Paul in Thessalonica

Acts 17:1-4; I Thessalonians 2:1-12

GOLDEN TEXT: “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks.”—I Thessalonians 5:16-18

PAUL was a zealous missionary and also an ardent, devoted pastor. His zeal for God and for the Gospel of Christ impelled him to spread the message far and wide. He also loved and remembered the brethren who were reached by his efforts, and did all he could to comfort and strengthen them. This comes to light in today’s lesson, in which we find the apostle and his companion Silas pioneering the Gospel in Thessalonica, and later, after an ecclesia had been formed there, writing to the brethren to encourage them in the narrow way of sacrifice and suffering.

Some brethren, by natural endowment, may be better qualified to serve in one capacity than in another, but all the consecrated should be interested in every phase of the Christian ministry. We are not to be specialists in the Lord’s service in the sense of stressing one feature of the work and disparaging other branches of activity. We should remember that every “joint supplieth” something to the whole. Paul believed in this and by his example showed his interest in both evangelistic and pastoral work.

Being a missionary in Paul’s day was not a pleasant task from the human standpoint: for it meant, not only long, tiresome journeys—oftentimes by foot, and, at the best, by primitive methods of transportation—but also bitter opposition and persecution from the majority of those to whom the message was delivered. To Jewish minds the idea of a Messiah was not new, but it was considered quite heretical to believe that the crucified Jesus was that Messiah. After all, Jesus had been killed, and while His followers claimed He was raised from the dead, how could they prove it? It required great faith and the opening of their eyes of, understanding by divine providence to enable them to believe and confess that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Son of God.

In the case of the Greeks other non-Jews the situation somewhat different. They needed first of all to be enlightened with respect to the Messianic hope, then assured that Jesus was truly the Messiah of promise, and in addition be convinced that their gods were false. With them it meant a transfer of allegiance from false gods to the true God; whereas with the Jews it was merely a case of convincing them that the Messianic promises made to their fathers by the God of Israel were being fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.

In Thessalonica Paul preached both to Jews and Greeks. As was his custom he visited the Jewish synagogue where he knew he would find a goodly number of his people to whom he would have an opportunity of witnessing. In this instance he went to the synagogue three sabbaths in succession and there reasoned with the Jews, “alleging,” as the lesson shows, “that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead.”

This, apparently, was the main point at issue, and now we can see why. The necessity of Christ’s death and resurrection is the very center of the Christian hope, the foundation upon which the whole plan of God securely rests. At the same time it must have been a difficult task to convince Jews that the Messiah of their hopes was crucified and later raised from the dead. The apostle’s further explanation that the resurrected Christ, had returned to heaven, could easily have been misinterpreted as a clever way of explaining why no one could now see Jesus.

But Paul had the Scriptures on his side. God had foretold, through the prophets, that the Messiah would suffer and die and be raised from the dead. The devout Jews who were humble-minded and sincere could not help but realize that Jesus fitted into this prophetic picture, hence we read that “some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas.” We do not know how many may be implied by the expression “some of them,” but if it were only two or three it would represent very encouraging results for the efforts put forth on the three sabbaths.

But more than this was accomplished on that visit to Thessalonica. “Of the devout Greeks,” we read, “a great multitude” believed, “and of the chief women not a few.” What rejoicing there must have been on the part of Paul and Silas, as well as with the newly converted believers! But the unconverted Jews didn’t rejoice, they were “moved with envy,” the account tells us, and through the aid of “lewd fellows of the baser sort,” set the city in an uproar against these humble followers of the Master.

QUESTIONS:

Should Christians try to minimize any helpful activity in the ministry of the truth and the brethren?

Explain the difference between the religious viewpoint of the Jews and the Greeks in Paul’s day.

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