Acts Chapter 17 Verse 16

• I want to offer you some clarification as to what the gospel is today in addition to what the gospel is not. I pray that you would receive the gospel and become a child of God but if you reject the gospel, I at least want you to know what you are rejecting.  Isn’t that a reasonable thing to want?  (I mean, show up, absent from the body, present with the Lord…and folks are like, “That’s what the gospel is!?”  Terrible!)
• I believe many if not all people that say no to Jesus…don’t really know what they are turning down…and in addition, many Christians even as they walk with the Lord and learn the Bible, begin to slip back into carnality and self-focus and lose grasp of the true Gospel as well!
• Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:1-5, “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.”
• Firstly, the gospel addresses and continually addresses in the life of a believer, a problem that cannot be addressed or solved by any other means. A problem that Paul observed while waiting alone in Athens that ultimately provoked him to explode with evangelism.  Many folks preach a gospel that will fulfill your life, bring your life fulfillment, and that manifests in a spectrum of preaching philosophies of how to have your best life now all the way to the Word of Faith movement, which preaches that if you just pray hard enough, believe hard enough, God will deliver all your wants and desires.  But that gospel was already alive and well in Athens when Paul arrived. 
• The problem that the gospel addresses and then continually addresses is This is the key issue of mankind.  That man puts self and self-will and self-needs and self-comfort and self-service in front of (and in the place of) worship of God.  I want you to know what the Gospel is not.  The Gospel is not a filled and fulfilled life…you can easily fill your life with idols and even many still do as Christians…the chief idol being self…the Gospel is not a filled or fulfilled life…the Gospel is a life set free…no longer bound by lower earthly things, traps, catches, focus…we are alive unto God.
• Paul saw the multitude of idolatry and he was shocked…idolatry is like soul-weights…as you seek to rise to God, to meet Him where He is at…to grow towards Him…they keep you on the ground, man…
• And really, here’s the provocation…Paul saw, God sees such wonder and beauty in this city and these people…that they’re not free and they are weighed down and they are stuck on self (new Lionel Ritchie song) they are swamped with idols! Athens was a city full of marvelous structures, sculptures, buildings…it was one of the most important cities in the world and yet as Paul looked around…he was totally depressed and provoked by the magnitude of idolatry.  Even if someone was seeking truth, they would have to trudge through such noise to find it! 
• So what does he do about it? This part I really like…he takes all that burn and puts in work.  What does it take to provoke me to put in work against idolatry?  First, you gotta see it, man…and that’s where the vast majority get grounded…Paul sees it…and cannot but address it…

Acts Chapter 17 Verses 17 – 18

• The Epicureans were the They believed that pleasure was the greatest good but the way to attain that pleasure was to live modestly and to suppress emotions.  Their goal was a life free from pain and a life of peace and those two things combined they thought was the highest form of existence.  The Stoics believed that there was no specific purpose or direction or reason for mankind and so the chief good, the point of life was virtue in the moment.  But they believed that a man could not know virtue who is emotionally involved…so they sought to become totally unfeeling.  No pain, no grief, no joy, just to be stoic about everything.  
• And notice this…they make fun of him. “Babbler,” they call him.    Unsophisticated.  They exclude him to make him feel less, small.  But he is ok.  It changes nothing about him.  He is brilliant!  His past is unknown to them but not to him.  We forget who we are when some person expresses their ignorance towards us.  If that’s you, all that reveals is your own insecure focus on yourself.  A powerful form of idolatry.  Paul is not distracted or dejected by their offense, why?  Because they don’t define him.
• He stays focused, on track, on subject and that subject is Jesus and the resurrection. Every bit of all of it is wrapped up in the fact that Jesus overwhelmed the grave and death!

Acts Chapter 17 Verses 19 – 22 (The “foreigners” were singing, ‘I wanna know what love is!’ HA!)

• The second thing I want you to understand about the gospel is that it is for the irreligious. The religious, “I’m a good Catholic,” or “I’m a strong Christian,” religion says that if you believe the right things and do the right things then you’ll be saved…you’ll have right standing with God.  But in that system, where is your hope?  It is in you.  The true gospel is one for the   Those that aren’t good, aren’t strong, aren’t able to obtain right standing with God through good living…Christians place their hope in Jesus and the gospel is one of grace!
• According to the historian Pasloineus, there were more gods in Athens than people! In 2011, the number of active cell phones in the US surpassed the population!  And that was in 2011!  When the iPhone 4 was all the craze!  I was thinking about this…cookies…you know the little things slipped to you when you visit websites…directional distinguishers used by industries to study the economy on the individual level.  How many of them are out there?    We have well exceeded Athens in our swamp…(I know, that illustration was crummy!  HA!  Well, sorry if you didn’t like it, I was just trying to bake your day…sweeten up your mood…)

Acts Chapter 17 Verse 23

• This worship without knowing…what a statement…almost confusing…it’s literally to “perform acts of piety with dull-ful regard.” Goes hand in hand with them being a very religious  That is not Christianity!  We are not blindly worshipping.  It’s not about just doing what is right or paying obeisance to a perfect God.  It’s about knowing the truth and knowing Him personally!

Acts Chapter 17 Verses 24 – 26

• And so here is the gospel…God is both Creator and Redeemer! We are dependent beings and that is good news!  Try holding your breath!  How long can you do it!  You’re breathing rented air!  God however is entirely independent…does not dwell in buildings and is in need of nothing!  We are the ones in need!  The gospel proclaims these truths and delivers our need…grace!
• And in these statements is this truth, that Christianity is not a Sunday side of you! It can’t be…if it is then religion is your bag man and idolatry is your weight…Christianity is a full on world view!! 

Acts Chapter 17 Verses 30 – 31

• Paul has gone from who God is (our Creator), to who we are (Creation), to our responsibility in light of that (to seek Him, to understand Him and worship Him in truth) and he has gone to our accountability if we do not (judgment). He only gets through his intro before he loses them…but he got to the gospel!  He assures what he has said with the fact of the resurrection!  The resurrection is the “system” to it all!  Powered up, made sound, made full, fully confident…fully secure…it is the power cord to the cross!

Acts Chapter 17 Verses 32 – 34

• So Paul departed from among them…He could have stayed and philosophized all day long…but when not able to talk any longer about Jesus, what’s the point? He makes his way to Corinth, having learned in Athens…