In Athens, the apostle Paul was invited to speak about the Gospel to the city’s leading philosophers on Mars Hill, aka the Areopagus. What did Paul say to those respected intellectuals? Do faith and reason ever intersect? How was Paul’s message received? What can we learn from Acts 17 about sharing the Gospel in our own day and time? Join Pastor Jim as he highlights some of the timeless truths of Acts 17.
Sermon Notes
1. Remind yourself of your biblical convictions
2. Renew your confidence in a sovereign God
3. Respond to all with kindness & compassion
4. Rejoice in the redeeming love of Jesus Christ
Paul’s approach to sharing the Gospel in a culture not so friendly to faith
- Build bridges to common ground
- Take time to listen
- Be persuasive without being abrasive
- Clarify how to think about God
- Show how God has created us all with a capacity & desire to know Him
- Quote shared sources
- Talk about the reality of who God is and is not
- Show how God has been patient but now calls us to repent
- Be honest about how God will judge the world one day because God loves justice and hates evil
- Highlight that God’s judgement will be righteous and will come through a Man whom God has appointed, Jesus, the One God raised from the dead.
“Modern muddle-headedness and confusion as to the meaning of faith in God are almost beyond description. People say they believe in God, but they have no idea who it is that they believe in, or what difference believing in him may make.”
J. I. Packer
Knowing God
“I do not understand the mystery of grace — only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.”
Anne Lamott
“It is a great comfort to know that our judge will be none other than our savior.”
John Stott