They went through Amphipolis, Apollonia, and came to Thessolonica. Paul reasoned 3 sabbaths (Saturdays) at the synagogue, proving from the Scriptures that Christ had to suffer and rise. Some were persuaded, also a great many Greeks and some leading women. The Jews were jealous. They blamed Jason for receiving the apostles, “they are all acting like the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” The brothers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. They examined the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul and Silas were saying was so. Many believed. They sent Paul off, but Silas and Timothy stayed. Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews, in the marketplace everyday. He was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. The Epicurean, Stoic philosophers, and others took him to the Areopagus. The Athenians and foreigners would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. Paul stood up and preached that they worship what is unknown, and he’s making it known. The God who made the world and everything in it doesn’t live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as if He needed anything. God is not far from each one of us. Being God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. God commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Some mocked, some believed – Dionysius and a woman named Damaris and others.
God is commands all people everywhere to repent in light of the coming judgment of God, which Jesus’ resurrection proves. Do we still have the compulsion of Paul to preach the gospel to our unbelieving friends and family. People were making fun of Paul, but he carried on, because he knew it glorified and honored God. Let’s ask God to make us bold, but also let’s ask God to give us fellow believers whom we can send to make Christ known.