After ministering in Corinth for half a year the Jews were at wits end with Paul (Acts 18.12-.23). Luke describes their arrest of Paul as an ”attack” to assure we understand that brutality was involved. After his beat down they brought him before Gallio the proconsul of their region in hopes of his consent to a state execution. The Romans, however, were never anxious to enter the affairs of the Jews and this situation was no different.
Paul stands before the council of the Areopagus (Acts 17.22-.31) and gives his opening remarks about his belief system. Throughout the speech we see evidence of Paul’s cleverness and command of the Greek language. Take the back-handed compliment he gives his listeners in his very first statement for example. He states that he has observed they are a very “religious” people. The Greek word translated religious can be interpreted as “devout” (a compliment) or as “superstitious” (an insult).
When Paul arrived at Thessalonica (Acts 17.1-.9) he entered a city with a rich history. While an exact date of the cities founding is hard to come by, in 168 BC it became the capital of the second district of Macedonia. Located at the intersection of two important Roman roads (one from Italy and another from the Danube River to the Aegean Sea) it became the capital city of all of Macedonia in 146 BC. The cities importance to Rome became incalculable shortly before the birth of Jesus and continues to this day to be the second greatest city in all of Greece.
The rest of this chapter (Acts 16.16-.40) is packed with interesting concepts and teachings, so we’re going to go slowly and try to gain as much understanding as possible from the text. We begin with Paul’s encountering a woman possessed by a spirit of divination. In the Greek this is literally the spirit of Python, which is not surprising when one considers the location of these events.
We don’t know how long Paul stayed in Athens after his presentation to the Areopagus council, but we do know that one member of the council came to faith is Jesus. Along with Councilman Dionysius and a prominent woman named Damarius, others also put their faith in Jesus. While Luke doesn’t tell us how many others, the language appears to imply that the “others” who followed were of the political camp or household of the two who were named.
Not being a lay-about, Paul made good use of his time waiting for Silas and Timothy to catch up to him in Athens (Acts 17.16-.20). He conducted a reconnoiter of the great city and in doing so we are treated to a depiction of the culture of ancient Athens.
With the other prisoner’s secured and the jailer a new follower of Jesus, Paul and Silas are welcomed into the guards home where his household puts their faith in the Lord and tends to the apostles wounds (Acts 16.33). At nearly one o’clock in the morning the Spirit of God is working overtime in the life of this family and its servants. Before sunrise everyone is baptized and served a hearty breakfast before returning to the prison.
Acts 16.11 shows us how Paul entered Europe for the first time, through Neapolis to Philippi. The traveling apostle had been through much of the near and middle east, the Province of Asia, but never before set foot on European soil. He was a long way from home, but continued to stick to tried and true methods of evangelism. After all, people are people no matter the country from which they hail.
Yesterday we read about Paul’s proclamation of impeding judgment. His message, while reasoned very differently, didn’t differ from Jonah’s message to Nineveh centuries earlier. Both men called a people to repentance in order to avoid God’s judgment. The only significant difference between the two messages is that Jonah had set the judgment day as 40 days hence, while Paul’s message leaves the day open ended. When considering the creations complete history, Judgment day was near during Paul’s time. How much nearer is it for us?
Once more in fear of mortal danger Paul, Silas and Timothy set out at night to the city of Berea (Acts 17.10-15). No doubt other’s accompanied them as well, as traveling at night was very dangerous. Upon their arrival Paul continued his pattern and first went to the city’s synagogue to teach the Jews about the Messiah. Paul had not yet found a new method for reaching the Europeans. The church is Thessalonica was mostly made of Gentiles (1 Thessalonians 1.9) and this would likely continue as he pushed farther from Jerusalem. What he found in Berea was surprising.
When it comes to litigation we’ve got nothing on the ancient world, which is clearly evident once Paul exorcised a demon of divination from a slave girl. The girl’s owners were outraged when they learned her ability to make them money had vanished along with the evil spirit, and dragged Paul and Silas into court (Acts 16.19). Paul and Silas stood accused of teaching a religion that was not approved by Roman law, of which they were technically guilty.
We find Paul, Silas and now Timothy setting out to continue this second missionary journey (Acts 16.6-.10). They set out from Lystra and traveled through Iconium and Pisidian-Antioch and continued west wanting to take the message of the Messiah to the Province of Asia. The Province of Asia is now mostly modern day Turkey and nowhere near the current continent of Asia (which is east of their present position). In doing so they ran into the first of two road blocks.