Acts: The Expansion of the Church
Session 10
Estimated reading time: 26 minutes
Ministries in Action
In this chapter we will be looking at “Ministries in Action,” which puts us to the middle of the second missionary journey with Paul, Silas, and Timothy. We will begin in Acts, chapter 17, verse 1.
Acts 17:1 APNT
And they passed by the cities [of] Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Judeans.
If you take a look at the map from the previous chapter, (There is a beautiful color map on the website that you can print.) then you can follow along on the journey so you can see exactly where they are. The last time we left them, they were in Philippi. Now they are traveling on the Via Egnatia Road, which goes through Apollonia and Amphipolis. Then you can see where Thessalonica is right on the coastline.
Acts 17:2–9 APNT
And Paul, as he was accustomed, went in to them and [for] three Sabbaths, spoke with them from the scriptures,
explaining and demonstrating that Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead and [saying], “This Jesus is the Messiah whom I declare to you.” (Does this remind you of Peter’s first sermon?)
And some of them believed and followed Paul and Silas and many of the Greeks who feared God and also notable women, not a few, [followed Paul].
And the Judeans were jealous (Uh-oh, Judeans again.) and gathered to themselves evil men from the streets of the city (The King James says, “lewd men of the baser sort.” Whoever these men are, they do not sound very good.) and formed a large mob and disturbed the city and came and assaulted the house of Jason and wanted to take them from there and deliver them to the mob. (They were looking for Paul and Silas at the house of Jason because that is where they were staying.)
And when they did not find them there, they dragged away Jason and the brothers who were there and brought them to the rulers of the city, crying, “These are they who have disturbed the whole region and behold, they have come here also. (The news is getting around about Paul and Silas and what they are preaching.)
And this is Jason, their host, and all of these stand against the commandments of Caesar, saying, ‘There is another king, Jesus.’”
And the rulers of the city and all of the people were troubled after they had heard these [things].
And they took bail from Jason and also from the brothers and then released them.
Notice that throughout these verses, you see a repetition of the word “and.” That is why I read that whole passage because it does not stop saying “and” until verse 9. You read the whole story of them being in Thessalonica in nine verses.
We see these evil men stir up a crowd. Why? The reason the Judean people were so against Paul and Silas is because they were jealous. King James says they “were moved with envy.” If someone is moved with envy, then that leads people to do things that would otherwise be unacceptable.
We will take a look at this man, Jason. If you look in Romans 16, verse 21, a man called Jason is mentioned, and is very likely the same Jason as in Acts17, because that verse in Romans says:
Romans 16:21 APNT
Timothy, a worker with me, greets you, and Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my brothers.
We are going to meet Sosipater later. He is from Berea, and Lucius is probably from Antioch. In this verse in Romans, Jason is in Corinth later, during the third missionary journey. We know this because Romans was written from Corinth. Jason is a host for them in Thessalonica as we read back in Acts. King James says that he is called a “kinsman,” but the way I read it in Aramaic was “he is a brother.” Most likely he was a Jew by birth and could have been a kinsman. Most likely he was a just fellow countryman; and that is why Paul and Silas were staying with him.
Another important point to note; these nine verses took only about three or four weeks. At the most, it might have been eight weeks. In a relatively very short period of time, the Word began moving in Thessalonica. We read in 1 Thessalonians 1:8, it says the Word sounded out from there; throughout all Macedonia.
Thessalonica was a very key city. It had a population of about 200,000 people. It was the capital of that part of Macedonia and was also a residence of a Roman governor. It was definitely a very prominent place. The first believers were from the synagogues as a result of Paul preaching in the synagogues, but then a multitude of Gentiles started believing. That is why Paul writes I Thessalonians later, chapter 1, verse 9b, “…how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;” (KJV) We see that the majority of people who believed in Thessalonica were not Jews. They were Gentiles before.
Now we can take a look at I Thessalonians, because we learn a lot more about took place happened in Thessalonica from the first letter that was written to them.
1 Thessalonians 2:1–4 APNT
And you know, my brothers, that our entrance to you was not fruitless,
but first we suffered and were dishonored in Philippi, (Remember they were beaten in Philippi, but God rescued them through the powerful earthquake.) as you know, and then with a great struggle, with the boldness of our God we spoke to you the gospel of Christ.
For our exhortation was not from deception, nor from uncleanness, nor with treachery.
But as we were approved of God to be entrusted with his gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but [to please] God, who searches our hearts.
Paul, Silas, and Timothy spoke in Thessalonica with great boldness. That is also why the Word moved so swiftly there. Now look at verse 9.
1 Thessalonians 2:9–10 APNT
For you recall, our brothers, that we were laboring and toiling by the work of our hands, by night and by day, so that we would not burden one of you.
You and God are witnesses how we preached to you the gospel of God, purely and uprightly, and we were without blame to all the believers.
Here it describes how Paul worked for a living while he was in Thessalonica, and he also did receive some of abundant sharing. We will look back at Philippians, chapter 4 and see that the Philippians had become a great example of giving, because they sent donations to Paul and Silas from Philippi while they were in Thessalonica. Verse 15 of chapter 4 of Philippians says:
Philippians 4:15–16 APNT
Now you know also, Philippians, that in the beginning of the gospel when I left Macedonia, (This is describing where exactly he is right now.), not even one of the churches shared with me in the accounting of receiving and giving, but you only, so that even at Thessalonica, once and again, you sent to me for my use.”
The Philippians were so blessed with the things Paul had shared with them while he was in Philippi, when they went into Thessalonica, the Philippians send gifts to Paul while he was there, at least two times. As I said previously, they were not in Thessalonica very long. It was extremely generous of the Philippians to make two gifts at this time towards the work of the ministry. Yet Paul said, ‘I did not want to be a burden to you, so we were working as well.’ We are going to see later what he was working on; but that is pretty much the story of Thessalonica.
We will now go back to Acts, chapter 17. The next place they go to is Berea. If you refer to the map again, you can see that Berea is a little bit farther inland. Berea is not a very prominent town at all. However, we are going to learn something very interesting about the Bereans.
Acts 17:10–11 APNT
Now the brothers immediately in the night sent Paul and Silas to the city [of] Berea. And when they had come there, they entered the synagogue of the Judeans. (They are once again going into the synagogue.)
For those Judeans who were there were nobler than those Judeans in Thessalonica. And they gladly heard the word from them every day, discerning from the scriptures whether these [things] were so.
These Judeans, who were in Berea, were quite a bit different than the Thessalonica Judeans.
The Thessalonica Judeans were immediately offended, moved with envy, and wanted to cause a mob riot. On the other hand, the Judeans who were in Berea were searching the Old Testament scriptures to see for themselves. “Where does it say that in the Old Testament? How can I learn more about that?” They were doing this every day, not just on the Sabbath, but every day they wanted to study the Scriptures to see whether those things were so.
Acts 17:12 APNT
And many of them believed and likewise also from the Greeks, many men and notable women [believed].
This wonderful thing took place in Berea, where the people’s hearts were so much more open to hear the Word, and the Word is what really opened their hearts to believe in Jesus Christ. Now we need to read verse 13 to see what happens next in Berea.
Acts 17:13–14 APNT
And when those Judeans who were from Thessalonica knew that the word of God was preached by Paul in the city [of] Berea, they came there also and did not cease to stir up and to trouble the people.
And the brothers sent Paul away to go down to the sea and Silas and Timothy remained in that city.
Up until this point, we begin to see that Paul, Silas, and Timothy all stayed together through everything. Timothy was not imprisoned along with Paul and Silas while they were in Philippi. This is going to become important later. I also want to remind you that Luke had been with them on their journey from Troas, but then he had stayed in Philippi. So now we are going to see them moving out from being a threesome, who were always together. We now begin to see where each one of them begin to come more into the fruition of their own ministries. The first thing that happened is Silas and Timothy stay in Berea as we saw in verse 14.
Other believers, one of them is named Sosipater from Berea, accompany Paul to Athens, which is a long journey by boat. You can see on the map the journey takes them from Berea goes all the way down the coastline and around the corner where Achaia is, to Athens. Paul traveled to Athens with some of the brothers, the new believers, who were from Berea. However, Timothy and Silas stayed there in Berea. When Paul arrived in Athens, as we learn from 1 Thessalonians chapter 2; he sent the person who accompanied him back to Berea with a message. The message Paul gives them is to please send Silas and Timothy to him. However, he changes his mind immediately and said that Timothy should go back to Thessalonica instead. Silas should stay in Berea and Timothy should go to Thessalonica.
1 Thessalonians 2:17–20 APNT
But we, our brothers, (That is “we,” Paul, Silas, and Timothy) have been orphans away from you for a short time, in our presence, yet not in our heart. And we have been especially concerned to see your faces with great love.
And we wanted to come to you (Then Paul says…) (I, Paul, once and again, yet Satan hindered me).
For what is our hope and our joy and the crown of our glory, except you, before our Lord Jesus at his coming?
For you are our praise and our joy.
Paul had truly desired to go back to Thessalonica. However, because the Judeans were so opposed to him and the whole multitude had been agitated, he and Silas were really prevented from going there. This is what happens next.
1 Thessalonians 3:1–3 APNT
And because we could not hold out against [knowing], we were willing to remain in Athens alone
and to send to you Timothy, our brother and a minister of God and our helper in the gospel of Christ, so that he would strengthen you and would inquire of you concerning your faith,
so that none of you should be disheartened by these trials, for you know that we are appointed to this.
Paul sends back a message to Silas and Timothy in Berea and says, “Please ask Timothy to go back to Thessalonica to find out how everybody is doing.” Paul then goes to Athens. There are some really interesting things that take place in Athens. We will go back to Acts chapter 17 to take a brief look at the events in Athens. We will not read the entire account of what takes place there.
I would like to stop a moment to point out, during this time in history, there were no cell phones, there were no airplanes. To travel anywhere, they needed to walk or take a boat. In addition, any kind of communication was very difficult. For them to get messages back and forth to each other, God had to keep working for the absolutely perfect timing. There were believers who took him to Athens. Then those believers would have to go back. It could take an entire week before they would catch up to Silas and Timothy. How did they know where they were in the city? They could not simply call him on his cell phone and say, “Hi where are you? I’m going meet you over at the 7-eleven.” They could not do that. The communication was very challenging. Yet God was doing wonderful things to open up doors, in spite of not having the communication capabilities we have today. Imagine what we can do today with the communication technology we have available to us today! We have email, we have phones. We can board a plane and be somewhere within eight hours, practically clear across the world! Think about this. I am simply trying to show you what is possible today, with all the technology wed have available to us.
Acts 17:16–18 APNT
Now Paul, while waiting in Athens, was grieved in his spirit, when he saw that the whole city was full of idols.
And he spoke in the synagogue with the Judeans and with those who feared God and in the marketplace with those who were present every day.
And also philosophers, who were from the teaching of Epicurus and others who were called Stoics, were debating with him. And every one of them were saying, “What does this babbler want?” And others were saying, “He preaches strange gods,” because he was preaching Jesus and his resurrection to them.
The Epicureans and the Stoics also remind me of our culture. Basically the Epicureans believed: “A wise man will make the most of all the means of enjoyment at his disposal.” A wise man will make the most of everything that one could enjoy. Our culture has that same mentality about leisure; if you have leisure, you are going to go party and live it up to the fullest, go with whatever that is really important to people in that moment. Then, there are the Stoics. They were the ones who were self-righteous and prideful of their own intellect and self-reliance. Basically their motto was “hard work will get you through.” Individualism in our culture, the commercialism, is very much like that. People today are working 80-hour weeks to acquire as much as they possibly can.
Paul, when he is talking to them, appeals to them and the things they would understand. He talk to them about the “unknown” God. I suggest, at some point, you read the whole story of how he stands before these men on Areopagus on Mars Hill. Basically, he was there because they had questioned whether he would be allowed to continue to lecture in the city. He was considered a traveling lecturer and they always wanted to hear “some new thing.” They were not necessarily opposed to hearing what Paul had to say. They brought him before the prominent men in the city and those men would decide whether or not he could preach there. They decided he should not be allowed to preach there. We will fast forward to the conclusion of it is in verse 32, at this point, it is talking about the men on the Council of Areopagus.
Acts 17:32–34 APNT
And when they heard of the resurrection that is from the dead, some of them mocked, and some of them said, “At another time we will hear you about this.”
And so Paul went away from among them. (It appears as if all the men on the council at Mars Hill either mocked him or said, “We will have to hear you again.” However…)
And some of them followed after him and believed (Some of them removed themselves from this council saying, “We are not going to follow what they said; we are going to follow Paul and learn more.”) and one of them was Dionysius of the judges of Areopagus and a certain woman whose name was Damaris and others with them.
Ultimately there were people in Athens who believed although Paul did not stay there very long, and he was not allowed to preach there. Now we go on to Corinth. Corinth is another very interesting place, which we will learn more about in the next chapter.
Acts 18:1–2 APNT
And after Paul went away from Athens, he came to Corinth.
And he found there a certain Judean man whose name was Aquila, who was from the region [of] Pontus, (You can check your map to locate Pontus. It is in the northern section, in purple, near the Black Sea, where you see Bithynia and Pontus at the top of the map.) who in that time had come from the region of Italy, he and Priscilla his wife, because Claudius Caesar had commanded all the Judeans to leave Rome. And he approached them.
Aquila was originally from Pontus but had traveled to Rome. While living in Rome, he was working in his business. However when Claudius Caesar expelled all of the Jews from Rome, Aquila went to Corinth.
Acts 18:3 APNT
and because he was their fellow craftsman, (Aquila and Paul had the same craft or trade.) he lodged with them and was working with them. And by their craft, they were makers of tent cloth.
Now we need to learn a little bit about “they were makers of tent cloth”, because King James states they were “tent makers.” Some people have also taught they were saddle makers because only women made tents. They, in fact, made the tent cloth. It was a coarse cloth made from a species kind of goat hair which was prominent in Cilicia. This is where Paul had grown up in Tarsus as a child. It is probably where the name Cilicia came from, because the goat hair was called “Cilicium.” Making cloth by weaving together this specific type of goat hair was a well-known trade in this area. This cloth was not only used to make tents, but it was also used to make ornamental hangings and many other kinds of things. It was not just about making tents but they were making the tent cloth from which tents were normally made. Both Aquila and Paul had grown up knowing this trade. As a result, when he came to Corinth, Paul began searching for work and ultimately found Aquila. Aquila and his wife Priscilla had them lodge with them in their home. Isn’t that wonderful?
Acts 18:4–6 APNT
And he spoke in the synagogue on every Sabbath and persuaded the Judeans and heathens.
And after Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, (They came from Macedonia. Timothy had gone to Thessalonica. Silas had stayed in Berea. They reunited and traveled to join Paul in Corinth.) Paul was pressured in the Word because the Judeans were opposing him and blaspheming while he was witnessing to them that Jesus was the Messiah.
And he shook his garments and said to them, “From now on, I am clean. I am going to the Gentiles.”
At this point, Paul was completely frustrated dealing with the Judeans! They were continuing to persecute him here like they had in Philippi, and in Thessalonica and in Berea. It was not Judeans who were persecuting him in Athens, it was the Greeks who persecuted him there. Then he arrives in Corinth. You could imagine that they would be thinking; “We know there is a lot of fruit here, but are we going to go through this every single time we arrive in a new city? NO!”
Acts 18:7–8 APNT
And he went away from there and entered the house of a man whose name [was] Titus, (King James it says his name was Justus.) who feared God. And his house was attached to the synagogue.
And Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in our Lord, he and all his household. And many Corinthians heard and believed in God and were baptized.
We will go back to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 3. Here we see Paul is comforted by Timothy and Silas coming back.
1 Thessalonians 3:6–8 APNT
But now, from when Timothy came to us from among you and told us about your faith and about your love and that you have a good memory of us continually and [that] you are longing to see us, as also we [long to see] you,
because of this, we were comforted by you, our brothers, concerning all our adversities and our trials, because of your faith.
And now we live, if you stand fast in our Lord.
When Silas and Timothy came to meet Paul in Corinth, they brought news that the Thessalonians were standing really strong, and they loved Paul and Silas. They also relayed that they were continually praying for them and thinking of them, and wanted only the best for them. Their hearts were greatly comforted by this news.
When we read all these names in Acts 18, we see there are some new names. We have this man whose name is Justus Titus or Titus Justus. He is mentioned in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, and so is a man named Crispus and Stephanas. These men are the first fruit of the believers in Achaia. (Corinth is in Achaia or Greece.) Paul calls them the first fruit that had believed.
1 Corinthians 1:14–16 APNT
I thank God that I did not baptize any of you, except Crispus and Gaius, (Crispus was the ruler of the synagogue who had believed.)
so that no one would say that I baptized in my name.
Now I also baptized the household of Stephanas. But besides [them], I do not know if I baptized anyone else.
Now we can look at 1 Corinthians 16 and find out a little bit more about this.
1 Corinthians 16:15 APNT
Now I beg you, my brothers, concerning the house of Stephanas, because you know that they are the first[fruit] of Achaia and have committed themselves to the service of the holy [ones],
Some people think Stephanus is the same person as Justus. However, I am fairly certain that they are two different people. Justus is the man who opened up his home as a meeting place for the believers to enable them to meet next to the synagogue. Crispus was the ruler of the synagogue who believed, then began to meet with the believers next door, at the house of Justus. Finally, one of the first people to believe is a man named Stephanus, along with his entire family. There is one other person we need to look at who is called the first fruit of Achaia. His name is Epaenetus, as we see in Romans 16.
Romans 16:5 APNT
And greet the church that is in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first[fruit] of Achaia in Christ.
I want to look at these names because the more we know and read about them, the more real they become to us. The more we know about them, then we can come to understand details of their lives. For instance, Stephanus was one of the first believers in Corinth. Later we will read about Stephanus traveling with Paul, helping him and working together with him. You can see everywhere Paul went, he was raising up men and women who did not follow him, but they would follow Christ; and would go where Christ would lead them. The most wonderful thing is they all started working together. Some stayed here, some went there. Some of them, who were originally born again in Corinth, started following Paul to other places. They went back with Paul when he returned to Corinth after the third missionary journey. At that point there were even more people in Corinth, who we will meet later. They continued to truly sound out the Word from wherever they were.
Acts 18:9–11 APNT
And the LORD said to Paul in a vision, “Do not fear, but speak and do not keep silent,
because I am with you, and no man is able to harm you, and I have many people in this city.”
And he stayed in Corinth [for] one year and six months and taught them the word of God.
You can see how God was comforting Paul all the way along after all these trials. When they finally get to Corinth, a judgment is made. You can read the story of Gallio in
Acts 18: 12-17. Basically, Gallio makes a judgment forbidding the Judeans to harass Paul. During this year and a half, Gallio was the proconsul in Corinth. Because he was the ruler at that time, he made the judgment giving Paul and the believers free reign to preach the Word. The entire time Paul was in Corinth, he had complete freedom to preach the Word of God.
You can see God working. Although the circumstances were different, they were not attempting to reason, perhaps they should go to Athens. Perhaps since there was nothing happening in Athens, then perhaps they should go back and take care of the believers in Thessalonica. Do you see how they are truly walking by the Spirit again? The movement of the Word was not haphazard. It was also based on the principle that when circumstances change, then the revelation changes. It was probably God’s revelation for Paul to go to Athens. I am certain it was, otherwise, he would never have gone there. The fact that nothing happened there was simply another step. From there, they went to Corinth, and it was in Corinth the Word really began moving like wildfire. While in Corinth, Paul wrote
1 Thessalonians right after Timothy and Silas return. Later he is brought a message letting him know that there was some confusion about “the day of the Lord” and some of the things he wrote about in the first letter. To answer those questions, he wrote the second letter to Thessalonians from Corinth. This happens around 52 AD.
I exhort you to read Thessalonians, because now it will make sense why certain things are in Thessalonians. You can understand why he talks about the hope; why he talks about turning from idols. You can see why he talks about when they believe the Word it effectually worked in them. He exhorts them to pray for him. Throughout the entire epistle to the Thessalonians these themes are found.
Now we get to the end of Acts 18 when Paul, after he stays a year and a half in Corinth, travels with Priscilla and Aquila across the Aegean Sea to Ephesus. He stays a very short time in Ephesus and left Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus, where they continue working in their trade. Paul tells them that he will be back and he travels on to Caesarea. Remember, Philip is in Caesarea. He then goes to Jerusalem, then back up to Antioch for a short period of time. Most likely Timothy remains with him during the remainder of the second missionary journey. But what happened to Silas? At this point you might think there are no other records regarding Silas; but there is. I will tell you a little bit about Silas. This, to me, is a summary of how men’s ministries rose up and how they were working together. As they were working together, they helped each other. They worked side by side. Then there were times where God sent them out on their own.
We first meet Silas when he was a messenger from the church in Jerusalem after the Jerusalem Council. He brought the letters up to Antioch. In Acts 15 it states:
Acts 15:22:
NASB95:
Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas—Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren.
APNT:
Then the apostles and elders, with all the church, chose men from them and sent [them] to Antioch, with Paul and Barnabas, Judas who was called Barsabas, and Silas, men who were chiefs among the brothers.
KJV:
Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren:
We see from this; Silas was a leading believer in Jerusalem from the beginning. He then went to Antioch and in Acts 15, verse 32, he is called a prophet.
Acts 15:32 APNT
And with an abundance of the word Judas and Silas strengthened the brothers and established those of the household, because they also were prophets.
Silas encouraged the believers. Barnabas and Paul have a falling out, so Paul chooses Silas to go with them on the journey. He traveled to Troas where he met Luke. He then traveled to Philippi where he is thrown in jail and beaten to within an inch of his life. He, along with Paul experience this marvelous earthquake and becomes part of the Philippian jailer and his household being born again. Do you see how these experiences are rising in his heart?
“These are wonderful things I have the privilege to have a part of.” Silas one of the first people to see the Word move into Europe. He went to Thessalonica and witnesses those things that happen to them because of the Jews. He remained in Berea to comfort and encourage the believers in Berea.
Then we find him in Corinth. How is that possible? There does not seem to be any mention of “Silas” in Corinthians. Here is the key. The man named “Silas” is short for “Silvanus.” He is mentioned two other times, one of them is in 2 Corinthians 1:19. This is the second letter that was written from Ephesus on the third missionary journey. Paul spent most of the time in Ephesus, and he wrote back to the Corinthians, and he mentioned Sylvanus preaching in Corinth during the third missionary journey. Another place Silvanus is mentioned is in
1 Peter 5:12, where he assisted Peter in writing of his first epistle. Silvanus also carried it from Rome to the believers, the scattered ones. Eventually he stayed in Corinth for a period of time, then he went back to Jerusalem and met Peter. Later on we see him finishing his service for God working with Peter. Silas was, from the very beginning and remained, held in great honor by the Corinthian Church, because that is where his ministry came into fruition. That is where he really saw that the purpose his life and heart were to be for God, and his life was dedicated to God.
I just want to end and read what it says about him in 2nd Corinthians 1, starting in verse 18.
2 Corinthians 1:18–24 APNT
God is faithful, so that our word to you was not yes and no.
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached to you by way of us, by me and by Silvanus (There is Silas.) and by Timothy, was not yes and no, but was yes in him.
For all the promises of God in him, in Christ, are yes. Because of this by way of him, we give an “Amen” to the glory of God.
Now God establishes us with you in Christ, who anointed us (He is talking about himself, Silas, and Timothy.)
and has sealed us and has placed the downpayment of his Spirit in our hearts. (Everyone who believes in Christ is also sealed.)
And I give testimony before God concerning myself that I did not come to Corinth in order to spare you,
not because we are lords of your faith, but we are helpers of your joy, for you stand by faith.
That is what Silas learned in Corinth and spent the rest of his life doing. He was a helper of their joy and everywhere else he went. Even though there is not much more mentioned about what he did; we know he stood faithful and continued to preach just like this: “yea and amen!”
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