Athens was a city full of
people who very superstitious. The
People of Athens were told that the Unknown God is a God who wants to be
known. Do you know this God of
whom Paul spoke? Will you worship
Him? Will we honor the Only True
Living God? We live in a society
that worships many things. We
worship pleasure, recreation, sports, money, sex, and many things that have no
power to redeem. Your God is
whatever you devote yourself to. Paul
showed the people of Athens the true meaning of it all.
Acts 17:23 .
During a plague long before Paul’s time, no altars had successfully
propitiated the gods; Athens had finally offered sacrifices to an unknown god,
immediately staying the plague. These altars were still standing, and Paul
uses them as the basis for his speech. Paul does avoid, however, the practice
of some of his Jewish predecessors and some second-century Christian
successors, of accusing pagan philosophers of plagiarizing their good ideas
from Moses![1]
Scripture
Text:
Acts 17:22 (NIV) Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and
said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23
For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even
found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship
as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. 24 "The God who made
the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not
live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if
he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and
everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should
inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the
exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek
him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each
one of us. 28 `For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of
your own poets have said, `We are his offspring.' 29 "Therefore since we
are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or
silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. 30 In the past God
overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to
repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by
the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him
from the dead."
Consider
the Modern gods, Ancient gods,
and the one true God.
Athens
contained a very religious people, a very superstitious people.
But they did not know the unknown God.
This is the God that Paul proclaimed to them. People are searching for the meaning of life.
What is the meaning of your life?
Do you know the unknown God?
What
is the truth and what is the real God?
1.
The One who made everything.
2.
The
One who is not restricted to temples
or church buildings.
3.
The
One who is not dependent on human
hands for anything. He is the one
who gives all men life and breath and everything else.
4.
The
One who can be known.
God wants us to reach out for Him.
He is nearby all of us.
5.
The One who is the source of all our life.
6.
The
One who holds us accountable. He
has determined a day for judgment.
7.
The
One who has proved who He is.
He has died for our sins and has risen from the dead.
Do
you know the unknown God? Have
you worshipped Him with your life? Will
you give yourself to Him? Come
and know Him and worship Him today.
[1]Keener,
C. S., & InterVarsity Press. (1993). The IVP Bible background
commentary : New Testament (Ac 17:23). Downers Grove, Ill.:
InterVarsity Press.