Acts 17:30-31 "The Quintessential Resurrection"

Introduction:

The Apostle Paul is speaking to Men of Athens at the Areopagus. This would have been on the Island of Greece and it was a place where the philosophers of the day would go to exchange ideas and thoughts and wrestle with propositions of truth claims being made.

Paul wound up here because of his claims about the divinity of Jesus Christ and His resurrection from the dead.

Understand that this would not be the first time where they had heard a man being alluded to as divine. There were many kings and rulers over kingdoms and nations that had made claim to be a god. And at times people even attributed deity to them even when they didn’t themselves.

Alexander the Great claimed to be the son of Zeus as an attachment to the divine but he died at a young age. Many debate his cause of death whether it was natural causes or whether he was poisoned.

After his death his empire was broken up between his generals and years later the Roman ruler Antiochus who ruled on the Seleucid throne took the name Epiphanes as an indication that he was a manifestation of the god of Jupiter. In about 168 BC he set up a statue of Jupiter/Zeus in the temple in Jerusalem. But he eventually was driven mad and he died in 164 BC.

Julius Cesar and Augustus Cesar both were part of the Imperial cult and were equated with deity. Some historians argue that this deification didn’t take place until after their death, both were worshipped prior to their death. They were both enshrined in their tombs and their bodies remain until this day.

The Emperor Caligula was the first Emperor who made the worship of himself mandatory. He was assassinated in 41 AD and his body remains in a tomb until this day.

But it was not the idea of Jesus being deity that sparked so much interest on Mars hill in Athens. It was the idea that this deified God had been raised from the dead. This was something profound because as Paul points out there are certain implications that are tied to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

First we see that there is a command given by God that is tied directly to the reality of Jesus Christ being raised. Look back at Acts 17 verse 30:

I. The Command (30).

The command that Paul emphasizes is the command to repent. God gave some latitude in times past because of the progressive nature of Revelation. Men were ignorant about the person and identity of Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God.

Old Testament saints believed in what they knew to be God’s revelation that pointed to something to come. They largely trusted in the prophetic promises of God without knowing the means by which God would bring those promises to pass.

Probably the most famous example would have been Abraham who was declared righteous by faith because he believed God and in His promises. At first those promises were associated largely with a land, an offspring and as time went on Abraham began to understand some of the spiritual implications including the idea of God being able to raise the dead.

But there was also a measure of God’s tolerance to many Gentile people groups. Though they had no faith in God nor any understanding of His identity they still pursued aspect of virtuous living. And God did not strike them down and destroy them or wipe them out from the face of the earth.

But Paul is arguing on Mars Hill to the men of Athens that this is no longer the case. God is commanding all men, both Jew and Gentile to repent of their past beliefs and focus in on the current revelation of God.

This is a key factor in the Jewish world and life view. Their God communicated in a covenant context revealing Himself to His covenant people. And the Old Testament makes this evident and clear. And the Old Testament record is revealed in space, time and history. Even the archeological and historical records make this evident.

There are only 3 world religions of all the religions of the world that can set down at the table of history: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Then once the biblical record is examined there is only one of these 3 that is consistent with the biblical record of both the law and the prophets and once you add in the New Testament there is definitely no other option but Christianity.

From the Gentile perspective, I think of the Greek mindset that these men of Athens had fits well with their mythological and philosophical presuppositions.

Augustine believed that the Greek philosopher, Plato was critical to understanding Christianity. Plato lived prior to Jesus Christ being born on the earth. And Jesus life on earth was contextualized by Hellenism or Greek thought and culture.

Plato’s influence could be why in the context, Paul back up in verse 23 makes reference to the altar that he saw with the inscription: To the unknown god (23). And Paul argues from the presence of this altar that, 23b “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

You see even pagans can get some things right about the undeniable link cause and effect in the Universe to the point that they deduce everything in existence down to an ultimate autonomous being as the first cause. And that being must be a moral being that has Universal power and is capable of things like relationships, creativity with order, design, communication and much more.

But all of this may be a good and noble thing and many religions of our day can make such an argument about the gods that they believe in. What makes the Christian God worthy of any special consideration? Well inherent to biblical Christianity are truth claims that are exclusive whenever the nature of God is pondered. One of these is specifically mentioned in the first half of verse 31:

II. The Claim (31a).

The specific claim that is mentioned is that God has appointed Jesus Christ as the second person of the Godhead to judge the world in righteousness. You may say well it doesn’t say Jesus Christ it just says “by a man.” This is true but bear with me for a few moments.

If God has fixed a day when He will judge the whole world in righteousness by an appointed man then this is of upmost importance and relevance to everyone. It is not of little importance and nor is it of moderate importance. It is of upmost importance.

I Paul’s words about God’s appointed time are not true then there is nothing critical for us to see here. But this would defy human logic and the normal course of events of human rational thought.

I say this because justice in the sense of retribution is something built into the human belief system and replicated in the justice system of governments.

We are treated wrongly, we want justice. We see others treated wrongly we want justice. We don’t like the idea of the criminal going free and we don’t like the idea of innocent people being condemned especially when it is us. But when are guilty of wrong doing and are condemned for it we usually want the judge to extend mercy to us.

The problem for human beings is that this appointed man who will judge the world will use God’s righteousness as His standard and basis for His judgments rendered.

Basically He will use the perfect law of God. And you say, but no one ever kept the law in sinless perfection. Well that is not true. The God appointed man did. He kept it in perfection and He taught from that perspective. If you could just live identically to how He lived in though word and deed there would be no problem.

This is why it is so comforting to be in denial about what true and absolute righteousness is. We live to think that God judges us all on a moral curve that accommodates us and our actions by granting His approval like it was a participation trophy. It is comforting to think this way but it is not the righteousness of God.

And if there is a curve that we are judged on, then what about the mass murderers and violent criminals and the godless dictators of history? If you consider yourself more righteous than such people you are still using a standard of righteousness to measure others and yourself by. That is a fallacy of the human condition. You assert your own standard of righteousness in the place of God’s standard.

If everyone in this building has to just be better than me, everyone in here is home free. You got it made in the shade! There is nothing for you to worry about when it comes to the eternal judgment of God. But there is just one problem with that; I am not the appointed man and I am not the one who lives in perfection to the law and character of God.

The effects of sin show up in all of our lives over and over again. For God to judge us with any standard other than His righteousness it would not be a just judgment and if He judges us with the absolute standard of His righteousness it would only expose us as guilty and leave us appealing for His mercy.

But how can a just God be merciful to sinners and still maintain an absolute standard of righteousness? How can we be certain of any such means that we could appeal to as fallen sinners? How can we be certain of the righteousness of God being upheld in our dilemma? Well the certainty is seen in the second half of verse 31:

III. The Certainty (31b).

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the quintessential event that the fixed day of the righteous judgment of God will come to pass. But this resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the triumphal sign and display that He has conquered sin and death.

The men of Athens knew of historical claims of rulers and conquerors being deified but they all were still incapable of destroying or exercising rule of sin and death. In the end sin and death ruled over them. This make Jesus a different kind of ruler and a different kind of King.

Jesus came into the world to conquer sin and death at the root, down into the depths of the human heart. And to take away the nature of our offense before God.

He submitted to God’s redemptive plan where God would treat Him as if He were you so that God could treat you like you were Him and God could extend mercy to sinners without compromise to His righteousness or His justice.

It is applied to human lives by grace through faith in Christ alone. Everything that we bring to the table outside of Christ is tainted by our sin nature. Those who believe by faith are justified before God because they have the imputed righteousness of God in Christ.

The only righteousness you will need on judgment day will be the righteousness of God paid to your bankrupt account.

This is why Christians make such a big deal about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And our appeals for the lost to be saved is an appeal of love to come to Christ for shelter from the coming wrath. We are not concerned about our numbers getting bigger and if we are it should only be because more of the people we love are coming to Christ for security from what is coming.

Conclusion

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is glorious and frightening at the same time. If false there is nothing to worry about at best any religion will do for some practical morality for civil order. But if the Resurrection is true then that changes everything!

Unbeliever, You can’t afford to be wrong about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Simply because there are some incredible implications that are tied to it for all of eternity. As a matter of fact you may want to dedicate your time to disprove it with absolute certainty without any doubt.

Or you may be one of those who would say I believe in god but not the one of absolutes like you are proclaiming pastor. I have my own ideas of who this god is. I believe that god is our cosmic father of us all and that in the end he just embraces all of humanity in one huge group hug while all the angels break out into Kum-By-Ya and everyone is happy forever.

Hear Paul’s warning in Acts 17:29: “29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.”

You see you get all of that from your imagination. Because it is not in the Bible. You need a savior that can save you to the uttermost!

King Jesus is His name, He alone has died as the Lamb of God in the place of sinners and He rose again on the third day, victorious over sin and death. And He alone holds the Keys in His sovereign authority and He will come again to judge the quick and the dead. Believe the gospel!

Christian, if you are in Christ you are in better hands than Allstate, Your security and certainty in Christ is more sure than the rising of the sun. And God’s grace to you is again held out to you in Jesus Christ. Confess your sin and rest in the security and certainty of your risen Lord!

Let’s Pray