Paul never invited people to come to a religious’ service to hear him preach about Jesus.
When Paul arrived in town, he didn’t start setting out signs like a Revival Preacher that told people of a time and place for them to travel to in order to hear the Good News. No. Paul went to where the people were, he walked into their world, and he spoke, healed, and acted like Jesus.
The Philippians didn’t have to travel anywhere to see and hear what it will look like when God’s Kingdom comes. Paul went to the marketplace and told them. (the above photo is of the ruins of the marketplace in Philippi). He went to the marketplace and healed a girl who was being trafficked, enraging her traffickers, so that Paul was arrested and thrown in jail. In jail, he sang hymns, and when God sent an earthquake to free him, he told the jailer about Jesus. He told about Jesus wherever the people were…most often, in the marketplace.
This was the case in Philippi, Thessaloniki, Ephesus, and Athens. He didn’t expect the people who needed to know about Jesus to come to him, he went to them. He went to the marketplace.
At some point in the 2,000 years that separate us from Paul we have changed. We expect people to come to us. “Come worship with us…we have a place for you!” “Come to us…we have wonderful Bible studies, and fellowship, and missions, just come and join us!” I say these things nearly every week. And we wait…will they come?
Paul didn’t do this, he went to them.
It will take many people in our world a long time to come to church. Many will never come to us. There are so many barriers to cross for many people to come into a church building to hear about Jesus. Many will never do it.
Why don’t we go to them?
Paul went to the marketplace, a place that was as un-Christian as we can imagine. Pagan temples and temple prostitutes and all sorts of behavior that flies in the face of Christianity. But that didn’t stop Paul. Paul went to them.
Why don’t we go to them?
It seems to me that we have two options…continue to lament the many who do not “come to us,” or…go to them. Paul went to the Marketplace.
For the sake of the Good News, for the sake of those who do not know of the new life that Jesus offers…we should to0.