The Unknown God

Sunday Sermons

Mark Dunagan
08/05/07 - Sunday Morning

The Unknown God

Acts 17:22-32

The Religious Lost

Paul began this sermon by calling his audience “very religious in all respects” (17:22). The original term rendered “religious” could be used in both a negative (superstitious) and positive manner (more religious than others). Yet although they were already religious these people were not yet saved (17:30) and needed to repent just like all other men.

“To an Unknown God”

As Paul observed the city of Athens and its abundant idolatry (17:16), Paul noticed this particular altar, which became the starting point of this sermon. Other sources confirm that such altars did exist, for “Pausanias who traveled extensively in about A.D. 175 and wrote in his ‘Tour of Greece’ that he found near the harbor a number of temples, together with "altars of the gods named Unknown’” (Stott p. 284), and in 1910 an inscription was found at Pergamum with a similar inscription, “To unknown gods”. Many people in our modern society treat God in the same way. They will pray to God with the attitude, “God, if you exist, if you are there, I have never been much of a religious person, but if you do exist, I just want you to know that I do believe--if you are there”. The Athenians had an altar to an "Unknown God", just in case they had missed one. Similarly a good number of people have always professed faith in God, not out of conviction, but their lip service to God is rather a kind of spiritual life-insurance policy—“Just in case God really does exist, I want to make sure it is on record that I did believe in Him”. Yet this altar to "the Unknown God" did not make them right with God. Worship offered in ignorance is not a substitute for true worship (John 4:23-24). The very existence of this altar infers:

· Idolatry cannot satisfy the spiritual needs of the human soul. Athens had more than enough “gods”, yet this altar was erected.

· Athens was a center of learning and human wisdom, yet intellectual pursuits cannot satisfy the soul (17:21). At least some in Athens had a deep unsatisfied yearning in their hearts for a God they did not know.

· This city was a center of great learning, yet they were woefully ignorant in so many respects. “They knew not their true origin, nor their destiny. They had not a clue as to the nature of their sinful predicament, nor the remedy for it”(Acts, Wayne Jackson p. 223).

“The God who made the world and all things in it”

· The true God is not one of many but rather He is “the” God and He is the sole Creator; He is not to be confused or mingled with what is created.

· This God made the world, it did not create itself or just pop into existence; matter is not eternal, but God is. The First Law of Thermodynamics notes that according to all the evidence, matter does not have the ability to create itself.

· God not only made the universe, but “all things in it”. God is the Creator of all matter, all men and all other life forms—nothing has evolved by chance in this universe.

· The Greeks certainly had some very logical concepts regarding the universe, but they had not put it all together. They had missed the basic concept that one God was the Author of everything that existed.

“Since He is Lord of Heaven and Earth”

· That is, He is the master and owner, this is His world and thus man is obligated to obey His laws.

· He is not only the Creator but the Sustainer of this creation; this truth was in conflict with the Stoic notion (17:18) that the universe was governed by blind fate.

“Does not dwell in temples made with hands”

· The city of Athens (to this today) is filled with magnificent temples, yet if God is God then it is obvious that such a transcendent Being cannot be contained in a physical temple, no matter what the beauty or size of the structure.

· This comment would have been offensive to many of the Athenians, yet the truth always needs to be stated if people are going to be saved.

“Nor is He served by human hands”

· He is a completely self-sufficient being and His relevance or existence is not dependent upon anything that man does. He does not need to be feed or clothed.

· “This is a very important point. The Creator does not demand our service for any enhancement to Him. Rather, He has imposed upon human beings the obligation to surrender to Him because this is the best thing for us; it is where our ultimate and only true contentment is to be found. We serve Him because He is worthy of our adoration, He is our Creator, He providentially provides for us (Acts 14:16), and He loves us and gave His Son for our sins (John 3:16).

· If no one believed in God, God would still exist and He would still be relevant and consistently right. His meaning and relevance is not derived from us, but our meaning, happiness, value and relevance is derived from Him.

“He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things”

· “Life is not a biological accident, a fortuitous combination of molecules that merely happened eons ego, as the ancient philosophers asserted, and as the modern evolutionary crowd affirms” (Jackson pp. 225-226).

· The Law of Biogenesis states that “Life comes only from life”, and even certain evolutionists have conceded that the random origin of life is impossible.

“He made from one man every nation”

· No man or any race of man has ever evolved, even though many Greeks taught an evolutionary development of humanity. By contrast, God is the Creator of every race. “Here the fundamental unity of the human family is affirmed on the basis that all people have derived from one male, that is, Adam” (Jackson p. 226).

· There is no room for prejudice against other races. The Greeks taught that all other races were barbarians; the Egyptians disdained all non-Egyptians.

· The earth was designed to be inhabited as we see in the expression “live on all the face of the earth”. The moon and other planets were not designed for such habitation. “Epicurus taught that ‘in all worlds there are animals, plants, and other things we see (here)’” (Jackson p. 227).

“Having determined their appointed times and boundaries”

God has also moved in history and His sovereignty over international powers is affirmed. “He determines the rising and falling of governments, and the extent of their conquests (Daniel 2:21; 4:17).

“That they would seek God... though He is not far from each one of us”

· The evidence of God’s existence is so manifest that even men who have drifted into spiritual darkness—if they will but exercise a little initiative--can find out what God expects of them.

· God is not far from anyone who honesty desires the truth. The evidence of His existence (Romans 1:20) and care (Acts 14:17) is all around us and His word has gone out into all the earth (Colossians 1:23).

“In Him we live and move”

· Epimenides, a Cretan, had written of one in whom “we have our being”, and both Aratus, a poet from Paul’s home town of Cilicia, and also Cleanthes, had written that we are God’s offspring.

· Obviously, the origin of the universe and our existence is not a material object! God created and sustained mankind, the Athenians had it reversed, they were worshipping gods that were the product of man’s hands and thoughts.

“Having overlooked the times of ignorance”

· The Athenians looked back and considered the past “golden” and “glorious”, God looked at the past history of the Gentiles and saw “ignorance”. God had not overlooked man’s evil in the sense that it was ignored; if that were the case, then man would not need a Savior. God held men accountable for their sins, but He had not punished them immediately for such acts.

· All men can repent and are expected to repent for all men are accountable to God’s standards in the gospel.

· God will not “overlook” anything on the Judgment Day.

Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017