“A Summer Journey; Following the Apostle Paul Through His Missionary Journeys”

“Introductions to the Unknown God” Acts 17:22-34

“A Summer Journey;

Following the Apostle Paul Through His Missionary Journeys”

A Sermon Series

“Introductions to the Unknown God”

Acts 17:22-34

Introduction

On Paul’s second missionary journey we follow him into the city of Athens. Escaping from Thessalonica and Berea, he is awaiting his fellow missionaries (Timothy and Silas). He is making his way through the city.

“As a Hellenized Jew, Paul had been exposed to Greek culture with its outstanding traditions in art and philosophy. Athens was the center of that culture. In its heyday, several centuries before Christ, it had been the greatest city in the world. Socrates, his brilliant student Plato, and Plato’s student Aristotle, perhaps the greatest philosopher of all time, taught there.”[1]

Along with this rich academic culture, Athens was also a religious center, where almost every god thought to exist was worshipped. A pagan writer named Petronius sarcastically said that it was easier to find a god in Athens than a man. Every public building was dedicated to god, and statues of gods were everywhere. So, while Paul is waiting, he begins to go into the Jewish synagogues and explaining how Jesus was the Messiah. The Jewish people, in their jealousy, bring Paul before the Roman authorities there in Athens, and there the Roman leaders ask him what he is teaching,

Acts 17:19-21 “And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.”

Understanding That God Is (vv. 22-26)

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.[2] 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” The Bible intent is not prove that God exists, there also is no scientific experiment or mathematical equations you can do to prove God exists – however it does say things like:

Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.”

Romans 1:19-20 “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”[3]

Theologians call this the cosmological argument (cause and effect) – everything comes from something (a cause), and if you go back far enough there is an original cause (God as creator). Hebrews 3:4 “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.”[4]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilgdFvit49Y

Paul points out one of their alters, “with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’” “Their thinking was that if the gods were nor properly venerated they would strike the city. Hence, lest they inadvertently invoke the wrath of some god in their ignorance of him or her, the city set up these alters to unknown gods (Diogenes 1.110-113).”[5] Paul then says, “You don’t know this God, but I do, and I would like to tell you about this God.

By saying, “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you,” Paul is not saying that God accepted this worship; the emphasis is on the ignorance, not the worship.[6] “You have been worshipping a god that you do not know” – There has to be a knowledge of God, a personal relationship with Him before our worship can ever be accepted by God. That knowledge of God comes through our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Later on, there will people who see Paul’s miracles and try to do the things they saw Paul doing, but it is separate from a relationship with God. They try to use the name of Jesus apart from a relationship with Jesus – Acts 19:13-16 “Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

Even the demons knew that they were not followers of Jesus. The Athenians admit they don’t know this god, it’s in the title “unknown god,” built the alter to the unknown god because they did not want this God’s fury – but it is their lack of knowing Him, that will in the end bring judgement upon them.

Understanding God begins with a belief that a God exists, but then we have to ask “What is He like?” It is the tendency of all of humanity, that once we believe there is a God, to then make him into our own image – We think to ourselves, god is like me. So we mold him and craft him to be what we want him to be like – we call this idolatry. So, Paul then goes on to explain what God is like:

24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

The God that Paul is talking about created everything that exists (including the heaven and the earth). He is all powerful and does not need anything (He is completely self-sufficient). We need God to give us breath and life, and it was God who gave us our original source of being (Adam). Our lives of breath have also been allotted out and measured by this unknown God – He determines when you are born, where you are born, to whom you are born, and how many breaths you will take on this earth.

A source of pride by the Athenians was that they were above everyone, and everyone else were barbarians. “All men are equal, because all were created by God.”[7] “The unity of the human race as descended from Adam is fundamental in Paul theology, (Rom. 5:12).”[8] We are equal before God, and we are equal in that we are all sinners.

What is this unknown God like? He creates, he sustains His creation, He is all powerful, He is gives purpose (allotted times, boundaries, dwelling places, etc.) You were born into this world for “such a time as this,” you are given boundaries and purpose. God gives you life and breath “and everything” for a purpose, and your time here is measured. You are not to make your own path, you are not your own creation – Your Creator has intentionally put a path before you. When you meet this unknown God, you discover your life’s purpose.

Understanding Who Go Is (vv. 27-29)

27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

Our life’s purpose is to have a relationship with God. (v. 27) “that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him,” This is a picture of “the blind groping of the darkened heathen mind after God to “find him” whom they had lost. One knows what it is in a darkened room to fell along the walls for the door.”[9] Each of the 30,000 statues of gods, and hundreds of temples to gods, all here man’s attempt to find god. But God is not far off from any person, “he is actually not far from each one of us.”

Realizing, through natural revelation, that there is a God, and this God has reached out to humanity and desires to have a relationship with them. Even the Athenian poets recognized this truth, “For we are indeed his offspring.”

(v. 28) Paul quotes a saying of their day, “In him we live and move and have our being’” – In a godless society people are taught that the beginning of time was meaningless (just a cosmic chaos of elements swirling into something existing), and that time ends in eternal nothingness (elements decaying into the earth).

According to the godless world view, we start and end in meaninglessness. What Paul is telling the world is that life is rooted and grounded in God.[10] You live because of God, your path is laid out before you because of God, and your very being (existence) is because of God – and that all-powerful God wants a relationship with you.

Without the light of Jesus, humanity groped along in spiritual darkness and came up with all kinds of false gods – but now that Jesus has arrived, He is the light of the world – Jesus allows us to see who God truly is, what God is like, and how to have a relationship with Him.

Understanding What God Has Said (vv. 30-31)

30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but know he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

If a person observes nature around him and comes to the understanding that there is a creator God (a first cause). This is not enough to lead to a saving knowledge of God. God has to reveal himself to the world – and He has done this through Jesus Christ. When Jesus came, it marked a change in how God deals with mankind. Based on the revelation of Jesus to humanity, we must repent of our sin and put our faith in Him.

John 5:22, 27 “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. . . 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.”

“Something changed dramatically in the course of human history, something that is not just for the Jews but for Athenians, Romans, and Philippians and every person in the world. Now God commands all men everywhere to repent.”[11]

Why the change now that Jesus has been revealed? “because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world.” – Judgement Day is approaching. To prove that Jesus is the one who will ultimately judge the world based on God’s standard of righteousness, Jesus was raised from the dead.

The knowledge that is revealed through creation, then further explained through the revelation of Jesus, requires a decision – there is always a call to do something with Jesus. What you do with Jesus ultimately determines where we will live, where we move, and where we will have our being.

Understanding That All Have a Decision to Make (vv. 32-34)

32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Paul standing amongst all the temples and statues and buildings dedicated to false gods, says, “there is but one God, He has sent His Son to save the world from their sins, and He will return on an appointed day to judge the world based on His standard of righteousness. Do you want to know him?”

When Paul had finished his sermon, there were three responses. One group was fine with novel and new thought, but when it arrived at the resurrection from the dead, they mocked. The second group said. “We will hear you again about this.”. That’s enough truth for one day.” Which is the person who hears the sermon but doesn’t do anything with it. And there were some who believed and even joined them in the missionary journey. They now know the unknown God. Would you like to meet Him today?

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[1] John MacArthur, Macarthur New Testament Commentary Series, Acts (Chicago, Illinois; Moody Publishers, 1996) 129.

[2] Capitatio benevolentiae – a rhetorical technique used in an effort to win the favor of his hearers and thus secure their attention at the beginning of a speech.

[3] Sensus divinatatus – within every person is a knowledge that there is a God (while we may try to suppress it).

[4] This is called the teleological argument; the order and complexity of the universe could not have arisen out of random chance. The house has to have a builder.

[5] Ajith Fernando, The NIV Application Commentary, Acts (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan Publishing, 1998) 475.

[6] Fernando, 480.

[7] MacArthur, 140.

[8] F. F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles, The Greek Text With Introduction and Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan; WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979) 337.

[9] Archibald Thomas Robertson, Word Pictures In The New Testament, Volume III (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman Press, 1930) 288.

[10] R.C. Sproul, Acts, An Expositional Commentary (Sanford, Florida; Ligonier Ministries, 2019) 279.

[11] Sproul, 281.

“The Church that Sets Apart and the God Who Sends Them Out” Acts 13:1-13; The First Missionary Journey, Part One

“A Summer Journey;

Following the Apostle Paul Through His Missionary Journeys”

A Sermon Series

“The Church that Sets Apart and the God Who Sends Them Out”

Acts 13:1-13; The First Missionary Journey, Part One

Introduction

When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back, saying, “You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages.” To that, Calvert replied, “We died before we came here.” Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

Prayer

A Church with A Heart to Share the Gospel (vv. 1- 4)

“Now there were in the church at Antioch[1] prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.”

It is the church at Antioch that prays and fasts, lays hands on them, and it is the church that sends out those set apart and called by God. The church fasted and prayed to make sure they were hearing rightly, acting appropriately, and that their hearts were right in how they sent them out. Paul and Barnabas leave and return to the local church. And when they return they give a report of all that God did while they were away.

Missions begins with the prompting of God, submitting by called missionaries, and are supported and sent by the local church. In this passage, “for the first time a local church was led to see the need for witness beyond them to the larger world and commissioned missionaries to carry out that task.”[2] The witness to the (Acts 1:8 ) “ends of the earth,” begins.

Typically, when we think of the first mission trip in the history of the church, we think that Paul was the main leader – but it actually seems to be Barnabas (whose name is mentioned first on two occasions) who recruits his cousin (Col. 4:10) John Mark, and Paul begins his first missionary journey nine years after his conversion on the road to Damascus.

Barnabas, the mature Christian, spoke up for Paul earlier in Acts 9:26-30 “And when he (Paul) had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.”

The church can set apart people for ministry, and recognize a calling upon a person’s life by laying hands on them, but unless they have the sending out power of the Holy Spirit, the ministry task they seek to do will be in vain. Set apart and sent out by the Holy Spirit – recognized and supported by the local church.

Barnabas and Saul Sharing the Gospel at Cyprus (vv. 5-12)

“5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

Review the map

Paul’s missionary strategy was to go to the Jewish synagogues and preach – at Cyprus as they preach the gospel, a proconsul named Sergius Paulus wanted to hear what they were saying, so he summons them. Often, rulers would consult with fortune tellers and magicians to predict weather, battles, etc. So there, among those surrounding the proconsul, was a Jewish magician named Bar-Jesus (ironically meaning son of Jesus).

“As Paul was trying to give the word of God to the proconsul, he was interrupted by this false prophet who was doing everything he could to impede the presentation of the gospel and prevent the proconsul from having a favorable response to it.”[3]

If the proconsul learned about the one true God, how Jesus could save him from his sins, and how a person could have direct access to God – they could talk to God themselves, pray to God themselves, have access to God themselves – eliminating the need for a go-between (i.e. goodbye false prophet magician).

There Are People Who Don’t Want Others to Know About Jesus

Because of How It Would Affect Them,

So They Will Work Against The Work of the Church.

9 But Saul, who was also called Paul[4], filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.”

Paul’s response, guided by the Holy Spirit, is direct, aggressive, and he calls out evil for what it is, even adding a physical consequence to the sin (blindness). The fortuneteller who supposedly could see the future, now could not see anything right in front of him and had to be led around.

(v. 9) Saul is his Hebrew name, and Paul is his Roman name.[5] There is a transition that happens here; from this point forward he is called Paul (and up to this point he was called Saul). He is so enraged at this supposed Jew false prophet’s resistance to the world receiving the gospel that Paul becomes the leader in the effort, and now he is identified with the Gentile world (his Roman name).

Luke, the author, lets us know that this is the point where a calling from God became Paul’s life’s mission – to reach the Gentiles with the gospel. A calling upon a man’s life changes everything about him – it gives his life focus, it becomes who he is; his whole world in consumed with it.

I was called into ministry when I was twenty-one years old. I went to seminary for four years, and eventually served in my first church in Maryland. All of which required that I was away from my Alabama home. Over that course of time my grandfather, who I was fairly close to, began to lose his memory. Over the years at Thanksgiving, Christmas and vacation trips, He slowly forgot who I was. Eventually in his later years he would be at my parent’s house, where we would be visiting, and he would turn to me, having forget all the years of me spending weeks of the summer at his home, or building things together, etc. and he would look deeply at me and call me, preacher. The only memory left of me, preacher.

Note that what astonished the proconsul wasn’t the judgement that fell on Bar-Jesus, it was the “teaching of the Lord,” It was the truth of the gospel proclaimed by Paul and Barnabas. Miracles in the New Testament are there to authenticate God’s true agents of revelation. Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leaders came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him” (John 3:2). The proconsul’s response to the miracle was to believe the words of the missionaries.

(v. 12) “Then the proconsul believed,” – What was it that he believed? He was a Gentile and would not have the foundational knowledge of the OT (there were no dots to connect), he was not keeping the law, he had not been circumcised. So how does he come to place his faith and believe in Jesus as a Gentile and be truly saved? When Paul goes back and reports all that they have seen God do on this missions trip, this causes the need for a church counsel in Jerusalem (Acts 15).

Paul and Barnabas Sharing the Gospel at Antioch in Pisidia (vv. 13-45)

13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem,

The text doesn’t explain why John Mark left them to return to Jerusalem, but later in the book John Mark wants to rejoin the effort, and Paul says, no.” Acts 15:36-39 “And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” 37 Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. 38 But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other.”[6]

It seems that there was a leadership change, where Paul took the main leadership role, and Barnabas moved to the second in command, John Mark didn’t like it, so he left – or when they landed on the shore at Perga something really scared him (they would face severe resistance there). Or it may have been John Mark was a part of the group from what chapter 15:1 who would say, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” The salvation of one man led Saul to become Paul and it drove another man to abandon the work entirely.

it was an abandonment in the work. John Mark chose his reason over the work of getting the gospel out and it was a blow to the missionary group. John Mark weighed his options and decided to leave.

Everyone must choose what will have priority in your life: 1) your own self-comfort, safety, personal life goals, personal doctrinal beliefs 2) or the work of the gospel and the salvation of others.

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[1] Followers of Jesus were first called Christians Acts 11:26.

[2] John B. Pohill, The New American Commentary, Acts (Nashville, Tennessee; Broadman Press, 1992) 288.

[3] R. C. Sproul, Acts: An Expositional Commentary (Stanford Florida; Ligonier Ministries, 2019) 191.

[4] (v. 9) after this verse, Saul is called Paul for the rest of the book.

[5] Paul was his Roman cognomen.

[6] Twenty years later in 2 Timothy 4:11 Paul specifically requests John Mark’s assistance; so by then he has proven himself to be a faithful servant of the Lord, even if earlier in his life he left the team.

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