Seeing Spiritual Blindness: Paul's Call to Action

So John Stott said, We do not speak like Paul because we do not feel like Paul, and this is because we do not see like Paul. So that's the goal of this message this morning, to see what Paul saw when he was in Athens, to feel what Paul felt, and to speak how Paul spoke. [00:36:47]

Paul saw thousands of people on their way to hell because they did not know and worship the one true God. What Paul saw was a city given over to idols. And it's not just he saw the emptiness for the people. He saw that they were giving glory to things that was reserved for God. It made him angry. It grieved him. They were believing a lie and robbing God of the glory he rightfully deserved. So he was upset on behalf of the people, but he was upset on God's behalf. [00:40:56]

That's where ministry begins, with a burden for the glory of God and for the souls of men and women. This is where it all starts. You won't act if you don't feel, and you won't feel if you don't see clearly. [00:43:25]

To love is to be vulnerable. I say, good. Don't let yourself out there. Ministry is messy. The world is broken, and if Christians don't venture out into the mess, who's going to? If you're not willing to say, I'll go despite the fact that it breaks my heart, nobody else is going to go. [00:45:00]

Therefore, and that means based on what was previously said, because he was saddened or angry, because he saw that it was a mess, therefore he went into the synagogue first. He went into the Jewish center where there were Gentile worshipers too, and he opened the Old Testament. And he said, you know when it was talking about this here, it was actually talking about Jesus Christ. [00:46:10]

He showed them how Jesus can change their lives. And I don't think you or I really understand the agora or the marketplace. It wasn't price cutter. It was where people... People were at, where ideas were exchanged. It was the hub of culture. Tony Merida said, it contained everything, town officials deliberating, artists creating, business people dealing, the media reporting, the philosophers philosophizing. Everything happened in the marketplace. It was a public space for everything. So, you want a principle about sharing the gospel, go to where people are at. [00:46:52]

And Paul says, hey, you got this altar to the unknown God. You worship him in ignorance, but let me tell you who the real God is. So he finds this point of contact. This is how you share the gospel. You find something that you can have in common that you can bridge into a gospel sharing. And then he's going to give him a point of conflict. You worship, the wrong God. This is who you ought to be worshiping, and this is why. [00:50:44]

God, who made the world and everything in it, says he is the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. He begins with creation. You see that the gospel message doesn't begin with sin. It begins with creation. God created you, and he created you to flourish, and your sin messed that up. The gospel doesn't begin in the Garden of Gethsemane. It begins in the Garden of Eden. [00:51:48]

He's saying, I put him where I put him, verse 27, so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him, though he's not far from each one of us. There are people seeking the Lord in idols, but they're seeking like somebody groping in darkness. But I love that last phrase, God is not far from each one of us. [00:53:02]

You see, Paul's not preaching philosophy. He's preaching Christianity. He's preaching truth, and the truth demands a response. Repent. And the Areopagus, when he says something about the resurrection, they just mock him because the truth is they were too smart for the resurrection. You know, there's people under the sound of my voice that think they're too smart for Christianity, too enlightened. They want to stay in the clouds, and Paul asks them to act. [00:57:03]

A good lesson here is just because we do it right doesn't mean we're guaranteed good results. Your job is not to make seeds grow. Your job is to cast seeds, to preach, to proclaim. Fear God more than you fear men. I don't want to be mocked, but if it's true, and if I'm worried about pleasing God, then whatever it takes. [00:57:38]

These functional saviors can be any object of dependence we embrace that isn't God. They become the source of our identity, security, and significance because we hold an idolatrous affection for them in our hearts. They preoccupy our minds. What do you guys think about? Consume our time. Where do you spend your time? And our resources. They make us feel good and somehow even make us feel righteous. [00:59:22]