Consorting with Paul and Silas.
I. Here is the chief object of Christian faith the Lord Jesus carrying on in His very name the assurance of the things that are necessary for our life and salvation.
II. The means used to produce faith or persuasion are now almost the same as those employed at first at least in Thessalonica and many other places. To preach Christ is to reason out of the Scriptures, to lay out the matter as it seems to ourselves, to press it home upon all whom it concerns; to remonstrate, expostulate, entreat and then to leave the issue with God.
III. The passage shows us along what line the reasoning usually went. It went towards proving out of the Scriptures that Jesus is Christ. We do not now need to pursue formally the same line of argument, unless as against Jews, who hold to their own Scriptures and reject our Christian conclusion. Substantially, however, our course is the same; our reasonings, our openings of Scripture, our allegations all tend Christwards.
IV. The faith is the same now as then: faith in Christ in Christ the sufferer, the death-destroyer, the life-giver, the Redeemer of all trusting men.
V. The outward result of this faith or persuasion is, to some extent, the same as at first, and ought to be much more so than it is. They consorted with Paul and Silas. (1) It must always be good to consort with good men. (2) It must always be good to be associated as closely as possible with a good cause. (3) It must be good to escape from an equivocal position. (4) It must be good to remove farther from danger. (5) It must be good to obey Divine commandment.
A. Raleigh, The Way to the City,p. 284.
References: Acts 17:5. Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 250. Acts 17:6. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. iv., No. 193; J. S. Pearsall, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 193.Acts 17:10. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 339. Acts 17:10; Acts 17:11. H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. xiii., p. 12.Acts 17:11. J. Rawlinson, Ibid.,vol. x., p. 78; G. Dawson, Sermons on Disputed Points,p. 209; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 29. Acts 17:11; Acts 17:12. J. Burton, Christian Life and Truth,p. 196. Acts 17:12. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iii., pp. 36, 37; vol. vi., p. 182.Acts 17:15. Ibid.,vol. v., p. 60.