Good morning everyone and happy Mother's Day. My name is Mallalerie Wright and I serve um in high school ministry as well as the mobilization department as a trip leader to Tijana, Mexico. Today we'll be reading from Acts 17 26-28. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods in the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring. Let us pray. Lord, thank you for the gift that today is, God. Um, I pray that we would be a people who just seek after you, Lord. That you would soften our hearts, God, and draw us closer to you. Um, I pray that we would find you, Lord, in our pursuit, God, and that we would find that you're much closer than we thought, Lord. I pray for Greg that you would be with him, Lord. That you would bless him, Lord. I pray that you would fill him with your presence, God. Um, and that you would just let all his words glorify you. In your name I pray. Amen. Well, good morning. Glad you are here today. Uh if you're just joining us here at Fellowship Church. My name is Greg Fner. Uh I am the teaching pastor here at Fellowship. We are in the book of Acts today. We'll be looking at Acts 17 verse 16 and following. Uh the groan you heard uh when I walked out on Mother's Day is normal at this time of year uh if I am assigned Mother's Day. But uh you know this morning uh here we are. We got a good a solid text this morning. Uh because this is the third most visited. This is the third highest attended church day of the year. You got your Easter, you got your Christmas Eve, you got your Mother's Day. So we want to welcome those of you who are here because it's Mother's Day. Okay, it's okay. Everything's cool. We get it. We understand everything. Let me give you a little pro tip. Just amen randomly. Randomly. Just randomly say amen. And your mom is going to go. And it is a easy W. So take it. Okay. Now this is also a big See, my man is smart. Got a difference today. For those of you who are in the know, I dropped it yesterday in the morning. Let those who have ears to understand. So, Acts 17, Mars Hill. What even is Mars Hill? Well, let's start the passage in verse 17. Acts 16, uh, 17:16. Now, while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, pause. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, uh Athens, of course, is in Greece and it is one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire. In fact, it's shocking that there is not a letter uh in the New Testament to Athens. You've got one to Rome, you've got one to Colasi, you got one to Corinth in Ephesus. These are all major cities. It's the New York, Chicago, the LA, right? Uh but Athens is the largest city in the Roman Empire that doesn't get a letter. And it is radically and I cannot import this enough. It is radically important city in the Roman Empire and in human history. In fact, no city ever has had more impact on the world than 4th century BC Athens. 4th century BC Athens has had more impact in the world than any other city through human history. This is the era of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. This is where the foundations of Western Civ are built. And Athens has continued that academic prowess into the time of Jesus. It is considered the place of place to come study and learn. Athens, Alexandria, these are the crown intellectual jewels of the Roman Empire. So uh it was so prestigious that the Roman Empire gave Athens a extremely rare as in the only one honor of becoming its own city state. So the Roman Empire basically said, "Athens, you do you. We don't want to screw up what you're doing there." This is where the highest philosophers in the Roman Empire would come to discuss ideas and hone them and build out so much of the philosophy that empire that has influenced the entire world uh including the eastern part of the world. Uh it is a critical critical place. So Paul is in Athens and right then you should go okay wow right this is uh the prophet of the time in God's kingdom uh among the highest thinkers of the paganism that was the Greek and Roman pantheons and it is the this is the clash of the titans if you will ideologically when Paul goes into Athens uh and is there So understand the scale. You and I read it and we kind of go, "Oh, Athens. I've heard of that city." The readers of Acts when it was written would go, "Oh no." Like it would be like they would be ready for what was going to happen. So now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. Judaism is radically oppo opposed to idols. In fact, if you read the Old Testament, almost half of it is the new Jewish king having to tear down all the idols that the bad Jewish king just built. They detest idols. It's, you know, one of the highest of the Ten Commandments. Do not have idols. So, Christian Paul still informed by his Judaism and the moral law of God, which is don't worship any other god besides me, goes so far in the New Testament to tell us what idols actually are. They are, and Paul, this is Paul's exact quote, the doctrines of demons. As in, the worship of an idol is the worship of a demonic power in the world. Do we worship idols? Oh yeah. John Calvin wrote that the human heart is an idol factory. Meaning we will find anything to worship anything to worship besides God. Pleasure, power, success, status. You don't build a statue to Aphrodite and love. You don't build a statue to Athena and business success. But you worship it and I worship it. No difference. Zero difference. Just no cool statue, right? Uh you could say the icon that you worship is the app on the phone where you check your balance, right? So this is not far removed from us. And so of course the Holy Spirit pricks Paul's heart to say, you are in the central place of the worship of idols. It's time for the true God to announce himself. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons. This is how Paul always did. He'd go into a city and he'd find the Jews and he would begin to argue with them from the Jewish scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah and that Judaism had been fulfilled. Uh they would start arguing, people would listen and come in. And so he reads in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happen to be there. This is Athens pastime. No TV, no radio, no internet, no nothing. What' you do? You went out in the public square and you listen to debates and they would last hours and you would listen to them and think through who you believed was right and correct. So when he comes out and starts arguing, he's in the place of debate and some of the Epicurian and Stoic philosophers who conversed with him. All right. Uh Epicurans and Stoics really important. I can't go into the enough detail that I should this morning uh to understand the Epicurans and the Stoics, but we are still having the argument between the Epicurans and Stoics today. In fact, after a long period of not really having the argument, it has come roared back to life in the 60s and now we are full-blown swing picking aside. Epicurion or stoic. So, uh what are the differences? Epicurans, if you you go I've heard that word before, it means someone who loves food. Uh and that's what it's become to me. But it's actually a school of philosophy whose central point is truth and goodness is the pursuit of pleasure. Pursuing your pleasure is the highest good. Sound familiar? That's the Epicurans. Now to be fair to this era's Epicurans, not us biblical ones. Epicurius taught the highest pleasure was a life free from war and free from coveting. So he would say live simply and live at peace. This is the highest pleasure there is. Of course it's been twisted to where now my truth, my feelings, my right, what I want, what fulfills me is the highest good of our society in many segments and it is pursued with a passion. Uh the stoics on the other hand their name gives it away. Stoics are discipline, discipline before pleasure, right? Uh their four virtues are self-discipline, courage, virtue, goodness, and justice. uh a historian a renowned historian uh in writing the history he wrote an epic work his name is Will Durant who wrote this epic work called the story of civilization said all societies all societies ever in the history of the world rise stoic discipline honor goodness virtue and they fall at peicurion pleasure above all things every single one of them uh we're watching ing right now as a battle as Epicuranism has won and one of the so-called vibe shifts in our world right now is the reising of Stoic philosophy. Uh if you're on the interwebs looking at memes and stuff, you'll begin if you if you if you're on TikTok or whatever, see lots of quotes from Marcus Aurelius, who is one of the best of the Stoic philosophers. This war is battling on. The biblical writers of the time are the people of their time. And so guess what? The Bible is filled with stoic philosophy, little sayings, little principles that especially Paul weaves into his writings, especially to cities that are in the Roman Empire of whom this would very much be the how they thought. And he uses stoic philosophy to smuggle in the gospel. You see, not saying he embraces the stoic philosophy. It's that it lines up with the ideas of the Bible the most, right? That you are to be self-discipline. That's one of the fruits of the spirit. By the way, self-discipline is not a gift or talent. It's one of the fruits of the spirit. Morality, justice, goodness, these kind of things. You can see how it ties into the biblical message. And that's what we're going to watch Paul do is tie in to Stoic philosophers. even quotes a Roman poet. Right? So, right there, I want to say when I make movie quotes up here, I got it from Paul in the Bible. Boom. It's going to be my favorite service of all time. This is going to be the best one we've ever done. So the Epicurian stoic philosophers also converse with him and some said what does this babbler wish to say? Uh this word in Greek literally means uh gathering the when birds pick up seeds from the ground. That's what it means literally. It means it has no consequence. It means nothing. A speaker of nothingness, right? Uh it literally means a speaker of seeds is what the actual Greek word is. Um what does this babbler wish to say? And others said he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. Romans did not believe in resurrection whatsoever. They believed in the eternality of the soul. Hades Greek mythology, right? But they did not believe in resurrection. So when Paul's talking about resurrection, uh they're kind of freaking out. And they took him and brought him to the uh the Aropagus and saying uh may we know this new teaching uh what this new teaching is that you are are presenting for you are bring some strange ideas to our ears and we wish to know therefore what these things mean. Now remember how they called him uh wait come on come on come on when they called him a babbler right when they called him this babbler uh this speaker of nothing. And this next one says we wish to know what these things mean. Now the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except or hearing something new. So what he's basically said is they thought he was speaking nothing but they were actually doing nothing by listening to wrong doctrines and ideas. Do you see the just position? So Paul comes in where people love new philosophies. They love new ideas. And he's about to walk in and go just like your idols your ideas are nothing because there's only one God. And if there is one God, then everything not of that one God is nothing. You see, uh CS Lewis had a great way of putting things when he said, "Jesus means everything or he means nothing." And there's no in between. There's no partial Christian life. Everything or nothing. He's God in h in humanity or he's a madman or a liar. He's either or. He cannot be just right. That's the idea. And so Paul stands up uh and this is in verse 22. So Paul standing in the midst of the Aropagus. All right. Mars Hill. This is the Aropagus. Uh it's called Mars. Mars Hill in Athens. There's a mountain. Well, a hill. Uh, and on top of it, Greek mythology and Roman mythology, by the way, the Greek pantheon and the Roman pantheon become the same thing. In Greek, the god of war is Aries. In Latin, in the Roman pantheon, the god of war is Mars. Uh, and in Greek mythology, allegedly Aries, the god of war, was put on trial on top of this hill for murdering uh one of the other gods kids. I don't remember at all. Anyway, that's why it's called Mars Hill because they held this is where the god of war was put on trial. And it is so so fascinating that this is a place where they thought this is where the gods debated whether or not this god was good or not. And then Paul walks in. Do you see the the irony of it? Uh this is it today. You can kind of see uh this picture of what's left of it. You can see the individual buildings. Each one of those was a temple to a different god. And in the middle of it, there was a debate grounds. So they have each little there. Here's Zeus's temple. Here's Athena's temple, if I'm using the Latin one, Jupiter, right? Diana, all these other gods. And in the middle of they had a debate ground. So when Paul walks in uh and he's standing in the middle of the Aropagus, remember surrounded by pagan temples. He said, 'Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. Why? He's surrounded by these temples. Now, what's interesting is that this Greek word for religious is not the normal word you would use for religion the way we think of it. It's actually closer to our word superstitious than it is religious. Now it can mean religious but it has this tinge of superstition rather than actual religion because remember Christian Paul is the only religious person in the room or the nonroom the place with stuff the junk that place Paul's the only one there who who knows a true the true religion of Jesus Christ but he presents this. Now remember Paul is raised in a very important academic city named Tarsus. Is it Athens? No. Is it Alexandria? No. But Tarsus is a very important school. Like if you want to say Harvard, Yale, Stanford, uh you know this would be say uh Dartmouth, you know, or whatever whatever you want to say uh University of Tennessee, whatever you want to say, right? It's an important academic town, but it's not one of the big dogs. Okay? So, he's very familiar with how he grew up around scholars debating things. So, he knows how to argue in that arena. And this is very important for you and me because he contextualizes the gospel. He speaks it to them in a way they understand. Christianity in America and especially in the south made a massive error when it said we do not contextualize anything. We have to keep the gospel of the gospel and it doesn't matter if they get it or not. They have to bend to us. Not what Paul did. That whole notion is as unbiblical as it gets. In fact, Paul in other places says, "I will be all things to all people so that I might win some." Now, does this mean I want to share the gospel with people who are hooked on drugs, therefore I will get hooked on drugs? Sadly, no. That is not what it means. No, it's talking about I'm using their ideas, their language as the way to reach them. You see, I'm hijacking their ideas and telling them the gospel truths in the ways they already think. This is how I'm I'm smuggling the idea, if you will. Uh for as I passed along and observed uh the objects of your worship. Notice he doesn't say your gods. Notice he doesn't say your divinities. Notice he doesn't say your demigogs. He says the objects because that's all they are. They're statues, right? They're statues. For as I pass along and observe the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription to the unknown god. Now in Paul's day, every uh all the philosophers and everybody believe that each country had its own god. And so when the Romans take over Greece, right, or the Roman ideology takes over Greece, they say, "The king of our gods is Jupiter. You have Zeus. It's the same God. We just call him different names. So then they'd go into the next country and they'd say, "Our Lord, you know, our captain of the gods is Rah. Well, that's that's Jupiter. That's Zeus. Same thing. You following me?" And they would build this pantheon. And it's only when they hit Judaism that they go, "Well, see, Jehovah is Zeus." And the Jews would go, "We're going to riot. Let's riot." And they would riot because there's no other god, right? There's only the God. In fact, when Christians started out in the Roman Empire and became a force in the Roman Empire, when you hear about how Christians were tortured in the arena, guess why they were tortured? They were accused of atheism. Because they would say, "Those aren't really gods. There are no other gods except this god." So, they would execute them under the charge of atheism. So when he says, "For as I pass along and observe the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God, what therefore you worship as unknown, the this I will proclaim to you." Another important distinction when Paul presents them the gospel, he does not allude to it. He straight up presents it. He straight up presents it to them. Okay, so let's watch his argument play out. The God who made the world in everything in it, being the Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man. Now remember, right, where are we? We're in a place surrounded by these buildings that were built to honor these gods. He says, "Nope." Right? Nope. Does not live in temples made by man. Why is this critical? Because Paul grew up in a religion where a temple was everything. And when Paul was converted by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus, Jesus himself interrupts Paul. He realizes that temple was empty the whole time, right? The Ark of the Covenant was lost hundreds of years before. It's not in the temple. They just pretend it's there for centuries. If you don't know what the Ark of the Covenant is, I'm going to let the moms vote yes or no. All the moms say no. The moms are all heretics. That's what we've discovered. Don't amen to impress them anymore. They need to amen now. Raiders of the Lost Arc, folks. Raiders of the Lost Arc. So, uh, Paul finds out the temple he thought was the symbol of God was actually empty. And he actually learned, I spent my whole life worshiping an empty temple and I actually met the real God face to face. And let me tell you, empty buildings are pointless because empty idols are pointless. Money, power, fame, beauty, respect, honor, pleasure, empty. Not one of them. Not one of them will help you on your deathbed. Not one of them. One of my favorite statements I've ever heard. At the end of the game of chess, the pawn and the king go in the same box. Because that's what an empty religion is. That's what an empty religion is. You know what the two one of the main two idols in our world right now that are being worshiped? A donkey and an elephant. They are the gods of the universe to different portions of our society and they're empty. They are pointless compared to the one true God. He does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything. The one who makes everything doesn't need anything. He can just make it himself, right? He doesn't need human hands. He doesn't need your hands. He doesn't need your money or your influence. He just wants them. And he wants you to have the hands and the heart and the will that actually matters which is his. Right? Since he himself gives to all mankamind life and breath and everything, who is the giver of life? God alone. God alone is the giver of life. That is the only giver of life. Right? It's God. He gives us breath. He gives us everything. Your atoms are holding together today because of God's power, not because of strong nuclear force. It's because God wills it. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live. Romans thought they were better than everybody else. Just like every nationality and every ethnic identity thinks they're better than everybody else. The Athenians literally taught that the first Athenians just sprung out of the ground in Athens and they were the superior men which is why they wanted to be a city-state on their own. We can't mix with the plebs, right? We can't do that. Uh but he says we're all the same. He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth having determined and allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling places. Right? Uh this is a very bi biblical idea. God decides when a nation start. God decides when a nation ends and that's it. Just like he assigns your day of birth and the day of your death and that's it. Right? Uh you are born and God has set the day of your death. In the Bible, the language, especially in the New Testament, is things like Jesus saying, "This day your soul's required of you." Right? We cannot die until that day. We cannot be saved on that day. Nations are born and nations die. Nations cannot be destroyed until that day. Nations cannot be saved on that day. God is the weaver of this. This is very very clear biblical thing. is everywhere in the Old Testament. Here's one example from Job. He makes nations great and destroy and he destroys them. He enlarges nations, leads them away. He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the peoples uh the people of the earth and makes them wander in a trackless waste. They grope in the dark without light and he makes them stagger like a drunken man. Now remember especially this past part this last part that he makes they grope uh in the dark without life. So they're groping trying to find him. He makes them stagger like a drunken man. Remember that cuz it's going to come up here in a little bit. And he made from one uh man every nation of mankind that live on the face of the earth had determined in aotted periods of the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. What is that? That's grope. They should feel their way towards him. Now the book of Romans is very clear about this. He it says the creation itself gives testimony to the souls of men that there is a God. The only people ever the only societies ever that were non-religious are societies that were founded on human philosophies that rose in the 1800s. Atheism as a creed started in Europe. There is no group of people that are born without feeling like there's a god. There's more. There is no ancient civilization that was atheistic. None. The first official atheistic civilizations were the communists uh that rose especially the Soviet Union and then uh China. These are the first ones. Were there individuals who thought that? Sure. But not societywise. Not society-wise at all. Uh but the Romans is also very clear about it is that that knowledge can't save you. The knowledge of God, the idea of God is different than the knowledge of Jesus. Because there's going to be a lot of people showing up on this judgment day saying, "But I believe there was a God." Yes, everyone did. But did you believe in Jesus? That's the question. Perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. Even as some of your own poets have said, "For we are indeed his offspring." That is a quotation from a Roman poet named Eritus who wrote about 200 years before Paul was even born. He's quoting their own poets to them. you already believed this, right? He takes a quote about their own gods uh and uses it against them. You think that you are the children of uh God, you are his offspring. And you're right in a way. Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of men. In the same passage in Romans where it says, "Every person knows there's a God from the creation. They're without excuse. Yet they did not worship the creator. They worshiped the creation and made images of gold, silver and stone or of ideas clout, right? Popularity, gods of human making. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. to change their mind. The word repent in Greek means literally to change out your brain. Change your mind, right? In a physical sense, to change your mind, to turn around and do a 180. Admit there's one God and his man is Jesus Christ. Right? Why? Because he has commanded all people everywhere to repent. because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Verse 31 is the only Christian sentence Paul speaks on Mars Hill. Everything else could be taken under Roman philosophy. This is the only specific. Right? So if you say, "Wait a minute. He said repent and that's Christian." Uh, no. It was stoic. But it aligns with Christianity. Do you see? But the only Christian sentence he speaks is a testimony of Jesus Christ himself. He has fixed a day. He has appointed a judge. And we know he's the judge. because he was raised from the dead to judge the living and the dead. You see, he smuggles in the ideas. Now, if you've ever really uh kind of seen a um you ever seen one of those uh art things where it'll show an open Bible and it shows all the Old Testament prophecies that are filled in the Old. I probably should have put that on here, but somebody amen that I probably should have put that on there. See, your mom's love you. So uh there is large arcs. The largest ark of course is the tree of life presented in Eden and the tree of life that have we have access to in Romans. That's the largest ark in the whole Bible. But there's one that's really long that closes in the next passage here. It's a whisper and you'd almost miss it, but it's beautiful. Okay. Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, remember they do not believe in the resurrection. Some mocked, but others said, "We will hear you again about this." They're intrigued. Why? Because he smuggled in this idea into their own ideas and captured part of their curiosity. Um, so Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionis, the Aropagite, meaning he was an official person who lived on the Aropagus. He was a big deal. So they mentioned him by name and a woman named Damaris and others with them. Okay. Uh Dianisis is likely the person who became the bishop, the first bishop of the church of Athens. We have his name from early writers. But then he names this random woman. Okay, not that people shouldn't be randomly named. It just seems odd, right? Why this particular woman? Well, the clue is in her name. And her name, I will tell you in just a moment. Uh, but it has more to do with the setting and the woman's name and not really the identity of the woman herself. Uh, because they're on Mars Hill, right? Hills play a huge part of the biblical story, right? You have the Calvar's Hill. Uh you have the temple mount. You have Jerism uh the the hill of the blessed Ebal the hill of the cursed and you have Si the mountain of the law right lots of mountains lots of hills that are important in Christian idea. So here's a hill and the Jud Jew reading this would go wait a minute it's a hill. They don't name hills unless they're important. sermon on the flat place. No. Right. It's important. And that Jew would read this and go, "Wait a minute. That's a hill. Mars Hill on top of that mountain." The highest thought of pagan philosophers sits. And when Paul comes down, goes up to that mountain, it's not God who speaks to him. It's he who speaks to the false gods. Well, there's another hill that a guy climbed and God spoke to him and that hill is Si and Moses. And Moses goes up the hill to receive word from God of what becomes the basis of Judaism. He gets these commandments and he goes down to give them to the Israeli people. And what does he find? He finds them worshiping a golden calf, right? A golden cow. It's masculine, so bull, right? A golden bull. They're worshiping this golden calf. Uh Moses kind of loses it. Uh as in who's on the Lord's side, Joshua. Others rally to him. He goes, "Okay, go kill everybody who didn't come up here." And they they do. Paul goes up the pagan's hill. You see God's hill. He comes down and he finds the people worshiping an idol. Paul goes up on the pagan hill. He confronts their gods and he comes down except he comes down with a woman named Damaris whose name in Greek means a female cow, a hepher to be specifically. Now that's not a good name in our time. Let's not let's not use that biblical name. Okay? But the idea is the transformation, right? It's not male or female. Don't get lost in that. Another one of our gods. Uh it's transformation. A nothingness of a golden idol versus a woman chosen by God from before the foundation of the earth to hear the gospel to receive it and to walk down the hill. not to find paganism, but to be a pagan and to come down as God's chosen golden calf. Do you see? And the whole idea is to span the gap from Israel's defiance of the one true God to the lost. They're not even Jews. Jews would be shocked by this. an aropagite, a priest of the pagan worldly religion, became a follower of God. Because when God opens our heart to the truth of this world, we find emptiness and nothingness. And in his kingdom, we find the fullness of all things. Right? Amen. Let's pray together. Our father and God, we thank you that in all things you remind us again and again and again of the power and the primacy of your name. That you alone are worthy to be worshiped. There is nothing else that what we can worship that will satisfy our hearts. Every single one of them will turn out to be nothing but air or stone. pathetically useless when the hard times strike, when they're lost, and when the time for judgment comes. Let us put our faith in the only true God, the only real God who does not wish idols made of him or his glory because his icon is a man Jesus Christ our savior king and we will see him and we will worship him in per in person face to place in your kingdom where all of the struggles of this world are gone and where we can be a people of purpose called by the glory of your name. Oh Christ, Lord Jesus, it's in your name we pray. Amen.