“MAY I INTRODUCE YOU TO THE UNKNOWN GOD?”
Acts 17:16-34
Dorn Ridge Church Of Christ
March 22, 2015
Audio link to listen to the sermon: http://chirb.it/BewMGv
INTRODUCTION:
1.) This morning as we look to the Word of God we are going to see the gospel of Christ come to a city with many gods.
2.) In the midst of their false worship the Apostle Paul would introduce these people to the true and living God.
A) So let us prepare to look at the religious scene in the city of Athens.
I) ATHENS WORSHIPPED MANY GODS.
1.) Paul stated they were very religious.
A.) Acts 17:22
B.) It is both easy and natural for people to be religious.
C.) I believe that God has placed within the heart of every person an innate desire for worship.
ca.) The fact that God has put that in the heart of every person, means that in one way or another every person will worship someone or something.
caa.) Sadly, Satan deceives individuals to worship false gods even without the realization they are doing it.
cb.) Yet anything or anyone that is worshipped other than the Living God will not completely satisfy the need for worship within us.
cba.) Any other than God Almighty will disappoint us, fail us, and give us a false satisfaction.
.01) Ultimately that false satisfaction will give a person at least a degree of fulfillment, even while cheating us out of the far greater blessings that the true God would like to give us.
2.) They worshipped many gods and goddesses.
A.) This is perhaps not unlike our own land.
aa.) We do not have temples to images of wood and stone, but there are none the less many gods that are worshipped in our country.
ab.) Sit down some evening after supper and watch three or four hours of TV programs, as well as the commercials.
aba.) I say this, because those shows as well as the advertisements will reveal many of the gods our society bows down to today.
.01) There are the gods of pleasure, of physical beauty, there are the lusts of the eyes, and of the flesh, there are gods of prominence, power, wealth, sex, the god of self-worship, and perhaps other things as well.
.02) Perhaps the only difference between our society today and that of ancient Athens, is that we do not need to have an image of stone or wood to bow down to.
.021) We can bow down to an image that has been electronically placed into our minds appealing to our desires.
II) ATHENS EVEN WORSHIPPED AN UNKNOWN GOD.
1.) The History of the unknown god.
A.) Really, in the city of Athens there were many altars to unknown gods.
B.) William Barclay gives us the background as to why there were “unknown gods” in Athens:
ba.) “Six hundred years before this a terrible pestilence had fallen on the city which nothing could halt.
bb.) A Cretan poet, Epimenides, had come forward with a plan.
bba.) A flock of black and white sheep were let loose throughout the city from the Areopagus. Wherever each lay down it was
sacrificed to the nearest god;
bbb.) and if a sheep lay down near the shrine of no known god it was sacrificed to "The Unknown God."
III) ATHENS WAS INTRODUCED TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
1.) Paul determined to introduce them to the unknown God.
A.) It was from superstition these people had made a temple to an “Unknown god.”
B.) Paul took their ignorance and superstitions, to introduce them to the true and Living God.
C.) Here in the midst of dozens of pagan temples, gods and goddesses, Paul shows them that in this world there is only one that is the true God, worthy of our worship.
ca.) Let us look at some of the arguments that Paul gave to show that Jehovah, is God, and that before him there is no other who is worthy of that title, honour, or worship.
D.) When Paul went to Athens, they were willing to listen to him and his preaching because he was bringing some new teaching to them.
da.) Many of the Athenians would spend the whole day just listening to new ideas, and so they were willing to listen to Paul with his
new ideas.
db.) Acts 17:19-21
E.) Paul certainly gave them some new ideas about God.
2.) He is the God who made the world and everything in it.
A.) Acts 17:24
B.) This twenty-fourth verse is a powerful passage of Scripture.
ba.) In this one little verse of Scripture the Apostle Paul has completely shown the greatness of the true living God.
bb.) Those in Athens were bowing down to pieces of wood and stone, as well as to images made of metals.
bba.) Paul says to them they were worshipping these images made of these items which had been fashioned from their own hands.
bbb.) Paul pointed out that the God he served had made even the wood and the stone, and the metals they had used to create their gods.
bbc.) As Creator of everything in this physical world we live in, including life itself Paul shows the True God to be superior to all
others.
3.) He is the God who is Lord of heaven and earth.
A.) Not only has the true living god made all things, but he is the Lord or the one who is in control of everything in this earth, and in the
heavens above.
aa.) These people of Athens and elsewhere had gods for everything you could imagine.
ab.) The sun, the moon, the stars, the planets, the months of the year, the days of the week, all these things and so many more were
named after some god or goddess.
aba.) Paul said even all those things are under the control of the true living God.
4.) He is the God who does not live in temples made of hand.
A.) Acts 17:24b.
B.) In Athens there were numerous temples to all these false gods and goddesses.
(http://www.aviewoncities.com/athens/acropolis.htm)
ba.) Athens had a temple to the goddess Athena Nike the Patroness goddess of the city.
bb.) They also worshipped Poseidon, Erechtheus, Zeus, Polieus, and Pandion.
bc.) There were probably other gods and goddesses that were worshipped there, and nearly all of them had their own temples that Paul would have seen as he walked through the city.
bca.) These temples would have been some of the most beautiful architecture you had ever seen.
C.) As Paul walked by these temples he testified that the true and living God which he worshipped was so great and omnipresent that
he did not need a temple for the entire world was his temple.
5.) He is not served by human hands:
A.) Acts 17:25
aa.) This was an indirect reference to the making of manmade gods.
ab.) Paul stated there was nothing they could make with their hands either as a god or as a temple that would be of any value to the only true God.
ac.) God did not need that. He was and is above that. He was not merely the creation of man, but he was above man.
aca.) While it is true that God desires our worship, God wants the worship from our hearts in Spirit and truth.
acb.) The making of an image to worship in no ways is able to lift up the true living God.
B.) He does not need anything.
ba.) Certainly this was a new concept for them to have of a deity.
bb.) Maybe it is a concept we need to be reminded of ourselves as well.
bba.) Perhaps there are times even Christians can get the idea that God is on an ego trip and has to have our worship.
bbb.) The reality is that nothing could be further from the truth.
.01) God does not need our worship.
.02) God may appreciate our worship, as a token of our love for him, but really and truly the worship we give is the humbling of
ourselves so that we can see and appreciate the greatness of God.
D.) The worship of this God by man in no way makes him to be God.
da.) With those images of wood, stone, and metal, they only became a god because men would recognize them as being such.
db.) That is a major difference with the true Living God.
dba.) Rather or not we worship God will in no way makes him to either be God or not be God.
dbb.) The deity of God is not determined by our worship, but by his own being which is entirely God rather we would recognize him as
such or not.
.01) Paul goes on and shows us why our worship does not make God to be more or less than he already is:
dc.) He Himself gives all men life and breath.
dca.) Acts 17:25
dcb.) He is the very source and reason we have physical life to this point.
dcc.) Likewise, if we are able to have even one more breath than what is now coming in or out of our lungs, it will because God chooses to give us that next one, or more than one.
.01) The fact that God has given us life, and continues to give us life proves He is God regardless of anything in and of ourselves.
dd.) He gives to all men everything else.
dda.) God not only gives us life, but he gives us health, strength, food, clothing, a job and paycheque, the talents and abilities we have, families, and anything else we could think to mention.
IV) THE UNKNOWN GOD IS THE ONLY GOD WE WILL GIVE AN ACCOUNT TO.
1.) We are God’s offspring.
A.) Acts 17:28-29
B.) Since God is the one who made us, He is therefore, the only one to whom we owe worship, and our very lives as living sacrifices to His glory.
2.) God made us the way that he made us so that we would seek Him.
A.) God is not far from any of us if we would seek Him.
3.) Since God has made us we should not think of him as an image of gold or silver or stone, made from the hands of man.
A.) In the past God overlooked such ignorance.
B.) Now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
ba.) It is one thing to worship a false and man-made god out of ignorance.
bb.) But now through the teaching and preaching of the Apostle Paul and the revelation of God that is in the hearts of men there is no excuse to worship anything or anyone less than Jehovah God.
C.) God has appointed a day when He will judge all the world with justice through Jesus Christ.
ca.) Acts 17:31
cb.) Once Jesus Christ came into this world as the physical human presence of God Almighty, man was left without an excuse.
cba.) Scripture affirms that in Jesus the Christ, that we have come into the presence of God, or perhaps more correctly that God has
come into our presence.
cc.) The proof of the judgment is the resurrection of Christ.
cca.) Acts 17:31
CONCLUSION:
1.) As we bring this message to a close, the Scripture says that some sneered at mocked at Paul on his preaching of the Resurrection of Christ.
A.) The same is the case today. Some will think the resurrection of Christ a story or a joke, and will not surrender to Him.
B.) But the Scripture also states that some believed the message of Christ.
C.) Whenever the message of Christ is preached we always have to decide rather we will believe and follow it, or rather we will reject
the offer of God.
2.) If Christ is speaking to your heart today will you accept himor reject him?
A.) That is an important thing to consider for Scripture tells us that what we do to Him now, he will do to us later.
