Acts 17:1-12
5th Sunday of Easter – A
April 24, 2005
Acts 17:1-12 When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ," he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women. 5 But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: "These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus." 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go. 10 As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
Cross Reference Your Pastor
I. Question preachers
II. God has the answers
Peace to all of you who are in Christ (I Peter 5:14b). Amen.
When I was in college in Watertown, I worked at Bethesda Lutheran Home, a home for the ‘developmentally disabled.’ I worked the night shift and went to school during the day. One winter morning when I got off from work, I hopped in the car, turned the key and… click… nothing. It wouldn’t turn over or anything. I had a local mechanic tow the car to his shop. Later in the afternoon he called me and told me that the engine block had cracked on me. He said that it would be an expensive repair, or if I was willing, he would buy the car off of me for a couple hundred dollars. I didn’t know what to do. I told him that I would call him back. I called my dad and asked his opinion. Well, Dad asked me, “Was there oil on the ground around the car?” Since it was winter and there had been snow on the ground, I would have noticed if there had been oil. “No,” I said. Right away my dad thought something was fishy. If the engine block really had cracked, there should have been oil on the ground. We had the car towed to a garage that my father trusted and asked for a second opinion. You know what the problem was? Just the starter was broken. I don’t even know if the repair cost a hundred dollars, as compared to putting in a whole new engine or selling the car.
It’s good to get a second opinion, when the stakes are high. How about getting a second opinion when it comes to your soul? This church has only one pastor. What if you don’t agree with something in the sermon? There’s no second pastor who stands up after the service to offer rebuttals. I suppose you could ask Pastor Koepsell. If not him, who else? Do you go ask the Missouri Synod pastor? Do you go online and leave a question for the WELS Q & A? Have you ever thought of asking the President of the Council or another member of the Church Council?
I highly appreciate your trust, if you don’t question anything in my sermons. I do put a lot of time in preparing them, praying that I am faithfully presenting God’s Word for your growth as Christians. But I don’t want to become your pope. What I want to say is this: I make no claims to be infallible, that is, unable to make a mistake. Am I trying to plant doubts in your minds? In a sense – yes. I want to plant doubt, so that I might produce confidence. Because if I can get you searching for a second opinion on each and every one of my sermons, and I can get you to look in the right place for your ‘second opinion,’ you will be as confident in what is said from this pulpit, as I am.
I want you to CROSS REFERENCE YOUR PASTOR. Just like the thicker study Bibles have those nice little passage references in the side or middle column, so that you can cross reference other verses with similar content, which support what each says, I want you to cross reference my sermons with a reliable source of the Christian faith. Double-check to see if I have support for what I am teaching. If I was a doctor and told you that a lump on your back was not cancerous and you shouldn’t worry about it, but I see that you are doubtful about my prognosis, I would encourage you to act on your ‘doubt,’ and therefore seek a second opinion from another reputable doctor. Because when he supports what I said, then you will really feel more at ease and confident with what I say. If ‘doubting’ me, leads you to be more confident in the truth, then doubt away! But act on your doubt by cross-referencing me.
I. Question Preachers
I appreciate questions, because it shows me that you were listening. I get feedback on whether or not I got my point across. Also, it tells me that you are willing to ask the important questions. I know that there are other Christian voices out there that you are going to hear. If you unquestioningly accept what I have to say, then I have to worry, that you might unquestioningly accept what you hear on Christian radio stations or see on Crandon’s Christian channel. There are contradictions. There are misleading focal points. I want you to question, at least in your own minds, what you hear the preachers say.
That’s how Paul worked. Our text tells us that it was Paul’s custom to go to the Jewish synagogues and “reason with them” (Acts 17:2). He wanted them to be awake, to evaluate what he was saying, cross reference it with the faith that they had grown up with. How did ‘he reason with them?’ By “explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead” (Acts 17:3) Neither at Thessalonica nor Berea did Paul’s listeners simply accept Paul at his word. Both of them questioned whether or not what Paul was teaching was true. Good for them! But, we see that they differed greatly in seeking a second opinion.
To whom did the Thessalonians turn? “Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women. 5 But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city” (vs. 4,5). And where did the Bereans find their second opinion? “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men” (vs. 11,12).
For the most part, the Thessalonian Jews sought support from the rough and tough guys hanging out at the marketplace. They let their prejudice toward the Greeks overwhelm the arguments that Paul gave. Jealously they turned their hearts against Paul. The Bereans on the other hand “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (vs. 11). To whom did Paul have to answer with his teachings? God. The Bereans didn’t simply shake their head yes or no, upon hearing Paul’s message, they pulled out their Old Testament and cross referenced Paul’s teaching with the promises of the Messiah. And they found that Paul was teaching the truth. They became as confident as Paul.
I want you to be Bereans! I want you to eagerly compare what I say on Sunday with what you have in your Bible at home. If you don’t know your Bible that well, start by comparing what I say with your Catechism. That’s how a congregation becomes even more confident in its teachings. That’s how a church prevents false teaching from entering the church. It questions its preachers. Don’t be like the Thessalonians. Though they had Scripture too, and Paul “reasoned with them from the Scriptures” (vs. 2b), they let their own personal feelings and jealousies cloud their mind to what was being said. Don’t forget that we are by nature sinful and blind to God’s will. Where else are you going to hear God’s Word according to the clear confession of your faith, other than on Sunday? That means that every single day other opinions are fighting for acceptance in your heart. Even being in God’s Word every single day, I find myself being tugged at by the immorality and self-centered perceptions of this world.
II. God has the Answers
Imagine if I had not asked my father’s opinion about my car. How much more important is your soul. Ask your Father’s opinion too. Is Pastor telling the truth? Cross reference what I say with God’s Word. Jesus calls the devil a murderer and a liar, because he murders souls through his lies. Consider those Episcopalians who want to be open-minded and trust the homosexual bishop Robinson. Recently he spoke at a pro-abortion meal. He was a key-note speaker on how pro-abortionists can reach out to people of faith. This is what he said:
“We have to take back those scriptures. Those stories are our stories. I say it to lesbian folk all the time: ‘You know the story of freedom in the Exodus? That’s my story.’ I know what it’s like to be in Egypt; I know what it’s like to be a slave; and I know what it’s like to hear someone [like] a Moses come forward and say, ‘Come out.’” [Brown, Jody. Homosexual Bishop Exhorts Pro-Aborts to Use Scripture Against ‘People of Faith.’ April 19, 2005. Agape Press]
If we ask our Father for a second opinion on Robinson’s words, we are confronted with these facts: The same Moses who supposedly frees him from the stigma of immorality, was directed by God to impose the death penalty on any Jew who practiced homosexuality (Leviticus 20:13). He fails to note that God brought horrible plagues on Pharaoh and the Egyptians because of their disobedience (Exodus 7-11). He doesn’t recognize that abortion is as atrocious as the Egyptian law that forced the Israelites to kill their own newborn sons (Exodus 1:16; 20:13). His lack of regard for what the Bible really says becomes crystal clear, when we hear him say: “Whether it be the Hebrew scriptures, the Christian scriptures, the Koran, or whatever -- it is time we laid claim to those” [from same article above]. Just like the Thessalonian Jews, who turned to the unbelieving ruffians in the marketplace to find support for their unbelief, Robinson turns to pro-abortionists and whatever religion to support his own unchristian beliefs. What did Christ say in the Gospel today? “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
The saddest part is this: Robinson’s self-serving interests have closed his eyes to the real love and forgiveness that God wants to give him. Robison is so right when he sees the story of the Exodus as part of a greater story of liberation. It’s not a sexual revolution, allowing us to throw off the virtuous guidelines that our heavenly Father has given us. But it is a story of God’s forgiveness for our failures to comply. While Robinson prefers to free himself by justifying his sin, God freed and justified us all by making his Son the Passover Lamb (another connection with the account of the Exodus). God has forgiven our outright acts of rebellion. God releases us from the guilt of our natural tendency to do that which displeases him. Calling us through the Gospel message of love, he gives us strength to war with our sinful flesh, to put to death our self-love which would seek sexual partners outside of marriage, outside of God’s plan… to put to death our self-serving murderous acts of aborting, killing our children, so we can cover up our sexual sins and live free of the burden of a dependent little life that would restrict our future career and lifestyle.
Robinson shows us why we need to cross reference out pastors. We need to question them. We need to compare what they say to what our heavenly Father says in his Word. Cross referencing our pastors means that we are making the cross the reference point of all of their sermons. If our pastors are not teaching the truths of the apostles, that the Christ had to suffer and die and then rise again for our salvation, then we need to speak with them. If they don’t change. If they prefer their word over against God’s Word, we best flee to a church where the truth is taught.
Today, in America, we have many options, which allows us to get second opinions. Consider the man who ran into the vet’s office carrying his dog, screaming for help. The vet rushed him back to an examination room and had him put his dog down on the examination table. The vet examined the still, limp body and after a few moments told the man that his dog, regrettably, is dead.
The man, clearly agitated and not willing to accept this, demanded a second opinion. The vet went into the back room and came out with a cat and put it down next to the dog’s body. The cat sniffed the body, walked from head to tail poking and sniffing the dog’s body and finally looked at the vet and meowed. The vet looked at the man and said, "I’m sorry, but the cat thinks that your dog is dead too."
The man was still unwilling to accept that his dog was dead. The vet brought in a black Labrador. The lab sniffed the body, walked from head to tail, and finally looked at the vet and barked. The vet looked at the man and said, "I’m sorry, but the lab thinks your dog is dead too."
The man, finally resigned himself to the diagnosis, thanked the vet and asked how much he owed. The vet answered, "$650.
"$650 to tell me my dog is dead?" exclaimed the man....
"Well," the vet replied, "I would have charged you only $50 for my initial diagnosis. The additional $600 was for the cat scan and lab tests."
Second opinions at the vet, the medical field, or from a lawyer can be mighty expensive. But how expensive is a second opinion on what preachers say? All it takes is opening your Bible. Get familiar with it. Listen to the author explain to you his truths. Pastors do not begrudge their members double-checking their sermons. You’ll never hear a faithful pastor say, “Stop reading your Bible. Just accept what I say.” Be Bereans. Cross reference your pastors by questioning what they say, and seeking the answers from the right source – from God himself. Amen.
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Acts 2:21). Amen.
