Sunday Evening sermon from Acts 17 at the Heritage Addition church of Christ located in Booneville Arkansas

1. To Know
the
Acts 17:16-34
by Jim Bradshaw
Heritage Addition
church of Christ
Sept. 13, 2015
Sunday Evening

2. Wouldn't You like to know the
Future?

3. The men of Athens considered themselves to be superior to
others due to their intelligence
Read 1 Corinthians
1:22-29

4. Exasperated!!!
Act 17:16-17 NKJV 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. (17) Therefore he reasoned
in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile
worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who
happened to be there.
Provoked: (paroxunō) to make sharp, sharpen; to stimulate,
spur on, urge; to irritate, provoke, arouse to anger; to scorn,
despise; provoke, make angry; to exasperate, to burn with
anger
• Almost the whole town were Idol worshippers!!!
• Over 30,000 Idols were worshipped by on 10,000 residents

5. Strange New
LeftoversAct 17:18-21 NKJV Then certain Epicurean and Stoic
philosophers encountered him. And some said, "What does
this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a
proclaimer of foreign gods," because he preached to them
Jesus and the resurrection. (19) And they took him and
brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what
this new doctrine is of which you speak? (20) For you are
bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to
know what these things mean." (21) For all the Athenians and
the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else
but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
Babbler – (spermologos) a seed picker

6. Strange New
LeftoversAct 17:18-21 NKJV Then certain Epicurean and Stoic
philosophers encountered him. And some said, "What does this
babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer
of foreign gods," because he preached to them Jesus and the
resurrection. (19) And they took him and brought him to the
Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new doctrine is of
which you speak? (20) For you are bringing some strange
things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things
mean." (21) For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were
there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear
some new thing.
Daimonion not theos – which means a demon. To the Greeks
demons were dead men who had been deified.

7. To Know the
UnknownWe Used to be
UniqueSimply “speak where the Bible speaks”
1Pe 2:9 NKJV But you are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you
may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of
darkness into His marvelous light;

8. Read Acts 17:22-31
KJV says, “too superstitious” most others say “very religious”
• Was this a compliment or an insult?
Act 17:23 NKJV 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.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing,
Him I proclaim to you:

9. Paul’s Lesson:
• We must believe in God; Hebrews 11:6
• We are God’s Offspring: Gen 1:26 NKJV Then God said,
"Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the
birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and
over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.“
• God is no man-made idol; John 4:24
• No longer times of ignorance; Salvation has been made to
all.
• All must repent; Luke 13:3, 5
• There will be a judgment day; Eccl. 12:13-14; Heb. 9:27

10. There is a
ResurrectionRom 6:3-6 NKJV Or do you not know that as many of us as
were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
(4) Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into
death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory
of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
(5) For if we have been united together in the likeness of His
death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His
resurrection, (6) knowing this, that our old man was crucified
with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that
we should no longer be slaves of sin.

11. Act 17:32-34 NKJV And when they heard of the resurrection
of the dead, some mocked, while others said, "We will hear
you again on this matter." (33) So Paul departed from among
them. (34) However, some men joined him and believed,
among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named
Damaris, and others with them.
Joined: kollaō - to glue
together