This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
This isn't enough that Christ died for our sins, but that He
rose again from the dead is the evidence to the human race that
truly He is the only one that can conquer the power of sin and
death, and that His death was accepted by the Father as being
enough for the forgiveness of sins for all those who would
come and trust in Him as their Lord and Savior.
That's why Jesus, when He died, He said it is finished.
And aren't you glad it is finished?
One of the facts of life is that everyone dies.
All of us are going to pass away from this world in one way or
another. Some of us hope that our passing
will have some meaning, but we don't always get to make that
call. But what Pastor Clark reminds us
today is that not only did Jesus know how he was going to die,
his death did something that no one else could accomplish.
He conquered sin and death itself.
By the power of his death and his resurrection, we have the
hope of eternal life because of Jesus.
Now here's Pastor Clark in Acts chapter 17 with today's edition
of Living Waters of Grace. When we ended the study last
time, I taught Paul was persecuted in Philippi and he
eventually had to leave that region, and he left encouraged
in the Lord because of what the Holy Spirit was doing in the
church in Philippi. And so wherever the gospel went,
there was always evidence of people becoming believers and
having their lives transformed. And so he continues today in
chapter 17 of Acts in the city of Thessalonica.
And it says now when they had passed through Amphilias and
Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a
synagogue of the Jews. Now this is about 100 miles from
Philippi, about 3 days journey of walking about 30 miles a day.
It wasn't a quick jaunt there. They stayed in a couple cities
prior to getting to Thessalonica.
These cities didn't have a synagogue.
So he didn't really have the ability to meet with a lot of
people at any given time. The nice thing about Paul's
background being Jewish, he was able to go and be invited to any
synagogue in any city to share the good news.
And that was a Lord only opening that kind of door.
Even though the Jewish people from the most point in time, at
this particular point in history didn't recognize Christ as
Messiah, but he was able to go into these places and have these
open doors that only the Holy Spirit could set up for him.
And because of that, he had the privilege of telling them about
the one that they had studied about through the Old Testament
Scriptures. And so Thessalonica, an
interesting city. I was there some time ago when
my journeys to Israel and on the way back from Israel, I went to
Greece and I actually was in Thessalonica and it just gave me
chills to walk around the streets.
They're thinking about Apostle and what he did there, what he
spoke about. Just fascinating.
It's a coastal city, very beautiful city, couple
universities there, a lot of atmosphere of paganism and that
kind of stuff, but still evidence of the gospel of Jesus
Christ and and churches in that region to this day.
So he went into the synagogue to to share the gospel.
Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them in verse 2, and
for three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer
and rise again from a dead, and saying this Jesus whom I
preached you is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded,
and a great multitude of devout Greeks and not a few of the
leading women joined Paul and Silas.
So he had a very effective ministry at this particular
time. The Holy Spirit had prepared
hearts to receive what it was He was teaching and he didn't teach
from human logic. It says he reasoned with them
from the Scriptures. He always used the Scriptures
because the Scriptures are the only ingredient that can cause
someone to become a believer in Jesus Christ.
It's not arguments, it's not debates, it's not human ideas.
It's the preaching of the gospel that changes hearts.
As all of us know, the majority of us here today are here is
born again believers because of the impact that the Gospels had
upon us. But what's interesting here as
you get into this study and read about these Greek words,
reasoning and explaining and demonstrating was that he took
the time to give them the opportunity to ask questions as
he shared the truth of the gospel with them and he reasoned
with them, not from his own logic as a an attorney.
Very bright man, the apostle Paul was, his dependency was on
the scriptures. Now we got to realize at this
time the Scriptures weren't what we have in our hands today.
The 66 books of the Bible, all the Apostolic writings, and even
the book of the Acts at the time was not written yet.
So he was referring to everything and his understanding
of the Old Testament that he was grounded in as a Jew.
So he's preaching Christ from the Old Testament Scriptures,
Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, and many other scriptures that gave the
evidence that Messiah would come and be born of a virgin and
eventually become the Savior of the world.
And so as he's debating and talking and explaining, he
specifically talked about the absolute necessity of Christ
having to die for sin. The Jewish people understood the
need for atonement. They understood the need for
repentance. They understood the need for
shedding of blood. They utilize the skins of
animals and slaughtering animals and sufficing them in the altar
throughout the Old Testament scriptures to show that without
the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
But the shedding of blood of animals and goats was not enough
to redeem mankind from his sinful nature, his fallen sinful
nature. There had to be one that would
come and be truly the one that could atone for sin.
And he demonstrated to them that Jesus Christ was a Lamb of God,
slain before the foundation of the earth.
Without the death of Christ, there is no gospel.
Without the death of Christ, there is no forgiveness of sins.
Without the death and the shedding blood of Jesus Christ,
there is no ability for mankind to be free from his guilt, from
the power and impact that sin has on the human condition in
the human life. And so he's explaining to them,
and they're connecting with this because they understood the need
for atonement and sacrifice, but they didn't quite understand yet
that Jesus Christ is their Messiah.
And so Paul's discussing this with them, but not only the fact
that Christ had to suffer and die, but that he rose again from
the dead. This is the true power of the
gospel. This isn't enough that Christ
died for our sins, but that He rose again from the dead is the
evidence to the human race that truly He is the only one that
can conquer the power of sin and death, and that His death was
accepted by the Father as being enough for the forgiveness of
sins for all those who would come and trust in Him as their
Lord and Savior. That's why Jesus, when He died,
He said it is finished. And aren't you glad it is
finished? There's nothing else anybody can
add to what it is that Christ has done.
There's no work that you and I have to do to try to make sure
that we are really saved. We're saved based upon the
gospel of Jesus Christ. For Jesus Christ told us.
For God so loved this world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. Such a simple, powerful,
profound, miraculous word of God from Jesus own lips of salvation
being by faith alone, by grace alone in Christ alone, right?
Not anything that we could do, only what He's done.
And we serve him because of what He's done for us.
We don't serve Jesus to try to get points or to try to get on
the good side of God. We're already on the good side
of God because what Christ has done for us, he reconciled us
fully, completely. There's not one thing you or I
could do or add to the finished work of Jesus Christ.
And this is a big stretch for these Jewish people in the
synagogue because many of them have been indoctrinated in
works, righteousness, all the responsibilities of the edicts
of the law and all the principles of kosher stuff and
all the Jewish traditions. It was just overwhelming.
And the evidence of all that stuff in the Old Testament was
allowed and designed by God to show the human race it.
No matter how much you work or how hard you try or whatever you
try to do to be good, you can't be good enough to be acceptable
to God. There's only one that makes you
good enough and that's Jesus Christ.
And this is the whole foundation of the good news of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. It takes the guilt, it takes
this sense of I have to do something off of us and get our
eyes on the one who did it all for us.
And that's the one we worship. That's the one we celebrate.
And so it says it's some of them were persuaded.
Not everybody that hears this message believes.
Perhaps it took a while for you to hear it and believe it.
It did take some time for me. I didn't believe it the first
time I heard it. Matter of fact, I wanted to try
to reject it and ignore it and act like it wasn't true so I
could live the way I wanted to live.
And I did that for a period of time.
It's such a compelling, powerful truth that whenever it begins to
get into your heart and into your mind, it eventually
captivates you because God is the one that comes after us.
We don't come after God. The Bible tells us that there's
none that seeketh after God. That's tragic, but God seeks
after us. Aren't you glad that He sought
us and bought us with his redeeming blood, as the hymn
says? And so some believe, praise God.
There's this evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit through
the preaching of the Word of God.
Paul couldn't do anything to save them.
All he could do is present the evidence which he did here very
accurately. And it says some were persuaded
and a great multitude of the devout Greeks and not a few of
the leading women join Paul and Silas.
All the sudden, there's a church established here in Thessalonica
at this point in time. Pastor Lewis took us through 1st
and 2nd Thessalonians a while back, and you might want to read
those books now because this is all about this particular city
in this church plant and all that developed in here because
of the work and the continual growth of the church in the days
long after this had actually occurred.
And then it says in verse 5. But the Jews who were not
persuaded. And there's always people that
aren't going to believe you have friends, neighbors, family,
relatives, whatever coworkers you shared the gospel with, and
they have not been persuaded yet.
But don't give up. Keep praying for them.
Keep living your faith out. Allow God to do the work and
trusting him to convince them you can't convince them.
So some of these Jews, and these are the same Jews that cause
problems in some of the other cities leading up to this
chapter, became envious. They're jealous of the power and
the influence that this word, the gospel of Jesus Christ is
having on the people. The Old Testament law has lost
its allure, its impact. It's boring, it's dead, it's
dry, it's dead, it's lifeless. The law cannot do anything but
bring death. The Spirit gives life.
And so they're dealing with these people that are wondering
like why are these people listening to this guy?
We're losing influence, we're losing population in our
synagogues. And now these people are
following the teachings of the gospel given through Paul and
Silas. And these guys were not any self
focused and interested in breaking up what was happening
here. But it says they went out and
they took some men from the marketplace.
They're looking for troublemakers, Pagan godless
people to stand up and get a mob and set all the city in an
uproar. Something that we see happening
in our own country now, isn't it?
When Christians try to congregate on outside events to
try to have opportunity to share the gospel, we read in the
headlines, we see in the news these mobs that are standing up
and and hating anything that represents God's love and his
mercy and his justice and his grace and attacking and stoning.
And they did this back then and they're doing it now in all
parts of the world. That's actually beginning to
happen in our own country. And so they can't find Paul and
Silas at the time. So it says they attacked the
House of Jason, and the Bible doesn't tell us a lot about
Jason, but Jason was a brother who obviously was a believer and
he had this influence in the community at the time.
And so believers were beginning to assemble with Jason.
And Jason was the one that I'm sure gave up Paul and Silas some
place to hang out for a while as they were in the city.
And so they're going to his house now and they're looking to
bring Paul and Silas out to the people.
But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some
brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out.
So this by your connection and your influence in your life for
Christ, people are going to at times attack you, maybe not to
this extreme at this point in time in our history as a nation,
pray that there would be revival, that we won't have to
deal with this kind of stuff. But in many, many places of the
world today, this is happening to the Christians.
So you're guilty by association. You might not be the one that's
doing the preaching or the teaching, but just the fact that
you're supporting or connected with those who do, you're going
to be accused of insurrection. And so they, they bring him out
and they can't find the other guys.
They're saying now to the authorities, these who have
turned the world upside down have come here too.
Isn't a wonderful thing that these two guys, two men in the
midst of a city at the time of over 200,000 people and
Thessalonica are having this kind of impact?
It's impossible for men to have this kind of impact.
This is the power of God. This is the power of the Holy
Spirit that is waking the city up to their need of Jesus
Christ. And I think about revivals and
times that God's moved and has brought many, many people into
his Kingdom. What happens when the church
begins to have influence? It begins to turn people's lives
right side up. They hear the gospel and their
lives begin to be changed. We're not the same.
If any man's in Christ is a new creation, old things are passed
away. Behold, all things have become
new. We're not the same as we were
before, and people notice that. That's what impacts people to be
interested in what it is you're following or believing in.
And these guys are paranoid now and they're accusing Paul and
Silas and anyone at this point in time who's a follower of
Christ. They're they're turning the
world upside down. But I'll tell you, if there was
ever a time in our time that the world needs to be turned right
side up, it's today. And we're the ones that God
wants to use, and He will use us.
And He is using US in spite of our imperfections, in spite of
our fears, in spite of our anxieties or insecurities at
times. The Lord is in US and He will
shine through us if we get out of the way and let His life and
His light be evident in and through our lives.
And so Jason is being accused here as harboring them or giving
them a safe place to be. And these are all acting
contrary to the decrees of Caesar.
So they're basically saying that Paul and Silas are causing a
rebellion against Caesar is the king.
And that was never the case. Jesus was accused of causing
problems in the political arena. Jesus could care less about the
political arena. He said, my Kingdom isn't of
this world. Politics isn't what gets the
Kingdom established here in the earth.
Jesus Christ is the only one that can establish the Kingdom.
And the Kingdom isn't of this world.
It's not of America or Russia or China or Saudi Arabia or the
Mideast or Africa or whatever. It's a supernatural Kingdom that
Christ is going to bring forth when he returns again.
And that's what our eyes need to be on, not what happens 2 years
from now in Washington. Now I have my desires and you do
too. But whether they come to pass or
not is immaterial to the Kingdom of God.
Because Christ said He will build His church and the gates
of hell will not prevail against it.
His church isn't dependent upon Republicans or Democrats or
communists or socialists. His Kingdom is rooted in
supernatural power. He said His Kingdom will come
and when His Kingdom comes, it'll last forever.
There will be no war, no nation, no person, no leader that can
tear or destroy or circumvent the Kingdom of God.
And so all this upheaval that's happening throughout the ages in
the book of the Acts to the day that we live now, people are
paranoid about people like us that have a stand for the Lord
Jesus. And so they were.
Saying that there's another King Jesus.
Well, yeah, King Jesus, He is the King of kings and the Lord
of Lords. He's been that before the
foundation of the earth, and that's his throne.
And he's on the throne in spite of what we see happening in this
world today. His will will be done as it is
in heaven. It will be done on earth.
He promises that in his prayer, the Lord's Prayer.
And so they're having to listen to this nonsense of this crowd,
these authorities at the time and these comments that are
being made. And as they're saying this, it
says in verse 8, and they troubled the crowd and the
rulers of this city when they heard these things.
So they're really getting uptight.
We got a problem here. There's an insurrection going on
there. They want to bring down Caesar
and they're thinking mentally, if Caesar is diminished in the
eyes of the city of Thessalonica, they'll lose all
the benefits of being part of the Roman Empire.
It was all self-serving politics.
So when they then took security from Jason and the rest, they
let them go. So the whole deal was Jason had
to give them a certain amount of money, promising them that he
would get Paul and Silas out of the community and then he get
his money back. So verse 10, then the brethren
immediately send Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.
So I don't want to lose any money here.
Paul and Silas, you know you. I mean, we're glad you're here,
but you're probably better off going on down the road now,
going somewhere else. So when they arrived, they went
into the synagogue of the Jews and now they're in this place
called Berea, this other city, these people in Berea it says in
verse 11, very powerful comment made about these people.
May it be said of us these were more fair minded than those in
Thessalonica and that they received the Word with all
readiness and search the Scriptures daily to find out
whether these things were so. We need to be Bereans.
I'm thankful for the focus that Calvary Chapel has around the
world and their churches to go through the Bible
systematically, verse by verse, line upon line, precept upon
precept. I don't have the right or the
privilege to make it up as I go or to go somewhere that the
Bible doesn't tell us to go. You know, we're locked into a
responsibility as teachers to teach the whole council of God.
And the privilege of being able to do that is we learn things
like we're learning today. And I hate to say it, but in
most churches today you will not hear this kind of teaching. 30
years ago, a lot of the Bible churches taught this way.
Nowadays there's less and less. It says in the last days there
will be a famine for the word of God.
Men will be lovers in themselves rather than lovers of God and
it'll be hard to find places that teach sound doctrine.
And so these Bereans were already developed by the power
of God to does not take anything they heard lightly and say,
well, this guy taught this. He seems to know the Bible.
So I guess it's true. You have to know the Bible like
I'm responsible to know the Bible.
All of you guys are responsible to know the Scriptures so that
when you're listening, if something's going the wrong way,
you're going to know right away it's going the wrong way.
It's going to convict you. It's going sideways.
It's not true, and you're going to hold the teacher accountable
to something that they taught that isn't founded in the
scriptures. Thanks for joining us on this
journey through Acts. On today's edition of Living
Waters of Grace, Pastor Clark shares that one of the most
remarkable things about the book of Acts it's how it shows the
disciples transformation. The followers of Jesus we meet
here are very different from the often confused and fearful
disciples in the Gospels. After Jesus's death and
resurrection, and especially through the power of the Holy
Spirit, the apostles experienced a profound change in their
hearts and boldness. Their faith became unwavering,
and they moved forward with courage to spread the gospel
despite opposition and hardship. Acts reminds us that the same
Spirit who empowered them is at work in US today, shaping our
hearts and giving us strength to live boldly for Christ.
Living Waters of Grace is a ministry of Calvary Chapel
Westmoreland. If you're in the Greensburg, PA
area, we invite you to join us this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E
Pittsburgh St. Unit 6B.
Visit calvarychapelonline.com For more information where you
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We're so grateful that you joined us today in Acts.
TuneIn again soon for another edition of Living Waters of
Grace.