And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. Acts 6:5
Have you ever been in a synagogue? I have not, although some of my friends have, at the invitation of their Jewish friends. What happens there? Much depends on the nature of the particular congregation, but the word synagogue is a translation of the Hebrew term ‘Beit Knesset’, meaning ‘House of Assembly’. It is also called a ‘House of Study’, or a ‘House of Prayer’. A synagogue is the social, intellectual, and spiritual centre of its Jewish community’s life. Every synagogue will have an ark that contains the scrolls of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and these are read from a lectern on a platform called the bimah. Most synagogues will have services three times a day, with an extra service called Musaf on the Sabbath. Prayers, reading of the Torah, sermons from the rabbi, all these and other activities occur within the synagogue. But no synagogue makes provision for the presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Only in very rare circumstances does this occur, such as in the events covered by our text.
Why did Saul go to the synagogue to preach the Gospel? For one thing, the synagogue had until this point been a critical component of his life. Until this point, his entire focus for living was based on what the synagogue stood for. Everybody in the synagogue knew that. And now, Saul is going to let the folks know that he has changed his mind. He will tell them that the Messiah, for Whose arrival every devout Jew prays every day, has arrived. He will tell them that Jesus of Nazareth, Who the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem rejected as an imposter and had crucified, really was the Messiah that He claimed to be. He will tell them that salvation lies not in the sacrifices of the Jewish religion but in the acceptance of the sacrifice of the Son of God. This would have been shocking for the folks in those synagogues to hear, and to hear from the prominent Pharisee known as Saul of Tarsus. Most of them would no doubt have scoffed and laughed, and rejected his message. But some believed, and that was Saul’s goal. It should also be our goal today to let those who knew what we used to be in our sins know what has changed us, and Who has changed us.
The Jews of Saul’s day were not interested in hearing about the Son of God. Neither are the people around us today. But it is only the Son of God Who can save sinners, and it is only by hearing about the Son of God that sinners can be saved. This is why Paul had to tell the Jews about the Son of God, and why we must do the same.
We, like Saul of Tarsus, have been transformed by the revelation to us of the Son of God. We, like Saul of Tarsus, ought to tell others how that transformation occurred. -Jim MacIntosh