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May 30th, 2023
 
Hello Friends,

My dear mom went home to be with the Lord on Sunday night at about 7 PM California time. I'm with my father, sister, and in-laws at present and will tend to EDiBS as best I'm able over the next several days. Prayers for the family at this time are most appreciated.  Thank you!

Yours in Christ and our sure and certain Resurrection hope,

Pastor Paul
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Being Followed...for All the Wrong Reasons!

 

Acts 17:13-15


Greetings

Greetings, everyone! God bless you richly in Christ Jesus our Lord, and welcome to Tuesday’s edition of EDiBS. Today in our time of coming to the Scriptures together we’re moving into the middle section of Acts 17 – a chapter that continues to showcase for us both the blessings and challenges Paul and his missionary companions are encountering as they preach the message of Christ. Let’s pray as we prepare to look to God’s Word, and let’s ask for His blessing on our time. 

 

Prayer 

Lord God, we thank you today for your great love to us in Christ our Savior, and we thank you for revealing your plan for our redemption in Christ through your Word. Please help us by your gracious, loving Spirit today as we read and study the Scriptures. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. 

 

Getting Started 

As we get started today, things are going swimmingly well in Berea as Paul and Silas share the good news that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Messiah long waited for by the people of God. But now comes a new confrontation. Our focus: Thessalonian Jews, Act II. 

 

Acts 17:13-15 

13When 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. 14The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. 15The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible. 

 

I have a memory as a kid of being intimidated and harassed by a boy in the neighborhood next to ours. Our housing tract sat next to an orange grove on one side and an open field on another. On the other side of the orange grove there was a junior high school, and across the open field was another tract of houses. It was while I was in that other housing tract one day that a bigger boy started pushing me and throwing rocks at me. He threatened to go get his friends and said he was going to come back with them to beat me up. I was about six years old at the time, and I didn’t need a pamphlet on bullying to know that it would probably be best to walk away from the situation. I did leave, but here’s what happened: as I crossed the field and got back to my own neighborhood to go home, that bigger boy did come back with his friends, and they followed me right up my driveway and pounded on my front door. I had never been so terrified in my life, and if my mother hadn’t been home to chase them off, I don’t know what I would have done. I learned years later that that boy had a pretty lousy family situation with very little supervision, and in time he unfortunately got in trouble with the law. I hope he’s much better now and has found his stride as an adult, but back then? All I wanted to do was stay out of his way. I don’t think I ever set foot in that other neighborhood again! 

 

In today’s reading, what we have happening is nothing short of a bullying situation...albeit on a much larger scale than what you might see in a neighborhood full of kids. Paul, spirited away from Thessalonica because Jews there had wanted to do him harm, has come to Berea and has been experiencing a decidedly different environment in this city. The Jews here, for the most part, have been noble-minded with open hearts, and the Word of God has been doing its work as many people have been brought to saving faith in the Lord Jesus. The Jews from Thessalonica, however, are not satisfied just to force Paul out of their own city. Some of them, hearing that Paul is in Berea, have now followed Paul in order to disrupt his work there also. 

 

We should stop for a moment here and ask ourselves why this seems so familiar to us by now. The answer, of course, is that this kind of thing has already happened quite a bit, particularly during Paul’s first missionary journey, which we covered in chapters 13 and 14. If we include the troubles in Thessalonica and add what we’re now dealing with in Berea, this marks the fifth city from which Paul has been ousted by an angry mob of people, and furthermore, each angry mob has been stirred up by envious Jewish leaders who have been jealous and threatened by Paul’s work. 

 

Moving into verses 14-15, then, we once again see preemptive and protective action taken on the part of the believers in Berea, who for Paul’s own safety send him immediately to the coast. He’ll be making his way to Athens soon, but take note here of a change in strategy: Silas and Timothy will not be accompanying Paul south into Greece, and why? Because there is still work to be done in Berea, and if he can’t do it himself, he’s going to leave his partners and representatives there to do it for him. Silas and Timothy are certainly up to the task, and they are able – apparently, anyway – to move about and minister to people with the Gospel more freely and with less conflict than Paul. What we have here, then, is not just an evangelistic work, but a church planting, nurturing, and establishing work. Someone needs to stay behind and help the new believers in Berea, and even though Paul must depart, he makes sure that the work will continue once he’s gone. 

 

Wrapping Up 

As we wrap things up for the day, let’s make note of one more thing before we close things off: Paul is going to Athens on his own, and he is intentionally leaving Silas and Timothy behind for important work that still needs to be done in Berea...but he is also leaving instructions for those two that they are not to be there indefinitely, but instead are to join him in Athens as soon as they are able. Why is that important? What does that say to you about the ministry strategy being employed here? For that matter, how will Silas and Timothy know when it’s right to leave and join Paul? What needs to be in place? What needs to be accomplished before they depart? When we come back together next time, we’ll begin our discussion with those questions, and as we do so we’ll also be getting into some great new material as Paul begins work with a new group of people who need the Gospel message. Do join in, won’t you? God bless you as you head into the rest of your day, everyone — and do remember that the joy of the Lord Jesus is your strength! Take care, and I’ll see you soon! 

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