THEMES:
- An Upside Down Kingdom: In Genesis, Adam and Eve ushered in a false kingdom where mankind seeks to rule over God, but instead is ruled by creation. God created the world and mankind to work to where God was over mankind and mankind was over creation. Mankind was to multiply and spread God’s image and kingdom across the world. But, Adam and Eve in the fall were controlled by creation. This broke our relationship with God and inverted how we relate to God. In the fall, creation controlled us (mankind) and we tried to control God and make him in our image. We sought creation for personal power and forfeited our fellowship with God. So, mankind built great Kingdoms (Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, etc.) on power and force. Armies and wealth symbolized a good kingdom. The Triune God in his perfect plan of redemption flipped that on its head, and he (in the second person, the eternal Son) came as a human servant and physician to forgive sins by his life, death, burial resurrection. Jesus taught that personal power and wealth does nothing in the kingdom of God. Power, position, wealth, and creation in general if it is not directed toward the furthering of the kingdom and the glory of God is meaningless. Jesus restored the original fellowship with God, and ushers in the upside down kingdom. Men and Women renounce the things we idolize and seek for personal glory in order to pursue our relationship with God. We then use creation for its intended purpose, as a means to glorify God and spread his kingdom and message across the world! This is what Paul did again and again, and this is what we see in Acts 17. Paul goes to Thessalonica and Berea and preaches the Gospel to the Jews, specifically that Christ needed to suffer to bring salvation to Israel. This is completely opposite to what the Jews expected. The Jews expected the Christ, the Messiah, to conquer by power and force, to be a warrior king that defeated the Romans. After preaching to the Jews, he moves to Athens to preach to the Greeks. The Greeks believed there were multiple deities, so they were pagan polytheists. To the Greeks, the gods needed human temples, with physical idols, and sacrifices. The gods needed to have their ego stroked in order to then help humanity. Paul preaches the opposite. There is one creator God, and that God cannot be bought. No temple, no idols, no sacrifice can appease a God who owns and directs all things in creation. But, there is Jesus who stands between God and man. A human who is God, a human who has been given the power to judge the rest of the world, since he rose from the dead! Both of these messages to the Greeks and the Jews are the exact opposite of what they know. The Gospel is upside down compared to conventional wisdom as the Jews state of Paul themselves, “These men who have turned the world upside down.”
PEOPLE:
- The Bereans: “Noble” translates the Greek eugenes, which originally meant “of noble birth” or “well born.” The word was also applied to people who exhibited noble behavior, in that they were open-minded, fair, and thoughtful. Therefore, Luke saw the Bereans as “more noble” in their receiving Paul’s message “with all eagerness”, and then looking to the written words of the OT as their final authority, “examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” By commending this activity, Luke encourages this searching of the Scriptures as a pattern for all believers and also gives support to the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture, the idea that the Bible can be understood rightly, not only be scholars but also by ordinary people who read it eagerly and diligently, with conscious dependence on God for help.
CULTURE:
Places:
- V 1 - Thessalonica - a large and populous city on the Thermaic bay. It was the capital of one of the four Roman districts of Macedonia, and was ruled by a praetor. It was named after Thessalonica, the wife of Cassander, who built the city. She was so called by her father, Philip, because he first heard of her birth on the day of his gaining a victory over the Thessalians. On his second missionary journey, Paul preached in the synagogue here, the chief synagogue of the Jews in that part of Macedonia, and laid the foundations of a church
- V 10 - Berea - This was another city of Macedonia, on the same gulf with Thessalonica; and not far from Pella, the birthplace of Alexander the Great.
- V 15 - Athens - This was one of the most celebrated cities in the world, whether we consider its antiquity, its learning, its political consequence, or the valor of its inhabitants. This city, which was the capital of Attica, and the seat of the Grecian empire was founded by Cecrops, about a.m. 2447, before Christ 1557, and was called by him Cecropia. About thirteen or fourteen hundred years before Christ, in the reign either of Erechtheus, or Erichthonius, it was called Athens, from Αθηνη, a name of Minerva, to whom it was dedicated, and who was always considered the protectress of the city. The whole city at first was built upon a hill or rock, in the midst of a spacious plain; but, in process of time, the whole plain was covered with buildings which were called the lower city; while the ancient was called Acropolis, or the upper city. In its most flourishing state this city was not less than one hundred and seventy-eight stadia, or twenty-two Roman miles in circumference. The buildings of Athens were the most superb, and best executed, in the world; but everything is now in a state of ruin.
- V 19 Areopagus - The Areopagus was a hill not far from the Acropolis, already described, where the supreme court of justice was held; one of the most sacred and reputable courts that had ever existed in the Gentile world.
Cultural Background:
- Epicureanism was a philosophy that emerged in Athens about 300 b.c. It was developed by Epicurus, who was born in 341 b.c. on the Greek island of Samos. Epicurus founded his school, “The Garden,” in Athens. Epicurean thought had a significant impact on the Hellenistic (of or relating to post-classical Greek history and culture from the death of Alexander the Great to the accession of Augustus) world and later, Rome. The philosophy advanced by Epicurus considered happiness, or the avoidance of pain and emotional disturbance, to be the highest good.
- The Stoics were a sect of Greek philosophers at Athens, so called from the Greek word stoa (a “porch” or “portico”), which was their principle meeting place. They have been called “the Pharisees of Greek paganism.” The founder of the Stoics was Zeno, who flourished about 300 b.c. He taught his disciples that a man’s happiness consisted in bringing himself into harmony with the course of the universe. They were trained to bear evils with indifference, and so to be independent of externals. Materialism, pantheism, fatalism, and pride were the leading features of this philosophy.
- They called Paul a “babbler”(Gk. spermologos, lit. “one who picks up seeds,” derived from an older and less common meaning of lego, “pick up”). The term thus suggested one who pecks at ideas like a chicken pecks at seeds and then spouts them off without fully understanding them. So little care did others take to grasp what he was really saying that they decided that he was recommending the worship of two new divinities, Jesus and Anastasis (“resurrection”).
CONTEMPLATING GOD:
Voice of the Past:
- Martin Henry Commentary on Acts: “The Jews in Berea applied seriously to the study of the word preached unto them. They not only heard Paul preach on the sabbath, but daily searched the Scriptures, and compared what they read with the facts related to them. The doctrine of Christ does not fear inquiry; advocates for his cause desire no more than that people will fully and fairly examine whether things are so or not. Those are truly noble, and likely to be more and more so, who make the Scriptures their rule, and consult them accordingly. May all the hearers of the gospel become like those of Berea, receiving the word with readiness of mind, and searching the Scriptures daily, whether the things preached to them are so.”
Footnotes:
Easton’s Bible Dictionary. “Timothy.”
ATS Bible Dictionary. “Lydia.”
https://www.godtube.com/bible/acts/16-6
https://www.godtube.com/bible/acts/16-7
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bithynia
http://eastonsbibledictionary.org/3724-Troas.php
https://www.godtube.com/bible/acts/16-9
https://www.godtube.com/bible/acts/16-10
https://www.godtube.com/bible/acts/16-11
https://www.godtube.com/bible/acts/16-13
https://www.godtube.com/bible/acts/16-14
ESV Study Bible, p.2117.
J.M. Freeman & H.J. Chadwick. Manners & Customs of the Bible. pp.525-536
Bruce, F.F. Commentaries on Acts. Chapter 16:35-40; ESV Study Bible, p.2120
Bede. Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles. 16:25.