His Spirit Was Provoked
First B Jackson
2025-06-15

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Here we are up to Acts 17. Acts seventeen sixteen. So last week, I covered the less popular point in Acts 17 because most people, if you just mention Acts 17 to somebody who studied the Bible at all, most everybody in their head goes, oh, that's Paul at Athens. That's where we're going today but last week was the road to get there, road tripping, to get there.

Thessalonica and Berea. So, Acts seventeen sixteen, we're going to get to Athens. Can I center him on God for just a moment? I enjoyed that worship service in the sound check this morning and then all the way through and I just thought how good it is to hear y'all singing and I was kinda overwhelmed by it and Carl said in the soundcheck this morning, he goes, hey, I want it to be less of us and more of them this morning and I don't know if we turned it down or what happened but I could hear y'all this morning and man, God, thank you. We wanna do your will and your way.

We're thankful to be gathered here together with my brothers and sisters. Would you show us would you show us, lord, where we fit into what's going on in the text today? Where it should apply to our lives today? Would you show us something today Lord? Amen and bless you.

Now, while Paul's waiting for them in Athens, Paul went ahead, know, Paul went ahead because he was when he was in Berea, the folks from Thessalonica were coming over to Berea, and they said, you gotta get out of town, man. So they put him probably on a boat, and he gets to Athens. Now, while Paul was waiting for Timothy and Silas and probably Luca to show up in Athens, he's right there and he's wandered around town. I'm sure as was his custom, he's looking for a synagogue. I would think that that's what's going on but we don't hear about that in this chapter.

We hear what was happening. His spirit, doesn't say the Holy Spirit but his own spirit within him was provoked. It was provoked as he observed the city that was full of idols. Okay. I can stop right there.

Are your Is your spirit provoked within you when you wander around the streets of your hometown or of this town? When you see so many idols, so many things that people are worshiping that is other than God. It it is it is. It's not triggering, but it does provoke your spirit to go, boy there are so many things that don't matter. There's so many things that don't matter.

There's so many things that we put out there. Oh, if only I could have this, and then when we get that, it falls short of expectations and we want even more. So just just this to me, his spirit was being provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of it just is. So he was reasoning in the synagogue. The reasoning in the synagogue doesn't necessarily mean it was during the service.

It was he was reasoning at the assembly point in the synagogue with the Jews and with the God fearing Gentiles. I mentioned this last week in Berea and in Thessalonica. He reasoned with them from the scriptures. He was explaining, he was reasoning, he was taking what he knew of the scriptures and taking what he knew of them and he's working on them from both perspectives. You know this to be true and this is what it says.

Right? So, I'm trying to bring the two of you together, the scriptures together. And in the in the synagogue, they would have already believed the scriptures and already had that as a foundation and so he's using that foundation and saying, the misunderstanding is in that Jesus is Messiah. You just haven't gotten to that yet. It is true and there's enough information in these scriptures to tell you that it's true, and if you open up and you step back from your preconceived notions and the things that tradition has taught you cannot be so, like expecting a military conqueror for a Messiah, like expecting a political leader to save you.

Those things, you gotta drop that. You have to drop that and look at what it says. So he's visiting, he's being with the people, he's reasoning with them from scriptures and he's explaining and he's given evidence. He's saying, no, but look at this, look at this. Alright.

So he's reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God fearing Gentiles because that's the assembly point. Synagogue actually means assembly. Right? And in the marketplace. So he's out and about and he's there every day with those who happen to be present and he's always speaking up because his heart is so full of God and the things of God that it can't help but come out of his mouth because out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

So whoever's around him, you're gonna hear it. If you're if you're chained to him in prison, good luck buddy. Right? He's gonna be telling you about it. He's gonna be singing songs at midnight.

That's the way he is. And some of the Epicurean and stoic philosophers as well were conversing with an Epicurean and stoic are stoic Epicureanism and stoicism are two philosophies that are very present in our world today. Not so much as philosophies, it's just the way that people rank what's important in life. You still see a lot of this. So, if I were to set them side by side, I've got paper notes on this, but Epicurean, this is what I think of.

That's Jimmy Buffett if you don't know who that is. Okay? And then Stoic, this is who I think of. Marshall Matt Dillon. Just cool headed, focused on the problem.

Right? Now, you might see Marcus Aurelius and Zeno, you know, if you've studied that stuff, but Epicureans and Stoics are present. And Epicureans focus on pleasure as being the highest good. How something satisfies our desire is what they focus on. Now, there is some moderation and prudence.

They recognize that that you can go too far. They would. It's not an absolute, you know, hedonism, but it is hedonism. That's what it is. Epicureanism.

So Epicureans also sought to eliminate any fear of the gods or of death because they were seen as major sources of anxiety. When I think about gods, it makes me nervous. So, I don't wanna think about gods. Let's not focus on anything that would make us anxious. Does that sound like the world today?

They believe that the gods were unconcerned with human affairs, that death is simply the dissolution of the body, it's not an entrance to the afterlife, there's no judgment, there's no punishment, there's no nothing afterwards. It's just ends. So Epicureans, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow, you die. They have a very naturalistic world view, they embraced a materialist and naturalistic world view that believed everything is composed of atoms or void, and that natural phenomena have natural explanations, and there is no such thing as supernatural, really. Anybody know anybody like that?

They did believe in friendship. They had a real focus on having a good time with your buddies. I don't know what died about this. Right? Focus on a good time with your buddies.

Epicureanism is that. Don't fear God, don't worry about death, what is good and easy to attain, and what is terrible is easy to endure. Okay. So they just cope with it, figure it out, but go for it too. Go for the gusto.

That's the epicurean kind of thing. And then the Stoics, they focused on what you can control. First and foremost, control over your thoughts and actions. You cannot control what happens around you or to you, but true freedom lies in controlling your own internal state and keeping an even keel no matter what comes. Acceptance of what you can't control, the principle emphasizes acceptance of events beyond your influence.

There's nothing I can do about that, so it it cannot bother me. I cannot let it bother me. I will focus on what I can control only. Stoicism encourages being present and aware of your internal state and bringing it under control. That's the main thing.

But also the importance of the virtues, they did see things as virtuous. I don't want to paint them in a light that is not not fair. They focused on wisdom, and justice, and courage, and temperance. Are those good things? They're great things.

They're great things. There are things about the Epicureans that line up with a good Christian life, and there are things about the Stoics that line up with a good Christian life. There are. I don't wanna say they're absolute heathens, and they're absolute heathenists. Absolutely blah.

No. There there are some good things there. In fact, Zeno, the one that's kind of started stoicism, said the goal of life is living in agreement with nature. And we live in a place where there are a lot of people that believe the goal of life is living in agreement with nature. Do the best you can to do the best you can for the surrounding around you, including people around you.

So, they live with in accordance with nature, understand the natural order, embracing the present moment, that's important. Getting getting that over it. Accepting mortality. Death is a natural part of life, embracing it is inevitable. That can't bother me.

Not worried about it. There's no judgment though. In stoicism, there's no judgment, and in epicuretism, there's no judgment. They disagree with each other, and that's what they're doing here. The focus on personal growth and stoicism, I I see a lot of stoicism within the church.

I see a lot really on in the self help books of the church. It's mostly stoicism. Importance of relationships though. They did hang out with their buddies. They really did like to hang out with one another.

Embracing simplicity and focusing on what truly matters. That's stoicism. So, there you go. Now, some of those Epicureans and the stoics. Some of those were saying, what could this scavenger of tidbits wanna say?

In your Bible, it might say babbler or idle babbler. A scavenger of tidbits. That's an insult that no matter what language it's in. Right? I don't know how you'd say it in French, but that's a that's not that's not a good thing.

What could this scavenger a tidbit? Look at this dude. Spermoligus. Spermoligus is the word. It is Sperma is seed, and then logos is the word about seed.

So a seed picker, like a crow, someone who hangs around the easy place to get extra seed. Okay? If you're ever around a place where it's moved from one place to another and there's some that falls off the truck or falls out of the auger, there's gonna be a group of crows around that just kind of picking at it all the time. Going as going at it for as easy as it can. Figurative, it's one who picks up little scraps of knowledge.

They didn't really earn them. They haven't really studied. Oh my goodness. Does this sound like anyone we know? Everybody on TikTok talk is an expert about everything all the time.

Yes. Picking up seeds, used the birds, that's where it comes from, like a crow or a doll that picks up grain in the fields. But of people, this is from Homer. In the Odyssey says, they're lounging about the marketplace and picking up a subsistence from whatever may chance to fall from the loads. It's a lazy intellectualism.

That's what they're accusing him of. Off the bat, before they even really hear what he has to say, beggarly, abject, vile, just a parasite. What is this dude doing here? He's getting a life by flattery and buffoonery. Oh my goodness.

What could this scavenger of tidbits wanna say? And others said, he seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities. Plural, strange deities. Now, we know Paul and we know that what he's preaching is God. And God God, he would preach trinity.

I'm sure he preached Jesus and him crucified. Later, he would say, and I think that it's based on his experience in Athens. Later, he would say, I have sought while I was among you Corinthians to only know Christ and him crucified because that's what matters. Right? Getting down to it, that's what matters.

He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities. Some commentaries and some people think that the Jesus because he was proclaiming or preaching Jesus and the resurrection, they saw that as two different gods. Jesus being one and the resurrection is a different God. I don't think that that's it's grammatically possible, but I don't think that's what he's saying. I know what Paul was saying.

He's preaching Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection period. So it's that point that they say, and we don't know who he's talking about. And they took him and they brought him to the Areopagus. And Areopagus is a place in Athens, it didn't move, it's still there. It's Ares Hill or Mars Hill.

How many of you all been there? Just wondering. Yeah. Figured. There are quite a few of you.

It's right there, kinda overlooking, and it's the place where the philosophers gathered, and they spouted their philosophies, and they questioned one another, and it's Generally, it's a place of learning. It's not a it's it's an open forum, basically, a place of learning. So they took him to the Areopagus. May we know what this new teaching is that you are proclaiming, preaching? What is this new teaching we haven't heard before?

For you're bringing some strange things to our ears, so we wanna know what these things mean. They are truly inquisitive about what's going on. Now, it's completely foreign to them. There is a synagogue in town that may have heard some Jewish stuff, but they tended to excuse my French. Poo poo.

They they tended to do that to Judaism. They really didn't care for them. You're But bringing some strange things to our ears, so we wanna know what these things mean. Now, all the Athenians were strangers visiting there, used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new. Does it sound like Luke just called them seed pickers?

That's exactly what he did. He said, all they're about is whatever is new and novel, what's the latest, greatest new idea or thing. They like to be They like for their interest to be peaked. They like to hear something new, a new way of understanding. And and it says it in the text, that's what they're asking for.

But there's something new. It just feels like Luke gave a little dig back at them, they accused Paul of this, but this is actually what they are. This is way past the height of the classic age of Greece too. Right? We have some scholars in the room that know, like 500 BC, Greece is on the top of its game, and it starts trailing off.

And 300 BC, they're still doing alright. At this point, they're kind of in the late afternoon of their glory, one commentator says. So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and he says, men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects. Okay. Can I stop here for just a second?

Can we say that? I mean, even the folks that are irreligious, they're worshiping something. Right? We have a tendency to pick our team. It might be the red team, it might be the blue team.

It might be the Broncos and it might be the Chargers. It could be a literal team or it could just be somewhere where we feel like we fit so that we can call them the other. Epicurean stoics, We wanna fit into whatever and and we practice the tenants of whatever that group says we're supposed to do. Men of Athens, I see that you're very religious in all aspects, all respects. For while I was passing through and examined the objects of your worship, he doesn't say, it made me sick.

That's what it says to begin with because when he was passing through their idols, and it was making him sick. It was stirring his spirit. It was turning his stomach and he says, for while I was passing through and examining your objects of worship, o men of Athens, I found an altar with this inscription. This altar is to an unknown God. That's really religious right there if you're trying to cover your bases to the point where you're saying, and if we missed one, we're worshiping that one too.

Lay it out there for the unknown God. If I'm, you know, I'm covering zoos here and I'm covering Aries there and I'm covering all of these goddess of the hunt, all that sort of stuff. But here's one, he finds an altar with inscription to an unknown God. There are multiple people who've mentioned this in ancient history that the Athenians had this up there and more than one of them. Therefore, that which you worship in ignorance.

You're you are worshiping an unknown God trying to cover your bases and what you're worshiping in total ignorance. This is what I'm here proclaiming. You ask me what it is I'm proclaiming, you wanna understand it, you're already seeking God. It would be a much better attitude for us to have in the world to think that people are worshipers and they're gonna worship something. And that even though they're wrong, they're seeking after God.

It'd be a much better attitude for us to have thinking, wow, That is a religious exercise what they're doing right now. And though it may be distorted, there's some religious zeal there. There's some faith there that they've placed in their team that should be placed in God. God, how is it that we can reason with them gently? We don't have to tell them everything that makes us sick, Paul didn't tell them.

Therefore, I'm proclaiming what you worship in ignorance. You just don't know it. I'm proclaiming this to you. So here we go. And he's got this is a full paragraph and there everybody breaks this down different ways, but he starts with creation.

The God who made the world and everything that is in it. Now, for us, the God is the God. Period. For them, they're just hearing about this God. He's saying, the God of creation who made the world and everything that's in it.

That's a beginning of a blessing in Judaism. The God who made the world and everything that is in it, we give you thanks. Right? Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't dwell in temples made by hands. He's on the Areopagus.

The Acropolis is right behind him. He's walked through temples in the streets, there are little shrines everywhere, and he says, but that's not where God lives. Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything. He's God. He's above all.

We are finite beings and he is an infinite God and he is hard to understand for that very reason. He is not served by humans then, hands as though he needed anything. He himself he himself is the one that gives to all people life and breath and all things. Everything that you have comes from this God. It's by his general revelation.

Creation is pouring forth speech. There's no language where this voice cannot be heard. You have to try to suppress the truth around you to come up with anything other than God did this. Amen. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habituation or habitation.

He said that he basically is telling the the story of Adam and then the nations and my first being the Bible this week was was first Chronicles one through three where it's just genealogy the entire time. And for me, I go, oh, my eyes are crossing. I haven't even gotten three generations away from Adam yet. But it's important to track this sort of stuff. It's important to know that in real time, in real life.

Right? He made from one man every nation of mankind live on all the face of the earth and having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation. Why? So that they would seek after him. God has placed eternity on our hearts, Solomon says.

And we are constantly unless we suppress it, we're constantly in that mode of, I need to know who did this. What happened here? That they would seek after God. If perhaps they might even feel around for him, grope after him and find him though he's not far from each one of us. God resists the proud, he gives grace to the humble.

To admit that you do not know because God is infinite and I'm finite is not a bad thing. Right? That's not a bad thing. To nail every single point down, you you get to where you're suppressing the truth when you do that. You get to a place where you're not seeking after God anymore.

You want to be God. You want to put yourself and your attitude and your team up above everybody else. He says the whole thing is about seeking after God. He he did this so that they would seek after him that they might grope around. That's another thing from one of the old classic stories.

I think it's from Homer, the Cyclops. It says the Cyclops is blinded, one eyed guy, and they stuck a skewer through it, and he's groping around the dark. Same word, same tense even right here. He was they're groping around in the dark looking for something. It makes sense that people come up with ridiculous notions.

Okay? For us who have been brought up in the church or been brought up with the Bible or at some point God brought us in and you start to see it and everything's clicking right now. We can easily forget that that people are born worshippers and it's either gonna be God or it's gonna be something else and they'll make up stuff. It's the history of mankind that they make up stuff. We make up stuff.

For in him we live and we move and we exist and even as some of your own poets. Paul was very well educated. He's from Tarsus, he had studied there, he studied under Gamaliel Judaism, but he had also studied secular stuff. He's not a seed picker. This choker has done his work.

In Arabia, in other places, he sought to fill his mind because he was called of God to be an explainer, a reasoner of the things of God. As your own poets have said, for we also are his descendants. That comes from Actually, first, the first one was Cleanthes or Cleanthes, my pronunciation is just as bad. This is a hymn to Zeus from Cleanthes around 300 BC, more in the golden era of Athenian and Greek prominence. Most glorious of immortals, many named almighty and forever thee, o Zeus.

Sovereign over nature, guiding with thy hand all things that are. We greet with praises. All truth is God's truth, right? And people who are groping in the darkness, every once in while, they're going to find something that's real of God and they're calling them Zeus because they don't know God. But these things are true of God.

These things are, not everything that they say about Zeus. Thee, meet that mortals call with one accord for that we, thine offspring are. And we alone, of all that live and move upon the search, receive the gift of imitative speech. Okay? Aretas, probably from Tarsus, by the way.

He's of that school, and Paul would have known this, top of the mind even. Two seventy two BC from Zeus began, never let us leave. Oh, this is at the beginning of something he he says, we don't wanna we gotta start with a prayer. Here it is to Zeus. These first five lines from Zeus, we're gonna start off.

It's an invocation. Never let us leave his name unloved. We gotta say that for Zeus because he'll smite us with a lightning bolt if we don't. With him, with Zeus, are filled all paths we tread and all the marks of men, all where we go, filled to the sea and every creek and bay. And all in all, things we need the help of Zeus for we too are his offspring.

Paul's recognizing and using their stuff to quote to them. For in him we live and we move and exist and even as some of your own poets have said, we also his descendants. Therefore, God created with intent and his intent would that we would seek after him and know him. It would humble us. You even recognize that.

All of that. Therefore, since we are descendants of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like silver or gold. You've gotta get over that. Basically, is what he's saying. This, you really?

It reminds me of the Isaiah passage that said, you hire some craftsman, you pay them a bunch of stuff to take a piece of wood, to cover it with gold, and then you have to slip a little wedge up under it so that it won't fall over. Does that make any sense to you? We ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver stone, an image that's formed by human skill or by thought. So having overlooked the times of ignorance, what I proclaim, I proclaim what you worship in ignorance, you're getting there, but what you're getting towards, I've already got and I'm gonna share it with you in a way you can understand. So, haven't overlooked the fact that you completely did not know.

God is right now proclaiming to all mankind that all people everywhere are to repent. Instead of being too proud, instead of being proud, because God resists the proud. You're to humble yourself and repent. So now, this is the time he's speaking it forth and they're listening, and then he comes what neither the stoics nor the epicureans believe because he, God has set a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness. He's the only righteous judge.

He will judge him through a man who he has appointed, that's Jesus, having furnished proof to all by raising him from the dead. Now, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, they cut him off. Somebody get my goodness. He's talking about somebody raising him from the dead. We know that doesn't happen.

We had never seen that happen. That's ridiculous. Scoff. Some began to scoff. But others said, no.

Let's hear him out. Let's hear him out. We'll hear you again on this. I don't know how long Paul went on. We don't have a short portion of what's going on.

We don't have a list of the questions offered or the answers he gave necessarily. We shall hear from you again concerning this. That's a that's a pretty good audience. He didn't run them off. Some of them are scoffing.

Yeah, people are gonna scoff at you. If you present the gospel in your life and in your words, people will scoff at you. Trust me. I have church people do it. But then, if you're winsome and you care about them and their souls and their actual livelihood and their well-being here on earth, if you actually care about them, You don't hit them with all the truth at once.

You hit them with the truth of Christ and let Christ deal with their conditions like he's dealing with yours. We shall hear from you again concerning this is not a bad outcome. So Paul went out from among them. Okay. Another day.

But some men joined him and believed. And that's cool. You present the gospel sometimes it's gonna take root. People are gonna believe it. It's sometimes it'll just baffle you and go, with that?

With that sermon, that's what you heard? Goodness gracious. Oh, because of the cup of cold water given in Jesus name. Because we helped you get out of town? Wow.

Some men joined and believed. And among those also were Dionysius, don't know who that is really, don't hear about him later on, and the Areopagite, Dionysus the Areopagite. So he hung out listening to philosophies all the time. He's known for his thing hanging out at Mars Hill. And then there's a woman named Demeris or Dameris Demeris, others with them.

Four. At least at least four, because others means there had to be two more. Dionysius the error Apogite and Damaris and at least two more. Who knows how many more? That's not a big, that's not a big haul.

That's not a that's not a convincing sort of a Billy Graham arrival at the front where you need to deal with them with local churches later. That's just four people that we know about. Paul was reasoning with them and there the commentaries and the commentators are split on this and some of them think he met on Mars Hill and he did it their way. And that's why he didn't get any results. He did get results.

Four is four. He presented the truth of scripture in a way that they can understand. How can you be upset about that? It's not a big take. Sometimes it's not.

It's just the way it is. There were grander crowds in smaller places. These people used to hearing new things and I don't know. It wasn't very good today. Went up there, dude named Paul.

I don't know what I think about that. This is what comes next. Right? When he goes to Corinth and then later when he writes to Corinth, he said, listen, I kinda felt bad about Athens. It's subtext, it doesn't say this.

But he was like, trying to meet people exactly where they are and just argue their way. If they don't allow Christ a chance, you're not gonna change many people. So while I was among you, what I determined to know was nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. It's not a debate whether your philosophy or theology is better than mine. I just have to turn my eyes on Jesus and let him permeate my soul and direct me.

In him, I live, I move, I have my being, and then let me pick up the references Lord that are necessary, but God would you just guard my heart that I don't walk away from the thing that makes Jesus unique. Would you stand with me? We're gonna invite the band back up, sing one more song. God, wanna do your will and your way. Would you show us where is Mars Hill around here for us, for individually for us?

Where is it that we might have something that's just been completely absent from the conversation? Would you allow us with our lives and with our words to bring honor and glory to Christ and to have other folks hear us out. May we not be running folks off.