HOW PAUL PRESENTED GOD
Acts 17:23-28 NKJ
23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that 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 have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
Paul was speaking to a group of Athenians on the Areopagus or Mars Hill. These Greeks and the foreigners who came to Athens were the intellectuals of their day. Greek culture had influenced Rome and all the known world at that time. The Athenians wanted to hear what Paul was proclaiming because they were in love with learning and hearing new things. How Paul presented God and Jesus was brilliant and inspired.
Paul started by connecting to something all the Athenians were familiar with: an altar dedicated to the unknown god. Paul began there and proclaimed who God is.
Paul declares that God made the world and everything in it. And that God is the Lord of heaven and earth. That’s a bold declaration. The God Paul presented was the Creator of heaven and earth. It seems that the Jews had a strong conviction of the fact that God was the Creator. But what a wonderful place to begin. Paul declared God to be the Originator of all that was seen and unseen, and because of that, He does not dwell in temples made with man’s hands. The God Paul proclaimed gives to all life, breath, and all things.
Paul went on to declare that it was God who made from one blood every nation of men. And God determined the times and boundaries. Again, we see Paul declaring that this God, the unknown God, was responsible for all things and all people. And God has determined that all men should seek for the Lord their Creator. In Him, God, all mankind lives and moves and has their being. Paul is dropping some deep concepts upon the people who considered themselves to be the deepest in the civilized world. Paul also connected with Greek poets who declared that we are the offspring of God. Mankind has always carried a sense of the divine. A sense of knowing that man was different from the animal kingdom. Mankind has a sense of God. Paul explained why they had this belief. Man was created by God, and He was near to each one.
Paul shared some broad concepts with the Athenians. He eventually told them about Jesus and that Jesus had been raised from the dead. The resurrection was much harder for some of the Greeks to swallow. Some mocked Paul. Some delayed deciding until later. And some of the people who heard Paul that day believed and connected with Paul.
APPLICATION
Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill has been lauded as a model for reaching an unsaved world. We still must connect with where people are. And we still have to proclaim that our God is the Creator of heaven and earth and all that is in them. We cannot shy away from declaring that God made mankind and we are to seek Him. And, of course, we have to proclaim that God will one day judge the world in righteousness by one man, Jesus, whom God raised from the dead.
As it was with Paul, it will be in our day as well. When we proclaim who God is and what He has done for us through Jesus there will be a mixed result. Some will mock, but that should not stop us. Some will put off the decision until later, but we keep on declaring it. And some will believe, and we will rejoice with them. Even among the intellectual world, there is still in some a heart hunger to know the one true God.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, You are the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Our beautiful world was not an accident, and neither are those of us who live in it. I acknowledge You as Supreme, and I look to know You in a greater way.