r of Christians made the synagogue his first stop. Likely he delivered a similar message as at the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch (ch. 13) where he systematically used the Hebrew Testament to bring his audience to an accurate knowledge of Jesus. He could do this because the Old Testament, contrary to any other religious text, can actually lead people to Jesus. Thus we read that by having a discourse or reasoning [the Gk verb is used 9x in the book of Acts and always implies a verbal means to give a detailed account of something]from the Scriptures he clearly demonstrated that it was a divine necessity [i.e. the word ‘must] that Jesus the Messiah had to suffer and be resurrected because it was due–as Peter had said–to “the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23).
The text says that he made his clear presentation by “explaining and giving evidence” (NASB), (v.3) which clearly shows that he did this methodically, thoroughly, and acted as a witness of who Jesus was, and what he did and taught. Paul is following exactly in the footsteps of Jesus who also clearly expounded the Scriptures on the Emmaus road (Lk 24:25-27, 44-46) and likewise “opened their eyes.” Additionally, the introductory words that Paul entered the synagogue “as was his custom” hearken back to Luke’s words (Lk 4:16) about Jesus going to the synagogue “on the Sabbath day…as was his custom.” What Paul was not doing, however, was “incarnating the gospel”–a term much in vogue today. He knew that Incarnation was for Jesus alone. Yet, in following Jesus, Paul encountered persecution at virtually every stop on his tour, and thus showed himself to be walking in the footsteps of his Master.
The offense of the gospel
To the Jews in his audience, the very thought of a dying and suffering Messiah (cf. Acts 24:46) or a prophet who is a failure was offensive. To the Greeks, Paul did not come across as much of a rhetoritician with wise sayings. To them resurrections were good fairy-tale parts of miracle-story resuscitations, but their ideas did not permit someone to be raised from the dead and then to live immortally especially in a glorified body. Rather they focused on the Caesars achieving divine status when they ascended to heaven after death. Yet to both of them Paul spoke as the authorized divine herald and told them “that this One is the Christ (of the Scripture promises), the Jesus whom I on my part, am proclaiming to you.” In 1 Thess 2:13 he affirm that his words had divine warrant when he tell them that they had accepted his words “not as a word of human beings, but as what it really is, the word of God.”
A miraculous movement? Sort of :
This is where Luke could well have made great publicity with just how well Paul had followed the principles taught at the Antioch (A.D. 48) “common ground conference” and that because he had employed them, “some were persuaded and joined…” his movement–not to mention the leading women of the city and the God-fearing Greeks. The second verb won’t allow us this delicious temptation, however. The verb which has the roots of receiving something by lot or inheritance conveys the fact that it was the sovereign grace of God that opened the people’s hearts, just as when God had “opened Lydia’s heart” to receive the words that Paul had spoken, and that “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). Paul’s job was bring the gospel “not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thess. 1:5) and it was the Spirit of God who would bring it home. No new and improved method, no 7 signs–of Jewish or Greek wisdom–in this case, no gospel parallels in the worship of Caesar could do the job.
The charges brought against Paul and Silas
The success of Spirit-empowered, bold and systematic proclamation of the whole Christ from the whole Scriptures, for the whole person, was too much for the members of the synagogue and they went crazy with jealousy. Very likely they saw their numbers as well drop as it would be rather doubtful that Paul would have encouraged the new converts to