Wednesday, April 22

Wednesday

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 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. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 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, 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, 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.’ 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. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.   - Acts 17:2-30

Paul’s speech to the Athenians at the Areopagus is an incredibly brilliant example of how to communicate the gospel in a culture full of different religious views and competing truth claims.

Paul directly confronts one of the core beliefs of the Greeks when he states that God made all nations from one man. The Greeks believed they were superior to all other people, all outsiders were barbarians. Paul is showing that God is Lord of all, including every nation and people. With this statement he cuts through all prejudice and racism; all people are created in the image of God and all people need the salvation that only God can give.

In verse 27 Paul is showing that because of the evidence for God in nature, in our conscience, and in reason people ought to be seeking God. People have become incurably religious in their seeking after God, but due to our fallen, sinful nature our seeking is not a genuine seeking for the God who is, it is a seeking for gods after our own nature. People feel their way towards God as in a thick darkness, and everything they find along the way they make into a god. 

Paul is NOT saying here that anyone can seek God on their own and find Him apart from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sincere seekers in other religions are only saved as they hear about Jesus, are convicted by the Holy Spirit, and repent of their idolatrous ways and follow Christ in faith.

Paul states in verse 28 that God is not far from each one of us because God is everywhere present, omnipresent. He then quotes from a Greek poet of Crete, Epimenides, who establishes that all of us live and exist in relationship to the Creator.  Paul also quotes Aratus of Cilicia, Paul’s home region, saying that all of us are the offspring of the Creator. 

Although these Greek authors were referring to their pagan gods, Paul can legitimately take their concept and apply what truth is there to the God who is. These Greeks are confirming the universal natural revelation of God yet they remain lost, unless they repent of their sin and trust in the Jesus Paul is proclaiming.

Consider these questions about our own cultural context(s)…

What observations can you make about the spiritual hunger of people?

What observations can you make about art, music, movies, etc. that point to some aspect of truth of God?

What evidence do you see of God’s unseen activity in our culture?

How can you use these observations and evidence to help point people to the one true God?

Jeff Frazier