I spent a year with a woman who truly wanted to believe in God and follow Jesus. But her mind kept pushing back.
Simple explanations and shallow answers weren’t enough for her. She needed something deeper. I believe the Holy Spirit led me to invite her to read the Bible with me.
We read sections of Scripture on our own and met once a month to talk about what we had read. We worked through one of the Gospels and then, surprisingly, the book of Job.
She could relate to Job and to some of his complaints to the Lord. In the end, the Holy Spirit opened her mind to God’s reality, to the Father’s love shown through Jesus, and to His desire to be her friend.
Paul and Silas with the Jewish Leaders
Just as He led me, the Holy Spirit guided Paul and Silas to patiently connect with the Jewish leaders in Thessalonica.
And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days argued with them from the scriptures.
— [Acts 17:2]
We can be confident that the synagogue leaders in Thessalonica knew the Hebrew Bible well. Paul was an expert in the Scriptures too. He could guide them from the beginning of God’s people with Abraham, through Moses, David, and the prophets, all the way to God’s final purpose: the coming of Jesus and the arrival of God’s kingdom.
He concluded that it was God’s plan for the long-awaited Messiah to be crucified. That must have sounded very strange to people who expected the Messiah to be God’s conquering king. Yet that is exactly what happened.
[He was] explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This is the Messiah, Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.”
— [Acts 17:3]
Paul showed that this had been God’s plan from the beginning. It was there in the sacrificial system, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, and in the events in Jerusalem in AD 33. The crucifixion and resurrection fulfilled God’s work to forgive sins once and for all.
Paul and Silas surely wanted everyone in the synagogue to believe in Jesus, but that didn’t happen. The good news was that some believed. The sad news was that others refused to respond to the good news of God’s love.
Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.
— [Acts 17:4]
“Yes” and “No” to the Good News
Anyone who has tried to help others follow Jesus has heard both answers to the good news of God’s love: yes and no.
I remember pastoring a small church where the building was so small that I could see the slightest movement on the back row. One man was clearly being drawn to the Savior. He gripped the pew in front of him so tightly that his knuckles turned white. But when the moment came to decide, he let go of the pew, walked out the door, and never came back to church.
In that same church, a woman had resisted following God for nearly 50 years. Then one day her daughter and granddaughter were baptized, and she said, “I want to be baptized too.” I had already stepped out of the baptistry and changed into my street clothes, but I went back and put on a robe. She put on her daughter’s wet robe and was baptized.
That woman became a joyful follower of the Lord and a leader in the church. The same gospel came to two people. One said, “I want it.” The other sadly said, “I don’t.”
The response in Thessalonica has likely been repeated millions of times through the centuries. Even when the gospel is presented through the Holy Spirit with power, wisdom, clarity, and conviction, some will say yes and some will say no.
Let’s pray for more yeses than nos.
YouTube Discussion
Today Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed Acts 17:1–4.
