Studying Mission in the SSnet.org series Lesson 10, may the Holy Spirit be the speaker to your heart.

The Topic today is: Mission is Paul sharing to the Jews and Heathens for Morning Manna of the Sabbath School Lesson Mission.

The Opening Hymn will be 229 "Spirit of the Living God".

The Sabbath School Quarterly, downloadable from SSnet.org in the Teacher's Edition is on page 81-83.

The SSnet.org allows anyone, anywhere to read the lesson in their own language. Choose your own language to see God speaking also to your heart.

Why don’t you click on this link right now:

https://www.adultbiblestudyguide.org/pdf.php?file=2023:4Q:TE:PDFs:ETQ423_010.pdf

---Paul and his teaching of the heathens in Athens.

---Paul was picky. He did not say, you are a Jew and therefore I will not preach to you or you are a Pagan, so I will not preach to you.

---Paul did not say, I will keep quiet because I understand that you have the right to believe in your gods that are on every corner here in Athens.

---Neither did he say, I do not want to hurt your feelings of complacency that you have with your religion and disturb your religions views here in Athens.

---Paul was so radical in the market about Christ Who came, live, died and resurrected went to heaven that all were impressed in this new religion.

---He made enemies as well. Jews were not satisfied and constantly were stalking him.

---Paul was in the night then escorted by friends out to another city and if they Jews arrived there, again to Athens alone where he was waiting for his companions to come.

---When he saw the idols, he felt very uneasy and angry really.

---How they can worship idols that do not move when God created the heavens and earth and do not live in temples made by man.

---They took Paul from the Market to the Areopagus.

---In the book by Jerome Carcopino in 1938 on Daily Life in Rome page 120-121, he explained the role of rhetoric in those days.

“Seneca disapproved of teaching methods which do not prepare men for life, but only pupils for school: "non vitae sed scholae discimus". Ellen White in Education spells out the same wisdom.

---There was a decay in rhetoric and the elder Seneca said that they were boring.

---Carcopino concluded that “mental malnutrition to which the pick of Rome's youth was doomed” in Roman literature that was not fascinating enough was the problem.

---Nero, Paul’s emperor of his day, liked Greek literature and dramas. That is probably why Athens had an idol at every corner. He was eager to hear Greek literature rather than Roman literature and that made Nero unpopular.

---As a result of the boring orations, the common people revolted and turned their backs on this. They rejected it and was more open for something new. (Carcopino 1938: 121).

---And this is why Paul’s content was more appealing. It was something new that they all desired. At last.

---Carcopino said that Roman literature laid scattered in pieces: “Born of the incomparable Greek tragedy, the Roman drama lay shattered to fragments amid the marble of scenic decoration. But as these operatic airs rose above the ruins of great tragedy, the pure intoxication which the ancient masterpieces had inspired once again touched the listening masses.” (Carcopino 1938: 225).

---So now we know why Paul is so skillfully speaking using the past history to remind them of Someone Whom they did not know but should.

---Some were eager to hear and Acts 17 recall their names, also a female.

---Do you know that in an age of smartphones, people are eager to hear meaning. Proper meaning. Why? Flash-flash is destroying their focus and the miss the meaning.

---Someone who can put all data into perspective and with an orientation leading to a point, an End-point, is what they want to hear.

---Are you that one? When? Immediately. Call your pastor at an Adventist Church near you to get the way to the church next Sabbath or Friday night meeting for more information.