Acts xvii. 2 — 5. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas ; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain leivd felloivs of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar.
THE dispersion of the Jews through every part of the Roman empire greatly facilitated the diffusion of the Gospel in the apostolic age : for in all the capital cities of the empire there were synagogues, to which the Apostles had access, and where on the sabbath- days they were sure of meeting a lars;e assemhlv of their countrymen. Of these advantages St. Paul in- variably availed himself : for though he was " a mi- nister of the uncircumcision," and was sent principally to the Gentiles, yet he in every place addressed him- self in the first place to the Jews, and only turned to the Gentiles when the Jews had rejected the gracious tidings which he delivered to them. In discoursing with the Jews, he constantly appealed to the Holy Scriptures, which they themselves acknowledged to be of Divine authority : but, if in many instances he suc- ceeded in convincing them, in many instances he failed.
In the passage which we have now read, we see, I. The means he used for the conversion of the Jews —
Two things he laboured to establish ;
1. That the Scriptures represented the Messiah as one who should die and rise as:ain —
[To establish this, he adduced a multitude of passages which he knew to have been generally received, as descriptive of the Messiah. On other occasions we are informed what particular passages were cited : and from them we may guess what passages the Apostle insisted on at this time. He no doubt shewed the Jews, that the death and resurrection of the Messiah were declared in the plainest prophecies, and shadowed forth in the most significant tvpes.
In speaking of the prophecies, he might well appeal to that very first promise that was given to man3: what could that mean, but that Satan was first to " bruise his heel," by bring- ing him down to the grave: and that Christ should afterwards. by his resurrection. " bruise his head," and destroy his empire in the world ? In the Psalms these truths are yet more plain and express. It was said that the potentates of the earth should combine to destroy him: but that he should be seated on God's holy hill of Zion ; and, being exalted to the right
a Gen. hi. 15.