In the Footsteps of Paul: Seeking Hope in Thessalonica

In the Footsteps of Paul: Seeking Hope in Thessalonica; Acts 17:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Just the other day, someone I visited said to me, "Some days it’s hard to have hope." Many of us can relate. The economy is unpredictable. We don’t know where the next war will break out–and there seems to be no quick resolution to the ones that continue now. Political divisions in this country only seem to deepen. And we can be weighed down by grief. As a community we have three upcoming Memorial services among families we hold dear. We look for something solid to hold onto, a hope that can stand strong even when life around us feels shaky. 

Believers before us have wondered the same thing: Where is our hope? My husband, Dan and I travelled to Greece seeking hope in the Apostle Paul’s ministry establishing the early church. We also had high hopes we would ecounter many ruins and places where Paul had been, so we could Walk In the Footsteps of Paul, as the series title says. 

After starting the church in Philippi, which we explored last week, Paul, Silas and Timothy walked along the Via Egnatia–the east-west road built by Rome, toward what today is called, “Thessaloniki,” and they passed through two towns, Amphipolis and Appalonia. We too, stopped at Amphipolis and saw this great structure, the Lion of Amphipolis, which Paul and his companions also saw! This was so exciting–actually seeing something that these early missionaries saw–although not exactly in this spot. The Lion of Amphipolis was built by Alexander the Great about 350 years before Paul’s time, as a gravestone monument to honor one of his great generals. It was just enormous–the lion itself is 17 feet tall, and it sits on a stone base about 35 feet tall.

We were full of hope as we sought to follow Paul’s steps in Thessaloniki and see more of what Paul saw and did in this great city. Our Acts passage tells us Paul spoke in the synagogue on three sabbaths and experienced success in forming a Christian community Thessalonica. But there were persecutions, and people who opposed Paul’s preaching. Due to a riot, and the arrest of a follower named Jason, Paul, Silas and Timothy left town. You would think that like us on those hard days they, and the Christian believers would be tempted to lose hope.

Yet, we know from Paul’s First letter to the Thessalonians–which is considered to be the earliest letter we have of Paul’s– Paul actually exudes hope to this community. Listen to these verses from Paul’s letter:

• Chapter 1:3 – We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul encourages this new community in their faith, love and hope in Jesus Christ!
• Chapter 2:19 – For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Paul affirms that even his hope is alive along with that of Timothy and Silas because they see God at work in them, the believers in Thessalonica!
• Chapter 4:13 in our text today– Do not grieve as others who have no hope. Paul had preached to them a message that Christ would return. But some in their community were dying before Jesus had returned, so Paul assures them that our hope in Jesus Christ goes beyond the grave. Death does not separate us from Christ or from each other! Hope carries us through and beyond grief, for we will all be together in Christ!
• Paul continues in chapter 5:8 – But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. Here, Paul starts developing his image of the whole armor of God that gets fully worked out later on in Ephesians 6. Paul reassures them that hope is our protection, our guiding light, in life’s difficulties.

So, Dan and I were ready to go, ready to see all of the ruins and experiences from Paul’s ministry in this great city to whom the first and oldest book of the New Testament is written. These were the only real ruins we saw in the Thessaloniki which are called the “Ancient Agora.” They contain a marketplace, Roman baths, and a small theater and the stoa where discussion and debate took place. The area wasn’t found until 1966 when they were going to build a new Courthouse. These ruins were refurbished and rebuilt in the 2nd century so at least 100-150 years after Paul–he did not see any of this! None of these stone were where Paul walked--they were built much later.

We saw so many other historic structures: the Arch of Galarius-Emperor of Rome, which was built in the 300’s or 250 years after Paul. It’s cool, and very historical, but has nothing to do with Paul. 

We saw the Rotunda, also built by Galarius. Later it became a church, then a Muslim Mosque under the Ottoman empire for nearly 500 years (1430-1913), then a Greek Orthodox Church, and now it's a museum. This all historic and very interesting, but nothing to do with Paul.

Next we visited St. Demetrius Church (right, below), the patron Saint of Thessaloniki. It was built in the 500’s, about 450 years after Paul. It was a church for 1,000 years under the Byzantine empire, then a mosque for almost 5 centuries under Ottoman rule, now it’s a Greek Orthodox Church. It's beautiful ––but there are no footsteps of Paul here.

Hagia Sophia or Holy Wisdom built in the 700’s– 65 years after Paul. Like St. Demetrius, it was a church, then a mosque, now a Greek Orthodox church again. Byzantine art emphasizes icons, mosaics, and church frescoes that convey theological truths rather than realistic representation. The art of this time was not meant to look realistic, but to lift hearts and eyes to heaven. It often features gold backgrounds, frontal poses, and stylized figures, meant to inspire devotion and reflect divine, eternal reality, rather than earthly life.

Vlatadon Monastery was built in the 1300's, it is a World Heritage site and full of faith, beauty, and history, but there are no Footsteps of Paul here

The Byzantine walls of Thessaloniki are across the street from the monastery. The walls were first built in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries and later strengthened under Constantine the Great, 2-300 years after Paul. They are impressive, ancient, but again, no actual footsteps of Paul here.

Modern Thessaloniki is a modern city–there is not much there to do with Paul. We saw no real remnants of Paul. How could this be?

In ancient Philippi, no one lived there since the 700’s; in ancient Corinth- no one lived there since the 1200’s. Thessaloniki is a city that has been continuously occupied for 2300 years! When it came time to build something new–they used the stones that were already there. Or they knocked them over, filled in the ground, and built on top. That’s why the Roman ruins are so low, because the current city has been built on top of all the previous layers. In 1917 there was a fire, and 80% of the city of Thessaloniki was ruined. When recovering from a crisis, you don’t take time to discover dig up ancient ruins–you get on with the business of rebuilding your city.

Our profound insight came in the lack of evidence of Paul’s sojourn in modern Thessaloniki–there are no ruins because Paul’s mission succeeded. There has been a continuous Christian witness there since the year 49 or 50 CE when Paul first arrived, preached the good news of Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the dead, and started the church! The church never stopped! The church never died! All the evidence has been erased...except for a living church that has been there for nearly 2,000 years because one man had a Christ-transplant in his heart, and he brought two believers with him to spread the good news of Jesus Christ!

The Christian community Paul planted never died--even through 500 years of Ottoman Muslim rule, when churches became mosques, Christians gathered in homes, in monasteries, in hidden chapels, in small groups. They carried the flame of faith, one generation passing hope to the next. Seven kingdoms ruled this Thessaloniki over the last 2000 years– it didn’t matter to the Christians who was in charge. They kept on believing, worshipping, praying, and transmitting the faith to the next generation.

Here is a faithful woman praying at the icon of Holy Wisdom, Hagia Sophia. In every church we went into at any time of day, worshippers would bow, kiss the icon, and lean their forehead against the icon in prayer and devotion, as she is doing here. We actually saw evidence of Paul’s footsteps all over Thessaloniki, in the living stones of the body of Christ, the faithful people, living with hope, praying, worshiping, and transmitting our faith. 

During the 500-year Ottoman empire when churches were turned into mosques, dozens of monasteries were built on the top of natural stone pillars at Meteora, another World Heritage Site. Six monasteries are still active today; two of the monasteries are for nuns and four are men.

Paul’s words to the Thessalonians are still true: We do not grieve as those who have no hope. (1 Thess. 4:13). Hope is not something fragile; it is rooted in the living God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. God calls us to build our lives and church in hope for the future. Not in just in buildings, but in relationships, in this community of hope. 

Where do you need hope today? Maybe it’s in your family. Maybe it’s in your health. Maybe it’s in the state of our world. The good news is this: hope doesn’t depend on circumstances being perfect; or which party is in power locally, nationally or across the world. Hope comes from God’s presence with us—in the living body of Christ, in people who care about us–whether as a warm welcome for travelers like us at the foot of Meteora, or Christ alive here, holding us together when life is hard. Just as the Thessalonian Christians carried the light of Christ in small house churches, so you carry that same light into your workplace, your neighborhood, your family.

We are the church—not a building of bricks, but a community of living stones, people shaped and infused with the love of Christ. God calls us to be people of hope. In a divided world, we can be a sign of God’s unshakable love. In a fearful time, we can live with courage. In an age of anxiety, we can share prayer, and the peace that passes all understanding. Together, we can show that the hope of Christ is alive and still transforming the world. Such power has lasted for 2,000 years before us!
Surely trusting in the hope and power of Jesus Christ can last well beyond the limits of our lives and imaginations! As we live in this hope, we all walk in the Footsteps of Paul.