A Revival and a Riot at Thessalonica
Picture: A Revival and a Riot at Thessalonica4TC 115.1
After leaving Philippi, Paul and Silas made their way to Thessalonica. Here they spoke to large congregations in the Jewish synagogue. Their appearance showed that they had been treated shamefully, and this required an explanation. Without exalting themselves, they magnified the One who had brought about their deliverance.4TC 115.2
In preaching, Paul appealed to the Old Testament prophecies foretelling Christ’s birth, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension. He clearly proved that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah and showed that it was the voice of Christ that had been speaking through patriarchs and prophets:4TC 115.3
1. The sentence pronounced on Satan, “I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15), was a promise to our first parents of redemption through Christ.4TC 116.1
2. To Abraham God gave the promise that the Savior would come: “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” “Your Seed, who is Christ.” (Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:16.)4TC 116.2
3. Moses prophesied of the Messiah to come: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear” (Deuteronomy 18:15).4TC 116.3
4. The Messiah was to be from the royal line, for Jacob said,4TC 116.4
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes;
And to Him shall be the obedience of the people” Genesis 49:10.4TC 116.5
5. Isaiah prophesied,4TC 116.6
“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots” Isaiah 11:1, NRSV.4TC 116.7
6. Jeremiah also bore witness of the coming Redeemer: “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ... And this is the name by which He will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness’” (Jeremiah 23:5, 6, NRSV).4TC 116.8
7. Even the birthplace of the Messiah was foretold:4TC 116.9
“You, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel;
Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” Micah 5:2.4TC 117.1
8. The work the Savior was to do had been fully outlined:4TC 117.2
“To preach good tidings to the poor; ... to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn” Isaiah 61:1, 2.4TC 117.3
“Behold! My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. ...
He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has established justice in the earth” Isaiah 42:1, 4.4TC 117.4
9. With convincing power Paul reasoned from the Scriptures that “the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead.” Through Isaiah, the Promised One had prophesied of Himself:4TC 117.5
“I gave My back to those who struck Me,
And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;
I did not hide My face from shame and spitting” Isaiah 50:6.4TC 117.6
Through the psalmist Christ had foretold the treatment He would receive from humanity:4TC 117.7
“I am ... a reproach of men, and despised by the people.
All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
‘He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him;
Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!’ ...
I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.” Psalm 22:6-8, 17, 18.4TC 117.8
10. Isaiah’s prophecies of Christ’s sufferings and death were unmistakably plain:4TC 118.1
“Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? ...
He has ... no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. ...
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth. ...
For the transgression of My people He was stricken” Isaiah 53:1-8.4TC 118.2
11. The Old Testament even gave indications of how He would die. As the bronze serpent had been lifted up in the wilderness, so was the Redeemer to be “lifted up” (John 3:14). If “one shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in Thine hands? then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends” (Zechariah 13:6, KJV).4TC 118.3
12. But He who was to die at the hands of evil men was to rise again as a conqueror:4TC 118.4
“My flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave My soul in Sheol [],
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption” Psalm 16:9, 10.4TC 119.1
13. Paul showed how closely God had linked the sacrificial service with the prophecies relating to the One “led as a lamb to the slaughter.” The Messiah was to give His life as “an offering for sin.” Isaiah had testified that the Lamb of God “poured out His soul unto death, ...
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53:7, 10, 12.4TC 119.2
So the Savior was not to come as an earthly king to deliver the Jewish nation from earthly oppressors, but to live a life of poverty and humility and finally to be despised, rejected, and killed. The Savior would offer Himself as a sacrifice for the fallen race, fulfilling every requirement of the broken law. In Him the sacrificial symbols were to meet their fulfillment. His death on the cross would show the true meaning of the entire Jewish system.4TC 119.3
Paul Relates the Story of His Conversion
Paul told the Thessalonian Jews of his amazing experience at the gate of Damascus. Before conversion his faith had not been anchored in Christ; he had trusted in forms and ceremonies. While boasting that he was blameless in performing the deeds of the law, he had refused the One who gave value to the law.4TC 119.4
But at his conversion, everything had changed. The persecutor saw Jesus as the Son of God, the One who had met every specification of the Sacred Writings.4TC 119.5
As Paul proclaimed the gospel with holy boldness at Thessalonica, a flood of light opened up the true meaning of the tabernacle service. He carried the minds of his hearers beyond the ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary to the time when He would come in power and great glory and establish His kingdom. Paul was a believer in the second coming. He presented the truths concerning this event so clearly that the minds of many received an impression that never faded away.4TC 119.6
For three Sabbaths in a row Paul preached, reasoning from the Scriptures about the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). He lifted up Christ, whose ministry, when properly understood, is the key that gives us access to the rich treasures of the Old Testament Scriptures.4TC 120.1
Paul’s words gripped the attention of large congregations. “Some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.” But as in other places they had already entered, the apostles met with opposition. By uniting with “some of the evil men from the marketplace,” the Jews succeeded in setting “the city in an uproar.” They “attacked the house of Jason,” but they could not find either Paul or Silas. In their disappointed rage the mob “dragged Jason and some of the brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, ‘These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.’”4TC 120.2
The officials took a security bond from the accused believers to help assure the peace. Fearing further violence, “the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.”4TC 120.3
Those who teach unpopular truths today sometimes meet with no better reception, even from those who claim to be Christians, than Paul and his fellow workers did. But the messengers of the cross must move forward with faith and courage, in the name of Jesus. They must lift up Christ as our mediator in the heavenly sanctuary, the One in whom those who have broken God’s law may find peace and pardon.4TC 120.4
