When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,’" he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women. But the 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. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: "These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus." When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go. As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
The title of this blog is inspired by the Bereans, but I want us to think about the entire story. Here are some questions to help you:
- What in this text strikes you as remarkable?
- What is the main point of this story?
- Why does Paul go to the synagogue first?
- What is Paul’s message specifically?
- Why do you think he emphasizes this?
- How do (most of?) the Jews react to Paul’s message?
- Focus on the Bereans: what does Luke say about them?
- What can we learn from them?
What else is on your mind this week?
9 comments:
Have you liked our study in Acts this summer?
This is Labor Day weekend. Labor Day has never been a “biggie” for us. We don’t have any tradition or any set activity. How about you?
I do remember starting Family Camp about 10 years ago, along with Pat Arthur. We had it on Labor Day weekend for the first few years. I THINK the very first one was 10 years ago; pretty sure. Why do I remember it was 10 years ago? Well, I remember tw, who came to the first one, coming into the cafeteria and telling me that Princess Di had been killed in a car wreck. Yes, I remember exactly where I was.
Am I right about this, tw?
ah the things we remember. please don't forget about the yardsale for the food pantry. i missed church today-i've not beem feeling well, but i have not done a great job of drumming up interest in this, so please help get the word out. We need lots of donations to make this a hit so i am asking and truly needing your help. thanks tw
Hum, I don't remember about Princess Di but Pat was asking me if I was at the first one because he remembers me from there and I truly don't remember for sure, I do know we attended the first few yrs. It was great. Could someone post the dates and cost please?
Thanks, Annette
I came across this quote this morning.
The demand for absolute liberty brings men to the depths of slavery.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The following is from my Introduction to Christian Education class. I think this is really good. AND it might just be related to the text this week.
Don’t you just love the word epistemology? Makes you almost feel like you are saying something you wouldn’t use just around anybody. Epistemology is a branch of philosophy that deals with the study of knowledge and justified belief.
George Knight’s
Seven Hallmarks of a Christian Epistemology
1. The biblical perspective is that all truth is God’s truth. Therefore, the distinction between sacred and secular is a false dichotomy.
2. The truth of Christian revelation is true to what actually exists in the universe. Therefore, the Christian can pursue truth without the fear of ultimate contradiction.
3. Forces of evil seek to undermine the Bible, distort human reasoning, and lead individuals to rely on their own inadequate and fallen selves in the pursuit of truth.
4. We have only a relative grasp of the absolute truths in the universe. In other words, while God can know absolutely, Christians can know absolutes in a relative sense. Thus, there is room for Christian humility in the epistemological enterprise.
5. The Bible is not concerned with abstract truth. It always sees truth as related to life. Therefore, knowing in the biblical sense is applying perceived knowledge to one’s daily life and experience.
6. The various sources of knowledge available to the Christian–the special revelation of Scripture and the person of Jesus Christ, the general revelation of the natural world, and reason–are complementary and should be used in light of the biblical pattern.
7. Given the unity of truth, the acceptance of a Christian epistemology cannot be separated from the acceptance of a Christian metaphysics and vice versa. The acceptance of any meta-physical-epistemological configuration is a faith choice, and it necessitates a total commitment to a new way of life.
Here is an interesting item from a news summary email that I receive. I don’t know if you heard about Time Magazine’s piece on Mother Teresa where they talked about some of her doubts. The article and book mentioned in the quote are based on some letters written by M.T.
Pope Benedict said on Saturday that even the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta "suffered from the silence of God" despite her immense charity and faith, Reuters reports. The Pope was addressing a youth rally in Italy when he spoke about the new book that cites Mother Teresa's private letters, revealing that she experienced period of doubt and a crisis of faith. That the Pope mentioned Mother Teresa's torment as not being unusual is significant because there was some speculation that the published letters could hurt the procedure to make her a saint. "All believers know about the silence of God," Benedict said in unprepared remarks.
What do you think of this?
Wow, pretty quiet this week.
Nobe, I guess you didn't specify when and where it would rain. Maybe tomorrow. Only the Lord knows. I guess I got a little humbled last week, but I still beleive that you have to pray with faith that prayers will come true and trust that if it doesn't that there's a bigger plan in place.
Concerning this week's lesson. I think that the reason they started in the synagogues was because they had their best chance of convincing people that Christ came and was the Messiah because they used prophesy and scripture to support their claims. Someone who doesn't know the prophesy, would be harder to convince.
Once they had a few of them converted, they could connect them with the local church and keep it growing and leave for the next location.
It says a lot about their style of missionary preaching vs. today. Today, we usually send somebody to stay in one area for an extended period. They seemed to move much farther distances and never really settled anywhere. Paul had his favorite places, but he never really called anyplace home once his missionary journey began. Really makes you think how much we get caught up in our comfort zones.
Brent
On a side note, I gotta brag on Marty. He decided to take up cross-country this year for the first time. Last night was their first meet against Brownstown. He finished 6th on the team (arond 14 total) and 12th overall (Around 30-35). I don't know where he came up with this running thing. I guess Allen's been a bad influence.
:]
The Bereans received the message eagerly and it made them want to search the scriptures to verify what they had heard of the Messiah. When a message really goes to my heart, I cannot wait to look it up and ponder it, especially if it is something I might have overlooked before or didn't fully understand. (which is alot of things) I think most of us are that way. When something strikes us as extrordinary we linger on it and take it in until we finally understand. Then we want to know more. When you read a series of books, as I am at this time, you cannot wait to get to the next part to make the story more understandable to you and bring it all together. Sometimes as we get older we lose that eagerness we had as new Christians to learn even more. We will never reach the point of total understanding but we can understand enough to believe,obey and emulate our Savior and he opens the door in His Word to His heart, where we want to be. That is our comfort and strength for life every day. Go Marty!!! Have a great week everyone. Sherron
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