His Spirit Was Provoked

In one paragraph

Paul is in Athens, waiting for Timothy and Silas, and what he sees there stirs him deeply. Pastor Mark walked us through Acts 17:16 and following, tracing how Paul engaged a city full of idols and a culture shaped by Epicurean and Stoic philosophy, and what that encounter might teach us about how we carry the gospel to the people around us today. When Paul arrives in Athens, his spirit is provoked...

Read together

1. Psalm 103 mentioned as a good word to lead the congregation into worship, connected to 'Bless the Lord, oh my soul'
2. Psalm 81 cited as the source of the 'honey in the rock' imagery, God speaking to Israel as provider and deliverer
3. Acts 17:16ff the main sermon text, Paul in Athens observing idols and reasoning with philosophers
4. Ephesians 3:20 quoted by Pam Constant: 'immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to the power that is at work in us'

Talk about it

1. Pam described the church in Grenoble shifting from talking about closing their doors to proclaiming what God is doing in their lives. Have you ever seen that kind of turnaround in a church or in your own faith? What do you think changed first?
2. Pastor Nathan said his spirit was provoked, as Paul's was, when he sees so many things people worship that are not God. What does that provocation look like for you when you walk around Jackson, and what do you do with it?
3. Pastor Nathan laid out both Epicurean and Stoic thinking and said there are things in each that line up with a good Christian life, but also things that fall short. Where do you see those philosophies showing up in your own habits or thinking?
4. Paul found an altar to an unknown God and used it as a bridge rather than leading with everything that was turning his stomach. What would it look like for you to take that approach with someone in your life who is searching but getting it wrong?
5. Pastor Nathan reflected that after Athens, Paul told the Corinthians he determined to know nothing among them except Jesus Christ and him crucified. When have you been tempted to win an argument or make a point instead of just pointing to Christ, and what happened?