2023-02-19 A Singular Answer to Multiple Gods

A SINGULAR ANSWER TO MULTIPLE GODS (Acts 17:16-21) February 19, 2023 Read Acts 17:16-21 - This passage could be about the US. Paul's in Athens whose glory days are past, but it's still the philosophical and cultural center of the empire -- steeped in the pursuit of human wisdom. Idols are everywhere to every imaginable god, and also to the "unknown god" just to cover all bases. Why so many idols? Because everyone worships something. Athens' idols were made of gold and silver. Ours are not so visible. But they are just as pervasive. We have idols of every shape and kind - idols of ambition, career, family, pleasure, relationships, money, things, hobbies, sports, politics, addictions, things - you name it, we have it - things that have taken the place of God in 21st century life. But there's a problem with idols. They never satisfy. They never deliver. At MD, Patty once worked with Pete Conrad. He said walking on the moon was almost an anticlimax - walking on the moon! He said, "Take away the weightlessness and the view, and I might as well have been in the simulator. It was spectacular, but it wasn't - momentous." He was surprised when his fellow-moonwalker, Al Bean, turned to him as if he could read his mind and said, "It's kind of like the song: Is that all there is?" They'd done what 12 men in history ever did - and found it empty in the end. So it is with idols! That's why v. 21: "Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new." When the old disappoints, you need the next big thing. That was the Athens. It's also 21st century America. So what did Paul do? Preached the gospel. Note the chain reaction as he did so that encourages us to do the same. I. The Idolatry Provoked Stirring Concern From Athens, Paul sent for Tim and Silas to join him from Thessalonica. But 16 "Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols." Amid architectural brilliance and artistic wonder, Paul was distressed. This great culture, was enslaved to idols. It was said that it was easier to meet a god or goddess on the main street of Athens than to meet a man. In a city of 10,000, there were more than 3,000 statues to idols. Amidst the magnificence of the Parthenon and the Acropolis, idols proliferated. In the Parthenon stood a huge gold and ivory statue to Athena "whose gleaming spear-point was visible forty miles away." There were images of Apollo, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Bacchus, and the rest of the Greek pantheon. It distressed Paul to his core. Paul's "spirit was provoked" -- παροξύνω - from which we get "paroxysm" - deeply moved. Paul was infuriated by what he saw. In this he shared the heart of God. Sixty-six times in the OT God is said to be provoked, and it is often about idols, as in I Kings 14:9: "But you have done evil above all who were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods and metal images, provoking me to anger, and have cast me behind your back." Whatever diminishes God ought to provoke us as well, should it not? Idols provoke bc in the end, they don't just disappoint, they kill - and not just physically, but spiritually and thus eternally. They steal attention from the One source of eternal life - Jesus. So as we see the idols of our own culture, should we not also be provoked and moved with compassion for their worshipers? Henry Martyn was a missionary to India and later Persia. There he met a Muslim man who believed in Jesus, but only as subordinate to Mohammad. Martyn says, "I was cut to the soul by this blasphemy, and the man asked what was so offensive. I told him that 'I could not endure existence if Jesus was not glorified; it would be hell to me if He were to be always thus dishonored.' Astounded he asked, 'Why?'. I replied, 'It is because I am one with Christ that I am thus dreadfully wounded.'" How I wish we were so moved to see idols ruining people's lives? We need to ask the HS for compassion that cannot stand a world where He is not honored. II. The Concern Prompted a Sound Challenge Typical of Paul, having been provoked, he did not stand still: 17 "So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him." He pushed back against the idolatry, but in a reasoning way - in a logical fashion. His message was never, "Just believe," but always, "Believe, and here's why." Christianity can hold its own on any intellectual ground, and so we must represent it. He first reasons with the Jews. We've seen it before. He showed them the OT prophecies fulfilled in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, leading to the conclusion that the Jewish Messiah had already come, that He was both God and man simultaneously, that He came to deliver from sin - thus His perfect life, leading to His substitutionary death, and His victorious resurrection - all prophesied in their Scriptures and fulfilled in this most unique of all lives. To reject Him, therefore, would be to make an idol of Jewish tradition - an idol that would eventually not only disappoint, but lead to eternal damnation if not seen in the wonderful light of the life of Christ. So Paul's message to the Jews. But then he moved on to the marketplace - the agora - the center of cultural life in these ancient cities where not only were goods bought and sold, not only was the latest news quickly available, but where court cases were adjudicated and where philosophers of all stripes and kinds gathered to debate. It was better than television! It was like going to the university today to seek out the professor and philosophers and there Paul went to reason (διαλέγομαι) - dialogue, with them as well. Head-to-head intellectual challenge. Now, in the agora, Paul found the two most impactful philosophies of the day - Epicureans and Stoics, opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum. Epicureans said pleasure and happiness were the chief end of man. To achieve those ends, one should avoid pain and seek tranquility. They believed in gods, but they did not interfere in the affairs of mankind. Death is disintegration; there is no afterlife. No accountability. They were, therefore, enthusiastic hedonists, seeking pleasure wherever they could but in a refined manner. They had "epicurean" tastes in food, relationships and sexuality. They realized the dangers of excess. But their philosophy might be summarized, "If it feels good, do it!" Sound familiar? It should in hedonistic modern America! Then the Stoics. The Stoics were pantheistic - feeling that a great impersonal "Purpose" was directing history and it was man's responsibility to align with this purpose thru whatever triumph and tragedy came his way. To be moved with great joy or grief was to give personal preference over the great "Purpose" and thus one should develop and practice "stoic", unemotional responses to the happenings of natural law. Self-mastery, and indifference to both pleasure and pain was the order of the day. The Stoics believed man has no power to influence his life thus their philosophy might be summed up as - que sera, sera, "what will be will be" - to fight against it is wasted energy. Stoics rejected pagan gods, believed in one impersonal god. They also believed in moral absolutes that would enhance the meaning of life. These they called the Logos! You can imagine what Paul did with that! How might Paul have countered these philosophies: "What most addresses life as you find it? Multiple gods leaving you mystified as to which to please and how? A philosophy that says there is no afterlife and no accountability when you know that you hold each other accountable and you sense you are answerable some higher power? Or, a philosophy that says, face life stoically - knowing, you can't? What is the answer?" Paul might have challenged saying, "Glad you asked. Let me tell you the answer." III. The Challenge Promoted a Singular Claim So, what did Paul tell them? V. 18: "He was preaching Jesus and the resurrection." Where have we heard that before? Every sermon in Acts. Regardless of the approach and method of getting there, it always comes back to one thing - Jesus, His atoning death and victorious resurrection. Always. That message was totally misunderstood here at first. 18b) "And some said, 'What does this babbler wish to say?' Others said, 'He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities.'" "divinities" plural! They think Paul has multiple new deities - Jesus, and his feminine companion Anastasis - actually the Greek word for resurrection. Of course, they'd never heard of Jesus. And the concept of resurrection was so foreign to them - so far from anything they could conceive they just assumed Paul was naming another goddess -- Anastasis. But note that while Paul fit his approach to his audience - OT Scriptures to the Jews and dialogue with the philosophers -- he always got back to Jesus Christ. Here, he has to clarify regarding Anastasis! But the message remains intact. There's no good news for humanity apart from Jesus. No one else came from heaven, took on a human nature, lived sinlessly, died selflessly for our sin and rose again. No one else did anything like that! Eventually the message must get back to Jesus - not as the great sage, but as the great Savior! Some 19th century Americans while in England went to hear two of London's greatest preachers. Sunday morning it was Joseph Parker and they found his reputation for oratory well deserved. One exclaimed, "I do declare, it must be said, for there is no doubt, that Joseph Parker is the greatest preacher that ever there was!" Many wanted to hear Parker again that evening, but finally went to the Met Tabernacle to hear Spurgeon. They were overwhelmed. As they departed one said, "I do declare, it must be said, for there is no doubt, that Jesus Christ is the greatest Savior that ever there was!" He was so right but for one thing - Jesus is not just the greatest Savior that ever was - He is the only Savior that ever was. Buddha did not die for you. Nor Mohammad. Nor Lao Tsu. Nor did any being grace. Only Jesus - the only Savior! Jesus is the only answer. It is not enough to ask people to be better; we must ask them to be saved. It is not enough to ask them to be righteous; we must ask them to accept the righteousness of Jesus. It is not enough that they believe Him a great prophet; they must commit to Him as Savior and Lord. He is the one and only way to God. A singular God-man has died a singular substitutionary death and attained a singular resurrection making Him a singular Savior with a singular claim on every life. What anyone does with that is between them and God, but He is the message. Just like Paul - we preach Jesus and the resurrection as the best news mankind ever got. IV. The Claim Precipitated Stinging Condescension But preaching Jesus isn't easy. The natural mind rebels. Thus I Cor 1:18a: "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing." So it will ever be until the mind is enlightened by the Spirit of God. So it was in Athens. Most mocked. 18b) "What does this babbler wish to say?" Babbler (σπερμολόγος) literally "seed-picker" - like a bird scrounging the ground for food. They insinuated Paul was just an ignorant itinerant who picked up an idea here, another there and formulated a new philosophy. The Epicureans and Stoics agreed on almost nothing; but they agreed on this - Paul's new-fangled message wasn't for smart people. He was a retailer of secondhand scraps of useless speculation - a seed-picker. Thus, they mocked him. But - at least they weren't stoning or beating him. Some even thought it would be entertaining to hear him further since they would "spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new." As long as he had breath, Paul was available, not deterred by a little mockery. He knew what was at stake and he knew who would win in the end. He knew what Spurgeon once said: "You may laugh yourself into hell, but you cannot laugh yourself out of it." That sobering reality drove Paul to press on regardless of adversity. Conc - That was Paul. But what about us? How will we live and act in the face of an increasingly idolatrous culture? As recently as 1952, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Wm O. Douglas wrote: "We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being." No one disputed him at the time. But fast forward to 1995. Justice Antonin Scalia announced in a speech that as a Xn he believed in miracles and in the resurrection of Jesus. Same ancient truth Paul proclaimed. Scalia was brutalized. Cartoonist Herbloc depicted all the Supreme Court justices holding law books - all except Scalia who holds a Bible. Washing Post columnist Richard Cohen suggested Scalia had disqualified himself from handling any further church-state questions. TV's talking heads savaged Scalia for his "bias." Scalia could take it; can we? In an idolatrous culture, we must continue to offer the singular answer that a resurrected Jesus is Lord. We must grow more able to give reasoned replies to those who will listen - not intimidated, but loving and courageous. We must accept the mockery as a badge of honor, knowing that while most will reject, some will come to faith. Remember Paul's experience in Pisidian Antioch. They eventually ran him out of town, but Acts 13:48b: "as many as were appointed to eternal life believed." Many may mock, but some will believe as we are faithful to the message - in our lives and in our words. Let's pray. 7