Greetings

Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Thursday’s edition of EDiBS! It’s good to have you join in today for our daily time in God’s Word, and I know the Lord’s blessing will be on us and on our time as we come to the Scriptures over these next few minutes to learn from Him. Today we’ll be getting our first look at the 17th chapter of Acts, so let’s pray as we open our Bibles. 

Prayer 

Father, please bless the study of your holy Word today, to the end that we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior and in our strength to live as your beloved children. We ask this in Jesus’ name, amen. 

Getting Started 

As we get started today, Paul, Silas, and his companions head out from the region of Philippi and now begin to work their way toward Thessalonica. Our focus: Missionary journey #2 continues.

Acts 17:1-4 

When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3explaining 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. 4Some 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. 

Sometimes people ask me why we hold to such a formulaic pattern with respect to the production of EDiBS. “Pastor, you always begin with a greeting and a prayer, introduce and read the passage for the day, and then go through several verses with us. It’s always the same. You just keep working through the Bible bit by bit. Why don’t you mix it up, go topical once in a while…get out of the rut?” 

My answer to that is that first of all, I’m not opposed to doing things differently at all. In fact, we’ve looked at several projects over the years that would enable us to offer additional resources in different settings on different topics. Some of them, in fact, are in development right now. But as far as EDiBS itself goes, we use the method we do because it’s simple, it’s straightforward, and we know it works. It’s effective for a whole lot of folks who have found that with these brief daily studies, they’re able to consistently stay in the Scriptures in a way they never had before. Our format also keeps me on track each day time-wise. But most important of all, it ensures that the systematic presentation of the Word of God is always central to what we do. That’s been our mission from day-one, and it remains so today.

I mention those things today not because I feel the need to defend the work of our ministry, and certainly not because any of you have been critical of our journey through the Bible together over the years. I mention the uniformity of what we do to illustrate what we see happening in today’s text. Here in the passage before us we are observing what has become a very familiar pattern to us regarding the protocol, the approach, and the method of Paul’s evangelistic work from city to city. The travelogue we’re given in the first verse lets us know that on leaving Philippi, Paul and his ministry team head southwest through the cities of Amphipolis and Apollonia, eventually making their way into the city of Thessalonica. In verse 2, what’s the first thing that we see Paul do? He searches out and locates the Jewish synagogue there. In fact, verse 2 even tells us that, as is Paul’s custom, he goes into the synagogue. Why? Quite simply, because it works. It’s a concrete, straightforward methodology that puts him in close proximity to people who need to hear God’s Word, specifically the message of a Savior in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s the perfect starting point for him to begin his work in any place that he goes, and because it’s so effective, there’s no reason for him to reinvent the wheel at each new destination on his itinerary.

Now – is he stuck in a rut? Not at all. He’s already proved that when needed, he’s able to work outside of that framework. In Philippi, remember, there was no synagogue, so he adjusted his mode of outreach accordingly. But let’s not miss the point that there is God-given blessing in an intentional routine, and I love that as we follow Paul and his team in their missionary travels, we see their routine bearing good fruit for the kingdom of God. 

As we move on into the next few verses, we see that Paul’s focus as he spends time in the synagogue is Jesus, all Jesus. To both the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks who are there to hear him, he is intent on one message: Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah; He truly is the Savior of the world. Notice the way your Bible describes Paul’s work here. First, he reasons with his hearers from the Scriptures. The sense here is that starting at a place of common ground, he patiently, not rashly, leads the people to see the truth of what is written. There is authority in his teaching, but without harshness and debate. He reasons from the Scriptures, and he also explains and then proves that Jesus is the Christ…that He had to suffer and then rise from the dead. Taking the pages of the Old Testament and all the richness of the Messianic prophecy contained there, Paul connects the dots for people who have long been told that one day their Savior would come, and he opens their eyes to the fact that Jesus, the Man from Nazareth, is who He claimed to be all along: the Anointed One, who came to set His people free. 

Wrapping Up 

The outcome of these early efforts in Thessalonica? Some – not all, but some – are persuaded, and join Paul and Silas – meaning that they embrace this message and place themselves under the further discipleship of these ministers of the Gospel. It’s a good start to the campaign in this city, but as we’ll see next time, what we have at the moment is the calm before the storm. Wrapping up for the day, think about your own routine when it comes to forging opportunities to share the message of forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Are you intentional about it? Is it simple? Does it work? Have you ever really considered that idea before? We all need a starting point, so pray about what yours might be, and then put yourself there and ask God to use you. You may be surprised at the outcome of your willingness to be an instrument of your Lord! 

Have a great day everyone, and when we come back to this passage tomorrow, we’ll work through what happens next. Take care, and God’s peace!