Lessons From Acts – Lesson 27
We saw last week a great Bible example of Romans 8:28.
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Paul and Silas were obeying Jesus’ commands in the great commission. Jesus said if ye love me then keep my commandments. Jesus tied love to Him with doing what He said.
Jesus did not tie salvation to love, He tied love to obeying Him. There are a lot of people who are saved. Eternally saved, but they do not obey Jesus. People can and do get saved and then decide to not love Jesus in a real practical way by doing what He says.
It is sad but true. Paul and Silas were not like that.
It is clear that Paul and Silas loved God and were called according to his purpose. And even thou they got whipped and thrown in prison, God worked it for good. They saw God work in a mighty way in that prison. When you get to see God work that is always a good thing to you.
The jailer and his family got saved and baptized. They did not have to wait to be baptized. They were NOT told that they had to go to the house church in Lydia’s house to be baptized.
They got saved and then baptized by other believers. This actually matches what Jesus said to do in the great commission.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Paul and Silas went and taught about Jesus and salvation and after the jailer and his family believed, they were all baptized the same night.
I am not saying anything other than what the Bible records. That night in that jail it was teach salvation, people believed, and then they baptized them right there on the spot. With no delay.
This is not the only place in the N.T. that shows this. The eunuch heard, got saved, and then they stopped when there was enough water and he was baptized. And Peter preached, 3,000 got saved and then they right away baptized them.
If you are counting that is 3 examples. That should be enough for by 2 or 3 witnesses is a matter established.
I got in trouble once for pointing this out in my Sunday school class. One lady just thru a conniption fit right there. She wanted there to be, no she demanded, that there is a waiting period so that she could watch their life and make sure they change first.
Her pre-requisite for baptism is evidence of a changed life first. That is nowhere to be found in the N.T. at all.
The Great commission is teach them about salvation, then baptize them and then the 3rd thing was teach them all things that Jesus has commanded.
She changed it to teach them about Jesus then teach them all things that Jesus commanded and if they are doing what they are taught then and only then baptize them.
That is not biblical. One of her comebacks was I thank God that I have a Bible, and then she twists the Bible and rearranges the order in the Great Commission.
The Examples in the Bible are get saved, then get baptized. No other pre-requisite except being saved. When we get to chapter 19 we will see where a baptism was invalid and the reason was they got baptized before they got saved.
But isn’t there something about authority in the Bible that is connected to baptism.
The answer is yes there is.
Jesus taught like no man. Jesus taught with authority. This of course really upset the religious teachers who thought they were the source of authority. They believed that authority had to come from man.
Luk 20:1 And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders,
Luk 20:2 And spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority?
Jesus reponds with a question about the authority of John’s baptism.
Yes I know John’s baptism was different. It was NOT the same baptism as the baptism commanded in the Great Commission. John’s baptism was a symbol of repentance. In the Great Commission baptism is an outward showing forth of the work that God did on the inside when you got saved.
John’s baptism showed forth that you were repentant. Baptism after Jesus paid for our sin shows forth the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus.
So they are different however, they both have a matter of authority attached.
Luk 20:3 And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me:
Luk 20:4 The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?
Jesus offers only two choices. Was the authority from God. That is vertical authority. Or was it from man which is horizontal authority. It is implied by Jesus that John had authority to baptize. That is not disputed.
The question is where does the authority come from. The obvious implied answer is that the authority came from God. The authority is vertical not horizontal.
Luk 20:5 And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not?
Luk 20:6 But and if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet.
Luk 20:7 And they answered, that they could not tell whence it was.
Luk 20:8 And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.
What we get out of this is that Authority to do God’s work comes from God. That authority is vertical.
Paul and Silas were men of God out doing God’s work fulfilling the Great Commission of teaching salvation and winning and baptizing and then teaching new Christians.
So they had the vertical authority from God to do this work. That gave them the authority to baptize the jailer’s family without a church congregation present.
Do not misunderstand what I am saying. Churches under God’s authority have His authority to also do the Great Commission and baptize.
And when a local church sees someone saved, I believe that they should baptize them in front of the congregation. I believe that for several reasons. One is that it is an encouragement to every member of the congregation to see that the Great Commission is being followed.
But in a case where missionaries are out in the field and there is not a local church handy, that missionary does have the authority to baptize the new believer without a local congregation present.
Some get mad about that but that is what we see in the Bible. And that is another reason that this account of the jailer and his family getting baptized right away is in the Bible. One of the reasons it is there is to establish that missionaries on the field that have not established a local church yet do have the authority to baptize new believers.
And Paul did start a new house church in that town. And Paul still baptized them right away in the jail.
In the morning Paul and Silas demand to be released publicly, which happens, and then they are told to get out of town.
And I really appreciate how Paul and Silas put what was needed for God’s work above those commands of men.
The new Christians in the new house church in Lydia’s house needed to see Romans 8:28 in action. They needed to see and hear Paul and Silas tell them how God worked it out for good.
I believe there was joy in that new house church as Paul tells how a family got saved and baptized in that prison. And how God worked so that the prisoners did not make a run for it.
After the new house church was comforted, then they leave town.
Acts 16:40 And they went out of the prison, and entered into the house of Lydia: and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed.
Acts 17:1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:
Thessalonica should sound familiar to you. Paul writes two letters to them, 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. We are about to read about that small house church getting started.
Acts 17:2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
I have no doubt that Paul in-between those Saturday’s did not just sit around and keep his mouth shut. I believe that Sunday thru Friday Paul was witnessing to whoever would listen.
But for 3 weeks every Saturday Paul went to synagogue and reasoned with them out of the Old Testament scriptures.
This is another proof text of what Jesus said. Joh 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
When Jesus said that there was zero N.T. scriptures. So Jesus was clearly saying that the O.T. scriptures are about Him.
Paul here reasoned with them out of the O.T. about Jesus.
This is important. Paul did not reason with them out of philosophy. He did not reason with them out of feelings, or what he just thought was right. Paul reasoned with them out of the scriptures.
He was using scripture as the final authority. This is a major point. Christians would be different and churches would be vastly different places if they would really put scripture in its proper place.
I am not saying all Christians don’t. I am not saying all churches don’t. But sadly many do not in a real practical way put scripture as the final authority and then act accordingly.
Paul reasoned with them with the authority of God and God’s word behind him. And he used scripture to show prophecy of Jesus going to the cross and dying and rising again.
Acts 17:3 Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.
And there were people present who after being shown the prophecies and then seeing how Jesus fulfilled them, they believed.
Acts 17:4 And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
The largest number that believed was Greeks. Devout Greeks it says. These are Greeks who went to Synagogue and studied the O.T. scriptures.
They had a base belief in the Word of God and they believed in the Creator God of the Jews. That is not enough to save you, but it is a good foundation to have.
Paul added to that foundation the proof from the O.T. showing that Jesus is the savior and that is all it took for a great multitude of devout Greeks to get saved.
I believe here also we see that God was working way ahead to burden those Greeks to first learn and be devout about learning first. God no doubt worked even years ahead on this so that they were ready when Paul shows up with the truth.
And multitudes got saved. But not everyone. Not everyone was open to accepting proof from the O.T.
Acts 17:5 But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
Moved with envy. The motivation for the horrible thing they do here is clearly given. There is no doubt as to why. They were moved with envy.
God was working and using Paul in a great way and God was not using them. Paul was getting the attention. People where listening to Paul and accepting what he said as truth and they thought that they should be the ones getting that. They were moved with envy.
Acts 17:6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;
Acts 17:7 Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.
Acts 17:8 And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things.
Of course Jesus is king, but not in the same way that they twisted it into. Jesus is not an earthly king like Caesar was.
Acts 17:9 And when they had taken security of Jason, and of the other, they let them go.
Think of taking security of Jason kind of like making bail. It was not the same but it is the same idea.
Acts 17:10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
We have seen this before in the first missionary journey. The Jews filled with envy caused great trouble and persecution. And if they could they would not hesitate to kill Paul in cold blood.
So the new believers immediately sent Paul and Silas away. They knew full well what the men moved with envy were capable of.
Now when they get to Berea they go to the synagogue and do the same thing reason with them out of the O.T. about Jesus.
And the response was different. It was a great response. The proper response. In this synagogue they actually did put the Word of God in its proper place. And they did consider it the final authority.
Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
God says it is a noble thing to receive the Word of God with all readiness of mind. It is noble to search the scriptures to see if what Paul was saying was so.
And it is noble when you see it in the Word of God and then believe it. And that is what happened.
Acts 17:12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.
Word gets back to the unbelieving Jews in Thessalonica and they just can’t take it. They take their hate and get into other people’s business in another town.
Acts 17:13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.
Acts 17:14 And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea: but Silas and Timotheus abode there still.
Acts 17:15 And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed.
And they are run out of another town.
They were run out of town in Philippi but they left a house church in Lydia’s house. And years later we have a letter written to them.
They were run out of Thessalonica but left a multitude of believers and later we have 2 letters written to them.
And then they are run out of Berea, but once again many believers are left.
In all 3 cases we see two different and opposing views of scripture.
In each town there were people who believed that God’s Word was true and could be counted on. They chose to believe what God’s word said. And because of that belief that God’s word is the final authority, they believed in Jesus.
God calls that view of Scripture as being trustworthy noble.
The other group in each town did not put real faith in God’s Word. And instead of listening to God’s Word and getting saved they listened to their sinful flesh and got angry and hateful and did terrible things.
For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting and his truth endureth to all generations.
God speaks to us thru His Word and we speak to Him in prayer.
God is good, His Word is good, and belief in His Word brings good things in our lives. God’s word is referred to as milk and bread. It nourishes us spiritually. And all of that good going in has an effect on good going out of us.
Love, patience, longsuffering, kindness, gentleness, giving, helping, caring and so on. God uses His word in our lives and faith in His Word is not only necessary but critical.
The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please Him.
The new believers are examples. You see them caring for Paul and Silas and taking action for their good and at some danger to themselves. Believing in God’s Word always brings good out in those that believe it.
The Jews who gave lip service to believing God’s Word but did not really believe it are also examples. Not really believing God’s word also brings out things in your life. And in the unbelieving Jews we see envy, and persecution, and hate.
Belief in God’s Word that you can hold and read is not a side issue. It is critical. It does matter, not just doctrinally, but in a real practical way.
It always has bothered me when a preacher would stand up behind a pulpit and cast doubt on God’s precious word. They sometimes would flat out say the word really means. Or it was translated elsewhere as. And they would just flat out in front of you correct God’s Word.
Other times what they do is more subtle. Sometimes so subtle that you almost don’t catch it.
When they do things like that they cast doubt in God’s Word and that is wrong. That actually causes many to believe that God’s Word is flawed. It causes many to quit fully trusting God’s Word. And therefore God’s Word becomes something other than the final authority for them.
When this happens God’s Word does not strengthen and nourish them like it did when they had complete faith in it.
It can be a matter of degrees. Some are affected more by this than others. Some can be so affected that they have great doubt about God’s Word.
So much so that they quit lining their lives up with God’s Word. And when they get to that point, what comes out is often not good.
Instead of spiritually good things coming out that are nourished by God’s Word what comes out is fleshly things of the sin nature.
This is one of the many reasons that around here we do not correct God’s Word. I have faith that God moved to have His Word preserved just as He promised to do.
I understand the many huge benefits that faith in His Word brings and I understand the harm and dangers that come from not believing what God said.