Acts 17:22-34

I want to thank all of those who so faithfully read these commentaries on the email list, the blog site, and on Facebook. I hope that you continue to find them helpful. I did want to let you know that I will not be able to post for about a month as we will be Africa on another ministry trip. This will be the last commentary until the middle of September. Thanks and God bless.



In Athens
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.’[b] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]

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.


Dig Deeper
As a new campus minister of a college ministry you would expect that you would be doing many more weddings than funerals, yet during my first two years in that role, I actually wound up performing more funeral ceremonies than weddings. The fact is, funerals are much tougher to do than weddings and I’m glad that over the years I have now evened that out and the number of weddings that I have done have actually surpassed the funerals. But I recall one funeral in particular where I felt like I was facing a bit of a hostile audience. I had been asked to perform the funeral for someone that I had never even met although they were close to a close family member of mine. To top it off, I knew hardly anyone that was actually at the funeral. Yet, I was asked to really preach the gospel and present it to a group of people that were necessarily starving for it at the moment. To make matters even more difficult, the audience was not a homogenous group. They varied from skeptics, atheists, and those that were very anti-God and anti-Christianity to those that were very religious (although the fruit of their lives seemed to belie their religiosity), and everything in between. But as I stood up and stared out at the audience, I had a daunting opportunity ahead of me, but it was an opportunity nonetheless. I found out that day just how difficult it can be to face an audience that is not immediately open to your message and who are coming from very different perspectives. It is not an easy task.

This is what was facing Paul in the Areopagus, only many times over. He had seized on the opportunity to preach the gospel in one of the most famous cities of the ancient world; a city that had a reputation for wisdom, knowledge, and philosophy. Athens was home to some of the greatest thinkers that the world had to offer. To top it off he was invited to the venue where the very best and brightest met and discussed the issues of the day. It doesn’t seem that Paul was being interrogated or asked to speak to a formal council or trial but all of the “big-wigs” of Athens were there and wanting to hear what Paul had to say. That’s not to imply that they were open to Paul’s message, they were mostly curious. They wanted to see what this babbler could come up with, primarily, it seems, for the purpose of amusing themselves.

So Paul had a huge task ahead of him. The audience was hostile but it was also full of men who held very different beliefs and philosophies. That meant that Paul had to present the gospel in such a way to make it approachable to people whose beliefs were sometimes in direct opposition to one another. He would have to try to be all things to all men but to do it at the same time. This was his chance. He was being given a hearing and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit he would do his best to take advantage of it. It is not, however, very likely at all that what Luke records here was the actual speech that Paul gave. What we have here is most likely a summary of what Paul said. This was after all the guy who could easily preach from sundown until past midnight so surely he took advantage of his moment before the Areopagus.

Many have taken Paul’s opening statement to the Areopagus as words of conciliation creating a bond of connection through compliment but ancient philosopher Lucian of Samosata recorded that complimentary openings “to secure the goodwill of the Areopagus were discouraged.” Therefore it was more likely simply an observation of fact that was neither complimentary or condescending. Athens was a very religious town that was very proud of its wisdom and knowledge so there was a bit of an irony that a town that was so sure of its own wisdom and that was so religious was also ignorant about the very gods that they sought to worship.

The Athenians had statues in honor of unknown gods as a safety precaution so that they weren’t slighting any gods that should have been receiving honor. This made sense for both the Epicureans who believed that if the gods did exist they were so distant that it would be difficult if not impossible to know them, and the Stoics who believed that the gods were one with the universe and not at all separate. Thus, the picture of the divine realm was fuzzy at best, so it was wise in their eyes to cover all of their bases.

What they did not know or understand Paul was going to declare to them in no uncertain terms. As he did so, he masterfully both identified with, at times, and challenged, at other points, both the Stoics and the Epicureans. He would show the Epicureans that they were correct that God was separate from his creation but that the true God was not unknowable. Rather, he was intensely knowable and wanted to be known intimately by the humans that he created. To the Stoics, Paul would agree that God was involved with every aspect of his creation but he would challenge them by demonstrating that he was separate from it and above it.

One amusing feature of the pagan gods that Paul seized upon was that they needed humans badly. They needed people to bring them food in order to eat and they needed people to build temples for them (see Isa. 46:1 and Jer. 10:5 for examples of the futility of the gods). But even at the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem Solomon pointed out that Yahweh was bringing himself down to the level of his creation, he certainly did not need a Temple and most assuredly could not be contained within it (1 Ki. 8:27). This God that Paul was proclaiming to them was not just another of the gods. He was the creator of the entire world and everything in it and he needed nothing from human beings as he expressed in Psalm 50:12 while clearly sticking his thumb in the eye of the so-called gods, “If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.” Rather than needing something from humans, God has given us humans everything including our life and breath and everything else we have, which makes denying him all the more sadly ironic.

God created one man, Adam, and from him brought forth all of the nations of men. This meant that nations need not compete against one another or feel that it was necessary or even natural to all have their own gods. No, the Most High God was responsible for all of the nations. He knew who they were and had set the boundaries for each nation. Nothing in all of history has happened by chance but is all subject to God’s ruling sovereignty. Paul points out that even some of the poets from that region at least understood this in part, although certainly not fully, as they declared that we are God’s offspring. Paul certainly doesn’t mean that all nations are part of God’s promised family but that all people find their origins in God’s creative power.

God’s purpose in everything that he did throughout history, especially culminating in the Messiah (as Paul will get to rather quickly), was that people would know him. Paul’s language implies a picture of groping around in the dark on the part of humans as they sought to find the truth of God even though he was right there all the time. The futile human search for God had been a bit like someone deciding the answer cannot be four and then groping around for years trying to determine what the answer to two plus two is.

Because all humans come from Yahweh, the one, true God it should be obvious that he is not one of the manmade Gods that have eyes but cannot see and ears but cannot hear (Ps. 115:3-8). He is not one of those worthless gods who turn their followers into shells of a human being that are just as worthless and just as spiritually blind as those images that are crafted by humans. Paul, in essence, points out the sheer lunacy of worshipping a god that you just created with your own hands. In contrast, the true God made everything including us.

But the obvious question that this would raise was, “If this God was truly supreme over all creation why would he allow the nations to live in such open defiance and ignorance of him.” Paul’s response to that is threefold. First, God overlooked such ignorance in the past but now things have changed. Second, he commands that all the nations repent and worship him as the only true God. Third, there is a coming judgment where all nations, indeed all humans will have to answer for their idolatry. This repentance is not an option that will bring some small advantage to those who choose that route. It is a command for all humans everywhere.

The proof of all of this was as truth was the resurrection of Jesus. That showed that God’s age to come had indeed already started in the resurrection of the Messiah and that now that his new creation had broken in and started to set things right in the world and once the train had left the station there was no holding it back. God would indeed set the whole world right by brining it into the life of the Messiah and under his authority. There was a great irony in the fact that Paul was declaring in the Areopagus that the solution to the problems of the entire world was found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In a fifth century play written by Aeschylus, the god Apollo dedicated the ground of the Areopagus saying, among other things, “when a man dies, and his blood is spilled on the ground, there is no resurrection.” What was ruled out as impossible, was now, Paul was telling them, the very thing on which the whole world was being turned right side up.

The resurrection, as Paul declared to the Corinthians, was foolishness to the Greeks (1 Cor. 1:23), and the Athenians were no different. Most of them sneered at the absurdity of such a thing. There idols were so firmly set in their own hearts that they were absolutely blind to the truth. But some were open to Paul’s message and wanted to hear more. A number of people in Athens did come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, including Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, who according to church tradition would later become the first church leader in Athens.

Paul had not only identified with both the Epicureans and Stoics but had also challenged them to the core of their beliefs. He had proven himself to be no mere babbler or one who scattered words around aimlessly. He had proclaimed to them the words of life, but the rest was up to them.


Devotional Thought
Paul was a particularly gifted thinker and preacher but what is most impressive here is that he was familiar with the beliefs of the people of his day and prepared to show them how the gospel both challenged their cherished beliefs and explained their unanswered questions. Do you make a serious effort to be just as prepared in our day as Paul was in his?

Acts 17:10-21

In Berea
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.

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 both Jews and 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 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.


Dig Deeper
Many years ago I, while I was coaching high school basketball, I was asked one summer to coach a basketball team consisting of all-stars from our entire conference. This collection of the very best players in our conference would eventually go and play in a summer tournament against the very best players in our entire state. As we began to practice and prepare, however, I was a little worried. We had very good teams in our conference but they tended to fall into two different camps as far as their style of play went. Most of the teams were very high-powered and fast-paced teams that like to run-and-gun (a basketball term that refers to playing a less-physical, faster style that seeks to score a lot of points). A few teams, though, including mine, tended towards a much slower and more physical type of game that relied less on physical talent and more on precision and doing things well. The higher scoring teams and their players had learned how to play each other and had to learn how to play those slow-down teams as well. In the same turn, the slower-paced teams had to learn how to play teams like themselves as well as the running teams.

My worry stemmed from the fact that I knew that when we went to the tournament that we were going to play in, most of the teams we would be playing had a style that none of our players had really faced before. These teams would be physical, precise, and well-coached but they would also move, set picks, and cut at a fast pass and be willing to score quickly. They would have elements of both of the styles that our players had learned to play but it was a hybrid and was, therefore, a completely new style from what they had played. If they were not ready for all of the quick-moving picks and cuts, they would get run off of the floor. If they couldn’t learn to go up against that style they would be dead in the water and not get very far in our upcoming test.

Up to this point, Paul and his merry band of missionaries had faced many challenges and had preached the Bible to both Jews and Gentiles alike. They preached the same gospel to everyone but they had learned to adapt to the audiences in such a way so that the presentation of the gospel would be effective. The result was that many Jews and even more Gentiles were streaming into the kingdom of God. But there was a different sort of test on the horizon. As they moved farther away from Jerusalem and deeper into the Greek and Roman dominated worlds, they were going to come up against the Greek philosophies that dominated the Greek worldview of both philosophers and everyday folk alike. This would be a different challenge for the gospel and if Paul and the other Christians weren’t up to it, the gospel would have a hard time appealing to the rest of the known world. If they couldn’t learn to go up against the philosophers they would be dead in the water and not get very far in a world dominated by Greek philosophy.

After a tough go of it in both Philippi and Thessalonica where Paul had to leave prematurely, at least according to his own wishes, his concerned brothers and sisters sent Paul to a town that was described in the ancient world as an out-of-the-way town. Presumably the hope was to keep Paul under the radar for a bit, but Paul seemed far more committed to his mission of spreading the gospel everywhere he went than he was in staying low-profile. So as soon as he arrived in Berea, he went straight for the synagogue, as he usually did, and began to announce the good news of the risen Messiah, the true king of the world.

No explanation is given as to why, but his reception by the Bereans went beyond anything Paul had experienced previously. As much as Paul and Luke loved the Thessalonicans, they considered the response of the Beareans even more noble. The Bereans that heard Paul preach included a high number of rather prominent and important men and women but what made them noble in Luke’s eyes was that they didn’t trust in their prominence. In fact, they humbly acknowledged that they were in need of hearing the word of God and to accept the truths found therein. They pushed aside their worldly position and humbled themselves to God’s word. They were so hesitant to follow human wisdom that they eagerly examined the Scriptures each day, accepting it as the arbiter of truth, to determine if Paul was merely teaching things that itching ears might want to hear or if the portrait of Jesus the Messiah that he was presenting truly came from the words of Scripture itself and Scripture alone. And they showed their eagerness not just in reading through the word of God but by meeting with Paul daily, not just on the Sabbath.

As encouraging and wonderful as that little respite must have been for Paul (and as a teacher of the Bible I know how refreshing it can be to come across people with such an appetite for God’s word and a humility to match), it was not to last long. The Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was in Bearea preaching again and now had their chance to perhaps go there and finish what they had failed to do in their own town which was to shut Paul up permanently.

Once again, though, the believers were able to spirit Paul away, although it must have anguished him to know that once again the Spirit was allowing him to be led away from a town before he wanted to go. This time he would leave Silas and Timothy to strengthen the church as they were evidently able to stay a little more under the radar than Paul was. Paul would move on and send for them as soon as possible, this time landing in Athens. Athens was not the same important city that it had once been, but it was still an important center of thought, philosophy, and pagan belief. It would be the site of a stiff but necessary challenge for Paul and the gospel.

As Paul arrived in Athens, it dismayed him that such a center of earthly wisdom was so full of idols but it couldn’t have shocked him. Mankind’s problem from the beginning of human history has been that we would rather exalt our own flawed wisdom over the truth of God’s wisdom. In so doing, we emphasize one aspect or another of the creation over the creator, an act of idolatry. So whether it is statues of pagan gods or the god of materialism and everything in between the wisdom of the world will always set itself up against God’s truth. Athens would confirm what Paul would later write to the Corinthians, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21)

Once again Paul went to the synagogue to preach but he quickly caught the attention of two of the big-boy-groups on the block, the Epicureans and the Stoics. The Epicureans believed that pleasure was the highest aim in life and the most worthwhile pleasure was a life of peace and tranquility free from pain, overriding desires, superstitious fears, and anxieties of life. They denied the involvement of any gods in the affairs of men to the point that they were almost functional atheists. The Stoics sought to live consistently with all of nature and believed in the supremacy of the rational human mind as well as being autonomous and self-sufficient. They were more or less pantheists who believed that God was in everything. Stoics held that quality of life was more important than life itself so they encouraged suicide to escape a life that could no longer be sustained with dignity. As influential as they were in their time, there is much to learn from Paul’s upcoming response to these groups since we still see many of their beliefs and philosophies scattered throughout our world today.

We don’t know precisely what these great thinkers and philosophers thought of Paul but we do know that they didn’t hold in very high esteem. They referred to him as a “seed-picker” (babbler), a term that meant he was of worthless character, a man who scattered scraps of worthless learning here and there. They charged him with being a preacher of foreign divinities, a charge that was laid against other teachers such as Socrates before being put to death. When he did begin to share his teaching with them, these supposedly learned men could not even grasp what he was saying. It’s difficult to detect in English but verse 18 seems to indicate that when Paul began preaching of Jesus and resurrection (using the Greek word “anastasis” for resurrection) that they misunderstood him and thought, at least at first, that he was speaking of some new gods named Jesus and his female consort Anastasis. They likely would have thought that he was teaching about some new gods of “healing” and “restoration”.

Finally they brought him for a full hearing before the Areopagus but it was likely to have fun and mock him more than it was to give him a fair hearing. They wanted to hear this “new” teaching but in the ancient world something that was “new” was generally looked down upon especially compared to ancient things. Luke’s somewhat rare aside in verse 21 takes on a highly sarcastic tone and indicates that the Athenians were going to listen to Paul for sheer amusement of hearing out these strange new teachings.

If they knew anything, they new that the babbling of a seed picker wouldn’t amount to much more than a fun morning. Surely whatever new religious beliefs this fool was going to share with them it surely wouldn’t stand up to their mighty intellects and their ability to shred apart second-rate philosophies. Paul was about to face one of his stiffest tests yet to see if he could appeal to this hostile crowd and open their ears and hearts, through the moving of the Holy Spirit, to the truth of the gospel.



Devotional Thought
Despite the fact that the Athenians were apparently mocking Paul and trying to have a little fun at his expense, Paul looked beyond the personal insult and saw an opportunity to share the gospel. Are there any personal insults or “unfair” situations that you need to wade through or overlook in order to share the gospel with someone today?

Acts 17:1-9

In Thessalonica
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 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.[a] 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 made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.




Dig Deeper
When I was about 17 years old I wanted to get a job. I tried out a few places here and there but I didn’t last long at any of them, mostly because I was lazy and didn’t want to work hard. Then my older sister started to tell me about the place where she was working. It sounded like a blast. Nearly everyday she would come home and tell me of all of the funny things that happened at work and the funny and cool people that she worked with there. I got to thinking after a while that this sounded just like my kind of place. I wanted to “work” someplace where I could have fun and laugh a lot and enjoy the people and not really have to actually work very much. The job was doing data entry on computers so it was basically typing on a computer and I figured how hard could that be. So I went and took a job there. But once I got there I found that my sister had left out some vital details. Some of the people there were fun but she had only talked about a handful of people out of dozens and dozens. There were a few funny moments but those were actually usually a few seconds or minutes scattered throughout an eight-hour day. Most of the time the work was grueling and monotonous. You couldn’t play around that much because each person was required to get a certain amount of data entered each hour. That meant hour after hour of quiet work. I had so totally misunderstood the nature of that job that, although in retrospect, it wasn’t a bad job for someone my age, I hated every minute I was there.

Throughout the book of Acts we have seen something that is highlighted in this passage. There are times of comfort and blessing that come with our life in Christ but if someone were to tell you only about those things or stress them as the main experience and point of being a Christian, then you would get a completely wrong view of what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus was and is the true king of the world and the Messiah. But that is only half of the story. Jesus was the kind of king that had to suffer in order to fulfill his true purpose. In the same way, Christians will find blessing and comfort in Christ, that much is true. But that is only half of the story.

As they continued through the region of Macedonia, reaching Thessalonica, Paul continued his normal pattern of using the local synagogue as his first stop. He would preach the gospel to the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles at the synagogue in hopes of forming a core group of disciples that would carry on the work of preaching the gospel and expanding God’s family in that region long after Paul left. When Paul first arrived in Thessalonica he specifically preached at the local synagogue for three Sabbaths before apparently moving on within the city itself. Surely Paul stayed there longer than just three weeks, though, as the book of Thessalonians makes clear that Paul worked in Thessolonica to support himself (1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:8) and also received aid several times from the church in Philippi while he was there (Phil. 4:16). That certainly implies a stay of longer than three weeks.

There is no doubt that Paul’s gospel announcement contained the same elements of preaching that he typically used wherever he went, but at this stop Luke emphasized the role and nature of the Messiah. Amongst Jews the early Christians tended to center on Jesus as the Messiah while they focused on Jesus as king among the Gentiles but both aspects of Jesus found a common problem in the suffering and death on the cross of Jesus Christ. A suffering ruler who died at the hands of his enemy didn’t sound like a very impressive Messiah or king. How could it be claimed that this man who came to suffer and die was now the king of the world? It was through the act of his resurrection from the dead. Paul declared in Romans 1:4 that through the resurrection Jesus was declared to the world to be the true son of God thereby making him both Messiah (Christ) and King (Lord).

In this role of suffering, though, was the real challenge of the gospel. It is what made it a stumbling block for the Jews and sheer foolishness for the Gentiles (1 Corinthians 1:23). Those who insisted upon a Messiah or king that lived up to the worldly expectations of power and might would never be able to embrace the truth of the Messiah. It wasn’t just that he unexpectedly suffered but pulled it out in the end by resurrecting. A careful look at the Old Testament Scriptures would demonstrate that Jesus had to suffer because that was always the kind of Messiah that God promised (see passages such as Ps. 2; 16; 22; 110; Isa. 53). It is not only vital that this aspect of Jesus is understood so that we will know him as he truly is but if we don’t understand Jesus’ role as the suffering servant then we will easily mistake ours.

Our world today is full of religious teachers (as was Paul’s) who are more than happy to tell you that God wants nothing but good things for your life because you’re one of his kids. All you have to do, we are told, is to have faith and the blessings will start rolling in. In fact, they’re already prepared for you even if you haven’t received them yet, you just to have to have faith. The problem is that this is so far from the full story and so incomplete that it can only rightly be called a false picture of Christianity. Christians are called to be God’s people that live by the values of the age to come, a time of completeness, sufficiency, and love for others. But to do that in an age of sin, darkness, and fallenness requires sacrifice. We live in an age where the people of the world live for their own best interests which creates large pockets of both surplus and lack, of both comfort and suffering.

The only way for God’s people to bring his economy of sufficiency into such a fallen world is to confront the selfishness and sacrifice for the poor and rejected. Thus, we are called to be people who, like our Messiah, willingly suffer for the benefit of others. We live by the values of the coming age and hope for that age and sacrifice for those that are suffering until that time comes. These are the thoughts echoed by Peter when he declared “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

Paul and Silas willingly suffered so that the gospel of the suffering Messiah might be brought to others and when they accepted it and believed, entering into his life, they were willingly taking on that road of purposeful hardship themselves. They were immediately immersed into this life as the Jews riled up some of the local riffraff to stir up trouble and persecute this young church. The young church was getting hammered from both sides. On one side, the Jews didn’t like their claims of Jesus as the Messiah and the fact that the Christians were quite successful in evangelizing the God-fearing Gentiles that had been worshipping at their synagogues (certainly it was appealing to hear that they could be full members of God’s family through faith in his life alone without all of the rigors of keeping the law and becoming Jewish through circumcision). On their other side, the Gentiles did not care for the claims of Jesus as the true king of the world. That sounded like a challenge to Caesar and would be dealt with harshly.

The mobs came to get rid of Paul and Silas but when they could not find them, they turned their wrath onto Jason, a new convert at who’s house Paul and Silas had evidently spent much of their time. It appears that Jason and the others were eventually let go under the condition that Paul and his companions had to move on. This is likely what Paul referred to when he wrote (most likely just a few weeks or months after leaving Thessalonica) “we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan blocked our way” (1 Thess. 2:17-18). Paul’s sufferings, you see, weren’t just from persecution of non-believers. His sacrifice for the benefit of others didn’t end when he left that town. As Paul described in 2 Corinthians 11:28-29: “I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?”

Paul would face the agony of leaving a young church on their own under the care and provision of the Holy Spirit. He trusted the Spirit certainly, but still felt a strong parental bond towards them and cared deeply for them. Paul knew, and he demonstrated in every area of his life and ministry, that being a Christian is not about getting your share of the blessings all of the time but putting the interests of Christ and others ahead of his own (Phil. 2:3-5; 20-21).


Devotional Thought
Do you truly live each day for the benefit of others, being fully willingly to suffer and sacrifice in small ways or larger ways for the interests of Christ and others? What will it take for you to get to a point in your heart where you are fully prepared to do that?

Acts 16:25-40

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”

37 But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”

38 The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. 39 They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. 40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.




Dig Deeper
Not too long ago I came back home after a long day and was incredibly hungry. My wife was gone for the evening so it was up to me to make supper for my boys and myself. I decided to do something quick and easy and make some pizza. I quickly scooped up all of the ingredients that are necessary for making a good pizza and put them on the counter. First, I grabbed the items that go into making a crust and got that ready because you cannot have pizza without crust. Then I made the sauce and put that on the crust. After that I threw on the cheese and pepperoni while all the while the oven was pre-heating. Once I was done I took the pizza over by the oven, turned on the timer, and then I quickly cleaned up the kitchen. After that I went into my room and sat down on my computer to get some quick work down before the pizza was ready. I didn’t pay too much attention to the time, I just waited for that timer because by now I was starving. After what seemed like forever without the timer ringing, I went into the kitchen to look. The timer had only about 30 seconds left on it, which excited me. That is until I looked to the counter next to the oven and realized that I had never put the pizza into the oven. I had prepared all of the ingredients for a pizza but left out a key component of making a pizza. I had never put it in the oven to cook. I was none too thrilled as I had to reset the timer and begin my wait all over again.

This may seem rather elementary but there are actually many elements that go into “making” a pizza. You generally need to have a crust, sauce, cheese, and toppings, and then you need to cook the pizza. If you leave out any of those elements, you come up with something quite different and it just doesn’t work.

One of the key elements in the narrative of the book of Acts is to watch people becoming saved and entering into the kingdom of God, the life of Christ, as the gospel is spread further and further into the world going out from Jerusalem. Although people being saved into God’s family is a key component of Acts, this book is a narrative and not a recipe book so there is no one passage that ever says “here are the exact ingredients that go into someone being saved.” That’s not the point of the narrative. If you read my above narrative which is extremely condensed, you will note that how to make a pizza is not the point of the narrative, but you can go back through and pick out the necessary and important elements. So it is with the book of Acts. If you pick through the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament you will be able to pull out the necessary elements of salvation into Christ although there is no such place that ever presents salvation in a formulaic fashion.

Let’s be clear, the analogy between the components of making pizza and the components of salvation is not a perfect one but there is one important point that comes from that analogy that we can apply to salvation. There are definitely different elements, or ingredients, when it comes to salvation in Christ. And just as you have a problem if you try to remove one aspect of making pizza, you have serious problems if you try to remove any of the important elements of salvation.

So what are the elements of salvation that we find in Acts and scattered throughout the New Testament? The first might seem painfully obvious but is important. We must first hear the message. Romans 10:17 says that “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” This leads into the next element which is faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6) and Mark 16:16 says that “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” But one must also repent in order to receive salvation. 2 Peter 3 and Acts 17:10 both say in effect that God wants everyone to come to repentance and Luke 13:5 says “unless you repent, you too will all perish.” One must also confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, a thought that is captured succinctly in Romans 10:9: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” All of this culminates in being baptized into Christ. His victory over death is the subject of the preaching that we hear; his life is the object of our faith; his kingdom is what we repent to; his rule is what we submit to at confession and it is into him that we are baptized. This is why Peter commanded to those who wanted to be saved that they repent and be baptized into his name (Acts 2:38), and to write that the ark and water of Noah “symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (meaning that it is not just a ceremonial and symbolic cleansing but the absolute culmination of our salvation as we enter into the resurrection life of Jesus Christ) (Pet. 3:20-21).

And yet it is very popular today to say that those other elements are necessary but not baptism. Surely that is just a symbol. Surely you don’t have to do that to be saved. You just need that at some point to be obedient. But that would be like claiming that I didn’t need to stick my pizza in the oven in order to complete it. All of the elements of salvation are necessary. At different times the Bible seems to say that one must hear in order to be saved; at other times that we must believe; at other times we must repent; at other times we must confess; and still others say that we must be baptized. If we can take out one element like baptism and make that unnecessary, then can we do the same with any of the other four? Could we not just as easily claim that they are symbolic acts that could be done later? Could we claim that repentance or true belief aren’t necessary up front as long as they come at some point the way some would do with baptism? Could I claim that “belief” isn’t dictated in every single salvation account and must, therefore, be an optional element? Of course not. If you remove one of the ingredients you have a real problem. With pizza, the results vary depending on which ingredient you leave out. With salvation, if you remove any of the ingredients or change them from what they are biblically declared to be then you have something different altogether. When salvation comes, it must come wholly with all of the elements in tact.

As we return to the text, we find that after their beating, Paul and Silas found themselves locked in an extremely uncomfortable jail and unable to sleep. So rather than being stuck in their present circumstances they rejoiced and sang to God. They found their life in Christ to be a greater reality than where they were physically at the moment. The Christian will constantly be called to put the interests of others ahead of their own and this is just one more example (Phil 2:3-5). Paul and Silas would certainly suffer in prison but it would being lasting benefit to the jailer and his household. That is simply the way of life that Christians have been called to as we seek to emulate the life of the one who laid down his life for others.

At that exact moment, a mighty earthquake struck that shook open all the doors and enabled their escape if they so chose. But they had a larger agenda that went beyond their own personal comfort. This earthquake was no coincidence but neither was it sent in order for them to escape. There was no angel there this time telling them to come out (Acts 12:7-10). This earthquake was apparently for their jailer, not for them. When he awoke to realize that all of the prisoners might have escaped he was ready to kill himself rather than wait for it to be done for him (Acts 12:19). When he coupled the spirit and singing of these men (and quite possible the preaching that we might presume they did when they first arrived) with the power of this event but with no attempt to escape, this man was ready. His response was to the point and full of humility. What did he need to do to be saved?

The response was a shorthand one that signified the whole process of salvation. He must believe in the Lord Jesus, an act that presupposes hearing the gospel and which demanded repentance, confession, and baptism into Christ’s life. Even though it might seem that belief is separated and emphasized here that would be a cursory and mistaken assumption. Actually all five elements of genuine salvation are on display in this passage even though they might not be overtly mentioned. First, we can assume that this jailer had listened to them and heard the gospel before the earthquake, otherwise he would have no context for asking to be saved. We are then told that Paul told him that he must believe that Jesus is Lord which would entail him declaring and confessing that. We are then told that he bound up their wounds. This harsh jailer’s repentance is tangible and immediate as he changes from persecutor to comforter. Then we are told that this all culminated in the saving baptism that confirms all of the other elements. And it wasn’t just the jailer. All of the members of his household were brought in to hear the message and they also believed, repented, confessed and were baptized. He further showed his salvation and repentance by having Paul and Silas immediately released.

At this point, we might have expected for Paul and Silas to count their blessings, appreciate that their suffering had brought salvation to many, and to be on their way quickly and quietly. But once again, it appears that they were putting the interests of others ahead of their own. They were both Roman citizens and to be beaten and treated the way that they were without a proper trial was illegal. We simply don’t know why they didn’t bring up the issue earlier but it may have been that they brought it up only when it would be of potential benefit to others. We can only speculate that the Spirit kept them from doing so in order for them to fulfill their mission within that prison. But if they went quietly without saying anything, how might future missionaries or Christians be treated in this region? No, it would be better for Paul and Silas to point out the injustice so that it would at least give pause to the Roman officials in the future.

Rather than feeling like they had run Paul and Silas out of town and would do the same to any more like them in the future, the Romans were troubled upon hearing that these men were actually Roman citizens and not just some random Jews whose rights needed no respecting. They didn’t need any of the trouble that this might bring if it got out so they went out to appease Paul and Silas and make sure that things were at least amicable between them. Their attitude would presumably be quite different towards future missionaries now that they had to at least consider that they might be Roman citizens.

Before leaving town, though, Paul and Silas had one more stop to once again put the interests of others first. They would return to Lydia’s house to encourage the brothers and sisters. Putting others first, after all, isn’t a part-time job. It is not something that Christians do but someone that we become.


Devotional Thought
How can you truly put the interests of those around you first today? It takes time and effort because if we don’t really think about we are likely to spend most of the day doing what is best for us.

Acts 16:11-24

Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi
11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district[a] of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

Paul and Silas in Prison
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
19 When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.



Dig Deeper
The state in which I live has gone through a tremendous amount of conflict and political intrigue in the last year. It all began, believe it or not, with a seemingly simple law from the new governor that public employees begin to contribute more to their retirement funds and health care plans due to the fact that the state was on the verge of financial insolvency. There have been cost-saving measures before both suggested and real but never had they received a response like this one got. The union leadership in our state went crazy and began to fight against these measures violently. They whipped their supporters into a frenzy and they basically took over the capitol building for weeks with coloful and rowdy protests. Politicians who supported them even spirited themselves out of the state and hid out so that the legislature could not be called into session to pass the bills.

What was intriguing about the fierce nature of the opposition was why it was so intense. Everyone agreed that the state was broke and something had to be done. Part of the proposal was that these unions would not be able to negotiate these areas in their contracts so that the cutbacks in state funding couldn’t just be averted in future contract negotiations. Many claimed that this was the problem, but most states and the federal employees don’t have these same negotiation rights so it would seem unlikely that this was the real cause. Slowly the real problem became apparent as to why the unions were so violently opposed to these seemingly common-sense measures. Part of the law proposed by the governor included the stipulation that employees could no longer be forced to be a part of a union at their workplace or have union dues taken from their paychecks automatically. They would have to choose to pay their dues and be part of their union. Now people can have different political opinions and that’s fine. In fact the point of this is not at all to be political. The reality here seemed to be, though, that the true cause of the violent opposition was that little stipulation which would all but wipe out the power of public sector unions. Whether you support them or oppose them, that was the real issue. If you mess with people’s money, you will get a fight but mess with their power and position and you will have a fight to the death on your hands.

As Paul and his companions went around ancient Asia, Turkey, and Greece preaching the gospel they knew that they were going to face opposition at nearly every turn but every now and then they would come directly into confrontation with the power source of a city or region. If you messed with that, the powers-that-be understood the danger to them and they would come out fighting fiercely. The punch-back can be brutal and Paul was about to experience that in a big way.

When they arrived in Philippi, things started out well. You couldn’t just go into most cities in the ancient world, especially Roman colonies like Philippi and walk up and down the street preaching whatever you wanted. That could be quite dangerous . Things would go much better to have some sort of place from which to preach, a base of operations so to speak. That’s at least one of the reasons that Paul would typically go to a synagogue in a city first and start preaching there. But Philippi apparently had no synagogue. There were so few Jews in Philippi that all Paul could find was a group of Jewish women who would gather together to pray regularly. Jews could not and would not start a synagogue without at least ten men, so these faithful women were doing the best that they could under the circumstances with what seems to have been a lack of the necessary number of men. So Paul found this place and began to preach to the women.

Special attention is paid to a woman who came from Thyatira in the region of Lydia which is likely why she was called Lydia. She was a merchant in purple cloth which meant that, to put it in today’s terms, you would not find her items at the local Wal-Mart. This was high end merchandise and it implies that Lydia was probably a rather wealthy and influential business woman, despite that fact that she was almost surely either unmarried or a widow.

Lydia was a God-fearer (worshipper of God) which meant that she was a Gentile that found something in the Jewish faith that went beyond the pagan religions with which she grew up. Yet she had not become a full-proselyte Jew. When Lydia heard the gospel preached she experienced an opening of her heart. Luke stressed the two-fold aspect of reconciling with God that is necessary for all who would hear his call. God must first open our blind eyes and soften our hardened hearts through his grace. This is what John Wesley referred to as prevenient grace. But God’s grace is not forced upon anyone, it is an opportunity. Given the opportunity, Lydia responded to God’s grace with obedience and humility by being baptized into the life and body of Christ (see Rom. 6:1-10; 1 Cor. 12:13).

Once she had been baptized into Christ, she was a believer and part of the family and now sought to help out her new brothers. They could use her house as a base of operations in Philippi. A new influential and important convert (in fact she was the first convert in Europe) and a place from which to work, things were starting to look up in Philippi. But the calm comes before the storm and the powers of darkness were about to amass rather quickly.

Just because they had a place to stay and work from though, did not mean that they would stop going to the prayer place, which was probably used by more than just Jews in the area. As they arrived they came upon a woman possessed by a spirit. The text is changed by most English versions to make it more accessible (in their estimation) to English readers, but the manuscripts actually read that this woman was possessed by the spirit of the Python. This meant that she was a follower of Apollo that engaged in oracles and fortune-telling. This woman was no scam artist. She was likely truly possessed by a demon spirit that gave her uncanny abilities.

Her response to Paul and his companions was reminiscent of the demonic response to Jesus who attempted to identify and name Jesus and his mission in an attempt to show superiority and dominance over him. This young woman began to follow them and scream at them. We can only imagine how annoying that would have quickly become, yet Luke doesn’t tell us why Paul let this go on for several days without any response. It is difficult to speculate but finally Paul became quite vexed and showed that this spirit did not have dominance over them at all. At the very mention of the authority of Jesus Christ, the spirit left and was gone. This woman had been healed and the situation fixed.

At least that would seem to us to be the logical conclusion to what happened. But this young slave girl had become quite a source of money, power, and prestige for her owners and Paul had unknowingly stepped into a hornet’s nest by messing with the economics and power of these people. Without the spirit of python in this girl, their position of power was under attack. But the dark demonic forces at work also knew the danger of the gospel taking foot in this town founded by retired Roman soldiers.

Paul and Silas were quickly going to bear the brunt of crossing the self-interests of the powers of darkness. They had not only threatened the economic and religious sensibilities of this deeply pagan Roman colony but there were also political undertones to all of this. How dare these Jews come in and tried to tell Romans what to do. Imagine a group of Jews declaring that they possessed some sort of freeing truth that Romans did not possess. How dare they.

They made the assumption that these were not Roman citizens and could treated as sub-standard interlopers but little did they know that Paul and Silas were both Roman citizens. Yet they did not bring this to light at this point. This is another mystery as to why they didn’t (although the reason might become more apparent in the next section) but things got ugly quickly and perhaps there was just no opportunity to do so. The magistrates ordered them stripped and beaten with rods, a punishment that was severe and swift.

One might ask at this point why Paul and Silas would endure such treatment but his answer to that mystery came in 1 Thessalonians 2:2-4: “We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.”

As if that wasn’t enough, they were then thrown in jail under the guard of a jailer who was under strict orders to ensure that they didn’t escape. This jailer quickly proved to be no friend of theirs as he chained them up which would have been very restrictive and kept them from lying down or moving much at all. The jailer seemed quite willing to treat them harshly and show them no mercy.

Paul and Silas had taken on the forces of darkness and had paid dearly. They had shared in the suffering of their Messiah and things seemed like they couldn’t get much worse but when the powers of evil are their most ferocious and things seem the bleakest, that’s when God often does his best work. Paul, Silas, and that jailer would all soon find that out.


Devotional Thought
When things in your life go badly as they did for Paul and Silas in Philippi where does your mindset go? Do you start to feel badly for yourself or do you get excited to see what God is about to do in your life?

Acts 16:1-10

Timothy Joins Paul and Silas
1 Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. 2 The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

Paul’s Vision of the Man of Macedonia
6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.



Dig Deeper
Coming out of college I was quite decidedly not a Christian and I wanted to be a teacher and historian for the rest of my life. Then my life changed fairly radically when I became a true disciple of Jesus Christ. I continued to be a teacher and coach for awhile but my priorities had changed and God’s kingdom had become the most important thing in my life with my roles as a teacher and coach simply becoming the context for me being a Christian and expanding the kingdom of God. My vocation as a teacher was no longer the most important thing in my life. Then I began to feel the call to go full-time into the work of the ministry and to leave teaching as my profession. This was a subtle calling, though, based on the input and advice of other people. Based on their opinions, I began to seek out God’s will through prayer and reflection and that seemed to also be guiding me towards going into the ministry. Yet at no time was it absolutely clear. It was a big decision to make, to leave what I thought I was going to do for my entire life to go a completely different direction. It would have been easy if the choice was obvious but it wasn’t. In fact, I had people tell me that they thought I should pursue God’s calling but wanted me to know that there were little to no actual ministry opportunities in our fellowship of churches where I was at and wouldn’t be in the foreseeable future. It’s one thing to walk across a bridge but it’s another thing to step out over a canyon on faith, hoping that a bridge will appear by the time your weight has shifted and your foot has stepped out into what looks like nothing but air.

Following the Spirit’s guidance and finding God’s will is a tricky thing. It’s not nearly as obvious as we would like. The reality is that the Spirit often leads us into blind alleys and demands a great deal of faith on our part. That’s what makes it so difficult to follow the leading of the Spirit. It’s generally not obvious. It can be, quite frankly, agonizing. We want to follow the Spirit or it wouldn’t be an issue at all, but how do we know this is the Spirit’s will and not ours? How do we know that this is not just us convincing ourselves to do something that we just really want to do? How do we know that we aren’t about to do something wildly foolish that wasn’t what God wanted at all? The questions to those answers don’t come easy but we can rest assured that our brothers and sisters in the book of Acts struggled with the same issues. They were constantly on the edge being led by a Spirit who seems far more dangerous than we would care to experience.

Luke doesn’t say specifically whether the decision to bring Timothy along with them on Paul’s missionary journey was a difficult one or not but it doesn’t take much speculation to know that it probably was a difficult decision. Paul had taken the young man John Mark with him before on a missionary journey and been burned badly when things got too difficult for Mark and he turned around went home. On top of that Paul had just went through a difficult disagreement and parting of the ways with his long-time friend and supporter Barnabas. Now he had chosen Silas, a man with whom he must have clearly connected on their trip from Jerusalem to Antioch and through the time that Silas stayed and ministered to Paul’s church in Antioch. Silas was a shortened term for his full name “Silvanus.” and he was almost assuredly the same man who co-authored 1 & 2 Thessalonians and was the scribe for 1 Peter (1 Pet. 5:12).

It seems that Silas would take the role left by the departure of Barnabas and now they were presumably taking Timothy to fill a similar role that Mark had filled on the previous journey. But it is unlikely that this decision was easy or obvious. Would Timothy do well on this demanding and difficult trek? Was he really the Spirit’s choice? Certainly Paul labored over his decision in prayer and sought the guidance of the Spirit. Then came that time when you have to step out in faith and act on the assurance that you have done your very best to seek the input of the Spirit and other believers.

There certainly would have been a fair amount of evidence for Paul to consider that Timothy was a reliable man of God, albeit very young, and that he was indeed the Spirit’s choice. Timothy had apparently been converted on Paul’s previous trip to this area (cf. 1 Cor. 4:17). His mother Eunice and grandmother Lois were both beloved Christians (2 Timothy 1:5) but his father was a Greek man who was not a Christian and was, it seems, dead by this time. Timothy, though a young man, was already being spoken well of by the Christians in his home area as he was already probably displaying the type of character that Paul described when he said of Timothy that “I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 2:20).

But once Paul had decided to take Timothy with him, there was one problem. He would have been considered an apostate Jew by other Jews because he was not circumcised. This could have proved to be a severe obstacle in his ministry trip with Paul so Paul encouraged him to go through the painful step of circumcision. Some see this, at least on the surface, as a contradiction for Paul who was so adamant that circumcision was not necessary for people to be part of God’s family. Paul was dead set against a Gentile like Titus having circumcision forced upon him (Gal. 2:3-5) and was crystal clear that it could not be required for believers who needed nothing more than the faith of being baptized in the life of Christ (Gal. 5:6; cf. Gal. 3:26-29). Ultimately, though, Paul was rather ambivalent about circumcision itself (Gal. 6:15; 1 Cor. 7:19). Paul was not against circumcision. He was against it as a requirement to be recognized as part of God’s family. But Paul was never one to hold blindly to simplistic consistency when a more sophisticated and mature line of thinking was required. He knew that general salvation and ministry have different requirements. There was no thought that Timothy needed circumcision to be in Christ but it was essential in order for him to be heard and accepted by the Jews in the places where they were going to share the gospel. What is not required for salvation can often be necessary for the spreading of the gospel (just as a degree in some sort of biblical studies program is not required to be a Christian but I have met many people who will not go to a church if the minister doesn’t have exactly that sort of training). This was one of those times.

Paul’s new missionary team began to travel around telling the other Gentile churches of the decision that had been made in Jerusalem, something that must have been a source of great joy for the believers everywhere, especially the Gentile believers. They evidently intended on continuing on into Asia to preach the gospel but, says Luke, the Holy Spirit not only kept them from going there but also deterred them from entering into Mysia to share the gospel as well although he doesn’t say why. Nor does Luke tell us what the nature of the Spirit’s guidance was here. It may have come through the means of prophecy, the inward guidance and resolve of the Spirit through prayer, or through external circumstances.

Paul’s journeys were a constant exercise in learning to follow the subtle guidance of the Holy Spirit and trust that they were doing the right thing. But is must have been very confusing and a great struggle to have plans to go into certain areas, only to become convinced that the Spirit was guiding them in another direction. Following the Spirit is easy when it’s obvious but it rarely ever is obvious, and we must assume that it was no easier for Paul and his companions than for us. So they prayed constantly and sought the Spirit’s guidance at every turn no matter how difficult and challenging his leading and prompting might be.

Just when they must have been wondering where in the world the Spirit did want them to go, Paul had a dream of a Macedonian man calling to him to come over to Macedonia and help. This would be a whole new area for the gospel to spread but it still must have been a difficult and challenging call for Paul. Was this dream the genuine prompting of the Spirit or was it just a dream? But these people needed help and Paul and his companions had the exact cure for that problem.

One other important thing apparently happened for Paul and his missionary team during their brief stay in Troas in addition to the dream. For the first time in the book of Acts the narrator switches from using the third person and begins to employ the term “we.” There several possibilities for this switch but the most likely and logical one is that Luke, the physician (Col. 4:14), joined the team in Troas. Although Luke is subtle and does not seek to bring any attention to himself, the team is now complete. Like an action movie that slowly assembles all of the pieces together before they move into the main part of the plot, Paul’s team is now set for the next part of their journey.


Devotional Thought
Do you ever find it difficult to find and follow the Spirit’s will in your life? What do you do in those times? How do you determine what the Spirit’s will is for you? Take some time to reflect and pray about that and ensure that your methods are biblical ones.

Acts 15:36-41

Disagreement Between Paul and Barnabas
36 Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” 37 Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, 38 but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. 39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. 41 He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.


Dig Deeper
As Christians we know that we are called to love and unity. We are called by Scripture to be of the same mind with one another. Does this mean, however, that we will never have conflict or disagreements with other brothers? Of course, reality and experience tell us that this will not be the case. But what should we think of such situations? How should we respond? We find some important lessons to be learned in response to those types of questions in one of the more stunning passages in all of the New Testament. At the end of Acts 15, two great brothers in the faith who had worked together faithfully for years coming into such sharp disagreement that they felt it necessary to part ways and split their ministry. Rather than just viewing this as a sad and unfortunate blight on the early church, we must realize that it was a very important time from which we can learn invaluable lessons that will guide us through some of our most difficult times today.

In Acts 15 we are told of a decision by Paul and Barnabas to go back through their previously traveled ground and strengthen the churches (Acts 15:36). Out of this decision, however, a sharp disagreement arose between these two dear brothers over what we today might call their ministry philosophy. Barnabas thought that it would be a good idea to bring Mark with them but Paul thought quite differently.

Mark was the son of a Christian woman named Mary (Acts 12:12) and the cousin of Barnabas (Col. 4:10). He had been with these two great men of the faith on a previous missionary journey but abandoned the mission in Pamphylia to return to Jerusalem for unstated reasons (Acts 13:13; 15:38).

The difference in opinion may seem like a small one to use standing on the far-off peak of a mountain separated by a valley of nearly 2,000 years, but the disagreement was sharp enough that it cause the two brothers with such a long history together (Barnabas had initially vouched for Paul and caused him to be accepted by wary and fearful Christians who thought Paul’s conversion might be a plot, and had invited him into the ministry in Antioch) to part ways and apparently never work closely together again.

One of the questions that we humans always seem to need to know in a disagreement of this nature is who was in the right and who was in the wrong. That is a particularly difficult question when it comes to this issue because this was not a case of doctrinal purity or heresy in the camp. It was a difference of opinion over which aspect of the Scriptures to emphasize in this particular case. The difficult aspect of this situation is that a case can be made that both men were in the right in one sense, a situation that often leads to the most intense disagreements.

When we look at Paul’s argument it seems to have been sound and logical. Mark had been with them and failed. We don’t know the details but it is safe to assume that it greatly affected Paul and it was probably rather damaging at the time to their mission. After all, no one who puts his hand to plow and starts looking back is fit for the kingdom, right? (Lk. 9:62). There is a great danger in putting trust into one who has proven himself to be unreliable (Prov. 25:19) and being faithful is an absolute requirement for ministry in the kingdom of God (1 Tim. 1:12; 1 Cor. 4:2).

Acts 15:40 seems to imply that the church, at least in some initial way, may have agreed with Paul. Paul and Silas were commended by the brothers as they left but no mention is made of Barnabas and Mark. It may have merely been decided, though, that Paul would continue on the official mission while Barnabas was breaking away from that and going to cover ground that was not on the initial itinerary but would still be beneficial and would enable more ground to be covered in the long run. It might also simply mean that despite Paul’s breaking away from Barnabas, Luke emphasizes that the church was not going to cut Paul off and would support his journey, while their support of Barnabas would go without saying.

But before we jump to Paul’s side in this, we should consider Proverbs 18:17 which reminds us that the first to present his case seems like the way to go until another comes along and presents his case. Let’s look at this from the perspective of Barnabas. We are not told specifically of Barnabas’ reasons but based on his previous actions they are not too difficult to presume. It is safe to say that Barnabas was not defending Mark’s actions but he wanted to give him a second chance. Past sin and failure do not determine the future potential for faithfulness although they do need to be taken into account. I would be willing to bet that Barnabas might have pointed to Jesus giving Peter and all of the apostles a second chance after their initial failures. I would also imagine that Barnabas would have mentioned the times when he believed in Paul and gave him chances when very few others were willing. The Christian principles of forgiveness and grace seem to have been at the forefront of Barnabas’ beliefs and actions.

So who is right? You may have already come down on one side or the other, but I don’t think it’s necessary here. The Bible doesn’t clearly take any sides and neither must we. This seems to be one of those cases where the issue was a disagreement in which scriptural principles to emphasize. It was an honest to goodness difference in ministerial philosophy. There seems to have been no sin involved. Despite this dispute and subsequent parting of the ways of two great heroes in the faith, God’s kingdom continued on stronger than ever and both men were used powerfully by God. It is through situations like this, however, that we can learn some very valuable lessons for our own difficult times where issues are so often much more complicated than we would like them to be.

We wish that we didn’t have disagreements among brothers but the reality is that there simply always will be in the present age. Two godly individuals can sharply disagree over the directions of their ministries or whether another brother is ready to be counted on in the ministry, or a nearly endless cavalcade of possibilities but that does not mean that either one is acting in an ungodly manner, even if one or both sides have made mistakes. The reality is that God does not give us answers to every single judgment call that we must make in this age. We will never be free of mistakes and sincere differences of opinions until we all arrive safely in the age to come. Until that time we must firmly bear with one another and “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). There can be differences of opinion and mistakes will be made. That is the reality of the Christian life that we share in together (Phil. 1:6). Many of these differences and even partings of the way will hurt and be painful. Our task, however difficult it may be, is to do what is necessary to keep the bonds of peace and unity through even mistakes.

As Christians we are always called to step forward in love even with those that have hurt us, cursed us, or acted as an enemy. If this is how we are to react to our true enemies, then how much more with our brothers, even when they hurt us or feel like an enemy, or make a rash judgment or offer a harsh word? In fact, when someone most feels like my enemy or has hurt me the most, it is then and to them that I am called by Christ to step forward and show love. Not because I feel like it, but because that is who he is transforming me to be.

There is absolutely no indication or even hint that these two men thought any less of one another although this was surely an emotional time and situation. This was a rupture in their relationship and their ministry. It certainly hurt and could have caused hard feelings but later on we find Paul urging for support for Barnabas in his ministry (1 Cor. 9:6). That verse clearly demonstrates that Paul continued to love, value, and support Barnabas. Just because they could no longer work together did not mean that they did not love one another. Surely Paul and Barnabas made “every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

Although Paul certainly called for Christians to be of one mind in living out the life of Christ and urged that there be no divisions among believers (1 Cor. 1:10-12), that does not mean that there won’t be differences of opinion. It is possible to have differences that even lead to partings of the way without it rupturing the unity and brotherhood of believers. The unity of the family of God must be of higher priority than my opinion or even my brother’s mistakes. That is the Christian life that we all signed up for.

It is significant to note that neither brother is clearly commended or condemned in this parting of the ways. The Bible does not take sides in this issue and we don’t need to either in every situation. That does not mean that we overlook issues or don’t engage in them or help our brothers. It is quite possible, however, to engage in a situation and offer godly input and counsel without taking sides. We can see the right and wrong in both sides of the argument without splitting into different camps. Splitting into different camps is the worldly response to differences of opinion. Commitment to love and unity despite differences and hurt is how the followers of Jesus are to respond.

The separation of Paul and Barnabas might have seemed like a great victory for Satan but that was not the case. Even when we make mistakes, even stupid ones, we must always remember that God is far more powerful than I am stupid. God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28). That means that if we are all committed to loving God and following him, God can and will work even through our failures and mistakes. We might have disagreements but if we remain righteous even through hard times, God will work powerfully.

In the case of Paul and Barnabas, God took one team of church strengtheners and turned it into two. He doubled the ground that they could cover. It also gave a ministry opportunity to Mark and Silas that might not have been there otherwise. Because of this, more work could be done, more people could engage in the work of the kingdom, and the gospel could be furthered.

It is also true that this disagreement may have been a real struggle and trial for all of those involved, but God uses such situations to teach us strength, perseverance, and to make us complete (Jm. 1:3-4). Even though mistakes may have been made, they could learn from them. Mistakes only become failures when we fail to learn. When we learn from mistakes they become opportunities. For instance, Barnabas may have learned through this disagreement to be more watchful and demanding of Mark which may have had a large hand in the growth that he experienced. Paul may have learned to be more on the look out to be patient and sensitive as he was later in his ministry when it came to the issue between Philemon and Onesimus.

We have shortcomings and we will all fail. The brutal reality is that we all probably have both planks and splinters in our own eyes all of the time. We can play the blame game or we can be active in our unity, brotherhood, forgiveness, growth, and commitment to God’s family. Paul was certainly committed to his decision at the time and it may have worked out for the good, but it is true that he would later change his opinion of Mark. Their disagreement did not cloud his judgment in the future of Mark or their commitment to one another as brothers. He would later call Mark useful and asked that he be brought to help him (1 Tim. 4:11). This must have been very comforting and encouraging for both Mark and Barnabas and a great reminder that they were still brothers in Christ despite their past differences. We will have differences and we will hurt one another; that’s a promise. When the Scriptures call for Christians to bear with one another and forgive one another it is an implicit promise that we will hurt one another. Our love for Christ and our brotherly love can and must triumph.

The mere fact that Luke recorded this sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas shows that the church was not ashamed of it. It was a reality and important lessons could be learned. In the same way, we need not be ashamed of differences of opinion or disagreements as though they are all signs of weakness, sin, or disunity. They only become such things when we fail to learn lessons from these times or we fail to put the unity of brotherhood above our own opinion, feelings, and emotions. These are not times to be glossed over and covered up but are times to be openly discussed and learned from in the proper venues for those who are mature enough in their faith to handle such matters.



Devotional Thought
Paul and Barnabas clearly came into conflict but it is also clear that they were both sincerely attempting to put the interests of Christ first. Could you say the same about your relationships and even your conflicts that you come into?

Acts 15:22-35

22 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers. 23 With them they sent the following letter:
The apostles and elders, your brothers,

To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:

Greetings.

24 We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25 So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.

Farewell.

30 So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31 The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. 32 Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers. 33 After spending some time there, they were sent off by the believers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them. [34] [d] 35 But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.


Dig Deeper
Teachers and schools are notorious for giving their students long lists of rules that they have to follow. Some classrooms and schools have long lists of rules that each student must remember and follow each day while at school. I suppose that rules serve a purpose at times and can be quite helpful but there is also a downside to rules. Students who learn only to follow rules rarely learn how to actually think and discern through situations themselves. They will be quite prone to looking for loopholes in the rules and when they find themselves in situations outside of the prescribed rules they are generally at quite a loss. Rules tend to serve the purpose of conforming behavior and controlling people in the immediate moment. Rules are good controllers and conformers, but they are bad trainers and transformers. People who just learn to follow rules, you see, don’t usually mature and progress past those rules. They learn to follow those rules and that’s it. But they don’t learn how to think and live rightly regardless of the situation.

That’s why when I was a teacher I always had but one rule: You must show respect at all times for everyone else in this room. When you think about it that’s not much of a rule. That’s certainly not a rule that you can follow mindlessly. It is actually a guideline more than a rule. Guidelines are far more demanding than rules because they offer some general principles and then demand the one following them to really stop and think and learn from each situation. When different scenarios come up you must care enough about following the guideline and hold it as an important conviction to do the work of thinking through what it means to follow this guideline in this situation. As one does that more and more they grow and learn and mature. Rules teach you how to follow. Guidelines teach you how to think Surely if you give someone a rule you teach them how to act for a day but if you teach them to think through guidelines you teach them how to live for a lifetime.

This is exactly the kind of people that God has always promised that he would have: a thinking people. This is precisely what the prophet Jeremiah spoke of when he declared that “’The days are coming’, declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them’, declares the LORD. ‘This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time’, declares the LORD. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest’, declares the LORD. ‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more’” (Jer. 31:31-34). The point was that in the new covenant God would have a people that wouldn’t be just a bunch of followers of rules who would have to go and tell one another the rules and admonish one another to follow them. He would have a people who had chosen to be his people and in whom he had placed his own transforming Spirit. These people would know the Lord through intimacy and experience and would learn to think there way through situations.

It is for this very reason that the New Testament has precious few examples of actual rules. Instead we find mostly guidelines, principles, and suggestions which forced God’s people to think, to love, and to work out what it meant to be devoted to God and live together with other believers as his family. As the early church began to take on the difficult task of being the unified family that Jesus had called them to be, we find at the most difficult moments like these, that the directions given were not rules but were all about teaching the church how to think through the ongoing task of loving one another.

As the Council in Jerusalem convened, they knew that getting word back to the other churches was vital, especially to the center of the Gentile mission, the church in Antioch. But they also knew that if they simply sent Paul and Barnabas back to carry the decision of the leaders in Jerusalem that it could put them in an awkward situation which would leave them open to questions of whether they had faithfully communicated what had really been decided. To ensure that something like that didn’t happen, the brothers chose Judas and Silas, who were already well-respected brothers, to represent the church in Jerusalem and carry out this momentous decision to the larger Christian family.

There was obviously much confusion as men had come not that along ago and created havoc in Antioch by taking it upon themselves to drive a wedge between Jewish and Gentile table fellowship amongst the brothers. They had evidently either believed that they had some measure of authority from James and the Jerusalem church to do this or attempted to give the impression that they did. But the letter makes it clear from the beginning that these conservatives had stepped beyond their rightful authority. They were not speaking on behalf of James and the church in Jerusalem (a fact of which Paul was quite probably unaware when he wrote the letter to the Galatians but a matter which was now cleared up once-for-all).

The opening of the letter gives a further clue as to where it is heading when it says that they chose some men to verify the truth of the letter and to accompany their dear friends or more literally the “beloved” Barnabas and Paul. That must have put the brothers and sisters in Antioch at ease right away and allowed them a big sigh of relief. Paul and Barnabas were beloved Christians who were not leading them astray but guiding them into the truth of God’s family in the Messiah.

What is not certain is whether Luke has given us a word-by-word rendering of the original letter or an abridged version but he does include a phrase that has always been one of my favorites. The letter says that what they decided upon “seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” Christianity is a life that is the constant struggles of people of all different types learning to live together as one family. That simply cannot be defined by rules. But that also means the challenge of listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, working together to find solutions to thorny issues for which there is no rule or easy answer, and then making a decision as best you can. The council made no attempt to present themselves as infallible or even that they had the incontrovertibly correct answer. They were simply doing the best they could and making decisions based on what seemed right to them as they attempted to discern God’s will through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

As we saw in the previous passage, the agreement contained three specific areas in which they were asking Gentile Christians to be especially observant as they sought to live the holy lives of God’s family and avoid anything that might needlessly offend their Jewish Christian brothers and even non-Christian Jews with whom they might be living closely. There is much in the way of freedoms in Christ but where freedom and unity clashed, unity should always win. That is why Paul declared in his letter to the Galatians that they should “not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal. 5:13-14). All three categories discussed by Paul had to do with the way that Gentiles normally lived (the prohibition on sexual immorality probably referred more to aberrant marriage practices that were abhorrent to Jews) and as 1 Corinthians 6-10 demonstrates these weren’t simple straightforward rules. To carry out even these simple suggestions would take love, wisdom, discernment, and of course, the guidance of the Holy Spirit. These three guidelines are not comprehensive Leviticus-style rules. They are guidelines that would involve a great deal of thinking and love for one another.

The letter was obviously encouraging to the church in Antioch and Gentile believers around the world. God’s promise of having one family of all nations had overcome a stiff early challenge and would take a little time to enjoy the gifts that God had given to one another as Judas and Silas stayed for a bit to encourage the believers in Antioch.

There are two other important things that shouldn’t be missed with the sending out of this letter. The first was that the issue of the family of God as far as it concerned Gentiles being recognized was settled. The conservatives had lost and it had been recognized once-and-for-all that the Gentiles would need nothing more than entering into Christ to be part of God’s family. It would still take a long time to work out all of the details of how to do that on a day-to-day basis but the important part was now decided. The other thing to note is that the Jerusalem church calls the Gentiles to live lovingly towards their brothers but never binds these as rules. They would “do well” to follow them and of course if they really loved God and his family then they would have no problem with these things but it never binds these things as rules. It was about the heart and not rules. They were learning to live for a lifetime not for a day.


Devotional Thought
Do you really embrace the hard work of thinking through and living out the call for Christians to love one another and put the interests of others ahead of our own or do you tend to seek the easy way out by falling back on fulfilling the obligations of a few things that you have turned into rules? For instance, do you have time with God every morning or meet with other believers because you have truly thought through the implications of what those things mean to do or not do or do you just muddle through them as an obligation? Take some time today to truly think about what you do and why you do it.