The Book of Acts | God’s Revelation of Transition

Session 57 | Acts 17:29-18:7

Acts 17:16-34 | The Second Missionary Journey: Athens

• Verses 16-18 – see session 55
• Verses 19-28 – see session 56
• Verses 29-31 - Paul’s Sermon, Point 3: The Demanded Response. [NOTE: this section was changed from session 56. Use these notes rather than session 56]
  • Paul says that we are the offspring of God, not in a direct sense, but because God created Adam and we descended from Adam, we are God’s creation. Being created by God, we ought not to think that we can create God by art and man’s device.
  • Paul says that God winked at the idol worship of the past. This is reference to the fact that God was not dealing with the nations in the past, but with Israel alone. He did not deal with their gods and idols during that time. Though that was true, but now there is a new dispensation, and God commandeth all men (a contrast to the Jews only) to repent.
    • Luke 24:47 spoke of a time when repentance would be preached to all nations.
    • Here, unlike in Philippi, Paul never mentions faith/belief.
    • The only conclusion we can make is that Paul is obligated “to the Jew first,” and must preach the kingdom Gospel and have it rejected before he can preach the grace gospel.
    • If we go with the etymological meaning of the word repent, then we are forced to do that in Acts 2:38 as well. While etymology can be helpful, it does not tell us what the word came to mean in common usage only what the roots of the word meant.
  • The major cause of changed thinking should be that there is appointed a day of judgement, and on that day the standard of judgement is that man whom he hath ordained, specifically, the One who was raised from the dead.
• Verses 32-33 –
  • Whether the topic is the coming Kingdom or the Gospel of grace, the resurrection is foundational.
  • Paul gave his seemingly short presentation and departed from among them, almost as if he purposely left them wanting more. Some mocked and others wanted to hear more. By leaving, Paul filtered the crowd to those who were truly interested.
• Verse 34 –
  • We are not told exactly what these believed, whether it was just what is recorded in the previous verses or if Paul shared more and they became believers of the grace Gospel. These mentioned to not appear to be Jews, so we would presume they believed the grace Gospel, just like the Philippian jailer.
  • The two mentioned were presumably well-known to Theophilus, the recipient of the book of Acts.

    Acts 18:1-11 | The Second Missionary Journey: Corinth part 1

• Verse 1 –
  • Corinth is south of Athens on an isthmus. It was an important political capital at the time of Paul. Athens was the literary/philosophical capital but Corinth the seat of government for Achaia, the Roman province in which both cities were located.
  • Paul will spend 18 months here (v. 11).
• Verses 2-3 –
  • This is our first introduction of Aquila and his wife Priscilla. They are from Italy and had left because of the edict of Claudius, who reigned from 49-52. This is one of the verses in Acts that gives us solid chronological information, though not specific to the year.
  • More information is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudius%27_expulsion_of_Jews_from_Rome
  • This is the first that we learn that Paul was a tentmaker by trade.
• Verse 4 –
  • This verse helps us to know that the Corinthian church was started out of the synagogue, and thus we expect it to have a very Jewish nature (which indeed it does).
  • Notice that Paul’s strategy (as always) was to reason and to persuade.
  • Note: while the synagogue itself has not been discovered, there are several pieces from the synagogue that have. One contains Hebrew writing, the other has an engraved Menorah.
• Verse 5 –
  • Recall that Silas and Timotheus remained in Berea (which is in Macedonia), and now caught up with Paul.
  • His co-workers arrival caused Paul to be pressed in the spirit.
    • Note that the KJV does not capitalize spirit.
    • The NKJV says “compelled by the Spirit.”
    • However, the NASB (and modern translations) say “devoting himself completely to the word.”
    • The Greek word συνέχω [sunecho] is literally, “coming together to have,” and thus has a somewhat broad meaning but related to seizing something. Here the word is in the passive tense, which comes through in the KJV and NKJV but not NASB.
    • The underlying text for the KJV/NKJV has in the spirit, while the modern versions are translated from the Critical Text which has in the word.
  • In the end, he testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. This is the same thing we saw in Thessalonica (Acts 17:3).
• Verse 6 –
  • This is the first time we see Paul abandoning the synagogue. Unable to persuade them, he “washes his hands” of responsibility and declares, I will go unto the Gentiles.
  • Since the Gentiles do not have a promised kingdom, we should not expect that he will preach the same message to them.
  • Note that he only abandons the synagogue in Corinth. Later we will see him firmly committed “to the Jew first.”
• Verse 7 –
  • Justus (or, in some manuscripts Titus Justus), was one that worshipped God, that is, a Gentile who worshipped in the synagogue but had not converted to Judaism.
  • This may have been the place the Corinthian congregation was established.
• Verses 8-11 – stay tuned