The Urban Alternative - Tony Evans

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
People have been saved for years. Who can't take their
Bible and lead a person to Christ. There's no excuse
for that.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Doctor Tony Evans says, there's an epidemic of biblical illiteracy
in the church.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
We will say what we believe, and we will really
believe it, but we can't prove it.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings
from the archives of doctor Tony Evans. Today, Doctor Evans
continues his look at the earliest days of the Church
chronicled in the Book of Acts. It's one amazing story
after another, driving home again and again, how much can
be accomplished when we unleash the power of the Holy Spirit.

(00:39):
Let's join him.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Well, we're now in chapter seventeen of the Book of Acts,
and Paul now makes the one hundred mile trip to Thessalonika,
which is the capital of Macedonia, a strategic city for
the spreading of the Gospel both east and west. Paul's
custom in verse two he goes to the synagogue first,

(01:04):
because the Jews had a foundation of the Old Testament
that he could build a fund for the presentation of
the Gospel, which was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and he
was trying to help them to see that. And as
he has his ministry there giving evidence of Christ verse three,
that he had to suffer and rise again from the dead.

(01:24):
This Jesus, whom I am proclaiming to you, is the Christ.
So that was his point. He reasons to them from
the scripture, using the word of God to show Jesus
is the fulfillment. So all of this is the preparation
for Jesus. And now Paul is saying, Jesus is that fulfillment.
And so Paul was successful in that some were persuaded

(01:44):
verse four, and a large number of godfearing Greeks and
a number of leading women express faith. But he's being
more successful among the gentiles than he is among the Jews,
as you'll see in verse five five, because the Jewish
leaders now become jealous, it says, taking along some wicked

(02:07):
men from the marketplace, and they form a mob and
set the city in an uproar. They wanted to get
Rome involved in attacking Christianity. Rome would not get involved
if it was a religious issue, because Rome allowed for
different religions. But to claim there is another king. When

(02:27):
Caesar is the only king is to politicize the issue.
In order to get pushback from the Roman government. They
stir up the crowd in verse eight. And the city
authorities who heard these things, and when they have received
a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them
a meaning get rid of Paul and Silence. Get rid

(02:48):
of them because they're causing too much chaos in the
community preaching this Jesus. And so to avoid any more
confusion verse ten, Paul and Silence go away by night
to Berea. And so now we're introduced to the Bahrean Christians,
who really become a model for Christian maturity and Bible study.

(03:10):
Verse eleven. Now these were more noble than those in
Thessala Nike of the Brians, for they receive the word
with great eagerness. Examine the scriptures daily to see whether
these things were so. How you receive the word will
affect what the word does for you. Some people are

(03:30):
irritated by the word, frustrated by the word, mad at
the word. They do not receive. The idea of receiving
is welcoming. I want to know the truth. Anyone who
wants to know the truth. God's not going to hide
the truth from them. So they welcome the truth with eagerness.
And when they did so, they looked for themselves on

(03:53):
a daily basis to see whether these things were so.
Because they were so, they wanted to know the truth.
And so this for the Word of God was emblematic
of the Brian believers in verse twelve. So many of
them got saved because they're listening and open to the scriptures,
along with a number of prominent Greek women and men.

(04:16):
So some of the community leaders also came to faith.
But when the Jews Offessoralonaika found out that the Word
of God had been proclaimed by Paul and Berea also
they came there as well, agitating and staring up the crowds.

(04:37):
And immediately the Brethren sent Paul out to go as
far as the sea, and Silace and Timothy remained there.
And so the confusion is following Paul wherever he goes
because of his tenacity for the proclamation of the truth
of the Gospel. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens,

(04:58):
so he's now in Athens, Greece, and his spirit was
being provoked within him as he was observing a city
full of idols. So he's in Athens and he sees
all these idols, and so he did what he always
did Verse seventeen. He's reading with him from the scriptures.
This is every day, all day, going from one place
to another, proclaiming Jesus. Then some of the Epicureans and

(05:22):
Stoics philosophers were conversing with Paul. 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. Well, both of these groups
they denied the resurrection. So the Epicureans basically, you live

(05:43):
for now. You know, you want to live as nice
a life as you can, free from as much pain
as you can, do the best you can, because this
is all the life that there is. The Stoics were more,
God is kind of in everything. Everything is God. It's
sort of a pantheistic kind of thing. But in either
case there was no resurrection. So they said, Paul is

(06:06):
a babbler. You know, he's picking up something from here
and picking up something from there, and picking up something
from there, and we don't know where he's coming. From
with this Jesus stuff, especially since he's proclaiming this resurrection.
Paul stands in the midst and men of Athens. I
observe that you are very religious in all respects, because

(06:27):
they're having this conversation about God, about religion at least,
So this is an evangelistic strategy. Paul starts where they are,
for while I was passing through and examining the objects
of your worship, I was just looking around as I
came into this area. I also found an altar to

(06:48):
this inscription to an unknown God. Therefore, what you worship
in ignorance, this I proclaimed to you. He switched on
them a bad boy, he says, y'all religious, y'all talk
about God. That's a great thing. Y'all church people, so
to speak, you talk about religious. Oh, you got an

(07:10):
altar to the God that you are not sure who
he is? He said, let me tell you about him.
I want to proclaim him to you, the God who
made the world and all things in it. So he
establishes God as creator, since he is Lord of heaven
and earth does not dwell in temples made by human hands.

(07:32):
So now he says, not only is God creator He's
transcendent because he is not humanly crafted like the altar
you built to the unknown God. Okay, nor is he
served by human hands as though he needs anything. So
now he establishes the doctrine of the independence of God,

(07:53):
just be cause you didn't know it. He needs nothing.
God is self sufficient that I am. In other words,
I am all I ever need to be by me,
all right. So God never has to go outside of
himself to get anything for himself. Or he is sufficient
in himself as though he needed anything, since he himself

(08:16):
gives to all people life and breath and all things.
So he gives life. Well, now, if he gives life,
that means that the Creator is a living being. He's
not some energy force. He gives life to all things.

(08:38):
And he made from one man. Okay. That takes us
all the way back to Adam. Takes us back to
the creation of the human race. I want to know
how man got here, No one man, okay, every nation
of mankind to live on the face of the earth.
Having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.

(08:59):
He's created the nations and the national boundaries that they
would seek God. In other words, God created men, so
that they would become dependent and search for him, if
perhaps they might grope for him, because they don't really
know who he is, but they want to know if
he's there and find him. Though he is not far

(09:20):
from each one of us. So he's established that God
has transcended. But now he jumps and says, God is imminent.
Imminent means close by. So he's way out there, and
he's real close up here. He's the holy other, you know,
outside of time and space and creation, and he's closer
to you than your breath. So he's both transcended and eminent.

(09:44):
And he says, for in him we live and move
and exist, and even some of your poets have said,
for we are also his children. So he quotes a poet,
he quotes outside information as people use quotes to suppor
his point being, then the children of God, we ought
not to think that the divine nature is like gold

(10:07):
or silver or stone, an image formed by an art
and thought of man. God despises anything created in his
creation that's supposed to be a replica of him, because
anything you make one, he made it so you could
make it. And number two, it will be a poor rendition.

(10:27):
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead.
Some began to sneer, but others said, we shall hear
you again concerning this. So Paul went out of their mints.
But some of the men joined him and believed. A
woman and others with them, so there were some converts there.
From Paul's message. There were some people who were interested,

(10:49):
we want to hear more about this, And then there
were people who were joking. They sneered because he was
talking about resurrection from the dead. So again Paul is
now demonstrating his commitment to preach the Gospel everywhere he
could well.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
The next stop on Paul's journey is the pagan city
of Corinth, and doctor Evans will tell us what happened
there when he continues our message in just a moment.
It's all part of his powerful teaching series taking us
through the Book of Acts, a profound exploration of the
early Church and its powerful lessons for our lives today.
We'd like to offer you all fourteen full length messages

(11:26):
in this two volume audio collection, available on CD or
digital download, along with our thanks when you make a
generous contribution to help keep Tony's teaching on this station
in addition to the Complete as audio series, we are
excited to include an added bonus, his powerful book Kingdom Purpose,
designed to help you discover you're one of a kind

(11:48):
calling from God and learn how to live it out
with passion and clarity. To take advantage of this special
limited time offer, visit us today at Tonyevans dot org
or College at one eight eight hundred thirty two twenty two. Again,
that's online at Tony Evans DOTRG or by phone at

(12:09):
one eight hundred eight hundred three two two two. Well right, now,
here's doctor Evans once again with more of today's message.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
In chapter eighteen, Paul now goes to Corinth, a very
strategically wicked city. It had the Acocarnthis, which was a
temple with a thousand prostitutes. On one side of the
temple was a big restaurant. On the other side of
the temple was a brothel. So he had to address

(12:39):
all of that. But there he finds a Jew named
Aquilla and his wife Priscilla. Because Claudius had commanded all
the Jews to leave Rome because of all the controversy
and disturbance has taken place. He told the Jews to
leave the capital area of Rome, and he finds them

(12:59):
because because they were of the same trade verse three.
In other words, they were tent makers. And he was
reading in the synagogue every Sabbath trying to persuade the
Jews and the Greeks. So Paul's back at it again,
solemnly testifying verse five. And when they resisted in blasphemed.
He shook out his garment and said to them, your

(13:21):
blood be on your heads. I am clean. From now on,
I will go to the gentiles. Okay, let me tell
you about the phrase shaking the dust off your feet,
because you see that in a number times in the
New Testament, when a Jew passed through a Gentile area
and then came back to a Jewish area or to

(13:42):
his Jewish home, he would shake the dust, that is,
the dirt off the feet because he walked through a
gentile region, and because the Gentiles were viewed as unclean
by the Jews, they didn't want to bring that un
cleanness back to their home, and so symbolically they would

(14:05):
shake the dust off their feet, meaning I'm shaking off
the uncleanness of the gentiles as I enter into my
Jewish home. So that's the background of the phrase, shake
the dust off my feet. So he left there and
he goes to the House of Tedious Justice, a worshiper
of God whose house was next to the synagogue. Christmas,

(14:27):
the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with
all of his household, and many of the Corinthians when
they heard, were believing and were baptized. So Paul is
still having success in the ministry. But Paul is very
human verse nine. And the Lord said to Paul in
the night by a vision, do not be afraid any longer,

(14:50):
but go on speaking, and do not be silent. Okay,
you get this superman image of Paul because he's going anywhere,
saying anything where, but inside he was struggling emotionally because
he says, do not be frayed any longer. So on

(15:12):
the inside he's struggling, but on the outside he's proclaiming.
So God sometimes has to deal with our emotions. He
has to calm us down when we're doing the right thing,
but the right thing is causing internal struggle verse eleven.
So he settles there for a year and six months,

(15:32):
teaching the word of God among them. But while Gallio
was pro counsel, the Jews with one accord rose up
against Paul. He's constantly having to battle of the Jews,
and brought him before the judgment. See, okay, the beama.
You go to Corinth right now, you will see the bema.

(15:53):
The bema was a raised platform where the judges sat
to make judicial judgments. That's why it's called the judgment seed.
So you made political judgments, you made criminal judgments. It
was a place of judgment. Okay. So believers stand before
the judgment seat of Christ to get our reward. It's

(16:15):
a place to judge our work while on earth as Christians,
and the Bible says, all will stand at the judgment
seed of Christ. What kind of Christian were you? So
has nothing to do with going to heaven and not
going to heaven. Only believers. Those who are going to
heaven go to the judgment seat of Christ. So this
is the same concept here, but in a political environment.

(16:37):
So they rise up and they want to bring in
before Gallio at the judgment seas saying, this man persuades
men to worship God contrary to the law. Okay, contrary
to the law. But when Paul went about to open
his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews. If it were

(16:58):
a matter of wrong, of vicious crime, O Jews, it
would be reasonable for me to put up with you
to hear this case. But if there are questions about
words and names and your own law, meaning your religious laws,
the Jewish laws, look after it yourselves. I am unwilling

(17:20):
to be a judge of these kinds of matters. I
don't get into your religious stuff. If you were dealing
with a crime thing, or you're dealing with a Roman
legal thing, then I'd get involved with that, But I
don't get involved with you dealing with them. And he
drove them away from the judgment seat, and they all
took hold of Sasteenes, the leader of the synagogue, and

(17:41):
began beating him in front of the judgment seat. So obviously,
either this man is a believer, or he at least
was sympathetic to Paul, so that mad at him for
whatever sympathy or faith he exhibited. And they couldn't take
it out on Paul because Gallio, so they take it

(18:02):
out on the person who was letting him do all
this teaching and preaching in the synagogue. Paul, having remained
many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put
out to see. He comes to Ephesus and he left
them there. He enters the synagogue and reasons with the Jews,
so he's back at it again where they're ask him

(18:25):
to stay longer. He did not consent, but taking leave
of them, saying I will return to you. Watch this again.
If God wills, he set sail for Ephesis. You always
put your plans in the hands of God. Never make
final plans. So always give room for God to intervene

(18:51):
in your plans. Give God the freedom to switch on
you because he sees where you are going before you
get there. He knows things about your tomorrow you don't know.
So he says, oh, yeah, I'll come back if God wills.
That's not just a statement, Lord willing. It's not supposed

(19:13):
to be a statement. It's a philosophy, and that philosophy says, Lord,
this is what I plan to do. The Bible says,
it's okay to plan, this is what I want to do,
this is what I think I should do, but not
my will, Your will be done. It is giving divine
fluidity and flexibility while you still plan. Okay, give God

(19:34):
that freedom to move. So he says, if the Lord
wills then he will return. So coming to the last
few verses, there's a Jew there name Apollos. He sounds strong, Apollos,
Alexandrian by birth. He's a very eloquent man, and he's mighty.

(19:57):
In the scriptures, the man had been instructed in the
way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he
was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being
acquainted only with the baptism of John. So he had
not gotten all the new information he had gotten about
the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ. He was

(20:18):
all strained on that, but not the coming of the
Holy Spirit and all this new things that came with him.
He hadn't gotten that information yet because it hadn't traveled
that far yet. So he runs into Paul and he
begins to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when
Priscilla and Aquilla heard him, they took him aside and

(20:39):
explained to him the way of God more accurately. In
other words, they filled in the blanks that he was
unaware of. Please notice it was Priscilla and Aquilla. It
was a husband and a wife. Please notice they were
working together. Please notice that Priscilla's name is first. That's
not normal. It would normally be the man's name first.

(21:00):
So for Priscilla's name to be first indicates she was
more of the dominant teacher. And that's one of the
things we want to you have to distinguish between gifts
and office, because a woman can have a gift that
does not equal the office. Because when he when he
talks about the home that they went to, it says

(21:20):
he found a jew in verse two named Aquilla. So
he starts with the man, but when he talks about
the teaching, he starts with Priscilla. So evidently, from a
gifting standpoint, she was the stronger person. And so a
Priscilla quiller heard him. They took him aside and explained
to him the way of God more accurately. But they

(21:41):
did do it as a team, and they encouraged him.
They took him aside, they say, look, there's some blanks
that you're missing. They didn't take him out publicly and
say you miss some stuff. Let's talk, let's let's fill
in the gaps. And the brother encouraged him and rode
to the disciples to welcome him. And when they had arrived,
he greatly helped those those who had believed through grace,

(22:02):
for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by
the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. This is where
we often are not equipped, because far too many of
us cannot argue from the scriptures our belief. We will
say what we believe, and we will really believe it,

(22:23):
but we can't prove it. You need the scriptures for you,
but you also need the scriptures to defend from the
scriptures what you say you believe. People have been saved
for years. Who can't take their Bible and lead a
person to Christ. There's no excuse for that. To be
able to use your Bible to show a person how
to become a Christian, or to use your Bible to

(22:45):
help people walk through a certain area. Now, nobody's going
to master the whole Bible you take. You know, I've
been studying the Bible for an appreciation for for almost
fifty years and passed me for forty one years, and
I've just scratched the surface of the Bible. I mean,
this stuff I've never even touched in the scriptures yet
and probably won't this lifetime. But there should be a

(23:08):
growing knowledge and use of the scriptures to defend what
you say you believe.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
Doctor Tony Evans wrapping up today with the thought about
the importance of having a thorough understanding of the Bible
don't forget. Today's lesson is part of Tony's captivating series
on the Book of Acts, and as I mentioned, you
can get the full length version of all fourteen messages
in this two volume audio collection available on CD or

(23:38):
digital download when you make a donation to support our
mission of spreading Biblical wisdom and renewal. Plus as a
special bonus, you'll receive doctor evans insightful book, Kingdom Purpose,
which will guide you in discovering your divine calling. Time
is running out on this special double offer, so call
us today to make the arrangements at one eight hundred,

(24:00):
eight hundred thirty two twenty two. Our resource center is
open twenty four to seven, so you can reach out
any time of the day or night. That's one eight
hundred eight hundred three two two two, or visit Tonyevans
dot org. You'll find all the details right on the
homepage again Tonyevans dot Org. Well, tomorrow doctor Evans will

(24:22):
pick up his study of the Book of Acts in
chapter nineteen, where we'll see how the Gospel spread to
a whole new continent and learn how the churches God
given authority came into play overcoming challenges and obstacles. Be
sure to join us