SomeTime Bible Study - Week 0

You will not be introducing SomeTime to your group during this study. You will be introducing SomeTime during your next gathering.

Also, do not skip the last question: “ Who do you think God might be prompting you to pray for? ” Highlight it. Star it. Circle it. It’s really important that your group begins praying for friends, co-workers, classmates, or family.

(For a printable version, download the PDF.)

(Car accident, 3

The book of Acts can be viewed as an extension of the Gospel of Luke. Acts continues to document what Jesus began to do and teach through the apostles. Acts 17 takes place in the city of Athens during Paul’s second missionary journey. (This is his second missionary journey of four—including his trip to Rome to face trial before Caesar.) The city of Athens has lost its former glory, but is still a great center of philosophy, architecture, art, and religion. Paul’s preaching in Thessalonica and Berea has stirred up dangerous opposition and driven him to Athens.

(See “Reference Guide” on the last page for further meaning of main terms.)

• A city full of idols.

• He felt deeply troubled, greatly distressed, provoked.
• His emotions were a complex mix of indignation and compassion.

• The Athenians simply didn’t kno w the real, true God who loved them and died for them (v22-23).
• Paul longed for the Athenians to worship God in truth (v23-31).
• Jesus has risen! (v31) (Death has been defeated!)
• God is so near (v27-28), yet the Athenians’ hearts were so far away (v29).
• Judgment is real (v31).
• In the Bible, we see a similar response from God when he sees people placing their hopes and affections in things that cannot help or cannot save. (We’ll look at an example of this later in the study.)

• He reasoned in the synagogue (v17).
• He reasoned in the marketplace (v17).
• He talked about Jesus and the resurrection (18).
• He conversed with the philosophers about the gospel (18).
• He talked about God’s attributes (24-31).
• As an aside (you don’t need to turn here), we can see a parallel response from Jesus in Matthew 9:36-38. Jesus sees the spiritual state of the crowd, feels compassion, and responds with prayer and action.

• Idolatry of both Paul’s time and today involves “excessive devotion.”
• The idolatry of both eras involves giving our affections, hopes, longings, or meditations to anyone or anything but God for help, meaning, peace, or identity.
• Idolatry in Paul’s day involved divine worship to a carved image or statue; it entailed attributing power and ability to created things rather than God.
• Most idolatry in today’s American culture is less overtly “religious.” (For example, much of our culture’s idolatry involves things like beauty, fame, power, wealth, recognition, etc.)

• Beauty, popularity, reason, achievement, money, status, happiness, etc.
• An idol can be anything a person looks to for meaning, peace, or identity. Anything or anyone can become an idol.

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#1 “You shall not have any other god but me.” (Ex 20:3)

#2 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind…[I] will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.” (Ex 20:4)

• Give your group a moment to respond to this question. Then read Jeremiah 3:6-10 and consider how this passage relates.
• “… every high hill and under every green tree ” (v6) and “committed adultery with stones and trees” are references to idol worship.
• In this passage, Israel’s idolatry devastated its relationship with God.
• God compares idolatry to cheating and adultery. He sees idolatry as a type of spiritual adultery. If you have ever been close to or been in a relationship where someone has cheated, you know first hand how grievous and devastating cheating is on a relationship. In a similar way, idolatry is devastating to our relationship with God.
• Israel was trying to get its needs met apart from God and turned to idols, which ultimately left the nation worse off.
  (If necessary, see also Jeremiah 2:11-13. Here God compares false gods to broken cisterns, tanks that cannot hold Israel’s precious, valuable, and life-giving water, which leaves them deceived and vulnerable.)
• God strongly warns us against the dangers of idolatry. Understanding the seriousness of idolatry helps us understand Paul’s distress.

***

• Perhaps a sense of “this is not how things ought to be” ( injustice ).
• Perhaps a mix of feeling both angry and sad.
• Perhaps a sense of obligation about doing something.

A recent study* polled unchurched, young adults: “If someone wanted to tell me what she or he believed about Christianity, I would be willing to listen." 89% agreed .

Take a moment to ask God to give you compassion like Paul’s for those around you who don’t yet know Christ. Text yourself the names of a few people you will pray for this week.
1. 2. 3. 4.

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Epicureanism : A school of philosophy advanced by Epicurus that considered happiness, or the avoidance of pain and emotional disturbance, to be the highest good and advocated the pursuit of pleasures that can be enjoyed in moderation. Epicureans were materialists, but they believed in the existence of the gods, though they believed that the gods were made of atoms just like everything else and did not interfere with human lives. Epicurus rejected any possibility of an afterlife.

Stoicism : A school of philosophy founded by Zeno. Stoics taught that the practice of virtue was the first duty of man, and that the only real things are those that bodily senses can perceive. Stoics were materialists. As far as religious belief was concerned , they were pantheists, holding that all things come from God and will be at last absorbed into him again. (Personal immortality was not part of Stoic philosophy.) They were also fatalists, holding that the universe is governed by absolutely fixed laws, and that the private needs of individuals are of no concern to Providence. The way for the individual to be happy was to bring himself into harmony with the course of the universe.

Idle Babbler : This term was originally used in reference to birds picking up seed. Athenians applied this name to those who made their living by picking up and selling scraps found in the market place. Here it is applied to Paul as a "fellow with scraps of learning."

Areopagus (Or “the Council of the Areopagus”): Th is was a court named after the hill on which it had once met. Paul was not formally tried before this court (which several centuries earlier had condemned Socrates), but he was informally required to give an account of his teaching.

* Stetzer, Stanley & Hayes, Lost and Found , (2009) page 36