NECK DEEP IN GREECE
ACTS 17:1-15
NASB
1 Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3[a]explaining and [b]giving evidence that the [c]Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the [c]Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, [a]along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and [b]a number of the leading women. 5 But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. 6 When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset [a]the world have come here also; 7[a]and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things. 9 And when they had received a [a]pledge from Jason and the others, they released them.
10 The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, [a]and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, [a]for they received the word with [b]great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed, [a]along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. 13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds. 14 Then immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as the sea; and Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.
17:3 [a]Lit opening [b]Lit placing before [c]I.e. Messiah 17:4 [a]Lit and a large [b]Lit not a few 17:6 [a]Lit the inhabited earth 17:7 [a]Lit whom Jason has welcomed 17:9 [a]Or bond 17:10 [a]Lit who when...arrived went 17:11 [a]Lit who received [b]Lit all 17:12 [a]Lit and not a few
NLT
1 Paul and Silas then traveled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. 3 He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.” 4 Some of the Jews who listened were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with many God-fearing Greek men and quite a few prominent women.[*]
5 But some of the Jews were jealous, so they gathered some troublemakers from the marketplace to form a mob and start a riot. They attacked the home of Jason, searching for Paul and Silas so they could drag them out to the crowd.[*] 6 Not finding them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the other believers[*] instead and took them before the city council. “Paul and Silas have caused trouble all over the world,” they shouted, “and now they are here disturbing our city, too. 7 And Jason has welcomed them into his home. They are all guilty of treason against Caesar, for they profess allegiance to another king, named Jesus.”
8 The people of the city, as well as the city council, were thrown into turmoil by these reports. 9 So the officials forced Jason and the other believers to post bond, and then they released them.
10 That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. 12 As a result, many Jews believed, as did many of the prominent Greek women and men.
13 But when some Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God in Berea, they went there and stirred up trouble. 14 The believers acted at once, sending Paul on to the coast, while Silas and Timothy remained behind. 15 Those escorting Paul went with him all the way to Athens; then they returned to Berea with instructions for Silas and Timothy to hurry and join him.
[17:4] Some manuscripts read quite a few of the wives of the leading men. [17:5] Or the city council. [17:6] Greek brothers; also in 17:10, 14.
It’s possible to live without being fully alive. It’s possible to exist as a human being without being fully human. All of us go through periodic seasons of deadness; in fact, these winters are a necessary part of healthy growth. But we were not created merely to exist; God fashioned humanity for living (John 10:10). John Powell describes this kind of complete aliveness in his book Fully Human, Fully Alive.
By way of a general description, fully alive people are those who are using all of their human faculties, powers, and talents. They are using them to the full. These individuals are fully functioning in their external and internal senses. . . . Such people are vibrantly alive in mind, heart, and will. . . .
Fully alive human beings are alive in their external and internal senses. They see a beautiful world. They hear its music and poetry. They smell the fragrance of each new day and taste the deliciousness of every moment. . . .
Fully alive people are also alive in their minds. They are very much aware of the wisdom in the statement of Socrates that “the unreflected life isn’t worth living.” Fully alive people are always thoughtful and reflective. They are capable of asking the right questions of life and flexible enough to let life question them. They will not live an unreflected life in an unexamined world. Most of all, perhaps, these people are alive in will and heart. They love much. They truly love and sincerely respect themselves. All love begins here and builds on this. Fully alive people are glad to be alive and to be who they are.[159]
As the early church father Irenaeus once wrote, “The glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God.”[160] Paul on his second missionary journey was a man fully alive. He accepted himself with all his own strengths and weaknesses, he knew his place in God’s plan, he saw the needs before him, and he threw himself headlong into the mission God had prepared him to complete. He was “beholding God” as he lived out his divine purpose. So, by the time he departed Philippi, he was neck deep in the work of ministry. The trials and challenges he had endured did nothing to diminish his determination and confidence or temper his enthusiasm. With one city behind him, the rest of Greece lay before him like a field ready for harvest.
— 17:1 —
In the second century BC, the Romans built a highway called the Via Egnatia from Dyrrachium on the Adriatic Sea to Byzantium (now called Constantinople) near the Black Sea, a distance of almost 700 miles. Nearly 20 feet wide and paved with hand-laid stone slabs, it carried Roman troops to battle, taxes to the capital city, and merchandise everywhere.[161] And now it carried the gospel into Greece. Paul followed the Via Egnatia a little more than 35 miles from Philippi to Amphipolis, where the seat of Roman government administered its affairs in Macedonia. From there, he continued another 30 miles to Apollonia, and then to Thessalonica 33 miles away. Each leg of his journey required a long day’s walk but put him in a major city by nightfall.
I offer this detail to make a point. Not long after his ordeal —a public beating with rods and a night in jail —Paul walked nearly 100 miles in three days! Emerson wrote, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”[162] Sir Edward Appleton, the Scottish physicist and Nobel Prize winner, said, “I rate enthusiasm even above professional skill.” Paul’s enthusiasm carried him beyond his own physical limitations to accomplish what God had set before him. I don’t mean the enthusiasm of a cheerleader; I mean a throbbing, compelling, positive drive that can’t be silenced until it is satisfied.
Notably, Luke’s pronouns change back to third person. He had joined Paul in Troas and accompanied him to Philippi (Acts 16). When the team moved on, Luke remained, because he may have lived there. He would not see Paul again until the apostle returned on his third journey (20:2, 6).
Thessalonica was an unusual city in terms of politics. Cassander, a general of Alexander the Great, founded the city in 315 BC over the town of Therma, which was named for the nearby hot springs. Later, in 42 BC, when Antony and Octavian battled Brutus and Cassius (two of the leading conspirators against Julius Caesar) for control of Rome, Thessalonica sided with Octavian. As a reward, the city was declared free, meaning exempt from taxes, and autonomous, meaning they had the right to appoint their own magistrates, five men who bore the unusual title of “politarch” because the people had democratically selected their own city’s rulers. When the province of Macedonia was divided into four districts, Thessalonica became the capital of the second.[163]
— 17:2-4 —
In keeping with his standard operating procedure, Paul entered the synagogue and “reasoned” (17:2; dialegomai [1256]) with his Jewish brethren. This is the first time Luke uses this term, but not the last. Paul would “reason” in Thessalonica (17:2), Athens (17:17), Corinth (18:4), Ephesus (18:19; 19:8, 9), Troas (20:7, 9), and finally, before the Roman governor, Felix, in Caesarea Maritima (24:25). In classical Greek, dialegomai meant “to converse, discuss, or argue” or, when delivering a lecture, “to instruct.” Paul didn’t “reason” in this technical sense used by Greek philosophers, but he recognized this as a style of communication he needed to master. He had entered a different culture, one he recognized from his study in the academy of Tarsus, and he adapted accordingly.
For three Sabbaths, he “reasoned” from the Old Testament Scriptures, proving that the Messiah had to die and rise again in order to fulfill the prophecies. Jewish theologians in the century before Christ and during the time of Paul struggled to understand how the Messiah could suffer death on behalf of His people (Isa. 53) and reign forever as their king (Dan. 7:13-14). They found it inconceivable that a true Messiah could die at the hands of his enemies. So, they postulated that perhaps the Messiah would really be two individuals, one who would die as the Suffering Servant and another who would resurrect the first and then reign as supreme King. But Paul reasoned that Christ is indeed one man who is also God, who died to atone for sin and then rose from the grave to establish His kingdom. This is probably the same line of reasoning Jesus used with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24). To close his case, Paul spent time “giving evidence,” validating the reasonableness of this theology by sharing about his personal encounter with the resurrected Jesus (Acts 17:3).
From My Journal
Clarity
ACTS 17:2–3
When Paul reasoned with the Jews at the synagogue in Thessalonica, he “explained” (dianoigō [1272]) the Old Testament Scriptures. The Greek word dianoigō means “to completely open up what before was closed.” Obviously, the Jews in the synagogue had the Scriptures, but their true meaning remained closed until Paul “opened” those familiar passages by introducing Jesus as the Christ. Suddenly, for those who were willing, the meaning became clear for the first time.
I take Paul’s example seriously. Consequently, I place a very high priority on making my teaching clear. I want to feel assured that anyone off the street can sit down in any worship service or any other gathering and understand most, if not all, of what I say. As a matter of fact, clarity is one of three priorities I try to maintain, along with accuracy and practicality.
Many years ago, very early in my ministry, a group of kids in Vacation Bible School taught me a valuable lesson I have never forgotten. I was teaching about the death of Christ and I said, “Now, kiddos, you understand, when Christ died on the cross, He shed His blood for our sins.” A little girl in the back innocently asked, “What does ‘shed’ mean?” To her, a shed was a place you keep your pony. That’s when something dawned on me. I never use the phrase “shed blood” in any other context besides church. It’s jargon that can be inaccessible to many people.
If you throw the word “justification” around with lost people, they can’t track with you. Or “redeem.” They’ll think about coupons. “Propitiation?” Forget it! They don’t have the vocabulary, so it’s our responsibility to use terms they know if we hope to communicate with clarity. Those who don’t aren’t effective —and usually they’re the ones who complain that no one’s interested in Christ. Those who work hard at speaking plainly and avoiding jargon have little trouble finding people willing to listen.
Keep it real and make it clear.
As in most cities, a number of Jews and Gentile proselytes believed the good news and then formed the nucleus of a church in Thessalonica (17:4).
— 17:5 —
As usual, not everyone found Paul’s message to his or her liking. Luke describes the Jewish opposition with a Greek word that means “to be intensely interested in something” (zēloō [2206]), either positively or negatively. We derive our word “zealous” from this verb. In this case, the opposing Jews were zealous, but not for reasoning from the Scriptures. Finding little support in the synagogue, they rounded up some hoodlums from the marketplace and whipped the city into an anti-Paul frenzy. Unlike the mob in Philippi, which had been fueled by anti-Semitism, in Thessalonica the Jews led the attack.
— 17:6-9 —
The mob surrounded the house of Jason, who hosted Paul and his men much like Lydia had in Philippi. Apparently, the evangelists were busy somewhere else. So, they hauled their neighbor before the “city authorities” (17:6; politarchēs [4173]), the democratically elected magistrates of the city. They couldn’t lodge their actual complaint: “These men teach a theology we don’t like, so we want them beaten and, if it’s not too much trouble, killed.” Instead, they tried to characterize the Christians as treasonous and therefore a threat to city order.
Luke highlights the irony of their charge, which they exaggerated to the point of absurdity. The riotous mob accused Paul, Silas, Timothy, and the others of having already destabilized the world. Contrast that with the previous significant threat to stability, which was the revolt of Spartacus, who failed to “upset the world” with his army of perhaps seventy thousand men before his defeat in 71 BC.[164] Paul’s Jewish accusers capped off their charge with an unexpected political concern for Rome. They accused the men of undermining the decrees of Caesar and supporting a rival king (17:7). Of course, their charges were absolutely true in the strictest sense. Paul and his men were in the process of upsetting the world, though not in the sense of inspiring revolt. And they did indeed proclaim allegiance to Jesus as King.
Again, the magistrates failed to do their due diligence in the matter. If they had simply asked, “Who is this rival king, Jesus?” the entire case would have come unraveled. The Romans didn’t care if people supported a dead king, and if they claimed Jesus was alive, they would have to affirm His resurrection. Even so, the discussion ended when the city authorities determined what ruling would please their constituents.
Because the accused weren’t present for trial, the magistrates compelled Jason, their host, to post a bond (17:9). Most likely, this bond insured that Paul wouldn’t cause any trouble for the city; if he did, they would collect against Jason as a penalty.
— 17:10-12 —
Paul had completed his work in Thessalonica. He saw nothing to gain and much to lose by remaining. Further antagonism would only make things harder for the church. Besides, the believers had formed a church and could carry the work forward themselves. Therefore, Paul led his men out of town that night to begin their 45-mile walk to Berea. Only now, they didn’t have the benefit of a highway. Cicero, who had been banished to Thessalonica for a time, called Berea an “off-the-road town.”[165]
Luke’s narrative draws a close comparison between Thessalonica and Berea. As in Thessalonica, Paul taught in the “synagogue of the Jews” (17:10), but in Berea he found a more “noble-minded” (17:11; eugenēs [2104]) audience. The term eugenēs means “well born, cultured, and high class.” The aristocracy used this word as a description of themselves in comparison to what they perceived as the ignorant, mentally dull rabble. Luke intended this as a compliment to the Bereans, who carefully cross-checked Paul’s evidence with the Scriptures. As before, many Jews and Gentile proselytes believed and then formed a sizable church (17:12).
— 17:13-15 —
Unfortunately, Paul’s Jewish opposers from Thessalonica tracked him down and stirred up trouble in Berea, too (17:13), perhaps hoping to arrest Paul and bring him back for trial. The apostle again saw little to gain by staying; the new church was sufficiently equipped to thrive without him. To protect their teacher, the new believers proposed a brilliant plan. While Silas and Timothy remained in town, apparently to give the impression that Paul had not left, they sent the apostle “as far as the sea” (17:14). If people learned Paul had gone east toward the coast, they would not know whether he took a ship or followed a coastal road south toward Athens. Unfortunately, Luke doesn’t tell us, either!
The preposition rendered “as far as” denotes the end of something. Luke uses the same preposition to state that the escorts took Paul “as far as Athens” (17:15), and we know he actually went into the city (17:16) and stayed there. For these reasons, and the practical need to spirit Paul away quickly, I lean toward his taking a ship. When Paul arrived in Athens with the help of some Berean believers, he sent his escorts back with instructions for Silas and Timothy (and others?) to join him as soon as possible (17:15).
APPLICATION: ACTS 17:1-15
Reality Checks for a Full Life
By the time Paul arrived in Thessalonica (17:1), he had hit his stride as an evangelist and church planter. He was in his element; the hardships merely formed part of the landscape. His experiences those first months in Greece illustrate at least three principles anyone in ministry would do well to remember.
First, determination is at the heart of any great achievement. There’s nothing magical about Paul or any of the other biblical characters. They were people who knew their callings and pursued their divine purposes with determination. Paul was beaten and jailed in Philippi, he was mobbed and forced out of Thessalonica, his steps were dogged in Berea where he was hurried out of town, then he was dropped and left in Athens all alone —but he stayed strong. He saw each hardship as a small price to pay for the impact he would make in each city. They kept running off the apostle, but he kept leaving churches in his wake, whole communities of reproducing Christians.
Second, rejection is to be expected when you share the truth. Don’t be surprised when people reject the truth. I know it doesn’t make sense. Why reject what is true? But people regularly reject truth. They’ll tell lies about you and then call you a liar. Unfortunately, truth rarely attracts large numbers of people. Proclaiming truth draws a remnant who will give their lives for the Lord while drawing enemies like a pack of angry dogs. That’s why godly leadership requires courage, tenacity, resiliency, and most of all, humility. A proclaimer of God’s truth isn’t a politician and can’t worry about image or applause, polls or popularity; rather, the proclaimer must be content to present the truth, recognizing that personal rejection is the most likely outcome.
If Paul got rejected while sharing truth, you can be certain it will be no different for you. When you accept this fact of ministry, personal rejection loses its sting.
Third, appreciation is seldom expressed at the right time. You will never find Paul cornered by a group of people from Thessalonica or Philippi or Berea saying, “Hey, man. Thanks. That was great stuff you said back there. And thanks for taking that beating. Thanks for upholding the gospel. Thanks for standing firm when everybody else was walking away.” If you’re waiting for that, then forget about becoming a good leader. You’ll fold. Your reward will rarely come in the form of appreciation. Instead, you will feel a closer connection with your Master, who suffered and knows all about your suffering. You will also experience life more fully because you’ll be living your purpose. And when you persevere and stand before your Creator, the reward for your faithfulness will be great.