Seventh, Paul has been intentional in first presenting truths about who God is and what he has done in creation to clarify what sin is. He states unequivocally that we have replaced God with idols that we have devised (v. 29). So, what is sin? Simply put, it is idolatry. Now Paul probably expanded on this in terms of what we find in Romans 1. He makes clear that the heart of sin is replacing God as rightful king over our lives with created things, including ourselves.

Eighth and last, Paul concludes his biblical worldview presentation with a proper view of time. Greeks in the ancient world believed that time must be viewed cyclically, or in circles. The God of the Bible, as Paul presents, does not view time in this way. Time is not cyclical, it is linear—it has a start and a finish. Paul argues that there is a fixed point when the Creator created the world and everything in it. There is a long period when God patiently “overlooks the ignorance” of mankind in their defiance (v. 31), and a time when God will judge the world with in righteousness. Thus, there is a purpose to history: to reveal God’s patience with sin and his plan for salvation.

So this is Paul’s presentation of a biblical worldview. He does not simply tell a captivating story; he provides a framework where the truth of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are coherent and cogent to his biblically illiterate and contemptuous audience.

We’ve seen Paul’s hostile place and then his worldview presentation. What’s next? His proclamation of the unadorned gospel.

Paul’s Proclamation: The Gospel of Jesus Christ
We read in verse 31, “For [God] has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” Simple, yet profound. Paul, the ambassador in a hostile territory, declares boldly the words of the King: Jesus has come. But he has not only come, he has also come to live a sinless life, die a sinner’s death, and be raised to new life for our justification (Romans 4:25).

Notice, first of all, what Paul does that is instructive for us as we attempt to evangelize in the twenty-first century. Paul gives the big story of God, creation, and the fall of man before introducing his audience to Jesus. He first establishes a proper framework and context to understand the person and work of Jesus so that the gospel is comprehensible to the biblically illiterate Athenians. If he had started with Jesus, these men would not have been able to understand, for example, who he is (God and man) nor why he had to come (his purpose). Without the larger story, or meta-narrative, the smaller stories of Jesus in the Gospel accounts would not make as much sense.

Another factor to notice is that at the end of the day, Paul does not shy away from proclaiming the truth of the resurrection. In fact, this is what causes his message to come to an end. To these men (and surely to those in our day), bodily resurrection is irrational and unacceptable. The text notes that they show further contempt and stop Paul from speaking further (v. 32). Paul did not hesitate to bring his talk to its natural gospel conclusion, that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead because of the righteousness earned through his sinless life. He could have talked about Jesus’ immortality or his moral uprightness—but Paul did not flinch. After all, if Christ did not raise from the dead, then he is a liar and we are still dead in our sins (1 Corinthians 15).

Conclusion
As an ambassador, Paul had a gospel message to deliver and he didn’t hesitate. Even in the midst of hostile territory, he was not ashamed of the power of God for salvation. But in order to make that message comprehensible to an audience that was biblically illiterate, he adapted his presentation by constructing a biblical worldview where the creator God of the universe was front and center. Only after providing a storyline that was biblically coherent did he preach Jesus and the resurrection.

Thus, this evangelistic strategy is instructive for us as we face a hostile world in which many of our hearers in the twenty-first century are not only are biblically illiterate, but also hold powerful and competing worldviews. We cannot assume that people today have the biblical categories and vocabulary they need to make sense of the cross of Jesus. We need to keep our evangelism simple and clear by focusing on the big story of the Bible and how that story provides a worldview in which the cross and resurrection of Jesus is the most important truth in our history and lives. Only then is the content of evangelism life-transforming. But worldview evangelism is not just a cognitive exercise in which we provide the right rational categories to understand God’s salvation plan; it is connected to the real Jesus about whom truths must be believed and in whom all of life will be transformed.

Being an ambassador sent to declare the message of peace in hostile territories is not easy. It is not always fun. But those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. Listen to this story from a missionary in Africa who captures for us the significance of persistently and faithfully presenting and proclaiming the gospel:

I grew up in a preacher's home in the little towns of Minnesota and South Dakota. I spent most of my free time with the deacons' kids on John Deere tractors. I learned how to drill oats, plant corn, and cultivate. And never once did I see a deacon behave like Psalm 126 says: “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves against him.”