Acts 17:16-32
Notes
Transcript
Ignorance Isn’t Bliss
Ignorance Isn’t Bliss
Main Idea: As believers we are called to make the unknown known to others.
eh·ree·aa·puh·guhs— Areopagus
INTRO:
Good morning church!
I love hearing our kids lead us in worship— thank you all— Thank you Amanda and Ethan and Sabrina and Kourtney and Kristen all you rock!
Thanks for getting them all prepared to sing today.
In case you don’t know me, my name is Zach Klundt, I am one of the pastors here on staff.
You may see that in your bulletin and your note sheet that it says Luke Sumner.
I am not Luke, although I wish I could rock a mustache like him.
Luke felt under the weather yesterday and he ask if I would be able to fill in for him and I agreed.
So while we are going to still be in Acts 17 this morning— those notes will not help you follow along with the sermon.
If you were here last week, Luke spoke on Acts 18— so we are going backwards a bit to hit Acts 17— and that is because of different sickness and playing pulpit shuffle
But after today and next week we will be back on track picking up the second part of Acts 18.
We are excited to have Pastor Robert back next week for Maundy Thursday and Easter.
We hope to see you at both of those services as we morn what Christ went through on Thursday and on Sunday we rejoice because the tomb was empty on the third day!
We would love to have you join us for those services this upcoming week.
This morning we are going to be camped out in Acts 17:16-34.
If you have your Bible go head and flip there— I am going to be reading from the CSB version.
Here is what it says:
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed when he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some said, “What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?”
Others replied, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities”—because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, and said, “May we learn about this new teaching you are presenting? Because what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new.
Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.
“Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him, but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.” So Paul left their presence. However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Will you pray with me:
Father we come to you, Lord we pray that you reveal yourself to us in your word.
That we can grasp your truth this morning.
That hearts will be softened to hear your word this morning.
Holy Spirit speak through me— may these words be yours this morning.
May your truth come to light and I pray that we begin to live boldly in a culture that wants to stay ignorant of your truth.
We love you and we praise you father amen.
Me:
As we dive into today’s word, I want to start by asking you a question.
Have you ever thought all was well until someone made known to you something that was out of place?
When Brittni was pregnant with our first born she was not feeling well and decided to go to Prompt Care.
Brittni was 29 weeks pregnant at the time— they looked her over and said— you have a sinus infection take this stuff and you will feel better.
Okay— Brittni still wasn’t feeling much better and 5 days later we had an appointment with our baby doctor.
And come to find out Brittni was entering into sever preeclampsia— and they were going to be doing an emergency c-section on her to as they put “hopefully save both of them.”
They went to work and both were fine— really scary and a long road was ahead of us but we were thankful that someone was able to tell us why Brittni was feeling the way she was and it was not a sinus infection but something so much worse.
We:
And maybe you have been in a similar medical situation where you thought you were fine to have a check up and you were not fine.
Someone told you that you had a flat tire and you need to fill it up before you ruined the rim of your car.
It was someone at work telling you that you would be perfect for this other position that you didn’t know about.
Maybe it was someone setting you up on a date that ended up leading to you finding your spouse.
Or maybe it was just a hidden restaurant that became your favorite place.
Having things made known to us that were once unknown to us is at times scary and other times awesome.
Can you imagine if they never told you what you didn’t know?
I am sure we have all heard that saying— ignorance is bliss— and we say that because not knowing something means we don’t have to worry about it.
But what if ignorance isn’t bliss when it comes to eternity?
What if we never heard the gospel of Jesus?
What if someone never made known to us what was unknown?
What would that mean for us?
In Acts 17 we see Paul going to Athen and making the Gospel known to a city that was totally unaware.
As believers we are called to make the unknown known to others.
We are called to make the Gospel of Jesus known.
Paul was willing to go into all the places that were hostile to the gospel and he still preached it with boldness and clarity.
Let walk through this passage together—
God:
In verse 16 we find Paul rolling into Athen, Yes thee Athen.
The place that was very wealthy— full of life, and arts.
It had everything.
It would have been the most progressive city in the first century.
Highly diverse and highly secularized.
They put lots of stock in scholarly conversations.
People did what they wanted, believed in what they wanted.
Athens sounds much like our American city’s of today— picture New York, Chicago, or LA .
The bigger the city the more glam that is there.
It has the lights and the sounds— it has the art and the culture seems to be electric.
Athen’s was the place to be— and instead of Paul being blown away by all of the really cool things about Athens—
Paul is deeply distressed by what he sees.
He is not impressed.
He is heartbroken.
He sees this city full of idols.
Full of gods.
He saw a city in need of a savior— how often to we look at our cities with the same distress?
and this city is spoken so highly of— the culture is so vibrant.
Paul was so deeply distressed that he started to not only go to the Jewish synagogues and hang out with other believers of God as was his custom as we went to city after city.
But he also found himself in the marketplace everyday talking to those who were present.
Paul was going on into the city.
To talk to the people about Jesus, the good news of the Gospel.
Paul was going toe to toe with some of the smartest and most educated men at this time.
Some of these Philosophers in verse 18 says that Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.
Epicurean’s would have been more materialistic.
Everything came from atoms or particles.
There was no life beyond this.
They believed that they should pursue fulfillment and actively avoid displeasure.
The role of gods in their life were very marginal.
They believed in gods but they did not believe that the gods cared about them.
The Stoics believed in divine providence.
The stoics thought one attainted fulfillment by accepted the course of event, including pain and suffering.
They should be endured quietly, almost gratefully.
Both of these schools of thought did not believe in One God.
You have some hybrid type of philosophies that we see today.
You have your atheism which is similar to the Epicurean and you have Buddism, that would be similar to the Stoics.
Not everyone was happy to hear from Paul— and some scoffed at him.
Calling him a show off.
And these people are hearing Paul speak and he is talking about Jesus and the resurrection as the author of Acts, Luke points out.
They called him a babbler— Everyone was just picking up pieces of what Paul was saying.
Here is the part that is important: in verse 18 the people said this about Paul:
“He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities”
They knew Paul was a preacher but it seemed like he was speaking of a god they knew nothing about.
And the thing was Athens was not a huge fan of having outside deities brought into the city.
Now that wasn’t going to stop Paul— He had already been stoned and left for dead— bring it on.
Yet the people in the market place were having a hard time picking up on Paul talking about Jesus and the resurrection.
They most likely would have thought Paul was teaching them about more gods, that Jesus was a little g god, and that there are a god name resurrection.
They were making Paul into a polytheist like them.
So you can imagine this was probably confusing and so the people of Athen takes Paul to the Areopagus so he can address everyone.
They wanted to learn about this new teaching.
What Paul was saying was new to them.
I think more and more that we live in a time where people are curious as well.
People are at a time in their lives where they are willing to hear— they may not accept but they are will to listen.
The people in Athen heard something new and different and they wanted to know what it was.
It sounded strange and they wanted to know what Paul was talking about
Look at verse 21
Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new.
This was common for these people to do— they loved to hear new things.
So Paul goes to Areopagus.
The Areopagus was the place where they held trials but also public debates.
It would have been a hill so Paul would have been able to be heard by everyone.
And verse 22:
Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect.
Paul had been around with these people for a bit and he is already deeply distressed by all the idols he sees—
and he tells them— I see that you are religious— You are spiritual.
And he tells them about how he saw their idols and one really stuck out to him— it was the one to the unknown god.
As legend has it— there was a terrible plague that happened in Athen and the people believed that they clearly ticked off on of the gods—
so in order to make it right they brought a flock of sheep to the top of the Areopagus and they released them and wherever the sheep stopped they would build an alter to the unknown god and then the sheep was sacrificed.
The unknown god was for any god they missed— and it had worked in their eyes up to this point.
They did now know this gods name just that they believed they were protected because of what they did.
And Paul going on to tell them “Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.”
Paul is saying— you don’t know what you are worshiping— but let me make known to you the one true God that is unknown to you.
And what is odd is that it was against the law to bring in a foreign god— yet they had an alter to the unknown god.
and they welcomed Paul’s conversation mainly because they loved the new above even their laws—
Paul starts with creation.
Paul has a very different approach in speaking to the people of Athens.
When speaking to the Jewish people he would talk about Moses, Abraham, and David, and Jesus.
But in this section from 23 to the end of the chapter— we don’t see Jesus mentioned by name.
Paul changed the way he spoke to the people in this culture.
It is impressive that Paul would do this.
Paul understood that he had to meet them where they were.
He had to connect with them some how.
So he starts at the beginning like all origin stories— he goes back and tells them:
The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things.
The people of Athen’s had gods for everything, and they built shrines and temples for them all— they would try to appease the gods by doing things for them.
God is the creator of all thing— is the Lord of heaven and earth and he doesn’t live in shrines or statues made by you.
Not only does God not live in your shrines but you can’t serve God—
And Paul says you can’t do anything for God— he is the author of life— what can you possibility offer God.
There is one God, one true God—
Paul then goes into verse 26 and 27
From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
Paul is going back to Adam here but is not giving Adam a name because he does not want to confuse the people.
From one man everything was created— Humans were designed to be in relationship with God.
And every person was put on earth at their time that was all orchestrated by God.
In God’s sovereignty he placed the people on earth— so that they would seek out God.
So the people can seek God and reach out and find him— because God is not far away.
They were not around.
And Paul is saying God is not far away— its not because he is far away it is that you can’t find him.
You are not seeking him out.
The word to reach out in the original language would have meant to grope. To blindly feel about for.
That is what Paul is saying to them.
Paul is saying— God did create humans to seek after him— and maybe by chance they will reach out and find him— they don’t have to reach too far.
Yet most people will not come to this on their own.
You can gather that Paul is going after all of the Athenian’s beliefs.
Then Paul in verse 28 and 29 The NASB says it this way:
NASB
for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’
“Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.
Paul is continuing on with poking holes in what they believe.
There are three parts to this statement from Paul.
WE Live
WE Move
WE exist
Paul had already told them we live because of God the creator of all things.
We move based on God placing where he would have us and in that move part of verse 28— it also includes the searching for him— we move to find him.
We exist— as in we are God’s offsprings.
And Paul doesn’t quote the Bible— he quotes their own people.
He quotes their own Stoic philosopher named Aratus.
He said we too are his offsrping.
Again maybe this was said out of ignorance like most of what Paul is bringing up to the Athenians.
To this unknown god that now Paul is making known to them.
Paul tells them are God’s offsprings.
Paul had already critiqued the temple and cult worship of other god and now he is coming after the idols themselves.
The images.
Paul was coming for their idols.
Here is what was happening in Athen’s—and in other places as well—
But no one did it more then Athen’s they were making imagines out of gold, silver, and stone, human art and imagination.
Paul sees all of these idols they have made— all the images of these idols come from the creation rather then the creator.
Paul is saying if we are offsprings from God— if we are created by God— then we are not capable to making an idol of our creator.
We would never do it justice.
It is why God clearly states in exodus to not make an idol for yourself.
Even if it is God— the answer is no.
The creation cannot fully encapsulate the creator God.
It is impossible.
one of the scholars i was reading said this:
Acts The Worship of God (17:28–29)
if they truly understood Paul’s teaching of the one true Creator God, they would have realized that they too were idolaters. In their attempt to reach the divine through their own striving, in their view that the divine indwelt their own human nature, they had transgressed the relationship of creature to Creator. If they had genuinely accepted Paul’s major premise that God is Creator, they would have had to acknowledge their own self-idolatry, their own need for repentance.
They would have known what they were doing was not right.
So Paul finishes this all up.
He has walked them through God the creator, the divine, and we are his offsprings.
Listen to what Paul says in verse 30
“Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Paul says to the people what you worship in ignorance has now been made known to you.
It was not your false unknown god that has protected you all these years Athens— it is God’s mercy but now is the time to repent because the day is coming when the world will be judged.
Paul was never seeking to add a god into Athen— his purpose was to show them the one true God.
He want the people here to know what was unknown to them.
That God will judge the world through the one who was appointed.
Jesus— God’s son who lived a perfect life.
Who would be killed for the sins of the world.
To rise three days later— death he conquered.
Now Paul doesn’t say Jesus’ name here— he says the one who God appointed—
and the proof was provided to everyone by raising his appointed one from the dead.
And it was at this point that the people of Athen’s stopped listening.
They began to insult Paul— and ridicule him.
It was all based on the resurrection— I don’t know if you know this but dead people don’t raise from the dead— and that was the people of Athen’s thought.
That was utterly ridiculous to them.
Some would not be able to accept this.
Yet some did
Some came to know Christ!
Which is amazing!
Some told Paul they want to hear from him again— it was probably more sarcastic then anything else.
“sure Paul— okay hey we would like to hear from you again, how about in 6 months or a year.”
I tend to lean it was more sarcastic because as you see in verse 33- Paul leave. and at the start of chapter 18 he is in Corinth.
Paul knew that he was going into a dangerous city— and a city that was going to have a hard time receiving Christ.
Yet he changed up his approach and connected with the people the best he could.
And some may look at this story and say— Paul failed.
And I don’t get that one bit.
Paul went into a city full of idols and confronted the city about idolatry.
While he did not mention Jesus’ name in verse 24-31— he clearly would have prior to this because Luke say that he was telling the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.
Paul was telling others.
Paul was not shying away from the gospel in a highly intellectual city.
Paul ministered to non-Christian who did not know about God.
And he gave us this blue print for evangelism.
Paul made known what was unknown.
You:
And if you are here today and you walked into church today without an understand of who Jesus is, I am so thankful you are here.
And before you walked into church today you did not know about Jesus, but praise be to God that know you do and that you can have a chance to accept Him as Lord of your life.
You see Jesus came to this earth to stand in the gap for us.
We were in bad shape.
After God created everything perfect—
Sin ruined our relationship with God.
Sin stands in opposition to God.
Sin is anything we do that is against what God would have us do.
And when sin entered into the world through the disobedience of one man— we were all doomed.
Romans tells us that we are all sinner and since we are all sinner then the payment for sin is death.
My death, your death.
But here is the hope— because if the story ended there that would be terrible.
Hope came to this earth— and hope’s name was Jesus.
Who was born of a virgin— who lived a perfect life, who died a death that was meant for you and I.
And he took the payment of sin and said I’ll take it all.
So that you and I can stand in His righteousness.
And that Day that Paul talked about in verse 31— that we can stand on that day of judgement confident in our savior who died for us but also rose for us.
And he is alive— because death could not hold him.
What was unknown to you is now known to you.
ignorance is not bliss when it comes to eternity.
God knew that today you would be here— hearing this message of Hope and redemption.
And if you turn your life over to Jesus today then you will be with him forever.
As believers we are called to make the unknown known to others.
If you are here today and you are a believer in Christ— God calls you to witness to others.
God does not care about the success rate— he cares about the obedience to go.
Paul was obedient to God.
And look sometimes we may share the gospel with someone and they may reject it— at least you loved them enough to tell them.
Our culture is changing— everyone in this room knows that.
And when the culture shifts so does who we witness to others.
It has too.
We have to be in the world but now of the world.
What better week to make the unknown known then to tell others about Jesus.
This is the week that changed everything.
Paul did not shy away from telling others about the most important thing— will you?
If you knew something that could radically change someone’s life would you tell them?
If you are a believer here today— you have that radical life giving information.
It’s Jesus, It’s Jesus, It’s Jesus.
It is the hope of the Gospel— the redemption of sin— it is the old has past and the new life has come.
It is the forgiveness of sins, past, present and future.
Imagine if Jesus was unknown to you and the only time you found out was then you died— would you be furious?
I know I would— I am thankful for those who boldly proclaimed Christ in my life— and I am sure you have had those people in your life as well.
You now have a chance to be that person to someone else.
Be a light share your faith.
God is with you, he is present—
He for you and he is in control of the life change all he ask if for us to be faithful and obedient.
As the worship team come out I am going to invite the prayer team up and maybe today you need to talk to someone about giving your life over to Jesus.
We got people up front that would love to talk with you.
Maybe you need to start praying for those who need to have the unknown— known.
Maybe you have some hard things going on— I just invite you durning this last song to come up and pray with someone.
And they will be here after the service as well, in case you don’t want to come up durning the song.
God we love you— thank you for placing the people in my life that made you known.
Jesus thank you for living a perfect life and standing in the gap for us.
God I pray that heart today begin to soften and they what was once unknown is now knows.
That those in the room that do not know you will surrender their life over to you.
God I pray that those who call themselves believers will feel the weight of sharing the gospel with others.
That we will begin to feel the need to share our story with other— how we have been redeemed and bought and paid for by Jesus.
That we know get to walk in a newness of life.
Lord help us to shift our eyes to the cross this week help us to grasp the depth of our sin and the need for a savior as Easter approaches.
We are thankful that the tomb was empty on that third day!
Jesus taking you for being our savior.
Lord we love you
Amen.