Unwavering Joy and Commitment in the Gospel
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
"And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, 'Let those men go.' And so the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, 'The magistrates have sent us to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.' But Paul said to them, 'They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.'" [00:11:17]
"Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the 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; a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas." [00:83:29]
"These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the Word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds." [00:183:46]
"We read this rehearsal of the travels of Paul and Silas and Timothy and the second missionary journey, and it sounds like what Yogi Berra once called, 'Deja vu all over again.' Because there is a pattern, isn't there, that we have seen week after week where the apostles go to a new region, into a new city. They go to the synagogue or to the marketplace. They proclaim the Word of God. And some people respond in faith, while others are offended and they rise up in antagonism, in hostility." [00:279:34]
"Paul understood that all of us are baptized into the death as well as into the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And yet, in our day and age, we flee from the slightest hint of discomfort or offense with the secular world around us. Last night, my daughter ordered pizza from one of the local stores, and the pizza delivery man came with the pizza. And he said when he gave the pizza to my daughter, he said, 'And merry Christmas to you.'" [00:404:38]
"I will never forget the first Christmas, the first Christmas Eve service I went to after my conversion. I went to the same church, heard the same anthems, sang the same carols that we had sung every year, and I could hardly take it in. It was like ecstasy. My soul was transported to the heavenly places, as I experienced a joy such I had never known in my whole life, because now this wasn't just a human tradition, this wasn't just a human season, it was about Christ." [00:572:34]
"Well, you see, Paul was sold out to the joy of Christ, and he counted it nothing to be beaten and stoned. Those things were not worthy to be compared in his mind and his experience to the joy that was set before him in Christ Jesus. And everywhere he went, he entered into dialogue, he entered into discussion, in the marketplace, in the synagogue, and he did it by expounding the Scriptures." [00:652:12]
"There is a reason why we follow the method that we do here in this church through expository preaching, going through whole books, verse upon verse upon verse. And you may get sick and tired of looking at the book of Acts and say, 'Can't he finish up with the book of Acts and get on to something else? I'm tired of it.' Maybe you feel like that. But I think at the same time you are singularly blessed to be in a church every Sunday morning where the Bible is expounded." [00:725:46]
"What we need here every week, dear friends, is the unvarnished, unadulterated Word of Almighty God. That is how the church was built, by the apostles going into these hostile regions and opening the Scriptures of the Old Testament and explaining Christ from the Bible. I asked my son-in-law this morning, I said, 'How many numbers do you have to get right to win the lottery?' I didn’t know because I have never bought a lottery ticket." [00:783:48]
"Well, there are over a thousand specific prophecies in the Old Testament, concrete prophecies about the person and work of the promised Messiah. These prophecies were given over centuries of time and they all converge in a single person who fulfilled every one of these thousand plus prophecies perfectly. If we wanted to prove empirically and inductively the identity of Jesus, the supernatural development of His mission, the supernatural character of the Bible, all we would have to do is just look at each one of those prophecies." [00:981:55]
"The Bible tells us that it is by the hearing of the Word that faith is evoked within us, 'Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.' And so, we see the pattern continue. After he gets out of jail in Philippi and the word gets down to the headquarters of the city magistrates and they find out that Paul was a Roman, they said. 'Uh-oh, we just violated ancient Roman law by punishing this man without a trial.'" [00:1092:42]
"The people at Berea, from whom thousands of Bible studies have been named, are distinguished because when they heard the preaching of Paul, what did they do? They 'searched the Scriptures.' In our day and age we don't search the Scriptures. We get a little handbook, tells us how to read through the Bible in fifteen minutes a day. That won't do it. If you really want to grow in your faith, beloved, you have got to search the Word of God." [00:1277:19]
Ask a question about this sermon
"Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the 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; a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas." [00:83:29]
"These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the Word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds." [00:183:46]
"We read this rehearsal of the travels of Paul and Silas and Timothy and the second missionary journey, and it sounds like what Yogi Berra once called, 'Deja vu all over again.' Because there is a pattern, isn't there, that we have seen week after week where the apostles go to a new region, into a new city. They go to the synagogue or to the marketplace. They proclaim the Word of God. And some people respond in faith, while others are offended and they rise up in antagonism, in hostility." [00:279:34]
"Paul understood that all of us are baptized into the death as well as into the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And yet, in our day and age, we flee from the slightest hint of discomfort or offense with the secular world around us. Last night, my daughter ordered pizza from one of the local stores, and the pizza delivery man came with the pizza. And he said when he gave the pizza to my daughter, he said, 'And merry Christmas to you.'" [00:404:38]
"I will never forget the first Christmas, the first Christmas Eve service I went to after my conversion. I went to the same church, heard the same anthems, sang the same carols that we had sung every year, and I could hardly take it in. It was like ecstasy. My soul was transported to the heavenly places, as I experienced a joy such I had never known in my whole life, because now this wasn't just a human tradition, this wasn't just a human season, it was about Christ." [00:572:34]
"Well, you see, Paul was sold out to the joy of Christ, and he counted it nothing to be beaten and stoned. Those things were not worthy to be compared in his mind and his experience to the joy that was set before him in Christ Jesus. And everywhere he went, he entered into dialogue, he entered into discussion, in the marketplace, in the synagogue, and he did it by expounding the Scriptures." [00:652:12]
"There is a reason why we follow the method that we do here in this church through expository preaching, going through whole books, verse upon verse upon verse. And you may get sick and tired of looking at the book of Acts and say, 'Can't he finish up with the book of Acts and get on to something else? I'm tired of it.' Maybe you feel like that. But I think at the same time you are singularly blessed to be in a church every Sunday morning where the Bible is expounded." [00:725:46]
"What we need here every week, dear friends, is the unvarnished, unadulterated Word of Almighty God. That is how the church was built, by the apostles going into these hostile regions and opening the Scriptures of the Old Testament and explaining Christ from the Bible. I asked my son-in-law this morning, I said, 'How many numbers do you have to get right to win the lottery?' I didn’t know because I have never bought a lottery ticket." [00:783:48]
"Well, there are over a thousand specific prophecies in the Old Testament, concrete prophecies about the person and work of the promised Messiah. These prophecies were given over centuries of time and they all converge in a single person who fulfilled every one of these thousand plus prophecies perfectly. If we wanted to prove empirically and inductively the identity of Jesus, the supernatural development of His mission, the supernatural character of the Bible, all we would have to do is just look at each one of those prophecies." [00:981:55]
"The Bible tells us that it is by the hearing of the Word that faith is evoked within us, 'Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.' And so, we see the pattern continue. After he gets out of jail in Philippi and the word gets down to the headquarters of the city magistrates and they find out that Paul was a Roman, they said. 'Uh-oh, we just violated ancient Roman law by punishing this man without a trial.'" [00:1092:42]
"The people at Berea, from whom thousands of Bible studies have been named, are distinguished because when they heard the preaching of Paul, what did they do? They 'searched the Scriptures.' In our day and age we don't search the Scriptures. We get a little handbook, tells us how to read through the Bible in fifteen minutes a day. That won't do it. If you really want to grow in your faith, beloved, you have got to search the Word of God." [00:1277:19]
Chatbot
-
I'm an AI bot trained specifically on the sermon from Sep 08, 2024. Do you have any questions about it?