The Gospel of the “Unknown God”

Transcript

GR 1620
11/06/2011
The Gospel of the “Unknown God”
Acts 17:16-34
Gil Rugh

The Book of Acts in your Bibles, Acts and the 17th chapter. The Apostle Paul is on what we call the second missionary journey. A trip that has brought him into Greece. It’s been an interesting trip. It has been a trip that has been accompanied with difficulties.

You notice there has been a change in the book of Acts. Early in the book of Acts, the ministry was just directed to Jews, and we had a number of people who were being saved, 3,000 on the day of Pentecost. Then a little later we’re told another 5,000, and you see the grace of God telling us that He has brought many Jews to salvation in those early days of the Church’s history. Let’s us know that the Church has gotten a good solid start.

But then we move on and there are no more numbers given. We follow the Apostle Paul’s travels and we get the idea that some of his work could have resulted in rather small numbers of conversion. And the opposition seems to have overwhelmed the ministry at times. It happened at Philippi, it happened at Thessalonica, it happened at Berea, ongoing opposition. Reminded of Jesus giving the beatitudes, when He came to the last of those blessings for those who truly come to know God. He said in Matthew 5:11-12, “Blessed are you when men cast insults at you and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of Me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” That’s a blessing that many of us are ready to forgo. But it is a true blessing from God, to suffer and be identified with Jesus Christ because we are being faithful to Him. Jesus said this is the lot of the prophets that came before us. A reminder this is consistently the response of the world to the word of God.

Come back to Jeremiah 20. He’s the prophet who suffered much in his ministry, for good reason we know him as the weeping prophet. But we’ll just pick up one passage in Jeremiah 20. Look down in verse 7. s“O Lord you have deceived me, and I was deceived. You have overcome me and prevailed. I have become a laughing stock all day long. Everyone mocks me. For each time I speak I cry aloud, I proclaim violence and destruction. Because for me, the Word of the Lord has resulted in reproach and derision all day long. But if I say I will not remember Him, or speak anymore in His name, then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I am weary of holding it in and I cannot endure it.”

Sometimes the opposition to the Word of God to the ministry God had given him, so great, Jeremiah said, “I just determined I’m not going to continue to do this. But God had entrusted him with the word, and the word is like a fire burning in me and I just can’t close it in. It has to come out.” After further talking about those who delight in looking for his downfall, verse 11, Jeremiah says, “but the Lord is with me like a dread champion. Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will be utterly ashamed because they have failed with an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.”

You remember when the book of Jeremiah ends, it’s not with Jeremiah having arrived to the place of triumph over his foes, those who have not been faithful. But in the end he has triumphed. And those who have opposed him and the word of God have been left with an everlasting disgrace, and that is an eternal result. The Apostle Paul reflects this same kind of passion. Goes from place to place. Philippi he was beaten and imprisoned. Thessalonica, he has to leave town. Berea he has to leave town. On to the next place, but there’s a passion with him. He can’t hold in the Word of God. He can’t not be faithful with what God has called him to do.

That’s why he has a great ministry. It’s not accompanied with large numbers that are recorded, so that we could say, and in this place Paul saw 400 come to Christ. And at this place there were 2,000. There’s not that indication. We say at Philippi, Lydia and her household. Perhaps the slave girl who was impacted by being freed from demon possession. The Philippian jailor and his household. But by and large the city, we leave it there with them begging him to leave town. We don’t want anything more to do with you. Just leave. On to Thessalonica, trouble pursues him there. On to Berea.

Why don’t you put up the map, just so we remind ourselves where we are. Paul started over here in Antioch of Syria and has traveled over through the region of Galatia and there he’s revisited the churches that Barnabas and he started on their first missionary journey. Encouraged believers, Barnabas, remember, separated, and he went to Cyprus with John Mark. Paul had Silas and Timothy, Silas here, and then he picks up Timothy and they travel together through this region. God won’t let them go into Asia, He won’t let them go into Bithynia, but brings him over. And he travels over and ultimately to Philippi. Then from Philippi to Thessalonica, then to Berea and now he’s left Berea and he’s coming down to Athens, journey of about 200 miles. And then you can see from Athens, we won’t get there in this study, but he’ll be coming over to Corinth.

So you see something of the ministry God’s given him and the places he’s gone. When we’re in chapter 17, because of trouble at Beria, and trouble followed Paul, because sometimes it was the people from the preceding city. When they heard Paul was having a ministry in the next city, those who were opposed to the ministry of the word, came to that city and stirred up the people. So in Beria he had good response, initially. The Jews there were more noble-minded, we were told. They were open to look and see what the scripture indeed said about the Messiah and so on. In verse 12 we were told, “many of them believed along with a number of prominent Greek women and men.”

But when the Jews of Thessalonica, where Paul had been previously, heard about his ministry, they come down and caused trouble. It got so serious that in verse 14, “immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as the sea. Silas and Timothy remained there.” They were evidently going to journey down by ship to Athens. Paul was the focal point and they were concerned with his safety. Silas and Timothy can remain behind and further encourage and establish the believers there. Paul goes on by himself. And so we pick up in verse 16. As we mentioned, he’s come about 200 miles down to Athens. When he gets to Athens, we’re at the end of verse 15. “Those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens and then they return back to Beria.” Paul has told them, “tell Silas and Timothy to join me down here.”

I was thinking as I read through this again and thought about it. What would my reaction be? You know it’s been a long trip, it’s been a difficult trip. Paul’s suffered greatly already, with the beatings, imprisonment, the opposition that built at Thessalonica and followed him to Beria. Now he’s alone. Silas and Timothy were left behind and he has to wait for them to make the trip down. Might think Paul’s attitude was, well I’m here without my fellow workers, it’s a good time to catch my breath, to relax, to get my strength back, maybe just to quietly take a little vacation here. Don’t call it a vacation, a well earned rest. I mean travel wasn’t as easy as it is for us these days. You add to that the opposition he has experienced.

Amazing thing is, verse 16, “now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him, as he was observing the city full of idols. So he was reasoning in the Synagogue with the Jews and the god fearing Gentiles and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present.”

So, it’s a non-stop ministry. On the Sabbath he’s in the synagogue with the Jews and the god fearers, the Gentiles who would identify themselves with the worship of the God of Israel. And during the week he’s out in the market place, with whoever’s available that he can share the word of God there.

You know Paul’s come to a great city, the city of Athens. It’s declined some from the glory that had been present in earlier centuries, but it’s still the cultural and intellectual center of the Roman Empire. But it’s a godless place. Verse 16 says “his spirit was provoked within him as he was observing the city, full of idols.”

About 50 years after Paul was at Athens, a Greek writer visited there and he left behind a record of what he found. He said it was easier to meet a god or goddess on the main street of Athens than to meet a man. Estimated, there were 30,000 statues of gods and goddesses in the city of Athens. So, for a Greek writer to visit the city and say, more chance you’ll meet a god or goddess on the main street than another person. You get the idea how pervasive pagan worship was in this city, and so when Paul sees it, he’s not discouraged thinking, “this will probably be too hard a place, and it’s been difficult enough. Maybe I’ll just move on to a place where it might be more fertile ground, where the opportunity look greater. These people are committed. Not to one god, to another god or goddess. It’s not going to be a place where they are going to open to hear what I have.” No, it provokes him. His spirit was being provoked within him, as he was observing the city full of idols.

So you think of Jeremiah, when the word of God was “like a fire in his bones.” He couldn’t contain the word. You know we sometimes find, this is not a good thing, not a good time. But the very paganism of the environment serves as a stirring the Spirit within him. That word provoked, was being provoked within him.

Come back to Isaiah 65. The chapter opens up, “I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’ To a nation which did not call on My name. I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts, a people who continually”, and here’s our word, “provoke Me to My face.” What do they do? “Offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks; who sit among graves, and spend the night in secret places; who eat swine’s flesh, and the broth of unclean meat is in their pots.”

You see what happens, God observed the idolatry of Israel. His spirit was provoked and stirred within Him. It infuriated God, it provokes Him. That’s the attitude of Paul, to see this pagan worship when he knows and represents the God of Heaven. Stirs him, and he can’t stand it. This is an offence to the God that he serves. And he has the same reaction as God, to the paganism, the false worship. It’s not to keep quiet, it’s to step up, and so Paul begins his ministry. It’s not because he’s short tempered, it not because he’s easily provoked in the wrong sense. He abhors idolatry, he serves the living God. People must come to worship the God that he serves. If they come to worship Him, they must hear about Him.

So in spite of all that he’s been through with his travels, here he is. Sabaoth in the synagogue with the Jews, through the week in the market place. Verse 17, “he was reasoning in the Synagogue with the Jews and the god fearing Gentiles.” There he could be showing them from their Old Testament scriptures, as we’ve seen the pattern in Acts. That they prophesied the coming of the Messiah, His rejection, His death, His resurrection, that He is the Savior of Israel, their Messiah, the one they must believe. And then he’s “in the market place everyday, for those who happen to be present.” I love the way it’s put here, in the market place everyday with those who happen to be present, wherever he finds them.

When I was going to school in Philadelphia in Center City Philadelphia, it used to be a challenge to go out and walk the streets and find different people just standing there at their lunch hour or afternoon break, reading the paper, having a smoke, and to walk up and start to talk to them, about the gospel. I was motivated also because the school required you to witness to a certain number of people every week. And you know, that was a motivation, they didn’t tell me I had to do that to be pleasing to God, they just told me I had to do that to stay a student at their school. And it was good motivation because I always figured, one thing I don’t want to lie about is that I witnessed to somebody I didn’t. Bad enough I lie, but I lie that I told somebody the gospel when I didn’t so I have to admit, Friday the report was due and many times I stayed over in Philadelphia on Thursday afternoon or evening to get my number in.

But it was good experience, you know to go up and engage, and here’s Paul, what’s he doing? Sharing the gospel with people wherever they are, whoever happens to be out in the market place, about their business. Paul is sharing the gospel. Verse 18, “And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him.” So you have some of the philosophers and they are ready to become engaged in conversation. This is the intellectual center. So these philosophers are ready to engage in debate and show the superiority of their philosophy. Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Athens was the home of these two opposing philosophical viewpoints. Both started about the same time. Around 300 BC is when these particular philosophical movements began.

Epicurus was the founder of the Epicureans. His philosophy was, “pleasure was the chief goal of life.” That’s what makes life worth living. And by pleasure, meant having a life that was worth enjoying, free from pain and trouble, fears, anxieties, a trouble free life. That’s the kind of life that’s worth having. A life you can enjoy, problem free, as much as possible. So we talk about pleasure was the chief goal of their lives, that’s what they meant, you can enjoy life to the fullest cause you have a life free from worry and problems from trouble. Not so different then a lot of people have today. That’s their goal, I want to have a life that I just can relax, enjoy life. We find our advertisements appealing, that you deserve it. That’s what the Epicurean’s were teaching.

The Stoics were started about the same time, 300 BC. Now the founder, Zeno, obviously you don’t get the name Stoic, but he used to hold his meeting in an area called the Stoah. That was a colonnade or portico, we’ve seen some of that like they had in the temple, the portico of Solomon, where the columns where and provided a shaded area where they met. Well here at Athens they had that kind of meeting place, and so it was the Stoah, so they became known as the Stoics, because that’s where this philosopher, Zeno would meet and promote his philosophy. Basically it said, it’s centered on “living harmoniously with nature and emphasized man’s rational abilities and individual self-sufficiency.” Your ability to rationally deal with life. You have all that you need within you. You’re totally self sufficient as an individual. Something like eastern mysticism. The theology associated with this would have been pantheistic. God pervades the world, God is everywhere in everything. There’s a world soul that is God, and so we partake of that and find our sufficiency within ourselves.

These are the kinds of philosophical thinking. We don’t find Paul coming to an area that is just starved for some religious philosophical or theological insights, he’s coming to a part of the world and a city that has had centuries of being indoctrinated and infiltrated with a thinking that is contrary to the Word. So as these philosophers are engaging him, because he seems to be presenting a different philosophy than they would hold. Verse 18 “And some were saying, ‘What would this idle babbler wish to say?’” What would this idle babbler…………. interesting word. The word literally means, a see picker, and it describes someone like the birds or a person that goes out and picks up what he knows from here and there. So they are sort of discarding him, because he’s got bits and pieces of this and that. So he’s a seed picker, he’s an idle babbler. He’s just picked up bits and pieces of learning from wherever he is, so it’s a way of distain for him.

Others were saying he seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities, because he was speaking about Jesus and the resurrection. Paul didn’t have to think, “what will I say when I get to Athens.” This is the intellectual and cultural center, the Empire. What’s he talking about? Jesus and the resurrection. Is he trying to demonstrate he is a superior philosopher to the Epicureans and the Stoics? No. He’s explaining Jesus and the resurrection.

So there’s confusion here. The confusion is not Paul, because Paul’s not clear, the confusion is because you have people coming from a variety of backgrounds and have a variety of response to the message. Verse 19, “And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?” There’s enough interest in what’s going on and Paul stirs enough controversy, you know it just follows him wherever he goes. Remember this is the man the the Corinthians will say, he’s weak in his bodily presence. You know he writes strong letters, but when you meet him, he’s not a powerful speaker. He doesn’t overwhelm you with his intellectual arguments or with his eloquent speech. He’s rather weak in bodily presence and weak in speech.

But here he is, he’s got the place stirred up again, and so they take him to the Areopagus. That will be mentioned twice here. Here in verse 19 and down in verse 22. Now the term means the Hill of Aras, Aras was the Greek God of war. Now the Roman equivalent of the Greek God Aras, the God of war was the Roman God, Mars. So the King James translation, same word, Verse 19, you have the Areopagus, but down in verse 22, Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill. King James translated it, so this becomes famous as Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill. Both places are the word Areopagus. If you look at your King James, the one King James that I double checked, they translated Areopagus in verse 19, but they translate it Mars Hill in verse 22. So if you’re wondering why it’s titled, in my bible it says the sermon on Mars Hill, but Mars Hill doesn’t appear here because the King James translate it Areopagus not as the hill of Aras, but the Hill of Mars. They chose to use the name of the Roman God rather than the Greek God of war here. So he goes to the Areopagus.

Now the Areopagus in not just a location. The Areopagus is a location but there was the Court of Areopagus that met here. This was a long term institution in Athens. It took its name from the place Areopagus. But this is really the court of the city. The city fathers are here and they are here to examine. They were responsible for the education going on. So they would examine what was being taught and render verdict on it. Obviously they don’t say there’s just one pervading philosophy or one God or anything like that. They are the court of opinion here. So when Paul comes to this place, he’s not brought to a site, he’s being brought to the official leadership that is responsible for the morals of the city and the religious matters of the city and what is being taught in the city. So it’s because he’s “stirred up this interest,” verse 19 “that they brought him to the Areopagus.”

So they brought him to a place where Paul can explain himself and these venerable fathers of the city that sat in the court would be able to evaluate what he is saying as well. Verse 20, they go on”We know what this new teaching which you are proclaiming, for you are bringing some strange things to our ears. So we want to know what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the visiting strangers there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new. This characteristic of the Athenians had been widely disseminated for centuries. That’s characteristic for a place that is noted for being an intellectual center. A place of ideas and new ideas. So they were constantly open to a new idea, this is being intellectual. They want to hear a new philosophy, a new idea on the way of thinking and the way of explaining life. They’re not going anywhere, they spend their time telling or hearing something new. Reminds you of what Paul will write later, those who are always searching but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

So Paul stands up in the midst of the Areopagus, many of you have a note in your bible, or the council of the Areopagus, because that’s where he is, the quarter council of the Areopagus. He’s at the site which was southwest of the Acropolis. If you visit Greece you get to visit these sites, some of you have on your trips. You have Greece as a sideline when you visit Israel. But here he’s before this council, he’s not just been brought to a different site. And what an opportunity, so they’re ready to hear what he has to say. So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, and now you have the famous message of Paul on Mars Hill, or the hill of Ares, the Areopagus. Verse 22, “And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.” He’s not particularly saying something positive or negative here, just an observation. He’s observed all their altars, all their statues to various gods and goddesses. So you are a very religious city and they were. There’s no doubt about that. It would be like if you were going someplace and you saw all the different statues to various gods and goddesses, all the different churches all the places of worship. You might start out by saying, you people are very religious. You wouldn’t necessarily be approving of that or disapproving, it’s just a statement of fact. But Paul’s going to use it as a step off, and he goes beyond. “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship.” Remember that one Greek writer observed there were 30,000 statues and idols to gods and goddesses. So Paul’s saying I’ve examined and observed many of your objects of worship. “ I also found an alter with this inscription, TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.” When you’re worshiping all kinds of gods and goddesses, you include one to a god that we don’t even know. If you’ve got multiplicity of gods and goddesses, there’s probably one you’re unaware of.

You see how Paul is ready to pick up where he is. “To an unknow god. What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.” He capitalizes on that, the God that you don’t know about, I want to tell you about. Because despite all of the gods and goddesses they had, they don’t know about the true and living God. I want to tell you about the God that is not known to you. And a play on that, that alter to an unknown god, that’s the same word that you have, translated as ignorance. “Therefore what you worship without knowing, this I proclaim to you.” The connection there, of the unknown god, well they have an altar there in their city, and Paul wants to tell them about the God that they don’t know. Obviously this god there at the altar is not in any way a true worship site. But Paul picks up on it, “you don’t know the true and living God, you are in ignorance of Him. But this is the God I’m going to tell you about.” And who is he? And you see here the clarity of Paul’s message.

His whole message here is based on the revelation that God has given. It goes back to the Old Testament even though the bulk of these people are Greeks. The council would be comprised of Greeks. He’s going to take them back to the Old Testament scriptures. Where he’s going, without necessarily quoting it, but declaring what the scripture says. “What you proclaim in ignorance,” the one you don’t know, “I’m proclaiming to you.” Verse 24, “The God who made the world and all things in it.” We’re back to the opening verses of Genesis. He’s the God who’s created it all. That’s the God you don’t know. And you note, by stating this, He is the Sovereign God that rules over all the small ‘g’ gods, who end up being nothing, because He created everything, the world and all things in it. Doesn’t leave any room for the activity of any other god or gods.

Paul’s going to tell them about the God who made the world and everything in it. There’s only on God, the one who created the world and created everything in it. “Since He is lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.” The God who made the world and all things in it, does not dwell in temples made with hands. What he’s saying here is that he can’t be a god created by you or contained in what you make. He’s sovereign over all, He made everything that exists, He doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands and of course all the gods have their own temples, places where they’re worshiped. But He doesn’t dwell in that kind of temple, He’s Lord of heaven and earth.

Remember when Solomon made the temple. No, this temple could not contain, there’s no dwelling place that could be made for the eternal God. All the temple was, was a place where God manifested his presence with His people. Solomon realized that He couldn’t be contained in a temple made with hands, no matter how splendid. He does not dwell in temples made with hands. That becomes key, because he follows that up in verse 25. “Neither is He served by human hands,” so the work of men can’t add anything to God, it cannot be a place where God dwells. He’s the God of heaven and earth, the omnipresent God. “Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things.” What Paul is really clarifying here, He doesn’t need anything. These gods have to be taking care of, watched over and so on. He gives life to all.

Now we’re down to the one God that they don’t know about. In the city that has 30,000 statues and idols and temples of worship and so on, there’s only one God, the God who created everything. Created the world, created everything in it. The one who gives life to all, breath to all and all things. Verse 26, “He made all from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth.”

Remarkable, we’re back in the book of Genesis, these pagan Greeks, coming from a diversity of religious background of philosophical thinking. Paul is just bringing them the Word of God. There is one true and living God. He has created everything, the world and everything in it. He’s Lord of heaven of earth. He made from one man, every nation. Could it get any clearer on what the scripture teaches? Adam, and from Adam, every nation has derived their existence. He made from one man, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth. So you see how he’s drawing, because the Greeks thought of themselves as unique, different. Paul emphasizes the one God created one man and all the nations of the earth have derived their existence from Him. He’s the totally sovereign God, Verse 26, “having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.”

We often times think of the sovereignty of God, you have to be careful talking about the sovereignty of God with unbelievers. Paul says you can’t talk about the true and living God, if you don’t talk about the God who is sovereign over all. He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation. He determined what nation would rise, what nation would fall. He determined where that nation would have it’s boundaries. I am making known to you the God who is sovereign. Absolutely sovereign. What we’re building to is, the God of creation is the God of judgement. He created all, He will judge all. No room for individuality in the wrong sense. The philosophers coming up with their own thinking. This is a God who has determined it all. He appointed time of the nations, the boundaries of the nations. Verse 27 “That they would seek God.” Now, the main thought here verse 26 “from one man every nation of mankind,” and He made them for two purposes, to “inhabit the earth” and then Verse 27, to “seek Him.”

We get the flow of what Paul is saying here. He made from one man every nation of mankind, to inhabit the earth, having determined their appointed times and boundaries of their habitation and the part they would play on the earth, and then that they would seek Him. See how he’s building toward the required response to this God. He established that there is only one God, the God that you don’t know, who’s created the world and everything in it. He’s Lord of heaven and earth. Your hands don’t add anything to Him. He doesn’t need you to make Him a place where He can live. He doesn’t need you to supply needs to Him, because He gives everything that you have to you. He’s the God who made mankind from one man. So that they would inhabit the earth, all the nations that derive from this one man. So that the people from these nations would seek God. God’s intention in creating us, was that we would seek Him. That we would serve Him. That we would bow before Him.

Come back to Isaiah 55, this great chapter that begins, “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” The call to come and receive the free salvation of God, verse 6 “Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Jeremiah 29:13 says “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Ultimately what did God create man for? He did it for Himself. Sin has broken that, but as all the nations of the earth have been derived from one man, created by God, it was so that they would seek Him. Verse 27, “That they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.”

You see where Paul is coming. There’s a lot of theology in this, but clear scripture. You must call upon the Lord to be saved. You must seek the true and living God, not all these gods and goddesses that fill your city. The fact that there is a true and living God who has created all, and all the nations from one man, was so that they might seek Him. There’s a logic to this and a clear presentation of scripture. If perhaps they might grope for Him, find Him. Their intention is to seek Him, God’s intention is, but they don’t, they grope around, they can’t find Him. But He’s not very far away. He’s the sovereign God who is omnipresent, so in that sense He’s not very far.

You don’t have to travel to India and go to a certain temple to find God. You don’t have to go across the country to another area of the country to find God. We’d say that, we’d tell somebody, we share the gospel. You can trust in Him right where you are. You don’t have to wait and come to church on Sunday to this building to find God, so to speak, to come to know God right where you are. He’ll save you. He’s not very far from any of us. He’s not saying that their religion has brought them close to God. This God who has created all things, is immanent in that sense, not just transcendent, removed from His creation, but He is immanent, present among His creation. He’s not very far from each one of us.

Then he quotes from one of their poets. For in Him we live and move and exist, and even some of your own poets have said, for we also are His children. We live, move and exist in God. Isn’t that true? Who gives life to all? “The eyes of the Lord roam to and fro on the face of the earth, beholding the evil and the good.” You understand that the vilest of sinners carries out his activities in the presence of the living God. Where can you go to escape God? “If you ascend to heaven He’s there, if you descend to sheol He’s there.” There is no escaping the presence of God. In Him we live, move and exist. If it weren’t for that fact, life would stop. Right? Jesus is not only the creator, He is the sustainer of life. Colossians starts out in the first chapter talking about that. So in Him we live, move and exist, some of your own poets have said, we are His children.

Again, they’re talking in ignorance, we are His offspring, is the word here. (Greek word) The offspring of God. One of the Greek poets said, and if you go to a more extensive commentator, they’ll give you quotes from the different Greek writers who can be quoted to reference such statements. “We are the offspring of God, the result of the work of God.” Even pagans and unbelievers often believe that. But Paul picks up on that idea. Being then the children of God, because they’re stating a truth there, we are the children of God, the offspring of God. We’re the result of God’s creating activity. He mentioned that back in verse 26: “from one man, that He created, all nations have derived.”

So in that sense we are the offspring of God. A result of His creating activity. “Being then the children or offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone. An image formed by the art and thought of man.” So now Paul is moving them from their idols. If we are the creation of God, the offspring of God, have been created by Him in His likeness, then don’t think God is a piece of gold that came into existence, because man thought Him up and decided he would make Him to look like this and then make Him out of gold or silver or stone. That’s an inanimate, non-functioning entity. As Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 10, in that great addressing of idols. They can’t do any good, they can’t to any harm, they’re nothing. I realize there are spiritual forces behind it, but that actual image, there is nothing but the creation of man.

I shared previously, and some of you saw it on one of these programs they have where truckers are driving these dangerous roads, and they were taking this idol. They had it all packed in, and they were so concerned that they not break it on the trip. When they got there, they’re getting ready to take it out of the truck, and they take away all the packing. All the villagers are thrilled because the idol didn’t get broken on the trip. What kind of god it that? That’s like Dagon, in the Old Testament that fell over and got broken. That’s God? People think, this is God? That’s what Paul is saying here. Since we are the result of the creating work of God, we shouldn’t think that God is something that we created. We ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone. An image formed by the art and thought of man. We are a reflection of God. We were created in His image.

When God created Adam, He also created with him the ability to pass on that image. We continue to have it, marred by sin, but we are still in the image of God. Where do you get the idea that a stone is anything like the living God? He is living? So these gods are nothing. Therefore, they’ve come to tell you what the living God is like. You don’t know anything about Him. He’s unknown to you. With all the gods, you have, you don’t know the one true and living God. You are in ignorance, you are unknowing about Him, let me tell you about Him. What a summary here of the true and living God.

Now having made clear who this true God is, He’s the creator of all, He’s the sustainer of all. He’s the one who gives life and breath. We’re His, the work of His creation. Nothing like stone, silver, gold. You think the more elaborate it’s made the more beautiful it is, the more valuable it is? What? Is a god made of gold any more helpful that a god made of stone, other than you might be able to cash the gold in? It’s no more god, it’s just something that an artist created.

“Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men, that all, everywhere should repent.” I’ve told you about the living God. You must repent. He told the Thessalonians, “you turn from idols to serve the living God.” So, you must repent, God has overlooked the time of ignorance. Does that mean that He didn’t hold them accountable? No, of course He held them accountable, Psalm 19 says “the creation declares the glory of God.” Romans 1 elaborates that “they are guilty, but God has withheld judgement,” that’s where we’re going to judgement. He has withheld the judgement that was rightly deserved, because they have been ignorant of Him, and they are willfully ignorant because “the creation declares the glory of God.” God having overlooked the times of ignorance, “God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.” Why? Because He “has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness, through a man that He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men, by raising Him from the dead.” That word, verse 30, “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance,” there we go back to the unknown God, the God that is not known. That’s the same word, we saw it then, “you worship Him in ignorance,” without knowledge. So now he ties it back from where he started, that unknown God I’ve told you about. He overlooked that time of you’re not knowing, but now you know about the true and living God and what you have to do. You have to repent, you have to turn from these idols and seek the living God. Why? Because “the God who created all things,” the God who has created all people and all nations from the one man that He has created, “has fixed a day.” The same God who determined the appointed times of nations and the boundaries of nations, “has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

This ties it back to what Paul’s message has been at the end of verse 18. He was preaching, Jesus and the resurrection. You’ll see this when he gets to Corinth. Paul gets to Corinth “determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” One message, to have this so fixed in our minds that where ever we are, we walk down the street, we could walk up and start talking to them. Do you know the true and living God who created all of us, who created the world and everything that’s in it? It’s a simple concise message. It’s the message of Jesus Christ. He’s the God who’s sovereign over all, and you know “He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness, through the one that He sent to this earth, to be the savior of the world, the resurrection from the dead.”
“When they heard the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, others said we’ll hear him again concerning this. Paul went out of their midst.” Verse 24 “Some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite,” that would have been a man who would have sat on the council, he becomes a believer. “And a woman named Damaris and others with them.”

There are a number that are saved. So you have a mix here, some scoff at the message, some postpone a response, I’ll think about it, some believe. You don’t get the idea that there are great numbers here, but there are a number of them. He’s going to leave Athens and go on to Corinth. This is his ministry there. Some say Paul failed here because he didn’t give the right message. I find that it is a message that is consistent with the rest of scripture, drawn from the Old Testament scriptures, focuses on Jesus Christ, whom he’s been preaching. His death and resurrection. His resurrection as a result of His death, what is he calling them to do? “Repent, here is the one before whom you will stand to be judged. The living God has fixed a day in which this will happen. You must repent, there is only one and true living God. There’s only one savior,” obviously, “the one who died and rose again.”

The resurrection of the dead troubled the Greeks, because the Greeks didn’t believe in bodily resurrection. They have a variety of philosophies but they didn’t believe in bodily resurrection. What do you bring that up for? Maybe we should leave out resurrection, Paul knew enough about the Greeks that they didn’t believe in resurrection. But they didn’t believe in the true and living God either. Paul’s presenting the message from God, so that God would do the work that He is sovereign to do.

We sometimes get all tangled in knots because we forget about the God that we tell others, who is sovereign, and God does with the message. Some scoff at the message, some say I’m not going to decide today and fail to appreciate what Paul writes to the Corinthians, “today is the day of salvation.” How many of those who said, “we’ll hear you again,” never did hear him again? They go on about their business and other things came in, and they passed the opportunity by. But some believed.

What a powerful message. But it’s a simple message. We know about the God of heaven, the creator of everything don’t we? We know that everyone that exists is a result of God’s creating Adam, and determining that the nations would be derived from him. We know what that God is like. He’s a personal God, He’s a living God. All must repent of their false worship and turn to this one true and living God and His son Jesus Christ, who is the Savior, who is the judge. It’s the same message Peter preached at the house of Cornelius in Acts 10, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the coming judgement. It’s the message we have. God uses it to accomplish His purposes. We need to remember that as we go out in the coming days and weeks.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for the power of the message of Jesus Christ. Lord may we not forget how blessed we are. That You have blessed us with the salvation You provided in Jesus Christ. Lord for all of us, we can think back, for much of our lives You were the unknown God. Regardless of where we worshiped and what our beliefs were, we didn’t know the true and living God. We didn’t know the salvation that You had provided. We didn’t know of Your absolute total sovereignty. We were destined for judgement. But by Your grace, we have heard and repented. Turned from all other things, all other ways to believe in the Savior who will judge all men. Lord thank You for entrusting this message to us. Give us the boldness, the fire of Jeremiah, of Paul, and may we not be intimidated, may we not be embarrassed, may we not be ashamed. But may we use confidence to give forth the message. It’s not because of who we are, it’s because of who You are and what You have done. Use us to that end in the days and weeks before us. We pray in Christ’s name, Amen.