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Acts of the Apostles, Acts 17:19-34

Acts of the Apostles, Acts 17:19-34. Second Journey - to Thessalonica, Berea and Athens. Acts 17:19-21

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Acts of the Apostles, Acts 17:19-34

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  1. Acts of the Apostles, Acts 17:19-34 Second Journey - to Thessalonica, Berea and Athens

  2. Acts 17:19-21 • 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 want 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.) View of Athens from the Areopagus

  3. If a tabloid newspaper had been printed in Athens it would have had a large circulation. These philosophers and many others had slaves to do their menial tasks. So they could spend all their time hearing and discussing the latest news and gossip. • They also liked to argue. The Areopagites, or members of the Areopagus had regular meetings to hear and discuss the latest ideas. Their meeting place was on top of the hill of Ares above the city. The Roman name for Ares is Mars.

  4. Acts 17:22-23 • 22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. • 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

  5. Greek historian Pausanias said that there were more idols in Athens than in all the rest of Greece combined. Likely Paul would have seen idols virtually everywhere he went. Peoples New Testament

  6. The Athenians were indeed very religious if they had an altar to every god they had ever heard of. All other altars were named and dedicated to a particular god. But this one altar to an unknown god provided Paul an opportunity to tell them about his God. • I’m sure these philosophers had heard about the God of Israel. But like so many in the ancient world, they thought this God belonged only to a small country at the far end of the Mediterranean Sea. Stone Altar Found at Athens

  7. Discovered common ground 22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. Carefully studied their culture

  8. Acts 17:24-25 • 24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. • They could immediately see that the God Paul described was very different from any of their other gods. • He is the Universal God Who created all things. They already sensed this. . . A God who creates all must be adequate to have done so. . . Rom. 1:19,20 This anomaly has been called “The Mountains of Creation” (Hubble)

  9. The One True and Living God • v24 God made the world and everything in it. • God is not some object made by the hands of men. • There weren’t MANY gods who made the world like the idolaters believed. • There was only one! • v24 God is Lord of Heaven and earth. • Thus He doesn’t dwell in temples made by men.

  10. He is bigger than the universe. He is inside and outside it. No one can make an adequate representation of Him. And they must not think He can be confined in a temple. • Paul expresses the selfsuffiency, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence and eternality of God as well as His love and providence for His creatures. • They had never known a god like this. • To them He really was the Unknown God. The transcendence of God Most of these objects are galaxies - Hubble

  11. Acts 17:25-28 • 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' The immanence of God

  12. Paul affirms that all people are descended from Adam and that God determined where they would live and how long they would live there. • There is an interesting scripture related to this idea in Deuteronomy 32:8. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel [or “sons of God” RSV].

  13. All who seek God may find Him. • Israel had a revelation of God that other nations did not have. But all people could reach out for Him and find Him. One version says “feel after Him and find Him” (RSV). Others say, “grope for Him and find Him.” • Those who did not have the Jewish way could find God in the best way they had. • I think this means they would be saved if they believed in God and did His will to the best of their knowledge and ability. • See article, “Written on Their Hearts.”

  14. God is “touchable” for every person on earth since we “live and move and have our being in Him.” • We are like God since we are His offspring. We got our body from Adam, who of course got his body from the dirt. But we got our human spirit from God directly. He took some of His Spirit and put it inside us before birth (Hebrews 12:9; Zechariah 12:1). • All men (women too) are created equal because we all have the same value to God.

  15. “As some of your own poets have said…” • Paul, born and raised in a free Greco-Roman city had studied the classics of his world as well as the scriptures. He knew what the great philosophers had taught. He knew the literature of Greece and Rome. • It was Aratus (310-250 BC) who had said, “For we are indeed His offspring,” in line 5 of his poem “Phaenomena,” speaking of Zeus. • To the Greeks, Zeus was the ultimate god. Eratus

  16. If nothing is false, nothing is true • Acts 17:29-31 • 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 man's design and skill. 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 all men by raising him from the dead."

  17. God overlooked the idolatrous practices of the heathen in the period when His special people, the Jews, had His special law to guide them. He allowed the other nations to worship Him in ways that were not enlightened and He must have accepted their worship on that basis. • According to Paul, ignorance was an excuse when the ignorant person could not know better. • Now God’s revelation is for all people.

  18. 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 all men by raising him from the dead.” Our dependency and his nature both point to judgment

  19. 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 all men by raising Him from the dead.” The RESURRECTION is the CENTRAL POINT OF CHRISTIANITY

  20. God has now revealed Himself in the gospel of Jesus the Christ and has given assurance to all people that there will be a universal judgment at the end of time. • The proof that this judgment is sure to come and that Jesus is the man who will do the judging was His resurrection. • God’s nation is now a spiritual one, the church, also called the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. Anyone can enter this kingdom through the new birth: Faith, repentance and baptism in water for the forgiveness of sins (John 3:3 & 5).

  21. Paul always reasoned from the scriptures before, why didn’t he in this case? • Paul seemed to try to attract attention to his lesson by talking about what his listeners were interested in. How far should the church go in trying to get the interest of non-Christians?

  22. How should the church decide what is appropriate and what is not? • “. . . we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.” 2 Cor 4:2;

  23. OFTEN WE NEED TO START WITH PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE • “Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.” Acts 8:35 (NIV) • We need to be HONEST with people • ”As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” Gal 1:6-9

  24. Paul & Culture • To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. . . . To those not having the law I became like one not having the law . . . so as to win those not having the law. . . I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” 1Cor. 9:20-22;(NIV)

  25. Acts 17:32-34 • 32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." 33 At that, Paul left the Council. 34 A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others. Ancient Greek Hairstyle – Woman and Man

  26. Conclusions: • We don’t decide what God is like • We must come to grips with the God who is there! • God wants us to understand more about Him • There is a relationship on offer to us He wants us to grasp hold of through His Son

  27. As with any sermon to a mixed and varied audience, the response will also be varied. • Some will usually believe and make the necessary changes in their lives. Some will scoff, some will ridicule the teacher and his ideas and some may even violently oppose. • There were other unnamed persons besides Dionysius and Damaris who believed Paul. • We hear no more about these or any Athenian by name in the New Testament or of a church there in the New Testament. • Two churches of Christ exist there now.

  28. Dino was born in Athens, Greece and has dual nationality in both Greek and American. He preaches regularly at the Omonia Church of Christ in the heart of Athens. • Here is a link to churches of Christ in Greece: • http://church-of-christ.org/churches/Greece/Greece_S.htm Dino Roussos Family, Athens, Greece

  29. Conclusion • On this his second missionary journey, Paul and his partners have preached the gospel in Europe and established churches in Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea and possibly in Athens. He had sent word for Silas and Timothy to come to him in Athens. They do not come in a reasonable period of time, so Paul decides to go on to Corinth. • He writes the first letter of the New Testament, his first letter to the Thessalonians from Corinth, in about 52 AD.

  30. Paul’s sermon on Mars’ Hill or the Areopagus on the promontory overlooking the city of Athens, Greece is one of the great sermons of the Bible. Some others were Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5-7, with parallels in two other gospels, Peter’s sermon on Pentecost, Paul’s sermon at Lystra, etc. • I think the gist of the sermons is given in each case and not every word as spoken at the time. But since the men spoke under the influence of the Holy Spirit, what God wanted passed on to future generations did get recorded in each case.

  31. Written on their Hearts by Ellis Jones God writes his laws on hearts, When men seek after Him. When someone does his best, Then God forgives his sin.* *Because of Jesus’ death on the cross for all people and If the ignorance is excused. Willful ignorance is never excused.

  32. If one can know and won’t Then that’s a different tale. That kind of attitude Will send you straight to hell.

  33. One time man’s ignorance About God and His will, Was overlooked by Him. Some think that it is still.

  34. Now to all God revealed What we by faith must do. So I have been baptized. And you must do it too.

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