Sermon: Acts 17:16-34; "The Unknown God"
Date: July 3, 2016
Pastor: Michael Howard


Scriptures: Acts 17:16-34

16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly
distressed to see that the city was full of idols.
17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and
God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day
with those who happened to be there.
18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate
with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to
say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.”
They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about
Jesus and the resurrection.
19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the
Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new
teaching is that you are presenting?
20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would
like to know what they mean.”
21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent
their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the
latest ideas.)

22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said:
“People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.
23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of
worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an
unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and
this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of
heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.
25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything.
Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the
whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and
the boundaries of their lands.
27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for
him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your
own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that
the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by
human design and skill.
30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all
people everywhere to repent.
31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by
the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by
raising him from the dead.”

32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them
sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”
33 At that, Paul left the Council.
34 Some of the people became followers of Paul and believed. Among
them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named
Damaris, and a number of others.


Cowboy Church of Ennis Texas
A Church of the Western Heritage Culture
Committed to serving people with the Good News of Jesus Christ

website: http://www.cowboychurchofennis.com