3.4.22 4.29.2018 Acts 17.16-34 Athens: Challenging the Chatter
Encounter with Empire • Sermon • Submitted
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The Wisdom of the Wise...
The Wisdom of the Wise...
▾ Start:
• Entice: Having lived in Central IL for nearly 20 years I became familiar with the peculiar customs and outlook of a university town. Champaign…is relatively
Entice: Having lived in Central IL for nearly 20 years I became familiar with the peculiar customs and outlook of a university town. Champaign…is relatively conservative. The other half of this urban center, where the flagship University of our State is located is often called by the locals (particularly those who live in Champaign) the people's republic of Urbana. Liberal and proud of it. Progressive and aggressive. On the absolute bleeding edge of social and cultural change. Some of you went to school there. Others have experienced this phenomena at other great universities. It has become a cultural cliche.
conservative. The other half of this urban center, where the flagship University of our State is located is often called by the locals (particularly those who live in
Champaign) the people's republic of Urbana. Liberal and proud of it. Progressive and aggressive. On the absolute bleeding edge of social and cultural change.
Engage:
Some of you went to school there. Others have experienced this phenomena at other great universities. It has become a cultural cliche.
We are not called to complain.
We are not called to complain.
• Engage: Our job is not to merely complain. Yes, we will be offended by the overt sinfulness of those who justify their unbelief, who look down on us as
impressionable, naive, backwards hayseeds-deluded by religion into abandoning the world. Nope. The Job is not to fight, fuss, fidget, whine or flee. Our job is to
Yes, we will be offended by the overt sinfulness of those who justify their unbelief, who look down on us as impressionable, naive, backwards hayseeds-deluded by religion into abandoning the world. Nope. The Job is not to fight, fuss, fidget, whine or flee. Our job is to witness. Our job is to testify. Our job is to lead, teach, pray, plead, touch, serve, minister, deliver, raise-up and engage this culture.
In short, we are here to love our world...
In short, we are here to love our world...
and to
Engage our cultured despisers.
Engage our cultured despisers.
Expand: Paul was on a layover. Waiting for a part of his team to join him in Athens. Athens!! The cultural center of the Ancient World. Hellenism's Harvard. There were other cities, other universities but Athens, the city of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle was the beating heart of Hellenistic culture and philosophy.
witness. Our job is to testify. Our job is to lead, teach, pray, plead, touch, serve, minister, deliver, raise-up and engage this culture. In short, we are here to love our
world and the cultured despisers which lead it.
• Expand: Paul was on a layover. Waiting for a part of his team to join him in Athens. Athens!! The cultural center of the Ancient World. Hellenism's Harvard. There
Excite: Paul was not there to preach. He is just passing through. He could have sat by the pool with a Pina Colada. But his spirit began to itch and there was only one way to scratch it. So he went out and met the corrupt culture. He went out to learn what the natives thought and to try and answer their needs with the Gospel.
were other cities, other universities but Athens, the city of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle was the beating heart of Hellenistic culture and philosophy.
▾ Excite: Paul was not there to preach. He is just passing through. He could have sat by the pool with a Pina Colada. But his spirit began to itch and there was only
Our world needs this kind of interest and engagement from us. But it's hard to start and sometimes it's scary. Paul spoke in the grocery store and eventually made it to the lecture hall of the greatest of all ancient universities.
one way to scratch it. So he went out and met the corrupt culture. He went out to learn what the natives thought and to try and answer their needs with the Gospel.
You get bigger and bigger opportunities as you touch more lives, tell the story with greater clarity and make a a more profound difference.
• Our world needs this kind of thing from us. But it's hard to start and sometimes it's scary. Paul spoke in the grocery store and eventually made it to the lecture hall
of the greatest of all ancient universities.
Explore:
• You get bigger and bigger opportunities as you touch more lives, tell the story with greater clarity and make a a more profound difference.
If you want to be heard at the top of the hill, you need to raise your voice at the bottom.
If you want to be heard at the top of the hill, you need to raise your voice at the bottom.
• Explore: If you want to be heard at the top of the hill, you need to raise your voice a ruckus at the bottom.
Explain: We need to take three steps to be heard a the top of the hill to make a difference in the heart of our culture.
• Explain: We need to take three steps to be heard a the top of the hill to make a difference in the heart of our culture.
1 Our Provocation should motivate our Engagement.
1 Our Provocation should motivate our Engagement.
1 Our Provocation should motivate our Engagement. 16
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
Acts 17.16
▾ 1 Our Provocation should motivate our Engagement. 16
1.1 Spiritual provocation is a result of Spiritual focus.
1.1 Spiritual provocation is a result of Spiritual focus.
1.1 Spiritual provocation is a result of Spiritual focus.
1.1.1 A Mission-driven Paul, cooling his heals at Athens one of the cultural centers of the Ancient world, must have been on sensory overload!
•1.1.1 A Mission-driven Paul, cooling his heals at Athens one of the cultural centers of the Ancient world must have been on sensory overload!
Idols and Alters and schools…Oh MY!!!
Idols and Alters and schools…Oh MY!!!
• 1.1.2 Idols and Alters and schools…Oh MY!!!
• 1.2 Spiritual provocation prompts an evangelical response.
1.2 Spiritual provocation prompts an evangelistic response.
1.2 Spiritual provocation prompts an evangelistic response.
• 1.3 When you look at the fallen, foolish, fractured world what do you see? Given the chance would you stay in your hotel room or, like Paul, take a tour of the ruins
When you look at the fallen, foolish, fractured world what do you see?
of the fallen world? Would you see an opportunity to serve or a threat to flee?
Given the chance would you stay in your hotel room or, like Paul, take a tour of the ruins of the fallen world?
Do you see an opportunity to serve or a threat to flee?
Do you see an opportunity to serve or a threat to flee?
2 Our Conversation should express our Conviction.
2 Our Conversation should express our Conviction.
▾ 2 Our Conversation should express our Conviction. 17-18
Acts 17.17-18
17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
2.1 A spiritual conversation with our culture should be occasional.
2.1 A spiritual conversation with our culture should be occasional.
• 2.1 A spiritual conversation with our culture should be occasional.
2.2 A spiritual conversation with our culture should be non-confrontational.
2.2 A spiritual conversation with our culture should be non-confrontational.
• 2.2 A spiritual conversation with our culture should be non-confrontational.
2.3 A spiritual conversation with our culture should be provocative.
2.3 A spiritual conversation with our culture should be provocative.
• 2.3 A spiritual conversation with our culture should be provocative.
3 Our Explanation should provide our Solution.
3 Our Explanation should provide our Solution.
▾ 3 Our Explanation should offer our Solution. 19-34
19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
20 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,
21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
22 And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
23 And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them.
24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.
25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,
29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—
30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back.
32 Remember Lot’s wife.
33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.
34 I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left.
Acts 17.19-34
19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.”
21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,
27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
33 So Paul went out from their midst.
34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Luke 17.19-34
3.1 Leverage the curiosity of the culture. 19-21
3.1 Leverage the curiosity of the culture. 19-21
▾ 3.1 Leverage the curiosity of the culture. 19-21
3.1.1 Social (Suggest solutions to social issues)
• 3.1.1 Social (Suggest solutions to social issues)
3.1.2 Cultural (Propose reforms to cultural decay)
• 3.1.2 Cultural (Propose reforms to cultural decay)
3.1.3 Spiritual. (Investigate alternatives to Spiritual decline)
• 3.1.3 Spiritual. (Investigate alternatives to Spiritual decline)
3.2 Be Polite! 22
3.2 Be Polite! 22
• 3.2 Be Polite! 22
3.3 Start where people are at. 22-28
3.3 Start where people are at. 22-28
▾ 3.3 Start where people are at. 22-28
• 3.3.1 Most Pagans are not ready for Jesus.
3.3.1 Most Pagans are not ready for Jesus.
• 3.3.2 Most Unbelievers are not ready for the Bible.
3.3.2 Most Unbelievers are not ready for the Bible.
▾ 3.4 Change the Conversation 29-30
3.4 Change the Conversation 29-30
3.4 Change the Conversation 29-30
• 3.4.1 Translate biblical concepts into the "native language."
Translate biblical concepts into the "native language."
▾ 3.5 Introduce Jesus 31
3.5 Introduce Jesus 31
3.5 Introduce Jesus 31
3.5.1 Tell where Jesus fits into God's overall plan.
3.5.1 Tell where Jesus fits into God's overall plan.
• 3.5.2 Get to the heart of the Gospel
3.5.2 Get to the heart of the Gospel
• 3.6 Leave the Results to God. 32-34
3.6 Leave the Results to God. 32-34
3.6 Leave the Results to God. 32-34
• Shut Down:
Beyond Culture Wars
Beyond Culture Wars
Paul was likely enchanted and angered at the same time. He was educated and cultured enough to know what Urbana… excuse me, Athens represented but also knew that fallen man can only get so far without God intervening.
This should inform our conversation with the fallen world. God has intervened. Jesus has come. We are provoked not to condemn our world but to bring it Christ. We wish to be in conversation with our culture to have the opportunity bring light to the darkness, explaining how Jesus can fix our sin problem.
That is the ultimate issue. Darkened thinking. Corrupt behavior. Greed. Deceit. It’s that Sin Problem. God sent His Son. The time of ignorance is past. It’s time to accept God’s solution to the problem of sin.