A Heart for the Pagan World

Acts: The Mission of God  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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INTRODUCTION

A few months ago, Apple made a commercial where they promised their carbon footprint would be a “net-zero” by 2030.
In the commercial, all of the Apple executives are nervously gathered in a room preparing for a big presentation, when the entire Apple campus begins to shake and quake.
Suddenly, Mother Nature, played by Octavia Spencer, appears talking about how she controls the weather and how she is tired of being disappointed by corporations who destroy the planet.
She flexes her omniscience regarding her perfect understanding of carbon neutrality and photosynthesis
The Apple employees pledge their sacrifices to her
She has a stare down with Apple’s CEO and then she gives them a passing grade and says she will be back next year to repeat the ritual.
Now, clearly this is just a silly commercial. However, does it not reveal a bit of the truth about the religious landscape of our culture?
In the commercial, you see nature being personified in a woman as a sort of goddess
This is right in line with the spiritual reasoning of our times:
To hear someone say, “The universe is telling me...” is pretty common today.
They speak of creation like it is a god.
To hear someone talk about “manifesting their reality,” is also pretty common.
They use mantras and meditation and yoga as ways to attempt to manipulate creation for their own purposes.
We even saw this during the College Football Playoffs when Michigan’s QB took his shoes off before the games in order to “ground” himself.
This is where you connect with the ground directly in order to fully be present in a given moment
To hear of someone justifying their actions or explaining their actions in terms of their astrological sign is all too commonplace.
“I know I shouldn’t have screamed at the cashier, but…I’m an Aries.”
To hear of people speaking about how we are all interconnected and how we need to produce positive energy for the collective good is not just for an Eastern religions class on a university campus. This is how women talk on the Bachelor!
Is all of this just changes in the vernacular of our society that is pretty inconsequential at the end of the day or does it represent something deeper?
Have we just picked this language up from some movies and a few Beatles songs or is something more sinister in play?
Well, the Presbyterian minister, Peter Jones, points out that Millennials are the first American generation to have been raised fully receiving and embracing a pagan cosmology in their education.
Meaning, our generation are the first ones to be fully taught, in an institutionalized sense, that universe did not come from God but from an explosion of space itself.
We were the first generation to be taught a thoroughly pagan origin story where there is no Creator and we are all just the products of random chance and the evolutionary process.
And the philosophical mindset that has been born from that is one that says, “WE are in charge.”
We no longer feel ourselves to be guests in someone else’s home and therefore obliged to make our behavior conform with a set of pre-existing cosmic rules. It is our creation now. We make the rules. We establish the parameters of reality. We create the world, and because we do, we no longer feel beholden to outside forces. We no longer have to justify our behavior, for we are now the architects of the universe. We are responsible to nothing outside ourselves, for we are the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever.
Jeremy Rifkin, Political Scientist
What this means is that we don’t just have a few phrases slipping into our day to day speech.
Instead, we live in a society that has not just written the Lord God out of the science book, but also out of the philosophy books and the spirituality books.
People are going to be religious because God has placed eternity in our hearts, but 2024 America needs a religion that fits with the origin story they’ve been taught.
Therefore, God is not God—the universe is god.
And reality is not what God makes it by His sovereign decree, but what you make it by your manipulation of the elements at your disposal.
And our actions are the product of the way we are wired and they are only wrong if they go against the morality that is being decided by the collective human community, who are all interconnected.
What we have on our hands is a nation that is becoming more and more pagan in their religion everyday.
We have a culture that is being thoroughly paganized.
How do we react to this? How do we respond?

CONTEXT

The Scriptures help us this morning, as they always do.
We have Paul and Barnabas leaving the pressure of Iconium and heading 20 miles southwest to Lystra.
They continue to preach there, but as they do, they encounter a truly pagan people.
And when the Gospel collides with the paganism, it creates a dangerous situation that will see Paul left for dead.
But as we work through these verses, I want us to see:
God’s heart for the pagan world (v. 8-11, 16)
The missionary’s heart for the pagan world (v. 11-20)
Our heart for the pagan world.
I believe God’s Word will be good to show us how we must respond to the ignorance of the world around us if we are to reflect the heart of God and the heart of the missionaries in this passage.
Acts 14:8–20 ESV
Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them. But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

GOD’S HEART FOR THE PAGAN WORLD

We start this morning with:

1. God’s heart for the pagan world (v. 8-11, 16).

Paul and Barnabas come to Lystra and in the first few verses, we see God’s pity on this pagan city.
First of all, we know this is a truly pagan town from what Luke says in v. 11.
After the miraculous healing of this man who could not use his feet, the people lift up their voices in Lycaonian.
Greek had become the main language of Asia Minor since the time of Alexander the Great and his conquests a few hundred years before Christ, but there were some indigenous languages that still existed.
Here in Lystra, the local tongue is still used—showing that Paul and Barnabas are a long way from Jerusalem now.
That is where the Gospel movement began.
The Spirit falls on the disciples in Jerusalem at Pentecost and the Gospel moves outward from there.
It goes from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and then to the end of the earth.
Here in Lystra, where the people are lifting their voices in Lycaonian—not even Greek---it is definitely the end of the earth.
The Gospel is reaching the pagans.
God’s heart for these pagans is on display in what He empowers Paul to do.
Paul is speaking (v. 9) and there is a man listening to him who was crippled from birth and had never walked. He had no use of his feet.
Paul looks at him intently and sees that he has the faith to be made well (v. 9)
As Paul is proclaiming a power that raised Christ from the dead, this man is thinking, “That same power could heal me. That same power could make me walk.”
So Paul looks directly at him and says with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet” (v. 10).
As he does, the man jumps up and starts walking, which gets the crowd very excited—a little too excited as we will see in a moment.
Now, we can see in verse 16 that there was a time in which God allowed the nations of the earth to walk in their own ways.
This refers to the time in which the nations lived in abject darkness.
Unless they came in contact with Israel, who had the Law and the Prophets, they had access to saving religion.
They lived in lostness.
One of the greatest evidences of their lostness was how they warred against Israel, the people of God.
In their spiritual darkness the Gentiles, with rare exceptions, did not bless or receive blessing through Abraham’s seed during the ages of promise. Rather, the benighted Gentile powers (Egypt, Philistia, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Hellenistic-Syria, Rome) oppressed the people of God, often violently.
Dennis Johnson
But if you look at the parallels between Acts 3 and this passage in Acts 14, we can see from the text that God is opening the way for the pagan Gentiles to know Christ.
Back in Acts 3, right after Pentecost, a miracle occurs that helps to open up the doors of the Jewish world for the Gospel to march through.
Acts 3:1–10 ESV
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Much like Acts 14, we have a man who is crippled from birth.
Much like Acts 14, we have two men doing apostolic work.
Much like Acts 14, Peter looks intently at the crippled man.
And much like Acts 14, after the lame man is healed, he leaps up and begins to walk.
In fact, the Greek words that describe the men leaping up in Acts 3:8 and Acts 14:10 respectively, are forms of the same word.
In Acts 3, the healing gives Peter and John the chance to preach the Gospel in Solomon’s Portico.
The door is open for the Gospel to be preached to the Jewish world
In Acts 14, the healing gives Paul and Barnabas the chance to teach the truth in the shadow of the temple of Zeus.
The door is open for the Gospel to be preached to the pagan world
And what this demonstrates is that just as God had a heart for the perishing of Jews of Jerusalem, God has a heart for the perishing pagans of Lystra.
Just as He revealed Himself to the Jewish world, He is revealing Himself to the pagan world.
There was a time in which the nations were in darkness, but that time is no more.
Christ has died and resurrected.
This was a watershed moment in which Satan, the ancient Serpent, was thrown down and bound by the power of the victory of Christ.
Revelation 12:9 ESV
And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
Satan no longer has free rein to deceive the nations.
The light of the Gospel is spreading to every shore and saving a multitude.
As God saves His people, Jew and Gentile, from every people group, one by one—Satan can only vent his anger and frustration on the earth.
But while he vents, the Lord saves.
While Satan writhes in miserable defeat, the Lord builds His Kingdom and rescues pagans from the eternal punishment to come.
Would God have been just to leave the pagan world in their sin?
Absolutely. He is not obligated to save anyone.
And yet, the very presence of these apostolic missionaries and His work through them shows that God takes pity on the pagan.

THE MISSIONARY’S HEART FOR THE PAGAN WORLD

So that is our first observation in the text today—God’s heart for the pagan world.
Now for our second...

2. The missionary’s heart for the pagan world (v. 11-20).

Paul and Barnabas are the missionaries and you can see that they are dealing with a truly pagan context by the reaction of the Lycaonians to the healing.
They believe that the gods have come down to them in human form—in the likeness of men (v. 11).
Since Paul is doing the talking, they think he is Hermes—the messenger of Zeus
And by default, they think Barnabas is Zeus

THE LOCAL MYTH

Now, this doesn’t come from nowhere.
There was a local myth to the region that believed two local gods walked through the area as human beings.
No one noticed them or provided them with hospitality except for an older couple
They blessed their older couple by making them priests in the temple of Zeus and then eventually turning them into sacred trees, while inflicting judgment on all the people who ignored them
With this being a local legend, the people would have been eager to not miss it if indeed there were a couple of gods in town
They wouldn’t want to make the same mistake as those people supposedly did years and years before

ANCIENT PAGANISM

‌Now, not only does this background information help us to understand their reaction—it also gives us insight into just how pagan Lystra seems to be.
They are fully bought into Greco-Roman ancient paganism.
They believed in a mythological system of gods who were a lot like humans.
They were selfish and ill-tempered and immoral—full of wrongdoing
They had weird origin stories and though they were immortal, they aged like a human aged
In truth, these false gods represented a pagan system of belief where the adherents are seeking to manipulate nature for their own gain
But instead of meditating in order to manifest reality, they are sacrificing to Poseidon so that they can have a calm sea and a good haul when they go fishing.
If you wanted thunderstorms or justice, you make offerings to Zeus
If you didn’t want Hades, the god of death, to take your loved one, you would get on the ground and bang your head against it in order to get Hades’ attention
At its core, paganism, whether it is ancient or modern, is when we worship the creation over the Creator.
The Greeks might have been bowing down to false gods, but those false gods were simply the fruit of a desire to have control of creation.
And the fact that the Greek gods resembled imperfect humans showed that the Greeks made gods in their own image, rejecting the Maker and attempting to manipulate what has been made for their own gain
This is the mindset that Paul is preaching to in Acts 14 ...

PAUL’S MESSAGE OF NATURAL REVELATION

And yet, we see the heart that Paul has for this group of people in how he responds.
The priest of Zeus comes with oxen and garlands in order perform ritual sacrifice (v. 13)
He is ready to offer up worship to Barnabas and Paul and to lead the rest of the crowd to do the same.
The fact that the bull ox is brought in shows how serious things are. The bull was the noblest animal you could sacrifice to a Greek god.
They are pulling out all the stops here in this effort to revere the missionaries.
The garlands were for Paul and Barnabas. They would wear them on their heads in a ceremonial procession to the temple of Zeus, where the bull oxen would be sacrificed.
Afterward, there would be a large meal to commemorate the moment.
But Paul and Barnabas won’t allow this to happen. They tear their cloaks to express their grief over the moment (v. 14) and they rush into the crowd and begin to reason with the people in verses 15-17.
They tell them that they just humans like the rest of them, not worthy of worship (v. 15)
They tell them that they bring them good news of the living God, who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them (v. 15)
They tell them that there was a time in which the nations were indeed left in darkness (v. 16)
And yet, even in that darkness, people were without excuse because God revealed Himself through the gifts of rain, fruitful seasons, food and gladness (v. 17)
In truth, Paul’s message is one of natural revelation.
God has two books.
The book of Natural Revelation
The book of Special Revelation
Everyone has access to the first book and everyone is without excuse before God because of the first book.
Romans 1:18–20 ESV
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
This is the argument Paul is making in v. 17.
Everyone knows God exists because His eternal power and divine nature are clearly perceived in the things that have been made.
The rain. The fruitful seasons. The food. The gladness that comes from it all.
It is very similar to the argument we will see Paul make in Athens in Acts 17:22-27
Acts 17:22–27 ESV
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 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. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 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, 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,
In Romans 1, Paul tells us that people have rejected this natural revelation and they exchange the Creator for creation in terms of their worship.
Romans 1:21–23 ESV
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
This is the great, fatal mistake of the pagan world.
It is certainly the mistake of the people in Lystra.
Zeus is an image resembling mortal man and yet, they are ready to bow down and offer sacrifices and worship.
It is classic, God-hating idolatry.
Now, I want to be clear—natural revelation is good to reveal the existence of God to us, but it is not able to reveal the saving plan of God.
This is why God has revealed Himself to us in His Word and in His Son, Jesus Christ.
He does not desire that we would simply know He exists, but that we would know Him.
We can only know Him through Jesus.
Special revelation reveals the glory of Jesus.
But even though saving knowledge cannot be gleaned from natural revelation, it is still crucial as we preach the Gospel to the world.
Natural revelation walks up to the pagan or the Atheist and it kicks their shield out from under them.
They are left exposed by the truth of God’s existence.
Once they are exposed, we use the sword of special revelation to pierce their hearts and we preach Christ to them.
Going back to Acts 17, we see Paul doing that there:
Acts 17:29–31 ESV
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. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 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.”
He starts with natural revelation, then he begins to move to special revelation.

REACTION OF THE CROWD (v. 18-20)

Paul is on his way to doing that here in Lystra, as well. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get very far.
On one hand, he doesn’t get very far because the people still want to offer sacrifices to them.
They are obstinate and worked up into a religious frenzy and are determined to carry out this act of idolatry.
Furthermore, things get even stickier when the Jews from Antioch and Iconium show up.
We don’t know how much time passes between the incident with the healing and the attempt on Paul’s life, but what we do know is that these Jewish conspirators show up and persuade the people of the city that Paul is indeed not worthy of worship.
Instead, he is worthy of death.
So he is dragged out of the city and stoned and left for dead (v. 19).
The disciples find him and then he goes back into the city and leaves with Barnabas for Derbe the next day.
He may have been miraculously healed and that is how he is able to stand up and go back into the city, or he is simply assisted by the disciples.

HEART FOR THE PAGANS

Regardless, Paul’s heart for the pagan world is undeniable.
He heals in their midst.
He tries to keep them from idolatrous sin.
He preaches the truth about God to them.
And then, he suffers for the sake of them hearing the Gospel.
And not only does he suffer, but he goes right along to Derbe in order to continue preaching the Gospel and making disciples in a pagan land.
We shouldn’t be surprised at the Apostle to the Gentiles love pagans, but we also shouldn’t gloss over it.
We should take note of what he says in Romans 1:14
Romans 1:14 ESV
I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
Whether it was a cultured Greek or a Barbarian who was uneducated, Paul saw himself as being under obligation to take the Gospel to the Gentile world.
Why? Because God called him to do it and because he desires to see the obedience of faith in the pagans for sake of Christ’s name.
Romans 1:1–5 ESV
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,
This was Paul’s heart for the pagan world. This was the missionary heart that he and Barnabas had for Lystra.
If you had asked him, “Paul—why do you travel over land and sea to go to these cities? Paul—why do you risk life and limb? Paul—why try to reason with a crowd of Zeus worshippers?”
He would say, “I want to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations.”

OUR HEART FOR THE PAGAN WORLD

So we have seen God’s heart for the pagan world.
He takes pity on the pagan.
We have seen the missionary heart for the pagan world.
“Bringing about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all nations.”
But what about us?
What about our hearts?

3. Our heart for the pagan world.

THE HEART WE SHOULD HAVE

Does your heart reflect the heart of God and the heart of Paul when it comes to the pagan?
It should.
Now, we know that the paganism encountered by Paul and Barnabas and the paganism we deal with these days is a bit different in exercise, but whats not different is what’s underneath it all.
Underneath it all, the heart of paganism is that the Creator is rejected for the created.
Paganism is a materialistic worldliness that is obsessed with finding pleasure in the here and now.
And when it is lived out—whether it is done through the lens of worshipping Zeus or Mother Earth or ascribing deity to the Universe—the results are the same.
When humans give into paganism, they write God out of the creation by suppressing the truth within and then they give in to all sorts of deviant practices—particularly in the area of sexuality.
We heard from Paul earlier regarding trading the Creator for the creation. Listen to him talk about where it leads:
Romans 1:24-27
Romans 1:24–27 ESV
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And not just that—Paul goes on to say they are filled with all manner of unrighteousness, including:
evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slanderer, hate, insolence, haughtiness, boastfulness, disobedience to parents, foolishness, faithlessness, heartlessness, ruthlessness.
Sexual immorality as the horrible jewel in a ring of unrighteousness. Does this not sound like our age?
That is because we live in a pagan generation that has exchanged the truth about God for a lie.
They worship the creation as if it is the Creator.
They have fully embraced the pagan mindset.
But now, it rarely expresses itself in animal sacrifice.
Instead, it casually attributes sovereignty to the Universe or motherhood to the Earth in conversation
It shows up in the absence of a God outside of us who is objectively true and proclaims that god is the creation itself and whatever you deem to be true is just fine, as long as you don’t transgress the collective morality that society has decided upon.
It rears its head in the results of a 2022 survey that found 52% of Americans believe in manifesting reality through positive thinking and efforts.
Its a different flavor of the same Pagan drink.
And its got the same pagan results of idolatry, sexual sin and depraved evil.
The question is—how do we respond?
Do we have the heart of God that pities the pagan? A heart that desires to see the pagan repent?
Do we have a missionary heart that longs to see the pagan obey God in faith for the sake of the glory of His name?
Because this is the heart that we should have.

THE RESPONSE WE OFTEN HAVE

My fear is that too often our response is one of anger or avoidance.

ANGER

Sometimes we are so angry with the pagan world around us that we just become adversarial.
God has pity on the pagan, but we are just provoked.
We see their wrong beliefs and their wrong behaviors and we think, “Now there’s the problem with this country.”
Now, there may be truth to that. Paganism is no foundation to build a society on.
But notice how the first conclusion we make about a person is how they are a problem for us and not how they are a problem for themselves.
We think, “This would be a better country for ME if that person would go away.”
But do we stop and look at them and think, “This is a person who knows not God. They are confused. One day, they will stand before God and be judged for their sin. Full-force.”
Do we stop and mourn what a mess they are making for themselves or are we only concerned with the mess they are making for us?
The godless pagan is confused.
Devastatingly confused.
So confused about the worship of the Creator that they will bow down to idols who can’t speak and attribute godhood to a made thing.
So confused about the nature of sin, that they think they can just ignore it and live how they want and get away with it.
So confused about eternal things that we can’t even start with Jesus with them—we have to start with natural revelation like Paul does in Acts 14...
They are in danger of Hell.
We should pity them and we should plead with them.
This is what we will do if we have the heart of God for the pagan.
Some of us have torn our in anger over the pagan world, but we need to start tearing them in grief.

AVOIDANCE

Or maybe we just avoid them all together.
We look outside of the church and we find the world to be weird, so we just stay away.
We see the pagans worshipping the creation over the Creator and we think, “I hope they figure that out.”
This is where we need the heart of Paul and Barnabas.
This is where we must be willing to go from town to town, whatever the cost may be, so that the pagan will obey God in faith.
In going right to the pagan and sharing our faith boldly, we are not just showing that we care for them, but for the name of God.
We are showing that we count God’s name to be worthy of worship and we are determined to see Him get it from hearts that are worshipping what He has made instead of the Maker.
A habit of avoidance is antithetical to the missionary heart.
The missionary sees the lost world and says, “Give me proximity. Put me close, Lord. Place me near the pagan.”
Do we have that heart?

CONCLUSION

Apple’s Mother Earth commercial is mostly a clever joke, right?
And yet, that clever joke has been viewed by 4.6 million people.
How many of those people, and others, have rejected the God of the Universe for man-made gods that are as limited as the minds that fashioned them?
How many of those people are participating in daily idolatry and don’t realize it?
How many of them are living in a lost ignorance that only the Gospel can break through?
We know the transcendent God of the Universe.
He has revealed Himself to us in nature, in His Word and in His Son, Jesus Christ.
We know that the time to repent of sin and trust in Him for salvation is now.
We know He will return soon and everyone will give an account of their lives.
And we know that He offers a revolutionary love in His Son that the world is desperate for, whether they are aware of it or not.
We cannot be angry or avoiding. We cannot be indifferent.
We need the heart of Paul and Barnabas for the pagan world.
And more importantly, we need the heart of God.
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