Athens yesterday – Corinth today. Sounds like a holiday tour doesn’t it! But it was in Corinth that the tour ended, and Paul settled down to a period of regular work as a tentmaker and preacher. As much as Athens had been intellectual, Corinth was a city of debauchery. In Athens Paul had been distressed by the idolatry; in Corinth it was human behaviour and the sexually charged environment that would have struck him. The great temples were centres of prostitution, and even everyday pottery was decorated with pornographic images.
Once again, Paul started by preaching to the Jews, but soon moved into the house next door to continue preaching to Jews and Gentiles. True to form, the Jews assaulted him, and took him to court. Then, in the middle of all of this, God said, ‘This is where I want you.’
So there, in spite of the surrounding culture and opposition, he settled.
Isn’t it great to be sure you are where God wants you to be! Whether that means your daily employment, the role you have taken on at Church, or even the daily round of bringing up children or housework. It’s a delight to hear a Christian say with genuine conviction, ‘I’m in the place where God wants me to be, and doing what He wants me to do.’

For reflection: It is sad to see or hear of people who feel constrained by circumstances, or pressure from others, (even in Church) to be doing jobs for which they are not gifted and thus feel deeply dissatisfied with their lives. Are you at a point in your own life where you can say with your whole heart that you know what gifts and abilities God has given to you and that you are in a place where they are being used? Rejoice if that is the case, but if it is not, what can you do about it?
Is there a trusted friend with whom you could talk about it, or might you share your feelings within a small group such as a Home Group?

Athens was the intellectual capital of the world. The seat of power and influence was to be found in the Roman Empire. Culture and ideas sprang from Athens; it was in literature, mathematics, and observational science that Athens excelled. It was the Greek, Eratosthenes (poet, athlete, geographer, astronomer, 276 – 195 BC) who had already invented a system of latitude and longitude, measured the circumference of the earth with remarkable accuracy, and even measured the tilt of the earth’s axis! So Paul was arriving at the heart of learning, but it was not the learning that impressed him, it was proliferation of idols. The very idea that thoughtful, clever, and cultured people should engage in the worship of idols distressed him – caused him heartache and sadness.
The world of Athens as it was then is not so far removed from the world today. Does that distress you?
The idols are no longer stone, wood or precious metals. The gods of science and technology, of economic materialism, or even astrology, hold sway in many lives. As I am writing today (December 2009), the world is waiting with bated breath to see if the politicians in Copenhagen can come up with an answer to Global Warming. Can the US and China save the world from disaster? Today’s ‘gods’ are more sophisticated than the Athenian ones for sure – but equally distressing!
Into that situation Paul took the message of Jesus and the resurrection. It left some people sneering (v 32), but as in other places, some believed and we see the beginning of a church in the city.
And that is still the message we proclaim today. Whether it is to ordinary working (or unemployed) people, or intellectuals in high society, we still proclaim the risen Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

For reflection: I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: (Rom 1 v 16)

So on to Thessalonica – another town, and more trouble from the Jews! But the newly-formed Christian group looked after Paul and Silas, sheltering them from the mob and then sending them on, by night, to Berea. Here, Paul enjoyed a welcome interlude of daily study with the local Jewish community – until agitators arrived from Thessalonica! Then Paul moved on again to Athens.
The people Paul encountered in Berea are described as of noble character. It seems that they were thoughtful and not easily taken in by what they heard. You can imagine them listening to Paul and saying ‘Hold on a minute – where does that come in the Scriptures?’ They wanted to check out for themselves what Paul said, and were eager readers and students of the scriptures.
How many of us, with bible translations galore, and a multitude of good literature to help us understand what we read, ever check out for ourselves what we hear preached or spoken about? But more than just doing this occasionally, these Bereans were reading and thinking on a daily basis. It is this regularity and commitment that is so noteworthy, and which puts so many of us to shame. The fact that you are reading these notes today is an encouraging sign, but I suspect that the modern Christian gives very little time to Bible Study and reading. The sale of Bible Reading notes has declined dramatically, and we don’t even always have a bible reading in our church services.
That said, reading and knowing the Bible is not the be-all and end-all of the Christian life. What ultimately matters is the way our lives are ordered, with Jesus the focus of our thinking. What our bible reading does is to help us get that right focus, get to get know God better, and enable us to discover the way God wants us to live.

For reflection: Will your reading of the Bible affect the way you live today?

In reading through this section of Acts it struck me once again how frequently the idea of encouragement turns up. Paul was a dynamic and strong leader, but it was not an assertive form of leadership, rather an encouraging type. He has just been released from prison, still smarting from the indignity and pain of being flogged, and yet he is the one doing the encouraging! You might have expected the new Christians to be encouraging him, but true to his calling to look after the people of God he sets about strengthening them in case they find themselves in the same predicament as he had been in.
What a heart-warming picture of leadership this is – and I wonder what he actually said to them all. How did he encourage them? I think it is helpful at this stage to consider the letter to these Philippians, written by Paul when he was in prison in Rome later in his life.
Three things stand out right at the beginning of the letter that would have encouraged them, and are likely to have been the basis of what Paul said to them on this occasion.
First – he expressed thanks for them. (Phil 1 v 3) He was grateful for their friendship, support and love. No moans about them, no ifs and buts, he simply valued them as members of God’s family and was quick to say so. Slave girl, or business woman; jailer or whatever; he held them all equally in high regard.
Then he assured them of his prayers. He was going to remember them. (Phil 1 vv 3-4). He would have assured them that his visit was no ‘Convert-you-and run’ kind of missionary exercise. He loved them too much for that!
And then he assured them that God would continue His work in them. (Phil 1 v 6) God was going to remember them and He would stick with them too.

For reflection: Encouragement is not calling people to action, but loving them and assuring them that God does too, and is at work in them.

Not for the first time Paul found himself engulfed by an uproar. On previous occasions it had arisen through disputes with other Jews who then stirred up mobs ( see 14 v 19 for example ), but now Paul came into head-on collision with economic forces – some enterprising businessman saw his business slipping away. The result is just the same however; he was arrested, flogged and jailed.
If you visit the ruins of Philippi today you will have pointed out to you the remains of a small building believed to have been the jailhouse used at that time. It is on the main Roman road running through the town, but there is nothing grand about it – it has thick walls and part of it is below ground level. It is little more than a subterranean black hole – just the place for an interfering Christian missionary! What a destination for a visitor to the town.
And who is the beneficiary of all this? The jailer!
What a massive turnaround we see in his life. The brutal jailer becomes a joyful and gentle host, feeding his prisoners and tending their wounds. And what made the difference? Quite simply, we read ‘he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God.’ Nothing less than the power of God can change a man’s life like that. There was little time for preaching and teaching; the jailer had no discipleship or baptismal class; this outcome was a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit working in the life of a very ordinary, rough, soldier-turned-jailer.

For reflection: What a motley collection of new Christians we see being formed as a Church in Philippi – first a smart, well-organised business woman named Lydia, then a once demon-possessed slave girl, and now the town jailer! Yet these are the people of whom Paul writes ‘for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. (Phil 4 v 16)

There is a frankness and honesty about this part of Acts. Paul and Barnabas – two great friends and missionary colleagues – had a major spat over whether or not they should take John Mark on what was to be a pastoral re-visit of the churches they had planted. Barnabas, ever the encourager, wanted to give this young man a second chance. (It is worth noting that Mark was a cousin of Barnabas – Col 4 v 10; and that Mark made good with Barnabas’ encouragement to the point when he was again helpful to Paul.- 2 Tim 4 v 11 ) So the pair of them set off on their own to visit the churches in Cyprus, and that is the last we hear of them in Acts. Paul set off with Silas on what started as a pastoral re-visit but turned into a whole new missionary adventure.
The transition from ‘they’ in v 8 to ‘we’ in v 10 seems to suggest that it was at this point that Luke joined Paul on the journey. It is even suggested that ‘the man of Macedonia in the night’ might have been Luke himself. What is certainly significant however is that Paul turned in a completely fresh direction. He had always been open to God’s leading, but to travel across to Greece and preach the Gospel there was a radical change. It involved him moving into a different culture, with its own religions and customs.
It is this transition that nearly every missionary faces today. It is not just a matter of leaving home and starting again in a different place. The issues of language, culture, and of being ‘a foreigner’ loom large. Adjustment is rarely easy, and learning to communicate Christian Faith in totally different circumstances is a challenge. Nowadays we refer to this as ‘Cross-Cultural Mission’ and those of us left in the home churches are learning to pray for our friends overseas with fresh insight as the problems they face.

For reflection: In many ways Christians have established their own sub-culture surrounded by a society that is increasingly secular and even hostile to faith. Learning to communicate the Gospel in such circumstances is much more challenging than we perhaps appreciate. It is then that our different life-style becomes increasingly significant. Does your life-style stand out as different?

It must have been a huge relief and encouragement for the people of Antioch to read this letter! The Jews had countless rules and regulations that had to be kept, so the Jewish believers would have had this huge burden lifted from them. The new Gentile believers would have seen these few requirements as understandable in the light of the many restrictions and rituals normally prevalent in pagan religions.
The role of Judas and Silas in the church at Antioch is interesting. They were recognised as prophets, and their preaching or teaching brought encouragement to the Church. So often in our day and age preaching has become either exhortations to action – evangelism, prayer, bible study, giving, etc, - and moral guidance for living – don’t do this, avoid that, and so on. This type of preaching ultimately puts burdens on people. It is the burden of ‘doing things for God and the Church’, of being at meetings, of ‘reaching out to your neighbours’ and similar urgings that actually press in on people. Listeners are inclined to feel guilty because they cannot match these requirements, and are thus discouraged rather than encouraged. This pressure to conform to a hyperactive form of Christian faith serves sometimes to drive people away from Churches that persist with this kind of preaching.
I have recently read a little book entitled ‘So you don’t want to go to Church anymore.’ Written in the form of a novel by two Pastors it gently draws its readers to see that it is not ‘Church’ itself that is off-putting, but rather a particular style of Church that is discouraging. When a Church puts burdens on people, or has particular expectations of them, its activities may flourish for a while, but the pattern of life that emerges becomes oppressive and destructive of the real freedom we can experience in following Jesus.

For reflection: Preaching and teaching should encourage faith, build joy and release people into freedom through following Jesus.

The Pharisees were renowned for their strict keeping of the Law of Moses. Circumcision was the outward mark of being member of the People of God, so this demand by the Pharisees seemed perfectly logical. But there was so much more to it than that!
First, they held that to be a follower of Jesus a person had first to be a fully recognised Jew. Be a Jew first, then you can become a Christian! After all, Jesus was a Jew, so to follow Him you had to be like Him.
Second, a person could not be fully ‘right’ with God until he was circumcised.
So the debate must have been heated, and is certainly significant! Paul’s argument, and Peter’s too, was that if a person had received the Holy Spirit then he had become a child of God and a member of God’s Family, regardless of circumcision. Furthermore, Abraham had been declared ‘right’ with God on the grounds of faith, before he was circumcised. Paul sets this all out very clearly in Galatians chapter 3, which was written around the same time as this debate was going on. Faith, and receiving the Holy Spirit, was therefore the distinguishing mark of the Christian.
This debate is often referred to as ‘The Council of Jerusalem’, and the decision to admit Gentiles as full members of God’s people was a significant step in the development of the Church.
At last the promise made to Abraham to bless all nations through him ( Gen 12 v 3) was fulfilled! God’s purposes were recognised by these early Christian leaders and the all-inclusive nature of the Church was established. Today, we take this outcome for granted, although perhaps we still need to learn to welcome people of all backgrounds into the local church, and appreciate the diversity this brings.

For reflection: Are all kinds of people really accepted in our church?

It seems that almost everywhere Paul went he started a congregation of Christians that we now call ‘Church’. But he was more than just a church planter – he now returns to those congregations to encourage them, and appoint leaders who would look after the others. Here is a man with the heart of a Shepherd-Pastor. These young churches are in tough places, so he remains concerned for them and ensures that they have wise leadership. Paul sees this role of Eldership as vital in caring for the Church, and in his letter to Timothy (written later in Paul’s life) he sets out the qualities that are required of such a leader. Every church congregation needs individuals who will care for the others – indeed, caring for the people in the church is the most fundamental aspect of leadership.
Paul’s honesty with these new Christians is a far cry from many words of encouragement that are offered today. How often a word of encouragement concerns God’s faithfulness, or the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us, or similar ‘comfortable words’. Not so with Paul! ‘….strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,"
(v 22)
In several parts of the world today that is exactly the experience of many Christians. There is hardship, persecution, discrimination, and even violence. Christians in India have been murdered, or their homes burned down. New Christians in Muslim communities face imprisonment, ostracism or worse – fathers have been known to murder members of their own family who have turned to following Jesus. We have it easy in the UK!

For reflection: Pray today for Christians facing persecution, imprisonment or violent attacks. Stand with them as they witness to Christ.

One of the hardest sayings of Jesus is found in Matt 10 vv 34-36, where He is recorded as telling people “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn "`a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law-- a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'
The sad fact is that the call to follow Jesus divides people. It seems so strange that a message that proclaims peace should cause division. You see, it establishes a clear line of demarcation. Christians are not so much cut off from others, or separated from them, but rather they are heading in a different direction. They are moving against the tide of human affairs. In these chapters 13 and 14 of Acts it becomes evident time and again that
Paul’s message stirs up both love and hatred, acceptance and rejection; so much so that there are threats of violence and actual assaults on him!
The warnings of Jesus were being fulfilled – perhaps even families were divided.
That pattern continues today, with husbands and wives divided, and children and parents split by the faith of one or the other. Following Jesus is such a radically different way of life that clashes of interest and desire are almost inevitable.
Now it may be that you find yourself in a situation where you are divided from family or workmates by your faith, or you have a close friend who is in that situation. It is important to persevere and try to build relationships that will enable you to demonstrate your faith in Jesus, and perhaps even speak about it. However it is worth noting that in two of the towns mentioned in the reading Paul felt it was more appropriate to move on to another place and a fresh set of relationships. Simply pray for wisdom to know how best to handle any difficulties that arise.

For reflection: There are families in our own church that are divided in this way; pray for them now.