Acts 17 - Paul and Silas reason

1. Theme
   1. The Christian faith is a reasonable faith.
   2. God calls us to use our reason in evangelism and worship.
   3. In Acts 17, Paul continues his second missionary journey along with Silas.
   4. This leg of the journey, Paul preaches and teaches to 3 different groups: hostile Jews, the studious Jews, and Athenian pagans.
   5. We are to understand the teaching provided to these groups as related, not in the approach Paul gives, but in the fundamental content of what he is teaching: to each of these groups, Paul preached clearly and directly the resurrection of Christ and their need for repentance.
   6. To the Jews, he appeals directly to scripture and explains from the text how Christ fulfills the messianic prophecies.
   7. To the Athenians, Paul may not have directly appealed to chapter and verse, but he appealed to God's authority as their creator and called the pagans to repentance.
   8. For us, this means proclaiming the glory of Christ and preaching repentance, not watering it down because our audience may fail to accept it. We do not know who God has called, but we do know that He has called us to be faithful to His gospel and to His word.