Renungan pagi, Senini 18 Maret 2024,Acts 17: 30

Acts 17: 30. (New International Version)

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

Kisah Para Rasul 17: 30. : “Dengan tidak memandang lagi zaman kebodohan, maka sekarang Allah memberitahukan kepada manusia, bahwa di mana-mana semua mereka harus bertobat“.

Dear Brothers, and Sisters who are loved by the Lord Jesus.

This text is Paul’s sermon in the Areopagus in the Temple, that delivered brave and firmly against the Athenians who lived in ignorance. Why does Paul say the Athenians lived in ignorance? In fact, the Athenians were a very advanced people in the culture and intelligent intellectually. Their intelligence has been very influential throughout the world since the 6th century Before Christ, but Paul said they were stupid people because they rejected God as the source of that intelligence, rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the way of salvation and life. And they always live worshiping idols of god made by their own hands.

That’s how it is today. People is becoming more advanced, a lot of knowledge can be explored, education is getting higher, but when someone ignores the word of God, the power of God, and relies on their own thoughts, their own intelligence. Tthey are the same as the Athenians, people who live in ignorance.

Brothers and sisters who are loved by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The era of ignorance was an era where during the early church the standard of human or Christian holiness was said to have not been normal, they had not yet grown firmly in their faith in Christ, (unstable) and were still easily influenced by their initial beliefs or beliefs before the Gospel of Christ was preached to them. God allows them to live and receive blessings from Him even though they do not know how to thank Him for the blessings they have,

Just like the Batak people when Christianity or missionaries first come to Batak Land. The Batak nation was in the process of transition from primitive beliefs – worshiping idols and ancestral spirits, still being given leeway, there were no church regulations and church law, the same as the churches in Europe-Germany at that time. But several years later after the Gospel was preached, the missionaries or churches firmly broke all the habits, customs and culture of the Batak people which were contrary to the Gospel, and enforced church laws for Christians who violated God’s Word.

This was the case at the time when Paul preached the Gospel of Christ to the people in Athens, when the Gospel of Christ had been preached for a long time, but the Athenians still did not truly accept and believe in God and Jesus Christ, as the source of life and Savior for them.

Through Nast’s sermon today it is said, now God will no longer allow nations to go their own ways, do things that are displeased in His sight, and do stupid things.

In this Nast it is said, God no longer looks at the age of ignorance. In other words, God no longer allows people who have heard the Gospel-the message of salvation to continue living in ignorance, to continue living in darkness, to deviate from God’s will. But God through his servant Paul spoke today to everyone everywhere, the Athenians, the Batak people, all humans to repent, namely to abandon old habits, worship idols, rely on power and their own thoughts, ignore the love of God.

The call to repentance is truly follow and believe in the power of God, the love of God in Jesus Christ, living in the Spirit and truth from God. Specifically, the Lord God said to us, the STB Academic Community who worshiped this morning, to “repent.

Brothers and sisters who have been called to learn to know God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in this place, and all of us, don’t just know and learn to have high knowledge about God, but we don’t follow and believe in Him with all our hearts, and haven’t left the past. -that period of stupidity.

Perhaps we still often doubt His power and help in your life, our lives. Perhaps we, our parents, still want to believe in the spirits of our ancestors, worship idols, and ask for help from there. If our prayers are not immediately answered, we still doubt His power. Our tongues and mouths confess that God is God, but our hearts still doubt His power.

God’s Word says, everyone everywhere “REPENT”. John the Baptist in Matthew 3: 2 cried out in the field, he said. “Repent of your and turn to God, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” The word repent is used in the Bible to describe the beginning of true spiritual change. A linguist, W.E Vine, defines “repent as changing one’s thoughts or goals”. David McCasland says, “when we turn to Christ, and surrender ourselves to Him, He brings about true change, not just patchwork change. Which means something bad, old is still present or mixed with it. In the New Testament, Repentance always involves a change for the better, namely when someone abandons sin and turns to God. True repentance occurs in the deepest part of our hearts and produces a real difference in our actions.

When the Lord Jesus began His ministry in this world, in Matthew 4: 17 it was written with the cry “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”

The Holy Spirit helps us so that we can leave the age of ignorance and enjoy the blessings of salvation that God has given us in Jesus Christ. Amen.

By: Bvr. Roslinda Sihombing, S. PD. M.Si.