Sermon Tone Analysis
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Acts 17
Title
Dah-ma-rhee
Dee-OH-knee-see-us
Air-ee-opo-gus - means “Hill of Ares” Greek God of war - Roman God MARS
Air-ee-opo-gites
Introduction
The story of Paul's life after his conversion is that of preaching the GOSPEL and facing opposition.
Show map from Thessalonica to Athens
While Paul was waiting he looked around.
What did he see?
A whole town given over to idolatry.
False God’s and beliefs!
What happened to Paul?
He was stirred up about it!
He was provoked!
He was distressed about it!
• over the abuse of God’s glory
• over the spiritual blindness of man’s mind and reason
• against the devil’s enslavement of lives
• with compassion for the souls of men
Why?
They were believing and practicing false religion!
Allow God to stir you up about the Gospel!
The first lesson:
Allow what you see in this world stir you to do more with the Gospel!
It is the only hope!
It is for those who know to tell those who don’t!
Paul decide to do something about it ...
PREACH!
Second lesson:
Share the Gospel with anyone, anywhere
Look at the different type of people Paul spoke with about the Gospel;
The Religious Jews
The first audience for the gospel was the religionists.
The religionists were pictured in the Jews.
It says that he “Disputed” : has more of a negative tone today - REASONED or DISCOURSE
They …
• were the regular attenders of worship services
• were familiar with God
• were familiar with the Scripture and its teachings
• were the ones usually trying to live moral and just lives
• were the ones usually seeking truth
Therefore, they were the logical ones to try and reach first.
They were the first ones for whom the preacher’s heart would ache, for they …
• had been seeking God and had been blinded by institutional religion, by its ceremony and ritual and form
• were resting in a false security and assurance
• had been holding the banner of morality and justice high in an evil world
• had been holding back the flood waters of evil
Very simply, the religionists were the persons who were more like the preacher than anyone else.
The religionists, although lost and blinded to Christ, were concerned with morality and justice.
The preacher’s heart was bound to ache for the blind religionists to know the truth.
“I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Ro.
9:2–3).
“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved” (Ro.
10:1).
“For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God” (1 Th. 2:9).
The Religious Gentiles
The second audience for the gospel was God-fearing men and women.
The word “devout” (sebomenois) means those who worship or the God-fearing men and women who are not Jews.
There were many of these in the ancient world, many who were just sick of the immorality and injustices of their pagan society and polytheistic religions.
Therefore, they turned to the Jewish religion, being attracted by the emphasis upon one God and the laws demanding morality and justice for all
(see DEEPER STUDY # 2, Society Corrupt—Acts 16:14; note—17:11 for discussion).
“That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us” (Acts 17:27).
“But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Dt.
4:29).
“Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near” (Is.
55:6).
“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jer.
29:13).
The Materialistic Masses
The third audience for the gospel was the average person or citizen of the community.
These were the people of the community who …
• gave little thought or notice to truth, to what lay behind the world and man, behind behavior and death
• just fit in and went along with the crowd and society and the world around them, whether just or unjust, moral or immoral
• were concerned with day to day affairs and practical living
They were the audience who moved about in the market places and shopping centers of the community, buying and selling, demonstrating concern over …
• appearance and looks
• clothes and the latest styles
• possessions and things
• body and development
• social acceptance and popularity
• position and recognition
• money and property
Note: these are the materialists of the world.
Materialism always leaves the human heart empty and longing for something that will fill and satisfy one’s life.
The heart of the honest materialist is a prime audience for the gospel.
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Mt.
6:24).
“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mt.
16:26).
“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col.
3:2).
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev.
3:20).
“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
And let him that heareth say, Come.
And let him that is athirst come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev.
22:17).
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Is.
1:18).
“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Is.
55:1).
The Worldly Agnostics
17:18 Epicurean Epicureanism was a system of thought that asserted there was no connection between people and the divine.
This belief was expressed in a desire to seek contentment and satisfaction and to avoid pain and discomfort.
(hedonism)
Epicureanism began with Epicurus (341–270 BC), who argued that the world was made of atoms and that the world was purely material.
Epicureans attempted to free people from the idea of the gods, the afterlife, and the fear of death.
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