Back to the Basics | Reaching People for Christ | Pastor Evan Jacobsen

Описание: compasshillcountry.org

PREACHING POINT: Go reach people for Christ by proclaiming the whole Gospel, knowing that while many will mock, God will powerfully save some.

Acts 17:16–34 (ESV)
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at
Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he
saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he
reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the
devout persons, and in the marketplace every day
with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of
the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also
conversed with him. And some said, “What does
this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems
to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because
he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19
And they took him and brought him to the
Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new
teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you
bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to
know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now
all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived
there would spend their time in nothing except
telling or hearing something new. 22 So Paul,
standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said:
“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you
are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and
observed the objects of your worship, I found also
an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown
god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown,
this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the
world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven
and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
25 nor is he served by human hands, as though
he needed anything, since he himself gives to all
mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And
he made from one man every nation of mankind
to live on all the face of the earth, having
determined allotted periods and the boundaries of
their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek
God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and
find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one
of us, 28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have
our being’; as even some of your own poets have
said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 29 Being
then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that
the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an
image formed by the art and imagination of man.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but
now he commands all people everywhere to
repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which
he will judge the world in righteousness by a man
whom he has appointed; and of this he has given
assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the
dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will
hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out
from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and
believed, among whom also were Dionysius the
Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and
others with them.