Acts 17:16-34 | Paul in Athens

Hey, happy Sunday for every minute.

My name is Zach.

I'm on staff here, and I'm so excited that you're here.

Permission to jump in.

Acts 17.

If you have a Bible, we're just gonna jump right into it.

Acts chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

And as you're turning there, uh, if you guys don't mind, I want to tell you about the first time that my wife, Mallie, and I told each other I love you.

Uh because a little bit of twist here.

Uh long story short, you gotta go back in time a little bit.

When my wife and I started dating, uh, I did something that you might think is strange, you might think it's weird, uh, but it worked for me.

Uh, I started taking notes on my wife.

Uh, like, no joke, on my phone, I still have it.

I have a note app, you know, and there's a note that's called Matley Elizabeth with some heart emojis.

And here's what I did, guys.

Take it or leave it.

Um, anytime that my wife, while we were dating or while I was getting to know her, she said something important, uh, I wrote it down.

Okay, so it's her birthday, April 17th.

Put it down, fellas, write that one down.

Um, her favorite snow cone flavor, pomegranate, favorite candy, Snickers.

She told me that she liked to travel.

She thought Oregon was pretty, so I wrote it down.

Uh, she also told me, we were looking at it this week, she told me she would love to go backpacking through Europe, uh, which is interesting if you know my wife, because if I've learned anything about Mally, is she would hate to backpack through Europe.

Uh she fooled me there.

She wanted me so bad.

She'd tell me anything I wanted to hear.

Um, anyways, felt manipulated in that moment.

But uh, love my wife.

I think she grew out of it.

Anyways, here's the reason why I did it.

Uh, really, two reasons why I made this note.

First, is I wanted to know her heart.

Like, who is Mally?

And is she the kind of gal, not just I wanted to go on some dates with, but I wanted to marry.

Uh, but the second reason why I kept this note is I wanted to be able to connect with her.

Okay, I wanted to learn her heart, what she loved, what she valued, uh, and be able to connect and to bring it up.

And and and also to communicate things that were important to her later, which leads me into uh the time that we said, I love you, or better yet, when Mallie told me she loved me and I left her hanging.

Okay, here's what happened, okay?

So earlier that day, we've been dating, and she's uh we had a Starbucks date later that night.

And she had hinted that morning that she had something important that she wanted to tell me.

So, anyways, we're sitting on Starbucks on 380, and she looks me in the eyes, and it's like Christmas time, like there's romance in the air, like it's our Hallmark movie we're living in.

And she looks at me, and she said, I'll never forget, she says, Zach, uh, I think I'm in love with you.

And I said, Uh, what'd you say?

And uh, and then she looked at me and she had the courage.

She said, I love you, Zach.

And guys, no joke.

My response was, hmm, interesting.

Uh and then I said this, I said, one second, and no joke, I got up from that Starbucks table and I walked out the door of Starbucks.

And she's sitting there, like, I said that to you and you did this to me.

Uh, but guys, you know, I uh I knew what was going on.

Okay, I had studied this girl's heart, and something I had written on that note when we were dating is two things.

One, she loved special gifts, you know, romantic gifts, and there was this gal she was discipling uh that she loved.

And so earlier that day, uh I went to Walmart and I printed off a photo of that girl, Angie, uh, that she had baptized, that we actually baptized together at the church we're in.

And on the back of that picture, I wrote, I love you too.

And I put the date with the heart.

And I put it in a picture frame, and so that night I left Starbucks.

She's sitting there, said I love you.

I got the picture frame, walked back in, gave it to her, said open it, turn it around, and it said, I love you too.

And I said, I love you too, Mally.

In that moment.

Baller, right?

And we're married and I know Roderick.

I'm like waiting for the response here, guys.

Six months later, I said, I do in this venue.

I'm just saying, it worked for me.

But here's my point in sharing all of that.

Guys, here's why I share you that story.

As we got to know each other, I I knew her heart.

Okay, I listened to Mallie.

I paid attention to what she loved, what she valued, what mattered most, so that when it came time to communicate something important, I took everything I had connected with, I wove it together to communicate clearly and effectively.

I both knew what I wanted to say, but also who I was saying it to.

And that idea right there is something I want as Christians to think about for a moment.

Because us as a church and as Christians, we don't just live in this world, we want to engage this world with the gospel message, right?

Like this message that we think is so powerful, this message you just sang about, we believe it is so important that we want to communicate it clearly, but also if we're going to do that, we must know who we're communicating to.

Uh because if there's anything I've learned about life or in marriage, uh, it's one thing to communicate something, it's another thing for the person you're trying to communicate to to understand what you're trying to say.

And a good communicator does both.

We need to know our message, but also we need to understand the people we're communicating with.

And that's what we're gonna see in Acts chapter 17 as we continue.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

And we're gonna continue where Austin left off last week.

If you were here last week, we talked about we want to be people who earlier in Acts 17 turned the world upside down.

And if we're gonna do that, we need eyes to see the culture we're living in and courage to speak to the world that we're living in.

But today, here's the question I want to talk about.

How do we do that?

Like, how do we, as Christians, in this city and in this culture in 2026, communicate the gospel in a culture that's ever-changing?

Like, how do we preach the gospel clearly to co-workers, people in the locker room, people in our dorm room, when they come from different backgrounds, different cultures, different beliefs about who God is and who mankind is.

Because if we're gonna be faithful as God has called us to be, in communicating the gospel, we must not just focus on preaching the word, but understand the people that we want to be uh to share the gospel with, especially in Denton and the university students that Drake was just talking about.

And so we're in Acts chapter 17, and I want to show you what Paul does here.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

Because remember, uh, we'll start in verse 22, but let's step back into the uh into the city of Athens.

You guys remember Athens?

This is a place full of idols, philosophers, deep thinkers.

And instead of rolling in, like when Paul rolls into Athens, this city full of idolatry, uh, instead of coming in hot and coming in preaching really fiery, what does Paul do?

Uh he listens, he understands.

Literally, he walks the streets and observes their idols so that when he got up there, he could preach with clarity, with courage, and creativity.

Like I did with Malie, he's able to weave together everything he learned about the city of Athens so that he could communicate powerfully.

And so that's the question I want to learn or wrestle with, and the thing I want to learn from Paul.

How do we as a church communicate the unchanging message of the gospel to an ever-changing culture?

Sound good?

That's what we're doing.

Acts 17, verse 22.

Acts 17:22

Let's look at it.

I think Paul teaches us a lot.

Verse 22, if you got it, say, got it?

Okay, we're right in the middle of a story.

Paul stood up in the middle of the Areopagus and he said this.

People of Athens, I see that you are extremely religious in every respect.

For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed to an unknown God.

Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

Now, before we go any further, uh picture the scene here again, guys.

Paul's in Athens.

This is a city where some of the greatest minds ever have lived: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle.

Uh Athens is named after a Greek goddess, Athena, and he's standing in this place called the Areopagus, which is named after the Greek god of war, uh Ariel.

And so he's there in this very pagan city.

But as you picture him getting up in the Areopagus, like he's about to give like a sermon, but you can't think of it like this.

Paul is not at church giving a sermon where Tyson's gonna come up and sing afterwards.

You know what I'm saying?

No, no, no.

This would be more like if he was invited to a university campus and gave a speech in front of all these religious people and philosophical thinkers.

Okay, that's what you have to picture here.

And as Paul starts in the intro of his speech, you can see he does what Austin said to do last week.

He saw, he spoke, and he strategized, right?

He saw their idols, he spoke with courage, and even as he speaks, he did it strategically, trying to connect.

But look back at verse 22, look how he starts again.

He says, People of Athens, I see that you're extremely religious in every respect.

AKA, y'all got a lot of idols in this city.

Okay, that's what's happening in Athens.

Like some famous people, observers of Athens back then, they say it's this it's easier to find an idol in Athens than a man.

Like that's how permeated this culture is with idolatry.

But even with all these idols everywhere, uh, there seemed to be this concern amongst these people that they left one out, like a god out.

Like basically they would make all these altars to the gods, but those Greek people back then went, oh, dude, what if we left a God out and he gets tit that we forgot about him and we didn't honor him?

So here's what they did.

They said, we're just gonna put up these altars around the city that says, to the unknown God, just in case we missed one.

Uh, which is crazy.

But what Paul does is he's walking through the streets, he sees that, and when it's time, he's gonna file it away in his note, and as he sees it, he's gonna speak.

Keep reading.

It says this.

For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I found this altar uh inscribed to an unknown God.

Then he's gonna leverage it and he's gonna say this Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

You can see what he's doing here.

Uh instead of coming in high and insulting them and attacking them personally for worshiping idols, what does he do?

He connects with them, he meets them where they are, he uses language that they understand.

He says, Hey, you guys got this altar to an unknown God.

I know him.

And let me tell you about him.

Can you see it?

Which leads me to the first thing I want to share with us this morning that we can learn from Paul's approach to be effective in Denton.

The first thing we need to do is this: we need to understand the people we're trying to reach.

That as a church, we need to understand the world that we're living in.

In a sense, we need to be students of the culture.

Uh, like Austin said last week, we need to have our eyes up.

We need to pay attention to what people in this city and in this age, what they love, what they value, what they enjoy, what they're searching for.

Because if we're gonna be effective in this city, and especially at these campuses, we have to understand the world.

And as I say that, it can get uneasy in a church setting.

Because I think there's two mistakes churches can do in this in this uh uh charge to understand the world.

Uh the first ditch is to look at the world and all the craziness and to withdraw from the world.

To say, no, no, no, no, we're not gonna be people who mess with those people and their vices and their vanity, and we avoid people who are different from us.

Uh we make a Christian bubble and we keep our hands clean of the mess of the world.

Like that's a ditch that people can fall into.

Uh the other ditch is not to withdraw from the world, uh, but to go all in on the world.

Uh to be totally similar to the world we're trying to reach, to embrace their idols, to worship their idols, and just go all in uh with the culture.

And guys, there is another way to handle this, and it's the way that Paul shows us in this moment.

Paul, he doesn't just attack the culture and stays away from them.

No, he engages it.

He walks through the streets.

Make no mistake, Paul hates their idolatry.

He hates it.

We're gonna get to it later.

But still, at the very beginning, that didn't stop him from walking through the streets, observing what they worshiped, and being curious and trying to understand.

And here's the point Paul is so secure in his faith that he could understand their idols without worshiping their idols.

And guys, that's the kind of church that we're called to be.

To use the name of our college ministry, to be salt of the earth.

And for salt to be effective, it must do two things.

It must be close enough to the substance it's trying to affect, but be distinct from the substance.

It has to be different.

And so, as a church, this is what we want to do.

And so, just to come out practically here, how do we do this well?

Uh we'll keep reading.

But I think the simplest way for us to understand people in our lives, this is gonna sound super simple, is to be curious and be interested in the people around us.

To be curious, to be interested in the people that God has led around us, our neighbors, our coworkers, uh, the people we see, to ask questions of the people we live next to, to learn what they love, uh, to learn what they listen to, to take notes.

Like I was doing with my wife uh when I was dating her, we need to be people who understand the culture.

We don't want to view college students in our city uh or people on the streets downtown uh as enemies or projects, but as people made in the image of God.

And so our calling to do this, one of our primary motivations to understand people isn't just to preach at them, but to care for them.

And that's what God's called us to do as image bearers of God.

So we want to understand them.

But notice, Paul, he doesn't just want to understand where they're at and leave them.

You see, a lot of us can do that.

We can understand why people do what they do, but we never push truth forward.

But no, the second thing we learn from Paul is he understands the people, but then he shares the truth with them.

He's gonna share truth with them.

He wants to move them along.

Let's keep reading.

Look at verse 24.

His next move is just a symboler paragraph.

He says this in verse 24.

Remember the unknown thing.

He says, What you worship in ignorance, I'm about to proclaim to you.

Verse 24.

The God who made the world and everything in it.

He is the Lord of heaven and earth.

He does not live in shrines made by hands, neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everybody life and breath and all things.

From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth, and look at this, has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.

He did this, why?

So that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.

Since then we are God's offspring.

We shouldn't think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.

Okay, stop there.

So I love what he does here.

Uh he's with a bunch of philosophers, and he's got this unknown God thing, and he's gonna leverage it, he's gonna weave it all together to give this very rich philosophical answer.

He's talking to philosophers, he's able to communicate in their language, and let's zoom in because I think it's gonna be worth our time.

Uh, there's three things very quickly, if I can summarize it, what he says.

The first idea he starts with is that God is transcendent.

Uh, 50% word like theological, he is transcendent, or he is above all things.

Look at verse 24.

The God who made the world and everything in it, he is Lord of heaven and earth, and he doesn't live in shrines made by hands.

Okay, this is what he's saying.

God is not in creation, like pantheism.

He stands above it, he transcends over creation, but he also is the creator of creation.

Like if creation had a stamp or a tag where it was made, made in America, made in China, everything in the world says made by God.

Sounds very simple to us.

This would have been very controversial to them.

Uh, because in this moment they have the idols running around, right?

All these shrines everywhere, because they thought back then that they could contain God in one spot and in one place.

But Paul is saying this, guys, no, no, no, no.

God is the Lord over all things, heaven and earth, because he made everything, which means that as we look at creation, it's all testifying to who God is.

Psalm 19, right?

Like Calvin said, the world is a theater of God's glory.

It all displays the glory of God, uh, which means nothing is atheistic in creation.

The mountains, the rocks, the trees, the stars, nothing is truly atheistic.

It all declares the glory of God.

I love this quote.

It says, You can pull down our steeples, but you cannot pull down our stars.

It's still going to testify.

You can knock church buildings down, but you can't take the stars down.

The rocks cry out, the stars cry out.

There is a God over all things.

And here's why this matters to us this morning.

Uh if God made everything, that means He made He made you too.

That you and I were not independent beings, we're dependent.

Uh, you are a creature living in the Creator's world.

This is my father's world, and we live in it, uh, which means God made you and he has authority over you.

Uh but Paul doesn't stop there.

Keep going.

Not only is God transcendent, he's also self-sufficient.

Okay, a theological phrase.

Look at verse 25.

It's interesting.

Neither is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives life and breath and all things.

Or in other words, God doesn't need anything from us.

Okay, think about what Paul is saying to these Athenians.

They built temples and shrines and brought offerings and served them because they thought their gods depended on that for sustaining themselves.

But what Paul is saying is, guys, God does not need our worship to sustain himself.

He doesn't depend on our offering, he doesn't depend on us gathering here for him to exist or be glorified.

He is going to be glorified.

That's what he's saying here.

He is independent of all of us and entirely sufficient in himself.

Uh, it kind of reminds me of Elijah and the prophets of Baal.

You guys know the story?

Uh, 1 Kings 18.

Like this big battle between Yahweh and all these false gods.

And Elijah says, Hey, call on your gods, and nothing happens.

Like he's supposed to rain fire from heaven.

And what does Paul say to them?

Hey, maybe he's busy.

Like maybe your God's in the bathroom.

That's what he says, like smack talk.

Like, maybe he's asleep.

But guys, Elijah's God and our God, he does not need sleep.

And he does not need us to sustain him, he doesn't need air to breathe.

He is entirely sufficient in himself.

And Paul says, not only is that true, but everything you have, life and breath, he gives it to us.

Guys, God is sufficient.

Uh, which means that when God created mankind in Genesis 1, and when he uses us, he didn't do it from a place of need or deficiency.

He did it from a place of delight.

He created us because he wanted us in relationship with him.

And so when he uses us for his mission and his world-restoring mission, it's a joy for us to take part and share in the gospel.

Can you see it here?

And then here's what he's gonna do next in his speech.

Because he did this transcendent thing, which sounds like super lofty, and how God is self-sufficient, he doesn't need us, you could probably at this point in the sermon go, Well, God feels pretty high up.

And God doesn't know us, he doesn't need us.

But Paul's gonna do a twist here and talk about how God is close.

Look at verse, let's see, 26 again.

Look at what it says from one man God has made every nationality to live over the whole earth.

He's even determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.

You see, there's intentionality there, there's closeness.

Verse 27.

He did this so that they might seek God.

And perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

For in him we live and move and have our being.

As some of your poets have said, we're his offspring.

Okay, you can see it here.

Paul takes this big God and he brings him down close.

That God isn't just transcendent and sufficient, uh, but a theological word, he's imminent.

He's close to us, he is imminent.

Uh, and this would have caught them off guard.

Again, Paul knows what he's saying because those cats back then, when they thought about the Greek gods, here's what they thought those gods are distant, they do not concern themselves with the affairs of people, and they are impersonal.

But what Paul is saying, guys, God is not distant from us, and he's not impersonal.

He is a personal creator who knows us so intimately that when we breathe and live and move, we are in him.

That's what he's saying here.

He's trying to confront their pantheism and their God being distant from us.

Okay, and it says, why did he do it?

And it's this weird phrase, so that they might seek him.

And you guys see this phrase might reach out and find him.

Okay, I love the imagery Paul uses here.

The Greek word for reach out, uh, it means to like uh grope around in the dark trying to find someone.

Okay, you ever been in a dark room trying to find something?

Uh it's interesting, it's the same word.

Uh raise your hand if you saw the movie The Odyssey recently.

The Odyssey.

Okay.

Or raise your hand if you've read the the uh book or epic poem, right?

So okay, hands down.

Uh crazy scenes in that movie.

Anyways, Homer, the guy who wrote the epic, he uses the same word, reach out uh and and groping along, uh, for when the cyclock.

Gets blinded by Odysseus, and he's trying to reach out and find him as a blind Cyclops with this one eye.

Guys, that picture right there is the perfect picture for humanity apart from God.

The Bible says we're spiritually blind, trying to look for truth and purpose, but we can't find it.

And this is why Paul's preaching the gospel, and this is why as a church we share the gospel.

Why?

What does the scripture say?

That when we preach the gospel, God shines, this is 2 Corinthians 4, God shines the light of the gospel, the knowledge of the glory of Jesus in our hearts.

This is why Paul preaches, and this is why we preach.

And then Paul's gonna do something unique.

I think this is very unique as you study the Bible in verse 28.

You see the end?

He's gonna quote who?

Not the Old Testament, not a Christian author who writes books.

No, he quotes one of their poets to them.

Can you see that?

He's gonna use, Paul in his wisdom, is gonna use a pagan poet who does not know God as an avenue to share Jesus.

Okay, can you see it here?

He uses their language, what's popular in their culture, to share Jesus.

Okay, it would be like, if you guys entertain me here, it would be like if Paul was preaching today and he quoted from the top song on the Billboard's 100, uh, which I didn't know until this week, that Taylor Swift has passed Ella Langley choosing Texas.

And it's a song called Patient Zero, okay?

I never heard this until this week, but I know this after reading it.

It's a song where she's singing about a relationship that looks good on the outside, but underneath it's killing someone, okay?

And there's a quote in the song that says this the devil on his shoulder under his halo.

Uh something like that.

Like he looks like an angel, but underneath there's something dark.

Okay, guys, take that lyric.

This is what Paul would probably do here.

He'd say, and that's how sin works.

Because sin looks great on the outside and it dresses itself up as attractive and beautiful, but underneath it is something dark that will destroy your soul.

That sin and Satan come as what?

An angel of light.

Can you see it here?

Paul gets creative.

Uh my son is really into cars, and I can imagine one day I'll say, yes, Caden, life is a highway, but Jesus is the way.

Okay, you can see it here.

We're just, you gotta be creative, okay?

Two roads, okay?

One's big, one's funny narrow.

Okay, anyways.

Okay, step out of step out of Acts 17.

Let's just talk about our city that we're in today.

Let's try to get practical.

Okay, here's the point I'm trying to make in the jokes is as we look around, we need open Bibles and creative minds.

Okay, we need our Bibles open, that we know the truth of God's word, but also we know the people enough to get creative to share the truth in the way they'd understand.

Uh, okay, think macro, okay, in Denton, Texas.

Like, imagine Paul, uh, the apostle here, walking through Denton, Texas, like he did in Athens.

Okay, so he's here today, just walking downtown, uh, and it's October.

Okay, it's a really interesting time for Paul to go downtown.

He'd see some big spiders and take off.

Okay, but imagine, like, imagine what he would do.

I imagine he's not coming in hot, he's coming in curious, he's interested, and he's gonna try to get to the heart uh of our city uh like he did back then.

And here's what I imagine him saying, if I can use the language of the text.

People of Denton, I see that you are deeply what spiritual.

Deeply spiritual in every respect.

For as I was passing through your downtown square, I noticed the streets are full of ghosts and skeletons, and even your shops advertise witchcraft.

And people of Denton, it's interesting, even though your world seems to be getting increasingly secular, your city is still fascinated by spiritual things, by life, by death.

And what would Paul do?

He would understand them, and then he'd probably say something like this Therefore, because this spiritual world fascinates you, I proclaim to you, people of Denton, there is a God that rules over the spiritual realm.

There is a God of heaven and earth over life and death.

And can I tell you about Jesus Christ?

While you celebrate the dead walking among the living, can I tell you how you can be alive walking amongst the spiritually dead?

Can you see it here?

I imagine this is what Paul would do.

Or he'd walk through our universities, TW and T, and he'd say something like, Students of Denton, I see you're on a hunt for truth and purpose.

Can I tell you about the God who made you on purpose for a purpose?

Can you see it?

Or people of Denton, I see you're very confused about sexuality, about what it means to be a man and a woman and what sex is and its relationship to humanity.

Can I tell you about the God who made you, male and female, and how sex is a good gift under a covenant marriage?

Can you see this?

Or you'd say, students, I see you on your phones, or I see you at the bars looking for connection to be known and loved.

Can I tell you about the God who knows you truly and loves you deeply?

This is what Paul would do.

We gotta get creative, but don't just think macro, okay?

Like you don't got to give a speech in front of a hundred people like Paul.

No, think about your neighbors.

Think about your teammates, think about your coworkers and what you can do here.

So when your coworker comes to you this week and says, I'm anxious about the future, but you know your Bibles.

And you can say, Well, Matthew 6, can I tell you about the God who holds the future and feeds the sparrows and dresses the lilies and he's gonna care for you?

Or when someone comes to you and they're they're thinking about their worst sin and they confess their mistakes, you say, Well, can I tell you about the God who loves you while we were yet sinners?

Christ died for you.

If your teammates are frustrated because they lost their starting position and they're sad.

You can say, Hey, in Christ, we have been crucified with him, and it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

Can you see it?

What we're doing is with open Bibles and creative minds, we're engaging not these like fears that we come up with.

No, the real fears, the real questions that people in this city are asking.

We need to know the people enough to connect the scriptures.

And honestly, the challenge is this we need to know the Bible enough that in those moments we can respond to the specific fears and idolatry without using Chat GPT, but using our hearts.

Because that's gonna communicate powerfully.

Do we know our people in this city?

And do we know the word and how it's gonna apply to them?

Because we want them not just, we don't just want to connect with them, we want to share God's truth with them.

And then if we could end it really quickly here in Acts 17, Paul, he wasn't just content with these people in Athens like affirming some facts about who God is.

No, he wanted action.

Because the gospel message is not just information to consider, it's a call to response, which is the third thing we do as we try to engage this city.

We understand the people, we share the truth, and then we call for a response.

Keep going.

Look at verse 30, how Paul finishes up.

He says, Therefore, after talking about who God is, having overlooked the times of ignorance, your ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere, including us and you, to repent.

Because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed.

He has provided proof of this to everyone.

How?

By raising this man from the dead.

Okay, you can see Paul's play here.

Uh he may have started his speech different than when he talks to Jews, but guys, he ended in the same destination.

And you can see kind of his movement very quickly here.

There's three things.

First, he talks about the command to repent.

He says, All people everywhere are commanded, it says, by God to repent.

Uh, which can sound like a very harsh church word, but it's a simple call to turn from something and turn towards something.

This is a call for all of them to turn from their idolatry, from their sin, from their past, and to turn towards the living God.

And then he's gonna give them uh give them a reason why they should do that.

What does it say?

Because, look at scripture, because of the certainty of judgment.

He says, There is coming a day where God is gonna judge the world.

The date is set, like it is on the calendar.

And we do not know that day, but only God does.

But on that day, every single person who has ever lived and is living will stand before the God who made them and give an account for their life.

Uh, and I know judgment is not something that's very popular to talk about in church, but guys, make no mistake, this God who is loving and accepting is also holy and just, and he cannot simply excuse or ignore evil forever.

No, hell is the answer to the justice of God for sin.

But notice something by whom God is going to judge the world, the final thing, it's not just by a standard, uh, it's by a person, by the man it says he has appointed, who we know is Jesus Christ.

And here's what's important to see about this the one who lived among us and died for us is the one who will be judge over us.

And that's very helpful to understand because as people who live in a city, like we don't like it when a judge from a different place, a different country, a different region makes a decision that impacts us.

Like, we don't like foreign judges who don't understand us.

But guys, in Jesus Christ, we do not have a foreign judge.

No, we have one of us who will be judge over us.

He is a man.

And you might ask, well, then, what right does this man have to judge humanity?

He says it here.

Look at it.

It says, by this man he has provided proof to everybody by raising him from the dead.

Well, in other words, Easter, the resurrection, uh, it's not just proof that Jesus defeated death, but he did, right?

It's also proof that he is the one that God has appointed to judge us, the living and the dead.

And so let me say this very clearly this morning to everybody in here.

You don't want to miss this.

And you want to hear the right melody in the judgment stuff.

Hear the tune, hear the tone.

The one who will one day judge us is also the one who died for us.

Can you see it here?

This is so different.

He has a heart for us.

He came to live for us, he died for us, and guys, when he died, the first time he came was for the judgment of our sin.

And when he went in the tomb, he put all of our sin on him.

And guys, when he rose, the sin stayed there and he got up without it.

And that's the forgiveness he offers us.

But make no mistake, guys, the next time he comes, it is not to make peace and offer forgiveness, it's to judge the world.

And you want to get right with him because today is the day to repent.

Do not let the sun go down again without repenting of your sins and flinging to Jesus.

Because today there's still time, but soon judgment will come.

And guys, it is coming soon.

This is the message of Paul.

Repent.

Jesus will judge the world, and he is risen from the dead.

And then look what happens when Paul does that whole bit.

Look at look at verse 32.

And when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him.

Others said, Hey, we want to hear more about you from this.

And then Paul left the presence, and then some people joined him and believed, including uh Dionysus, the Areopagite, a woman named Demaris, and others with him.

Okay, we see this over in Acts over and over again.

There's three responses.

The first response, some people reject it.

The second is some people are like, tell us more, but the others believe.

And church, that's a good reminder for us today as we try to reach the city.

Because we can understand the people who live next to us and who we go to school with.

We can even communicate clearly and creatively using pop culture and truth.

But guys, we cannot control how people respond.

That is God's work, that is his responsibility.

We must be faithful to preach, and God will be faithful to do what he does, and it's to save.

And so maybe I'll finish with how I started.

The question on the table is this How do we communicate the unchanging gospel to an ever-changing culture where we understand the people we're trying to reach, we have courage and knowledge to speak truth, and then we call for a response, leaving the response to God.

Because, church, this culture is gonna keep changing.

Like the questions people are gonna ask in five years is gonna be very different than the questions they're asking now.

Even their idols, it's gonna look different.

But the gospel message doesn't change and it still saves.

And we got to be a church that's committed to this.

And so my prayer for King's Church is like Drake said, we wouldn't be a church that just focuses on shepherding this generation, but also has an eye on the next.

And praise God, give us wisdom to keep reaching them.

And to that end, let me pray for us, uh, and then we'll sing.

Lord, we believe on this October Sunday morning that you have placed this church and these people in Denton, Texas on purpose.

That we are the people for this moment and for this city.

And even though at times, Lord, we confess we don't feel smart enough or good enough, we know the scriptures say you love to use broken vessels and stumbling tongues to make much of Jesus.

And so, God, would you do it with us?

You don't need us, but it would be the joy of a lifetime to join you in reaching this city, and so help us be a people that never ignores the next generation because we know how the book ends.

That in the end it won't just be one generation falling down and worship, but a thousand generations, falling down, singing praises to the Lamb, and we join that song even now.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

You guys can stand and we'll sing.