EXPLORE IT - Acts 17

The New Testament book of Acts has been given many names during the first and second centuries.  Titles include some we are familiar with like “The Acts of the Apostles” to unfamiliar titles like “Luke the evangelist’s Acts of the Holy Apostles” and “testimony of Luke regarding the apostles.”  With many of these titles attributing the content to Luke, (the same author of the third Gospel) we can be sure he also penned the book of Acts.  Many scholars designate the book of Acts as a sequel to the Gospel of Luke and recommend reading them back-to-back.

As one of the longest books in the New Testament, Acts focuses on God – how he empowers, guides, safeguards, and directs His Church.  We experience the coming of the Holy Spirit, the conversion of Paul, and the multiplying growth of the Church in its early days.  The story begins in Jerusalem as Peter gathers this new community of faith.  Others begin to move outside of Jerusalem, sharing the Gospel message in Samaria and then on to the Gentiles at Caesarea.  We then transition to Antioch and the launching of Paul’s missionary travels.

Tradition has Paul and several companions completing three journeys.  Our passage, Acts 17, falls within Paul’s second journey.  Paul’s preaching in Thessalonica is met with success and persecution, a pattern that forms throughout the book of Acts.  Paul then moves on to Beroea, where he receives a positive welcome, but is followed there by those he upset in Thessalonica.  They stir up the locals and Paul has to move on once again. 

Paul arrives in Athens, the capital of ancient Attica and instead of preaching to mostly Jewish people with a few Gentiles, he is preaching to a solely Gentile crowd.  This is the best account of how Paul handles this kind of audience.  Paul is deeply disturbed by the vast array of idols he sees in Athens.  The word translated in the NIV as “greatly distressed” (paroxu,nw  paraxyno) is better translated as “despise” or “revile.”  In other words, “greatly distressed” doesn’t do justice to how upset Paul truly was. 

Paul meets with Epicureans and Stoics, two of the most famous philosophical schools of this time.  Some see his as “a babbler” or someone who gathers pieces of information here and there and shares this “knowledge” with others as if he knows what he is talking about.  Others see him as a teacher of foreign gods.  Paul is then brought to speak to the Areopagus, a powerful council that tried crimes, regulated education as well as public morality, and controlled which foreign gods would be allowed into their community. 

Paul did well in his preaching until verse 32 and the mention of the resurrection.  Greeks had no context to understand resurrection, dead people remained dead people.  The concepts Paul spoke of were foreign to those in Athens.  Some made fun of him, some had questions and wanted to know more, and some believed.  We too live in a day where concepts of Christianity are foreign to many of those around us.  Even though we may “despise” or “revile” their lifestyles, we need to follow in Paul’s footsteps and share the gospel message with them with generous, honest spirits.  We must be gracious to those who are unfamiliar with Christianity, but we can’t water down the Gospel message.  Some will make fun of us, others will have questions, but there will be some who believe.  That is well worth the effort.

Blessings,
Pastor Amy