Naming the Unnamed God (Acts 17)

A $500 Porsche sounds like a dream deal until you hear the reason it was priced that way and the punchline becomes a warning: trouble can change what we think is valuable in a single moment. We start with that story, remember how a crisis like COVID reshuffled everyday priorities, and then ask the bigger question behind it all: what happens when God reshuffles the value of everything?

We walk through Acts 17 and Paul in Athens, a city overflowing with ideas, confidence, and idols. The culture is spiritually curious, but also spiritually anxious, so anxious they built an altar “To The Unknown God” just in case they missed one. Paul uses that opening to proclaim the God they don’t know by name: the Creator of the cosmos and the Lord of heaven and earth. We talk about why Paul begins with creation when his audience doesn’t share Scripture, and how the order of the universe points beyond chance.

Then the message sharpens to the claim that can’t be safely ignored: Jesus rose from the dead, and that resurrection is God’s assurance that a day of righteous judgment is fixed. That leaves three responses that still show up in every room: mock it, delay it, or believe it. If this stirred questions about faith, meaning, and what really lasts, listen closely and share it with someone who’s still searching, then subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the truth that turns our values right side up.

Transcript

A Story About Sudden Value

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Mark Bailey, the former president of Dallas Seminary, a frequent speaker here at the Shepherd's Church, wrote a book on discipleship and he repeated a humorous true story about how things can change in life that changes the value of things in life. He writes about a young man who really wanted to own a Porsche sports car that was sort of the car of his dreams, and every day he'd look through the classified ads, even though he knew it was way beyond his ability to purchase one, but he would he'd look at what was for sale. One morning he was surprised to find an ad for a brand new Porsche on sale for$500. Now he thought that was a typo. They probably missed a few zeros. It'd be about$150,000. Well, the next morning he he he checked the ad again and he couldn't believe it. The same ad was running. Brand new Porsche on sale for$500. Well, he he figured he had nothing to lose, so he decided to call the number. The woman answered the phone and and uh told him that he had read the ad correctly. It was on sale for$500. And she said, you know, I'm kind of surprised you're the only person that's called. Well, he decided to, you know, drive over there. He still couldn't believe it. He arrived at this beautiful estate, and and there he saw that new model Porsche there in the driveway. And she met him out there and he got out. He's checking everything out. You know, he wondered, does it have an engine in it? And is there a steering wheel? Well, that everything. Shaking his head in disbelief, he he gives her$500 and watches as she signs over the deed. And he drives away. He drives away quickly in case she changes her mind, but he drives away. He feels badly over the next few days. He thinks, well, maybe I took advantage of her, maybe she didn't understand what was going on. And so he called her. Got her on the phone, and he said, You know, I'm really sorry, ma'am, if I've taken advantage of you and purchasing this brand new Porsche for$500. Were you aware that it's worth tens of thousands of dollars more than what you sold it to me for? And she said, Oh, oh yeah, I knew that. And he said, Well, why did you sell it to me then for$500? And she said, Well, I'll tell you why. A month ago, my husband ran off to Bermuda with another woman. He emailed me a week ago and told me to sell his Porsche and send him the money. So I did. I've been checking the ads ever since I read that story, by the way. To her, that was about all it was worth, if that. You know, when trouble comes when a crisis hits close uh to home, the value of things can change quickly, can't they? You remember COVID? You remember five years ago? I mean, what was so valuable that everybody was going to the store to try to find it? Toilet paper. I mean, that was the hottest commodity on the market. And where are they keeping it? We couldn't get it. Paper towels along with it. Well, according to the Bible, which happens to tell us the future, there is a coming day that is going to change the value of just about everything. What we might have thought was important will be worthless. What we thought was worthless might be priceless. The key is to figure that out now and not later. Let me have you listen in on a sermon preached 2,000 years ago. The preacher's name is Paul. If you have your Bibles, turn to Acts chapter 17. Paul is on his missionary journey, his second one. He's traveling abroad, he's preaching the gospel. He's introducing the Lord in several different ways. First, as the God who conquered the grave. And the core of his message is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We're told here in verse 2 that Paul begins by visiting the synagogues, preaching, reasoning with the Jewish nation. We're told here that Paul reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ, that is the Messiah, to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying, This is Jesus, or this Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christos, the anointed one, God the Son, the Messiah. In other words, Jesus is authenticating his claim to be the Son of God by conquering the grave. Now, if I could fast forward the tape a little bit and take you to where Paul goes next, he arrives, Dr. Luke tells us, Luke wrote the book of Acts, that Paul is going to preach now not to Jewish leaders, but to Gentile leaders. And he arrives in a city that has by then become a household name, the city of Athens. Athens is the birthplace of the democratic system. Athens is the one who arranged politics as we know it, with the convening of parliaments and senators. It promoted individual freedoms and protected it by law. Athens was the home of the world's most famous university, where Plato was on the faculty, and later his famous student or student who became a faculty member by the name of Socrates. You know, when I study Athens, I think of the Research Triangle Park. Universities, libraries, businesses. Athens was the place to live, and you know, just recently we were voted again as the number one region in America to live. You would think that they had it all. It was also known for religion. It had the great temple of Zeus located in Athens. It had streets lined with various statues of gods and goddesses. Let me give you two descriptions of Athens, if I can summarize it. Number one, Athens was spiritually curious. Luke records here in verse 16. Now, while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, this is he's waiting for Timothy and Silas, his spirit was troubled, provoked within him, as he saw that the city was full of idols. Archaeologists, by the way, estimate that there were 60,000 statues of gods and goddesses in Athens when Paul preached there. One historian said that there were more gods in Athens than people. I can't help but think that mankind, thousands of years ago, is the same as today, intuitively aware that there's something out there. There's a spirit world out there. I've traveled to different places around the world, and the constant theme, no matter where I've traveled, no matter what nation, what country, is in a word, religion. Temples, idols, sacrifices, rituals, ceremonies, everywhere. But there's something unique about Paul's gospel that's going to get their attention. And I'll tell you, it wasn't about religion, it was about a resurrection. Verse 18 tells us. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with Paul. And some said, What does this babbler wish to say? That wasn't very nice. Others said, Well, he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities. We've never heard of these deities. Because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. Keep in mind, we're not given his sermon outline or manuscript, just that he is preaching about Jesus and the resurrection. So what we're not given is the fact that Paul is preaching and teaching and could have been for an hour or more, longer, all afternoon. We don't know. But he's teaching them about the person of Jesus. God the Son, who died for sinners and then rose from the dead. And that would have sounded so strange to their ears. The pantheon of Greece and Aram, gods didn't die to save people. Their gods didn't care about people. The Athenians wanted to learn about a God who would die to save people. Verse 19. So they took him and brought them to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting. For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know, therefore, what these things mean. The Areopagus was a rocky hilltop where the high court of Athens often met. It was referred to as Mars Hill. It served as the place where the high court would often convene, where the influential citizens would gather the philosophers to debate. One author called the Areopagus the oval office of Athens. To this day, by the way, the Areopagus or Areopagus is the title or term for the Supreme Court in Greece. They said, let's hear, you know, let's bring this teacher of a new deity up to Capitol Hill. We use that to this day. And let all the influential people, the movers and the shakers, hear more. Athens was spiritually curious. But let me say this secondly, Athens was spiritually anxious. Verse 22 says, So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. That's putting it mildly. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaimed to you. The Athenians were so afraid that they'd left a God out in the cold, they said, we better do something for one we might have missed. So they built an altar inscribed on it to the God we don't know anything about. Forgive us. To the unknown God, educated, advanced, erudite, living in a place where everybody thought that's the place to live, but they did not have that one thing that made life worth living. With all their spiritual curiosity and religiosity, they were filled with spiritual and religious insecurity. Paul says, I want to introduce this God to you. I know his name. Not only is the God who conquered the grave, but secondly, the God who created everything. It's interesting, by the way, that when Paul refers, or the Bible refers to Paul preaching to Jews, he begins with scripture, the Old Testament. He begins with revelation. But when he preaches to an unbelieving Gentile audience, he begins with creation. And frankly, I have used that more and more as my method of evangelism. And I've learned over the years, if I can't get somebody past Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, I'm probably going to waste my time and theirs. He is the God who created everything. And by the way, Romans 1 says everybody intuitively knows that, but suppresses it. They can't handle it because of what it means. And Paul's going to make that point in a moment. But this world is filled with theories. You should read some of them sometime. Bizarre, strange. Takes more faith to believe them than Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. The world still rejects the Bible's account, still trying to figure out who's out there. Did we descend from the ape? Did life begin in a puddle of water? Was our planet seeded by aliens millions of years ago? You know, by 1888 I've read there were more than 75 theories catalogued around the planet of origins. 75. Paul says here that this unknown God, the Athenians were terrified about. Maybe they'd left him out in the cold. He said this. He is the God who made the world. He started it. And everything in it. He probably pointed to them. Being Lord Supreme of heaven and earth. The word Paul uses here for world. He made the world is the word cosmos. We still use that today. He used that word because that educated world would immediately know that. They use that word to talk about the order and arrangement of government. Plato used that word to even illustrate a woman putting on makeup. We take the word cosmos, in fact, and get our word cosmetics from it. The order and arrangement of cosmetics. Paul is saying here that the arrangement and order of the universe points us to the divine arranger, creator God. Not gods, not goddesses, not random chance over billions of years. God spoke it into existence. Now, the theory that's captivated our Western world for a couple of hundred years, even though now it's bankrupt, but it's going to take a while to change the books. Charles Darwin promoted this myth. It sort of seized the world. He did it in ignorance because he he believed the cell, and the scientists with him, the smallest unit of life. He believed that it was a simple lump of carbon. That's all it was. A lump of carbon. Fairly innocuous, unimportant. But he did write this, and I quote: if it can be demonstrated that a complex organism exists which could not possibly have been formed by modifications, my theory would break down. And that's exactly what happened when the electron microscope was invented forty-eight years after Darwin died. And with that invention, the discovery of the staggering complexity, this world inside a little cell. Something discovered called DNA. If the DNA in your body could be unwound, it could stretch from here to the sun and back four hundred times. It's coded everything. It didn't adapt. It was designed. Maybe you can sympathize with him as he wrote to a close friend published after his death. Darwin wrote, I am conscious that I am in an utterly hopeless muddle. I cannot think that the world as we see it is the result of chance. And yet I cannot look at each separate thing as the result of design. Again, I say I am and shall ever remain in a hopeless muddle. You might think, if only Darwin had been able to see through an electron microscope. He didn't have one. But he did have the Sermon of Paul. And he did have Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, which he studied as a ministerial student in Cambridge before walking away from it all. The Bible informs us not only that God created it, but in Colossians chapter 1 that it was God the Son, who was the creating agent. It was his voice. He was the Lagos, the Word. Paul describes how in Colossians 1, how you go back into Genesis 1, and those very first words were the agent of the triune God who spoke on their behalf and said, Let there be light. And there was light. Paul is saying to his generation, and I'm repeating it to mine. He is the God who conquered the grave. He is the God who created everything. He even designed you. And this is his application now. If you go to the end of his sermon down here in verse 31, he warns them just as he warns us. He says, God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in or by righteousness. What that means is by his holy righteous standard, he will judge the world. Who do you think can survive that judgment? None of us. Unless we hide in the righteous Son of God. Paul is describing the God man to them whom he, the Father, has appointed. Well, who is this man? Well, God has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. So God the Father raised God the Son from the dead to validate the gospel of eternal life. And he gives to the Son the right to judge. John chapter 5 tells us that the Father judges no one. That's not the role he's taken within the Trinity. But he's given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son. It's almost implied in there, in between the lines, they rejected the Son. They will one day understand He was to be honored. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father. So when anybody out there tells you, oh, I believe in God, but not in Jesus, they're not honoring the Son. If you don't honor the Son, you're not honoring the Father. The resurrected Lord, we're told in Revelation 20, will be the one sitting on this throne. It's called the Great White Thrunch, where all the unbelieving of all of humanity, of all of human history, are resurrected to stand and be judged. You, as a believer, will not be there to be judged. You will be in the audience observing. Your judgment seat of Christ has come where he's rewarded you in ways that were profitable and in which you served him. This judgment is the judgment of those who've rejected the Son. And the Son Himself is seated on that throne. Well, here's Paul's point. If if Jesus really is the pre existent Son of God, if Jesus really did create the universe. If Jesus Christ really did rise from the dead, then Jesus Christ is coming back to judge the world. And the Bible is telling us the truth that everyone will stand before him, either as their defender, redeemer, or as their judge. There are three reactions to Paul's sermon, same three reactions in this auditorium. First is the reaction of rejection. Verse 32. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, that is, oh, we're going to stand before God and be judged, they, some of them mocked. You're out of your mind. You mean I'm going to stand before some God somewhere. This God, you say, created everything. This God whose son rose from the dead. You mean to tell me that he's going to judge me one day, Paul? You've lost it. Rejection. You have next the reaction of interest. Verse 32 again. Some mocked, but others said, We will hear you again about this. That was interesting, Paul. Boy, that was intriguing. We'd like to hear you again. What's your schedule look like? Let's work something out. I'm not, you know, I'm not buying it, but you know, I'm kind of interested. The tragedy is that there is nothing in the New Testament that tells us that Paul ever went back. This was their one and only sermon. Maybe this is your one and only. Maybe this is your last sermon. I urge you to settle out of court. Then you have the reaction, thank the Lord, of acceptance. Wish I could have seen this. Verse 34. But some men joined them and believed they believed the gospel of Christ. Look at this. Among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite, one of those leading men. Could have been a senator, parliamentarian, some leading citizen, and a leading citizen, a woman among them who had a seat. Her name's Demaris. We don't know anything about her. We'll meet her one day. And others with them. Keep in mind, they are choosing now to openly believe this man's gospel while others among them, their friends, their colleagues, are mocking. Anyone made fun of you for believing the gospel? Takes courage. It took them courage to step forward. Because to them, suddenly, the value of everything changed, didn't it? They had to have salvation. Reminded me as I studied this of William Sangster, a well-known pastor in England who was preaching during the time when the Titanic sank. He wrote about the event, how it impacted his church, people in his church. He wrote about one woman he knew who was on that boat and survived. She had already been given a seat on a lifeboat, but she then asked to get out because she wanted to go get something from her stateroom, and she was told you've had two minutes, and we're going to lower down into the ocean without you, if you're not back. She got out and she raced across that deck, even as it was already tilting dangerously. She ran through the gambling casino, and money was piled up everywhere on the floor. She didn't even stop to pick up a bill. She ran into her stateroom, and there on a shelf above her bed was her jewelry box, and inside her diamonds. She brushed that box aside and it crashed to the floor. Behind that box were three oranges. She grabbed them and ran back to the lifeboat. William Sankster wrote, Death had boarded the Titanic and it had transformed all values. Instantly, priceless things became worthless. Little things became priceless. In that moment of life or death, she preferred oranges to diamonds. Don't wait until it's too late to discover that what you thought was valuable was not meaningful. What do you thought was so critically important? You're chasing after it your whole life. Only to discover it's temporary. The critical question is what will you do with the gospel of Christ? Rejection? Interest? Acceptance. The critical question you have to answer today is: do you know this unknown God? Let me tell you who he is. He's the conqueror of the grave. He's the creator of all that is. And he's the coming judge for those who choose to reject him. So believe in him today. Don't leave this hill. Believe in him today and be saved. I like to say, believe in him and be safe. Forever. Would you pray with me? Your heads bowed for just a moment. Those of you who know Christ, thank him for what he did for you. He, the righteous one, died for the unrighteous. Not so that we could somehow live a righteous life and make our way into heaven, but so that we could hide in his righteousness and be safe. Perhaps you're here and you have yet to believe. You can do that right where you sit. You don't have to join a church, you don't have to sign a card, make promises, give money, try to do better. All those are good things, but they're not going to get you into heaven. Believe the gospel that Christ died for you, right where you're seated. Say, I believe. Lord Jesus, I repent of my sin. Thank you for dying for it. I give my life to you. After this service, I'll be in the visitor's reception. If I can help you in any way, it'd be my delight. Thank you, Father, for the privilege we've had on this day to celebrate. Your son is alive, of whom we wait. And in the meantime, serve. Help us to represent you well in a world that mocks you, a world that might be someone interested, a very religious world, a world with values that need to be turned right side up. We are your ambassadors. Enable us to represent you well, we pray in Jesus' name.