“Then Paul stood in
the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all
things you are very religious; 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” – Acts 17:22-23
Paul had a great task upon him when he went to Athens. The city was seeped in idolatry, with temples
and idols to every imaginable Greek god.
His task was to overthrow belief of their many gods in acceptance of the
One True God. But Paul was an
intellectual man, and knowing the city was full of philosophers, he met them on
their playing field. He sought to reach them intellectually, based on what they
already understood of gods.
The Athenians had admitted their own ignorance in knowing the
Deity of God in that through their worship of so gods, all attributed to some
portion of God’s being, they had created an altar with an inscription “TO THE
UNKNOWN GOD”. They sought not to offend
any god, and to worship all possible deities.
Paul considered their failed attempt at worshipping God. He preached, introducing them to God as the
Unknown God, who is the all-in-one God.
In Acts 17:24-31 Paul tells them of the creator, saying “who made the world and
everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth”.
He preached of God’s omnipresence, His not
being contained in one place, saying that He “does not dwell in temples made with hands.”
Paul preached of worshipping God in Spirit,
and not with offerings made by man, saying “Nor
is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives
to all life, breath, and all things.”
He introduces God the Father, saying “He has made from one blood every nation of
men to dwell on all the face of the earth” and explaining that we are all
His children.
He explained God’s holiness, saying “we ought not to think that the Divine
Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s
devising”.
Then Paul preached repentance saying “these times of ignorance God overlooked,
but now commands all men everywhere to repent”. He sought to show them the error of their
ways in worshipping the Greek mythological gods.
He preached the final judgment of man saying
“He has appointed a day on which He will
judge the world in righteousness”. Paul
knew that they must fear judgment in order to be made afraid of their sin, or they
would continue in it.
And finally He preached Jesus Christ as “the Man whom He has ordained. He has given
assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
Paul didn’t deliver just a smidgen of who
God is – he delivered the whole package!
He introduced them to God the Creator, God the Father, Holy God, God the
Judge, and God the Redeemer. But he did
this by meeting them on their own playing field, under the guise of explaining
their own Unknown God.
When talking of God to those that have no
basis to understand Biblical or spiritual things, we have to meet them on their
level of understanding. We cannot explain creation to one who believes the big
bang theory without defeating that theory first. We cannot explain Jesus to one who does not
believe the Bible as truth. We cannot
explain the law of sin to one who does not see their wrong as a problem. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all sermon
because we don’t all have the same understanding. To believe that one sermon fits all makes
about as much sense as teaching calculus to preschoolers. Likewise, ministering to adults who have
never been in church doesn’t mean we can teach them as we would those who have
been in church all their lives. How
confusing it must be for a 60 year old new Christian to be placed in a Sunday
School class with mature Christians speaking of things like ‘walking in the
Spirit’ and ‘talking in tongues’! Age
does not determine maturity or level of understanding. We have to meet people on their own playing
field.
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