Acts 17:1-15 | Leaving the Results to Godಮಾದರಿ

Our Best Laid Plans

Did you ever have that experience in school when you took a test and thought you aced it, only to find out after you got the results you didn’t do as well as you thought you had? Even though you prepared and knew the material, your instructor’s expectations weren’t aligned with what you wrote.

Sharing the gospel can be like that.

Jesus tells us we’ll be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). He tells us to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:16-20). Paul tells us to do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5). The victory of King Jesus and the hope we have in Him burns in our souls. The desire to see others saved occupies our spiritual journey. We want people to know Christ and be saved. We know what’s at stake. We know what they can experience. We know what kind of life and hope Jesus is offering them. Witnessing to Christ, sharing our faith, or what’s classically been called evangelizing, is at the heart of Acts and the Christian experience.

For many of us, witnessing to unbelievers and the nominally Christian can be an angsty experience. How will they respond? What if they push back? What if I say something that pushes them further away? Or what if nothing happens, and now it’s just awkward, and will be awkward every time I see them again?

We tie ourselves up in knots when it comes to evangelism. And maybe rightly so. The results aren’t guaranteed, and history has shown that some don’t like what we have to say.

But then there are other times. Those times when a window of opportunity presents itself, and we grab it. Those times when we share the message of Christ, and we nail it. Those times when the right words come out in the right way and we can’t think of any more perfect way it could have gone.

And despite it all, nothing comes of it.

This isn’t far off from Paul’s experience in Thessalonica.

Paul has just come from Philippi (think Philippians). Acts 16 tells us the Holy Spirit brought him there. This is the first time he’s crossed into Europe, finding himself deeper into Gentile country and the Roman world. He took a leap, and so far, it wasn’t going well.

Things went bad in Philippi. The powers that be are rarely content to let other powers contest them, and because the power of Jesus was so clearly at work in Paul and Silas, the other powers turned on them. They’re dragged into the street, beaten, flogged, and thrown in prison. But God’s power wouldn’t be contained. Acts 16 ends with God freeing them, saving the jailer, and the town leaders placating Paul with a formal apology and escort from the city.

But here in Thessalonica? It seems like it couldn’t have gone better! Paul explains and proves Jesus is the Messiah three Sabbaths in a row. He spoke, and they invited him back! He reasons with them from the scriptures, and some Jews are persuaded, plus a large number of God-fearing Gentiles, including the influencers.

And yet despite it all, despite everything seeming to go so well, Paul once again finds the people turning on him and having to escape again.

Sometimes our best-laid plans go another direction. When it comes to people responding to Christ in faith, it’s ultimately out of our control. Don’t be disheartened. Leave the results up to God because His plan, not ours, is what counts.