On Nov 25^th I preached a sermon (”Missional Living”) in which I walked through Acts 17:16-34, the historical account of the life and ministry of the apostle Paul in Athens, and pulled out nine principles for participating in the mission of God in Seattle today. You can listen to the sermon at http://media.marshillchurch.org/ under “Recent Audio and Video” or listen to it below via the built-in player.

NOTE: When pulling out principles from scripture you should make a distinction between what is “prescriptive” (i.e. what we should apply today) and what is “descriptive” (i.e. simply what happened). One of the ways to determine whether the principle is merely descriptive of the events that took place or prescriptive in a way that we can learn from and apply is by determining whether the principle in question is supported by the rest of scripture. Due to a lack of time during the sermon itself, I didn’t always cite supporting scripture to affirm the principle that I was addressing, however I have included some supporting citations for the nine observations below for reference and further study.

Nine missional observations from Acts 17:16-34

1. Mission is birthed by the Gospel first taking root in us. (”his spirit was provoked within him.” Acts 17:16; cf. Dt 4:25; Ps 78:41,58; Isa 65:3; Mk 5:19; Ps 66:19; Mt 28:19,20; Acts 1:8

2. Deal with Jesus and resurrection before dinosaurs (”he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.” Acts 17:18,29-31; cf. 1 Cor 15:17-19; Ro 1:4)

3. Don’t ignore the city, but engage it (”so he reasoned.” Acts 17:16,17; cf. 1 Cor 9:19-23; e.g. see Paul’s ministry in the book of Acts and his specific targeting of important regional cities)

4. Discover the gospel bridges into others lives (”I perceive that in every way you are very religious.” Acts 17:16,22-27; cf. Acts 13:16-52, 14:15-18; e.g. each of the Gospels were written to a specific group of people Matthew to Jews, Mark to Romans, Luke to Gentiles, and John to Greeks)

5. Talk to people and develop relationships (”So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.” Acts 17:17,18; cf. see Jesus ministry throughout the Gospels e.g. Mt 9:10-13 and the apostle Paul’s ministry in Acts)

6. Be prepared for opportunities (”And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus.” Acts 17:19-21; cf. Acts 8:26-38; Luke 21:13; Phil 1:13,14; Gal 6:10)

7. Paint a big picture of our big God (”The God who made the world and everything in it.” Acts 17:24-31; cf. see the Bible, e.g. Gen 1:1; Job 38:41; Ps 139)

8. You will be misunderstood (”a babbler.a preacher of foreign divinities.” Acts 17:18; cf. Mt 5:11-12; Lk 21:12; 1 Cor 1:18f)

9. Leave the results up to God (”some mocked.some men joined him and believed” Acts 17:32-34; 1 Cor 1:18f; Rom 9, 11:34-36)

Because the Tomb is Empty

- Pastor Adam