Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Probably all of us have taken extended road trips, right? Are you a planning traveler or a spontaneous traveler? Maybe here’s a more important question: how does your family react to your traveling style, enjoyment or tension and anxiety?
Over the past few days, we’ve been traveling with the apostle Paul, Silas, Timothy and Dr. Luke on what we can call Paul’s SECOND missionary journey. This journey began in Syrian Antioch with only Paul and Silas. Their initial objective was revisiting the places Paul and Barnabas had first visited perhaps 5 years earlier.
Those places included Derbe and then Lystra, where young Timothy joined them. (Acts 16:1-5) Then on to Iconium and Pisidian Antioch. But Paul was not satisfied with only familiar places, and you’ll recall that as Paul tried to push further west the record of this trip indicates “the Spirit of the Lord Jesus would not allow them to.” (Acts 16:6,7) Yes, it’s true! The Holy Spirit of God was leading Paul very carefully by both motivating him to keep traveling, but then blocking his path and diverting him, eventually to Troas, a coastal city which Paul had evidently not planned to visit!? Now why would God do that and has God ever confused you as you’ve traveled along your life journey?
Well, there in Troas, a Greek physician named Dr. Luke, joined Paul’s party and he’s the man who actually authored the Bible book of Acts, as led by the Holy Spirit! In the past few days, we’ve been with Paul and his team in Philippi, Macedonia and today let’s join the journey as they leave Philippi heading south along the coast of the Aegean Sea. They passed through two towns, Amphipolis and Apollonia, with apparently nothing of significance for Dr. Luke to report. Then they came to the great city of Thessalonica. Yes, a city by a very similar name “Thessaloniki” is very near that same place today, and it’s a fascinating stop for travelers and tourists in 2026. At that time, in the first century, Thessalonica was a wealthy and influential coastal city, with many well educated and very successful people.
Thessalonica was a city with a sizable Jewish population and therefore a Synagogue, and as was his custom, Paul went directly there and was ready on the Sabbath to be invited to speak, as he had in other synagogues along the way. In fact, Luke’s record of the days spent in Thessalonica tells us: “On three Sabbath days Paul reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. ‘This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,’ Paul said.” (Acts 17:1-3) For the first time in a long time Paul’s words were well received by many people in Thessalonica, both Jews and God-fearing Greek Gentiles, at least in the first three weeks of their time in this great city.
But then again, as had happened so often in previous cities, and maybe even happens in YOUR city, no matter where you live in the world, opposition rose up against Paul and his message about Jesus. Why? Well in this case Luke explains it this way: “Some Jews were jealous; so, they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in Thessalonica!” (Acts 17:5) Oh my! Do you see the catalyst of this riot?
Jealousy!! Is jealousy or envy a problem in your city? Does healthy capitalistic, free-market competition sometimes get out of control and some leaders, in some segments of your society, actually resort to foul play or illegal tactics to undermine the competition? In our day slander or outright lies on social media is one of the most obvious forms of jealousy turning ugly and violent.
Here in Thessalonica this riot was not simply about words, Luke explains in Acts 17:5-9 the mob turned violent, broke into the home where Paul and his team had been and hauled the homeowner Jason out before the city officials, demanding retaliation against Paul. It was an ugly display of injustice and out of control mob violence.
Things turned dangerous so quickly the followers of Jesus in Thessalonica ushered Paul and Silas OUT of town that night! (Acts 17:10) Oh my, we need to pause here to catch our breath and reflect. When you face problems, on the road trip of your life, who do you blame? For Paul and his team there was only one person to blame… Jesus! Jesus had called them and was guiding them on this trip by His Holy Spirit. So, whatever they experienced along the way, especially violent opposition, was permitted by Jesus and Jesus was watching it carefully but NOT preventing it!
Now what do you think about that my friend? Have you ever experienced frustration, opposition, painful problems while you were doing the best you could to follow Jesus and the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life journey? Let’s ponder that this weekend, for it’s found all through the Bible and in real life today. WHY does God allow that? Monday we’ll look at some answers.
For today, the ‘lessons learned’ notes will be very helpful to you as will a wonderful worship song, and let’s meet again right here with Paul and Silas on Monday!
Today’s Scripture: Acts 17:1-9.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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