Please turn with me in your Bibles to Acts 17. Acts 17. Last week we looked at Acts 10 in our morning worship. Peter, when he preached to the household of Cornelius, we made reference to Acts 17.
So I thought it would be good for us this morning to consider Paul at Athens. A very familiar portion of Holy Scripture, but one I believe holds out great encouragement to God's people. And hopefully, by God's grace, will be a means of salvation to those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul at Athens, I'll begin reading in Acts chapter 17 at verse 16.
Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in their marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, what does this babbler want to say?
Others said, he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods, because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus 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. 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. Nor is He worshipped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 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, 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. For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also His offspring.
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. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands 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. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, we will hear you again on this matter.
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. Amen.
Well, let us pray. Father, we thank You for the Holy Scripture. We know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from Your mouth. We thank You that You've given us a written Word, both the Old and the New Testaments.
We pray now that the Author, the Spirit of God, would be upon each and every one of us. That You would guide us and cause us to understand these things for our edification, for our instruction, for humbling before such a holy and a mighty God. And Lord, for those who do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we pray that today would be the day of salvation. that they would not be mocking, that they would not be indifferent, but they would believe the gospel of free and sovereign grace. We ask now that you would forgive us for all of our sins and all of our transgressions.
We thank you that we live in those days prophesied by Zechariah, that there is a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. And we pray now through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Well, the larger context here, of course, the book of Acts, the apostles are sent forth to be witnesses to Jesus, first in Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. That is precisely how the book breaks down. It follows that particular pattern. And here, specifically, we find the Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey.
This is recorded in Acts 15, beginning in verse 36, and goes to Acts 18, verse 22. The dates were A.D. 49 to 52. And here, as we've read, Paul is in Athens. One man said that Athens had lost the political preeminence that she once enjoyed by the time that Paul had arrived here. but it continued to represent the highest level of culture attained in classical antiquity.
It had been home to Socrates and Plato, and the adopted home of Aristotle, Epicurus, and Zeno. And then J.C. Ryle indicates, or he says, here lived the most learned, civilized, philosophical, highly educated, artistic, intellectual population on the face of the globe. And here comes the Apostle Paul, this converted Jew, this man who had met Jesus on the road to Damascus, who had received a commission to be Christ's witness to the Gentiles, goes to that citadel of learning.
He goes there and he brings the message of Christ and Him crucified. He sets it in its biblical context. He sets it in the entirety of God's work in creation and in providence. And then He tells these men that God will indeed judge them.
They are to repent. They are to let go of their sin. And they are to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Setting: Paul in Athens
So as we consider Acts 17 this morning, we're going to look at, first of all, its setting. Verses 16 and 21 specifically. We've already considered broadly its place in redemptive history. But the specific setting, and then secondly, the sermon.
Verses 22 to 31. But if you look here at verse 16, we see the specific sin of Athens. It says, Now while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Now you and I see idols.
You and I see things that men put up as religious objects of worship. I would ask the question, does it provoke you? Does it anger you? Does it irritate you?
When Paul saw that the second commandment was being broken in Athens, it provoked him. It angered him. It incensed him. Interestingly enough, the very word that is used here is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
The word means to stimulate, to provoke to wrath, to irritate, to be angry. And it's very often used of God with reference to idolatry. So, Paul here is imitating God. He looks at idolatry and it provokes his spirit.
One man, Greg Bonson, says, what is today taken by tourists as a fertile field of aesthetic appreciation? In other words, you could fly to Greece, you could go to Athens, and you could see the ruins, and you could speculate or marvel at just how beautiful a construction undertaking this was. In fact, I googled imaged it this morning, just to look at the Parthenon and various aspects that were there in Athens. And again, it's an aesthetic, an eye-catching curiosity of modern man.
But it wasn't the case with the Apostle Paul. Bonson goes on to say, the artifacts left from the ancient Athenian worship of pagan deities represented to Paul not art, but despicable and crude religion. When he sees this, he's provoked within his spirit because he sees a city given over to idolatry. He goes on to say, Bonson does, these idols were not merely an academic question to Paul.
They provoked him. As Paul gazed upon the Doric temple of the patron goddess Athena, the Parthenon standing atop the Acropolis, and as he scrutinized the temple of Mars on the Areopagus, He was not only struck with the inalienable religious nature of man, but also outraged at how fallen man exchanges the glory of the incorruptible God for idols. I believe this provided some of the context or some of the backdrop for Paul's letter to the Romans that he would write just a few years later. He would speak that all men have a religious knowledge of God.
You cannot escape it. You cannot avoid it. Why? Because God has made it manifest to you.
But what do men do? They suppress that truth in unrighteousness. They exchange the glory of the Creator. for the corruptible glory of four-footed things. They construct idols of beasts or of creeping things, and they bow and worship them.
Paul had first-hand experience of what he wrote of in Romans chapter 1. He had seen a people given over to such ungodly idolatry. Notice his response to this. He doesn't just say, well, that's too bad for the Athenians.
That's too bad that they don't have the saving religion of Christ and Him crucified. No. This provocation of spirit led to activity. What does he do?
His spirit is provoked and he goes to the synagogue. His spirit is provoked and he begins to apply the remedy. His spirit is provoked and He doesn't just consign them to hell, but rather He acts in accordance with that provocation.
Paul's Response to Idolatry
He goes to the synagogue, as was His custom, and He preaches the gospel of Jesus there. And then He goes to the marketplace, the agora, that place where ideas were exchanged and where people met together, and He would preach the gospel there. It wasn't enough for him to just say, I've got mine in terms of salvation. I'm going to get out of this idol pit as soon as I can.
No, rather, he takes the balm of Gilead and he preaches it to these people. He had compassion. He really is like God. He's not only provoked over idolatry, but he preaches the remedy for idolaters.
Brethren, I think there is a world of information in just these few verses on what the church ought to look like today. It isn't enough to be cultural analysts. Yes, our society is filled with idols. Yes, our society is jacked up.
Yes, our society is just wicked and depraved and debauched. We not only need to make that identification, but we need to take the Gospel to this society. We need to shine His lights in a crooked and perverse generation. We need to hold forth the Word of Truth.
We need to be like the Apostle Paul here. whether it's in the marketplace or in a synagogue or at the Areopagus, if called upon to give an answer for the hope that is within you, brethren, do so for the glory of God and for the good of souls. That's what moved the Apostle Paul.
Epicureans and Stoics
He reasons in the synagogue. He reasons in the marketplace. And there he meets two different groups of philosophers, the Epicureans. And the reason why I'm going to define these terms is because Epicureanism and Stoicism is with us today.
Epicureanism is a Greek ethical view which emphasizes that good exists in pleasure. Your next door neighbor is probably an Epicurean. If you ask him, he wouldn't say, strictly speaking, yes, I identify with the philosophy of Epicurus. No.
But his life is given to a pursuit of pleasure. Doesn't that identify North American culture? We're working for the weekend. All we want is a paycheck so we can go out and have fun.
We don't see the command, six days you shall labor and do all your work. And that one day is a Sabbath rest unto God. No, the weekend's mine, baby. As soon as I punch out on Friday, I go pursue my lusts.
It's a nation of Epicureans. Epicureans' pleasure equaled a life of tranquility, free from pain, disturbing passions, and superstitious fears. They didn't deny the existence of gods, but they maintained that they took no interest in the lives of men and women. Oh yeah, there's probably gods, but they really don't interact with men.
The Stoics emphasized harmony with nature and freedom from emotion, thus enabling one to endure the fluctuating fortunes of life. They were essentially what's called pantheistic. God is everything. God is everything.
Not that God created everything. Not that God is with us in everything. But God is everything. He's in the bench.
He's in the rock. He's in the pole. He's in the stick. He's in these things.
Sounds a lot like environmentalism to me. Worshippers of nature. Worshippers of the creature rather than the Creator. So you see, Paul is addressing the same types of people that you and I will address.
And how does he do it? That's what is recorded here for us. Notice that Paul was preaching to a culture that was full of gods, but a culture that rejected the very notion of the God whom Paul was preaching. So does he go, well, I don't want to offend your delicate sensitivities.
I want to realize that all of us will ultimately be up in heaven. All of us are going to the same place. No. Him whom you worship in ignorance, I proclaim to you.
Paul is a dogmatist. Paul does not shrink back from declaring the whole counsel of God. It does not matter. what the audience is. Notice that he is summoned to the Areopagus.
They call him a babbler in verse 18. This babbler, the idea means a seed picker. It was a slang term first used of birds that pick up grain. Then of men who pick up odds and ends in the market.
And then applied to men who were zealous seekers of the second rate at second hand. And finally, to generally worthless persons. That's how they described Paul. He's a babbler.
He's a seed picker. One commentator said, Stoics and Epicureans alike, much as they might differ from each other, agreed at least on this, that the newfangled message brought by this Jew of Tarsus was not one that could appeal to reasonable people. Stoics and Epicureans were on opposite ends, but they agree in this, Paul's messed up. Paul's out to lunch.
It never ceases to amaze me, like in places like in India. You've got Muslims, Hindus, and others all persecuting Christians. They band together. It's like Herod and Pontius Pilate.
The text is very specific. Formerly, they were not friendly toward one another. But in their aggression mounted against Jesus Christ, they found solidarity. They found camaraderie.
The psalmist puts it this way. Why do the nations rage in the people's plot of vain things? The kings, the rulers, take their stand what? Together.
We can't function together for five minutes. But in opposition to Jesus Christ, men can. And that's what they do. They call Him a seed picker.
They call Him a babbler. He goes on to say, they looked on Him as a retailer of second-hand scraps of philosophy. A picker-up of learning's crumbs. a type of itinerant peddler of religion, not unknown in the Agora, and they used the term of disparaging Athenian slang to describe him. We might say it this way, did you see that nut on Five Corners today?
Did you hear what that guy had to say? Did you hear what he was parading about? Did you hear what he was saying through his megaphone? Boy, the guy is out to lunch.
He's off his rocker. He's a nutcase. That's what they were saying about Paul. And so now they invite him up to Areopagus.
You know, these men like to think. They like to consider new ideas. They like to stroke their beards. They like to contemplate.
The life of a philosopher is one of contemplation, thinking. That's how they make their living. What do you do for a job? I think.
Isn't that amazing? Paid to think. Now I realize in all jobs there's a degree of being paid to think, but nothing like a philosopher. He can do his job anywhere.
He can sit on a mountaintop. He can sit in his office. He can sit in his car. He can sit anywhere.
Why? Because I'm thinking. Don't mess with progress here. I'm thinking.
The philosopher is in. They call him up here because they want to hear of this Jesus and the resurrection. And
Paul's Sermon at the Areopagus
that brings us to the sermon. Two parts we want to look at. First, his introduction. Verses 22 and 23.
It says, 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. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing him, I proclaim to you.
Appeal to Religious Nature
He appeals to their religious nature. Again, something that he'll do. in Romans 1. There he doesn't appeal to it, but rather he says, because God made us in His image, and because God made this world, we cannot escape the knowledge of God. If you're here this morning and you think you're an atheist, the Bible tells us otherwise.
That's why it's wrong for us to spend countless hours to try and prove the existence of God to a professing atheist. The Bible tells us they know God. They know at least three things concerning God as revealed by the Apostle Paul. They know His power.
They know His Godhead. And they know it's righteous with Him to judge them. Romans 1.32. So why spend all this time to try and argue for the existence of God?
Notice Paul doesn't do that. Paul doesn't go there and say, look, I want to try and prove to you that there is a God. That He is transcendent. That He is imminent.
That He is all the things that I'm specifying. No. He appeals to the fact that they know there is a God, evidenced in the sense that they have built this altar. They're trying to cover their bases, aren't they?
Pascal's wager in operation right here, to an unknown God. Pascal said, you just bet that there is a God, just in case. You're better off thinking there is a God than thinking there isn't a God. These men construct an altar to an unknown God.
So he appeals to their religious nature, but he highlights their theological ignorance. He highlights the fact that they have fallen short. Remember the context, brethren. It's a city full of idols.
That's very important for our study this morning. It's a city given over to idols. Paul sounds just like Isaiah the prophet. When Paul appeals to the God who created everything and who gives breath to everyone, that's straight out of the prophet Isaiah 42 and verse 5.
You know what Isaiah is doing there? Setting forth the supremacy of Jehovah and his polemic against idols. Paul, like Isaiah, is arguing against idolatry. He sees that they understand there is a God.
They know that there is a God. But their ignorance is obvious. One man said, according to Paul, false religion is not the fruit of a zealous pursuit of God. Listen to this.
According to Paul, false religion is not the fruit of a zealous pursuit of God, but the result of a passionate flight from God. They're not running to Jehovah. They're running from Him. I think that's perceptive.
He says the glory of God is exchanged for an idol. The idol stands as a monument, not to religious fervor, but to humanity's flight from an initial encounter with the glory of God. Again, the practice of idolatrous religion is not viewed as an approximate form of authentic religion, but a negation of it. You don't look at them and say, well, you know, you're doing the best you can with the light you have available.
That's not Paul's procedure. Paul doesn't just say, look, I know that you know there is a God, and as far as you're able, you're doing the best you can. I just want to encourage you in this. No.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Jehovah is the Lord God of truth. Unless men believe the truth, they perish in hell for eternity. That is the simple and consistent fact of biblical data.
If you do not believe the truth, you will die in your sins. Jesus said as much to the Pharisees, unless you believe that I am, the self-existent, the Yahweh of Israel, the God from everlasting to everlasting, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. That holds fast for everybody. This morning, if you're here and you don't believe in Jesus, you will die in your sins.
You may have religion. You may have an outward good life. You may have some morality. You may not be as bad as the other guy.
You may not be as bad as somebody who persecutes Christians, but you're bad according to the Scripture. And you need to flee, not from Christ, but to Christ. This man goes on to say, it is one thing to deny the existence of God. It is another thing to add insult to the denial by worshipping as God something that is clearly of the created order.
It's an insult what these men are doing. Paul doesn't encourage them in their depravity. Paul preaches to them the truth.
God as Creator of the Universe
And that brings us to the specifics of his sermon. First, he preaches God is the Creator of the universe. Notice in verse 24. 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." Your attempts to capture God and localize Him will always fail.
Your attempts to domesticate God will always fail. I think this has some application to Christians today, because we all want to domesticate God. We want enough God to save us, but we don't want the crown rights of Jesus Christ exercised in every area of our lives. That's a little bit too much.
God won't really be upset if I do this. God won't really be mad if I go here. What is that but to deny God? To localize Him.
To try and capture Him. To try and tame Him. To try and put Him on a leash. Position of authority.
Us over Him. Paul says that is not the God who made the world. And notice that preaching in this pagan context, he sets forth the fact that God is creator. He does this in Acts 14 as well.
When he's among the pagans, he highlights this necessary element in the evangelistic message. God is creator. When He preached to the Jews, He didn't always do that. They had an understanding of Jehovah creating the world.
They had the Old Testament Scriptures. But coming to these heathen, coming to these pagans, He puts the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its biblical context of God who created this world. God who sustains this world, and God who is redeeming this world by the power of His Spirit through the blood of Christ. And by that statement, I don't mean that every man, woman, boy, and girl are going to be saved.
But God is redeeming the world. Bonson here says, The Apostle understood his audience at Athens. They would have needed to learn of God as the Creator and of His divine retribution against sin before the message of grace could have meaning. That's a great observation.
He does this in Romans 1. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. You need to understand who you're sinning against. You need to understand who you're violating.
You see, very often when morality or commandment keeping is brought up, people blame the church. The church instituted this anti-adultery campaign just to destroy men's fun. No, God the Lord says that the marriage bed is undefiled. It's a blessing.
God has given that as a gift. But adulterers and whoremongers He will judge. You see, God has mandated. God has commanded.
And if you haven't come to grips with the God you've sinned against, the Gospel will mean nothing or very little to you. You need to understand His holiness, His mighty power, His glory and His majesty. You need to understand that you're His creature, not the other way around. God created man in His own image, and ever since, we have sought to make Him into our image.
That's a fundamental problem of idolatry. Pastor Kim read Psalm 115 at the very beginning of worship. What is the indictment against idolaters? Those who worship them will be like them.
God created us in His image to reflect His glory. So what do we do? We pursue other things and we reflect their wickedness. It's the essence of idolatry.
It's to depart from God. In fact, Paul here sets forth the Creator-creature distinction. One man, and I think this is very perceptive, he says the primary problem with idolatry is that it blurs the distinction between the Creator God and the creation. This both damages creation, including ourselves.
We don't look at it that way. We think there's freedom. We think there's liberty. We think there's life in abandoning God and His norms.
What do we find out? That we're slaves. We find out that Jesus was absolutely right. Whoever commits sin isn't free, isn't liberated, isn't a happier man or woman.
It's a slave. Idolatry brings degradation to ourselves and to culture. Paul is incensed at this reality and he is preaching the glory of God Most High. So this problem or this thing blurs the distinction between the Creator and the creation.
It damages creation and it diminishes the glory of the Creator. You can't escape that fact. There's no accident why Paul sets forth Isaiah 42 and verse 5 here. 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.
You can't captivate Him. You can't capture Him. You can't make Him locally present. God transcends.
God is over. God is not to be identified with the bench that you're sitting on. Oh, He sustains it by the word of His power to be sure. But our God is in the heavens.
He does whatever He pleases. He's preaching a great big dose of the sovereignty of God here at Areopagus. This means God is not dependent upon His creatures. We don't like that.
I am saying we don't like that. I'm not saying you wretches don't like that. We don't like that. We want God dependent on us.
We want God at our back-end call. We want God's performance. We want God's power. We want God's undertaking for our good.
We want God to deliver us all the time. We want prayer simply to be a means of command. God do this and we expect Him to take care of it. When He doesn't, we get all upset.
We begin to conclude He doesn't love us and that He really doesn't care for us. No, I think the answer is we don't understand God. We haven't begun to wrap our minds around a sovereign God. A God unfettered by His creation.
A God untamed by man. A God who is not at our beck and call. Brethren, The longer you live and the longer you understand this God, the more you will realize this is precisely the God you need. You don't want to be able to take your lasso or lasso, whatever you call it here in Canada, and throw it up there and pull God down to your level.
You want that rock established firmly. You want to know that, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." You don't want a God who changes.
A God who is one thing today and another tomorrow. A God who is, in the modern mindset, open to progress. That's not the God of Holy Scripture. Paul sets forth the glory of God.
God created all things in general, and the human race in particular. God is not contained in men's temples, nor represented by His heart. Remember, he's looking at a city given over in idolatry. And he's here to tell them, this God whom you worship in ignorance, I proclaim to you.
He's not in the Parthenon. He's not in that altar to an unknown God. He's not in the Roman Catholic tabernacle that's behind the altar. He's not even in your heart.
This God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. What better message for Epicureans and Stoics? What better message for the narcissism of our day?
What better message for the pleasure-seeking that goes on in North America? This God is sovereign and holy. This God will call you to account. This God has made provision in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Providence and the Nations
He moves on.
God as Ruler Over the Nations
God is Creator. God is Ruler over the nations. Verses 26-28, And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. 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, for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also His offspring." God's providential history, or government in history, is calculated to bring His elect to Himself.
That's what Paul's saying. Beautiful. I find great comfort in this passage. You look around today, especially, not especially, there's always been bad times.
You look around today, you get freaked out. We've got some madmen leading in high places. I don't mean mad necessarily, insane or crazy. I mean mad in biblical speech.
They're rebels against the high King of Heaven. Later on, Paul's going to bring it before a man by the name of Agrippa. And during his preaching, Festus is going to say, Paul, much learning has driven you mad. What does Paul say?
I am not mad, most noble Festus, but I speak the words of truth and reason. It is madness to reject the Scripture. But as we look at all these different things going on in this world, isn't it a comfort for the saint of Christ to know that our God is in the heavens? He does whatever He pleases.
And while we may not be able to make all the sense in the world out of these issues, we know that God is governor. God is sustainer. God is in providence. God is in history.
God is bringing it, ultimately, to redound to His glory and to vindication for His church. Brethren, Paul is setting forth God. When he quotes the pagans here, Paul is not identifying Zeus with the true God. Epiminides.
I knew I wouldn't pronounce this properly. Epiminides, the Cretan, said, For in thee we live and move and have our being. Erratus, the Sicilian, said, In every way we have to do with Zeus, for we are truly his offspring. Paul quotes from these men. conversing with the literature of his day.
He knows what the pagans are studying. I recommend that for everybody. Sometimes we study the pagans, we get caught up, we get tripped up, and we end up being apostate. When Paul goes from place to place to preach the gospel, he knows something of his audience, and he pulls from their writers.
Now here he is not identifying Zeus with the true God or incorporating these things into his Christian worldview. He is simply highlighting their pagan authors to recognize something of the true nature of God. Again, Bonson, Paul quotes the pagans to manifest their guilt. Since God is near at hand to all men, since His revelation impinges on them continually, they cannot escape a knowledge of their Creator and Sustainer.
They are without excuse for their perversion of the truth." That's his point. Even you pagans have stumbled onto some of these things. And this God is going to hold you accountable. I want to make an encouraging word here.
If you're not with me thus far, wake up. It's very important stuff. I know we've used some language we don't normally do, Epicureanism and Stoicism. Hopefully the simple definitions got it into your head somewhat.
The point is simply this. Paul goes into a pagan culture and he doesn't say, hey, you guys are doing all right, keep on. He goes into a pagan culture, and he doesn't say, hey, let me argue with you on your terms. No.
He identifies something of their religious nature, and then he says, him I proclaim to you. He says, God made this world. If God made this world, you can't make him. It's one of the biggest follies in idolatry.
Isaiah 44, the prophet there, again is polemic against idolatry. He speaks of the idolater. The man goes out into the forest. He takes his axe and he cuts down a tree.
He takes that tree back to his camp and he cuts it up. And he takes some of the wood and he puts it in the fire. And he burns it. And he warns himself over it.
And then he puts his food over it. And then with some of the wood he constructs an idol and he bows down to it. What's the prophet saying? You're an idiot.
You're crazy. You're out of your mind. And I understand, in 21st century North America, our idolatry doesn't look like that. We don't go out into the bush, cut down a tree, cook food, and then worship the tree.
I understand that. But we're as guilty of idolatry. Our idols might be money. Oh, not me.
It's just a tool in my life. Really? Is that the case? What do you give your time and your energy and your pursuit first and foremost to?
If it's money, you're an idolater. Could be your possessions. Could be your stuff. Could be the things that you have.
Remember in Luke 12, there was a certain man and his ground yielded plentifully. And his only problem was, I don't have a place to store all my crops. We look at him today and say, what a master of business and commerce. What an accomplished man.
His only problem is he needs new barns to put his goods in. What does he do? I'll tear down the old barns and I'll put up new barns. And once all my crops are safely stowed away, I'll put my feet up, I'll take my tea or my whatever, I'll drink and I'll say, eat, drink and be merry for you have many goods laid up for you for many years.
What's God's indictment? You fool. I don't care that everybody in your community thinks you're the best. I don't care that you're on the cover of Forbes magazine.
I don't care that you've transcended from the million mark to the billion mark. You are a fool, because this night I require your soul. What have you done in preparation there? So, an idol may not be money.
It may not be possessions. It could be... Anything. Isn't that amazing?
Look at what Paul says in Romans 1. This is absolutely incredible. Romans 1, verse 20, For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, They did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things." I understand that in ancient Egypt, the cat was looked upon as a sacred item. That's just mind-blowing to me. Cats just look at you with a blank gaze. They want nothing to do with you unless they're going to benefit.
Who would ever want to devote any sort of religious homage to a cat? Look at the pagans, the heathen around Israel. Look at the sorts of things that men have worshipped throughout the ages. You say, well, I don't worship an image made like man.
I don't worship four-footed creatures. And I certainly don't worship creeping things. There's something. There's an idol that is pretty much universally recognized.
Not pretty much. It is universally recognized. All of us are guilty, whether we're Christians or we're not. You know what that idol is?
It's yourself. Oh, not me, brother. I'm the most selfless guy I've ever met. You may not be like Nebuchadnezzar who built that big image and set it out on the plains of Dura.
Who do you think the image was? It was him. It doesn't say that, but who else would Nebuchadnezzar have built an image of for men to bow down and worship? It's us.
We're idolaters. We roll the way we want to roll. We don't want anybody to tell us otherwise. We don't want God telling me, you cannot, you must not, you will not.
We don't want God sovereign in our lives. We want enough of God to keep us out of misery, but we don't want the God of Holy Writ. Paul makes this very clear in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 15 when he's highlighting one of the effects of the cross. He says, and he died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves.
How does Paul characterize the last times in 2 Timothy chapter 3? Men will be lovers of what? Themselves. Idolatry is a universal problem.
It's easier to see the heathen bowing down to his tree than it is to see you or I bowing down to ourselves. But the offense is the same. The sin is the same. And Paul is at war with idolatry, just like Isaiah before him, just like Jeremiah before him, just like Moses before him, just like God before them all.
God created us in His image to reflect His glory. And we have sought out many devices and we reflect the indignity, the non-glory, the wickedness of those things that we call God.
God Alone Worthy of Worship
God is to be worshipped exclusively, Paul says in verse 29. 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. Again, he goes back to the Ten Commandments. You shall not make for yourself an idol.
You shall not make a likeness of God Most High. The Decalogue is real to the Apostle. The commandments have abiding validity, even outside of Palestine. He is preaching to a pagan, heathen audience and he takes the first and second commandments and he grinds them into their consciences.
It's not okay to be an idolater.
The Call to Repentance and Judgment
And God is the judge of the universe, is what he brings this sermon to a conclusion with in verses 30 and 31. He says in verse 30, truly these times of ignorance God overlooked. This does not mean forgiving guilt, but it means postponing judgment. The idea does not mean the removal of guilt, but the postponing of judgment.
Sometimes you look around and you say, how in the world has God not sent Jesus back? Right? Well, it was pretty evident in those days too. You look around and you see all the wickedness of men.
You go, why in the world has God not sent Jesus back? Has He forgiven everybody's guilt? No, He's postponing His judgment. There's redemptive purpose in that according to 2 Peter 3.
The longsuffering of our Lord is to be considered salvation. The last saved person has not been called forth yet. And so God has not sent His Son back. He doesn't mean that he has forgiven the guilt, but he has rather postponed judgment.
And now notice in verse 30, But now commands 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. Remember, Paul was called up to the Areopagus to talk about Jesus and the resurrection. Notice that he doesn't spend a lot of time, he doesn't spend any time trying to prove who Jesus was and who the Resurrection or what the Resurrection was.
He simply states it as a fact. In fact, he uses the fact of the Resurrection as a proof that these Stoic and Epicureans are going to stand before this God and give a judgment. This applies to every one of us. This applies to all of us.
This applies to every man and woman and boy and girl. God will call us to account.
Responses to the Gospel
Notice the summary. Luke records for us in verses 32 to 34. When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, we will hear you again on this matter. So Paul departed from among them.
However, some men joined him and believed. Among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Emerus, and others with them. Is this what happens? The gospel is preached.
Does everybody get saved? No. The Gospel is preached by the Apostle Paul. Does everybody get saved?
No. I find great encouragement in this passage for preachers, for evangelists, for those who witness, for those who testify. Not everybody you tell about Jesus is going to be saved. Some are going to mock.
They didn't have their opinions changed. Ah, he's a seed babbler. He is a nut. He is off his rocker.
He is messed up. He doesn't have a clue. Others said, we will hear you again concerning this. Now, at a first brush, we might think that means they were curious.
But a bit of further reflection indicates an indifferentism. I think that's going to be the more prevalent attitude in a place like this. You may not mock. You may not meet me at the back and say, wow, you're off your rocker.
You're a nut. You are crazy. You've got major issues. If you choose to do that, fine.
Email me. No, just kidding. Just kidding. Put it in the subject block so I know to delete.
Just kidding. Just kidding. It's probably not going to be outright mocking. But this indifferentism, that's what I suspect goes on in a place like this.
We've heard it all before. We hear it every week. We hear it every night if our parents are doing family worship with us. We're exposed to the Scriptures.
We're exposed to the Gospel. There's a sense where we've almost become Bible-hardened. Eh, we'll hear you again concerning this. What at first brush seems to be a curiosity is indifferentism.
Now, one of the reasons we know this is because of the gravity of the message. Paul isn't simply telling the Epicureans and the Stoics how they can be a better them, how they can have a more rewarding and full life. If that's the case, yeah, I'll hear you about this another time. He's telling them that those self-same men will stand before this God whom he's preached.
This God who made the world and everything in it. This God who has given them breath. This God who has predetermined their boundaries. This God who put them at the Areopagus at this time.
They will stand before this God in judgment. That's the weightiest message any of us can ever hear. We will stand before God to give an account of deeds done in the body, whether good or bad. I tell you it is indifferentism and it is damning if you just discount such a message and say, eh, I'll hear you again on this.
James will tell you, you don't know what the next day brings forth. Your life is like a vapor. You're here for a time and then you're gone. You kids don't know what a vapor is?
Watch your mother make tea sometime. Heat up the teapot. Watch those vapors come out. Do they hang around?
Do they sit on the couch? Do they chill with you? No, they're there for a moment and they're gone. You who think you have tomorrow, you're not convinced of that.
You don't know that. Some of the healthiest people in the world that we would never believe would die, die. Indifferent. Sometimes this happens with kids.
I'm not trying to pick on kids or young people, but a lot of times this indifferentism affects you. Eh. Eh. It's not that important.
Or it might be important, but I got a lot to do before I get real about religion. Don't be indifferent. Don't say, oh, we'll hear you again on this. You may not.
You may not hear again on this. That's not an omen. I'm not projecting on you bad things. I'm not some trafficker of jinx.
I'm not doing that. I'm not casting the evil eye. You're going to die if you don't listen to me. That's not it at all.
Felix does the same thing when Paul is preaching to him. Paul preaches on righteousness, self-control, and judgment. Three things very appropriate to this man Felix. It says that Felix was afraid, and then he sent him away.
I'll hear you again on this. See, that's one of the devices of the devil. You get affected, and then you get indifferent. You hear the Word, and instead of believing, instead of casting your soul upon Jesus, instead of coming to that One alone who can save you from your sins, eh, I really don't care.
Indifference is hard. guard against it. But, praise God, some did believe. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. So, the Gospel goes forth as a saver of life unto life, or as a saver of death unto death.
Nothing has changed since the days of the apostles. The Gospel is preached. It will be preached today throughout the earth. Psalmomach, Some will be indifferent.
Praise God, some will believe. That's going to be the testimony until our Lord Jesus returns again.
Application: Imitating Paul
And from this passage, brethren, I want to urge on the Christian that we need to imitate Paul. We need to be more provoked in our spirits. We need to be more outraged about idolatry. This is very difficult because at times we just get sucked in.
It's like the riptide in an ocean. You go into the ocean, you start here, perhaps it's foggy. When you go to get out, you're way over here. You never understood how that happened.
Well, there's a current underneath. It works on you without your knowledge of it. Sometimes it takes you way out deeper, and you're in a very fearful place. We live in a culture, we rub shoulders in a culture, and it can be the case that we can end up out there in the deeper, way out here, off to the side.
This is why Paul will urge the Romans to not be conformed to this world, but rather to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. To be like the Apostle, to be like God before the Apostle. To see the sins of our city and to pray to God and to ask for opportunities to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ. The sin of idolatry, we've already touched on it.
I just want to close by reading a quote from a man talking about idolatry. He said, all idolatry, Whether ancient or modern, primitive or sophisticated, is inexcusable. Again, often times we're so proud, oh we're not like that, we don't worship trees. No, you worship your car.
Boy, you're so much better. We don't worship rocks or poles, but we worship ourselves. Wow, aren't you the better idolater. He says, all idolatry, whether ancient or modern, primitive or sophisticated, is inexcusable, whether the images are metal or mental, material objects of worship or unworthy concepts in the mind.
Idolatry is the attempt either to localize God, confining him within the limits which we impose, whereas he is the creator of the universe. Or to domesticate God, making Him dependent on us, taming Him, whereas He is the sustainer of human life. Or to alienate God, blaming Him for His distance and silence, whereas He is the ruler of nations and not far from any of us. Or to dethrone God, demoting Him to some image of our own contrivance or craft, whereas He is our Father from whom we derive our being.
In brief, all idolatry tries to minimize the gulf between the Creator and His creatures in order to bring Him under our control. More than that, it actually reverses the respective positions of God and us, so that instead of our humbly acknowledging that God has created and ruled us, we presume to imagine that we can create and rule God. There is no logic in idolatry. It is a perverse, topsy-turvy expression of our human rebellion against God.
Email me that. I'll send you that quote. That's one to be pondered. That is one to be pondered.
I just want to encourage each and every one today. Don't be indifferent. If you're a Christian, don't be indifferent. We need to be more like Paul.
We need to be more like this godly man who went about preaching the gospel in every culture that faced him in the early Roman Empire. Don't be indifferent to that. If you have been indifferent, if you have been careless, if you have been callous, if you have not been concerned with the glory of God, if you have not been compassionate over the souls of men, confess your sin. Confess your sin.
Let's not try to argue and rationalize, well, I'm so busy. Okay. Confess your sin. Confess it and forsake it and you will find mercy according to the Scripture.
And if you have come here this morning and you are not a Christian, the Bible uses these categories of believers and unbelievers. The Bible uses those categories of saved and lost. It's not the Christians that say, oh, we're saved and you're lost. It's the Bible that makes those pronouncements.
Christians are not saved because of anything good that they have done. Christians cannot be saved by anything good that they have done. When you look at a Christian, you don't have to conclude, well, I can never be a Christian because I'm not like him. There is one way of salvation.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. The Scriptures are clear on this point. That God sent His Son into this world. His Son lived in obedience to the law of God.
He always did what the Father said. He didn't do it unhappily. He didn't do it grudgingly. He did it with a willing heart, with a zealous disposition.
Zeal for your houses. Eat me up, he says. And he lived in obedience to that law because we need righteousness. And then He died as a sacrifice for atonement on the cross.
He died as our substitute. He stood in the place of all those who looked to Him. He stood in the place so that God's punishment was exhausted in the Lamb of God. And then He was raised from the dead.
And He ascended on high. And He now sits enthroned at the Father's right hand. And He has made this promise. that all that the Father gives to me will come to me. And the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out.
You believe the Gospel. Reject the temptation for indifferentism. Reject the temptation to just think about everything else. But come to Christ by the grace of God through faith and you will be saved.
You will be delivered. You will be free. You will be forgiven and you will have a righteousness that avails with God. That, my friend, is the good news.
The good news isn't go out and be like that guy. The good news is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank You for Your Word and we thank You for this account in Acts 17. And we pray, God in heaven, that You would be well pleased move in our hearts and to move in our lives and to make us more like this Apostle Paul, to be more like a man who desires the glory of God and the good of souls. And I pray for any and all here that do not know you, that you would just work in their hearts We know that this is not a human operation. Jesus said, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
We know, God, with you all things are possible. And we pray that even today would be the day of salvation for sinners. We ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.