Fellowship Bible Church - Mullica, Hill N.J.

Our culture increasingly is boldly proclaiming “God Isn’t”.

Nothing escapes God’s plan or God’s sovereignty. Nothing occurs by accident. All is moving together to accomplish His plan in His time. Consider this piece of history:

“Nations and societies rose and fell on the backs of pandemics. The Black Death of bubonic plague that erupted in the 1300s, killing half the population of Europe, dealt the final blows to the feudal order of serfdom, with waves of deadly outbreaks to follow for centuries, shaking faith in the Roman Catholic Church, and some historians suggest, making possible the Renaissance and the Reformation.”
– Los Angeles Times

· We believe God is active and working
· We believe God is aware of our cultural issues and is moving it towards His plan
· We believe God is desiring for all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of Him

Paul had an effective ministry in Athens, largely because he had: @

· Burden and Understanding
· Meaningful Engagement
· Communicated Truth
· Christ-focused Decision
• Sovereign Contentment

Burden and Understanding (v16)

The ancient writer Petronius, a contemporary of Paul, said somewhat tongue in cheek that while in Athens you’d be more likely to find a deity (idol) than a person!

Polytheism: people that have turned from the one true God to multiple objects of worship. That worship could be in their government, their leaders, their worldview, etc.

What we see today in our culture should not primarily frustrate us or anger us - it should move us

Paul was a Jewish man – an expert scholar. Paul said this about himself in Philippians 3:4-5….

“…though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee…”

In other words – though Paul was burdened for the Gentiles, he wasn’t a Gentile and he needed to take the time to better understand the Gentile cultures he encountered:

“So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’”

He built instant rapport with the Athenians because he took the time to understand them.

Application:

Are you burdened for your culture – or irritated?

Are you willing to see people not as Democrats and Republicans – Red States and Blue States – but as people who need Jesus?

Would you be willing to step out of your comfort zone to get to know the people in your community so you could engage them more effectively?

Can you list how many unsaved people you are friends with on more than one hand?

Meaningful Engagement (v17, 28)

Notice how Paul engaged the communities that he ministered to. He went and found them:

· He went to the synagogue.
· He went to the market.
· In Philippi he went down to the river.
· For Paul, he was always going to where people were, and he was always looking to have a gospel conversation.

In fact, Paul studied the Gentile culture so well that when he is dialoguing with some of the most ‘intellectual’ Gentiles of his time he is able to talk with them intelligently about they were talking about. He quotes 2 poets in v28:

Epimenides (600 BC) “For in him we move and have our being.”
Aratus (310-240BC) “We are his offspring.”

He wasn’t quickly pulling these quotes off his iPhone – he knew them. He knew them because having meaningful engagement with Gentile audiences was important to him.

Communicated Truth (v18, v30-31)

Paul unashamedly proclaimed the truth of the gospel – that a man, Jesus, was raised from the dead and that He was appointed by God to be judge of all men.

When Paul is moving towards the gospel with the Athenians he begins by explaining God who is Creator of the world and everything in it (v24-25)

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

Paul was communicating the truth of a Creator. He was proclaiming that in our Universe you cannot simply accept the fact that something came from nothing. There had to be cause at the beginning of the Universe.

Philosophically, an argument that has been around for at least 500 years is the following:

i) everything that begins to exist had a cause;
(ii) the universe began to exist;
(iii) therefore, the universe had a cause.

Additionally, there is the element of design all over the universe – not randomness.

If the universe has cause and design then it’s not preposterous to believe something non-human is it’s originator. The Bible says that this being is a Person, God – who revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ.

Lee Strobel was a former atheist and law-trained journalist at the Chicago Tribune. He set to prove Christianity, specifically the resurrection, was built on lies. Here’s what he found:

Sources Outside of the Bible Confirm That Jesus Was At Least Executed

“Maybe, I thought, Jesus never really died on the cross as the four gospels claim.”

However, the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association concluded:

“Clearly, the weight of the historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to his side was inflicted.”

The News Spread Quickly

“My next line of defense was to say the resurrection is a legend.”

But Strobel learned that famed classical @historian A.N. Sherwin-White of Oxford said it took more than two generations in the ancient world for legends to develop and wipe out a solid core of historical truth.

Yet we have a report of the resurrection, preserved in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7, that comes far too quickly after Jesus’ death to be considered a legend. In fact, @scholar James Dunn said “we can be entirely confident” that this report was formulated within months of Jesus’ death.” And that’s not the only early report we have. The four Gospels contain others that date back to within a generation of Jesus.

The Tomb Was Empty

“My third approach was to try to undermine the empty tomb”

…Until I discovered that even the opponents of Jesus implicitly conceded the tomb was empty on that first Easter morning. Perhaps, I reasoned, the body was never entombed in the first place.

Strobel heard skeptics claim that the Romans didn’t allow the burial of crucifixion victims. However, the Digesta, a summary of Roman law, says: “The bodies of persons who have been punished should be given to whoever requests them for the purposes of burial.” In fact, in 1968 archaeologists found the buried remains of a crucifixion victim with the spike still through his anklebone.

There Are Eye-Witness Accounts

“Finally, I focused on eyewitnesses.”

While we only have one or two sources for much of what we know from ancient history, we have nine ancient sources –inside and outside the New Testament – confirming the testimony of the disciples that they encountered the resurrected Jesus.

Strobel wondered if disciples could have been hallucinating or experiencing grief-generated visions of their leader? No way, psychologists told him. Hallucinations are like dreams – they happen in individual minds, not collectively. Our earliest report of the resurrection says 500 people saw him at the same time. If that was a mass hallucination, “That would be a bigger miracle than the resurrection itself,” one expert told him.

The Christian persecutor Saul of Tarsus wasn’t psychologically primed to have a vision of the risen Christ. Neither was James, the half-brother of Jesus, who was a doubter during Jesus’ lifetime. They both died, however, as leaders of the church – why? Because the resurrected Jesus had appeared to them.

When it was all said and done, Strobel reached his verdict:

"The evidence for the resurrection of Jesus was clear and convincing. That’s why I repented of my sins and received him as my forgiver and leader on November 8, 1981."

Application:

Can you articulate some of the basic truths about what you believe?

Christ-Focused Decision (v30,31)

When it comes to sharing Christ, and there’s indication that the Spirit is moving – you have to pull the trigger – you need to ask them “Would you like to trust Christ now?”

Application: Are you fearful of asking that question? Why?

Sovereign Contentment (v32-34)

Revival did not break out in Athens. The text makes it clear what the general response was: some sneered, some delayed, some believed. And yet, Paul was content to lay out the truth and then allow the Holy Spirit to convict.

From beginning to end it is totally a work of God. All you’re doing, as Christ’s ambassador, is sharing the terms of reconciliation.