Tony Merida - Lessons from Paul's Visit to Athens - Acts 17:16-34

if you have a Bible invite you to open with me to Acts chapter 17 Acts chapter 17 while you turn there just a word again thanks to dr. Aiken for his friendship and partnership in the gospel such an honor to be back here on campus it's a great honor to be with pastors today I used to be very critical of pastors until I became one and and now I just want to hug them so maybe maybe later if the teachings not good I can give you a hug and encourage you in that way I am NOT here full-time anymore but I still worked for dr. Aiken because I'm part of this commentary series and he keeps giving me volumes to write I thought I was finished until Platt decided not to do Romans and so now I'm in the middle of Romans and the reason I did Acts is because Platt didn't want to do Acts he signed a contract with Acts and so I'm basically doing whatever David doesn't want to do with with his life and and that's really how this commentary thing got started this was dr. Reagans idea I remember flying here and they picking me up at the airport and he said I'm very very excited about this commentary series you guys are doing and I said what are you talking about he said your dad's our dad said that you and him and Platt are gonna edit a commentary series I said well the only thing I know is he called me I was living in Mississippi at the time and so what books have you preached sir and I rattle off some books and he says okay that's helpful and then I got here and those are the books I'm assigned to ride in this commentary series and he and I said I know how this is gonna work you're gonna give it to Southern Baptist street-cred Platts gonna make it sell and I'm gonna do all the work I know I know my role very well in this series okay but I'm really happy to be in that Lane I don't complain it has been a great honor writing commentaries are very very challenging also very very edifying and so I had to go back through Acts because it's been a while since we preached through Acts to remember what I actually said about it so acts 17 is one of these classic texts verses 16 to 34 as Paul is in Athens engaging the Athenians with the gospel and by observing how Paul evangelized this influential city we find some important lessons about how we should engage unbelievers today and so that's the big idea I want us to draw some evangelistic lessons from Paul's visit to Athens and so let me read the text and we'll pray I'll read just the first five or six verses here now what Paul was waiting for them at Athens his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols so he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happen to be there some of the epicurean and stoic philosophers also conversed with him and some said what does this babbler wish to say other said he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection and they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and said may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting you're bringing some strange things to our years we wish to know therefore what these things mean now all the Athenians and the foreigners who live there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new this is God's Word let's pray together father I pray right now you would use me to encourage and equip your saints for the work of ministry that we would be useful to the master our King the Lord Jesus Christ in whose name we pray amen well as you read the book of Acts one of the things that's very striking is the evangelists not only the evangelistic tenacity of the Apostle Paul but the evangelistic versatility of the Apostle Paul he is able to go in a wide range of contexts as you see in this text and and preach the gospel he reminds me a little bit about the pit in the MLB named Pat Vendetti I don't know if you're familiar with Vendetti or not but he is a switch pitcher he throws both right hand and left hand and while we've had switched hitters for years in baseball he is the first switch pitcher in about a hundred and thirty five years he has a glove that he can just take off and throw right in mid inning with with another hand in fact the Giants were looking for a both a right-handed and left-handed relief pitcher in the offseason and they said we'll just take him one sports reporter got very excited and he declared he's amphibious and I think he meant ambidextrous but what Paul no one really accused announcers of being really smart Paul was this ambidextrous evangelist if you will he was able to throw these gospel strikes in the synagogue to the Jews and to the devout persons and he was able to go into the marketplace and into the places of the Philosopher's and also engaged them faithfully and effectively so there's a lot to learn from the Apostle regarding evangelism now Athens I don't have to tell you was a place with great history famous playwrights historians medical geniuses philosophers artists sculptors once called Athens home and in Paul's day though the the Golden Age of Athens the 5th century had gone it was still a beautiful influential and intellectual city and in every Greek city the highest point of elevation housed a temple to some god or goddess the patron god of the city these were the high cities that's what Acropolis means a high city and at the top of this high city this highest point of elevation would be a god or goddess and Athens was no different the great goddess Athena stood inside the Parthenon and about 50 yards away from the Parthenon was this little hill and on this hill stood another temple to the Greek god of war Ari's which correspond to the Roman god of war mars since the name the areopagus or mars hill i've had the privilege of being in at it's been a while just a couple of pictures to give you just a little feel of what it's like there's the great theater that still sits there in the city here is the acropolis from Mars Hill it was under a bit of renovation it's a bit old next picture shows the look down from the Acropolis to Mars hill into the city there is me and there is the inscription actually in Greek with Acts chapter 17 on it and there I am reading the text in 2004 that's when that picture was taken during the Olympics my haircut has not changed in 15 years as you can tell nor has the gospel now as we as we think about Paul in Athens what I want you to think about with me this morning is what Paul saw what Paul felt what pulse where Paul went and what Paul said so what he saw what he felt where he went and what he said and I think the questions that we have and the challenges that we have we see Paul dealing with them how do we engage a religious a pluralistic society a skeptical society a secular society how do you engage intellectual yet biblically illiterate people which is all around our area Donnie and I were on a plane recently and he was talking to a gal who was very educated who had never heard the book heard of the book of Job who didn't know the story of the Bible and so we we encountered this all the time so let's see what he sees let's feel what he feels let's go where he goes and let's say what he says now first what he saw first too quickly you notice here that it says as Paul was waiting for them so if you just jump up to chapter 17 verse 13 you see what happens is Paul had been in Berea and the agitators came to to run Paul out and in so doing they take Paul from Berea down to Athens and so Paul's not on like a planned mission trip at least humanly speaking he didn't really plan to go to Athens and yet Paul is not a missionary only on a mission trip he's always a missionary and so he's in Athens and he's just waiting on his pals to join him in Athens and what gets his attention in Athens at first is not the beauty of the city it's the idols of the city this is what he sees one writer said it was easier to find a God in Athens than a person this marketplace was lined with idols so he is feast says here that it was that it was full of idols you could render it under idols smothered in idols you see Paul viewed the city differently than a typical tourist viewed the city of Athens because Paul looks at this city Christianly and that's very important for us to remember when you become a Christian you get a different worldview don't you we wear different glasses than the rest of the world we may enjoy many of the same things the world enjoys but we enjoy them differently we see them differently right we we understand the purpose underneath them so we can enjoy the Arts but we view the arts Christianly we we we can enjoy music but we listen to it differently we think about sports and can enjoy it but we think about it differently we see the world in light of God's revelation we see it in view of what he has revealed about himself about his son about the story of the Bible we view the world in light of creation fall Redemption new creation and so we can't go around and not see things and feel a certain way we just we just don't live in this life and in see things the same way a non-christian does we worship the God of Revelation after God of our imagination and because he has revealed himself and revealed his ways to us it affects literally everything we do and everything we see so do you see idolatry that would be a first step here in learning from Paul I think on evangelism we don't see his cities immersed necessarily in idols at least in the States though you will in other countries but idolatry is present everywhere Chesterton said when man ceases to worship God he doesn't he does not worship nothing he worships everything because we are as Freud said incurably religious that is anywhere you go around the world you'll find people worshipping all manner of things we're worshipers even atheist are suppressing the truth Paul says and so what does Paul do then what does he feel when he sees this how does he react does Paul just sort of react with casual indifference as he sees idolatry does he just say well you guys you do you stay in your lane bro no he feels something so look what he feels as he sees the idols it says that he was provoked he was provoked within him because he saw that the city was full of idols now this is a word that's that's throughout the Old Testament to describe God's feeling about Israel's idolatry they provoked the Lord to anger we read regularly throughout the Old Testament because of their their their their idolatry and so Paul has a certain anger a certain righteous indignation he has a zeal for God's glory doesn't he he wants Jesus to be worshipped in Athens he has the heart of the psalmist in Psalm 67 doesn't he let the people's praise you O God that all the peoples praise you we believe that Jesus is worthy of worship from every tribe and tongue so there there is that sense of zeal but I would also argue about by the way Paul interacts with the Athenians that he also shares a certain love for them and that too is present in the Old Testament when the Lord was provoked to anger the reason he was provoked to anger is because he loved them he had chosen them he placed his affection on them and so Paul's feeling is a zeal both for the glory of God and a broken-hearted compassion for people and that that compassion is played out by the way Paul warmly respectfully engages the Athenians he doesn't take a sledgehammer to the idols does he know it requires patience and grace and love to be able to address people the way Paul does and so I would argue right here is the real problem with most of us when it comes to evangelism in the heart many Christians simply don't care you don't get that from Paul he's wandering around this city and he is provoked he is provoked he zealous for God's glory it's compassionate for people and this causes him to go somewhere and to say something and I would argue if you have this heart we we need not only the theology of Paul we need his heart don't we you want to be about Paul you have to share his heart just as teaching so where does he go three places are mentioned or maybe two two-and-a-half to be he goes to the synagogue he goes to the marketplace and in the marketplace he addresses both people who just happen to be there and then he addresses the skeptics the these philosophers in particular and again you see the great range in evangelism that Paul has and this is also very important for us as we think about evangelism because we live in a nation right here of great spiritual diversity don't we you may encounter some people in certain parts of the nation that have absolutely no knowledge of the Bible I mean smart people no knowledge of the Christian worldview but you might also go into other places where okay everybody seems to have an understanding of the faith or you might live in a place like Raleigh where you'll find both extremes present people are very churched and internationals perhaps college students certain pockets of our city are very unreached and people have no basic understanding of the gospel one writer said that when ministering to university students he finds an increasing number of students college students they don't even know the Bible has two Testaments that sounds bizarre to us but it's true and so what do you do how do you engage people have no understanding of the truth what does pre evangelism look like and how do you address the religious types who are very religious but not Christians the a Carson Illustrated this this diversity in America with two recent seminary graduates he said one planted a church and Tulsa Oklahoma where the students said it took him a whole year before he met someone who would not confess to being a Christian another church plants are planted at searched in Washington DC and he found things to be totally different he did a little survey to incite a conversation and the the planter asked the people to do a word association activity where you connected one word in this column with the word in this column and the word Christian the most the number one connection with that word was the word bigot so a hostility to the gospel a hostility to Christianity or you got another context so you might say one had a synagogue ministry and one had a marketplace ministry so what does Paul do in these locations well first of all notice here in the synagogue it says that he engaged the devout persons and the Jews now there's not a lot of exposition in this particular paragraph about what Paul did in the synagogue but we know from the book of Acts what he did right we know if you just look over in Thessalonica it says that Paul in addressing the the Jews chapter 17 verse 2 as was his custom so this was Paul's pattern he would go into these synagogues first and what did he do in the synagogue's he reasoned with them from the Scriptures explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead saying this Jesus whom I proclaimed to you as the Christ that's what Paul did he took the Old Testament and he pointed people to Jesus and he did it over and over and over in the synagogue and he didn't always get a good response did he or they got a response not sometimes it hurt but there he was boldly preaching the Messiah now this should go without saying but if you are in a churchy setting if you teach a class in a church if you preach in a church if you do anything thing in the context of a perhaps a Christian camp it sounds very obvious but make sure you're preaching the gospel explicitly every week don't assume that Church attenders are family members you're going to have all sorts of people that show up to a church regularly and not be a Christian and so what they have to hear is the gospel make it your number one pride in youth ministry your number one priority as a children's worker your number probably number one priority has a volunteer many religious people aren't Christians when I was pastoring Mississippi one time there was an older gentleman who was handing out bulletins I think he was 71 years old and I had preached on John 3 you must be born again and he came up he met me later that week and he said I had never heard that and the Lord brought him to faith I baptized him and he said when he was a little kid the pastor said hey son isn't about time for you to join the church and he joined the church but was never regenerated well I don't want to exaggerate but I think that that that idea that problem is very pervasive a lot of people who just culturally attend meetings and do their traditional thing but they've not been born again so let's preach the gospel there well that's what he does in the synagogue what does he do in the marketplace well he goes into this Agora this is where all the stuff happened there in Athens this is where Paul goes with his faith he doesn't start a riot he starts a conversation it's a very instructive for us right we we need a marketplace ministry don't we that's where people are we can't leave evangelism to church events inside a church building nor should we reserve it for the trained clergy only it's for every Christian and most unbelievers today have no interest in showing up to my church on a Sunday and if they do it's because someone invited them and brought them outside the church building that's why they're there it used to be if you could offer a really good program and a really good sort of thing people would come I think these days are these days are fading and they're going in some places I love the movie Field of Dreams but it's a terrible evangelism strategy if you build it they will come no they won't you have to engage them in the marketplaces in the workplaces in the neighborhoods in the Academy and the arts in the gym in your networks why because Christianity is not in the center of our culture anymore it's on the margins it's on the fringes and if we're going the way of England as we typically do on these sorts of things it's going to get worse studies show right now that 85 million people in America have no intention of attending a church service in the UK it's 40 million and that's 70 percent of the population in the United States the number of adults who do not attend church services has nearly doubled since 1991 and you guys have heard of the nuns you know NES people who have no no religious affiliation 22% of the country is what the Pew study reported so what are we to do in this secularized world well we need an everyday church with an everyday mission we must engage people humbly boldly intelligently we need to learn conversational skills get off of our phones and start talking to people just read through the Gospels and see how often Jesus uses questions to engage people and and let's let's be about that sort of that sort of work as Paul does it here in the marketplace so that's what he does he goes into the marketplace every day where those who happen to be there he's just out and about and he's using it seems the Socratic method in Socrates a city asking questions dialoguing engaging oftentimes people are afraid of evangelism because they think they don't have enough answers and what I like to say is you just need to be armed with some good questions just ask some good questions to people provoke them to thought good evangelism by putting a rock in someone's shoe gives them something to think about the rest of the day maybe even aggravate them a little bit well the next group he engages in the marketplace are the skeptics these these philosophers notice what they say about Paul they called him a babbler it says what does it babbler have to say now this word babbler meant seed picker it was used to various seed-eating Birds there st. Paul's like a bird he just sort of plucks up an idea here and there but he has no coherent worldview these philosophers valued a coherent worldview but they don't understand the Apostle Paul that's indicated by the fact that verse 18 says that they think Paul is preaching about more than one God he seems to be a of foreign notice it in the plural deities divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection which seems to mean that they think the resurrection is an actual deity and a stasis often in Greek thought the deities bore abstract qualities like fate and mercy and so on so they don't understand Paul and so because of that they take him to the Areopagus that's that hill where they would often have long speeches and discussions and they say we want to hear what these these things mean now two groups of people are mentioned there in verse 18 the epicurean and stoic philosophers if I might just paraphrase poll he'll to give you a little background on the Epicureans they believe that the body and even the soul were comprised of fine matter which dissolves after death they were materialists they denied divine providence they considered a person wise who neither feared divine judgment nor eternal reward keep these things in mind as we look at Paul's speech because the the mention of them is not incidental Paul is actually going to address many of their underlying convictions the best way to imitate the gods for the Epicureans was to enjoy pleasure not gross idolatry but still they were hedonist in a sense so you only live once if it feel good do it we can understand that sort of thinking can't we they pursued this sort of detached and tranquil life apart from pain in the pursuit of pleasure that's how they thought the gods lived now the Stoics on the other hand were not materialist they were pantheists they thought a divine principle was immersed in all of nature including human beings they confused God with the world's soul and a wise person for them recognizes his connection with everything else in the universe cultivating an attitude of self sufficient contentment regardless of circumstances you're a stoic you live with a stiff upper lip responding calmly to everything and they viewed history and this is important in Paul's speech as an unending cycle of order followed by chaos followed order and so history was not moving somewhere and so this is the group now that Paul engages and they take him to this Areopagus and now as you look at verses 22 and following Paul gives this formal address to them now I think as many commentators have pointed out this speech is really just an outline that these speeches at the Areopagus often took two to three hours and so what we have is the outline and I think if you read the rest of Paul you could fill in his outline of what that he would have he would have put in there and this is not a sermon we should not confuse Paul at Mars Hill with with a Sunday corporate gathering this is in the marketplace this is more like being giving a speech at a college university or something to that effect he's out there there is no song before he speaks he leadeth me was not on the order of worship here at the areopagus this is this is a pagan marketplace setting and it's more like you're next let's hear from this guy and so here is the outline that Paul basically does and I love what he does which is basically show the whole story of the Bible he moves from God as creator to final judgment and it's just wonderful and it's so necessary for the audience he's addressing and we need to learn from it verse 22 Paul standing in the midst of the areopagus said men of Athens notice this I perceive that in every way you're very religious so Paul is observing things his head is not in the sand he's aware of his context for as I passed along I observed another word that notes he's paying attention he notices what people are thinking and saying and feeling worshiping I found objects of your worship I even found one altar with the inscription to an unknown God well therefore you worship as unknown this I proclaimed to you so in the synagogue he would start with maybe Abraham and Mars Hill he starts with the description in every case he ends at the resurrection and he calls for repentance and so he starts with that why don't I just start here guys let me tell you about the God who's not unknowable who's actually know and so he begins verse 24 with creation he says in verse 24 the God who made the world and everything in it right there that flew in the face of Greek philosophers and people because they believed there was a god over this and a God over that and a God over this and no God made literally everything even though everything today says Made in China you can even buy an American flag that's made in China everything in this world has a stamp on it made by God he made it that's where he begins with creation and he says that you can't confine the Creator to a temple can you being Lord of Heaven and Earth he does not live in temples made by man as he's looking from Marcille to the Acropolis at the Parthenon and that massive statue of Athena you can't cage up the Creator you can't confine him to a building ba-bing said in an absolute sense there is nothing that is atheistic the world is a theater of God's glory you can't confine him to a temple one persecuted Christian said after the threat of having his congregations local church building destroyed quote you can pull down our steeples but you can't pull down the stars yeah that's where Paul starts that's a really good start well see if his ending is any good good introduction Paul we give him an a don't we as we as we look at it verse 25 he goes on to describe that God is the sustainer of life not only did he create it but again in contrast to much Greek thought and these philosophers thought he is he is involved in his creation right so he says in 25 he's not served by human hands as though he needed anything that's a that's a humbling word isn't it that he doesn't need us we need him he chooses to use us because He loves us doesn't have to have us he doesn't need anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything you remember on another hill when Elijah was there with the prophets of the prophets of Baal and he says as they were praying for six hours you know answer us Elijah's engages in a little holy mockery doesn't he and maybe your God went on a journey maybe your God went to the bathroom and that was very common for those gods to actually do things that humans do well our God is never on a journey he's never asleep he needs no food he needs no air he's entirely self-sufficient and he is sustaining everything including our heartbeat at this moment he has created it the macro things the micro thinks he sustains it the macro things the micro things what a God we have 26 and he made from one man every nation of mankind so this creator has created mankind the pinnacle of creation and it's from one man he's made every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth so diversity is God's idea it's not our idea you have a problem with diversity have a problem with God from one man he made every nation of mankind we should celebrate God's glorious design of diversity marvel at it he determined their allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling places so both the times and the boundaries referring to his sovereignty over history and geography creator sustainer ruler of nations fourth he says God is knowable this speech goes on and this is very important that they should seek God so God has created us that we may seek Him but Paul hints here at the doctrine of sin because he says this God that we should be seeking he says he's created us that we may seek Him and perhaps feel our way toward him well why can't we why are we having this problem with with knowing him well again we know from the rest of Scripture that something has happened creation fall and now we're groping when commentator says that the word used here for reach out or feel is a word it that the Greek poet Homer used in a well-known story of the Cyclops where the giant one-eyed Cyclops captured Odessa in his men but Odysseus got the Cyclops drunk and blinded him with a sharp stake Odysseus wanted to get his men out of the cave but it was difficult because the Cyclops was groping around or feeling for the men and what we have to have his divine grace to open up our eyes to see the gospel we're feeling there's a sense in creation in our conscience of the reality of God the existence of God but we need we need to see and how do people see they see by the Holy Spirit they see as the gospel is preached to them which Paul is doing here and some of them will believe at the end of this story right now they can't see but God in His grace opens up eyes and we see we're not groping and feeling anywhere anymore and praise God he says that God is the father of humanity verse 28 and 9 here at Paul quotes a couple of poets chrétien poet in him we live and move and have our being and then another poet who said we are indeed are his offspring 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 so since we were made in God's image it would be utterly folly to worship anything other than God don't worship a created thing worship creator God well verses 30 and 31 here's Paul's ending we'll see how his conclusion goes sometimes it's hard to end a sermon isn't it I might find it hard to end this one but it somebody about endings I'd like to on the show lost they don't know how to end it so they just throw some stuff together and hope you guys enjoy Paul Paul ends it well doesn't he creation final judgment that's the flow the times of ignorance God overlooked doesn't mean God ignored human rebellion means that in his mercy he doesn't didn't visit humanity with the judgment they deserved but now notice that now there has been a decisive turning point in redemptive history something has happened namely Christ has come Ascended now he commands all people everywhere to repent you see now Paul gets out of the realm of philosophy into human responsibility you guys have tracked with me you've tracked with me he says and now judgment is coming you can be assured of this judgment because verse 31 God has raised him from the dead giving us assurance that he is the rightful judge so he goes creation through the work of Christ resurrection final judgment I love how he says verse 31 he's fixed today in which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man a particular man we come from this one man as he said where was it in verse 26 every nation came from this one man and the only hope is for us who are in Adam to put our faith in this other man the man Christ Jesus the only mediator between man and God and if you repent he's not your judge he's your Savior so repentance is good news it's good news well let me just draw some final applications that I've made along the way but I'll gather them up here for us for quick reflections on on this great narrative and then I'll read verse 32 and 34 consider Paul's number one evangelistic consistency I'm always challenged by this story because as I said Paul Paul could just chill if he wanted to come he's been run out of town in the previous town but he's not eating falafels in Athens that's not worried about having a Giro and walking around he's maybe eating a falafel I don't know but but one thing that's on his mind is people I would like to have a gyro today actually I sounds really good at Charlies doesn't it I digress Paul did that too by the way now notice not only as consistency because we need to be consistent that's my point and perhaps you have lost your evangelistic consistency let this be let this be a time of recommitment in your own heart I think the reason why by the way Paul is so consistent is because of what he sees and what he feels that's what makes him always about the gospel secondly notice his comprehensiveness not only its consistency but his comprehensiveness as I mentioned Paul goes from creation to the end he does he does not assume people know anything and we have got to learn how to do this really well his presentation of the gospel does not begin with you're a sinner it begins with God as creator and then imago day and then fall and then Christ his work and judgment it's a beautiful picture I think of how you might engage intellectuals educated people people who are biblically illiterate thirdly consider his contextualization his consistency his comprehensiveness his contextualization I pointed that out as he sees things as he perceives things as he observes these inscriptions he wisely does contextualization context ization means you find a point of contact and then bring a point of conflict with people you connect with them and then you preach the gospel to them and we all know this you talk to a ninety-year-old differently than a teenager but you're presenting the same Gospel coaches know this parents know this you don't change your principles but you might adapt the way you present things you're not adjusting the truth that's not contextualization it's applying the truth it's showing the significance of the truth and underneath that contextualization is wisdom in love because that's why we do it we do it out of love now in this case paul makes contact by quoting their poets today i would argue that most teenagers are discipled by katy perry and pink lady gaga they're not reading Nietzsche Sartre they're listening to music and I'm not suggesting you immerse yourself into these worlds I don't think Paul for context is Asian Paul was not immersing himself in three hours of Netflix every night but he was aware and he didn't know what people were thinking he didn't know something of their worldview an older generations more disciple by Fox News than the Bible and others more by it MSNBC than the Bible and it's good to be aware of who you're talking to and what they're trusting in what they're believing and what their hopes are and what their fears are that's a good evangelist and so you've got to know the Bible well and you got to really know people and you had to really love them now the conflict is very obvious isn't it he presents a different worldview to them he tells them a final judgment a lot of Christians are really good at making contact with unbelievers but they don't bring the point of conflict to unbelievers and so let's let's learn let's ask for grace Jesus addressed Nicodemus differently than the woman at the well back to back chapters there was never a can deprotonate Lystra which is a shorter version a very similar sort of setting he says wherever we begin we shall in with Jesus Christ who is himself the good news and who alone can fulfill all human aspirations wherever we start on that point of contact that's where we take people right my final point his courage to be a good evangelist you need to be consistent I think you need to be comprehensive know the whole story the Bible need to do wise conceptualization and you need courage compassionate courage is what Paul puts on display it took courage for Paul to preach the exclusivity of Jesus the fact that Jesus rose bodily and the fact that there was going to be a judgment what was the response well notice in verse 32 to 34 as I end it's the same response we're gonna get as we go do this Paul's falls faithful he presents the Gospel story and it says now when they heard of the resurrection of the Dead some mocked that's what we're gonna get a lot some will mock us so just be prepared for it some of you know that very well others said we will hear you again about this we need some we need another speech Paul we need to go have another lunch we need to hear you again and we should we have to be patient with people don't we have to be patient with him so some March some set I'll consider it I need to hear more so Paul went out of there miss but some men joined him and believed some believed among whom were Dionysius the Arabic Arabic ight and a woman named Amari and others with them and it's just striking to me how some say that Paul Paul was very unsuccessful in Athens like several commentators have said that I wish I could fail as well as Paul don't you you just go out and about and you preach in this some people believe that that's awesome praise the Lord for that so from this great passage we learned what we should see the world is beautiful and it's broken what we should feel along and for Jesus Christ to be worshipped where he's not worshiped where we should go everywhere religious places irreligious places and what we should say the true story of the whole world culminating in the reign of King Jesus may God grant us grace to do that father would you apply your word to our hearts grateful that someone brought the gospel to us I pray you and make us courageous you'd make us wise would make us biblical you would make us consistent even this day we pray in Jesus good name everyone said

Channel: Southeastern Seminary

Views: 10,445

Rating: 4.9463086 out of 5

Keywords: Southeastern, Baptist, Theological, Seminary, Chapel, Message, Jesus, Preaching, God, Book, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Gospel, False Teaching, False spirits, Spirit, Danny, expository, Great Commission, Truth, Grace, Love, Discerning, Training, Education

Id: CojoX5LLJg8

Length: 40min 47sec (2447 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 04 2019