Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Marcus Bach tells of vacationing in Arizona where his 7 year old son came in to the house with a snake in his pocket.

"What kind of a snake is this daddy," he asked?

"I don't know," he responded.

"Some harmless snake suppose.

You wouldn't be carrying it around if it was dangerous."

The boy wanted to take it home for a pet, and so dad agreed.

He was always playing the naturalist with frogs, beetles, and whatnot.

So they took the snake home to Iowa.

One day the father decided to get the lowdown on this pet, and so he took it to a biology professor at the college.

He put the snake on his desk and asked what kind of a reptile it was.

The professor was shocked and instinctively jumped up saying, "Why man, that is a deadly Arizona coral."

The snake sensing the fear present struck out, but they were far enough away to escape injury.

Here is a true story that illustrates the saying that what you don't know won't hurt you is sometimes true.

If you don't know a snake is dangerous you will not react in fear.

Your ignorance is bliss because the snake has no stimulus to strike at one who shows no fear.

But it would be foolish to conclude that because ignorance is bliss, and on occasion can even be beneficial, that ignorance is preferred to knowledge.

Paul even tells these Greek philosophers on Mars Hill in verse 30 that in the past God overlooked the ignorance of man making gods in His own image.

In other words, God has taken ignorance into consideration, and there have been people who were never judged even though guilty of idolatry because of their ignorance.

God has accepted ignorance as an excuse.

Jesus said from the cross, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

They killed the Son of God in ignorance, and because of this they were not condemned.

You can make a case for the benefit of ignorance in isolated situations.

But over all ignorance is a curse, and the history of human progress is the history of knowledge pushing back the kingdom of ignorance, and the light of truth overcoming the darkness of ignorance.

Christians use to think that it was lack of faith to try and understand the diseases of a culture and how to fight them before you went with the Gospel.

The result was that many a well trained missionary was sent to his or her death because of medical ignorance.

In the first 40 years of missions in the Congo of Africa 61 missionaries died.

This was common in other parts of Africa as well.Thomas Lewis, writing of his first experiences in Africa wrote, "I wonder how I am alive to tell the tale.

We did such irrational things in those days.

We were not taught to take precautions for our health, except perhaps not to expose ones self too much too the mid-day sun.

There was not a mosquito net in the whole Mission...The only medicine we were told to bring with us was quinine, and that was to be used very sparingly neither Silvey nor I owned a clinical thermometer!...We all went out in faith in those days, certainly not with knowledge."

Ignorance is usually not bliss, but is a curse.

It was ignorance that led to sin and folly and the reality of man's being lost.

On the other hand, knowledge is the way back to God and eternal life.

Jesus made this clear in John 17:3 where He said, "Now this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

Salvation is in who you know, and what you know about the Father and the Son.

That is why we find the Apostle Paul practicing what we can call educational evangelism.

Paul knew that nobody could be saved without the knowledge of the Gospel, and so in preaching he imparts to Jews and Gentiles alike the knowledge which can, if they believe it, lead them to eternal life in Christ.

This chapter provides us with a fascinating account of the contrast between the appeal to the emotions and the appeal to the mind.

Paul had the evidence on his side as he proved that the Messiah was to suffer, die, and rise again.

His opponents only had one option if they did not have the facts to defeat Paul in argument, and that was to stir up people's emotions.

Look at the words that describe the emotions of those who attacked Paul.

In verse 5 we see the Jews were jealous, and with this strong negative emotion they were motivated to round up bad characters and form a mob to start a riot in the city.

In verse 6 we see them shouting provocative accusations to arouse fear.

What they were doing is called scapegoating.

They were blaming Paul for all the troubles in the world.

In verse 7 we see the rabble-rousing tactic.

They said these men are anti-patriotic and are defined Caesar's decrees by saying there is another king.

If you can get people to feel there is treason in the air, and that there is a threat to all you hold dear as the foundation for a stable life, you arouse fears that are very powerful.

In verse 8 we read that the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil.

In verse 13 we read again that they agitated the crowds and stirred them up.

The strategy of Paul's opponents was to aim for the emotions and get people fearful and angry.

This makes people feel that a horrible foe is threatening all they hold dear.

When people have no evidence to support their position they turn to emotions.

There is something very sub-Christian about the use of scare tactics and emotive language which creates a mob spirit to achieve a goal.

It is dirty fighting, and when Christians try to use the same weapons to fight back they are equally sub-Christian.

These are not acceptable weapons for those who are defending the God of all truth.

Jesus is the truth and in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

If an idea or conviction cannot be defended with facts and evidence there is good chance it is a sub-Christian conviction.

Look at the weapons that Paul uses in the midst of all this emotional turmoil.

He refuses to stoop to their level and fight with their weapons.

Paul's arsenal consists of those weapons that aim to reach the mind.

In verse 2 we read that Paul went into the synagogue and for 3 Sabbaths reasoned with them.

The Greek word dialegomai is used 4 times in Acts, and all of them of Paul reasoning and trying to persuade people that Jesus is the Messiah.

This word was the word the Greeks used to describe the persuasive reasoning of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

The Greeks said dialegomai is the only way the philosopher can reach the logos, which is the idea.

Paul was saying that the Greeks were right, but that the logos was not merely an idea but was the person of Jesus Christ.

He was the truth of God, and by reason, logic, and persuasion men can evaluate the evidence and come to know God.

That is what Paul is doing on Mars Hill.

He is taking these Greek philosophers through a mini-theology course which expands their concept of God and leads them to the ultimate truth in Jesus Christ.

Notice the other words used to describe Paul's approach.

Verse 3 says he was explaining and proving that Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead.

Explaining is the Greek word for opening up thoroughly and exposing people to the full knowledge of the facts.

It is the same word used to describe what Jesus did for the two on the road to Emmaus when He opened up the Scriptures to them.

Proving is to expound so as to make clear.

Paul was so good at teaching that the Greek philosophers had their interest stimulated, and he was brought to the meeting of the Areopagus, which was the body in charge of the religious education of the youth of Athens.

These were the idea people, and they loved nothing better than to disgust new ideas.

They were the think tank group of their culture.

From beginning to end this chapter makes Paul the Apostle of the mind.

He does not rant and rave and try to move people by inflammatory speech.

He is the great reasoner, and his weapon is the truth.

Paul examines the evidence and expounds the facts.

His goal is not to make people feel any particular way, but to help them make the wisest choice of their life, and that is the choice to believe in and become a disciple of Jesus Christ.

You will notice how Paul's success is described in verse 4. It says Jews and Greeks were persuaded.

In verse 12 it says Jews and Greeks believed in Berea.

In Athens it says in verse 34 that they believed and became followers.

You will note that all the words that describe Paul's actions, and that of his converts, are words that refer to acts of the mind.

But all the words that refer to his opponents are words of emotion.

Paul is doing just what Jesus commanded in the Great Commission when he said, "Go and make disciples teaching them to observe all I have commanded you."

You cannot obey the Lord's purpose for the church unless you teach the truth.

People become disciples of Jesus by means of education, and they grow by means of education.

They become mature teachers themselves by means of education.

Dr.

Howard Hendricks says that the Great Commission makes it clear that there are two essentials for any body of people to be a New Testament church .

they must be evangelizing, and they must be educating.

And in a very real sense these are not two different things, for you cannot evangelize without educating, and while you are educating you are evangelizing.

What Paul is doing in Acts 17, and everywhere else we see him in action, is practicing educational evangelism.

This is the very essence of why we exist as a church.

This is our goal.

It is to educate and evangelize people.