“Fly High” Acts part 15
On the Lighter Side of Life: Funny pictures from aha.com
Thesis: The three missionary campaigns of Paul and his associates teach us some valuable spiritual lessons: Our faith drives us to labors of love which give us eternal hope through trials for the future. The Christian must know His Bible and develop a Biblical worldview for their lives. The deception of idolatry plagued the Athens and still negatively impacts our society today.
Video Illustration: Have congregation follow along with the Acts Visual Bible for Chapter 17
Scripture Text: Acts 17
The Holy Bible, New International Version. Pradis
In Thessalonica
Ac 17:1 When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.
Ac 17:2 As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
Ac 17:3 explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ, ’” he said.
Ac 17:4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.
Ac 17:5 But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd.
Ac 17:6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here,
Ac 17:7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.”
Ac 17:8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil.
Ac 17:9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.
In Berea
Ac 17:10 As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue.
Ac 17:11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
Ac 17:12 Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.
Ac 17:13 When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up.
Ac 17:14 The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea.
Ac 17:15 The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
In Athens
Ac 17:16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.
Ac 17:17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
Ac 17:18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
Ac 17:19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
Ac 17:20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.”
Ac 17:21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Ac 17:22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
Ac 17:23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
Ac 17:24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
Ac 17:25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.
Ac 17:26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
Ac 17:27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
Ac 17:28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Ac 17:29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill.
Ac 17:30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
Ac 17:31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
Ac 17:32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”
Ac 17:33 At that, Paul left the Council.
Ac 17:34 A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
Introduction:
The Book of Acts continues it’s progression of the growth of the Acts New Testament church by telling us what happens in the city of Thessalonica, Berea, and in Athens. The Holy Spirit continues to work through Paul, Timothy and Silas in the spreading of the Gospel. Some cities receive it openly but others reject it with brut force. Paul was accustomed to entering a city and then on the Sabbath entering the synagogues to reason with the Jews the Scriptures concerning Jesus Christ. Paul had success every where he went Jews believed and even God fearing Gentiles believed and followed the Lord. But as in all places there always arose opposition from the religious Jews and from sneering Gentiles.
The types of opposition Paul and his team faced in their Gospel witness has been characteristic over the centuries and the US will see this happen more and more in our postmodern society:
Religious people will always become jealous of the success of Christianity over another.
They will seek the help of bad characters to assault the truth and get the mob to riot against the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
They will seek to twist what is being preached so as to bring it disgrace and distortion.
They will try to distort the message so as to cause fear and panic.
They will agitate the crowd against the message so that they can drive it away and get the people to reject it.
They will follow the presenters of the truth so as to mock their message and to personally attack deliverers of the Gospel.
Their goals are to disrupt the message and to stir up people against the truth.
They will hound those who preach the truth like a hound dog tracks a coon.
But notice in every city were they preached people believed and received the message of the Gospel. It’s important to note that people believed in every city in spite of the opposition and the persecution.
What we need to understand is the truth will thrive and grow under persecution and many will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Each city responded differently:
Thessalonica – A church is birthed in about 3 - 6 weeks. Some were open to the truth and believed others became upset over the Truth stirred up the crowds against the Apostles and the message of Jesus Christ. They had people arrested and succeeded in driving the Apostles out of their city.
Berea – They were embraced more so in this city and the Jews checked out the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was true. They are noted as having a noble character because they listened and then checked out the Word for themselves. It says many believed and many God fearing Gentiles believed. When the Thessalonians Jews heard about Paul preaching in Berea they sent out a group to disrupt the truth and to stir people up against the message.
Athens - Paul’s ministry in Athens teaches us how we should witness in our communities today. Paul used the culture of the day to witness about Jesus Christ. He linked parts of their own tradition to open their eyes to the Gospel message. He was greatly distressed over the magnitude of their idolatry.
T.S. – Let’s take a closer look at the 3 ministry campaigns in these three different cities and learn the spiritual lessons from these people and their situations.
I. A spiritual lesson learned from the Thessalonians and the church planting ministry.
a. This church was formed with in 3 weeks and became a thriving work for Jesus Christ in the area.
i. Paul references this church in I Thessalonians 1:2-8a “The Holy Bible, New International Version. Pradis CD-ROM:1Th 1:2.
1. 1Th 1:2 We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.1Th 1:3 We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 1Th 1:4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you,1Th 1:5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.1Th 1:6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.1Th 1:7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 1Th 1:8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere.
ii. They exemplified Christ by the way there faith produced good works for the kingdom and for there city. There faith created a drive for labors of love for God and others. This labor of love helped people to see the Jesus in them. Their faith and love created hope. Their hope filled lives became a role model to the entire region because it inspired others to endure hardship and still produce labors of love.
1. Faith – trust in the Lord propelled them in to acts of Love.
2. Love – Drove them to labor for the Lord –for each other-and for the world. This great love produced hearts filled with eternal hope.
3. Hope gave them the ability to persevere under pressure and even persecution for the sake of their society.
iii. They are models for all the believers to take note of.
iv. Their faith in God has become known everywhere and to Paul it is a breath of fresh air and a testimony to the faithfulness of the Lord to these new babies in Christ.
1. He even mention in 1 Thess. how the Holy Spirit, the Son Jesus and the Father are all involved in what is going on in this city.
b. The spiritual teaching from this church and city is that we are to be driven by Faith in Jesus. This faith will produce a heart filled with love and a willingness to labor out of love for God, for the others in the church and for the world in which we live.
i. The Christian must be driven by faith, love and hope!
T.S. – The American Christian needs to learn to be committed to their faith, do labors of love for the kingdom and have a hope that endures hardship so that they can be the model Christians they are suppose to be.
II. A spiritual lesson learned form the believers in Berea.
a. They listened to Paul’s message then picked up their Bibles to check out Paul’s message. They wanted to see if what Paul said was true or not and the Bible was their guide to truth.
i. They discovered that it was truth.
1. His message was supported by the Word of God.
ii. They and many others believed and put their faith in the Lord Jesus.
iii. This group of believers knew the importance of studying the Scriptures for themselves to decipher truth and lies.
1. A valuable lesson that needs to be applied by many Christians today.
b. The church of America could learn a valuable lesson from this group of people. To study the Bible for truth is wisest thing you could ever do.
i. The decline of Bible knowledge in Christian America:
1. George Barna notes, “In the 1970’s “seeker churches’ made a strong theoretical argument for the importance of encouraging people to feel no obligation to toe a Bible to church. Their goal was to make visitors feel welcome and comfortable by alleviating the need to locate a Bible, by diminishing the stressful expectation that they will have to use that Bible during the church service, and by softening the negative image that may be associated with a Bible-toting congregation. Two decades later, it is clear that this experiment had a more sinister consequence; people don’t even know where their Bibles are anymore! In many churches, the core membership-not just the visitors for whom the tactic was originally embraced-began to lose its familiarity with the Bible. There has been a trade off; changing the rules to help some has impaired the spiritual health of others. Sadly, the shift away from promoting the personal responsibility to bring along a Bible has sent a signal to many people that the Bible is not important. As the church has abandoned the Bible, knowledge of scriptural content has declined, personal Bible reading has declined, the image of the Bible as sacred literature has declined, and the ability of people to comprehend biblical principles has declined. In fact, when it comes time to discuss what the church ought to be, biblical exhortations do not even enter the discussion” (The Second Coming of the Church, 26, 27).
2. See the chart in the book on street level theology page 21-22.
a. This study proves that American Christians are Biblically illiterate.
c. This church/synagogue actually studied the Word of God to see if what Paul said was true or not:
i. Illustration: Michael Billester, a Bible distributor who visited a small village in Poland shortly before WW II. He gave a Bible to a Villager, who was converted by reading it. The new believer then passed pages from the Book to others. The cycle of people coming to the Lord continued till 200 people had become believers through that one Bible. When Billester returned this group of Christians met together for a worship service in which he was to preach the Word. He normally asked for testimonies, but this time he suggested that several in the audience recite verses of Scripture. One man stood and said, Perhaps we have misunderstood. Did you mean verses or chapters? These villagers had not memorized a few select verses of the Bible but whole chapters and books. 13 people knew the whole book of Matthew, Luke, and half of Genesis. Another person the book of Psalms. That single copy of the Bible given by Billester had done its work.
d. Today’s Christian need to do the same and get back into their Bibles!
i. Barna notes “Our most recent surveys indicate that about half of all adults listen to preaching or Bible teaching in a typical week; one out of three read the Bible; one out of ten study the Bible during the week; fewer than one out of every twenty-five devote themselves to memorizing at least one new Bible verse during a typical week. Less than 2 percent are committed to all four of these practices on a weekly basis. It’s no wonder that Americans have tremendous spiritual hunger, but no consistent spiritual growth” (135).
1. He adds this thought on how the problem needs to be fixed, “Many years ago the Navigators, a disciple-making ministry located in Colorado, initiated a dynamic spiritual development process that gave Christians a way to integrate the truths contained in scripture into their daily lives. The process consists of five activities:
a. Hearing the Word of God
b. Reading the Bible
c. Personal bible Study
d. Bible memorization
Meditating on the content of God’s Word If followed routinely and seriously, these five practices will lead to personal transformation and enable individuals to cultivate a worldview that is soundly grounded in scriptural principles (135-136)
ii. Helpful suggestions:
1. Read the Bible – some helpful hints:
a. Those who reflect spiritual maturity are committed to having a regular and frequent time set aside for reading the Bible.
i. They usually do not just read the Bible through but actually have some type of plan or topical focus to direct their selection of Bible passages to read.
b. Memorize Key Bible Verses – Barna notes that most often Bible memorization is beneficial when you memorizing verses related to a critical interest in your life at that time. He states “ Many individuals promote memorization as a means of fending off temptations during moments of vulnerability” (136).
c. Listen to targeted teaching –
i. This includes sermons, lessons, and tapes/cd’s on topics related to an aspect of a Christian worldview.
ii. He suggests identifying the topics you need to learn and then intentionally pursue information and understanding on that topic.
d. Study the Bible –
i. Get involved in Bible studies with others.
1. Study the word and discuss it.
2. Barna notes, “rather than collecting numerous facts from the Bible, your ultimate goal should be to create a comprehensive, Scripture –based perspective that impacts how you understand and relate to the world around you” (137).
e. Read developmental Books which are rooted in Bible teaching and living.
f. Mediate means taking time to reflect on what you are hearing, reading, seeing, feeling and experiencing.
i. Discuss your insights and questions with another mature Christian.
1. Barna notes, “Few people learn best in total isolation; even those who prefer a measure of solitude can greatly benefit from others who are also on a quest for a Biblical world view” (138).
g. Get a good godly coach and listen to their teachings and words of insight.
T.S. – The Christian must learn lessons from this group of believers and get back to their Bibles for answers and direction with their lives.
III. Spiritual lessons learned in Athens for the church of Jesus
a. Paul was greatly distressed by all the idol worship in Athens because He knew how it destroyed peoples lives.
i. Do all the idols in America cause you distress?
1. Sexual idolatry
2. Money idolatry
3. Star idolatry
4. Material idolatry
b. David Padfield, a minister in Illinois, put together this description of what Paul might have seen:
i. Supposing Paul arrived by ship, he would have landed at Piraeus and would have gone north from the harbor and entered Athens by the “Double Gate” on the west side of the city, where four highways converged. Passing through the gates, Paul would have seen the Temple of Demeter with statues of the goddess and her daughter. A little further on he would have passed the statue of Poseidon hurling his trident. Beyond this, he would have seen the statues of Healing Athena, Zeus, Apollo, and Hermes standing near the Sanctuary of Dionysus. Assuming that Paul explored the city he could have seen the Royal Colonnade, the Metroum or Sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods with her image. In the agora, the central market, he would have seen the altar of Mercy, which stood in a grove of laurels and olives. Nearby was a stone statue of Hermes, and a bronze statue of Ptolemy. In the city were the Sanctuary of the Dioscuri, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Sanctuary of Dionysus at the foot of the Acropolis, the Temple of Victory Athena, and the Wingless Victory. And in Athens was the e most famous Greek temple of all - the Parthenon. An ancient proverb declared that there were more gods in Athens than men, and wherever the Apostle looked, in niches and on pedestals, in temples and on street corners, were gods and demigods. Busts of Hermes were on every corner and statues and altars were in the courtyard of every home. Archeologists have yet to find an altar to “An Unknown God” in Athens, but such an altar would not be a surprise and it would not be unique. Outside of Rome, on the Palatine Hill, there is an altar dedicated to “The Unknown Gods.”
ii. David Padfield notes: Although Athens was named for a goddess, Athena, and was the home of the Parthenon, when we think of Athens we are more likely to think about their schools of philosophy than about their religions. Our passage here mentions two of these – the Epicureans and the Stoics. Both those words have survived into our language.
1. The Stoics were not as lacking in passion as our current caricature of them would seem. They believed that the world, including human kind, was driven by a natural law. It was a deterministic view that assumed that people had little or no capacity to shape their destinies. It was this attitude of “you might as well accept it because you can’t change it” that gave rise to their reputation of enduring without complaint. The Stoics rejected the old gods and believed in a sort of impersonal divinity that permeated all of nature. When Paul says “In him we live and move and have our being” he was using a phrase that would have appealed to his Stoic audience. They viewed God that way.
2. The Epicureans had an entirely different perspective. While they paid some lip service to the idea of gods, they saw them a distant and disinterested in the affairs of people. Their philosophy was based around the idea that pleasure was the highest goal in life which explains the current connotation associated with their name. However, it is unfair to dismiss them as mere pleasure seekers. They defined “pleasure,” not as transitory thrill seeking, but as achieving a sort of peaceful enjoyment. They followed a sort of situational ethics where moral decisions were based on which choice would yield the most pleasure for the most people. There philosophy included both the idea of deferred gratification, passing up a small pleasure now for a larger pleasure later, and self-sacrifice, giving up a pleasure of mine for a larger pleasure for others (David Padfield).
a. There are fundamental problems with situational approaches to morality, and Epicurean thought was no exception. In a debate, it may be well and good to talk about seeking the greatest good or maximizing pleasure, but in the real world how does one ever make those decisions. The approaches to ethics assume that individuals have an awareness of all the consequences of all their acts so that they can accurately assess what brings the most good. And even if people had that level of understanding, would they have the time to make the calculations (David Padfield)
c. Thoughts and a historical background on idols from Wikipedia:
i. From - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idolatry: Many religions hold that the purpose of worship is to bring one into connection with divinity. Any set of beliefs or practices which significantly interferes with this may, at some point, be termed idolatry. Examples might include:
1. Worshipping any created thing (The Sun, moon, water, a cow, sheep, or king) instead of the One Being who transcends them.
2. Directing the aim of one’s devotion to a holy book itself, or to a religious practice or item, instead of directing one’s devotion to the Being for whose sake that religious practice is to be done and those things exist.
3. A very strong attachment to one’s country that a religion considers inappropriate. In this case nationalism could be considered a form of idolatry.
4. A very strong desire to gain sex and wealth that a religion considers inappropriate. In this case greed could be considered a form of idolatry.
5. A very strong desire to gain fame or recognition that a religion considers inappropriate. In this case egocentrism could be considered a form of idolatry.
6. An obsessive desire to earn money could be classified as idolatry.
ii. The Bible - There is no one section that clearly defines idolatry; rather there are a number of commandments on this subject spread through the books of the Hebrew Bible, some of which were written in different historical eras, in response to different issues. Taking these verses together, idolatry in the Hebrew Bible is defined as either:
1. The worship of idols (or images)
2. The worship of polytheistic gods by use of idols (or images)
3. The worship of animals or people
a. The use of idols in the worship of God.
iii. The Bible has many terms for idolatry, and their usage represents the horror with which they filled the writers of the Bible…Thus idols are stigmatized "non-God" …"things of naught" …"vanity" … "iniquity" … "wind and confusion" … "the dead" … "carcasses" … "a lie.”
1. In the Bible - Pagan idols are described as being made of gold, silver, wood, and stone. They are described as being only the work of men’s hands, unable to speak, see, hear, smell, eat, grasp, or feel, and powerless either to injure or to benefit. Idols where either designated in Hebrew by a term of general significance, or were named according to their material or the manner in which they were made. They said to have been placed upon pedestals, and fastened with chains of silver or nails of iron lest they should fall over or be carried off (Isa. 40:19, 41:7; Jer. 10:14) and they were also clothed and colored (Jer. 10:9; Ezek. 16:18).
d. Quotes on idolatry:
i. John Calvin, “Man’s mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his own mind it is certain that he will forsake God and forge some idol in his own brain.”
1. Men and women today still make idols out of things, concepts and even other people.
ii. Mary Baker Eddy, “Is civilization only a higher form of idolatry, that man should bow down to a flesh-brush, to flannels, to baths, diet, exercise, and air?”
1. Idol worship is thriving in the US today and the church has even allowed it to take root as a normal way to worship God.
iii. One author stated, “Literally the worship of images, idolatry in the broader sense means allegiance to false values that substitute for God.”
e. Some thoughts on secular idolatry from Barry Newton sermoncentral.com.
i. At first, it sounds like an oxymoron. How can people who have dismissed the supernatural be idolaters? Although stone and wooden idols are one form of idolatry, a person does not need to bow down before them to be an idolater. Idolatry ultimately boils down to using one’s belief system to live for self. When Paul identified greed as being idolatry in Colossians 3:5 and Ephesians 5:5, he pierced to the heart of the problem of idolatry.
1. He notes, “What causes a person to be greedy? When someone believes that created things are capable of taking care of his life, greed becomes the driving value for that person’s behavior. Greed is far more than just wanting money. There are many forms of greed. Luke 12:15 It is the drive to acquire more of something in order to be secure or to become somebody important.”
2. Barry makes a good connection between idolatry of the past and idolatry in the present:
a. Since idolatry is the attempt to save one’s own life by pushing what are considered to be the right buttons that will take care of me, every time an Israelite sacrificed to Baal he was depending upon Baal to provide what he wanted and believed he needed in order to live. Every time a modern cosmopolitan sacrifices time and energy toward education, social status, possessions, etc. he is depending upon Education, Work, Social Status, reputation to provide what he believes he needs to take care of him. The names are the only difference between ancient and modern idolatry.
3. Newton also adds this thought on the sin of idolatry:
a. It is for these reasons that scripture denounces loving the world or anything in it (1 John 2:15-17) similarly, the person who becomes a friend of the world commits idolatry (spiritual adultery) and the love of the Father can not be in that person. James 4:4, a person can serve only one master. Ultimately, this ends up being the distinction between serving God or serving Self. (Barry Newton, Copyright © 2000)
f. The Word of God tells us to have nothing to do with idolatry, "Therefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry!" 1 Corinthians 10:14
i. Paul knew the danger that idolatry would bring to a society. He knew the destruction it would wreck on a society and on people’s lives.
ii. This is why Paul was so distressed over the tremendous amount of idolatry he discovered in Athens.
1. Paul’s distress over their lost condition caused him to speak to the Jews and the God fearing Gentiles in the synagogue.
2. Paul’s concern for this city and its people drove him into the marketplace to dialogue about Jesus to those who would listen.
a. He wanted to be set free and delivered so he went were the people were.
b. This opened the door for Paul to present the message of Jesus at a larger public forum.
c. His discussions with the philosophers in Athens opened the door for the truth to be presented to the Greeks.
g. Paul’s love for Jesus and for the people of Athens drives Him forward to witness about the truth of Jesus. He even uses some of their own beliefs and one of their own idols to present the message of Jesus Christ. Paul was culturally relevant in his presentation of the Good News
i. Paul was lead by the Holy Spirit to use their own culture of the day to present the truth to the Greeks about the Unknown God.
1. He also used their debating style to make his point about Jesus death and resurrection.
2. He used a form of communicating that was not offensive to the people but actually opened doors for questions and answers.
a. The people wanted to hear this new teaching that He was presenting to them.
i. They were interested in what he had to says and the Holy Spirit was moving on the hearts of the people as Paul presented the truth of Jesus Christ.
b. Notice the Greeks where open to the hearing new ideas about life and death.
i. They were teachable and they wanted to hear people’s thoughts and ideas.
ii. Whereas the religious Jews were intolerant of anything but what they were taught and believed.
ii. He even used compliments to get their attention.
1. The old quote is “You can attract more people with honey then with vinegar.” applies here.
a. This thought should help us understand how we are to approach people with the Gospel of Jesus.
b. We need to open the door with compliments then move into the truth of God.
2. He complimented them about their religiosity – a little compliment to open the door to talk about religious subjects and God Himself.
iii. He also knew that you could not go into Athens and talk about a brand new God – maybe the city had had enough gods and said we don’t want anymore. So Paul references the temple to the Unknown God.
1. He referenced one of their idols dedicated to the Unknown God and then proceeded to make the connecting point with the Gospel message to that idol. To that search and thought etched into this idol temple.
a. He told them that he was presenting to them this unknown God they had been worshipping for years.
2. The description of the Unknown God
a. He does not live in temples built by human hands
b. He is not served by human hands because He is self-sufficient and he is the all sufficient one.
c. He gives men the breath of life
d. He is the creator and the placer of men’s lives
e. For in Him we move and have our being!
f. He is the author of time and place
g. He created men/women in His image
h. God is not gold, stone or such He is a living entity and He is the creator of our existence.
i. God commands that all people need to repent and turn from their wicked and sinful ways.
j. Judgment day is coming for mankind and we need to be ready.
k. The proof of His power lies in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
i. It proves that He has power over life and death.
iv. What was the response of the listeners:
1. Some of the ones listening sneered at this! They laughed at the idea that someone could overcome the power of death.
a. But some did believe and they followed the teachings of Paul
Conclusion:
Acts chapter 17 reveals to us some spiritual truths. These three missionary campaigns reveal to us spiritual lessons that we need to learn and apply to our personal lives today:
1. The Thessalonians teach us that we need to have a faith that drives us to work and to serve God. This faith in God will birth love in our hearts that will enable us to continue our labor of love for God, the church and the world. Then as faith drives us forward and love fills our heart then Hope will consume our thoughts and our minds. This hope will be the enduring power that we need to press on in our service and life for the Lord.
2. The Bereans teach us how important it is for us to be in our Bibles and searching out the truth for ourselves. Those who have a drive to know their Bible are considered noble in character. They are ones who have spiritual maturity and have the passion to develop a Biblical worldview for their lives and for how they deal with their life. The church today needs to have a drive to study their Bibles and develop a Biblical worldview in this world.
3. The Athens campaign teaches us that idolatry is useless and meaningless and the Unknown God is here for us. Our response is we must repent of our sins and put our faith and trust in Him - Jesus. We learn that idolatry comes in many forms and in many ways. It can manifest itself through the worship of material objects, through distorted philosophies, through man-made mythologies, through the worship of other people, and to a life that worshipping something else rather than the Lord God Almighty.
