Lechem Panim #196 “The Unknown God Made Known” (Acts 17:22-34) Pastor Cameron Ury

Hello and welcome to Lechem Panim. If you were with us last week, you’ll know that in our study of Acts chapter 17 we began taking a look at how Paul has been forced to flee from Berea to the city Athens, where he is awaiting Silas and Timothy to join him. And while there he has an opportunity to share the Gospel with the people there and so he is brought to the Areopagus (the council) which [met on a low hill in Athens near the Acropolis.] And it says…

Acts 17:22-23 (NKJV)— 22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:

The Unknown God— Now this is powerful evangelism right here. Notice how Paul does exactly what we have been observing him doing frequently in his evangelism; and that is finding that common ground, that point of entry where you can meet someone where they are at, build on what they know or believe, and then lead them into what they do not yet know. These [Athenians had built an idol to the unknown god for fear of missing blessings or receiving punishment.] And so Paul begins his witness by saying that he is proclaiming the God they do not know. Now he wasn’t endorsing whoever this god was (at least in their minds), but simply used it as a stepping stone into talking about the One true God. And he begins with that bit of Judeo-Christian theology which has (since earliest times) set Judaism and Christianity apart from every other world religion; and that is that God is not a part of creation (being conceived by and born into nature), and therefore enslaved to it just as we are. No, He is the maker of heaven and earth; and because He is the maker of all things (heaven and earth) is the Lord of all things. That is where any good Jew would begin. It’s the reality the Psalmists always pointed back to. In a world where people looked to the high places (where pagan worship was carried out in their feeble attempts to try to manipulate gods who were bound to this world), a different theology was produced by God in Israel (and it could have only come from God; it is too big for us).

Psalm 121:1-2 (NIV) A song of ascents.— 1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? {Now we always get this wrong, because we think the Psalmist is finding hope from the mountain. But no, he’s looking to the mountain (the high place where all his pagan neighbors look to) and he’s saying “my help doesn’t come from there and that whole pagan system. No,…} 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. {That is what set Yahweh apart from all other in the mind of the Jew, which is why Paul (a Jew to the core) responds the way he does…}

Acts 17:24-28 (NKJV)— 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

Closely Involved— So God has created the world and everything in it (v.24) and also is closely involved with His creation. While He is not trapped within His creation (because He is transcendent) nevertheless he is close to each and every one of us. And He (Paul says) is the source of our life, an is in absolute control of our lives. It is in Him that we live, being dependent on Him; He is not dependent on us (as the pagans believed all gods were). No, we need Him. And Paul quotes from one of their own poets who talked about how all man is the offspring of a god. So, once again, another touching point.

The Media Medium— Now when we watch a secular movie or listen to a secular song that sheds light on a particular issue, it gives us (like it did here with Paul) a place to start in the conversation. Now I’m not advocating you watch every secular movie or listen to every secular song. Many (if not most) we need to say no to. But nevertheless we need to be aware of what those movies are saying because that is how this generation expresses their philosophy. And we need to know what it is they are saying so we can reflect back those things they are saying that is true, with the aim of helping them to grow in their understanding. And that is what Paul has just done here with his first point: God is sovereign because He is the Maker of heaven and earth. Now for point 2:

Acts 17:29-31 (NKJV)— 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. {So, in other words, “the gods you are worshipping are false gods that do not accurately represent the divine. That’s his second point. And his third is…} 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

Judgment Day— So point 3 is that they are in need of repentance because a day of judgment is coming, a day where Jesus Himself will judge the earth as God’s ordained judge. Now this was important for these Athenians to hear because obviously [Most of them preferred worshipping many gods instead of just one,] but Paul is saying they need to repent of this because judgment from the one and only Sovereign God is coming. Now [The Greeks had no concept of judgment.] And it would take a very big piece of evidence to make them believe that they needed to forsake all the other gods they worshipped and prepare themselves for some kind of future judgment day from a one and only God. And so Paul gives them that necessary piece of evidence. He says of God: He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

The Heart of The Message— Now to the Greeks [the concept of resurrection was unbelievable and offensive]. But it is what Paul (and all the Christians) pointed back to because it happened not in some ethereal realm, but in space and time; in their very midst. And because of that (and what it meant in terms of our having the potential of a restored relationship with God) it was always the focal point of their message. Now that may be offensive to some people (as much of the Gospel is), but though Paul often [changed his approach to fit his audience,…he never changed his basic message.] He never compromised his beliefs. He kept proclaiming the resurrection, not only because he had met with many eyewitnesses to it, but because he himself had seen the resurrected Lord. However, some of the Greeks were so repulsed by this teaching (so close-minded) they were not even willing to ask further questions about this; to ask what evidence there was to support their claims that such an event had taken place (which there was much). Instead it says…

Acts 17:32-33 (NKJV)— 32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, {However, while some mocked, it does say…} while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.”  {So there were those who (like we said before) were intellectually courageous and honest enough to examine their own belief in light of new evidence. And so it says…} 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Bringing Truth— Now here in this passage we have seen how Paul went about bringing truth to lost people. He began with what they knew, he used illustrations they were aware of, and boldly proclaimed God’s Sovereignty, our need to repent of all idolatry in preparation for the coming day of judgment, and how our belief in that coming day of judgment is supported by the truth of the resurrection. Now if we are to be like Paul in this passage, then you and I need to recognize that we are to be bringers of these truths to our culture; because (as Paul said) time is running out. Christ is coming back and He is coming back soon. And if we are truly in Christ, then we will be moved into action as Paul was. If we really love our neighbor, we will seek to meet them where they are spiritually and help them; because we recognize that they are either going to spend an eternity with Jesus or an eternity without Jesus. Just recently I re-read one of my favorite quotes, which I have talked about in recent days. It’s from C.S. Lewis’ Weight of Glory. Listen to what he writes. He says…

The weight of glory— [The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations,—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ veer latitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.]

A CHALLENGE— This morning I want us to get really practical; because a lot of times it is easy to say that we are going to try harder to be better witness for Christ in the world. And that’s good, but I don’t think that that is specific enough to be practical. How can you and I better engage the world for Christ? What are some specific ways you can think of where you can bear testimony of the hope that is in you? This week, I want to give each of you a mission. Your mission is to witness to at the very least one unsaved person. I want you to: (1) Ask what they believe about the divine/god, (2) What they think about Jesus, and (3) Build on what they know, perhaps even sharing some of your own personal testimony. Who knows what God might be able to do. And so let’s do so. Amen.