Paul’s Speech at the Areopagus | Acts 17

Destin continues our series through the book of Acts by focusing on Paul’s speech at the Areopagus in Athens recorded in Acts 17 which shows us four essentials to evangelize the intellectually and religiously lost.

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Transcript

34:55

Just recently, I had the opportunity to meet with another lead pastor in the DFW metroplex. As far as RockPointe’s concerned, we're gonna. We're gonna roll out some really big, exciting vision for this entire church, in the fall of this year. And so just staying ahead of that, we're doing a very special, unique, just incredible way. So I want to meet with another pastor who has kind of done this journey before and gone through that. And so, this guy in our area, who's been a part. So I just asked for, his time, it's, lead pastor Sherman down in Compass Church and and Colleyville. And so they're, pretty, pretty large church. We run about 2500 on a Sunday morning. They run about 10,000 on a Sunday morning. So I wasn't sure if I was going to, get an audience with this guy. But he was great. Super humble. Reached out to him. We spent a couple, hours over lunch talking and things of that nature, just picking up some some, some wisdom from a guy who's done it really well and is gone before me. But I'll never forget when I first met drew. And so he's down in, Colleyville. And so, I shot down there's going to meet him at his church, but I stopped at a coffee shop just like a mile from, his church. And so I just get there early, I'm going to hop on my laptop, knock out some emails, do some sermon, study this, that nature, and, and then I'll just go over, make sure I'm there. I don't I don't miss it. I won't be late. He's giving me a couple hours of, of his time. And so I was there and I was at this coffee shop, and, man, it was hard to get work done because there's just incredible people watching you ever, you know, one of those places. I mean, there's just all kinds of eclectic people from all different backgrounds. They're all here and the conversations that they're having. So I was just kind of soaking it up and love the diversity and the stories and everything I was seeing there. And I was like, well, this will be great. Like, this will be my my opener with drew, right? Like I'll talk to him, be like, hey, have you been that coffee shop? And, and the cool all these people like right there and stuff like that. So that's kind of what I was thinking. And I get to get to get to campus, walk into the lobby, Andrew comes downstairs to to meet me and I'm still a little nervous. Okay. I still fanboy a little bit, so he give me that. And, so actually drew offers me some coffee from the shop right there, and I'm like, no, thank you. Actually, just, you know, walked into my intro segue perfectly. I was like, I was just down to this coffee shop and all these people, you know, I'm like, I'm like, drew, I'm I'm sure you've been there. It's just down the road. It's got this weird name. It's called like Buongiorno or something like that. And so drew puts his hand on my shoulder as soon as I say that and he says, I guess you've not traveled much. And I was like, this is a weird intro. Like, I've never spoken to this guy in my life. And the first thing out of his mouth is, I think you haven't traveled much. And I'm like, yes, I've traveled a ton. I've been all over the United States extensively in Europe for long periods of time. Of course, I travel like, why is he saying this to me with his hand on show? He goes, because the coffee shop is pronounced Buongiorno. So I was I mean, you want to talk about being humble and that Drew's like, who did I just give my all, you know, my time to. And so man, that was humiliating. And I was digging to try and get out of the hole and it didn't work. But here's what I say. That's not a one off event for me. Okay. This has been happening my entire life. I'm terrible at spelling, I'm terrible at pronunciation, and I don't blame me. I blame my my background, my context, my culture I grew up in. So I was educated by the Arkansas public school system. Okay. And I'll I'll never forget, in the third grade, we had that United States test. You remember taking that in the third grade, and there's just the blank map, and you gotta you gotta just write them all out. And I was a whiz. I had it done. Boom. Knocked it out, turned it in first one to turn it in. Take that. The rest of you hillbillies. Right. And so but the teacher came back to me. She said, you made a 99. I was like, no way. I made a 99, I nailed that, I know I did. She said, well, you misspelled a state. I said, which one? She said, you misspelled Washington. I said, there's no way. I said, I did what you said. I sounded it out and I spelled it just like it sounds. Washington and I put a big fat R in the middle of Washington. But that's what I've heard everyone in my entire life say it has. It's Washington. Right. And so the the I was close, I was close, but I missed it because of my upbringing, because of my culture, because of my context. I was just a little bit off. Now I share that with you because in the same manner, that's what's happening in Athens now. They're not having trouble with pronunciation and spelling. Okay, but here's what's happening in Athens. They are so close. But because of their culture, because of their context, because of their upbringing, they're off and they're missing it. And Paul is going to give this incredible speech to help kind of correct and bring them back, put a hand on the shoulder and go, no, it's been journo. That's what he's doing here in acts chapter 17, as we continue to go through field notes that the book of acts, the book of acts, as it's done being written, but the story is still continuing. That's why I want to study this book. So much is happening still today. The gospel is still going out through members of the kingdoms and believers in your own spheres. And so we're taking it out. That's what we call the field notes. As the gospel goes out, as we go to these new places, what are we learning in the field? What are questions? What can we be processing? So you have that journal. Grab it. It's not let's just, you know, go on your phone or something like that. I've got some some points that we can think about to consider and to learn. So what's happening here is that Paul is started at 17. Paul says, and to me, they're in Thessalonica now preaching the gospel. They're very typical response persuade some really ticked off others. Okay. The ones that he takes off, they kind of form a mob and they're like coming after them. So Paul says, and Timothy has a slip out in the cover of Darkness at Night to get out. So they decide, hey, let's go. 45 miles down the road to Berea. We'll hang on Berea. That'll be safe. No, because the mob from Thessalonica followed them 45 miles to Berea. They were that man upset, and they stir up the crowds there. So now they're like, we got to get Paul out of here. So they take him 195 miles to Athens. So Paul is there by himself, Silas and Timothy probably going to join him later, but he rolls up into Athens now, here's what we have to know about Athens. I think there's two words that really define Athens at this point in time. Now we have to realize this is past. The heyday of Athens is kind of on the decrease, but it's still known. It's still it's reputation. And here's reputation. Number one, Athens is the intellectual capital. This is where all the thinkers went. The smart people, the philosophers. This is where universities came Plato, Socrates, Aristotle. So the intellectual elite are still around Athens. Philosophical ideas are running amok. Okay, so intellectual. When we think about Athens, also, we think about Athens. You think about religion or religiosity. There's so many temples and idols and all kinds of things. They're one of their own. Greek authors said this about Athens. It says this place is so full of deities that 1st May more easily find a god rather than a man. And so this is where Paul shows up. And so we go, well, what is him about to do in Athens with the intellectual, religious people have to do with you another day. And here's the premise, and here's what I want to put forth to you. It's the question, how do you and I in 2025, in Flower Mound, Texas, how do we engage in evangelize the intellectual religious lost? Because that's what he's about to do here. And I'm telling you guys, in our world, we just walk outside those doors. That's what we're running up against. Like a quarter of the population of Florida has a master's degree, intellectual people all over. They've they've heard of Jesus. They've had some sort of experience with the church or something like that. But many of them that you're brushing shoulders with on a day to day basis, a religious intellectual, and they are lost. And so you may not take the exact words Paul is going to use here, but the structure, this rubric, this outline will absolutely help you engage in evangelize those God has put in your time. As I was studying for this sermon, great example came up. I was that trio. I know how to pronounce that. Thank you very much. Coffee? And, there was, people right beside me. I was not trying to eavesdrop, but they're like a foot away, speaking very loudly, so I couldn't help it. But it was a priest and another friend of mine of the church down the road here, and he was meeting with a woman. And here's what she told him. She said growing up, I would go to a church. And she said all we did was repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. We just say these things over and over again. And so she told the preacher, she goes, I knew a lot, but I understood very little. What? She was confessing the hymns growing up her whole life, she was intellectual, religious and lost. And you work with people just like that. There are people right next door in your neighborhood that are just like that. So what can we learn from Paul here about how God has told us to engage and evangelize the religious intellectual lost? Now what? Paul was waiting for them in Athens. His spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and devout persons, and in the marketplace every day those who happened to be there. Some were the Epicureans and Stoic philosophers. He also conversed with him, and he says, what does this babbler wish to say? Other said, he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection, and they took him and brought him to the area, saying, May we know what this new teaching is that you're preaching for? You bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know, therefore, what these things mean. Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who live there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. So the first thing we see from Paul is that Christians view the world differently. Number one, he walks in to Athens and he's got to marvel at the beauty. I mean, the Acropolis, the temples, the idols everywhere. This is, you know, art and architecture. It's some of it's finest in the world. And so he's like, wow, this is incredible. But at the same time, he's looking at the beauty. He also notices the brokenness. He sees the idols at which they're worshiping. The text says the cities full of idols. Or maybe your translation says given over to idols. It's a word literally translated that being submerged in idols, they are under the crushing weight of idols. They are swamped in idols. And so that's when he sees the beauty, but also the brokenness and what is the emotion that the text says he's provoked? It means to revile something, to despise something. It is a serious emotion or a concern that he has here at this time. So he's he's angry. This word provoked. It's the same word used to describe God in the Old Testament and says, God has provoked a people's idol worship. So there's a serious kind of anger that's welling up inside of Paul, even kind of pointing to God doing the same thing. Now, it's been said the anger is a secondary emotion. You never get mad first. First you get sad and then you get mad. And I think that's true in this case. Why is God so angry at idol worship? Why is Paul so provoked by people being swamped under the weight? Because he's sad that they're missing it, that they're so close, but just a little bit off. And so this is what he will set out to do, is how do we kind of bridge the gap here? How do we help them see and understand what's truly going on? So we ask ourselves, first point, how do you and I engage evangelize the religious intellectual lost? Point number one is this you must have a heart that cares. He cared enough to be saddened, cared enough to be provoked. I would ask you this when's the last time you cried over someone else's soul because they were missing it? They were so close, but they were pursuing a path that was just off. And, you know, the eternal ramifications if they stay on that course. It has been said, you and I will never win the lost until we first weep for the lost. Who are you crying over? Whose soul are you weeping over? You are praying for them to come to the knowledge of the truth of Jesus Christ. We must have that God created us hearts that care. Now look what Paul did in his anger. He's provoked. He's angry. He's mad, but he doesn't sin. So he doesn't go to his friends that are bad mouthing them. He doesn't start, bashing them online. I can't believe these people in Athens. You know, he doesn't point fingers. He doesn't completely remove them at all costs. Look what he does. Anger provoked. Sad. They're in the way of idols. It says he reasoned with them in the synagogue, with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happen to be there. Now we know about my pronunciation of words and, you know, Greek. And so it's like me pronouncing Greek words is like putting socks on a rooster. So but here's a here's what I try, reasoned, is the Greek word die a ligament dialog. It's where we get our word dialog in his anger and his sadness being provoked, the responses I need to go have a discussion. I need to have a dialog. Two way communication, active listening, repeating back what I've heard. Listen for understanding, giving some thoughts, some ideas, some suggestions. This is his response to being angered and provoked is to enter into dialog in the synagogues and in the marketplace place. Which brings us to our second point. How do you engage the religious intellectual lost? You must find opportunities to share. You must find a solution, not just a heart that cares, but opportunities to share. So there in the marketplace, it's the word agora literally means just an open public area. And so the question for you and I is where is your agora? Where is your marketplace? Where do you brush shoulders with the intellectual religious lost? And maybe to kind of like push that one deeper? Are you in discussions with those people? Are you in true dialog, active understanding, active listening? Have you thought about not just dropping one liners or whatever? Right. But true dialog and discussion. Now, I love what one author writes. John, stop talking about the beauty of the church and the diversity, because look, tomorrow when you're not all in here, we're all over the place. I mean, some of you are going to hop on a plane. You're a fly somewhere driving in downtown Dallas, some of you staying here and flying around local, whatever it is. But we've got people in all spheres, in all sectors of the marketplace, and you're called to engage in evangelize the intellectual religious lost in those places. So here's what starts as there's an urgent need for more Christian thinkers who will dedicate their minds to Christ, not just as lecturers, but as authors, as journalists, broadcasters, television script writers, producers, personalities, artists and actors who use a variety of art forms in which to communicate the gospel as the hands and feet of Christ. As we disperse from here and you just keep adding to that list, we need principles, we need politicians, we need a lawyers and doctors and business owners. And that's the beauty of the church that we get to do now. Paul goes on some of the Epicurean Stoic philosophers. So here's these two different, philosophical ideologies that he's going to engage with. And so the the Epicureans and the Stoics, let's start with the Epicureans. So the Epicureans, they're a small group, but a very influential group. So it'd be like the elite of Athens. And they're not large in number, very influential. So they're the elite. And so here's what they think. They would think that the world is just, just randomly happened. We're just a big happy accident, right? There's not a design. There's not a designer. How creation came to be, they would believe in gods, but not like supernatural. They would say the gods are just like you and I. They're just like atoms and particles and molecules. They're all kind of made up together. And their view of those gods was that they're just trying to kind of pursue and do their own thing, and they're just going to kind of leave you and I alone, not really going to interfere with the lives. So a very kind of deistic approach, if you will. So like, there's some gods with their very hands off. So for the Epicureans in that day and age, their pursuit was happiness. That was their chief goal. Their pursuit was hedonism, was pleasure. But not in this like crazy. Just do everything they're like. It's like a pleasure with tranquility, if you will, put to side of it. Because they were like, we don't want to get in competition with other people. That's, you know, we don't want to have these intense, relational connections because that means jealousy and strife. And so here was their kind of official motto of the Epicureans. No fear of God, no feeling in death. Pleasure should be attained and pain should be avoided. You know anyone like that? You work with anyone like that? Anyone like that in your family, your neighborhood, your friendship circle? They're still around today, though they may not take the label Epicurean. We know those people pursuing hedonism pleasure. Now, the other group are the Stoics. They're more prominent, more numbers, maybe not as high up in Athenian society. They are pantheist and so they would say there's, a little bit of God and you little bit of God in me, a little bit garden stage, a little bit of God in the guitar. Okay. And so that's how it is. And, and that these, divine molecules actually kind of cause things are very, kind of deterministic, very fatalism, like this is the way things are going to be. So for them, it's like the world is just going to do what it's going to do, and that's fate and that's determined. But yet I still have, free choice and so I can choose. And so that was their chief chief virtue was that was just like making good decisions, being moral, doing right, being virtuous. So whatever happens to you, you choose good and you choose right. So here's their motto what will be, will be. It is what it is. Just roll with the punches. Keep a stiff upper lip. You're very stoic. Okay? No. Anyone like that, anyone you work with like that? When your family or neighborhood or friendship circle like that, they're still around today. So this is who he's engaging this religious intellectual loss who just missing it. And they call him here. They call him a babbler. And so it's a little translation of like seed picker or seed picker. If you will. It's got the image of a, of a chicken going around, like picking up some seed here and picking up some seed here. And that's what they're accusing him of. They're like this, this religion that you're talking about. You just got a little bit of this, a little bit of that's like, I'm going to get a little bit of Joel Osteen, a little bit Oprah, a little bit Taylor Swift. Boom of religion. Okay. That's kind of what they're accusing him of because this is so far fetched for them. And this is really kind of stretching their worldview, their paradigms and their schemas. All right. Because for him, as he's preaching the resurrection, they have no concept of that, that there is no afterlife, there is no kind of spiritual to them. It's all very material listed in a sense. So the Greeks, when you die, is just nihilism. You're like, you just done, it's over. You just don't cease to exist. Or maybe a very few in society. Then there's this kind of like ghostly gasps, like very temporal afterlife or something like that. They'll be over. So when he's preaching the resurrection, it's so odd to them. They accuse him of preaching foreign divinities. Did you catch the plural so they think he's preaching to gods, that he's preaching Jesus and Anastasia, or resurrection that they're two and he's got no, no, no, I got I got to correct that thought. There. So what they do is they, they take him, to the area because now they're in Athens. There's, two pretty prominent features in places. One is the Acropolis, which is actually in every Greek city. Acropolis just means a high city or the highest part of the city. So in every Greek town, what they would do on the high city, the Acropolis, the highest part of the cities, they they build a temple. This temple was dedicated to Athena, hence the name Athens. And then down below that there was the Areopagus. And so Aries, the Roman term for that god is Mars. And so it's the the hill of Aries or Mars Hill, if you will. So you've heard that that's what's happening here. So he's down at the area Ophiuchus. Now, you gotta realize he's out of the marketplace. He's out of the street. This is not just kind of informal public open space conversation anymore. This is a little bit different. Okay? I don't know if we can fully stretch it to mean this, but it's almost as if he was brought before the Supreme Court. Okay, so we're kind of there, but what this council did at the area is in the past they had done murder trials. That's kind of where that would happen at. When Paul's there in that day. It's not the case anymore. They're not trying that. But they still are overseeing kind of public life and education, religious practices. So they've got some weight, they've got some formality. And so they bring him in two reasons. Number one is this they bring him in because they're obsessed with the news. What's new? They did nothing but talk about what's new. We still do the same thing today. People wake up, they immediately grab their phone. They check the news. Right. You're standing in line, going to the bathroom. You hop on social media. What's new? You sit at home all day long with four hours of news. So very similar to that. So they're bringing them here to hear this kind of new thing. But secondly, they're probably had the authority to go like we'll accept or reject this new religion into Athens because there's some implications. So we bring Christianity in. Does this God need a temple? What do the followers of this God do? Are there feasts and festivals that, like, they're going to participate in? And how would this, like, mesh with everything else? So that's probably what's being done here in a little bit more formal setting, maybe for kind of a quasi supreme court, if you will. So that's what he's going to address. Now. He's going to answer some of those but also really share with them. So here we go in verse 22. So Paul standing in the midst of the area, you guess Marshall, he says, Men of Athens I perceive that in every way you're very religious. For as I passed along and observed objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. So what? Therefore you worship as unknown. This I proclaim to you brings us to our next point. How do we engage in evangelize the intellectual religious lost? We have to have eyes that are aware. See what? Where are they missing it, right? What are they reading? What is their, chief? End of man? What are they attaining to? And so that's what he begins to do here. They have this, thoughts about creation and deity and meaning he's trying to decrease the. This is trying to close the gap, if you will. I just working with what he has to like. He doesn't start with scripture. They don't have the Hebrew Bible. They're not reading that. They're not convinced by, you know, God in the Old Testament said so. He starts with context. He starts with their life, their longings, their desires, what they do. So in a sense, like he's trying to cross the river. And so he's just looking for the little rocks kind of just just poking up enough all I can get here and make this connection do this in my mind. The image on the why, it's like a zipper. Okay, so here's their beliefs over here that are that are off. And he's trying to like pull them together to this. You know, like, hey, I know you think this, but actually it's this. So that's what he's doing here in this moment. So do we have eyes that are aware? Do we understand their context? Do we love people enough to observe their culture, to study their background, to learn their history? This is what he did. This is why he refers to the altar of the unknown God. So here's what he knew about Athens and the altar city on them. God, it was a long time ago before he ever got there. Athens was in plague, had a pestilence, I mean, so bad they couldn't get rid of it. And so what do they think? This is fate. This is determined by the God material and all this stuff, right? The gods are mad at us for some reason, so we need to appease them. So they took one of every animal up to the Acropolis, up to the Parthenon, slaughtered them all, sacrificed them all, didn't work. Pestilence, plague. Still continue. So now these guys like. Well, we've done the best we can do. Let's go get some immunities. Was a priest and a prophet of Zeus. They lived on the island of Crete. So they go bring in a consultant. Okay, so they bring him in and they're like, hey, bro, we've like, we've done it all. We just slaughtered every animal. We don't know what to do. There's a plague still going on in other villages like, I got your answer. Go get 600 sheep. So they do. They bring 600 sheep to the area and they just set them loose. Scram. You know, goats. And they just followed him around. And wherever a sheep laid down, they would mark that spot. They would slaughter and sacrifice the sheep there. Two an unknown divinity. Because, like, if he's laying down here, there's some sort of thing happening here, some divinity, and we need to make sure to appease him. So as he's walking around Athens, there's at least 600 of these authors to the unknown God. And so he's going and grabbing that stepping stone, that bridge, that connector, and going like, hey, you're close, you've missed it. Let me make that connection. What is he's not unknown. He can be known. So that's what he's doing here at the area. Ophiuchus. Now, this all centers around the word foreign. The word foreign here talks about foreign divinities. They're looking at Paul. And look at this religion like this. God is distant. He's strange, he's different. He's removed. He's irrelevant to us in our life. And so he's got to decrease that. No, no, no, he's very close. He's very relevant. He's very able to be know. So look what he does. Verse 24. And the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, he does not live in temples made by men, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. So here's what he'll do in his speech to them. He'll start with creation and he'll end in final judgment. So here you start with creation. Because creation is not an accident. It wasn't just some particles, particles slamming into each other like there is a design. There is a designer. There's a God who is creator. And oh, by the way, he doesn't live in temples. So if you're wondering if we need some extra temples in the city because this religion is coming in, no we don't. And also we don't need to slaughter 600 sheep because this God needs nothing from you. He's the creator of life. He gives life to all of you. He doesn't need your little sacrifices to him. So kind of addressing the practical, but also being very theological to them. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth. Having determined a lot of periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him, yet he is actually not far from each of us. So here he starts, and he's like, it's not the particles and the molecules and the atoms that define and determine everything. It is this creator God who has defined your boundaries, who determined what is going to happen. So again, you think this. But no, you're wrong. You're missing it. It's actually disgust. And then what he does here, he uses the term like you're feeling for him. So it's a it's a word that, Homer used in Odysseus when, when Odysseus, poked the one eye of the Cyclops and, you know, with the spear and blinded him. So the cyclops is in the cave, and the Cyclops is is groping, is grasping, is feeling, trying to get Odysseus. And so Paul is even using that word and that terminology from one of their own authors to apply it here. And he said, all of you, you're you're very religious. You're you're grasping for God, you're groping, you're blindly feeling like you're trying to get. And that's what all these temples in these idols and it's philosophical ideas, but you're missing it. You're just off. But he says, then there's great thinkers, but he's not far from any of you. He is attainable. He is knowable. He is gettable, if you will. He goes on, for in him we live and move and have our being. Even as some of your own poets have said. See, he's reading their writings, for we are indeed his offspring. Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver stone, an image formed by the art in the imagination of man. Two things happening here. One one that John Lennox says is this is that philosophy is obsessed with life, emotion and existence. You know, what is life? What is motion? How does things move? And then like, what was being. So he's like kind of getting into philosophical ideals. Here he goes in him we live in move have a bring. He brings life. He's already talked about life to all. So life has purpose. It has meaning. It has value has worse than motion. Here's what he's saying here. We know this to be true, that everything that is at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by an outside force and everything in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. And so they're constantly debating and talking about that. He says, let me tell you what the outside forces it is. This creator God, he is the uncaused cause or who started everything in motion and keeps all things going. And in him we have our being. That's why there is something instead of nothing. That's why there is existence. So he's taking that philosophical idea and pointing it to Yahweh God. And then what he's doing is talking about the offspring here. So we are his offspring. So there's the idea that each and every one of you had the what they would call the Greek, called the the spark of the divine being. In you from Zeus. And the spark of divine being could be in lots of different things. And he goes, no, that's really not the way it works. But what you're grasping at, what you're blindly feeling at is Imago day. Yes, you are God's offspring. You are created in his image. So therefore God is not less than us. So we would make an idol of silver, stone or rock. But he must be more than us. So that's what he's pointing to. Again, this God is greater, not this little idol or stone, since we are his offspring quoting their own authors. Now he gets the last point. How do we engage the religious in the intellectual lost once we care, once we find that opportunity to share with you have eyes that are where truly understand. Now there's a message we must share. Look at this message. Times of ignorance God overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed on a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, we'll hear you again about this. So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom were also Dionysius, the area, the guide, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. So he starts off very like in his powerful message times of ignorance, the God overlooked that's coming to him in. And so what he's saying here is that that now that Christ has come and died, resurrected and ascended now, now that they have some Scripture, now that Paul's there kind of laying this out for him, he said, God didn't judge you as severely as he could have back in the past. But that time is over now. Now ignorance has been dispelled and so now you will be held accountable. Now, if you're a parent in the room, you get this right when your kid is two years old and they say Washington, you go, oh, that's really cute, you know? But when they're 40, you need to correct them. All right. Time of ignorance is over. So you let your kids sometimes get away with things you don't really step in and judge all the time. But there comes a point where, like, you know, you're old enough to know, you know, not to do that, okay? And so that's what's happening here. In a sense. There's a test coming. You will be judged. And so important what we see here. God commands all people everywhere to repent. The word repent, it means to stop and turn towards God, to change your thoughts about God, to change your actions and attitudes about God. So that's why he's telling people like you're here. You're missing it. It's time to stop calling it Washington and start calling. You need a change of thought. Your attitude is an action. So that's what he's doing now. The most important piece of this is he says, God commands everyone everywhere to repent. Here's what's key. He doesn't invite you to repent. God doesn't suggest that you repent. God doesn't encourage that you repent. He doesn't beg you to repent. He commands repentance. And the difference between an invitation and a command is this you can reject an invitation. No harm, no foul, but you reject a subpoena. You're in trouble. You don't reject the command of a king, of a lord, of a God without there being consequences. So that's what he's saying. God is commanding you to repent. So we just pause there for a second. Even God put some application on us. Where is God calling you to repent? Not just salvific, like turning your mind thoughts about God and Jesus in a saving way. But as Luther said, all of life is repentance. Is there a place in your life right now, at the beginning of 2025, that you need to stop and turn towards God? He's not suggesting it. He's not encouraging you to do it. He is commanding you, and if you do not, there will be consequences. Paul says here by a judge who is a righteous man. He's not even using Jesus's name yet, but he's just saying there's a righteous man that will judge if he commands you to repent. You go like, oh, how? How can he make the statement, who is this guy who can command me to repent? Who is this guy who can judge me? What proof? What assurance do you have? And that's when Paul delivers the might drop moment. He goes, he resurrected from the dead. And that just to split the crowd. I think Paul had more to say. I think you wanted to talk longer. I think the reaction was so strong that it just ended the speech right here, because resurrection, like I said, that was not a concept in their mind. They didn't get it. So we see three responses. Some just mocked and left for resurrection. Yeah, right. You know, so really what they're telling Paul is like I'm pretty sure it is boo on jury. No okay. That's that's certain. I'm not going to listen to you anymore. Others would go, oh, I'll consider a lot. Let's talk about Washington. Washington tomato, tomato. You know, I'll consider it, but, but but some believed so. They were so prominent. Do you know why their names are in here? Because people wouldn't know their name. So some people of the Council of the area had to guess, believed. Now, some critics have looked at this and said, well, like Paul kind of failed here. Like he didn't didn't really do a good job because there's just a few people believed it wasn't like the thousands. And he kind of changes his method later on. I don't think that's the case. I mean, you tell me, if you were given an audience with the Supreme Court and two of the justices converted to Christianity, is that failure? You have to realize how high in society he is talking to. And so for council members of the religious and and other so prominent that see to be named, this is a huge win, a huge success. It gives credibility to the gospel. There's so many people in our world today. You'll meet them this afternoon, tomorrow, the office, their intellectual, the religious, and they're absolutely lost. There's people in your life, you know their face right now. You see it when I say it. Aren't they just blindly feeling and trying to find something of worth and meaning and value by just grasping for God, and they don't even know what they have? The God sized hole or that vacuum in their heart. There's so many people you know their name. When I say that they feel that God is distant, he's removed his foreign. He's irrelevant to them and believer. You have been called to bridge the gap, to close the distance, to have a heart that cares, to be in the agora, in the marketplace, finding opportunities to share eyes that are aware you love them enough to understand them, and what motivates them. And then you have a message to share. Commanding. Repent repentance because God loves them and he wants to save them. So maybe I'll just go out on a limb here. Is there anyone here today you feel like? Man, I've been close, but I feel like I've missed it. Anyone here today? You've just been blindly grasping for God. He's not far from you. He's close. And you can have a relationship with him today. Anyone here pursued other things? Wrong things. He monism, pleasure, virtue, whatever it may be. Would you believe and receive salvation? You can have hope eternal. You can have forgiveness of sins. You can have this incredible relationship with God. If you put your faith and trust in Jesus alone as your Savior, let's pray and worship God. Thank you. Paul just walking around Athens being invited to speak to the possibly Supreme Court of Athens and by the Holy Spirit, you guided him, God. His heart was provoked. It was broken. He wept. He was angered by people's sin, by the fact that they were missing you, missing salvation. Although they were so close to God. Break our hearts. For what? Break yours, God. May we weep every day for the lost in our life, because we know what happens if they die and they have not come to faith in you and God. Give us boldness, intellect, creativity, to preach like this, to dialog, to discuss. Yeah, people are going to mock us and people are going to be curious, but maybe there's a few in our marketplace that will believe. So God, may the people of Rock point be bold and courageous to share this message of hope that you are not distant. You are not removed. You can be no you love and you say so, God, we love you. We worship you. It's in your name we pray. Amen. If that's you today, if you're ready to come to a point where you believe, put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, would you grab that card, that seatback pocket in front of you? Would you go online rpc fmt connect and just let us know so we can celebrate with you, support you, and walk alongside you in your decision. There's anything else that the Holy Spirit is prompting you to do? Would you be obedient to that at this time?