Acts 17
v.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.
v.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,
v.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.
Luke characterization of the Bereans ought to encourage Christians today to receive God’s Word with greater eagerness and earnestness to test it with the Scriptures.
v.16
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distresed to see that the city was full of idols.
v.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.
Contextualization of the gospel.
v.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 hands.
v.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.
v.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 place where they should live.
And contrary to the “deism” that permeated the philosophies of the day, he proclaimed that this God has determined specific times for humans and “the exact places where they should live,” so that they would seek him and find him.
That people should not be restless and dissatisfied with the place where God has located them;
v.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.
v.28
‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
The first (“For in him we live and move and have our being”) comes from the Cretan poet Epimenides (c. 600 B.C.); the second (“for we are his offspring”), from the Cilician poet Aratus (c. 315-240 B.C.). By such maxims, Paul is not suggesting that God is to be thought of in terms of the Zeus of Greek polytheism or Stoic pantheism. He is rather arguing that the poets his hearers recognized as authorities have to some extent corroborated his message. In his search for a measure of common ground with his hearers, he is, so to speak, disinfecting and rebaptizing the poets’ words for his own purposes. But despite its form, Paul’s address was thoroughly biblical and Christian in its content.
v.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.”
The dead cannot judge. They are dead. Jesus is the only one who has experienced death and now lives forever. He is the firstfruit of the resurrection.