37. The Second Missionary Journey of the Apostle Paul. The Beginning of the Preaching of the Gospel in Europe

On returning to Antioch, the Apostle Paul, as the chief apostle of the pagan world, naturally desired to revisit the churches he had founded and to assure himself of the fruits of his preaching. And he set out on his second missionary journey, which was accompanied by the greatest consequences for the Christian church. His companion on this occasion was Silas, or Silvanus, who, as can be seen from his Roman name itself, was apparently like the apostle himself a Roman citizen, had connections with the pagan world, and could therefore be the most suitable assistant and fellow worker for the apostle of the gentiles.

Sent forth with the good wishes of the brethren, the apostles set out from Antioch first to Syria and Cilicia, where they strengthened the churches. Then they visited the cities of Derbe and Lystra, and in the latter the Apostle Paul acquired a new co-worker—the young Timothy, who became the most beloved and devoted disciple of the great apostle. He was the son of the widow Eunice, who, being a devout Jewish woman but married to a Greek, had given her son a good upbringing—in the fear of God and in respect for his elders. From childhood he had studied the Holy Scriptures and was by his upbringing as well as by his character a man capable of every self-sacrifice for the faith, and therefore was highly valued by the apostle. Despite his youth, he resolved to accompany the Apostle Paul on his great missionary journey and rendered important services both to the apostle personally and to the whole Christian church.

From Lystra the Apostle Paul with his two co-workers proceeded further, and “as they went through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.” They then passed through Phrygia and Galatia, and in this latter region a church was founded to which the Apostle Paul would later address a special epistle (the Epistle to the Galatians). The population of this region was descended from that great Celtic horde which, setting out from the vast steppes of Central Asia, had moved through Asia Minor into Europe. There under the name of Gauls they had four centuries before Christ burned and plundered Rome, and in the third century had filled northern Greece with the horrors of bloodshed and destructive barbarism. A portion of them settled in the central uplands of Asia Minor. There they adopted the Greek language and consequently came to be called Gallo-Greeks, and became fanatical worshipers of Cybele, the mother of the gods, whose idolatry was accompanied by the most vile orgies, which had an irresistible attraction for this lighthearted and impressionable people. In Galatia the apostle was detained for quite a prolonged time by an attack of a particular illness from which he frequently suffered and which he regarded as a “thorn in the flesh” purposely given to him so that he might feel his own insignificance and not be elated. According to the most probable conjecture, this was a severe eye condition which at times subjected the apostle to terrible suffering, rendered him completely helpless, and deprived him of all possibility of activity. The preaching in Galatia was successful. Responsive to everything new and good, the Galatians quickly accepted the Gospel and were baptized; but their inconstancy caused the apostle no little grief, of which he complains in his letter to them.

From Galatia the direct route led to the neighboring region of Bithynia, and the apostles wished to go there; “but the Spirit did not allow them.” A more extensive and glorious arena lay before them, and this was revealed to the Apostle Paul in Troas. Great historical memories were associated with this city. Four centuries before, the great Macedonian conqueror, crossing the Hellespont to liberate the peoples of Asia from the yoke of eastern despotism that weighed upon them, had in this very city—which stood on the site of ancient Troy—indulged dreams of a glory that would eclipse the glory of his great ancestor Achilles. And now in this same city there was a vision calling the Apostle Paul to a conquest that was to eclipse the glory of the great Macedonian conqueror. There appeared to him “a man of Macedonia, standing there, urging him and saying: Come over to Macedonia and help us.” This was the cry of the western world, asking the apostle to come and free it from the yoke of unbelief and sin that weighed upon it. The people that had once led Europe to conquer Asia by the sword now first called to itself conquerors with that spiritual weapon which came out of Asia.

And the apostle immediately responded to the call. Seeing in this a call from the Lord to preach there, he decided to set out for Macedonia. At this time, among others, Luke the beloved physician joined him, who, helping the apostle with his medical art in his bodily infirmities, resolved to follow him also on his great journey through Europe.

Boarding a ship at Troas, the preachers arrived in two days at the Greek city of Neapolis and from there made their way to Philippi, the principal city of eastern Macedonia. Associated with this city was the memory of the defeat of Brutus and Cassius, the last defenders of the republic in Rome. In memory of this event the Emperor Augustus founded a Roman colony near the site of the ancient city founded by the great Macedonian, and this colony grew into a large city having more of a military than a commercial character. Its population consisted of Roman settlers and Greeks, and among them were also some Jews, but so few that they did not even have a synagogue, but only a house of prayer outside the city by a river. On the Sabbath day the apostles went there, and their preaching was crowned with the conversion of a wealthy woman from the city of Thyatira, Lydia, who traded in purple cloth in various cities. Convinced by the Apostle Paul’s preaching, she was baptized with all her household and showed the apostle and his companions the most cordial hospitality. But this good beginning of preaching in Macedonia was soon overshadowed by a very unpleasant occurrence. Greek paganism at this time had already lost its real force, and faith in the gods of Olympus had given way to a wretched mixture of skepticism and superstition, the latter becoming all the more miserable because no few eager seekers of easy gain had appeared at the expense of the credulity of the masses. The apostles encountered just such a circumstance. On the way to the house of prayer they met a slave girl who, by popular belief, was possessed by a spirit of divination similar to that of the famous Delphic Pythia. In reality the poor creature was possessed by a demon, but she had become renowned for her supposed prophecies and brought her masters great profit thereby. Sensing the presence of men who had been given authority to cast out demons, she began to follow them persistently, repeatedly crying out: “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” This continued for several days, and since she was hindering the preaching, the Apostle Paul in the name of Jesus Christ cast the spirit out of her; she was healed and ceased to prophesy. But this healing of the slave girl aroused extreme indignation in her masters, for they had been deprived of a good income. And so they fell upon the apostles in fury, dragged them to the marketplace before the rulers, and accused them of being Jews who were disturbing the city and advocating customs that were unlawful for Romans to accept or practice. The city mob took their side, and after them, without investigating the matter, the city magistrates as well, who “tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely.” Concluding from such an order that the prisoners were guilty of some particularly serious crime, the jailer threw them into the innermost and most secure part of the prison, and in addition fastened their feet in the stocks—that is, in a timber with five holes into which the hands, feet, and neck of criminals were fastened. The jailer on this occasion fastened only the apostles’ feet in the stocks, but even this position after the beatings they had received in the marketplace was agonizingly painful. But the great preachers did not lose heart, and throughout the night they filled the gloomy walls of the prison with sweet hymns, to which all the prisoners involuntarily listened. And then at exactly midnight there was suddenly a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. The terrible shock opened the doors of the prison; the chains of the prisoners fell from the rings in the wall (Acts 16:26). Woken from sleep and seeing the doors of the prison open, the prison chief drew his sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that his prisoners had escaped, in which case he himself would have to answer for them with his life. Suicide at that time was a common refuge from disaster, and in Philippi it would perhaps have been considered not only natural but even heroic. The Apostle Paul however immediately noticed his intention, and as always in complete command of himself even amid danger, cried out to him in a loud voice: “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” All these circumstances—the earthquake, the onset of sudden terror, the surge of joy that had averted him from suicide, the modest patience and calm forgiveness on the part of the prisoners—melted this man’s heart. Asking for a light, he rushed into the interior of the prison and in trembling agitation fell at the feet of Paul and Silas. Then, freeing their feet from the stocks and leading them out of the inner confinement, he cried: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The very tone of his speech showed deep reverence. And the apostles answered him: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Deeply moved, the prison chief immediately gathered all his family, washed their wounds, and having received the first lessons of evangelical truth, was baptized with all his household. This turn of events greatly disconcerted the city magistrates, and they, fearing some vengeance upon themselves for the previous day’s cruelties, sent lictors with orders to release the apostles and let them go quickly. But the Apostle Paul wished to give the magistrates a lesson in caution for the future as well. Sending back the lictors for the magistrates themselves, the apostle said to them sternly: “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” The lictors went to the magistrates with this message and it threw the latter into no small alarm. Through their ignorance, prejudice, and official arrogance, they had committed a flagrant violation of Roman law. They had condemned two Roman citizens without giving them the lawful right to open trial, and having condemned them had insulted the high right and privilege of citizenship by leading them to the pillory and flogging them. By this they had violated Roman law in the eyes of the whole mob of the forum, and moreover in the presence of persons some of whom at least could very readily have taken up the matter and reported it all to the higher authorities. By their action they had publicly insulted the majesty of Rome. They faced the extreme unpleasantness of having to appear themselves before the proconsul to answer for this flagrant lawlessness. Therefore they hastened to apologize to the apostles and asked them to leave the city as quickly as possible. But the apostles, conscious of their great right of Roman citizenship, did not at once comply with this request of the cowardly magistrates, but went to the hospitable house of Lydia, instructed there the assembled Christians, and then with peace left the city.

Leaving Philippi, the missionary apostles passed through the cities of Amphipolis and Apollonia, with which some of the most famous events of Greek history were associated, and then arrived at Thessalonica, which was the capital of all Macedonia and at the same time the residence of the Roman proconsul. In this city there was a synagogue, in which the apostles preached to Jews and pagan proselytes, proving and opening on the basis of Holy Scripture that “it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and that this Christ is Jesus,” whom they were proclaiming. Many of the hearers, especially Greeks and prominent women, believed; but such success again aroused hatred among the unbelieving Jews. They incited the city mob and with it attacked the house of a prominent Christian, Jason, where the apostles were staying, dragged them out to the city square, and cried that “these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also; and Jason has received them; and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” But the enemies did not succeed in achieving their aim. The city authorities, having investigated the matter, found the accusation unproven and released the accused. However, the excitement in the city was so great that the apostles found it impossible to continue their preaching and under cover of night left Thessalonica and went to the nearest city, Berea, while Timothy was temporarily left in Thessalonica to strengthen the newly converted in the faith.

In Berea there was also a large Jewish population, but these Jews were “more noble-minded” than those of Thessalonica, and the Apostle Paul could recover among them from the turmoil he had experienced. According to his custom, he preached in the synagogue, and the Bereans not only did not hinder him in this and did not reject the preached Gospel with blind fanaticism as had happened elsewhere, but daily and diligently searched the Holy Scriptures themselves, so as to verify the arguments and references of the Apostle Paul against the authentic testimony of the word of God. The result was that both Greeks and many of the Jews believed—not only men but also women of the more respectable classes. Among these good-natured Bereans the apostle undoubtedly spent several weeks of rest, for during his stay there the Apostle Paul twice conceived the intention of going back to his beloved Thessalonians. Unforeseen circumstances prevented this (1 Thess. 2:18), and the state of this persecuted church so weighed on his soul that either from Berea or later from Athens he again sent Timothy to them, to report back to him on its condition. In Berea, in the person of Sopater, a devoted and faithful friend was gained, who rendered important services both to the Apostle Paul personally and to the cause of Christianity in general.

But of course there could be no hope that everything would continue to go so well, especially when news of the success of the Apostle Paul’s preaching in Berea reached the Thessalonian synagogue. The hated name of Paul like a spark ignited the malicious fury of the Jews, and they immediately sent agents to stir up the mob against him in Berea as well. The Apostle Paul received a timely warning of this from one of his devoted friends. To stand against this persistent and embittered hostility, which was now pursuing the preachers from city to city, was completely impossible. And since it was clear that Paul, and not Silas, was the chief object of persecution, it was decided that Paul must again leave the city, while Silas and the recently rejoined Timothy, who had been his co-workers during his stay in Berea, were to remain there to tend to the needs of the church and water the good seed that had begun to sprout in it. The danger was evidently great, and the departure was made hurriedly and probably under cover of night. Thus the prince of this world furiously pursued the great preacher of the kingdom of Christ; but he did not himself know what a blow he was preparing for his dominion over the world when with such fury and haste he was driving the apostle of the gentiles into the very centers of the most enlightened paganism. Brethren escorted the Apostle Paul to the seashore, where he boarded a ship that brought him to the capital of all educated humanity—Athens.