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June 5th, 2023
 
Thanks for coming along as we begin another week together, everyone! I pray that the power of Jesus and His love will deeply bless you in the days ahead. He is our hope and our peace! Amen!  

I have several quick notes for you today:

1. If all goes according to plan, we will roll out our updated website by the end of the week! We're excited to share it with all of you!

2. I have about 45 emails left to respond to following the discovery of our server issue this past month. Once again: if you sent us email and never got a response, it is likely that your note found its way into an unmonitored folder. My deepest apologies; I'm working through the backlog as fast as I can.

3. With the arrival of June comes our annual June ministry appeal... one of the two times each year that we ask for your help to fund our work at EDiBS. I'm happy to say that our viewership is up and our reach has grown during 2023. If you're able to help this month, it would make an especially big difference for us right now. Thank you!

I'm looking forward to our study time this week. God bless you richly as you open His Word!

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Paul
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Contending for the Faith.

 

Acts 17:29-31


Greetings

Greetings, everyone! Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, and welcome to Monday’s edition of EDiBS. Thanks for joining me today as we come to a new week together in the Scriptures; it’s always great to be with you, and I’m especially thankful for all of you right now as my family and I mourn the passing of my Mom this past Sunday. I’ve appreciated the notes that many of you have sent to express condolences and assure me of your prayers, and I know that our EDiBS family is one that always stands in the gap for one another — so again, thank you and please know that I have great gratitude in my heart for all of you.

 

Today we’re continuing on our journey through the New Testament book of Acts and our ongoing discussion of the second missionary journey of the apostle Paul, and over the next few minutes we’ll be looking at the conclusion of Paul’s sermon before the Areopagus in Athens. Let’s pray as we go to God’s Word: 

 

Prayer 

Heavenly Father, we are grateful to you for so many things – chiefly the salvation you have brought to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for your abiding love and mercy, and thank you for your promise to be with us every moment of every day. We ask that you would endow us with wisdom and spiritual insight as we open your Word. Lead us and guide us, in Christ’s name we pray; amen. 

 

Getting Started 

As we get started today, with his speaking time before the Areopagus coming to an end, Paul closes off his speech to those gathered there with testimony to the resurrection of Jesus. Our focus: “repent, for God will judge the world.” 

 

Acts 17:29-31 

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. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For 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." 

 

Sometimes when I preach and feel it’s important to emphasize a certain point in my message, I’ll use a variety of techniques to try and drive things home. There are creative ways to do that, of course, but one of the simplest things is just to repeat myself. I’ll mention something early on and then come back to it later – maybe two or three times. Will I try to do it in a way that blesses, rather than bores, my hearers? Yes. But sometimes it backfires and I just sound like a preacher who repeats himself a lot. (Those of you out there who used to sit under my preaching are saying “Amen, you got that one right, Pastor!”)

 

But seriously, some things do bear repeating when it comes to growing in our understanding of the nature of God, His attributes, and the way He works in the world and in the lives of His people. And in today’s reading, the apostle Paul does some repeating of his own as he speaks on Mars Hill. On what point? On the point that the Divine Being is not an image made by human design and skill, living in temples made by human design and skill; that rather than being given life, He Himself gives life and breath and everything else. God made the world and everything in it. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. He does not need anything. This all by itself is a foreign concept to most of Paul’s listeners here in the Areopagus, and they are surely marveling at such new ideas. But now in today’s reading Paul takes his audience much further into the thick of things. Why do I say that? Because at this point in his presentation, Paul progresses from: 


Knowing who God is (our Creator), to

Who we are (His offspring), to

Our responsibility before Him (to repent and receive Him), and to 

Our accountability if we dishonor Him (judgment). 

 

And while folks are still reeling from this progression, Paul tops the whole thing off by submitting as proof of these assertions the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

 

The emphasis on the resurrection here is important. Even though Paul doesn’t get very far with it, it serves to show us that this is what he has been driving toward the whole time he’s been speaking. Just as Paul had been preaching Jesus and the resurrection in the marketplace and in the synagogue, here now in the Areopagus he’s working toward the grand presentation of the Gospel: the life, death, and resurrection of Christ for forgiveness and new life. As Paul does this, however, he’s about to hit a speed bump with his audience, because as we’ll see in our next session in particular, the resurrection is not a popular concept among Greek philosophers. Some think Paul is foolish for being duped by such a silly idea. Hence, the moment this resurrection talk begins to come out of his mouth? Simply put, Paul loses the majority of the crowd. A little later in his ministry while writing to the church in Corinth, Paul will admit the difficulty that people have with the message of the cross and the resurrection, and he will give witness to the fact that he understands it to be a departure point for some in his audiences. In 1 Corinthians 1 he writes, 

 

20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. (1 Corinthians 1:20-25)

 

Wrapping Up

As we wrap things up today, Paul has come now to the high point of his discourse. He is ready to bridge the gap and walk his hearers from general knowledge of God (that is, natural knowledge of God), to God as revealed in the Person, work, and Word of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has laid his groundwork carefully. Will he have the opportunity to finish the job? With some, yes...but with others no. When we come back tomorrow we’ll see how this Mars Hill witness comes to a close, and by God’s grace, we’ll have some good things to take away from it when we do. Take care everyone, and have a great day – I’ll look forward to seeing you again next time! 

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