Acts 17 Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Acts 17:1-9

1 When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. ‘This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,’ he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.

5 But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the market-place, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: ‘These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.’ 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they put Jason and the others on bail and let them go.

A. Find Out:

1. Where did Paul go next and what did he do? v.1,2
2. What was he seeking to do? v.3
3. With what effect? v.4
4. But who reacted how? v.5
5. With what did they charge Jason? v.7
6. Yet what was the outcome? v.9 

B. Think:

1. What was the apostolic strategy seen again here?
2. How effective was it?
3. How did the enemy attempt a counter-attack?

C. Comment:

Again the apostles move on and again when they come to Thessalonica, the capital of the province of Macedonia, they go straight to the synagogue. Their strategy is still the same: go to a large town where there will be plenty of people with religious interest (Jews), meet with them (in the synagogue) and seek to build on their knowledge and interest to show them that Jesus is the answer to all their questions.

Note that Paul used the Scriptures, but it was with a people who accepted and knew the Scriptures. He also “reasoned” with them, he could apply the Scriptures. He sought to show that the Old Testament clearly indicated that the Christ would come to suffer, die and be raised from the dead and this has been fulfilled in Jesus. So successful was he in doing this that a number of Jews and Gentiles believed.    

It is at this point that again it seems to go wrong. A number of those who refuse to believe then stir up opposition to them. Jesus had prophesied that opposition would come and wherever Paul had success then opposition followed. It is not something that we in the West are used to and when opposition does come we are surprised. It is perhaps an indication that we are not as effective as Paul was, that the enemy often has little cause to rise up against us. 

D. Application:

1. Go to those who show some interest and share more about Jesus.
2. When God blesses it, be ready for the enemy to try to come back.

Passage: Acts 17:10-15

10 As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

13 But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. 14 The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. 15 Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.

A. Find Out:    

1. When did the apostles leave to go where? v.10a
2. What did they do when they got there? v.10b
3. How was the message received? v.11
4. With what result? v.12
5. Yet what happened? v.13
6. What happened to the apostolic team? v.14,15

B. Think:

1. What, yet again, was the apostolic strategy?
2. How did reception at this new town differ from the last?
3. How does the opposition continue?

C. Comment:

There are certain similarities and some differences here. First the apostolic strategy is still the same: go to the place where there will be religious interest and preach Jesus there in a way they can receive. Again, the Jews here knew the Scriptures, so Paul used the Scriptures and his listeners avidly read through them to check what he was saying. They were on familiar ground. Again a good number of Jews and Gentiles believed, and the church was established. The difference here seems to be that these people seemed more eager to search the Scriptures, and more willing to respond to the truth.

The next thing is that word gets back to the previous town and some of the zealous Jews come from there to stir up trouble for Paul here. The church response here seems slightly different, for it is the newly formed church that quickly sends Paul on. He is the one who is attracting the Jews’ opposition so he goes while Silas and Timothy stay on, presumably to carry on teaching and encouraging the church. In every case Paul moves on so that the sharing of the Gospel is then taken from being a one-man ministry to a personal sharing by every member of the local church. It thus becomes much harder for the enemy to focus a counter-attack on the many!

D. Application:

1. Learn the strategy: look for those who already show signs of interest.
2. We must encourage Gospel sharing by all, not by just one leader.

Passage: Acts 17:16-21

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the market-place day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, ‘What is this babbler trying to say?’ Others remarked, ‘He seems to be advocating foreign gods.’ They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 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? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.’ 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

A. Find Out:

1. How did Athens affect Paul, and why? v.16
2. In what two places did he seek to evangelize? v.17
3. What did some philosophers say about him and why? v.18
4. Where did they take him & what did they ask? v.19,20
5. What did the town spend its time doing? v.21

B. Think:

1. What does it seem that Athens prided itself on?
2. What appeared their spiritual state?
3. So how did Paul vary his evangelistic strategy?

C. Comment:

In Athens we find Paul using a different strategy to all that we have seen before. Previously he had purely worked out of the synagogue, and yes he does do that here, but he also speaks directly into the market place in Athens. Why? He sees the city is full of idols and realises that this whole people (Gentiles) are semi-religious and that he can approach them wherever they are. They have indicated that they are interested in spiritual things, as deceived as they are, and he can therefore approach people in the most public place and expect to get a hearing because of the nature of the city.

As he does this, he finds a difficulty: his message appears as just one message among many in the “market place of ideas”. These people are not only semi-religious, they almost take pride in thinking new thoughts. The difficulty with that is that they never settle on one set of ideas but will hop from new idea to new idea.

This is an entirely different culture to anything he has encountered yet. While there, he is taken to the Areopagus, where the city council or court usually met, a place to make decisions or discuss policy. Again, the door is being opened to him to address large numbers of leading people.

D. Application:

1. Different cultures require different approaches for the same Gospel.
2. The Gospel stands up to any other system of thinking in the world as it is God’s wisdom for salvation, and as such is perfect.

Passage: Acts 17:22-28

22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ‘People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 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. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship – and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

24 ‘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 human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 “For in him we live and move and have our being.” As some of your own poets have said, “We are his offspring.”

A. Find Out:

1. What did Paul say about the people of Athens? v.22
2. Why was he able to say this? v.23a
3. Who was he going to tell them about? v.23b
4. How did he describe God? v.24,25
5. What had God done and why? v.26,27
6. What does he conclude about us? v.28

B. Think:

1. How did Paul start from where the Athenians were?
2. How is he able to talk about God to them?
3. How does he show that God is different from their “gods”?

C. Comment:

So far in the past, Paul has preached the Gospel based on the Old Testament scriptures. Because he was starting with Jewish believers or Jewish converts he started from that with which they were familiar. Here in Athens he is in a completely different culture, but again he looks for some religious sign in their culture and works from that. He has seen idols all over the city dedicated to their various Greek “gods”, even one to “An Unknown God”, almost as if the Greeks wanted to cover themselves in case they had missed any “god”.

Very well, says Paul, I can tell you about this unknown God. He is unlike any of your other gods, He is the very one who made this entire world, and set it out in such an orderly fashion that men would wonder about it and seek Him out. You owe your entire being and existence to him, even as some of your poets have described.

The nature of Paul’s approach should teach us something: we need to start where the people are. For those who have knowledge of the Bible, start with that. Those who have no knowledge of the Bible, look for their spiritual interest and start from there. Everyone has some, because that’s how God has made us. Listen for it.

D. Application:

1. The delivery of the Gospel should meet people where they are.
2. The Gospel meets the need of people, whatever class, colour or culture, it  is for them!

Passage: Acts 17:29-34

29 ‘Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone – an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.’

32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject.’ 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

A. Find Out:

1. How shouldn’t we view the divine Being? v.29
2. What does God now require? v.30
3. How will God judge the world and on what basis? v.31a
4. How has God proved that? v.31b
5. What two responses did Paul get? v.32
6. What was the overall result? v.34

B. Think:

1. How has Paul’s presentation differed from his past evangelising?
2. At what point did rejection come?
3. Read 1 Cor 1:23 How does that apply here?

C. Comment:

Starting from their religious inclinations, Paul tells his listeners about the sort of God they have called the “Unknown god” and says He is far greater than any man-made representation (idol). So far, he continues, God has put up with our ignorance but now He has made the way so clear that He calls us to turn away from our old, wrong ideas and come to Him on the basis of the way He has ordained. He will bring justice, i.e. will punish all wrongs, but has provided One who will take our punishment if we allow it (else we take it ourselves), and He has shown proof of that by raising Jesus from the dead after he had taken our punishment on the Cross.

It is only when he gets to this last bit that he encounters rejection by a number of his listeners. They were happy to chew over any new philosophical idea, but talk of death on the Cross and then resurrection of the dead, left them spluttering. This did not seem logical to them and so they rejected it. As Paul later said to the Corinthians, this just seems foolishness to the self-centred, so-called intellectual Greek mind. It is only the “dying” person who recognises their need who will grasp the straw of the Cross and embrace it. Self-centred man will scoff at it, but that should not stop us preaching it!

D. Application:

1. The Cross is foolishness to the wise of this world.
2. The Cross is salvation to the one who is crying out for it.