The Foreign Gospel
Evangelism • Sermon • Submitted
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· 8 viewsMaking the Gospel understandable by any means necessary without compromising its integrity
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Introduction
Introduction
The Background To Today’s Text
The Background To Today’s Text
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
While Paul was waiting for them
Paul observed with sustained attention the situation within Athens
What is the situation within your community today? What is your community?
Paul was a spectator within the city of Athens
Paul looked at and observed the city of Athens
The city was wholly given over to idolatry
An Idol were physical and visible representation of a deity, usually used as an object of worship
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.
So Paul reasoned in the synagogue and in the marketplace everyday with those who happened to be there
Made a speech in a formal manner
He disputed
He argued
He discussed
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.
Act
Some conversed with the babbling preacher of foreign divinities,
conversed= they tried to help Paul, they pondered, thought about seriously
Illustrate: Millennials are they thinking generation, they ask questions, they don’t take what you say as the truth, the gospel, just because you say it or even the preach. They want to dialogue. For example, my colleague Jorge who is a millennial. They ask a lot of questions. Sometimes they seem confrontational and anti-God because most of their questions tend be about what they perceive is wrong with Christianity and/or what they disagree with in the Bible
The conversed because...
He was preaching Jesus and the resurrection
People like and understand the Jesus:
Who will heal your body who is Jehovah Jireh
Who will supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory
The Jesus who will make a way out of no way
The Jesus who hears their cry
Who has a cattle on a thousand hills
They the LORD God who will keep in perfect peace as long as their mind is stayed on Jesus
But what about the resurrected Jesus
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
They wanted to know what this new teaching Paul was presenting
new = pertaining to having been in existence for only a short time, recent
For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.”
You bring some strange things to our ears.
The Gospel is suppose to sound strange to those who do not know Jesus
The Epicureans and Stoics wanted to what these things mean.
Millennials what do know what the Bible means. They have genuine questions. True followers of Jesus Christ should be the ones fielding and answering their questions
Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
The Athenians- opportunity for community evangelism
The foreigners who lived there- opportunity for cross-cultural evangelism
Telling or hearing something new
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.
Acts 17:22-23
I perceive
That in every way you are very religious
As I passed along and observed the objects of your worship
I found also an altar
What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you
Illustration: Once in the 6 century B.C. when Athens was plagued with pestilence, after the city rulers exhausted all their strategies to solve it. They turned to a prophet who told them to drive black and white sheep away from Areopagus and wherever they lay down, to sacrifice them to the god of that place. The plague was stayed, the because they did not know the God’s name they named it in honor: “To the unknown god.” These altars were found through Attica.
Events like September 11, 2001 attacks cause people to seek a god
Body
Body
Conclusion
Conclusion