More Cultures Receive the Gospel (Acts 17:1-9)

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Paul Witnesses in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1–9)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, July 27, 2025

Jesus loves Jews and Gentiles

In his autobiography, Col. Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame says that he was always a God-fearing man. In every venture he gave God a tenth of the profits. Yet he knew that if he died, God probably wouldn’t take him to heaven.

Worried, he traveled to Australia to a special church convention for the answer. He didn’t find it.

One day, Sanders was walking down a street in Louisville, Kentucky, when Rev. Waymon Rodgers of Louisville’s Evangel Tabernacle invited him to some evangelistic services. Several days later, Sanders went. At age 79, he claimed the promises of Rom. 10:9. “When I walked out of that church that night, I knew I was a different man. All my tithing and good deeds had never given me the sense of God’s presence that I knew then,” he says.

I found that to be a very interesting story. However, as I am sure most of you know, the Gospel would have never reached the United States without Paul the Apostle and his mission to the Gentiles.  You see all of Jesus’ disciples were Jewish. The early spread of the Gospel was to Jews. Acts 2 shares how the Gospel spread at Pentecost to mostly Jews. But as you read through the book of Acts, you can see how things change to spread the Gospel to Gentiles and Jews.  Then we see in Paul’s second missionary journey that he preaches to Jews and Gentiles. A little way through Paul’s second journey, we find him speaking to the Thessalonians and the Bereans.  

Two things of importance in this passage:

  1. God loves all cultures: Paul speaks to the Jews and the Gentiles
  2. Evangelism: Paul preaches the Gospel wherever he goes. Despite being beaten and persecuted for the Gospel, Paul still preaches the Gospel.
  1. Context:
    1. Paul and Silas have been traveling from city to city preaching the gospel.
    2. At the end of Acts 16, Paul and Silas were beaten and imprisoned. Through miraculous events, they shared the Gospel with the jailer, and he and his family were saved.
    3. They now head to Thessalonica.
    4. Philippi, Amphipolis, Apollonia, and Thessalonica were all cities on the main east-west Roman highway called the “Egnatian Way.” These cities were separated from each other by about a day’s journey by foot.[1]
  2. Paul in Thessalonica:
    1. Look at Acts 17:1: Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
    2. Let me start by telling you a little about the culture of the Thessalonians.
    3. The Thessalonians had an array of cults. Zeus, Asclepius, Aphrodite, and Demeter were popular among the people. Archaeologists have discovered a sanctuary in the sacred cult area in the area of the city devoted to the Egyptian God Sarapis. This deity was worshipped as one who healed the sick, worked miracles, broke the powers of astral fate, and could speak to his followers in dreams. Many of the inscriptions at this site also point to the worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis.[2]
    4. There was a cult to Cabirus that was very pagan, being bloody and sexually perverse. In a similar way, the cult of Dionysus gave prominence to Phallic symbolism in addition to the drunken revelry that went along with the celebration of the god. These two cults certainly had a powerfully negative impact on the social ethics of the city. Converts from these cults had a long way to go in appropriating a distinctively Christian lifestyle.[3]
    5. I want to emphasize this because when we read the New Testament, we are reading through the text into a culture that we really don’t understand. It should be helpful to understand the culture. The text is God’s Word and has many applications for us; however, we can understand the text more holistically by understanding the culture in which it was written.
    6. The Thessalonians also revered the Roman rulers as divine. During the reign of Caesar Augustus, a temple was built for the ruler to honor Augustus and his successors.[4]
    7. From the letters of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, it does seem evident that the Thessalonians were passionate about the Gospel and spread the Gospel around the area. Also, Thessalonica was the most populous city in Macedonia.
    8. As an aside, Acts gives us a brief overview of Paul’s time in Thessalonica. After leaving, Paul wrote two letters to the Thessalonians called 1st and 2nd. We can learn more about Paul’s time and teaching in Thessalonica from these two letters.
  3. Paul shared the gospel with them.
    1. Look at verses 2-4: 2 And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.
    2. The text in Acts 17:2 says that Paul “reasoned with them for three Sabbath days.” This could lead us to conclude that Paul was only in Thessalonica for a period of three weeks.
    3. Three Sabbath days may have only been how long he was welcome in the synagogues.
    4. We do know that he stayed long enough to receive a gift from the Philippians (Phi 4:16) and he spends time working (1Thess 2:9). He was probably there a couple of months.[5]
    5. Now we see Paul preach to the Jews and the Gentiles. What did he teach them?
    6. Notice how verses 2-3 share that he was explaining and proving that the Christ must suffer and rise from the dead. He was sharing that this Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.
    7. He probably told them Isaiah 52:13-53:12: this was the servant song. In this song, Isaiah, hundreds of years before Christ, wrote about how the Messiah had to die. Paul’s argument had three parts: a rhetorical form of syllogism. Usually, two parts or three with the third implied:
      1. The Christ must suffer and rise again,
      2. Jesus died on the cross and rose again,
      3. Therefore, this Jesus must be the Messiah.[6]
  4. Paul considered them intelligent and spoke from a source they both understood: the Scriptures. This may be why there were converts, including Jews and prominent men and women.
  5. Then we see that Jews and Gentiles receive Christ. Notice the text says, along with a number of God-fearing Greeks. These are Greek Jews. The text also says “leading women” received Christ. It is worth noting here that women of high status were present in Thessalonica.
  6.  Opposition:
    1. Look at verses 5-9:
    2. 5 But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. 6 And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, 7 and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” 8 And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
    3. Then, Paul is chased out of Thessalonica. Look what happens, some Jews became jealous and stirred up a mob. Why? Caesar issued decrees (dogma) warning anyone about predicting a change in rulership. Caesar Augustus issued a decree in AD 11 explicitly forbidding the use of astrology to predict his or anyone else’s death. Tiberius reaffirms this by putting to death those who ignore it.
    4. Some cities pledged their allegiance to Caesar by offering oaths of loyalty. An example of one comes from the city of Paphlagonia in Asia Minor (dated to 3 BC):
    5. “I swear… that I will support Caesar Augustus, his children and descendants, throughout my life, in word, deed and thought… that in whatsoever concerns them I will spare neither body nor soul nor life nor children…. That whenever I see or hear of anything being said, planned or done against them I will report it.. and whomsoever they regard as enemies I will attack and pursue with arms and the sword by land and by sea…”[7]
    6. Paul teaches that Jesus is Lord, and the “Day of the Lord” suggests thoughts of a change in rulership. Given the above quote, we can see how they went against him.
    7. Paul taught that there was another Lord, and he, in an indirect way, taught that this Caesar wasn’t a Lord.
    8. Verse 6 reads that they attack the house of Jason. Who is Jason?
    9. Jason was the host for Paul and Silas.
    10. The people who wanted to persecute Paul and Silas could not find them, so they dragged Jason out of the house.
    11. Notice what is shared in verse 7: they, Paul and Silas, are acting against the decrees of Caesar.
    12. They are saying there is another king, Jesus.
    13. Jason and others posted bond and were let go.
    14. Jason may have been a convert from verses 2-3 of this chapter.
    15. One source reads: Jason may have been prosperous since he could offer hospitality to Paul and Silas and apparently host as well the house church they had begun. Once the missionaries had left Thessalonica, Jason probably was locally recognized as the leader of the church. It has generally been assumed that he and the brethren were arrested in Paul’s stead and that the security they supplied functioned as a promise to the authorities to keep Paul from returning. Yet it is quite probable that Jason was in trouble not merely by default, but in his own right. Evidence for this is that the bond he posted seems related not directly to Paul’s activities but rather to actions by the church members themselves (Jewett 1986: 117; cf. Gillman fc.). Whatever these actions were, they resulted in ongoing suffering for the Thessalonian Christians at the hands of their “countrymen” after Paul had left (1 Thess 2:14). A further argument that Jason’s bond did not relate to Paul is the latter’s remark in 1 Thess 2:18 that he had attempted to return to Thessalonica “again and again—but Satan hindered us.”[8]

The Gospel is God’s love for Jews, Greeks, and everyone. How important is the Gospel to us? Do we share the Gospel?

George Whitefield at the age of 16 became deeply convicted of sin. He tried everything possible to erase his guilt through religious activity. He wrote, “I fasted for 36 hours twice a week. I prayed formal prayers several times a day and almost starved myself to death during Lent, but only felt more miserable. Then by God’s grace I met Charles Wesley who put a book in my hand which showed me from the Scriptures that I must be “born again” or be eternally lost.”

Finally, by the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart, Whitefield came to understand Jesus’ words in John 3. He believed and was gloriously saved. After he became a preacher, he spoke at least a thousand times on the subject, “Ye must be born again.” He fervently desired that all who heard him might experience the transforming power of God’s grace.

—Our Daily Bread

Prayer

[1] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2120.

[2] Arnold, Clinton E.  Acts.  Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. P. 162.

[3] Arnold, Clinton E.  Acts.  Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. P. 162.

[4] Arnold, Clinton E.  Acts.  Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. P. 162.

[5] Arnold, Clinton E.  Acts.  Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. P. 163

[6] Witherington III, Ben.  The Acts of the Apostles : A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Eerdmans, 1997.  ISBN 0802845010. P. 505.

[7] Arnold, Clinton E.  Acts.  Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. P. 165.

  1. forthcoming (publication)

[8] Florence Morgan Gillman, “Jason (Person),” in The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 649.

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