Apr. 24, 2022

What If I’m Wrong?

April 23 & 24, 2022

Primary Text: Acts 17:16-34

Previous Teaching: What If It Never Happened?

1) No Resurrection?

1 Corinthians 15:13-14, 17-19: If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not

even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is

useless and so is your faith…. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile;

you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

DQ 1) If there is no resurrection of Jesus, is Christianity a meaningless

religion?

DQ 2) Why would faith in Christ be demoralizing if Jesus was not raised from

the dead?

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2) The Eternal Hope!

1 Corinthians 15:20-22: But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the

firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the

resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in

Christ all will be made alive.

DQ 3) How does the Holy Spirit testify about the resurrection of Jesus?

DQ 4) What does it mean to live “in the power of the resurrection”?

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This Week’s Teachings

1) Idols Everywhere

Acts 17:16-17: 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 the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.

DQ 1) What constitutes an idol? What is idolatry?

DQ 2) What are examples of idols in our culture?

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2) Human Philosophies

Acts 17:18: A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute 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.

DQ 3) What is Epicureanism and Stoicism?

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3) An Unknown God

Acts 17:19-23: 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 want 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: "Men 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."

DQ 4) Are there altars to “unknown gods” in our culture?

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4) The Truth!

Acts 17:23-29: Now what you worship as something unknown 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 hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they

should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the

exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and

perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each 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 man's

design and skill."

DQ 5) What specific truths did Paul proclaim in Acts 17:24-28?

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5) The Dividing Line

Acts 17:30-34: "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 all men 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. A few men 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.

DQ 6) What is the call of God to repentance for everyone? What is genuine

repentance?

DQ 7) What keeps anyone from understanding and living in the truth?

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