Paul Reasons From the Scriptures in the SynagogueBible World
17:2Acts 17:2
And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
Paul's regular practice was to go into the synagogue on the Sabbath and reason with the people from the Scriptures, which he and Silas did on three successive Sabbaths on their first visit to Thessalonica after leaving Philippi. He opened the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must come in humility to suffer, die, rise again and ascend, and that Jesus of Nazareth is that Christ, the Son of God. He showed that Christ is the key that unlocks the Old Testament and gives meaning to its whole sacrificial system, speaking through patriarchs and prophets from Adam onward and fulfilling every specification of his birth, life, death, resurrection, ministry and coming glory. He worked with tact to avoid needless prejudice, reasoning with the Jews step by step from Moses and the prophets about the Messiah's mission and the honor due to God's law before presenting Jesus as the crucified Messiah, while with the Gentiles he exalted Christ first and then showed the claims of the law. Reasoning from the Bible is a masterly entrusted talent to be cultivated for heaven, so testing truths like the Sabbath should be kept back until minds have been carried along day after day through prophecy and the practical teachings of Christ and have learned confidence in those who understand the Scriptures.
Paul's Custom in Thessalonica
It was Paul's regular practice to go into the synagogue on the Sabbath and reason with the people from the Scriptures, and at Thessalonica he did this for three successive Sabbath days. Paul and Silas together made the first visit of the gospel messengers to Thessalonica after leaving Philippi. There they were privileged to address a large gathering in the synagogue with good effect.
Their appearance bore visible evidence of the shameful mistreatment they had just endured, which called for explanation. They explained what they had suffered without exalting themselves, but magnifying God's grace in their deliverance. They felt they had no time to dwell on their own afflictions because they were burdened with the message of Christ and deeply in earnest in His work.
Those who heard accepted the truth and became believers. Some of the Jews believed with Paul and Silas, together with a great multitude of devout Greeks and not a few of the chief women. He thus combined home and foreign missions by preaching to the Jews in their own place of worship just as he also preached to the Gentiles at their temples in the presence of their gods.
Christ Proved from Prophecy
Paul opened the Scriptures and proved that Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and that this Jesus is the Christ. The Jesus of Nazareth whom he preached is the Messiah, whose birth, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension had been foretold. Divine light enabled him to use his knowledge of Scripture to present the prophecies about Jesus clearly and forcefully. He traced them to the time of Christ's first advent and showed that Scripture had been fulfilled in His sufferings, death, and resurrection.
He made the prophecies relating to the Messiah clear and showed their agreement with the life and teachings of Christ. Proving from Moses and the prophets, he gave inspired proof of His mission, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. The Jewish expectation was contrary to prophecy, which foretold a Saviour coming in humility and poverty to be rejected, despised, and slain. He explained Christ's life, death, resurrection, ministry, and future glory. Christ is presented as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, whose voice spoke through the prophets and patriarchs from Adam onward.
Christ is the key unlocking the Old Testament and giving access to its rich truths. Without Him the passover cannot be explained, and the brazen serpent lifted in the wilderness as a symbol of Christ lifted on the cross is meaningless. All Jewish religious services and ceremonies are valueless if the Saviour revealed and represented in them is rejected. He also taught that Christ would return in power and glory, establish His kingdom on earth, subdue every authority, and rule over all nations. He reasoned to prove that Jesus, though crucified, is the Son of God, supporting the claim with evidence from prophecy with the same boldness and purpose as Stephen.
He proclaimed a Messiah who did not come to destroy the old dispensation but to develop the Jewish economy in accordance with the truth. He gave due honor to the ceremonial law, showing that Christ instituted the whole Jewish economy in sacrificial service. The light reflected from the cross gives significance and glory to it. He was no novice but met every class of people from men of renown to heathen idolaters, setting before them evidences of Christianity not of human invention. For his religion came from God and is of heavenly origin bearing divinity's stamp so that no power on earth could quench the light from heaven.
Wisdom in Presenting Truth
His manner was to shape his message to his hearers with tact so as not to stir prejudice and close hearts, thus varying his labor to suit circumstances. With the Jews he did not begin by telling them they must believe in Jesus of Nazareth but reasoned from the Old Testament prophecies testifying of Christ, of his mission and work. He dwelt upon the prophecies and brought them down step by step, showing the importance of honoring the law of God, and only after some time opened the subject of Christ as the true Messiah and his first advent with every specification fulfilled in the crucified Jesus. With the Gentiles he worked in reverse by exalting Christ first and then showing the binding claims of the law.
Ministers should use great wisdom in presenting truth that opposes opinions and practices by keeping truths that involve less of a cross before minds day after day and even for weeks. They are to carry them along through the important events in the prophecies with clear, forcible arguments and to dwell upon practical subjects in the teachings of Christ to gain their confidence as men who understand the Scriptures. Only then are they to introduce the Sabbath and immortality questions. Bringing the most objectionable features of faith too early and going too rapidly through subjects closes ears that careful step-by-step work would keep open. After such patient labor he was successful to a large degree, though many would not be convinced by any method.
His arguing from the Bible proves that reasoning is necessary. Reasoning is one of the great masterly talents entrusted to the human agent and a great advantage at every step from earth to heaven. When trained and cultivated as a precious entrusted gift it will be taken to heaven with all its improvements and sanctified abilities to be perfected more and more in the heavenly school above. This matches the practice of Jesus who also argued from the Bible with his hearers.
Paul's regular practice was to go into the synagogue on the Sabbath and reason with the people from the Scriptures, which he and Silas did on three successive Sabbaths on their first visit to Thessalonica after leaving Philippi. He opened the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must come in humility to suffer, die, rise again and ascend, and that Jesus of Nazareth is that Christ, the Son of God. He showed that Christ is the key that unlocks the Old Testament and gives meaning to its whole sacrificial system, speaking through patriarchs and prophets from Adam onward and fulfilling every specification of his birth, life, death, resurrection, ministry and coming glory. He worked with tact to avoid needless prejudice, reasoning with the Jews step by step from Moses and the prophets about the Messiah's mission and the honor due to God's law before presenting Jesus as the crucified Messiah, while with the Gentiles he exalted Christ first and then showed the claims of the law. Reasoning from the Bible is a masterly entrusted talent to be cultivated for heaven, so testing truths like the Sabbath should be kept back until minds have been carried along day after day through prophecy and the practical teachings of Christ and have learned confidence in those who understand the Scriptures.
Paul's Custom in Thessalonica
It was Paul's regular practice to go into the synagogue on the Sabbath and reason with the people from the Scriptures, and at Thessalonica he did this for three successive Sabbath days.
Paul and Silas together made the first visit of the gospel messengers to Thessalonica after leaving Philippi. There they were privileged to address a large gathering in the synagogue with good effect.
Their appearance bore visible evidence of the shameful mistreatment they had just endured, which called for explanation. They explained what they had suffered without exalting themselves, but magnifying God's grace in their deliverance. They felt they had no time to dwell on their own afflictions because they were burdened with the message of Christ and deeply in earnest in His work.
Those who heard accepted the truth and became believers. Some of the Jews believed with Paul and Silas, together with a great multitude of devout Greeks and not a few of the chief women.
He thus combined home and foreign missions by preaching to the Jews in their own place of worship just as he also preached to the Gentiles at their temples in the presence of their gods.
Christ Proved from Prophecy
Paul opened the Scriptures and proved that Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and that this Jesus is the Christ. The Jesus of Nazareth whom he preached is the Messiah, whose birth, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension had been foretold. Divine light enabled him to use his knowledge of Scripture to present the prophecies about Jesus clearly and forcefully. He traced them to the time of Christ's first advent and showed that Scripture had been fulfilled in His sufferings, death, and resurrection.
He made the prophecies relating to the Messiah clear and showed their agreement with the life and teachings of Christ. Proving from Moses and the prophets, he gave inspired proof of His mission, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. The Jewish expectation was contrary to prophecy, which foretold a Saviour coming in humility and poverty to be rejected, despised, and slain. He explained Christ's life, death, resurrection, ministry, and future glory. Christ is presented as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, whose voice spoke through the prophets and patriarchs from Adam onward.
Christ is the key unlocking the Old Testament and giving access to its rich truths. Without Him the passover cannot be explained, and the brazen serpent lifted in the wilderness as a symbol of Christ lifted on the cross is meaningless. All Jewish religious services and ceremonies are valueless if the Saviour revealed and represented in them is rejected. He also taught that Christ would return in power and glory, establish His kingdom on earth, subdue every authority, and rule over all nations. He reasoned to prove that Jesus, though crucified, is the Son of God, supporting the claim with evidence from prophecy with the same boldness and purpose as Stephen.
He proclaimed a Messiah who did not come to destroy the old dispensation but to develop the Jewish economy in accordance with the truth. He gave due honor to the ceremonial law, showing that Christ instituted the whole Jewish economy in sacrificial service. The light reflected from the cross gives significance and glory to it. He was no novice but met every class of people from men of renown to heathen idolaters, setting before them evidences of Christianity not of human invention. For his religion came from God and is of heavenly origin bearing divinity's stamp so that no power on earth could quench the light from heaven.
Wisdom in Presenting Truth
His manner was to shape his message to his hearers with tact so as not to stir prejudice and close hearts, thus varying his labor to suit circumstances. With the Jews he did not begin by telling them they must believe in Jesus of Nazareth but reasoned from the Old Testament prophecies testifying of Christ, of his mission and work. He dwelt upon the prophecies and brought them down step by step, showing the importance of honoring the law of God, and only after some time opened the subject of Christ as the true Messiah and his first advent with every specification fulfilled in the crucified Jesus. With the Gentiles he worked in reverse by exalting Christ first and then showing the binding claims of the law.
Ministers should use great wisdom in presenting truth that opposes opinions and practices by keeping truths that involve less of a cross before minds day after day and even for weeks. They are to carry them along through the important events in the prophecies with clear, forcible arguments and to dwell upon practical subjects in the teachings of Christ to gain their confidence as men who understand the Scriptures. Only then are they to introduce the Sabbath and immortality questions. Bringing the most objectionable features of faith too early and going too rapidly through subjects closes ears that careful step-by-step work would keep open. After such patient labor he was successful to a large degree, though many would not be convinced by any method.
His arguing from the Bible proves that reasoning is necessary. Reasoning is one of the great masterly talents entrusted to the human agent and a great advantage at every step from earth to heaven. When trained and cultivated as a precious entrusted gift it will be taken to heaven with all its improvements and sanctified abilities to be perfected more and more in the heavenly school above. This matches the practice of Jesus who also argued from the Bible with his hearers.