Peter, Mark, James, the writer to the Hebrews, Matthew … all looked to Jesus as the basis for a hope that served them well in a troubled world. The roots of their faith are unmistakeably in the Jewish world of the Hebrew Scriptures. The hope they shared was rooted in the fulfilment of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings of those Hebrew Scriptures. The love they shared encompassed the Jewish people and reached out to the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike.
It would be a mistake to imagine that in Paul we break away from that Jewish world and introduce something revolutionary and new.
Paul is Jewish through and through and remains a Jew to the very end: it is as someone who is Jewish that he recognises in Jesus the Messiah, the anointed one of God, the Son of God. As he reaches out beyond the Jewish world to the heart of the Gentile world he is entirely in accord with the Jewish thinking that is reflected in the second part if Isaiah. Just as he had seen a remarkable light on the Road to Damascus, so he was convinced that in Christ was a light for the nations.
Paul’s story is told at length by Luke, a good friend and travelling companion of Paul’s who was also a doctor. Although the details are sometimes difficult to be sure of, especially in the early years Paul’s letters come to life if they are set against the backdrop of the story told in Acts.
Saul of Tarsus - A Jewish Scholar and a Roman Citizen
Bearing the name of the first Jewish King, Saul grew up in Tarsus part of a family of tentmakers, who at some point had been granted the status of ‘Roman Citizen’.
There’s nothing surprising about that. It was part of the genius of the Roman Empire. First, they would conquer a locality and set up an all-powerful military base, subduing the local peoples. Then they would establish peace and with the creation of a city ordered on the basis of Rome they would invite local people to become Roman Citizens with the rights and the responsibilities that went with that citizenship. Thus they established a Pax Romana.
It is no coincidence that it was in Philippi, a Colonia of Rome, that Paul when arrested laid claim to his Roman Citizenship and elicited an apology from the Magistrates for falsely imprisoning him. Even as Paul was making his case the Roman armies were conquering islands on the western extremity of their nation. At the time Paul was in Philippi, the colonia, the Roman armies reached what we now know as Gloucester. They conquered it, set up a military base, subdued the local people and forty years later designated it a Colonia. Within its walls citizens of Rome by birth and by invitation had all the rights and responibilities as if they were in Rome itself.
But Paul as he was by now known did not forget his Jewish roots. When on trial in Jerusalem, at the very end of the story that is narrated in the New Testament, he is proud to lay claim to his Jewishness, and to his scholarship.
NRS Acts 22:3 "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today.
Throughout his writings Paul’s Jewish scholarship is apparent. At the same time he has a deep understanding of the world of the Roman empire too.
Seeing the Light
John Drane suggests that it is sometime after Paul’s return to Antioch and subsequent visit to Jerusalem with famine relief for the followers of Jesus there that the letter to the Galatians is written. Galatia is a province in what is nowadays North Western Turkey but there are grounds for supposing that the word can be used to describe a wider area sometimes associated with the Celts and going as far south as Derbe and Lystra. In that case Galatians may well have been written to those churches.
Galatians
Paul addresses the issue of a ‘Judaising’ element within the church that wants those who follow Jesus first to abide by the Jewish way of life. The first couple of chapters are very auto-biographical as Paul roots his understanding of Christian faith in his own experience. The next couple of chapters explore the story of Abraham and are drawn from his own extensive knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures.
He argues closely from his own experience and from a study of the story of Abraham leading up to his conclusion that Christ sets us free. Chapter 5 is a key chapter and it gets to the heart of what Paul found so liberating in his encounter with Jesus.
1For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
He goes on to say that the important thing is not that people new to following Christ go through such a rite as circumcision, but rather that they have the kind of faith that is put into action in love.
6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working* through love.
The kind of freedom Paul envisages is not the kind of freedom that says ‘anything goes’. It is the kind of freedom that sets people free to live out a life of love for one another.
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters;* only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,* but through love become slaves to one another. 14For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 15If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
It is not that we can generate such a way of living simply by our own efforts. It is, rather, that God will give us that unseen, yet very real strength of the Holy Spirit and produce within us the very characteristics we associate with ‘the Christian way of life’.
22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control.
The one who follows Christ is called to live by the Spirit
25If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 2
Reaching out with the Gospel to the whole world – the second phase
After that key meeting in Jersualem, Paul returns to Antioch in Syria and sets off on the second phase of his missionary travels revisiting those churches in Lystra, Derbe, Iconium and Pisidian Antioch before setting off across the centre of Turkey in a north westerly direction.
His travels, facilitated by the trade routes and straight roads of the Roman Empire take him to Troas where he sees a vision of a man from Macedonia beckoning him across the water to what we think of nowadays as Europe.
So it was he visited first Philippi. The story is told in Acts 15:36 to 18:23.
It is in the Roman Colonia, in the Roman Province of Macedonia, that Paul exercises his rights as a Roman citizen. He worships outside the city wall as you would expect of a Roman Colonia with a group of women, among whom is Lydia and then stays in her home. He heals a slave girl, falls foul of her owners, men who abuse her, and is thrown into gaol. An earthquake, still a frequent occurrence in that part of the world, aroused the fears of the gaoler who, with his family, is baptised when he sees the deep faith of Paul and Silas.
Moving on from Philippi paul visits the nearby city of Thessalonca.
His travels then take him on to Corinth and further to Athens. A key city in the ancient world, it is fascinating to see the way in which Paul responds to the people he is addressing. With a Jewish audience in a Synagogue he draws on the Hebrew Scriptures and his extensive knowledge of them. With a Gentile audience of philosophers and thinkers he draws on his inside experience of Roman Citizenship and his apparent knowledge of the ancient Greeka and Roman world. He starts where people are at … and comes back each time to the one at the heart of his faith, the risen one whom he had met, Jesus.
It would seem to be while on his travels through Corinth to Athens that he wrote the next two letters to the Christian Community in Thessalonica. He was concerned at news of problems in the church of Thessalonica to do with
It is fascinating to see the way in which Paul not only plants churches but he nurtures them in their growth, re-visiting them, keeping in touch by letter.
1 and 2 Thessalonians
Paul writes out of concern for the church in Thessalonica. He begins as ever with personal greetings, goes on to give thanks not just for their faith but also for the way of life they led. Above all, he focuses on their love for one another (3:11-4:12)
They have a concern … what’s going to happen to those who have died already? Paul shares with them an assurance that Jesus will come, though no one knows the time of his coming. Then he shares with them his insight into what happens after death. It is a wonderful thought that goes to the heart of the Christian hope not in a life that simply goes on after death, nor in a life for the soul, but in the resurrection. Tom Wright speaks of the Christian believing in life after life after death. At death it is as if we go to sleep. As in sleep, time passes in an instant, so too seemingly in an instant we are raised at the resurrection of the dead. And that we can be sure of as we look to the resurrection of Jesus. (4:13-18)
The second of his letters addresses similar issues, and finishes with words of encouragement.
Paul’s letters follow the pattern of ancient letter writing, to be seen not least in the wonderful letters of Vindalanda. Personal greetings, followed by thanks, then the substance of the letter – for Paul that usually follows a pattern – doctrinal thinking followed by practical application;, then final greetings. And here, as in the Vindalanda letters a greeting in his own hand.
Reaching out with the Gospel to the whole world – the third phase
What is often known as the third of Paul’s missionary journeys follows as Paul re-visits Ephesus, Corinth and Athens, supporting the churches on the way.
Having visited the Corinthian church in that second phased of his travels he hears bad news about problems in the church – to do with divisions among the leadership, questions of morality, what happens when they meet for the Lord’s Supper, and the conduct of their worship.
1 Corinthians
On hearing the bad news he writes 1 Corinthians. In it he addresses those various issues, coming to a wonderful climax with an appeal to the love that should be at the heart of the Christian faith and its living. 1 Corinthians 13 with its celebration of love is one of the great chapters of the New Testament.
Paul then visits Corinth during this third phase of his missionary work.
2 Corinthians – a second and a third letter from Paul
After leaving Corinth Paul crosses over to Ephesus where he writes once again a second letter. It is quite stern, and some suggest that it is contained in 2 Corinthians 10-13.
That second letter finishes with a prayer that has come to be one we use so often we can easily miss its significance … not least for a church that has had major problems.
It is a prayer that goes to the heart of what is important for Paul. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ – that’s where it all starts, and you have to come back to it. If church is not built on that free gift of forgiving love that is poured out by Christ it’s worth nothing. … the love of God that’s at the heart of church, at the heart of Christianity, at the heart of Paul’s gospel, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit – fellowship is a wonderfully powerful word, it is what marks the recognition of grace and the recognition of belonging in Galatians 2:10, the right hand of fellowship, it is one way of thinking of the Lord’s Supper, communion, it is a wonderful Greek word that means so much, koinonia, it is the mark of being church.
Subsequently, Paul hears much better news from Corinth. They have heeded his words and so he writes a third letter to them. That is contained in 2 Corinthians 1-9.
At its heart Paul’s declaration of the Gospel and all it means for him …
For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 12So death is at work in us, but life in you.
13 But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—‘I believed, and so I spoke’—we also believe, and so we speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. 15Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4)
Reaching out with the Gospel into the whole world – a planned 4th phase
During the third phase of his missionary endeavour Paul had been collecting money for the church back in Jerusalem. As he was making his way back towards Jerusalem he had plans for a fourth phase, taking the Gospel to Rome and beyond to Spain.
There was already a Christian community in Rome and so Paul wrote a letter, preparing the way for his visit to them.
Romans brings together all the great theological themes of the letters to the Galatians and to the church in Corinth, and takes in some of the themes of the letters to Thessalonica too.
When you consider Nero was by now Emperor in Rome, the opening words of the letter are charged with powerful meaning. They tell you what Paul thought of his own calling, the message he had to share and the one who is at the heart of that message. Go on to Southgate Street in Gloucester, ancient Glevum, and you will see the son of God in all his splendour, riding a horse. It is the Emperor Nerva who gave Glevum the status of a Colonia in AD 95, only 30 or so years after Paul was writing to the Romans. Nerva, as were the emperors before him was regarded as ‘deified’, as ‘the son of God’. The credentials were established by genealory and appointment. That’s how Paul establishes Jesus’ credentials
Romans – How Christians Know God – 1-8
He is Son of God by human descent from King David, but also by resurrection of the dead. And as Son of God he demands the allegiance of all. This is powerful, disturbing stuff. After all, the Emperor was considered to be the 'Son of God'. You can see a 'Son of God' on Southgate Street in Gloucester! Nerva was the Emperor who gave Glevum the status of a 'Colonia' in AD 95. The sculpture was put up to mark the 1900th anniversary of the occasion. Nerva is identified as divine in an inscription from a fort, North of Hadrian's Wall, to be found in the Museum of antiquities in Newcastle University. It is an inscription that provides a supposed genealogy establishing the right of Septimus Severius to be Emperor a hundred and twenty years after Nerva.
1Paul, a servant* of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit* of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, 6including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s not long before he goes to the heart of the Gospel in Romans 1:16, 17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith.’
After analysing all that is wrong in Nero’s Rome, he reaches the point at which he identifies all that Jesus has accomplished – it is as if through his death and resurrection he has set us right in a law court, set us free in a slave market, and done more than all that can be achieved through sacrifices in a temple! Romans 3:21-26.
For the follower of Jesus this amounts to nothing less than a resurrection to a new life.
But even then, the Christian is all too aware that in his own strength he can so easily succumb to all that is wrong. The good that I would I do not, the evil that I would not, that I do. Romans 7:14 has to be quoted for all its power in Tyndale’s masterful use of single syllable words for all but the weightiest and scariest!
So how can the Christian hope to know God? It is only by the power of the Spirit. Hardly mentioned in chapters 1-7 in chapter 8 Paul comes to a climax in his exposition of what it means to know God as repeatedly he comes back to the unseen yet very real power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8).
His exploration comes to an end with a stirring statement of faith …
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written,37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Israel and Salvation – 9-11
Paul might be writing to Rome, but he is still aware of those Jewish roots. So Romans 9-11 explores the place of Israel in God’s plan for salvation.
It finishes on a note of mystery.
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways! 34‘For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?’ 35‘Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?’ 36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen. *
But that for Paul is by no means the end of the story.
How Christians Should Behave – 12-16
The little word ‘Therefore …’ at the beginning of chapter 12 leads him on to a stirring appeal to every follower of Jesus to live out the Christian life.
We are called to be, in Martin Luther King’s take on Romans 12, ‘transformed nonconformists’. In Romans 12 is a wonderful statement of what it takes to be a follower of Jesus that is shot through with the thinking of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
More practical guidelines follow before Paul finishes in chapter 16 with greetings to all the people he knows personally in the church in Rome and to others too.
The Best Laid Plans
Friends advise Paul not to take the collection back to Jerusalem personally. He ignores their advice, goes to Jerusalem is arrested and all his plans are spoiled … or are they?
It would be a mistake to imagine that in Paul we break away from that Jewish world and introduce something revolutionary and new.
Paul is Jewish through and through and remains a Jew to the very end: it is as someone who is Jewish that he recognises in Jesus the Messiah, the anointed one of God, the Son of God. As he reaches out beyond the Jewish world to the heart of the Gentile world he is entirely in accord with the Jewish thinking that is reflected in the second part if Isaiah. Just as he had seen a remarkable light on the Road to Damascus, so he was convinced that in Christ was a light for the nations.
Paul’s story is told at length by Luke, a good friend and travelling companion of Paul’s who was also a doctor. Although the details are sometimes difficult to be sure of, especially in the early years Paul’s letters come to life if they are set against the backdrop of the story told in Acts.
Saul of Tarsus - A Jewish Scholar and a Roman Citizen
Bearing the name of the first Jewish King, Saul grew up in Tarsus part of a family of tentmakers, who at some point had been granted the status of ‘Roman Citizen’.
There’s nothing surprising about that. It was part of the genius of the Roman Empire. First, they would conquer a locality and set up an all-powerful military base, subduing the local peoples. Then they would establish peace and with the creation of a city ordered on the basis of Rome they would invite local people to become Roman Citizens with the rights and the responsibilities that went with that citizenship. Thus they established a Pax Romana.
It is no coincidence that it was in Philippi, a Colonia of Rome, that Paul when arrested laid claim to his Roman Citizenship and elicited an apology from the Magistrates for falsely imprisoning him. Even as Paul was making his case the Roman armies were conquering islands on the western extremity of their nation. At the time Paul was in Philippi, the colonia, the Roman armies reached what we now know as Gloucester. They conquered it, set up a military base, subdued the local people and forty years later designated it a Colonia. Within its walls citizens of Rome by birth and by invitation had all the rights and responibilities as if they were in Rome itself.
But Paul as he was by now known did not forget his Jewish roots. When on trial in Jerusalem, at the very end of the story that is narrated in the New Testament, he is proud to lay claim to his Jewishness, and to his scholarship.
NRS Acts 22:3 "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today.
Throughout his writings Paul’s Jewish scholarship is apparent. At the same time he has a deep understanding of the world of the Roman empire too.
Seeing the Light
Vigorous in his persecution of the Christian community in Jerusalem, he had a life transforming experience of the risen Jesus Christ as he was traveling to Damascus in pursuit of followers of Jesus who were fleeing his persecution. The story is told as it happened in Acts 9 and then twice more as Paul recalls it as he is put on trial.
He experiences ‘a light from heaven’ Acts 9.3
He hears a voice: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
He asks a question, “Who are you, Lord?”
He receives an answer: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
He is instructed what to do – to go into the city and await instruction.
That experience shapes much of his thinking later. To persecute the body of followers of Jesus was to persecute Jesus himself. Paul came to think of the church as the Body of Christ.
He was sure. It was the risen Jesus he had encountered. He considered himself to have seen the risen Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:1ff). In his encounter with Jesus he knew him to be ‘Lord’. This is the basic statement of faith that he later comes to ask of those who would follow Jesus: that they recocnise, Jesus is Lord.
He is commissioned directly by Jesus. He considers himself ‘sent’ by Jesus, the word ‘apostle’ means ‘one who is sent’.
He had seen the light. It is fascinating to track through references to ‘light’ in the letters and read them ‘in the light of’ that encounter on the Road to Damascus. Nowhere is that more powerfully put than in 2 Corinthians 4:5-6
For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
From the Damascus Road to Antioch and on to Jerusalem
It is difficult to be precise about the sequence of events that followed on from the encounter with the risen Christ Paul had on the road to Damascus. Paul describes it himself in what many consider to be his first letter, Galatians; Luke describes the same events in Acts. It is difficult to fit the two accounts together with precision. This is as John Drane re-constructs it in his Introduction to the New Testament.
Paul’s conversion (Acts 9:3-19, 22:6-16; 26:9-18; Galatians 1:11-17)
A brief stay in Damascus (Acts 9:19b)
A visit to ‘Arabia’ (Galatians 1:17-18)
Work in Damascus for something like three years (Galatians 1:17; possibly Acts 9:20-22)
Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem after his conversion (Acts 9:26-30; Galatians 1:18-20)
Paul’s stay in Tarsus (Acts 9:30; 11:25; Galatians 1:21)
Paul joins the Christian movement among the Gentiles in Antioch (Acts 11:20-24)
Paul joins Barnabas in Antioch (Acts 11:25-26)
Paul and Barnabas visit Jerusalem with famine relief for the church there, fourteen years after Paul’s conversion (Acts 11:29-30; 12:25; Galatians 2:1-10)
Reaching out with the Gospel to the whole world – the first phase
From Antioch Paul journeys over to Cyprus and then to mainland Asia Minor traveling through another Anioch in Pisidia and on to Iconium, Lystra and Derbe before retracing their steps and returning to Antioch in Syria.
On their travels they visit Jewish synagogues in towns that they visit and speak also to the Gentiles, establishing churches that are then re-visited.
John Drane suggests that it is sometime after Paul’s return to Antioch and subsequent visit to Jerusalem with famine relief for the followers of Jesus there that the letter to the Galatians is written. Galatia is a province in what is nowadays North Western Turkey but there are grounds for supposing that the word can be used to describe a wider area sometimes associated with the Celts and going as far south as Derbe and Lystra. In that case Galatians may well have been written to those churches.
Galatians
Paul addresses the issue of a ‘Judaising’ element within the church that wants those who follow Jesus first to abide by the Jewish way of life. The first couple of chapters are very auto-biographical as Paul roots his understanding of Christian faith in his own experience. The next couple of chapters explore the story of Abraham and are drawn from his own extensive knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures.
He argues closely from his own experience and from a study of the story of Abraham leading up to his conclusion that Christ sets us free. Chapter 5 is a key chapter and it gets to the heart of what Paul found so liberating in his encounter with Jesus.
1For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
He goes on to say that the important thing is not that people new to following Christ go through such a rite as circumcision, but rather that they have the kind of faith that is put into action in love.
6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working* through love.
The kind of freedom Paul envisages is not the kind of freedom that says ‘anything goes’. It is the kind of freedom that sets people free to live out a life of love for one another.
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters;* only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,* but through love become slaves to one another. 14For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 15If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
It is not that we can generate such a way of living simply by our own efforts. It is, rather, that God will give us that unseen, yet very real strength of the Holy Spirit and produce within us the very characteristics we associate with ‘the Christian way of life’.
22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control.
The one who follows Christ is called to live by the Spirit
25If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. 2
Reaching out with the Gospel to the whole world – the second phase
After that key meeting in Jersualem, Paul returns to Antioch in Syria and sets off on the second phase of his missionary travels revisiting those churches in Lystra, Derbe, Iconium and Pisidian Antioch before setting off across the centre of Turkey in a north westerly direction.
His travels, facilitated by the trade routes and straight roads of the Roman Empire take him to Troas where he sees a vision of a man from Macedonia beckoning him across the water to what we think of nowadays as Europe.
So it was he visited first Philippi. The story is told in Acts 15:36 to 18:23.
It is in the Roman Colonia, in the Roman Province of Macedonia, that Paul exercises his rights as a Roman citizen. He worships outside the city wall as you would expect of a Roman Colonia with a group of women, among whom is Lydia and then stays in her home. He heals a slave girl, falls foul of her owners, men who abuse her, and is thrown into gaol. An earthquake, still a frequent occurrence in that part of the world, aroused the fears of the gaoler who, with his family, is baptised when he sees the deep faith of Paul and Silas.
Moving on from Philippi paul visits the nearby city of Thessalonca.
His travels then take him on to Corinth and further to Athens. A key city in the ancient world, it is fascinating to see the way in which Paul responds to the people he is addressing. With a Jewish audience in a Synagogue he draws on the Hebrew Scriptures and his extensive knowledge of them. With a Gentile audience of philosophers and thinkers he draws on his inside experience of Roman Citizenship and his apparent knowledge of the ancient Greeka and Roman world. He starts where people are at … and comes back each time to the one at the heart of his faith, the risen one whom he had met, Jesus.
It would seem to be while on his travels through Corinth to Athens that he wrote the next two letters to the Christian Community in Thessalonica. He was concerned at news of problems in the church of Thessalonica to do with
It is fascinating to see the way in which Paul not only plants churches but he nurtures them in their growth, re-visiting them, keeping in touch by letter.
1 and 2 Thessalonians
Paul writes out of concern for the church in Thessalonica. He begins as ever with personal greetings, goes on to give thanks not just for their faith but also for the way of life they led. Above all, he focuses on their love for one another (3:11-4:12)
They have a concern … what’s going to happen to those who have died already? Paul shares with them an assurance that Jesus will come, though no one knows the time of his coming. Then he shares with them his insight into what happens after death. It is a wonderful thought that goes to the heart of the Christian hope not in a life that simply goes on after death, nor in a life for the soul, but in the resurrection. Tom Wright speaks of the Christian believing in life after life after death. At death it is as if we go to sleep. As in sleep, time passes in an instant, so too seemingly in an instant we are raised at the resurrection of the dead. And that we can be sure of as we look to the resurrection of Jesus. (4:13-18)
The second of his letters addresses similar issues, and finishes with words of encouragement.
Paul’s letters follow the pattern of ancient letter writing, to be seen not least in the wonderful letters of Vindalanda. Personal greetings, followed by thanks, then the substance of the letter – for Paul that usually follows a pattern – doctrinal thinking followed by practical application;, then final greetings. And here, as in the Vindalanda letters a greeting in his own hand.
Reaching out with the Gospel to the whole world – the third phase
What is often known as the third of Paul’s missionary journeys follows as Paul re-visits Ephesus, Corinth and Athens, supporting the churches on the way.
Having visited the Corinthian church in that second phased of his travels he hears bad news about problems in the church – to do with divisions among the leadership, questions of morality, what happens when they meet for the Lord’s Supper, and the conduct of their worship.
1 Corinthians
On hearing the bad news he writes 1 Corinthians. In it he addresses those various issues, coming to a wonderful climax with an appeal to the love that should be at the heart of the Christian faith and its living. 1 Corinthians 13 with its celebration of love is one of the great chapters of the New Testament.
Paul then visits Corinth during this third phase of his missionary work.
2 Corinthians – a second and a third letter from Paul
After leaving Corinth Paul crosses over to Ephesus where he writes once again a second letter. It is quite stern, and some suggest that it is contained in 2 Corinthians 10-13.
That second letter finishes with a prayer that has come to be one we use so often we can easily miss its significance … not least for a church that has had major problems.
It is a prayer that goes to the heart of what is important for Paul. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ – that’s where it all starts, and you have to come back to it. If church is not built on that free gift of forgiving love that is poured out by Christ it’s worth nothing. … the love of God that’s at the heart of church, at the heart of Christianity, at the heart of Paul’s gospel, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit – fellowship is a wonderfully powerful word, it is what marks the recognition of grace and the recognition of belonging in Galatians 2:10, the right hand of fellowship, it is one way of thinking of the Lord’s Supper, communion, it is a wonderful Greek word that means so much, koinonia, it is the mark of being church.
Subsequently, Paul hears much better news from Corinth. They have heeded his words and so he writes a third letter to them. That is contained in 2 Corinthians 1-9.
At its heart Paul’s declaration of the Gospel and all it means for him …
For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 12So death is at work in us, but life in you.
13 But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—‘I believed, and so I spoke’—we also believe, and so we speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. 15Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4)
Reaching out with the Gospel into the whole world – a planned 4th phase
During the third phase of his missionary endeavour Paul had been collecting money for the church back in Jerusalem. As he was making his way back towards Jerusalem he had plans for a fourth phase, taking the Gospel to Rome and beyond to Spain.
There was already a Christian community in Rome and so Paul wrote a letter, preparing the way for his visit to them.
Romans brings together all the great theological themes of the letters to the Galatians and to the church in Corinth, and takes in some of the themes of the letters to Thessalonica too.
When you consider Nero was by now Emperor in Rome, the opening words of the letter are charged with powerful meaning. They tell you what Paul thought of his own calling, the message he had to share and the one who is at the heart of that message. Go on to Southgate Street in Gloucester, ancient Glevum, and you will see the son of God in all his splendour, riding a horse. It is the Emperor Nerva who gave Glevum the status of a Colonia in AD 95, only 30 or so years after Paul was writing to the Romans. Nerva, as were the emperors before him was regarded as ‘deified’, as ‘the son of God’. The credentials were established by genealory and appointment. That’s how Paul establishes Jesus’ credentials
Romans – How Christians Know God – 1-8
He is Son of God by human descent from King David, but also by resurrection of the dead. And as Son of God he demands the allegiance of all. This is powerful, disturbing stuff. After all, the Emperor was considered to be the 'Son of God'. You can see a 'Son of God' on Southgate Street in Gloucester! Nerva was the Emperor who gave Glevum the status of a 'Colonia' in AD 95. The sculpture was put up to mark the 1900th anniversary of the occasion. Nerva is identified as divine in an inscription from a fort, North of Hadrian's Wall, to be found in the Museum of antiquities in Newcastle University. It is an inscription that provides a supposed genealogy establishing the right of Septimus Severius to be Emperor a hundred and twenty years after Nerva.
1Paul, a servant* of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit* of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, 6including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,7 To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s not long before he goes to the heart of the Gospel in Romans 1:16, 17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith.’
After analysing all that is wrong in Nero’s Rome, he reaches the point at which he identifies all that Jesus has accomplished – it is as if through his death and resurrection he has set us right in a law court, set us free in a slave market, and done more than all that can be achieved through sacrifices in a temple! Romans 3:21-26.
For the follower of Jesus this amounts to nothing less than a resurrection to a new life.
But even then, the Christian is all too aware that in his own strength he can so easily succumb to all that is wrong. The good that I would I do not, the evil that I would not, that I do. Romans 7:14 has to be quoted for all its power in Tyndale’s masterful use of single syllable words for all but the weightiest and scariest!
So how can the Christian hope to know God? It is only by the power of the Spirit. Hardly mentioned in chapters 1-7 in chapter 8 Paul comes to a climax in his exposition of what it means to know God as repeatedly he comes back to the unseen yet very real power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8).
His exploration comes to an end with a stirring statement of faith …
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written,37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Israel and Salvation – 9-11
Paul might be writing to Rome, but he is still aware of those Jewish roots. So Romans 9-11 explores the place of Israel in God’s plan for salvation.
It finishes on a note of mystery.
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways! 34‘For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?’ 35‘Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?’ 36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen. *
But that for Paul is by no means the end of the story.
How Christians Should Behave – 12-16
The little word ‘Therefore …’ at the beginning of chapter 12 leads him on to a stirring appeal to every follower of Jesus to live out the Christian life.
We are called to be, in Martin Luther King’s take on Romans 12, ‘transformed nonconformists’. In Romans 12 is a wonderful statement of what it takes to be a follower of Jesus that is shot through with the thinking of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
More practical guidelines follow before Paul finishes in chapter 16 with greetings to all the people he knows personally in the church in Rome and to others too.
The Best Laid Plans
Friends advise Paul not to take the collection back to Jerusalem personally. He ignores their advice, goes to Jerusalem is arrested and all his plans are spoiled … or are they?
No comments:
Post a Comment