Unstoppable Advancement of the Kingdom of God

Paul & Silas in Berea | Acts 17:10-15 | Jacob Smoak

Our Mission
“We exist to glorify God by making disciples that CONNECT passionately with God and His family, GROW progressively to spiritual maturity, SERVEselflessly with their gifts and talents, and GOrelentlessly into the world with the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the King Light podcast. Have you ever shared the gospel with people who are eager to get the face of other space? Interface message. Wow, face it. What about the break of the gospel?

SPEAKER_01 0:44

I'm the student pastor here at Kingdom Life. Alex had the opportunity to go and preach somewhere else, and he's helping that flock, and so I'm filling in this morning. I will have this out. I know this is a little uh abnormal for us at Kingdom Life, but I like my notes. I like my notes, so um, we're gonna keep them out. So, all that being said, I'm the I'm the student pastor here at Kingdom Life. That means I work with sixth through 12th grade students, middle schoolers through high schoolers. Uh I get paid to make a fool of myself. Um I I enjoy having fun. You're gonna notice I I'll say a lot of really mediocre jokes today. Um, and and that's not a performance, that's how I am. You ask my wife, Ketty. Home is is that way. It's it I throw a lot out in a few land here and there. Um, so man, I work with middle schoolers and high schoolers. I love it. I I really am, all jokes aside, so passionate about middle school and high school students. Uh, it's where God did a lot of work in my life. Um, and then he called me around the age of 14 into ministry. Um, since the call into ministry around 17 and kind of honed that down into, I think he's calling me towards students. Um, and since I was 18, I was in serving in some form of student ministry, whether that be as an intern or student pastor. Um ended up teaching a middle school Bible class at a school in Pendleton and um ended up moving here to be the interim pastor of a church. So I worked with adults for about seven months. Um I like students, all right? I love I love you guys too. I like students. Y'all are a lot scarier than students, believe it or not. Y'all are. You are. Uh luckily those seven months prepared me a little bit. Uh, and and so I'm not too nervous to be in front of you today. Um so what I want to do is I want to share with you a little bit about me, but but some very specific things I think are gonna help us get through this text today and see what God has for us. Um grew up in a household with two believing parents. I really lucked out. They are here. I wrote this without thinking about y'all being here, so don't let it go to your head too too much. But I really I did credit where credit's due. I lucked out in the parents' department. Uh, I had two parents who were believers, two parents who are very intentional about sharing the gospel with me from a young age. Since before I can remember, the gospel is just woven into uh the life of our family. And so I'm very thankful for that. Uh my dad is a pastor in Pendleton. He wasn't a pastor when I was a kid, but but was called to ministry, pursued that calling. Um, he's now a pastor in Pendleton, leading into church revitalization, planting, and all kinds of awesome eldership stuff and crazy stuff like that. My mom is an OBGYN nurse. She's feels like she's done just about everything in the realm of OBGYN at some point, but right now counsels people through uh high-risk pregnancy decisions and things like that, which I know is so hard, but she also gets to share the gospel so, so much, um, which is just so cool. I looked out because even as a kid, like I said, the gospel was woven into just daily life, just how life was. And one of the ways that that happened was I remember uh, you know, if you can imagine little Jacob, you know, six years old, seven years old, somewhere in there, and uh, I would have those, you know, covers pulled up and I'm ready to go to bed, but I remember my parents would come in to read to me before bed. Um, it was my dad sometimes, my mom sometimes. Uh they would come in, they would read to me, and they would read fantastical stories, crazy stories of different worlds, uh that just opened my imagination as a kid to imagine worlds that I had never seen, that didn't exist, to imagine things that don't exist, and to really open my imagination to be able to envision those things. We read some books that you may know, like The Hobbit or Narnia and things like that. Um, but we also read things you may not know. There's a book called like Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes, which is a story about this blind kid who's like it's a fantasy story in this made-up world. And and we read all these stories. I promise there's a point to all this, by the way. Uh we read all of these stories as I was growing up, and night after night, it was almost like a TV show where you're waiting on that next episode to come out, and you want to know what happens with your characters. It was the same thing, as I was getting ready for bed every night, I had this little excitement in the back of my head of what was gonna happen next. I would fill in blanks, I would imagine what was gonna happen. And on some nights, instead of reading all these stories and fantasy and poetry and all this stuff, they would just read a Bible story. But what was so interesting is when they read this Bible story, they would do it in the same manner as they did the other stories. They read it with the same intrigue, with that same fantastical like wonder to it. And what it did for me as a kid is it exposed me to the Bible in a way where I didn't see it as this sacred, far-off text that I couldn't understand, but rather a captivating book that I had to know what was gonna happen next. And I enjoyed hearing each night the next step in David's journey or Samson, which was my favorite, Samson's journey. Um you grow up and you realize that maybe Samson shouldn't have been my favorite story. Uh it's kind of one of those shows where like there were some things in there that went over kids' heads, right? Um, that I missed. But he was really strong. It was kind of cool. Man, all of that to say, I grew up and I saw the Bible in this way, and even to this day, I still do some of the same stuff. I I remember as kids, our parents would have us sit down, close our eyes, they'd read the story, and they would tell us write this in your mind like a movie, like a movie's playing out, right? Use every word that I give you as a new detail in the picture. And just fill in details as we go. Where it doesn't give you a detail, kind of fill in, and then we'll go back and we'll see how well you did, right? So I remember laying in bed, closing my eyes, and then my dad would ask me, uh, what did you see? What did you imagine, right? What did it look like? And then when when they had adopted my brother and sister, and now there's three of us, we would do this in the living room and we would act it out and do all kinds of cool stuff like that. And what it did was it helped me to not just engage with the Bible almost like Aesop's fables, like it was some story with some hidden meaning, but rather it helped me to engage with the story as it was on this emotional and intellectual level, that I wanted to wrestle with it, I wanted to think about it, I wanted to investigate it, I wanted to know more. And so this morning, I want to ask that if you will play along with me and indulge me a little bit. I'm gonna ask you to do a couple things. You won't have to get out of your seat, I won't make you talk or anything like that. I'm the worst thing I'm gonna ask you to do is close your eyes. All right? I'm just asking, I know we're adults, let's let's go back to when we were kids for a second, all right? We're gonna have story time with Jacob this morning, okay? Would y'all be play along with me a little bit this morning? Okay. Alright. So here's what we're gonna do. We'll go verse by verse through this passage, and with every word, I want you to fill in details in your mind. Paint this picture of what's happening. And maybe fill in some details of what it really would have been like to be in that situation. All right? Now, just to recap a little bit before we get started, okay? Alex has been preaching on the book of Acts, and the theme of the book of Acts is the unstoppable advance of the kingdom of God. The unstoppable advance of the kingdom of God. And so this story that we're reading today contributes to that advance. We're gonna be in Acts chapter 17, verses 10 through 15, but we're gonna start with just verse 10. We're just gonna look at verse 10. It's gonna help us review a little bit and set the scene for today. Alright, now I'm gonna ask you to do it, alright? I'm gonna ask you to trust me, just close your eyes. Swallow our pride, go ahead and close your eyes. Alright? Some of y'all are like assertive, like staring at me. Like you're trying to establish, like you don't tell me what to do, alright? You can miss out, it's fine. Alright, so go ahead. For everybody who wants to have fun today, close your eyes, alright? And I'm gonna read this first verse to you. With every word, there's a new detail for you to add. So imagine this the brothers, group of Christians, the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Alright, you can open your eyes. Kind of waited a second to test you, see if you would jump the gun. Alright, open your eyes. What did you see? Think about it for a second, run it back over in your mind. What did you see? You may have saw at the beginning with the brothers, these Christians, um, they're sending out Paul and Silas. Now to fill in a little bit of what's happening, where they are. Last week we talked about them in Thessalonica, it's a city. Okay? And then in this story, they're gonna travel to Berea, another city. And we'll get there in a minute. But right now they're in Thessalonica. Now they've been on a journey, they've been on a missionary journey, they were in Philippi, then Thessalonica, and now they're going to Berea. Some things that you should probably remember is in Philippi, they got to Philippi, they got to the city, and they went first to the Jews to share the gospel. So they went to the Jewish people to share the gospel, and some people responded well, but there were other people in Philippi who hated them. They did not like them, they didn't like the way they were running things, and so they beat them and they imprisoned them. They get out of that and they go to Thessalonica. Again, they go to the Jews first. They preach the gospel, and there are Jews who accept and they they're they're excited about this, but then there are other ones who are not having it. They become jealous and they want to get rid of them. So what they do is they stir up an angry mob of people called rablers, which Alex talks about. I've never heard of, I've never paid attention to rablers. That's one of the like words I just skipped over. I don't know how, but I just skipped over it. Alex, that was so cool last week. Learn about the rablers. Go back and watch the sermon if you missed it. But man, they stirred up this riot, this crowd. They haven't gotten to Paul and Silas and Timothy yet. Timothy's with them, by the way, and probably some other guys as well. They haven't gotten to them yet. And that's where our story picks up. You can imagine as they're being sent out of this home, the town is probably still tense from all the chaos of the day. You can feel that anxiety and that pressure and that worry, that unsteadiness, that chaos in the air as they walk out. You can imagine it's at night, they're trying to be inconspicuous. Maybe they were hooded, I don't know. They're sneaking out tonight. Maybe you imagine that there's some dim torchlight in the distance casting shadows at their feet. Maybe, maybe it's just pale moonlight on them. I don't know what you imagine, but they make their way quickly and conspicuously out of the city, step out into the pale moonlight, and then it just says, and they went to Berea by night to Berea. That's a really quick transition. What you gotta realize is Berea was 45 to 50 miles away from Thessalonica. So it is in the verse, it's just one word, it's two. They went to Berea, right? But in that gap of time, within that one word was 45 to 50 miles. It was like a two to three-day journey, alright? By foot, which they are. So they walk over to Berea, and when they get there, remember in the last two towns, they went to Jews first to present the gospel, and then they went to everybody else. But there were always people who didn't like what they were doing. They've been beaten, they've been imprisoned, they've had an angry mob threatening to do probably similar things to them. Can't you imagine it entering this third town? They they might be a little hesitant, just a little bit, maybe being bra, maybe even bracing a little bit for what might happen. They know Jesus is calling them to go and to share the gospel, but don't you know you can still do what Jesus calls you to do and still be a little bit hesitant, be a little bit afraid? They were probably a little bit afraid. If you think they've forgotten the beating that they received, you're crazy. They probably still have marks on them, right? They haven't forgotten, and I'd imagine they're still bracing a little bit. But they go in, first thing they do is they go to the synagogue. So, with that in mind, we're gonna go to verse 11. That was practice round, alright? So, close your eyes. This is the biggest verse of the day, alright? We're gonna sit on this for a while. So, close your eyes, and I'm gonna give you some more details of the story. So they walk into the city, they walk up to the synagogue. Now, these Jews, the ones in the synagogue, these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Alright, you can open your eyes. So that verse starts out. They walk in, and like I said, they were probably bracing on some level, but they walk in and they find out as they're preaching the gospel that these Jews, these people, they're more noble than the others. I didn't throw this up on the screen like Alex does, unfortunately, but that word noble, the base of it is eugenis, all right? Two kind of base words there is you, EU, and that means good or well. Genus means birth, family, or kind. So this word can have some variation in meaning, but in this context, when you read it, uh you may be tempted to hear the word noble, and we think of nobility, maybe they're like pious and rich and and you know, upstanding nice clothes. But that's not necessarily the noble we're talking about. That's not the nobility we're necessarily talking about because it can also mean of a good kind. They're a good kind, they're a good sort of Jew, right? They're a good sort of person. And we know that it's talking about them in this way because of the next two things they do. They receive the word with eagerness and they examine the scriptures daily. They're a good sort of person. They're open to this idea. Now, it says that they receive that word, but not only do they receive it, they receive it with all eagerness. They receive it with all eagerness. And this has to feel like a change of pace for us from the last few towns, right? Like, like they come in and you can imagine they're probably bracing, but then these people don't just receive the word like the other people, they receive it with eagerness. The Jews, the leaders of the church, are open to hearing it, not only open, they are eager. And that word means eagerness, it means readiness, it means they have an inclination towards what's being said. They want to know. They want to know more. They're excited about what's being said. As I look at this and I think about them receiving it with eagerness, something interesting came to my mind, a truth that I see in the passage. Um, when you think about the last few towns, Paul, Silas, Timothy, they were all teaching in these towns, and this wasn't the reaction they got. If this was something that they could muster up from their own teaching, if they could just teach well enough to make people this eager, don't you think they would have done it in the last two towns? Yeah. But it didn't happen in the last two towns. It tells me, hey, Paul, Silas, Timothy, they probably would have chosen and done it if they could. But instead, this eagerness is something that God does in people. God does it in people. There's this term that Alex likes to use. I think it's just really cool. It's called, and he uses the term pre-Christian, pre-believer. Y'all remember him saying this? If I'm the only one who remembers this, it's embarrassing. Uh, because I I really thought this was like very significant. I was like, oh, that's awesome, right? But he says pre-Christian, pre-believer sometimes. And the idea there is, if somebody's going to be saved, that God has already predestined them before the foundations of the world to be a part of his covenant family. God has already made that decision long before they make the decision to get saved. And so, when we meet people who are not yet saved, who have not yet made that decision, they are considered pre-believers. And the first truth that I see in this passage is that God is working in pre-believers. God is working in pre-Christians. Now, you may look at that and be like, wow, that's really simple, right? Like, I know that. Pastor Alex would never, dude. This is this is so simple, right? But I think there is something profound that we miss. I think in our heads we know intellectually, like, yeah, God is working on pre-believers before they get saved. Duh. But I think sometimes our hearts tend to forget that fact. Because we start to feel similar to how Paul, Timothy, uh, Silas were likely feeling. We start bracing, we start maybe feeling a little hesitant about the reaction we might receive if we talk about Jesus. Haven't you felt that before? That hesitancy of what are they gonna think of me? What are they gonna say? Is this gonna ruin our relationship? We start getting that hesitancy, and all of a sudden, even though our head knows that God is working in pre-believers, that this person, God may already be working in them, all of a sudden our heart isn't feeling that truth anymore. And sometimes, you know, Paul, Silas, Timothy, they push through. But sometimes we don't. Sometimes we drop the ball and we let that worry, that anxiety stop us from talking about Jesus. And folks, if you think about this kingdom truth, we have to ground ourselves in some things. First off, if God is the sort of God who designed this person's destiny before the cosmos, if he's the kind of God who would plan out someone's destiny before the cosmos, don't you think he's the same sort of God who would be working in their hearts today, getting them ready? Don't you think that character would stay consistent? And if that's true, here's the other truth we gotta we gotta kind of ground ourselves in is we've gotta realize we don't know who is a pre-believer and who's not. We don't know who God intends to save and who he doesn't. We don't know who God's working on and who he's not. So we cannot take any chances. If this is true, that God is working in pre-believers, we cannot let fear stop us from talking about Jesus. We cannot let social rules stop us from sharing about Jesus. We cannot let self-care or self-preservation stop us from caring and sharing about Jesus. That's not a popular message in our world right now. It's not even a popular message in Christian circles right now. That's true. Because you have to remember that our lives are not our lives anymore. Because we believers in the room, we have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer us who lives, it's Him and us. So we are called to live the Christ life. We're called to live the kingdom life. And so the kingdom life that we are called to live is this. In light of this kingdom truth, the kingdom life we're called to live is to talk about Jesus even when it is not convenient for you. Even when it's not convenient for you, talk about Jesus. Because it's easy to talk about him when we think we'll be commended for talking about him. When we think people will look up to us as, oh, they're so spiritual talking about Jesus right now, right? It's easy to talk about it when we're around church people who are going to give us the pat on the back or the attaboy that you did so good talking about Jesus. Oh, that's a good word, right? We love that. That's a good feeling. The problem is there are times where you're supposed to talk about Jesus and there is no attaboy. There is nobody to tell you you did a good job. There are times where you were called to share Jesus and they are going to reject it. Or maybe not even reject it, but maybe just be obstinate at first. How many of y'all may have had a had a gospel conversation where it started and you were like, yeah, this ain't going anywhere, but by the end of it, God's done a work in them. So why would we let this hesitancy stop us anymore? We know God's working in them. So here's my challenge to you: will you share with the person who is disinterested in you? Will you share with a person who is disrespectful to you? Will you share? And will you choose to care even when the world says that you don't have to care? Will you pursue them even though the world says that you're allowed to give up on them? There's a lot of talk in Christian circles now about this. Jesus cared about people who did not deserve his care. We are called to do exactly the same thing. I hope that when you run into these people that you will speak the gospel. I hope that you'll speak gracefully. I hope that you will kindly, consistently, humbly, foolishly share Jesus with them. Not because they deserve it or because it's good for you, but simply because of the eagerness that Christ placed in you so long ago that he might now be placing in them. Isn't that such a cool idea? So long ago he did the same work in you. And I'd be willing to bet there were some people who probably didn't see it. They probably didn't see Christ working in you. Some people may have, but some people probably didn't see it. How dare we assume that just because we don't see it, that God is not working in someone. Kingdom life, believe that God is working in pre-believers. And share with those pre-believers whether it's good for you or not. Now, up until this point, off of this verse, I've been sharing with you what God can do in the hearts of unbelievers who he's calling to himself. We looked at the eagerness that God placed in the Bereans and we applied it to people outside the church, unbelievers who visit church, who are pre-believers. But I want to shift that focus now and apply that same eagerness he's placed into believers. And look how it applies to us. So let me read the next verse to you real quick. Let me read the next verse to you real quick. So, y'all know the drill now, right? We're in a routine, alright? Go ahead, close your eyes. Alright? And imagine this that they've just presented the gospel, they realize that these people are noble. And now they're examining. One detail that I kind of missed earlier that I forgot to talk about is um I appreciate those of y'all who are keeping your eyes closed, even though I clearly forgot to say this before asking you to close your eyes. I just I just appreciate it. You're playing along. I love that. One thing I forgot to say earlier was it says that they were examining the scriptures daily. This wasn't a one-time gospel presentation. This was ongoing. Day after day, they were going back to the synagogue and preaching the gospel again and again and again. And these people were looking at the scriptures over and over and over and over and over again. And that's where we pick up in this verse. This verse is uh verse. Did I not write that in the right place? I'm sorry, guys. Alright. This verse is verse 12. Alright, here's your details, so close your eyes. Many of them therefore believed. Not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. Keep your eyes closed for a second, because I want you to imagine what this looks like. Play it out in your head. Place these people in the scene based on how it says it. Therefore, believed with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. Alright, open your eyes. Do you notice how men kind of get the second secondhand treatment in that verse? Did you notice that? It gives all these details about these women who got saved. And it says, oh, and as well as some men. Like some men got saved too, right? But here's what's so cool about this. And we we don't realize how how crazy this is because of the culture that we live in. One, there were Greek women joining the cause, joining the movement. That was unheard of. Like that that these Jewish guys are going to align themselves with Greek women and be on the same team. And that they're getting to make the same decision as a bunch of men are. That was crazy. And not only that, they're also women of high standing, so they're reputable. And Alex has talked about that in other weeks. Here's what I want to focus on today is how the gospel is reaching such a wide variety of people. Not only the ethnic Jews, but the Greek women who have money and high social standing. It's reaching everybody. There's a diverse group of people who are beginning to respond to the gospel, and not only that, they're being treated equally. They're all getting to make the same decision right now. They're all becoming believers, period. We don't realize how significant that was because we're in a culture that does value that. Their culture did not on any level. In fact, this was an abomination to them. The Bible, if anybody ever says the Bible is sexist, do not listen to them. That is insanity. This was world-changing, revolutionary. This was found nowhere at this time. This was unique. It wasn't only that these women's could women's. It wasn't only that these women could go make a name for themselves. No, they were given value by men. Men saw their value. That was so unique. Look at the wide variety of people that the gospel is reaching here. So how? How did the gospel reach such a wide variety of people? Today, how does the gospel reach so many people? While the road is narrow, it's multi-ethnic, multi-generational, multigendered people of God and how diverse the church can become when it's healthy. It's so interesting to see. The reason that it happens is the gospel reaches everybody on the same playing field. We're all sinners, but here's another thing that we don't talk about a lot is we all have desires. We all have desires. We all have desires, we're all looking towards something, looking for something. And there's many verses in the Bible. And they talk about finding fulfillment in Christ. They talk about that Christ is our fulfillment, that we can be happy and joyful in Christ, that we can boast only in the cross? That is our only boast? And doesn't that seem very the way that John Piper puts it in his book, Don't Waste Your Life, if you ever read it? If you haven't, go read it. But if you've ever read that, the way he puts it is, can we really be that single-minded of people? Can my only enjoyment really be found in the cross? I mean, I enjoy, you know, I enjoy drawing and art. Like I enjoy doing that. Is that off limits now under Christ? I enjoy coaching, I enjoy pole vault, I enjoy track and field. Is that off the table now? The truth is we can be this single-minded because Jesus is the perfect fulfillment. And this is the second kingdom truth. He is the perfect fulfillment of every good thing we desire. That's a loaded sentence. He is the perfect fulfillment of every good thing you desire. Let me show you a verse. I kind of got out of order. I'm sorry, Tucker. I sat there and said I was gonna be good. I'm sorry. Alright, but I want to take you to a verse. It's 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 22 through 25. You'll see it on the screen here. It's uh for the, sorry, you can go back to the first one. I'm sorry. For the Jews demand signs. I'll explain why this is so good. The Jews demand signs and the Greeks seek wisdom. We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles. And then, you can go ahead and go to the next one. And then, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Now, this verse is one of my favorites. I I think it's so cool. And here's why is because Paul is doing a logical thing here, a logical flow of thought. First thing he does is he identifies what Jews and Greeks are looking for. What do they desire? Paul took time to learn his audience. He took time to learn his audience and to learn the desires that they had, what they wanted, right? And he knew that Jews, as a general rule of thumb, wanted power. They wanted signs. They felt weak. They wanted power. He could tell that Greeks wanted wisdom, they were into logic, they wanted intelligence and wisdom. And what's so cool about that is Paul then takes what he knows about them, what he knows they desire, and he applies it to Jesus and shows them how Jesus perfectly fulfills every one of their desires. The power that the Jews want. Who's more powerful than Christ crucified? The wisdom that the Greeks seek, who's wiser than the God of the universe made flesh? Everything that you want and every place you look for it is gonna fall short until you look for it in Christ. Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of every good thing that you desire, of every good thing that you look for. And this is why we go to the Word. This is why they examine the Word daily, is because that was where they could find out more about the Messiah. That's who they were looking for. That's what they desired so much. They wanted the Messiah. So they went to the scriptures and they examined it because if there was a chance that this Jesus guy was the Messiah, we've got to know. That's the perfect fulfillment of my desire. I want to encourage you all, be like Paul. Realize that this eagerness that God is placing in others, He likes to use, He clearly can use, Paul can can use the desires that people already have to show them that Christ is their ultimate desire, and that creates that that is where that eagerness is found, that readiness, that inclination towards Jesus, because you realize, oh, I've been looking in all the wrong places for everything that I want, and now you're telling me this is it, this is where I can find it. And so realize that every desire, first off, believer, realize that every desire you have, every good thing you want, it's gonna be cheap and unfulfilled if you look for it anywhere but Christ. For example, just to put myself on, you know, out there, one thing that I like to do is coach. I like to coach pole vault, track and field, stuff like that. Pole vault's the weird thing with the big stick, and they like run in and spins and shoots them up in the air. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I can't even begin to explain it to you. Alright? If you watch the Olympics, you're tracking. If you haven't, it yeah, I'm sorry. It's the weirdest thing ever. But I think it's so cool. I love coaching it. I have fun coaching. I enjoy just being out there with the students, watching them get better at stuff. But it's easy for me sometimes to get caught up in the actual act of pole vaulting and how fun that is. But what's interesting is when I've done that for a while, I begin to realize I begin to question why am I out here? Why am I spending my afternoons away from my wife? I'm newly married, so that's crazy. Why am I spending my afternoons away from my wife to hang out with high schoolers and watch them get it wrong over and over and over again until they finally get it right one time that day, right? Why? I begin to question this. Why? Because as fun as that is, I'm looking for the fulfillment. I'm looking for watching students grow in the wrong area instead of looking for their growth in Christ. I forget sometimes it's a mission field. I get it out of order, I get it twisted. Because we know that Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of everything that we desire, also know this. The kingdom life that we're called to live in light of this kingdom truth is to listen and to learn people's desires. Unbelievers around you, listen to them, learn what they want. Know them, know what they desire, and then graciously show them Jesus. Show them Jesus as, hey, can I I know exactly where you can find what you're looking for, right? I know exactly where you can find what you're looking for. I love that verse. I love that verse and I love Acts chapter 17. And like I said earlier, this has been a big change of pace from the other two cities, right? For getting beaten, imprisoned, and mobbed up on to a whole group of people receiving them. But that's where the story changes, alright? This is the fun part to read, alright? So close your eyes, alright? I just want you to get ready. Go ahead and have the Darth Vader theme song, like in your head, on standby. Be ready to like cue that up, okay? Alright. So close your eyes. I'm gonna read this to you. Verse 13. But when the Jews from Thessalonica, that's the last city, the ones who tried to mob up on them. When the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul in Berea, also they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. They're back to their old tricks, dude. They're trying to do it all again. You can open your eyes. Man, last week we talked about the whole reason they got mad was they were jealous of them. Anybody remember how far Berea was from Thessalonica? That was a really good grumble. 45 to 50 miles, absolutely, and all of you said it. It was great. 45 to 50 miles, all right? Sorry, that was student ministry coming out at me. I'm sorry. I just realized I'm talking to adults right now. It was just a mass like rumble that came forward. I was like, yeah, that was, I understood that. All right, so 45 to 50 miles, man. These guys, their jealousy and their rebellion against the gospel inspired them to walk 45 to 50 miles just to do the same trick again. Just to get back at these guys. Their whole problem was they were turning their town upside down. They were jealous because they had generated such a following in their town, and now they're gone. You would think the problem is solved for these guys. But this is how insane our sin and our rebellion can make us. The whole problem was they had taken all of the attention off the Jews, they got jealous, but then Paul and Silas left. The logical thing to do would be, okay, well, take the following back, right? But sin isn't logical. Rebellion isn't logical. So what they do is they go, there's only one option left. Let's start walking. And they start going 45 to 50 miles just to get after these guys. They get there and they start stirring up a crowd again. I told you you'd cue up the Darth Vader theme music. You know, like as soon as, and I hope you played it at the right time. As soon as you heard that word butt, right? That conjunction, you you go, oh Lord, here we go, right? Here they come. That was a long Vader theme song, it's 45 to 50 miles worth of it, all right? And you saw how slow he walks, all right? Took a while. Some of y'all just realized that was a bit halfway through. Man, they walked for so far just to stir this up. And what it does is it puts on, in my mind, it puts on full display the nature of humanity. We just talked about that nature, that humans have these desires that can only be satisfied in God. But the third kingdom truth that I saw in this passage is that while humans have desires that can only be satisfied by God, we also have a nature that rebels against God. And there's this war happening in all of humanity all the time. We've got desires that can only be satisfied by God, but the problem is we've got a spirit that rebels against him. So then we're never satisfied. And we'll walk 45 to 50 miles just to get back at somebody. And sometimes that rebellion, it can get in our it can get in the way of kingdom work. It can get in the way. Now don't get me wrong, don't get it twisted. This is not saying that our rebellion can stop the unstoppable advance of the kingdom of God. That's not what it is. The issue is that the kingdom of God is gonna advance. The question is, are you gonna be on board or not? Are you gonna be a part of that advance or are you gonna try and be a hindrance to it? I promise you, you won't succeed. But wouldn't it be so much more life-giving to just be a part of the advance? This is why Jesus had to die was this issue that we have. We have these desires that can only be satisfying God, but we have, but we have this nature that rebels against God. And this is why Jesus had to die. He had to redeem our nature. He didn't just have to die because we did a couple of wrong things. No, he had to die because we were wrong. We were in our deepest parts of our hearts, we were corrupted. The Bible tells us that no one seeks God. No one would choose God on their own. No, God had to do something. So Jesus came and he died on a cross to redeem our nature, to take the debt that the rebellion created in us. He took that debt and he nailed it to the cross. Jesus took the punishment of our rebellion, dying on the cross. Then he rose from the grave to secure the blessing of eternal life. And this is what's crazy about the story. Jesus Christ came, he died on the cross, he took the punishment that you deserve, and now he offers you the blessings that he earned. He's offering rebels amnesty. He is offering you a rebel amnesty from all of your debt. We talked about eagerness a minute ago. That should get us eager. That should get us ready for Jesus to say, you know what? He's wiped my slate clean. And when I say he wiped the slate clean, he wiped it so clean you can't get it dirty again. Like he paid the debt for your sin in the past, your sin now, and your sin in the future. You can't ever dirty that slate again. This is why Jesus died to offer the rebel amnesty. And so, in light of that, the kingdom life that we are called to live, the way we are called to live, is this. Do not allow the rebellions of others or yourself to hinder you from advancing the kingdom. I phrase that very, very carefully. Do not allow the rebellion of others or yourself to hinder you from advancing the kingdom of God. Clarify again, God's kingdom is advancing, whether you're on board or not, whether you're in the way or not. It continues to this day, advancing, until God, until the day that God is going to wipe away every tear from our eyes. It will continue advancing. The question is, are you going to be a part of this kingdom? Are you helping the advance, or are you a hindrance to the work? In the story today, we saw examples of people that God was working on and he created this eagerness in them. We also saw people who were so ate up with rebellion, searching for all the things they wanted everywhere but Jesus and left them broken. So here's what I want to invite you to do today. I want to invite you to consider. Would you describe yourself this morning as eager, as ready, as inclined for Jesus? Or, if you're being honest, are you in rebellion? Are you walking away? Are you searching for happiness and fulfillment elsewhere? We're going to do something a little bit different today. Come up here. Y'all can go ahead and stand here. Just slightly different order. Sorry I didn't give you guys a heads up. I was kind of throwing this back and forth in my head up until now. We're going to pray in just a moment. Going to pray for God to move, pray for God to instill this eagerness in people. But I would be surprised if God's not already instilling some eagerness in some people. If God hasn't been working on you, maybe you're a pre-believer. Maybe you are somebody and you have not made a decision. You're unsure whether you've made a decision to follow Jesus or not. You're unsure of where you stand in that. I want you to listen to me. This morning, you may have identified with me whenever I talked about that. Whenever I talked about that eagerness that he placed in them. And maybe this morning you're sensing an inclination towards Jesus. Perhaps God is speaking with you, working in you right now. This is a call for you if you are unsure of your relationship with God. If today you felt a tug, you felt like maybe God wants you to do something. And you're unsure if you have a relationship with Him, this call is for you. What I'm going to ask you to do is in a moment I'm going to pray. When I say amen, that's your cue to act. When I say amen, that's your cue to stand up. Everybody else is going to stand up too. That's your cue to stand up, step out into the aisle, and just walk down here and talk to one of our people up front here. All you got to say is, I think God's working on me. That's all you got to say. Just, hey, I think God's doing something. I want to encourage you, although that can be scary, it is a great decision to make. He goes before us, he's been working on our hearts, and so I'm asking you to be bold for just a minute. Stand out and step into the aisle. I promise the rest will just kind of work itself out. All you gotta do is when I say amen, stand up, step out. Alright? So I'm gonna pray. Amen is your cue. And then we'll go further after the first song. Let's pray. Father, you are so gracious to us, God. In spite of our rebellion, in spite of our sin, you would lay your life on a cross for me. God, when I rebelled against you in all that rebellion, God, you died to grant me amnesty. Father, there are people in this room right now who I know you want to work on. I ask that you would work on them right now, that you would instill this eagerness, and then that you would get them ready and in a moment that they would be bold enough to respond. Jesus, thank you for all the believers in this room who are praying for them right now. God, thank you for a church of believers who care about that. God, thank you for dying on the cross for us. God, thank you for the eagerness that you instill within us. God, we are sorry for the rebellion that we that we live in so often. But God, we are thankful that you died to remove that from our slate, from the record. So, Father, during this time, have your way in hearts. God, give them the boldness right now to stand if you are calling them to stand. Father, it's in your name we ask all of this. Amen.