{"id":526,"date":"2017-06-18T15:26:06","date_gmt":"2017-06-18T15:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/?post_type=ctc_sermon&p=526"},"modified":"2017-07-07T15:28:24","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T15:28:24","slug":"20-to-the-unknown-god","status":"publish","type":"ctc_sermon","link":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/sermons\/20-to-the-unknown-god\/","title":{"rendered":"20 To the Unknown God"},"content":{"rendered":"

To the Unknown God<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Acts 17:16-34<\/strong><\/p>\n

The City of Athens, a City Produced By Man\u2019s Wisdom<\/strong><\/p>\n

Athens was the cradle of democracy<\/p>\n

Out of respect for Athens\u2019s past, the Romans left Athens a free city, free to follow its own rules and goals.<\/p>\n

It was an ancient city of knowledge.<\/p>\n

Homer wrote the Iliad and Odyssey about the time of King David.<\/p>\n

Herodotus, the father of history, wrote his books about the time of Malachi<\/p>\n

Athens gave civilized man his working vocabulary in every field of knowledge<\/p>\n

Athens was famous for mathematics, laying down its principles, terminology and methods.<\/p>\n

Philosophy was a Greek invention<\/p>\n

Our Western thoughts and ideas came from Athens<\/p>\n

Greeks pioneered in political science: law, liberty, democracy and parliament all came from Greece.<\/p>\n

Above, all Greece was spiritually bankrupt. Their gods were as fallen and sinful as man was. Since the gods had no morals, why should the people<\/p>\n

God allowed Athens to run its course, it showed what human wisdom can produce and showed that human knowledge and intellectualism are not only incapable of finding God, but wonder further and further away from God.<\/p>\n

As Paul walked into Athens he would see the wondrous Acropolis, where many parts of architecture were invented just to make this building. Inside the Acropolis stood a pantheon of marble gods. Down the hill to the west was the Agora, the famous Athenian marketplace where the people meet and mingled together. To the west on another hill stood Mars Hill where stood the judicial body of the Areopagus<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s Spirit was stirred \u201cWhere is God?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Paul\u2019s method was, he first went to the Jewish synagogue, with little results<\/p>\n

Then he moved his preaching to the Agora, the marketplace.<\/p>\n

While there several groups of people meet him, in order to set him straight<\/p>\n

Epicureans \u2013 had the philosophy that in order to achieve peace, you must indulge your senses, live for the now<\/p>\n

Stoics \u2013 believed that people should live above passions and emotions. Indifference was the key of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cEncountered\u201d carries the idea they were going to set Paul right<\/p>\n

\u201cStrange gods\u201d uses the word we translate into devils. They called Jesus a devil and a false God<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s Proclamation of the True God<\/strong><\/p>\n

Inside the Acropolis there was a place for every god the Greeks could think of. There was one set aside called the Unknown God incase they missed one of the gods.<\/p>\n

Paul had to start at the beginning; we must go from the known to the unknown. Paul started at creation:<\/p>\n

God created the World<\/p>\n

God doesn\u2019t need what man can do<\/p>\n

God made every man<\/p>\n

God appointed where man would live<\/p>\n

God desires to be found<\/p>\n

God doesn\u2019t dwell in building or idols<\/p>\n

God demands everyone repent of their sins and their human efforts<\/p>\n

God will judge every man<\/p>\n

There were some changes, but for the most part the Athenians did not want what God could do. They were satisfied with their own efforts.<\/p>\n

There was not a church in Athens for another 400 years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To the Unknown God Acts 17:16-34 The City of Athens, a City Produced By Man\u2019s Wisdom Athens was the cradle of democracy Out of respect for Athens\u2019s past, the Romans left Athens a free city, free to follow its own rules and goals. It was an ancient city of knowledge. Homer wrote the Iliad and Odyssey about the time of King David. Herodotus, the father of history, wrote his books about the time of Malachi Athens gave civilized man his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","ctc_sermon_topic":[16,55],"ctc_sermon_book":[2],"ctc_sermon_series":[89],"ctc_sermon_speaker":[12],"ctc_sermon_tag":[],"class_list":["post-526","ctc_sermon","type-ctc_sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ctc_sermon_topic-bible-history","ctc_sermon_topic-soul-winning","ctc_sermon_book-acts","ctc_sermon_series-life-of-apostle-paul","ctc_sermon_speaker-scotty-backhaus","ctfw-has-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ctc_sermon"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":527,"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon\/526\/revisions\/527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_topic?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_book?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_series?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_speaker?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"ctc_sermon_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brnsermons.com\/scottybackhaus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ctc_sermon_tag?post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}