Acts 17:16-34

Your Story Speaks: Sharing Your Story in a Secular World

Bible Passage: Acts 17:16–34

Summary: The gospel of Christ moves beyond our inner circles or closest relationships. The story of Christ’s love should be brought into our neighborhoods, schools, city, and world. And, it is through our witness that the gospel is carried out into these places.

In Acts 17:16–34, Paul encounters the Athenians in their city, filled with idols and philosophical debates. He utilizes their cultural context to share the story of Jesus, emphasizing the intersection of faith and reason in an atheistic environment.

Application: Paul’s approach to sharing the truth of God provides insight into how we can approach sharing the truth of God in our own environments. It highlights the importance of finding common ground and using personal experiences as a bridge to communicate the Gospel effectively.

Big Idea: Evangelism begins with a life changed by Jesus, engages the secular world around them, and trusts God with the results.

INTRODUCTION:

Welcome and Introduction

Setup:

Tyler - The story we tell should be one of how He first loved us.

Brad - A heart of fear cannot live a story of love with those we love the most.

Tension:

It is very easy to give a list of “how-to,” practical steps of how to share you faith.

But I need to emphasize that if you are not radically changed by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, then it is just behavior modification and not transformation.

The blood of Jesus was a payment, an adoption into the family of the Creator of the Universe. The claim on your life is now from the Father, and nothing can snatch you out of His hand.

So if we don’t approach the need to evangelize from the transformative power we receive from the cross of Jesus, then we will wrestle with the notion of modifying our behavior, and not the truth of God going out into our community

1. Convicted to Share

Acts 17:16 CSB

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed when he saw that the city was full of idols.

The first thing to note here is Paul’s response to his surrounding.

Athens:

Culturally majestic, center of thought and philosophy at this time period. Filled with the elite.

It was also a sacred place for the worship of the goddess Athena. In fact, if you go to Athens today, you will still see some the same sites, temples, and statues that Paul is seeing in Acts.

Paul, an intellectual himself, would have been intrigued by Athens, the sites and sounds.

However, his conviction could not past the point of distress because of the idol worship.

Question: Is sin convicting to you?

Acts 17:17–21 CSB

So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some said, “What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?” Others replied, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities”—because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, and said, “May we learn about this new teaching you are presenting? Because what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new.

Pauls response to his conviction was to start doing the very thing that he was already doing. His entire strategy in his mission was to start preaching in the synagogue and then move to public space.

In our conviction, we often defer to doing something “big” or dramatic. We can feel that if we just had a bigger platform, or a bigger stage, or a bigger audience… Then we could really impact the Kingdom of God.

STORY: Moving from ministry to IT, understanding the “mission field” in front of me.

Be faithful to the space that God already has you in, and do what you are currently doing for the sake of the gospel of Christ.

God will move your impact as needed.

2. Engage the Culture

Acts 17:22–28 CSB

Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’

Paul’s speech could only have worked if he had taken time to understand and engage with the culture of Athens. He spoke with an understanding of their context and transitioned to talking about Jesus.

“So, Curtis, you’re saying that I need to put myself into the culture of the people who I am evangelizing?” Yes, and you already are.

Do you go to the same grocery stores as non-believers?

Do you go to the same gyms as non-believers?

Do you go to the same restaurants? Movies? Sporting events? Bars?

Philippians 3:20 CSB

Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you are a child of the Almighty, congratulations, you are now a foreigner in this world. (Some of us act like we are citizens…)

Everyday, we step into the spaces that are filled with a culture that is supposed to be foreign to us, and we have an intersection with divine opportunities to share the gospel in those spaces.

SIDE: Now, you might be hearing this and immediately feel a sense of anxiety - “But I can’t communicate that well?” You, exactly how you are right now, have everything you need to communicate the gospel of Christ to the world around you.

Hospitality

Serving

Compassion

Support/Administration

You are already equipped enough to begin sharing your story today.

*Whatever your methodology is, don’t be afraid to say the truth, what is different and what God has offered to you.

3. Invite and Release

Acts 17:29–34 CSB

Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination. “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him, but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.” So Paul left their presence. However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Finally, Paul did two things, invited and released.

Evangelism gives way to an invite. “You are a religious people. Look at all the glorious things around you. It’s beautiful. And you want to be so right in your thinking that you are even including the worship of a god you don’t know the identity of. I know a God that no human hands can behold and desires to know you by turning from you sin and place your faith in the promise that he is who he says he is.”

Hospitality: “I’m this annoyingly happy because of the life that I have found in Christ.”

Serving: “I’m just thankful that God loves me the way does that I use my gifts to show that love to others like you.”

Evangelism releases the responsibility. The response to Paul was mixed, some ridiculed, others were curious, and others joined him. Paul’s only responsibility was to share the story. The rest is God’s responsibility.

This is the most difficult part, sometimes, because people will not respond in the way we want them to.

But, it is NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY how others respond to the story of Christ.

*Invite people to Jesus, not to church. It may be one way to do that by inviting them to Jesus, but you’re invitation is to a life-changing relationship with the King of Kings.

Closing

Don’t hear me say that we need to leave this building and storm into restaurants, gyms, schools, work places, or street corners, yelling: “Repent! For the time is near.”

But we do need to be a people that walks into restaurants, gyms, schools, and work places convicted by a broken world around us and eager to engage that world with a story that radically changes lives.

I come back to what I said at the beginning, if you walk away with a three point solution for sharing your story without any foundation of who God has called you to be - his child - then you miss the point.

Paul could not have been convicted the way he was without understanding the depth of God’s grace and mercy on his own life

And from that conviction he leaned into his current gifting and abilities to share that same story with those he encountered.

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Final Script:

Intro:

Good morning, BridgePoint. And Happy Father’s Day to all the dads here today. My name is Curtis and I am the Seminole Campus Pastor. I’m grateful to be with you this morning as we continue our messages series titled, Your Story Speaks. Welcome to all of the BridgePoint campuses: Downtown, Online, Seminole, and right here in Tyrone.

Two weeks ago, Pastor Tyler opened up this message series, show us where the purpose and hope of our story comes from, beginning with the love of God. Our story begins with how God first loved us. Then, last week, Pastor Brad took us through the difficulty yet beautiful opportunity of sharing our story with those closest to us, or our “inner circle.”

So today, we’re to extend that circle a little farther and look at how your story matters in more neutral or secular spaces. Places like the businesses we work out, the schools we go to, the gyms and coffee shops we frequent. Every day places that we find ourselves in, we’re going to ask the question, how is that I share my story in this places in a way that is effective.

The word we will use for this is evangelism. You may be familiar with his term, but it simply means to sharing the gospel of Jesus with others who are not Christians.

So, if you have a bible or an electronic device you read scripture on, turn to Acts 17 as that is where we will be today. It will also be on the screen for you to follow along there.

Story - Mission Trip

Now, if you are familiar with the gospel of Jesus, you are familiar with Jesus’ last words following his resurrection, “Go into all the nations and make disciples…” A commands to go and lead others in the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

My first experience was when I was 17 years old. I had been a Christian for all of a few days, and the youth went on a mission trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. We were going to do door-to-door evangelism.

What this means is, we spent the first couple of days learning what the gospel is and how to share it, techniques and strategy for having a conversation with strangers. Then, the final few days, we would go out into the neighborhoods, knock on doors, and share the gospel. And it would sound something like this:

“Hello, my name is Curtis and I am with the so-and-so church down the street. We are doing a survey, can we ask you a few questions.”

“How many people currently live in your home? Do you go to the church anywhere? Thank you. If you were going to die right now, do you think you would go to heaven?”

This is one of the techniques that I learned, and this kind of evangelism still happens today. Maybe in different forms and methods. However, despite whether this technique works or not, the purpose of it is to lead us to be active in telling our story to the world we encounter. Why? Because - hopefully - that good news that we share is how our lives were radically changed by the power of Jesus death and resurrection, and we want other to experience the same.

It’s like when we see a really good movie, or hear a moving song. What do we do? We tell others about it in hopes they have a similar experience. If we go on vacation to a really neat place, we tell people, “You have to go sometime.”

I did this a few year ago when our family went to the Grand Canyon. It was truly one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. In fact, you should go sometime if you ever get the chance.

So this is the purpose of evangelism. And we’re going to look at one of Paul’s encounters and how he approached evangelism in a neutral space.

Point #1: Evangelism Begins Where You Are

Acts 17:16-17 (NLT)

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there.

We find Paul actually passing through Athens at this time. And Athens is a prominent and important town to the ancient Greek world. It was the center of philosophical and government thinking, and one point being the center of art and architecture. So it would have been filled with majestic monuments, statues, and building; as well as intellectual elites from around the area.

But Paul’s reaction is different than awe and marvel. Instead, he is deeply troubled, or convicted. Why? Because the statues and monuments were associated all sorts of idols and pagan gods. There were various shrines and temples around the city. And no matter how majestic Athens would have been, Paul could not overlook the idol worship.

So what does his conviction lead him to do? Scripture says he went to the synagogue to preach and then to the town square to preach some more.

Now, think for a moment about when you are moved to share something with others. You’ve experienced something big and life-changing, or you have an opinion or thought about an issue, or even when you’re in love (shout it from the rooftops); what do we typically do? We look for a platform or megaphone to get this message out to as many people as possible. We want to spread quick and wide, with a bigger audience and a bigger stage.

Yet, Paul’s response is different. In fact, for him to go to the synagogue and public square was out of the ordinary. If you follow his ministry, everywhere that Paul would go, he would go to the synagogue and public square. It was a familiar space to him. It was the space that he had already found himself in.

Listen, we do not need a bigger audience or stage, more followers online, or to be more influential to share our story. In fact, you are already in a space where you can begin sharing the good news of Christ. You don’t need a bigger stage or audience. The office building you work in, the schools you go to, the sporting events and coffee shops you frequent are all places that God has already given you to being evangelizing.

If God calls you to go overseas or to a different town to preach the gospel, great! But until then, be faithful to the spaces that you are currently in.

SLIDE: Evangelism begins where you are…

And in these spaces, God will move and direct you, grow your audience or platform as he wants to. But until that ever happens, be faithful to the space you are already in.

Point #2 - Evangelism Engages with the Culture

Now, in the text, we find that Paul is faithful to the space he is already in, and part of that audience is some of the leaders in the town. The philosophical, elite thinkers. And they want to know more:

Acts 17:19-25

Then they took him to the high council of the city. “Come and tell us about this new teaching,” they said.  “You are saying some rather strange things, and we want to know what it’s all about.” So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about. He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.”

Paul begins to address what he has found in the city of Athens. And, yes, he points to where they have gotten it wrong. But notably, he is only able to do this because he has taken the time to engage with the culture. The text says that Paul was passing through and observing the objects of your worship. Even pointing to a specific one that didn’t have a god attached to it. Paul was finding common ground before ever preaching the message.

So many times, don’t we see something we don’t agree with and stand on the outside, saying, “You’re wrong, I’m right.” We go into defense mode and don’t bother finding commonality with those we disagree. Paul started with common ground, “I see that you are very religious in every way.” “You’re searching for truth, I see it in everything around this town.”

Listen, when our lives are radically changed by the death and resurrection of Jesus, scripture says that we are set apart from worldly things. We are to not engage in sin like the world engages in sin. However, scripture also says that we will live in this world even though we are set apart. And it is us being in the world that we are able to share the powerful story of Jesus throughout.

This does not mean you need to stand on a street corner yelling, “Repent, for the fires of hell are hot!” It doesn’t even mean you have to be a pastor or preacher. It means that you go outside of this building, into the spaces you already find yourself and preach the gospel of Jesus. It means finding that common ground and infusing it with God’s redeeming love.

And that looks different for each one of us. Not everyone is going to get a microphone. Not everyone is going to be good at communicating clearly and effectively. In fact, your way to preach the gospel may be through:

Hospitality: You love to host people, have them in your home, and make them feel special. Do that!

Serving: You’re good with your hands, building and fixing things, so you help a single mom across the street with her leaky sink. Do that!

Compassion: You can sit with someone who is sick or hurting just so they are not alone in their pain. Do that!

Support: You help another accomplish their goals and dreams for the life or work. Be their biggest champion. Do that!

You already have everything you need and the space you need to be in to begin sharing the good news of Jesus. And, whatever methodology you use, whatever giftings you have, do it in the name of the Lord. Speak the truth of God in these places: How he loved the world so much that he sent his son, Jesus, so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life.

This is the strategy that Paul is using. We have a common ground. You are deeply religious and seek to know the truth. Can I tell you about the God I know and who he is?

Acts 17:29-31

“And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”

SLIDE: Evangelism begins where you are, engaging the culture and inviting people to believe…

Point #3 - Evangelism Trusts God With the Change

And, look, we’re going to go into these space and we going to do the best we can to communicate the gospel in the best way we know how. But people are simply going to respond differently:

Acts 17: 33-34  When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.” That ended Paul’s discussion with them, but some joined him and became believers.

The truth is that your job is to only be faithful to sharing the story. But don’t try to control the outcome. No where in scripture does it ever say that your role is to save people. That is only by the power of God through the Holy Spirit to bring people to conviction. We only need to be faithful to sharing the story.

Paul, as trained as he might have been and well put together his message would have been, still had people laugh at him. Some were curious and a few joined him. But Paul didn’t stick around and try to control the outcome. In fact, the discussion was over. Paul left and the people were responsible for their own response.

SLIDE: Evangelism begins where you are, engaging the culture and inviting people to believe, and trusting God with the change.

Conclusion

Now, you may be very familiar with how to evangelize. But as simple as this may be, we need to hear this message again and again. Because when you walk out these doors, you are walking into a world and culture that is broken and dying, lost in the darkness of sin looking for the same hope that you have in and through Jesus Christ. And until every last person on this earth has heard about the love of God through the mouths of his followers, our responsibility as followers of Jesus is far from complete.

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Notes:

Welcome and Intro

All campus - DTSP, Online, Seminole, and Tyrone

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY

Recap “Your Story Speaks”

Tyler - Purpose and hope of our story comes from - begins with - the love of God

Brad - Difficult though beautiful opportunity of sharing your story with “inner circle”

Introduce “Evangelism”

Define: Evangelism literally means to share the Christian gospel with people with the intention of inviting them into the Christian faith

Jesus commands - “Go into all the nations and make disciples…” A command to go…

Story - Mission Trip

17 years old - a Christian for all of a minute, and we were going to Las Vegas, Nevada to do door-to-door evangelism

This is one of the techniques that I learned on evangelism

At another point in time, I had a friend share with me his technique is to go into a restaurant, like Subway or Chipotle and say, “Yeah, let me get some cheese, lettuce, and a side of Jesus… Oh you don’t have Jesus, well let me tell you how to get Jesus in your life.”

Techniques and Strategies for Evangelism are Important

The point is to get people in the church to be active in telling the story of Jesus to the world

Example: We do this all the time, maybe not with Jesus but with a good movie, an incredible song. “You have to see this!”

Or when we go on vacation, “You have to go their sometime.”

We want others to experience the things that we experience and affect us

In the passage, Acts 17, we are going to look at a story of Paul going into a town where he would essentially evangelize and how he does it.

POINT #1: Evangelism Begins Where You Are

Athens is a prominent city in the ancient Greek world.

Center of philosophical and governmental thinking

At one point, it was the center of art and architecture.

Would have been filled with majestic sights (monuments, buildings, etc.) and the intellectual elites of the world

Acts 17:16-17 (NLT)

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there.

Paul’s reaction is different - deeply troubled.

The shrines and temples, saturated by idol and pagan worship

So what is Paul’s response to his conviction, to being moved by what he is experiencing?

Synagogue and Public Square - typically space for Paul

Our culture today, seeks bigger audiences and platforms - where can we get the most influence for the message that we have

“I’m in love and I don’t care who knows it…”

Get the message far and wide

You may be called to go to a different space and a different audience to share the gospel. But, until then, you are exactly where you need to be to share you story.

SLIDE: Evangelism begins where you are…

God will move you to the platforms you need to be.

POINT #2: Evangelism Engages the Culture and Invites People In

As Paul is being faithful to his current audience, God is going to move him to a different audience

Acts 17:19-25

Then they took him to the high council of the city. “Come and tell us about this new teaching,” they said.  “You are saying some rather strange things, and we want to know what it’s all about.” So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about. He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.”

Paul address what is wrong with their worship, yes.

But, he first finds a common ground: “You are very religious… I was walking… and saw…”

Before ever talking about Jesus, he finds where they agree and how they can connect

When we disagree with someone, or know something that others obviously don’t know, we stand on the outside and yell, “You’re wrong and I’m right. Get it together.”

If you have been radically changed by Jesus Christ, you know the power of it. And, we get so passionate that we fail to find the commonality.

Story: Brief moment in IT

I was faced with doing what I told others to do for 13 years. And it is not as easy as it sounds.

I have to continue to work with these people

I don’t want to be the weird guy

I still have a job to do

Evangelism became about being in the space that God had me, finding common ground, and speaking truth into those moments when I had the opportunity.

Evangelism looks different than standing on a street corner, yelling, “Repent for the fires of hell are really hot.”

Hospitality: You love to host people, have them in your home, and make them feel special. Do that!

Serving: You’re good with your hands, building and fixing things, so you help a single mom across the street with her leaky sink. Do that!

Compassion: You can sit with someone who is sick or hurting just so they are not alone in their pain. Do that!

Support: You help another accomplish their goals and dreams for the life or work. Be their biggest champion. Do that!

Whatever you do though, invite, invite, invite. There has to be a moment of this is why I’m different, do you want to be too?

Acts 17:29-31

“And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”

SLIDE: Evangelism begins where you are, engaging the culture and inviting people to believe…

POINT #3: Evangelism trusts God with the Change

Finally, we going to go into the spaces, do the best we can with what God has given us. But everyone will respond differently

Acts 17: 33-34  When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.” That ended Paul’s discussion with them, but some joined him and became believers.

The truth is that your job is not to save people. You cannot control the outcome.

You only have to be faithful to the message.

Paul was trained in religion and knew how to communicate, yet the response varied drastically

He didn’t stick around to argue or debate, he shared and left

Only God can change the hearts and minds of people.

SLIDE: Evangelism begins where you are, engaging the culture, inviting people to believe, and trusting God with the change.

Conclusion

We cannot sit on the sidelines with our faith any longer. We have to be people who evangelize, not just through words but with actions, with love.

Not with judgement and condemnation, but with common ground

Response to Salvation