Do you know who you are talking to?

Acts 17:19-23

Then they took him to the high council of the city.s "Come and tell us about this new teaching," they said. "You are saying some rather strange things, and we want to know what it's all about." (It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.)  So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: "Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: `To an Unknown God.' This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I'm telling you about.

As we reach out to those around us it is important to understand who they are and  how think.  We can observe how to do this from the actions of the Apostle Paul when he went as a missionary to Athens.  We must remember that the goal of any sharing is to be heard.  If we don't look for with proper time and place to share we will not be able to effectively share Christ's love with our community.

Paul had taken the time to observe the culture and presented Christ in a way that was relevent to them.  There are three things I think we can take from this passage.

1)  He spoke in a place where they were used to listening

2)  He spoke about a topic that they liked to talk about

3)  He didn't criticize them for their beliefs

Be blessed,

Pastor Brian