They used to spend their time

Good morning. We're going to be working our way through the book of Acts here, chapter 17, verses 16 through 21, as Joe read for us here. And first we have, as you'll find on your handout, first page, front page, the map which shows that the Apostle Paul had been through with his ministry team, Philippi, and then on to Thessalonica. And then in Berea, where the same trouble he'd had in Thessalonica began to start up again.

And so they got him out of there. They went about 20 miles from Berea to the coast. He got onto the coast. There were about four different coastal cities nearby that he could have gone through. We're not told which one. From there, it appears he went by a ship to Athens. There's a port there at Athens. apparently landed there and then went into the city of Athens. And so you see that on the map. So this is a part of the larger map, his second missionary journey, which we'll show in other lessons and handouts and things of that sort. So there he is.

Here is the Parthenon, as you've probably seen it a number of times. If you watch the 2004 Summer Olympics, you saw it again and again and again. They had sort of a helicopter scene that they fast forwarded of this Parthenon. By the way, how did they get this name Parthenon? Parthenon is from the Greek. Lo and behold, isn't that amazing they use Greek? But it comes from Parthenos, which means virgin. So Mary, when she was told she was going to be the mother of Jesus, says, how can this be? I'm a Parthenos. So that's where that name comes from.

Athena, however, was the goddess Athena. was considered a virgin. It's amazing in a culture where hardly anybody was but she was considered a virgin and so this is a temple built to her honor and that's the one that's famous. Here's an artist rendering of ancient Athens when all the temples and buildings were there about in the time of Paul including a very large statue They're visible from a long ways away. Also a statue of Athena inside the Parthenon as we'll see shortly here.

This I don't think is going to fly here. This is a virtual reality of Athens in ancient times. I'll show that next time. A little technical glitch here, but we'll get there. You do have on the bottom half of your map of Athens, this map here, and the primary reasons for showing that, this is pointing out some key things, and one of those would be the agora. That's going to be important as we step into the lesson.

The agora was the Greek word for the marketplace. And it isn't just like going down to King Soopers or something like that. Instead, this is the marketplace being it is a place to buy and sell all sorts of things, including, of course, the kind of things you'd have at a grocery store, but all sorts of goods of different kinds. It would also be a place where you'd carry on various sorts of public discussions and that sort of thing. And even the judgments of magistrates would be carried out in this agora.

You'll have also, as we see mentioned in the passage and as Joe read for us, this word Areopagus. We'll talk shortly about what that means. This is the place where Paul was invited to speak before the philosophers there, and we'll explain in a minute what that is.

The Areopagus, people look at it and they say, well, it's just a big rock. Yes. It's just a big rock. What it was was a place where the ruling council would meet and when things shifted towards democracy where everyone would be involved in decisions. Then the Areopagus turned into a sort of a meeting place of different kinds, but you'd just be out there on a rock. So we'll see that shortly. And then finally here is the Parthenon, which is sort of one of a number of places that kind of draws your attention and is a landmark, so to speak, of historical significance.

So this is Paul in Athens. The scripture passages for today and also for next Sunday will take place here in Athens, Greece. We'll be getting into an actually more lengthy passage next Sunday, and so this is getting ready for that. Paul would be without his other ministry companions, different from where he'd been dealing before as he went from city to city, but here alone by himself as the other companions were still back in other places. And so he'd be alone among these Greeks of Athens for a time here, waiting for them. This would be the last part of February to about the middle of March, so roughly a three-week period of time that he was here, 51 AD. So while he was in Athens, he does go to the Jews first, as was the usual.

We saw that in Romans 1.16, which he would write that book later. He goes to the Jew first, and then later on goes to the Gentiles. And then what happens here in the rest of this account, we're going to see most of the focus will be upon his interactions with the Gentiles. And we'll see why that takes place that way also.

So Paul was not just waiting, twiddling his thumbs. You ever had one of these things? Oh, what's the Lord going to do next? How come I'm waiting? And of course, depending on what sort of circumstance you're in, there'll be a lot of waiting around. All of a sudden, things happen in a panic. You ever been in that situation? Things happen real fast after you've had a waiting period. This is a time where even though he was waiting for the others, he didn't want to have it be a time of idleness.

So we say there, you know, in somewhat in jest, he's not just twiddling his thumbs here. He's not just sitting around. So instead he's looking around the city for opportunities to convey the gospel. He's going to the city all by himself. Likely there are few to no Christians, no believers in Christ here in Athens at this time. He's looking for a way, however, to connect with them, which is something that I'd like us to pay some attention to. So Athens in Paul's day is a unique city.

It has a unique set of opportunities to convey the gospel of Jesus Christ, which you see there off to the side is kind of a drawing in an oblique fashion there of the marketplace with all the big buildings that are around it. And we'll see that Athens is the seat of Greek philosophy, of worldly wisdom and pagan idolatry. It was looked upon throughout the empires. This place is the apex of Greek philosophy. And so we'll take a look at that as we go through the passage here. So just to give you an idea, some brief introductions or connecting points with Athens, aside from the 2004 Olympics.

In 620 BC, a leader in Athens named Draco instituted some severe measures to govern Athens. Those severe measures are where we get our English term, draconian. So, just to use an example, the elders brought on some draconian decisions. So these would be some severe or extreme decisions. That's where the word comes from, from this leader in Athens from 620 BC.

Persian King Xerxes, and we give the 519 to 466 BC, known as Ahasuerus in the biblical book of Esther, attacked and destroyed the city of Athens. So there's a biblical connection there. He also had some defeats against the Greeks, and it was during one of those times of defeat that Esther had her opportunity as queen, and you see the book of Esther describing what took place then. But there's another biblical and personal connecting point.

Athens was also the home of Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and others. And just to give it a little bit more screen space there. So Socrates was the tutor, if you will, of his disciple, same Greek word as is used in the New Testament, his disciple Plato, and then Plato then discipled Aristotle, who was the tutor or teacher for Alexander the Great. So there's kind of some great names.

There are also a number of other significant Greek philosophers, but probably you don't lie awake at night thinking about Greek philosophers, so we'll move on from there. There is also, I just want to point out, many valuable biblical applications that will come from this passage, both today's passage and how we go through the next.

We should look for opportunities, how should we look for opportunities rather, to share the gospel in our increasingly pagan world. One of the things that, can you imagine, here is Paul, he steps into Athens, so far as he can tell, nobody in Athens has heard of Jesus Christ. So far as you can tell, nobody has heard of Jesus Christ. It was an entirely pagan world.

Our own culture is moving in that direction. Our own culture is moving in that direction. I've seen some recent statistics that the Christian population in France, which once had a lot of Christian influence of some sort, the Christian population there is now 2%. Very, very small. So we are headed in that direction. We're headed in that direction.

Our world is increasingly pagan. If somebody a couple generations back was doing something that you would say, well, that's wrong, they would say, yeah, I know, but I like it. Now, if you tell them, well, that's wrong, they look at you like you're nuts. So the world has changed radically, and what was illegal is now legal. And it's moving even more so in that direction. If you watch what the California Assembly is doing, it is amazing what's becoming illegal, right?

Christian parents, friends, and relatives of all of us within the church body have an opportunity with the children in our lives to convey a biblical worldview, thinking through all that a biblical worldview means, talking through it. Talking through what is a biblical worldview and not simply as some sort of a philosophical construct, but yes, understanding it, but also understanding it personally in terms of a personal relationship with Christ and everything that that means.

So we're going to be talking about that some more as we go through the rest of chapter 17. There are also great insights here into the will of God. I have some things that may kind of complicate our picture a little bit, but I think are still valuable for us to learn. Here's Acts 17, 16. Now, while Paul was waiting for them, that is, his companions at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. Now, I want to talk about his spirit being provoked little bit later, but certainly to bring it up. It's a valuable and I think important thing for us to take a look at here. One of the things we see, here's the Apostle Paul.

He's been to all sorts of pagan cities. He grew up in Tarsus, which was a pagan city. It had a minority of Jews, very pagan. He'd seen a lot of it. he would, as he went through different places, see a lot more in the way of pagan idols. But the saturation of idolatry here in Athens, within the culture, was disturbing to him.

The temples, the pagan temples, oftentimes with statues that were tall inside and out, those pagan temples were many, and common, and you'd even have extra smaller places, as we'll take a look. Smaller places, even places where you could stop and give acknowledgement, veneration to an unknown god.

Right? And he's going to introduce that. So Dr. Luke draws upon one of his favorite words here, full. When Dr. Luke, as he goes through the book of Acts, describes something as being in the extreme, he uses this word full. So full of idols. Paul observed the city of Athens was full of these idols. It provoked his spirit. But you know that was for good purpose? We're going to see that soon here.

Here's Acts 17.17.

So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present. So, so far, and especially the first half of that verse, we look at it and say, yeah, we've seen Paul do that before. So he also went not just to the synagogue, as he did the first time, but also into the marketplace here in Athens, which as we saw was a fairly substantial marketplace. So in the synagogue, which would be a Jewish synagogue, and so far as we've been able to tell archaeologically and historically, there was one in Athens. Paul reasoned from the Old Testament scriptures just so that Jesus was the long-promised Messiah. Of course, he had done that previously in Acts. Paul spoke to and with Jews who would have been of the Pharisee persuasion.

Just to kind of give a quick summary, about two-thirds of the Jews alive in New Testament times lived outside of Israel. And imagine, so we think of Israel and we think, oh, that's the headquarters for Judaism. That's true. But two-thirds approximately of the Jews lived outside of Israel and they lived All over the place, they lived in here, what was Europe. They lived in the Middle East and farther to the east. They live in North Africa. And this is one of the places where the Jews remained, even until just before World War II. There were 46,000 Jews living in Athens. So the number continued to increase there.

So Paul spoke to these Jews, they would have been of the Pharisee persuasion. Why do we say that? Remember some of the main groups of Jews here? You had the Pharisees, and you had the Sadducees, and you had the Essenes, or sometimes called the Essenes, right? And the Essenes and Essenes like to hang around mostly around Jerusalem or just outside of it for the most part. and especially this city of Qumran, which was their city, they had the Sadducees like to hang around Jerusalem.

The Pharisees were the ones who were missionary. They went all over the world spreading Phariseeism. They even taught the Gentiles Bible stories in order to carry out their missionary zeal. to carry out their brand of Judaism. So this was of the Pharisee persuasion. They believed in a resurrection. They believed in a Messiah. They believed the Messiah would come. They believed in the entire Old Testament, as opposed to the Sadducees, who only believed in just the first five books.

So these Jews would have been of the Pharisee persuasion, which was also the persuasion that Paul himself was trained under as a disciple of Gamaliel. Gamaliel was the premier rabbi of the first century with about a thousand disciples over his lifetime. So Paul went to the Jew first and then to the Greek or Gentiles. The Greeks were the kind of the nominal Gentiles in that part of the empire.

And his interactions with the Gentiles are mostly what Dr. Luke recorded. And so as Dr. Luke records it here, God-fearing Gentiles. These are Gentiles who are in varying degrees sympathetic with Christianity, with what the Bible teaches there. And this is what Dr. Luke records here in the rest of Acts chapter 17 is largely very little exception to that, but largely having to do with his interactions with the Gentiles.

So there in the marketplace, the Greek word was the agora, any major city of any significance had a marketplace, an agora, that was the center of buying and selling, a commercial place, also a place of public interaction of different kinds and an opportunity for people to talk, find a following, kind of express their views and opinions, etc. This was the ancient Agora in Athens. This is a view towards, this isn't the Parthenon, but Hespastion was another building nearby, and you can see from the marketplace. So this was what remains of part of the marketplace, or imagine here's a Here's Paul walking around looking for opportunity by himself to talk to people about the Lord and see who's interested in this.

This would be kind of this oblique view, and you see all these buildings that would be around. So there was lots of architecture. It was not simply an open space. It was surrounded by architecture. And so some of those buildings remain. Probably most of them are in ruins at this day and age.

It would have been a place for him to find openings to present the gospel. mostly among the pagans of various persuasions who would be present there. Now, question, would Jews ever come around the marketplace? Yeah, but they'd have to be picky. Imagine, if you're a Jew and you're going to buy, for example, your meat at the marketplace, can you buy anything that anybody is selling?

No. I can't eat those eels. Why? Because they don't have scales and fins. What's the matter with my eels? You don't like my eels? You know, so there'd be that. Somebody else would say, hey, wouldn't you like to buy this coat? Oh, I can't buy that coat. It's got two different fabrics in it. Can't do it. Sorry, you know. The Jews would have to be, but they would be there. They'd be picky, but they would be there. Largely Gentiles would dominate the marketplace there.

Here's Acts 17-18, and also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, what would this idle babbler wish to say? Others, he seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. Okay, so what are they meaning by that?

One thing is that Athens was the capital of Greek philosophy. I put that in quotes. It was highly regarded among the Greeks, but the Romans and many others in the Roman Empire and beyond highly regarded these Greek philosophers. Not just the big names, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, but a number of others, including, as we see here, these Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. There had been a few centuries of Greek philosophical traditions that had their origins in ongoing support and development from this city of Athens. It was a big place as far as philosophy was concerned.

And here's the other best-kept secret. Greek philosophers impacted Christianity for more than a thousand years after this time. They continued to study the Greek philosophers, even among those who called themselves Christians, and what Aristotle wrote kept modern science from being invented for over a thousand years. We'd say almost something more like 1,500 years. because they followed Aristotle to the letter. Instead of carrying out science, it was Christians who developed modern science.

All right. So ever heard about, you know, the earth, water, fire and air or some combination of those? OK, that's Stoic philosophy. It's one of the places where it gets expressed. By the way, they didn't use that sequence. There's a specific sequence that the Stoics used. But if you've heard of that, That was their view of things. They saw things as being made of those four elements. And they started with fire in their cycle, right? So there was that.

And then Epicurean philosophy, their idea was atoms. Atoms made up everything, okay? Atom from the Greek means you can't cut it. Can't cut it smaller, right? So atoms made up everything. whereas the Stoics were earth, air, fire, and water makes up everything.

So that was their difference in philosophy. There is a correction probably in terms of what most people have thought of. If you think of Epicureans as someone who really delights in eating fine food and pursuing pleasure, that's not true. Their big deal aside from atoms was pain avoidance. And the Stoics, you think of Stoics as being Stoic, really, you know, not being emotional? No. It's possible even if you told them that they weren't emotional, they'd get upset about that. So here, the Stoics and the Epicureans, both of those actually represented something different than what we in our culture have tended to put upon them.

Here's the summary in the table, we won't go through every detail other than to say we've got fire, air, earth and water, and by the way it was that sequence for them, all held together by the impersonal logos. They were pantheistic materialists, they believed that they were gods, but the gods were basically mythical and because of that didn't really have a lot of practical impact upon people's lives. There was no such thing as sin, so error is acting contrary to the laws of nature. They were really big on the laws of nature. So then you have for the Epicureans, they have this materialistic worldview, which is similar to the Stoics, except that they broke things down to this atomic level. level you couldn't cut it down to anymore. The gods exist but they exist in a realm that is separate from us and they really have no impact and so the idea of prayer to the gods was useless to them.

Pain avoidance was the priority, and that's one of the things, you know, in terms of most people think of, you know, some pursuit of pleasure. Well, to them, pleasure is just absence of pain, okay? That was their big thing, avoid pain, which meant making, you want to make good decisions so that you avoid painful outcomes. That was their big deal, okay? So it was pain avoidance, not the pursuit of pleasure. But here's the thing they put together between both of these groups.

The Stoic said there is no underworld or place of torture. And the Epicurean says there's no underworld or place of torture. What do they have in common? There's no underworld or place of torture. And this is one thing you can summarize about the Greek culture in general, including these philosophies. There is no real individual life after death. That was the Greek mindset. And by the way, that's where the Sadducees got it. That's where the Sadducees got it from the Greeks. So just throughout the Greek culture, the idea that there would be some resurrection or life after death was just completely foreign to all their thinking. What? Resurrection? What are you talking about?

In order to get an understanding of what this is like, Some years back, it's getting to be, you know, like eight years or so ago, I was over in the Czech Republic and actually got a chance to speak about the Bible in the public school there. And as I did, it was very interesting, the mindset, because they'd been through decades and decades of Soviet indoctrination, the mindset was if you believed in God, that was kind of like about being, talking about being abducted by aliens or something. It was like, you know, you're kind of weird. And so that was the mindset.

So the idea of introducing God as reality was something that they had a hard time grasping. Now, the translation there says idle babbler, and then also talks about strange deities. These marketplace philosophers had two viewpoints about Paul, and both of them were kind of denigrating. One, they used the term idle babbler, which is the New American Standard translation.

That was a term that meant that someone made a living by picking up scraps. Are you going to do anything with that leather? No, I'm going to throw it away. Okay, can I have it? Yeah. And then that scrap picker would then turn around and try to sell that little useless scrap to somebody else. He'd find something that somebody had dropped or thrown away and go around the marketplace picking up little scraps of things and selling them.

That's what they called Paul. The next thing, these marketplace philosophers, that Paul proclaims strange deities. He spoke about Jesus and the physical resurrection. And as we said, the Greeks were skeptical that there was any such thing as a resurrection. So that was just kind of weird to them. But weird is wonderful, right? So, Acts 17, 19, And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? So, as I said, the Areopagus is a Rock.

It used to be the place that was a gathering place of the ruling council, but when democracy came in, the ruling council went out and you had to end up with the citizens of Athens then all having a voice and things were done in a democracy as opposed to having the ruling council.

So then this Areopagus ended up being a place where they would simply gather together for various kinds of meetings instead. Here's a view of the Areopagus, also known as Mars Hill. Now, so why is it Areopagus or Mars Hill? Areopagus means Hill of Ares, which in the Greek was the god of war. So Ares Hill, right, for the Greeks. But if you were of Roman background, who's the god of war? Mars. So that's why it also gets called Mars Hill. So if you heard of, you know, either of those terms or both of them, that's the reason why the same place gets two different names.

Here's a view from the Areopagus to the Acropolis. So what you find is here's the Acropolis, which is the city high point, has the Parthenon and a number of, you know, larger structures on top of that high point. And then here is Paul being invited to speak at this nearby rock, which had been a place where the ruling council met, in view of the things on top of this Acropolis, including the Parthenon. So he would speak from that point. And so it was not a place of political power anymore, but a place to get together and have conferences, to talk, to invite people for discussions.

Now, you may have heard that the Chinese have a blessing that's a curse. May you live in interesting times, right? Well, so they said to Paul that your viewpoint is interesting, which doesn't mean they liked it. They, in fact, had given him a couple of different titles or names and whatnot that were rather denigrating. But the fact that he was telling them new made it interesting to them. Many of these men were Epicurean and Stoic philosopher worldview. And by the way, a number of the Stoic philosophers over the centuries before were from Tarsus. So Paul had kind of an in. Hey, I've been there.

So especially with them, they would tend to evaluate everything from those worldviews that they already have. But new is okay. Hey, whatever's new is okay. We can always talk about it and whether we decide to embrace it or pass on it, that's ours to choose. But new, that makes it cool. We like to hear about that.

Acts 17.20, For you are bringing some strange things to our ears, and we want to know what these things mean. Think of this.

They never really heard of Jesus. They'd never really heard of Jesus, or if they had, it had been maybe some historical rumors. Things had come by, and by the time it had come by, they'd kind of lost track of what specifically it meant. The other thing is, he was telling them that this Jesus resurrected. They said, resurrection? That's kind of strange. You're a little weird. But we'll listen, because it's new.

So these marketplace philosophers were intrigued by whatever came along that was new because they liked hearing about it, and they evaluated it, and they discussed it, and that they enjoyed so very, very much. These marketplace philosophers like strange because they like to consider and listen to these strange ideas, possibly incorporating them into their worldview in some way. Hey, can we include this into these teachings and what we've got or not? You know, can we just kind of move what we've got now, move over a little bit and include what Paul has to say? Maybe. If we like it, sort of.

Here's Acts 17.21.

Now, all the Athenians and strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new. One of the things we did back in Acts chapter 9 is we introduced the Silk Road trade. The Silk Road trade was a trade that had begun two centuries before the New Testament era and continued on for some centuries after the New Testament era. And we know for a fact that many of the ideas that these Athenians and others in the Roman Empire grabbed onto in some way came from this Silk Road trade. So people would be trading things back and forth from the Orient, and they would come along not only with trading, but, hey, here's some idea. Guess what I heard over here? This guy says this. And so they would not only trade goods, but they would trade ideas as well.

And the Athenians, oh, that's wonderful. We just love new stuff, right? And so they would come along and embrace anything. One of the Greek historians says, you guys are very good at being deceived by something new. Right? Isn't that amazing? So the Athenians really like to hear about and discuss something new.

Anything new actually would be fine. seems that some of the people who visited Athens would come there with that in mind. So that's why we titled the slide, A Something New Vacation. Imagine having that. We have vacations of various themes that you can get these days. This was a something new vacation.

Hey, let's go to Athens and see if we can hear about something new. So on that basis, these people invited Paul to come speak at, and I put it in quotes here with a smile, the Athens Philosophy Club, right? It met at Areopagus, this hill of Ares, near the Parthenon, which means virgin, and also called Mars Hill by the Romans. That is, Hill of Ares would be the Hill of Mars, or Mars Hill.

We see that Paul has found a place and an approach to discussion with them. Having once found the place and approach to a further discussion, then what and how to present the gospel is another question. Paul has some good and clear answers for us that we'll be taking a look at, especially next week as we step into what did he say in response to these philosophers. So we're going to be looking carefully at what Paul tells these Greeks and also what he doesn't tell them. There are going to be insights for us about parenting among the family and friends of those here and in the church body. There's going to be some insights for us. from what Paul has to say and what he presents to them.

And so we're going to see that as we have various opportunities in our own world, what are the opportunities that are out there? And also what are some of the hazards? What the Apostle Paul found was there was a whole marketplace of worldly ideas. And he had a difficult time just connecting, talking as if he were just a Jew, right? He had to find places of connection with them. And it's an important thing for us to take a look at as well when we talk about spreading or sharing the gospel with others. What is the connecting point that we can use?

Alongside that, If you think about it, our children, and in our case Nancy and I have now 11 grandchildren, if you can imagine that. So our children, our grandchildren, those who are friends and relatives, they are all in a place of picking up a worldview.

And the world has a number of different options for them. And they market that very well. The world does do a good job of marketing all those different views and options. What's different about the worldview that the Bible describes and how is it different in terms of having a personal relationship with God? and communicating that as parents and the place that we all have as family and friends and here among ourselves in the church body. That's the opportunity we have.

So we'll be taking a look at what are the insights that we get from the Apostle Paul as he talks to these philosophers there on Mars Hill or Areopagus as it's also called. As he talks to them, what are the opportunities to talk to them about the gospel? What are the connecting points that they will understand? What do they need to understand? And what we're going to find is he first has to tell them a worldview, give them a worldview, an understanding of the world and how the world looks before he can share the gospel.

Can he tell them, You guys just need to understand that Christ died for your sins. Sins? What are those? Why would He have to die for my sins? I don't get it. So this He has to explain. So as our world becomes more and more pagan, this will be a challenge that we're going to face.

I was just thinking, we have the opportunity, too, to pray and ask the Lord for insights and opportunities as we're talking to people. Neither Nancy or I can claim, think we have, the gift of evangelism, yet each of us can tell of different circumstances where the Lord has, in some way, used us to reach someone who who then comes to know the Lord, or at least to share the gospel with them.

And it's surprising, as you look at it, I was talking with Nancy on the way in, and she was saying there was one young lady, her name was Ann Hinkelman, decades ago, Nancy had talked to her, and Nancy had shared the gospel. Nancy didn't even remember what she said to her. But later on, Ann Hinkelman said, it's what you said, that got to me, and I'm a believer today, because of what you said, even though Nancy couldn't remember it. Another time I remember overhearing Nancy sharing the gospel in great detail with her aunt. What we were chucking about this morning is Nancy was just putting out Long passage of Scripture after long passage of Scripture. And do you know how much time and effort Nancy has put into memorizing Scripture? Not at all. Right? She would memorize things here and there, but I was astounded to just be right nearby and hear Nancy just going off through half a chapter of Scripture, and she's just spelling it all out.

This is the Lord's doing, and not ours. And that's what's needed, isn't it? It needs to be the Lord's work and His working through us. And he's responsible for the outcome as well. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this and what tremendous insights we are anticipating here in dealing with these pagan philosophers, realizing that our world is becoming much more pagan. And certainly the insights from this will give us much more to see and understand regarding sharing the gospel with others and also with regards to parenting and grandparenting and all the other friends and relatives and those in the church body who have ministry with our young people. And so we just entrust our ongoing study here of this marvelous book of Acts into your hands. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.