New Testament · Gospels and Acts

Acts chapter 17

After passing through and , they arrived in , where there was a Jewish .As he usually did, Paul went in, and for three consecutive he with them from the ,explaining and demonstrating that had to and then . “This Jesus I’m telling you about,” he said, “he is the One.”Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of and quite a few .But the Jewish leaders became . They recruited some , formed a mob, and threw the city into chaos. They stormed ’s house, looking for Paul and Silas to drag them out to the crowd.When they couldn’t find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the , shouting, “These people who have been have shown up here too,and Jason has welcomed them into his home. They’re all defying , claiming there’s another — someone called Jesus.”When the crowd and the city officials heard this, they were deeply disturbed.They made Jason and the others , and then let them go.That same night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to . When they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue.Now the people in Berea were than those in Thessalonica. They received the message with real enthusiasm and the Scriptures every day to check whether what Paul was saying was actually true.As a result, many of them believed, including quite a few .But when the Jewish leaders in Thessalonica found out that Paul was preaching God’s message in Berea too, they went there as well to stir up and agitate the crowds.The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and stayed behind in Berea.Those who escorted Paul brought him all the way to . They left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as quickly as possible.While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was to see how the city was completely overrun with .So he debated in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, and every day in the with whoever happened to be there.Some and philosophers started debating with him. Some of them asked, “What is this trying to say?” Others said, “He seems to be promoting foreign gods” — because Paul was telling people the about Jesus and the .They took him to the and said, “Can we find out what this new teaching of yours is all about?You’re bringing up some we’ve never heard before, and we want to know what they mean.”(All the Athenians and the foreigners living there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to .)Paul stood up in front of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens, I can see that you’re in every way.As I walked around and looked carefully at your , I even found an altar with this inscription: . So what you worship without really knowing — that’s exactly what I’m here to tell you about.The God who made the world and everything in it — he’s the of heaven and earth, and he doesn’t live in .And he isn’t served by human hands as if he needed anything. He’s the one who gives everyone and everything else. he made of people to live across the whole face of the earth. He set the specific times for them and the exact boundaries of where they would live.He did this so they would search for God and maybe and find him — though he’s actually not far from any one of us.Because . As some of have said, ‘We are, in fact, his offspring.’So since we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the is anything like gold, silver, or stone — something .In the past, God that kind of ignorance, but now he’s commanding all people everywhere to .Because he has set a day when he will , through a man he has appointed. And he proved this to everyone by .”When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them started him. But others said, “We’d like to hear more about this from you.”With that, Paul left the .But some people joined him and believed. Among them were , a member of the Areopagus, and a woman named , and a number of others.