All right, lesson today is in chapter 17, ministry in Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens. Now, in this case, in our setting here in this chapter, as with many others, Paul is driven to a new place of ministry by persecution. It's happened before, and it will happen again twice in our lesson today, as we'll see. Of course, none of this happened without God's permission, and it served his purpose. to move Paul from one place to another. And I have to wonder, and this is just a hunch, but I wonder if Paul might have remained in Philippi for a good long while, had he not suffered the opposition and the persecution that he did, maybe believing that The new church needed his guidance and instruction. They wouldn't survive without him. And maybe God moved him along to show him that the church would do just fine without his presence. I'll share something from our family. I remember way back when we were in Brazil the very first time and we established a church there. I say we, it was dad, of course, and the Lord, but there was a church established there. We came home on furlough and throughout the year that we were on furlough, dad had a health problem, and he eventually decided not to return to Brazil, at least at that time. And later on, when he decided to go back, which was several years later, he related this to me. He said, you know what? He said, if I had gone back at the end of the year of furlough, he said, I was going to go back to Fortaleza, where we had established the church, and I was going to work there in the church and maybe branch out, but I would have tried to help them. And he said, I found out something. They didn't need my help. They did just fine, and they did. That church at Fort DeLays is still going strong today. You remember Pastor Edson that the church here supported for many, many years. Pastor there for 40 years until his death and the church is still going on. Well without Dad's interfere. I mean help so And he said, you know, that was a good thing that the Lord taught me and there were other reasons. I'm sure that the Lord Had him to stay home here for a while. But when when he went back to Brazil, he went to a different area and And did good work there, so for whatever reason that again I'm speculating about God's dealings with Paul but for whatever reason Paul was forced to move to a new place. You remember Philippi in last week's lesson didn't treat him very well and they Put him in the prison in the inner prison in stocks and they beat him and him and Silas and all that and you remember the story. Well, anyway, God moved Paul to a new place just as Paul was forbidden to go to other places and so God has his ways. of putting us where he wants us to be. Can we get out of God's will? Yes, we can. Can we go where we shouldn't go? Yes, we can. Can we get into something we shouldn't be into? Yes, that's possible. But if we are sensitive to the Lord's leadership, I think we can see that God leads us in our lives. Now, I'm gonna put up a map here. I think, there it is. And you'll see the line starting, again, this is tough, but he started, let me get the right button, he started over here in Antioch on his journey and then made the trip up through the land. And he is now leaving Philippi, which is clear up here. and he goes through Amphipolis and Apollonia and ends up in Thessalonica. So we're still up in the area of Macedonia. He's a long way from home. but he's having successful ministry in spite of the opposition, in spite of persecution. He is spreading the word and establishing churches. So we go on in down to Acts chapter 17 and we start That's not right, there we go. That's from last week's lesson. But in verses one through nine, we have the ministry in Thessalonica. First of all, there's the preaching. And let's begin with verses one through three. Now, when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, They came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews, and Paul, as his banner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned 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, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. So in verses one and two, we see that Paul started his preaching in the synagogue. It says, Paul, as his manner was, verse two, this was Paul's standard operating procedure, SOP. When he would go to a new city, he would go into the synagogue. He said, well, I thought Paul was a preacher to the Gentiles, a missionary to the Gentile people. And he was. And that was the primary thrust of his ministry. And yet he still had a heart for the people of Israel, the Jewish people. And of course the Jews were scattered because of the Roman occupation of Palestine. The Jews, many of them had scattered to these outlying areas. And so Paul would go into the synagogue and use the scriptures that the Jews believed They believe, and of course we're talking about the Old Testament. The New Testament was in the process of coming about. But he would go into the synagogue and use the scriptures that the Jews there used. and would preach Christ unto them. And it says, as his manner was. In verse 10, he did the same thing at Berea, and then in verse 17, he did the same thing at Athens. And Paul understood that his primary focus of mission work was to the Gentiles, but he never forgot and never gave up on his own people. Romans 1 16, you know this verse probably I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ This is Paul writing for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first And also to the Greek now, that's not first in prominence This is first in in In terms of time To the Jew first see the Jews were honored to be the recipients of the law of God and it was their responsibility to take that Scripture take the Word of God the law of God to other people to the Gentiles And what happened was, throughout the course of the Old Testament, they didn't want to take it to others. They were proud of the fact that they had the law, and as far as they were concerned, nobody else was going to get it. And one reason, I think that Jonah didn't wanna go to Nineveh and preach to the Assyrians. He didn't want other people, he didn't want the Gentiles to have the word of God, but that was God's intent. And it was to the Jew first and also to the Greeks. And so that you first then to the Greeks or the Gentiles, you can almost use those terms interchangeably. And we see Paul's heart in Romans 10, 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. He didn't turn his back on his native people. He prayed for them. He preached to them, he ministered to them, even though he had much more success among the Gentiles, yet he never forgot his own people and never hesitated to minister to them. At the end of verse 2, it says that he went in three sabbath days and reasoned with them out of the scriptures opening and alleging that christ must needs have suffered and risen from the dead and that this jesus that i preach to you is uh christ so three things three verbs we see there he first of all reasoned with them and then he opened the scriptures and then he did some alleging as well now the word reason is the word dialogue oh my now you say What is that word? It's Greek. And I don't know much Greek. But you might see, I should have put it in the PowerPoint, but the word dialogue is what we get from that word. And so he's dialoguing with them. He's talking back and forth. If you're reasoning with somebody, it takes back and forth. If you're just lecturing, then you know, you're lecturing, but if you're reasoning with them, you got a dialogue going on. So he's reasoning with them out of this is out of the scriptures that they believed. They accepted the Old Testament as being God's word. And so he's saying, all right, you believe this now. Let's look. What does it mean? And he reasoned with them. And then it says opening. Or unfolding. And I think that means the scriptures that he had just read. Now, they didn't have books. They didn't have a Bible bound like we do today. Ours is much more accessible and easy to use. They had scrolls, of course. And they had to unroll one side and roll the other side back up to keep it in a manageable size. And so the book form that we have is a much easier way to do things. But he was unfolding, not just opening the scrolls, but opening the Word of God, unfolding it to these Jews and then alleging. If you allege something, So if someone alleged that I said this or I did this, that means they're stating it to be true. And so he is alleging, he is declaring these scriptures to be true and alleging not only the scriptures, but what the scriptures meant. And it says, opening alleging that Christ, first of all, must needs have suffered and risen from the dead. Now understand right at this point, see, he's not talking about Jesus specifically. He is speaking of the Messiah, opening and alleging that Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, that's what the word Christ means, and it's what the word Messiah means. Those two words are just almost synonymous. so he says the messiah as you understand him must needs have suffered and risen from the dead so the old testament teaches the death and the resurrection the burials implied of course but teaches the death and resurrection of the messiah For example, in Hebrews 11, verses 17 to 19, by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. Wish I had time to expand on that, but I don't. And he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. See, Abraham had been promised that through Isaac, he was gonna have a great seed, a large people would come out of him. And now God says, offer him up as a burnt offering. And so Abraham thinks, Abraham trusts God. Now what does it say? Abraham accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. So Abraham is thinking this through logically. He said, all right, I was promised a son given Isaac. God promised that I was going to have a seed through Isaac. Now God says in his mind, God said, kill him on the altar. The only thing that Abraham could come up with was God is going to raise him from the dead. Now we know that God did not actually require Isaac to be killed. And if you read the The context and the exact wording of God's command to Abraham. He didn't say burn him on the altar or kill him on the altar. He said offer him up as an offering and Abraham did just that. Abraham offered Isaac. He had already in his mind killed Isaac because he had the knife in his hand and was ready to to take his son's life and that's when God stopped him. So Abraham did offer Isaac and it said from whence also he received him in a figure figure of the resurrection. So Isaac was a picture of the resurrection of the dead. And that was just one of many pictures in the Old Testament of the truth of the resurrection. And of course, Paul is alleging, opening and alleging to these Jews in the synagogue that Christ, the Christ, the Messiah, he's not even talking about Jesus specifically now, but the Messiah, he said, must needs suffer and die and rise from the dead. Okay, that's the first point he made. Then he goes on and says, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. He says, now, the Christ, as you understand it, here's what he came to do. See, they didn't recognize that. The Jews almost unilaterally believed that the Messiah, when he came, would be a military hero. He would conquer Rome and free Israel from Rome's rule. And so Paul is setting them straight on what the Old Testament actually teaches about the Messiah or the Christ, that Christ must suffer and be risen from the dead. Then he says, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. So here's what the Messiah. supposed to do and guess what the Jesus that you crucified you meaning the Jews several years ago he is the Christ or he is the Messiah and that was Paul's message I got to go on verse 4 and some of them I wonder, I can't find, I didn't turn my page over. Says, some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks and great multitude, and of the chief, a great multitude, and of the chief women, not a few. some of them some of the jews doesn't seem to be many of the jews that followed paul and silas or follow christ actually uh it's the same today the jews by and large doesn't mean there aren't individual jews saved and you've heard this uh spoken about in in recent weeks by our pastor but uh the uh the jews as a nation, as a whole, in general, they reject Christ as the Messiah. But some are saved, and we have missionaries today. There's two on our missionary list that we support. Brother Daniel Solomon is one, and I'm trying to think of the other, maybe Brother Mayer. But they minister specifically to the Jewish people because there are Jews being saved. God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. He's not cast them away, but he has turned his focus onto the Gentiles. But then it says not only some of the Jews, but where am I here? And of the devout Greeks, a great multitude. Now the word devout there says that they were proselytes. You probably know what a proselyte is. A proselyte was a non-Jew that adopted the Jewish religion and the Jewish way of life. They would submit to circumcision and they would obey the law, the sacrifices and the various things of God's law. And so they would become Jews of a sort, proselyte Jews, we would call them. And then it says, and of the chief women, not a few. That's an interesting way of saying many when they say not a few. But it's also interesting that he says the chief women. I understand that, and again, I'm not condoning this, but women were not given a very prominent place in the society of that day. And I've got a quote here that I want you to see. I hope you can read that. It says, the position of women in Macedonia seems to have been exceptional. Popular prejudice and the verdict of Grecian wisdom in its best age asserted her natural inferiority. And that's an awful thing to say, but that's the way it was. In Macedonia, however, monuments were erected to women by public bodies. And records of male proper names are found in Macedonian inscriptions formed on the mother's name instead of on the father's. Macedonian women were permitted to hold property and were treated as mistresses of the house. In Thessalonica, Berea, and Philippi, we note additions of women of rank to the church and their prominence in church affairs is indicated. And so Macedonia was ahead of its time, this area, when it came to the position of women. And thank goodness for godly women and for your place in the church and the things that you do. And then, it's not stated explicitly, but we know that a church was established here in Thessalonica. We have two epistles written to the church at Thessalonica by the Apostle Paul. So we can infer from that, that there was a church established here. Now we move on, not only was there preaching, but there was persecution. It's like lather, rinse and repeat, because that's what happened. Verse five, but the Jews which believed not, moved with envy took unto them certain lewd fellows of the basher sort and gathered a company and set all the city on an uproar and assaulted the house of jason and sought to bring them out to the people so these unbelieving jews it says they were moved with envy there were there were various reasons that the jews persecuted jesus and his followers. The Sadducees didn't like Jesus because of a doctrinal reason. That was the question of the resurrection. They didn't believe in the resurrection. The men in Philippi, if you remember last week's lesson, when the damsel with the familiar spirit was healed and the spirit was cast out, they lost their source of income. The same thing happened at Ephesus when Paul caused an uproar and he was telling them there's no gods that are made with hands. Well these men made a lot of money selling little icons, little idols. And so it was costing them their livelihood. So that's a couple of reasons. Well here it was envy. Envy, jealousy, a loss of prestige. And I would think that this was especially noted in their influence over the Greek proselytes. Just because the Gentiles had proselyted into the Jewish religion, I suspect the Jews, the actual natural Jews, sort of still looked down on, considered them a little bit lower class. of of jew than they themselves uh were and here paul is coming out and uh uh preaching that everybody's uh uh equal and he uh the uh jews are some of the jews were saved and a multitude of these uh uh devout uh greeks which were proselyted jews they were being saved and so uh that was uh it was envy that caused the uh uh the men here to revolt it says in verse five again it says took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort don't you love that description in that need i there's there's things in in in the bible that make you chuckle and uh maybe maybe you don't see the humor in this but uh i've always loved that description these were men who were they were vile they were malicious they were wicked no doubt they enjoyed making trouble some people just like to fight They just like to stir things up. So they did. And it says and set all the city on an uproar and assaulted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out. Paul and Silas bring them out to the people. Jason had made a place for Paul and his companions to stay. We assume that he was a believer and Then we go on to verse 6, and when they found them not, they weren't home at the time, they drew Jason and certain brethren under the rulers of the city, crying, these that have turned the world upside down are come hither also. It wasn't intended as a compliment, but it showed the effects of the preaching of the gospel. It seemed that they had upended the world. And it says that whom Jason hath received. We're in verse 7 now. Let me get my page turned. whom Jason hath received, and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus." That was an outright lie. They claimed that Jesus said he was going to be a king and replace Caesar. So these were both lies, that he was contrary to the decrees of Caesar and that he intended to take Caesar's place. Jesus never taught or suggested that he intended to overthrow Caesar. He made it clear that his kingdom was spiritual in nature. In Luke 17, 21, this is the last part of the verse. Behold, the kingdom of God is within you. It's spiritual in nature. Well, verse eight, It says that they troubled the people and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. They achieved their goal, that of making Paul and the others, made them seem like the troublemakers. Verse 9. Wrong chapter. And when they had taken security of Jason and of the other, they let them go. Apparently, Jason and the others had to post some kind of a bail. or a bond, maybe they had to guarantee that Paul and Silas would quit preaching Jesus. We don't know, but it was a tumultuous time. And that brings us on now to the ministry in Berea in verse 10. And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Paul and Silas were sent to Berea and they immediately went to the synagogue as it was customary. And in verse 11 there, it says that they were more noble. The Bereans were more noble than the ones from Thessalonica. Now, I don't think that the sense or intention of this statement is meant to put down the Thessalonicans, but rather to point out the even more noble demeanor of the Bereans. They searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so. Now, does that mean that they were always skeptical? They heard the preaching and said, I don't know, I better go look for this for myself. No, I don't think this is teaching or intending skepticism, but it's teaching diligence. Pastors can make mistakes. I know because I did. And I've not known Pastor Pittman to make any, but that's not even, even that is not the reason for searching the scriptures. We need to have a Bible knowledge for ourselves. We don't need to believe something just because the pastor preaches it, or because our church believes that. We need to believe things, things of the Bible, because we have studied them for ourselves. And that just makes them all the more real. So when you when it says they search the scriptures daily, whether these things were so don't get the idea that they were always in doubt. I don't think so. But they wanted to have that knowledge for themselves. Verse 12, it says, Therefore, many of them believe. And this was talking about the ones from the synagogue, which means the Jews, also of the honorable women, which were Greeks and of men, not a few, again, including the honorable women. And we appreciate uh their uh devotion to doing the right thing and uh don't have time to keep going on that so after the preaching comes that was in 10 through 12 then comes the persecution look at verse 13 but when the jews of thessalonica had knowledge that the word of god was preached to paul and maria they came dither also and stirred up the people they weren't content with stirring up their own town of Thessalonica, they tracked Paul to Berea and caused trouble there as well. Verse 14, then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as it were to the sea, but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. Paul was the primary target of the opposition, so Silas and Timothy were sort of flying under the radar. They remained behind, probably to teach and encourage the converts there, these new converts, as much as possible. Verse 15, And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens, and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus, for to come to him with all speed, they departed. These that conducted Paul, they never intended to be permanent companions, and so they left Paul to go back to Berea, and that leaves Paul all alone. You know, maybe for the very first time in his ministry, Paul is by himself. If we're correct about his health problems, especially his eyesight, we would infer that Paul was not able to function as well without help. And he sends the delegation back to Berea with a directive for Silas and Timothy to come to him as quickly as possible. And that brings us to the ministry in Athens. And I've got about seven minutes to do this. First of all, We see Paul seizing the opportunity. Look at verse 16. Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Now, as far as we know, this was Paul's only time to be in Athens. He was there waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him. He apparently had no plans to minister extensively in the city. And yet we see that Paul was never off duty, so to speak, even at a time of waiting. When nothing was expected of him, he was aware of an opportunity to share the gospel. It says his spirit was stirred within him because he saw the city totally given to idolatry. Now, what about us? When we go on vacation, when we go on a business trip or whatever it might be, Are we sensitive to the Lord's leadership? I remember one time when I was pastoring in Flat Rock, we decided to go on vacation. We decided to go to Florida. And this was a big undertaking for us. And so we headed out and visited, on the way and on the way back, visited four different churches. Guess what? I preached in every single one of them. And not only was it a blessing to preach, but I also got an honorarium at each one of them. So that sort of helped pay for our trip. We are Christians 24 7 in 1st Peter 3 15. It says be ready always Whether you're on vacation or whatever, be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. So two things I want you to notice from these verses. Number one, Paul was always aware of the needs around him. He was always sensitive to spiritual situations, to spiritual needs. He could have just checked into the Super 8 here in Athens and just relax for a few days while he waited for his companions to come. But instead, he was observing the situation around him. His spirit was stirred. And then secondly, we see that Paul made good use of his time. He went to the synagogue. Let's see, did we get that here? Verse 17, therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons, that's the proselytes, and in the market daily with them that met him. So he was witnessing in the synagogues and he was witnessing in the market as well, making good use of his time. Now, the second thing we see is we see there are people here that are seeking something original. Look at verse 18. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics encountered him. And some said, what will this babbler say? And others, some, he seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. These Epicureans and Stoics. Now, Epicureans, were atheists who believed in giving themselves to the pursuit of pleasure. They believed that the end purpose of man, the purpose of life, you know, you've heard, what is the meaning of life? Well, to them, the meaning of life was being happy. to enjoying pleasure. Modern day, we sometimes use the term as an adjective relating to those that place a great importance on good food and drink. You know, there are whole sections of magazines and the newspaper and everything given to dining and and drink and all that, and what restaurants to go to. We would call those people Epicureans, not specifically of the sect of Epicureans, but we use it as a modern day adjective. The Stoics were another class of people. They believed in God. They believed that he was the creator of all things. So they're doing good so far, but they also believed that everything was controlled by the fates. Everything was a result of fate, even God answered to fate. And so these were philosophers of the Epicureans and the Stoics. And so, of course, they described Paul as a babbler spouting this new doctrine. that Jesus was the Christ and preaching the resurrection of the dead. And I want you to notice his message never wavered. He preached Jesus and he preached the resurrection. People have asked me before, well, how do you go about witnessing to a Mormon, for example, the gospel, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Well, how do you witness to Catholics the gospel, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? How do you witness to atheists the gospel, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? We've only got one message. Now, I understand that we sometimes tailor that to know what we emphasize to certain groups, and nothing wrong with that, but our message stays the same, that Jesus and the resurrection. All right, verse 19, and they took him and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, may we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is? Now, Areopagus was, that's another, Areopagus was an actual stone, I meant to bring a picture, a stone edifice, but it was at Mars Hill. So when it says he came to Areopagus, it was the same as Mars Hill, as we'll see here in just a second. At one time, Areopagus was the highest court in Athens. Now it was just a place where people came to talk about philosophy and various things like that. Paul was not under arrest at this time, but this was curiosity. on the part of these men. And we'll see that as we finish up here. So they brought him to Areopagus and said, hey, can we know, may we know what this new doctrine, wherever thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what these things mean. Hey, tell us about this. Were they convicted? No, they were curious. Because look at verse 21, in a parenthesis. Matthew Henry said this. Well, I didn't get it up there somehow. They ask about Paul's doctrine not because it was good, but because it was new. Great talkers are always busy bodies. They spend their time in nothing else and a very uncomfortable account they have to give of their time, who thus spend it. Time is precious, and we are concerned to employ it well because eternity depends upon it. But much is wasted in unprofitable conversation. Matthew Henry had that quote to say. They had this thing going on where they always wanted to hear or tell something. It was almost like an ancient liar's club. You know, because people would probably make things up. And listen, this is what I heard. This is what I think. And so they wanted to tell or hear some new thing. Now, notice my third point there. That is snagging the opening. Verse 22, Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. And that term means you're very religious. Now Paul was tactful. He didn't say you're a bunch of idolaters. uh... you know he said instead i found some common ground here you are very religious so we're going to deal with that verse twenty three for as i pass by and beheld your devotions i found an altar with this inscription to the unknown god uh... the devotions were objects of worship so idols or altars unto idols and uh... They had one there to the unknown God. I mean, they had probably, you know, who knows how many they had, 10, 15, 30, 100. They had all these different altars erected to these idols. And just in case they forgot somebody or left him out, they put this last one to the unknown God. And Paul uses this opening and says this, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. Now, were they in fact worshiping the true God with his altar? I don't think so. I think it's hardly possible. But Paul doesn't simply rebuke them and say, you know, you're a bunch of dummies to be putting up these altars. No, he said, look, I'm going to use this opportunity to preach to them the true God. The unknown God was literally unknown to these Greeks. And he says, whom he ignorantly worshipped. He said him declare I. unto you. And verses 24 through 30, 31, we have Paul's sermon. It's this standard truth. It's something that is, for a Christian, it's just the routine. I hate to use the word routine. It's something that we would already know, and so we're not gonna go through that. But look at verse 32, at the results. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, you see, that was the sticky point. in all of Paul's ministry was the resurrection. That Jesus died, was buried, and came back to life, rose from the dead. And so they heard of the resurrection of the dead. Some mocked. Others said, we will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them, albeit certain men claimed unto him and believed among the witch was Dionysius the Aragapagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. So not many converts. We don't know or even really propose that there was a church established in Athens, either then or later, a true church. But even those few that were saved, they were certainly worth the effort that Paul made. Paul, as far as we know, never got to follow up with Dionysius or Damaris, but don't ever discount the value of small efforts for God. Even if you're on vacation or on a business trip, your efforts might, I mean, someone might come along and water the seeds that you've planted. Paul said, I planted and Apollos watered And then God gave the increase. So don't ever discount the value of your small efforts for him. He said, well, I mean, I'm away from home. I wouldn't have a chance to even follow up with, to disciple this person. Leave that to God. You be a witness as God opens opportunity. And then lastly, setting the application Where do you find encouragement to obey in spite of opposition? Let's pray. Father, thank you for this passage of scripture, and thank you for the Apostle Paul. Pray, Lord, that you bless each of us as we seek to serve you. Bless the service now to follow before the dewberry as he brings the message, and we pray it in Jesus' name, amen. And you're dismissed. th th