This chapter is based on Acts 17:1-10, RSV.
(TT 118)
After leaving Philippi, Paul and Silas made their way to Thessalonica. Here they addressed large congregations in the Jewish synagogue. Their appearance bore evidence of shameful treatment and necessitated an explanation. Without exalting themselves, they magnified the One who had wrought their deliverance.
(TT 118.1)
In preaching, Paul appealed to the Old Testament prophecies foretelling the birth, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. He clearly proved the identity of Jesus of Nazareth with the Messiah, and showed that it was the voice of Christ which had been speaking through patriarchs and prophets:
(TT 118.2)
1. The sentence pronounced on Satan, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15), was to our first parents a promise of the redemption through Christ.
(TT 118.3)
2. To Abraham was given the promise that the Saviour should come: “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”“Thy seed, which is Christ.” Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:16.
(TT 118.4)
3. Moses prophesied of the Messiah to come: “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto Me; unto Him ye shall hearken.” Deuteronomy 18:15.
(TT 118.5)
4. The Messiah was to be of the royal line, for Jacob said: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.” Genesis 49:10.
(TT 118.6)
5. Isaiah prophesied: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” Isaiah 11:1, RSV.
(TT 119.1)
6. Jeremiah also bore witness of the coming Redeemer: “The days are 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, RSV.
(TT 119.2)
7. Even the birthplace of the Messiah was foretold: “Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” Micah 5:2.
(TT 119.3)
8. The work the Saviour was to do had been fully outlined: “To bring good tidings to the afflicted; ... to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.” Isaiah 61:1, 2, RSV.
(TT 119.4)
“Behold My servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth; I have put My Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.”“He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth.” Isaiah 42:1, 4.
(TT 119.5)
9. With convincing power Paul reasoned from the Scriptures that “it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead.” The Promised One, through Isaiah, had prophesied of Himself: “I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that pulled off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting.” Isaiah 50:6. Through the psalmist Christ had foretold the treatment He should receive from men: “I am ... scorned by men, and despised by the people. All who see Me mock at Me, they make mouths at Me, they wag their heads; ‘He committed His cause to the Lord; let Him deliver Him, let Him rescue Him, for He delights in Him!’”“I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over Me; they divide My garments among them, and for My raiment they cast lots.” Psalm 22:6-8, 17, 18, RSV.
(TT 119.6)
10. Isaiah’s prophecies of Christ’s sufferings and death were unmistakably plain: “Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? ... He had ... no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not... . But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with His stripes we are healed.”
(TT 120.1)
“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... . Who considered that He was ... stricken for the transgression of My people?” Isaiah 53:1-8, RSV.
(TT 120.2)
11. Even the manner of His death had been shadowed forth. As the brazen serpent had been uplifted 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.
(TT 120.3)
12. But He who was to suffer death at the hands of evil men was to rise again as a conqueror: “My flesh also shall rest in hope. For Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell [the grave]; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.” Psalm 16:9, 10.
(TT 120.4)
13. Paul showed how closely God had linked the sacrificial service with the prophecies relating to the One “brought 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 ... bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53:7, 10, 12.
(TT 120.5)
Thus the Saviour was not to come as a temporal king to deliver the Jewish nation from earthly oppressors, but to live a life of poverty and humility and at last to be despised, rejected, and slain. The Saviour was to offer Himself as a sacrifice in behalf of the fallen race, fulfilling every requirement of the broken law. In Him the sacrificial types were to meet their antitype and His death on the cross was to lend significance to the entire Jewish economy.
(TT 121.1)
Paul told the Thessalonian Jews of his wonderful 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 the performance of the deeds of the law, he had refused the One who made the law of value.
(TT 121.2)
But at his conversion, all had been changed. The persecutor saw Jesus as the Son of God, the One who had met every specification of the Sacred Writings.
(TT 121.3)
As with holy boldness Paul proclaimed the gospel at Thessalonica, a flood of light was thrown on 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. So clearly did he present the truths concerning this event that on the minds of many there was made an impression which never wore away.
(TT 121.4)
For three successive Sabbaths Paul preached, reasoning from the Scriptures regarding the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Revelation 13:8. He exalted Christ, the proper understanding of whose ministry is the key that gives access to the rich treasures of the Old Testament Scriptures.
(TT 121.5)
The attention of large congregations was arrested. “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.” But as in places formerly entered, the apostles met with opposition. By uniting with “some wicked fellows of the rabble,” the Jews succeeded in setting “the city in an uproar.” They “attacked the house of Jason,” but they could find neither Paul nor Silas. In their mad disappointment the mob “dragged Jason and some of the brethren before the city authorities, crying, ‘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.’”
(TT 122.1)
The magistrates put the accused believers under bonds to keep the peace. Fearing further violence, “the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.”
(TT 122.2)
Those who today teach unpopular truths at times meet with no more favorable reception, even from those who claim to be Christians, than did Paul and his fellow workers. But the messengers of the cross must move forward with faith and courage, in the name of Jesus. They must exalt Christ as man’s mediator in the heavenly sanctuary, the One in whom the transgressors of God’s law may find peace and pardon.
(TT 122.3)