Hey guys, I had the opportunity to teach this sunday at calvary chapel ensenada and when I teach I write down about 75% of what i say word for word, so I figured since I already have it written I would put it on here. It’s long but hopefully it will minister to you.
Hello, if we haven’t had the opportunity to meet my name is Jonathan Domingo, I’m part of the team here at Calvary chapel Ensenada. Its good to be home, I’ve been traveling none-stop the last few months and it is good to finally be back home. I’ve missed you guys, you guys are a huge blessing.
Today we are going to be studying from acts chapter 17, and if you have been following this study with us you got to see the holy spirit being poured out at the beginning of the book and ever since then the disciples have been spreading the news of jesus’s resurrection, and I want to remind us that that is ministry. We do different task and chores to facilitate the spreading of the message, but spreading the message of Jesus to the world is what we are called to do. Go and make disciples of all nations is the great commission not an interesting suggestion.
I will be honest with you, I am scared to death about this text, it seems like every time Paul shares something like this people want to kill him, and I PRAY that you will take a bit more spiritual approach, but if you feel like punching me after the service, wait till we are outside of the sanctuary I don’t want to get blood on the chairs. But yeah be gracious, I pray that you will be anointed of God and ready to listen. Because I mean if when Paul said it people didn’t receive it, then what are my chances? So don’t shut off your mind but pray and ask God to open your mind and your understanding.
So we will begin reading in verse 1 of chapter 17
I am really just going to skim the first part I really want to focus on pauls discourse at Athens.
Act 17:1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
Act 17:2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
The first thing I want to look at is that Paul has the custom of reasoning with them from the scriptures. I wish that evangelist’s would learn from paul, its not so much about preaching at them as it is reasoning with them. Using the scriptures. The only thing with any sense of reason is the scriptures. The scriptures have the power to change lives. Use it.
Act 17:3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.”
Act 17:4 And some of them were persuaded;
The next thing I want us to realize is that even though paul was doing everything right only some of them where persuaded, You can do everything right but the fruit is ultimately up to the Lord, don’t be discouraged because you aren’t seeing multitudes come to the Lord, its not our job to save people, its our job to share with them from the scriptures.
Act 17:4 And some of them were persuaded and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.
Act 17:5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
Act 17:6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
Act 17:7 Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.”
Act 17:8 And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things.
Act 17:9 So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.
Act 17:10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
Act 17:11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
Act 17:12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.
Act 17:13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds.
Act 17:14 Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there.
So Paul taught in Thessalonica and there was a good response but the ones who responded negatively actually attack the house of Jason where the Paul, silas and timothy were staying and then the jews convince the rulers that paul was bad news. So paul went to berea where the Bereans actually looked into the scriptures and therefore the lives changed. Do you want your life to change? Are you tired of struggling with sin? are you tired of being a week defeated Christian? Allow the word of God to change you. There is nothing that we can touch that is as powerful as the word of God. You have the words of God almighty in your hand, does that blow your mind? And so many times we are like, I went to church I don’t need to read my bible, I’m tired.
If you find yourself saying those things then there is a serious problem in your spiritual walk! It should become the number one priority to learn to feast on Jesus. If you can go months or weeks without opening the word and it doesn’t affect you then you have no life to begin with. Because if you had life you would be starving and your hunger would drive you to read and study and meditate on Gods word.
The word is our daily bread, Jesus said I am the bread of life. He said unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life. Let this sink in. If you can go days and not even think about his word you have no life! And paul will explain to us what we have but it is anything but life. It is religion it is rituals it is not life. If I go a few hours without reading or meditating on something specific I feel it, my body groans for it. I NEED the word if not I will not have any strength.
If you aren’t feasting on Jesus and it doesn’t affect you it is because you are probably not saved, It doesn’t matter if you are the ministry, it doesn’t matter if you are a missionary, it doesn’t matter whether you are a good person. If you can spend days or weeks away from your father and it doesn’t grieve you to the bone then there is something horribly wrong and you NEED to check your heart.
I’m telling you this not to irritate you, not to make you mad, not to condemn you, but to lovingly warn you. There are some of you here that might be heading to hell and it grieves me.
Rev 3:1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
There are some of us that are spiritually dead and the fact that you don’t NEED the word of God proves it.
Repent! Be saved! Don’t allow your pride to blind you. You NEED God.
Do you see why I am scared to share this… some of you probably want to smack me, and if you feel that way take it as the spirit calling you out. Because if you had the spirit in you, you would agree with what I am saying
Act 17:16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.
Paul switches gears completely and goes to a place that is basically the opposite of the bereans, and place that is given to idols. The king james bible says “wholly given to idols”
Now an idol is anything thing that takes the place of God as the number one priority in your life. You can still have God as your number two priority and still be a person that is given to idols. But he goes into this city.
Act 17:17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
Act 17:18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.
The epicurean are the philosophers that believe that pleasure, they basically believe that what you can see and touch is real so see and touch things that bring you pleasure because that is the only thing that is real. So obviously their idols are those of material things, what feels good do it. There are a lot of people like that now a days, hopefully not to many in here J
The stoic philosophers are the ones that believe that everything happens for a purpose and they where strong believers in abstaining from pleasures that cause harm. Now for these people they had stone idols but they also adored themselves and their belief system.
And notice the pride in their tone, “what does this babbler want to say?” people that are given to idols are almost always controlled by their pride.
Act 17:19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, (the supreme judge of Athens) saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak?
Act 17:20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.”
Act 17:21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
Another characteristic of a person that is given to idols is that they are always looking to hear something new, they are never satisfied with what they have. And check your heart, if you have idols in your life then you are always wanting to hear or find a new thing because idols cannot satisfy for long. If celebrities are your idols you always want to know who is pregnant and who broke up, if cars are your idols you always want to know when the next model of some muscle car is coming out, if sports is your idol you know more stats than scriptures.
And please don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to condemn you but share light with you, that Jesus is so much more fulfilling that any car, any house, any relationship, any hobby. And not that those things are bad, but they can easily become idols that hinder you from experiencing the glorious blessing of God on your life, don’t short end yourself with just having a “fun”. Don’t rob yourself of the beauty of having Jesus be the only God in your life and the joy of having everything flow out of that.
When Jesus is your fulfillment you won’t need all those other things to bring joy into your life, you have a joy that surpasses circumstances, a peace which surpasses understanding. If Jesus truly is your God then you realize that reading his word is not a burden but a blessing, you realize that loving people is not a burden but a blessing, you realize that every commandment is not a rule to keep you from doing bad things but boundaries to ensure you can experience Gods blessings to the full.
Act 17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;
In the same way I stand here today and I can see that the men of calvary are very religious, you can have a specific belief system but if it is not founded in Jesus you will have no life.
Act 17:23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
The next thing I want to present to you is that you can know that there is a true God, you can even worship the true God, but unless you KNOW the Unknown God you have no life. And these people are worshipping the unknown god, and so many people worship the unknown God, they go to church, they worship but they do not know God. they know he is there, they know he is powerful but they don’t know him.
But paul says
Php 3:7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ
Php 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
Act 17:24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
Act 17:25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
God who made the world and everything in it. The first thing paul wants the atheneans to know about the unknown God is that he is powerful, and that he knows everything. He made everything. Jesus is so powerful, so mighty that he has created the universe out of atoms. In one square inch there are billions and billions of atoms, Imagine how many atoms are in a square mile… in the world… in the universe, it doesn’t just say that he created everything, even though he did but he says “everything in it” that is why the bible says that he knows how many hairs are in your hair. Because he even knows how many atoms are in each of your hairs because he created it.
The second thing he wants them to know is that he does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshiped with mens hands as though he needed anything. And its not that Jesus isn’t in the temple, but he doesn’t dwell in the temple, you don’t need to be at the temple to worship God, the bible actually encourages us to worship at all times. worship is not something you do for 25 minutes on a Sunday morning, it is not something you do in the temple it is your life and the worship you do in the temple is a response to who God is. it is the expression of what you have been living everyday. Its not the expression of what you are feeling in that moment.
God has given you something very precious and its called life, its called breath. God doesn’t want or need mere Sunday worship. He looks at worship that is done on Sunday morning that is not backed by life and he says “I don’t need that, they need me” Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life he that believes in me though he die yet shall he live, and he that lives and believes in me shall never die.” That is what worship is, being dead to sin and alive in christ.
Act 17:26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
Act 17:27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
The common denominator between the whole world is that God has preappointed the boundaries of our dwellings so that we would seek the lord. This is a deep and glorious thought, don’t disconnect on this part this could change your life, specially if you are going through a hard time.
God has preappointed the boundaries of your dwellings that you might seek the Lord. The reason you are going through whatever circumstance you are going through is so that you might seek the lord, that you might grope for you. God has graciously put you in the environment you are in so that you could most clearly see him. And when you seek him you will find him. This is extraordinary, if you are going through a tough time its actually God being gracious enough to put you in the place where you can most easily and affectively find him. That’s why david said
Psa 139:7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
Psa 139:8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
Even if it feels like you are going through hell it is God being merciful and loving enough to put you in a place where you can experience him. It says in james draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
You can rest in that, God is not trying to hinder your growth, but is trying to put you in the place where you will grow the most, bare the most fruit, trust him the most. But God will not violate your free will. He through his soverenty will place you where you can experience him the most but you can reject him.
Act 17:28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
Act 17:29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.
One thing we need to be clear about is that we don’t create God, he creates us. We cannot change God, but he can change us.
Act 17:30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
Act 17:31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
There was a period of time in your life when you where ignorant, and you felt like you owned God and God was nothing more than a genie in a bottle that you invoked any time you had a need and you put away when you wanted to dwell in your sins and pleasures, but this you have been awakened to the fact that you do not own God, God owns you and he has been merciful with you but he has a day appointed to judge. And because he loves us he has given us the chance to repent, to learn to live in gods family. He is going to judge the world in righteousness and anyone who is not found righteous will have no part of the inheritance, but that is the beauty of the way God judges, he has provided a route of escape, you can enter into his righteousness by Jesus, the Man whom he has ordained. And how do we know we can rest assured of his finished work on the cross? Because he has been raised from the dead, Jesus has so much life that death could not hold him. He has so much life that it overflows to the point that he is willing to offer life to the whole world.
Act 17:32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.“
Act 17:33 So Paul departed from among them.
Act 17:34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Some of you are hearing this and are mocking. You say “PUH how can the death of a man bring me life.” some of you are mocking saying “how can a 20 year old tell me how to live, how dare he tell me that without life in Christ I am going to die in my sin” “that jonathan kid is a loser and he does not know what he is talking about” Some of you are offended by the words of life that have been shared this morning.
And also some of you want to believe but you say “ah I’ll come again next week” “ah maybe tomorrow will be the day I trust jesus” “I have idols in my life I don’t want to get rid of quite yet” “I really enjoy materialism, I really enjoy living in sin, I really enjoy being clean on the outside but having a filthy mind on the inside. I’ll hear you out tomorrow”
But there some of you in here that say “He is right, I have been living a lie, I have deceived myself and I want to join this group of people that have repented, I want to believe in christ” “I have sinned in my ignorance but not I have no excuse. I want to live, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. I am ready for seek god, to connect with God, to engage God, to be owned by God.” and if that is you this morning and we finish in prayer and the worship team comes up raise your hand I would love to pray for you.
