Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Before we dropped in on Paul's letter to the Galatians, we were hanging out with Paul and Silas in prison in Philippi and watching them get released,

after which point the local authorities apologized for imprisoning them without a trial since they're Roman citizens. Today they head for Thessalonica, where they're staying with a guy named Jason. Thessalonica is a big port city in Greece today, with a population of about a million people, except now it's called Thessaloniki. It's about 100 miles from Philippi, which is about a four-day trip.

By the way, Paul writes two letters to the church in Thessalonica, and we'll read those letters

tomorrow. The guys are in Thessalonica for a long time, and at one point, Paul spends a string of

three days going to the local Jewish synagogue to reason with them about the scriptures.

He shows them how Jesus is the Messiah the prophets

wrote about. Here's one thing I find interesting about this. Paul isn't just sharing his own

personal testimony, even though he has a more compelling one than anyone I've ever met. Instead,

he's sharing scriptures testimony of Christ. It's true that personal stories are moving for many

people, but Paul knows that subjective

experiences can also be easily dismissed by anyone who has a different experience. So he takes a

more objective and logic-based approach. He's sharing facts, not feelings. He lets scripture speak for

itself. Per usual, the audience is split. Some believe and some don't. The ones who believe include Jews,

as well as a lot of Greeks, and a lot of female leaders. The Jews who don't believe him form a

mob and start a riot and they go to Jason's house to try to find the guys. When they can't find

them, they drag Jason and a few others out of the house and take them to the authorities. Like most

of the accusers, they're saying that the early church is rebelling against the establishment. This time,

Caesar in particular. They say, these men have turned the world upside down. Yes and amen. The

effects of the gospel are dramatic. That's the upside down kingdom of God. Jason posts bail for everyone and the authorities

let them go home. This money probably has a bit of a promise attached to it as well. In the way that

bail money serves as a promise that you'll return for your court date, Jason's money probably

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