And then comes verse 30:The first thing you might notice in Acts 17 is how similar it is to Acts 14.
And like in chapter 14, Paul’s preaching angers some of the Jewish listeners and they stir up a crowd to run Paul out of the city. And when these guys bring Paul to Athens, they stay there with him until they figure out a plan for how to get Silas and Timothy to Athens.
Because Jesus is real, Jesus is alive, Jesus has been raised from the dead.Ironically, there are some cultural situations so dark that the message of Jesus sounds foreign. They know the rain comes from something out there, and they know rain is good for their crops, and therefore good for their food, which is good for their happiness.
I don’t think we should see this development to mean that these philosophers were sincerely considering the gospel.
And Paul, of course, undeterred by any of this, stands there before them and he’s got something to say. Do not presume that your good works or devotion to Christ will save you. See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Up to 1835, all the railroad tracks to the west had avoided these mountains, called Blue Ridge Mountains, but this new idea proposed that the railroad go straight through the mountains in a 13-mile tunnel …
And like you could imagine, when you come to the tunnel it is just this big hole in the side of a mountain. And then in verse 32, Jesus and the resurrection repels them.
John Mighton argues that by recognizing the barriers that we have experienced in our own educational development, by identifying the moment that we became disenchanted with a certain subject and … It sounds like nonsense. These Epicurean and Stoic philosophers think that what Paul says is interesting and they want the others to hear him.So after Jesus died for us, and was raised from the dead, in Luke 24, he comes to his disciples. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, âLord, Lord, open for us,â and He will answer and say to you, âI do not know you, where you are from,â then you will begin to say, âWe ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streetsââ (Luke 13:24â26).Then the king said to the servants, âBind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teethâ (Matthew 22:13).But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. And so Paul, being Paul, can’t just lay low because he’s on a mission.And when these philosophers heard what Paul said about Jesus, they want to bring him to the Areopagus — the place where all the Athenians and foreigners congregated and entertained new ideas. Many will say to Me in that day, âLord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?â And then I will declare to them, âI never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!ââ (Matthew 7:21â23).Only in Christ will you be welcomed and not cast out. Melissa has family in that part of South Carolina, and she had been there several times. But Paul is immediately sent out of there, escorted by some of the Berean brothers until he gets to Athens. Maybe they do a rain dance, or maybe they sacrifice an animal.
So they told the King, but he would not come down to see him, but commanded the two Shining Ones that conducted Christian and Hopeful to the City, to go out and take Ignorance, and bind him hand and foot, and have him away.
The End of Ignorance: Multiplying Our Human Potential. When those plans are made, the Berean brothers then leave. And it doesn’t take long as you’re walking into the tunnel before you find yourself in complete darkness. By 1859 they were still at Stumphouse Mountain and the state of South Carolina had spent over a million dollars trying to dig through it. At one place the resurrection of Jesus interests them, and it leads into this sermon; at the other place the resurrection of Jesus irritates them, and the sermon is over. It was the darkest kind of darkness I’ve ever experienced.
It’s called Stumphouse Tunnel, and you can go there and visit it. Everything is just black. Look at verse 18,Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. Ignorance will be our downfall. But the man answered never a word.
You walk with your hands up [like this] because you don’t know what’s out there.“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, [25] nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.Ignorance is the theme of what he says. And I want to be clear here: I don’t think this is a positive thing.