Acts 17:22-34 part 2
March 16, 2003
God’s Judgment
The day of reckoning is fast approaching. A day, unknown to us, but to those in authority, that justice will be leveled against all those who dare to flaunt their rebellion against the mightiest power the world has ever seen. Councils meet and discuss, deliberate and delay, but no president or prime minister has the right to stop what must be done.
Now while you may be surprised that I would be so political, using the pulpit to purport my views, you must understand that the judgment day of which I speak is not what is on the minds of many people throughout the world. I am not talking about the U.N. Resolution 1441 and Saddam Hussein. Rather the judgment against a rebellious people is the judgment which is waiting all the world. The greatest superpower is not the drop in the bucket of the United States of America, but the One True Sovereign of the universe, the Lord God Almighty.
The tyranny of sin, the rebellion of creation far exceeds any real or imagined threat by any Islamic terror network or Middle Eastern despot. While world leaders strategize how to ensure peace in our world, how to best be rid of threats of terror and war, we must never forget that of far greater concern should be not the possible outbreak of war in the Middle East, but of the greater cataclysm of the final judgment. All earthly battles are but mere shadows of what is to come. No matter what your view may be as to the wisdom of first strike nor where you stand on the rhetoric from Baghdad or Washington, this morning not one of us should forget that God will judge the world.
Our passage is found in Acts 17. Paul stands before the Areopagus, an astute assembly of erudite philosophers in Athens. Paul is stranded in Athens as Silas and Timothy conclude their work to the north in Berea. While waiting for his friends, he notices how religion permeates Athens. But the worship in this city known for its great intellect admits a fatal flaw, they do not have a corner on the market of truth. While Paul becomes overwhelmed by the pervasive idolatry of this city, its leading thinkers request of him an explanation of what it is that he believes. Paul obliges their request and addresses these Stoic and Epicurean scholars by explaining to them what it is that he believes. READ Acts 17:22-34
Last week we began our analysis of this passage, seeing how Paul perceived the need of his audience. For all their learning, they still professed spiritual ignorance. While they accused Paul of introducing foreign deities to their city, Paul points out that they themselves do not even know the names of all the gods. While strolling the city he saw an altar to an unknown god. Using that altar as an expression of their spiritual ignorance he then launches into an explanation of who the God of the Universe really is. As Paul, having perceived the need, he then points to the problem. The words he uses were familiar to his audience as makes use of the words and images of their own poets and philosophers. In this sermon, rather than quoting extensively from the Scriptures, he couches biblical issues in culturally accessible phrases. For the most part the Stoics and even some of the Epicureans would agree with what he said. But now, toward the end of his message, he departs from general revelation, what may be universally held by all people, and focuses in on is unique about biblical Christianity. What distinguishes him from the rest now becomes clear and very important.
Having perceived the need and pointed to the problem, he now pricks the conscience and proclaims the gospel.
Prick the Conscience 17:29-30
Up to this point Paul established that God cares for his creation by providing for its needs. We exist not because God needs us to serve Him, but we need Him for everything. All God has given us has been given to us that we might seek him. Seeking out God is not hard, for God is not a distant, elusive deity. Our seeking God is not an internal searching, for God does not exist within us, but we exist in God. God is not found in the creation of our hands or minds, but only as he has revealed himself to us.
Up to this point, Paul makes clear three truths:
- God alone is self sufficient. He does not need us.
- God is sovereign over all nations and dictates even their boundaries and power.
- God created us to search for meaning outside the created world
With this in mind, what should we do? How should we think? What should be our response?
As Paul draws to conclusion his sermon, he returns to his starting point – their ignorance.
The Athenians acknowledge in their altar inscription that they are ignorant of God. That ignorance is culpable. One can hardly imagine a greater insult to these Greek sages. Ignorance was the greatest sin imaginable, but as they themselves admitted their ignorance.
Paul points out that such ignorance can not be maintained. They must change the way they think. For centuries God has overlooked such ignorance. God’s grace is seen in his patience, keeping his wrath in check. But that patience will not remain forever.
That same ignorance that permeated the most insightful culture the world had ever seen, fills the minds of people still today.
We consider ourselves to be enlightened people, well educated, free from the superstitions which have plagued our ancestors or less fortunate nations around the world. But any society which does not comprehend their need for a savior, which does not recognize the universal need to seek God, is the oblivious, dead-headed and in need of change.
Paul says this in Ephesians 4:17-20 as he reminds believers of their prior estate. The problem is both heart and mind, two areas of our humanity we can never separate. We don’t just need more facts about God, nor will just a warm, formless stir be any better. Our hearts and our minds must be changed. A radical transformation must take place.
This change comes not by personal effort or achievement, but solely by God’s grace. Paul knows this is true of himself. He admits his own ignorance that was radically removed by God’s work within his own heart. (read 1 Timothy 1:13-16)
In order to explain the gospel to someone else, you must know your own standing. Like Paul are you willing to admit your ignorance and God’s patience toward you? Far too often Christian portray themselves as the Saviors, using Jesus as merely the mechanism by which they can then show the world how to live rightly.
In light of this ignorance, God demands repentance.
Repentance, metanoia means an inner change of heart
It means turning away from sin and unbelief, with their guilt and pollution, and turning to Christ, in faith and for his righteousness. When we talk about a change in life, there must be a turning from and a turning to. Faith and repentance are two sides of one coin, both make up what it means to believe. You cannot repent and not believe. You cannot truly believe and not repent.
The Athenians were not told to ask Jesus into their hearts, or to pray a sinner’s prayer and on that basis given a so called assurance that they were thereby right with God and saved from a lost eternity. No. Paul told them to change their ways – body and soul, heart and hand – and commit themselves in repentance to the Lord. A naked assent to truths about Jesus, or even a sincere feeling that Jesus is your Savior without repentance and a commitment to doing the will of the Lord, is half a conversion and may well be no conversion at all. The cost of discipleship is unconditional surrender. We are certainly justified by faith alone, but not that faith which is alone. (Keddie, You Are My Witnesses, 213-14)
When life and lip do not match, an incongruity exists. In his novel, A Painted House, John Grisham describes a Sunday school teacher eulogizing a mean character named Jerry Sisco, who had been killed the night before in a back alley fight after he picked on one person too many. In the words of the little boy who had seen the fight with his friend Dewayne:
"She made Jerry sound like a Christian, and an innocent victim. I glanced at Dewayne, who had one eye on me. There was something odd about this. As Baptists, we'd been taught from the cradle that the only way you made it to heaven was by believing in Jesus and trying to follow his example in living a clean and moral Christian life… And anyone who did not accept Jesus and live a Christian life simply went to hell. That's where Jerry Sisco was, and we all knew it." (John Grisham, A Painted House, pp. 85-86)
A complete change is necessary. At first, this command by God to repent will be frightening. But it is very good news that our chief problem is sin, because with sin, there's a way out. You can't repent of confusion or psychological flaws inflicted by your parents—you're stuck with them. But you can repent of sin. Sin and repentance are the only grounds for hope and joy.
Once the conscience is pricked, then the gospel can be proclaimed.
Proclaim the Gospel 17:31
God’s judgment is certain
There is a cloud of anxiety hanging over our heads, and no doubt, in Baghdad a pervasive sense of dread, wondering if and when the bombs will drop. Yet with human plans, nothing is certain. What we think is inevitable, may or may not happen. But with God, no U.N. backing is necessary, no renegotiations possible. Were Hussein to completely comply with all demands judgment would be diverted. But with you and I, there is nothing we can do to put off the inevitable. The day is certain.
On the back license plate of our cars we bear a year and month sticker verifying that we have complied with state laws regarding our car’s registration. Every other year, we must get our car’s emissions tested to receive our next sticker. There have been times when I was too busy to get the test done or I forget to send in the form. My car’s sticker reaches expiration. During those first few days of the month after my sticker has expired, I may drive past an officer and they may well let me go…giving me a period of grace even though I am in violation of the law. But that grace will not extend indefinitely. There comes a time when judgment is certain. Fortunately, I have never tested the extend of their grace. Even more I should not so test God’s grace.
God’s judgment is right
What does it mean to say that God will judge the world in righteousness?
You may agree or disagree with the stand Bush takes on Iraq. Without getting into the politics of the moment we can all see the possibility of pursuing judgment of those we dislike but doing so unjustly. God’s judgment though will never be ill-informed. No one will be able to say on the last day: “But that’s not fair!”
God does not need more information, because of Adam we are guilty and due to our own sin
While many in the world want more evidence of Iraqi’s guilt or innocence, with God’s final judgment, all the information will be gathered and the verdict will be certain. The means by which God will determine our guilt is simply whether we have violated God’s perfect laws. Since God does not grade on a curve – we all recognize that we our guilty.
God’s judgment is personal
By a man whom he has appointed … this tells us that God’s judgment is not a machine, not a computer program into which certain data is feed and outcomes our guilty verdict.
Here we see a glimmer of hope. If the greatest minds could not correctly find God in their groping, if repentance is commanded, but perfection is impossible – what hope is there for us? We begin to uncover it when we are told that there is a man appointed for the job.
A man? Why does Paul not say “God”? For judgment will be done by the perfect God-man, the only one in the universe who has been tempted as we, who knows what it means to live a perfect life. Not only will we be judged by one with perfect standards, but one who has personally met those standards himself … and succeeded. It is here we find hope!
The key then is not whether you or I have the right answers, but we know the right person.
In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, as King Arthur and his knights seek the Holy Grail, they come to a bridge that spans an abyss of eternal peril. A bridge keeper allows people to cross this bridge only if they can answer three questions. Get one wrong, and you're tossed into the pit.
Lancelot is the first tested. The keeper asks him, "What is your name?" Lancelot answers.
"What is your quest?" Lancelot answers, "To seek the Holy Grail."
"What is your favorite color?" "Blue."
"Right," says the bridge keeper, "off you go." Lancelot crosses amazed this was so easy.
The second knight similarly states his name and quest. But the third question is now, "What is the capital of Assyria?" "I don't know that."
The knight is hurled, screaming, into the abyss.
The 3rd knight, Sir Galahad, is nervous as he's asked his name & quest, but answers correctly.
"What is your favorite color?"
Sir Galahad panics. "Blue...no, yellow--Aaahhh," he screams as he is hurled into the pit.
Finally, the king steps up. "What is your name?" "Arthur, King of the Britains."
"What is your quest?" "To seek the Holy Grail."
"What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?"
"What do you mean," asks Arthur, "an African or European swallow?"
"What? I don't know that," answers the bridge keeper, who immediately is launched into the abyss. Arthur and his followers thereafter cross the bridge unhindered.
Many people's idea of the gospel is that some day we'll get to the bridge to paradise and be asked, "Why should you be allowed to cross?" As long as we answer correctly, we make it across. Answer wrongly, and we're cast into the abyss. The gospel is redefined to be the announcement of the minimal entrance requirements for getting into heaven....
Jesus never said, "Now I'm going to tell you what you need to say to get into heaven when you die." Jesus' good news is we no longer have to live in the guilt, failure, and impotence of our own strength. We can stand in the final judgment not based on our own knowledge, our own wisdom. Rather the one who will judge has stood for us and proof of his right to judge is also the evidence that we can be accepted is based in the resurrection.
The question comes then not what you know, but whom do you know? The response of the crowd in Athens is very much like responses we see still today.
Respond in Faith 17:32-34
Up to this point, the crowd was with Paul. According to their own teachings, they all agreed that the temples and shrines which dotted the city were folly, superstitious relics of an ancient past. Regarding the final judgment, the Epicureans would have disagreed, but the Stoics believed in a judgment. Yet, the one point that all Greeks would scoff at was the idea of a resurrection.
According to Aeschylus, at the inauguration of the court of the Areopagus, the god Apollo said:
“Once a man dies and the earth drinks up his blood, there is no resurrection.”
For Greeks, debate may be had over life after death, but no intelligent person would ever confess faith in a bodily resurrection. Yet Paul did not shy away from this foundational truth of the Christian faith. We will all be raised from the dead and be judged on the last day. The resurrection of the dead is our great joy, but for others their jest.
While some mocked, others responded with jaded curiosity: “Come again and we’ll talk later.”
Yet, despite the fact that what Paul said flew in the face of the culture, God’s grace was nevertheless at work in the lives of some. Even one of his own judges, Dioynsius responded in faith as did a woman Damaris.
That judgment is coming brings with it a frightening element, but there is in the belief of a final judgment a denial of human insignificance. We matter enough to God that he will determine whether we are accepted by him or not. The choices we have made in life will be examined. Only people who matter have to answer for their actions. But be careful not to overlook God’s solution to our problem, foolishly imagining that only we can solve our own problem.
Mensa is an organization whose members have an IQ of 140 or higher. A few years ago, there was a Mensa convention in San Francisco, and several members lunched at a local café. While dining, they discovered that their saltshaker contained pepper and their peppershaker was full of salt. How could they swap the contents of the bottles without spilling, and using only the implements at hand? Clearly this was a job for Mensa! The group debated and presented ideas, and finally came up with a brilliant solution involving a napkin, a straw, and an empty saucer. They called the waitress over to dazzle her with their solution.
"Ma'am," they said, "we couldn't help but notice that the peppershaker contains salt and the saltshaker—" "Oh," the waitress interrupted. "Sorry about that." She unscrewed the caps of both bottles and switched them.
The answer is not that difficult. The one who will judge is one who has been judged already. The sinful contents of our lives can be exchanged for the perfection of his life. It is a simple switch. Are you trusting in your own righteousness to stand before God or do you look to the man, Christ Jesus, who has stood in your place, before whom you must stand at the last day?
