The Sunday School Lesson The Gospel Makes a DIfference by David McGee
Jun 25, 2023
The Gospel Makes a DIfference (39:26)
Referenced Scriptures: Acts 17:16-34; Acts 19:11-41
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The scriptures below are from the WEB Bible.
Acts 17:16-34
16) Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.
17) So he reasoned in the synagogue with Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him.
18) Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also encountered him. Some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be advocating foreign demons," because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.
19) They took hold of him, and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you?
20) For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean."
21) Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
22) Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, and said, "You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.
23) For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.‘ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.
24) The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands,
25) neither is he served by men‘s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.
26) He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation,
27) that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
28) ‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being.‘ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.‘
29) Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and device of man.
30) The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all men everywhere should repent,
31) because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; whereof he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead."
32) Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, "We want to hear you yet again concerning this."
33) Thus Paul went out from among them.
34) But certain men joined with him, and believed, among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Acts 19:11-41
11) God worked special miracles by the hands of Paul,
12) insomuch that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and the evil spirits went out.
13) But some of the itinerant Jews, exorcists, took on themselves to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches."
14) There were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did this.
15) The evil spirit answered, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?"
16) The man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
17) This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived at Ephesus. Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
18) Many also of those who had believed came, confessing, and declaring their deeds.
19) Not a few of those who practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. They counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
20) So the word of the Lord was growing and becoming mighty.
21) Now after these things had ended, Paul determined in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome."
22) Having sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
23) About that time there arose no small stir concerning the Way.
24) For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen,
25) whom he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, "Sirs, you know that by this business we have our wealth.
26) You see and hear, that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands.
27) Not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing, and her majesty destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships."
28) When they heard this they were filled with wrath, and cried out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"
29) The whole city was filled with confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul‘s companions in travel.
30) When Paul wanted to enter in to the people, the disciples didn‘t allow him.
31) Certain also of the Asiarchs, being his friends, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater.
32) Some therefore cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was in confusion. Most of them didn‘t know why they had come together.
33) They brought Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. Alexander beckoned with his hand, and would have made a defense to the people.
34) But when they perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice for a time of about two hours cried out, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"
35) When the town clerk had quieted the multitude, he said, "You men of Ephesus, what man is there who doesn‘t know that the city of the Ephesians is temple-keeper of the great goddess Artemis, and of the image which fell down from Zeus?
36) Seeing then that these things can‘t be denied, you ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rash.
37) For you have brought these men here, who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess.
38) If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him, have a matter against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them press charges against one another.
39) But if you seek anything about other matters, it will be settled in the regular assembly.
40) For indeed we are in danger of being accused concerning this day‘s riot, there being no cause. Concerning it, we wouldn‘t be able to give an account of this commotion."
41) When he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.
The WEB Bible is provided by Public Domain.