Missions Paul

The gospel is strange to those who hear it for the first time.
Acts 17:20 “You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.”

The gospel is strange to those who have never heard it. The Amplified version adds the word ‘startling’ as well as strange. 
The Message helps us to understand what was being said by, “This is a new one on us ….” I particularly like that!

This startling, strange gospel is a new one to many around the world and the stories are amazing when people ask the church planter and evangelist for further meaning! 
His name is Aung Tin, an old man and he has never heard of the Gospel before but has tried other religions and spiritism as well. 
One day one of ELIMs church planters in a nation where only 4% are Christian visited his village. The church planter shared the gospel and during his talk the old man interrupted the presentation saying “I have waited to hear of this gospel and i should have heard of this before, why haven’t I heard earlier?”

The Church planter tried to calm him down but he would not be calmed until he got what he wanted and that was baptism! 

He was baptised and insisted that the Church planter went back to the village to preach the gospel to others. When the gospel was preached there was another baptism of 8 new believers! 

“Why haven’t I heard before?” Is a challenging question and there are still many today asking that question. Our church planter in Asia is certainly doing what he can to hear that question more and more. 
May we all copy him wherever we may be.

What’s in the past?
Acts 17:19 “Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?”
It is sometimes what lies behind the story that actually makes the story. When we unlock the past then the present is more understandable. This is clearly seen in our verse today. On first reading you cannot see anything more than what is being said. 

The Epicureans and Stoics take Paul to the Areopagus, a highly respected council. To be a member you had to be over 60 years of age and have had a high government office.

They ask Paul about his ‘new teaching’.

However, Paul knew about the history, six centuries earlier, Apollo who inaugurated the court of the Areopagus had declared in an Aeschylus’s play, “when a man dies, and his blood is shed on the ground, there is no resurrection.” On that same spot Paul declares that God unveiled and confirmed Himself by raising Jesus from the dead. He is writing the wrong of 600 years. 

The verse today tells us that we need to think in all circumstances, ‘what happened before?’ ‘What has the past story told us?’

Ignore the past and there will be no inspiration in the present. 

 

Be true to yourself 
Acts 17:18 “A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.”
The team are in Athens and they are beginning to attract some attention. Today we read how two of the most popular philosophies at the time came to tackle him. We will discover in the next several days some of what they believed. 

This morning I am intrigued by their question, “What is this babbler trying to say?” I wonder if there is much babbling today in churches, I hope not!

The word Paul uses for ‘babbler’ means to pick at scraps of knowledge as a bird picks at the ground for small bits of food. Unprocessed thought borrowed from elsewhere. 

They accuse of him of being uncouth. They were used to fancy words to explain philosophical thoughts. Paul was different. He didn’t speak the language of the elite but of the people. 
If ever you need some confirmation to be yourself and not to adopt a ministry style, this is your verse. 

Don’t let others mould you or intimidate you to be someone you never desired or intended to be. 
On top of this, stick with your message, don’t let others take it from you or cause you to change it. Paul had always spoken of Jesus and his resurrection. So here in Athens he keeps to the same message. He gets criticised for it, but this is who he is.

Reaching people

Acts 17:17 “So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the market-place day by day with those who happened to be there.”

Paul engaged in gospel discussions in the synagogue where the Jews were joined with the Gentiles who had repented from their gods of worship and turned to the one true God. He engaged with those in the market place, the ‘whomsoever’ was there and he did it daily.

It doesn’t seem that Paul was too concerned who was there, they were going to receive his gospel message.

We are not short of people to take the gospel message to. They are everywhere.

Paul submitted to the regular services and synagogue practices and the gospel message fitted into whatever was appropriate. But he also was engaged in ad-hoc mission outside in the market place.

We are people of the 4 walls but also of beyond. We are within and without the arrangements of man. Above all we are people of the people, wherever they might be.

Paul shared the gospel every day with those who had come to the market not for the gospel. Paul knew that is how he would capture the most for the gospel.

We are people who innovatively reach the unreached and the ‘not-bothered’ crowds of people.  We do not do events, we are the event, wherever we are.

 

 

Identification

Acts 17:16 “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.”

Whilst Paul was waiting for his team to catch him up he walked the streets of this amazing city of architecture, history and wisdom. Next to Rome it was the most important city in the Empire, the capital of business and yet through the innumerable temples, shrines and altars Athens was highly immoral. The whole Greek pantheon was there, all the gods of Olympus. Paul absorbed as much as he could, he looked at everything. He identified with it.

John writes, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). It means to pitch your tent. The world is fallen and sinful but God pitched his tent among the unclean. And so did Paul, he identified with the culture around him. As he did, he became distressed.

A report came out this week in the UK newspaper, The Telegraph:

“The state education system is producing a generation of “amoral” children who fail to understand the difference between right and wrong, according to a leading private school headmaster. Richard Walden, chairman of the Independent Schools Association, says teachers must provide pupils with a “rounded” education to equip them with the moral compass they need for life.”

You may agree or disagree. Your nation may be better than the UK. However, today, you should do what Paul did and walk around your city, town and village (v23) and identify with the culture. Surely you will also copy Paul and become distressed by what you see.

 

 

Come asap

Acts 17:15 “Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.”

Paul was now in Athens having left his team behind. Now he missed them and he needed them asap.

Asap, don’t delay.

Asap join me again.

Asap get here as those who escorted me have now left me.

Asap because I am on my own.

Asap for I am feeling small in this place.

Are you separated today from those you love and those who you have worked with?

Sometimes you just have to send the message, ‘Come to me.’

 

What to do when in the line of fire.

Acts 17:14 “The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea.”

The team breaks up. Two can stay but the leader has to leave.

It is only temporary though at the time Silas and Timothy do not know this.

The leader has gone for now. He has been sent. They have stayed.

Paul is in Athens alone.

His ministry of late can be described as reaching the highs and lows. The adrenaline of success coupled with the subsequent attacks of the enemy can leave a leader drained. Was Paul drained? Luke doesn’t say and the reason for having to leave was obviously more that the threat on Paul by the Jews was bringing the young Church into dangers. The more successful Paul was the more the attacks came upon him and the Church. Sometimes that is hard to sustain. Sometimes you just have to leave.

If you notice you are the target then:

1. Get some believers to decide on a course of action with you, be accountable.
2. Act immediately, it is not going to get better or easier.
3. Get away from the situation.
4. Protect what you are leaving by appointing your replacement.

 

 

 

Wolves are not pet dogs.

Acts 17:13 “But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up.”

Paul was hounded by the pack that successfully stopped his ministry in Thessalonica. Some of them went to Berea when they heard Paul was preaching again. The ‘wolves’ would do exactly the same thing that they did before, agitate and stir up people against Paul.

I don’t know much about wolves, however…

1. Under certain conditions, wolves can hear as far as six miles away. The Thessalonican Jews ‘learned’ meaning they heard that Paul was preaching in Berea.

The ‘wolf’ of your life can hear what God is doing in and through you and he will not let you go, especially if he has attacked you before.

2. The wolves begin to eat immediately even though the prey is often still alive.

Whilst Paul was ‘alive’ preaching and being used of God, the wolves were gathering around him with one intention and that was to bring him down and to stop him speaking. We need to be aware that our spiritual wolf will try to gradually wear us down.

3. When they get a successful kill, wolves do not eat in moderation. A single wolf can consume 9 kg of meat in one sitting! Jesus said, “I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves”.  ^“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock” Acts 20:28-29.

Wolves are messy, greedy and will not spare anyone. They will try to completely finish everything, nothing will be spared. So flee or fight but whatever you do then make sure you know the intention is not to spare you anything. Wolves are not pet dogs.

Tomorrow happens as a result of today.

Acts 17:12 As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

As a result …

… Of the believers in Thessalonica sending Paul and Silas to Berea

… Of Paul and Silas going straight to the synagogue on their arrival

… Of the daily preaching by the team

… Of the Bereans searching in their Scriptures themselves

Many believed!

I wake this morning the day after the ending of our missionary conference which was truly amazing with such great responses too many to list! I realise all that happened because of the many things before, again too many to list!

You get my point.

Today may just be an average kind of day and you do your average kind of thing. Or today could be quite important because you may be working for something that will happen tomorrow, but today is still not the event it is just working towards something. Today could even be a day that you were not expecting and you have had to adjust to that fact.

Average

Working towards something

Adjustment

Three words that are not headline news!

But these three words are essential. For tomorrow will come and the day after tomorrow you will be sitting with a coffee and be thankful to God not only for the results but for the ‘as a result’ moments that just had to happen beforehand. For tomorrow happens as a result of today.

 

The Bible, daily.

Acts 17:11 “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

Paul is in Berea with his Scriptures proving Christ is the Messiah.

In this backwater of a place called Berea he found people who were more advanced than the Thessalonians in that they were noble or open-minded to the Bible, they received the message of the Bible with great eagerness and they examined the Bible for themselves every day.

The purpose of our life is to be re-shaped into the likeness of Jesus. Every sermon, book, every Bible verse we read , conference we attend , experience we have can be used by God to teach us how to grow in Him.

There is a cartoon of Charlie Brown at the beach building a magnificent sand castle. When he had completed it, he stands back and admires his masterpiece. Suddenly there is a downpour of rain and it flattens his brilliant structure.

The last caption Charlie Brown is looking at the levelled ground and he says, “There must be a lesson here, but I don’t know what it is”.

Are we open-minded to be taught from the Bible the lessons of life? And will the Bible teach us to be open-minded to the Spirit leading us in our life?

That is the purpose of my devotional blogs over the years. To try and open the Bible wider and deeper, I hope some of them do just that!

In the parable of the talents 3 servants were entrusted with talents according to their ability. These talents were amounts of money. The man with 5 talents and the man with 2 talents went to work immediately with a readiness to gain and they gained 5 and 2 more respectively. But the man with 1 talent was a pessimist, he didn’t even put it in a bank to get interest, but he dug a hole and buried it in the ground. He was not expecting his talent to grow.

After a long time their master came back home. To the servants who lived their life with eagerness and who had gained for their master more than what he had entrusted them with, he said “You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness…

“For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.”

But the 3rd servant was stripped of his talent and it was given to the man with 5 talents and the master said

“Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

The parable speaks of the return of Jesus; his disciples must make use of their gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit that they have been given. But the point is they must live with a readiness. They must live expecting to produce and not hide away in negativity, like the Bereans who received with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily for themselves.