Day 1202: The power of God - Acts 17 vs 22 - 34

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ 23-25 What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

26-28 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way towards him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring.' 29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30-31 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

32-34 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Acts 17:22-34 English Standard Version

Some have said that Paul was so unsuccessful in Athens as he tried to reason with them, that he changed his method when he went to Corinth. He says to the Corinthians: “When I came to you, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

But I think the difference was more in the hearers than the preacher. The Athenians were known as those who “spent their time in nothing, except telling or hearing something new.” They were religious, but it was a religion open to all sorts of ideas. So what did Paul do? (vs 23-25)

He proclaimed the one true God who has no need of temples, or the actions of men. In fact, Paul taught the truth of Genesis 1, that God made every nation from one man. How vital that message is for today's generation when people seem to have nothing to do except to hear new things on their smart phones! The old truths of God's word are still crucial.

We see too that Paul was a learned man. He quoted things that were said by Epiminedes and Aratus which contained glimmers of truth about God. One had said that 'in him we live and move and have our being', and the other had said 'we are indeed his offspring'. Natural man is not totally ignorant of God. What can be known about Him is seen from His works of creation. And yet there is an ignorance, and it is seen in the multitude of idols the world has worshipped. It is seen today in man's chase after material things and superficial entertainment. And so Paul preached the need for repentance in view of the coming day of judgement. And, as evidence of this coming day, he told them of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What was the response? (vs 32-34)

Many intellectuals mocked his words, and only a few people were converted. But, as the parable Jesus told of a man who sowed seed which fell on different types of ground, we see that the fault lay with how people responded to God's word. The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction – even the very intellectual - but for those being saved, they know it is the very power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)