The Gospel for the Spiritual but Not for the Religious
Tom Shrader walks through Acts 17, tracing Paul's missionary work in Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens to show how God uses ordinary people in real places to proclaim the gospel. He contrasts the ancient Epicurean and Stoic philosophies with the emptiness modern people experience today, arguing that Jesus alone answers humanity's deepest needs for love, meaning, and redemption. Believers are urged to see themselves as participants in God's ongoing story, courageously sharing the gospel and turning their world right side up.
“God is not asking you to graft Him into your life. He's grafting you into His story.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Acts
Recorded: 2017 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 39 min
Themes: evangelism, sharing your faith, meaning of life, courage, gospel, missions, purpose, hope, feeling spiritually empty, secular workplace, young adult, new believer, feeling unqualified to share faith, skeptic seeking answers, college student, everyday believer
Scripture: Acts 7:8, Acts 13, Acts 15, Acts 17:1-34, Acts 17:2, Acts 17:4, Acts 17:6, Acts 17:16, Acts 17:18, Acts 17:21, Acts 17:22, Genesis 3, Ecclesiastes
Theological Themes: missiology, acts of the apostles, proclamation, soteriology, salvation, apologetics, incarnational ministry, redemption
Full Transcript
Paul Arrives in Thessalonica
Sandy and I are on vacation, and we scheduled teaching before we scheduled vacation. So we came back from Flagstaff for this. I was back a couple of days and ran into Tim in the office, and he said, "Are you ready for Sunday?" I said, "Well, I will be by Sunday." He said, "It's a long passage," and it is long — 34 verses.
Open your Bibles, if you would, to Acts chapter 17. The passage today is Acts chapter 17, verses 1 through 34. It's the continuation of what we've been studying. The key verse in the book of Acts is chapter 1, verse 8: "You will receive power when my Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the remotest parts of the earth." In a sense, the book of Acts is still being written, and you've been written into it. We are His witnesses in the remotest part of the earth — He meant Gilbert.
I taught here Acts chapter 13, which was the beginning of Paul's first missionary journey, and in Arcadia, Acts chapter 15, which was the beginning of Paul's second missionary journey. Both times I made the point, and I make it again today, that God uses real people in real places to have a real impact. This is not fiction. This is real.
What I want us to do is understand what's going on in this passage, but I also want you to Photoshop yourself into this story and see these principles in your own life — as a real person in a real place, having real impact. We want to understand this story to see what God is doing, but God continues to do this through you. Just as Paul is going to Thessalonica, you are going to Chandler, to Mesa, into the hospital, into the job, into school. So let's look at the story and come back to that point again and again.
The Strategic Importance of Thessalonica
Luke, the author of the book of Acts, tells us in chapter 17, verse 1 that Paul has arrived in Thessalonica. Every once in a while when I'm studying I find something that catches my attention and I get fixated on it for no reason — this is no big point, but I found it really interesting. Paul moves from Philippi to Thessalonica, a distance of about 110 miles, in three days. Most scholars believe he traveled on horseback. I don't think of Paul on horseback — I think of those guys just schlepping along — but apparently they were riding horses and covered this distance. There is no record that he stopped to preach anywhere along the way. His goal was to get to Thessalonica, which became a gateway to the cities of Europe and beyond.
Thessalonica was the capital and most important city in Macedonia, with a population of about 200,000 people. If you can imagine filling Sun Devil Stadium, emptying it, filling it, emptying it, filling it, emptying it, and filling it one more time — that's the population of Thessalonica. It was an important port city and an important center of commerce. From a human perspective, Paul's thinking was strategic: if he could bring the message to this city, God could use it to expand throughout the region and ultimately, as we know, throughout the world.
Reasoning from Scripture
We are told in verse 2 that, as was his custom, Paul goes on the Sabbath and reasons in the synagogue. Paul's approach in Thessalonica was the same as his approach everywhere, and it is a good model for us. He begins with the Scripture. That is what we have — not our opinion, but the Scripture. And he reasons with them. From the Greek word translated "reason," we get the English word "dialogue." He talks with them, converses, and explains the Scripture.
This does not mean he had an answer to every question. There is a basic fundamental principle here: if you know enough to believe the gospel, you know enough to share the gospel. You may not know everything you will ever know, but we should never be afraid to say, "I don't know." I find that far more helpful than giving an answer I am not sure is true. You dialogue, and you reason. You do not have to defend, argue, or debate. But you do need to preach Christ. That is our message — Jesus.
The Universal Need That Only Jesus Answers
I was in a discussion this week with a fellow baby boomer — two old guys sitting around talking. We talked about our physical problems, we talked about the world, and then we talked about, as you may or may not know, the baby boomer's favorite topic: millennials. We try to understand them, we try to explain them. I like them because outside of old people, they are just about the only group it is fashionable to discuss critically. But here is the bottom line: millennials are like Gen Xers, are like baby boomers, are like the greatest generation. We are all the same. We want to love and be loved. We want to be understood. We want to have meaning. We want to make a difference. That is everybody — and it is impossible apart from Jesus.
So there is our message, over and over again. Just as Paul is on a missionary journey, you and I are on missionary journeys. Our message is not that Jesus will make life better or easier. It is that Jesus is our answer. I got a call one day from a business man asking me if I would meet with one of his friends. I had never met the man, but I knew him by reputation. I said sure, and so I went in and we sat down.
The Gospel as the Answer to Every Question
A friend told me a guy just needed someone to talk to. So I sat down, and he started. He talked about his wife, who was mad at him, his girlfriend, his kids, his business. It was like a fire hose — just spewing out of him, minute after minute, without a pause. Finally, he sat back and folded his arms, which I interpreted to mean he was done and it was my turn to talk. I said to him, "I don't even know what the question is, but I know Jesus is the answer."
That is our basic message to the world. You see it with Paul over and over again. When I ask you to Photoshop yourself into this story, as you go into your Thessalonica, your message flows from the scriptures, and your answer is Jesus. Our fundamental problem is spiritual and sin, and the only answer is Jesus.
Who Responds to the Gospel
And when you share that message, you will have happen to you what happens to Paul. In verse four, we see the result: there are some who are persuaded — some of the God-fearing Greeks — and Luke makes the point that a number of leading women believed as well. As you read through that, it stands out. It is not necessarily what you would expect from the text.
Ray Stedman offers this point: you will find this emphasis on women in several places in the book of Acts. The gospel had a particular appeal to women, especially women of the upper classes, who were predominantly citizens in the Greek cities. There is a reason for that. These were educated women who had been instructed in the philosophies of Greece, but they found that those philosophies were dead and empty — offering nothing to the heart, nothing to the spirit. They instructed the mind but did nothing for the soul.
And that is true of all human answers to our deepest yearnings.
What Solomon Learned That We Keep Forgetting
A guy in town was starting a church and asked if we could meet for coffee. He said, "If you were going to start, what would you teach from the pulpit?" What surprised me was that an answer came out before I had even thought about it. I said I would teach Genesis chapter three — the fall — and then probably a gospel, most likely Mark, because it is the shortest and the quickest. Then an epistle, likely Ephesians, which is the book of Romans condensed. And then I would go back and teach the book of Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes is a memoir from the most successful person who has ever lived — Solomon. His basic message is: whatever you think will make you happy, I have been there and done that, and it will not. He lists it out. He says if it is fine wine you want, he had the best, and vineyards. He had male servants and female servants. He was a builder who built one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. He was a poet, a songwriter, an author. If you think it is physical pleasure, he had — and I always mix this up — 700 wives and 300 concubines, or 300 wives and 700 concubines. Here is the bottom line: he had 1,000 women there to satisfy him and make him happy. And he says, "I am telling you, when it is all said and done, enjoy that stuff, but it is not going to make you happy."
Now I have been teaching for thirty years, and here is what I have learned. At this point, right now, I can read your mind. You are thinking, "I am the exception. I know I would be happy." And Solomon says no, you will not. Fear God, keep His commandments. Jesus is the answer.
The Cost of Sharing the Gospel
As you share that in your Thessalonica, some are going to respond. You will get those who believe, those who say, "Tell me more," and you share with them. But Paul had a constant companion, and it gave him a reputation. That companion was opposition. The Jews, the leaders, stir up people and come against the message.
If you are going to be the man, woman, or student that God has called you to be and share this gospel, it is going to take courage. They are probably not going to haul you off to jail, but you are going to be in a zone that is uncomfortable for you — risking relationships, maybe. There is no way to share this gospel without being courageous and risking friendship.
One day a woman was sitting in the commons and I stopped and asked if she was okay. She said, "I have my best friend in the world — I love her to death — and she is not a Christian, but I cannot share the gospel with her." I asked why, and she said, "I do not want to risk the friendship." I said, "Think about that. You do not want to risk the friendship because you are afraid you will not get to enjoy it here, but there is the potential to enjoy that friendship for all of eternity."
You can feel what she was feeling. She intuitively knew there is opposition to this message. I do not know what that version looks like for you — it might be within a family, a friendship, the people at work, or the students at school. But you are not better than Paul, who is not better than Jesus, who said to us, "If they persecute Me, they will persecute you."
A Reputation Worth Having
Paul had a reputation. We see it in Acts 17, verse six. The Jews are stirring up the people against Paul, and the charge made against him is this: "These men who have upset the world have come here." The Living Bible paraphrases it this way —
Turning the World Right Side Up
Paul and Silas have turned the rest of the world upside down, and now they are disturbing the city. That is what you are — someone who comes into the world and turns it not upside down, but turns it right side up. Consider the visual impact of this: on page one and two of my Bible, I have creation. On page three and an inch of page four, I have the fall. The rest of these 1,300 pages are the story of redemption and restoration, and you are part of it. God creates the world, the fall turns it upside down, and you and I come along and turn everything right back the way it is supposed to be.
There was a book written years ago titled *Who Switched the Price Tags?* The author sets up the title in the first chapter, where he describes how he and a buddy used to go into a local drugstore, find something they wanted — say, an item priced at $15 — then find another item priced at $2, and while one of them distracted the store owner, the other would switch the price tags. Now, we are not advocating this; we are explaining the story. What the author says is: I grew up and went into the world, and I realized that somebody had switched all the price tags on everything. What the world says is really valuable, God says doesn't have much value, and what God says is really valuable, the world says is not that valuable.
I am inviting you into Paul's world and into the opportunity you have been given to be an agent of change — to turn the world right side up. That is what you do by your very nature: take a broken world and bring healing to it. And like Paul, you are going to find opposition, and it is going to take courage.
Paul in Athens
Paul faces this opposition. Remember, last week he was in Philippi, where he and Silas were beaten. He then leaves Thessalonica and goes to Berea, where he finds a more inquisitive group of listeners. But in chapter 17, verse 16, Paul comes into Athens.
When I think of Athens, I think of ancient Greece — Plato, Aristotle, Socrates. That era is past by this point, but Paul is there, and there is an interesting word describing his waiting. His waiting is not a passive waiting. If I were in Athens waiting for something to happen, I would be watching ESPN or House Hunters or something. Paul's waiting is an anxious waiting. He is provoked. The Spirit is working in him. He is in this city, and it is filled with idols — speculation is that as many as 30,000 gods were being worshipped there.
William Barclay writes that Athens was long beyond her glory days, yet she was still a city where people came and gathered. It was said there were more statues of gods in Athens than in all the rest of Greece combined. It was easier to meet a god than a man in Athens. They had a god for everything — 30,000 of them.
The Epicureans and the Stoics
So what Paul is doing is reasoning with them. In verse 18, he encounters two groups of people: the Epicureans and the Stoics. This may be where you think, "That's interesting history," but this is your world as well. Some were saying, "What would this idle babbler wish to say?" The word translated "babbler" means seed picker — think of a bird picking its way around. Others said, "No, he's talking about a god." They couldn't figure it out because he was teaching about Jesus.
Look at his audience. The Epicureans believed that life was about pleasure. Their motto: eat, drink, be merry, for tomorrow you may die. They were not very spiritual; they were very material. No afterlife. Everything happens by chance. If there were any gods at all, they were remote and uninvolved. Now, let's connect it — do you know people like this? You might not have called them Epicureans, but you have people all around you who think exactly that way: just have fun, do whatever you want, it doesn't matter, this is all there is, eat, drink, and be merry.
The other group were the Stoics, and they were the flip side of this. Their motto was "grin and bear it." I'll take control of my life. You can cut me, but I won't cry. I can have joy, but I won't smile. Do you know people like that? Sure you do. Their idea was to feel nothing.
A World Without Expression
This is what I see when I walk through the mall. I go to the mall at unusual times — I go when older people go, to walk, so there aren't many people in there. Most of the people there are alone, and I just see them walking around with no smile, no tears. They just exist. Don't you see them? When you are at school and you walk down the hallway, don't you see hundreds of people like this?
I was on the ASU campus to teach a class on leadership, and it was striking. I could not get anyone to make eye contact. I couldn't get anyone to smile. I was clearly out of place — I had slacks on and a bag. Finally, I stopped a young man and asked if there were classrooms in the building. He said yes. I asked where they were. He said downstairs. I asked how to get downstairs, and he said to take the elevator. I then asked where the elevator was, and he pointed me around the corner. When I thanked him, he said, "No problem." Of course it was no problem — he had barely done anything. He grunted four answers at me. It was genuinely unsettling as a human being to walk through that campus: no expression, no joy, no sorrow — just, "Over there, down the hall, take the elevator."
This is the world you live in. And in the midst of this, you come in with the answer. F.F. Bruce makes this observation: before Christ, we talk about Stoics and Epicureans. He says that in a post-Christian world—
Paul's Sermon to the Athenians
Paganism and the world we live in are essentially the same thing. There is no appreciable difference. Everyone's answer is either have fun or suck it up — have fun and exploit it all you can, or just endure it. Verse 21 of chapter 17 tells us that the Athenians and the strangers visiting there were spending their time in nothing other than telling and hearing something new. It was just chatter, and it is what you and I have all around us — a new idea, a new version of trying to explain away the pain and hardship in the world we live in.
We live in a world where there are vast amounts of hardship, pain, strife, and suffering. One explanation is to try to avoid it and have fun. The other is to not feel it, to not try to do something about it. They were worshiping these gods, and in the midst of this they were curious. That is the good news — they were curious, so they gave Paul a chance, and Paul preached a sermon to them.
In verse 22, Paul says, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. While I was passing through and examined the objects of your worship, I found an altar with an inscription, 'To an unknown god.' Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, I proclaim to you." Paul does not come in and slam them or put them down. He says, I have been walking around, and you have religion — 30,000 gods, a god of wind and fire and snow and rain, a god of wood.
But he says the best statue of all — and notice how he relates to them on their own terms — is the statue to an unknown god. Let me tell you who He is. You are already worshiping this God; you just do not know who He is. He is Jesus. He is the answer to all your questions. He is the Creator, He is the Sustainer, He does not need you, He does not need me, He is sovereign — seek Him.
Paul's message continues: you do not have forever. He is patient, but you need to repent. You need to come to Him. And the reaction is exactly what we have seen all along. Some sneer and are done. Some say, how about another day? And some believed. That is what you can expect.
You Have Been Brought Into This Army
You have been brought into the army that God has assembled to infiltrate the world, and we have done it. There is enough firepower in this room to turn Gilbert right side up. All we have to do is live it. All we have to do — and you have heard this before — is make the invisible God visible and speak the truth boldly.
When you start to live this way, with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control, people are going to want to know what is going on with you. They are going to know there is something different about you, and they are going to want to know what it is. When you tell them, do not be surprised if some sneer, some say maybe another day, and some believe. Do not be surprised when there is opposition and pushback. That is the normal reaction. This is the normal Christian life.
The Repetitive, Glorious Message
Having taught twice in the last three or four weeks, this is exactly what we have heard for five or six weeks in a row. My daughter texted me last night and said she was excited to hear me the next day and asked if I had something to say. Sandy asked the same question. I texted back that the text is very repetitive. Here is what my daughter texted back, and she speaks for many of you in this room: God created, man fell, enters sin, a need for a Redeemer. Jesus comes, man cannot believe. God does it all in spite of us. Grace, grace, grace, grace, Jesus alone. That is the message.
If you have been paying that much attention, and if you are that sharp, you have heard this message eight times in the last eight weeks. So here is the question: are you turning your world upside down? You have all the nuts and bolts — are you doing it? Are you turning your world right side up? When you walk out of the classroom, do people around you stop and think, wow, what just happened? When you walk out of a meeting, do people take notice? When someone has an encounter with you at the gym, do they walk away thinking, something is different about that person? That is what God has called you to. That is what the book of Acts is about. God is redeeming the world, and you are part of that story.
His Story, Not Yours
One last point. God is not asking you to graft Him into your life. He is grafting you into His story. This is not about you. I know you want to make it about you, and I know you want to be a key figure in this, and I know you want to be at the center of it — but it is His story, not your story.
The only way your life is ever going to have true meaning and significance — and at my age we are starting to talk about legacy — is if you are being used by God to turn your world right side up. The only legacy that matters is that one.
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Father, thank You for this truth. It is all around us. Take it. Make it real in our lives. Use us. Help us turn our world right side up. We pray that in Jesus' name, amen.