SUNDAY - MARCH 1, 2026 "Know the Unknown God"

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This morning we'll be in Acts chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

We'll start reading in verse 16.

As you turn there, let me what we're going to find in our passage today is this.

Paul is going to travel to Athens.

And as he is in Athens, he is going to have the opportunity to go to the Arapagos and proclaim the gospel.

So he proclaims the gospel everywhere he goes in Athens, even the Arapagos.

And as we look at this passage and look, how does what is the message for us that we can glean from this, that we can see from this?

I think we can glean this.

First of all, I think we can glean that we can know the unknown God that Paul is going to talk about.

You can know him.

And once you know him, you should make him known.

The challenge for us today is twofold.

Really, what we just said.

Know him and make him known.

So this morning, if you are able, I invite you to stand with me as we give honor to the reading of God's word.

We're going to be in Acts chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

I'm going to begin reading in verse 16.

Now, while Paul was waiting for them at 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 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 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 if some of your own poets have even 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, and 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.

So Paul went out from their midst.

But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius, the Arapogite, Areopagite, sorry, and a woman named Amerius, and others with them.

Let's pray together.

God, we thank you for your word.

And God, we pray that this morning, as we have opened your word and we read your word and we study your word, Father God, we pray that we can know you because of your word.

And challenge us as we know you to make you known.

Jesus, it's in your name that we pray.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So as we get into our passage today, there's a couple of things that I want us to see.

You really see two parts of this passage.

The first few verses really are kind of an introduction to what's going on in Athens and some things you need to see.

Athens uh historically has been a great city, a great city in Greece.

But but it has lost some of its luster in recent time when Paul was there.

It wasn't the great city that it had been, but it still had some great things about it and great traits and great people there.

But a couple of things we need to know about this city is one, is it was a very pagan city.

He says it right there at the beginning.

He said his spirit was provoked as he saw this city was full of idols.

The people there, they they worshiped foreign divinities and and and false divinities.

We've seen this.

If you've remember, I remember growing up in high school when we were doing uh literature and studying literature and things, reading about all the Greek and Roman gods.

It was always fascinating to me of how people were, they would see see something that they didn't understand, and so they thought, well, well, there's got to be something more to that.

So they they would create a God in their own mind that could handle that, but but they never had a God that could handle it all.

They had to have a whole bunch of different ones because there was a whole lot of things that they didn't understand.

And so, and you see that all throughout history, people who just try to create gods to explain things that they couldn't understand.

And it became very pagan in their lifestyle and in their worship.

But for those who, and we see that some in some of the philosophers that are that get Paul and take him to the Areopus, the Stoics especially, here's what they would believe.

The Stoics believed that all humanity had a, every human had a divine spark within them.

And the goal in life was to awaken that divine spark, and the way that you did that was through reason.

And so they would try to reason things out and figure things out, and they were, they became a very moral people because they were trying to awaken this divine spark, and they believed that if we all have the divine spark, maybe if we work together as humanity, we can awaken each other's spark.

And so they would would go together and try to, so they became a very religious people.

But it was very pagan.

Second, they you see here that they were if they weren't religious, they became very secular.

They were a secular people.

You see that through the Epicureans.

These philosophers were people who would believe that all life comes down to atoms and matter.

It was just these bodies.

So when you when you died, you died.

There wasn't anything after that.

And they they didn't really care about deities.

They they were okay if there were deities that existed, but what they believed about them is they they were they were out there, they didn't, they didn't care about humanity, and humanity didn't care about them, they didn't do anything for us, there was no reason for us to do anything for them because when we died, we died, and it was all over.

They were kind of very secular.

But even in their secularism, they became very religious.

Paul says it when he gets to the Areopagus.

He says, I have seen, I have determined, I have looked around and noticed that you are in every way very religious.

For a moment, let's understand this, though.

You you have we have to ask the question, God, grant, if they're a secular people, how are they a religious people?

Well, they are a religious people, and secularism can really become a religion.

Because I am convinced of this when it when the scripture tells us that God created us in his own image.

Now, I don't understand that fully.

I don't, I mean, I look at these bodies.

I can't say that God created my body in his image because he's spirit.

So what does he mean when we say he created?

We don't understand that totally either, but I am convinced that part of that creating him, creating us in his image, he placed in us a desire, a need to know him.

He says it in Romans chapter 1, verses 19 and 20.

Romans 1:19

He says, For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to him, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world.

What God has placed in us as humanity is a need to worship him.

And when we don't worship him, we're going to fill it with something.

We could even worship the denial of him.

But even when we are denying God, what it becomes in our lives is worship.

Anytime that we give anything priority in our lives, and it takes the place of God in our lives, we are worshiping that thing.

And that's what was happening in Athens.

And so they were very religious, even though they were pagan and secular.

Another thing that we see here is that Paul, when he came to Athens, he reasoned with them.

You see it right there at the very beginning in verse 16, his spirit was provoked within him, and he saw the city was full of idols, so he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be happen who happened to be there.

He reasoned with them.

We saw Paul doing this in uh Thessalonica a couple of weeks ago when he was there, and we talked about him reasoning with them was not so much of him standing up and preaching at them.

It was him sitting and having a discussion with them, showing them, convincing them, reasoning with them why God is the true God.

He sat and he had conversations, and it's interesting to me that see, Paul saw all these idols.

It said his spirit was provoked within him.

Usually when we see that that his spirit, that a spirit was provoked, we think he starts bashing those idols, which is not what Paul does.

Instead of going after the idols, he sits down and reasons with the people.

See, that's what we're called to do.

What he calls us to do in Acts 1.8 is be witnesses of Jesus Christ.

We don't have to start a war.

We reason, we share the gospel.

That's what Paul is doing.

He is reasoning with those in the synagogues, he is reasoning with those in the marketplace.

Everywhere he goes, he is sharing the gospel.

And as he shared, some of these philosophers catch him and take him to the Areopagus.

I'm going to say that a whole lot just because it's fun to say.

They take him there.

We're not real sure what the Areopagus is.

It could have been a court.

There were times where that was used as a court, courtroom type setting where people came and you would go be on trial.

There were other times where this was more just like a meeting of the minds.

In this situation, it seems to be more like a meeting of the minds because Paul is not really put on trial.

He's there.

I mean, they bring him there, but they don't put him in shackles and chains, and then when he finishes, he leaves.

So it seems more like a meeting of the minds that they brought him there to share because he was preaching about Jesus and the resurrection, and they didn't understand.

Paul knew him and was making him known.

So the question that we seek to answer as we come into this next part is how did Paul share the gospel?

Well, Paul begins sharing the gospel by telling them that religion is not enough.

He says, I perceive that you are a very religious.

For as I walked in here, I saw an altar to an unknown God.

Well, see, this is crazy because they're very religious.

They worship these unknown gods.

And remember, for the Stoics, reason was the way that they awakened the divine spark within them.

So to be ignorant of something was a cardinal sin for the Stoics, but that's what Paul is saying is happening here.

He says, you are very religious, but you are ignorant of something.

Now I'm not calling them stupid.

That's not what I mean.

What I'm saying is they are operating without full knowledge of something.

They don't have the full knowledge of God and who he is.

So what Paul is trying to do is reason with them about who God is.

You have this altar to an unknown God.

Let me tell you who this unknown God is.

He talks to them about how they don't, they what he says in verse 23, what therefore you worship as unknown, I proclaim to you.

See, they are worshiping a thing.

Paul wanted them to know who.

We hear that today a lot.

As long as I have faith, I'll be okay.

Well, if you got in faith in anything other than Jesus, you are not going to be okay.

Scripture tells us Jesus is the way.

What Paul wanted them to see is it wasn't about how religious they can be.

Listen, it's not about how many times you can come to church.

It's not about how many years you've taught Sunday school.

It's not about how many, how much money you put in the offering place.

It's not about how religious you are.

What Paul is telling them is they need to worship this unknown God.

They need to know him.

So then in the next few verses, he introduces God to them.

Tells them first that God was, God is the creator.

Verse 24, the God who made the world and everything in it.

He is the creator.

He spoke it into being.

He said, Let there be light, and there was light.

He made the world and he made everything in it.

And to emphasize that point, he goes on and he says, He does not live in temples made by man.

See, this creator God, he is bigger than.

If you look back at 1 Kings chapter 8, verse 27, Solomon, when he is dedicating the temple, this great temple that Solomon built, the temple that Israel has always strove to get back to.

1 Kings 8:27

In 1 Kings 8 27, he said, But God will in but will God indeed dwell on the earth?

Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you.

How much less this house that I have built.

God is bigger.

He is bigger than all creation.

And how do we know that?

Because he made all creation.

Even Stephen said it in Acts when he was proclaiming the truth right before he was stoned.

He quoted Isaiah in Acts chapter 7, verses 48 and 50.

Acts 7:48

Stephen says, Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.

What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord?

Or what is the place of my rest?

Did not my hand make all of these things?

The earth, the heaven is his throne.

It's good enough for him to sit on.

But he is so much bigger.

Paul is pointing to the Athenians and saying, Listen, you're worshiping something unknown.

You're just trying to figure it out.

If there is an unknown, let me tell you this unknown.

He is the creator of the earth.

Not only is he creator, but he is providential on the earth.

He goes on in verse 25.

He says, Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives all to mankind life and breath and everything.

God is providential over everything.

He doesn't need us.

Paul says, What who do we think we are to think that God, the creator of everything, needs us?

He gives to us.

We don't give to him.

He gives to us.

He gives us life.

He gives us breath.

He gives us the desire to worship him.

He gives us what we need.

He gives us everything.

He is providential.

He is providential over mankind and how we live.

He says he gives us life and breath and everything.

He is providential over every nation.

Look at verse 26 when he says, and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth.

From one man, everybody.

And here's what's amazing about that.

When I first read that, who do you think?

Adam.

God's done this twice.

Adam and Noah.

Destroyed the earth.

Who was left?

Noah.

God is so amazing and so great and so providentially working that he has done this twice, that he has created every nation from one man.

And he is providential over history.

It says, He got Paul goes on to say, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.

God allotted the rule of every nation.

At that point, Rome was in control of the world.

Do you know why?

Because God allotted the time.

Greece had been over the world.

Do you know why?

God let them.

Persia.

Media.

You go through and name all the world.

And even today, the nations that are in control, the reason that they are working, the reason that nations have their boundaries and their borders and their people is because God has allotted that time.

He is working providentially.

And he deserves to be worshipped.

He says in verse 27 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.

And then Paul quotes two secular people in his sermon.

He quotes two secular people to make his point.

Do you know why?

Because God was providential in their Writing, even if they didn't know it.

Paul says that look, we we strive after God.

You are striving after God to maybe find him, but the problem is that in the depravity of their minds and in the depravity of our minds, we will never find him until he reveals himself to us.

We are seeking, we need a savior.

And it is God.

It is Jesus.

And we should worship him.

He goes on and says, 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 act of the imagination of man.

You know the greatest problem with an idol is this.

Anytime we make something using our imaginations and our talents and abilities, anytime we make something to worship, it lessens God because He is greater than anything we can imagine.

He is greater than anything that we can build.

The worship of idols that they had there was was so lessening who God is.

And anytime we allow anything to take the place of God in our lives and we worship those things, we are lessening who God is because He is deserving of all of our worship.

Finally, this morning, He is just.

He is a just God.

He says, 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 appointed.

And of this He has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

God is a just God, and He has looked over this ignorance of not knowing who He was, but no longer is He going to look over that ignorance because Jesus came.

Jesus walked upon this earth.

Jesus died upon the cross.

Jesus arose from the grave and he came so that we may have life and have it to the full when we trust, when we place our faith in him, when we believe in him through faith and repentance.

When we do that, he saves us.

The time of ignorance is no longer because Jesus has come and he is going to come back and he is going to justly judge the world of righteousness.

And if we are standing in our own righteousness, we are going to be condemned.

We must stand in the righteousness of Jesus Christ that he places on us when we believe in him.

Any other righteousness will fade in comparison and we will be guilty.

But God is going to come and he is going to justly judge the world and we can know that because Jesus arose and he is alive.

And because he is alive today, we can trust the promise that he is coming back to judge the world.

We must believe in him.

You see three responses then from the people who were there.

Says some of them, when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, they mocked Paul.

They mocked him.

Especially the Epicureans.

Like they believe you're dead, you're dead, that you would come back.

What in the world?

You must be a babbler.

What are you saying?

This can't be right.

But hear me, you better be careful mocking the resurrection, and people do today.

Let me tell you why.

Over 2,000 years, some have mocked the resurrection.

But there have been people who have proclaimed it so much that they have died for it.

People have tried to extinguish the fact that Jesus arose from the grave.

But for 2,000 years they have been unable to, and people continue to believe in God.

You better not mock the resurrection because it is truth.

Some mocked.

Some became interested.

They said, we will hear more of this.

But hear me.

Interest is not believing.

Just to want to know more is not believing.

To say, hey, Jesus was a good person.

I would like to hear about his teachings, fine, but it is not believing.

And when he returns to judge the world, you are going to stand condemned.

But some, some believed.

They followed Paul.

My challenge to you today is believe.

Know him.

And let me tell you what faith looks like real quickly.

See, the people at the Areopagus, they had this altar to an unknown God just in case.

They're trying to cover all their bases.

Well, I'll do some of this and some of this and some of this and some of this.

And I may be missing one of these gods, so just let me put him out here so so I won't miss one of them.

That's not faith.

True belief and faith.

He's putting everything everything in the hands of Jesus and trusting him.

So where does that leave us today?

It leaves us in one of two places.

The first question that we got to answer is do you know him?

Do you know him?

Have you believed in him?

In just a moment, we're gonna sing a stand and sing a hymn of invitation, and we're gonna give you, we invite you to come if you don't.

We would love to share with you how you can trust in Christ and know him today.

If you do, the second question is is is this are you making him known?

But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses.

Are you a witness to the kingdom of God and what he has done?

If you're not, we invite you to come this morning.

Maybe you need to repent of that.

There's the steps that you can kneel down and pray.

We would love to pray with you, or just right from your seat, you can do that.

The challenge for us today is twofold.

Know him.

If you don't, let today be the day you begin that relationship.

Second is this make him know.

Let's pray together.

God, you are so good to us and we love you.

We thank you for how you love us.

We thank you for all you've done for us.

God, we thank you that you created the world and everything in it, that you have providentially been working throughout all of history.

What Paul tells us in Ephesians, even before the foundations of the world, you have been at work for our good so that we can be in a relationship with you and know you.

God, I pray for those who are here this morning who have never trusted you that today may be the day of salvation.

God, I pray for the rest of us.

That as we know you, we will now make you known.

Help us.

Jesus is in your name that we pray.

Amen.

Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.

If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at DeSotoHills.com.