Acts 17:16-31 - Your Incurable Disease

Everybody's religious, but not every religion is true.

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Summary of Christian Doctrine:

Your 'religion' expresses how you relate to God.

Since everybody relates to God in one way or another, everybody is religious.

Read all of Chapter 1

CONTEXT: The Apostle Paul is waiting to meet up with Timothy and Silas in Athens.

Acts 17:16–31 (NIV)

¹⁶ While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷ So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸ A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹ Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰ You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” ²¹ (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

²² Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “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 UNKOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and 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. ²⁶ 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. ²⁷ 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. ²⁸ ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’  As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

²⁹ “Therefore 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. ³⁰ In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹ For 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 everyone by raising him from the dead.”

³² When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered...

Heidelberg Catechism

Q&A 6

Q. Did God create people so wicked and perverse?

A. No.

God created them good

and in his own image,

that is, in true righteousness and holiness,

so that they might

truly know God their creator,

love him with all their heart,

and live with him in eternal happiness

for his praise and glory.

Summary

It must have been easy to spot Paul as he took in the sights in Athens - he was the one with the greatly distressed look on his face since the whole city was full of idols. It didn't take long for the locals, a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, to take notice of him and to engage him in their favorite pastime: debating and doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. So they invited him down to the Areopagus, which was their hang out, to hear more of his strange ideas.

Once there, Paul began by pointing out the Athenians' most obvious attribute: that they were in every way very religious. He went on to mention their objects of worship that he'd looked carefully at. He would have seen shrines to not just the Olympian gods you may have learned about in high school, but dozens, if not hundreds, of other deities and cults would have had something set up as well. To make sure that they'd covered all of their divine bases, they'd even erected an altar inscribed TO AN UNKOWN GOD.

It doesn't take long for Paul to get to the heart of the matter: that these learned philosophers were ignorant of the very thing they worshipped. Imagine the look on these guys' faces when Paul told them that!

Finally, Paul proclaims to them the one, true God whom they'd missed: The God who made the world and everything in it, who is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. This living God gives everyone life and breath and everything else - in fact, it's in Him that we live and move and have our being!

  Dig Deeper  

Man has been described as 'incurably religious.' Aside from the fact that this make religion sound like a disease, it's an apt description of how people from every tribe, tongue and time period all have one thing in common: a divine belief that controls the way they think, feel and act. Even these erudite Athenian philosophers.

Paul points out the problem that's plagued most of humanity: people think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. And in doing so, he sets himself up to share the gospel. He tells them that in the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

Paul goes on to tell them that God has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the Man he has appointed, and that He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead. That's where Paul lost his audience: when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered.

It's good that you're religious. But realize everybody is - it's part of your very essence as an image bearer of God. What matters is that your religion is true - that it's based on what the Lord of heaven and earth, and the Man he has appointed, have revealed.

It's this truth that we'll endeavor to learn together in 2027.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, the God who made the world and everything in it;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you would seek God, and reach out for Him and find Him as we read His Word in 2027;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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