Unshaken: Chapter a Day

Acts 17 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 16:52

Send a text

A city obsessed with novelty. A synagogue steeped in Scripture. A home brave enough to shelter a fledgling church. We journey through Acts 17 and trace Paul’s path from Thessalonica to Berea to Athens, exploring how the gospel lands on different hearts—hostile, open, and endlessly curious—and what that teaches us about clarity, courage, and compassion.

We start where resistance runs hot in Thessalonica, where reasoning from the Old Testament sparks both persuasion and persecution. Then we meet the Bereans, a model of mature inquiry who receive the word with eagerness and verify every claim by daily Scripture study. Finally, we step into Athens, a marketplace of ideas pulsing with idols and new theories, where Paul builds common ground with poets and then names the stakes plainly: the Creator needs nothing, commands repentance, and has appointed a day of judgment, verified by raising Jesus from the dead.

Across these scenes we highlight the posture that changes everything: testing truth without hardening the heart. We talk about using cultural bridges without losing biblical anchors, why the resurrection is a public truth claim rather than private inspiration, and how real people like Jason, Dionysius, and Damaris show the gospel taking root in homes, minds, and cities. Expect to walk away with practical steps to reason from Scripture, engage smartly in today’s “Areopagus” of social media, and love people enough to tell the truth even when responses vary.

If this conversation sharpened your thinking or stirred your courage, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves big ideas, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Your support helps more seekers and skeptics find thoughtful, hope-filled content.

Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.

Pastor Plek:

And welcome back to a chapter today. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck. That's Pastor Holland. We're talking Acts chapter 17. We're gonna outline it. We're gonna observe it. We're gonna interpret it. We're gonna apply it so you could take Jesus along with you along your way today. What do you say? Now, Acts 17 starts out with the gospel being proclaimed in Thessalonica, but getting mixed responses in verses 1 through 9. However, in verses 10 through 15, as uh Paul and Silas go to Berea, they enter the synagogue and the Bereans are all about it. They eagerly hear the word of God and search the scriptures to see if these things indeed were true. But then they move on to Athens, uh, where Paul is then distressed by all of the idolatry he sees everywhere, and then he begins gospel engagement in the marketplace, especially upon the Areopagus in verses 16 through 21. Then in verses 22 through 31, we have the actual Areopagus sermon, where Christ is proclaimed to the philosophers who love to do nothing but sit around and talk about stuff that was new. And then you get the response in Athens of mockery, curiosity, and faith in verses 32 through 34. Now, Holando, what do you get for observations here?

Pastor Holland:

Okay, so I love that Paul, it says that he went on three Sabbath days and reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. So the scriptures there is, you know, the Old Testament. And so the suffering of Jesus is in the Old Testament, the resurrection of Jesus is in the Old Testament, and he's proving them and demonstrating from their own scriptures, you know, why Jesus is a Christ and explaining the gospel to them. I think that's awesome. Sometimes we we think like the Old Testament just feels, you know, is like, how does this connect to me?

Pastor Plek:

And that's we should unhitch from the Old Testament.

Pastor Holland:

Ah, man.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

Uh that has been said by some. Um but we should probably reconnect because it's a very evangelistic text. It is, yeah. It's all everything in the Old Testament is always pointing forward to God's promise of salvation in Jesus Christ. And Paul proved that.

Pastor Plek:

I love how Paul reasons from scriptures in the synagogue, which is we'd be like, you know, uh a Bible-based people. They they kind of they're probably more in line with his way of thinking, his conservative viewpoint, that kind of thing. But then he also goes to the marketplace, right? And he's able to proclaim theology to philosophers and he meets them right where they're at. He doesn't kind of um he he's a lot, he even uses their own works in his rhetoric uh to say to prove that Jesus is the Christ, or at least start from a framework that they would understand.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Yeah. And then uh the other thing is, you know, before he gets to Athens when he's in Berea, it says that these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica because they received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Pastor Plek:

Nice.

Pastor Holland:

So I just love that example, you know, of them a noble example of testing things that you hear according to the scriptures.

Pastor Plek:

So that's good. Yeah, okay. So you've really got three types of people. The Thessalonic Thessalonian Jews are kind of opponent, they're opposed to it. They don't even want to hear it at all. They're like, get out of here. Then you got the Bereans who are all about it, eager. They then test by the scripture, like, bam, this is the truth. Let's go. Then you got the Athenians who like to hear, but don't want to be committed. Yeah, right. And they're like, nah. And I so I I appreciate that Paul's um, he tries to reach each one where they're at. Um, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And remember, he's doing the work of the evangelist. And so just because it doesn't work doesn't mean your sharing it was wrong. In fact, you're gonna have different sort of responses to the gospel that you preach. And I just really appreciated that.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, and it's kind of funny, you know, of those three places, Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens, Thessalonica is the one that gets a church established that Paul writes back to in first and second Thessalonians. So, you know, that's where he faced a lot of trouble. Yeah. Um, but that's where a church got planted.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, and remember, because like a whole outbreak breaks out, but in the persecution, when you believe through that, the greater the maybe the more it stays in your heart and um you you saw God work through this. Um whereas in it's there isn't a Berean church that we know of. There's no like letter to the Bereans. Yeah, right. Or maybe they're just so solid that they didn't need any help. Maybe, yeah. Maybe. Because usually when he's writing to different churches, he's usually correcting something, but maybe they're like, man, these guys in Berea, they kill it. Could be.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, that's cool.

Pastor Plek:

All right. What about some truths about the nature of man?

Pastor Holland:

What did you see here? Uh, well, this um threefold kind of reaction of, you know, um uh some of them uh mocked and some of them wanted to hear it again, and then some of them believed. And, you know, that's kind of like the pattern where he goes places and just going like wherever you go, there's gonna be people who give you those types of responses. Um just knowing that that's normal. Um, I don't know. I think it's helpful.

Pastor Plek:

I love how like the marketplace of ideas. When I read like they do want to do nothing all day except hear about something new, what it that reminds me of current day social media. Yeah. Like scrolling, they're just scrolling. I want to hear something new. I want to see another. Oh man, that was good. I want to hear it. Oh, that's cool. Who's who's the next guy? Bring it in. And and they're they're very much intently listening, but they're able to dismiss it or share it based upon hey, I heard you know, they wanted to hear something new. And I just was like, I know we think we're the most modern, we're so cool, we've got a technological advantage. And maybe that part is true. However, the desire for new stuff never fades.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, true. Yeah, also um, nature of man, you see that um uh where is it? Verse 26, he made from one man every nation of mankind. Um, just the reality that we all have a common ancestor in Adam. Um, all of us. And so, you know, in in that way, we're we are all, you know, he quotes their poets and says, we are indeed his offspring. So, you know, the idea of we're all essentially that God created us all and that we all have one common ancestor, we have a shared humanity, even with people that are very different than us. Yeah, um, yeah. I love that.

Pastor Plek:

Um I thought the uh Thessalonian thes Thessalonian Jews, they had a religious zeal because they were um you you don't get angry about something unless you have a zeal for it. Yeah, right, right. So like so I I do appreciate they had a zeal for the scripture, but they were resisted the fulfillment in Christ, uh, and which shows that sometimes for people, familiarity with religion doesn't guarantee obedience or faith.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, right. Yeah, that's good. Um, I also like uh nature of man is that like we can we intuitively understand um the reality of God. You look at, you know, in Athens, it's like there's a city full of idols. So they got got wrong, you know, who God is, um, but they got right the fact that there's something up there, you know. Like this is what Paul says in Romans 1, um, you know, that God's uh eternal power and divine nature are clearly perceived in the things that he has made. So um, you know, we you can look around at the world and just go, someone made all this stuff. I love that. Um, to and Romans 1 also says that those who reject God suppress the truth. We know it intuitively, but you have to suppress it um to deny it.

Pastor Plek:

I keep thinking about what you said about the Thessalonians like being the church that Paul writes a letter to, yeah, even though he only spends three weeks there.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, right.

Pastor Plek:

Three weeks, and that church is established. Um, but what I notice is that he goes on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with him from the scriptures, and then um some of them were persuaded. The Jews were jealous, and then they they went to the house of Jason. So apparently Jason was persuaded, yeah, and he was the one where the church where the church met and he had to bribe city officials to uh to kind of leave them alone, and you know, he gave them a what was to say, he gave them money as security from Jason. Yeah, so he was a wealthy dude, and I know sometimes we just think that um the only people who will hear the gospel are poor people, but here's a wealthy person who was probably very um uh influential. He had enough rapport with the city to at least pay them off to say, Hey, get these people off me. And they were like, Okay, cool. And then the church flourished in his home. Yeah, right. I just think that's wild that like your influence as a believer to interact with the city officials um with people is something you shouldn't take lightly. People need to use their influence to for the kingdom of God.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, yeah, that's good. And Paul also, you know, he didn't just um spend three weeks there and then move on and forget about them, right? Like we already mentioned he wrote two letters to them, um, teaching them, encouraging them. But also in those letters, we find out that he sent Timothy back to them. You know, Timothy, who we just picked up in the previous chapter. Um, later he sends Timothy back to encourage them, teach them. And so I think just again, the nature of man, uh, we need relationship, not just information. We need shepherding, we need pastoring, we need spiritual encouragement. Um, and Paul gives that.

Pastor Plek:

Uh I also loved at the very end, uh, Paul uh had some men join him who believe. Among them were Dionysius the Areopagite. Now, I wondered if he was one of those guys that just wanted to hear something new and God opened up his heart. Yeah. Like I know that that might be it's it's again, I think sometimes we feel like it's what does it matter if we share the gospel? Well, it sure mattered to that guy. Right. Not the only a few people joined him, but it mattered that he went to the heart of the intellectual, philosophical world. He engaged and someone did believe and followed him. And then I love how a woman was mentioned here, like a woman named Domaris and others with him. Like I w what do you think it is about those two names specifically? Maybe those are the most prominent? What was that?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, we don't really know anything else about them other than you know, uh, for Luke, who's writing this, you know, as a reporter, he's including, you know, names that uh of significant people, people you might recognize. So my guess is like the the first audience of this book would have been like, oh, I know those, I know who that is, or something like that. But even just uh just the reality of of showing that it wasn't just the um the poor and the you know, we talked about the the slave girl and the jailer, it was also um the intellectual um and uh the wealthy um that were receiving the gospel.

Pastor Plek:

And I know that this is kind of weird, yeah, but the Bereans don't get any names. Like no one's name from the Berean church. True. But the Thessalonians have Jason as the pillar of the church there, and uh Athens has Dionysius and Domeris. So I thought that was kind of an interesting thing where God used might be transitioned to God. God uses specific people in their geographies for his purpose. Yeah, that's cool. Uh, what else about uh character of God?

Pastor Holland:

Okay, character of God, you see that um one, the God uh is creator, that we're you know, being us being his offspring, he's uh creator. Number two, you see that um God is uh doesn't need anything. You see his you know self-sufficiency. It says um that uh where is it, verse 29? We ought not oh no no no hold on. Skip me, come back to me. You go.

Pastor Plek:

So in in verse 27, there's this calling that they should seek God in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yeah. Um God wants us to feel our way toward him, which usually in in our modern vernacular, doing anything with your feelings is bad. However, however, like going with your gut feeling or going in with emotions toward God, he wants to access your emotions as much as he wants to access your intellect.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, I always thought understood that as like, you know, um feeling our way toward him, not like feeling emotions, but like someone groping in the dark. Um, you feel you like your uh your feelings of like, you know, your senses of trying to reach and go, I know there's something there, and I'm trying to figure out what it is.

Pastor Plek:

I have no problem with that. But but I also think there's a sense of like, I mean, how many people have um I might have to look at the word up, but I feel like there's a sense like I'm just feeling it out. Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

Okay, so the other one I I found the verse is verse 25, where it says, Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. So that's the idea of his self-sufficiency. He does not need us to serve him or worship him. Rather, he's the one who gives us everything that we have to serve or worship him with anyway. That's good. And so um, yeah, shows the power and self-sufficiency of God.

Pastor Plek:

Uh back to that feel for him. Uh-huh. Uh, it is grope around, is is probably the more touch, handle, feel around for, grope for or possible meaning.

Pastor Holland:

I might have been thinking I was playing hide and seek in the dark with my kids last night, and you know, just feel so I had that fresh on my mind. I like that. I like that. You know, it seems like the the Greeks were, you know, essentially kind of tuned into natural law of like the Romans 1 stuff of like we know that there's a God, we don't know who it is, um, but they're feeling for it, and so they put that statue to the unknown God.

Pastor Plek:

Because it's like we got to get there somehow.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, and Paul's saying, Hey, pretty good. I can tell you who that is, though.

Pastor Plek:

All right, that's so great. Let's get into some application. Let's go sin to avoid or confess, promise to claim, uh, example to follow, command to obey, or knowledge to believe. What do you got? Sin to avoid mocking the resurrection. Nice. Uh, how about sin to avoid uh use your intellectual pride that critiques truth without submitting to it? Um so like you're constantly like someone brings you something new, which I appreciate. There's like a healthy skepticism, but instead of searching the scriptures to see that these things are true, you're automatically nah.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. For example, to follow is the Bereans. Um search the scriptures to see if it's true. When you hear a new teaching, you know, just like you said, um test it. Uh study the scriptures, see if it lines up, if it uh or if it contradicts what the Bible teaches.

Pastor Plek:

How about this command obey? Reason from scripture. Yeah, that's good. I I I love that because I think so many times I've heard about evangelism where you don't use scripture because it's too weird or too hard. I'm like, the word of God has power. Yeah. And one of the things I love to do personally when I am sharing the gospel is have them read God's word, put God's word on their lips, and there's something powerful about it that breaks through. Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

And that's cool. You know, what Paul he does that with the Jews, with the Greeks in Athens. He's not necessarily quoting scripture, but he is teaching, you know, he's not just um making kind of like observations about he says God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. He goes, you know, he doesn't dance around the reality of Christ is Lord, you need to repent, he's gonna judge the world one day. So I like that. While he might not be quoting scripture, he's definitely summarizing it.

Pastor Plek:

Right. Yeah. Oh, that's good. And then he's not afraid also to quote their own poets, which is all truth is God's truth. Yeah. Um okay, what about how about knowledge about God to believe? Um, Acts 17 reveals God as creator, God as sustainer, God as judge, uh, and he's also he sends Jesus as redeemer. Amen. Anything else you got there?

Pastor Holland:

I just love the example of Paul too. Um, just do evangelism. Yeah. Um, you know, just reason with people, tell them about Jesus, preach the gospel, just get out there and do it. And there's gonna be some people who mock you and reject you or want to throw you out of, you know, wherever you are. There's also gonna be some people who believe. So love it.

Pastor Plek:

Hey, thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you uh next time for a chapter a day.

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.