THE KING’S BUSINESS
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the influence of a maddened mob they had cast two men into prison, after having brutally beaten them, without trial. When morning comes they are anxious to get the men off their hands, but find themselves in still greater difficulty, for one of the men at least, whom they had thus treated, was a Roman citizen, and they discovered that they had committed a very grave offense against the Roman law in thus treating a Roman citizen. Magistrates who allow themselyes to be governed by mobs will always get themselves into trouble. Paul stood up for his rights under, the Roman law up to a certain point. He did this, not so much to secure his own safety as to get a hold on the leading people that he might use afterward to their salvation. The magistrates were thoroughly humbled, they came and besought” the men whom they had so greatly wronged. Not only that, they “brought them out” with all honor and earnestly asked them to leave the city, If they had had real good sense 1 they would have implored them to have ' stayed in the city, but they were afraid of the difficulties in which they might involve themselves.; Paul and Silas took their own time about going; they left in no unseemly haste, but went back to the home of Lydia and gathered the brethren together and exhorted them, and then departed. Their work in Philippi for the time was done, and it was well done for the church in Philippi became one of the most faithful of all the churches that Paul established, as is evident from the Epistle to the Philippians. From the church in this t very place where he had suffered such great wrong, Paul was to receive more immediate and constant support than any other church that he established (Phil. 4:15-18). Sunday, February 18 . Acts 17 : 1 - 3 . Paul at this time had a quite uniform method of procedure in his missionary work: first,, he began with the Jews at their regular place of meeting, the syna- - gogue (cf. vs, 10 , 17; ch. 9:20; 13:5; 14:1; 18:4; 19:8). Second, he made use of the
Sabbath day, the regular Jewish day of assembly. Those already Christians met on the first' day of the week for their own distinctive services (Acts 20:7), but in order to reach the Jews, Paul wisely made use of their day, as missionaries among the Jews still do. '-However, he did not regard the Jewish Sabbath as being obligatory for Gentile believers, in fact he protested emphatically against imposing the Jewish' Sabbath upon Gentile believers (Col. 2:16, 17), just as he protested against imposing the Jewish rite of circumcision upon Gen tile believers. But as the seventh day of the week was the day upon which Jews met for consideration ofsthe Word of G 6 d, he wisely used that day and made a “custom” of doing So. There was a third point in his customary method of procedure, “he reasoned with them from the Scriptures.” Certainly this was the wisest method he could pursue, and we today could not 'improve upon his -method. Nothing else has the power to convince, convict and convert and regenerate men that the Word of God has (Eph. 6:17; Jer. 23:29;, 2 Tim. 3:15-17; Jas. 1:18;' 1 Peter 1:23; Luke 8:11), Furthermore, the best way to settle the truth on any subject is to find what the Scriptures have to say upon it. The Scrip tures are the Word of God, and therefore are the final authority.on all questions of, faith and conduct. If we can prove a thing from the Scriptures it is settled. Of course the Scriptures that Paul used were the Old Testament Scriptures, which both he and his hearers accepted as the Word of God, and which the Lord JeSus endorsed as the Word of God (Mark 7:13; Matt. 5.18; Luke 16:31; 24:27, 44). In using the Old Testament Scriptures as a final court of appeal, Paul was following in the- footsteps of the Lord Jesus (John 10:35). In Paul s reasoning from the Scriptures he emphasized three points in his opening (or expounding) and proclamation of the truth therein contained. The first point was that the Christ must sutler.” This was not the conception of the Christ the Jews at that time held. They had only noticed those
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