Acts 17 -- Sometimes We Think Too Much For Our Own Good

The Jews sure went to a lot of trouble trying to stop the Gospel.  In Thessalonica, they put together a mob from people at the market and started a riot with them, blaming it on the Christians!  When Paul moved on to Berea, they traveled there and did the same.  Finally Paul had to go to Athens alone while things cooled down.  Athens was a has-been city long past its prime by then.  It had been a center of philosophy that had so glorified man’s intellect that by the time Paul arrived, all they could find to talk about was whatever was new.  Like many in academia, they were puffed up and prideful and liked to hear themselves talk. 

 

Not wanting to miss anything or be told they were wrong, they’d even erected a monument to “the unknown god”, and when Paul found that monument, he knew he had the hook he needed.

 

One thing Paul spoke about clashed soundly with their beliefs – resurrection.  They had come to decide that the body was just a prison for the mind, and the sooner they could shed it, the better.  So then why would anyone want to be resurrected into that prison again?

 

Paul cast down a moral gauntlet as he finished and they’d have to decide:  “But now, God tells all the people in the world to change their hearts and lives.  God has set a day that He will judge all the world with fairness, by the man He chose long ago.  And God has proved this to everyone by raising that man from the dead.”

 

If they believed God was about to judge, then they had to make a choice.  If they didn’t believe, they’d unfortunately already made that choice.

 

Father, our minds cause us to think we know much more than we really do, and our pride stokes that vanity.  I fell into that trap for a long time.  I don’t want it back.  Please open closed hearts and minds tomorrow night.  Bowl them over with Your logic and not their own.  Start something big here, Father!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford