This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
So that's the message then in the book of the Acts.
That's the message now today that God is commanding every
human being on the face of the planet.
They need to repent, change their mind, and see and believe
in the truth, because He's appointed today in which He will
judge the world and righteousness by the man whom
he's ordained. And of course, that's Jesus
Christ. When he comes back the second
time, He's coming back as the judge.
It feels like whenever we drive, there are warning signs
everywhere alerting us of icy bridges, tight turns, and
crossing traffic that doesn't stop.
It may all seem a bit overwhelming, but Can you
imagine what it would be like if those warning signs didn't
exist? Pastor Clark reminds you today
that God's Word contains a message of hope for humanity,
but it also contains a warning. The Lord will one day judge all
of humanity for its sin, and the only way to avoid his wrath is
to repent and follow Jesus. Now here's Pastor Clark in the
book of Acts Chapter 17 with today's edition of Living Waters
of Grace. Silas and Timothy are hanging
out in these places to help these new churches develop for a
while. They'll eventually catch up with
Paul, but Paul now is going on his own to Athens now.
Athens, Greece back then as today, is a incredible city.
It's a city of influence. It's a city of intellectualism.
It's a city of philosophy. This is a place of Socrates and
Plato, these philosophers, Aristotle.
This is what caused people to think about a lot of things in
life and whether they were true or false, they were their minds
were stimulated by the the brilliant people that lived
there. It was a city of idolatry.
To this day, there's the Parthenon and the Acropolis and,
and all these kind of places that you can go and actually see
these buildings that have stood the test of time throughout the
centuries of history of some idol and almost every street
corner, but a memorial to some God or goddess who at one time
that the people were influenced to worship Pagan idolatry.
And so Paul, he's, he's here in Athens now.
Verse 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.
So he's there like a Taurus maybe initially, but he knows
why he's really there. He's fascinated by what he sees
because like, I can't believe that these people are so deluded
into worshipping all these false gods.
These beautiful buildings they've built, they're void of
truth. They're void of God.
There's no evidence of Christ anywhere here.
He sees and he saw that the city was given over to idols.
That broke his heart. He wasn't judging them.
He was like these people are messed up and they need to hear
the truth. Therefore, verse 17, he reasoned
in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile
worshippers. So again he has this privilege
and this opportunity to go into the synagogue and get some
things going. He also has this opportunity to
deal with the Gentile worshippers.
So you had Jews and Gentiles in the synagogue and and it says he
didn't end there. And then the marketplace daily
with those who happen to be there.
That's interesting. St.
Ministry, how do you do that Nowadays?
Anytime I see St. Ministry, it's never real
attractive because it's some wacko out there with signs
saying God hates fags or he hates this and you're all going
to hell. And it's not like endearing.
I go to State College lots of times on business, and there's
the Willard preacher there who's very gracious and how he stands
outside the science building and tries a dialogue with people
about spirituality and that kind of stuff to build a bridge to be
able to have a conversation with someone who's reasoning out of
philosophy versus the truth of the gospel.
But sometimes you'll see people out there screaming with a
microphone telling all the Penn State students that they're on
their way to hell. You know, that's not the way.
I think you start with the communication of the gospel.
I think you best start with God's love, because that's what
softens the heart. A God who's going to send me to
hell. I don't want to even know who he
is, right? Because I don't even think he
loves me. And when you tell people first
about the love of God and what he did for them, then all of a
sudden the message of the need for repentance to be saved from
hell begins to sink in and make good common sense.
So as they're preaching here, these other philosophers, verse
18, certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him.
Some said, what does this babbler want to say?
The Epicureans were developed about 300 years before this
incident took place. They were the people that
believed in the good life, the best wine, the best food, the
best entertainment, the best buildings and property, the
ability to have, you know, the best sensuality or whatever sin
they might be able to experience in their flesh and their body.
It was all reasoned on. This is how we're to live and
enjoy all this good stuff. They didn't want to deal with
any negativity, nothing. It was painful.
Anything that had to do with suffering.
Their whole focus was your best life now, right?
You know someone that proclaims that the best life now that's
Epicureanism multi $1,000,000 mansion, expensive jets, the
best clothing, one of the most influential churches in our
country today. And it's all rooted in Epicurean
spirituality. It's it's sad, it's tragic.
And then the Stoics or the other group where they were like real
hard nosed kind of people. They believed in this idea that
God was in everything and good and bad and evil whatever, and
different, and they didn't want to participate in life like
these Epicurean kind of people. Both of these philosophies are
very warped and distorted, but they had their followers at the
time, and so they're calling Paul a babbler now in that
community. At the time, this was known to
discuss heady spirituality, new, new stuff.
So when someone came into the community, they would go up on
Mars Hill and they had the Agora marketplace on the bottom.
And as you went up, there was these rocks these brains would
sit on and they would talk until midnight, I'm sure about their
philosophy of what they think truth is.
And up on the top was a Parthenon.
It was very influential in the in the wisdom of of Greek
mythology, whatever. And so they're here to have a
conversation with him, with Paul.
Others said this is about Paul. He seems to be a proclaimer of
foreign gods because he preached to them Jesus in the
resurrection. They never heard anything like
this before. And so they took him in verse 19
and brought him to the Areopagus saying, may we know what this
new doctrine is of which you speak for you're bringing some
strange things to our ears. So they're, they're sort of
inquisitive here. Therefore we want to know what
these things mean for all the Athenians.
Verse 21. And the foreigners who were
there spent their time and nothing else but either to tell
or to hear some new things. So this was a cool place to go
to. You got an idea of philosophy, a
new religion or called a false teaching.
They're all weird. They want to hear what you have
to say this because it fascinated him.
So he goes up there and addresses them in verse 22.
Then Paul stood in the midst of the Aeropagus and said, men of
Athens, I perceive them on all things.
You're very religious. So he starts with a compliment.
He doesn't condemn them about their idolatry and put them all
down. He's saying, like you guys seem
to be involved in spiritual things, that in all things
you're very religious. That probably puffed him up a
little bit. Well, this guy's pretty cool.
He thinks highly of us. Yeah, we, we got our act
together here. 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.
Very intriguing way of dialoguing with people about
their need of Christ. Try to find common ground with
someone when you're talking with them to see if there's any
ground that you can have to have a conversation about the gospel.
If there's not a foundation of some kind of place of ground
that you can communicate, you're not going to get too far with
people. But if you're able to listen and
think and ask God for wisdom to to get into their minds and
their hearts a little bit, the Lord will show you how.
And Paul is an ultimate specialist in this kind of
communication. Of course, he's gifted and he's
apostle and the Holy Spirit's in him and all through him and on
upon him. But nonetheless, he says 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.
So right away, these people have these facilities, these
structures that, you know, convey spiritual atmosphere.
You go in and you can say, oh, this is so beautiful.
The gold, the silver, the the artwork, whatever.
This is like really special here, very majestical, whatever.
And maybe that made them feel like there was some sense of a
God that was in the building. And then Paul gradually begins
to explain to them that this Lord of heaven, this Creator
does not dwell in temples made with hands.
Now, how many people in our culture today think that God's
only in the in the house? We come here.
This is where God is. When we leave, he's not here
anymore. I mean, he's not with us
anymore. He's at the house, nor is he
worshiped with man's hands. So they make all this great
stuff. And I'm not putting down, you
know, artwork or beautiful structures and that kind of
stuff. He's educating them here that
that God, it doesn't get excited about everything you built or
made or spent to give people this atmosphere of worship as
though he needed anything. God doesn't need anything.
We can be out on the hillside, we can be out in the
countryside, we can be at the ocean, we can be in the woods,
whatever. You can worship God really
anywhere. If you know who God is, you're
going to be able to worship anywhere.
The benefit of the church is we get to worship God together,
which were called not to forsake the assembling of ourselves
together as a man or some, but exhort one another so much more
as we see today approaching. So we get together and we
encourage each other through the Word and worship and praise, but
God doesn't need anything. We're providing for Him in the
sense of our human ability. It's all what He's given to us.
And so the most you can give God in a way that would honor Him is
to be thankful and to follow the truth of His Word.
It says He gives to all life, breath and all things.
It's like you might want to underline that in your Bible.
He gives to all life, breath and all things and he has made from
one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth
and it's determined to appointed times and the boundaries of
their dwelling. So the sovereignty of God
evidence in these scriptures. God created us from one blood.
We're all descendants of Adam, every nation, doesn't matter
what color of skin or what ethnic background or what
culture people have been from. We all come from this one God,
one blood, every nation of men to dwell on all the faces the
earth. God knows the time that you and
I have. He knows before we get here and
He knows the time and when we're going to go.
So he says in verse 27, so that they should seek the Lord and
hope that they might grow for him and find him, though he is
not far from each one of us. And that's the picture of of
someone in darkness. It's, it's tragic.
Where's the answer to life? I'm feeling here, I'm touching
this, I'm experiencing that, I'm trying this.
I still can't find an answer. People grope.
People groped all day long, all night long, bottles of alcohol
by the bed. They're trying to find an answer
to life. They're depressed.
People take their lives because they're groping.
They can't find the truth. Jesus is the truth, He's the
way, He's a life, and the only way they're going to know is by
you and I and people like Paul and Silas and Timothy telling
these people the gospel so they don't have to grope anymore.
They can find the Lord because faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of God. For in him we live, move, and
have our being. Boy, that's a beautiful truth
and insight, as also some of your poets have said.
So Paul uses poetry and he gives this insight that you can read
poetry and and the Holy Spirit can use poetry.
If some of you saw the movie, I heard the bells on Christmas
Day. Anybody see that movie?
If you haven't, I challenge you to see.
It's the history of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of the
premier leaders in the civil rights movement for freedom of
slavery back in the Civil War days.
Passionate man for the word of God and the truth of God and the
gospel of Jesus Christ. And he wrote poetry, went
through terrible tragedy in his life.
And I'm not going to give the movie away.
You can do. I knew nothing about Longfellow
other than the name I heard in school one time.
No one ever told me how this guy was and how he lived his life.
Remarkable, remarkable man. But anyway, that's from a poet.
In him we live, move and have our being, for we also are his
offspring. So he's telling this whole crowd
of people here that we're all the offspring of this creator
God. He's using natural revelation to
the pagans. When Paul spoke to the Jews, he
used the Old Testament. When he speaks to the pagans,
he's using natural revelation of the the creation.
And the creation causes our conscience.
And though the Bible tells us in the book of Romans that there is
a God that we're accountable to, 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. In other words, all this stuff
you guys have developed, this isn't the divine nature of God.
Truly, verse 30, these times of ignorance God overlooked.
There was a time when God understood obviously the way
we're wired, lost and without him, without hope in the world,
He gave the human race a break for a period of time.
Not that He justified what it was they were doing, but He knew
they needed to have transformation and illumination
that can only come from the Scriptures and the truth of the
Word through the apostles and prophets.
Truly, these signs of ignorance got overlooked, but now commands
all men everywhere to repent. So that's the message then in
the book of the Acts. That's the message now today
that God is commanding every human being on the face of the
planet. They need to repent, change
their mind, and see and believe in the truth, because He's
appointed today in which he will judge the world and
righteousness by the man whom he's ordained.
And of course, that's Jesus Christ.
When he comes back the second time, he's coming back as the
judge. He has given assurance of this
to all by raising him from the dead.
So again, he's preaching the gospel, the death, the burial,
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, verse 32.
And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some
mocked while others said, we will hear you again on this
matter. So Paul departed from them.
So no matter where you are, who you are, even if you're an
apostle, some will laugh at you and scoff at you and mock you.
Some will believe and some will say, well, let me think about it
and I might consider this later. And that's what happened here.
So my challenge and yours and application of today's teaching
is what are we doing with our lives right now as Christians?
Are we participants in the building of the Kingdom through
the preaching of the gospel? And that preaching of the gospel
is just not Sundays in church, right?
It's it's an everyday life, the opportunity to find these people
who are groping out there trying to find an answer and they've
never heard the answer, the ultimate answer that we know
that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
No man comes to the father, but through him.
The good news here after Paul leaves them, it says some men
join him and believed among them diagnosis the Areopagite and a
woman named Damaris and others with them.
So this the the wonder of this guy, his simple heart and loving
God and doing what Jesus said go into all the world, preach the
gospel to every living creature. That is the foundation and the
ultimate command that Jesus left with His church, His disciples,
His apostles, before He ascended into heaven, right?
How are we doing with sharing the gospel?
Personally? How are we doing with sharing
the gospel as a church? We have a radio station and
thank God it's out there and people are listening and
believing and some of you have found the church because of
that. But that's on the air.
You got to find 100.3 FM. They actually hear anything,
right? You and I are a 24/7 living
broadcast person or people to be able to communicate to people in
live time, wherever we are, the good news of the gospel.
I think of Longfellow when I watched that movie and I said to
my wife last night, I said I want to live for something
that's bigger than myself. I get caught up in my life like
you do too. And making a living or doing
whatever we got to do every day and thank God for our careers
and our, you know, the things God allows us to accumulate
whatever. But at the end of the day, I
want my life, and I know you do too, to, to account for
something that's way beyond this natural realm.
And so my prayer for me as well as you today.
And that we have more love in our hearts, more care, and more
concern for people who need a Savior.
Inviting people to church, inviting people to listen to
YouTube, giving people a Bible. We got Bibles out there to give
to people to read and and define that that God is the promise
keeper and the people would come to faith in Jesus Christ.
Lord, you did this for me. You shed your blood, You gave
yourself on the cross for my sins.
What is it you want of me? He wants more of us.
He wants more of our hearts or our lives.
And He doesn't demand. He woos us to Himself.
He causes the Word of God to soften our hearts and to cause
us to know we need more of Jesus every day.
We need to be sensitive to His Spirit and how He wants to use
us in our lives, in our homes and our marriages and our kids,
our families, neighborhood, community, church, world,
remembering what He did for us. And then we leave here,
hopefully with a sense of deeper understanding of what it means
to be a witness of Jesus Christ. How can we be a more influential
witness? And that's the work of the Holy
Spirit in each of our lives. That's not something you or I
figure out. Well, I'm going to do better at
this or try harder at this. No, it's like, Holy Spirit, you
live in me. Take my personality, my gifts,
my abilities, my talents, my resources, and use them for what
will count for eternity, right? Only one life will soon be
passed. Only what's done for Christ will
last. Father God, we come and we are
humbled, Lord, by your word today.
Lord, we're thrilled when we see this testimony and this history
of these two guys, this going out and sharing the gospel and
what you do as a result of the gospel being shared.
You save souls, Lord, who've chosen the the preaching of the
gospel is the power of God and to salvation to all those who
believe to the Jew 1st and also to the Greek Father, I pray you
would make us a a witnessing church, a witnessing people that
Lord as we do our lives, Lord, that we look for opportunities
as Paul did and he walked around the streets of Athens who who
might be groping who might be desperate for a Savior.
Lord, we surrender our lives to you again today afresh soften
us, Lord, cause us to be enthralled with your love and
your grace and your majesty. Make us gracious people, Lord,
make us loving people. Make us caring and compassionate
people for those who are without you.
Lord, bless my brothers and sisters as we're on this journey
together, Lord, learning more about you, learning how to to
serve you, Lord. And we pray, Father, that all
that we do and all that we say would all give honor and glory
to You. Thank you for listening to this
edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Pastor Clark is teaching us about the book of Acts in this
series. Acts is a powerful and unique
part of Scripture, not just because it records the spread of
the gospel geographically from Jerusalem to the ends of the
earth, but also culturally. Acts shows us how the message of
Jesus moved beyond its Jewish roots and began to reach the
Gentile world. What started with Peter leading
a small group in the Upper Room became a global movement with
Paul taking the gospel to cities, synagogues and
marketplaces across the Roman Empire.
Acts captures this vital transition and reminds us that
the good news of Jesus is for all people in every place.
May we be inspired to carry that same gospel boldly into our
world today. Living Waters of Grace comes to
you from Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, you can listen to Grace FM
on the new 91.7 frequency. Pray about helping support the
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Send gifts to Grace FMPO, Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601 also
invite you to join us in person this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E
Pittsburgh St. Unit 6B.
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