The Unknown God (Make Him Known)

LIVE@5 – Thursday, July 14, 2022

Acts 17:22–34 (NKJV)

22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 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: 24 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. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Acts 17:22-34

Paul dove right into the philosophical debates with an immediate discussion of their catch-all designation of “The Unknown God.” Paul cleverly identified this “god” as the only true God, the one Who created the world and brought men into it through His actions. He pointed them to the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead, and was to be the righteous judge. Some of them mocked, some of them wanted to hear more, some of them believed. The important thing about this story is that there are many people searching for a concept or a being they would call God, but that concept of being is a mystery to them. Their self-made gods are not fulfilling, and they create many news one in hopes of striking the right chord, but the creation of a god is futile. When a philosophical groups of intellectuals feels the need to erect a shrine “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD,” you know that the search is ongoing. However, we have the answer, the solution, to all of man’s problems and the destination of their search in the One True God, Jesus Christ. Be sure you don’t miss an opportunity to speak to people in their moment of crisis, when they cannot seem to find Him, and introduce them to the unknown God. Our job is to make Him known!

Artwork from https://shofardurbanville.wordpress.com/tag/acts-1722-31/