Bible in One Year Day 338 (Acts 17, 1 Corinthians 15, Proverbs 28: 16-18)

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Agape Bible Study Acts 17 

Chapter 17: St. Paul's Second Missionary Journey Continues

Again they pass through the small towns and hurry to the biggest, since the word was to flow to nearby cities as from a source.
St. John Chrysostom, Catena on the Acts of the Apostles, 17.1

Acts 17:1-9 ~ The Missionary Effort in Thessalonica in Macedonia

The road Paul and his companions took to Thessalonica was the Via Egnatia, the Roman road that connected the Italian peninsula with Byzantium. As St. John Chrysostom noted, they did not bother to stop in the smaller towns but made their way to the large cities. In c. 50-51 AD Thessalonike was a Roman "free city" and one of the wealthiest cities of Macedonia (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 4:36). It was located at the head of the Thermaic Gulf, about 75 miles west of Philippi. The city was founded in 315 BC and was named after a sister of Alexander the Great. Today it is the modern city of Saloniki, the second largest city of Greece.

As was his custom (established in the first missionary journey with Barnabas), Paul and his team present their Gospel message to the Jews first before going to the Gentiles. They visit the Jewish Synagogue on the Sabbath. When teaching in a synagogue, Paul wisely began by talking about Old Testament writings and explaining how Jesus the Messiah has fulfilled them. That he spoke of Jesus as the "suffering servant" suggests the Old Testament reading was from Isaiah 52-53.

Jealousy was the same reason the chief priests and Pharisees incited the crowd to condemn Jesus. The Jewish leaders' motive for causing the riot in Thessalonica was rooted in personal jealousy and not doctrinal purity. The synagogue leaders couldn't refute the theology of Paul and Silas, and they were jealous of the way they swayed the Jewish congregation. See the same reaction to St. Peter in Acts 5:17, to St. Stephen in Acts 7:9, and to St. Paul and his companions in Acts 13:45.

Acts 17:10-15 ~ The Missionary Effort in Beroea

Realizing that their lives are endangered, the converts in Thessalonica smuggled Paul and Silas out of the city at night and sent them on the Via Egnatia, the main east-west Roman road, to Beroea.
Question: This was not the first time Paul had to flee a city at night. When has Luke recorded similar dangers for Paul that required a night journey? See Acts 9:23-25; 9:30; 13:50-51, 14:20.
Answer: He escaped from Damascus in Acts 9:23-25, Jerusalem in Acts 9:30, from Antioch of Pisidia in Acts 13:50-51, and from Lystra in Acts 14:20.

Beroea was a Macedonian city located about sixty miles south of Thessalonica and twenty-four miles inland from the Aegean Sea. 

The Greek word eugenes literally means "well born" (Johnson, The Acts of the Apostles, page 307). The same word is found in Luke 19:12 and 1 Corinthians 1:26 to designated the social status of nobility. Luke is making the contrast between the rabble of Thessalonica as opposed to the more refined and gracious Jews of Beroea who were open to receiving the Gospel message. 

Acts 17:16-21 ~ Paul in Athens

The city of Athens stands on a site that has been continuously occupied since the fourth millennium B.C. Athens was not a politically significant city at this time, but it still retained its glory as the center of Hellenistic culture and philosophy. Paul's proclamation of the Gospel in Athens becomes the setting of the conflict between Christian theology and Greek philosophy. Paul's experience in Athens is the first time we are shown the encounter between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Hellenist paganism, and it is the only time in the New Testament that Paul preaches to the Gentiles in combating paganism by the use of secular wisdom. 

Acts 17:22-33 ~ Paul's Speech at the Areopagus

Paul begins his address by complimenting the Athenians on being a religious people, presenting as evidence the many shrines he sees. He uses a particular shrine to the "Unknown God" to make his argument that this God is indeed known. Paul presents the Gospel to the pagan philosophers as "true philosophy" and tries to lead them beyond their intellectual curiosity. He supports their criticism of superstition but points out that the Gospel of Jesus Christ contains answers to profound questions about human existence.

Paul's failed intellectual battle at Athens is never repeated and becomes a symbol for Luke in what Paul will later call the wisdom of God's truth as opposed to the false wisdom of men. Paul will write to the church at Corinth: The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Cor 1:18), and For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom... (1 Cor 1:25a). In these passages, Paul is perhaps remembering his failure to convince the Greeks to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior in the debate in Athens. 

Agape Bible Study 1 Corinthians 15 

Chapter 15: The Doctrine of the Resurrection

The flesh is the hinge of salvation.
Tertullian 
(2^nd century Roman Christian lawyer and priest remembered as the father of Catholic Apologetics)

Avoid profane, idle talk, for such people will become more and more godless, and their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have deviated from the truth by saying that the resurrection has already taken place and are upsetting the faith of some.
2 Timothy 2:16-17

As a consequence of original sin, humanity must suffer bodily death, from which man would have been immune if Adam hadn't sinned. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, suffered physical death for us in submission to the will of God the Father. By His self-sacrificial death, He has conquered death and has restored to humanity the reunion of the immortal soul with an immortal and imperishable body at the end of time for both the righteous and the wicked who He will judge upon His return. The bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ, as Tertullian rightly wrote, is the hinge upon which humanity's salvation turns. To deny Jesus' bodily Resurrection and His promise to return to raise all the dead is to deny Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11 ~ Paul's Mission to Share the Gospel

Paul begins his exhortation on the doctrine of the resurrection by reminding the Corinthian Christian community of the "good news" of the Resurrection that he preached to them through which they are "being saved" so long as they remain faithful.

The Greek Christians of Corinth were having difficulty accepting the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead because it was a concept with which the Greeks were completely unfamiliar.

1 Corinthians 15:12-19 ~ The Blessed Hope of Eternity

Some among the Christian community at Corinth have evidently been denying the promise of a bodily resurrection at the time of Christ's Second Coming. Paul answers these false claims with his argument in favor of a bodily resurrection at the end of the Age of Man and the inconsistencies and false logic of an argument against it. He forcefully defends the resurrection of Christ as an essential truth of Christian faith, and he states that by rising from the dead Christ completes God's work of redemption.

1 Corinthians 15:20-28 ~ Christ the Firstfruits of the Resurrection

St. Paul concludes the argument he began in verses 12-19 in verse 20 with a triumphant assertion of the reality of Christ's bodily resurrection and the positive implications and consequences. He calls Christ the "firstfruits" of the resurrection. Under the Law, the first fruits harvested were the portion of the harvest offered in thanksgiving to the Lord and implied the consecration of the entire harvest that will follow (Lev 23:10-21; Dt 26:1-11). Christ's resurrection is not an end in itself. Its completion lies in the continuation of the whole harvest that is ourselves. At Christ's return, all humanity will arise bodily as the completion of the great human harvest in God's call to the Last Judgment that will end for the just in eternity with Christ in His heavenly kingdom (Mt 13:39b-43; 1 Thes 4:16; Rev 20:11-15).

1 Corinthians 15:29-34 ~ Abuses of the Sacrament of Baptism and Practical Advice
29 Otherwise, what will people accomplish by having themselves baptized for the dead? If

Apparently, some of the Corinthians are abusing the Sacrament of Baptism by offering themselves in a second baptism for dead relatives. Paul is not condoning the practice; he is condemning it. It is the misinterpretation of Paul's remarks that Mormons use in baptizing the dead. 

1 Corinthians 15:35-44 ~ The Manner of Resurrection

In 15:35-58, Paul answers two questions concerning the resurrection:

1. How will the resurrection take place? Verses 35-49
2. What will be the condition of the resurrected body? Verses 50-58

Paul answers the questions in reverse order. First, he addresses the condition of the resurrected body and uses the example of the necessity of a seed "dying" and being buried in the earth for it to one day grow fruit. What is buried in the earth is far different from what it will become. This miracle of nature is a work of God in the same way God's work of grace in the human body will transform it into something different and better in the resurrection. In the same way an acorn is transformed into an oak but retains the identity nature gave it, our resurrected bodies will still be our own, and we will retain our personalities. We are ourselves, but we become the best of ourselves as God intended.

1 Corinthians 15:45-49 ~ Bearing the Image of Christ

Paul now quotes Genesis 2:7 from the Septuagint Greek translation. All the descendants of the "first Adam" have inherited his human nature in a body formed from the dust of the earth and destined to perish and return to dust (Gen 2:7). Jesus is the "new Adam." He took on human nature in a body that could be destroyed, but in His resurrection from the grave His divinity triumphed over His human nature. When He returns in glory, He will share His bodily resurrection with us in its perfection and immortality. 

1 Corinthians 15:50-58 ~ The Resurrection Event and A Hymn of Triumph Over Death

Now Paul turns to the first question: How will the resurrection take place. He gives a description of the resurrection event at Christ's return: Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Paul uses the term "fall asleep" for death. It is only sleep because it is not a permanent death.

Question: Paul's description is similar to his description in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16. Comparing the two accounts, how does Paul describe the resurrection event?

Answer: 

1. A shout from the Lord and a trumpet call will announce Christ's sudden return from Heaven.
2. The dead will arise first, and then those alive at Christ's coming will arise. 
3. The living and the dead will all be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord, and they will receive an incorruptible body.

Paul writes that death has been swallowed up in victory at the price of the death of the one who was sinless and who was able to condemn death to death (verse 54). In verses 54b-58, Paul offers a hymn of thanksgiving for our victory over death, quoting from Hosea 13:14 in verses 54b-55, "Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" He concludes his hymn in verses 56-57 by thanking God for the tremendous gift to mankind merited by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which comes from His victory over sin, death, and the devil. 

In these verses, Paul summarizes his teaching on the connection between Mosaic Law, sin and death. Sin is the "sting" of death because death entered the world through the sin of Adam to do harm to all his descendants (see Rom 5:12). As humanity increased, sin grew. The Law of the Sinai Covenant (Law of Moses) defined sin, but it was incapable of providing the grace to enable man to avoid sin. In verse 58, St. Paul exhorts Christians to continue the fight by being "firm, steadfast, and devoted to the work of the Lord," and by knowing that our good deeds offered in a labor of love for the Lord are not in vain.