Sunday April 25th, 2021 - Sermon: “When in Athens…or wherever…” Acts 17: 16-34.
There is no-one like God and he alone is worthy to be worshipped!
What has made you most angry over the past year? (The restriction of your rights and freedoms…)
What do you think has made the Lord most angry? What has mattered most to you over the last year? So what does really matter? (What should matter?)
Paul can help us here. The great apostle arrived in the celebrated city of Athens, long-known as a seat of civilisation, of learning, art, philosophy, great architecture, and of religion in its many forms. Petronius (Sat. xvii.) says humourously of the city, that "it was easier to find a god than a man there."
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
What Paul saw, (a city full of idols) while he waited for his friends to join him (v. 16), distressed him so deeply that he simply had to say something…it was an affront to the honour of the true God. Because God hated idols, so did Paul. Paul cared about the things that mattered to God. He cared about the reputation and the honour of God. He was a missionary. He served a missionary God. He saw men ascending to the heights…but descending into worthless religion and death.
He tells the assembled intelligentsia that, “the God you don’t know…you’ve got this altar to an ‘unknown god’… I’m gonna introduce you to this God. This is the God I have, to quote you, been babbling about. I’ll tell you what really matters…”
The God you don’t know is the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE (V.24):
He made the world; He is the Lord of heaven and earth; because of that he’s not confined to this man-made temple and he isn’t served by human hands as if he needed your gift c.f. (1 Kings. 8:27). No!
The God you don’t know is the SUSTAINER OF LIFE (V.25):
He has given you all the gift of life (Gn. 2:7); everything you have is his gift from him – whether or not you know it or believe it (James 1:17); all the abilities you take credit for…
The God you don’t know is the RULER OF THE NATIONS: (V. 26, 27):
26 from one man he made all the nations that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. (The Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men).
The God you don’t know is the FATHER OF HUMANKIND (V. 28, 29):
28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill…”
Some of Paul’s audience took excessive pride in themselves because they were born into a particular homeland or tradition. Paul reminded them that this was God’s doing and that, whoever they were they all were created by God and came from a common ancestor (Adam). God made you. You don’t make God! In Him we (all) live, and move and have our being. Even your own poets know this!
We are no more special than any other person or race – there is neither Jew nor Gentile…that’s what matters!
The God you don’t know is THE JUDGE OF THE WORLD (v. 30, 31):
30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
God commands people everywhere to repent. Why? Because He is the Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42). Because there is a coming judgment! People scoff at such ideas or hate the thought that God might be more than simply a creator. But Scripture does not speak of us “becoming stardust” when we die (as in romantic New Age notions)…
But it does speak of a journey, taken by all people, everywhere, at all times… to the JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST where the good and the evil will rise, either to live or to be condemned: “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life or to be condemned” (Jn. 5: 29).
“IT IS NO UNKNOWN GOD WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DEAL – BUT WITH A RISEN CHRIST!” (William Barclay)
That’s what really matters!
You may not be a theologist, but you know what matters. What will matter is that you turned from idols and turned to him as the Son of God; that you believe (trust) in his death for the forgiveness of your sins and believe that he was raised from the dead, that you go on believing in Him and that you are willing to confess Him before men.
Our efforts (like Paul’s here) to share the gospel may meet with mockery…they may be met by people who would like to put it off till tomorrow…they may be met with enthusiasm and (who knows)…people may believe and follow. It must matter enough to you…to try.
There are parallels in today’s text with our own western secular society which has its own “pick ‘n’ mix” approach to religion…one’s as good as another…truth is what you believe in. Our society has its idols too: we get angry when we realise that football club-owners don’t care about fans, but money. Oh, that we were as exercised about the things of God!
We are all good…the church included… at creating idols and putting them before the honour of God. Britons worship at the altars of materialism…“stuff”. We devote ourselves to the pursuit of riches, fame, success and power, and the Epicurean thirst for happiness. If people believe in God at all, they want a manageable God who will fit neatly in their pockets. The church wants to keep Him locked away in their temples, too! And, we behave as though it doesn’t matter,
There are people seeking desperately to know what it’s all about – they are out there! We know it’s true. We are told to “keep the faith” but not to keep it from other people! What matters most is not what the world wants to hear, but what it needs to hear…when in Athens or wherever.
You may not be asked to speak in a high powered assembly (like Paul) filled with ‘brilliant minds’ but I am sure you’ll have the opportunity – this very week, to point those we meet to the God who is creator, sustainer, ruler of the nations, loving Father, and Judge of all.
MFR
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