MPC, 18th November 2001.Acts 17:16-34 - "Meet the Unknown God"
Phil Campbell MPC, 18th November 2001.
It's funny I reckon, when Buckingham Palace tries to keep up with the times. They're always about twenty years behind. So yesterday I saw on the news they've made Dudley Moore a Commander of the British Empire. CBE. So frail now they had to wheel him in on a wheelchair. Buckingham Palace has finally caught up to the fact that Dudley made some very funny movies. About 20 years ago.
What about when Elton John got his knighthood a couple of years back? You mightn't have heard what happened. But apparently after you get your knighthood, you're announced by the LORD CHANCELLOR. Arise SIR ELTON JOHN. Except that this time, the Lord Chancellor got it totally back to front. And apparently he said, ARISE, SIR JOHN ELTON.
Because apparently, the Lord Chancellor of England had absolutely no idea who this ELTON JOHN WAS. The number 1 recording artist in the history of the world. Sang at Princess Diana's funeral. But there it was. Arise. Sir JOHN ELTON.
Now you have to laugh when you hear that, the old Aristocracy, so out of touch. That they've never heard of Elton John. But when you think about it, the sad thing is that I reckon a lot of CHRISTIANS would be in exactly the same boat.
I mean, you know who Elton John is, I guess. But what sort of stuff are people listening to TODAY? Teenagers. What sort of stuff do people WATCH? You mightn't actually like it a whole lot yourself, but as a Christian, how much do you know about WHERE OUR CULTURE IS? And where it's heading? What's an X-BOX? They were advertising them all over the tennis. What's the TOP MOVIE in the AFI award? Maybe you thought Lantana was just a noxious weed. Have you seen the trailer for the new Star wars movie yet? What's at the top of the music charts? Or the most popular web site?
Because if you want to SAY SOMETHING to the community, if you want to say something as a Christian to the non-Christian world, a good place to start is where THEY ARE. Instead of where WE ARE.
Which is exactly what you see in Acts chapter 17, when Paul gets to ATHENS. Capital city of Greece. An amazing place, and you might have even been there yourself. One of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, where you can still see the evidence of the incredibly architecture; and the artworks; that are still there today.
Except that what these days we call works of art, back then were IDOLS. That they worshipped. Beautifully carved stonework. Inlaid. Covered with gold-leaf. Breathtakingly beautiful. They reckon one of the idol statues that used to be in Athens was so tall - a statue of a woman with a sword - that you could see the tip of the sword from 42 miles away.
And so Paul arrives in Athens. On his own. He's got time to kill while he's waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him.
Now there are two things you'll notice about Athens that we're told in Acts 17. The first thing's all the idols. Wall to wall. And that's what hits you first in verse 16. Where it says, while he's there waiting for Silas and Timothy, HE'S GREATLY DISTRESSED. To see that the city is FULL OF IDOLS.
Someone once said about Athens, it was easier to find a GOD THERE than a man.
The second thing you notice about Athens is that as well as being full of idols, it's full of PHILOSOPHERS. That's the other thing Athens is famous for. Guys like Plato, and Aristotle. Big thinkers. And so verse 18, the people Paul runs into.. they're Philosophers like the Epicureans - a philosophy that said THIS LIFE IS ALL THERE IS. So make the most of it. Live it up. And the Stoics. Whose big thing was, BE DETACHED. Take whatever comes; don't get emotional about anything, just roll with the flow of the universe.
Verse 21 sums it up. Have a look what it says. Here's the tourist guide to Athens. "All the Athenians", says verse 21, "All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas." Like one long never-ending episode of Seinfeld.
Hang loose; throw round new ideas. That's the sort of place Athens was. Committed to nothing. Talking about everything. A god for every occasion. Sitting around drinking coffee and chewing over the latest trends in philosophy.
That's where Paul is. And I want you to look carefully at what Paul does as he faces up to the challenge… of bringing CHRISTIANITY to a place like that. Because if you think about it, it's very similar to the sort of challenge WE FACE TODAY. In a world full of ideas. A religious smorgasbord.
Will you notice the first thing. From verse 16. And that is that when Paul comes face to face with a city full of idol worshippers, that his response is not to get angry. And his response is not to march around with a placard and start a demonstration. His response as someone who wants to see GOD GLORIFIED, his response is that he's DISTRESSED. Cut to the heart.
And maybe instead of getting ANGRY when we see things happening in our society that we don't like, when we see things like the GAY MARDI GRAS in Sydney, instead of being ANGRY AND SELF RIGHTEOUS, maybe a better starting point is that we should be distressed. And moved by our COMPASSION. Rather than by what in some Christians looks more like self-righteous indignation.
Paul is distressed. So the thing he does in verse 17 is start REASONING wth them IN THE SYNAGOGUE. Starting with the Jews and the Greeks who are already believers in the Creator GOD of Israel. He reasons with them in the synagogue. That's a start. But for Paul, it's not enough.
Now can I ask you to think for a moment about WHERE YOU'D HAVE TO GO THESE DAYS if you wanted to talk to people on their OWN TURF. The synagogue back then was like GOING TO CHURCH. Where do we have to go to meet people ON THEIR GROUND. And not ours.
In verse 17 there it says Paul reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the god fearing Greeks, but as well as that, HE GOES TO THE MARKET PLACE day by day, and he wants to REASON WITH ANYONE WHO HAPPENS TO BE THERE. He'll talk to anyone who'll listen. And that's where he meets these Epicureans and Stoics, and they start disputing with him.
Where are OUR MARKET PLACES TODAY? Where people talk things over. Where we can CHAT TO PEOPLE ON THEIR OWN TERMS? If you're an Aussie bloke, maybe it's at the pub. Or the sports club. I don't know, if you're a woman maybe it's at the hairdresser. Maybe it's in the Letters to the Editor page in the Courier Mail. Where do people do their talking? And their thinking? Because if we want to be like Paul, we need to be there.
Because here he is in a city full of idols. And he's out in the market place of ideas. Reasoning with whoever he can get to listen.
Now as usual, things with Paul go only HALF WELL. Because you'll see there in verse 18, some of the people he's debating with say, HE'S JUST A BABBLER. Nonsense. What's he trying to say? And others say, he's on about some FOREIGN GODS. Because he's talking about JESUS. And the RESURRECTION. Which in Greek is ANASTASIS, and they think it's the name of some new idol.
But verse 19, and I take it this is quite a breakthrough, this is a bit of an honour, it says they took him, and they brought him to a meeting of the AREOPAGUS. Which is something like their city council debating club; and they say to him the words you can see in verse 19. They say "May we know what this new teaching is that you're presenting? Because you're bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean."
Now this is Paul's big chance, isn't it? It's like you turning up in Nashville with your suitcase and your guitar, and you suddenly find yourself AUDITIONING FOR THE BIG TIME. This is PAUL IN THE SPOTLIGHT. In the city of IDOLS. And PHILOSOPHIES.
So how's he going to do it. I said at the start, I reckon we need to be keeping IN TOUCH WITH OUR CULTURE. That we need to have our FINGER ON THE PULSE of how people are thinking. Building bridges. Finding common ground.
And if you watch Paul in action at the Areopagus, that's EXACTLY WHAT HE DOES. Will you notice, first of all, as he talks to a bunch of total outsiders, that the message Paul delivers in verse 22 to 31, this speech to the Areopagus council, it's VERY, VERY DIFFERENT to the sort of thing he says when he's talking to the JEWS.
To the Jews, it's a whole bunch of quotations from the Old Testament scriptures. But this is different. Plenty of Old Testament IDEAS. But the only two things he directly quotes are a line from THEIR VERSION OF ELTON JOHN. Their favourite poet. Verse 28. A line from one of their poems. WE ARE HIS OFFSPRING. And the only other thing Paul quotes to them is an inscription off one of their IDOLS.
Now think about that for a minute as you look at the way he starts his talk. The first thing he says. Because when he first sees their city full of idols, you know already Paul's DISTRESSED BY IT.
But when he starts talking to them, you wouldn't guess that, would you. He's actually gone around READING THE INSCRIPTIONS. Thinking it through.
Because in verse 22 and 23, he's looking for common ground. "Men of Athens. I see that in EVERY WAY YOU ARE VERY RELIGIOUS." Too right they are. Gods EVERYWHERE. And it's worth noticing, isn't it, being CHRISTIAN is very different to BEING RELIGIOUS. Sometimes we tend to think of being RELIGIOUS as if it's a good thing in itself. And they might take it as a bit of a pat on the back. But for Paul it's just the STARTING POINT. To say what he really wants to say.
And so he goes on. And he quotes from something he's seen there that makes the PERFECT BRIDGE for what he wants to talk about. As he's walked around Athens, he's spotted AN ALTAR. With an inscription on it.
These Athenians, they're so worried they might have missed making an idol to some god or other, they've made ONE EXTRA. To the GOD THEY DON'T KNOW. Just in case.
It's a bit like at the American War memorial. Where they have a TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER. The remains of an unknown soldier killed in battle who represents the loss of ALL UNKNOWN SOLDIERS.
Except in America there was a huge stir a couple of years ago, because it turned out that the US Army knew exactly who the unknown soldier killed in Vietnam was. And they hadn't bothered telling his family. The Unknown Soldier was KNOWN AFTER ALL.
Well, Paul's going to do the same thing here. He's going to start from a point of common ground. And take them from there to Jesus. And he tells them that in verse 23. Read what he says "For as I walked around and observed your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something UNKNOWN, I'm going to proclaim to you.
And in verse 24 to 31, the next 7 verses, that's exactly what he does.
A talk with one key point. That he presses home. He says, DON'T WORSHIP IDOLS THAT YOU'VE MADE. Worship THE REAL GOD. Who MADE YOU!
They've build their beautiful temples. They've carved their incredible idols. They've got their hundreds and hundreds of mythical gods who they reckon live up in the mountains, who they've got to appease with all their sacrifices. But the point is, it's all MAN MADE. They've created their own gods in their own image.
Paul says the real God isn't like that at all. The God they don't know. Is the exact reverse.
And that's what he says. Verse 24; "The God who made the world and everything in it IS THE LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, and doesn't live in temples built by hands."
You can't CONTAIN GOD. Just the opposite. GOD CONTAINS YOU. Verse 28; and he quotes THEIR OWN FAVOURITE POET. He says, you know this already. Your own poet says it. IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING. We are HIS offspring.
See, that's what it's like when you make an idol, isn't it? You INVENT A GOD FOR YOURSELF. You figure out the sort of god YOU'D LIKE. A comfortable god. A god in your own image, who doesn't make too many demands. And you carve it the way you reckon it should look; and you build the temple for it; and you say, I'VE DONE A GREAT JOB. So now THIS GOD's going to do what I want.
Trouble is, the REAL GOD; the God they DON'T KNOW - is the God who made THEM. To do what HE WANTS. Keep reading from verse 25; he's not served by human hands as if he NEEDED ANYTHING - because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. And he says in verse 26, he MADE US. And he put us where he wanted us. And he determines the times and the places FOR US; exactly how he wants it.
A very different picture from the sort of tinny little gods in Athens. Even if the tinny little gods looked big and golden. Here's the difference. When you make up your OWN GOD, you OWN IT. But with the REAL GOD who MADE YOU… HE OWNS YOU!
Verse 29 sums it up. Read what he says. He says THEREFORE, since WE ARE GOD'S OFFSPRING - he MADE US, he designed us in incredible detail - we shouldn't think that the divine being is like gold… or silver… or stone - an image made by man's design or skill. In the past God OVERLOOKED such ignorance. But NOW HE COMMANDS ALL PEOPLE… everywhere… TO REPENT.
Exactly the same message Paul and the other apostles have been preaching all along. Turn back to the God who made you. The essence of the Christian message. And I need to ask, have you done that?
Because God's set a day when everything you've ever said or done is going to be judged - with absolute justice. And Paul says, we're going to be judged by JESUS HIMSELF. And God's given proof of that. By raising him from the dead. Facing the prospect that you'll be treated by HIM then in the same way you've treated HIM NOW. Whether you've spent your life worshipping THE CREATION. Or the CREATOR.
Which is where you'll see Paul ends his speech. And the usual thing happens. Some of the members of the Areopagus council just laugh. Especially at the idea of RESURRECTION. When you're dead you're dead. Others say, WE WANT TO HEAR YOU AGAIN. And keep their options open. And you'll notice some believe - Dionysius, in verse 34, a member of the Areopagus; a woman called Damaris; and a few others.
Not a huge result. But a start.
Now just to finish up, can I say to you again that ATHENS is very much like Australia today. A melting pot of religions and ideas. Not the sort of blatant idolatry as in Athens… but something very close. One lady I was talking to said to me, well, people don't NEED GOD these days. Because we can do everything ourselves. She said, "You get sick these days, you don't have to go to church and pray; just go to the doctor." We don't need God anymore. Because we can MAKE OUR OWN. Which is just as much a form of IDOLATRY as anything in Athens.
If you think we still live in a CHRISTIAN SOCIETY in a CHRISTIAN COUNTRY, think again. The fact is, we're getting back to square 1. Where Paul started out. And so maybe we need to learn from his example. People STILL need to be told to REPENT. And TURN BACK TO THE GOD WHO MADE THEM. People still need to be WARNED ABOUT JUDGEMENT. Because it's REAL.
But in the way we do that, we need to learn what it means to BUILD COMMON GROUND. To go to the market place. And start talking to people in a language they understand. And to make contact with the sort of things they're watching, and listening to, and thinking. So we can bring them from THERE… back to the GOD WHO MADE THEM.