something Old, Something New

The Place of Missions

Acts17

Week 3

Acts 17:22-32

Something Old, Something New

The Place of Missions

Using the Familiar to Proclaim the Good News

God has entrusted us with His Word to use the familiar to spread the Gospel.

Idols

As we are on the move, we can learn a lot from the Apostle Paul in communicating the great truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We know and understand Paul was furious with what he saw as he walked throughout the city. Verse 16 tells us Paul was angry:

Acts 17:16 ESV

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.

He sees the idolatry, he sees the lostness, he sees no regard for the things of God and he had to say something. Our text is all about Paul putting it all on the line to reason with the Athenians. . . but before he jumped in he looked at his surroundings.

He did not just start preaching that they were living in sin and going to hell. Paul did not teach “hell fire and brimstone....

Rather, he uses their own rhetoric and their customs in order to speak the truth to them.

I know this is not the preferred method, nor is this the way many of us were taught. We usually just jump in and start beating people up. We start being judgmental.

This is not what Paul does. . . he used the rhetorical strategies . . and spoke their language .

He starts off with what most scholars say: was a compliment . He says: I see you are very religious.

They call it capitatio benevolentiae, an effort to win the favor of his hearers and thus secure their attention.

He did not want to alienate anyone in his audience. By doing this it is said won the ear. . he won the right to shatter all of their errors!

He doesn’t start off by airing their dirty laundry, he doesn’t start by attacking their issues: drinking, smoking, sex life, lifestyle choices, career choice, relationship, image and sizes.

Paul gives them a compliment

Images

To the unknown God : Now he switches to what he sees and begins to explain

Acts The “Unknown God” (17:22–23)

17:23a As so often in the speeches of Acts, Paul began his discourse with a point of contact with his audience. In this case it was the altars Paul had already observed in the city (v. 16). One in particular caught his attention. It was dedicated “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.” This gave him the perfect launching pad for his presentation of monotheism to the polytheistic and pantheistic Athenians. Piety had no doubt led the Athenians to erect such an altar for fear they might offend some deity of whom they were unaware and had failed to give the proper worship. Paul would now proclaim a God who was unknown to them. In fact, this God, totally unknown to them, was the only true divinity that exists.

God the Creator

Acts The Creator God (17:24–25)

THE CREATOR GOD (17:24–25)

17:24–25 Paul began with the basic premise that runs throughout his speech: God is Creator. He referred to God as the maker of the “world” (kosmos), a term that would be familiar to every Greek. The concept of God as absolute Creator, however, would not be so easy for them to grasp. For them divinity was to be found in the heavens, in nature, in humanity. The idea of a single supreme being who stood over the world, who created all that exists, was totally foreign to them. This was indeed an “UNKNOWN GOD.”

Paul goes back to Old Testament teaching:

1 Kings 8:27 ESV

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

and in acts

Acts 7:48–50 ESV

Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, “ ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?’

everyone in life is searching:

searching for significance

searching for belonging

many, unfortunately are searching in the wrong places.

missions and evangelism on their turf helps us win people to Christ

Imaginations