Exposition of Acts: Fame of the Unknown God
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A Sermon by Dr. Bob Griffin, Teaching Elder at Sovereign Grace Church
I. INTRODUCTION
A. EXASPERATION
>>1. RILED
Acts 17:16 Now while Paul was waiting in Athens for [Silas and Timothy], he was inwardly exasperated as he saw that the city was utterly idolatrous.
>>2. REASONED
Acts 17:17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the agora daily with any who happened to be there.
B. OBSERVATION
>>1. REGARDED
Act 17:18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others, because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection, related, “He seems to be a preacher of alien divinities”.
>>2. RATIONALIZE
Act 17:19-20 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.”
>>3. REVIEW
Acts 17:21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
II. EXPOSITION
A. PROCLAMATION
>>1. RESPECT
Acts 17:22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are excessively religious.
>>2. REFERENCE (God the Unknowable)
Acts 17:23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, Him I proclaim to you.
B. DECLARATION
>>1. REIGN (God the Creator)
Acts 17:24-25 The God Who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
>>2. RELATIONSHIP (God the Seeker)
Acts 17:26-28 And He made from one [man] every nation of humanity to live across 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.’
>>3. REFLECTION (God the Father)
Acts 17:29 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.
III. CONCLUSION
A. CULMINATION
>>1. REPENTANCE (God the Sovereign)
Acts 17:30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, (II Cor 6:2)
>>2. RULING (God the Judge/Redeemer)
Acts 17:31 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 proof to all by raising Him from the dead.”
B. REACTION
>>1. RESURRECTION
Acts 17:32-33 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some ridiculed while others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So, Paul left their company.
>>2. RESPONSE
Acts 17:34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. (I Cor 1:18-2:5)