Sermon Central
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Let Him Breathe Upon Me
Contributed by Joe Rowland on Apr 1, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: In John 20:22 Jesus breathed on His Disciples and told them to recieve the Holy Spirit. Has Jesus breathed on you?
Let Him Breathe Upon Me
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. {Mars’ hill: or, the court of the Areopagites}
23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. {devotions: or, gods that ye worship}
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. {hath given...: or, offered faith}
32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
33 So Paul departed from among them.
34 Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
I’ve entitled this today, “Let Him Breathe Upon Me”.
What we need, as a people of God, is to let God breathe into our lives.
Just as Jesus blew upon the Disciples, He will blow upon us.
We have heard the song “Breathe Upon Me, Holy Spirit”, church, we need to ask Him to breathe upon us.
Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and he perceived. In other words, he saw that they were superstitious.
Paul had passed and he saw all of their devotions, he is talking about what they were worshipping.
As Paul was walking by, he found an Altar with the inscription to the unknown God.
By addressing the situation in this way, he could not be accused of preaching a foreign God to them.
He understood that the people were worshipping this in ignorance, they never understood what they were doing.
This also refers to them acknowledging that maybe they did not have the last words on Gods; actually they did not have any words at all.
Paul then went on to present God as the one who made the world and all things that are in it. This presents God as the Creator of all life.
He also presents God as one who does not dwell in temples that are made with hands, He is bigger than that.
25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
The second commandment forbids the making of any graven images of God, or the worship of any form of statue.
The people needed to understand that God needed nothing; He is the one who gives to all life, and breath and all things.
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
What this is saying, is that all man originated from one man and that man was Adam.
And hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
All times beforehand has been appointed, and the bounds of our habitation.
You being here right now, the life that you live has been appointed by God for the day that you live in.
See, God does appoint and He sets boundaries in our lives.
Paul was telling the people of Mars Hill that God had placed them there for a reason and whether they wanted to accept it or not there were boundaries to be kept.