The Road to Love Pt 2
Devotion in Motion
Acts 17:19-32
“And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus…” The word can be translated “Ares Rock.” The Romans called the place, “Mars Hill.” It was an outcropping of rock west of the Acropolis where the supreme 9 council of Athens – the leading philosophers – met to examine religious and philosophical matters. And Paul was questioned. “Saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” “For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.”
“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.” Athens had thousands of idols, but just in case one had been forgotten – or there was a god they’d missed – rather than offend him, they built him an altar. It proves the paranoia produced by polytheism. Interestingly, the architects in Athens built altars to a pantheon of gods, but the philosophers in Athens were largely agnostic.
Plato wrote, “It is hard to investigate and to find the framer and the father of the universe. And, if one did find Him, it would be impossible to express Him in terms which all could understand.” Yet the intellectuals all acknowledged the necessity of a prime mover – a universal first cause – yet they viewed him as aloof and distant – impossible to know. And this left a huge vacuum in the Greek soul. Paul draws on their hunger for the one, true God. He uses the altar to the unknown god to proclaim the true God.
Verse 23, “Therefore, the One whom you worship without 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.” Right above Mar’s Hill was the Parthenon – a massive temple to the goddess, Athena. It still stands today. Yet Paul says the real God needs no temple. Heaven and earth is His temple. “Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things…” The real God is self-existent . It’s foolish to think the true God is dependent on human hands. He’s the Creator and Giver of life. And Here Paul makes a contemporary argument.
Life doesn’t evolve by chance. There is a Creator. Philosopher GK Chesterton once said, “Evolutionists seem to know everything about the missing link except the fact that it is missing.” The theory behind evolution is that given enough time fish turn into frogs, frogs into birds, birds into monkeys, and monkeys into humans. But if this were true you would expect to find a fossil record littered with transitional forms, like half-fish and hybrid humans – but the missing links are all missing! I once heard a lady say, “Besides if evolution really worked – if we really adapted and evolved upwards – by now moms would have three arms.” Don’t buy into the idea that this perfectly ordered universe rose out of chance and chaos. Perfect design requires a designer.
It’s obvious to an unbiased mind, that as the Apostle Paul put it, “God made the world and everything in it.” “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…” God created humans with unity and diversity. Humans are “one blood,” but we’ve been grouped in nations and given boundaries. The big downfall of the global village concept – the oneworld idea – a world without borders – is that it’s not biblical. Paul tells the Athenians that God created people groups, and marked out “the boundaries of their dwellings…” In essence, God is in favor of walls. You can’t point to the Bible for proof of unbridled immigration. Borders are biblical.
Borders are of God. In fact, in Genesis God lays out a table of nations. Remember at the tower of Babel, all mankind came together under one ruler, and God broke up the party. He scattered us into nations… In the future, the Antichrist will rise to power on the back of a global government. Nations, and boundaries, and people groups are God’s idea, and needed in a fallen world. The only truth that can truly bring people together is that of a common Creator. One God made us, thus we all seek that same God… “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…” We’re restless until we find the God who made us! It’s interesting, Epicurus taught that God is distant and unattainable. But here Paul quotes one of Athens’ most famous philosophers. A man named Epimenides. He wrote, “For in Him we live and move and have our being…” God is everywhere. God is not just infinitely high, but He’s also intimately high. The true God wants us to know Him. He’s ready to reveal Himself.
Paul continues, “as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Here he quotes the Greek philosopher, Aratus. Paul does what pastors do today. He relates to his audience. He draws on cultural references to emphasize a biblical truth. Aratus acknowledges we all have a common Creator. Paul explains, “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.” When Paul calls us “the offspring of God…” note, he’s not teaching universal salvation. He’s not suggesting we’re all born again. He’s simply saying that as our Creator we derive our life from God. Paul is using reverse logic… Since we’re made in God’s image, we can get an idea of what God is like by looking at us. I’m living, personal, and knowable – and so is God. I am more than a chunk of metal or stone.
I’ve been called “blockhead” on occasion, but I’m alive – and so is the God who made me. He’s no idol. Paul starts into his conclusion in verse 30, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent…” The Greeks were proud of their history. They talked longingly of “The Golden Age of Pericles” when Greek civilization had reached its pinnacle. Even today, we still marvel at Greek culture. Yet Paul called the hallowed history of the Greeks, “times of ignorance.” The Greeks were unenlightened in God’s truth. When it came to what mattered most Greece was ignorant. Paul says the time to debate is over. It’s time to decide. God is calling 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. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
The city of Athens was judging Paul, but one day God will judge Athens and all men in righteousness. In resurrecting Jesus, God was ordaining Him as Lord and Judge over all the earth. We’re told in verse 32, “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked…” It’s been said, “An agnostic is a person who says that he knows nothing about God, and when you agree with him he becomes angry.” People got mad at Paul because he told them the truth. And when he did, they scoffed at him. “While others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.”
The notion of Jesus’ resurrection stunned the Athenians. They needed to think this through. The Greeks considered the human body to be evil – a prison for the soul. According to Greek thought when the body died the soul was set free from its fleshly cage, to fly back into the oblivion from which it came. The idea of a resurrection discombobulated them. It halted Paul’s message… some Athenians taunted Paul, some of them tarried, and some took Paul up on the offer of eternal life.
We’re told, “So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.” This was not the response Paul experienced in other places. There were just a few converts in Athens. Dionysius was a council member, an Areopagite. He was a leading philosopher who came to Christ… Paul’s other convert, Damaris, was female. Since proper Greek ladies seldom entered the male arena of Mars Hill, some think Damaris was a prostitute.
It’s interesting the two named converts in Athens were a philosopher and a prostitute. It just proves God saves both the down and out and the up and out.
And he will save me and you and all we have to do is call out to him.
But he is not the Unknown God but the God who can be Known.
Amen
Victor Tafoya
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