Tim Sensing, DMin, PhD, Professor of Ministry and Homiletics, Director of Academic Services for the GST
The following sketch concludes my series of sermons: The Gospel of God for the World of God
Acts 17:16-34
1. Some cities evoke particular ideas and images. Just down the road, Nashville is known for Country Music. Nashville is also known as the Athens of the South. Athens-culture, architecture, education—as a city, Athens is a museum of grandeur of Greek culture and philosophy. Paul notes two such philosophical groups:
- Epicureans: 300 BC, and for them sense perception was the only basis for knowledge. What you could see, handle, taste, smell, and hear.
- The Stoics emphasized moral conduct. An immoral life comes from the lack of judgment and discernment. The only way to control life was to control passion and emotions. The way you controlled your emotions was through logic and unbiased thinking.
2. Yet, Paul is able to describe in six verses (16-21) the culture around him.
- Paul’s situation in Athens was negative. The city was full of idols and philosophies and Paul’s spirit was provoked/stirred (v. 16). He was agitated.
- And yet, notice how positive Paul sounds when he takes the opportunity to talk. He commends the Athenians as “very religious” (vs. 22-28). Paul compliments their literature by citing their own poets. “We are God’s offspring.” From that truth, Paul connects the Gospel to you and me.
- God created in our hearts three universal needs that all humans have that can only be met by the Gospel of God.
- Significance—we all want to be needed. We want our lives to count.
- Community—we were created to live in community.
- Transcendence/immanence—we all want to know that there is something out there bigger than us. And this is the place that Paul connects to the Athenians. “We are God’s offspring.” Therefore, we know that there is a Divine Force out there that calls us into relationship.
- For God intended that through our co-participation in the rhythm of creation, work and rest, the beauty of creation would flourish. From Genesis to Revelation, the one true God who created all humankind from one person is now reuniting all throughout the earth in one people of God. God is working to unite all people in Christ, crossing national and language boundaries, social and economic barriers, political ideologies, and ethnic distinctions.
3. And Paul proclaims that God offers you significance, transcendence, and community. God is creator, God is independent, God is the source of all, God is close yet far off, God is our father. Paul begins with the Athenian’s understandings and longings for transcendence in order to introduce them to the God of Jesus Christ. Because creation shows God’s fingerprints, humans seek God. As their own poets said, “we are God’s offspring.”
- In creation, God is not inert but dynamic, vibrant, and full of promise. God created beauty, delight, goodness, and truth that are full of potential. Although sin has marred creation, God’s image is still imprinted and the possibility of goodness is vibrant.
- Gives us a model for evangelism…The Gospel of God preaches even in a secular culture. God’s Gospel proclaims that the Creator seeks relationship with the creation.
4. Paul’s Conclusion in Acts 17 (29-34): This is the Gospel of God!
- Since humans are God’s offspring, then God is not of human making. God is God, and you or anything you make is not.
- God calls all people to repentance.
- Judgment with justice will come by the one God appointed.
- God gave proof of this by raising Jesus from the dead.
God desires to be relationship with you. God provides you significance, community, and transcendence.