Shark Tank
Notes
Transcript
Paul is run out of town
Paul is run out of town
In the beginning of Chapter 17 of acts Paul travels to Thessalonica.
2 And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
3 explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.”
He started on common ground.
There is power of WE: So many times there is division. Us vs them, you vs. me.
You will never win someone over to you open them up to the idea that you are in this together.
Paul was a Jew and he was in a place where Jewish Text were accepted along with Jewish though and that is where he started.
He persuaded some.
But the Jews, were jealous and formed a mob. They couldn’t find Paul, so they grabbed his host, Jason.
Paul was sent to Berea.
Went to the Synagogue first again.
The Jews from Thessalonica found out where Paul went, so they followed him there and got those folks stirred up.
Paul went to Athens.
Athens
Athens
Athens was no longer the political cent of the the known world, that had long since moved to Rome. But it was still the hub for Art, Philosophy and Culture.
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.
Waiting for Silas and Timothy.
Statutes of the Greek Gods everywhere. Completely different culture than what he is comfortable with.
Imagine finding yourself in the mists of a British tea party where they worship the occult.
So Paul makes his way to the synagogue and the market place.
But even there he is confronted with Athenian culture.
18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
Epicurean: The Epicureans taught that pleasure was the chief goal of life and that one should seek to avoid pain and superstitious fears. They believed in the gods but viewed them as remote from man’s concerns
Stoics: The Stoics taught that one should accept his lot in life and bravely make the most of it—individual self-sufficiency. They were pantheistic (God is everything) and viewed God as the World-soul. They were very moral and had a sense of duty, but they were very proud.
They didn’t think much of Paul:
idle babbler: The word here is used for birds picking up seeds. They thought he was taking someone else’s idea and trying to pass them off as his own for the attention:
YOU SHOULD RIDE A HARLEY story.
Proclaiming strange deities:
19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?
20 “For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.”
21 (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)
It was like the Shark Tank.
Sermon on Mars Hill
Sermon on Mars Hill
It is a great model of how we have to share Christ with the world today.
You can spend any time on the internet and find a religion that suits your lifestyle, culture, and world view. You don’t have to change a thing and just find the religion where you “fit in”
Worse yet: If you look hard enough you can find a Church claiming to be “Christian” that affirms your way of life.”
You can be who you are and not change and still be part of the “going to heaven club”
And is a load of Crap. But that is what we are up against.
That is what Paul was up against.
So lets take note:
22 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.
23 “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
Religious: pious , superstitious.
He looked at their thought and culture and worked to find common ground.
“your wrong, I’m right” is not they way to introduce anyone to God.
The Athenians were very inclusive. They wanted to accommodate everyone’s belief.
24 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;
Challenging their pantheistic view of god.
25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
The thought was that for the Greek Gods to have power, they had to have worshipers and that the god with the best temple had the most power.
26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,
Challenged the Athenians belief that they were superior to all other races.
at the same time challenging the stoics belief in fate:
27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
We live in a world where people desperately need God. People around us, our neighbors, our friends, our kids, are angry, depressed, hurting and they are where their online presence and identity means so much to them, they are trying to find something real.
They don’t even know it, but they are trying to find God.
28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’
29 “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.
He is referring to a Greek poet who said that about Zeus, but using it as a way to relate the truth of God.
30 “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,
Change of thought or purpose.
Bumper sticker: Jesus is coming, are you ready? Magic Kingdom: Home.
Belief and faith causes repentance.
Pavement ends.
31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
9 Before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the earth;
He will judge the world with righteousness
And the peoples with equity.
22 “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son,
27 and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man.
Some sneered and turned away at the mention of Jesus and the resurrection. Others believed and followed.
You will find the same thing.