Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Thursday, 16 October 2014 "Paul's sermon in Athens"

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Thursday, 16 October 2014 "Paul's sermon in Athens"
Daily Scripture:  Acts 17: Athens
16 The longer Paul waited in Athens for Silas and Timothy, the angrier he got—all those idols! The city was a junkyard of idols.
17-18 He discussed it with the Jews and other like-minded people at their meeting place. And every day he went out on the streets and talked with anyone who happened along. He got to know some of the Epicurean and Stoic intellectuals pretty well through these conversations. Some of them dismissed him with sarcasm: “What an airhead!” But others, listening to him go on about Jesus and the resurrection, were intrigued: “That’s a new slant on the gods. Tell us more.”
19-21 These people got together and asked him to make a public presentation over at the Areopagus, where things were a little quieter. They said, “This is a new one on us. We’ve never heard anything quite like it. Where did you come up with this anyway? Explain it so we can understand.” Downtown Athens was a great place for gossip. There were always people hanging around, natives and tourists alike, waiting for the latest tidbit on most anything.
22-23 So Paul took his stand in the open space at the Areopagus and laid it out for them. “It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously. When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, to the god nobody knows. I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you’re dealing with.
24-29 “The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?
30-31 “God overlooks it as long as you don’t know any better—but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and he’s calling for a radical life-change. He has set a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right. And he has already appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32-34 At the phrase “raising him from the dead,” the listeners split: Some laughed at him and walked off making jokes; others said, “Let’s do this again. We want to hear more.” But that was it for the day, and Paul left. There were still others, it turned out, who were convinced then and there, and stuck with Paul—among them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris.
Reflection Questions:
Paul and his team moved on to the cities of Thessalonica and Berea. There the pattern of early success, then jealousy triggering hostility, caused the team to split up for a time. Some believers escorted Paul to Athens, the Greek capital (see map). As he waited for Timothy and Silas to rejoin him, he preached to the novelty-loving Athenian philosophers. Even there, he won some converts.
Some people would expect the apostle Paul (and all Christians after him) to denounce the Athenians as pagan libertines and idolaters, going straight to hell. Compare the respectful, inclusive tone of Paul's actual sermon with that stereotype. (In verse 28, he even quoted a Cretan philosopher named Epimenides and the Stoic poet Aratus.) What can you learn from Paul about how to share your convictions with others?
Luke, maybe with a wry smile, wrote that the Athenians and their foreign guests "used to spend their time doing nothing but talking about or listening to the newest thing." To them, Paul's message seemed very novel. Is it possible that, in an increasingly un-Christian world, the "novelty" of the good news might initially intrigue some people more than its antiquity?
Today's Prayer:
King Jesus, when Paul preached in Athens, he was able to quote Greek poets and Cretan philosophers. Help me to know the culture around me well enough to use it to communicate, without selling out my faith to that culture. Amen.
Insight from Mike Wilhoit
Mike Wilhoit serves at The Church of the Resurrection as Local Missions Director.
Have you ever been trapped on an elevator with someone who was wearing really strong cologne or perfume? Even though the scent is meant to be  pleasing, its very strength can offend.
My wife Jeannie and I love to take our family on walks around Kansas City’s Loose Park in the summer. The rose gardens and rolling landscapes are beautiful. Loose Park is a great place to picnic, feed the ducks or throw a frisbie while mixing it up with fellow hometowners. Now that my kids are older, they’ll often skateboard around the park while Mom & Dad walk slowly behind taking in the scenery. Inevitably, Jeannie and I will stop to smell the roses in the park’s rose garden before loading up the van for the drive back home.
Unlike the elevator experiences some of us have had with cologne or perfume, I’ve never felt overwhelmed by the scent of a rose. They always seem to smell just right. The Scriptures describe Christians as the fragrance of Christ. In preaching to the Athenians, it seems that the Apostle Paul makes himself and his message fragrant to his listeners by acknowledging things important to them.
Can’t we take the same approach when sharing our faith with others? I’d much rather be a rose than the middle-aged guy wearing too much Polo.
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