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Pastor-Chuck-Swindoll-Straight-Talk-to-All-Who-Struggle · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: On this very special Easter morning, I want to welcome
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Speaker 1: you to our time of worship. Normally I would be
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Speaker 1: standing before you in our church sanctuary, but today is
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Speaker 1: far from normal. For the first time since we first
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Speaker 1: started meeting as a church back in the fall of
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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight, no one is in the building on
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Speaker 1: Easter Sunday. As you know, an aggressive virus is spreading
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Speaker 1: not just across our nation, but around our world. We've
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Speaker 1: been instructed to stay isolated, to keep a distance from
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Speaker 1: one another. So on this unusual Easter Sunday, instead of
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Speaker 1: your coming to meet for worship with one another, we're
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Speaker 1: worshiping alone to be safe. A similar situation occurred among
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Speaker 1: Jesus' disciples way back in the first century. Instead of
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Speaker 1: their being seen in public, they sought safety by staying
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Speaker 1: isolated like some of you, but for a different reason.
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Speaker 1: They were fearful. They were facing an uncertain future. Their
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Speaker 1: master had been arrested, put through a series of unfair trials,
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Speaker 1: declared guilty, and nailed to a cross for he died.
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Speaker 1: They didn't face an invisible enemy like we do. They
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Speaker 1: didn't fear being infected by a virus, but because of
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Speaker 1: their close association with Jesus. They feared being found by
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Speaker 1: Jesus' enemies, arrested, ultimately suffering the same dreadful fate as he.
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Speaker 1: Just like you and me, they had no idea how
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Speaker 1: long they would need to prolong this existence, or who
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Speaker 1: might be next to die. Our minds can play tricks
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Speaker 1: on us in unusual circumstances. Fear can make cowards of
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Speaker 1: us all. It also has a way of dulling our memory.
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Speaker 1: It's easy to forget specific promises to find comfort in
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Speaker 1: words like don't be afraid, for I am with you.
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Speaker 1: Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will
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Speaker 1: strengthen you, and I will help you. I will hold
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Speaker 1: you up with my victorious right hand. We can have
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Speaker 1: words like this blocked from our memory. The Lord is
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Speaker 1: my Light and my salvation. Why should I be afraid?
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Speaker 1: The disciples didn't remember those promises, easy for us to
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Speaker 1: forget them as well. So it's easy to understand how
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Speaker 1: the disciples could forget the promises their master had made
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Speaker 1: that he would suffer many terrible things, he would be killed,
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Speaker 1: but on the third day he would be raised from
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Speaker 1: the dead. And again he said, the Son of Man
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Speaker 1: is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies.
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Speaker 1: But on the third day he will be raised from
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Speaker 1: the dead. And he repeated that several other times, but
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Speaker 1: in their fears and disillusionment, they failed to remember his
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Speaker 1: reassuring words. Finally, the same evening, after he had been
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Speaker 1: miraculously and bodily resurrected, that morning, Jesus stood in the
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Speaker 1: room where they were huddled together. The door was locked,
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Speaker 1: but he came through that door. His first words to
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Speaker 1: them not surprising, Shaloam, Peace be to you. He didn't
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Speaker 1: shame them because they forgot his promise. He didn't rebuke
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Speaker 1: them for isolating themselves in fear from those who might
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Speaker 1: hurt them. But he brought those struggling and very human
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Speaker 1: disciples words of comfort and reassurance. He did something else.
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Speaker 1: He showed them the scars in his hands and on
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Speaker 1: his side. What a powerful proof of identity. No other
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Speaker 1: living person bears the scars of crucifixion. When they saw
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Speaker 1: those scars, the apostle John tells us, they were filled
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Speaker 1: with joy. In the midst of their exuberance, he repeats
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Speaker 1: his word, peace be with you, as the Father has
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Speaker 1: sent me, so I'm sending you, and that's exactly what
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Speaker 1: he did, and when they took that challenge, while they
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Speaker 1: turned the world upside down. Author Philip Yancey writes this
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Speaker 1: one need only read the Gospels descriptions of disciples huddling
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Speaker 1: behind locked doors, and then proceed to the descriptions in
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Speaker 1: the Book of Acts as the same men proclaiming Christ
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Speaker 1: openly in the streets and in jail cells to perceive
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Speaker 1: the seismic significance of what took place on Easter Sunday.
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Speaker 1: The Resurrection is the epicenter of belief. It is not
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Speaker 1: a belief that grew up within the church. It is
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Speaker 1: the belief around which the Church itself grew up and
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Speaker 1: the given on which its faith is based. What a
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Speaker 1: profound statement regarding the Resurrection. That first Easter not only
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Speaker 1: removed the fear from the hearts of those first eleven disciples,
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Speaker 1: it changed a sniffling band of anxious and unreliable followers
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Speaker 1: into fearless evangelists. That remarkable sequence of personal transformation offers
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Speaker 1: the most convincing evidence for the Resurrection. What else explains
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Speaker 1: the whiplash change in men known for their cowardice and instability.
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Speaker 1: My hope for you today is that the reminder of
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Speaker 1: Jesus resurrection will have a similar effect on your life,
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Speaker 1: That your fears will be dissipated, that your anxieties will
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Speaker 1: be calmed, that your focus will shift from the worry
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Speaker 1: over the spread of an invisible enemy to the worship
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Speaker 1: of one who conquered death by rising from the grave
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Speaker 1: and is alive forevermore. May this Easter service change your
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Speaker 1: entire perspective. And now let's enter into this great time
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Speaker 1: of worship on this special Easter morning. For He has risen,
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Speaker 1: he has risen. Indeed, please take your hymnal with you
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Speaker 1: and stand as we together acknowledge the victory our Savior one.
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Speaker 1: For us, he has risen, he has risen, He is risen.
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Speaker 2: Please remain standing.
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Speaker 3: See scene means say.
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Speaker 4: Schemes.
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Speaker 3: It's s S S.
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Speaker 4: S S S.
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Speaker 3: S S S.
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Speaker 4: S S.
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Speaker 5: For our third congregational hymn in the morning. We're going
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Speaker 5: to ask you to join the choir and orchestra and
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Speaker 5: singing what has become perhaps the most beloved Christian song
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Speaker 5: of all time. It was written two hundred and fifty
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Speaker 5: years ago by George Frederick Handel. I'm sure you've heard
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Speaker 5: it often it's the Holaya chorus from the oratorio Messiah. Interestingly,
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Speaker 5: it's in our hymnal.
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Speaker 1: I did not know that, but I check.
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Speaker 5: It's him number thirty nine.
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Speaker 1: They have all the voice parts.
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Speaker 5: So turn there and now, if all you do is
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Speaker 5: stand there and smile like a cheshire cat, that's okay,
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Speaker 5: all right. If you want to make up something on
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Speaker 5: your own, that's okay too. Acquiring the workers is going
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Speaker 5: to carry this, okay. So so don't worry about making
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Speaker 5: a mistake. But I think there's some lines in there
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Speaker 5: that we're all familiar with, and.
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Speaker 6: You can join in singing with us.
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Speaker 1: All right.
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Speaker 5: We've got three measures of intro and then we're.
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Speaker 6: In six s.
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Speaker 4: Six six two years.
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Speaker 3: So I love it.
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Speaker 1: That was great. Some of you didn't quite know what
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Speaker 1: to do. You were terrific. We're gonna sign some of
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Speaker 1: you up for this choir. That was marvelous. I loved it.
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Speaker 1: Thank you. Maybe you didn't know what you were singing,
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Speaker 1: so let me interpret it for you. Hallelujah is from Halo,
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Speaker 1: which means to praise, and yah is the representation of
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Speaker 1: Yahweh or Lord, praise the Lord. It is a statement
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Speaker 1: of praising our God, and you did that beautifully, beautifully.
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Speaker 1: We need to do that every year. Don That is
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Speaker 1: a magnificent idea, marvelous Yeah, give it this. Now we
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Speaker 1: change scenes from the familiar to the unfamiliar, from the
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Speaker 1: world we know about to a world quite likely you've
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Speaker 1: never stepped into, nor had Paul. He was about to
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Speaker 1: take on an opportunity he never dreamed would be his.
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Speaker 1: But it was what we might call the siliquinn of
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Speaker 1: a preacher's life. He had the opportunity, in the city
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Speaker 1: of all cities to declare the great news to a
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Speaker 1: group of people who had never in their lives heard
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Speaker 1: it before. What a privilege is recorded for us in
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Speaker 1: the seventeenth chapter of Acts, an unusual text for a
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Speaker 1: resurrection warning, but because Paul's message is a climax, at
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Speaker 1: that point, it seemed appropriate. And again, these people who
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Speaker 1: were listening to him as he declared it, it was
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Speaker 1: all new information. Never before had those words entered their
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Speaker 1: ears ever. And they're all very intelligent people, and here
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Speaker 1: they were listening to a man they had never seen
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Speaker 1: or known before, telling them about a world they needed
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Speaker 1: to know about. As you would expect, some turned it off,
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Speaker 1: some were curious and wanted to hang around and learn more. Others,
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Speaker 1: at the moment they heard it, believed it. I want
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Speaker 1: to read for you from Acts seventeen twenty two through
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Speaker 1: thirty four. If you have your Bible with you, follow along.
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Speaker 1: I'll be reading from the New Living Translation, beginning at
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Speaker 1: the twenty second verse of the fourteenth of act of
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Speaker 1: the seventeenth of Acts. And imagine yourself in Paul's place
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Speaker 1: as he delivers his soul to these people. Let's stand
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Speaker 1: together out of respect for the Word of God. Acts
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Speaker 1: seventeen twenty two. So Paul, standing before the council, addressed
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Speaker 1: them as follows men of Athens. I noticed that you
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Speaker 1: were very religious in every way, for as I was
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Speaker 1: walking along, I saw your many shrines, and one of
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Speaker 1: your altars had this inscription.
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Speaker 4: On it.
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Speaker 1: To an unknown god. This god, whom you worship without knowing,
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Speaker 1: is the one I'm telling you about. He is the
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Speaker 1: God who made the world and everything in it, says
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Speaker 1: he is Lord of heaven and earth. He doesn't live
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Speaker 1: in man made temples, and human hands can't serve his needs,
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Speaker 1: for he has no needs. He himself gives life and
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Speaker 1: breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. From one man.
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Speaker 1: He created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He
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Speaker 1: decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he
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Speaker 1: determined their boundaries. His purpose was for the nations to
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Speaker 1: seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward Him
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Speaker 1: and find him. Though he is not far from any
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Speaker 1: of us, For in him we live and move and exist.
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Speaker 1: As some of your own poets have said, we are
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Speaker 1: his offspring. And since this is true, we shouldn't think
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Speaker 1: of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold
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Speaker 1: or over or stone. God overlooked people's ignorance about these
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Speaker 1: things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere
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Speaker 1: to repent of their sins and to turn to him,
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Speaker 1: for He has set a day for judging the world
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Speaker 1: with justice by the man he has appointed, And he
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Speaker 1: proved to everyone who this is by raising him from
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Speaker 1: the dead. When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection
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Speaker 1: of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said,
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Speaker 1: we want to hear more about this. That ended Paul's
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Speaker 1: discussion with him, but some joined him and became believers.
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Speaker 1: Among them were Dionysius, a member of the council, and
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Speaker 1: a woman named Damarus, and others with them. Will you
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Speaker 1: join me in prayer please as we bow together. How
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Speaker 1: grateful we are, our Father, that we have been raised
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Speaker 1: to hear the message of Christ since our earliest years.
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Speaker 1: How thankful we are for faithful parents, even grandparents, who
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Speaker 1: spoke of him as if their very best friend, and
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Speaker 1: introduced us to him that he might become for us
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Speaker 1: the Savior, our goide and master. Our hearts go out
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Speaker 1: today to the many who not only do not know
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Speaker 1: him but have never even heard of him. Maybe hear today,
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Speaker 1: and may there be a respects of true faith and
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Speaker 1: trust in the one who gave himself for us on
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Speaker 1: that cross where we first saw the light. Thank you
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Speaker 1: for the cross that brings us all of the same
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Speaker 1: level at his foot. And thank you Father for the
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Speaker 1: Savior who died that we might live, and for the
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Speaker 1: privilege of proclaiming him today. Because he lives, we shall live. Also.
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Speaker 1: We give our gifts in his name and for his purpose.
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Speaker 1: Through Christ, our Savior, we pray and we give, And
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Speaker 1: every one of us said, amen, please be seated.
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Speaker 4: Ss so.
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Speaker 3: So sist.
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Speaker 7: Sos s.
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Speaker 3: S shows.
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Speaker 4: Is s.
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Speaker 3: S thing ses so soss its song.
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Speaker 1: There's something enthralling about Paul in Athens. There's just something
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Speaker 1: right about that, even though it may have seemed weird
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Speaker 1: to those who lived there, for he was. He was
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Speaker 1: so out of place. Here is this ultra conservative raised
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Speaker 1: and Orthodox Jew born in a family in Tarsus, trained
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Speaker 1: in Tarsus, then at Jerusalem, a Pharisee of the Pharisees,
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Speaker 1: and then through the grace of God, converted to Christ.
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Speaker 1: But all of his training and all of his thinking
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Speaker 1: was focused clearly on the truth of the scriptures start
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Speaker 1: to finish. And of all things, here is this narrow,
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Speaker 1: monotheistic Jew walking the streets of the most broad minded
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Speaker 1: liberal city in the Roman Empire. Next it, but it
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Speaker 1: was still bragging of its being the cradle of democracy
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Speaker 1: and the place that thought for itself. No place like Athenes.
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Speaker 1: Sort of a Harvard and and and Yale and Princeton
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Speaker 1: and m I T in Stanford, and uh the Oxford
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Speaker 1: and Cambridge and Caltech, all wrapped up in one sophisticated scene.
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Speaker 1: On top of that intelligentsia, there are these philosophers who
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Speaker 1: struck their stuff all around the city. As they speak
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Speaker 1: of things they don't understand what they make it sound
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Speaker 1: like it's your fault, which is the definition of a
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Speaker 1: good philosopher. Anyway, there they were declaring what they believed
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Speaker 1: and often leading to a dead end street. And here
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Speaker 1: is Paul rubbing shoulders wall to wall with a forest
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Speaker 1: of idols, a forest of idols. In fact, the way
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Speaker 1: the Greek reads in this account Athens lived under idols
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Speaker 1: is the only time in all of Greek literature, including
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Speaker 1: the New Testament, when that particular term is used for
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Speaker 1: under idols. Quite like you had in mind the idea
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Speaker 1: of being smothered with or submerged under swamped by idols.
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Speaker 1: Listen to various contemporaries as well as those who lived later.
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Speaker 1: Describing Athens, Housenius writes Athens had more images than all
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Speaker 1: the rest of Greece Pliny ads in the time of Nero,
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Speaker 1: Athens had twenty five to thirty thousand public statues, excluding
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Speaker 1: thirty thousand just in the Parthenon. Let me explain on
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Speaker 1: the acropolis, which is a big word for above the
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Speaker 1: city set. The magnificent architectural and artistic structure of the
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Speaker 1: Parthenon multi column built by four point thirty five BC
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Speaker 1: in honor of Athenia and there she stood in gold
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Speaker 1: and ivory, with a massive sphere that reached so high
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Speaker 1: above the roof this opened area roof of the Parthenon,
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Speaker 1: that the point of her sphere could be seen forty
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Speaker 1: miles in circumference. Massive massive idol in honor of Athenea.
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Speaker 1: And within this Parthenon, we're thirty thousand idols just there.
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Speaker 1: Petronius sneered. It's easier to find a god than a man.
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Speaker 1: In Athens, a renowned archeologist writes, one could stand on
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Speaker 1: the agora, which is the Greek word for marketplace. One
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Speaker 1: could stand on the marketplace, and every place the eye
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Speaker 1: turd think of it, every place the eye turnd a
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Speaker 1: prominent figure carved in wood stone or cast in precious
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Speaker 1: metal could be seen, not including those in shrines, temples,
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Speaker 1: and residential homes. One wag described Athens as a junkyard
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Speaker 1: of idols, filled with eyes idols. And here the lone figure.
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Speaker 4: Of Paul.
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Speaker 1: Walking in the midst of this forest of idols. Here's
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Speaker 1: about as out of place as a full size statue
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Speaker 1: of Martin Luther standing in the Vatican. I mean, here
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Speaker 1: was Paul, this orthodox thinking converted Jewish Christian missionary whose
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Speaker 1: whole frame of reference has been beyond the idols and
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Speaker 1: above that world now walking among them. And by the way,
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Speaker 1: while we're thinking of the scene, remember where you find
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Speaker 1: the idols of this number, you find the presence of demons.
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Speaker 1: As a missionary friend of mine says, who lives in
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Speaker 1: the third world, when you're around a lot of idols,
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Speaker 1: you can smell the demons. I'm sure Paul felt that way.
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Speaker 1: In fact, and simple little outline to follow. When you
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Speaker 1: read Acts seventeen sixteen to thirty four, you read first
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Speaker 1: about what Paul saw, which we've been spending time thinking about,
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Speaker 1: and then next you read about what Paul felt, and
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Speaker 1: then you read about what Paul did, and finally what
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Speaker 1: Paul said. I love simple outlines, and that's about the
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Speaker 1: best you can come up with. It's the John R. W.
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Speaker 1: Statt outline of Acts Chapter seventeen fourteen through sixteen through
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Speaker 1: thirty four. What Paul saw and felt and did and said.
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Speaker 1: How did he feel? Well? It's not difficult to wonder
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Speaker 1: about that, because he tells immediately he was deeply troubled
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Speaker 1: by all the idols he saw everywhere. We get our
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Speaker 1: word paroxysm from the Greek word translated, he was deeply troubled,
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Speaker 1: He was provoked, frustrated. He can only imagine what life
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Speaker 1: must be like in private, if this is the way
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Speaker 1: life looks in public. There were the Stoics who believed
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Speaker 1: we should press on fearlessly and proudly, accepting the laws
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Speaker 1: of the universe, however harsh they may be, and never
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Speaker 1: once showing emotion, remain any passive and disengaged. Those are
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Speaker 1: the Stoics. On the other end of the spectrum where
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Speaker 1: the Epicureans, they believed that happiness and pleasure was life's
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Speaker 1: highest good, and both should be pursued with unbridled passion.
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Speaker 1: In fact, there was no judgment. There is no beyond
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Speaker 1: this life existence. So hey. Their motto, which they made
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Speaker 1: popular and it still lives today, was eat, drink, be merry.
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Speaker 1: Tomorrow we die. So there were the Epicureans and the
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Speaker 1: Stoics and those others gathered around this man. He first
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Speaker 1: goes to the synagogue we read in verse sixteen seventeen.
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Speaker 1: He reasons with the Jews and a few of the
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Speaker 1: of the Greeks who were there, and then he spoke
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Speaker 1: daily in the agora in the public square. I don't know,
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Speaker 1: maybe sort of a free speech platform. Free speech platforms
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Speaker 1: are interesting places. Anything can happen. I remember when I
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Speaker 1: was finishing my years at Dallas Seminary and Sweet Anderson,
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Speaker 1: a fellow student, said to me, let's go to let's
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Speaker 1: go up to Oklahoma University and let's let's stand on
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Speaker 1: the free speech platform and let's and let's just preach
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Speaker 1: the gospel. Okay, Chuck, you're ready for that? And I said, yep,
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Speaker 1: let's go. So we go up there, and he's experiencing it,
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Speaker 1: being with crusade campus crusade for several years, but this
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Speaker 1: was the first for me. So I stood on one platform,
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Speaker 1: he was about twelve fifteen feet away, and we just
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Speaker 1: preached our hearts out. He said, don't hold back, don't
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Speaker 1: worry about what they do or what they say. And
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Speaker 1: all of a sudden I get hit by a rotten
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Speaker 1: tomato and he gets hit by one. He looks over
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Speaker 1: me and says, ain't this fun free speech platform? I
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Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe Paul was on the platform like that,
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Speaker 1: maybe standing up declaring the message. And here were these
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Speaker 1: philosophers far too sophisticated to throw tomatoes, but they were
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Speaker 1: sneering at him. Like, what in the world is this, yeah,
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Speaker 1: trying to tell us? They are what I used to
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Speaker 1: call when I was a kid eggheads. They're all the
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Speaker 1: See you're getting toward the title. You wondered what my
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Speaker 1: title was all about the ariophagus eggheads versus a seed picker.
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Speaker 1: Well he's the seed picker. You see how they referred
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Speaker 1: to him. Look down at verse verse eighteen when he
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Speaker 1: told him about Jesus and his resurrection. They said, what's
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Speaker 1: this babbler trying to say to us? Interesting word it
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Speaker 1: means gutter snipe is it's the picture of a little
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Speaker 1: bird that hops around picking up seeds and spreading them
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Speaker 1: here and there. Except when it's a person, you pick
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Speaker 1: up thoughts here and there, and like a good plagiarist,
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Speaker 1: you quote that somewhere else as if it's your statement.
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Speaker 1: And they saw him as sort of a seed picking plagiarist.
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Speaker 1: If you can't imagine that, think of the little birds
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Speaker 1: that hop around McDonald's parking lot and you'll you'll remember
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Speaker 1: they're picking up little bits of fries here and there,
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Speaker 1: and they're the they're the seed pickers of the area.
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Speaker 1: That's why they saw Paul, who's this seed picker on
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Speaker 1: his free speech platform, telling us about some gee Jesus
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Speaker 1: is it? And and about about what a resurrection? Remember
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Speaker 1: all their lives. It's like live and you die in it.
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Speaker 1: I like a dog. You hear this man as the
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Speaker 1: audacity to tell him about life after death. So surprise
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Speaker 1: of surprises, the philosophers move close to him and they
43:20
Speaker 1: say to him, come here. We want you to come
43:25
Speaker 1: with us and do your presentation at the highest court
43:31
Speaker 1: of the land. It's like a person who is visiting
43:35
Speaker 1: our United States, and through an interesting chain of events,
43:40
Speaker 1: they wind up having an audience with the Supreme Court.
43:45
Speaker 1: This is the Supreme Court of Ethens. It's called the Areopagus.
43:52
Speaker 1: Pagos means hill. Eres was the god of war among
43:58
Speaker 1: the Greeks. When Rome took over and changed it to
44:03
Speaker 1: Mars Hill, but it was then known as Aris Hill
44:08
Speaker 1: or Areopagus. What significant is that's where they met to
44:14
Speaker 1: make their high court decisions. This was the highest, most
44:20
Speaker 1: significant and sophisticated place you can imagine. And Paul, unknown
44:31
Speaker 1: to him when the day started, is now finding himself
44:37
Speaker 1: soon to be standing on the Areopagus. I don't know
44:43
Speaker 1: Paul kept a journal or not, but if it did.
44:49
Speaker 1: If he did, I think the journal this day began
44:54
Speaker 1: simple words alone in Athens, But before the page is over,
45:03
Speaker 1: he's talking about standing on the areopagus. I suppose every
45:12
Speaker 1: preacher has his dream spot where he would love someday
45:18
Speaker 1: to be able to stand and declare the truth. One
45:23
Speaker 1: of my experiences came several years ago when the commandant
45:28
Speaker 1: of the United States Marine Corps, General Crulac, got a
45:33
Speaker 1: hold of me, and I had never met him before,
45:36
Speaker 1: and he said to me, we'd love to have you
45:42
Speaker 1: come to the National Cathedral and preach to our graduates.
45:46
Speaker 1: Who are the officers graduating from Quantico where they have
45:52
Speaker 1: been in training. It'll be at the National Cathedral, and
45:55
Speaker 1: he said, I need to tell you there will be
45:59
Speaker 1: a number of Marine Corps brass there. That's the understatement
46:05
Speaker 1: of the day. When I got there, not only was
46:07
Speaker 1: stuck General Krulak there, but all these generals and colonels
46:13
Speaker 1: and and all the moguls of the outfit dressed in
46:16
Speaker 1: white right down front. I mean, it would have been
46:20
Speaker 1: timidated an elephant. And there they sat staring at me,
46:26
Speaker 1: and here I am smiling back at them. And over
46:29
Speaker 1: here is the graduates of the class of that year
46:35
Speaker 1: from Quantico. And by the way, I should mention that
46:38
Speaker 1: the Drummond Bugle Corps just before I spoke, played amazing
46:42
Speaker 1: grace with bagpipe. Ooh. I started to shout glory, but
46:47
Speaker 1: I realized I was in a place where you don't
46:49
Speaker 1: do that. In fact, earlier General Krulac had said to me, oh,
46:54
Speaker 1: praise God, you're here to speak. Made and he took
46:57
Speaker 1: me in his arms and he said, made a spirit
46:59
Speaker 1: of God, use you and bless you this day as
47:02
Speaker 1: you tell everyone here about Jesus Christ, our savior. This
47:06
Speaker 1: is the commandant. I mean, it's hard to hug a
47:09
Speaker 1: man when you're standing at attention and he's right there
47:13
Speaker 1: beside you. Well, what a privilege. And for the next
47:16
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes I had the privilege to speak on the
47:21
Speaker 1: subject he gave me. It was integrity. Now they gave
47:26
Speaker 1: Paul no subject. They just said, we want you to
47:30
Speaker 1: come up here and talk. I start and think about this.
47:36
Speaker 1: When you read verses twenty two through thirty one. His
47:43
Speaker 1: entire speech is in ten verses. You can read it
47:49
Speaker 1: with pauses in two minutes. Don't get your hopes up.
47:56
Speaker 1: And furthermore, he used terms he use terms anyone could understand.
48:03
Speaker 1: Of course, they may be intelligent, but they're not clued
48:07
Speaker 1: into spiritual terms. So there is not one quotation from
48:12
Speaker 1: the Old Testament, not one. They weren't familiar with Old
48:17
Speaker 1: Testament writings. If they were, it was in passing. Not
48:23
Speaker 1: one quote. However, there is a quote from a writers,
48:27
Speaker 1: one of the Greek poets of Soli, who wrote his
48:32
Speaker 1: piece to Zeus in the third century BC, and Paul
48:37
Speaker 1: has enough presence of mind to weave all of that
48:40
Speaker 1: into his talk. Now, the reason I'm taking time for
48:43
Speaker 1: this is because he had no time to prepare. If
48:48
Speaker 1: you're not a preacher, you know, aside from the privilege
48:51
Speaker 1: of declaring the message, the most important part of your
48:57
Speaker 1: privilege is to prepare for it, and usually that takes
49:02
Speaker 1: ten to twenty times the amount of time it takes
49:06
Speaker 1: to deliver it. But he doesn't have that time. Their
49:11
Speaker 1: invitation comes at the agora, and he winds up in
49:15
Speaker 1: a matter of a brief walk as he climbs these
49:20
Speaker 1: slick stones leading up to the area, because he only
49:25
Speaker 1: has minutes. But this, of course is what the man
49:30
Speaker 1: has prepared for for a lifetime. He's ready. I want
49:38
Speaker 1: you to see the genius of his delivery. First of all,
49:45
Speaker 1: he started right where they were Verse twenty two. Men
49:51
Speaker 1: of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in
49:58
Speaker 1: every way. Remember where he had been walking among the idols.
50:05
Speaker 1: He doesn't insult them, he doesn't poke fun at them.
50:13
Speaker 1: He simply states the fact. He's like if a person
50:16
Speaker 1: is visiting Texas for the first time and delivers a
50:20
Speaker 1: speech in Dallas, he may say to the audience, I'm
50:23
Speaker 1: standing today before Texans, I understand you are fiercely independent,
50:28
Speaker 1: proud people, and most of us would go, yeah, that's us.
50:34
Speaker 1: That's the way they must have felt. Yep, we're a
50:36
Speaker 1: religious bunch. Paul acknowledges that. What a gracious way to start.
50:44
Speaker 1: Then he goes on, please observe. He used the familiar
50:49
Speaker 1: to introduce the unfamiliar. As I was walking along, I
50:58
Speaker 1: saw your many shrouds, and one of your altars had
51:05
Speaker 1: this inscription no sto THEO. I read the inscription right
51:14
Speaker 1: there on the bust of the altar of the statue.
51:19
Speaker 1: I would imagine this idol had no face. Unknown fail God,
51:29
Speaker 1: whoever had crafted the altar or sculpted the idol, had
51:36
Speaker 1: deliberately named it unknown. Perhaps the Greeks were troubled with
51:44
Speaker 1: the thought that of all their idols, they may have
51:47
Speaker 1: missed one. He may have been important god that they
51:52
Speaker 1: had overlooked, and so they built a statue to a
52:01
Speaker 1: Nostrotheo unknown god person. I noticed that, by the way.
52:08
Speaker 1: You know, all those philosophers were familiar with that idol.
52:14
Speaker 1: You know, they had stood before it, frowning, wondering who
52:18
Speaker 1: it was and what it represented. Now look at the transition. Fabulous,
52:27
Speaker 1: He says, this god is this unknown God whom you
52:33
Speaker 1: worship without knowing, is the one I'm here to tell
52:38
Speaker 1: you about. I'm going to put a face on that idol.
52:44
Speaker 1: I'm going to give him a name. I'm going to
52:48
Speaker 1: introduce you to him so that you will realize the
52:53
Speaker 1: one you have never known before. Again, it is not insulting.
53:01
Speaker 1: It is almost a magnetic genius idea of drawing them in.
53:06
Speaker 1: They're not curious who is this identity of Agnostotheo? Who
53:16
Speaker 1: could it be? So, having used the unfamiliar or the
53:23
Speaker 1: familiar to introduce the unfamiliar, Paul now begins to introduce
53:29
Speaker 1: them to the God of heaven and Earth. Look how
53:34
Speaker 1: he does it. First, he introduces him as the creator
53:41
Speaker 1: twenty four. He's the God who made the world and
53:45
Speaker 1: everything in it. So you didn't just happen. You were made.
53:52
Speaker 1: You and I were created by this one you call
53:57
Speaker 1: the unknown God. The second, he's the originator. He's truly
54:03
Speaker 1: curios their word for Caesar. He's truly the Lord. How
54:10
Speaker 1: could he say it? Because he has not only made
54:15
Speaker 1: the world and everything in it, he is also Lord
54:19
Speaker 1: of heaven and earth. He doesn't live in man made tipples,
54:29
Speaker 1: and human hands cannot serve his needs, for he has
54:34
Speaker 1: no needs. Not only is he creator, not only is
54:39
Speaker 1: he Originator and Lord, he's sovereign. By now, you could
54:48
Speaker 1: have heard a tiny, tiny nail dropped to the stone
54:56
Speaker 1: on the Areopagusilosophers are stroking their beards, wondering who is this?
55:09
Speaker 1: What's he talking about. If you ever have the privilege
55:13
Speaker 1: of sharing your faith in Christ to someone who has
55:18
Speaker 1: never heard, and they're patient enough, and you are careful
55:23
Speaker 1: enough to sustain a relationship in the dialogue, you will
55:30
Speaker 1: find at times their mouths will drop open. They're hearing
55:40
Speaker 1: what they've never heard before. They've been made by God.
55:46
Speaker 1: He's the one who originated them. He made not only
55:50
Speaker 1: heaven and earth, he made each one of them. He
55:52
Speaker 1: doesn't live in man made temples, though every god they
55:56
Speaker 1: serve lives in a temple. In fact, he has no needs.
56:04
Speaker 1: In fact, he is the one who gives life and
56:07
Speaker 1: breath to everything. He's the one who satisfies needs. You
56:13
Speaker 1: may be intelligent, you may be brilliant beyond the scales
56:19
Speaker 1: of measurement, but you know what an empty, lonely night
56:24
Speaker 1: is like. And the Apostle plays on that as he
56:30
Speaker 1: says to them, you have needs he can meet. He
56:35
Speaker 1: can satisfy your every need. Then he goes back to
56:41
Speaker 1: creation and begins with Adam. Without naming Adam, they would
56:45
Speaker 1: not have a clue. So he says, through one man,
56:50
Speaker 1: he created all the nations through the whole earth, and
56:52
Speaker 1: decided beforehand when they would rise and when they would fall.
56:56
Speaker 1: Sounds to me like a god who is in control.
57:00
Speaker 1: He's the source of life. Look at this. His purpose
57:05
Speaker 1: Verse twenty seven continues was for the nations to seek
57:11
Speaker 1: after him and perhaps feel their way toward him and
57:16
Speaker 1: find him. Though he isn't far from us, Maybe he
57:20
Speaker 1: since his audience is beginning to drift, maybe he knew
57:24
Speaker 1: this was the perfect time to insert that illustration, so
57:29
Speaker 1: he does it, and this is all done without preparation. Paul,
57:37
Speaker 1: in his studies, knows of the writing of Aratus of Soli,
57:41
Speaker 1: and he quotes him here fits him right into his message.
57:44
Speaker 1: As some of your own poets have said, we are
57:48
Speaker 1: his offspring. If you read the whole poem, you will
57:52
Speaker 1: see that it revolves not around the living God, but Zeus,
57:58
Speaker 1: the top god of the people of Greece. Listen to it.
58:03
Speaker 1: Here is what Aratus wrote for we are his offspring.
58:08
Speaker 1: The poem goes as follows. Zeus fills the streets and marts.
58:14
Speaker 1: Zeus fills the seas and the shrines, or the shores
58:21
Speaker 1: and the rivers. Everywhere our need is Zeus. We also
58:28
Speaker 1: are his offspring. Genius Paul picked up the last line
58:32
Speaker 1: of that poem and inserts it right here. As one
58:37
Speaker 1: of your own poets has said, we are his offspring.
58:40
Speaker 1: But it isn't Zeus. It is the God who has
58:45
Speaker 1: created us. It is the God you've never met, but
58:51
Speaker 1: the God who is accessible since we live and exists
58:56
Speaker 1: because of him. And now he drives it home. God
59:02
Speaker 1: overlooked people's ignorance about these things in earlier times. But
59:05
Speaker 1: now he commands everyone everywhere to repent. Whoa, whoa. Wait, wait, wait,
59:12
Speaker 1: there's a word they've not heard. You can be sure
59:16
Speaker 1: in all the philosophical literature there's nothing written of repentance,
59:21
Speaker 1: and certainly nothing written of personal sins. Paul weis them
59:25
Speaker 1: together and says, everyone everywhere is to repent of their sins.
59:30
Speaker 1: I have to pause here and say something regarding his courage.
59:35
Speaker 1: It took courage to say this, knowing that he was
59:40
Speaker 1: all alone, not only a singular figure on the streets
59:45
Speaker 1: of Athens, but standing alone among these eggheads as they
59:51
Speaker 1: are sizing him up and coming to terms with what
59:56
Speaker 1: he says. And he has merit to say. This is
1:00:02
Speaker 1: a god who holds us accountable. It is appointed unto
1:00:06
Speaker 1: us once to die. And after this the judgment, What
1:00:15
Speaker 1: a moment. That's not the end, he adds, for he
1:00:22
Speaker 1: has set a day for judging the world with justice
1:00:27
Speaker 1: by the man he has appointed. And he proved to
1:00:31
Speaker 1: everyone who this is by raising him from the dead
1:00:39
Speaker 1: end of message. That's as far as they could take it.
1:00:43
Speaker 1: At that point, the laughter began to break out. They
1:00:47
Speaker 1: began to answer back what they said were not told
1:00:52
Speaker 1: but we are told that they laughed at him in contempt.
1:00:57
Speaker 1: By the way, when you look at the ending of
1:00:59
Speaker 1: this chapter, you'll see three common responses to every presentation
1:01:06
Speaker 1: of the Gospel, including mine today. First, there is what
1:01:14
Speaker 1: we might call the cynical response. There are those who
1:01:18
Speaker 1: laugh at it. Are you kidding me? I mean, one
1:01:25
Speaker 1: man dies on a cross for the sense of the
1:01:31
Speaker 1: whole world, Where do I go to crack up?
1:01:36
Speaker 4: That is.
1:01:39
Speaker 1: Not only stupid, that's silly. So they're laughing at him
1:01:45
Speaker 1: and Paul standing there taking it. Then there's the second response.
1:01:53
Speaker 1: There were those far more charitable who said, hmm, we
1:02:00
Speaker 1: want to hear more about this later. I call these
1:02:04
Speaker 1: the curious and there are some of you here in
1:02:08
Speaker 1: that category today. You're not ready to make a decision,
1:02:14
Speaker 1: but you want to know more, which is why a
1:02:18
Speaker 1: church exists to provide answers for those who seek them,
1:02:24
Speaker 1: and why we Christians are in the streets of our
1:02:28
Speaker 1: towns and cities. We are here to help people know
1:02:32
Speaker 1: there are answers and their curiosity can be satisfied. Paul
1:02:39
Speaker 1: has not given an opportunity to follow up. In fact,
1:02:42
Speaker 1: we know nothing of what happens to this group at
1:02:47
Speaker 1: the end of this talk you see in chapter eighteen,
1:02:49
Speaker 1: verse one. Then Paul left Athens. He never returns. There
1:02:56
Speaker 1: is no follow up as I read this. If these
1:03:02
Speaker 1: who are curious choose to follow along, and they go
1:03:09
Speaker 1: with him down from the areopagus back to the Agora
1:03:16
Speaker 1: and spend time at the speech platform, listening further to
1:03:21
Speaker 1: him as he talks of this faith in Christ. But
1:03:26
Speaker 1: as is always true, or I would say often true
1:03:30
Speaker 1: the third category, there are some who at that moment
1:03:34
Speaker 1: joined him and became believers, like some of you today.
1:03:40
Speaker 1: Some of you today realize, well, it hasn't been Athens,
1:03:45
Speaker 1: and it hasn't been a literal statue to an unknown God.
1:03:49
Speaker 1: You've served all your life, an emptiness that has brought
1:03:55
Speaker 1: no eternal satisfaction, no peace at night when your head
1:03:59
Speaker 1: falls into the no relief from the haunting guilt that
1:04:05
Speaker 1: follows you after the wrong you do and the failures
1:04:11
Speaker 1: of your life. You know nothing of his forgiveness, his grace,
1:04:16
Speaker 1: his mercy, and the joy of walking with Him and
1:04:20
Speaker 1: knowing a life of abundance in Christ. These people hurt
1:04:26
Speaker 1: enough to believe. In fact, one is named one left
1:04:30
Speaker 1: the ranks of the philosophers at Arialpagus. Look at him.
1:04:34
Speaker 1: Dionysius a member of the Arialpagus, a member of the
1:04:39
Speaker 1: council along with him. There's a woman there named Damarus.
1:04:44
Speaker 1: We know nothing more, but they at that moment turned
1:04:49
Speaker 1: their lives over to Christ. Paul had no way of
1:04:55
Speaker 1: knowing that this talk he gave would ever be remembered.
1:05:02
Speaker 1: I'm currently reading again the book on Abraham Lincoln and
1:05:08
Speaker 1: a team of Rivals, and it's fascinating to read Lincoln's
1:05:13
Speaker 1: own feelings about the Gettysburg Address. He was convinced it
1:05:20
Speaker 1: was a little piece never to be remembered in the
1:05:25
Speaker 1: years ahead. How wrong he was. And for Paul, in
1:05:37
Speaker 1: utter humility and being lost in his world at that time,
1:05:42
Speaker 1: I'm convinced he never thought further. Someday my words will
1:05:47
Speaker 1: be remembered, and down through the centuries they'll refer back.
1:05:51
Speaker 1: I think Paul never never dreamed of it. But you
1:05:55
Speaker 1: know what, they're now in the Book of God. They're
1:06:02
Speaker 1: now in the Bible. His little two minute talk, this brief,
1:06:11
Speaker 1: albeit magnificent message, has been retained, preserved word for word
1:06:21
Speaker 1: for us down through the centuries to find encouragement from.
1:06:27
Speaker 1: But there's more while reading John Pollock, the British biographer
1:06:34
Speaker 1: and the Life of Paul, I came across an interesting
1:06:38
Speaker 1: insight I've never seen before. It made me pause and remember,
1:06:46
Speaker 1: I too have visited the Parthenon, as my wife and
1:06:50
Speaker 1: I and a small group of our friends took a
1:06:52
Speaker 1: tour there, and we've stood there, and I've seen the
1:06:58
Speaker 1: flag of the nation of Greece fly alongside the Parthenon
1:07:05
Speaker 1: as it waves in the breeze. John Pollock points out
1:07:09
Speaker 1: in his biography of Paul that every Good Friday that
1:07:18
Speaker 1: flag is lowered to half mast in honor of this
1:07:24
Speaker 1: message that Paul gave to the Athenians. Amazing. But what
1:07:32
Speaker 1: is equally interesting is that on Easter Sunday morning, the
1:07:38
Speaker 1: flag goes to the top of the mast as people
1:07:41
Speaker 1: gather not only from the city of Athens, but many
1:07:45
Speaker 1: tourists on that site on Easter morning to shout their
1:07:51
Speaker 1: statement of praise to God regarding their savior. Is that magnificent?
1:07:57
Speaker 1: Before we do that together, I have to say to
1:08:01
Speaker 1: you who've heard this and not yet responded, there's no
1:08:09
Speaker 1: magic in this moment. Just because on Easter Sunday you
1:08:16
Speaker 1: chose so spend your time with us, for which we
1:08:19
Speaker 1: are grateful. There's no change that will automatically come over
1:08:23
Speaker 1: you because you've heard a story. The change will come
1:08:30
Speaker 1: when you lower your knees before the Living God, just
1:08:35
Speaker 1: as the flag is lowered to half masted in honor
1:08:38
Speaker 1: of our savior's death, and then as you give your
1:08:42
Speaker 1: heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in him and
1:08:47
Speaker 1: him alone as your own personal savior. I would be
1:08:52
Speaker 1: derelict in my responsibilities if I left with only a
1:08:55
Speaker 1: shout of triumph, knowing that for some of you, you've
1:09:00
Speaker 1: yet to make this decision. Make this decision. I plead
1:09:06
Speaker 1: with you. Don't put it off. Oh there's more information
1:09:11
Speaker 1: that could be shared, but you've heard enough to know
1:09:14
Speaker 1: this one died for you. He can be your savior,
1:09:20
Speaker 1: your master, your lord, and it can begin today on
1:09:28
Speaker 1: this day when we stand together and make our announcement
1:09:32
Speaker 1: once again. He has risen. He has risen, He is risen.
1:09:47
Speaker 1: Thank you, each one of you for spending this time
1:09:50
Speaker 1: on Easter Sunday morning with us. We had the privilege
1:09:55
Speaker 1: of being bystanders as we observed Paul, the Jewish missionary
1:10:00
Speaker 1: from Tarsus, standing all alone before the all gentile and
1:10:06
Speaker 1: very sophisticated group of philosophers, whom we might call the
1:10:10
Speaker 1: supreme Court of Athens. Let's return to the three responses
1:10:16
Speaker 1: as soon as he had finished talking. First there was
1:10:19
Speaker 1: the cynical response, those who laughed in contempt. Second there
1:10:27
Speaker 1: were the curious. They sort of shrugged their shoulders. They
1:10:31
Speaker 1: wanted to hear more later on, but not now. Third
1:10:37
Speaker 1: there were the committed. Some joined him, We read, and
1:10:42
Speaker 1: they became believers. Three responses mockery, delay, belief. Those who
1:10:52
Speaker 1: mocked and those who put him off didn't concern themselves
1:10:57
Speaker 1: with whether Paul's message was true or not. But to
1:11:00
Speaker 1: both of those groups it seemed simply trivial, not worth
1:11:05
Speaker 1: their time. Right now, I find it worth noting that
1:11:10
Speaker 1: Paul neither begged nor pleaded. He let it be. It's
1:11:16
Speaker 1: that third category that intrigues me. One was actually a
1:11:21
Speaker 1: member of that sophisticated court of philosophers. His name is Dionysius.
1:11:28
Speaker 1: Another was an otherwise unknown woman named Damarus. We're told
1:11:34
Speaker 1: there were quote others with them, we don't know how many,
1:11:39
Speaker 1: and we actually know nothing more of any of them
1:11:41
Speaker 1: later on as the scriptures were being written. Since that's true,
1:11:47
Speaker 1: there's no reason to spend our time trying to speculate
1:11:51
Speaker 1: and concern ourselves with them. A greater concern I have
1:11:57
Speaker 1: is with you, you who turn away with no further
1:12:02
Speaker 1: concern about life eternal or the person of Jesus Christ.
1:12:09
Speaker 1: We would love to connect with you personally. We'd love
1:12:13
Speaker 1: to help you understand what a significant difference the Savior
1:12:17
Speaker 1: can make in your life. But I'll not beg or plead.
1:12:22
Speaker 1: I'll just say, if you reach out to us, we'll
1:12:28
Speaker 1: reach back to you. We're here, we care, and we're
1:12:33
Speaker 1: available now to you who are in that committed category,
1:12:39
Speaker 1: the truly committed to following the Lord Jesus. Let us
1:12:44
Speaker 1: help you get started and stay strong. Believe it or not,
1:12:48
Speaker 1: the Lord wants you deeply involved. He wants to use
1:12:52
Speaker 1: you to deepen your faith, to strengthen and expand your
1:12:56
Speaker 1: knowledge of Him. He wants to use you to touch
1:12:59
Speaker 1: the laws of others who don't know him. We'd love
1:13:04
Speaker 1: to help you get in your own study of the scriptures,
1:13:07
Speaker 1: learn more about prayer, about grace, about God's love, and
1:13:13
Speaker 1: sharing your faith. You've been left here to bring stability
1:13:19
Speaker 1: to a fractured, broken world. I like the way another
1:13:23
Speaker 1: person wrote about this. Jesus left few traces of himself
1:13:28
Speaker 1: on earth. He wrote no books or even pamphlets. A wanderer,
1:13:34
Speaker 1: he left no home or even belongings that could be
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Speaker 1: enshrined in a museum. He did not marry, settle down,
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Speaker 1: and begin a dynasty. We would, in fact know nothing
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Speaker 1: about him except for the traces he left in human beings.
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Speaker 1: That was his design. Since that was his design, how
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Speaker 1: comforting it is is to those who struggle to know
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Speaker 1: there is someone like Christ who is left on this
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Speaker 1: earth to bring what he modeled like reliable stability. When
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Speaker 1: Christ departed, he left people just like us to bring
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Speaker 1: his message of hope and comfort, strength and stability. Like
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Speaker 1: I said earlier, ours is a fractured, frightened, and broken world.
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Speaker 1: Today it's an invisible enemy that adds to our world's
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Speaker 1: brokenness and fears. This time, next year, it will be
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Speaker 1: something else, may be worse, and later it'll be something else.
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Speaker 1: Survival will always include times of struggle. Such times call
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Speaker 1: for people who know their Lord, who love Christ and
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Speaker 1: are able to model his strength and stabil I urge
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Speaker 1: you to be that person for other people. These days,
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Speaker 1: it's been a great time to be with you. I'll
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Speaker 1: look forward to seeing you next time.