Good weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
All around the world this summer there are ‘bitter – sweet’ reunions happening, maybe you will experience some? Graduations and weddings bring friends and family together for a sweet time, but then send them off, dispersed, scattered to pursue their individual life journeys. Summer vacations, especially family reunion vacations, are long anticipated and cherished, but they end often with tears as people return to living connected across the miles only by technology. We’ve come today to one of those seasons in our journey together with the apostle Paul.
I left you yesterday walking with Paul as he heads toward one of his favorite places, Jerusalem. Disappearing over the horizon behind Paul, is the skyline to a remarkable city, Caesarea. We spent some time there yesterday with Paul.
As I mentioned yesterday, it seems the language Luke uses to write the log of this portion of Paul’s life suggests that Paul is traveling alone. Luke has not used the pronouns ‘we’ or ‘us’ since Acts 16:16 when Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke were together in Philippi. Luke resumes that language in Acts 20:5, but there is quite a gap of several years between those two verses. Did Dr. Luke remain in Philippi, or perhaps continue on with Paul, Timothy and Silas to Thessalonica? Did he remain there after Paul left? Being a medical doctor, I can well imagine Luke would have been urged to stay and give medical help to any town he visited.
The Holy Spirit of God, and the personal account of Paul, would have given Luke what he needed to continue reporting the story of Paul’s travels, even if he wasn’t at Paul’s side for a period of time.
Silas was last mentioned in Luke’s record in Acts 18:5, when Paul welcomed Silas and Timothy, who had come from Macedonia to Corinth, to update Paul with news of what had transpired in Thessalonica and elsewhere after Paul had headed for Athens and then Corinth. In fact, Silas is not mentioned again in the book of Acts. We know Silas had been an active part of the Jerusalem church and gone to Antioch, Syria following the Jerusalem council in Acts 15:22.
While there Silas and Paul had developed a strong friendship and when Paul felt led by the Spirit to launch out on this, his second missionary journey, Paul had invited Silas to join him. Perhaps Silas remained in that great city of Corinth, continuing the teaching of the Gospel with those new believers in Jesus, as Paul moved on toward Ephesus?
Timothy may have taken Paul’s second letter back to Thessalonica, read it to the Christians there, and other towns in the region who had heard Paul’s Gospel. We know Timothy rejoined Paul on Paul’s third missionary journey and Timothy was a faithful partner with Paul till the end of Paul’s life.
So, while I don’t know for sure that Paul was walking alone from Caesarea to Jerusalem, I can well imagine an excitement is growing in Paul. While Tarsus was Paul’s boyhood home, Jerusalem was the place Paul came to study with the Pharisees and most learned scholars of his day. Paul excelled in his learning, became a Pharisee and may have even was one of the younger members of the Sanhedrin, the religious leaders who strongly opposed Jesus and his followers.
While 25 years have passed since those days of Paul’s violent opposition to Jesus, still there would be many in Jerusalem who would remember him as Saul Paulus of Tarsus, the zealous Pharisee, determined to eliminate any memory or mention of Jesus in Israel!
But what really beckoned Paul as he walked this busy, dusty road, was the wonderful reality that Jerusalem was home to what we would today call the Messianic Christian church. Thousands of Jews, in the region of Judea, had believed Yeshua, Jesus, is the Jewish Messiah.
While many had been forced to leave Jerusalem under great persecution, Paul had every reason to anticipate he would be well received by the apostles and other elders of the Jerusalem “ekklesia” if they were in Jerusalem when he arrived. If Paul’s timing was right, and one of the great Jewish festivals was near the time of his arrival, I can imagine nothing could squelch his excitement to be in Jerusalem at festival time!
Amazingly Luke gives us no details, simply these few words: “Paul went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem and greeted the church, then he went down to Antioch.” (Acts 18:22) You’ll remember, dear friends, that the phrase “up to Jerusalem” is always used to describe any journey, from any direction, toward Jerusalem, because Jerusalem was built on Mount Moriah, one of the highest points in Judea. Thus, when Luke reports Paul ‘went down to Antioch’ please don’t be confused. Antioch was 300 miles NORTH of Jerusalem, but walking toward Jerusalem was always going “up” and walking away from Jerusalem was always going “down”, no matter the direction.
While in Jerusalem I presume Paul made every effort to see as many of the leaders of the “ekklesia” of Jesus in Jerusalem, and give them greetings from Silas, whom they would know. Can you imagine the bear hugs and the smiles? Of course, Paul would be most excited to tell the stories of what the Holy Spirit of God had done in places like Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus.
We should assume most of those, to whom Paul would have reported, had only heard of these places, never actually seen them, for they were hundreds of miles away and deep in Gentile territory! I imagine many meetings, late into the night, of wonderful reports and questions answered, and of course I imagine they celebrated the Lord’s Supper together, and had some wonderful prayer together, before they bid farewell to Paul. As much as Paul loved Jerusalem, he was passionate to arrive back in Antioch, Syria, his ultimate destination, and the city from which he and Silas had begun this remarkable second missionary journey, nearly 3 years before!
So, friends, as you and I gather this weekend for our worship services, wherever we are in the world, will you gather with the same excitement Paul experienced in Jerusalem, as Jewish Christians came together to celebrate what the Holy Spirit of God was doing in Jerusalem, but especially what God was doing in faraway places in the Roman empire!
Will you have some wonderful stories to share about how the Holy Spirit is nurturing YOUR love for God, growing your appetite for and understanding of God’s Word? Will you have stories to share of how you’ve seen the Spirit of Jesus working in your life and you have reached out to serve the people where you live?
Have you heard reports from friends far away of exciting things God is doing in their lives, their churches, their cities? You see my friends, our weekend gatherings for worship, no matter where you live, should be filled with celebration, for our great God is very busy accomplishing HIS purposes all around the world through His people.
So, let’s take a moment right now to pause, reflect on what God is doing in your life and your city, and then praise Him, and get ready to share it with others this weekend! And here’s a song to help us with this celebration…
Today’s Scripture is Acts 18:22.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.