Changing the World for the Gospel Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Changing the World for the Gospel Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 17:1-10.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. The antidote to any fear and anxiety in your heart is always rooted in the strength or the power of God and the love of God and the sound mind.

Are you ready? This is Hope Worth Having. I’m your host, Pastor Mike Sanders. We’re looking forward to sharing the hope of Christ with you today. So I want you to grab your Bibles and join me in Acts chapter 17.

We’re starting a new series entitled Changing the World for the Gospel. And I hope that that’s your heart, that you want to see people change through the power of the gospel. So let’s grab our Bibles, maybe a pen, a piece of paper, and let’s continue to study together.

If you have your Bible this morning, I want you to turn to Acts chapter 17. Those of you that have been with us consistently, you know that we’ve been studying the book of Acts. It is easy to sometimes look at the book of Acts and we see some extraordinary events that happen, sometimes almost unbelievable.

And we have in our hearts that we feel the need to replicate those events. But really the book of Acts is a narrative of how the ministry of the apostles, but more specifically in the section of we’re in, the Apostle Paul’s ministry and his missionary team, how that all unfolded, how it began the inception of Christianity throughout the world, how it quickly spread.

Our goal is that as we are reading the Scriptures, we are looking for commands and patterns that we want to certainly emulate. as believers. As you and I live in these unique times, God is calling us more than ever to be committed to changing the world.

But I want you to understand that God is not calling you to change the world for politics, for finances, or perhaps even the business, or some kind of technological new discovery, but rather He is calling you to change the world for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The good news of Christ. One might ask, what is the good news? The good news is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We’re taught that in First Corinthians chapter 15 verse 1 through 3.

And the good news, my friends, is not that you and I have some other kind of a religion that we can follow, but rather that we can, through Christ, have a relationship with God. The invitation of Christianity and the celebration of the coming of our Savior Jesus to this world is not to add more religion to your plate, but rather it is that you may know God and that you would experience His forgiveness and His grace in your life,

that you would have a connection with our Savior, that you would have a connection with your Creator, and that you would know Him in a very personal way. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by Me, and though that may seem to you very exclusive, and you may struggle with the lack of plurality that Jesus speaks, but I want you to know that He is very direct and He cuts through all the noise and voices of the world,

and He speaks straight to our heart and reminds us that there’s only one way to heaven, and it is through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The job of the church is not to reformat the message, it is not to try to make the message more palatable.

The job of the church is to proclaim that message, that we continue to reiterate what God has already proclaimed in the coming of a Savior who has come to this earth, and He did not abandon us in our sufferings or our struggles, but rather unlike any other religion in the world, God sent His only begotten Son, and Jesus came and walked among us and lived a sinless life, thus qualifying Himself for not only fulfilling all that the law had required that was given in the Old Testament,

but He would be qualified. to go to the cross and to pay for the penalty of our sins and then the Bible says three days later he would rise again. Jesus went to that cross to take care of our past and he came out of that grave to take care of our future.

From beginning to end, in a relationship with the Lord, we are cared for and we are taken care of. Our God is not distant. He is not a God that we cannot speak to nor that He does not even hear us. But we have a Heavenly Father who knows us and He sent His Son and Jesus is the full manifestation and revelation of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

And now you and I can walk in unity and harmony with our Savior and we are a people that are blessed. But how is it that we are going to be able to change the world for the gospel? We understand the world is not as it was when God created it.

Now, some would say the world’s not like it was, Pastor, 10 years ago or 30 years ago or 50 years ago or 100 years ago. I think that’s pretty obvious. The measuring stick is not the past of the world, but the measuring stick is God’s word, and we look and see how God created Adam and Eve, and He created, if you will, this utopias world, this great Garden of Eden, this place where Adam and Eve could flourish and that they could walk in the cool of the day with God Himself in sweet communion and fellowship,

all that the heart longs for is found in a relationship with Jesus. The world will not satisfy you as you pursue it. The money will never be enough. There’s always going to be somebody who has a bigger house and a better car and more technology than you.

You’re in a rat race. You’re a dog chasing the tail. But if you want to experience real peace, real joy, real forgiveness, well, that’s found in a relationship with Christ. But unfortunately, Adam and Eve, not created robots, not robots who could only do whatever God says, but rather created with a will that could make a choice so that when they chose to love God, it would be authentic and real, not something forced upon them.

Unfortunately, they chose to disobey God. It is from that moment that sin entered the world. And the manifestation of a sin sinful world is what we have seen unfolded throughout all of history. There are times that mankind has been great, and there have been times that mankind has dipped into the deepest depravities known to the heart.

But either way, we’re still a sinful, selfish people. We are a flawed people. We are limited. We bear the burdens of our sins and unforgiveness. We carry the weight of our guilt, and we strive to find answers that are out in the world to resolve these issues that are within.

In our observation of the world that we live in, the time span that God has granted us to be alive. We certainly, as believers, would say that our world is… turned upside down. Why the prophet Isaiah had said that there would be a time when good would be called evil, and that evil would become good.

The Bible chronicles a period of time, even in the nation of Israel’s history, in which every man did what was right in his own eyes. And if these do not personify our times, not from the perspective of the world, but from the perspective of Scriptures, you and I are witnessing some of these perilous times that the Bible describes.

And when we come to our text today, we find that the Apostle Paul, that he was a man who was living in perilous times. He was living in times when there were many gods and many religions, and many people seeking rest in their hearts, only to find that the religion and the things of the world could not bring true peace to them.

And so the Apostle shows up in a town called Thessalonica. Thessalonica was a port city with major Roman roads running through it. It was really a community of a melting pot of ethnicities and nationalities.

And the Jewish people, the Jewish population, had already been very effective in prostilizing and evangelizing many of the Greeks to come to follow Judaism, as well as many influential and leading women in the community of Thessalonica.

We understand the Jewish teaching centered around the keeping of the commandments of the Old Testament. With the ultimate goal that one day the Messiah would come and he would be the king and he would reign in Jerusalem.

That achieving righteousness with God in the mind of the Jewish people was simply a matter of climbing a religious ladder. Follow the commands, become good enough, and you’ll be accepted by God. It is against this backdrop that the Apostle Paul shows up into this community and when he comes he brings the startling and earth-shaking message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

A message as we’ve taught you that Jesus is that Messiah that has been prophesied. That he has fulfilled every prophecy in the Old Testament relating to his coming as the Messiah and that he also would fulfill all that was proclaimed about him as he lived a sinless life on this earth, and that we know that one day, as we read in our scriptures, and we are waiting on his second coming to this earth,

one may say, why would Jesus come? Aren’t things so wonderful, pastor? Because people continue to make a mess of not only their personal lives, but the world. This place is going to consummate into destruction, but Jesus is gonna come, and he is going to rule and reign in Jerusalem, and he is going to set up a millennial kingdom, and that is our hope, and that is our anticipation.

But when Paul comes to a community of not only Gentiles, and Greeks, and Jewish people, he sends a very powerful and thought-provoking message, a message that is contrary to what religions say, because really there’s only two religions in all that we see unfolding.

You either believe that you can be good enough, work hard enough to be accepted by God, and to have eternal bliss with God, or you believe that Jesus Christ has done all that is necessary, and he has been accepted by God, and by faith in him, and what he has accomplished on the cross and through the resurrection, that you and I have eternal life.

It’s either one or the other. You can put whatever labels you want on it, whatever church signs you might have, but you either believe that Christ paid the penalty for our sins, and did all that was necessary for us to live a life of grace, and forgiveness, and hope, and peace, or you believe it.

believe it’s up to you, it’s up to you, to the strongest, to the fastest, to those who are morally the best. But we find that even the moral among us find out that sometimes their morality is rudderless and it leads them down paths that are sinful and degrading to humanity and disrespecting the dignity of life and that no matter how intelligent and how scientific that they become, that they would embrace belief systems that would actually murder people.

And I know that you say, Pastor Mike, what are you talking about? How about up there in Canada where they’re now making it possible for every citizen to be euthanized if they want. You don’t think that these things that are going to infiltrate our societies?

These are true. How horrible that is. How horrible it is. But the point that I want you to see this morning is that the gospel is the true answer. If we’re going to change this world, it’s not going to be through politics, and it’s not going to be through technology, and it’s not going to be through religion.

If we’re to change the world, it is going to be through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so then, we are called to be a people who literally turn the world upside down. I want you to pick up with me because we see this emulated in the life of the apostle in chapter 17, verse 1.

Now, when they had passed through Amphiphilus and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them, and for three Sabbaths, he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, this Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.

And some of them were persuaded, and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women joined Paul and Silas. But the Jews who were not persuaded becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob set all the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them 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, these who have turned the world upside down. the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king, Jesus.

And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things, so when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

Wherever the apostle went, it was either a revival or a riot. Wherever he went, he was constantly turning the norms upside down. He was turning people’s lives upside down. You remember in chapter 16 and we learned about the fortune teller and how she was owned by masters who were profiting off of her fortune telling and how that when she finally came to God, they were upset because now their money making machine and system had been depleted and destroyed and they were upset and they began to attack the apostle.

We come to chapter 17, the apostle shows up and he is shaking things up when he shows up. He’s not shaking things up intentionally in the sense that he’s trying to cause a riot or that he in the way that he is trying to create mobs to disrupt the normal activities of life but rather he is just proclaiming the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

And I want you to see this morning the characteristics or perhaps we could put it like this. What is it that characterizes a person who changes the world for the gospel? What is that? Well let me give you a few of these this morning and I want you to write them down as we analyze this chapter together.

First I would submit unto you courage. I would submit unto you courage we talked about in verse 1 and 2 how the apostle again leaves one city and he heads to another city. Now if you have had time and maybe you haven’t but you can later, you know that when the apostle in chapter 16 that he was beaten, he was mistreated, he was thrown into jail.

Remember the Philippian jailer? Remember that he came to Christ? Remember that Paul and Silas rather than whining and crying about their circumstances, they sang hymns unto God and they rejoiced in God.

They prayed to God and when the Bible says that when they were singing and praying that the earth shook and that they had the ability to expand. escape, and rather than escaping, they chose to stay, and they so impacted those that were responsible for watching the prisoners that they said, what must we do to be saved?

But Paul and Silas, wherever they went, they weren’t always accepted. And so having been beaten and having been thrown in jail, now they’re moving on to the next town, and we see in their life that they have an incredible amount of courage.

No one will ever influence the world for Christ who lacks courage. No one will influence their family, their friends, their neighborhoods, their communities without having courage in their life. The Scriptures teach us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

The antidote to any fear and anxiety in your heart is always rooted… in the strength or the power of God, and the love of God, and the sound mind. Let me just help you understand what that means practically in your life.

We talk about the strength of God. We cannot operate in our own strengths. For when we operate in our own strengths, we find that it is limited, and that it can only go so far, but the strength of the Lord, it is what keeps encouraging us.

It is what keeps enabling us to be able to be all that God has called us to be, even when we face opposition, even when we face pushback in our life, that it is the strength of the Lord that works effectively in our lives.

We’re taught that we’re not given a spirit of fear, but rather power and love. The apostle John would later teach us love casts out all fear. And we’re talking about a love for God and a love for people, rather than operating in fear of others and fear of God, we are called to operate in the mode of love.

And why is it that we can love? Well, the scriptures tell us that we love Him because He first loved us. And that is manifested in that one succinct verse that we know so well in John 3 16, that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

You and I have the capacity to love others unconditionally. And we have the capacity to love people, even through trials, differences, disagreements, that you and I can still love others because God has loved us.

And if you have ever doubted whether God loves you, just look to the cross. The full manifestation of God’s love is demonstrated in that Christ gave His life and paid the penalty of sin for you and me.

and for me, but we are not only called to be people who operate in the power of the Lord and the love of God, but of a sound mind. In the Greek, it has the idea of being balanced. We understand that sometimes we can get in that mindset that we are saying, what if, what if, what if, and it only strangles us, it only causes us to be fearful, but a sound mind is a balanced mind, operating in the constant faith and confidence that God is in charge.

It does not call us to be foolish. It does not call us to be reckless. It does not call us to abandon reason, but rather just the opposite. that if we are to be a courageous people, that we must be a people who have a sound mind, and that we operate in this faith that is balanced, a faith, a mindset that is based upon the truth, rather than rumors, innuendos, or theories and philosophies that only end up to be a dead end road.

Now this call to be courage, to be courageous, we see in the apostle. I want you to go back to verse two, and I want you to see that right at the outset, it says that Paul as his custom was. What was his custom?

His custom was that he went to the synagogue. We come down to verse 10, and the Bible says again, the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of Jews.

You see, this was the plan. This is how the apostle operated. He’s already faced opposition. He’s already been chased out of several communities because of the power of the gospel, has so upset those who do not believe the gospel that their very lives were threatened.

But does the apostle give up? Does he quit? Does he hang up and they say, I’m done? I’m not gonna do this anymore? No, he shows great courage. He regroups, he huddles, and he gets back at the task. He is on mission for God.

He stays true to his calling, and he shows great courage by keep going back to the synagogue, going back to be a witness for God. One of the reasons many people do not witness is because they’re fearful of what people might do to them.

They are fearful of what might happen. But friends, God has called you and I to be bold and not operate in the fear of people. The Bible tells us that the apostle claimed to the Galatians that if he lived in the fear of people, people that he would not be a true servant of God.

You have to understand that God has not called you to be a person who lives in the fear of others. We fear God, that’s a healthy fear. We revere God, we have all for God. We have great reverence for our God.

We recognize him as holy and righteous. We recognize him as high and lifted up and a mighty God. But when it comes to people, we operate in the power of God, the confidence of God, the strength of God, and we refuse to back down from the truth because we know that Jesus said, the truth will set you free.

Yes, it will. We see this again, exemplified in Acts chapter four, verse 13, when the Bible says, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated, untrained men, they marveled and they realized…

that they had been with Jesus. That’s the key, that we are to be with Jesus and that this fuels the boldness and the courage. God has not called you to be obnoxious, hateful, or rude, but He certainly has called you to be courageous, to take a stand for what is right, and to speak up, stand up, and do not be afraid of what the world can do to you.

The apostle continued, for the Lord, despite great opposition and terrible persecution. People who do not understand the gospel sometimes react in emotional ways, and they get very upset. Just jump down to verse 23, and I want you to see something here real quickly.

Verse 23 of chapter 17 of the book of Acts. Here, the apostle has stood up and he is helping them to understand that their religion will not save them, but they happen to have this great list of idols or gods, and one of them is named the unknown God.

So we pick up in verse 23, for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. Just in case we got the wrong God, we got an unknown God to make up for the wrong God.

How about that one? That’s the way they operated. And so the apostle continues and says, therefore the one whom you worship without knowing him I proclaim to you. What a beautiful opportunity that the apostle takes.

Verse 24 says that God who made the world and everything in it since he is the Lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in the temples that are made with hand. Now let’s jump down to verse 29. Verse 29, therefore since we are of the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold.

Truly, we have seen a lot of changes in our world, and we would say that we live in an upside-down world. But think about this, that when the apostles were out there preaching the gospel, they turned the world upside down with the gospels, and the apostles shook things up wherever they went.

And that’s what we see in Acts 7. We see them changing the world through the power of the gospel. And I hope that today’s message will continue to inspire us to be bold in sharing our faith and recognizing that hope is a powerful force, and that it can help us to overcome obstacles and achieve God’s truth into our life, and that we can accomplish what the Lord has called us to do.

I want to remind you that we have a YouTube channel, and on that YouTube channel you can pick up some of our podcasting, you can pick up some of our videos, some of our sermons, and we also have interviews and different discussion topics and Q and A.

So I hope you’ll check out our YouTube channel, go to Hope Worth Having, just sign up or subscribe, and we hope the channel will be a great inspiration to you. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.