Youth lesson - Acts 17:16-21

Why do you think it is important to share the word of God everywhere you go?

Acts 17:16–21 NKJV

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.

Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy in Athens.

The reason he was waiting for them is simple, they were split up and were planning to meet again in Athens so that they could minister together again.

Now imagine this Paul stands waiting in Athens.

While waiting he notices people within in the city worshipping false idols.

The the Holy Spirit moved in him and he begin to preach throughout the city of Athens.

Paul did not have intentions to teach in Athens.

It was nothing more than a meetup spot in which he would rejoin Timothy and Silas

What do you do when you see sin?

Do you think we should call out sin?

We certainly should to each other, as brothers and sisters in Christ I would hope we would call out each others sin.

What about the sin of someone you hardly know?

Should you call it out?

As a christian sin should anger us.

not anger like you are thinking but righteous anger

meaning when we see sin we get in a mode where we want to stop seeing that because it displeases our God.

A proper way for us to deal with sin in any situation is exactly how Paul dealt with the sin of idolatry

He began telling people what the word of God had to say.

Now it wasn’t always the most highly accepted philosophy by the world

Acts 17:18 NKJV

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.

Do you think someone will always like it when you respond to sin?

They definetley will not

But, occasionally they will and when they do you will see God work in a mighty way.

Though some were shocked about hwat Paul was teaching we learn that they were attentive and listened

Acts 17:21 NKJV

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.

Do you think that everyone who sends knows what they are doing is wrong?

Romans 10:14 NKJV

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

So tell me, if I were someone who you had saw in school and I had just sinned by using the Lords name in vain, would you tell me?

What do you think is going to happen if you never tell me?

What if no one ever tells me?

What if I never hear of Jesus?

What do you think would have happened if Paul had chosen not share the truth of God’s word in a cit where they worshipped idols?

You see many came to know Jesus because of what Paul did in AThens.

You have heard us say, its bigger than us, what if Lebanon is the next Athens and they never hear about Jesus, no one ever tells them of their sins, cause we are to scared.