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Category: Acts for a 21st c. Church

Acts of the Apostles + a History of Christ’s Church

Acts of the Apostles 1-28

Acts of the Apostles:
+ The first century Church SHARED Christ while suffering severe persecution.
+ Luke records a historic account of the Church which gives 21c Christians a context to SHARE the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others.

Read more about the Early Church & add your COMMENT on Scripture.

ACT now.

+ SHARE the Gospel history witnessed in the CURRENT chronological SERIES from ACTS of the APOSTLES.

Three Weeks in Thessalonica- Acts 17
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
Acts of the Apostles 17:1 ESV
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Luke summarizes an 80-90 mile [~130 km] journey from Philippi by these apostles of Christ in a single verse.
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~ A.D. 50 – Philippi to Thessalonica (by land)
ACTS 17 of the apostles Paul and Silas
This Christ whom I Preach
Thessalonica
Time to move on from Thessalonica
~ A.D. 50 – Philippi to Thessalonica (by land)
- Silas and Paulos, who are Roman citizens, as these apostles of the Messiah have just reminded Roman magistrates in Philippi;
- with Timotheus, a Greek Jew and fellow follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Once again in the city of their second stop in Europe the context of culture comes into play.

Whereas Philippi (which they have just left after unjust imprisonment and a freeing sign from God) was a ROMAN city on Macedonian soil, Thessalonica is more Greek (in a sense) and has a Jewish place of worship.

ACTS 17 of the apostles Paul and Silas
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So as in Cypress on Paul's first missionary journey and in most of the large cities of both missions to Asia, Thessalonica has a synagogue where Jews may gather, exchange thoughts and worship God. 
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²And Paul went in, as was his custom..
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Again Paul, Silas and Timothy would have listened to the prescribed Scriptures of the day and then would have discussed their relevance to the Gospel of the Messiah Yeshua.

AND once again on the next Sabbath Saulos, Silas and Timotheus would have repeated this customary worship routine of the Sabbath at the synagogue in Thessalonica.
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No doubt many of the Thessalonians became convinced by these three apostles during these three weeks that Jesus IS risen from the grave and that many Jews have witnessed this Good News of His resurrection.

(And then, they might confidently add, we have witnessed the many such signs including those last month in Philippi.)

Signs of Release from the Bondage of Culture

And the men and women we baptized were Romans, including our jailer!

.. and on three Sabbath days he [Paul] reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead,

“This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
ACTS 17:3b

– Did Saulos of Tarsus PREACH IT IN HEBREW to the JEWS?

Did Paulos PROCLAIM IT from the Greek Septuagint?
- For that would be how Jewish Thessalonians knew their Scripture of the Old Testament better than you and I
- Faithful Jews took the Old Covenant of God’s written word to heart.
Were these Jews converted to their own Messiah by Paul’s reasoning with them perhaps daily for three weeks?

This Christ whom I Preach

.. he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
Acts 17:2b-3 ESV

⁴And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.
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When the gentile Physician Luke records in his second account that, 'many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women' joined Paul and Silas, he refers not to Jews but to local Hellenist gentiles of Thessalonica - local Greeks. 
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Saul of Tarsus, first a Jew, also a Roman, goes to the Jews first AND when they refuse to listen to reason from their own Scripture about the Messiah of Israel, Savior of sinners in all the world, these Apostles and disciples of Yeshua PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED in their own HOME Churches, the public squares and to any of the places a humble created people of any origin gather to seek our Lord and only Savior.

5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.
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Why would they attack 'the house of Jason' (who is first mentioned here)? 

Jason is a Jew who certainly also worshipped in the Thessalonian synagogue and who apparently hosted these three travelers as had Lydia hosted them in Philippi. Some commentators suggest that Jason may be related to Paul.

Like back in Philippi, or contemporarily like those crashing the doors of the US Capitol, this lynch mob (so to speak) wants to rule over the city and throw their opponents out of town.
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6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting,

“These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

Another King, Jesus

“KING Jesus in v. 7 is just an accusation

Worldly god claimants would use the same title for JESUS as Pontius Pilate when the GOVERNOR asks his accused prisonor:

Are you a king?

Paul, Silas, Timothy and Christian disciples of the Lord Jesus addressed the Risen Messiah as Christ or Lord!

In fact, “Caesar is lord” and “Jesus, king of the Jews“ (like Herod was) were ROMAN labels. Except here, as false accusations these are not in any way legitimate Jewish labels OR acknowledgement of a Roman emperor.

Caesar is Lord evoked emotional reaction to SOME Jews, but others compromised their faith to acknowledge that any MAN other than the LORD God Almighty could be THEIR Lord.

Thessalonica

Θεσσαλονίκη

Thessalonica founded in 315 BC by Cassander of Macedon, who named it after his wife Thessalonike, daughter of Philip II of Macedon and sister of Alexander the Great.

An important metropolis by the Roman period

source Wikipedia

The same claim that offends the Jews, JESUS IS LORD, also offends those who worship MANY gods out of our own selfish motives to worship only our SELF by choosing which gods to which we will bow down. INCLUDING:

ROMANS, who worship Caesar as a god and Greeks, who in addition to celebrating many gods worship their own philosophies of self-deduced knowledge.

SOON we will travel to Corinth where Paul will later write to the church:

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
~ A.D. 55 – from the first letter of Paul to the Church at Corinth – Corinthians 1:22-24 ESV

Time to move on from Thessalonica
- “These men have turned the world upside down
- Jason has received them
- they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar
- saying that there is another king, Jesus.”
8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.

9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea..

ACTS of the apostles Paul, Silas and Timothy — To Be Continued…
March 24, 2023
Signs of Release from the Bondage of Culture
The Bondage of Culture and Corruption
The Shaking of Earthquakes
σεισμός – seismos
Signs by the One God of Power!
Acts 16:
Sorry, my public judgment was a mistake
Returning to the Jailer
The Bondage of Culture and Corruption

.. that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

This is only reference to ‘bondage’ in the English Standard Bible — BONDAGE is not a very popular word of cultural correctness — and “bondage of culture” does NOT occur in any version of the Bible (though the NKJV mentions bondage more than two dozen times).

The Shaking of Earthquakes

IF you will examine the events of ACTS of the Apostles carefully as has Luke, then you will see what some would call ‘natural events,’ such as the Philippi earthquake in Acts 16 by which Paul and Silas had the bondage of their shakles released, as one of many signs of power over nature, the idolatrous ‘mother‘ of many proclaiming the bondage of culture.

The Keeper of the Philippian Prison

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.

And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. – ACTS 16:25-26 ESV

Wooden bonds shackled to their feet – a chain bondage to a stone floor or base of the wall of their deep prison cell. THEN AN EARTHQUAKE!

Just then? (What a coincidence of ‘mother nature.’)

Just when the witness of Paul and Silas heard by the prisoners had been singing to God?

σεισμός – seismos

Even the idolaters of the bondage of culture know this, yet minimize God’s power.

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes G4578.

Signs by the One God of Power!

and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.
Gospel of Luke 21:11 LSB –

“But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake.
Gospel of Luke 21:12

Isn’t this what has just happened to the apostles Paul and Silas in a Philippian prison?

Acts 16:
- .. a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling.
- Paul .. said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
A spiritual bondage to the darkness of evil forbidden by Almighty God. And a bondage of culture to profit from knowledge unavailable to others.
- ..her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.
- The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison
These magistrates were Roman leaders. The slave girl’s owners may also have been Roman OR these evil masters of the girl may have been Hellenist (Greek) men of Philippi clinging to the bondage of culture, not only theirs but that of their Roman overseers.

If you missed it previously READ more about the Culture of Philippi

The slave girl of spiritual bondage AND the local bondage of culture of her Philippian owners had proclaimed prophetically:

“These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”

Yet the local Philippian owners of this girl bound to sin and under the bondage of culture – the slavery of differences:

“These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. ²¹They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.”

Is it customary for culture to beat its prisoners without a trial?

Yes, if the loudest of crowds can rule over their rulers with impunity.

It is our own bondage of culture which refuses the Savior Jesus Christ who sent his apostles and Gospel into all the world to free sinners from death.

Sorry, my public judgment was a mistake

So just go quitely away from our culture of bondage (to what we insist on doing).

35 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.”

(We are moving down the cultural commanding chain of command here.)

36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.”

But Paul said to them,

“They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly?

No! Let them come themselves and take us out.”
Acts of the apostle Paul 16:37, sending out his reply to Philippian Roman magistrates through their jailer

The Legacy Standard Version [below] may be more helpful in understanding the cultural connection of this injustice.

But Paul said to them, “Having beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, they have thrown us into prison. And now are they sending us away secretly?

No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.”

Paul now draws a line in the sand by his refusal to go away quietly.

He challenges a Roman bondage of culture claiming public justice of their Pax Romana.

(Working back up the Roman chain of command ruling Philippi.)

38 The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens.

³⁹So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city.

The political leaders of this leading Roman city have publically punished men for crimes and having served an overnight sentence in the stocks they ordered their punished prisoners to go away and don’t come back.

But Paul’s witness of righteousness in Christ demands that these apostles remain in town after this public incident.

⁴⁰So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia.

Paul and Silas then visit Lydia and their NEW church in the place where Christ’s apostles were first sent and welcomed — Philippi at the eastern edge of Europe and in the very heart of the Roman Mediterranean Empire.

What’s just happened?

FAITH of two apostles singing at midnight in a prison in Philippi and THEN an earthquake!

They might have been killed in a collapsing cell in the lowest part of this jail!

BUT it’s more than just a shaking of the ground — this pivotal sign from the All-powerful God of heaven to whom Paul and Silas had prayed and praised. The prison doors are also opened yet no prison trys to escape. They wait in the darkness for the light of the hope of Paul and Silas.

Returning to the Jailer

²⁷When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped..

..the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself..

“Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”

²⁹And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said,

“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” ³¹And they said,

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Acts of the Apostles 16:31b – Paul’s reply to his jailer in Philippi who asked, “What must I do to be saved?”

And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.

³⁴Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
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We have already examined the cultural bondage of the public court and its magistrates, who later attenpted to apologize and send them away quietly.
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The faith of the apostles had been public before prison, public in prison, public at the house of Lydia and the house of their Philippian Jailer.

FAITH in the Lord Jesus is a matter of PUBLIC witness every day and in every place.

And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
Acts of the apostles 16:40b

To be continued…
March 22, 2023
The Keeper of the Philippian Prison
What is your experience as the keeper of something important?

Have you ever been the one of importance kept safe in some place?

(Were YOU ever the prisoner OR a jailer guard charged as the keeper a prisoner for justice?)
Prison and Prisoners
S.O.P. – Prisons of Roman Cities & Colonies
Who is this Philippian keeper of prisoners for Magistrates of the Court?
Scenario of a night in the Jail of Philippi
Acts of Awesome Faith
Psalm 142 – You Are My Refuge
Prison and Prisoners

IF the only light you ever see seeped filtered though a hole in the ceiling of your cell WOULD YOU SING?

(Likely, neither would I.)

Roman prisons were nothing to sing about, but that didn’t stop Paul and Silas.

S.O.P. – Prisons of Roman Cities & Colonies

Imprisonment was not a sentence under Roman statutory law.. Incarceration (publica custodia) .. was intended to be a temporary measure prior to trial or execution; abuses of this principle occurred but were officially censured. Located near the law courts, the [prison (carcer) with a dungeon (oubliette)] was used as a jail or holding cell for short periods before executions and as a site for executions.
Source: Wikipedia Commons

Of course this Philippian carcer of the Roman colony is bound by the same same rules for jailer and prisoner alike according to Roman Law and the SOP manual of its occupying Legions of this Greek-speaking European colony of Macedonia.

φυλακή – Strong’s translates G5438 in the following manner: prison (36x), watch (6x), imprisonment (2x), hold (1x), cage (1x), ward (1x).

Paul and Silas end up in the ‘temporary’ place near the agora and forum where they have already been punished severely by flogging under the jurisdiction of a Roman Magistrate for unspecified crimes against culture and misdemeanors for which they will most likely be run out of town rather than executed.

Therefore, this evening they have been placed into the care of a prison keeper (jailer) in Philippi for final disposition of their case in the morning.

Previously:

A cultural clash at the Agora in Roman Philippi

ACTS 16: 22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods.

.. they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Who is this Philippian keeper of prisoners for Magistrates of the Court?

φυλάσσω –

Strong’s G5442 – phylassō, Probably from φυλή (G5443) through the idea of isolation
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NOTE, however the same responsibility of the Roman 'keeper' of prisoners AND the jailer's two Roman prisoners, apostles sent out with the message of the Jerusalem Council to communicate interpretation of the LAW for these Gentiles as well as the few Jews of Philippi. 
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to guard
- to watch, keep watch
- to guard or watch, have an eye upon: lest he escape
- to guard a person (or thing) that he may remain safe
- to guard i.e. care for, take care not to violate
  - to observe
- to observe for one’s self something to escape
  - to avoid, shun flee from
  - to guard for one’s self (i.e. for one’s safety’s sake) so as not to violate, i.e. to keep, observe (the precepts of the Mosaic law
Source: BlueLetterBible.org

And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem.
ACTS of the Apostles 16:4 KJV – Mission of Paul, Silas and Timothy

Scenario of a night in the Jail of Philippi

A guard of the second watch [9 pm] comes on duty and shouts down to you in the hole and other prisoners in cells near you, “Lights out!” He then extinguishes the candle above expecting all to go to sleep.

Unlike the other prisoners YOU and your brother have been locked in here with wooden stocks bound to your ankles and chained to the floor of your cell.

What now?

We prayed for a while. Out loud. In fact, we recited much scripture as we prayed. Other prisoners complained to us, but after no intervention from the keeper assigned to this second watch they had no choice but to sleep (or just ignore us).

A little later we hear sounds through the darkness of the third watch [midnight-3 am] keeper coming on duty.

Silas starts singing and Paul joins his voice to the familiar Psalm:

Acts of Awesome Faith

As we continue with the Acts of Paul, Silas and Timothy in Philippi put yourself in their place — an uncertain and unpleasant prison of the moment. Hear the cries of each soul cast into the trembling darkness — the fear of God resounding in each heart.
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What Psalm? (For they knew so many from faithful worship.) 

YOU may find other PSALMS on TalkofJESUS.com which will encourage you in such dark circumstances: https://talkofjesus.com/shaken/ 

Perhaps this: The LORD is My Salvation from Psalm 27:13 OR
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Psalm 142 – You Are My Refuge

A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.
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With my voice I cry out to the LORD;
with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD.
I pour out my complaint before him;
I tell my trouble before him.

When my spirit faints within me,
you know my way!
In the path where I walk
they have hidden a trap for me.
Look to the right and see:
there is none who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me;
no one cares for my soul.

I cry to you, O LORD;
I say, “You are my refuge,
my portion in the land of the living.”
Attend to my cry,
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me!
Bring me out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name!
The righteous will surround me,
for you will deal bountifully with me.
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Suppose that you are another prisoner listening to the apostles sing..

And then, something happens!

Acts of Paulos and Silas

δικαίωμα Παῦλος δέ Σιλᾶς

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.

And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.

When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice,

“Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”

29 And [he] called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas.

“Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all,” Paul will write a decade later to the church in Philippi from a prison in Rome.

Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
ACTS of the apostles 16:30-31 ESV – Keeper of the Philippian jail to Paul & Silas, followed by the apostles’ answer.

Acts of the Apostles 16 – To Be Continued in the light of a new day in Philippi
March 16, 2023