Sons & Daughters, Acts 17:16-29
Introduction
The following is from “History of Montgomery County, Kansas”: The Rev. Henry Surber, a Campbellite preacher and an early settler of the "Hoosier State." The latter took his family to Iowa in the early settlement of that state and he aided materially in shaping the moral sentiment of his community. He was a positive determined, vigorous-spoken man of the old school, to illustrate which qualities it is only necessary to present one conspicuous incident. During the early years of the progress of the Civil war Southern Iowa contained a small, but troublesome and outspoken secession sentiment. It became noised about that this element had planned to disturb the Rev. Surber in his effort at preaching on a certain evening, and finally break up his meeting. Mr. Surber learned of this design and took with him two good Colts pistols and, when he arose to begin service, laid them up in front of him, at the same time remarking what he had heard and stating that the first fellow that made a crooked move could expect to be taken care of by the blue-barreled six-shooters doing picket duty for the evening. The house was filled and the disturbing element was out in force and occupying front seats, and nobody seemed to enjoy the meeting more than they.
Transition
While I greatly suspect that none present have intention of disrupting the service this morning, surely all of us have brought into the house of worship disrupting concerns for the previous week’s toils; concerns too great and numerous to recount; which yet hold sway of our hearts and minds.
I want to invite you this morning to lay all of that aside as we enter into the Scripture and as we prepare our hearts to receive the sacrament of communion. Quiet all disrupting thoughts not for fear of man, but for love of God! Lay aside all that distracts not for the sake of human endeavor, but for the sake of Christ!
Exposition
In today’s text are found many great and noteworthy themes, all of which are worthy of focus in their own right. (1) We see the biblical truth that it is right to engage the philosophies of the day with sound, rational, and biblical argument for the sake of the proclamation of the Gospel. We see that the truth of Jesus Christ holds up under the supposed tough scrutiny of human philosophy.
(2) We see that Paul too to the street in the spreading of the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was not content to speak only in the synagogues, though he did go there as well. Paul took the message of the Cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ where it was most needed.
During Jesus earthly ministry Jesus was attacked for teaching to the masses of people and He defended it well. Matthew 9:11-13 says, “And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ’I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (ESV)
It is important that we lift up one another and sing praises to God each Sunday morning. It is important that we have Bible studies to edify the saints of God unto righteousness and every spiritual blessing. These are good things. But they are only as good as the measure to which they bring us close enough to God that we are filled His passion for lost souls!
The follower of Christ who is closest to God will sense the desperate need for people everywhere to receive the goodness of Jesus Christ and then participate in the spreading of that good news in whatever way they are able to do so. It is not enough to poses Christ; we must be possessed by Christ; apprehended by His love; captured by grace until our hearts are so full of Christ that it overflows.
This is what Jesus meant when said “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ’Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38 ESV) When we are filled with the Holy Spirit our hearts cannot contain the flood of His presence.
Filling our hearts with the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God, is like trying to pour Lake Michigan into a thimble. It will overflow. The Apostle Paul teaches us by his actions that it is right to engage the culture, the Gospel, if it is true, which it is, can withstand the pressure of cultural examination.
He teaches us further, again by the greatest of all teachers, example, that we must take the Gospel to the street; that is, where the people are. We can apply this practically by putting the grace of God on display in a transformed life and sharing Christ as we are given opportunity to do so; in so many ways.
(3) We see the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers mocking the Apostle Paul. They literally call him a “seed picker.” That is the phrase that is translated in your Bible as a “babbler” or “foolish babbler.” The phrase had to do with the idea of a person who picked up ideas and constantly spit them out as a chicken does with constancy as it walks along the ground, picking up seeds and spitting them out.
There are many parallels between the mainstream, largely unnamed, philosophies of our day and those with which the Apostle Paul engages in this passage. The Epicureans were lovers of good and pleasing things, later in the development of their philosophy they would also turn to a seeking of great many sexual pleasures.
They believed that there was no deity who would interact with humanity in any specific way and that there was no afterlife. The idea was to get as much pleasure as possible in this life, appreciate the beautiful things, deny painful things, and they denied the idea of any universal morality or social ethic.
For a follower of Epicureanism, as with our modern culture, pleasure was central and morality was relative and subjective. How familiar is the common motif of this philosophy to modern ears, “as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody else its ok?”
The Stoics were of a very different lot. They followed primarily the teaching of Zeno the Stoic, who organized his thought around the idea of the supremacy of nature and the universe. Central to his philosophy was the idea that “god” was the sum total of nature and that nature was his ultimate expression.
Listen folks, there is nothing new under the sun. The modern day eco movement, while certainly doing a good thing in encourages us to be better stewards of the planet that God gave to us, drives from similar underpinnings as that of the ancient Stoics. In technical terms it is called “panenthiesm” and it is the idea or notion, as expressed by the late great Cosmic Humanist and scientist Carl Sagan that “The Cosmos, the universe, is all that ever was and all that ever will be.”
This is little different than the modern idea that is constantly put forth by mainstream science that the universe is self existent and eternal. Carl Sagan used to say that our conciseness is the universes way of “knowing itself.” The truth is that no generation is irreligious; it’s just a matter of what is being worshipped!
So now here is Paul, having been brought before the philosophical court of Athens. The place of this court was called the Areopagus. It was a hill which was named for a temple to Ares, the god of war. The city was covered in beautiful statuary; most of which represented false gods and goddesses. Athens was a bustling place, alive with the most current trends in philosophy and culture. Indeed, it was the New York City of the Roman world of the time of the Apostles.
This was Paul’s second missionary journey. He had traveled all along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and will go from here to Corinth and then on too Ephesus. Timothy and Silas had remained in Berea where Paul also was preaching and teaching and winning a great many people to Christ. The Bereans were a studious and godly people.
In the section of Acts preceding today’s passage, the Bible says that the Bereans searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things (that which Paul, Timothy, and Silas taught them with regard to Jesus fulfilling the Hebrew Scriptures) “were true.” It was fresh on the heels of so great a time of evangelism and discipleship in Berea that we find Paul in Athens.
Paul had seen their great statuary but was not impressed with its beauty so much as he was affected by its message. They had statues to every god and goddess imaginable. They were a truly pluralistic society where it seemed best to “cover their bets.” O, it was not that they were irreligious or unconcerned with matters of the divine and matters of eternity.
Very much to the contrary, they showed interest in all inclusive deities. In their society, similar to ours, the idea of an exclusive deity was what folks had more trouble with. It seemed that the Athenians had been so careful, as Paul says, to show respect to every deity, that they even had a statue that was a monument to the “unknown god.”
So concerned as to not leave out any deity were they, that they had even inscribed statuary to the “unknown god!” They had said, “Look we have covered everybody, but just in case we have left any god out on our statues of stone, gold, and bronze, let’s make a catch all to the unknown god; the one or ones we haven’t heard about.”
It was this unknown god that Paul was primarily concerned about and of all the great themes of this passage, it is what He says about this god that I encourage you to focus on and to take with you into the celebration of the Sacrament of Communion today; indeed, it is what I trust you will take with you throughout the week ahead and well beyond.
Communion
The Apostle tells these Stoic and Epicurean philosophers that it is the unknown god of which he speaks. These philosophers had accused Paul of being a “seed grabber,” a babbler who spewed words as carelessly as a chicken constantly pecking for seed and foraging along the ground.
Paul says God made all nations from one man, Adam, and that men should seek God, he says that mankind is reaching out in the dark, feeling for God, looking for the Lord as a blind man stumbling along a path or a man with vision obscured by the darkness of night.
In our searching and in our stumbling, indeed in the stumbling of these philosophers they had perceived, though dimly as spiritually blinded by sin and separation from God, that there was something yet unknown to them.
But this unknown God indeed has a name for He has revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ, the Logos; the manifestation of God’s character, goodness, and love unto us!
The Apostle even refers to us as His offspring; we are sons and daughters of the most high. We who were once afar off from God because of the chasm of human sin, have been brought near to God by Christ shed blood, received Christ life through the breaking of Christ body, and have been granted adoption as God’s very children.
That is what redemption is, this is what salvation is all about! In Christ sacrifice God has given us all things. In dying Jesus secured eternal life for us. In living He conquered death. The kingdom of God is upside down, inside out, and antithetical to the world’s way of thinking. As Christ hung on the Cross it was not His defeat but our victory! We have become joint heirs with Him.
In Acts 17:28-29 Paul writes, “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.” (ESV)
In Romans 8:16-17 the Apostle writes, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (ESV)
We are joint heirs, according to this passage, so long as we suffer with Him. How do we suffer with Him? By carrying our cross daily and each day loving sacrificially as He did as we participate in the grace of God carried out to this world. This is our only and right response to the grace that has been poured out to us freely.
Also, and most notably I think in this passage, we identify with His suffering through faith in the finished work of the Cross. Christ has shed His blood to cover our sin, He has allowed His body to be broken in our place, He has been our substitute, and as a result, we have become joint heirs with Jesus unto eternity!
Conclusion
Galatians 3:26 says, “For ye are all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus”
The privileges of the children of God by adoption are wonderful. Angels are celestial beings; but you have privileges which they cannot possess. Your adoption connects you with the Lord Jesus, by ties more close than those by which He is connected with angels. God is yours, in a fuller sense than He is theirs. You have a place in a covenant, which they cannot occupy; feelings at the communion table in which they cannot participate; and a song of praise which they cannot sing. It is true that they have no experience of your sorrows; but they know not the comforts of that mercy which heals the brokenhearted, nor the renovating power of repentance unto life. There is not a blessing in the great salvation which He will deny you, nor a moment of your being which is not marked by His bounty. “If children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).
Amen.
