Daily Dose of the Word of God - Acts 17: 29-33

Gregg DeMey, Lead Pastor

Transcript

Gregg DeMey  0:06  

Good morning and welcome to Elmhurst CRC's Daily Dose of the Word of God. It's Thursday, April 30. This is Gregg DeMay and it is the season of Easter. We are living it forward in the name and power of the resurrected Jesus. Today we are going to hear a little bit about that resurrection from Acts chapter 17, verses 29 through 33. This is the end of the scene where the apostle Paul is speaking and preaching in Athens Greece.

Gregg DeMey  0:33  

“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 Damaris, and a number of others.

Gregg DeMey 1:27  

Paul, as a preacher, knew how to get people on the hook. He quoted Greek poets and thinkers of the time, but he did not tiptoe around the truth. Paul preached a gospel of repentance, forgiveness of sins through Jesus and the coming judgment of the world. The e proof of all this (according to Paul) is that God raised Jesus from the dead. This fulsome telling of the gospel divided people in Athens into three camps. The first camp (mockers)  sneered at the Christian story and rejected it. Second camp people were curious and wanted to hear more. And significantly, there were a third group of people who felt their hearts strangely warmed by the gospel and started following Jesus. Amazingly, we even have the names recorded of two of the first Athenian Christians: Dionysius, (meaning a follower of Dionysus, one of the Greek gods) and a woman named Damaris (which means gentle or to tame).

Gregg DeMey 2:37  

Those three camps still exist in our world today. Likely, all of us listening to this daily Devo are part of group three. Our hearts have been warmed by the gospel of Jesus, our sinful natures are in the process of being tamed and made more gentle by the Holy Spirit. But most people whom we will cross paths today are part of groups one and two. As you go out today, trust that God will give you an opportunity to bear witness to the faith he's put inside you. And don't be discouraged by the results. God has got all the people from groups one, two and three, our histories, our timelines, our souls are securely in his hands and care. Amen.