3 Responses to the Resurrection at Athens

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SUNDAY 20 APRIL 2025 - MR JOHN WEIR

ACTS 17 VERSES 22 TO 34

I think you would all agree Paul was a great soul winner. He arrived in the great city of Athens. Everywhere he went he carried a great burden. He had his sights on how to preach to the souls of men and women. In Acts the early church were full of passion and zeal to change the world. Oh that that would happen again in our province, that the Holy Spirit might get hold of your life and my life, that we might live completely for the Saviour. In Athens he does not keep quiet. He begins to preach about Jesus and the resurrection of Christ. Do you know anyone like that? Everywhere they go they just want people to meet the Saviour. In verse 17 we read that Paul reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and in the market place, all the daily places he encountered people. He encountered the philosophers and stoics, intelligent men and shared with them despite their background and upbringing. There were 3 responses at Athens as Paul preached and shared the resurrection.

The group who derided the message. Some mocked or derided him. The Cambridge Dictionary defines the word "deride" as to laugh at or show no respect for someone because you think they are stupid or of no value. Have you ever been laughed at for the message of the gospel? Paul was jeered at. They thought it was nonsense. They couldn't grasp the message of the resurrection. They thought he was a babbler verse 18. That is not a nice term. A babbler is someone who makes up their own ideas. "What will this babbler say?"  "A setter forth of strange gods" These were meant to be intelligent people. Free thinkers, philosophers, intelligent people. These Epicureans were all about pursuing pleasure. Live and let live mentality. You don't tell us what to do. Lived for food and lifestyle, materialists. They believed there was no life after death. Do your best and everything will work out in the end. There are many like that in Northern Ireland. Stoics. Personal discipline and self control. Believed in mother nature and that God couldn't be known personally. Paul is mocked. Many mock the church and many mock the lovely person of the Lord. Many Christians are being persecuted around the world but also in our own land. Many are being taken to court for taking their stand for the Saviour. The fear of God has left our nation. We need to pray. We need more prayer and less preaching. I trust you are at the prayer meeting, that God will have mercy in this province of ours. The Saviour was mocked - Matthew 27 verses 29 to 44. The chief priests, scribes and elders mocked him. Many in the crowd mocked him. "Men loved darkness rather than light." The most holy man in the world was mocked. He went about doing good, raising people from the dead, giving sight to the blind and they mocked him. Maybe you are getting things difficult for being a Christian. It is worth it all. "If the world hate you know it hated me before you." Let's pray for those who are also suffering persecution in the world. Many are facing the death penalty because they love the Saviour. Do you pray for the persecuted church? The bible has much to say of mockers. Peter said "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts. And saying, Where is the promise of his coming?" Jude said "How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts." Job said "Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?" There is so much in the bible about mockery. Why do people mock the gospel? Some believe in the theory of evolution. Some cannot understand the theory of only one way to heaven. Others say there are too many hypocrites in the church. Others just enjoy their sin. You know you should be saved deep down but you want the world, all the world has to offer. George Palmer tells the story of how he and his 9 gang members went to kill Billy Graham at his crusade in Melbourne, Australia. 9 out of the 10 gang members were saved that night.

The group who delayed the message. "We will hear thee again of this matter." There were interested, troubled, disturbed, wanted to hear more. Maybe they had enough of all the cold, dead, formal religion. Only a relationship with Christ can satisfy the need of the human heart. It makes all the difference when we experience his love and forgiveness. We want to live totally for him. There are many types of conversions. For some the first time they hear the gospel they respond. For others over a period of time, maybe a death in the family, sickness, set backs, questions and answers. Sadly many do not respond. The longer you leave it the more difficult it gets. For Felix he trembled as Paul preached. He was concerned. He thought he would have another opportunity, a more convenient season. 

"Jesus for your choice is waiting;

Tarry not; at once decide!

While the Spirit now is striving,

Yield and seek the Saviour's side

Come believing! come believing!

Look and live"

Is that an invitation you have heard before? Have you been to the mission previously and now you are back again? Maybe you took a booklet, read it and are back again. You want to hear more and you know the Lord is tugging at your heart. You have been thinking a lot. Here you are at the mission again. "Seek the Lord while he may be found." We have sensed the presence of the Lord in this mission because God is here. "Behold now is the accepted time." There are others who come to the mission and they sit on the fence like Pilate. They enjoy Christian presence but they will not come out for the Lord themselves. "He that is not with me is against me." Like Felix who trembled you want to hear more.

The group who decided to accept the message. That is what I am praying you will do tonight - accept the Lord. Verses 33 and 34 "So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them." They "clave unto him and believed." You had the mockers, the one who delayed and then those who accepted. Maybe this meeting is for you to accept the Saviour. It must have thrilled Paul's heart. He was moved with compassion. He was stirred in his Spirit. Dionysius was a high ranking official, a judge. Damaris was a woman who we don't know much about. A tremendous good work was done in this place. God can move in the most difficult of places. Who would have thought of Athens, a place of idolatry and paganism. We don't need gimmicks to bring people in. We need the old paths. We don't want the world in our church. All we need is prayer, preaching and holiness, repentance of sin, singing of the precious blood. When it is noised abroad that Jesus is in the house people will come in. In Acts 2 we read of 3000 coming to faith, in Acts 4 verse 4 5000, in Acts 13 we read of many of the Gentiles coming to faith, in Acts 16 we read of Lydia and in Acts 18 Crispus the chief ruler of the synagogue and his household and many of the Corinthians. As they preached, prayed and fasted many sought the Lord. Wouldn't it be great if it happened in your local church? If people got converted. He can change individuals, communities, nations, even you. Have you reached your neighbours recently? Do they know what you believe? That you are a born again Christian? That you love the Lord? Lewis Wallace was a lawyer in the nineteenth century in America. He was a Union General, governor of New Mexico. He set out to write a book to disprove the resurrection. He examined the evidence and realised that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead. He went on to write a famous book Ben Hur which was made into a Holywood film. Hundreds maybe thousands have been converted through watching that film. Frank Morison was another lawyer who wrote a book Who Moved the Stone? A famous lawer, a sceptic who disproved the resurrection became a Christian. Maybe there is an agnostic, an atheist here tonight. Maybe you have decided to accept the message. I pray that this will be the night you accept the Lord. Are you saved tonight? Do you know you are saved? "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away: behold all things are become new." Have you repented of your sin? Has there been a change in your heart, mind and tongue? Salvation is all about the miracle of new birth. You were dead in your trespasses and sin, blinded by the God of this world. The Lord touched us and we have been changed for ever. Or maybe you haven't got the real thing. Maybe you have doubts, maybe you made a profession years ago which is not real. Live a life that is different. Too many are living in this world with one foot in the church and one in the world. Live a surrendered life tonight.