God's Message to the World
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Good morning, turn with me in your Bibles this morning to Acts 17, while you turn there I just want to tell you how much you are missed. I have a list of names that I have been working through I am trying to call and spend some time via Telephone with every one of you, some I have called already but still many whom I have not.
I know I speak for Cory as well when I say this has not been easy, We love seeing you we love getting to spend time with you, and not being able to see has been difficult but hopefully soon we will all be back together again.
This morning I want to speak with you on this subject TO KNOW HIM AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN. If you were to boil the Christian life down into one concise sentence that would be the sentence.
This and this reason alone Christian is why you exist, TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN. Here this morning in our text we find the apostle Paul and He is preaching and teaching in Athens, this was a sophisticated culture they had knowledge and they had influence, but this city, town, and even the empire of Rome did not know who God was.
Paul lived on purpose, there is nothing more fufilling than living your life on purpose and Paul certainly did that and while he is engaging this culture that is separated by thier sin, we learn some lessons about how we are supposed to engage those who have not come to know God through the person of Jesus Christ.
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?”
Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
(Let’s Pray)
Well as you read the book of Acts what you see very clearly is the ability of Paul to go into a wide variety of places and preach the gospel.
(Pat Vendetti) Switch pitcher
Paul was ambidextrous preacher if you will He was able to throw gospel strikes in the synagogue to these devout Jews and he was able to go into the marketplace and into the realm of the philosophers and wise people of his day and preach the gospel to them as well.
Athens is a historical place, playrights, historians, medical geniuses, sculptors, once called Athens home. In Pauls day it was a beautiful influential and intelligent city. Athens was called an Acropolis and that means “High City” and at the top of this High city there would be a temple to the patron god of that city.
At the top of Athens it was no different, these Romans worshipped the goddess of Athena and about 50 yards away was a little hill and on this hill stood another temple to the greek god of war ares and this place was called Mars Hill.
As we think about Paul in Athens what I want you to think about with me, is what Paul saw, what Paul felt, where Paul went, and what Paul said.
Now before you sit there and think to yourself what does this have to do with me, let’s get something clear right out of the gate.
God has saved you to engage lostness, God has saved you and I to take this little light of mine and let it shine, but we live in a society today, where there are many false gods that people worship.
So if you and I are going to be obedient we must train, we must pray, we must live our lives with intentionality. If there is one thing we see it is that relationships matter…
god wants you to love like He loves and proclaim the gospel to the best of your ability to the ends of your Earth, to the ends of your sphere of influence. , So how do you engage intellectual and yet Biblically illiterate people.
(Gas station incident)
There was a young mother there at that gas station, she was right up there at the flying J and.....
So we live in a culture where just because people are now raised in America we need to realize not everyone knows about the Lord, and it is our mission to help them know the Lord.
So we need to see what Paul sees, feel what Paul felt, Go where Paul went, and Say what Paul said.
What Paul Saw
What Paul Saw
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.
waiting for who?
Paul is preaching in Barea and some agitators, people who are antigospel come up and they carry him away to Athens. So now let’s think about this, now Paul find himself in Athens but he is not on a planned mission trip.
We must be ready in season and out of season and willing to take detours in life knowing, that wherever life takes you there is someone on that road that needs to know God.
Its your job to help them, so we must be intentional to look for them.
Paul is ALWAYS A MISSIONARY
So must we be
What Paul sees, what catches his eyes is not the beauty of the city, its the idols of the city. This is what he sees, one writer says it was easier to find a false god in Athens than a person.
This marketplace was lined with idols.
The city was given over to idols
Paul viewed the city as different than any other tourist of the city viewed the city, He saw lostness.
When you become a Christian you have a new set of eyes, you gain a Christian worldview, you wear different glasses than the rest of the world. We may enjoy many of the same things as the world but we enjoy them differently.
We see all of life through the lens of what god has revealed about himself and the world to us.
Let me tell you something though if you and I do not get up and approach life with purpose then our lenses get smudged.
We start not seeing things the way we ought to.
(Pastors conference)
DO YOU SEE IDOLATRY?
DO YOU SEE PEOPLE AS SOULS?
“When man ceases to worship God, he does not cease to worship, He worships everything.” GK CHESTERTON
So what does Paul feel?
How does he react?
What does Paul feel?
What does Paul feel?
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.
He was provoked
now this was used to describe Gods feeling about Israel as they worshipped idols in the Ot
They provoked the Lord to anger
So Paul does have a certain degree of anger a righteous anger, a zeal for gods glory, HE WANTS JESUS TO BE WORSHIPPED IN ATHENS
He has the heart of the Psalmist in
Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
But I see by the way Paul interacts with the people of Athens that he also loves them. the reason he was provoked to anger was bc he loved them.
(Grace, Gage, Chandler, Noah)
So Pauls feeling is a zeal for the glory of god and a brokenhearted compassion for people.
That compassion plays out in how Paul respectfully engages them.
He doesnt take a sledge hammer to the idols
He gives grace and patience to them
He is jealous for God glory and this causes him to go somewhere and say something.
Where does he go?
Where does he go?
3 places are mentioned
synagogue, the marketplace, and in the marketplace he addresses people who just happen to be there and then he addresses the skeptics, these philosophers and you see the great range he has.
In America this is so important we are a melting pot, for instance in the rural south like the area we live in, in Cottonwood everyone has some grasp of the bible its part of our culture.
But as we have seen someone 15 miles north who was born and raised in the city of Dothan may have 0 knowledge of what the Bible is saying.
What dose Paul do in these places?
SYNAGOGUE- He engaged the devout person and the Jews
Paul in Thessalonica when addressing the Jews as was his custom He would reason with them from the scriptures explaining and proving Jesus
He took the Ot and he pointed people to Jesus. He did it over and over and over
There are people who show up to church regularly who have never had the lifechanging blod of Jesus poured out into their heart.
Many religious people are not Christians.
(Mr. Bud)
I dont want to exaggerate but I think that problem is very real, alot of people who just culturally come to Sunday worship, but they have never had the Lifechanging rebirth that comes when you come to a risen Jesus
Thats what Paul did in the Synagigue but what did he do in the marketplace?
He does not start a riot he starts a conversation.
We cannot leave evangelism to church events inside a church building, we have got to go!
(gym, ballfields, gas station)
He just goes out into the marketplace and starts some conversation, he is just out and about.
ASKING QUESTIONS ENGAGING
Good evangelism is not having all of the answers, its about asking people some good questions....
Chuck Swindoll says “Good evangelism is like putting a rock in someones shoe, it gives them something to think about the rest of the day, maybe even aggrivates them a little.
Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?”
Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.
the word for Babbler means seed picker, they are saying Paul just kind of picks up an idea here, or plucks out an idea over there and puts them all together.
They don’t understand HimThey think Paul is preaching about more than one God
They dont understand Paul and so they take him to the areopagus thats that hill where they would often have long speeches and discussions and they say we want to hear what these things mean.
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak?
For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”
Now two groups are mentioned EPICUREAN AND STOIC PHILOSOPHERS
Epicureans- thought when you die your chunked in the ground and thats all, the best way to understand these guys was that they were all about pleasure..... (sound familiar it should) YOLO
Stoics- Pantheist they thought God was in everything, dogs, nature, all of human beings They confused God with Gods creation
“ONLY THE UNIVERSE KNOWS”
Now Here is what I want you to hear and I believe God wants us to hear this this morning
For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
(Kerri at grandpas funeral)
WE WANNA HEAR SOMETHING NEW SOMETHING INOVATTIVE, PUT A NEW SPIN ON IT
CHURCH IF ITS NEW IT AINT TRUE, AND IF ITS TRUE IT AINT NEW!
Paul addresses this
Paul is standing in the marketplace he is now standing before some of the brightest minds in the ancient world.
Paul basically tells the whole story of the Bible
God is creator, to God is judge
Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;
Paul has made this observation
He is aware that they are religious....
for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
So in the synagogue he might starty with father Abraham and now he jumps in to Let me tell you about the God you dont know about.
God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
Listen to me if you can believe God is the creator of all things you can believe His SON PUT ON HUMAN FLESH AND DIED IN YOUR PLACE AND FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD, AND YOU CAN ALSO BELIEVE HE ROSE FROM THE GRAVE!
Everything has a stamp on it MADE BY GOD!
THIS GOD DOES NTO DWELL IN TEMPLES MADE BY HUMAN HANDS!!!!!
As He is looking from Mars Hill at that massive Temple and the statue of Athena He says YOU CANNOT PUT GOD IN A CAGE, YOU CANT CONFINE HIUM TO A BUILDING!
YOU CANT STOP HIM, CAGE HIM OR PUT HIM IN A BOX, THE GOSPEL DOES NOT STOP BEING TRUE EVEN IF THE WORSHIP CENTERS ARE EMPTY
GOD IS STILL GOD DEAL WITH IT!
One persecuted Christian in another country their churches were burned to the ground and when the pastor was asked how he felt he said you can burn our churches, and pull down our steeples but you cannot pull down the stars.
Paul starts there
Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
God DOES NOT NEED US WE NEED HIM
ROCKS WILL CRY OUT IF WE DONT, THE HEAVENS WILL DECLARE IF WE DONT, THE CRYING BABY WILL PROCLAIM IF WE DONT GOD DOES NOT NEED US
WE NEED HIM!
HE chooses to use us because He loves us...
Our GOD NEEDS NO FOOD NO AIR HE IS TOTALLY SELF SUFFICIENT
HE IS HOLDING EVERYTHING TOGETHER RIGHT NOW AND EVEN NOW HE IS KEEPING YOUR HEART IN RYTHYM HE CREATED IT HE SUSTAINS IT
And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
Diversity is Gods idea
HE IS TOTALLY SOVERIGN OVER HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY
Creator sustainer, ruler of nations
so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
Why cant we see Him?
sin has blinded us!
reach out or feel-
WE HAVE TO HAVE DIVINE GRACE TO OPEN OUR EYES TO SEE JESUS FOR WHO HE IS!
People see today as the gospel is preached!
Right now someone is listening today and they are groping and feeling their way, and all the while God is saying open your eyes, open your eyes to me. You know in your heart I am the only way to salvation.
Dont hide your face from me
for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.
Listen to me this morning we dont worship a statue, we dont worship anything that can be made by man.
We dont worship an idol made by man We worship the man maker
We worship the one who creates men!
Here is how Paul ends
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
(Noah) JUDGMENT IS COMING!
Paul cares about people!
And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.”
The heart of every man is intrigued when they hear the truth about these things
So Paul departed from among them.
However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
The VALUE OF SOME
Think about what could have happened to him!
(Let’s Pray)