呀呀学语. 很多谈话都只是:胡言乱语. 当然，胡言乱语是胡言乱语的人说的. 没必要太在意. 都是气体.

“这个胡言乱语的人想说什么??" 这是雅典人对使徒保罗的疑问, 他刚来到那个伟大的希腊城市宣讲福音. 这个胡言乱语的故事是在新约使徒行传第17章中讲述的. It proves to be no babbling at all, for the talk's all true, and it's of Jesus and the resurrection.

保罗刚从马其顿北部的致命危险中逃出来. There he'd faced anti-gospel riots in both Thessalonica and Berea. These rioters had put Paul's new converts at risk, and targeted the apostle for death. It took a strong-armed squad of Macedonian Christians to whisk Paul safely away south. Now in Athens—a city of cool tempers and cooler philosophers—the anxious apostle awaits word about his friends up north. 这些新基督徒幸存下来了吗?

当他等待那些令人担忧的日子过去时，他变成了游客. Then, as now, Athens boasted some of the most beautiful buildings in the world. But this accidental tourism soon turns sour: "the city was full of idols." That discovery drives him to do what he loves best: he preaches. 这引起了哲学家们的注意:

“这个胡言乱语的人想说什么??"
“他似乎在兜售外国神灵."
They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. ——使徒行传17:18

一个喋喋不休的人? 关于外国的“神”——复数? It seems that the Gospel is so unknown to Athens that the philosophers think Paul's "gods" are "Jesus" and "Resurrection.“新濠天地app的作者, 路加福音, even pokes this bit of fun at them: "they spend their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas" (Acts 17:21). 也许他们才是故事中真正的胡言乱语者. 于是他们邀请保罗加入他们的哲学对话, 《新濠天地app》和《新濠天地app》是最新的流行歌曲.

“耶稣与复活”? 这确实是一对可爱的组合. In Paul's marketplace preaching, those two words must have gotten major air-time. 给哥林多年轻的基督徒, Paul tags his preaching with another pairing: "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except 耶稣基督和他被钉十字架.(哥林多前书2:2). The last line of the Acts sums it up with yet another pair: Paul "proclaimed the 神的国 并讲授了 主耶稣基督" (使徒行传28:31).

“耶稣与复活”
"耶稣基督和他被钉十字架"
"神的国和主耶稣基督"

很难忽略这一点:这一切都是关于耶稣的. It's his cross, his resurrection, his lordship, and his Father's blessed kingdom. And all that we might find rescue from sin and death, to enter that everlasting blessedness.

In that ancient world, people didn't readily believe in resurrections. 新濠天地app现代人认为他们很容易上当受骗. 不是这样的. 他们比大多数美国人更了解死亡. This year of COVID-19's brought us closer to their ancient clarity. 伟大的希腊故事令人恐惧. 没有复活的希望, and only the dimmest assertion of consciousness post-mortem: voiceless shades crossing the River Styx into Hades' endless night.

"The case is compelling: without the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 没有办法解释基督教的存在."

The greatest of all Greek stories, as famous in Paul's day as it is in our own, is Homer's 《新濠天地app》. 你听过的每一个战争故事都在里面. There "man-slaughtering Hector" has himself been slaughtered by "fleet-footed Achilles" in revenge for Hector's slaying of Patroclus, 阿喀琉斯最亲爱的朋友. 在神与战争的巧合中, 阿喀琉斯发现自己接待了赫克托耳悲伤的父亲, 普里阿摩斯, 特洛伊国王:

两人都记起了:
老国王蜷缩在阿喀琉斯的脚下
为杀人凶手赫克托耳哭泣，
伟大的阿喀琉斯为自己的父亲哭泣
再一次看到帕特洛克洛，呜咽着
充满了房间.

然后阿喀琉斯温和地对他高贵的敌人说:

天上的诸神给了你这苦涩:
多年的围困，战争和损失.
那就忍耐吧. 不要永远悲伤
为了你死去的儿子. 没有补救办法.
你不能让他再站起来.
(《新濠天地app》，第24卷，c 510-20行和c 545-550行)

教训? 活着的人没有希望了. 对死者没有帮助. “没有补救办法."

No wonder these philosophers scoffed at Paul, the babbler who peddled a god called "Resurrection."

But that "god" called "Resurrection" resists all efforts to bury him. 他坚持要站起来. It was during those weeks in Athens that Paul penned these words back to his new friends in perilous Thessalonica:

兄弟姐妹们, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, 这样你就不会像其他人一样悲伤, 没有希望的人.

对那些皈依基督教却因此被杀害的人来说是希望? 是的...

因为新濠天地app信耶稣死而复活了, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. (帖撒罗尼迦前书4:13-14)

异教徒的绝望和基督徒的希望形成了鲜明的对比! In Christian hope, just as Jesus's tomb proved temporary, ours shall be as well. And the world itself shall rise in "the restoration of all things" (Acts 3:21).

The case is compelling: without the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 没有办法解释基督教的存在, 无法解释它对使徒的控制, 无法解释他们心甘情愿的牺牲, 没办法解释这个事实, 没有多久, millions of residents of that no-hope Greco-Roman world believed in Jesus and the resurrection. 也无法理解新濠天地app自己的希望.

“耶稣与复活”不是胡言乱语. 这是一个伟大的前提, 这是整个基督教历史的前提, 耶稣教会建立的基础, 神圣的, hope-filled power by which it advances into all the world—to the glory of God.