PDA

0:01 As I've done, oh, I have my count wrong for over, let's, let's say it's over 650 days. Now, I ask that you would continue to remember the hostages who remain held in captivity against their will. Uh, for those who are living, there's 50 hostages remaining, 20 of which are thought to re uh, remain living. Just wanna share with you a couple things, uh, that are going on in that region, uh, this week during this time period. First of all, there's again, a growing, um, outcry against Israel for attempted genocide in, in Gaza of,

0:50 uh, of those who live in Gaza. Uh, and, and the idea of refusing food, uh, to enter into Gaza because it's because Israel controls the borders at this moment. Uh, I just want to say that there have been, uh, this week, is that right? I think that's right. Oh, no, I'm sorry. In the last two months, the, okay, sorry, I gotta get my facts straight. This month, there have been 800 truckloads of inspected and cleared humanitarian aid, and it is sitting inside the Caram Shalom crossing

1:38 in southern Gaza. It's enough to feed every man, woman, and child in Gaza for a month. The UN is refusing to pick it up 85% of the 1600 trucks. Now we're going further than a month. 85% of the 1600 trucks that they've tried to deliver since May 19th have been looted by Hamas or hijacked by local mobs. Clearly, they are in need of armed escorts. Uh, GHF has offered to pick it up for the un, and the UN has refused. The IDF has offered to be a, uh, armed escort, um, which actually, by the way, is a change in policy from the beginning of the war. Uh, and the UN has refused both offers.

2:26 They would prefer a Hamas police escort. And, and that was confirmed, uh, yesterday when the UN's relief chief said, uh, that the, that they're blaming the distribution issues on the collapse of the civilian police force. By the way, the civilian police force and Gaza is Hamas, The civilian police force. Hamas is the same group that come and they hijack and they steal all the food before it can get to the people, and then they mark it up, however astronomically many times that they possibly can. It, it's just quite fascinating to me

3:13 that nobody talks about that element, that there's enough food sitting there waiting to be distributed to feed Gaza for a month. Now, I heard a number this week, and, and I will a hundred, I will start right now and say, I did not take the time to verify it. So take it, take it as you will. But I heard a number, I think it was about a week ago, that enough food has been, um, sent into Gaza to, to feed the 2 million, 2.1 million residents of Gaza for two and a half years. You know, on a, I'm not talking about on a, like a, a 500 calorie a day diet.

3:58 I'm talking about on a full diet. Maybe not what we Texans consider to be a full diet, but, uh, but you know what, you know what I mean? Like on a full, full whatever the normal is per day when you're not eating brisket. Um, okay. Also happening this week and, and really stretching back now almost two weeks. Uh, there has been some, well, actually I say two weeks, it's really been in the last month that I, I don't know if you'll recall, but Syria, the regime fell, um, and, and, and it kind of splintered into about four or five groups. And Southern Syria, uh, almost all the way to Damascus

4:47 wa was underneath the control of, um, the Drews. So in America, we very rarely take the time to distinguish between people groups. But there are Drews who live in Southern Syria, who live in Israel, and who live in southern Lebanon. And so they kind of, kind of take up this whole area. And they have been divided from their families for the better part of 50 years, maybe even 80 years, some of them. But they're still families. So what happened in this last week is the, I can't remember what for the forces are called, but the forces underneath the rule of now the ruler

5:32 of Syria, uh, hold on. I will tell you his name. Abbu Muhammad Gelani. Um, they have been systematically going through Syria and murdering Christians, all the white Muslims, andrus, which by the way, that's the definition of genocide. But I, I, I say that because actually, I don't know that I've heard anyone mention an attempted genocide in Syria. People are too focused on believing what they think they know to be true in Gaza, to notice what is actually going on in Syria.

6:18 And the only country in the world to come to the defense of the Druze in Syria was Israel. And now Israel's been told to back down by America. So you, you deal with your political leadership as you see fit. Um, but the Drews in Israel and Northern Israel became so, uh, Moved to come to, to come and support their families that were on the other side of the border in Syria, that they broke through the wall and a thousand Israeli Jews. By the way, Israeli Jews have full citizenship rights in Israel, just like any other people group in Israel.

7:05 They broke through and they came to the defense, and actually, partially it forced Israel to come to the defense of the DRS in Syria. So it's a continuing to be developed, uh, or a continuing developing situation, um, which you can continue to pray for that. I think that's probably enough for headlines this week. We are continuing in our Acts series in Acts chapter 17, and I've entitled this message, Hmm. I very rarely start with my title. I've entitled this message, PDA.

7:51 That's why I start with my title. It gives you a little chuckle. I don't mean PDA, the way some of you understand PDA, I mean, PDA in terms of what we're going to look at and see is a proclamation or a proof. Then we're gonna see some dissent, and then we'll see an accusation. It's just describing the flow of the story for us. So here, we'll, we'll start in, in Acts chapter 17. We're going to cover today 17 verses one through nine. So we'll, we'll start in 17 one after passing through Amphi, Paulus, Amus, and Ania, they came to Thessalonika where there was a Jewish synagogue, as was his custom. Paul went to the Jewish people, and for three Saturdays, three Shabbats,

8:38 he debated the scriptures with them. He opened them and gave evidence that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead, saying this, Yeshua, whom I declare to you is the Messiah. Some of them were convinced and became attached to Paul and Silas, as were a large number of God-fearing Greeks, and no small number of leading women, but some of the Jewish people became jealous, taking some wicked fellows of the marketplace and gathering a crowd. They stirred the city into an uproar. They attacked Jason's house trying to be, bring Paul and Silas out to the mob when they did not find them. Instead, they instead began dragging Jason

9:24 and some of the brethren before the city officials shouting, these men who have upset the world have come here too. Two, and Jason has welcomed them. They're all acting against the decrees of Caesar saying, there is another king Yeshua hearing these things. The crowd and the city officials were confused, but after receiving Baal from Jason and the rest, they release them. Now I'm stopping there knowing full well that we're, we are actually not at the end of a story or, or what, what we call peri section. Uh, there's actually, this section is gonna go for at least three weeks. And what you'll see this week we're covering, uh, Thessalonica, but then Paul and, and Silas move on to Berea.

10:12 But those two kind of sandwiched together as a, as a one complete unit, uh, in terms of, of what's going on. But let us just remind ourselves where we're coming from. You know, it's been, it's been a while since we did Act 16. Maybe we should go back and do Act 16 again. No, I'm just playing. It's been a while since we've done Act 16. I just wanna remind us that, that at the end of Act 16, act 16, Paul and Silas were, um, let's just say they were mauled in a, in a and they were beat up in a riot in Philippi, and they were put into PR into jail. We all remember this. They were put into jail. The jail opens, da da, da. I, I'm not trying to redo, uh, 16,

10:58 but I just want you to remember they were wounded. They were two grown men who were beat up by a mob stuck in jail. Then they were released, and, and, and we know that they had wounds because the jail keeper tended their wounds. Then they were released, they said bye to the, to their people in, in Philippi. And then they prog, uh, proceed on their journey to Thessalonika. Why do I say that? Because they're doing this journey wounded. I want you to think about that. If you got beat up yesterday and now you have to walk to Thessalonika, we, we, we will, we will get into some more about that in a little bit. I just want you to keep that in the back of your mind.

11:45 So the, the text tells us that they pass through and ania, by the way, each of these cities, first of all, they are on the a Roman road that was built for travel. So by, by seeing, by listing these in the text, we know that Paul was traveling on the Roman roads during this time period. And each one of these cities represents about a third of the trip. So the first city's about 35. I'm gonna speak in American language, not, uh, European language. It's about 35 miles. The first trip, the first day, the second day would be about 27, and the third would be about 30 to 32.

12:30 So it could indicate one of a couple things. Number one, it could indicate that this was a three day journey from Philippi to Thessalonica. I'm, I, I will just add one caveat. If you're traveling beat up, I don't think that's gonna travel the same. So I actually, I know I'm, y'all, I I encourage you not to do this, and I'm gonna read into the text just a little bit. I actually think it probably was a three day journey, and they hired a mule or a horse or something to allow for the, for the travel, because then they could stay in these cities overnight where they had, uh, ins and that sort of thing.

13:17 So they go on this, what I'm gonna call a three day trip. Why do I think three day trip? I just want you to think about this, because they arrive by Shabbat. So it seems to me that it's at least within a week. So, okay, maybe they did six days, but, but they arrived by Shabbat. But even if that's the case, I, the other reason I want you to think about this, I I I'm almost hesitant to ask this. How many of you have ever, and don't raise your hand, how many of you have ever been beat up or suffered some major wounds, Uh, just in your body, that sort of thing. And now I want you to think about the recovery period. It's more than a week.

14:02 So Paul shows up in Thessalonika, and he's very clearly recovering from being, uh, uh, mobbed in Philippi, at least in, in my mind. So Paul goes into, uh, the synagogue, which by the way, just because of the way it's placed in the text, I would presume actually that there's not a synagogue in either of those other two places where the, where Paul stopped and, uh, and, uh, anthropos, or Apia, because it says he came to the synagogue where there were Jews. So he stops here, he comes in, he's visibly recovering from having a hard day.

14:51 I'm not just talking about a hard day at work, but he comes into the synagogue and the text tells us he comes in as it was his custom. So just as a reminder for those of us, I, I, sometimes I feel like I'm, I, I am, if you will, preaching to the choir, because most of you hear me say this stuff. For years at a time, Paul's custom was to share the good news of Yeshua with the Jewish people first. So that, and, and, and by sharing with the Jewish people first, what it meant practically is when he came to a city, he would look first for his synagogue. It doesn't mean that he shared the good news with Jewish people exclusively. I want you to understand that first does not mean exclusive,

15:40 just like I have a firstborn child, but I don't exclusively have one child. I have multiple children, Paul, and I love them all, mostly the same. Oh, she's not even laughing. Anyways, sorry, my oldest is in here. Anyways, he comes into the synagogue and he debates for three Shabbats. He debates the scriptures with them. So my question for us, which again, I, I recognize in some way I'm preaching to the choir.

16:29 What are the scriptures? What are those scriptures that Paul taught or that he engaged with? Did Paul engage with the books of Matthew, mark, Luke, and John? Is that where Paul got his gospel? I and I, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to deride Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. I'm telling you, sometimes we have in our brain a paradigm that's a wrong paradigm at the scriptures. At this point, Paul is teaching from the scriptures, and he is teaching from the scriptures that are already being read and taught, which are primarily the Torah, the prophets, and the Psalms, or if you will, the writings.

17:15 It's the same thing that Yeshua does when he goes into his synagogue. He engages with what they're reading. Now, I also wonder if Paul is actually commenting on the particular text that is being read that week, I would presume yes, because they're all engaging in the text. I, I want you to think about it. We all live extremely privileged lives. Why do I say that? Because I can, I can say with great confidence that everyone in this room has one of these. And if you don't, it's on your phone. Now, I can also say with great confidence,

18:02 everyone in this room, no, not, maybe not everyone, 90% have two of these. And I might even say 70% of you have more than five. Why do I say that? This is a new invention, having the word of God in our hand in a book form. I say new invention, it's, you know, in the last 5, 6, 700 years, which in the Jewish world, that's new. But this is not what Paul had. Paul walked into the room, Paul walked into synagogue, and the scrolls came out just like what we just did.

18:50 The scrolls came out and they read from the scroll, and I know we don't do it, but they likely had scrolls of the prophets as well. And they would bring out scrolls of the prophets, and they would read the prophets, and perhaps they'd bring out a scroll of the Psalms and they'd read the Psalms. These are the texts that Paul is dealing with the scrolls that are literally there at the synagogue. Oh, I just closed my Bible. Hold on. Gotta find my spot. So here they are, Paul's engaging the text, And, and here in, in the book of Acts, it says, he opened them and gave evidence that Messiah, who, that, that the Messiah had to suffer

19:36 and rise from the dead saying this Yeshua, whom I declared to you is the Messiah. So the next question that should be at the tip of your tongue is what texts tell us that Yeshua should have to suffer and rise again, and that this is the proof now that Paul is using. Now I, I know this is almost like the, this is the biggest softball that anybody could throw in a Messianic congregation is which text? The first text is Isaiah 53. It, it's almost, it, it's so clear to me. In fact, it's not just me. There are, there are people, in fact, we've had a couple families, uh,

20:22 in the last couple months from Israel who do this. They go through, they go through Israel and they read Isaiah 53 to someone, and they say, where do you think that's from? And every person in Israel says, oh, that's the New Testament. That's y'all's book. That's not ours. Because that's how clear it is. They see it, and they don't even know Yeshua, but they know who, they know who Yeshua is. So Isaiah 53, I, I'll say, I, I would say they're probably reading from the scroll of Isaiah. I don't know. There's a chance they could be reading from Zechariah. Zacharia 12 says this, they will look upon him whom they have pierced. When you think about it, Yeshua is very clearly pierced.

21:08 You can think about Psalm 22, that I am poured out like water and my bones are disjointed. You can think about Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel 37 is more often, uh, put in terms of the people of Israel. But think about it. Can these bones live here? Is Yeshua the Messiah who died? And someone says, can he live? Of course he can live. God says, I will raise him up on the third day. These are just some of the scriptures that that could be, and there's so much even in the Torah. Let let, this isn't even in my notes, but let's, let's do one more. By the way, y'all, this is one of the better exercises you can ever do

21:54 is find the places in the Torah and in the prophets where you can clearly see Yeshua. And then explain why. Listen, Joseph was betrayed by his brothers beaten up and thrown into a pit for how long? Three days. And he came out of the pit and was sold to Egypt. In Egypt, Joseph became y'all. I'm, I'm, this is not in the text, but I'm, I'm gonna use this verbiage. Joseph became the ruler of the Gentiles recognized as an Egyptian ruler of the whole Earth.

22:42 I wanna point out Jewish people think that Jesus is the God of the Gentiles, and he looks like the Gentiles. You know, he looks a little Nordic, like the long, the long blonde hair straight, the, those clear piercing blue eyes. Thor, Thor. Yeah, that's exactly right. That's not, that's not the Jesus of the Bible. I'm just gonna tell you. That's fine. If you want to picture him looking like you. That's the universality of Yeshua. But it's not what he looked like. The dude was probably swar short, stocky. And, and, and if I can say this, he was well-built and by well-built, I mean, like, I mean, like, you know,

23:31 I, I'm trying to think about those guys who, hmm, he was strong. We'll, just, yeah, let's just leave it as strong. Uh, why? Anyways, Jesus has been recognized as the ruler of the gentile world By the Jewish people for a long time. The same was true as Joseph. Joseph was approached by his brothers. His brothers don't even recognize him. His brothers come to him begging for food. And he, and he, he feigns, he, he says, uh, how do I know you're not spies? And he begins to test them and, and to see. And he, what he says, what he really does is he wants to see

24:16 how they're treating their brother, his brother, Benjamin, when he sees that they have actually changed, their character has changed. In particular, Judah, by the way, Judah's the one who sold him, and Judah's the one who comes to him in the end and says, please take me instead of my brother. By the way, Judah in that place is a perfect example of Yeshua himself. We can see Yeshua through all of these texts. And it was so convincing here, here in the book of Acts that some of them we're convinced by Paul and Silas, as, so I'm assuming here,

25:04 I wanna make a distinction. Some of them would be some of the Jewish people in the synagogue, because then it qualifies that it says, as were a large number of God-fearing Greeks, and no small number of leading women, or, or it can also be translated as noble women. There is immediate success in this town. In the sharing of the good news by Paul and Silas. The people see the proof of what Paul and Silas are trying to show about Yeshua. So now we move on to verse five. But some of the Jewish people became jealous, taking some wicked fellows of the marketplace and gathering the crowd and gathering a crowd. They stirred the city into an uproar.

25:50 They attacked Jason's house trying to bring Paul and Silas out to the mall. So we see here some Jewish people dissented. Is that normal? Of course, it's normal. I don't know. Well, anyway, that's not here or there. Jewish people, there's no monolithic voice for the Jewish people. In other words, there's not one, you know, if you can say, gimme tell me the Jewish opinion on bagels and cream cheese. There's not one opinion. There's a plethora of opinions. There's Jewish people have so many opinions that I argue with myself. That's just how we are.

26:36 So I'm telling you, it's, it's, it's, it's not, not abnormal to see that there's some people who dissent here in the text. Why? Here? This is where Luke gets into the intentions. Luke says, uh, in, in the next, in the next verse, uh, that they became jealous. Now, I wanna point out that we're, we're in a, this is, I'm doing a, a, a side promotion. Here we are in a four week, we're in the middle of a four week Bible study on Wednesday nights on the book of Galatians, chapter five, verses 13 through 20. Is that right? 5 13, 25. 13 through 25. Thank you. Which more commonly is known as the fruit

27:22 of the spirit, the last part. But in that, in that text, it talks about the deeds of the flesh. And one of those deeds is jealousy. Jealousy is a mark or a marker that someone is operating according to the flesh and not according to the spirit. It. Now, I also wanna point out one more thing, which I forgot to mark it. So first Thessalonians, this is, this is the community that Paul is, is teaching at this point. He's teaching in Thessalonica. So in Paul, it just so happens we have two books that Paul wrote, two letters that Paul wrote to this group.

28:08 So here we see in first, in first Thessalonians, chapter four, starting in verse one. Finally then, brothers and sisters, we ask you an appeal to the, in the Lord, Yeshua, just as you received us from us, the way you ought to walk, and please God, as in fact, you are walking, that you keep progressing more and more for you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Yeshua. For this is the will of God, your sanctification to abstain from sexual immorality, to know each of you, how to gain control of his own body and holiness and honor not in the passion of lust like the pagans who do not know God, and not to overstep his brother

28:56 and take advantage of him in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, as we told you before and solemnly warned you, for God did not call us to impurity, but in holiness. Consequently, the one who rejects This is not rejecting man, but God who gives his ruakaka kodesh to you. Now, concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write you, for you. Yourselves are taught by God to love one another. In fact, you even practice it toward all your brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to keep progressing more and more and aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own affairs,

29:42 and to work with your hands just as we directed you. So you may behave properly toward outsiders and not have need of anything. Why do I read this verse in this context? Because I want to remind us of something here in verse five. It says, some of the Jewish people became jealous, and they took some of the wicked fellows of the marketplace and gathered a crowd and stirred the city into uproar. The wicked fellows of the marketplace are not wicked because they're in the marketplace. I think sometimes we get this notion that if you're in the marketplace, it's a less holy than occupation than if you were in ministry.

30:29 I'm just gonna tell you, it's entirely not true. In fact, in the marketplace, you have more opportunity for ministry than I do working at em. Why? Because in the marketplace, people see the way you behave all day at em. You see, the way I behave for about a two hour period on a Saturday morning, maybe three hours. It depends on how long I'm here. Oh, two hours is coming up, I gotta get finished and get outta here. No, I'm just playing in this context. You don't get to see everybody all the time. But in the marketplace, when you're at work, when you're a school teacher, when you're whatever it is that when you're a fireman, when you whatever it is

31:15 that you do what you do, you are with people for, at a minimum, I'm gonna say a minimum six hours. And the crazy thing is when you're with people repeatedly over and over and over again, you begin to see who they really are. So you have an opportunity for ministry in a, in the marketplace. And so I don't want you to take this text and think that the text is indicating that the people in the marketplace are wicked. Now, we're gonna talk about why they're called wicked in the marketplace. They are wicked because they're irs. They sit in the marketplace looking for trouble. I don't know how else I can say that. They're loafers.

32:01 They're, they're, they, they're not there. They're not an artisan. They're not there selling their wares, and they're not a farmer because they're just sitting there idly. It's someone looking for trouble. Now, my grandma used to say, idle hands are the devil's tools. And and I think the same applies in this text. It's these people who are just sitting idly in the marketplace looking for something wrong. That's why they're called wicked. They would not be highly regarded people. And in fact, in the text, I want you to think about this, the people who are hearing the text for the first time, these people, the idol ears, the wicked in the marketplace,

32:50 stand in direct contrast to the noble women who come to faith. The noble understand what this is, and they haven't missed the opportunity. It's the IRS who are missing it, and in fact, who then attack. So these people, by the way, secondly, the what you, what you also see, uh, with the Jewish people, some of these Jewish dissenters, they go to the marketplace to catch some idler and to stir 'em up. You know what it indicates? The Jewish people in Thessalonika did not have enough influence to bring it before the court on their own. And Philippi, you remember, I also don't want you to think it's always Jewish people accusing and Philippi. It wasn't a Jewish person. It was these people

33:35 who lost their money, and they took 'em to the court, and they stirred up a mob. The the actions are the same. The, the, the groupings are different. So these people stirred up the city into an uproar, and they went and attacked Jason's house to try to bring Paul and Silas out. It's interesting because Luke introduces a new character here, Jason, as if we already know who he is. There's no conversation about who Jason is with Timothy. He says, oh, Timothy was the son of Lois and the grandson, wait, maybe the grandson of Lois, I can't remember. Anyways, he like does some, some massaging tensions. Here he is just like, Jason, it's interesting because in Romans 16, Paul lists Jason

34:24 as one of his kin, one of his brothers. It could be that he's family, or it could just be that he's from the tribe. So it could be that this, the audience of the book of Acts is already familiar with Jason, and therefore they don't need an introduction. Another fascinating thing is Jason could be not, is I just want to introduce, it's a, could be, it could be the, uh, diaspora equivalent of Joshua, which now I tell you is quite fascinating in the text, because this group is, they're disputing over Yeshua who is a, a, uh,

35:09 contracted version of Joshua. It, it, it's, does that make sense? Yoshua is contracted down to Yeshua, or Joshua is contracted down to Yeshua, and here we have Jason. And so now we have a contrast between Yeshua and Jason, and they're both being opposed by the city at the time. And again, in this case, like we saw in Philippi, we see together the mixing of religion, spirituality, money, civic or national loyalty. And you put it all in and you get accused of one thing, or you're offended in one area, and the accusation comes out in another because they're all stuck into a pot

35:55 and stirred together to create one thing. So in other words, a disagreement in one of these areas, like here, in this case, religion and spirituality is producing an accusation in one of the other areas, money, or in this case, civic and national loyalty, which by the way, is a, is an age old, uh, anthem against Jewish people about having dual loyalty. So here we continue on in the text. When they did not find them, they instead began dragging Jason and some of the brethren before the city officials shouting, these men who have upset the world have come here too. And Jason has welcomed them.

36:40 They're all acting against the decrees of Caesar saying, there is another king, Yeshua. You see, Yeshua and Jason are here on opposite ends of the passage or, uh, of these couple verses and hearing these things, the crowd and the city officials were confused, but after receiving bail from Jason and the rest, they released them. It's, it's actually quite funny because all the accusations, once they get their money, they don't care. You know, just leave. So the accusation here in this text has four elements. These men have upset the world. They have come here, which means they're coming from somewhere else. Jason has welcomed them. In other words, Jason is hosting them in his home, and they,

37:28 and here's this is the final accusation, which is the, the one that, that is the biggest one. They are acting against the decrees of Caesar by saying there is another king, Yeshua. You see in Philippi, the accusations was that they were advocating different customs, but now it has graduated. The accusation has graduated from something minor, let's call it a misdemeanor, to now treason because it's accusation that they're advocating for a different king, which I just wanna point out, there is a little bit of truth to that. We do have a different king, our king sits upon the throne currently,

38:14 and his name is Yeshua. Now, at this moment, there's not necessarily a conflict between kingdoms, one being in heaven and one being on Earth. At some point, it'll become great conflict, and the world will see when Yeshua comes riding on a white horse with his robe dipped in blood, then the kingdoms of the earth will see the difference. So right now, it's, it's, it's, it's not something that we can necessarily define, if you will, The crowd and the city officials, they become confused upon hearing these accusations. Why are they confused? I think their eyes are telling them

39:01 something different than what the accusation is saying. So they can't, in a, in a reasonable mind, figure out what's going on. So when they get their money, they say, okay, bye-bye. We don't want any more of you. So what does this mean for us today? I think my biggest point is this first one Are, Are we able to have a conversation with others and explain and or share the good news to them using the scriptures? Now, I'm gonna go with the def. I, I'm okay with all the scriptures,

39:47 but I want to, I want you to know, are you able to have a conversation with a Jewish person and share the good news of Yeshua from the scriptures, from the Tanach, because they don't recognize the Jewish people, by and large, don't recognize the validity of this part of our Bible, which means you have to be able to reframe your conversation. And if you are unable to do that, I will tell you, you'll be an ineffective witness unless just the way you live, which that also should be a good witness as well. Are you able to have a conversation with someone, maybe even the scripture that is being read on,

40:33 on a particular Shabbat and engage them in that scripture? I'm gonna give you an example. I have a friend who is also a Messianic, uh, rabbi, and he posted this on his social media. I think it was last week, maybe it was this week, this week or last week, but you'll recognize the Torah portion. Uh, the Torah portion was from two weeks ago. He says this, I recently had a conversation with a very nice Orthodox Jew who asked me the question. He said, I've read through the Tanakh more than 20 times. Why in all of those times did I not see something that led me to believe in Yeshua? And I said to him, I believe you when you tell me that you've read the Tanakh more than 20 times.

41:18 Then I said, last week we read Parsha bak, which holds within it the story of Balam and his donkey. So I know you've read that to that Torah portion at least 20 times, right? Yes, that's correct. So he, I asked him, was Baum's donkey male or female? And he replied, I think male, but I'm not sure. And I said, let's look at the text. He said, okay. And we turned into 10 to numbers 22, 23, and read where the verse tells us that the donkey was female. So I asked him, if you've read those verses more than 20 times, why didn't you notice the donkey was female? He replied, when I was reading that verse, I wasn't looking to see if the donkey was male or female.

42:04 So I said, the reason you don't see reasons to believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, and the Tenakh is the same reason that you didn't see the donkey was a female. When the time comes when you were looking to find Yeshua in the TaNaK, you will see him just as when you were looking to find the sex of the donkey, you saw that she was female. That is one of the best examples I have ever heard. But can I tell you, you know what it requires of you to be able to do that? You have to be reading the text, and you have to be looking for details. You have to be looking for things that are not necessarily evident.

42:53 And then you have a conversation. You know what? Sharing the good news is having a conversation. If you can't converse with someone, you're probably not gonna be able to share the good news with them, but you have to be able to converse with them. You have to have something to talk with them about. I, I have a couple other points, but I, I think I'm, that I think is the most important one. So I'll leave it with that. But I do have homework. How many of you remembered that, that I gave you homework a month ago? I gave you a homework to read the book of Philippians. Why? Because we were in Philippi.

43:38 So guess what your homework is this week? You have two books to read, and it's Thessalonians Why? Because we're in Thessalonika. So go. It is, it is very interesting. You can see Thessalonians confirms what the text, listen, we're only in, in Thessalonika for nine verses in Acts, but it confirms all of these things that have happened both in Thessalonika and also in Philippi. It was very interesting. In fact, I, I read a statistic in one of my, in one of the commentaries I was referencing, and he said that the two books of Thessalonians carry, uh, I think the number was 18, Um,

44:23 proofs that the book of Acts is accurate. And, and that the book of Acts that there are 27 that prove it to be accurate throughout the New Testament, and 18 of them are located in Thessalonians. It's very interesting. So read Thessalonians this week one and two. There's two books, by the way. It's, they're not, there's not a lot of reading. It's like, I think it's eight chapters, if I remember right, maybe nine chapters. You can do it in one sitting. I can promise you. Read through Thessalonians, see what you see, uh, in terms of, uh, uh, in terms of the community, community development, what's going on. You can also even see how it, uh, confirms,

45:09 it confirms some things that were taught in the book of Philippians. In fact, I, so I, this is on my list and I, I will read it actually. Why? Because Philippians has one of my favorite versus, and I read it about a month ago. And, and, and it goes like this. It says, rejoice again. I say rejoice and the passage goes on. But you want to know something. Thessalonians has it also, and it says this, rejoice always. First Thessalonians chapter five, verse 16, rejoice always, pray constantly in everything. Give thanks for this is God's will for you in Messiah, Yeshua.

45:56 Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophetic messages, but test all things hold fast to what is good and keep away from every kind of evil. Now, by the way, those things are all, since we're also doing a, a, a Bible study on Galatians five, there's some great overlap between Galatians five, Philippians, and now Thessalonians. It's very interesting because I would say that these are probably the first three primary communities that Paul developed, Galatians, Philippians, and now Thessalonians and Thessalonika. So I'll, I'll leave you with that. That's your homework, first and second Thessalonians, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you

46:42 and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Oh, hold on, hold on, hold on.

47:29 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua.