64 Acts 17:32-34 Whelming Results

December 15, 2024

Christopher C. Freeman

Title: Whelming Results Text: Acts 17:32-34 FCF: We often struggle knowing what to do with the divisive gospel. Prop: Because the gospel is divisive, we must repent and believe. Scripture Intro: [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Acts chapter 17. In a moment we’ll begin reading in verse 32 from the Legacy Standard Bible. You can follow along in the pew bible or in whatever version you prefer. After jumping on the opportunity to preach the gospel before the Areopagite and presenting a powerful and engaging sermon on the holiness of God compared to man, Paul rests his defense of the gospel upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today we will see the results. What comes from this great meeting of the minds? Will it be another Pentecost? Will 3000 souls come to Christ? Let’s look. Please stand with me to give honor to and to focus on the reading of the Word of God. Invocation: Father. On the night You sent Your angels to announce to shepherds the coming of Your Son, You had them proclaim – Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace to those whom You Favor. You have favored us. You have revealed to us truth and shown us salvation. We are thankful that You have done this for us. For we know that we would never have seen any of this if You had not favored us. We would not have peace with You, if you had not given us grace. We pray that You will grace us further today by teaching us from Your word. Help us to see the truths therin and to live as You would have us to live. We pray this in our Savior’s name – Amen. Transition: [Slide 2] English is a comically difficult language. Even for native speakers there are times when things just don’t make sense. Because English is derived from several languages, there are words we have in English that only exist with prefixes and suffixes but the root words are no longer used. Ruthless is an example of this. At some point Ruth was a word, probably meaning compassion, care, or conscience. Adding the “less” on the end means they are without compassion or care. But no one goes around and says, boy she is such a ruth person. Disgruntled is another of these. We never hear of anyone being gruntled. Today we will see the results of Paul’s sermon. To best describe those results, I have to use one of these words in English that we no longer use. We often talk about how things are overwhelming…. Or even underwhelming. But never whelming. The best description I can offer of the results of Paul’s sermon… is that they are whelming results. They are the kind of results we should expect. Let me show you why. I.) Most men will follow the broad road to destruction when they hear the gospel, we must repent and believe. (32-33) a. [Slide 3] 32 - Now when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.” i. So after Paul’s great message before the Areopagite where he 1. Concisely treads the line between both the Epicureans and the Stoics, pointing out ways in which Christianity agrees but also ways it disagrees, 2. Shows them a God that was an absolute mystery to them, 3. Reveals to them God’s separate and distinctness from them, yet His transcendence and closeness to them, 4. Displays their need of God but His autonomy from His creation, 5. Unveils their sorry spiritual condition where even when God is close to them they still cannot find Him, 6. Prophesies that this God will one day judge the world by the standard of a Man whom He provided to man as their judge, proving His identity by raising Him from the dead, ii. After all of this… Paul says they should repent and seek God. iii. So, do they? iv. Well, many do not. v. Of those who do not repent and seek the Lord, there are two categories. 1. [Slide 4] The first group’s response points to the difficulty of the gentiles to receive the idea of a risen Lord. a. Last week we said that the resurrection of Christ is the final word in the discussion. That is true in a couple of ways. b. It is true in the sense that it is the last thing Paul said. c. It is also true in the sense that it is no doubt one of the most challenging claims that Christianity makes. i. The rational mind cannot square with the seemingly illogical argument that a Man could be raised from the dead. ii. Much less that this Man who was raised never again died but rather conquered the realm of the dead and lives eternally. d. Paul says that the gospel is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. e. We’ve already seen how the Jews cannot accept a Messiah who would intentionally die, nor that He would first come to suffer and come later to reign. f. Gentiles however, would not necessarily wrestle with the concept of a god dying for mortals. Indeed, in their mythology they would have things like this happen. They wouldn’t even wrestle with a demigod dying and clawing his ways back out of hades. This also is in their mythology. What they would have trouble accepting is a Man being raised from the dead. g. The Greek mind had largely moved beyond the myths of the classical Greek period. h. Following their god Apollo who through the oracles proclaimed “Once the dust has soaked up the blood of a man, once he has died, there is no resurrection.” They had concluded that once a man was dead, he was dead forever. i. The Epicureans especially did not believe in any level of immortality. j. The Stoics believed that the soul might endure after death, but only some of them believed that the soul was immortal. k. This is probably the reason that Paul emphasizes the humanity of Christ here, so as not to paint Christ as a demigod (half man half god) or to refer to Him as some kind of disembodied spirit, but rather to show that He was fully a man and died and was raised. l. Therefore, these Athenians had had enough. m. As soon as Paul mentions a man being raised from the dead – they dismiss Paul’s words outright. n. They even begin to sneer or to mock his claims. o. This group is far from repentance. A mocker is too prideful to repent. 2. [Slide 5] The second group does not repent either, but may be seeking the Lord. a. Another group, we are not told how large, says they want to hear more about what Paul has said. b. We are not told the motives of these folks and why they want to hear more – and more than likely there are several motives. c. Perhaps some were confused. Others maybe were seeking more information. Others perhaps desired to poke holes in his arguments. Perhaps this is simply a polite way of saying… yeah yeah, let’s talk later. Super interesting but we’re super busy right now.