Sharing the Gospel (Christ)

Acts 17:16-34 – Sharing the Gospel

Introduction

One of the biggest challenges for us as Christians is telling others about Jesus. It can feel hard and scary. We are afraid something might happen to us. What? We aren’t sure. Maybe it’s a fear of what others might think of us or maybe it comes from deep insecurities.

Regardless, our mission is to shine the light of Jesus Christ on those who are groping in the darkness by sharing the Gospel with them. There are people that you know, that you work with, that you interact with, your neighbors and friends that are groping around in the darkness, searching and seeking for something that they don’t even know. God has placed you in this time and this place so that you can tell them the Gospel.

Background

Paul had just had a semi-successful trip to Berea. When he arrived, he taught in the synagogue, and the people were digging it. They were listening, examining the Scriptures, many of the Jews there believed, and even some prominent Greeks.

But this success didn’t last long. Jews from Thessalonica came and upset the crowds so Paul had to leave. Silas and Timothy stayed behind probably to set up a church there, with instructions to join Paul ASAP, while Paul went 195 miles to Athens. This is where our story begins.

Exposition

We should be provoked by all the idolatry around us (vv. 16-17)

In verses 16 and 17 we see our first point that Paul is provoked in his spirit by the idolatry he sees.

He saw many beautiful buildings and monuments dedicated to false god after god. He even saw the Parthenon, a temple dedicated to the goddess of war, Athena. There was even a place where 12 gods could be worshipped. Paul’s spirit was provoked within him by this idolatry and spirituality that ignored Christ and didn’t focus on the true and living God.

He was probably troubled by their fear of not wanting to miss any god, of their fear of offending some minor god that they made a statute with the inscription, “To the unknown god.” How troubling is this? They had a desire to worship anything and everything, but they didn’t even know what they were worshiping. And so Paul is provoked either by anger, grief, or a desire to convert them and is motivated to preach Christ. Why?

First, he is motivated by a desire for God to receive the glory. We understand glory to be God’s weight and fame…who God is, the real God. Everything that he is in all his infiniteness, eternality, might, power, glory, and majesty. Yes, this, but there is also his fame. If he really is God, shouldn’t everyone worship him? Shouldn’t everyone give him praise and glory? Paul longs for God to be made much of.

He is troubled by the worship of demons, the worship of self, and the shadows of religion. These things should not be acknowledged, worshiped, and glorified because they are nothing and God, the true God is everything.

Second, he is motivated by love and fear for others. Without Christ, a person is going to suffer the wrath of the Almighty God by receiving everlasting conscious torment in hell. Paul knew that without Jesus Christ paying for their sin and giving them his righteousness, they would be judged eternally, and spend forever in hell. He cares about them.

Third, he is motivated to dialogue. He dialogued every day first with the God-worshippers (Jews and devout people) in the synagogue. He tried to show the religious who were not united to Christ that they were lost without him and needed to put their trust in him. He also reasoned with whatever random people he came across in the market.

So, Paul has this overcoming desire and these good motivations to proclaim Christ. We need this same desire and motivation to share the Gospel with whoever God would put in our path.

We should overcome our fears of proclaiming Christ (vv. 18-21)

In verses 18-21 we see our second point, that we should overcome our fears of proclaiming Christ. What are these fears? They are usually based on what I call plausibility structures. Do you know what plausibility structures are? They are ideas that the world pushes upon us that exist in almost every form of media in our culture. They are ideas that become real in our minds even though they may not be true.  They are just plausible, but they become a narrative in the culture that is so frequent, so fluent, and so in your face, that if you dare to say anything that goes against it, like “Jesus Christ is the only way.” then you are labeled a bigot who is filled with hate. Is this true? No! It is a plausibility structure.

If we truly believe that when people die without Christ that they are going to hell, isn’t telling the Gospel the most loving thing we can do? Penn Jillette from Penn and Teller, an avowed atheist, essentially said that he doesn’t respect Christians who don’t tell others about the Gospel. He said, “If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward… How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? If I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn’t believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there’s a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”

So, we fear confronting these plausibility structures or quite simply what people are going to say to us. There is a need to share the gospel because there truly is an eternal conscious suffering under God’s wrath awaiting those who are not found in Christ.

Though we shouldn’t fear contradicting plausibility structures, we also shouldn’t fear proclaiming Christ to the Epicureans, which I call the agnostics. What is an agnostic? It is someone who might say, “Maybe there is a God out there, but he really doesn’t interact with us, and it is fine.” These people aren’t going to be in your face. They aren’t atheists. They are just not sure, they don’t know. They live as if they have no connection to God. “We are here, God is there, and everything is good.” They simply try to live a good life, we shouldn’t fear talking to them.

We also shouldn’t fear proclaiming Christ to the Stoics, which I call the spiritualists. They live as if some force is connected to all, like Pantheism, “God is everywhere. God is in everything. God is this thing.” This is not completely true, of course. And so, they live as if some force is connected to all, like the force in Star Wars. They try to live a good life and be in sync with nature and natural laws.

There are these types of people, but then there are also different types of reactions. The first reaction is that we are “ignorant and simplistic.” We are seen as simple, backward, behind the times, we aren’t enlightened, believing in things that are strange from a bygone era. “That religion stuff is behind us; we are enlightened now.”

The second reaction is that we are “babblers.” In the original Greek, it is seed-picker. The image is that Paul is going around like a bird, picking up all these seeds, gathering them together, and then being arrogant about it and telling them that this is the way. So, Paul had nothing new to say. He was just getting a bunch of stuff from a bunch of different religions, marrying them together and he says this is what it is. And this is what people often think of Christians today, seed-pickers, scavengers, just arranging old things together in a new way.

The third reaction is that we are a heretic. We are seen as preaching a message that goes against the prevailing world current, or against the plausibility structures. We are dangerous and going against progress, preaching foreign divinities.

The fourth reaction is that we are interesting. “Hey, this guy might have a message to tell us, so let’s listen more.” They see us as teaching something novel and interesting.

These different reactions shouldn’t surprise us. We live in a pluralistic society where each person wants to be a god in their own eyes, determining good and evil for themselves. But what will we do?

We should proclaim a relevant Gospel (vv. 22-31)

In verses 22-31 we see our third point, that we should proclaim a relevant Gospel. Paul tells us here that the culture holds on and wants us to believe and think that we can worship whatever we want. How do we reach into a culture like this? Paul invites the Athenians, and tells us to invite other people in our day that believe this same sort of thing, into a life of God that they are searching for. God is near them and he is ready to bring them redemption by the man Jesus Christ who is raised from the dead.

Paul brings this out in a relevant way by quoting three of their own poets: Epimenides (c. 600 b.c.), Cleanthes (331–233 b.c.), and Aratus (c. 315–240 b.c.). Though these poets were referring to Zeus, the head of he Greek gods, Paul uses them to show that the Gospel tells of a God who is transcendent, sovereign over all who doesn’t need anything from us. He is all-sufficient. He guides and governs history.  God is above his creation. God doesn’t need our worship. God doesn’t need our service. God doesn’t need our evangelism to be happy. But God wants us so that we can find delight in him, and he has a task for us because he values people made in his image and wants others to worship him so they can live in great delight, but he doesn’t need us.

And Paul says so much. He says that God doesn’t live in a temple made with hands, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he is the Lord of heaven and earth he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. Paul is saying, “God doesn’t need anything from us.” Do you believe this? Think about the power of the Gospel when he loves us, but he doesn’t need us, but he wants us and wants us to find joy and life because he has given us life and he wants us to experience life as the way it should be. So, God is distinct from creation.

But the Gospel also tells of a God who is immanent, he desires a personal relationship with his creatures and he cares for us as if we are his children. God is not far away. Paul is saying that, “God is real, God is present, and even though you don’t know it, you are searching or groping for him.”

The great questions of our time are answered here by Paul. Do you know what these great questions are? The same questions that your neighbors have: life, motion, and being. These are the same big questions people have today: Why am I here? What am I supposed to do? What is going to fulfill me? Paul answers these questions by saying that God is our life: we live to glorify him; God is our motion: he has made us to live our life following him and doing his desires; God is our being: his person and presence satisfy our deepest longings and desires.

So, Paul appeals to their religiosity, their underlying desire and zeal for something to seek and worship. You might say to me, “James, most people today say they don’t worship anything.” That’s right. But everybody is longing for something: God, self, other gods, other religions, or Satan. Everybody worships, the question is what or who do they worship? Everybody longs for something; the question is what are they longing for? The answer is that they are longing for the God who is near. They are groping in the dark like blind people, wandering, searching, scraping, and our job is to point them to Christ.

The problem here is that the plausibility structures that our culture, the demons, the principalities and powers in this world have been pushed upon us and our neighbors. They say there can never be a God who allows pain and suffering, there can never be a God who judges, there can only be a God who loves, and you can do whatever you want. Your neighbors and friends will probably believe one of these four things. Let me state these four things as questions. Why is there pain and suffering? Why would there be judgment? How can God be anything but love? Why can’t I do whatever I want if I don’t hurt anyone?

People want a fairytale that doesn’t exist, that is intellectually and morally impossible, that can only exist in a world without sin, in a world that isn’t brokem. They want heaven to exist in the present. They want perfection without submission, order without law, grace without justice, mercy without a cost. They want everything and want to give nothing.

There is an answer. The answer is a self-sufficient Lord and Master over all. A sovereign God in absolute control. A God who doesn’t need anything but himself to be happy or complete. A God who can’t be added to. A God who is independent. A creator who made us and is the source of all life that joins us together.

This is the point. Our message is simple. God is our creator. God is completely perfect. We are rebellious and must be judged and not be allowed in his presence because of our idolatry and sin. But because of his grace, he provides a way to take our judgment…Jesus. Jesus came and lived a perfect life, died our death, in our place, was buried but then rose again, and then went to heaven to rule until all his enemies submit. So, if we trust in Jesus that he satisfied the justice that we deserved and took it in our place and then gives us his perfection, we can find redemption, peace with God. This is why Paul says that a judgment is coming by the one who has risen from the dead. It is all through God’s grace. So, Paul tells them “Come. Repent. believe.”

So, God is a God of grace in Christ, and he applies faith to us, and if we believe and trust in him by the Holy Spirit changing our hearts, if our neighbors do, then they will ultimately be used to glorify God, and that’s the point.

The reactions we can expect (vv. 32-34)

Finally, in verses 32-34, we see our fourth point, that we should expect certain reactions. There are three: Scoffing, I want to hear more, or I believe.

The first reaction we should expect is one of scoffing. We should expect people to mock us because they think we have such a foolish message. They might say, “All you have for me is Jesus, crucified, and risen from the dead? That’s it? That’s all you got?” “Yeah, that’s all. Jesus is everything.” This is our message. Brothers and sisters, this is your message. You don’t have anything else to preach. Jesus Christ, him crucified, risen, and coming to again to judge. Are you in or out? It is a simple message. People are going to look at you and say that what we are saying is simple, dumb, and tell us not to talk to them again.

The second reaction we should expect is one of interest in hearing more. Others are going to say, “Wow, really? Can you tell me more about that?” Some will inevitably have their interest peaked, and we should continue the dialogue as long as they are willing to listen and engage. 

The third reaction we should expect is one of belief. Ohers will inevitably, by the regenerating work of God, believe. Our job then is to enfold them into the church and make them become disciples who make disciples and do the same thing, go out and tell everybody about this Jesus Christ who has been raised from the dead.

Application

So, let’s apply this. Each and every believer has been set here by God just like your neighbors in this particular place, in this particular time, with particular people that you know. And we are commissioned by Jesus to go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them, teaching them to observe everything that Jesus taught. So, we must do this by preaching the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ to all those that God has put in our lives. So we pray for open doors with those neighbors and friends. We tell them that there is a God that created all people, that he is close by, and all they have to do is repent and trust in Jesus and his resurrection. We preach the hope of Jesus Christ.