Sermon

Defending the Christian Faith - Acts 17:16-34

August 26, 2018 Carrigaline Baptist Church - Sermons

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and God-fearing Greeks, as well in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with them.
Some of them asked, what is this babbler trying to say?
Others remarked, he seems to be advocating foreign gods.
They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Aeropagus where they said to him,
may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears and we would like to know more what they mean.
All of the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing
but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Aeropagus and said,
people of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious.
For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship,
I even found an altar with this inscription, to an unknown god.
So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth
and does not live in temples built by human hands and he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything.
Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
From one man he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth
and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.
God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him,
though he is not far from any one of us.
For in him we live and move and have our being.
As some of your own poets have said, we are his offspring.
Therefore, since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone,
an image made by human design and skill.
In the past God overlooked such ignorance,
but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
For he is set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.
He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.
When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered,
but others said, we want to hear you again on this subject.
At that point, Paul left the council.
Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed.
Among them was Dioconus, a member of the Areopagus,
also a woman named Demarius,
and a number of others.
Well, we don't want to close our Bibles.
We want to hear more on this subject, don't we?
We want to hear Jonathan come and preach.
So, Jonathan, please come.
Thank you.
There is a pen going around to this.
Where's the box of pens?
If you wouldn't mind.
Thank you, Sam.
If anybody would like pens, take notes.
You can use the back of the sheet to do that.
Thanks, Sam.
Let's let him do that.
Yes, right.
Yep.
It will be helpful to keep your Bibles open
as we just work through our passage this morning.
It's always very helpful when somebody is speaking
to be able to open up the word
and actually read into it yourself
to see, is what the speaker is saying making sense?
Is it right?
So, I would encourage you,
and we will be pointing out different verses
as I speak this morning.
Visiting a historic city is a great experience.
This summer, we had the privilege of going to Rome,
and anyone who went to Rome would know
that it's a beautiful city,
and a city with great history.
On one of our excursions,
we went to the old port of Rome.
And the old port,
we were able to go into an archaeological site
and be able to walk down the ruins of buildings
for people who lived 2,000 years ago.
So, I was quite happily walking along
with my audio guide
down these little narrow streets
looking at where people lived,
where they worked,
where they went to temples.
There were so many temples in this area,
so many altars, so many statues.
It was a wonderful experience,
and I became engrossed in it.
But as I was walking down it,
my mind went to this passage of scripture.
For even though I wanted to know
the history of this place,
I was so far removed
from the runnings of this place,
for what I was watching
was a pagan society,
a people who had buildings and temples
who were not following God.
Paul went to a historic city as well,
the city of Athens.
And for Paul, it was very different.
For while I was looking at broken down statues
and temples,
trying to imagine what it was like,
needing somebody in my ear
to tell me what it was,
Paul was able to open his eyes
and see it for real.
For as he wandered around Athens,
he was able to see people
worshipping other gods
in their temples and altars.
Now, for Paul,
who could blame him
for spending a few days in Athens?
The year was possibly about 20 years
after Christ,
and it was a very exciting time
in the history of Christianity.
The message of Christ
was moving out from Jerusalem
to Samaria,
out to the ends of the world,
and it was just entering Europe
for the first time.
Paul had just recently been
in a place called Philippi.
In Philippi,
he preached the good news of Jesus,
but he was put in jail for it.
He had to leave Philippi,
and he went to Thessalonica.
There he preached once again,
but there was a crowd
agitated everyone,
and there ended up being a riot,
and he had to leave
Thessalonica by night.
So he rushed off
to a nearby town called Berea.
But there again,
he was followed.
People followed
to agitate the crowd,
and again he had to leave.
But this time,
he had to leave
without his companions,
Silas and Timothy.
So by the time
we reach our verse
in verse 16,
Paul was here alone
in Athens.
Now, a few days in Athens,
waiting for his friends,
mightn't be such a bad thing
as we look around.
After all,
Athens was a city
of great wealth.
It was a city
of great learning,
and it was a religious city.
In fact,
in Athens,
every public building
was dedicated
to a god.
One pagan writer
at the time
used to refer to,
he used to quip
about Athens
that it was easier
to find a god
in Athens
than it was a man.
But for Paul,
unlike me,
doing it as a tourist,
Paul was looking around
and he was distressed
by what he saw.
Look at verse 16.
While Paul was waiting
for them,
being Silas and Timothy
in Athens,
he was greatly distressed
to see in the city
the city was full of idols.
And this word,
distressed,
is a very strong word.
It was meaning
provoking to anger.
Paul was angry
by what he saw.
It was the same word
that was used
when he had a disagreement
with a companion
of his, Barnabas,
when they had a sharp disagreement
and they parted their ways.
Paul was downright angry
by what he saw.
Why was he angry
by seeing idols?
Why was he angry
by seeing people
worshipping other gods?
If you know anything
about Paul,
he had a great heart
for the gospel.
He had a desire
to preach Jesus Christ
to all that he met.
But instead of seeing
a people
who were worshipping God,
he was seeing a people
who were turning away
from the living God,
who did not know
the living God.
They were worshipping
and putting their time
into man-made gods,
gods of silver
and gold
and stone.
And this appalled him.
Paul was seeing
a people
who were lost.
And ultimately,
Paul was looking
at these people
and seeing a people
who needed Jesus.
He would later write
to the Romans
and he was talking
about idols
and people
who followed idols
and he said,
they exchanged
the glory
of the immortal God
for images made
to look like
the mortal man
and birds
and animals
and reptiles.
They swapped
worshipping the creator
for worshipping
something that was created.
In a way,
this poses a challenge
to us.
when we look around
in the world
and we see people
who are not following God,
people who are following
other ways,
they're seeking after
wealth and pleasures.
Do we get distressed
by that?
Do we get provoked
to anger?
I know for myself,
sometimes you can get
so busy with life
you just move on
and you don't think
too much about it.
But we're surrounded
by people who are
not following God,
people who need Jesus.
And this is where
we pick up the story
for Paul.
Now, Paul wasn't one
to sit down
and do nothing about it.
Paul had a solution
to what he saw
when he saw people
following idols.
Look at verse 17.
So he reasoned
in the synagogue
with the Jews
and the God-fearing Greeks
as well as in the marketplace
by day with those
who happened to be there.
Paul's solution
was to share Jesus.
First,
he shared Jesus
with the Jews.
The Jews were his own people.
He knew them well.
He knew how they thought.
And this was his custom.
Look back at the start
of chapter 17,
verse 2,
when he went to Thessalonica.
Verse 2 says,
As his custom was,
Paul went into the synagogue
and on three Sabbath days
he reasoned with them
from the scriptures,
explaining and proving
that the Christ
had to suffer
and rise from the dead.
When he went to Berea,
look at verse 10.
On arriving there,
they went to the Jewish synagogue.
And in our chapter,
in our few verses,
again he went
to the synagogue.
He wanted to open up
the scriptures
to his own people.
The scriptures,
for them,
was the Old Testament.
He proved
and showed people
that the promised Messiah
was Jesus.
He had a heart
for his people,
a heart for them
to hear
the good news.
But he also wanted
to preach
to those
who were not Jews,
Gentiles,
those who knew
nothing of the
Old Testament scriptures.
And what did he do?
He went into the marketplace
day by day
and spoke to those
who happened to be there.
So you need to pass over
certain words in scripture.
At the start of our verse,
it says that he reasoned
with them
and it's a very interesting word.
For those who know Greek,
they would tell you
that it's the word
dialogami,
from which we get
our word dialogue.
What's a dialogue?
It's when we have
a conversation.
Somebody speaks,
somebody listens.
And we do that.
And this was very important
for Paul
as he spoke with people,
as he presented
the truth of Christ.
He also accepted
them speaking back to him
to debate with him.
And that's what he did
with these people.
We often think of Paul
just merely standing
on a soapbox
and preaching
and then moving on.
But instead,
he interacted with people.
But as he was interacting,
he met two groups of people.
Look at verse 18.
He met a group
of philosophers.
Philosophy is,
strictly speaking,
the love
or the learning
of knowledge.
And he met
Epicurean
and Stoic philosophers
and they began
to dispute with them.
Who were these people?
Well,
Athens was a center
of learning.
This was where people
used to go
and spend time
and learning
about different ideas.
The Epicureans
were people
who loved pleasure.
They wanted
to avoid pain.
They didn't deny
there was a god
but they were
practical atheists
because they lived
their lives
as if there were
no gods.
Their view of life
was,
I'll get pleasure
and I'll avoid pain.
The Stoics,
on the other hand,
were people who
wanted to have
self-mastery.
They wanted to be
immune to emotions.
They didn't believe
in any personal god.
They didn't believe
any creator god
and they believed
that everything
was predetermined
by random chance.
And these philosophers
had contempt
for Paul
in his message.
Look at verse 18 again.
They said,
what is this babbler
talking about?
The word babbler
is an interesting word.
It literally means
seed picker.
Have you ever seen
birds pecking
at seeds on the ground?
They peck, peck, peck,
picking up this bit
and that bit.
And what they were
saying about Paul
was that he was
like somebody
who has picked up
a bit of knowledge here,
a bit of knowledge there,
tried to put it all together
and really didn't know
what he was talking about.
They also said
that his ideas
were strange.
Look at verse 20.
They refer to
him bringing them
strange ideas.
You see,
they recognized
that what Paul
was saying
was very different
to what they believed.
They also misunderstood
what he said
and they said
in verse 19
that he was one
who was advocating
foreign gods.
What was really
happening here
was a clash
between the Christian
message of Paul
and the way
the world
sees life.
The Christian
way of looking at things,
as you could call it,
the Christian worldview
or how you see the world,
your outlook and world,
is very simple for Paul.
He saw Christ
as the focus.
God
had created the world.
Sin
entered the world.
It needed a solution
and that solution
was Christ
who came to the world
and he died
and rose again
for our salvation.
And because of that,
we know where we're going
because we have
the hope of heaven.
And now Paul
and us as Christians
are living
as Jesus did.
We want to live
as Christ did.
But that was very different
to what these people
who were listening to him,
how they lived their lives.
Their focus
was on pleasure,
on material things,
on knowledge.
They didn't believe
in the afterlife.
So if they don't believe
in the afterlife,
well,
then there's no judgment.
There's no one
to condemn them
after they pass
into this world
because they see life
merely as
what we have here
and now.
And this clash
between the Christian worldview
and the worldview
of the world
is very much
what Paul
tries to speak against.
For worldviews,
it answers
the big questions
of life.
If you had stood back
and thought about life,
you'd ask different questions
like,
where do I come from?
What's wrong with the world?
What's the solution
and where am I going?
For us as Christians,
we see the Christian worldview
the way
as presented by the Bible
is how it explains
these questions.
For others,
they lived differently.
Think about the people
that we meet
in our lives
that we could meet.
We meet people
who don't believe in God.
They believe that
somehow we evolved
over millions of years.
We happen to end up
where we are now.
There is no God,
so therefore
there is no judgment.
We meet other people
who have a very
scientific mind.
They might say to us,
well,
science has disproved
Christianity,
so I'm not going
to believe in Christianity.
Or we might hear
people say,
well,
what you believe,
your Christian message
is true for you,
but it's not true for me.
It's a very post-modern
way of thinking
that really,
I'm happy for you
to believe it.
I'm happy for you
to sit there
and go to church,
do all these things,
but for me,
I want to do something else.
It really doesn't matter to me.
And the question is,
and the question for Paul was,
how was he going to defend
the Christian message
when people in this world
have such an idea
about what the world
is about?
Well,
Paul's defense
starts in verse 19.
You see,
as he spoke,
they asked the question,
what are you teaching?
We want to hear more.
Now,
we could very much
get excited and think,
isn't this wonderful?
Paul was preaching
about Jesus
and the resurrection.
These people said,
we want to hear you
speak about this.
But Luke,
who wrote the book of Acts,
very clearly
in verse 21
would ground us
in thinking
that they wanted to hear it
from a heart point of view.
for he tells us
that all the Athenians
and foreigners
who lived there
spent their time
doing nothing
but talking about
and listening
to the latest ideas.
The Athenians
wanted to know
about what Paul
was saying
from a head point of view.
It wasn't that their hearts
were prodded
to hear about
the name of Jesus.
It was all head knowledge.
And Paul knew this.
He wasn't going
to be fooled by that.
But he was still
going to present
the gospel to them.
So in verse 22
where we pick it up,
they brought him
to the Oropagus
which was like a council
or somewhere
where they would talk
about religion
and morals.
And he stood up
and he said,
men are people of Athens.
I see that in every way
you are very religious.
I see that in every way,
pardon me,
for as I walked around
and looked carefully
at your objects of worship,
I even found an altar
with this inscription
to an unknown God.
Now what you worship
as something unknown,
I am going to proclaim to you.
Now notice that Paul,
even though he was angry
by their idol worship,
by the way they were
not following God,
he didn't start off
in condemnation.
He didn't stand up
and say,
you're wrong,
you're pagans,
you're blaspheming God.
But instead,
he started where they were at.
He told them that,
he was acknowledging
that they were religious.
He wasn't agreeing with them.
He wasn't saying
they were right.
But he saw that
they had devotion
but it was misplaced.
It was in the wrong thing.
And they could tell
that at least he knew
something about them
because he said,
told them that he'd spent time
in their temples
looking around
and even saw this inscription.
It wasn't that he was disinterested
in what they believed.
He understood it
even though he didn't agree with it.
And he used their altar
to this unknown God
as a starting point
to share about God.
And as we look at
verses 24 to 29,
observe the attributes of God,
the things that Paul
tells the Greeks about God
that they would have missed.
Bear in mind,
a lot of them
didn't believe in God at all.
Or those who did believe in God
thought he was some
far off God
that had nothing to do with them,
completely had nothing to do
with the day-to-day lives of people.
Verse 24,
Paul starts off,
the God who made the world.
He starts off by telling them
God is creator.
For us as Christians,
we might think this is quite basic.
We know that God made the world.
We love hearing about it.
We can probably even think up
verses that speak of God as creator.
And we take pleasure and delight
and it causes us to worship
because we know God created.
But it wasn't going to be popular
to the Greeks
because they had no concept
of a creator God.
The Stoics who were there
thought everything was part of God.
So God couldn't create himself.
Therefore,
he couldn't be creator.
And it's not a popular belief now
when we tell people
that God made the world
because so many people
no longer believe it.
But Paul goes on to tell them
that this God who created
was also the Lord
of heaven and earth.
And as ruler,
why would God need somebody
to build a temple for him?
He said,
and does not live in temples
built by hands.
After all,
if God is creator,
why does he need
what these people were doing?
Building temples.
You might remember
in Solomon,
King Solomon,
when he was building a temple,
he even said that
God couldn't even be contained
in the world
and the universe
and the heavens.
But Paul also goes on
to tell them that
God is the giver of life.
Look in verse 25.
He says,
because he himself
gives all men
life and breath
and everything else.
He was telling
the Greeks
that look,
this God who created,
this God who is the ruler,
is also the God
who gives you life.
And if he gave you life,
why does he need
to be served
by human hands?
For it's God
is the one
who sustains people,
not the other way around.
And he continues
to tell them
that your life
is in God's hands.
In verse 26,
he tells them,
it was God
who determined
or set the times
for them
and the exact places
where they would live.
God controls
the world,
controls everything.
Nothing is out
of his control.
For some who were
listening to him
like the Stoics,
this was not good
because they believed
things happen
by random chance,
not by a God
who intervened
in the lives of people.
And verse 27,
Paul goes on to say,
God did this
so that men
would seek him
and perhaps
reach out for him
and find him.
Why would God,
why would Paul say that?
What does he mean
by God did this?
What he was telling them
was,
look,
God is revealed
to you.
God's providential
activity in the world
should be
obvious to you.
He is creator.
He is the ruler.
He is the one
who gives life.
He is the one
who controls.
If he was speaking
merely to a Christian audience,
he might have opened up
the scriptures
and shown it
directly from there.
But instead,
he does something
quite unusual.
In verse 28,
he goes and quotes
two pagan poets
to back up his points.
He says,
for in him
we live
and move
and have our being.
As some of your own poets
have said,
we are his offspring.
Why would he quote
pagan poets
to prove his point?
But he's saying to them,
look,
God is creator.
He's the ruler.
He's the sustainer.
Even your own poets
have pointed this out,
even though
it was completely misplaced
and they were putting,
they were misapplying it
to pagan gods.
He was saying
to the elite,
those who are learned
in Greeks,
you don't have a clue.
Here you are,
worshipping something
you don't know
when it should be
quite obvious
that there is a God.
Paul would write
to the Romans
and he would speak
later
and he would speak
about our consciences,
our,
the natural revelation
of God in the world.
These things
point
toward
God.
Paul's logic
when he was speaking
to them
was that,
well,
if God is creator,
then
they don't need
to create
images
to worship.
Why would they
need to do that?
Why do they not
worship the creator
instead of the images?
Look at verse 29.
Therefore,
since we are
God's offspring,
bear in mind,
their own poets
have said this,
we should not think
that the divine being
is like gold
or silver,
stone
an image made
by man's
design.
This was ignorant
of them.
They didn't
know any better
but Paul was
trying to say
this is not right,
this is not,
this is not good.
Paul was saying
to them,
look,
look at the power
and the glory
of God
in creation
and sustaining
and he is the one
that you should worship.
He then goes on
to say
what
God's attitude
to all this was.
In verse 30
he tells them
that God
overlooked
this ignorance
because he wants
people to repent.
You see,
God is the greatest
God and he gives
people time
to turn away
from their sin,
turn away from
rebelling against God
and to turn to him.
And Paul is saying
to them,
look,
you have been ignorant,
you have not known
the true God
but I am now
presenting this to you
and you have the time
to turn away
from idols
and turn to the living
God.
And he goes on
to tell them
that there will be
a judgment.
Verse 31,
he has set a day
when he will judge
the world with justice.
So what they are doing
now,
they are not going
to get away with it
because there will be
a judgment.
But in that judgment
they do have the time
to repent.
And he goes on
to say
the proof of all this,
the proof of what
I am saying to you
is that Jesus
was raised from the dead.
You see,
Johnny read out
these verses
from 1 Corinthians 15
and when Paul was
presenting the case
for the resurrection
of Jesus,
he said,
our faith would be useless
if Jesus didn't
rise from the dead.
And he was saying
to them,
the proof for you,
you Greeks,
as you listen to me today
is that what I am saying
is true
because of Jesus,
because he rose
from the dead.
It was very personal
for Paul,
after all,
didn't he meet
the resurrected Lord Jesus
on the road to Damascus?
So he already knew
and had the comfort
and the assurance
that Jesus had indeed
risen from the dead.
Now you can imagine
the reaction
that he is going to get.
For often when we speak
of Jesus,
we get different
people's reaction.
Some sneered,
look at verses 32 to 34,
some sneered,
they didn't believe
in the resurrection.
You see,
in the Greek thinking,
once the body
was dead,
that was it.
There was no resurrection.
Others wanted
to hear more
and thankfully
some understood
and accepted
the message
and some believed.
And as we speak
and we share
our Christian faith,
how we would love
people to be
in that third category,
those who believe.
But it doesn't
always happen.
In fact,
when we share
the gospel with people,
when we share
our Christian lives
with people,
we're often rejected
or they often speak
and debate with us
about different things
and say,
well,
I don't believe that,
I don't believe that.
But what do we do
when somebody objects
to what we're saying?
If we presented
the gospel
similar to what
Paul did there,
how do we answer
people's objections?
And we can learn
a lot from what
Paul said
in this passage
of how
when we speak
with people,
think for a moment
of people's objections
to Christianity.
Some people might say
all religions
lead to God.
They might say,
well,
Christianity is just
one way that people
can follow God.
Other religions
equally will do
like Hinduism
or Islam
or Buddhism.
They're all going to
lead to the same place
at the end.
What do we say
when somebody says that?
Or they might say,
why do you believe
in the Bible?
After all,
it's been changed
so many times.
Look,
there's so many
different versions of it.
It's so old,
surely there's a mistake
in it because somebody
probably has translated
it wrong.
Or somebody might say,
well,
your beliefs
are mere fairy tales
for science
would show you
that it's quite
impossible
for the world
just to exist
in the way
you say it is
and so many things
of what you say
can't be proved
by science.
And they might tell you,
well,
I'm happy for you
to believe the Bible.
You've said your piece,
you've shared the gospel
with me
and that's true for you
but it's not for me
and I'm going to go away
and not take any notice.
And I'm quite sure
we could think up
of loads of different things
that people would say to us
as we share
about Jesus to them.
What do we do?
How do we defend it?
How do we live out
our lives day by day
when there's people
who are happy
to reject us
or reject the message
that we have?
Well,
we can learn
four things,
probably more,
but I've found
four things
that we can learn
from our passage.
The first one
is to be prepared.
You might recall
in a sermon,
I think it was
about last year
on 1 Peter
and one of the verses
that we were looking at
was that we should
always be prepared
to give the reason
for the hope
that we have.
For when we speak
with people,
we need to know
what we believe
and to be able
to share that
with others
and we can be prepared
in, say,
two ways,
in our minds
and in our hearts.
Think of how Paul preached.
When he spoke
to the Greeks,
everything he said
was very logical.
It was very clear.
It wasn't being misunderstood.
He was prepared.
He knew exactly
what he was going to say
and for us,
it's very important
that we know
what we believe.
If somebody asked you
to explain the gospel,
would you be able
to explain it?
If somebody said,
why do you believe
in the resurrection?
Would you be able
to give them reasons
why the resurrection
is true?
It's good for us
to be prepared like that
so that we will be able
to answer people.
We're not going
to know everything.
People are going
to talk about evolution.
They're going
to talk about science.
We're never going
to be experts
on learning
all of these things.
We're not going
to be people
who can give
some scientific reason
why what they believe
is wrong.
But we can be aware
of what they say
and you might notice
when people are
speaking to us
and raising objections
like that
and we start asking
them questions
about what they believe,
a lot of people
don't really know
what they're talking
about anyway.
They might hear
something on social media
and the newspaper
and they think,
yes, that's what
I want to believe.
That's how I'm going
to live my life.
But when you get down
to it,
they haven't really
thought much beyond that.
They're quite happy
to give you
these one-liners
to say why Christianity
is true,
but when you dig into it,
they haven't really
thought about it.
And that's good
from our point of view
because we're not
going to have
the answer straight away
for them,
but we do have
that truth
and we know
that truth
of the gospel
and we can share
that with them.
We also need
to be prepared
in mind.
A number of weeks
ago,
Connor was preaching
on the Psalms,
on Psalm 119.
He was encouraging
us to be
in God's word
daily.
And the more
we spend
in God's word,
the more we become
assured of the truth
and the more
we have a desire
to share
with others.
We can also
continue
to speak
and listen
to people.
It's very easy
to want to give up.
You could imagine
sharing the gospel
or sharing your life,
your Christian life
with those you love
for years upon years,
perhaps with a parent,
with a husband
or a wife
or with a child,
with a best friend
and they just
don't want to
seem to know
anymore.
They don't want
to know anymore.
But we shouldn't
give up.
We should continue
to want to speak
but also
to listen
because as we
listen to people
we will learn
what they believe.
Think of Paul
in our passage.
He knew
what the Greeks
believed.
After all,
his preaching
he tuned it
to what
they thought.
He also
was observing
what they
believed
by looking
around their
temples
and seeing
their inscriptions.
We can do
that with people.
We can ask
people,
well,
why do they
believe this?
Why do they
say that?
And it's good
for us
to listen.
We spoke
about dialogue
earlier.
Paul was reasoning
and it's good
for us
to have
conversations
with people
to actually
be willing
to speak.
At the first
sign of
somebody having
a conflict
with us,
we shouldn't
just close
our mouths
and change
the subject.
It's hard
but it's also
worthwhile
because we
might notice
when we
listen to
people,
we have an
opportunity
to hear
them say
something
that will
allow us
to be able
to share
the gospel
with us.
We can
also take
great comfort
from this
passage.
Sometimes
we can
begin to
get,
we can
doubt
what we
believe
or we
can get
confused
by people's
arguments.
When loved
ones reject
us,
we might
feel,
well,
is what I
truly believe,
is it true?
And we can
begin to
doubt it.
But this
passage gives
us great
hope.
Look back
in verse
31,
when Paul
was speaking
about judgment
and repentance
and he
said that
the proof
of this
was that
all men,
the proof
to all men
was because
Jesus was
raised from
the dead.
And we
can take
great assurance
for that,
even though
we might
be confused
by what
we hear
in the
world,
we might
be upset
by the
way people
are not
following
God,
but we
can be
comforted
that what
you or
I believe
is true
if we're
Christians.
because our
truth is
based on
what Jesus
did on
the cross
and his
being
resurrected
from the
dead and
being at
the right
hand of
God.
It was
Paul's
comfort and
it's our
comfort and
it's our
comfort when
people start
to object to
what we say
or reject
us.
And finally
what we can
learn from
this passage
is that we
always need
to leave
people with
hope.
We can
have many
conversations
with people,
we can
speak with
them over
many years
or we
might have
short
conversations
with people
maybe down
the supermarket
or on
the bus.
But it's
always important
to leave
people with
hope.
Paul was
sneered at
when he
shared the
gospel with
people,
but notice
that he
still left
them with
hope.
Even
those people
who rejected
what he
said out
of hand,
he still
gave them
hope.
Look back
in verse
30.
He told
them that
God commands
all people
everywhere to
repent.
And you
see, even
though people
are rejecting
Jesus, rejecting
the cross, rejecting
our message, we
can still give
them hope that
there is still
time to
repent.
They can
still turn from
their way of
life and turn
to Jesus.
People put
their hope in
all sorts of
things in life.
They put it
in their wealth,
in their
intellect,
perhaps even
in their
health.
But when
things go
wrong, where
does their
hope come
from?
Because deep
down when we
speak with
people, we
might notice
they don't
have hope.
There is a
hope that is
missing because
what they see
in the world,
their worldview,
does not give
them the true
hope that
comes from
Jesus.
When we were
in Rome and
I was looking
down at all
the temples,
one temple
caught my eye.
And on the
plaque it said,
the temple of
hope.
And I
wondered, why
would they
have a temple
of hope in
this place?
After all, I'd
been to numerous
temples in this
area.
They had a
temple for
every god,
everything that
they could
think of,
they provided
for.
Why would
they need a
temple of
hope?
After all,
wouldn't all
these other
gods give
them hope?
And I
thought, no.
It didn't
give them
hope.
They still
needed hope.
And this
temple that I
saw was still
a pagan temple,
but it
showed me
that hope
was missing
from this
pagan worship,
this people
who had
turned and
not followed
God because
there was
no hope.
And they
wanted to
have this
temple of
hope.
But as
Christians,
we have a
hope.
Think of
what, in
1 Peter,
that we have
a living hope
through the
resurrection of
Jesus Christ
from the
dead.
we must
always
remember,
when we
are speaking
to people,
to always
remember to
give them
hope.
People might
reject us,
they might
not want to
talk to us,
they might
not, they
prefer if we
did not
open the
Bible,
didn't want
to talk
about it.
But we
should always
remember to
leave them
hope because
that is the
hope that
we have.
We should
always know
the reason for
the hope that
we have and
prepare to
share it with
others.
Let us pray.
Father, we
do thank you
for the
Christian
message.
I thank you
that we
can be
sure that
it is
true.
We thank
you for
the reminder
from this
passage that
it is true
and you have
given us
proof of it
by you,
Lord, being
raised from
the dead,
that you are
now at the
right hand of
the Father.
We thank you
for the
gospel.
We thank you
that we can
know you,
Father, as
the creator
God, as
the giver of
life, as
the sustainer,
I thank you
that we have
so many people
in our lives
that you have
given us to
us to love,
to be with,
and our
desires that
they would
know Jesus.
But so
often, Father,
that we are
hit with
rejection or
with people
who do not
want to know,
but help us
always want
to give the
reason for the
hope that we
have, for we
have this great
hope because of
Jesus.
I pray that we
would be
prepared, that
indeed we be
prepared in mind
and in heart.
that we
would be
willing to
continue to
talk with
people, not
to be quiet,
but to have a
desire to
share you,
Lord, with
those around
us.
And I thank
you that we
can give them
hope and that
there's still
time for people
to repent, to
turn from their
idols and turn
to the living
God.
Lord, I pray
that as we
go out and
as we spend
our lives with
people, that
we will not
become immune
to the sin, to
the rejection of
you, but
indeed it would
increase our
desire to
persevere, to
continue to
share your
name with
those around
us.
In Jesus'
name, Amen.
I'm going to
finish with a
song.
We have,
there is a
hope.
There is a
hope that
burns within
our hearts.
And if you're
a Christian
here today, you
have that
hope, that
hope that we
have because
of Jesus, that
gives me strength
for every
passing day,
because of
Jesus, that
we can live
day by day,
and our
desire hopefully
will be to
share that
with others.
Let us
stand to
sing.
there is a
hope that
burns within
my heart,
that gives me
strength for
me.