​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday, September 19, 2021)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor
 
“Making Known the Unknown God: Paul at the Areopagus!”
Acts 17:22-31
 
Last week we talked about the Church in Berea and how they received the message of Christ with “great eagerness” and “examined the Scriptures every day” to see if what Paul said was true.  This was a congregation that valued Scriptures; they saw it as something that deserved their attention.  It merited their time and effort.  Last week the Holy Spirit challenged us to not only receive the word with joy and excitement, but also to put the message into practice. 
 
At the end of our passage last week we saw the Jews from Thessalonica had followed Paul, Silas and Timothy to Berea and they agitated the crowds.  As a result, Paul had to leave Berea while Silas and Timothy stayed there to continue the ministry.  Luke captures this in Acts 17:14-15 as he says, “The believers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy stayed at Berea.  Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then left with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.”
 
So that’s where we see Paul this morning.  Alone in Athens waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him.  Acts 17:16-20 give us this background: “While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.  So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.  A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.  Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?  You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.”
 
Athens was a city full of religions and philosophy.  In Athens, Paul was taken to a meeting in “Areopagus”, which literally means “Mars Hill.”  He is given the chance to share his faith.  “Athenians,” Paul said in Acts 17:22, “I see how extremely religious you are in every way.  For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.”  What a brilliant way to share the gospel!
 
What is the story of the “unknown God?”  In short, the story begins sometime in the sixth century before Christ, with the city of Athens was being devastated and decimated by a mysterious plague.  When no explanation for the plague could be found, and no cure was in sight, the approach was to assume that one of the city’s many gods had been offended.  The leaders of the city sought to determine which of the gods it was and then determine a way of appeasing that god.  This was no easy task, since the city of Athens had literally hundreds of gods.  When all efforts failed to discern which god had been offended, and which had brought the plague upon the city, an outside “consultant” was brought in from the Island of Cyprus, whose name was Epimenides.  Epimenides concluded that it was none of the known gods of Athens which had been offended, but some, as yet, unknown god.  An altar was erected where sacrifices were offered to this “unknown god” with the hope that the plague might stop.  To the amazement of the Athenians, almost immediately, we are told, the plague began to subside.
 
Paul’s task to preach the gospel to the people of Athens was not an easy job.  Yet, he preached an awesome sermon.  Please allow me to highlight two brief things as we look together at Paul’s sermon in Athens:
 
First: Paul Preached a Personal and Accessible God
At the heart of Paul’s sermon was a personal and approachable God.  None of the hundreds of gods the Greeks worshipped was personal and approachable.  The Greek gods didn’t live among humans; they lived on the top of high mountains.  They separated themselves from mortals.  In Acts 17:27-28 Paul said, “He is not far from each one of us.  For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.”  The God the Greeks didn’t know, the unknown God, was a very personal God.  He knows us by name and cares about us individually.
 
In contrast to the Epicurean and Stoics’ views of impersonal gods, Paul preached a very personal God.  He proclaims that the God, the Creator of the universe, is personal and approachable in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. The true God is both transcendent and immanent.  In Christ, He dwelt among us.  He is set apart from the world, but He is not detached from it.  To use the words of German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “He is the beyond in our midst.”   
 
Second: God is our Judge
Paul ends his sermon at Areopagus by a reminder that God is our Judge.  This is what Paul said in Acts 17:31, “God has set a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”  The Stoics’ and many other Greek philosophers thought history was cyclical, going around in endless circles.  But Paul proclaims that history is linear; it is going somewhere and will end in a grand climax when God will judge all nations and set the world right.
 
The apostle Paul further declares that when a person hears about Jesus, when we hear the good news that Jesus Christ is the way to the heart of God, then we are put in a most responsible position.  When we learn the truth about Jesus, we then have a responsibility before God to change our mind, to go on no longer acting as we did before; “to repent,” as Paul says in Acts 17.  That is what repentance means – a change of mind.  You are responsible to change your mind and lay hold of that which God has provided in Jesus Christ.  Why should we do this?  Because there is an inescapable day coming.  God has fixed a day when He will judge the world.  There is coming a day when every life will be evaluated.
 
Friends, what are you going to do with the gospel today?  What are you going to do with the truth the Lord revealing to you today?  Many rejected the message that Paul delivered in Athens, but Luke records that some of the people became believers, including Dionysus, a member of the Areopagus council, and a woman named Damaris.  The seed of the gospel had been planted, and God caused it to grow in Athens.  What are you going to do with the gospel today?  People respond to the gospel in one of three ways: rejection, reluctance, or reception.  I pray that you will receive the gospel today with joy and readiness to repent, to change.  Amen.

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday, September 12, 2021)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor
 
“Berea: A Scripture-Examining Church!”
Psalm 11 9:97-104; Acts 17:10-12
 
Our journey in the book of Acts this morning takes us to Acts chapter 17.  Today we will get to witness the work of the gospel in a place named Berea.  Berea was located about 43 miles southwest of Thessalonica in the province of Macedonia.  If you’re wondering if the city does exist today, in fact it does and it’s a small city known as “Veria” in northern Greece.  The journey from Thessalonica to Berea would have taken two days on foot.
 
Paul arrived in Berea and preached the gospel there after he had preached in Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-10).  The first part of Acts 17 gives us the account of Paul preaching the gospel to the Thessalonians.  In Acts 17, therefore, we have before us two examples of how the message of truth is not only perceived, but how it is also received.  Our Scripture passage this morning forces us to ask questions about our own willingness and our own eagerness to know the truth.  Not only that, but it also invites us to examine our readiness to rearrange our lives according to our perception of the truth of the gospel.
 
In Acts 17:11, Luke tells us, “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”  The Bereans were better than, superior to, and more noble than the Thessalonians.  The book of Acts invites us to compare the Bereans to the Thessalonians.  Are we like the Thessalonians or like the Bereans?  What makes a great Church?  What makes a better congregation?  What makes a good Christian?
 
Two things that I would like to underscore this morning.  The first has to do with the manner through which the Bereans received the Word; and the second has to do with the importance of putting the Word into practice.
 
First: Receiving the Word
How did the Bereans receive the gospel?  Acts 17:11state, “they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”  They received the message with great eagerness.  No yawning on their part while Paul preached.  No glancing at their watches wondering when he would be done.  No planning of the day or the week or of Sunday dinner during the sermon.  No day-dreaming or short attention spans.  Like students eager to learn, they leaned forward in their seats.  They listened.  The probably took notes.  They were attentive and quiet.   
 
But there is more.  They not only received Paul’s message about Christ with great eagerness, but they also “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”  They thoroughly examined the Scriptures.  In Greek, the word “examined” means “to investigate as in a court of law.” The Bereans were not casually handling the Word of God. They were seriously studying it. Just like a good lawyer takes the statements of witness and compares them to the facts of the case, so the Bereans took Paul’s message and compared it the Old Testament Scriptures. That type of study takes diligence and discipline. 
 
Everyday they came to hear Paul speak about Jesus.  Not just once a week.  Not just twice a week. But every day.  They were eager listeners. They were every preacher’s dream congregation if you would say.
 
Second: Putting the Word into Practice
Luke continues to say these words in Acts 17:12, “As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.”  I want you to notice that the work of the Bereans did not end with finding the truth, for Luke tells us in verse 12, “Many of them therefore believed.”
 
So even if we become a church characterized by careful examination of the Scriptures, we need to take one more step. We must also be “doers of the word” as James1:22 reminds us.  In James 1:22, the apostle James says that we “delude” ourselves if we stop short of doing what we believe.  He continues to say that the one who does not do what the word says, “is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror, and after looking at himself and going away, immediately forgets what he looks like” James 1:23, 24.
 
I once read of a Minister named Donald who came home from church a little sooner than usual, and so his wife inquired, “Donald, is that you?  Is the sermon all done?”  “No, no, honey,” he replied, “it is all said, but it has not yet begun to be done.”  I implore you brothers and sisters not to leave undone what has been set before you this morning.  Let us commit to examining daily what God says in His Word.  And let us commit to being doers according to what we find therein.
 
Friends, the Bereans saw Scripture as something that deserved their attention. It merited their time and effort.  They examined it daily. They were not skimming; they were searching.  They came to the Bible and kept coming back.  I love the words of Psalm 119 “Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all day long … How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!  Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.”  Is there a frequency and consistency to your spiritual consumption? We will not make progress in godliness without persistence in God’s word.  We will not make progress in godliness without putting into practice what we have been taught.  In the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen!

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday, September 5, 2021)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor
 
“About Midnight …!”
Acts 16:25-34
 
As we get to Acts chapter 16, the Church of Jesus of Nazareth is about 20 years young.  In less than 20 years, the Church reached north Africa, Asia Minor, and parts of Europe.  The year is 49 AD and Paul decided to take his second missionary journey around the Mediterranean; a journey that took him 3 full years.  According to the estimate of Professor William Barclay, the first missionary journey finished about five years before the events of Acts 16.  I bet Paul was anxious to see for himself how the work of the Lord continued among these churches he founded five years before.
 
So Paul and his fellow traveler, Silas, made it to the city of Philippi.  Through the ministry of Paul and Silas, God did some wonderful things in Philippi including casting an evil spirit out of a slave girl.  Paul and Silas were thrown into prison for what we today would probably call “disrupting the peace.”  The two men were beaten, thrown in jail, put under close guard, and placed in the inner cell with their feet bound in stocks.  It was not a pleasant situation for sure.
 
So what do you do when you have been arrested, beaten, imprisoned, placed under guard, with your feet bound in stocks, for nothing more than preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ?  What did Paul and Silas do as they suffer this injustice of being condemned without a trial, humiliated in public, abused, and injured, now bleeding and stiff-legged and cramped on the cold floor of the jail cell?  Did they whine and complain shouting their angry cries of outrage?  In Acts 16:25, Luke tells us, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” 
 
What do you do at midnight?  What do you do when you feel the thickness and the weight of that midnight hour?  What do you do when you feel that your life is a mess? What do we do when we find ourselves in that jail cell at midnight?  We all have our own prisons.  It doesn’t have to be in Philippi; it’s right here where you and I live.  It could be the prison of fear and anxiety.  It could be our prison of insecurity.  It could be the prison of depression and loneliness.  It could be the prison of doubt and disbelief. 
 
The account of Paul and Silas in the ancient prison of Philippi has always moved me and I believe it has so much to say to us today.  Two ways this story speaks to us today:
 
First: When Facing Midnight Hour, Turn to God
The first thing that we see is that Paul and Silas turned to God.  Acts 16:25 states, “About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns.”  Don’t skip over this. This isn’t just some throwaway phrase. They were actually communing with the Father in heaven. From there prison cell, they were connecting with God.  It would have been so easy for them to just complain and grumble, “Why?  Why does God allow this to happen?  We are His servants.  This should not happen to us.”  But instead, they said, “No, we need to speak with God.”  The first thing they did is turn to God in prayer.

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.”  Praying and singing hymns to God.”  Often times we become like the Jews exiled in Babylon who couldn’t worship and sing the songs of Zion in the land of their captivity.  Listen to these words from Psalm 137:1-4, “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.  There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”  How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?”
 
When facing midnight hour, turn to God.  Remember His faithfulness.  Pour out your heart before Him.  Commune with Him.  I love the words we use sometimes when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper “It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, O Lord, holy Father, almighty and everlasting God.”  But there is another important lesson and it has to do with the value of faithful companionship.
 
Second: The Value of Faithful Companions
When facing the midnight hour, it’s extremely important to have faithful companions.  Paul and Silas are first mentioned together after the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.  In Acts 15:32, Silas is called a “prophet” who “said much to encourage and strengthen the believers” in Antioch.  Silas himself was an encourager.  After Paul and Barnabas parted ways, Paul chose Silas as a traveling companion, and they ministered together on the second missionary journey (Acts 15-18).  Paul knew he would need some encouragement.  For three years, they led a wonderful ministry together.  They planted churches, encouraged believers, shared the good news of Christ with so many, and also endured so much together for Christ.
 
From the Biblical record of Paul and Silas, we learn the value of faithful companions.  The words of Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 continue to prove true, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor … If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.  But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up … Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”  Their companionship is a model of how believers should relate to each other today.
 
Friends, the Prophet Isaiah foresaw a time when God’s people will put on “a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” Isaiah 61:3.  It may be a midnight hour in your life right now.  It may be midnight for our world today.  As followers of Christ, midnight hour is a time to turn to God.  It’s not a time for weeping or crying; rather, it’s a time for praying.  It’s a time for seeking strength, companionship, and deeper fellowship with God’s people, with the Body of Christ.
 
Though we may still struggle with daunting challenges, and not see a way out, the invitation for us today is to turn anew to God and to learn how to lean on each other.  “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning,” says David in Psalm 30:5.  “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” In the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen!