WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.000 To study the passage of scripture that we read earlier. 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:12.000 ! This account in Acts 17 of Paul's time in Athens. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:14.000 ! 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:34.000 Listening to half of a telephone call. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:38.000 You know when you're in a room and someone's on the phone and you can hear what they say, 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.000 but you don't know what the person at the other end is saying, 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:45.000 and you have to somehow imagine what's being said. 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:52.000 When we get to Paul's speech before the council here, the Areopagus, 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:55.000 that's the approach we'll be taking. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:01.000 We'll hear what Paul says, but then we'll also realise why he says it. 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:07.000 Because we get a chance to listen in to the other end of the phone call. 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:11.000 But we need a bit of background first. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:17.000 Paul is here in Athens, and as far as we know it's the first time he's ever been there. 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:23.000 He's on his second missionary journey, and if we wind back, 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:31.000 Paul, as a young man, probably never expected that this is what he would be doing. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:33.000 Never expected it. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:39.000 He was someone who was zealous, absolutely zealous, 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:45.000 for the upholding of the faith of the Old Testament. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:55.000 And when Jesus appeared, claiming to be the Messiah, that was an anathema to someone like Paul. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:01.000 And although he comes into the story after Jesus' death and resurrection, 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:09.000 he was someone who wanted to crush the church wherever he could find it. 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:17.000 And one of the saddest references we have is at the end of Acts chapter 7, 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:23.000 when Stephen is speaking before the Sanhedrin, and is then stoned to death. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:31.000 And in the book of Acts chapter 8, it says that Saul approved of his execution. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:43.000 And then, by his own writings later we know, Saul went after other people, saved people, believers, 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:49.000 and had them not just put in prison, but put to death. 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:56.000 And the big change for Saul, as he was then known, was on the road to Damascus, 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:03.000 where he met the risen Lord Jesus, where his life completely changed. 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:09.000 And a man called Ananias was sent to Paul. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:15.000 And it's interesting to read what he was told by Jesus about Paul, 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:23.000 because this in a way became Paul's recurrent theme in life, ever after. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.000 Jesus said to Ananias, 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:33.000 Go, for he Paul is a chosen instrument of mine, to carry my name before the Gentiles, 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:37.000 and kings, and the children of Israel. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:45.000 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:54.000 So, in learning that, in Damascus after his conversion, there were two aspects. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:01.000 One was, he was going to bring the good news, the good news of Jesus, 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:07.000 not just to the children of Israel, but right across the Gentile world, 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:13.000 to non-Jewish people, and to those in authority, to those who were kings. 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:19.000 So, he was going to, as Jesus put it, carry my name. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:21.000 But there would be more than that. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:27.000 In doing this, he would suffer for the sake of the name of Jesus. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:33.000 And how that has been the same for Christians down the centuries. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.000 The two things go together. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:42.000 To carry the name of Jesus, and to suffer for the name of Jesus. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:48.000 So, this, what I would say is, whenever you read about Paul, 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:50.000 always remember these words. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:54.000 Because these are the words that stayed with him, all through his life. 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:03.000 And were the confirmation to him, about what his purpose was, in God's sight. 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:09.000 So, in Athens, we find him on his second missionary journey. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:12.000 He's traveled a long way. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:17.000 He'd been in Jerusalem, he'd been in Antioch, but he's heading west. 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:22.000 And he fully expected to go to Rome. 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:34.000 But, as we read in chapter 18, the Emperor Claudius had caused all Jews, no matter who they were, 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:38.000 to leave Rome and get completely out of the country. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:47.000 And this, we hear at other times in Paul's writings, how he was blocked from going to Rome at this time. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:50.000 But, eventually, he did go. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:55.000 He did go under different circumstances. 00:05:55.000 --> 00:06:02.000 And we know from the end of the book of Acts, he preached the good news of Jesus in Rome. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:08.000 And that even those of Caesar's household heard the message and believed. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:21.000 The thing is, Paul also knew that he was an apostle to the Gentiles. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:25.000 And he tells us that in Romans 11, verse 13. 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:30.000 And he declares, I am an apostle to the Gentiles. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:36.000 The thing is, in terms of the Gentile world at that time, 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:44.000 with the way the book of Acts is written, God has obviously inspired Luke, the writer, 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:52.000 to make sure that the major population centers of the Gentile world are visited. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:55.000 That the visits there are mentioned. 00:06:55.000 --> 00:07:01.000 There are other visits that we know must have happened that Paul went to Crete, the island of Crete, 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:05.000 but it's not mentioned in the book of Acts. 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:08.000 It doesn't mean it didn't happen. It did. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:18.000 But, the whole way the book of Acts is written is to show any reader that the gospel spread, 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:26.000 starting at Jerusalem, as Jesus had originally said, and then to all the ends of the earth. 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:33.000 And the significant places the gospel had to reach, first the political center, Rome. 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:37.000 And as I've said, that eventually does happen. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:40.000 But also, Athens. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:45.000 Athens was the intellectual center of the Roman world. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:50.000 So, here is Paul in Athens. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:56.000 And we're going to focus now on his dealings with people in the marketplace, 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:02.000 and then also being taken to the council called the Areopagus. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:10.000 And, for those who know this from the authorised version, what's called Mars Hill. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:17.000 Because the translators at that time put things into what they regarded as a classical language, 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:19.000 which was Latin. 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:21.000 So, Mars Hill. 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:28.000 And now is the time when we listen to half of the phone call, 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:33.000 but we can then be told what's being said at the other end. 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:43.000 The first thing to look at is that Jesus and the resurrection are Paul's message. 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:45.000 And it happens twice. 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:50.000 Once in the marketplace, and once when he speaks to the Areopagus. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.000 So, we should be alert. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:58.000 If there's a pattern developing, why is that? 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:02.000 And, in fact, he gets people rather confused. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:09.000 They say, the philosophers say, he's speaking about foreign divinities, 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:12.000 meaning foreign gods, plural. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:17.000 Because they were hearing a name, Jesus, and they were hearing another word, 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:21.000 which in Greek for resurrection is Anastasis. 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:25.000 And they were hearing Jesus and Anastasis. 00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:32.000 And that word, Anastasis, can be mistaken for a name. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:40.000 In fact, in the modern world, the woman's name Anastasia actually comes from this. 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:45.000 So, Anastasis, Anastasia, means resurrection. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:51.000 And Paul is deliberately doing this. 00:09:51.000 --> 00:10:00.000 So, I won't tell you what the other side of the conversation is, of the telephone conversation on this one, 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.000 until we get to it again when he's in front of the council. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:06.000 But hold that thought. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:09.000 He speaks of Jesus and the resurrection. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:17.000 And strangely, not Jesus and the cross, which is what he would normally do when he spoke in the synagogue. 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:20.000 So, Jesus and the resurrection. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:21.000 So, hold that thought. 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.000 We're going to come back to it. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:31.000 The next thing of interest that Paul says is in verse 26, 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:40.000 when he speaks about all mankind is made from one man. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:41.000 That God had done this. 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:44.000 All mankind from one man. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:48.000 Now, from those of us who know the scriptures, we know that that is true. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:50.000 From Adam. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:55.000 But why did he say it so explicitly here? 00:10:55.000 --> 00:11:05.000 This is when we get a chance to hear what's happening at the other end of the telephone call. 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:13.000 It came down to how the people of Athens looked at themselves. 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:18.000 They believed that they were very special. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:22.000 More special than all the other races of the world. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:29.000 So, they didn't condescend to being descended from someone common. 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:33.000 They believed they were descended from someone very special. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:40.000 And that it was all the other nations of the world who were descended from one man. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:42.000 And Paul knows that. 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:44.000 Paul knows that. 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:47.000 So, he deliberately goes out to provoke them. 00:11:47.000 --> 00:11:51.000 And if there's one other thing to say about people in Athens, 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:53.000 they were very arrogant. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:54.000 Very arrogant. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:56.000 They looked down on anyone else. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:59.000 In fact, they did this to Paul in the marketplace. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:06.000 When they talk about him as a babbler, it's extremely condescending. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:08.000 There's nothing of respect there. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:10.000 They're doing him down. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:14.000 Now, Paul doesn't mind that. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:18.000 He is going to tell them the whole truth. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:25.000 And he is going out to demolish their views, their beliefs, and tell them about Jesus. 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:41.000 So, the conversation on where is descent from, the Athenians, the men of Athens, believed that they were so special, 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:51.000 that they were not descended from the same common ancestor as the rest of mankind. 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:57.000 The next thing to look at in Paul's speech, there are two quotes here. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:01.000 One of them, which we often use in our prayers, is, 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:04.000 In him we live and move and have our being. 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:06.000 And then the next one is, 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:10.000 For we are indeed his offspring. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:16.000 Now, a brief reading of scripture, a quick reading, 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:20.000 You might assume that those come from the Old Testament. 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:22.000 But they don't. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:25.000 If you've got an ESV Bible in your hand, 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:30.000 Look at the footnotes, and it tells you where those quotes come from. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:33.000 They actually come from Greek literature. 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:37.000 So, a bit unusual here. 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:43.000 Paul is not quoting the Old Testament as he normally would in the synagogue. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:47.000 He is actually quoting Greek literature. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:50.000 The first quote, 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:53.000 In him we live and move and have our being, 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:57.000 comes from a writer called Epimenides, 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:02.000 who lived in Crete 600 years earlier. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:08.000 And then the second one, actually two poets said it. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.000 One is Cleanthes and the other Aratus, 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:13.000 and they lived about the same time. 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:19.000 For we are indeed his offspring. 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:25.000 Now when Aratus, when we look at this man called Aratus, 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:31.000 he came from exactly the same city, Tarsus, 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:34.000 that Paul came from. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:44.000 So here we have Paul quoting Greek literature to Greeks. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:52.000 And one of those sayings was actually from a poet in his own city, 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:56.000 from about 200 years before. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:59.000 And Luke, who writes this, is very clever. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:03.000 When you look at what it says, just above it's, 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:08.000 as even some of your own poets have said, 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:12.000 which implies that it's plural. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:16.000 Two different poets have said this. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:19.000 And Paul confirms that. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:21.000 The people listening knew that. 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:27.000 And they're saying, who's this chap who knows this? 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:34.000 The thing is, Paul again knows that these are the things that this audience need to hear. 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:38.000 This is how he's going to make contact with them. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:46.000 And then the final thing he says to the Areopagus. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:51.000 It's about God judging the world in righteousness, 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:53.000 and by one man, that's Jesus, 00:15:53.000 --> 00:16:00.000 giving assurance by raising him from the dead. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:02.000 That this is a historical fact. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:05.000 That's when people begin mocking. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.000 That's when the meeting comes to an end. 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:14.000 And this is where we're on the telephone call again. 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:18.000 We hear this side of the phone call. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:20.000 But what's the other side? 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:26.000 What did Greek people of that time understand? 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:34.000 It comes down to the court that Paul is speaking in. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:36.000 He's been forced to come. 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:42.000 He's probably had some sort of written citation, a summons to come. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:45.000 It's a very formal setting. 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:50.000 But Paul knew something about all the people who are listening to him. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:55.000 There's one core belief that they have to have 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:58.000 if they sit as a council member there. 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:02.000 And that goes back to 500 BC. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:04.000 So 500 years earlier. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:12.000 We actually have the foundational writings about this council, the Areopagus. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:15.000 And there was one belief they had to have. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:21.000 And that was that a resurrection of the human body was impossible. 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:27.000 All of them, if they were going to be accepted into membership on this council, 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:32.000 had to state that they did not believe in a resurrection. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:35.000 And Paul knows that. 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:38.000 So he deliberately provokes them with it. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:40.000 He did that in the marketplace. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:45.000 And he's doing it again now in the council. 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:51.000 And it leads to the meeting actually breaking up in disorder. 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:56.000 But the curious thing is, even for this one talk, 00:17:56.000 --> 00:18:01.000 one of the council members called Dionysius believes. 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:03.000 Believes in Jesus. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:06.000 It says other men did as well. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:08.000 And then a woman named Amaris. 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:14.000 The very fact that she's named tells us something about Greek society. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:18.000 She was someone who was very highly regarded. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:20.000 She had high status. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:23.000 And she believes, as did others. 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:29.000 And so people sometimes say that Paul was a failure in Athens. 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:32.000 But just think about these things over the next few days. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:34.000 See what Paul did. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:36.000 See what he did. 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:44.000 And see the effect that one talk in this high power council led to these conversions. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:52.000 And people coming to a saving faith in Jesus. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:57.000 Shall we summarise as we come to the end of our meeting. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:18:59.000 Let's look at Paul. 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:02.000 Here he is the apostle to the Gentiles. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:13.000 And he displays a profound understanding of the Greek world in which he has been sent to as that apostle. 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:20.000 He reveals an education in Greek life to a very high level. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.000 And then God takes that and uses it. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:31.000 He uses it now in Athens and he uses it again and again. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:34.000 Another thing to notice. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:41.000 Paul's use of Greek is at the highest level. 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:46.000 He's someone who is used to debating with university professors. 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:51.000 Not just in Hebrew, but here in Greek. 00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:57.000 The experts tell us that he wrote superb Greek. 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:02.000 The Greek of Paul's letters is second to none. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:05.000 And that's what opened doors. 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:08.000 If you look at a map of the world at that time. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:14.000 The main language right across the Middle East was Greek. 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:16.000 Which may come as a surprise. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:20.000 Where Arabic is spoken now, it used to be Greek. 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:25.000 In places like Baghdad, it was Greek. 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:30.000 In fact, I said Paul was not able to go to Rome at this time. 00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:35.000 Greek would have got him by in Rome as well. 00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:45.000 And even to this day, there are some villages in southern Italy where they still speak Greek. 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:54.000 If Paul had turned round from facing west towards Rome, where he is in Athens, and looked east. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:21:01.000 And he posed the question, how far could Paul have got speaking Greek? 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:03.000 How far could he have got? 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:07.000 He could have gone 4,000 miles. 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:13.000 4,000 miles to what is now Delhi in India. 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:16.000 The province of the Punjab in India. 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:25.000 And all of that was because of, in the time between the Testaments, a ruler was raised up. 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:27.000 Alexander the Great. 00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:29.000 In the Greek speaking world. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:38.000 And he went and conquered right through what is now Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:45.000 And what he left behind were Greek speaking communities. 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:51.000 So, Paul could have been used right across the Middle East. 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:56.000 From the furthest west in Rome, to the furthest east in Delhi. 00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:03.000 And it's strange to think places like Kabul, Greek was spoken. 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:08.000 And in fact, in the Khyber Pass between Afghanistan and Pakistan, 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:14.000 there are wall carvings written in the same Greek as the New Testament. 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:26.000 In Kandahar, where British troops served, they have found Greek tablets with, again, the same Greek of the New Testament. 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:29.000 And it was all for God to use. 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:35.000 So, in Paul's case, he had his education. God used it. 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.000 He had the language. God used it. 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:46.000 And then, the final thing about Paul is what we said at the beginning. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:51.000 We got a surprise when we read about Paul in Philippi. 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:54.000 We discover he's a Roman citizen. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:23:01.000 We discover later in Acts, he was born as a Roman citizen. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:03.000 It wasn't something he bought. 00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:06.000 It was inherited from his parents. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:19.000 And apparently, that was because Caesar Augustus gave every resident in Tarsus Roman citizenship for supporting him in a civil war. 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:22.000 So, Paul has this honor. 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:26.000 But citizenship should be seen more as an honor. 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:29.000 It wasn't something that everyone else had. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:35.000 So, it's more akin to an MBE or an OBE in modern life. 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:37.000 But it opened doors. 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:39.000 And God used that. 00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:42.000 So, God used his education. 00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:44.000 He used his language. 00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:46.000 And he used his citizenship. 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:48.000 And notice the times. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:50.000 Paul used that citizenship. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:53.000 Very, very astutely. 00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:56.000 Now, what about us? 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:02.000 Each of us who have come to a saving faith in Christ Jesus, 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:04.000 we're in his service. 00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:11.000 In the same way as Paul at his conversion entered Jesus' service, so did we. 00:24:11.000 --> 00:24:16.000 Not, perhaps, on the same scale as Paul. 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:22.000 But the same things that apply to Paul apply to us. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:26.000 We have been chosen. 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:32.000 We have been chosen to carry Jesus' name before those around us. 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:37.000 We also are not promised an easy life. 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:40.000 There may be suffering along the way. 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:54.000 But we, in prayer, can walk along in the same footsteps as Paul. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:25:01.000 We can speak to others around us about Jesus, the cross, the resurrection. 00:25:01.000 --> 00:25:07.000 We can let them know how Jesus can really change their lives. 00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:11.000 And in this modern world with so much misery, 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:15.000 we have got the most wonderful message to tell people. 00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:20.000 And the thing maybe to see individually, 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:26.000 in the same way that Jesus used so many things about Paul's past, 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:30.000 gifts he'd been given like Roman citizenship, 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:35.000 each of us probably have attributes. 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.000 If we look closely, we'll realize Jesus will use those, 00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:45.000 and is using those, for us to carry his name before those around us. 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:47.000 Amen. 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:55.000 And may God bless those few thoughts as we studied his word.