24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor[a] and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
27 When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28 For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.
Paul in Ephesus
1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when[a] you believed?”
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues[b] and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
Dig Deeper
A few years ago, I could not stand the idea of cell phones. I vowed that I would never own one but then my wife had to go into the hospital for a period of several months with a difficult pregnancy and I needed to be as available as possible so I began to carry one. Slowly but surely I saw the benefits of having a cell phone and now I cannot imagine going without one. Until recently, however, I felt the same about smart phones. I just didn’t see the point of having a phone that can do a hundred different things above and beyond simply being a phone. That is, until my wife got one for me. Suddenly I can keep track of my schedule and the schedule on my wife’s phone, I can video conference with people around the world regardless of where I’m at, I can check my email anywhere at anytime, I can read and create documents anywhere, and a whole host of other indispensable things. I’ve grown to truly appreciate this phone and be able to do many things on it that I never would have imagined were possible from a mere phone. I’ve even spent some time showing interested people the virtues of this phone and all of the things that it can do. Just when I thought that I had it all figured out, though, I realized recently that there was a function on my phone that I was trying to make work but I just could not figure it out. That’s when my eight year-old son sat down with me and proceeded to explain to me his mild frustration with me over the fact that I simply did not have a full working knowledge of my own phone. I don’t understand if the kids these days are born with technology genes that us older folks simply don’t have but he was able to show me several vital functions and features of my phone that I didn’t have a clue were even available (a surprising fact considering he doesn’t own a phone). I appreciated what I knew of it but he opened a whole new world by giving me a more adequate explanation of my phone.
As Luke continues to describe the spread of the gospel as it made its way from Jerusalem to the “ends of the earth” he takes us on a brief stop-off with two stories that show slightly different aspects of the same issue. In the early decades of Christianity there had been many elements of Jewish Messianic hope including the teachings of a coming kingdom of God that John the Baptist and his disciples were espousing, and even the teachings of Jesus himself that had made their way around the known world at the time. Many of these strands of teaching apart from that of Jesus and his disciples were but parts of the whole and there were apparently many different combinations and partial aspects of the truth, or even somewhat convoluted aspects of the gospel. Most of the work of the church was to preach the gospel to the Jews who were waiting for God’s Messiah and to the Gentiles who had little to knowledge or expectation of anything of the kind. But they also had to confront those who were still following John’s teachings or had heard but part of the message and truth of Jesus. Luke was no doubt taking special concern to include these two accounts to make clear that it was no longer appropriate to continue to follow John. The one that he had pointed to had come and everything that John had preached would come about had been fulfilled in the life, death, resurrection, and baptism into Jesus Christ. God’s family could finally be entered into fully and the seal of God’s Holy Spirit was available to all who entered into Christ.
Luke returns us to Ephesus where a man named Apollos arrived at a time when Paul was not in the city but Aquila and Priscilla were. Apollos was quite possibly an itinerant worker who engaged in teaching wherever he went, something that was not uncommon in these parts of the world at this time but we cannot be certain of that. He was a native of Alexandria which was a center of culture and learning in the ancient world but was also known to be an early center of various garbled versions of teaching about the Messiah so, although Luke doesn’t explicitly tell us, it is quite possible that Apollos had been instructed in portions of the life of Jesus. In addition to that, Apollos was Jewish and presumably grew up in the large Jewish community in Alexandria so his knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures would have been high. We cannot piece together all of the details concerning Apollos but we do know that he had been instructed at least partially concerning Jesus and that he was quite zealous or had “great fervor.” (A phrase which literally translated is “great fervor in spirit,” a phrase which some have pressed to argue that Apollos was full of the Spirit, but an understanding that is unlikely given the context.) Because of his passion for spiritual truth, Apollos taught accurately about Jesus as far as what he knew. It is quite reasonable at this point to conclude that Apollos had been taught by someone who had possibly even heard Jesus or knew of him during his lifetime but who had not yet known of the events surrounding his death and resurrection as well as Pentecost.
Luke goes to great lengths to demonstrate that Apollos was a sincere and honest man who taught about Jesus accurately, yet he was not fully informed on one vital point. He needed someone to sit down with him and explain the fullness of the gospel message adequately. This is exactly what Aquila and Priscilla would do as they would open a whole new world of the gospel of Jesus Christ to this already rather learned man. Their respect for Apollos is apparent as they did not confront this truth seeker in public. They privately invited him into their home to hear the full story. As they did so, Apollos’ sincerity and humility shined through as he listened and accepted the truth.
But what part of the gospel was Apollos missing? He knew of only the baptism of John which meant that he knew of only the symbolic and preparatory baptism of John the Baptist. Apollos was unaware that the Spirit had been poured out and God’s family made available to all who would not just know of Jesus but those that would believe in his life, repent of living for their own will, and submit to his Lordship, by being baptized into his life (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:1-4; Titus 3:4-8).
Luke does not explicitly state that Apollos was then baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of his sin and to receive the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), but the fact that Luke rolls the conversion of Apollos directly into the account at the beginning of chapter 19 make if fairly clear that this is exactly what he was implying. There were, in other words, fervent and sincere people who had elements of the gospel but they too needed to be taught adequately and immersed into the life of Christ.
Once Apollos had been brought fully into God’s family, he wanted to continue his activities of traveling and teaching about Christ. The brothers and sisters in Ephesus not only encouraged him but sent a letter of recommendation so that he would be welcomed and trusted as a true believer by the community there. His time in Corinth was so successful that it could almost be argued he was “too successful.” Luke confirms that Apollos was “a great help to those who by grace had believed.” His teaching skill was no doubt a great addition to the Corinthian community but they were so young and immature that Paul would have to spend a fair amount of time in the opening chapters of his first letter to the Corinthians helping those who were so enamored with Apollos’ teaching skill and content that they began to create schisms. Yet, Paul, and Luke for that matter, never had anything but godly praise for this humble and powerful teacher of the gospel. In fact, Apollos was so powerful in arguing the truth of the gospel from the Scriptures with his Jewish brethren that some have put forth the theory that he was the author of the anonymously written Hebrews.
Luke intentionally connects these two accounts concerning the priority of baptism into the life of Christ as he mentions that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul arrived for another visit to Ephesus. This time the Spirit opened the door in Ephesus in a unique way. While there, Paul ran into a group of about a dozen men whom Luke calls disciples. Much debate has gone into whether Luke intended to convey that these men were disciples of John or of Jesus. If they were strictly disciples of John, then it seems that Luke would have just said that. Yet, it is unlikely that Luke would mean that they were actual disciples as the rest of his account goes to show that they were not. In his work “Acts,” scholar I. Howard Marshall astutely points out that “Paul met some men who appeared to him to be disciples, but because he had some doubts about their Christian status he proceeded to examine their claims more carefully. Luke is not saying that the men were disciples but is describing how they appeared to Paul.” This is not unusual as Luke often spoke of the appearance of someone’s spiritual condition without specifically commenting on it before showing the truth of it such as noting that Simon “believed” (Acts 8.13, and; reporting the Judaizers as “believers” (Acts 15:5).
Noticing that something didn’t seem quite right, Paul inquired as to these men’s reception of the Holy Spirit. His assumption was that they, like all believers since Pentecost, would have been baptized through faith into Christ and received the gift of the indwelling Spirit (Acts 2:38). Yet Paul saw no evidence of that or of the subsequent outpouring of the Spirit as manifested in special gifts of the Spirit. Their answer probably didn’t surprise him at all. They, like Apollos, had not even heard of that the Spirit was now available on a personal basis.
Paul’s next assumption is instructive. If they had not received the Spirit and were not members of Christ then the problem must have had to do with baptism for in Paul’s mind, all who were buried into his death and resurrection through baptism in genuine faith were believers and would have received the indwelling of the Spirit. Just as Apollos had not known of the necessity of being baptized into Christ, this group of men had to be taught more adequately as well and were then immediately baptized into Christ, receiving the forgiveness of their sin and the gift of the counselor, the Holy Spirit.
Twice before the Spirit had prevented Paul from laying the foundation of a church in Ephesus and completing the work there that he desired to do but apparently now, the Spirit’s timing was right. It seemingly was through these twelve men that the foundation for a church in Ephesus would be laid. These men were not just baptized into Christ but Paul used his apostolic gift to pass on to them special gifts of the Spirit that would enable them to demonstrate the truth of their gospel claims to others in Ephesus. Once Paul had laid his hands on them, the Spirit came upon them (a separate function from the indwelling of the Spirit that all believers are promised at baptism into Christ per Acts 2:38) and empowered them to speak in tongues and prophesy.
These two accounts from Ephesus are encouraging reminders that the truth of the gospel is powerful. Even those who are very learned and sincere religiously can be brought into the life of Christ if they are humbly and patiently, albeit directly, taught more adequately about the need to fully enter into the life of Christ and become part of his family.
Devotional Thought
We have two separate examples here of disciples who were willing to speak boldly to sincere religious people rather than be sentimental. They put their love for God, the truth, and others ahead of the potential discomfort of speaking the gospel to those who were already convinced that they were doing the right thing. What is your response to such situations? Are you ready, willing, and able to step out in faith and to show biblical truth to those who need more adequate teaching and to do so with the same humility and respect that these first disciples had?
Monday, January 09, 2012
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Acts 18:12-23
12 While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack against Paul and brought him to the judge's bench. 13 "This man," they said, "persuades people to worship God contrary to the law!"
14 And as Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it were a matter of a crime or of moral evil, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you Jews. 15 But if these are questions about words, names, and your own law, see to it yourselves. I don't want to be a judge of such things." 16 So he drove them from the judge's bench. 17 Then they all [f] seized Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the judge's bench. But none of these things concerned Gallio.
The Return Trip to Antioch
18 So Paul, having stayed on for many days, said good-bye to the brothers and sailed away to Syria. Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He shaved his head at Cenchreae, because he had taken a vow. 19 When they reached Ephesus he left them there, but he himself entered the synagogue and engaged in discussion with [g] the Jews. 20 And though they asked him to stay for a longer time, he declined, 21 but said good-bye and stated, [h] "I'll come back to you again, if God wills." Then he set sail from Ephesus.
22 On landing at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, [i] and went down to Antioch. 23 He set out, traveling through one place after another in the Galatian territory and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
Dig Deeper
Last year an American football player made a vow at the beginning of the season that he was not going to shave his face until his team made it to the Super Bowl, the championship game of the National Football League. The attention that he received for this little stunt grew by the week both as a result of his team being very good and having a legitimate chance to make the Super Bowl and the fact that his beard was growing quite burly over the course of a long season. By the time the playoffs came around, his beard was in the realm of a fine Grizzly Adams-like beard. He continued to vow that he would not shave his beard off until he made it to the Super Bowl, which would have been interesting if his team had not made it, but they did win each round of the playoffs and made their way to the Super Bowl. In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, his beard got a great deal of attention. He had vowed to grow it until he played in a Super Bowl and he had made it. Eventually his team lost in the Super Bowl but shortly after the game, with his vow fulfilled, he shaved his beard and came out publicly a few days later clean-shaven and ready to take on the challenge of the next season.
As Paul continued on with his journey of spreading the gospel throughout the world, he faced many challenges of different kinds. As he was beginning the journey back home to Antioch, Luke briefly mentions that Paul shaved his head because of a vow but doesn’t give us any more information than that. Commentators have long puzzled over what type of vow Paul was taking and what it meant. We can state with absolute certainty that he had not taken a vow to play in the Super Bowl. Some have suggested that he took a strict Nazarite vow which often involved not cutting one’s hair but strict vows of that nature were not taken outside of the land of Israel and always ended in Jerusalem so it is unlikely that it was a vow of that type. What is more likely is that Paul engaged in a typical but not formal Jewish custom of making vows that reminded them of a special circumstance or time period that they were offering to God. It is quite reasonable that Paul had chosen to undertake such a vow when God guided him to stay in Corinth to build up the ministry there for a time much longer than he had originally planned. It is quite possible, if this speculation is correct, that Paul was growing his hair as a sign of trust in God’s provision and protection through a long time in Corinth. Now as he left the region, he would shave his head to signify that God had indeed come through and that specific time was over.
But before he left the region of Achaia, Paul would be dragged before the authorities for one more important encounter, this time with the proconsul, Gallio. The charge against Paul was a familiar one that was lodged against the apostles and the early church most often. They were persuading people to worship God contrary to the Law of Moses. The church was constantly facing dual charges on either end of the spectrum. The Jews charged that the Christian belief followed in the blasphemous footsteps of their so-called Messiah, Jesus. They truly believed, as Paul once had, that the Christians were encouraging Jews to abandon their faith, disregard the Law, disrespect Moses, and therefore they stood as no better than the pagans.
On the other hand, the Romans were quite wary of the early Christians, especially as it became more and more clear that this was not just an offshoot of Judaism but was something entirely different. It might seem odd that Rome would have a problem with Christianity being that it was an empire that was quite tolerant of other religions as long as they didn’t pose a threat to the Empire itself. So how could a group that was built on the teachings of love and non-violence of their Messiah pose a threat? It was because they were not a typical religion. Rome would have been quite happy to allow just another group that held their private religious beliefs within the confines of their own community. But the Christians, although not political or militaristic, truly believed that Jesus was the true King of the world and this meant that Caesar was not. They were determined to live that way and live by the values of the kingdom to which they belonged in heart and loyalty. Rome may not have completely understood that but they saw the potential threat and were determined to stop it. This meant that the Christians typically found themselves squeezed between the religious zeal of the Jews and the political wariness of the Romans.
But as Paul stepped before Gallio, it was still early in the Christian development and Christianity had not yet fully gained the attention of the non-Jewish world and certainly the Christian community was not fully understood by the Romans. Gallio, like many in the pagan world at this time, still saw the Christian and Jewish conflict as an in-house squabble that they did not want to deal with. Gallio did not want to get involved what what he understood as arguments over things that the Romans didn’t believe, didn’t understand, and didn’t care about.
This might seem like a negative decision for Paul and the disciples but it was actually a great victory for them. It basically gave the Christian community a new freedom, at least in the region of southern and central Greece. Gallio’s decision meant that Christianity was still being viewed as a part of Judaism which meant that they would be afforded the same freedom that was allowed to the Jewish faith. In addition, he was clearly telling the Jewish leadership that he didn’t want to hear about any more complaints that they had with the Christians. For now, Rome would not do their dirty work.
Luke does not make it clear as to why Sosthenes was beaten and by who but he does make clear that Gallio was no saint. His decision was favorable for Paul but was not based in godliness or justice but convenience for him and Rome. Now he turns a blind eye to a crowd grabbing and beating a man. It may have been that the Greeks grabbed Sosthenes and beat him but it is more likely that the Jews beat their own synagogue leader either for losing the case before Gallio and losing the honor of the community or because he had somehow demonstrated Christian sympathies during the trial. Bolstering this last possibility is that Paul mentions someone named Sosthenes in 1 Corinthians 1:1 as his co-author (possibly the same man as the one in this passage, but not necessarily).
As Paul’s journey was coming to an end he left and headed towards Ephesus. God had prompted him to stay in the region of Corinth for longer than he had planned but now it was time to move on. It would make sense that if his vow was a remembrance and thanksgiving vow to God for his provision during his time in that region that as he left the region and headed toward Jerusalem that it was a good time to end the vow and give final thanks to God.
Paul finally arrived in Ephesus, in the province of Asia. He had earlier been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. Now in Ephesus, things seem to go well and Paul is asked to stay more and continue to preach the gospel, but Paul seemed to discern that the time was still not right for a full-scale ministry in Ephesus, at least it was not the time for Paul. But he did leave Aquila and Priscilla behind to build up the church. Paul was clearly a man who was constantly in touch with the guidance of the Spirit as he revealed God’s will to him and did not feel that he had to do everything himself. He would later urge Timothy to teach the ministry and gospel to faithful men who would be equipped to pass it on to others (2 Timothy 2:2) and that is precisely what he was doing here.
Verse 22 is a bit cryptic but it is likely that when Luke says that Paul “went up and greeted the church,” he is referring to Paul going to visit the church in Jerusalem (although he could simply be referring to the church in Caesarea, but it would be worded oddly if that were the case). What Luke was most likely telling us was that Paul was always accountable in his ministry to the church family at large. He was not a lone-gun but kept in contact with the historic center of the church and gave them occasional updates of his activities. Paul then traveled on to his “home” church in Antioch for a short time.
But even on arriving back at “home,” Paul would not stay put for long. He had established churches in Galatia and Phrygia and would now return to them to with a fatherly heart to love and strengthen them. Paul was always deeply committed to spreading the influence of God’s kingdom one heart at at time through active evangelism and church building but he never reduced those churches and converts to a numbers game. They weren’t just conquests or numbers for Paul. He cared deeply for each church, each community, and each person. Paul was truly an evangelist and a shepherd.
Devotional Thought
Paul was constantly working towards being sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit whether he led Paul towards the expected or the unexpected and uncomfortable. Paul’s loyalty was to the Spirit, not himself or his own desires. Are you equally committed to following the guidance of the Spirit? Have you trained yourself to even discern the Spirit’s guidance and do you listen when he does guide you? To what is he calling you right now?
14 And as Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If it were a matter of a crime or of moral evil, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you Jews. 15 But if these are questions about words, names, and your own law, see to it yourselves. I don't want to be a judge of such things." 16 So he drove them from the judge's bench. 17 Then they all [f] seized Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the judge's bench. But none of these things concerned Gallio.
The Return Trip to Antioch
18 So Paul, having stayed on for many days, said good-bye to the brothers and sailed away to Syria. Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He shaved his head at Cenchreae, because he had taken a vow. 19 When they reached Ephesus he left them there, but he himself entered the synagogue and engaged in discussion with [g] the Jews. 20 And though they asked him to stay for a longer time, he declined, 21 but said good-bye and stated, [h] "I'll come back to you again, if God wills." Then he set sail from Ephesus.
22 On landing at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, [i] and went down to Antioch. 23 He set out, traveling through one place after another in the Galatian territory and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
Dig Deeper
Last year an American football player made a vow at the beginning of the season that he was not going to shave his face until his team made it to the Super Bowl, the championship game of the National Football League. The attention that he received for this little stunt grew by the week both as a result of his team being very good and having a legitimate chance to make the Super Bowl and the fact that his beard was growing quite burly over the course of a long season. By the time the playoffs came around, his beard was in the realm of a fine Grizzly Adams-like beard. He continued to vow that he would not shave his beard off until he made it to the Super Bowl, which would have been interesting if his team had not made it, but they did win each round of the playoffs and made their way to the Super Bowl. In the week leading up to the Super Bowl, his beard got a great deal of attention. He had vowed to grow it until he played in a Super Bowl and he had made it. Eventually his team lost in the Super Bowl but shortly after the game, with his vow fulfilled, he shaved his beard and came out publicly a few days later clean-shaven and ready to take on the challenge of the next season.
As Paul continued on with his journey of spreading the gospel throughout the world, he faced many challenges of different kinds. As he was beginning the journey back home to Antioch, Luke briefly mentions that Paul shaved his head because of a vow but doesn’t give us any more information than that. Commentators have long puzzled over what type of vow Paul was taking and what it meant. We can state with absolute certainty that he had not taken a vow to play in the Super Bowl. Some have suggested that he took a strict Nazarite vow which often involved not cutting one’s hair but strict vows of that nature were not taken outside of the land of Israel and always ended in Jerusalem so it is unlikely that it was a vow of that type. What is more likely is that Paul engaged in a typical but not formal Jewish custom of making vows that reminded them of a special circumstance or time period that they were offering to God. It is quite reasonable that Paul had chosen to undertake such a vow when God guided him to stay in Corinth to build up the ministry there for a time much longer than he had originally planned. It is quite possible, if this speculation is correct, that Paul was growing his hair as a sign of trust in God’s provision and protection through a long time in Corinth. Now as he left the region, he would shave his head to signify that God had indeed come through and that specific time was over.
But before he left the region of Achaia, Paul would be dragged before the authorities for one more important encounter, this time with the proconsul, Gallio. The charge against Paul was a familiar one that was lodged against the apostles and the early church most often. They were persuading people to worship God contrary to the Law of Moses. The church was constantly facing dual charges on either end of the spectrum. The Jews charged that the Christian belief followed in the blasphemous footsteps of their so-called Messiah, Jesus. They truly believed, as Paul once had, that the Christians were encouraging Jews to abandon their faith, disregard the Law, disrespect Moses, and therefore they stood as no better than the pagans.
On the other hand, the Romans were quite wary of the early Christians, especially as it became more and more clear that this was not just an offshoot of Judaism but was something entirely different. It might seem odd that Rome would have a problem with Christianity being that it was an empire that was quite tolerant of other religions as long as they didn’t pose a threat to the Empire itself. So how could a group that was built on the teachings of love and non-violence of their Messiah pose a threat? It was because they were not a typical religion. Rome would have been quite happy to allow just another group that held their private religious beliefs within the confines of their own community. But the Christians, although not political or militaristic, truly believed that Jesus was the true King of the world and this meant that Caesar was not. They were determined to live that way and live by the values of the kingdom to which they belonged in heart and loyalty. Rome may not have completely understood that but they saw the potential threat and were determined to stop it. This meant that the Christians typically found themselves squeezed between the religious zeal of the Jews and the political wariness of the Romans.
But as Paul stepped before Gallio, it was still early in the Christian development and Christianity had not yet fully gained the attention of the non-Jewish world and certainly the Christian community was not fully understood by the Romans. Gallio, like many in the pagan world at this time, still saw the Christian and Jewish conflict as an in-house squabble that they did not want to deal with. Gallio did not want to get involved what what he understood as arguments over things that the Romans didn’t believe, didn’t understand, and didn’t care about.
This might seem like a negative decision for Paul and the disciples but it was actually a great victory for them. It basically gave the Christian community a new freedom, at least in the region of southern and central Greece. Gallio’s decision meant that Christianity was still being viewed as a part of Judaism which meant that they would be afforded the same freedom that was allowed to the Jewish faith. In addition, he was clearly telling the Jewish leadership that he didn’t want to hear about any more complaints that they had with the Christians. For now, Rome would not do their dirty work.
Luke does not make it clear as to why Sosthenes was beaten and by who but he does make clear that Gallio was no saint. His decision was favorable for Paul but was not based in godliness or justice but convenience for him and Rome. Now he turns a blind eye to a crowd grabbing and beating a man. It may have been that the Greeks grabbed Sosthenes and beat him but it is more likely that the Jews beat their own synagogue leader either for losing the case before Gallio and losing the honor of the community or because he had somehow demonstrated Christian sympathies during the trial. Bolstering this last possibility is that Paul mentions someone named Sosthenes in 1 Corinthians 1:1 as his co-author (possibly the same man as the one in this passage, but not necessarily).
As Paul’s journey was coming to an end he left and headed towards Ephesus. God had prompted him to stay in the region of Corinth for longer than he had planned but now it was time to move on. It would make sense that if his vow was a remembrance and thanksgiving vow to God for his provision during his time in that region that as he left the region and headed toward Jerusalem that it was a good time to end the vow and give final thanks to God.
Paul finally arrived in Ephesus, in the province of Asia. He had earlier been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. Now in Ephesus, things seem to go well and Paul is asked to stay more and continue to preach the gospel, but Paul seemed to discern that the time was still not right for a full-scale ministry in Ephesus, at least it was not the time for Paul. But he did leave Aquila and Priscilla behind to build up the church. Paul was clearly a man who was constantly in touch with the guidance of the Spirit as he revealed God’s will to him and did not feel that he had to do everything himself. He would later urge Timothy to teach the ministry and gospel to faithful men who would be equipped to pass it on to others (2 Timothy 2:2) and that is precisely what he was doing here.
Verse 22 is a bit cryptic but it is likely that when Luke says that Paul “went up and greeted the church,” he is referring to Paul going to visit the church in Jerusalem (although he could simply be referring to the church in Caesarea, but it would be worded oddly if that were the case). What Luke was most likely telling us was that Paul was always accountable in his ministry to the church family at large. He was not a lone-gun but kept in contact with the historic center of the church and gave them occasional updates of his activities. Paul then traveled on to his “home” church in Antioch for a short time.
But even on arriving back at “home,” Paul would not stay put for long. He had established churches in Galatia and Phrygia and would now return to them to with a fatherly heart to love and strengthen them. Paul was always deeply committed to spreading the influence of God’s kingdom one heart at at time through active evangelism and church building but he never reduced those churches and converts to a numbers game. They weren’t just conquests or numbers for Paul. He cared deeply for each church, each community, and each person. Paul was truly an evangelist and a shepherd.
Devotional Thought
Paul was constantly working towards being sensitive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit whether he led Paul towards the expected or the unexpected and uncomfortable. Paul’s loyalty was to the Spirit, not himself or his own desires. Are you equally committed to following the guidance of the Spirit? Have you trained yourself to even discern the Spirit’s guidance and do you listen when he does guide you? To what is he calling you right now?
Monday, January 02, 2012
Acts 18:1-11
Note: Sorry for the long delay in resuming our journey through Acts. Look for new devotionals every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
In Corinth
1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. 6 But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
7 Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. 8 Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.
9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11 So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
Dig Deeper
There’s always a difficult line to discern when you feel that someone else is in error in their beliefs or practices concerning God. You have to decide whether they are truly in error and lacking some vital information about God and his word or whether it is simply just a difference in small matters of opinion that can be safely tucked into the category of disputable matters. A few years back, for instance, I had an interaction with a young man who was convinced that I was not part of God’s kingdom because our church will occasionally have musical instruments playing during our song worship. I’m pretty convinced biblically that this is one of those disputable matters and while I respect his right to feel that way, it is probably not a matter over which someone needs to be categorized as embracing false doctrine.
On the other hand, I had another friend awhile back who believed that water baptism into the life of Christ is not necessary for salvation, and that in fact, there are three types of ordained baptism in the New Testament. Neither of these view is biblical, of course, and flies directly in the face of Scriptures that state plainly that God graciously saves us (Titus 3:5; 1 Pet. 3:20) and forgives our sin (Acts 2:38) at baptism and that there is only one baptism (Eph. 4:5). As much as I would have liked to not have to confront him about this, it is serious business and so I felt that his error would be on my head if I didn’t at least try to proclaim the truth to him. As uncomfortable as it was, I did share the biblical truth with him although he rejected it, citing the fact that that’s not what he had been taught growing up, and he respected his pastor more than anyone else and just didn’t believe he could be wrong. Despite an inability to demonstrate the truth of his belief biblically, he sadly chose to side with what another person had told him. He didn’t listen to the biblical truth, but I had done all that I could do.
Paul certainly felt the burden of believing that he had the truth to proclaim to Jews and Gentiles alike wherever he went. He did have one advantage in that Christianity was such a new faith based on the recent life and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah that it was a safe assumption wherever he went and whoever he talked to that they needed to have the truth of the gospel proclaimed to them. There were very few gray areas between the truth and the false gospels that had popped up yet, although they were there already and would soon explode in scope and number. But Paul took his role as apostle quite seriously and felt that if he didn’t proclaim the truth of the Messiah to people wherever he went, regardless of the consequences of sharing that truth, that their blood would be on his head. But once he had faithfully proclaimed the gospel, that was all he could do. It was not his job to get people to respond. Once they heard the truth the responsibility shifted to them.
Despite the fact that Paul had been beckoned by the power of the Holy Spirit to Macedonia, things had not gone personally well for him there. Paul was now arriving in Corinth but still concerned about how things were going for Silas and Timothy who had remained for a time in Macedonia. Corinth was a metropolitan center that was teeming with life and energy. It was one of those cities that has a nearly palpable pulse wherever you go. But it had a dark side. As a commercial port it had attracted all types of people including a Jewish community, but it had a terrible reputation for immorality. Corinth was the center of worship of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, and had a temple for her with over 1,000 prostitutes housed there. In the ancient world, the term “Corinthian” became almost synonymous with the term “immoral”. Corinth was a fiercely Roman colony that was very proud of it’s “Roman-ness” and just as committed to the Roman gods and the Roman way of life.
Paul arrived in Corinth in “fear and trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3) after his previous experiences, but he was not deterred. Rather he was still determined to preach Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2:2) and nothing else in Corinth, a message that quickly separated the truth seekers from those who would cling to their own myths, idols, and opinions.
He must have been quite encouraged, though, to have met Aquila and Priscilla right away. Luke never says for certain that they were already Christians, but that seems to be the implication. They had recently arrived from Rome after the Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome, an act which included Jewish Christians as well. They were making a living as tentmakers, a profession which required skill in working with both leather and cilcium (a cloth made of goat’s hair from Paul’s native region of Cilcia) tent material. Paul was also a skilled tentmaker which was not that unusual as most rabbis and Pharisees in Paul’s day earned their own living through a trade of some sort. It seems that they quickly agreed to let Paul live with them and to stay on and work with them as well, an arrangement that allowed Paul to support himself while preaching the gospel.
Paul must have been relieved on two levels when Silas and Timothy arrived safely from Macedonia. First, he knew that they were safe and that he could finally receive some news as to the progress of the gospel in Macedonia (1 Thess. 3:6-10). Second, they apparently brought with them monetary support from the disciples in Macedonia (2 Cor. 11:9; Phil. 4:15-16). This allowed him lay down his tentmaker tools for awhile and fully devote himself to the message of the gospel which was what Paul wanted to do as much as possible to fulfill what he felt was his true calling in the Lord.
As an apostle, Paul knew that his work of declaring the truth of Jesus as the Messiah to the Jew first and then the Gentile was vitally important and he took that task seriously. He understood that when his fellow Jews, or anyone else for that matter, rejected the gospel they also rejected their only chance to be brought into the family of God. Preaching the gospel was his responsibility. If Paul failed to render that duty then he felt that he would have to answer to God for that. But once he had done so faithfully, he was innocent. Once the responsibility of preaching the gospel had been dispensed the onus of accountability shifted to the hearers and how they would respond to the truth.
When the Jews in Corinth did reject the gospel and began to be abusive towards Paul, as they had in so many other places, Paul shook his clothes out towards them. This was no empty gesture or a mere sign of frustration. Shaking out one’s garments was a sign of breaking fellowship with them (Neh. 5:13). It was the kind of gesture that Jews would usually aim towards the pagan Gentiles. It was an indicator form God’s servant that, in his eyes, they had put themselves in the category of the godless Gentiles and were no better off when it came to their position in God’s family. They, just like the Gentiles that they so quickly looked down upon, were also cut off from God’s family.
Whether the opposition that Paul faced forced his move to the house of Titius Justus or the persecution ramped up as a result of his move and subsequent success there remains an open question, but Paul did eventually move to Titius’ house which was right next door to the synagogue and would have been a constant “in-your-face” reminder of the success and power of the gospel that they had so summarily rejected. Most Romans had three names that they used under different circumstances so it is quite plausible that Titius Justus is one in the same with Gaius who was personally baptized by Paul (1 Cor. 1:14) and who was still hosting the whole church in Corinth in his house when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans. To have such a sizable house meant that Titius (Gaius?) was a prominent and wealthy member of Corinthian society but he was not the only prominent convert. The synagogue leader, Crispus, was also personally baptized by Paul (1 Cor. 1:14) and presumably became one of the early leaders of the young church in Corinth. Despite his opposition, then, Paul had a great deal of success in bringing people, both prominent and poor (cf. 1 Cor. 11) into the kingdom of God and was doing so right next to the very synagogue that had rejected the gospel, complete with the former leader of that synagogue as one of the newest converts!
We have to speculate a bit at this point that Paul had become so accustomed to being run out of towns that perhaps he was bracing himself for another such incident. It is possible that having such a well respected convert like the synagogue leader, Crispus, might have actually padded Paul against some of the harshest opposition that he usually faced. Whatever the case, God felt that it was necessary to assure Paul that Corinth was precisely where he wanted him to be and to stay. Paul had desires to continue spreading the gospel and eventually make his way to Rome, but the time was not yet to come. For now, he was assured that God would bring him great success in Corinth and protect him while he stayed and built the church.
It must have been an exciting and yet challenging time for Paul as we know from his letters that the young church in Corinth was petulant and strong-willed but also passionate and full of zeal and energy. They were like an undisciplined teenager that was constantly ready to explode with pent-up energy. And perhaps that’s why God chose to have Paul stay for the 18 months that he did. Imagine the problems that might have developed in Corinth had Paul not stayed as long as he did to build, mature, and establish his relationship with the church there.
Devotional Thought
How do you feel about God’s call on your life to teach the truth to others, especially those that find themselves in serious biblical error? Are you willing to risk embarrassment, rejection, or even be ostracized for the sake of declaring the truth of the gospel to others? Remember, it’s not our responsibility to make them respond positively but it is our responsibility to declare the truth to those in error.
In Corinth
1 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3 and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4 Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
5 When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. 6 But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
7 Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justus, a worshiper of God. 8 Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.
9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” 11 So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.
Dig Deeper
There’s always a difficult line to discern when you feel that someone else is in error in their beliefs or practices concerning God. You have to decide whether they are truly in error and lacking some vital information about God and his word or whether it is simply just a difference in small matters of opinion that can be safely tucked into the category of disputable matters. A few years back, for instance, I had an interaction with a young man who was convinced that I was not part of God’s kingdom because our church will occasionally have musical instruments playing during our song worship. I’m pretty convinced biblically that this is one of those disputable matters and while I respect his right to feel that way, it is probably not a matter over which someone needs to be categorized as embracing false doctrine.
On the other hand, I had another friend awhile back who believed that water baptism into the life of Christ is not necessary for salvation, and that in fact, there are three types of ordained baptism in the New Testament. Neither of these view is biblical, of course, and flies directly in the face of Scriptures that state plainly that God graciously saves us (Titus 3:5; 1 Pet. 3:20) and forgives our sin (Acts 2:38) at baptism and that there is only one baptism (Eph. 4:5). As much as I would have liked to not have to confront him about this, it is serious business and so I felt that his error would be on my head if I didn’t at least try to proclaim the truth to him. As uncomfortable as it was, I did share the biblical truth with him although he rejected it, citing the fact that that’s not what he had been taught growing up, and he respected his pastor more than anyone else and just didn’t believe he could be wrong. Despite an inability to demonstrate the truth of his belief biblically, he sadly chose to side with what another person had told him. He didn’t listen to the biblical truth, but I had done all that I could do.
Paul certainly felt the burden of believing that he had the truth to proclaim to Jews and Gentiles alike wherever he went. He did have one advantage in that Christianity was such a new faith based on the recent life and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah that it was a safe assumption wherever he went and whoever he talked to that they needed to have the truth of the gospel proclaimed to them. There were very few gray areas between the truth and the false gospels that had popped up yet, although they were there already and would soon explode in scope and number. But Paul took his role as apostle quite seriously and felt that if he didn’t proclaim the truth of the Messiah to people wherever he went, regardless of the consequences of sharing that truth, that their blood would be on his head. But once he had faithfully proclaimed the gospel, that was all he could do. It was not his job to get people to respond. Once they heard the truth the responsibility shifted to them.
Despite the fact that Paul had been beckoned by the power of the Holy Spirit to Macedonia, things had not gone personally well for him there. Paul was now arriving in Corinth but still concerned about how things were going for Silas and Timothy who had remained for a time in Macedonia. Corinth was a metropolitan center that was teeming with life and energy. It was one of those cities that has a nearly palpable pulse wherever you go. But it had a dark side. As a commercial port it had attracted all types of people including a Jewish community, but it had a terrible reputation for immorality. Corinth was the center of worship of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, and had a temple for her with over 1,000 prostitutes housed there. In the ancient world, the term “Corinthian” became almost synonymous with the term “immoral”. Corinth was a fiercely Roman colony that was very proud of it’s “Roman-ness” and just as committed to the Roman gods and the Roman way of life.
Paul arrived in Corinth in “fear and trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3) after his previous experiences, but he was not deterred. Rather he was still determined to preach Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2:2) and nothing else in Corinth, a message that quickly separated the truth seekers from those who would cling to their own myths, idols, and opinions.
He must have been quite encouraged, though, to have met Aquila and Priscilla right away. Luke never says for certain that they were already Christians, but that seems to be the implication. They had recently arrived from Rome after the Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome, an act which included Jewish Christians as well. They were making a living as tentmakers, a profession which required skill in working with both leather and cilcium (a cloth made of goat’s hair from Paul’s native region of Cilcia) tent material. Paul was also a skilled tentmaker which was not that unusual as most rabbis and Pharisees in Paul’s day earned their own living through a trade of some sort. It seems that they quickly agreed to let Paul live with them and to stay on and work with them as well, an arrangement that allowed Paul to support himself while preaching the gospel.
Paul must have been relieved on two levels when Silas and Timothy arrived safely from Macedonia. First, he knew that they were safe and that he could finally receive some news as to the progress of the gospel in Macedonia (1 Thess. 3:6-10). Second, they apparently brought with them monetary support from the disciples in Macedonia (2 Cor. 11:9; Phil. 4:15-16). This allowed him lay down his tentmaker tools for awhile and fully devote himself to the message of the gospel which was what Paul wanted to do as much as possible to fulfill what he felt was his true calling in the Lord.
As an apostle, Paul knew that his work of declaring the truth of Jesus as the Messiah to the Jew first and then the Gentile was vitally important and he took that task seriously. He understood that when his fellow Jews, or anyone else for that matter, rejected the gospel they also rejected their only chance to be brought into the family of God. Preaching the gospel was his responsibility. If Paul failed to render that duty then he felt that he would have to answer to God for that. But once he had done so faithfully, he was innocent. Once the responsibility of preaching the gospel had been dispensed the onus of accountability shifted to the hearers and how they would respond to the truth.
When the Jews in Corinth did reject the gospel and began to be abusive towards Paul, as they had in so many other places, Paul shook his clothes out towards them. This was no empty gesture or a mere sign of frustration. Shaking out one’s garments was a sign of breaking fellowship with them (Neh. 5:13). It was the kind of gesture that Jews would usually aim towards the pagan Gentiles. It was an indicator form God’s servant that, in his eyes, they had put themselves in the category of the godless Gentiles and were no better off when it came to their position in God’s family. They, just like the Gentiles that they so quickly looked down upon, were also cut off from God’s family.
Whether the opposition that Paul faced forced his move to the house of Titius Justus or the persecution ramped up as a result of his move and subsequent success there remains an open question, but Paul did eventually move to Titius’ house which was right next door to the synagogue and would have been a constant “in-your-face” reminder of the success and power of the gospel that they had so summarily rejected. Most Romans had three names that they used under different circumstances so it is quite plausible that Titius Justus is one in the same with Gaius who was personally baptized by Paul (1 Cor. 1:14) and who was still hosting the whole church in Corinth in his house when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans. To have such a sizable house meant that Titius (Gaius?) was a prominent and wealthy member of Corinthian society but he was not the only prominent convert. The synagogue leader, Crispus, was also personally baptized by Paul (1 Cor. 1:14) and presumably became one of the early leaders of the young church in Corinth. Despite his opposition, then, Paul had a great deal of success in bringing people, both prominent and poor (cf. 1 Cor. 11) into the kingdom of God and was doing so right next to the very synagogue that had rejected the gospel, complete with the former leader of that synagogue as one of the newest converts!
We have to speculate a bit at this point that Paul had become so accustomed to being run out of towns that perhaps he was bracing himself for another such incident. It is possible that having such a well respected convert like the synagogue leader, Crispus, might have actually padded Paul against some of the harshest opposition that he usually faced. Whatever the case, God felt that it was necessary to assure Paul that Corinth was precisely where he wanted him to be and to stay. Paul had desires to continue spreading the gospel and eventually make his way to Rome, but the time was not yet to come. For now, he was assured that God would bring him great success in Corinth and protect him while he stayed and built the church.
It must have been an exciting and yet challenging time for Paul as we know from his letters that the young church in Corinth was petulant and strong-willed but also passionate and full of zeal and energy. They were like an undisciplined teenager that was constantly ready to explode with pent-up energy. And perhaps that’s why God chose to have Paul stay for the 18 months that he did. Imagine the problems that might have developed in Corinth had Paul not stayed as long as he did to build, mature, and establish his relationship with the church there.
Devotional Thought
How do you feel about God’s call on your life to teach the truth to others, especially those that find themselves in serious biblical error? Are you willing to risk embarrassment, rejection, or even be ostracized for the sake of declaring the truth of the gospel to others? Remember, it’s not our responsibility to make them respond positively but it is our responsibility to declare the truth to those in error.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Acts 17:22-34
I want to thank all of those who so faithfully read these commentaries on the email list, the blog site, and on Facebook. I hope that you continue to find them helpful. I did want to let you know that I will not be able to post for about a month as we will be Africa on another ministry trip. This will be the last commentary until the middle of September. Thanks and God bless.
In Athens
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[b] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
Dig Deeper
As a new campus minister of a college ministry you would expect that you would be doing many more weddings than funerals, yet during my first two years in that role, I actually wound up performing more funeral ceremonies than weddings. The fact is, funerals are much tougher to do than weddings and I’m glad that over the years I have now evened that out and the number of weddings that I have done have actually surpassed the funerals. But I recall one funeral in particular where I felt like I was facing a bit of a hostile audience. I had been asked to perform the funeral for someone that I had never even met although they were close to a close family member of mine. To top it off, I knew hardly anyone that was actually at the funeral. Yet, I was asked to really preach the gospel and present it to a group of people that were necessarily starving for it at the moment. To make matters even more difficult, the audience was not a homogenous group. They varied from skeptics, atheists, and those that were very anti-God and anti-Christianity to those that were very religious (although the fruit of their lives seemed to belie their religiosity), and everything in between. But as I stood up and stared out at the audience, I had a daunting opportunity ahead of me, but it was an opportunity nonetheless. I found out that day just how difficult it can be to face an audience that is not immediately open to your message and who are coming from very different perspectives. It is not an easy task.
This is what was facing Paul in the Areopagus, only many times over. He had seized on the opportunity to preach the gospel in one of the most famous cities of the ancient world; a city that had a reputation for wisdom, knowledge, and philosophy. Athens was home to some of the greatest thinkers that the world had to offer. To top it off he was invited to the venue where the very best and brightest met and discussed the issues of the day. It doesn’t seem that Paul was being interrogated or asked to speak to a formal council or trial but all of the “big-wigs” of Athens were there and wanting to hear what Paul had to say. That’s not to imply that they were open to Paul’s message, they were mostly curious. They wanted to see what this babbler could come up with, primarily, it seems, for the purpose of amusing themselves.
So Paul had a huge task ahead of him. The audience was hostile but it was also full of men who held very different beliefs and philosophies. That meant that Paul had to present the gospel in such a way to make it approachable to people whose beliefs were sometimes in direct opposition to one another. He would have to try to be all things to all men but to do it at the same time. This was his chance. He was being given a hearing and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit he would do his best to take advantage of it. It is not, however, very likely at all that what Luke records here was the actual speech that Paul gave. What we have here is most likely a summary of what Paul said. This was after all the guy who could easily preach from sundown until past midnight so surely he took advantage of his moment before the Areopagus.
Many have taken Paul’s opening statement to the Areopagus as words of conciliation creating a bond of connection through compliment but ancient philosopher Lucian of Samosata recorded that complimentary openings “to secure the goodwill of the Areopagus were discouraged.” Therefore it was more likely simply an observation of fact that was neither complimentary or condescending. Athens was a very religious town that was very proud of its wisdom and knowledge so there was a bit of an irony that a town that was so sure of its own wisdom and that was so religious was also ignorant about the very gods that they sought to worship.
The Athenians had statues in honor of unknown gods as a safety precaution so that they weren’t slighting any gods that should have been receiving honor. This made sense for both the Epicureans who believed that if the gods did exist they were so distant that it would be difficult if not impossible to know them, and the Stoics who believed that the gods were one with the universe and not at all separate. Thus, the picture of the divine realm was fuzzy at best, so it was wise in their eyes to cover all of their bases.
What they did not know or understand Paul was going to declare to them in no uncertain terms. As he did so, he masterfully both identified with, at times, and challenged, at other points, both the Stoics and the Epicureans. He would show the Epicureans that they were correct that God was separate from his creation but that the true God was not unknowable. Rather, he was intensely knowable and wanted to be known intimately by the humans that he created. To the Stoics, Paul would agree that God was involved with every aspect of his creation but he would challenge them by demonstrating that he was separate from it and above it.
One amusing feature of the pagan gods that Paul seized upon was that they needed humans badly. They needed people to bring them food in order to eat and they needed people to build temples for them (see Isa. 46:1 and Jer. 10:5 for examples of the futility of the gods). But even at the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem Solomon pointed out that Yahweh was bringing himself down to the level of his creation, he certainly did not need a Temple and most assuredly could not be contained within it (1 Ki. 8:27). This God that Paul was proclaiming to them was not just another of the gods. He was the creator of the entire world and everything in it and he needed nothing from human beings as he expressed in Psalm 50:12 while clearly sticking his thumb in the eye of the so-called gods, “If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.” Rather than needing something from humans, God has given us humans everything including our life and breath and everything else we have, which makes denying him all the more sadly ironic.
God created one man, Adam, and from him brought forth all of the nations of men. This meant that nations need not compete against one another or feel that it was necessary or even natural to all have their own gods. No, the Most High God was responsible for all of the nations. He knew who they were and had set the boundaries for each nation. Nothing in all of history has happened by chance but is all subject to God’s ruling sovereignty. Paul points out that even some of the poets from that region at least understood this in part, although certainly not fully, as they declared that we are God’s offspring. Paul certainly doesn’t mean that all nations are part of God’s promised family but that all people find their origins in God’s creative power.
God’s purpose in everything that he did throughout history, especially culminating in the Messiah (as Paul will get to rather quickly), was that people would know him. Paul’s language implies a picture of groping around in the dark on the part of humans as they sought to find the truth of God even though he was right there all the time. The futile human search for God had been a bit like someone deciding the answer cannot be four and then groping around for years trying to determine what the answer to two plus two is.
Because all humans come from Yahweh, the one, true God it should be obvious that he is not one of the manmade Gods that have eyes but cannot see and ears but cannot hear (Ps. 115:3-8). He is not one of those worthless gods who turn their followers into shells of a human being that are just as worthless and just as spiritually blind as those images that are crafted by humans. Paul, in essence, points out the sheer lunacy of worshipping a god that you just created with your own hands. In contrast, the true God made everything including us.
But the obvious question that this would raise was, “If this God was truly supreme over all creation why would he allow the nations to live in such open defiance and ignorance of him.” Paul’s response to that is threefold. First, God overlooked such ignorance in the past but now things have changed. Second, he commands that all the nations repent and worship him as the only true God. Third, there is a coming judgment where all nations, indeed all humans will have to answer for their idolatry. This repentance is not an option that will bring some small advantage to those who choose that route. It is a command for all humans everywhere.
The proof of all of this was as truth was the resurrection of Jesus. That showed that God’s age to come had indeed already started in the resurrection of the Messiah and that now that his new creation had broken in and started to set things right in the world and once the train had left the station there was no holding it back. God would indeed set the whole world right by brining it into the life of the Messiah and under his authority. There was a great irony in the fact that Paul was declaring in the Areopagus that the solution to the problems of the entire world was found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In a fifth century play written by Aeschylus, the god Apollo dedicated the ground of the Areopagus saying, among other things, “when a man dies, and his blood is spilled on the ground, there is no resurrection.” What was ruled out as impossible, was now, Paul was telling them, the very thing on which the whole world was being turned right side up.
The resurrection, as Paul declared to the Corinthians, was foolishness to the Greeks (1 Cor. 1:23), and the Athenians were no different. Most of them sneered at the absurdity of such a thing. There idols were so firmly set in their own hearts that they were absolutely blind to the truth. But some were open to Paul’s message and wanted to hear more. A number of people in Athens did come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, including Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, who according to church tradition would later become the first church leader in Athens.
Paul had not only identified with both the Epicureans and Stoics but had also challenged them to the core of their beliefs. He had proven himself to be no mere babbler or one who scattered words around aimlessly. He had proclaimed to them the words of life, but the rest was up to them.
Devotional Thought
Paul was a particularly gifted thinker and preacher but what is most impressive here is that he was familiar with the beliefs of the people of his day and prepared to show them how the gospel both challenged their cherished beliefs and explained their unanswered questions. Do you make a serious effort to be just as prepared in our day as Paul was in his?
In Athens
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’[b] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
Dig Deeper
As a new campus minister of a college ministry you would expect that you would be doing many more weddings than funerals, yet during my first two years in that role, I actually wound up performing more funeral ceremonies than weddings. The fact is, funerals are much tougher to do than weddings and I’m glad that over the years I have now evened that out and the number of weddings that I have done have actually surpassed the funerals. But I recall one funeral in particular where I felt like I was facing a bit of a hostile audience. I had been asked to perform the funeral for someone that I had never even met although they were close to a close family member of mine. To top it off, I knew hardly anyone that was actually at the funeral. Yet, I was asked to really preach the gospel and present it to a group of people that were necessarily starving for it at the moment. To make matters even more difficult, the audience was not a homogenous group. They varied from skeptics, atheists, and those that were very anti-God and anti-Christianity to those that were very religious (although the fruit of their lives seemed to belie their religiosity), and everything in between. But as I stood up and stared out at the audience, I had a daunting opportunity ahead of me, but it was an opportunity nonetheless. I found out that day just how difficult it can be to face an audience that is not immediately open to your message and who are coming from very different perspectives. It is not an easy task.
This is what was facing Paul in the Areopagus, only many times over. He had seized on the opportunity to preach the gospel in one of the most famous cities of the ancient world; a city that had a reputation for wisdom, knowledge, and philosophy. Athens was home to some of the greatest thinkers that the world had to offer. To top it off he was invited to the venue where the very best and brightest met and discussed the issues of the day. It doesn’t seem that Paul was being interrogated or asked to speak to a formal council or trial but all of the “big-wigs” of Athens were there and wanting to hear what Paul had to say. That’s not to imply that they were open to Paul’s message, they were mostly curious. They wanted to see what this babbler could come up with, primarily, it seems, for the purpose of amusing themselves.
So Paul had a huge task ahead of him. The audience was hostile but it was also full of men who held very different beliefs and philosophies. That meant that Paul had to present the gospel in such a way to make it approachable to people whose beliefs were sometimes in direct opposition to one another. He would have to try to be all things to all men but to do it at the same time. This was his chance. He was being given a hearing and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit he would do his best to take advantage of it. It is not, however, very likely at all that what Luke records here was the actual speech that Paul gave. What we have here is most likely a summary of what Paul said. This was after all the guy who could easily preach from sundown until past midnight so surely he took advantage of his moment before the Areopagus.
Many have taken Paul’s opening statement to the Areopagus as words of conciliation creating a bond of connection through compliment but ancient philosopher Lucian of Samosata recorded that complimentary openings “to secure the goodwill of the Areopagus were discouraged.” Therefore it was more likely simply an observation of fact that was neither complimentary or condescending. Athens was a very religious town that was very proud of its wisdom and knowledge so there was a bit of an irony that a town that was so sure of its own wisdom and that was so religious was also ignorant about the very gods that they sought to worship.
The Athenians had statues in honor of unknown gods as a safety precaution so that they weren’t slighting any gods that should have been receiving honor. This made sense for both the Epicureans who believed that if the gods did exist they were so distant that it would be difficult if not impossible to know them, and the Stoics who believed that the gods were one with the universe and not at all separate. Thus, the picture of the divine realm was fuzzy at best, so it was wise in their eyes to cover all of their bases.
What they did not know or understand Paul was going to declare to them in no uncertain terms. As he did so, he masterfully both identified with, at times, and challenged, at other points, both the Stoics and the Epicureans. He would show the Epicureans that they were correct that God was separate from his creation but that the true God was not unknowable. Rather, he was intensely knowable and wanted to be known intimately by the humans that he created. To the Stoics, Paul would agree that God was involved with every aspect of his creation but he would challenge them by demonstrating that he was separate from it and above it.
One amusing feature of the pagan gods that Paul seized upon was that they needed humans badly. They needed people to bring them food in order to eat and they needed people to build temples for them (see Isa. 46:1 and Jer. 10:5 for examples of the futility of the gods). But even at the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem Solomon pointed out that Yahweh was bringing himself down to the level of his creation, he certainly did not need a Temple and most assuredly could not be contained within it (1 Ki. 8:27). This God that Paul was proclaiming to them was not just another of the gods. He was the creator of the entire world and everything in it and he needed nothing from human beings as he expressed in Psalm 50:12 while clearly sticking his thumb in the eye of the so-called gods, “If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.” Rather than needing something from humans, God has given us humans everything including our life and breath and everything else we have, which makes denying him all the more sadly ironic.
God created one man, Adam, and from him brought forth all of the nations of men. This meant that nations need not compete against one another or feel that it was necessary or even natural to all have their own gods. No, the Most High God was responsible for all of the nations. He knew who they were and had set the boundaries for each nation. Nothing in all of history has happened by chance but is all subject to God’s ruling sovereignty. Paul points out that even some of the poets from that region at least understood this in part, although certainly not fully, as they declared that we are God’s offspring. Paul certainly doesn’t mean that all nations are part of God’s promised family but that all people find their origins in God’s creative power.
God’s purpose in everything that he did throughout history, especially culminating in the Messiah (as Paul will get to rather quickly), was that people would know him. Paul’s language implies a picture of groping around in the dark on the part of humans as they sought to find the truth of God even though he was right there all the time. The futile human search for God had been a bit like someone deciding the answer cannot be four and then groping around for years trying to determine what the answer to two plus two is.
Because all humans come from Yahweh, the one, true God it should be obvious that he is not one of the manmade Gods that have eyes but cannot see and ears but cannot hear (Ps. 115:3-8). He is not one of those worthless gods who turn their followers into shells of a human being that are just as worthless and just as spiritually blind as those images that are crafted by humans. Paul, in essence, points out the sheer lunacy of worshipping a god that you just created with your own hands. In contrast, the true God made everything including us.
But the obvious question that this would raise was, “If this God was truly supreme over all creation why would he allow the nations to live in such open defiance and ignorance of him.” Paul’s response to that is threefold. First, God overlooked such ignorance in the past but now things have changed. Second, he commands that all the nations repent and worship him as the only true God. Third, there is a coming judgment where all nations, indeed all humans will have to answer for their idolatry. This repentance is not an option that will bring some small advantage to those who choose that route. It is a command for all humans everywhere.
The proof of all of this was as truth was the resurrection of Jesus. That showed that God’s age to come had indeed already started in the resurrection of the Messiah and that now that his new creation had broken in and started to set things right in the world and once the train had left the station there was no holding it back. God would indeed set the whole world right by brining it into the life of the Messiah and under his authority. There was a great irony in the fact that Paul was declaring in the Areopagus that the solution to the problems of the entire world was found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In a fifth century play written by Aeschylus, the god Apollo dedicated the ground of the Areopagus saying, among other things, “when a man dies, and his blood is spilled on the ground, there is no resurrection.” What was ruled out as impossible, was now, Paul was telling them, the very thing on which the whole world was being turned right side up.
The resurrection, as Paul declared to the Corinthians, was foolishness to the Greeks (1 Cor. 1:23), and the Athenians were no different. Most of them sneered at the absurdity of such a thing. There idols were so firmly set in their own hearts that they were absolutely blind to the truth. But some were open to Paul’s message and wanted to hear more. A number of people in Athens did come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, including Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, who according to church tradition would later become the first church leader in Athens.
Paul had not only identified with both the Epicureans and Stoics but had also challenged them to the core of their beliefs. He had proven himself to be no mere babbler or one who scattered words around aimlessly. He had proclaimed to them the words of life, but the rest was up to them.
Devotional Thought
Paul was a particularly gifted thinker and preacher but what is most impressive here is that he was familiar with the beliefs of the people of his day and prepared to show them how the gospel both challenged their cherished beliefs and explained their unanswered questions. Do you make a serious effort to be just as prepared in our day as Paul was in his?
Monday, August 08, 2011
Acts 17:10-21
In Berea
10 As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
13 But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. 14 The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. 15 Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
In Athens
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.
Dig Deeper
Many years ago I, while I was coaching high school basketball, I was asked one summer to coach a basketball team consisting of all-stars from our entire conference. This collection of the very best players in our conference would eventually go and play in a summer tournament against the very best players in our entire state. As we began to practice and prepare, however, I was a little worried. We had very good teams in our conference but they tended to fall into two different camps as far as their style of play went. Most of the teams were very high-powered and fast-paced teams that like to run-and-gun (a basketball term that refers to playing a less-physical, faster style that seeks to score a lot of points). A few teams, though, including mine, tended towards a much slower and more physical type of game that relied less on physical talent and more on precision and doing things well. The higher scoring teams and their players had learned how to play each other and had to learn how to play those slow-down teams as well. In the same turn, the slower-paced teams had to learn how to play teams like themselves as well as the running teams.
My worry stemmed from the fact that I knew that when we went to the tournament that we were going to play in, most of the teams we would be playing had a style that none of our players had really faced before. These teams would be physical, precise, and well-coached but they would also move, set picks, and cut at a fast pass and be willing to score quickly. They would have elements of both of the styles that our players had learned to play but it was a hybrid and was, therefore, a completely new style from what they had played. If they were not ready for all of the quick-moving picks and cuts, they would get run off of the floor. If they couldn’t learn to go up against that style they would be dead in the water and not get very far in our upcoming test.
Up to this point, Paul and his merry band of missionaries had faced many challenges and had preached the Bible to both Jews and Gentiles alike. They preached the same gospel to everyone but they had learned to adapt to the audiences in such a way so that the presentation of the gospel would be effective. The result was that many Jews and even more Gentiles were streaming into the kingdom of God. But there was a different sort of test on the horizon. As they moved farther away from Jerusalem and deeper into the Greek and Roman dominated worlds, they were going to come up against the Greek philosophies that dominated the Greek worldview of both philosophers and everyday folk alike. This would be a different challenge for the gospel and if Paul and the other Christians weren’t up to it, the gospel would have a hard time appealing to the rest of the known world. If they couldn’t learn to go up against the philosophers they would be dead in the water and not get very far in a world dominated by Greek philosophy.
After a tough go of it in both Philippi and Thessalonica where Paul had to leave prematurely, at least according to his own wishes, his concerned brothers and sisters sent Paul to a town that was described in the ancient world as an out-of-the-way town. Presumably the hope was to keep Paul under the radar for a bit, but Paul seemed far more committed to his mission of spreading the gospel everywhere he went than he was in staying low-profile. So as soon as he arrived in Berea, he went straight for the synagogue, as he usually did, and began to announce the good news of the risen Messiah, the true king of the world.
No explanation is given as to why, but his reception by the Bereans went beyond anything Paul had experienced previously. As much as Paul and Luke loved the Thessalonicans, they considered the response of the Beareans even more noble. The Bereans that heard Paul preach included a high number of rather prominent and important men and women but what made them noble in Luke’s eyes was that they didn’t trust in their prominence. In fact, they humbly acknowledged that they were in need of hearing the word of God and to accept the truths found therein. They pushed aside their worldly position and humbled themselves to God’s word. They were so hesitant to follow human wisdom that they eagerly examined the Scriptures each day, accepting it as the arbiter of truth, to determine if Paul was merely teaching things that itching ears might want to hear or if the portrait of Jesus the Messiah that he was presenting truly came from the words of Scripture itself and Scripture alone. And they showed their eagerness not just in reading through the word of God but by meeting with Paul daily, not just on the Sabbath.
As encouraging and wonderful as that little respite must have been for Paul (and as a teacher of the Bible I know how refreshing it can be to come across people with such an appetite for God’s word and a humility to match), it was not to last long. The Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was in Bearea preaching again and now had their chance to perhaps go there and finish what they had failed to do in their own town which was to shut Paul up permanently.
Once again, though, the believers were able to spirit Paul away, although it must have anguished him to know that once again the Spirit was allowing him to be led away from a town before he wanted to go. This time he would leave Silas and Timothy to strengthen the church as they were evidently able to stay a little more under the radar than Paul was. Paul would move on and send for them as soon as possible, this time landing in Athens. Athens was not the same important city that it had once been, but it was still an important center of thought, philosophy, and pagan belief. It would be the site of a stiff but necessary challenge for Paul and the gospel.
As Paul arrived in Athens, it dismayed him that such a center of earthly wisdom was so full of idols but it couldn’t have shocked him. Mankind’s problem from the beginning of human history has been that we would rather exalt our own flawed wisdom over the truth of God’s wisdom. In so doing, we emphasize one aspect or another of the creation over the creator, an act of idolatry. So whether it is statues of pagan gods or the god of materialism and everything in between the wisdom of the world will always set itself up against God’s truth. Athens would confirm what Paul would later write to the Corinthians, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21)
Once again Paul went to the synagogue to preach but he quickly caught the attention of two of the big-boy-groups on the block, the Epicureans and the Stoics. The Epicureans believed that pleasure was the highest aim in life and the most worthwhile pleasure was a life of peace and tranquility free from pain, overriding desires, superstitious fears, and anxieties of life. They denied the involvement of any gods in the affairs of men to the point that they were almost functional atheists. The Stoics sought to live consistently with all of nature and believed in the supremacy of the rational human mind as well as being autonomous and self-sufficient. They were more or less pantheists who believed that God was in everything. Stoics held that quality of life was more important than life itself so they encouraged suicide to escape a life that could no longer be sustained with dignity. As influential as they were in their time, there is much to learn from Paul’s upcoming response to these groups since we still see many of their beliefs and philosophies scattered throughout our world today.
We don’t know precisely what these great thinkers and philosophers thought of Paul but we do know that they didn’t hold in very high esteem. They referred to him as a “seed-picker” (babbler), a term that meant he was of worthless character, a man who scattered scraps of worthless learning here and there. They charged him with being a preacher of foreign divinities, a charge that was laid against other teachers such as Socrates before being put to death. When he did begin to share his teaching with them, these supposedly learned men could not even grasp what he was saying. It’s difficult to detect in English but verse 18 seems to indicate that when Paul began preaching of Jesus and resurrection (using the Greek word “anastasis” for resurrection) that they misunderstood him and thought, at least at first, that he was speaking of some new gods named Jesus and his female consort Anastasis. They likely would have thought that he was teaching about some new gods of “healing” and “restoration”.
Finally they brought him for a full hearing before the Areopagus but it was likely to have fun and mock him more than it was to give him a fair hearing. They wanted to hear this “new” teaching but in the ancient world something that was “new” was generally looked down upon especially compared to ancient things. Luke’s somewhat rare aside in verse 21 takes on a highly sarcastic tone and indicates that the Athenians were going to listen to Paul for sheer amusement of hearing out these strange new teachings.
If they knew anything, they new that the babbling of a seed picker wouldn’t amount to much more than a fun morning. Surely whatever new religious beliefs this fool was going to share with them it surely wouldn’t stand up to their mighty intellects and their ability to shred apart second-rate philosophies. Paul was about to face one of his stiffest tests yet to see if he could appeal to this hostile crowd and open their ears and hearts, through the moving of the Holy Spirit, to the truth of the gospel.
Devotional Thought
Despite the fact that the Athenians were apparently mocking Paul and trying to have a little fun at his expense, Paul looked beyond the personal insult and saw an opportunity to share the gospel. Are there any personal insults or “unfair” situations that you need to wade through or overlook in order to share the gospel with someone today?
10 As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
13 But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. 14 The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. 15 Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
In Athens
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.
Dig Deeper
Many years ago I, while I was coaching high school basketball, I was asked one summer to coach a basketball team consisting of all-stars from our entire conference. This collection of the very best players in our conference would eventually go and play in a summer tournament against the very best players in our entire state. As we began to practice and prepare, however, I was a little worried. We had very good teams in our conference but they tended to fall into two different camps as far as their style of play went. Most of the teams were very high-powered and fast-paced teams that like to run-and-gun (a basketball term that refers to playing a less-physical, faster style that seeks to score a lot of points). A few teams, though, including mine, tended towards a much slower and more physical type of game that relied less on physical talent and more on precision and doing things well. The higher scoring teams and their players had learned how to play each other and had to learn how to play those slow-down teams as well. In the same turn, the slower-paced teams had to learn how to play teams like themselves as well as the running teams.
My worry stemmed from the fact that I knew that when we went to the tournament that we were going to play in, most of the teams we would be playing had a style that none of our players had really faced before. These teams would be physical, precise, and well-coached but they would also move, set picks, and cut at a fast pass and be willing to score quickly. They would have elements of both of the styles that our players had learned to play but it was a hybrid and was, therefore, a completely new style from what they had played. If they were not ready for all of the quick-moving picks and cuts, they would get run off of the floor. If they couldn’t learn to go up against that style they would be dead in the water and not get very far in our upcoming test.
Up to this point, Paul and his merry band of missionaries had faced many challenges and had preached the Bible to both Jews and Gentiles alike. They preached the same gospel to everyone but they had learned to adapt to the audiences in such a way so that the presentation of the gospel would be effective. The result was that many Jews and even more Gentiles were streaming into the kingdom of God. But there was a different sort of test on the horizon. As they moved farther away from Jerusalem and deeper into the Greek and Roman dominated worlds, they were going to come up against the Greek philosophies that dominated the Greek worldview of both philosophers and everyday folk alike. This would be a different challenge for the gospel and if Paul and the other Christians weren’t up to it, the gospel would have a hard time appealing to the rest of the known world. If they couldn’t learn to go up against the philosophers they would be dead in the water and not get very far in a world dominated by Greek philosophy.
After a tough go of it in both Philippi and Thessalonica where Paul had to leave prematurely, at least according to his own wishes, his concerned brothers and sisters sent Paul to a town that was described in the ancient world as an out-of-the-way town. Presumably the hope was to keep Paul under the radar for a bit, but Paul seemed far more committed to his mission of spreading the gospel everywhere he went than he was in staying low-profile. So as soon as he arrived in Berea, he went straight for the synagogue, as he usually did, and began to announce the good news of the risen Messiah, the true king of the world.
No explanation is given as to why, but his reception by the Bereans went beyond anything Paul had experienced previously. As much as Paul and Luke loved the Thessalonicans, they considered the response of the Beareans even more noble. The Bereans that heard Paul preach included a high number of rather prominent and important men and women but what made them noble in Luke’s eyes was that they didn’t trust in their prominence. In fact, they humbly acknowledged that they were in need of hearing the word of God and to accept the truths found therein. They pushed aside their worldly position and humbled themselves to God’s word. They were so hesitant to follow human wisdom that they eagerly examined the Scriptures each day, accepting it as the arbiter of truth, to determine if Paul was merely teaching things that itching ears might want to hear or if the portrait of Jesus the Messiah that he was presenting truly came from the words of Scripture itself and Scripture alone. And they showed their eagerness not just in reading through the word of God but by meeting with Paul daily, not just on the Sabbath.
As encouraging and wonderful as that little respite must have been for Paul (and as a teacher of the Bible I know how refreshing it can be to come across people with such an appetite for God’s word and a humility to match), it was not to last long. The Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was in Bearea preaching again and now had their chance to perhaps go there and finish what they had failed to do in their own town which was to shut Paul up permanently.
Once again, though, the believers were able to spirit Paul away, although it must have anguished him to know that once again the Spirit was allowing him to be led away from a town before he wanted to go. This time he would leave Silas and Timothy to strengthen the church as they were evidently able to stay a little more under the radar than Paul was. Paul would move on and send for them as soon as possible, this time landing in Athens. Athens was not the same important city that it had once been, but it was still an important center of thought, philosophy, and pagan belief. It would be the site of a stiff but necessary challenge for Paul and the gospel.
As Paul arrived in Athens, it dismayed him that such a center of earthly wisdom was so full of idols but it couldn’t have shocked him. Mankind’s problem from the beginning of human history has been that we would rather exalt our own flawed wisdom over the truth of God’s wisdom. In so doing, we emphasize one aspect or another of the creation over the creator, an act of idolatry. So whether it is statues of pagan gods or the god of materialism and everything in between the wisdom of the world will always set itself up against God’s truth. Athens would confirm what Paul would later write to the Corinthians, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21)
Once again Paul went to the synagogue to preach but he quickly caught the attention of two of the big-boy-groups on the block, the Epicureans and the Stoics. The Epicureans believed that pleasure was the highest aim in life and the most worthwhile pleasure was a life of peace and tranquility free from pain, overriding desires, superstitious fears, and anxieties of life. They denied the involvement of any gods in the affairs of men to the point that they were almost functional atheists. The Stoics sought to live consistently with all of nature and believed in the supremacy of the rational human mind as well as being autonomous and self-sufficient. They were more or less pantheists who believed that God was in everything. Stoics held that quality of life was more important than life itself so they encouraged suicide to escape a life that could no longer be sustained with dignity. As influential as they were in their time, there is much to learn from Paul’s upcoming response to these groups since we still see many of their beliefs and philosophies scattered throughout our world today.
We don’t know precisely what these great thinkers and philosophers thought of Paul but we do know that they didn’t hold in very high esteem. They referred to him as a “seed-picker” (babbler), a term that meant he was of worthless character, a man who scattered scraps of worthless learning here and there. They charged him with being a preacher of foreign divinities, a charge that was laid against other teachers such as Socrates before being put to death. When he did begin to share his teaching with them, these supposedly learned men could not even grasp what he was saying. It’s difficult to detect in English but verse 18 seems to indicate that when Paul began preaching of Jesus and resurrection (using the Greek word “anastasis” for resurrection) that they misunderstood him and thought, at least at first, that he was speaking of some new gods named Jesus and his female consort Anastasis. They likely would have thought that he was teaching about some new gods of “healing” and “restoration”.
Finally they brought him for a full hearing before the Areopagus but it was likely to have fun and mock him more than it was to give him a fair hearing. They wanted to hear this “new” teaching but in the ancient world something that was “new” was generally looked down upon especially compared to ancient things. Luke’s somewhat rare aside in verse 21 takes on a highly sarcastic tone and indicates that the Athenians were going to listen to Paul for sheer amusement of hearing out these strange new teachings.
If they knew anything, they new that the babbling of a seed picker wouldn’t amount to much more than a fun morning. Surely whatever new religious beliefs this fool was going to share with them it surely wouldn’t stand up to their mighty intellects and their ability to shred apart second-rate philosophies. Paul was about to face one of his stiffest tests yet to see if he could appeal to this hostile crowd and open their ears and hearts, through the moving of the Holy Spirit, to the truth of the gospel.
Devotional Thought
Despite the fact that the Athenians were apparently mocking Paul and trying to have a little fun at his expense, Paul looked beyond the personal insult and saw an opportunity to share the gospel. Are there any personal insults or “unfair” situations that you need to wade through or overlook in order to share the gospel with someone today?
Friday, August 05, 2011
Acts 17:1-9
In Thessalonica
1 When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.
5 But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.[a] 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.
Dig Deeper
When I was about 17 years old I wanted to get a job. I tried out a few places here and there but I didn’t last long at any of them, mostly because I was lazy and didn’t want to work hard. Then my older sister started to tell me about the place where she was working. It sounded like a blast. Nearly everyday she would come home and tell me of all of the funny things that happened at work and the funny and cool people that she worked with there. I got to thinking after a while that this sounded just like my kind of place. I wanted to “work” someplace where I could have fun and laugh a lot and enjoy the people and not really have to actually work very much. The job was doing data entry on computers so it was basically typing on a computer and I figured how hard could that be. So I went and took a job there. But once I got there I found that my sister had left out some vital details. Some of the people there were fun but she had only talked about a handful of people out of dozens and dozens. There were a few funny moments but those were actually usually a few seconds or minutes scattered throughout an eight-hour day. Most of the time the work was grueling and monotonous. You couldn’t play around that much because each person was required to get a certain amount of data entered each hour. That meant hour after hour of quiet work. I had so totally misunderstood the nature of that job that, although in retrospect, it wasn’t a bad job for someone my age, I hated every minute I was there.
Throughout the book of Acts we have seen something that is highlighted in this passage. There are times of comfort and blessing that come with our life in Christ but if someone were to tell you only about those things or stress them as the main experience and point of being a Christian, then you would get a completely wrong view of what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus was and is the true king of the world and the Messiah. But that is only half of the story. Jesus was the kind of king that had to suffer in order to fulfill his true purpose. In the same way, Christians will find blessing and comfort in Christ, that much is true. But that is only half of the story.
As they continued through the region of Macedonia, reaching Thessalonica, Paul continued his normal pattern of using the local synagogue as his first stop. He would preach the gospel to the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles at the synagogue in hopes of forming a core group of disciples that would carry on the work of preaching the gospel and expanding God’s family in that region long after Paul left. When Paul first arrived in Thessalonica he specifically preached at the local synagogue for three Sabbaths before apparently moving on within the city itself. Surely Paul stayed there longer than just three weeks, though, as the book of Thessalonians makes clear that Paul worked in Thessolonica to support himself (1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:8) and also received aid several times from the church in Philippi while he was there (Phil. 4:16). That certainly implies a stay of longer than three weeks.
There is no doubt that Paul’s gospel announcement contained the same elements of preaching that he typically used wherever he went, but at this stop Luke emphasized the role and nature of the Messiah. Amongst Jews the early Christians tended to center on Jesus as the Messiah while they focused on Jesus as king among the Gentiles but both aspects of Jesus found a common problem in the suffering and death on the cross of Jesus Christ. A suffering ruler who died at the hands of his enemy didn’t sound like a very impressive Messiah or king. How could it be claimed that this man who came to suffer and die was now the king of the world? It was through the act of his resurrection from the dead. Paul declared in Romans 1:4 that through the resurrection Jesus was declared to the world to be the true son of God thereby making him both Messiah (Christ) and King (Lord).
In this role of suffering, though, was the real challenge of the gospel. It is what made it a stumbling block for the Jews and sheer foolishness for the Gentiles (1 Corinthians 1:23). Those who insisted upon a Messiah or king that lived up to the worldly expectations of power and might would never be able to embrace the truth of the Messiah. It wasn’t just that he unexpectedly suffered but pulled it out in the end by resurrecting. A careful look at the Old Testament Scriptures would demonstrate that Jesus had to suffer because that was always the kind of Messiah that God promised (see passages such as Ps. 2; 16; 22; 110; Isa. 53). It is not only vital that this aspect of Jesus is understood so that we will know him as he truly is but if we don’t understand Jesus’ role as the suffering servant then we will easily mistake ours.
Our world today is full of religious teachers (as was Paul’s) who are more than happy to tell you that God wants nothing but good things for your life because you’re one of his kids. All you have to do, we are told, is to have faith and the blessings will start rolling in. In fact, they’re already prepared for you even if you haven’t received them yet, you just to have to have faith. The problem is that this is so far from the full story and so incomplete that it can only rightly be called a false picture of Christianity. Christians are called to be God’s people that live by the values of the age to come, a time of completeness, sufficiency, and love for others. But to do that in an age of sin, darkness, and fallenness requires sacrifice. We live in an age where the people of the world live for their own best interests which creates large pockets of both surplus and lack, of both comfort and suffering.
The only way for God’s people to bring his economy of sufficiency into such a fallen world is to confront the selfishness and sacrifice for the poor and rejected. Thus, we are called to be people who, like our Messiah, willingly suffer for the benefit of others. We live by the values of the coming age and hope for that age and sacrifice for those that are suffering until that time comes. These are the thoughts echoed by Peter when he declared “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Paul and Silas willingly suffered so that the gospel of the suffering Messiah might be brought to others and when they accepted it and believed, entering into his life, they were willingly taking on that road of purposeful hardship themselves. They were immediately immersed into this life as the Jews riled up some of the local riffraff to stir up trouble and persecute this young church. The young church was getting hammered from both sides. On one side, the Jews didn’t like their claims of Jesus as the Messiah and the fact that the Christians were quite successful in evangelizing the God-fearing Gentiles that had been worshipping at their synagogues (certainly it was appealing to hear that they could be full members of God’s family through faith in his life alone without all of the rigors of keeping the law and becoming Jewish through circumcision). On their other side, the Gentiles did not care for the claims of Jesus as the true king of the world. That sounded like a challenge to Caesar and would be dealt with harshly.
The mobs came to get rid of Paul and Silas but when they could not find them, they turned their wrath onto Jason, a new convert at who’s house Paul and Silas had evidently spent much of their time. It appears that Jason and the others were eventually let go under the condition that Paul and his companions had to move on. This is likely what Paul referred to when he wrote (most likely just a few weeks or months after leaving Thessalonica) “we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan blocked our way” (1 Thess. 2:17-18). Paul’s sufferings, you see, weren’t just from persecution of non-believers. His sacrifice for the benefit of others didn’t end when he left that town. As Paul described in 2 Corinthians 11:28-29: “I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?”
Paul would face the agony of leaving a young church on their own under the care and provision of the Holy Spirit. He trusted the Spirit certainly, but still felt a strong parental bond towards them and cared deeply for them. Paul knew, and he demonstrated in every area of his life and ministry, that being a Christian is not about getting your share of the blessings all of the time but putting the interests of Christ and others ahead of his own (Phil. 2:3-5; 20-21).
Devotional Thought
Do you truly live each day for the benefit of others, being fully willingly to suffer and sacrifice in small ways or larger ways for the interests of Christ and others? What will it take for you to get to a point in your heart where you are fully prepared to do that?
1 When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.
5 But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.[a] 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.
Dig Deeper
When I was about 17 years old I wanted to get a job. I tried out a few places here and there but I didn’t last long at any of them, mostly because I was lazy and didn’t want to work hard. Then my older sister started to tell me about the place where she was working. It sounded like a blast. Nearly everyday she would come home and tell me of all of the funny things that happened at work and the funny and cool people that she worked with there. I got to thinking after a while that this sounded just like my kind of place. I wanted to “work” someplace where I could have fun and laugh a lot and enjoy the people and not really have to actually work very much. The job was doing data entry on computers so it was basically typing on a computer and I figured how hard could that be. So I went and took a job there. But once I got there I found that my sister had left out some vital details. Some of the people there were fun but she had only talked about a handful of people out of dozens and dozens. There were a few funny moments but those were actually usually a few seconds or minutes scattered throughout an eight-hour day. Most of the time the work was grueling and monotonous. You couldn’t play around that much because each person was required to get a certain amount of data entered each hour. That meant hour after hour of quiet work. I had so totally misunderstood the nature of that job that, although in retrospect, it wasn’t a bad job for someone my age, I hated every minute I was there.
Throughout the book of Acts we have seen something that is highlighted in this passage. There are times of comfort and blessing that come with our life in Christ but if someone were to tell you only about those things or stress them as the main experience and point of being a Christian, then you would get a completely wrong view of what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus was and is the true king of the world and the Messiah. But that is only half of the story. Jesus was the kind of king that had to suffer in order to fulfill his true purpose. In the same way, Christians will find blessing and comfort in Christ, that much is true. But that is only half of the story.
As they continued through the region of Macedonia, reaching Thessalonica, Paul continued his normal pattern of using the local synagogue as his first stop. He would preach the gospel to the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles at the synagogue in hopes of forming a core group of disciples that would carry on the work of preaching the gospel and expanding God’s family in that region long after Paul left. When Paul first arrived in Thessalonica he specifically preached at the local synagogue for three Sabbaths before apparently moving on within the city itself. Surely Paul stayed there longer than just three weeks, though, as the book of Thessalonians makes clear that Paul worked in Thessolonica to support himself (1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:8) and also received aid several times from the church in Philippi while he was there (Phil. 4:16). That certainly implies a stay of longer than three weeks.
There is no doubt that Paul’s gospel announcement contained the same elements of preaching that he typically used wherever he went, but at this stop Luke emphasized the role and nature of the Messiah. Amongst Jews the early Christians tended to center on Jesus as the Messiah while they focused on Jesus as king among the Gentiles but both aspects of Jesus found a common problem in the suffering and death on the cross of Jesus Christ. A suffering ruler who died at the hands of his enemy didn’t sound like a very impressive Messiah or king. How could it be claimed that this man who came to suffer and die was now the king of the world? It was through the act of his resurrection from the dead. Paul declared in Romans 1:4 that through the resurrection Jesus was declared to the world to be the true son of God thereby making him both Messiah (Christ) and King (Lord).
In this role of suffering, though, was the real challenge of the gospel. It is what made it a stumbling block for the Jews and sheer foolishness for the Gentiles (1 Corinthians 1:23). Those who insisted upon a Messiah or king that lived up to the worldly expectations of power and might would never be able to embrace the truth of the Messiah. It wasn’t just that he unexpectedly suffered but pulled it out in the end by resurrecting. A careful look at the Old Testament Scriptures would demonstrate that Jesus had to suffer because that was always the kind of Messiah that God promised (see passages such as Ps. 2; 16; 22; 110; Isa. 53). It is not only vital that this aspect of Jesus is understood so that we will know him as he truly is but if we don’t understand Jesus’ role as the suffering servant then we will easily mistake ours.
Our world today is full of religious teachers (as was Paul’s) who are more than happy to tell you that God wants nothing but good things for your life because you’re one of his kids. All you have to do, we are told, is to have faith and the blessings will start rolling in. In fact, they’re already prepared for you even if you haven’t received them yet, you just to have to have faith. The problem is that this is so far from the full story and so incomplete that it can only rightly be called a false picture of Christianity. Christians are called to be God’s people that live by the values of the age to come, a time of completeness, sufficiency, and love for others. But to do that in an age of sin, darkness, and fallenness requires sacrifice. We live in an age where the people of the world live for their own best interests which creates large pockets of both surplus and lack, of both comfort and suffering.
The only way for God’s people to bring his economy of sufficiency into such a fallen world is to confront the selfishness and sacrifice for the poor and rejected. Thus, we are called to be people who, like our Messiah, willingly suffer for the benefit of others. We live by the values of the coming age and hope for that age and sacrifice for those that are suffering until that time comes. These are the thoughts echoed by Peter when he declared “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Paul and Silas willingly suffered so that the gospel of the suffering Messiah might be brought to others and when they accepted it and believed, entering into his life, they were willingly taking on that road of purposeful hardship themselves. They were immediately immersed into this life as the Jews riled up some of the local riffraff to stir up trouble and persecute this young church. The young church was getting hammered from both sides. On one side, the Jews didn’t like their claims of Jesus as the Messiah and the fact that the Christians were quite successful in evangelizing the God-fearing Gentiles that had been worshipping at their synagogues (certainly it was appealing to hear that they could be full members of God’s family through faith in his life alone without all of the rigors of keeping the law and becoming Jewish through circumcision). On their other side, the Gentiles did not care for the claims of Jesus as the true king of the world. That sounded like a challenge to Caesar and would be dealt with harshly.
The mobs came to get rid of Paul and Silas but when they could not find them, they turned their wrath onto Jason, a new convert at who’s house Paul and Silas had evidently spent much of their time. It appears that Jason and the others were eventually let go under the condition that Paul and his companions had to move on. This is likely what Paul referred to when he wrote (most likely just a few weeks or months after leaving Thessalonica) “we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan blocked our way” (1 Thess. 2:17-18). Paul’s sufferings, you see, weren’t just from persecution of non-believers. His sacrifice for the benefit of others didn’t end when he left that town. As Paul described in 2 Corinthians 11:28-29: “I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?”
Paul would face the agony of leaving a young church on their own under the care and provision of the Holy Spirit. He trusted the Spirit certainly, but still felt a strong parental bond towards them and cared deeply for them. Paul knew, and he demonstrated in every area of his life and ministry, that being a Christian is not about getting your share of the blessings all of the time but putting the interests of Christ and others ahead of his own (Phil. 2:3-5; 20-21).
Devotional Thought
Do you truly live each day for the benefit of others, being fully willingly to suffer and sacrifice in small ways or larger ways for the interests of Christ and others? What will it take for you to get to a point in your heart where you are fully prepared to do that?
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Acts 16:25-40
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”
37 But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”
38 The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. 39 They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. 40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
Dig Deeper
Not too long ago I came back home after a long day and was incredibly hungry. My wife was gone for the evening so it was up to me to make supper for my boys and myself. I decided to do something quick and easy and make some pizza. I quickly scooped up all of the ingredients that are necessary for making a good pizza and put them on the counter. First, I grabbed the items that go into making a crust and got that ready because you cannot have pizza without crust. Then I made the sauce and put that on the crust. After that I threw on the cheese and pepperoni while all the while the oven was pre-heating. Once I was done I took the pizza over by the oven, turned on the timer, and then I quickly cleaned up the kitchen. After that I went into my room and sat down on my computer to get some quick work down before the pizza was ready. I didn’t pay too much attention to the time, I just waited for that timer because by now I was starving. After what seemed like forever without the timer ringing, I went into the kitchen to look. The timer had only about 30 seconds left on it, which excited me. That is until I looked to the counter next to the oven and realized that I had never put the pizza into the oven. I had prepared all of the ingredients for a pizza but left out a key component of making a pizza. I had never put it in the oven to cook. I was none too thrilled as I had to reset the timer and begin my wait all over again.
This may seem rather elementary but there are actually many elements that go into “making” a pizza. You generally need to have a crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings, and then you need to cook the pizza. If you leave out any of those elements, you come up with something quite different and it just doesn’t work.
One of the key elements in the narrative of the book of Acts is to watch people becoming saved and entering into the kingdom of God, the life of Christ, as the gospel is spread further and further into the world going out from Jerusalem. Although people being saved into God’s family is a key component of Acts, this book is a narrative and not a recipe book so there is no one passage that ever says “here are the exact ingredients that go into someone being saved.” That’s not the point of the narrative. If you read my above narrative which is extremely condensed, you will note that how to make a pizza is not the point of the narrative, but you can go back through and pick out the necessary and important elements. So it is with the book of Acts. If you pick through the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament you will be able to pull out the necessary elements of salvation into Christ although there is no such place that ever presents salvation in a formulaic fashion.
Let’s be clear, the analogy between the components of making pizza and the components of salvation is not a perfect one but there is one important point that comes from that analogy that we can apply to salvation. There are definitely different elements, or ingredients, when it comes to salvation in Christ. And just as you have a problem if you try to remove one aspect of making pizza, you have serious problems if you try to remove any of the important elements of salvation.
So what are the elements of salvation that we find in Acts and scattered throughout the New Testament? The first might seem painfully obvious but is important. We must first hear the message. Romans 10:17 says that “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” This leads into the next element which is faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6) and Mark 16:16 says that “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” But one must also repent in order to receive salvation. 2 Peter 3 and Acts 17:10 both say in effect that God wants everyone to come to repentance and Luke 13:5 says “unless you repent, you too will all perish.” One must also confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, a thought that is captured succinctly in Romans 10:9: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” All of this culminates in being baptized into Christ. His victory over death is the subject of the preaching that we hear; his life is the object of our faith; his kingdom is what we repent to; his rule is what we submit to at confession and it is into him that we are baptized. This is why Peter commanded to those who wanted to be saved that they repent and be baptized into his name (Acts 2:38), and to write that the ark and water of Noah “symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (meaning that it is not just a ceremonial and symbolic cleansing but the absolute culmination of our salvation as we enter into the resurrection life of Jesus Christ) (Pet. 3:20-21).
And yet it is very popular today to say that those other elements are necessary but not baptism. Surely that is just a symbol. Surely you don’t have to do that to be saved. You just need that at some point to be obedient. But that would be like claiming that I didn’t need to stick my pizza in the oven in order to complete it. All of the elements of salvation are necessary. At different times the Bible seems to say that one must hear in order to be saved; at other times that we must believe; at other times we must repent; at other times we must confess; and still others say that we must be baptized. If we can take out one element like baptism and make that unnecessary, then can we do the same with any of the other four? Could we not just as easily claim that they are symbolic acts that could be done later? Could we claim that repentance or true belief aren’t necessary up front as long as they come at some point the way some would do with baptism? Could I claim that “belief” isn’t dictated in every single salvation account and must, therefore, be an optional element? Of course not. If you remove one of the ingredients you have a real problem. With pizza, the results vary depending on which ingredient you leave out. With salvation, if you remove any of the ingredients or change them from what they are biblically declared to be then you have something different altogether. When salvation comes, it must come wholly with all of the elements in tact.
As we return to the text, we find that after their beating, Paul and Silas found themselves locked in an extremely uncomfortable jail and unable to sleep. So rather than being stuck in their present circumstances they rejoiced and sang to God. They found their life in Christ to be a greater reality than where they were physically at the moment. The Christian will constantly be called to put the interests of others ahead of their own and this is just one more example (Phil 2:3-5). Paul and Silas would certainly suffer in prison but it would being lasting benefit to the jailer and his household. That is simply the way of life that Christians have been called to as we seek to emulate the life of the one who laid down his life for others.
At that exact moment, a mighty earthquake struck that shook open all the doors and enabled their escape if they so chose. But they had a larger agenda that went beyond their own personal comfort. This earthquake was no coincidence but neither was it sent in order for them to escape. There was no angel there this time telling them to come out (Acts 12:7-10). This earthquake was apparently for their jailer, not for them. When he awoke to realize that all of the prisoners might have escaped he was ready to kill himself rather than wait for it to be done for him (Acts 12:19). When he coupled the spirit and singing of these men (and quite possible the preaching that we might presume they did when they first arrived) with the power of this event but with no attempt to escape, this man was ready. His response was to the point and full of humility. What did he need to do to be saved?
The response was a shorthand one that signified the whole process of salvation. He must believe in the Lord Jesus, an act that presupposes hearing the gospel and which demanded repentance, confession, and baptism into Christ’s life. Even though it might seem that belief is separated and emphasized here that would be a cursory and mistaken assumption. Actually all five elements of genuine salvation are on display in this passage even though they might not be overtly mentioned. First, we can assume that this jailer had listened to them and heard the gospel before the earthquake, otherwise he would have no context for asking to be saved. We are then told that Paul told him that he must believe that Jesus is Lord which would entail him declaring and confessing that. We are then told that he bound up their wounds. This harsh jailer’s repentance is tangible and immediate as he changes from persecutor to comforter. Then we are told that this all culminated in the saving baptism that confirms all of the other elements. And it wasn’t just the jailer. All of the members of his household were brought in to hear the message and they also believed, repented, confessed and were baptized. He further showed his salvation and repentance by having Paul and Silas immediately released.
At this point, we might have expected for Paul and Silas to count their blessings, appreciate that their suffering had brought salvation to many, and to be on their way quickly and quietly. But once again, it appears that they were putting the interests of others ahead of their own. They were both Roman citizens and to be beaten and treated the way that they were without a proper trial was illegal. We simply don’t know why they didn’t bring up the issue earlier but it may have been that they brought it up only when it would be of potential benefit to others. We can only speculate that the Spirit kept them from doing so in order for them to fulfill their mission within that prison. But if they went quietly without saying anything, how might future missionaries or Christians be treated in this region? No, it would be better for Paul and Silas to point out the injustice so that it would at least give pause to the Roman officials in the future.
Rather than feeling like they had run Paul and Silas out of town and would do the same to any more like them in the future, the Romans were troubled upon hearing that these men were actually Roman citizens and not just some random Jews whose rights needed no respecting. They didn’t need any of the trouble that this might bring if it got out so they went out to appease Paul and Silas and make sure that things were at least amicable between them. Their attitude would presumably be quite different towards future missionaries now that they had to at least consider that they might be Roman citizens.
Before leaving town, though, Paul and Silas had one more stop to once again put the interests of others first. They would return to Lydia’s house to encourage the brothers and sisters. Putting others first, after all, isn’t a part-time job. It is not something that Christians do but someone that we become.
Devotional Thought
How can you truly put the interests of those around you first today? It takes time and effort because if we don’t really think about we are likely to spend most of the day doing what is best for us.
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”
37 But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”
38 The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. 39 They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. 40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
Dig Deeper
Not too long ago I came back home after a long day and was incredibly hungry. My wife was gone for the evening so it was up to me to make supper for my boys and myself. I decided to do something quick and easy and make some pizza. I quickly scooped up all of the ingredients that are necessary for making a good pizza and put them on the counter. First, I grabbed the items that go into making a crust and got that ready because you cannot have pizza without crust. Then I made the sauce and put that on the crust. After that I threw on the cheese and pepperoni while all the while the oven was pre-heating. Once I was done I took the pizza over by the oven, turned on the timer, and then I quickly cleaned up the kitchen. After that I went into my room and sat down on my computer to get some quick work down before the pizza was ready. I didn’t pay too much attention to the time, I just waited for that timer because by now I was starving. After what seemed like forever without the timer ringing, I went into the kitchen to look. The timer had only about 30 seconds left on it, which excited me. That is until I looked to the counter next to the oven and realized that I had never put the pizza into the oven. I had prepared all of the ingredients for a pizza but left out a key component of making a pizza. I had never put it in the oven to cook. I was none too thrilled as I had to reset the timer and begin my wait all over again.
This may seem rather elementary but there are actually many elements that go into “making” a pizza. You generally need to have a crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings, and then you need to cook the pizza. If you leave out any of those elements, you come up with something quite different and it just doesn’t work.
One of the key elements in the narrative of the book of Acts is to watch people becoming saved and entering into the kingdom of God, the life of Christ, as the gospel is spread further and further into the world going out from Jerusalem. Although people being saved into God’s family is a key component of Acts, this book is a narrative and not a recipe book so there is no one passage that ever says “here are the exact ingredients that go into someone being saved.” That’s not the point of the narrative. If you read my above narrative which is extremely condensed, you will note that how to make a pizza is not the point of the narrative, but you can go back through and pick out the necessary and important elements. So it is with the book of Acts. If you pick through the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament you will be able to pull out the necessary elements of salvation into Christ although there is no such place that ever presents salvation in a formulaic fashion.
Let’s be clear, the analogy between the components of making pizza and the components of salvation is not a perfect one but there is one important point that comes from that analogy that we can apply to salvation. There are definitely different elements, or ingredients, when it comes to salvation in Christ. And just as you have a problem if you try to remove one aspect of making pizza, you have serious problems if you try to remove any of the important elements of salvation.
So what are the elements of salvation that we find in Acts and scattered throughout the New Testament? The first might seem painfully obvious but is important. We must first hear the message. Romans 10:17 says that “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” This leads into the next element which is faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6) and Mark 16:16 says that “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” But one must also repent in order to receive salvation. 2 Peter 3 and Acts 17:10 both say in effect that God wants everyone to come to repentance and Luke 13:5 says “unless you repent, you too will all perish.” One must also confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, a thought that is captured succinctly in Romans 10:9: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” All of this culminates in being baptized into Christ. His victory over death is the subject of the preaching that we hear; his life is the object of our faith; his kingdom is what we repent to; his rule is what we submit to at confession and it is into him that we are baptized. This is why Peter commanded to those who wanted to be saved that they repent and be baptized into his name (Acts 2:38), and to write that the ark and water of Noah “symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (meaning that it is not just a ceremonial and symbolic cleansing but the absolute culmination of our salvation as we enter into the resurrection life of Jesus Christ) (Pet. 3:20-21).
And yet it is very popular today to say that those other elements are necessary but not baptism. Surely that is just a symbol. Surely you don’t have to do that to be saved. You just need that at some point to be obedient. But that would be like claiming that I didn’t need to stick my pizza in the oven in order to complete it. All of the elements of salvation are necessary. At different times the Bible seems to say that one must hear in order to be saved; at other times that we must believe; at other times we must repent; at other times we must confess; and still others say that we must be baptized. If we can take out one element like baptism and make that unnecessary, then can we do the same with any of the other four? Could we not just as easily claim that they are symbolic acts that could be done later? Could we claim that repentance or true belief aren’t necessary up front as long as they come at some point the way some would do with baptism? Could I claim that “belief” isn’t dictated in every single salvation account and must, therefore, be an optional element? Of course not. If you remove one of the ingredients you have a real problem. With pizza, the results vary depending on which ingredient you leave out. With salvation, if you remove any of the ingredients or change them from what they are biblically declared to be then you have something different altogether. When salvation comes, it must come wholly with all of the elements in tact.
As we return to the text, we find that after their beating, Paul and Silas found themselves locked in an extremely uncomfortable jail and unable to sleep. So rather than being stuck in their present circumstances they rejoiced and sang to God. They found their life in Christ to be a greater reality than where they were physically at the moment. The Christian will constantly be called to put the interests of others ahead of their own and this is just one more example (Phil 2:3-5). Paul and Silas would certainly suffer in prison but it would being lasting benefit to the jailer and his household. That is simply the way of life that Christians have been called to as we seek to emulate the life of the one who laid down his life for others.
At that exact moment, a mighty earthquake struck that shook open all the doors and enabled their escape if they so chose. But they had a larger agenda that went beyond their own personal comfort. This earthquake was no coincidence but neither was it sent in order for them to escape. There was no angel there this time telling them to come out (Acts 12:7-10). This earthquake was apparently for their jailer, not for them. When he awoke to realize that all of the prisoners might have escaped he was ready to kill himself rather than wait for it to be done for him (Acts 12:19). When he coupled the spirit and singing of these men (and quite possible the preaching that we might presume they did when they first arrived) with the power of this event but with no attempt to escape, this man was ready. His response was to the point and full of humility. What did he need to do to be saved?
The response was a shorthand one that signified the whole process of salvation. He must believe in the Lord Jesus, an act that presupposes hearing the gospel and which demanded repentance, confession, and baptism into Christ’s life. Even though it might seem that belief is separated and emphasized here that would be a cursory and mistaken assumption. Actually all five elements of genuine salvation are on display in this passage even though they might not be overtly mentioned. First, we can assume that this jailer had listened to them and heard the gospel before the earthquake, otherwise he would have no context for asking to be saved. We are then told that Paul told him that he must believe that Jesus is Lord which would entail him declaring and confessing that. We are then told that he bound up their wounds. This harsh jailer’s repentance is tangible and immediate as he changes from persecutor to comforter. Then we are told that this all culminated in the saving baptism that confirms all of the other elements. And it wasn’t just the jailer. All of the members of his household were brought in to hear the message and they also believed, repented, confessed and were baptized. He further showed his salvation and repentance by having Paul and Silas immediately released.
At this point, we might have expected for Paul and Silas to count their blessings, appreciate that their suffering had brought salvation to many, and to be on their way quickly and quietly. But once again, it appears that they were putting the interests of others ahead of their own. They were both Roman citizens and to be beaten and treated the way that they were without a proper trial was illegal. We simply don’t know why they didn’t bring up the issue earlier but it may have been that they brought it up only when it would be of potential benefit to others. We can only speculate that the Spirit kept them from doing so in order for them to fulfill their mission within that prison. But if they went quietly without saying anything, how might future missionaries or Christians be treated in this region? No, it would be better for Paul and Silas to point out the injustice so that it would at least give pause to the Roman officials in the future.
Rather than feeling like they had run Paul and Silas out of town and would do the same to any more like them in the future, the Romans were troubled upon hearing that these men were actually Roman citizens and not just some random Jews whose rights needed no respecting. They didn’t need any of the trouble that this might bring if it got out so they went out to appease Paul and Silas and make sure that things were at least amicable between them. Their attitude would presumably be quite different towards future missionaries now that they had to at least consider that they might be Roman citizens.
Before leaving town, though, Paul and Silas had one more stop to once again put the interests of others first. They would return to Lydia’s house to encourage the brothers and sisters. Putting others first, after all, isn’t a part-time job. It is not something that Christians do but someone that we become.
Devotional Thought
How can you truly put the interests of those around you first today? It takes time and effort because if we don’t really think about we are likely to spend most of the day doing what is best for us.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Acts 16:11-24
Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi
11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district[a] of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Paul and Silas in Prison
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
19 When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Dig Deeper
The state in which I live has gone through a tremendous amount of conflict and political intrigue in the last year. It all began, believe it or not, with a seemingly simple law from the new governor that public employees begin to contribute more to their retirement funds and health care plans due to the fact that the state was on the verge of financial insolvency. There have been cost-saving measures before both suggested and real but never had they received a response like this one got. The union leadership in our state went crazy and began to fight against these measures violently. They whipped their supporters into a frenzy and they basically took over the capitol building for weeks with coloful and rowdy protests. Politicians who supported them even spirited themselves out of the state and hid out so that the legislature could not be called into session to pass the bills.
What was intriguing about the fierce nature of the opposition was why it was so intense. Everyone agreed that the state was broke and something had to be done. Part of the proposal was that these unions would not be able to negotiate these areas in their contracts so that the cutbacks in state funding couldn’t just be averted in future contract negotiations. Many claimed that this was the problem, but most states and the federal employees don’t have these same negotiation rights so it would seem unlikely that this was the real cause. Slowly the real problem became apparent as to why the unions were so violently opposed to these seemingly common-sense measures. Part of the law proposed by the governor included the stipulation that employees could no longer be forced to be a part of a union at their workplace or have union dues taken from their paychecks automatically. They would have to choose to pay their dues and be part of their union. Now people can have different political opinions and that’s fine. In fact the point of this is not at all to be political. The reality here seemed to be, though, that the true cause of the violent opposition was that little stipulation which would all but wipe out the power of public sector unions. Whether you support them or oppose them, that was the real issue. If you mess with people’s money, you will get a fight but mess with their power and position and you will have a fight to the death on your hands.
As Paul and his companions went around ancient Asia, Turkey, and Greece preaching the gospel they knew that they were going to face opposition at nearly every turn but every now and then they would come directly into confrontation with the power source of a city or region. If you messed with that, the powers-that-be understood the danger to them and they would come out fighting fiercely. The punch-back can be brutal and Paul was about to experience that in a big way.
When they arrived in Philippi, things started out well. You couldn’t just go into most cities in the ancient world, especially Roman colonies like Philippi and walk up and down the street preaching whatever you wanted. That could be quite dangerous . Things would go much better to have some sort of place from which to preach, a base of operations so to speak. That’s at least one of the reasons that Paul would typically go to a synagogue in a city first and start preaching there. But Philippi apparently had no synagogue. There were so few Jews in Philippi that all Paul could find was a group of Jewish women who would gather together to pray regularly. Jews could not and would not start a synagogue without at least ten men, so these faithful women were doing the best that they could under the circumstances with what seems to have been a lack of the necessary number of men. So Paul found this place and began to preach to the women.
Special attention is paid to a woman who came from Thyatira in the region of Lydia which is likely why she was called Lydia. She was a merchant in purple cloth which meant that, to put it in today’s terms, you would not find her items at the local Wal-Mart. This was high end merchandise and it implies that Lydia was probably a rather wealthy and influential business woman, despite that fact that she was almost surely either unmarried or a widow.
Lydia was a God-fearer (worshipper of God) which meant that she was a Gentile that found something in the Jewish faith that went beyond the pagan religions with which she grew up. Yet she had not become a full-proselyte Jew. When Lydia heard the gospel preached she experienced an opening of her heart. Luke stressed the two-fold aspect of reconciling with God that is necessary for all who would hear his call. God must first open our blind eyes and soften our hardened hearts through his grace. This is what John Wesley referred to as prevenient grace. But God’s grace is not forced upon anyone, it is an opportunity. Given the opportunity, Lydia responded to God’s grace with obedience and humility by being baptized into the life and body of Christ (see Rom. 6:1-10; 1 Cor. 12:13).
Once she had been baptized into Christ, she was a believer and part of the family and now sought to help out her new brothers. They could use her house as a base of operations in Philippi. A new influential and important convert (in fact she was the first convert in Europe) and a place from which to work, things were starting to look up in Philippi. But the calm comes before the storm and the powers of darkness were about to amass rather quickly.
Just because they had a place to stay and work from though, did not mean that they would stop going to the prayer place, which was probably used by more than just Jews in the area. As they arrived they came upon a woman possessed by a spirit. The text is changed by most English versions to make it more accessible (in their estimation) to English readers, but the manuscripts actually read that this woman was possessed by the spirit of the Python. This meant that she was a follower of Apollo that engaged in oracles and fortune-telling. This woman was no scam artist. She was likely truly possessed by a demon spirit that gave her uncanny abilities.
Her response to Paul and his companions was reminiscent of the demonic response to Jesus who attempted to identify and name Jesus and his mission in an attempt to show superiority and dominance over him. This young woman began to follow them and scream at them. We can only imagine how annoying that would have quickly become, yet Luke doesn’t tell us why Paul let this go on for several days without any response. It is difficult to speculate but finally Paul became quite vexed and showed that this spirit did not have dominance over them at all. At the very mention of the authority of Jesus Christ, the spirit left and was gone. This woman had been healed and the situation fixed.
At least that would seem to us to be the logical conclusion to what happened. But this young slave girl had become quite a source of money, power, and prestige for her owners and Paul had unknowingly stepped into a hornet’s nest by messing with the economics and power of these people. Without the spirit of python in this girl, their position of power was under attack. But the dark demonic forces at work also knew the danger of the gospel taking foot in this town founded by retired Roman soldiers.
Paul and Silas were quickly going to bear the brunt of crossing the self-interests of the powers of darkness. They had not only threatened the economic and religious sensibilities of this deeply pagan Roman colony but there were also political undertones to all of this. How dare these Jews come in and tried to tell Romans what to do. Imagine a group of Jews declaring that they possessed some sort of freeing truth that Romans did not possess. How dare they.
They made the assumption that these were not Roman citizens and could treated as sub-standard interlopers but little did they know that Paul and Silas were both Roman citizens. Yet they did not bring this to light at this point. This is another mystery as to why they didn’t (although the reason might become more apparent in the next section) but things got ugly quickly and perhaps there was just no opportunity to do so. The magistrates ordered them stripped and beaten with rods, a punishment that was severe and swift.
One might ask at this point why Paul and Silas would endure such treatment but his answer to that mystery came in 1 Thessalonians 2:2-4: “We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.”
As if that wasn’t enough, they were then thrown in jail under the guard of a jailer who was under strict orders to ensure that they didn’t escape. This jailer quickly proved to be no friend of theirs as he chained them up which would have been very restrictive and kept them from lying down or moving much at all. The jailer seemed quite willing to treat them harshly and show them no mercy.
Paul and Silas had taken on the forces of darkness and had paid dearly. They had shared in the suffering of their Messiah and things seemed like they couldn’t get much worse but when the powers of evil are their most ferocious and things seem the bleakest, that’s when God often does his best work. Paul, Silas, and that jailer would all soon find that out.
Devotional Thought
When things in your life go badly as they did for Paul and Silas in Philippi where does your mindset go? Do you start to feel badly for yourself or do you get excited to see what God is about to do in your life?
11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district[a] of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Paul and Silas in Prison
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
19 When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Dig Deeper
The state in which I live has gone through a tremendous amount of conflict and political intrigue in the last year. It all began, believe it or not, with a seemingly simple law from the new governor that public employees begin to contribute more to their retirement funds and health care plans due to the fact that the state was on the verge of financial insolvency. There have been cost-saving measures before both suggested and real but never had they received a response like this one got. The union leadership in our state went crazy and began to fight against these measures violently. They whipped their supporters into a frenzy and they basically took over the capitol building for weeks with coloful and rowdy protests. Politicians who supported them even spirited themselves out of the state and hid out so that the legislature could not be called into session to pass the bills.
What was intriguing about the fierce nature of the opposition was why it was so intense. Everyone agreed that the state was broke and something had to be done. Part of the proposal was that these unions would not be able to negotiate these areas in their contracts so that the cutbacks in state funding couldn’t just be averted in future contract negotiations. Many claimed that this was the problem, but most states and the federal employees don’t have these same negotiation rights so it would seem unlikely that this was the real cause. Slowly the real problem became apparent as to why the unions were so violently opposed to these seemingly common-sense measures. Part of the law proposed by the governor included the stipulation that employees could no longer be forced to be a part of a union at their workplace or have union dues taken from their paychecks automatically. They would have to choose to pay their dues and be part of their union. Now people can have different political opinions and that’s fine. In fact the point of this is not at all to be political. The reality here seemed to be, though, that the true cause of the violent opposition was that little stipulation which would all but wipe out the power of public sector unions. Whether you support them or oppose them, that was the real issue. If you mess with people’s money, you will get a fight but mess with their power and position and you will have a fight to the death on your hands.
As Paul and his companions went around ancient Asia, Turkey, and Greece preaching the gospel they knew that they were going to face opposition at nearly every turn but every now and then they would come directly into confrontation with the power source of a city or region. If you messed with that, the powers-that-be understood the danger to them and they would come out fighting fiercely. The punch-back can be brutal and Paul was about to experience that in a big way.
When they arrived in Philippi, things started out well. You couldn’t just go into most cities in the ancient world, especially Roman colonies like Philippi and walk up and down the street preaching whatever you wanted. That could be quite dangerous . Things would go much better to have some sort of place from which to preach, a base of operations so to speak. That’s at least one of the reasons that Paul would typically go to a synagogue in a city first and start preaching there. But Philippi apparently had no synagogue. There were so few Jews in Philippi that all Paul could find was a group of Jewish women who would gather together to pray regularly. Jews could not and would not start a synagogue without at least ten men, so these faithful women were doing the best that they could under the circumstances with what seems to have been a lack of the necessary number of men. So Paul found this place and began to preach to the women.
Special attention is paid to a woman who came from Thyatira in the region of Lydia which is likely why she was called Lydia. She was a merchant in purple cloth which meant that, to put it in today’s terms, you would not find her items at the local Wal-Mart. This was high end merchandise and it implies that Lydia was probably a rather wealthy and influential business woman, despite that fact that she was almost surely either unmarried or a widow.
Lydia was a God-fearer (worshipper of God) which meant that she was a Gentile that found something in the Jewish faith that went beyond the pagan religions with which she grew up. Yet she had not become a full-proselyte Jew. When Lydia heard the gospel preached she experienced an opening of her heart. Luke stressed the two-fold aspect of reconciling with God that is necessary for all who would hear his call. God must first open our blind eyes and soften our hardened hearts through his grace. This is what John Wesley referred to as prevenient grace. But God’s grace is not forced upon anyone, it is an opportunity. Given the opportunity, Lydia responded to God’s grace with obedience and humility by being baptized into the life and body of Christ (see Rom. 6:1-10; 1 Cor. 12:13).
Once she had been baptized into Christ, she was a believer and part of the family and now sought to help out her new brothers. They could use her house as a base of operations in Philippi. A new influential and important convert (in fact she was the first convert in Europe) and a place from which to work, things were starting to look up in Philippi. But the calm comes before the storm and the powers of darkness were about to amass rather quickly.
Just because they had a place to stay and work from though, did not mean that they would stop going to the prayer place, which was probably used by more than just Jews in the area. As they arrived they came upon a woman possessed by a spirit. The text is changed by most English versions to make it more accessible (in their estimation) to English readers, but the manuscripts actually read that this woman was possessed by the spirit of the Python. This meant that she was a follower of Apollo that engaged in oracles and fortune-telling. This woman was no scam artist. She was likely truly possessed by a demon spirit that gave her uncanny abilities.
Her response to Paul and his companions was reminiscent of the demonic response to Jesus who attempted to identify and name Jesus and his mission in an attempt to show superiority and dominance over him. This young woman began to follow them and scream at them. We can only imagine how annoying that would have quickly become, yet Luke doesn’t tell us why Paul let this go on for several days without any response. It is difficult to speculate but finally Paul became quite vexed and showed that this spirit did not have dominance over them at all. At the very mention of the authority of Jesus Christ, the spirit left and was gone. This woman had been healed and the situation fixed.
At least that would seem to us to be the logical conclusion to what happened. But this young slave girl had become quite a source of money, power, and prestige for her owners and Paul had unknowingly stepped into a hornet’s nest by messing with the economics and power of these people. Without the spirit of python in this girl, their position of power was under attack. But the dark demonic forces at work also knew the danger of the gospel taking foot in this town founded by retired Roman soldiers.
Paul and Silas were quickly going to bear the brunt of crossing the self-interests of the powers of darkness. They had not only threatened the economic and religious sensibilities of this deeply pagan Roman colony but there were also political undertones to all of this. How dare these Jews come in and tried to tell Romans what to do. Imagine a group of Jews declaring that they possessed some sort of freeing truth that Romans did not possess. How dare they.
They made the assumption that these were not Roman citizens and could treated as sub-standard interlopers but little did they know that Paul and Silas were both Roman citizens. Yet they did not bring this to light at this point. This is another mystery as to why they didn’t (although the reason might become more apparent in the next section) but things got ugly quickly and perhaps there was just no opportunity to do so. The magistrates ordered them stripped and beaten with rods, a punishment that was severe and swift.
One might ask at this point why Paul and Silas would endure such treatment but his answer to that mystery came in 1 Thessalonians 2:2-4: “We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.”
As if that wasn’t enough, they were then thrown in jail under the guard of a jailer who was under strict orders to ensure that they didn’t escape. This jailer quickly proved to be no friend of theirs as he chained them up which would have been very restrictive and kept them from lying down or moving much at all. The jailer seemed quite willing to treat them harshly and show them no mercy.
Paul and Silas had taken on the forces of darkness and had paid dearly. They had shared in the suffering of their Messiah and things seemed like they couldn’t get much worse but when the powers of evil are their most ferocious and things seem the bleakest, that’s when God often does his best work. Paul, Silas, and that jailer would all soon find that out.
Devotional Thought
When things in your life go badly as they did for Paul and Silas in Philippi where does your mindset go? Do you start to feel badly for yourself or do you get excited to see what God is about to do in your life?
Monday, July 25, 2011
Acts 16:1-10
Timothy Joins Paul and Silas
1 Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. 2 The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.
Paul’s Vision of the Man of Macedonia
6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Dig Deeper
Coming out of college I was quite decidedly not a Christian and I wanted to be a teacher and historian for the rest of my life. Then my life changed fairly radically when I became a true disciple of Jesus Christ. I continued to be a teacher and coach for awhile but my priorities had changed and God’s kingdom had become the most important thing in my life with my roles as a teacher and coach simply becoming the context for me being a Christian and expanding the kingdom of God. My vocation as a teacher was no longer the most important thing in my life. Then I began to feel the call to go full-time into the work of the ministry and to leave teaching as my profession. This was a subtle calling, though, based on the input and advice of other people. Based on their opinions, I began to seek out God’s will through prayer and reflection and that seemed to also be guiding me towards going into the ministry. Yet at no time was it absolutely clear. It was a big decision to make, to leave what I thought I was going to do for my entire life to go a completely different direction. It would have been easy if the choice was obvious but it wasn’t. In fact, I had people tell me that they thought I should pursue God’s calling but wanted me to know that there were little to no actual ministry opportunities in our fellowship of churches where I was at and wouldn’t be in the foreseeable future. It’s one thing to walk across a bridge but it’s another thing to step out over a canyon on faith, hoping that a bridge will appear by the time your weight has shifted and your foot has stepped out into what looks like nothing but air.
Following the Spirit’s guidance and finding God’s will is a tricky thing. It’s not nearly as obvious as we would like. The reality is that the Spirit often leads us into blind alleys and demands a great deal of faith on our part. That’s what makes it so difficult to follow the leading of the Spirit. It’s generally not obvious. It can be, quite frankly, agonizing. We want to follow the Spirit or it wouldn’t be an issue at all, but how do we know this is the Spirit’s will and not ours? How do we know that this is not just us convincing ourselves to do something that we just really want to do? How do we know that we aren’t about to do something wildly foolish that wasn’t what God wanted at all? The questions to those answers don’t come easy but we can rest assured that our brothers and sisters in the book of Acts struggled with the same issues. They were constantly on the edge being led by a Spirit who seems far more dangerous than we would care to experience.
Luke doesn’t say specifically whether the decision to bring Timothy along with them on Paul’s missionary journey was a difficult one or not but it doesn’t take much speculation to know that it probably was a difficult decision. Paul had taken the young man John Mark with him before on a missionary journey and been burned badly when things got too difficult for Mark and he turned around went home. On top of that Paul had just went through a difficult disagreement and parting of the ways with his long-time friend and supporter Barnabas. Now he had chosen Silas, a man with whom he must have clearly connected on their trip from Jerusalem to Antioch and through the time that Silas stayed and ministered to Paul’s church in Antioch. Silas was a shortened term for his full name “Silvanus.” and he was almost assuredly the same man who co-authored 1 & 2 Thessalonians and was the scribe for 1 Peter (1 Pet. 5:12).
It seems that Silas would take the role left by the departure of Barnabas and now they were presumably taking Timothy to fill a similar role that Mark had filled on the previous journey. But it is unlikely that this decision was easy or obvious. Would Timothy do well on this demanding and difficult trek? Was he really the Spirit’s choice? Certainly Paul labored over his decision in prayer and sought the guidance of the Spirit. Then came that time when you have to step out in faith and act on the assurance that you have done your very best to seek the input of the Spirit and other believers.
There certainly would have been a fair amount of evidence for Paul to consider that Timothy was a reliable man of God, albeit very young, and that he was indeed the Spirit’s choice. Timothy had apparently been converted on Paul’s previous trip to this area (cf. 1 Cor. 4:17). His mother Eunice and grandmother Lois were both beloved Christians (2 Timothy 1:5) but his father was a Greek man who was not a Christian and was, it seems, dead by this time. Timothy, though a young man, was already being spoken well of by the Christians in his home area as he was already probably displaying the type of character that Paul described when he said of Timothy that “I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 2:20).
But once Paul had decided to take Timothy with him, there was one problem. He would have been considered an apostate Jew by other Jews because he was not circumcised. This could have proved to be a severe obstacle in his ministry trip with Paul so Paul encouraged him to go through the painful step of circumcision. Some see this, at least on the surface, as a contradiction for Paul who was so adamant that circumcision was not necessary for people to be part of God’s family. Paul was dead set against a Gentile like Titus having circumcision forced upon him (Gal. 2:3-5) and was crystal clear that it could not be required for believers who needed nothing more than the faith of being baptized in the life of Christ (Gal. 5:6; cf. Gal. 3:26-29). Ultimately, though, Paul was rather ambivalent about circumcision itself (Gal. 6:15; 1 Cor. 7:19). Paul was not against circumcision. He was against it as a requirement to be recognized as part of God’s family. But Paul was never one to hold blindly to simplistic consistency when a more sophisticated and mature line of thinking was required. He knew that general salvation and ministry have different requirements. There was no thought that Timothy needed circumcision to be in Christ but it was essential in order for him to be heard and accepted by the Jews in the places where they were going to share the gospel. What is not required for salvation can often be necessary for the spreading of the gospel (just as a degree in some sort of biblical studies program is not required to be a Christian but I have met many people who will not go to a church if the minister doesn’t have exactly that sort of training). This was one of those times.
Paul’s new missionary team began to travel around telling the other Gentile churches of the decision that had been made in Jerusalem, something that must have been a source of great joy for the believers everywhere, especially the Gentile believers. They evidently intended on continuing on into Asia to preach the gospel but, says Luke, the Holy Spirit not only kept them from going there but also deterred them from entering into Mysia to share the gospel as well although he doesn’t say why. Nor does Luke tell us what the nature of the Spirit’s guidance was here. It may have come through the means of prophecy, the inward guidance and resolve of the Spirit through prayer, or through external circumstances.
Paul’s journeys were a constant exercise in learning to follow the subtle guidance of the Holy Spirit and trust that they were doing the right thing. But is must have been very confusing and a great struggle to have plans to go into certain areas, only to become convinced that the Spirit was guiding them in another direction. Following the Spirit is easy when it’s obvious but it rarely ever is obvious, and we must assume that it was no easier for Paul and his companions than for us. So they prayed constantly and sought the Spirit’s guidance at every turn no matter how difficult and challenging his leading and prompting might be.
Just when they must have been wondering where in the world the Spirit did want them to go, Paul had a dream of a Macedonian man calling to him to come over to Macedonia and help. This would be a whole new area for the gospel to spread but it still must have been a difficult and challenging call for Paul. Was this dream the genuine prompting of the Spirit or was it just a dream? But these people needed help and Paul and his companions had the exact cure for that problem.
One other important thing apparently happened for Paul and his missionary team during their brief stay in Troas in addition to the dream. For the first time in the book of Acts the narrator switches from using the third person and begins to employ the term “we.” There several possibilities for this switch but the most likely and logical one is that Luke, the physician (Col. 4:14), joined the team in Troas. Although Luke is subtle and does not seek to bring any attention to himself, the team is now complete. Like an action movie that slowly assembles all of the pieces together before they move into the main part of the plot, Paul’s team is now set for the next part of their journey.
Devotional Thought
Do you ever find it difficult to find and follow the Spirit’s will in your life? What do you do in those times? How do you determine what the Spirit’s will is for you? Take some time to reflect and pray about that and ensure that your methods are biblical ones.
1 Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. 2 The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.
Paul’s Vision of the Man of Macedonia
6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Dig Deeper
Coming out of college I was quite decidedly not a Christian and I wanted to be a teacher and historian for the rest of my life. Then my life changed fairly radically when I became a true disciple of Jesus Christ. I continued to be a teacher and coach for awhile but my priorities had changed and God’s kingdom had become the most important thing in my life with my roles as a teacher and coach simply becoming the context for me being a Christian and expanding the kingdom of God. My vocation as a teacher was no longer the most important thing in my life. Then I began to feel the call to go full-time into the work of the ministry and to leave teaching as my profession. This was a subtle calling, though, based on the input and advice of other people. Based on their opinions, I began to seek out God’s will through prayer and reflection and that seemed to also be guiding me towards going into the ministry. Yet at no time was it absolutely clear. It was a big decision to make, to leave what I thought I was going to do for my entire life to go a completely different direction. It would have been easy if the choice was obvious but it wasn’t. In fact, I had people tell me that they thought I should pursue God’s calling but wanted me to know that there were little to no actual ministry opportunities in our fellowship of churches where I was at and wouldn’t be in the foreseeable future. It’s one thing to walk across a bridge but it’s another thing to step out over a canyon on faith, hoping that a bridge will appear by the time your weight has shifted and your foot has stepped out into what looks like nothing but air.
Following the Spirit’s guidance and finding God’s will is a tricky thing. It’s not nearly as obvious as we would like. The reality is that the Spirit often leads us into blind alleys and demands a great deal of faith on our part. That’s what makes it so difficult to follow the leading of the Spirit. It’s generally not obvious. It can be, quite frankly, agonizing. We want to follow the Spirit or it wouldn’t be an issue at all, but how do we know this is the Spirit’s will and not ours? How do we know that this is not just us convincing ourselves to do something that we just really want to do? How do we know that we aren’t about to do something wildly foolish that wasn’t what God wanted at all? The questions to those answers don’t come easy but we can rest assured that our brothers and sisters in the book of Acts struggled with the same issues. They were constantly on the edge being led by a Spirit who seems far more dangerous than we would care to experience.
Luke doesn’t say specifically whether the decision to bring Timothy along with them on Paul’s missionary journey was a difficult one or not but it doesn’t take much speculation to know that it probably was a difficult decision. Paul had taken the young man John Mark with him before on a missionary journey and been burned badly when things got too difficult for Mark and he turned around went home. On top of that Paul had just went through a difficult disagreement and parting of the ways with his long-time friend and supporter Barnabas. Now he had chosen Silas, a man with whom he must have clearly connected on their trip from Jerusalem to Antioch and through the time that Silas stayed and ministered to Paul’s church in Antioch. Silas was a shortened term for his full name “Silvanus.” and he was almost assuredly the same man who co-authored 1 & 2 Thessalonians and was the scribe for 1 Peter (1 Pet. 5:12).
It seems that Silas would take the role left by the departure of Barnabas and now they were presumably taking Timothy to fill a similar role that Mark had filled on the previous journey. But it is unlikely that this decision was easy or obvious. Would Timothy do well on this demanding and difficult trek? Was he really the Spirit’s choice? Certainly Paul labored over his decision in prayer and sought the guidance of the Spirit. Then came that time when you have to step out in faith and act on the assurance that you have done your very best to seek the input of the Spirit and other believers.
There certainly would have been a fair amount of evidence for Paul to consider that Timothy was a reliable man of God, albeit very young, and that he was indeed the Spirit’s choice. Timothy had apparently been converted on Paul’s previous trip to this area (cf. 1 Cor. 4:17). His mother Eunice and grandmother Lois were both beloved Christians (2 Timothy 1:5) but his father was a Greek man who was not a Christian and was, it seems, dead by this time. Timothy, though a young man, was already being spoken well of by the Christians in his home area as he was already probably displaying the type of character that Paul described when he said of Timothy that “I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 2:20).
But once Paul had decided to take Timothy with him, there was one problem. He would have been considered an apostate Jew by other Jews because he was not circumcised. This could have proved to be a severe obstacle in his ministry trip with Paul so Paul encouraged him to go through the painful step of circumcision. Some see this, at least on the surface, as a contradiction for Paul who was so adamant that circumcision was not necessary for people to be part of God’s family. Paul was dead set against a Gentile like Titus having circumcision forced upon him (Gal. 2:3-5) and was crystal clear that it could not be required for believers who needed nothing more than the faith of being baptized in the life of Christ (Gal. 5:6; cf. Gal. 3:26-29). Ultimately, though, Paul was rather ambivalent about circumcision itself (Gal. 6:15; 1 Cor. 7:19). Paul was not against circumcision. He was against it as a requirement to be recognized as part of God’s family. But Paul was never one to hold blindly to simplistic consistency when a more sophisticated and mature line of thinking was required. He knew that general salvation and ministry have different requirements. There was no thought that Timothy needed circumcision to be in Christ but it was essential in order for him to be heard and accepted by the Jews in the places where they were going to share the gospel. What is not required for salvation can often be necessary for the spreading of the gospel (just as a degree in some sort of biblical studies program is not required to be a Christian but I have met many people who will not go to a church if the minister doesn’t have exactly that sort of training). This was one of those times.
Paul’s new missionary team began to travel around telling the other Gentile churches of the decision that had been made in Jerusalem, something that must have been a source of great joy for the believers everywhere, especially the Gentile believers. They evidently intended on continuing on into Asia to preach the gospel but, says Luke, the Holy Spirit not only kept them from going there but also deterred them from entering into Mysia to share the gospel as well although he doesn’t say why. Nor does Luke tell us what the nature of the Spirit’s guidance was here. It may have come through the means of prophecy, the inward guidance and resolve of the Spirit through prayer, or through external circumstances.
Paul’s journeys were a constant exercise in learning to follow the subtle guidance of the Holy Spirit and trust that they were doing the right thing. But is must have been very confusing and a great struggle to have plans to go into certain areas, only to become convinced that the Spirit was guiding them in another direction. Following the Spirit is easy when it’s obvious but it rarely ever is obvious, and we must assume that it was no easier for Paul and his companions than for us. So they prayed constantly and sought the Spirit’s guidance at every turn no matter how difficult and challenging his leading and prompting might be.
Just when they must have been wondering where in the world the Spirit did want them to go, Paul had a dream of a Macedonian man calling to him to come over to Macedonia and help. This would be a whole new area for the gospel to spread but it still must have been a difficult and challenging call for Paul. Was this dream the genuine prompting of the Spirit or was it just a dream? But these people needed help and Paul and his companions had the exact cure for that problem.
One other important thing apparently happened for Paul and his missionary team during their brief stay in Troas in addition to the dream. For the first time in the book of Acts the narrator switches from using the third person and begins to employ the term “we.” There several possibilities for this switch but the most likely and logical one is that Luke, the physician (Col. 4:14), joined the team in Troas. Although Luke is subtle and does not seek to bring any attention to himself, the team is now complete. Like an action movie that slowly assembles all of the pieces together before they move into the main part of the plot, Paul’s team is now set for the next part of their journey.
Devotional Thought
Do you ever find it difficult to find and follow the Spirit’s will in your life? What do you do in those times? How do you determine what the Spirit’s will is for you? Take some time to reflect and pray about that and ensure that your methods are biblical ones.
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