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Past Ponderings

Sunday, September 22, 2019

PONDERING... How Are You Engaging The World? Part 1 (AM Sermon Notes)

How Are You Engaging The World? Part 1 (AM Sermon Notes)
GIST: Care enough about those trapped by sin to go to them and engage their minds. 
SCRIPTURE: Acts 17:14-21 
This morning we’re coming to a very famous passage in Acts. Here, we pick up where we left Paul two weeks ago. After being run out of Macedonia, his companions take him down to Athens. While in Athens, he gives one of his most famous speeches recorded in the New Testament. Initially, my plan was to walk all the way through the passage this morning. However, yesterday morning I realized there’s so much leading up to what resulted in him giving the speech that covering it all in one Sunday might be too much to digest. Therefore, this will be a two-parter. Today we’re only going to get through the first two points of the sermon. That means, next week you’ll kind of get a one-point sermon. That doesn’t mean it will be any shorter ☺️, but it will still be one point…
What I want us to consider as we read this passage together is what it has to say to us about how we’re engaging the world. We’re here on purpose. How are we using our time? Let me give you our gist, and then will move to the passage as we come to it together. As we strive to engage the world around us, we should→ care enough about those trapped by sin to go to them and engage their minds.


I. CARE ABOUT THOSE TRAPPED BY SIN (14-16)
Context: Athens. Our verses this morning start by providing us some context. Look at verses 14-15. “14 Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.” Paul was alone in Athens. This was the cultural center of the ancient world. It was a place of learning and innovation. It was also exceedingly beautiful. Even today, people travel to Athens to marvel at its ancient wonders...and this is the crumbling version! The Athens Paul would have seen would have already been conquered by the Romans, but it still would have been very much alive. Nonetheless, he’s not amazed by any of this. Instead, he’s→ 
Provoked By The Idolatry.  Verse 16 really struck me this week. “16 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.” With all its learning and all its architecture, this city was also highly pagan. In fact, it was remarked that it was “easier to find a god than a man” in the city because they had so many temples and monuments to their deities. Paul sees this, and he’s provoked. That word is hard for translators because it brings with it the idea of being both grieved and angry. I really want us to camp out here for a second and take in at least three observations. First, →  
Paul Experienced A Righteous, Grieving Anger—An Indignation Driven By Love. Most commentators agree that it probably wasn’t Paul’s intention to really start ministering until Timothy and Silas got there. Ministering with a team is not only easier, but it’s also more practical as three can do more than one. However, he can’t help himself because he looks around and doesn’t see the glitz. He sees the suffering. He’s broken, and he’s angry. Not in a selfish or violent sense. He doesn’t want to go punch some Athenians in the face. He’s torn up by their condition. He wants those trapped to experience grace! He’s not ok with sin or its results— the self-destructive blaspheming of God! These people are stuck in sin. This is destroying them. And, these people are living lives that spit in the face of the One True God who took on Hell to rescue them! So, Paul sees this and can’t be indifferent. He’s provoked. This is how Paul reacted to sin. → 
So Did Jesus! This is a picture of THE CROSS! Jesus, God in flesh, came and lived a human life, and died a violent, criminal death, and endured the punishment of God’s wrath, why? Because He could not look on those He created and loved and just be ok with them being trapped by sin. He was provoked, righteously grieved and righteously angry, and He did something about it. He’s the only one that could, and He chose to pour out His love and grace abundantly for us. Paul reacted this way to sin because Jesus had already reacted this way for Paul. → 
We Should Be Provoked Like This, Too. I know I’ve said this before, but we need to love the people around us enough to not just be ok with the sin that destroys them. We should be so changed by the love of Jesus to not just be ok with the sin that we allow to continuously come back into our own lives and tear us away from God’s grace and His plans. 
If we want to engage the world around us in any meaningful way, and this goes to me as much as anyone else, it has to start here. We have to have Christ-driven compassion for those who are trapped by sin. It’s easy for us to get angry with other people. Instead, love them enough to hate their sin and to desire to see them set free. That’s where it starts, but that can’t be where it ends. If we’re just provoked, but stay home...we’re not provoked enough! Paul cares→ 


II. ENOUGH TO GO TO THEM (17-21)
Look at what happened next. He started sharing Jesus...with anyone he could! “17 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. 18 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. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean." 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.” 
We’ll probably touch a bit more on this passage again next week, but for this morning, I want to walk through the three places we see Paul going in this passage. Then, we’ll make some observations for what this practically means for us today. He went specifically to→ 
The Synagogue, the Marketplace, and the Areopagus. Going to the synagogue was his M.O. In Athens, this group was probably relatively small. To have a synagogue, you had to have at least 10 Jewish men, so I know that there were at least that many. Beyond that, I have no idea. Nonetheless, this group would have represented people with very similar upbringings to Paul. They would have known about Scripture and been more readily accepting to what He had to say about a Messiah coming. BUT, they were not believers. For us, this would be like a small gathering of people who grew up in church, but didn’t have a real belief in Jesus. Easy to talk to. Lots of common ground. But, their head knowledge isn’t enough. They still need to know the truth. 
Next, he went to the marketplace. Everything I have read and listened to over the past several weeks has said this about the marketplace: we don’t really have an equivalent today. This is where life happened. People would go there for...everything. This is where they shopped, and socialized, and learned. You’d have stands set up selling food, and people teaching various philosophies, friends just spending time together, and groups performing religious rituals all happening in this one central location. I mean, to me it sounds like the internet…if you could crawl inside it and actually live there. Big picture though, he just went where people were, where life was happening, and he spoke to whoever happened to be there. He didn’t stay where it was safe and convenient. He didn’t speak to only the select. He went to everyone. 
This then resulted in him being pulled before the Areopagus by the Stoics and Epicureans who thought he was a “babbler teaching strange things about foreign gods”. These were two leading philosophies of the time. The Stoics were actually started by a guy named Zeno (Like our Deacon ☺️). They were pantheist who saw gods in nearly everything, but everything as a part of the Universal Reason. They were also fatalists who saw happiness and harmony as the result of inevitable courses of events. In this, the moral may suffer, but no evil could really happen to the “upright”. Thus, their goal was to rise above or transcend circumstances through disciplined living. The Epicureans were practical atheists. They believed gods existed, but had no real impact on how life would turn out. After death, there was nothing, so they strove to live for personal enjoyment now. It was the whole, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you may die mentality.  (Williams)
We still have people who fall into these mindsets today. Those who believe living a structured and “good” life is what you need to be fulfilled and experience good things in the afterlife, and those who believe this life is all there is so “live it up for yourself!”. All that being said, this was also another setting for Paul. This was a center of learning and thought. Here, specifically, he encountered deep thinking spiritualist. Even trying to think about what this might equate to for us today probably makes most of us very nervous. But here’s what I want us to remember this morning. First, → 
Go Where People Are, Not Just Where You Want To Be. Paul didn’t stay where it was comfortable. It wouldn’t have been easy to witness to the Jews in this city, but at least there he had the common ground of Scripture. We can’t stay within these four walls where it’s easy to talk about Jesus and then pretend like we’re burdened for the world. We have to go and→ 
Talk To Whoever Is There! What if you don’t like how they dress or the lifestyle they’re living? What if they intimidate you, or you’re afraid of not having answers for them? It doesn’t matter. They’re stuck. If God puts them in your path, it’s on purpose. See, the core lesson is→  
Go Wherever God Sends You. Be burdened enough to be willing to go even if it scares you. There are people around who need Jesus. We can’t just claim to care about that. This reminds me of what James wrote in James 2:15-17 “15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
So, we should care enough to go and→ 


III. ENOUGH TO ENGAGE THEIR MINDS (22-34)
I know I said I’m not going to cover this third point today, but I do want to at least give you a birds-eye view of what we can take away from what he’s about to say because… we’ll honestly some of you might not be here next week, and I don’t want you to miss this ☺️. Therefore, let me just say this. As we go, we take an Unchanging Message. No matter who we’re talking to, the gospel remains the same. However, we have to make sure we’re using a Compassionate Method. That means if we should care enough about people to talk to them as individuals, not as numbers to be conquered! Think about who you’re talking to and talk to them about Jesus. We’ll hit this a lot more next week, but I just want to plant those seeds this morning. That you really care about people should be evident in how you talk to them.
Here’s our→ 


TAKEAWAYS
1. Recognize your own idolatry. It’s hard to be burdened for the world if you see yourself as separated from “their problem”. You’re not. I’m not. There are things in my life that I am tempted to lift above Jesus. I’m a sinner. Jesus loved me enough to pour out His undeserved grace. We have to have this perspective first. Then, → 
2. Pray to be burdened for this world. Just like Jesus! Love them and → 
3. Care enough to go. Wherever people are that need to hear. And→ 
4. Care enough to speak earnestly. We must be people who have conversations driven by Christ’s compassion!



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