Special Topic: Love Is a More Excellent Way (1 Cor. 13:1-3)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, August 31, 2025

Timothy Keller shares:

I was just reading a book by a wife of a man who is now gone (Norman Mailer). She was his last wife, and she has written a biography.

Of course, Norman Mailer was a brilliant author. Everybody came out to listen to him. He ran for mayor. Okay, so he stabbed one of his wives with a knife. You know, he is a colorful character. See, what really matters is he has the gifts. He has the talent, you see. Paul totally reverses that, and he says, “No, it’s the other way around. If you’re brilliant, if you’re gifted, if you’re talented, even in God’s service, even doing all this for God, but in your heart you’re filled with envy and pride and anger and insecurity, you are nothing. That is of no value to God at all.”^[1]

We will examine this from 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.

My theme today is:

Love Is a More Excellent Way

1. What is going on in 1 Corinthians 13?
   1. As we reach 1 Corinthians 13, we are in the third of three chapters in which Paul writes about spiritual gifts.
   2. 1 Corinthians 12 is written about the theology of spiritual gifts.
   3. 1 Corinthians 13 is written about the motivation behind spiritual gifts.
   4. 1 Corinthians 14 is written about the practice of spiritual gifts.
   5. The Corinthian church was a divided church.
   6. I remember sitting in a New Testament class at Indiana Wesleyan University. The professor shared how when he was a pastor he would hear people say, “We want to be like the New Testament church.” He would say, “Really, do you want to be like the church in Corinth that was divided over communion [see 1 Cor. 11:18]?”
   7. The thesis of 1 Corinthians is in 1 Corinthians 1:10:
   8. 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NASB95)
   9. Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.
   10. By the time we get to 1 Corinthians 13, Paul has already written about many subjects, among them, but not limited to: marriage (1 Cor. 7); food sacrificed to idols (1 Cor. 8-10); the Lord’s supper (1 Cor. 11); and now spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12-14).
   11. Now, we get into the motivation behind spiritual gifts.
2. The importance of love.
   1. 1 Cor. 13:1-3 is written regarding the importance of love.
   2. The gift of tongues is useless without it (1 Cor. 13:1).
   3. Look at 1 Cor. 13:1
   4. 1 Corinthians 13:1 (ESV)
   5. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
   6. What does this mean?
   7. First, notice that Paul is using the first-person pronoun, “I.” He is using himself as an example. In 1 Cor. 12:31 he was writing using the second person pronoun “you.”
   8. Remember that the Corinthian church was divided over spiritual gifts, and it appears they were also divided over the issue of tongues.
   9. Now, this gets complicated. Why? I am glad you asked.
   10. Paul ends 1 Cor. 12:31 with, And I will show you a still more excellent way.
   11. So, it seems that he was telling them to desire “higher” gifts, and he will show them a more “excellent way.”
   12. Right off the bat, I think in 1 Cor. 13 Paul is saying “love” is a more excellent way. Furthermore, some would argue that “love” is the highest gift, or one of the highest gifts.
   13. Some would argue “love” is not a spiritual gift.
   14. Paul says even with the spiritual gift of tongues, if he does not have love, “he is nothing more than a noisy gong or clanging cymbal,” huh?
   15. Keller: That verse makes no sense unless, as the commentators say, it’s referring to the worship of the various temples of those Greco-Roman cities. Like in Corinth, they had all the various gods. They had all the various pagan temples. The way worship was done was a great processional in which there were gongs and there were cymbals. You were wearing your finery. It was a parade. The purpose of it was to honor the god, to get the god’s attention, to get the god’s approval. “Look how much we venerate you. Look at it!”^[2]
   16. IVP BBC NT:
   17. Although cymbals were used in some pagan worship (as well as in Jewish worship), the point of Paul’s comparison is undoubtedly simply that, though loud, by themselves they communicate nothing (like some rhetoricians in his day). Corinth was famous for its “bronze,” and bronze vases (not “gongs,” as in most translations) were often used for amplifiers in the outdoor theaters of this period.^[3]
   18. Witherington III shares: In vv. 1–3 tongues and prophecy are shown to be potentially divisive while love unites.⁸ Then love is said to be not the very things that Paul has already said that the Corinthians are: jealous (cf. 3:3), self-promoting, puffed up (cf. 4:6), shameful (cf. 5:2; 11:4), each one a seeker of his or her own advantage (cf. chs. 8–10), easily provoked, and reckoners of wrongdoing (cf. ch. 6).^9,[4]
   19. We will examine 1 Cor. 13:4-7 next week, but Paul will contrast the way of love with the way of the Corinthians.
   20. Further, Dr. Witherington III shares: Paul is not calling love the supreme gift, but rather the way of life for Christ’s agent. ^12,[5]
   21. Still in verse 1 (1 Cor. 13:1), Paul writes that he could speak in tongues, or of angels. What does he mean by “angels”? Some think he is writing about an angelic language. I think he is writing in hyperbole.
   22. Some also think he is writing about those masters in rhetoric likening them to angels.
   23. The gift of prophecy is useless without it (1 Cor. 13:2a).
   24. Look at 1 Cor. 13:2: 1 Corinthians 13:2 (ESV) ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
   25. I like what Timothy Keller shares: Paul shockingly says, “It’s possible to even have miraculous gifts like prophecy, it’s possible to have tremendous leadership gifts, tremendous preaching and teaching gifts, without love. It’s possible to be doing all of this not out of love.”^[6]
   26. Further, in verse 2 Paul references knowledge. If he has all knowledge to understand all mysteries, it is nothing without love.
   27. Paul then references the gift of faith. “Faith” (1 Cor. 12:9) and “knowledge” (1 Cor. 12:8) are spiritual gifts. Yet, he is nothing without love.
   28. The gift of giving is useless without it (1 Cor. 13:3).^[7]
   29. Look at 1 Cor. 13:3:
   30. 1 Corinthians 13:3 (ESV) ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
   31. Witherington III writes: For Paul the essence of true spirituality is self-sacrificial love, not gifts, knowledge, or miraculous power. At least some Corinthians were focused on power and ego and had a different view of the real heart of Christianity. Paul’s point is that such egocentric behavior hurts not only others but also self. One has no profit without love. The argument here about “profit” or “benefit” points to a deliberative function of this otherwise epideictic chapter.^[8]
   32. This idea of delivering up his body to be burned likely refers to the “standard Jewish tradition of martyrs, some of whom threw themselves into the fire to avoid being forcibly defiled.”^[9]
   33. What is Paul saying? Without love, he is nothing.
3.  Applications:
   1. I am increasingly convicted that the Christian witness is the strongest when we are pursuing a loving way in all things.
   2. This does not mean condoning sin, no, just the opposite.
   3. It is not loving to condone sin.
   4. It does mean we really pray, really discern, really think about how to be loving in all situations.
   5. We need to pray before we talk to someone about something that offended us.
   6. We must ask, “Am I being too thin-skinned?” Or, “did they sin against me, or is it a preference thing?”
   7. We must think, “Am I in a place to confront this?”
   8. We must ask the Lord to exchange our critical attitude for an attitude of grace.
   9. Grace towards everyone (1 Cor. 13:7).
   10. We must ask the Lord to replace our critical attitude with an attitude of gratitude (1 Thess. 5:16).
   11. We must ask the Lord to make us swift to hear, slow to become angry (James 1:19).
   12. We must pray and discern-
   13. When do I really need to defend myself?
   14. Am I just wanting to be right?
   15. Dallas Willard writes:
   16. One of our finest Christian-college presidents recently devoted his periodic mail-out to the question “Why are Christians so mean to one another so often?” He quotes numerous well-known Christian leaders on this theme…
   17. Later, Willard writes:
   18. Well, there actually is an answer to that question. And we must face this answer and effectively deal with it or Satan will sustain his stranglehold on spiritual transformation in local congregations. Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right (always in terms of their beloved vessel, or tradition) than it is to be Christlike. In fact, being right licenses you to be mean, and, indeed, requires you to be mean—righteously mean, of course. You must be hard on people who are wrong, and especially if they are in positions of Christian leadership. They deserve nothing better. This is a part of what I have elsewhere called the practice of “condemnation engineering.”[10]
   19. Grace towards everyone.
   20. Faith towards God.
   21. Biblical wisdom in all things.

Timothy Keller shares:

See, almost all of us have parts of our lives we really want to see changed, but change is really hard. If you take a Coke can and you crush it with your hand so now it’s taking up less space (it’s smaller) and then you take your hand away, it stays where you put it. If you take a rubber ball and squeeze it with your hand so it takes up less space and then you take your hand away, it snaps right back to where it was. Why?

Because you restrained the rubber ball temporarily, but you didn’t really change it. You changed the Coke can, see, but you didn’t really change the rubber ball. You just restrained it, and it snaps back. Almost all of us have that experience (the rubber ball experience, I mean). We go out to try to change parts of our lives, and we put a lot of willpower behind it. We put a lot of pressure on certain parts of our lives. We say, “I think I got it” Then as soon as you let up or circumstances change, it snaps right back.^[11]

Prayer

^[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[2] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[3] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 1 Co 13:1.

⁸ This also prepares for the argument in 14:2–5, 29–32.

⁹ Rightly Mitchell, Rhetoric of Reconciliation, pp. 169f. I agree with Mitchell that factionalism is perhaps the main thing Paul is combating throughout this letter. “Enthusiasm” is most definitely one cause of this divisive behavior, so it is not an either-or matter.

^[4] Ben Witherington III, Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 265.

¹² The chapter may have existed before Paul put it to use here, but in view of its specific targeting of the Corinthian vices and its use of Paul as an example, this seems most unlikely.

^[5] Ben Witherington III, Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 265–266.

^[6] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[7] H. L. Willmington, The Outline Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), 1 Co 13:1–3.

^[8] Ben Witherington III, Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 268.

^[9] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 1 Co 13:2–3.

[10] Willard, Dallas. Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ (p. 238). (Function). Kindle Edition.

^[11] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

Paul Witnesses in Athens (Acts 17:16–34)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, August 24, 2025

Last week, the sermon was about learning and studying the Scriptures. I focused on the Bereans and how, when there was a new idea, they went back to God’s Word. They checked the Scriptures to see what the Scriptures had to say about this new teaching that the Apostle Paul taught. Then they found out that this teaching did not contradict the Scriptures. They discovered the Scriptures prophesied about Christ, and they became Christians.

Tim Keller writes, this was in 2003:

Let me give you an example from popular culture. I didn’t see this show. I read about this in an interesting article. This article talks about when Howard Stern was on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. Howard Stern had written a book about his life, and he was on there hawking the book. Interestingly enough, the article says Howard Stern repeatedly provoked Leno with language and behavior that pushed way past the rules of live network television.

Of course, Leno could get in terrific trouble if things are said and done on his show that go way past the boundaries of propriety. We all know there are certain boundaries for live network television. Of course, Howard Stern was blowing right by them and just trying like crazy, daring Jay Leno to make a moral judgment and say, “Stop that. You shouldn’t be saying that.”

The writer says something like, “Stern repeatedly dared him to play the role of the moralist who presumes to tell others how to live. The usually unflappable Leno was visibly disturbed. Wanting to avoid having to make any moral judgments, he tried to change the subject and started sorting through a bag of best-selling books that included Stern’s autobiography. Refusing to be silenced, Stern praised his own book but degraded and trashed every other book Leno retrieved and resolutely persisted in challenging Leno to make some moral judgment.

What Stern did not see was the inordinate amount of moral zeal with which he did this. He was extremely self-righteous in his denunciation of everyone else’s self-righteousness. He was absolutely moralistic in his insistence that no one else could make moral pronouncements. It was wrong.

In short, Stern embodied the contradiction of our culture in living and vivid color. We publicly declare all values to be constructed. We profess, therefore, a morality that is thin and lightweight, but daily experience itself retains a moral thickness and weight that contradicts the logic of the culture. The truly significant moment came as the show was going to a commercial break.

Exasperated with Stern, Leno reached into the bag one more time and pulled out one more book. It turned out to be a Bible. For one brief moment, Leno became a prophet. Holding it up and looking into the camera, Leno said simply, ‘Suddenly, everything in this book makes perfect sense.’ ”

What you deny, though, with the mouth you will always affirm. You might say, “No one should make any moral judgments.” What would be wrong with that if there were no such thing as a moral judge? You can’t not know there’s something wrong. It’s not just, “This feels to be wrong,” it is wrong. It’s not just that we have moral feelings. “Well, I feel this is wrong, and I feel that is wrong.” (Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).)

So, what is our standard? Do we go back to the Bible for truth? On one end of the spectrum, we must be sure that we are not corrupted by culture, which means that we know the faith and we go back to God’s Word. On the other end of the spectrum, we must be prepared to be a witness. How can you cross cultural barriers to be a witness? The Apostle Paul did this. Do you know culture?

1 Chronicles 12:32:

…from Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do—200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command…

Everyone has a worldview, which concerns the way that we view the world. Most of the time, these are under the surface, and we do not think about them. The Bible gives us a Christian worldview. But we also must know where others are coming from. The Apostle Paul did. Sometimes we are afraid of culture. Sometimes we are offended by culture, and we withdraw. Or we are delighted by culture, and we assimilate. The Apostle Paul was distressed by the culture, and so he engaged the culture through the Gospel.

I want to look at Acts 17:16-34 and make the case that he knew the culture and he was ready to engage the culture.

[I am deeply indebted to Dr. Bill Brown, former President of Cedarville University, for some of my information]

1. Now, let’s look at the passage. How does Paul engage culture?
   1. There certainly is a lot in this passage.
   2. When we understand where the culture is coming from and where their thinking is, we are better equipped to engage the culture.
   3. The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot ever fence it out.” (J. R. Tolkein; Gildor Inglorion of the House of Finrod; Fellowship of the Ring)
   4. There are three approaches to culture, and we’ll see Paul’s approach:
      1. We can be offended by culture, which leads to withdraw.
      2. We can be delighted by culture, and we assimilate.
      3. We can be distressed by culture, and so we engage culture.
   5. The latter is what the Bible calls us to do. . . . Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—2 Peter 2:7-8
   6. James 4:4: You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
   7. This is what the Apostle Paul did.
   8. Verse 16 says that Paul was distressed by what he saw:
   9. Acts 17:16 (NASB95) Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.
   10. Are we distressed by the sinful culture?
   11. But Paul did not get distressed so much that he buried his head in the sand. He did not assimilate with the culture either. He engaged the culture. Later, we see that Paul reasoned in the synagogue. He talked to the people.
       1. Acts 17:17–21 (NASB95) 17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.  18  And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? “For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)
       2. Could he do that if he did not know the culture? No. Could he reason with them if he did not know Christianity and the Scriptures? No. Could he reason with them if he were not seeking the Lord? Not really. If we are not seeking the Lord, we can win an argument but lose the person.
       3. REMEMBER, WE ARE NOT SEEKING TO WIN ARGUMENTS BUT REACH PEOPLE WITH THE GOSPEL.
2. Paul’s method:
   1. 1. 1. Acts 17:22–34 (NASB95) 22     So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.  23   “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24      “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26      and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28    for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ 29    “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. 30   “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31    because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” 32        Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.” 33 So Paul went out of their midst. 34    But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
         2. We saw that Paul was greatly distressed by the culture (verse 16);
         3. We see Paul sought to understand the culture (verse 23)- he was passing through and examining… He saw an alter to an unknown God. That was also His bridge to connect to the gospel.
         4. He started where they were (verses 22-23), he quotes two of their own poets. That is like us quoting a rock band.
         5. Paul begins with a positive about the truth he found (verse 22);
         6. Paul knew culture. He knew and quoted sources (verses 22 and 28);
         7. Lastly, he communicated the Gospel (verses 18 and 30-31).

The Gospel changes society.

Tim Keller shares:

Nicholas Kristof, who writes an op-ed column for the New York Times editorial page twice a week usually, is a very influential, very smart guy. He went to Africa. Just six weeks ago he wrote this column. In Africa one of the things he saw, which is something that is getting more publicity now, is in large parts of the world born-again Christianity, if you will, is spreading like wildfire. Millions of people are becoming Christians.

When he went there and he looked at so many of the social problems in Africa, he saw Christians dealing with them. He saw orphanages, hospitals, places that cared for AIDS sufferers all being run by, pushed by, supported by Christians. Here’s the most interesting part. This is a quote from his column.

“Pentecostalists, who make up one of the fastest-growing sects, preach faith healing and raising from the dead, but they also give a substantial voice in church to ordinary village women. And that in turn empowers women in the home and community. ‘In our Mozambican culture, women don’t have an active voice in the family,’ explained Ana Zaida, who teaches Bible school. ‘But in Christian life, we discover that not just the husband but also the wife can have a role.… So the wives fight to transform their husbands.’ ”

This is the last line in the column, believe it or not. The New York Times says, “Yet while it sounds strange to say so, evangelicals may be Africa’s most important feminist influence today.” What is he seeing? I’m not sure he knows what he’s seeing, but I’ll tell you what he’s seeing. When you tell a poor African woman the gospel … What is the gospel? Everybody in the world is equally lost. It doesn’t matter your pedigree. It doesn’t matter your race, male and female, rich and poor. Everyone is lost. (Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).)

We live in a culture that is considered post-Christian, or we could call it pre-Christian, which means that we are ripe for revival. We are ripe for an evangelical movement. I want to be part of that movement. I want to be used of God. We see that Paul engaged the culture. I hope you will as well.

There was a music professor at a European school. He grew old, and he could not take care of himself. He had no one, so the school adopted him, and he lived in a men’s dorm. Every day, one of the men would come and say, “Professor, what is the weather like?” The professor would respond, “It is changing; the weather always changes.” He would then strike his tuning fork against his wheelchair and say, “This is middle C, it never changed, it is constant. The weather can change, but middle C does not change.”

What is your middle C? I hope it is the Scriptures, as it was for the Bereans. Cling to the Scriptures because culture will change. But don’t run away from culture. Study culture, be a student of the culture like the men of Issachar of 1 Chronicles 12:32, and then be like Paul and engage the culture with the heart and the mind of Christ.

1 Cor. 9:23

 I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

Remember, you are never alone; the Holy Spirit is with you.

Do you know Jesus? Maybe today you realize that you are assimilated into the culture. It is time to commit to Christ.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

Paul Witnesses in Berea (Acts 17:10–15)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, August 17, 2025

I read the following:

WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING ON? I really enjoy visiting Yellowstone. In fact, one of these days, when Jesus comes back, I’ve got dubs on Yellowstone! Come and visit me for a while! Once when I was visiting the greatest national park in America, I heard a story about bears that was amazing. In the 1950s and 60’s, tourists could drive right up to a bear, roll down their window, and feed their McDonald’s hamburger to the hungry animal. He would gladly take the burger along with the hand of the tourist! The bears were changing their feeding habits and endangering visitors. As a result, the National Park Service removed the bears and took them to higher country where God had already provided for them a natural diet of luscious berries. However, because the bears had changed their feeding patterns, many of them refused to eat the berries, and some actually died.  This story is an incredible picture of the lives of many believers in Christ. Sadly, many of us have been delivered out of spiritual Egypt and bondage to sin, but we have not been brought into the Promised Land of victory. It is interesting that God told the Israelites to eat the roasted lamb they had sacrificed (Exodus 12). The Passover lamb is a picture of the death of Christ. But feeding on the lamb is a picture of how we grow in Christ once we have been saved. What are you feeding on in your personal life? Are you spending time alone with Christ in the Word of God? Are you allowing the junk food of this world’s values to destroy your spiritual appetite for the Word of God? Feed on the Lamb of God and don’t allow the Enemy to feed you a lie.

Everyone pick up a Bible, hold it. This book tells you how to attain eternal life. This book gives you wisdom for life.

So, you are going on a trip, you choose the destination, wherever you want.

Where would you go? Shout out some places, just shout them out…

Okay, how are you going to get there?

What will you do once you arrive?

Do you think you may check out AAA or something? What if they don’t have food, indoor plumbing, or gas stations? Do you want to learn about a place before you visit it?

Why don’t we do that with our eternal life? We are going there; we are going to spend eternity in that place. Don’t you want to invest as much in eternity, or hopefully more, than you would in a vacation? Don’t we want to study Heaven? The Bible has a great deal to say about Heaven. Don’t we want to get to know God and Jesus better? He gave us eternal life.

The music director at the church I served in Cincinnati shared with me how every morning she would see her father studying the Bible. He would have his commentary, his Bible dictionary, and his study Bible. He would study the Bible before his job at the factory. Get this, he got up at something like 4:30 am to study the Bible.

He must have been like the Bereans.

In Acts 17:10-15, Paul comes to Berea and presents the Gospel. These people searched the Scriptures to see if what Paul shared was true. Many were saved. Let’s study that passage, and I challenge you to be like a Berean.

The great idea today is that the Bereans were studious, learners; they were not ignorant.

The application: emulate their example.

Acts 17:10–15 (NASB95)

10     The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

11     Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

12     Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men.

13     But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

14     Then immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as the sea; and Silas and Timothy remained there.

15     Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.

1. Context:
   1. Paul is chased from Thessalonica to Berea, and in verse 10, he arrives in Berea. This is Paul’s second nighttime escape. In Acts 9:25, Paul had to escape by night as well.
   2. What was that like for Paul? I wonder what it was like for the early Christians?
   3. What was it like to flee from one place under threat of death?
   4. Are you out much after dark? I like to run early in the morning because of time commitments. I enjoy gazing at the stars and marveling at God’s beauty. But sometimes I’ll go down a street and something will scare me. I’ll see an animal or hear something. For Paul, there was no time for noticing the beauty of creation. He traveled at night because of the threat. There was much danger traveling during that time period, and especially after dark. I once read a book called Night in Times Past. The book was about the great fear and dangers of the night prior to the advent of electric lighting. Paul did a lot of traveling and faced numerous dangers.
   5. This case is no different. Paul and Silas traveled 50 miles southwest from their last location. Can you imagine 50 miles? By the way, Berea is situated on the side of a mountain, and traveling there was not easy.
   6. Paul arrives in Berea and goes to the synagogue to start preaching. That has been his modus operandi. Verse 11 says that the Bereans were more noble-minded than the people of Thessalonica. The Bereans examined the Scriptures to see if what Paul was teaching was true.
   7. Verse 11 contrasts with the people in Thessalonica. The people of Thessalonica chased Paul out.
   8. A lot of times we hold up the Bereans as a standard, and probably right to do so. But the reality is that they were more noble than where Paul had just come from.
   9. They were ready to learn.
   10. The Bible states that they discovered Paul’s words to be true.
   11. You know what, they were going to the Old Testament to confirm this. Do you realize that the Old Testament has enough information to confirm who Jesus is?
   12. Many were saved. Jewish people were saved. Greek men and women were saved.
   13. Then the people from Thessalonica come to Berea and stir up a riot chasing Paul out.
   14. Now, Paul goes to Athens.
2. Let me encourage you to be like the Bereans.
   1. The Bereans did study the Scriptures.
   2. Where do we get wisdom? Where are we receiving our wisdom? You see, everywhere we go, we have messages being fed to us. Where is the wisdom though?
   3. The wisdom is in the Bible. Moreover, as the Bereans discovered, eternal life is a central theme in the Bible. You see, Paul came declaring this Truth that they had not been taught, and they did not know what to think of it. So, what did they do? Did they turn on Home Shopping Channel to see what to think? Did they turn on ESPN to see what to think? Did they go to CNN, FOX News, or the Newspaper to see what to think? No, they went to the Bible.
   4. Okay, so two applications: The Bible is eternal life, and the Bible is wisdom to shape our worldview.
   5. You see, first, you must know Jesus for eternal life. Without Jesus, you are disconnected from God and all eternity. You need eternity. Search the Scriptures, they are all about ways to freely receive eternal life.
   6. Once you know Jesus, you get fed True, Heavenly, Spirit-filled wisdom from the Bible.

A woman was driving home one night. The weather was really nasty. Rain was coming down in buckets and visibility was very poor. Seeing taillights ahead of her, she followed the car in front. Not being able to see, the car in front seemed to be going in the right direction. So she stuck with it. All of a sudden the car in front of her came to a stop. She began to wonder what had happened; perhaps the car in front had hit a deer or something like that. She began to feel uncomfortable; thinking being stopped in the middle of the road can often lead to accidents. Much to her alarm the car in front of her turned off their lights. Her concern was now growing as well as her anger, and she was then startled by a knocking on her window. She looked up, and there was a man standing in the pouring rain, wanting to speak to her. She cracked the window open and asked the man what the problem was. The man replied by stating that that was the question he was going to ask her. She retorted that she wasn’t the one who had stopped in the middle of the road and then turned off the car lights. The man’s reply was that they were not in the middle of the road, but in his driveway. Obviously, this woman had chosen the wrong leader to follow. She had chosen a leader who would not take her to where she wanted and needed to go. She had chosen the wrong leader and the wrong road.

We follow information, we follow Truth, what is your source?

About 12 years ago, I heard about a book, which I read part of, The Smartest Kids in the World and How they Got that Way. Part of the studies showed that children that rank highest in the world on test scores see their parents reading at home.

The challenge: Be like the Noble Bereans, who search the Scriptures and study them.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

Christian- pursue spiritual, mental, and emotional depth.

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, August 10, 2025

Charles Swindoll writes:

Our image-conscious, hurry-up culture celebrates people with broad appeal and shallow character. Just look at the proliferation of reality shows featuring people who are famous for being famous. They do nothing, contribute nothing, stand for nothing, and accomplish nothing, yet television and tabloids can’t get enough of them. This is nothing new, of course. Every generation raises a bumper crop of superficial image builders. Standing in their midst, however, like oaks among scrub bushes, men and women of strength and dignity rise above their peers. They reject superficiality in favor of depth. They shrug off broad appeal and choose instead to be transparent and authentic. Rather than cut a wide, yet shallow, swath through life, they focus on what they deem important for the sake of deep, lasting impact. They waste no time polishing their image; their interest lies in deepening their character.

Compare, for example, the careers of two American writers—best friends, schoolmates, and neighbors as children—Harper Lee and Truman Capote.

Truman was a lonely, eccentric child with a natural gift for writing. After his parents’ divorce at age four, he lived with relatives in Monroeville, Alabama. While other children played, he pursued his obsession with words, grammar, narrative, and stories. The notoriously foppish boy and the tomboyish Harper became fast friends, sharing a great love of writing and literature.

By the age of twelve, Truman returned to New York to live with his mother and stepfather. While in high school, he worked as a copyboy in the art department of the New Yorker and continued to hone his craft. Not long after graduation, he completed several award-winning short stories and published his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. While the book spent nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, it was his controversial portrait on the dust jacket that catapulted him to fame and earned him the public fascination he had always craved. He relished the attention he received from New York society, but he still could not gain access to the rarified company of the “jet set” elite he so envied.

In 1959, he enlisted the help of childhood friend Harper Lee to help him with the research for his “nonfiction novel” In Cold Blood. A few years earlier, Harper had moved to New York to become a writer. She supported herself as an airline ticket clerk until friends gave her a priceless gift. On Christmas, she opened a note that read, “You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.” They supported her financially throughout 1958, allowing her to complete the first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. Over the next year, she honed and perfected the manuscript, completing it in 1959. As her manuscript went to press, she helped her friend research his book.

In 1960, Harper’s novel debuted and became an instant classic, winning virtually every literary honor in existence, including the Pulitzer Prize. More importantly, however, her book became the most influential literary work in the black civil-rights movement since Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. But rather than seek glory for herself, she retreated from public view and gave her last interview in 1964. When asked about writing another novel, she declared, “I have said what I wanted to say, and I will not say it again.”

Capote, on the other hand, rode In Cold Blood into the stratosphere of fame. He finally achieved his goal, which was not to create a definitive literary work as much as to become celebrated and enshrined as a great author. In the seventies and early eighties, virtually everyone in America not only knew the name Truman Capote but also recognized the flamboyant image of an author who hadn’t written anything noteworthy since 1966. Meanwhile, alcohol, drugs, and celebrity consumed the man Norman Mailer once called “the most perfect writer of my generation.”¹ In the end, however, Gore Vidal, Capote’s lifelong rival, called the author’s death “a good career move.”²

Two uncommonly gifted writers, two completely different approaches to writing. Lee wrote one world-changing story for its own sake and then chose to avoid public praise. Capote wrote for the sake of fame. Interestingly, To Kill a Mockingbird is still required reading in most schools.^[1]

What are we focused on? What consumes us?

Today, my theme and application are:

Christian, be a person of depth. Pursue spiritual, mental, and emotional depth.

1. Pursue spiritual depth.
   1. In reality, this whole message is about spiritual depth. The Christian mind relates to our spiritual condition. The corollary is true. The Christian’s spiritual state is linked with their mental state.
   2. But specifically, we have a problem. Christians are quite content to be shallow.
   3. I read a Gospel Coalition article titled: “Is There a Future for Church Grandpas and Grandmas?”[2]
   4. The article is about how we used to expect to have older people in the church with well-worn Bibles quoting Scripture.
   5. 1 Timothy 4:6–8 (NASB95)
   6. 6 In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.
   7. 7 But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;
   8. 8 for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
   9. Paul wrote this letter to Timothy.
   10. It is one of the Pastoral Epistles.
   11. Verses 6-11 (of 1 Timothy 4) are about discipline: discipline for godliness as opposed to this false asceticism and false regulations that are in 1 Timothy 4:1-5. A key verse in this section is verse 7- But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness…
   12. Paul was writing against this asceticism. Asceticism has to do with strict self-denial. Paul is now contrasting their self-denial. He was saying that the self-denial they were doing— it’s not even in the Bible. It is all from these godless myths.
   13. One writer says: the idea of myths: fit only for old women, this was a common saying denoting something fit only for the uneducated and philosophically unsophisticated.
   14. Then, Paul writes: But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness…
   15. The word “discipline” or “train” is an athletic term: this denotes rigorous self-sacrificing training. So now Paul says that spiritual discipline is the key to godly living.
   16. Instead of being stuck in ascetic practices, we are disciplining ourselves for godliness.
   17. We are not simply denying food and drink as ascetic practices, no, we are disciplining ourselves to grow in Christ.
   18. Look at verse 8 again: for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
   19. 1 Timothy 4:1-5 was about mere bodily discipline.
   20. But Paul is saying that it is of little value. Godliness is valuable for this life and for eternal life.
   21. We are a fast-paced, instant-everything society. But there is no instant godliness.
   22. We must disciplines ourselves to grow in Christ.
   23. This requires an ongoing relationship with the Lord.
   24. Are we spending time in His Word?
   25. Are we spending time in prayer?
   26. Are we spending time with our church family- Sunday School, small groups, preaching?
   27. I urge you to pursue spiritual depth.
2. Pursue mental depth.
   1. These all go together.
   2. If we are spending time in the Bible, meditating on Scripture, we are also focusing on mental depth, but I want to go further.
   3. Many years ago Neil Postman wrote a book called “Amusing Ourselves to Death.”
   4. One author writes regarding the book:
   5. With the introduction of the television, Postman observed, entertainment did not merely become a bigger and bigger part of our lives — it became our lives. And everything else in our lives — news, politics, education, even religion — was increasingly forced to perform on its stage. Suddenly, everythinghad to be entertaining. Newspapers gave way to “the nightly news”; classroom lessons made their way to Sesame Street; worship services transformed into televised concerts with TED talks.
   6. The television slowly taught us that nothing was worth our time unless it was entertaining. And anything entertaining, almost by definition, requires less of us — less thinking, less study, less work. Entertainment, after all, isn’t meant to be taken seriously. But when everything is entertainment, doesn’t that mean little, if anything, can be taken seriously?
   7. For those who take the glory of God seriously, and our joy in him seriously, that becomes a very serious question.
   8. Postman warned about this devolution long before others noticed what was happening. He writes,
   9. [George] Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in [Aldous] Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity, and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. . . . In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right. (Amusing Ourselves to Death, xix)
   10. Postman is comparing Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and George Orwell’s book “1984.”
   11. Further, the same writer shares:
   12. As he attempts to summarize his warning to the ever-entertained, he says, “Our Ministry of Culture is Huxleyan, not Orwellian. It does everything possible to encourage us to watch continuously. But what we watch is a medium which presented information in a form that renders it simplistic, nonsubstantive, nonhistorical, and noncontextual; That is to say, information packaged as entertainment. In America, we are never denied the opportunity to amuse ourselves” (141).[3]
   13. So, are we deeper mentally than we used to be?
   14. I don’t think so.
   15. I encourage you to think deeply in two ways.
   16. 1) First, think deeply about “Special Revelation.” Special Revelation is the Bible. Get into the Bible. The Bible is God’s revealed Word to us.
   17. 2) Second, think deeply through “General Revelation.” Observe all truth. All truth is God’s truth. Study creation.
   18. “General Revelation” would be God revealed through creation.
   19. For example, the book, “The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind” shares this:
   20. When he was still in his teens, the young Jonathan Edwards wrote down an extensive description of the shape, construction, and purpose of a spider’s web. There are many true things we can say about the physical character of the web, but according to Edwards, the ultimate thing shown by the spider in its spinning is “the exuberant goodness of the Creator, who hath not only provided for all the necessities, but also for the pleasure and recreation of all sorts of creatures, even the insects.”[4]
   21. How often do we allow ourselves to think deeply about subjects?
   22. Some people tell me they do not like to read. I used to be that way. I encourage you to stretch your thinking.
   23. The ability to read is an amazing gift.
   24. Maybe you have problems reading. Then, try audiobooks. Come to Sunday School. Listen to podcasts. Get a tutor.
   25. Pursue depth mentally.
   26. Pursue depth spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
3. Pursue emotional depth.
   1. Again, these all go together.
   2. As we grow spiritually and mentally, we will be better emotionally.
   3. Are we emotionally available for our friends and family?
   4. What if our spouse wants to share their feelings with us? Are we there for her?
   5. I was raised to respect the older generation.
   6. I have now served in pastoral roles at three older congregations, two of which were as senior pastor.
   7. With respect, I do not think many in our churches are healthy emotionally.
   8. We can do better.
   9. We must do better.
   10. Just because you are older does not mean you are healthier emotionally.
   11. There is a book and a ministry called “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.” I recommend it.
   12. We are not healthy spiritually if we are glossing over our lack of emotional depth.
   13. Notice I said, “glossing over.” I am NOT saying that we have to be emotionally healthy to be spiritually healthy. The problem is when we ignore things.
   14. Are we glossing over anger?
   15. What about anxiety?
   16. What about depression?
   17. I bet your children, spouse, or close friends can point these out- as long as you let them in.
   18. But how?
   19. We must be humble.
   20. I have repeatedly said this.
   21. We must transform our schedule so that we have more quiet time.
   22. Some of us are so busy that we do not have time to think.
   23. We are so busy.
   24. We need time to reflect.
   25. We need time to listen to the Lord.
   26. We need to be active in the daily offices that I spoke about several months ago. We need to spend time journaling.
   27. We must spend time in prayer.
   28. We must have people holding us accountable whom we can ask, “Am I teachable?”
   29. We must be teachable to receive that instruction.

Pete Scazzero writes:

The term Daily Office (also called fixed-hour prayer, Divine Office, or liturgy of the hours) differs from what we label today as quiet time or devotions. When I listen carefully to most people describe their devotional life, the emphasis tends to be on “getting filled up for the day” or “interceding for the needs around me.” The root of the Daily Office is not so much a turning to God to get something but to be with Someone. The word Office comes from the Latin word opus, or “work.” For the early church, the Daily Office was always the “work of God.” Nothing was to the Creator … prayers of praise offered as a sacrifice of thanksgiving and faith to God and as sweet-smelling incense … before the throne of God.”

David practiced set times of prayer seven times a day (Psalm 119:164). Daniel prayed three times a day (Daniel 6:10). Devout Jews in Jesus’ time prayed two to three times a day. Jesus himself probably followed the Jewish custom of praying at set times during the day. After Jesus’ resurrection, his disciples continued to pray at certain hours of the day (Acts 3:1 and 10:9ff).

About AD 525, a good man named Benedict structured these prayer times around eight Daily Offices, including one in the middle of the night for monks. The Rule of St. Benedict became one of the most powerful documents in shaping Western civilization. At one point in his Rule, Benedict wrote: “On hearing the signal for an hour of the divine office, the monk will immediately set aside what he has in hand and go with utmost speed. … Indeed, nothing is to be preferred to the Work of God [that is, the Daily Office].”[5]

The daily office includes stopping, centering, silence, and Scripture.

1. This may be for 20 minutes a day, or maybe only a week at this point, but it is important.
2. Scazzero shares: At each Office I give up control and trust God to run his world without me.[6]
3. We center on God: Scripture commands us: “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:7).
4. We practice silence: Dallas Willard called silence and solitude the two most radical disciplines of the Christian life. Solitude is the practice of being absent from people and things to attend to God. Silence is the practice of quieting every inner and outer voice to attend to God. Henri Nouwen said that “without solitude it is almost impossible to live a spiritual life.”[7]

Christian, be a person of depth. Pursue spiritual, mental, and emotional depth.

Pray

¹ Norman Mailer, Advertisements for Myself (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1992), 465.

² Deborah Davis, Party of the Century: The Fabulous Story of Truman Capote and His Black and White Ball (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006), 256.

^[1] Charles R. Swindoll, Living the Proverbs: Insights for the Daily Grind (New York, NY: Worthy Books, 2012), 27–29.

[2] See an article: Is There a Future for Church Grandpas and Grandmas?

Trevin Wax  |  May 20, 2025

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/future-church-grandpas-grandmas/

[3] Desiring God article on Feb 27, 2022 by Marshall Segall:

The Blissful and Trivial Life, How Entertainment Deprives a Soul

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-blissful-and-trivial-life

[4] Noll, Mark A.. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (p. 50). (Function). Kindle Edition.

[5] Scazzero, Peter. Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: It’s Impossible to Be Spiritually Mature, While Remaining Emotionally Immature (pp. 143-146). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

[6] Ibid, 147.

[7] Ibid, 148.

Paul Witnesses in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1–9)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 27, 2025

Jesus loves Jews and Gentiles

In his autobiography, Col. Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame says that he was always a God-fearing man. In every venture he gave God a tenth of the profits. Yet he knew that if he died, God probably wouldn’t take him to heaven.

Worried, he traveled to Australia to a special church convention for the answer. He didn’t find it.

One day, Sanders was walking down a street in Louisville, Kentucky, when Rev. Waymon Rodgers of Louisville’s Evangel Tabernacle invited him to some evangelistic services. Several days later, Sanders went. At age 79, he claimed the promises of Rom. 10:9. “When I walked out of that church that night, I knew I was a different man. All my tithing and good deeds had never given me the sense of God’s presence that I knew then,” he says.

I found that to be a very interesting story. However, as I am sure most of you know, the Gospel would have never reached the United States without Paul the Apostle and his mission to the Gentiles.  You see all of Jesus’ disciples were Jewish. The early spread of the Gospel was to Jews. Acts 2 shares how the Gospel spread at Pentecost to mostly Jews. But as you read through the book of Acts, you can see how things change to spread the Gospel to Gentiles and Jews.  Then we see in Paul’s second missionary journey that he preaches to Jews and Gentiles. A little way through Paul’s second journey, we find him speaking to the Thessalonians and the Bereans.  

Two things of importance in this passage:

1. God loves all cultures: Paul speaks to the Jews and the Gentiles
2. Evangelism: Paul preaches the Gospel wherever he goes. Despite being beaten and persecuted for the Gospel, Paul still preaches the Gospel.

1. Context:
   1. Paul and Silas have been traveling from city to city preaching the gospel.
   2. At the end of Acts 16, Paul and Silas were beaten and imprisoned. Through miraculous events, they shared the Gospel with the jailer, and he and his family were saved.
   3. They now head to Thessalonica.
   4. Philippi, Amphipolis, Apollonia, and Thessalonica were all cities on the main east-west Roman highway called the “Egnatian Way.” These cities were separated from each other by about a day’s journey by foot.^[1]
2. Paul in Thessalonica:
   1. Look at Acts 17:1: Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
   2. Let me start by telling you a little about the culture of the Thessalonians.
   3. The Thessalonians had an array of cults. Zeus, Asclepius, Aphrodite, and Demeter were popular among the people. Archaeologists have discovered a sanctuary in the sacred cult area in the area of the city devoted to the Egyptian God Sarapis. This deity was worshipped as one who healed the sick, worked miracles, broke the powers of astral fate, and could speak to his followers in dreams. Many of the inscriptions at this site also point to the worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis.[2]
   4. There was a cult to Cabirus that was very pagan, being bloody and sexually perverse. In a similar way, the cult of Dionysus gave prominence to Phallic symbolism in addition to the drunken revelry that went along with the celebration of the god. These two cults certainly had a powerfully negative impact on the social ethics of the city. Converts from these cults had a long way to go in appropriating a distinctively Christian lifestyle.[3]
   5. I want to emphasize this because when we read the New Testament, we are reading through the text into a culture that we really don’t understand. It should be helpful to understand the culture. The text is God’s Word and has many applications for us; however, we can understand the text more holistically by understanding the culture in which it was written.
   6. The Thessalonians also revered the Roman rulers as divine. During the reign of Caesar Augustus, a temple was built for the ruler to honor Augustus and his successors.[4]
   7. From the letters of 1^st and 2^nd Thessalonians, it does seem evident that the Thessalonians were passionate about the Gospel and spread the Gospel around the area. Also, Thessalonica was the most populous city in Macedonia.
   8. As an aside, Acts gives us a brief overview of Paul’s time in Thessalonica. After leaving, Paul wrote two letters to the Thessalonians called 1st and 2nd. We can learn more about Paul’s time and teaching in Thessalonica from these two letters.
3. Paul shared the gospel with them.
   1. Look at verses 2-4: ² And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³ explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” ⁴ And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.
   2. The text in Acts 17:2 says that Paul “reasoned with them for three Sabbath days.” This could lead us to conclude that Paul was only in Thessalonica for a period of three weeks.
   3. Three Sabbath days may have only been how long he was welcome in the synagogues.
   4. We do know that he stayed long enough to receive a gift from the Philippians (Phi 4:16) and he spends time working (1Thess 2:9). He was probably there a couple of months.[5]
   5. Now we see Paul preach to the Jews and the Gentiles. What did he teach them?
   6. Notice how verses 2-3 share that he was explaining and proving that the Christ must suffer and rise from the dead. He was sharing that this Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.
   7. He probably told them Isaiah 52:13-53:12: this was the servant song. In this song, Isaiah, hundreds of years before Christ, wrote about how the Messiah had to die. Paul’s argument had three parts: a rhetorical form of syllogism. Usually, two parts or three with the third implied:
      1. The Christ must suffer and rise again,
      2. Jesus died on the cross and rose again,
      3. Therefore, this Jesus must be the Messiah.[6]
4. Paul considered them intelligent and spoke from a source they both understood: the Scriptures. This may be why there were converts, including Jews and prominent men and women.
5. Then we see that Jews and Gentiles receive Christ. Notice the text says, along with a number of God-fearing Greeks. These are Greek Jews. The text also says “leading women” received Christ. It is worth noting here that women of high status were present in Thessalonica.
6.  Opposition:
   1. Look at verses 5-9:
   2. ⁵ But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. ⁶ And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, ⁷ and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” ⁸ And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. ⁹ And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
   3. Then, Paul is chased out of Thessalonica. Look what happens, some Jews became jealous and stirred up a mob. Why? Caesar issued decrees (dogma) warning anyone about predicting a change in rulership. Caesar Augustus issued a decree in AD 11 explicitly forbidding the use of astrology to predict his or anyone else’s death. Tiberius reaffirms this by putting to death those who ignore it.
   4. Some cities pledged their allegiance to Caesar by offering oaths of loyalty. An example of one comes from the city of Paphlagonia in Asia Minor (dated to 3 BC):
   5. “I swear… that I will support Caesar Augustus, his children and descendants, throughout my life, in word, deed and thought… that in whatsoever concerns them I will spare neither body nor soul nor life nor children…. That whenever I see or hear of anything being said, planned or done against them I will report it.. and whomsoever they regard as enemies I will attack and pursue with arms and the sword by land and by sea…”[7]
   6. Paul teaches that Jesus is Lord, and the “Day of the Lord” suggests thoughts of a change in rulership. Given the above quote, we can see how they went against him.
   7. Paul taught that there was another Lord, and he, in an indirect way, taught that this Caesar wasn’t a Lord.
   8. Verse 6 reads that they attack the house of Jason. Who is Jason?
   9. Jason was the host for Paul and Silas.
   10. The people who wanted to persecute Paul and Silas could not find them, so they dragged Jason out of the house.
   11. Notice what is shared in verse 7: they, Paul and Silas, are acting against the decrees of Caesar.
   12. They are saying there is another king, Jesus.
   13. Jason and others posted bond and were let go.
   14. Jason may have been a convert from verses 2-3 of this chapter.
   15. One source reads: Jason may have been prosperous since he could offer hospitality to Paul and Silas and apparently host as well the house church they had begun. Once the missionaries had left Thessalonica, Jason probably was locally recognized as the leader of the church. It has generally been assumed that he and the brethren were arrested in Paul’s stead and that the security they supplied functioned as a promise to the authorities to keep Paul from returning. Yet it is quite probable that Jason was in trouble not merely by default, but in his own right. Evidence for this is that the bond he posted seems related not directly to Paul’s activities but rather to actions by the church members themselves (Jewett 1986: 117; cf. Gillman fc.). Whatever these actions were, they resulted in ongoing suffering for the Thessalonian Christians at the hands of their “countrymen” after Paul had left (1 Thess 2:14). A further argument that Jason’s bond did not relate to Paul is the latter’s remark in 1 Thess 2:18 that he had attempted to return to Thessalonica “again and again—but Satan hindered us.”^[8]

The Gospel is God’s love for Jews, Greeks, and everyone. How important is the Gospel to us? Do we share the Gospel?

George Whitefield at the age of 16 became deeply convicted of sin. He tried everything possible to erase his guilt through religious activity. He wrote, “I fasted for 36 hours twice a week. I prayed formal prayers several times a day and almost starved myself to death during Lent, but only felt more miserable. Then by God’s grace I met Charles Wesley who put a book in my hand which showed me from the Scriptures that I must be “born again” or be eternally lost.”

Finally, by the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart, Whitefield came to understand Jesus’ words in John 3. He believed and was gloriously saved. After he became a preacher, he spoke at least a thousand times on the subject, “Ye must be born again.” He fervently desired that all who heard him might experience the transforming power of God’s grace.

—Our Daily Bread

Prayer

^[1] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2120.

[2] Arnold, Clinton E.  Acts.  Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. P. 162.

[3] Arnold, Clinton E.  Acts.  Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. P. 162.

[4] Arnold, Clinton E.  Acts.  Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. P. 162.

[5] Arnold, Clinton E.  Acts.  Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. P. 163

[6] Witherington III, Ben.  The Acts of the Apostles : A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Eerdmans, 1997.  ISBN 0802845010. P. 505.

[7] Arnold, Clinton E.  Acts.  Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. P. 165.

1. forthcoming (publication)

^[8] Florence Morgan Gillman, “Jason (Person),” in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 649.

Paul Witnesses in Philippi (Acts 16:11–40)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 20, 2025

Tim Keller shares:

There is an ancient prayer Jewish men prayed in the morning. It’s a very controversial prayer. You can go on the websites and see all the different debates about it. I’m not here to defend it or criticize it either, but we do know Paul would have used it. It’s a very famous prayer Jewish men often prayed first thing in the morning.

“Oh Lord God, I thank thee that you did not make me …” What? “… a woman, a slave, or a Gentile,” which means, here is Paul who, as a Pharisee, would have gotten up for days and days and years and years every morning, saying, “Oh Lord, I’m so grateful I’m not like those women. I’m not like those slaves. I’m not like those Gentiles.” The first three conversions of his new church in Philippi are a woman, a slave, and a Gentile. Now they’re his family. What changed Paul? What power could bring people like that together?^[1]

This passage begins and ends with a prominent woman. The bulk of this passage is about the gospel going to women.

Additionally, we see people from different cultural backgrounds saved.

My Theme:

The Gospel is for everyone.

The conversions at Philippi. The gospel team wins two key people to Jesus and frees one person from a demon.^[2]

[My outline, and only the outline, is adapted from: The Outline Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), H. L. Willmington.]

1. A businesswoman is saved. (Acts 16:11-15).
   1. Context, let’s start with the context.
   2. In the previous few verses, Timothy joined Paul’s team, and then Paul received a vision telling him to come to Macedonia.
   3. Macedonia was a vast region that encompassed numerous cities, including Philippi.
   4. Acts 16:11–15 (ESV)
   5. ¹¹ So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, ¹² and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. ¹³ And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. ¹⁴ One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. ¹⁵ And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
   6. This passage begins with a travel log.
   7. Notice in verse 11, Luke writes, “We made a direct voyage…”
   8. Notice Paul is with Silas now.
   9. Luke is now with the Apostle Paul. The “we” section began in verse 10.
   10. The total distance from Troas to Neapolis was some 156 miles, and while this trip took only two days, the return trip mentioned in 20:5 took five.^[3]
   11. In verse 11 we see the travel log.
   12. It would be easy to gloss over these, but they demonstrate the authenticity of the Book of Acts.
   13. Verse 12 gives us some interesting details about Philippi.
   14. Philippi is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony.
   15. Luke writes that they remained there some days.
   16. In verses 13-14, they meet this businesswoman. They go down and they talk with women by the river. They are talking about the gospel.
   17. She is Lydia, a merchant of expensive purple cloth.
   18. By the way, Keller shares: [The gospel is for everyone] Lydia was from Thyatira. She was probably Middle Eastern. To our eyes, she would have looked Middle Eastern or Indian. The slave girl could have been anybody, because she was a slave. She could have been from anywhere. The jailer was a Roman. [we will get to him in a moment] He would have been European.^[4]
   19. Additionally, they are sharing the gospel with women.
   20. Notice Luke tells us that she was a worshipper of God.
   21. The Lord opened her heart and notice it says that she paid attention.
   22. Salvation always comes from the conviction of the Holy Spirit (Jonah 2:9; John 6:44, 16:8).
   23. The proof (16:15): Lydia is baptized as a testimony of her newfound faith.^[5]
   24. I like what Tim Keller shares: You know, the way C.S. Lewis puts it in his famous place in Reflections on the Psalms is when you hear a piece of music or you see a beautiful sight, you feel like you have to grab somebody else and praise it with them. You grab your friend, and you say, “Look at this. Isn’t this great?” Why are you praising it? Because it’s beautiful. The more you praise it, the more you enjoy it. Isn’t that right? The more you praise it, the more you enjoy it.
   25. You say, “Look at this. Isn’t this great? Look at the lines. Look at the colors. Look at this and that.” The more you praise it, the more you’re enjoying it, the more the other person is enjoying it. Right? Why are you praising it? Does it need it? It doesn’t. It’s beautiful. It’s an end in itself. Lydia had a God who was useful, but that day, she received a God who was beautiful. Before that, she was not bearing false witness, not committing adultery, honoring her father and mother, observing the Sabbath.^[6]
   26. Notice that her family is also baptized. Notice also her hospitality. She invited them to stay with her.
   27. This does not mean that they were saved because she was saved. I believe that in Middle Eastern culture, the family unit holds more significance. This may be a testament to Lydia’s spiritual leadership.
   28. Tim Keller shares:
   29. What we have in the book of Acts are more case studies of conversion than you really have anywhere else in the Bible.[7]
2. A slave girl is delivered from a demon (Acts 16:16-21).
   1. Acts 16:16–18 (ESV)
   2. ¹⁶ As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” ¹⁸ And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
   3. The demon in this girl (16:16-17): Notice that they are going to a place of prayer, and they are meeting this demonized slave girl.
   4. She brought her owners great gain by fortune-telling.
   5. Do demons know the future?
   6. No, they do not.
   7. However, the demons may be able to use deductive reasoning and figure things out better than we can.
   8. The message it proclaims through her (16:17): The demon pretends to agree with the message preached by Paul.
   9. The deliverance of this girl (16:18–23)
   10. The girl is set free (16:18): Paul commands the demon to leave her.
3. The apostles are set upon (16:19–23): Paul and Silas are arrested, beaten, and imprisoned.^[8]
   1. Acts 16:19-23: ¹⁹ But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. ²⁰ And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. ²¹ They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” ²² The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. ²³ And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. ²⁴ Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
   2. It was all about money.
   3. Tony Evans writes:
   4. On a hot summer day, here in Dallas, Texas, what good does a flashlight do? At high noon when the sun is at its peak, it is shining bright. To turn on a flashlight when you have sunlight is to depend on the inferior rather than the superior.
   5. To go to a palm reader when you’ve got access to the heavenly Father is to go to the inferior rather than the superior. To call the psychic network, or to have a tarot card reading, is to turn on a flashlight when you’re under the sunlight. It is to pay money for something you can have for free.^650,[9]
   6. Paul and Silas are dragged before the rulers in the marketplace. They are accused, stripped, and beaten.
   7. Sproul shares: We do not know to what degree they were stripped. They may have been stripped completely naked; such was part of prisoners’ punishment in the ancient world in order to impose utter humiliation. This was also often done in combat. When one force defeated another and took prisoners, the victors would march the prisoners naked to humiliate them. Perhaps Paul and Silas were stripped only to the waist. The main desire here was to bare skin for a beating, which was administered with sticks or rods, like caning. Here, no limit was set for how many blows could be applied, such as there was in Jewish law, so we have no idea how many stripes were inflicted upon Paul and Silas. In any case, they were badly beaten.^[10]
   8. They are in stocks.
   9. Luke is making it clear that they are securely in prison.
4. A prison guard is saved.
   1. Acts 16:25–34 (ESV)
   2. ²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, ²⁶ and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. ²⁷ When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸ But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” ²⁹ And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. ³⁰ Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” ³¹ And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” ³² And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. ³³ And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. ³⁴ Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
   3. Do we notice this? It is about midnight, they have been beaten and yet they are singing hymns.
   4. They likely can hardly move, but they are singing hymns.
   5. What do we do when we are in pain or anxious?
   6. I believe there is an indirect application here. It is indirect, but can we learn from the example of Paul and Silas? Go to the Lord.
   7. Sing to the Lord (Col. 3:16-17).
   8. Notice that other prisoners are listening to them.
   9. God sends an earthquake that frees all the inmates. Notice that all of the prisoners are freed.
   10. Believing the prisoners have escaped, the guard prepares to kill himself.
   11. Being assured by Paul that no one has left the prison, the guard asks how to be saved!
   12. Responding to Paul’s answer, the jailer and his family are saved and baptized.
   13. Again, we see a whole family saved.
   14. Rydelnic shares:
   15. The influence of the jailer led to the family to want to be saved. In some cultures, people believe based on the tribal leader, a core leader, or a family leader. In the US, it is not usually that way. That is why in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul says the unbelieving spouse is sanctified by the believing spouse. God has no grandchildren: just because you are born in a bakery does not make you a bagel. So, you believe that “if your family believes, your household will be saved.” There is no such thing as household salvation. Sometimes a tribe will follow a tribal chief, but everyone has to make their own decision. [11]
   16. His celebration (16:34): With great joy the new convert washes the wounds of the disciples and feeds them.^[12]
5. The aftermath (Acts 16:35-40).
   1. Acts 16:35–40 (ESV)
   2. ³⁵ But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” ³⁶ And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” ³⁷ But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” ³⁸ The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. ³⁹ So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. ⁴⁰ So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
   3. The authorities’ fear (16:35–39): Upon learning that the men they have beaten and imprisoned are Roman citizens, the city officials apologize to Paul and Silas and beg them to leave the city.
   4. Notice that this is a time in which Paul and Silas appeal to their citizenship.
   5. The Julian law forbade binding or beating Roman citizens without trial. Falsely claiming citizenship was a capital offense.^[13]
   6. Cicero and Quintilian tell of a Roman citizen who cried out that he was a citizen during a scourging, thereby humiliating his oppressors, who had not properly recognized his high status. By waiting until after the beating (cf. 22:29) to inform the authorities that they were citizens, the missionaries had placed the magistrates themselves in an awkward legal position: now the magistrates, not the missionaries, are forced to negotiate. Reports of their deed could even disqualify them from office and (in theory, at least) deprive Philippi of its status as a Roman colony. This strategy would help secure the future safety of the fledgling Christian community.^[14]
   7. The apostles’ freedom (16:40): Paul and Silas return to the home of Lydia to meet with other believers before leaving town.^[15]

We have examined a passage in which we see the gospel spreading to various cultures. They share the gospel with women in Philippi. Lydia is saved. They deliver a servant girl from a demon. They share the gospel with a Philippian jailer.

We see examples of the gospel crossing cultural barriers.

Acts 1:8 (ESV)

⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

This is what is happening, the gospel is spreading out.

Meagan and I were raised in Dayton. However, our first pastoral position was in Cincinnati. We quickly learned that Cincinnati has a strong German heritage. I have my Flying Pig marathon T-shirt here. Why is it called “Flying Pig”? That is because, with their German heritage, came a tradition of hog farming. They have some food called Goette, look it up. It is a German-American breakfast sausage. Eventually, our family made it to Youngstown. Here we have people with an Italian heritage. Not just that. We have met people from many different cultural backgrounds. I think it is because people migrated here for work at the steel mills. So, we can have people in one church from many different cultural backgrounds. How awesome is that?

The gospel is for everyone.

Be encouraged by that.

Tim Keller shares:

Christianity is the only religion, friends (listen carefully), that has never been dominated by one part of the world. Islam’s demographic and geographic center has always been the Middle East and Arabia. Hinduism’s demographic and geographic center has always been India. Confucianism … China. Buddhism … Asia. Christianity started as a Middle Eastern religion. That was its center. Jerusalem … the Jews.

Then it migrated, and its demographic and geographic center was the Mediterranean Hellenistic world. Then it migrated to Northern Europe as the center of it. Then North America. Now as we know, I hope, there are more African Christians, there are more Latin American and Asian Christians, Korean and Chinese Christians, for example, then there are in all of Western Europe and North America put together, even if you count the people who just say they’re Christians, even the ones who are just nominal Christians. Why?

Because Christianity is one religion there is no type. There is no culture it’s native to. There is no type of person. There is no personality. It’s not for the rich. It’s not for the poor. It’s not for men. It’s not for women. It’s not for wimps. It’s not for the ambitious. It’s not for the moral types. It’s not for the immoral types. Because it’s not based on any one human factor, it mustn’t be based on a human factor.^[16]

The gospel is about Jesus saving us by grace!

Worship King Jesus!

Prayer

^[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[2] H. L. Willmington, The Outline Bible (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1999), Ac 16:11–34.

^[3] Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998).

^[4] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[5] Ibid., Ac 16:11–15.

^[6] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[7] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[8] Ibid., Ac 16:16–23.

^[9] Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 215.

^[10] R. C. Sproul, Acts, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 295.

[11] Open Line on Moody Radio: 07.16.2022

^[12] Ibid., Ac 16:24–34.

^[13] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ac 16:37.

^[14] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ac 16:38.

^[15] Ibid., Ac 16:35–40.

^[16] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

Spread the Word and follow the Holy Spirit (Acts 16:1-10).

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 13, 2025

One of my favorite movies is called, The Patriot. In that movie, Mel Gibson plays Benjamin Martin, a leader during the Revolutionary War. He leads the militia. There is a scene in which he is recruiting for the militia. He walks into a pub, and a companion says, “I think we are in the wrong place.” Martin says, “God save King George.” When they hear that many people throw knives at him. Benjamin Martin knew where to go to recruit.  Likewise, in today’s passage, the Apostle Paul recruits Timothy.

One of today’s challenges is to target your audience effectively. The challenge is to eliminate barriers. Just like Mel Gibson recognized that if he wanted to recruit militia to fight against the British, he should go to the pub, so we must recognize where and how we are to minister.

My theme today: Spread the Word and follow the Holy Spirit.

1. Let’s talk about Timothy.
   1. Read with me:
   2. Acts 16:1–5 (ESV)
   3. Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. ² He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. ³ Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. ⁴ As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. ⁵ So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
   4. We know that Paul was on his second missionary journey, and he is traveling backwards through the cities.
   5. He sees a “disciple” there named Timothy.
   6. Notice the modifiers. Timothy was a “disciple.”
   7. This means he was a follower of Jesus. He was an apprentice.
   8. He was the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer.
   9. Paul chooses Timothy. We see this in verse 3. Something stood out to Paul that made him want to take Timothy along.
   10. Timothy is likely around eighteen years old. It is possible and probable that Paul met Timothy during his first missionary journey, and he would have been saved at that time.
   11. Do you know what I think stood out to Paul about Timothy? Do you know what ought to stand out to us? Will this stand out to our community as well?
   12. Verse 2 says that the believers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.
   13. That corresponds with 1 Timothy 3:7, which is a requirement for a church elder. A requirement for a church elder is that they have a good reputation in the community.
   14. I was reading an article that talked about signs of churches that are struggling, and one sign is that struggling churches do not have enough transformation(s). At some point, Timothy had a transformation. But one sign of an unhealthy church is that they do not have enough testimonies of people passing from death to life. When we see these testimonies, people want something like that.
   15. I was speaking with another pastor, a pastor who had planted a church, and I asked him how the church had grown. He said that at one point, they led a man to Christ, and that man would deal drugs to many people in the area, and when everyone in the community saw the transformation in him, they, one by one, became Christians as well. It was not his amazing faith; it was just the amazing transformation.
   16. By the way, 2 Timothy 3:14 says that from childhood, Timothy had been familiar with the sacred writings. Timothy was raised according to Jewish ways. But not Christian ways.
   17. Timothy had a transformation, and MORE THAN THAT— now, verse 2 says that the believers in Lystra and Iconium speak well of him. Praise God!
   18. Now what about Paul and Timothy: Paul considered him a “son” (cf. 1 Cor 4:17; 1 Tim 1:2). Not only did he address two letters to him, but he also listed him as cosender in six others (2 Cor 1:1; Phil 1:1; Col 1:1; 1 Thess 1:1; 2 Thess 1:1; Phlm 1). He considered him his “fellow worker” (Rom 16:21; cf. 1 Cor 16:10) and, indeed, as much more—“as a son with his father” in the work of the gospel (Phil 2:22).
   19. Now, let’s get back to audience analysis. Remember what I shared from the movie The Patriot. If you are going to go fight the British, where are you going to recruit your militia? Likewise, is it important to analyze your audience in evangelism?
   20. In verse 3, it says Paul circumcised Timothy, but why? We just got done talking about a chapter and this big church council stated that it was not necessary. This was necessary for the non-Christians, not for the Christians. Also, Timothy’s mother and his grandmother were Jewish. This made him, in certain customary ways, Jewish. So, to the Jews, he was Jewish. So, for Paul, he wanted to remove barriers; he wanted to be able to take Timothy into the synagogue and have him preach there alongside non-Christian Jews. This was necessary.
   21. After this, Paul went from city to city spreading the news about the Jerusalem Council. Paul was obedient to the council. Then, in verse 5, we see one of Luke’s common summary statements: So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.
2. Now, we see Paul obey the Holy Spirit’s lead.
   1. In verses 6-8, the Spirit tells Paul and his companions not to go north or south.
   2. Acts 16:6–8 (ESV)
   3. ⁶ And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. ⁷ And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. ⁸ So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.
   4. They pass through the Phrygia and Galatia area. Remember that Paul later wrote a letter to the Galatians.
   5. Interesting that we can do studies and we can know that Paul likely took a common Roman Road called the Via Sebaste, which was a Roman military road.
   6. But the next part is most interesting. They were forbidden or kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the Word in Asia. Now, this is not the same as modern Asia. This would be more like modern Turkey.
   7. What do you do when you are kept or forbidden from doing something? The Apostle Paul was a driven personality. He got things done. Nothing stood in his way, but right here, we see that God is His master and He obeys.
   8. In today’s day, we have action movies where the main characters are celebrated for disobeying commands. I think of Jack Bauer in the hit show. In just about every season, he is on the run, yet he is saving the country. Our culture celebrates rebellion. Not in this case.
   9. The Apostle Paul is submissive to the Holy Spirit.
   10. In verse 7, they were trying to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them.
   11. Paul obeys the Holy Spirit’s lead.
   12. The celebrated Browns Coach, Paul Brown, was a football genius. He was also in charge, no one crossed him. One day, he was sending the player out with the play, and the quarterback, Otto Graham, shook his head “No.” There was a look of terror on the player’s face. That young player did not want to go back and tell Paul Brown “No.” In reality, Otto Graham was just playing a trick; Otto Graham was not a rebel.
   13. Neither was the Apostle Paul, he recognized that Jesus was the Lord. Do we? Do we understand that He is in charge? We have strayed from a society in which we recognize what it means to serve a sovereign King. We think that our voice always matters. Certainly, God’s Word says that He wants and even desires to hear from us, but He is the Lord. He has no room for rebels in His Kingdom. He is the Lord.
   14. Some have asked me, “Why should I serve Jesus?” Why should you follow Jesus’s “Yes” and Jesus’s “No”? You are bought with a price. Jesus has redeemed you and set you free. He died in your place and saved you. Jesus loves you and loves us all (John 3:16; Romans 3:21-31). Jesus has called you to take part in what He is doing. To some extent, He gives you a choice, but He is the Lord. Listen, your sovereign Lord has called you on a mission. How do you know? You are here. If you are a Christian, you are called to be a follower of Christ, and you are called to be a part of His army, a part of His mission. He is your Lord. He is Your King. Notice that the Apostle Paul did not waver; he did not rebel.
   15. Paul’s obedience in traveling through these cities in verse 6 meant something like a 400-mile difference in journey? All by foot!
3. In verses 9-10, Paul is told by the Spirit to go west. Paul continues to obey.
   1. Acts 16:9–10 (ESV)
   2. ⁹ And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰ And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
   3. A vision appears to Paul in the night.
   4. Paul is told to come to Macedonia.
   5. Why? They are to go down there to help them.
   6. In verse 10, they immediately decide to go down and preach the Gospel to them.
   7. Notice that Paul received two “no’s” and then a “yes.” Notice that Paul was obedient.
4. Are we seeking the Holy Spirit? Are we in a place to hear from God?

1. 1. God speaks through His Word, the Bible. Are we in the Bible? The Holy Spirit will speak to us through the Bible.
   2. God speaks through the church, especially smaller groups and prayer partners. Are we connected?
   3. God speaks through our reason. Are we learning?
   4. All the other avenues must be confirmed by God’s Word.

Close:

When Mercedes and Abigail were younger, they would get scared and come to our room at night. Do you think we told them to go back to bed alone? It was rare if we ever did that. When Mercedes was three years old, I woke up and Mercedes said, “It is scary in my room, there is thunder and lightning, and she proceeded to climb into our bed.” There was no questioning. But you know what, she was three years old.

God wants a relationship with us in which we can hear His “no” and His “yes.” Further, God wants a relationship with us in which we can honestly cry out to Him saying, “I am scared, there is thunder and lightning.” We can do that if we are a child of God.

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

How to Live as Christians In a World that Is Not Our Home (1 Peter 2:11-17)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 6, 2025

Two days ago, we celebrated another American Independence Day. As you know, I love history. I am enraptured when I study history. I have read extensively about American history. I have studied it at the college level, and I have also read numerous books on American history. In the past, I have preached about God’s sovereignty in American history. I believe in God’s sovereignty in all the nations. I can substantiate that from the Bible. I believe God worked through our founding fathers, though I believe our founding fathers were not perfect. I believe that our constitution is an amazing work. I also believe we should never have been able to defeat the British during the Revolutionary War. Let’s think about Washington:

Washington should not have survived. He had incidence when he was 23 years old that should have killed him and then Medved writes: Washington’s successful defiance of danger became a notable feature of his leadership during his eight years of service in the Revolutionary War. The general in chief frequently and fearlessly exposed himself to enemy fire, rallying his troops on many occasions by his own incomparable example. At the Battle of Princeton in January 1777, he rode at the head of his troops on a huge white horse as they marched directly on a well-formed British line. When the Americans came within range, both sides fired, and smoke from their rifles temporarily obscured Washington, who rode forward halfway between them. His aide, Richard Fitzgerald, covered his face with his hat in order to avoid watching the inevitable death of his beloved commander. But as the air cleared and he lowered his hat, he saw men on both sides who were dead and dying while Washington, unscathed, rose in his stirrups and urged his men forward against the shattered British line. “It’s a fine fox chase, my boys!” he shouted. A year and half later, in June 1778, the Marquis de Lafayette, the aristocratic Frenchman who became an esteemed general in the Continental Army, recalled the great man at the Battle of Monmouth, where “General Washington seemed to arrest fortune with one glance….His presence stopped the retreat….His graceful bearing on horseback, his calm and deportment which still retained a trace of displeasure…were all calculated to inspire the highest degree of enthusiasm….I thought then as now that I had never beheld so superb a man.”

On September 8, 1779, Washington was spared because a marksman would not shoot someone in the back.[1]

I am sure you have heard the stories that Washington shook bullets out of his jacket. He had horses shot out from under him. Three years ago, I listened to an extensive 1000+ page biography of Washington, and I think he was God’s man for the time. That is God’s purposeful sovereignty.

Chernow writes: In the end, he [Washington] had managed to foil the best professional generals that a chastened Great Britain could throw at him. As Benjamin Franklin told an English friend after the war, “An American planter was chosen by us to command our troops and continued during the whole war. This man sent home to you, one after another, five of your best generals, baffled, their heads bare of laurels, disgraced even in the opinion of their employers.”[2]

Our founders were not all Christians, though some were, and all held to Judeo-Christian values. Even Jefferson, a deist, believed the Bible should be taught in schools.

That being said, we are not God’s chosen people, and America is not a Christian nation. We were clearly founded on Judeo-Christian values, but we are not a Christian nation. I have preached on that subject before.

So, how shall we live?

My theme:

Peter exhorts us to do good, and by doing so, we silence accusers.

Let’s look at 1 Peter 2:11-17

1. Context:
   1. Peter is writing this short epistle to primarily Gentile believers in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, western Asia Minor and Bithynia.^[3]
   2. He is writing this between AD 60 and 64.
   3. Peter gives God’s encouragement to those suffering persecution for their allegiance to Jesus to live exemplary lives within their culture.^[4]
   4. The NIV SB calls 1 Peter 2:11-4:19: Winsome Witness in Society (2:11–4:19)^[5]
   5. We will pick up in this section.
2. The Christian life as a witness (1 Peter 2:11-12)
   1. Before I really get into this section, it is important to note that they were going through real persecution. We are not.
   2. The connection between us and this passage is that we are also aliens and exiles, just as they were. This world is not our home.
   3. 1 Peter 2:11–12 (ESV)
   4. ¹¹ Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. ¹² Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
   5. Peter calls them sojourners and exiles.
   6. Peter exhorts them to abstain from the passions of the flesh.
   7. Peter urges them.
   8. Bodily desires are not wrong in and of themselves.
   9. Sproul shares:
   10. The behavior of fallen people should never become the standard of right and wrong. A big problem in the church today is that even after people are converted to Christ, they still take their marching orders from what is acceptable and expected in the culture. We must remember that we do not belong to the culture. As Paul wrote, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). The way to get a new mind is not by paying attention to Gallup polls but by paying attention to the mind of Christ, so that we begin to think like Jesus. No matter what everyone else does or approves, if Jesus does not approve, then we cannot. We need to remember who we are—citizens of heaven—and our lives are supposed to demonstrate that as we take our cue not from this world but from heaven itself.
   11. Peter is referring to immoral desires.
   12. Fleshly lusts are personified as if they were an army of rebels or guerrillas who incessantly search out and try to destroy the Christian’s joy, peace and usefulness (cf. 4:2, 3).^[6]
   13. When we are giving in to these fleshly desires, they war against our souls.
   14. They threaten to shipwreck our faith (1 Tim. 1:19).
   15. Verse 12:
   16. Now, he addresses their conduct.
   17. I like how the ESV SB reads: Peter refers to unbelievers as Gentiles, which is in keeping with his understanding of believers being a new Israel.^[7]
   18. The rest of the verse is about their witness. They speak against them as evildoers… but there is no credibility.
   19. This came to be true.
   20. Christians were a witness because of how we were such good citizens.
   21. Tom Holland writes:
   22. [Quoting Emperor Julian] ‘How apparent to everyone it is, and how shameful, that our own people lack support from us, when no Jew ever has to beg, and the impious Galileans support not only their own poor, but ours as well.’ Julian could not but be painfully aware of this. The roots of Christian charity ran deep. The apostles, obedient to Jewish tradition as well as to the teachings of their master, had laid it as a solemn charge upon new churches always ‘to remember the poor’. Generation after generation, Christians had held true to this injunction. Every week, in churches across the Roman world, collections for orphans and widows, for the imprisoned, and the shipwrecked, and the sick had been raised. Over time, as congregations swelled, and ever more of the wealthy were brought to baptism, the funds available for poor relief had grown as well. Entire systems of social security had begun to emerge.[8]
   23. We are witnesses based on our concerns and care for others.
   24. Peter writes that they see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
   25. That could be the day that they are saved, or their testimony at judgment day.
3. Doing good is a witness (1 Peter 2:13-17)
   1. 1 Peter 2:13–17 (ESV)
   2. ¹³ Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, ¹⁴ or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. ¹⁵ For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. ¹⁶ Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. ¹⁷ Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
   3. Peter writes “be subject” or “submit.”
   4. They are to submit “for the Lord’s sake.”
   5. The point is that they are first submitting to the Lord.
   6. They are first honoring the Lord.
   7. Then, we must ask, does this also apply to us?
   8. This passage was first addressed to the people to whom Peter was writing.
   9. They were dealing with a really corrupt emperor.
   10. Peter would later be crucified upside down after watching his wife be crucified.
   11. Caesar Nero was persecuting Christians in Rome. He set fire to Rome to burn the slums.
   12. The wind shifted, and it burned other parts of Rome. Nero wanted someone to blame, so he blamed Christians.
   13. Peter is writing to them.
   14. However, these instructions also apply to us.
   15. They are not specific to them. They are inspired by God and written to us as well.
   16. Peter writes to “be subject to every human institution.”
   17. He then gets specific.
   18. Be subject to the emperor. The emperor is supreme. In other words, he is the highest of human institutions. Notice, these are “human” institutions.
   19. Be subject to the governors.
   20. The governors are sent by “him.” That is, the governors are sent by the emperor to affirm those doing good and punish those who do not do good.
   21. Verse 15 begins with “this is the will of God.”
   22. This is really important.
   23. By doing good, you put to silence these people.
   24. The ignorant and foolish people are those making accusations in verse 12.
   25. When we do good, they do not have as much to criticize. Or their accusations fall flat.
   26. Verse 16: We are free, live as free people.
   27. This could mean that we are free in Christ, and that would be true.
   28. We serve Christ.
   29. When we submit to human authorities, we do that only to serve Christ ultimately.
   30. We are free, but not to cover up evil, but as servants of Christ.
   31. Verse 17 is composed of rapid-fire commands-
   32. Honor everyone. We are to honor everyone as created in the image of God.
   33. Love the brotherhood. This applies to sisters as well.
   34. Fear God. This is most important.

James 4:4 teaches that there is a dichotomy between Christ and culture.

How are we to live?

We must be the best citizens. By doing so, we change the world.

Do we realize that is what happened in the early church? Christians were such great citizens that the gospel spread. Christians took care of people. When others ran away from the plagues, Christians ran into Rome to care for the sick.

In this passage Peter is saying that as we are good citizens, we are witnesses. This is how Christians live.

By the way, when there is a conflict between two authorities, always obey the highest authority, that is obey God (Acts 4:19).

Prayer.

[1] Medved, Michael. The American Miracle (pp. 82- 83). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[2] Chernow, Ron. Washington (p. 460). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

^[3] Kenneth L. Barker, ed., NIV Study Bible, Fully Revised Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020), 2187.

^[4] Kenneth L. Barker, ed., NIV Study Bible, Fully Revised Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020), 2187.

^[5] Kenneth L. Barker, ed., NIV Study Bible, Fully Revised Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020), 2190.

^[6] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), 1 Pe 2:11.

^[7] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2408.

[8] Holland, Tom. Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World (p. 139). (Function). Kindle Edition.

Paul and Barnabas Differ Over Mark (Acts 15:36–41)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for an at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH Sunday, June 29, 2025

Just think: Do not raise your hand:

Have you ever hurt someone with your words?

Have you ever been in tears because of gossip or rumors?

Have you ever been angered because of something wrongfully said about you?

Have you wrongfully said something about someone else?

Have you spread the gossip or the rumor?

Have you been unloving?

Have others been unloving to you? I know this is broad.

The church is a place for sinners. The church is a place for people who do wrong things, and I am one of them. However, the church is also a place where, once we commit to Christ, we commit to growing and changing, not deteriorating, but improving.

Ten years ago, I was with my three-year-old, Mercedes, who wanted to build a sandcastle with gravel on the driveway. She did not know that little bit of gravel on the driveway would not build a sandcastle. She did not know how much better the sand on the beach would be. Likewise, we come to know Jesus, and we are sinners; we are sinners for our whole lives. However, as we grow in Christ, we grow out of certain sins. This means that we realize that life is different. Before we were playing, we were trying to build sandcastles with gravel on a driveway, but Jesus wants us to grow into Christ followers who are not wrestling daily with the same old issues.

Jesus wants us to have a renewed perspective. Let me make that example make some sense… Is gravel very malleable?

I have a bucket of gravel right here. Let me pour some out. Do you think it is malleable? No, we cannot build a sandcastle with this, and God can do anything, but sometimes we are not even like gravel; we are like rocks, and God needs to make us like sand so that He can work within us.

Now, I have sand, let me pour some out into another bucket. Is this malleable? Is it? Can you work with it? Can God work with it? Can a child work with it?

We need our relationships to be like sand, not like gravel or rock.

Then we will still offend people and still sin, but hopefully not the same old stuff and not as much. Hopefully, then we make things right. So, let’s talk about that.

Let’s talk about that now. Let’s look at a passage in which the Apostle Paul had a difference of opinion with Barnabas. They part ways, but I want to make the case that though they part ways, they do so agreeably. I want to discuss biblical restoration.

Read Acts 15:36-41 with me:

Acts 15:36–41 (ESV)

³⁶ And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” ³⁷ Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. ³⁸ But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. ³⁹ And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, ⁴⁰ but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. ⁴¹ And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

1. Context
   1. What is our context?
   2. In the previous section, we talked about the Council of Jerusalem.
   3. The leaders of the church came together to discuss what Gentiles must do when they come to faith in Christ.
   4. James, Jesus’s half-brother, made the ruling.
   5. They sent out a group, which included Paul and Barnabas, to share a letter from the leadership.
2. Notice that Paul and Barnabas have a disagreement.
   1. This disagreement is in verse 37. Barnabas was an encourager; he wanted to give John Mark a second chance. Now, what happened with John Mark? In Acts 13:13, Paul and Barnabas were on their first missionary journey, and John Mark went home to Jerusalem. There may have been several reasons for this: NIV text note of Acts 13:13: Homesickness to get back to Jerusalem, an illness of Paul necessitating a change in plans and a trip to Galatia, and a change in leadership from Barnabas to Paul have all been suggested as reasons for John Mark’s return. Paul’s dissatisfaction with his departure is noted later (15:37–39).^[1]
   2. Either way, now Barnabas is saying, “Let’s give him a second chance.” Paul says, “No way.”
   3. Verse 39 says that they had a “Sharp” disagreement.”
   4. Have we ever had a “Sharp” disagreement? What do we do? How do we handle it?
   5. I have listened to and read lots of counseling books and documents, and it is recommended that people need timeouts, but they are hard to take.
   6. I think Paul, the Apostle, needed a timeout.
   7. Paul is a “Driven” personality. “Fight or flight,” Paul fights.
   8. They had a sharp disagreement. Paul and Barnabas were partners, and sometimes we like to take this passage and say even the best of Christians have massive arguments. I read one source that suggested we sometimes take this passage too far. We take it and make it look like they had a “knock-down, drag-out fight.” We don’t know that. We know they disagreed; we know they disagreed strongly and sharply, and we know they needed a timeout. However, we also know that it appears there were no hurt feelings. Look at these verses:
   9. 2 Timothy 4:11 (ESV) ¹¹ Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry.
   10. 1 Cor. 9:6: Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
   11. So, it does appear that Paul and John Mark were okay later. It appears that Barnabas and Paul eventually were okay with each other.
   12. What else happens in this passage? Sometimes we are stuck making sandcastles in a driveway with a little bit of gravel. Step back.
   13. In verses 39-41, two missionary journeys happened instead of one. Barnabas took John Mark, and Paul took Silas. God spread the Great Commission more this way. Isn’t that awesome?
   14. Secondly, Paul chose Silas, and Silas was a Roman citizen, and we will hear more about that in Acts 16:37.

We do not know how Paul and Barnabas reconciled. We are not sure they needed to be reconciled.

So, have you been offended? Have you offended someone else? Perhaps it’s time to make things right. Maybe it is time to apologize. Ask for forgiveness. Yes, we are all sinners. We are all sinners; we are all making sandcastles on a driveway, not on a beach. However, as we grow in Christ, God wants us to be more like Him and less like the world, which means that God wants us to be more loving. God wants us to be reconciled. God wants us to step back and see the beauty of the beach. God needs us to be sand, not rock. God needs us to be malleable.

Do you know Jesus?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

^[1] Kenneth L. Barker, ed., NIV Study Bible, Fully Revised Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020), 1923.

The Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:1–35)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, June 15, 2025

Junior Church

The truth matters.

We must be informed:

Bubba goes to the revival and listens to the preacher. After a while, the preacher asks anyone with needs to come forward and be prayed over.

Bubba says, “I don’t know preacher, it’s not until next Wednesday.”

C.S. Lewis, some years ago, wrote not a very well known article called “Man or Rabbit.” In it, he was dealing with this. He says some people will say, “All I’m interested in is leading a good life. I’m going to choose beliefs not because I think they’re true but because I find them helpful.” See, now that’s very typical. What people say is, “I don’t know whether something is true or not. I want to know what works.”

“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”^[1]

My theme;

The Jerusalem Council meets and frees the church for evangelism. In doing so, they affirm that the Gospel is for everyone (verse 14), which means they decide not to make it difficult for non-Jews to become Christians (verse 19).

A simple application: We must not make it difficult for a nonbeliever to become a Christian.

Okay, now let’s talk about this. Let’s break it down.

1. First, what is the Jerusalem Council?
   1. This was an official meeting of the church. They had to decide on a doctrinal position. We will get into that. We are going to skim over this passage.
   2. You know how, when you fly in an airplane, you see things, but it is not in great detail? That is what we are going to do with this passage. I am going to pick out some mountains, but for the most part we are going to give you the theme and some applications. What was the theme?
   3. The Jerusalem Council reaffirmed that the Gospel is for everyone. (verse 14). That is the simple theme. They decided not to have barriers, or great barriers, in front of Jewish people who become believers.  
2. The problem erupts in Verses 1-5:
   1. Acts 15:1–5 (ESV) But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” ² And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. ³ So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. ⁴ When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. ⁵ But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”
   2. Tim Keller shares:
   3. You have to remember how successful Paul is. Paul has taken off. He is in the middle of an incredibly successful career. In fact, it’s ridiculous to realize how successful he was. Do you know how successful he was? I mean, after Jesus Christ, he was the main architect of the greatest, most influential, and largest human movement in the history of the world.
   4. Here’s a way of measuring career success for you. If 2,000 years from now millions of people every single week are meeting to study your writings, and they even study every word of the writings … Two thousand years from now, millions of people are studying your writings. I think you could call yourself a success then. That’s what Paul is!
   5. He had one of the most successful careers in history, and yet here he is in the career. He is doing his job. Why didn’t he say, “I’m too busy and important to go to Jerusalem to have a theological debate. Who wants to get into doctrine and dogma and all that? I know what I’m doing. I’m seeing success. Things are really going. I’m changing the world”?
   6. No, he stops and goes and has a theological discussion. Why? Because he knows how important it is for his theology to be right, for his doctrine to be accurate, how important it is to make sure the truth of the gospel is accurately held and understood and grasped. This is hard for us to understand because we live in an individualistic culture. In an individualistic culture, what matters is how I feel about things.^[2]
   7. Okay, so we see a low-level fly-by showing us that some people are trying once again to mess with what the Lord is doing.
   8. The NIV notes that since they were from Judea, they were given a hearing. Not that they correctly represented the apostles, they may not have.
   9. They were probably Pharisees from verse 5.
   10. Paul and Barnabas had a great debate with them about this.
   11. Therefore, Paul and Barnabas are to go to Jerusalem to consult with the apostles and elders regarding this matter.
   12. They passed through Samaria and Phoenicia, sharing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and this brought great joy.
   13. John MacArthur shares: Throughout its history, the church’s leaders have met to settle doctrinal issues. Historians point to 7 ecumenical councils in the church’s early history, especially the Councils of Nicea (d. 325) and Chalcedon (a.d. 451). Yet the most important council was the first one—the Jerusalem Council—because it established the answer to the most vital doctrinal question of all: “What must a person do to be saved?” The apostles and elders defied efforts to impose legalism and ritualism as necessary prerequisites for salvation. They forever affirmed that salvation is totally by grace through faith in Christ alone.^[3]
3. In verses 6-11, Peter gives his testimony.
   1. Acts 15:6–11 (ESV) ⁶ The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. ⁷ And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. ⁸ And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, ⁹ and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. ¹⁰ Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? ¹¹ But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
   2. This was no small issue. There was much discussion.
   3. John MacArthur study note: Peter gave the first of 3 speeches at the Council that amount to one of the strongest defenses of salvation by grace through faith alone contained in Scripture. Peter began his defense by reviewing how God saved Gentiles in the early days of the church without a requirement of circumcision, law keeping, or ritual—referring to the salvation of Cornelius and his household (10:44–48; 11:17, 18). If God did not require any additional qualifications for salvation, neither should the legalists.^[4]
   4. Peter refers to this experience (Acts 10 Cornelius) as the early days.
   5. Peter says they are putting God to the test by giving the Gentile disciples a burden that the Jewish Pharisees and their fathers couldn’t bear.
   6. They couldn’t keep the law.
   7. The law was given to show them that they were sinners (Romans 3:20).
4. In verses 12- 21, we hear Paul and Barnabas’s testimony, and James makes a ruling.
   1. Acts 15:12–21 (ESV) ¹² And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. ¹³ After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. ¹⁴ Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. ¹⁵ And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, ¹⁶  “ ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;  I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, ¹⁷          that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,  and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things ¹⁸ known from of old.’ ¹⁹ Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, ²⁰ but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. ²¹ For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
   2. I want to fly higher at this point to emphasize the theme.
   3. Paul and Barnabas talk about signs and wonders. The signs and wonders would confirm to the Jews that God is truly behind what is happening.
   4. Then we see that James makes a ruling. This James is the same James who later wrote the New Testament epistle of James. He is Jesus’s half-brother. It seems obvious that He is the man in charge. He is the spokesperson for the group. We would think Peter would be in charge, but he is not. It is James. We would think Paul, but he is not it is James. James was not an early disciple, but he was pastoring the Jerusalem church, and he was in charge.
   5. In verse 14, he states that God intended to choose a people from the Gentiles for His name. That is extremely phenomenal. The Jews were God’s people, but now this wraps the Gentiles in as well. This is a special verse for today. He is saying that the Gospel is for everyone.
   6. Then James quotes an Old Testament passage regarding Gentiles.
   7. Then he says we do not need to get in their way much more.
   8. See Acts 15:19: ¹⁹ Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God,
   9. Keller:
   10. This is a church historian talking about Tertullian, who was one of the early church fathers but who he thought slipped back into legalism. Listen. This is what the historian says. “When the church loses its way, which it often does, and teaches believers they are justified not by grace alone but by being sanctified …” See, when the church starts slipping back, saying, “Well, you’re not justified just by grace, but you also have to be holy in all these ways; otherwise, God won’t love you …”
   11. He says then what happens is it produces “… an unconscious need for lists of clean and unclean activities and a rebirth of Pharisaism. Hard-line fundamentalists like Tertullian ruled out many intellectual activities: the theater (because of its origins in pagan worship), the dance (because it might inflame ill-controlled sexual passions), and cosmetics (if God meant you to smell like a flower he would have given you a crop of them on your head!).”
   12. The point is Christians are always losing their spiritual freedom, always slipping out of the idea, “We are saved by grace, and they’re saved by grace.” That’s not the only issue here. It’s linked, because not only was spiritual freedom the issue here but also cultural freedom. Think about the Levitical laws. When I say cultural freedom, the Gentiles were being told, “If you want to become a real, saved person, you need to become culturally Jewish.”^[5]
5. The ruling:
   1. Make sure they stay away from food sacrificed to idols.
   2. Stay away from fornication.
   3. Stay from what is strangled by blood.
   4. Now, then James has a letter written which Paul, and a few companions will send, and this starts in verse 22. The letter will explain this and provide them with more contact information for the churches.
   5. The end of this chapter marks the beginning of Paul’s next missionary journey.

Close:

Acts 15:19 (ESV) ¹⁹ Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God…

Look at:

Acts 15:27–29 (ESV)

²⁷ We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. ²⁸ For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: ²⁹ that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

Notice how they said, “Good to the Holy Spirit”?

I like what Tim Keller shared:

Look carefully what it says. It’s fascinating. “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us …” That’s almost hilarious. How did they know? How did they know what the Holy Spirit wanted? Did they sit and listen for a voice? No. What did they do? They studied the Bible together in community. When they agreed on what the Bible taught, they said, “That’s what the Holy Spirit is saying.”^[6]

Do you know why we don’t need all those Old Testament Laws? Jesus fulfilled them. All the blood and the sacrifices were pointing to Jesus. Jesus became the scapegoat. Jesus became the sin substitute.

Do you remember Lady Macbeth walking around, going out of her mind with guilt? She goaded her husband to kill somebody, and once she did, she couldn’t live with her guilt. She literally went insane. She went around. She saw blood on her hands. There was no blood on her hands, but she saw blood on her hands. Remember? “Out, damned spot! […] All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”

She went crazy, but you don’t have to go crazy. Do you know why? When you believe in Jesus Christ, all the damned spots go out. All the damned spots of your life are purified. Do you see the importance of gospel accuracy? Because it leads to gospel liberty, it leads to gospel community, and it leads to gospel purity.^[7]

Keller: The Levitical laws were pointing to had come. They were a shadow. The reality has come. Jesus himself!^[8]

Secondly, now believers are not only Jews, but all tongues, tribes, peoples, and nations. Christians are going to be out everywhere taking the Word of God everywhere. What that means is, if you’re a Roman, you don’t have to become culturally Jewish. You don’t have to become culturally anything. If you’re Asian, if you’re African, if you’re Roman, if you’re Greek, whatever you are, you become a Christian where you are.

You don’t have to leave and become culturally something else in order to become a Christian.^[9]

Now, all tribes, tongues, and nationalities can follow Jesus.  

Have you ever been to a church from a different culture? I have been in multiple different cultural worship services. They are not like us. When I was in the Dominican Republic, they were not nearly as focus on time as we are. They all valued worship, but it wasn’t focuses on time. It was not focused on the time it would begin or end.

We are all different and we criticize them, and they criticize us. We all bring different expressions of worship.

When I was serving a church in Alliance we had a monthly men’s breakfast with a black church. We would rotate speakers. They invited me to speak at their revival meeting. I loved it! The are all active in their worship service.

Tony Evans writes:

One of the great experiments when it comes to nationality is the American Experiment. The American Experiment is unique because of its intentionality to bring people from all walks of life, from every nation, under the banner of a single flag and to intentionally seek to bring across to these shores people from all kinds of other nations who would make up a union called the United States of America. This Experiment brought people together who would pledge allegiance to a single flag even though their backgrounds were different, unique, and dissimilar. We acknowledge our differences by annotating our original heritages to our current nationality with terms like Irish American, Swedish American, Polish American, African American, or Hispanic American. The introductory phrase cites the uniqueness. The last word cites the unity. Whatever I am uniquely based on regarding culture, history, background, or previous location, I am that under the American Banner. There was in this Experiment an attempt to have a United States even though the people seeking to be unified were totally different. What the American Experiment represents from a cultural, historical, and geographical perspective to this nation, the church of Jesus Christ was meant to be for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords—people from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives, all pledging allegiance to the cross.^1016,[10]

Review:

The Jerusalem Council meets and frees the church for evangelism. In doing so, they affirm that the Gospel is for everyone (verse 14), which means that they decide not to make it difficult for non-Jews to become Christians (verse 19).

First, is your heart right with Jesus?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

^[1] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[2] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[3] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Ac 15:1–30.

^[4] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Ac 15:7.

^[5] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[6] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[7] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[8] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[9] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 2012-2013 (New York: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

^[10] Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 336–337.