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Acts 17 | The Upward Way | Bible Study with A. Z. Adams — Transcript

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0:00Acts chapter [music] 17.
0:02Now, when they had traveled through
0:03Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to
0:06Thessalonica,
0:08where there was a synagogue [music] of
0:09the Jews.
0:11And according to Paul's custom,
0:13he went to them and for three Sabbaths
0:16reasoned with them from the scriptures,
0:18explaining [music] and giving evidence
0:21that the Christ had to suffer and rise
0:23again from the dead and saying, "This
0:26Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you
0:28>> [music]
0:28>> is the Christ."
0:31And some of them were persuaded and
0:33joined [music] Paul and Silas along with
0:35a large number of the God-fearing Greeks
0:37[music] and a number of the leading
0:39women.
0:41But the Jews became jealous and taking
0:43along [music] some wicked men
0:46from the marketplace, formed a mob and
0:49set the city in an uproar and attacking
0:52the [music] house of Jason, they were
0:54seeking to bring them out to the people.
0:57Have you noticed the theme?
1:00Every time opposition erupts against
1:03Jesus, against Stephen, and against
1:05Paul, it is envy and jealousy.
1:09Every time people are stirred up to have
1:12big causes and make big fake
1:15accusations, it is envy.
1:18It's why Satan fell from heaven.
1:20It's why Cain killed Abel.
1:22>> [music]
1:22>> And it's why the true church is always
1:25opposed.
1:28When they did not find them, they began
1:30dragging Jason and some brethren before
1:33the city authorities [music] shouting,
1:35"These men who have upset the world have
1:39come here also."
1:41Literally means these men who have
1:43turned the world upside down
1:46have shown up in our town.
1:49What a compliment.
1:52And Jason, they said, has welcomed them
1:56and they all act contrary to the decrees
1:59of Caesar saying that there is another
2:02king, Jesus.
2:05Here we go again.
2:07The same accusation that got Jesus
2:10killed. What is the core accusation?
2:13They don't want another authority
2:15besides [music] the state.
2:19They stirred up the crowd and the city
2:22authorities who heard these things.
2:25The devil wants to get people riled up
2:29acting like the church is taking an
2:33authority that should belong to the
2:35state.
2:38And when they had received a pledge from
2:40Jason and the others, they released
2:42them.
2:44The brethren immediately sent Paul and
2:46Silas away by night to Berea. And when
2:49they arrived, they went into the
2:51synagogue of the Jews.
2:54Let's do this again. Let's keep bringing
2:57the message. Let's keep declaring the
2:59truth.
3:00Now, these were more noble-minded than
3:03those in Thessalonica. What an
3:05understatement, brother Luke.
3:08For they received the word with great
3:10eagerness, examining the scriptures
3:13daily to see whether these things were
3:15so.
3:17So, Luke has a contrast. Some are driven
3:19by envy and it turns to violence and
3:23others are driven by truth
3:25and they cannot argue with the
3:27scriptures.
3:29Therefore, many of them believed along
3:31with a number of prominent Greek women
3:34and men.
3:35But when the Jews of Thessalonica found
3:38out that the word of God had been
3:40proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they
3:43came there as well, agitating and
3:46stirring up the crowd. So, the the
3:48Thessalonica envious crowd heard that
3:51another town and church was receiving it
3:54and was basing their inquiry on the
3:56scripture instead of jealousy and
3:59they're like, "Let's go over there and
4:00give them the same bad report that
4:02worked over here."
4:05So, they went and stirred up the crowd,
4:07agitating and stirring up the crowd.
4:10Then immediately the brethren sent Paul
4:12out to go as far as the sea and Silas
4:15and Timothy remained there. So, they
4:17said, "Paul, get out of here.
4:19There are murderers on the loose. Be
4:22gone."
4:23But Timothy and Silas stayed behind.
4:26Now, those who escorted Paul brought him
4:28as far as Athens
4:30and receiving a command for Silas and
4:32Timothy to come to him as soon as
4:34possible, they left.
4:37So, he gets to Athens and he says, "Have
4:40Timothy and Silas get to me as soon as
4:42possible."
4:44Now, while Paul was waiting for them at
4:47Athens, his spirit was being provoked
4:50within him as he was observing the city
4:53full of idols.
4:56Paul's in a ungodly city and it's not
4:59going well with his conscience.
5:01So, he was reasoning in the synagogue
5:04with the Jews and the God-fearing
5:06Gentiles and in the marketplace every
5:09day with those who happened to be
5:11present.
5:13He's bothered by these idols.
5:15He's bothered by this city full of
5:17idols.
5:18And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic
5:21philosophers were conversing with him.
5:24Some were saying, "What would this idle
5:27babbler wish to say?" Others,
5:30"He seems to be a proclaimer of strange
5:32deities." Because he was preaching Jesus
5:35and the resurrection.
5:37And they took him and brought him to the
5:39Areopagus saying, "May we know what this
5:43new teaching is which you are
5:46proclaiming?
5:47For you are bringing some strange things
5:50to our ears. So, we want to know what
5:53these things mean."
5:54Now, all the Athenians and the strangers
5:59visiting there used to spend their time
6:02in nothing other than telling or hearing
6:06something new.
6:09So, Luke puts that little parenthetical
6:11in. Says, "There's a culture here that
6:14loves to talk, that loves to hear new
6:18ideas.
6:19But the suggestion is they're not living
6:22anything out. But they spend their time,
6:25they're not working, they're not being
6:27productive, they're just speculating.
6:30But they bring Paul to this place called
6:33the Areopagus.
6:34It was also called Mars Hill.
6:37So, it's this place full of idle
6:40worship, but it was
6:42it was a
6:44it was a spot where the philosophers
6:47would get together to debate and to
6:49discuss ideas, the Epicurean
6:51philosophers and the Stoic philosophers
6:54and trying [snorts] to make sense of the
6:56world, trying to iron out the wrinkles
6:59in their big ideas.
7:02And I [clears throat] mean, this is like
7:03this is like going to a university
7:05today. This is like walking into the
7:07halls of Cambridge or Yale and
7:13you know, being surrounded by a bunch of
7:14do-nothing talkers.
7:18So, Paul stood in the midst of the
7:20Areopagus
7:22and said,
7:23"Men of Athens, I observe that you are
7:28very religious in all respects.
7:31For while I was passing through and
7:34examining the objects of your worship,
7:38I also found an altar
7:41with this inscription on it,
7:44to an unknown God.
7:48Therefore,
7:49what you worship in ignorance,
7:52this I proclaim to you."
7:56So, Paul says,
7:57"I know you're very religious.
7:59And I was looking at all your altars."
8:02He's walking through. Can you picture
8:03him? Oh, there's Zeus. Oh, wow, there's
8:06Mercury. Hmm, there's Thor.
8:09Look at all these demons.
8:11Here's the god of wine, Dionysius.
8:15Here's Here's this god and here's that
8:17god. Here's Eros.
8:19Right? And while he's going through
8:21looking at all this, he finds one altar.
8:25There's no image on it, just an altar.
8:28And the altar says,
8:30"To the unknown God."
8:33This is called finding common ground.
8:36Paul finds the one thing in this mess of
8:40idolatry
8:42that he can stand on as a starting point
8:44to introduce Jesus.
8:47And he says,
8:48"That altar you built
8:50to the god you don't know,
8:52that altar
8:54where it's carved in the stone to the
8:56unknown God, I want to tell you about
8:57that God. I know that God."
9:01What an opening.
9:04The God who made the world
9:07and all things in it,
9:09since he is Lord of heaven and earth,
9:12he does not dwell in temples made with
9:16hands.
9:18Nor is he served by human hands as
9:21though he needed anything, since he
9:24himself gives to all people life
9:28and breath
9:30and all things.
9:32And he made from one man
9:36every nation of mankind to live on the
9:39face of the earth and having determined
9:41their appointed times and the boundaries
9:44of their habitation, that they would
9:46seek God if perhaps they might grope for
9:50him and find him, though he is not far
9:53from each one of us.
9:56This is an incredible
9:58introduction
10:01to a pagan culture of who the God of
10:04Israel is.
10:06Okay? So, he's telling them the God that
10:09I want you to know, he's the creator.
10:12That's the first thing he says about
10:13God.
10:14He made heaven and earth
10:18and he does not dwell
10:20in things man makes. So, he's not like
10:23your idols.
10:25He doesn't live in a box.
10:27He doesn't take on the form of something
10:29carved, gold, stone, wood.
10:34Nor is he served by human hands. You
10:36can't You can't honor him by carving his
10:38image into things as though he needed
10:40anything.
10:43Then he says, he is the source of life
10:45and breath.
10:47And then the next thing he says,
10:50totally abolishes
10:53racism.
10:55Because he's a Jew
10:57talking to a bunch of Greeks.
10:59And there's a lot of hostility between
11:01the ethnic Jews and the ethnic Greeks.
11:04They're not supposed to like each other,
11:06trust each other, receive from each
11:08other. So, the very next thing he says,
11:10basically tells them, I'm not like the
11:12Jews who are racist.
11:16He says, this God that I want you to
11:18know, he [snorts] made every nation from
11:22one man.
11:24And that's a very salient point to the
11:26Greeks cuz he's basically saying, we're
11:29all from the same place.
11:31We're not better because of the blood or
11:33the DNA or the heritage that we have
11:35according to the flesh.
11:38He made from one man. So, Paul says,
11:40he's a creator, he's the source of life,
11:43he doesn't need temples and boxes and
11:45idols made from human hands.
11:48And he made all people
11:50the same.
11:53And then he says this,
11:55this God
11:58determined
12:00the appointed times
12:02and the boundaries
12:04of our habitation.
12:06The times and seasons and the way we
12:09would live,
12:11but he did it for a reason,
12:12so that we would seek God.
12:16So, the next big one is one race, the
12:18next one is God wants you to seek him.
12:22There is not an idol in the Areopagus
12:26that claimed that they wanted their
12:28people to seek them. They wanted their
12:30people to obey them, to fear them, but
12:33they did not want relationship with
12:36their people.
12:37But he says, this Yahweh God,
12:40he made your life just hard enough
12:43that you would seek him.
12:45He made your life He He put boundaries
12:48so that you would know there was
12:50something more that you needed and you
12:52would seek him.
12:55And is seeking all he wanted? No.
12:58Nope.
12:59If perhaps
13:02they might
13:05grope for him.
13:08God wants you to seek for him, but not
13:09just with your minds, you philosophers.
13:12He wants you, as the NIV says, to feel
13:15after him.
13:17God wants you to tune in to the spirit
13:22and feel after him. That means to feel
13:24blindly along a wall.
13:27Don't use your eyes. Don't use your
13:29intelligence only.
13:31Use your heart, your feelings. Feel
13:34after him.
13:37And perhaps find him.
13:40God wants you to find him.
13:44Seek, feel, find.
13:47That's the order.
13:49Though he is not far from each one of
13:52us.
13:53For in him we live and move
13:56and exist.
13:58Even as some of your own poets have
14:00said, for we also are his children.
14:04Paul does not say, I am his son. He
14:06says, we are his children.
14:09He tells them, you're his children. All
14:12human beings are the children of God.
14:16But you're exiled children, you're
14:18orphan children. You've lost contact
14:20with the Father. So, he wants you to
14:23seek him and feel after him and find
14:26him.
14:28Even though it is by him that we live
14:30and are moved, stirred in our hearts,
14:33and exist.
14:38Verse 29,
14:40being then the children of God,
14:43we
14:44ought not to think that the divine
14:47nature
14:48is like gold or silver or stone, an
14:52image formed by the art and thought of
14:55man.
14:59All religion is formed by the art and
15:03thought of man.
15:05But if we came from him,
15:08he's not the product of us, we're the
15:10product of him.
15:13That's what Paul's saying.
15:14Therefore,
15:17having overlooked the times of
15:19ignorance,
15:21God is now declaring to men that all
15:25people everywhere should repent.
15:29Translated,
15:30God has overlooked your stupidity.
15:33God has overlooked the fact that you
15:36think he's an idol like your other
15:39carved images here.
15:42But God's overlooked that, but now he's
15:44calling you to turn around
15:46and see him. Seek him and feel after him
15:49and find him.
15:52Now he calls all people everywhere to
15:54repent
15:56because he has fixed a day
15:58in which he will judge the world in
16:01righteousness through a man whom he has
16:04appointed, having furnished proof to all
16:07men by raising him from the dead.
16:11So, he says, it's time to repent
16:15because God has sent his own nature
16:18in the human life of Jesus Christ and
16:21he's proven it to the whole world by
16:23conquering death through the
16:24resurrection.
16:27This is a tight story
16:31of the gospel, who God is, who we are,
16:35and what salvation amounts to.
16:38It all happens It all pivots on whether
16:40we turn, whether we repent,
16:44and whether we start to seek and feel
16:46after and find God.
16:50Now when they heard
16:52of the resurrection of the dead, some
16:54began to sneer.
16:57They don't believe that it's possible to
17:00defy natural phenomenon.
17:04Someone can't rise from the dead.
17:08This is the Greek mind. This is the
17:11Gentile mind. This is why Jesus wasn't a
17:14Greek.
17:16He needed [music] to establish his power
17:19through the Jewish community who seeks
17:21after a sign while the Greeks search for
17:24human wisdom. [music]
17:26Amen. He needed a people who believed in
17:29the supernatural God,
17:31not just the God that was created
17:34through human thought and art.
17:38Some began to sneer, but others said, we
17:41shall hear you again concerning this.
17:45And didn't that what we all do when we
17:47don't know what [music] to do with the
17:48conviction that is settling
17:52on our hearts?
17:54Instead of saying, I want to respond. I
17:57want to turn right now. We say,
18:00let's study some more. Needs a little
18:02more examination.
18:04We'll hear you again on this matter.
18:08So, Paul
18:09went out of their midst.
18:12But some men joined him
18:14and believed. Among them also were
18:17Dionysius the Areopagite
18:20>> [music]
18:20>> and a woman named Damaris and others
18:22with him.
18:25So, there was a guy named Dionysius,
18:26which [music] is the god of wine.
18:29He's named after one of these demons,
18:30but he left the hill
18:33and followed Paul to the hill
18:35of Calvary.
18:37But there was no church in Athens.
18:39The people [music] who said, let's let's
18:41talk some more on this,
18:43they never got a church. There's no
18:44letter to the church at Athens.
18:47He left.
18:48He walked out of it.
18:50Soon as they said, let's let's hear you
18:52again on this matter. Come on, let's get
18:53out of here. We're leaving.
18:55We're going on with Jesus.
18:57But there were a handful of people who
18:59said, we want to leave this hill with
19:01you
19:02and go to another hill.
19:05>> [music]
19:15[music]

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