OPPOSING PHILOSOPHIES-PART 2

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OPPOSING PHILOSOPHIES-PART 2
ACTS 17: 22-34
FOCAL POINT: TO SEE HOW PAUL VERY MASTERFULLY COMMUNICATED CHRIST TO ATHENIANS.

INTRODUCTION:

PAUL GAVE A MASTERFUL TREATISE ON THE REALITY OF JESUS CHRIST. HE BEGAN BY ALLUDING TO THE ALTER TO THE “UNKNOWN GOD”. HE EXPLAINED WHO THIS UNKNOWN GOD WAS AND THE ATTRIBUTES HE HAD. IT AROUSED THEIR ATTENTION. HE CHALLENGED THEM WITH A MORAL ISSUE THEY HAD TO CONSIDER.

VS. 17: 25

THE TRUE GOD ALSO SUSTAINS ALL THINGS; HE DOES NOT NEED PEOPLE TO SUSTAIN HIM. HE IS IMMINENT AS WELL AS TRANSCENDENT. HE PARTICIPATES IN HUMAN EXISTENCE. THIS CONTRADICTED THE EPICURIAN’S BELIEF THAT GOD TOOK NO INTEREST IN HUMAN AFFAIRS AS WELL AS THE STOICS SELF-SUFFICIENCY.

VS. 17: 26-29

PAUL MAKES IT CLEAR THAT GOD IS NOT A DISTANT DIETY. GOD MADE US IN HIS IMAGE SO IT WOULD BE FOOLISH FOR US TO ASSUME WE CAN MAKE GOD IN OUR IMAGE (GENESIS 1:27).

PAUL CONCLUDES THAT IDOLATRY IS ILLOGICAL. IF GOD CREATED PEOPLE, GOD CANNOT BE AN IMAGE OR AN IDOL. PAUL DECLARED THAT GOD’S DIVINE NATURE IS SPIRITUAL, NOT MATERIAL.

VS. 17: 32

MOST GREEKS BELIEVED IN IMMORTALITY BUT NOT IN THE DOCTRINE OF A BODILY RESURRECTION. THEY CONSIDERED THE BODY A PRISON AND THE SOONER HE LEFT THAT BODY THE HAPPIER HE WOULD BE. WHY RESURRECT A BODY AND LIVE AGAIN IN IT? IT WAS DIFFICULT FOR THEM TO ACCEPT THE DOCTRINE OF BODILY RESURRECTION!

VS. 17: 34

PAUL’S MINISTRY RESULTS SEEMED TO HAVE BEEN SMALL. WHO KNOWS HOW THE SEED WILL GROW WHEN PLANTED?

APPLICATION:

WE, AS DID PAUL, NEED TO MASTERFULLY PRESENT CHRIST TO A LOST WORLD. READ 2 TIM. 2: 15

REF: BLUELETTERBIBLE.ORG. DR. CONSTABLE’S NOTES ON ACTS, CHAPTER BY CHAPTER BIBLE COMMENTARY AND TSB BY WARREN WIERSBE, A BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF THE NT BY ROY ZUCK