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his hearers that `Jesus was the Christ', and that He had indeed died and risen again -a fact of which he reminds
the Thessalonians when writing to them in his first epistle:
`For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again' (1 Thess. 4:14).
We have only two sources of information regarding the subject-matter of the apostle's ministry: the record of the
Acts where the churches are first founded, and the subsequent epistles where they are given added teaching. We
should therefore read 1 and 2 Thessalonians while we have this chapter in the Acts before us, so that we may be able
to compare the apostle's line of teaching in the Acts with that in the epistles.
That the apostle followed much the same method elsewhere is evident from 1 Corinthians 15:
`That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the
third day according to the Scriptures' (1 Cor. 15:3,4).
`Whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed' (1 Cor. 15:11).
The Thessalonian epistles throw considerable light upon the way in which the apostle spent his time at
Thessalonica. In 1 Thessalonians 2 we read:
`Ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be
chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God' (1 Thess. 2:9).
From the apostle's remarks in Philippians it would appear that, but for the gracious and repeated contributions
made by that assembly, his evangelistic work in Macedonia would have been rendered almost impossible (Phil. 1:5;
4:15). Judged by modern standards it strikes one as extraordinary, that within the limits of Acts 16:40 and 17:1-14,
there could be formed a company of believers so fully grown in grace as not only to have made their own witness
secure, but also to have followed the apostle with gifts to enable the work in Macedonia to go forward.
To add to the apostle's burden at Thessalonica, we find that at the time of his visit a famine was raging, and
Lewin in his Fasti Sacri No. 1735 says that a modus or peck of wheat was sold for six times its usual price.
The result of this devoted ministry at Thessalonica was that `some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and
Silas'. The word `consorted' is proskleroo, pros meaning `towards', and the remainder of the word, `to take by lot'.
They `threw in their lot' with the apostle and his companions, and so formed the nucleus of the church. We are not
told their names here, but we learn that there were a multitude of `devout Greeks' (the word `devout' indicating that
they were already proselytes) and `not a few of the chief women'. The inclusion of the women here and again at
Berea (verse 12) is an interesting feature.
The `open door' at Thessalonica was not, however, long free from `adversaries'. Beginning at verse 5, we read:
`The Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and
gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them
out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the
city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; whom Jason hath received: and
these all do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. And they troubled the
people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things. And when they had taken security of Jason, and
of the other, they let them go' (Acts 17:5-9).
Several points of importance must be considered before we leave Thessalonica for Berea. In the first place we
note that the charge made against the apostle was very similar to that which swayed Pilate, and led him to hand the
Saviour over to the enemy. To be convicted of having said: `There is another king, one Jesus' would entail very
severe punishment. The apostle had evidently emphasized the kingdom of the Lord at Thessalonica (1 Thess. 2:12;
2 Thess. 1:5), and had given a prominent place in his ministry to the hope of the Second Coming. This provided a
basis for his enemies upon which to found the false charge that he had preached another king in opposition to the
rights of Cæsar.
As the apostle could not be found by the mob, Jason, in whose house he had stayed, was dragged before the
`rulers of the city'. The word for `rulers' in Acts 17:6 and 8 is politarchs, a term not used before this chapter and