42 "How the Gospel Takes Root in Places Like Athens" Acts 17:16-34 | Sunday, March 15, 2026

church, you can remain standing. Take

your Bibles, turn to Acts chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 17. We'll stand for the

Acts 17 · chapter mention

reading of God's word as we give honor

to his eternal, infallible, inspired,

and preserved word. Today,

we're in Acts chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

We saw in our last message that Paul

went to cities of Macedonia. He's been

to Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea.

and he's seen multitudes

believe the gospel and yet along the way

faced persecution and was driven out of

Thessalonica by opposing Jews and then

those same Jews came from Thessalonica

to Berea and drove Paul out of town

there as well. He escaped by a boat

escort down to Athens and he sent some

of those brothers back to Silas and

Timothy whom he had left in Thessalon

and Berea to establish the churches,

disciple the new believers there. Told

them to come as quickly as they could.

And so Paul has currently been waiting

at Athens. We're not sure exactly how

long, but it's possible that it's been

days or even weeks, however long Silas

and Timothy needed to stay there, but

he's been waiting. And that's where we

pick up our text beginning in verse 16.

We'll read through the end of the

chapter. Now, while Paul waited for them

at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him

when he saw the city holy given to

idolatry, therefore disputed he in the

synagogue with the Jews and with the

devout persons and in the market daily

with them that met him. Then certain

philosophers of the Epicurans and of the

Stoics encountered him. And some said,

"What will this Babyler say, others,

some, he seemth to be a setter forth of

strange gods?" Because he preached unto

them Jesus and the resurrection.

And they took him and brought him unto

Aropagus, saying, "May we know what this

new doctrine whereof thou speakest is?

for thou bringest certain strange things

to our ears. We would know therefore

what these things mean. For all the

Athenians and strangers when they when

they uh strangers which were there spent

their time in nothing else but either to

tell or to hear some new thing. Then

Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and

said, "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that

in all things ye are too superstitious.

For as I passed by, beheld your

devotions, I found an altar with this

inscription." to the unknown God, whom

therefore ye ignorantly worship, him

declare I unto you, God that made the

world, and all things therein, seeing

that he is Lord of heaven and earth, and

dwelleth not in temples made with hands,

neither is worshiped with men's hands,

as though he needed anything, seeing he

giveth to all life and breath, and all

things, and hath ath 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 habitations that

they should seek the Lord if happily

they might feel after him and find him

though we be not far from every one of

us for in him we live and move and have

our being as certain also of your own

poets have said, "For we are his

offspring." For as much 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 devices. At the times of this

ignorance, God winked at, but now

commandeth all men everywhere to repent,

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. And when they

heard of the resurrection of the dead,

some mocked, and others said, "We will

hear thee again of this matter." So Paul

departed from among them. How be it,

certain men clave unto him, and

believed. Among the which was Dionicius,

the Aropagite, and a woman named Dearis,

and others with them.

I want to speak to you this morning on

this subject. How the gospel takes root

in places like Athens. How the gospel

takes root in places like Athens. Let's

pray.

Our heavenly father, we need the power

of your Holy Spirit to open our eyes,

our ears, and our heart to understand

the eternal truth of your word. So we

ask you to speak plainly and clearly

through your word that we might find and

understand the challenge, the

encouragement, the correction,

the way forward as we try to reach our

city for Jesus Christ. It's in his name

and for his sake I pray these things.

Amen. Thank you for standing in honor of

God's word. You can be seated.

Can the gospel take root

in the leading cities of intellect,

education, and false religion?

Is the gospel powerful enough, logical

enough, and intellectual enough to break

through in Boston near MIT and Harvard?

Or what about Palo Alto near Stanford or

the University of California at

Berkeley?

These leading centers of science, art,

philosophy.

Can the gospel break through?

Or what about the Buddhist epicenters

around the world like Bangkok or Tibet?

Can the gospel take hold in the most

sacred Hindu city of Veronasi in India

or Catmandeue in Nepal?

Or what about Mecca?

Are those places where the gospel can

really take hold?

Sometimes we might even wonder if the

gospel will ever really take root here

in the city of Boulder.

This is our city.

150,000 precious souls during the school

year.

a modern city that is home to the

Boulder Zen and Shambala Buddhist

centers. Up in the mountain on Gold

Hill, there is a sacred Hindu worship

center there. And we have an Islamic

center right here in our own town.

You can walk downtown Pearl Street and

go to Old Tibet or to Little Buddha and

find Buddhist and Hindu statutes to

purchase for your own home.

Sometimes you see them in windows

and on front porches. We had our first

all church outreach yesterday. Went out

to some neighborhoods in eastern Boulder

and my wife said that in this particular

area there were so many idols and

statues on the front porches and some of

you that were there yesterday may have

seen that. Yeah, it's here. We too have

a university where tens of thousands of

students come to study science, art,

philosophy, and even religion. We have a

university dedicated to Buddhist

principles of philosophy and psychology

at Nuropa.

Boulder could be considered somewhat of

a center of polytheism,

pantheism,

and idolatry. And yet it's also a center

of education, science, art, philosophy,

and of course, political debates.

Yet, it's a place where we wonder with a

congregation our size, after five years

of ministry,

it's possible for us to wonder, is this

really going anywhere?

Is the gospel really going to take root

here?

Or will this church stay as it is

forever?

I propose this question to you today

because it's something that's easy for

us to question as things get harder and

society becomes harder to Christ.

But I want to say that the answer is

yes. The gospel can take root in places

like here, in places like Boston, in

places like New York, and in all over

California, and in Bangkok and Tibet.

Yes, the gospel can take root in places

like this,

but it will not look the same as it does

in the South or in the Bible belt.

It won't look the same as it did in

Thessalonica.

or in Berea where multitudes and many

those are the words that it describes

came to the faith of Jesus Christ in

spite of the opposition. In places like

this, it will often look much more like

it did in Athens.

Athens on a far greater level than

Boulder was flooded with pagan

religions. A plethora of temples,

socratic, platonic, epicurion, and stoic

philosophers were everywhere. Its

streets were filled with Roman elites

who were sent from Rome to Athens to

learn from the best, the Greek

philosophers, scientists, and artists.

Yet when Paul preaches the gospel,

it says, "How be it?" Even though some

mocked, even though some said, "Maybe

we'll hear this again later." How be it?

Dionicius and Dearis and others

believed.

That may not seem like much to us. It

certainly doesn't sound like the many

and the multitudes in Thessalonica and

Berea as well as in Philippi. It doesn't

sound like that. But and so many people

will look on Paul's ministry in Athens

as even a failure because there's never

mention of a church there. Paul never

returns to Athens.

And so thus many people look at this and

say nothing happened there. But history

tells us a different story.

Early 3 century historian Usabius

says that this man Dionicius

became the first bishop of the church in

Athens and that he gave his life in the

very courtyard where he first believed

on Jesus Christ.

And eventually, it took a very long time

for Athens, but eventually the

Parthonon, where Athena was worshiped,

was transformed into a Christian church

for a thousand years.

You know what that tells us? It took a

long time, but the gospel took root

and it took root here as Paul preached.

And I think what Luke is getting across

to us is is this. When you consider what

Athens was, certainly beyond its

precipice by the first century, it was

under Roman control, not Greek control

at this point. And so it it was kind of

known for its pastrich history. And yet

it was still well known as one of the

most prominent cities in the Roman

Empire, one of the most pagan cities,

one of the most intellectual cities, one

of the most higher level of learning

cities in all of the Roman Empire and

all of the world. And yet, I think this

is what Luke is getting across to us. If

the gospel took root in Athens, it can

take root anywhere. And that includes

here in Boulder. But the question is,

how? How does the gospel take root in

the centers of paganism,

intellectualism, and philosophy?

I want to show you this morning that

what happened with Paul in this text is

what must happen in our hearts today.

First of all, for the gospel to take

root,

our spirits must be stirred by what we

see. Our spirits must be stirred by what

we see. That's the first thing that we

notice in our text. If you look with me

at verse 16 now, while Paul waited for

them at Athens, his spirit was stirred

in him when he saw the city wholly given

to idolatry. His spirit was stirred in

him when he saw the city.

Rather than just defining and describing

these things, what what I want to do is

I want to walk with you through the city

of Athens with Paul for a moment.

Perhaps Paul made his way through the

main street of Athens here. And as he

looks to his left, he sees the streets

lined with these statutes of gold and

stone and silver. And they're colored up

and painted up of famous Greek people or

gods and goddesses. and he sees them all

along this side. He looks to his right

and he sees the city streets lined as

well. He sees on the porches of homes.

As he walks through the neighborhoods

little idols to Athena and Zeus and a

and uh and Mercury and all of these

different Greek and Roman gods, he sees

the idols there. As he continues to make

his way down this street, it opens up to

what's called the Agora, which was like

the city marketplace. It's like the

ancient pearl street of Athens. And as

he comes into this this city market

area, he he sees the shops just lined

with idol stores where people could buy

sculptures and images and and where they

could buy the clothing that represented

those gods and and furnish their homes

in a way that marked off this is who we

worship.

He looks up beyond the agora and he sees

on this hill over here a a temple to a

god. And he looks at this side and he

sees up here another hill where there's

another temple. And he looks beyond him

this way and he sees another temple

there. And and as he's making his way

through the agora, he stumbles upon this

partially constructed temple to to Zeus

the Olympian and sees one over here in

the city marketplace to Helena.

He just sees temple after temple after

temple.

He sees a group over here gathered

together and he comes to listen in and

it's the Epicuran and Stoic philosophers

and they are conversing and debating

with one another over what their belief

systems are. The Epicurans say, "Yeah,

God exists, but I mean, you can't really

know him. He's distant. He's far off. He

created everything but then left it to

himself. Meanwhile, the Stoics would

contrast that and say, "No, he's he's

not far off and distant. He's he's

everywhere. He's he's among us. He's in

us. He's in the stone, the gold, the

silver, the trees, the mountains, the

animals. He's he's he inhabits

everything around us."

Perhaps they debated about the end of

life. And the Stoics said,"Well, yeah, I

don't think there's anything afterlife,

but perhaps if you're very wise, your

soul might live on a little bit longer."

And the Epicurans would say, 'No, that's

preposterous.

There's nothing when this life is over.

So, just live it up. Whatever makes you

happy, whatever lessens your pain, just

enjoy life. As long as you're not

reckless, because there's no judgment to

come. There's nothing once this life is

over.

Paul is taking all of this in. He sees

the crowds listening to them talk about

this.

He continues on and he comes across

what's called the Aropagus, the hill of

Aries, which is also known in Latin as

Mars Hills. You see both names here in

this text. And this was the where he

sees a supreme court of a hundred Roman

and Greek elites here who preside over

political legal and and religious uh

stuff in the in the king in in the city

there. And so he he hears them,

talking about new religions, signing off

on new religions, sanctioning new

temples. He's looking around saying, "I

don't think they need any more temples

here. I don't think they need any more

idols here.

And then of course he lifts his eyes

to the Acropolis,

this huge mountain fortified from its

glory in past days. And on top of that

acropolis is this magnificent structure

called the Parthonon, the temple to

Athena. And through its massive pillars,

he can see a gold and ivory statue of

the goddess Athena.

And as he's taking in everything that

he's seeing in Athens, it says his

spirit was stirred within him. He was

agitated. He was provoked. Why? First of

all, he was jealous for the glory of his

God and his savior. He looks around and

he sees the glory of God that belongs to

Jesus Christ is being given to the works

of men's hands. His worship is being

given to these temples.

These people are wholly given to

idolatry.

He's not just stirred for God's glory.

He's also stirred because the way these

people are bound to vanity, shackled by

idolatry, the way that they can't get

free from it. There's something alluring

about it that just draws them to it.

they are given to it.

But Paul was not just stirred about what

he saw, he was stirred to do something

about it. And so he began to go to the

synagogue. He said, "I can't wait for

Silas and Timothy to get here. What I

see here, this is going to take time.

I've got to get started." So he goes to

the synagogue as he normally does and he

begins to dispute with the Jews there

and the Greek godfearers there and he's

preaching to them the gospel of Jesus

Christ and his death, burial, and

resurrection and redemption for all

nations that they'll believe on the Lord

Jesus Christ. He preaches the gospel to

them. But it also says that he went out

into the market into the agora where

where consumers were flooding the shops

where the philosophers, the Epicurans

and the Stoics were gathering a group of

people and debating things. The the uh

the Aropagus over there where where

people were flocking to to get new

religions. He goes out in the

marketplace and he begins to preach

Jesus unto them. Why? because his heart,

his spirit was stirred by what he saw in

his city. I wonder

is yours,

is your spirit

stirred by what you see in your city?

Are you provoked for God's jealousy

when you walk by the Shambala Center off

of Broadway and you see people walking

in knowing they're going to bow down and

burn incense to a golden statue?

Worship that belongs to God is going to

the work of men's hands.

Are you provoked by the way that people

will ignore the house of worship and

will go up into the mountains and claim

to worship God among the trees and the

rocks and the mountains and the water?

Are you provoked by the way that Muslims

bow and give worship that belongs to God

to Allah?

Our spirits should be stirred.

believers.

When we go down to Pearl Street and we

see the evidence of sin and bondage and

immorality painted across our crosswalks

and hanging from the windows in our

shops and we can see these idol shops

and the witchcraft shops and the science

shops and and all of these things that

are meant to turn people away from the

Lord Jesus Christ. Things that that bind

people from being unable to see God for

who he really is. Are we stirred when we

go by the campus and see thousands and

thousands of students flocking in to

learn science, art, philosophy, and

religion from people who hate God? Are

we stirred?

If we're not,

I would propose this that it might be

because it's been a while since we've

seen our city.

Can I ask you, when's the last time you

spent time here in Boulder? This is a

weird area of the world and of America.

This city is so expensive

that a lot of people have to live on the

outskirts. I mean, I'm looking around

right now. We maybe have three or four

people that actually live in Boulder.

You know what that means? Most of us

spend the rest of our time outside of

the city, myself included.

And I've got to ask myself,

when's the last time I walked down Pearl

Street

just to see people?

When's the last time I walked through

the university campus? When's the last

time that I walked by one of those

meditation centers? When's the last time

that I took time myself to go up to

Sunrise Amphitheater Flagstaff or the

trails at Encar and overlook our city

and pray and weep knowing that the vast

majority of this city rejects God does

not know Jesus and is destined for

judgment.

Have we considered it?

Is our spirit

stirred?

If not, it may be time for us church

to be more intentional

about how we live as Christians.

I realize we work jobs and those jobs

often take us everywhere. I realize that

we live in in many different places,

but it may be good for us to

purposefully and intentionally to go to

the same restaurant every week or the

same coffee shop every week, to be

around people, to build relationships

with him so we can see our city. It

might be that it's time instead of

taking the bike up into the mountains

and taking in the trails and the beauty

and the glory of God's creation and

giving him the glory for that. As

wonderful as that is, it might be time

that we take our bike down the hill and

down the campus and to take in how many

are flocking to study all of these

things and yet how few of them know God.

Are we stirred?

For the gospel to take root in Boulder,

our spirits must be stirred by what we

see.

But it's not enough for our spirits to

be stirred about something. We must also

be stirred to do something about it.

That's what we see in Paul. He goes to

the markets daily. He goes to the

synagogue daily and he gives his time to

proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ

in their midst. And what we find is in

verse number 18, he encounters these

Epicuran and Stoic philosophers and

they're a little bit confused about what

Paul is preaching with Jesus and the

resurrection because these are things

that don't fit the familiar mold of

religion and philosophy there. The idea

of a bodily resurrection, the idea of an

afterlife, the the idea of the son of

God dying for men, like that is all

completely weird to them. And it's not

because Paul was not clear, but it's

because it was new. It was new.

It says in verse 18, certain of the

philosophers of the Epicurans and of the

Stoics encountered him and some said,

"What will this babbler say?"

They used this term babler to speak of

those who were outside the norms of

philosophy that that they kind of

cherrypicked this guy's idea and this

guy's and put it all together. You can

tell there's a lot of confusion about

this. There were some who said he seemth

to be a setter forth of of strange gods

of foreign deities, ones we've never

known, ones that we've never heard of

because he preached to them Jesus in the

resurrection. So what did they do? It

says in verse 19, they took him and

brought him onto Aropagus or Mars Hill,

the hill of Aries or Mars where that

court was, where they sign off on new

religions and sanction new temples.

But notice that they were not content to

just cast off Paul's teaching as crazy

talk. They said, "May we know this new

doctrine whereof thou speakest is?" It

says in verse 20, "For thou bringest

certain strange things to our ears, we

would know therefore what these things

mean."

What does the gospel of Jesus Christ

that you are preaching, the death of the

son of God, for the sins of humanity,

his resurrection, this future judgment,

what does all of this mean for our lives

today? They were intrigued, curious. It

says in verse 21, "For all the Athenians

and strangers which were there spent

their time in nothing else but either to

tell or to hear or some new thing." You

know what that means? They didn't give

their time to sports. They didn't give

their time to video games. They didn't

give their time to chariot racing and

horse betting and all of those things.

No, the people of Athens gave their time

to learning new doctrine, new

philosophy, new religions. And so they

are at least curious about what Paul has

to say.

So Paul stands here before this court of

elites, before these intellectual

philosophers and before a group of

common people. And he begins by

establishing some common ground with his

audience. It says in verse 22, then Paul

stood in the midst of Mars Hill and

said, "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that

in all things you're too superstitious."

Now, we read that and we think like

that's an insult. But what it what it

literally means is extremely religious,

very religious. He he says,"Look, I've

walked around your city and what I can

tell is this is you're very religious,

and here's what being very religious

shows Paul there's at least an interest

to know and seek after God." That's what

he sees. There's an interest here. I see

that you're very religious. For verse

23, as I passed by and beheld your

devotions or the the gods you worship,

all of those idols that he sees, he

said, "I found an altar with this

inscription

to the unnown

God.

You claim to worship God and yet you

have no idea who it is that you

worship."

Therefore, Paul says, "I'm not here to

tell you about some new God or some new

religion. I'm simply here to tell you

about the God you're looking for but

can't seem to find."

He says at the end of verse 23, "Whom

therefore ye ignorantly worship." Again,

when we think of this word ignorant,

like when you call somebody ignorant,

that's like an insult. It's literally a

word that means without knowledge. So

the idea is is whom therefore ye worship

without any real knowledge him declare I

unto you. Okay Paul tell us who is God.

Can you imagine for a second these

Epicurian stoic philosophers these

disciples of of Plato and Socrates and

Aristotle that that they have searched

the deep things of the world and they

have not been able to find out who God

is. And now all of a sudden this Jew

comes in here and starts claiming he

knows who God really is. Go ahead, Paul.

Try us.

Here's what Paul says. God that made the

world and all things therein.

Paul wants them to know first of all

that God is their creator. He made

everything.

That's actually something that some of

these philosophers would agree with. Not

everything got here by itself. Somebody

must have made this. He says God made

the world and everything that is in it.

He says, seeing that he is Lord of

heaven and earth. You know what that

communicates? He reigns over everything

actively, presently today.

He is not a God who is far off. He is

not a God who is uninvolved. He is not a

God who is disinterested. No, he is

reigning right now over the cosmos.

He says, "He dwelleth not in temples

made with hands, neither is worshiped

with men's hands, as though he needed

anything, seeing he giveth to you all

life and breath and all things." Listen,

all these temples that you've got here,

all of these idols, God cannot be

contained in the temples you've built,

nor can God be contained by the

sculptures that you have shaped. No,

he's not worshiped with men's hands.

He's infinite.

But look at what he says. God created

them for verse 26.

And hath made of one blood, namely Adam,

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. You

know what Paul's saying here? That that

God made everyone and yet he dispersed

everyone and he determines the years of

your life and the years of seasons and

the kingdoms that rise and the kingdoms

that fall. It even says that he has

determined the borders of nations. God

has done that, not us.

He continues to present this idea that

God is actively involved in your life.

God created you. God placed you where

you are to spend your years in this

purpose. In verse 27,

that ye should seek the Lord.

He tells them, "God created you with

meaning,

and that is to know him,

to seek after him." As we read in Isaiah

55, God's call to the nations is to seek

the Lord while he may be found. He

invites us to seek after him. In fact,

he created us to do so. And that's why

there can be so much commonality between

how they think about God and how Paul

thinks about God. And that's what he's

doing here. He's establishing, look,

you're trying to worship God in all of

these ways, but the reality is God can't

be worshiped in your ways.

God must be sought after. And it looks,

look at what it says in verse 27. If

happily they might feel after him. The

the idea here is like if you're in a

dark room and it's pitch black at night

and you're trying to find the light

switch, you're groping along the wall

trying to find this thing. You know it's

there, but you're struggling to find it.

He says that's what God created us for.

He dispersed us throughout the world so

that we would feel after him. But notice

it also says and find him. You know what

Paul's telling him? God is present.

God is active.

God is knowable.

And God is findable.

You're trying to find him, but you

haven't found him yet. But that's why

I'm here

to tell you how you might find him. He's

establishing this common ground with

them. But the breaking is and so then

notice what else he says here in verse

number uh well he says in verse 27,

"Though he be not far from every one of

us, he's near. He's near. He's not that

far off. you can find him. He's

suggesting he's so close you can find

him now. Right now, he says in verse 28,

for in him we live and move and have our

being. This is a quote from the famous

poet Eimemenities.

For in him, in God, we live and move and

have our being. Here's what that means.

God created us. And if God created us,

he must sustain us. Therefore, we move.

We have life and breath. and we exist in

God. And then he says in verse 28, as

certain also of your own poets have

said, and he gives another quote here,

for we are also his offspring.

See, your poets agree that God created

us and God fathered us. And so we can

agree on that. And I want you to know

that he is your creator. And I want you

to know that he created you to seek him.

And I want you to know that he's near

and he's knowable and he's findable. But

the breaking point comes in verse 29

when he says this. For as much 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 hands. Do you get what

he's saying there?

If God made us,

we should not think that we can make

him.

You are trying to find God. But your

thinking is wrong.

Notice what he says about this in verse

30.

And the times of this ignorance, God

wked at. At the times of this wrong

thinking,

God winked at it. What does what does

that mean? The word translated winked

literally means to to overlook,

to oversee.

Not in the sense that this means that

that anybody as long as they worshiped

God and were sincere, then God did not

judge them with eternal judgment. No,

that's not what it's talking about. What

he's saying is this. They are giving the

glory that belongs to their creator to

the work of their own hands. In other

words, they are bowing down to

themselves.

How rebellious is that that we should

steal glory from the one who gave us

life. And yet God has not obliterated

the idolatrous nations yet.

He's long-suffering with this world,

giving them time and grace and mercy to

continue seeking after him that they

might find him. And therefore, that is

why God has not obliterated the nations

who have rejected him and disregarded

him. It's because he is gracious and

long-suffering and merciful. But notice

what Paul says in the middle of verse

30. But now

things are different. Why? The end of

the world is coming.

Why? Because the Messiah has come and he

is the one who sent his disciples to the

four corners of the earth to preach the

good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That you are bound in your sin and

you're bound in your idolatry. But there

is one who came in Jesus Christ, and he

is the eternal, perfect, sinless son of

God. And he gave his life on the cross

to pay the price for all of your sin and

all of your idolatry. And God raised him

from the dead the third day. And he is

seated on a throne in heaven where he

remains until God says, "It's time to

judge."

That is the message Paul has been

preaching.

The Savior has come.

According to the prophecies,

all that's left on God's prophetic

timetable is for him to judge the world

and put all of his enemies under his

feet and put an end to sin and suffering

and pain and death. All that's left on

God's timetable is judgment. But now he

says commandeth all men everywhere to

repent.

Repent.

Metaninoia.

A word that means to turn the mind, to

change your thinking. Do you get his

argument here? You've been thinking

wrong about God. And for this period of

time, God has overlooked it in judgment.

But now that his son has come and now

that the gospel has been sent, that

judgment will come. And it will come

soon,

God calls you to change your thinking,

to turn from your idolatry, to turn from

your sin and your philosophy and your

unbelief to the son of God, Jesus

Christ, and to his finished work on the

cross and to his resurrection. and trust

in him alone for your eternal salvation.

You must repent. Why? Verse number 31.

Because he hath appointed a day into

which he will judge the world in

righteousness by that man whom he hath

ordained, whereof he hath given

assurance unto all men, and that he hath

raised him from the dead. The death and

the resurrection of Jesus Christ calls

all men everywhere to repent and worship

God through his son Jesus or else

they'll be judged.

Therefore, Paul's main idea in his

sermon is this. All men everywhere must

repent or the risen Christ will judge

your sin.

All men must repent or the risen Christ

will judge your sin.

That's what the gospel meant for them.

And I want to tell you today that it's

what it means for you as well.

God is your creator. He's knowable. He's

findable. But it won't be through idols

or Islam. It won't be through philosophy

or man's imagination or the created

world. No, it can only be found. You

must seek, you must approach, you must

worship God on his terms and according

to his revelation or else you too will

face judgment. But Jesus gave his life

for your sin and he rose again the third

day and he offered his blood to cover

all of your sin, past, present, and

future in one final sacrifice. And he

has sent his gospel into all the world

so that all nations everywhere who are

seeking after God, though it may be in a

way that God has not revealed. It's so

that they might hear that Jesus is the

way. And friend, if you will trust in

the Lord Jesus Christ today, all your

sins can be forgiven. God will see you

as righteous and you can have eternal

life through Jesus Christ. Would you

trust him today? Jesus said, "I am the

way, the truth, and the life. No man

cometh unto the father but by me." Jesus

is the only way for you to find God. The

question is, how will you respond?

Verse 32,

"And when they heard of the resurrection

of the dead, some mocked."

Some mocked. They scoffed.

We still have scoffers today, don't we?

Resurrection.

It makes no philosophical sense. It

makes no intellectual sense. How could I

possibly believe that? Some of them

mocked. I wonder, will you? Will you

mock at this idea? Or will you trust

Christ as your savior?

It says that there were others who said,

"We'll hear thee again of this matter."

Some of you may be seeking God today and

you've tried in other ways and now

you're trying it through Christianity

and you're saying, you know, I'm not I'm

not there yet. I'm just kind of taking

in right now. Let me let me just be very

frank with you. Seeking God is not

enough.

You must repent and you must trust in

Jesus Christ or you too will face the

judgment to come.

You must repent and believe.

But then it says in verse 34, "How be

it, certain men clave unto him and

believed. Among them was Dionicius the

Aropagite."

This means he was one presiding over

that court.

This means that he was an elite. He was

intellectual. He was well schooled in

the universities and in philosophy and

religion. In fact, it tells us that that

history tells us that this man Dionicius

likely spent time in Alexandria, Egypt,

and he was seeking astrology and seeking

philosophy at the very time that Jesus

Christ was crucified. And the earth went

completely dark in that day. And as he's

there with his philosophy and astrology,

he's trying to make sense what in the

world is this darkness. And therefore he

went to Athens and and went to the best

schools that there was and tried to

figure out what is this 15 years ago

where the earth went dark. And it was at

this time that he hears the apostle Paul

preached that in AD 33 there was a

Messiah named Jesus who died in

Jerusalem and the earth went dark and he

said that's it.

That's it. and he believed became the

first pastor of this church in Athens.

This woman named Dearis

others with them a few of them trusted

the gospel message. I wonder will you?

Will you trust it today? If you would

like to know more about that, I would

love to meet with you this week and talk

to you about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you've been coming for a while and

you're saying, you know, I've been

seeking and I'm ready. I understand it.

Jesus died for my sin. He rose again.

He's my only way to eternal life. He's

the only way that I can find God. I know

it now. I believe it now. I'm ready. I

would encourage you right now. Place

your faith in Jesus Christ. Pray and cry

out to God and call on him to save your

soul from hell and to give you eternal

life. God will save you right now. He's

knowable right now. He's findable right

here if you'll trust in Jesus Christ.

Paul was stirred in his spirit when he

saw the city and it moved him to be

stirred to proclaim the gospel of Jesus

Christ. And several people believed and

the gospel has now taken root in a city

like Athens.

The gospel triumphs wherever it goes.

But for the gospel to take root in

boulder, we must be stirred about

something. But we must be stirred to do

something. And that is to proclaim the

gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to be

stirred by what we see here in our city.

We It should make us jealous for God's

glory. It should make us grieve for lost

people and the judgment that they will

face. But don't let the stirring stop in

your spirit. Let it move to your hands

and your feet and your mouth so that you

would get involved and go out into the

city and proclaim the gospel of Jesus

Christ so that lost people all over this

city and students and lawyers and

professors and the homeless and people

in trailer parks and people in the

mansions could trust Jesus Christ as

their savior. It ought to stir us to

action. And so as your pastor, I want to

encourage you every Sunday to stop by

the welcome table, grab some gospel

invitations and purpose in your heart to

pass those out to people here around

town to share the gospel of Jesus with

them.

I would encourage you to pick a

restaurant to eat at or a coffee shop to

work at every single week to just get

yourself in front of people and to build

relationships with them so that you can

talk to them eventually about Jesus

Christ.

It takes time. It takes plotting.

I I remember 2023 the Lord began to work

on our heart about that 2024 and said

that's what you need to do. Went to

Doug's Diner on Baseline every single

Sunday. Met I mean almost knew all the

waitresses, the managers and and and all

the people in there. They knew us by

name. They knew our kids by name. They'd

hang our kids drawings up up on the

wall. And for 6 months, we went there

every Sunday for six months. And we got

to know people, but nobody had really

expressed interest. But then all of a

sudden, something began to change around

that six-month mark. And people started

to come up to us and and ask us about

about maybe problems that they were

having and knowing they needed to get

back in church. And they would ask about

Jesus. They would ask about how church

was. And then finally, a single mom came

with two rockus children started coming

to church. And we'd pick up her kids.

And then she would start coming and God

began to work in her life and bring her

back to her roots. And they ended up

moving to Texas last year, but they're

going to be back on spring break uh this

coming week. And we're looking forward

to seeing them again. It took six months

before anybody ever came.

And then you know what? Life gets busy.

You start saying, "Man, that's a lot of

time.

Not seeing a lot of fruit." We get done

tearing down the church. We go over to

the restaurant about 1:15, not getting

home till 2:30, leaving the house at at

4:30 or 5:00. The kids aren't getting

naps, we're not getting rest, we're worn

out, dead tired by Sunday night. You

just begin to think, "Okay,

I'm going to find something else." But

then you don't.

Sometimes God's got to stir us again.

He's got to stir us by what we see. We

got to make those decisions. You know

what? If Jesus gave his life on the

cross for me, I can give up a Sunday

afternoon nap to go to a restaurant

every week to try to share the gospel

with people. I can spend some gas money

even though I live out of town to do my

at-ome work at a coffee shop here in

Boulder so that I can get to know people

and have the potential to share the

gospel with them. And it may take time,

but I'm going to go and I'm going to be

faithful week after week and I'm gonna

take an interest in their lives and I'm

going to pray for them at home. And I

just want to do everything that I can to

reach people in our city for Christ. We

need to let our eyes affect our hearts.

I want to encourage you to get involved

in our all church outreach. I'm thankful

for the 11 people that went out

yesterday and we got almost 400

invitations in in just an hour and a

half in a spread out rural neighborhood.

If we had 15 to 20 going out every

Sunday, we could get make a much bigger

impact in our city. And I would

encourage you as as your pastor to get

involved in that. Sharing the gospel is

that important. People need Christ. They

need Christ.

I would encourage you as we start

Boulder Love Week next week.

We've got signup sheets at the welcome

table for different time slots, once in

the morning, once in the evening to just

do as much as you can. Whether that's

one day or if it's every time that you

can go. We want people to be able to

come to Easter to hear about a risen

savior who gave his life for their sin

so that they could be delivered from the

bondage of idolatry and from the bondage

of philosophy and from the the the false

the the false gods of this world and be

turned to the living God through Jesus

Christ. I would encourage you to sign

up. Be be a part of that as much as you

possibly can. That friend you have

that's seeking God.

Spend time with them. Invite them to

read the Bible with you. Whether it's

once a week for six weeks or something,

plan a time a and set that time and just

answer their questions and have

discussions and and just take the

opportunity to spend time investing in

them for the sake of the gospel. Because

here's what we know to be true. That if

the gospel took root in Athens, it could

take root here as well.

We must be stirred by what we see and we

must be stirred to proclaim the gospel

of Jesus Christ.

Church,

we've been waiting around

long enough.

We've been passive long enough.

Church outreaches have been the lowest

attended church event for long enough.

If you are disheartened by either the

slowness or the lack of growth in this

church, allow me to lovingly and

pastorally ask you, what are you doing

about it?

That's a fascinating thing about church

planting.

Everybody wants it to grow.

Many people will leave because it's too

small,

but very very few are willing to be

stirred to do anything about it.

And I just want to ask you, are you

stirred?

We've got to be stirred.

These few people, they say 10 to 20 were

part of this first church.

And it took about 50 years for the

church to grow over 100.

50 years.

That wasn't what it was like in

Thessalonica.

It wasn't what it was like in Berea or

Philippi or really anywhere Paul went

but Athens. Why is that? Athens was

different.

The smallalness did not mean it was a

failure. The smallalness meant it's

going to take time.

The church at Athens

took 400 years,

but that parthonon

was claimed for Christ.

And the church was established

and Athens became a Christian center

for a thousand years before the Ottoman

Empire conquered it and turned it into a

mosque.

But for a thousand years,

this place Paul first went to became a

center of Christianity

in the heartbeat of science, art,

philosophy, education, pagan religions,

and all of those things. It became a

Christian center. But it took time.

Dianicius,

Dearis,

and these nameless few

were the pioneers

of what God would eventually do.

Can I say to you, church member,

you're a pioneer.

You're a pioneer.

In this city, there have been, I think,

five churches planted. Some different

stripes, but five churches planted.

This generation

of churches and Christians in smaller

churches is the pioneering generation

that is plowing and tilling the soil and

sewing seed on rocky ground. And it's a

grind. And it can be challenging. And

the work can be slow. And it can take

months and years to even see one person

come to Jesus Christ in your life. But

it's very possible that the pioneering

generation that is seeking to claim this

city for Jesus Christ is paving the way

for a generation a 100 or 200 years

where Boulder is a center of outreach

and evangelism and missions all around

the world where churches are able to be

built again on new property in this city

because Christians are now seated in the

courthouse and seated in government here

and because because the gospel takes

root and And the gospel sprouts and the

gospel grows. But in some fields like

Athens and some fields like here, it

starts off very small.

And I want to encourage you the way

God's encouraged me through this text.

Stay with it.

See the city.

Let it stir your heart for God's glory

and for the salvation of sinners.

And we have no idea what God will do

with us.

God is calling all men everywhere to

repent

or the risen Christ will judge their

sin. That's an uncomfortable message in

this place. We may be mocked.

For some, it may take years, but others

will believe.

May that reality

stir us

to action for God's glory. Our heavenly

father,

we come humbly before you recognizing

that the work you have called us to do

in this city is beyond our capacity.

We need your Holy Spirit to fill us,

empower us, and to go before us in

reaching this city for Christ.

We need you to soften the hearts, to

open the eyes of the blind and the ears

of the deaf.

We need you to embolden us with courage

to take it to the streets, our

neighborhoods, our friends, the

university campus.

Would you stir us with passion and zeal

that you would be worshiped by every

soul in this city

and may it move us to act in Jesus name

I pray. Amen.