Athens: Finding God

We continued our series “Light for the City” this weekend at Eastbrook Church by exploring one of the most unique passages in all of Acts, Paul’s visit to the city of Athens. This episode is found in Acts 17:16-34.

I began the message with the premise that all human beings and, thus, all human cultures have an imprint of their Creator God upon their souls. This leads to our endless searching which, although it takes many paths, is ultimately a searching to reconnect with God.

I began by spending some time on the outward and expanding trajectory of the gospel from Jerusalem to the nations as seen throughout the book of Acts, but summed up in Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Drawing on this outward and expanding trajectory, I drew us into a look at the Apostle Paul’s approach of bringing light into the city of Athens:

1. Connect: Paul connected with the culture to understand what was really going on; he identified ‘the dots’ of the Athenians’ searching for God; as he said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship” (Acts 17:22)
2. Correct: Paul astutely and tactfully brought God’s truth to bear upon the misunderstandings of who God is from their worldview; as Paul said: “So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23).
3. Direct: Paul’s driving passion for Christ impelled him to direct people into a transforming relationship with the living God in Christ; he said: “In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30)

You can listen to my message and access the bulletin outline for it at the Eastbrook web-site here. You could subscribe to the Eastbrook podcast here.