 Good morning, everyone. I'm so sorry for the delay. I had a few issues with my laptop. Okay, let's begin this time with a word of prayer. Then we'll get into our teaching. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this time once again. We thank you for this new week that you have given us. And Lord, even as we get ready to learn and study God, I pray Holy Spirit that you will minister to our hearts and speak to us, Lord. We thank you for this wonderful opportunity, God. We submit this time into your hands. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay. All right, so last class we completed chapter, we looked at chapter 7. Is that right? Yeah, chapter 7. So we get into chapter 8, right? Now, chapter 8 is a very interesting chapter. There is a very important chapter. When you and I evangelize, when you and I get opportunities, a very important aspect of evangelism is to understand and reason. Right? Paul writes, sorry, Peter writes, he says in 1 Peter 315, shall we read that? 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 15. 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 15. Go ahead. Thank you, Father, Lord, God, in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone to ask you a reason for the hope that is in you with sickness and fear. So sanctify your heart for the Lord. That means sanctify yourself and then be always ready to give an Apollo gift. The version that you read says, be ready to give a defense for the gospel. So even as we minister to people, Paul Peter is saying, first set apart Christ as Lord in your heart and then be ready to give a defense for the gospel. Right? Now, let's look at chapter 8. In chapter 8, we learn from the life of Apostle Paul. What did Apostle Paul do? How was he able to understand both people, culture, religions, places and how he was able to reason with people? Now, if you look at our nation, the nation of India, we are a nation with diverse culture, right? We have different languages. We have, I think India is the only nation with the most number of languages, the most number of cultural traditions that we have, right? Now, just because a person becomes a believer doesn't mean he or she will leave all their traditions aside, right? So for example, you have somebody who's a vegetarian all their life, right? Now, they become a believer, right? And in church, there is a fellowship lunch. And what happens in the fellowship lunch? There's full of non-veg. Now, we can't go and preach to them. God said, eat everything. Nothing is wrong in it. We need to understand what is their culture, what is their background, where they are coming from. For 20 years, this person hasn't eaten non-veg. All of a sudden, we can't say you're a believer, eat non-veg, right? We must understand people come from different backgrounds, different cultures, and we must be sensitive to that. In the book of Acts, Acts 17, Paul goes on his second missionary journey, right? In his second missionary journey, he has a team. Paul, Silas, Timothy, later on he's joined by... There's Aquila and Priscilla, there's Apollos, so he has a team of people. And his second missionary journey was the most impactful journey because he was able to reach out to many places. And some of the major places that he visited was Philippi, Thessalonica. Now, we are learning about Thessalonica, right? On Sunday services, Thessalonica, then Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus. So in Acts 17, Paul goes into Athens. What is Athens? Athens is a learning center. It's a place where people are very educated. They have great learning, great understanding. So if you compare this to Galatians, it's not like the Galatians were very learned. They were simple people, they accepted the gospel, they believed in the gospel. But here in Athens, everyone have great minds. They like to study, they like to learn. Some of the greatest writers and the greatest thinkers of this world are from Greece. Can you name some of them? I know it may be too hard for us, but some of them are really brilliant men who have shaped many things in this world. Aristotle, Plato, they're all from Athens. What do they do? They like to study about things. They are not people who, you know, okay, somebody says something, I will believe it. No. They are philosophers, right? Great thinkers, great minds. Now, Apostle Paul is going to this kind of place. In the first missionary journey, where did he go? Galatia. Over there, they are not great thinkers at all. He said, you know what? Jesus died for you. If you believe in Jesus, you will have eternal life. People accepted the gospel. People started believing. You know, I'm not saying it was easy, but there was not much of a defending of the gospel. But here it's a different story altogether, right? So there are two kinds of people. When Paul went to Athens, there were two kinds of people. Number one is the Epicurean. Everyone say Epicurean, right? And the second one is Stoics. Say Stoics, right? Now, what are they? They are two kinds of people who believed in, who had two different belief systems. Like how right now in our nation, we have different belief systems. In Christianity, we have many belief systems. Baptist, Pentecost, Methodist, right? So in this, in Athens, these are the two main belief systems. So what are those two belief systems? First one, let's look at the first one. The Epicureans follow the teachings of Epicurus and believe that everything happened by chance, right? That debt was the end of all. They believed that the gods were remote from this world and did not care and believed that pleasure was the truth end of man. Now, what is the belief system? Everything in this world happened by chance. That means the earth, the skies, the stars, the moon, everything that human beings, houses, nations, all of this happened by chance. What is the word chance? Chance means it just happened. Nobody knows how it happened. Nobody knows why it happened, but it happened. This is their belief system, right? And just because it happened, another, the same belief is now God is in heaven somewhere in the planets and he doesn't care about us, right? So he's there. God is there. He has made everything, somehow everything has happened, but we are separate from God. God is there, we are here. And the greatest pleasure for us as human beings is that we enjoy everything in this world. That was one belief system, right? Everyone understood, right? One belief was God is somewhere, everything happened by chance, right? So God didn't create the world. Suddenly it came, the stars, the planets, right? And God is up. We are somewhere else. All that we have to do is enjoy life. Enjoy the pleasures of this world. That's one belief system. Then we have the second belief system, which was the stoic. Now stoicism was named by a man named Zeno. And it was a little more contemporary, meaning an advanced form of Epicurus. Now, what is, what do they believe? Everything in the world is God. Now, this one belief was that is everything came by chance. This belief, everything was God and God was a fiery spirit, right? Who gave men life with a little spark of that fire. And when they died, they returned back to God, right? So God is like a big fire. And if, and human beings are born, God gives one spark of that fire to you. You live with that spark and when you die, that spark returns back to God, right? That everything that happens in this world is the will of God. So these two belief systems, even though are in the same place, people are there, but they are almost opposite. Here, everything happened by chance, but here it is, everything happens by the will of God, right? Like, that's what they believe, that God is a fire, right? Now, do you have this on your background, right? Do you understand these two beliefs? Yes? Now, Paul is going to this place, right? And he's going to preach the gospel. Now, think about this. For hundreds of years, people, there are Epicurians, there are Stoics who believe this. Hundreds, thousands, maybe 500, 600 years, people are believing this. Okay? Now, all of a sudden, one man is going to this place and he's preaching the gospel. Okay, let's do this. Let's read Acts chapter 17, verse 22 to 31. Acts chapter 17, or let's read a little more of it. Acts 17, 16, from 16 onwards, 16 to 34. Acts 17, 16 to 34. Let's read. Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked in him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore, he reasoned in the scenario with the Jews and with the genitals, and in the marketplace, daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurian and Stoics philosopher encountered him and some said, what does this beveler want to say? Others said he seems to be a proclamer of foreign gods. Because he preached to them, Jesus, and the resurrection. And they took him abroad and brought him to the Aripagas saying, maybe known what this new doctrine is of which you speak. For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore, we want to know what these things mean. Okay, okay, let's break it up, right? Let's read verse 16. While Paul was waiting, what was Paul doing? He went to Athens. He's waiting for his team to come. So, while he was waiting, he was greatly distressed to see the city full of idols. What is the word distressed? He was burdened in his heart. Why are these people, you know, they have so many idols here. So, he was greatly distressed, okay? No, he reasoned. What did he do? Was that distress, was that sadness just sitting inside? No, he did something about it. What did he do? He reasoned in the synagogue both with the Jews and the God fearing Greeks as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. Right, so they were Jews. They were God fearing Greeks. It's not like they were believers, right? They were just there, people who, you know, believed in God. But among them was also these two, Epicurean and what's the other one? Which one? Stoics. Epicurean and Stoics. Now, they're all sitting there. Listen to what's happening here. Now, Paul is preaching to them. He's teaching them. And a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate among themselves. And some of them asked, what is this babbler talking about? We've never heard of this. We've heard of many stories. We've heard of, you know, the star becoming God, the moon is God. Everything is God for the Greeks, right? Human beings are God, right? They would, Zeno, the man, they thought he is God, right? Alexander the Great, they thought he is God. So for them, everything that is great is God. So now these people are thinking, we've never heard, we've never heard a story like this. God loves you. And so he came into this world as a human being. He died on the cross and he resurrected from the dead. And now when we believe in him, we have eternal life. What is this fellow saying? It's not making sense, but it's a new story. They've never heard of a story like this. So what are they saying? Okay, Paul, you're saying something. They said this because Paul was preaching some good news about resurrection. Then they said to him, you come to the main council in the city. There's a main place where all the, you know, for example, we have a court, right? So if there's any problem, we take people to the court, all the problems are solved. So they had something called as the Aeropagus. It is in the middle of the city where, you know, they would have all the political issues resolved. Problems between families are being resolved there. So it was more like a court. So anyone could come there and sit and listen. So they said to Paul, Paul, you're talking about some new ideas. We've not heard of this. So we are interested to learn. We are interested to hear you. You come tomorrow and you say the same thing in front of everyone. Whatever you told us, you tell in front of everyone. What did Paul say? No, no, no. I'm little, I will not come tomorrow. I'm busy. Did he say that? Did Paul say, I only minister to a few people. Did he say that? Oh, what happened? Then they took him, brought him to Aeropagus. Maybe no verse 19, maybe no. What is this new teaching that you are presenting? So now they, they themselves are asking the question. What are you teaching? You've not heard of the story. You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears and we would like to know what it means. Right. Verse 22, if you give Paul a chance, what will he do? He'll take the chance. He'll take every opportunity to preach. Look at verse 22. Then Paul stood up in the Aeropagus and said, people of Athens. Okay. First thing, what does he do? I see that in every way, you are religious. So he's trying to understand them. Did he say, I see that in every way you are full of demons, full of devils and idols is very bad. You are worshiping some silly thing. Does he say that? No. He's saying, I see that you all are very religious. What will they feel? We are very religious. We know it. So he's trying to firstly recognize that people who he's ministering to, they are religious people. Though they are worshiping their own thing, but they are religious. They're searching for something spiritual. Right. For as I walked around and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with an inscription to an unknown God. Now, number one, what does he say? Y'all are very religious people. Now, I believe the Athens would have felt, yeah, what you're saying is correct. They would have felt some kind of pride inside them. Then he says, look, I also walk around and I see that there's an idol saying to an unknown God. Right. So what has he done? He has taken their culture and he's trying to bring context. It is there to an unknown God. That means they are searching for that unknown God. Right. What does he do next? So you are ignorant of the very thing that you worship and what you don't know that you're worshiping. Let me explain it to you. Right. Verse 24, Paul begins to preach. The God who made the world and everything in the world of heaven and earth does not live in temples built by human hands. Verse 25. And he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything. Rather, he gives himself, rather he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. These three verses has already put the foundation for Paul's message. You have built temples. You have built idols and said to an unknown God. But what you're saying is unknown. I'm revealing to you. Number one, God is not a God who is made by hands. You can't make a God by your hand. That's what he starts with. He doesn't need a temple for you to build for him to come and stay. But he is the God who gives you life and breath. Verse 27. No, 26. For one man, from one man, he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth and he marked out their appointed times. Verse 27. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him. Though he's not far from any one of us, for in him we live, we move and have our being. So what is he doing? He's trying to help them understand who this God is. Now it's not like these people are saying, okay, now I believe in God. No. Right. So he's probably looking at them and saying, trying to understand them. He goes on. Next verse. Very important. Because some of your own poets have said we are his offspring. Now this would have caught the attention of the Greeks. Why? Because Paul is saying your own people have said that your own books have said that we are his offspring. Now I'm not saying it's there in the Jewish books. Your book, what you have written, your own philosophers have written saying we are the offspring of God. So if you're building a temple and saying this is God, how can we be the offspring of this idol? Because we have breath. We have life. Are you understanding? So Paul is trying to reason with them. He's saying, no, if this is an example, this is an idol. And we are worshiping this idol. How can we be the offspring of that idol? Do we look like a projector? Projectors not living. It does not live. It does not breathe. It cannot eat. It cannot drink. It can't do anything. So Paul is saying your own prophets have said we are the offspring. So how can we be the children of this idol? So what's happening? Paul is stepping into their community or their understanding. And he's speaking. But how did this happen? Paul studied about it. It's not like the Holy Spirit told him to say that. No, he would have read about it. He would have studied about their culture. How does he know the poets have said this? Because he studied about it. Background information, understanding where people come from. Okay, let's look at this entire chapter. Then we'll pick up some points from it. Everyone understanding, right? Okay. Verse 29. Therefore, since we are gods of springs, should not that the divine being is should not think that we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone or an image made by human design and skill. In the past, God ignored or overlooked such ignorance, but now commands all everywhere to be to repent. Now he's presented the gospel. He's presented his case. Now he's saying before God said, okay, you know, he ignored such ignorance, but now you can't be ignorant. Because as I am preaching to you, you are getting to know that there is a true living God. And so he's expecting us to repent of our sins. Verse 31. Why should we repent of our sins? For he set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead. So he talks about Jesus's death. Now he's talking about Jesus's resurrection also. Look at what was the response. Right now, when you talk about resurrection of the dead, there are some people who will believe, there will some who will never believe it. So what is the response here? When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered. That means they said, what rubbish are you talking? Once we die, we'll go back and become the fire. Or once we die, that's the end of the story. All he's saying, you know, Jesus resurrected from the dead. So they sneered, but some others said, hey, this is a nice story. It sounds very good. We want to hear you one more time. Explain some more about this. See, you must understand these Greeks know they don't have any other work. All they want to do is learn more stories and gossiping and talking and learning new ideologies. So they say, Paul, we want to hear you again. Again, you come and talk. You share little more about this in detail, you share. So what happened? At that, Paul left the council. But look at verse 34. Okay, everyone at verse 34. Okay, look at this. Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Aeropagus and a woman named Demaris and a number of others. What did Paul do? How long did he share? How long would that, those maybe six or seven verses, how long it would have taken? Ten minutes. Ten minutes. Paul has shared the gospel. Right? Look at verse 34. Some of them became followers of Paul and they believed the gospel. So they let go of something that they understood for 20 years, 30 years, hundreds of years, generation after generation. They let it go in 10 minutes. Everyone said 10 minutes. In 10 minutes, hundreds of years of culture and wrong worship to wrong gods, they let it go and they followed Paul. And that is who followed Paul. They were not some simple people. Some of the members of the, like what you would say here in India, the members of parliament, the top guys, see that it says that, a member of the Aeropagus, that means they are all, he was a political leader in a place of authority. He believed in the gospel what Paul is saying and they followed Paul. And with this, the church was plummeted in Athens. Right? We don't have a letter. Paul doesn't write a letter, an epistle to the Athens. Right? But we know that Paul started many churches apart from the letters that he wrote. Right? And they became believers. Now, let's pick up a few points. Right? First one in chapter 17, verse 22, Paul says, without condemning Paul appreciates their inclination towards being religious. What does he say? I recognize that you all are religious people. You're searching for a God. So he didn't condemn them. He didn't say, you know, you're worshiping wrong gods. Let me tell you, if you believe in Jesus, all of this, no, he didn't do that. He appreciated them. So what is the learning for us? Imagine you're speaking to a friend who is maybe a Hindu or a Muslim. Right? What is the first thing you must do? Never go to them and say, hey, there's all devils. This is different levels of devils. Now do that. But you know what you can do? You can appreciate them. Why? Now, if you look at a Muslim, they pray five times a day. We don't do one time a day also. And even if we pray one time a day, we are half asleep. But they don't do that five times a day. And they're so fervent. They're so disciplined. So appreciate that. You're not appreciating what they believe in. But you're appreciating them. You're saying, hey, I see that you're very religious. You know, five times a day. It's a lot of effort. And I also noticed that on Fridays, you'll close your businesses and go for prayer. And you'll, during Ramadan, you'll fast for 40 days from morning to evening. They don't swallow their spit. And they work. You think we can do that? Here, as Christians, when we fast, we go, oh, I'm fasting. I can't move. I haven't eaten for three days. They don't do all that. Have you seen them? When they are fasting, it doesn't matter. They are working. They can be doing hard work, yet they will fast. So when you look at them, you know, appreciate them. Don't look down upon what they're doing. You know, one more interesting thing about Islam. Islam believes that everyone are equal. You can come in a big luxury car. And you can have one person pushing a vegetable cart coming into the mosque. They both have to come to the same place. It doesn't matter. They both have to go to the same place, wash their hands in the same place, pray in the same place, go out in the same place. So you've got to understand them. Is that there in Christianity? I doubt it. Somebody comes in a big car into church. What will you do? We'll open the door for them. We'll put a red carpet. Please come. You can sit right in front. That's not there in Islam. Right? And it's true. It's true. There is such a unity among them, which is a strong thing. And there are things we can learn from them. But what I'm saying is appreciate them. Appreciate. And even when you talk about the Hindus, right? First, you appreciate them. Never condemn them. It's not like you're saying, you know, you're doing everything. We may know it, but appreciate. Even if there's two things that you can appreciate in them. Hey, I heard, you know, this festival of lights. I was sharing the gospel once with the Hindus. Festival of lights. Oh, I love my children. Love this bursting crackers and all. So what did I do? I asked him, what is the lights all about? No, all of us burst crackers and all. What's it about? The entire nation, everyone burst crackers and it doesn't matter whether you're Christian, you're Hindu, you're Muslim, everyone burst crackers. What's it about? No, I know what's it about, but I wanted him to tell me. So he started explaining like this, this, this. And I remember, you know, asking him in the end, you know, light is so wonderful. And I hope we had light in ourselves. We have so much that we hide so much that we so much of sin wrongdoing. Now, remember when you talk about sin to a Hindu or a Muslim, they know what it is. It's not like what is sin? They will not ask. They know what is sin, right? But through that, I was able to minister just by asking one question. What is the festival of lights? Diwali. What is it? I know it, but just asking, wanted him to tell me, wanted to get his understanding. You get what I'm saying, right? So recognize, understand what they are going through to use something they relate to and use that as a starting point. Paul, what did he do? He said, I see that you have an idol saying to an unknown God. So you relate to them, right? How many of you have entered a mosque? Only one person? Okay. Okay, I'm not saying you should go. But I've gone many times when I just became a believer. I've seen it. I've seen it. I've entered and, you know, it was, it's such a learning. There's so much of discipline. So much of discipline. You can't sit there with a phone there, looking at Facebook and Instagram. They'll whack you. They kick you out. That's what they do. You can't do that. They want to even do that. That's so much of respect for God. So much of learning. So use something that they have and understand them, relate to them. One of the questions that I always ask Muslims is, why do you wash your hands and feet before prayer? They wash their face also. There's a reason for that. And later on in this book, we look at how to relate to a Muslim and a Hindu. We'll look at that as well. Okay, third one. Let them know that you have made an effort to know and understand what they believe in. What did Paul say? Some of your own poets have said that we are the offsprings of God. That means Apostle Paul made an effort. Now he didn't go to Google and read. Right? When he was there in Athens, he didn't go to Google and read. Did he? Did he go to Google and read about Athens? No. So he made an effort. He went back. He probably got some, he went to those probably some poets and some writers there. He tried to understand what is this? What is, what is their learning? Right? Because it says there in the initial, initial verses, Paul was waiting for his team to come. Now waiting means not sitting under the coconut tree and enjoying. When will these fellows come? No, he was probably making an effort to find out what's happening in this place. What do they believe in? It's the first time that Paul has gone there. He's not gone there two, three times, right? So it's a new thing for him as well. But he made the effort. And when people heard that your own poets, I'm sure they would have felt, oh, this person knows about our religion also. So that means he's talking something sensible. Right? Then what was the outcome? No, sorry. Fourthly, he shared the message. He talked about Jesus. He talked about repentance, judgment, resurrection. He brought the gospel. Now what was the outcome? Some of them mocked. Everyone say mocked. Some of them accepted. Say mocked, accepted. When you preach the gospel, some of them will. Some of them will. You just have to move on. Those are the two responses you will get. Some of them will accept. Some of them will mock. Don't start crying when somebody mocks. Oh, he didn't accept. No, just move on. Right? From Athens, then Paul traveled 55 miles. Very close distance. Maybe about 30, 35 kilometers away. Paul goes to Corinth. Now we know about Corinth, no? Paul started the church in Corinth. So we will stop here. And what we will do is we will pick up from understanding Hindus and Muslims from the next class. And then we will try and also do chapter 9 next class. So everyone understood this. What are the two belief systems of the Asians? Epicurean? Stoics. Right? And they had their own belief system. So what did Paul do? Tell me some of the things he did. Okay, one by one. Those online also can say. Tell me. You just lift your hand. Who wants to share? He reasoned with them. Sorry, Ghatrud. He reasoned with them. He reasoned with them. Okay. He did not condemn them. Very important. What else? Sorry? He? He appreciates them. Very good. Appreciates them. What else? What else? You think of what you understood from this. He learned from their own scripture. Very good. What else? He? He read about their culture. Okay. Very good. What else? Yeah. Appreciated is already over. Now while preaching, what did he do? He addresses their very good. He addresses their ignorance. Right? Yeah. What else he does? So while preaching, what did he do? Did he talk about all Moses and Abraham and all? What did he talk? He preached about Jesus. He spoke about salvation. He spoke to the point. He didn't give stories. Moses was in the desert for 40 years. Then God called him again. Then there was a burning bush. Then after Moses came another man named Joshua. Did he share all of that? To the point. What else he did? Towards the end. What did he do? Sanjay says he never tried to argue or force them to believe. Very good. He never tried to argue with them or force them to believe. He gave them the opportunity to understand and believe. Right? And towards the end, what did he do? Towards the end, it says verse 33. At that, Paul left the council. And some of them became believers. Paul left the council, which means whatever time was given to him, he shared and he made use of that time and he moved on. It was not like he said, I want to stay here for the next one hour and teach everyone. Whatever time was given to him. He valued people's time. He valued what was given to him. And he used it effectively. Finally, it says verse 34. Among them, some of them became believers. You know what's interesting here? Did Paul say, you know, I was 33 years old. I was in the army. I was a temple guard. I was a preacher. Then I was going to Damascus. I saw the light of Jesus came and he stood. Then I was blind for three days. Did he explain all of that? Does he share his testimony? All he's saying is, this is what the gospel is. The simple gospel made people believe in Jesus. Amen? So that's what you and I can do. I will pick up from additional insights on how Paul ministered from next class. Thank you everyone. Have a great day ahead. See you next month.