Over the past few weeks we have been looking at the power of
the gospel to save, even to the uttermost regions of the world. We saw in chapter 14 the miraculous
power of God to heal the lame man as an illustration of the power of the gospel
to give life to that which was not.
And we saw the power of the gospel in chapters 15 and 16 as it confronted
demonic possession and idolatry in
pagan societies, resulting in transformed lives and churches being formed in
formerly dark cultures.
Today, we will see the power of the gospel in even advanced
civilizations. In all the world,
there was no place more considered the cradle of civilization than was
Athens. It was the birthplace of
intellectualism; of education, philosophy and the arts and sciences that was
unequaled in the world. It was the home of such fabled
philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Seneca. It gave birth to the sciences of medicine and art and
literature and reason and architecture that are still studied in arenas of
higher learning today.
Now Paul finds himself in Athens at this particular time
alone. He has left Silas and the
rest of his entourage in Berea. In
Berea the Jews had stirred up the crowds against Paul and the church there had
sent Paul away to Athens because they were afraid for his life. So as Paul is waiting for them to join
him he begins to walk about the city and in so doing he becomes provoked in his
spirit by the hopelessness presented by the pagan idolatry of this city.
It was said that the city of Athens was so filled with
statues of idols that it was easier to find a god than a man. One estimate was there were 3000 idol
statues or temples that were erected in the city on public property, not
including the private buildings which had idols as part of their
architecture. So as Paul walks
around the city he is struck with the propensity of false religions that
abounded at every turn. There was
an idol of a god of every possible sort, even the foreign gods of other nations
were to be found there, as one writer puts it; “their hospitality to strangers
extended to the gods too, being very ready to receive any strange objects or
forms of worship.”
I think it is possible today to see a parallel in many
cities in America to Athens. New
York or Los Angeles for example are centers of fashion, of entertainment, of
great architecture, of great institutions of higher learning, of the latest
technology and science. And
furthermore, in spite of the moral decline in America, there is still virtually
a church on every other street corner in most cities across our country. Though America was once thought of as a
Christian nation, it cannot be said to be anymore. But as America has become the melting pot of the world, we
have assimilated the religions and philosophies of the world, just as the
Athenians did, so that you are likely to see every possible religion
represented in the average city.
So I want us to keep that perspective as we study this
passage today. Because the gospel
is not just some ancient, out of date, out of touch religion that was only
valid many centuries ago. But I
would like to show that as the gospel was powerful to save even amongst the
advanced civilization of Athens, it is powerful to save as well today. As Hebrews 13:8 says, the gospel of
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. It is powerful to save everyone, and it
is relevant to every culture, and every civilization.
Now as it says in vs.16, the spirit of Paul was provoked as
he observed this city full of idols.
That means he became exasperated as he saw all these idols. Because Paul knows that they are
powerless, that they are false gods that have no power to save, no power to
deliver, and he is exasperated at this culture and the hopelessness of their
religions. So he begins to preach
the gospel. That is the answer to
the exasperation we may feel about our culture, by the way. The answer is not politics, it’s not
philosophy, it’s not cleaner water or better housing or education. But the answer to the hopelessness of
civilizations, the hopelessness of Chicago, or inner city Baltimore, or the
ghettos of New York City, is the message of the gospel.
So true to his custom, Paul begins with the Jews. He seeks out some God fearing Jews and
proselytes who had a synagogue there in Athens. And he begins to share the truth of the gospel with them.
Then he goes into the marketplace and begins to proclaim the gospel with people
that he met there. See, Paul is
not ashamed of the gospel, because he knows it is the answer to the problems of
the world. It is the antidote that
the world desperately needs. That
is why he would later say in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel,
for it is the power of God for salvation, to every one who believes, to the
Jews first and also to the Greek.”
Paul was proving that statement right there in the marketplace, in the
public arena of Athens, the heart of civilization.
Now as he is preaching the gospel, certain Epicurean and
Stoic philosophers hear him and converse with him, and they are intrigued by
his message. Some say, “What would
this idle babbler wish to say?” And others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer
of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
Now I don’t want to bore you with a philosophy lesson so
that we might know exactly what Epicurean and Stoic philosophy taught. I am not here today to teach philosophy. I don’t propose to be an expert in philosophy. I propose to
know only Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I know Him to the be truth and the life. I don’t need to study philosophy to be able to debate with
philosophers. I need to study the
scriptures, even as the Bereans who it says in vs. 11, who proved their
nobility because they eagerly searched the scriptures to see if these things
were so, and were convinced because of the authority of scripture.
It’s like the old adage about counterfeit money. Experts in detecting counterfeits do
not study counterfeit currency. They study authentic currency and become so
familiar with it that they can easily spot a fake. So it is with human philosophy and false religions. I hardly need to waste my time trying
to keep up with it all. I just
need to spend time studying the truth and then I will not be fooled by false
religion.
But suffice it to say that Epicureanism and Stoicism are but
twists on the same old lies that Satan has been selling since the dawn of
creation and is still selling today under different titles. As Solomon said, there is nothing new
under the sun. The devil just
keeps repackaging the same old lies for each new generation. Epicureanism acknowledged existence of a
type of god, but they denied that they had any power or control over
nature. They believed that life
ended with death, and so their motto was to “eat, drink and be merry, for
tomorrow we die.” They loved pleasure
and considered happiness the highest goal of man.
Today that view is very much in vogue. Modern man may tolerate a view of god
to some extent, but they don’t see much evidence of him, they don’t believe
that he can really affect the events of the world or do anything to help us. And so the average person on the street
is living for today, living for pleasure, living for things that they think
will make them happy. They
tolerate religion, but they haven’t got much use for it.
Stoicism believed in a multitude of gods. It was called pantheism. That accounted to some degree at least
for the thousands of gods displayed in Athens. And a parallel to Stoicism in our society is the view that
all roads must lead to god. What
we call God, someone else calls Allah, another calls Buddha, and so there is
not one way to God but many. All
are right, therefore none can be exclusively right.
Now there were a lot of variations on each philosophy, but
both were at odds with the gospel. These philosophies were popular among the
intellectual elite, especially among the people of Athens. And so some proponents of these philosophies
ask Paul to come to Areopagus, or what was also called Mars Hill, where there
was a council of judgment so to speak, made up of philosophers who judged every
new philosophy. This was the same
court that condemned Socrates, and was responsible for his execution five
centuries earlier. By this date
their judicial powers had begun to wane, but they still had the authority to
debate philosophy and render decisions, and it was to the very spot that
Socrates had been summoned that Paul found himself ready to give his defense of
the gospel.
But notice how boldly Paul proclaims the truths of the gospel. He is not speaking here to men who knew
the scriptures. He was speaking to
men of science, men of the arts and letters, at the greatest institute of
learning in the world and which is
still revered today in educational circles. And yet he unapologetically preaches the gospel. Because he knows that philosophy cannot
save, science cannot save, the arts cannot save, and false gods cannot
save. There is only one power that
can save, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So that is what he preaches.
Now I would point out that what we have here before us is
only a synopsis of Paul’s
message. I think he would have
expanded on many points that we see just briefly touched on. But Luke gives us an outline of his
message, and I would like us to look at it, so that we might know how to
present the gospel in a pagan culture, and even in a hostile culture. Both of which I believe our present
culture is fast becoming.
First of all, note that Paul said in vs. 22, ““Men of
Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects.” Notice that Paul is respectful in his
opening remarks. He is trying to
win them to the gospel, not to repel them or even condemn them. I think that is far too often the
course of evangelists today who try to interact with the culture. A couple of weeks ago I was watching
online a surf contest in Huntington Beach, CA called the US Open. And it’s always a huge event, with
hundreds of thousands of people and exhibits and so forth. It’s hedonism at
it’s worst. And there are always these people there at this event that hold
signs and so forth and basically picket the contest, and the signs and the message
they present is typically one of condemnation and impending judgment on
immorality and so forth. I don’t think that they are serving the cause of the
gospel in that way, but only serving to further alienate those they are
supposed to be reaching. Paul will
speak of the coming judgment as well.
But he doesn’t open up with it.
He speaks of a commonality that they have between them. Paul was certainly very religious. It occupied his every waking moment. So he builds a bridge to them by
acknowledging their obvious zeal for religion as well.
But in the Greek language, Paul uses a word which classifies
their religion as having more of a superstitious nature. And that was evident in the pantheism
of Greece. They did not know for
sure what to believe, so they believed everything, and worshipped every so
called god.
Now it is necessary that we come to believe in the existence
of God; that God is. The Athenians
had come to believe in a form of god.
To recognize that god is, that he exists. And that much is true and necessary. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And
without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must
believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” So it is good and necessary to believe
that God exists. But that alone
will not save you.
Because Jesus added that those who worship God must worship
Him in Spirit and in truth. So we
must not only believe that God is, but who God is, and what God says. That is what it means to believe in
God. To believe in who God truly
is, and what God truly says concerning Himself and our relationship to
Him. If God is real, then He
cannot be the object of our interpretation, or of our creation. We must worship Him in truth, or we do
not worship Him at all.
So Paul says, you know it’s great that you guys are very
religious. It’s evident on every
street corner in Athens and in all the temples in this city. But I have to tell
you the truth about your religion.
Your belief is based in superstition and ignorance, and I want to
explain the truth about God to you.
So in vs. 23 Paul says
"For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your
worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.'
Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.”
And this is a brilliant tactic on the part of Paul. He takes what they worship, what they
agree already exists and is deserving of worship, and says I am going to
explain this God to you.
Now there is an interesting side note about this unknown god
that should be explained. And that
is that several hundred years before there had been a plague in Athens, and the
people of the city believed that the plague must have come upon them because a
particular god was angry with them. But they had no idea which god. They had thousands of gods represented
in the city. So they came up with
a plan, which was to drive a flock of sheep into the city and they supposed
that the offended god or gods would draw the sheep to them and then they would
offer them as a sacrifice to that god.
So as the sheep moved around and settled down in the city, if they laid
down near an idol, then they sacrificed those sheep to that idol, believing
that the offended god had drawn them to him. But there were some sheep that laid down in an area that did
not have a idol in that spot, and so they built an altar there to the unknown
god and sacrificed those sheep to that unknown god. So that is why there were altars to unknown gods throughout
Athens.
So Paul capitalizes on this desire to appease an unknown
god, their recognition of a God beyond their pantheon of known gods, and he
appeals to that interest. He says
what you have been worshipping in ignorance I will proclaim to you. He says, I want to introduce the
unknown God to you.
So in vs. 24, Paul says I want to introduce this God to you.
I want to explain who God is. Who is He?
Well, first of all, Paul says, He is the Creator. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Paul didn’t
start quoting from Genesis 1:1.
But I don’t know that for sure.
However, we do have the synopsis of what Paul said in vs. 24, “The God
who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth,
does not dwell in temples made with hands.”
First point then is that God is the Creator of the world and
all things in it. If you have been
in our services for the last few weeks, then you know how often I have
recounted the power of God as expressed in creation. God is the creator of the earth and the seas and the heavens
and all that is in them. This is
such an amazing statement and it is echoed in the scriptures so many times I
cannot possibly recount them all.
That is why the theory of evolution is so damaging folks. Satan struck a mighty blow to the
church in America when he prevailed in the evolution debate and gained the
education system of our schools and universities. I am convinced it takes more faith to believe in evolution
than it does to believe in creation, but the fact remains that our children are
indoctrinated in it from the time they are toddlers. And as such, the gospel has lost one of it’s greatest
testimonies as to who God is.
Because according to Romans 1, the creation testifies of the invisible
attributes of God.
As I said a couple of weeks ago, the fact that we cannot
ascertain the fact that the earth is spinning at 1000 mph, and traveling
through it’s orbit at 67000 mph, does not invalidate the facts of science that
it is indeed traveling that fast. But
for you sitting here today, it is virtually undetectable and cannot be
ascertained by normal means. And
in the same way, the God who made the world and everything in it can not be
seen or felt or ascertained through human measurements, but He is and He exists
and by His power all things have their life and being, whether or not we can
deduct that through human senses or not.
It takes just as much faith to believe science as it does to believe in
God.
But that knowledge of God as our Creator is really the
foundation of our faith. When we
come to accept Him as our Creator, as the maker of everything, as the
originator of everything, then we can come to the point of knowing God and
knowing the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. If we believe in God who holds the
earth in space and made the sun and the stars and who made all life, then it is
but a small step to believe that He has the power to save and deliver man from
sin and death. So Paul says that
the unknown God is the Creator of the world.
And then secondly, Paul says, this unknown God is Lord of
heaven and earth and consequently does not dwell in temples made with
hands. I wonder if Paul would have
quoted Isaiah 66:1”Thus says the LORD, "Heaven is My throne and the earth
is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a
place that I may rest?” So God is not only Creator, but Lord of all. Oh, that is where most people fall
away, is it not? This would have
been the point that the Athenian philosophers would have started to
squirm. They were willing to
recognize this unknown God, but they would have a hard time confessing Him as
Lord of all. That there could be no other god before Him. Jesus, who was the physical
manifestation of God would say in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and
the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Ouch! Paul’s
judgment panel of philosophers probably winced at that one. He is Lord of all. One day every knee will bow and every
tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Confessing God as Creator, but as Lord of all, our Master
and the Ultimate Ruler of all is the foundation of our faith.
Thirdly, Paul says not only is He Creator and Lord, He is
the Giver of life. Look at vs. 25, “nor is He served by human hands, as though
He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and
all things.” What Paul is teaching
there is nothing less than the doctrine of the grace of God which is necessary
for salvation. We cannot give God
anything. He needs nothing. He is all sufficient. He is all powerful. He made everything on earth, so He owns
everything. And there is nothing
that we can give Him to endear ourselves to Him because He needs nothing.
But rather God is the giver of all life. James 1:17 “Every
good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” He causes it to rain on the just and
the unjust, so that as the scriptures say, the kindness of God calls them to
repentance.
Next point in Paul’s sermon was that this unknown God
controls man and his destiny. Vs.
26, “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face
of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of
their habitation, 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.”
The point being that man is made for God, to know God and to
have a relationship with Him. He
made all the nations of the earth from the first man, Adam, with whom that
relationship was broken through sin.
But because God gave us the second Adam, even Jesus to be our
substitute, we can have that relationship is restored. Augustine said in his Confessions, “You
have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest
in you.” There is a God sized hole
in every heart, which we cannot fill with anything other than Christ. Nothing else satisfies. And so God in His providence and grace,
so orders the human psyche so that they should seek Him and turn to Him.
Then the last point describing this unknown God that Paul
makes is that God is a revealer.
God reveals Himself to those that seek Him. Jeremiah 29:13says “You will
seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” And Jesus said in Matt. 7:7 "Ask,
and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be
opened to you.”
Paul is making the point that as you see God in Creation and
recognize Him, and as you understand that He is Lord of all and bow to Him, and
as you realize that He is the source of all life and goodness and so seek Him
and come to Him, then He will come to you and reveal Himself to you that you
may know Him. That we might know Him that is Unknown. He has announced Himself in
creation. He has manifested
Himself in Jesus Christ. And He
has revealed Himself in His Word. He
is the Revealer of Truth as we are obedient to the truth that is revealed thus
far.
That is the progression of the gospel of salvation. That we recognize the truth up to the
point that it has been revealed to us, and then we are obedient to that truth,
and then the Holy Spirit will continue to lead us and guide us into all
truth.
And then like all good preachers, Paul quotes from a
poem. For some reason or other, I
haven’t advanced in my preaching to that point of habitually quoting poetry. But Paul quotes from two poets
actually, Greek poets, not Christians by any means. But nevertheless Paul uses them to make a point and drive it
home with these intellectualists. Vs. 28, “for in Him we live and move and
exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His
children.'” Now that poem was
attributing that characteristic to a heathen god, but Paul is using it to say
that your own poets have said that we have our being and life from God. And though you do not know this God,
this Creator, this Lord of all, yet He is the source of all life, even eternal
life, because He is the eternal God.
And we are made in the image of the eternal God. In His likeness, in His image, we are
made to be like Him, to be in fellowship with Him, and that fellowship is the
source of eternal life and eternal joy.
See how high Paul sets the standard for God? It is not the purpose of man to live
only for human pleasure, to live
and let die, or to stoically endure the ups and downs of life without hope of
eternity and without knowing the God who made them for His fellowship. To live that way is to live in darkness,
to be blinded and miss out completely on the purpose of life.
So then Paul wraps up his sermon in one great sweeping
closing argument, saying in vs.29 "Being then the children 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. Therefore having overlooked the
times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere
should repent, because He 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."
Paul is contrasting the infinite God who is the Creator, the
Lord of all, the Giver of life and the revealer of truth, to their finite dumb
gods of stone and wood and metal, the image of God formed by the art and
thought of man. This is the idol
of our age; that we form god in our image, according to what we think God is or
should be like. We define Him and
box Him in, and minimalize Him with one word descriptions like “love” and say
whatever does not fit our description cannot be God. And so we worship nothing more than an idol of our own
design.
But Paul then inserts the other doctrine of the gospel. The first doctrine he presented was the
doctrine of faith, was it not?
Believing God is, and who God is.
That is faith. But as I
have said over the last couple of weeks, there are two pillars of the
gospel. There are two elements of
believing the gospel. One is
faith, but the other is repentance. That is renouncing sin, renouncing idols,
turning away from darkness and following God. That is repentance.
So Paul says in the time past you were ignorant, but now God declares
that all men are to repent and be saved.
This is the other great stumbling block to virtuous,
religious and intellectual people.
They want to philosophize
about God and religion, but they do not want to repent of their sins. This is
the stumbling block, the offense of Christianity. When we recognize who God is, and what we are; sinners. Outside of the fellowship of God. Unable to ascertain God. Unable to give God anything with which
we may barter for our salvation.
But utterly dependent on His grace to forgive our sin and cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
And then Paul presents the judgment. Paul saves judgment for last. Because the judgment is the last part
of the gospel. It is appointed
unto man once to die and after that the judgment. If you reject the free gift of God, if you reject the saving
antidote for deadly sin of which we all are guilty, then the judgment will be
that we will be forever separated from God who is the source of all life. And that results in eternal damnation for those that reject
God’s gift.
Paul said that God will judge the world through Jesus Christ,
whom He appointed to be our Savior, and furnished proof by His resurrection
from the dead. And when the
philosophers in this great university of higher learning heard about the
resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but some others said we will
hear more from you later. And I
think that is very much the case today.
Some hearing this message will sneer and think it foolish. Others will be convicted or perplexed
and say I’ll think about it. Maybe
I’ll decide later. But chances are
they will let the moment of decision pass away.
But I pray there will be someone here today like the men and
women in vs. 34, who believed and followed Paul. That is what it takes for salvation. To turn away from false idols, from false
relgion, and turn and believe in the true God revealed in His word, and then
follow Him as you are taught the truth in His word. I pray that you will believe in the God of the Bible, accept
Jesus as your Savior and Lord, and follow Him today.
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