Author: BTP

“All the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing” (Acts 17:21).

The Greeks were a clever and a curious people, and Athens was the central city of Greece. All of the most intelligent and educated people gathered there, and spent their time telling or listening to the news. The news could be about anything—political news, commercial news, religious news—it did not matter, as long as it was something new and different.

Sadly, they worshiped all kinds of heathen gods, which were inventions of man’s mind, and had a lot of idols in the city.

There is nothing wrong with having a curious mind that wants to learn more, but tomorrow we will see whether they wanted to hear the real truth from the Apostle Paul.

“And some said…he [the Apostle Paul] seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18).

This is the Lord’s day—the day that our Lord rose from the dead. Those who preached the gospel in the early church clearly recognized the importance of emphasizing the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, for if He were still in the grave, He would be just like every other religious leader. But Christianity can show the world an empty tomb, for the One who once lay there is now risen, ascended to heaven, and seated there at God’s right hand.

Because He is risen from the dead, we can come together and remember Him in death. We could not remember Him in death if He were still dead; that would not make sense. My parents are both dead, as far as this world is concerned, and their bodies are in a grave. I remember them as they were when they were alive. But because the Lord Jesus is alive, we can remember Him in death. What a privilege that is!

“For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14).

On a country road near our home, a young man who was only 19 years old was killed in a car crash last year (2023). Families and friends often put flowers and possibly a cross at the site where someone is killed, but this young man’s family did much more than that. They erected a box with solar lights in it, so that those lights are on every night, even in all the snow and cold of a Canadian winter. They want to remind everyone that their loved one was killed there.

We can certainly sympathize with his family and friends, but all this reminds us of the truth of our verse for today. Even if we live a full life, it is very short compared to eternity. Had that young man given any thought as to where he would spend eternity? We do not know, but it is too late for him to think about that now. But for those of us who are still alive, and able to think about eternity, how important it is to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and to be sure that whatever happens to us, we will go to be with Him!

“And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go…But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? Nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out” (Acts 16:35,37).

When the magistrates told the serjeants (the police) to go and let Paul and Silas out of jail, Paul said that the magistrates should come themselves and bring them out. Was Paul right to insist on this? Yes, he was. He did not complain about what had happened to them, neither did he report it to higher authorities, and try to get the magistrates in trouble.

However, he wanted to reach the consciences of those magistrates, because they had acted unlawfully, and because they had beaten and imprisoned Paul and Silas without bothering to find out what really had happened. This is a good example for us too. If the world treats us wrongly we should submit to it, but it is not wrong on our side to remind them that they are doing wrong, and that they are responsible to God for their actions.

“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God…and suddenly there was a great earthquake…and immediately all the doors were opened…and the keeper of the prison…called for a light…and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:25-27,29-31).

When Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison, it certainly looked as if Satan had won. But God has His own ways of saving souls, and had His eye on the jailer who looked after that prison. When Paul and Silas prayed and sang, God allowed an earthquake to shake that prison so violently that all the doors were opened, and everybody’s bands (chains, stocks, etc.) were loosed. But no one escaped; the Lord kept them there, and Paul and Silas were able to tell the jailer how to be saved.

What a wonderful ending to a terrible time of beating and being imprisoned! Yes, it was awful to be beaten and imprisoned, but the Lord was working, and the jailer and his whole household believed. Paul and Silas probably carried scars from those beatings for the rest of their lives, but I am sure they thought it was worth it, to see that jailer and his family saved.

“But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas…and brought them to the magistrates…and the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison” (Acts 16:18-23).

 Paul knew very well that it was an evil spirit that controlled that young woman, and he used the power of the name of the Jesus Christ to cast it out of her. But that woman was also controlled by some men who made money when she told people what she thought was going to happen in the future. Now that the evil spirit was gone, they would not make any more money from her. Satan was behind all this, for he knew that Paul and Silas would not want a demon to be connected with them and their gospel preaching. When Paul cast out the demon, Satan used it to get Paul and Silas beaten and eventually thrown into prison. He thought that this would put a stop to their preaching in Philippi. But the Lord got the victory, as we will see tomorrow.

“And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel [young woman] possessed with a spirit of divination met us…the same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation” (Acts 16:16-17).

Paul and Silas had gone to the city of Philippi to preach the gospel, and they were there for quite a few days. During that time a young woman followed them, crying out that they were God’s servants, and showing people the way of salvation. Since the woman was possessed with an evil spirit (a demon), we might wonder why the spirit would tell the truth about Paul and Silas, and that they had come to Philippi to tell people how to get saved.

Does Satan really want people to get saved? No, he definitely does not. But Satan knows that God’s power is greater than his power, and he sometimes pretends to be part of the work of the Lord, in order to try and spoil it. This is exactly what happened there in Philippi, and we will see tomorrow what Satan did.

“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23).

Last week, on Saturday, I said that we would see another kind of mountain today. I have used a verse from Mark’s gospel, but it is in connection with the same incident we saw on Saturday—the fig tree withering away.

Sometimes in our lives there are situations that seem like mountains to us. They are so big that we feel that we cannot handle them. I remember one occasion, when I was in high school, and a number of bad things happened to me all at once. When I look back on them, they do not seem all that serious, but they seemed like mountains then. Maybe this has happened to you too.

When this happens to us, we can go to the Lord in prayer, and ask Him to remove the mountain. He may not remove it right away, but He is able to deal with difficult and complicated situations that seem like mountains to us. But we must go to the Lord in faith and trust Him to help us. He is willing to do this for us, if we ask Him.

“The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner” (Matthew 21:42).

When stone masons are building a house or some other building, they must choose the stones carefully. Sometimes a stone does not seem to them to fit anywhere, and they discard it. The Jewish leaders took the place of being builders in a spiritual sense, and the Lord Jesus did not fit into their plans. They did not want Him, and tried to get rid of Him.

But what has happened? The very stone that the builders rejected has become the most important stone in the building—the corner stone. God is also building, and the Lord Jesus is now the cornerstone of that building. Everything is placed into that building according to His position. His death on Calvary’s cross fitted Him to be the cornerstone of God’s building, and you and I who are saved are now also stones in that building.

Our verse today is quoted from the Psalms. See if you can find it in the book of Psalms. Away back in the Old Testament, God had said that His Son would be rejected, but that He would end up being the most important stone in the building.

“If ye have faith, and doubt not…if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done” (Matthew 21:21).

This verse appears in Mark’s gospel also, and it has caused a lot of discussion among believers. Did the Lord Jesus really mean that you and I should want to throw a mountain into the sea? No, for although God’s power could certainly do it, yet there would be no point to it.

In the sense in which this verse appears in connection with the drying up of the fig tree, I suggest that the mountain here refers to the Jews and their religion. Because they had rejected their Messiah, God was going to allow them to be driven out of their land, and scattered among the nations. The sea in the Bible often speaks of the nations of this world.

This actually happened, for about forty years after this, the Roman general Titus came against Jerusalem and besieged it. The temple was destroyed, many of the Jews were killed, and many more were taken captive and eventually sold into slavery. For almost 1900 years, the Jews had no place on earth to call home. The mountain was indeed removed, and cast into the sea. God was going to start something new (Christianity), and instead of expecting something FROM man, He was going to give something TO man.

On Monday, we will see another meaning to this word “mountain.”