The Unknown God

 Acts 17:16-34

The Philosophers at Athens

16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. 17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. 18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, "What does this babbler want to say?"

Others said, "He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods," because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.

19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean." 21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

Addressing the Areopagus

22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.' 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."

32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, "We will hear you again on this matter." 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Many worship the unknown God as one they cannot see or hear but they erect statues in an attempt to capture the essence of the one they seek and give homage to.  Philosophy and idols of concrete and conceptual forms fill the empty spaces in the hearts and minds of men and women who seek to identify the one who is above them and in control of the world in seen and unseen realms.  As Paul wandered through the zoo of idols in Athens, the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who heard him speak of the unseen God who sent His Son to sacrifice Himself for His people and rise from death to life to offer the same to us and asked what nonsense that was.  Others merely brushed him off as a proclaimer of foreign gods in competition with the plethora of their own deities.  They escorted Paul and Silas to the hill of Ares (their god of war we call Mars) to hear more out of simple curiosity since they philosophized over every new teaching as a kind of mental gossiping to fill their minds with stories of new things to ramble on about in endless discussions.  This gospel story was new to them and they just wanted to add that tale to their collection of ideas to discuss further.  They were not necessarily interested in the gospel or in knowing Christ, but in the mental and philosophical exploration of it.  Paul took advantage of their intellectual curiosity to point out that he had observed that they must be very religious to have so many statues of what they worshipped.  He went further to tie this to the gospel of the Unknown God whom they erected a statue to in order to cover all bases and not miss a god in their pantheon.  He pointedly told them that this unknown one they worshipped was actually the God of all creation in heaven above and on earth below, unseen and yet made known through the appearing as Jesus Christ (John 1:14) among men.  This God who Paul proclaimed was unknown to them because He does not live in temples or idols statues of man’s hands but in unseen places all around them.  This unknown and unseen God controls all life and therefore does not need them or us to give Him substance or significance of any kind through our worship.  He is self-existing (Exodus 3:14, Revelation 1:8) and self-sustaining, complete without the creation but working through it as the expression of His hands and not ours.  Making empty images with our hands is idle idol work that is truly much ado about nothing.  Paul described how this one true unseen God made all nations and peoples that they might seek Him as the people of Babel (Genesis 11:4, 9) were scattered around the world to do the same when they attempted to reason out God and rise to His level until their pride was leveled and they were separated by language into many nations and kingdoms.  He used their own poets who wrote that we are all the offspring of this unknown God who is no mere idol shaped by human hands but divine and supernatural in essence and sovereignty.  He called them to turn from their idol worship and give all glory and honor to praise the one true God because they would join all people of every nationality to be judged in the end (Revelation 11:18, 20:12, 15) if they trusted in the righteousness and deliverance of this one Man, Jesus the Christ and Son of God who alone is able to save (Acts 4:12, 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10) as no mere lifeless idol can from the judgment to come on us all.  This judgement and hope is based on the reality of the resurrection of this Man from death to life out of the grave and into heaven in God’s very presence.  That is the hope which no philosophy or carved image of a substitute god can ever offer.  Hearing this truth, the people mocked Paul while some said they would hear more later about these things.  Only a handful such as Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them believed and joined with these godly men.  It is no different today in the world’s arena of battle on the hill of truth as they pit the god of war and human reasoning against the truth and hope of God and His word which alone is the answer to life and godliness.  May we likewise be faithful in the world’s arena to fight the good fight (1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Timothy 4:7-8) in telling and explaining the bad news brought on us all by our sin and the good news of forgiveness in unearned grace of the goodness and severity (Romans 11:22) of God.  Let us expose and turn from the lifeless gods and empty philosophical ideas to the light of truth in Christ to find and offer real and lasting hope.  The unknown God has been made known to us in Jesus Christ (John 8:19, 17:3, 20:28-29, 1 Timothy 3:16, 2 Timothy 1:10)!