October 19, 2016

Dear MLEPC Members and Friends:

Our fall sermon series is entitled The Start of Something New, based on the theme verse found in Revelation 21:5 in which God declares, "Behold, I am making everything new!" We are considering passages throughout Scripture in which we find the new work of God made known to God's people. We are His new creation (Galatians 6:15; 2 Corinthians 5:17). God loves us with steadfast love and mercy that is new every morning (Lamentations 3:23). He in turn calls us to obey His new commandment to love one another as Christ has loved us (John 13:34). And as God's new creation in Christ, we learn to walk in the new way of the Holy Spirit instead of the old way of the written code of law (Romans 7:6). Indeed, our God is a God who is making everything new!

This Sunday we anticipate turning to yet another new thing found in the Bible--namely, a new teaching. In the book of Acts, chapter 17, the Apostle Paul finds himself in the great city of Athens as he awaits his colleagues in ministry, Silas and Timothy, to rejoin him on his Second Missionary Journey. While biding his time, Paul does just what we would expect of this great evangelist; he preaches the Good News of Christ and the resurrection to the Athenians (Acts 17:18). In response they say, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean" (verse 19).

Athens was the philosophical center of the Roman world. It boasted such greats as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, among many other renowned thinkers. Yet it also was a hub for the newest and sometimes craziest new religious ideas and expressions. In fact, as one ancient writer commented for emphasis, there were more idols in Athens than there were people. As verse 21 notes, "the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas." They therefore were eager to hear something new from this little Jewish man who energetically was announcing a religious philosophy about one Jesus of Nazareth. So Paul joined them at the Areopagus in the shadow of the great Acropolis of Athens. There Paul gave what we know as his Mars Hill speech, so named because Mars was the Roman name for the Greek god Ares--the god of war.

What Paul proclaimed in his Mars Hill message was a new, new teaching for his listeners; however, to most of us it is the old, old gospel. Paul tells them that the "unknown god" whom they worship--just in case they missed one--is the Maker of heaven and earth. He made humans as the crown of creation in His image and after His likeness. God's original design was for people to seek and find Him, because He is never far from us due to His omnipresence. But humanity chose to do otherwise. People instead fashioned idols of gold, silver, and stone in order to bow down and worship them as the embodiment of false gods, who truly were no gods at all. Paul then urged them to repent of the folly of their idolatry and to believe in the risen Jesus, so that on the Last Day they would be able to stand before Christ at the final judgment.

In response, some listeners scoffed when hearing of the resurrection. Perhaps these were comprised of the Epicureans who rejected belief in existence after death. Others indicated that they would be interested in hearing more about this new teaching at another time. In the end, only a few placed faith in Christ--Dionysius, Damaris and a number of others (verse 34).

Whether the message is new as it was to the Athenians or old as it is to most of us, the primary issues remain the same: Will we believe in Jesus Christ as the One God sent to save the world and as the One God will send again to judge the world? In the time between those two times that we are given to live on this earth, will we choose to follow Him? These are the most important questions we shall ever have posed to us and we shall ever answer.

Along with Dionysius, Damaris, and a number of others, let us say yes!

Pastor Tim