Good Intentions Aren’t Good Enough
Acts 17:2-3
THE MISSION NEVER CHANGED. THE STRATEGY DID.
America should’ve lost the Revolution.
Britain had the money, the weapons, the navy, the trained soldiers—we were outmatched. But Washington realized: we can’t beat Britain fighting the way Britain fights.
So he changed the strategy—when to attack, when to retreat, where to fight, when to disappear.
The British could conquer a city; they couldn’t conquer the countryside.
America learned to make British strength useless:
If Britain concentrated, the Americans disappeared.
If Britain scattered, the Americans attacked.
Washington realized all they had to do was outlast the British.
Britain fought for territory. Washington fought for tomorrow.
The mission never changed. The strategy did.
That’s Paul in Acts: same gospel, different strategy.
HOW TO WIN CITIES
Paul is winning cities…
And maybe you’re thinking, “Win cities? Bro, I’m just trying to win Tuesday.”
I’m not a missionary.
I’m a firefighter.
I sell houses.
I frame houses.
I homeschool kids.
I’m trying to keep my marriage alive and raise children who don’t hate me.
But that’s exactly why this matters.
Paul’s strategy for changing cities wasn’t built around professional Christians. It was ordinary Christians strategically planted in ordinary places.
The gospel gets into a city through:
Dinner tables
Firehouses
Classrooms
Construction sites
Offices
Gyms
Little League bleachers
You don’t need a microphone to move a city. You need to recognize where God has already positioned you.
Because cities aren’t ultimately changed from stages. They’re changed when changed people strategically live where God has placed them.
01. Strategy
02. Money
03. Bravery
04. Theology
05. Calvary
01. IT TAKES STRATEGY TO WIN CITIES
STRATEGY, PERSUASION, POWER, INFLUENCE, ACCESS
THESSALONICA
Acts 17:1–5
“Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.”
His Strategy
His custom (2)
Jew first then Greek (strategy)
Reasoned (2)
Dialegomia — where we get dialogue
“To revolve in mind, ponder, converse with, argue, discuss”
Explaining (3)
“To open the mind… open soul… rouse faculty of understanding”
Proving (3)
Paratithemi — “giving evidence”
“To set beside or set before”
John Stott believed it meant Paul laid promise/fulfillment side by side using OT passages and Jesus’ life.
Evangelism often takes time and persuasion, apologetics.
It Takes TIME
I’ve been critiqued over the notion of not always doing direct, confrontational, bullhorn evangelism in the moment but encouraging congregants to take time to intentionally build relationships.
I have two responses:
01. I’m for both depending on the situation. Can you share the Gospel as the plane is going down?
02. Paul spent months in Thessalonica.
Apologetics
1 Peter 3:15
Not blind faith but a reasonable and evidence based faith.
OT Promise / Prophecy
OT Promise / ProphecyWhat the OT AnticipatesFulfillment in JesusWhy Paul Likely Used It
Isaiah 52:13–53:12
God’s Servant is rejected, suffers for the sins of others, dies, and afterward is vindicated: “He was pierced for our transgressions” (53:5).
Mark 10:45; 1 Cor. 15:3; Rom. 4:25; 1 Pet. 2:22–25Probably one of the strongest texts for Paul’s claim in Acts 17:3 that “the Christ had to suffer.” It explains not merely that Messiah dies, but why He dies.
Psalm 22:1–31
The righteous sufferer is mocked, surrounded by enemies, has his garments divided, yet is ultimately vindicated and the nations worship God.
Matt. 27:35, 39–46; John 19:23–24; Heb. 2:12
Gives Paul a biblical framework for a suffering yet victorious Messiah and contains striking parallels to the crucifixion.
Psalm 16:8–11
God’s Holy One will not ultimately be abandoned to Sheol or “see corruption.”
Acts 2:25–32; Acts 13:35–37
Almost certainly part of early apostolic resurrection preaching. Paul himself explicitly uses Psalm 16 in Acts 13 to argue for Jesus’ resurrection.
Psalm 2:1–12
The nations oppose God’s Anointed/Messiah, yet God establishes His Son as King and gives Him the nations.
Acts 4:25–28; Acts 13:32–33; Rom. 1:4
Helps establish that Jesus is not merely a suffering teacher but God’s promised Messiah-King, vindicated through resurrection.
2 Samuel 7:12–16 / Psalm 89:3–4, 27–37
A descendant of David will possess an enduring kingdom and throne.
Luke 1:32–33; Acts 13:22–23; Rom. 1:3–4; 2 Tim. 2:8
Paul needed to establish “This Jesus…is the Christ” (Acts 17:3). The Davidic covenant supplied the biblical expectation that Messiah would be David’s promised royal descendant.
Greeks
Outsider in Jewish mind but Chosen in the heart and plan of God
(maybe this is some of you)
02. IT TAKES MONEY TO WIN CITIES
Acts 17:5
“And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.”
Leading women — Prominent, elite, politically and socially well connected women—parallel to Lydia.
Same kind of women Luke notes had a pattern of following and funding Jesus’ mission.
Provided for Jesus means. Gave the Gospel wings in society and dollars.
The Gospel had sugar mommas.
Luke 8:2–3
“and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.”
There’s a strong conceptual connection to Luke 8:1–3 where Joanna, Susanna, Mary Magdalene, and “many others” support Jesus and the Twelve “out of their means.”
Joanna in particular appears socially connected: she is the wife of Chuza, Herod’s household manager. She was from a household of considerable status and resources.
William Tyndale
William Tyndale patrons funded and helped smuggle Bible translations into the barrels of fabric and launched them down the English Channel.
We are these strategic and heroic grandchildren of these legends when we choose to step into the gap and become Gospel smugglers by giving and strategizing financially for the advance of God’s kingdom.
Real Estate Agents
Business Owners
City Council Members
Politicians
Tech Company Owners
Ministry Leaders
Influencers
Acts 17:5–9
“But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.”
03. IT TAKES BRAVERY TO WIN CITIES
The enemy has a strategy too.
Jealousy
Jealous — to be heard or boil with envy, hatred, anger.
Jealousy is demonic, it’s like Satan.
The biblical evidence for Satan’s jealousy of God is seen in his desire to usurp divine authority.
Satan’s rebellion involved declaring “I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high” (Isa 14:12–15)—a direct challenge to God’s supremacy.
His heart became “proud because of your beauty” (Ezek 28:12–17), and he claimed “I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods” (Ezek 28:2)—statements revealing an aspiration to divine status itself.
He fundamentally rejected his created position and demanded equality or superiority.
The enemy will always oppose a church that’s effective, and often through envy and pride from people in the midst.
Turn the World Upside Down
(5–6) Formed a mob, set the city in an uproar yet accused the disciples of Turn[ing] the world upside down
“Stir up, excite, unsettle, excite sedition in the state, unsettle minds by disseminating religious error”
This is in some ways actually our goal.
Another King
(7) “Another King”
The Gospel is inherently political.
Jesus boasts the biggest Kingdom.
No state exists of the same size as the Church.
Using Pew’s newest comprehensive global count, there were about 2.3 billion Christians worldwide in 2020, roughly 29% of humanity. Christianity remains the largest religious group on earth.
Population/groupApprox. sizeGlobal Christianity2.3+ billionIndia~1.4 billionChina~1.4 billionUnited States~340 millionChristians in the U.S. alone~217 million in 2020
This is partly why it provokes riots.
There is a real power dynamic and the forces of darkness themselves will arise and stir the people of nations to resist the rise of the Church.
RIOTS AND REVIVAL ARE RELATED
Learned… came there also (13)
People who chase the church.
They post on Yelp.
They send emails.
They talk.
They call for taxing churches.
They try to defame leaders.
They create online content to attack pastors or movements.
They promote deconstruction.
They try to go after the church because they deep down can’t stand the progress of the Gospel because it doesn’t serve them—it serves Jesus.
This a Jezebel spirit who hunted the people of God and Elijah down.
But the result is furtherance of the reach of revival.
Because Paul runs jokes in them, Berea gets saved.
Same thing over and again.
Because haters comment, rage bait results in that the reach grows.
It’s that principle.
BEREA
Acts 17:10–15
“The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.”
04. IT TAKES THEOLOGY TO WIN CITIES
Contrast: Rabble / Noble
Noble is εὐγενής meaning good origins or good stock.
The Jews saw Christians reaching Greeks; it enraged them over and again throughout this book.
Now we get this idea that it’s not having the right ethnicity but biblical curiosity that makes you good stock.
Acts 17:11
“…they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily.”
Anakrino — “to investigate, examine, enquire into, scrutinise, sift, question.”
Specifically in a forensic sense of a judge to hold an investigation, to interrogate, examine the accused or witnesses.
Skeptics are safe to search the Scriptures here.
Non-Christian
You shouldn’t build a life on:
Opinion
Popularity
Sincerity
Pragmatism
Family affiliation — “No one in our family has ever believed this!”
Personal experience
Cultural acceptability
Build your life on TRUTH.
Christian
Build your theology not in:
What feels sacred
What is rooted in tradition
Your own feelings
But what survives biblical scrutiny.
What core TRUTH did Paul persuade with and contend for?
Acts 17:3
“…it was necessary for the Christ to suffer…”
05. IT TAKES CALVARY TO WIN CITIES
Luke 24:26
“Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
Because of our sin, we couldn’t have a king without a cross.
Acts 3:18
“But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.”
Psalm 85:10
“Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.”
Romans 3:26
“…so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
“At the cross, mercy and judgment meet.”