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THE MARKS OF A MISSIONARY (40 OF 56)

by Wyman Richardson

Scripture: Acts 17:1-15
This content is part of a series.


The Marks of a Missionary (40 of 56)
Series: The Church in ACTSion
Wyman Richardson
Acts 17:1-15


Read Acts 17:1-15

Jim Elliot, writing in his journal on June 23, 1947, said the following:

Missionaries are very human folks, just doing what they are asked. Simply a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt Somebody.

I like that. There is a gloriously understated feeling about it, yet something razor-sharp-accurate as well: ''a bunch of nobodies trying to exalt Somebody.'' How very true! It has always been so throughout the history of the Church. God takes a bunch of nobodies and lets them tell others about Somebody: Jesus. This was precisely what Paul and his amazing team did, and oh the adventures they had!

In the first fifteen verses of Acts 17 we continue this missionary team's story as they go to Thessalonica and then to Berea. Their first stop is difficult and challenging. Their second stop is sweet. Even so, their approach was the same, and that is telling. They had a commission, a calling, and their calling was the same regardless of whether the waters were rough or smooth. This team had in fact by now developed certain missionary habits, and they are evidenced in our text. The habits of Paul's missionary team were:

1. They went to the lost and did not expect the lost to come to them.
2. They were well grounded in the scripture.
3. They experienced both acceptance and rejection, but pressed on regardless.

Let us consider how these play out in the verses before us. We will do so by jumping about in our text and seeing these habits acted out.

They went to the lost and did not expect the lost to come to them.

Let us first observe that in both Thessalonica and Berea, these early missionaries went to the lost and did not expect the lost to come to them.

1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2a And Paul went in, as was his custom

10 The brothers ...

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