Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

AG:

TS: This text finds Paul in Athens.

He spoke of Jesus at the synagogue, but also took his message to the marketplace.

Athens was also the religious center of Greece and a city full of idols.

Virtually every deity known to man could be worshipped there.

Athenians also loved philosophy.

They liked to hear and debate new ideas.

Paul was brought to the Areopagus and allowed to speak.

Paul began where they were by referring to their alter to the unknown God.

He perceived they were religious, but cautioned that being religious is not enough.

RS: There are many today who consider themselves spiritual, but are done with organized religion.

They cite the problems in the churches they have attended.

They point to the hatred and fighting going on and the lack of love.

Their solution is to walk away and be “done” with church.

What we do and are to be as a church is unknown to them.

We are in the relationship business, not religion.

That message is lost, sometimes even on us.

The critics do have a point.

IF the body of Christ looses its love, there is a serious problem.

However, they ignore the teaching that we are to be in this together.

We increasingly find ourselves in contact and witnessing to people who are making a religion for themselves and have no desire to join a local church.

Let us see how Paul dealt with the religious in need of a relationship.

Acts 17:16-34

Religious but Wrong

EX: Paul evangelized the pagans

He acknowledged their religious nature

lit.

“in fear of gods”

they were so open minded and fearful that to cover all bases, they constructed an alter to the unknown god.

A “just in case we left someone out” alter

Athenians were super-naturalists.

they believed the supernatural intervened in natural events.

They believed in gods and goddesses greater than themselves who had a say in the affairs of mankind.

Paul cashed in on their nature to introduce them to true Creator-God who could be known.

AP: We can learn from Paul’s method

AP:

Always be ready to witness

We must live a life that actively points people to Jesus Christ.

Our words, actions, and relationships should proclaim Jesus at all times.

Even in times of suffering:

always prepared to defend your hope

In other words, always ready to witness

Find common ground

We need to find a point of contact, common ground.

This often comes from our own story of how Christ brought us to faith.

There are many avenues of common ground to open opportunities to witness rationality and logic, human experience, various kinds of evidence, etc.

God Revealed

Acts 17:24-

EX:

One of the groups Paul had caught the attention of was the Epicureans.

They believed that matter was eternal and therefore had no creator.

The other group, the Stoics, were pantheists believed that God was part of everything and could not have created Himself.

Paul goes right the error of both groups be clearing God was the creator of the world.

He made the world and all that is in it and is Lord of heaven and earth.

He also made all people from one man, Adam

The brotherhood of humanity has its beginning in God’s creation.

Greeks believed all non-Greeks were barbarians, and their race based prejudices were surely hit by Paul’s words

God set the boundaries and time limits on nations

God established nations

Tower of Babel

It is by His will that they rise and fall

Any authority they exercise is on loan from Him and they will answer to Him for their use of it.

Paul brings his discussion to the point:

man’s purpose is to seek God!

The religions of Athens demonstrated this.

They saw evidences of God but gave credit to worthless idols of their own making

AP: God’s handiwork is still on display.

The heavens declare His glory

When you look at the complexities of the universe and examples in every species, they shout out that God exists and created it all.

Scientists have found evidence of intelligent design even in the seemingly simplest and most minute parts of the body, such as in tears.

Once thought to be composed of simple water, tears now are known to be of such high-level complexity that whole books have been written on them.

Biochemist William Frey spent 15 years as head of a research team studying tears.1 His team found that, although certain tear-production organs once were thought to be vestigial, all of their secretions now are known to be important and actually serve numerous critical functions in the body.

A Johns Hopkins research team concluded:

‘Tears aren’t simple.

They’re complex creations of water, mucins, oils, and electrolytes; they also possess some protective bacteria-fighting substances that help reduce our risk of getting eye infections.

Their functions are many and essential.

For the cornea, they provide a smoother optical surface, so that our vision remains clear; they also help keep the cornea properly moisturized and rich in oxygen.

For the eye in general, tears also act as “wiper fluid”, allowing the eyelids to wash the eye free of debris with every blink.’2

Frey, W., Crying: The Mystery of Tears, Winston Press, Houston, 1985.

Cassel, G., Billig, M. and Randall, H., The Eye Book, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, p. 233, 1998.

The universal nature of people worshipping reveal a hunger that we have as a species that we don’t even know about.

Our response

Acts 17:30

EX: Paul issued an invitation

God overlooked the times of ignorance

This means neither indifference nor remission.

God’s justice demands that every sin and sinner be punished.

God would have been just, when Adam and Eve sinned, to destroy them, and with them, the entire human race.

But in His goodness and forbearance (see 2:4), He withheld His judgment for a certain period of time

MacArthur Study Bible:

This means neither indifference nor remission.

God’s justice demands that every sin and sinner be punished.

God would have been just, when Adam and Eve sinned, to destroy them, and with them, the entire human race.

But in His goodness and forbearance, He withheld His judgment for a certain period of time

Now commands all to repent

The time had come for the gospel to be proclaimed.

AP: The response must be the same today

We call for the same response:

Repent of your sins