Christ's command to his followers before his ascension to heaven was for them to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, all Judea, in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.

Our Lord did not intend for the good news of his death and resurrection to stay local, but

instead it was to be taken globally.

In this third section of Acts, the adventure continues as the gospel is taken to the ends

of the earth. Let's join Scott Pauley now for today's study.

Welcome to Athens.

Do you understand that the world we're living in today is more like Athens than it is Jerusalem?

What do I mean by that? Well, when Paul and the early Christian

witnesses began their ministry, they started, of course, right where they were in places like

Jerusalem, places that had religious context, places that had at least some understanding about who

God was. But as the gospel advanced and as the adventure continued, they showed up in places like

Athens in Acts chapter number 17.

Remember, the heart of Jesus was to the uttermost part of the earth.

So Athens is a part of the uttermost.

But my friend Athens was much different than Jerusalem. In Jerusalem,

there was a group of believers. In Athens, there were no believers. In Jerusalem, the unbelievers

even had some frame of reference, some cultural understanding of religion, some context, but in Athens,

absolutely no understanding of the one true and living God.

And I'm convinced that our world today is more like Athens than it is Jerusalem.

Many of us remember when people in our culture had at least some reverence for the Bible, at least knew who Jesus was,

had some context. But now, we're not living there. We're living in a world that has changed so culturally, morally, philosophically, and spiritually that people have no idea who their God is.

It's like Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz saying,

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