Acts - Week 57

Week 57 Acts 17 

Day 1 

READ 

Acts 17:18 

18 He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, “What’s this babbler trying to say with these strange ideas he’s picked up?” Others said, “He seems to be preaching about some foreign gods.” 

Paul was willing to debate anyone as he talked about the resurrected Jesus. Both the Epicureans and the Stoic philosophers denied any accountability to God. This would mean they would not want to hear about a resurrected Jesus they might have to face one day. These who were worshiping gods thought Paul was preaching a foreign one. This shows mankind is made to worship something or someone. 

REFLECT 

Have you thought about what unbelievers worship? Think on this so you understand them better. 

RESPOND 

As you and your disciple consider that even unbelievers worship something, read Ecclesiastes 3:11. God has set eternity into each heart. Only a relationship with the true God can adequately fill that space. 

Day 2 

READ 

Acts 17:19-21 

19 Then they took him to the high council of the city. “Come and tell us about this new teaching,” they said. 20 “You are saying some rather strange things, and we want to know what it’s all about.” 21 (It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.) 

The philosophers of that day, similar to those today, were anxious to hear the latest ideas. Taken before this supreme body that met on Mars Hill, Paul was prepared to preach the gospel to them. These philosophers referred to seemed to have all kinds of time to sit around listening to the latest ideas. No matter how enlightened they were by these ideas, they were not prepared of eternity. 

RELECT 

Think about the lostness of mainkind in spite of all the brilliance about this world and the conjecture of how it began. Only believing in Jesus as Savior can prepare one to face eternity. 

RESPOND 

Talk with your disciple about how you might begin to witness for Jesus in the midst of unbelievers who are willing to hear what you have to say.  

Day 3 

READ 

Acts 17:22-23 

22 So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about. 

Paul began his witness about Jesus by connecting with something his listeners were doing. They were “religious” inasmuch as they were worshiping idols. Then he pointed out an altar with the inscription “To an Unknown God.” This interest point would give him a way to talk about the God whom they did not know. Paul connected with what the Athenians were concerned about.  

REFLECT 

These philosophers were “religious” but what they needed was a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Religion does not save anyone. 

RESPOND 

Read Acts 8:26-30 to see that in witnessing for Jesus, Philip began with what the Ethiopian eunuch was thinking about. Use this and Paul’s approach to the Athenians as examples of where to begin when speaking with unbelievers. Talk with your disciple about how you might do this. 

Day 4 

READ 

Acts 17:24-26 

24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. 

As Paul addressed the unbelieving philosophers he began with the God of creation. They were busy making idols to worship and their hands could not serve the true God because He has no needs. Paul talked also of the first man from whom all nations came. He also presented God as sovereign over the nations. This was strong teaching for those who did not believe in a creator nor in a God to whom they would have to give account someday. 

REFLECT 

Even for those who deny a creator they need to realize that such things as DNA did not come as a result of chance and long ages. It is also important to realize that God’s unique creation of the first man explains the resulting peoples and nations. 

RESPOND 

As the believers prayed for Peter and John—and the persecution that might result—they addressed God as the creator of heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. Read Acts 4:23-24 to be reminded of this.  

Day 5 

READ 

Acts 17:27-29 

27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. 

Paul tells the philosophers what God’s purpose was in bringing the nations about through the first man. God’s purpose was that they might seek Him. Paul even quoted from one of their poets who spoke the truth in the line, “We are his offspring.” Paul’s point was that because of what the poet said they should not think of God as designed by their hands.  

REFLECT 

Thank the Lord for those who have minds knowledgeable about the world and literature to use it in pointing people to Jesus. 

RESPOND 

Read Ephesians 3:9-11 to see Paul’s description of God’s purpose in the Church—the body of Christ. God had a purpose in creating a man through whom all nations came and a purpose in uniting Jew and Gentile together in one body.