17 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.
Paul is following his typical pattern, but we don’t get a complete look at how it worked. Sure, he was in the synagogues on the Sabbath, but that was only for a couple of hours a week. There was something else going on the rest of the week.
We know that Paul was a tentmaker by trade, and in many ways supported himself as he traveled. He prevailed upon the hospitality of many people in every city, too.
The message was the same everywhere, but Luke focuses on what Paul talked about in the different towns. In Thessalonica, the point was that Jesus suffered and rose from the dead. Paul taught this on the Sabbath for 3 weeks, one hour or so per week.
But the rest of the week he lived and worked in Thessalonica.
Just like today, most people back then didn’t come to believe in Jesus the Messiah after one conversation. Some did, but some didn’t. That means that what Paul did all week long mattered.
It is awesome to invite friends and co-workers to church, but that’s only about an hour a week. The rest of the week, God is inviting you, the Church, to work. To school. To the grocery store for bread and milk and evangelism. Right in the middle of the Ten Commandments, God says that you should talk about His Word all of the time. That is the often overlooked first and a halfth commandment.
There is no method or technique about it. We talk about the things we think about. Star Wars, the Bengals, the Bangles — whatever it is that is on our mind will come out of our mouths the most. At the same time, whatever we talk about will tend to occupy our minds. If you resolve to talk about the Bible more, you’ll probably read the Bible more so that you have something to talk about. If you want to talk about your prayer life, you’ll probably start praying more often as a result.
The people of Thessalonica learned enough about Jesus all week so that when Paul said “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ,” they knew who and what he was talking about.
It was easier for Paul to talk about Jesus so much, of course, because that was the whole reason why he had traveled to Thessalonica.
So why are we here?