Acts, 16:16-40

All right, we are in, contrary to what's on the screen there, we're in the book of Acts. We are going to touch on the questions that are 16 through 40 and then move on to chapter 17. And as we do so, one thing to keep in mind with chapter 17 is there's so much there that I'm going to take an extra week later on to backtrack and hit some of those things.

Because, boy, it's packed full. Alright? Okay. If you're joining us here, one more thing before you sit down. Did you get the ones underneath? You might want to get those. Yeah, there you go. Alright, we're touching on the questions here. So let's do that. This is on page two, question number one.

Acts 16, 16 through 40. Now, this is, remember, an instant where Paul is at Philippi. he is pestered, harassed by this slave girl we mentioned last week the English translations say a spirit of divination or something of that sort but the Greek actually says a python spirit because it had to do with the Greek mythology and the temple of Apollo it had priestesses that were called Pythia So she was actually a priestess of the Temple of Apollo but owned by several owners. It implies, doesn't prove it, but it implies that perhaps she was expensive because she could tell fortunes, tell the future, and she did so with a guttural voice coming like a ventriloquist out of her stomach. Very odd. But that would definitely get people's attention.

Okay. Paul, after some time of pestering, He doesn't do the usual pagan thing of going through a bunch of rituals and all this stuff and trying to get the spirit out of her. He just says, come out, bang, and it's done. Before anybody had a chance to think about it, contemplate it, get used to it, adjust, bang, it's done deal. And so the owners are ticked.

So the question here, number one, was it unethical for Paul to have destroyed the income and asset value of the slave girl for the owners by sending the spirit out of her? Why or why not? What do you think about that? Was that an unethical thing for him to do? Was that an ethical problem? I mean, after all, they just lost their source of income. In fact, the Greek even says, you know, the income went out of her. This is the way it puts it. It went, with the spirit went the income.

So, what about the ethics of that? Is that an issue? Is that something we ought to concern ourselves with? Does Paul have a problem? Did he have a problem? Okay, Bob says no. Alright, why do you say no, Bob? Okay, alright. How do we know it's God's will? Pardon? Ah, okay. Is it God's will that people be possessed by demons? No. And we see the prior example in Mark 5, we note that it's parallel. Here Jesus was on the Sea of Galilee, comes up on the shore, here this demon-possessed man comes up, and these demons are screaming out, This is the Son of the Most High!

You know, thanks for the praise. What does he do? He says, Out! You know? And so Jesus set the example, one, If this is Jesus doing it, then certainly Paul doesn't have a problem. And two, we see that Jesus even said that the apostles, the end of Mark, the apostles would be casting out demons. So it would be one of the validations of their apostleship. So here Paul carries it out. It is not an ethical problem. It is something in fact that the Lord wanted to have happen. As Bob pointed out, it's God's will. God intended for that to happen.

The demon was not doing the girl any good, it was only doing the owners any good. Yeah, Dave? The demon was saying correct things, right? Yeah, isn't that interesting? The demon said correct things. So could it be that Columbus guys didn't want the demon to get credit for it? That might be one thing is is to have this demon somehow, you know get credit for saying the right thing Yeah, that would be a confusion, wouldn't it? Yeah, here's this fortune-teller this strange demonic being and to have that being saying something that was true true though it was it was a problem because it was a confusion and Paul was not at all pleased, and neither was Jesus, that the demons did what they did.

Interestingly enough, in Mark 5, the demons asked Jesus, I mean, they're panicked about this, you haven't begun to torment us, have you? The demons who are roaming the earth know that they have a limited time, and they're saying, not yet, not yet. That doesn't show up here in this account in Acts, although it may have been included, it's just not recorded. It is recorded in Mark 5. Isn't it interesting? The demons know very well that they have a limited time, and interestingly it is recorded in Mark 5 because Jesus will be the one who marks the moment, if you will, when they're to be cast into hell forever. Okay, so you're correct, Bob. There is no ethical problem. This is exactly what God had in mind. Very good point. Thank you for asking that.

Do the demons know the future? She says no. Why do you say no? One of the things that happens is that demons will make predictions. There may be some of it comes true, but their knowledge is not they're not omniscient as she pointed out as Barbara pointed out they're not omniscient and They they don't know everything. They don't know the end from the beginning What's very interesting is they don't even seem to know scripture There there are places where Satan and the demons Act in ways that make it clear that they don't understand scripture entirely so oddly enough. They haven't got that insight and You would think that they would, but they don't.

Yeah, Marian? So their prediction, like she could tell from the future, would obviously come true. It would happen today also. Sure. And there will be some things, but what you will find is it's not infallible. And that's the difference. It's not infallible.

Deuteronomy 18, verse 18 through about verse 22 spells out, this is how you will know a true prophet of God. That prophet will predict accurately, completely. If that prophet does not say what is going to come accurately, that prophet is not speaking from the Lord. That was the test that they were given. Jesus, John 13, 19 says, I will tell you what's going to happen so that you know that I am he, that he ends that with a go a me, you will know that I am Jehovah God.

That's the same Greek word from Exodus 3.14 where Moses says, who will I say? Send me. And God says, I am. Ego Emi, in the Greek Old Testament. Jesus uses that. I will tell you what will happen in the future so that you will know that I am God. Alright. Now, question two.

Was it right, here's another ethical question, for Paul and Silas to pray and sing into the night, apparently go up to midnight, given that there were other prisoners in the same prison, along with the jailer? Would it have been more considerate to have been quiet in the evening? Is there any justification for their unusual behavior under these circumstances? What impact would their behavior have on the prisoners and or the jailer?

Alright, what's your thoughts? Good point. And one of the things we talked about, the conditions in the prison typically in those days was what we would describe as repulsive. Gagging. No drainage or sanitary facilities. If you've got to go, that's where you're going. And you're in the stocks, you're sitting on this stone seat, which isn't very comfortable, especially after hours, after you've been beaten. And if it's got all sorts of excrement and urine on it. That's exactly what it's going to have when you sit on it. So that was one point. How about the pillows? None. You get none. So probably nobody was sleeping in the first place. Why else would this not be an issue of being inconsiderate?

Yeah, we don't know the fate of all of them. Some of them may very well have been due for death. Regardless, none of them had good outcomes coming from this. Better for Paul and Silas in the circumstance to get the news out. Some of these people may not have had much opportunity, much more opportunity.

Good point. Any others? Yeah, Marion? I think that it was the Holy Spirit that was able for Paul and Silas to even do this. Okay. It wasn't a plan. Ah, yes. This is the Lord's doing. Yeah, yeah. Good point. It isn't just Paul and Silas making the decision out of their flesh, you know, this would be a good thing to do, we ought to do it, you know. And just following through. It was also a matter of this is something the Lord was doing and accomplishing.

Yeah, they were not in good shape. One of the things we shared last week is that people often died from the rod beating. One of the Roman historians records the fellow getting that same kind of beating. And by the way, these guys who carried the rods, that was not a hobby. They had a title. The Roman term was a lictor, where they would beat severely.

Anyway, one of the Roman historians wrote that he started off by smashing the guy in the face with a heavy rod and then started beating him and he died from it. So Paul and Silas, we don't know exactly how they were beaten other than they were beaten and that it was severe enough that many men died from such a beating.

Other thoughts? Yeah, Bob? Okay, they were glorifying God in front of these people, right? Yeah. In front of these people. One of the things that, well, we'll get to the next question here. Good. Question three. What about Paul's presentation of the gospel? Was it too short? I mean, what must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and I shall be saved. That's a little brief. There's a few things there you might say want to be included. Was it adequate? Why? Would anything else have gone on prior to the earthquake that might have had an impact on what Paul needed to say right then? What do you think?

Yeah, Dave? Sure, here's the focal point. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's a key thing is they'd been basically spelling it out in song for hours. And so it's a little bit of saying, here's the bottom line. We've been singing about Christ having died for you. We've been singing about Christ being buried and resurrected. And all that we've been singing about, you just need to believe that. That's the point.

Art? These weren't merely the words of Paul. They were inspired from the inspiration of God. Whatever, however simple, or reasonable, Yes, it was sufficient. So there was the inspiration of the Lord for what he said, there was the context of the singing for hours where Paul just says, here's the focal point of this whole thing.

We've been telling you this for hours, this is what counts. Yeah, Rachel? Ah, okay. Yes, okay, good point. There is what has gone on before. His explanation that's recorded there gives us the focal point. And then there was explanation afterwards, not in song. So there was plenty of explanation there. What we're getting is the quick summary. Here's the focal point. You know, it's interesting. It makes me reflect.

I mentioned before that I became a believer at age four and a half. And I had been to Sunday school. I'm sure we'd been singing about Jesus loves me and all these different songs. And I remember I came home asking my parents, how do I become a believer? How do I become a Christian? And so essentially I was doing a lot of the same thing. I'd heard all these things in Sunday school and I was asking my parents, boil this down for me. What needs to happen? And so it was that kind of a thing. And what we see, just like was my case, there was some preceding words that brought me to that point, and there were things afterwards that helped me understand.

What we're getting here that comes out of the mouth of Paul and is quoted is the focal point, but not the whole content. Thank you. Alright, let's take a look at the next part there. This is the chapter 17. This is the one I mentioned that there is so much in it that we're probably going to take another entire week later on. We've got like three spaces in our schedule in order to put other things in. This is one we want to backtrack on because there's so much packed into it. Situation is this.

Paul left Philippi for Thessalonica. Remember that he left Philippi because there was this, I'm a Roman citizen and you know, you beat me without a trial. The flip side of that being that he would have a difficult time, likely, even unless he carried around his, you know, authentication that he was a Roman citizen. He'd have to travel back probably to Jerusalem or Tarsus to get the authentication. It would be difficult. So rather than disrupt things, they agreed, you know, we're going to leave. So, now, what happens here? Chapter 17 is a three-part account. First part in Thessalonica, second part in Berea. Those two are more brief, but not insignificant. And the third part is Paul's time in Athens.

So here's the way it works out. He goes there in Philippi, where there's very few Jews, and then now to Thessalonica, where there's indeed a synagogue. One of the things we pointed out in the past is the Jewish tradition was that in order to establish a synagogue, you had to have 10 men. Apparently in Philippi, there was likely not. That's why they met by the river. And here in Thessalonica, obviously 10 men.

As a matter of fact, what's interesting is there was a lot of times in larger cities where there were more Jews, a number of synagogues. The Jews were not limited to just one synagogue. They would have a number of synagogues. And as they went to Thessalonica, they had mucho trouble from the Jews, particularly. The Jews were so aggressive that they even chased them to other places.

Here in Philippi they had hardly any Jews and no real trouble from them and now in Thessalonica they had much trouble. Paul having to leave there and take off at night. There he went to the synagogue in Berea. Boy, it's like that guy doesn't get it, right? Here he goes to the synagogue in Berea and gets a very different kind of response.

This is one that people often refer to They talk about being a Berean, and the point being, Acts 17.11, that they examine the scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true.

And we'll go to that a little bit more here. Then in Athens, he goes in the synagogue and in the marketplace and then gets an invitation to speak with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers on the Areopagus. And that's where we get a fair amount of discourse recorded here, and something for us to take a look at. Now, let's backtrack a bit, having done that quick review.

Here's Thessalonica. Thessalonica and Philippi were in an area that was kind of unique. That and the area in the middle of what we now call Turkey and Galatia had a different aspect of culture, and that is that unlike most of the Roman Empire, Women were allowed to own businesses and carry on in public activities much more so than the rest of the culture.

And so one of the things that you'll notice pops out there and shows up here in Acts, prominent Greek women. And so you see that reference there. As a matter of fact, Lydia was an example of that very same thing. She was the first believer in Philippi. So, that's one thing that shows up. What's interesting, it's a confirmation of the historical accuracy of the Book of Acts.

Luke does not mention the prominent women in any district where they weren't prominent. So, he's talking reality, not just, here's a story I made up, or here's a little bit like the way the facts were. Paul was going to these places and likely quite aware of the culture. Luke seems to take note of that, and every place where that was the case, that's what he recorded. We don't find any variation or exception to that. So it gives the example verses here in the passage in chapter 13 and 17. Okay, there are a number of Jews there.

What's interesting there, Thessalonica was kind of the major city of that area, and the archaeological excavations have been limited. In fact, I get an email from a fellow who's over there in Thessalonica. But much of Thessalonica has modern city over the top of it.

So it's only certain places where you can actually get in and excavate. Excavation only takes place where they just happen not to have developed ore. If they're constructing something new and happen to run into an archaeological site, then they'll do some digging. But it's tough to go in. Nonetheless, with that spotty excavation, there appears to be multiple synagogues. and there appears to have been multiple synagogues in Thessalonica from the evidences that we can find there.

Now, one of the things he does is he explains the Old Testament and we got Isaiah 52.13 through 52.12. Did I have, is that right? 52.13? I got something wrong there. 53.12 is probably what it should be. Correct that.

Paul refers to Jesus as the Christ. In the Hebrew, it would have been the Messiah and the Anointed One. So what does he do? He carries it over here in the Greek, the Christ. And what's interesting is it has the definite article in the Greek. And one of the things I might note, a lot of our English translations when they're carrying things over in English, a lot of times they'll drop out the definite article. a number of places in Ephesians. We pointed that out. And the Jews reading that would have read that not as just Christ as a name. They would have seen that as the Messiah. They would have recognized it as that, and that would have been drawn to their attention.

And that's what Paul does here as he's explaining. He says, I want you to understand that the Messiah that you've been hearing about and reading about, and here are passages where it talks about him, Jesus is that one, the Christ, the anointed one, the one that you're waiting for. Orthodox Jews, even today, I mean Orthodox Jews, not Reformed and Conservative and everything else, Orthodox Jews, even today, anticipate a seven-year period of great tribulation, at the end of which the Messiah, Christos, the Messiah will come. They're anticipating that. What they do not understand, and what Paul was explaining to the Jews here, was He has come, He was first crucified, buried, and resurrected. And this coming that you're talking about at the end of this tribulation period of seven years is future. That's yet to come. So he's explaining these things to them.

Do you have those who are objecting to Paul's message? Claim that he's advocating a ruler who is opposed to Caesar. Now, this is really interesting. Do the Jews really care that Paul is opposed to Caesar or anything of the sort? They really don't give a hoot, or they'd rather somebody was. But because they disagree with Paul, what are they doing?

Yeah, they're just trying to say, how can I get this guy in trouble? And so they're saying, this guy is opposed to Caesar as the king. Why? Because Jesus, the Messiah, will come as king. And so they're looking at that and saying, we've got an opportunity to get this guy in trouble. It's not because they're concerned that somebody might replace the Caesar, they just assume somebody did. And they just assume it was the Messiah. But they're just trying to get Paul in trouble here.

And so they're making up for a concern that the Romans would listen to, even though they themselves don't have the same concern or are not concerned at all. Okay. Now there's something else here. We've got other records. Paul's visit to Thessalonica and his interaction with the believers there.

Philippians 4.16 and the two letters to the church there. So we have those evidences there.

In 1 Thessalonians 4.13 we find possible indications that though Paul and his companions left Thessalonica, some of the believers there were persecuted to the point of death.

That's implied in some of these other things. It is implied, not explicitly stated. The reason I say that is that Paul addresses the question there that he doesn't seem to address in all the letters, and that is, what about those who are asleep in the Lord? And he seems to address it fairly quickly afterwards. And so, anyway, it's an implication, not a definite statement.

Okay, now, in Berea, so here he goes, you know, it's a hot spot in Thessalonica. Let's get on to Berea. Here's a smaller city to find the Jews there are more responsive to the gospel and they respond not by blasting Paul or making false accusations or distorted accusations. They respond by, now notice they don't just take him at his word.

What do they do? They look at the scriptures. So they look at the book of Ephesians or what do they look at? The Old Testament, right. They looked at the Old Testament, because these are Jews, that's what they're going to regard, and the New Testament was just getting started, being written. So they're going to look at the Old Testament, they're going to examine it.

Now, let's ask a question here, because it's an important one. At this point, are these people believers? No. And that's an interesting thing. I don't mean to say this in harsh criticism, But only by observation. You'll find a lot of groups calling themselves Bereans or Berean Church or something like that. And I suppose it's okay. I don't need to be legalistic. But just to make the observation that these Bereans that were examining the scriptures daily were not believing that what Paul said was true at face value.

They were examining the scriptures. They did not yet believe they wanted to check it out first and then believe. So these people, though they took the right attitude in terms of their approach, and it says they were more noble for doing so, this is before they came to a point of belief. The strong implication is, once having confirmed it from Scripture, that they then did believe. So, just an interesting point to make there, that the exhortation to be Bereans is good in the sense of checking everything out with Scripture, and even what I teach, please check everything out.

But it is specifically here referring to Jews that we're checking out Paul's teaching and comparing that to Scripture. What we see as we go through the New Testament is what Paul wrote was Scripture as well. Peter even says that. Now, one other thing. At the end of the second to the last paragraph on page 2, they were looking at Paul's claims about Jesus. And one of the things that we would note here, and I've given several passages here in 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, Hebrews, that the truth is that examining the Scriptures as believers should cause us to dig into not just milk, but meat, that there would be substance. And Hebrews, as we point out here in this passage, says that that meat consists of things that cause one to know discernment. And so this goes far beyond just what the Bereans were doing, which is what Paul is saying about Jesus true, but moving into the area of discernment as Christians. So just another point there. Okay, here's Paul. He goes to the city of Athens.

We find some details here which are helpful if you are in a capacity of telling unbelievers about the Lord. And I think this is especially helpful for missionaries where they're going into a culture that's quite foreign to them. But helpful even for us addressing the culture that we're in. And that is this, what is the point of contact with the culture that we make for them to understand?

Okay, let's take a look at it here. He goes into Athens, and what does he do? He first observes, and we got this word theoreo, okay? He first observes, what do I see in the culture? And then what is that point of contact? So he makes, in this passage, there are multiple uses of that word, out of that word family, theoreo, okay? so they have a studied observation Paul was observing that they had idols and amongst the idols was this altar to an unknown God and by the way, that altar to an unknown God was fairly common throughout the Roman Empire we have, in fact, do I have a picture? yeah, next page, an altar to an unknown God that's an altar to an unknown God not from Athens itself because we haven't found one there yet but there located throughout the Roman Empire, and he notices that there was one there in Athens. Plenty of idols. In spite of plenty of idols, they still had an altar to the unknown God, as if we've covered the bases pretty well, but just in case. Paul introduced the God of Scripture as the God whom they did not know. Agnostos. Kind of similar sounding and similar root to our word agnostic. This is the God that you don't know anything about. You don't know him. You recognize that there's a God you don't know. This is the one I want to introduce you to.

That was his point of contact with the people and the culture. Now, so then he presented to the Areopagus point by point. Here's Acts 17 24 through 31 that I've quoted there on page 3. that made everything. Where do we find that in scripture? Genesis 1. Starts right off.

And notice he even refers to heaven and earth. And by the way, that would have been a Jewish phrase. They would have understood it. But the Jews particularly would have understood it. We went through this in Bible backgrounds. The heaven and earth combination says everything. Everything. And they do that by including both halves. The heavens and the earth.

Okay? Does not dwell in temples made with hands. Now, what's he saying right there? Does not. What does that tell you? What's that? Yeah, you have a city full of idols, but the one who made all this, and the one you don't know, he doesn't just live in temples. You build a gazillion temples and they're empty.

So, in part, I mean, he's told him something straight out of scripture. This is a God who made everything. How can you make something that he lives in? And then, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything. As though the gods were somehow dependent upon something that we did. since he himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.

Goes back to the Genesis account, doesn't he? And he made from one man, here's the Genesis account again, one man every nation of mankind to live in all the face of the earth. He basically does a sweeping statement of the book of Genesis here, doesn't he? He made from one man, there's Adam, starts, you know, look at that, you know, back in the second chapter of Genesis. all the people upon the earth. And he goes through the table of nations early in Genesis there and talks about how they get distributed to the different parts of the earth. So he's giving a sweeping summary of the book of Genesis.

Now here's interesting. Having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation. Now let's think about this for a minute. Having determined their... He's got times and boundaries. What's he talking about with that? Yeah, the nations. What is he making reference to that for?

Determine times and boundaries. You go and you find a sign across the street, okay? Vern, this is as far as you can go. You can't go past this sign. God, you know, signs it. Is that the way it works? What does he mean by set times and boundaries? In what ways are human beings limited by time? I mean, there's a number of ways, but what are some you can think of? What are our time limitations as humans?

Yeah, we don't call the shots. Have you ever heard somebody say, don't get old? I've yet to hear anybody say how you do that. One of the things that happens is we've got a limited time frame. It's like Dave says, we don't call the shots with that. That just grinds on. The clock goes tick tick tick and nobody's figured out how to make it stop doing the ticks and the tocks. It keeps doing it. Whether you count it, however you count it, it keeps moving. And we have a limited time, don't we? Our time is set with a particular limit. Any other way that we're ruled by time? Does time have any other limitations upon us?

He uses a word here for nations, this is ethnos. Ethnic. And one of the things, he's just given a summary of the book of Genesis, right? Here he's giving a summary of the book of Daniel. Daniel is the book that clocks out. Here is the time frame for each of the empires. At this time, this is when it stops. And here's where Christ comes in. And then Christ will come again, but that has a time frame once the clock gets reset. There are time frames that are set. Now here's the other thing.

How about the boundaries issue? It's interesting, you can say the boundaries of nations have shifted all over time. What ways do we have boundaries? We have boundaries of language. There's a limitation that even though you may geographically move into another area, you have boundaries of communication. You have things that frustrate your ability to communicate precisely. In what other ways do we have boundaries?

Yeah, we have oceans that set, here's a limit, you've got the coastline here and can you cross it? Yeah, you all of a sudden run into some other issues there, don't you? Even within the land, what do we have that divides things? We've got mountains and rivers and those become issues.

We've got various ways that we've kind of tried to hop past a lot of those but one of the things you notice that even with that you know your planes have schedules and you know it's going from here to here and something happened and now we just canceled that flight and there's always some kind of a constraint isn't there we're not totally free to just locate here and there and what's the reason for that does God just say boy I love playing these time and space games with people it's just lots of fun is that what the Lord's doing? What's his purpose in doing this? You're not in control, so what does it cause people to do? To turn to him because he's the one that is. It's a recognition because we don't call the shots with respect to time.

Boy, we can dig our heels in and I can dig my heels in until it pulls the carpet up off the floor. I'm still not going to stop time. I am still going to be limited. Also, I can't be in more than two places at once. I just can't pull that off. And so the reality is these limitations are there, they are real, and the Lord has put those limitations on us of whatever degree so that we might recognize that we are limited beings and that we don't call the shots, we don't control everything, and for us to turn to Him. That's what he's spelling out here for the philosophers at Athens. Okay.

And then, for in him, that we might grope and find him is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and exist, even some of your own poets have said, for we also are his children. Isn't that interesting? So he appeals not only to these points in the book of Genesis, Daniel, He now looks also even to make another point of cultural contact with them. Even your own poets have recognized something. He doesn't quote it as authority per se, but other than to say you have recognized something that is already true. He does it not because the poet is authoritative, but because it's a point of cultural contact with which they'll be able to relate.

Being then the children of God, and he says this not in a spiritual sense, but in the sense of we've all been created by him, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, these things that you've made all over the city, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere, not just the Jews, should repent. Because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. He has fixed a day for judgment.

Daniel again. Daniel. And having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. He is drawing that from Old Testament passages. He will not allow a holy one to see corruption. but also just witnessing to history. These are things that have happened within a lifetime of people that were on the earth at that point in time. So it's something that he's saying, I'm declaring to you, this, what the Old Testament said would take place, there are men on this planet now who have seen Him risen, who have seen the empty grave and seen His body and seen the Prince in His hands. That's what I'm declaring to you. Okay, now there's far more than we have time to tackle here, and so we will address this again. I mean, this is just chock full of all kinds of great stuff.

But anyway, we've got a picture there also of the Areopagus, which was, the Acropolis was the high place, and if you saw the athletic games, the Olympics, they kind of kept showing as a central point the Acropolis. This picture that you see here is taken from the Acropolis, so it's looking down, and that's this little rock outcropping is the place where they were gathering. In earlier times in Greece, it was actually a ruling body that met there, but with the Romans stepping in, it kind of came down to more of a, this is a meeting place to talk philosophy. So it's unclear exactly how much authority might have been left, but it was at the very least a place we know where they would come together and kind of bring forth ideas and debate things and present new ideas and thoughts.

Okay. We do have some questions to review there. Let me go over to make sure they're clear. Yes, Dave. Mars Hill? Or is that rock there, is that on Mars Hill? Yeah, that's the clarifying thing because you've got the whole hill and this is only a part of it.

Essentially, because this is taken up on the Areopagus, excuse me, on the Acropolis, the top part. The Acropolis was a term used for the high point above any city and typically there were lots of temples and things put on those high points. So this is looking down from that high point. The Acropolis is a term we frequently think of as relating to that high point there at Athens. But the truth is, any place that had some sort of nearby hill or mountain, they'd call that the Acropolis. Okay, number one. What are the main points that Paul makes to his listeners at the Areopagus?

In other words, how would you summarize each of the bullets above? So what I've done is I've taken the passage and put it in bullets. What I'd like you to do is kind of paraphrase that. summarize, bring it together. Each of those bullets, how would you summarize those?

Second one, Paul starts with a key point of contact with the culture, moves to truths stated in terms that his hearers can understand, and then presents the gospel to them. What errors of understanding and practice did Paul correct in the process? So you have to read through it and say, what would they have understood differently? We mentioned, for example, that Paul said he doesn't live in these places made with hands.

So that would be one of them. It's not the only one. So you have to kind of think through, as they're listening to Paul, Paul is telling them truths, he is making points of contact with their culture, but he's also correcting things. Can you list what those things are?

And then in the third point, how does Paul's choice of the point of cultural contact with the philosophers, that is the altar to the unknown God, impact how he presents the gospel? Why was it different from what he presented to the jailer at Philippi? You've got some cultural differences, and the point of contact difference is different with the jailer.

So you want to think through that. He's got this point of contact. He presents the gospel in a certain way. You notice also that how he presents the gospel here is different from some of the ways that he's done it previously. So he doesn't just say, here's my canned speech. He comes instead and says, I need to adopt it in a manner that they will relate to and understand.

And that's one thing that I am continually impressed with as I look through the authors of the New Testament. They wrote with particular focus for each of the places that they went to. As we went through our study of Revelation and in Bible backgrounds, we talked, for instance, about each of the seven cities where Paul wrote to the church. Excuse me, Paul wrote to the church in some of them. John was writing.

And as John wrote, each one had an incredibly sharp focus on the history and cultural background of each one of those cities. It wasn't a broad brush where, you know, this is sort of Greek. It was specific to each one of the cities. It matched it completely.

Paul does the same thing with the gospel the way he presents it here, too. He doesn't just take a, you know, here's my gospel spiel and just start spitting it out like a tape recorder. He doesn't come like those people who come at you two by two at the front door with something, you know, to hand off to you and just give you, here's my spiel. Instead, he focuses it, he customizes it, right for their ears, right for their mind, to touch their heart.

So, anyway, give some thought to that, okay? Alright, any other questions? Thoughts? Okay. Just make sure, we've got next week's here, make sure you grab that. Kind of get ahead of time, get an ahead look if you like. And let's pray. Lord, thank you.

As we look at this passage, we've seen how you have spoken through Paul and the others that were with him. We see how you have carried out your will in the midst of difficult and changing circumstances. The three cities we looked at today, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, each of them had a different character and the gospel was presented differently, and yet you worked in each one. I also note, too, a difference in struggle and difficulty in each place, and yet you worked through that as well.

I thank you that we can depend upon your faithfulness. And Lord, we also just remember to pray at this point in time for our nation's leaders, for our troops that are stationed in Iraq and around the world, We just ask, Lord, for opportunity for the gospel in all of it. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.