Well today we continue to follow the travels of the Apostle Paul through Macedonia. And he's going to travel through Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens. Those cities are all there today. Yeah, and Little Berea.
Little Berea, something different happens. The people there responded in a way that stands as an example for us still. And let's see what that is today on More Than Ink. Well, sure enough, that's us, More Than Ink. I'm Jim.
And I'm Dorothy. And we are glad that you're with us. We are reading through the book of Acts. And boy is it exciting. Oh yeah, exactly. Or it's Greek name is praxis, which just means stuff people do. Stuff you do.
Yeah, stuff you do. So we're following the Apostles in the early church. We're up to chapter 17 and Paul and Silas and Timothy are on their way, well, into Macedonia. Well, they came over to Macedonia because Paul had had that dream in Troas. That's right.
That's right. He saw a man from Macedonia saying, come over here and help us. So they moved into an entirely new continent where they had never been before.
Yeah, technically they've stepped foot into Europe now. They were in Asia Minor, which is Turkey today, but Europe. And this is where, if you haven't looked at your map yet, and you need to look at your map.
You need to. Because you can follow these places on your map, it turns out. Because today we're going to Thessalonica, or on the Google map it's called Thessaloniki.
But it's still quite a sizable port town, way up at the top of the Aegean Sea. But they had just left Philippi, where there had been some considerable excitement. Where they had been thrown in jail, there was an earthquake.
The jailer came and was saved and his family. And they had to leave there. Had to leave. Yeah, had to leave. But there was a church established and was meeting in the house of Lydia. So we talked about her at some length last time.
Yeah, yeah, Lydia, oh Lydia, yeah. I have to correct myself. Thessaloniki is at the top of the Adriatic, not the Aegean.
Oh, sorry. Those of you who are looking at your map saying, wait a second, you have that wrong. Yeah, so anyway, they're traveling and they're talking about who Jesus is. And they're up in Macedonia, which is again, it's where Greece, the big peninsula of Greece, goes up and hits the big part of the continent.
That's where Macedonia is, it's a big mountainous area up there. So that's where we are. So let's just pick up the story as we leave one place and go to another. And we're starting into chapter 17. Okay, and they're heading kind of south out of Philippi.
Well, south and west. Yeah, starting in chapter 17. Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. Hey, well that's good news. Yeah, they were a bunch of believers. Well received.
Well received, yeah. So this is Thessalonica and you can travel there today. Now, it says he was there, what, three Sabbath days, which means anywhere from two to three weeks. Yeah, but it seems like he was there longer. It seems like it.
Three Sabbath days in the synagogue. But I wonder if there isn't a gap in time after that when it tells us who believes, because the opposition rises against him. But if you read 1 Thessalonians, it becomes clear that he seems to have built a tremendously deep and warm relationship with the people at Thessalonica, and probably that happened over more than three weeks. Yeah, probably. It seems like he was probably there longer.
Probably, yeah. And yet what he does is he, I like what it says in verse two, he reasoned with him is what they say here in the ESV version. And that reasoned word is just a great kind of dialogue word. Like it was a back and forth, it was a back and forth. And rather than just saying he stood up there and preached at him, they dialogued about it.
And then in verse three it says he explained things and proved things. So very much so. It's a very, it's a really, what we talked about last time, a listening dialogue back and forth. Listening back and forth.
What's your question? Let's answer that. And just tried to unload what their questions were through the Bible. Well, and what he was explaining and proving is that it was a requirement that the Messiah suffer, die, and be resurrected. It was absolutely necessary because historically the Jews looked past any discussion of a suffering Messiah and looked for a victorious Messiah. Yeah, kind of a military leader Messiah.
And you can see why because. Well, those are certainly more appealing passages. But no, he says in verse eight it was necessary. The scriptures say it was necessary for the Messiah Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. So Paul's being true to his original statements we see in other places that he says, when I came to you, I talked to you about Christ.
And I wasn't much more sophisticated than that. And here he's talking about him suffering, which includes dying, and then rising from the dead. And then when he says this, he says, so this Jesus, this Jesus, that's his human name. This is the Messiah. This is the Christ. So he's talking to a Jewish congregation and they know that they're looking for the Messiah. And he says, this is the guy.
This is the guy. So some of those Jews were persuaded. Yeah. And they joined Paul and Silas, it says. And then a great many devout Greeks. So there were God seekers there also. Oh, right.
Among the Jews. And not a few of the leading women. So apparently it was not uncommon for Greek women to hold public office or be in positions of local importance. Yeah, we've seen that before. We talked about Lydia too, so very much so. But I just love that they mention that. We're not only counting up the men, that local women of standing also came to believe in this Christ.
Yeah, yeah. And I might mention just for context right here, we're in Thessalonica. We're about a three-day journey from Philippi.
And if you did take our advice last time and you read Philippians, you'll know that he mentioned in Philippians that he was thankful to the church at Philippi for supporting his travels into Thessalonica. That they had sent gifts more than once while he was there. That again I think indicates that perhaps he was there longer than three weeks. Yeah, could very well be. Because it would take a while to gather a gift and get it there more than once.
Exactly. Well, I said this was a great response, but we didn't read verse five. Okay, so this is where I think there probably was a little bit of a gap in time.
Could be. Because as these new believers were meeting together and kind of it was rippling through the community. Starting in verse five. But the Jews were jealous. And taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting. These men who've turned the world upside down have come here also. And Jason has received them, and they're all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus. And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as a security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
Isn't that hilarious? So this mob, this mob of rabble, they formed a mob, and they say, where are these out of towners? And they say, they're at Jason's house. They go to Jason's house, knock, knock, knock.
He's not here. Yeah, so who is Jason? We don't know. We don't really know. There's some supposition that perhaps he was somebody of authority in the synagogue, and that Paul would have taken a room with him.
Yeah, yeah. We don't know. We just don't know. But I do find it fascinating that failing to find Paul and Silas over at Jason's house, they decide, well, let's come down hard on Jason. What do you say? Really, with only just hearsay. With only hearsay.
Oh, we think he's at Jason's house, so let's drag him out. Right, right. And so they use these drummed up charges about saying stuff against Caesar, all that kind of stuff. Well, now that's an accusation that had originated with Jesus, right? They said he's claiming to be a king instead of Caesar.
This is not new. Yeah, yeah. Because if they can claim a civil offense, which is disloyalty to Caesar, then you're doing something.
Well, then you've got a Roman court you can deal with. Yeah. So then the people and the authorities, they were disturbed when they heard these things.
The argument was persuasive is what he's saying, right? Right. And so, and by the way, too, that whole argument about being against the King Caesar is also a threat of lack of peace.
I mean, things are going to get bad. And everyone knows that that's the one thing the Roman authorities come down on. The thing you don't do.
You do not disturb the peace, so they're basically saying, yeah, we better put a lid on this thing or else we might have Roman troops in town. Yeah. So they say, okay, we'll give us some money and we'll leave and that's what they do. So is it like being let out on bond?
It's kind of like a bond, isn't it? Yeah. Because they didn't pass any word to Jason saying, well, when they come home, you tell them they need to leave town. Right.
It wasn't that at all. In a sense, what they were saying was, okay, Paul and Silas, they're your responsibility. And so you give us money, you give us a bond promising that you'll make sure that they don't cause disruptions.
Yeah. So they're kind of free on bail. They're free on bail and under Jason's custody in a sense, right? So anyway, so they leave there, a little disgusted, but it's now on Jason to make sure things don't go south. So it's interesting that when we move on, we hear that the brothers immediately send Paul and Silas away by night. They're like, okay, let's get you out of town. Well, yeah, because they took on themselves the responsibility of keeping the peace. So they said, you guys got to go. And did it by night because they knew it would probably cause a disruption if people saw them. And they came to his house in the daylight. Right. So let's read what happens, verse 10.
Okay. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they had arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now, these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
Many of them, therefore, believed with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. Should we stop there? Yeah. Yeah. Hey, there's your women again. Well, I know. It's really interesting.
When they move out of Jewish culture and into Greek culture, the women are very present. Right. Right. Right. Right. And I love it because Luke takes real emphasis in mentioning the women as a way for this account to tell people, you know, Christianity, in terms of how it deals with women, is vastly different.
Yes. It's not just a patriarchal organization where you can only believe. You can only pray in public.
You can only read the scriptures. There's women that are responding here, too. But, you know, we always highlight the Bereans for this very thing. Well, hey, whole denominations are named after the Bereans.
Exactly. Because they just didn't take Paul at his word, although they could have. They could have. They just said, okay, tell us what you're saying, Paul.
And they said, okay, wait, we've got to check up on this. And they would get out their scriptures and they would check up on them. And Paul was not offended by that.
No. As a matter of fact, I love that Luke says these Jews were more noble minded, right? They were – they're open minded. They were thoughtful.
They were willing to consider the truth rather than just having a knee-jerk reaction to say, well, this can't possibly be. Right. Right. So they actually searched those things out, and that is a quality to be emulated.
Absolutely. Always when someone comes to you with a new take on the scripture that you have understood a particular way, always check it out. So I lead women's Bible studies, and very often I challenge them. Here's my understanding according to what I have studied, but you test me, right? You test it yourself. You go search it out.
How do you do that? Well, you find other scriptures that speak of the same thing, that use the same words. You test it.
You validate anything that anyone teaches you. Right. Right. And that demonstrates, too, that authority in terms of truth really comes from the word. It doesn't come from Paul. That's right.
That's right. Or any kind of superstar celebrity pastor. It comes from the word. So Paul, who is a trained Pharisee, I mean, he is a real guy in terms of intellectualism in terms of the scriptures. He does not bristle with this. He doesn't say, look, you don't understand. I've been trained in Tarsus. I'm an academic in the scriptures, in the Torah. He doesn't do that.
He just says, well, okay. And here, Luke lays it down as a major ethic in the Christian church from this part on. And Luke says in verse 12, many of them therefore believed. Therefore believed. Right.
Because they had checked it out in the scriptures for themselves. Right. Right. And so here it is again, and we've seen this for the last 17 chapters, the role of the word of God is central to the spreading of the gospel, which you'd think is obvious, but it's really not.
I mean, even in this particular case, although Paul's got the credentials, what makes them come to believe is the Holy Spirit working in conjunction with what they hear and understanding God's word. And just to underscore it, you know, the scriptures that they were examining were the Old Testament. Right. Right. The first five books of Moses, the prophets, probably even the Psalms also, Paul would have quoted from Psalms. So you know, we tend to think people could only come to know Jesus from reading the New Testament.
That is simply not so. Yeah, that's exactly right. All the Jews had was the Old Testament.
Right. And Jesus is there talking to, when the risen Jesus is talking to the guys walking to Emmaus, he demonstrates, he shows them. Beginning with Moses. Beginning with Moses. And that's actually Luke that says that in Luke's gospel, starting with Moses. He opened their minds to all the things pertaining to him in the scriptures.
Yeah. I might point out too, I mentioned this last time, and when it comes to sharing the gospel with strangers and stuff like that, many times what you need to do, well, always, you need to gauge interest at the very beginning. Find out where people are at in spiritual issues. Here these guys show with their eagerness, it says right there in verse 11, their eagerness and that eagerness drove them to, you know, when Paul's speaking, say, wait a second, we need to check up on this. Let me go see if what you're saying is true. And that kind of eagerness and desire to look into it shows you a heart that's ready to listen, ready to receive the gospel.
The worst reception you can get is when someone just kind of says, yeah, whatever, and just ignores you. There's not ignorance here. There's an eagerness and there's a motivation to understand. And this is a good, fertile place to plant seeds for the gospel. Well, it's also in the synagogue. So these people were there presumably because they were interested in God.
They believed in the God of the Jews. They were open to a conversation about the things of God. Yeah. Yeah. So Paul gives it to them. And here we go again.
Verse 13, but when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. So they followed them a whole day's journey. Yeah, day and a half.
Yeah. They really went out of their way. So then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens. And after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed. Okay, so Athens is like 200 miles away from where they are. So they walked Paul out of town and saw him all the way safely to Athens. Yeah. And the boat ride from Athens is long.
It's a long ways. But yeah, this explains why now they had to let them go away in the dark or whatever. There's this mounting opposition, it is really fascinating that the people in Thessalonica were still carrying this grudge against Paul. You know, they regarded themselves in some way as Paul had regarded himself earlier on, right? He had taken off out of Jerusalem to go up north and pursue those Christians at some distance. So these Jews were just doing what Paul had done a few years before.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they came agitating and stirring up the crowds. They realized they needed to have more manpower. So they got everyone kind of worked up in Thessalonica. So the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained. I think it's interesting Silas and Timothy remained behind. I think that was an investment on furthering the discussion about Jesus without having the lightning rod allowed Paul to get attention. Yeah, because Paul was the one who was standing up and growing the crowds. Yeah, so that's a good move. By the way, in my account, this is the fifth time that Paul has met with violent reaction. I mean, I just went back and made a list.
There's Pisidian Antioch on the first trip, and now on that same trip, Iconium and Lystra, and just before Thessalonica, and now Berea. It's interesting, though, that after Philippi, he didn't hang around long enough to get beaten up again. That's true. So brothers are like, okay, let's get him out of here quick. Let's get him out. Yeah, let's get him out.
Yeah. So they sent him off on their way by the sea. Silas and Timothy stayed behind. By the way, you notice in this list that Luke is not mentioned. Luke has, yeah. And we guessed, I think it was last time that Luke stayed behind in Philippi. We think.
Because his words changed from we to they at that point. Okay, we better press on. Well, let's go down to Athens.
Okay. Verse 16. Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Okay, so he's talking to both Jews and Gentiles.
All right. I mean, Athens has a few Jews. Well enough to have a synagogue. Enough to have a synagogue. But it's largely, this is the center of Greek religion and mythology. So full of pagan temples, statues all over the place of Greek gods and who knows who else. It's the center of worldwide religion and philosophy.
Okay. So in verse 18, here comes some of the philosophers. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, what does this babbler wish to say? Others said he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you're presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.
Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. Isn't that what philosophers do? Yeah. But you know the bottom line, Paul created enough curiosity that they said, let's go to a public place and talk about this. We want everyone to hear about this so we can find out what's happening. So we can gather a crowd because everyone likes to hear about something new. Well and the point wasn't just necessarily gathering a crowd, but there was actually a functioning body of philosophers and local people who served as local authorities who met regularly there. Yeah. Right?
Am I misunderstanding what I read? No, no. That's exactly right. The Areopagus, which it's actually two words, Areos Pagos, which means, well, Areos is Aries, the god of war.
Right. The Greek god of war. And Pagos means to make something. So when you look at the Areopagus, it's actually a jutting out of rock that's right alongside the Acropolis.
You've seen the famous pictures of the Acropolis in Athens. It's right next to that. So this was a nice flat top little outdoor meeting place and this is where they would listen to new things.
So he said, let's come to this place and let's hear what you got to say. Isn't it funny that this is dedicated to the god of war, to Aries, and they're out there having these philosophical arguments because it says they were disputing with him, conversing with him, but really arguing. It was a war. Well, and you know, in other English versions, sometimes they refer to this place as Mars Hill. Mars Hill. Well, Mars is the Roman god of war. So the Greek god of Aries, Roman god of war, Mars, Mars Hill, it's the same thing. So you know, it's interesting that this is the place they chose for the battleground of ideas, the battleground of philosophies.
Yeah, yeah. Well, it makes sense though. So you know, we want to know, so they're intrigued.
That's always a good sign. Maybe we know what your teaching is that you're presenting. And they didn't really understand, you know, the babbler comment, they didn't understand what he was talking about because they weren't talking Greek philosophy. They weren't talking Greek religion. There's nothing they could relate to in what Paul was saying because he was saying there's this man Jesus and he was resurrected from the dead. Well, I'm not sure they had ever encountered a Jew who was well read in their own literature, which is going to become clear in Paul's sermon, and we'll talk about that next week, and who was himself skilled in debate or in intellectual discussion. Yeah, yeah, and that presents an interesting challenge as we get close to the end here and we think about next time.
Next time we're actually going to look at what he says. But the challenge as you think about coming into Athens, it's the religious and myth spiritual center of the world in a sense, philosophical center of the world. How do you structure what you're going to say? And that's always an interesting thing because you can't presume upon the fact that anyone there knows anything about the Bible or even any of the history or the theology of the Jews.
They might a little bit, but that, you know, by and large, the majority are going to be pagans who are into a pantheon of gods. I mean, how do you even start this conversation? And where do you start from in terms of a common foundation that you can build from so you can eventually get from there to wherever they are over to where Jesus is as the Messiah who dies and rises again. I mean, how do you even structure that conversation? Which is why, you know, as we come up to this next week, I really love this presentation he's going to do.
I've studied this over and over again because I think it's a work of art in terms of how do you go from a secular person's mindset, which is what we deal with today, you know, largely people are not religious and surprisingly, many people know very little or nothing about the Bible, which is a change even in our lifetime. So where do you start from? Where do you start from and where's the common ground that you can build from? So that's his challenge and I might say to you as you're listening, that's the challenge to you. Where would you start a conversation like this?
Where would you start a presentation knowing that you're going to be speaking to some of the sharpest philosophers in the world who happen to believe a whole bunch of screwy pagan ideas? Well okay, so related to that, it's very interesting that in verse 16, it doesn't say Paul came to Athens and went straight to the synagogue, it says, �He was waiting for them at Athens and his spirit was provoked as he saw the city.� So that kind of indicates, at least in my way of reading, that he was there, this was a totally foreign place and he observed the city. So I could visualize him going out and walking around and it says, �His spirit was provoked as he saw the city full of idols.� So that means he was out and about walking around.
It seems to me, he didn't automatically presume, �I need to go and start preaching on a soap box.� Now he did find the synagogue and go there and begin to talk with the Jews, but there was some time spent, it appears, simply observing the city, observing the culture. That is so important. Yeah I was going to say, don't you think that's a real important indicator about where you find the common ground to start from? You've got to understand the culture, have to know what people think and what they believe and what they're interested in, and there's indicators not only through the culture but by small talk conversations and whatever. You need to figure out where people are coming from.
How they think and what they believe. And that's rule number one when it comes to sharing the gospel, where are people at? Which means, at least at the beginning, you're going to be listening more than you're going to be speaking. Right. And you're going to be making careful observations. Right, right.
Well Paul has put all that stuff together, he's walked around the city, he's even talked to some of the Jews in town, and he's mixed all this up in his head and as a result of that the Holy Spirit has said, �This is where you need to start next time.� Well and it's possible that during some of that time is when he read their philosophers, right, because he's going to quote some of them in his sermon when he finally gets around to it. So, you know, yes we're making some assumptions here, but it seems to me that there's space in the way this is described to go down that path. Yeah, exactly.
I might fill in just a little bit too. The Epicureans, these are guys whose lives are based on pleasure, by and large. Easy going, pleasure, peaceful, free of any fears, peace is cool. In my mind they're kind of like intellectual hippies, but today people don't know what a hippie is, but that's kind of what the Epicureans are, you know, if it makes life comfortable and fun, it's good for us. The Stoics, they're kind of on the opposite side. They think morality and duty, dignity, these are all very important things, and they're very pantheist, that is multiple gods is a good thing.
So Paul's going to have to somehow convince them that multiple gods is not good, and if there's something more than just your ethical duty, that does not make life happy. There's more to it than just that. Well we are totally out of time. It goes so fast.
It goes so fast. And you know, I'd encourage you, if you're curious enough now, which is what I've been trying to do, to actually read what Paul is going to say to them, go ahead and read ahead. It starts in verse 22 in chapter 17, and next time we'll come together and see what we have decided. So I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy.
And you've been listening to More Than Ink. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you're there, take a moment to drop us a note. Hey, thanks for joining us today. Yeah, and we would just love to hear from you. Go to our website and you can write us and let us know what you think. We'd love that. Yeah, we'll see you later. Bye.
Not soon, we're doing so well. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
