ACTS 17 – 18
Bible Study Notes Rev. Betsy Perkins
More Missionary Adventures
- Have you ever shared the gospel with someone who did not know Jesus? How did you go about it?
Thessalonica (17:1-9)
- Locate Paul’s travel on the map.
- What was the message Paul was preaching in Thessalonica?
- Who responded positively to Paul’s message?
- Who responded negatively? Why?
- What happened to Jason? How do you think he felt?
- What were the accusations made against them?
- Read 1 Thessalonians 2:13-20, from the letter Paul wrote to the people he had to leave quickly. How might that have encouraged them?
Berea (17:10-15):
- How are Paul and his message received in Berea?
- What interferes with Paul’s work in Berea? How do the new believers respond?
- Why does Paul part ways with Silas and Timothy? Where does Paul go?
Joe Boyd, Bible Experiment – Acts of the Apostles (RightNowMedia), 1:17:55 – 1:22:50
Athens (17:16-34):
- As Paul waits in Athens, what does he notice? Why does it upset him?
- What might upset Paul if he were to wander around our community?
- How do the people in Athens initially respond to Paul’s message?
- How does Paul use the things he has observed as he starts to make a case to the Areopagus council?
- How does Paul explain that the True God is different from other gods (verses 24-28)?
- What is God’s relation with humans (verse 27-28)? How has God reached out make Godself known? (Max Lucado, page 84-5)
- What warning does Paul give the people of Athens (verses 29-31)? What is the proof that there will be a day of judgment?
It is the resurrection which explains why Jesus is the coming judge. It isn’t anything so trivial as that the resurrection demonstrates Jesus’ divinity, or even his human superiority, and thus qualifies him for this particularly tricky task. Rather, it is that with the resurrection of Jesus God’s new world has begun; in other words, his being raised from the dead is the start, the paradigm case, the foundation, the beginning, of that great setting-right which God will do for the whole cosmos at the end. This risen body of Jesus is the one bit of the physical universe that has already been ‘set right’. Jesus is therefore the one through whom everything else will be ‘set right’. N.T. Wright
- What ideas can we take from Paul’s message to use when we share our faith with others?
- What points are important to include when sharing the gospel with non-Christians?
- What were the results of Paul’s speech?
Corinth (18:1-17):
- What do we learn about Aquila and Pricilla?
- What was Paul doing during his time in Corinth? How did that change after he was reunited with Silas and Timothy?
- What was the response to Paul’s preaching? How do you imagine that made him feel? How did God encourage Paul?
Presumably Paul needed that encouragement. Visions, both in the New Testament and in much later experience, are not normally granted just for the sake of it. Perhaps, having been opposed and reviled in the synagogue, he had expected to be run out of town, or at least to be sufficient of an embarrassment to the new church that it would be better for him to leave. He may have even had a desire to move on, since traveling from place to place gets into the blood and he may well have wanted, not only to return to Antioch and Jerusalem, but also to get back on the road that would eventually take him to Rome. But no: he must stay put. One of the many lessons Acts teaches quietly, as it goes along, is that you tend to get the guidance you need when you need it, not before, and not in too much detail. Enough to know that the Lord Jesus has many people in this city, and that he want you, Paul, to stay here and work with them. N.T. Wright
- What do we know about Paul and Crispus from 1 Corinthians 1:14?
- How is Paul’s stay in Corinth different than the other cities he has visited? What made this possible?
- What happens when the Jews try to complain about Paul to the Roman authority in Corinth? How does that help Paul and the other believers?
- What happens to Sosthenes? Look at 1 Corinthians 1:1 to see what may have been the result.
Church Leaders and a Third Missionary Journey (18:18-28):
- What does Paul do before he finally leaves Corinth and continues his missionary journey? Who is traveling with him?
- What happens in Ephesus? Where does Paul go from there?
- Verse 23 seems to indicate the start of a third missionary journey for Paul. Where does he go and what is he doing?
- What do we learn about Apollos? Is he a believer in Jesus? What role do Priscilla and Aquila play in his life?
- How does God use Apollos? What are the results (read 1 Corinthians 3:1-9)?
- How has God used different people to nurture churches you have been a part of? Has it ever caused divisions?
- Is there a right or wrong way to come to faith in Jesus or to mature in that faith?
Luke offers us no set pattern for the way in which people come, step by step, into full membership of the Christian family and full participation in all the possibilities that are thereby open to them. Sometimes it happens this way, sometimes that. Just as humans grow to maturity at different paces, and some make great strides in one area while others have to catch up later, so it seems to be in the church. What matters is that we are open, ready to learn even from unlikely sources, and prepared for whatever God has to reveal to us through the scriptures, the apostolic teaching, and the ongoing and always unpredictable common life of the believing family. N.T. Wright
In light of this passage and our discussion, what one truth about God and about yourself stand out as something to “take to heart” this week?
Are there steps you will take, by God’s grace, to more fully apply it to your life?
Resources: NIV Zondervan Study Bible, 2015
N.T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part 1 2008
Max Lucado, Life Lessons from Acts: Christ’s Church in the World, 2018
Joe Boyd, Bible Experiment – The Acts of the Apostles (RightNowMedia), 2014
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