“No one can come to me unless the Father Who sent me, draws him” (John 6:44).
The first century world was rotten to the core with all kinds of cruelty and violence and deviant sexuality – the very reasons God destroyed the world in Noah’s day and Sodom in Abraham’s day.
There was unparalleled luxury combined with abject poverty. One Emperor spent millions of dollars on food alone; even though he ruled for only eight months.
On the other end of the ladder were the sixty million slaves. To many people a slave was not a person but only a thing.A master, by law could torture, mutilate or kill his slave. Close to the slaves were the “rabble” - the lower class people for whom moral restraint was an unknown.
Unwanted children were thrown into the streets to starve and die, or be picked up and made slaves.
The low moral condition on every level of society was shocking. Pagan worship was characterized by three things: Sexual vice, drunkenness and gluttony.
In the worship of Aphrodite at Corinth a thousand priestesses devoted themselves toprostitution. One Emperor, talked about on the History Channel had a steady stream of slave children brought to him for his sexual pleasures. When he finished with them his servants threw them off the cliff near his palace to their deaths.
The cruelty was unbelievable. Loads and loads of sand were hauled constantly to the amp-theatres throughout the Empire to replace the sand stained with blood. People reveled in bloodshed. Crucifixions were common. The Greek philosophers saw and spoke of this. Virgil wrote: “Right and wrong are confounded.”
Tacitus in his history of the period wrote:
“I am entering upon the history of a period, rich in disasters, gloomy with wars, rent with sedition, savage in its very hours of peace ... All was one delirium of hate and terror.”
Matthew Arnold wrote,
“On that hard-pagan world, disgust and secret loathing fell. Deep weariness and sated lust, Made human life a hell.
(Quoted by William Barclay,“Paul- The Adventurer)”
Paul summed it up Romans 1:18-32“God has given them over to do the filthy things their hearts desire, and to do shameful things with each other ... God has given them over to shameful passions ... to corrupted minds ... they are filled with all kinds of wickedness, evil, greed, and vice ... they speak evil of one another, they are hateful to God, insolent, proud and boastful ... they think of more ways to do evil.”
There was unparalleled luxury combined with abject poverty. One Emperor spent millions of dollars on food alone; even though he ruled for only eight months.
On the other end of the ladder were the sixty million slaves. To many people a slave was not a person but only a thing.A master, by law could torture, mutilate or kill his slave. Close to the slaves were the “rabble” - the lower class people for whom moral restraint was an unknown.
Unwanted children were thrown into the streets to starve and die, or be picked up and made slaves.
The low moral condition on every level of society was shocking. Pagan worship was characterized by three things: Sexual vice, drunkenness and gluttony.
In the worship of Aphrodite at Corinth a thousand priestesses devoted themselves toprostitution. One Emperor, talked about on the History Channel had a steady stream of slave children brought to him for his sexual pleasures. When he finished with them his servants threw them off the cliff near his palace to their deaths.
The cruelty was unbelievable. Loads and loads of sand were hauled constantly to the amp-theatres throughout the Empire to replace the sand stained with blood. People reveled in bloodshed. Crucifixions were common. The Greek philosophers saw and spoke of this. Virgil wrote: “Right and wrong are confounded.”
Tacitus in his history of the period wrote:
“I am entering upon the history of a period, rich in disasters, gloomy with wars, rent with sedition, savage in its very hours of peace ... All was one delirium of hate and terror.”
Matthew Arnold wrote,
“On that hard-pagan world, disgust and secret loathing fell. Deep weariness and sated lust, Made human life a hell.
(Quoted by William Barclay,“Paul- The Adventurer)”
Paul summed it up Romans 1:18-32“God has given them over to do the filthy things their hearts desire, and to do shameful things with each other ... God has given them over to shameful passions ... to corrupted minds ... they are filled with all kinds of wickedness, evil, greed, and vice ... they speak evil of one another, they are hateful to God, insolent, proud and boastful ... they think of more ways to do evil.”
Action Step: Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray the God of the harvest bring laborers, yes! But, also pray God prepares peoples hearts to be softened, and ready for the word. Hearts that are ready will receive the Word of God and it will change the lives of those who receive it.
“There was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a Centurion (Army Captain). He was a devout man who feared God with all his household.
He gave alms to the Jewish people and continually prayed.”
Acts 10:1-2
He gave alms to the Jewish people and continually prayed.”
Acts 10:1-2
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