Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts Series #33

Back to the Beginning:

When Church was Church

*Responding to a World Without Christ - PART TWO*

*Acts 17:16-34*

 

As we begin today I have something I want to give you … Men if you would pass that out … I want you to set that aside and forget about it for a minute and I'm going to explain it at the end.

As we pick up where we left off last week, Paul has gone to Athens alone … and so as we observe him respond to a world without Christ, we see that he went …

* *

*1.

Went *

he was …

  *A*.

Greatly *Distressed* - The city was full of idolatry

 

This happened …

*  B.*

While He *Waited* --- great things can happen while we wait and if we're not careful we will miss opportunities while we wait

And he

*  C.* *Went*

    1.

into the synagogue

    2.

into the marketplace

 

It is in this mission into the Marketplace that we find our story continued

READ Acts 17:18-34

 

So we already said that Paul's first response was that he went … and his second response was that he …

 

*2.

Explained*

/"I find in myself desires which nothing in this earth can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made  for another world."/

It's not enough just to enough just to say "BECAUSE" … when asked why people need to follow God.

 

  *A.

Pre-Christian vs. Post-Christian World*

    1.

the world of Paul's day was not so much different in ideology than today.

2.

As many cultures, they had different gods for everything.

A Farmer might focus and worship the Sun god and the Rain god, or the Fertility god, and a Sailor might worship the god of the sea.

While the soldier the god of war.

    3.

how much different are we today really?

a.

god of material possessions

      b.

god of peace in the future

      c.

god of prosperity

      d.

god of religion

      e.

god of power

      f.

god knowledge

 

    4.

Epicureans and Stoics - these two groups of philosophers wanted to discuss Paul's teachings.

It has been said that Philosophers "give indiscernible answers to unsolvable questions"

      a.

Epicureans - everything is boils down to atoms ~/ matter and so this life is all there is.

Life is a result of the fortune of atoms coming together and when we die they disperse and life goes on without us.

So, they believed that happiness in the best of things, though usually teaching balance, still happiness was all that mattered … so Enjoy Life

      b.

Stoics - Well if the Epicureans believed in enjoying life, the Stoics believed in Enduring Life.

They believed that happiness was found in being able to be satisfied or content in the way things are.

They believed in a natural order .. a life of service and being moral.

They believed the universe was brought to life by the divine "logos" and every person was the slave to "logos" and they identified that logos as Zues

 

But if these philosophers believed in Enjoying life or Enduring Life, Paul called them through Explanation to …

  B.

… *Enter* *In* to Life - Explanation

Paul had observed the city and seen that it was FULL of idols to every imaginable deity … But Paul saw his opportunity when he noticed one strange altar TO AN UNKNOWN GOD and Paul said "I have GREAT NEWS for you… I'm going to tell you today the God you seek, whose name you do not know.

As we respond to a world without Christ, I've always believed that we can find the hole … find that emptiness and help them recognize that Jesus, creator, sustainer, crucified, risen, and Lord, is what they are seeking, and what they are trying to worship, they just don't know it nor do they know how.

So, Paul explains to them about the "unknown god" and ultimately the only true god

    1.

He Created All things - he is a Great God - The Scriptures begin … /In the beginning God created the heaven's and the earth/ … John 1 says /Jesus created ALL things and without him NOTHING has made that was made …/ He is a great God and our Creator …

Why is this important?

It is VERY important to proclaim Christ as Creator … If he is NOT our creator, if he was NOT here FIRST and before time, created time, created all things … then why does he have the right to be our God?

Why does he have the right to direct our lives?

He is a Great Creator God

    2.

He is Sustainer of all Things, he is a Good God.

Not just great but good.

Paul says God determines times and seasons for life and people, and in him we live and move and have our being.

He is our breath and our life.

In Col 1:17 /"he is before all things, and in him all things hold together/"  --- Some believe like the Stoics that there is a great "logos" (word) a deity that created everything but that's it, he made the clock, he wound it up but he's just letting the universe run itself and we are on our own.

But if God is NOT responsible for your next breath, for making sure that the earth maintains it's orbit and axis, for sustaining life in the universe, then why do you NEED him?

Why are you beholding to him if he is not sustainer

He is a Great Creator God

He is a Good Sustainer God

 

    3.

He will Judge All things as Governing God.

V/ 31 - 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/.

-

Mt 25:31-34,41 ?/31? //"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.

?32?

All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

?33?

He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

/

/?34? //"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world./

?/41? //"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels./

He is Great, he is Good, but he is Also Governing and we are accountable to him.

If I am not accountable to God, why bother obeying him?

Why not just live my own way?

If I will not stand before him then I am not accountable to him.

That leads us to WHY Jesus will be our Judge because he has MADE the way for our forgiveness of sins, through his death, and he conquered death through his resurrection, so if we reject his sacrifice he will then be our judge

  He is a Great Creator God

  He is a Good Sustainer God

  He is Governing Judging God

 

But he does not WANT to be your Judge …

 

    4.

He is to be Worshipped as Gracious God.

We have no business worshipping things that we make with our hands with our lives.

Paul said you worship things made with human hands of silver and gold and you call it divine?

How can humanity make something that supercedes humanity?

How can we worship something or someone that does NOT have power over life and death?

But Jesus Christ, BECAUSE, he Created, Sustains, Judges, and Offers Grace through the death and resurrection of Christ, I CAN WORSHIP him, ADORE him, LOVE him with my life because he loved me FIRST …

Rom 5:8/God demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us /

1 John 3:16 /This is how we know what love IS: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us/

John 15:13/A greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends /