Paul's Second Missionary Journey, continued

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Amphipolis, Appolonia and Thessalonica

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Chapter 17 verses 1 thru 9 record the beginning of the church at Thessalonica. Paul and Silas leave Philippi and go to Thessalonica, a distance of about 75 miles. There was a Jewish Synagogue there and for 3 weeks, on the Sabbath, Paul attended the services and "reasoned" with the Jews concerning Jesus. Notice, he used the scriptures. This means the Old Testament. This was pretty much Paul's approach to the Jew. To get an idea of what Paul said we have but to read Matthew's Gospel. Paul's message to the Jew had 4 points:

1. He took each Old Testament prophecy and showed them how Jesus fulfilled it.
2. He traced the ancestry of Jesus back to David.
3. He noted the high regard that Jesus had for the Law of Moses.
4. He noted the preferential treatment that Jesus accorded the Jews.

All this he used to substantiate his belief that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah and to rebuke the arguments of the Jews. But wasn't the Messiah to establish an earthly kingdom for the Jews? To answer this, Paul had to explain the following:

1. Eternal Salvation, the reason why Jesus had to suffer and die on the cross.
2. The Resurrection, why it was necessary for him to raise from the dead and how this established Him as the Christ.
3. The Kingdom, how this kingdom that He established was not, nor was it ever to be, an earthly kingdom.

Well, what were the results of his explanation? Verse 4 says that some of the Jews were "persuaded" along with many Greeks and a few leading women. The Greeks and the women were from a group called "Proselytes of the Gate", people who had been converted to Judaism and who were there at the synagogue when Paul preached.

The second result was jealousy. As usual, the unbelieving Jew became jealous. It had been made clear, so far in the Book of the Acts, that the enemy of Christianity was the unbelieving Jew. What did jealousy drive these Jews to do? They rounded up a large group of the undesirables of the city in an effort to cause trouble for Paul and Silas. Josephus, a first century historian, says that the wise and sober people looked upon Paul and Silas with respect and valued their opinion even if they did not accept Christ, but these Jews collected enough of these undesirables to make it look like the whole city was against them.

At this time, Paul and Silas were staying at the home of a Jew named Jason. Jason is believed to have been related to Paul. His Hebrew name was Joshua. Paul mentions this man later in his letter to the church at Corinth. These Jews find out where they were staying and break into the house to search for them. All of this was illegal, even in those days. Entry into a man's house had to be done by the proper authorities with a search warrant. They searched Jason's home but they could not find Paul or Silas.

Angry at not finding them, they take Jason and some of his brothern and set them before the city authorities. Notice with what they were charged. "Two men by the name of Paul and Silas have turned the world up side down." "They have come here and Jason had taken them in." "The charge is against Caesar, they are saying that there is another king and His name is Jesus." No king was allowed to rule or even exist in the Roman Empire without the consent of Caesar. Now it was probably true that Paul had mentioned that Jesus was King of Kings and that He was going to set up a kingdom, but it was not of this world and they did not understand this. So upon hearing this, the authorities became troubled because they wanted no trouble with Rome.

So what do the authorities do? Well, sense they did not want any trouble with Rome and they really didn't want to persecute the Christians, they met with the Christians and made them promise not to stir up any trouble and Jason and others posted bail as security for this. They also spoke for Paul and Silas, promising that neither would cause any more trouble in Thessalonica. Unlike the Magistrates in Philippi, these authorities ruled with reason and justice. After this agreement was made it appears that the brothern sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea. They had stayed long enough to establish a church there and educate leaders to carry on the work that were more acceptable to the city authorities.

Beroea

Chapter 17, verses 10 thru 13 records their arrival at Beroea. Beroea was about 50 miles from Thessalonica. As was his custom, as soon as Paul arrived at Beroea he went to the Jewish synagogue. Luke says that these Jews were "more noble" than the ones at Thessalonica. They listened to Paul as he told them about the Gospel. They were not prejudice but listened with an open mind. Not only that and perhaps more important, they went home and examined the scriptures to see if the things that Paul was telling them was true. Paul always bragged about these Bereans because they did this. They examined the Old Testament prophecies to see if they agreed with what they had been told about Jesus, and as the result, many Jews as well as Greeks, men and women, believed.

It would appear that often the women believed first, before the men which leads us to believe that because of this, Paul was motivated to write in Corinthians, "For all you know, O Wife, you may save the soul of your husband."

Paul in Athens

All was well, but trouble arrived in the form of Jews from Thessalonica. They had gotten word that Paul and Silas were in Beroea preaching the Gospel, so they came to stir up the people against them. Whenever God's Word is preached, Satan is there to stir up trouble. Again we see the brothern stepping in on Paul's behalf. They immediately got Paul and probably Luke, out of the city and sent them on their way. Timothy and Silas remained at Beroea. Leaving Beroea they head for the Aegean Sea, some 25 miles distance and there board a boat for Athens. Athens was about 100 miles from Beroea.

Now what happened to Silas and Timothy back in Beroea? We need to read Paul's letter to Timothy to find this out. Little is said other than that they remained in Beroea long enough to establish the church there. When the Greeks at Athens open up to the Gospel, Paul sent for Silas and Timothy to join him there at Athens. Silas went to Athens as Paul asked but Timothy went back to Thessolonica to check on the work there, then he went on to Athens as Paul had requested.

Chapter 17 verses 16 thru 21, record what happened to Paul while he waited for Silas and Timothy. This scripture leads us into Paul's famous speech that he made before the Atheanian Scholars, men, whose sole purpose in life was the assimilation of knowledge.

Paul did not like the city of Athens. To him it was simply an idolatrous city. The city had idols to every know god. It was said of Athens that they had more idols than they had men. After the Roman Empire became Christian, Athens continued incurably addicted to idolatry, until the Goths completely destroyed the city. It had been observed that cities where human learning flourishes, idolatry abounds. Paul later said in the Book of Romans that they professed themselves to be wise but became fools. Paul was very concerned at what he saw in Athens.

He might well have run about the streets crying, "You are all bind-slaves to the Devil." This was true, but for one of the few times in his life, he remained "cool", became a prudent man and went to the synagogue of the Jews. It would appear that the synagogue was simply a porch. Because of the ideal weather conditions in Athens, most of the buildings were open and a lot of them without roofs.

In speaking to the Jews, he draws a crowd from the street. Within the crowd were two groups of scholars who became interested in what Paul was saying. They were members of the "Epicurean" and the "Stoic" philosophers. The Epicureans thought that God was like they were, idle, inactive, caring about nothing, putting no difference between good and evil. They had no need of a conscience for they did not believe in punishment nor reward. What you see is what you get, no hope of eternity, therefore no heaven or hell.

The Stoics claimed to be as good as God. They indulged themselves in all that the world had to offer, and in life, lived directly opposite to the teachings of Christ. These so called philosophers observed Paul and listened with courteous attention to his teaching and came up with various opinions about him. These groups spent most of their time in meditation and their first opinion of Paul was that he talked to much. But they also were open to new knowledge, even though they felt that they already knew all that there was to know, so they welcomed a chance to hear something new.

Some, after listening, observed that he seemed to be a preacher of some foreign deity. Others simply considered him as one who brought "strange things" to their ears. These people prided themselves in not being prejudice or bigoted. Their minds was always open to new theologies. So they would hear more.

They took him to the Areopagus, better known as Mars Hill, to give him an opportunity to enlighten them with this new teaching. Mars Hill was the Town House or City Hall of Athens. All official agencies were housed and met there. The Athenian Court of Justice met there and was famous for it's equity which drew cases from all over the world. Everything in Athens was decided by this court. If anyone denied the existence of gods, they would come under the judgment of this court for they had already declared their existence. Likewise, if anyone wanted to declare a new god, they must first have the approval of this court.

Paul was brought there, not to be tried, but to be given an opportunity to present to the court, his God. On our next lesson we are going to hear Paul's presentation before the "learned" men of Athens.

Paul's Sermon

Verses 22 thru 31 of Chapter 17, record Paul's sermon. Here is the first recorded sermon ever delivered to Heathen in a heathen land concerning Christ. All previous sermons were made to Jews or Gentiles who were familiar or had a knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures and worshipped the true and living God. Here we have Christ presented to people who worshipped pagan gods and did not know the God of Israel.

Obviously, the approach had to be different. First, Paul established his purpose. He was going to bring them to knowledge of the one true and living God. To do this, he made two points.

1. He showed them that they had a need. "I perceive (I can tell by looking around me) that in every way you are religious." They made a great show of religion and had statues of every known god. It was not their intention to leave out any god in their search for the God.
2. He declared to them that he was there to tell them who the real true God was and how they must worship Him. "I perceive that you desire to know this and to believe that He exists because you have set up an alter to the unknown God." "What, therefore, you worship as 'unknown', I will proclaim to you."

Then Paul went about his introduction:

1. He is the creator of the world and everything in it.
2. He is Lord of Heaven and earth.
3. He does not live in shrines built by human hands.
4. He had made every nation of men on the earth.
5. He had determined and allotted their boundaries for their habitation.
6. He had instilled in man the desire to seek after Him and to find Him, for He is not far from each one of us, for we are indeed, His offspring. Now if we are His offspring, how should we think of Him? We are offspring of our parents and we do not think of them as innate objects made of gold, stone or silver, therefore we should not think of God this way.
7. It was true that there had been periods of ignorance on the part of man, but God overlooked that, but now He has enlightened them and they can no longer claim ignorance, so He now commands all men everywhere to repent.
8. With the commandment, came a way of repentance, a means of enlightenment, One who stirs the hearts of men, the Holy Spirit, and One who saves their soul, the Son, Jesus Christ.
9. He had already fixed a day of Judgment on which all men will be judged. The One that will judge the world had been appointed by God and had given us this assurance by raising Him from the dead.

Surly Paul must have elaborated in these points, but this was the outline of his message as Luke recorded it and as we shall see, it affected them all, in different ways.

The Typical mixed Reaction

Luke recorded this for us in verses 32 thru 34 of Chapter 17.

Notice Athens was no different than any place else. Amongst the ordinary people, some scoffed, some wanted to hear more, some believed, but among the "philosophers", it was much the same as the Pharisees, hard hearts and strong minds prevailed. It was the resurrection that bothered them. Up to that point, they had listened patiently and intently, but when Paul spoke of the resurrection from the dead, they mocked for like most "learned" men of that day, they did not believe in life after death.

Some were more open minded, willing to take time at a later date to hear more of this teaching. Matthew Henry says of these Athenians that they lost the benefit of the practical doctrine of Christianity by "wading" in over their head in controversy. So Paul seeing little hope of doing any good here at Mars Hill, departed from among them.

But there was some who believed. Dionysius the Areopagate, a judge, a senator, one before whom Paul was summoned to appear, believed. Tradition had it that this man was born and raised in Athens, studied in Egypt where he became interested in one Jesus of Nazareth. He returned to Athens where he became a Senator and where he talked at great length to Paul and was led to Christ by the Holy Spirit. He later became the first Bishop of Athens.

There was also a woman by the name of Damaris. She is believed, by some, to have been the wife of Dionysius, but others believe that she was a lady of quality and quite rich. So the harvest was small in Athens but those who believed were dedicated to the Master. From Athens, Paul went to Corinth. He left Timothy and Silas there at Athens to take care of matters pertaining to the establishment of a church.

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