Well, it's beautiful to hear your voices praising our Lord together. It's wonderful to hear the testimonies of those getting baptized. Praise to Jesus. And now we get to hear the Word of God together. So, I want to invite you to open your Bible and turn with me to act 17, verse 16. And we're going to see what happens when Paul is alone in Athens. And I wonder, as we're turning to Acts 17:16, I wonder if you were alone in one of the famous cities of the world. And you knew it was days before your friends or family were going to get there to be with you. What would you do alone in a famous city? Would you get on a tourist bus and go see all the famous spots? Would you shop? Would you go around and eat at all the best restaurants? Would you take a nap? Like, what would you do if you had free time in a famous city? What we're going to study here together today is what happened when Paul was alone in a famous city, a city that was known for the philosophy and the innovation of his day, the city of Athens that led so much of the Greek culture of this time. So, this is Acts 1716. And I'm going to ask out of respect for God's word, if we would all stand for the public reading of Scripture. Even if you're watching online if you're out on the front lawn, could we all stand up, and I'm going to read for us from Acts 17:16, all the way to the end of the chapter. As we're going to see what happens with Paul in this city please follow along as I read Acts 17:16-34.
“Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, ‘What does this babbler wish to say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities’—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.’ Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. 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.’ 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. 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, and perhaps feel their way toward 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.’ 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. 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.’ Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’ So 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.”
That's the reading of God's word. Please go ahead and have your seat. If I asked you, what would you do if you had some time alone in a famous city, I wonder how many people thought here I'd go around and try to evangelize that city? Because that's what Paul does. And it starts in verse 16, where his spirit is provoked within him as he sees so many idols. Here in Athens, they have these temples, these structures that they built. And they put together these statues to represent Greek mythology, the Greek gods, and they have all these different gods that they are acknowledging. And when he sees the idolatry, it bothers him. His spirit is provoked within him; he is not okay with how much people in this city are worshipping false gods and not worshiping the one true God. See, I see a lot of people who get provoked. And there's a lot of people who are bothered they see what's going on in America, they see what's going on in the cities of the world, oh, they've got a fired-up opinion about it. But they're not bothered because God's not getting glory. They're just bothered. You see the difference? A lot of people are very fired up, and they're sharing very strong opinions that they have about what's going on in the world today. Paul's opinion is that we should be giving God glory, and we're not, and that provokes his spirit within him. And so, he wants to say something about it. He wants to do something about it. I wonder, are we really bothered because we are zealous for God to get the glory, and we want more people thinking about him, or are we just bothered with what's going on and we're bothered at other people. See, Paul, he, he doubles down. Look at verse 17, he goes to the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, the Gentiles who want to go there for the reading of the Hebrew Bible. I mean, we've seen him do this in city after city, he goes to the synagogue, they end up asking him to speak, and he preaches Jesus as the Messiah. But here in Athens, it says, he went to the synagogue, and in the marketplace every day with those who happen to be there. So, he doesn't just go to the synagogue with the Jews, he gets out in the market. He starts meeting some of the philosophers, some of the men of wisdom here in Athens, and he's trying to strike up conversations about Jesus and the resurrection every day in the marketplace. And he's talking to some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.
Okay, so maybe you've heard about Mars Hill before. You've heard about this council of philosophers and men of wisdom that would be known as the Areopagus and that they had this gathering place there in the city of Athens, where they would discuss the wisdom of the age, the philosophy of the day, and they're always looking for that new, trendy, innovative idea that's going to change the world, and they want to be on the cutting edge of whatever's going to trend next, whatever idea is going to become the new thing. They're searching for it every day on the streets of Athens. And so, here comes Paul, and he's preaching Jesus, and him resurrected, and look at some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who are talking to him. They say, what does this babbler wish to say? That's their initial response to Paul. Last time I checked, calling somebody a babbler wasn't a compliment, you know what I'm saying? Like, they're not very impressed with what he's saying. What is this guy babbling about? And they don't really understand it. Others said, he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities. Like they thought he was talking about multiple idols, Jesus and this lady named resurrection. That's what they thought. The Greek word for resurrection sounded like a new idol. Oh, you've got a new idol, resurrection? Who is she? What is she all about? Like, they're not even getting what his message is because it's new, because it's strange to them. Oh, let's hear what this idol babbler has to say.
And so, they bring him before Mars Hill. And, and this is really Luke, giving us a glimpse. Look at verse 21. All the Athenians and everybody who lived in this city, they “would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.” Okay, so these are philosophers. They are looking for worldly wisdom. They're looking for new ideas. And now Paul has kind of persisted and tried to talk to people, and now he's going to get an open door to go before like a council of the most intelligent, smartest people on planet earth at this time, assembled there in Athens. And he's going to get to go and speak in front of them. And look at how he begins here in verse 22. “So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus…” So, this whole council of wise philosophers, all there around him, said. “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious,” referring to all the temples and the idols. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I see this altar; there's an inscription “To the unknown God,” and then he says this, “What therefore you worship as to unknown, this I proclaim to you”; you guys don't know who God really is. Let me tell you about him. So, what Paul does here, the message that we're going to break down, and you've got it there on your handout, the content of what he says.
We're going to see three strong points that Paul is going to make as he speaks to these men. And what we're going to see is that about all three of these points, there is nothing new or innovative about them. He is going to give a message on Mars Hill where everybody wants to hear something new, some philosophy, some new wisdom, he's going to give them the fundamental Christianity 101 message. And here's what I'm really concerned about, I'm concerned that a lot of churches these days want to be Mars Hill. They don't want to be Paul. A lot of churches are looking for whatever the smart guys are saying, we want to be saying that at our church, we want to take the Christian message and we want to blend it with the wisdom of our day, because we want to be the new trendy, hip Christian Church, where we've like got the ideas that kind of blend in with the world around us, and drive everything forward. I'm concerned that the church in America is more interested in being like Mars Hill, than they aren't interested in being like Paul. And you’ve got to see here that Paul is trying to be the anti-Mars Hill guy. He's trying to be the opposite of the Areopagus. He's not coming, yeah, I might be new to them, but he's going to say his fundamental same message, and he's not trying to appeal to some kind of new philosophy or wisdom. He's trying to preach Jesus Christ risen from the dead is what he's coming to do. And so, you need to see this because we are very caught up in some of the points that he's going to make. You might even feel a little like, wow, you’ve got to talk to the smartest guys on planet Earth, and that's what you go with? Like, some people here might think this about what Paul's about to say, like, I don't know if that was the smartest way to approach the Areopagus. Clearly, he gets this open door through the unknown god, but he's going to tell them who God is. As a matter of fact, he's going to say in the same simple, straightforward way that scripture has always been saying it.
So, turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1:18. I need everybody to see a little bit of Paul's thought. Because we just get his words here in the book of Acts, but 1 Corinthians 1:18, he's going to really tell us what he thought about those Greeks seeking that wisdom. Now they're at Mars Hill. In fact, Corinth is the city he's going to go to next after Athens. If you come back next week, we will be with Paul in Corinth after this adventure in Athens. And here's what he writes to the church in Corinth later on. 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? Okay, yeah, you tell people, Jesus died for their sins, they might think it's foolishness to us who have been saved. That's the power of God to give us forgiveness for our sins. And look what it says here. “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” Paul's going off here and he's contrasting: you can either be into the wisdom of the age, or you can be in God's wisdom; there's no blending of the two. It's one or the other. In fact, God's wisdom is going to destroy the wisdom of this world. For since the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews in the synagogue demand signs, and Greeks in the marketplace, seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and folly to Gentiles.
So, he's telling us now what he thinks when he goes into the synagogue and he speaks to the Jews, and he preaches to them the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. The Jews in the synagogue expect the Messiah to be… what kind of a figure were they looking for, everybody? They're looking for a king. And Paul comes in and he preaches the Messiah as… what kind of a figure? A suffering servant who died on a cross. That's not what the Jews wanted to hear. That was a stumbling block that did not meet their expectations for a Messiah, and many of them wrote Paul off because that wasn't what they thought. And others, like we saw with the Bereans, they compared what Paul said to the Scripture, and they could see the prophecies of the sacrifice of the one who would suffer, the one who would be crushed for our iniquities, and pierced for our transgressions. And they were able to see that the Messiah was going to come to die, but many of the Jews rejected it because it didn't go with what they thought. Or the Greeks, they thought it was foolishness because the Greeks are seeking wisdom. Like the Greeks, they want some idea that really is going to change things, the new idea that's going to drive things forward, and you come with Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. He said that was folly to the Gentiles; they were not impressed overall when Paul spoke at the Areopagus, not very impressed with Paul were the wise men of the day. So, he says, they thought it was foolishness. 1 Corinthians 1:24-25, “but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” And he's just getting started now. Now he's saying, hey, let's talk about everybody here today. 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, “consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”
God says this in Jeremiah 9:23-24, that if you are a wise man, don't boast in your wisdom. If you're a “mighty man, don't boast in your might.” And if you're a rich man, don't boast in your riches, but let him who boasts in this, that you understand and know me “that I am the Lord.” You want to boast about something boasts that you know who God is. Don't boast about yourself and your own wisdom or strength or riches, which you wouldn't have if God didn't give them to you. Give the glory to God is what Paul is saying. He said, I wish he was provoked in his spirit by people boasting in their own wisdom. Oh, it bothered him when he was there in Athens. He did not appreciate how people thought they could come up with a God of their own understanding and fashion, an image of this God and make a temple to this God, like people thinking they get to play God, he was not okay with it. I'm going to tell you who the unknown God really is. And he is there to boast about his God. He doesn't care what these men think; he's ready to proclaim who God is to them. Like, do you boast about God? Or do you boast about yourself? See, there are a lot of churches boasting in their wisdom, boasting in their new ideas, boasting in their trendy innovative ways to reach people, Paul's having nothing to do with it on Mars Hill, he's going to give you fundamental Christianity, one on one. I'm going to tell you who God really is, we should all be people who desire to boast that we get to know God, and that he is God who practices steadfast love, and justice, and righteousness, and he delights in these things. And we want everyone to know who our God is. You give me a chance to say something, I'm going to start talking about my God. That's what Paul is saying, because God is the one who really gives wisdom. It's not coming from the Greeks, from the wisdom the philosophers of our day.
So go back now to Acts 17:24, and then let's just see the three points that he makes here. And would these be the three points that you would try to make? Are these three points that you believe in? Because he goes like, okay, so picture him there, he's in the middle, and there are guys all around him, who are known as the philosophers. I mean, to be there on that council at the Areopagus, you’ve got to be some kind of thinker, some kind of somebody, and he looks at those guys and he says, you guys have so many idols. You have this unknown god idol. Well, let me proclaim to you so that you can know God. First thing he says about God, verse 24, 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. The first thing, you get to speak to the smartest people on planet Earth, assemble some keynote conference, and they've asked you to speak, and your first thing is, you're saying, well, I'd like to start with Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens in the earth.
Like Paul has got to know, hey, this isn't going to go down very well among the Greek philosophers of the day. But that's where he goes, he speaks creation, not as a matter of debate or reasoning, he speaks creation as a matter of fact. And he says it in the same simple, straightforward way that it is always presented in Scripture, that the most clear and obvious explanation for the world we live in is that God made it and he’s just, there's a Lord of heaven and earth. And he says it in such a way where he even says, and the reason that any of us are alive or breathe, the reason that any of us have anything that we have is because God gives it to all mankind. So, he's going back to Genesis 1, like, he doesn't think it's not very wise, he's just speaking it. He's going back to the ten commandments, where it says that God created the world in six days, and he rested on the seventh day. And that's why we have weeks to this very day. Like he said, the heavens declare the glory of God; day after day, the sky is proclaiming his handiwork. And there is so much evidence of God in his creation all around us that when people look at creation, they are without excuse. That's where he goes right away. You guys want to know who God is? I'll tell you right now. He's the Creator. He's the Lord of heaven and earth right now. He is the one upholding the universe by the Word of his power. And, and he talks about it in a way that is all encompassing, like he's talking about everything being created by God. And it gets so personal when you really start thinking about the fact that the reason you're sitting here right now is God is giving you breath. The reason you woke up this morning, is God is giving you life. Like sometimes I think, oh yeah, God made the world, do you realize that when you were in your mother's womb, God formed you? He fashioned you to be who you would be here today? That before you lived one day, God already ordained the number of days of your life? That right now, as you sit here, God knows the number of hairs on your head? He is intimately acquainted with all of your ways. But truth is, your Creator knows you better than you know yourself. And every breath that you take is another gift that he has given you. This is his message. God is creator, verse 24, God is the sustainer of all life, verse 25. And if that wasn't enough, Acts 17:26, “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”. Like not only is God the creator of the whole world, and not only is he giving us life and breath, but all the nations of the earth, the nations that think that they are so mighty, and powerful, and rich, and wise, like the Greeks and all the influence they had on the world. Yeah, God already knows every single nation, he already knows what land they're going to live in on the map, and how long that nation is going to be around on planet earth. God is the ruler of all nations. And the Bible could not be more clear about this, that when Jesus returns, Jesus will rule the nations and he will establish a kingdom that will be over all the nations of the earth. So, I mean, he goes right into a big vision of God as creator, sustainer and ruler, a God who demands a response when he says in verse 27, “that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.
Like, hey, God made you so that you could seek him. The purpose of your life is, God created you to have a relationship with him, that you can know God? That's the whole reason you're here today. That's what he's saying. Let's get this down for number one on our handout: He says, God made you to seek him. God made you to seek him. And there's not like one passage that he's referring to, when he's saying this. He's really summarizing a lot of the Hebrew Bible in an economy of words like this idea that God is our Creator, and he wants to be our God, and we have been made to be his people. So, we should seek God. This is throughout the Bible. Seek God with all of your hearts so that you will find him. Do you believe the promise of the Bible that if you search for God with all of your heart, you will find him; he will reveal himself to you. That's like Deuteronomy 4:29. That's making it very clear there in the law, that God wants us to seek him, like, we want to find him, God made you in his image because he wants you to know him and enjoy him forever. This is why you exist. And an idol is when you put something else in God's place, and you're going to try to find life or value or worth in something else besides God, but God made you in his image so that you would seek him, and when you seek him, you will find him. Like, look at how he says it. Perhaps you could feel your way toward him and find him and actually, he's not far from each one of us.
The amazing thing is God's been closer to you than you realize. Before you ever sought him, before you ever believed in him, he was always there in your life. And people get their eyes opened to realize God has been with me the whole time. How could I not have seen it? And he’s saying you’ve got to seek God. Like so many people are out there feeling empty right now, maybe many of you are feeling depressed, discouraged, like you're missing something in life, and then you're going to go try to find that life in other places, when your purpose in life is to find satisfaction in your soul by seeking God with all of your heart. When you seek for him with all that you are, you will find him. And I bet a lot of people here today would be like, yeah, I believe in God, I believe he is the creator, I believe he's sustaining my life, yeah, I even think he's ruling over the nations. Well, then let me ask you a question. Are you seeking God with all of your heart like you want to find him?
That's not the attitude a lot of Christian people have these days. They like read the Bible every once in a while when they feel like it, they pray when they when it's kind of convenient and they have time. They don't live like the purpose, the passion, of my life is I'm going to find God. And I believe he's going to reveal himself to me. And I want to know who he is and why he made me and what he wants me to do here. Like, if you seek for God, you're going to find satisfaction for your soul. So, he's giving them a big vision of God, God's given you life today, God's ruling over all of us here in America; he knows our fifty states, he knows how many years we're going to be around. And if you want to know God, you should seek him, you should try to find him, he might actually be a lot closer than you think he is. So, he's given them a fundamental, like, no debate about it, not reasoning with them about it. He's just saying, there is a God, and you should seek him. I doubt that to these philosophers that sounds like the wisest or newest idea. In fact, even at church these days, go tell people at church that you believe in the book of Genesis that you believe, yeah, it was evening and morning, the first day, I think God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day, even Christians who say that get mocked by other people in churches these days. Because people want to blend the wisdom of the world with God's wisdom. And Paul, he didn't fall for any of that trap on Mars Hill. He just said it like it is, there is a God who made the world. Are you seeking him? And then he rolls into their poets. Look at it here in Acts 17:28. He's again connecting, so he's definitely considering who he's talking to. He had a great open door through the idol to the unknown God. Now he's saying, look, even some of your poets have quoted, “In him we live and move and have our being,” or as some of your own poets have said, “For we are indeed his offspring.” Hey, even here on Mars Hill with all the idols and all the philosophy, I keep hearing references that kind of assume that there is a God who gives us life that we do have a creator, we are made in his image. Like I'm even hearing some of your poets say things that strike back on the reality, the fact that there is a God. So now he's even using some of the things he has encountered. They're in Athens, maybe some of the famous lines of their day to show them, look, these lines assume that there is a God who made us and gave us life, and we should respond to God in this life. And then he goes into this Acts 17:29-30. “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. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” So, imagine that first of all, you just go straight out, yes, God is a fact. And he's the creator, sustainer, and ruler; you should be seeking him. And then he goes right to, oh, and by the way, all your philosophy here at the Areopagus, you guys are thinking wrong, and you need to change your mind about it. I mean, that's his message. That's what repent means; the word metanoia, it's a change of mind. It's an about face, it's a soldier who's standing one way and they say, about face, and he turns 180 degrees in the opposite direction. You guys are thinking about God all wrong, you are making gods in your image, like you're coming up with your art with your imagination, you're fashioning an image of a statue, you're making a temple to a god, and it's coming from you, you're in your own understanding, designing an image of God, and then you're constructing it with all of this art and this architecture. That's not how it works, guys. It starts with God. He made us in his image. And so, you need to repent of all of this idolatry, change your mind that you can make a God with your own hands, and put him in his own temple. No. Change your mind from idolatry and turn to the true and living God who made you in his image. That's what he's saying. He's saying, you’ve got to rethink this entire thing because you guys think that you get to decide who God is, when God gets to decide who you are. That's how this really works. You need to repent from idolatry and turn to the true and living God. And he's calling for them to change their mind. And he's not saying just them, they're in Athens with all of these idols, he's saying that God with the authoritative creator, the Lord of the heavens and the earth, he commands that all people everywhere, repent.
That applies to every single one of us here today. Everybody here has to change their mind from whatever you think life is all about, to what God actually made life to be all about. You have to turn from the way you're living with your idols and your sins and your self-righteousness. And you've got to turn to God to really find life. And so not only does he just present God like it's a matter of fact, but then he starts calling them out for their wrong thinking of idolatry and telling them to think differently through repentance. Now, I don't know what you hear when you hear that God commands all people everywhere to repent, because repent in our mind today, if you tell someone to repent, you're like intense if you say that. Like if this is a church that preaches that everybody should repent, we're like some hardcore category of church now, like, whoa, well, that's intense if you go to that church. Right? I mean, that's how it's come across. Like, if you tell someone to repent, you're saying something that's harsh. You're probably even being judgmental to say that to someone. Like that's not really a nice thing to tell someone that they need to repent. Where did you get that idea that that's how repentance works? Like I understand there's this caricature of some guy on a street corner, shouting, turn or burn and being really mean and judgmental about it. That's not what the Bible says repentance is. The Bible says that if you tell someone to repent, which everyone needs to do, not just everybody you know, but literally, everyone on the planet needs to repent so that they can experience the life that is really designed by God for their soul. So, when you tell someone to repent, you're just saying, hey, stop living for things that can never give you life. That's what you're saying to the person. The Bible is clear that idols have eyes, but they can't see, have ears, but they can't hear, and have mouths, but they can't speak, and people who worship idols become like them. They become spiritually blind, deaf, and mute, they, they don't really have life when you worship things. When you put things in God's place that aren't alive, you end up feeling dead in your soul. When you turn and you change your mind, and you worship God, you are alive in your soul. Do you want to go through life dead in your soul or alive in your soul?
When you tell someone to repent, you're doing them a favor. You're doing them a solid, you're like inviting them into real life because the way that we start out thinking about life is not how it really is. Eternal life, abundant life, genuine life is to know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. And so, everybody needs to change their mind and turn to God. So, if you've got this idea, well, repentance, I don't want to get into that. That's harsh. Where did you get that idea from? Did you get that idea from this book? Is that where you learned repentance from? Because I can't even count how many times God is begging with people to turn to him in the Hebrew Bible. And then John the Baptist, he was bringing repent, Jesus was bringing repent, Peters bringing repent, Paul's bringing repent, but now we've got like a new, more wise way to say it these days? Like, I don't think that's how it works. There's one message throughout this whole book that people are thinking wrongly about idols and sin, and that they're okay by themselves, and they need to change their mind and turn to God. That's what this book says. That's what Christians have always been saying. And we need to make sure we're saying it. We need to make sure everybody here, have you repented, because God has commanded you to? God wants you to. Like, can you say, yes, I have changed my mind? I have turned from the way I was living, and I have turned to a new life with a God.
Go with me to Ezekiel 33:11. I really want you to hear it straight from God himself as he speaks through the prophet Ezekiel, 33:11. Like this is God pleading with people to repent. I mean, I think we've got repentance so wrong in our minds here in Southern California Christianity. Like repentance comes from the patience of God, because God is so patient, he doesn't want people to perish, but he wants everyone to reach what? Repentance. That’s 2 Peter 3:9. Romans 2:4 says that it's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. So, God is actually being good and gracious, to bring people, to grant people repentance, because God doesn't want people to be judged for their sin. God wants people to be saved from their sin. Do you believe that about God? Let him speak to you. This is Ezekiel 33:11, “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?”
God wants people to turn to him so that they can really live life the way he created it to be. That's why he wants people to repent. I mean, this statement that it says here, from God, to you through Ezekiel 33:11, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.” Do you believe that about our God? Do you see that in his heart? Like, think about wicked people, think about people who are out there boasting in their own wisdom all day, every day, never acknowledging that life comes from God, never giving him glory. People walking around like there's some mighty man on planet earth, people walking around like, look how rich I am, I did it all. I earned it. This is what I deserve. Never once do they give glory to God, always taking life from him, never giving him the worship, or boasting in him about it. And then that person dies. God is saying, now you get it. He’s saying, no, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. His heart breaks that they have died in their sin. Here's God pleading with people saying, why will you die? Turn and live?
Like this week was a unique week for me because I had three memorial services three days in a row this week. Never had that before. I mean, everyone you go to, you feel the heaviness of how this person died. And all three of them feel like tragic situations. And there's just loved ones there just crying, just mourning, just people whose lives are not going to be the same from this point on because this person has now died, and you just see all these people feeling the heaviness of death, and it's like, I could just hear God saying this on repeat over and over in my head. Why will you die? I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Turn to me and live. Like, I didn't create death. We all need to understand that death is not a natural part of life, God didn’t design death, death came as the wage of sin. And the lie that started the whole thing was Satan telling Eve, you will surely not die. That was the lie that led into death. God has never found pleasure in anyone dying. He wants people to repent. He wants people to change their mind and come to him so that they could live. That's why he created them was so that they could live and know him. When you tell someone to repent, you are telling them that the way they're thinking is fundamentally flawed. And there is a way that they could find life if they turned to God. That is not a harsh or intense or judgmental thing that you're saying. That is the true way for people to really live. You love somebody on this planet, you tell them God has commanded them to repent, and you tell them that he wants them. He wants their soul. He created them to know that he didn't create them to judge them. He created them that they could turn from that and live.
Let's get that down for number two: God wants you, so turn to him. God wants you, so turn to him. Stop making up your own god of your own understanding. Paul says to the Athenians, stop thinking you could… look, how many gods do you need to make before you realize none of them are satisfying you or giving you life? Like, stop thinking that you, through your own art or imagination, can make an image of God. God has made you in His image. If you want life, real life in your soul, you’ve got to turn to God, you’ve got to change your mind. So, he's telling them God is a matter of fact, he's calling them to repent.
And then he says this. Go back to Acts 17:31. And now he feels like he's getting to what he really wants to fill the streets of Athens with. And it's possible in verse 32, that they even interrupt him. And he doesn't. Maybe he wanted to speak even more, but some of them in verse 30, start mocking him and interrupting him. Because he says this in verse 31, when he talks about God commanding all people everywhere to repent, he says, because God “has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man Jesus, whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.” There is a man coming to judge us, you’d better change your mind and get right with God; turn to God, because someone's coming to judge us. And I know that he's going to come and judge us because God raised him from the dead. And now they understand he's not introducing some new idol. Like he's saying, a man physically rose up from the dead. And when he says that ,when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, oh, now there are sneers, and there's heckling coming from the Areopagus. Now you've really lost when you start saying that a man is going to judge the world. And we know that he's the one appointed by God, because God raised him from the dead. Now they understand what he means by resurrection, and it leads to mockery. In fact, the response that Paul gets here to this message on the Areopagus is, it's probably one of the least responses we've seen in the entire Book of Acts. Like some people mock him. Look at the rest of the verse there, Acts 17:32. Others say, yeah, we'll hear you again about this. Like they're kind of interested. Maybe we'll get into it later. And then Paul leaves; he goes out from there. And then some men joined him in believing. So, I mean, some people mocked, some people believed, and we've got a couple of the names of the believers here, Dionysius, the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris. There were others, too. What an honor to have your name written in the Scripture, what an even greater honor to have your name written in the Lamb's book of life. Here are some people who believed that day.
But then look at Acts 18:1, what we're going to get to next week after this. “Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.” Like that's the most boring verse I've read in the book of Acts so far. Like, nobody's trying to stone him or kill him or chase him out of town. There's no mob coming after him. Like, there's not a revival breaking out and a church being built up. Like he just gives the message. Mockers respond. Some people are like, yeah, maybe we'll hear more of this. Others like really believe and get saved. Like, that's not what we're used to from Paul in the book of Acts. So, do you see here that it doesn't matter where you put Paul, he's going to keep giving the same message, and he's going to talk about Jesus Christ? And the thing he's going to go after about Jesus, I mean, this is the theme of the preaching of the book of Acts. We've been studying a lot of the sermons in the book of Acts, and many of them have this point that you get to where it's like, but God raised him from the dead, like, that's like the theme line of the preaching. Like, we're going to talk about this guy, Jesus, and how people didn't like him, and they killed him. But God raised him from the dead. Like, they're going bold after the resurrection. Resurrection, it's the exclamation point on their gospel, and they're saying, they're not afraid of what anybody is going to think about it. They're just out there saying, you know, physically, he rose from the dead. And many of us are eyewitnesses. We saw him, and we're here to tell you, it really happened. And they get mocked for it. They get mocked for it, they get beaten up for it, they get thrown in jail, people try to kill them for it, but you can't stop them from sharing the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that's what he does.
I mean, turn with me to Acts chapter 10. I just want to take you back to one sermon, even though there are so many we could go to where Peter preaches in Acts 2 or Paul preaches in Acts 13. I mean, they're making a huge point of the resurrection. Okay, the resurrection is so critical, because that's where you get the power to live a new life, the reason that you can have victory over sin, and you don't have to be afraid of death, and Satan can't touch you in your life is all because Jesus rose from the dead. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul goes so far as to say, if there is no resurrection, there's no Christianity at all. Like, this is it? Okay? This is why people can get dunked in water here today and rise up like they've been washed clean of their sins, and they have a new life. It's the reason they have a new life. The reason they're bringing the Hallelujah to the workplace is because Jesus rose from the dead. That's what's going on. This is the power of the Christian life. And look how they thought about it in Acts 10:40. Peter is preaching to Cornelius and the Gentiles who are going to get saved. And he gets to that part of the sermon, “but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear.” So just look for that. There's always this, “but God raised Him from the dead,” or how it said it in Acts 17, that God has given you a reason to believe by raising him from the dead. And it says here, Acts 10:41-43, “not to all the people.” The plan wasn't that everybody would see Jesus risen from the dead, “but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” The prophets have been bearing witness about Jesus. And now we have seen him and we're bearing witness about him. And see in Peter’s mind, in Paul's mind, when they're preaching the resurrection, the resurrection is the first in a sequence of inevitable events, like if God raised him, then we saw him go up into heaven, then he went to the right hand of the Father. He sits at the right hand of the throne, and he has been exalted to the name that is above every name. And someday there's going to be a day where every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And on that day, he's going to judge your soul, and He's going to rule the nations and there's nothing anybody can do about it. That's what they think. They go straight from the resurrection, to you're going to meet your maker. Like, if God raised him from the dead, well, then that begins it all the ascension, the exaltation, and the glorification, when he is unveiled when Jesus is revealed, and every eye is going to see him. What I'm saying, what Paul is saying, is that someday you will stand before Jesus, and he will judge your life. And he will look at you with eyes of fire, and you will barely be able to look at him with his face shining like the sun in full glory, and you're going to realize that Jesus sees you like nobody else has ever seen you before. And you don't want to hear Jesus say on that day, depart from me, I never knew you. You want to know Jesus and you want Jesus to know you.
That's what Paul is bringing. He's bringing in Jesus Christ and you've got to know him because he will judge your life. And he came down, he humbled himself, he died in you Place, he offers you his righteousness, he offers you a new, eternal, abundant life. And if you decide you have your own way of thinking, your own way to live, and you don't want to repent and come get right with Jesus, well, Jesus is going to see you and hold you accountable for that in the end. So, he is Lord, whether we believe it or not; he is Lord. And see, this is why it's hard for people to talk about the resurrection, because the resurrection demands that just as Jesus rose from the dead, we also walk in newness of life. See, it calls that to really be a Christian by the power of the resurrection, my life would have to really change. And also, I can't just believe the things that happened in the past, that seem like maybe they're verified by history and prophecy. No, I'd have to believe the things about the future, the things that really require faith, that there really is a Jesus who's alive right now. And he's coming back to reign, and he's going to judge everybody. Even though I haven't seen it, I have to believe it. And he's preaching the resurrection. And they mock him for it. But some people's lives are forever changed.
Point number three is God raised Jesus, so believe in him. God raised Jesus, so believe in him. And I'm just here to say today that every one of these philosophers at the Areopagus, they're all going to end up believing in Jesus. Everybody that hears this sermon here, in this room online, everybody's going to end up believing in Jesus. You will not be able to deny the reality that Jesus is Lord. And God has already given you a reason to believe when he raised him from the dead. And you can decide to believe in Jesus now, or you can decide to believe in him later. But what I'm telling you, what Paul was saying is, it doesn't need to be new; it doesn't need to be like the philosophy of the day. The most profound thing that anybody's ever been talking about on planet earth is you could know God, a person like you could have a relationship with the almighty, creator of heaven and earth. And you could come to know how he made you in his image, how he gave you a soul, so you could worship him in spirit and in truth, and your soul could find peace and love and joy in knowing God through his Son, Jesus Christ. And you don't need to keep searching for life because you found it. Like, you can know God, so do you seek him with all of your heart.
Do you turn from all of the worldly ideas? Do you turn to God? And do you believe that Jesus is the Christ who has risen from the dead, and he's coming and reigning as Lord, and Jesus will judge you and you don't want to hear, “depart from me, I never knew you.” You want to hear, “well done good and faithful servant, enter into my joy because you're one of my people.” Like, this is why God made you to be one of his people. So, make sure you're not missing the point of life. Make sure that you know, God. Let me pray for us right now.
Father in heaven, we just have to confess that we get so caught up with wanting to be smart. And we get so caught up in what is new, and what feels like the wisdom of our age and the philosophy of our day, that a lot of us, we want to be the cool people on Mars Hill, we don't want to be Paul standing there saying the truth and people mocking him for it. And so, Father, we just confess that the church today often wants to go the way of the Mars Hill crowd, rather than to follow the example of Paul. And I pray that you will do something different here in this church. I pray that people here would have their spirits provoked, because God is not getting the glory that he deserves. That if we're going to get all fired up about one of the issues of our day, if we're going to start talking to people about something, that we wouldn't be just quarreling over our opinions, or going on our own personal rants, but that we would be people who boast that we know God. And we would boast in your wisdom, in your mind, in your riches. So, God, please raise up people here who have zeal for your glory, raise up people here who will not be silent, raise up people here who are going to let the world know who you really are. And we're going to say it as a matter of fact, and we don't care if people make fun of us or think we're stupid, because we believe the truth. And so, I pray that you'll raise up mature believers here God, and that we will be people who really want to boast that we know you. And God, I pray for those, so many here today that maybe they don't really have a relationship with you. Maybe they can't really say that they're seeking you with all their heart, or that they've repented to really turn to you, or that they really believe in Jesus, they have no doubt that he's coming back to reign and judge. God, I just pray that we would find the purpose that you created us for in having a genuine relationship with you. That we would be able to say, like we heard today from three people who got baptized, that I know God. And he's saved me. And that's why I'm alive. Father, thank you for what you've done for us. Thank you that you are stronger than the world, that you are wiser than the world, that you are the one who has won the victory over the world. So, God it is written that Christ is risen, and Jesus is Lord of all, and we ask that he would build his Church in our hearts, that he would be set apart as Lord in our souls. And we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.