What You See is What You Get!
Acts 17:1-34
 

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- June 10, 2007

Paul Harvey’s "For What It’s Worth"
Our For What It’s Worth Department hears from Hershey, Pennsylvania—where the woman in the Mercedes had been waiting patiently for a parking place to open up.
The shopping mall was crowded. The woman in the Mercedes zigzagged between rows—then up ahead she saw a man with a load of packages heading for his car.
She drove up, parked behind him and waited while he opened his trunk and loaded it with packages.Finally he got in his car and backed out of the stall.

But before the woman in the Mercedes could drive into the parking space, a young man in a shiny new Corvette zipped past and around her and he pulled into the empty space, got out and started walking away."Hey!" shouted the woman in the Mercedes, "I’ve been waiting for that parking place!"

The college-ager responded, "Sorry, lady; that’s how it is when you’re young and quick."
At that instant she put her Mercedes in gear, floor-boarded it, crashed into and crushed the right rear fender and corner panel of the flashy new Corvette. Now the young man is jumping up and down shouting, "You can’t do that!" The lady in the Mercedes said, "That’s how it is when you’re old and rich!"

That is an interesting perspective!

Perspective: a view of things or facts in which they are in the right relations. World Book Dictionary, Vol. 2, p. 1556. The young man and the older woman had quite different points of view related to that parking place. And their actions followed their perspective.

Here are several more illustrations of perspective:

A young couple rented a vacation cottage for a week. One afternoon the husband looked out a window at the swimming pool and exclaimed, "Let's change our clothes and go get some exercise!" His wife, who was washing the dishes in the kitchen and looking out the window watching some people play tennis, quickly agreed. While she dressed for a tennis match, he put on his swimming trunks. The window a person chooses to look out at the world often determines that individual's perception of reality. 

Lyle Schaller, Activating the Passive Church, p. 19.

During WWII General Creighton Abrams found himself and his troops surrounded on all sides. With characteristic optimism, he told his officers, "For the first time in the history of this campaign, we are now in a position to attack the enemy in any direction."  Source Unknown.

Today we want to look at spiritual maturity and the importance of the right perspective about God.

Acts 17

¹Now Paul and Silas traveled through the towns of Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. ²As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he interpreted the Scriptures to the people. ³He was explaining and proving the prophecies about the sufferings of the Messiah and his rising from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.” ⁴Some who listened were persuaded and became converts, including a large number of godly Greek men and also many important women of the city.

⁵But the Jewish leaders were jealous, so they gathered some worthless fellows from the streets to form a mob and start a riot. They attacked the home of Jason, searching for Paul and Silas so they could drag them out to the crowd. ⁶Not finding them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the other believers instead and took them before the city council. “Paul and Silas have turned the rest of the world upside down, and now they are here disturbing our city,” they shouted. ⁷“And Jason has let them into his home. They are all guilty of treason against Caesar, for they profess allegiance to another king, Jesus.”

⁸The people of the city, as well as the city officials, were thrown into turmoil by these reports. ⁹But the officials released Jason and the other believers after they had posted bail.

Paul and Silas in Berea

¹⁰That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas to Berea. When they arrived there, they went to the synagogue. ¹¹And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to check up on Paul and Silas, to see if they were really teaching the truth. ¹²As a result, many Jews believed, as did some of the prominent Greek women and many men.

¹³But when some Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God in Berea, they went there and stirred up trouble. ¹⁴The believers acted at once, sending Paul on to the coast, while Silas and Timothy remained behind. ¹⁵Those escorting Paul went with him to Athens; then they returned to Berea with a message for Silas and Timothy to hurry and join him.

Paul Preaches in Athens

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols he saw everywhere in the city. ¹⁷He went to the synagogue to debate with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be there.

¹⁸He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, “This babbler has picked up some strange ideas.” Others said, “He’s pushing some foreign religion.”

¹⁹Then they took him to the Council of Philosophers. “Come and tell us more about this new religion,” they said. ²⁰“You are saying some rather startling things, and we want to know what it’s all about.” ²¹(It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.)

²²So Paul, standing before the Council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious, ²³for as I was walking along I saw your many altars. And one of them had this inscription on it—‘To an Unknown God.’ You have been worshiping him without knowing who he is, and now I wish to tell you about him.

²⁴“He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, ²⁵and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need there is. ²⁶From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand which should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.

²⁷“His purpose in all of this was that the nations should seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸For in him we live and move and exist. As one of your own poets says, ‘We are his offspring.’ ²⁹And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. ³⁰God overlooked people’s former ignorance about these things, but now he commands everyone everywhere to turn away from idols and turn to him. ³¹For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”³²When they heard Paul speak of the resurrection of a person who had been dead, some laughed, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.” ³³That ended Paul’s discussion with them, ³⁴but some joined him and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Council, a woman named Damaris, and others.

The testimony about Paul and Silas is that they have “turned the world upside-down” with their preaching about Jesus. That is quite a testimony by people who did not believe what they were saying about God and Jesus.

There is an obvious spiritual maturity to be seen in Paul and Silas. Think about Paul as the traveled on his missionary journey?

Where was the first place Paul normally went when he entered a new city? Answer: The synagogue.

To whom did Paul usually preach first in each city? Answer: To the Jews.

What was the main point of Paul’s preaching in the synagogue? Answer: That Jesus really is the Christ, the Son of God.

Were there any conversions as a result of Paul’s preaching? Answer: A great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.

What did the people who refused to believe normally do? Answer: They usually stirred up persecution for Paul.

There are some building blocks that lead to spiritual maturity that we can see in this passage:

First of all, Paul had some things that he customarily did when he went somewhere.

Paul went to the synagogues time after time…."As his custom was…"

• Time and time again, Paul went to the synagogue.
• Time and time again, people stirred up trouble for him.
• Time and time again, Paul was persecuted, being beaten, thrown in jail, and run off.
• Time and time again, Paul continued to go right back in the synagogue.

It was Paul’s custom, his habit, his routine to go to the synagogue every week—no matter what had happened in the past.

Why did Paul go to the synagogue? He went to worship. If you put that into the way we would express it today… Paul understood that going to church to worship God on a regular basis was not a matter of how he felt.

1. Paul was clearly not going to the synagogue for what he could get out of it.
2. Paul was not going to the synagogue because it made him feel good.
3. Paul was not going to the synagogue because the other people made him feel good.
4. Paul was committed to regular worship because he was whole-heartedly focused on God and others!
5. Paul was whole-heartedly committed to regularly joining the assembly to tell God how much He meant to him.
6. Paul was whole-heartedly committed to regularly joining the assembly to sing praises to the true love of his life!
7. Paul was whole-heartedly committed to regularly joining the assembly to serve!
8. Paul was whole-heartedly committed to regular worship because he was whole-heartedly committed to God and others!
9. It had nothing to do with himself!
10. Can you imagine the apostle Paul saying, "I’m just too tired this week?"
11. Can you imagine the apostle Paul saying, "I’ve got too much work to do?"
12. Can you imagine the apostle Paul saying, "Well if things don’t change down there, I’m not sure  I’m going to keep going?"
13. Can you imagine the apostle Paul saying, "Somebody said something that offended me last week, so I don’t think I’m going back?"
14. Nothing could keep the apostle Paul from doing what was his custom…to worship.
15. Not persecution; not jail; not people talking about him behind his back; not even beatings or stonings.
16. Once, he got stoned and left for dead one day and was preaching again the next day!
17. No, Paul continued to go to church "as was his custom!"

Customary worship is one of the marks of spiritual maturity. We are not talking about just going because we always do. Not it is the customary going so that we can worship God that leads to spiritual maturity. There are many people who show up in churches all over the world who are not spiritually mature. Why is that true? They are there for the wrong reasons and with the wrong motivation.

When we long to gather with other believers to worship and praise god, we have the right motivation and that will assist us in growing in maturity spiritually.

This is one of the driving motivations of Paul’s life. And notice what he does as he goes into the synagogue to worship. When the time comes and he is invited to speak, he shares the good news about Jesus. He gives something to the people gathered there. He is adding service to his worship. That is a mark of spiritual maturity.

Do we look forward to getting together for worship? It is our custom to come here on Sunday morning. And when we come together do we make it a priority to look for ways to serve others?
Do we look for ways to encourage them; congratulate them, pray with them, console them, hug them?
We should be here to see what we can GIVE!
Paul’s heart was to give and that should be the attitude of our heart when we come to church!
b. When we come to worship, we come to give to God and give to others—and when our attitude and desire is to give, then and only then will we truly receive!

There is a second mark of spiritual maturity hinted at in our passage: It is regular Bible Study. In Acts 17:10-15 we find that Paul and Silas are shipped off to Berea to escape persecution.
As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue.

Vss 11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. 13 When the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. 14 The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea. 15 The men who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.
Luke says that the people of Berea were more noble than the people of Thessalonica.
Luke gives two reasons why there were more noble…
First of all, Luke says they received the message with great eagerness.
And secondly, Luke says they examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
They were noble because they listened to and received Paul’s messages with great eagerness.
They were attentive to what Paul said.
They received what Paul said.
They meditated on what Paul said.
They were also noble because they examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
They didn’t just trust him; they checked him out.

The ability to receive the Word with great eagerness is a mark of maturity.
And then the desire to examine the Scriptures daily is another mark of maturity.
The apostle Paul was a great man of God.
The apostle Paul wrote over half of the NT.

Remember the testimony about Paul and Silas that they had “turned the world up-side-down” with their preaching? That was the perspective of unbelievers who only saw the riotous turmoil in reaction to what he was preaching.

But the proper perspective…the perspective of God and Christ is that the Apostle Paul turned the world right-side-up for the cause of Christ!

And if we are going to be mature believers we must have the desire to search and examine and meditate on and apply the Scriptures personally.

Paul is next seen in Athens.

And he is deeply troubled by what he sees there. There are all kinds of idols and altars of worship there.

Paul notices an altar that was dedicated to AN UNKNOWN GOD. It was not THE unknown god, but dedicated to AN unknown god. The Greeks were covering all the bases. That altar was there just in case they had missed one. They did not want to up set a god by failing to have a place of worship for him. So they added this one. They are pretty flexible and hedge their bets.

Once the Devil was walking along with one of his cohorts. They saw a man ahead of them pick up something shiny. "What did he find?" asked the cohort.

  "A piece of the truth," the Devil replied. 

"Doesn't it bother you that he found a piece of the truth?" asked the cohort.

 "No," said the Devil, "I will see to it that he makes a religion out of it." 

Klyne Snodgrass, Between Two Truths - Living with Biblical Tensions, 1990, Zondervan Publishing House, p. 35.

That is what happened in Athens. A little bit of truth became a religion that drove people farther away from the truth about God. God had given people a natural revelation about himself in the world around us. People could look at the world and creation and decide that it pointed to a creator. And what God did for a long time was to allow men the opportunity to see him in his creation and then turn and seek him out. It is clear that any who did that would find him. God is never very far away. He always responds to a seeking heart.

But it is possible to miss him. That is what happened in the lives of all those people who worshipped at those altars. They chose to worship created things and things that men created out of sticks, stones and metal representing their gods. They should not have, and because they did they were seen as guilty by God. Guilty and unrighteous in need of a savior.

But there were also there in Athens men who did not believe in the gods and altars and the false worship. These were the philosophers. These were the Epicureans and the Stoics.

The Epicureans were quite atheistic in their speculation about what was. They thought that the world was formed by a fortuitous coming together of atoms and was not created or even formed by some divine power. They treated the gods as phantoms without influence upon the world or life itself. They mocked the popular mythology but presented nothing better to be a pattern for life. To them the soul dissolved at death and life was not regulated by any higher moral values. Life’s highest aim was personal gratification. Pleasure was their desire and the means to attain it was called virtue.

The Stoics on the other hand, were pantheists. They condemned the worship of images and the use of temples. God was merely the spirit of reason in the universe. The soul was corporeal and at death it either burned up or was absorbed into god. Their moral code was viewed as higher that that of the Epicureans and the ideal was seen as an austere apathy and unconcern. Pleasure was no good and pain no evil. Reason was the guide of life. When reason saw no more in life, it dictated suicide as the most reasonable thing.

These were interesting perspectives on life, God and immortality.

The people who worshipped at the pagan shrines and altars looked at the Creation and believed that they needed to worship something. So they created something to worship. Creation pointed to God and they missed him and found a bit of truth and made it into a religion.

The philosophers on the other hand saw the same things. They did not stop to worship created things. They saw that there was nothing in that. But to their greater shame, they refused to see God, to seek him, to find him. And the result was that they only found themselves.

And when Paul begins preaching to them all they see is a “babbler” espousing some strange religion. The literal translation of the word “babbler” is “this seed picker”. It came from the idea of a bird picking up a seed here and there and became Athenian slang for one who picks up an idea here and there and passing it on without any real understanding of its meaning. And when he gets to the resurrection, they begin mocking him and stop listening. They see nothing worthwhile in Paul. He is simply dismissed.

In this we find a mark of spiritual maturity. Paul continued sharing the gospel even when it was unpopular. He was faithful even when he was mocked by people who refused to believe that God was seeking them, waiting for them to come to him.

Some people responded by believing. They changed their perspective. God was seeking them and they got found by God…by seeking him, by responding to the call to believe in the one who could make them righteous, who could forgive their sins and give them life.

One last thought about perspective: Somebody once said: “The older we grow, the more we become like the place we’re going."

Spiritually mature people worship God customarily.

Spiritually mature people regularly study the scriptures.

Spiritually mature people actively share the good news about Jesus even when it is not well received.

Spiritually mature people are not resistant to change. This is not always the case:

When the King James Version of the Bible was issued in 1611, it was widely criticized and rejected by the clergy.
Archbishop Richard Bancroft said, "Tell his majesty that I had rather be rent to pieces with wild horses than any such translation by my consent should be urged upon poor churches."

Deacon Watts called his son on the carpet for his lack luster participation in congregational singing.
According to the common practice, the clerk would read the Psalm out line by line, with the congregation singing after him. Isaac Watts told his father bluntly that there was no music in the Psalms, and, furthermore, they didn’t rhyme.

Old Deacon Watts, outraged, suggested that Isaac write his own songs if he thought he were smarter than King David. Watts (of course) did (writing such songs as: "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross").

Not everyone was happy with replacing the Psalms with hymns.
Typical was this incident: When the first General Assembly of the Presbyterian church in the United States of America met in Philadelphia’s Second Presbyterian Church in May, 1789, Rev. Adam Rankin was granted permission to speak.
"I have ridden on horseback all the way from my home in Kentucky," he said, "to ask this august body to refuse to allow the great and pernicious error of adopting the use of Isaac Watts’ hymns in public worship in preference to Rouse’s versifcations of the Psalms of David."

Spiritually mature people are willing to change.

God is actively seeking out sinners who will listen, believe and allow him to save them. Spiritually mature people are part of that process by sharing the good news about Jesus. They worship, study and share the good news with others.

What you see is what you get. If you see God behind all of creation and acknowledge him, you will get forgiveness and salvation. If on the other hand, all you see is something that just happened and don’t see
God’s hand in the world around you, you will miss it all. So what you see is what you get.

--Dennis Gleason