Acts 17 - Paul at his best in Athens
Acts 17 NLT
I really would have loved to have been around on this part of Paul's second missionary journey (while he was in Greece). Wouldn't it have been cool just to listen to him reason masterfully with both Jews and "God-fearing" Greeks in the synagogues, or present his case to the philosophers on Mars Hill, or to watch him interact with whoever happened to be there in the marketplace day by day. In Greece, Paul really was at his best!
In Thessalonica:
"Paul reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and PROVING that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. 'This Jesus I'm proclaiming to you IS the Messiah.'" (vs 2,3) "Some of the Jews were persuaded" (vs 4) along with a "large number" of God-fearing Greeks (people who "believed in God" but had not converted to Judaism).
"But the Jews (more accurately the Jewish leaders) were jealous" (vs 5) and as they've done in other places they stirred up the crowd and basically drove them out of town. Bad for Thessalonica, good for Berea!
In Berea:
"(They) received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." (vs 11) Many Jews AND many Greeks believed but the trouble-makers from the other day came to Berea and chased them out of there as well.
In Athens:
As was his custom in every city, Paul started in the synagogue and also just on the streets reasoning and talking with people. But I think one of his best moments of the whole trip was his debate with the philosophers on Mars Hill (the Areopagus).This was a place known for people gathering for the purpose of listening to the latest ideas and debating them. They invited Paul to speak: "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting" (vs 19) Notice how wonderfully he weaves together his message:
He complimented them - "I see that in every way you are very religious" (vs 22)
He made observations about them - "I found an alter with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD" (vs 23)
He pulled them in - "Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you." (vs 23)
He addressed some of their beliefs (for example the Epicureans believed that everything happened by chance) - "God determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live." (vs 26)
He added credibility to his argument by quoting THEIR poets: "We are his offspring." (vs 28)
He made his conclusions based off their thinking - "Therefore, since we are God's offspring we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone - an image made by man's design and skill." (vs 29) In other words, how can we be the offspring of a statue?
Finally he drove his point home - "He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." (vs 31) The resurrection is always the key point in the book of Acts for the early believers. I really believe we, today, need to emphasize that more.
Well, sometimes even when you do your best, the immediate results don't always seem to reflect it, as in this case, in Athens, only "a few men became followers of Paul and believed." (vs 34) What a great lesson for us to not take the blame on those kind of days and conversely don't take the credit on other days like it was for Paul in Berea.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for what an amazing guy Paul was. Thanks for using him on these missionary journeys to lead many people to you. Help me to learn from him - the way he conducted himself and the way he spoke to people. Help me to get to know your Word a LOT better so that I will be able to "reason" with people using the Scriptures like Paul did. Use me here in my context to reach people - whether it is just a few or many. I'm trusting you all the way. In the name of Jesus. Amen.