The Fire in Athens
I. The Fire Resisted (1-9)
A. Rational Response (1-4)
B. Emotional Response (5-9)
II. The Fire Received (10-15)
A. The Noble Minded (10-12)
B. The Dusty Minded (13-15)
III. The Fire Ridiculed (16-34)
Idol Time (16-18)
Opportunity (19-21)
Creator (22-24)
Provider (25)
Ruler (26-29)
Savior (30-34)
The greatness of God: He is Creator (v. 24). Every thinking person asks, “Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?” Science attempts to answer the first question, and philosophy wrestles with the second; but only the Christian faith has a satisfactory answer to all three. The Epicureans, who were atheists, said that all was matter and matter always was. The Stoics said that everything was God, “the Spirit of the Universe.” God did not create anything; He only organized matter and impressed on it some “law and order.”
But Paul boldly affirmed, “In the beginning, God!” God made the world and everything in it, and He is Lord of all that He has made. He is not a distant God, divorced from His creation; nor is He an imprisoned God, locked in creation. He is too great to be housed in man-made temples (1 Kings 8:27; Isa. 66:1–2; Acts 7:48–50), but He is not too great to be concerned about man’s needs (Acts 17:25). We wonder how the Council members reacted to Paul’s statement about temples, for right there on the Acropolis were several shrines dedicated to Athena.
The goodness of God; He is Provider (v. 25). Men may pride themselves in serving God, but it is God who serves man. If God is God, then He is self-sufficient and needs nothing that man can supply. Not only do the temples not contain God, but the services in the temples add nothing to God! In two brief statements, Paul completely wiped out the entire religious system of Greece!
It is God who gives to us what we need: “life, and breath, and all things.” God is the source of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17). He gave us life and He sustains that life by His goodness (Matt. 5:45). It is the goodness of God that should lead men to repentance (Rom. 2:4). But instead of worshiping the Creator and glorifying Him, men worship His creation and glorify themselves (Rom. 1:18–25).
The government of God: He is Ruler (vv. 26–29). The gods of the Greeks were distant beings who had no concern for the problems and needs of men. But the God of Creation is also the God of history and geography! He created mankind “from one man” (Acts 17:26, NIV) so that all nations are made of the same stuff and have the same blood. The Greeks felt that they were a special race, different from other nations; but Paul affirmed otherwise. Even their precious land that they revered came as a gift from God. It is not the power of man, but the government of God, that determines the rise and fall of nations (Dan. 4:35).
The greatness of God: He is Creator (v. 24)
The goodness of God; He is Provider (v. 25)
The government of God: He is Ruler (vv. 26–29)
The grace of God: He is Saviour (vv. 30–34).