Witness- Athens
Notes
Transcript
Acts 17:16-34
ILL-- witnessing in a different culture.. Starting point in Malawi was creation.
Paul on 2nd missionary journey is called to go to Macedonia. On this trip he ends up in Athens. This was the most unique of all the cities that Paul visited. It was very proud of its Greek beginnings. Rome had changed the Greek gods to Roman gods. It was still an important city for worship of the gods as well as philosophical debate. Home of Socrates and Plato.
Paul used a different approach.
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.
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.
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.
4 Characteristics of Paul's Witness in Athens
Sensitive (16)
Sensitive (16)
Acts 17:16
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.
Sensitive to the needs- Heart broken because of sin and lostness.
Most people of his day would have seen the architecture of the temples as beautiful.
Paul saw it for what it really was. Dark idol worship.
ILL- Vancouver- Hindu Temple
Sensitive to the Holy Spirit
He didn't ignore the nudging of the Holy Spirit.
You have to have your eyes open to what is going on around you.
Do you see the hurt in the eyes of those around you in line at Wal-Mart?
Do you see when your neighbor is having a bad day?
We are to be led by the Holy Spirit
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted.
Romans 8:14
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
1 John 3:24
24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
There are two ways we can chose to walk. In the Flesh or In The Spirit
Ephesians 4:17-25
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—
21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
To walk in the Spirit means we have to be sensitive to what the Spirit leads and have our eyes open to those around us. You cannot be preoccupied with physical life.
Do you work too hard to be sensitive to the Spirit?
Are you too busy running all over town to be sensitive to the Spirit?
Christmas season - busiest time of the year.
Paul was by himself, waiting for the rest of his team to join him.
Paul had been chased out of Thessalonica and Berea. Could have been selfish as he recuperated and waited.
This did not stop him from recognizing the spiritual need around him.
Opportunistic (17-21)
Opportunistic (17-21)
Take Advantage of the opportunities that are presented to you. Don't miss those opportunities.
4 Opportunities Opened to Paul
Jewish Synagogue (17)
Jewish Synagogue (17)
Acts 17:17
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.
Opened because of his Pharisee credentials.
Marketplace (17)
Marketplace (17)
Acts 17:17
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.
At one time Athens marketplace was one of the greatest in the world. Rome had come in and restored it.
Opened to everyone.
That's where the people would be.
ILL-- Mission trip to Vancouver 11 years ago-- the Park is where the people were.
Epicurean and Stoic Philosophers (18)
Epicurean and Stoic Philosophers (18)
Acts 17:18
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.
Athens was the capital of philosophy.
It had been the center of philosophy, art, architecture and drama since at least 429 B.C.
Epicureans followed the teaching of Epicurus - lived 300 years earlier.
Hedonists= the value of an action or things was determined by the pain or pleasure it brought.
Called egocentric hedonism because they thought only of themselves. Personal pleasure over the pleasure of others.
Stoic philosophy was probably most popular of the day.
It is one Paul would have been familiar with growing up in Tarsus.
They were concerned with origins. Where did we come from.
Believed all things would end by fire. But Cyclical- it would start back again.
Pervasive force that governed universe was called Logos.
They rejected idea of Resurrection- because materialists.
Areopagus (19)
Areopagus (19)
Acts 17:19
19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
Curious- we have many in our society curious of spiritual things.
This was a place (a small hill off the Acropolis) and a council.
Socrates had been put on trial in this very place 500 years earlier.
Paul had to defend why he was preaching about a new god.
Paul's supernatural and natural abilities helped him meet the intellectual Athenians on their own ground.
Some remained skeptical but some believed.
We must as individuals and as a church take advantage of the times and places people gather.
Wewoka- Sorghum Day
Christmas Parade
We must take advantage of when people are already gathering. (Balloon Fiesta?)
Relevant (22-31)
Relevant (22-31)
Acts 17:22-31
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.”
he took something they understood and used it to point to God.
Acts 17:23
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.
he studied their culture to learn the best way to speak to them.
Acts 17:24
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,
pointed to Stoic Philosophers-- creation
But he did not let their beliefs mess with truth.
He did not change truth so they would accept what he was saying.
We have to learn to speak in a way that our culture understands in order to present the eternal truth of the Word of God.
Relevant but with the purpose of them accepting Jesus.
His purpose was not to get them to like him or accept his message. He purpose was to declare to to them the truth of Jesus as the Son of God who died for their sins and was raised from the dead.
Fruitful (32-34)
Fruitful (32-34)
Acts 17:32-34
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.
Mixed results.
Probably one of the least fruitful stops of his journey.
It appears no church was established.
We must not measure success as the world measures success.
We can control the message but we cannot control the acceptance to the message.
CONCLUSION
Are you faithful with the message?
Are you faithful with the message?