 Okay. Good morning and welcome. Thank you for connecting to this call. We will proceed from Acts chapter 17 and see all the different things that are taking place as you know Paul and his team minister on their second missionary journey. We'll pray before we get into today's discussion. So maybe Zellie, Zellie would you like to lead us in prayer? Yes sure Pastor, let's pray. Father we come before your presence in the name of Jesus. We thank you for this brand new day as we begin our session for today. I pray that Holy Spirit you'll continue on to guide us, lead us, Lord bless Pastor Nancy as she teaches the word of God from the book of Acts, Lord. And also you bless each one of us who are in the class, Lord. He gave us the spirit of wisdom and understanding so that we can grasp what our pastor is teaching today, Lord. We bless you. We honor you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you so much. So last week as we were spending time following the second missionary journey of Apostle Paul, we saw that he went into the Macedonian region and then we saw certain key cities over there such as Philippi whom he affected. And then we talked about Thessalonica where there was much persecution and yet there was a good outcome, a good fruit in the city of Thessalonica. Then we talked about place known as Beria and later on we saw that Paul leaves Beria and he moves towards Athens and over there he goes alone. He asks Silas and Timothy to come after him but then he says, you know, you come quickly. And so he's in Athens and he's waiting there and we talked a little bit about Athens, about the kind of place that it was, the intellectual capital of the world, so to speak, because so many philosophies were born there. Great philosophers went to get trained in Athens. So we were talking about all of those aspects and we talked about certain teachings that were prevalent in Athens at that time when Paul went. And we said there was a philosophy which was termed as a Epicureanism which had to do with experiencing all kinds of pleasures in life and the fact that God did not care. So that's what the Epicureans believe. Whereas Stoicism, another one, said that life came from God and everything is God. So it was a completely different kind of a teaching. So people were in the midst of new philosophies and they enjoyed something new each time it came up. So this is the environment into which Paul went and we know that in Athens, we will read the passage. But in Athens, another very special thing to note was their idol worship. So there were several idols that were part of their religious practices. So it is said there was a man called KS Petronius Arbiter who even said that in Athens, there are more gods than men. So you have a more likely chance of bumping into more idols than a human being. So there were those many idols in Athens and that was part of their belief. So talk about it and they had an altar for that particular God. So those are the kind of people that we are talking about. So in this setup, what is Paul going to do? How is Paul going to engage? That's the question that we are going to look at right now. Now Paul will try to find the most suitable place. Remember in each city, we saw him going to the synagogue because that was the place of the gathering of people. But right now, which place is he going to pick? Because this is more of a Greek city and you don't really have large synagogues to go to and minister to people. But we'll see that there are these spaces where people meet to have their discussions and talk about their philosophies and he will pick one of these places. So Agora was a marketplace in Athens where people would come. It was an open space of assembly where people would come and where they would have their political, governmental as well as religious assemblies and have their discussions. Somebody who has an idea would come there and share their idea and someone who has a question would also come and check about whatever they believe. So the Agora was a common place where a marketplace where people generally had their discussions. So now Paul finds one such place and this place is known as Mars Hill or another term is Areopagus. So he comes to this place of discussion and he starts his talk there. So let's quickly go to Acts chapter 17 and we will have to read through. Now that we have an idea of what exactly is going on, where Paul finds himself and we have the question about how he is going to address this particular philosophical crowd. So we have to read from Acts 16. Let's go on all the way till verse 34. So I would request one of us to volunteer and read this entire section please. Yeah verse 16 onwards. Acts chapter 17 from verse 16. Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idol view. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout person and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him and some said what will this babbler say? There are some he seems to be a set of hold of strange gods because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection and they took him and brought him into Areopagus saying may we know what this new doctrine were of those speakers for though bring us certain strange things to our ears. We were known therefore what these things mean for all the Athenians and the strangers which were spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of Moscow and said he met of Athens I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious for as I passed by and beheld your devotions I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown god whom therefore you ignorantly worship him declare unto you. God that made the world and all things there and seeing that he is lot of heaven and earth dwelt not in temples made with hands neither is worshiped with immense hands as though he needed anything seeing he give to all life and bread and all things and had made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him through far from every one of us for in him we live and move and have our being as certain also of our own poets have said for we are also his offspring for as much then as we are the offspring of God we are not to think that the Godhead is unlike like unto God or silver or stone graven by art and men's device and the times of his ignorance God winged that but now command all men everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he had ordained whereof he had given assurance and to all men in that he had raised him from the dead and when they heard of the resurrection of the dead some mocked another said we will hear the again of this matter so Paul departed from among them how by certain man clave unto him and believe some among the which was the only seers the aeropagite and the women named the barris and others with them thank you for reading that entire section jeffina so we saw how Paul he came to Athens and over there as he stood in Athens the scripture tell us that his spirit was provoked now remember the guidance of the Holy Spirit has been a very essential part of the way things have taken place in the book of facts the Holy Spirit led Paul to go to Macedonia the Holy Spirit led Philip to go where he went and and therefore listening to the Holy Spirit is key in this particular situation there is the there is the guidance of the Holy Spirit but the way in which the guidance comes is slightly different so in the case of Philip we said that he had he got this prompt from God which said overtake the chariot or in the case of Ananias who went to pray for Paul God told him you know Paul is here he's praying you go so there were words that were spoken to Ananias so that was one way of communication that God used in this particular case we see that Paul was provoked in his spirit so it's may not it's not necessarily some words or a passage that is being spoken to him but it is a sense or a feeling it's a spiritual sense that Paul is experiencing so he goes to a city and the fallen state of the city is something that the Holy Spirit is awakening him to and you know that's a possibility so he goes to this so-called great intellectual city and he should actually be very happy because he's a scholarly person and he probably knew the value of Athens however he goes into the city and he's sensing a provocation within him or you know provoked has to do with like a an anger a spiritual anger which is rising up within him when he saw the city it says and given over to idols so as a preacher of the gospel he felt that people were unaware of the truth of what God had done for them and how God had redeemed them and so in this Greek region yeah it was a responsibility that Paul carried to preach the gospel and to let them know about the love of God now he picks the place that he prefers as we said earlier yes there are synagogues but then in this particular place there are marketplaces as well okay so the marketplace which I mentioned earlier Gora was the place where a lot of people came business was done discussions happened and so he felt that that might be another additional stop for him to go to to speak to the Greeks here so he went there he ministered and you see that there were philosophers all over the place there were people who were part of the Epicurean and the stoic thoughts of you know a line of thought and they came to him and notice what they say what does this babbler want to say why do you think they said babbler yeah so we've already been saying that it's a very intellectual city so maybe some of them had an idea about Paul and his teachings and they just felt that there was nothing unique about the message that he's preaching and they assumed that this man is uneducated not equipped not necessarily a learned man and you know he's coming and sharing with us some very you know basic very simple not interesting thoughts and so that's why they put him down and they did not consider him as an equal as an intellectual and one thing though that they noticed was that he was proclaiming about foreign gods because this this knowledge about Jesus was something that they were not fully familiar with so maybe you know there was something within them that said we need to find out more about this Jesus so because he was proclaiming about Jesus they directed him to the largest space that they had where they could have these discussions and we would consider this particular you know place or arena where they took him as we could call it like something like the city council so they went to the city council that would be where all kinds of discussions would be heard and so they gave him a platform over there we already mentioned the name of the place Ariopagus or Mars Hill and they asked him the question may we know what is this doc new doctrine of which you speak for you are bringing some strange things to our ears therefore we want to know what these things mean and for all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spend time spend their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear something new so it was just the reason why Paul got an opportunity was because what he was sharing was unique and they wanted to give it a chance so in such a situation you know it's an intellectual city how is Paul going to present the gospel so a lesson or two about preaching a lesson or two about you know evangelizing in context we can learn that from Paul in Athens so he finds himself in the best place because he's given an opportunity to share his faith but look at this you know sometimes they say that we need to communicate the the unfamiliar from the familiar so that's the approach that he takes up so he just comes to them and he says you know I saw this inscription to the unknown god or there seems to be an altar to the unknown god you know do you want to know this unknown god I am proclaiming about this unknown god so that caught their attention they felt that okay yes we do have an altar for the unknown god but we don't know anything about this unknown god maybe we should listen to Paul and then he begins to talk then he begins to paint the picture of a creator god no he says things like god who made the world and everything in it so you notice in this society where people probably did not have the full understanding that god is a creator and then there are created beings he had to let them know that we must worship the creator right and so that is why he's beginning to speak in this way so that they can have some understanding about who god really is and what is the right way of worshiping him and then he goes on he says he nor is he worshiped with men's hands as though he needed anything since he gives to all life breath and all things so he is you know letting them know that god is above everything and then he goes on to talk about you know salvation through Jesus Christ where he begins to teach them you know about how god is the one who will judge the world with his righteousness by a man whom he has ordained so he's actually talking about the Lord Jesus and then you know he gives them the assurance that god will also raise his people from the dead so let us see what are the themes which are running through Paul's message here one is that god is a creator secondly he talks about Jesus he talks about the fact that there will be judgment through this man Jesus Christ he also talks about the resurrection of the dead so he covers a lot of key points bringing it in a in a nice way to the audience now another way in which he actually speaks this message is notice okay one point he actually says yeah verse 28 where he says for in him we live and move and have our being as also some of your own poets have said for we are also his offspring so Paul is a well-read man so he may have read about the philosophies of the Greek people he may have read the poet poems of the Greek people so to get their attention he's being very intellectual in his message also now if you go back to people like Peter when they preached in you know Acts 2 after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit Peter goes into the patriarchs he goes into Abraham he goes into Moses he goes into David why because that's the context which the Jews will understand but look at the message of Paul here it's so different there's no Abraham there's no Isaac because the audience will not understand so what will the audience understand the audience will they are looking for a new philosophy so he introduces it like that about Jesus but he covers all the important points you know about repentance and judgment and resurrection Christ all that but you notice he also puts in a little bit of their own poets so it's in context so then the Greeks will will wake up to the message so in this way he tries to preach to them and he tells them that this unknown God is the Lord Jesus Christ and that you need to make a place for him and then this is just a starting point from where he wants to preach Jesus to them however notice in every city he had a little bit of a positive reaction and somewhat of a negative reaction so the same thing happens here in Athens we see that the moment he mentioned resurrection of the dead for some of the intellectuals there they felt that this is not this is not intelligent this is not acceptable okay this philosophy is not nice and so people started mocking him you know how can the dead rise and they mocked him they shut him down and then they just said that okay stop it Paul we will hear you at another time okay so Paul had to stop speaking what he was speaking and he went from there now thank God there was a response from people they accepted Christ and there were some believers even in this great city of Athens so you know Luke writes about them he says Dionysius the Ariopegite so maybe like a well well recognized an influential person because Ariopegite means somebody from the city council so Dionysius was one such person there's also Damaris and others with them so one beautiful thing is that there was a church planted in Athens okay and we are happy about that but beyond this you know Paul was not able to do much in Athens and then he just had to move on to the next place so if you have any thoughts or questions please feel free you can you can just discuss so the gospel is for the common man the layman and the intellectual person and everyone else yes the way we present it might change from time to time because we are looking at them accepting it right but the message is the same and the message is there for everyone so that's the beauty of the kind of ministry that Paul engaged in he was going to all kinds of people all over the place yes so I was just reading as her teaching so in verse 26 it says he has made from one blood every nation of men who dwell all the face of earth so this one blood as it signifies us the blood of Jesus Christ okay as far as you know my understanding goes I think it's referring to us being the Adamic race because we're all our lineage goes back to Adam right so I don't I don't think he's referring to the blood of Jesus so right now Paul is in Athens he's alone he did the ministry alone but who is he waiting for to join him correct so Timothy and Silas are yet to join him so let's see now how what exactly happens and where he plans to go okay he does have a small number of people who are believing in Athens and then he has to move on from there so the next stop would be Corinth okay now these are all very important cities because something about the strategy of Paul he went to places where there was a lot of movement these were business cities and from such a city where you know a lot of people could come in go out the gospel can move faster and maybe that's why he picked all these you know high-five cities he could have gone to smaller cities one challenges that reaching them would have been difficult for him but the other thing is he was being strategic and he was sharing the gospel in a place from where it can easily touch many many parts of the world so that's the reason he picked these cities so Athens we saw very prominent city and now he's choosing Corinth okay now Corinth again is in those days today we call certain cities metropolitan cities where it's multicultural people come from different parts of the nation different parts of the world and they make their habitation there a lot of business happens there's education there's all kinds of infrastructure for for people to really thrive so metropolitan cities so Corinth was one such metropolitan city it was also a port city closer to the sea and thereby you know it had harbours and the ships could come in it was a booming commercial centre in those days so think about it you know Paul and his vision was so big his dream was so big he was not afraid he was ready and bold to go into a city like Corinth and trust God to impact that city so he went there and apparently it was also known as the ornament of Greece so Athens is a special place but then Corinth is a sort of a more special place so it was known as the ornament of Greece so it had some 200,000 people living there and the specialty of Corinth the specialty of Athens is intellectualism of Corinth was actually worship and the worship of a particular god known as Aphrodite they had a huge temple for this is a goddess actually Aphrodite the goddess and this temple was known for its architecture because it was huge like something like 1750 feet high and sorry I'll just come back to this it was set on a set on a height of 1750 foot and it staffed a lot of people so there were men and women who were worshipers in this temple but one of the practices of worship was prostitution so Corinth in that sense you know whenever people talk about Corinth it is a sin city so the reputation of Corinth was not very good it was known for immorality and pleasure so at one hand it's a thriving booming city where Paul wants to make an impact but at the same time you know Corinth is a city where there is incredible immorality so it's going to be a challenge for Paul to do his ministry there but then we find that you know Paul stations himself there for about 18 months or year a year and a half and by God's grace he also finds people good people who can partner with him in the ministry so we will read about the names of a couple known as Aquila and Priscilla who were Jewish believers who had to leave Rome and come to Corinth because of a certain rule or a law which had been passed on an edict which was issued by the Roman emperor in those days so just temporarily they left Rome and they were also in Corinth now the common thing about Paul and Aquila and Priscilla is that they were all tent makers so they made their living by making tents and Aquila and Priscilla they get saved and they also partnered together with Paul in the ministry so that's a beautiful thing that happens in Corinth and at this point you know when Paul is in Corinth he also receives a small support from Philippi so people send him some financial help from there and he's grateful for that the team becomes larger in Athens he was alone but over here he will find Aquila and Priscilla but at the same time his old team Silas, Timothy and also Luke will join him for a little for the ministry there okay so these are all a couple of key things regarding Corinth now we will read how exactly the ministry took place in Corinth so we can look at the passage that is given here and understand what he does in Corinth so we are in Acts chapter 18 and we would need to read up from verse one till verse 17 who would like to read this passage? After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth and he found a certain Jew named Aquila born in Pontus who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla yes because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome and he came to them so because he was of the same trade he stayed with them and worked for by occupation they were tent makers and he risen in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded both Jews and Greeks with Silas and Timothy had when Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia Paul was compelled by the by the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ but when they opposed him and blasphemed he shook his gametes and said to them your blood be upon your own heads I am clean from now on I will go to the Gentiles and he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justice one who worshiped God who whose house was next door to the synagogue then Christmas the ruler of the synagogue believed on the Lord with with all his household and many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were baptized now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by our vision do not be afraid but speak and do not keep silent for I am with you and no one will attack you will attack you to hurt you for I have many people in this city and he continued there a year and six months teaching the word of God among them when Galio was pro-castle of a killer Assyria the Jews with one code rose up against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat saying this fellow persuades men to worship God contrary to the law and when Paul was about open his mouth Galio said to the Jews if it were a matter of wrongdoing or wicked crimes or Jews there would be there would be reason why I should there would be reason why I should bear with you but if it is a question of words and names and your own law look to eat yourself for I do not want to be a judge of such matters and he drove them from the judgment seat then all the Greeks took substance the ruler of the synagogue and beat him before the judgment seat but Galio took no notice of these things amen okay sure yeah thank you thank you the beggar for sharing that I wanted to show us a picture of the acrocorinth so I still get confused whether the temple was 1050 feet high or you know the acrocorinth but I think the temple was built on a height so currently some ruins are we can see some ruins you can't really see the temples so some difficulty I found a picture for us yeah so I think you can see here I'm just showing it off a web page you can see it yeah so these are the ruins of the temple and it was set on a height and as we said there were a staff who were prostitutes both men and women and the city as such was known for immorality so even when Paul writes to the Corinthians we'll see that he gives many instructions about living a godly life about living a sexually pure life people were getting saved out of such a background you know out of prostitution and then he had to instruct them about the right lifestyle for a believer so this is a little bit of background about the acrocorinth it just gives us you know an idea about ancient acrocorinth and how it was at that time now we could okay yeah so we could go on to understanding a little more about how exactly you know the the ministry happens so we saw that he comes to Corrine that he meets Aquila and Priscilla as we mentioned people from Italy or from Rome who were also tent makers so this helps us understand that Paul was a very responsible individual he did not just because he was serving people in ministry he did not put the burden of you know the cost of his living on them so he did his best to work with his hands and to provide for himself and we see that he writes in certain passages that you know we did not burden you we worked hard among you and like you know the way we lived among you so that's a good thing it's a good example and it's also an eye opener for some of us who may think that you know ministry is only full time and if we do have a profession or a career which is outside of the so-called typical full-time ministry then something is wrong but look at Paul he was he was a tent maker or he was a marketplace minister in a sense so it's okay to have work and to do ministry okay and again in Corinth we find him doing the same thing he goes to the synagogue every Sabbath where he begins to persuade or convince the Jews and the Greeks and again we said that his team is required here in Corinth so Silas and Timothy come from Macedonia and Paul was compelled by the spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ so notice these are all the the promptings or the leading of the Holy Spirit and though Paul has his strategies he is following the Holy Spirit and that is important for us in our lives as well you know all our planning should be done by hearing from God and we should continue to be open to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us so compelled by the Spirit he begins to testify to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ and what kind of you know response does he get we see that there is opposition even in Corinth every city a few people are believing but then you know there is opposition same thing happens here but at this point Paul is quite upset they he shook his garments and said to them your blood be upon your own heads I am clean from now on I will go to the Gentiles so what he does is if Jews were not receptive of his ministry he just decides to put all his energy to those who will listen and so you know he transfers his focus to the Gentiles he goes to the Gentiles so there is a man known as Justice you know who worships close to the synagogue so he goes there and you know he begins to minister there but there is an impact on even people from the synagogue because there is a man by the name of Crispus who is the ruler of the synagogue who believed in Jesus and many Corinthians actually start to believe so certain Gentiles believe and certain Jews also believe but we also need to understand that this environment of opposition it was not easy for Paul you know somewhere we have this picture of Paul that here's a man who's so strong nothing mattered to him and he was bold even when people were opposing him but maybe Paul went through his own set of discouragements disappointments pain and even fear look at God's goodness in Paul's life verse 9 it's so precious it says now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision a word of encouragement comes to him do not be afraid but speak and do not keep silent for I am with you and no one will attack you to hurt you for I have many people in this city so as we serve the Lord you see even God understands there are those moments when we really need to hear from God and an encouragement from God and God is so gracious he says okay Paul don't worry I know it's hard for you but you keep preaching I am with you I have a lot of people in this city nobody will attack you so even in Paul's journey there could have been phases where you know he he was down and God is we'll see again you know there'll be another time where the Holy Spirit will come and minister to him and say don't worry Paul I'm with you you do the work okay so depending on the encouragement of God is also so very precious so let's pause here we'll come back we'll continue learning about the city of Corinth okay thank you everyone