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May turn in your Bibles to Acts 
chapter 17. Acts chapter 17 is one of those familiar passages 
of Scripture. I oftentimes say that if I've 
preached on it before. So that way, when I say many 
of the same things, you say, oh yeah, I remember this. But 
it is a passage we ought to go to often to remind us, to encourage 
us, to strengthen us, and to see the Apostle Paul basically 
in action, bringing the gospel to bear upon a godless culture. Specifically, we find Paul here 
in Athens in Acts chapter 17, verses 16 to 34. He's on the 
second missionary journey, which took place in about A.D. 49 to 
A.D. 52. It starts in Acts 15.36 and goes to Corinth in Acts 18 
and verse 22. So the Apostle Paul here stays, 
or he stops rather, at Athens. And I just want to give you a 
brief word about Athens. One man has said that Athens 
had lost the political preeminence that she had once enjoyed. In 
other words, she was a political center at one time. By the time 
the Apostle Paul had arrived, it was no longer that political 
preeminence. However, Athens 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. Those were philosophers. It's 
interesting that a couple of centuries, about four centuries 
prior, to Paul being brought to the Areopagus to testify concerning 
what they perceived to be strange deities, Jesus and the resurrection. A few hundred years prior to 
that, Socrates was in the very same place and executed for the 
very same crime, though it wasn't Jesus that Socrates proclaimed. J.C. Ryle says that here lived 
the most learned, civilized, philosophical, highly educated, 
artistic, intellectual population on the face of the globe. So the apostle comes to preach 
the gospel here in Athens. So I'll just pick up reading 
it. Verse 16 says, 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 
the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. than 
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 young woman, excuse me, a woman named Emerus, and others with 
them. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, 
thank you for your word and thank you for what Paul does here in 
Athens, and I pray that you would just help us to see the glory 
of the Christian message, help us to see its power, help us 
to see, Father, its cohesiveness, the fact that Paul here presents 
the God who made all things and the God who governs all things, 
the God who calls all men everywhere to repent. We pray that in a 
nation steeped in idolatry, a nation given over to idols, that we 
would have sort of the same burden, that we would have the same provocation 
in our own spirit, that we would be moved, Father, to speak the 
truth in love to those in our generation. Do forgive us now 
for all of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, 
and we pray through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Well, we're going 
to do two things this evening. We'll consider the setting in 
verses 16 to 21. I've already sort of mentioned 
what Athens or the significance of Athens. And then we'll look 
at the sermon proper, the preaching of Paul in verses 22 to 31. But it's interesting for us to 
consider the particular sin of the city of Athens. Notice in 
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. The particular verb that Luke 
uses here to describe Paul's provocation is the same verb 
that we find in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. God is 
described in this term with reference to the idolatry of the nations 
around. It means to stimulate, to provoke, 
to wrath, to irritate. to be angered. This is how Paul 
looked at this city given over to idols. He didn't just say, 
well, you know, they have their way of worship. This is a pluralistic 
society. After all, we can just watch 
them try and achieve the same status that we have in and through 
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's not it at all. His heart 
was broken. He felt the pain. He understood 
the reality that the second commandment of the Decalogue was being broken 
here in the city of Athens. Greg Bonson makes this comment. 
He says, what is taken today, or today taken by tourists, as 
a fertile field of aesthetic appreciation? If we were to go 
to Athens, we'd probably take our cameras and we'd click a 
whole bunch of pictures. Some might even go home tonight, 
hit Google Images, and look at these particular sites that Paul 
was setting his eyes upon. Monson says, what is today taken 
by tourists as a fertile field of aesthetic appreciation, the 
artifacts left from the ancient Athenian worship of pagan deities, 
represented to Paul not art, but despicable and crude religion. religious loyalty and moral considerations 
precluded artistic compliments. 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, as he 
looked at 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. It probably wouldn't be a stretch 
to suggest that when Paul wrote Romans 1, he certainly had in 
his mind his experience at Athens. Romans 1 tells us all too clearly 
that man knows God exists. Man knows through the created 
order, through the fact that he is made in his image, that 
there is a God. But what he does is he suppresses 
that truth in unrighteousness. He exchanges the glory of the 
incorruptible God for images, for idols, for those things that 
he can bow down to and express his religious nature. God has 
made man, God has constituted man with a sense of deity. And this was the case in Athens 
in the first century. And the apostle doesn't just 
say, well, you know, you have that sense of deity that's going 
to bring you into the promised land. No, rather, what we find 
here is that his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the 
city was given over to idols. We ought to pray that we would 
not grow hearted. that we would not grow callous, 
that we would not grow indifferent to the whole soul movement of 
idolatry in our own day. We ought to pray that God would 
provoke our spirits, that we would be grieved over the violation 
of the second commandment, that we would be grieved over the 
fact that God is not being glorified and honored. Isn't this something 
of what we ought to consider when we pray, that God's will 
be done on earth as it is in heaven? We all the time witness 
men exchanging the glory of the incorruptible God for the image 
of fallen things, or rather of idols, that they would rather 
worship and bow down to. Notice his particular response, 
verse 17. He's not only provoked within 
himself when he sees that the city is given over to idols. 
He doesn't just leave them. He doesn't say, I can't take 
this. This is too difficult for me. This is too hard for me. 
I don't like to think about the fact that these people are engaged 
in idolatry. No, this provocation of spirit 
led to action. It's what I'm suggesting. We 
ought to pray that God would so burden our hearts with the 
idolatry going on around us that we would act as a result. Paul, therefore, reasoned in 
the synagogue with the Jews, with the Gentile worshipers, 
and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be 
there. You see, he's provoked, and what 
does he do? He goes to the synagogue. Whoever's 
in the synagogue, he will reason with them. He doesn't just stay 
in the synagogue. He then goes into the marketplace 
of the Agora, and there he engages in witnessing. There he engages 
in evangelism. There he engages in bringing 
the gospel to sinners. I just want to say something 
here in light of this fact. Because we emphasize the preaching 
of the word in the church, that does not mean for a moment that 
we don't believe in the necessity of witness, the necessity of 
personal evangelism. There seems to be a division 
coming in the Reform Baptist movement. There seem to be some 
churches that are more open to what's called the New Calvinism. 
And one of the continual arguments, or one of the continual things 
that we read from these New Calvinists is that we old Calvinists, or 
Calvinist classic, I like to call it, actually Phil Johnson 
entitled it that, I think he's right on, New Calvinism and Calvinism 
Classic. You'll remember many years ago, 
New Coke and Coke Classic. I think that's what Phil Johnson 
had in his mind. But what they say is that our 
emphasis upon the centrality of preaching means we don't believe 
in witnessing. We don't believe in personal 
evangelism. We don't believe in handing out 
tracts. We don't believe in telling sinners about Jesus. That is 
simply untrue. If my wife were to say, what 
do you want for dinner? Well, I really love steak. I 
hope she doesn't conclude from that, he hates hamburger. I like 
a good burger once in a while. I might like the steak more, 
but a good burger has its place. Because we emphasize the centrality 
of preaching with biblical warrant, I might add, God was well-placed 
through the foolishness of the message preached to save those 
who believe. While we emphasize that and we 
highlight that reality, we should never make the illogical conclusion 
or the illogical jump that, therefore, they don't believe in passing 
out tracts. It simply doesn't follow. Can't 
we affirm the centrality of preaching with reference to the gathered 
church, and as well affirm the necessity for the people of God 
to go into their places of work, their places of family, their 
places of influence, and tell people about Jesus? Never make the assumption that 
because Free Grace Baptist Church puts emphasis on the preaching 
of the Word when we gather together, You don't ever have to tell anybody 
about Jesus. You do. You should. You should 
want to. You should ask God to provoke 
my spirit, to give me a broken heart such that it would move 
me into the marketplace, such that it would move me into action, 
such that it would affect me so that I will want to be a soul 
winner. Paul engages the culture. Paul speaks to those in the city. Paul addresses them. Notice in 
verse 18, after having ministered there in the synagogues and in 
the marketplace, verse 18 says that a 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. Now, the Epicureans and the Stoics 
were philosophers, as is indicated here, and they were so far apart. And yet they were even further 
apart from the God of the Bible. Epicureanism is a Greek ethical 
view which emphasizes that good exists in pleasure. Good exists 
in pleasure. Now, before you throw your 21st 
century connotation on that, for the Epicureans, that did 
not mean sex, drugs, and rock and roll. That wasn't the sort 
of pleasure they thought good consisted of. For the Epicureans, 
pleasure was a life of tranquility, freedom from pain, disturbing 
passions, and superstitious fears. They did not deny the existence 
of the gods, but rather they maintained that the gods took 
no interest in the lives of ordinary folk. We might say they were 
deists in nature. Deism is that approach that says 
God made the world like a clockmaker makes a clock, and then he puts 
it into place, and then he just sort of forgets about it. That's 
deism. The man makes the clock, he puts 
it up on the shelf, and then he goes and he does whatever. 
That's deism. There's no presence of God in deism. There's transcendence. God is wholly other, but there's 
no imminence. There's no personal God dealing 
with people in the creation. That's Epicurean. The Stoics 
were just about the opposite. They were pantheists. Pantheism 
means that God is everywhere. Pantheism has a doctrine of imminence. That means God is among us, but 
there's no doctrine of transcendence. God is in everything. God is 
everywhere. Don't cut down that tree because 
God is there. The Stoics were essentially pantheistic. They emphasized harmony with 
nature and freedom from emotion, thus enabling one to endure the 
fluctuating fortunes of life. You've heard that before. He's 
a real Stoic. It means he never smiles. You're 
real stoic. That means he doesn't react. 
He doesn't get all bent out of shape. Just this sort of even 
keeled sort of fellow. Notice that the God whom Paul 
was preaching was disagreeable to a city full of gods. This God that Paul proclaims 
is absolutely different than what these men held to. And then 
they actually are making fun of him. That's what they're saying 
here when it says, what does this babbler want to say? The word here means seed picker. It is a slang term that was first 
used of birds that picked up grain, then of men who picked 
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. What does this seed picker have 
to say? He's preaching Jesus and the 
resurrection. They got wind of it because he 
was in the marketplace. The Epicureans and the Stoics 
now have their interest piqued, at least to the degree they want 
to find out what he has to say. F.F. Bruce comments, both 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. They looked on him as a retailer 
of secondhand scraps of philosophy, a picker up of learning scrums. 
a type of itinerant peddler of religion, not unknown in the 
Agora. And they use the term of disparaging 
Athenian slang to describe him. Get him up to the Areopagus. 
Let's hear what he has to say. And that brings us specifically 
now to his message, to the sermon. Note the introduction, verses 
22 and 23. He appeals to their religious 
nature. Verse 22, Then Paul stood in 
the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I perceive 
that in all things you are very religious. Again, that sense 
of deity as image bearers of God, surrounded by the general 
revelation of God, the fact that God has made his existence evident 
to us. We can't escape. We are religious 
beings. You go anywhere in this world, 
you will find people worshiping, not necessarily the true and 
living God, but they are worshiping nonetheless. So Paul highlights 
their religious nature and then he underscores their theological 
ignorance. Notice, 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. They're trying 
to cover their theological bases. Remember when Jesus condemns 
the praying of the heathen? They think they'll be heard for 
their many words. I don't think it meant they prayed 
for four hours with glorious, flowery, eloquent sentences wherein 
they appealed to the deity. I think they vainly repeated 
in a whole host of manner to try to make it stick to one of 
the gods. These people built this altar 
to the unknown God to try and cover their bases. So on the 
one hand, they're religious. God has made his existence evident 
to them. But on the other hand, they are 
trying to escape that religiosity. They're trying to escape, rather, 
that true and living God. They are trying to suppress the 
truth in unrighteousness. R.C. Sproul says, and I think 
he's right on, According to Paul, false religion is not the fruit 
of a zealous pursuit of God, but the result of a passionate 
flight from God. 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 as a negation of it, a doing away of it. What 
they're doing here is not noble. What they're doing here is exchanging 
the glory of the incorruptible for this table. They are trying 
to cover their bases. They're trying to throw out the 
net. They are just trying to keep the gods off their backs. He says it is one thing to deny 
the existence of God. It is another thing to add insult 
to the denial by worshiping as God something that is clearly 
of the created order. That's the issue. And then notice 
Paul says, therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing 
him I proclaim to you. That's beautiful. A pluralistic 
society, a place where basically every God is accepted, a place 
where every God is encouraged, a place where every religion 
is looked upon favorably. Paul has no problem walking into 
this place and saying, you're wrong and I'm right. He would 
be tarred and feathered in this modern day climate, wouldn't 
he? Oh, he's abusive. Oh, he's a bigot. Oh, he's a 
prejudiced man. Oh, he's terrible. How dare him 
say that he is proclaiming the truth of God Most High. Do you realize that in the written 
revelation of God Almighty, we are able to speak and preach 
the truth concerning him? We're messed up. We've got our 
issues. We've got our foibles. We've 
got our trials and our challenges and our difficulties. But to 
the degree that we properly expound the truth we are speaking what 
and who God is to the society around us. And basically what 
does Paul do? He sets forth a Christian worldview. You see they had asked him about 
Jesus and the resurrection. Paul does not come to Athens. Paul does not respond to the 
Epicureans and Stoics by saying, let me give you 15 reasons or 
proofs for how Jesus rose from the dead. Those aren't necessarily 
bad. They feed the faith of the believer. 
It's nice for us to read the passion narratives that end in 
the resurrection of Jesus. It's good for us to see how guards 
were stationed at the tomb for the express purpose to prohibit 
someone from stealing the body of Jesus. It's good for us to 
see how that stone is rolled away. It's good for us to hear 
the angelic report. He is not here. He is risen. It's good for us to think or 
see through the eye of faith those grave clothes, those garments 
folded neatly on the table there in the tomb. It suggests that 
what happened was not grave robbers. Grave robbers wouldn't stop, 
fold up the linen, and put it there neatly. I mean, those are 
all things for us to be encouraged about as we read through that 
narrative. Paul doesn't do any of that. You see, if he proves 
that Jesus rose from the dead, the Epicureans and Stoics will 
stroke their beards and say, wow, curious things happen in 
this world. Kind of an interesting place. 
Sometimes you put a man in a tomb and he comes right back out. 
You see, the resurrection of Jesus, Jesus himself makes sense, 
not that it doesn't make sense elsewhere, but I want you to 
see this makes sense in the context of who God is and what he is 
doing in this world. You see, Jesus and the resurrection 
is interpreted or rather helps interpret the grand scheme of 
what God is doing in the world. Paul is not dealing with Jews 
here. Paul is not dealing with men 
steeped in the Old Testament. Paul is not dealing with those 
who are skilled in cosmology. That is the doctrine of how the 
earth originated. He is dealing with pagans. So 
naturally, Paul is going to start with God who made this world. God created this world. God put it together. God constructed 
it. When Paul is with a Jewish audience, 
he doesn't spend time developing the doctrine of creation. When 
he's with the pagans, he most certainly does. He brings that 
necessary information to them. He is not putting down the Bible 
and thus reasoning with them in their own way, but rather 
he is bringing other portions of the Bible to bear upon this 
particular audience. Paul sets forth the person of 
Christ, verses 18 and 19. This is what he's called to do 
in the larger context of God's works of creation and providence. We need to understand the Bible. Bonson again 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, even as the Jews knew these things from the Old Testament 
before the message of grace could have meaning. You see, he's portraying, 
he's painting, he's showing, he's demonstrating what God in 
history is doing. He will do this in order to show 
them how foolish their attempt at worshiping idols really is 
and how desperately they need the true and living God through 
this Jesus and the resurrection that he himself is preaching. 
He wants them to understand who God is, what Christ is about, 
and that they are sinners who stand in need of God's saving 
purposes in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 42 verse 
5 we read, God says, God the Lord who created the heavens 
and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which 
comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit 
to those who walk in it. This is precisely what Paul is 
doing in verse 24. God who made the world and everything 
in it. 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 domesticate this God. You don't put Him in a box. You 
don't construct a little altar and say, to the unknown God, 
and He looks down on that and smiles. You don't put Him into 
a temple. You don't localize Him. You don't 
inhibit him, you don't prohibit him from acting and moving and 
engaging in all of his sovereign purposes and will. It's interesting, 
because what the prophet Isaiah is doing in chapters 40 to 48, 
roughly, is engaging in polemics against idolatry. Paul's doing 
the same thing, and he's taking it right out of Isaiah the prophet. 
You see, what does an idolater need to hear? He needs to hear 
that little thing that you're worshiping didn't make you, didn't 
make this world, didn't put Saturn in its orbit, doesn't cause the 
rain to fall, doesn't cause the snow to fall, doesn't cause the 
sun to shine. You need to move from that consideration 
of that little trinket to the true and living God. You need 
to open your mind. You need to realize that we serve 
a big God. The God of Christianity isn't 
a localized ghetto deity. The God of Christianity is the 
maker of all things seen and unseen. The God of Christianity 
cannot be contained. The God of Christianity is the 
creator. We are the creature and therefore 
there is distinction. Notice, secondly, he sets forth 
God as ruler over the nations, verses 26 to 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 pre-appointed times and 
the boundaries of their dwellings. Interesting, interesting that 
Paul does not back down. from preaching what we might 
call Calvinism, or Reformed theology, or what we would better call 
the Bible, the biblical description of who God is. He pre-appoints. 
He pre-determines. God is sovereign, not only in 
creation, but also in determining where men live. He is sovereign, 
and whether a man is black or a man is white, whether a man 
is born rich or a man is born poor, it is God the Lord who 
is the ruler over the nations. You think this idea of the unknown 
God throwing out this net, hoping to rope a deity so that he'll 
come and bless you is actually the way things work? Do you not 
know that you Epicureans and Stoics living in Athens are here 
because of a sovereign God? You know, there is great humility 
in these doctrines. It should promote humility and 
a genuine seeking after the true and the living God. Notice that 
he appeals to their own poets. Not because they agree entirely 
with Christianity, but because they have that religious nature, 
because they have that sense of deity, even they have stumbled 
upon certain aspects of truth. It says, For we are also his 
offspring. That's what one of their poets 
says. Verse 28, 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. This was a man by the name of 
Epimedes, the Cretan. For in thee we live and move 
and have our being. Eratos, the Sicilian, I'm sorry, 
the Cilician, said, In every way we have to do with Zeus, 
for we are truly his offspring. Paul is not identifying Zeus 
with the true God, and he's not incorporating these things into 
his Christian worldview. He is simply highlighting that 
there are pagan authors recognize something of the true nature 
of God. And thus, he quotes their own poets to expose their own 
inconsistency. They've got this religious nature. 
One or two of them have actually stumbled on certain aspects of 
truth, yet they don't pay any attention to that. They build 
these temples, they build these altars, they localize these little 
objects, and they bow in worship to them. It's falling. Absolute 
insanity. Remember the picture that Isaiah 
the prophet paints in terms of the folly of idolatry. Remember 
back in Isaiah 44, 9 to 20, he says a man cuts down a tree. 
You all know this. I know you know this. He cuts 
down a tree, he cuts it up, and he burns some of it so that he 
can cook his food and so that he can warm his hands. It's a 
good use of the tree. It's a better use of the tree 
than what he ends up doing. He takes some more of that tree 
and he fashions for himself an idol and he bows down to it. 
What's Isaiah want Israel to realize? Idolatry is senseless. Idolatry is foolishness. Idolatry 
is madness. Idolatry is a rejection of the 
true and living God and a seeking out of those things that he has 
created. That's what Paul's doing here. 
It's foolish for you. to make an altar to an unknown 
God. It's foolish for you to build these temples. It's foolish 
of you to put all these idols in there and then to bow down 
to them and then to serve them. Paul is showing that. Paul is 
highlighting this. He says, or Ponson says, Paul 
quotes the pagan writers 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. Paul implies or infers or leads 
on from this reality in verse 29 that God alone, therefore, 
is the object of worship and him alone. Therefore, verse 29, 
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. Don't worship those things. Don't 
bow down to those things. Don't think that those things 
will bring you lasting satisfaction and joy. It is God, the Lord 
alone, who is to be worshipped. You see, Jesus in the resurrection 
finds its meaning, finds its significance in the Christian 
worldview. If you sit down with a pagan 
and you successfully prove that Jesus rose from the dead, giving 
ten good evidential points, He's still not going to understand 
the significance of that. Well, who was Jesus? Why did 
Jesus do this? What was the purpose for his 
death? What was the purpose for his resurrection? You see, the 
theology behind that event helps us to understand it, and that's 
what Paul is doing. He sets forth God the creator, 
God the ruler of the nations, God the one alone who is to be 
worshipped, but he doesn't stop there. He brings it to a conclusion 
by highlighting the fact that God is the judge. God is the 
judge. You see, their sin provoked Paul. But even more importantly, their 
sin provoked God. You see, if we go out and we 
tell sinners, oh, your idolatry really hurts me, hopefully they'll 
go, oh, wow, that's too bad. I want to believe on Jesus. But 
more than likely, they won't. Your idolatry provokes God. When God looks down upon men 
degrading themselves, worshiping, whatever it is they'll worship, 
that provokes the Lord our God. So Paul is provoked with the 
sin of Athens. He sets forth the glory of God 
Almighty. He highlights the reality that 
he made, the reality that he sustains, but the further reality 
that he will judge. that he will indeed call all 
men to stand before his tribunal and give an account. He brings 
the sermon to a conclusion by speaking of the coming judgment, 
verses 30 and 31. Truly, these times of ignorance 
God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. 
This God overlooking should not be interpreted as he suspended 
or rather he forgave the guilt. It's rather he posed his wrath. This postponement, this deferral, 
this passing over does not mean that he dealt with all men's 
sin in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Rather, it is a postponement 
or a deferment of punishment, of judgment. Verse 31, But now 
commands all men everywhere to repent. Now, here comes Jesus 
in the resurrection because he has appointed a day on which 
he will judge the world in righteousness by the man he has ordained. There's Jesus, right? This was 
the point. He was to come and talk about 
Jesus. He talks about God, the father, 
creating God, the father, sustaining and governing. And now he speaks 
about God, the son, judging. Now, just so we don't forget, 
Paul not only was asked to speak about Jesus, but he was asked 
to speak about the resurrection. Paul's a good preacher. Have 
you ever gone or listened to a sermon and it was billed as 
a particular topic, a subject or an exposition, and that's 
not what you got? I mean, it might have been good, 
might not have been good, but you feel gypped, right? We were 
supposed to consider this particular doctrine, and we were supposed 
to look at this particular text. So we go, we listen, we hear 
perhaps a good sermon, good doctrine, but we never touch the text. 
At the end of it, we scratch our heads and say, well, what 
about that text? Wasn't that supposed to be spoken upon? Wasn't 
that supposed to be preached? Paul doesn't do that. They ask 
him about Jesus and the resurrection. He tells them that Jesus is going 
to judge you. And now here comes the resurrection. He has given assurance, the end 
of verse 31, of this to all by raising him from the dead. So the Epicureans and the Stoics 
would have possibly and probably preferred ten lines of evidence 
as to why Jesus rose from the dead. Paul's got a different 
mindset. Paul comes to preach the entire 
Christian message. He comes to preach God the creator, 
God the sustainer, God the judge, but God the redeemer as well. He commands all men everywhere 
to repent. Let go of your idols. Put down 
your falling. Stop engaging in this madness 
and wickedness. Jesus is going to judge you. 
God has made this evident by the fact that He has raised Him 
from the dead. So Paul does, in fact, speak 
concerning Jesus and the resurrection. This will be a universal judgment. 
It will be a righteous judgment. And it will be a definite judgment 
because there is a day coming. It is fixed. It is in place. God the Lord will not leave his 
creation undealt with. It's a beautiful presentation 
of the Christian system, a beautiful presentation of the truth of 
God most high. Now, we are probably to suppose 
that this is a summary. There were other points, other 
things, other statements. But you see the broad outline 
here. You see the categories that Paul is thinking in terms 
of. He's truly bibling. He is truly biblical. He is presenting 
Christianity in all of its multifaceted glory. He starts with God. He starts with God in creation 
and he ends with judgment. Perhaps these pagans thought, 
like so many do, that life or history is just cyclical or circular. You know, there's just these 
cycles going on. There's no judgment. There's 
no nothing. We just sort of keep going. We might die. We might 
come back. But, you know, it's just this 
thing. Christianity is not cyclical. Christianity is not a circle. Christianity is linear. It begins 
and it ends. Christianity speaks of creation 
and speaks of judgment to come. It speaks of everything in between 
through God's sovereign providence upholding and ruling over all 
things. This is one of the reasons I 
actually think that people deny creation. You deny creation and 
judgment then follows closely. We don't like judgment, right? Let's head it off before it even 
gets here. Let's deny God at the beginning and then we can 
easily deny him at the end. Christians ought not to do such 
things. We ought to maintain special 
creation. We ought to realize that God 
made all things by the word of his power in the space of six 
days and all very good. That God is sovereign over his 
creation. That he providentially governs 
all his creatures and all their actions. And that history is 
moving forward to this particular time when he will in fact judge 
all men, he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom 
he has ordained. He is given assurance of this 
to all by raising him from the dead. And in conclusion, notice 
the response. You would think hands down, Paul 
preached, everybody got saved, right? Everybody just bowed to 
the Lord Jesus. Great presentation, very biblical. Good use of the prophet Isaiah. 
I mean, you could just imagine a seminary class sort of surveying 
Paul's approach at the Areopagus. Yes, it was peppered with scripture. 
It was homiletically correct. He had his major points. His 
sub points upheld those major points. He had ethos. He had 
passion. He had everything. What happens? What happens today when men preach 
the gospel? Some mock. I mean, you wouldn't think that 
somebody would actually mock Paul the Apostle in his preaching 
when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked while 
others said, we will hear you again on this matter. Isn't that 
the response that we are oftentimes faced with? Some mock. That's 
crazy. Men don't raise from the dead. 
People don't leave the tomb, Paul, don't you realize? We surveyed 
a hundred people. Every one of those who died never 
came back out of the tomb. I mean, it's just simple logical 
deduction or it's induction rather. It is surveying the data. It 
is hypothesis. It is testing. It is evaluating. It is realizing that in this 
world, people don't rise from the dead. You're foolish. You're 
mad. You're crazy. You're nuts. Then 
there was a sort of a curiosity. There were others that said, 
hmm, we will hear you again on this matter. It's kind of interesting. You get their curiosity. This is kind of an intriguing 
story about this Jesus and the resurrection. Certainly, Paul, 
we will call for you again another day. But you know what else? So Paul departed from among them, 
however, Luke tells us in verse thirty four, Some men joined 
him and believed." Isn't that beautiful? The net is cast. The gospel is preached. God is 
well pleased to save, through the foolishness of the message 
preached, those who believe. God is sovereign. He saves. Paul 
doesn't have magic power. Just because he speaks, not every 
knee bows in submission to Jesus Christ. I actually think that 
what we find here in verses 32 to 34 is far more typical than 
the sort of approach that we find very often, where, you know, 
thousands and thousands of people got saved. Thousands and thousands 
of people gave their hearts to the Lord. I'm not denying that 
the Lord can do that. Three thousand on the day of 
Pentecost. I'm not denying or excluding 
the fact that God can, in fact, save a great multitude. But you 
know, not every claimant is necessarily true. This is probably more what 
we ought to expect in a faithful gospel ministry. There will be 
mocking. There will be curiosity. But 
lo and behold, there will be some who believe. That ought 
to put wind in our sails and cause us to be faithful, to preach 
the word, and to truly, by the grace of God, go into a culture 
given over to idols, seeking to shine as lights and seeking 
to hold forth that word of truth. We need to understand the truth. Before you go and witness, before 
you talk to your neighbor about the gospel, please make sure 
you understand the gospel. I mean, we all take it for granted, 
don't we? Gospel means good news, and the good news is this. Great. 
Just be correct with it. You know, you might try to do 
surgery on your neighbor's heart and kill him. And that would 
be a terrible thing. I highly dissuade you and discourage 
you. But it's not as bad as giving 
him a false gospel. I mean, humanly speaking, he 
ends up in hell. You twist, you distort, or you 
just don't get it, or you just don't understand it. Make sure 
you know it. Make sure you understand. It's 
not my faith plus. It's not my works plus. It's not you have to be a better 
person. You're going to butcher souls, 
and you don't want to do that. So yes, we emphasize the centrality 
of preaching. We also encourage faithful witness 
and faithful shining as lights and faithful evangelism and testimony. But get the truth of the gospel 
down. Make sure you know what the Bible 
says. Don't say, well, I think it says 
this or I think it might say that. know the scripture, know 
the truth. I'm not saying, you know, Spurgeon, 
no, or Calvin, no, but certainly know how to present the truth 
that God sent his son into this world to die, to rise again, 
and that those who believe on him will have everlasting life. That is the message that mankind 
desperately needs to hear. Well, let us pray. Father, we 
thank You for Your Word. We thank You for this passage 
in the book of Acts. We thank You, Lord God, for what 
Paul does here. We just thank You as well that 
You made this world, that You govern this world, that You sent 
Your Son to die for sinners in this world and to rise again. 
I pray that all of us would be ready to meet Him on that day, 
that all of us would be ready to stand in judgment, not because 
we have accomplished a righteousness, not because we have kept Your 
law perfectly, but because by your grace we have believed on 
the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord God, accept us in and through 
him and in him alone. And we pray now that you would 
go with us, watch over this congregation, bless your people with strength 
and with great grace. And we pray in Jesus' holy name. 
Amen.