THE LIVING CHURCH
Meditations in the Acts of the Apostles
Acts 17:32-34

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THESE LAST three verses of the chapter describe the effect the sermon of Paul had on those who heard. This is of particular interest and concern to all who are engaged in the Lord's work of witness and preaching. We have in mind, as we read the Acts, the wonderful result of Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, and perhaps imagine it was always like this in the Acts. With this in mind we may be discouraged at the response to the witness in our church or which we engage in ourselves. In fact our experience today is very much like Paul's experience here.

There were three different general reaction to this sermon of Paul. These reactions seem to me to be always present after all preaching, though each varying in degree on each occasion.

One reaction is the tragic response. Some sneered at the Gospel, and specially at the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fact is that they did not believe the testimony of Paul and rejected it. They felt the whole idea of resurrection from the dead as preposterous and ridiculous. Unbelief is always a reaction we will find to the preaching of the Gospel. This unbelief may be, as it was here, a rejection of the message as untenable, On the other hand there may be some other reason for unbelief, such as love of this world, wanting to do our own thing, the love of some sin or other, no sense of need, etc. The fact is that whenever the Gospel is preached there will be always those who will not believe and will reject the message, politely or not so politely. We must not be discouraged at this, or let it cause us to give up the work of witness to Jesus.

Then secondly, there was the hopeful response. There were those listening to Paul who wanted to hear more. The message was too revolutionary for them to accept all at once. The message interested them and they felt that they would like to hear more about it. This did not mean that they wanted to embrace the Gospel, not did it mean that they would decide to reject it. They were undecided but interested. There is always this category of people when the Gospel is preached. There is always something to hope for in this response, and we need to encourage such people and pray hard for them, and redouble our efforts to win them.

Thirdly, there was the good response. We read that some believed. They were few compared to the number who had been in the congregation, but though few there were some who followed Jesus. There will always be those who believe. The number of those who believe will be generally few, but there will be some, and we need to preach in faith and look for these few. We grow discouraged at the few who believe and long that there will be more. This is right. We should earnestly desire for more to believe and pray hard to this end. However we must not imagine that we are failing if the number is few. Paul was perhaps the greatest evangelist of all time, but he came away after much effort with only a few believing. As Paul did not give up, but continued with unabated fervour, so must we. Our business is to witness, and we must leave the results to the Lord.

It is sad, however, that the majority seemed to sneer, and only the few believed, though those interested were rather more. This should not surprise us. Jesus spoke in the sermon on the mount concerning the broad way that leads to destruction and the narrow way that leads to life. Jesus warned that crowds follow the broad way, but only few enter the narrow way. Although this is true, this must not stop us seeking the Lord that more and more may believe, and to pray that as the Gospel is preached the number who believe should become greater. After all the broad way leads to destruction, and we must never become insensitive to this awful fact, and so never cease to call people to flee from the wrath to come.