1 ¶ For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance
in unto you, that it was not in vain: 2
But even after that we had suffered before, and were shamefully
entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you
the gospel of God with much contention.
Remember how Paul was treated at Philippi? It left us one of
the greatest verses in the Bible, one that, through two thousand years of
church-state madness, makes salvation understandable.
Philippi is where Paul and company met Lydia, the seller of
the purple dye that was so valued among the elite, as they preached to the
women who had come down to the river to pray. It was at her house that Paul and
his associates stayed while in Philippi. When they had cast a devil out of a
woman who was shouting out who they were and what their mission was her
employers had Paul and the others arrested, after which they were whipped and imprisoned.
It was that night when an earthquake opened the doors and
released them from their bonds as they sang praises and prayed but all the
prisoners stayed put and the jailer was determined to commit suicide thinking
that they had all escaped. He uttered the famous words, “Sirs, what must I do
to be saved?” Paul then said,
Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
After their release at Philippi they came to Thessalonica
where many converts were made in spite of the Jews’ harassment.
Acts 17:1 ¶ Now when they had passed through Amphipolis
and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:
2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in
unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
3 Opening and alleging, that Christ must
needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I
preach unto you, is Christ. 4 And 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. 5 But the Jews which believed not, moved with
envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a
company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason,
and sought to bring them out to the people. 6
And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto
the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down
are come hither also; 7 Whom Jason hath
received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there
is another king, one Jesus. 8 And they
troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things.
9 And when they had taken security of
Jason, and of the other, they let them go.
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