SermonStudio

Woman: Well, Paul. This time when you, as an old hand, started
out from Antioch with Silas, what was your itinerary?

Paul: First, we visited the churches of Asia Minor. Not Cyprus,
though -- Barnabas and John Mark went back there.

Woman: You and Silas, then, retraced your steps on the Galatian
plains?

Paul: Yes. And at Lystra --

Woman: Oh yes! Where they had taken you for Hermes on your first
journey!

Paul: (laughing) Yes. Much more satisfactory the second time -- I
found young Timothy there.

Woman: Timothy?

Paul: The child of a Jewish mother -- and a Greek Father.
(abruptly) I had Timothy circumcised.

Woman: Paul! You fought bitterly to keep Titus from being
circumcized in Jerusalem!

Paul: That's right. No Greek believer was to be circumcized
before baptism.

Woman: But you said Timothy's father was a Greek.

Paul: Exactly. To the Jew, the child of a mixed marriage was
dead. Through that circumcision, I accepted, in front of all
Jews, Timothy as a brother Jew -- in fact -- as my beloved son.

Woman: (sighing) Paul -- your reasoning is always so involved.

74

Paul: (sharply) Timothy thought the same! There was no one whose
mind worked so much like mine. I wanted him with me.

Woman: So Timothy went on with you and Silas?

Paul: Together, the three of us struck out into new territory --
northwest -- to the seacoast -- to Alexandrian Troas, the city
named for Alexander the Great.

Woman: (nodding) It's now called Eskistambul. A Roman colony then
I suppose.

Paul: Of course. And there at Troas, Dr. Luke joined us.

Woman: Well! Your traveling party really picked up! You say
Doctor Luke?

Paul: Luke was a physician. He was determined to take care of me!

Woman: He probably thought somebody should!

Paul: (laughing) Yes -- I suppose so.

Woman: After Luke joined your party, where did you go?

Paul: We were most undecided there in Troas.

Woman: Why?

Paul: We had earlier wanted to go to Bithynia. But I felt uneasy
-- unsure --

Woman: So you didn't go to Bithynia?

Paul: No. Then, there in Troas where Alexander said his aim was
to "marry the east to the west," I felt a new impulse toward
making one world for Christ. In a dream, I saw a man beckoning me
to come over to Macedonia.

Woman: Into Europe? And you responded?

Paul: As soon as we could, we set sail for Neapolis.

Woman: A town now called Kavalla.

75

Paul: From there we walked to Philippi, nine miles away.

Woman: That nine miles isn't exactly a stroll if I remember
rightly. Between the coast and Philippi stands a mountain -- Mount
Symbolium.

Paul: Where the road twists up and up.

Woman: And slides down to an immense plain where Antony and
Octavius defeated Brutus and Cassius.

Paul: (approvingly) You do know some ancient history! Did you
also know that Antony settled most of the veterans from that
battle in Philippi?

Woman: (surprised) No, I didn't. Lots of Romans then. Were there
many Jews?

Paul: Very few. And no synagogue. But I managed to get into
trouble anyway.

Woman: (dryly) Somehow I'm not surprised. How?

Paul: It all began quietly enough. In Philippi, that first
Sunday, we preached along the river bank. There we met a woman
named Lydia who believed and was baptized. Then she invited us to
make her house our headquarters.

Woman: Without asking her husband? She sounds like an early
women's libber!

Paul: Hmmm. I never heard that word! Lydia was a businesswoman, a
seller of purple cloth. Finally, after some urging, we accepted
her invitation. But a few days later, on the way to her house, we
passed a half-witted girl traveling with her Greek master.

Woman: (bristling) What do you mean her "master?"

Paul: She was his slave. You see, the Greeks believed in oracles
-- and this poor child babbled endlessly.

Woman: How could anyone understand her?

Paul: Her master interpreted her ravings.

76

Woman: For a fee I suppose.

Paul: Of course. And her master didn't take it kindly when in the
name of Christ, I cured her.

Woman: You took away his livelihood -- the man would be furious!

Paul: Indeed he was! He and some of his friends dragged Silas and
me into the marketplace and whipped us -- Woman: (horrified) Why
didn't you tell them you were a Roman citizen?

Paul: I thought of it, but I couldn't. You see -- uh -- Silas
wasn't a Roman --

Woman: (sighing) After they whipped the two of you, did they let
you go?

Paul: The Greek took us to the magistrates charging us with
spreading doctrine unlawful for Romans to hear.

Woman: That's ridiculous.

Paul: (nodding) True. But Silas and I found ourselves in jail
just the same!

Woman: An East European prisoner -- terrible --

Paul: Worse than you can imagine. We were chained to the wall --
and our feet fastened in stocks. Then, with wooden bars, they
forced our legs as far apart as possible.

Woman: (shocked) That's inhuman!

Paul: That night an earthquake shook loose the bars. And our
chains fell from the wall.

Woman: You could have walked out?

Paul: Yes. But we didn't.

Woman: (puzzled) Why not?

Paul: For one thing -- the jailer --

77

Woman: (bewildered) Why would you care about the jailer?

Paul: It wasn't his fault we were there! He was on the point of
killing himself. (sternly) Anyway, every person without Christ is
of concern to me.

Woman: I'm sorry, Paul -- I wasn't thinking.

Paul: That night, the jailer and his family believed in Jesus
Christ. And we held a celebration -- right there in the jail.

Woman: A funny place to celebrate.

Paul: (laughing) Yes, I suppose so. In the morning, I sent word
through the jailer that I was a Roman citizen.

Woman: Then you left the jail?

Paul: (short laugh) That's what the magistrates hoped I would do.
But I wouldn't leave until they came and apologized to me.

Woman: Paul, you are incredible.

Paul: They were frightened. Roman law forbade the flogging of a
Roman citizen.

Woman: Were you able to start a church among the Philippians?

Paul: With three unlikely converts -- Lydia, an Asiatic; the slave
girl -- a Greek, and the jailer -- a Roman -- we began the first
Christian church in Europe.

Woman: It sounds as if you enjoyed Philippi.

Paul: I hated to leave. But I left Luke there -- and other workers
too. Timothy, Silas and I went on to Thessalonica.

Woman: About 100 miles away if you go through Amphipolis and
Apollonia.

Paul: Yes -- three days travel to Thessalonica --

Woman: Called Salonika now, I believe. A port city, isn't it?

Paul: Yes -- the largest port on the Aegean Sea.

78

Woman: You had a place to stay?

Paul: Fortunately. We lodged with Jason, a fellow-countryman
recently come to Thessalonica. A large Jewish community there.

Woman: So -- you started off speaking in the synagogue --

Paul: Yes, but --

Woman: (interrupting) Yes, but the Jews grew restless!

Paul: (short laugh) A common pattern! They stirred up some
agitators.

Woman: How?

Paul: In the Roman city, Jews lived as a rich minority. All the
Jews had to do was hunt up some Roman rabble -- give them my name
-- whisper treason -- that was enough!

Woman: The mob came after you?

Paul: Right to Jason's house! But Silas and I weren't home. They
took Jason to jail on charges of treason. That night, Timothy
packed Silas and me off to Berea.

Woman: To what we now call Verria, about 40 miles southwest of
Thessalonica. What happened to Jason?

Paul: When the magistrates discovered Jason was not Paul, they
allowed him to post bond and go home. (shaking his head) After
turning Jason's world upside down, I felt bad about going off to
Berea.

Woman: Was everything all right in Berea?

Paul: Yes, a peaceful place. The Jews there were more than
willing to hear me and to study the scriptures. But Timothy soon
arrived to warn me that Jews from Thessalonica were on my heels.

Woman: You left Berea?

Paul: (sighing) Yes -- Timothy escorted me south to Athens.

79

Woman: What about Silas?

Paul: Silas stayed behind in Berea. I sent Timothy back to him
right away. Both of them returned to Thessalonica to help that
infant church.

Woman: And you went to Athens. How?

Paul: We sailed from the coast of Thessaly.

Woman: A large ship?

Paul: No -- small. We sailed so close to land I could smell the
wild mint.

Woman: (dreamily) Athens -- the name itself conjures up glories!

Paul: But even in my day -- past glories.

Woman: Athens had lost first place to Rome?

Paul: Yes. Still, that first sight of Athens is -- remarkable.

Woman: (eagerly) Tell me what you saw!

Paul: It was late afternoon. The sun was sinking behind the
island of Aegina. And the slanting rays flashed gold --

Woman: Flashed gold?

Paul: From the gilded spear held high by Athena. And the last
daylight warmed the slopes of Mount Hymettus.

Woman: And the city?

Paul: Brown and white houses. And on the Acropolis hill, the
pillars of the Parthenon gleaming white.

Woman: And you, Paul, walked into Athens -- the intellectual
stronghold of the Roman empire.

Paul: Into a city filled with students, some of them reading
books, but most of them talking -- talking -- talking!

Woman: Discussing philosophy?

80

Paul: The streets rang with the arguments of the Platonists, the
Stoics, the Epicureans! Reminded me of my boyhood days in Tarsus.

Woman: You joined the throngs?

Paul: I walked the streets of Athens -- everywhere marble temples,
statues to every known god. (short laugh) Even one to an unknown
god!

Woman: (laughing) To an unknown god?

Paul: The story goes that about 600 years before my time, a
plague struck Athens. The people sacrificed to all the gods. But
--

Woman: The plague continued?

Paul: No let-up at all. Then the Cretan prophet, Epimenides,
drove a flock of black and white sheep to the Areopagus --

Woman: (nodding) The meeting place --

Paul: There the sheep stopped. And there they were sacrificed to
the unknown god.

Woman: And the plague ended?

Paul: Yes. So they erected a statue there in the Areopagus --
where I was invited to speak.

Woman: The Athenians invited you, a Jewish stranger -- to speak?

Paul: (dryly) The Athenians loved to hear anything new, a
curiosity mingled with intellectual arrogance.

Woman: How did you begin, Paul? The Athenians had no Jewish
background; yet they weren't simple like the peasants of Lystra.

Paul: I pointed at the altar to the unknown god and declared who
that God was.

Woman: They listened?

81

Paul: As long as I stayed with philosophical truths!

Woman: When did they grow restless?

Paul: When I spoke of the resurrection of Christ --

Woman: The core of the Christian faith --

Paul: Always a stumbling block to the Jews -- and but foolishness
to the Greek!

Woman: Did the Athenians get angry?

Paul: (shaking his head) Athenians are much too sophisticated.
Anger would have been easier to swallow than their amused
tolerance.

Woman: Paul, you could not know it, but the day would come when
the Greek Parthenon would be consecrated to that Christ you
declared.

Paul: That consoles me. I considered myself a failure in Athens.

Woman: You didn't stay long, then?

Paul: Only a short while. And only a few converts. I went on to
Corinth where I arranged to meet Silas and Timothy.

Woman: Let's see. Corinth lies west of Athens on a narrow isthmus
--

Paul: The isthmus that joins the Peloponnesus to the Greek
mainland.

Woman: You went overland then --

Paul: Yes. Over beyond Megara where the road runs up and down on
the edge of the Scironian rocks.

Woman: I remember! A scary road!

Paul: A sheer drop to the sea! But the road at last straightened
out. Corinth sits on a long, undulating plateau, dominated by a
huge mountain.

Woman: The Areo-Corinth. Paul, I notice that you almost always
went to seaports or crossroad cities. Was that a deliberate
policy?

82

Paul: Not at first. Certainly not in Cyprus. But after that --
yes. Look at the possibilities in Corinth -- two harbors -- the
eastern one packed with Egyptian, Asiatic and Phoenician galleys
--

Woman: And the western one docking ships from Italy, Spain and
the Adriatic!

Paul: And if we carried out our work well -- the seed of the
Gospel -- cargo in all of them.

Woman: Still, Paul -- by their very nature, these cities are --
well --

Paul: Go on -- say it -- cesspools. Corinth the worst of all. In
earlier centuries, it was infamous for the temple of Aphrodite --

Woman: So rank that even the Romans, who had few moral scruples,
destroyed it!

Paul: Yes -- about 150 years before my time. But the reputation
lingered. In fact, the Corinthians took a perverse pride in their
wickedness. Frankly, I was in no mood for Corinth!

Woman: That doesn't sound like you, Paul.

Paul: Perhaps not. But when I got to Corinth, I felt suddenly --
old. My eyes had grown weaker; my body was scarred by the stones
of Lystra --

Woman: And the whips of Philippi --

Paul: And the stocks! More than that -- I seemed depressed. I
hadn't liked being hustled out of Thessalonica. And I could still
hear the laughter of the Athenians mocking my words. I was so
weak in body and spirit that I trembled. No, I was in no mood for
Corinth!

Woman: What about Timothy and Silas?

Paul: (irritated) They weren't in Corinth when I got there!

Woman: So, you didn't plan to stay?

83

Paul: I certainly did not. I wanted to go back to Thessalonica.
But my money was all gone. (shaking head) I don't know what I
would have done without Priscilla and Aquila.

Woman: Christians?

Paul: Jewish Christians. From Rome.

Woman: Rome! Why would they leave Rome for a hole like Corinth?

Paul: (dryly) Not their idea! In 49, the Emperor Claudius had
thrown all the Christians out of Rome!

Woman: Why?

Paul: He got tired of the constant squabbles between Jews and
Christians. (laughing) Though he didn't mean to, Claudius had
sent me friends!

Woman: You stayed with Priscilla and Aquila?

Paul: Yes. I worked with Aquila. He made tent cloth.

Woman: Corinth needed tents?

Paul: Not many. But they did need sails.

Woman: I hate to be critical of your new friends, Paul. But there
you were -- preaching, teaching, writing letters to the other
churches. (rising indignation) How could Priscilla and Aquila
allow you to waste your failing eyesight on -- on sail cloth! How
could they?

Paul: You don't understand. On my journeys, I never took money
from the people among whom I worked.

Woman: Why not? Isn't a laborer worthy of his hire?

Paul: Absolutely. But, in the Gentile world, a teacher lived on
the fees of his students. His teaching was a money-making
business.

Woman: Oh -- you didn't want that kind of relationship with
believers --

84

Paul: Indeed not! But -- if an established church, as it grew,
wished to send me money -- that I accepted gratefully.

Woman: Each church, then, could have a part in spreading the
Gospel.

Paul: Exactly. Exactly.

Woman: Corinth would seem to have been an impossible place for
the Gospel!

Paul: I would have said the same. But, among the Gentiles, the
church in Corinth grew vigorously -- even exuberantly!

Woman: And the Jews?

Paul: Same as always. When I preached, they called out, "Anathema
Jesus!"

Woman: You argued with them?

Paul: I was through arguing. I shook off the dust of my robes and
left the synagogue behind.

Woman: The Jews, then, to follow Jesus, also had to leave the
synagogue?

Paul: Many of them did just that. Including Crispus, the ruler of
the synagogue. I baptized him myself.

Woman: How that must have shaken the Jewish community! Where did
Christians meet?

Paul: Right next door to the synagogue. At the home of Titus
Justus -- a Roman.

Woman: After you moved into the house church, did the Jews let
you alone?

Paul: Not at all. Not at all. They waited patiently for the right
moment!

Woman: And when did that moment arrive?

Paul: In 52, when the Roman Senate appointed Junius Gallio
Annaeus as proconsul to Corinth.

85

Woman: That's when the Jews made their move?

Paul: They organized a riot designed to strike fear to the heart
of the new consul -- and hauled me into his court.

Woman: On what charge?

Paul: Persuading people to worship God contrary to Mosaic law.

Woman: Scarcely a charge to be heard in a Roman court!

Paul: Gallio would have agreed with you. He saw at once he had
been duped.

Woman: He told the crowd so?

Paul: He threw everyone out! Before I could stop them, friends of
Crispus beat up Sosthenes, the new leader of the synagogue.

Woman: I'd say it served him right!

Paul: (dryly) You sound like one of my Corinthian church members.

Woman: (taken aback) I do?

Paul: Sometimes I doubted they would ever understand!

Woman: Well, no one reading your letters could doubt your love
for them --

Paul: I'm glad for that.

Woman: How long did you stay in Corinth?

Paul: About a year and a half. Finally, Timothy and Silas
arrived, bringing encouragement from Thessalonica. Like a tonic
to me, it was. I was able to settle down contentedly to my
teaching. And then, the next spring, the three of us started
home, along with Priscilla and Aquila.

Woman: Priscilla and Aquila went to Antioch?

Paul: No, No. We left them at Ephesus.

Woman: But you didn't stay in Ephesus?

86

Paul: Not on that trip. I did preach in the synagogue there and
promised to come back if I could. But I yearned to get back to
Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost.

Woman: You needed a renewal of spirit.

Paul: Indeed. All my reserves were depleted.

Woman: No wonder. You had been gone three years --

Paul: And covered about 2,800 miles --

Woman: More than the first journey --

Paul: Almost twice as many.

Woman: You had crossed many boundaries --

Paul: Not only the boundaries of Israel but the boundaries of
Asia --

Woman: You had burst open the closed world of nations --

Paul: And some day -- some day I knew I would go to Rome! Some day
the Gospel would be preached to the ends of the world!

Woman: But for your day --

Paul: For my day, with these crossings of boundaries, I, Paul,
had set free the mystery of the Gospel -- in the rumbling,
stirring continent of Europe!

Woman: Thank you, Paul. We will talk again.

87