"Preaching to a Pagan Culture, pt.2 (Acts 17:16-34)" | 7/10/22
Acts 17:16-34 | 7/10/22 | Will DuVal
The summer after my freshman year of HS, I got the opportunity to go on a one-month language immersion trip to Costa Rica. And my first night there, I made quite an impression on my new host family. In my nervousness, of acclimating to a new home, new family, new foods, a mostly new language, I accidentally spilled my water all over the dinner table. So attempting to apologize, I exclaimed, “Estoy tan embarazada,” which I thought meant, “I’m so embarrassed,” but which actually means, “I’m so PREGNANT.” Talk about embarrassment!
Well, that earned me the affectionate nickname “Gringo” for the summer, “Foreigner”. Some of us feel that way as CHRISTIANS even in our OWN rapidly secularizing society, don’t we? Like we don’t quite belong. That’s because, as I pointed out LAST week: we DON’T. The Bible calls those of us who are believers - born-again followers of Jesus, adopted sons and daughters of our Father God in Heaven - it calls us “strangers and exiles” now in this world around us. We’re citizens of Heaven instead. And yet, God has also appointed us as AMBASSADORS to this world, to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, to reach everyone here with the good news of Jesus - His life, death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins for all who would trust in Him by faith and be saved.
So how do we, as ‘outsiders’, reach an increasingly ‘foreign’-feeling world with the hope and love of Christ?
-
Well fortunately, God has not left us in the dark; he’s given us His WORD as a guide, and specifically this morning, the example of the apostle PAUL, who in Acts ch17, on the Areopagus in Athens, Greece, is doing exactly the same thing you and I have been called to do - preaching to a thoroughly pagan culture. And last week we saw, in part 1 of our study, that in many ways, Paul’s audience here is nearly identical to our own - he’s got 3 groups of listeners: Epicureans, Stoics, and the common Greeks. Hedonists, Idealists, and Polytheists. Pleasure-seekers, Virtue-keepers, and God-appeasers.
Isn’t that AMERICA today too? Some folks couldn’t care LESS about God; they just wanna suck all the marrow out of THIS life, in this world. Others figure if there IS a god, it’ll all just work out in the end as long as they try and be a good person; live virtuously. Still others are deeply religious, but they know little to nothing of the true God of the Bible. So we have MUCH to learn this morning from both the con-TENT and the con-TEXT of Paul’s message here in Acts 17, vv16-34. 16 principles, as a matter of fact, for effective evangelism. We covered half, EIGHT of them, last week; so let’s start with a quick RECAP:
First - We must Be UPSET. (v16)
Like Paul, we need to be “provoked”, “deeply distressed”, HEART-broken over the sin and the resulting alienation from God that we see all around us in the world.
#2 - We must Be RESPONSIVE. (v17)
We need to recognize our audience, and then respond by contextualizing our gospel presentation accordingly.
#3 - We must Be UNDETERRED. (v18)
Like Paul, our evangelism may well be met with MOCKERY or MISUNDERSTANDING - or perhaps just passive curiosity and apathy - but in ANY case, we don’t let it deter us from our calling to witness.
#4 - We should Be READY. (vv19-20)
Ready to JUMP at the chance to share the gospel; SEIZE every possible opportunity!
But at the same time, #5 - We should Be REALISTIC. (v21)
Knowing that not everyone will respond with saving faith. And yet, like Paul, we preach nevertheless. Because OUR job is simply to sow the seed; it’s GOD’S job to give the growth.
#6 - We must Be WINSOME. (v22)
So attractive and charming as to win others over. We Christians ought to be the kinds of people that unbelievers WANT to hang around and listen to and learn from and become LIKE.
#7 - We must Be INQUISITIVE. (v23a)
We don’t JUST preach; we LISTEN too, we observe. So we know how best to preach. But also, because people don’t care what you know til they know that you care. So we prove it, by taking an active interest in the lives and perspectives of those around us, even when they disagree with us.
And lastly from last week: #8 - We must Be CROSS-CULTURAL. (vv23b; 28)
If we’re gonna translate the gospel into terms that those around us can understand and relate to, we’ve got to ENGAGE with that culture; not cower in fearful isolation. Wherever we find God’s light and common grace in our pagan society, we commend it, then we capitalize on it, by using it as a launch point for gospel conversation.
So let’s add 8 additional principles to those now; I invite you to stand with me… Acts 17:16-34
“Now while Paul was waiting for them [for Silas and Timothy] at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities” - because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed 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.”
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.” This is the word of the Lord…
#9 - We must Be INTELLIGIBLE. (v24a)
Last week we heard the context behind and the salutation to Paul’s address, but this morning we’re examining his sermon proper. And notice how he opens it here in v24: with “The God who made the world and everything in it”.
Now, Paul knows that Jesus is the very CENTER of the gospel. Jesus’ sacrificial death in the place of rebel sinners, his crucifixion is the CRUX, of our gospel proclamation. And yet, it need not necessarily be the BEGINNING. Every gospel presentation must include the cross, but it doesn’t have to OPEN with it. Instead, Paul starts with an even more basic, ground-level, accessible, intelligible doctrinal truth; he STARTS, actually, at the beginning: Genesis 1:1; he doesn’t QUOTE it, because as we pointed out LAST week, the Old Testament wasn’t considered SCRIPTURE, it isn’t the divinely-inspired, authoritative words of GOD for his Greek audience. v18 already made it clear that they have NO idea who JESUS is. So Paul starts instead with GOD, and CREATION; concepts they can follow. You don’t want to preach over the heads of those you’re trying to witness to, and leave them even more LOST and confused.
Speaking of relatable, if we back up to v23, you’ll recall that Paul’s “IN” here, his sermon introduction, if you will, was their OWN “altar to the unknown god”. The Greeks were renowned for their polytheism, their pantheon of gods. You may be familiar with the 12 Olympian gods - Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Aphrodite… - but they worshiped hundreds, even thousands more (https://www.theoi.com/Pantheon.html). Their deities were so ubiquitous that one ancient historian, Peterronius, said it was easier to find a GOD in Athens than a man (https://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/acts/athens-versus-paul).
And yet, there were still never ENOUGH. In the 6th c BC, a great plague hit all of Greece. So naturally, people made sacrifices to all of their gods. They started at the top, with Zeus, and worked their way down. But still the plague persisted. So Epimenides, the SAME pagan philosopher who Paul will quote here in v28, he came up with an idea: he reasoned that if NONE of their myriad of existing gods seemed to be accepting their sacrifices and remedying the plague, then perhaps there were even MORE gods that the Greeks didn’t even KNOW about. So Epimenides suggested they start building altars and sacrificing to “the unknown god”, just in case they had MISSED a god, who was offended and mad.
(https://www.biblehistory.net/newsletter/the_unknown_God.htm)
Paul says, “As a matter of fact, your ancestors were RIGHT! You DID miss a god, the ONLY God, Yahweh, maker of heaven and earth and everything IN it; HE is Lord of ALL, and He alone deserves all your worship and devotion.”
So Paul’s gonna get to Jesus, but he STARTS with God the FATHER. And creation. Concepts they have categories for; even if their theology is off.
And that’s principle #10 - We must Be HONEST. (vv24b-25a; 29)
Paul is winsome - he is gracious and respectful of their culture and worldview - but he’s still HONEST with them. He gives it to ‘em straight, here in vv24-25; he may be winsome, but he’s not a WUSS. Sometimes we THINK we’re being winsome, but we’re REALLY just wussing out - “Well, if I’m gonna “charm” and “win them over” to Jesus, I don’t want to OFFEND them…” - listen: Paul wasn’t afraid of ruffling some feathers. He essentially says, “The GOOD news is you were RIGHT about missing a god; the BAD news is you were completely wrong about what that god is LIKE.” Paul says, “This God, the TRUE God, is NOTHING like these fake gods you’ve been worshiping all your lives.” vv24, 25, and 29 here: Paul makes a direct CONTRAST between their conception of the gods, and the true God of the Bible: He says, “Y’ALL think that the gods…
1) Live in temples,
2) Rely on your offerings,
3) and they Look like YOU.
But in actuality…
1) God CAN’T be CONFINED by your buildings for Him,
2) He DOESN’T need ANYTHING from us; WE’RE the ones who rely on Him for everything - our “life and breath and everything”, and
3) We DON’T make Him in OUR image; He made US in HIS!”
In this way, as Tony Merida notes, Paul repudiates all THREE camps in his audience. “[In contrast to] the Stoics, Paul states that God is distinct from his creation (not their pantheistic, impersonal ‘Life-Force’ god - “everything is God” - Paul says, “NO; everything is from God, but Yahweh alone is God.”)... [in contrast to] the Epicureans, Paul states that God is not aloof [distant, disinterested], but [rather, he is] involved in creation [Jesus said, “God numbers the hairs on your HEAD! Not a sparrow falls to the GROUND without God knowing]… [And in contrast to the IDOL-worshippers], Paul states that] God cannot be contained in a shrine or temple.” (Merida, 254) As King Solomon confessed in 1 Kings 8:27, at the dedication of His temple, that HE built for God, “Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” How’s THAT for a Temple dedication?! “Well, everyone, I know you’ve worked tirelessly for 7 years now and spent a few hundred MILLION dollars building this home for God, but don’t forget that HEAVEN is His throne and the entire EARTH cannot suffice for His footstool (Isa 66:1), soooo…”
Solomon was honest with Israel. And Paul is honest here with the Athenians. The question for you and me today is: “Will WE be honest, with those around US?” Listen: if you’re trying to witness to someone, but you haven’t yet mentioned their SIN at all - not just sin in the abstract; everyone knows there’s sin in the world… “out there”... systemic injustice, ruthless dictators - THAT doesn’t ruffle any feathers. Sure, let’s fix the sin “out there”. But have you been HONEST about the sin {*heart*} “in HERE”... in THEM… in their OWN heart? Cuz let me warn you: THAT is offensive. It may be the ONLY thing that’s offensive anymore. Say any 4-letter word you want… espouse any kooky, cockeyed belief you want, but whatever you do, don’t you DARE suggest that there might be something WRONG with me. That I am not perfectly perfect, acceptable, virtuous, sufficient EXACTLY they way I am.
Friends: the gospel is offensive. God has the audacity to say, “Actually, there IS something wrong with you; SO wrong, in fact, that I had to send my own SON to DIE for you, because nothing less would appease the righteous WRATH of a holy GOD, than the perfect BLOOD of Jesus.” And until you’re ready to get honest about your sin, the depths of your depravity and your NEED for a Savior, Jesus isn’t for you; He said, “I came for sinners, not saints; it’s the SICK who need the doctor, not the healthy” (Mk 2:17).
Church: will we be so HONEST with unbelievers? Will we be HONEST - yes, gracious and respectful, but HONEST - about their bad theology. Paul essentially says to them: “You’ve got a lot of wrong ideas about God”. A.W. Tozer asserted that, “The most important thing about us is what comes into our minds when we think about GOD” (The Knowledge of the Holy, New York: HarperCollins, 1961, p1). How about the unbelievers in YOUR life? If they were honest, when THEY think about God, do they think:
“Well, he created things, obviously, but he doesn’t appear to be all that involved anymore. Certainly not enough to be concerned about MY “little sins” - my white lies, my petty jealousies, my inconsequential gossip, lust. Surely God’s got bigger things to worry about than THAT… As long as I’m generally a “good person”, I’m sure God won’t mind…”
OR they think:
“God is LOVE. And loving means ACCEPTING. The important thing is to see the goodness in everyone, to affirm and validate them, no matter what. That’s what GOD does; he MADE us just the way we are, so he must approve of us and accept us just the way we are.”
OR they think:
“If I’m REALLY honest, I HATE God. If there’s even a god at all, he’s not a god that I have any interest in worshiping. The kind of god who would let my father walk out on us… let my mom die early of cancer… let my HUSBAND cheat on me… let my WIFE disappoint me… let me KIDS disobey me… let my FRIENDS forget me… let my BOSS screw me over… let ME SUFFER! How DARE He; I HATE God!”
Hey, at least they’re being HONEST. Brothers and sisters: will WE be, equally honest with them, about the TRUTH of who God is, and their need for Him?
In order to DO so, #11 - We must Be BIBLICAL. (vv24-31)
Paul doesn’t just share his own personal musings and speculations about God here; he consults the divine autobiography, God’s WORD, the BIBLE. While Paul doesn’t explicitly QUOTE it, his sermon here is saturated with biblical revelations, exhortations, and most of all, with biblical doctrine, specifically, biblical THEOLOGY; doctrine about GOD. After having been HONEST with them about their WRONG ideas about God, Paul now takes them to God’s WORD, in vv24-31, to set the record STRAIGHT on who God really IS.
Warren Wiersbe points out that (378): “Paul shares four basic truths about God here:
the greatness of God (v24): He is Creator …
the goodness of God (v25): He is Provider...
the government of God (v26): He is Ruler...
and the grace of God (v30): He is Savior”.
But I’m afraid that Wiersbe actually leaves out five ADDITIONAL glorious attributes of God that I find in Paul’s sermon here; unfortunately, I couldn’t manage to keep his “G” alliteration going, so I switched to “P”s instead; how about:
The PRESENCE of God (v27); He is HELPER.
The PRESERVATION of God (v28a); He is SUSTAINER.
The PATERNITY of God (vv28b-29a); He is our FATHER.
The PROPRIETY of God (v31a); He is just JUDGE.
And finally, the POWER and PREEMINENCE of God (v31b); He is CONQUEROR.
Let’s consider each, briefly - these glorious truths Paul shares about who God is, and who God is FOR YOU - and just how BIBLICAL each of them is; we’ll start with Wiersbe’s list:
Paul rejoices in the greatness of God as Creator;
v24: “God made the world and everything in it; [He is] Lord of heaven and earth”
Gen 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Neh 9:6 ““You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.”
Rev 4:11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
Paul rejoices in the goodness of God as Provider.
V25: “[God] gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”
Ps 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want… my cup overflows…”
Ps 34:10 “those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”
Jam 1:17 “Every good gift… is from above, coming down from the Father…”
Paul rejoices in the government of God as Ruler.
V26: “he made from one man every nation… having determined… the boundaries of their dwelling place”
Ps 103:19 “The Lord’s throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”
Dan 2:21 “[God] changes times and seasons;
he removes kings and sets up kings”
2 Chr 20:6 “You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.”
Paul rejoices in the grace of God as Savior.
V30 here: God invites us, “commands us… to REPENT”
Isa 45:21-22 “I [am] the Lord…
a righteous God and a Savior;
there is none besides me.
“Turn to me and be saved”
Ps 3:8 “Salvation belongs to YAHWEH”
Acts 3:19-20 “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord”
And now MY appended list:
Paul rejoices in the PRESENCE of God, who is our HELPER.
V27: “he is… not far from each one of us”
Josh 1:9 “the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.””
Deut 31:6 “He will not leave you or forsake you.””
Ps 145:18 “The Lord is near to all who call on him”
Ps 139:7-10 “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? …If I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”
Paul rejoices in the PRESERVATION of God as SUSTAINER.
V28a: ““‘In him we live and move and have our being’”
Ps 55:22 “[God] will sustain you.”
Ps 54:4 “the Lord is the upholder of my life.”
Col 1:17 “in him all things hold together.”
Rom 11:36 “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
Paul rejoices in the PATERNITY of God as our FATHER.
Vv28-29: “we are indeed his offspring”
Deut 14:1-2 “You are the [children] of the Lord your God … For the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession”
Isa 63:17 “you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from old”
Gal 4:6 “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying “Abba, Father!””
Paul rejoices in the PROPRIETY of God - his “rightness or justness” - as JUDGE.
V31: “he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness”
Ps 7:11 “God is a righteous judge”
Jam 4:12 “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy”
2 Cor 5:10 “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
And finally, Paul rejoices in God’s POWER and PREEMINENCE as CONQUEROR.
V31: “[God] rais[ed Jesus] from the dead”!
Rom 6:9 “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.”
Eph 1:20-22 “[God] raised [Jesus] from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet”
And not only THAT, but 1 Cor 6:14 declares “God raised the Lord [Jesus], and He will also raise us up by his power.”
Church: THIS is your God! The great Creator, the good Provider, the sovereign Ruler, the gracious Savior, the present Comforter, the preserving Sustainer, the loving Father, the righteous Judge, the preeminent Conqueror - He is YOUR God!
Or at least He CAN be. I sure HOPE He is. And that brings us to…
Principle #12 - In our evangelism, we must Be EXHORTING. (vv30-31a)
To “exhort” is “to urge, advise, or caution earnestly; admonish urgently.”
That’s how Paul ENDS his message, in vv30-31, with a warning, that “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands ALL people everywhere to repent”... OR ELSE!
Speaking of brutal honesty, Paul basically sums up ALL of their vain, pagan philosophies, their proud, 5-century long legacy of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle - ALL the great Greek thinkers of antiquity - Paul summarizes as “times of ignorance”! Cuz friends: you can have all the knowledge in the WORLD, but if you don’t know GOD, as He truly is, as He has revealed Himself to us in His word and in His son JESUS, if you don’t know Him as your personal Lord and Savior, then you don’t know JACK!
And so Paul WARNS them here: your forefathers were IGNORANT; but God “overlooked” that. Tony Merida (259) explains: “‘Overlooked’ doesn’t imply that God ignored human rebellion. [Rather,] In God’s great mercy he didn’t immediately visit humanity with the judgment we deserved. With the coming of Jesus, however, a decisive turning point is taking place in redemptive history: now everyone must repent or face God’s just judgment.”
So I’m just gonna exhort YOU once again this morning, to repent and trust in Jesus today, if you haven’t already, for the forgiveness of YOUR sins, before it’s too late. And for those who HAVE, I exhort YOU to now exhort OTHERS, with URGENCY, to repent and trust in Jesus for their salvation. As Hebrews 2:3 asks, “how shall we escape [God’s holy WRATH] if we neglect such a great salvation?” If we neglect JESUS, and what he’s DONE for us?! There is no neutrality; to be apathetic about Jesus is to be apathetic about SALVATION, about ETERNAL LIFE!
Brothers and sisters: we need to IMPLORE people to repent and believe. As Spurgeon said, ““If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
#13 - We must Be CHRIST-CENTERED. (v31b)
Paul’s entire sermon has been culminating to this point, in v31. So this is probably a good time to let you know that most scholars believe this isn’t an exact transcript of Paul’s message; that it’s probably just an OUTLINE. I for one certainly think so. Because otherwise, Paul wouldn’t have shared the GOSPEL with them! It’s important to let others know about God and His creation, His sovereignty, His provision, His presence - ALL of that. But listen: if there’s no CROSS and no RESURRECTION, then there’s no GOSPEL and thus, no HOPE. Romans 1:16 declares that “the GOSPEL is the power of God for salvation to all who believe”; only the GOSPEL has the power to save us - the good news of what JESUS has done for us in his life, death and resurrection, to pay for our sins and purchase us new life.
So I HAVE to believe that when Paul mentions here the “man whom God has appointed… and given assurance to all by raising him from the dead,” that Luke’s just recording the Cliff’s notes from Paul’s sermon, because Paul must have given them more CONTEXT for understanding who this “appointed man” Jesus is, who God raised from the dead, and most importantly, what He means for THEM; why Jesus’ death and resurrection should matter - ETERNALLY matter! - for them.
Brothers and sisters: we too must remain Christ-centered in our conversations with unbelievers. You can be as charming, caring, eager, winsome as you want, but if you haven’t given them JESUS, then you haven’t even given them a SHOT at salvation. What the unbelievers in your life need - more than your care, your empathy, your love, your friendship - is your JESUS! They need HIM. Will we give Him to them?
And when we DO, #14 - Will we Be TRUSTING? (vv32-33)
We read: “Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this… [but v34] But some men joined him and believed”.
Like Paul’s crowd, every one of you here this morning will have one of 3 possible responses to Jesus: Rejection, Reflection, or Reception (Skip Heitzig, “Acts 16:25-17:34” sermon). Rejection (“resurrection of the DEAD? Pshh…”), Reflection (“Hmm, I’m interested to hear more about this Jesus guy and the Christian faith…”) or Reception (“God, have MERCY on me, a sinner, in JESUS’ name!”). How will YOU respond to Him?
And for those who HAVE received Him, how will we respond when we now share Jesus with OTHERS, only to have some reject Him, or merely reflect on Him? Like Paul, will we TRUST in God’s providence - God’s ability to take that seed of the gospel that we have been faithful to sow, no matter how imperfectly, that God can take it and GROW it, in His OWN way, in His own TIME, into full-blossomed saving FAITH.
You know, some commentators suggest that Paul’s attempt at evangelism here on the Areopagus was a failure, because there were apparently so few converts. But brothers and sisters, let me just remind and RELIEVE you of that burden this morning: we are NOT in the conversion business. That’s out of our pay-grade. Our job is simply to tell them, and then TRUST Him.
#15 - Be PERSONAL. (v34)
I love that Luke ends by including the personal names of “Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris”. We know nothing else about them from the rest of the NT. But GOD knows them. And their names are written in HIS Book of Life. Is yours? Salvation is personal. When you get to Heaven and God asks, “Why should I let you in?”, I sure HOPE you’ve got a better answer than, “I was raised in a Christian home.” “You know, I can actually see my parents just inside there, so if you could just let me in…” - God’s gonna say, “Yeah, I KNOW your parents, I know why THEY’RE here; but what about YOU?”
Friends: Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?
And if you DO, is your evangelism to others personal? That DOESN’T mean you have to have a close, personal friendship with everyone you share the gospel with; every single ONE of these Athenians was a perfect STRANGER to Paul. But it does mean that people aren’t just a means to an end for us: “Well, I shared the gospel AGAIN today; checked that box; another jewel in my crown” - No, peoples’ LIVES are at stake here! It’s not about us; it’s THEM, and most of all, it’s about JESUS - about them coming to know HIM, personally. Do we see unbelievers as a possible evangelistic trophy, a feather in our cap, or as “God’s offspring”, v29; his personal, prodigal children, who He desperately longs to bring back home?
Lastly, and I warned you last week that I was gonna end the same way again this morning: with a Bonus Principle for Effective Evangelism: We must Be ENAMORED! It’s the whole reason Paul shares ANY of this, and the whole reason we should too: because we LOVE JESUS.
One of my favorite illustrations for evangelism is this story Shane Claiborne tells about working with Mother Theresa in an orphanage in Calcutta, India.
One day… boy’s birthday… ice cream… give everyone a lick…
Will we give them a lick?