By Argile Smith, Louisiana College
The account of Paul’s journey to Thessalonica in Acts 17 warms and then breaks our hearts. A fountain of joy floods our hearts as we read about the church that Paul started there (17:1-5).
As soon as he arrived in Thessalonica, he visited the synagogue and shared the gospel with everyone who would listen to him. Taking them to the Scriptures, he argued that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, the Messiah promised long ago.
Some of the residents of Thessalonica believed what Paul proclaimed, and they received Christ. Along with the Jewish people who listened to him at the synagogue, Paul shared the gospel with others in the city, and many of them gave their lives to Christ as well.
Paul gathered the new believers together and established a church. He then focused his attention on nurturing them so they would grow to become healthy, vibrant, and resilient disciples.
Our hearts break, however, when we read about what happened next (17:6-15). A handful of jealous Jewish leaders who didn’t take Paul seriously got really angry at him when they saw the impact of the message he preached.
These resentful men put their rage to work by stirring up a mean mob that went after Jason, one of the people who had received Christ. They crafted lies that put Jason in a precarious predicament by making him look like a traitor to Rome.
Jailed because he belonged to the church Paul started, Jason had no choice but to guarantee that the civil disturbance he caused wouldn’t be repeated.
The mob activity didn’t leave Paul any other choice either. He and his fellow missionaries had to leave Thessalonica, and quickly. As much as they hated to do it, they said good-bye to a band of new believers they had formed into new church.
The heartbreaking account becomes even more distressing for us as we follow Paul’s steps from Thessalonica. He went on to Berea, shared the gospel in the synagogue, and saw many people give themselves to Christ. But soon he got into trouble there too.
The same jealous Jewish leaders who had stirred up trouble in Thessalonica had come to Berea with the same malicious intent.
Once more, Paul had to leave in a hurry.
His missionary companions wanted to get him out of town quickly and take him to a place where he would be safe. So, they decided to escort him all the way to Athens. In due time, Timothy and Silas would join him, but not for a while. In the meantime, he would have to be alone.
In those days, getting to/from Berea and Athens would have taken a long time: weeks and maybe even months. However, Paul helped to diminish the distance with intercessory prayer.
In 1 Thessalonians, a letter addressed to the church he had to leave behind, Paul wrote that although he had been taken away from his Christian friends geographically, he never left them spiritually (2:17). He assured them that he prayed for them and he lived in the hope that he would see them again.
Paul went on to confess, however, that at times he feared for their future. In their struggle to stand for Christ in a hostile environment, he feared that they may have been defeated (3:5).
But Timothy brought new joy to his heart when he joined Paul and shared with him a most promising report about the Thessalonian church. He told Paul that the budding congregation had blossomed into a strong fellowship of believers.
Timothy also reported something else, perhaps a side note to Kingdom progress, but certainly a source of personal contentment for Paul. Timothy assured Paul that the Thessalonian Christians still loved him.
In fact, they missed him and the other missionaries as much as he missed them. The believers in Thessalonica longed to see Paul just as much as he wanted to see them again (3:6).
Keep in mind that Paul didn’t go to Thessalonica to start a church so believers would love him. He went there to share the gospel.
Paul wanted nothing more than for the believers there to love the Lord and to devote themselves to Him alone.
He went there to build a church devoted to Christ, not a fan club dedicated to him.
However, in the relatively short time that Paul had spent with them, the Thessalonians had found a place in his heart. Every day when he called their names out to the Lord in prayer, he treasured precious times of priceless fellowship as he helped them to grow in Christ.
Paul would never forget their smiles and tears as they experienced God’s peace for the first time, and he would always rejoice as he reflected on their testimonies about the Lord’s mercy to them because of the gospel that he preached.
But the situation changed, and Paul didn’t have a chance to wrap up his work before he had to leave. He took with him the memories of Christians he loved, and perhaps he also took along the weight of regret that he didn’t finish what he started.
Would believers like Jason resent him for upsetting their lives? The notion may have crossed his mind that they would blame him for their struggles.
He may have read into the silence from Thessalonica the message that they felt betrayed because he left them so suddenly.
How the church felt about Jesus mattered most to Paul. However, how they felt about Paul seemed to also matter, at least a little bit. This seems evident by his testimony of joy over the news that the Thessalonian Christians still loved him and longed to see him again.
Pastors and congregations alike can appreciate Paul’s reaction to the news from the church he planted. Pastors work with churches in order to lead God’s people to love the Lord more and to grow in their devotion to Him alone.
Likewise shepherds who take their flocks to green pastures and clear water in order to nourish them, pastors dedicate themselves to strengthening their congregations in the Lord. In turn, the church will be more productive in Kingdom work.
Pastors don’t work with churches in order to start fan clubs. Instead, they go in order to lead their churches to be healthy expressions of the body of Christ. At the same time, a pastor may secretly wonder how his congregation really feels about him.
Left alone with his thoughts, a pastor may begin to read into the faces of his people the message that they don’t want him around anymore.
Their body language may leave him with the impression that they’re not pleased with him. In those times, a pastor does well to rest assured that the by-product of teaching them to love Jesus more is that they love him too.
Likewise, God’s people in a church do well to share with their pastor (and the other ministers who work with them) that they love him because he has helped them to grow closer to Christ.
And they shouldn’t need to wait until he’s on his way to work with another congregation before they tell him.
Argile Smith Ph.D. is the chairman of Christian Studies, Dean of Chapel, and the Associate Dean of Caskey Divinity School, all at Louisiana College.