Paul at Athens (Pt 2)

Introduction: Anyone here enjoy going to the doctor? Have you ever went in, just to say hello and see how they are? Do you go and get medicine when you are well? No - you only go to the doctor, and get medicine, when you are sure there is a need (sometimes far later than you should). Why is it then, that when it comes to sharing the gospel we so often try and apply the medicine where there is no knowledge of the need/illness? (Hold that thought)

Last week we looked at Athens with all it’s paganism, pluralism and idolatry and how it is not all together different than the environment we find ourselves in today.

We asked the question, “How do we uphold our Christian witness in such a setting?

The answer was two-fold:

We get motivated - Paul was stirred in his spirit when he saw the rampant idolatry around him (rooted in his love for God and for the lost)

We use the means God has given us - Paul utilized the people and places he had access to (i.e. the Jews and God-fearers at the synagogue and the Greeks in the market place), to share what he had - the convicting, soul-saving message of Jesus.

Today we examine Paul’s sermon at Mars Hill, as he lays a foundation for the gospel - a diagnosis of idolatry based on the Holiness of our Creator and Lord, our accountability to Him, and the urgent necessity of repentance.

Read Acts 17:19-34

(Foundational truths for a pagan society.)

Paul’s Introduction

v.19-21 - Note the audience and setting - Areopagus - waning culture - “telling and hearing something new”

dangerous past time - it can draw you away from the truth, or distract you from right living

How Paul didn’t start - “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”

He does look for common ground - a way to connect to the audience

“very religious” - good or bad sense

unknown god - Paul’s opening, his way in

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE GOD YOU DON’T KNOW

People are searching for God, sometimes unbeknownst to them!… He has revealed Himself!

How are they looking? They don’t call it God but connection, spirituality, or meaning and purpose. Forgiveness, security, healing, hope - the answer is God!

And yet, their need isn’t necessarily the thing Paul focuses on - God is.

God is

The nature of the One True God as....

Creator

v.24a - debt of gratitude, honor

Need to know where we come from

Lord

v.24b - Master of it all - full authority and power

God is master. We need to understand His great authority if we are to understand the weight of our sin.

Self-Sufficient

v.24c-25 - He made all of this, and we think He needs us? We think He owes us something?

(ex. “You didn’t want heaven without us...” - What a beautiful name - Hillsong)

He loves us. He doesn’t need us.

Provider

v.25b - quotation, we are totally, utterly dependent upon Him! Breath, heart-beat, everything!

How often do we acknowledge that? Yet, there are many who never have, or who refuse to. Instead they praise other things and often view God - not as the great Giver and Provider that He is, but as a miser who hasn’t given them what they truly wanted.

Friends, when we give a tithe or offering, we aren’t giving God some of what is ours, we’re simply keeping 90% or more of what is God’s for ourselves. He gives and we use it, according to what we deem is good.

We must acknowledge Him in our plenty as well as in our need.

Sovereign Over the Nations

v.26 - times and boundaries (either lands, waters and seasons or national and political powers, boundaries and time of reign).

i.e. Rome - common language, common trade, travel, etc. paved the way for the gospel!

God is over world governments and uses them and all circumstances for His purposes.

What is the overarching purpose? Revelation and redemption. That those in darkness may find Him

Matthew 4:16 NASB95

“The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great Light, And those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death, Upon them a Light dawned.”

Near

v.27c-28 - 3 ways

Available - He may be found

Actively engaged in our lives

Everywhere - omnipresent

He is all-powerful and ever-present

Great

v.29

We were made in His image. How can we rightly make Him in an image of our own making?

Maker is greater than the thing made

Isaiah 45:9 NASB95

“Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker— An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?

Exodus 20:25 NASB95

‘If you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it.

We are

In Need of Change

v.29-30

If this is true, we are accountable for our neglect, our denial, and our refusal to honor Him! (Our Sin!)

overlooked - not that anyone can “get away with it,” but in mercy He has not yet completely condemned.

2 Peter 3:9 NASB95

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

All men Everywhere - this message is for all!

Repent - change of mind and course

Two sides: Repentance and Faith

Ex. To go after one, is to leave the other. To marry the one, is to say no to all others.

Paul laid the foundation for the gospel, boldly and plainly showcasing the God they’ve neglectfully offended, His gracious revelation of Himself to them, and the call for them to change course

He hasn’t gotten to Jesus yet! (Question comes before the answer. The diagnosis before the medicine.)

Heading for Judgement

v.30-31

Fixed - Divinely ordained, certain, inescapable

In Righteousness - no grading curve, no our standard but His perfect standard.

The great question: How can Holy and Righteous God forgive guilty sinners? How can man corrupt man attain to the majesty and glory of heaven? (JESUS! and the substitutionary atoning sacrifice on the cross!)

John 12:47–48 (NASB95)

“If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.

Jesus is the proven standard. He and His Words will be the bar against which we are held. We have an offer of pardon in Him, for the judge became the defendant and served the sentence for us. The innocent became guilty. And all of it is proven in the resurrection.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB95

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Conclusion:

Response (v.32-34)

Indifference. Mockery. Indignation?

Conviction. Confession. Repentance and belief?

Don’t interrupt what God is telling you dear soul! Hear it fully and respond in faith!

*How do we witness to a pagan, pluralistic, idolatrous society? We get motivated for God and for the lost. We utilize the opportunities and the message God has given us, and we boldly declare the Glory of God and our accountability to Him, that the good news of Christ may shine that much more brightly.