Revealing The One True Known God - Acts 17:16-34

Acts 17:16–34“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

“TO THE UNKNOWN GOD”

Acts 17:24–34“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him 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 also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, We will hear you again on this matter. So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.”

In Acts 17:16–34, Paul comes into contact with the Athenian culture that is prevalent with philosophical inquiry and idolatry. He notices an altar to an ‘unknown god,’ and takes the advantage this opportunity to reveal the One true known God and proclaim the Gospel. Paul’s message to the Athenian’s reveals the ignorance of their worship, contrasting the idolatries that have taken over their society, with the One True Known God who desires a relationship with people through Jesus Christ.

This sermon will help you to present the One True Known God to today’s culture that is in desperate need to hear the Gospel and turn from idolatry.

Acts 17:16–17 “Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.”

When Paul was sent away to Athens by the believers at Thessalonica he waited for Silas and Timothy to join him at Athens, while waiting we are told that “his spirit was provoked within him, meaning anger was aroused within him by seeing all the idols that were in Athens. One article I read mentions that there were an estimated 30,000 idols in Athens while the population was less than 10,000. You can understand the anger Paul had seeing that the city was given over to idols. But Paul’s anger didn’t cause him to want to turn away and leave the city of Athens. No, Paul sees an opportunity to proclaim the One True God and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and Gentile worshipers, and he takes his message to the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.

The mentality of many in the church today is that they see the wickedness of idolatry that is widespread in this culture, and they’re not angered by it, they have accepted as the norm. Our spirit should be grieved to anger by the rampant spread of idolatry in this culture, to the point that you are compelled to proclaim the One True God and gospel with as many people as possible.

Acts 17:18 “Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. Luke mentions two groups of Philosophers the Epicureans and Stoics had “encountered/soom-bal-lo/sumballo debate with Paul. The Greek word sumballo is an imperfect verb, which lets us know that they were having an ongoing debate with Paul.

The Epicureans who were founded by Epicurus (341-270 BC), they were materialists, they taught that every being strives to attain pleasure by avoiding suffering and grief and by pursuing satisfaction and happiness. They didn’t deny the existence of gods; they just believed that they didn’t meddle in the affairs of humanity. They also didn’t believe in any existence after death, and there is no divine punishment from the gods after one’s death.

The Stoics were followers of Zeno who taught his followers that they need to seek to maintain harmony with nature and to avoid all destructive behavior. The Stoic’s focus was in cosmology, logic, and ethics, and they were pantheists, believing that the ultimate divine principle was to be found in all of nature, including human beings. They believed that they could attain the ultimate truth for themselves. The Stoics believed that only the soul, the divine spark, would survive death.

Luke then writes that the Epicureans and Stoic at some point during the debt said, “What does this babbler want to say?” The word babbler sper-mol-og-os literally means seed-picker or scavenger. It was used as metaphor for someone who is a so-called- know-it- all who picks up scraps of ideas here and there and shares them with others but they themselves don’t have any depth of understanding what they’re talking about.

They were confounded by the things Paul had said and were unable to debate him, so they resorted to making sarcastic remarks against him and his message. This is what people will do when you are presenting and defending the truth of God’s word: they debate until they become confounded, and they will begin to make ad hominem attacks against you instead of dealing with the message you have presented from the Word of God.

Luke then says that “Others said, 'He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. These polytheistic philosophers thought that Paul was teaching about “foreign gods,” two deities named Jesus and “Anastasis,” ah-nah-stah-sis the Greek feminine noun for resurrection. But Paul was proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ and His resurrection.

And because of their confusion, they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, which was the location of a court that was on a hill named after the Greek god of war, Ares the son of Zeus. The Romans had a god who was his equivalent named Mars, hence why some Bibles have in the translation notes Mars Hill.

The philosophers were saying to Paul, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore, we want to know what these things mean.” For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.”

These philosophers, when they heard Paul’s teaching about Jesus and his resurrection, they thought that is was strange and they wanted to know what the meaning was, because as they were always spending their time in nothing else but to tell stories and listen to new ideas because these intellectuals had a thirst for knowledge.

This open the door for Paul to reveal the One True known God

Acts 17:22–23 “Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:”

Paul knows he has a captive audience. He also knows that the Men of Athens were very religious after walking past their city and seeing all the various temples and idols that they were worshipping. And to seize the opportunity to introduce them to the One true known God and the gospel of Jesus Christ, he tells them that he found an altar with the inscription that read “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.”

This altar that was erected with the inscription that read “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD” lets Paul know that his audience were open to receive information about their unknown god, and that they were unable to worship the One True known God unless he makes Him known to them.

John Calvin said that “It is far better to have knowledge of God than to worship without knowing him, for God cannot be worshiped reverently unless he first become known.

When you are talking with someone who is open to receive information about God but they tell you that they don’t believe in organize religion and that they are religious or spiritual you have an open opportunity to introduce to the One true known God.

Paul also knows that his audience are Greeks who do not know the God of the OT Scriptures so he has to appeal to them from a creational viewpoint to make them aware of the One true known God.

Acts 17:23(b) –25 “Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.”

He says to them in the last clause of v.23, “Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it.” The One True known God is the creator who made the world kosmos, a world that is arranged in orderly fashion, and everything in it. He lets them know that the One true known God who is the creator of the world is also the “Lord (kurios) the Master/owner who has control of heaven and earth.”

Deuteronomy 10:14 “Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it.”

The One true known God “does not dwell in temples made with hands” (v.24c).

Isaiah 66:1 “Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?”

1 Kings 8:27 ““But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!”

Acts 17:25 “Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.”

Paul then reveals to them that the One true known God doesn’t need to be “worshiped another word for serve with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, God doesn’t need anything from humanity, God is self-sufficient

Job 41:11 “Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.”

Psalm 50:12–13 ““If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats?”

The One true known God Paul’s says, “He gives to all life, breath, and all things.”

Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

The One True known God is a personal God who is creator of the world, the Lord of heaven and earth, He cannot contained temples, He is self-sufficient, and He the sustainer source of life.

Acts 17:26–27 “And He has made from one blood (Adam) every nation (ethnos) of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;”

The Athenians separated people into two classes: the Greeks and the barbarians. Anyone who was not born in Greece was considered a barbarian. Paul contradicts their line of reasoning.

The One true known God created the human race from one man, Adam, we are all related there is only one race of people, the human race, and God alone in His divine providence He determined and preappointed when humanity would rise and fall, and their boundaries of their lands in which they settle in.

Paul explains God’ purpose in creating the human race in the next verse.

Acts 17:27“so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;”

The One true known God has placed in the heart of the human race to know Him in hope that they would seek to worship Him and find Him, He is not far from each one of us. But because of the fall of man and human depravity, they rebel and refuse to acknowledge and worship God.

Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

Romans 3:11–12 “There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.””

Romans 1:19–20 “because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,”

Romans 1:21–23 “because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”

Acts 17:28 “for in Him we live and move and have our being (Epimenides), as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring (Aratus).’”

Paul quotes their own Greek poets in v.28, Epimenides and Aratus to reveal the One true known God and the logic behind this is found in Paul’s next statement.

Acts 17:29 “Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.”

Paul is insisting that since we are all offspring of God, it is God who created us in His image, and it doesn’t make sense to think that God can be made from gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and made by human imagination. This type of idolatry is still prevalent today. People want to shape God into their own image so that they can control and do what they please because their god that they have shaped in their minds doesn’t place any limits on their sinful actions.

Acts 17:30–31 “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.””

Paul has come to his close and he tells these intellectual Athenians that in times past God had overlooked ignorance, but no more, they have come fact to face with the gospel and God is commanding that all men everywhere must repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world, Heb 9:27says,

Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,”

God will indeed judge in righteousness by the Man (Jesus) whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this by raising Him from the dead.

John 5:22 “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,” John 5:27“and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.”

Acts 10:40–42 “Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead.”

The response from hearing Paul’s revelation of the One True known God and Jesus’ resurrection

Acts 17:32–34 “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.”

When Paul concluded his message about the resurrection of the dead, it caused some of the intellectual philosophers who were listening began to mock at the thought that someone who was dead could be resurrected back to life.

1 Corinthians 1:20“Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?”

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Gospel. No reason why the Satan hates the teaching of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and he will do anything to blind the hearts of people form believing it. But mocking his death and resurrection doesn’t take away from the truth that He died for our sins and rose from the dead for our justification.

Romans 4:25 “who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”

While others who heard said to Paul, “We will hear you again on this matter.” These people were at least interested to hear Paul again. But let me tell you that Paul would leave shortly after (v.33) and they may have missed a great opportunity to be enlightened by the truth of the Word of God. How many people have we come across who said to us after we shared the word of the Lord with them, they said something similar, I will come back and we can have another conversation. The Scripture says in

Hebrews 3:15 “while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.””

But Paul, who had revealed the One true known God and the gospel, wasn’t done in vain. Luke informs us in v.34

Acts 17:34 “However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.”

The seed of the gospel landed on good, fertile ground and by God’s grace He produced some believers.

I hope that this message will encourage you to share the gospel with those who are steeped in intellectual pride and doubters of God and Jesus Christ. Pray that God will give you the boldness to reveal the One true known God who sent Jesus Christ into the world to die for our sins and raised Him from the dead for our justification. And that if they repent of their sins and believe by faith in Christ alone, their sins will be forgiven, and they will be given eternal life.