there are two parts to the sheet. There's the under eights and then there's the
nine and above bit. So do follow along on that and hopefully it will make sense by itself.
It's Sunday today, but on Sunday March the 30th, 1851, around 40% of the population of
England was in church. 40%. By the year 2005, that figure had fallen to 6.3%. And if you
go out onto the streets and ask them today, are you religious? Then more than half of
the population of this country will tell you that they are not. Just looking at the statistics,
you can see that the church has declined significantly in its size and its impact in British society.
And we feel that and we see it in different ways, don't we? We see it, for example, in
the legislation that's passed by the government, which is increasingly legislation passed in
denial of the teaching of scripture. We see it in the advocacy of the new atheists who
are campaigning against religion. We see it in attempts to get street preachers off the streets
in complaints about having the Christian message taught, even in a very mild way, in primary schools
and that kind of thing. Britain has changed since 1851 quite dramatically. We are nowhere near the state
of a country like Pakistan and Christians in this country still enjoy remarkable liberties and freedom
and peacefulness. So we shouldn't kid ourselves into thinking that our situation is anything like
the situation of Christians in difficult countries like that, or in Syria, for example, and many other
places that we could name. But nonetheless, and I suspect this is particularly true of an older
generation, we can feel that the world has changed around us quite dramatically and in unsettling ways.
I suspect, I wasn't alive in the 1950s as you can tell, but I suspect if you were, you felt
reasonably comfortable as a Christian in what was in some senses a Christian country, in that it had
some kind of adherence still then, at least to Christian morality, if not to the claims of the Christian
gospel. So if you knew that age, now feels very, very different indeed. And all the changes that have
taken place in our country raise all sorts of difficult questions for the church, don't they?
How should the church respond to a changed nation? And how should the church reach a changed nation with the gospel?
So from outside, we have questions pressing upon us, we have pressure upon us.
But we also have internal challenges in the life of any church, don't we?
And I don't know, I've obviously preached here before and I did your church weekend, but I don't know
your church life very well, but I imagine there are all sorts of internal pressures in the life of your church as well.
For example, the evident growth in the church creates issues and challenges for a church.
The building project which you're attempting to embark on creates issues and challenges for the church.
There will be things within the life of the church which raise questions for you.
So both given the external pressures of our culture and the inevitable internal challenges in the life of a church,
you may well find yourself sometimes wondering, what sort of church should we be?
And that's the question I want to think about with you this morning from Acts 17.
What sort of church should IPC Ealing be?
And what should its priorities be?
Given all of the external pressures and challenges and the internal challenges developments as well.
What sort of church should you be?
It seems to me that there are two common responses to the kinds of challenges that I've outlined.
And you might characterize them like this.
The first would be the circle the wagons approach.
That we are surrounded by an increasingly challenging and, to be honest, frightening culture.
We wonder what the future holds.
And the temptation really, you know what they did in the westerns, if they're riding along in the westerns and they see the enemy coming over the brow of the hill, what do they do?
They get the wagons going in a circle because it's a good defensive position.
And you stay inside the circle of wagons to protect yourself.
This is the sort of museum approach to church.
That the answer to a changing, frightening culture is to freeze everything in the life of the church, perhaps in the 1950s.
So that you never sing anything that was written before, who knows when, whatever your favourite date is.
1940 perhaps.
1900 perhaps.
It's the old for old sake approach.
It's what we might call, children, sheets, the antiquarian approach to the life of the church.
Okay?
Preserve it.
Pickle it, if you like.
Just keep it all the same.
And there are plenty of churches that have taken that approach to a scary, changing world.
Freeze everything.
Touch nothing.
Change nothing.
That would be one approach.
But the second approach, actually precisely the opposite, would be the change everything approach.
And here, there are many churches that would want to change, first of all, even the message of the church.
Bishop Spong was a famous Episcopal bishop in America.
The Anglican church in America.
And he wrote a book, the argument of which was that Christianity must change or die.
That if you keep on teaching the same message, the church will shrivel up and die.
You must embrace instead a kind of vague, general spirituality, which will be amenable to the people of a changing world around you, that they too can embrace.
There are other forms of this, aren't there?
I think some of the preaching you see, if you watch it on satellite TV, is that what you see?
Is it still called satellite TV?
Is it satellite?
Is that the right word?
It feels slightly old-fashioned as I say it.
But anyway, whatever that thing is now, with all those channels.
That kind of preaching you see there, churches, stadiums full of thousands of people.
Has anyone ever seen Joel Osteen on TV?
Joel Osteen, who's into the I am sayings.
You know the I am sayings?
Not the I am sayings of John's Gospel.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I am the resurrection and the life.
But rather the I am sayings of self-affirmation.
So he gets them all standing up, and I'm not going to do it, don't worry.
But he gets them all standing up, thousands of people chanting,
I am intelligent.
I am beautiful.
I am strong.
I am successful.
I am confident.
Change the message to one of vague spirituality with Bishop Spong.
To one of self-affirmation with Joel Osteen.
Change the preaching to be full of stories and comedy.
There are even preachers who study comedians to work out how they should preach.
Change the method as well.
And here, in the change everything thing, you don't sing anything from before 1990, probably.
You only sing new things, and you change your church to resemble something more like a rock concert.
Again, something that will make people feel at home, given where our culture is at.
And you get the impression from this kind of approach that the church has only just been invented.
And that there were no Christians before 1990 writing songs.
So you change the message and the method.
And this kind of church, you might call it the trendy church, as opposed to the antiquarian church,
ends up resembling a peculiar mix of therapy and a gig.
Put the two together.
And you get sort of self-help teaching plus rock music.
And you end up with a kind of therapy gig church.
Trendy church.
Now what sort of church should IPC Ealing be?
Should it become the antiquarian church?
Should it be the trendy church?
Well, let's look at what the Apostle Paul shows us in Acts 17.
Here we find Paul on his second missionary journey.
His second missionary journey.
The year is 49 or 50 AD.
He is pioneering.
He is heading into Greece in response to that call from the Macedonian man that has come earlier in Acts.
And all of this is very much the outworking of what the Lord Jesus said at the beginning of the book of Acts.
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria.
And to the end of the earth.
Acts 1 verse 8.
To the end of the earth.
And here we are at the end of the earth.
With the gospel going out even to these Greeks in Macedonia.
Thessalonica, where they are now, is an incredibly Roman place.
It's really, really into being Roman.
And that will become important as we look more closely at the passage.
It is, in other words, very hostile territory.
Sometimes we draw inspiration, don't we, as Christians.
If you know some Christian history from the giants of the past.
Maybe you are into the giants of the Reformation in the 16th century.
The giants of the revivals of the 18th century.
But actually, their culture was not that like our culture.
They were living in some kind of Christendom.
Where there was a pretty much universal acceptance, at least in theory, of the truths of the Christian faith.
If not in practice in individuals' lives.
Our situation is much more like this situation here in Acts 17, isn't it?
Bringing the gospel into a culture which is really very largely ignorant of the gospel.
And hostile to the gospel.
And worships other gods.
That's what Thessalonica was like.
And that's what our situation today is like.
So here we see Paul going into this new territory.
Starting a church.
And we can ask, well what's his message?
And what's his method?
What does he teach?
And how does he do it?
And we can learn from him some priorities for the church today.
And it's pretty straightforward, really.
The message, first of all.
Have a look at verse 2.
Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures.
So his message, quite simply, is the message of the Bible.
But it's more specific than that.
Because as we read on, we get some more detail.
Verse 3.
Explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead.
So within scripture there is a particular focus on the promised Messiah.
On the Christ.
Now that doesn't mean, of course, that Paul is only preaching what ends up being the Gospels.
The stories of Jesus' life.
Because how much of the Bible focuses on the Messiah?
All of it does.
Back from Genesis 3.15 we have the promise of the serpent crusher.
We have all of the types of Christ in the Old Testament and the kings and the priests and the prophets.
The whole of the Bible is pointing to the Christ, to the Messiah.
And specifically to his death and his resurrection.
So Paul's message is the message of the Bible, which is the message of the Christ, the Messiah,
which is the message of the Messiah's death and resurrection.
But even more specific than that, did you see there in verse 3?
Explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer.
So Paul is preaching the Bible, the Christ of the Bible, the death and resurrection of the Christ of the Bible,
and the necessity of the death of the Christ of the Bible.
That is his particular focus.
He had to die.
And there he echoes the teaching of the Lord Jesus himself in the Gospels, doesn't he, if you think?
How Jesus several times taught his disciples that the Son of Man must be delivered up and suffer and die.
This then was not a message simply pickling a past generation.
It was not a message concerned with his hearers, actually, and their situation, and their story, and their needs for therapy.
It was a message concerned with the Bible.
It was a message concerned with the Bible and the Christ of the Bible.
Now don't get me wrong.
The Christian message impacts our lives as individuals at our points of deepest need.
That's absolutely clear.
Only the Christian message can do that.
But our points of deepest need are often not what we think they are,
and people often misunderstand what their deepest need is.
And the Christian message at the end of the day is not about you and me.
You are not the centre of the universe.
And the Christian Gospel is not about you.
It is for you.
It is for your eternal salvation and your good and your blessing.
But it is about the Christ and his death and his resurrection.
As soon as you hear a message in a church which is becoming all about you,
you know it's going astray and there is something wrong with it.
Because the message that the Apostle preached here and elsewhere was a message about the Christ.
Not a message about you and me and our lives.
Now as I say, preaching needs to be relevant to our lives,
and it will be if it is about the Christ.
But it is about the Christ.
So fairly simply then, Paul's message was not a message of therapy,
it was not a message of vague spirituality,
it was not a message of comedy or entertainment,
it was a message concerning the Bible,
a message concerning the Christ of the Bible,
his death, his resurrection, the necessity of his death.
And what was his method?
We see this in some detail here actually.
Have a look at verse 2 again.
Do you see the verbs used in verses 2 and 3?
Paul went in as was his custom,
and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures.
Verse 3.
Explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead.
And saying,
This Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ.
You see the four key verbs there,
describing his method.
Reasoned,
explained,
proved,
proclaimed.
That's what Paul did.
And that maps out I think,
fairly neatly onto what today we would call
evangelism and apologetics.
So there is clear evangelism here.
This Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ.
What's Paul been doing?
He's come proclaiming the Christ.
Proclaiming the Messiah.
Preaching the good news of Jesus.
But in addition to that now,
he is reasoning from the Scriptures.
He's explaining and proving.
And that's what we might call apologetics today.
And specifically,
interesting,
this word here that's used for proving,
possibly even indicates that what Paul was doing
was lining up the prophecies of the Old Testament
with the events of Jesus' life
and showing how they fitted together.
He's placing them side by side.
So he's saying,
Look here in Isaiah 52, 53,
what it says about the coming Messiah.
Look here in what happened in Jesus' life and death
and see,
see the match,
see how he fulfills these prophecies.
But all of it, of course,
is Bible, Bible, Bible.
Everything Paul is doing here.
He's reasoning, yes,
but he's reasoning from the Scriptures.
He's explaining and proving, yes,
but he's explaining and proving
the Scriptures
and the Christ of the Scriptures.
So it's very much
Bible method.
His method is the Scriptures, quite simply.
The proclamation
and the proving of the Scriptures.
Now you might say to me,
Well, that's just because he's talking to Jews
who know the Scriptures.
Well, if you think that,
have a read on later today
in Acts 17
and see what he does when he goes to Athens.
Because actually when he goes to Athens,
he does the same proclaiming
and he proclaims the same message
from the Bible.
He needs to fill in some more
of the basics of who God is,
the creator God of all things,
not an idol.
But it's the same message
that he's preaching
which he's got from the Scriptures.
So the method, again,
is the proclamation of the Christ,
of the Scriptures.
There's less proving,
but even there,
there's still proving that goes on
when he's talking to Gentiles as well.
Now, this then is the Apostle's message.
It's not a message of self-help
and therapy.
This is his method.
It's not a method of entertainment.
It's not a method of antiquarianism.
It's not a method of friendliness.
It's quite simply a message
and a method of the Scriptures
and the Christ of the Scriptures.
But you may well wonder,
OK, but if the Church does do that,
what happens?
The crucial question of our pragmatic age,
does it work if we do that?
And actually the passage,
in God's kindness,
answers even our silly,
pragmatic questions.
It works.
But it works in two ways.
Have a look now at the fruit
of Paul's ministry.
First of all,
the first response to Paul's
message and method
is a response of persuasion.
people are persuaded.
You see that in verse 4.
And some of them were persuaded
and joined Paul and Silas,
as did a great many of the devout Greeks
and not a few of the leading women.
So some Jews,
more Gentiles,
were persuaded
and actually it's
were joined
to Paul and Silas.
There's a hint there
in the language of verse 4
of God's sovereignty
in taking these people
who've been persuaded
and joining them
to Paul and Silas.
God does the joining here
in the original.
God is sovereign
so that when his message
is preached
and people are faithful
to the biblical method,
they will be joined.
He will do the joining.
He will join them
to the church.
And that's what happens here.
So we can be confident
that if we stick
to the apostolic message
and the apostolic method,
it will bear fruit.
God will join people
to the church.
But that's not all
that happens here
because something else
happens as well
in verse 5 and following.
There isn't only persuasion,
there is also,
secondly,
persecution.
Do you see what happens here?
The Jews are jealous.
They want to keep
the Gentiles out,
it seems.
And so they try to
raise a crowd,
a rabble,
a mob,
to stir things up
and they go
looking for them.
Now they can't find them
but they drag out
this man Jason
and they bring him
before the city authorities
shouting that these men
who've turned the world
upside down
have now come here too
and they're causing
trouble here too.
And in particular,
do you see what they're doing?
They say,
they're acting against
the decrees of Caesar
saying that there is
another king,
Jesus.
So observe the characteristics
of this response
of persecution.
First of all,
it arises from jealousy
as persecution
often does.
Secondly,
it is violent.
It is a dangerous mob.
The mob is a scary thing.
We don't see it very often
but we have seen it
in our country
not long ago
when a mob
rises up
and the kind of destruction
and violence
that can ensue.
But also it gets
cleverly political
here in verses 6 and 7.
Do you see that?
They try to get
the city authorities
involved
and they accuse them
of effectively
treason
trying to make
another king.
Now can you think
of another episode
in the Bible
where the same thing
happens?
where they do the same
thing
using the authorities
raising an accusation
of treason
with the Lord Jesus
himself of course.
Remember he said
if they persecute me
they'll persecute you.
If they treat me
like this
they'll treat you
like this.
Well here it is
happening.
They're actually doing
exactly the same thing.
They're going to the
authorities
trying to imply
that they are
stirring up a
revolution
by preaching
another king
and the word
used here
is the same
word that's used
of Caesar himself.
And of course
actually
you might say
they were.
Because when
Caesar
takes on a role
which is only
properly to be
given to God
there is
a conflict
between Caesar
and King Jesus.
You see that
very quickly
after the New Testament
with the Roman
emperor's claims
to be God
and demands
for worship.
Is there a
conflict between
Christ and Caesar?
Absolutely there is.
Because Caesar
has trespassed
on ground
which belongs
to Jesus.
So this is not
a fanciful claim
either.
We don't want to say
oh well Jesus said
that his kingdom
was not of this world
so he really wasn't
trespassing on
Caesar's ground.
He was trespassing
on Caesar's ground
because Caesar
was trespassing
on his.
So it's political
clever political
opposition.
And then lastly
and this is why
we read on to
verse 15
do you see how
dogged they are?
How they won't
let go?
Verse 13
They've gone on
now to preach
in Berea
and they've received
a very favourable
response in Berea
and from the Jews
in Berea
but verse 13
when the Jews
from Thessalonica
learned that the
word of God
was proclaimed
by Paul at Berea
also
they came there too
agitating and
stirring up the
crowds.
In other words
the opponents of
the gospel
are so relentless
it's not enough
when you've left
town.
You leave town
and they come
after you.
They keep going
they won't
let go.
This is a very
determined kind
of resistance
to the gospel.
So what happens
with the apostolic
message
and the apostolic
method?
some believe
God and his
sovereignty
joins them
to the church.
Others react
with violent
political
and determined
persecution.
Now again
we live still
in remarkably
favourable times
in this country
but we don't
need to look
far abroad
to see how
this is the story
of many
probably most
Christians
in the world
that they
experience opposition
like this
and we could
imagine it
coming here
quite quickly.
Let's think
back to our
opening question
then.
In the face
of a changing
culture
an increasingly
hostile
culture
with
questions
generated
by the
internal
life
of our
church
what sort
of church
should we
be?
Well Paul
gives us here
a clear example
doesn't he?
We need to
stick to
the message
of the Bible
of the Christ
of the Bible
of his cross
and his resurrection
and we need to
stick to the
method
of proclaiming
the scriptures
and defending
the scriptures.
So what should
you be doing
as a church?
Well this is the
right emphasis
isn't it
on the
spirituality
of the church
that you
should be
concerned
with this
apostolic
message
and method
with keeping
the scriptures
at the heart
of your church.
What do you
expect
of your
pastor?
I hope you
expect your
pastor to
love you
and care
for you
and as
appropriate
visit you
and see you
and talk to you
but I hope
you are also
clear
that your
pastor's
task
is to
proclaim
this message
by this
method
which requires
your pastor
to be locked
away in his
study
studying the
scriptures
each week
and in that
sense he's
torn in two
isn't he?
He needs to be
out among you
but he needs
to be protecting
his time
to study the
scriptures.
Now Paul is not
primed me to say
this and he
didn't tell me
anything along
these lines
but this passage
tells us doesn't
it?
That the life of a
church needs to
be focused on the
message and method
of the scriptures
and therefore you
want your pastor
to be devoted
to the study
of the scriptures
and you need to
make sure that
he's doing that
and to protect
that.
What do you want
to happen in your
youth and children's
work?
In your groups
that meet before
the service and
midweek?
What should they be
focused on?
Now it's great for
children to have
fun but that is
not actually the
aim.
The aim is to
bring them to the
scriptures to drink.
Now here's a test
for you
to see if you
have absorbed
this message or
not.
Imagine your
child comes home
or you hear that
somebody's child has
come home and
has said,
there's just so
much Bible in
our meeting.
What's your
reaction?
As your reaction
I'll go and talk
to the leaders
and tell them
it's just a bit
too heavy at the
moment.
Now I know,
I know,
it could be,
it's conceivable
that such a
meeting could be
too heavy.
But I think it's
probably very,
very unlikely in
our culture and
our times.
Is that your
action?
Do you think
I'll go and tell
them to soft
pedal a bit and
get less Bible
in the meeting?
I'll phone them
up and give
them a roasting.
You may be
thinking it never
happens.
It happens all
over the place.
It happens to
pastors with their
sermons.
I know a
pastor who
receives a note.
I think it's
even a handwritten
note which is
rather lovely,
isn't it?
Every time he
crosses 25 minutes
he gets a note.
I know of
youth workers
who have parents
coming to say
them saying it's
just too heavy and
dull, you're putting
them off the
gospel by having
so much Bible.
It is conceivable,
yes, when it hits
an hour and a half,
maybe, but probably
they're a long way
from that generally
speaking.
What would your
reaction be if your
child or a child
said that?
Would you sit down
and say actually
rejoice that you
have a club which
is teaching you the
word of God, which
is his living voice.
Celebrate that you're
hearing about the
Lord Jesus from his
word.
This is an amazing
privilege that we
have to do this and
to do it freely.
It's an extraordinary
thing.
I know it's hard work
sometimes.
We find that has
grown up too in
church.
Would you say that?
We know it's hard to
concentrate on some
preachers sometimes,
especially that
Williams bloke.
It's hard to listen
to them sometimes,
but it's the word
of God and so we
work hard at it.
And that's what we
need to do in our
clubs as well, is to
work hard at listening
because this is God's
message and this is
God's method.
Is that what you
would say?
Or would you want
them to soft pedal
a bit?
Then again for us
as individuals of
any age, if you're at
school, we talked
about this a bit
beforehand, and you
have friends and
neighbours and family
members who do not
know the Lord Jesus.
What is it that they
need to hear?
Maybe that there are
all sorts of useful
conversations you could
have with them, but the
focus of what they need
to hear is Christ and
his death and his
resurrection.
Now maybe sometimes you
need to have a more
philosophical argument
about this or that or
the other.
A bit of ground
clearing maybe.
But actually the focus
of our conversations
with our friends and
our neighbours and
our school friends and
our family members who
are not Christians needs
to be the Lord Jesus,
doesn't it?
This is the apostolic
message.
We need to be
introducing people to
him.
So I think this passage,
I hope you find this
passage to be good news
for us this morning,
because it can be quite
bewildering, can't it?
In a culture we feel
under pressure, we feel
isolated, we feel like a
small minority, yes, it's
quite a nice full room.
How many people are there
in Ealing?
This is a tiny, tiny,
tiny, tiny fraction of
the people who live
within half a mile of
this place.
You're a minority, you're
a tiny minority, you can
feel that sometimes.
You can feel the world is
increasingly hostile in
what it's doing.
And that can make us
wonder, should we be doing
something different?
Should we change?
Should we tweak?
Should we adjust?
I take it this is a good
news passage, because it
tells us very simply what
the Apostles' priorities
were in his message and
in his method.
And that's liberating.
We don't need to be
wringing our hands
thinking, what do we do?
What should we fill our
meetings with?
Oh no, how can we reach
this world?
Stick to the Apostles'
message.
Stick to the Apostles'
method.
Christ and the Bible.
And lastly, as we draw
to a close, let me just
say a word to those of you
who are inquiring and
would not consider
yourselves Christians
here this morning.
What should you be
inquiring about?
If that's you, what
questions do you need
to be asking?
What should your
concern be?
This passage gives us
a wonderfully clear
answer, doesn't it?
The question for you is
the question which the
Lord Jesus himself
asked his disciples.
who do you say that I
am?
Who is Jesus?
And in particular, can I
draw your attention again
to verse 3?
The Apostle explained and
proved that it was
necessary for the Christ
to suffer.
So if you're not a
Christian here this morning,
let me leave you with
this question.
Do you believe that it
was necessary for the
Christ to suffer?
Do you understand why it
was necessary for the
Christ to suffer?
If God willed to save a
people, which he did,
their sin made it
necessary for the
Christ to suffer.
It is the only way.
And do you believe that
this morning?
Because one of the big
reasons I think why people
aren't Christians is
because they just don't
think they need to be.
The Lord Jesus described
himself as a doctor
come to heal the sick.
You only go to the
doctor if you know
you're sick.
And the scriptures tell
us that we are all sick
and in need of healing.
And that his death is
the sole means by
which we can be healed.
And if you're not a
Christian this morning,
that is the big question,
the big challenge for you
from this passage.
Do you see that?
Do you see that he had
to do it, to save you?
That there is no other
way for you to be
reconciled to the God
who made you.
Let's pray together.