Keeping the First thing First - Life of Paul Part 48

If you'll take a Bible and open it to Acts chapter 17, we're going to be continuing in our study of the great man, the Apostle Paul. Now, you know, sometimes in life God hands us incredible opportunities, like the opportunity He handed General Pierre Beauregard of the Confederacy on July the 21st, 1861. General Beauregard was right close by here in Bullrun in Manassas, and his army fought the Union Army. By the end of the day, the Union Army fled the field in complete disarray. They really ceased to exist as a fighting force anymore, and the opportunity to march into Washington virtually unopposed was laid right at his feet. In fact, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton said, and I quote, the capture of Washington seems now to be inevitable.

The route, overthrow, and utter demoralization of our army is complete. I doubt whether any serious opposition to the entrance of the Confederate forces could be offered, end of quote. As a matter of fact, Stonewall Jackson, who was one of the brigade commanders under General Beauregard, said, quote, give me 10,000 men and I will take Washington tomorrow, end of quote. Well, we all know General Beauregard didn't take advantage of this opportunity. For three weeks he never moved his troops from Bullrun, and by the time he eventually did move them, the Union Army had pulled itself back together.

The chance for the South to take Washington was gone forever. And the reason I bring all of this up is because we're going to watch God hand the Apostle Paul an incredible opportunity here in the city of Athens. We're going to watch the Apostle Paul fail to take full advantage of that opportunity, and we're going to talk about why that happened to Paul, and we're going to bring that forward then and talk about, well, what difference does that make in our lives today here in the 21st century?

So that's what we're going to do. Let's begin a little bit of background here. Remember the Apostle Paul is on his second missionary journey. He's crossed over from northwestern Turkey, modern day Turkey, across to the northern Greek town of Philippi. He spent several months here in Philippi and established a church.

Then he left a couple members of his team, Dr. Luke and Timothy here. Paul moved 100 miles to the southwest to the town of Thessalonica. Here in Thessalonica Paul spent six months, established a church here, and then was run out of town by a mob.

He went 45 miles farther to the southwest to the town of Berea, where he spent several months, established a church, and was run out of town by the same mob that ran him out of town in Thessalonica. And so Paul headed south and came to the ancient city of Athens, as we saw, where he was so overwhelmed by all the idolatry here in the city that he went out into the streets and just started preaching. The Bible says, verse 17, so the apostle Paul reasoned in the marketplace, the agora, every day with those who happened to be there. This was the ancient agora in Athens.

This was like Times Square of Athens, people moving through this place all day and night. And here the apostle Paul would set up and he'd preach to anybody who would listen. Now that's where we left off last time, so let's begin verse 18. And a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with Paul and some of them asked, what is this babbler trying to say? While others remarked, he seems to be advocating foreign gods. The Bible tells us that one day there was a bunch of Greek philosophers who were moving through the agora. They heard Paul preaching and faster than you can say Socrates, they were in a big old argument with him about what he was preaching.

Now before we go on, let's stop for a moment and see what do we know about these two groups of philosophers? How about the Epicureans? Well, they were a school of philosophy who were named after their founder, the Athenian philosopher, Epicurus. Epicurus Epicurean.

The Epicureans believed that pleasure was the chief goal of human existence. Their motto was, let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. These were the toga party people if you will, of the ancient world. Now, with them were the Stoics.

The Stoics were a school of philosophy founded by an Athenian philosopher named Zeno. To them the highest values of human life was not pleasure, but was duty and self-discipline. They believed the world was controlled by fate and that our job, no matter what fate sent our way, was to accept it.

No whining, no emotion, stiff upper lip all the time. These were the marines of the ancient world. And so you got these two groups together, you say, well, Lon, it doesn't sound like to me these guys have a whole lot in common. No, they didn't. They didn't have anything in common. In fact, about the only thing in the whole world they could agree on is that they both thought that Paul was nuts. That they agreed on. And so verse 19, they took Paul and they brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus where they said to him, may we know what this new teaching is that you're presenting.

You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears and we want to know what they mean. Now the Areopagus, literally the word means the hill of Ares. Ares was the Greek god of war and Ares counterpart in the Roman pantheon was the god Mars. And so therefore, this is the hill of Mars or as the King James version translates it, Mars hill. It's a literal hill. Show you a picture of it in Athens just below the Parthenon.

Here it is in the distance and we'll show you a picture up close. If you're standing on the Parthenon looking down, this is Mars hill. Now on the top of Mars hill, there was a court that used to meet and therefore the court was called the court of Areopagus because it met on the hill called Areopagus. And so this was the court where they dragged Paul and this court was composed of the greatest minds in Athens, the greatest intellects in Athens, the leaders of the philosophical school in Athens and their job, their duty was to oversee the affairs of the city. One of their responsibilities was to oversee any new philosophy that came to town and decide whether it could be preached in their town. And so that's why these philosophers dragged Paul off to the Areopagus to this court of intellectual and philosophical leaders because they wanted him to give an account of what it was he was preaching so they could decide whether it was okay to preach it in their city.

You understand? Now let's stop for a moment and say the apostle Paul here has just been handed by God an unbelievable opportunity. Here you have the greatest intellectual minds in all the Roman world and they invite Paul to come in and preach Jesus to them.

That's what happens here. So this is like being invited to address the faculty of Harvard and talk to them about Jesus. This is like being invited to address the faculty of Oxford and speak to them about Jesus and here he is. Paul has this opportunity by invitation.

Well, let's look at his sermon beginning in verse 22. Paul then stood up at the meeting of the Areopagus and said, men 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, remember we said two weeks ago that a Roman philosopher said there were more idols in Athens than people.

Remember that? Okay. Paul said, as I walked around and looked 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. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and he does not live in temples made by hands and he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man, this God made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth and God determined the time set for them in the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being as some of your own poets have said, and here Paul quotes several Greek poets, we are his offspring. Therefore, Paul says, 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 man's design and skill. That's not how we are.

Why should we think that's how he is? In the past, God overlooks such ignorance and idolatry, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For God has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed and he has given proof of this to all men by raising this man from the dead. And when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, we'd like to hear about this again from you. And at that, Paul left the council and a few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, and also a woman named Damaris and some others. And after this, chapter 18, verse one, Paul left Athens and he went to the city of Corinth.

Now I want you to notice a couple of things about what we just read. First of all, notice verse 34 says, a few people became followers of Paul and believed as a result of the message he preached here. Now friends, this stands in gross contrast to everywhere else Paul has ever preached. Everywhere else Paul has ever preached, huge crowds of people have come to Christ. Hundreds and thousands of people have come to Christ. Here the Bible says on Mars Hill in front of this Areopagus court, the result of Paul's sermon was very small. It yielded very little fruit. Virtually nobody came to Christ. Friends, in my opinion, something went wrong here. Also, would you notice the Bible says that right after this chapter 18, verse one, Paul left the city of Athens and moved on to the city of Corinth.

And you know what's interesting? In all the writings of the early church, there's never any reference to the Church of Athens. Paul didn't leave a church behind in Athens. It's the only city he ever ministered in where he didn't leave a church behind when he left. He left a church in Philippi, he left a church in Thessalonica, he left a church in Berea, he left a church in all the cities he's been on his first journey, Pisidian, Antioch, Lystra, Derby, no church in Athens.

Hey, in my opinion, something went dreadfully wrong in this city. And you say, well, Lon, what do you think went wrong? Well, I think Paul's going to tell us himself out of his own mouth.

Listen to what he said. First Corinthians chapter two, writing the Corinthian church, he says, verse one, for when I came to you, brothers, and remember, where did he come from? Well, chapter 18, one says he came from Athens, he showed up in Corinth fresh from his experience on Mars Hill. When I came to you look at the rest of the verse, I did not come to you with eloquence of speech, or high sounding wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the message of God verse two, for I resolved to know nothing while I was among you guys in Corinth, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified, verse four, my message and my preaching in Corinth, were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on the power of God. Now, folks, the Apostle Paul is not saying these things for no reason. And unless I've completely missed the point in First Corinthians two, and I don't believe I have, what Paul is doing here is he's talking about, he's reacting to a serious mistake that he feels he made in Athens.

Look what he says. He says, when I came to you guys in Corinth directly from Athens, number one, I did not come to you with eloquence of speech, or high sounding wisdom, like I tried to use in front of all those intellectuals up there on Mars Hill. He says, secondly, I did not center my preaching in Corinth around persuasive words of human wisdom, like I tried to do in front of all of those philosophers up there on top of Mars Hill. Instead, he says, number three, I resolved to know nothing while I was among you Corinthians, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, which is not in Athens what I based my sermon on up there on Mars Hill.

You know, when you take the sermon of Paul preached on Mars Hill, and you compare it to every other sermon Paul ever preached, you'll find the sermon on Mars Hill is radically different. In this sermon, notice the Apostle Paul up on Mars Hill never mentioned the virgin birth of Jesus never mentioned the sinless life of Jesus never mentioned the deity of Jesus. As a matter of fact, he never mentioned Jesus at all. Up on Mars Hill, he never mentioned the sin of man. He never mentioned the penalty of man sin being held. He never mentioned Jesus's death on the cross as the solution to this penalty. He never talked about the blood of Jesus Christ paying for our sin. And he only mentioned the resurrection at the very end.

And I believe I know what happened up on Mars Hill. I believe the Apostle Paul left these elements out, because he was trying to make the message of Jesus relevant to all of these intellectuals up there on that hill. He was trying to approach them in a way that would make sense to them philosophically and connect with them philosophically. But you know what, Paul learned the hard way of very important lesson on Mars Hill. He learned that in trying to be relevant, and in trying to make the message of Jesus more appealing to people intellectually, there is a limit beyond which we cannot go without robbing the gospel message of all of its power. And I believe Paul went beyond that limit.

And that explains why there was the lack of results that he saw in Athens in contrast to every other city he ever preached in. Now let's stop there for a moment, because we have a question to ask. And it's our most important question. Y'all are still awake, aren't you? Everybody with me?

Okay, so ready? Here we go. Here's our question. Here we go. Nice deep breath.

One, two, three. So what? Right. You say, Lon, so what? See, I'm a little confused. What are you really trying to say here? Can you kind of be a little more blunt about what you're trying to say?

Oh, I'd love to. Bluntly, let me tell you what I'm trying to say. What I'm trying to say is that the Apostle Paul squandered an incredible opportunity on the top of Mars Hill. What I'm trying to say is that the Apostle Paul, instead of standing in front of the most prestigious minds in the Roman Empire, instead of hitting the ball out of the park, he hit a foul tip. What I'm trying to say is that the reason Paul did that, bluntly, is that he was trying so hard to repackage the message of Jesus Christ so that it made sense to these philosophers, so that it connected with them intellectually. He went so far in trying to do that, that he ended up robbing the message of all of its power. And you say, well, Lon, I gotta tell you, I'm a little uncomfortable with this. I mean, to stand up there and say the Apostle Paul made a big mistake like that and squandered a big opportunity like that just makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

Well, why? Friends, the Apostle Paul was a great servant of God, but he wasn't deity. He wasn't God in the flesh. He was capable of making a mistake. And the impressive thing is not that Paul made a mistake. The impressive thing is that he learned from his mistake, because the next city he goes to, what does he say?

He says to them, Hey, you guys, I am never ever going to make the same mistake again that I made in Athens. From now on, all I'm going to know is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. All I'm going to preach is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And frankly, I don't care whether I'm in front of the inmates at San Quentin or whether I'm in front of the faculty at Harvard, it doesn't make any difference. From now on, it's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. In the 21st century as followers of Christ, I think we need to hear loud and clear what Paul is saying. You know, folks, there is nothing wrong with us trying to reformat the message of Jesus Christ in a way that makes better sense to our secular world, in a way that makes more sense to the culture that we're in. As a matter of fact, this idea of making Jesus and the message of Jesus more relevant to the culture we're in, this idea of contextualizing the gospel message lies at the very heart of the modern missionary movement.

Ever since 1850, when British missionary Hudson Taylor to China started wearing Chinese clothes, learning Chinese customs, and speaking the Chinese language as a way of making the message of Jesus make more sense to Chinese people, we have embraced this as being an integral part of modern missions. And friends, this is an integral part of what we're doing here at McLean Bible Church. Our goal is to reach secular Washington and one of our core values number four says that we have to do ministry and evangelism in a relevant way. We've learned that here in Washington, secularized people here in town, most of them, they don't believe God's bad. They don't believe Jesus is bad. They don't believe the Bible is bad.

They don't believe churches bad. They just believe it's all irrelevant to their everyday life. And our job if we're going to reach people effectively here is we have to show people how Jesus and the Bible are actually the most relevant commodities in the universe to their life. We've got to show them that we live in the same 21st century they do. We know current events, we're in touch with our world, we struggle with the same problems they struggle with. We drive on the same beltway they drive on and Jesus works in the 21st century.

That's our challenge in this city. And yet having said all of that, I want to quickly come back and say we must never forget the lesson that the Apostle Paul learned in Athens in presenting the message of Jesus Christ to secular Washingtonians or to anybody anywhere. Friends, we can be sensitive, we can be relevant, we can be gentle, we can be respectful, we can try hard not to be offensive, but we cannot take the heart out of the message or we don't have a message that's worth giving anybody anymore.

There's no power left in it. And what is the heart of the message that we cannot tamper with? Number one, the utter deity of Jesus Christ. Number two, the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Number three, the blood of Jesus Christ shed as the one and only payment for sin God will accept. Number four, that the plan of salvation that Jesus offers us is the one and only way to get eternal life and get to heaven. And number five, that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is real.

It really happened and it is the supreme proof that we are not following a hoax. Now that is the heart of the message. And yet you and I know that everybody here in Washington who's not a follower of Christ looks at those five things and says every one of those five things is utter nonsense, utter foolishness. And the fact that you and I believe these five things is just proof that we are uneducated poor minded simpletons.

Now you know that. And let's be honest now, when we go out to talk about our faith, we know what people out there think there is the tendency on every one of our parts to over apologize for what we believe. There is a tendency on every one of our parts to over accommodate what we believe so that we won't offend these people sensibilities. And we don't want people out there thinking we're stupid. We're unintelligent.

We're idiots. And all of this means if we're not careful, it really is easy to begin waffling on these five things that you see on the screen in front of you. Folks, we dare never forget what Paul said in Galatians 511. In Galatians 511, he talks about the offense of the cross. And what this means is that we can try as hard as we want to be gentle, kind, respectful, relevant and non offensive in our behavior. But there is an offense to the message of the cross that we cannot remove. You see the idea that we are sinners in the sight of God, the idea that we are powerless to fix that ourselves, the idea that only be fixed because of what Jesus did for us shedding his blood on the cross. Those ideas are offensive to the ego and the pride of a secular mind.

And there is no way to change that no matter how hard we try to be nice. And yet, if we pull those items out, so that it's not offensive to a secular mind, friends, we have robbed the gospel message of all of its power and it's not worth the paper it's printed on. That's what Paul learned. Here in secular Washington as we seek to make an impact on the city that we're in, should we do that sensitively, gently, respectfully, as non offensively as possible?

Yes. But above all else, friends, the most important thing is that we be true to the message. The most important thing is that we not rob the message of the very heart that allows it to bring eternal life to people and change their earthly existence. You know, we've been on the radio doing not a sermon just a thought now for about six years. We do it on secular radio.

It's a little one minute spot. Some of you have heard it. You said, Why do you do it on secular radio? Well, friends, because our goal here is to reach secular Washington. And secular people don't listen to the God station.

You understand what I'm saying? So we're on HFS and DC 101 and MZQ and, and the old East station. We're on WTOP and Howard Stern and Smooth Jess, here we are with these little one minute deals. And we made the decision six years ago when we decided to do this, that we were just going to tell people the truth. We were just going to put it out there the way the Bible says it. We were going to try to be relevant and contemporary and creative, but we were just going to tell them the truth. And then we just let people think whatever they wanted to think. They said, Well, like, what does one of these things sound like?

I am so glad you asked because I'm a run one for you right now. Here's one we recently ran all about MC Hammer. And this is what we go on the radio and tell people listen, rap artist MC Hammer said, I believe in Jesus Christ. And I believe that the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ.

Just being good won't do it for any of us. Good Hammer can't make it. Hammers got to be committed to Christ. Hi, this is Lon Solomon, pastor of McLean Bible Church, and Hammers just standing on what Jesus himself said, I am the way the truth and the life Jesus said, nobody gets into heaven unless they get there by way of me. Now the founder of every other religious system disagrees with him. So who's right? Jesus or these other so called saviors? Well, who rose from the grave?

And who's still in it? Follow a dead Savior, and you'll end up just like not a sermon, just a thought. Okay, so that's one that we ran. And I got to call from a lady who runs one of these radio stations, the general manager. And she said, What are you doing? She said, Why would you run something like this on the radio? She said, Why aren't you guys more like the Mormons? Why don't you just go on the radio and say nice, warm, fuzzy things that make everybody feel warm on the inside and all good? Why have you got to go on the radio and say follow a dead Savior and you'll end up just like him? What is wrong with you people?

Well, I said to her, I'll tell you the answer. I said, I'll tell you the reason why we don't spend $400,000 a year to go on the radio and make people feel all warm and fuzzy. We spend $400,000 a year to go on the radio and tell people the truth from the Word of God.

And that's why we do it. Well, let me say if you're here today, and you've never trusted Jesus in a real impersonal way, you need to listen to what I said, follow a dead Savior, you're going to end up just like him. The good news of the Bible is we don't have a dead Savior. We have a living Savior, risen Savior, follow him, you'll end up just like him alive for all eternity.

Friends, it's time to join the winning team here. You know what I'm saying? But you say, Lon, doesn't it bother you that people in this town think you're crazy? Doesn't it bother you that people think you're prehistoric and unsophisticated and unintelligent and bigoted and an idiot? Well, no, I probably am. Some of those things, maybe I don't know. But the point is, no, that doesn't bother me.

You know why? Because 32 years ago, when I gave my life to Christ, my highest goal in life suddenly was no longer to worry about what people thought of me. My goal was, wait a minute, my goal was to tell people the truth about Jesus Christ so he could change their lives the way he changed my life. And we get letters all the time every week from people who say, you know what, I'm walking with Jesus today. And I'm a Christian today. And I'm on my way to heaven today because I heard not a sermon, just a thought on the radio and that got the process going and I've given my life to Christ. You know what, friends, you and I, if we're on our way to heaven today, if you've got eternal life today, if Jesus Christ has transformed your life today, I guarantee you, you didn't get to where you are today by somebody giving you some watered down, waffled out presentation of who Jesus is. You got to where you are today by somebody telling you the truth. And the offense of the cross was in it and you dealt with it and that's why you're walking with God today. Why would we want to give out a message to somebody else that people didn't give us? Why would we want to give out a message to somebody else that wouldn't have worked for us?

That's crazy. So I don't care what people think. And you know, you shouldn't either. This Christmas season, you're going to have the chance to talk to relatives, friends, neighbors, co-workers about Jesus Christ and your faith next year.

You're going to have that chance. Friends, yes, be polite, be warm, be friendly, be gentle, be respectful, but don't you dare, don't you dare pull the offense of the cross out of that message or otherwise you might as well not even waste your breath. We got to keep first things first, friends.

And first things first means the heart of the gospel message has got to stay in it. And then we let people deal with it the way God gave it out. May God help us do that.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thanks for talking to us today about, well, just real down to earth stuff. You know, Lord, every single one of us here faces that dilemma of getting ready to talk about our faith. And we know what people think.

We know how people look at all of this. And there's that tendency in every one of us to want to accommodate and waffle and back off and over explain and over apologize. God, give us a boldness that comes from keeping first things first. Give us a boldness that comes from preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified, period.

Help us do it nicely, politely, kindly, as non offensively as we know how. But God help us stay true to the message. And thank you. That message changed our lives. Lord, we want to be a part of seeing that message change hundreds and thousands of other people's lives right here in this city. So use us as we stay true as we keep the first things first. And thanks for talking to us today, Lord. Thanks for encouraging our boldness today. We pray this in Jesus name. And God's people said, Amen. Amen.