First Baptist Church Jan 9, 2022

God's word says this so Paul standing in the midst of the areopagus said men of athens I perceive that in every way you are very religious for as I passed along and observed the

Objects of your worship I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God what therefore you worship as unknown this I proclaim to you the God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined a lot of periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him yeah he is not actually far from each one of us for in him we live and move and have our being as even some of your own poets have said for we are indeed his offspring being then God's offspring we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone an image formed by the art and imagination of man the times of ignorance God overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he would judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead some mocked but others said we will hear you again about this so Paul went out from their midst but some men joined him and believed among whom also were dionysius the areopagite and a woman named damaris and others with them and so God we do thank you for your word right now during this time I ask and plead Lord that you would just help us to understand the point of this passage that we might rightly apply it to our own culture in our own time that we might win people for Jesus

Christ Lord we love you and we're thankful for your mercy in Jesus name amen well as we as we look at this passage I want you to understand this is what's called a historical narrative this means that it's a place with real people real places real things that are happening is we see that there's Paul the apostle here and Scripture points out two more people by name dionysius and damaris this is a man and a woman real people real places and we know based off of Scripture that Paul wasn't exactly the best public speaker there were others that were maybe a little bit more persuasive and just overall charismatic we know apollos was a better preacher but Paul he had something an anointing by the Holy Spirit he had what's called unction and so when he spoke people listened to have unction it's a it's a measure of God's grace whereby your characteristics are characterized by holiness by the presence of the Holy Spirit and we know that Paul he's in this area of greece called athens now when you think of athens what are some of the things that you think of shout them out to me come on what do you think of athens what athena yeah that's a great one great one what else the parthenon yeah I got a picture of toss that up there all right what else you all think of ruins they could get that from the picture yeah oh yeah inscriptions to the unknown God what else don't throw that up yet yeah so someone said in the previous service the olympics some people

Think of the olympics this is the parthenon it's probably one the most historically interesting places in the entire world this is was their their place of worship it was also their bank for all of all of athens yeah you might think of the acropolis the acropolis is the city that's around athens if you don't mind going to that next picture this is as steve said the ruins and I mean how picturesque is that look at that you see this parthenon there's a gigantic a magnificent building it just shows just how incredible God has made people where we can put our heads together and do something amazing it's up on that like very picturesque like you know cliff wall thing that's right there and got these cool mountains in the background I mean it's it's a pretty sweet sweet place isn't it when we maybe you think of I thought of the great debaters and the philosophers of that time I thought of plato and aristotle and this was the place where Paul is during this time and the greeks they loved humanity they loved they loved humans so when you read the book of Luke it's all about presenting Christ as the perfect man because they were all about humanity and they loved philosophy and logic now the greeks they would hold debates and discussions and even trials out this place called the areopagus can you show that picture yeah you see that big old rock down there at the bottom that's the areopagus I want to show you a different picture here where we're

Zoomed in from a different angle there's actually a little pulpit there on the left hand side it's kind of hard to see with the lights and stuff but you might see that dark trash can that's right there just to the left that is where that pulpit is and there's a little inscription there about about Paul preaching there now this is where they would conduct trials if people were found guilty guess where they went right off the cliff it's called the areopagus now the areopagus is a compound word ares okay that's the greek God of war the romans called him mars and pegas which is a word for rock big boulder in the greek and so this is the areopagus the rock of ares or as the romans would call it mars hill and so this is where they would hold these discussions and debates and they would hear all sorts of different things from the world and Paul is invited to address these men and women in the city of athens and he does so in the context of their culture you see when Peter shares the Gospel in acts chapter 2 he shares the Gospel through the lens of a jew speaking to jewish people so he doesn't have to talk about who God is or what God's law is he knows that they are expecting the Messiah and so he goes straight for the they know what Scripture says about creation they know what Scripture says about all that but Paul does not do that here in the city of athens and why is that because he understands what the context of the local culture is knowing context of a culture in Scripture is extremely important for us we can't come to Scripture with our 21st century eyes and read it just like we

Would we have to understand what is going on in Scripture during this time and so we have to understand what God is trying to speak to us through his word take the book of acts we're there who was the author of the book of acts Luke he was the author right under inspiration of the Holy Spirit he wrote the book of lu of Luke and axe Luke he was very greek he writes to this guy named theophilus and he's very detailed he gives exact people where they were at what was going on in that time it can be affirmed and studied through archaeology and history so we have a very sensible faith and these are these are both the book of Luke and the book of acts they're what's called historical narratives rich with details and context is huge because if you're if you're not if you don't have context then it leads to misunderstanding and Paul here he's addressing the areopagus and he acknowledges the fact that these men are extremely religious they've got altars for everyone so much so that they have an altar to the unknown God and this is the altar can you show that next one this is the altar it's from first century athens inscribed to the unknown God this very well could have been the exact one that he pointed at and said this is the God that I want to talk to you about today this is on display in turkey right now they were so religious that they had this altar and so let me ask you guys this question real quick which do you think america is like more do you think it's like that acts chapter 2 jewish culture where when we talk about God people know what God we're talking about

When we talk about God's law do they know which law that we're talking about when we talk about creation are they using the creation account that we know or do they think maybe God he created everything set the universe into motion billions of years ago and just kind of stepped back and said I'm gonna let it kind of play out or is our culture more like maybe the folks at the areopagus where maybe we need to identify which God we're talking about where we need to identify what God's law is where we do have to stand on the word of God when it talks about the creation account knowing the cultural context is key for us to engage people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ knowing the culture of a Biblical passage is going to be huge to understand what Scripture actually says not just what we think it says Paul he takes time he talks about who this God is look at verse 23 what therefore you worship as unknown this I proclaim to you the God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything now we've talked about what a world view is a worldview has to answer a few questions like our origin where do we come from meaning what is our purpose in life morality what's the difference between right and wrong does it even exist and eternity what happens to us after we die that's what a good view has to answer and so when Paul is here and he's talking to these people he has to address their worldview first

You know what they believed about creation they believe that there was a giant bird named nix nyx who laid a giant egg in the sky and when the sky cracked inside was this goddess eros and the top part became uranus and the bottom part became gaia and eros which is love the erotic kind of love eros she caused uranus and gaia to get married fall in love and then they started having lots and lots and lots of little God babies now one of those gods was a titan and his name is cronus can I can you show that picture of cronus for me yeah if you google him you will get much more violent pictures because one of the things that he did was he when he had a little baby he would actually take it and eat it he would eat the baby and I know some of you're disturbed by that but that's what abortionists do they take babies and they destroy them we think that it's barbaric because it is it dehumanizes the baby and that's why we are pro-life from womb to tomb we're not just pro-birth well this God this titan cronus he had a wife and she was tired of her babies being eaten and so she took a stone swaddled it gave it to her husband who swallowed the whole baby whole well that baby survived and he became the greek God zeus had two sons his name was prometheus and the other was epimetheus it means forethought and afterthought prometheus created man epimetheus created animals zeus also gave a box of gifts to his sons and he said with your creations

Give them these gifts and so epimetheus he made all these animals and he gave them all of the gifts like strength and speed and things and claws and venom and all these different things and so when prometheus who took his time creating man he went to go get a gift there was no gift for man well what am I going to give to man they're just kind of useless I know what I'm going to do I'm going to give them fire according to the greeks fire was only for the gods and so prometheus he was punished by his father very severely for giving man fire and he was doomed to be chained to a mountain where his liver was to be eaten every single day for all of eternity by either a crow or a falcon and we got that picture up here too there he is yep that's your creator according to the greeks well zeus wasn't quite yet done epimetheus he was very lonely now that his brother was gone and zeus had another son and he said hey can you make someone to go with man and he made pandora you know the first woman according to the greeks and she was beautiful and all the gods just thought she was amazing they said okay here's what we're going to do we are going to give pandora all these gifts and so zeus he gave her two gifts he gave her the gift of curiosity and a box that she should never ever open okay here we go she opens the box of course and that's what unleashes all of the horrible things upon humanity things

Like sickness and famine and death and all these different things and then epimetheus he heard his wife shrieking in terror as all these things are coming out of her box and so he runs and he goes and helps her close it and but it was too late everything was out there and then later on that night there's this knock on the box and it's like let me out I'm hope and that's what brings hope to all of humanity I don't know but it is in this context that Paul talks about the creation account now you know why he is hammering on creation why he spends so much time talking about who God is and what God has done and where we actually have come from this was the ancient greek world view this is where they got their origin and their meaning and their morality and their eternity and so just as Paul was an expert on this greek culture that he was preaching to you and I must become experts on our local culture as well I mean how much has the lake changed since 2019 right it's changed astronomically and if you don't think so you need to get out more you need to go and meet some of those new neighbors that every single one of us have I mean and you know what we need to do is we have to become experts on their worldview that way we might be able to engage with them that we might share the Gospel with them and if we don't shame on us because the world is coming to the lake and the mission field is right outside our

Front door they're our neighbors and our friends and our co-workers and our families now and thanks be to God that we've got such a wonderful opportunity to share Jesus with people amen the next step for expository preaching is exegesis exegesis it's a critical explanation of the text ex exegesis it's it's taking the word and explaining its meaning in its context this is the opposite of isages I said Jesus is where you take your thoughts and you just try to support it using Scripture these are my thoughts how can I make it work through Scripture case in point Paul he's talking about the creation account he expresses it as a historical factual Biblical event he doesn't try to dance around the literal six day creation account he doesn't try to justify it using theistic evolution or anything like that's what ungodly perverse professors in a lot of so-called Christian colleges espouse today truly seeking God means coming to his word and learning what he wants you to the creation account it's a historical narrative unlike many of the psalms right the psalms their book of poet they're books of poetry they evict images they use similes and comparisons and things like that using like psalm 17 let's let's read this together can you show me psalm 17 up on the screen it says keep me as the apple of your eye hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who do me violence my deadly enemies who surround me now if we were to just read this completely outside of its context you might kind of wonder you might have some questions like is this guy that's writing this in apple of course we don't we know that's not the case but is he actually in the eye of God where do we exist what about what about God does God have wings I mean it says that we hide in the shadow of his wings does he have wings is he like an angel I mean is the author in some type of like you know hebrew fight club where the enemies are surrounding him and he's just writing it down real quick we have to know what the literary features are in Scripture in order to be able to make sense of it so we looked at historical narratives and poetry but there's also law there's books of wisdom there's there's prophecy and prophecy uses all sorts of comparisons do we believe that a literal dragon is going to rise up out of the oceans and swallow the world no I hope you don't I mean if I walk outside and I see a little dragon it might make me rethink that but I don't oh there's symbols and things like that most books of the Bible they got different kinds of genres using the book of Exodus it's a historical narrative but when they break out in song after crossing the red sea they start singing and clapping and so they use some of these visual images as they're worshiping look at verses 24 and 25 it says the God who made the world and everything in it being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and anything and everything look imagine for a moment

That you're Paul and behind you is the parthenon it's literally one of the most famous buildings in all of human history and he says God is not glorified through this is totally unnecessary for the worship of God this is useless he doesn't need your works he doesn't need you to constantly serve him in this way you know what he wants is he wants you he wants your heart he wants your life the true God of heaven he doesn't need to be served by you because he gives you and I everything even the very breath that is in your lungs is his but all of this exegesis and all these pointings and all this context is completely useless unless it goes somewhere you see information and all this all this stuff that we've been talking about it can lead to legalism if we're not careful and we must avoid that I mean if we're we're just left with information when the with when the sermon ends we don't know how to live it out then everything just falls short you ever sat through a sermon and you're like I don't really know what that was about say cody I kind of feel that way right now but likewise if I if I if we skip all of this if we just go straight for like from Scripture to application then we can be like then we can be left in the dark and totally misunderstanding what God's word actually says if we don't do the proper work the mind is not transformed and so the heart when you leave a church service or leave leave your quiet time or something like that your heart might be filled to the brim but our hearts are also leaky

And easily swayed and they chase after this world which is why we must have a renewing of the mind as we approach God's word how can the preacher move from exegesis and move to the heart well it's by the next step which is theology which you might think cody come on now when I think of theology I think of like books and study and all that kind of stuff that's a terrible third step yeah I would agree with you in 99.9 of the cases yeah I would agree with you except on this do you know why it's because theology is simply the study of God it's the increased love of Jesus Christ everyone's a theologian it just matters whether or not you're good what do you believe about God why do you believe it everyone's a theologian theology that doesn't engage the heart is cold and lifeless but God's word it told us of a time when the heart of stone would be replaced with a heart of flesh and that was to be done by the Holy Spirit and the power of Jesus Christ I mean look at how Paul preaches in this passage he says and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth and having determined a lot of periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God you have a reason why you seek for the Lord it's because God has put it there and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him yet he is actually not far from each one of us for in him we live and move and have our being as even some of your own poets have said for we are indeed his offspring how amazing is it that as Paul is preaching this message he's identifying their culture he's giving the message context he's using cultural illustrations from their own poets and he's exegeting God's word by explaining the creation account and then Paul moves into theology

Talking about God's offspring and the divine being not being like gold or silver or stone or an image formed by the art and imagination of men the time of ignorance God overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world of righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and others he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead who is that one it is Jesus Christ Paul he demolishes their presupposition of creation by prometheus and he points them to God's word he talks about them being created in the image of God and as such they all have dignity and value and worth as Paul says is God's offspring and then he calls them to repentance and why is that because they have not worshiped the Lord rightly God he deserves every breath of our praise every single moment of every single day and we can't do it every single moment of every single day because we're falling we've got things that we've got to do all these singular focuses that are vying for our attention and time Paul he is expositionally preaching because it is the right way to do it and the final step for expositional preaching is application every single sermon every single time that we sit down with God's word and we wrestle with it and it wrestles back with us it should change our minds it should engage our hearts it should call us to some sort of inaction that's why every sunday is simplify the text with head hand heart Paul he calls the areopagus to repent why because God has fixed a day of judgment it is coming it is appointed and so if we were to visualize this is how expositional preaching works working from the bottom left-hand corner you got your text

And we want to know why is it important why does this apply to you why is it that we're talking about preaching when most of you probably don't think of yourselves as preachers well it's because it's it's not just about preaching it's about the proclamation of the Gospel which you're called to do I'm called to do this but we can't just jump over to it we've got to go through the exegesis which we've done what does it mean to those people them and then and then how does this point us to Jesus Christ the theological reflection and how do we apply it to our lives today you see when this is done it results in life change and the people that are around us changes our hearts and our minds look at what happened in verses 32-34 now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead some mocked but others said we will hear you again about this so Paul went out from their midst but some men joined him and believed among whom also were dionysius the areopagite and a woman named damaris and others with them this is what preaching does so some people mock some people they get curious well I'd like to hear a little bit more about that but other people repent and believe it's not up to the preacher to convert souls it's up to the power of the word of God to do that sometimes there's seasons of growth sometimes there's seasons of decline we think the Lord that he's just at work in our lives but as long as God's word is being preached we believe that God will work

In his way through his word head hand heart head I want you to know that studying and applying God's word is for you it is for you these strategies they aren't just for pastors in the pulpit on sundays but they are for you personally we can be tempted to read God's word and not dive in and study it but we are people of the word we are people of the book and so we should devote ourselves to studying it for the glory of God that we might win people for Jesus Christ and I want you to learn how to exegg God's word now if you have a phone I want you to pull it out right now pull up your camera and I've got a qr code that I want you to scan and this is going to take you to a website for the navigators this is going to take you and teach you how to do inductive Bible study a lot of people they ask me that question cody how do I study the Bible better this is a great way for you to do that taking the passage doing everything we talked about learning the historical context acts asking good questions this is going to set you on a fast track for your personal Bible study and to grow not just in wisdom of God's word not just in information but what does God's word mean heart I want you to believe that God's word is enough to change your heart and mind we believe it we believe that man does not live by bread alone but by every mouth that proceeds from the mouth of God this is the first Mark of a healthy church and at first baptist church at camdenton we are unashamedly committed to expositional preaching and so God we do thank you so much for

This day that you've given to us as we worship you today God let us just be filled with on wonder that you would take sinful wretches like myself and that you would draw us into a relationship with you God thank you for that and that you use us to draw other people into a relationship with you help us to live with your eyes seeking ways to minister that we might make disciples not for the sake of our church but for the sake of your kingdom God let it grow let it flourish let it thrive and Lord help us to just be a small part of that we love you and we thank you for this day in Jesus name amen let's stand and let's worship the Lord together [Music] streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs teach me upon it mount of light reading I was lost in utter darkness till you came and rescued me I was bound by all my sin when your love came and set me free now my soul can is always with me and now peace [Music] oh to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to me let thy goodness [Music] Lord I feel it to leave the God I love here's my heart Lord take and seal it seal it for thy good [Music] amen

Y'all go ahead and have a seat I've got a couple of announcements for you all real quick first thing is that core groups are starting up january 23rd you guys remember the discipleship pathway congregation this is our congregation right here it's it's a wonderful congregation I hope that you guys have friends in here that you're able to sit next to and shake hands and say hey but we say take the next step which is community groups that's where you're going to find more friends and find community but that's not where it ends it actually has another step of core groups and that's where men meet with men women meet with women for one year where there's Scripture memory prayer accountability deep Bible study and things like that's where your 3 am friends are going to be found and so if you're interested in getting your discipleship on a fast track that's a place for you to find it and you can find you can sign up for it by either going to the church center app or you can sign up by calling the church office and saying hey I don't know how to work the church center app I'd like to get signed up for that and we'll get you all squared away there now we also have a men's ministry conference that's going to be happening on february 5th cost is 25 bucks and we're gonna have a great time it's it's a good thing for our men to get together and be challenged with God's word amen well there's a couple of men that are just like ah - I ain't ain't ain't amen in that I think that you should be here guys I think that's good for you to be here we're gonna have it's gonna be from eight to two we'll have lunch that's provided and there's gonna be some fantastic sessions breakout sessions and different things like that where you're gonna be able to

Ask have a good discussion with other like-minded men that are going through maybe the same season with you and it'll be a fantastic time we're really excited about that if you want to take a look at the bulletin there's all sorts of other things that are happening in the life ministry of our church and I'm just thankful that the Lord is working in our midst church I love you so much I think about all the time and I pray for you let me take a little bit of time right now and just pray a blessing for you as we go out from here and so God I do lift up to you each and every single person that's in here Lord thank you for moving our church into health and I pray that each and every single person that's here is challenged to move closer to you because that's what health is and I pray God that you would just continually have your hand on us bless us with opportunities to share the Gospel and take advantage of those opportunities give us a unction in your spirit and help us Lord to be your ambassadors to a world that desperately needs hope we love you Lord help us to apply your word to our lives this week in Jesus name amen