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Acts chapter 17 is where we’re going to be together. And this particular section, we’re in the second half of Acts 17. And this this section is a rather unique section and a little different in how Paul engages on his second missionary journey than really other places that he’s visited. Because Athens is such a unique place for which he he is representing the Lord in this community. If you remember, part of the reason Paul finds himself in Athens is because of the persecution he experienced along the way. On his second missionary journey, when he went from Philippi to Berea to Thessalonica, he kept getting beat and thrown in prison and run out of town in different places. And he finds himself in Athens, and his heart is really for the church, as he saw established in the previous towns that he was in. But while he was in Athens, the Lord used this moment to really open his eyes to the needs here. And God utilizes him for the for representing the Lord in this particular city. Now, when you study the this particular town of Athens or city of Athens, One of the things that you might note historically is this this was the capital of the Greek Empire, and it was very influential throughout society. And in the fourth and fifth century BC, it hit its pinnacle in history. And then it was conquered by the Romans. And by the time you get to Paul’s day and age, when you’re dealing with the first century AD, this is the apostle Paul is at a city that’s really just a shadow of its former self.
It’s still influential, but the population of the city is now decreased to some estimate, around 5000 people. But even though the population had radically decreased and it was the capital of the Greek empire, it’s no longer the capital of the Roman Empire, but. Or it never was the capital of the Roman Empire that was in Rome. The city was still influential because it was considered the the academic city of the society. So when you when you look at early Athens, you discover this is where Socrates is from. This is where Plato was from. This was the city that Aristotle adopted. And many people compare this town to to taking all the Ivy League schools of today and wrapping them all up into one. And that would be Athens and its academic influence in this world. Now, hearing all that and thinking about the Apostle Paul ministering here, and maybe you might imagine yourself like, what would you do if you were to minister in a city like that? For some of us, we might find that rather intimidating to think. Man, historically, there’s been so many giants of philosophy that have come through here and I’m just little old me like I am. I am no Socrates. I am no Plato or Aristotle. What kind of difference could I make in a in a place like this? And maybe even when you think about representing Jesus in this world, that the the way life is going, you might find yourself a bit intimidated and thinking, as a Christ follower, God has called you to be a salt and light in this earth.
What? What can God do through little old you? You know, making a difference in life around you as you honor Christ through your life. I mean, what is it God can use you for? And one of the things that I really love about the Apostle Paul, as he went around from town to town doing ministry, is he he found himself regularly challenged in in his authority and presence. If you read a, for example, a book like First or Second Corinthians the the letters to the Corinthians, Paul often is writing about those who are challenging him and as as an apostle. And in fact, there were these people that that had moved into the Corinthian church that that looked to the apostle Paul and maligned him. He’s an apostle. Please. You know, he lives a terrible life. He’s abused and he’s ridiculed and and they’re like, don’t you know, don’t listen to the Apostle Paul. We’re super apostles. When you read the the letter to the Corinthians, you’ll see Paul referring to these super apostles who try to usurp his position and their authority. And it’s interesting when Paul engages them that that rather than try to go tit for tat back and forth over who’s better, Paul doesn’t and he doesn’t bite on it at all.
Rather, rather than coming forth with his strength, he embraces his weakness and he encourages us to do the same. Because Christianity is not about impressing people with who you are, but finding that people are impressed with the greatness of who God is. As we just highlight him or honor him with our lives. I can even tell you this morning, like the thing that compels me to get in front of a group of people and just share about the Lord is not. Man, I sure hope they like me. I sure hope they think I’m great. You know, like, if you think I’m great, I guess that’s okay. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t really care one way or the other in that sense. Like, I’m not here to win a popularity contest. I think it’s a terrible thing to kind of shape your ideas and values in this world by people who are in this, in this world to win popularity contests. Let me just say, if you develop your theology from movie stars and politicians, there’s a problem, right? Because because they’re just there to please masses. And when you live that kind of life, you just kind of go with whatever the, the popular people, you know, want or the masses want you to do because you’re trying to win a popularity contest.
Like, that’s a terrible way to determine what’s true. And, and when it comes to the apostle Paul, rather than fight back and say, oh, you refer to yourself as super apostles. Look how great I am. Paul rather leans into his weakness, and he does the same for us. He actually refers to us in Scripture as jars of clay, and in referring to us that way. He’s he’s saying you’re just a common vessel and it doesn’t mean you are an impressive. You are impressive because you’re made in the image of God, but your your impressiveness doesn’t come from you. It was divinely given to you by your creator. And so Paul encourages us not not to impress people with the greatness of who we are because we’re just jars of clay. But the content in which we’re possessed by and the Lord himself, who who fills us up with him. And so and so Paul is he’s he’s teaching us how to engage a world like this. And so we think about, you know, the Athens and all the great minds that have gone through Athens. And we might be intimidated in ourselves. Well, the problem with that is that we’re looking too much at ourselves and not in the greatness of who God is. And when we think as people today, how do we engage a world like this? How do we even make a difference to the Lord? We can learn from how Paul engages Athens in this particular moment.
In fact, let me give you point number one, and we’ll talk about this together as we look at these three points. Number one is going to deal with your heart. Number two is going to deal with your hands. And last of all, we’re going to deal with your message. So it’s going to go your heart, your hands and your message. But number one is this compassion for the lost. If you really want to make a difference in this world, it’s got to start with really a broken heart for the needs in this world that that we would see this world as as the Lord sees this world and the way that we desire to care for one another and to care for those around us because of what Christ has done. And you see this with Paul here. He’s gone on this missionary journey from town to town. He’s gone through. He’s experienced persecution and hardship. His mind is thinking about all those that he has left as he’s had to flee city after city. He even left some of his friends behind to minister in those cities, even though he had to flee. And his mind is on that. But. But then, as he’s coming to Athens, the Lord uses this to open his heart for the people there. And it says now, while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city was full of idols.
So here Paul comes in this city, and it’s saying, and really an emotional sense, but but also in a logical sense, his heart is stirred for the brokenness. It really is a word for sharpened. He becomes fixed on this. And just seeing that the gospel need for where he he is, and I would say the same is true for you if you want to make a difference in this world. It starts with just looking outside of your problems, looking outside of yourself to see how how the Lord might use you in the hearts of people around you as you become aware of of the gospel need in life. And and when I think about where we are as a group of people, I think regularly say this, I think the best place on the planet to minister for the Lord is in Utah, one, because it’s beautiful, but also because of the need here, especially even in Utah County. We live in a county of 800,000 people, and we have about one biblical church for every 25,000 people. And that’s a lot of people to reach. And we just open your eyes to the need. You just think of the privilege and the gift that it is to honor the Lord. And I got to tell you, even though there is a need certainly when you compare the rest of the United States, I think there’s a, a larger need here than in other places in that sense.
But it shouldn’t really matter to us where we are in this world, that when our hearts have been truly impacted by God, then, then are our hearts aligned with him? We’re going to look at this world the way that he does. And so, so rather, rather than just simply thinking, well, I’ve got to do something because the need is great, even if, even if the need would be judged as, you know, not as significant as, as other places of the world, it still shouldn’t dictate what you do as a believer, because that doesn’t that doesn’t come from people, that comes from God. And one of the best ways, I think, that we we can carry that burden with, with the heart of the Lord for people around us is to never lose sight of the grace of God in our own life. You know, when you read about the Apostle Paul in scriptures, you find he regularly reflects on how the grace of God transformed him. He never got over that. I mean, you think about what Paul’s life was before his conversion, after his conversion, the most religious man on the planet given over so zealously to his religion, he felt justified in murdering and imprisoning Christians to validate his position, and all of a sudden he radically meets the Lord who graciously forgives him, gives him a relationship with him and a future and a hope.
And that transformed the Apostle Paul. And he never got over how God made such an impact in his own life, and that forgiveness and freedom that only he could bring, that he desired for other people to experience that too. Because Paul knew if God could radically change my life, he can radically change anyone’s life. And so for you, if you really want to see God minister in brokenness, one of the best things you could do is reflect on what God’s done for you. Especially in terms of Scripture. So let me let me just toss out some verses to you. These aren’t in your notes, but if you want your heart to be stirred with affection in Christ and to care for people around you, some of the best passages of the Bible to read would be Ephesians chapter two, first ten verses of Ephesians. Paul talks about who we are apart from Christ and who we are because of Christ. It’s nothing that we did but what God has done for us. God didn’t owe us anything, yet he still pursued us to the point he gave his life for us, that we could have freedom in him. Same is true for Titus, chapter three, verse six, verses of Titus chapter three. He talks about who we are apart from Lord, who we are because of him, or the end of Romans chapter seven and Romans chapter eight.
And the whole point of those passages are really about getting your eyes off yourself and looking at the greatness of who God is, and looking what God desires to do in the hearts of people so that you can participate in that with him. And so, as Paul is, is looking at this city, this is what he’s thinking about. And if you specifically just reflect on Athens, Athens, you can even go visit today. I have never been to Athens, so I’m going to tell you stuff that I’ve just studied and learned. I thought about today. We should we should start a fund called Send a Pastor to Greece. And if you feel just so bad for me because I’ve never been, we will take those donations. I’m just kidding. I would not that feels terrible. I would never do that. But But you see this this beautiful picture of Athens and at the top of this mountain, that’s kind of cut off flat. That’s that’s the Acropolis. And this is where worship took place in the city of Athens. This was considered the heart of Athens. And they had temples dedicated to their gods. And and the one predominant temple that still stands there is known as the Parthenon. And this is where they they worship the goddess Athena. And it was considered the goddess of wisdom. And so it was a representation of Athens being such a wise academic place.
And they would worship that that goddess there in that Parthenon. And so this was, this was the the heart of Athens. But in behind the the heart of Athens was this place called the Areopagus, and this was considered the mind of Athens. This is where the philosophers would go, and they would debate their theology and share this with one another. And what happened at the Areopagus in the mind of the people, if it was accepted or didn’t get transferred to the heart of the Acropolis, or people would engage it in worship. So here you have these, these two places represented in the mind and the heart of Athens taking place. And this is this is where the Apostle Paul is going to minister. And as he’s ministering, it says something interesting here about him. It says in verse 17, so he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happen to be there. And so Paul was looking for places of influence, and I love the approach that he’s carrying in these moments. Rather than speak down to people rather than angry, yell at people. It’s simply just telling us he’s meeting people where they are, and he’s explaining to them why the biblical Jesus is so important to their life. He’s reasoning with them, and this is critical for us to think about in terms of how we represent the Lord in our lives.
You know, it’s beautiful to have the truth. And sometimes we can come so zealous with that truth that we know has transformed us. Then, rather than speak to the hearts of people, we can run right over the hearts and trying to make our point. But we understand that the the purpose of the truth that God has given us is to share it with others, that they might find their lives transformed too. And our ability to reason in the Lord with others comes out of growing in your own relationship with the Lord. And in that growth, becoming confident in who you are, because the confidence in who you are really will help you dictate how you share with others. Because sometimes in our sharing, it’s almost like we’re trying to share with people as, as if to, to get them to validate us. Like, I need you to tell me how important I am by embracing what I’m saying and validate what I’m saying. And I want you to know that as as a body of believers, even though it’s critical for us to to share truth with others, we’re not looking for other people to to tell us how important we are and try to validate our message. Rather, as believers, we should already be confident in the identity we carry in Christ so that regardless of how people react to us, it’s not going to force me to try to have to react to it like, you know, to to where the emotion of of their response and how they might, may or may not receive me because I already know who I am.
And that’s been declared in my identity, in Jesus. And so I’m not here to prove anything to you, in and of myself. But I do want you to see the greatness of who God is. Now, what you choose to do with that is up to you, but it’s so important that you discover who you are in light of who Christ is and what he’s done for you. Because there’s nothing more freeing to the soul than Jesus. I hope as a church, we we understand that we’ve embraced that as people. And even if you’re here this morning, you don’t know Jesus. I think based on who Jesus is, it would be foolish not to come to him. And so the apostle Paul, here he is. He’s he’s reasoning with the the people. And as he’s doing this, it tells us something interesting. In verse 18 it says some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. So there’s some people of different beliefs, people Paul’s talking to Epicureans and Stoics. They they tend to have a kind of polarizing beliefs. One believed God kind of created everything, set it in motion, and sort of disappeared from the scene. And they’re left to their own devices.
The other ones believe more pantheistic life, that God is in everything. But here he is speaking these two different groups of people. And here’s what they say. Some said, what does this babbler wish to say? And others said he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus in the resurrection. Now, in no context I want you to know, is what they’re saying a compliment? Like I can’t think of any moment where if someone looks at you and says you’re a babbler, that you would say thank you. You know, thank you for just describing me this way. But but I do want you to to to note, in the first century, this is even exceptionally more of an insult than what we would even read here in English. This idea of babbler literally means they’re describing Paul like a scavenger bird who’s just kind of going around hoping to find something that’s worth clinging to. And what they’re saying is this, Paul, you’re just out here saying things and you’re just tossing out thoughts, hoping that we’ll just grab to something like some sort of random bird, hoping to luck into into some some food of fortune. And, and so they’re just describing Paul as just tossing some things out and, and maybe one thing will stick with the crowd and that’s, that’s what he’s, he’s going to hold on to. And so they’re referring to him as babbler and the other one with foreign divinities.
They’re certainly acknowledging Paul’s exposing them to something that’s different than what they’ve heard. But this term foreign divinities is especially particular to Athens because this was the charge that Athens actually brought against Socrates, and eventually killed Socrates because of it. Socrates was was teaching new ideas to the people of Athens. They didn’t want to embrace that idea to the point that they they led a charge against Socrates, and he was found guilty, and they forced him to drink poison that led to his death. And the charge against Socrates was that he was he was teaching foreign divinities. So what they’re saying about Paul in this, in this moment is not something to take lightly, because the same is true for you. This becomes critical for you to become confident in who you are and your identity in Jesus, rather than fight back against people. Right? You embrace the weakness like Paul and Corinthians. I’m just I’m I’m just a vessel, a jar of clay. But I’ve come to understand the greatness of who God is and understanding the greatness of who God is and what he’s done for me. It’s helped me better understand who I am because there’s been no greater price paid for me, no greater love someone’s ever done for me than what Jesus has done. And so, regardless of what you choose to do or not do, regardless of what you choose to say or not say about me, it doesn’t determine who I am because I already know who I am.
And so I don’t have to react to your thoughts to me, but rather I get to respond in my identity, in Christ. And so Paul is sharing this. And one of the reasons I think this is critical for you is maybe, maybe you’ve come to Jesus and in your family you’re a bit of an anomaly. And as you’ve come to know the Lord, you’ve you’ve thought about or maybe even taken opportunity to share that with others and perhaps get this, they may not have reacted or responded the way that you had wanted them to. And for some of us, it might look like this, that you come to know Jesus, and the next time that you might have been at a family gathering or with some friends, you decided to to share that with them. And they didn’t appreciate that the way that you thought they should have. In fact, maybe they said some words that you didn’t like, and those initial words cut you deeply. And let me just let me just anytime someone has big news in their lives and they share that with others, sometimes we put a lot of weight on how people might initially react, and sometimes people are great at reacting off the cuff. But for most people, I find that they typically need a little bit of time to think about it.
And when they do that, you find as they process through that and how they might choose to respond moving forward, that there’s been some time to really think through what you’re saying in order to start to own it themselves. It’s not just an off the cuff response, but they’re starting to process this. And this is what happens exactly in the life of the apostle Paul. Now, it doesn’t mean reactions are always still going to be good, but I think it’s important to remember that sometimes when you become a believer, you have time to think about that, to process through that and embrace it. When you share it with someone else, they’re just hearing it for the first time. And so sometimes they need a little bit of time to think about why would my friend do that, and what is it they found so important. And the challenge of that will cause them to dig in. And for Paul, even though he might have had these initial comments made about him, it says this in verse 19. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is, that you you are presenting. For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know, therefore what these things mean. Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
So here they are, given the Apostle Paul opportunity, and I’m glad Paul didn’t react and say, you think I’m a babbler? Let me tell you what I think about you. Right like that. That would have killed opportunity to further share with others. Now I know in a room like this, maybe sometimes we haven’t been the best representation, but that’s. Let’s just talk about what do we do with that? Because point number two leads us into that. And number two is this we want to have a connection without compromise, a connection without compromise. And this is saying to you, we need to look for ways to build bridges, not burn them. When we talk about a connection without compromise, we’re saying that we already we recognize that the world believes different than the Lord. And when I’m building a connection, it’s not to compromise on what I believe, but it’s really to give opportunity to to share that with someone else. Just because I’m being kind to another person doesn’t mean I agree with everything that person agrees with. Somewhere in our culture, we lost sight of that. We think in order to to love someone or be loved by someone, you have to agree with everything that they agree with. And that’s just simply not true. And more than anything, that’s what our society needs is a is a body of believers that moves in this world to say, I disagree and I love you, and here’s why.
It’s because of Jesus. I don’t need you to to agree with me, to validate me because I already know who I am in Christ. And I think it’s important that you understand who you are in Christ. And one of the best ways for you to know that is to see how I reflect the love of God in your life, regardless of how you choose to respond. And so we get the the privilege to to build bridges to represent the Lord. I mean, it’s exactly what Jesus did for us and how how he pursued us and gave his life for us, even though we were enemies of God and walking in sin. And so the Apostle Paul does this. Let me give you one word for it. He’s contextualizing. He’s looking for ways in Athens to to take the gospel and help people connect with it. And you see this in the next verse. It says, so Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. Some people debate, did Paul mean this as a compliment or not? They’re not sure. I just think it’s a statement. He’s acknowledging it. And then he says in verse 23, for as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with the inscription to the unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown? This I will proclaim to you.
And so Paul is saying, look, there is a connection here that I can make with the biblical Jesus, and I want to build that bridge with you and taking time to get to know about your culture a little bit. Right? You don’t have to know everything about a culture, every detail. Someone believes in order to connect to them. But it is important to take time to get to know them and how they think and and what shapes them, because you can better share with them in that way. And so he refers to it as the unknown God he’s contextualizing. And one of the ways he’s contextualizing. I’ll give you another big boy, big girl word here. He’s using presupposition presuppositions. It means he’s he’s looking for a way people are acknowledging the existence of a true the true God, but not fully embracing him. And by saying what therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. What Paul is doing is he’s putting his finger on presuppositions. What presuppositions do you carry that align with who God is? Although you may not acknowledge God, and you can do this with every worldview on the planet. Even even atheism like that. People would claim atheism maybe is not a religion. But I want you to know, atheism is very much a religion. It’s a it’s a system of beliefs that dictate what people do. In fact, there was a book written by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek that was called I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.
And they talk about in order to hold that worldview, why you actually have to have more faith to believe that than than it would take to be a Christian. It’s interesting read, but they walk through the logic of that, that it is impossible for someone who might claim atheism to not borrow from a Christian worldview, or have presuppositions that align with a Christian worldview, even though they claim to be atheists. Which means it’s inconsistent with atheism. And so what Paul is doing, and what we as believers learn to do, is how can we just put our finger on those presuppositions to help people think through that? So, so in terms of atheism, we would say things like you know, certainly how does something come from nothing. Right. Because you have to have time, space and matter, which gets into a little bit of heady thinking. I’m going to move past that for time’s sake. But how does something come from nothing. But even more than that, how does that something work with logic and order? Because when you look at a world that operates in logic and order, that intelligent design suggests an intelligent designer. So even though we might claim atheism, there is no God. We, those that might hold that worldview would wake up every day expecting that tomorrow will be like today with consistency and order and logic.
Will operate our whole life expecting that two plus two will always equal four. But if this world just randomly comes into existence, there’s no reason any of it should logically interconnect or make sense. And if you just you take a step further than that. And from an atheistic worldview, what you typically find with people is they they demand that there would be purpose and meaning and morality. They’ll even usurp things like universal morality on people. And and the question is, how can there be a universal moral law in which we would be governed by unless there be a moral law giver? How can your life even have value or ultimate meaning unless there be someone who created it? And why would you long to to to want to live for more? Lest there be more in how God has designed the world. I mean, when you think about how atheism plays itself out and you try to determine the worth of humanity, at best a human being is nothing more than a commodity, right? And thinking from an atheistic worldview, there’s nothing really more special about you than a rock outside. It just so happens that that rock fizzed one way and you fizzed another way, and this is what you evolved into. But there’s no universal worth of a human being. The best value that can be placed on you is simply determined by your performance.
But we know in a Christian worldview that’s not true, right? That the worth of who you are was determined by your creator who made you in his image. And. And when it comes to moral law that we we long to see justice in this world, that because of the image of God in us, at best, someone from an atheistic worldview can just simply suggest to you that you should do something because they think it would be right, but they can’t determine a moral ought for all of life because there’s no moral law giver. And so the apostle Paul, he’s he’s going through and he’s he’s reasoning with the, the people of Athens and, and all that, that God is and what he’s done for us. So we can think, think through the importance of him. In fact, I would even argue that some people that this is what has led them to Christ. People like C.S. Lewis, who who decided he that life had to be made for for more because within him he was looking for good to triumph over evil. And why would he decide that unless there be a moral law giver to put that within him or or this lady I on Hershey Alley was was known just a few years ago as as the leading female atheist in the world. She grew up as a muslim in Somalia. She lived in a few other countries. She eventually became a citizen of the Netherlands in the United States.
And what she found is, is her worldview was was broken and didn’t provide the answer she was looking for. And ultimately, she discovered in Christianity, and she writes about her conversion in an essay in 2023 called Why I’m Now a Christian. But this is what she said. Atheism failed to answer a simple question what is the meaning and purpose of life? Christianity. Christianity answered that question for me. I mean, it’s a great essay that she writes. There’s much more than just that quote in there that’s portant to see. But, you know, when we’re talking about reasoning with people, it’s just simply looking for the presuppositions, even someone from a religious background that might have a belief about Jesus, like just having a conversation. What is it you think about Jesus? Tell me. Tell me your belief about Jesus and taking the opportunity to point them to the Lord. So. So we want a compassion for the lost. We want to be able to connect with them without compromising. Not not to to to pick fights, but to help people wrestle through who God is. And and I think when we start to engage people, typically what you find is that usually people start off with an intellectual reason. I’m not a I’m not a Christian because, well, I’m too intelligent. But as you begin to converse with him, you begin, you start to realize that their problem isn’t so much intelligence as it is actually more emotionally driven, that there’s been woundedness in their life, and there’s this perception of who God is in light of that.
And so because of that, they just reject the arbitrary of idea of who who they think God might be. And what you discover often when you engage people who may not embrace Jesus or may not embrace the Lord, is that the picture that they have of God? Honestly, if that’s what you thought about God as a Christian, you wouldn’t follow that God either. But you get to opportunity to dialog with with him over it, not because you’re trying to win an argument, but because you understand the importance of who you are in light of who God is, and you want them to find that freedom, too. So last point I need to zip through this is this conviction through truth. Conviction through truth. And this is what Paul does as he shares. It’s brilliant. I don’t I’m not going to have time to go through all this, but I do want to just kind of summarize it for you so you can see it. And if you want to read it later, you can. But one of the things Paul does in this passage is he starts with an idea of the greatness of who God is. He paints this picture of a God that is far greater than the gods of Athens, because the gods of Athens are simply glorified human beings.
I mean, they’re they’re barely deities and their capability in comparison to God. But he wants them to understand that God is a sovereign God, ruler of all things, can’t be contained in a temple, isn’t served by human hands because God doesn’t lack. Even this morning, I hope that you realize God’s not up in heaven being like, oh, they better show up to church today. Gosh, if they don’t tell me how important I am, I don’t know what I’m going to do. That’s that’s an inadequate guide that can’t really satisfy or fulfill you. There’s a gross understanding, and we do this as human beings. Our tendency is to tear God down and elevate ourselves. And the reason we do that is because we trust ourselves more than we trust the Lord. It becomes critical for us to understand not only the greatness of God, but also the grace of God. Because if God is a sovereign being over all things, but he’s not compassionate, then you should look out right. Like, there’s there’s worry there. But you do need a sovereign God. You do need a God who is capable, a God who can bring joy in the midst of brokenness. A God who can deliver ultimate hope because he is in charge. And this is where Paul starts in verse 24, all the way down to verse 29. He shares a God this way, a God who rules.
And then in verse 29 he says, this 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 the imagination of man. Paul starting to say this with us look, not only is there a great God, but you belong to him. And so we don’t want to subjugate him just to created things, but understand him, the creator, as creator of all things. And then he goes from the this greatness of God, and he shares with us in verse 30 the the importance of a personal God. He says in verse 30, the times of ignorance God overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because 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. So not only does he talk about this great God and his sovereignty, he also talks about a personal God who comes near and he begins to share about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. A God who cares for you. A God who wants to meet you where you are. A God who gave everything for you that you could find forgiveness and freedom in him, a personal God. It’s important for the Epicureans to understand that God’s just not distant, but he desires to be made known in your life.
And as as Paul shares all this, one of the things I think is unique in this passage, verse 32 and on it tells us that they interrupt Paul, meaning Paul starts to talk about the resurrection, but he doesn’t get to deal with the details of the resurrection. Why? It’s significant because the people shut him down. Not everyone’s going to embrace what you say about Jesus, but it doesn’t stop us from sharing about Jesus, because our goal in our lives is to glorify a God who gave everything for us, and just taking the opportunity to share it with others is communicating a compassion and a love for Christ. Because the compassion and love Jesus has for you, you think about making a difference in this world. It’s not about just trying to convince people, because if the goal of our life is just simply about convincing people we’re going to. We’re going to live a life of a lot of disappointment, because there are a lot of people that just don’t want to be convinced. But when the goal of your life is to honor the Lord, to rest in him, to make him known, it gives us a place, regardless of what people do or don’t do, in what we say, just to honor Jesus as we move along. And in so doing, we realize as people it’s not up to us.
It’s not about me impressing people with who I am. It’s not about me having to wear the weight of the world. It’s about introducing the world to the one who wore that weight for them on the cross. And you close with this. But in the first five centuries of Christianity, one of the most influential people out of the early disciples, and Jesus would be a man by the name of Augustine. And Augustine grew up believing in a false religion. His his mother was actually Manicheism. His his mother was a devout believer. And Augustine followed a different faith, but his mother never gave up on him. She prayed for him constantly. In fact, one of the ministers in her area was a man by the name of Ambrose. One day he came upon Monica just kneeling in prayer for her son and weeping. And Ambrose, I don’t know, was completely aware of exactly who she was praying for. He just looked at her and said, the the tears of who you’re praying for, their salvation shall not be wasted before the Lord. And guys, can I just say the same for you when you carry the heart of God in this world for others, the beauty of it is that you’re carrying the heart of God for people in this world. It may be that some of them come to know the Christ. It may be that some refuse to know Christ, but in your life you’re honoring Christ. And in so doing, Jesus blesses that. Jesus sees that.