Paul’s Approach to Preaching the Gospel—The Second Missionary Journey Gets Underway

Preaching first to Jews in local synagogues, where Paul could find a “common starting-point in the Jewish Scriptures,”[1] and then preaching to Gentiles in the city’s public spaces, Paul and his associates witnessed the conversion of sufficient numbers of Christian believers that an apparently thriving church had been founded in the Greek city of Thessalonica merely twenty years after the death and resurrection of Jesus.[2] Our Lord’s promise to his disciples in Acts 1:8 comes to mind. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” In many ways, Paul’s missionary journeys are the means through which Isaiah’s prophecy of Israel’s Messiah serving as a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6) is fulfilled, as well as our Lord’s promise in Acts 1:8. The gospel was now going to the ends of the earth, largely through Paul’s preaching to Gentiles.

The Macedonian Call – Two Doors Closed While Another Opened

The church in Thessalonica, along with the new churches in Philippi, Berea, and Corinth, all have their origin in the so-called “Macedonian Call,” which is recounted by Luke in Acts 16:6-10. As a result of a vision given Paul while he was still in Asia Minor, the second missionary journey got under way as the gospel came to several prominent Greek cities: Philippi (Acts 16); Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9); Berea (Acts 17:10-15); Athens (Acts 17:16-34); and Corinth (Acts 18:1-17).

Coming on the heels of the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15), the “Macedonian Call” was a significant event in the early church, and is recounted in Acts 16:6-10,

And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

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