As most of you know, for that last several weeks we have been following Paul on his second missionary journey. Although Paul had begun this journey with just Silas as his partner, their missionary team had grown as their journey progressed. In Lystra, they picked up Timothy – a young disciple who had come to know and follow Christ during Paul’s first missionary journey. Then later, they were joined by Dr. Luke in the city of Troas – just before they entered Macedonia.
But then, in the city of Philippi – their team began to shrink again. Luke stayed behind in Philippi – quite possibly to be the first pastor for the newly planted church in that city. And now in the city of Berea, trouble-makers from Thessalonica had stirred up the city against Paul – and so the believers whisked him away to the city of Athens – while Silas and Timothy stayed behind (at least for a little while) – presumably to continue ministering to church in Berea just a little bit more before they moved on.
So now in our passage today, we find Paul all by himself in the city of Athens – waiting for Silas and Timothy to rejoin him. And we don’t know exactly how long Paul was waiting… Based on distance and travel times from Berea, we’d guess probably somewhere between a week to a month – although it could have been even longer!
But of course, Paul didn’t spend all that time just waiting around doing nothing! While in Athens He continued preaching to both Jews and Gentiles – pointing them to Jesus Christ and urging them to trust in Him for salvation!
Of course, this is exactly what we would expect from Paul, but it’s HOW he does this that is of particular interest for us today.
Our passage today is Acts chapter 17 and we’ll be starting at verse 16.
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