Speak Life Podcast, sharing Jesus in everyday life. Well, hello again, everybody. It's just me again, just Paul Glenn is still away. Probably wondering what he's doing. He's up in Ireland at the moment speaking at a conference there, so he's still keeping himself busy, still doing lots of good work. But in case you're missing hearing Glenn's voice, um well, you've probably heard him every week on these videos and podcasts anyway, um, do have a listen to what we've got coming up today. It is a talk from Glenn on Acts 17 um about how do we speak uh the gospel into our culture. It's a bit of a kind of controversial chapter in some ways. I know there's been lots of kind of debate as to exactly what Paul does here in this chapter and where does he start and uh go to um and which way around does he do things. Um I'm not going to delve too much into that because Glenn's got plenty to say about it. So um, if you've ever kind of looked at this chapter, you heard people discussing Act 17 and wanted to know a bit more, listen up now, uh, because Glenn has some food for thought for us.
SPEAKER_01Uh it is utter privilege to introduce Glenn. Glenn and I just got to hang out a little bit over lunch, but Glenn's influence over my life is big, both through the team that I'm part of who continues to be uh telling me about Glenn quotes, but also through what I've watched, read, and listened to. Uh Glenn, I think, is a wordsmith, a word artist, a spoken word artist, and most of all a communicator and teacher. And therefore I felt like, and we felt like, like, let's get Glenn around us because if we want to talk about culture and how we communicate to the culture around, who better than Glenn to help us? So should we stand and welcome him? Uh Glenn, it's such a privilege to have you here.
SPEAKER_02All right, all right, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you very much. What a very warm welcome. You guys are amazing. Um, just a real privilege to be with you, and I I love this topic that we're thinking about now. How do we communicate to a world that doesn't want to hear? Um, because the world doesn't, and it won't, but the gospel will still overcome. Because the gospel is the power of God for salvation. Do you believe that? Yes. So let's uh spend some time in Acts 17. Uh, do you have a Bible or perhaps on your phone? Um, what I want to do is spend some time looking at how the Apostle Paul goes to the heart of Greco-Roman culture. Uh, it goes to the birthplace of Western civilization. Here is where all the great philosophers came from, Athens. Okay, I did a philosophy degree, and they they told me week one of the philosophy degree, all of Western philosophy is just footnotes to Plato and Aristotle. That's kind of kind of true, actually. Uh, here is a very intellectual, powerful culture, and Paul goes there and he babbles about Jesus. And he ends up planting a church at the heart of the Greco-Roman world. And then he moves on to little Corinth. And he's just been to Little Berea and Little Thessalonica. Um, to be honest, he doesn't really care about Athens. He just kind of spends an afternoon there, shoots his mouth off about Jesus, does the real work of establishing a church, and then he moves on, establishing these communities of light all around the Mediterranean, and that's how he turns the world upside down. So, what we're gonna see is the way that his little preach ended up creating a church at the heart of the Greco-Roman world, and a lot of us who are preachers are like, whoa, hey, brilliant! Wish I could do that, wish I could go to London or New York or just, you know, just shoot my mouth off, and all of a sudden spiritual life bursts forth and the culture gets turned around. We all love this moment, but this moment is part of a much bigger vision of Paul. And the much bigger vision of Paul is to just plant a little church here, a little church there, a little church there, a little church there, and the whole world is turned upside down. How do we communicate to a world that doesn't want to hear? Not all of us, none of us really have the skills that the Apostle Paul had, but we've all got the same gospel, we've all got the same spirit, and together as churches, we're all part of the same mission. And I think Paul will teach us how to do this well in the 21st century. Let's have a look at Acts chapter 17. Why don't I read it for us? And then I'll pray and then we'll dive in. Acts chapter 17. While Paul was waiting for them, that's uh Timothy and Silas in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, What is this Babylor 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. 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. You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean. All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. Western philosophy dismissed in a parenthesis. Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, People of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. 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. So you're ignorant of the very thing you worship? This is what I'm going to proclaim to you. 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 human hands. And he's not served by human hands as if he needed anything, rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth, and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring. 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 human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 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 everyone by raising him from the dead. 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. At that, Paul left the council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Demaris, and a number of others. Let's pray one more time. Father, please bring your words to our hearts with living power by your Spirit. Show us Jesus and the resurrection. That our hearts might be filled, that our lives might be transformed, and that we might flow from this place to a nation and to a world that so desperately needs Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. How do you read Acts 17? It's it's it's it's a famous passage because here is Paul actually doing it. He's actually coming up against the Greco-Roman culture. It's not him in the synagogue with all the scripture-loving Jews, it's him out in the marketplace. And who is this Jesus character? What are these scriptures you're bringing to our attention? And Paul manages to successfully preach the gospel into that situation. So of course it's it's a very popular place to come to as we think about how the gospel interacts with culture. But so often people think the way that Paul does things is he basically channels Socrates. So you just you just you imagine that the Apostle Paul is playing the philosophers at their own game and winning. Clever old Paul. And for people who have pretensions to being clever, don't we just love that? Clever Paul getting one over on the clever clogs. Is that what Act 17 is? No, it's Babla Paul, getting sneered at by the vast majority, but managing to plant a church right under their noses and going on with the real business of the mission of God, planting congregations around the Mediterranean world. That's what Paul is doing. He's not playing the philosophers at their own game and proving himself more clever. It's not that at all. It's Paul is Paul is not channeling Socrates, he's channeling Elijah. Okay? He's naming and unmasking idolatry. Mars Hill is Mount Carmel. He's taking on the prophets of Baal. And he's unmasking the idols for what they are and declaring the truth from heaven, like fire coming down and consuming the altar. So the words of Paul are coming from top down. Paul is not building a little ladder from human wisdom up towards the heavens. He's not saying, well, you know, if Socrates thought that, then maybe there's this truth. And remember how Aristotle thought this, and Epimenides once said this, and then you're hop, skip, and a jump, and almost you're in the kingdom by now. He's not, he's not building steps up towards the heavens. This is fire coming down and consuming all the ancient wisdom of the world and revealing Christ. Acts chapter 17, verse 16. While Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. This whole thing begins with distress. How do we communicate to a world that does not hear? Are we distressed at Christlessness? Are we distressed at a world that has run from God and run into a pig sty of its own making? Are we distressed about that? Are we provoked about the idolatry? This word distressed, it's a word provoked, it's a word it cuts him. It cuts him to the heart. Again, Paul is not channeling Socrates, he's channeling Elijah, he's distressed to see the idolatry that is around him. So, verse 17, he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace, day by day with those who happen to be there. So reason is good. There is a good and godly place for human reason. If it's biblical reason, we saw at the beginning of this chapter, Acts 17, verse 2, Paul reasoned with the Jews from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. Reason is good if it's biblical. And in the synagogue, they on the basis of the scriptures, he's reasoning. He's saying, well, if there's Genesis 1, and then there's this other verse in Genesis 6. And don't forget what Deuteronomy 33 says. He's reasoning according to the scriptures, and that is a good and godly thing, and he reasons in the synagogue, and that reason flows out into the marketplace. But it does not appear reasonable to the Areopagus, it does not appear reasonable to the cultured Athenians, does it? It doesn't appear reasonable to any of these guys. So there is a place for reason and the intellect. But we've got to begin with Christ, the Christ of Scripture. Do you remember Colossians chapter 2, verse 8? See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human principle, uh human tradition and the and the elemental spiritual forces of this world, rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the deity dwells in bodily form. See, that's saying there is a kind of a philosophy that is based on human tradition. And it's bunkum, right? But there is a kind of a philosophy that is based on Christ. And it's in particular the Christ in whom the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. What is that? Oh there. Imagining an Anglican tradition, he's he's ringing the bell. Is that right? He's ringing the bell seven times so that we can all come to worship. And back to me. So here is here is this issue. That'll be much nicer though, won't it? Bit of breeze. We all we all need the breeze. That's good. Back to me, back to me. Have I got you? Have I got you? You're with me. Alright, okay. It's you and me. Okay. So here we are. God dwells in bodily form in Christ. That is the foundation of true reason. It is the essence of stupidity to the Greek mind. You could not think of a more disgusting thought than the fullness of deity dwells bodily. They'd be like, are you kidding me? I need to vomit. Like, where is the vomitarium? I need to go there right now. That's what they think, because flesh, yuck, okay, spirit, lovely. Philosophers, wise, okay? Artisans, laborers, you, right? That that is the way the Greek mind thinks, and never the twain shall meet. And the very foundation of Christian reason is Christ. And then Paul says in Colossians 2, verse 9, it's the Christ in whom the fullness of deity dwells bodily. And he's just putting something in there that is just the most disgusting, unreasonable, stupid thing you could possibly say to an Athenian philosopher. Okay? Reason is good. Philosophy is good. Fantastic. Good reasoning is good, but it's got to begin from Christ and from his scriptures. So, yes, Paul was reasoning in the synagogue and with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, and he took that out into the marketplace. And how did they encounter Paul's wisdom? Verse 18, a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Epicureans, they say, pleasure, way. Stoics, they say stiff up a lip, right? So you Brits, Stoics, right? We Australians, Epicureans, way. Okay, that's that's it. And those are the two schools of thought, right? But both of them think he is a moron. Both of them think Paul is a total idiot. They say, what is this babbler trying to say? Babbler, it's it's the word um Smyrmalos, which means seed picker. Um what they're saying is, Paul is to a cultured Athenian philosopher what a crow picking at odd seeds is to a true farmer. Okay? You start to feel offended by that? Babbler. But are you encouraged by this? Have you ever been called a babbler? I have, right? Well, the guy who wrote half the New Testament, he's he's called a seed picker. He's a babbler. He just babbles on. They don't get it. And you know, Paul does not bring his credentials with him. He does not come in and say, uh, I studied under Gamaliel, by the way, kind of a big deal. Because Gamaliel was kind of a big deal. If he'd dropped that name, that would have given him some cultural kudos. It would have. Gamaliel was was, you know, he's all over the Talmud. Josephus writes about him. He's he's this really respected teacher. And Paul is like a star pupil of Gamaliel. He could have said, I went to Oxbridge, don't you know? Like he could have played that card. Doesn't play that card. He could come in and say, You might know some of my published works. Said to be the all-time world bestseller. No, no, he doesn't, he doesn't. I'm a published author. He doesn't do that. He just babbles about Jesus and the resurrection. That's his platform. I love that line earlier. God doesn't need your ability, he needs your availability, right? What is Paul doing here? It's he's not putting front and center his own ability. He's just shooting his mouth off about Jesus because he can't contain himself. It's not about ability, it's about availability. It's not about his credentials, it's about his courage. It's not about his intellect, it's about his intensity. That's what communicates. Not so much his intellect, they think he's a moron, but it's his intensity. He just keeps going on and on and on about this Jesus and this resurrection. It's not his intellect, it's his his intensity, it's not his fine words, it's his focus on the word, focus on Christ Himself. They think he's uh subscribing to foreign gods because, verse 18, Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. People always forget this verse, they always think of Acts 17. Oh, remember the time when Paul went to Athens and he did the whole philosophy thing? Do you remember that? Do you remember where Paul the clever clogs outclevered the clever clogs? Do you remember that time? That's not what's going on. Paul is babbling, preaching the gospel, the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. And can you think of two things that are less likely to be impressive to a Greek mind? Jesus, who's he? Oh, that guy who was crucified by the Romans, age 33, that total loser followed by no hopers, that guy who never wrote a book, never led an army, never had an ounce of earthly power. That guy, you're going on about him, are you? Can you imagine remember what the Greco-Roman world is like? Have you seen Gladiator? What are they all saying? Strength and honor, strength and honor, strength and honor. He's babbling on about Jesus crucified in ignominy. Strength and honor? This is the last thing the Greek mind is gonna resonate with. Well, there's one other thing that the Greek mind is not gonna resonate with. Resurrection? Are you kidding me? That is the most disgusting doctrine that Paul could bring. The most disgusting thing, the thing that is most likely to make them sneer. That's where Paul goes to the heart of. It's very interesting. He doesn't give them what they want. The world doesn't want to hear the gospel. That's alright. It needs the gospel, so we're gonna tell it. You know, Henry Ford, he's got this famous line. He said, If I asked the people what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse. Because what do people know? Do you know people? People are idiots, right? What are people? They would just say, I want a faster horse, I want a faster horse, and poor and Henry Ford did not give them a faster horse. He he gave them a car. Which was the fulfillment of what they really wanted, but they didn't know it. And this is what we ought to be doing. Dan Strange is uh uh he's written many books about how to engage with uh culture. He's got this great phrase called subversive fulfillment. Subversive fulfillment. You go to the culture, you don't give them what they tell you they want, because they're just gonna tell you they want a faster horse. They don't know what they want. They're gonna tell you that the idea of resurrection is gross and disgusting and get that out of here. But you need to believe the culture really needs resurrection. The culture really needs a far better sense of self and body and created order and justice and all these things that the resurrection gives you, but because they've got this yuck factor, knee-jerk reaction against resurrection, they never hear the good news that actually they should be thrilled to hear. So, what do you need to do? You need to do a subversive fulfillment. You first need to go to the culture and say, No, I'm not giving you a faster horse. I am giving you a motor car. And you'll see that it's much better. But can you go with me on this journey? And to begin with, you say no, in order to say yes. That is the way a gospel encounter with the culture happens. First, no, then yes. The culture wants sexual liberation. No. But then on the far side of here's this grand vision for the cosmic romance between heaven and earth, God and humanity, Christ and the church, and there'll be consummation and a wedding and singing at the end of all things, and we get to play our part so that our sex lives are connected with the stars, baby.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_02And you guys love that. What do they hear out there? They just sneer. They will just sneer, okay? Well, sneerer's gonna sneer, okay? As Taylor Swift might sing. Sneer. Sneer is gonna sneer, okay? This really is good news, but we come at people. First, with a no that says, No, no, no, what you think you want is not going to deliver on what you hope for. No to that. But let me subversively fulfill your greatest desires. So Paul, he knows what he's doing, he goes in with what they really need, but it's the thing that they are most liable to reject. Jesus and the resurrection. This is not stepping stone evangelism. You know, people kind of think of evangelism like stepping stones. You just got this stepping stone, this stepping, and you're hoping to get them over there into the Christian house. And you think, well, if you believe this, then you might as well believe that. And if you believe that, well, you're pretty much a hop, skip, and a jump from believing this, and then you'll almost get into the Christian house. I don't think evangelism is stepping stones. And I don't think it's throwing stones at the others. I think it's actually opening up the doors of the Christian house, and this is called the local church. Okay? You open up the doors and you say, Step inside, I'd love to give you the grand tour. I know it looks nuts from the outside. And and you can hear the kids squabbling upstairs. Sorry about that. And the backyard is a mess. But will you will you come in? And you might know, you might not know how the West Wing sort of relates to that thing over there. That's okay. Christianity needs to be understood from the inside. So can can we just be hospitable to you? Can we love you? And then on the inside, let me give you the grand tour. And it might sound like nuts to begin with, but by the end, I hope to show you that everything you'd hoped for over there is actually fulfilled over here. That's kind of evangelism. That's what we're into. That's what Paul is trying to do. Paul is preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection to people who don't want to know. And he's not threatened when everyone, all the clever people think he's a babbler. We'll think about this later, but how can we get the confidence to go and preach the gospel even when people sneer, even when people call you a babbler? We'll think about that in a second. But Paul keeps going. Verse 19, then they took Paul 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? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean. Again, what's the platform? What's his in? How has he got there? Has he climbed the ladder? Has he assumed cultural power? Has he played his credentials like a card? As he said, Gamaliel, let me in. Has he done any of that? No. It's his intensity, it's his enthusiasm for Jesus. You know, they call him a babbler. I call him a bubbler. It just bubbles out of him. Jesus and the resurrection. It's just gotta come out of him. And they've got, all right, settle down, Paul. Can you can you maybe take a few deep breaths, Paul? And can you give us the bird's eye view from 30,000 feet? Can you do that? Well, that's what he attempts to do. Verse 21, I do love that parenthesis. All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. That's so dismissive, isn't it? There's philosophy in brackets. Paul then, verse 22, stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, People of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. That word religious, you could translate it spiritual, you could translate it superstitious. It's kind of an ambiguous word. But it is important that Paul knows Athens. He does know these guys, he does do a tour, he does love these guys. And he knows them better than they know themselves. And when you prick him, he doesn't just bleed Bible verses. Also later, we'll see, in verse 29, he also bleeds cultural references and pop song lyrics, as your own poets have said, as your own philosophers have said. He does know their culture because we're not going to reach the culture if we don't know the culture, if we're not in the culture. We can't do that. I've got chicken pox on the brain at the moment, because uh we've got two kids with chicken pox at the moment. And uh of course, as soon as you get the one child with chicken pox, you're just counting down the minutes until number two gets it, you know. Right on the right on the nose. Two weeks, two weeks after child number one gets it, child number two gets the chicken pox. Because it's inevitable, isn't it? Because my daughter and my son are in close proximity. And that's all it takes. If you've got something as contagious as chicken pox, all you need to do to get chicken pox is you just need to be in the vicinity of someone who's infected. And then all you need to do to infect somebody else is you need to get into their space, you need to inhabit their world, you need to be around them. And we've all got chickenpox, right? We've we've we've all been infected by the gospel, okay? And we need to spend a lot of time with people like us, right? We need to spend a lot of time understanding the gospel, loving the gospel, speaking the gospel to one another, but that is all for naught if we don't get out into the culture and spend that time with them, because we're never gonna communicate. It's never gonna be contagious, we're never, we're never gonna infect the world. The gospel's not gonna go viral unless we get out there and know this culture and be embedded in this culture and love this culture. Paul knows Athens, he knows them better than they know themselves. Verse 23, as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to an unknown God. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship. And this is what I'm gonna proclaim to you. I love this. He's basically saying, you've you've got this like any other God, God, like miscellaneous God. You know, if we've forgotten, if we've forgotten any gods, we'll just throw them into the miscellaneous pile over here. And he goes around all the idols and he's like, Look, the one thing you guys have got right is that you don't know God. The one thing you know about God is you don't know God. Let me start with that, okay? Because again, people often want to say Paul is just finding that one truth in the culture so he can build and build and build and build. Well, the one truth he's building on is the fact they don't know God. They're ignorant. So what does he do instead? He proclaims. And again, how are we going to communicate to the gospel, the gospel to a world that doesn't want to hear? It's got to be about top-down proclamation. It does. It has to be about declaration. We have to have the spirit of a prophet, not the spirit of a philosopher, the spirit of a prophet. Down it comes, right? It's about the supply of the gospel. It's not about the demand that people might have for our brand of spirituality. Down it comes. And so Paul downloads a gospel presentation on them. Now, this doesn't come out of nowhere, does it? By the time he gets to sort of really do the 30,000 feet bird's eye view, he's actually spent a lot of time with these guys, hasn't he? And he's been babbling, he's been shooting his mouth off, and he's being misunderstood, and people, when he talks about Jesus and the resurrection, they seem to think he's talking about two different gods, Jesus and Anastasia, right? Jesus and Anastasis. Anastasis, the Greek word for resurrection. They seem to think that he's been talking about Jesus and Anastasia, these two gods. They've been misunderstanding it left, right, and center. Again, is that not encouraging in your evangelism? No matter, even the Apostle Paul gets misunderstood massively. And he has the privilege of doing this 30,000 feet thing, which we rarely get the opportunity to do. But he gets that opportunity because he's spending time with people. You know, he's he's in amongst the people, he loves the people, he's done his research. Now he gets the chance to do 30,000 feet. So verse 26, from one man God made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth. And he marked out their appointed times. Oh no, I've skipped on verse verse 24. Verse 24, sorry. Verse 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 human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. Notice this is the exact opposite of what the Athenians think. They've been making houses for God and then serving their gods with raisins and milk and trying to feed them day by day, right? They've been making houses for gods and serving them. And they're like, Paul, what's what's your worldview? Yeah, the exact opposite of that. God makes a house for us and he serves us. Okay? This is why, you know, he's he's he's Elijah, he's not Socrates, okay? He's doing the exact opposite of what they think. He's not served by human hands as if he needs everything. Rather, he himself gives around life and breath and everything else. And then verse 26, from one man God made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth. They don't believe that. They don't believe in Adam. What's he going to Adam for? Is he trying to build on some, you know, cultural foundation between the Greek world and the Bible? No. He's announcing a totally different story. He's inviting them into a house over here, and it looks nuts. Adam, who believes in Adam? You might think that's a 21st century problem. Who believes in Adam? That's the first century problem too. They didn't believe in Adam. Paul doesn't stop him. He's straight in there. From one man, he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth, and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he's not far from any one of us. So he starts with this one man, and he's going to be contrasted with another man. Another man is coming in this gospel presentation, verse 31. He's doing Adam and Christ. This is a distinctively Christian story. This is not something that the Athenians would ordinarily find plausible. He doesn't care. He announces he's a prophet. And he uses biblical language throughout. I mean, he doesn't do chapter and verse. He doesn't, but actually, if you go back, you'll see that the language he uses, drawn from the Psalms and Deuteronomy and a whole bunch of other places, it's thoroughly biblical language he's using, even if he's not giving chapter and verse. And then, verse 28, then we get these quotes for in him we live and move and have our being, as some of your own poets have said. We are his offspring. So he's he is quoting from the culture Epimenides and Eratus. I read the footnote too. Here are these Greek philosophers, and he understands them and he uses them, but notice he's using them against the baseline cultural narrative of the day. Because the baseline cultural narrative of the day is that we build houses for God and we have to serve them. And Paul's like, look, even some of your own song lyrics say the opposite. So what's going on? That's what he's doing. He's taking the the pop lyrics of the day, and you know, I use pop lyrics in in my preaching, and perhaps uh if you get the chance to preach, you you do some of that as well, and that's great, that's perfect. But but notice when those words are on Paul's lips, they don't exactly mean the same thing as they meant on Epimenides' lips, right? And he only uses Epimenides because Epimenides is another gun facing the cultural narrative of the day. He's using their own poets against them. Okay? Again, he's not doing the let's build on this and build on this and build on this. Even as he quotes from their own poets, he does so in order to tell a very different story. And then, using them against them, he says, verse 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 human design and skill. Stop thinking this way. You clever clogs. You people who will be disgusted for thousands of years afterwards for your for your amazing philosophy. Stop thinking this way. You should not think in this way. Verse 30, in the past God overlooked such ignorance. Whew. He's giving as good as he got, isn't he? If I'm a babbler, you're ignorant. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. And again, even repent is a word about the mind. Meta noia means change of mind. It's a change of mind that leads to a change of life. You need to change your mind that will lead to a change of life. Why? Verse 31. Because God has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He's given proof of this to all people by raising him from the dead. Here's the second man. The first man, Adam, gave life. We brought about death. The second man, Jesus, takes that death and rises up again. And because he has taken on death and won, he is now Lord. Before Jesus rose from the dead, death was Lord, right? Of course, death was Lord. Death never lost a fight. In billions of bouts, death always wins. And now here comes somebody who beats death. So I guess he's Lord. And just as we all had to face death, well, now we all have to face Jesus. There will be a universal judgment. How can you be so sure, Paul? Because God raised Jesus from the dead. What's your proof for the resurrection, Paul? He doesn't give a proof for the resurrection. The resurrection is proof of final judgment. Interesting, isn't it? What's your evidence for the resurrection? I'm telling you. Now, he is an apostle. He has met the Lord Jesus himself. He is in a slightly different position to you and I. But it is interesting. He doesn't give proof for the resurrection. He announces the resurrection as proof and calls people to repent. But he just names that unnameable doctrine, resurrection. Oh, gross, disgusting resurrection. Verse 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. At that pole left. I've been meditating on verse 33 for at least the last year. At that pole left. What would you want to do in verse 33? You preached your heart out. Mainly you're met with. What do you want to do? I want to keep preaching. And I want to wipe that sneer off their faces. I want to show them that what I've just delivered to them is intellectually credible. I'm a rational human being. You don't have to check your mind in at the door to go to church. No. We're just as clever as you guys. I can do the whole words thing. That's what I want to do. I'm very fragile, aren't I? How proud. How ridiculous. Paul leaves. He has such a sense of security in God and such a sense of the power of the gospel. He knows that the gospel is at work. And he is not responsible. He's not responsible for the outcome. He's not responsible for the results, is he? He delivers the message. The gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe. And sneerers gonna sneer. But then, verse 34, some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them were these named people, Dionysius, a member of the Areopacus, also a woman named Demaris, and a number of others. And people speculate that it seems quite likely that they are named because they become prominent leaders in that church. Here is a church being established in the heart of Greece. Church established right here at Mars Hill. Amazing. And Paul feels the freedom to move on. And to go to Corinth. Corinth is a zoo. But that's that's where his heart is. He's establishing churches left, right, and center. And that is what is gonna turn the world upside down. I would want to stay in the Areopagus and set up Areopagus ministries and to teach those philosophers a thing or two. Because what I believe is it's not sneerworthy, is it? It's not. But sneer is gonna sneer. Okay, we're gonna preach, aren't we? I'm gonna preach the gospel, and we're gonna preach the gospel right at the point where people do sneer. Fascinating. As I was preparing this, I was thinking, do I dare go into the sexual ethics arena here? Right? Because I was I was thinking, what will people sneer at us for these days? Resurrection? Hmm, not so much. What will people really sneer at us for? Okay, it's it's one man or one woman sex for life? That that that's marriage, that's sex, is that your sexual ethic? That's what they're gonna sneer at, isn't it? What would it mean to be subversively fulfilling people in that sense? What would it mean to come to the culture that is so mixed up in this area? And first of all, say, no, but yes, right? No to what you think is sexual liberation. Let me show you how it leads to slavery. Let me show you the cosmic romance, heaven and earth, God and humanity, Christ and the church, cosmic consummation, sex means we're in touch with the stars, baby. Right? Let's do that. Let's put Jesus at the heart of it all. And let's come out the other side as these communities of light, so that then we become places of refuge for the refugees from the sexual revolution. Because there are lots of refugees, because that ship is going down in a cataclysmic way. That ship is turning on itself. There is mutiny on that ship, there are holes in that hull, that ship is going down. Will we be a place of refuge for the refugees from the sexual revolution? We will be if we're not afraid to have the spirit of a prophet to declare this strange and wonderful truth of Jesus and the resurrection and the cosmic romance. And you know, maybe one thing we can think of as as we finish is when your friends and family sneer at you, just as they sneer at me, what is it that really gets you about that? See, I've noticed something. My my wife speaks around the place as well, and and um she gets a lot less sneering than I do. But uh when when people do sneer at her, it really hurts her because she wants to be liked. Um I don't want to be liked. Um I mean that ship has sailed. I I don't hold out hope for being liked. But if people think I'm stupid, if people think I'm wrong, oh, that gets me. But what is it for you? What is it about sneering? Maybe you want to be liked, maybe you want to be popular, maybe you want to be influential. Maybe you want to be cool. Maybe you want to be clever, maybe you want to be right, maybe you want to be liked. What is it that you really want? Look at that thing. Now that's an idol, right? That thing. That's an ugly thing, don't you think? I look at I look at the need to be right in that intellectual. I think that's ugly, and that makes me ugly. And here, Jesus comes to me with the gospel and he says, Glenn, no. But yes. No to that ugly thing of being, who cares about being right? But will you allow the gospel to vindicate itself? Will you allow me to raise up your words, as babbling as they are, and turn them into something in my own hands? Will you allow me to do that? Will you repent of the idol of self, of pride, whatever it is that makes you hate being sneered at? Will you repent of that? And then will you be filled by the Spirit of Jesus so that we can just from top down declare the good news of Jesus and his resurrection? Some are gonna sneer. Some are gonna say, Oh, here you again on that. And some are gonna believe. We're gonna raise up churches that become these bastions of light in a dark world, and that is what is gonna vindicate the truth in the world. Not a good argument. But these communities of light that you guys are fostering and building. So thank God for you guys. And let's not be afraid. Let's get out there and preach Jesus. Shall I pray? Let me pray. Father, we thank you that your good news is your power for salvation for those who believe. It is your power. When we think of your power, we think of uh creation and the horsehead nebula and the Grand Canyon being made, and that your power is your gospel that brings new life. And we all feel like babblers, and we all hate to be sneered at. But help us to immerse ourselves in your good news, to know thoroughly the goodness of it, to know thoroughly our place in Jesus, that we don't have to be clever or right or popular or influential. We don't have to be any of these things because we belong to you already. And just help us to be servants in your hands, to babble Jesus. And will you raise up our words in whatever way you see fit? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
SPEAKER_00Brilliant stuff. So I hope you enjoyed listening to that, and it surely was food for thought. Um, and uh, I think if you've been listening in, you'll know that the foundry is kicking off in a few weeks' time. Please do be praying for us. Still lots of things to be praying for in terms of visas and accommodation and finance. Um, do go and check out speaklife.org.uk forward slash foundry, where you can hear a bit more about the foundry itself. Um, I should have closed the window, shouldn't I? You can hear all the cars going by. Um, hopefully you won't have these issues when we've got the studio up and running. Please be praying for getting the building completely finished off and then we can record it. Silence and good quality. Um, do like I say, go and check out their website, speaklife.org. And you can also give towards our work there, and we really appreciate that if you could support us in even a small way. So thanks very much, and we'll see you again next week. Take care. Bye bye now.