It might not look like it, because we’re finishing up this afternoon in the middle of a chapter,
But this concludes Paul’s ministry in Macedonia – at least on this trip.
He will come back one more time in Acts 20, but Luke will not be giving us much new information.
So to conclude things, I have collected 7 very fine words to use to summarize the Macedonian ministry.
( Seven words, means a seven point outline, which means we should be through in either seven minutes or by 7:00 – it’s 2:30 now.)
As I say these are seven really good words, so get out your pens and pencils.
There will be a vocabulary quiz at the end of the period.
They are: beneficence, excellence, eloquence, truculence, diligence, sapience and munificence.
Repeat after me…… “beneficence” is the act of being kind or gracious.
And, of course, there is no better example of “beneficence” than in the person of the Lord.
We have no way of knowing how many people of Macedonia the Lord called unto Himself.
We have no way of knowing how many of those people the Lord saved, but there were quite a few.
It began with Lydia and her household and the Philippian jailor and his household.
And then in Thessalonica “some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.”
And then in Berea “many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.”
There were Jews, proselytes, Romans, Greeks and Macedonians.
How many of those people was the Lord OBLIGATED to save?
In one sense the answer would be: all those whom the Father had given to the Son prior to creation.
In John 17 He prayed:
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost.”
No king is required to pardon and to promote the rebels who had tried to bring down his government.
Furthermore, there is not a country on earth which deserves the blessing of possessing even a single child of God.
But the Lord chose to bless Macedonia, not only with Christian souls, but with three vibrant churches.
Amphipolis and Apollonia were not as yet given missionaries and missions,
But in Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea were established three excellent churches.
And by the way brethren, all three of those churches and members were highly praised in one fashion or another other.
While other churches, like that of Corinth and Ephesus, were rebuked, these three were only commended.
As I look back on the early history of our church here in Post Falls,
I realize that I played a small role in its formation – as pastor of the sponsoring church, but it was a very small role.
It was upon the insistence of Bro. Ken Johnson that I agreed to sponsor this work.
So here we are – one of the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But do you realize that there are hundreds and probably thousands of cities and towns across North America where there cannot be found a scriptural New Testament Baptist church?
How privileged we are, and how beneficent the Lord has been to the people of this city and valley.
How beneficent the Lord was to Macedonia, while so many other countries were not blessed with the ministry of Paul and his co-workers.
And when Paul was driven out of Berea, Timothy & Silas remained behind to carry on the work of the Lord.
The brethren in the church there feared for the life of Paul.
But why was it that he was so hated, but the others enjoyed some sort of tolerance from the people?
It appears quite clear that Paul was hated because he was the voice of the little missionary band.
“And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures.”
“But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.”
It was as Paul preached that the sword of the Spirit was driven into the hearts of the wicked;
It was his preaching which convicted them of their unbelief and of their sins against the Lord.
He was the man with the beautiful feet and the eloquence of the prophet of God.
And thus it was that against him that their hatred was outpoured.
And that leads me to our next word or words.
But – I hope that you never know by experience the meaning of that word.
“Virulence” speaks about bitter hostility, animosity and antagonism.
“Maleficence” refers to doing evil, harm or mischief.
And “truculence” is a disposition to fight.
I have to confess that this is something which I do not know or really understand.
Maybe it’s my whimpy, Canadian blood.
And maybe this is something good in me – or perhaps not.
Generally speaking, when someone whom I don’t know doesn’t agree with me I dismiss it.
But when I get an e-mail telling me that our church web-site contains stupid articles and even more stupid sermons, I hit the delete button and never give it a second thought.
I never reply telling the writer that those sermons appear stupid only because he is stupid.
When Paul went to Antioch in Pisidia and preached in the Jewish synagogue, he was not well-received.
So he and Barnabas moved down the road to Iconium and then on to Lystra.
But the Jews of Antioch were so filled with truculence and virulence that they hounded him and persecuted him in those cities as they had in their own.
And when Paul was driven out of Thessalonica by the hatred of the Jews, he and Silas moved to Berea,
But the Jews of Thessalonica were so filled with hatred that they raced down to Berea in order to stir up more hatred.
Perhaps I should be more like that, but it’s not a part of my nature or my make-up.
Furthermore, I’m not really sure that my Saviour was like that.
There have been a few people who have attended our church, whose doctrines were so contrary to ours that I have been pleased when they left.
But I have never chased after any of those people and tried to drive them from other churches.
he drives them off and then puts on his coat and follows them up to the neighbor’s houses,
and when they try to speak to the neighbors he warns and cries out against them that these men are heretics.
But when I see it in those who hate truth, like those Jews, it leaves me with nothing but disgust,
Truculence was one of the results of the Macedonian ministry.
We are going to learn that the ministry lasted 18 months in Corinth,
except for periodic statements about preaching 3 sabbaths in this synagogue and 2 sabbaths there.
There is another reference to a three month stay in another city.
I was wondering earlier in the week if those churches would have also dropped their support of Adoniram Judson, because he labored so long before he saw any genuine results.
But those few weeks or months must have been spent in DILIGENT labour,
Sure Paul left Luke in Philippi, but I’m not sure that he was even a preacher at that time.
Was he their interim pastor?
Was Paul angry with him for some reason and just left him to sulk for a while?
We just don’t know.
These things make me wonder how intense the ministry of Paul, Silas and Timothy must have been in each of these communities.
How much Baptist doctrine had those people been taught and how much had they learned?
How did the missionaries choose elders to pastor those new churches?
How did they leave them with enough of the life of Christ for them to carry on as New Testament churches?
Yes, there must have been the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit also had to be working through Paul and his associates.
Those were undoubtedly very long days, very short nights, and very diligent ministries.
We will probably deal with this in more detail later, so I’ll just summarize it for now.
The eastern end of the Mediterranean had been experiencing a prolonged drought.
In Acts 11 we read: “And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch.
Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea:
Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.”
And on Paul’s third missionary journey, in which he passes through these cities a couple of times, he spoke to the saints there about the suffering of the believers in the church in Jerusalem.
Many of the tender-hearted people of Macedonia chose to take up funds to send to Judah to help their brothers and sisters in Christ.
Paul wrote about these gifts in several of his epistles.
As he was returning to Syria through Judea, at the close of this third missionary trip, he carried with him a great deal of money.
And with him went brethren from some of the churches to help protect everything and to personally present their presents.
Acts 20 says, “And there accompanied him into Asia Sopater of Berea; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.”
The children of God across Macedonia became known as generous and munificent people, not only towards the brethren in Israel, but also towards missions and their missionary, Paul.
In Philippians Paul wrote about the self-sacrificing nature of those people.
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.
For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity.
Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Verse 13 says, “But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.
and then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea:
but Silas and Timotheus abode there still.”
Scholars are divided on part of the meaning of these words.
Some say that the brethren in Berea created a ruse, a crafty plan,
but actually Paul was escorted over land the 250 miles to Athens.
A long road trip would have been fraught with many dangers and many opportunities for his enemies to lay in wait and to kill him along the way.
Paul was counseled to immediately take ship and sail south where no one could reach him.
The sagacity of the church was not in some deceitful ruse,
but in the wisdom of the brethren to get Paul out of town in the first place.
The Lord Jesus had told His disciples that there was no dishonour to move on when the people of one city rejected the gospel.
That is simply what Paul was doing, but I think that the thing to notice is that it wasn’t Paul’s decision:
The brethren sent away Paul.
I think that the entire ministry in Macedonia was exceptional from beginning to end.
Paul was not yet finished with these people, but there were already three strong churches of Christ there.
Isn’t it amazing what the Lord can do?
Come on Lord, do it again.