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Areopagus
By daniel | August 29, 2004
Brothers and sisters,
I am so enjoying this foray into Acts together. I love Paul?s discourse on Athens? Areopagus (which I read on Friday). Even more, I love that you?ve just read it, too. Let?s take a look at it, shall we?
Paul, aware of the Athenians? strong interest in their religion(s) (17:16,22), works from that fact, from that element of searching that defines so much of the lost world (v.23). He proclaims to them a God that they ignorantly grope for. And this God he presents is remarkable.
This God made the world and all that is in it. He?s the Lord of heaven and earth, of the seen and of the unseen. He?s too large for temples of stone and mortar, to other for idols to represent (vv.24-25).
This God is the One who gives breath and life to all things, to all people. To me and you and the Mongols and the Serbs and the Somalis and so on. Acts 14:17 says He has testified to His goodness to all peoples by sending them rains and fruitful seasons, satisfying their hearts with food and gladness.
This God made from one man all nations, and He orchestrated all of human history, all the developments and international interactions, so that the nations would seek God (17:27), if perchance they might grope for Him and find Him. His secret ambition was that His goodness to all peoples might bring all peoples, groping, to Him.
And the thing is, He?s not far from any one of us. It?s in Him that we exists, Paul asserts. Think, for a moment, about that. God is not far from the pagan on your street. God isn?t far from the 1.6 million devout Muslims in the world today. The gurus and their followers in India live and move and have their being in God. That?s how close He is to every one of us. To every one of them. But they don?t know.
That, to me, is the aching tragedy of it. God is not far from any of them. The lost-ness of the lost world is not a proximity problem. It?s an ignorance problem. They just don?t know.
Did you know that most of the world?s population currently lives without any reasonable access to the gospel? They don?t know. And they can?t. It?s just not there.
“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” God has overlooked the times of ignorance, and is now declaring that all men everywhere should change sides and join Him. How is He declaring? That, in part, is what you?re for.
You see, in Acts the church life includes active, aggressive participation in the reconciliation of the whole world to God. “God is now declaring to all men,” and if we are not engaged with Him in that endeavor, our life together will inevitably be something less than the church life we see in Acts.
God, in His scandalous generosity, has given to all peoples breath and life, rain and fruitful seasons, satisfaction and gladness. And He is given them us. We, like Paul, are debtors to the Jews and the Greeks and the barbarians and all of them. Let?s not be stingy, or late, in our payment. He is declaring repentance now. What are you doing?
Adoring you,
Virgil
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