The blessing we've had, we've been pointed back to the cross, we've been pointed back
to that story of salvation, of Jesus dying for our sins.
We've seen enacted the symbolism of dying to an old way of life and being buried and
resurrecting with Jesus into a new way of life.
And Lord, just be with us as we take some time here this morning and open up your word.
In your name we pray, amen.
So did anybody stay up extra late any this week for any reasons, maybe out of the ordinary
some different situations or anything like that?
Yeah, I think some of us maybe did.
It wasn't this time, but it was a couple elections ago that there was a story about a man who
was staying up but he ended up going to bed before the results were finalized and he woke
up the next day, he didn't think about it, he went to work and before he knew it, 24
hours had passed and he hadn't heard who had won the election.
And he wondered how long he could stay, blissfully ignorant was the words he used, how long he
could remain in a cone of silence and not hear what the results were.
But I know by now all of us, most of us have heard and we know how that election turned
out and the fact of the matter is that in the world that we live in, in the state that
we live in, the community that we live in, even the church that we're a part of, there
are some people that are thrilled and beyond excited at the way the election turned out.
That's some people.
But then there's other people who are bitterly disappointed about the way the election turned
out.
And we see results and we see responses on both sides of that equation.
And so the question that we have to ask ourselves is, now what?
What now?
How do we respond?
What happens this week?
So before we get into our topic, we're going to be digging into Acts chapter 17 eventually.
We had looked at Acts back at the beginning of the year and we'd gone through about half
of the book and we're just going to jump back into one section.
But before we do that, I just want to share some thoughts here.
What now?
First thing that we need to ponder and think of is that some, I don't know who, some maybe
or maybe other people, some people maybe need to mend some fences.
Maybe the way that words have been said either in excitement or in disappointment, you know,
our country is very still divided.
We see that in the last six months.
And so there may be some that need to mend a fence, to listen, to understand someone's
point of view.
Now our nation is very disappointed and we can't fix the nation.
But in our own sphere of influence, perhaps we can make a difference.
Perhaps we can show love, we can show understanding, we can show support.
Because that's what we're called to do as Christians.
That's not what we're called to do as Republicans or Democrats, but as Christians, that's what
we're called to do.
Another thing we can think about as we consider any election, we can recognize that God is
not surprised.
God didn't wake up on Wednesday and say, oh, what happened?
God didn't wake up four years ago and say, whoa, I wasn't expecting that.
Whether it was George Washington or Joe Biden or Donald Trump, God's not surprised.
God doesn't have to throw out his end time events scenario based on an election.
God is not surprised.
This doesn't throw off his plan.
Something else we can do as Christians is to pray.
Let's go to 1 Timothy chapter two.
Before we get to Acts, I want to dip into 1 Timothy chapter two.
This reminds us that what we are called to do as Christians every day, no matter what,
1 Corinthians chapter two.
Paul writes, therefore, I exhort, I encourage, I command first of all that supplications,
prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for who?
For everybody, for all men.
We need to be praying for our family members.
We need to be praying for our church members.
We need to be praying for our neighbors.
We need to be praying for the people that we work with.
We need to be praying for all people.
But then the next verse gets a little bit more specific.
It says in verse two, for kings and all who are in authority, we need to be praying for
them that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of our Lord God.
So we need to be praying for our leaders, for our current president and vice president,
for our upcoming president-elect.
And we need to be praying for our leaders.
We're called to do as Christians.
And then notice verse four, because I think this is key.
It says for this is good and acceptable in the sight of our Savior.
And then it says God our Savior who desires all men, all people to be saved and to come
to the knowledge of the truth.
That's what's most important.
That all people are saved and have an opportunity to come to a knowledge of the truth.
If we spend more time attacking someone or bad mouthing someone, attacking a candidate
or bad mouthing a candidate, if we spend more time doing that than praying for them, then
we need to be careful.
We need to watch what we're doing.
Because verse four, God desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of
the truth.
Our role as Christians this weekend, this Sabbath is exactly the same as our role was
last Sabbath.
To uplift God, to give glory to God, to do what we can to present God in such a way that
all people will come to a knowledge of the truth, that they may come to a knowledge of
the truth and to be saved.
Our role has not changed.
But how we act toward one another can impact our ability to reach others.
So we need to think, is the way that I am interacting with others, is that glorifying
God?
Am I uplifting God by my words?
By my speech?
By my social media posts?
When people look at how I act and how I talk and what I post, are they thinking about Jesus?
Are they thinking about coming to the knowledge of the truth, coming to a place where they
can be saved?
We need to be careful that we are not ruining our opportunity to witness to half the people
around us simply because of what we think about an election one way or another.
It's really easy to say things in such a way that you automatically turn away half the people.
We need to make sure that we're not doing that.
We need to make sure that all that we are doing is uplifting Jesus.
Our role as a Christian has not changed.
Jesus is Lord, Jesus is King, and Jesus is in control and in charge.
With that in mind, let's turn to Acts.
We're going to go to Acts chapter 17, but before we get to Acts 17, I want to discuss
what happened in Acts chapter 16.
Because in Acts chapter 16, Paul goes on a journey.
It's known as the second missionary journey of Paul.
He goes on four different journeys in the book of Acts, and this is the second journey
of Paul.
As Paul begins this journey, he's with Silas and with a young guy named Timothy, and they're
making their way across Asia, Asia Minor.
We would refer to that as Turkey, the region where Turkey is, is where Paul is preaching
and ministering.
Then in about the middle of Acts chapter 16, Paul is sleeping and he has a dream or he
has a vision.
In this dream, in this vision, there's someone in this dream that says, come over to Macedonia
and help us.
It says that Paul had tried to go to different cities.
He tried to go to different towns, but it says that the Holy Spirit prevented him.
We don't know exactly how the Holy Spirit prevented him.
Was there traffic that day?
Did he miss the boat?
Is there some sort of compelling inner feeling to go a different direction?
It says a couple times, Paul tried to go somewhere, but the Spirit prevented him.
Then there's this vision, come over to Macedonia and help us.
If we zoom in on that map, you can see that Paul had to cross from Asia Minor.
He had to cross from Turkey over to Europe, to Greece basically.
This is the first time the gospel by Paul is being preached in Europe.
The gospel is going to a totally new continent now.
That is what is happening in Acts 17.
Acts 16 has some incredible conversion stories.
Hopefully we'll come to that at another time.
For this Sabbath, we're going to dive into Acts chapter 17.
Acts 16 takes place in Philippi.
You can see that right in the middle at the top of that map.
Then notice the next two towns, we're going to see in Acts 17 verse 1.
It says, now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, you see those on
that map?
There's Philippi, then below that Amphipolis, and then Apollonia.
He went through those towns, it says, and then came to Thessalonica.
Let's go one more time.
You see Thessalonica right up here.
That's where this story begins.
Paul has responded to this vision.
Come over to Macedonia and help us.
He comes to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them
from the scriptures.
We talked about this a couple weeks ago during our Forecasting Hope series, that it was Paul's
custom, just like it was Jesus' custom, to go in and worship on the Sabbath day.
Notice what he's doing.
He's reasoning from the scriptures.
Then it tells us what he's talking about in verse 3.
Explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead
and saying, this Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.
That was Paul's message as he went into the synagogue in Thessalonica.
As he goes to other places, he is explaining, he is demonstrating that Jesus had to suffer,
that he would die, but then that he would rise again.
He says, this is the Jesus, this is the one that I'm talking about.
This is who I am preaching about.
Notice verse 4.
It says, some of them were persuaded and a great multitude of the devout Jews and not
a few of the leading women joined Paul and Silas.
So Paul is going on this missionary journey.
We see that as he goes, that Paul is on mission all of the time.
He gets this vision, come over to Macedonia, shows up in the next town he gets to.
As his custom was, immediately he is telling people about Jesus.
He is pointing people to Jesus and some accepted.
But notice the next few verses.
We're not going to read them, but you can kind of just scan through there.
There's a mob, there's a crowd, there's an uproar that gathers together and attacks the
political leader of this community, the home of a man named Jason.
Why?
Because they were looking for Paul.
They wanted to shut him down.
They wanted him to stop preaching.
And it says they were not able to find him and this is what they called Paul.
These are those who have turned the world upside down and they have come here too.
Because everywhere Paul went, he was on mission.
He was teaching about Jesus.
He was preaching that Christ suffered, that Christ rose again.
And because of that, in this community, he was attacked.
And so you can scroll down through there and the people of Thessalonica encouraged Paul
to go on, to go somewhere else for his safety, probably for their safety as well.
And so he goes to the next town, the town of Berea.
You may have noticed as you drive around, often there's a church and it may have a name.
It may be called the Berean Church of whatever denomination.
And this is why, verse 11, as Paul is teaching in Berea, it says he went into the synagogue
and then verse 11, it says these were more fair minded than those people in Thessalonica.
Why?
Well, it says that they received the word with all readiness and they searched the scriptures
daily to find out whether these things were so.
That's a good way to live right there.
To not just listen to what I say or any preacher says or any person says.
We need to make sure that we're comparing things to what the Bible says.
They searched the scriptures daily.
That's a good lesson for us to find out whether these things were true.
And so they were accepting what happened.
Notice verse 12.
Therefore, many of them believed and also not a few of the Greeks.
Not women as well as men.
So Paul's in one town, he gets attacked.
He goes to the next town, he keeps talking about Jesus.
Guess what happened here?
He gets attacked.
And in fact, in verse 13, it says that the people from Thessalonica, they heard that
Paul was in Berea and they said, you know what, we got to go shut that down.
It's not our town.
We don't like what he's saying.
And so this group of people, this mob goes to Berea and it says they stirred up the crowd.
And so Paul gets attacked again and Paul went on to the next place.
And I think we see that no matter what the circumstance, Paul recognized that God was
in control.
No matter what the circumstance, a good response, lots of people being baptized, lots of people
following.
Paul recognized he was following God.
When the people attacked him and drove him away, he recognized that God was still with
him.
And today, even in our society, even in this post-election week, we can know that God is
still sovereign.
And so Paul goes down, it's a road, it's called the Via Ignatia.
That's the Roman road, a major road.
And he enters into the city of Athens.
Now Athens was one of the great cities of ancient times.
Some have called it the cradle of civilization because many, many things have passed down
from that government, from that community of Athens.
It had teachers you've probably heard of like Socrates and Plato and Aristotle and different
philosophers.
The government that we have in our country and many other nations is based on the government
that they had there in Athens, in Greece.
This cradle of civilization, the idea of city planning, building cities in such a way and
streets and different things, all comes down from this city of Athens.
And so Paul had been driven out of Berea and it says he went ahead of his friends.
His friends stayed back for a little while.
And so Paul arrived in Athens before everybody else.
And notice verse 16 here.
It says while Paul waited for them at Athens, he got ahead of Timothy and Silas, while he
waited for them, his spirit was provoked.
Now you could see that there was a lot of amazing things in Athens.
People still go to Athens as tourists to see the Parthenon and to see the architecture
and to see different things like that.
You can go to Nashville and see the Parthenon, you know, a reconstruction of it.
But that's not why Paul was excited.
That's not what moved him.
As we finish that verse, it says his spirit was provoked within him not when he saw the
architecture but when he saw that the city was given over to idols.
What made an impact on his heart was that the city was smothered in idols, giving glory
to something else instead of giving glory to God.
Could it be that in our society we have idols that are made up?
We have idols in our world?
Could it be that as we've come through this election that some have made, dare I even
say, idols of candidates or of political parties?
Putting their hope, putting their faith in some person or some party?
And as we said, some may be heartbroken and think that hope is gone, while others may
think that glory days are just ahead, but both could be in danger of putting their faith,
putting their hope in the wrong place.
Because our hope is not in Harris, our hope is not in Trump, our hope is not in Biden,
our hope is not in Washington.
Our hope is in God.
There's a gentleman who passed away some years ago named Chuck Colson.
Some of you may have heard his name.
He was involved in politics way back when at this little event called Watergate, and
he was the first person imprisoned after that Watergate thing under the leadership of Richard
Nixon, and he spent time in jail for obstruction of justice.
And shortly before he went to prison, I think it was a couple, six or seven months he went
to prison for, he accepted Jesus.
He was converted.
And as he spent time in prison, he got deeply involved in prison ministry and writing books,
uplifting Jesus and defending Jesus and so forth.
And one of his famous statements of Chuck Colson, this person who was arrested because
of politics, he said, the kingdom of God never arrives on Air Force One.
Doesn't matter who's on the plane, the kingdom of God does not arrive on Air Force One.
That's not where we place our hope.
That's not where we need to make sure we are devoted, are dedicated to.
And we as individuals need to ask ourselves, what has my witness been?
For the last six months, have I turned anybody off from my witness towards Jesus?
Because maybe I've been witnessing about other things.
Paul's heart was broken because he saw that this society was given over to idols.
In his commentary on the book of Philippians, excuse me, the book of Acts, F.F. Bruce writes,
he says, it broke Paul's heart to see the city captive to idolatry.
And then the commentary goes on and says, we are surrounded by various forms of idolatry.
We worship fame and sex and power and money, and it does not bother us.
Then it makes a statement, we have lost the ability to care, have mercy.
We lost the ability to have our hearts broken by the things we see around us.
Paul was provoked because he saw what was given over to idols.
He saw this society.
He saw everybody's heart was pulled in a different direction.
But what did Paul do?
Paul stayed on mission.
Notice verse 17, it says, therefore he reasoned in the synagogue, that was his custom,
with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers.
And we can look back at verse 3, and we see that as Paul did that, he was uplifting this
Jesus who had to suffer, this Jesus who rose again.
And he reasoned with the Jews and the Gentile worshipers in the synagogue.
But then notice the second part of that verse.
It says, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
Paul was on mission when he was at a place where he could dive in theologically, but
he was also willing to gossip about the gospel, even when he just happened across people who
were doing their shopping, who were in the market.
He was still willing to talk about Jesus.
And the people of Athens heard him.
And they recognized that, it says in Athens that there were different groups and they
liked to discuss philosophies and argue about different things.
And it says that they invited Paul to a place called Mars Hill.
And that was a place next to the Parthenon that you can still go to.
And that's the place where these wise people, whatever their philosophy was, they would
gather together to discuss, to argue, to discuss different ideas and so forth.
And they invited Paul to this place because they wanted to hear more about what he was
talking about.
And we go down to verse 22 and it says, then Paul stood in the midst of the Aeropagus,
the mountain, the hill of Aries, the hill of Mars, Mars Hill.
And he said, men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious.
That's a pretty neat thing to say.
Because he had just had his heart broken because they were involved with so many idols and
so many different things.
And yet when Paul had a conversation with them, he found something good to say.
He said, I see that you are very religious.
But he had something positive to say.
I think that's a lesson that we can learn as well.
We need to look for the good in other people.
Even if we disagree with them, we need to look and see something positive about who
they are and what they do.
Because guess what?
We are all created in the image of God.
He looked for the good in those, even though they were very different.
So how can we do that as a Christian?
As we're interacting with different people, how can we make sure that we are looking for
the good in other people?
Well, what was Paul?
Paul was always on mission.
I want to look at two different passages here.
Then we'll finish out here in Acts.
Micah 6 verse 8, a famous verse.
Maybe you've memorized it or sung it as a song.
And then Micah 6 verse 8, it says, He has shown you, O man, O humanity, He has shown
you what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
What does God require?
To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.
Notice this doesn't list anything that we typically talk about or preach about or have
people check off different boxes.
This isn't anything that we usually talk about at an evangelistic series.
What does God require?
It says to do justly, to care about other people, to love mercy, to look at people with
love and to have mercy for them.
And then it says to be humble, to walk humbly with God.
How can we look for the best in others?
We can look for ways that we can serve them.
This echoes what Jesus said in Matthew 25.
Matthew 24 is that great sermon on the Mount of Olives where Jesus looks at the things
that would take place before He comes again.
And Matthew 25 has three parables about being ready for Jesus to come.
And the final one talks about two different groups, sheep and goats.
And Jesus says to the one side, He says, I was hungry and you gave me food.
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.
I was a stranger and you took me in.
I was naked and you clothed me.
I was sick and you visited me.
I was in prison and you came to me.
And the people are like, what?
When?
Jesus, we never saw you like that.
When did we do that for you?
When did we do that?
And it says that He said to that group, the King will answer and say to them, Assuredly
I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to the least of these, you have done it unto me.
As much as you have done it to the least of these.
That's what we do for Jesus.
And there's another group and Jesus says, you know, I was hungry.
You didn't care.
I was thirsty.
You didn't give me anything to drink.
And they say, when, when Jesus, if we had seen you, we would have, we would have done
something and Jesus said to them, whatever you have not done to the least of these, you
have not done to me.
Wow.
Think about the person that you treat the worst.
Think about the person that you like the least.
Don't say any names.
Don't point any fingers.
Think about the person that you treat the worst.
That's how you treat Jesus.
That's what Jesus said.
So what can we do?
We need to look for the good in others.
That's what Paul did.
He said, I see that you are very religious.
I perceive that you are very religious.
And then he expounds on that in verse 23.
He says, for, for as I was passing through, passing through the city and considering the
objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.
He'd been walking through the city.
He'd seen all of their idols and he saw one that said to the unknown God.
So what had happened was that at some time in the past, there was a poet, Epimenides,
from the Isle of Crete.
And he came to Athens because at that time, Athens was having a plague and lots of people
were dying.
And they were offering things, sacrifices to all the different gods and the people were
still dying.
And they asked Epimenides, what can we do?
And his answer, his solution was to send out a flock of sheep into the community, around
that Mars Hill area, send these sheep out and send someone to follow each sheep.
And as there's this grassy region in the morning, those sheep are going to be hungry.
So their natural response is going to be to eat, to graze.
He said, but if any of those sheep lay down that spot, that must mean that's a holy spot
to some God that we don't know about.
And so they did that and some of these sheep laid down and that became an altar.
And I think those sheep became the sacrifice, but they marked those places.
We don't know what God this is.
So we're going to mark this to the unknown God.
And Paul says, I have seen an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.
And then he says, therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing him, I proclaim
to you.
I'm going to tell you about this God, this agnosto theo, this unknown God.
I'm going to tell you about this God.
And as you skim down through this message of Paul, he talks about God as the creator
of all things.
He talks about God not being far from each one of us.
He talks about God forgiving the things in our past, but calling each one of us to repentance.
He uplifts God.
And then you come all the way down to the end in verse 32 and it says, some mocked,
some mocked him.
But then in verse 34, it says, some joined him and some delayed.
They said, oh, we'll listen to you again another time.
So some mocked, some delayed, but some accepted.
And Paul is saying, this God that you don't know, I'm going to talk about him.
I'm going to declare this God to you.
Because wherever Paul went, Paul was on mission.
When people were accepting, Paul was on mission.
When Paul was being beaten and chased out of a town, Paul was on mission.
When he was preaching in a synagogue about a crucified savior, Paul was on mission.
When he was uplifting Jesus as merciful, as the God of love, as the God that is in control,
Paul was uplifting God in all that he did.
And could it be that we are called to do the same thing, to uplift God in all that we do?
Just like last week, just like this week, just like in 2025, which is only like what, six
weeks away, if you can believe it, we're called to glorify God in all that we do.
It was 1893 in Gainesville, Georgia, so northeast Georgia, up in the mountains.
And there was a little Seventh-day Adventist Church there.
And in that fall of 1893, two people got arrested, the pastor of the church and the principal
of the school.
And they got arrested for a particular reason, because they were working on Sunday.
And the town didn't like that.
They were desecrating that day.
They were working on Sunday.
What were they doing on that Sunday?
Well, they were at the church building, and they were rearranging the chairs and the benches,
because the next day, on Monday, it was going to be the first day of school.
They had a little school there, and they were setting up that site for school to open.
But because they were working on that Sunday, they were arrested in 1893.
Fast forward about one year to 1894.
Still in Gainesville, there's a gathering of Seventh-day Adventists called a camp meeting.
And there happened to be a meeting there in Gainesville.
And you can look at an article, and you can find this article, and it says, whereas just
recently the town wanted to prosecute us, because two people were arrested for working
on Sunday, it says, now as we gather together, the town of Gainesville has set up electric
lights for our camp meeting gathering, and has given us water from the city water works
free of charge.
It's almost as if that community, that town, was apologizing for the treatment that they
had given them.
Whether people are responding in a positive way, whether people are arresting or chasing
someone out of town, that group of people was on mission for God.
And I think that we can do the same.
As we go about our week ahead, let us keep our eyes on Jesus.
Let us focus on Him, and let us make sure that in all that we do, we are glorifying
God.
Let's bow our heads for our word of prayer.
Dear God, we thank you for our time here today.
We thank you for new members, people transferring in and joining in our family, of taking a
new step of baptism, whether this week or a couple weeks ago.
I know there's other people that are transferring.
And God, what an awesome privilege and blessing it is to be able to gather with a church family,
that we can uplift each other, that we can support each other, even though sometimes
we have differences, different ideas, different opinions.
Our role, our mission, is to give glory to you.
So Lord, be glorified in our heart, be glorified in our life.
In your name we pray.
Amen.