Acts (Part 2) | All Must Respond | Acts 17 - September 28

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Paul and Silas then traveled through the towns of Amaphilus and Apollo,

came to Thessalonians, Thessalonia, where there was a Jewish synagogue.

As was Paul's custom, he went to the synagogue service and three Sabbaths in

a row. He used the scriptures to reason with the people.

He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead.

He says, This Jesus I'm telling you about is the Messiah.

Some of the Jews who listened were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas,

along with many God-fearing Greek men and quite a few prominent women.

But some of the Jews were jealous, so they gathered some troublemakers from

the market to form a mob and start a riot.

They attacked the home of Jason, searching for Paul and Silas,

so that they could drag them out to the crowd.

Not finding them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the other believers

instead and took them before the city council.

Paul and Silas have caused trouble all over the world, they shouted.

And now they have come here to disturbing our city and two.

And Jason has welcomed them into his home.

They are all guilty of treason against Caesar, for they profess allegiance to

another king named Jesus.

The people of the city as well, as well as the city council,

were thrown into turmoil by these reports.

So the officials forced Jason and the other believers to post bond,

and then they released them.

That very night, the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea.

When they arrived there, they went to the Jewish synagogue, and the people of

Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonians.

They listened eagerly to Paul's message. They searched the scriptures day after

day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.

As a result, many Jews believed, as did many of the prominent Greek women and men.

But then when some Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the

word of God in Berea, they went there and stirred up trouble.

The believers acted at once, sending Paul on the coast while Silas and Timothy remained behind.

Those escorting Paul went with him all the way to Athens.

Then they returned to Berea with the instructions for Silas and Timothy to hurry

and join the hymn. While Paul was waiting with them in Athens,

he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city.

He went to the synagogue to reason with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles.

He spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there.

He had also had a debate with some of the...

And Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection,

they said, what's this babbler trying to say with these strange ideas he picked up?

Others said he seemed to be preaching about some foreign gods.

When they took him to the high council of the city, come and tell us something about his teaching.

They said, you are saying some rather strange things and we want to know what it's all about.

It should be explained that all the Athenians, as well as the foreigners in

Athens, seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.

So Paul, standing there before the council, addressed them as follows.

Men of Athens, I noticed that you are very religious in every way.

For as I was walking along, I saw your many shrines, and one of your altars

has this inscription on it, to an unknown God.

This God whom you worship without knowing is the one I'm telling you about.

He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is the Lord

of heaven and earth, he didn't live in a man-made temple, and human hands can't

serve his needs, for he has no needs.

He himself gives life and breath to everything. He satisfies every need.

From one man, he created all the nations throughout the whole earth.

He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.

His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way

toward him and find him, though he was not far from any one of us.

For in him we live and move and exist.

As some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring.

And since this is true, we shouldn't think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen

from gold or silver or stone.

God overlooked people's ignorance about these things in earlier times.

But now he commands everyone and everywhere to repent from their sins and turn to him.

For he has sent a day of judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed

and be proved to everyone who this is and raising him by the dead.

When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead,

some laughed in contempt, but others said, we want to hear more about this later.

That ended Paul's discussion with them, but some joined him,

became believers, and among them were Dionysus, a member of the council,

a woman named Demarius, and others with them. Thank you, Bree.

Also, just thank you, Julie and Bree, for leading us this morning. that was special.

Time together, singing and worshiping, being grateful for all the Lord has done.

I do want to take a detour real quick before we get into Acts 17.

We listened to a song yesterday that was kind of word for word,

some scripture in Ephesians, and then Jenny looked it up and found out where it was.

And I woke up this morning kind of with these words in my mind.

So I get into the actual meat

of act 17 this is the end of chapter 3 ephesians for this

reason i bow my knees before the father from whom every family

in heaven and on earth is named that according to the riches of his glory he

may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner

being so that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted

and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what

is the breadth and length.

And so we're going to get to this in a minute, but this idea that we all need

to be able to see ourselves as sort of the beloved disciple in a way that the

love of Christ that surpasses all understanding is the same love that he has for you today.

And then it goes on now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all

that we ask or think according to the power at work within us,

to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever, ever. Amen.

So I just woke up with those words kind of endlessly in my head, this idea that God...

Can and is willing and able to work in your life and to work through us in this church.

In ways that surpass all of our understanding, all of our hopes,

all of our expectations, all that we ask and imagine that God can do more in us and through us.

And it was just a powerful word for me this morning.

And this idea, as we get into what Acts 17 is all about, remembering that while

God has left us with a mission, it is his mission and he will accomplish it.

And he has left us with a part and a role to play in that, but he's the one

who saves and he's the one who calls and he's at work. So we can't forget that.

And he, like Ephesians says, can do more than we can even hope or imagine.

And if we are coming up against circumstances and life and things that we can't hope beyond.

We can know that God has already extended far beyond all that we can even think to this day.

So that's an encouragement as we get into this word.

But now Acts 17.

And as I was thinking about this, a thought came to mind with regard to really

what is this all about? And we'll get there.

But with that, the idea that,

There are all of these things that exist in the world and in culture specifically.

If any of you have traveled at all or to any extent, you know that this is true.

Where there, especially around food, but other things as well,

there are things that exist within culture that are polarizing.

In England, it might be something like Marmite or Vegemite, whichever they have there.

In the US, pineapple on pizza. We had pineapple on pizza yesterday. Who's a fan? Anybody?

Yeah. Anybody morally opposed to pineapple on pizza?

Apparently canaan is so there you go you know i don't know if we can be friends anymore guys,

no but there's these things like everybody has a strong opinion about

some of these things that exist from culture to culture i

know in sweden right you have that really stinky fish that nobody eats

anymore some strumming or whatever yeah maybe that's not polarizing anymore

because everybody's like that's gross why would we eat it but there are these

things specifically a lot of them revolve around food but they have to do with

other things where where there's quick these quirks that force you to take a

side and in a way to have an opinion.

You can't just pass it off and not have an opinion for some reason,

although pineapple on a pizza is a simple silly thing to care so much about.

So in a more significant way, what we see in Acts 17 is this idea that no one

can remain neutral, specifically with what you're going to do with Jesus.

Everyone must respond, everyone will respond. You can't have an opinion or you

can't remain apathetic.

You have to have some sort of stance with regards to Jesus.

And this is exactly how the chapter ends. We see that some mocked,

there's these three responses kind of issued, illustrated right away or very

clearly that some mocked, they heard about the resurrection and basically said,

no way, that's ridiculous.

That was one of the responses in Athens. Some wanted to hear more.

They weren't ready to commit, but they were intrigued.

They wanted to hear more about Jesus. They were curious.

What is this that this babbler is talking about?

And then of course, some believe they were cut to the heart and their lives were changed.

And this is just the statements, the summary statements that happen at the end of the chapter.

But the idea here is that Jesus provokes a response, that the gospel presses people to a decision.

You either receive him, you reject him, or you wrestle with him,

but you can't just shrug him off.

And this is what this whole chapter is about, that there are many responses

to Jesus, but everyone has a response.

And I say that knowing full well that it is many people's mission in this life

to remain as neutral as possible with regard to Jesus.

That there are people who attempt over the course of their entire lives to not

make a decision, to not have a response to Jesus.

I'm fully aware of that. But the reality is beyond that, all of us will respond

in some way, but even in our desire to not respond is a response in itself.

But the whole idea is that you have to figure out what are you going to do with Jesus?

And for us as believers who have made a response, that question doesn't just

stop when we're baptized or when this or that happens. It is a question that

we must continue to ask ourselves. What are we going to do with Jesus?

I have this old, this is actually a new bracelet, but you know,

this whole idea, WWJD, right?

And this was kind of what I was communicating when I was speaking at Jenny's

parents' church a couple of weeks ago.

And we ordered them, but they didn't arrive. So it was a late thing.

And eventually I wore it.

But the idea was I was communicating is that all of us at every moment have

to kind of figure out our, not just what would Jesus do, but what are we going to do?

And in every moment, the question for us as believers is, are we going to obey?

Are we going to follow? Are we going to continue,

to have this positive belief response toward Jesus.

So it's not something we just is one and done, but it is a posture of our lives.

And this is also how the chapter begins in Thessalonica.

There is a response, many believed, many Jews were persuaded,

many Greeks come to follow Jesus, men and women. There is a positive response.

But then on the other side, other Jews come along and Luke tells us that they were moved by jealousy.

And so they stirred up a riot and they actually drag this new believer,

Jason, out of his house because they can't find Paul. And they beat him and they charge him.

And when we read, it's funny because when we read this family group,

Katie pointed out that Jason sounds like a very American name. And you know what?

I don't disagree with that. It sounds very American. It's fair. But here's the point.

There will be a response. And though violent it was in Thessalonica,

there will be a response. And so what happens is Paul and Silas are kind of

ushered off and they end up traveling to Berea, which is 45 minutes away.

It is another city, not quite as large as Thessalonica. It actually still exists to this day.

It's named something very similar. I think it's just a V rather than a B.

And they just essentially built this modern city on top of the ancient city.

And they have these monuments to this experience that we're reading about in

chapter 17 with Paul bringing the gospel to them. And Luke tells us that the

Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica.

And it's not because they were of a higher status.

It's not because they were of a higher class.

But the reason he says that is because they heard the gospel and they weighed

it and they gave attention to its words.

They believed something about the word of God that I think even we tend to struggle

with from time to time is that they expected not just to receive the gospel from Paul,

but for God to speak through his word and confirm it.

So they heard and they gave careful consideration. It's a beautiful thing in Hebrews.

It tells us several times to consider Jesus in very different ways.

And they considered very carefully the word of God. They carefully considered Jesus.

And in some ways, because of where Berea was, it was outside of the trade routes.

And so it didn't have all of this political pressure that Thessalonica did.

The people there because of that were given space to consider.

There wasn't this external pressure and politics that were forcing a response, negative or positive.

And so they were given this space to consider outside of external motivators,

which is important because this is exactly what the charge against Paul in Thessalonica is.

It says that they are guilty of treason against Caesar for they profess allegiance

to another king named Jesus.

Again, because these Jews knew something that because we're far removed from

this idea of a king that we tend to forget or that we pass by.

And that is that Jesus is not a private spirituality, but that Jesus is indeed

a political threat, not just in the world, but in our hearts as well.

And that whatever powers that exist in us or over us, that we really do have a king.

And as most of you know, I don't know anything about politics,

so I can't have an educated conversation with you about what's going on in our country.

But I have seen people have signs about something about a king and I have no

idea what it's about. I don't really honestly care to know what it's about.

But the reality is, is for those of us who are believers, we do have a king.

And Paul, the reality that Jesus was king over the lives of Paul and the believers

then is just as real as today as it was then.

And because of that, there should be this effect that Jesus has on us and it

should extend to every aspect of our lives as being our king.

It should change something in us. But to get back to the Bereans, I love this about them.

And I can remember these verses from even when I was a kid, that they received

the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

In some ways they were more noble than us as well because of that.

They expected to hear the voice of God. They expected to hear his word.

They poured over it and they knew that he would reveal himself through it.

I don't know why we are so surprised when we encounter God in that way.

I don't know why we're so surprised when we encounter God working in the lives

of other people, especially when we get frustrated or hurt or.

Sad or whatever it may be when we encounter God's work in another person's life

where we didn't expect it.

I don't know why we're, I don't know why we don't expect it.

And I don't know why we're surprised.

And I don't know why we're surprised when we encounter the voice of God speaking

through his word, but the Bereans expected it.

They knew that if they searched the scriptures, they knew if they poured themselves

over it, that, that God would reveal the truth to them.

The truth about Jesus, the truth about the gospel that Paul was speaking and that God moved.

And so they responded knowing that God would speak, which is an incredible thing.

And I love that. But perhaps that leads us to the more famous encounter in this chapter in Athens.

And this is perhaps one of the most famous chapters in all of the book of Acts.

It is the foundation of missional approaches and, and, and missions in general,

missional living in the Bible.

And Paul essentially is giving this masterclass on how to engage culture with

the gospel in, in the, in this part of Athens, because what Paul is doing.

Is he is providing opportunities and the invitations for people to respond in

this chapter throughout the whole chapter, but specifically in Athens,

Paul is providing opportunities and invitations for people to respond.

And so in one sense, this chapter is about how people will respond to you as you share the gospel.

And there are some who will say that if you don't encounter all of these responses,

then perhaps you're not sharing enough because if you're having 100% success,

then you're doing better than Paul and you're doing better than Jesus.

But we will encounter all of these responses as we care for the people around

us and we share the gospel with us.

And so if we're not getting any responses, that also people will say that that

means we're not loving people well enough to share the gospel with them.

But Paul, in this engagement of culture, Paul starts with where people are.

When he's with the Jews, he starts with scripture.

He goes to the synagogues, he goes to the places of prayer, and he unfolds and

reveals what God has said from the beginning that has led to Jesus.

And he persuades and he convinces.

But with those outside of the Jewish faith, he starts with what they know and where they are.

And he begins to build this sort of.

Common ground with them. And specifically with regard to Athens, he sees this altar.

So there was this saying in Athens that you're more likely to encounter a God

than a person because of the religiosity of the city itself,

that there were literally idols everywhere.

And of course they had this idol to an unknown God because they were so superstitious

and afraid of offending a God that they had no idea about that they,

just in case they had this backup plan where they had an altar to an unknown

God to cover all of their bases.

And so Paul says, I see in every way that you're very religious.

And now when he says that, that could mean two things.

He could mean that you are spiritual, but it could also mean that you are superstitious.

One is a compliment. One is sort of an insult.

And they took it as a compliment.

I'm not so convinced that Paul and all of what we know about him wasn't sort

of being a little sarcastic in that and saying, you even have an idol to a God

that you don't even know about.

So that's where he starts. He starts with where they are. He started with their

questions and he found that common ground.

And this is a reality that we all experience and we all know is that we are incurably religious.

We are incurably spiritual, that our hearts and indeed all humans were made

from the beginning of creation to hunger and thirst for God.

In Ecclesiastes, it says that God put eternity into man's heart,

right? So all of us are this incurably religious, incurably spiritual people.

We all ask questions about God. Everybody asks questions about God.

Everybody searches for meaning in their lives and purpose.

All people wonder about eternity, what happens next.

And it's not so easy just to convince ourselves that there is nothing because

we all hope that this is not it.

Even the most ardent atheist hopes beside themselves, that this can't be it.

We all wonder, we all yearn, we all ask questions.

And so what Paul does is he begins with their questions. He begins with their,

what they already thought.

And then he started to challenge it a bit. He talks about the fact of who the real God is.

And this is what something that the Bible does all the time.

It doesn't necessarily compare God to idols.

What it does is it tells people who God is in a way that says,

the God who created the universe is so much greater than what you've created with your own hands.

So it really focuses on who God is. And as a result, the inferences,

what all of our own idols that we built up, how lacking they are.

And so he says that the God of the universe was not created,

but he created all things.

And so he's not served by human hands. And Miss Sandy pointed out how ridiculous

it is that these created idols, they had to feed them.

Like that they would have to feed their gods.

And Paul's pointing that out exactly to them is how ridiculous it is that you

believe that this is a God that has power, and yet you have to take care of it.

But the God who created the universe doesn't need you to feed him.

He doesn't need your service. He created all things.

And he doesn't, if you look back in the Old Testament, right,

he doesn't even dwell in temples made by man like that could even contain him.

Jews didn't build the temple because they needed a house to God to live in.

It was a place for them to go and worship, knowing that God filled the universe.

But the Athenians worship was, it was a power struggle. It was an exchange.

And we, when we have our own idols, which we all do, whatever it may center

around comfort or power or authority, or whatever it is, approval,

it's a power struggle that we create in our lives.

And so their worship was a power struggle where they tried to serve their gods.

They tried to trick their gods. they tried to provide what their God was asking

for so that they could get something in exchange for it.

And so Paul reasoned, and that reason is amazing. The sermon or the teaching

or whatever you want to call it is amazing.

But the invitation he gives them is not to respond to what he's saying in a sense.

It's not to respond. And again, Paul is this great orator, although there's

a part in his letters that he talks about how that when he's with them,

he's with them in weakness.

And so they are unconvinced by the way he speaks, but he writes in such power.

So there's a weird dynamic going there. But we know that Paul speaks with authority.

He speaks with power. He is moved by the spirit of God.

So he is a convincing person and he says convincing things and he reasons and

he convinces people all the time, but he's not asking them to respond to his convincing arguments.

To believe for the sake of belief in something that is a better explanation than what they have.

Because the realities he's convincing them of is the worship of the God who

created the universe is not a power exchange.

We cannot fight with him. We cannot hope to overpower him.

Our God is worship because his nature demands it, because he deserves it,

because we are made to delight in God.

They worshiped to get something else out of it. But our God is so glorious and

transcendent that he himself is the prize.

And that's what Paul is asking them to respond to, to God himself,

to Jesus, not to his arguments, not to his convincing.

In a sense, he's saying through all of this, that real truth is not determined

by speculation. These Athenians gathered around to talk about new ideas all the time.

I don't know about you, but that sounds like a prophecy for YouTube.

All we do nowadays is talk about new ideas and new things, and we can be convinced

by anything that we want because any belief that you desire to have,

you can find somebody who's talking about it, I'm sure.

So in many ways, it's not so different. Athens of the past is not so different from our present.

But he's convincing them that your belief is not in the best explanation.

Your response is not to the best explanation, but it's a response to divine revelation.

Your response is, as a Christian, you are not a Christian because you have developed,

and found the best answers for the questions that you have had.

That might have contributed to convincing you to make a response,

but you are not a Christian, or at least sustained as a Christian because you

believe you have found the best explanation.

Is because you have encountered the reality of the living God.

That religion and philosophy say, they try and answer the question of who is right?

What's the best explanation? What does God want from us? What do I have to sacrifice?

These are questions in the realm of philosophy and in the realm of religion.

But Jesus says, look at what I've done for you. He says, look at who I am.

He says, look at what I have sacrificed for you. Jesus tells us,

look at the fact that I ran towards you when you were still dead in your idolatry,

that I made movements towards you even in the midst of that.

And so, yeah, in one sense, this chapter is about how people will respond as you share the gospel.

And in another sense, it is about how we all must respond.

And just because we've made a response in the past doesn't mean that we've done,

we've finished making a response to Jesus.

This is one of the most important and often asked questions of Jesus throughout his time on this earth.

At the beginning of the book of John, when he is speaking to Andrew and another

disciple who have left John the Baptist to follow him.

And he turns around and he says, what are you doing? What do you want?

He does that a lot, right? He asks questions that we assume that he knows the

answer to, but he asks that of us as well.

What are you looking for? What are you seeking? What do you want?

And then he invites them, come and see.

He does this again, time and time, over and over throughout the gospels.

He asked the disciples, who do people say that I am?

Because everybody's going to respond to Jesus in some way. In our culture,

people will say, oh, he's a great spiritual teacher.

People will say, you know, he was a pretty cool dude. People will say he didn't

exist. People will say all manner of things.

Who do people say that I am? Then he asked them the more important question, who do you say that I am?

And that's the question that he asks us all the time.

What are you going to do about me? Who are you going to believe that I am?

What is your life going to say about that?

There's this quote from C.S. Lewis that probably y'all have heard before.

You've probably read Mere Christianity and read it before.

But C.S. Lewis says, I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish

thing that people often say about him, about Jesus.

I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim

to be God. And that is the one thing we must not say.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not

be a great moral teacher.

He would either be a lunatic on a level with a man who says that he's a poached

egg, or else he is the devil of hell. You must make your choice.

Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.

We can't continue to remain neutral about Jesus.

Even as we sit in our churches across the world, We can't just subsist in the

status quo of our neutrality towards the Son of God.

We are forced to respond, either Lord, lunatic or liar.

That's the phrase that came from this quote from C.S. Lewis, right?

Lord, lunatic or liar, who is he going to be in your life?

And if we are not continuing to respond in obedience with him as our Lord,

as our King, as Paul was accused of saying, and indeed was preaching,

then we're choosing something else. We're responding in a different way.

What are we going to do about Jesus in our lives? What are you going to do about

what title? What title does he take in your life?

There's lots of people who in the church who focus on the fact that Jesus is

our savior, and that's where it ends for them.

So we can latch on to even titles of his character and the neglect of other aspects.

So who is Jesus going to be in your life?

Some people have a faith in belief. They have faith in faith,

but they don't have actually have faith in God.

But it's convincing enough that they go to church and they're convinced that

they're a Christian. And this is where we get Jesus' teaching.

Where people will say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do these things?

Because what faith in faith means is.

What belief in belief means, because that sounds confusing, is this approach

to faith that focuses more on having the correct beliefs or knowing the right

things or belonging to the right tradition or doing the right motions or experiencing

the right spirituality.

It's about focusing more on these correctly held beliefs than it is about the

transformational relationship with Christ.

Because genuine faith, genuine belief in God is not just knowing the right things.

It's not an intellectual ascent. It's not just saying, I believe that God,

that Jesus is the son of God.

I believe that he has died and rose and covered my sins and I'm forgiven.

It's not just about making those statements about living a life that's transformed

by the relationship with God that that demonstrates the reality of what you're saying.

And there are many who have reduced the gospel to a set of beliefs to be accepted

rather than a life, to be lived and submitted.

But discipleship encompasses the entirety of a person, mind,

body, soul, and spirit, and calls for a holistic transformation that aligns

our lives with what Jesus says, what Jesus demonstrates and what he teaches.

And there's a part of me that I wrestle with, where a thought will come to my mind.

I will, God wants me to do this. He wants me to kneel at my bed and pray,

or to do this, or to fast today, or whatever it may be.

And it's a thought that comes, but sometimes the reality of that thought,

not that it shouldn't be done, but is, that should be questioned is,

am I believing right now that if I do this, that God will hear me.

And if I do this, that God will respond to what I'm saying.

And if I fast, then I can convince him to answer me in a way that I can see this week.

And that's the power struggle of idolatry. It doesn't mean we don't do those

things, but it does mean we set ourselves right of why are we doing it?

And if we believe that we're doing it for a reason of convincing God to hear

us and answer and respond, then that's an opportunity to confess and repent,

and to continue to do that thing because we want to sit in the presence and love Jesus.

God will respond because he loves you, not because you convince him to do it.

God will respond because he's faithful not because we're faithful.

God will respond because that's who he is.

And I mentioned at the beginning in that passage in Ephesians.

That we all need to be able to see ourselves as the beloved disciple.

The book of John was written by the apostle John, even though he never mentions

his name in the entirety of his gospel.

Isn't that amazing?

He says John the Baptist, but he never once talks about himself with his first name.

The reason that we know it was John is because John discipled a guy named Polycarp

who discipled a guy named Irenaeus, and Irenaeus said John wrote this gospel.

What John does refer to himself as throughout the entirety of his gospel is

the one whom Jesus loved, which sounds fairly arrogant, but perhaps what he's

really saying is this is kind of who we all are.

It's not Brent, or Josh, or Julie, or Becca.

It's not the name that you were given. It's not the identity we've built ourselves around.

It's not what we do, we're a student, or a detective, or whatever it is.

It's not these identities that we give ourselves, but the one that stands out

the most is that we are a disciple who is loved by Jesus.

We are a son, a daughter of Christ, the most high God.

So as we make our responses, we all go through these, and this is a little bit

of a departure, but I feel like it's something important for us to know.

As we make our responses to Jesus in every moment, we will all find ourselves

in seasons of doubt. Just happens.

But how come we never doubt our doubts?

We're so ready to doubt everything else, but we're pretty reticent,

and we're pretty reluctant to doubt when we're doubting.

But what if we started in those moments, in that time of response,

where for some reason, whatever's happening, and maybe it's because we are not

seeking the Lord with all our hearts, and then in that moment,

we find ourselves more distant and we fall into a pattern of thought where we're

like, what's the point of all of this?

What if we started doubting that?

And in those doubts of our doubts, Again, not confusing at all.

We pressed in to the truth of who Jesus is.

Because one thing that Paul is communicating in his interactions with these

Athenians, who likes to think about a lot of things,

the thing that's said about them, about what they do all day in the Arapagus,

the literal translation is like seed spitters or something like that,

where essentially it is an image of a chicken who eats seeds,

but doesn't actually digest it. It just spits it out.

Like that's the word for word accusation of what these Athenians were doing all the time.

They were thinking about lots of things and we think about lots of things.

But in some ways, what Paul is kind of saying is, it doesn't really matter what

you think, it's a matter what God says and who He is and what actual truth is.

It doesn't matter if we think we have the truth, what matters is what the truth

actually is and are responding to the one who is truth, Jesus.

We all have to respond. Everyone will respond.

As you step out in boldness and faith, which is what the book of Acts is all

about, and being witnesses for the most high God, you will meet every response

that we see in chapter 17.

People will receive it gladly and eagerly. People will seek the scriptures with their whole heart.

People will want to hear more. They'll be curious. People will be indifferent. People will hate it.

Lord, lunatic or liar, we all have to make that response every day of our lives.

Music.