Paul’s conclusion was that idolatry, therefore, is illogical. If God created people, God cannot be an image or an idol. Paul was claiming that God’s divine nature is essentially spiritual rather than material. read more
Before Jesus Christ came, God did not view people as being as guilty as He does now that Christ has come. They were guilty of failing to respond to former revelation, but now they are more guilty in view of the greater revelation that Jesus Christ brought at His incarnation (cf. Hebrews 1:1-2). God overlooked the times of ignorance (i.e., when people had only limited cf. Revelation 3:17; Revelation 14:16; Romans 3:25; 2 Peter 3:9) in a relative sense only. Before the Incarnation people died as... read more
The true knowledge of God leads to (encourages) repentance because it contains information about coming judgment. Paul concluded his speech by clarifying His hearers’ responsibility."He has presented God as the Creator in His past work. He shows God as the Redeemer in His present work. Now he shows God as the Judge in His future work." [Note: McGee, 4:591.] Wiersbe outlined Paul’s speech as presenting the greatness of God: He is Creator (Acts 17:24); the goodness of God: He is Provider (Acts... read more
Second Missionary Journey (continued)1-15. Thessalonica and Berœa.1. Amphipolis] 32 m. W. of Philippi.Apollonia] 30 m. W. of Amphipolis.Thessalonica] now Salonika, was the capital of the province of Macedonia, and an important commercial centre. St. Paul’s plan was first to evangelise the seats of government and the trade centres, knowing that if Christianity was once established in these places it would spread through the Empire. 3. Christ] RV ’the Christ,’ i.e. the Messiah. 4. Devout Greeks]... read more
(29) Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God.—One consequence from the thought of son-ship is pressed home at once. If we are God’s offspring our conception of Him should mount upward from what is highest in ourselves, from our moral and spiritual nature, instead of passing downward to that which, being the creature of our hands, is below us. Substantially asserting the same truth, the tone of St. Paul in speaking of idolatry is very different from that which we find in the older prophets... read more
(30) And the times of this ignorance God winked at.—Better, perhaps, overlooked, the English phrase, though vivid, being somewhat too familiar, and suggesting; strictly taken, not merely tolerance, but connivance and concurrence. The thought is one in which St. Paul manifestly found comfort. He sees in that ignorance a mitigation of the guilt, and therefore of the punishment due to the heathen world. The past history of the world had shown a prætermission of the sins, for which, on the... read more
(31) Because he hath appointed a day.—Here the speaker would seem, to both sets of hearers, to be falling back into popular superstition. Minos and Rhadamanthus, and Tartarus and the Elysian Fields,—these they had learnt to dismiss, as belonging to the childhood of the individual and of mankind,—“Esse aliquid Manes et subterranea regnaVix pueri credunt.”. . . .[“Talk of our souls and realms beyond the grave,The very boys will laugh and say you rave.”]—Juvenal, Sat. ii. 149.The Epicurean... read more
Acts 17:6-7 Trust is the postulate of the capacity to help ourselves in any great or noble work. It becomes impossible to do our part bravely without this perfect reliance on the co-operation of God.... No man will dare to follow a gleam of conviction which tends to overturn a world, unless he is sure that he is the interpreter of a Power who gave him that conviction, and who can guard it after his interpreter is gone. R. H. Hutton, Theological Essays, p. 13. References. XVII. 9. Expositor... read more
CHAPTER 17 1. The Gospel in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9 ). 2. The Gospel in Beroea (Acts 17:10-14 ). 3. Paul in Athens (Acts 17:15-34 ). Three cities in which the Gospel is next preached are before us in this chapter. But there is a marked difference between these three places. In Thessalonica there was much hostility, the result of the success of the Gospel. In Beroea a more noble class of Jews were found. Their nobility consisted in submission to the Scriptures, the oracles of God, and in... read more
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Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Acts 17:22-31
Paul’s sermon to the Athenians 17:22-31Luke probably recorded Paul’s address (Acts 17:22-31) as a sample of his preaching to intellectual pagans (cf. Acts 13:16-41; Acts 14:15-18; Acts 20:18-35). [Note: See Dean W. Zweck, "The Areopagus Speech of Acts 17," Lutheran Theological Journal 21:3 (December 1987):11-22. See also Witherington, p. 518, for a rhetorical analysis of this speech.] In this speech Paul began with God as Creator and brought his hearers to God as Judge. read more