Acts 17:1 - Meaning and Application

Paul’s two letters to the Thessalonians, the first two he wrote by inspiration, give such a good picture of that church that we are glad to see here how it was first planted. We are told of Paul’s visit to Thessalonica, the main city of that region, now called Salonica under Turkish rule. He kept going in his work even after the rough treatment he had received at Philippi. He says this in his first letter to that church: “After we had been shamefully treated at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:2).

Opposition and persecution did not weaken Paul. They made him more determined. Nothing could have kept him going and moving forward as he did if he had not been strengthened by power from heaven. He only passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, one near Philippi and the other near Thessalonica. No doubt God was guiding him, as the Spirit led him where to stay and where to move on, just as wind blows where it will.

Apollonia was in the region of Illyricum, and some think this fits Paul’s statement that he had preached the gospel “from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum” (Romans 15:19). That would mean he reached the edge of Illyricum, near where he now was. Even if he is said only to have passed through those cities, we may suppose he stayed long enough to preach there and prepare the way for other ministers whom he would later send.

His custom was to preach first to the Jews, so he began in their synagogue at Thessalonica (Acts 17:1). This also suggests one reason he did not stay long in the other cities, there were no synagogues there. But when he found a synagogue in Thessalonica, he made that his starting point.

It was always Paul’s way to begin with the Jews and give them the first offer of the gospel. He did not turn to the Gentiles until the Jews had refused it. That way the Jews could not complain that he went to the Gentiles too quickly. If the Jews received the gospel, they would gladly welcome the new believers. If they rejected it, they could not blame the apostles when the message went to those who would receive it.

He met them in the synagogue on the Sabbath day, at their place and at their regular time. In this he showed respect both to them and to the day. Sabbaths and holy gatherings are precious to those to whom Christ is precious (Psalm 84:10). It is a good thing to be in the house of the Lord on his day. This was Christ’s way, Paul’s way, and the way of all the saints, the old good path they followed.

Paul reasoned with them from the Scriptures. They agreed to receive the Old Testament Scriptures, so in that sense they were on common ground. But they used the Scriptures to reject Christ, while Paul used the same Scriptures to show why they should receive him. So, to convince them, he had to reason with them, with the Spirit working with him, and show that his reading of Scripture was right and theirs was wrong.

The preaching of the gospel should be both biblical and reasonable. Paul’s preaching was like that, for he reasoned from the Scriptures. We must take Scripture as our foundation, our authority, and our test. Then we reason from it, upon it, and against those who, like the Jews here, claim to honor Scripture but twist it to their own ruin. Reason must never be set against Scripture, but it should be used to explain and apply Scripture.

He did this for three Sabbath days in a row. If he could not persuade them the first Sabbath, he would try again the second and third. Truth often has to be pressed again and again, line upon line and precept upon precept. God waits for sinners to turn, and his ministers must wait too. Not all workers come into the vineyard at the first hour, at the first call, or are changed as suddenly as the jailer was.

The main point of Paul’s preaching and argument was to prove that Jesus is the Christ, which he “opened and explained” there (Acts 17:3). He first set out his case clearly, then supported it strongly, and left it as the truth they were called by God to accept. Paul knew this doctrine well, understood it thoroughly, and was fully persuaded of it, so he opened it like a man who truly believed it.

He showed them, first, that the Messiah had to suffer, die, and rise again, because the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah made this necessary. The great objection the Jews had against Jesus as the Messiah was his shameful death and suffering. The cross of Christ was a stumbling block to them, because it did not fit the picture they had made of the Messiah. But Paul showed clearly not only that the Messiah could suffer, but that, if Jesus was the Messiah, he had to suffer.

He could not be made fully complete except through suffering. If he had not died, he could not have risen from the dead. This was what Christ himself taught: “Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” (Luke 24:26). Again, “This is what is written, and so the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead” (Luke 24:46). He had to suffer for us, because otherwise he could not buy our redemption. He had to rise again, because otherwise he could not bring that redemption home to us.

Second, Paul showed that Jesus is the Messiah: “This Jesus whom I preach to you, and whom I call you to believe in, is the Christ, the anointed of the Lord, the one who was to come. You are not to look for another, because God has borne witness to him by his word and by his works, that is, by Scripture and miracles, with the gift of the Spirit making both effective.” Gospel ministers should preach Jesus. He must be their main subject, because their work is to make people know him.

What we must preach about Jesus is that he is the Christ. Therefore, we may hope to be saved by him, and we are bound to be ruled by him.

Some of the Jews believed, despite their deep prejudice against Christ and his gospel, and they joined themselves to Paul and Silas. They did more than simply befriend them. They submitted to their guidance as spiritual leaders, as if they had placed themselves in the possession of the rightful owner. In this way, they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to the apostles by the will of God (2 Corinthians 8:5). Those who believe in Jesus Christ come into fellowship with his faithful ministers and associate with them.

A large number of the devout Greeks, along with many leading women, also accepted the gospel. These were what the Jews called proselytes of the gate, meaning godly Gentiles who had not taken on the law of Moses. They had turned from idols and moral sin, worshiped the true God alone, and tried to harm no one. They were the worshiping Gentiles, people who were allowed to join the Jews in synagogue worship. A great crowd of them believed, more than the fully committed Jews who clung to the ceremonial law. Not a few leading women of the city, women of serious religion, also embraced Christianity.

This is mentioned especially as an example for women of rank and influence. It encourages them to give themselves to devotion and to submit to the authority of Christ's holy religion in every part of life. That brings honor to Christ, pleases God, and often has wide influence on others, while also bringing great good to their own souls. The passage does not mention their preaching the gospel to the Gentile idolaters in Thessalonica, yet it is certain that they did. Many were converted there, and that church seems to have been made up largely of Gentile believers, though the account does not highlight them here. Paul later says they had turned to God from idols, at the apostles' first visit among them (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

Now comes the trouble that Paul and Silas faced in Thessalonica. Wherever they preached, persecution followed them. Chains and suffering waited for them in every city. The ones who stirred up this trouble were the unbelieving Jews, who acted out of envy (Acts 17:5). The Jews were often the most stubborn enemies of Christians, especially of Jews who had become Christians, whom they treated as deserters.

This shows the division Christ said he would bring on the earth. Some Jews believed the gospel and felt pity and prayer for those who did not. The unbelieving ones envied and hated those who did. In his letter to this church, Paul points to the rage and hatred of the Jews against the gospel preachers as the full measure of their sin (1 Thessalonians 2:15-16).

They also used certain wicked men from the lowest class, people they had gathered together to turn the city against the apostles. Honest and sensible people respected the apostles, so the Jews had to rely on the city’s worst people, men known for every kind of evil. Tertullian argued in the same way against the enemies of Christianity, saying that its persecutors were usually unjust, godless, and shameful men, the very kind even their own people condemned. It is a mark of honor for true religion that those who hate it are often the loose and lawless among men, people with no real sense of justice or virtue.

Their method was also clear. First, they threw the city into an uproar, making enough noise to frighten everyone and stir up a crowd. This is how riot begins, and once the mob is awake, it moves quickly. See who really troubles Israel, not the faithful preachers of the gospel, but its enemies. The devil often works this way, stirring cities and souls into confusion, then taking advantage of the troubled waters.

Next, they attacked Jason’s house, where the apostles were staying, hoping to drag them out before the crowd they had inflamed. Their actions were completely unlawful. If Jason’s house had to be searched, it should have been done by proper officers and with legal authority. A man’s house should be his protection, and for them to storm it in a mob only showed how far persecution can drive people. If anyone had done wrong, magistrates were appointed to investigate and judge. But to make the crowd both judge and executioner was to push truth out of the public square and let fury rule instead of justice.

When they could not get the apostles themselves, whom they wanted to punish as wandering troublemakers, they turned on Jason, an honest citizen who had welcomed them into his home. Jason was a converted Jew, and they dragged him, along with some of the other believers, before the city rulers. The apostles were likely advised to leave, since the anger was aimed mainly at them. Their friends, however, were willing to put themselves at risk, because they could better endure the storm. For good men, some people will even dare to die.

They accused Jason and the others before the rulers, presenting them as dangerous men who should not be tolerated. Jason’s supposed crime was receiving and sheltering the apostles, giving them support and helping their work (Acts 17:7). What had the apostles done to deserve a charge so serious that giving them lodging was treated like treason? The accusation had two dark parts. First, they were said to be enemies of public peace, upsetting everything wherever they went: “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”

In one sense, this was true. Wherever the gospel comes in power, it brings such a change that it can seem to turn the world upside down in that place and in that soul. The love of the world is driven out of the heart, and the world’s way of living is contradicted by the life. In that sense, the world really is turned upside down there.

But in the sense the accusers meant it, the charge was completely false. They wanted people to think the gospel preachers were troublemakers wherever they went. They claimed the preachers stirred up quarrels between relatives, set neighbors against each other, hurt trade, and upset all order and decency. Yet the truth was that by leading people from sin to virtue, from idols to the living and true God, and from hatred and envy to love and peace, they were overturning only the devil’s kingdom in the world.

Their enemies stirred up the city, then blamed them for the uproar. It was like Nero, who set Rome on fire and then accused the Christians. If Christ’s faithful ministers, even the quietest ones in the land, are wrongly accused and badly spoken of in this way, they should not find it strange or become angry. We are no better than Paul and Silas, who were treated like this. The accusers shouted, “These men have come here too. They have caused all the trouble they could in other places, and now they have brought the trouble here. It is time for us to act against them.”

The charge was also that they were enemies of the government and opposed to the state. The accusation was that their teaching and actions were against monarchy and against the laws of the land (Acts 17:7). The claim was, “They all act against the decrees of Caesar.” This did not mean they broke any specific Roman law, because there was not yet any law against Christianity. It meant they opposed Caesar’s right in general to make decrees, because they said there was another king, one Jesus. Jesus was not only a king of the Jews, as he was charged before Pilate, but Lord of all, as Peter said in his first sermon to the Gentiles (Acts 10:36).

It is true that the Roman government, both as a republic and later under the Caesars, was very suspicious of anyone under its rule claiming to be king, and there was an actual law against it. But Christ’s kingdom was not of this world. His followers did say that Jesus is a king, but not an earthly king. He was not a rival to Caesar, and his commands did not conflict with Caesar’s laws. In fact, Christ had made it a law of his kingdom to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. Nothing in Christ’s teaching aimed at overthrowing princes or taking away their rightful authority.

The Jews knew this very well, and in their conscience they were wrong to bring such a charge against the apostles. Of all people, it was especially shameful for the Jews to do so, since they hated Caesar and his rule and wanted both him and his government ruined. They were expecting a Messiah who would be a political prince and overthrow kingdoms, so they opposed the Lord Jesus because he did not appear in that way. In the same way, those who have been most bitter in calling God’s faithful people enemies of Caesar and harmful to kings and provinces have often been setting up a kingdom within a kingdom, a power that competes with Caesar’s and even claims to be above it, the papal supremacy.

This caused great uneasiness in the city (Acts 17:8). The people and the rulers were troubled when they heard these things. They did not think badly of the apostles or their teaching themselves, and they could see no danger to the state from them. So they would have preferred to ignore the matter. But if the accusers presented the apostles as enemies of Caesar, the rulers would have to investigate and suppress them out of fear for the government, and that troubled them. Claudius, who was emperor at the time, is described by Suetonius as very nervous and extremely sensitive to unrest. That made the rulers under him careful about anything that seemed dangerous or even slightly suspicious, so they were troubled at the thought of being forced to disturb good men.

The affair ended without a full prosecution. The magistrates did not want to proceed against the Christians. The apostles had already gone into hiding and escaped their hands, so all that could be done was to release Jason and his friends on bail (Acts 17:9). These magistrates were not as quickly stirred up against the apostles as those at Philippi had been, but were more thoughtful and better tempered. So they took security from Jason and the others and bound them to keep the peace. Perhaps they also required a guarantee that Paul and Silas would appear if they were later needed. Among those who persecuted Christianity, there have been examples of wild rage, like brutes, but also examples of human prudence and restraint. Moderation is a virtue.