Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00019B
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00:01 Welcome back to Books of the Book.
00:02 Before our break, Mark, we were walking through this experience 00:07 of the Apostle Paul where he was ministering in Berea and as 00:12 we've seen in other places, there was a group that didn't 00:16 believe and stirred up the crowds and once again Paul was 00:21 kicked out of town. And so Paul was sent off to Athens and we 00:26 pick up in verse 16 of the story in Athens, which is an 00:29 incredible story. Let's begin there in verse 16 reading. 00:33 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens his spirit was 00:37 provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to 00:41 idols. Now just think about that for a moment. The Apostle Paul 00:46 was provoked, his spirit was provoked within him. Here he is, 00:51 he comes into this place where there's such little knowledge of 00:55 the true God and he looks on the crowds and his spirit is 00:59 provoked. You can sense the love for souls, the love for the 01:04 salvation of humanity that Paul had and it reminds me of Jesus. 01:08 I remember in the gospels it speaks about how Jesus when he 01:13 looked upon the multitudes that he was moved with compassion. 01:17 And it says that he saw that they were like sheep without a 01:22 shepherd. So here we have this group of people who should have 01:27 been given the knowledge of salvation by now if God's people 01:32 had done their work, but instead they're in this ignorance of 01:36 their salvation. They're not just idolatrous. 01:38 They're given over to idolatry. They are steeped so deeply where 01:41 Paul probably wonders, how am I going to preach to these people. 01:45 They're entrenched. So then in verse 17 it says, Therefore, 01:50 therefore because of his deep love and his spirit being 01:54 provoked he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with 01:58 the Gentile worshipers and in the market place daily with 02:02 those who happened to be there. That sounds like everybody 02:05 doesn't it. So there were the Jews, the Gentiles who were 02:09 going to the synagogue and who were worshippers and then 02:13 anybody really who breathed. 02:15 This wasn't a meeting in the market place. This was those who 02:19 happened to be there. There wasn't scheduled anything. 02:20 So you get this sense that the Apostle Paul was involved in 02:24 what we might call lifestyle evangelism. He wasn't just 02:29 somebody who only was on the clock during certain hours and 02:32 off the clock in others. Wherever he was he was preaching 02:36 the Lord Jesus and there he was in the market place and whoever 02:39 happened to be there he was sharing the word. So you get the 02:42 sense too that there's these worshipers, they're the ones 02:45 who have an understanding of God. They don't have a full 02:48 understanding of God and he needs to definitely communicate 02:51 to them and try to reach them, especially the Gentile 02:54 worshipers who have less of an understanding than the Jewish 02:57 ones. But then there's also this class that we might call 03:00 unchurched today. They've got no understanding and he meets with 03:04 them in the market place. He's spreading his message to 03:07 everyone. Then it says in verse 18, Then certain epicurean and 03:11 stoic philosophers encountered him and some said what does this 03:16 babbler want to say. Other's said he seems to be a proclaimer 03:20 of foreign gods because he preached to them Jesus and the 03:23 resurrection. This is where it gets interesting. Verse 19. Then 03:29 they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, may we 03:33 know what this new doctrine is of which you speak. For you are 03:37 bringing some strange thing to our ears. You would think that 03:41 would be a negative thing. You bring some strange thing. But 03:44 then it says, Therefore, we want to know what these things mean. 03:47 Just the fact that it was strange didn't deter them and we 03:51 find out why. It says in verse 21, For all the Athenians and 03:55 the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else 04:00 but to either tell or to hear some new thing. So the fact that 04:03 he was sharing some strange thing, that didn't upset them or 04:07 make them not want to hear. In fact, it made them want to hear. 04:10 And there they were sitting there doing what they always do, 04:14 wanting to hear some new thing. It fascinates me that... 04:18 I've known Christians like that. 04:20 Yeah. This is not altogether gone. This is certainly talking 04:24 about Athens but this idea of some new thing, you know. 04:27 Sensational ideas. So many come to an understanding of the truth 04:33 and they're growing in it but for whatever reason they begin 04:37 to get bored with it and they move on and they start coming up 04:42 with sensational, fanatical views and they move from one 04:45 view to another. Certainly that happened in this day with the 04:49 philosophies of the day here in Athens. But I can't help but 04:54 think also that it's possible that even the study of the Bible 04:59 and theology can lead someone down a wrong path if all they 05:03 do is spend their time researching and trying to study 05:08 some new thing. The study of the Bible should never be disparaged 05:12 but let's look at the Apostle Paul as an example. He was 05:16 someone, he spent time studying, he wrote letters that are full 05:21 of theology but when you look at his life he spent it focusing on 05:25 the purpose of that theology and the focus of that theology which 05:29 was the salvation of humanity through Jesus Christ. So he was 05:34 focused on the mission and the cause of God and that focus 05:38 helped him to understand the true meaning of the theology 05:43 in the scriptures that he was a student of. 05:45 That's right. There's a practical side of theology that 05:48 helps us to better understand the theology. I can't help but 05:52 think, and I'm sure our viewers will relate to this, at least 05:55 some of them, especially the fathers who have had to put 05:58 together toys for their children and you get that page of 06:02 instructions and you say to yourself when you're halfway 06:05 through it, I wish the guys who put these things together, these 06:08 instructions together, had to put one of these toys together 06:12 with their own instructions just once. You know there's a theory, 06:18 but the practical side of things really tempers the theory 06:22 sometimes. As you're mentioning in theology if all we're doing 06:26 is entertaining ideologies, grand themes of Christianity, 06:31 sometimes they will lose any practical significance for the 06:36 common people. And they actually become a 06:38 little bit distorted and you can't really truly understand 06:42 them until they're put into practical application and then 06:46 their full understanding comes to light. 06:47 That's right. Well it's interesting as we go on here 06:51 then. Paul is meeting here in Athens, meeting in the market 06:56 place and what have you and he's got an appointment with these 07:00 epicurean philosophers and others to share with them. 07:04 We're going to verse 22. The Bible says, Then Paul stood in 07:08 the middle of the Areopagus. Now this was a place in Athens 07:13 that was the place for sharing what they understood to be 07:16 knowledge and truth and here Paul has this opportunity to 07:20 share with these men of Athens. And he says, Men of Athens, I 07:24 perceive that in all things you are very religious. For as I was 07:27 passing through and considering the objects of your worship I 07:31 even found an altar with this inscription, To The Unknown God. 07:35 Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing him I 07:39 proclaim to you. Now this is a really crafty idea by the 07:44 apostle. He's looking for an opportunity and he just happens 07:48 upon this monument or altar that says to the unknown god. He 07:53 already sees that the gods that they are worshipping in 07:57 character are totally different from the true God. So he takes 08:01 this opportunity to introduce them to the unknown God and he 08:06 says to them in verse 24, God who made the world and 08:10 everything in it since he is Lord of heaven and earth does 08:14 not dwell in temples made with hands nor is he worshipped with 08:18 with men's hands as though he needed anything since he gives 08:22 to all life, breath and all things. Now what's interesting 08:26 here, Jim, is the mindset of their religion, of pagan 08:30 religion and in reality, truth be told, all false religion, is 08:34 that man has to do something to come into good favor with God. 08:39 God needs something from us in order to act. And Paul makes the 08:43 point here that God made everything. He doesn't need 08:46 anything from us. He is the originator of everything and the 08:50 giver of every good gift. God who made all things is not 08:53 worshipped with men's hands. That was totally different from 08:57 the gods they knew. It truly was an unknown god. So he goes on 09:02 to say, God is not needing from us, he's the one who gives life 09:07 and breath and all things. Verse 26, And he has made from one 09:12 blood, speaking about going back to the origins now of Adam, from 09:16 one man every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth 09:20 and has determined their preappointed times and the 09:23 boundaries of their dwellings. That would be the time periods 09:26 that men live in and the geographic locations they live 09:31 in. God has a plan for every one of us and he puts us in a place 09:37 and a time where we can make a difference. Not only where we 09:41 can make a difference but where he can reach us and we see this 09:46 in the next part. He determined the place where they were going 09:51 to be, determined their preappointed times and the 09:53 boundaries of their dwelling. Verse 27, So that they should 09:58 seek the Lord in the hope that they may find him though he is 10:02 not... that they may grope for him and find him though he is 10:06 not far from any one of us. It's interesting language there. 10:10 To grope for something is as if you're blind, in darkness, and 10:14 you're groping for something that's hard to find, but then 10:17 he makes the point, he's not far from us. He's not hard to find. 10:21 The reason that we don't find him sometimes is because of the 10:25 way that we're searching or not searching for him. Maybe we're 10:28 looking for a different kind of god. So he presents this God 10:31 to them, the unknown god, For in him we live and move and have 10:33 our being as also some of your own poets have said for we are 10:37 also his offspring. Therefore since we are the offspring of 10:41 God we ought not to think of the divine nature like gold or 10:44 silver or stone, like these men's idols and what have you. 10:48 Then he says in verse 30, Truly these times of ignorance God 10:52 overlooked but now commands all men everywhere to repent because 10:57 he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in 11:00 righteousness by the man whom he has ordained, etc. So he says 11:03 you may have been in ignorance but God has given you the 11:08 opportunity and in the times of our ignorance God overlooks it 11:11 but we are in ignorance no more. I'm presenting something to you 11:14 he says and now you need to make a decision for the real true God 11:18 That's right. Amen. You know you look at verse 32 to see the 11:23 response and you find out... I think that somehow Paul was 11:28 I don't want to say cut off, but he was no longer going to be 11:33 heard by most of those who were listening because in verse 32 it 11:37 says, And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead some 11:41 mocked while others said, We will hear you again on this 11:45 matter. So some mocked, which certainly... They didn't believe 11:50 they were Greeks. Remember that the Apostle Paul says that 11:54 Christ crucified is to the Greeks foolishness. So the whole 11:58 idea of these supernatural experiences of the resurrection 12:01 were also foolishness. So they weren't going to hear that, they 12:04 were mocking. Others, because they were interested in any new 12:07 thing, said hey we'll hear you again, but we don't have record 12:09 of that happening. But then in verse 33 it says, So Paul 12:14 departed from among them, however, some men joined him and 12:20 believe, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named 12:24 Demaris and others with them. So you get this idea that there 12:28 some that responded. But I want you to notice what happened 12:32 in previous places like in Thessalonica. Go back to chapter 12:37 17, verse 4, in Thessalonica and it says, A great multitude of 12:43 the devout Greeks responded. In chapter 17 verse 12 it says, 12:49 Therefore, many of them believed in Berea but here in Athens just 12:54 some men joined him. You don't get the sense that this crafty 12:59 argument worked all that well in Athens. The Apostle Paul is 13:03 about to go to Corinth and he makes a decision at the end of 13:07 his ministry in Athens that has a deep effect on his ministry in 13:11 Corinth and we find that in the book of I Corinthians chapter 2. 13:16 He says in verse 1, And I, brethren, when I came to you did 13:19 not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to 13:23 you the testimony of God for I determined, I decided, not to 13:27 know anything among you, the Corinthians, except Jesus Christ 13:31 and him crucified. So here in Athens he used logic and 13:35 argumentation, but he discovered that that wasn't as effective 13:39 as simply speaking and appealing to the heart about Jesus Christ 13:43 and him crucified. How about you viewer? Are you ready to accept 13:46 Jesus Christ and him crucified. We hope you'll join us next time 13:50 as we dive in further on Books of the Book. |
Revised 2014-12-17