Sunday, November 3, 2024 AM

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day that you have given. We thank you for your provision and your protection in the rain and the storms. We thank you that you are all good and all powerful, and we do again intercede for those who have been affected by the storms, who have suffered loss.

And Lord, we pray that you would provide, and I pray that you would restore, and I pray that you would use your people in your name, and that your light would so shine through us that you would be glorified by our love for one another and our love for our neighbors.

And Lord, I pray that you would help us today as we read your word together, that we would think about what it means, that you would give us a clear view of your Son in this word, that we would look like him in this world as you have your way in our lives.

We pray for these graces, looking only to Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well-pleased.

Amen.

Paul Preaching in Athens and the Idolatry of the Nations

I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Acts 17, the book of Acts, and we'll begin reading in verse 22 as we consider Paul preaching in the Orophagus of Athens. In this chapter, we have thought about the good book, the centrality and essential nature of the Holy Scriptures.

We have thought of the good fight, the need to contend for the faith, and now we are looking at the sermon that Paul preaches in Athens concerning the good God. All through the book of Acts, the gospel of the kingdom has clashed with the hope of idolatry, the practice of idolaters.

And this is equally divided up between both Jew and Gentile. For the Jews were enamored with their grandiose stone temple of Roman architectural style covered over in gold and silver. The Gentiles likewise were enamored with their hideous idols of the Greek and Roman pantheons, the stones carved and covered in gold and silver.

But wherever the gospel of Jesus Christ, wherever the good news of Jesus Christ was heralded, that He was risen and that He was reigning, idolatry was exposed and only by God's grace eliminated from the hearts of both Jew and Gentile as they came to faith in Him.

Stephen's sermon to the Jews in Jerusalem and Paul's sermon to the pagans of Lystra both make the same points that Paul makes here in Athens. Two simple ideas. First, God is not contained within gold-covered stones, an important thing for folks to know.

But secondly, idols are no help to sinners before the divine judge. Those two points were made by Stephen in Acts 7. Those two points were made by Paul in Lystra in Acts 14. And once again, we encounter them here in Acts 17 as Paul preaches to the most idolatrous of all idolaters, the Athenians and the Greek philosophers in the Europagus.

So I invite you to stand with me as we read God's Word, Acts 17, beginning in verse 22. This is the word of the Lord. Then Paul stood in the midst of the Europagus 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, knowing Him I proclaim to you, 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, 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 all 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 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, as 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.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. The good God is the only God, bountifully God, truly God, gloriously God. God is not an IKEA table. God is not custom-ordered in oval or rectangle.

He is not custom-ordered in white or brown or really brown. He does not require some assembly. He is not to be placed just so with matching chairs in the dining room. He does not degrade through planned obsolescence.

In other words, God is not optional. God is not constructed. God is not arranged. God is not temporary. To put it another way, God is not for sale. Although everything in Christianity has somehow been commoditized by American marketing, in this we put Roman Catholics of the 1500s to shame, we ought not think of God in those terms.

God is the good God who is revealed, who is self-sufficient. He is sovereign. He is savior. He is spirit. And He is righteous. We are to know the good God who is revealed. We are to worship the good God who is self-sufficient.

We are to serve the good God who is sovereign. We are to proclaim the good God who is savior. We are to love the good God who is spirit and to fear the good God who is righteous. And I hope you can tell that in all of that, it is us responding to Him.

We're in orbit around Him. He is not in orbit around us. Now we like to feel safe and we like to feel confident. We like to feel in charge. We like to feel like things are going our way. And so we tend to manage as much as we can everything in our lives so that we feel that we're in our comfort zone and things are right.

Thus we are tempted to manage even God. We are tempted to manage God, to manage His demands, to manage His Word, to manage His authority, to manage His intrusions into our lives. But if we manage to manage God, we have only managed to make ourselves gods, and you and I are not gods.

We are mortal and we are subject to the good God who has given us life. And we live before the face of Him who will judge all mankind. We don't need to find a way to manage. That's not why we're here.

That's not why the Bible was given to us, to help us find quality ways to manage. We don't need to find a way to manage, we need a way. We just need a way. Who He Himself, the way, will be our mediator with God.

All these things we've been saying about the good God, we only know who He is and rejoice in these truths because Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. This is what Paul began preaching in Athens.

He was in the synagogues, he was in the marketplaces, and he was preaching Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, the Son of the living God who was raised from the dead. And when the philosophers of the Europagus heard what he was preaching, they said to him, we've got to get you, seed picker, bird brain, up to the Europagus because we want to hear this crazy stuff you're saying because, you know, we're here to make sport.

But Paul, when he gets to the Europagus, begins to preach and teach about the one true God, and it's not like he's changed his subject matter. He has not forgotten that what brought him up to Mars Hill is the preaching of the resurrection.

He's coming back to it now, here at the end of his sermon. The only reason we know who this God is, is because Jesus Christ has revealed Him to us, and He's revealed Him to us because He is risen from the dead.

So we've seen that the good God is revealed. Verses 22 and 23, we don't figure God out on our own. God comes to us and says, here I am. He says, and everywhere in the scriptures, the Father speaks of the Son by the Spirit that we may know God, and if we know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, we have eternal life.

Verses 24 through 25, we saw that the good God is self-sufficient. He doesn't need anything. We can't give Him anything that He doesn't already own. He is self-sufficient, self-existent. We are utterly dependent upon Him.

In verse 26, we are reminded that God is sovereign. He's in charge. Why do certain people live in certain places at certain times? Because God arranged it that way. Praise be to God. And God is not only sovereign, He is Savior, as we see in verses 27 and 28.

Yes, He put everybody in their place, in their time, but for what reason? So that they might come to know Him who is their life. And now we come again to verse 28 and 29, and think about this. The good God is Spirit.

So again, verse 28 and verse 29 reads, Paul says, 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. 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.

Paul's audience does not think rightly about God. They don't know God. In fact, Paul has said that you are ignorant of God. Now, they have the shrine, or more than one of these shrines in Athens, that said, To an unknown God.

They were there because of the Greek poet and philosopher Epimenides, who had tried to help Athens overcome a plague. And so he sent goats and sacrificial animals from the Europagus throughout the city, wherever those animals laid down to rest.

Whichever shrine was there, they would sacrifice the animal to that God or goddess, and figure those were the ones who were upset. Except when the animals laid down where there was no shrine, and so they built shrines to the unknown God, and offered the sacrifice of those animals there.

Paul picks up on this and says, You worship an unknown God. You honor an unknown God. Let me tell you about who this is, who you are ignorant of. He says, To the most educated. To the most credentialed.

To the foremost thinkers of his day, he says, Let me fill in the information you're lacking. Let me tell you how ignorant you are. And so he quotes from their own poets. And he points to their own system.

Why does he do this? Well, Paul has already quoted one Greek philosopher. He has quoted Epimenides himself, the one who was responsible for these unknown God shrines amongst the 30 ,000 shrines in Athens.

He's already quoted in verse 28 Epimenides, when he says, For in him we live and move and have our being. And now he quotes another Greek philosopher. He quotes and says, For we are also his offspring.

It's the quote from Aratus, who wrote a poem called Phenomena, a hymn to Zeus. Why is Paul quoting Greek philosophers? Why is he quoting the Greek poets to his audience? Jesus, when he was teaching the multitudes, he would point to the fields around his audience, and then he would tell stories full of elements that were easily recognizable by his Jewish audience.

So also Paul points at the idols and temples around the Europagus there in Athens and quotes from Greek poets to make his point. Well, let's consider this new quote that Paul gives. Let's consider the logic that he employs and then settle on the point that he makes.

Again, this quote is from a Greek philosopher and poet by the name of Aratus. He wrote a poem called Phenomena. He wrote it for Zeus. Now, Paul is recognizing a train of thought within Greek philosophy, and it was this.

As Greek philosophers struggled with the conflict between change and sameness, between the many and the one, they began to realize they have to have some big divine divinity something to hold it all together.

They have to be able to have coherent thought. And so they begin to attribute this idea of the Logos to Zeus. By principle, they thought that somehow in the divine everything was held together, and they used that to solve many of their philosophical problems.

And so Paul is recognizing this trend in Greek thought and that as the Greeks moved out of basic pagan superstition in their pantheon into philosophy proper, they began to attribute philosophical principles to the gods of their ancient pantheon.

And so Paul is quoting from two different poems acknowledging honor to Zeus, not because Paul thinks Zeus is great. He's not encouraging them to write more hymns to Zeus. He's not telling them to go sacrifice to Zeus.

He's simply recognizing what the Greek philosophers themselves recognize, which is what? The necessity of the divine. If you don't have the divine, you can't have any kind of coherency in your thought.

Now once Paul acknowledges this and in a sense takes their side on the matter, without God, nothing makes sense, he then begins to show them by logic how their system still makes no sense. So he reaches back to the fundamental thought, the principia, the root thought of all their thinking.

You have to have a God or divine structure to hold all of the world together or it just doesn't make sense. And Paul says, yes, let's start there. As one of your own poets have said, we are the offspring of the divine.

So let's think about how that works. If we're the offspring of the divine and we make things made out of stone and gold and silver to represent the divine, how can that be divine? Now he's not making a connection with the substances, but he is making a logical connection with the relationships.

When we read what Paul says here in the text, it's about relationships. Notice in verse 29, therefore, here's his logical conclusion, therefore, since we are the offspring of God, he says, since we are made of the divine, the divine made us, that we find our source, our origination in God.

And Paul is saying, basically, I agree with you in principle on this. Therefore, this is true, we ought not to think that the divine nature, and here's where they're going to disagree because they think of divine nature like Zeus and Apollo and all of that.

He says, we ought not think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and men's devising. Now, some have read that and said, yes, since we are the offspring of the divine and we are flesh and blood and that we are flesh and blood, but also body and spirit, that we ought to think of God, of whom we are his offspring, as also flesh and blood and body and spirit.

And many cults have built upon that. But Paul is not making a logical connection between this. He's not saying that because we're flesh and blood and spirit and body, that God Himself is flesh and blood and spirit and body, not silver and gold.

That's not his point. The point is the relationship. He says, we are the offspring of the divine. So how does it make sense to look for the divine in what we as mankind make? In other words, the divine made us, so the divine can't be something that we then make.

That's absurdity.

And he's pointing out that absurdity because even as the foremost thinkers of Greek philosophy and the Greek religion of the day stand in the Oropagus and say, oh yes, yes, we must have the divine, the necessity of the divine, yes, yes, we are the offspring of the divine.

Nonetheless, they live in Athens of 30 ,000 shrines, stones covered over by silver and gold. And they point here and there and everywhere and say, behold, the divine. And Paul says, you're lunatics. If you just take a moment to think about what you're actually saying, you'll see that you are fundamentally absurd.

The divine nature cannot be something that man shapes by external craft or devises by internal concept. See that in verse 29. We're the offspring of God. He made us so the stuff we make can't be God. It's a very simple proposition and it makes sense.

But notice what we make is in two forms. There is that which is shaped by art and that which is shaped by man's devising. Do you see that? So we can take substances like stone or clay or wood and we can fashion them by art.

Make them look beautiful. Make them look hideous. And we can cover them with gold and silver and try to beautify them and try to adorn them. He says, no, the divine nature can't be found in that. Also, it can't be found in man's, notice, devising.

Not only that which we shape by our hands, but also that which we formulate in our heads. You see this? It's in both the external and the internal. Idols can be fashioned both externally and internally and most of the time they're both.

The Athenians themselves were very proud of their ideology, very proud of their shrines and their industry. They had productive silver mines. They had marble quarries. Paul is there proclaiming the good news of Christ in the Oropagus and as he looks over at the Parthenon, there is the beautiful statue of Minerva in ivory and gold.

And he can look over and see the bronze colossus of that very same power. And all of it was incredibly impressive. But it was all made by men. It was all made by men. It was conceived in the mind and it was fashioned with the hands, with earthly materials, and to say that any of that was divine was simply absurd.

So Paul takes the time to quote Greek poets, to quote Greek philosophers for the point of saying, let's think about how consistent your thinking really is. And we don't have to take too long to find out that fundamentally your thinking is absurd.

Our thinking outside of God's grace, our thinking without God's aid is absurd. And when absurdity is in our roots, profanity is in our limbs, and wickedness is our fruits. This is the condition of mankind outside the grace of God.

Absurdity in our roots, profanity in our limbs, and wickedness as our fruits. And this passage shows us how vitally important our thinking about God truly is. Because it also pertains to our relating to God.

Our thinking about God leads to our knowing God, which leads to our loving God. So if our thinking is improper, then how will we know God, and then how will we love God? We are warned in Psalm 50, God Himself speaks by His servant.

In Psalm 50 verse 16, to the wicked God says, what right have you to declare My statutes, or take My covenant in your mouth? Very interesting. So not just anybody can take up God's Word and use it.

He says to the wicked,.

What right do you have to declare My statutes or take My covenant in your mouth? Seeing that you hate instruction and cast My words behind you. God is not pleased when just anybody takes up the Bible and begins to use it.

That's not virtue in and of itself. Verse 18, When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have been a partaker with adulterers. You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother.

You slander your own mother's son. He's saying, And yet you take up My word, you take up My scriptures, despite all of this wickedness, and how would they use it except to justify themselves and direct attention away from their own sins and to put the onus on others?

Verse 21, These things you have done, and I kept silent. Isn't it interesting that the Bible calls, Isaiah calls, the wrath of God and the judgment of God His strange work? Consider the term long-suffering.

How long does God suffer? How often we see God on His throne bearing with, having patience with, all day long extending His hands to a stiff-necked, stubborn people. And then we see Him finally arise.

Arise, O Lord.

When the Lord arises, that metaphor is about God.

God is a spirit,.

Does not have a body like man, so He's not getting up off His throne and groaning because His knees hurt. But the metaphor teaches us that when God arises from His throne to take action, it is after much long-suffering, much patience.

God has shown so much long-suffering, but now it is time to take action. Now it is time to judge. And because God will often be merciful, God will often be patient, God will often be long-suffering,.

Because He says,.

I have kept silent. These things you have done, and I have kept silent, because of this. Look what wicked men do in the absurdity of their thinking. Look at the conclusions of wicked men instead of letting the goodness of God lead them to repentance and the patience of God showing them the kindness and goodness of God so that they would repent.

They interpret the long-suffering of God entirely wrong. These things you have done, and I kept silent, you thought that I was altogether like you. See the conclusion? Well, I did this and I did that and they did that and they did this and God hasn't done anything about it.

I guess God is just like us. But I will rebuke you and set them in order before your eyes. Beware lest we think that God is like us. We have been made in God's image. We're not supposed to make God in our image.

We have been made in His image. To try to make God in our image is idolatry. When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman, the woman who came out to the well, He showed how important it is that we think about God rightly.

And Jesus Christ is the one who tells us who God is. He's the one mediator between God and man and that mediation involves not only our redemption but also revelation itself. How do we know who God is?

Jesus Christ shows us who God is. Jesus Christ tells us who God is. And as everywhere in the scriptures, the Father speaks to the Son by the Spirit, we know who God is through the Son. All to whom He wills to reveal Him, Matthew 11 says.

So in John chapter 4, Jesus is in conversation with the woman at the well and He has just exposed her in her sin and yet still sits with her to speak with her. And so the woman said to Him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped on this mountain. This is John 4 verse 20. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. So we've got a temple on this mountain.

We've got gold and silver and stone on this mountain. The Jews say they've got gold and silver and stone on that mountain. Where are we supposed to worship? Here's this controversy. Verse 21, Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father.

Now this sounds familiar, this next verse. You worship what you do not know. Isn't that what Paul said to the philosophers in Athens? You worship what you do not know. Jesus says you worship what you do not know.

We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews. The scriptures, the covenants, the oracles, the promises were given to the Jews and as Paul said to Timothy, the scriptures were sufficient to make you wise unto salvation.

They know what the truth is because they had the word of God and were accountable to it. And so he says you worship what you do not know. We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews, but the hour is coming, and notice, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. So she says here's this physical place that we think is really holy that we need to gather to. And there's a temple up here, a space up here where we worship God.

And you Jews, you all have your mountain. You do your thing. You've got your mountain over there. And you've got your temple in silver and gold and that's where you think you ought to worship. And she says this is a big debate that we have, don't we?

And Jesus says God is spirit. What did Paul say to the Greek philosophers? He said we ought not think the divine nature is like gold and silver and stones. Why? Jesus says God is spirit. And those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

We need to be spiritually alive and we have to know who God is in the truth and our life and our light is in Jesus Christ. The Samaritan woman says, verse 25, I know that Messiah is coming who is called Christ.

When He comes, He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am He. Praise God. Praise God. We've been given Jesus Christ. So thinking about God leads to our knowing God. And this is eternal life that we would know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

To think rightly about God so that we may know God, so that we may love God and live in His light. This is by the grace of God as He proclaims to us the Word of God. Now when we read in Acts 17, verse 28 and 29, Paul says, as 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. Think about this. Paul says, some of your poets have said that we are the offspring of God, that we are the children of God.

And Paul says, that being the case, let's think this through. Paul doesn't deny it. He only affirms the basic truth of it that we are from God. God has made us. We are His offspring. Indeed, it is a word that can be translated children.

Perhaps you have heard this passage being used and the sentiment being expressed,.

Well, we're all God's children.

Now, that being the case, there's more to say. Usually, that expression, well, we are all God's children, usually that expression is used to try to underscore an idea that well, God loves all of us equally then no matter what we believe and He's so patient and tolerant and accepting and approving of everything we do because we're His children.

Sounds more like grandchildren than children. But since we're all God's children, God would just love us and accept us and we're all good to go no matter what we believe or what we do. A case for universalism based on this passage.

Hey, we're all God's children, aren't we? Even Paul said that. And he said it in a context where he was talking to Greek philosophers and he was saying, hey, you've got a point. You see how this rolls?

And usually it's used as an attack against the exclusivity of Jesus Christ, Christ alone for our salvation. That is not why Paul says this. How are we to relate to God? Is it true that we are the offspring of God?

What does it mean that we're all the children of God? Well, in Luke 3, verse 38, we read that Enosh was the son of Seth who was the son of Adam who was the son of God. What? Adam was the son of God? Well, that's a summary of what we find in Genesis chapter 5.

This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them and called them mankind in the day that they were created.

In the likeness of God, right? And then verse 3, then Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. And so when you put those analogies, put those different passages right next to each other, what are we to say?

The point is what was made in Genesis 1. We are all made in God's image, made in His likeness. In that sense, we could all be called the offspring of God. In that sense, we could all be called the children of God.

It's not that God has a body, but that we are made in His image. Our soul is organized for a body and a life designed by God to reflect His spirit.

What then?

All mankind are the children of God? Does that then justify all men just by existing?

Hardly.

The fact that we are all the offspring of God is what makes all mankind, no matter who they are or where they have lived or what they know, the fact that we are all the offspring of God is what makes us fully accountable to God, which makes us copable before the face of God.

This is why Paul says in Romans 3, All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Yes, these were born without the law, never knew the law, never received the revelation of God, but these were born under the law.

But whether you're Jew or Gentile, the point is that we have sinned and therefore fall short of the glory of God.

So we need a Savior.

We need a Son. We need somebody to stand in for us and for our sake. The analogy, of course, is in Israel of the Old Covenant. Israel was called the Son of God, Exodus 4, verse 22. Israel was called the children of God, Isaiah 1, verse 2, Ezekiel 16, verses 20 and 21.

Israel was called the Son of God. Israel was called the children of God. Adam was called the Son of God. Mankind was called the children of God. Do we see the parallel? Do we see the analogy? But what does that mean that Israel was the children of God?

It only made them accountable and culpable in the covenant. Were they covenant keepers or were they covenant breakers? Such was the case that Paul even said, not all Israel is Israel. Not all the children of God were the children of God.

Not all who were in the covenant were actually, you know, blessed by God. So it was that in Israel, not all the children are real children. That is a construct which looks back at the fact that in Adam, in the image of God, in mankind, not all men made in God's image are living in God's image.

They need to be reborn and remade into God's image by the Spirit of God through the work of Jesus Christ. Which is why when Jesus Christ comes, not only do we have a new covenant which fulfills all the covenants that God made with Israel and so on, but also in Christ we have a new creation because we are new creatures in the new Adam.

When we say that we are all children of God, that means that we're all wearing the uniform and we're all AWOL. And we need a fresh uniform.

Of righteousness.

We need a pardon. We need forgiveness. We need to be made right with God. A child of God by birth in Adam, you need to be reborn as a son or daughter of God in the last Adam. So here, Paul, the Apostle, in the role of an evangelist, is proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ so that by repentance and faith, the offspring of the divine may rejoice and say, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God.

What a wonder. We ought not look to gold or silver or stone, either in Athens or in Jerusalem or in Rome or anywhere else, to know the divine nature. The divine nature is not mediated except by Jesus Christ.

And Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, has been raised from the dead the third day. He now reigns from the right hand of the Father and He is our mediator. The divine nature is not mediated by anyone else except for Jesus Christ.

So He is not mediated by beautiful buildings. We don't encounter the divine through beautiful buildings. We can't go to some place and legitimately, biblically, call it a sanctuary in which we are encountering the divine by its cruciform shape and beautiful decorations.

This, as Philip Jensen once said, this is a rain shelter. This is a rain shelter. The church, the new covenant temple, is made of living stones. The church is the people. This is a rain shelter. The children, no running in the rain shelter.

But this is not the sanctuary. Our sanctuary is in heaven where our mediator is. And He intercedes for us. And He pleads the merit of His own life, His own blood for us and for our sake. We ought not look to gold or silver or stone to know the divine nature.

Only by Christ Jesus and our union with Him do we know how we properly relate to God. Galatians 3 .26. Paul says, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. So it matters how we think. It matters how we think about God.

How we relate to God.

To know the Father,.

We are to seek the Son by the Spirit in the triune God's revelation in the Holy Scriptures. That we will by Spirit and truth worship the one true God and be brought to that heavenly Mount Zion. We still worship on a mountain.

It's just not a physical mountain. We're still brought to a temple, but it's a temple in heaven. We're still brought to a priest, but he's the great high priest at the right hand of God. We still bow before a king, but he's the king of kings.