Acts 17:22-34
Notes
Transcript
People are Seeking God
People are Seeking God
If we are in fact no more than a dance of DNA like Richard Dawkins proclaims, why are we here tonight? If all is but a matter of survival as Darwinian theory states, we should not have the ability to possess differing worldviews or philosophies, let alone argue and fight about them.
That is similar to what Paul is going to preach on his famed Sermon at “Mars Hill.”
A view of the Areopagus (Mars Hill) in Athens from near the Parthenon.
Remember that last week, Paul debated with the Epicureans and the Stoics in the Agora (marketplace). Well, the philosophers invite him to speak at the Areopagus. They genuinely want to hear him speak.
The Areopagus was a place to share ideas, debate, and increase understanding dating back to Plato and Socrates.
We have those same opportunities at times today. You may encounter someone who is truly interested in hearing what you have to say about Jesus Christ. Perhaps they were never told or they were given an explanation that did not represent the true King of Kings.
Let’s have a look at how Paul approached these philosophers and intellectuals.
22 So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way,
The King James renders this as “too superstitious.” Now, that could be taken one of two ways. Either Paul is being a jerk and saying “man, your stupid,” or he is looking for common ground.
Remember Paul had some indignation over all of the temples, statues, and monuments. I find it hard to believe that Paul would approach a group, for God, with a chip on his shoulder or acting bitter. According to Lucian, an ancient writer, trying to secure the goodwill of the Areopagus court with compliments was discouraged. Paul could have very well been expressing great distaste for what he saw and heard. In context, it appears that Paul found a way to relate to them.
23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
In the Greek, the implication is that Paul is pointing out the objects of their devotion. The endless shrines. They believed that the gods lived in the shrines that humans had built and that were all around them.
It is funny, right? The things people worship, idolize, and devote themselves to in our lifetime really has not changed!
Paul immediately addresses the altar to “an unknown God.” This becomes his launching pad for the rest of the sermon. The philosophers erected this altar in case there was a god that they forgot. It is amusing that in the Athenian culture, many people prayed to the gods “just in case” they were real, watching, and listening.
Wow, not so much different than today. People say “I am spiritual” or “I believe in something” without being able to make any kind of coherent statement about what they believe. They were worshipping an unknown God who they did not even know.
There is One God
There is One God
24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples,
Paul begins by taking the “Naturalists approach.” He refers to God as “the creator.” of the world. He also uses a Greek word you may recognize when referring to the world, Kosmos. This would have been familiar to the Greeks.
The idea of a single uncreated creator who created everything was a foreign idea to them, an unbelievable idea. For them, like so many today, divinity was found IN the heavens, IN nature, and IN humanity. Divinity was not a result of single supreme being.
Paul’s argument would naturally follow that a Supreme being, God, would therefore not live in man-made temples. God is not hiding, and God is not unknown.
25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.
Paul has addressed four issues thus far:
God does not live in temples.
God does not need people. He loves people.
God cannot be represented by human design or skill.
If God is supreme, there are no other god’s.
Paul’s point is that humans tend to confuse themselves with God being relegated to a location and with lowering God to having the same needs as people. Paul points out that one God is the giver of all things and does not need to partake in our lives, but chooses to out of love, mercy, and grace.
God is Sovereign
God is Sovereign
The fact that God is free and able to do all that he wills; that he reigns over all creation and that his will is the final cause of all things.
26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
The Athenians believed that they came from the soil of their homeland. They also believed that they were different from and better than everybody else.
Paul points to a common ancestor of Adam among all of the races and quickly moves to His sovereign will over the nations. Some believe that Paul's statement here was meant to show how we are divided. It is really the opposite. If every nation came from one man, the idea is that we would be united and have a single universality in regard to our relationship with God. Simply stated, that we would all know God and love God therefore know each-other and love each-other.
1. All men and women come from one source, from God Himself.
All men and women have the same blood and nature. No man, woman, or nation is above another. All are equal; all stand before God. No one is a favorite of God. God shows no partiality to one person over another: to Jew or Gentile, to religionist or heathen.
2. All men, women, and nations are “appointed a time” to live and are given “bounds” within which to live.
God oversees the birth and life of every person and nation. He is actively involved in the world and in the lives of people. Man just needs to acknowledge and reach out to Him and to Him alone; then man will come to know the glorious care and guidance of God’s hand.
27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us.
Paul states that God wanted us walk with him. Idolatry, false worship, and human darkness pulled us away from Him. The idea is of one groping around in the dark trying to find something.
This verse screams out to us today. So many are desperately searching and unable to grasp on to anything. God is right there. God is not complacent, His desire for us to draw near to Him has not changed.
Paul is telling the Athenians that there is no question about God’s providence; there is about humanity’s ability to make the proper response and correct decision. We were created to fellowship with and to worship God.
28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
I had never really thought about being God’s offspring, it sounded weird, but He created you and me. Through Jesus Christ, he calls you His very own.
29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.
The point Paul is making, and we need to remember is this: God is above all. Mankind falls under God, not the other way around. What mankind creates falls under man. We are not to worship that which we create. We are to worship the one true God.
God’s Judgement
God’s Judgement
1. Repentance involves two turns. There is a negative turn away from sin and a positive turn toward God. It is a turning to God away from sin, whether sins of thought or action.
30 “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him.
31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”
What Paul was telling the Areopagites was this: They were guilty of ignorance because they had not been informed of the one true God. God had overlooked such ignorance in the past. That time of forbearance was now coming to an end because now their ignorance had ended. He was no longer an unknown God.
Paul does not name Jesus Christ, but the philosophers would have heard of and spoken about Jesus Christ in those very courts. They would have quickly dismissed Jesus Christ because they did not believe in resurrection from the dead.
As you can imagine, this is when the jeering started and they shut Paul down. We know that at least one Areopagite and a few listening were convicted and became believers.
32 When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.”
33 That ended Paul’s discussion with them,
34 but some joined him and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the council, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
This is one of very few places that Paul preached where a church was not established.
I believe if Paul were here today, he would tell us: “Don’t preach to politicians, philosophers, or religious people. Reach out, come up beside, and preach to people.”
Brothers and sisters, like Paul in Athens, if it be only one, just one, the Heaven’s sing His praises and God dances.
Let’s Pray.