The Reasonable Religion

Sermon Text: Acts 17:1-34

Intro

Hook: *be engaging*

Context: It’s the message worth living for. The message of Jesus Christ. He’s more important than us all. He is the only thing worth living for that has lasting value. The word of God traveled to Europe, especially Philippi. God saved the purple seller, delivered the pythoness from her demon, and the prison guard from his slavery.

Thesis: Tonight we will ask and answer the question, what is the truth? And does everyone believe it?

Body

MP#1 (scripture, exposition, story) - What’s the truth?

Assertion. Jesus came once as the Christ, and he will come again as a Judge.

Evidence (vv. 2-4, 30-31)

Commentary

The first time that Jesus came, He came as the Christ. This was part of Jesus’ identity.

Jesus is the Christ. Christ is Greek, Messiah is Hebrew. They both mean, Anointed One. Jesus was sent from God to restore mankind to God. The Old Testament foreshadowed the Christ… and showed that it was necessary for Jesus to suffer and rise from the dead. The Jews did not believe this, but the Scriptures plainly taught that the Christ, their Savior, must suffer and rise again. And Jesus, who had lived in Paul’s own day, exactly matched the description of the Old Testament foreshadowing of the Christ.

Genesis 3:15 “15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”) Jesus bruised the serpent’s head by defeating death through his resurrection, yet Jesus’ heel was bruised in the process as he suffered death.

Psalm 22:16–18 “16 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— 17 I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; 18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” This happened in John 19:20 with the soldiers who crucified Jesus.

Isaiah 53:5–6 “5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus was pierced, he was crushed, he was disciplined, wounded. Yet Jesus carries our sins, so that we can be forgiven.

Acts 13:35 “35 Therefore he says also in another psalm, “ ‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’” Jesus is the Anointed One. Another way of saying this is the Holy One. He is Holy, meaning he is set apart by God, but specifically as the Savior of mankind. And the Scriptures foreshadowed that He would not see corruption - meaning, that he would not remain dead but rather rise from the grave and thus prove that He was the one that God had set aside as His special, Holy, Chosen One.

The second time that Jesus comes, He will come as the Judge. This is also part of Jesus’ identity.

Paul, as he is speaking to a council of people from Athens, shares with them that God is the Judge of all mankind. God created the world…Acts 17:24-31

Acts 17:24–31 ESV

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. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 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. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

2. God created all people. He gives us the opportunity to believe in Him by revealing Himself to us. Look around you. Don’t you realize that someone created all of this? God reveals himself to you, showing you that he is real, he exists, he is working, and he limits the boundaries of your dwelling so that you might seek Him. He designed life in such a way where you would seek him. God even placed a desire within your soul for eternity, so that you would long for something greater than yourself. God has also revealed himself in Scripture, as we already spoke about with Christ’s first coming to the earth…

Because God has revealed His Son to us, that we might be saved, we have no excuse to not believe in Him. So when he comes again, we cannot say to God, you didn’t give me enough evidence to believe in you! YNo one has an excuse. He has revealed Himself. First he came as a Savior, And now he will come again as a Judge. When he returns, all of mankind will be placed into a divine weight scale. It is a scale of righteousness. All will be weighed upon the scale to determine what kind of person they are - whether they are good or evil. And the good will go with God, the evil apart from God’s blessings and in hell forever. So when Christ comes as a Judge, will he find any on earth who are righteous? No one is righteous. Only Jesus makes people righteous.

MP#2 *use anecdotes!* - Does everyone believe the truth?

Assertion. Just because something makes sense, does not mean that everyone will believe it. Just think of common sense. How many times do you call your friend, “STUPID,” after they have done something dumb. If they only knew the right thing to do, would that be enough for them to do it? No, because it is one thing to hear the truth (common sense / reason) and another to do it, to live out the truth. Do you know the truth? Do you live the truth? Two different things. Not everyone believes the truth.

Evidence ( The idolatrous: vv. 16—18; Those who persecute: vv. 5-9, 13, 31; Those who believe: vv. 4, 11-12, 34)

Commentary

All hear; some believe while others mock and rage.

Look first at the idolatrous. Paul goes to Athens and is astounded by the idolatry. Speak to the Stoics (resigned to whatever “fate may bring”) and Epicureans (escaping the reality of life). We spoke earlier of those “God even placed a desire within your soul for eternity, so that you would long for something greater than yourself.” Because everyone has this longing for something out there, a desire to search for something deeper, the true meaning of life, they search for it in other religions than Christianity, or in physical idols made out of wood and clay and gold.

The Message of Acts 3. What Paul Did

Thirdly, Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him, and he with them. These were contemporary but rival systems. The Epicureans, or ‘philosophers of the garden’, founded by Epicurus (died 270 BC), considered the gods to be so remote as to take no interest in, and have no influence on, human affairs. The world was due to chance, a random concourse of atoms, and there would be no survival of death, and no judgment. So human beings should pursue pleasure, especially the serene enjoyment of a life detached from pain, passion and fear. The Stoics, however, or ‘philosophers of the porch’ (the stoa or painted colonnade next to the agora where they taught), founded by Zeno (died 265 BC), acknowledged the supreme god but in a pantheistic way, confusing him with the ‘world soul’. The world was determined by fate, and human beings must pursue their duty, resigning themselves to live in harmony with nature and reason, however painful this might be, and develop their own self-sufficiency. To oversimplify, it was characteristic of Epicureans to emphasize chance, escape and the enjoyment of pleasure, and of the Stoics to emphasize fatalism, submission and the endurance of pain

Look at those who hate reason.

Look finally at those who engage their minds with God’s truth and believe Him.

Conclusion

Restate

It’s a religion of reason, a religion of the mind. It is a reasonable faith, a reasonable religion. It makes sense, and that’s because it is the truth. God gives mankind the ability to understand logic, and each one of us have the capacity to believe in God. But not all do.

Review

The truth exists, not everyone believes in it.

Reflect / Apply

When Paul first visited a place, he would go to the Jewish synagogue, where people were already engaged in spiritual conversations and heard the truth about God weekend after weekend. They were just like you. They heard the truth every week, yet did not quite fully understand Jesus, the most important part about the faith. Is that you? Are you a Jew? Have you heard all the right things, but don’t actually live in accordance to them? The truth is placed upon your mind, what have you done with it? Belief is information applied.