Acts 17:1-9

Apologetics - a reasoned defense

In other words apologetics has nothing to do with an apology. The world would have us believe that the Christian Faith is indefensible, that our faith is without reason and logic. They would have us on our heels thinking that we must have checked our brains at the door and have come to a debate with our hand tied behind out backs. But this is anything but true.

Paul in Thessalonica: The Apostle’s Apologetic

He Exposed the word.

This was not typical preaching monologue, but a reasoned dialogue a back and forth

Do not abandon ship. What did he expose, the word of God.

Imagine you are on a boat in the middle of the ocean and to come upon another boat that has sprung a leak, and is about to sink. What are you going to do? You could abandon your own ship hop on board of his to try to show him where the leak is so that he can fix it, but you will most certainly go down with him. Or you can remain in the safety of your own boat, and throw him a rope or a buoy of some type, so that he might climb aboard your ship to safety.

Any other foundation other than Christ is a sinking ship even the foundation of Judiasm is worthless with out Christ. The Jews must see and know that Christ is the Messiah that their scriptures speak of.

standing on any other foundation is foolish.

“impossibility of the contrary” God and the scriptures are self evident. All men in one sense know God but they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. The fall has affected thier ability to think properly, this is called the noetic effect, the depravity of the mind.

What exactly are we to expose? Christ to the world. We have to open it up and show Christ. One of the problems with our apologetic is that we do

Open it up show them Christ and do not abandon your foundation for a moment. We sometimes go into conversations as if we are the underdog and that our Christian faith is something that cant compete in the world of secularism.

We must refuse to apologize for standing on the truth of God’s word as if we are somehow ashamed or embarrassed.

Romans 1:16 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Romans 10:17 ESV

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

2 Timothy 3:15 ESV

and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

1 Peter 3:15 (ESV)

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Unfortunately too many Christians instead of giving an apologetic that is a reasoned defense they give an apology almost as if we think that Christ is not defensible or that we need to be embarrassed because we think that our faith is not reasonable. If we are not careful we can easily let others fool is into this.

We just need to stand on the right foundation to start with and never leave our post.

If we dispute about matters which concern men, then let human reasons take place; but in the doctrine of faith, the authority of God alone must reign, and upon it must we depend.

John Calvin

We think that we need to help God out by sweetening the deal that we need to add some sort of appeal. This is the wisdom of man and the sophists who were famous in Corinth to the south, they would come into town and wow the crowds they didn't care about truth or the salvation of souls, they cared about winning the argument, they did what ever they had to to convince the crowds. Emotionalism was the name of the game.

But Pauls language is not emotionalism but one that invloved convincing proofs.

He Expounded the Word.

The Unsinkable ship.

On April 11th of 1912 the 882 foot long titanic steamed away from the shores of Queenstown, Ireland on its way to New York. It was a massive ship for its day carrying over 2,200 passengers. The phrase “practically unsinkable” was coined in reference to the ship. Some one claims to even have heard the Captain Edward John Smith saying “ Not even God Himself could sink this ship.”

The Christian faith can and must be defended and it is more than possible because all truth is God’s truth. Christ His death and resurrection can be defended. Paul must have thought so. We must think God’s thoughts after Him. We have no original thoughts of our own.

Acts 8:30–31 ESV

So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

“IT IS NECESSARY”

Why was it necessary, well first let me just say this it is not necessary simply because of man’s need. But it was necessary because God determined that He would save man. You see the necessity if due to the divine determination and the steadfast covenant that God determined to make. The moment that God decided that He would and the moment that He spoke it the fulfillment was “necessary”. God could have simply over looked man and brought about divine justice with out any necessity to save. God was not obligated to save man, simply because of our need. He is obligated by His word. Therefore it is a divine necessity, for man cannot be saved by any other means than by the blood of the righteous Son of God.

The Messiah spoken of by the Old Testament prophets, could not have been

These people here were looking to someone else to be the Messiah. It is no wonder here that there were some Jews but the scripture indicates that there was no small number of Gentiles including many prominent women.

This apologetic method is universal, in other words we don’t need two different and separate methods to memorize one for the gentiles and one for the Jews, certainly the arguments and conversation may take on different forms but the

These Gentiles were perhaps God fearers who had like Lyddia had already worshipped the true God, but most of the gentiles in this city were involved in what is called “imperial cultism”. There are ancient coins depicting Caesar as the universal savior of the Romans .

For you and I if we must be saved it must be through Jesus Christ, if we are to be saved we must submit ourselves to Christ and to His Lordship.

The issue here and even the issue at the crucifixion of Christ is his Kingship, they accused these men of the same thing that they accuse the Lord of. We have no king but Caesar.

He Entrusted Christ to them.

The motivation, the Goal: Lay it our before them. When you teach a kid to drive a car you send them to driving school to learn you try to scare them enough that they will stay out of trouble. but at some point you have to hand them the keys. And at first you want to drive with them, if your nerves can handle it, but eventually you have to send them out on thier own.

1 Thessalonians 1:9–10 ESV

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

“Men often speak as though the only thing that the sinner needs is true information. This… is not the case. Man needs true interpretation, but he also needs to be made a new creature. Sin is not only misinformation, it is also a power of perversion in the soul. The non-christians oppositon to the truth about God or the gospel does not arise from legitimate intellectual problems with the faith, but from a rebellious and rationalizing heart.” Van TIl Intro to syst. theo.

We cannot in all of the evidence and in all of the greatest retoric and argument the world has to offer convert one soul apart from the power of the Spirit of God in regenerating the lost heart and mind, nonetheless this is the goal of the Christian.

2 Timothy 2:2 ESV

and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.

To be sure our motivations are different. The goal of these men was to stop them from tearing down their established religion. And because they could not defend it, they like the leaders before them had to revert to lies, deception and violence.

Jason.