AP

Studies in Acts

Another King (Acts 17:1-10a)

Postscript on Philippi: The Christian church in Philippi was the first one on the European continent and in the actual Roman world. We know this church from Paul’s letter to these Philippians, the church of Lydia and the jailer, of Euodia and Syntyche, and of Clement and Epaphroditus (Philippians 4).

Because Luke no longer uses the first-person plural from Acts 16:17 to 20:6, it seems that he remained in Philippi for a while and performed the necessary work of building up the church. People like the jailer and his household had been instructed in Holy Scripture for barely a few hours. When about six years later Paul returned to Philippi, he meets Luke there once again (Acts 20:5). Had the doctor been a pastor there all that time? After Paul’s departure Timothy also stayed behind, but he joined the apostle again in Berea (Acts 17:15). Meanwhile Paul had travelled with Silas deeper into Macedonia and thus into Europe. Philippi would always remain his favourite child. He called this church “my joy and crown” (Philippians 4:1), whom he would continue to love very deeply and from whom he would receive much love for the rest of his life. This church was the only one from whom he accepted gifts (Philippians 4:15-18). About ten years later he wrote the letter to the Philippians from a different prison, from which we learn about their striking mutual affection.

Acts 17:1-4 Paul and Silas departed from Philippi to proclaim the gospel further into Macedonia. Despite his wounded back, the apostle “had boldness in our God” to pursue that goal (1 Thessalonians 2:2). They travelled on the Via Egnatia, from Philippi to the immense port city of Thessalonica, 161 kms. Paul and Silas found a synagogue in the mostly pagan city. Many “God-fearers” were there: Gentiles who on Saturday attended the synagogue, to hear the reading from the Torah of Moses, or from the Prophets and the Psalms. They did not yet know that those Scriptures had been fulfilled. Foreign guests were present in the synagogue, among whom was a scribe from the famous school of Gamaliel in Jerusalem.

As the apostle was in the habit of doing, he turned first to the Jews, to the synagogue, where there were also God-fearing, Gentile worshippers. After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the learned rabbi was invited to speak an edifying word (cf. Acts 13:15). For that, he shared the subject which every real Jew would have loved to hear about: the coming of the Messiah. What he said about that was so remarkable that he was invited to fill the pulpit the following week. Altogether, he talked with them for three Sabbaths—and probably throughout these weeks—regarding the Scriptures and the Messiah.

What this rabbi cited from Scripture about Messiah, however, generated great surprise among many in the synagogue. For he showed them that the imposing, powerful Messiah-King, for whom Israel was looking and to whom world dominion had been promised, according to God’s decree had first to travel a terrible path of suffering, all the way to death! But also, that afterwards he would arise from the dead! Paul explained and showed this by placing the Scriptures and Jesus’ life alongside each other. He could have referred to Psalms 2:1-7, 16:8-11, 110:1, 118:22, Deuteronomy 21:22-23. And certainly, to what Isaiah had prophesied about the Messiah as the suffering servant of Yahweh. (Isaiah 49:7; 50:6; 53:7, 9-10).

These same prophecies, however, also proclaimed the exaltation of the Messiah, (Isaiah 49:7). Of all God’s suffering servants, the Messiah would descend the most, to be exalted the highest. Next, Paul proclaimed that all of God’s promises and prophecies about the Messiah had been fulfilled in Jesus. Not even an Isaiah or a Jeremiah had suffered as he had suffered. He was crucified and died. But thereafter God had raised him and exalted him to his right hand and thereby appointed him as Lord and Messiah! (cf. Acts 2:36; 26:22-23). For this testimony the apostle would also have cited the requisite eyewitnesses (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:5-8). In 1 Thessalonians 1:5 he reminds them that he had proclaimed the gospel to them “not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.”

Regrettably, most of the Jews stumbled over Paul’s preaching. For them, a crucified Messiah was an insurmountable stumbling block (1 Corinthians 1:23). At that point, here again, the “Israel according to the flesh” separated from the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16), the latter forming together with the believing Gentiles the New Israel. It was only a “remnant,” who were persuaded by Paul’s narrative of facts about the Lord Jesus and by the Scriptural light that he shone on those facts.

Just as in Iconium, a large group of God-fearing Greek-speaking Gentiles came to faith, among whom were many women from the upper classes. Thus, the church in Thessalonica consisted largely of converted Gentiles. As Paul wrote later, they had turned “to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10). The apostle did not obscure that divine wrath. On the contrary, he warned Jews and Gentiles about the last judgement and God’s anger about those who would reject Jesus. Even today, gospel preachers who “know the fear of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:11) will not be silent about this.

We know three brothers from Thessalonica by name: Jason, who would later be dragged from his house (vv. 5-7); Aristarchus, a Jew who believed in the Messiah (Colossians 4:10-11); and Secundus, possibly a converted Gentile (Acts 20:4). Aristarchus accompanied Paul when he was transferred to Rome as a prisoner: “We put to sea, accompanied by Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica” (Acts 27:2). Elsewhere Paul calls him his “fellow prisoner” (Colossians 4:10).

Acts 17:5-9 Deep jealousy emerged from the disobedient Jews. They could not stand the fact that the gospel of a crucified Messiah exerted so much persuasive power, especially among the non-Jewish ladies from the upper classes. Many God-fearing Gentiles, who before had been attending the services in the synagogue, joined Paul and Silas. Fierce religious hatred was now directed against the evangelists. Just as in Jerusalem and Iconium, the Jews decided to involve the Roman government in their persecution. In so doing, the situation was following the same pattern as in Psalm 2: the “nations” around Israel and “the kings of the earth” conspired together against God and his Anointed. They understood clearly that it was no use approaching the pagan government with Paul’s proclamation about the arrival of the Messiah of Israel. Therefore, they decided to paint him as a danger to the Roman state, for then the government would have to intervene! Based on this accusation, the Lord himself had been crucified (Luke 23:2; John 19:12). Later the Jews in Jerusalem would present Paul before Governor Felix as “a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews.” In other words, “Christians are subversive!”

To make their accusation acceptable, the Jews decided first to organize riots, so that they could blame these on Paul and Silas. With the help of unsavoury characters from the street, they got a mob together and put the city into an uproar. They went over to the home of Jason to bring Paul and Silas out in front of the city assembly. When they did not find them there, however, they dragged Jason himself, together with several brothers, before the city rulers. There the Jews shouted: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house.” Jason had made himself an accessory by taking them into his home. All of them were acting in conflict with the laws of the emperor, for they were claiming that someone else is king and lord, namely, Jesus! (In the Greek-speaking provinces, the Roman emperor was called “king” and “lord”). Had people perhaps caught a note in Paul’s preaching about the coming (literally, parousia, royal visit) of Kurios Jesus? In any case, they were accusing the apostle of nothing less than high treason! In so doing, they aroused fear and dismay both among the people who had formed a mob and among the city rulers. If at this point, people did not strongly defend the honour and authority of the emperor, he could accuse them of high treason, and Thessalonica could lose its privilege of being a “free city.”

This potentially fatal accusation was even more serious for Paul and Silas, for two reasons. First, because at that time, Jewish agitators had surfaced everywhere in the Roman empire. Not only in Judea, where after AD 44 the resistance against the Roman occupiers increased even more, but also in large cities where many Jews were living -Rome had about 10,000, and Alexandria more than 100,000. Emperor Claudius had banned the Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2). Secondly, because they could not expect the Roman authorities to discern the difference between the apostolic messianic preaching and the militant messianism of the Jewish Zealots who were inciting revolution against Rome.

Here we come upon one of Luke’s subsidiary purposes with his book of Acts: to teach the high Roman official Theophilus (to whom he dedicated his books) the difference between the apostolic teaching and the Zealot messianic expectations. (Romans 13:1-7; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13, 17).

Fortunately, the authorities in Thessalonica were wiser than those in Philippi. They investigated the matter, and apparently Jason was able to convince them that not a word of what the demonstrators were shouting was true. As long as both main indictments remained unproven, the alleged transgression of Jason (in giving lodging to riotous elements) was not demonstrable. After he and the others had put up security to ensure that Paul and Silas would leave the city immediately, the city council let them go.

For Jason and the other brothers dragged along with him, suffering for the sake of Christ began very quickly. They had become Christian barely a few weeks earlier, and now already they were suffering reproach and insult on account of their faith. This hostile attitude would persist for some time. Not long afterward, the apostle wrote to them: “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:6). For Paul and Silas, any further work in Thessalonica had been made impossible. Under the protection of evening darkness, the brothers sent them on to Berea, about 50 km from Thessalonica.

Questions:

Why was the gospel especially attractive to women in the Roman empire? Is it still the same?

What is the spiritual meaning of rioting?

What is the difference between protesting and rioting? (Check out Psalm 144:9-15)

– Alida Sewell