Connect to Redirect

Day 177: Acts 17:1-34

“For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’” - Acts‬ ‭17:28‬

To what lengths are you willing to familiarize yourself with those you want to reach with the Gospel of Jesus?

Here we see that Paul probably quotes the Cretan poet Epimenides (who brought reform to Athens) and the Greek poet Aratus (315-240 BC).

Why would he quote these two pagan poets when there were so many Old Testament passages he could have used? One word. Connection. As soon as he makes these two quotes, the crowd at the Areopagus probably leaned in. This definitely wasn’t the monotheistic Jewish crowd in Acts 2, and he wouldn’t be able to reach them the same way.

Perhaps we need a new way of connecting with those we’ve hit a dead-end when it comes to sharing our faith in Jesus.

Before we are there to baptize, we are there to learn. When we learn about those we want to reach, we earn the right to share about the UNKNOWN GOD, and we make Him known. Empathy opens the door for epiphany. Connection leads to redirection.

"Paul was prepared to take over the glimmerings of truth in pagan philosophy about the nature of God. But whereas the Greeks thought of the divine nature of man, Paul would have thought of the way in which man is the image of God. It is God who is the source of man’s life."
- Marshall, I. H. (1980). Acts: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 5, p. 306)