Babbling For Jesus Series

Babbling For Jesus

Acts 17:16-34

Turn to Acts 17 in your Bible. I'm going to be preaching a message I've entitled "Babbling For Jesus."

I heard about a preacher's son that asked his dad, "Dad, what's the highest number you've ever counted to?" The preacher said, "I don't know, I haven't really thought about it before." The son replied, "I counted to 5,372 one time." The preacher asked, "why did you stop at that number?" to which his child responded, "You were done with your sermon."

Now I don't know what you do while I preach, some doodle on your bulletin - our custodian has found some of your artwork! Or if you take a nap, read Facebook on your phone, or see how high you can count. I'm not under any allusion that everyone is on the edge of their seats hanging on every word. Some may even think I'm just up here babbling along, babbling for Jesus.

Well, I'm certainly not the first preacher that could be accused of that. As we continue in our series in the book of Acts we find ourselves in Acts 17. The apostle Paul on his second missionary journey has made his way to the city of Athens. Athens was a cultural and academic center and Paul took the message of the gospel of Jesus to the intellectual elite of his day. Some said of him what has been said of many other gospel preachers - he's just a babbler! Look in your Bibles at Acts 17 as we read the account of Paul babbling for Jesus on Mars Hill in Athens, Greece.

16Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

22So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

29Being 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.30The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33So Paul went out from their midst. 34But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

A fascinating account of Paul engaging the Athenian culture. Q: How should Christians engage the culture? You have Christians with certain beliefs, behaviors, assumptions, ideas - then you have the culture with it's beliefs, behaviors, assumptions and ideas. Those beliefs overlap in some ways - perhaps by the way the church has influenced the culture or by some common grace. But increasingly we see the overlap becoming less and less, and the separation becoming more and more. So how do we engage in the culture. How can we be in the world but not of the world?