Acts 17:34

THREE CLASSES OF HEARERS

‘Some mocked: and others said, We will hear Thee again of this matter.… Howbeit certain men clave unto Him, and believed.’

Acts 17:32; Acts 17:34

Since Christ spoke, this address of St. Paul’s at Athens is the most skilful utterance in the history of religious pleading. There was no anger, no scorn, no contempt. In Acts 17:28 he even quotes Aratus, one of their own poets, though he were a heathen. To put the matter in a sentence—St. Paul preaches Jesus and the Resurrection to this cultured audience of Athenian philosophers.

He went so far as to praise the men of Athens—he said they were ‘very religious.’ They had built among their many altars one to an Unknown God in the pious fear they might omit one. Does this not plainly show it is not religion we want: it is the Living Christ.

Now note the result. Athens was the most unpromising place—from a human standpoint—to preach the Gospel, but there are saints in Cæsar’s household.

I. Some mocked.—So it is now. They have no reverence for sacred things. They say there is no heavenly vision because they have never seen it themselves.

II. Others procrastinated.—They do not say they will never obey the Gospel, but not now. As Shakespeare says—“Now I, to comfort him, bid him a’ should not think of God; I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts as yet.’ But God has given us to-day and not to-morrow.

III. Some believed.—Nothing is done unless men are led to make the great venture and trust in Christ alone. It is faith which purifies the heart, and overcomes the world, and works by love.

—Rev. F. Harper.