Acts 17:22-34

Good morning, good morning, good morning. Almost good afternoon, seven minutes short of that. It's so good to have you here this morning. We are at Acts chapter 17, verses 22 through 34. This is where every day you and I, we get together. We get into God's word. We have a little bit of coffee and we grow in our love for the Lord together. In this year, 2022, we'll make it from Acts to Philemon. I'm really excited today. Paul is debating with the philosophers in the Areopagus. Let's have some coffee and we'll pray. Let's pray.
Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for this chance to be in your word, this opportunity you've given us to read the words of life. Lord, we pray that we would follow after you this morning. Love you and hold firm to your promises. Thank you for how great and grand you are in Jesus's name. Amen. Here we go.
Acts chapter 22, beginning at verse 17, or sorry, Acts chapter 17, beginning at verse 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. 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.
God, who made the cosmos and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, and all things. And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. 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. For in him we live and move and have our being. And also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. 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.
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day. on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. And he has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked while others said, we will hear you again on this matter. So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed. Among them Dionysius, the Areopagite, a woman named Demarius, and others with them." Well, what an incredible sermon Paul gives there. We need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words? What is Paul doing?
Remember, Paul was going out into the marketplace and he was going into the synagogue. He was reasoning with the Jews because the Spirit had burdened his soul that he needed to go and tell people of Jesus. So he goes out and does it. They take him to the place, the Areopagus, where the people are in charge of maintaining proper worship in the town. So these Epicureans and these Stoics aren't happy with Paul and they take him there. And Paul uses very philosophic words that many of them have double meaning, backdoor understandings.
So when he says to them, I perceive that in all things you are very religious, this could either mean they're very religious or they're very superstitious. And then he also says, for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, that term objects of your worship coming off the lips of a Jew is the idea of idolatry. And he says, you all are so superstitious. You all are so idolatrous.
He uses this language that they don't really understand what's going on at first. Maybe he's complimenting them, maybe he's insulting them. And so he somewhat earns their trust and piques their interest and says, you even have this God, this object of worship, this statue to the unknown God, and I'm going to proclaim him to you. And then he lays into them that the God of the scriptures is not the pantheistic God. See, it is not Apollos, it's not, you know, Zeus, it's not any of the other pagan gods.
All of them were farces. None of them created anything, but it was the one true living God. It was this God who created the cosmos, the heavens, the earth, and everything in it. It was him alone who had being in and of himself. All of us have contingent being. All of us are contingent on God being. It was God who spoke and the world came into existence. It was by the will of his power that he created all things seen and unseen, and without him none of us would exist."
And he says, so we shouldn't fashion and think of God as made by human hands or dwelling in a temple. No. No, the heavens are his throne and the earth is but his footstool. Right? He is, God is immense and also intense. He's both beyond everything but also intimately entwined with everything. It is God who is alone, non-contingent, and it's all of us who are contingent on him.
He doesn't need us. His happiness is not contingent on us serving him. His dwelling place is not contingent on him having a little house built on a hill on the Acropolis. No, he doesn't need any of that. He doesn't need us to serve Him. He doesn't need us to build Him a house. He doesn't need us to fashion things out of gold or silver or wood. All those are just idols.
But no, no, but he goes on and this is where the book of Romans is very helpful, right? This has been known to them. Romans chapter 1 talks about how they could have seen this. The Gentiles could look at natural creation, natural revelation. They could have looked at the world and known the divine power of God. But yet, they twisted and turned that, and God gave them over to the deceitfulness of their minds. They were groping in the dark for him with all their pantheon of idols.
And Paul is saying, none of that's true. And he lets you guys go on in your ignorance, but there's no more time for ignorance. It's over. He has sent one man and that one man is going to judge the living and the dead. And he assured us of his coming judgment because he raised him from the dead. He's speaking of Jesus and he's telling them that a judgment is going to come so you need to repent.
You need to turn from these false idols and you need to come and turn and worship the one true living God. You need to believe in the one who created the cosmos. and filled it with all of his creation. You need to go back to Genesis chapter 1 and 2 and you need to see that it is the Lord himself who does these things.
And people there are like, oh man, this guy's stupid. They don't respond to him well. I mean, that's exactly what verse 23 says. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others say, we'll hear from you again. Go ahead, come back and talk to us a little bit more about that. But some people are struck to the heart There's a couple people by name who believe, who come and realize he's right. He's right. If there is a God, why do we need to, we can't appease them. We can't serve them. They don't, if there's, if there really is a God, they don't need us. They're not much of a God. And they hear about Jesus Christ and him raised from the dead and they believe.
What's the best verse in this? Well, I got all sorts of things underlined in my Bible, mainly verses 27 through 31. I'm not going to go ahead and reread all that, but double underlined in my Bible is verses 28 as well as verse 31. What would you underline in your Bible as the best verse to summarize these sections? What are you called to do?
By faith, do you believe that God created all things of nothing? Do you believe in a God who is powerful enough to create all things, everything that you could see and all the realities of the spiritual world which we cannot see? Do you believe? and a God who could create everything and uphold it by the word of his power. Do you believe that he could send his only begotten son to be a sacrifice, an atoning sacrifice for you and for me? Do you believe that God raised him from the dead? This is not going to go in line with naturalistic thinking, but do you believe that the God who created everything could also conquer even death? And do you believe that Jesus is going to come again to judge the living and the dead? Do you believe this?
I don't know who you are. Maybe you have a hard time with some of this. Maybe you need to turn from some of the ways that you've been thinking. Repent. Stop serving yourself. Stop serving money. Stop serving your job. Stop serving anything else as its ultimate end. And bow the knee to Jesus Christ.
Are you ready for the judgment day? Are you ready for Jesus to return? Let's pray. Father, I don't know who's listening to this today, but Lord, I pray that they might have faith. Lord, I pray that you would help us to believe. I pray that you would have many people come to know Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Lord, may your glory extend to the furthest reaches of this cosmos. Thank you. Thank you for telling us the truth and for giving us hope and assurance of what is to come. In Jesus' name, amen. May the Lord bless you. May you rest in Jesus Christ. May you rejoice in the Lord always. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.