Breaking Through Barriers: Building Bridges

Acts 17:16-34
last week: wield weapon of the Word…
- …but we are also called to be bridge builders
- we must approach non-believers, rather than waiting for them to come to us

Create Opportunities (v16-21)
- be the ones generating opportunities
- initial 1st phase: determine where you can build
- Athens was full of idols (73k lining the streets; more idols than people!)
- Like Paul, we need to be irritated by idolatry
  - “provoked” = deeply irritated and angered; but why?
    1. as faithful Jew, every idol is an affront to God
      - demons attempting to take image of God (Isa 42:8)
    2. Paul saw a display of distracted human purpose; false worship
    3. understood it’d lead to incredible consequences
      - burdened by the brokenness; righteously angered
- A.W. Tozer, “God hates iniquity as a mother hates the polio that would destroy the life of her child”
- are we burdened to the point where we feel the urgency to evangelize?
- Jer 20:9
- Epicurean and Stoic major worldviews at Paul’s time
  - Epicureans: everything by choice, death is the end of it all
    - pluralistic agnostic hedonism, with no relation between spiritual and life
  - Stoics: pantheistic fatalistic apathy
  - both preached foreign divinities
    - but this divinity is Jesus, and the resurrection; which they know not of (yet)!
  - both utterly empty and devoid of truth
  - both represent genuine desire to know and feel something, and deep hunger to learn and understand real truth
  - “babbler”: scavenger, one who is trying to pick around and talk about what he does not understand
    - obviously mocking Paul in their ignorance and arrogance BUT Paul is willing to take it
Confront the Culture (v22-23)
- when Paul is mocked, he doesn’t easily get offended or angry
  - we need to be thick-skinned when we share the Good News!
- Why/how was Paul able to be like this?
  - Confidence
    - Paul knows he is preaching the absolute truth
    - on Christ the solid rock we stand…
- What was his approach?
  1. Observe (v23)
    - Paul intentionally letting them know he sees what they value
    - we have to be effective observers
  2. Understand
    - Paul spends time understanding their culture and doesn’t mock it
      - respects and values the culture, but doesn’t accept it
    - Determined what mattered most to them
  3. Expose
    - what do these things tell us about what they’re truly seeking?
    - the main underlying issue of everyone is worship disorder
      - what are we worshipping VS what should we be worshipping?
      - what you value more than God is your idol
Craft the narrative (v24-25)
- Paul didn’t quote bible directly…
  - his previous audiences were Jews and knew the OT
  - the Athenians were full on pagans
    - everything Paul said was still biblical without directly referencing scripture
- vital to establish reality of God
  - people will not realize their need for saviour until they realize that God exists
- showing singularity and supremacy of God
  - continues to reveal Athenian misunderstanding of divine
- idolatry flips the role that God is dependant on us, rather than us being dependant on God and being supplied/fulfilled by everything
- God is within but also not contained within the universe
- Paul picked and chose a starting place of agreement (ex: morality in universe, order exists in the universe) then contradicted the common worldview with Biblical view
Connect the hearer (v26-29)
- God is not distant/removed, He is with us
  - move from theoretical realm to personal realm
- People (and us at one time) are groping in the darkness but unable to grab onto the actual God without being revealed the Lord
  - we all need to understand the personal relationship with God
- Paul quoted their own poet to show deep down they were yearning for the same being
- why was idolatry banned in OT?
  - you can’t make with human hands anything close to reflecting actual image of God
- we must move to engage people’s hearts, not just minds
  - move from meaning to significance
Call the heart (v30-34)
- everything begins with repentance
  - moving from idolatry to true God worship
- v30: important because the day of judgment is fixed
- Jesus is the lone judge, only He is qualified
- the resurrection is the most vital truth