In the last case it was the power exercised by the enemy over the passions
of the Gentiles that caused the persecution of the apostles: at
Thessalonica we again find the old and universal enmity of the Jews.
Nevertheless many Jews and proselytes received the gospel. After a tumult
there also, the apostles go away to Berea. There the Jews are more noble;
what they hear, they examine by the word of God. Through this a great
number among them believed. Nevertheless the Jews of Thessalonica, jealous
of the progress the gospel made, go over to Berea. Paul leaves the city and
passes on to Athens. Silas and Timothy remain for the moment at Berea, Paul
being the special object of the Jews' pursuit. At Athens, although he
resorted to the synagogue, yet, his spirit stirred at the sight of the
universal idolatry in that idle city, he disputes daily in public with
their philosophers; consequent on these interviews, he proclaims the true
God to the chief men of that intellectual capital. He had sent word to
Silas and Timothy to join him there.
With a people like the Athenians-such is the effect of intellectual
cultivation without God-he has to come down to the lowest step in the
ladder of truth. He sets forth the oneness of God, the Creator, and the
relationship of man to Him, declaring also that Jesus will judge the world,
of which God had given proof by raising Him up from the dead. With the
exception of the judgment of this world being put in place of the promises
respecting the return of Jesus, we might think it was Peter addressing the
Jews. We must not imagine that the historian relates everything that Paul
said. What is given is his defence, not his preaching. The Holy Ghost gives
us that which characterised the manner in which the apostle met the
circumstances of those he addressed. That which remained on the minds of
his first hearers was that he preached Jesus and the resurrection. It
appears even that some took the resurrection, as well as Jesus, to be a
God. It is, indeed, the basis of Christianity, which is founded on Jesus
personally, and the fact of His resurrection; but it is only the basis.
I have said that we are reminded here of Peter's preaching. I mean as to
the degree of height in his doctrine with regard to Christ. We shall
observe, at the same time, the appropriateness of the application of facts
in either case to the persons addressed. Peter set forth the rejected
Christ ascended on high, ready to return on the repentance of the Jews, and
who would establish at His coming all things of which the prophets had
spoken. Here the judgment of the world-sanction of the truth to the natural
conscience-is presented to the learned men, and to the inquisitive people;
nothing that could interest their philosophic minds, but a plain and
convincing testimony to the folly of their idolatry, according even to that
which the natural conscience of their own poets had acknowledged.
The dishonest gain, to which Satan ministered opportunity, met the gospel
at Philippi; the hardness and moral indifference of knowledge that
flattered human vanity, at Athens; at Thessalonica, the efforts of Jewish
jealousy. The gospel goes on its way, victorious over the one, yielding to
the effect of another, and, after laying bare to the learned Athenians all
that their condition tolerated, leaving them, and finding, amid the luxury
and the depraved manners of the wealthy city of Corinth, a numerous people
to bringinto the assembly. Such are the ways of God, and the exercises of
His devoted servant led by the Holy Ghost.
We may notice, that this energy, which seeks the Gentiles, never loses
sight of the favour of God towards His elect people-a favour that sought
them until they rejected it.
