The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Word Made Plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 17, verses 22 through 25.

Tony Clark: Father, we pray for those who are hurting this morning. They're in tears. You're the only one who can wipe every tear from our eyes. I pray for those who don't know You, that they would come to know You, that they would look to You as the comforter, Lord. I just pray that Your Spirit will come upon us, Lord. That You will help us, Lord. Help us, we need You. Lord, help us as we study Your word, that Your Holy Spirit would speak into our hearts in ways that only You can. In Jesus' name, Amen.

All right, turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 17. We're going to be looking at verses 22 to 25 as we continue to go verse by verse and chapter by chapter through the book of Acts on Sunday mornings. Eventually, we're going to get back to 1 Samuel on Wednesdays as we go through the Old Testament, just going through the word of God. It's such a fabulous thing to do. Acts chapter 17, looking at verses 22 to 25. The title of this message is American Idols Part 2.

In part one of this study, we saw how the city of Athens was filled with idols and Paul's spirit was provoked as a result of this, according to verse 16. So he decided to reason with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in verse 18. After preaching about Jesus and the resurrection, the people took Paul in verse 19 to the Areopagus. This was the place where they debated new teachings. They told Paul in verse 20, "You're bringing some strange things to our ears." After hearing this, Paul is about to go a little bit deeper.

Look at verses 22 and 23. It says, "Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, 'Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. 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.'" Now we see how Paul was given the opportunity to share with the men of Athens, and he stood in the midst of the Areopagus and establishes a common ground with them by saying, "I perceive that in all things you are very religious."

The Greek word for perceive is *theoreo*, and it means to be a spectator of, to consider, or to perceive. The phrase "very religious" is a mouthful. The Greek word for very religious is *deisidaimonesteros*, which is a combination of two Greek words: *deilo*, which means to fear or reverence, and *daimon*, which means supernatural evil spirit. So this word carries the idea of fearing or reverencing an evil or supernatural spirit. Paul goes on to tell them in verse 23, as he was passing through their city, he was considering the objects of their worship.

The Greek word for considering here is *anatheoreo*. As you can see, it is the same Greek word used for perceive in verse 22, but with the prefix *ana* added, which means repetition or with intensity. It means as Paul was passing through their city, he was considering, *theoreo*, how many gods there were. Then something caught his attention and made him consider, *anatheoreo*, with more intensity. What was it? He found an altar with the inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

The Athenians were so religious and superstitious that they made an altar to the unknown god, just in case they forgot one. They worried their bad misfortune or their lack of blessing could be attributed to offending this unknown god. Let me give you the history of this. This started 600 years before Paul, when a terrible plague came on the city of Athens and a man named Epimenides had an idea. He let loose a flock of sheep through the town, and wherever they lay down, they sacrificed that sheep to the god that had the nearest shrine or temple.

If a sheep lay down near no shrine or temple, they sacrificed the sheep to the unknown god. Archaeological finds have shown many such altars with the inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Paul was not endorsing this god, but using it as a point of entry to preach the gospel. Paul gives us a beautiful example of how to talk to people about Jesus Christ. He gives us three steps to sharing Jesus Christ. Number one, he first took time to consider the objects of their worship. Number two, he then acknowledged that they were very religious. Number three, then he used this common ground as a way to talk to them about Jesus Christ.

Paul didn't consider the object of their worship and use it to bash or degrade them for being idol worshippers. He acknowledged that they were religious, and I'm sure Paul was thinking, "These people are misguided, but they are religious." What was the result of Paul doing this? He had their undivided attention. I wonder if this is the reason why we end up in arguments: because we don't take this approach. I am learning this. I have not learned this yet. I'm in the process, so you're listening to someone that's on the journey of learning this.

We must remember that the ultimate goal is to present people with the gospel of Jesus Christ and how He came to this earth to die on a cross for our sin, to forgive us, to set us free from the power and the penalty of sin, and to take us to heaven with Him. If we start off insulting them, making fun of what they believe in—which I am very good at, I'm very good at that—or degrading them, no wonder we end up in arguments with people. Learn from me. This is not the way to get people's undivided attention. I was very good, and let me tell you something, I still am, at making you feel stupid over some of the stuff you may believe.

My background is apologetics, giving a defense of the Christian faith. I would make you feel like my mother used to say: "Now, that was just dumb." I would degrade you over what—let me give you an example. I mentioned it in the first service, so let me just carry it on to the second. When I was in California, when I was in my twenties too, my mind was very sharp at that time. There were those who would come and they would peddle their books. One of their books they would peddle, they would say, "You know what? This is the word of God. The way that you would know this is the word of God, when you read it, God will give you a burning in your bosom as confirmation that this book is the word of God."

I would look at them and say, "Burning in the bosom? That could have been from that pizza you had last night." See, that's what I used to do. I’d make them feel stupid for believing such a burning in the bosom. It's funny, I used to train people to defend the faith against such things. This same guy met one of the guys that was in my class, and he mentioned something about reading this book and having a burning in your bosom. He said, "Burning? That could have been from pizza you had last night. Do you know Tony Clark?" I used to make people feel dumb for believing such idiotic stuff.

But that's not the way to do it. Because here's the thing, don't miss this: I would win the argument but lose the soul. I would comfort myself in the fact that I won that argument, but they would leave no closer to Jesus than when they came to me. So learn from me. Paul is showing us how to do it, and he had a captive audience. The end of verse 23 says, "Therefore," or as a result of you having an altar to the unknown god, Paul said, "The One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you." In other words, Paul was saying, "If you don't know Him, how can you worship Him? If you don't know Him, how can He help you?" Paul is saying, "I'm about to introduce you to this unknown god."

I don't believe that we, as Americans, know God. Oh yes, we know about God, but we don't know Him. We know God as a cosmic divine Santa Claus who's going to give us goodies on spiritual Christmas. We know God as a cosmic divine genie in a lamp that we rub, our magic lamp of faith, and out He pops and says, "What are your three wishes?" We know God that way, but we don't know God. We know God as a God of love, but that is it. He's a God of love that happens to overlook or wink at our sin. That's not the God of the Bible.

We know God as a God of love and He's never going to be a God who would create hell, and definitely we aren't going there. I've had atheists and agnostic people say, "Well, I don't believe that the God I serve—He's a God of love, I don't believe He'd ever send me to hell." I said, "You're right. Your god would never send you to hell because your god doesn't exist. You made him up in your own mind, a god to suit your sin." That's what you've done. I'm confessing my faults to y'all right now. That's not the approach anymore. That used to be the approach; that's not the approach anymore.

But we don't know God. We don't know the God of the Bible. I believe that here in America, we're worshipping an unknown god. It's a god that's foreign from Christianity of the past. It's a god that's foreign to the New Testament, to the Bible that we hold in our hands. I don't think we, as Americans, really know God. We know about God. So we live in a culture that we now have to introduce this culture to the "unknown God" because they think they know God, but they don't. They know about God. That's why they only say things like, "Well, God is a God of love," or they would only acknowledge Matthew 7:1 and that little part that says, "Judge not."

That's all they know. So they don't know God. They don't know that there's a verse two after Matthew 7:1, and a verse three, and it keeps going. So I think we as Americans know about God, but we don't know God. Paul is saying, "This unknown god, I'm about to introduce you to Him." Look at verses 24 and 25. He says, "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. Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things."

In this message that he is giving the Athenians, which is similar to the one he gave to the people of Lystra in Acts 14 verses 15 through 17—they eventually stoned him—Paul will share four basic truths about God. Number one, the greatness of God; He is creator. We see this in verse 24. Number two, the goodness of God; He is provider. We see this in verse 25. Number three, the government of God; He is ruler. We will see this in verses 26 to 29. Number four, the grace of God; He is savior. We will see this in verses 30 to 34. We're only going to get to the first two today.

Number one, the greatness of God is seen in verse 24. He is creator. Notice how Paul knew his audience, that he didn't give them Old Testament scriptures or quote from Jewish prophets. These Greeks didn't know these things. Whenever Paul was talking to the Greeks, he always talked to them about God being the creator. Why? Because everyone in the history of mankind, they are wondering: where did I come from? Why am I here? And where am I going?

Science tried to answer the first question: where did I come from? They came up with a theory of evolution that now they are promoting as truth. It was a theory, now it's truth, popularized by Darwin's "Origin of Species" book of 1859. Today, they've gone even more bizarre. They just say we evolved from nothing. It used to be we evolved from apes or monkeys, but no, we evolved from nothing. Or here it is, brace yourself: nothing created everything. Richard Dawkins, a well-known atheist, came up with that, which is scientifically illogical.

Or if I can quote my precious mother, that's just dumb. When Richard Dawkins was on a panel in a debate about evolution and creation, and when he said nothing created everything, the audience started laughing. He was startled by this. He said, "Why are you laughing?" And the Christian who was defending the faith against this evolutionary thought, he said, "They're laughing at the scientifically illogical statement you just made, that nothing created everything." My mom said that's just dumb, and which it is.

How can that be? Because it goes against the first law of science, which says life arises from life. They either ignore this law or try to explain it away, because to acknowledge it means that they have to admit that a life or creator started all of this. Something they don't want to acknowledge. This is why they came up with the illogical statement that nothing created everything. Just think about that. That is, to me, intellectual suicide to believe such an illogical thing, that nothing created all this.

A building had a builder, a painting had a painter, a design had a designer, but creation doesn't have a creator? I told my atheist friend this and it just went right over his head. I said, "Do you not get that?" It's just like looking at a Picasso and just saying, "Hey, guess what? One day there was an explosion of paint colors and all of a sudden it just formed this picture here." Oh, stop with that. I said, "That's the same thing you're saying, that this great creation—one day there was an explosion." They still can't tell me who started the explosion. Where’d that come from? Who triggered that? Who set these things in motion?

See, it's intellectual suicide. Only the Christian faith gives us satisfactory answers to all three of these important questions: where'd I come from, why am I here, where am I going? Only the Christian faith. The Epicureans were atheists and the Stoics believed that everything was God, so they were pantheists. But Paul comes and boldly tells them in verse 24, "In the beginning, God. He made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of all He made." He is too great to be housed in temples made with hands, the end of verse 24 says.

However, God is not too great that He is not concerned with man's needs. Let me just pause right here and say that God cares and is concerned about what you and I are concerned about. 1 Peter 5:7 says, "Casting all your care upon Him." Why? Because He cares for us. The Greek word for casting is *epiripto*, and it means to throw or to cast upon. It is where we get our English word "rip tide" from. We're told to throw or to cast our cares upon God because He cares for us.

But Pastor Tony, my problems and issues, they keep coming back. Well, isn't that what a rip tide does? You cast it and it comes back fast upon us, like the rip tide of an ocean. What should we do? We keep casting it upon God until the waters of our lives are calm once again. So Paul shows them that the unknown god was creator in verse 24. Paul now moves to number two, the goodness of God; He is provider. He tells them in verse 25 that this God is not known through an idol made by man's hands. Nor does He need anything.

I'm sure as Paul was saying this, they looked up at about a hundred yards at the Acropolis, which was one of the wonders of the ancient world. A magnificent temple, a spectacular temple. He said, "This unknown god doesn't need such temples, perhaps looking up at the Acropolis, to be worshipped." He doesn't need anything, which was a subtle dig at the Greeks, who taught that the gods needed humans to serve them. This would appeal to the Epicurean listeners, who believed that the gods were above human events.

Then Paul said at the end of verse 25 that God was the source of all life and breath and all things. In other words, this unknown god needs nothing. This appealed to the Stoics in the crowd who were trying to align themselves with the cosmic purpose of life. Paul had no problem with talking to people on their level. He understood their culture, being educated in the city of Tarsus, his hometown, which was the educational center at this time.

My point is: take the time to study and educate yourself on today's American culture, its philosophical ideas, and how we can be able to meet on common ground and use this to introduce them to Jesus Christ. Proverbs 15 verse 28 says, "The heart of the righteous studies how to answer." This is a huge verse because the question is: do you know American culture that we live in? Do you know American history outside of the atrocities of slavery in American history?

See, many of you, when you think American history, immediately your mind goes back to the atrocities of slavery. Now, I'm not saying that that should not have a priority in our mind when we think American history, but American history is more than just the atrocities of slavery, how ungodly that was. It’s a blip on our history as a nation, the tomfoolery that we allowed with the atrocities of slavery. However, do you know what else was going on in our country outside of that? This is time for us to study American culture.

Do you know Americans' ideas and ideals today? We live in a post-Christian society that is hostile towards anything Christian and anything biblical. You've got to understand—let's go back 50 years. 50 years ago, it was still somewhat politically correct to go to church. It's not like that today. When I started the church 25 years ago, it was a different America then. In just 25 years, totally different. We weren't talking about "I'm offended" and "you offended me." We weren't talking like that. We would say, "So what if you're offended? Who cares? Hear this gospel, and that's what we're going to do today."

So we weren't talking like that, but we talk like that today. So we have to know the culture we live in today and not be disillusioned as to what we think this culture is all about. This nation is—we've got to have a different approach in talking to people. Race relations are at an all-time—it's worse than 50 years ago. Stuff is nuts today. Everybody's offended, everybody's mad. Unfortunately, this is why a lot of mass shooting and stuff is going on. You can call that mental illness, you can say all you want to say about that. Folks are just mad. They're mad. Fifty years ago, many people couldn't say anything—race relation stuff, couldn't say anything—boy, you go over there and you shut your mouth. Nowadays, I ain't shutting nothing. Take these bullets for this talk. Folks are angry today. Do you know how to now share the gospel with an American culture that is angry?

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