[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Expound, our
verse-by-verse study of God's word. Our goal is to expand your
knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the word of God
in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational. Father, we deliberately
still our hearts before you. We just want to, in prayer,
take a breath, so to speak. And we're inviting
you to be in charge, be in control-- be the
teacher, the divine instructor behind the human,
flawed instructor. We pray, Father, that
you would, as you reveal what Paul, and Silas, and
others did in this book, give us examples of what
to do, what to avoid. Show us principles, Lord. We don't want to just
know the word of God, though there is value in that. We really want to know
the God of the word. We pray, Lord, that we
would understand you, and your values, your heart of
love for people, for the world. And then Father, we pray
that we might by your spirit emulate those things that
are most pleasing to you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So this morning, I was thinking
about when I was single-- which was a long time ago. And I was jogging my memory. And I was trying to think back
to the early days of wanting to be a church planter. And I remember feeling
sort of forlorn and like time had passed me by. And I was getting old. And I remember
telling the Lord-- Lord, I think I'm like 23 or
24-years old by that time, and I haven't
planted a church yet. What's up? And so I finally got
this interesting letter from Aspen, Colorado,
from a small group that asked me to come up and
take over their home Bible study. Which I love home Bible studies. I said this church
grew out of that. And I remember thinking,
Aspen, Colorado-- the Lord just might be in that. [LAUGHTER] After all, I was living in
Huntington Beach, California. And where would God call
somebody from there? Aspen, or Hawaii, or
something like that. So I'm thinking
this is the Lord. And I start pursuing it,
and writing, and planning to go up and visit. And the Lord, without
going through the details, just closed the doors in my
face-- just bam, bam, close-- sort of like what we have been
reading in the book of Acts last time. And the Lord forbade Paul
to go into the area of Asia and then Bithynia. He tried to go to places, and
the Holy Spirit didn't let him. So I had that interesting
experience of the Lord saying, no, you're not
going to Aspen now. I had gotten the
first letter right. It was an "a" word
that I would eventually be called to-- an "a" name. But it wasn't Aspen. It ended up being Albuquerque. [CHEERING AND APPLAUSE] What I thought was
the Lord's will was a closed door, and then
eventually an open door. Now, Paul the
Apostle had already been on his missionary journey. And it was quite successful. He began in Antioch of Syria. He moved over to
Cyprus, that island off the coast in
the Mediterranean where Barnabas was from-- his
companion on the first trip. And then he moved
up into the coast, into the mainland of
modern day Turkey, into the ancient
area of Galatia. He had great success. But he also had
great difficulty, because they took him outside
of the city of Lystra. And they pelted him with
rocks, thinking he was dead. He gets back up on his
feet, eventually goes back into the town that stoned
him, and continued preaching. So we understand,
in his first trip, we're dealing with a very
gloriously stubborn man who believes God wants
to reach the world, no matter if it
cost him his life. After that first
missionary journey, he goes back to Antioch. After a while, they
go back out again. Now, we're dealing with this
second missionary journey. And you remember
when he was at Troas, after trying to
go to two places, and the Holy Spirit
said, no, no. Then at Troas, he gets a vision
of a man from Macedonia saying, come over to
Macedonia and help us. He wakes up the
next day, and goes, I think God wants us
to go to Macedonia. So he goes there. Now, in chapter 16, and chapter
17, and into chapter 18-- which comprises his second
missionary journey-- he goes to Phillipi,
which is in Macedonia. He'll go to Thessalonica,
Berea, Athens, Corinth, and then back all
the way to Antioch. That will finish off his
second missionary journey. We're just sort of beginning
that, or in the middle of it. He has left Troas. He has gone to Phillipi--
we saw that last time. But we left Paul in jail. When we were together
last, Paul was in prison. His feet and hands
were in stocks. He had just been beaten
for his faith in Jesus. And you just have to
picture this beat up guy with his arms outstretched,
his feet stretched out. He's in pain. And it's midnight, and he starts
singing songs of praise to God. It's an amazing picture
to keep in our head. It was an amazing way to end,
because he's not sulking, he's singing. He's not pouting, he's praising. Now, I would be praying if
I were in prison like Paul. But the things I would pray
would not be nice things. [LAUGHTER] I talked to you last time about
some of the imprecatory psalms of David. Those are the ones
that I would call to mind if I were in
the Philippian jail, like, oh, Lord, break their
teeth in their mouth in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm so glad that's in the Bible. [LAUGHTER] I won't tell you when
I had prayed that. But I always feel
that you should be honest with God
about how you feel. And God has veto power, right? He always does have veto power. It's not like you're
going to pray something, and God is going to do whatever
your little heart desires. That would be careless
and dangerous. So I pour out my heart,
quite honestly, to the Lord, knowing he has veto power and
will say either yes, or no, or rebuke me in the
process, or whatever. Paul praising God. There was an earthquake
in the prison. The doors were
unhinged, opened up, so all the prisoners
could escape. The guard who was supposed
to be watching the prison had fallen asleep. He wakes up, draws
his sword, and is about to commit harry carry-- about to commit suicide. And Paul, hearing the sword
come out of the sheath, knowing what's up, knowing
that Roman law stipulated if prisoners escape
while it's your watch, because it's your
responsibility, it is your life for theirs-- you have that death sentence
that you will face-- Paul knew that. And so he yells out. He goes, don't hurt
yourself, we're still here. The man, trembling,
went to Paul and Silas, and said, what must
I do to be saved. And we saw Paul's answer. It says, verse 27, "the
keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep, seeing
the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners
had fled, drew the sword, was about to kill himself,
but Paul called out with a loud voice
saying, do yourself no harm, for we are all here. And then he called
for a light, ran in, fell down trembling before
Paul and Silas, the singing midnight prisoners. And he brought
them out, and said, sirs, what must
I do to be saved. And so they said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." That's it? That's it That's all? That's all. Paul didn't say, well,
if you want to get saved, you have to join a
church, get baptized-- which he will get baptized. But he's answering
the question, not what do I do after I'm saved,
but what do I do to be saved. And Paul knew the gospel. And he wrestled himself
for years in Arabia after his own salvation
with the law versus grace. And he knew there's
only one answer-- believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you will be saved. And then he says this. "You will be saved
and your household." This verse has caused a bit
of consternation, argument, discussion over the years. Because it has been
misused by people to imagine that Paul was
saying that, if you believe, automatically your family
will also be saved. If you're saved, your whole
family is going to get saved. Now, that is not
what Paul is saying. And we know that's
just not true. I remember when I got saved,
and I prayed for my family, and I witnessed to my
family, they didn't all respond the way I responded. So there's not sufficient
information here to construct a doctrine out
of familial salvation based on one person, then that
family getting saved. That's not what Paul is saying. Paul is not saying,
automatically, if you get saved, then your
whole family will get saved. I think what Paul
is doing is one of two things--
either expressing God's intention for that
family or, better yet, he's giving a prophecy. He is speaking in the prophetic. Because maybe the Lord gave
him insight that not only is this man going to
believe and get saved, but it's going to
also spill onto his family. Because what is the
stipulation for salvation? Not being related to
a person who's saved. What's the stipulation? Believe. Now, his whole family
was saved eventually. But that's because his
whole family believed. Paul preached to
his whole family. His whole family believed. And his whole
family was baptized as an outward expression
of their salvation, as you will see. "Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved
and your household. Then they spoke the
word of the Lord to him and to all who
were in his house. And he took them the
same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and
immediately all his family were baptized." "Now, when he had brought
them into his house, he set food before them, and he
rejoiced having believed in God with all his household." Do you see the wording? Paul preached to them all. They all listened to
what he had to say. They all believed
what he had to say. They were all baptized. It began with him,
that night, saying , what must I do to be saved. It continued to
the whole family. So Paul was probably
speaking a prophecy when he said that, these words
to that Philippian jailer that night in jail. "And when it was
day, the magistrates sent the officer saying,
let these men go. So the keeper of the prison
reported these words to Paul, saying, the magistrates
have sent to let you go." He's probably saying
it all excited, like this is good news. You can go. "Now, therefore depart,
and go in peace." Now, watch this. I mentioned Paul was stubborn. "But Paul said to them,
they have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and
have thrown us into prison. And now, do they
put us out secretly? No indeed. Let them come themselves
and get us out." Oh, Paul. [CHUCKLING] Really? Now, Paul was a Roman citizen. I am reminding you of that. He will remind his captors
in Jerusalem of that. He reminds his
captors here of that. He will remind Herod
Agrippa of that, and Felix, and Festus of that, et cetera. He was a Roman citizen. There were certain rights
afforded to a Roman citizen. Cicero once said, to
bind a Roman citizen is an abomination, is a crime. To beat him, to flog
him, is an abomination. And Paul knew that you could
not beat an uncondemned Roman citizen. It was against Roman law. They had beaten him with rods. So the guy comes
back, not knowing Paul is a Roman citizen,
saying, they're letting you go. Oh, no, they are not. You go tell them--
the magistrates-- what they just did. You tell them that there is a
Roman citizen who has stripes on his back from their rods. They put them there. They have to come
and get us out. Paul had them right
where he wanted him-- just shaking in their
little Roman booty's. [LAUGHTER] "And the officers told these
words to the magistrates. And they were afraid when they
heard that they were Romans. Then they came and
pleaded with them, and brought them out, and asked
them to depart from the city. So they went out of the
prison and entered the house of Lydia--" remember Lydia? The seller of purple
from Thyatira? "The Lord opened her heart. And when they had seen the
brethren, they encourage them. And they departed." So a church is
starting in Phillipi. A few women down at the
Riverside-- the Lord opened up the heart
of one named Lydia. Now, there's a Philippian
jailer and his family that are part of these people. The brethren
mentioned in verse 40 are the believers-- probably
a very small number, but probably housed
in Lydia's home. And so the church
began in a home-- a home Bible study
started by Paul. Wouldn't you love to go to
Paul's home Bible study? [CHUCKLING] And so once again, for years,
I taught home Bible studies. And that's how this church
began, as a home Bible study. And this format is largely how
we began our home Bible study. We just have a larger living
room on Wednesdays now. That's all. Still the same format. So Paul will write a letter
to the church at Phillipi-- which we covered
on Sunday mornings, we called it technicolor joy. And he will begin by saying,
Paul and Timothy, bond servants of Jesus Christ, to all
the saints in Christ who are in Phillipi. So this little home
Bible study, beginning with Lydia, and the
Philippian jailer, and family, will grow to where Paul is
addressing all the Saints. It will grow and become a
viable and very exciting church. Now, verse 1, chapter 17. "When they had passed through
Ampiphilis and Apolonia, they came to
Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his
custom was, went into them, and for
three sabbaths, reasoned with them
from the scriptures." Thessalonica is just a
little over 100-miles journey from Phillipi. So Paul walked there. It was the capital of Macedonia. And it was on a
very important road. There was a road connecting
the Western Empire that went across Macedonia
to the eastern empire. And that was the Via Egnatia. It was this main Roman road. The Romans built thousands
of miles of roads-- about 52,000 miles of roads-- many of which are still
in existence to this day. You can walk on
parts of Roman roads that were built a couple
of thousand years ago. So it was a large city--
about 200,000 people. It was a chief city. It was the capital, as
I said, of Macedonia. And it was considered the
key, because of its position on that road. It was the key to
all of Macedonia. So Paul passes through
two little towns that are mentioned here, goes
from Phillipi to Thessalonica. Goes through those two other
towns that are mentioned, but there is no record
of any work there. Now, there is an important
strategy that Paul employed. Paul is not going to hick towns. He's going to main towns. He's going to main towns,
sharing the gospel there. He's going to have
an impact there. And then once the
gospel penetrates that large
cosmopolitan area, it's his belief that the Holy Spirit
is going to use those towns, those major cosmopolitan
areas to send out their own missionaries
to the littler towns. Which proved to be
true, especially with this town, Thessalonica. When Paul writes First
Thessalonians to this church, he writes this. "You became examples
to all in Macedonia--" this is First
Thessalonians, in chapter 1. "You became examples to
all in Macedonia and Akaya who believe, for from
you, the word of the Lord sounded forth." Very interesting word. I did a whole study just
on this word at one time. It's the word "exsiccatae." Our word "echo" comes from
"eccos," is in the word "exsiccatae." It echoed forth from, it
resounded in waves from-- is the idea-- this
city of Thessalonica. "The word of the
Lord sounded forth, echoed forth, not only
in Macedonia and Akaya, but also in every place
your faith toward God has gone out so that we do
not need to say anything." So the word of the Lord
came to them through Paul. Eventually, the word of
the Lord went from them. They became receivers
of the truth, and then they became
transmitters of the truth. That is God's plan
for your life. God's plan is not that
you just receive, receive, receive, soak, soak, soak,
study, study, study, read, read, read, get
spiritually fat, fat, fat. He wants you to get
spiritually fat. And then he wants you to
exercise and get lean again. And the way you
exercise and get lean again is by taking the
truths that you learn and disseminating it to others-- take principles that you
hear, make it your own, and tell somebody else. By the way, you will learn
it faster when you tell what you know to somebody else. So the word of the
Lord came to them. Paul says, "the word of the
Lord went through them" as well. So this very strategic town
of Thessalonica Paul goes to. And the word of the Lord
will come through them. Verse 2. "Paul, as his custom
was, went into them." He's in a synagogue. "And for three weeks, three
sabbaths--" Now, I love this. You're going to find this
word a lot with Paul, and especially even
in this chapter. It says he "reasoned with
them from the scriptures." The Christian faith
is reasonable faith. Paul never went, and said,
hey, believe this just cause you ought to believe it. Believe it just cause. He reasoned with them. He wanted them to know what to
believe and why to believe it. So you'd find Paul
reasoning with them. And you would have to
reason with Jewish scholars in a synagogue to
get them to believe that Jesus is the messiah. You're not going to just go
in there willy-nilly, and go, Jesus is the guy you guys
have been looking for, Amen. You better believe that. But for three weeks,
week after week, sabbath service after
service, he reasoned with them from the scriptures. Hey, parents. Let me encourage you to
reason with your children from the scriptures. Please, don't expect our
wonderful Bible Island-- they do such a great job,
they have for years-- don't expect them to give
all that your kids need. Reason with your children
from the scriptures. Show them why they ought
to believe certain things. Do it yourself. Reason with them. God said, come now, let us
reason together, says the Lord. And notice verse 3,
"explaining and demonstrating that the Christ, the Messiah,
had to suffer and rise again from the dead, saying, this
Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded. And a great multitude of the
devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women
joined Paul and Silas. But the Jews who were not
persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men
from the marketplace." Now, I've always loved
the old King James translation of this verse. It says they took-- listen
to this translation-- "lewd fellows of
the baser sort." [LAUGHTER] Come on. That is just good. "Lewd fellows of
the baser sort." You just don't get any
gnarlier than that. But it's translated into a
more modern translation-- "evil men from the marketplace,
and gathering a mob, set all of the
city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason,
and sought to bring them out to the people." Notice the two effects of Paul's
ministry in Thessalonica-- some were persuaded,
some were not persuaded. You see that in two verses-- in verse 4 and in verse 5. There was a strong reaction-- a strong favorable reaction,
a strong unfavorable reaction. No middle ground. Some were persuaded,
some were not persuaded, and they got really
mad about it. I think that when
you share the gospel, you should make it unmistakably
clear, unmistakably clear. For years, we have used the
radio for, not only Bible teaching, but also evangelism. We've had a little
format that we call God Spots we've put on
hundreds of radio stations around the country for years--
just little snippets of truth. Not just on Christian radio
stations, but many times on secular radio stations we've
done it just on purpose, just to target unbelieving audiences. While they're in
their car, they're going to get 15, 20,
30 seconds of truth, and they're going to
have to deal with it. And so it's like a
music bit, and then bam, a little nugget of truth. And I loved the responses we
would get, all the way from we loved this, we didn't expect
this, we're believers, but we heard it on the
secular radio station as we were going to work-- others saying, you have no
right to put that on our radio station-- even though we
do because it is American, you can buy time, and we did. But they just thought,
look, we're heathens, and that's our turf. So don't mess with our turf. So I loved getting
two strong reactions. One saying, go for it,
others saying, go home. Some were persuaded. Some were not persuaded. Now, I just want to draw your
attention again to the fact that Paul is in Thessalonica
for how many weeks? Three. Three. Three sabbaths he
reasoned with them. Then he's going to
move on to Berea. Three weeks and
a church starts-- that's not a long time. We don't read of Paul
going into Thessalonica, and saying, OK,
Silas and boys, we need to get a demographic study
of the city of Thessalonica for this church plant. We need to do an
internet campaign to launch this-- though I'm not
opposed to these as techniques. They work. I understand they
have their place. But of course, Paul
didn't have that ability to do a demographics study,
probably wouldn't have anyway. He didn't take the
right population in the right part of town,
because the whole town was unchurched. Because there was
no church ever. This was the first one. But it only took three weeks
and a church was started. Listen, it does not take
long when God wants to move. All he did was unleash the word
of God, and let the Holy Spirit do his deal. Three weeks, a
church was started. We know it was a
pretty good church, because he writes First
Thessalonians and Second Thessalonians later
to the church. A very viable strong church
that grew up in that area and also sent out
missionaries around them. Verse 6. So Paul's at the house of Jason. Jason had Paul. "They go to the House
of Jason, sought to bring him out to the people. But when they did
not find them, they drag Jason and some
of the brethren to the rulers of that
city, crying out, these who have turned
the world upside down have come here too." Now, listen to what
they're saying. "These guys who turned
the world upside down have come here too." What a wonderful thing to hear. Now, they didn't mean
it as a compliment. They meant it as a cut. They meant it as a complaint. But as a believer, I would
take this as a compliment. Given the condition of the
world, this is a compliment. Given the condition of
the dark, and deplorable, and fallen state of this
humanity called the world, when the world says, you've
turned the world upside down, I go, hallelujah. We need more people
like that, who will turn their world upside down. You see, what the world
calls right-side up is really upside down, and what
the world calls upside down is really right-side up. Paul didn't turn the
world upside down as God intended the world to be. He turned it back to
its original ideal, among the believers at least. Believers in harmony with God,
loving God, praising Jesus, trusting him. That's not upside down. That's right-side up. But they didn't mean
this as a compliment, but as a cut, a complaint. "These who have turned
the world upside down have come here too." My prayer for you
is that you would turn your world upside down. I pray that you will
not be inoculated with a mild form of Christianity
so as to be rendered immune from the real thing. I pray that you'll be a radical. Go radical? Yeah. Just love people,
share with people. That's radical. Just live the loving,
compassionate, wonderful, authentic Christian
life in your community. That's radical. And that's right-side up. And it doesn't mean you have
to go be a church planter, be a pastor, be
a worship leader. God needs doctors, lawyers,
secretaries, business people, politicians-- salt and light in
their community. That's how you turn the world
upside down, right-side up. "These who have turned the world
upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them,"
they continue their complaint. "And these are all
acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar,
saying there is another King. Jesus." Now, that happens
to be accurate. And it will eventually get
the Christians into trouble. The persecution that will
be fomented and burgeon under Nero, Domitian, and
others will be in part because believers gave their
allegiance to King Jesus rather than King Caesar. When a yearly libelous had
to be signed and a pledge had to be given-- Kyrios Kaísar, Caesar is Lord-- the Christian wouldn't say it. The Christian would say, Caesar
isn't Lord, Jesus is Lord. And it would cost
his or her life. This is the beginning
of that complaint. "They're not
acknowledging Caesar. They're saying there
is another King. Jesus. And they troubled
the crowd--" these lewd fellows of the baser sort. "They troubled the crowd
and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. So when they had
taken security--" that is bribe money,
financial money. Financial money-- sorry,
that was redundant. A cash bribe. "--from Jason and the
rest, they let them go. Then the brethren immediately
sent Paul and Silas away" Get out of town boys. "Sent them by night to Berea." Just a few miles away. "When they arrived, they
went into the synagogue of the Jews." Are you seeing a
pattern with Paul? Yes. Every city, it's
the synagogue first. Why the synagogue first? Because as Paul will say, the
gospel is to the Jew first, and also to the Greek,
the Gentile, the non-Jew. But why the Jew first? Because the messiah was
predicted through the Jewish scriptures. It was the messiah
the Jews spoke about, Isaiah spoke about,
Jeremiah spoke about, Ezekiel spoke about,
Hosea spoke about. It was the fulfillment
of the promise to Israel-- and to the
world, but he begins first with the Jew. "They went to the
synagogue of the Jews." I love verse 11. It is one of my all-time
favorite verses of scripture. I recommend you
commit it to memory. "These were more fair-minded
than those in Thessalonica in that they received the
word of God with all readiness and searched the scriptures
daily to find out whether these things were so." Have the heart of a Baryon. Berean. Now these were Jewish people,
Jewish unbelievers, who heard, in their synagogue,
a rabbi giving them Old Testament teachings. Ooh, that sounded
amazing, they thought. I wonder if it's true. Well, let's go home. Let's go find scrolls
of the prophets. And let's look this stuff up. And really, let's see
if what he said is so. Now, let me encourage
you in like manner to don't just take what people
say as a blanket statement. Well, I read it somewhere,
so it's got to be true. Skip said it, it's
got to be true. I think Wednesday nights
is a group of Bereans-- you hear, but then you
want to look up yourself to make sure that's really
what he quoted, what he said. Is that right? Is that right with the
rest of the scripture? I don't discourage that. I encourage that. It'll make you a
stronger believer. It'll help you reason
through the scriptures. So they were more
noble, more fair-minded "in that they received the
word with a readiness of mind and searched the
scriptures daily to find out whether
these things were so. Therefore, many of them
believed and also not a few of the Greeks--" in other
words, a whole bunch of Greeks-- "--prominent women
as well as men. But when the Jews from
Thessalonica--" see, that's not far from
Berea, I told you. So word gets back
to Thessalonica what happened in
Berea, that people are hearing Paul and responding. "When the Jews from Thessalonica
learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at
Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. Then immediately, their
brethren sent Paul away." Seems to be another
pattern with Paul. He's there for a while,
then, get out of town, Paul. "They send Paul
away to go to sea. Both Silas and Timothy
remained there." So Paul goes. Silas and Timothy remain. "So those who conducted
Paul brought him to Athens, and receiving a command
for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all
speed, they departed." Now, Paul is in Athens. And the rest of
this chapter, Paul shows his ministry at Athens. The next chapter
will be Corinth. Athens was the heart
of the Greek empire. Athens had been conquered
by the Romans in 146 BC. It was technically
a Roman colony. However, it was
given free status. It was regarded as a free city,
even though it was technically under Roman occupation. Because of its storied past,
its incredible background, it was given the
status as a free city. All the way back, many
years before this, Alexander the Great, the head
of the Greco-Macedonian Empire, had a dream-- as I mentioned before-- to unite
the west and the east together. Effectively, to turn
the east into the west. That is, he wanted to spread
Greek thinking, Greek language, Greek customs around the
world, making it all the way as far as Babylon. And by the way,
Alexander, at age 32, died in Babylon
weeping, he said, because there were no
more worlds to conquer. So he conquered from west to
east, conquered the world, but he sought to impose a
Greco-Macedonian culture around the world. And largely, he succeeded. He succeeded in bringing
Greek art, Greek drama, Greek politics,
Greek architecture into the Roman world
and even into our world. The Greek political
system of democracy, of a nation ruled by
the people, comes to us from the Greek culture. The idea of personal
freedoms within a society comes to us from
the Greek culture. The very heart of
this was Athens. Paul finds himself at Athens. He's there for a few days. He's waiting for his friends. It says, verse 16, "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." I've been to Athens. And when I was at Athens, I was
looking around going, wow, wow, wow. It's just amazing to
step into modern Athens. And from the harbor, you
can look into Athens, and you can see the
Acropolis in the distance, and the Parthenon
gleaming like a jewel. Then you go to the Parthenon,
and the Odeon, and the theater, and the agora, and the
Areopagus, Mars Hill-- which is all mentioned here-- and it's just amazing
what they did. But when Paul went to Athens,
he didn't go, wow, like I did. He went, whoa. Because Paul looked at
Athens not as a sightseer, but as a soul-winner. And what he saw bothered him. He didn't say, look at
all those cool statues, look at those cool temples. He said, this is a shame,
those statues in these temples. Because it shows me,
said Paul, the failure of these religious systems to
satisfy the heart of mankind. These systems can't
take away their sin. These systems are false
religious systems. His heart was stirred. He was provoked. He saw a city that had been
wholly given over to idols. When you go to modern
cities like Hollywood or you go to Las Vegas, I
wonder what your response, your reaction inwardly is. It's pretty amazing. You see all the screens
that are shining on the strip in Las Vegas, and
the lights, and the hotels, and the fountains. And it's easy to go, wow. But you just look
a little deeper. Or you look at Hollywood. You don't have to look very far. These are places that are looked
over by millions of visitors, but overlooked by
millions of believers. I might have overlooked Athens. I might have just looked
over it, and gone, wow. Paul went, whoa. He was troubled. It's sort of like Jesus. He stood on the Mount of
Olives, a place that some of us stood a few weeks ago. And we were going, wow,
look at this place. We're in Jerusalem. There's the holy city. That's where the temple stood. Jesus looked at Jerusalem,
and he wept over it. He said, oh,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I wanted
to gather you, as a mother hen
gathers her chicks. But you were not willing. See, your house has
left to you desolate. And there will not be one
stone left upon another till all is thrown down. He wept, because he was
after souls, not sites. Paul was after souls, not sites. It's OK to be a sightseer. It's OK to take tours to
Athens or tours to Israel. But at some point, we
need to get past the wow and go you the whoa. This culture needs
something more than just the accouterments of festivity. So because he was grieved
over it, verse 17, "therefore, he reasoned." There it is again. "He reasoned in the
synagogue with the Jews, and with the Gentile
worshippers in the agora--" that's the Greek word, the
marketplace-- "daily with those who happened to be there." When Paul goes to
Athens, he confronts the religious culture. He confronts the civic culture. And in a few
verses, you will see that he confronts the
political culture. First of all, the
religious culture. He goes and preaches to
the Jews in the synagogue. That's his pattern. They're religious people. They believe in the scripture. They didn't know the scripture
was fulfilled in Jesus. They needed to know. I believe the gospel
needs to be preached, not only in that
marketplace-- and it does. It also needs to be
preached in churches. And some people say, why
do you need to preach the gospel in churches. They go, you shouldn't
preach to the choir. If the choir is
singing the wrong song, you should preach to the choir. And many churches just
don't know the gospel. They need to hear it afresh. So Paul began in the
religious culture, confronted the religious culture. Then in the marketplace, he
confronted the civic culture. This was the center of
free speech, the agora. People would come and go with
different ideas, Paul thought. This is ideal, man. I'm coming. And I'm going. And I've got ideas. And I'm going to share
them with whoever-- I love this--
happens to be their. Who would happen to be in
the marketplace that day when Paul showed up? It would be exciting. Verse 18. "Then certain Epicurean
and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some of them said, what
does this babbler want to say. Others said, well,
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--" that's Mars Hill. It's a outcropping of rock. I've been there on a
few different occasions with groups. You can look over the
marketplace below you. You can look back and see the
higher-raised hill behind you, the Acropolis of Athens, and
the temples that are on it. They took them up on
Mars Hill, saying, these philosophers, "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 to either tell or hear some new thing." Sounds like a college campus. But what he was
doing here actually is confronting the
political culture. Because Mars Hill,
the Areopagus, was sort of like the ancient
Oval Office in Athens. It's the place where the
leading politicians, the leading thinkers, would get together and
talk about the meaning of life, talk about laws,
adjudicate laws. It was all there. That was the center of
the political world. And like politicians,
they were there to hear and tell some new thing. That's sort of a lot
like politicians. They like to talk about things,
but not really do anything. And Paul was right in
the middle of it, man. From the synagogue to the
marketplace to Congress to Oval Office to the
political epicenter. And he preached Jesus to them. Now, there's two
groups of philosophers that are mentioned-- the
Epicureans and the Stoics. The Epicureans was a school of
philosophic thought, started by a guy named? Epicurus. Epicurus. Hence Epicurean. Epicurus about 300
years before Christ. He came up with this philosophy. In short, they
believed in randomness. On one hand, they said that
there is a pantheon of gods. There are many different
gods and goddesses. But they really have nothing
to do with the real world. Their activity has nothing
to do with humanity on Earth. That life on Earth came
about as a random collision of particles. Sound familiar? Yes. And because when you die,
nothing happens after death. They believed in no afterlife. They believed the chief end
of man was the absence of pain and the pursuit of pleasure. Have a lot of good times. Have a lot of pleasure. Because this is all you get. When you die, you're done. That was Epicureanism
in a nutshell. The Stoic philosophers
were a bit different. The Stoics was a school
started by Zeno, Z-E-N-O. A philosopher. Also a Grecian philosopher. Zeno was sort of like a
new age philosophy as far as pantheistic-- they believed
in a pantheistic worldview, that everything is God. The trees-- you know. Like modern day pantheism. Everything around you
is essentially God. Mother nature. Mother Earth. And the Stoics,
philosophically, were different than the Epicureans. The Stoics believed that you
need to endure all things. The Epicureans believed you
need to enjoy all things. So without going too much
into depth beyond that-- because I have a
few minutes left-- these were the two
schools that were speaking with Paul in the Areopagus. Now, Paul is bringing, not
only the Jewish messiah, but he is bringing
the Resurrection from the dead-- something
that they thought was bizarre. They had never heard
of such nonsense. "Then Paul stood--" verse 22-- "in the midst of the Areopagus,
and said, men of Athens, I perceive that in all things
you are very religious." I love his approach. He is polite. This is a nice way a
polite way of saying, I notice you guys
have a lot of temples and you worship a lot of
false gods and goddesses. But he doesn't say, I
notice that you guys are a bunch of pagans. [LAUGHTER] Hell-bound heathens. He says, since I've been in your
town, you guys are very devout. You're very religious. One of the Roman
satirists used to say that it's easier to
find a god in Athens than it was to find
a man in Athens. Because there were 30,000
statues in that city that represented
different deities. Paul says, "I perceive
that you're very religious. For as I was passing
through and considering the objects of your
worship, I even noticed an altar with this
inscription-- agnosto theo." To the unknown god. "Therefore, the one whom
you worship without knowing, Him, I proclaim to you." He said, you guys
are so religious-- 30,000 statues on the
streets and in temples-- you even have a statue-- or not a statue, but you have
an altar with an inscription that says "to the unknown god." Just in case we
left someone out who might be a god or a goddess,
we don't want to offend them. So this is the unknown god. And Paul saw that. And he thought, perfect
place to start a sermon. I'll use that as
my illustration. I'll begin at their level. I'll begin in their culture. They know this altar. That's my opening illustration. I'll be nice to them. You're very religious. You worship so much stuff. You even have an altar
to an unknown god. The god you don't know is
the god you need to know. I'm going to tell you about Him. That's where he begins. He begins with their culture. And he said, verse 24--
now, notice what he does. He begins with God, and
works his way down to man. Now, I want you to watch this. He begins with God, and works
his way down toward man. Greek philosophy did the exact
opposite-- they began with man, and worked their
way up to the gods. That was their world view. A Greek philosopher
named Protagoras-- it's summed up in
his little saying, "man is the measure
of all things." So if there were a slogan
of Athens, it would be this. It's all about mankind. Paul's slogan is,
it's all about God. He begins with God, and
works his way down to man. He begins by telling them,
"God who made the world and everything that is in it." He begins saying
God is the creator. "He is the Lord of
Heaven and Earth. He does not dwell in
temples made with hands." Verse 25. "Nor is he worshiped
with men's hands as though he needed anything,
since he gives to all life breath and all things." So he begins, verse
24, God is the creator. Verse 25, God is the
sustainer of all life. Verse 26. "And He is made from one
blood, every nation of men to dwell on all the
face of the earth, and has determined the
pre-appointed times and the boundaries
of their dwellings." Mark that. Why was I born in
this Podunk town? Because God wanted you to
be born in this Podunk town. He's determine the boundaries
of your habitation. "And so they should seek
the Lord in the hope that they might grope for
Him, or walk toward Him, or look for Him, search
for Him, and find Him, though he is not far
from each one of us." Now, he says God is the ruler. God is the creator. He is the sustainer. He's the ruler of all things. Verse 28. "For in Him, we live, and
move, and have our being. As also some of your
own poets have said, for we are also his offspring." Now, verse 28 shows to us how
well-read in how well-rounded a person Paul was. I don't think Paul had an
iPad when he was preaching. I don't think he had notes
when he was preaching. But he has a working knowledge. It's in his head. It's in his heart. A working knowledge of Greek
philosophy and Greek poetry. And in verse 28, he
quotes two Greek poets. "For in Him, we live, and
move, and have our being." That's what Epimenides, from the
island of Crete, a Greek poet, once wrote. And then "For in Him,
we live and move--" did I get those backwards? No. I already said that. Second one. Verse 20. "For we also are his offspring." That was written by
another Greek poet named is Aratus of Sully in Cilicia. So he's able to stand up there
in Athens, at the Areopagus, and quote two Greek poets
off the top of his head, just working knowledge. Pagan Greek ideology. In fact, when it
says in verse 28, "we are also are
his offspring," you know who Aratus was speaking of? You know who his was? Zeus. A pagan god. We also are Zeus offspring. Paul is quoting him. It would be like a
preacher in a sermon quoting Bob Dylan, or
Coldplay, or Time, or Newsweek. He was using secular sources to
bring a point home to a secular audience. He wouldn't do this
in a synagogue. He would be quoting
Old Testament. But here, he's quoting them. He's reaching them
on their level, quoting to them their own poets. It's a good strategy for us in
sharing with the unbelieving world. We ought to know
what the unbelieving world is thinking, is
reading, is listening to, understands, to some degree. "Therefore--" verse 19-- "since
we are the offspring of god--" he's speaking of the unknown
god that he's speaking to them about-- "we ought not to think of the
divine nature as like gold, or silver, or stone, or
something shaped by art, or man's devising. Truly these times
of ignorance God has overlooked, but now commands
all men everywhere to repent. Because he has
appointed a day in which He will judge the
world in righteousness by the man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance
of this to all by raising him from the dead." So now, he's speaking
about God as the judge. "And when they heard
of the Resurrection of the dead, some mocked,
while others said, we will hear you go
again on this matter. So Paul departed
from among them. However, some men
joined him and believed. Among them, Dionysius the
Areopagite, and a woman called Damaris, and
others with him." One day, you're going to meet
Dionysius the Areopagite. So you might want to just say
his name a few times so when you're in heaven, and they
say, I want to introduce to you Dionysius the Areopagite, you
go, oh, I know all about you. I read your conversion story. You're the guy
that believed when Paul was in Athens that day. So Paul preached in Athens. And notice the response. There were three responses--
rejection, reflection-- well, let's think about that. We'll hear you some
more later on-- and reception. Some received. Some rejected. Some thought about it. That doesn't mean they are
out and out rejected it. Maybe later on, they'll
come to saving knowledge. Some don't agree, but I would
say it was a success in Athens. I marvel at Paul the Apostle-- a well-rounded man suited, not
just for Jerusalem, not just for Galatia, not just
for Rome, but also for Athens, the cultural
epicenter of the world. Father, we pray that you might
make the edge of our lives sharper, make us
sharpened instruments. I pray, Lord, that
we would know, we would have a
working knowledge to some degree of what
this world thinks, of what this world
believes, of the ideas and the value systems that
is going on around us. And Lord, give us
a correct answer, like Peter said,
that we would be able to answer any man who asks
the reason for the hope that is in us with meekness and fear. Lord, I pray that you would make
us the kind of people filled with your spirit,
knowledgeable of the basics of truth in your
word, knowledgeable of our own culture
in which we live, that we might,
wherever you send us, be able to turn our world
upside down, or better yet, right side up, turning men's
hearts and women's hearts back to you in a
relationship with you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING] For more resources from Calvary
Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, visit calvaryabq.org.
