Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Welcome

Thank you to Hilton for preaching last week as my family went camping.

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Today we are continuing our journey through the Book of Acts by looking at , as Paul finds himself walking through the city of Athens alone.

As you turn there in your Bibles ...

Do you ever wonder how you should relate and interact with the culture around you as a christian?

tells us that Jesus has placed us in the world yet says we are not “of” the world.

Jesus prays that we would be protected from the evil one, sanctified by truth, and sent into the world.

Today’s passage is a description of what this can look like and serves as an example for how we can:

See & Feel the Culture’s Story

Share the Hope of God’s Story

Connect the Culture’s Longings to the Satisfaction only found in Jesus

Connect Topic to Felt Need

Pray

SEE & FEEL THE CULTURE’S STORY (16)

Background

the Jerusalem counsel in Chapter 15, Paul and Silas began what people call Paul’s second missionary journey

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17:16 “Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols”

“Waiting for them...”

Paul left Nerea and made the 200 mile trip down to Athens, leaving Silas and Timothy behind.

He was alone as he strolled through the magnificient city of Athens.

The Athens of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and Zeno.

Athens was the intellectual center of the world with scholars from all over the world calling it home.

“saw that the city was full of idols...”

What are idols?

What did Paul see?

As Paul walked through the city - it syes he saw a city fulls of idols.

The root of this in the original language of Greek is where we derive theatre.

Taking a step back from the busyness of life - the chaos - the tempo to observe and watch

A what Paul saw - broke his heart - he saw a city full of idols

Pausanias, a 2nd century Greek traveler and geographer, visited Athens 50 years later, said it was “easier to meet a god or goddess on the main street of Athens than to meet a man”

Population of 10,000 people with more than 30,000 statues of gods or goddesses.

What are idols?

When we hear the word “idol,“ most of think about images carved into stone.

In Athens, this was true.

Zeus - the cloud gatherer and father of all men and gods

Hera - the goddess of marriage

Aphrodite - the goddess of love and beauty

Athena - the goddess of Athens over handicrafts and agriculture (work)

Dionyssos - the god of wine, celebrations, and ecstacy

Poseidon - the god of the seas, earthquakes and tidal waves

Demeter - the goddess of fertility, agriculture, and seasons.

Parthenon of Athena...

Ares - the god of war

Artemis - the goddness of fertility

How would you feel feel if I said that our culture, our city also is saturated with idols?

Are we really that much different.

Every culture is dominated by its own set of idols.

We have our own gods of beauty, power, money, acheivement, and pleasure.

We may not have a stone statue of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, lining our streets but out check-out aisles are lined with photoshopped images of women that cause many young women and men to be driven to eating disorders and depression.

Based on statitistics provide by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders:

Over 30 million people suffer from an eating disorder

1 person dies every hour from an eating disorder

13% of women over the age of 50 engage in some form of an eating disorder.

We too make our sacrifices to the false goddess of beauty.

We may not burn incense to Athena, the goddess of career success, but we perform a kind of child sacrifice, neglecting our families and children to achieve the next promotion or pay raise.

Even our modern poets, like Harry Chapin in 1974, sang of the empty pursuit in his song, Cats in the Cradle.

My child arrived just the other day

He came to the world in the usual way

But there were planes to catch, and bills to pay

He learned to walk while I was away

And he was talking 'fore I knew it, and as he grew

He'd say "I'm gonna be like you, dad"

"You know I'm gonna be like you"

The dad is always busy and so the son become just like his dad.

Just this week I was listening to the program ’On Point’ on NPR and that subject was, “Have Americans Made Work Their New Religion.”

Derek Thompson says, “We’re encouraged to find meaning in work — to believe that we are defined by our work.

So much so, that work has morphed "into a kind of religion — promising identity, transcendence, and community."

“We tell people to pursue their passions, to hustle for their hobbies, to seek deep meaning in their day jobs, but then you look at the jobs that actually exist in the economy, and the jobs that exist were not invented to give us meaning.

They were designed to sell things to people, to turn the gears of consumerism."

We sacrifice family and relationship to an empty god and receive nothing in return but brokenness And loss.

Pleasure - the list could go on - the examples, etc

Dionysos - the god of alcohol, parties, and esctasy

Read the lyrics to the popular pop or country songs.

Definition of Idolatry -

Traditional idol worship still occurs in many places around the world - where images are carved into stone or precious metals.

Kirsten took a picture of a billboard while in Thailand that reminded people that images of buddha are not for decoration - in fact, it’s illegal.

These images are meant for worship.

In God says about the leaders in Israel that, “These men have set up their idols in their hearts.”

An idol “is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”

Tim Keller says, “God was saying that the human heart takes good things like a successful career, material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things.

Our heart deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.”

What do we see?

“It is impossible to understand a culture without discerning its idols” Tim Keller

“his spirit was provoked within him...”

What did Paul feel?

“Provoked” - irritable (translated as such in ), to rouse to anger, spur or prick

Paul was born a Jew, a deep conviction there is only one God and he is surrounded by lies.

His spirit is agitated and annoyed.

At the same time each of the 30,000 idols demonstrates the Athenians’ hunger for God yet complete spiritual emptiness.

It like walking down a street of starving children, stomachs bloated with malnutrition.

They are surrounding by stone carving of food (Fruits and vegetables, fish, loaves of bread, pizza, ribeye steak, etc) but it that cannot satisfy because its all made of stone but the kids don’t know better so they begin eating mouthfuls of gravel hoping to satisfy their hunger.

What do we see and feel as we look at the longings in our culture?

Tim Keller said, “It is impossible to understand a culture without discerning its idols?”

Do we looking with discerning eyes as we live in world that Jesus says we are in but not of?

Can we discern the idols?

Do we prayerfully consider these things as we go about our week.

I don’t always.