Fri July 10

Listen up, little ones

Especially for the littles in your household.

Listen for the word ignorance.

Reading

Acts 17:22-34—The Times of Ignorance Are Over

Optional Reading

Romans 1:18-32

Keys for kids

Also for the littles. Young households might choose, after Keys for Kids, to go directly to praise and prayer.

The Athenians were ignorant.
Paul introduced Athens to the One True God.
Paul called the Athenians to repent of their ignorance.

Questions

(Some read the ?s before the notes/ ask them after.)

What does it mean to be ignorant?
Are people truly ignorant of God? Explain.
What do you think Paul means by "times of ignorance"?

Notes

(See Saturday for authors.)

After reasoning in the Agora, Paul caught the attention of the philosophers. There was a mixed response to his initial teaching, but it was enough to get him before the Areopagus. In other words, Paul got an audience with some pretty important people in Athens.

It was before this council of people that Paul gave his famous speech. Paul’s point is simple and direct: repent, because the times of ignorance are over, and the world is going to be judged by Jesus Christ.

What right did this man have to go into Athens and flip the table? In one fell swoop, he went in and demolished their whole pantheon of gods and called the Athenians to faith and repentance. Paul could go in and do this because he had the authority to do so. He didn’t make it up, and he wasn’t a foolish “babbler” as the philosophers supposed. Paul “assumed the center.” He was an apostle, commissioned by Christ to bear witness to His name to the end of the earth (Acts. 1:8). He didn’t need to apologize to the pagans in Athens. He had the truth, and he spoke it with boldness.

As Christians, we can also assume the center. We know that the Gospel is the truth, and we have the authority of God behind it. Je-sus reigns from heaven and has been given the nations as his inheritance. Therefore, all nations and peoples must hear this message and repent. The times of ignorance are over.

Swedish Method questions

See the Sunday notes for meaning of the symbols.

Praise

Psalm 2a, 51a

Prayer

Pray that the ignorance of the nations would be destroyed by the light of the Gospel.
Pray for the hearing of God’s Word preached this Lord’s Day’s.
Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.