"If someone considers himself to be joyful and is nevertheless not tender in his walk, but instead lives in the world and yields to his lusts, doing everything with the wrong objective and in seeking self, his joy is not a joy in God, but is a counterfeit joy. However, whenever joy proceeds from faith, functions in communion with God, and begets tenderness, willingness, actual opposition to sin, and the practice of Godliness-then there is true joy. Let the heart of such a person rejoice, and endeavour to continually live in this joy," - Wilhelmus A. Brakel

“Sharing the Good News in a Pagan Society”

Acts 17

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.  And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.  The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.  And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having deter-mined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually 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 indeed His offspring.’ Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man Whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

So Paul went out from their midst.  But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.                 (ESV Translation pp. 1947-49 Reformation Study Bible)

Steps to Telling the Gospel Today                  Exposition

1. 1.      Be a S________________ of our world (vv. 16-22)

1. 2.     Build a B________________ from Here to There (vv. 22,23)

1. 3.     Shoot Straight: Tell It Like It Is (vv. 24-34)

What Can I Use or Apply from This Teaching?              Conclusion

These notes are from the 3 message in the series: Stewardship & Evangelism, preached by Drs. Larry Ruddell & J. Paul Sattem. These messages are posted weekly at www.goodshepherdarp.org and are available for download at no charge.

Permission is granted for reproduction and distribution of these messages.  To God be the glory.