The Altars We Still Build

Automatically transcribed — lightly cleaned for readability. Wording is the preacher’s own.

It is the name of Jesus, the name that is above all other names, the name that we worship and rejoice in.

It's the name that is on the heart of every person, whether they recognize it or not.

It is the name that fulfills all longing. It is the name that fulfills all purpose. It is the name that brings freedom. It is the name that brings healing and hope it is the name that brings forgiveness it is the name that brings life it is the name that conquers death,

The name of Jesus we sing Jesus your name you are worthy to have your name sung Lord and we will sing it now and into eternity,

We pray Heavenly Father that you would write the name of Jesus. Well, good morning, Conduit.

It is great to see you this morning. Have just a few announcements for you. There's a camouflage sticker of a deer.

I have a few announcements for you this morning. These are not new, so I want to run through them really quick. Something beginning this coming week. We've previewed this a few times. The summer lecture series on church leadership and eldership is starting this coming Wednesday at 6 o'clock. Downstairs in the big room, the room right below us. And then on Sunday morning, next Sunday morning at 9 a.m. Will be the same lesson or lecture. So if you come on Wednesday, you will get the same material on Sunday and so on and so forth. The 12th and the 16th are the same, the 19th and the 23rd are the same, just an opportunity for you to get that information. This is all about church leadership, about eldership, and both from a biblical perspective, a historical perspective, and then what it looks like at Conduit, both now and moving forward. So if that interests you, we hope that you'll join us there for that. The second thing is our summer, I guess we're calling it Summer Book Club. There it is, the discussion groups for those starting in the middle of August, the 13th.

But if you are interested in reading a book together and then having some discussion about it this summer, those books are in the back, on the back shelf back there. I think they're $10 a person. You can do cash checker, Venmo, and all of the information is back there. But it's a great book about just aligning our hearts in a world of idolatry, aligning our hearts, the true affection of our hearts to Jesus. So those are the announcements that I have for you this morning. Pastor Luke is celebrating the baptism of a family member this morning, so he's away, and we're still in the book of Acts.

We actually, even though we have quite a few chapters left in the book of Acts, we're going to preach on, one particular, one particular, experience that Paul had this morning, his experience in the city of Athens out of Acts chapter 17. Then next week, pastor Luke is going to preach towards, from the end of the book of Acts. And then whatever the next Sunday is, is it the 16th? Whatever that next Sunday is, we'll be starting a new sermon series. And that will be in the, we'll be doing a seven-week series on the seven letters, to the seven churches in the beginning of the book of Revelation. So we're looking forward to that. And that's something you can look forward to if you've never read the first couple chapters of the book of revelation I would recommend that you that it'd be a good practice to do as we as we get closer to that series so, if you have your bibles pull them out or open them up and to acts chapter 17.

You know, Paul, Paul, as we have talked about so far, was appointed by God, chosen by God. He was the chosen instrument of God to take the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. And so like Pastor Luke talked about last week, we saw the beginning of Paul's missionary journeys to the Gentile cities in and around the Mediterranean, particularly in and around what would be for you and I, like modern day Greece, modern day Macedonia, modern day Turkey, places like that. Now these were cities like Thessalonica, where we get the book of Thessalonians, Corinth where we get the book of 1st and 2nd Corinthians right Galatia, Galatians, right? Colossi, Colossians, Ephesus, Ephesians, right? So you get the point, okay? So you see all of these places that Paul is visiting, sharing the gospel with them. Setting up leaders and churches in those areas, and then understanding his mission as not one that stays there and like guides that church or pastors that church, but.

Paul saw his mission and received his mission as one who would go around, preach the gospel, raise up believers, raise up leaders, set up elders in that area so that they would then lead and be on mission in that area. And that was Paul's, that's what Paul did. And he had three main missionary journeys that he went on, but they weren't like the missionary journeys that we think of when we were like, hey, let's send the youth group, to whatever country we're going to send them to, whatever place that we're going to send them to. They're going to take a bunch of cool pictures. We're going to post them all over Facebook, right? We're going to get to see them. They're going to do some sightseeing while they are there. And they're going to come back being as much changed as they were a change agent in those people's lives. Paul's missionary journeys were a little bit more fraught with, I don't know, like jail and beatings and threats and attempts upon his life. And a lot of contention towards the message that he was bringing.

It was not like always a well-received message. It just depended kind of on the area that he was at and the type of people he was talking to. And that's kind of what happens here in Acts chapter 17. You know, the two letters that we have in our Bible to, the church in Thessalonica 1st and 2nd Thessalonians if you just read those you would be like wow Paul had a really cool ministry there he set up kind of he set up, leaders in that area like they were fighting against false doctrine but man they were really on fire for the Lord and really really encouraging letters to read but if you read Acts chapter 17, what you will know is that Paul's time in the city of Thessalonica was horrible.

There was a group of people who followed Paul around and harassed him and tried to get him in trouble with the Roman officials, tried to get him thrown in jail, tried to get him punished. And then they were so passionate about their harassment of Paul that when he left, he's like, man, I'm getting out of here. Like I've had enough of this. And he goes to a place called Berea, they follow him there. And they're like, we're not letting you off that easy. We're actually going to follow you around now.

And do everything that we can to make the proclamation of this message difficult for you personally. And so we catch up with Paul here in kind of the middle of Acts chapter 17 as he's leaving Thessalonica. He goes to Berea. They find him there too. And then.

He decides upon the wisdom of his companions, hey, Paul, kind of like sneak out of Berea. We'll keep the Thessalonians occupied and then we'll catch up with you down in Athens, the city of Athens. And Paul's like, okay, good idea. And so he leaves and then he gets to the city of Athens and that's where we're gonna pick up this morning, okay? Now, it is important for some context here. Most people know the name of the city of Athens, okay? And if you can place yourself kind of here in the New Testament, like at the time of Paul, recognize that Paul and Jesus lived in the time of Roman occupation of most of the ancient Near East, most of the known world at that point, really. So the Romans had a huge empire, but right before the Romans had a huge empire, the Greeks had a huge empire. And Athens was like the pinnacle city of Greek life. Right? It was like the cream of the crop. It was the center of life for all of Greek culture. It was the center of life for all of Greek religion, of all of the arts, of all education.

It would have been the premium or premier city in the Greek empire. Now, in the time of Jesus, Athens was somewhat past its prime because the Roman Empire had now taken over the Greek Empire. But even out of an awareness and an understanding of how important Athens was, to the cultural and religious life of the larger geographical area, the Romans chose to leave Athens as a self-governed, self-ruled city. So they kind of still got to do their own thing. Still not really influenced too much by Roman culture. Still holding on to a lot of those religious beliefs, cultural beliefs, and beliefs around art and even entertainment. But Athens here, it had this reputation.

Of a pretty significant cultural identity of asking great questions and learning from questioning things.

Athens as a kind of a cultural value. Had a super high appreciation for Or value in the process of questioning everything.

Constantly asking questions and a really high value on intellectual curiosity. So much so that they actually valued the curiosity of intellect more than the apprehension of truth. For them, there was a higher value of being able to question everything and be intellectually curious than it was to plant your feet firmly on something that you believed was true.

Something that you could truly believe in and live your life for. And this makes sense because from a cultural standpoint, Athens was the birthplace of people like Socrates. Socratic method, right? Asking questions in order to learn things, being intellectually curious. It was the birthplace of Socrates but not just Socrates also Plato, it was the kind of the adopted home of Aristotle right it was like the seed, of it was like the seed of what you would call like mainline philosophical thinking, and the text that we're going to read this morning from Acts chapter 17 mentions two groups specifically two philosophical groups that were kind of like the main players at the time of Paul.

It's important, I think, to have at least a basic understanding of their beliefs, so that there is kind of some understanding of the culture that Paul was walking into in Athens. Because Paul, as we're going to see in a minute when we read the text, Paul doesn't come in there guns a-blazing with Bible verses.

Paul comes into Athens with a really keen cultural awareness of the people that he's talking to, the beliefs that they hold, how they were formed in their thinking and in their heart, and still does not compromise on the saving truth of the gospel for it. It's really, I think, an important lesson for all of us to learn. But there's two main philosophical groups that Paul deals with. And you can see it right in the text. I'm not making it up. It's the Stoics and the Epicureans. Stoic philosophy and Epicurean philosophy. I know you didn't come here for a philosophy lesson today. It's not what this is. But it's just kind of build a base and a foundation for understanding what was Paul's approach when he walked into a city that was like, there's no actual truth. Just be intellectually curious.

And I don't know, it doesn't seem to me like that has changed much. Okay. Seems like we kind of live in a world that's pretty similar. Okay.

So the Stoics, the Stoics, they live really consistently with nature on kind of like a, they had a kind of a natural philosophy and theology about life. They had, they placed a great emphasis on the primacy of this like rational, faculty or thinking in human, like for humanity, like they wanted to be, they were rationalists. It needed to make sense. It needed to be practically applicable to life in order to be highly valued. They had a really high value on individual self-sufficiency. I don't need a community. There's not a group of people that has a common identity that I can find my identity or rootedness in. I am self-sufficient and by myself. Theologically speaking the Stoics were what we would call pantheists they were pantheistic this would be the belief, that says that like God exists but he's not a personal, being that I have a relationship with God is kind of like the soul that exists, in all of nature right.

God is everything. God is the trees. God is the sunshine. God is goodness. God is the waves in the ocean, the sand on the shore, right? God is the soul, this kind of unnameable, unknowable spirit that lived in all of creation, not personal.

Really particular, Stoicism commended the act of suicide as an honorable means of escape from a life that could no longer be sustained in dignity. Probably the most famous Stoic of all time was a guy by the name of Seneca who killed himself when he got sick and thought that, yeah, I have no more to give to this world. And that was a dignified death for Stoics. They had a very low value of human life. The epicureans not on the other side but just like as another group within this found that like pleasure, And peace is the, or was the chief end of all life. Meaning like all of your life should be in pursuit of just making sure you are comfortable and at peace. So do whatever it is that makes you feel comforted.

Peaceful, and well. Sometimes that meant if that meant you had to get over on someone else, whatever like it's all about your dignity and your your peace being free from any type of pain from any type of disturbing passions or superstitious fears, interestingly enough the epicureans did not deny the existence of god, but they maintained that god took no interest whatsoever in the life of his creation or men and women. Yeah, God's probably up there. God definitely probably exists. But if he, like, he doesn't care. Like, he doesn't care about us. The gods do not care about us. So this is like some of the foundational cultural and philosophical life that Paul was walking into when he comes into Athens, okay? So let's read from the text this morning what happens when Paul kind of enters into this place. We're going to be Acts chapter 17, verses 16 through 34, okay?

Now, while Paul was waiting for them, his associates who had sent him forward, right? While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the epicurean and stoic philosophers also conversed with him and some said what does this babbler wish to say.

Others said he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching jesus and the resurrection, 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, now all the Athenians and the foreigners who live there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new,

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God.

What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and 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. 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, the times of ignorance god overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness

By a man whom he has appointed all of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

Now, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, we will hear you again about this. So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed. Among them were Dionysius and a woman named Damaris and others with them. So we get like a pretty good we get a pretty good layout of the conversation that paul had with these people, and what it produced like how kind of how it unfolded and what paul's not just what paul's content was that he shared with these people but what his approach was, kind of what paul's philosophy was in sharing the gospel in a culture that had no value for truth statements, they only had value for intellectual curiosity and asking questions in fact the writer of acts says that to us in verse 21 now all of the athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new,

Man just like what's the new thing, what's the new belief. What's the new philosophy what's the algorithm pushing my way today,

Like we listen we are not we are not different right than the athenians like this is hey what's new hey excuse me media what am I supposed to believe today about the world.

What am I supposed to believe today about humanity? What am I supposed to believe about politics? What am I supposed to believe about human sexuality? What am I supposed, tell me what I'm supposed to believe. There's gotta be something new to believe today. Like this is not different. We do not live in a different culture than Paul was walking into here. We live in much the same, okay? Which with much the same derision of truth. We need truth. We've seen the new idea whatever it is and Paul's initial reaction to Athens was distress over this, the language doesn't really do it justice here but it says when Paul verse 16 when Paul was waiting for them in Athens his spirit was provoked within him the word here provoked is like it's meant to communicate not just like he felt like attacked although that certainly appropriate but like it's like, it's interesting I was doing some readings like the word was meant to communicate like his spirit was having seizures.

Like there was this sense where internally he could wreck like there was something at war with his spirit in this moment he was provoked by walking around and seeing that the city was full of idols.

It was difficult for Paul to be in that type of environment, to be in that place. But still it says that he went to two different places. One, he went willingly. One, he kind of went unwillingly. He first went to the synagogues to kind of talk about with Jews and devout Gentiles talk about the gospel. But then it says he was taken to the Areopagus.

He wasn't asked to go. He didn't go there on his own, but he was taken to a place called the Areopagus. Now, what the heck is that? What is that place? The Areopagus, by the Roman times, or what we see here, in the Greek empire time, it was like the Supreme Court for all things. By Roman times, it was more of like a court of overseers, specifically around like religious or educational matters. And notably, it determined and vetted kind of the new religious teachings and cults that would be introduced into the city. If whatever this system of belief passed the muster of the Areopagus, then fine, we'll give you a place to set up an altar to whatever God you want in this little place over here, but you gotta make it through us first.

And this is always this is constantly what they did like we like we read in verse 21 they were spending their time in nothing but just telling or hearing something new, and so the stakes of Paul's speech to this group of people in the Areopagus was much higher than just trying to convince, a bunch of philosophers about this religious position that he had or this man named Jesus. Because the culture was obsessed with new ideas. They were not necessarily seekers of truth as much as they were seekers of information, of new information, and of novelty. And so they had a God for everything.

Everything. Some say, they had a God for every single thing, every single situation. Some historians say they had up to 30, 000 idols, altars, and gods within the city of Athens. Really, as an attempt to, because they were like, I don't know, there could be a God for this thing, and there could be a God for that thing. Like, cause nothing's true, right? It's all just curiosity. So we better cover all of our bases and make sure we erect an idol and an altar to this God, an idea, and this God, an idea, and this God, an idea, because we don't, we want to make sure that we're covered. We want to make sure that we've got everything we need every person that we every every god that we need every area that we need covered by some sort of god that we can give a sacrifice to in case things go sideways.

Now, we don't really build altars like that anymore. We don't fill maybe our houses with little stone or gold statues.

We don't have a city full of altars where sacrifices can be made. We don't really build altars anymore, but we certainly, we do build, I mean, we build like routines.

We build cabinets full of supplements. We build phones full of apps for our sleep and for our steps and for our screen time and for our connection and for our calendar and for our money and our finances and, for our games and our TV watching and for our, church attendance or church.

We have five different philosophies for how to raise our kids, five different plans for how our finances are going to work,

Six different alternative philosophies to managing our anxiety, a new one every time the last one stops working.

One doesn't work, I'm glad I covered my bases and I got a new one. We don't really build altars in the typical sense of like the Athenians did, but we are certainly a culture that covers our bases to get what's done for us done.

It's the same instinct as exists in Athens. We cover every base because you're, maybe I'm not sure what I'm going to need or what I have is actually enough for me to live a happy, whole, fulfilled, joyful life.

So Paul walks into that. And interestingly enough, he doesn't start by telling the Athenians that they're wrong.

He doesn't really aggressively challenge their cultural values or religious values at all. He actually starts by telling them, hey guys, you're like so close.

I walk around your city and I see all of these idols. And in fact, he says in verse 22, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, he said, men of Athens, he like points out something positive. He's like, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God.

What therefore you worship as unknown, let me proclaim to you. So Paul starts where the Athenians are. He starts in the place of like cultural relevancy for them. He doesn't flatter them and he doesn't condescend them. He starts exactly, the instinct of the Athenians was spot on. Their aim was just off. They knew instinctively that they were made to worship, man like yeah we are definitely made for worship let's build another altar let's build another idol let's build another altar over and over and over again they just couldn't hit the proper target, and this is like true for I mean like we should be able to recognize this in our lives as well how how many of you or how many of us or, how many of us have gotten on this pathway of just like chasing or looking for the something more.

The something higher, the something more fulfilling, the one thing that's gonna help you like take the next step. Maybe it's more information or more knowledge. Maybe it's a little just a little bit more self-help, maybe a little bit more success and I'll be there a little bit more wealth and I'll be there I will get to the proverbial finish line that is in my mind,

And how many of us have chased those things and then gotten to like that proverbial finish line and you realized,

What I was looking for is not here either. It's not here. I thought that's what I needed. I thought that's what I wanted.

I thought that's what I was made for, built for. I thought that was my purpose. I thought that just that job or just that success or just that position or just that role or just that place, that's what I thought when I got there. That's what I would need.

And actually, when you get there, I'm more empty than I was when I started.

Because I've expended all of this emotional energy and all of this spiritual energy and I've poured myself into the worship of a false finish line.

Listen, it is because you were made to worship. You were made to worship. I want you to hear that really clearly. Clearly, you did not create yourself. You did not imagine yourself. You were created by a God that has a specific purpose for your life. You were made to worship.

And not just worship anything, and certainly not to worship everything. You were made to worship the one who created you.

The one true God created you as his daughter, as his son, created with the like the magnetism of your soul to him.

Now paul took the opportunity to speak into this cultural reality that he recognized in the athenians but they couldn't recognize, him themselves what you worship as the unknown god I'm going to tell you who that unknown God is right now. And so that's what he did. This is important because even like Paul's.

His process or his philosophy or the way that he'd like, Paul was very, Paul was not going to leave this up to chance or guessing.

Paul was going to make explicit. That there is a God, the creator of heaven and earth, the one who has created you, who has sent his son, who resurrected his son from the grave so that you might know him personally and truly. And Paul wasn't gonna leave that up to like them, like kind of like reading between the lines of his life. Well, I'll just live a really good and holy life. I'll live according to the principles of Jesus, and then people will just know.

Paul's like, that's not good enough here in a situation like this. This is a, we have to, like, this needs to be, you need to know explicitly who this God is.

And so in verses 24 through 31, Paul lays out this theological argument. You know, we've all read it. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man. And you can go through verse 24, verse 31, and pull out individual theological statements that Paul makes, that are like both what we would call maybe like basic or foundational understandings of what it means to be a Christ follower, to be a Christian, to believe that God, Lord of heaven and earth, made everything in the world and he does not live in temples made by man.

Verse 25, this God that we, that we serve, he's not served by human hands as though he needed anything.

Like God, God, God doesn't need anything. He, he made all of mankind and he gave it its life and breath. Verse 26, he made from one man, every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined a lot of periods and boundaries of their dwelling place. Do you think that Paul here in this moment was speaking directly to a philosophy that said, hey, God is not involved in any of anyone's life. We believe that God exists, but he's completely uninvolved, not personal at all. Not just some, he's just some great world spirit. And here's Paul being like, no, God knew who you were and allotted the times and days and places of your life. He was speaking directly into a cultural moment that he understood, but that they had never heard like, no, no, no, no no where you are living is empty the god that actually exists is the one you were created to worship,

And over and over and over again he's like he's just pulling on all of these strings.

What is so, you're not going to like this. I'm going to, well, maybe you won't like this. I don't know. You're probably not going to like this.

How many scripture verses does Paul quote in his speech to the Athenians here? How many chapters and verses?

Zero. Now, this was intentional by Paul. Look at other places that he preached the gospel in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 13. And he is just like, Old Testament scripture, Old Testament scripture, Old Testament scripture. Like, it was an intentional decision here by Paul to take a different pathway or philosophy of communication, way to communicate the truth of the gospel other than he has before. All right paul in this moment took like he took this opportunity to certainly speak the truth of god's word,

Without without like pushing forward the authority of god's word why why would he do that. Because the authority of God's word meant nothing to the Athenians.

What do you mean Genesis says or Moses says? Who cares? Paul was trying to understand his audience and how they thought and how they would receive truth and how they would wrestle with spiritual realities and what he was trying to accomplish there. See, Paul used his understanding of scripture to tailor his message, so much so that he even quoted some of their own philosophers to make his theological points.

Because we look at this and you're like oh no no no he quoted scripture he said in him we live and move and have our being, yeah no that was not moses or jacob or david that was a pimp up epimenides, a greek philosopher who said that,

But some the bible says that for we are indeed his offspring no that was erratus who said that.

And like, we think it's in the Bible because it's in the Bible here, right? It wasn't, do you get it? Okay, it's in the Bible for us. It wasn't actually in the Bible for them. But Paul's like, hey man, I'll pull on this philosophical thread right here and I'll use it to make my point, that it is in him that we live and move and have our being that we, are his offspring and since your own philosophers say that we are his offspring how can he be a god made of stone or gold,

Do you and I come from stone or gold. That's, that's, that's Paul's method here. That's exactly what he says. Since we are his offspring, 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.

He uses it. You see, Paul, Paul, Paul used this method as a doorway to a truth that they didn't yet hold. It's not, Paul wasn't compromising by not quoting scripture. He was using strategy. Because Paul knew something that we forget, quoting scripture to someone who doesn't believe scripture is authoritative, isn't an argument. It's just noise.

It's like if a Muslim was trying to convince me of the truth of their faith by quoting to me the Koran. I don't care, bro.

Has no authority in my life. I don't believe it. Same thing here, okay? So if you're going to reach a person in your life who is an Athenian,

Maybe full of ideas, full of their own little altars, just grabbing at things to make life work for them, covering their philosophical bases. Absolutely certain that they've already heard what Christianity has to offer.

Quoting John 3.16 at them might not be the best doorway. We can all agree, John 3.16, beautiful verse, authoritative for our heart and life, brings freedom when we believe it by faith, that for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life, right? Of course.

So you may need to start where Paul started in what they already believed and what they already trust, what they're already reaching for, not to affirm it. Oh yeah, it's okay. You can believe that. No, there was no affirmation of what they believed. He used it as an on-ramp to the one claim that their belief could not hold.

See, our lesson here is this, is that we must be culturally aware. We must be culturally aware of the moment in time that we live in.

If we want to be successful, however you want to define success, right? If you want to have a voice,

You need to be culturally aware about the world that we live in right now. And you need to be biblically informed. See, we need to be both culturally aware and biblically informed if we're going to speak into the culture a message that calls it from darkness into light. To know the culture well enough to name its own unanswered longings and then refuse to soften the part of the gospel that will bring offense and freedom.

Enough cultural literacy to be heard without trading away the resurrection, without trading away judgment, without trading away repentance just to keep the room comfortable,

As the Epicureans wanted it to be. Just man, just pursue comfort here, right? You're good, I'm good, believe what you want, intellectual curiosity, let's not rock the boat of our own like souls here. No truth claims, because that just gets a little restrictive in the life that I want to live.

Like we don't have a ton of time to, rock on any of these topics, but like as Christian people desiring to hold, to not soften the truth of the gospel, but to live in a culture like we live, you better have a biblically informed, like a biblically informed, but culturally aware understanding of human sexuality.

You better like you better wrestle with from a cultural perspective and a biblical perspective like the integration of human relationships and technology

Because even things that were meant to connect us, like Facebook, tend to divide us.

And technology is not slowing down in trying to replace human relationships, which are like a core, both fundamental and theological thing. We were made for relationship with one another. Right otherwise the greatest commandment would not include and love your neighbor as yourself, right so we better have an idea of what it means to live in human relationship, in an increasingly technological world,

We better have a pretty developed understanding of what it means to be in a christian a christian person a kingdom of heaven person in a world of political polarization.

What I'm saying is it's going to be difficult for you to effectively engage the Athenian culture of our world. If all you want to do, understand this, if all you want to do is scream a Bible verse at it.

Do we believe that the word of God brings healing, hope, deliverance, freedom? I give my life for it.

Of course I do. But we're talking about the on-ramp and the bridge. Okay? Not the whole strategy. And this was what Paul did. All right? You're going to see it here at the end. So up until this point in the whole like conversation paul kind of has the room, he's like pulling on all these philosophical theological threads and all these truths are dropping right and he gets to this to his last sentence he gets to his last sentence, he's quoted their poets he's honored their instinct to worship he's named the longing under all 30, 000 altars. And if he stopped right there, they might even probably like invite him back. I mean, this guy can talk. This guy's got some ideas. Like we like this Paul guy, but he didn't stop there.

He doesn't stop where it was comfortable for them and it was comfortable for him. He doesn't stop where cultural fluency runs out and offense begins. Because just naming that there was a longing in their hearts was never the destination for Paul. It was simply the doorway that he was going to use to walk through it. And there was one more thing that they needed to hear, the one thing that no philosophy in the city of Athens could absorb or hold.

The times of ignorance god overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

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 assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

Look at what happens in verse 32. What is the thing? What is the thing that turned the, the, like just sucked the air out of the room. Now, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead,

See, the claim of resurrection would have been absolutely absurd for an Athenian audience. Some of the Athenians, at least some of them, were submerged still in Plato, in his philosophical thought, and Plato was a dualist. Meaning that Plato, as a Platonic philosophy, was dualistic in the sense material world bad spiritual world good so what's the whole goal escape the body,

Escape what is physical so you can experience the real joy of life, and that was a philosophy that all Athenians were steeped in and so when you got this guy Paul coming along and being saying like hey listen there is going to be resurrection from the dead.

The one true God has established his truth in all of creation by resurrecting the son of man from the dead for them that would have been like, what are you talking about that's not a step forward, I'm trying to get away from the physical body you're telling me it's going to come back to life. That's a step backwards. And so Paul was not at all afraid to, yes, build a strategy that had bridges of philosophical understanding for them. But when it came to the point of repentance, he did not hold back the thing that would make them most uncomfortable and would make him the.

And it says that some mocked the message. Some of them sneered, it says, or what's the word? Some mocked. So listen, this is a prototype of how even our culture and world deals with and accepts the message. Is there a better preacher in all of the New Testament than Paul?

No. Right? I'm not a better preacher than Paul. The best preacher that I've ever lived is not a better preacher of the gospel than Paul. And so Paul doesn't measure his success on whether or not everyone agreed with or believed because it's really clear. Some mocked, some sneered at this. This is ridiculous, Paul. I'm walking away. Some of them were like, I think we'll hear you again on this. This is almost more dangerous than openly mocking it, okay? Because they were like, ah, we think that this has some value and probably intrinsically know that this is true. We're just not ready to take it yet.

We're delaying our response. We're going to delay it. Maybe bring some more. Maybe come back again and we'll talk a little bit more about this. This is that's it's dangerous right so some of them mocked some of them delayed some of them it says believed they repented and believed Dionysius and Damaris.

Paul doesn't seem really upset about that other than to say it was just the reality of the situation that it brings. You share the message, some mock it. Some are like, ah, maybe someday, can we get coffee again? Talk a little bit more about it. Sometimes it's delayed, right? And some of them, some believe they repent and believe.

What's the point here? I mean, I don't know what the point is, obviously, but like, We can learn, I think, a lot from Paul's approach and his philosophy.

What I do know is that the unknown God had a name, has a name.

Paul didn't discover it in Athens. Sins, Paul brought it with him and pointed at the empty altar until they could see what they had been reaching for all along. That's still the choice that's on the table. The choice that's on the table always.

You can mock it. You can delay a faithful response of repentance and obedience, or you can believe it.

Some of you have been building your own altar to your own unknown God. A new idea, a new routine,

A new pathway, a new base to cover in your life. Still empty though. Maybe more empty than when you started.

The unknown altar or the unknown God that you're just continually trying to build altars to, finding that piece of total and complete fulfillment in your life has a name, and his name is Jesus.

The unknown thing that you've been chasing, the unknown pathway, the unknown decision, the unknown routine. He's not unknown anymore. His name is Jesus, and he's not asking you to add him to a collection of 30, 000 other gods that you have. He's calling you to wipe the rest of them out of your life and to see him as the one that brings resurrection and new life. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word to us. We thank you, Lord, that you have called us by faith. To repentance and belief.

Lord, these words right here, the times of ignorance, God, you have overlooked, but now you command all people everywhere to repent.

Because you have fixed a day on which you will judge the world in righteousness, by a man whom you have appointed. The man's name is Jesus. And of this you have given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.