Many people have said that in the New Testament days, Athens was closer culturally to the Los Angeles area than to any other city. Athens was a diverse, multi-ethnic, entertainment-focused metropolis filled with the rich and poor, the educated and uneducated, and the powerful and disenfranchised. Especially in terms of religious commitments, Athens was very pluralistic. People of all religions and no religions lived there.

Because of that, this Easter we’re going to look at how the Apostle Paul went directly into the city center of Athens and began to introduce the people to Jesus in Acts 17:16–33. Interestingly, we see that the place where Paul began was with Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. And the response to his message there was very similar to what we often experience in our world, i.e., people were skeptical. Sometimes, we who live today think that we are the first people ever to have questions about things like miraculous resurrections from the grave. But, if we think that way, we fool ourselves. People are people. All people might long for a life after this life; still, few have ever accepted unquestioningly any statement that a bodily resurrection from a grave has actually taken place in history. But, that’s what Paul told them. And, they had their doubts. So, this Easter we will look at how the Bible dealt with those doubts.

Then, we will also see that, in spite of all the skepticism and doubts, Jesus-centered faith swept through Athens and the entire Greco-Roman world in less than a century. Perhaps the same will happen in our own city. This I know: The heart of the matter is whether the message we celebrate at Easter actually happened in history. The first time that the Easter message was proclaimed in the urban and diverse Athens community, the responses were clear. See Acts 17:32–34: 1) Some mocked, 2) some said they wanted to hear more, and 3) some believed.

I’ll seek to speak as clearly about the resurrection from the dead this Easter as Paul did. I pray that you and I will be among that third group on this resurrection day 2013.

To His Glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor