Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

The Outreach and Evangelism Board has been emphasizing a little tract project around Halloween for most of the past month.

We’ve asked you to include a gospel tract in a small clear snack bag with a few pieces of candy and hand them out at your door on Halloween, which is today, with the words”Here’s something special for you”.

Some of you are participating and some are not, and that’s ok! It’s a matter of choice and conscience.

We are all made differently, and we shouldn’t go against our conscience.

Some Christians go to bars and witness, and some do not.

These things can be controversial.

So, what about celebrating Halloween?

Well, for me it has a lot to do with “What do you mean by celebrate!

If you mean getting involved with pagan and satanic rituals, promoting demons and witchcraft which is evil, I would say no way!

But if by celebrate you mean simply giving candy to neighborhood children, then I would say, it’s a good way to meet your neighbors, especially if you give them a gospel tract with it, then I would say it’s God’s work!

How did I most recently come to that conclusion?

By reading Paul’s missionary journey to Athens in Acts 17:15-34 (Read Paul’s account)…

Background

Coming off of Paul and Silas being thrown in jail in Philippi for preaching the Gospel, the miraculous earthquake that opened the jail doors and the conversion of the jailor and his household, Paul moved on to Thessalonica where he preached to the Jews in the Synagogue for 3 Sabbaths.

When the Jews stirred up trouble against him there, the Believers sent Paul and Silas off to Berea by night.

Once there, they went right to the Synagogue again which always seemed to be Paul’s first stop!

As we know, the Berean’s were very receptive to Paul’s message and even “examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (16:11).

When the Jews from Thessalonica heard of Paul’s success in Berea, they came and stirred up more trouble which precipitated Paul moving on then to Athens Greece.

I find it interesting that God moved Paul around to various Jewish pockets in Europe, people who had the O.T scriptures, where enough trouble was stirred up, then throws Him to the wolves in Athens!

I also think God has a sense of humor.

It’s one thing to go and preach to people who have some kind of similar context as you and quite another thing to confront a different culture!

Paul did some nice cross-cultural work here.

God brought him to those in Athens who in their day, were the epitome of human reasoning and human wisdom and said, “tell them about Me too!”.

Every walk of life: Politicians… Addicts… Hockey players… (HMI…).

The Gospel is for all people.

After all, Paul said in Romans 1:16 that he wasn’t ashamed of the Gospel, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek!

What follows should help us as we become increasingly distant from our own culture.

But remember, we are in the world, we are just not to be of it!

So, what does this have to do with Halloween!

Well, I agree, pagans celebrate it, it’s a reaction against All Saints Day on November 1st.

I agree it can be a night of evil and mischief.

But, is the Rainbow evil just because LBGTQ… people seem to have taken it over?

Christmas / Secularized… Answer these questions: (Pastor Tim White sermon)

How many days did Satan create?

(none)

How many days does Satan claim?

(All of them if we let him).

Didn’t Jesus call him a liar?

(Yes)

So, How many days does Satan own? (none)

Hopefully you see it is misguided respect to give any day over to Satan, because none of the days are his!

It’s like saying “I only honor God on Sunday s, because all the other days are given over to the godless secular work I do”! It’s wrong.

By our little Tract project we are not honoring Halloween, like Paul in Athens, we are moving the day further toward God! Let’s see what we can learn from Paul.

There are 4 things I want to point out that I believe this passage can help us with as we seek to shine the light of Jesus where He is unknown:

I. Look for an Opportunity (16-17)

As Paul was “waiting” for Silas and Timothy to catch up to him in Athens (15), he took a stroll around town looking to see what was going on, getting the spiritual temperature of the city (23…).

As he walked through, Paul noticed all the gods and idols, and his spirit was “provoked” within him.

The word literally means he was “troubled” by this city full of idols (greatly distressed)!

Obviously, what troubled Paul was the Athenians spiritual condition.

The apex of the city’s greatness was 400 years earlier.

It was THE center for human wisdom, reasoning and accomplishment.

But not anymore!

It had lost most of it’s former glory by the time Paul got there.

For all their “human wisdom”, it didn’t get them any closer to the true God.

Paul would write Romans 1:22-23 (NASB77)

22   Professing to be wise, they became fools,

23  and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures...

With all this human wisdom, they did not know and for the most part, did not care to know the true God.

Paul would also write in 1 Corinthians 1:20-21 (NASB77)

20   Where is the wise man?

Where is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

21  For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God… This moved Paul with compassion.

He saw their lost condition and knew he had to do something about it.

When we slow down and take the time to intentionally look all around we will see the needs of the people around us.

And not only that, but I believe God will trouble our spirit to do something about it if we are watching and listening.

ILL.

LeAnn and I are often times talking about things we could have and should have done for the Lord but didn’t.

We usually realize all to late that God was nudging us a certain direction and we either missed an opportunity or flat out resisted it!

We are doing better now!

But, whether it was a homeless person with a sign or someone God lays on our heart for prayer, financial help or a visit!

We all to often hadn’t been looking or responding positively to what God has put right in front of us.

This was not Paul!

He followed through with speaking and “reasoning” with Jews in the synagogue, the God fearing Gentiles and the people in the marketplace.

You get the impression that Paul was open to all kinds of people.

Is that you?

Is that me?

Do we segment our time into whats convenient or where we go or who we like?

There was no special time or place.

Paul made it a lifestyle to talk about Jesus anytime.

Be ready to share something in season and out of season (2 Tim 4:2).

We should really stop looking for reasons to be offended and look for opportunities!

Paul saw the lost souls and lit a candle in the darkness.

II.

Look for the Curious (18-21)

There are always people who will listen or who have questions about the Gospel, if not for just curiosity’s sake!

Paul was in a city where verse 21, says it was known for people gathering together just to talk about nothing other than “telling or hearing something new!” Athenians and visiting strangers alike!

In Paul’s case, he took the opportunity to speak not only in the Synagogue and in the marketplace, but also with the Epicurean’s, the Stoics and the Areopagus.

The Epicureans chief goal in life was to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.

They were pure materialists.

They basically said, “if it feels good, do it, if not, avoid it”.

They would be people today who would say “this life is all there is, go for the gusto!

Pleasure is the highest goal.

We all know people like this.

The Stoics believed life is filled with both good and bad.

You can’t avoid the bad in life so what you have to do is simply “grin and bear it!”

You are in charge of your life.

You just need to do the very best you can! “You can pull yourself up by your own bootstraps!” Paul was saddened by them as well, because they had no sense of Divine presence or of Divine guidance.