Pauls Travels To Thessalonica

1
Pauls Travels To Thessalonica Berea Acts 17

• To Thessalonica
• He had some success there
• Acts 174 and some of them were persuaded
• To Berea
• They responded to Pauls teaching
• Acts 1711 These were more fair-minded than
  those in Thessalonica, in that they received the
  word with all readiness, and searched the
  Scriptures daily to find out whether these things
  were so.

2
Paul Travels to Athens

• He meets with the Jews and Gentile worshipers in
  the synagogue and the market place
• He realizes that the Athenians do not believe in
  one god, but several
• He encounters Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.

3
The City of Athens

• A city given over to idolatry
• Idols representing all their gods lined the
  city road
• Paul referred to them as objects of worship -
  vs. 23
• He sees an idol labeled Unknown God
• He is invited to Mars Hill to speak

4
Pauls Lesson On The One True God

• He praises the Athenians for being very
  religious vs. 22
• Paul refers to the Unknown God idol and begins
  his lesson - Vs. 23 Therefore, the One whom you
  worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you.

5
God who made the world and everything in it

• Gen 11 In the beginning God created the
  heavens and the earth
• Acts 1415 ye should turn from these vanities
  unto the living God, which made heaven and earth,
  and the sea, and all things therein.
• Rev. 147 and worship Him that made heaven,
  and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of
  waters.

6
He is Lord of heaven and earth

• Deut. 1014 Indeed heaven and the highest
  heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the
  earth with all that is in it.
• Psa. 11516 the heaven, even the heavens, are
  the Lords
• Matt. 1125 I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven
  and earth, that you have hidden these things from
  the wise and prudent

7
Does not dwell in temples made with hands

• Isa. 661,2 Thus says the Lord heaven is My
  throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the
  house that you will build Me?
• I Kings 827 But will God indeed dwell on
  earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens
  cannot contain You. How much less this temple
  which I built.

8
He is not worshiped with mens hands

• Isa. 425 Thus says God the Lord, who created
  the heavens and stretched them out, who spread
  forth the earth and that which comes from it, who
  gives breath to the people on it and spirit to
  those who walk on it.
• Psa. 5012 If I were hungry, I would not tell
  you for the world is Mine, and all its fullness.

9
He has made from one blood every nation of men

• Mal. 210 Have we not all one Father? Has not
  one God created us?
• Gen. 27 And the Lord God formed man of the
  dust of the ground, and breathed into his
  nostrils the breath of life and man became a
  living thing.
• Gen. 222 Then the rib which the Lord God had
  taken from man He made into a woman.

10
Determined mans pre- appointed times and the
boundaries of their dwellings

• Deut. 328 when the Most High divided their
  inheritance to the nations, when He separated the
  sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the
  peoples according to the number of the children
  of Israel.
• Job 1223 He makes nations great, and destroys
  them he enlarges nations and guides them.

11
Dan. 435 All the inhabitants of the earth are
reputed as nothing he does according to His will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or
say to Him, What have you done?
12
He is not far from each of us

• Jer. 2323-24 Am I a God near at hand? Says the
  Lord, and not a God afar off Can anyone hide
  himself in secret places, shall I not see him?
  Says the Lord Do I not fill heaven and earth?
  Says the Lord.
• Gen. 38-10 Adam and Eve tried to hide from God
  after they had sinned.

13

• Jonah 1 Jonah was directed by God to go to
  Ninevah to preach and instead fled to Tarshish to
  avoid God. He found that he could not hide from
  God.

Psa. 1397-12 God is everywhere. Where can I
go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from
your presence?
14
In Him we live and move and have our being.

• Col. 117 And He is before all things, and in
  Him all things consist.
• Heb. 13 who being the brightness of His glory
  and the express image of His person, and
  upholding all things by the word of His power,
  when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down
  at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

15
His nature is not like gold or silver or stone,
something shaped by art and mans devising.

• Jno. 424 God is Spirit, and those who worship
  Him must worship in spirit and truth.
• II Cor. 317 Now the Lord is the Spirit and
  where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
  liberty.
• Isa. 4018-31 God is not like man and has
  neither the wants nor the needs we have.

16
WHO IS OUR GOD?

• Not some unknown named idol
• Not some physical image
• God is Spirit who needs nothing from us to be
  sustained.
• God is Spirit to whom we owe everything we are
  and everything we have.

17
Who Is Your God?

• What do you worship?
• Have you taken the steps necessary to become one
  of Gods children?
• Are you a child of God who has once been faithful
  and has fallen away?
• What is your situation tonight?