Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Acts 17:22-31
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  May 14, 2023

I’m not a big bucket-list person and yet there are many places I’d like to visit. I once had the goal of getting to every single major-league baseball ballpark–not sure when that would happen. As a pastor, though, I think I could really benefit from actually visiting Israel. It’s one thing to read about it, but it’s not the same as standing where Jesus stood. I think the same is true about the Apostle Paul. I don’t think we can fully appreciate what Paul saw today unless you’ve been to Athens. But even though I haven’t, and I’m pretty sure most of you haven’t either, let’s try to picture the scene in our minds. Luke tells us, “Then Paul stood up in front of the council of the Areopagus…” The Areopagus literally means “Mars Hill.” Mars Hill had once been the meeting place of Athens’ Council of Twelve, the highest court. As Paul speaks today, that highest court no longer met on the hill, but the name stuck with the place. As those gathered on Mars Hill met, Paul stood up in front of them to speak.

Paul had already been in Athens for a while before he stood on Mars Hill. He had fled there from those trying to kill him in Thessalonica and Berea and was waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him. While he was there, he was struck by the vast number of gods. Athens was the center of Greek culture, which was known for its great minds, the Olympic Games, and of course gods, lots of gods. It had been said that there were more gods than men in Athens. Not discouraged by this, Paul saw an opportunity. His heart, always looking for a way to share the good news of Jesus, saw an open door. So, when given the chance, Paul said: “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in every way. For as I was walking around and carefully observing your objects of worship, I even found an altar on which had been inscribed, ‘To an unknown god.’”

Why an “unknown god”? A couple of reasons fit. Certainly, when you’ve got a god for everything else, you wouldn’t want to miss the most important god just because you didn’t know his name! This covered their bases, so to speak. But there was even more to it than that. The Greeks’ natural knowledge of God, something we all have, attributed the work of giving order to the universe to an unknown god. He was like an author whose name was lost, yet one whom they revered for the work he left behind. Paul saw this altar. Paul knew their beliefs. Paul saw his opportunity to make known the unknown. “Now what you worship as unknown–this is what I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made with hands.”

Here’s a class case of not being able to truly appreciate the significance of Paul’s words without having been to Athens. But, as Paul stood on Mars Hill, speaking to the Areopagus, rising above them, the higher hill of the Acropolis loomed and upon its peak the Parthenon dominated the skyline. This timeless treasure of architecture marked the high point of Greek art and culture, and served as the temple for the city’s patron goddess, Athena. In front of this jaw-dropping beauty, Paul says, “The Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made with hands.” Can you imagine the faces of those people as Paul spoke those words? But before they had a chance to fully process what he was saying, he continued: “Neither is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything…” Again, what Paul says is shocking. Greek mythology portrays the Greek gods as irritable and needy. The people worked to appease the gods by serving them in hopes of staying on their good side. Paul says that the True God didn’t need their service. In fact, Paul said the opposite!

“Since he himself gives all people life and breath and everything they have. From one man, he made every nation of mankind to live over the entire face of the earth. He determined the appointed times and the boundaries where they would live.” Why would God do all of this? Why would God act so differently from the gods the Greeks had invented? Why did he care so deeply for his creation when the Greek gods seemingly did not? “He did this so they would seek God and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”

Paul knew these Athenians had a natural knowledge of God. Their city full of gods proved it. But a natural knowledge of God isn’t enough. A natural knowledge of God only tells you  God exists, but it doesn’t help you to find out who the True God is. Just look at these Athenians. Instead of finding the True God, they created their own. Paul acknowledged their natural knowledge, but that didn’t mean they weren’t confused. Just think of the gods they believed in: they were distant and unapproachable, they were in many ways unknown, they were needy, requiring that humans not only serve them but create them.

And if we think for a moment, it sounds an awful lot like the gods people invent today. When people talk about “spirituality” today, they are merely acknowledging that their hearts tell them that a higher power, call him “god” exists. The problem is that many people are satisfied with not knowing anything about “god” other than that he exists. In many ways, this god of spirituality is unknown and unknowable to the point that you can call him whatever you want. It’s popular to say that whether you call your god Jesus or Buddah or Allah or the Great Spirit or the Force doesn’t really matter in the end as long as you’re happy; as long as your version of god helps you live fully and connect to your spirit.

Folks, this isn’t new. This is the very thing that tripped up Eve, back in the Garden. She wanted to be like god. There is nothing our sinful nature wants more than to create our own god. We get along so well. It’s like a person who owes thousands of dollars to her credit card company, so she decides not to believe in it anymore, but to imagine her own version of a credit card company, one that pays her every month! That’s essentially what the Athenians did. That’s what many people are doing today and are tempting us to fall inline. But, in the end, no matter how creative you are, every man-made god is distant, unknown, and powerless except in the imagination of the creator.

But a god who is distant, unknown, and man-made was not the God that Paul was revealing to the Athenians. Instead, Paul made known a God who is Lord of all, Creator of all, from whom all things draw their existence. By making known the unknown, Paul really made all of the “known gods” of the Athenians irrelevant and unnecessary. Why worship these little gods when you have one God who is truly Lord of all? But the Athenians needed to know more about the true God. So Paul said: “Although God overlooked the times of ignorance, he is now commanding all people everywhere to repent, because he has a set day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he appointed. He provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

God calls all people to turn from the very natural impulse of creating and worshiping our very own version of god and turn to him instead. God calls us to turn, to repent because this very real God will judge the world. His perfect justice will be carried out and sin and rebellion will be punished. God was willing to overlook their ignorance in the past, but now they know. And what was Paul’s proof of all this? Jesus’ resurrection. No signs. No wonders. The proof was Jesus’ resurrection. And at the mention of a resurrection, the Athenians had had enough.

Has all that much changed today, really? We have the same proof that Paul offered the Athenians. We have the eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection and many people still scoff. But this is not surprising. Jeus told us that people reject the only one who can create faith. “He is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him.” Only God’s Spirit can open our hearts to this unknown God and help us to understand what Jesus’ resurrection really means. Only God’s Spirit can make known the unknown. The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see a God who is the complete opposite of man-made gods. We have a God who is not distant, but close. We call him Immanuel, God with us, because our God took action in history. He became man and lived on this earth. He experienced every temptation that we face, felt the pain we feel, took our place in life to be our substitute in life and in death. But now he’s risen from death. He lives for us. He promises to be with us, ruling all things for our good. We have a God who is close!

We also have a God who is known, not unknown. He made himself known in his Son, Jesus. We have a God who came to serve us. He accomplished everything for us! He won our salvation. He gives us his forgiveness. He continues to serve us in his Word, in his Supper, in Baptism. We have a God who is close! In fact, we have a God who is so close, that he’s chosen to dwell in each of us. God lives in us through that marvelous gift of faith so we can serve him with lives of thanksgiving. Not that God needs our service, but we offer that service out of thanksgiving for all he’s done for us.

God has made known the unknown! And there’s a lot of comfort in knowing that it’s not up to us to argue someone into faith. It’s not up to us to make someone believe. Paul spoke in front of that large crowd of Athenians. Was his sermon a success? Luke tells us that a few believed. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t successful. In fact, if no one believed  Paul still would have accomplished God’s purpose. God used Paul to make known the unknown. And God uses us for that same purpose. We don’t need to worry about results. God says he’ll take care of those. What we are concerned about is simply sharing the good news, of making known what the Spirit has made known to us! As Jesus told his disciples: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him. You know him because he stays with you and will be in you.” Amen.