Open-Minded Christianity - Acts 17:1-15

© October 19th, 2025 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Acts

Our society today is not big on moral absolutes. Our world prefers to tell us that we each get to define our own truth, and that we must respect one another’s conception of what is true, even if it differs from ours. We are constantly told that we should keep an open mind and be willing to adjust our views to match those of the people around us.

Today, we’re going to look a different conception of what it means to be open-minded. Christians are often told that we are closed-minded, and that this is a bad thing. Admittedly, sometimes that is true. But in our passage today, we’ll get to see a picture of what open-minded Christianity looks like and how we ought to practice it for ourselves.

Last week we saw Paul and Silas thrown into prison in Philippi due to the anger of some of the people there. God used that imprisonment to bring the household of the Philippian jailer to faith and to provide protection for the church that was just beginning to grow there. Paul, Silas, and Timothy left Philippi, as they had been asked. It seems that Luke stayed behind, because he shifted pronouns in chapter 17, from “we” to “they”. We don’t know why he stayed behind in Philippi, but it could have been to help instruct the church in Paul and Silas’ absence.

Thessalonica

After leaving Philippi, Paul and Silas (and presumably Timothy) began their journey to the town of Thessalonica.

Paul and Silas then traveled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. (Acts 17:1, NLT)

Luke tells us they traveled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia on their way to Thessalonica. Thessalonica was around 100 miles away from Philippi, so it would have been quite a journey to get there. Amphipolis was about 30-40 miles from Philippi and Apollonia was about 30-40 miles from Amphipolis, so these towns made for a natural progression, allowing them to stop in each place on their way to their ultimate goal. We don’t know if they spent much time in these cities, but they surely used their stops to attempt to share the gospel message while they were there.

Thessalonica was a significant city in those days. It had a population of around 200,000 people and was home to the largest Jewish synagogue in the region. It was a seaport, and was along the Egnatian Way, one of the major roads of the Roman Empire. All these things contributed to the size and culture of this community, which was bustling and diverse.

After arriving, Paul followed the same basic playbook as usual.

2 As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. 3 He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.” 4 Some of the Jews who listened were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with many God-fearing Greek men and quite a few prominent women. (Acts 17:2-4, NLT)

Paul went to the synagogue, a place where he knew he would have some common ground from which to build. We are told that he went there for three sabbaths in a row and used the scriptures to reason with the people. Paul was likely in Thessalonica for quite a bit longer than just three weeks, as in his letters to the church there it seems he must have stayed for a significantly longer time.

We should note Paul’s approach in the synagogue. Luke described his actions in three different ways. First, he reasoned with people from the scriptures. Paul used logic, he argued, he debated with the people. You have probably heard me say that you can’t argue people into the kingdom—and that’s true! But Paul was not relying merely on his sharp intellect; he was seeking to argue from the scriptures with the people. He was engaging and challenging their minds with the Word of God.

Second, he explained the prophecies. Many people don’t know how to read and understand the Bible for themselves. Paul’s audience was likely more familiar with the scriptures than most of the people we engage with today, but he still needed to help them connect the dots. Explaining scripture indicates that Paul was patient in answering questions and making sure they understood what the passages were teaching.

Third, he proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. This was related to the prophecies, but Paul was giving them proof. He wasn’t simply asking them to take his word on things; he was giving them evidence that clearly showed the truth of the gospel.

We ought to do the same things as we interact with people. This requires patience. Let’s be honest, we would much rather give people a quick pitch and hope they embrace the gospel. More often than not, we will need to take time with them, helping them understand and walking alongside them until they eventually get to a point where they embrace Christ. We must not give up on people who are open but must continue to gently point them to Christ.

As a result of Paul’s efforts, he saw some of the Jews come to faith along with many of the God-fearing Greeks of the area, and a significant number of prominent (meaning in positions of power, and likely wealthy) women. The church in Thessalonica was born!

Unfortunately, however, not everyone was happy about this.

5 But some of the Jews were jealous, so they gathered some troublemakers from the marketplace to form a mob and start a riot. They attacked the home of Jason, searching for Paul and Silas so they could drag them out to the crowd. 6 Not finding them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the other believers instead and took them before the city council. “Paul and Silas have caused trouble all over the world,” they shouted, “and now they are here disturbing our city, too. 7 And Jason has welcomed them into his home. They are all guilty of treason against Caesar, for they profess allegiance to another king, named Jesus.” 8 The people of the city, as well as the city council, were thrown into turmoil by these reports. 9 So the officials forced Jason and the other believers to post bond, and then they released them. (Acts 17:5-9, NLT)

While some of the Jews in the synagogue embraced the gospel, others were jealous and sought to oppose Paul and Silas. They couldn’t refute their arguments, so they sought to silence them by force. Luke says they basically decided to recruit a mob to get rid of them. They rounded up some troublemakers in the marketplace, hoping to create a riot.

There was just one problem: they couldn’t find Paul and Silas! But that didn’t stop these jealous Jews. They had decided to create a riot, so they were going to create one no matter what. They found the place where Paul and Silas had been staying, the home of a man named Jason. We don’t know much about him, though he may have been a wealthy new believer like Lydia who had offered them a place to stay. Though Jason had done nothing wrong, the crowd dragged him and some other believers to the city council, hoping to get them in trouble and possibly imprisoned.

The charges they leveled against Jason and the other believers was that they were harboring Paul and Silas, who had “caused trouble all over the world.” Literally, this phrase means that they had turned the world upside down. What a huge compliment to Paul and Silas! Even their opponents couldn’t deny that they were making an impact.

Roman leaders didn’t really care about theology, so if they had tried to argue that Paul and Silas were teaching things contrary to their religion, they would have been dismissed. So, instead, they argued that they’d committed treason, something Roman leaders cared about deeply. Of course, Paul and Silas had not committed treason, even though they did indeed pledge allegiance to Christ, and not the Roman Emperor. Everything these men said was an obvious attempt to get their way.

Though they managed to whip the mob into a frenzy, the leaders of the city were not foolish enough to take the bait. They didn’t buy their arguments, but still felt like they needed to do something to appease the mob. So, they basically charged Jason and the others with a fine of sorts (maybe with the promise that they’d get rid of Paul) and then let them go.

A side note I think is important. The word Luke uses to describe these city leaders is the Greek word “politarch”. It is not a word used anywhere else in scripture, and really not in any other ancient Greek texts we have. So for years, liberal scholars tried to question Luke’s scholarship based on his use of this word. More recently, archaeological excavations of the city of Thessalonica showed multiple uses of the word, even on the city gate! It seems that the only place this word was used was in Thessalonica. The fact that Luke got that right is a testament to his thoroughness as a historian.

Berea

After the issue with the mob in Thessalonica, the believers decided they needed to get Paul out of the city for his own safety.

10 That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. 12 As a result, many Jews believed, as did many of the prominent Greek women and men. (Acts 17:10-12, NLT)

Under cover of darkness, some believers from Thessalonica decided to move Paul and Silas to a new city. They took them about 45 miles away to the town of Berea. Paul’s approach in Berea was the same as it was in Thessalonica; he went to the synagogue and began to teach about Jesus from the scriptures.

Luke describes the people of Berea as being more open-minded than the Jews in Thessalonica. This concept of open-mindedness is different than what our society holds out as a virtue today. They were not uncritical or unthinking, merely accepting Paul’s words without a second thought. On the contrary, they were open-minded in the sense that they didn’t dismiss Paul out-of-hand simply because he was teaching something new, or something they did not yet understand. Their approach was to listen eagerly to what Paul had to say and then carefully examine the scriptures to see if what Paul and Silas were teaching was true.

The Bereans based their beliefs not on their own preconceived notions of what they thought was right, nor on the fact that Paul was highly educated and clearly intelligent. These things were irrelevant to the Bereans. The only thing that mattered to them was what the scriptures said. So each day, they would go and search the scriptures to see whether what Paul said was true.

We have a tendency to simply accept or dismiss things without too much digging. If what someone says matches what we believe, we are apt to agree with it and decide it is true. In psychology, they call this confirmation bias. We tend to uncritically accept things if they confirm what we already believe.

The opposite is also true. If something seems to contradict what we already believe to be true, then we are much more likely to dismiss it out of hand. If the Bereans had done that, they would not have come to embrace the gospel. What Paul was saying was different than what they had come to believe as true. But, rather than simply dismissing it or embracing it, they did something completely different—they investigated it in the light of scripture.

We have lots of voices clamoring for our attention today. There are many people who say and teach all sorts of things in order to build a following and become an “influencer”. We should be like the Bereans. We should take every claim and test it against the scriptures. The scriptures are our sole authority, and every teaching, every claim, must be subject to what they teach. Even when you sit in church on a Sunday morning, you should be examining the scriptures for yourself to make sure what is being taught aligns with God’s Word.

The Bereans discovered through their investigation that Paul was indeed preaching the truth. To their credit, they adjusted course and embraced the gospel message. Unlike in Thessalonica, many Jews (as opposed to only some) and many Greeks believed the message. Paul had brought the gospel to yet another city and there was one more new church that was growing in Berea.

Unfortunately, there was still more opposition to be had.

13 But when some Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God in Berea, they went there and stirred up trouble. 14 The believers acted at once, sending Paul on to the coast, while Silas and Timothy remained behind. 15 Those escorting Paul went with him all the way to Athens; then they returned to Berea with instructions for Silas and Timothy to hurry and join him. (Acts 17:13-15, NLT)

The jealous Jews of Thessalonica were dogged in their opposition of Paul. So they made the long trip to Berea to stir up trouble there, just as they had done in Thessalonica. Once again, the believers in Berea thought it best to get Paul out of town to ensure his safety. This time, Paul left Silas and Timothy behind, presumably to help the church get its bearings and ensure they got off to a good start and would be able to continue without them.

Paul headed to Athens, the capital of Greece, a prominent city even in the ancient world. He left instructions with the believers who escorted him to have Silas and Timothy join him there as soon as possible. Their small missionary team was split up, but each person was playing a vital role in the ministry.

Conclusion

There are some great lessons we can take from the examples of the believers we see in this passage. First, we must share the gospel patiently and powerfully. The gospel message is powerful on its own. God works through His Word to penetrate hearts and change lives. The best thing we can do for people is to introduce them to God through His Word. But we must also do everything we can to make sure people understand what the Bible is teaching and why it matters.

So, we should take the time to engage with people on an intellectual level. Gently challenge them to engage with the claims of the Bible. Take time to explain what passages of scripture mean and why they are relevant in our world today. Help them to see the implications of the claims of Jesus and point them to the evidence that those claims are true. We should be both bold and gentle. But above all, we need to be patient, recognizing that the Holy Spirit is who will ultimately change a person’s heart. We must be patient as we wait for Him to do what only He can. In the interim, we should be sure we’re doing everything we can.

Second, we must examine everything in the light of scripture. I’m amazed at how much content is available for Christians today. There are so many competing voices teaching all sorts of different things. Sometimes it’s hard to know what is true and what’s not. The remedy to these things is to check everything against scripture. This means digging into issues ourselves. It means looking up the verses people quote and making sure we’re understanding them in context. It might mean talking with others who might be able to point us to other scriptures that will help us gain a fuller picture of things.

Here's what we must not do. We must not assume that because someone we like, or even someone we respect, says something, that it must necessarily be true. Just because someone uses big words, or quotes from Greek or Hebrew, or has a big following, or fancy credentials, or says something we want to be true, it doesn’t guarantee they are right. We should be open-minded in the sense that we should be willing to revise our beliefs in the light of scripture. But we should also be critical in the way we approach the teachings of others. The biggest question should not be whether we agree with what they are saying, but whether what they are saying agrees with the Bible. That must be our ultimate test.

Third, opponents of Christianity will try to silence it by any means necessary. I mentioned last week that as long as the Christian faith does not make any demands upon people, most people are perfectly content to leave Christians alone. But the moment our faith makes a demand on someone—the moment it tells us that something we want to do is wrong, the moment it forces us to reevaluate our priorities, the moment it tells us something we don’t want to hear, then it becomes a threat.

People will attempt to attack the Christian faith from any angle they can. The best, of course, is to try to disprove it. The problem is, the Christian faith is true! So it can’t be disproven. People have tried for thousands of years, and yet our faith persists. So, what are people to do when they can’t disprove the message of scripture? They must work to silence it by other means. Sometimes it is by trying to drown out what we are saying by just saying the opposite louder and more often. Other times it is by trying to twist our words to mean something other than what they do. And at other times, it will be an outright show of force, intending to intimidate us into silence. When this happens, we shouldn’t be surprised, and we also shouldn’t be deterred. We must stand on what is true, believing God will ultimately be victorious, no matter the schemes of the world.

Paul commended the Christians of Berea for being open-minded. Our world tells us to do the same, but they mean something very different than Paul did. We must be open to having our minds changed, but only by the clear teaching of scripture. That’s what it means to be an open-minded Christian—and that’s what we should strive to be.

© October 19th, 2025 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Acts