About this sermon
1. Take to heart God’s universal demand for repentance (v. 30).
2. Behold, the Day of Judgement is coming (v. 31)!
3. The resurrection of Christ certifies Him as the agent of God’s judgment on Judgment Day (v. 31).
Sermon transcript
Please remain standing, my friends, for the reading of God’s Word. My sermon text this morning, as we continue our Foundations of Faith series, my sermon text is taken from a passage in the book of Acts, Acts 17, verses 30 through 34, will be the focus of my sermon today. I’m gonna begin reading at verse 15 to kind of fill out the context a bit. So we’ll begin reading at verse 15. You’ll find this passage on page 1,102 in your Pew Bible. Let’s hear God’s holy word, Acts chapter 17, beginning at verse 15. And this takes place in the midst of the Apostle Paul’s second missionary journey. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And someone said, What does this babbler wish to say? Others said, He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities, because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him 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. Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 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 proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and 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. 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 man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands 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.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, we will hear you again about this.
So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for God to bless the preaching of His Word. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you that we serve a resurrected, victorious Lord. We thank you that our Savior has conquered sin and death, and hell, by his death and glorious resurrection. We pray that by your Spirit, as we consider this portion of Holy Scripture, that your Spirit would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your Word, so that we might indeed take these truths to heart. And we ask that your Spirit would implant these truths upon our souls that we might grow spiritually from what we hear today.
We ask that you would set a guard over my lips and that you would open our ears and our minds. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon today is Foundations of Faith, He Rose Again. And there are four key words for the children to be listening for today. Very important words, the words resurrection, revelation, repentance, and judgment. Well, dear friends, on this Lord’s Day morning, as we continue our study of the biblical foundations of our holy Christian faith, as those foundational truths are summarized for us in that great classical creed of the faith, the Apostles’ Creed, we come to an affirmation in the creed that is at the heart and center of our faith. Indeed, it is an affirmation that is at the heart and center of the very gospel message itself.
That affirmation is found in the second credo, the second I believe section of the creed, the section which is about the person and work of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten son. And this affirmation that we consider this morning is the confession which affirms that the third day he rose again from the dead. Now, if you’ve grown up in the church or being that we are all familiar with the claims of Christ and of the gospel to one degree or another, it’s sort of like, yeah, Jesus rose from the dead. But friends, think about how radical this truth is. Many religions throughout the history of humanity have made exalted claims about the founders of their religion. For example, some religions claim that their founders were especially enlightened or had particular spiritual insight. Others claim that their founders were superlatively holy or were even divinely inspired and prophets of God.
But of all the religions in the world, only biblical historic Christianity claims that its founder, Jesus of Nazareth, actually rose from the dead. Physically, bodily, supernaturally rose from the dead. And not only that, but that Jesus, after his resurrection, stuck around for a while, for about a period 40 days and actually appeared during that period of time to multiple eyewitnesses in his resurrected body. Friends, these are radical claims, but they are claims which are true. Claims that are grounded in the teaching and truth of God’s infallible Word. Claims that are attested to by overwhelming historical evidence. Again, dear ones, our Lord’s physical bodily resurrection from the dead is indeed at the heart and center of our faith, of the faith that we believe, embrace, and confess to others. Jesus our Lord did indeed rise from the dead on the third day following his death by crucifixion.
This is indeed a radical claim and a radical truth. But in addition to being a radical truth, which indeed it is, It is also a truth that has radical implications for our lives as the professed people of God. And it also has radical implications for the world outside of the church. And so friends, what I wanna have us focus on in today’s sermon is what our Lord’s resurrection means for the world and not just for us as the church. What does the historical fact of Christ’s physical bodily resurrection tell the world of humanity, both within and outside of the church? Well, among other things, the resurrection of Jesus confirms the Bible’s teaching on sinful humanity’s universal obligation to repent of sin. It also confirms the Bible’s teaching on the reality of the coming eschatological day of judgment and the Bible’s teaching as well on the fact that God the Father has appointed His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be the judge of the world and to judge the world in righteousness on that coming judgment day.
An appropriate passage of God’s word upon which these truths are based and which highlights these truths in connection with our Lord’s resurrection is our passage for this Lord’s Day morning. Our passage for this Lord’s Day morning records for us St. Paul the Apostle’s famous address to the philosophers at the Areopagus, Mars Hill as it is sometimes called, in that famous ancient city of Athens, and as recorded by Luke here, in Acts chapter 17. Now let me remind you again of the setting and context of this passage. As I mentioned before reading this passage of Scripture, this records for us events that happened within the context of Paul’s second missionary journey. And we read of Paul heading to Athens. Well, why does he head to Athens? Did he have a planned missionary A missionary, a trip to Athens?
Well, no. Athens was not on his travel itinerary, but it was God’s providence, of course, that he end up in Athens. Paul heads to Athens in order to escape persecution that he was facing in the region of Macedonia. And so Paul had had no previous plans, at least not at this point in time, to do missionary work in the city of Athens. And so our passage finds Paul waiting in Athens for his missionary companions Silas and Timothy to come to him. If you look at verse 15, it says in verse 15 of this chapter, Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.” So Paul is here in the city waiting for Silas and Timothy to come.
But in God’s providence, Paul is not sitting around twiddling his thumbs, looking at his watch, waiting for Silas and Timothy to come. We learn that Paul is provoked in his spirit by the overwhelming presence of pagan idolatry in Athens. And this prevalence of idolatry compels Paul to speak out for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at verses 16 and 17. It says, Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. His spirit was provoked It bothered him that this great city of Athens, known for its tremendous art, known as a high cultural center, a center for philosophy and culture and amazing artwork, an intellectual center, a city that prided itself on that intellectual history, and yet this city was saturated with idolatry.
I forget who said it, but someone once said that it was easier to find an idol in the city of Athens than it was to run across another human being. It was so filled with idolatry. And so his spirit is provoked. And what does he do about it? Well, verse 17. So he reasoned in the synagogue. There was apparently a synagogue in the city of Athens. And as was Paul’s custom, he takes the gospel to the Jew first and then to the Greek. So he starts off in the synagogue proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah in the synagogue. It says, so he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons. and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. He spreads the seed of the word far and wide.
He seeks to make the gospel known far and wide. Well, that brings me, friends, to the first point I want to make based on our passage for today. Let us, first of all, beloved, take to heart God’s universal demand for repentance. This is the first point in your sermon outline, take to heart God’s universal demand for repentance. Now we’ll briefly go through this passage and the content of what Paul preaches, but let me have you focus right now, skip ahead to verse 30, at the end of Paul’s sermon. Paul’s address to the Athenian philosophers there at the Areopagus. He says in verse 30, the times of ignorance God overlooked, speaking of times before the coming of Christ, when God allowed the nations, the Gentile nations, as it were, to kind of go their own way and did not bring the severity of his judgment upon them to the degree that they deserved.
These times of ignorance God overlooked, but now, Now that Christ has come, now that God has sent out apostles and preachers like the Apostle Paul to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord who rose from the dead, now he commands all people everywhere to repent. This is a universal obligation. Each and every human being on the face of planet Earth when confronted with the gospel, when confronted with the truth of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead, is summoned by God through the gospel to repent. And as we will see, the historical fact of Christ’s resurrection underscores this urgency, the urgency of this universal demand for repentance. Now let’s go back and review what happens beginning at verse 16 here. It says that Paul was provoked in his spirit and then he reasons in the synagogues. He proclaims the gospel in the marketplaces where Gentiles will hear his message as well.
And then we’re told this in verse 18. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. He was willing to talk to whoever came across his path. He was so filled with zeal for the gospel message. And he runs across some sophisticated philosophers, Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, and they conversed with him. And it says, and some said, what does this babbler wish to say? Others said, he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and The word for resurrection is in the feminine, and some of the Gentile hearers might have accidentally thought that resurrection was a goddess that he was proclaiming. In any case, he’s getting into conversations with these philosophers, the Epicureans and the Stoics. Well, what was Epicureanism and Stoicism, very briefly? Well, these were schools of Greek philosophy.
And to kind of simplify it, Epicureanism was a philosophy that taught basically that pleasure was the ultimate purpose in life. The Epicureans, to put it simplistically, the Epicureans kind of held to the philosophy that says, hey, life is short, pass the beer. Live it up. On the other hand, Stoicism taught its followers to live in harmony with nature, and to depend on reason, and not to just give in to your desires, but to control your desires. The Stoic philosophy was more of a stiff upper lip approach to life. And so these are the kinds of philosophers that Paul is having conversations with. And how is Paul described by some who hear him? Well, verse 18 says that some reacted by saying, what does this babbler wish to say? Now, the term babbler is an interesting term in the Greek.
According to Dr. Richard Longnecker, in the Greek, this is a word originally used of birds picking up grain, then of scrap collectors searching for junk, then extended to those who snapped up ideas of others and peddled them as their own without really understanding them, and finally, to any ne’er do well. So by calling him a babbler, they weren’t being complimentary towards him. They’re basically saying, this sounds like one of those folks that was probably very common in the first century city of Athens, you know, folks who would attend various philosophy lectures and pick up a little bit of philosophy here and a little bit of logic there and kind of mash it all together and spew it out like sound bites and talking points to try to sound intellectual when they really didn’t fully grasp it, what they were saying.
In any case, Paul’s getting a reaction here. He’s getting noticed. And so what do they do? It says in verse 19, they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, or Mars Hill, saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting. For you bring some strange things to our ears. And oh, friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ is a strange message to the natural man. The natural man, the unregenerate fallen man, the unconverted man or woman, boy or girl, gets the law, they understand the law, but they don’t understand grace. Grace is a strange message to the ears of the children of Adam. In any case, they say, you’re bringing some strange things to our ears, we wanna know more. And then we have this. Luke kind of adding this editorial insult about the Athenians in verse 21.
Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. When I read that today, I think, wow, there’s nothing new under the sun, right? There’s a lot of folks today who spend a lot of time just wanting to hear new ideas and talk about things without really understanding them in their depth. So Paul is taken and brought to the Areopagus. What is the Areopagus? Well, this was, at that time, this was the city council in Athens that had jurisdiction over, not over civil matters as such, but matters pertaining to religion, education, and public morals. It appears that one of its functions at this particular time was to examine and to license public lectures. That’s why Paul is being asked to come before them, because he is lecturing without a license, if you will.
And this is likely why Paul was asked to come before this esteemed council or court. Approval by this council or court would mean that Paul would have the legal freedom to preach the gospel in Athens, but their disapproval would mean that he would be legally prohibited from preaching there. So anyways, Paul is brought before the council and then he begins to preach to them. We read of Paul’s address or preaching in verses 22 through 29. where Paul addresses the council. And the first thing that Paul does here is he seeks to establish a point of contact with them. He says in verse 22, so Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. Now let’s pause there. It sounds like he’s complimenting them, doesn’t it?
I perceive that you are very religious, but some have pointed out that this term, which some translations translate as religious, could also legitimately be translated as superstitious. It’s kind of an ambiguous term. It’s not clear from the outset whether Paul is sort of subtly insulting them or whether he’s complimenting them. Now my personal view is that I think Paul’s intention here is not to provoke animosity in his audience, but to make a point of connection with them and to point out to them, yes, you have a religious sense you’re very religious, you know that there is a higher reality. And so he seeks to point to that and address that. And then he gives an example of what he means by this. In verse 23, for as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God.
You know, the Athenians apparently were afraid that, you know, well, what if we forgot a particular God and that God gets angry with us? So as a way to appease any unknown God, they had an altar to an unknown God, lest they offend any unknown deity. And then Paul says, what therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” How masterful that Paul is able to go in and make a connection with them. They come from totally different worlds in terms of their worldviews. But Paul makes a connection, and he’s able to make this connection, brothers and sisters, because all people everywhere have a religious sense, a sense of the divine. The reason for that is because all human beings have been created in God’s image. And though our fall in Adam has warped and distorted and besmirched that imago Dei, that image of God, we still have, all human beings still know in their heart of hearts that the true God is and that they are accountable to him.
Though, as Paul tells us elsewhere in Romans 1, the fall in human hearts suppresses that truth in unrighteousness. But this is actually very encouraging to us because, you know, you don’t have to be a sophisticated philosopher to talk about the Lord with an unbeliever because you have a point of connection with that unbeliever. That point of connection is that both of you were created in the image of God and that unbeliever still knows that God is because they have the sense of the divine. They have that imago Dei. They still, in some sense, retain the imago Dei. In any case, Paul addresses them. He seeks to establish a point of contact with them. And what’s the first thing he does? Well, as verses 24 through 28 point out, Paul proclaims God as creator of all and as providential Lord over all of the nations of humanity.
As it says, beginning in verse 24, Paul says, the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man. So from the outset, right out of the gate, He attacks, he does so respectfully, but he attacks the very foundation of idolatry. And he proclaims to them the true and living God. He says, nor is he served by human hands. God is sovereign, he doesn’t need us. He doesn’t need us to feed him like the pagan deities needed their sacrifices in order to be fed. He doesn’t need anything, he’s not served by human hands. Why? Since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man, he’s talking there about Adam, he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place.
God is sovereign over the boundaries of the nations. God providentially rules over all nations of mankind. And then he goes on to seek to expose the folly of their idolatry. He says that God has done this by created and he has set the boundaries why that they should seek God, verse 27, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. And then he quotes some of their own poets because they didn’t know the scriptures. Or if they did know about the scriptures, they didn’t know the scriptures or believe the scriptures were authoritative. So he, again, he’s seeking to make a point of contact with them. He quotes from their own poets, showing that even they had a sense of the divine reality. 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.
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 man. Again, friends, because he is addressing a pagan audience who is either unfamiliar with the Holy Scriptures or which does not view the Scriptures as authoritative, Paul focuses on the truths of general revelation, God’s revelation in creation and human conscience. And he quotes from some of their own poets, not because those poets are equal to Scripture in any way, that’s not the point Paul is making. He quotes their poets to make this point of contact with his listeners. and also to show them that even their pagan poets showed that they had some understanding of the divine nature. I believe John Calvin called this glimmerings of natural light.
Even the most hardened atheist has glimmerings of natural light. They know in their heart of hearts that the true God is. They suppress that truth and unrighteousness, but they know, brothers and sisters, they know. And this gives us confidence in addressing them. But then Paul goes on to say in verse 30, the times of ignorance God overlooked. Now what does this mean? Well, Paul has been focusing on the doctrines of God’s independence and self-sufficiency. He has been focusing on God’s works of creation and providence, his provision for man’s needs, and man’s responsibility to seek after God. Now Paul brings out the implications of these truths by pointing out how patient God has been toward the Gentile nations because of their ignorance of his word. One Bible commentator says this, This commentator writes, until the coming of Jesus Christ, God’s special redemptive revelation was addressed almost exclusively to Israel, leaving the pagan nations largely in ignorance, except for the general revelation throughout the cosmos that left them without excuse, Romans 1, 18 through 25.
God did not impose on Gentiles the judgment they deserved, and now he has sent Paul to proclaim his truth to all people everywhere, calling them to repentance. What do we learn from all of this, friends? many things, but we learn among other things that all people at all times of human history have been morally obligated to worship and to serve the true and living creator God who is revealed in the natural order and in human conscience. We learn this, for example, in what Paul wrote in Romans chapter one and two. But friends, with the coming of Jesus Christ and the publication of the Good News, the Good News of Christ’s death and resurrection for the salvation of sinners, the Gospel places upon all people everywhere who hear it, all people without exception, an even greater obligation, the obligation to repent of their false religions and philosophies and their idolatrous ways, the obligation to turn in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ who is offered to them in the gospel.
Dear listener, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is divine proof that God requires you and me to repent and turn in trust to the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you repented? The word repentance means a change of mind that leads to a change in direction in your life. It’s like a paradigm shift. Before you repent, you see yourself as basically good. You see yourself as capable of working your way into heaven or appeasing God or the gods as you perceive the divine. But when you hear the gospel and when the Spirit works in your heart and brings you to repentance, you see yourself as the hopeless, helpless sinner that you are, that you have missed the mark, you’ve fallen short of the glory of God, and that you have no hope of salvation in yourself, in your own works or ways or merits. and you turn from your self-righteousness and self-will to Christ, receiving and resting upon him and him alone for salvation from your sins.
Have you repented? In the gospel, Jesus commands all people everywhere to repent and to turn to him. And that brings me to my next point. As Paul has addressed these Athenian philosophers, he has presented the truth about the true and living God to them. He has presented to them the truth about the falsehood of idolatry and the futility of idolatry. He has called them to repentance. And this brings me to my next point. Behold, the day of judgment is coming. The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves to us, proves to all humanity that the judgment day is coming. As it says in verse 31, God now commands all people everywhere to repent. Why? 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.
The Judgment Day, when the Bible speaks about the Judgment Day, this is not a symbol or a metaphor. There will be a day of judgment. The scriptures teach us that one day Jesus our Lord will return in glory, raise the dead, and he will judge all of humanity before ushering in the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwell. Now imagine how this message would have come across to these sophisticated philosophers in Athens. This would have been a totally foreign concept to the Athenian philosophers and leaders of the Areopagus, but it was a truth that they needed to hear. And brothers and sisters, this is a truth that the lost in our lives need to hear. They need to hear that a judgment day is coming. They need to hear that God commands all people everywhere, including them, to repent.
For God has fixed a day on which he will judge all of humanity through the man, the God-man, whom he’s raised from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, the resurrection of Christ underscores this truth about the judgment day. And friends, we learn that because Christ was raised, we will also be raised from the dead on judgment day. As we compare Scripture with Scripture, this is the uniform teaching of God’s Word. And let me just, as we compare briefly Scripture with Scripture, let me take you to two passages that underscore this truth about the Judgment Day. Let’s go to John 5, and let me just read John 5, verses 25 to 30. John 5, verses 25 to 30. This is the Lord Jesus speaking. And he says, truly, truly, in other words, amen, amen. In other words, this is really important.
This is most certainly true. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself. And He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” The resurrection and final judgment is coming.
Jesus himself taught that it would. And then also Paul elsewhere teaches in that well-known passage in 1 Corinthians 15. Let me just read verses 20 through 28 of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This chapter on the resurrection of Christ and Paul writes this. He says, he’s addressing the issue of the general resurrection of the dead at the end of this age. He says, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, which is a euphemism for death. For as by a man came death, that would be Adam, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead, that would be Christ. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ, then comes the end. when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
That destruction of every anti-Christ rule and authority and power implies a judgment. And then he goes on to say, for He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be defeated is death, for God has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that He is accepted who put all things in subjection under Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be all in all. Judgment Day is coming. Are you ready for the Judgment Day? You say, well, how do I know I’ll be ready for the Judgment Day? The only way you and I can be ready for that day is if we have already been judged in Christ. if you are in Christ by faith, if you’ve trusted Him as your very own Lord and Savior.
Not only does God through Christ cleanse you from all of your sin through the blood of Christ, He also clothes you in His perfect everlasting righteousness. So when we as believers stand before Jesus, King Jesus on Judgment Day, we won’t be standing there with terror, oh boy, am I gonna get in or not? No. We will stand upright because we stand in Christ. But if you are outside of Christ, if you’ve not repented and trusted him as your savior from sin, then there is good reason to fear the judgment day. Won’t you turn to Christ today and trust in, rest in him that you might face the judgment day with confidence. The final point I wanna make as we close our time in the word this day, We note here that the resurrection of Christ certifies him as the agent of God’s judgment on judgment day.
This is the point that Paul makes in verse 31. The resurrection of Christ certifies him as the agent of God’s judgment on judgment day. Paul says in verse 31 that God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And how do we know who this man is or what is it that credentials this man to do such a thing? Well, it says, and of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead, which as we will see in a moment, that was a shocker to these sophisticated philosophers. As the Son of God, the divine Son of God, Jesus Christ was the divine agent of creation. The Bible makes that clear. All things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made, as we’re told in John 1.
And as the God-man, Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and man. He is the mediator of our redemption. So he is the mediator of creation. He is the mediator of redemption. But he is also revealed in scripture to be the divine agent of divine judgment. He is the agent of divine judgment. Dr. F.F. Bruce in his commentary says that Paul quote, assures his audience, God has furnished firm proof that this is the man by whom He is going to judge the world because this is the man whom He has raised from the dead. Now what was the reaction among these at the Areopagus after Paul mentions the resurrection of the dead? It says in verse 32, now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. And in Greek thought, the idea of a resurrection was ridiculous.
In much of Greek philosophy, the idea was that the material world is inferior. You know, we want to escape our bodies. They believed in the immortality of the soul, but not the resurrection of the body. So some reacted with mockery, but others reacted with curiosity. It says, others said, we will hear you again about this. Now it’s possible that this was just a pretentious curiosity. It’s possible they were just trying to be polite. But if it was genuine curiosity, it was a curiosity without commitment. So there’s mockery, there’s curiosity without commitment. But here’s the amazing thing. Even in the Areopagus, even in this sophisticated ruling council, in this esteemed ancient pagan city of Greece, some were converted. We learn this in verse 33. It says, so Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.
Some have suggested that Paul’s address to the philosophers in Areopagus that this was a failure, but it wasn’t a failure. because God had his elect, God had his people whom he called even from amongst these sophisticated elite philosophers to himself. So another response was conversion. There was mockery, there was curiosity without commitment, and there was conversion. And the gospel of Jesus Christ and the message of Christ’s resurrection tends to gain the same response today. May God in His grace grant that you and I may respond to the good news that Christ rose again from the dead with true conversion and faith. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you that Christ indeed rose again on the third day. And we thank you, Lord, that he reigns in righteousness and that he will one day come again to right all wrongs, to raise the dead, and to judge humanity, ushering in the new heavens and the new earth.
Lord, we ask that you would grant us the grace to live lives of ongoing repentance and faith, and may we proclaim to others as we have opportunity that God commands all people everywhere to repent. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. As we close our time today, let’s rise and we’ll close our worship service with the singing of hymn 369, Worship Christ the Risen King, 369.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.