17 When Paul and his companions had passed through
Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a
Jewish synagogue.
Thessalonica was previously named Therma because there were
some warm springs there. It had been
renamed for Alexander the Great’s sister.
It is located on a major Roman road named Via Egnatia. Thessalonica is also a port city as several
rivers flow by it to the sea.
2 As
was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three
Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,3 explaining
and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the
dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said.4 Some
of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large
number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.
Paul is there about a month.
He preaches the gospel and as all new testament sermons have been, he
preaches the Resurrection of Jesus. All
of the messages proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God, He died for sins, and He
was resurrected. They discuss the
resurrection in every message, this is more than we do today.
Some of the Jews, a larger number of Greeks (Gentiles), and
a lot of prominent women believe. Paul
is an effective preacher and teacher.
5 But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad
characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the
city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in
order to bring them out to the crowd. 6 But when
they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other
believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused
trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and
Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees,
saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8 When
they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into
turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others
post bond and let them go.
The Jewish leaders get jealous. This is a common theme at many different
Jewish churches. They get jealous when a
fellow Jew who is knowledgeable and a good speaker and convincing overwhelms
their people and their customs. Then
they seek people outside of the Jewish community to help them run them out of
town using the pagan laws to do it. They
sought Jesus and brought Him before Pilate because He claimed He was a king and
Caesar was king, so they argued to the Romans that the Romans should do
something about that. This is the same
argument from Jews in Thessalonica. They
are using Roman laws to get what they want and they are willing to cause an uproar
in the community over it knowing the Romans will want to settle them down and
get back to peace.
Sounds very familiar to today’s societal efforts. Those who disagree with the religious views
of Christians work diligently to cause an uproar and use laws or have laws interpreted to make the
Christians do what they want them to do and not what they are convicted to not do.
There is no respect for the religious conviction of a Christian to those
who do not believe, only direct opposition.
Christians have become the least free people in America, the supposedly
land of the free built by immigrants who were trying to escape their home lands
for religious freedom. Christians are actively
being policed in speech, action, and business.
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