Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 889 | Phil Gets Chased Down in the Church Parking Lot for a Baptism & Jase Is Fired Up over It

Episode Date: May 17, 2024

Phil’s law enforcement escort goes on red alert as he’s chased into the parking lot at church, even though it turns out to be for the best reason possible. Jase tries to comfort Phil, who feels bad about missing an opportunity to baptize someone, though comfort doesn’t seem to be his strong suit. Larry Bowles gives the guys fascinating historical insight into the confluence of the Apostle Paul and the zenith of Greek and Roman powers in the world. In this episode: Acts 17; Hebrews 3, verse 6; Romans 12, verses 1-8; Colossians 2, verse 10; 1 John 1, verses 1-4  -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Yesterday we baptized five, put our dry clothes best we could up back on us, you know. Sleeves are wet. So, and we're walking, and the law enforcement's with us, make sure nobody knocks us in the head before we get in the car. So we walk and we see this guy coming just running right out. Well, you know, law enforcement, you know, they got ready and said, watch, watch it. So he stiffened up. And the guy said, I'm just out of rehab, but I want to be baptized.

And I said, Jersey, take him back in there and brief him a little bit on the gospel, baptize him. We'll be out there. So you had a guy running up and security thought he might be a threat. That's right. But he was turning himself into the Lord. That is correct. I like those stories. Yeah.

That's the way to start a podcast. I said, well, we're through baptizing people. But he said, I'm just out of rehab, though. I mean, again, I said, calm down. We're going to take care. it. So I said, good work, man. I'm glad you did. You'd be added to the kingdom this morning. I like those stories, Phil. That's good. He went from a threat to, okay, he's running to want to be immersed. I mean, he is running like you wouldn't believe because he's missing the train

that did the baptizing me, you know. And in our culture, if somebody's running at you in a parking lot, you're like, wait a minute, easy, get ready. you better believe it. And it's not just our culture, everything we've been reading about in our text and acts. I mean, every time Paul turns around, people are running at him with throwing rocks, beating them with rods. It could be worse. That's exactly right.

So we think we got it bad. Paul had it pretty bad, too, which, you know, we didn't talk about that. I prayed later, by the way, after all that, because we just walked away, and I left Jersey. the one I'm training to preach the gospel as we as we walked away I got in the rig and I started driving away to see my woman who's been you know down in misery but so I'm going across there and I got to think and I said I need to apologize I told myself and I said and the one I'm apologizing to is God Almighty so I gave a prayer to myself to to God that he would not hold that against me about what keep in walking and sending somebody

else to baptize him. I mean, I've made that apology many times. You know, I remember. I apologize to God for that. I said, I'll never do that again. If I see somebody running across there, I will turn around and go see what's going on. But I turned it over to Jersey, but I am training him. So it was good for his training.

No, I remember. And I called him and I said, you baptize him, right? He said, oh, yeah. Well, yeah, I went out and briefed him on the gospel, you know. I said, I just called and check it out. I just apologize to God over that whole thing. Oh. Yeah.

No, I remember the worst kid at my high school. I went to public high school. I mean the worst kid. It was in more trouble, was a deceiver, would lie. He was constantly in trouble. And I remember a couple years later, after high school, I drove down to your house and I walked in and that guy was sitting on your couch. And you preached the gospel to him.

And he left and I said, let me tell you, that guy, uh-uh, it ain't going to happen. Of course, I was young in the faith. You know, I had to apologize for minimizing the power of the gospel. And that guy, 25 years later, is still a follower of Jesus. He eventually came to Christ. that's why I said if we missed that one, I said, we're walking away. He wants to be baptized. We ought to just bump out face and do it.

But I turned it over to somebody else. I felt bad about it. But it was a guy of training. Yeah, no, you've done a good job. I apologize to God. And they're not both whoever he is. Yeah, that's good news. That's exciting.

I love that, dad, about that's humility that you don't want to miss an opportunity for one. And Paul brings this up. Larry mentioned this in the last podcast. He kept talking about he didn't want the blood of men on him, meaning that he didn't share everything he knew while he was here so they would understand. And that started with the Jews, but it went to the Gentiles. I mean, Paul felt the burden because of his calling to make sure the whole world knew about Jesus. I mean, that's how committed he was. But the time we get over to Acts 20. and he was talking to the Ephesian elders there. I mean, he's like, man, I want to know that everything I've done has been for the cause. And to be honestly, I mean, that's one of the things I love about the ministry that God led you to because you were preaching the gospel to people that most people in the world said, you know, these people need to be wiped out. They need to be destroyed.

They need to be, you know, because of all the things that deal with it. But at the same time, you know, I mean, obviously, gospel can save anybody. And it's Luke 8. It's the parable of the sower. You're just slinging it with both hands, you know, and you don't have the soil that is going to hit. And we, I never speak trying to reach the masses.

I'm always trying, I'm just looking for the one, you know? Yep. Yeah. What we miss a lot of times is that Romans 12, I urge your brothers as view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, is holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual worship. Don't conform any longer with the pattern of the world. Renewing, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is.

By the greatest given, may I say to every one of you, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought. I don't want to fall under that trap. But rather think of yourself with sober judgment, I almost miss that guy, and that would have been stupid on my part. In accordance with the measure of faith God's giving you. just as each of us has one body and many members.

These members, and we need to remember this, do not all have the same function in the church. It's watch. So in Christ, we who are many form one body. Each member belongs to all the others. We've different gifts, according to the grace given us. We've got different gifts. If a man's gift is prophesying,

let them use it in proportionate. to his faith. If it's serving, let him serve. If it's teaching, let him teach. If it's encouraging, which you wouldn't think that would be there, let him encourage. He's just, he's doing well. If it's contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously. Some people say, I want to help out financially, whatever. And if it's leadership, let him govern diligence. And if it's showing mercy, let it do them cheerfully. Love must be sincere. So, I mean, on it goes. But I came about that far by missing that.

I'll never do that again. I see a man running now to want to be baptized. I'm shutting down everything else, including my direction, and we're going back to the pool. Yeah, but really you see, and Paul's writing there, it goes into what he's doing in Act 17, when it said, in view of God's mercy, don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Yeah. Well, that is what's happening in Act 17.

That's right. He's trying to get them to think. Because you've got to realize they're like, wait a minute, God became a human? What? That's so far removed from the gods they believe in. And this God died? Absolutely not. Who wants to follow someone who died?

So, you know, I think that's why he focused on the resurrection. Not only did he die, he came back to life. And I think he's just giving them a window of whatever their belief is. Look, God took what was wrong with human existence and made it right. The mistakes we make and the body coming back out of the ground, which to them was something that probably they had never even considered. One thing that we see overwhelmingly in Paul's life is that he has given Jesus absolute authority, absolute permission to use him in any way, any capacity.

And you don't see him orchestrating these missionary journeys. This is him being used like a ragmock. And sometime it may be just a little job he wants them to do. Yeah. But he gives them the ability to do the little job. Well, right. And what he does is obey, you know, I wanted to go this way, but the Holy Spirit prevented me. Now I'm going that way. And, you know, I just think that is the secret. You talked about being, you know, that act of spiritual worship is sacrificing our life, our body. I've been crucified with Christ. I don't longer live, but Christ lives in me. It's his life, not mine. And I just, I think, that as we see Paul go through Thessalonica, Berea, and into Athens, he comes in and he's reasoning, he's trying to reach the Jews, and then it spills out into this environment that he's in.

And so he is in the Agora, you know, he's not in the Ariopagus right now. He's walking around the marketplace. and he is engaging people on two things, the deity of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. That's the two primary emphasis of what he shares at the Areopagus. And so he's overheard, and then he begins to argue in the street with a couple of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. And they're like, you're some kind of babbler. What are you even trying to say?

And so he's advocating foreign gods, and they said this because he was preaching about the good news about Jesus, his death, burial, and resurrection, and the resurrection for us as believers in him. And so in verse 19, I want you to look at this. It says they took him and they brought him to a meeting of the Ariopagus. So the Ariopagus was not just a place. It's not just a big rock that sits by the Acropolis. the Areopagus, and I can go into the history of all of that, it was originally called Aries Rock.

And this is where Aries, supposedly one of the Greek gods, killed Poseidon's son, and was chained to that rock. And he was judged by the other gods. And so Rome came in 146 BC and overtook Greece, they took Ares, the God of war, the Greek God of war and replace that name. And that's why it's called Mars Hill now, because Mars is the Roman God of war. Was there ever a building there? Or was it just to rock the entire? There was. But at the time that the Athens and Corinth both would have been in the absolute zenith of their, of their spectacular glory in 50 AD to 52 AD when Paul was doing this. Which even the ruins.

of it are pretty impressive. I mean, it's, and just the scale and the mass, and it's just overwhelming. I mean, me and Larry took us there, and we walked up there and Missy read this text. Yeah. And when you know it, a discussion broke out from a guy visiting from Russia. Yeah, he was. And Larry and Missy looked like, who was with Paul here? They just...

He had some questions. It was literally 2,000 years later the exact replica, because they were arguing the deity of Jesus and the resurrection. And he was shaking his head. What I find fascinating what we haven't brought up is because the reason they had all these philosophies and the reason they had all these gods is because they thought he was far away, God or gods was that his argument that day, the Russian, was, well, how come there's so much evil in the world? And that, I think, is why you get into this because you look around and say,

well, there's no God. So you invent your own to somehow try to justify why this place is so bad. Would you agree with that, Larry? Because that was his argument. He was like, I've had too much, I've had too much suffering in my life to embrace a God that you're representing. I think he came out of a Russian Orthodox background and did not have a very good religious experience. And so I think he was much more angry at religion than he was at God. Exactly. That's true. He was still talking to us at that point.

Larry, let me ask you a question. And so because when we went, Phil and I went to Athens and did some film work there. And there's the Temple of Zeus below Mars Hill, if I remember correctly, that's in ruins. When Paul says here, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you're very religious for as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found an altar with this inscription. Would this, you think he's referencing something that was constructed on Mars Hill? at the time, or is he referencing just kind of the general area? Because there's quite a bit of religious activity in ruins today. Absolutely. Right before you go into the ruins of Zeus, there is a thing called Hadrian's Arch. And Hadrian, that was the center of the city while

the Acropolis was, I mean, the Acropolis is a rock, the Parthenon and all of that up there. was being constructed. So there were idols on the ground. There were idols up high, everywhere else. The areopagus is much more, like I said, much more than a rock. It became a ruling council. And so it was a crime court. And so members of the Ariopagus set in judgment over deliberate murder. you know, bodily harm and that sort of thing. And another thing, they didn't hear civil law, but they heard criminal cases. And so everything from murder, all of these capital kind of crimes. But one thing was arson of olive trees because Athena was the goddess of olive trees.

And so the destruction of somebody's olive grove was just as serious as murdering someone. in that in that mindset. So that's a kind of a picture of how the law was. That's about like Phil's Mayhall trees, you know. Yeah, exactly. You can't mess with his Mayhaal trees. The jelly flow. The jelly flow.

Our son of mayhaws would be trouble. Well, you know, it's interesting you brought that up, Larry, because that's what struck me too, is we think about them inviting him up just to have a conversation about thoughts and ideas because, you know, Luke says they would, they love to do this. But there was a security factor too, right? I mean, they're hearing these ideas. And so they're like, we need to check this guy out, right?

This is my point in verse 19, is that they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Ariopagus. Now, just the language, I can't, I can't prove this. But what I do know is that where there are murder cases being heard, where there is a court type setting, there's going to be officers. He could have possibly been arrested and taken there to testify before them, or it could have been just an informal speech. We don't know that. But what he is talking about, when he's talking about the resurrection in verse 18 and verse 19, they took him to a meeting of the Ariopagus.

So this is not just to a physical location, but this is to a judicial counsel. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah, well, don't you think the irony is that Jesus was murdered for something he didn't do? And he... And on trial before the Romans, yeah. Through a strange series of events, you have a guy, Paul, standing here, when he made that statement, he's given proof of the day of judgment of this to all men by raising him from the dead. So you realize he can only make that statement because if that asked him,

well, what's the proof? He would have said, I talked to him. I had a conversation with him, which is my point. They didn't believe God was around. That's why he said God is not far from us. And just to give you a little illustration of what I think is the crux of this in that light, I've just noticed, you know, we've had this two-year-old for the last two years. And I noticed, so when he would wake up after a night's sleep, he would cry like all babies

do. And of course, we hear him cry and you go up there and you pat him. It's time to wake up. Why, as he's gotten older, I've noticed that he wakes up and he doesn't cry. He plays a little bit. And then at some point he'll go, Lulu. And what hit me when he holler Lulu is I thought, even though he doesn't see us, he knows we're here. And he's comfortable. He's no longer crying. but he's like at some point he got it he knew that even though he didn't see us which is what you know you don't see god and you're looking around and you wake up in a strange place the earth and so that's that's what hit me that paul's representing that jesus has made god known we've seen him So even though now I can't go grab him and pull him out, he's here.

And that's why you see this kind of confidence and this boldness. But it just really in that moment made me realize, you know, even though I don't see him, you know what Peter said that, I'm filled with an inexpressible joy in all because we're receiving the salvation of our souls. He's at the right end of God. You can live again. I just, you know, when we were talking about the deity of Christ, it is such a radical idea in comparison to what the Greeks and Romans and the Jews believed is that God himself stepped onto this planet in flesh. And nobody got had, you know, ever done that. Apollo claimed that, you know, when Apollo was supposedly half God, half man.

And so Apollo, the alpha and the omega, when Jesus addresses that in Revelation 3, he said, no, I'm the alpha and the omega. I'm the beginning and the end, the first and the last. And what Jesus is doing there in that first three chapters of Revelation, when he talks about the seven stars, you know, I'm the one that holds the seven stars. It's not some Roman god. He's addressing these false gods directly. But as Paul gets to Athens and they take him to this meeting, to this council, I'm just, I can see it as a, you're okay, you're coming to explain yourself. Because the radical idea that God himself stepped in, the word became flesh. And we have beheld his glory.

We've touched him with our hands, you know. we have witnessed his majesty and the idea that he's resurrected from the dead and that now, because we have been crucified with him, because his life is now our life, his life is now our life, we have hope of resurrection and being joined with him that day. And so he begins this whole thing with under the idea of this is a combative. I mean, it says that when they were debating with him in the street, I can only imagine things got more heated at the council meeting. Zach, back to your question about where there are buildings on there? There were at one time, but most historians over there believe that by 50 AD they were not meeting on that hill, but they were meeting in the Agora, which is an area, flat area, in between the Acropolis.

And Mars Hill, Mars Hill. So with this meeting up to, you believe this meeting here would have taken place on Mars Hill or? We're probably next to it. Probably next to it at the base of it. There was probably a council building in that space. So from 24 to 28, Paul obviously goes into the attributes of God when is part of his speech to these guys. And it struck me as something, I want to get your take on it, Larry and Zach, especially, that he seems to be appealing to this idea that maybe the philosophers could even agree with this idea, especially the Stoics, that God is bigger than you can contain. And even Greek gods were, you know, they had these proximity places, you know, they were, they were Zeus.

they were Mars. I mean, they were Ares. They were all these different places. They were Poseidon. So it was in the sea. They were Hades and, you know, it was in the underground. And he, so he's kind of in a way in his description of the unknown God, as he put it to them, which we would know. He was talking about Yahweh.

He was talking about the God of the Old Testament, the God of the Bible, that he was saying, you know, this is kind of what you've always been thinking, but aren't really sure how to wrap your mind. around. Do you think he was kind of appealing to him in that way? Because he tells us about him being the creator, being a sustainer. I mean, all the things we know about the attributes of God, he's really making his point, even before he gets to Jesus in the resurrection, that this God is bigger. You can't like make your sacrifices and come and give things to him because he needs them, because he doesn't need anything. So you think he was finding commonality with these guys? That struck me. I think he's engaging them directly on what their concept of God is.

Yeah, I agree. So he's saying that you're ignorant in what you're worshiping. You don't know anything about it. And that's what I'm here to proclaim to you. He says, I see you trying to grasp at these things. And so he engages them right where they are. And I love what he does in verse 28. He uses some of their own philosophers as a way to get,

buy-in on their thought process. And he's saying, you know, so the first one is a Cretan philosopher, epidemities, is that in him we live and we move and we have our being. Okay. So that's, that's a true thing. And the hymn that we're talking about is Jesus Christ, who created all of us, who holds all things together. And that we are his offspring. This is a Creighton or Sicilian stoic philosopher that said that. And so he's using thoughts and ideas that they've got of their image of God, of what they think God is, who they think he is. And he's saying that, you know, he doesn't live in these temples that you've manufactured for them.

And there's not a different God over different aspects, but there's one God overall. the creator of all. And so, yeah, I think that Paul, you know, he said, I'm going to try to be all things to all people. And so he's going to meet people exactly where they're at and use the things that they do know to find inroads into reasoning from Scripture, the deity of Christ. And that's exactly what he's doing in the Jewish synagogues. Yeah, I agree. I don't think he's like trying to bust them. I mean, I don't think that's like, you ignorant fools.

I don't think that's his tone. I think it's, and that's probably like Larry and I both kind of working, and it's kind of mentioning our ministries of, and I didn't plan on this, but we're doing a lot of more new age, the dualism that you mentioned in the five philosophies, so we live in a very, you know, very spiritual city, but it's not Christian. And so most of like those conversations,

what we're having are more kind of a dualism front, where you're probably handling with a lot of Islam and what's, with your ministry. But the goal is not to bust somebody over the head, an apologetic that like eats their lunch. The goal is to create common ground. I think that's what Paul's doing here. And I think like,

when you see this, when he kind of goes into his apologetic even deeper at a second level, he says, I mean, just think about what he's saying here that, that God does not live in temples built by man's hands. He said the God who made the world and everything in it doesn't live in the temples built by men,

nor is he served our human hands. But from one man, he made every nation of men and have determined the allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling places that they should seek God and perhaps fill their way towards him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. For in him, we live and we move and we have our being.

So you can kind of see that, again, that juxtaposition as seeing God as an object that you possess, as opposed to seeing a God that actually moves and lives in you. And it says here that in him we live and we move and we have our being, even as some of our own poets have said, we are indeed his offspring. So to me,

that reference there as some of our own poets have said, and then linking that to kind of this idea as God as a father or God as a parent who obviously loves his children is an appeal. I mean, it's like, I mean, there is a call to repentance, but it's like,

but he's calling people to life, not to some, some unembodied spiritual existence, which is what they probably would have only known as an unembodied spiritual existence. Exactly. That's so good. And I think verse 27, Paul, as he comes up and he's talking about the temples and all of this religious stuff and all of the idols and it's just filled, you're religious in every way. And you're grasping trying to find something. And in verse 27, I think he gets, to this and he said, God did this. He made all of these people. He appointed the times and the areas that they're going to live so that.

And this is, I love these so that moments in scriptures. Anytime you see that, you want to see the sovereignty of God in action, that's what's happening. God did this so that this would happen. So maybe they would reach out, perhaps, and find him. And God says, I will be. How do we know who God is? How? Only by the way he chooses to reveal himself. And so he has done it. And this is what Paul makes this point in Romans 1 is that all people know of God. He's made it plain to them. So the people are without excuse.

But as we have opportunity to find God, you're exactly right, Zach. This is an invitation. And he said, God did this so that maybe you guys, in all of your wrestling with these ideas and philosophy and stars and spirituality and physical things, maybe you'll find me if you seek me. I've got a question for you because you're on, you have your boots on the ground in Athens. Yeah. So you have a texture to this conversation that none of us have just because, I mean, you're walking these streets. You're touching the places that we're talking about. repeatedly. Yeah.

I mean, you've incubated here, so you're going to understand probably a whole lot more of the cultural nuance that we're not going to get. But one of the things that we've been really hitting on in this podcast over the last, I don't know how, when we started it, but definitely for the last two years, we have been hammering on this idea of the temple, really kind of coming from this place that the garden being like the first prototype temple, the temple being the place where God meets man, Exodus 258, build me a tavernacle so that I may dwell with my people. First King's 6, build me a temple so that I may dwell with my people. First Kings 8, Solomon said, are you really going to live in a temple built by us? I don't think so. You can't be contained by that. You know, you can't even be contained by the heavens.

And so there's kind of this full eschatological order that's unfolding in the New Testament where Jesus comes and he, on the Mount of Olives. He said, yeah, the temple's coming down. It did come down in 80-70. being replaced by us, the new temple. So Christ being the cornerstone of that temple. And then we are the temple, 1st Corinthians 6 and other passages in the Bible that talk about us being living stones

built on the cornerstone of Jesus himself or the Holy Spirit now lives in us. First Peter to Ephesians to, yeah. So we've just been hitting that over and over. And I don't even think intentionally. It's like all throughout the Gospels. And so we get to this here. Now we've been hitting it from the Jewish perspective. We know how they felt about the temple.

But here you have this moment where he's not speaking to Jewish people. He's speaking to Greeks and Romans, but he's making a very similar argument because you speak to their mindset, maybe about when he says that the God doesn't live in temples built by man's hand. What was their expectation of a temple? What was their worldview around their version of the temple? I think that the way religion works, I think that if you go back to the, you know, Amazon, the Mayan, Indians, Inkins, all of this, you'll see temples. I think as long as man has been around, they've made false gods. Or try to do the exact same thing. The Greeks here in Acts 17 have become much more proficient at it. speaking. And so I think that most of that effort is not the idea that that God dwells in that

temple. I think that temple is a built, built in honor of that God to appease that God so that they could get things from that God. And this is his whole point is that God doesn't live in temples made by human hands. And so you talk about the tabernation. And then you talk about the temple. Man, God in Exodus from 25 to chapter 40 of Exodus, almost 40% of the book of Exodus, is how to build this tabernacle. The way it's laid out. It's the whole thing.

And then you get into, that's the Leviticus. It's the use of that. And then like you said, first or second kings and on down. but temple has been such a big thing, and it was a big thing when Jesus came into Jerusalem. But here's the thing is that that that was the very dwelling place of God. God lived in a tent because he couldn't stand the separation between him and mankind. He was going to bridge that gap until Christ came. the moment Christ died on that cross, the curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy

place was rent and two and it fell right to the ground. God has not lived in that temple since that day. He lives now in our human hearts. This is what Paul talked about. This is the mystery that has been hidden for generations but has now disclosed to God's people. Christ in us. And I love what Zach was saying, that it goes across Jew and Gentile. Jase, you were going to say something, would you? Yeah, and to Zach's point, you know, when you read Hebrews 3,6, right after he said, every house is built by someone, God is the builder of everything, which you have that same vein here, you know, in 24, the God who made the world, and everything in the Lord of Heaven is Lord of Heaven and Earth

and does not live in buildings, temples built by hand. when in Hebrews 3-6 it says, but Christ is faithful as a son over God's house, and we are his house if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. So what I was going to do is just dumb down what y'all are saying because it seems like in this arena of philosophy and gods and idols,

he basically answers about five questions that every human being ponderes, I mean every human being at some point in their life, which is, where does God live? That's where he starts. Where does he live? Well, he's introducing the idea, because when he later on says, for in him we live and move and have our being, he's introducing the idea that this God, who's Lord of Heaven and earth and universe, can live in and with people.

which is a crazy thing to introduce. But then he introduces like the idea of what can we do to please God? And he addresses it. He is not served by human hands as if he needed anything. This is more about him and not us. Then he answers the question, well, where does life come from? Well, he spells it out. God from one man, which another question may be, well, how come we're all different colors?

And where did we all come from, even though we all look different? But he's like, he gives life, he gives all men life, breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men. Just think about that question. Where did I come from? That should be a question that everyone needs to ask. It's like he's making, to go back to my chest illustration, a philosophy that trumps all philosophies. This is how you got here.

And where does he live? He's introducing. And this is how you get out of here. Well, that's where I'm headed. So then he's like, well, what am I supposed to be doing here? Because that's another question that everybody asked themselves. Well, why am I here? He's like, God did this so that men would seek him.

perhaps reach out for him and find him. And then it's kind of a complicated sentence, though he's not far from each one of us. Because if God founded us, that's where we came from. And you're here to find him. You realize that, oh, it's more about him being in pursuit of me. I've just realized where I came from, which makes me realize why I'm here.

It's the prodigal son story that while he was a long way off, the father noticed him. I think we shouldn't read this verse as, man, let's be Christopher Columbus and go explore and try to find God. Exactly. You don't have to set voyage. You just turn your face. You just turn towards the living God and he meets you right.

It's just in the turn that you meet you right there. And his last question is what Phil said about, well, what's next? Because there's been so much debate. But every human at some point, because I said that anybody that's not concerned about dying is a liar. That's right. That's just a fact. And so then he's like, for he has said a day when he'll judge the world, he's giving proof by raising Jesus from the dead. And you're like, what philosophy is that? That philosophy is this is the only ticket out of here. That's it. And he's given proof. That's why I think he was real careful in that statement. So you just think

he addresses how you got here, what you're supposed to be doing here, where God lives, how come them were all different colors, what my purpose is, and what happens next? And you want to do it as a family? He has that interwoven through that. You can be a family forever. Okay. Well, for me, whatever philosophy I had up until that speech, I'm like, I don't think your philosophy is better. And you talk to this guy? I mean, I mean, that's kind of my dumb down take of it. Some people agreed with him. So one of the area apoccus members, Dionysus, got and run and said, I'm in. I'm in. It's he who has ears to hear that. You mentioned Luke 8 earlier, and then I love the

Marquisin version of that. And you know, you think about that seed that's being thrown out there and scattered. In Mark, he references, I think Isaiah 6, after he says the secret of the kingdom has been given to you. And they're like, wait, the secret of the kingdom, we don't know. What's the secret?

It's what you said at Colossians 127. It's Christ in you. And this hit me recently. We got invited, my family got invited to a Seder mill, a Seder Passover. I've never done this. It was incredible.

So cool. And at first I was a little bit kind of reluctant about it. And I went in and we went through the whole Passover. There was a Messianic Jewish gentleman that led us through the meal. And it was like a four-hour experience that was so incredible. There was a moment in the meal where it had a little phrase in there in the booklet that we all kind of read together that said since 80, 70, there's been no sense. sacrifice made since the temple was destroyed. And it was like this kind of a sombering moment.

And the gentleman just kind of let it sit there. And then we recited together, Colossians, I think, 2.10, that in Christ, you are complete. I'm not sure what's translation that is, but it was in Christ, you are complete.

And so we've gone through this whole process. And then you get this moment where you start thinking about the history. you're like, man, there's no sacrifice. There's no, like, priesthood, really. There's no temple structure. Like, what, like, what do you do? And then it's like, in Christ, you are complete. And I'm a Gentile partaking in this meal.

And it made me think of this Act 17 moment that it's the same, like, we're not that different. I mean, in Christ, we know there are neither male nor female Jew nor Greek, slave, nor free. You're all one in Christ. But even outside of Christ, we, we, we. all do share in the despair together. And so we got the, we all share that together. And then we, and then now we can all share in the redemption together and the meaningful moment to what, to what you said. I mean, you mentioned that Colossius passage. It's Christ in me. You're like, God lives in me now.

And I don't even fully understand what that means, but I know that it's awesome. You know, I know that it's awesome. You know when, you know when he gets there. Oh, yeah, you do. Oh, I absolutely know. Yeah. And also, Zach, really helps your appreciate what your experience you just described, what Paul talked about in Romans 9, 10, 11, the idea that what true Israel is. And that's why you can appreciate those symbols that you talked about and how they've led to the idea of who Jesus is in us. And so we embrace that and we see that.

Jace gave his breakdown. I wanted to give you mine, you know, as a preacher, you're always looking for a sermon. And so this was one of the best ever preached. And so this was my take. This is how I put it on Paul's dissertation here. He started with what they know. You know, we talked about that commonality. He knew there was a spiritual seeking.

And he called it religion. He said, I know you're religious people. But that's what they knew. So that was the starting point in verse 22. In 23, he then went to what they didn't know because he brought up the unknown God. And he said, here's something, this idea of the logos, the divine designer. that you've just put an idol up and don't really know him. But I want to tell you about him.

And then that's the third point in my sermon, if I were preaching in 24 through 29, is he tells him what he knows about God, the Father, God, the Son, the God, the Spirit. He's the creator, therefore he cannot be contained. He is the originator, so he has no needs. He's the sovereign of the universe, so he has a purpose and an access to humanity

that Zach mentioned earlier. And also he's the source of life, which means he doesn't depend on us, but we depend on him. And he drives at home, of course, with the two themes that we talked about, which are repentance and resurrection. And what's interesting is that not only affects

our future life, that next life, the afterlife, but that affects this life. Because in repentance, we're renewed in our own spiritual resurrection to understand that we live, for him. So back to you guys were mentioned Philippians three, I want to know Christ. Paul said. And then he talks about what that means. And so if I were preaching this as a sermon,

that would be my sermon. Did you write that? I wrote that. That was good. Yeah. Well, Jay said I had a as a coat of many colors. I like to think that me, I like to think that me and Jason Phil are really helping you, and Larry are helping you elevate your preaching game. You are. Well, I had another, I had another thought. Now we're just having sermon after sermon. Something just hit. I've got a 12-page, two-hour sermon here. We're free to the choir now, boys.

But something just hit me that I figured out, I guess, in the last one minute. You know, when you got a first John, we spend more time in First John just talking about the Christian life and Jesus representing us, you know, in that crazy first paragraph that he's like that which which was from the beginning, which we heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched. This we proclaim concerning the word of life, you know. And then he talks about him being at the right hand of God. And then chapter three, he echoes what happens in Acts 17 about as children will be like him, you know, at the resurrection when he appears. I mean, it's a beautiful passage. In chapter four, he talks about what real love is,

not that we love him, but that he loved us and gave his son for us. And then chapter five in verse 13, he says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. And the verse, Zach was the thought of the verse that Zach mentioned. I skipped in 4.13. It says, we know that we live in him and he and us because he's given us his spirit. So he gets all the way to the end. Here's my point about the Acts 17.

And he gets to verse 20 and he makes this profound statement. He says, we know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding. so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, even his son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God in eternal life. And then the last little verse, he says, Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. He just throws that out of nowhere.

I've always found that curious. I was like, why in the world would he say that? But when you read Acts 17 and read the whole first book, the whole book of First John, you're like, Oh, yeah, I got, you're going to serve something. Every human is going to have some philosophy that justifies their existence and the way they live. I've always said that everybody you meet is religious to something. I agree.

They are. And here's the thing, we were talking about Isaiah. Isaiah, I can't remember exactly where it is. But God said, the intelligence of the intelligent, I will frustrate it. You know, and he will do that. And he actually causes spiritual blindness as this is going through. And so these people at the Areopagus, the people at Athens, the people at Corinth, were frustrated people.

They'll try anything, you know, because they're trying to get some need met. And all of religion does this. It tries to meet my need from the outside end. Yeah. The only thing that will ever meet me. my need is Jesus, and he does that from the inside out. And that's the difference between religion and life in Christ. And so God does this so that people will get frustrated to the point, as you were talking,

Zach, and stop on that whole road that they're on and turn their eyes to Christ. And this is why, you know, here's, here's, you know, when people, when light rushes into darkness, it dispels darkness. And spiritual blindness is a real, real thing. I think today more than ever. And when we introduce light, speaking the truth in love, not attacking with, you know, Bible thumping or anything like that, but presenting the truth of the gospel that introduces light into darkness,

and there is a soil type that is ready to receive that. It's so simple. It's hard to understand. It's like my son, my son majored in philosophy. And I said, what did y'all talk about? And he said, all the philosophies under the sun. I said, well, how much did they talk about Jesus? And he said, not much.

I said, well, they should have renamed the class idolatry. Because look, first John proves that he spent 30 minutes on Jesus as the philosophy and three seconds on everything else. I will say this to Larry, to your point, Larry. I think that because people get so distraught. I've made this point in the podcast quite a bit. We all have. People seem to be bearish on the kingdom and we're bullish. We think that because of what you said, that people are religious, even if they say they're not, you can't not worship.

You're going to worship something. Right. That's what you're created to do. Yeah. Or as Bob Dylan said, Jason referenced it, you got to serve somebody. You will. You will serve somebody. And so I think that I just told this to the group of college students says,

man, we want to take our campus for Christ. And I was like, you don't have to make a strategy on that. You present yourself in a posture to receive and to be in God's kingdom and to work under his good rule and reign. And like the Bible says that the harvest is plenty, but the workers are few.

It is, you do not have to work hard to see a harvest of the kingdom. You just have to be receptive. And so I, I'm excited because I actually feel like God is doing something right now globally. I think there's something happening where, I mean, I know we're seeing it. I know that you're saying it in Athens with them. And you know, it's funny.

It's with the people that you never would think that you would see the gospel moving in. That's what I'm saying. We don't know the one, but we're always for the one, you know. And I don't lead anybody to Christ. He finds them. Yes. And sends them to me. That's true.

Because he came to seek and save the loss. Guess what? He's still seeking and he's still seeking. Al's got his cane out. I see a hook and a cane. No, I always talking for the last 60 seconds. How were you? That was a shame nation.

That one that appeared late yesterday, to his point. Oh, he was coming. And I looked up. We didn't have to talk to him. I never had seen him before in my life. He just come running up and said, The Holy Spirit got him. How about me?

The podcast, we could never run. wrap. It's the podcast we can never wrap. Unashamed Nation, you realize this passage excited us very much. And so good luck, Maddie, editing this. We'll see you next time on Unashamed. Good night. I couldn't get... We didn't even get in. We went over four minutes. I saw Al, he just kept talking and I thought. We can't leave X-17. So we got to have Larry back. We did have Larry to finish at 17 though. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes.

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