CALL TO CONFESSION

Isaiah 64:6-7

We have all become like one who is unclean,

    and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

We all fade like a leaf,

    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

There is no one who calls upon your name,

    who rouses himself to take hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us,

    and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

O Lord, every day of our lives has proven us guilty in your sight.

Our deepest confessions have sometimes come from prayerless hearts; our praise has often been a sound without true devotion. 

Even our best efforts feel like filthy rags compared to your holiness.

Blessed Jesus, we seek shelter and refuge in your wounds that brought us peace. 

Though our sins rise high, your merits soar above them all. 

Though our unrighteousness weighs us down, your perfect righteousness lifts us to your throne.

Everything in us cries out for our rejection, yet everything in you pleads for our acceptance.

We appeal from the throne of perfect justice to your throne of boundless grace.

Grant us the assurance of hearing your voice, that:

By your stripes, we are healed.

You were bruised for our iniquities.

You were made sin for us, so that we might be righteous in you.

Our grievous and manifold sins are all forgiven, 

buried deep in the ocean of your concealing blood.

We stand here guilty, yet pardoned; lost, yet saved; 

wandering, yet found; sinning, yet cleansed.

Give us a perpetual sense of broken-heartedness before you. 

Keep us always clinging to your cross. 

Flood us in every moment with your descending grace.

Open for us the springs of divine knowledge, sparkling like crystal, flowing clear and unsullied through the wilderness of our lives.

“Take a few moments to personally confess your sins to the Lord.”

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

“Hear these words of comfort and assurance.” 

Isaiah 53:5-6

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his wounds we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all.

• If the apostle Paul were to walk through one of our cities today, what do you think would provoke him most?
• He wouldn’t find marble statues of Zeus or Athena.  But he would find temples of a different kind.
• In Acts 17, Paul walks into a city just like ours—beautiful, educated, artistic, and utterly blind. Athens was the intellectual capital of the ancient world, filled with philosophers, poets, and idols.
• Luke tells us that when Paul saw the city full of idols, “his spirit was provoked within him.”
• What follows is one of the clearest examples in Scripture of how to engage a culture that worships everything except the true God.
• Theme: The Sovereign Creator, though unknown to the world, has revealed Himself through Christ and commands all people everywhere to repent because the resurrection guarantees both judgment and salvation. 

Acts 17:16-34

16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

• While Paul is in Athens waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him, he is looking at this great and impressive city, with magnificent structures that boasts an entire skyline of idolatry. 
• He is provoked in spirit as he saw that the city was full of idols. 
• The Greek verb for provoked, is where we derive our English word, paroxysm: which means a sudden, acute, even violent agitation. Luke is emphasizing the visceral response Paul had. 
• Paul is sickened to his stomach.
• He is both spiritually offended that the people are given over to false worship.
• And he is moved with pastoral compassion for the lost and spiritually blind of Athens.  

• Paul was seeing Athens through spiritual eyes. 
• He is provoked to engage the Athenians with the gospel. 
• He reasoned in the synagogue with Jews and Gentile God-fearers.
• He took the gospel into the marketplace, called the agora. 
• He goes every day to the public square, where the people are. 
• He went there every day and spoke to everyone who happened to be there. 

• He encountered two groups of philosophers who engaged with him—the Epicureans and the Stoics. 
• The Epicureans believed everything came from particles of matter. They were materialists. They believed the gods were distant and uninvolved in human affairs. There is nothing after death and no judgment. 
• The Stoics emphasized virtue, accepting the moment and not allowing oneself to be controlled by pleasure or pain. They were pantheists, believing that everything was permeated by the divine logos.
• We see echoes of these philosophical schools in our modern world.
• Paul’s speech at the Areopagus challenged these two philosophical schools of thought. 

REACTIONS

• Paul’s engagement with the people of Athens produced various reactions. 
• Some negative, “What does this babbler wish to say?”
• 'Babbler' is the Greek word, spermologos, which means “seed-picker.”
• It gives the image of a bird picking up seeds, and the sense is someone who picks up scraps of knowledge and teaching of others to gossip and spread. 
• Paul is being accused of passing on secondhand ideas that he doesn’t understand.
• Others react by claiming him to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he is preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 
• Those who are intrigued take Paul to the Areopagus to explain himself and this new teaching.

APPLICATION

• Our culture may not have idols made of gold, silver, or marble lining the streets, but is no less full of idols. 
• The people of our community are also drowning in idolatry. 
• Anything that is made into a functional savior and becomes ultimate in our life is an idol.
• We also live in a religiously pluralistic culture like Athens. 
• Diverse religious worldviews and belief systems co-exist and clash in our culture all claiming to be true and offering a path of salvation. 
• The Christian worldview is exclusive, not inclusive. We don’t claim Christianity is one truth among many. It is “THE TRUTH.”
• Everyone has a worldview, a set of beliefs about the most fundamental issues of life: origin, meaning, morality, and destiny.
• For the Christian, our worldview is shaped by God’s revelation to us in Scripture. 
• Because our worldview is shaped by Scripture, we see everything, work, art, relationships, even suffering, through the lens of God’s revelation in Christ. 
• You’ve encountered competing worldviews as you’ve tried to share the gospel with others. 
• People have radically different ways of seeing an issue because they have a radically different set of beliefs they filter the world through. 
• But only the Christian worldview is true and coherent. 
• Where the Christian struggles is in consistently applying it to everything. 
• Our Christian worldview causes us to see the world is filled with idols. 
• Your neighbors, co-workers, family members, classmates, are worshipping something or someone.
• Are you provoked by the rampant idolatry around you? 
• Are you driven by zeal for the glory of God and his name?
• Do you love the lost enough to proclaim Jesus to them and to see them come out of their spiritual blindness into the light of Christ? 
• Like Paul, the lostness around us should compel us to proclaim the good news to others, calling them to turn from their idols to the living God and give to him the glory due his name. 
• Until we weep for the lost we will not win the lost to Christ. 

• Paul takes a stand for the gospel in the midst of the Areopagus.
• How will he address people who perhaps don’t have a knowledge of Scripture, like the Jews?
• He immediately makes a point of connection with them. 
• He acknowledges that they are very religious people. Not only do they have hundreds of gods they worship, they even have an altar built to “the unknown god.” 
• Paul understands that man is incurably religious. 
• Wherever you go and engage with people you will find people who are religious. 
• Paul states in his letter to the Romans, that all of humanity knows God exists. 
• But they suppress the truth about God even though God’s existence is evident to them. 
• They know because all of humanity is created in the image of God.
• The human spirit has a longing for connection with God. Even in those who claim he doesn’t exist. 
• John Calvin called the heart an idol-making factory. That’s why people turn to something to serve or look to something to act as their functional savior.
• It is our responsibility and privilege to share with others that their empty and fleeting pursuit for meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and salvation can be fully and finally satisfied in Christ. 
• Next, Paul establishes a point of conflict. 
• What they worship as unknown, Paul will proclaim to them: the unknown God has made himself known! 
• The problem is not that God cannot be known.
• The problem is that people don’t want to know him. 
• What Paul masterfully does is weave the Christian worldview into his message. 
• He uses general revelation and natural theology to answer the question “what do these things mean?”

GOD IS THE CREATOR

• He begins with creation. God made the world and everything in it. 
• The whole earth is a theater of God’s revelation.
• Paul wrote that what can be known about God, his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature can be clearly perceived in the things he made. (Rom. 1:18-32)
• God made himself known in creation and that it is why no one can truly claim that they are completely without revelation of God. 
• The Athenians worshipped many gods, but Paul presents the exclusive claim of Christianity, there is only one God who created everything. 
• And that is why it is absurd to think that God can be contained by a man-made temple. 
• God transcends his creation. 

GOD IS INDEPENDENT 

• V25 God is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything…
• This is the doctrine of God’s aseity--his absolute self-existence and independence. 
• God does not need anything. He is self-sufficient within himself.
• He exists from himself, without anything external to his being. 
• This should humble us. We are nothing like God. 
• God doesn’t need us, we need him! We are fully dependent on him. 
• God is free, perfect, and completely independent of us. 

GOD IS THE SUSTAINER OF LIFE

• He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 
• The God who made the world and everything in it also sustains it. 
• Colossians 1:17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
• Hebrews 1:3 (Christ) upholds the universe by the word of his power. 
• God is intimately involved in his creation, sustaining it moment by moment. 

GOD IS PROVIDENTIAL

• God is intimately involved in the lives of humankind. He governs and directs humanity. 
• God created diverse ethnic groups from one man. The diversity in the human family is by God’s design. 
• He determined when people would be born and where they would live. 
• He controls the rise and fall of nations and the boundaries between them. 
• He appoints the seasons of history. 
• What a comfort to know that nothing happens to us outside of God’s gracious providence and sovereign will. 

GOD IS KNOWABLE

• Paul says to them that the purpose in creating humans and God’s active engagement with his creation was so that humans could “seek God and find him.” 
• He says, “perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.”
• That gives the image of blind people groping in the dark. Our sin resulted in us being born spiritually blind.  We need divine grace to give us new spiritual eyes to see the light of Christ. 
• God is transcendent but he is also immanent. 
• “He is actually not far from each of us.” 

GOD IS THE FATHER OF HUMANITY

• Paul uses a stunning tactic, quoting two pagan Greek poets to make his point that we are God’s offspring. Even blind guides can have insight from general revelation. 
• We can use cultural sources to connect with those who don’t know Jesus but we must always use caution and discernment. 
• We are not only created by God but his resemblance is reflected in us. 
• Because we are made in God’s image, it is utter foolishness to worship something made by human hands. 
• The prophet Isaiah described the folly of idolatry. (Isaiah 44:9-20) 

• Paul demonstrates a remarkable ability to adapt his methods to reach different audiences.
• We need to also learn how to adapt our gospel presentation with a growing population of people who know virtually nothing of what the Bible teaches. 
• This is why it is so important to know the storyline of the Bible and know how to present the gospel within the framework of the larger biblical story.
• We cannot assume people share our Christian worldview or have an understanding about God and what Jesus accomplished for us. 

GOD IS THE JUDGE AND RESCUER

• Paul tells them that despite the revelation of God in creation, they have become spiritually ignorant. 
• But that ignorance will not excuse them before God. 
• “The times of ignorance God overlooked…” does not mean God ignored human rebellion but that in his mercy he didn’t immediately visit humanity with the judgment they deserved. 
• He warns them of judgment. 
• Now everyone, everywhere must repent. God, the Creator, commands it of all humanity. 
• The fact that God will judge has been clearly expressed through the resurrection of Jesus. That is the assurance that it will happen. 
• God has committed this judgment to his Son, Jesus, who will judge everyone in perfect righteousness, on a fixed day God has appointed. 
• If people repent, the same Judge can save them. 
• The appeal to repent is clear and consistent in Scripture. 
• We must turn from the worship of self and idols to the worship of the living God. 
• All are under God’s wrath because of our persistent rebellion. But those who turn to Christ and turn from their sins will have their sins forgiven and they will have life in him. 

• Consider the challenging truths that Paul proclaimed:
• The exclusivity of Christ.
• The resurrection of Jesus.
• The providential movement of history.
• These truths still offend people today. 
• Paul’s hearers found them so offensive that they stopped his speech. 
• Some mocked him because of his resurrection talk. 
• Others were still curious and said they wanted to hear more. 
• And a handful believed. Including one of the members of the Areopagite council. 

CONCLUSION

• The unknown God of Athens is no longer unknown. 
• He has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, who is the Creator, the Sustainer, and the Righteous Judge of all the earth.
• The idols of our age still promise life, freedom, and meaning, but they cannot speak, cannot save, and cannot raise the dead.
• There is only one who can: the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
• Don’t wait to repent. Don’t wait until the next season of life, or until you feel ready. 
• The same God who commands all people everywhere to repent also offers full pardon to all who come to His Son in faith.
• May we be provoked by the lostness around us.
• Until we see what Paul saw, and feel what Paul felt, we will not speak as Paul spoke.
• May God open our eyes to the idols around us, and fill our hearts with holy zeal, for His glory and for the salvation of the lost.

APPLICATION AND REFLECTION

In light of today's message....

• What did I learn about the gospel?
• How can I apply what I learned about the gospel to my life?
• With whom can I share the gospel this week?