Acts 17

1. Background

Thessalonica vv.1-9

Paul is constrained by Christ’s love and the commandment to get the Gospel to the lost.  His travels take him to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue for Jewish believers.   In this place, Paul knew that there would be Jews who convened every Saturday for a reading of the Old Testament.  It was Paul’s practice to reason with them from the Old Testament scriptures that Christ needed to suffer and has already been fulfilled in Jesus who rose again.

The results were a few Jews came to believe, but a great multitude of Gentiles and leading women of the city made professions of faith.  When the unbelieving Jews saw the multitudes of Gentiles turning to Christ, they became jealous and stirred up some ruffians to cause trouble for the new Christian believers.  They assaulted Jason’s house and accused him and other of treason, receiving another King other than Caesar.  After Jason was arrested, the believers took Paul and Silas and sent them on their way to the next city, Berea.

Berea vv.10-14

Once Paul arrives in Berea, we are told they were “more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word will all readiness of mind, and search the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”  Because they were convinced by Scripture, a greater multitude believed Paul’s preaching of Christ and His resurrection.   Before we are told anything else however, the Jews of Thessalonica got word that Paul was preaching in Berea, some 40 miles away and went to stir up trouble for him there also.  Again, Paul departed but left his companions Timothy and Silas to remain.

Athens vv. 15-34

Paul sent word for Timothy and Silas to meet him in Athens, and as Paul waited, he could not help but preach the gospel seeing the whole city given to some form of idolatry, v16.  While speaking with the Jews and devout mean of the city, Paul encountered some philosophers who made their lives to tell and hear some new thing.  They brought Paul to the Areopagus where he referred to the altar of the “Unknown God” as a starting point to preach to them the God of all Creation, whom they reverence in ignorance.  We are given a glimpse of his sermon and their reaction to hearing about the resurrection of Jesus to which most of them scoffed.  However, there were some who believed.

2. Theological

God chose His word to be the ultimate agent of faith production. This conclusion is the summary of Paul’s dealings with the three cities mentioned in the passage.

“And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reason with them out of the scriptures, Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, home I preach unto you, is Christ.”

The weight of authority of Paul’s preaching was the word of God.  It was not simply enough to come and say, “a notable miracle has happened, Jesus is back from the dead, therefore we should all put our faith in Him.”  But rather he opened the scriptures and made allegations from the text.  In this relationship, the miracles support the scriptural allegations.  As we see in Scripture, God pronounced what was to come, and according to His word, it happened.  This relationship and sequence of events go all the way back to Genesis, “God said let there be light and there was light.”

Because this is the nature of God’s revelation to man, God’s word take’s precedence over any opinion given among men.  And if it were not enough and somehow we have missed that message, the theme is repeated and heavily underlined by saying the Berean Christians were more noble than those in Thessalonica because they search the scriptures daily to see if Paul’s teachings were true. 

Even though Paul was an apostle and someone chosen by Christ to speak on His behalf and even produce scripture, still the written word of God held the greater weight of authority.  Someone might argue that Paul did not use scripture while preaching to the philosophers in Athens, to which I give a few observations:

Paul did reason with the Jews in the synagogue in Athens and we can assume Paul used scripture there as he did everywhere else.

Philosophers encountered Paul and brought him into the philosopher’s hall where he gave an impromptu speech to those who are ignorant of scriptures.  However, the content of his preaching is the summary of Genesis.

God does not need us, but we need Him.  Verse 25 gives us a contrast of pagan worship of the day versus worship of the only true Godhead.  Pagan idols needed servants to sustain them and provide for them, but God is Lord of all and is assured that He would need anything from us.  We, on the contrary, derive our life from Him, and as soon as we find ourselves disconnected from Him, we die.

Jesus was chosen by God to judge the world based on God’s standard of righteousness.  Paul told people who were otherwise ignorant of God that they will be judged on a standard of righteousness that they are responsible for.  The basis of their responsibility to the righteous standard of God is their connection to Him, as made in His image.

3. Fulfillment in Christ

The Bible is God’s ultimate agent to bring people to Christ.  The Scriptures Paul would have open and alleged from were the Old Testament scriptures.  Paul preached Christ through these passages and it was sufficient to bring people to saving faith in Jesus Christ. 

We need God, we need Jesus. Paul mentioned in his sermon that we derive our existence from God and also that Jesus was the anointed one shown by His own resurrection to give resurrection life.  This point was mocked by the philosopher who generally believed the physical form of life was lesser than the spiritual or even innately evil.  While the physical world is tainted with sin, Jesus’ resurrection power does not signify a return to a sinful depraved world, but what is made new with a new heaven, new earth, and new people (born again people).

Jesus is the focus of preaching and conversion.  On the surface, not many fundamental Christians would disagree with this statement, but I believe many of our brethren disagree in practice.  Going to heaven should not be the focal point of our preaching, though we often use Jesus simply as a means to an end of going to heaven.  Go now and tell your wife that the real reason you married her was for the bliss of sexual relations. 

Jesus is the means and the end and He is life itself.  He is our joy, our peace, and purpose for living.  We point people to Christ not for the purpose of obtaining entrance to an eternal fun park, but for the purpose of achieving Christ.  He is the beauty of heaven and if He was not there, it would be hell.  Jesus must be at the center of our preaching because He is the only one that can truly convert a soul.  When the philosophers mocked Paul because of the resurrection, it was because they were indeed ignorant of what true life is and its attributes.  In a world where most thought of the physical existence as evil and less real, Jesus became human flesh in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.  This is the life you and I will enjoy when we receive our Christlike bodies on the last day.

While we may have experiences of coming to Christ out of a desire for heaven and fear of hell, ultimately a soul is born again when he or she receives Christ as Lord and Savior.  Thus we begin a life-long process of choosing Christ first and forsaking everything else.  Jesus is beautiful, and we worship Him when we make Him to the supreme sole desire of our souls.

4. Application

Witnessing and Preaching: When I present the gospel to people, I will realize biblically it is not a desire for heaven that draws people to Christ, but the Father draws people to His Son.  God is good and the ultimate revelation of God’s goodness is in His Son Jesus whom we are sent to preach.  Therefore as I speak to people, I will not skew the Gospel message out of desire add conversions to my resume, but preach a faithful message and let the beauty of Christ draw men to Himself as we lift Him up.

Discipling: I will need to understand where others understand the word of God is and help them accordingly.  As Paul spoke to the Jews,  I can reason with those who already have a conviction that the Bible is the word of God that Jesus is the Christ. Also as Paul spoke with the philosophers, I can present biblical concepts to them so that they would desire to “hear thee again of this matter”(v.32), and thus open the door wider for the gospel to be presented.