Daily Bread Acts 17

Daily Bread Acts 17
22 So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.

Observation:
Paul shows us in Acts 17 how to communicate with those who aren’t believers yet. He spoke in the synagogues to the Jewish believers and God-fearers, but daily he hung out in the public square to debate with the philosophers of the day. He noticed many shrines and was particularly interested in the one that said “to an unknown god”. Paul takes their premise that somehow you can worship God by creating a statue or craft into an image of gold or silver.

Paul reasons that God can be known and because He made the world He desires to be in a relationship with those He created. Instead worshipping something created he tells them that “in him we move and live and have our being”. Meaning God isn’t a statue, God is alive.

Paul ended his discussion by telling them that God has been patient in overlooking people’s ignorance but there would be a day when God would call into account what people have done with their knowledge of Him. By sending Jesus to make it perfectly clear who He is and then validating Jesus’ ministry and words by raising Him from the dead, God has left enough evidence for people to know Him and be known by Him.

Application:
We see the brilliance of Paul here connecting with what the people were already worshipping, but just challenging their worldview. He sees their desire to know God and he invites them to check out the God who can be known. The God who is alive and gives them life. Paul also warns them that there will be a judgment day and urges them to investigate the claims he is making.

This passage shows us a key strategy for talking to people who don’t hold the same presuppositions we do. Paul meets them where they are at, but then loves them too much to let them stay there. He takes their religious ways and invites them to a relationship. Religion is man’s way of trying to appease God. Christianity is God’s way of coming down into our world to build a relationship to us through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

As you talk to your Pre-Christian friends realize where they are already seeking God and challenge them to know the one who created this desire in them in the first place. Some may laugh at you, some may want to hear more. Paul was urgent to warn people that there would be a coming judgment. He was not responsible for the results, but communicating that one day we will meet God face to face, when God turns over the rule of the world to His Son Jesus. The greatest treasure will belong to the ones who gladly choose to worship Him now!

Prayer:
God thank you that we can know you, and that as we live and move we can walk and talk with you. You are not far from any one of us. In fact as we pray this prayer you are listening. Thank you that you don’t live in man-made temples but you dwell in our hearts by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit fill us with God we can know by faith in Jesus, Amen.