Download ACTS 17 – PAUL: A PERSUADER

ACTS 17 – PAUL: A PERSUADER
Big idea
o The greatest news a Christian has to share is the character of the living God –
because no-one and nothing else is worth living for!
--------How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news…
These are words from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 52:7), written in the eighth
century BC
And they are words that have acted to remind God’s people of the privilege and the
blessings of bringing good news to people ever since.
Quite apart from their biblical context, they are words that on the surface at least, most people
can agree on.
It is a beautiful thing to bring good news to people – just as it’s a beautiful thing to
receive good news.
Good news can come in many forms:
o When two people we care about get engaged or get married
o When a child is safely born into the world
o Perhaps a long-awaited promotion finally arrives, or we receive encouragement at
work
o A holiday is finally booked
o We move into a new home
o Ireland beat England in the rugby
Good news is a welcome thing!
We welcome it – and we are grateful for those who bring it to us!
When we look at that bit of Isaiah again, and we think about these words in their context in
the Bible, we understand more why the feet of people who bring the sort of good news that
Isaiah is describing are described as beautiful.
In some ways, Christians could be described as people who bring good news
I don’t know if you always feel like that –
I don’t know if the people who know you would always think of you like that –
but that’s what this bit of Isaiah is getting at, and that’s what the apostle Paul is driven by in
the city of Athens, in the bit of Acts 17 we’re looking at this morning.
Paul had good news to share in Athens – and if you’re a Christian here this morning, the
Bible tells you that you have good news to share as well!
The question then becomes:
Well – what exactly is this ‘good news’ that Christians are meant to share?
What is the good news that is meant to make our feet ‘beautiful’?
If I asked you:
What is the greatest news that we as a church have to share with east Oxford
What would you say?
We live in a needy city – we live in a time and a country that is struggling in so many ways.
And there are so many needs all around us.
Sometimes I think the greatest news that we have to share with east Oxford is the opportunity
we have to model what a real community looks like.
Across the age range, people all around us are longing to belong to a community.
The Beatles’ song ‘Eleanor Rigby’ asked the question:
All the lonely people, where do they all come from?
And you just have to walk through Templar Square or Cornmarket on a week-day to see that
there are plenty of lonely people all around us who are longing to belong somewhere.
Teenagers – older people – parents with young children
So many experience deep loneliness, and long to belong somewhere – to have people
around them who truly care for them.
The list could go on to include asylum seekers – university lecturers – international students
So – is community the greatest news we have to share with the people around us?
Or is the greatest news we can share with people, that you can have a clear conscience – that
you can be forgiven for the bad things you’ve done?
Guilt and regret cripple so many people – more than would ever admit to it.
Is forgiveness the greatest news we can share?
Is the greatest news Christians can share that you can have a fresh start to your life – that you
can turn your back on your old life, your old way of doing things, and start over?
Or is the greatest news we can share reserved for the future – is it that you can go to heaven
when you die?
All these things are good news, according to the Bible –
They are precious benefits that flow out of being a Christian.
But when we look at Paul’s sermon to the people of Athens here in Acts 17, I think we can
see a different emphasis to the one we might naturally have.
For Paul, the greatest news we have to share with the world around us is
Who God is – his character –
And the fact that people like us can come to know him for ourselves!
Paul is clear to the Athenian people
His message to them is good news – because it is news about the living God – the
only person worth living for – and how he invites us all to come to know him and to delight in
him!
The Christian pastor and author John Piper published a book recently entitled God is the
Gospel
And Paul here in Acts 17 would agree with him!
All the benefits of the Christian life that we might want to share with the people around us –
Community – forgiveness – a fresh start – heaven!
mean nothing – without the living and awesome God who stands behind it all!
The greatest news we have to share with the people around us is that:
The living God is greater and more praise-worthy than we could ever imagine!
And he is inviting us to know him and enjoy life with him as our God!
That is Paul’s message to the people of Athens in Acts 17.
Paul has come a long way since we last saw him, two weeks ago in Acts chapter 9.
Then, he was a recently converted man still going by the name of Saul.
God had intervened in his life and transformed him from a violent enemy of Christians into
the greatest Christian missionary of them all
A man responsible more than any other for the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ
across the ancient world.
In Acts 17, Paul is mid-way through his second great missionary journey – and in the early
part of the chapter, he is preaching the good news of Jesus Christ to Jews and Greeks in
Thessalonica and Berea.
This earns Paul many enemies among his fellow-Jews, who violently oppose him and
his message.
And eventually, in verses 14-15, the Christians with Paul think it best to send Paul away to
the coast, to get him away from this opposition.
So Paul arrives in the city of Athens –
alone – perhaps bruised from the opposition he had faced – perhaps discouraged that
he had been forced out of places where many more could have heard his message.
The implication of v.15 is that Athens may have been intended as a place for Paul to lie low
after the opposition of Thessalonica and Berea
Perhaps the early Christians – and Paul himself – felt he needed time to recover from
those experiences, and that Athens was as good a place as any to rest and wait for Silas and
Timothy to join him.
Certainly, Athens didn’t have a large Jewish population to take exception to Paul – so it may
have been chosen as a place where Paul was safe from attack from the Jewish authorities.
But if Athens was chosen as a quiet place for Paul to lie low and recover from hard times,
v.16 tells us the effect the city soon began to have on Paul as he stayed there.
Read v.16-17.
Why was Paul in ‘great distress’ in Athens?
Because ‘the city was full of idols’.
Athens was famous for its culture – its learning – its proud history of producing some of the
greatest minds that had ever lived
It had magnificent temples and architecture – it enjoyed great independence from the
Roman empire.
But when Paul looked around, what he saw underneath all of Athen’s proud achievements
and grandeur, was this:
The people of Athens did not know the living God – and that grieved Paul!
It got to him, it saddened him, it caused him great distress, to the point where he knew what
he had to do: make God known in that city!
By verse 18 of the chapter, Paul is making a name for himself.
He doesn’t automatically earn a lot of respect from his hearers – instead, some of
them ask: ‘What is this babbler trying to say?’
But what he does earn is an invitation to the Areopagus in v.19 – to the most respected
council in Athens – where he is invited to present his ‘new teaching’ to the people of Athens.
Paul jumps at the chance and in v.22 begins to address the crowd:
Read vv.22-23.
It isn’t hard to see the similarities between Athens in the first century AD, and Oxford in the
21st century.
Both are proud cities – both are cities famous for learning – both have impressive histories –
But if we are to learn from Paul’s perspective in Acts 17, Oxford today shares
something else far more important with Athens back then:
Instead of worshipping the living God, most people in Oxford are content to worship idols
–
For many people in Oxford, the God who reveals himself through Jesus Christ is an
unknown God!
This fact caused Paul ‘great distress’ in Athens –
If we’re Christians, it should get to us living in Oxford today, too – and it should lead
us to working hard so that the people we know will come to know the living God for
themselves!
Now before we look at what Paul has to say about the God of Christianity, we need to
acknowledge that Paul’s words here can sound a bit offensive to modern ears.
I have several friends whose big issue with Christians is that Christians claim to know God
and what he is really like.
To them, that just sounds like arrogance – and Paul’s words here would look like the
height of arrogance!
‘How can Paul claim to know a God that the greatest minds in Athens do not?’
Surely the altar Paul describes here is far more in keeping with modern-day
sensibilities.
The inscription ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD’ simply accepts that we can’t know what
God is really like – surely it’s just a humble admission that we are all equally in the dark
about God, and it’s only cocky Christians who will claim otherwise!
Well, the book of Acts gives us a clear answer to any accusation that Paul is being arrogant
here.
The reason Paul knows this ‘unknown God’ is not that he is smarter than the Athenians or
that he is more spiritually aware than them –
The reason Paul knows the living God is back in Acts chapter 9:
God made himself known to Paul!
Paul was not looking for God – God was looking for Paul, and he found him, and he
opened Paul’s eyes to who he was and what he has done!
There is no room for Paul to be arrogant here
The only reason Paul knows the living God – is because God was gracious to him and
made himself known!
And the same is true of every Christian here this morning!
There is no room for pride or arrogance in any of us, when we seek to tell others around us
about who God is –
The only reason any of us can know God is if God first makes himself known to us –
if he is gracious to us and reveals himself to us through his Son Jesus!
That is both humbling to us – and liberating!
When we tell people about Jesus, we aren’t claiming some greater spiritual insight
than them – we are simply telling them what Jesus has graciously revealed to us about
himself!
So don’t let people tell you you’re being arrogant when you talk about who God really is –
The only reason you know is because God opened your eyes to himself!
So what can we learn from Paul’s sermon here about the God of Christianity – and why is he
the greatest news we can share with others, and the only God worth worshipping and living
for?
Paul: A Persuader
Why is knowing God such good news?
o He’s the real thing! (vv.16-23)
What distressed Paul about the people of Athens wasn’t first and foremost their pride – or
their cultural quirks – or the things they did to relax.
It was the fact that they worshipped idols – they worshipped false gods –
And they were willing to settle for idols, when the real thing was so much greater!
Paul’s emphasis all the way through his address is on how real God is, in comparison with
the gods that the Athenians worshipped.
For Paul, it is the reality of God that makes him so precious, so praise-worthy – and Paul
didn’t want the Athenians to be contented with anything less than the real thing!
Nothing else is worth worshipping – and no-one else is worth living for.
The question is:
Do we believe that?
How do you feel when you look around and see so many people in our world worshipping
idols, rather than the living God?
People living for their jobs – people living for their families –
People looking for meaning in relationships – in sexual experimentation – in physical
comfort and security.
As human beings, the Bible tells us we are created to worship something – and if it isn’t God,
then any number of things can replace him!
It’s not that we don’t worship anything if we ignore God – it’s that we worship any
number of things instead!
The thing is – none of these things can satisfy us! None of these things are ultimately worth
worshipping!
Even so-called ‘good things’ like family, work, relationships –
They cannot provide the meaning and the life that we all need!
Only the real and living God can do that!
Of course, that doesn’t stop us from trying to change God in our minds!
I don’t know about you – but sometimes, when I read about God in the Bible, I occasionally
am attracted to the idea of re-moulding him and changing him, to make him more appealing
to me or to people I know.
I sometimes wish that God didn’t punish sin – that maybe hell wasn’t real – that maybe it
wasn’t that important for people to hear about Jesus and put their trust in him.
But then I’m falling into the trap of treating God like an idol – when in fact it is the reality of
God that makes him so praise-worthy!
When I was younger, I used to fall in love a lot.
I would fall in love with a girl who I thought was amazing – who was perfect – and who I
was sure would devote her entire life to making me happy, if I could just persuade her!
Of course, in reality, I was falling in love with my idea of the girl in question, rather than the
real person.
When I met Lily and eventually got married to her, I suddenly discovered that loving
someone was very different to how I imagined it would be.
Lily didn’t always do things the way I wanted them done –
She didn’t always see things the way I saw them –
In fact, she was a real person! She was very different from the fantasy wives I had
imagined as a younger man!
But very quickly I discovered that it was the very fact that she was real that enriched my life
with her and our lives together!
I can’t re-mould Lily or change her into someone who will always agree with me –
And that’s a wonderful thing!
And it’s the same with God
He is real – there are times when God will make us uncomfortable with his holiness –
his power – his anger at sin
But Paul is clear to the people of Athens:
Only the real God is worth worshipping – no man-made idol can ever take his place!
It is the sheer reality of God that leads Paul to challenge the man-made gods of Athens
Because only the real and living God can satisfy us – and only by having a
relationship with him can we enjoy life as it was meant to be lived!
So Paul is driven by the fact that only the real and living God is worth knowing and worthy
worshipping
He then goes on to describe him to the people of Athens.
And we can learn from Paul here –
for this is the God that the people around us – our friends and loved ones – need to
hear about from us!
o He is powerful and generous! (vv.24-25)
Read vv.24-25.
Paul wants the people of Athens to know –
The God he is describing is not only the Creator God – he is the God who rules over
creation, ‘the Lord of heaven and earth’.
And he is a God who gives, rather than takes!
Idol worship in Athens was ritualistic – and things like visiting the temple of your god and
making sacrifices to them were all-important.
Paul says that the God he is describing is different!
‘He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men
life and breath and everything else’ (v.25)
We don’t give to God – God is the one who gives to us!
This would have been an astonishing truth for the Athenians to grasp – as well as a deeply
liberating one!
And it is a liberating truth that the people around us need to hear today!
The idols of modern-day Britain are demanding – and they are unforgiving.
Success at work – physical attractiveness – personal popularity
If we live for these things – if we worship these things – they will end up ruling our
lives and making us miserable.
None of these idols can satisfy us – because they are never satisfied with us!
We can always be more successful – more beautiful – more popular –
And if we keep on living for these things, we will end up depressed – miserable –
burned out.
Instead of these unforgiving false gods, we need an encounter with the God who made us –
the living, real God who gives rather than takes – and who does not need us to serve
him, but rather in his grace chooses to serve us by providing forgiveness and a new life for us
through his Son!
This liberating truth – that God does not ultimately need to be served by human hands – is
deeply liberating for Christians, too.
I don’t know how busy you feel at the moment.
It’s certainly a busy time in the life of the church.
We have the mission, Legacy, coming up – and a lot of people are working hard to
make that a success.
Maybe at work or at home, you’re struggling to meet the demands placed on you.
You desperately want to honour God in the way you live your life – the way you
work, the way you relate to people, the time you give over the prayer and to church
So that sometimes, you’re left feeling exhausted and worn out!
Listen to Paul’s words here!
Because they are deeply liberating for all of us!
We cannot give to God – because God does not need anything!
God does not demand things from us –
Instead, if we trust in him, he gives things to us!
We cannot give to God – and we cannot earn God’s love or pay God back for all he has done
for us!
Instead, all we can do is worship him and thank him for all he has done for us – and
then entrust all that we have to do into his gracious hands!
So often, I live as if I can pay God back or give to him.
I believe that somehow I’m irreplaceable – that if I didn’t do something, then no-one would
and then God would be stuck!
I believe that somehow God’s love for me is dependent on how long I spend reading his word
or praying to him or serving at church.
But that is a lie!
God does not need me to serve him – instead, he invites me to serve him – and that is
a big difference!
If we make God out to be a demanding God who takes from us rather than gives, then we are
guilty of making God into an idol.
Instead, the living God is powerful!
He gives life and breath and everything to us! That is why we put our trust in him!
And he is generous to us!
God did not have to make himself known to us – God did not have to show mercy to
us when we sin – but he chose to!
That is what makes him worth worshipping!
Paul goes on to say that the living God is also the God of relationships!
o He is the God of relationships! (vv.26-27)
To the Stoics and the Epicureans of v.18, their gods were detached from them – they were
impersonal and uninterested in human affairs.
The God of the Bible Paul describes is very different!
v.26 describes how God is sovereign and he rules over all the details of our lives
where we live – where we’re from – the time in which we live
And he does all this, according to Paul, to reach out to us!
‘God is reaching out to you!’, Paul tells the Athenians.
‘He is not content for you to go through your life without knowing him! He is calling
you to reach out to him and to find him!’
Unlike their impersonal gods, the God Paul describes to them is not content with ‘the way
things are’
God is actively pursuing a relationship with the people of Athens – and he is actively
pursuing a relationship with people in Oxford today!
According to Paul, God reaches out to people in two ways.
Firstly, he can reveal himself to us as we recognise his hand at work in our lives
v.26 – as we see that ‘the times set for us and the exact places where we live’ are actually
determined for us by God!
What brought you to Oxford?
There are probably many answers to that question – but the ultimate answer, according to
Paul here, is – God brought you to Oxford!
What has happened to you in your life?
Some of us might acknowledge that our lives have been pretty good
Others might look back at times of pain and struggle
Paul says here that those things have happened to you – to bring you to the point where you
reach out to God!
Some people reach out to God because their lives have been so good, and instinctively they
want to thank God for them.
Others – perhaps more – reach out to God when their lives are hard, when events in their
lives show them that they can’t make it on their own.
God uses both good times and bad to call people to himself
Often it is only after the fact that we can begin to see God’s hand at work –
but be in no doubt –
God has been at work in your life – and continues to be at work in your life today through
good times and bad times to bring you to a deeper knowledge of himself and of how much
you can trust in him!
Of course, God does not only call people into relationship with himself through events
He also uses people!
For the people of Athens, God used Paul to make himself known
God ‘determined’ that Paul would arrive in Athens and have this opportunity to talk
about him!
If you’re a Christian here today, perhaps you can think of the people God used to bring you
into relationship with himself.
A friend – a family member – a work colleague – a church worker.
Give thanks to God for them!
Praise God for them –
And ask God to use you in a similar way to bring others into a relationship with him!
God uses events in our lives and he uses people in our lives to bring us to himself.
And he does that – because he is a God of relationships!
In v.28, we see that the God of the Christian gospel is the one who gives us life and who
invites us into his family.
o He is our life and our Father! (v.28)
Here, Paul quotes from some pagan poets who would be well-known to the people of Athens
he was speaking to.
Read v.28.
Paul’s example here shows us that Christians shouldn’t dismiss all secular wisdom.
Christians can learn things about God and about ourselves from reading the
newspaper or literature or magazines –
From watching a film or from listening to music.
But what is it that Paul points out from these pagan poets?
‘For in him we live and move and have our being’
Without God, we would have no life! And to fully enjoy life, we need to
acknowledge God and know him!
This is true of all of every human being
We all need a relationship with God to truly understand who we are and where we fit
into this world!
And it remains true of every Christian as well!
As Jesus taught his disciples in John 15 – ‘Apart from me, you can do nothing!’
God is our life!
And without him, life makes no sense and has no meaning!
And as for Paul’s second quotation – ‘we are his offspring’ – it reminds us that God is our
Creator –
But it also tells us something about the relationship God desires to have with his
people!
God has created all people, so in that sense he is the Father of every single human being
But the New testament is clear that for us to truly enjoy a relationship with God as our
Father, we need to be adopted into his family and receive his Holy Spirit!
In fact, adoption into God’s family is one of the most precious blessings of being a Christian!
As Paul puts it elsewhere in Romans 8, when we trust in Jesus we receive
‘the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’. The Spirit himself testifies
with our Spirit that we are God’s children’ (vv.15-16)
The story is told of a boy being taunted in the school playground by his friends, because they
have just heard that he is adopted.
The boy’s response?
‘Well, at least my parents chose me! Your parents were stuck with you!’
God has chosen to bring us into his family – at great personal cost to himself: the death of his
Son on the cross!
Therefore, if you’re a Christian, you’ve been chosen by God – you’ve been brought
into his family – and you are deeply precious to him!
As Paul comes to the end of his great description of God’s character to the people of Athens,
he has one more thing to say to them about the living God:
o He demands a response! (vv.29-31)
God is real, Paul says – so don’t re-mould him in your own image! (v.29)
And God is patient with you! (v.30)
But a time is coming when you will meet him, whether you are ready or not!
v.31 – ‘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 all men by raising him from the dead.’
You see, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is both great news and a warning to us!
By raising Jesus to life, God demonstrated his power and goodness to everyone
God has overcome death in Jesus – so if we trust in Jesus, we no longer have to fear
death!
If we trust in Jesus, death cannot separate us from his love!
But if we reject Jesus, death cannot separate us from his wrath and his judgement!
The resurrection of Jesus is a sign-post in history that says that death is not the end
It also tells us that we cannot afford to ignore such a powerful God who is able to
overcome death and who demands a response from us of
o placing our trust in him
o and worshipping him as he deserves!
So – what do we learn from Paul’s description of the living God here?
o
o
o
o
o
he is the real thing!
He is powerful and generous!
He is the God of relationships!
He is our life and our Father!
And he demands a response from us!
Paul tells the people of Athens about this God – because he believes that the greatest news he
has to share with them is the character of the God who has revealed himself through Jesus
and his resurrection!
Paul delighted in God’s character – so he longed to share it with others!
He didn’t always get a hugely favourable response – vv.32-34 tell us that many of the
Athenians sneered at him –
But Paul knew that his responsibility was to tell others just how great his God is – and
then to trust in God for the results!
The challenge for us as we leave Paul this morning is:
Do we delight in our God the way Paul delighted in his?
Do we recognise that the greatest news we have to share with east Oxford is the character of
the God we believe in?
That he is the Creator and sustainer of life
That he is a personal God, who calls us into relationship with himself
That he has shown his power and goodness to us by raising his Son from the dead!
And that if we trust in him, nothing can separate us from his love and his power!
John Piper is right in saying that God himself is the gospel we have to share!
It’s all about him – and it’s the opportunity to know this wonderful, awesome,
precious God through his Son Jesus that we need to offer to the people around us!
If you’ve been a Christian for a long time, you might take God for granted sometimes.
All too easily, we can end up living in a Christian bubble, where we no longer delight in
God’s character and his goodness.
God becomes vague to us… generally good, but we’re not quite sure… we lose sight
of just how precious he is!
The best way we can delight in God as Paul did?
Share our faith with others!
Tell others about how good and wonderful and gracious God is!
Sometimes, that will be with non-Christians, as we share our faith with them
No doubt, Paul left Athens with a clearer understanding of the precious character of
God, after having to describe God to others!
And sometimes that will be with other Christians, as we seek to encourage one another with
the great character of our God!
In homegroups – in our conversations – as we meet together and listen to one
another…
But let’s share God’s character with one another
Because the greatest news any of us can hear is that God is real – God is good – and
he loves us!
That is the news we have to share with east Oxford!
Let’s do that with courage and with joy!