To the Unknown God

Introduction:

We live in a society that many researchers are calling “post Christian.” What do we mean by that when we discuss “post Christianity?” According to Pew research, in a poll of 35,000 Americans, in a period of seven years, people calling themselves Christians dropped by 8%, that means about 1 out of 10 people have stopped calling themselves Christian. Estimates are 5 million people over a seven year period have stopped calling them selves Christian. The new demographic is called the “Nones” (like non of the above), or “Dones” (as in done with religion).

We live in a world that embraces spirituality as opposed to organized religion, but over the years, Christianity has become very politicized and polarized. There was a time when, if you were an evangelical (especially Baptist), you were practically expected to vote Republican, and if you voted other ways, you were quietly ostracized, and because of many of those ideologies, it has turned much of the younger generations off to organized religion.

We live in a time when the days of what is called social Christianity are over. Social Christianity was an ideology that it was almost an unwritten requirement that you attended a church somewhere. If you were anyone that was anyone with any kind of clout, you went to the larger churches, and it was a place of social networking, and now that we have so many other outlets to do our social networking, just going to church has become archaic. The religious establishment is man-made. Christianity is a system of beliefs, and this is what we should return to. The younger generations have turned to looking for more meaning spiritually, and the institution of the church has failed them in this aspect. Too much time has been spent focusing on how one should vote and what one should take a stand against, and the truth of the message of Christianity has been lost in the shuffle somewhere.

Paul faced similar circumstances. He ministered in a time that focused on polytheism (the belief in more than one god). The Romans and Greeks are well known for their gods. At one point, I could tell you who the vast majority of the gods were and what their purpose was. The philosophers of the time would spend much time debating the source of all things in life, and through those debates, schools of thought were born. Some thought focused on the existence and purpose of humanity and other thought focused on how the gods interacted with people.

In our text this morning, we are going to look at Acts chapter 17, and I want to focus on verses 16-34, but before we do that, let’s look at what has led Paul to this point, and in order to do that, we must turn back a few chapters to chapter 13.

Out text this morning

Paul’s first missionary journey:

In chapters 13 and 14 we read about Paul’s first missionary journey. That starts from the church in Antioch and during a worship service, the Holy Spoke and said, “set apart Barnabas and Soul for the work which I have called them.” (cf. 13.1). The church laid their hands on the two, and off they go to start churches. In the early part of their journey, they go off to Cyprus and then to Antioch of Pisidia. After Antioch of Pisidia, the head of to Iconium and then on to Lystra. They established a pattern of ministry during this journey where they would go to the local synagogue and proclaim the gospel and would stay around town until persecution arose and then they would move on. While in Lystra, the persecution got so heated that Paul was stoned and left outside the city for dead. When he came to, he went back into Lystra and and then headed back to their starting point in Antioch of Syria. All told, the first missionary journey took about 2 years on the road. While they were on the road, Barnabas invited his cousin John Mark along, but he bailed on the team on the way to Antioch of Pisidia and this will come into play on the second missionary journey.

The Jerusalem council:

In between the first and second journeys, Paul and Barnabas head off to Jerusalem to a meeting with the Apostles, and we read about that in chapter 15. The subject of the council was to determine if Gentiles had to be circumcised in order to be truly saved, and the council decides that it was not necessary for a Christina to culturally become a Jew in order to be saved. This is the first instance we see of being saved by grace alone and nothing else.

The beginning of the second missionary journey:

The last part of chapter 15 shows us that Paul and Barnabas decided to return to the cities they had started churches in to check on them, and here is where the friction comes in with Paul and Barnabas. Barnabas wants to bring John Mark along, and Paul says no since he bailed on the team in the first round, he wasn’t sure he could trust him to stay on the second round, so Paul and Barnabas go their separate ways, so Barnabas and John Mark head off Cyprus, and Paul picks Silas to go with him and he goes to the area of Cilicia (which is where his hometown of Tarsus is), and as they are heading off to Lystra, Paul picks up Timothy and he joins the group.

While they were stopped off in the area of Galatia, they were stopped by the Holy Spirit from preaching in some of the areas of Asia Minor, and it seemed like they were reaching roadblocks by the Spirit everywhere they turned. Then one night, Paul has a dream of a young man from Macedonia telling him they needed help, so they (Luke is with them at this point by the use of “we” in 16.10) head off that way.

They stop off in Philippi and there is a Thyatiran woman whose name is Lydia, and we read that her and her household is converted. Shortly after that, Paul and Silas cast a demon out of a slave girl and that upsets her owner and he has them beat and thrown in prison. While they were in prison, Paul and Silas are singing hymns and praises to God, and an earthquakes strikes, and God busts them out of jail in spectacular fashion. As the jailer was about to kill himself, Paul tells him not to do that (because if a guard lost his prisoners, he faced a death penalty), and because of their witness even in some of the not so greatest circumstances, the Philippian jailer was converted. Then next day, the leaders of the area tell the jailer to let them go, and Paul basically demands an apology for what just happened because (this is where his dual citizenship status comes in handy) they had publicly beaten a Roman citizen, and the leaders apologized and sent them on their way.

Thessalonica, Berea and Athens:

In chapter 17 we read about Pau and Silas heading off to Thessalonica, and in Pauline fashion, he goes to the synagogue to reason with the Jews. This upsets the Jews, so they rustle up a crowd and start to persecute they team, and they head off to Berea. In Berea, they met a group that was very receptive to their message and people were saved because of it; however, a group from Thessalonica comes in behind them and started stirring up trouble once again, and Silas an timothy send Paul off to Athens by himself and here is where we find our text this morning.

Paul’s invitation to preach (17.16-21)

Paul goes into Athens, and waits for the rest of the team to get there. While he is waiting, verse 16 says, “his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.” Athens was an extremely busy city in that day. It was a center of religion and philosophy. If you were a deep thinker, more than likely you would have studied under one of the philosophers that taught a school in Athens. Athens was divided into to major sections because it sat on a hill. On the lower part of the hill, you had the agora which house many of what was considered common people, and then you had the acropolis which many of the temples, academies, and the social elite resided.

Paul goes about his normal routine and goes to a synagogue and starts to reason with the people there. His topic was met with mixed reviews, but the curios got the best of the philosophical elite, so he gets an invitation to the Areopagus. The Areopagus was a stony hill that many of the social elite and politicians would meet and debate philosophy and religion. If you were a mover and shaker in Athens at that time, you would have found yourself there many days learning and teaching. Areopagus is a combination of two words “Aerios” and “pagos” which translated into English means Ares Rock, which was the Greek God of war, and while Rome occupied Greece, the Romans referred to it as Mars Hill.

In light of their polytheistic views, they misunderstood Paul’s teaching. Verse 18 says, “because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.” The word resurrection in the Greek is the word anastasis. So basically what the Greeks thought Paul was preaching were new gods for their “collection.” In Roman and Greek culture, every male god usually had a female consort, and by Paul preaching Iesouos and Anastasis, they thought he was introducing a new set of gods to them, so they offered to entertain his ideas, because they were all about learning something new.

Be sensitive to your audience (17.22-23)

Paul’s identification with the audience (17.22-23)

Once Paul gets to Mars Hill, he quickly identifies with his listeners. He says in verse 22, “I perceive you are very religious.” He explained to them that he noticed all of the temples they had set up and one temple especially titled, “To the unknown god.” Athens was an extremely religious (superstitious as the KJV translates it) city, and they culture of the day built temples to just about every god imaginable, but this one altar stood out to Paul. This altar came about because of a plague that struck Athens, and in order to appease the god that was causing the plague, Athenians set up an altar to an unknown god basically to cover their bases, and Paul uses this altar to make a connection with his audience.

Paul builds a bridge of relationship with his listeners. He noticed their spirituality and their desire to understand higher more spiritual things, so he builds a bridge to their ideology. In order for us to reach people this is crucial in our conversation with those that are outside of a relationship with Jesus. It is imperative that we make a connection on some level in order to be heard. We basically must earn the right to be heard and not just force our beliefs on the listener without making that connection.

Do not compromise truth in an effort to be sensitive to our listeners (17.24-31)

In our efforts to preach the truth we face a fine line between relevance and irrelevance with a younger generation. Many of the younger generations see Christianity as outdated and archaic. Theses tend to be stereotypes placed by the younger crowds. We must stay true to the gospel, yet we must find that balance to make the message relevant. This is why building that bridge of connection is so vital, but once we make that connection we must leave that bridge as soon as possible and get right to the gospel. If we stay relevant for too long, we risk watering down the truth of the gospel and it will lose its power.

Paul’s Sermon (17.24-31)

Paul’s Sermon (17.24-31)

Paul begins his sermon and prefaces it back in verse 23 with, “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” Paul’s sermon can be broken down into four sections:

Bring the focus back to the one true God

1 - The one creator God being the object of worship (24-26):

Paul begins with discussing God himself. He gives credit to God for creating everything, and explaining to them the fallacy of their system of beliefs by stating in verse 24 that He “does not live in temples made by man.” He also makes it clear that God doesn’t need the temples and service of the people since He is sovereign over the entire creation.

2 - God’s relationship to humanity (26-27)

2 - God’s relationship to humanity (26-27)

2 - God’s relationship to humanity (26-27)

Paul continues with the discussion of God’s sovereignty and how people relate to God, and that it is God’s desire that people come to Him to worship Him. Paul shows his listeners how well rounded he was by quoting some of their religious scholars in regard to how people can relate to God and how we as humanity are all related to him.

God is sovereign. God is creator. God is our redeemer, and because of that he loves us (as his creation) and desires to have a relationship with us, and that is the focus of the gospel. As god’s creation, we were intended to have a deep personal relationship with God, but because of our sin, we have been separated from him, and we must always address that issue, but we should never make it the focus of the gospel.

Address humanity’s fault

3 - The fallacy of their polytheism (28-29)

Paul then moves into a transitional section and calls the intellectuals to turn from their superstitious ways. He tells them, “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.” Basically what Paul is saying here is that we are created in God’s image and setting up idols does no justice to the true image of God.

Because of sin, humanity had lost the true focus of what our desire should be and that is to pursue a relationship with the Father, and we must reinforce that point and direct the conversation to a grace oriented conversation and not a works oriented conversation.

Focus on the centrality of Jesus crucified, dead, buried, and raised

4 - The call to repentance (30-31)

Paul closes out his argument with a call to repentance by saying, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed,” and he goes to present the gospel to them.

The gospel always requires a response. We must make the call to repentance, and focus on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus as the focal point of our faith. Our faith doesn’t focus on sin, rather it focuses on the good that comes from accepting the gospel. we have to address sin in the gospel, but the true focus is on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without that, our faith falls like a house of cards.

Reception by the crowd (17.32-34):

Reception by the crowd (17.32-34):

Paul’s message was met with mixed results. Some scoffed at him, some said they would discuss it further with him, and some believed and followed him.

Most people don’t share the gospel for fear of rejection. The truth is, not every person will accept the gospel. Some require more time and cultivation of a relational dialogue and other will accept it right away. It all depends on the receptivity of the listener. We must not be hesitant to share the gospel. God will do the rest of the work Himself as long as we are obedient to the call to share the gospel.

Conclusion:

Being relevant is important; however, we should not sacrifice truth for relevance. The gospel never changes. it hasn’t changed in 2000 years. The method of deliver changes, and every culture requires a different approach. Living in a post Christian society where Christianity is seen as just another outlet to get to God, we must take great care to stay focused on the truth of God’s word, but not taking it so much to the extreme that our listeners tune us out because the message we carry is seen as outdated. We must always try to find a way to connect with our listeners, and many times that requires a little bit of imagination to find some point of connection with our audience. We must be very careful not to be so set in our ways that we neglect the call of the Holy Spirit to share the gospel with someone, and yet we must always be mindful that we do not stray from the truth. Christianity in an of itself is not exclusive. The call of the gospel is open to all regardless of background, yet the gospel itself is exclusive. There is only one way to know God and have an intimate, personal relationship with Him and that is through Jesus Christ.