ACTS 17:26

The Bible says in Acts 17:26-28, “And has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us. For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.” This is from the sermon that Paul has been preaching in the city of Athens. Paul is explaining some important things about God: what God had done in the past and what God is doing now.

For one thing God determines the time in which we live. In different times God has revealed different things to the human race. Before the time of Moses God had revealed His truth through Abraham and his descendents. Before that God had revealed important things through Noah and what happened to cause the flood. When Moses came along God revealed the law as a reflection of God’s holiness. But now God has revealed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We live in the age of grace. We live in the age when whosoever will may come and drink of the water of life freely. In order to come to know God in this way first we need to desire Him. That is what Paul was talking about when he said in Acts 17V27, “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him.” The name of the Lord is Jesus.

One of the ways that bad things that happen to people can turn into a good result is that sometimes such things help people realize that they need to seek God. There have been many people who have not looked up until they have been laying flat on their backs. Some people turn to God when they have nowhere else to turn. When someone is finally ready to turn to God, where do they go to find Him? The point that Paul is making is that they do not have to go anywhere to find Him. You can find God right where you are, because God is everywhere. “In Him we live and move, and have our being.” Wherever you are going, God will already be there when you get there, and He will be with you all along the way. “He is not far from everyone of us.” Who then shall find Him: those who seek Him. ”Seek the Lord, while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.”

Paul said in Acts 17:29-30, “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” Repentance is always a part of turning to God. When you are turning to God, you are turning from your sins. You have a change of mind. You were going your own way, but now because you repent, you have changed and turned to start going God’s way for you, starting with calling on the name of Jesus for salvation from your sins. John the Baptist brought the baptism of repentance. Jesus said, “Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.” And Paul preached to the Athenians that God “commandeth all men everywhere to repent.”

In Acts 17:31 Paul said, “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.” The judgment is coming. All wrongs will be righted, because God is the Judge and all things are headed towards this climax to human history. No one will get away with anything, because the Judge sees all things and knows all things. “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.”

At this judgment Jesus will be the Judge. It says in Acts 17:31, “he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he had ordained.” That is Jesus. When Jesus came to the earth, He was judged and condemned to die unfairly and wrongly. But when He judges the world, it will be a righteous judgment. Woe to those who do not escape that judgment. Revelation 20:11-15 speaks of the judgment and says, “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

But you do not have to go to the second death. Instead you can participate in the resurrection from the dead and have life forever more. That is one of the promises of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Through Jesus you can have forgiveness from your sins, escape the judgment of the dead, and be raised from the dead to live evermore with Him in heaven. It should be an easy choice. All that you must do is repent and turn to Jesus. That involves the depths of your innermost being.

The Bible says in Acts 17:32-18:3, “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome; and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tentmakers.”

When Paul left Athens, he went to Corinth. We know a lot about Corinth because of the two epistles that Paul later wrote to the church in the city of Corinth. Evidently when Paul came to Corinth he was low on his financial resources because he took up his occupation as a tentmaker while in Corinth. One very good thing that happened while Paul was working as a tentmaker was the fact that his relationship with Aquila and Priscilla grew as they worked together. Later they would work together in the spread of the gospel. Aquila and Priscilla showed how a Christian marriage should work. They worked as a team in service to the Lord. Paul mentioned Aquila and Priscilla several times in the epistles that he wrote. In Romans 16:3-4 Paul wrote, “Greet Aquila and Priscilla my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.”

The Bible says in Acts 18:4-6, speaking of the Apostle Paul, “And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.” The gospel is for everyone, Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, male or female, young or old. If you are a believer, you are responsible to help spread the gospel to all the world, and you do that by helping to spread the gospel to those who are around you. But if someone shows you that they do not want the gospel and do not want to hear what you have to say about Christ, then don’t tell them. They have made their decision, and you are no longer responsible for their destiny. That is what Paul meant when he realized that no more of the Jews in the city of Corinth were going to listen to him. He said, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.”

In Acts 18:7-11 the Bible says, “And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man’s house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months.” Why did Jesus appear to Paul in this vision? We are not told directly why. But perhaps we can deduct from what Jesus said. Jesus said, “Be not afraid.” Perhaps Paul had become afraid. Paul had been chased out of city after city. We all need encouragement from time to time. We all need to be reminded of God’s promises when the world has been especially pressing in upon us.

After Jesus told Paul to not be afraid, Jesus said, “but speak, and hold not thy peace.” One of the main reasons that believers do not speak out more about their faith in Christ is because of fear: fear of the unbelievers. Without the grace of God and without being reminded of God’s promises we can easily become afraid of the unbelievers and what they might do to us. They certainly have more power and authority than most of us do in this world. “Not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called.” What we have to remember in these situations is: “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” Or as Jesus said to Paul here, “For I am with thee.”

Jesus also said to Paul, “no man shall set on thee to hurt thee.” No matter what the power of the people of the world might be, if God decides to protect you, you will be protected. Yes, in some situations you are going to suffer some difficult persecutions because the servant is not greater than his Lord. But in other situations like what Paul had here in Corinth, the Lord will stop the persecutions for the sake of the speaking forth of the gospel. You never know: you just might be one that the Lord is going to use to open some new door for the gospel. You certainly will never know if you keep silent and hold your peace. The Lord opens the door that no man can shut, and the Lord will always use one or more of His servants to go through that door.

We see an example of how the Lord protected Paul in the next several verses. The Jews once again bring Paul before the judicial system, but this time the judge realizes what the Jews are up to and realizes that this is simply a religious dispute as far as he is concerned and refuses to get involved, effectively dismissing the case. Remember the heart of any person can be turned one way or another by the great, eternal God. It says in Acts 18:12-17, “And when Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews made insurrection with one accord against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat, Saying, this fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law. And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you; But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters. And he drave them from the judgment seat. Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things.”

This was a wise judge. He refused to even rule on religious matters. He correctly and wisely recognized that in the community His responsibility was to rule on matters of right and wrong, but not on religious opinions. Too bad that the Supreme Court of the United States has not had similar wisdom. They have restricted freedom of religion, when they should have stayed out of the whole subject. Freedom of speech and freedom of religion mean that someone has the right to freely express their religious beliefs. You do not have to agree with them, and you have the right to express your beliefs. Teachers are individuals with individual beliefs on a wide variety of subjects. They should be allowed to express those beliefs. If a teacher has done so in a way that the community does not agree with, then the community of parents and school administrators should be allowed to hire a different teacher that teaches in a way that more closely reflects the desires of that particular community. The judicial system does not need to be involved. One of the main reasons that the gospel was spread freely in the city of Corinth was that God gave wisdom to a judge. The judiciary in our system is losing its wisdom, and thus we are seeing the beginning of losing religious freedom in our society.

Right now you have the freedom to turn from your sins and to turn to Christ for salvation. Do it today while you still have time and opportunity.

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