Acts 17: 24-34 Don't Sit, Serve!

Acts 17: 24-34  “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 human hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything.  Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.  From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.  God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.  ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’  As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’  “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 human design and skill.  In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.  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 everyone by raising him from the dead.”  When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”  At that, Paul left the Council.  Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed.  Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

In the above focus we see Paul talking to the members of the Areopagus.  These people are the ruling and spiritual leaders in Athens.  Their ideas of a spiritual existence rest in their worshipping many gods.  They have made many idols and shrines to these gods in Athens.  Some of the Athen citizens had erected an altar to a god they called unknown.  Paul uses this idea of an unknown god to introduce the Creator God.  The Athenians' lifestyle revolved around exploring the meaning of life.  Before the Areopagus, Paul introduces Christ to them.  A few of them had already met Paul in the marketplace where they had debated him about his  "babbling” ideas about the man, Jesus of Nazareth.  Paul begins his presentation to the Areopagus by talking about God who is so great that He does not live in shrines, altars or idols.  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 human hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything.  Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.  Paul narrows down the idea of many gods that must be served to one God, the Creator of all things.  For in him we live and move and have our being.  Paul relates to them that even some of their own philosophers understand that humans are his offspring, in his likeness.  Therefore, people should not think that God can be depicted in an image made by human design and skill.  This eternal God is far beyond man’s imaginations.  Paul then presents the reason they should believe in the God that he is presenting them.  For this God raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead.  To the Greeks this was a startling statement, one that surpasses their philosophers' ideas of what it means to be human with a rational mind.    Even their gods they serve have prescribed reasons for existence; they do not change the nature of what it is to be human.  When the Greeks heard this idea about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered.  Paul knew the Greeks would receive his message of the resurrection with difficulty, for he was raised in a Greek community.  Where is the philosopher of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.  (1 Corinthians 1:21-23)

Apostle John in ministering to the church at large said that this fact of a physical resurrection of Jesus has to be accepted by all Christians; otherwise, they are supporting an antichrist view of Jesus.  The way to eternal life comes only through the resurrection of Christ.  Paul is very explicit in the necessity of believing Jesus was resurrected from the dead.  If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.  More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.  But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.  And if Christ has not been raised, YOUR FAITH IS FUTILE; you are still in your sins.  (1 Corinthians 15:13-17)  The Greeks in Athens were stumbling over the fact that flesh could be brought back to life after death.  Yet, some of them wanted to hear more about this resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  We want to hear you again on this subject.  But others who were drawn by the Holy Spirit to the reality of Paul’s ministry became Christians.  Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed.  Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.  As Paul moved through the Gentile world, he was constantly confronted by idol worshipping.  This old trick of the devil was everywhere in the Gentile world.  Even the Israelites swallowed this deception, serving idols most of their existence.  Jeremiah warned them about this betrayal of the God of Creation.  He told them that God would not tolerate long the Israelites' adulterous lifestyle.  Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I am going to bring calamity upon them, and they will not escape.  Though they beg for mercy, I will not listen to their cries.  Then the people of Judah and Jerusalem will pray to their idols and burn incense before them.  But the idols will not save them when disaster strikes!  Look now, people of Judah; you have as many gods as you have towns.  You have as many altars of shame—altars for burning incense to your god Baal—as there are streets in Jerusalem.  (Jeremiah 11:11-13)  The Israelites fell into the abyss of creating numerous gods after their own imaginations.  Idols and shrines were everywhere in their environment.  They chose these false gods to serve other than the only true God, the I AM who called their ancestors through the faith of Abraham.  They, unlike the Greeks, had been brought to the light of God through the law and the prophets.  God had revealed clearly to them his holiness and also his enduring love and mercy to them.  They were delivered from slavery; they were given a land of milk and honey.  They, a small Semite people, became a powerful nation.  However, instead of honoring God, they chose to honor and serve gods made out of their own imaginations.  The Greeks were not so privileged by God; they lived in darkness and deception, always steeped in idol worship.  Satan's deception ruled their lives, even sacrificing their own children to these idols.  As Jesus said to the wayward Pharisees and teachers of the law, your father is the devil.  For Paul to bring light to the Gentile world was a dangerous mission; Jesus told Paul at the very beginning of following him that he would suffer much in delivering light to a dark and threatening world.  Jesus knew this same darkness that was in the Greeks existed in the Jewish religious elite.  The priests loved the deference of the people, playing the role of super spiritual people with long prayers and holy blessings.  However they were acting like the Gentiles who lived in darkness.  Jesus scolds them for their pretentious behavior.  When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.  Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.  And when you pray, do not keep on BABBLING LIKE THE PAGANS, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  (Matthew 6:6-11)  Paul was dealing with a very religious city of Athens.  Many philosophers telling the way to true life.  Many priests of shrines and altars instructed people how to have a meaningful life.  Paul came to them with a very simple message: Christ crucified and his subsequent resurrection are the way to eternal life with the Creator God. 

John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus the Christ.  “I baptize you with water for repentance.  But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  (Matthew 3:11-12)  Jesus becomes the ministering Messiah after He is filled with the Holy Spirit.  Immediately after his baptism in the Jordan, Jesus is led into the wilderness, tested by Satan to give up his ministry to the world.  Jesus’ manifesto to Satan, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.  (Matthew 4:4)  All people who trust in Jesus’ work will fulfill this manifesto.  They will be born again, becoming a tree that produces good fruit, imaging God on earth. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me, as I also remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  (John 15:3-5)  As Jesus walked through the next three years, He expressed the will of God for all people; restoring them to God, becoming his children in the holiness of Jesus.  By believing in Jesus and his works, the eternal plan of God for people to be born again in his image becomes a reality, producing the works of God as a good tree produces good fruit.  In the above focus we see Paul introducing Jesus, the vine, to the Greeks.  He is offering them a new life, a transformative life.  In abiding in Christ, their intrinsic nature will be changed.  They will be imaging God in their lives.  The Greeks in their lifestyle were then as people who now during Christmastime hang bobbles on the tree to make it beautiful.  But bobbles do not change the basic nature of the tree.  Jesus came to change the intrinsic nature of the tree.  As we see Jesus in the holiest day of all creation celebrating the Passover with his disciples, a time when He drinks the cup of wine and eats the bread with his beloved disciples to commemorate what will happen later on that day, we see his disciples not focusing on the upcoming event, Jesus’ immanent death, but on themselves.  IN THE MOST HOLY OF DAYS, WE SEE THE DISCIPLES FOCUSED ON THEMSELVES, THEIR FLESHLY DESIRES.  A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest.  Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors.  But you are not to be like that.  Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.  For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves?  Is it not the one who is at the table?  But I am among you as one who serves.  (Luke 22:24-27)  Their focus was not on Jesus the Great Servant, but on themselves as being greater in this world.  What is in this cross for me?  How does the Passover benefit me?  We see the IDOL OF SELF rear up his evil presence in the upper room.  We see the shrine to self being manifested in that occasion.  Jesus was forgotten as they fixed their desires on themselves; who is the greatest, who does Jesus love the most?  Where am I in this Christian thing?  Jesus desires for them to be servants, for He came to serve the world, and now He will die for every man and woman who has ever lived.  Paul is giving the Greeks an opportunity to know the living God.  If they would believe on Jesus’ works on the cross, they would be created anew.  He is telling them to put away their idols, their adulterous lifestyle, and live for Christ.  Some believed that message of Paul’s but many did not.  They continued to hang bobbles on their lives but failed to be born again, new creatures IN CHRIST.  Friends around this breakfast table, your lives have been bought with a high price: THE CROSS.  Therefore, celebrate this Passover season by serving others rather than yourself.  Give what Christ has given to you.     

    

  

  

 

Acts 17:16-23 Idols Do No Harm and No Good!

Acts 17:16-23  While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.  So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.  A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him.  Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?”  Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.”  They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.  Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?  You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.”  (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)  Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens!  I see that in every way you are very religious.  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.  So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

In the above passage we find Paul in the city of Athens; his companions on his missionary mission had escorted him from the city of Berea where he personally was facing threats on his life.  Athens was a powerful city-state in the Greek world.  Paul was comfortable in this prestigious city, for he had been raised and educated in the Greek city of Tarsus.  As Paul was strolling through the city, he noticed the people in this city were very religious, for it was full of idols.  The Athenians were interested in the meaning of life and the purpose of existence.  All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.  Their darkness in them of knowing God, their Creator, greatly distressed Paul.  Their attempts to understand life revolved around serving idols.  Paul of course was in the Greek world to reveal the true God, so he began to minister this truth in the synagogue and the marketplace.  The Epicurean and Stoic philosophers debated Paul about the meaning of life and how to have a pleasurable and good existence.  The Greek philosophers were heavily into the ideas about how to have a rich and fulfilled life.  The Epicureans were focused on living life richly by taking full advantage of satisfying one's life with the best of foods and entertainment, however, with moderation.  The Stoic’s were more introspective, facing life under the dictates of reality and fate, accepting  the world as it is, living at peace with your existence.  Paul talks about the Greek’s strong desire to live under the stipulation of the rational mind.  For them, wisdom and common sense should be the controlling forces in a successful and peaceful life.  In analyzing the Jewish society and the Greek society, Paul distills the differences between them spiritually by saying, Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.  (1 Corinthians 1:22-25)  The Good News does not need to be verified by signs, miracles, and wonders; neither must it be designed around the rational thinking of men and women.  The true way to God comes only one way, through Christ crucified and his subsequent resurrection.  Paul knew as he walked through Athens that the Athenians were trying to open another gate to the kingdom of God through their rational thinking, but Satan’s control over their minds had led them into great darkness and deception.  Satan was playing his old tune that man can find God through his own wisdom and strength.  His scheme is to convince men and women that they possess god-like power and wisdom—that they too can be like God through elevating their own attributes.  But Paul places the correct perspective on man’s insignificance when it comes to comparing himself with God: the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.  This darkness of the self-importance of men and women, their power to be like God had captivated the Athenians' minds.  Paul knew their estrangement from God was great.  He tells them that their altar to the unknown god is really a shrine to the living Creator.  

The intellectual elite in Athens wanted to hear about this strange babbling of Paul; for them it seemed as if Paul was talking about some other God that existed.  They invited him to speak to the Areopagus, the governing council of Athens, consisting of the elite of the city and philosophers.  They wanted to hear about this new god or thoughts that Paul was so enthused about.  May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?  You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.  This of course was an open door to the people of Athens.  By convincing the Areopagus of the Good News, he could reach into the depths of the society with the message of Jesus Christ crucified for the sins of the world.  Paul uses their altar to an unknown god as a way to introduce the God of Creation to them.  I see that in every way you are very religious.  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.  He told them they were very ignorant of this god, but this god they have an altar to is the God he served.  Paul said, He has come to reveal himself through his Son Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  Jesus, the Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  (Colossians 1:15-17)  This revelation that Paul had of Jesus Christ is now told to people who exist by their own rational thinking; their own contrived light.  Now Paul is telling them, your way of living is darkness and futility.  A hard message to accept in their riches of philosophy.  However, Paul was raised and educated in the Greek way of thinking, so he was able to debate them about life and the meaning of life, but what they thought and what the Jewish elite thought about life, Paul had abandoned and counted it all as dung, worthless trash.  I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.  I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.  (Philippians 3:8-11)  Paul was sent to the Gentile world, and he would experience the suffering Christ experienced, even his death by violent men.  However, as he addressed these elite and learned men of Athens, he knew their darkness was very great.  The devil had deceived them into idol worshipping, an irrational way of thinking about God.  For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.  They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.  Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk.  Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.”  (Jeremiah 10:2-6)  In Athens, a bastion of deep thinking, the people were captivated by the darkness of idol worshipping, deceived by the devil.  

Paul’s call to the Gentile world mirrors greatly with Jesus’ call to the Jewish people of Palestine.  Jesus came to minister to the elect, the descendants of Abraham.  The Gentiles carried a derogatory name by the Jews: dogs.  In healing a demon possessed child of a Gentile woman, Jesus refers to the Gentiles as dogs in his dialogue with the mother of the child.  Jesus answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”  The woman came and knelt before him.  “Lord, help me!” she said.  He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”  “Yes it is, Lord,” she said.  “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”  (Matthew 15:24-27)  He heals the child, but his primary focus on earth was to the Jewish people.  Paul’s calling by God was to the Gentiles.  “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking to me.  ‘Quick!’ he said.  ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.”  "Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you.  And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’  “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”  (Acts 22:17-21)   After Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, he went back to Jerusalem, his home.  But God had other purposes for Paul than staying in Jerusalem, where he felt at home.  No, Paul, over his protest, was sent by God to the Gentile world, going from city to city ministering the Good News of Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead.  He had to leave his home to fulfill God’s purpose in his life.  We see Jesus also leaving his home to go from city to city in Israel to minister about God’s goodness and love for the Jewish people.  After an early morning prayer in Capernaum, Jesus was called away from his home base where He and his disciples were living.  His disciples were not too happy about leaving their homes, but they followed Jesus.  Jesus had a target on his back throughout his whole ministry.  Paul in the Gentile world had a target on his back all the time he was fulfilling God’s call on his life.  Both Jesus and Paul were warned by their followers not to go to Jerusalem at the end of their ministry, but both went.  They were fixed on going to Jerusalem.  Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem, and Paul was chained, imprisoned, sent to Rome because of the Jewish pressure to kill him.  Both Paul and Jesus died violent deaths.   Jesus was called to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles.  Of course Paul’s excursion into the Gentile world was for the cause of Jesus Christ, to introduce the Redeemer, sent by God to all the world.  As God does with all people, He has a mission for people to fulfill in their lives.  It is so interesting that God has a time schedule for all of us to follow, no lolly-dallying around when dealing with God.  We see God telling Paul, Quick!  Leave Jerusalem immediately.  Not tomorrow, but TODAY.  We see the angel when delivering Peter from jail, “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.  Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so.  (Acts 12:7-8)  No messing around, hurry!  Jesus tells those who want to follow him, you cannot go back and bury your loved ones or say goodby to them.  No, you must hurry and follow me; no sign is needed.  Often we want reinforcement in our decisions, but if God asking you to follow him, then do it with faith.  Paul went into the lion's den; the Greek world.  He was there in constant danger; never knowing if he would have the next day to live.  But God had said to him, quick, go, leave your comfort zone.  How hard that is for us; how hard it was for the disciples to leave their loved ones, their homes, the places where their ancestors were buried, but they did.  They gave their lives for the purposes of God.  Breakfast companions, you are the salt of the earth, the light to those who live in darkness.  God tells you every day, Quick, Go, Tell the world about me, for I have a timetable for everyone you meet.  This is your day to spread the Good News.  God bless you richly.