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| “For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” |
| —Acts 17:31a |
In the last two blog posts, I’ve given examples of what some today would call “speaking truth to power.” I’ve done this because part of a believer’s joyful service to the Lord Jesus Christ is to share, with loving boldness, the miracle He has performed in our lives. In an age where “feelings” seem to hold priority over facts, our testimonies of the life-changing work that God has done in our lives through His precious Son, Jesus, stands in sharp contrast to all of the temporal satisfaction that the secular culture has to offer. It’s important that we share with others what God has done for us.
As one final example, let me to urge you to read the following account of the Apostle Paul in Athens. That great city was the cultural center of the then known world. Here Paul found himself surrounded by the philosophical and cultural icons of the day. These were the “movers and shakers.” As you read, notice how Paul, enabled by the Holy Spirit, crafted his message in a way that made it absolutely relevant to his listeners. He shares the truth of God in a very powerful way. Here’s Acts 17:16-34:
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate 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. 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? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
Talk about speaking truth to power! I wonder, dear ones, would we dare be so honest?
Originally posted on Friday, February 20, 2015
