Paul and Barnabas have gone their separate ways to spread the gospel. Barnabas with John Mark and Paul with Silas. Paul and Silas who were later joined by Timothy, went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches as they went. While they were traveling through Phrygia and Galatia, Paul had a vision during the night of a man of Macedonia begging him to come, so, believing God was calling them to preach the gospel there, they went. Everywhere they went, they encountered people, like Lydia, or the jailer in Philippi, who were worshippers of God, but who had not yet heard of Jesus. They shared the good news and it was always received by those who had been searching.
They were not always received with open arms. In Thessalonica, when they could not find Paul, the Jews took Jason and some of the other brothers prisoner, while Paul and Silas were whisked away to Berea once it was night. In Berea, they received a better response. Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. (Acts 17-11-12 NIV) It didn't take long, however, for the thugs from Thessalonica to show up to agitate the crowds, so Paul left on his own for Athens.
As Paul walked around the city, he saw that it was full of idols. He spent his days in the synagogue or marketplace, trying to reason with the Jews and God fearing Greeks. This caught the attention of some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who wanted to know what Paul was babbling about.
They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. - Acts 17:18-21 NIV
Paul, after walking around Athens and viewing all of the statues to the gods, knew exactly what to say.
“Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ (Acts 17:22-28 NIV)
Paul, the one who encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, knew what was missing in their lives. He knew what the good news was. He knew that in him and in him along, we move and have our being.
No comments:
Post a Comment