Acts 17:16-34

 Acts 17:16-34

Paul is alone in Athens and is provoked in his spirit by the sight of all the idols. As he went about the city, everywhere he looked, he saw idols to the false gods. There were demonic powers behind the idols that controlled Athens, its people, and its influence in the Greco-Roman world. Paul was provoked in spirit at the site. The word “provoke” is an uncommon compound word. The first word is “alongside”; the second word is “sharpen.”. The picture of the word is to jab or stab someone in his or her side. This has a profoundly disturbing effect on a person. Consider the contrast between Paul and us. How often do we look at the degrading circumstances of man, reflected by society and have no emotion whatsoever? There is a tidal wave of the slavery to sin all about us, and we are not stabbed in the side by it. We have a blind spot so that certain sins do not bother us in any way. There are some for whom no sin bothers.

More than being affected by the manifestation of sin, by the apparent action or life, are we concerned for the person who is the slave to sin? Do we look at the idolatry of greed, or gluttony, or pride, or sensuality in a world and feel the stab in the side? We all have our list of vices that we will rail against, but we also have a much longer list of sins that we can easily ignore and some we even coddle. We may harangue against a person who is a drunk and make a hero of the arrogant, self-absorbed celebrity. We hold in derision the flamboyant homosexual while at the same time exulting the false teacher that would pervert the gospel into a money making Ponzi scheme.

There is no evidence that Paul was provoked by some idols and not by others. Rather, Paul was stabbed in the side by any and everything enslaving men to sin and robbing them of the life of the resurrection that is Jesus Christ. By God’s help may we have a conscience and a holiness that is provoked by anything that would keep anyone from their Creator. May we in that stabbing find the prompting to lead men to Christ.

“Lord, break my heart for what breaks Yours.  AMEN”

Acts 17:1-15

 Acts 17:1-15

“But the Jews became jealous…” This is a too-often-repeated theme and occurrence in the history of the church. The word “jealous” is also translated as envy. More often than can be imagined, churches’ power players have driven out leaders who pose a threat to their power and control because they are envious. We often define this as a power play or a power struggle. Whatever we call it, the foundational issue remains the same; when a core group fears losing power, they attack the one who has emerged as a new leader. The pattern continues as we see the old guard dredging up protesters. The term translated “wicked men of the marketplace” is hard to translate from Greek to English. The best idea is to think of shiftless rabble that makes a living protesting for hire. 

The accusation brought against the Christians is that “these men who upset the world” could hardly ever be made of the American church. In many cases, the description of the church today would be “these men who have been compromised by and are just like the world.”.

In Berea we find a rare and striking occurrence: they were “examining the Scriptures daily.”. Two things should be noted: first, the Bereans did not take someone else’s word for their faith. The “apostles teaching” was put to the test of Scripture. How often will people listen to teachers without so much as cracking open a Bible? Silly, stupid, foolish, and even heretical things are said, and believers never use their Bible to verify or challenge what is said. There is a curse on all false teachers, but those who are unwilling to see for themselves are not excused or exempt from judgment. Second, they studied daily. It was not that they read a few verses daily and studied once a week. Reading a passage is not enough, but we need to meditate and delve into it, and this cannot happen with a cursory reading. Reading the Bible as a narrative story has value, but the Word of God is something that we need to study deeply.

“Lord, give me an attitude and hunger like the Bereans.  AMEN”