Last week (3/10/13) and this week (3/17/13), our study in Tentmakers
has found us in a now very familiar book –
Acts – but an unfamiliar chapter – 17. If
you would, please grab your Bible and read Acts 17:1-3. As you read, ask yourself the five ‘W’
questions. Who? What?
Where? When? Why?
Of course you could cheat by looking ahead, but Bible study (any study
for that matter) works best when you give yourself a chance to record your own
thoughts before looking at anyone else’s.
When?
Who?
Where?
What?
Why?
When? Who? Acts 16:40-17:1
tell us that “they” (i.e. Paul and Silas without Luke) have just left Philippi
and have “passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia” and have come to
Thessalonica.
Where? What? You may have included
‘Thessalonica’ in your ‘Where?’ answer, and you would have been correct
(if you‘re worried about being correct), but within the city itself where did
Paul go and what did he say there (see vs. 2-3)?
Verse 2 reminds us that it was Paul’s custom, when entering a new
city, to first make his case to the Jews in the local synagogue. (I wonder if that is why Paul and Silas
stopped in Thessalonica and not in the other two cities mentioned in verse 1.) The what of “his case” was the
explanation of Scripture. He spent three
Sabbaths reasoning with them, showing them proof “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.” (Acts 17:3, Amplified version).
Why? It wasn’t
that the Jews were resistant to the coming of their Messiah. They looked for Him, hoping every day for His
coming, but they missed it. How? The Old Testament includes many prophecies
that rabbis and teachers of the Mosaic Law had studied and taught throughout
the centuries leading up to Christ’s first coming. The problem was that the prophecies set
side-by-side didn’t seem to fit together.
For example (just to show one of many), Daniel 7:27 describe the “everlasting
kingdom” while Daniel 9:26 says that the Messiah “will be cut off.” Early scholars couldn’t reason how their
eternal King could suffer, and so (because of their lack of understanding) they
largely ignored that part of the prophecy.
Jesus’ crucifixion sealed the deal for them; He couldn’t be their
King. Before Paul could get his fellow
Jews to accept Jesus as their King, he had to correct the error in their
theology. Paul didn’t have to use fancy
words of his own. All he needed was the
common ground of Scripture. Read Acts
17:4 to see (and record) how the Jews reacted.
We aren’t told that they eagerly accepted Paul’s message; rather that
some “were induced to believe.” Other
translations use the word persuaded here. Like us watching an infomercial, they stopped
on Paul’s channel skeptical, at first, of what they were being told and by the
end, they had the telephone in their hand giving their credit card number to
the operator on the other line.
Now what? Well those who were persuaded in Thessalonica became witnesses to the
truth; they had seen it firsthand in the Word of God. It is the duty of a witness to testify … like
it or not. You and I have a duty today
to testify to what we have witnessed God say through His Word and what we have
seen Him do in our lives. Some days, our
job is fun; others are hard or painful.
Just ask Jason in Acts 17:5-9.
… I’m going to have to leave it here for today. I’m planning to write something about Jason
later in the week. If God knows
otherwise, then I’ll catch up to you on Sunday at church or next week right
here on Now What? As for now, I have to get a little girl some
Cheerios and chocolate milk. Have a
blessed day!!
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