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Paul at Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens (Based on Acts 16)

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Paul at Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens (Based on Acts 16)

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Paul and his friends next went to Thessalonica. There they taught in a Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath day. Some of the Jews believed, and so did many of the Greeks, but the Jews who did not believe were angry. They called together some wicked men and went to the house where the apostles were staying. This house belonged to a good man named Jason. These cruel enemies could not find the apostles, so they laid hold of Jason and the other brethren. After bringing them before the rulers of the city, they said, “Those men who have troubled the world in other places are come here also, and Jason has received them into his house. They are teaching people to disobey our laws; they say that there is another king, named Jesus.” This report troubled the rulers very much, but at that time they did nothing to Jason and the others but let them go. In spite of the persecution, God blessed Paul’s preaching to many people at Thessalonica. A Christian church was formed there, to which Paul afterwards wrote the two epistles to the Thessalonians.

Because of the danger, the brethren sent Paul and Silas away by night, and they went to Berea. The Jews at Berea were more willing to listen to Paul than were the Jews at Thessalonica. We are told they were “more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so; therefore many of them believed.” The Jews at Thessalonica hardly paid attention to what the apostles preached. Those at Berea not only listened but also thought about it afterwards. They searched the Old Testament Scriptures to see if they could find in them anything like what Paul said. There they found much about the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom Moses, David, Isaiah, and others had prophesied. Then many of these Bereans believed, for God blessed their searching of His Word. He taught them more and more by His Spirit and helped them to understand and believe the truth.

The Bereans can teach us a lesson. We should not only listen to the gospel when it is preached, but also we should read and search the Bible for ourselves. We should “prove all things” by the Scriptures, asking God to enable us to understand them and to lead us, by His Holy Spirit, into all truth as He did the wise and noble Bereans. Paul could not stay in Berea very long because the unbelieving Jews of Thessalonica came and stirred up the people of Berea, too. So the brethren sent Paul away, and he went to Athens.

We read a great deal about Athens in history. It was a place very famous for learning and philosophy. Yet, these people at Athens had no true wisdom; they were ignorant of God, of the Bible, and of the way to heaven. They worshipped many false gods and held feasts in honor of them. These gods, they thought, were not holy and good as the God of the Bible is but bad and wicked, like men. Yet, the Athenians worshipped them; thus, “professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22), for they were “vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21).

When Paul saw all this, he was grieved to the heart. He, too, was learned, able to enjoy much View of Acropolis from Areopagus Hill (also called Mars Hill), Athens, Greece which the Athenians enjoyed and to admire many things which they admired, but Paul had that true wisdom of which they knew nothing. He had “learned to know nothing among men save Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” and he could not feel happy at Athens, beautiful as it was, because “he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.”

Paul went about among the Jews and the Greeks, speaking to them of Jesus and the resurrection. At last some of the philosophers, or wise men, met him and asked him to explain to them what these new doctrines meant. Paul stood on the top of a rock called Mars Hill and said, “Ye men of Athens, as I passed by and looked at the gods ye worship, I saw an altar with this written on it—To the Unknown God. Now this God whom ye ignorantly worship, Him I preach unto you. The true God, of whom I tell you, made the world and all things that are in it. He gives to us life, breath, and all things, and it is His will that we should seek Him, and find Him, for He is not far from any of us. In Him we live, and move, and have our being. Then we should not think that this great God is like gold, silver, or stone, as many ignorantly do. God is now making Himself known in the entire world, and He commands people everywhere to repent, to turn to Him and believe. For a day will come when God will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom He raised from the dead, even this same Jesus that I preach to you.”

When Paul began to talk about the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. Others said, “We will hear thee again another time,” so Paul departed from them. Yet, there were some, even in Athens, who believed what Paul preached. Among them were a man named Dionysius, a woman called Damaris, and others with them. Thus, while Paul preached “Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness,” those who believed found Christ to be “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).

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Paul at Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens (Based on Acts 16)

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