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Book: Acts
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Acts 17:1-3 Jesus is Messiah
I. Paul reasoned with them out of the scriptures.
A. There are those who have the opinion that when a person has
embraced Christianity that they have somehow taken leave of
their senses.
1. Quite the contrary he has come to his senses.
2. Believing that Jesus is the Messiah is a very
reasonable thing.
3. The salvation from sin is a very reasonable offer that
God has made to us. "Come now let us reason together
saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, you may
be as white as snow."
4. It is so reasonable you must search for some reason as
to why a reasonable person would not accept it.
B. Those who reject Jesus as the Messiah do so because they are
deceived and their eyes are blinded by Satan. It is a totally
unreasonable stance.
1. Paul speaks of how the god of this world has blinded
their eyes that they cannot see.
2. The prophet Isaiah said, "Having eyes to see, they see
not and ears to hear, they hear not."
3. Paul declares, "Professing themselves to be wise, they
have become fools."
4. He said, that because they did not want to retain God
in their minds, God gave them over to reprobate minds.
5. Paul also said,
2TH 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved.
2TH 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie:
2TH 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness.
C. People just don't stop to consider.
1. God said, "O that they were wise, that they understood
this, that they would consider their latter end."
a. If you would only look down the path and see
where it is leading you.
b. If you would only consider the final
consequences of a life of sin.
2. Twice through the prophet Habakkuk God called on the
people consider their ways.
3. The author of the book of Hebrews called on us to
consider Christ Jesus.
D. I believe that the theory of evolution has to be the most
irrational, idiotic theory ever invented by the minds of evil
men.
1. To look at the wonders of the human body, the organs,
the brain, the digestive system, the capacity of sight,
hearing, understanding, the capacity to decide, the
heart pumping the blood to the cells providing them
with oxygen and nutrients, how could a thinking person
ever believe that this just came about by fortuitus
occurrences of accidental circumstances.
2. Or as they theorize, matter acting on matter given
sufficient time can create anything.
a. My new watch.
b. Lets go searching through the desert this
afternoon, perhaps we can find a new Oldsmobile
emerging out of the sand with digitalized dash
and a bose stereo system.
c. Imagine finding a car that is so sophisticated
that it would repair itself whenever you
smashed a fender. They now advertise cars that
will go 100,000 miles before the first tune up.
Imagine one that if blew the engine, it would
repair itself, or if someone said, "Your gas
tank is leaking." You would say, "That's all
right, it will stop in a few seconds as the gas
develops little platelet that will seal the
whole. It will be like new in a few days." And
if you wanted a new little car, just
park it besides your wife's car in the garage,
and in about nine months you should have a cute
little model that is a cross between her Ford,
and your Cadillac.
d. Why do you laugh? Because you know that it is
absurd.
e. It is even more absurd to say that our bodies
have evolved through fortuitous occurrences of
accidental circumstances.
II. Paul was reasoning with them about their scriptures concerning their
Messiah.
A. He was proving to them with their scriptures that the Messiah
had suffer and rise from the dead.
1. He no doubt used Isaiah 53.
ISA 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from
him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
ISA 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we
did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
ISA 53:5 But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for
our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and
with his stripes we are healed.
ISA 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to
his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us
all.
ISA 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his
mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
ISA 53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall
declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the
living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
ISA 53:9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his
death; because he had done no violence, neither [was any] deceit
in his mouth.
ISA 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put [him] to
grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he
shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the
pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
ISA 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be
satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
ISA 53:12 Therefore will I divide him [a portion] with the great, and he
shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured
out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the
transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made
intercession for the transgressors.
B. He probably coupled these with Psalm 22 which we read this
morning. and then he perhaps led them to Psalm 16
PSA 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
III. He then alleged that the Jesus who He preached to them was the
Messiah.
A. Not only did He fulfill the prophesies in these passages, but
in all more than three hundred of the predictions made of the
Messiah in the Old Testament.
1. First of all it would be mathematicly impossible for
any one man to fulfill all of the predictions. Yet
Jesus did.
2. The amazing thing to me is that thousands of Jews were
ready to hail Rabbi Scherson as the messiah, even
though he was not born of a virgin in Bethlehem. Two of
more than the three hundred requirements if he were the
true messiah.
B. If you truly stop to consider,
1. The Bible purports itself and proves itself to be the
inspired word of God.
2. No other book has been so thoroughly examined to find
fatal flaws than the Bible. Surely if they existed they
would have been found by now. Many of those who have
searched for the fatal flaw have ended up becoming
believers.
3. No other book has stood the test of time.
4. No other book has staked its authenticity on declaring
in advance, thousands of events that would happen in
the future. Many of them hundreds of years before they
happened, some of them even thousands of years before
they took place.
IV. A person does not reject Jesus as the Messiah on intellectual grounds.
There are other reasons.
A. They don't want to see. "None so blind as those who will not
see."
B. They don't want to change their life styles as would be
required if they embraced Jesus Christ.
1. I can see why who wanted to continue as a drug dealer
would reject Him.
2. I can see why a person who wanted to continue in
prostitution would reject Him.
3. I can see why those who want to continue their
life styles would reject Him.
4. For the life of me, I cannot see how a person with a
sound mind, who wanted to live a good life would reject
Him.
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