THE BIRTH OF A CHURCH (Acts 17:1-10)
INTRODUCTION:
This morning we will begin a new sermon series on the books of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. This morning by way of introduction I want to tell you a bit about the city of Thessalonica and how it came about that Paul wrote two letters to the church there.
Thessalonica is a city that still exists today, one of the few cities that Paul visited that has existed continuously from before Paul’s day to modern times. Today it is known as Thessaloniki and has also been known as Saloniki and Salonica. It is still an important city in the country of Greece. The city was founded in 315 B.C. by Cassander, one of Alexander the Great’s generals, the Greek Empire was divided into four kingdoms at the death of Alexander and each of his four generals received a kingdom. Cassander became king of the kingdom of Macedonia and founded this city, naming it after his wife, Thessalonike.
During the Roman empire Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia and enjoyed the status of being a “free city” which means the city was governed by its own citizenry and did not have Roman troops or a Roman presence ruling the city. Thessalonica was situated on the main highway, the Egnatian Way, the major east-west highway of the Roman empire, and because of this it was an important political and commercial city in the empire. During Paul’s lifetime the city had a population of about 200,000 people. The 2022 census tells us that Thessaloniki today has a population of over 800,000 people.
The apostle Paul is the author of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians and identifies himself in both letters. It is possible that 1st Thessalonians was the first of Paul’s epistles written near the end of his second missionary journey with 2nd Thessalonians possibly written just a few months later. Both were written while Paul was in Corinth in about 51 A.D., and both show his concern for the Thessalonian believers.
This morning I want to walk you through most of Paul’s second missionary journey to find out why he wrote these two letters to the church in Thessalonica. Let’s pray and then we will have a bit of a history lesson this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Acts 17:1-10, this is just the part of Paul’s second missionary journey that concerns Thessalonica. I will be covering more than this, but this will be our main focus. Please, if you are able, stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along while I read.
Acts 17:1-10,
“Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.’ And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, ‘These men who have upset the world have come here also; and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.’ They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things. And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them. The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.” (Acts 17:1–10, NASB95)[1]
BACKGROUND (Acts 15:36-16:40)
Paul’s second missionary journey begins in the end of Acts 15. Luke, the author of the Gospel of Luke and of the book of Acts writes in Acts 15:36, “After some days Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.’” (Acts 15:36, NASB95)[2] This verse sets the stage for Paul’s second missionary journey. If we were to read farther, we would find that Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement about taking John Mark with them. In the end, Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus and Paul took Silas or Silvanus as he is referred to in 1st Thessalonians. Paul and Silas went by land and traveled through Syria and Cilicia, north and then west visiting the churches that Paul had planted and encouraging and strengthening the believers. When Paul and Silas arrived in Lystra, a young man by the name of Timothy was commended to Paul by the men of the churches in Lystra and Iconium, and Paul took him with them for the rest of the missionary journey. Paul, Silas, and Timothy tried to go north and farther into Asia, but it says they were forbidden to go there by the Holy Spirit. They continued west until they arrived in the seaport city of Troas on the coast of the Aegean Sea, this seaport was on the western side of modern-day Turkey.
While in Troas Paul had a vision of a man in Macedonia asking Paul to come over and help them. They concluded that the vision was from God and the next day sailed for Macedonia which is the northern half of present-day Greece. They landed in Neapolis, an eastern seaport in Greece (Macedonia), and from there traveled by land to the city of Philippi, which is described as a leading city in Macedonia, a Roman colony. It did not have a large enough Jewish population to have a synagogue, so on the Sabbath, Paul and his companions went down by the river supposing that there would be a place of prayer. There were some women at this place of prayer and Paul shared the Gospel with them and one of the women, named Lydia came to faith in Jesus Christ. She went and told her household and many in her household came to faith in Jesus as well. Lydia invited Paul, Silas, and Timothy to stay at her house while they were in Philippi.
As they were staying in Philippi, teaching the believers, and sharing the Gospel, a young girl began to follow them. She was demon possessed, and was a fortune teller for her masters and provided them with a nice income, as she followed Paul, Silas, and Timothy around she loudly called out, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” (Acts 16:17b, NASB95)[3] She kept this up for many days and finally Paul annoyed by this turned and said to the demon speaking from this girl, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” (Acts 16:18b, NASB95)[4] The demon left her immediately. As you can imagine, the slave girl’s masters were not happy that their source of income was now gone. They seized Paul and Silas and took them to the authorities and claimed that these two men were throwing the whole city into confusion by proclaiming customs which are not lawful for them to accept or observe being Romans. With this accusation the crowd rose up together against them and the city authorities ordered that they be beaten with rods and then thrown into prison. The jailer was commanded to guard them securely, and he took them into the inner cell and put their feet in stocks.
About midnight as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise and the other prisoners were listening, God sent an earthquake that caused the foundation of the prison to be shaken, the prison doors opened, and the stocks fell off of Paul and Silas’ feet. The jailer awoke and seeing the doors open and fearing all the prisoners had escaped drew his sword to kill himself, but Paul called out that they were all still there. Getting a lantern, he came quickly to Paul and Silas and brought them out and asked them what he must do to be saved. That night he and his household were saved. He brought Paul and Silas into his home and cleansed their wounds from being beaten with rods, and he fed them. The next morning the city authorities sent a messenger that these men were to be released. Paul spoke up and said that he and Silas had been beaten and thrown into prison without a trial which was unlawful to do to a Roman citizen, both Paul and Silas had Roman citizenship. Paul then said that the authorities were trying to send them away secretly. When this was reported to the city authorities, they were afraid, they immediately came and appealed to Paul and Silas to not get them in trouble with the Roman authorities, and they beg them to leave the city. Paul and Silas went to the house of Lydia and saw and encouraged the new believers, and taking Timothy they departed.
ON TO THESSALONICA (Acts 17:1)
In what must have been an excruciatingly painful trip, the two battered missionaries and their young companion made the one-hundred-mile trip to Thessalonica along the Egnatian Way. This would have been a three- or four-day trip and apparently they spent the night in Amphipolis and again in Apollonia, not staying to preach the Gospel because these cities had no Jewish synagogues. Arriving in Thessalonica they found that there was a Jewish population in the city and a Jewish synagogue.
I mentioned in my introduction that Thessalonica was a free city in the Roman Empire. Other cities did not have this privilege. In those other cities that were not free the Romans had military occupation forces settled there and they set up their own government for those cities. But for a free city like Thessalonica the citizens of the city controlled their own affairs and political situations, making them almost democratic. They had freedom from military occupation, and they could mint their own coins. That makes their political structure very important, and it is important for us to understand the political structure because it comes into play in the events of Acts 17 and 1st Thessalonians.
This political structure in Thessalonica had a couple of different levels. The lowest level of government was the citizen assembly. This was a type of government consisting of individual citizens meeting together to make decisions. The upper level of government in Thessalonica were the city authorities, called politarchs in Greek. These city officials were responsible for governing the city, and if they could not keep everything running smoothly, they would be accountable to the Roman Empire. Because of this they did everything possible to please the Roman Empire and its citizens. Thessalonica had wonderful privileges as a free city, and these city authorities were put in place to make sure the city did not lose its privileges. If Thessalonica lost its status as a free city, there would be terrible consequences. Their income would go down as they would have to pay more taxes as well as paying and housing Roman military officers. The economy would take a significant hit, and the freedom of the city would be at stake. If there were problems, the Roman Empire could come in and take away all the privileges of being a free city and make it a Roman colony.
These city authorities or politarchs not only governed the city as political authorities, they also had another very important role in the city. They led the people in certain aspects of religious worship. There was no separation of church and state, the two were intertwined. The ruler or king was often worshipped alongside other gods. This was true in Egypt; the Pharaoh was considered a god with all the other gods. The same thing was true of the Roman Empire. Caesar was worshipped, and this worship bound the Roman Empire together and created solidarity, and these city authorities played an important role regarding this religious unity.
Not only was Thessalonica a political and commercial hub, but also a religious hub. There were many temples and shrines in the city, and the city was only about fifty miles away from Mount Olympus, the home of the Greek gods such a Zeus. To go to Mount Olympus, worshippers could come by ship to the Thessalonica harbor or travel to Thessalonica by the Egnatian Way. Because Thessalonica was such a hub being on a major road and having a major harbor, these religious opportunities brought a lot of money into the city. Thessalonica catered to every kind of god in the world, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and numerous others. But the most important religious ceremony of the city concerned the worship of the Roman emperor. This was called the Roman imperial cult. This cult placed the Caesars and some members of their families within the realm of deity, and the Roman citizens were called upon to worship Caesar, as long as they worshipped and honored him, they would have little trouble with the Roman Empire.
The city authorities of Thessalonica wanted to protect the rule of Caesar. To demonstrate their loyalty to Caesar, they would lead the people in worship, and in that worship, they would remind the people of the great Kingdom of Caesar and that he had brought peace, security, and prosperity. They claimed that Caesar’s kingdom was one of peace and prosperity that would never end. This is the environment that Paul came to in Thessalonica as he came preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
THE GOSPEL COMES TO THESSALONICA (Acts 17:2-3)
Paul and his companions arrived in Thessalonica and learned that there was a Jewish synagogue in the city. Paul began in the synagogue as was his custom, to go first to the Jews with the Gospel and then to the Gentiles, he sought to reach his own people first. This was Paul’s church-planting pattern, first share the Gospel with the Jews. He would walk into the synagogue and be recognized by his dress as a teacher of the law, and he would take the seat of the speaker and speak. Luke says it this way in Acts 17:2-3, “And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.’” (Acts 17:2–3, NASB95)[5]
This was Paul’s custom, when given the opportunity to speak, he would remind his fellow Jews about the promises that God had given to their forefathers about the coming Messiah. Then going to the Old Testament Scriptures, he would demonstrate that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and rise from the dead, then he would proclaim that Jesus whom Paul was proclaiming to them is the Messiah that was promised. Three Sabbaths he reasoned and demonstrated from the Scriptures this truth to them.
THE RESULT OF THE GOSPEL IN THESSALONICA (Acts 17:4-10)
After Paul reasoned with them, we read that some Jews were persuaded and joined Paul, Silas, and Timothy. Not only Jews, but a large number of God-fearing Greeks, these would be converts to the Jewish faith, and a number of the leading women. Paul began to teach these new believers as he continued to share the Gospel. A small church was born and began to grow. This was the first result of the Gospel in Thessalonica. We do not know for sure how long Paul stayed in Thessalonica teaching this new church, certainly more than just the three Sabbaths that he spoke in the synagogue. We know this because while he was in Thessalonica the newly formed church in Philippi sent more than one gift to Paul while he was there. He wrote in Philippians 4:15-16, “You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone; for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs.” (Philippians 4:15–16, NASB95)[6]
There was a second result while Paul remained in Thessalonica, he boldly proclaimed the Gospel, and more numbers were added to the church. Because people were coming to faith in Jesus Christ, the unbelieving Jews became envious of the success of Paul and Silas. We read that gathered a mob of evil men from the marketplace and they incited the people, this may refer to the citizens’ assembly and this mob turned into an angry mob disturbing the whole city and they attacked the house of Jason (this is all we know of this man, his name is Jewish, so he was a Jew saved under the ministry of Paul and Silas). This mob believed that Paul and Silas were in his house and when they did not find them, they seized Jason and some of the other men who had been saved and brought them before the city authorities, this is the politarchs. They brought them with a charge that they had welcomed into their homes a man who has upset the world and they were going against the decrees of Caesar and proclaiming there is another king—Jesus. Their charge was very serious, they claimed that Paul’s message was disrupting the whole Roman Empire, and if we let them come here, they will disrupt our economy and our freedom. In other words, if you allow this, you will fall from power, and Rome will come down upon us and accuse us of treason. We are told that this charge disturbed the people (the citizens’ assembly) and the city authorities (the politarchs). The claim disrupted the false peace of these city authorities. These leaders saw the implications of this message and what it meant. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was challenging the very core of that city, the worship of Caesar, its love of money, and it love of freedom. The Gospel of King Jesus has turned the world upside down. Paul’s Gospel about a King who died upon a cross to forgive sins was challenging the rule and reign of Caesar. This message was going against the very culture of the city. The church might have been tolerated as long as it did not disrupt the social order, but as soon as it stepped into the middle of life, as soon as the church started tinkering with life in the city, people became nervous and worried.
The city authorities could not ignore this, and they forced Jason and the others brought with him to post bond. This was a good behavior bond that would be forfeited if they disrupted the peace again. Luke then tells us that the Christians in Thessalonica, this new church, sent Paul, Silas, and Timothy away by night. This was out of their great concern for Paul and his companions, that nothing would happen to them. As Paul, Silas, and Timothy left, they too were worried and concerned for these new Christians and this new church. As long as they stayed, there was a threat to that new church. So, they left under the cloak of the dark night.
That was the situation facing the church when Paul left the city. He didn’t know what would happen to the church. The Christians were faced with a serious charge—treason against Caesar. The charge had some truth to it, These new believers did not want to rebel against the rule of Caesar, but they would not worship him as their Lord. That worship was reserved for Jesus alone. In that way there was no other king but Jesus Christ. That was a difficult stance to take in the Roman Empire, and Paul knew it would bring about suffering and affliction. Paul was concerned for their faith, and he did not want them to be moved by afflictions. His concern was that somehow the tempter would tempt them, and Paul’s labor would have been in vain. What does the tempter say? He tempts them to give up on Jesus. To turn back to all they left behind in the Roman world. Our Scripture reading this morning from Hebrews 11 reminds us that those who are strangers and exiles on the earth, those who seek a homeland beyond this world, he states that if they think about the land they left, the world they left, they would have had the opportunity to return. When that temptation arises, they must desire a better country, that is a “heavenly one” and as they live this way God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. This is the situation that Paul found himself in when he had to leave Thessalonica, and this prompted him to write 1st and 2nd Thessalonians when he could not return to visit the church.
CONCLUSION:
This event in history tells us what Christians faced in Thessalonica, but this is also what followers of Christ face today. This battle has not disappeared, and it will not go away. It is a constant battle that must be faced by all Christians. Some estimates show that over 40 million Christians were killed in the 20th century because of their faith. All we have to do is look at the Middle East or China, and we will see areas where Christians must stand firm for their faith as they face the threat of death.
This type of conflict has been with the church since the beginning. The claims of Jesus have withstood the power and threats of the Roman Empire, Muslim armies, the rise of Communism, and a number of other claims to power. In our time we have a slightly different challenge, a challenge called secularism. Many in North America, both citizens and politicians, believe that a Christian’s faith should be kept out of the public square. Faith is considered a private matter, and it should not play a role in public interaction. This is as much a challenge to our faith as was the challenge in Thessalonica.
The truth is: if we are Christians, our faith cannot be private. We cannot just be a Christian on Sunday or in the privacy of our homes. We must follow Jesus publicly. Our faith cannot be limited to our churches or our homes but must be displayed in various ways at work and in our day-to-day activities in the world. That could mean several things for us. Perhaps we need to be more open or more serious about our commitment to Christ. Perhaps it means we should reflect the justice and truth of God in our vocations, or perhaps it means we should reflect the love and compassion of the Gospel in our callings or vocations. Whether we are at church, at work, at home, or in any public place, we are ambassadors for King Jesus. This is the call Christ has placed on each and every one of us.
We need to be stirred up to remember that the kingdom of God transcends the governments of this world. Jesus Christ is King over everything in this world. He sits in heaven ruling at the right hand of God, and as Christians we are called to acknowledge that of His kingdom there will be no end. (Luke 1:33) There is not a single place where Christ does not touch our lives. We cannot privatize our faith. We cannot think that as long as we are reading our Bibles and praying, and attending church, we are doing enough. We cannot give in to a secular mindset. Our faith must speak in the public square.
The message Paul brings to us through these books and this situation in Thessalonica is that we cannot live that way. We cannot accept it when others in our culture say they will tolerate the church as long as we keep everything private. To be the kind of Christians Christ has called us to be, we must be salt and light. If we live that way, Jesus gives us a promise: as we acknowledge Him before men, He will acknowledge us before His Heavenly Father (Matthew 10:32). Let us openly acknowledge our King!
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.