Good morning,
This series began with the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus then appears for forty days to the apostles, disciples, and many other people. During this time, He is training, encouraging, and telling them what happens next. Just prior to His ascension, He announces the promise of the Father to baptize them with the Holy Ghost. Jesus then ascends back to heaven and seven days later, they are baptized with the Holy Ghost.
What happens next is amazing! One hundred twenty believers began speaking in languages they were never taught. People heard the gospel in their own native language. Then Peter stands up to preach. The result 3,000 were saved and baptized. Later Stephan, one of the first deacons, testifies of Christ and is stoned to death.
This week, Saul, hater of the believers in Christ, encounters Jesus and it changes his life forever.
2) SAUL’S PREACHING ON MARS HILL (Acts 17:16-34)
C. GOD MADE THE HEAVEN AND EARTH (24)
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
D. GOD GIVETH LIFE (25-26)
25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
E. MEN SHOULD SEEK THE LORD (27-28)
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
F. GOD IS NOT AN IDOL (29)
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
G. GOD COMMANDS MEN TO REPENT (30-31)
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent:31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
H. THE RESPONSE TO PAUL’S PREACHING (32-34)
And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.33 So Paul departed from among them.34 Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
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Paul now tells the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers about God and His Son Jesus Christ.
He tells them God made all things, that God does not live in temples made of hands, that God giveth life to all, that they should seek the Lord, that God is not an idol made by the hands of me, and they must repent. Then he tells them of Christ’s resurrection.
The result of Paul’s preaching, some mocked and some believed.
Paul knew that the people of Athens worshipped idols. His preaching challenged the peoples thinking about idols versus God, who was living and cared about them. The key point is the resurrection of Jesus.
Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 1-907-715-4001 chaplain@alaskaseniors.com
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