Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.
But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.
As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

• Acts 17:1-34

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Acts 17 ‘Overview’: “Luke has shown us how the gospel matches up against two major opponents: the zealous Jews in synagogues around Turkey and now in northern Greece, and the economic and political forces of the Roman Empire. But there is an entire world of thought which we haven‘t yet had on stage. This is the hugely important sphere of the prevailing ancient philosophies. They conditioned how thousands of ordinary people saw the world, what they thought of as reasonable and unreasonable, what they thought about the gods, what they thought human life was for and how best you should live it. Millions who had never studied philosophy, who maybe could not even read or write, were nevertheless deeply influenced by the major currents of thought that were debated in the schools, just as plenty of people today who have never studied philosophy or economics are massively influenced by popular media presentations of large and complex ideas.”

• N. T. Wright, Acts (from the For Everyone Bible Study Series)

Acts 17:1 ‘Amphipolis and Apollonia … Thessalonica’: “Southwest from Philippi along the Egnatian Way. Amphipolis was about thirty miles from Philippi, and Apollonia was another thirty miles beyond. The narrative indicates that the travelers stopped only for the night in those cities. Forty miles beyond Apollonia was Thessalonica, the capital city of Macedonia, with a population of 200,000. It was a major port city and an important commercial center. synagogue. See … 13:5. Luke refers to a synagogue only in Thessalonica, which may explain why Paul and his companions did not stay in the  other two cities.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Acts 17:2 ‘as his custom was.’: “Paul began his ministry in each town with the Jews (see … 13:5). three Sabbaths. The length of Paul’s initial public ministry. The actual amount of time spent in Thessalonica would have been longer, extending perhaps four to six months.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Acts 17:5 ‘the house of Jason.’: “The mob assumed Paul, Silas, and Timothy were staying there. Nothing is known of Jason except that he was probably Jewish, since Jason was a name adopted by many of the dispersed Jews.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Acts 17:15 ‘Athens.’: “The cultural center of Greece. At its zenith, Athens was home to the most renowned philosophers in history, including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who was arguably the most influential philosopher of all. Two other significant philosophers taught there: Epicurus, founder of Epicureanism, and Zeno, founder of Stoicism—two of the dominant philosophies in that day (see … v. 18).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Acts 17:18-19 ‘Paul at the Areopagus’: “Paul did what he usually did in the synagogue at Athens, but we have no report of the reaction. More interesting to Luke at this point, Paul argues in the marketplace, which in Athens was a marketplace of ideas as well as of other commodities. There he met the great philosophical schools of the day, the Epicureans and the Stoics. The Epicureans held that the world and the gods were a long way away from one another, with little or no communication; the result was that one should get on with life as best one could, discovering how to gain maximum pleasure from a quiet, sedate existence. The Stoics believed that divinity lay within the present world and within each human being, so that this divine force could be discovered and harnessed; virtue consisted in getting in touch with and living according to this inner divine rationality.
“The invitation for Paul to speak with the Areopagus was not as friendly and innocuous as it sounds. Calling him a ‘babbler’ or ‘word-scatterer’ is clearly derogatory (v. 18). It wasn’t a matter of, ‘Well, here’s an interesting fellow; let’s see what he has to say.’ It contained a doubled veiled threat. ‘This man,’ they said, ‘seems to be preaching of foreign divinities.’ This charge was most famously and classically leveled against Socrates who was tried and condemned as a result. Athens may have been interested in new ideas, but divinities from elsewhere could easily get you into serious trouble. ‘Are we permitted to know …’(v. 19) also suggests they suspect Paul of being part of a secret group and of having secret doctrines which could be a threat to their state.”

• N. T. Wright, Acts (from the For Everyone Bible Study Series)

Acts 17:18 ‘Greek Confusion over the Resurrection’: “The accusation of advocating foreign gods is based on a misunderstanding Paul’s listeners had of his message, which was about Jesus and the resurrection. Resurrection, which in Greek is anastasis, seems to have sounded to them like another god, or rather, since the word is feminine, a goddess: Jesus and what they supposed to be his divine female consort!”

• N. T. Wright, Acts (from the For Everyone Bible Study Series)

Acts 17:23-34 ‘Paul at Mars Hill’: “When Paul arrived in Athens, he was greatly moved in spirit at the idolatry in the city. He divided his time between speaking to the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles in the synagogue and to any who would listen to him in the open marketplace (verses 16-17). The Epicurean and Stoic philosophers accused him of being an ‘idle babbler’ who was proclaiming strange deities because he ‘was preaching Jesus and the resurrection’ (verse 18). Taking him up to the Areopagus, the venerable council that was in charge of the religious and educational matters in Athens, they gave Paul an opportunity to teach and to explain what he was proclaiming (verse 19).
“With great boldness, and also subtlety, Paul reminded the people of Athens they had an altar inscribed ‘To an Unknown God,’ which they worshiped in ignorance (verse 23). Paul then spoke of this God, who made the ‘world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth,’ and does not dwell in temples made by hands (verse 24). This God is not served by hands, but instead, gives life and breath to all (verse 25) and has determined the ‘appointed times and the boundaries’ of the habitation of all (verse 26). The nations should seek Him because He is not far away (verse 27), and ‘in Him we live and move and exist.’ Even some Gentile poets admit, ‘We also are His children’ (verse 28).
“With the revelation of the resurrected Christ, ‘all people everywhere should repent’ (verse 30) because God has appointed a judgment day ‘in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead’ (verse 31). Some reacted to Paul with sneers, but others said, ‘We shall hear you again concerning this’ (verse 32). All judgment has been placed in the hands of Christ (John 5:22) and will come to pass at the end of the millennial reign of Christ (Revelation 20:11-15). Christ is now proclaimed ‘the Son of God with power’ because of His resurrection from the dead and because He is the holy One of God (Romans 1:4). This message drove Paul to witness to both the Jews and Gentiles.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Acts 17: 23-24 ‘TO THE UNKNOWN GOD’: “The Athenians were supernaturalists—they believed in supernatural powers that intervened in the course of natural laws. They at least acknowledged the existence of someone beyond their ability to understand who had made all things. Paul thus had the opportunity to introduce them to the Creator-God who could be known (Deut. 4:35; 1 Kin. 8:43; 1 Chr. 28:9; Ps. 9:10; Jer. 9:24; 24:7; 31:34; John 17:3). When evangelizing pagans, Paul started from creation, the general revelation of God (cf. 14:15-17). When evangelizing Jews, he started from the OT (vv. 10-13).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Acts 17:26 ‘one blood’: “All men are equal in God’s sight since all came from one man, Adam. This teaching was a blow to the national pride of the Greeks, who believed all non-Greeks were barbarians (see … Rom. 1:14). determined their preappointed times. God sovereignly controls the rise and fall of nations and empires (cf. Dan. 2:36-45; Luke 21:24). the boundaries of their dwellings. God is responsible for establishing nations as to their racial identity and their specific geographical locations (Deut. 32:8) and determining the extent of their conquests (cf. Is. 10:12-15).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Acts 17:27 ‘God is everywhere’: “This shows us how vain is all hope of escape from God. Where can we fly? Where can we hide? What will we do? We have provoked him. ‘The Lord will never leave the guilty unpunished’ (Nah 1:3). This is the solemn side of the matter.
“But there is a bright side to this great truth of God’s nearness. If God is not far from each of us, then how hopeful is our seeking of him! If I seek God and he is not far from me, I will surely find him. I do not have to climb to heaven or to dive into the abyss, for he is near. Where I sit, or stand, I may come to him. It is written, ‘If you seek him, he will be found by you’ (1 Ch 28:9). And again, ‘Seek the Lord while he may be found; call to him while he is near’ (Is. 55:6). Omnipresence yields good cheer to those who are panting for God. If the Lord is near, there is no reason he should not grant pardon right now to all who seek it. God is near, and therefore hope is near.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Acts 17:29 ‘the offspring of God.’: “A quote from Aratus, who came from Paul’s home region of Cilicia. not … like gold or silver. If man is the offspring of God, as the Greek poet suggested, it is foolish to think that God could be nothing more than a man-made idol. Such reasoning points out the absurdity of idolatry (cf. Is. 44:9-20).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Acts 17 ‘Reflections’: ” God made man in His own image and placed within him an organ by means of which he could know spiritual things. When man sinned that organ died. ‘Dead in sin’ is a description not of the body nor yet of the intellect, but of the organ of God-knowledge within the human soul. Now men are forced to depend upon another and inferior organ and one furthermore which is wholly inadequate to the purpose. I mean, of course, the mind as the seat of his powers of reason and understanding.
“Man by reason cannot know God; he can only know about God. Through the light of reason certain important facts about God may be discovered.
“ ‘Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse’ (Romans 1:19-20).
“Through the light of nature man’s moral reason may be enlightened, but the deeper mysteries of God remain hidden to him until he has received illumination from above.
“ ‘But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned’ (1 Corinthians 2:14).
“When the Spirit illuminates the heart, then a part of the man sees which never saw before; a part of him knows which never knew before, and that with a kind of knowing which the most acute thinker cannot imitate. He knows now in a deep and authoritative way, and what he knows needs no reasoned proof. His experience of knowing is above reason, immediate, perfectly convincing, and inwardly satisfying.”

• A. W. Tozer, God’s Pursuit of Man

 

My Thoughts

Paul, Silas, Timothy, and the unnamed Luke went to Thessalonica.  There was a synagogue, so Paul slipped back into his familiar routine of preaching there.  He talked about the Messiah, how the Messiah must suffer, die and rise from the dead.  He then said Jesus was this Man.  Some believed, but others raised a mob to riot against Paul’s teaching, claiming Paul was doing something against Roman law.

They stormed the house of Jason, thinking Paul was there and Jason and some of his household had to post a bond, guilty of welcoming Paul and his team – but no proof of that.

Not much is known about Jason, and Rev. MacArthur suggests that Jason was a common name among the Jews in exile.  When I worked with people in China, they came up with names from Western culture so that we did not have to pronounce their Chinese names.  I tried the Chinese names anyway.  One was Jason.  We had to do all our work through Jason, and we were told to go to a particular lady instead.  She would get what we needed while all we got from Jason was a promise to do it and then … nothing.  When I read that note about the popularity of Jason in the first century, I am sure that had nothing to do with the Jason that I knew, but the thought made me cringe, but also say a prayer for the woman who was so conscientious.  The photo above was taken by her. And to explain the photo, this wonderful woman, her teenaged son, and I were taking a walking tour of Shanghai, mostly going from one museum to the next. We were caught in a garden in a freak rain shower. She thought it so funny that my clothing was drenched, but I took the time to wring out my hat. She just had to take the picture. She helped me, unofficially for two weeks in Shanghai, and then she led a team that I taught in the USA for a month (my wife and I having them in our home for Thanksgiving dinner), teaching them how aluminum can melting is done differently than large aluminum scrap melting – in hopes we could create an aluminum can recycling market in China.

But with the biblical Jason’s arrest and posted bond, the believers helped Paul and the team escape to Berea.  The people of Berea were more honorable than those from Thessalonica.  They would examine the Scriptures each time Paul preached on anything.

On my favorite television show, there is a pastor who occasionally attends the panel discussion, from a “Berean” church.  It was named because the church is charged with never taking the speaker’s word for anything but searching the Scriptures.  I think that is a great technique.  You learn more that way and the habit is a good one.

But just as the people from Pisidian Antioch and Iconium raised up trouble for Paul in Lystra, people from Thessalonica went to Berea and gathered another mob.  Paul escaped by boat, with the help from the believers in Berea.  Silas and Timothy stayed behind to strengthen the church.  Nothing is said about Luke and the use of “we” is not mentioned.  It might be assumed that Luke stayed in Berea and Paul was alone in Athens.

Paul was initially put off by the preponderance of idols in Athens, but he was a shrewd orator.  He began to speak about Jesus, and some Epicureans and Stoics, thinking him a babbler, took him to the Areopagus where the serious philosophy of the day was spoken.  Paul, who hated the idolatry, said that the Athenians were “religious” and then he mentions a statue about an unknown God.  He uses that as an entrance into a discussion of how God made everything, thus He could not be contained within an idol.  Then when He got to the Son of God dying and being resurrected, he got a mixture of responses.  Rev. MacArthur’s comments about Acts 17:29 above is something I had not heard, but it makes sense.  Even so, Paul gained new converts from the crowd, some being influential.

When Paul was in the synagogue, he used Scripture to prove Jesus was the Messiah, both in Asia Minor and in Thessalonica and Berea.  But when Paul was in Lystra, the sermon focused on God bringing the rain and growing the crops.  In Athens, with so many idols, Paul relates God to the Unknown God of the Athenians.  Some of this is Paul’s education, but the Holy Spirit is controlling what Paul is saying and doing.  At the Areopagus, he went from a babbler who was to be mocked to a philosopher who persuaded, with the Holy Spirit’s work inside them, to accepting Jesus as their Savior.  The Holy Spirit can do the same for us.  We have to be willing vessels.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Acts 17:1-15 In Thessalonica and Berea 1. Whether Jesus or Caesar was Lord became a real issue for Christians a few years later. When has your faith in Christ led to conflict with other authorities claiming your loyalty?
“2. In terms of time, consistency, and intensity, how would you rate your Bible study? ls it at all like the Bereans?
Acts 17:16-34 In Athens 1. What distresses you spiritually about the area in which you live? What specific needs do you see? What do you feel God is calling you to do about them?
“2. Who do you know that has very little or no background in the gospel? How would your witness to them be different than to someone out of a church background?
“3. Paul uses idols and Greek poetry as points of contact between these people and the gospel. How can you use movies, books, TV shows, music, etc., as a way of relating the gospel more effectively to others today?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

There are two sets of questions as shown above for Acts 17.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.