June
5th Acts
17 Thessalonica
1:
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came
to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: 2: And Paul, as
his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned
with them out of the scriptures, 3: Opening and alleging, that Christ
must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that
this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. 4: And some of them
believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks
a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. 5: But the Jews
which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd
fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the
city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to
bring them out to the people. 6: And when they found them not, they
drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying,
These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; 7:
Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of
Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. 8: And they
troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these
things. 9: And when they had taken security of Jason, and of the
other, they let them go.
Berea
10:
And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto
Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11:
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they
received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the
scriptures daily, whether those things were so. 12: Therefore many of
them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of
men, not a few. 13: But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge
that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither
also, and stirred up the people. 14: And then immediately the
brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea: but Silas and
Timotheus abode there still. 15: And they that conducted Paul brought
him unto Athens: and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus
for to come to him with all speed, they departed.
Athens
16:
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in
him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. 17: Therefore
disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout
persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. 18:
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks,
encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other
some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he
preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. 19: And they took
him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this
new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? 20: For thou bringest
certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what
these things mean. 21: (For all the Athenians and strangers which
were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or
to hear some new thing.) 22: Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars'
hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye
are too superstitious. 23: For as I passed by, and beheld your
devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN
GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
24: God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is
Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25: Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any
thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26:
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the
face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed,
and the bounds of their habitation; 27: That they should seek the
Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be
not far from every one of us: 28: For in him we live, and move, and
have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we
are also his offspring. 29: Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of
God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or
silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. 30: And the times
of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every
where to repent: 31: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he
will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath
ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he
hath raised him from the dead. 32: And when they heard of the
resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear
thee again of this matter. 33: So Paul departed from among them. 34:
Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was
Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with
them.
The
missionary party move on. Amphipolis and Apollonia were very small so
they moved on to Thessalonica. This was a large city with an
important port. Paul continued to do his work in the Jewish Synagogue
reasoning from the scriptures, proving that Christ need to suffer and
rise again and that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. Some Jews believed
the Gospel and many Gentiles believed as well and a significant
number of important women in the city. The Jews however gathered a
rabble of very disreputable characters to cause a riot. They
assaulted the house of Jason intending to capture the apostles but
they only found Jason and a few brethren, so they brought them to the
city rulers. And they uttered the famous words, they have turned the
world upside down. They also accused Jason of breaking Roman law by
saying that Jesus is King. The same old accusation that Jesus faced.
Paul and Silas left in the night to travel to Berea. The Bereans were
more noble than the Thessalonicains in that they searched the
scriptures to see if what they were saying was true. And of course
what they found was that it was right. Because of this many believed.
Jews, Greeks and important Greek women. When news arrived that the
Apostles had been welcomed at Berea the Jews of Thessalonica came to
cause trouble. So Paul and Silas left but Timothy stayed behind to
help the new believers. The brethren took Paul to Athens and returned
with a message for Silas and Timothy to meet him as soon as possible.
While Paul was there, in Athens, he was amazed and spiritualy
disgusted at the proliferation of the idolatry. So he disputed in the
Synagogue with the Jews and Gentiles that had converted to Judaism.
And in the public arena of the market place he met with them daily.
Eventually the greek philsophers discovered Paul and so they invited
him to address the greeks at the Areapagas. Pauls message is more of
a lecture than a sermon in which he demolished the idolatry of the
greek world giving a simple and powerful outline of true theology.
Paul took as his starting point a rather comical altar which was
dedicated to the unknown god. This unknown God he wanted to introduce
to them. When the gospel is presented to gentiles God is always
referred to as the God of Heaven and Paul does so here. He describes
the God of heaven as the creator and because he is the creator men to
not sustain him but he sustains men. He cannot be contained by
temples nor can he be worshipped by mans hands as though he needs
men. It is men that need him. Next he destroys racialism by declaring
that all men are of one blood and last he destroys fatalism because
it is God that determines the times appointed and the rise and fall
of the empires of men. This is an example of turning the thinking of
men upside down. And why does God do all this? So that men might seek
God and find him inspite of their darkness. Paul quotes their poets
who describe God as a living being and not made of precious metal or
stone made by art or technology. Then Paul comes to his application.
The time when you knew nothing God overlooked it But NOW God
commandeth all men everywhere to repent. The Jews must return unto
the Lord and Gentiles must turn from their idolatry. Why is that
Paul? Because he has appointed a day of judgment and he has appointed
the judge – the man that he has raised from the dead. Its
interesting that in this speech he does not mention sin,
righteousness, the cross or faith in Christ. The judgment of God by
the man raised from the dead is his key point. It is what we might
call pre-evangelism. He lays the foundation for the Gospel by first
levelling the ground. The Greeks when they heard of resurrection from
the dead were amazed and laughed. They only had thoughts of mortal
life. Resurrection and the afterlife were not even considered and
that is why the greeks were obsessed with health, money, food and
sex. It is all that they could see – they were short sighted. We
learn that without revelation from God men can see so little. Some
wished to hear Paul again, others believed and but most laughed.
- What happened at Thessalonica and Berea?
- What happened at Athens?
- Make an outline of Pauls address at Athens.
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