Holy Scriptures and Israel

Gideon Levytam: The study of Acts chapter 17. And you and I might have idols influence our lives, things that become so important for us, even more important than giving our time to our blessed Lord Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah. And so no wonder the apostle Paul was so stirred in his own heart when he saw the condition in the city of Athens.

So look what he does, brothers and sisters. It is interesting to me because while he saw the city filled with idolatry, and he's going right now and began to preach the message of the gospel to those pagans who worshipped those idols, but he did something very interesting because immediately he went to the synagogue.

As he taught us in Romans 1 and verse 16, where he says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of the Messiah, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe." And he gave us the order of things: to the Jew first, and then also to the Greek or to the Gentile.

So we find out that in verse 17, first of all, in accordance with this principle, he's gone to the synagogue of the Jewish people. And so notice in our chapter 17 and verse 17: "Therefore, he reasoned (or disputed, it says here) in the synagogue with the Jewish people."

He was reasoning with them. That word "disputing" does not mean that he argued and fought with them. No. That word by "disputing" or "reasoning," he was speaking to them and sharing with them from the Hebrew Scriptures concerning the person of Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah.

He tells them in verse 17b, he reasoned with the Jewish people, with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Apparently, he was teaching there in the synagogue, the Jewish people, as well as where they were going to the market to purchase things. He was talking with them.

Can you imagine? His daily routine was, well, Shabbat I'm going to go to the synagogue. Sunday morning, Yom Rishon, the first day of the week, Monday or Tuesday, whenever, he's gone to minister the word of God. He went to the market. People were going shopping, buying all kinds of things, foods for home, and he was dealing with those as well as with his Jewish brethren.

And what was he dealing with? Disputing or reasoning with them? It says in verse 17, he did it daily with them that met with him, and he was really teaching them concerning the person of Yeshua the Messiah. We're going to see it in the next verse.

He was dealing with the people with whom he communicate. Number one: the person of Yeshua, Jesus. Number two: the resurrection of the Messiah Yeshua. Notice that again. I'm reading now verse 18: "Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, 'What will this babbler say?'"

Other some: "He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods because he preached unto them Yeshua, Jesus, and the resurrection." Apparently, he was sharing in a synagogue on Shabbat. He was going to the marketplaces and sharing there as well.

But in additional to that, there were certain people, philosophers, of the Epicureans and the Stoics that approached him and they listened to what he had to say. Now, philosophy is one of the things that often times people in sharing the message of the gospel, people have their own philosophy.

And philosophy simply means one that had given himself into human wisdom and understanding. Philosophy is what today we find ourselves exposed to: human wisdom, human opinion, human learnings, the learning of various philosophers who have taught from generation to generation.

You see, they reject God, but they rather follow human wisdom and human opinion. That's why many reject the person of Yeshua the Messiah, because they rather trust in human opinion rather than the truth of the word of God.

And so apparently, some of those philosophers came to the apostle Paul and they were following two great philosophers from their history. One of them is called the Epicureans, those who follow his teaching. And he taught that they should just enjoy life.

Live life as it is, enjoy it to the uttermost. Have as much pleasure of life as you wish. And people do tell us today, "Let's just forget about this religious stuff, let's just enjoy life. Just have good time, great time." We only have a certain length of time to live.

Let us be merry, let us drink and live and have great time and forget about the things of the Lord. That is what those philosophers who follow this Epicureans, that's what they've been taught to carry on and enjoy life.

On the other hand, there are other philosophers. They're calling here the Stoics. They followed another man's philosophy, and he taught to simply endure life. You just carry on and endure life. I made some notes here for myself: simply have a self-control in your life, carry on, endure life, control yourself in everything, but just carry on living your life.

Yes, you want to control your life and you want to be self-sufficient. You make sure that you take care of yourself, endure life, carry on. A little bit different than what the first group, the other ones who said just enjoy life to the fullest. They had two type of philosophies.

And the apostle Paul, he was not interested in their philosophy. Not only that they couldn't enjoy life, not only that they couldn't endure life with self-sufficiency, the apostle Paul wanted them to have life, to provide for them life through the life-giver, through the Lord Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah.

But they came to him as they were hearing him speaking, and they said, "What does this babbler say?" What does he say when he was preaching to them the message of the gospel? They said, "What does this babbler say?" And others said, "It seemeth to be that he's setting forth strange gods."

Why? Because he was preaching unto them, number one, a wonderful man by the name of Jesus, by the name of Yeshua. And not only that, but this man came from heaven, died on a cross, on a tree, was buried and placed in a tomb, buried, and he rose from among the dead.

He could only speak from the Hebrew Scriptures because that's all what he had to provide: Psalm 16:10, Isaiah 53:10, and various other passages of the Tanakh that he could speak about the resurrection of the promised Messiah. So he was presenting to them the message of the gospel.

So they thought, because he was speaking about a man that died and was buried and resurrected, they called him a babbler. They called him a man that bringing forth some strange gods. So we read here in the next verse, beloved brothers and sisters, in verse 19: "Then they took him to a place that is called Mars' Hill."

I've been there. I had a great privilege to visit Mars' Hill with my wife years ago when we visit the city of Athens. And it's called here Areopagus, which simply means the Hill of Mars, the Hill of this gods, Mars' Hill. There was a hill, I think it's over 300 and something feet high.

And there was a place where the judges were there, the leaders of the city of Athens were there, and they were evaluating everyone that came and shared something about another god with a small g, that is. Now, can you imagine, brothers and sisters, they use this place to hear all sort of things.

And look what it says here. They took him and they brought him to the Areopagus, Mars' Hill, and they say to him, "May we know what this new doctrine whereof you speak is?" Now, brothers and sisters, listen. I know for a fact that even today in the professing church of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, people always seek for some new thing.

They always seem to not be satisfied with what God gives us in His precious word. And every time a new preacher come to town, people are running to and fro to learn some new things. Let me tell you, somebody come and tell us that he has something new to say, remember that was already there a long time ago.

There are no new things under the sun. There may be new preachers, but there are no new doctrine and new teaching when it comes to those of us who know the Bible. God warned Israel again and again to go back to the ABC of His word.

When Nehemiah was rebuilding the city walls after Israel had been taken to Babylon, he rebuilt a gate. One of the gates was called the Old Gate. In Hebrew, we call it Sha'ar Yashan, the Old Gate. It reminds us of the old truths that God had given our forefathers many, many years ago.

God does not change. His word does not change. It remains the same. God said to Israel in Jeremiah chapter 6 and verse 16, "Thus says the Lord, 'Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old path. Where is the good way that you can walk therein? And you shall find rest to your souls.'"

But they said, "We will not walk therein." You see, people look for new things. They try to find some new things and new teachings, and no wonder we are so messed up when it comes to doctrine and teaching.

Paul said this to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4. Paul said this to the believers through Timothy. He said to him, "Preach the word, Timothy. Be instant, in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts, they shall heap for themselves teachers, having itching ears."

You see, these are warnings that were given to the body of Messiah through the apostles. And here, we see in Mars' Hill that they called the apostle Paul and they said to him, the people here at Athens, "What is this new thing that you are teaching? We want to hear this new things, this new doctrine where you speak about." What is this new doctrine?

And apparently, somebody came to town with a new doctrine. He could stand in Mars' Hill, he could tell this new teaching, new doctrine, and everybody adopt this doctrine. They build another altar and they name another god. And now they have another god, and another god for a new teaching, a new doctrine, another god, another god.

And they end up to have thousands of gods in the city of Athens. Well, Paul was so stirred up when he saw that, and yet as he was ministering there on Mars' Hill, look at that: verse 20. The question that Paul was questioned by the Athenians: "For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears. We would know, therefore, what these things mean."

"Paul," they said to him, "you're bringing some new things. We want to know what are those new things." And of course, it may have been new for them, but what Paul was going to give them is the message of the gospel of salvation through the person and work of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

So look what we find here in the next verse, verse 21. It says: "For all the Athenians and the strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear of some new thing." So they were coming to Mars' Hill, they're all sitting, saying, "Oh, here's a new guy coming to town. He's going to tell us something new. Oh, here's another guy coming to town. He's going to tell us something new."

And so that's what how they were spending their time: in listening to all these things that the new strangers were coming to tell them some new thing. Now mind you, of course they were not Jewish. They were not from among the people of Israel, and therefore they could not read what the King of Israel Solomon said in Ecclesiastes chapter 1 from verse 8 to verse 11.

"All things are full of labor. Man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that has been, it is that which shall be. And that which is done is that which shall be done. And there is no new thing under the sun."

Verse 10: "Is there anything whereof it may be said, 'See, this is new'? It has been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of the former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of the things which are come with those that shall come after."

In other words, Shlomo, Solomon, the King of Israel, he's that preacher here who is giving us the book of Ecclesiastes, Kohelet, and he's telling us that there is nothing new under the sun. Now mind you, they couldn't read this text because they did not receive that passage or that scripture because they were not part of the nation of Israel.

But nevertheless, this is exactly what we read in here: that in verse 21, the things that they did, they spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Brothers and sisters, just for a word of encouragement for us, believe me, let us be satisfied with the sincere milk of the word of God.

Let's not look for new things. If you want to find new things, find them in the word of God, and you will notice that God have already told this to another, to others before you, but you and I become new and fresh to us, but it had been already there in the word of God.

So this is what we learn here from verse 16 to 21: Paul is witnessing in the city of Athens. Now let's move on and we'll see what he did here from verse 22 to the end of the chapter. We see now here he's defending the message of the gospel before the people of Athens. He's defending what he already shared: that Jesus, Yeshua is the Messiah, and that He died, He was buried, and He rose from among the dead.

And he does it in a very interesting way. He doesn't criticize now and cut down the people of Athens, but in the wisdom that God had given to the apostle, he really presenting this message to them one step at a time. And I want you to notice what he does.

First of all, in verse 22 and 23, Paul began pointing out the altar that they had there that is called an altar that had been dedicated to the unknown God. Look at this: verse 22 and 23. "Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' Hill and he said, 'Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious (or too religious). Or you reverence many gods.'"

"For as I pass by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." See the wisdom of the apostle Paul? Apparently, as he walked in the town in the city of Athens, you see an altar here to this god, and an altar here to this god, and another altar in this end to this god.

There were many, many altars, many, many gods to which they all have been occupied with and they were worshipping all sort of god. But you see what they did? They had another altar placed somewhere on Mars' Hill or in Athens, and this altar, they put a name on top of it, and they called this an altar to the unknown God.

You know why they did it? Just in case. Yeah, we have thousands of gods, but just in case that there is a god that we didn't put an altar for him. So they placed an altar, they put a title above that altar, they called him the altar that belonged to the unknown God.

So Paul caught this occasion. And what did he do? In his wisdom that he received from the Lord, he was now telling them about this unknown God. Remember I said to you earlier how important for us in preaching of the message of the gospel that we will know how to do it, how to share it, in what way, in what manner. Not on expense of the truth of the gospel, but to do it in such a way that we can meet needs in the wisdom that God had given to us.

So now Paul is telling them, "Listen, I have walked around, I've seen this altar, and the altar says 'To this unknown God.' I want to tell you about this unknown God," he's saying to these people at Athens.

And if you notice, brothers and sisters, step by step he lead them to a creator God, who is a provider God, who is a ruling God, who is a saving God. He's taking them step by step and he lead them to this wonderful God who is a creator that is a provider, that He is a ruler, but He's also a savior.

And he does it step by step. Step number one is found in verse 24. He says, "God that had made a world and all things were in, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, He dwelleth not in temples made with hands." He's telling them first of all, you know that unknown God that you have an altar for him? I want to tell you about him. He's a creator God.

He doesn't dwell (notice that verse 24) in temples that are made with hands. Now you can immediately in the back of your mind look back into the King of Israel King Shlomo, King Solomon. You remember in 1 Kings chapter 8 when he was worshipping the God of Israel at the building of the temple?

He says, "Will God dwell in this temple?" He was so overwhelmed in 1 Kings chapter 8, he says, "Is it possible, God, that you are going to dwell here in this temple that is made with hands?" I'll read that verse: 1 Kings chapter 8 and verse 27.

"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heavens of heavens cannot contain Thee. How much less this house that I have builded?" Solomon say. Solomon understood that God is greater than just the building, though the temple, Beit Hamikdash, that he built was devoted to the God of Israel.

But he understood that God does not dwell in a mere building. He cannot be contained into one building. God is filling everywhere because He's the creator, he says. He's the Lord of heaven and earth. He's the creator. He does not dwell in temples made with hands.

So he was touching the mind of these philosophers or these men that were following philosophy and he's trying to tell them, "Listen, ladies and gentlemen, recognize that there is a living God who's not being bound by buildings. He's not being bound by temples made with human hands. He's the creator."

Then he's moving down in verse 25. He's saying this unknown God is not only the creator, but he's the provider. He gives everything. Notice that next verse: "Neither He is worshipped with men's hands, as though He need anything, seeing that He gives to all life and breath and all things."

You know, brothers and sisters, everything that man has today was given to us by God. You remember what James said to his Hebrew brethren? James 1 verse 17: "Every good thing and every perfect thing came from above from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning." Everything was given to us by God.

That's what he's really saying. He's not only a creator, but he's a provider. And brothers and sisters, think about you and I today. Do you know that everything that we have and possess really was given to us by God? He had given to us everything. He's pointing out in verse 25 life and breath and all things.

You know, the very fact that we breathe, it's a fact that God had provided for us life and breath. Everything was given to us by God. And he add not only this, but all things. David said years ago in the scriptures when he received from the Lord so much in 1 Chronicles 29 at the end of the chapter, he said to them, "What can I give you that I did not receive?"

You know that everything David said that he receive, it was given to him by God. And David was so broken before the Lord when he prepared for the temple all the elements: the gold, the silver, the bronze, and everything that he prepared. Everything was given to him by God.

And David said to God, "What we're going to give you? We don't give you anything. Whatever we give you, we have already received from you." And everything that we give we received, so we give you back what we received from you. And that's why Paul said to him, "Listen, He's not only a creator, but He's a provider. He gives us life. He gives us breath. And He gives us all things." Verse 25 of chapter 17.

But not only that He's a creator and provider, He's also a ruler. He rules. Look at verse 26 to 29. The unknown God is the one who determined the times and the boundaries. He rules over the affairs of man. "He has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, for He has determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation."

Some of us are coming from many countries here in our little fellowship here. Some of us are locally in Canada, some from Israel, some from United States, some coming from Czechoslovakia, some from Russia, from Belarus. We have people who come from all sort of countries in the world. And can you imagine when God has situated us in various countries and lands, He's the one that ordained it in such a way.