The Apostle Paul has now journeyed to Athens, the thought and cultural capital of the western world.
Let Your Heart Break
Over what breaks God's heart.
Athens was a city of about 10,000 people.
But, it is estimated that the town housed roughly 30,000 idols!
Paul was stunned:
These people sought God, but they could not find Him!
Be Aware of Diversity
Athens was split between two thoughts on life:
Humanists - dedicated to duty and social responsibility
Hedonists - whom sought pleasure and happiness in all things
There is no absolute truth in the Greek culture!
Connect
Listen
Share
Discuss
Teach them, not insult them nor their culture
You can not argue anyone into heaven!
Take what is similar and build upon this to show them truth.
Speak The Truth
Be bold
Let God lead
Answer their questions!
Paul's entire message might have been two minutes, at the most!
No long sermon.
No books to read.
No extended studies.
Short, sweet and concise.
Call For Change
Repentance
Admit you/they are wrong.
Remember there are consequences for past actions.
Human agreements do not go away.
Law, judgement and punish do not go away.
God's requirement for justice might not go away.
You past, your actions all have consequences, some are eternal.
Only in this pagan culture is it believed that what you want to happen must happen.
What you want to disappear must disappear.
Because you will it .....
But that is not the real world.
Expect Different Responses
In Athens they loved to talk about new ideas.
But, Paul's message was nonsense to them.
A resurrection?
And yet some believed, the leader of the Mars Hill group did.
A woman - barely a person in their culture, believed.
Some scoffed.
Some mocked them.
Of course most would not believe what went against their culture.
Really not much different than today.
No comments:
Post a Comment