The Unknown God [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. If you are lost, you don't need more skill.

You don't even need to be a better person. What you need is to know something you don't know. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Unlimited, as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I'm going to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special author. Contact us at pastoralan.org. That's pastoralan.org, or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Now more on this later in the program, but right now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. Are you ready for some good news? To know God is to love Him. I have probably the most wonderful father-in-law in the world, Graham Lynch. Many of you know him, and one of his friends one time was speaking.

We were talking about Graham, what a wonderful human being, and his friend said, you know, if you don't like Graham Lynch, it's because you don't like people. You know, there's some people, they're just so such a good person that if you just got to know them, you'd like them. And I feel like if the world knew the true God, they'd love Him. Oh, there might be a few that are so demonized and so anti-Christ that like Lucifer, they would hate Him. But most people, if they knew Him, they'd love Him. We are in a series on Acts, and I start today with one verse that is going to lead us into, boy I say this all the time, but maybe my favorite story in the book of Acts.

Every week it's like, it's my favorite story, but maybe this really is. In Acts chapter 17, I want to give you one verse, and then we're going to go through this story, but here's the verse in Acts 17 23. This is Paul in Athens waiting on friends to come and accompany him because he, guess what, Paul needed friends. Paul needed friends. And at verse 23, he writes, 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.

We live in a culture that doesn't know God. Well, I was returning from the coast this week and had been there doing some work and some meetings and some relaxation. And I had to get back in time for a very important noon meeting. The meeting was important. It had been scheduled around my calendar and was an important one.

I needed to be there and I got away in plenty of time. But as I was traveling from the coast on highway 130, that road that runs through nowhere on the way to Whiteville where you can pick up 701 and then catch 74, which is the way back home, I was a little distressed when all of a sudden out the middle of nowhere, the traffic slowed down, slowed down considerably. And I thought, well, it's all right. It's probably a farmer on his tractor. He'll be turning off to the side road to his farm soon. And then it slowed down further until it came to a stop. And I thought, well, I saw a couple of cars coming from the opposite direction. I thought, well, there's some construction. There'll be a flag person that's up there.

Soon it'll be our turn. After five minutes of sitting there, I began a little bit concerned, 10 minutes more, and I began to feel a little distressed. I want to show you where I was, a satellite imagery that is available to us. I was somewhere on 130 in this area here to the right, nothing but forest, to the left, nothing but farms. And there was a swamp on either side. In fact, through the magic of satellite imagery, I can show you more or less where I was when this happened.

You can see the swamp on the right and the left. After 15 minutes of sitting still, I began to get really concerned. And I started looking at my phone to see if there was some other road you could get out.

But as you saw, there looks to be no other road. And I thought, surely they'll clear it up soon. You know how this thing goes, you don't know how long it's going to be and you just keep sitting there.

And then the more you've got invested in it, the less you want to turn around and start all over again. 40 minutes of sitting there, 40 minutes of sitting there, I had a telephone appointment and made the call and talked for 20 minutes. And now it had been one hour. And I said, I got to get off the phone.

I got to make a decision. While I was talking on the phone, a young woman in jeans and a t-shirt went walking down the other side of the road. She was obviously on a quest to go down and find out what the problem was.

By the time I got off the phone, she'd been gone a long time. I saw her coming back. I had wondered when she was walking by what was written on her t-shirt. I couldn't tell, but as she was coming back, people were stopping her rolling down their windows and asking what did she discover? And as she made her way towards my car, I saw what was written on her t-shirt. It said, not today, Satan, you can't make these things up.

And I flagged her down to the not today, Satan girl. And I said, I know everybody's asking you, but what did you see? She said, well, there's a fire truck that has blocked one side of the road and another fire truck that's blocked the other side of the road.

It looks like maybe a log truck and somebody's down in a ditch. I said, so you think we might be here a while? As if she knew.

But isn't it something when you're desperate, if there's somebody you just think might know more than you, you'll ask them. I said, what do you think that we should do? She's like, well, I don't, maybe we should turn around. I said, are you going to turn around? She said, I'm trying to talk my mama into turning around, but we're towing a boat and there's not enough room to turn around. I sat there for another five minutes looking at my phone and I said, the only way that I can figure that I can get back home is to go back to where I started and take a completely different route. So now I'm going to have the hour of wait, drive back to where I started and take a much longer route home. And that's what I decided to do. Cause I'm like, I'm, I'm just, it's hard.

Isn't it hard to cut your losses in life, cut your losses. And so I turned around and much to my glee, I came upon a convenience store that I didn't even remember was along that stretch of road. It was a couple of miles behind me. I pulled into the Waccamaw mini mart, pulled into this area. And of course, before just going inside, I got the map out again and studied for 10 minutes, decided there was no other way. And I thought there's no reason to even go in and ask, but I decided to go in and ask. I asked the young lady at the counter, I said, is there another way to get over to highway 74? She said, well, she looked curious, look on her face and I thought, well, there you have it.

And so I started walking out the door and I turned back. I said, you know, there's a bad wreck up the way and the road's completely blocked. She said, oh, you just want to get down that way? I said, well, yeah. She said, oh, you can bypass that.

I said, you can bypass that? She said, oh yeah. She said, you just come out of here, turn down this road, go to the stop sign, take a left and follow it all the way up.

It'll bring into the dollar general back to 130. I said, you're kidding me? She said, no. I'm like, why didn't everybody go in this? Why didn't the police come tell us? Why didn't somebody tell us? Why didn't the girl with the note, not today, Satan tell me?

Why didn't somebody tell me? And I just trusted her. Isn't it amazing if you're desperate enough, you'll trust a complete stranger if they think that they act like they know the way.

And so I went out to take the stop sign and turn it left. You know, the problem is not that I was such a bad person or a bad driver or a bad map reader. The problem is there was an unknown way. You see, if you are lost, you don't need more skill.

You don't even need to be a better person. What you need is to know something you don't know. And everything in life changes if you know the unknown way.

Paul had come to Athens and it was a community of erudite philosophers, artists, scholars, and lost people. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at pastoralan.org. God's always been there. In every moment, you narrowly escaped from danger. In every moment, you were surprised by a blessing.

In every moment, you just knew the direction to take. God was there. Your life is defined by countless moments of God's grace. Perhaps they've been covered by the sands of time or have just gone unnoticed in the rush of life, but your life is full of God moments. When you make a gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's heart-stirring book, God Moments, that will lead you on a spiritual treasure hunt to uncover your God moments. It's Alan Wright's timeless book, God Moments.

Discover your God moments in the past and be filled with fresh faith today. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. Here's what we read at verse 16.

Let's go through this incredible story. Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his traveling companions, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. Athens was no longer the commercial center of Greece.

Corinth had become that. But it certainly was the most famous city, its buildings, its art, brought lots of tourists and students and artists. It was the cultural and intellectual center of the Roman Empire and sculptures and artwork and statues. Everywhere you went in Athens, some building was dedicated to a pagan god, some statue. It literally was lining the streets of Athens, all of the pagan, pantheistic, the whole pantheon of gods.

It's important. Let me give you some pictures of starting here, the famous Acropolis, which is the name of the hill that has on it several buildings, all dedicated to the goddess Athena, thus the name Athens. And most famous of which is the Parthenon. We got a picture of the Parthenon itself. And so it's a large structure. It's up on the hillside.

You can't miss it everywhere. It's an imposing sight everywhere you see in Athens. But you'll see other remains of temples, like the famous Temple of Zeus, with its huge columns. On the Parthenon itself, you could see the idolatry and the paganism. These are called the caryatids. They would use these as columns, and yet they were these mythical goddess-like creatures.

It's just everywhere you went. If you go visit the museums, you can see all kinds, I mean, just a representation of all the kinds of statues that were there. All the kinds of statues that were there. Or you can go and see the actual artifacts that are there. This is the kind of stuff I'm saying everywhere Paul went in Athens, this is what he was actually seeing. And most notably, artifacts everywhere. The head of Hermes, God Hermes, everywhere just lining the streets. There was an ancient joke that was told and has been discovered from ancient times, that it was easier to meet an idol than a man in Athens.

It's the way it was. And Paul saw all the idolatry, and the phrase in Greek says, he was provoked in spirit. It's not strong enough. That's not strong enough translation. It means probably, it comes from a word that means sharpen, like then became used in the word spur, like a really spur, you know, that you'd spur an animal and just almost razor sharp, knife sharp. It's like something knife sharp hitting his spirit.

That's what it's saying. So probably the best translation is that he was incensed. He was absolutely incensed. Like being poked by something really sharp. And I think some of you know what I mean by this, when your spirit is grieved and offended.

And that's what he felt. It's very interesting, Paul understood this word and put it in a different context in a famous love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13, where he said, love is not easily provoked. Love is not easily incensed, but Paul was incensed. And I think it's a really important part of this story, lest you think when you get ready to watch what Paul does here, that is sheer genius and powerfully anointed in an amazing way in this pagan culture.

And as you think about how in the world you're going to live in the United States, it has changed right under our eyes. And when I see the idolatry of the age, I was, oh, it's not the head of Hermes lining the streets, it's billboards and screens and social media and on and on the list goes. It is a culture full of idols, full of promises that if you just had this, then you would be happy. Idolatry everywhere. Godlessness. Godlessness that I would never imagine I would ever see in my lifetime.

Are you kidding me? Some of the godlessness we see and it provokes my spirit. Listen, beloved, I'm just gonna say it plainly. If you're a spiritual person, there's gonna be something's gonna provoke your spirit. Something's gonna go, the truth within you, it just gets incensed at lies and hatred and filth. And Paul felt that.

He felt that. There is a thing that's righteous indignation. There is something that's like, it should bother you. It should bother you. There's nothing wrong with it bothering you.

It does bother you, but watch what he does. See what happens, what happens, I think I'll say of myself, but let's think about, let's be honest with ourselves. What happens when my spirit gets provoked is that the flesh either wants to just get mad. How dare they ruin my country or just get sentimental.

Oh, for the good old days. And Paul doesn't do either one of those. Watch what he does with his grieved and sense heart. Verse 17, so, because he was so grieved in spirit, what did he do? He reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews.

He did this everywhere he went. He went to the Jewish synagogue first and met there and met with people that were God-fearing. And he began to talk to them about Christ and reasoned with them about all the scriptures were pointing to Jesus. He began to tell them of the Messiah, began to tell them of God's love that has been expressed in the, in the word becoming flesh.

He'd tell them of Jesus and listen to this. And in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there, he would talk to anyone in the marketplace that wanted to talk. You can see today where the marketplace, which is called the Agora in Greek is known as the Agora. It was a beautiful place and it had colonnaded areas and people gathered here. It was one of the places where people like to come and share the new philosophies of the day and talk with one another. It was an open forum for communication and Paul would go there every day and he would talk to people. So when he was really provoked in spirit, he didn't just get mad and he didn't just withdraw. Instead, he went and he began to tell people about Jesus.

That's what he did with it. Verse 18, some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. 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 resurrection. You know, what's interesting is that the Greek word for resurrection Anastasi sounds a little bit like a Greek God.

And even the name Jesus in Greek, Jesus, Jesus, sounds a little bit like Isis. And so scholars think that as the Greeks were listening to him, they thought, is he talking about Isis? Is he talking about some other foreign divinity? What is he talking about? They call him a babbler. It means it's an image from a bird pecking at the ground for scraps. It means a seed picker is what babbler literally means. And what they were accusing him of is who is this seed picker? He doesn't seem to have, they were saying, doesn't have a school of philosophy.

He just, has he just gone and picked little seeds of things and he's babbling about them? The Epicurean philosophy, we don't have time to talk about it much, but it's important to our story. The Epicureans believe that the gods existed, but they were very distant and not involved in human affairs.

And therefore what mattered was the material. And famously the Epicureans were known for sort of eat, drink, and be merry. The Stoics on the other hand, believed that God was in everything. And they believed that he existed in everything through what was known as the Logos. This is the famous rational ordering principle that the Greeks believed in, that when John wrote his gospel, he said, in the beginning was the Logos and the Logos was with God and the Logos was God.

He was saying in the beginning of John, that the ordering rational principle that you think fills everything is actually God, the son of God. So two very different philosophies that Paul was interacting with. And Paul is just, by the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Spirit, he's just a genius. He's just a genius. N. T. Wright, eminent theologian, said Paul's like a grand master chess player who can play several people in chess at the same time on different boards, thinking ahead, many moves on each board. You ever seen that on film or anything?

Like the greatest chess players in the world can play five people and they'll come over here and move and they'll walk over to this table and move and walk over to this table and move and have it all in their mind and be multiple plays down the road. N. T. Wright said that's what Paul was doing here. He's talking to Stoics. He's talking to Epicureans. He's talking to the God fearing. He's talking to the Jews. He's talking.

He is a genius. This is amazing what's getting ready to happen. Alan Wright, our good news message, the unknown God in the series Unlimited. And I encourage you to stick with us. Pastor Alan is here and we're back in a moment sharing his parting good news thought for the day.

Stick with us. Unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace filled vision for your life by signing up for Alan Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement, get Alan Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at Pastor Alan dot org. God's always been there in every moment you narrowly escaped from danger and every moment you were surprised by a blessing. In every moment you just knew the direction to take. God was there. Your life is defined by countless moments of God's grace.

Perhaps they've been covered by the sands of time or have just gone unnoticed in the rush of life. But your life is full of God moments. When you make a gift today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's heart stirring book, God Moments, that will lead you on a spiritual treasure hunt to uncover your God moments. It's Alan Wright's timeless book, God Moments.

Discover your God moments in the past and be filled with fresh faith today. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, Pastor Alan dot org. Back here now with Pastor Alan, sharing our parting good news thought for the day. Pastor Alan, you said we don't need to try harder.

We need a different way to know something we don't know. You know, this story of Paul with the people at Athens is truly, when we dig into this, Daniel, is one of the great, great examples of how God can move in us and through us in any kind of context. And here he is amongst all these learned people in Athens. And he is able, by the grace of God, by the leading of the Spirit, to relate in a way that is going to actually get their attention. And it's astonishing as we dig into some of these details about just how incredibly relevant he was being. And so, the unknown God is a reference, as we'll see, to ultimately the one true God, but it hearkens to a historical event right there in Athens. Paul was amazing in that he would relate to whomever he was interacting with on their terms so that he could lead them to Christ.

This story is amazing. only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching, delivered right to your email inbox, free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.