Acts 15:40–18:22

Barnabas then goes his way; that was his will. Paul chooses Silas, and the brothers commend him to the grace of God — a second ordination, if ordination were the question, but it is quite another thing.

I have no objection to laying hands on someone in this way. It claims to give neither gift nor authority, but is a simple commendation to the grace of God — and it seems this could be done again (Acts 15:40).

Paul, on the other hand, received once more — and Silas with him — that mark of united recommendation to the grace of the Lord. He and Barnabas had the same mark when they were first sent out from Antioch to the Gentiles.

The record says nothing of the kind about Barnabas now; an ominous silence prevails.

Another point worth noticing is this. Ministry rests on the faith of the individual. Yet that does not stop a man of greater discernment from choosing someone else as his companion in the work. The Lord Himself sent His servants out two by two ahead of Him — both the twelve apostles and the seventy. Such a choice is scriptural. An assembly electing a minister of the word is something Scripture knows nothing about.

Barnabas may have been as wrong in taking Mark as Paul was right in choosing Silas. But the principle is clear. Choosing a fellow worker calls for spiritual judgment. Being forced to work with someone we do not think able or suitable is not according to the Lord's mind.

Sadly, in this matter Barnabas thought more of his relative than of his Master. He mistook mere kindness for grace. He brushed aside Paul's wise and holy warning. From then on, he and his work drop out of sight in the divine record that tells the story.

It is possible that the flesh showed itself in Paul as well. In any case he could not boast of being in the right… The separation was necessary, and God had worked that out in him. Still, the sharpness was not needed. At bottom Paul was right, and the hand of God was with him. Even when the purpose of the heart is right, the flesh can show itself very quickly.

It is a comfort to think that in the end grace blessed Paul's faithfulness, not the weak compromise of Barnabas. Years later the Spirit led Paul to write warmly in Mark's favour (Col. 4:10-11, Philemon 24, 2 Tim. 4:11): a joy at the end greater than the sorrow of the earlier days.

I have little doubt that the believers in general judged this, and judged it spiritually. Paul was in the right, and Barnabas therefore wrong. The apostle chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of God. The record says nothing of the kind about Barnabas and John. Not that one would doubt for a moment that Barnabas went on being blessed by God. And as for John Mark, we are plainly told of his ability in the ministry at a later day. Paul later shows his respect and love for Barnabas in an inspired letter (1 Corinthians 9), and he gives Mark the most honourable mention in more than one of his later letters (Colossians 4 and 2 Timothy 4). How good of the Lord to let us see the triumph of His grace in the end!

Paul chooses Silas, and the believers commend him to the grace of God. That would be a second ordination, if ordination were the question here — but it is quite another thing. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. Notice here that churches had formed in many places where the apostle had never been, as he found the first time he passed through the island of Cyprus.

Here is another point worth noting. Ministry comes from individual faith. Even so, that does not stop someone with better discernment from choosing another as a companion in work. The Lord Himself had sent out His servants two by two ahead of Him — both the twelve apostles and the seventy. Such a choice is scriptural. The word knows nothing of an assembly electing a minister of the word.

"Through Syria and Cilicia confirming the churches" shows how the work in those provinces must have spread. Churches there were. Disciples were not limited to Antioch in the first province and to Tarsus in the second.

Paul and Barnabas went to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples and urging them to continue in the faith. Judas and Silas were messengers from Jerusalem to Antioch. Being prophets, they encouraged the believers with many words and confirmed them. Again Paul and Silas went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. Acts 14:22; Acts 15:32, 41. Those passages, with Acts 18:23, where the word appears as "strengthen," are the only places where the Greek word episterizo occurs. (There is no idea of any ceremony, like what is now called "Confirmation.")

The "rite" of confirmation has no real source in God's word; but His servants were diligent in strengthening the faith of the saints. They were right to feel that truth is best learnt inside the church, where practice shows and develops principle. Church action, when it is living and true, is the ready comment on Scripture. Continual teaching draws attention to the details, and to the truth as a whole in the person of Christ. That is God's way of confirming churches.

The evangelist must preach the gospel in the regions beyond, so long as there are regions still to reach. In the same way, the pastor must "go again and visit his brothers," so long as there are brothers to visit. The evangelist forms the interesting connection; the pastor maintains and strengthens that connection... The evangelist's work is to call out the believers; the pastor's work is to look after them.

This chapter opens with Paul back at Derbe and Lystra — back, that is, to the scenes where he had suffered the stoning. In those very places he now finds Timothy, who was to become in his later years such a comfort to him. A happy illustration of how God's government acts in favour of the godly. We tend to think of it only as acting against the ungodly. Out of the place of Paul's sufferings sprang one of his greatest comforts.

Luke says little about the other results of the apostle's visit to Derbe and Lystra. Our attention centres on a "young disciple" there. So Timothy was not converted at this time. No doubt he was converted during the apostle's earlier visit, for Paul speaks of him as his "true child in the faith". Paul had become his father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Timothy fully knew what persecutions Paul endured at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. Most of these persecutions happened on Paul's first missionary journey, when Timothy was perhaps only a boy. But he knew all about them, and he may have seen some of them himself. At Lystra the crowd stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead. Very probably the boy Timothy stood among the disciples who gathered around him when he rose up and entered the city.

Paul traces Timothy's faith back only to where the Christian faith began in his family, with his grandmother: "a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice" (2 Timothy 1:5). We learn from this same letter that Timothy had known the Holy Scriptures from childhood — and who can doubt that he learned them through the teaching of these godly women, or at least his mother? The grandmother and the mother had embraced the Christian faith, and so had Timothy. The apostle seems to treat this as proof that "the faith" was all the more real in Timothy's soul. It also laid on him a still more solemn duty of faithfulness to the Lord in this loose and corrupt period of the church. Every reader must conclude that it is a priceless blessing to have godly parents — parents who seek to bring up their children in the nurture and instruction of the Lord.

Confusion had entered into the practical life of the Jews, as it had among Christians. The mother of Timothy was a Jewess, his father a Greek — a thing unlawful among the Jews. His mother was godly, and his grandmother too. Now such a marriage was completely contrary to the custom of the Jews. See Nehemiah 13:23-31; Ezra 9, 10. According to these books the sons and daughters counted as heathen. They had to be rejected and sent away, along with the wife. It was a disorder.

They must above all look for the evidence that it is God who has called him. This involves the principle mentioned when Timothy first went out with Paul: he "was well spoken of by the brothers" (Acts 16:2). There were those who knew him well.

They did not have to go far before they found a new companion, Timothy of Lystra. He was to fill the gap caused by the disagreement with Barnabas. Paul lost the fellowship of Barnabas as a friend and brother. But in Timothy, his own son in the faith, he found a sympathy and a fellowship that ended only with the apostle's life.

Scripture says little about the other results of the apostle's visit to Derbe and Lystra. It concentrates our attention on a "young disciple" there. So he was not converted on this visit, but no doubt during the apostle's earlier one. Paul speaks of him as his "true child in faith." Paul had brought him to new birth in Christ Jesus through the gospel. His circumstances were unusual. He was the son of a believing Jewish woman, Eunice, but his father was Greek. The believers in those parts gave him an exceptionally good testimony.

This chapter opens with Paul back at Derbe and Lystra — back, that is, to the scenes where he had suffered the stoning. In those very places he now finds Timothy, who was to become in his later years such a comfort to him. A happy illustration of how God's government acts in favour of the godly. We are apt to think of it only as acting against the ungodly. Out of the place of Paul's sufferings sprang one of his greatest comforts.

His home was in either Derbe or Lystra, probably Lystra. His mother was a believing Jewish woman named Eunice. Genuine faith lived not only in her but first in his grandmother Lois. His father was a Greek, and since he had never been circumcised, he may have been raised as a Greek. Even so, he knew the Holy Scriptures from earliest childhood. The brothers who lived in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him… It was at Lystra that a crowd stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead. Very probably the boy Timothy was among the disciples who "stood around him" when he "rose up and entered the city." He must also have known how John Mark had turned back from the very path of service to which he was now called. Yet he did not hesitate to follow Paul, though he must have known it would mean sharing the same kind of persecution. I wonder how many of us would have done the same.

Timothy was timid by nature (2 Tim. 1:6-8), yet Paul clearly saw him as a dependable worker with a good report from the believers. This always matters if you are concerned about doing the work of the Lord.

The servant's viewpoint and the assembly's must stay quite distinct in this matter. The servant is to be God's servant only, and not man's. Even so, the assembly has to judge whether it can share fellowship with him in his work… Above all, they must look for evidence that God has called him. This involves the principle mentioned when Timothy first went out with Paul: he "was well spoken of by the brothers" (Acts 16:2). There were people who knew him well.

The presbytery were the company of elders who doubtless knew Timothy, and so testified to it. (Compare Acts 16:2.)

Confusion had crept into the everyday life of the Jews, as it had among the Christians. Timothy's mother was Jewish, his father Greek — a thing unlawful among the Jews. Such a marriage went completely against Jewish custom. See Nehemiah 13:23-31; Ezra 9 and 10. Those books count the sons and daughters as heathen, to be rejected and sent away with the wife. It was a disorder. The Jews all knew his father was a Greek. With a Jewish mother, Timothy's position was a scandal to them, and the apostle removes the scandal. In their eyes the Greek father had made the mother impure. They would have had plenty to say if her son brought them the gospel.

To circumcise Timothy was precisely what the law would not have done. Everyone knows that when a Jew and a Gentile married, the law would have nothing to say to their children. In law, a Jewish father could not own his own children by a Gentile mother, and the same the other way round. (See Ezra 10.) Timothy was the child of such a marriage. So no one had any claim to circumcise him, even if it was allowed. And just because there was no such claim, Paul stoops in grace to those on lower ground, and stops their mouths completely. Grace knows how and when to bend, no less than to be as unflinching as a rock.

Timothy's father was a Greek, so Timothy was not circumcised. Jewish circles would not have accepted him. Paul knew this and circumcised him... In Timothy's case it was simply a matter of removing something that would have got in the way of his service for the Lord. Paul was not concerned to keep up an appearance of consistency that would have been only skin-deep. Here was a God-given helper in the work, and it was best to remove all that would hinder his labours.

The two cases look alike, yet the apostle treats the men very differently. This difference of action involves a principle, and breaking it has been the fruitful source of division in the Church of God. "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing." In itself it makes no difference. But the moment anyone tries to impose it, we must resist firmly. Otherwise the liberty of the gospel is damaged, or conscience toward God is wounded. In this case it was "false brothers," not unbelieving Jews, who tried to impose circumcision and so bring the gospel under Jewish law.

Paul could circumcise Timothy (Acts 16:1-3), because no one could demand it. But with Titus, where they did demand it, the apostle firmly refuses. Grace knows what is consistent with the truth of the gospel.

Here we find a principle of real importance for our guidance. It matters all the more because Paul did something that many, one can imagine, would judge him for. It is remarkable how ready people are to judge those who know far better than they do. People who know very little are the readiest of all. Nothing is easier than forming a judgment. Whether the grounds are adequate and the conclusion sound are other questions... What alarm this must have caused among the believers, especially the Gentiles! The battle for Gentile freedom from circumcision had just been fought and won.

No one should ask them to be circumcised or tell them to keep the law. The letter only reminded them to "abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality" (Acts 15:29). This left the grace of God in all its pure reality and blessing. When the Gentile believers heard it, they were glad of the encouragement.

Paul and his companions left the decrees with the churches. So the Jews there had Jerusalem's own decision: the law did not bind the Gentiles.

When the Holy Spirit speaks of the decrees, He says in Acts 16:4 that they were the decisions "reached by the apostles and elders." It was the apostles and elders who had come together to consider the matter. ... Could any gathering today, sure that the word teaches a doctrine, send a decree to other gatherings? No! There was an authority and a capacity then which no longer exist.

God had not allowed Paul and Barnabas to settle the question at Antioch. Such a decision would not have ended the argument. It would have left two separate assemblies. But the moment the Jewish Christians and the assembly at Jerusalem granted liberty to the Gentiles, no one could stand against their freedom from the law. The apostles did not settle this point by their apostolic authority, though that authority did confirm the decree.

At Jerusalem the circumcision of the Gentiles met the strongest resistance. On his new journey into Asia Minor Paul carried the decrees to the assemblies and delivered them. Those decrees had clearly freed the Gentiles from any laying of the yoke of the law on them. Yet at Lystra he himself circumcises Timothy, the son of a Jewish mother and a Greek father. For some this is inconsistency enough to discredit the whole story. ... He clearly uses the rite in the fullest Christian liberty. That liberty is always the freedom to give up your own privileges whenever it better serves the love that moves us to seek souls for Christ.

Scripture records this of the apostle and his companions. It is all the more worth noticing because the letters never mention these decrees, even when the questions discussed at the council come up there for an answer. Here again we have to see the wisdom of God. The decrees went where Jewish influence was strong. They had the highest value in settling the doubts of people who looked up to Jerusalem, and above all to the apostles and elders there.

The decrees suited the time and the place of the people who received them. Paul was notably eager to hand these decrees to churches already formed where there were many Jews. But when he wrote his letters, later in the exercise of his apostolic power, he settles the question quite apart from the decision at Jerusalem. He settles it by the truth of Christ and His work, now fully revealed.

The group of travellers, now larger, carry with them the decrees decided on by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. These have a happy effect. They confirm the assemblies in the faith and add to their number. It is grace that establishes the soul and wins the heart to God.

As they passed through the cities, "they delivered the decrees of the apostles and the elders for them to keep." This was a lasting testimony. Suppose the Christian Jews wished to put their brothers from among the Gentiles under the law of Moses. Then they were acting against the mind and authority of the apostles and elders — the men whom the Lord had established for Christ by the Holy Spirit, and who were an authority in the Jewish church itself. That the Judaisers had no authorisation at all from the leading men gave the Gentile brothers a source of joy, and so they were established in the faith.

Here we get the first thought of establishment in relation to the Church, and what is it? Support from the world? Far from it! It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit through this beloved apostle and his fellow workers. It is the ministry of the truth that sets people free — takes them out from under law, puts them into liberty, and into the sense of "the true grace of God in which you stand." The Greek word for "establish" means "to make stable, or strong." That is real establishment. It is God's support and God's ministry, though it comes through human lips.

"The assemblies then were being strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily." So the Lord used the action of grace to help forward His testimony. Agitation is very destructive. It harms the settling of the soul, and it harms the progress of the work among new converts. Faith is fed by grace, not by questions that breed strife. Nor is it fed "by foods" — the apostle's somewhat scornful name for Jewish controversies, "which did not benefit those who followed them." And grace cannot be separated from Christ, who is "the same yesterday and today and forever." Questions apart from Him are met by varied and strange teachings that only unsettle the mind. It is good for the heart to be established by grace.

In the first few years of the church's history the spread of the gospel was remarkable. The companies of believers multiplied fast, and the numbers of individual believers rose quickly. Yet they were still all together in the same purpose, though not in the same place. There was a unity between them; they were one in the things of the Lord. They walked together in the truth, and acted together in faith and love. Across large districts, though there were many assemblies, there was but one church.

Where the word of God has its way in each believer and in the company together, increase is bound to follow. So that verse is often a challenge to me — why is there no increase? Why should it be decrease? The fault cannot be on God's side (that would be blasphemy)... So the difficulty must be on our side... This need not be numerical, although we would like to see that. Numbers alone are not always a sign of increase according to the mind of the Lord.

Take, for example, Acts 16. In verse 6, Paul and his fellow-reapers were "forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia." In the next verse we read, "They attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them." No archbishop, missionary board, or self-styled "general" was directing their movements. It was THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. In Acts 13, when Paul and his companions set out to preach, we read that they were "sent out by the Holy Spirit." Evangelists, pastors, and teachers are the Lord's servants, and only He has any right to direct or command them.

The broad commission is to "go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation." That in no way sets aside the need to be subject to God about the way it is carried out. His own interest in the work is so great that He cannot leave the questions of time and place — or any other matter in a work so precious — to chance, or to the judgment of men, which can fail. Even an apostle needed this, and always did. Everyone who would have success in his work must take every doubtful point into God's presence for guidance. They pass through Phrygia and Galatia, where we later hear of disciples who are largely, if not entirely, the fruit of their work at this time.

They had Asia on their mind, but they felt no freedom to go. There was no joy, no sense of the Spirit's guidance. So they had to wait until it was clear. They did not wait long, and God's larger purpose was soon revealed.

When they reached Mysia, Bithynia lay to the north or north-east, and Asia to the south. He would have gone in both directions, if he had been allowed. In the first case the Holy Spirit forbade him outright. In the second the Spirit did not let him go, which seems to show a less direct kind of guidance, working more through circumstances.

He knew all hearts, and He alone can use any mouth for God's glory. So the Holy Spirit forbade them to speak the word in Asia now. Those who believe in man may show their real unbelief in God by finding fault with this ban. Those whose confidence is in His grace will admire His care: He led them to the right place of testimony then, and He worked later in the very place He now forbade.

They could turn neither to the right hand nor to the left, so they travelled on to Troas. It was God's purpose that Paul and his company should find their proper sphere of service at that time in Europe, not in Asia. The plan of the work and its development were both of the Holy Spirit. And when they reached Troas, Paul understood why God had turned him from his own purpose, and how wise that was.

So it is very important to remember that it is no different in the work of the Lord. There the worker is always in danger of being guided by fair appearances, or of following what pleases his own mind, or perhaps the suggestions of others whom he respects.

There is no doubt at all about the true reading of the last clause of Acts 16:7. It is: "the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them." The Revised Version, or any recent translation, will show the English reader this. The phrase is unusual. We do well to ask why verse 6 calls Him "the Holy Spirit" and verse 7 calls Him "the Spirit of Jesus." … The title seems meant to remind us of the truly evangelistic heart of the Lord Jesus when He was on earth.

Christ lived in unwavering devotion to the will of God. He was obedient in all that He did and all that He said: "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God." Everything in His life pleased God. Everything was under God's direction, subject to the Spirit's guidance. We read of Him led by the Spirit, driven by the Spirit. There was no self-will, nothing of self in His walk. So how fitting this character of the Spirit is for the apostle Paul — the Spirit of Jesus directing him in his service here.

They attempted to go on into Bithynia. We know from 1 Peter 1:1 that scattered Jewish believers were living there, as well as in Galatia and the province of Asia. But this was not now the mind of the Lord for His service. To those who value Scripture, the evidence here is as plain as possible: the Spirit acted personally to correct even the apostle's proposed movements.

They came to Mysia and planned to go into Bithynia. This was not God's leading, though we are not told why: the Spirit of God stopped them. The apostles had been told to "go into all the world and proclaim the gospel." Yet they could not take this command as a permit to go wherever and whenever they wanted. They still had to depend on God's leading, though they were willing enough to go anywhere in the world.

The Lord guides His servants in different ways. The word translated "forbidden" in the first phrase could also be translated "prevent," "hinder" or "keep from." Perhaps circumstances hindered them, and they understood that this was from the Lord. In the second case they seem to have got the clear impression that the Spirit was saying "no" to their plans. And they were obedient. Clear guidance about where not to go still left them without an answer about where they should go.

Even for the apostle, the command not to go into Bithynia was not the highest sort of guidance by the Spirit. It was blessed guidance, yet not the highest an apostle knew. It was more like reining in a horse or a mule, and not so much knowing God's mind in communion.

Here we have the Spirit hindering. This is not a hindrance of circumstances, but a clear prohibition, made known plainly… The reason for it soon becomes clear. A fresh start was coming: the gospel was to go into Europe. The next chapters give us the wonderful history of that journey from Troas to Philippi and the cities of Greece. Later on Paul did a great work in Ephesus; now the Spirit hinders and forbids so that they may go further.

The Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of Jesus, closed doors in the East to lead the servants of Christ west to Europe. … Today the Spirit of Jesus leads preachers of the Word to India, China, Africa and the islands of far off seas.

But why these checks and diversions from the Apostle's purpose? Certainly the work in Galatia might have seemed reason enough for not letting him enter the Roman province of Asia at that time. But why was the way to Bithynia closed when they were so near to it? The question stayed unanswered until they passed by Mysia and came down to Troas. There Paul learned by a vision at night that they were to go to Europe.

Paul was stopped in his journeys through Asia, as we are told here, and "forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia." The Spirit of God is so fully regarded as the directing person in the church… So in various ways, divine guidance was never missing.

They reached the town of Troas, "the port for embarkation for any country to which the Holy Spirit might send them."… Its harbour was good. Much of the traffic between the continents of Europe and Asia flowed in and out of it.

Paul intended to go to some other parts of Asia, such as Bithynia, to preach the gospel, but the Spirit of God closed every door in that land. It was not that the Lord did not care for those in darkness in Bithynia. We know from 1 Peter 1:1 that He sent the gospel to that land by some other messenger. But now the time had come when Europe, as well as Asia, was to have the gospel, and the Lord chose His servant Paul to preach it there.

They "came down" to Troas, which implies that Luke, the writer, was there at the time. There seems no doubt that God arranged this so that Luke could be there and travel with them to Philippi. Luke clearly stayed in Philippi when Paul and Silas left. But Luke says nothing of his own work.

When they arrived in Mysia they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So they passed by Mysia and came to Troas. There Paul had a vision in a dream. This was not the open direction of the Spirit. Understanding what it meant was left to spiritual intelligence.

It is very important to remember that it is no different in the work of the Lord. There the worker is always in danger of being guided by fair appearances, or of following what pleases his own mind, or maybe the suggestions of others whom he respects… The work is His, and He alone is able to direct it in gracious wisdom and power. We are at best only His workmen in that work.

But why these checks and diversions from the Apostle's purpose? The work in Galatia might well seem reason enough for keeping him out of the Roman province of Asia at that time. But why was the way to Bithynia barred when they were so near to it? That question stayed unanswered. Then they passed by Mysia and came down to Troas. There a vision at night told Paul that they were to go to Europe.

Look at Mysia on your map. You will find it close to the Dardanelles, the narrow strip of water that separates Asia from Europe. In the vision a man of Macedonia begged him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." Now we see why the Holy Spirit checked Paul from moving in other directions. Here was the solution to all his perplexity. Paul might never have thought of leaving Asia and going into Europe.

God sends him a vision in the night: he sees a man of Macedonia beckoning to him and saying, "Come over and help us." Nothing could be plainer than this: here was a man who felt his need. "Come over and help us" is the language of a needy man.

God gives him a fair wind. He gets across in a day and a half. When he comes back later, the same trip takes him five days. The Lord loves to send the gospel to sinners, and I think the Holy Spirit delights to record God's readiness to meet the needy soul. There was a hungry heart in Macedonia, a needy sinner. God arranges everything so that His messenger reaches that needy one quickly with the gospel of His grace.

Someone may say that we can hardly expect a vision to settle our doubts in the end. So we seem to be left without the comfort this passage might give us. But neither did the apostle expect, or generally receive, a vision to guide him. It is not given to any man to walk habitually in such open light. It would not really encourage faith, which has to do with the unseen and not the seen. And perhaps the record here serves a good purpose. It stops us expecting one fixed method of assurance, and it throws us on Him to meet us in whatever way He pleases.

So the Lord helped His servant in a positive way. They all needed direction for their work, but Paul alone saw the vision. It was a favour often shown him, and of the highest kind, which no creature has a right to expect… God never fails us in present difficulties. It is we who fail in waiting and counting on Him. And His written word, our main guide, is now complete, as it was not then… The apostle's vision impressed them all at once, and they turned their eyes and steps toward Macedonia.

Then they reached Philippi. By the small river Gangites they had their first chance to speak. We wonder if Paul looked for the man he had seen in his vision. There was no man present. A company of women had gathered at the place where people met for prayer. Lydia of Thyatira is the first convert of Europe… And it was the Lord who opened her heart.

Paul lived in the things of God. So he read the vision as his mission, by the knowledge he had of both the thoughts of God and the needs of men. He crossed over at once into Macedonia.

Alone with God, in the silent hours of the night, the apostle received what we may call fresh marching orders. Now he could understand why he had been turned away from entering Bithynia... He told his companions what he had seen and heard. They all agreed it was a call from God to cross the sea and visit that country. For we read: "concluding that God" (not "the Lord") "had called us to preach the gospel to them."

It is good that the Holy Spirit can guide His servants where they are to work. He can also forbid and hinder them if they try to go where they are not sent... At Troas Paul may have been in great perplexity, unsure before the Lord where he should go. There he had a vision, a God-given vision... We now see why the Holy Spirit checked Paul from moving in other directions. Here was the solution to all his perplexity. Paul might never have thought of leaving Asia and going into Europe.

Happy servants! They were not tangled up with the affairs of this life. They were free and ready to set out at the Lord's bidding. They sailed at once, with a fair wind, for the opposite shore.

But it is worth noticing that the language is "we", not "they" as before. Luke thus modestly but unmistakably lets us see that he joined the apostle's company at Troas. From this point the inspired writer was a personal witness. That is surely no small matter. But some hold that his account now takes on a higher character, and no error in principle could be deeper. Not so: inspiration rules out all question of degrees of certainty or of authority. It is equally of God, whether the writer saw what he wrote or not.

But neither did the apostle expect, nor generally receive, a vision to guide him. It is not given to any man to walk habitually in such open light. It would not really encourage faith, which has to do with the unseen and not the seen. And perhaps the record here may do us good. It keeps us from expecting any one method of assurance. It casts us on Him to meet us in whatever way He pleases... No doubt the man of Macedonia appeals to what is, or should be, always the driving force in us. Weighing one need against another will have its place in settling the matter for us. So will weighing what the Lord has been leading up to in His ways.

Until this time the apostle Paul had only preached the gospel in Asia. Remember that Jerusalem and Antioch and most of the other places mentioned in the Bible are in Asia. Philippi and Rome and Corinth and such places are in Europe... It was not that the Lord did not care for those in darkness in Bithynia... but now the time had come when Europe, as well as Asia, was to have the gospel.

Later in the story we learn that they made a short stay in the Troas region, where there was at least an assembly (Acts 20). But there was no indecision now, and no lingering on the way. The gospel had to be preached at once in Macedonia.

They were happy servants, free from the affairs of this life. They were free and ready to set out at the Lord's bidding, and they sailed at once, with a fair wind, for the shores on the other side.

On this gospel errand they got, so to speak, a fair wind, and covered the distance in a day and a half. When they were coming back it took five days. I suppose they had contrary winds then (see Acts 20:6). God loves to send peace to the anxious, troubled soul. He delights in that, and often gives His evangelists a fair wind, to carry the message of peace to the troubled soul more quickly.

The word "concluding" shows a precious attitude of humility. Some Christians seem to always know "exactly" what the Lord wants them to do without needing to think it over. But most of us know that we often reach a "conclusion" only after wrestling with it in our souls. Perhaps the Lord leaves us an element of "residual uncertainty" (if I may call it that) to keep us dependent. Sometimes He will confirm the decision afterwards. That seems to be the case here — it did not take them long to get there.

They set sail from Troas and took a straight course to the island of Samothrace, now called Samothraki. The next day they reached Neapolis, now called Cavallo, which was their destination. They left the ship there and travelled inland on foot to Philippi, some eight to ten miles away.

But it is worth noticing that the language is "we," and not "they" as before. Luke thus modestly but unmistakably lets us see that he joined the apostle's company at Troas. That the inspired writer was a personal witness from this point is no small matter. But no error is more serious in principle than the human notion that his account now takes on a higher character. Not so: inspiration rules out all question of degrees of assurance or of authority.

In fact the account is no more detailed while the writer was present. Conversations, differences, journeys and preachings were given when he was away, no less than when he was with the apostle's companions. How comforting this quiet evidence that in the inspired word we have to do, not merely with good men doing their best, but with a God Who cannot err or lie!

Paul intended to go to other parts of Asia, such as Bithynia, to preach the gospel. But the Spirit of God closed all the doors in that land. It was not that the Lord did not care for those in darkness in Bithynia. We know from 1 Peter 1:1 that He sent the gospel to that land by another messenger. But now the time had come when Europe, as well as Asia, was to have the gospel, and the Lord chose His servant Paul to preach it there.

The description is exactly right. It would not have been true to call Philippi the chief city or capital of Macedonia. But of that part, that district, it was. It was a Roman colony too, not a Greek one, and that had an important bearing on the events that follow — events we have in such a vivid account. There Roman armies had fought a deadly battle, not against foreigners, but against one another. There the fate of the dying republic was decided.

Philip the Great of Macedon built Philippi as a military post, to hold back the wild Thracians who lived next to the Macedonians. Later Augustus made it a Roman colony, as a memorial of his victory over Brutus and Cassius. It was not a very important city. In Acts 16:12 Philippi is called "the chief city of that part of Macedonia." This does not mean that Philippi was the chief city of all Macedonia — Thessalonica was. It means Philippi was the chief city of that district, and the first city Paul and his companions came to. The record of Paul's visit, and of how the gospel was preached there for the first time on European ground, is found in the book of Acts, chapter 16.

About 168 years before Christ, the Romans conquered Macedonia. Some years before our Lord lived on this earth, Rome sent large numbers of discharged soldiers to live in Philippi. These soldiers were very loyal to Rome, and very proud of Rome's victories. So the Roman government made Philippi a "Roman Colony." This honour freed the city from the tribute that conquered states usually paid to Rome, and its citizens enjoyed all the rights and privileges of Rome. In fact, it became a miniature "Rome."

The believers at Philippi would probably understand Paul's meaning better, and more easily, than we can, because Philippi was "a colony" of Rome. The word "colony" did not mean at all what it means to us today. It was a miniature Rome, a copy of Rome planted in the province of Macedonia. Most of its people were former Roman soldiers, and they were all Roman citizens, with the special privileges that came with that. Paul uses this unique position of the city of Philippi as a picture of the heavenly citizenship of the believers there.

The verse goes on to say, "We remained in this city some days." Clearly they wanted to get an impression of the city, and to find out how to reach its people with the gospel. When you enter a new area of service, it may help to look and listen before doing anything else. Perhaps Paul was also looking for a synagogue, since he usually spoke to the Jewish community first. But Philippi appears to have had no significant Jewish population — at least not enough men to form a synagogue.

The people of Philippi had no idea that one of the greatest days in the history of Europe, or indeed of the world, was the day Paul walked into their city — unannounced, quiet, unnoticed. Yet that is what it was. Our hearts rejoice to think of this simple scene, with so much bound up in it. It matters far more than the rise of ancient ruling families.

The work began in the heart of Lydia, which God opened. The words "a worshiper of God" show that she was a seeker, and had become a proselyte. Now, in the gospel that Paul preached, she found the full thing she had been looking for.

Her name is Lydia, a seller of purple, clearly a person with a profitable business, perhaps a widow, since she was the head of a household... Before Paul came, she was known as one who worshiped God. May there not be many seekers after light whom God takes note of in places where the pure gospel has not yet reached? The first name of a European convert was a woman's. She was peacefully at work in her lawful trade, yet she had a fear of God in her heart and was seeking light.

The heart of Lydia was opened by the Lord, as well as the lips of Paul that spoke to her. He spoke to her and she attended to him; and both of these things were of God. How simple, and yet how necessary! The Lord lets us know we need both of these operations in His great discourse in John 6. He teaches us that if the Father does not give to the Son, if He does not draw, if He does not teach, the ministry will be lost on the soul. The bread of life, the true manna of the desert, will be spread out in vain.

Whether she had already been born again cannot now be settled. But it is certain that while she listened to Paul's message the Spirit of God worked with the glad tidings of grace, and produced faith in her soul.

Until the heart is touched, the mind will not be fixed. So notice what it says: God opened the heart of Lydia "to pay attention." The mind runs on the will's errand. We spend our thoughts on whatever our hearts choose. If the heart has no sense of its ignorance, or no desire after God, no wonder such a person does not listen to the preacher. His heart sends his mind somewhere else.

Lydia was not one of those who go to meetings and think about anything and everything except the things spoken by the Lord's messengers. She was not thinking about her purple, or the prices, or the likely gains and losses. How many of those who fill our preaching rooms and lecture halls follow Lydia's example? Sadly, we fear very few indeed.

So with the jailer and Lydia in Acts 16. She was devout, gentle and gracious, and the Lord, by a very gentle operation, opened her heart. An earthquake went with the unlocking of the bars of the jailer's strong iron heart. With Lydia's heart, "the still small voice" had done the same work.

It is a great thing when the heart is opened. What do you think happens when the heart is opened? The Lord gets His right place there... First her heart is opened, and then the next thing is that her house is opened. Is your house used for the Lord? If it is, that is a very happy thing. If you do not use your house for the Lord — even if it is only one room or two — I do not think He has a very big place in your heart.

One soul had been won for Christ. Though the work during this first visit of the apostle was not large, it was so thorough that it became the foundation of a church. In its spiritual state, that church was surpassed by none we have on record in the New Testament. The stability of a house depends greatly on its foundations. In the same way, the character of a church often comes from the nature of its beginning.

Lydia's was a very real and decided case, in every respect. It was direct, positive, and unmistakable. She received Christ into her heart. At once she took Christian ground by being baptized, and baptism carries deep meaning. Nor was this all. She opened her house at once to the Lord's messengers. Hers was no mere lip profession. She proved her faith in Christ in two ways. She went down under the water of baptism. She also joined herself and her household to the name and cause of that blessed One whom she had received into her heart by faith.

It is a great thing when the heart is opened... The Lord gets His right place there. She is the first in Europe to identify herself with the Lord. I believe that in Lydia you have the first convert to Christ in Europe... First of all, her heart is opened, and then the next thing is her house is opened. Is your house used for the Lord? If so, it is a very happy thing. Perhaps your house is only a room or two. Even so, if you do not use it for the Lord, I do not think He has a very big place in your heart.

Were the members of it saved? Were there children in it or not? On all this the Scripture is absolutely silent: and it is not silent to give us the opportunity to speculate about these matters... the important thing for us is to note what the Scripture says, and not add our own thoughts: and the Scripture records that Lydia's household was baptized, without any mention whatever of faith, real or otherwise, on their part. As the record stands, Lydia's whole household was baptized on the ground of her faith.

We do not hear of children or of husband; she may have been a widow without a family or never married. She had a household, and in verse 40 we hear of the brothers there, believers therefore, and probably not men only but women. We hear nothing of little children. God's record is wonderfully full and exact in every other detail, yet it does not even hint at anything of the kind.

So, when she was baptized, "she urged us, saying, 'If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord.'" This faithfulness, the fruit of faith, was not something given after her baptism. On the contrary, their baptizing her implied their conviction that she was faithful.

There is great moral beauty in Lydia's words to Paul in Acts 16... There is a great principle wrapped up in these words. To accept hospitality where there is obvious and definite unfaithfulness to Christ the Lord is to prove that He has a very low place in our hearts.

The word here translated "constrained" is found only twice in the New Testament, and it is used the same way in both places. Lydia "constrained" Paul and Silas to stay with her (Acts 16:15). The two disciples "constrained" our blessed Lord in the same way, saying, "Stay with us." It is a strong word. In classical Greek it can even mean doing violence to someone. So in these scriptures it means constraining in the sense of taking no denial. How such a constraint must have delighted the Lord's heart, and with what joy He would answer a request pressed like that!

The love of Christ was there and made her, little knowing the value of her gracious insistence in His sight, to be a fellow worker with the truth (3 John 8).

The better manuscripts put "the" with "prayer" in verse 16, so "the place of prayer" is the more likely meaning. ... Satan tried a new way of doing harm. He did not attack the gospel; he publicly backed it — and this went on for many days.

Paul and his companion entered that city because the Lord had called them there. They were soon found at the place of prayer, where Lydia's heart was opened to receive the things of the Lord. There is no doubt the enemy knows the power of prayer among believers, and he does everything he can to hinder it.

In Acts we find a girl controlled by a spirit of divination, or of Python. This was the prophetic oracle at Delphi, held to be the centre and focus of pagan divination. An evil spirit connected with that oracle had taken hold of this young woman.

From the passage in Acts 16:16, it would also appear that people were employed in this way apart from any temple or sacrifice.

It was an astonishing testimony. The crowd accepted her as a true prophetess, yet her whole condition spoke of dreadful bondage to an evil spirit — to anyone who could see it! ... If Satan will testify, he shall testify by being cast out. For a time the apostle simply ignored his effort to attach himself like a parasite to the tree of life. At last he brings to bear on him the power of the Name of Jesus Christ.

Most men would have welcomed such words from the lips of this girl as an encouraging testimony to the work. Why then was Paul grieved? ... Because it was of Satan; and the apostle was certainly not going to receive testimony from him. He could not allow Satan to help him in his work.

Here Satan tries to tamper with the work by bearing testimony to the ministers of the word. Not that this spirit acknowledged Jesus — he would not then have been an evil spirit... He speaks of the agents, to have a share of the glory.

At once there was a great uproar, and why? Because the owners of this poor girl saw that their money-making had stopped. When you touch a man's pocket he begins to wince. Nothing shows sooner where a man is.

Here, then, was a case perfectly suited to test the spirituality and integrity of the evangelist. Most men would have welcomed such words from the lips of this girl as an encouraging testimony to the work. Why then was Paul grieved? Why did he not allow her to keep bearing witness to the object of his mission? Was she not saying the truth? Were they not the servants of the Most High God? And were they not showing the way of salvation? Why be grieved with — why silence such a witness? Because it was of Satan; and the apostle was certainly not going to receive testimony from him. He could not allow Satan to help him in his work.

The "Most High," then, throughout the whole range of Scripture, is an expressive title of God as the Sovereign Ruler in the kingdom of men (Dan. 4:17). The demon-possessed man confessed Jesus as the Son of the absolute Lord of the universe. In the same way, the fortune-telling girl owned Paul and Silas as the servants of the Most High God (Acts 16:17). They anticipate in this way the divine decree that all infernal beings shall bow the knee to Jesus and confess Him Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9-10).

A girl possessed by a satanic spirit of divination followed Paul and his companions. Greedy promoters were taking advantage of her. She advertised the men as servants of the Most High God, come to show the people "a way of salvation," not the way. It is always Satan's method to draw attention to the servants rather than to their Lord. Paul put up with this improper activity for many days. Then at last he commanded the evil spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of the girl, and it happened that same hour.

Here Satan tries to tamper with the work by bearing testimony to the ministers of the word. Not that this spirit acknowledged Jesus — he would not then have been an evil spirit, he would not have possessed the girl in this way. He speaks of the agents, in order to have a share of the glory, and of the Most High God... The testimony of Satan could not go so far as to own Him Lord; and if Paul had not been faithful, it would have mixed the work of the enemy with that of the Lord.

Demons can adopt a pleasant appearance as well as a repulsive one... They can also tell the truth when it suits them. The demon who said to the Lord, "I know who you are—the Holy One of God," spoke the truth (Mark 1:24). So did the demon-possessed girl who cried after Paul and Silas through the streets of Philippi, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation" (Acts 16:17). But when these evil beings speak the truth, they do it to win their victims' trust and so make sure of their everlasting ruin.

An act of such uncompromising decision as well as power roused the enemy working through human greed. But it is well to note that the apostle did not act in divine energy until Satan's persistence made it a duty.

Satan tried a new way of doing harm, not attacking the gospel but supporting it, and this went on for many days. Distressed by it, the apostle at last turned and ordered the evil spirit to leave her, which happened in the name of Jesus.

Why then was Paul grieved? Why did he not allow her to keep bearing witness to the object of his mission? Was she not telling the truth? Were they not the servants of the most high God? And were they not showing the way of salvation? Why be grieved by such a witness — why silence her? Because it was of Satan; and the apostle was certainly not going to accept testimony from him. He could not allow Satan to help him in his work.

There was no testimony to Christ in these words. Later the apostle wrote to the assembly at Corinth, to help the believers there tell when evil spirits were at work among them: "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit." So all Satan could hope for was to frustrate the preaching of Paul and his companions. He would act as their sponsor, and then claim the results. The Spirit of God is all the power a servant needs. To seek or accept any other influence or help from the world is to corrupt the work and limit the action of God's Word.

Such a firm and powerful act stirred up the enemy, who worked through human greed. But it is worth noting that the apostle did not act in divine energy until Satan's persistence made it a duty.

Would Paul accept help in the work from such a source? The Lord would not when He was on earth (Luke 4:35, 41). Nor would His servant. So, grieved by her behaviour, Paul at last turned round and drove the demon out: "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her," he said. "And it came out that very hour" is the historian's account (16:18). The girl was set free from the demon. The power of the name of Christ was displayed... That it was a demon and not divine power everyone could see; for when commanded in the name of Jesus Christ, it at once obeyed and left its victim.

What she said was true enough, but she was not true in saying it. This was the serious point in the case. It is one thing to say, or agree with, what is true, and another thing to be true in saying it. What use was it to repeat the formula day after day: "They show to us the way of salvation"? All the while she stayed unsaved and unblessed.

There are two principles you find all through Scripture — corruption and violence. In the garden of Eden the devil corrupts Eve; and what comes next? Cain kills Abel, that is, violence. It is the same in the scene before us. Satan tries to corrupt God's work before Paul can develop it. When Paul refuses the devil's help, notice the change in his tactics. Satan tries to crush the servants of God, and violence comes out.

But no sooner was Satan repulsed as the serpent, than he took the character of a lion. Craft having failed, he tried violence.

Literally, "gone out"; it would seem in allusion to the going out of the demon.

Covetousness is a mainspring of the world's activity, "covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5). The men whose hope of gain vanished with the cast-out spirit seized Paul and Silas with no legal right. They dragged them into the market-place, where you would find the local rulers then, even more than now. Notice that only here does the inspired historian call the magistrates in Philippi by the Greek word that answers to praetors. This is striking evidence of exact accuracy. The city was a colony, and a colony was just Rome on a small scale, with its two chiefs.

The fact is, if you want to touch a man of the world most effectively, the spot to touch is his pocket. There is scarcely a man here tonight who cannot be touched through his pocket. These men were touched there, for when Paul commanded the spirit, he came out of the girl. She was, in fact, delivered from the power of the devil, and that is what you need, my friend... it is a solemn truth that the man who is not under the power of the gospel is under the power of Satan.

When her employers saw that the hope of making gain through this spiritist medium was gone, they decided to vent their rage on the servants of the Lord. They said nothing about the young woman, or about the real reason for their anger.

It is worth noticing that, whatever his efforts, Satan cannot hide his true character. What was the cause of the enmity of these accusers of the apostles? Simply and only the loss of their gains, because the girl had been healed. But notice: they do not say a single word about this. Instead they come forward pretending to care for the peace of their city, like public benefactors. And to gain their object they bring a series of false accusations. As our Lord said of Satan, "When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies." (John 8:44.)

This was calculated, and no doubt intended, to stir up the mob. They felt Roman pride and privilege all the more keenly because they were not purely Roman. Such people put up with each other's religions, but they were jealous of anything that looked like an attack on them. The appeal worked.

But God makes use of all this to direct the progress of His own work, and give it the form He pleases. There is the jailer to convert, and the magistrates themselves must confess their wrong towards the messengers of God. God gathers out the assembly, a flock (as the letter written to them shows) full of love and affection... The enemy was mistaken here. If he stopped their work at Philippi, he sent the apostles to preach elsewhere.

The enemy failed in his effort to mix himself up with God's work. So he falls back on his ordinary and natural way of fighting it: human interests and passions. Greed is one of the driving forces of the world's activity — "covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5). These men lost their hope of gain when the spirit was cast out. So they broke the law themselves, seized Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the market-place, where the local rulers of that day could be found — even more so then than now. Only here does the inspired historian use for the magistrates of Philippi the Greek word that matches the Roman title praetors. This is a striking mark of accuracy: the city was a colony, and a colony was simply Rome on a small scale, with its two chief officers.

Virtuous, law-abiding people indeed! Worthy citizens of Philippi! This is the character they now put on. What had they cared about Roman law, or about the preaching of Paul and Silas, as long as their pockets were untouched? But now their source of income had dried up, and out they came in this new disguise. Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light when it suits his purposes.

No one doubted that Paul and his companions were Jews. But there was no evidence at all that they had disturbed the city — except through the casting out of the evil spirit. The second charge could not be proved either: that they taught customs which Romans were not allowed to accept or practise. None of that mattered to the accusers, as long as they could get these preachers of the gospel condemned.

This was calculated, and no doubt intended, to stir up the mob. The crowd was all the more touchy about Roman pride and privilege because they were not purely Roman themselves. Men who could count as Romans tolerated other religious groups among themselves, but they were jealous of anything that looked like an attack on them. The appeal worked.

This is an old accusation, and one which always comes from the wrong side. Pontius Pilate could find no fault in Jesus. Even so the priests and the rulers insisted all the more: "He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place," Luke 23:5. What do they say against Paul and Silas at Philippi? "These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city," Acts 16:20. And at Thessalonica? "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also," Acts 17:6.

But "these men" had carried the gospel of the grace of God into Philippi. They were telling men and women who lived in the darkness of paganism, and who were rushing to destruction, about the Saviour who died for the ungodly. They were putting immense blessings within reach of the people, all "without money and without price." No truer friends ever visited the city. Yet these preachers stood before the magistrates charged with being troublemakers, and were flogged at once and thrown into prison!

But God makes use of all this to direct the progress of His own work, and give it the form He pleases. The jailer is to be converted, and the magistrates themselves are to admit they were wrong about the messengers of God. A church is gathered out — a flock full of love and affection, as the letter written to them shows... The magistrates are forced to come and plead with Paul. Such is the result of the tumult. The enemy was mistaken here.

Roman law forbade interfering with a country's own religion. Now Paul and Silas were preaching Christ. So an accusation, an indictment, was ready to hand... Virtuous, law-abiding people indeed! Worthy citizens of Philippi! That is the character they now took on. Had they ever cared about Roman law, or about the preaching of Paul and Silas, while their pockets were safe? But once their source of gain dried up, they came out in this new guise.

What was the cause of the enmity of these accusers of the apostles? Simply and solely the loss of their gains, because the girl had been healed. But notice: they do not say a single word about that. Instead they come forward looking like men concerned for the peace of their city, as public benefactors. And to get what they want they present a series of false accusations.

The accusers aimed this at the crowd, and no doubt meant to stir them up. The crowd was all the more touchy about Roman pride and privilege because they were not pure Romans. Men who could call themselves Romans might put up with other religions among themselves. But they resented anything that looked like an attack on them. The appeal worked.

Remember that Philippi was a Roman colony. Many of its citizens were Romans, descended from Roman soldiers. They were very proud of being Romans, and they despised and hated the Jews... Paul was a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, the strictest group among the Jews. His upbringing made him very proud of his race, and taught him to hate and despise those he called "sinners of the Gentiles."

Their accusers first denounce them because they were Jews, secondly because they said they were greatly troubling the city, and thirdly that they taught customs which these men alleged were unlawful for Romans to receive or observe. They have no specific charge of criminal activity.

The prejudice against Jews was great. The last part of the charge held a certain amount of truth, and it had power to rouse the fanaticism of Romans. "Even under the republic, the letter of the Roman law opposed bringing in foreign religions. The law did allow exceptions, as with the Jews themselves. But its spirit condemned any change in worship that might unsettle the minds of the citizens, or stir up a noisy uproar."

This is an old accusation, and one that always comes from the wrong side. Pontius Pilate could find no fault in Jesus. Still the priests and the rulers insisted all the more: "He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place" (Luke 23:5). What do they say against Paul and Silas at Philippi? That these Jews are disturbing the city. And at Thessalonica? "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also" (Acts 17:6).

But "these men" had carried into Philippi the gospel of the grace of God. They told men and women about the Saviour who died for the ungodly. These people were living in the darkness of paganism and hurrying to destruction... No truer friends of the people ever visited that city. Yet the preachers stood before the magistrates charged as troublemakers, and were flogged at once and thrown into prison!

But God makes use of all this to direct the progress of His own work, and to give it the shape He pleases. There is the jailer to be converted. The magistrates themselves must confess that they were wrong about the messengers of God. God gathers out the assembly, a flock full of love and affection, as the letter written to them shows... The magistrates have to come to Paul and beg. That is the result of the riot. The enemy miscalculated here.

Roman law did not allow anyone to interfere with a country's religion. Now Paul and Silas were preaching Christ. So a charge was ready and waiting... Virtuous, law-abiding people indeed! Worthy citizens of Philippi! That is the character they now took on. What had they ever cared about Roman law, or about the preaching of Paul and Silas, as long as nobody touched their pockets? But once their source of gain dried up, they appeared in this new guise.

The motives were purely human, the influence was Satan's. The motives put before the magistrates were nothing but false pretexts. They worked on the pride and the fear of the authorities, who wanted peace. It was the enemies who disturbed that peace, not the Christians... The magistrates ask nothing more. The accusers had stirred up a crowd fighting for its privileges.

We need not agree with Bengel that the two chief magistrates stripped Paul and Silas with their own hands. But the special word used, and the whole sense of the passage, rule out the idea that the magistrates tore their own clothes. They certainly gave the command to beat them with rods, though no court had condemned them. That was an open violation of Roman law, and it left the magistrates open to severe punishment if anyone had brought a case.

Nature might have judged otherwise. But faith judges that the servant of Christ was far more in his right place in prison for the truth's sake than outside at his Master's expense. True, Paul might have saved himself. He could have been an honoured man, publicly owned as "a servant of the Most High God." He only had to accept the girl's testimony and let the devil help him in his work. But he could not do this, and so he had to suffer.

Every form of law was twisted in this trial... So Satan seemed to have won a great victory. But why did the Lord allow His servants to be beaten like this? What follows gives the answer. In that prison there was a poor soul whom God, in His eternal counsels, had chosen in Christ... The unjust accusations, the violence of the crowd, the illegal action of the magistrates — these were simply His tools for carrying out His purpose. In this way the word of the gospel reached the jailer's home, and blessed him and his household. Satan, in all he did, was only the blind instrument of God's will.

Now that they had endured all this, one thing needed to be proved. Paul and Silas were not criminals, justly punished with flogging and prison and the stocks. The guardians of the law themselves were guilty of open, obvious and inexcusable wrong against the preachers of the gospel... There was not the least sign of resentment. There was no wish to hurt these officials, or to squeeze anything out of men who now lay wholly in the power of those they had injured without cause.

It is certain that they gave the command to beat them with rods, though the men had not been condemned. This was an open violation of Roman law. It left the magistrates themselves open to severe punishment, if anyone had brought proceedings against them.

True, Paul might have saved himself. He might have been an honoured man, owned and acknowledged as "a servant of the Most High God." He only had to accept the slave girl's testimony and let the devil help him in his work. But he could not do this, and so he had to suffer.

They were brought to the prison, with a charge that the jailer would "keep them safely." But we are told that "he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks." That shows us they had no favour with the jailer at that time. It is enough to show us the condition of his heart. He did not know God's love, and did not feel it. So his heart had none of that love for fellow believers which always marks those who are born of God.

In that particular prison there was a poor soul whom God, in His eternal purpose, had chosen in Christ. He was therefore the object of God's mercy and grace… But the time had now come, in God's purpose, to bring this hardened soul out of darkness into His marvellous light. The unjust accusations, the violence of the crowd, the illegal action of the magistrates — these were simply the instruments for carrying out God's purpose. By these means the word of the gospel reached the jailer's home, for the blessing of himself and his household. In everything he had done, Satan was only the blind instrument of God's will.

But God makes use of all this to direct the progress of His own work and give it the form He pleases. There is the jailer to be converted, and the magistrates themselves are to confess their wrong towards the messengers of God. The assembly is gathered out, a flock (as the letter written to them shows) full of love and affection… The enemy was mistaken here. If he stopped their work at Philippi, he sent the apostles to preach elsewhere.

Faith can sing as sweetly in a dungeon as at a prayer meeting. It does not matter where we are, as long as we have God with us. His presence lights up the darkest cell and turns a dungeon into the very gate of Heaven. He can make His servants happy anywhere. He can give them victory over the most hostile circumstances. He can make them shout for joy where human nature would be overwhelmed with sorrow.

Stocks in which the feet were shut up. Job 13:27; Job 33:11; Acts 16:24.

Not content with putting them into the inner prison, he placed their feet fast in the stocks. Their backs were cut and bleeding. They were weak from loss of blood. This was a horrible Eastern prison of the first century, very likely with no daylight, overrun with vermin, and with no sanitation at all. Their feet were fast in the stocks, which held them in one position. It allowed neither comfort, rest, nor sleep.

The jailer seems to take a brutal pleasure in his treatment of them. He does not say, "Come along; I am sorry I must lock you up." Instead he appears to serve the master he had then with delight. He "put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks."

It is certain that they ordered the men to be beaten with rods, though no court had condemned them. That was an open violation of Roman law. If anyone had brought a case, the magistrates themselves would have faced severe punishment.

But now that they had endured this, it was right that one thing be proved. Paul and Silas were not evildoers, justly punished with scourging and prison and the stocks. The guardians of the law were the guilty ones. Their unrighteousness against the preachers of the gospel was flagrant, obvious, and inexcusable.

To all appearance, Satan had gained a notable victory. But why did the Lord allow His servants to be beaten like this? The answer comes in what follows. There was a poor soul in that prison. In the eternal counsels of God he had been chosen in Christ, and so he was the object of God's mercy and grace... The unjust accusations, the violent crowd, the illegal action of the magistrates — these were only the means of accomplishing God's purpose. By them the word of the gospel came into the home of the jailer.

How little the devil expected such a result from the imprisonment of the Lord's servants! He was outwitted. The tables turned on him. He meant to hinder the gospel, and look — he was made to help it on. He hoped to get rid of two of Christ's servants, and instead he lost one of his own.

What are stripes or stocks, or prison walls, or gloomy nights? They are only a dark background that makes the living grace in them shine out, bright and beautiful. Talk of circumstances! It is little any of us know of trying circumstances. The small annoyances of daily life are often more than enough to make us lose our balance. Paul and Silas were in trying circumstances indeed.

His chains had become a way of reaching men in the highest positions. The believers knew this already. When he was with them at Philippi, he could sing praise after being thrown into the inner prison, and there his chains became the way of reaching a sinner at the lowest social level. The stocks, the dungeon, and the midnight darkness all served to carry the gospel further.

Prisoners had no doubt shouted many curses in that place. They were powerless to do more than curse, or to threaten those who had imprisoned them. But with Paul and Silas how different! For "at midnight they prayed and sang praises to God." Prayer might not seem out of place. But praises — who would have expected them? These were clearly no weak efforts to cheer each other up, or to put a brave face on their troubles. For the prisoners heard them. Those whose feet were fast in the stocks, unable to move or even shift their position, were the freest in spirit that night.

Singing and praise belong together. At the first Lord's Supper they "sang a hymn" — the Greek word is hymneo — Matthew 26:30. Translators render the same word "sang praises" to God when Paul and Silas were in prison, Acts 16:25. And the Lord sings praise among His people, Psalm 22:22; Hebrews 2:12.

Suppose someone had passed by outside that night, not knowing the circumstances. He would have concluded that they were having a good time in there. But what were the facts? The stocks held their feet fast. Their backs were sore and bleeding from the beating they had received. They were hungry, cold, and without comfort — and yet they were not only praying, but praising. They were showing the character of holy priests, and were soon to act as royal priests. As holy priests they were turning to God in prayer and intercession, and offering up to Him praise and thanksgiving. They were able to thank and bless the Lord in the worst circumstances.

I do not think their prayer was, "Lord, let us out." I believe they prayed, "Lord, turn this to Your glory. Turn this to the salvation of souls. Turn this to the blessing of precious souls in this prison. And, O Lord, keep those who have believed, and especially Lydia — keep them firm."

What a new sound it must have been! Suppose it had happened in a Christian land — however poorly any land deserves that name. We would think of the memories such a sound would stir in even the hardest hearts. But here there were no memories to stir. It was a new gospel of gladness going out, which those old Romans knew nothing of in such circumstances. They could die well, as we know. They faced death stern and grim, with a song on their lips too, as heroes and patriots. But all that was inspiration from earthly sources, and nothing strange to men. Here was inspiration of another kind. It was a new sound, not of this world, and it held the listeners by its confidence and joy in a God they could not see.

Satan had stirred up the city against these servants of the Lord. He thought he had won a great victory by getting them imprisoned. But God would have the glory over the enemy, and so He filled the mouths of Paul and Silas with praise in the very seat of the enemy's power. God had given them songs in the night. Those songs went up like sweet incense before His throne, and a testimony went with them that bore fruit for eternity.

While others slept and darkness covered the place, these two devoted servants of God kept crying out in prayer for the testimony of Christ. God heard them, and He answered in a remarkable way... He answered the faith and confidence of His servants by an earthquake — not one earthquake, I think, but two. There was a physical earthquake, which shook the prison at Philippi to its foundations. But it became the means of a moral earthquake in the soul of this poor godless pagan jailer.

Could any facts show more clearly whose purpose and hand had worked for His injured ministers? Men could easily argue that an earthquake might happen, and with the most remarkable coincidence of circumstances. But who ever heard of an earthquake so great that it shook the foundations of a large building — not just windows or walls, not just chains or bolts? And all of it so finely adjusted that it threw down nothing and injured no one!

If nothing more had happened, unbelief might have argued that the earthquake was only a common, natural event. It could have claimed the quake had no direct link with the hand of God, or with the imprisonment of Paul and Silas. But the account adds, "everyone's bonds were unfastened." No violence of an earthquake could produce that result. Only God stepping in directly could.

On each of these occasions the Lord Himself chose to show by outward signs that He was present. He approved the testimony His servants were bearing in His name. The Lord Jesus was speaking from heaven. It was His voice... giving strength and encouragement to His witnesses, and blessing His servants with clear tokens of His love and care.

God's power has no limits, in mercy or in judgment. This time He would show it in grace... That all-powerful arm could justly have been raised with the sword of vengeance. It could have pierced the heart of the man who had dared to chain the feet of His dear servants, and hurled him at once to the pit of eternal destruction. But mercy triumphed over judgment.

These men would otherwise have wanted nothing more than to escape and go back to their lawless life. Yet they were so overawed that not one stirred from the opened prison. It was the God of all grace who answered the prayers and praises of His prisoners. He knew how to control the wicked, and He was guiding His servants for His glory.

Suppose Paul had not been in full communion with the mind and heart of Christ. He would surely have turned to Silas and said, "Now is the moment for us to escape."... But no; Paul knew better... The claims of truth had brought him into prison; the activities of grace kept him there. Providence opened the door; but faith refused to walk out. People talk of being guided by Providence; but if Paul had been so guided, the jailer would never have been a jewel in his crown.

God had intervened on behalf of His servants. Yes, and better still, the shock woke the jailer in two ways. First, from his bodily sleep; second, praise God, from his soul's slumber. The shock opened his eyes, and he asked that question of all questions, "What must I do to be saved?"

The jailer wakes up. He realises the doors are open. In a minute he says to himself, "They are all gone; my life is forfeited." He draws his sword, and is about to commit suicide. He knows they will take his life in the morning, for that was the Roman law. If a jailer allowed a prisoner to escape, he had to forfeit his life for the man he had let go. Historians tell us that Philippi was the most remarkable place for suicides. It was quite the fashion, and this poor man was about to launch himself into eternity.

His reaction proves very plainly that the earthquake, and everything that came with it, had not touched his heart. He naturally supposed, when he saw the doors open, that the prisoners were all gone. He could not imagine many prisoners sitting still in jail with the doors open and their chains loose. And then what was to become of him if the prisoners were gone? How could he face the authorities? Impossible. Anything but that. Death, even by his own hand, was preferable to that.

He awoke out of sleep; his conscience owned it as God's dealing. His first feeling was despair and self-destruction. His heart sank and terror filled his mind. His imagination drew the most hopeless conclusion, and Satan's last effort with him was the foul suggestion, "Kill yourself."

Suppose Paul had not been in full communion with the mind and heart of Christ. He would surely have turned to Silas and said, "Now is the moment for us to escape. God has clearly appeared for us and set an open door before us. If there was ever an opening of divine providence, surely this is one." But no; Paul knew better. He was in the full current of his blessed Master's thoughts, and in full sympathy with his Master's heart. So he made no move to escape. The claims of truth had brought him into prison; the activities of grace kept him there. Providence opened the door; but faith refused to walk out. People talk of being guided by providence; but if Paul had been guided that way, the jailer would never have been a jewel in his crown.

God's power is unlimited, both in mercy and in judgment. In this case He would show it in grace. He who struck Saul with blindness and brought him to the Saviour's feet could also bring the jailer there. That all-powerful arm might justly have lifted the sword of vengeance. It could have pierced the heart of the man who dared to chain the feet of His dear servants, and hurled him at once to the pit of eternal destruction. But mercy triumphed over judgment.

He was that near to eternal ruin. How often it has happened in the history of souls that they came to the utmost extremity just as grace was about to appear for them.

Under Roman law, letting a prisoner escape meant death. He knew that death stared him in the face. He was about to send his own soul into eternity by killing himself. Then Paul cried with a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." These words saved him from physical death. But a far deeper question now troubled him. With the drawn sword in his hand he had stood on the very edge of eternity. His sleeping soul had woken up to its desperate need.

Here a deeper purpose was in hand, and a great earthquake announced it. Paul and Silas had been praying to God in hymns, and they stayed in the prison to declare His wonderful works. Yes, these other men would naturally have wanted most of all to escape and go back to their lawless life. Yet they were so overawed that not one moved from the opened prison. It was the God of all grace who answered the prayers and praises of His prisoners. He knew how to control the wicked, and He was guiding His servants for His glory.

Paul, we should notice, was not in the same room as the jailer. So he could not have seen that the man was about to kill himself. But in some way — God taught him — he saw the trap Satan was laying for this poor soul. He cried with a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." The jailer was snatched first from death, and what had happened marked his soul so deeply that he saw more than a human hand in it.

But notice how beautifully the grace of God stepped in. He heard the voice of God's servant, the man he had treated so harshly a few hours before, saying, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." See the effect on this man. The earthquake woke him out of his sleep. Yet I do not think it was the earthquake that touched his conscience. It was this: he heard a man he had treated so brutally, only hours before, calling to him in the most tender, loving way, and stopping him from taking his own life, which he would otherwise have done. Is that not a lovely word for every sinner, "Do not harm yourself"? How many are harming themselves, fighting against God, fighting against the truth, refusing to bow to Jesus.

And notice, Paul did not speak one syllable of reproach to the jailer, or even of criticism. This was Christ-like. It was the way of divine grace. If we look through the Gospels, we never find the Lord throwing reproach at the sinner. He has tears of sorrow; He has touching words of grace and tenderness. But no reproaches — no criticism — not one hard word for the poor distressed sinner.

They had something better — "the excellencies of Him who called them out of darkness into His marvellous light." And where do these excellencies shine out? In those touching words spoken to the jailer, "Do not harm yourself." These were the words of a royal priest, just as the song of praise was the voice of a holy priest. Thank God for both! The voices of the holy priests went straight up to the throne of God and did their work there. The words of the royal priests went straight to the jailer's hard heart and did their work there.

This was irresistible. A hardened sinner could meet an earthquake; he could meet death itself; but he could not withstand the mighty melting power of love. The hardest heart must yield to the moral influence of love... And surely there was love in those words, "Do yourself no harm," coming from the lips of one to whom he had done so much harm a few hours before.

It was in the darkness that Paul had spoken, and the jailer must have thought to himself: "How could that prisoner know I was going to kill myself? How could he know what I was doing in the dark?" He had a sense in his soul that God was there. He called for a light. When a man begins to think seriously about the concerns of his soul, he always wants light. And I will tell you another thing. Every soul I have known come out of nature's darkness into the light of the gospel said the same thing as the truth dawned on it: "I begin to see it."

But imagine how this overwhelmed his conscience. The apostle stopped his hand from suicide by calling out loud that all the prisoners were still there! Light from God penetrated his dark heart on the instant, with a deep desire for mercy, before he got the lights he called for. He needed no more hint about where to turn for the truth he wanted... The depths of his soul were broken up. As his sins rose from every hiding place, he felt instinctively that now was the moment to find God.

He called for a light, sprang into the inner prison, and trembled with fear. There he was, at the feet of Paul and Silas — the last place he had ever expected to be. Then he brought them out. Was it pity only that now took possession of him, or remorse for his treatment of them? There was more than that. Conscience-work had begun in his soul. He was now fully awake. He felt a need so urgent that it would not wait, and would not let him hide it.

In that instant the voice of God had spoken to him. The keeper and his captives had changed places. Those words breathed perfect authority, and with them came great mercy to him. That mercy set aside everything self-concern prompts, to care for a careless and hardened persecutor. This struck him with the conviction that God was with these men. He was in their hands, and not they in his. Conscience and heart woke in him together — the sense of sin, and the goodness that drew him after it.

Light had entered his soul, and it showed him his hopeless condition. We can see the Spirit of God at work here. He was drawn to the feet of men whose mission was to open blind eyes. They were sent to turn people from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.

But God makes use of all this to direct the progress of His own work and to give it the form He pleases. There is the jailer to convert, and the magistrates themselves must confess their wrong... Paul and Silas sing instead of sleeping quietly. The doors burst open. The jailer himself is converted, and his family too... The enemy was mistaken here.

Salvation in any lesser sense is not to be thought of. The earthquake was soon over, the prisoners were all safe; what had he to fear from Roman justice? But God had awakened his soul, and his sins troubled him. He was not facing death from man, but divine judgment at the close of everything. God's servants were there to tell him the way of salvation — the men for whom He had just stepped in with a miracle. Learned men may think what they like. They have never felt the burden of their sins; they catch at words and waste time on doubtful questions. But the jailer's burning anxiety was about the salvation of his soul.

I do not think it was the earthquake that converted the jailer. There were two great quakes that night. The earthquake woke the jailer from his sleep. The second one — I had better call it a soul-quake — woke him up to his state before God. It was not the physical danger that did that... That is a picture of what the gospel does. I tell you, it produces a moral earthquake in a man. When you come under the power of the gospel, you collapse. God lays hold of you and reduces you to nothing.

The Philippian jailer was awakened to a deeper sense than that of being undone in the eyes of men. He called out to the apostle Paul and his companions, "Sirs" (the word means "Lords"), "what must I do to be saved?" This once brutal ruffian, who had treated them shamefully, now approached them with the greatest respect.

This was irresistible. A hardened sinner could face an earthquake; he could face death itself; but he could not stand against the mighty melting power of love. The hardest heart must yield to the moral influence of love... Love can break the hardest heart. And surely there was love in those words, "Do not harm yourself," coming from the lips of a man he had harmed so much a few hours before.

We would say, No. It is the cry of an awakened soul. He sees his danger. He has just seen the power of God displayed, and he knows he is exposed to it. He wants to be rescued from it. This is not a cool theological question, like the one the Pharisees asked in John 6:28. It is like the awakened cry of those convicted by the Spirit under Peter's preaching at Pentecost: "Brothers, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37). At the same time, the anxious man little dreams of the fulness of the precious answer... Nothing to do, for all has been done.

Are you recognising that you can bring nothing to God? That even the things which might be a gain to you among men are worthless before Him? That you are a sinner, and as such lost and undone? That you can therefore do nothing towards your salvation, and that if you are saved it must be by the work and grace of another? If you are, then we can unfold to you the blessed truth in these words: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved."

It was salvation that filled the jailer's whole soul, nothing less than salvation — not religious ceremonies, but salvation. This is also the anxious question of every truly enlightened soul. And we need not go to commentators or learned doctors for the right answer, for the Scriptures tell us plainly.

But what is the jailer told to do? God's answer to man's query is beautiful in its simplicity. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house," falls on the ears of the awakened sinner. He had only to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and he would be a saved man. There is no word of anything that he must do to get salvation. This gospel exactly meets helpless sinners who have no strength. No wonder the jailer believed at once.

Nothing that he could do could secure God's salvation. The doing had all been done by Christ. All that is left for the sinner is taking hold of the results of His mighty work by simple faith.

Why does he here repeat all these titles of the Saviour? Because he is presenting Him to this anxious soul as the Object of faith, and in such a way as to fully satisfy his awakened conscience... If the question of the troubled heart is, Is He willing to save me? The answer is, Yes; He is JESUS, and came into the world for the very purpose of saving sinners. If the question is, Is He able to save me? The answer is, Yes; He is "LORD of all," and has all power in heaven and on earth. And He is the CHRIST, the anointed One in heaven, following on His finished work on the cross. That is the unquestionable proof that everyone who has come as a sinner to Him the Saviour is forgiven and blessed.

The Scripture says this, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." It is not enough to know that the Bible says so. The devils know that well enough, and so does the unbeliever. But do you know that God says so — that it is God speaking to us in the Bible? Now, if God says so, is it not true?... The jailer understood it to mean just what God said, and he was baptized at once. He raised no questions. "He rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." If he believed and rejoiced, why should you doubt?

We often quote Acts 16:31, but too often we leave out the last three words. God loves to identify a man's house with himself and include them in His offer of blessing. Why do we not more often take hold of this fact in our faith?... This is surely most encouraging for every head of a house whom the grace of God reaches. God shows no partiality: what He is to one He is to all.

His being brought to God puts his whole house in a sanctified (set apart) position, as 1 Corinthians 7:14 plainly teaches. In this way the house is saved. Yet each person in the house must still personally receive the Lord Jesus to have eternal salvation.

There "only believe" was quite in place, and to have "demanded good works" would have been worse than useless. Yet within one short hour of conversion the jailer performed his first good work, the fruit and proof of his faith... He did it not to be saved, but as the result of the change that grace had worked within.

But you might say to me: what did this man know about the Lord Jesus Christ? I do not think he knew anything at all about Him up to that moment. That is why the next verse is so important. They did not stop at merely saying, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." They unfolded the gospel to him. They brought out the glorious truth of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But this was not all the jailer heard. From the words "they spoke the word of the Lord to him," I have no doubt Paul brought out the account of the birth of Jesus, and of His holy, gracious life. He told the story of His death on the cross when men put Him there, and how at that moment He completed the work of redemption, which He alone could do. He told how God laid on Him the iniquity of us all, and how He who knew no sin was made sin for us. After His suffering ended in His atoning death and the shedding of His blood, He was laid in the grave for three days. After the third day He rose from the dead, and was received up into glory at the right hand of the Father.

Some assume that the jailer's house held only children, too young to be responsible. But Scripture lets us press the disproof to the very end. Verse 32 adds that they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house, as if the Holy Spirit had planned in advance to leave no possible excuse for such strange teaching. Only those who could hear the word were concerned at that moment. The call itself brought no one else within the terms of the blessing, whatever grace might do afterwards.

So here the jailer rejoiced, but not as a stand-in for his family. They too rejoiced, as truly in their measure as he did. Only his joy, as one who had believed in God, is named. We are meant to understand the joy of faith in the case of all. It is a beautiful picture of how real and active God's grace is in this world, and this in the whole house of a hardened pagan.

Here the salvation of his house stands as the normal result of his own believing. In what follows we hear nothing of their faith, only of his — though we read that they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. It is "he" rejoiced, "he" believed.

They sang praises with their feet in the stocks. They had kept the jailer, who had shown them no kindness but the opposite, from the guilt of suicide. Now we learn how grace worked in him. He displayed the fruits of the divine nature. He took them that same hour of the night and washed their wounds. He confessed the Lord and was counted as His disciple, along with his household, for all of them were baptized at once. He set food before Paul and Silas, who no doubt needed it. He showed thought, love and concern for these two men — surely the fruit of that divine nature which he had just come to share.

The "house" of the believer also came inside the blessed circle of grace. So the households of God's people become spheres of light in the moral darkness of this world. But this only happens where they know the truth, and hold to the Lord's claims and authority.

What a marvellous change! The ruthless jailer has become the generous host! "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." How clearly we can now see that Paul was right in not being guided by circumstances! How much better and higher to be led by the "eye" of God! What an eternal loss it would have proved to him had he walked out at the open door! How much better to be led out by the very hand that had thrust him in — a hand once the instrument of cruelty and sin, now the instrument of righteousness and love!

The jailer took them "that hour" of the night, however awkward the hour might seem. That is the force of the words, rather than "the same," which the text does not say, though of course that was true as well. But we must give exactly what was written and meant. After washing their stripes he and all his were baptized without delay, it would seem within the prison grounds. Then he brought them "up" into his house, apparently above the prisoners' quarters, saw to their food and comfort, and rejoiced with all his house, having believed in God.

The jailer heard the gospel: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." He believed, and he was saved. Clearly he believed with his heart and confessed with his mouth… He did not wait till the morning.

He is born again by the word of truth, and his whole way of life is changed… A few hours before, he saw nothing more in Paul and Silas to call out affection and sympathy than in the other prisoners. But now he sees everything with new eyes… This was a fine example of the fruit of the Spirit, and it proved that his profession was sincere. His love was not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

But more than this, he carried out the mind of the Lord: "he was baptized."… He knew that the Lord Jesus Christ had saved him. He knew that he had redemption in Christ through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. So it was not a burden but a sweet privilege to take part in an ordinance where he would feel for himself what it means to be buried with Christ. Faith does not argue; it believes and acts on God's word.

"And was baptized, he and all his." What an expressive phrase: "HE AND ALL HIS." Here we have our warrant for household baptism. "He and all his" represents, as briefly as could be wished, the divine and gracious principle that runs all through God's dealings with His people.

Thoughtful men on all sides admit that the households of Scripture decide nothing about this. There may have been no infants… We never hear of Peter or anyone else setting out first of all to baptize. They set out to preach. Then those who received the word were baptized.

These prisoners had shown what spirit they were of. They sang praises with their feet in the stocks. ... Now we learn how grace worked in him. He showed the fruits of the divine nature. He showed that he was converted. Consideration for them came first. He took them that same hour of the night and washed their stripes... he set food before Paul and Silas, who no doubt needed it... and now, his heart full, he rejoiced greatly with all his house, having believed in God. How well he could now understand those two singing hymns to God at midnight, since he and they shared the same grace and the same joy.

And now everything is changed. The jailer takes the prisoners into his own house — his cruelty is turned into love, sympathy, and hospitality... What an eventful night! What a change in a few hours! And what a joyful morning dawned on that happy house!

He was told to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I read that he believed in God. Why was that? What he had heard led him to see that the blessed Man he had been told about, the Lord Jesus Christ, was really God. The blessed One who became Man to die for his sins and save him was the eternal, blessed Son of God. Accepting that truth and believing it with the simplicity of a little child, he believed in God "with all his house." Note that! Not only he himself, but his whole house was marked out for blessing. Paul had found his man, but he got a good many besides.

The record is as plain as possible. The Philippian jailer asked in deep distress what he must do to be saved. He was not told to be baptized first and believe afterwards. He was told, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household" — without one word about baptism. No one doubts that he and all his were baptized that same hour. But the word of God is too wise and holy to hint at any such thing. It gives not the smallest support to the idea that he was baptized before he believed, just because it says later that he rejoiced, believing in God. On the contrary, look at the tenses. His joy stands in the aorist, the simple past. His faith stands in the form that implies a present, continuing result of something already past.

The Greek phrase for "with all his house" is without doubt adverbial. But that makes no real difference to the sense... So here the jailer rejoiced. He did not rejoice as a representative standing in for his family. They rejoiced too, as truly as he did, in their measure, though his joy as believing in God is the one specified. We are meant to understand the joy of faith in the case of all. A beautiful picture of the reality and activity of God's grace in this world — and this with the whole house of a hardened pagan.

We have to translate it this way, since any other rendering in English is awkward. Even so, "with all his house" is not used here as it is later with Crispus, where it says he "believed with all his house" (Acts 18:8). Here it is an adverb, and there should be a reason for the difference — the effect being to make the joy more simply his own. At least this is certain: although they had spoken the word to all who were in his house, faith is ascribed to him alone.

Paul and Silas were in dire circumstances, yet they made the praises of God ring through the prison at Philippi. What results followed, for the blessing of men and the glory of God! A whole household "rejoiced, believing in God." Do we wonder that Paul's later letter to the believers at Philippi is so full of rejoicing?

Rhabdouchos literally means "one who carried a rod." He was a junior Roman officer who attended the magistrates to carry out their orders. Another name for him was lictor. Acts 16:35, 38. These men carried a bundle of rods with an axe in the centre.

Another mark of a Roman colony appears here: the praetors employed lictors as their subordinates. The vague name "serjeants" hides who these men were, just as "magistrates" hides the higher officials.

Now that everything was calm, the magistrates tried, in the wisdom of the world, to let the affair blow over in silence. But when God works and shows Himself, He makes it plain that He has rights in this world.

The work in the prison is done, and now the prison doors can hold them no longer. When day came, the magistrates sent the lictors with a curt message: "Let those men go." But Paul wants no avoidable reproach left on the testimony. He refuses to be dismissed this way. The magistrates had wronged these men in public without ever condemning them.

But now that they had endured all this, it was fitting to prove the truth. Paul and Silas were not evildoers, justly punished with scourging, prison and the stocks. The guilty ones were the guardians of the law. Their injustice against the preachers of the gospel was open, obvious and inexcusable. The time came when the praetors sent to let them go...

The angry, crowd-pleasing surrender to unjust shouting had now passed away. The next morning came word to dismiss the abused prisoners of the day before. The jailer naturally repeated his orders, no doubt glad to release them. But Paul was now as firm for the vindication of the gospel as he and his companion had earlier been meek under their lawless violence. He stood in a dignified way for the law too, which these men were administering so unworthily. If there is a time to keep silent, there is a time to speak. The Spirit alone can guide us as to which. The word alone is enough, since it warrants both, each in its right season.

The preachers of grace were certainly not going to swerve from grace, least of all now that the truth was clear. They had no wish to dishonour any human institution. They wanted the opposite — to be examples of submission to it for the Lord's sake, the very submission they urged so plainly on others. They were easily persuaded, having never thought of a prosecution.

Paul refused to accept this. But by standing on his rights as a Roman citizen, did he hold to the truth of his heavenly calling? Was he still at the spiritual level of the night before, when he and Silas prayed and sang praises to God? That may be questioned... He did not plead his citizenship to save himself from scourging and imprisonment, but only to expose the injustice of the magistrates.

At Philippi he was right; but his use of the plea that he was a Roman sent him to Rome.

The next morning the magistrates sent word to him: "Let those men go." So he came and said to Paul, "The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace." What a change between the way he received the Lord's servants and the way he sent them away! A wonderful change comes over a man when he receives the gospel. The jailer knew it well as he said "Go in peace" — the very words his Lord and Saviour had often used to others.

Here is another sign of a Roman colony: the praetors used lictors as their junior officers. The vague English word "serjeants" hides who the lictors were, just as the word "magistrates" hides the higher officials, the praetors.

News of the earthquake may have reached them, or news that Paul and Silas were Romans. As soon as it was day, they sent word to the jailer to "let those men go." He told Paul and Silas the order at once, and wanted them to leave in peace. But Paul refused to accept his freedom without some public admission of the wrong he had suffered… The famous words of Cicero had become a proverb, and they carried great weight everywhere: "To bind a Roman citizen is an outrage, to flog him is a crime."

When day came, the magistrates sent the lictors with a curt message: "Let those men go." But Paul wants no avoidable reproach left on the testimony. He will not slip away like this after such a public wrong done to men whom no court had condemned.

The jailer passed the order on, no doubt glad to release them. But Paul was now just as firm, in a dignified way, in defending the gospel — and even the law, which these men administered so unworthily — as he and his companion had been before, when they bore their lawless violence with uncomplaining meekness. If there is a time to keep silent, there is a time to speak. The Spirit alone can guide us as to which, and for that the word is enough, since it warrants both, each in its due season.

Paul refused to accept this. But we may ask whether he held to the truth of his heavenly calling when he took the ground of a Roman citizen, or whether he stood as high spiritually as he had the night before, when he and Silas prayed and sang praises to God. Either way, notice this: he did not plead his citizenship to save himself from flogging and prison. He pleaded it only to expose the injustice of the magistrates.

But God uses all of this to direct the progress of His own work and to give it the shape He pleases. The jailer is to be converted, and the magistrates themselves are to confess the wrong they did to the messengers of God. The church is gathered out — a flock full of love and affection, as the letter later written to them shows… The magistrates have to come and plead with Paul. That is the result of the riot. The enemy was mistaken here.

They came with a command from their superiors to let the prisoners go. In their zeal for the law those magistrates had ordered a beating and a prison cell. Now they were to learn that they were the law-breakers. They had beaten two men who held the right of Roman citizenship, and had done it without a verdict. The Romans guarded that right closely, and breaking it was no light matter for the offender. The magistrates had thereby laid themselves open to prosecution. So, at the mercy of their victims, they now cringed before them.

The famous words of Cicero had passed into a proverb, and carried immense weight everywhere: "To bind a Roman citizen is an outrage, to scourge him is a crime." The magistrates had plainly broken the Roman laws. But Paul demanded only one thing. They had treated him and Silas as guilty in public, so they must come and declare them innocent in public.

Earlier Paul and his companion had borne their lawless violence in uncomplaining meekness. Now Paul was just as firm, in a dignified way, in defending the gospel — and even the law, which these men administered so unworthily. If there is a time to keep silent, there is a time to speak; and the Spirit alone can guide as to either.

It was right that the truth should be shown. Paul and Silas were not evildoers who deserved the beating, the prison and the stocks. The guardians of the law were the guilty ones, and their wrong against the preachers of the gospel was blatant, obvious and inexcusable… Yet there was no sign of resentment in Paul, and no wish to hurt these men or to squeeze anything out of them. They now lay completely in the power of the two men they had injured for no reason.

One thing more remained to be done. God's servants had been publicly shamed and unjustly condemned, and God would have them publicly cleared… It is a fair question whether Paul, in taking the ground of a Roman citizen, kept true to his heavenly calling. Either way, notice that he did not plead his citizenship to save himself from the beating and the prison. He pleaded it only to expose the injustice of the magistrates.

When Paul tried to use his rights as a Roman to stop injustice, he lost his liberty and went to Rome as a prisoner, even though the Lord was directing everything. But here he did not try to stop the injustice. He submitted to it. He used the right only afterwards, when the question was the innocence of the gospel and of its conduct, and when it turned out that the magistrates, and not he, were in the wrong.

But God makes use of all this to direct the progress of His own work, and give it the form He pleases. The jailer is to be converted, and the magistrates themselves are to confess the wrong they did to the messengers of God. God gathers out an assembly there, a flock full of love and affection… The magistrates have to come and plead with Paul. Such is the result of the tumult. The enemy was mistaken here.

Their fear drove them to beg Paul and Silas not only to leave the prison, but the city. It is good to see that Paul and Silas were not at all defiant, but went along with it, as true servants of God.

The word literally means "one who carried a rod." This was a junior Roman officer who attended the magistrates to carry out their orders. He was also called a lictor. Acts 16:35, 38. These officers carried a bundle of rods with an axe in the centre.

In zeal for the law those magistrates had inflicted corporal punishment and imprisonment. Now they were to learn that they were the law-breakers. They had beaten two men without trial, and those men held the right of Roman citizenship. The Romans guarded that right closely, and to act against it was no light matter for the offender. The magistrates had laid themselves open to prosecution. So, at the mercy of their victims, they now cringed before them.

The lictors bring back Paul's words to the magistrates. When they heard that the men they had made suffer were Romans, they could not hide their fear. They came and begged their prisoners. It was a humiliation for them, and just as clearly a triumph for the men entrusted with God's gospel. These men had suffered only as Christians, with the Spirit of glory and of God resting on them.

They had been publicly put to shame and unjustly condemned. God would have His servants just as publicly vindicated. In the morning the magistrates sent a message to release the apostles. Paul refused to accept it.

Earlier Paul and his companion had borne their lawless violence with uncomplaining meekness. Paul was now just as firm, in a dignified way, for the vindication of the gospel — and even of the law, which these men administered so badly. If there is a time to keep silent, there is a time to speak. The Spirit alone can guide as to either. The word alone is enough for this, for it warrants both, each in its due season.

Here he did not try to stop the injustice; he submitted. He used this right only afterwards. By then the question was the innocence of the gospel and of its conduct, and it had turned out that the magistrates, and not he, were in the wrong.

Did he hold to the truth of his heavenly calling when he took the ground of a Roman citizen? Was he still at the spiritual level of the previous night, when he and Silas prayed and sang praises to God? Both may be questioned. Either way, notice this: he did not plead his citizenship to protect himself from flogging and prison. He pleaded it only to expose the injustice of the magistrates.

The preachers of grace were not inclined to turn away from grace, least of all now that the truth was clear. Nor had they any wish to dishonour any human institution. They wanted rather to be patterns of that submission themselves, for the Lord's sake — the very submission they were so well known for urging on others. They were easily persuaded, having never thought of a prosecution.

In their zeal for the law, those magistrates had beaten the men and put them in prison. Now they were to learn that they themselves were the law-breakers. They had flogged two men who held Roman citizenship, and had never even tried them. The Romans guarded that right jealously, and breaking it was no light matter for the offender. So the magistrates had left themselves open to prosecution. Now they were at the mercy of their victims. They cringed before them and, as Paul had insisted, came in person, brought them out of the prison, and asked them to leave the city.

The famous words of Cicero had become a proverb, and they carried immense weight everywhere: "To bind a Roman citizen is an outrage, to flog him is a crime." The magistrates had clearly broken the Roman laws. Yet Paul demanded only one thing. They had publicly treated him and Silas as guilty, so they must now come and publicly declare them innocent. They did this willingly, seeing what wrong they had done.

Earlier Paul and his companion had borne their lawless violence with quiet, uncomplaining meekness. Now Paul stood just as firm, in a dignified way, to clear the name of the gospel — and even of the law, which these men administered so unworthily. If there is a time to keep silent, there is a time to speak; and the Spirit alone can guide as to either.

The officers bring Paul's words back to the magistrates. When they heard that the men they had punished were Romans, they could not hide their fear. They came and begged their prisoners. It was a humiliation for them, and just as clearly a triumph for the men entrusted with God's gospel. These men had suffered only as Christians, with the Spirit of glory and of God resting on them.

Paul is concerned that no avoidable reproach should be left on the testimony. He will not let them dismiss him like this after the public wrong done to men who were never tried.

The preachers of grace were certainly not likely to turn away from grace, least of all now that the truth was clear. They had no wish to dishonour any human institution. They wanted to be examples of the very submission to it, for the Lord's sake, which they so plainly urged on others. They were easily persuaded, for they had never thought of a prosecution.

Their fear drove them to beg Paul and Silas to leave not only the prison but the city. It is good to see that Paul and Silas were not at all defiant, but submitted to this urging, as true servants of God.

Paul refused to accept this. He now stood on his rights as a Roman citizen. Did that hold to the truth of his heavenly calling? Was he still on the spiritual level of the previous night, when he and Silas prayed and sang praises to God? Both may be questioned. Either way, notice this: he did not plead his citizenship to save himself from flogging and prison, but only to expose the injustice of the magistrates.

To suffer with patience, to sing while under pressure — this is power. Then, with that same strength, once we are free, we can carry on the Lord's work with the same courage. The apostle says this about such circumstances in Thessalonians 2:2. Stoned and shamefully treated at Philippi, he keeps preaching the gospel at Thessalonica with boldness and energy. God leads through persecution just as by every other means. The Apostle picks places where there were synagogues. Passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, he stops at Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue. "To the Jew first and also to the Greek" marked his work.

From the capital of Macedonia Prima they went to Thessalonica, the capital of Macedonia Secunda. They passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, along the great Roman road, the Via Egnatia. The journey was about one hundred Roman miles. Thessalonica had a synagogue of the Jews; Philippi did not. At Thessalonica the Jews were prominent, and led the uproar.

A large and populous city on the sea coast of Macedonia... Under the Romans it was a city of note. In time it became a free city and the capital of Macedonia. It lay on one of the routes from Rome to the East, and became a great commercial centre. This naturally attracted Jews to the place, and they had a synagogue. When Paul had preached there, some Jews and many Greeks believed.

It is remarkable that the older manuscripts leave out the word "the" before "synagogue," and so do the Authorized and Revised Versions. But the evidence for its presence is ample and varied. On one hand, it is almost impossible to imagine anyone adding it unless it stood there from the start. On the other hand, its omission is easy to understand, because of its unusual construction. The word would be fully justified if there was only that one synagogue in the district. That would make it well known. At Philippi we saw that there was none; there was only the place of prayer by the river, where a few used to gather on the sabbath.

Luke gives us no details as to what happened in Amphipolis and Apollonia, but moves on to the events in Thessalonica. In this chapter, we notice, the pronoun "we" is not used. Luke was not as involved as Paul and Silas in the disturbances at Philippi, so he possibly stayed there to help the converts further.

Again we see that God had a company prepared to receive His word, and again we see the activity of the enemy. In Philippi Satan used the masters of the slave girl and the Gentile crowd to afflict the servants of the Lord; at Thessalonica he used the Jews who did not believe.

We may notice the practice of the apostle, which matched the principle so familiar in his inspired words, "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." At Salamis they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. It was indeed the only religious place where any such liberty existed. And this was God's order until Jerusalem was destroyed, or at least until the letter to the Hebrews was written. Until then the door was open, and anyone with a Jewish standing was free there to read or explain the Scriptures.

The same word means "speaking" in general, or "reasoning" in particular, or even "disputing"... Context alone can decide. The synagogue was where he spoke, so we may be sure of this: the testimony of the Old Testament was the broad ground on which Paul appealed to his hearers.

Paul proved a suffering and risen Christ out of the Scriptures. He showed it not only as a truth in what they owned to be the word of God, but as an absolute necessity because of man's sin, and as the only adequate remedy in God's grace. Then came the clinching conclusion: "This is the Christ Jesus, Whom I announce to you." No miracle was needed here to catch attention. The Scriptures are a testimony beyond miracles, and the most permanent of all testimony.

He is doing the same as the Lord did in Luke 24 with the disciples from Emmaus. He is a Jewish Christian. He opens the Old Testament to his fellow Jews, who are not Christians yet, to present the Christ, the Messiah, to them. He explains that this Messiah must suffer — the same "must" we find in Luke 24... Paul had been in the school of God and so he followed his Master's example!

The Gospel also came to them "in much assurance." That matters. Turn back to Acts 17 and see the form Paul's preaching took in their city: he reasoned with them from the Scriptures... In other words, among these people he had built his gospel preaching and appeal especially on THE WORD OF GOD; so the MUCH ASSURANCE in the converts.

An apostle could speak inspired words himself. Yet he appealed to the Scriptures, and the result was solid and lasting. We have only the Scripture to appeal to, so we may well make it the basis of all we preach... A preacher may convince us that things are as he says, on the strength of his own confidence. Converts may tell us they have every assurance because of the happy feelings they experience. But there is as little real assurance in the one as in the other.

Paul had spent at most three or four weeks in Thessalonica. He had only "on three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures" (Acts 17:2). All the teaching the believers had came from him in that short visit... Everywhere people were relating how these Thessalonian converts had "turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven."

Paul proved a suffering and a risen Christ from the Scriptures. He showed it not just as a truth in what they owned to be the word of God. He showed it as the absolute necessity because of man's sin, and the only adequate remedy in God's grace. Then came the clinching conclusion: "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ." He needed no miracle here to catch attention. The Scriptures are a testimony beyond miracles, and the most permanent of all testimony.

In Acts 17 we find Paul preaching at Thessalonica in a Jewish synagogue, and as was his custom, he "reasoned with them out of the Scriptures." What Scriptures? The Old Testament... In his first letter to the Thessalonian believers, Paul writes by the Holy Spirit that he thanked God without ceasing, because they received his message "not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers" (1 Thess. 2:13). What testimony could prove the divine inspiration of the Old Testament Scriptures more fully?

In Acts 17:3 we have a short but very full summary of the apostle's talks during these three Sabbaths in the synagogue. First, that the Christ had to suffer. Psalm 22, Isaiah 53 and many other Scriptures prove clearly that the Messiah should suffer. Second, that He must rise again from the dead. Psalm 16:9–11 states this plainly, and both Peter and Paul use it that way in the earlier chapters of Acts. Third, both are true only of "this Jesus, whom I proclaim to you."

"It was necessary for the Christ to suffer." It was a necessity, for all have sinned, and the wages of sin is death, and after this the judgment. If sinners were ever to escape the judgment to come, and to know the unspeakable blessing of sins forgiven, Christ had to suffer. And this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. He is both Lord and Christ, and there is no salvation in any name but His. Suppose men could have cleansed their own souls, atoned for their own sins, and saved themselves from Satan's power and the just judgment of God. Would God then have sent His well-beloved Son to suffer?

Jesus is His personal name as a Man born in this world. Christ, meaning the Anointed One, describes an office He fills. But Jesus is the Christ (see Acts 17:3), and there is no other Christ but He.

He opened the Scriptures, and he did this without mentioning the name of the Lord Jesus at all. He showed from the Old Testament that the Messiah promised to them must suffer and rise from the dead. The Jews had forgotten this great truth: the sufferings of the Messiah come first, and the glory follows. A crucified Christ was their stumbling block (1 Cor. 1:23). They looked only to the glory side, and to the national promises being fulfilled through Him.

You will notice in his way of preaching that there was not one word about what man must do. Paul treated men as lost, and he had a message from God for them... Not a word about all men being under the law, or about Christ keeping it for them. The Jews of that synagogue were seeking to be justified by keeping the law. They needed an entire change of mind — repentance. And the facts Paul preached produced that repentance.

Paul proved from the Scriptures that the Christ must suffer and rise. He did not present this only as a truth in what they acknowledged to be the word of God. He showed it was absolutely necessary because of man's sin, and the only adequate remedy in God's grace. Then came the clinching conclusion: "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ." No miracle was needed here to catch attention. The Scriptures are a testimony beyond miracles, and the most lasting testimony of all.

As the apostle wrote afterwards, "our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction" (1 Thess. 1:5). The harvest was large, not only among the Jews, but far more among the Gentiles, including not a few women of rank. No church in the apostles' day showed greater simplicity, freshness, and power of the truth than the Thessalonians.

In Acts we often meet a Greek word used in the sense of "one who serves God." We point out this expression because it marks a class of people. They were not Jews, yet they avoided the emptiness and defilements of paganism, and took part in Jewish worship. See Acts 13:43, 50; 16:14; 17:4, 17; 18:7, 13.

Some of the Jews became convinced that the Lord Jesus is the Christ, and they accepted Him as their Saviour and Lord. But most of the church were devout Greeks. These were not heathen. They were Greeks who had given up idols and had become converts to the Jewish faith. They were convinced that paganism was wrong. They wanted light, so they attended the synagogue services. Of this class a great multitude believed. The third class mentioned are women who held positions of distinction.

The decisive moment had come. The believers showed themselves openly. They identified themselves with Paul and Silas and joined them. It was like the two disciples who heard John the Baptist say, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" (John 1:36). They followed Jesus and stayed with Him that day. It is always so when Christ is preached. The unbelievers show themselves too. They besieged the house of Jason, where Paul and his companion were staying.

As a result of this preaching, "some" of the Jews and "a great many" of the Gentiles believed. They also proved their faith was real. They identified themselves in public with the Lord's servants, for we read that they joined Paul and Silas. They did not keep their faith to themselves. They did not try to escape shame by staying secret disciples. They believed in Jesus, and boldly confessed their faith. The result was that they had at once to face persecution.

Paul and his friends had just come from suffering and shameful treatment at Philippi. Far from being cowed by this, they had such confidence in God that again they spoke the Word with courage. Its power was such that even some of the Jews believed, along with a great many devout Greeks and not a few leading women. So God gave His faithful servants a time of much encouragement. It came after severe suffering, and before further troubles in Thessalonica itself.

The success of the gospel always tends to rouse bitter opposition. That is true nowhere more than among the Jews. They felt keenly the bitter spite that is natural to people overwhelmed by their own Scriptures — Scriptures they could not explain, yet would not bow to.

Envy led to the first murder, when Cain killed his brother. And envy led to the greatest murder, when the Jews crucified their Messiah. If men moved by envy will commit murder, we need not be surprised that respectable Jews stooped to use base, worthless men to carry out their ends.

Here we see the usual lack of common honesty that marks the religious attackers of the truth. The Jews professed the fear of God. Yet out of jealousy they did not hesitate to form a party with wicked men of the lowest sort against the gospel. Godless pagans were good enough allies against the truth of their own Messiah. Worldly desires would not let them recognise Him in Jesus, who suffered and then rose. God was in none of their thoughts.

Just as in the days of the apostles, "wicked men of the rabble" and "devout and honourable women" found one point on which they could agree. These two classes were far apart, socially and morally. Yet both utterly rejected the word of God and those who faithfully preached it. (Compare Acts 13:50 with Acts 17:5.) So we always find that men who differ in almost everything else agree in their determined opposition to the Bible.

The unbelieving Jews, moved with envy, got hold of wicked men of the lowest sort and gathered a crowd. They set the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason. Jason was one of the believers and a relative of Paul (see Rom. 16:21). Paul must have been staying with this relative, so they tried to bring him and his companions out.

They proved their faith was real by identifying themselves in public with the Lord's servants. We read that they "joined Paul and Silas." They did not keep their faith to themselves. They did not try to escape reproach by staying secret disciples. They believed in Jesus, and boldly confessed their faith. The result was that they had at once to face persecution.

Jason, Paul's host, was the special object of their hostility. They surrounded his house. They wanted to bring the Lord's servants out before the people — that is, the regular assembly of the city.

Jealousy was aroused. Unbelieving Jews worked on the rabble — "vile fellows," as an older translation puts it — to make an uproar. The Jews would not eat with such people. Yet they had no qualms about calling in their help to stop the movement if they could. In this they partly succeeded, and they searched for Paul and Silas in the house of Jason, but in vain. They could not find them. The Lord watched over His servants, and on this occasion sheltered them in some way the historian does not explain.

Here we see the usual lack of common honesty which marks the religious opponents of the truth. The Jews claimed to fear God. Yet jealousy drove them to join forces with wicked men of the lowest sort against the gospel. Depraved pagans were good enough allies against the truth of their own Messiah. Worldly desires would not let them recognise Him in Jesus, who suffered and then rose again. God was in none of their thoughts. Their degradation showed in the company they kept to gather a crowd and set the city in uproar.

This is an old accusation, and one which always comes from the wrong side. Pontius Pilate could find no fault in Jesus. Even so, the priests and the rulers insisted all the more: "He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place" (Luke 23:5). What do they say against Paul and Silas at Philippi? "These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city" (Acts 16:20). And at Thessalonica? "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also" (Acts 17:6).

At Philippi the riot began with money-making Gentiles who had been disappointed. At Thessalonica unbelieving Jews were behind even worse opposition and disorder. They branded Paul and Silas as "these men who have turned the world upside down." Without meaning to, they paid tribute to the mighty power of the gospel, preached with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. They might oppose it, but they could not stop its advance.

The gospel still has the character it had when Paul preached it: it turned "the world upside down." Nothing was to stand before it. Nothing could be allowed alongside it. Judaism, pagan religion, and all the rest — it overturned them all. It pressed the claims of God on each person. It did more than teach truth about God. It showed its hearers where they stood before God. The gospel comes and says, "You are lost"; and it does turn the world upside down. It is a new thing for people to be told, You are all wrong.

In Thessalonica people misrepresented him. They imagined he was turning "the world upside down" and "acting against the decrees of Caesar" (Acts 17:6-7). Neither claim was true. The gospel leaves the world-system untouched. But it calls individual people out of the world, and turns them right side up, according to God.

Those were blessed days. The church had no powerful backers and no wealth of its own. Its leading preacher had to say, "I have no silver and gold." Yet the church carried on all its work in simple faith in the name of Jesus, and in the awareness of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Why was such a state of things ever allowed to pass away? In those days penniless men "turned the world upside down," and their own enemies said so.

The Jews bring Jason before the rulers and charge him with sheltering Paul and Silas in his home. The rulers were troubled. But they were not as cruel and unjust as the rulers at Philippi, who had Paul and Silas beaten. They only take security from Jason and the others and release them.

That the preachers of divine grace "turned the world upside down" was natural to say, and became a standing reproach, however untrue. Yet it is understandable, because the gospel reaches among high and low, and separates people from the world by a divine bond to Christ in heaven. But for that very reason it does not interfere with the authority of the world. On the contrary, it commands every soul to be subject to that authority as God's ordinance here below.

It was even a threat to the authority and claims of Caesar. How loyal to the Imperial dynasty the Jews could become! At home, they wanted to shake off Roman rule. Abroad, when it suited their purpose, they played the part of Rome's fearless champions.

No doubt the insinuation was unfounded and malicious. But it had a show of evidence in the prominence given to the kingdom of God in which Jesus was to come. For He had gone, among other purposes, to receive that kingdom and to return. It is ill-willed folly to claim that this expectation stands against the rights of Caesar. Still, it is plain that the teaching was very far from modern doctrine, which no one could misread that way.

Paul first claimed that Jesus is the Messiah. Second, he asserts that this Jesus, the Messiah, was also King. We gather this from the challenge of his accusers.

Do we not see divine greatness and shepherd care in one blessed Person? He can be none other than the One our verse calls "another king, one Jesus." "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah… from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days" (Micah 5:2). He, the Eternal One, is the Ruler of His people!

People soon understood this about Christians: they had "another king, one Jesus." His sovereignty meant freedom in obedience — the sweetest possible absolute rule of a perfect and divine love.

Paul's host, Jason, was the special object of their hostility. They surrounded his house. They wanted to bring the Lord's servants out in front of the people — the public assembly of the city.

They only take security from Jason and the others and release them… We know from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians that the assembly left there suffered serious persecution after this. Though so young in the faith, they kept up an exemplary witness to Christ and the gospel without Paul and Silas to encourage them.

With His kingdom and glory before us, we can gladly bear present shame and suffering. Our whole way of life is lifted by it.

Not finding them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the city rulers. That is a distinctive title for the local authorities. It confirms Luke's accuracy all the more, because the term appears in no known remains of Greek antiquity. But an inscription still survives on the marble arch of the western gate of Saloniki. It proves that this was the title of the Thessalonian magistrates, and that there were seven of them.

The outcry of the attackers in verses 6 and 7 teaches us much, at least in its second half. It was natural to say that the preachers of divine grace "turned the world upside down." That became a standing reproach, however untrue... But we cannot look for truth in a foolish cry raised by envious Jews and idle loafers among the Gentiles. They only wanted an appearance convincing enough to arouse the fears of the magistrates, and so drive away the chief heralds of the truth.

How loyal to the imperial dynasty the Jews could become! At home they wanted to shake off the Roman yoke; abroad, when it suited their purpose, they played the part of Rome's brave champions. These accusations, once made, troubled the crowd and the rulers. The politarchs could not ignore them.

Yet it is understandable. The gospel reaches both high and low, and it separates people from the world by a divine bond to Christ in heaven. But for that very reason it does not interfere with the authority of the world. On the contrary, it commands every soul to obey that authority, which God has set in place here below. It ties the hearts of believers, simply and completely, to the rejected One, now glorified in heaven.

As to their accusation against Paul and Silas, they claim the two were breaking Caesar's decrees. Not that the accusers had any regard for Caesar. They used the same contemptible tactics the Pharisees had used in accusing the Lord Jesus. Their only specific charge is that these men say there is another king, Jesus.

The insinuation was groundless and malicious, without doubt. But it had a show of evidence in the prominence given to the kingdom of God in which Jesus was to come... Paul and his companions kept the constant expectation of Christ's coming reign before the believers. This was no secret for insiders. It was a powerful hope that shaped conduct as well as doctrine, and they pressed it from first to last through the whole Christian life. The opening chapter of the first letter shows that it marked the Thessalonian converts from their very starting point. They turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

The rulers were troubled along with the people. Yet they were wiser than those of Philippi, for they took security from Jason and let them go.

But the world was hostile... Persecution soon fell heavily on the young converts, as the letter shows.

The world was hostile. Yet at that point the rulers did nothing more than take bail from Jason and the rest and let them go, since they had not found the preachers. [Footnote:] Luke does not use the older Greek technical term for bail. He uses a phrase that matches the Latin legal term satisdatio — giving sufficient security.

The Jews dragged Jason and some other believers before the city rulers. They accused them of teaching things against Caesar's authority, and of saying that there was another king, Jesus. But the rulers, though troubled along with the people, were wiser than those of Philippi. They took security from Jason and let them go. Paul and his companions, the main accused, were not there, so they were not found. The believers saw the door shut against the work for the moment, and sent Paul and Silas to Berea, a nearby city.

That the preachers of divine grace "turned the world upside down" was natural to say, and became a standing reproach, however untrue... But for that very reason the gospel does not interfere with the authority of the world. Instead it tells every person to submit to that authority, because God has set it up here on earth. It simply but fully binds the heart of those who believe to the One the world rejected, now glorified in heaven... They only sought an appearance strong enough to arouse the fears of the magistrates, and so drive away the chief heralds of the truth.

The Jews bring Jason before the rulers and charge him with sheltering Paul and Silas in his home. The rulers were troubled, but they were not as harsh and unjust as the rulers of Philippi, who had Paul and Silas beaten. They only take security from Jason and the others and release them. The Lord had seen fit that the persecutors should not find Paul and Silas... We know from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians that the church left in Thessalonica suffered serious persecution after this. Yet though they were so young in the faith, they kept up an exemplary witness to Christ and the gospel without Paul and Silas there to encourage them.

This passage shows plainly that God allows Satan to harass and hinder the servants of the Lord. Yet set the story beside the history recorded in Acts, and it is very clear that God knows well how to overrule Satan's hindering work for good. Satan hindered Paul from returning to Thessalonica just then, but God led him to Corinth — and He had many people in that city!

Paul and his companions were the ones chiefly wanted, but they were not found there. The believers saw that the door was shut against the work for the moment, so they sent Paul and Silas to Berea, a nearby city.

The Lord had seen fit that their persecutors did not find Paul and Silas. The believers, however, thought it unwise for the two men to stay any longer, so they sent them away by night to avoid further trouble. We know from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians that the church left behind in Thessalonica suffered serious persecution after this. Yet, young in the faith as they were, they kept up an outstanding witness to Christ and the gospel without Paul and Silas there to encourage them (1 Thess. 1).

"Always forward" was the great apostle's motto. He obeyed the Lord's instruction: "When they persecute you in this city, flee to another" (Matt. 10:23). So Paul and Silas left for Berea, now called Verria, or Kara Verria. It lay in another division of Macedonia — Macedonia Tertia — and so under a different government.

Everyone knows that it is easy to be a martyr in theory, and that those who are martyrs in theory are seldom martyrs in practice… Faith never teaches anyone to go looking for danger and trouble. It teaches us to walk the path of Christ in peace and thankfulness. The Lord has not called His servants to leave that path. Some of us may have been struck by this: the Lord told them that when they were persecuted in one city, they should flee to another. That is not chasing martyrdom. It is the very opposite.

It is a blessing to notice the tireless zeal of the Lord's servants. They had only just escaped the hatred stirred up by the Jews at Thessalonica. Yet the moment they reached Berea, we see them walking boldly into the synagogue. There they met a readiness of heart in searching the Scriptures that showed greater simplicity and real nobility of soul.

There they found a delightful change from Thessalonica. Instead of being met with bigotry and persecution, they found in the frequenters of the synagogue a readiness to hear the Word of God.

Nothing is more wonderful than the way God often chooses to carry out His purposes… To human eyes it might look as if the enemies of the gospel had blocked the work by putting a stop to Paul's labours. But once again they only helped to spread the good news in other regions. Happy is the servant who has no will of his own and sees the Lord's hand in all his changing circumstances.

He felt there was something lacking in their faith, and he wanted to supply it (1 Thess. 3:10), because his work among them had been cut short. The hostility of the Jews had forced him out in a hurry (Acts 17:10). This, with many other reasons, gave him a special concern for them.

Not put off by what they had already been through, they looked for the Jews in that city and went into the synagogue. Here the people who attended gave them a better reception. They were not ready to receive the Word just on the authority of two strangers. So they searched the Scriptures daily, and proved that the new teaching was correct. Thessalonica had shown jealousy and uproar. Berea showed a readiness to weigh matters and fairness in listening.

The context makes it clear that "these" and "those" refer to two groups of Jews. We read that Paul and Silas "went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica" (verses 10 and 11)... It could not have been a comparison of one set of Christians with another. At the time, there were no Christians in Berea. Verse 12 makes it very clear. Their faith in the gospel came after their searching of the Scriptures: "Therefore many of them believed."

As Jews they were used to exclusive national privileges. The Gentiles were "far" from God but the Jews, at least outwardly, were near. But the gospel shows Jews and Gentiles on an equal footing: both are lost and in need of a Saviour. To accept this, a Jew would need to set aside national pride and privilege and bow to God's thoughts... This willingness to set aside prejudices, preconceived ideas, long cherished thoughts, and so on, in favour of God's word is a mark of true nobility.

We want him to "search the Scriptures" with an unbiased mind. We do not want him to form his convictions in the darkness of misrepresentation and prejudice. We want him to form them in the pure and holy light that Scripture sheds around him. And we lovingly urge him to watch against the tendency to think people are wrong just because their position differs from his own.

The Bereans won special commendation not simply for searching the Scriptures, but because they did so daily. It is easy to be diligent for one day. To be diligent day after day calls for perseverance. Daily is a hard and testing word... One great effort, or one heroic sacrifice, is easier by comparison. To keep following Christ day after day, without fuss, is the real test. It is not the man who starts well who wins the race, but the man who keeps going.

Paul then carries the gospel to Berea, and Scripture tells us the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica. And why? Because they held that the Scriptures (then the Old Testament) were the only balance God had given to test everything by. So they were "examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." Yes — and God commended them for testing even the ministry of an inspired apostle by the Scriptures. Oh that people would do the same in our day!

Here they met such readiness of heart in searching the Scriptures that it showed a greater simplicity and real nobility of soul. To bow to the word, and to receive it as God's word — which it truly is — is the truest condition of divine blessing. Yet they still examined Scripture daily, to see whether the things preached agreed with the things written. Therefore many from among them believed. There is no way so sure or good.

They verified what they heard based on the only true authority, the word of God. They searched the Scriptures. This was not a casual read, nor was it occasional. It was daily searching; diligent and constant seeking of the mind of God in His word. They did not have the luxury of online Bibles or Bible apps. They had to work through scrolls of handwritten text. But their zeal brought them a great reward: "Many of them therefore believed" (verse 12).

With disciples such as these, miracles are not needed and would rather distract than help. The Word is itself the greatest of miracles. It is the voice of the Living God. That voice has sounded on through the ages, never silent, wherever there was an ear to hear. So the readiness to receive the gospel ripens into faith in these Bereans, as they search the Scriptures with vigorous determination, day by day.

To bow to the word, and to receive it as God's word — which it truly is — is the truest condition of divine blessing. Yet they still examined Scripture daily, to see whether the preaching agreed with the written word. Many of them therefore believed. There is no way so sure or good.

The context makes it clear that "these" and "those" refer to two groups of Jews — those in Berea and those in Thessalonica. It could not have been a comparison of one set of Christians with another. At the time, there were no Christians in Berea. Verse 12 is clear: their faith in the gospel followed their searching of the Scriptures. "Many of them therefore believed."

Here again women of prominence are mentioned (Greeks) and men also, not a few. In this case, as in Thessalonica, though the work began in the synagogue, it was by no means confined to Jews. The Spirit of God has not thought it necessary to tell us, however, how the work progressed in Berea later.

It was surely a deliverance beyond words. It freed them from degrading immorality and from empty myths. It turned them from a life of selfishness to serve the one and only true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.

Where there is uprightness of heart, and a true valuing of the Scripture, divine blessing will come. God does His work by His word received into the heart. God calls the Jews who searched the Scriptures "noble," and the women who believed were "honourable."

But Jewish anger was not content to drive the apostles out of Thessalonica. From Thessalonica the hostile Jews came to Berea to work against the preached word, stirring up and troubling the crowds there too.

When the Jews of Thessalonica heard of the success in Berea, they followed Paul to that town, about fifty miles away, and stirred up the people. The Devil always defeats himself, for he only drove the servants of Christ to other places, where they spread the gospel.

How long they were there we are not told. But it was clearly only a short time before the militant Jews of Thessalonica heard of the Word preached in Berea, and came there to stir up the people against the Lord's servants. They not only rejected the message of grace themselves, but they were determined that others must not even hear it.

Acts 17:13 clearly shows the method the apostle used in his preaching. In the synagogues he found copies of the Law and the Prophets, which served his purpose. So he sought out the synagogues and proved to the Jews, from their own Scriptures, that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the "Christ" to whom they bore witness. He it was who had suffered, as had been foretold, and had risen again from the dead.

But the unhappy Jews carry on their work, and come from Thessalonica to stir up the people against Paul and the others. It is sad to see their permanent hatred of the gospel. But it is always like this when truth sets aside an old religion and its followers refuse that truth.

Knowledge of old revelation gives no security for receiving the truth God is actually sending or using most at any given time. On the contrary, as we see in these Jews here and elsewhere, if there is pride in what someone already has, that pride will work powerfully to reject what God means to test the heart with now. This is especially so when grace is at work to open the door of faith to those who had no religious standing from of old. So of all things the gospel is the most repulsive to God's ancient people, who madly refused the mercy that waited on them first of all, before it was preached to the Gentiles.

We can, however, pause to admire the devotion of those believers who escorted Paul, and did not leave him until he reached Athens. The sea voyage to Athens would take three to six days... So we may reckon the journey from Berea to Athens and back to have kept these believers away from home for between two and three weeks. But we are sure they grudged neither the time, the expense, nor the tiredness in caring for one who had ministered such blessings to their souls, cheering him and helping him on his way.

Long before, the Lord had also laid down a general principle: "When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next" (Matt. 10:23). Paul and his companions plainly carried out this principle later, even to shaking the dust off their feet (Acts 14:6, Acts 17:10-14).

Again wisdom says Paul should leave Berea. He went toward the sea with others who seem to have known the area, but left Silas and Timothy behind.

"As far as to the sea" they went. That is how the oldest manuscripts read. They do not say "as if to the sea." Some could take that other reading as a decoy to throw pursuers off the scent. At what point they embarked for Athens is not stated.

The Thessalonian Jews hated the Word of God so much that they chased Paul all the way to Berea. Faced with more trouble, Paul slipped away to Athens and outwitted his pursuers with a simple trick. Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea, since the hostility now fell on Paul in particular.

The believers in Berea, new converts as they all were, cared for Paul and sent him away as far as the sea. Some even went with him to Athens... We can pause to admire the devotion of those brothers who escorted Paul. They did not leave him until he reached Athens. The sea voyage to Athens would take a little time, say from three to six days... So the journey from Berea to Athens and back would have kept these brothers away from home for two to three weeks. But we are sure they grudged none of it — not the time, not the cost, not the weariness. They cared for this man, cheered him, and helped him on his way. He had brought such blessing to their souls, and his weak eyesight may also have made him more dependent on others. Brotherly love was active in them.

Paul had been driven by persecution from Thessalonica, then from Berea to Athens. Alone at Athens for a time (Acts 17), he sent word for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed (17:15). Evidently Timothy at least had done so. As to Silas, it does not seem clear. But Paul then sent Timothy from Athens to Thessalonica. He could not go himself, and no doubt he hated losing Timothy's help. Later both Silas and Timothy rejoined Paul at Corinth (Acts 18:5). As for where Silas was in the meantime, Scripture seems to give no hint.

To human eyes, the enemies of the gospel seemed to have stopped the work by cutting Paul's labours short. But once again they only helped spread the good news into other regions. Happy is the servant who has no will of his own. He sees the Lord's hand in all his changing circumstances. He can discern His mind in everything that comes up in his path.

But with all this, the enemy does nothing but order the path of the gospel, according to the will of God.

A few brothers conduct Paul to Athens, and he sends an order to Silas and Timothy to join him there at once. But with all this, the enemy does nothing but arrange the path of the gospel, according to the will of God.

To human eyes, it might seem that the enemies of the gospel had stopped Paul's labours and so hindered the work. But once again they only helped to spread the good news in other regions. Happy is the servant who has no will of his own! He sees the Lord's hand in all his changing circumstances, and he can discern His mind in everything that comes up in his path.

More than one person went with Paul to Athens, over 200 miles away. On their return they brought an order for Silas and Timothy to join him with all speed.

Athens, as we shall see, was not destined to be a fruitful field for the incorruptible seed, the living and abiding word of God.

It is a remarkable thing that the apostle's mind does not seem to have been set on service in Athens. Even in his coming to the place, those who accompanied him seem to have decided where he went. And now that he has arrived, he did not begin preaching at once, as at Thessalonica and Berea. He waited for Silas and Timothy. Had he left Berea unwillingly? We cannot tell; but one thing is certain: the servant is often in danger of being governed by his affections rather than by the Lord's will.

Silas and Timothy remained at Berea, because clearly the hostility was now aimed especially at Paul. So on his visit to Athens, Paul was solitary and alone as far as his service went. Athens was the great centre of Greek culture and wisdom.

Alone at Athens for a time (Acts 17), he sent word for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed (17:15). Evidently Timothy at least had done so. As to Silas, it does not seem clear. But Paul then sent Timothy from Athens to Thessalonica. He could not go himself, and he was no doubt reluctant to be without Timothy's help. Later both Silas and Timothy rejoined Paul at Corinth (Acts 18:5). As for Silas's movements in the meantime, Scripture seems to give no indication.

The Authorized Version has a postscript, "written from Athens." … Paul wrote the Epistle after Timothy had returned from his visit to Thessalonica. … Timothy came from Thessalonica with the good news of the happy state of the Thessalonian church and joined the apostle in Corinth (Acts 18:5). From Corinth Paul wrote this first Epistle.

It is a remarkable thing that the apostle's mind does not appear to have been intent upon service in Athens. Even in his coming to the place, those who travelled with him seem to have decided where he went. Now that he has arrived, he does not start preaching at once, as at Thessalonica and Berea. He waits for Silas and Timothy… However this might have been, the Lord was in control of His devoted servant. He worked on his spirit and prepared him for his new work in His own way.

No city in the world was so crowded with idols of every kind as Athens. The most famous sculptors and architects had used their skill to give the objects of their worship every form of beauty the mind of man could invent… "Every public place and building was also a sanctuary… And as if Athenian imagination knew no limits here, they made gods out of ideas and honoured them in public. They built altars to Fame, to Modesty, to Energy, to Persuasion, and to Pity."

He found no pleasure in the mother of arts, eloquence and philosophy. Idolatry polluted its beautiful sculpture and statues and its splendid architecture. As a satirist said, it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens. So his spirit was stirred to its depths within him as he saw the city full of idols. What a sight for a man who in his unconverted days grew up in another city that boasted not one idol defiled it!

Athens was the great centre of Greek learning and philosophy; it was also full of idols. The highest human culture and the grossest idolatry can exist quite happily side by side. Into the middle of this state of things Paul stepped, and the sight of it painfully excited his spirit.

His spirit was stirred, or provoked, within him as he saw that city given up to idolatry, or rather full of idols. Human thinking there had been great in the past. Even so, it had not lifted the people out of the folly — to say no more — of worshipping wood and stone.

The apostle's character, ability and learning make us sure of one thing. He had an eye for natural beauty and a mind for every piece of history around him… So we see him alone at Athens, with plenty of time to look at ruins that have drawn people ancient and modern more than almost any other place. What was the effect on him? His spirit was provoked within him, as he saw the city full of idols. It was not sculpture that captivated him, not architecture that blinded him. He measured everything around him by the glory of Christ, and yet no one could show more tact in speaking to them.

No doubt two things worked on him. One was a sense of the dishonour done to God by those who had "exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." The other was a yearning pity for the poor slaves of Satan who had been so terribly deceived. So the word of God became like a fire in his bones, and he could no longer hold back his testimony. The Spirit of God draws attention to this effect by the word "therefore."

Suffering for or with Christ is not a matter of our bodies or our circumstances only, but a matter of our spirits also. When Paul went to Athens it says, "his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols." As we walk through the streets of our towns and notice the complete indifference to the claims of Christ, it ought to affect us in our spirits.

Paul was worked on in this way. He felt the dishonour done to God by those who had "exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals." He also felt a yearning pity for the poor slaves of Satan who had been so badly deceived. So the word of God became like a fire in his bones, and he could no longer hold back his testimony. The Spirit of God draws attention to this effect by the word "therefore." He began with the Jews and their converts, who rejected idol worship just as Paul did. They witnessed to the oneness of God, yet they refused God's testimony to Christ as the Messiah. Working outward from this centre, he "reasoned" with everyone who crossed his path each day in the great place of public gathering.

There were many such worshippers. Their souls were worn out with the folly and evil of paganism, which could not satisfy the needs of the soul. Through grace they were turned to the only true God, who was known among the Jews, and they joined in the Jewish worship without being circumcised. They were called religious persons, people who served God. They listened to the apostle more than the Jews did, and were often the cause of Jewish jealousy. Lydia was one of this class.

The Lord Jesus is just as much the Saviour of the Gentile, through faith in God's testimony to His Son. Such is the gospel, the glad tidings, of God. The few plain words of the inspired historian show how hard the apostle gave himself to the work of publishing it. It is the most gracious message God ever sent to sinful, guilty man. He was diligent in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and he spoke in the agora, or marketplace, every day to those he met. Their need was deep; his zeal was burning. The cross of Christ proved that the Jew was no better in heart than the heathen — indeed that he was worse, because he turned his greater privileges into pride.

He argued with Jews in the synagogue. But he also argued with others of a devout character in the markets — anyone who was willing to meet with him.

No result is mentioned from the discussion in the synagogue or in the market. But it seems the philosophers ran into Paul in the market.

There was a catching spirit at Athens; but Paul was not caught by it; his outlook was different. This great city — like the great cities around us — was marked by learning, superstition and religion. If our outlook is not right, there is real danger of being caught by the same spirit. If our eyes are not set on Christ, we are in grave danger of being caught by what prevails in men's cities.

The Epicureans and the Stoics soon met him. The first were really atheists under cover of chance, expecting soul and body to dissolve. The second came from a harder school. They made much of necessity or fate. They held an intolerant and unbearable self-importance, and were really pantheists. ... The true God was unknown.

The fame of the Greek schools of philosophy had spread through the whole known world. People looked on Athens as the seat of learning and wisdom. What Cambridge and Oxford are to England today, Athens was then to the whole of Europe... The Epicureans and Stoics were the leading Athenian schools. The ambassador of Christ met and clashed with some of their philosophers. Their very names have found a lasting place in our language. As someone has well said, they represent Pleasure and Pride — the two most powerful forces in human life.

In Acts 17:18 the word is σπερμολόγος (spermologos). It literally means "seed picker." It is a word of contempt. It means someone who picks up idle tales — a gossip, a chatterer. The margin has "base fellow."

It was probably the Epicureans who called him a "babbler." They judged him to be a worthless fellow. He had picked up a word here and there and put it out as though he himself were somebody great. They were sure that a trial at the Areopagus would expose him as ignorant and unlearned. What a surprise his able defence must have been to them! Perhaps it was the Stoics who accused him of setting forth strange gods, or foreign demons. With all their boasted wisdom, they were shown to be completely ignorant of the one true God.

As long as their curiosity was fed, the strange preacher seemed to be simply putting two new divinities before them. In their ignorance they took "Resurrection" for the name of a god, or rather a goddess. So they probably gave him a ready, if somewhat listless, hearing.

The most eminent teachers of that day were deep in the dark. They thought the resurrection, which Paul preached along with Jesus of Nazareth, was also a strange god!

What stayed in the minds of his first hearers was that he preached Jesus and the resurrection. It even appears that some took the resurrection, as well as Jesus, to be a God. It is indeed the basis of Christianity. Christianity is founded on Jesus Himself and on the fact of His resurrection. But it is only the basis.

These words had made the deepest impression and stayed most clearly in their minds. What a new thing, and what a blessed reality for souls! The Person of Christ — not a theory; the fact of the resurrection — not a gloomy uncertainty about the future.

When he delivered his message in cultured Athens, they mocked him as a "babbler" (Acts 17:18). Before Festus they thought he was out of his mind (Acts 26:24). Here was ridicule. In Thessalonica there was misrepresentation, for people imagined he was turning "the world upside down" (Acts 17:6-7). Then the enemy's violent opposition showed in the sufferings he had to endure. If we in our day were more energetic and more faithful in our service for the Lord Jesus, we would no doubt know more of all three things.

The "Areopagus" was a court set up by Solon, the lawgiver of Athens. It had two duties: to watch over the morals of the Athenians, and to see that they paid due honour to the gods. Rome kept this institution, though it had lost its importance. The court met on the hill of Mars, or Ares, and from that comes the name "Areopagus" — Ares' (or Mars') Hill. So Acts 17:19 may be translated either "They led him to Mars' Hill," or "before the tribunal called Areopagus."

They took him to the top of the hill of Areopagus. For as long as anyone could remember, the most dreaded court had met there. It passed sentence on the worst criminals and settled the most serious questions about religion... On this spot, surrounded by "temples, statues, and altars," the apostle stood on that memorable day to address the most famous thinkers in the world.

They were no longer in a mood to persecute. They had lost their independence and political power, but their light-minded love of ideas survived. Only mockery or curiosity was left. Still, the apostle's preaching struck them enough that they took hold of him and brought him up to the Areopagus. They did not do it to try him for his life, as they once did with Socrates. They did it to learn what this new doctrine was... But truth does not enter through the ear only. It enters the conscience too. And what conscience was at work in people who spent their time on nothing but telling or hearing the latest news?

They had made a habit of always telling or hearing some new thing. The novelty of the gospel, therefore, awakened a passing superficial interest in the preaching of Paul, but no more. Heathen philosophy, like formal Judaism, was unreceptive of the gospel of Jesus.

They had, as they boasted, a rich inheritance: beauty in art, trained and daring thought in philosophy, polished elegance in poetry, speech, and history. Along with it went complete corruption and unnatural depravity in morals. Their gods were the enlarged image of their own degradation. At that time Jesus appeared, the Son of God, the woman's Seed. In Him shone the light of God, and the love of God. To announce Him was indeed new teaching. He, and He only, was the perfect image of the invisible God.

Some thought him a babbler. Others called him a man who set out strange gods. Now he should speak for himself and explain his teaching. Then philosophers, men of trained minds and sharp intellect, could sit in judgment on it and decide whether it was worth anything. That is surely what the philosophers intended. So they took him to the Areopagus. There they heard something that must have been new, and of vital importance to every one of them.

He was no announcer of strange demons. At their own invitation to the Areopagus, he was the first to state the rights of the one true God — seriously, graciously, and in plain words. They themselves had sought, or at least asked, to know what this new doctrine meant. How little they expected a testimony so simple and noble, one that proved itself to every unbiased conscience!

The better you know the corrupting nonsense of Greek mythology, the less you wonder at the surprise that met the apostle's words in the Athens market place. Some were contemptuous, others were curious. Mental activity works all the more freely where the conscience is asleep. It runs free where the soul is not purified by obeying the truth to sincere love. Political importance had long since gone from the city. Clever remarks and word games were their way of filling the emptiness.

The most respected teachers of that day were so much in the dark that they took the resurrection, which Paul preached along with Jesus of Nazareth, to be another strange god! But, like all the Athenians, they were filled with curiosity. They "spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new." So they took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, and asked to hear more of his new teaching. The place they took him to was the summit of the hill of Areopagus. There the most solemn court of law had sat from ancient times. It passed sentence on the greatest criminals and decided the weightiest questions connected with religion… On this spot, surrounded by "temples, statues, and altars," the apostle stood on that memorable day to address the most famous thinkers in the world.

They were no longer inclined to persecute. Their light-minded interest in ideas survived the loss of their national independence and political power. Only mocking or curiosity was left. Still, the apostle's preaching struck them enough that they laid hold of him and brought him up to the Areopagus. They did not bring him there to try him for his life, as they once did with Socrates. They only wanted to know what this new teaching was.

There was immense mental activity, and an endless search for new ideas. They spent their time either telling or hearing "some new thing" — not gossip or tittle-tattle, of course, but the newest philosophical notions. So Paul's preaching of "Jesus and the resurrection" struck them as a great novelty connected with some gods they had not met before.

They had, as they boasted, a rich inheritance: beauty in art, bold and disciplined thought in philosophy, polished elegance in poetry, speech and history. With it went complete corruption and unnatural depravity in morals, and gods who were the enlarged image of their own degradation. At that time Jesus the Son of God appeared, the woman's Seed. In Him shone the light of God and the love of God. To announce Him was indeed new teaching… The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger. But the world at its highest point of civilisation did not know its own Creator.

Even they could not help admitting how strange the sound was to their ears: "We wish to know therefore what these things mean." But truth does not enter through the ear alone. It enters the conscience too. And what conscience was there in people who spent their time doing nothing except telling or hearing the latest news? We shall see that the apostle brought God before them as a personal, living reality. They themselves were morally related to Him. Until the conscience is awakened, what foundation is there? Otherwise the gospel sinks to the level of just another new thing. Jesus and the resurrection become the latest additions to the collection of pagan idols.

Instead of being an announcer of strange gods, he was the first to assert the rights of the one true God. He did it at their own invitation to the Areopagus, seriously, graciously, and with complete plainness of speech. They themselves asked to know what this new teaching meant. How little they expected such a simple and noble testimony! It carried its own power to convince every unbiased conscience.

Their chief occupation was "telling or hearing something new" — something newer than the last. That is the full force of the very expressive Greek phrase, ti kainoteron. But now they heard something that was new indeed, and yet was God's sober and solemn truth, which would judge them on that appointed day.

There was huge mental activity and a hunger for new ideas that could never be satisfied. They spent their time either telling or hearing "something new" — not just gossip or idle chatter, of course, but the newest ideas of the philosophers. So Paul's preaching of "Jesus and the resurrection" struck them as a great novelty, tied to gods they had not met before.

If some were contemptuous, others were curious. The mind works all the more freely where the conscience sleeps, and where the soul is not purified by obeying the truth so that love becomes sincere. Political importance had long since gone from Athens as well, so clever remarks and hair-splitting were what they used to fill the empty space.

But the truth does not enter through the ear only. It must reach the conscience too. And what conscience was there in people who spent their time on nothing but telling or hearing the latest news? … Until the conscience wakes up, what groundwork can there be? Otherwise the gospel sinks into just another new thing, and Jesus and the resurrection become the latest additions to a collection of pagan gods.

The fame of the Greek schools of philosophy had spread through the whole known world, so people saw Athens as the home of learning and wisdom. What Cambridge and Oxford are to England today, Athens was then to the whole of Europe. So this record plainly shows what Paul later proclaimed: that the world by wisdom did not know God.

Athens prided itself on its philosophy, with people spending all their time in telling or hearing something new. Their condition fits the words of 2 Timothy 3:7: "always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth."

The Athenians were wasting their precious time on novelties, the unsatisfying fancies of the human mind. How many today are like them! … They have nothing substantial. They gather husks instead of grain, and novelties in place of truth. They chase shadows, wind, and smoke, when the strain of living and dying calls for something real. We need something solid for a deathbed, and for high and holy living.

Many go to the word to feast their ears only; they like the melody of the voice, and the novelty of the opinions (Acts 17:21). This is to love the garnishing of the dish more than the food; it is to want pleasure instead of being built up.

The Bereans are held up to us as worthy of imitation. … The truth came to them recommended by its freshness and power, and "they received the word with all eagerness." … Their minds were open. They listened to Paul without prejudice, yet they would test what they heard by the Scriptures, so that their faith rested on revelation.

The hill of Ares, or Mars. Athens' highest, oldest and most respected court of justice met here to judge moral and political matters... Paul had been arguing daily in the market place. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers brought him to Mars' Hill. They did not do it to put him on trial, but no doubt so that they could hear him in quiet. Here he gave his address about God. It suited the pagan philosophers who heard him, and it bore fruit.

Paul's opening words are not, however, as weak as the King James version translates them. Rather, he says, "I perceive that in all things you are given up to demon worship." This is the very essence of idolatry. They knew they had many gods, and Paul knew that behind all of these so-called "divinities" was demon influence.

Men of Athens, in all things I see you are more than others in awe of divinities (demons). For as I passed through and looked at your objects of worship, I also found an altar with this written on it: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.

The address opens with his usual courtesy, while there was not a particle of flattery for their pride. The Athenians paid honours to a crowd of truly strange demons. Out of all that, the apostle took hold of the one object that admitted the humbling truth about them and about God. "An unknown God" told the true story. Everything else around them was only deception and the triumph of the enemy.

For wisdom, good sense, sound reasoning and complete skill, Paul's address stands alone in human history. He did not begin by attacking their false gods. He did not condemn their religion as a satanic lie that he utterly hated. Zeal without knowledge would have done that, and been pleased with its own faithfulness. But this address shows us the best way to reach the minds and hearts of ignorant and prejudiced people, in every age.

As we read it, we must remember that this record is not, as another has said, Paul's preaching, but his defence. He had preached "Jesus and the resurrection" to the Athenians. Now he comes down to their own level, becoming all things to all men. His aim is to lead them up to the truth that God created the world, and that they are therefore responsible to Him. God would deal with that responsibility at last, in a future day of judgment.

But truth does not enter through the ear only. It must reach the conscience too. And what conscience was there in people who spent their time on nothing but telling or hearing the latest news? We shall see that the apostle brought God before them as a personal, living reality, to whom they stood morally related. Until conscience wakes up, what groundwork can there be? Otherwise the gospel sinks into just another new thing, and Jesus and the resurrection become the latest additions to a crowd of empty pagan gods.

"The world did not know God through wisdom." What did the philosophy of Greece do for its followers? It made them the ignorant worshippers of "AN UNKNOWN GOD." The very inscription on their altar announced their ignorance and their shame to the universe. And may we fairly ask whether philosophy has done better for Christendom than it did for Greece?

In the huge crowd of strange gods at Athens the apostle's sharp eye noticed an altar with an inscription on it. Without knowing it, that inscription admitted the ruined condition of the people of that city — and of the whole pagan world. They did not mean it as a humbling admission; yet the words told the fact to the one who knew the truth. Reliable witnesses show there were several altars inscribed this way. Paul certainly saw one, and spoke accordingly. In their zeal for many gods they dedicated shrines to every local and foreign god. They dedicated shrines to unknown gods too, so that not one would miss its due honour.

"The world did not know God through wisdom." What did the philosophy of Greece do for its students? It made them ignorant worshippers of "AN UNKNOWN GOD." The inscription on their altar announced their ignorance and their shame to the whole universe. And may we not ask whether philosophy has done better for the Christian world than it did for Greece? Has it given the knowledge of the true God? Who would dare to say Yes?

He comes down to the lowest point and form of truth in order to reach the Athenian conscience. He had done the same before with the people of Lycaonia. The Jews, through the law, had far worthier thoughts of God and of their own relationship to Him. Still, the address opens with his usual courtesy, while there is not a particle in it to flatter their pride. In that crowd of honours paid to demons that really were strange, the apostle laid hold of the one object which confessed the humbling fact about themselves and God. "An unknown God" told the true story. Everything else around was deception and the enemy's triumph.

God, the unknown God, now reveals Himself. The apostle aptly lays hold of the inscription on the altar and announces the true God whom they did not know. This is not the gospel. He had already preached this God in the gospel of Jesus and of the resurrection, and he now identifies Him with the truth they themselves admitted. Defending that truth, he speaks to the conscience... By the power of the Spirit in Paul they stood accused and convicted. They had falsified the idea of God and denied His glory, the glory of the only Creator. They had recognised Him only by confessing that He was unknown.

Christianity reveals God; it makes Him known to faith. Creation cannot, circumstances cannot, law cannot. But the Son of God became man, died under the judgment of sin, and is now alive in glory. He has made all the truth of God fully known. Thank God for Christianity! ... Paul declared to them the God who was unknown to them. Some mocked and some believed. The effects differed, but Paul declared God and made Him known.

Paul reaches the conscience of the Athenians through one point: their own confessed ignorance of God (verse 23)... But now Paul was declaring to them the God whom they did not know. The true God shines out in the death and resurrection of Christ... The full light of God now shines over the whole world like the sun. The sound of the gospel goes out to all the earth. So man is without excuse.

Every clause, you might say every word, undermined paganism. Yet not one word could rightly offend. This grand but simple truth left no room for the myths of priests and poets. It left no room either for the reasoning of thinkers in pitch darkness. Here is the remarkable fact: not one of the rival leaders of religion or philosophy claimed that their gods — home, foreign, or unknown — had made the world and everything in it.

Neither the Epicureans nor the Stoics owned creation. The one held the absurd idea that atoms came together by chance. The other imagined a fixed cycle of forming and breaking up, repeating for ever in the universe. That cycle was their god, if they can be said to have had one.

The God who made all things is not only a Creator. He is Lord of heaven and earth. His authority is constant everywhere. Fallen man writhes under this truth, because it appeals at once to the conscience. As a man, I am His creature, and that tie makes me His servant. Am I doing His will? Am I pleasing Him as the motive of my life? But now I am a fallen man, departed from Him, and I like to do my own will, though I know it is opposed to His. But if He is Lord of heaven and earth, He must call me to account for my wrongdoing.

In Matthew 11 the Lord Jesus, speaking to His Father, addressed Him as "Lord of heaven and earth." In Acts 7:49 we have the words "Heaven is my throne." The light and power of this had entered Paul's mind, and it found a place in his testimony to the men of Athens.

God "does not live in temples made by man." Isaiah implied as much to those who rested on that gift standing among them — a temple soon to fall. Stephen said it in those very words. Paul heard him then with unbelieving ears. Now Paul proclaimed it in faith and love to the Athenians.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools. They exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the worship of nature, and then for the worship of humans made into gods. The sheer number of religions proved that men had lost the one true God. No splendid statue or temple could hide the fraud. Each one only advertised it. How can you fence in the everywhere-present Lord of heaven and earth inside man's work?

True believers make up the house of God. They are "living stones" — people who have tasted that the Lord is gracious and have come to Him. The Spirit of God lives in them. Don't tell me that cold, dead stones make up the house of God! "God does not live in temples made by man." True believers are the house of God.

God made the universe. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and He does not live in temples made by man. Yet He stoops to look on a person who is poor, contrite in spirit, and trembling at His word. His goodness leads the sinner to repentance; and where did His goodness shine as it did in Jesus?

The Greek word therapeuo (from therapon, "an attendant") in Acts 17:25 means "to serve," "render service to" — older translations read "worship" here. In the Gospels it is used again and again for curing and healing. It is nowhere else translated "worship."

Supreme above all, it is only in this way that He can be near to all; not dwelling in temples made with hands, which isolate and shut Him up; nor served by human hands, as if He were in need. Enough in Himself, He is the Source and Centre of all; life and breath and all things are nothing but His gift. No one, then, can make Him his debtor, or give Him anything except what is already His own.

Man's general estimate of God is that He is a hard master, demanding and expecting great things from him. So when he thinks of God at all, it is usually tied to the idea of bringing something to God, instead of receiving from Him. Paul met this thought in the idolatrous Athenians. This proud thought of man's ability is such a solid barrier that it shuts the gospel out of the heart. And it is this that the Spirit of God breaks down, by convincing men of their sinfulness and their need of a Saviour.

The apostle set before the Athenians One who is good in Himself and actively does good. He does so even in a world gone off course, since man's fall brought in sin and death everywhere. Yet He who needs nothing for Himself makes His sun rise on evil and good, and sends rain on just and unjust... He gives to all life and breath and all things. How simple and self-evident this plain fact is, and how well it makes known the God they themselves admitted they did not know! What a contrast with all the false gods of the world! They dragged their worshippers down to their own rebellious evil and mischievous selfishness. They also let their priests prey on the guilty fears of mankind.

I have been asked for a text. I quote Acts 17:25, 28: "He gives to all life, and breath, and all things..." He is addressing the heathen and says, "For in Him we live and move and have our being."

Man would like to make God a receiver instead of a giver; but this cannot be... The great Giver of "all things" cannot possibly "need anything." Praise is all that we can offer to God. But we can only offer it with the full and clear understanding that our sins are all put away. And we can only know this by faith in the power of a completed atonement.

"And has made of one blood": here again Paul is at odds with man's ideas, above all with the Greek belief in many gods. The unity of the human race is a truth that goes with the truth of one true God. Men saw that each race had its own national god. So the lie of many gods was tied to the matching claim of many independent races of men, and encouraged it. This was a favourite idea of the pagan world. They held that they had sprung from the earth in some remarkably foolish way, while at the same time maintaining that each was independent of the other.

The one origin of man goes with the unity of God, just as the claim of separate races goes with their separate patron gods. As the Jews fell away, their self-exalting vanity helped that falsehood along. Yet God had entrusted the revelation of this twofold truth to them alone, and Christianity alone applied it fully and carried it out according to God.

He goes on to put man in his place before Him. The one blood that all men share levels every distinction that Jew and Greek alike prided themselves on. What is more, He fixed their times and the very boundaries of their dwellings. He withheld His care from no creature He had made. He appointed all this so that men would feel their limits and dependence, see the divine ordering of things around them, and in their need feel after Him and find Him.

It is true that all nations from their beginning forgot God. No one showed that evil more than the people whose conscience Paul was now appealing to. Despite their willing ignorance, God took an interest in their actual circumstances. He fixed the appointed seasons of their national life, its progress and its fall, along with the boundaries of their dwelling.

For up to the flood mankind was only one community, and, whatever their growing corruption and violence, no strange gods were set up against God. Nor had God started government as a human institution holding authority from Him. When He did, it was left neither to fate nor to chance, but He determined the seasons, and the limits of their dwelling.

But God's ordering of the nations was far from being all His care. His heart went out in grace to every soul of man. In losing God, man had lost the one centre his heart must have, and the basis of all true morality... But God remained the God of goodness and mercy, ready to hear and forgive.

But God has dealt with men as He has so that they might seek the Lord, if it may happen that they will feel after Him and find Him. Paul adds that He is not far from every one of us, showing that if anyone honestly seeks God, God will reveal Himself.

This verse makes it clear that the earth's surface is enough for men to live on, and that God has set the boundaries of the nations. Suppose men had respected these God-appointed boundaries and had been content with the "place in the sun" He gave them. Then there would have been no wars. But they found no satisfaction in what they had, and they refused to feel after God for it. So they cast greedy eyes on their neighbours' portion and broke the boundaries God appointed. From this comes the bloodshed and the sorrow.

The idea that all men are brothers has some truth in a creatorial sense, since God has "made of one blood all nations of men" (Acts 17:26). It is not true in any other sense. The Scriptures draw the sharpest line imaginable between the believer and the man of the world.

God's arranging of the nations was far from being all His care. He felt graciously for every soul of man, who in losing Him had lost the only and necessary centre for the heart... For man was fallen from God, and sin reigned in death... But God remained the God of goodness and mercy, ready to hear and forgive. But man must seek Him, conscious of sin, misery, and darkness.

It was not only the passing testimony to His goodness in the gift from heaven of rains and fruitful seasons... but also to appointed seasons, and the boundaries where the various nations live. All of it was under God's hand, with particular favours given to each. And in it all there was at least a whisper to seek after God.

The word psēlaphaō is "to feel after with the fingers, handle." It is used of what can be touched. It occurs only in Luke 24:39; Acts 17:27; Hebrews 12:18; 1 John 1:1.

I pointed out that the word feel is only once found in the New Testament, and that is in Acts 17:27... The word does not belong to the Christian, you see, but to the heathen who have no written revelation. Our word is "faith," or "believe." We do not know because we feel; we believe God's Word, and so we know.

Man has gone far from God, and his great desire is always to increase the distance, but God has not gone far from man. The distance lies in alienation of heart and mind... But God pursues him in the grace and love of His heart. He is ready to fall on his neck and cover him with kisses the moment that man, in the sorrow of his soul, turns round and begins to feel after his Creator, whom he has so heartlessly abandoned.

We may enter into the apostle's cautious language: "if by any means they might feel after and find Him..." Compared with the gospel after Christ's work, it was groping in the dark, except where the True Light was shining.

People often speak of the heathen as groping after the light and unable to find it. They call it their misfortune, not their sin, because they are held down by circumstances too hard for them. That is not really so. The truth is, "There is none that seeks after God."... It is man not seeking God, but trying to escape from God, and he has escaped, so to speak, into the darkness. The darkness is the darkness of resisted light, not the absence of light.

Paul adds that He is not far from every one of us. If a person honestly seeks God, God will reveal Himself.

"Right convictions and good practice" is not gospel. Is he born again? Acts 17:27 does not say a word about the Spirit's acting... People confuse the ground of responsibility with sovereign grace in saving.

Man is a lost sinner. By his love of sin he has strayed from his Maker into hopeless darkness. He is always under responsibility to return to God, who has a righteous claim on the love and obedience of all His creatures... His patience with sinners will not last for ever. Some day men may wish to "find" Him, and will discover that He is no longer "near."

In fact, man's very existence is bound up with God, however little he realizes it. "In Him we live:" He is the source of our life; "and move:" He sustains all of our activities; "and have our being:" our existence is totally dependent upon Him.

He surrounds us — in Him we live and move and are! The last of these says it most fully. He sustains us. He carries us, more completely than an infant in its mother's arms, for His arms never open to let go... He is not here considering the effect of the fall, nor yet man's responsibility, but the place given him in God's design. From there he will be better able to judge how far he has departed.

The words "in Him we live and move and have our being" show how near God is. Yet Paul preached Him as the One above all, the Lord of heaven and earth.

The apostle rises far above natural philosophy. He views man in his relation to God, with an awareness of it that no other living being on earth has... Revealed truth states that relation in the clearest terms, and its echo sounded even where the true God was not known. So the apostle could quote the Greeks themselves, centuries before he spoke: "For we are indeed his offspring." These exact words appear in the astronomical poem of Aratus, a Cilician like himself, the Phaenomena, which still exists today. They appear again, with only one letter different, in the Stoic Cleanthes' hymn to Zeus, which also still exists.

So the apostle turns the admission of their own poets against themselves, or more exactly against their idolatry. Strange to say, the poets, however fanciful, are wiser than the philosophers. How often they stumble in their dreams on truths they would never have imagined!

Only by faith in Christ Jesus do we become children of God, but all men are His offspring as His creatures. This being so, we ought not to think of God as something less than ourselves, or as the work of our own hands; and we should be those who seek after Him.

Scripture derives the soul of man, as man, from the inbreathing of God, apart from His dealings of saving mercy in Christ. In this sense, as the apostle applied it (Acts 17:28), all men, even the heathen, are His offspring. In Him all live.

If we are the offspring of God, as the Athenians boasted, idol-worship must be wrong. The Deity could not be like an image of stone, wood, or metal. If men are the offspring of God, God cannot be like a lifeless idol. The deduction was plain indeed. No one could refute it. It dealt a death-blow to idolatry.

If man alone of the creatures on earth is God's offspring, how can anyone maintain that the divinity is like a work of man's craft and imagination in gold, silver, or stone? "We ought not" to think so, he says graciously... A lifeless block that man shapes cannot be, or properly represent, the God who made him and all things.

So he turns the acknowledgment of their own poets against themselves, or rather against their idolatry. Strange to say, the poets, however fanciful, are wiser than the philosophers... How clearly this showed the folly of their boasted reason! What could be simpler or more conclusive? Since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that our hands can make God. This is in effect what their practice amounted to. Gods of silver and gold were the offspring of men's art and imagination.

From the viewpoint of creation, this is true. So it was foolish to think of God as comparable to gold, silver or stone images, the work of human artistry. If men — living, moving, intelligent beings — are God's offspring, then certainly God is at least as living and intelligent as they are!

Men are God's offspring, but not because they have a body, as all animals have. It is not even because they have a soul and spirit, as animals also have, suited to their place and function in creation. They are God's offspring because they have an inner man that came straight from God by His inbreathing... This is why man alone of all creatures on earth has an immortal soul, for good or for harm beyond calculation. It is also why he must give account to God. But here the apostle used this relationship to show how foolish it is to represent God with an idol. The relationship comes from the special nature of the immaterial part of man.

Only by faith in Christ Jesus do we become children of God, but all men are His offspring as His creatures. This being so, we ought not to think of God as something less than ourselves, or as the work of our own hands. And we should be those who seek after Him.

The word "offspring" seems to denote relationship, but does it?... In quoting their poets, the apostle uses "offspring" to mean that they received their being: "In Him we live and move and have our being." The thought behind "offspring" is creaturehood, not relationship.

theios, that which is "divine": it is not like gold, silver, or stone, and so on, Acts 17:29. The word is translated "divine" in 2 Peter 1:3-4.

When man carves these materials with his skill and imagination, he only adds absurdity to absurdity. For the material was itself a creature of God, and the shape given to each was man's fancy and manufacture. "God is spirit," and so can be everywhere at once.

"We ought not" so to think, he says graciously, not forgetting that Israel too had to bear the sterner irony of Isaiah. A lifeless block that man shapes cannot be the God who made him and all things. It cannot properly represent Him either.

But there is a true and perfect image of the invisible God, Jesus the Lord... He revealed God in His being and His character, and in the relationship of Father, as He the eternal Word and Son knew Him... And He is the only safeguard from false gods and from idols — from idols of the mind no less than material images.

"And the times of this ignorance" — that was no great compliment to their polish, learning, philosophy, wisdom, or education. Whether sage or savage, they are all put in one lump there. "The times of this ignorance God winked at" — that is, He did not take account of it. "But now commands all men everywhere" — mark those words — "to repent."

During the times of ignorance, God had put up with the wanderings of man. He had passed them over without judgment. Now He was calling to all men everywhere to repent, because a day was appointed in which He should judge the world.

The Gentiles, during God's dealings with Israel, were in the dark. Those were the times of ignorance, and God overlooked their ways. But now, says the apostle, He commands all men everywhere to repent. There is no excuse for ignorance any longer. The Light shines, the true Light. Christ was that Light.

Clearly there is a thrust at conscience. This is why he insists here on God's call to repent. It is no use to talk of science, literature, politics, religion. Old or new speculations in philosophy are equally empty. God is now requiring all everywhere to repent. So he puts the sage down with the savage, because God is brought in as the judge of all. Divine truth must be aggressive. It cannot help dealing with every conscience that hears it, anywhere in the world. The law might thunder its claims at one particular people. But the truth deals with everybody as he is before God.

If God commands all men, everywhere to repent, does He mean what He says, or merely all the elect? What right have we to add to, or alter, to pare down, or to accommodate the Word of God? None whatever.

The apostle keeps to one fact here: God did not judge those times of terrible and inexcusable ignorance. In His goodness He overlooked the past, and now He calls people to repent. ... How true it is that the message of God's love in salvation to everyone who believes is His own command! ... The Gentiles ignored the true God. They set up idols to His dishonour and their own shame. God no longer ignores them. "The true light already shines." Coming into the world, it gives light to every man. It is true that the world was so blind it did not know Him. But the God of all grace does not leave them to their folly. He sends them this charge: they should "all everywhere repent." What compassion for "all everywhere," and what concern!

No sinner, no child of fallen man, ever turned to God in faith — as all did from Abel onward — without repentance. ... Its character is self-judgment before Him. Not only one's ways, but one's self, is laid bare as seen by His holy eyes, with whom we have to do.

The definition that it is merely a change of mind is not enough; that would reduce it entirely to faith. It is the soul judging itself before God — the eye turned inward, not outward, by the Spirit of God.

On Mars Hill the coming judgment was announced. A fixed day was made known, and the Judge was pointed out. How was this divine communication received? Some mocked, some put it off, a few believed. That was the effect on the hearers. What has been the effect in the reader's case?

"And the times of this ignorance" (what a way to treat the boasting men of Athens!) "God overlooked; but now commands all men everywhere to repent." Clearly there is a thrust at conscience. This is why he insists here on God's call to repent. It is no use to talk of science, literature, politics, religion. Old or new speculations in philosophy are alike empty. God is now commanding all everywhere to repent. So he puts the scholar down with the savage, because he brings God in as the judge of all.

Here the common thought of Christendom is a serious mistake. The Jews used to look for a judgment of living men, and perhaps in some measure they still do. Most Christians, despite the Creeds, look almost only for a judgment of the dead before eternity. Here and elsewhere the apostle pressed the judgment of this inhabited world at our Lord's appearing, when He comes to bring in His kingdom in open power and glory.

From that day to this God has been showing His patient mercy. But the day of that judgment is appointed, and the Man is also appointed who is to carry out the judgment. The world that judged Him is to be judged by Him.

But the central sin of the world, the one that stamped its true character, is the rejection and death of Christ. But the One whom the world rejected, God has raised from the dead, and to Him all judgment is committed. Every knee shall bow to Him; and the more boldly they have rejected and opposed Him, the more terrible will be their judgment.

"He shall judge the world in righteousness" — Acts 17:31 quotes this line; it matches the Greek Old Testament word for word.

The point here is not the forgiveness of sins and justification for us, as it is in Romans 3. The point is righteousness set up in public in every area that sin has touched and spoiled. Christ's death was the supreme act of the world's unrighteousness. His glorification was the supreme act of God's righteousness, and the guarantee that righteousness will at last prevail everywhere, in keeping with Paul's words in Acts 17:31.

"because He had appointed a day in which He is about to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a Man whom He had marked out, having given assurance [or, ground of belief] to all in that He raised Him out of the dead."

The resurrection of the Lord is the pledge that He will one day be the Judge of those who do not believe. To the believer the resurrection is God's sign and witness that his sins are all blotted out... They were not believers, so he does not speak of anyone being justified. He tells them that the resurrection of the Lord is God's proof and pledge: He is going to judge all the inhabited world by that Man whom He has raised from the dead.

There is not a single cloud of judgment in the present grace, and there will not be one single ray of grace in the future judgment. He will judge it by the Man whom the world spat on and trampled under its feet, by that Man whom He has ordained — and He has given the most undeniable proof of it in raising Him from the dead.

But man, and not least philosophic man, rebels against resurrection. He might sit through a whole night of debate, in the style of Socrates, about whether the soul lives forever. That pleases the nobler sort, even if it offends the morally degraded. But a dead man raised brings in God. It shows God stepping into the middle of a busy world to mark out the Man Whom they crucified. That Man is going to judge this inhabited world one day.

The apostle speaks of Christ as the proof that God will judge this inhabited earth by that Man. He says God raised Him out of — from among — the dead. But the Athenians, hearing of the resurrection of the dead, mock. The fact of dead people rising, not any particular favour shown to Christ, was what they ridiculed.

Their busy minds were turning inside man's world, so resurrection lay right outside their field of view. To many of them it seemed absurd, and they mocked. Others showed some interest yet put off further thought, since they saw no urgency in the matter. Some, however, believed, both men and women, and these threw in their lot with Paul. These three groups usually appear wherever the gospel comes: the mockers, those who put it off, and the believers.

Some mocked the truth of resurrection, and their mockery announced their ignorance and the state of their hearts. Others said, "We will hear you again about this." They were putting it off — either as a polite refusal of the truth, or because they were not fully persuaded of it.

To hear the apostle again was more than man could guarantee. Mockers and doubters will certainly hear the voice of the risen Jesus. The hour is coming for a "resurrection of judgment." It will vindicate the truth to His glory. It will prove the unbeliever worthless, and his deeds evil in God's sight. But those who believe receive eternal life now, walk in obedience, bear good fruit, and rise to a "resurrection of life."

They have had enough, however; and the mention of resurrection ends their patience. Some mock. Others politely put the matter off to another time. It is not serious enough to rouse them to hostility. There was nothing to expect from an audience like this, and even Paul could only turn away and leave them. We hear of no such poverty of result in any other place, but with the wise of this world the wisdom of God is foolishness. Yet here too God could not allow His word to be completely barren.

Some mocked. Others put off thinking about the truth set before them. But certain men believed. One of them is named Dionysius the Areopagite, and there was also a woman named Damaris, besides others. Yet there is no mention of any assembly formed there, and no record of a later visit by the apostle to this city. Human culture and intelligence are not favourable to the doctrines of grace.

Some however believed, both men and women, and these threw in their lot with Paul. These three groups usually appear when the Gospel reaches any place: the mockers, those who put it off, and the believers.

But man, and not least the philosophical man, rebels against resurrection. He could sit through a whole night of philosophical talk about whether the soul lives for ever. That pleases the nobler sort, even if it offends those sunk in immorality. But a dead man raised brings in God. It proves that God has stepped into the middle of a busy world. He has marked out the Man whom they crucified, and that Man will one day judge this inhabited world.

To hear the apostle again was more than anyone could guarantee. Mockers and doubters will certainly hear the voice of the risen Jesus. That will be when the hour comes for a "resurrection of judgment." It will prove the truth right, to His glory. It will show the worthlessness of the unbeliever, and his deeds as evil in God's sight. Those who believe receive eternal life now, walk in obedience, bear good fruit, and rise to a "resurrection of life."

The mockers and those who hesitated that day were alike left to their own emptiness and unbelief, for "Paul departed from among them."

As for the philosophers, some mocked; others promised to hear him again. He left them in that frame of mind. He had given his message. He was clear of their blood... Some might scoff. But scoffing was not an argument. Others might promise a further hearing. That showed they could not refute, then and there, what Paul had put before them. But all of them, in a coming day, will acknowledge the importance of the Word.

Paul now departs from among them. He does not appear to have been driven away by any uproar or persecution. The blessed Lord gave him to taste His own joy, and the joy of angels over sinners who repent... Philippi was a military city. Thessalonica and Corinth were trading cities. In each of them the number of conversions seems to have been much greater than in the highly educated and polished city of Athens. This is deeply humbling to the pride of man and to the boasted powers of the human mind. There is one letter to the Philippians, two to the Thessalonians and two to the Corinthians. But we have no letter from Paul to the Athenians, and we do not read that he ever visited Athens again.

He was so completely devoted to his work of ministry, and the burden of souls lay so heavily on him. No wonder he was "in weakness and in fear and much trembling." He came fresh from his disappointment at Athens, and now he looked at the scene before him. In a man like this, that could only lead to a fuller sense than ever of the one Power able to take hold of these busy idlers. Only that Power could bring them face to face with themselves and with God. Jesus Christ the Crucified was indeed his only theme. The world had rejected Him, but the Spirit glorified Him, and so Paul preached with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

The mighty word of the apostle touches some hearts even among this frivolous people. The harvest is small, but God does not leave Himself without testimony. A few believe the gospel and join themselves to the servants of God. But once he has given his testimony, the apostle stays there no longer. Philosophy and frivolity go together, and, as always, they give people a high opinion of themselves. They are bad soil for grace. They do not deserve that God should wait long for vanity to show good will.

Nothing is said about any assembly being formed here, and there is no record of a later visit by the apostle to this city. Human culture and intelligence do not favour the doctrines of grace. The gospel is preached to the poor. In every age it has been true that "not many were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth."

Philippi was a military city; Thessalonica and Corinth were trading cities. In all three the number of conversions seems to have been much greater than in the highly educated and polished city of Athens. This is deeply humbling to the pride of man, and to the boasted powers of the human mind. Paul wrote one letter to the Philippians, two to the Thessalonians, and two to the Corinthians. But we have no letter from him to the Athenians.

The judges there had often pronounced sentences of death, and at times not in righteousness. Here was an announcement of coming judgment. It concerned everyone in the audience. It was judgment in righteousness too, and it must end in final condemnation, unless repentance turns it aside. Then came the earnest pleader, so unlike those who had stood there before him. He was not pleading for his life. He was not asking his judges for a favourable sentence.

Tradition has invented for Dionysius the office of bishop at Athens and the martyr's crown. But Dionysius and Damaris are at present no more than names to us. Their full story waits for a future day.

Of Damaris we know nothing except that she identified herself with Paul at Athens. … Most of these women probably lived in quiet circumstances. They did what they could. With a woman's tact and insight, and with Christian love, they served as chances came. The Holy Spirit has placed on record the distinctive character of their service.

There were mockers and triflers then as now. Oh, may you, like the others of old, cleave to the apostle, and find your place with the Dionysius Luke names. … That blessed place must surely be shared with a Damaris and others, whose names are written in heaven even if unknown on earth.

No one could have expected what God did. He raised a trophy to His Son not in intellectual Athens, but in morally corrupt Corinth. … The grace of God gives no account of what it does, but works to the glory of Christ, and most of all where man is most needy.

It does seem in Scripture that when unbelief rises to the height of mockery, the testimony stops — see Jeremiah 15:17; Acts 13:41; and Acts 17:32 with Acts 18:1.

There was little fruit in this gifted but frivolous city. For God has chosen the foolish, the weak, and the despised things of the world, to bring to nothing the things that are. The wisdom of this world is foolishness before God, and the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. The apostle continues his journey to the other important Greek centre, Corinth. It was a commercial city in a superb setting, but deeply corrupt. Even at this time wealth was everywhere, and the city had become a byword for luxury and loose living.

Corinth lay about sixty miles away. The change was great. Athens was a beautiful city, with striking buildings, philosophies and learning. Corinth was the big bustling commercial capital of those parts. The city had a name for open vice. People said that many a country youth drawn into that city was Corinthianised.

He left what had been the great seat of learning to work in the centre of vice. Athens was famous for its philosophers. Corinth had a bad name for immorality, tied above all to its temple of Venus.

The ways of grace are wholly above man's thoughts. No one could have expected that God would raise a monument to His Son, not in intellectual Athens, but in demoralised Corinth. Was there any prior link, or any natural fit at all, between the Holy One of God and this notorious seat of impurity? The grace of God gives no account of its dealings, but works to the glory of Christ — and most of all where man is most needy. The wisdom of this age had proved its folly in Athens. The compassion of God yearned over Corinth, in the face of all its loose living and corruption.

In the deeply self-indulgent state of Corinth the gospel, strange to say, was to take a great and effective hold on part of the people. Not so at Athens. There the souls were few, and the work weak by comparison. But in Corinth, known as the most corrupt of Greek cities, how unexpected yet how good the ways of the Lord!

The apostle came into that city led by the Holy Spirit, and he knew the character of the people. From the very start, guided by God, he had decided the spirit in which he would work there. He took care to avoid anything that would have pleased the natural man and so drawn people to hear him.

In the middle of this luxury the ambassador of God appears as a poor working man of the world. From his letters we know that he refused to take anything from the wealthy Corinthians. Yet he received with joy the gift sent as the fruit of their love by the simple believers of Philippi.

The ways of grace are far above human thinking. No one could have guessed that God would raise a monument to His Son, not in intellectual Athens, but in corrupt Corinth. Was there any earlier link, or any natural fitness at all, between the Holy One of God and this famous seat of impurity? The grace of God gives no account of what it does. It works for the glory of Christ, and most of all where man is neediest.

Suetonius, who wrote the lives of the Caesars, states that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because of a Jewish disturbance, "at the instigation of Chrestus". The Latin words quoted are probably a mistake on his part. They may point to violence by unbelieving Jews against those who believed. Or they may be a confusion, caused by Roman suspicion, with the preaching of the Messiah elsewhere.

... Some have supposed that Dio Cassius contradicts Luke, and Suetonius as well, when he says the emperor did not expel the Jews but ordered them not to gather in Rome. If we distinguish the times, all is clear and true.

The harsh decree of Claudius worked to throw them across Paul's path, and this led to their conversion and then their later service, which earned the high praise of Romans 16:3-4. God overruled the decree of expulsion for good, making the wrath of man to praise Him.

Soon after his arrival he unexpectedly found two friends and fellow workers in Aquila and his wife Priscilla. The Lord used the banishment of Aquila and Priscilla to provide lodging for His lonely servant. They were of his own country — of his own trade — of his own heart and spirit.

Many make much of Aquila being called "a certain Jew" rather than a disciple. But the wording is easy to explain. It marks where he was born, and it gives the reason he left Rome for Corinth. Remember too that in those early days Romans and foreigners did not tell Christian Jews apart from other Jews by natural descent. So Paul more than once calls himself a Jew later in this book. The apostle never speaks of them as his children in the faith, however warmly he may greet them.

There is no indication of whether they were Christians at that time... At least they were certainly Christians before Paul left Corinth.

Here the apostle marks them out as his fellow workers in Christ Jesus. He does this with all the more care, because Aquila and he had worked at the same trade of tent-making. But the everyday trade drops out of sight, however right it is to note it in its own place... The trade of tent-maker, if carried on at Rome, would give him a large room where quite a few could gather.

A converted Jew of Pontus, husband of Priscilla, whom Paul first met at Corinth... They travelled with Paul to Ephesus, where they were able to help Apollos spiritually... they were at Rome when Paul wrote his letter to the saints there. In it he said they had laid down their necks for his life, and that all the churches, along with him, gave thanks to them. In Paul's last letter he still sends his greeting to them.

Soon after he arrived, he unexpectedly found two friends and fellow workers in Aquila and his wife Priscilla. At this time there must have been more Jews in Corinth than usual, "because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome." So the Lord used the banishment of Aquila and Priscilla to provide a lodging for His lonely servant. They were of his own country — of his own trade — of his own heart and spirit.

It was a custom among the Jews that all boys should learn a trade. "What is commanded of a father towards his son?" asks a Talmudic writer. "To circumcise him, to teach him the law, to teach him a trade." Another Rabbi wrote, "He that does not teach his son a trade does the same as if he taught him to be a thief." In line with these sayings, Paul's father had him trained in tent-making. When he came to Corinth, his first concern seems to have been to find a way to carry on his trade. He wanted to stay independent of any man. He would not use his right to "get his living by the gospel," so that he might "present the gospel free of charge."

It pleased God to arrange things this way. In the wealthiest and most luxurious city of Greece, the great apostle worked at an honest job to meet his own needs. What a death-blow to clericalism on the one hand, and to worldliness on the other! Yet look at Paul's own situation, and at Corinth. This was the very course worthy of the gospel of the grace that sent it out.

To everyone who offered him a gift, he could say, I do not want your support. Before he was a prisoner, he supported himself by making tents. I guarantee they were the best tents on the market (Acts 18:3). He would not give any man a chance of saying, Paul was paid for it; or, I have made Paul rich. He supported himself. And I think a man who earns his bread by an honest trade, and then gives himself to the Lord's work, is the happiest and freest of men. He depends on no one but his Master. Paul would not take a penny from the Corinthians, though he laid down the rule that the servant should be supported. He laid the rule down for others and gave it up for himself.

In Paul's case he was not laying the Lord's work aside to take up a respectable, well-paid profession. He used a trade he already knew, to provide honestly for himself and to help others in need. It is a good word from a man who works like this to his fellow workers, small or great. But it is out of place when God's people use it to hold back the faith of a spiritual worker, or to forget their own duty to those who are given up to the Lord's work.

This godly couple now got to know Paul, and began a friendship that lasted for life. Their being of the same trade — tent-makers — may have first drawn them together. These two were zealous workers in the Lord's work. Apollos owed much to them. In the towns where they lived, Christians had them to thank for a place to meet and proclaim the Lord's death.

The ways of grace are wholly above man's thoughts. No one could have predicted that God would raise a trophy to His Son in morally ruined Corinth rather than in intellectual Athens. Was there any earlier link between the Holy One of God and this city known everywhere for its immorality? Was there any natural fit at all? The grace of God explains nothing of what it does, but works to the glory of Christ; and most of all where man is most needy.

Even Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, could write of the gospel he preached: "it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Rom. 1:16). Again and again we find Paul going first to the synagogue, following out the divine thought, "to the Jew first."

The same word means either "discoursing" in general, or in particular "reasoning", or even "disputing", as in Mark 9:34; Acts 17:2; Acts 24:12; Jude 9. Here as in Acts 20:7-9; Heb. 12:5, the more general force seems preferable... The synagogue was where he spoke. So we can be sure that the testimony of the Old Testament was the broad groundwork on which Paul appealed to his hearers. They were not only Jews. The text tells us plainly that Greeks, not Greek-speaking Jews, were the people he regularly persuaded.

Nowhere was this more deeply or openly true than in Corinth, where the worship of Aphrodite with her infamous temple slaves prevailed... They abandoned all fear or thought of the true God. They fell below even the natural decency of man, and dishonoured themselves in dishonouring God. The synagogue, cold as it was, attracted consciences that recoiled from evil. Philosophy indulged that evil, or at best was far too weak to replace or restrain it. There Greeks listened along with Jews to the holy and persuasive discourses of the apostle.

People have made too much of the word "persuade" in verse 4, as if it meant to "induce little by little". On the contrary, it is the word the apostle himself uses for preaching the gospel to win souls. He preaches it in view of the awful reality of Christ's judgment seat for the hard or heedless (2 Cor. 5:10-11). Paul's word was certainly not in persuasive words of wisdom, as he told the Corinthians in his First Epistle (1 Cor. 2:3-5). It was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That was true at the very time he was with them, when he came in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

During the weekdays, or at least five of them, Paul laboured with his own hands. But "he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks." As was his custom he went to the Jew first (see chapters 13, 14 etc.). While he was so engaged, Silas and Timothy joined him from Macedonia, to his joy and comfort.

He would not have them think of the gospel as among the wares in which they traded. Money could not buy the priceless gift of God. They must never be able to think, even for a moment, that he was after anything of theirs. No, he sought them only, and he sought them in the love of Christ. Christ was so rich, yet He became poor for men, so that they might become rich through His poverty.

From Athens, Paul had sent Timothy, who had joined him there. Now Silas and Timothy return and are found with Paul. Pressed in spirit by their presence, he bears still stronger testimony that Jesus was the Christ. He had worked faithfully while they were away. But the presence of other Christians gives his spirit courage and strength according to God.

Notice that the two fellow workers came down from "Macedonia", the Roman province of northern Greece, as distinct from Achaia, whose chief city was Corinth. Both Silas and Timothy now joined the apostle at Corinth, though not necessarily at the same moment, and not necessarily from the same place. The apostle had warned these young converts in advance of the suffering that came on them. But this only increased his longing for them, and now he could rejoice that the tempter had failed and that they stood firm.

Silas and Timothy found Paul "pressed in the Spirit" (or, by another reading, "pressed in respect of the word") in his testimony to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. We take this to mean that his message to them lay as a heavy burden on his soul. He felt his responsibility for it deeply.

The traditional reading "spirit" has no support from the best manuscripts, which give "word." The word "spirit" crept in from Acts 17:16; 18:25; 19:21 and other places. So a translation like "the mind of Paul was violently disturbed" must be rejected on every ground.

There is no ground for the notion that their arrival with supplies let Paul give up tent-making and preach only. The verb does not mean anything of the sort. It means rather that his absorption with the word, which already marked him, went on, for the tense shows a continuing state, not a fresh act beginning at their coming.

He was testifying fully to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ, or Messiah — the constant stumbling block of that blinded people. Jesus is of course much more than "the Christ," and no one ever preached His higher glory, both personal and given to Him, more than Paul. Yet he still pressed on the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. This was what would break up their unbelief, and the necessary hinge of all further light and blessing.

He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. All of this must have been from the Old Testament, showing what God had foretold about Christ. We learn from his letters to the Corinthians that there was blessed fruit.

In each letter, Silvanus (Silas) and Timothy stand with Paul in the opening address. We only know of these two being in Paul's company from Acts 17 down to Acts 18:5. So Paul must have written both letters from Corinth, one soon after the other — and note that Timothy made a journey there in between.

The coming of Silas and Timothy seems to have encouraged and strengthened the apostle. His zeal and energy in the gospel are evidently increased. But the Jews opposed his teaching and blasphemed. This leads Paul to take his course with great boldness and decision. In all this God led him, and he acted according to His mind.

Ignorance can be borne, and it calls for patient work in presenting the truth. Opposition is quite another thing, especially when the testimony has been full and convincing. Speaking abusively is worse, and blasphemy worse still, because what is being so shamefully rejected is grace and truth in Christ.

The apostle answered by act as well as by word: he shook out his clothes and spoke to them. This was the spirit, if not the form, of Matthew 10:14. He and Barnabas had carried it out even more strictly at Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13:51). It was as if the dust of the place they lived in defiled him, and had to be shaken off as a testimony against them.

Paul then refused all further responsibility for them. He shook out his clothes — an act that showed his determination — and left them with the solemn words, "Your blood be on your own heads!"

Paul says in another place, "I am innocent of the blood of all." I was thinking of Ezekiel 33 in connection with this. God set Ezekiel there as a watchman. If he failed to blow the trumpet, he carried the guilt for those killed. Was Paul not referring to that? How necessary it is to be faithful with the trust given to you!

He was clean — that is, he had done his duty in witnessing to them. He leaves them to their own folly, while announcing his decision to go to the Gentiles.

Paul also said, "Your blood be on your own heads." Those who pushed the Lord to the cross, when Pilate would have released Him, had cried out something worse: "His blood be on us and on our children." And so it is to this day. "I am innocent," the apostle added; "from now on I will go to the Gentiles." This agreed perfectly with his own course elsewhere, and, what matters even more, with the ways of God in the gospel. The Jews were to have the testimony first. They did have it, and not quite in vain. Some heard and found salvation for their souls; there is a remnant chosen by God. But when the mass reject the gospel with hatred and blasphemy, the stream of blessing flows on, not lost but bringing blessing among the Gentiles.

He does not go far from the synagogue. Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, is converted, and all his household with him. This came either through the testimony Paul gave in the synagogue or after he had left it. The testimony now reaches the Corinthians, and many believe and are baptized. The Jews rejected the work, but it is now established in the city, for despite its wickedness the Lord had many people there.

Timid souls might have thought that the apostle's solemn and final break with the Jews in Corinth would only harden their hatred of the gospel. It was not so. Instead it was the means of bringing Crispus and his household to decision.

"He left there" (verse 7); that is, from the synagogue. He carried on his testimony in the house of a man named Justus, which was close by. Yet a very definite and large work of God took place. Even the ruler of the synagogue was converted.

There is no need to take that trouble. He was not leaving his lodgings but the synagogue. So he was not looking for new quarters for his home, but for a suitable place to continue the testimony he had given before in the synagogue... If it were only a lodging, why mention that it adjoined the synagogue, on which Paul was from now on turning his back? But if he needed a suitable room for testimony, the house of Justus met two conditions. First, the owner was himself a Gentile. That made it most fitting to draw Gentiles in, and to underline the serious and new step the apostle was taking. Second, it stood close enough to the synagogue to attract both Jews who might have a conscience about the rejected truth of God, and Gentile converts who used to attend the synagogue, like Justus.

Leaving them, he enters the house of a Gentile, a man who worshipped the one true God. There were many such Gentiles. Tired of the folly and wickedness of idolatry, they worshipped in the synagogue, although they had not become Jews... The house of a Gentile who acknowledged the one true God suited his work, and to him the work was everything.

Whether we read Titus or Titius in Acts 18:7, Justus was clearly a different person from the apostle's companion.

Leaving the synagogue, he taught in the house of one Titus (or Titius) Justus, next to it. This man was a convert to the Jewish faith, for he worshipped God. No doubt he was friendly to Christianity. So he had the honour of providing a suitable meeting room where the apostle could teach and preach. In this way the Lord watched over the gospel.