SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/3/2018 8:23 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Courage”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
17:1-2a, 10
Message of the verses: “1 Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, … 10 And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.”
It takes courage to be able to influence the world for
Christ, and I suppose that living in the United States of America at any point
since its founding it has not taken as much courage as it does in today’s
world, for the gospel is being attacked and the people who are attacking it
think that they are doing something good, but the truth is that Satan is the
one behind it as he has always been the one behind attacking the gospel
message. Paul told Timothy in 1Timothy
1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but a spirit of power and
love and a sound mind (Phillips).” Paul,
through his Christian life is the example that believers need to follow as he
was probably the most courageous person ever to spread the gospel, and he lived
in a time when the church began and so God used this wonderful courageous man
to spread the gospel as we are seeing in our study of the book of Acts. I want to look at what Paul said to the
elders of the church at Ephesus from Acts 20:22-24 as Paul talks to them about
how the prospect of trials and persecution did not deter him from carrying out
his ministry:
“22 "And now, behold, bound in spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. 24 "But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.”
We are beginning to look at the incidents that happened
to Paul and his team as they traveled from Philippi to Thessalonica and then to
Berea, and as we look at them they will show us Paul’s remarkable courage.
Paul’s team was made up of Paul, Timothy, and Silas as
Luke did not accompany them to Thessalonica.
We can tell this because Luke does not use the pronoun “we,” which he
will use when he is along with Paul and his other team members. We remember that it was because Paul healed a
demon-possessed girl that the results of that was he and Silas were beaten and
put into prison and then asked to leave town.
Leaving Philippi, these missionaries traveled southwest
along the important Roman highway which was known as the Egnatian Way. The text tells us that they went “through
Amphipolis and Apollonia,” and they finally got “to Thessalonica.” I have to say that one of our missionary
friends who at this time was living in Cambodia had to make a trip to Greece to
take some courses in order to keep up with being a doctor in the United
States. I know that this sounds kind of
complicated, but that is what happened.
She ended up in Thessalonica as this was and still is an important city
because of its location. I emailed her
about her trip as I wanted to know more about being in Thessalonica. She truly enjoyed her time there.
John MacArthur writes “Amphipolis was about thirty miles
from Philippi, Apollonia about thirty miles from Amphipolis, and Thessalonica
just under forty miles from Apollonia.
The narrative implies that they made the journey from Philippi to
Thessalonica in three days, stopping for the night at Amphipolis and again at
Apollonia. If so, they covered about
thirty miles a day, leading some commentators to speculate that they traveled
on horses (perhaps supplied through the generosity of the Philippian
church). It is difficult to imagine that
Paul and Silas weakened by their beating at Philippi could have walked nearly one
hundred miles in three days.”
Now if it is true that Paul and his missionary team were
riding on horses then it would be hard to believe that they would have had time
to stop and preach at either of the other cities mentioned in this text. We read in the text that Luke records that
there was a synagogue in the city of Thessalonica, and this could imply that
there wasn’t one in the other two cities.
We will conclude this SD with John MacArthur’s short
description of Thessalonica.
“Thessalonica was the
capital and most important city of Macedonia, having an estimated population of
200,000. It had been founded by either
Philip of Macedon (the father of Alexander the Great) or, more likely, by one
of his generals, Cassander, and named after Alexander the Great’s
stepsister. In Paul’s day, Thessalonica
was a major port and an important commercial center. Known today as Thessaloniki, it is still a
significant city in Greece.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It does take
courage to speak to someone about the gospel, as I know that I can have a
number of fears, and yet it is something that needs to be done.
My Steps of Faith for Today: That God would give my wife and I wisdom on
how we can minister to our neighbor who has cancer and from what we hear does
not have long to live. Her husband came
to a Bible study we had at our house a number of years ago, but she would not
come.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Servants of corruption” (2
Peter 2:19).
Today’s Bible
question: “In which parable did the
father put the best robe on his son, put a ring on his finger, shoes on his
feet, and gave him a banquet?”
Answer in our next SD. 5/3/2018 9:19 AM
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