Sermon Tone Analysis

Acts  17

 

16.

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.

17  So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God‑fearing Greeks, as well as in the market‑place day by day with those who happened to be there.

18  A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him.

Some of them asked, ``What is this babbler trying to say?''

Others remarked, ``He seems to be advocating foreign gods.''

They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

19  Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, ``May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

20  You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.''

21  (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

22.

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: ``Men of Athens!

I see that in every way you are very religious.

23  For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.

Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

24  ``The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.

25  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.  26  From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

27  God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

28  `For in him we live and move and have our  being.'

As some of your own poets have said, `We are his offspring.'

29  ``Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone‑ an image made by man's design and skill.

30  In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

31  For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.

He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.''

32.

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, ``We want to hear you again on this subject.''

33  At that, Paul left the Council.

34  A few men became followers of Paul and believed.

Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

\\  

FOR ALL THOSE BORN BEFORE 1945

 

WE ARE SURVIVORS!!  Consider the changes we have witnessed.

We were born before television, before penicillin, before polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, plastic, contact lenses, Frisbees and the pill.

We were before radar, credit cards, split atoms, laser beams and ballpoint pens, before pantyhose, dishwashers, clothes dryers, electric blankets, air conditioning, drip‑dry clothes, ‑‑‑ and before anyone walked on the moon.

We got married first and then lived together.

How quaint can you be?

In our time closets were for clothes, not for "coming out of."

Bunnies were small rabbits and rabbits were not Volkswagens.

Designer jeans were scheming girls named Jean or Jeanne, and having a meaningful relationship meant getting along well with your cousins.

We thought fast food was what you ate during Lent, and Outer Space was the back of the Riviera Theatre.

We were before house husbands, gay rights, computer dating, dual careers and commuter marriages.

We were before day‑care centers, group therapy and nursing homes.

We never heard of FM radio, tape decks, electric typewriters, artificial hearts, word processors, yogurt and guys wearing earrings.

For us time‑sharing meant togetherness, ‑‑ not computers or condominiums; a "chip" meant a piece of wood; hardware meant hard‑ware and software wasn't even a word.

In 1940 "made in Japan" meant junk and the term "making out" referred to how you did on your exam.

Pizzas, MacDonald's and instant coffee were unheard of.

We hit the scene when there were 5 and 10 cent stores, where you bought things for 5 and 10 cents.

Sanders and Wilson sold ice cream cones for a nickel or a dime.

For one nickel you could ride a street car, make a phone call, buy a Pepsi or enough stamps to mail one letter and two post cards.

You could buy a new Chevy Coupe for $600, but who could afford one?

A pity too, for gas was 11 cents a gallon.

In our day, cigarette smoking was fashionable.

Grass was mowed.

Coke was a cold drink and pot was something you cooked in.

Rock music was a Grandma's lullaby and aids were helpers in the principal's office.

We were certainly not before the difference between the sexes was discovered, but we were surely before the sex change.

We made do with what we had.

And we were the last generation so dumb to think you needed a husband to have a baby!

No wonder we were so confused and there is such a generation gap today.

BUT WE SURVIVED!!

 

 

WE DO NOT COME TO GOD ON OUR TERMS

 

- Salvation is not a negotiable matter where you come to an understanding with God.

We are in an age when the secular mentality is a "consumer" mentality.

Why is this a good deal for Me?

There is very little if any of the servant mentality.

If I don't get something out of this then it is not worth my time.

I am caring for my own interests.

Somewhere along the line God wants to call people out of this mindset.

Awareness is the first step.

Does the knowledge that I represent Christ affect my dealings with people?

Am I willing to give people reason or excuse to blame me and or my conduct for their lack of salvation?

Am I willing to risk that because of me someone might discard religion to their damnation.

It is possible to state your case without being totally obnoxious about it.

It does take control to do that.

How much am I willing to lay on the line in favor of my (1) realizing my own rights, (2) getting what I have coming, (3)

 

- Repentance must be a part of that experience.

We must have a degree of sin-sickness.

Otherwise it is merely behavior modification.

There are times when we mistake repentance for sin with the sorrow of sin's consequences in our own lives.

We are hurt because of the negative consequences that sin has brought into our own lives.

Also we must understand that sin is something that hurts God more than it hurts us perhaps.

/Acts   3/

/ 19  Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,/

/ /

/ /

/- If/ my conscience is not bothered then I must be okay.

God has not convicted me of that yet.

Does that give me the right to do what is contrary to God's will?  "Lord, when we are wrong, make us willing to change.

And when we are right, make us easy to live with."

(Peter Marshall)

 

 

/1John   3/

14.

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.

Anyone who does not love remains in death.

15  Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

16  This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

17  If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

18  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

19  This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest  in his presence  20.

whenever our hearts condemn us.

For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

21  Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God

/ /

/ /

/ /

Commitment is called for.

/Romans  12/

/ 1.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God‑ this is your spiritual act of worship.