Acts 17:1-15 - Where Will You Go From Here? - May 9, 2021

Nick and Mya: what are you thinking about right now? I’m guessing that at this moment you’re probably not thinking about much more than just getting through this service, going home, changing out of your dress clothes and having lunch. But for a few minutes I want to expand your horizon, I want you to think beyond today – to high school, college, a career, marriage, kids. Believe it or not, those things are not as far away as you may think – just ask your parents! Today marks the conclusion of your formal childhood training in the Christian faith. After today I won’t make you memorize any more Bible passages or parts of the Catechism or take quizzes to test your knowledge. That might seem like a huge relief. But here’s the thing. Life only gets more complicated from here and when you walk out those doors as confirmed Christians, the devil will have placed a huge target on your backs. So the question I want you, Nick and Mya – and really all of us – to consider this morning is: where will you go from here?

Our text contains the familiar comparison of the Thessalonians and the Bereans – giving the Thessalonian Christians the reputation of being rather lazy and complacent when compared to the eager beaver Bereans. This reputation has endured through the ages: there are all sorts of Berean churches – have you ever heard of Thessalonica Lutheran Church? But is that reputation accurate? Probably not; at least not completely. In a letter he later sent to the Thessalonians, Paul wrote: when you received God’s word, which you heard from us, you did not receive it as the word of men but as the word of God (as it really is), which is now at work in you who believe (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Is that you, Nick and Mya? Is that the rest of us? Do we receive the words we hear in worship and Bible class as the word of God and not just as the words of men? How about a little test? Which do we remember more often: the CDC reminder to wash our hands regularly or the washing the Triune God gave us in Holy Baptism? Which of these do we spend more time discussing with family and friends: the proclamations handed out by the county health department or the proclamations given from pulpits like this? Which do we really regard as irrefutable, undeniable facts: the Covid-19 statistics splashed on our TVs, smartphones, and radios or the fact that God delivers forgiveness, life and salvation through the Gospel in Baptism, Absolution and Holy Communion?

The Thessalonians can serve as an example for us in this regard. They received the preaching of Paul as the very word of God. They received, according to Luke’s description here in Acts 17, the three basic truths which are necessary to believe if you are to be saved from eternal death in hell – the same basic truths you, Nick and Mya, were baptized into, learned in Sunday school and confirmation and will be confessing in just moments. Truth 1: the Christ had to suffer on the cross for your sins; Truth 2: the Christ had to…rise from the dead for your justification (Romans 4:25); Truth 3: this Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ. This is the Gospel. This is what God has done to save you. This is what you will be confessing here today.

Now, in spite of the fact that the Thessalonians received Paul’s message as the Word of God – their failure to dive deeply into Scripture on their own left some dangerous gaps in their faith and understanding: about the resurrection of the dead (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), the signs of the end of the world (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11), the importance of individual work-ethic (2 Thessalonians 3:6-15) and even intimacy within marriage (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8). (I mention that last one just to tempt you to go home and read 1 and 2 Thessalonians for yourselves.) The point, however, for you, Nick and Mya (and all of you) is that it if you simply sit in that chair and swallow everything said here without carefully examining the Scriptures for yourself – then it will simply remain something that your pastor or your church believes and confesses. If you fail to examine the Scriptures for yourselves, then you will always be vulnerable to false teachers – for example: high school and college teachers who take great joy in targeting Christians and attempting to shake them from their faith. Don’t get me wrong – I do pray that you receive the means of grace here at church as they are: the words and works of God. But, if one hour a week is your only contact with God’s Word, there’s the very real danger that your faith will remain shallow – and you will be vulnerable to the deceptions of the devil and the troubles and worries of life in this world (Matthew 13:18-23). Martin Luther himself warned about this kind of faith. He called it “coal miner’s faith.” When asked what he believed, the coal miner said he believed what the church believed, and when asked what the church believed, he said it believed what he believed. Luther said, “God preserve us from such faith” (F. Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, II, 429). Why? Because it’s faith in faith, not faith anchored in what God has said, done and promised in his Word.

So, Nick and Mya, where will you go from here? Do you want to go to Thessalonica? Do you want to receive what you learned in confirmation class as the Word of God and just leave it at that? Are you satisfied with just knowing the basics – some of which are probably already beginning to slip from your minds? (For example: could you still recite the 10 Commandments like you could last fall?) Will you take your Catechism and Bible and shove them onto a shelf somewhere, never to be seen again until the day you move out? How about the rest of us? Last week’s examination was pretty revealing, wasn’t it? How many of us were humbled or even humiliated by our own lack of knowledge of the basics of Christian doctrine? Where will we go from here?

That’s not just the question I’m asking you today, it’s the question Paul was probably asking himself after some jealous Jews in Thessalonica stirred up a riot, forcing Paul and Silas to flee the city. Paul may not have known where he was going, but the wisdom of his Christian friends and the will of God guided Paul and Silas to another city in Macedonia: Berea.

Luke says that the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians. How? Why? They received the word very eagerly and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these things were so. Do you see the distinction here? It’s not that the Bereans were believers and the Thessalonians unbelievers – Paul repeatedly calls the Thessalonians believers in his later letters to them (1 Thessalonians 1:1; 1:4; 2:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1; 1:3; 2:1; etc.). It’s not that the Bereans were smarter than the Thessalonians. It’s not that Paul delivered a different or more eloquent or convincing message to the Bereans than he did to the Thessalonians. So if the difference wasn’t the speaker or the message, what’s the difference? What they did with that message! The Thessalonians, apparently, heard it, accepted it, said “amen,” went home – and left it at that – at least some of them. In contrast, the Bereans not only received the word eagerly but they examined the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was true. They were obedient to God’s command through the apostle John: dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).

What sorts of things do you think they were examining about Paul’s message to them? Well, at the very least it had to include the three truths Paul had proclaimed in Thessalonica and everywhere else he went: 1) the Christ had to suffer and die for their sins; 2) the Christ had to…rise from the dead; 3) this Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ. Paul told them that through faith in Jesus they would be free from sin, death and the power of the devil. Isn’t it important to know with certainty if that’s true or not? Is there anything in the world it’s more important to be sure about than that Jesus is who he said he is and did what he said he was going to do in order to forgive your sins and give you eternal life? If that’s not true, then, Mya and Nick, you’ve just wasted two years of Wednesdays with me in confirmation class and you should never waste your time here again. But, if it is true, then how could there possibly be anything more important? (In fact, in a few moments I’m going to ask you to swear that these things are true in front of God, your families and this congregation. You’re going to swear that you’d rather die than fall away from these truths about Jesus. It’s not an exaggeration to say that your eternity hangs on whether the things you will confess about Jesus are true or not.)

But there’s also a very practical aspect to aspiring to be like the Bereans in their careful examination of the Scriptures too – for you, Nick and Mya, and for all of us. Last week’s examination was a thorough test of your faith – but it won’t be the last. You’ll be tested by your friends, your teachers, your coworkers, by boyfriends and girlfriends – by the godless and depraved culture around you. The testing will never end. How are you going to respond? In large part, that depends where you go from here. When it comes to the origin of the universe, you could simply say that you don’t believe in the “big-bang” or evolution; it’d be better to say that the only eye-witness testimony we have tells us that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). When your friends are wondering why the world is so filled with discrimination and violence and evil, you could get sucked into a debate about systemic racism and economic inequality; but the reality is that out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimonies and blasphemies (Matthew 15:19). When it comes to LGBTQ issues, you could say that your church forbids them; it’d be better to say God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27) and do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral nor…[homosexuals]…will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). When it comes to the temptations that come with dating, you could say, “My parents don’t want me to do that;” it’d be better to say marriage is to be held in honor by all, and the marriage bed is to be kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers (Hebrews 13:4). I know you know these things because we spent two years together learning them. But you will only be able to give these responses if you become like the Bereans and make the Christian faith you learned in confirmation class your personal Christian faith. And, when you are personally, deeply rooted in Scripture, not only will you always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15), but you will be ever more firmly rooted in those three basic facts that provide the only sure foundation for salvation: 1) the Christ had to suffer and die for the sins of the world; 2) the Christ…had to rise from the dead; 3) Jesus…is the Christ.

For decades now the church has been plagued by and has endlessly complained about the loss of young people like you, Nick and Mya, from the church once you’ve been confirmed. The so-called “silver bullets” have been as countless as the losses: start a youth group, engage them in social service, get them more involved in the church, have them assist with Sunday school – recently there’s been a trend of shifting confirmation class from a comprehensive study of Christian doctrine to a discussion of contemporary cultural issues. None of those is inherently wrong, but I do have two big problems with that last “silver-bullet.” 1) It’s impossible to guess what moral and ethical and cultural issues Nick and Mya will be facing in five years. (Five years ago did anyone think we’d be arguing over whether biological boys should or shouldn’t be competing in girls’ sports?) 2) I contend that being firmly rooted in basic Christian doctrine is the only way to prepare young people to face the challenges they will face in the future. It’s not about equipping them with specific arguments for specific issues – especially when the issues are changing on a daily basis. It’s about equipping them with the tools necessary to formulate answers and arguments based on Scripture for themselves. And that’s what Risen Savior is all about: rooting this generation and every generation in the Scriptures that testify about Jesus (John 5:39), which is the only name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

Nick and Mya, I know that right now you’re probably only thinking about getting through this service, getting out of those clothes, having lunch and maybe eating some cake. But I want you to know that your parents, your family, your brothers and sisters here at Risen Savior and I are thinking about where you will go from here. It might seem like I’ve set up an either/or choice: either go to Thessalonica or Berea. Actually, it’s both/and. I pray you go to Thessalonica by coming here regularly to receive the means of grace for what they really are: the words and works of God for you (1 Thessalonians 2:13). But I pray it doesn’t stop there, I pray you go to Berea and eagerly…examine the Scriptures every day to see if these things [are] so. And as you come here to receive the means of grace and examine the Scriptures for yourselves, it really doesn’t matter where you go, because rooted in that threefold truth that Christ had to suffer, Christ had to rise, and Jesus is the Christ, wherever you go, you can be sure that your Savior is leading you to your true home in heaven. That’s really where you’re going from here. Amen.