Acts 17:16-23 - Altar to the Unknown God

Intro

Have you ever been so angered or had your pride hurt by someone in such a way that you wanted to dual them and avenge your hurt pride? No? well you used to be able to do just that. Dueling used to be a thing, if someone hurt your pride or felt like they offended you, you could challenge them to a duel.

Unlike in Europe, where the privilege of fighting duels was restricted to aristocratic gentlemen, men from all backgrounds and stations fought duels in America. Politicians, newspaper editors, and attorneys – men whose professions required them to make public remarks or whose public reputations were of the utmost importance – often frequently received and accepted challenges to fight. Dueling focused primarily on the preservation of a man’s honor. It was a method of resolving personal conflict that adhered to a strict, specific set of officially codified rules followed by all duelists in the United States. The duel began when one man felt his honor had been insulted by another and decided to challenge his offender to a duel. The challenge would be delivered by the second. Combatants in a duel were each represented by a second, whom they personally selected from amongst their own group of male friends, colleagues, or relatives.  The second communicated on their behalf with their opponent, refereed the actual fight, and perhaps most importantly, attempted to bring about a peaceful resolution between the parties and thus avoid bloodshed. The rules for a duel with guns, the most commonly used weapons, were relatively simple. The men stood across from each other, separated by a certain number of paces. One at a time, each man would take turns shooting at his opponent in rounds that continued until the offended man deemed his honor satisfied. It was dishonorable to take longer than three seconds to discharge one’s weapon. A “shot” was usually defined as the act of pulling the trigger, which meant that misfires generally counted as a shot and therefore one’s turn.

essentially you could go to someone and say “hello, my name is inigo Montoya, you killed father prepare to die” and they had to duel you. Thankfully though we do not now have to pick up a pair of flintlock pistols every time we anger somebody.

but there is something that should anger us, or at least make us greatly concerned. In Paul’s journey’s he met a lot of different types of people and a lot of different types of faith. As He was sharing the gospel though we read that the depravity of the sin and godlessness of some people made him anger.

not angry outwardly at them but just at the depths people will sink to. and it got me thinking, does the sin of the world around us bother us to the point where we want to do something about it or are we so desensitized that we do not notice anymore.

Main Theme - When we look at the world around us and how they have turned away from God are we okay with it or does it anger or provoke us? It should cause such a reaction inside that we feel the need to go share the gospel with them in such a way that they will understand. “Restrained provocation”.

16-21 - Aroused to Anger

We pick up with Paul waiting for SIlas and Timothy in Athens Greece. They had parted ways after the mob in Berea had come to them and Paul was waiting for them to join Him.

The name of Athens, connected to the name of its patron goddess Athena, originates from an earlier Pre-Greek language.[1] The origin myth explaining how Athens acquired this name through the legendary contest between Poseidon and Athena was described by Herodotus,[2] Apollodorus,[3] Ovid, Plutarch,[4] Pausanias and others. It even became the theme of the sculpture on the west pediment of the Parthenon. Both Athena and Poseidon requested to be patrons of the city and to give their name to it, so they competed with offering the city one gift each. Poseidon produced a spring by striking the ground with his trident,[5] symbolizing naval power.

The contest of Athena and Poseidon, West Pediment of the Parthenon

Athena created the olive tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. The Athenians, under their ruler Cecrops, accepted the olive tree and named the city after Athena

From <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Athens>

The worshiped the Greek God’s and whatever other god’s they could thin of to worship. But as Paul was waiting for the others to join him he did not just sit there and do nothing, he had a look around to see who he could share the gospel with. it is the first verse that I find interesting.

Acts 17:16 16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed when he saw that the city was full of idols.

What does it mean to be deeply distressed though?

To be deeply distressed means to be aroused to anger

Another phrase I have used already is Restrained provocation. That is he was angered or provoked by what He saw but restrained himself, or kept the anger inside. the reason we see that Paul was angry was that the city was full of Idols. People did not know about the one true God.

You see there where lots of horrible things going on that Paul saw, lots of people that where visiting temple prostitutes, and it made him angry so Paul did what He always did, he found anyone that would listen and reasoned with them. He talked to them about Jesus and what He did.

Acts 17:17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

They where perfectly fine with this, another religion or God to accept into the fold, go for it. What He was saying was strange and they wanted to hear more. They said “this sounds strange, please teach us more”.

have you ever approached something like this? does sin against the Lord God arouse us to anger inside? or does it desensitize us so much that it no longer bothers us.

Jorin talk at MCB missions conference on Matrix scene

But we can not allow this to stop us from speaking the gospel to people. What this should do is encourage us to share the gospel We can not hold them to the same standard that we hold ourselves to as they do not have the Lord as their saviour.

We need to yearn for the salvation of those that are not living their lives for God.

to use the anger, or sadness at the lives they live to drive us to ant to share the gospel with them so they have the opportunity to change their lives.

22-31 - Paul’s Reaction to their Sin

We can learn from the way that Paul approached them with the gospel. He was aroused to anger by the way they lived their lives. but what it did is cause Paul to find a way to look into their lives, see what is good and use that to connect with them.

Acts 17:22 Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect.

He saw that they had an alter even to an unknown God. What a culture! they where afraid of missing out on one of the God’s so just to make sure they did not anger any gods they made an alter to an unknown God.

Acts 17:23 For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

what Paul did is first of all instead of getting after them for their sinful lifestyle looked to what he could connect with them on. He saw what Good he could and went from there.

He also did not start with Jesus and his life, as it probably looked like they did not know that very well if at all. Instead he went back to the beginning, he went back to God. Not like it is what they actually meant by the alter to the unknown God.

But he said to them this I proclaim to you, this alter you set up is for the one true God. The one true God does not need shrines and alters for that is not where He lives. You guys worshiped Him in ignorance but this we proclaim to you.

He does not need anything from us for he made us and everything that we see around us. we have but to look at the world around us and see the glory and majesty of the one true God. This is the only proof we need to see there is only one true God in control of everything. There will come a day when God will judge all people for what they have done here on this earth. He talked of the resurection from the dead that provided the proof that Jesus was who he said he was and all people need to repent.

Acts 17:31 because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

Who is Him that this verse says has raised from the dead? Jesus

Paul used what he could to connect with the people and share the gospel with them. How then can we use what we see in people around us to connect with them to point them to Jesus.

32-34 - Dealing with a lack of response.

Acts 17:32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him, but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.”

What do we do though with a lack of response?

Henry Martin - NIV application Commentary pg 483 - was a 19th century Cambrideg University Grad. He had many opportunities for advancement and marriage but he gave them up to go to India as a missionary./ Many people thought Him crazy. He felt pressed to go minister to the people there. During His time there he saw a Hindu procession and watched as people bowed down with there heads to the ground before stumps of images. His response was the same as Paul’s, one of horror that people created in the image of God would prsotrate themselves before idols like this. He thought to himself, I need to preach the gospel to these people in their own language. So he proceeded to translate the bible into the Hindu and persian languages. But through all his years there only one or two people turned their lives to Jesus. But through His work on translation, the people that came after Him saw many come to Jesus.

It is not our job to worry about who has turned to Jesus but it is our job to be faithful where God has called us. We are to go and share the message of the gospel with people and pray that God would speak to them and change their hearts.

It can get depressing sometimes to see the lack of response.

Acts 17:34 However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

ours is to be faithful where God has called us, not worry about the numbers of those that respond but to be faithful with the people that do. Is 1 or t2 souls worth the effort and money it takes to bring the gospel as a church to the community around us? I deerly hope so!.

So What?

after all what is it that we can take from this that we have learned?

Is our reaction to the sin of the world one of restrained provocation or are we so desensitized it doesn't bother us anymore?

How does the sin of the world affect us? When we watch a movie where so many people get killed in cold blood should it bother us?

our reaction to the sin of the world should either anger us or cause us deep sadness that people would be willing to thumb their noses at God in such a way that they do.

our response to this should be a deep desire to see them turn their lives to Jesus so they can have freedom from their sin. Our reaction should be such that we make sure we have no part of the sin they are living in while still; desiring to share the gospel with them.

Being angered by peoples sin does not mean that there is no good in them.

people may not know better and it is not our job to hold them accountable for their sin. Paul was angered by their sin but he used that anger to bring a desire to share the truth with them.

He did not thunder down on them with how horrible and sinful they where at first because they did not know any better at the time. He first studied them, got to know what they believedc and when He saw an opportunity to connect, he spoke to them and they listend to what he had to say.

we can still agree with certain elements of the people we speak to without compromising the gospel.

FF Bruce points out that we we may quote words from a well known writer or speaker without committing ourselves to their total context or background of thought.

We can still point out things they have partly right, things they do well and use that to connect and point them to the fact that it is not perfect and points to their need of Jesus.

A Lack of response to the message of the gospel does not mean failure.

Our job is to be faithful with the message that the Lord has given us. what we need to ask ourselves is have we shared the gospel to the best of our ability or have we only been partly there? Have we used the gifts the Lord has given us fully for His glory or are we holding back?

it is not that we are always going to be 100% there, or are always going to have it together. But we need to be praying that through our weakness and imperfections that God would work through us. It is the times when I knew I had no strength to give, that I knew what I was going to do wasn't to the best of my abilities for whatever reason that I got on my knees and prayed “Lord use me anyways”.

I would think after how much of a failure I was but the Lord used me anyways as I leaned on His strength. This needs to be our prayer through it all as we are a sinful people. But if we are doing this, then we need only to be faithful to share the message of the gospel and leave the response up to God.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Sixteen: Responding to God’s Word (Acts 17)

The soil here was not deep and it contained many weeds, but there was a small harvest.

And, after all, one soul is worth the whole world!

so take the gospel to your Athens, use all that God has given you for His glory and the furthering of His Kingdom.