Acts 17 – Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens

Soils: hardened, rocky, thorny, fruitful

Thessalonica

  • Taught the Jews in synagogues from the scriptures (Old Testament)
    • Christ must suffer, and rise from the dead
      • Isaiah 52-53 ?
        • Probably written 700 BCE
        • Solid evidence of earlier than 300 BCE
        • People all over the world immediately recognize this is about Jesus (AD 30)
    • Jesus is Christ
    • Some believe – lots of Greeks and some prominent women
    • Paul stayed for some time, evidently, due to the teachings referenced in 1+2 Thessalonians (probably too many to cover in just 2 weeks)
  • Unbelieving Jews take action
    • Motivated by Jealousy
    • Using low means – is this a tactic of truth?
    • Persecuted Jason
      • Christians had “turned the world upside down!”
      • Claimed a threat to Rome – another king
  • Paul and Silas leave by night

Berea

  • More noble minded
    • What made them more noble minded?
      • Received the word with readiness of mind
      • Searched the scriptures daily
    • THEREFORE – many believed
  • Thessalonian disbelieving Jews are persistent
    • Followed and stirred up the people against

Athens

  • Paul is moved by their idolatry
  • Went to the Jews in the synagogue
  • In the marketplace – with everyone!
  • Philosophers met him
    • Epicureans
      • Happiness is Truth…descended to sensuality
    • Stoicks
      • Live at peace with nature, suppress desires
  • Spent their time telling or hearing something new – “news”
  • Given a chance to speak to an assembly at the Areopagus
  • What kind of soil are they?
    • We can’t tell until some time passes
    • Should we judge if a person will hear?  No
    • Paul sows indiscriminantly
  • What will he teach?
    • From the OT to people who knew it…
    • Now he teaches from a philosophical perspective
  • Unknown God
    • Starts with an observation about where they are – ambiguous, but likely intended positively
    • Unknown god – can we be “safe” by covering all the bases?  No – there is only one
    • Personal Creator…not like Stoics thought (pantheistic)
    • One family – all mankind
    • Not left to chance, but planned…not like the Epicureans thought
    • Available – near to us all
    • Poets
      • Cretan Epimedes (c. 600 B.C.E.)
      • Cilian Aratus (c. 315-240 B.C.E)
      • Cleanthes (c. 331-233 B.C.E)
    • Not physical…but beyond materials (fed in to belief in spirits)
    • Overlooked ignorance…but that time is up!
    • Jesus is the Christ – proved by the resurrection!
    • This is as much as many can handle
    • Some believers – eventually formed a strong church in Athens (soil?)