April 9, 2023
Jon Schock
Resurrection Reminders
“Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?’ Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities” – because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him.
Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
‘For we are indeed his offspring’.
Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
—Acts 17:16-31“if [Jesus] has not been raised from the dead, then your faith is worth less than yesterday’s garbage, you are all doomed in your sins, and all the dearly departed who trusted in His liberation are left decaying in the ground. If what we have hope for in [Jesus] doesn’t take us beyond this life, then we are world-class fools, deserving everyone’s pity.” —1 Corinthians 15
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- Now that Lent is over and Resurrection Sunday has passed, talk about how this season was for you personally.
Read Acts 17:16-31. What jumps out to you in the passage?
How would you compare the situation in Athens to our day today? Similar? Different?
- Do you believe the Resurrection is a “deal-breaker” for people? Would you say its something that can be optional to believe as a Christian? Why or why not?
- How do you see “longing for more” in the people around you personally today? What do you think they are longing for under the surface?
- How do you experience General Revelation personally? How would you say that experience is not enough for you?
- In what way does the Resurrection reveal God in a way that was not revealed before?
- Read Acts 10:39-42. What were the critical things for both Paul and Peter to tell in this early gospel presentation?
- What comfort in particular does the Resurrection bring to you?
Close in prayer.