GROUP FELLOWSHIP NOTES:    SUMMER 2006   MAY 16/18

‘THE SPREADING FLAME- How they brought the good news ....... to Rome’

(8) THE GOSPEL IN ATHENS: Acts 17.16-34

PAUL IN ATHENS

1. PAUL, THE SIGHTSEER in Athens: 17.16

(What Paul would have seen as he looked around: Athens’ days of political glory were past, but it still enjoyed cultural eminence. The cradle of democracy, the centre of architecture, art, drama, sculpture, literature, oratory. Home of the great philosophers like Plato and Socrates; adopted home to Aristotle, Epicurus and Zend.  Athens would have been a pretty impressive place to visit.)

• What was Paul doing in Athens?
• What are we told gripped Paul’s attention in Athens?
• Does this surprise you?  Can such erudition and such superstition really go side by side? What things do you see and notice as you sight-see abroad?

WHAT PAUL FELT in Athens

• How did Paul react to what he saw? Why? Where did the feelings within him come from?
• How do we react to what we see?

2. PAUL THE PREACHER, in Athens: 17.17-34

WHAT PAUL DID in Athens:

• What was Paul moved to do? What is different about his actions in Athens to elsewhere?
• With whom did Paul’s preaching bring him in contact? And what do you know about the people he met there? What is your impression of them?
• What are we told about them?
• Why was Paul taken to the Areopagus? (What was it? What function did it have?)

WHAT PAUL SAID in Athens:

• Talk about Paul’s message in the Areopagus: What was his ‘test’ for his message? What do you think of his choice of text for a sermon in Athens?
• Why not preach from the Bible?
• How does Paul’s choice of ‘text’ show us where he had to start in preaching the gospel to the people of Athens?
•  (How does this contrast with his starting point in the synagogue to the Jews?)
•  
• What seven or eight basic, essential truths does Paul proclaim in his message? Identify them (in verses 22 – 31)
• What basic truths do we need to present to modern Britain?
• THE RESPONSE PAUL GOT in Athens: 17.32-34 Identify – and talk about – the 3 contrasting responses Paul got from the Athenians. Are they still common responses today?
• What do you think are the most typical modern responses to the gospel?
• Can anyone share what response you had before you became a Christian?
• How successful was Paul in Athens?