Paul has made it to Macadonia in response to the vision of the man pleading for help.

Just as in Paul’s previous missionary journey, if there’s a synagogue in town, he goes there and tells his Jewish countrymen the Messiah has come done all the things that the prophets foretold. And His name is Jesus. And as usual, Paul gets a couple of different responses:

• Some believe
• The rest want him dead (or at least gone out of town)

We don’t learn anything about the two stops after leaving Lydia’s house at Philippi. But at Thessalonica things get interesting.

I was invited to teach and lead worship at a youth camp in Macedonia some years ago. It was quite stressful getting there and coming back (alone!) – “sleeping” on a cold concrete floor in an airport just outside of London… do not recommend – but the experience once I got there was incredible. And I miss the gelato.

While driving by in the city below we could see, way up on the mountain, Macedonia’s 217ft (66m) Millennium Cross. It was built in 2002 to commemorate 2000 years of Christianity in Macedonia. It is one of the tallest crosses on earth.

I think Paul would be pleased.

Something else I saw while riding with my friends was a road sign that took me by surprise.

That’s when it hits you these places are real. And people still live there.

Thessaloniki is in modern Greece but it’s not far from Macedonia.

Paul goes there and begins to proclaim and explain the Gospel from the scriptures. Some believe – both Jews and Greeks. One of them was a Greek man named Jason.

🤓 Like, Jason and the Argonauts who went to find the golden fleece?

Not that particular Jason, but probably named after him.

Jason invited Paul and the team into his home. And there’s this scene kind of reminiscent of Lot in Sodom. The Jews who had rejected the Gospel gathered up a bunch of wicked men from town. They surrounded the house and beat on the doors and demanded the strangers be brought out.

We don’t know where Paul and the guys hid, but it was a good hiding place. The townspeople couldn’t find them but they hauled Jason and a few of the other new believers down to the city council. Jason pays bail and they are released. Paul and the team come out of hiding that night and sneak off to Berea.

🤓 They had to be sneaky in Thessaloniki.

😆

“And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.” Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭17‬:‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The Bereans were open-minded but did their own study to verify.

Be a Berean.

It was all going great until the mean Thessalonians showed up to make trouble. Paul and the team pulled a bit of trick I think. Paul is sent away by ship to Athens. Luke probably accompanied him. I wonder if they may have made a big show of it to make it appear that they’re leaving and it’s all over. I imagine something like this:

⛵️💼💼

🧔🏽‍♂️ Paul: (loudly to Luke) We’re leaving now. We will never see this place again. Too bad we couldn’t stay longer. Time to cast off. This is it. Oh dear. What a sad day. (waves to the smiling Bereans and the scowling Judaizers on shore)

🧔🏻 Luke: (Sees Timothy peeking around a house. Grins broadly.)

Silas and Timothy discreetly stayed behind to continue teaching the new believers.

ATHENS

Areopagus means “Hill of Ares” (Mars Hill). In Greek Mythology, this was the location where Ares (the god of war) was put on trial before the Olympian gods for murdering the son of Poseidon. In the “golden age” of Greece it was the location of their Supreme Court, the Areopagus Council. In fact, the Supreme Court of modern Greece is called the Arios Pagos. They tried only the most serious cases. The counsel and philosophers met regularly to debate philosophical ideas, theology, and worldview even if there wasn’t a specific case to judge.

Paul starts off, as usual, in the local synagogue. He debates the rabbis on his claims of the Gospel. And he also starts having public discussions with the local philosophers. It’s ancient Greece. They are literally on every street corner.

The fact that Paul gets “taken” to the council to explain “this new doctrine” that he is teaching is telling. The men of Areopagus were the gatekeepers of philosophical and spiritual ideas in the city.

Paul is asked to explain and defend his claims before the highest court in the land. And he does so. Brilliantly.

First, he establishes which God of all their gods he’s talking about – the unknown One, the Creator, the “Lord of heaven and earth.”

Then he describes the relationship of mankind to this God:

• Mankind is created by Him and in His image, this God gives us life
• This God has determined where and when each nation lives, it’s not chance or “fate”
• Humans are in the dark, searching for Him though He isn’t actually far away

Based on these facts, why would anyone continue to worship idols made by men? It might’ve been understandable when men had no idea who the Creator was, but now the Creator has revealed Himself and set an appointment with mankind for judgment. And the proof of this is the resurrected Jesus.

And that was the line that did it.

Instead of the two typical responses Paul has gotten from the Jews, he gets 3 responses from the Greeks:

• Some believe
• Some reject it as a silly religion for unsophisticated, backward people
• Some neither believe nor reject, they want more conversation

Modern Americans are the philosophical descendants of the ancient Greeks. And those are the 3 typical responses to the Gospel today.