Abide: Acts 17:16-34.
Looking back:
Question: How have you fished and followed since we last met?
1. Follow: This is a question of how are you spending time with the Lord personally, how you are praying, studying scriptures and how you are growing in the faith.
2. Fish: This emphasizes on the great commission, how you are sharing the gospel and making disciples.
Looking Up: To The Unknown God; Acts 17:16-34.
Read through Acts 17:16-34 and analyze the passage using the questions below.
What do we learn about God?
What do we Learn about people?
Is there sin to avoid or confess?
Is there a promise to claim?
Is there an example to follow?
Is there a command to obey?
Take time and dive deeper.
1. Where is Paul at this particular time, what seems to distress him and what does he do about it? Are there similar events such as this that have distressed you lately? What did you do about it? (Acts 17:16-17).
2. Who were these groups of philosophers that Paul encountered and how were their beliefs different from his? (Acts 17:18-21)
3. How does Paul use their own worldview to point them to the gospel? (Acts 17:22-31)
4. How did the people around him respond to the gospel when he finished speaking? (Acts 17:32-34). How have you and the people around you responded to the gospel when it has been preached?
5. After reading the passage, how has your view about God changed? How has Paul’s response challenged you how to reply when someone asks you about your faith.
Engaging Notes
Athens, a great city.
There is an old saying that says there are two kinds of people, Greeks, and everyone else who wish they were Greek, and Athens was the heart of ancient Greece. As far as history is concerned, Athens was the largest, most influential of the Greek cities even becoming the leading economical city in the first millennium. Athens, which is the capital city of Greece, was the birthplace of European civilization. It was considered the source of democracy, science, philosophy, art, culture, writings and formal education. Some of the most famous and influential people who came out of Athens included; Socrates the enigmatic philosopher, Plato the metaphysical engineer, Pericles, the inspired states man, Aristophanes, the comic writer, and many other prominent philosophers, writers and politicians of the ancient world.
It is believed that the name Athens is directly connected to the Greek goddess Athena, the goddess of wisdom and warfare. According to the ancient myth, both Athena and Poseidon, the god of the sea, requested to be rulers of the city and to give their names to it, therefore, in order to have a winner, Zeus, the chief god, presented a challenge for both of them. They both had to present a gift to the city and whoever’s gift the people would choose, he/she would be in charge and have the city named after him/her. Poseidon went first and struck his trident and produced a salt spring, symbolizing naval power while the goddess Athena created the olive tree symbolizing peace and prosperity, thus the Athenians accepted the olive tree and named the city Athens after the name of the goddess Athena.
To the Unknown God; Part one: Paul’s witness; Acts 17:16- 21
In the earlier verses of the same chapter, we see that Paul had visited various places in his second missionary journey (Acts 15:36-38). Ideally, the reason why he was now at Athens is because he had encountered conflicts as a result of preaching the gospel in Thessalonica and Berea which were in the northern side of Greece, thus for the sake of his life he had to be out of the city, otherwise, he would be persecuted by some Jews who were determined to silence him.
However, Paul finds himself alone in Athens. His companions, who were with him in Thessalonica and Berea including Silas and Timothy, had stayed behind, perhaps not to attract more vicious crowds to themselves for a while, however, they were to regroup in Athens and then proceed to Macedonia as soon as Timothy and Silas would join him, for it was in Macedonia that they had been called by God to preach the gospel (Acts 16:10).
However, while he was waiting in Athens, the glorious city of ancient Greece with its beauty and elegance, it is written that he was greatly distressed to see the city full of idols. Beyond its magnificence and towering walls, idolatry ran rampant throughout the land to the point that it was a common saying among by the Athenians that it was easier to find a god than a man there, and this greatly disturbed Paul. According to Peterronius, one of the ancient historian scholars, he estimated that by then Athens had almost 30,000 gods and goddess. This is because religion to the Athenians was significant and many believed that there was a god of every aspect of their lives therefore it was important to make sure that they are happy otherwise, an unhappy god means disaster to the land.
With this in mind, Luke tells us that Paul went and reasoned daily in the synagogues and in the market places with both the Jews and God-fearing Greeks who happened to be there because he was greatly distressed in his heart with the rate of idolatry. Just like
the God-fearing Athenians, genuine desire to love and worship God does not always equal true worship of God for it is possible to be sincerely wrong in our pursuit of righteousness unless we have the correct understanding of who God is, what he has done for us and what he expects from us, this is why John would remind us that true worshippers of God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. We all have an understanding about God and we have gotten our knowledge from a wide variety of sources which may include our parents, our environment, our schooling, our personal experiences, our culture and even the media. However, we must find ourselves thinking about God as accurately as he has revealed himself because anything short of that is prone to idolatry, for at the heart of idolatry is the substitution of who God is with an erroneous notion of his character, what he has done for us and what he expects from us. True desire without knowledge is not good and knowledge of God without zeal to serve is questionable faith.
In the Market place or Agora (meaning: gathering place) as it was known in Greek, which was a central place not only for commercial purposes but likewise where people would gather to air out their political, social or spiritual views, Paul is confronted with some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers (Acts 17:17-18). They, together with some cynics ridiculed him by calling him a babbler and yet were still interested in what he had to say for they had never heard of a man rising from the dead. Because of his outlandish message they decided to present him before the Areopagus council, so that he can clarify what he was talking about it. The Areopagus council, just like the Sanhedrin in Israel, was a governing body of respected people in Greece who were charged with investigating cultural, educational, spiritual and philosophical ideas as well as settling and judging certain cases.
The Epicureans and Stoics Epicurean Philosophy: The Epicurean philosophy was started by a person called Epicurus. It was a materialistic ideology that denied that God created the world. They accepted the idea that the world was formed by chance and that the gods had no concern of its creation therefore man became the measure of all good for himself. The greatest distinguishing factor of this philosophy was that people should pursue pleasure not truth because eventually the body and the soul was going to disintegrate into nothing and there is no afterlife either as a result make the best of your life while here on earth. Their motto was simple "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Stoic Philosophy: The Stoic philosophy on the other hand was founded by Zeno and believed that the universe was fundamentally rational. They believed that wisdom came from being free from intense emotionalism. Stoic philosophy taught people should submit themselves to natural law. The highest expression of this, according to Stoicism, was reason, which would lead one to be righteous, and to be righteous was to live in harmony with reason. The doctrine of the Stoics was that all things were fixed by fate which was meant to be submitted to because it was useless to be in opposition to it. He taught that the passions and affections were to be suppressed and restrained and that a man should gain an absolute mastery over all the passions and affections of his nature. He also taught that all things are produced from him (God) and will at last be absorbed into him again; a new world-cycle will begin like that which went before, therefore the way in which an individual could become happy was by bringing himself into harmony with the fixed course of the universe.
However, unlike the Sanhedrin, the Athenian Areopagus seem to be more interested in jabbering and listening to the latest news rather than finding truth for themselves as Luke would point out, “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.” (17:21)
Lesson 1: The true worshippers of God must worship him in Spirit and truth.
To the Unknown God Part two: Paul Witnesses; Acts 17:22-34.
In front of the meeting of the Areopagus council and in the presence of curious thinkers, Paul stood up and said to them, “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 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.”
There 3 key things that Paul was careful to mention in his opening speech that provided a good foundation for his entire message:
1. Paul acknowledged their genuine desire to be right with God without mocking their religious practices. Someone once said, “Once you cut off a person’s nose, there is no point in giving him a rose to smell- quote by Ravi Zacharias” In other words, you cannot abuse or mock someone’s belief then later on present good news of the gospel to them and think that they will generously accept it with open arms. Paul knew this for sure, and he was candid enough to explain his position without disrespecting the people even though they were wrong in their reasoning and practices.
2. Paul used their own worldview as a bridge to preach the gospel. In his words he tells them, “23 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…” Apart from acknowledging their piety, Paul, in the wisdom bestowed upon him by God, took notice of an alter inscribed, “To an unknown God” and recognized that they were oblivious to whom they were serving even though they worshiped and offered sacrifices to the deity. Now, the background story of the alter is not found in the text itself but was written by a Greek writer known as Diogenes Laertius. In his book, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, in about 600BC the story is told of how a terrible earthquake shook the foundations of Athens. Since Athens was known for its polytheistic religious practices, it was believed that the reason why they were affected badly was because they failed to honor one of the great deities and the deity was angry with them. Therefore, a devout religious man by the name Epaminondas a Cretan Philosopher, advised them to erect an alter unto that god who had great power whoever he was and because they did not know his name and not sure what kind of devotions he needed, he instructed the alter to be inscribed, The Unknown God. Whether the god was from Asia, Africa or Europe, they did not know, however since he was deity, he would be honored as a deity.
3. Paul confidently made God known to them without compromising the truth. After Paul has established a common ground with the thinkers, he confidently made the unknown God of the universe known to them using their own source of information. One of the most interesting thing that he does is that he does not use the scriptures, at least he does not quote directly from them as he does with the Jews, in order to preach to them. This in no way does it refute or discourage using scriptures to evangelize to strangers, but it simply implies that Paul perhaps chose not to because at this point the scriptures were irrelevant to a highly educated paganized culture. Thus, he used their own belief system as a hook to bait them into having an interest about the true God.
Citing from their own sources, Paul in the following verses shows them who this God is and what he has done for humanity. He tells them:
He is the creator. Vs 24a, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth…” The Lord God is the creator of all things whether visible or invisible, the unknown god, is the one in charge and the one who they are all accountable to. For a people who had about 30,000 idols and a group of Epicureans who thought they were self-governed and had no moral accountably to any deity, this must have struck a punch.
He is not confined and he is a life giver. Vs 24b-25, “…does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.” Unlike the other deities, the Athenians did not have a temple for this particular one because no one knew what he looked like or what he required, all they could hope for was that the sacrifices given to him would be enough. Then all of a sudden, Paul yet again challenged their notion of a God confined to the temple walls and who is so concerned about our worship to him as if without us, he ceases to exist. So he reminded them from their sources that God does not need anything from human beings in fact, he is the one who gives life to people.
He is the director of life. Vs 26-27, “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.” According to Greek mythology, Prometheus and Epimetheus, two Titans, were spared imprisonment in Tartarus after the War between the Titans and the Olympians, because they had not fought alongside the other Titans. Instead, they were given the task of creating man. Prometheus shaped man out of mud, and Athena breathed life into his clay figure. However, yet again Paul challenged their belief. He tells them that God is the creator of human race and everyone came out of one man. The reason he did so was not because of a reward from the gods of Olympus but because he wanted to do so and give everyone on earth a place to belong, therefore, Athens or Greece was not any more special than Israel or Babylon or Rome as some of them would think, but he in charge of all humanity and he is not far from all of them.
We belong to him. Vs 28, “For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.” It is
interesting that here, Paul quotes two philosophers, Epimenides the Cretan philosopher and Aratus the Cilician Stoic philosopher. Quoting them does not necessarily mean that they are always right or Godly, but because what they said in that particular text was actually true and even corresponds well with the scriptures. In other words, he was telling them that even their sources acknowledge that they can only find their self-worth from the God of the universe therefore it is expedient for them to take him seriously.
Now that they know who this God is, now that he has clearly made them aware about the unknown God, they can no longer leave as though they are still in ignorance for Paul tells them in vs 29, “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 other words, it is expedient for them to reject the vague ideas that gold or silver or stone could actually represent Him. Moreover, since they acknowledge that the alter of the unknown belonged to a powerful deity, and Paul has carefully and plainly revealed to them who this deity is and what he requires from them, how could they continue tolerating such ideas as before?
God overlooked their ignorance because they had zeal without knowledge, but no longer would he continue to do so anymore. Now he requires them to turn and repent from their sinful ways otherwise he has a day appointed for judgement and everyone will be judged justly by him. To those who have not heard the gospel or do not have his Laws, God will judge them by what he has revealed to them and to those who do have the law, the Lord will use that because he is a faithful God, without iniquity, just and upright.
However, no sooner had Paul finished talking about how God has given proof of his words even by raising Jesus from the dead, then some sneered while others were eager to hear more, then Paul left the council. But Paul’s mission through Athens was not a loss, for some people became followers and believed, among them being Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris and a number of others.
Lesson 2: God overlooked their ignorance from before because they had zeal without knowledge, but no longer would he continue to do so anymore.
Apply:
We all have a worldview Game Time: The Rorschach ink Blot test. Note: The purpose of using the Rorschach test now is simply for understanding how people perceive reality and not for psychological or any other test. Download or print the 10 pics of ink blot images. Look at the images and write down what you see next to the image.
No matter where you come from, we all have different ways of seeing realities with some being more unique than others and these differences of opinions may even change depending on different circumstances such as age, culture, experiences and even new knowledge. There is an old Swahili saying that says “mtu ni dini”, loosely translated “a man is a product of his belief/ideas”. Therefore, it stands to reason that our worldview is like a filter where everything else passes through, which means that if the way we perceive reality corresponds to truth, then we will be able to make accurate conclusions otherwise the opposite is equally true.
However, in an honest opinion, to write about how people from all over the world think and how they believe and still keep it short will be like trying to make a camel pass through an eye of a needle and even that can be an easier task if someone can make the needle bigger. Therefore, I believe it will be of greater importance to understand why the Christian worldview makes more sense than every other worldview.
Before attempting to make a good case of Christianity, it is important to understand that, just like Paul in Acts 17 while he was speaking to the Athenians, all other worldviews are not entirely wrong. The whole system of belief may be wrong, but there are some statements or principles that are true and even useful for our day to day lives however, in the key areas where they are wrong, Christianity is right. Engaging thought: Do you believe that Christianity is true? What evidence do you have to support your belief? In one of his talks, Dr. Ravi Zacharias gives 3 test that any system of belief should be subjected to in order to verify if it’s a truth claim. logical consistency (rational thinking) -is what being claimed logically consistent or are there obvious contradictions? empirical adequacy –Are there any good and credible evidences to support what is being claimed? experiential relevance – does it work in real life? Tell your group members what you see in each image. Time: Should take a max of 10 min. Link: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.cbsd.org/cms/lib/PA01916442/Centricity/Domain/1793/Rorschach%20Ink%20Blot%20Test%20pdf.pdf Engaging Thought: What is your world view and how different do you think your worldview would be if you grew up in a different part of the world? Definition: A worldview is a person’s way of perceiving reality. Our perception to life may be influenced by age, culture, experiences, education and even faith.
Why do I believe Christianity is true;
1. Reliability of the scriptures. No book in history has gone through the kind of scrutiny from people of all backgrounds as the bible and yet it has still stood the test of time. Life way research quotes, “The Bible has the most surviving copies of any ancient document to put its text to the test for variants, or for corruption. There are around 24,000 manuscripts from all over the ancient world, some as early as the second century…. What is the value of knowing our manuscript can be checked for reliable transmission? It confirms the teaching found within has been the same since it was written. We can know with assurance that what the authors wrote 2,000 years ago is what we have today.
2. The death and resurrection of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is addressing the issue concerning the resurrection of the dead, for it seems that there were some people who were dismissing the idea that people can actually be risen from the dead including some believers. In his speech Paul wants them to understand one particular thing and that is, if dead people cannot be risen then Christ never rose from the dead and if Christ never rose from the dead then their faith is futile and they are still in their sins. As a matter of fact, everyone who has ever died believing that Christ rose from the dead and they will be with him, are lost and Christians are to be most pitied in the whole world. Unless Christ did die and resurrect then there is no hope for humanity because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
3. People’s testimonies. Anyone who has ever heard an encounter with God has a story tell. On the road to Damascus when Paul was on his way to persecute Christians for their faith; when he met the Lord Jesus, his life was turned around and no longer was going to be the same. This is why I believe he was perplexed when some people claimed that the resurrection was nothing but a hoax because if it was not for Jesus, he would still be a Christian persecutor. In his testimony he even says, that Jesus died and resurrected and not only that but to prove himself he appeared to Peter then to the 12 disciples, he was seen by about 500 people of whom were still alive at that time though some had died and finally he appeared to him. Not everyone has encountered Jesus the same way Paul did but everyone who has encountered Jesus in their lives has a testimony like Paul, this is why John Newton would beautifully express this radicle transformation as;
Amazing grace how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now I'm found Was blind but now I see Engaging thought: Has any aspect of your worldview changed after today’s lesson? If so, what has changed?
Advance
Extra reading.
1. Resurrection of the body: 1 Corinthians 15:12-34
2. Mere Christianity, C.s Lewis: Book 2, what Christians Believe.
3. Saul’s conversion: Acts 9
4. Jesus the way to God: John 14:5-14
5. Knowledge of the Holy, A.W Tozer: Chapter 1, Why we must think rightly about God.
6. Jesus’ stay after resurrection: Acts 1:1-3
7. Jesus talks of his death and resurrection: Luke 13:33; Matthew 16:21; Matthew 17:22; Mark 8:31
8. Fulfilment of prophecy: 1 Peter 1:1-12; Acts 7:1-53