Acts 17 – the Second Half

Read Acts 17:16-34

Sorry for the delay in posting this.

As we revisit Paul on his Journey, we have Paul entering Athens. He is greatly distressed by the abundance of idols (and where there are idols, there are idol worshipers…). We discussed in our class the nature of Greece at this time. Greece is a country far from its past glory. Once, they were a feared nation. Over time, Greece became a city of great thinking and learning. As it grew in prosperity, citizens grew much more likely to be philosophers than warriors. Out of Greece come Socrates, Plato and Aristotle to name a few. But by the time Paul arrives, they are 500 years past their prime. Athens is still the “university town” of its day. You kind of get the feeling that as the empire gets softer, they lose their edge and become more of a group of “navel gazers.” Meaning their focus becomes inward only. This usually leads to a downfall. Paul immediately goes to work in the synagogues, and for a change, in the marketplace…why? It does not say but God obviously had a plan…

The town is dominated two schools of philosophy – Stoicism and Epicureanism. We did not have the links that you have to these philosophies but we discussed the general beliefs. In a nutshell, Stoicism was a philosophy of self control self reliance. The focus is on one’s self. The belief is very much in line with today’s self-help movements and neo-gnostic movement, only without the excesses of a prosperity movement. Reliance on yourself is the greatest good. Epicureanism was the root of the Hedonism movement. In the beginning, it was about pleasure being the greatest good. Everything was about seeking a balance with nature, with others and with the world (this may also be sounding a bit like some of the beliefs you hear discussed today). By the time Paul is in Athens, both of these movements have devolved into caricatures. Stoicism was rife with pride and judgment and Epicureanism had devolved into hedonism (seeking excess pleasure in all things, regardless of morality)

These groups grab this “babbler” (according to NIV Study Bible notes, they mean a seed picker or country bumkin with an inflated ego, not someone who can argue at their level) and bring him back to the Areopagus. This is their highest area of meeting, where the “powerful” meet to discuss philosophy. They bring in Paul, clearly expecting little but to pick his arguments apart. Paul spots on the way in a shrine to “an unknown god” and seizes onto this opportunity. I wonder when I read this: Did Paul just grab onto this because he sensed an opening in their logic or did God place this there just for Paul…or both? Athens had developed into a society where there were gods for everything. If something bad happened, there was a god responsible. If something good happened, some god did it. So the practice of sacrificing to these various gods became a habit. They continually added gods as they went, making new gods of wood and stone. We know from the Old Testament that this was not a new thing but the Greeks even went so far as to make this new shrine “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.” This way, if you made your offering there and there ways ANOTHER god you did not know about, you had it all covered. But in a system of many, many gods there was an issue. In reality, they stood for nothing. This looks a lot like the philosophy of today, which says “all ways lead to God.” When you take out the differences, there is little to stand on…and God becomes a creature of our making, not of Himself…

Paul grabs this unknown God and preaches to them the God who created all. The I AM! The “unknown” is actually the One and true God. He points to the futility of all these man-made shrines and gods…and points to the Creator who came, was, died and rose and is coming again!!! The reaction…the usual. Some sneered but some hear Truth in what he says…and are drawn to Him. They want to hear more of this and thus start the journey for themselves.

People are drawn to the Truth…we just have to speak it…

May God bless you on your journey…walk with Him…

D

Acts 17 - first half

So, welcome to the first official blog entry of our Bible Study. Today we discussed Acts 17. A couple things first:

Dr Dave had us read in his sermon Exodus 4:24-26: 24 At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met {Moses} [a] and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched {Moses'} feet with it. [b] "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. 26 So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.) We discussed this in more detail...Why would God be ready to kill Moses? In our discussion, we looked a quite a few things. One is that Moses was God's chosen man, a man whose name and exploits would live on for eternity...and yet, he was not following the covenantal agreements with all His people. No free cards for the leaders, instead God asks for more, not less of them. Integrity is who you are when no one is looking...and God is ALWAYS looking. The blood tie of circumcision draws parallels to the lamb of Passover, the Jewish law to come and it's sacrifices and finally to the blood of THE LAMB, Jesus. And Moses tried to follow God before having his house in order. Since Zipporah knew IMMEDIATELY what to do, the discussion had to have taken place before...this was a conscious choice...ouch... To lead his people, Moses had to be obedient to God...

Getting back to Acts, In Chapter 17, we have Paul and Silas heading to Thessolonica. They had just been imprisoned in Phillipi (praying and singing hymns - in the dungeon!) and on their release, the say their goodbyes to Lydia and the brothers and head out to Thessolonica, a large town of 200,000 people, the capitol of Macedonia. They go back to the synagogue...remember in Phillipi, there was no synagogue, so they "gathered at the river" but Paul returns to his normal pattern and heads to the 'gogue. Why does Paul keep going back to the synagogue? Is he that stubborn? No...well, maybe yes (I love Paul's drive!) but it is not Paul who decides this...it is God! He still has not given up on His people, on His covenant so Paul is always sent to the Jews first...

A large group is persuaded by Paul's sharing of the Gospel. Some Jews, a large number of Yahweh following Greeks and "prominent women" of Thessolonica. We discussed the prominent women for a while. What does that mean? Wives of leading men? Prominent in their own rights? I wondered on their own prominence based on the goddess worship in some of the areas...but in the end, we do not think that was a big factor. If you find differently, please comment!!!

So, we see the leaders of the synagogue go off into their usual jealous response. This message of Jesus was threatening to the status quo...scary stuff! And the status quo always fears change! They go so far as to hire out (or at least convince) the local ruffians to form a mob and riot... A couple things to note: 1. These guys could not even do their own fighting, they hired out!!! At least most groups did their own attacking of Paul! It could be that with the size of the city, hiring thugs was an easy thing to do! 2. Why a riot? Because a riot brings the Roman's into the picture. The thing the Romans hated above all else was a riot. They would send in their guard to put down any riot. No messing around... They grab Jason, Paul's local contact and host, and bring him to the local city leaders. Their call to the the leaders was eerily close to the crowd a Jesus' trial ("We have no king but Caesar" John 19:15)

Paul and Silas head off to Berea...running away? I think not...we see from all that Paul went through, he was not scared of a fight or persecution...instead, you see God's direction sending him onward...over and over again. With out this persecution, what would have happened? Paul would likely have been a great teacher in a small town...with luck in a large city, like his rabbi Gammaliel...but with God at the helm, Paul became the sower to the world (or at least the known world of this time!), just as Jesus asked...

In Berea, we have the perfect response to any spiritual teaching...they "searched the scriptures"! If only we would do the same! If you are reading this blog, I urge you to follow the Berean's path and search the Bible for proof of what I am posting. If it is not scriptural, no matter who the teacher, throw it out!!! The Berean's (just a note: the store's name comes from this...) searched Isaiah (I'm sure Paul used Isa 53 - what a proof-text of the Messiah), Jeremiah, Daniel and many others to see if what Paul said is indeed what God said...and again, many people open their hearts to Christ. In this modern age, we might actually ignore the prosperity gospel (turn to Christ and you will be rich, happy and all you ever wanted) since Christ himself said that we would see "trouble" (see John 16:33 amongst others...) not prosperity. Our treasures are, for the most part, stored in Heaven. He may bless us greatly on Earth...or not. It is up to His will and plan. No covenant for riches on this Earth. Anyway, I'll climb off my soapbox...

Lastly, we see the Thessolonica crowd show up and get Paul out of Berea...but seeds were planted in Berea! Interestingly, note that Paul is moving farther away from Jerusalem, each time he is chased...and closer and closer to Rome...where the leaders of this world are located. Away from any comfort level he may have had, and closer to the darkness on which light must shine....

That's it for this week...may God bless you! And may you be like the Bereans this week!

Big God

I spent the night tonight watching the video "How great is our God" by Louie Giglio. Louie is the creator of the Passion Conferences. God has really blessed him with great ability to understand some big concepts about Himself and with the ability to communicate it to others.

The message of this DVD is that God, the "Star breather", the one who created this amazingly huge universe, also created our inmost universe and understands our inmost needs. See the image at left for a picture of how God created the Heavens...an amazing black hole at the center of the perfectly turned spiral galaxy...just for us to find and see...

On the inmost front, you see the image at right...a perfect cross that is found in the structure of our cells. This is the structure of the human body, what holds us together. It is not just a diagram, there are pictures of the same structure, called Laminin. So...in the deepest of space to the smallness of our beings, God has marked things with a cross...because in His plan, He knew the cross would be needed. Well before crucifiction was invented, He knew it would be needed. And He was prepared for it. I have often wondered what it must have been like to created the particular tree that He knew would some day be used to crucify Himself...

When we see and understand this, it can change the way we see Him and maybe even how we pray...because we tend to try to direct, guide or just simply tell God how He needs to make things. As I told the group, it reminds me of J. Vernon McGee's quote: “This is God’s universe and He does things His way. You may have a better way, but you don’t have a universe.” God has a universe...I don't...

Well, I urge you to watch this video. We may even do it as a Youth thing. I found the videos still listed at the following blog: http://mp3pray.com/howgreatisourgod/

Remember, we worship a Big God...if he can do all this and plan for all this...how can we not trust him in our trials? Think about it...

Veritas

Veritas

John 18:37-38…Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.""What is truth?" Pilate asked….

Veritas is Latin for truth. This was the word that Pontius Pilate used when speaking to Christ. He asked a big question when he asked “what is truth?” So I ask you, dear reader, the same question...

Truth to the Greek philosopher Aristotle relied on the actual existence of the thing which a thought or a statement is about: “To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true.”(Aristotle – Metaphysics) Thomas Aquinas said in his famous work Summa Theologica that “Veritas est adaequatio rei et intellectus”—Truth is the equation of thing and intellect—which he restates as: “A judgment is said to be true when it conforms to the external reality.”So, is there absolute truth in the modern world? Our culture today says that there is no such thing. That it depends on our point of view, on our presupposed bias.

Dr. Norman Geisler, a modern day theologian, has this to say about truth: "We live in a relative culture and are proclaiming the absolute truth; we live in a pluralistic culture and are proclaiming an exclusive truth." He believes that there is such a thing as absolute truth. It is fact based and does not depend on our point of view. Truth is not changed by a person’s attitude toward it. “An arrogant person does not make the truth he professes false. A humble person does not make the error he professes true” (Geisler and Turek – I don’t have enough faith to be an Atheist) Mortimer Adler once said “Truth consists in the agreement between what we think and what is in the world, what is real…Objective truth is truth that is independent of individual differences, differences in circumstance, time and place. What is objectively true is always true and true for all men everywhere at all times.” He goes further to say, “For all the centuries when men thought otherwise it was true that the earth revolved around the sun even though it took until the 17th and 18th centuries for us to come to know that to be true and generally acknowledge it. The truth is always the same when we know it -- when we have it. The fact that men change their minds, that what scientists and other men think is true at a time when it is wrong, doesn't make it true.” (Adler – Six Great Ideas) So, again I ask you. “What is truth?”

I have studied the Bible for a number of years as well as the works of great theologians and philosophers. And beyond that, I have built a relationship with the author of that Bible. I know truth from spending this time, comparing my beliefs and understandings versus reality. I am only human, so I still have some misconceptions and false beliefs…but at the core, I know there is truth to be found. And I build on that understanding of truth everyday. You may believe that other holy books have equal value. Compare them to the laws of historicity. You will find that no book, not even Homer’s Odessey, have the depth of historical proofs. Look for archeological proofs…look for the age and continuity of manuscripts…look for truth…Truth, dear reader, is more than how I feel about something. Truth is or it is not. Shades of grey reflect shades of falseness. I cannot truly be “mostly dead.” My wife cannot be “slightly pregnant” (she is not, just in case you are wondering the truth of that statement…) I cannot put my hand in a flame and not be burnt. I can have degrees of burn damage but it does not change the fact that I am still burnt! Likewise, God cannot be somewhat real or real for me and not for you.

Regardless of what I believe, truth is or it is not. Jesus cannot be “a good teacher” or a “moral man” and still be who he said he was…”the Son of God.” So, if when you read this, you are wondering if you will ever find truth or if it even exists, I urge you to seek truth. Anything less than truth is a lie… It may look pretty, appeal to our sense of right and wrong or to our pride but it is still a lie. A lie is a lie…whether we want to put some kind of pretty words around it to look good, it still is a lie. If I wrap up a dirty diaper in the finest wrapping paper and ribbon and bows and give it to you, it does not change what it is…or make you appreciate the gift more. A truth that is hard to believe or that rocks our understanding of things is still truth…

I try to live my life, searching for truth and sharing it with others. Because I believe that it will lead you back to the person I started this message with: Jesus Christ. I may have shocked or offended you by that. Prove me wrong. But if Christ came to “testify to the truth”, I as a Christian (“of Christ”) must do the same.

My prayer for you as I post this note is that you will seek the Truth as the Way the Truth and the Life has been seeking you.