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In Thessalonica
1 When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As his custom was, Paul went into the 
synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he said.
synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he said.
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Paul moves on into Macedonia toward Thessalonica “Thessalonica,” the capital city of Macedonia with a population of 200,000. It was a major port city and an important commercial center. As his usual practice he goes to the local synagogue with the intent of presenting evidence for the gospel
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1. Can we argue people into the kingdom of God?
No, the convincing comes from the Holy Spirit. All we can do is present the evidence. The unbeliever has to come to his own understanding and acceptance bases on the logic of our argument and the gift of faith given by God.
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For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it isthe gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.Eph 2:8-9 (NKJV)
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4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.
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2. Why were only some of the Jews persuaded? They all heard the same message why didn’t they all believe?
The Jews were resistant the idea of a suffering Messiah even though it was in their own scripture. He was “opening and alleging” — that is, from the Old Testament Scriptures — “that Christ must needs have suffered.” He preached the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, showing that this was necessary, as set forth in the Old Testament.Luke described Paul’s method of evangelizing in Thessalonica as reasoning from the Scriptures, explaining (dianoigon), giving evidence (proving, paratithemenos), and proclaiming (katangello). These terms imply that Paul dealt carefully with his hearers’ questions and doubts. He showed that the facts of gospel history confirmed what the Scriptures predicted. His subject was Jesus whom Paul believed was the Christ. His Jewish hearers needed convincing that their Scriptures taught that Messiah would suffer death and rise from the grave. Paul used the Old Testament to prove that Jesus was the Messiah (Christ).
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But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. …………… And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,……… And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. ……..For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked
Isaiah 53:5-10 (NKJV)
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This brings up the issue as to whether it is God’s plan to save all people are to save some people.
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, andthere are few who find it. Matt 7:13-14 (NKJV)
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV)
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. John 17:1-2 (NKJV)
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3. Wait what about John 3:16? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”
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For the understanding of a text in the New Testament, we need to check the original language in which it was written, namely koine Greek. It may come as a big surprise to learn that in the original Greek of John 3:16, there is no word “whoever.” The word “whoever” is expressing a phrase in Greek which is difficult to express smoothly in English.
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Literally, the text reads “in order that every the one believing in Him, not to perish, but have everlasting life.”It says “every” or “all the one believing…” That’s hard to express in English, but in essence, it is saying “all the believing ones.” That’s what is being communicated. It is saying that there is no such thing as a believing one who does not receive eternal life, but who perishes. Though our English translation says “whoever believes” the literal rendering is accurately translated as “every believing one” and the emphasis is NOT AT ALL on the “whosoever” but on the belief. The ones BELIEVING will not have one consequence but will have another. They will not perish but will have everlasting life.
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5 But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, 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 brothers 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 made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.
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4. So were Paul and Silas saying there was another king than Caesar?
Blasphemy was the gravest accusation for a Jew, but treason—to support a rival king above Caesar—was the worst accusation for a Roman. Cf. the charge against Jesus that he claimed to be king.
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Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” …………………… Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” 37 Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” 38 Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.John 18:33-38 (NKJV)
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One reason why the Gentiles and city rulers were so readily excited by this accusation was the fact that the Jews had then but recently been banished from Rome, as we learn from a statement below in reference to Priscilla and Aquila. The unbelieving Jews in Thessalonica, anxious to prove their own loyalty, adroitly directed public odium toward the Christian Jews, as the real disturbers of the public peace, and enemies of Cæsar. —Acts of the Apostles
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In Berea
10 As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. 13 When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. 14 The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. 15 The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
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5. How were the Bereans more noble than the Thessalonians?
The Jews in Berea did not react out of jealousy (cf. v. 5) but listened carefully to what Paul preached and compared it to the teachings of their Hebrew Scriptures. Their example of daily Bible study has inspired Christians ever since to do the same. Anyone who listens to new religious truth would do well to compare it with Scripture, as these Jews did. Many of these noble skeptics believed because Paul’s teaching was consistent with the Old Testament. Here there seem to have been many Jewish converts rather than a few, the usual result of Paul’s preaching. Many Gentiles also believed. Among them were more prominent women. Net Bible Notes.
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In Athens
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 the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him.
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6. Who were the Epicurean and Stoics?
Epicurean … philosophers. Originally they taught that the supreme good is happiness but not mere momentary pleasure or temporary gratification. By Paul’s time, however, this philosophy had degenerated into a more sensual system of thought (the ancient Playboy philosophy). Stoic philosophers. They taught that people should live 
in accord with nature, recognize their own self-sufficiency and independence, and suppress their desires. At its best, Stoicism had some admirable qualities, but, like Epicureanism, by Paul’s time it had degenerated into a system of pride. babbler. The Greek word meant “seed picker,” a bird picking up seeds here and there. Then it came to refer to the loafer in the marketplace who picked up whatever scraps of learning he could find and paraded them without digesting them himself.
in accord with nature, recognize their own self-sufficiency and independence, and suppress their desires. At its best, Stoicism had some admirable qualities, but, like Epicureanism, by Paul’s time it had degenerated into a system of pride. babbler. The Greek word meant “seed picker,” a bird picking up seeds here and there. Then it came to refer to the loafer in the marketplace who picked up whatever scraps of learning he could find and paraded them without digesting them himself.
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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 want 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.)
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7. What was the Areopagus?
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men 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. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
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Areopagus. Means “hill of Ares.” Ares was the Greek god of thunder and war (the Roman equivalent was Mars). The Areopagus was located just west of the acropolis and south of the Agora and had once been the site of the meeting of the Court or Council of the Areopagus. Earlier the Council governed a Greek city-state, but by NT times the Areopagus retained authority only in the areas of religion and morals and met in the Royal Portico at the northwest corner of the Agora. They considered themselves the custodians of teachings that introduced new religions and foreign gods
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8. What is the story behind this statue to the unknown God?
In short, the story begins sometime in the sixth century before Christ, with the city of Athens was being devastated and decimated by a mysterious plague. When no explanation for the plague could be found, and no cure was in sight, the approach was to assume that one of the city’s many gods had been offended. The leaders of the city sought to determine which of the gods it was and then determine a way of appeasing that god. This was no easy task, since the city of Athens had literally hundreds of gods, which Richardson refers to as the “god capital of the world,” a place so full of gods that the Athenians “must have needed something equivalent to the Yellow Pages just to keep tabs on the many deities already represented in their city.”
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When all efforts failed to discern which god had been offended, and which had brought the plague upon the city, an outside “consultant” was brought in from the Island of Cyprus, whose name was Epimenides. Epimenides concluded that it was none of the known gods of Athens which had been offended, but some, as yet, unknown god. He proposed a course of action which, if it worked, would at least provide a possible remedy for the plague. He had a flock of choice sheep, of various colors, kept from food until they were hungry. On the given day, he had these sheep turned loose on Mars Hill, on what was a very succulent pasture. For any sheep not to have eaten his fill would have been unexplainable. He had the sheep turned loose and watched carefully, to see if any sheep would lie down and not eat, even though hungry and in prime grazing. Several sheep, to the amazement of those watching, did lie down. Altars were erected at each spot where a sheep lay down, dedicated to an “unknown god.” On those altars, the sheep which lay in that spot was sacrificed. Almost immediately, we are told, the plague began to subside.
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Over a period of time, the altars were forgotten, and began to deteriorate. One altar, it seems, was restored and preserved, in commemoration of the removal of the plague by calling upon the “unknown god.” Who would have thought that centuries later, a foreigner named Paul would refer to this altar as the starting point for his sermon on Mars Hill? And who would have known that it may have been this very poet, Epimenides, whom Paul would later quote in his sermon?
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“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 hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each 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.’ 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 man’s 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 all men 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 A few men 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.
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9. How did all this make sense to these Greeks?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
εν αρχη ην ο λογος και ο λογος ην προς τον θεον και θεος ην ο λογος
Logos λογος
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TheStoicphilosophers identified the term logos with thedivineanimating principle pervading the Universe; The universal intelligence (the universal ruling force governing and revealing through the cosmos to humankind, i.e., the Divine).
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus appears to be the first to have used the word logos to refer to a rational divine intelligence, which today is sometimes referred to in scientific discourse as the “mind of God.” The early Greek philosophical tradition known asStoicism, which held that every human participates in a universal and divinely ordained community, then used the Logos doctrine as a principle for human law and morality. The Stoics believed that to achieve freedom, happiness, and meaning one should attune one’s life to the wisdom of God’s will, manifest in the second distinction (above) of Logos. The Christian church then extended the Stoic idea of the universal community by claiming the universal nature of salvation and the potential for all humans to participate in it.
Some of the Greeks were able to connect the dots. They knew there gods, but they also knew there was something else, something that held everything together. Paul explained to them what that something was. It was Jesus Christ, the Logos.
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3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made John 1:3 (NIV)
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Col 1:17 (KJV)
Some had a problem with the concept of the resurrection, while for some that was a deal maker.
And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 1 Cor 15:17 (NKJV)
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- MSN…….MacArthur NASB Study Notes
- NIVSN…..NIV Study Notes.
- JVM ….J Vernon McGee,
- ACC …. Adam Clarke’s Commentary
- BN …..Barnes Notes
- WBC…… Wycliffe Bible Commentary
- CN …… Constables Notes
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