Unlikely Leaders

A Revival and a Riot at Thessalonica

This chapter is based on Acts 17:1-10.

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. ULe 83.1

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: ULe 83.2

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. ULe 83.3

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.) ULe 83.4

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). ULe 83.5

4. The Messiah was to be from the royal line, for Jacob said, ULe 83.6

“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. ULe 83.7

5. Isaiah prophesied, ULe 83.8

“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots” Isaiah 11:1, NRSV. ULe 83.9

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). ULe 83.10

7. Even the birthplace of the Messiah was foretold: ULe 84.1

“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. ULe 84.2

8. The work the Savior was to do had been fully outlined: ULe 84.3

“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. ULe 84.4

“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. ULe 84.5

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: ULe 84.6

“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. ULe 84.7

Through the psalmist Christ had foretold the treatment He would receive from humanity: ULe 84.8

“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. ULe 84.9

10. Isaiah’s prophecies of Christ’s sufferings and death were unmistakably plain: ULe 84.10

“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. ULe 84.11

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). ULe 85.1

12. But He who was to die at the hands of evil men was to rise again as a conqueror: ULe 85.2

“My flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave My soul in Sheol [the grave],
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption” Psalm 16:9, 10. ULe 85.3

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. ULe 85.4

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. ULe 85.5