Why Did Paul Go Into Synagogues?

Tom:

This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the Book of Acts, and Dave, we are coming right to Acts 17, which maybe within the next week of so we will get to our theme verse for the ministry, Acts:17:10And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
See All... and 11.I like to add 10 because that has the term, Berea.

Dave:

Right.

Tom:

Okay, let me start by reading Acts Chapter 17:1:“Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scripture.”Well, first of all, Dave, I thought Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, what’s he doing going into the synagogue?And this was his manner--why would he do that?

Dave:

The gospel is to the Jew first, then to the Greek.As Paul himself said in Romans:1:16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
See All...:“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth:to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”So, he was really obligated to take the message to the synagogue.Now, today you wouldn’t likely be welcome to the synagogue, but in those days Paul is traveling from a long distance, and he’s a Jew and here he is a visitor, and so, “Do you have anything to say, brethren, well say on, speak out.”So, he had that opportunity.Furthermore, when he got started he probably didn’t stop, didn’t let them interrupt.

Tom:

Now Dave, it says, “he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures.”

Dave:

Right.

Tom:

What’s going on here, they didn’t have the New Testament.

Dave:

Of course--well, let’s go to 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul says, This is the gospel that I preached unto you; how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.So, he preached the gospel from the Old Testament, and Tom, I believe we should do the same, because there are hundreds of prophecies telling us how we would know who the Messiah was when He came.How else can you do it?I think that we need to give our young people especially, and older ones as well, a solid foundation.Give me a reason why you believe what you believe.Why is Jesus the Christ?So, Paul,--it says this was his modus operands, this is how he preached the gospel.He reasons with them out of the Scriptures, and he said, Look what your prophets--These are Hebrew prophets!How about Isaiah?“For unto us a child is born.”Well, that’s the babe born in Bethlehem.“Unto us a Son is given.”O, that must be the--wait a minute--does it say that God has a Son?Well, it does, Psalm 2:“Kiss the Son lest He be angry, and you perish from the way.”“Thou art my Son” Psalm 2 says.And how about Proverbs 30, Agur, the prophet is being quoted by Solomon, and he says:“Who created this universe” what is His name, and what is His Son’s name if thou canst tell”?How about that?O, the Creator of the universe has a Son!Well, what do you know!And then, if you went to Daniel, remember?Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego, thrown in this furnace, and Nebuchadnezzar is shocked, he said:“Didn’t we throw three men in there?There’s four of them walking in there walking around, and the fourth one looks like the Son of God!Okay, and when you get a little further into Isaiah:9:6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
See All...:His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor--good reason we go to Jesus for counsel, not to some psychological counselor.His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God---wait a minute!This babe born in Bethlehem is The mighty God?It’s what the Hebrew prophets said.And then it gets even more amazing---The everlasting Father.So, when Jesus, born of a virgin as the Scriptures foretold, when Jesus said:I and my Father are One, that’s John 10, around Verse 30, 32 or whatever, the Jews took up stones to stone Him.And He said:I’ve done a lot of good deeds, for which of these good deeds do you stone me?They said:For a good deed we stone thee not, but because thou being a man maketh thyself out to be God.O, it’s a crime for the Messiah to say that He is God?Come on!That’s what the Scripture said, their own Scriptures.So, Jesus was not coming up with something new.So that’s what Paul is presenting to them.He’s opening, and then Verse 3, alleging, arguing that Christ must need to have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ.

Tom:

The Messiah.

Dave:

Yeah, it’s all right there, guys in your own Scriptures.How can you deny it?Well, Tom, they couldn’t believe that the Messiah was God.Remember, they asked Jesus some tough questions, the Rabbis did, and He confounded them with His answers, like; Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar?Well, show me a coin, He says.Well, who’s image is that on there?Oh, that’s Caesar’s image.Well, you render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God.And that’s a good watch-word for today.

Tom:

Dave, can I interject this?

Dave:

Yeah.

Tom:

I was just in Switzerland, and I went to a place called, in the Latin, (Aventicum?) which was a Roman,--it was really a place where the Romans, who controlled all of Switzerland, had a city.And going through the museum, I got chills, really, because they had coins from this place.They had a gold coin, but then they also had a silver coin, which was a denarius, equivalent to a denarius, and there was an image so clear of Caesar, Caesar Augustus.I mean, it’s not that I wouldn’t believe anyway, but it was so exciting to see this coin with the image of Caesar Augustus.You know, it was the one that Jesus was referring to.

Dave:

Right, exactly, because the Bible is historic.This is not some myth made up, okay.So, Jesus was really the first one, you could say, who prescribed the separation of church and state.You give to God the things that are God, and you give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and don’t mix it up.But Islam does the opposite!Islam establishes a caliphate, they want to do that all over the world, and it is a religious rule.There is no separation between church and state in Islam.

Tom:

Well, Dave, not only that, I just came from Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and I had to explain in the talks that I gave when I was referring to the Church, it’s not the state church.That’s what they think of over there, and after the demise of Christianity, in many ways, for all of Europe.

Dave:

Did you get to the synagogue in Vienna?

Tom:

I did.

Dave:

Saw the guards there?

Tom:

The guards weren’t there only because now they have the guards on the Sabbath when the Jews are present.I mean, there was one guy off to the side, but he tried to keep out of the way.

Dave:

He would be an Israeli.But when I was there, what? a couple of years ago, they had them 24 hours a day.I mean, these are guys with flack jackets, and so forth.Maybe they feel the threat has diminished a bit.But anyway, Tom, back to our passage here.

Tom:

Well, Dave, let me go back over Verse 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.”

Dave:

But Tom, you can understand that it was pretty hard for the Jews to believe.But we nailed this guy to a cross, they took him down and laid him in a tomb.Now you know that the disciples said that it was empty. And of course the Roman guards knew that, too, but they were bribed not to say so.How could some guy that comes to this earth, and he’s rejected, despised and he’s crucified, he couldn’t be the Messiah!So, Paul is dealing with that very thing; he says:He had to suffer these things.He wasn’t the Messiah if He didn’t get crucified because the prophets foretold He would be crucified.Even the verse that I quoted just a little while ago, where all Israel gets saved, you know, we were talking about the Rapture.It says:Zechariah:12:10And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
See All..., “They will look on me whom they have pierced.”Wait a minute!When did God get pierced?“And will mourn because of Him.”Jesus said, I and my Father--well, anyway, all through the Old Testament it says He’s going to be despised and rejected of man, Isaiah 53, He’s going to suffer for our sins, He’s going to die, Rise from the dead, and then they say, O, we couldn’t believe in a Messiah who got crucified.Well, that’s what Paul is dealing with, that this Jesus that I preached unto you, He must be theMessiah because He suffered the very things that the prophets foretold the Messiah would go through and that you thought would be impossible for a Messiah.And I believe that this is the way that we ought to preach the gospel today, as Paul did, from the Old Testament Scriptures.And it all agrees with the New Testament, but that’s the foundation of these prophecies that cannot be denied.