Thorburn-Sutherland's River Pastoral Charge

God of green pastures and still waters, quiet our hearts and minds as we listen to the Scriptures. By your Spirit, deepen our understanding so that we come to know you more fully, and follow your Word more faithfully.  Amen.

New Testament Reading:  Acts 17:10-21

In this morning’s scripture reading from Chapter 17 of the book of Acts we’re told, “That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas off to Beroea.” So, once again Paul, and his fellow missionary, Silas, are sent off in the middle of the night after having been confronted by the local population for inciting trouble. The first time this happened to Paul was not long after he had come to faith in Christ and was proclaiming the Gospel in the synagogues of Damascus. Those early days of sharing God’s word and purpose were indeed challenging. The synagogue leaders became jealous and plotted to kill him, but some of his fellow believers hid him until nightfall and then let him down over the city wall in a basket and he escaped. It seems that escaping danger under the cover of darkness is getting to be a bit of a habit for Paul and his companions.

And when Paul and Silas arrive in the city of Beroea, which was located in the northern part of modern day Greece, the first thing they did was go to the local synagogue and deliver the Good News of the Gospel to its members. Things started out well, the author of Acts, the Apostle Luke, tells us, “These Jews were more receptive than those in Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, including not a few Greek women and men of high standing.” So not only did these men and women of the synagogue come to accept the message of Jesus as being the Son of God and the Messiah for all mankind, but they actively read the Scriptures, which is our Old Testament, to confirm that the teachings of Paul and Silas were true. There they would have found many prophecies about Jesus, including ones concerning his ministry, his deity, and his death and resurrection.

Thus, things started out well for Paul and Silas, their missionary trip to Beroea was turning out to be a great success. But that was about to change, this is what happened next, “But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Beroea as well, they came there too, to stir up and incite the crowds.” Once again Paul and Silas faced adversity. Jealousy crept in; word had got back to the leaders of the synagogue in Thessalonica that Paul’s message of the Gospel was being well received by the population of Beroea and they wanted to put a stop to that. So, some of them journey to Beroea and incited the crowds to rise up against Paul and Silas.

Yet, once again Paul is helped by some of his fellow believers who help him escape from the crowds and accompany him to the city of Athens. We’re not told why, but Silas doesn’t travel with Paul, but remains in Beroea with the instructions to meet Paul in Athens as soon as possible. One thing we do know that the Berean church was strong in the faith so it’s likely that Silas worked to strengthen it during his time there.

At any rate, Paul is now in Athens, and he wasn’t impressed with what he saw, Luke tells us, “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” And so, as was always the case with Paul, he wasn’t just going to sit by idly and ignore the pagan worship going on all around him. As Luke puts it, “So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.”

Paul argues against what he sees, especially the idol worship, in the synagogue with the Jews, and also the Gentiles, who believed in the God of Israel. No doubt he’s bothered because the Jewish synagogue and its members has had no impact on the city. Paul knows that they need to hear about the transforming power of the message of the Cross in order to make any inroads in a city like this. There was still much work to be done to bring salvation to the people there. They needed to understand and begin proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As we learned last week, when Paul and his companions were in Thessalonica, they were charged with turning the world upside down. And it’s the same thing for Athens, if it was going to be turned upside down, or as we believe, right side up, then its people would need to hear the Gospel. So, Paul began with the Jewish synagogue. But he also went into the marketplace, arguing, reasoning with those who were there, proclaiming the Good News about Jesus and the resurrection.

And two groups Paul debated with in the marketplace were the Epicureans and the Stoics. Epicurus was a Greek philosopher from the 3rd century B.C. His philosophy was that pleasure, or happiness, was the highest good and goal of life. His followers believed in no personal, physical afterlife. “Enjoy life now” was their motto. They thought that the gods took no interest in human affairs, thus organized religion was bad. They believed that the gods would not punish evildoers in the afterlife. Epicurus’ followers also believed that everything happened by chance and that death was the end of one’s existence.

On the other hand, the Stoics placed great importance on living in harmony with nature. This philosophy came from the teachings of another Greek philosopher of the 3rd century B.C. by the name of Zeno. His followers stressed individual self-sufficiency and rationalism, and they had a reputation for being quite arrogant. Stoics were pantheists who believed that God is in everything and everything is God. They asserted that humans must live in harmony with nature. For them, reason was the highest good. Self-control, self-sufficiency, and emotional stability in every situation was their goal. They didn’t believe in a personal afterlife.

And yet, Paul’s evangelism had some effect on them. In the Bible, Luke writes, “So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.’” This Areopagus was a spot on the hillside of Athens where the Athenians would go to hear the latest philosophies of the day. The leisure classes of Athens loved spending their time listening to the latest ideas, as Luke said, “Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new.”

As we will see, this was a time of great learning and understanding for all people after the resurrection of Jesus and an era that can teach us today a lot about faith and perseverance.

In next week’s lesson we’ll hear about the outcome of Paul’s evangelisation of the Athenians on that hillside, but for the moment I think it’s important that we take a closer look at what Paul has accomplished to date. And as we think about what Paul has done to spread the Good News of the Gospel, there are three principles we need to keep in mind:

1) The Gospel is the most powerful force in the world. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16) The Gospel is God’s dynamic power for saving sinners. It is far greater than military power, political power, economic power, or financial power.

2) Our job is to make the Gospel clear. This is the heart of evangelism—telling the good news about Jesus in a way that is simple, clear, and easily understood. That’s why it’s important to immerse ourselves in God’s word as often as possible. It is not just for today; it is for everlasting life with God.

3) That being said, it is only the Holy Spirit can finally bring people to Jesus. Our work is telling the story, his work is drawing people to the Saviour. If we do our part, he will certainly do his. Sometimes we get anxious and try to do his work as well. We come across as desperate to “close the deal.” Sometimes we talk about winning people to Christ, by which we mean leading them to a place of personal decision. We don’t “win” people to Christ literally. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. Our part is to be faithful in sharing Christ with others.

We should always remember these words from the disciple Peter, “Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence”. (1 Peter 3:13-16)

Let us Pray:

Heavenly Father, thank you that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation. Give us the desire and the courage to share that message with those whom you bring into our lives. Help us meet them where they are, and with patience and love, share with them who you are and who you want them to be. Amen