“My Kingdom Is Not of This World”
“Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ,” etc. — Acts xvii. 1-9.
ANOTHEE missionary journey begins here. Leaving Timothy and Luke in charge of the infant church at Philippi, Paul and Silas pursued their journey towards the u My kingdom is not of this world!’ 345
south-west — towards Athens, the eye of Greece. I think the good soldier of Jesus Christ already felt the swelling of a sanctified ambition to meet Athenian philosophers on their own chosen field. He may, for aught I know, have allowed a secret consciousness of power to lead him in that direction. It is the instinct of a warrior to seek a worthy foe. If this motive wrought in his mind, it is probable that his pride was soon crushed; for he does not seem to have obtained so much success at Athens as elsewhere. His epistles to the Christians of Corinth, Thessalonica, and Philippi attest the extent and solidity of his work in these places; but although he enjoyed an opportunity of debating with Stoics and Epicureans, and of declaiming in Mars Hill, no epistle to the Athenians remains to edify the Church. It would appear that the soil in which human speculation grew rank was not well fitted to receive and nourish the living seed of the Word.
Here the narrative drops the first person and assumes the third; this is the only intimation of the fact that at this point Luke, the historian, parted company with the missionaries. The first person, indicating the presence of the narrator, is not resumed until we reach the twentieth chapter.
They passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, two successive stages on the Roman road that extended from the Bosporus to Rome, and came to Thessalonica at a distance of about one hundred miles from Philippi. It appears that the Jews possessed no synagogue at the intermediate stations, and therefore the missionaries made no halt till they reached the more important city of Thessalonica. There Paul, “as his manner was,” entered the synagogue, and opened his commission first to the seed of Abraham.
Three Sabbath-days he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. It is clear from the result that the audience on these occasions was not limited to Jews. The apostles found by experience that by preaching to the Jews they found the readiest access to the Gentiles. The Greeks in great numbers, both male and female, came into the synagogue and listened to these distinguished strangers. The preacher based his discourse on the Scriptures. His method is described by the terms “opening and alleging” — that is, “opening out and laying down.”
The Old Testament he treated as a nut. He broke the shell, opened out the kernel, and presented it as food to the hungry. The Jews were like little children who had a fruit-tree in their garden, their father’s legacy. The children had gathered the nuts as they grew, and laid them up with reverence in a storehouse; but they knew not how to break open the shell, and so reach the kernel for food. Paul acts the part of elder brother to these little ones. He skilfully pierces the crust and extracts the fruit, and divides it among them. The passage, for example, that Philip found the Ethiopian reading on the road, or the passover lamb, or the second Psalm, he opened, and from it brought Christ.
This able reasoner laid down a major and a minor; for in Greece he is mindful of his syllogism. (On his way from Philippi he had passed Stagirus, the birthplace of Aristotle.)
Major premiss: The Christ expected by the Jews must suffer and die and rise again.
Minor premiss: This J esus whom I preach unto you suffered and died and rose again.
Conclusion: Therefore the Jesus whom I preach unto you is the Christ.
But it is not logic for its own sake; it is logic grasped and used as an instrument to commend Christ to sinners. What- “My kingdom is not of this world.” 347
ever method he may adopt (and in that he will become all things to all men), he will know no other subject than Jesus Christ and him crucified. They speak of successors of the apostles; their best successors are those who walk in their steps.
The result is, that some Jews believed, and a great multitude of Greek proselytes and not a few chief women. While a remnant of the chosen seed is gathered everywhere, the kingdom is in the main gliding over to the Gentiles. Another feature of the success is, that almost everywhere the higher and more educated classes are attracted. In the great Greek city of Thessalonica many ladies of the highest social standing were arrested and converted. This doubtless gave the gospel a home in the place after the missionaries were obliged to leave it.
“But the Jews which believed not,” etc. Again a conflict. Woe is me that I should everywhere be a man of strife! There is much to make the missionary weary, and induce him to fling up his commission in disgust. But these men were forewarned, and so forearmed. They knew that, like their Master, they came not to give peace on the earth. Wherever the two kingdoms came in contact, there was conflict. No cross, no crown.
The army that assails the mission here is an allied host. It consists of two different but confederated elements — of the Jews who believed not, and of certain lewd fellows of the baser sort. These two do not look with kindly eye on each other, but they unite to oppose a common enemy. This is not a new experience. Herod and Pilate become friends when Christ must be crucified. Pharisee and Sadducee, at daggers-drawn on ordinary occasions, combine to compass the death, first of the Master, and then of his servants.
The unbelieving Jews allied themselves to the mob of the market-place, in order to silence the testimony of the apostles. In different ages and countries tyrants of the ruling class have had recourse to the rabble whenever they have found it necessary to stifle the reprover’s voice. The seething caldron of a large city always casts up a quantity of such scum. A multitude swarm about the streets, lacking not only character but even clothes. Persecutors have frequently found a use for these offscourings. Christians should have their eyes on the same class for another purpose. They might be turned to a better account. If they were won and sanctified, they might swell the ranks of the white-robed when Christ comes to be glorified in his saints.
It was by these same instruments that the Jewish rulers in Jerusalem compassed the death of Christ. They engaged the mob to create a tumult, and thereby intimidated the governor. Crucify him! crucify him! from a surging, excited multitude was a formidable cry for a governor with a troublesome province on his hand and a small garrison at his disposal. “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you;” and the persecution of the servants follows the type of that which the Master endured.
It is a remarkable cry that was raised before the magistrates of Thessalonica — “These that have turned the world upside down have come hither also.” The rumour of the great effect produced by the preaching of the gospel in other places must have reached the city. After making allowance for the tendency to exaggeration in such circumstances, we find enough remaining to show that the wave of success already accompanying these two witnesses threatened to shake the foundations of society, and overturn the old established religions of Europe.
Another cry — “These all do contrary to the decrees of” My kingdom is not of this world!’ 349
Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus,” — is identical with that which was employed against Christ himself. These degenerate Jews did not comprehend their own Scriptures — did not understand the kingdom which the prophets proclaimed. The Son of David reigns, but reigns over an unseen kingdom. His own word is, “The kingdom of God is within you.” His reign, having a different sphere and character, may have free scope; it will never come into collision with lawful human governments. The Lord’s own words, “My kingdom is not of this world,” remain a perennial rebuke to all persecuting governments on the one hand, and all political ecclesiastical organisations on the other.
Magnetism and gravity act at the same place and the same time, but do not come into collision with each other. Each of these powers pervades all the earth’s surface; each is supreme everywhere for its own objects; the one does not stand in the other’s way. There is not less of gravity on any given spot because magnetism has free scope there. If one of these were subordinated to the other, the system of the world would be destroyed. This might help us to conceive of Christ’s spiritual authority reigning with absolute sway over spirits, and yet not interfering with any legitimate function of civil government.
This question is assuming greater breadth and prominence in our day. It is rising not only in this country, but all over Europe. It is abroad in Italy and Germany. That which was the turning-point at the crucifixion of Christ comes up again for solution, and men must work its solution out. They overpowered it in Pilate’s judgment- hall. But they made a mistake when they buried that small, and to their vision scarcely perceptible atom; to bury it was not to get rid of it for ever, for it is a living seed, and so it rises again.
Churchmen must learn to obey Christ without encroaching on the divinely appointed supremacy of civil government in its own domain; and civil rnlers must learn to leave the kingdom of Christ in the world absolutely free.