Shalom, from downtown Athens. Today we're going to deal with the story of
Paul, in his second missionary journey, visiting Athens for the first time.
And we're going to see something pretty amazing, regarding the way he explained the
Gospel to the people of Athens. One must remind himself that the entire Gospel
was first communicated to the Jewish people. The Bible even say that the Gospel has the power
of salvation to the Jew first, then to the Greek. It's very interesting that the Greek were always put in the
context of the Gospel as the exact opposite of the Jewish people. And the spectrum in which the Gospel was preached
was all the way from the Jew to the Greek. And that in between, was all throughout the
different cities that the Gospel was preaching. It's very interesting. The arrival of Paul to Athens
basically brought him from the area of Jerusalem, where they talked about several issues in
regards to Judaism, Jewish law, and the gentiles, all the way to the climax of the
exposure of the Gospel to the Gentiles, right here in the capital,
of the Greek people, Athens. And in order to understand
the events of Acts chapter 17, one must go back to chapter 15 and
understand where Paul is coming from. The second missionary journey of Paul
that took place between 49 and 52 AD. For three years, Paul was walking all the way from
Jerusalem up to Syria, through the area of Turkey of today, into Macedonia and Greece of
today, all the way down to Athens. We must remember that it all started in
Jerusalem, and not for nothing. The Bible says in chapter 15 of the Book of Acts that
certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren. Unless you are circumcised according to
the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. In other words, some people told the gentile
believers outside of the land of Israel, that in order to be saved,
they must follow the law of Moses and one of, obviously, the outer expressions of it,
is the circumcision of the flesh. And therefore the Bible says. When Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with
them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain order of them should go up to Jerusalem
to the apostles and elders about this question. And this is what we call the
first Jerusalem Council or Summit. We're talking about a very important issue, that was standing
before the people of Jerusalem, the Church of Jerusalem. What are we going to do with
the non Jewish believers? It´s very interesting, nowadays, 99% of those who
believe in Jesus and believe in the Gospel are non Jews. And when a Jew comes to Christ
today, that is a big miracle. But in those days,
it was exactly the opposite. It was Jewish people
who believed in Jesus. And when a non Jew came to
Christ, we needed to find out. What are we going
to do with him? What is it that we need to tell
him that he should be keeping? And what is it that
is not for him? And it's interesting because after they presented the case,
and after they heard what Saul and Barnabas had to tell them, the Bible says in Acts 15 verse 13 the following: after they had become
silent, James answered, saying, men and brethren, listen to me. Simon had declared how God at the first visited the
gentiles to take out of them people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets
agree, just as it is written. After this, I will return and I will
rebuild the tabernacle of David. And then, he says in verse 19. Therefore, I judge that we should not trouble those
from among the gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them, to abstain from things polluted by
idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled and from blood. For Moses had throughout many generations, those who preach
him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath. And then in verse 22, then it pleased the apostles and
the elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch
with Paul in Barnabas, namely Judas, who was also named Barsabas and also
Silas, leading men among the brethren. And of course, we understand that now Paul is
about to go out to the second missionary journey. But this time he's accompanied by some respected brethren,
and he is not really making big progress with them for too long. The Bible says that they actually separated
already at the end of the chapter. The Bible says, that Barnabas, in verse 37 was
determined to take with them John called Mark. But Paul insisted that they should not take with them, the one who had
departed from them in Panfilia and had not gone with them to the work. Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one
another, and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. But Paul chose Silas and departed,
being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. And they went throughout Syria and
Cilicia, strengthening the churches. And from there we understand, all the way from
Syria, through Turkey to Macedonia. And chapter 17, our chapter, is bringing
us to northern Greece, where the Bible says they came to Thessalonica where
there was a synagogue of the Jews. Than Paul, as his custom was, went into them and for
three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ
had to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying, this Jesus, whom I preach
to you is the Messiah, is the Christ. Some of them were persuaded and a great multitude of the devout
Greek and not a few of the leading woman join Paul and Silas. Ladies and gentlemen, as always,
Paul begins with the Jewish people. He enters into the
synagogue first. He preaches on the Sabbath Day first, and he is always always
opening this Scriptures in order to prove that Jesus is the Messiah. Very interesting. I always tell people,
Paul never preached from the New Testament. Jesus never preached
from the New Testament. There was no New Testament at
the time of the New Testament. It was,
when the Bible says Scriptures, it was the Tanakh,
the Old Testament. And so, obviously, the knowledge of
Paul, the customs of Paul. The nature of Paul is: I know the Bible,
and through the Bible, through the Scriptures. It is easy for me, now, when I understand the
Scriptures and the prophecies and everything, I can see him through Moses and
the Prophets and the Psalms. And that is the way Paul is used to prove that
Jesus is the Messiah through the Scriptures. Now we have a problem. Paul is coming all the way to Thessalonica,
and we know that in that city, there was a problem. People who didn't like them, actually said: These,
who have turned the world upside down, have come here too, Jason has harbored them. And then they are also acting contrary to the decrees
of Caesar saying, there is another King, Jesus. They´re trying to incite the people, that it's not only about
religion, it's about rebelling against Caesar's authority. Ladies and gentlemen, the brethren immediately
sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and they arrived there and went where? Straight to the synagogue.
The Bible says the synagogue of the Jews. And these were more fair minded
than those in Thessalonica. Something in Thessalonica,
I don´t know, it´s the food, the weather, made the Jews of
that city very, very extreme. Yet those in Berea were more sound
mimded, the Bible says. And they actually,
everything that Paul said. That's why we have that term. Let's be good Bereans. Everything that Paul said. The Bible says, that those people in Berea, searched the
Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Again the Scriptures, were that which the disciples used to prove Jesus, and those who
heard the Gospel were looking into in order to see if it's okay. Remember, the Scriptures.
But again, we have a problem. We know that now, after Paul was smuggled
from there from Thessalonica to Berea, they also sent him
all the way down, to Piraeus, of course,
the harbor of Athens. And of course,
he went to Athens. And the Bible.
And now we come to our story. The Bible tells us that in Acts chapter 17 verse
16, Paul waited for them in Athens. His spirit was provoked within him when he
saw that the city was given over to idols. Ladies and gentleman.
Paul is a Jew. He's used to preach to the Jews. He is a devout Jew. Even after he acknowledged that the traditions
are no longer that important to him. But still, for him,
being a Jew was a very important thing. Remaining a Jew is
an important thing, telling the world that he never lost his
Jewishness is a very important thing. And as such, his entire understanding of how to preach the Gospel,
who to preach the Gospel to, was centered around the Scriptures. But he's coming to the capital,
the capital of, idolatry. They say that there were 12 major
deities that the Greeks believed in, but there were thousands of thousands of
lesser deities that the Greek believed. Someone once said that it was easier to find an
idol than a human being in Greece, in Athens. It was that many, and Paul has
never bean exposed to that many. You have to
understand something. This is the capital. This is the very heart.
3400 years of recorded history of a city. You're talking about a place of classic art, philosophy,
the birthplace of democracy, the place of poetry. You talking about a culture that shaped
the entire world until this very day. When you go and travel around the world,
you often see Greek shape buildings that are even built today. It's interesting because behind me up on that
hill, the Acropolis, the upper city, this is the house of the Parthenon,
which is a very amazing fifth century BC shrine of the gods. But it was the house of
the shrine of Athena. Athena, the ancient Greek goddess of
wisdom, handicraft and warfare, who was also later tied with
the Roman goddess Minerva. And I want you to know that while they were
there, while Paul was there, inside that same Parthenon that you see on
top, stood a 40 foot tall sculpture of Athena, called Athena Parthenos, and by the way,
Athena Parthenos means Athena, the Virgin. It's a very interesting thing that a virgin
goddess was already in the culture of people who worship, you know,
deities in those days. And that big, massive sculpture that was made of ivory and gold,
made by Phidias, a very important and known artist of those days. Him and his assistance,
and it was housed in the Parthenon over there. So when Paul is arriving, not only that stood
before him a goddess that is known as a virgin. But everywhere around there were
idols and shrines almost all around. It was unbelievable. So we're talking about Paul arriving in
a city surrounded by shrines and gods. And if that's not enough,
now we had to deal with the human beings also. And the Bible says the once he arrived in
Athens, after he was so disturbed by what he saw, he reasoned, in the synagogue, with the
Jews, and the gentile worshippers there, and in the marketplace, known as the "Agora",
daily, with those who happened to be there. And then certain Epicurean and
Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, What does this babbler wants to say?
Very disrespectful term to use. They really didn't take him
seriously, did they? But it's interesting because the Bibles say that
others said he seems to be proclaimer of foreign gods, because he preached to them
Jesus and the Resurrection. Now, bear in mind the,
word resurrection in the Greek, "Anastasia", sounded to them like a female goddess.
Jesus and Anastasia. So for them, his preaching foreign gods, in plural,
simply because it was Jesus and the Resurrection. Yet they understood something
completely different. And it's interesting because,
these two groups of people, the epicurean and the stoic were the two major
schools of philosophy in Athens of those days. You're talking about
schools of philosophy. One followed Epicurus, who lived between 341 and 270 BC,
and he taught that pleasure and happiness was the ultimate goal of life. Live the day,
live the moment, enjoy it. In fact, if you talk about
something else or do something else, you just wasted very,
very precious minutes. The other one. The stoic thinkers, regarded Zeno,
who lived around the same time, as their founder. And he was noted for promoting the rational, not the
feeling, the common sense for them over the emotional. You have to get over, take over,
suppress your emotions and live as if they are not there. And both of them. By the way, just so you know,
both of them believed in many gods, not in the one God. And it's very interesting because,
as I said, the first one, the epicureans, they were teaching the ultimate goal of life is to find
pleasure and happiness, live the moment, live the day. Sounds familiar, by the way. And then, they don't. They say, don't worry about tomorrow
or what happens after you die. So you understand that when Paul talks about death,
resurrection, for them, we don't think about that. We don't want to know about that,
we want to live the day, the moment. Zeno, on the other hand, taught that God was the
great soul of all men and that he is in everyone. So, basically all men are brothers,
and all men are somehow samples of God. And, by the way, the stoic,
those who follow Zeno. They were high moral life people
and also good upright people. In other words, we're talking about people
who thought that they're good enough. They don't need anything
else, they are moral, They´re ok, everything is fine. So, on one hand, you see a group of people that is actually all
about live the moment, all about feeling pleasure and happiness. For the other hand, the other school of thought
is, it's not about feeling. You have to be strictly moral person
and ignore feelings and all of that. And both of them, by the way, never really managed to
think that there is a God that created the whole place. It's interesting because, when they,
when they presented themselves before Paul, Paul looked at them and he kind of realized, these people, although they
kind of look like they're popular, they are the message of the moment. They are the trendiest,
people around. They think they know better. They were enlightened. They teach others.
Paul realized. All of them are just
religious people. In fact, when Paul addressed them,
Paul said to the men of Athens in verse 22, I perceive that in all
things you're very religious. And by the way,
he was using the Greek word "deisidaimonesterous" Which means respectful of
what is divine and religious. In other words, Paul says, Hey,
it seemed like you are respectful of the divine things. It seems like, it's not like you are pushing away
the idea of deity or, a higher power than you. So, let me tell you something. I was passing through and considering
the objects of your worship, and I even found an altar with this
inscription: To the "Unknown God". And then he says, therefore the one whom you
worship without knowing, him, I proclaim to you. And it's interesting.
I was thinking for myself. Okay, what is the Unknown God
that Paul is talking about? I think first of all, Paul is masterfully.
Uses this altar as an opportunity to share the one true God. We know that in those days they
believed in so many deities, but they were so concerned that there
may be one more that they're missing. That they had that shrine and
that altar for the Unknown God. And it's very interesting. He was called "AGNŌSTŌ THEŌ", Gnostics were, or narcissism, coming from that.
And they for them. In case we don't know that
guy, we need an altar for him. Interesting. They were swearing in his name. Now, I'm thinking to myself.
Paul was so smart. He's not used to
speak to those people. He goes to synagogue. He opens the Bible,
he preaches from Jeremiah and Isaiah. He preaches that there is New Testament,
that the Messiah had to come, had to suffer, had to die. Paul always proved the Messiah
through the Scriptures. Now he's in the middle of the most pagan,
idolatrous city in the world of those days. How will he
communicate the Gospel? And I'm sure that many of you back home are
thinking, I´m in my working place. There's no way I can communicate the Gospel.
They don't understand anything. These people are all
given to other things. They believe in this,
and they believe in that. I want to tell you something,
the Bible says in Matthew, chapter 10. You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a
testimony to them, and also to the Gentiles. And the Bible says. But when they deliver you up,
do not worry about how or what you should speak, for it will be given
to you in that hour, what you should speak. For it is not you who speak,
but the Spirit of your father who speaks in you. The Bible says that from the very beginning, Jesus predicted that his
disciples will have to go and speak the truth of the Gospel to the Gentiles. And of course, you cannot come to
the Greek and open the Old Testament. And say, Jeremiah says that
there will be New Testament. Isaiah said that
Messiah has to come. Moses said this. And, Hosea says that.
You cannot do that. So, Paul, in his amazing skills of using
the moment and using circumstances, is looking around, and he's finding the one thing that he can
use to take the Gospel from there and explain it to the people. So how is he
explaining everything? In verse 24 chapter 17 it says, God, who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord
of heaven and Earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. In other words, he says, You guys, you understand there's
one Unknown God, but that's the God that made everything. And by the way, he's not in the
Parthenon or in any other temple. None of your idols created the
world, have they? You don't even attribute that to
them, do you? So, the God that created everything,
does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is he worshiped with man's hand and
through, he needed anything. Excuse me,
and though he needed anything, since he gave to all life, breath and all
things, and he has made from one. But away the Greek says "one". In some version,
he says, one blood. In others it just said "from
one", namely Adam, the first. He made from one every nation of men
to dwell on the face of the earth and has determined there are preappointed
times and the boundaries of their dwellings. Paul, in three verses,
explain the entire first 11 chapters of Genesis. Basically, he says, guys,
let's all agree on one thing. God created the world. He created men from one man. He made all the rest, and he gave them
boundaries and countries and languages. And that's what we have today. First 11 chapters of Genesis, basically.
And the reason why I'm saying that is this. You will never be able neither to explain God nor to
communicate the Gospel with omitting the creation. Let's remember one thing. Without teaching
creation, you'll never be able to communicate. Or you will never be able to
establish that God exists. And that Jesus indeed
is needed even. We have to understand, and there's so many progressive
churches, progressive pastors, modern ideas of, We don't have to believe
in the seven days creation. We don't even have to
believe in the creation. We just have to tell people that
they're sinners and they must be saved. And that's it. What? I don't understand that. The basis for the claim that men is
sinner, is creation. It starts with Genesis 1 through
11, that speaks of the fall of men, continues with how people
are now conceived in sin, goes onto their need for a savior,
and therefore Jesus come to the world. Why would you come and tell
someone that he needs a savior, when to begin with, you don't tell
him that men is fallen creature. Goes back all the way to Genesis and explain
what was the sin, that started it all. Let's face it, it all starts with either
the word of God or the word of man. When God spoke, he
says, Don't do this. Don't touch that. So you shall live. When men decided to do what he
wants, he said, I will touch this. I will touch that,
for surely I will not die. And he brought
upon himself death. So God, in his word,
gives you life. Man in his word,
gives you death. And when men decided to take his
route, death came to the world. Death is the direct
consequence all what? Of sin. For the Bible says. For the wages of sin is death. And now we understand.
If there is sin and there is death, we need forgiveness of sins and we need salvation
and we need redemption and we need a way back to God. That's it.
It's very, very simple. So, interesting, Paul continues in his masterful way
of explaining the Gospel through their own culture. He says in Acts 17:28. For in him,
we live and move and have our being. As also some of your poets have
said, he said. For we are also his ofsprings. And I was looking into that. Indeed, there was a very famous Greek poet called
Aratus, who lived between 315 and 240 BC. He wrote several
points, two major ones. One of them was known as
Phenomena, and Phenomena says, Let us begin with Zeus, whom we mortals never leave unspoken,
for every street, every marketplace is full of Zeus. Even the sea and the harbor
are full of his deity. Everywhere, everyone is indebted to
Zeus, for we are indeed his ofsprings. That's what he said. Of course he talks about Zeus. But Paul is basically saying to the people. Wait a minute!
You're saying you're the ofspring of a God. So, how can that God be of silver or gold?
If you humans are the ofsprings of that God. That is a way to communicate to the people of Athens that
indeed, God is not someone who dwells in temples made of men. And he's not someone who's
made of gold or silver. And it's interesting because
in Acts 17 now we understand that Paul, in that beautiful way of communication
of the Gospel to the people of Athens, is now moving to this amazing, amazing
thing, and I'm talking about what's next. And then he says to
the people of Athens, Truly, these times of
ignorance got overlooked, but now commands all man, say "all man", all men,
there is no difference between Jew or a Greek, all men. And he says, because he says,
he commands all men everywhere. It's not limited to people or to
places, to repent. By the way, the first word, Jesus said in his public ministry in
Capernaum, was repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. And then, he says, because he has appointed a day on which he will
judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to
all by raising him from the dead. Ladies and gentlemen,
the Bible says in the Book of Hebrews that it is appointed upon men
to die once and then what? To be judged,
to be judged, God says. No human being will not be standing
before his judgment throne. The judgment has been proclaimed through the Old Testament to
everyone, even to the Jews and the Gentiles alike. And so he says, Look,
there is an appointed day. Isn´t that amazing?
It's amazing how God appointed a day. He send a solution,
a way to get out of it. And he's telling you, there's a day and I'm
gonna tell you when it's going to happen also. How much more of warnings, or expression of
love, concern and I would say, care, do you need more?
Than what he's just saying. He's telling the people of
Athens, You're so smart. How can you be so smart and worship things
made of gold and silver in man made temples? You so smart to understand that God, who created the heavens
and the earth, that's the God that you call the Unknown. You know exactly that of all the thousands of gods you
worship, there has to be one that you're missing. Then you know that you're afraid that you might
be missing the real one, and that real one. Who created the heavens and the
earth, is the one who ignored, He ignored the
times of ignorance. He allowed you to go your ways. But now, no more excuses. The time has come, and the man of the
hour has arrived, the Messiah himself. To provide solution for sin,
salvation and redemption. And now, we are communicating that
message to you so you will have no excuse. Anyone who heard the message. Will have to go back home and say, All
right, well, I just heard that I'm a sinner, and I just heard that I can be saved
if I believe in Jesus, the Messiah. Now, I can reject that message
or I can accept that message. But I cannot ignore
that message. And that is exactly
what happened. Now it's interesting,
the Bible says. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some
mocked, while others said, We will hear you again on this matter. So Paul departed from among them. However some men joined
him and believed. Among them was Dionysius the Areopagite. What is the Areopagite? Remember.
Paul was brought to the Areopagus. As you can see, it is a rocky
place just below the Acropolis. This is the place where the city council
used to meet, roughly 30 noblemen. And that's where, by the way, even trials were held.
And Paul was standing right there. They couldn't judge him or trying because
it's no longer a crime to preach other gods. But it used to be a crime
to preach other gods. Now they just are so curious. Who are those gods that you're talking?
And he's saying, I'm not preaching to you. Those gods. I preach Jesus and
the resurrection. And it's interesting
because the Bible says, So Paul departed
from among them. Some men joined him and believed
and among them one of those 30. Dionysius, the Areopagite,
and the woman called Damaris, and others with them. I want to tell you something. Everywhere you go and
preach the Gospel. Most likely the majority will reject, but there will always
be those who will hear, take heed, accept, and follow. And for the sake of those,
you need to preach to everyone. You just never know. Go to your ofice, go to your
school, go to your family members. You gonna preach
the Gospel to them. 90% may reject it, but for the
10%, you're sent to the whole 100. In order for them to have any more excuse, and also in
order for them to have a chance to respond to the Gospel. All of you know, that you´re minorities in your family,
in your working place, in your schools, you are minority. I always tell people, you will
never, ever be the majority. The only time believers will be the
majority is when they will be the only ones. And that's when?
When God will make all things new. New heavens and new earth, even throughout the 1000 years
millennial kingdom, the believers will not be the majority. It's very interesting
to see them. So now we're going
to summon it up. And now we're gonna somehow understand
that there are two great messages that were communicated to the world
that the Book of Acts is talking about. In Acts chapter 2, when Peter was standing
before the Jews and a mixed crowd, he preached to the Jewish people and
we know that 3000 were saved that day. And then in Acts chapter 17 where he preached to
the Greek and we know that some people joined. The Bible says in 1
Corinthians 1:21-23, For since in the Wisdom of God,
the World through wisdom did not know God. It pleased God through
the foolishness of the message preached to save those who
believe, for Jews request a sign and Greek seek after wisdom, we preach Christ crucified.
To the Jews, a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. It was a stumbling block
in Jerusalem for Peter. Here, Paul was held as a fool and
the Gospel was held as foolishness. But that, remember, through the foolishness of
the message preached to save those who believe. So we have to remember that. And I will conclude with this. The Unknown God
is still Unknown. To most people.
They can claim that they know God. They can claim that
they follow God. They can claim that
they worship God. I want to tell you something.
Unless you believe in the Messiah. You don't know God.
The Bible says in Matthew 11 verse 27. All things have been delivered to me by my father,
and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the father except the son,
and the one to whom the son wills to reveal him. If you know the Messiah, you know the true God.
And He is no longer Unknown. But if you don't know the
Messiah, you do not know God. And He is still Unknown even to
you, even today. My question to you today. Do you know the Unknown God? The Bible says in Philippians chapter
3, from verse 7. But what things were gained to me,
these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed, I also count all things lost for the
excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count
them as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness,
which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him. Do you know him?
Paul said, I want to know him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means
I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. If you want to be resurrected from the dead, you need first to believe
in the one who was the first fruit from amongst those who fell asleep. If you want to know the Unknown God, then you need
to preach the Gospel and believe in what you preach. Because Paul says, he's the apostle,
he is the one who delivers the message. And he says, I want to know him. And not just to know him,
but to know the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering and,
of course, being conformed to his death. So I will also take part in
the resurrection from the dead. Do you know the Unknown God?
I hope so. Because Christ Jesus, is the only
way, only truth and the only life. And the only chance for you
to know the Unknown God.
