Unknown to Known

Overview

From Unknown to Known: Paul in Athens

When Paul arrived in Athens, he found a city saturated with idolatry—more gods, one ancient writer claimed, than men. Among the countless altars stood one inscribed "to an unknown god." The Athenians wanted to cover their bases. Standing before the Areopagus, Paul seized that inscription as his opening: the God they confessed they did not know, he had come to make known Acts 17:22-23.

Notice Paul's strategy. With fellow Jews, he reasoned from Scripture to prove Jesus is the Messiah. With pagans who had no regard for Scripture's authority, he began with creation. From the order and complexity of what God has made, one can infer a Creator—the uncaused first cause behind every effect. This is the witness of Psalm 19:1 ("The heavens are telling the glory of God") and Romans 1:20 ("his eternal power and divine nature... have been understood and seen through the things he has made"). From there, Paul described the true God in six ways: he is not an idol made by human hands; he is not dependent on us but gives life and breath to all; he is sovereign over nations and times; he desires to be known and is not far from any of us; he holds our very lives ("in him we live and move and have our being"); and he calls all people to repent because he has fixed a day of righteous judgment Acts 17:24-31.

The pastoral sting is this: human hearts are idol factories. We are tempted not only to fashion gods of our own design—a "higher power" who demands little, a cosmic bellhop who exists to serve us—but even to take the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and quietly refashion him in our image. We do this when we doubt his promises, question his power or care, or pick and choose which portions of Scripture we will receive. What we are left with is a weak, powerless, non-existent god of our own making. The difference between believing in "a higher power" and confessing the triune God who saves by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who calls disciples to deny themselves and take up the cross, is enormous.

Yet amid our idol-making, God comes. He has appointed a day of judgment, and he has given assurance to all by raising Jesus from the dead Acts 17:31. The empty tomb is the validation that the sacrifice for sin has been accepted. Baptized child of God, when you stand before the Father, you stand cloaked in the righteous garment of Christ—your sin atoned for, his perfect life credited to you. God is not unknowable; in the Word made flesh, the Son who is close to the Father's heart has made him known John 1:18. Paul's response to Athens is now ours: faithful witness, whether the fruit be great or meager, making the unknown God known. You have no other assignment.

Transcript

It was a talk show and the topic for the day does God exist. 0s

The guest was an avowed atheist and the host and the guest were having a debate for the 8s

entire hour. 16s

As the show was starting to wrap up though, the host turned to the studio audience, the 19s

many of you believe that there is a higher power. 29s

How many of you believe that there is a higher power? 34s

And with but a few exceptions, every single hand in the studio audience went up. 39s

Theism. 51s

That's what was on display there with that studio audience. 53s

The Greek word for God is, Thayos. 57s

We get theism which means belief in a God or God's. 60s

Two very common types. 67s

Among the types of theism. 69s

One is polytheism. 71s

Poly means many. 73s

Thayos. 75s

Many. 75s

God's. 76s

Polytheism. 77s

Or monotheism. 79s

Mono means one theism. 81s

Thayos. 84s

God. 87s

Theism. 88s

We can hear our story this morning in the 17th chapter of Acts. 90s

Paul is in Athens. 94s

And theism is quite on display, particularly polytheism. 98s

With a very interesting twist. 107s

Now reviewer we were last week, you recall that Paul had come to Athens. 113s

And he was just infuriated with what he saw. 117s

Because there were the worship of false gods all over the place. 119s

Remember, one pagan writer said that there were more gods and Athens than men. 124s

All of the public buildings were dedicated to false gods. 128s

This was a place awash in idolatry, awash in polytheism. 132s

Well, Paul winds up in front of the Ariapagus. 139s

Remember the Ariapagus was a court. 142s

And what that court would often times try and settle was the legitimacy of different 145s

religious thought or religions or philosophies. 151s

So Paul is in front of the Ariapagus. 155s

Look when they place, adverse 22. 159s

Then Paul stood in front of the Ariapagus and said, 164s

Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 169s

For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, 176s

I found among them an altar with the inscription to an unknown god. 181s

Isn't this fascinating? 193s

In Athens, awash in polytheism, awash in idolatry, more gods than men, the writer said, 195s

there is this inscription to an unknown god. 206s

Isn't it fascinating that they have this inscription? 211s

They're going to cover their bases, aren't they? 214s

Just in case, I mean, all of the gods they were worshiping with, 216s

they might have forgotten somebody. 219s

What does Paul do? 223s

With the Jews, Paul turned to scripture, didn't he? 227s

He went right to scripture to prove that Jesus was the Messiah. 232s

But Paul is talking to pagans now. 238s

So where does Paul turn first? 243s

He doesn't first turn to scripture. 246s

He turns to creation. 252s

Now of course, Paul's witness wind up with scripture. 256s

But where does he first turn to? 259s

To those who have no frame of reference for the authority of scripture. 261s

He turns to creation. 266s

The argument goes like this, look at creation and you can infer from creation that there 270s

is a creator. 276s

It's a law of cause and effect. 281s

If you see a ball rolling on a field and it's going down the field, 284s

well, you know that someone must have hit that ball or kicked that ball. 290s

There was a cause that gave rise to the effect. 293s

Everything has a cause and effect. 297s

Until you come to the uncaused first cause, which is who? 300s

God, right? 306s

That's what's called the cosmological argument 308s

for the existence of God. 311s

There's also the teleological argument for the existence of God. 313s

That you look at the complexity of creation. 316s

How creation is divine, how the earth sits just so in space, how it is just so far from the sun. 320s

Why if it was changed in any form of a weedle burn up? 328s

You look at the creation of so many flowers. 332s

How when the pollination occurs? 335s

The insect has to literally go through and can't help but picking up the pollen. 338s

It is this complex design. 345s

That's the teleological argument that one looks at creation and can infer that there is a creator. 348s

We hear in Scripture in Psalm 19, the heavens are telling the glory of God 357s

and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. 363s

Romans 1, ever since the creation of the world is eternal power and divine nature invisible, 367s

though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he's made. 378s

Here's Athens, Washington, Polly, Theism, Paul is witnessing, 388s

he's where it is he's start. 395s

With the Jew at Scripture, with the pagan, 399s

it's creation. 405s

As he now tells about the creator behind the creation, 407s

you see he leverages theism as a jump off point to witness. 416s

He then describes God in six different ways. 430s

This is an all complete witness here. 435s

This is the beginning here, really, of a witness describing in six different ways. 437s

God, here's the first. God's not an idol. 444s

Look at verse 24, please. 448s

The God who made the world and everything in it, 452s

he who is Lord of heaven and earth does not live in shrines made by human hands. 455s

Paul's saying, I'm going to make a distinction here. 463s

You see all these idols who worship, they're all formed by your human hands. 466s

The true God is informed by human hands. 470s

He's not an idol. 473s

Second, God is not dependent on us. 476s

Look at verse 25, please. 482s

Nor as he served by human hands as though he needed anything. 485s

Since he himself gives to all mortals, life and breath and all things. 492s

He's not an idol. 497s

He's not dependent on humans. 499s

Here's number three, he's sovereign. 502s

Look at verse 26. 505s

From one ancestor, he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth. 508s

And he elotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live. 514s

He's not an idol, not dependent on humans. 521s

He's sovereign. 524s

Number four, he desires to be known. 525s

Look at verse 27. 529s

So that they would search for God and perhaps grow for him and find him. 532s

Though indeed, he's not far from each one of us. 539s

Verse 28, he holds our lives. 547s

For in him we live and move and have our being as even some of your own poets have said 551s

for we too are his offspring. 558s

Then verse 29, and following, he calls for repentance and he will judge. 562s

Verse 29, since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like 571s

a bolder, silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 577s

While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent 584s

because he has fixed a day on which he will have the whole world judged in righteousness. 592s

He's not an idol. 603s

He's not dependent on humans. 605s

He's sovereign. 608s

He desires to be known. 610s

He holds our lives. 612s

He calls us to repent and he will judge. 614s

And what Paul is doing to the people of wash and idolatry and Athens, 619s

look at creation. 625s

There's a creator behind it and he starts to define exactly who the creator is. 627s

The one God. 637s

Yet, we are tempted, aren't we, to form our own God or God's. 645s

We're tempted to form our own God's. 659s

We want the tape here. 664s

Let's go back to that talk show and that studio audience. 668s

The host asking the question, how many here believe in a higher power and almost everybody's hand 672s

goes up? 678s

How many believe in a higher power? 680s

Up goes the hand. 683s

What if the host asked a different question? 686s

What if the host said, how many here believe in the one God, the triumphant God, 693s

father's son Holy Spirit, one God in three persons, 703s

that we are saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus. 709s

And this is not our own doing. 714s

It is a gift of God. 717s

That we are called to be slaves of the Lord Jesus. 720s

That we are daily to deny ourselves to take up our cross and to follow Him even to the point 727s

where we might lose our life. 735s

What if the host had asked that question? 740s

Do you think that some hands would have gone down? 747s

You think? 758s

Because there is quite a difference isn't there between a higher power and the one true God. 761s

And yet because of our sinfulness, beloved, 780s

there is such an attraction for us to fashion our own God. 784s

There is such an attraction. 793s

It's a God who demands little, a God who exists to serve us, 798s

kind of a cosmic bellhop who soul-purpose is to satisfy every whim or wish that we have. 808s

One who does not hog the throne, but rather looks up to us. 822s

Not only can we be tempted to form our own God, but we can be tempted to take the one and only God, 837s

Father's Son and Holy Spirit, and make Him unrecognizable to the scriptural witness, 844s

stripping Him of His sovereignty. 853s

In our thoughts, in our words, in our deeds, refashioning Him 856s

into how we want Him to be. 864s

We can do that in the subtlest of ways. 869s

We can do that when we wonder if God's promises are true, 873s

whether God is omnipotent, omniscient, whether God cares for us, 876s

and we can wind up even in the subtlest of ways with our own hands, 880s

fashioning our own God. We can start to pick and choose portions of scripture. 887s

We can start to form our own deity and what we are left with. 896s

What we're left with is a weak, powerless, non-existent God. 903s

What we're left with is knowing a God that is simply formed by our own hands. 916s

It has been said of humans that we are idle factories. 934s

It's true, isn't it? 943s

And yet the midst are idle making. 948s

God comes. 952s

A midst are refashioning of God in even the most subtlest of ways. 955s

God comes. 962s

A midst are sinful, idolatry. 964s

God comes. 971s

Look, please, at verse 31 once again. 975s

He has fixed a day on which He will have the world judged in righteousness by a man who 980s

He has appointed. And of this, He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead. 989s

He's fixed a day on which He will have the whole world judged in righteousness. 999s

Indeed, we will all stand before God on judgment day. All stand before Him. 1008s

And baptize child, you have been cloaked, you have been clothed in the righteous garment of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1015s

When Jesus took your sin on the cross, He paid the debt. 1023s

And He has given to you His perfect righteous life. 1029s

So the judgment will be based upon the righteousness of God. 1035s

And the Father will look upon us. 1040s

And indeed, we will be declared His sheep. 1043s

Why? Because He will see the perfect righteous garment of Jesus. 1048s

That's what Brooks received this morning, you see. 1054s

The water put together with the tangible. He's washed in it. It's the sacrament. It's the vehicle whereby God says, 1057s

this is how I distribute my gifts. And I give it because it's my decision to give. 1066s

And He washes Brooks in the promises. 1074s

Peptise child when we stand before God, we're cloaked in the righteous garment of Jesus. 1080s

Christ, our sin has been atone for and we wear His white garment. 1088s

The assurance that indeed this is true is look again at the end of verse 31. 1095s

By a man whom He has appointed and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead. 1104s

When Jesus was raised out of the tomb, it was the validation that the sacrifice for sin had been accepted. 1115s

The guarantee of the great gospel message is the fact that Jesus is not dead, but that Jesus is alive. 1122s

That is the assurance for us. John, the first chapter, puts it this way. In the beginning was the word. 1131s

The word was with God. The word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being 1141s

through Him without Him, not one thing came into being. Here, the creator behind the creation. 1150s

Verse 14, and the word became flesh, lived among us. We've seen His glory. The glory is of a 1161s

father's only son, full of grace and truth. Verse 18, no one has ever seen God. It is God the only 1170s

son who is close to the father's heart, who has made Him known. God is not unknowable. God is not 1181s

32 of our text. When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, 1211s

we will hear you again about this. At that point, Paul left them. But some of them 1225s

joined Him and became believers, including Dionysus, the area begite, and a woman named Demaris, 1234s

and others with Him. Sometimes by the grace of God, when Paul left a place at church, 1246s

was left behind. Here, it got just a handful of people, a handful of people. 1254s

But Paul was faithful. Whether the fruit was great or whether the fruit was meager. 1268s

Paul was faithful. And what did He do? But He made the unknown God to so many, 1277s

known. He made the unknown God to so many, known. Beloved, you have no other assignment. 1294s

You have no other assignment. 1318s