This I Proclaim to You....The God Who Made the World...

Acts 17:1-34 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Paul at Thessalonica

17 Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. ² And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³ explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ.” ⁴ And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. ⁵ But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. ⁶ When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also; ⁷ and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” ⁸ They stirred up the crowd and the city authorities who heard these things. ⁹ And when they had received a pledge from Jason and the others, they released them.

Paul at Berea

¹⁰ The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. ¹¹ Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. ¹² Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. ¹³ But when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds. ¹⁴ Then immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as far as the sea; and Silas and Timothy remained there. ¹⁵ Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.

Paul at Athens

¹⁶ Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. ¹⁷ So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. ¹⁸ And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹ And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? ²⁰ For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” ²¹ (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

Sermon on Mars Hill

²² So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. ²³ For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; ²⁵ nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; ²⁶ and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, ²⁷ that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; ²⁸ for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ ²⁹ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. ³⁰ Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, ³¹ because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

³² Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.” ³³ So Paul went out of 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.

In the beginning of the text today it says Paul would give evidence, reason and  explain, from the scriptures, that Jesus was the Christ. In Isaiah 55:10-11 God says:  

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 11So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. 

The best evidence we can give to people to explain and convince them that Jesus is the Christ, the Lord and Savior, is God's word which He says will accomplish what He desires. God's word with the revelation and conviction of God's Holy Spirit is the most powerful tool for evangelism, above any method or program designed or created by man.

It's amazing when we read this portion of scripture, to see the motivation that caused the religious Jews to persecute Paul. It wasn't zeal for their own understanding of the scriptures. They did not accuse Paul of blasphemy, as they had accused Jesus. The text says:    But the Jews, becoming jealous...     Their motivation, the reason they wanted to persecute and run Paul out of town was jealousy. As people became convinced that they should believe in and follow Jesus, the religious leaders were losing their power and their position. They were not concerned about God or about the people, they were jealous that Paul and the apostles would become more powerful, have a higher place in the community than they did.

Unfortunately jealousy is still one of the strongest dividing influences in the church today. Rather than rejoice at the success and growth of neighboring congregations, there is a tendency to compete with each other. If we are truly convinced that a church is teaching false doctrine than by all means we should want people to know truth. But if our motivation is based on jealousy and competition fearing that we might lose some of our own people to a growing church, then we don't have the kingdom of God in mind, we are building our own kingdoms. Far too much of church growth strategy is based on attracting believers to our services rather than declaring the word, explaining and convincing people that Jesus is the Christ. The early church didn't have a strategy for growth, a plan to attract people to their services. It says in Acts 2: 46-47 

Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. 

They lived out their faith "day by day" and the Lord added to their number "day by day".

Let's look briefly at Paul's next stop along the way in Berea. The text says:  Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. ¹² Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men.

One of the most unfortunate characteristics of the church today and for a fairly long period of church history, is that as church leadership has become a job, as people are trained and educated for the purpose of leading the church, there is a tendency for others to default to allowing them, the pastors, teachers and evangelists study the scriptures and tell us what they say. Trained and educated pastors, teachers and evangelist are a good and wonderful gift to the body of Christ, but we should all be like the Bereans. We should study and examine  the scripture ourselves, to see whether the things we hear are so. These days, in our sound-bite oriented culture and society, it would be easy to be led astray by a doctrine that is built around an isolated or out of context scripture. 2 Timothy 3:16 says:

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;    

This though, is more than doctrine which is built around single lines or isolated scripture verses. All scripture is the entirety of the Bible. We need to know and study scripture in order to protect ourselves from being intentionally or accidentally misled. There is a humorous story about what can happen if we take scripture out of context and build doctrine around isolated verses.

The story is told of a man who like to just open his Bible and read the first verse that came to him. The first verse he happened to turn to was Matthew 27:5 which says Judas "went and hanged himself." Since he was not sure how this verse applied to himself, he flipped to another passage and the Bible fell open to Luke 10:37: "Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise." The man was quite upset and he did not know how he could ever obey that, so he decided to turn to one more place. Again he opened the Bible at random and to his horror his finger fell upon John 13:27: "Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly." 

The story may be funny, but the truth that many people will trust and believe what they hear shared on TV or the internet without examining the scriptures is not a laughing matter.

Let's take one final thing from today's text. When Paul was in Athens he found that the people were focussed more on philosophy and ideas than on truth. Verse 21 says:   Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.  Paul responds to them saying:

“Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. ²³ For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; ²⁵ nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;

Our own culture and society has become much like that of Greece. We are supposed to accept and tolerate all forms of thought, all ideas are supposed to be included. The problem with that form of thinking is that it always tends to eliminate the Christian or Biblical view. Those who want to hold to the truth of God's word are not accepted and tolerated by the very ones who say they want inclusion and tolerance.  

Romans 1:20 says: For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

No human philosophy or argument can change the truth. We are called to love the world as God does, loving people who God created in His image. We are not to accept, tolerate and believe everything the world says and does. 

1 John 2:15-17 says:  Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. ¹⁷ The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, precious Holy Spirit, I pray that you would remove any form of jealousy from my heart. I pray Lord that You would give me a boldness to declare the truth of Your word and I trust that You will be faithful then to have Your word accomplish what You intend. Give me a heart like the Bereans Lord, that I would guard against any false teaching I might hear. Lord give me heart as only You can to love the world as You have, yet not to love, accept or tolerate the things You despise. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit that I may walk in all these things.   Amen