Sermon Tone Analysis

After a successful time in the synagogue in Thessalonica, charges are made against Paul before the local Roman authorities

Acts 17:1-9

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And 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.

5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.

6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.

9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

[1] Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

[2] And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, [3] explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”

[4] And 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.

[5] But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.

[6] And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, [7] and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”

[8] And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.

[9] And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

The charges against Paul are significant: he is accused of “defying the decrees of Caesar” and “advocating another king, Jesus.”

These are dangerous charges indeed.

First, Paul and his companions are troublemakers.

This could be standard rhetoric, although it does seem that wherever Paul goes there is trouble.

But Rome did not particular care for trouble-makers.

Kavin Rowe uses this phrase as the title for his excellent book subtitled “Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age.”

As he points out in his chapter on , to “turn the world upside down” is a grave accusation in the Roman world (p.

96).

Luke used the phrase later in Acts to describe the revolutionary activities of the Sicarii, actions that will result in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem ().

It is possible to take this phrase not as “they are troublemakers” but rather as “they are rebels against the Roman Empire.”

Second, they undermined the decrees of Caesar.

In

Paul says that the congregation has “turned form idols.”

Obviously any pagan Gentiles saved during Paul’s time in the city would have turned from whatever idols they worshiped.

But this “turning from idols” must have included the Roman cult.

If this is the case, then turning from the Roman cult could be understood as an act of disloyalty.

Third, they advocate another king, Jesus.

Third, they advocate another king, Jesus.

In and 5 Paul clearly teaches that Jesus is coming back in power and he will establish his own glorious kingdom (, for example).

This could easily be understood in terms of a change of emperors, that the empire of Rome was about to be supplanted with the empire of Jesus.

It is clear, at least for Kavin Rowe, that “the figure to whom King Jesus is juxtaposed is beyond a doubt the Roman emperor” (p.

99).

In and 5 Paul clearly teaches that Jesus is coming back in power and he will establish his own glorious kingdom (, for example).

This could easily be understood in terms of a change of emperors, that the empire of Rome was about to be supplanted with the empire of Jesus.

It is clear, at least for Kavin Rowe, that “the figure to whom King Jesus is juxtaposed is beyond a doubt the Roman emperor” (p.

99).

Fourth, Paul’s preaching of the gospel challenges the truth Pax Romana (Roman Peace)

Pax Romana (La tin for "Roman Peace") was a long period of relative peace & minimal expansion experienced by the Roman Empire over a span of roughly two hundred years.

During this period, the Roman empire achieved its greatest territorial extent, and its population reached a maximum of up to 70 million people.

Paul says that when Jesus returns, it will be at a time when people are saying “peace and safety,” but they will in fact be destroyed.

Paul says that when Jesus returns, it will be at a time when people are saying “peace and safety,” but they will in fact be destroyed.

Peace and security is exactly what was promised by the Empire, pax Romana meant that the empire was a safe and peaceful place to live.

Paul says there that the peace of Rome is an illusion.

Peace and security is exactly what was promised by the Empire, pax Romana meant that the empire was a safe and peaceful place to live.

Paul says there that the peace of Rome is an illusion.

All of this points to the radical nature of Paul’s gospel from a Roman perspective.

After the Jerusalem Council, we are well aware of how radical the gospel is from a Jewish perspective.

But now we see how dangerous the idea of Jesus can be from a Roman imperial perspective.

Paul is declaring that Jesus is the Real King and that his empire of peace is going to overwhelm the so-called peace of Rome.

This alternative way of viewing the world provoked violent reactions from Rome.

All of this points to the radical nature of Paul’s gospel from a Roman perspective.

After the Jerusalem Council, we are well aware of how radical the gospel is from a Jewish perspective.

But now we see how dangerous the idea of Jesus can be from a Roman imperial perspective.

Paul is declaring that Jesus is the Real King and that his empire of peace is going to overwhelm the so-called peace of Rome.

This alternative way of viewing the world provoked violent reactions from Rome.

Changed Maps

The map of global christianity that our grandparents knew has been turned upside down.

At the start of the 20th century, only ten percent of the world’s Christians lived in the continents of the south and east.

Ninety percent lived in North America and Europe, along with Australia and New Zealand.

But at the start of the 21st century, at least 70 percent of the world’s Christians live in the non-Western world – more appropriately called the majority world.

More Christians worship in Anglican churches in Nigeria each week than in all the Episcopal and Anglican churches of Britain, Europe, and North America combined.

There are more Baptists in Congo than in Britain.

More people in church every Sunday in communist China than in all of Western Europe.

Ten times more Assemblies of God members in Latin America than in the U.S. The old peripheries are now the center.

More Christians worship in Anglican churches in Nigeria each week than in all the Episcopal and Anglican churches of Britain, Europe, and North America combined.

There are more Baptists in Congo than in Britain.

More people in church every Sunday in communist China than in all of Western Europe.

Ten times more Assemblies of God members in Latin America than in the U.S.

So, can the West be re-evangelized?

Only if we unlearn our default ethnocentric assumptions about “real” Christianity (our own) and unlearn our blindness to the ways Western Christianity is infected by cultural idolatry.

It may be more blessed to give than to receive, but it is often harder to receive than to give.

That reverses the polarity of patron and client and makes us uncomfortably aware that what Jesus said to the Laodicean church might apply to us in the West:

So, can the West be re-evangelized?

Only if we unlearn our default ethnocentric assumptions about “real” Christianity (our own) and unlearn our blindness to the ways Western Christianity is infected by cultural idolatry.

It may be more blessed to give than to receive, but it is often harder to receive than to give.

That reverses the polarity of patron and client and makes us uncomfortably aware that what Jesus said to the Laodicean church might apply to us in the West:

NORMAL CHRISTIANITY

Paul was eager to make Rome a base for planned work further to the west in Spain.

Jerusalem was simply one center among many.

Christianity has never had a territorial center.

Our center is the person of Christ, and wherever he is known, there is another potential center of faith and witness.

So, as mission historian Andrew Walls has said, the emergence of genuine world Christianity and the ending of Western assumptions of heartland hegemony simply marks a return to normal Christianity, which looks much more like the New Testament than Christendom ever did.

Paul was eager to make Rome a base for planned work further to the west in Spain.

Jerusalem was simply one center among many.

Christianity has never had a territorial center.

Our center is the person of Christ, and wherever he is known, there is another potential center of faith and witness.

So, as mission historian Andrew Walls has said, the emergence of genuine world Christianity and the ending of Western assumptions of heartland hegemony simply marks a return to normal Christianity, which looks much more like the New Testament than Christendom ever did.

MULTIDIRECTIONAL MISSION

NORMAL MISSION

Mission today is from everywhere, to everywhere.

So another piece of unlearning we must do is breaking the habit of using the term mission field to refer to everywhere else in the world except our home country in the West.

The language of home and mission field is still used by many churches and agencies, but it fundamentally misrepresents reality.

Not only does it perpetuate a patronizing view of the rest of the world as always being on the receiving end of our missionary largesse, but it also fails to recognize the maturity of churches in many other lands.

Christianity probably reached India before it reached Britain.

There was a flourishing church in Ethiopia a century before Patrick evangelized Ireland.

There were churches in Eastern Europe centuries before Europeans reached the shores of North America.

There have been large Christian communities in the Middle East for 2,000 years.

So it is discourteous (at best) and damaging (at worst) when Western mission activity ignores all such ancient expressions of the Christian tradition and lumps all lands abroad as the “mission field,” in comfortable neglect of the fact that the rest of the world church sees the West as one of the toughest mission fields in the world today.

This is not, of course, to suggest that countries of ancient Christian churches need no evangelism, any more than we would exclude nominal Western Christians from the need to hear the true gospel.

But the real mission boundary is not between “Christian countries” and “the mission field,” but between faith and unbelief, and that is a boundary that runs through every land and, indeed, through every local street.