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Main Idea
God is real, and you can know Him.
Mic drop moments. Have you ever witnessed an epic mic drop moment? You know, the kind where the person absolutely nails it… where they make a claim and perfectly drive home the point?
Paul has a mic drop moment in his sermon on Mars Hill. Let’s dive in.
Passage
Acts 17:22–34 ESV
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 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. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 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, 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, 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.’
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. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 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.”
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Outline
I – What Paul does (vv. 22-23)
II – What God does (vv. 24-31)
III – What they should do (vv. 27, 30-31)
IV – What they did (vv. 32-34)
I – What Paul does
Paul does three things that build a bridge to his audience.
Builds a relational bridge
“I see that you are very religious.”
Paul didn’t tear them down or ridicule their beliefs.
He didn’t acknowledge that they worshiped gods, either. He maintained fidelity to monotheism by saying, “I noticed the objects of your worship.”
He made an observation that led to a connection.
Connects an unknown god to the one true God
“To the Unknown god.”
They worshipped so many gods that they didn’t want to leave any of them out.
On a deeper level, at least in this instance, they worshipped what they didn’t understand.
Paul recognizes that they are trying to grasp the concept of God, so he latches onto this one altar and uses it as a platform to point them to the one true God. This is boss-level evangelism.
Uses their own writers to prove his point
Every culture has wisdom, and God’s eternal truths bubble up in many of their writings.
The first quote, “In him we live and move and have our being,” was written in 600 B.C. by Epimenides of Crete as a hymn of Zeus.
The second quote, “For we are indeed his offspring,” was written by Aratus, a stoic poet who lived between 315-240 B.C., in his poem Phainomena.
Now, that has a direct correlation to us today.
As someone who professes faith yet doesn’t read the Bible, they could easily worship an unknown god.
A God who you craft with your fallen faculties and emotions is an unknown god.
Claiming there are no absolutes will allow a person to craft any sort of god in their own mind, and if it feels right, then that is a true god.
Universalists who reject that God would judge and enterally condemn a person, thereby saying that all people will go to heaven, has crafted a foreign god unknown to scriptural revelation.
A god who is gender fluid, embraces sexual immorality in all its forms, and doesn’t hold humanity to his defined set of standards is a foreign god.
Look outside of Christianity and to other beliefs like the new age, where ‘god’ is a force and we have creative power in our words to create worlds. That is a worship of an unknown god.
We can even lie to ourselves and claim that God is ultimately unknowable, so we abandon that pursuit and turn to other things to fill our hearts.
In a way, atheists trust in science to the point where ‘god’ isn’t necessary, yet they still must have faith in their scientific conclusions and theories. They still tie their belief to what they don’t understand.
If it’s true that the human heart is an idol-making factory, we can inadvertently create a host of unknown gods by not understanding what we hold as the most important thing in our lives. We can unknowingly make our spouse, children, career, hobby, recreation, leisure, and other similar things gods if that is what we value most.
But, praise God, there is one true God.
Paul knows the inclination of the human heart. It is amazing to see the skeletal structures of future theological truths that get fleshed out in his letters. The primary point he wants to drive home to the Athenians is that the one true God has made Himself known, and we can know him.
II – What God does
There are four things that God is and does.
Creates all things
General revelation tells us that God’s existence can be discerned and understood through the things He has made. Since they don’t hold to the Old Testament scriptures, nor would they have read them, Paul doesn’t try to appeal to them. Instead, he appeals to what they would know (at least in their hearts, if not in their minds),
God has created all things and is, therefore, Lord over all things. This ‘unknown god’ is the only God.
Zeus, Hermes, Hades… these gods are created. They came from the Titans, so they depend on creation. Not so with my God.
All of creation testifies to this reality.
Is self-sufficient
Paul could have pointed to structures all around him, showcasing how Athen’s idols had homes crafted by human hands. If these gods were so powerful and mighty, why are they dependent on humans to craft their dwelling places?
This God – the one previously unknown but is now being presented to you – He doesn’t live in places built by human hands. He is infinitely larger than that. If He created all things, therefore, He lives outside of those things. He is way bigger than you could possibly imagine.
Just look around you and realize how different this God is from your idols of stone and wood who live in manmade structures. Those aren’t gods at all!
By crafting idols, you give life to these gods and serve their needs. My God doesn’t need anyone because of his aseity (a se meaning that God is from himself or has and maintains existence in and of himself alone).
Creates and sustains life
Because this God is self-sustaining and has life in Himself, He is the source of life.
This God gives life and breath to all mankind.
Just as God created all things in existence, He has also created mankind.
The entire human race was made from one man, Adam (not a bunch of people formed from clay by Prometheus). And he is the one who determines when and where they live in history.
Even Greek poets recognize this reality but attribute it to the wrong god. They said that in god (in this case, it was Zeus), we live, move, and have our being because we are his offspring.
Judges in righteousness
This God will bring judgment.
He showed his compassion despite your ignorance in the past.
However, he has appointed a time to judge the world in the future.
Just like we all have a physical existence through one man (Adam), we will also be judged and have spiritual life in one man (Jesus).
How? Because this man is the resurrected Messiah
Paul is calling on his listeners to learn from creation. All of this came from somewhere, and all of their gods come from creation. Every aspect of the created world is screaming this God’s glory!
This is who God is. Now, they have to do something with this new information.
III – What they should do
There are four things they should do in light of this new revelation of who God is.
Not think God is like worldly elements
This God is completely other-ly and separate from your gods. He isn’t made of wood, metal, or stone. We were created by Him. We bear His image and are His offspring. We are His sons and daughters.
Seek, feel for, and find Him
This is important. Just like Romans explains that men are without excuse because God is shown in His creation, they have been trying to understand who this God is.
“feel” their way toward him literally means to grope around in the dark, trying to navigate but unable to see your way out.
General revelation shows you that God exists, and clearly, you have been searching, but it takes special revelation to truly know him. That is why I’m here — To make known the unknown!
Romans 10:12–17 ESV
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Repent when they do
In light of this special revelation, you must repent… all people… everywhere.
Repent from what? Idol worship and the sinful results.
Repent to who? To this eternal Judge.
Have assurance in the Christ
you can have assurance that you will escape the coming judgment if you receive God’s Messiah.
Jesus is the judge. If you know him, you are justified and free from sin’s penalty. If you do not know him, your sentence will be carried out.
No one will escape Him because God raised Him from the dead, so he lives forever.
To know the Christ is to know the one true God.
That is what they should do. Let’s see if it matches what they actually did.
IV – What they did
There were three reactions from the crowd.
Some scoffed
The news of the resurrection messed with their understanding. They were still blinded to the truth.
Their hearts are hard soil.
Some were intrigued
These people were open-minded and intrigued enough to ask Paul for a round two later. They displayed the noble-mindedness of the Bereans.
Their hearts are potentially shallow or thorny soil that the seed could grow in but under poor conditions.
Some believed
Some believed in Jesus and followed Paul.
The text says ‘men,’ but this is used in a collective sense of men and women since we see that the court official – Dionysius and the woman named Damaris are named among the believing crowd.
Their hearts are the good soil where the gospel seed will thrive.
Conclusion
God is real, and we can know Him.
We can know about Him generally through the testimony of creation.
We can know Him relationally and eternally through Jesus.
But to do so, we must rid our hearts of all the idols.