Latest / Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris / 12 04 2023 Paul in the Areopagus

Transcript

12 04 2023 Paul in the Areopagus · Your Daily Portion with L. David Harris

• 0:01
  Most of us eat every day, some of us too much, because yesterday's
• 0:05
  food is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do
• 0:10
  some of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
• 0:15
  keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change
• 0:19
  all of that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need
• 0:25
  to live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host,
• 0:31
  author speaker, Elle David Harris. Good morning, good morning, good
• 0:34
  morning. It is Monday, December fourth, twenty twenty three. Hello,
• 0:39
  my name is Elle David Harris. I am your host, and this is
• 0:42
  your Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single day, and today
• 0:46
  is no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson study series, God's Mission,
• 0:52
  my mission, and our caption for today is Paul in the Ariopogus.
• 0:58
  Paul in the Ariopogus. I almost got tongue tied there. We'll get back
• 1:02
  into that in just a moment, but first I'd like to say welcome to
• 1:03
  you and ask you to go over to your Daily Portion dot com. Please
• 1:07
  join our online community. Also, let us know where you are in the
• 1:12
  world by clicking in that little box that says where are you in the world?
• 1:15
  Yes, and also pick up your Daily Portion book at your Daily Portion
• 1:21
  dot com. This is the way that we build faith and fellowship. Let's
• 1:25
  go ahead and pray, and then we will get underway. Botherin heaven.
• 1:30
  Thank you for giving us this new day and for the privilege you have entrusted
• 1:33
  to us to open up your word again. Please teach us principles that have
• 1:38
  to do with leading as many people to you as possible. In Jesus name,
• 1:42
  I pray, Amen and a man again. Yeah, I want you
• 1:47
  to attempt, and really I'm saying this tongue in cheek, but attempt to
• 1:51
  say areopogus three times in a row without stumbling. Yeah, what is an
• 1:55
  ariopogus? Let me just go ahead and click the high Life and then define
• 2:00
  And it's right in the dictionary. If you are using an electronic lesson,
• 2:07
  you can hold on to that word and then let the thing define it.
• 2:10
  And it says in ancient Athens, a hill on which met the highest governmental
• 2:16
  council and later a judicial court. And then it gives us some more stuff.
• 2:23
  Okay, so it's a hill where the highest government, council and judicial
• 2:29
  court would have met. Got it. Okay, okay, okay. Let
• 2:32
  me read a quote. Now that we got that big word out of there,
• 2:36
  let me read a quote from Acts of the Apostles. There are a
• 2:38
  few I'll let you know where the quote begins, but this is out of
• 2:42
  the lesson study in Athens. Paul had expected that the Holy Spirit could use
• 2:47
  his knowledge and oratorical skills which he had gained in his education under Gameliel.
• 2:55
  But in reality it was Paul's at education on the streets of Athens and the
• 3:02
  Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit was able to use even more. And here's
• 3:07
  where the quote begins. The wisest of the hearers were astonished as they listened
• 3:14
  to his reasoning. He showed himself familiar with their works of art, their
• 3:20
  literature, and their religion. That's the end of the quote from again the
• 3:23
  Acts of the Apostles, page two hundred and thirty seven. One of the
• 3:28
  things that really causes a challenge where Christians are concerned is that seldom, well
• 3:37
  I shouldst say seldom. It is a challenge for some Christians to really get
• 3:42
  to know the people that we're dealing with can I say that again, Sometimes
• 3:46
  we don't get to know the people we're dealing with, And you're like,
• 3:51
  of course, I mean if we're friends, we can do that, but
• 3:53
  if they're strangers, then then we can't. Got it. Apart from that,
• 3:58
  though, sometimes we stigmatize people who are of various different faith communities,
• 4:04
  from different social classes and communities, and we stereotype them. We stereotype them,
• 4:13
  and therefore we're not able to really relate to them. See, the
• 4:17
  stereotype is seldom correct. I want to say one, but it's loaded.
• 4:23
  I just want to be honest with you. But people from let's call it
• 4:26
  my faith community, my faith community, sometimes we say, I don't say
• 4:30
  it, but some people in our faith community say that people of a different
• 4:35
  faith community don't study their Bibles, don't study their Bibles. And I'm thinking,
• 4:42
  well, I'm finding that people of faith communities around the world are actually
• 4:49
  studying their Bibles, even if we don't agree on some of the details.
• 4:55
  You see, and so Paul, when he had his encounter on Mars Hill,
• 5:01
  something interesting happened. I'm going to read beginning at verse eighteen of Acts,
• 5:04
  chapter seventeen. He did not stigmatize but he actually observed the reality and
• 5:12
  then applied the principle. Well, I'll talk about in a moment, okay.
• 5:16
  In verse eighteen, it reads, then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and
• 5:21
  of the Stoics and encountered him. Some said, what will this babbler say?
• 5:28
  And other some he seemeth to be a setter fourth of strange gods,
• 5:34
  because he preached unto them Jesus and the Resurrection verse nineteen. And they took
• 5:40
  him and brought him into the areopagus, saying, may we know what this
• 5:46
  new doctrine whereof thou speakest is? Now they're giving him an opportunity, for
• 5:50
  thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We would know therefore what these
• 5:58
  things mean. For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time
• 6:04
  in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. And
• 6:12
  let me just read one more. Now I'll read two more passages. Then
• 6:15
  Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, ye, men of
• 6:17
  Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as
• 6:24
  I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription
• 6:29
  to the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship him, I declare,
• 6:35
  runto you. Let me just stop right there. And so what Paul is
• 6:40
  saying is, I have seen your worship patterns. I have observed your intelligence.
• 6:46
  I have experienced your philosophical prowess, your ability to create questions and leave
• 6:54
  those questions open and dumbfounding your audiences. I have seen an experience all of
• 7:00
  that. And how this now relates to your connection with God in air quotes,
• 7:06
  I'm noticing that among all of these various gods that you have, there's
• 7:14
  one that you have not been able to make sense of. And so in
• 7:18
  that moment he is using, by the power of the Holy Ghost, an
• 7:24
  opportunity where it exists. He didn't have to create an opportunity. He didn't
• 7:30
  have to make up some new thing. He didn't stigmatize, type cast or
• 7:34
  stereotype them. He simply observed the environment in which he was and noticed that
• 7:42
  they said they didn't know this quote deity. And so he said, this
• 7:47
  is a good place to fit in the one who created all things. In
• 7:50
  verse twenty four, God made the world and all things. Therein seeing that
• 7:55
  he is the Lord of heaven and earth, who dwelleth not in temples,
• 7:59
  may with hands, neither worshiped with man's hands. And though he needed,
• 8:05
  as though he needed anything, seeing, he giveth to all life and breath
• 8:09
  and all things. And then he goes on. He is starting to pick
• 8:13
  apart without making an argument. But he's picking apart the different superstitions, the
• 8:20
  different misunderstandings, the idioms, and all of the different philosophical things, and
• 8:26
  just a very few words, he doesn't dwell in temples, like well,
• 8:31
  the one we're in made with hands, and he doesn't need anything like some
• 8:37
  of those gods over there that you're giving stuff too, as if those gods
• 8:41
  need something. Well, our God, the one that you call the unknown
• 8:46
  God, doesn't need any of that. And so what God is doing,
• 8:50
  through the power to Holy Spirit in him is to say, like he said,
• 8:56
  I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified
• 9:03
  in another studying. This is what he said. But that was the tenor
• 9:07
  of his life. That was the tenor of his life. He didn't have
• 9:11
  to go into the philosophy. He didn't have to have the argument, he
• 9:15
  didn't have to try to become quote aeradite. Look that up. You see
• 9:20
  how he didn't know what I said at some of you. Yeah, he
• 9:22
  didn't need to do any of that. He said, you know what,
• 9:24
  you call me a babbler. So what I'm going to do in this context
• 9:28
  is simply share the great news about what you call the unknown God, and
• 9:33
  that God can transform your life so that you can have it more abundantly,
• 9:39
  have eternal life through Christ. A wonderful day, Peace, Thanks for joining
• 9:45
  us listening. Friends. Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but
• 9:50
  by every word that comes from the mouth of God. This has been your
• 9:54
  daily portion with El David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,