July 8, 2024 12:00 am
Join us as we journey back to Acts 17, where the Apostle Paul stands amidst the centuries-old idolatry of Athens. In this episode, we draw a fascinating parallel between the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, which unlocked the secrets of ancient Egypt, and Paul's bold declaration of Jesus Christ as the key to understanding the mysteries of the universe. Just as the Rosetta Stone enabled us to read and comprehend the forgotten language of the Egyptians, Paul reveals Jesus as the "Rosetta Stone" for the Athenians and for us today, translating the ultimate truths of creation, existence, and the divine. Explore Paul's two pivotal points: "My God is more than a monument" and "My God made it all," and see how these truths confront various worldviews and challenge us to acknowledge the sovereignty and creative power of God. Discover how Paul’s message not only addressed the Athenians' search for meaning but also provides us with the ultimate answers to life's deepest questions.
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There was an epidemic. There was a plague, but the plague was sin and the epidemic was everlasting death. There was an angry God that they did not know that demanded the death of a lamb sheep to satisfy his holy wrath. But Jesus, the one that Paul now preaches was that spotless lamb who voluntarily wandered into the path and wrath of God.
But, he goes on to say, that lamb came back to life. He is now the Lord of Heaven and the Lord of Earth. The Apostle Paul arrived in Athens and found a group of citizens who were eager to know truth. They studied philosophy and searched for wisdom wherever they could find it. They also believed in a myriad of gods and had idols to all of them. And just to be sure they didn't miss any, they had one entitled to the unknown God. When Paul saw that monument, he used it as an opportunity to introduce them to the one true God.
This is wisdom for the heart. And today, Stephen Davey opens to that account in the book of Acts in this message he's called, Introducing the Creator. We go back to Acts and let me set the stage by taking you back in time to 1708 when Napoleon occupied Egypt, that vast empire whose greatness had for the most part waned by that time. He brought with him in that occupation a team of scientists and archeologists. He was searching for clues to ancient pasts. He was looking for knowledge and an astute learner.
He wouldn't pass this opportunity up and so he had his men digging about. On one particular occasion, not archeologists but soldiers who were demolishing a small wall stumbled across one of the greatest discoveries of archeological history. They discovered the Rosetta Stone. Now for centuries, Egypt's past was shrouded in mystery primarily because its records were written in Egyptian hieroglyphs or the hieroglyphic form of writing and no one knew that form and so no one could translate all of the vast writings that were still extant. That Rosetta Stone was the key to unlocking the mystery of Egypt so that parchments could be translated everything from how to prepare the mummies as they did for eternity so they suppose to planting and farming techniques to medical journals to even love poems. The Rosetta Stone was the key because on that three foot by two foot black stone at the very top in hieroglyphs was a message.
Of course it was not understandable. In the middle section of that stone was a cursive form of hieroglyphs still not understandable but the bottom section of the stone was written in Greek that opened the world of this ancient empire and they're still translating and studying in light of that wonderful discovery the discovery of the Rosetta Stone. What you have in front of you in Acts chapter 17 is the Apostle Paul standing before the Athenians and he is surrounded by centuries of idolatry. Athens alone had more than 30,000 gods carved into its buildings lining its main thoroughfares. One writer, cryptically remarked that it would be easier to find a god than a man in Athens. The Greeks as a civilization had searched desperately to unlock the mysteries of the universe and the supernatural but even their Parthenon communicated to them a language that they did not understand until some 600 years past the zenith of this empire the Apostle Paul comes and he says I have someone to introduce to you he is the Rosetta Stone his name is Jesus Christ and he will unlock the mystery of the supernatural to all who place their faith in him. In our last discussion we went back in history to a time when Epimenides that Cretan poet sought to come up with a way to save Athens from a terrible plague. 600 years before the time when Paul stood at the Areopagus on Mars Hill that court outdoor court 600 years before Paul's time there was a terrible epidemic they didn't know what to do but Epimenides came up with an idea and so he came to the Areopagus on a given time with a flock of sheep and he let the sheep go and the idea was that the angry gods would lure them you remember we looked at this and and they would sacrifice what the sheep wherever they lay to the nearest god or the nearest temple the only problem was many sheep laid out where there was no temple nearby nor statue and so they assumed that they had missed the god that was angry and so they erected 600 years before the time of Paul a monument and inscribed upon it the words to the unknown god and they sacrificed the sheep there well Paul now after centuries of silence announces as we began to uncover last discussion time that he indeed knew the name of the unknown god and that name would become the Rosetta Stone that men and women boys and girls could use to translate the events of their lives into meaning now we looked at the first point of his sermon last time let's go back to verse 24 Paul declared the god who made the world and all things in it since he is lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made with hands and I made the first point of the sermon by simply rewording it to say my god is more than a monument he is alive you go back to verse 18 of that chapter and you discover the theme of Paul's preaching is Jesus and the resurrection you see he's saying in effect that Epimenides had basically the right idea he just used the wrong parts there was an epidemic there was a plague but the plague was sin and the epidemic was everlasting death there was an angry god that they did not know that demanded the death of a lamb sheep to satisfy his holy wrath but Jesus the one that Paul now preaches was that spotless lamb who voluntarily wandered into the path and wrath of that holy angry god and he died so he could pay the penalty freeing us from that epidemic of everlasting death but he goes on to say that lamb came back to life he is now the lord of heaven and the lord of earth my god is more than a monument now let's move on to the second point of his sermon I have reworded it to simply say this my god made it all in order to understand now the context behind what Paul is declaring to the Athenians it would help us to understand what we call their world view their world view had shaped their thinking and defined their god or their gods and the the world view held by the Athenians is still very popular today by use of pictures we're gonna take a look at not only this world view but a few others as we set the stage for an understanding of of our creator god the first world view that actually would be applied to the Athenians is polytheism the hand in this picture represents god polytheism means there are more than one gods in the universe we just don't happen to know who they are or we may think we know who they are but as the Athenians felt they probably left one of them out this is the world view of the world of Athens as soon as you decry the biblical definition of monotheism one god you lose any hope of ever defining whatever god there is out there so you would be led to polytheism as many are let me give you some other worldviews since we're on this track and deism is the belief that one god made the world and left it alone you sort of have the hand of god waving goodbye the probably the most famous deist in american society was thomas jefferson a brilliant brilliant man and we had the opportunity to to do a little study of him and travel to see his home but he was a a deist that is he didn't believe in the miraculous intervention of god and the affairs of man and of course one very important miracle is the resurrection of jesus christ he denied the incarnation obviously because that would be a miracle and what's interesting though is his brain intellect he from from greek manuscripts and latin composed his own gospels and uh they have it and extent the jefferson bible and i bought a copy of it here's how his bible ends now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new sepulcher wherein was never man yet laid there laid they jesus and rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher and departed period end of bible the apostle paul in this message will deliver the the wonderful news that our god is personally involved in the affairs of mankind that he has a hands-on approach to creation and this world and the best part of that news is that he has a hands-on approach to you and to me he is involved in my life he is involved in yours the deists have no hope of that another world view is pantheism that is the view that god is the world and the world is god that is everything is divine you're divine the bush is divine the tree the cow the brook everything is has that spark of divinity within and this is certainly a comfortable view held by hinduism and zen buddhism which is making a surge in american societal circles and and certainly the new age movement which is waning and it seems to done nothing more than provide the foundation for zen buddhism and other eastern religions but you can certainly understand the popularity of a movement that would say to you you are a god rather than you're going to have to stand before god one day the vast difference in there which one's more comfortable for you another world view is atheism this is a rather lonely looking picture after seeing the others the world does not have a god loneliness of a world without a creator without someone and intimately involved in the affairs of man then there's another world view and that's finite godism the world has a somewhat limited to god you could probably take the word somewhat and simply say severely but you see the little hand of god in this big massive world basically the belief is that that god created the world or or perhaps some super intelligence created the world but the world just got so big and fast and busy and so many people and he never expected that and he just can't keep up that view by the way is is a balm to hurting hearts especially when bad things happen harold kushner rabbi had a death in the family and he came to the view that god was all good but how could this bad thing happen to his family his child to die and so he espoused the view of finite godism that god is all good he's just not powerful enough to keep up finite godism finally theism this is the world view that the world was created by an all-powerful personal god you notice in verse 24 it says that god is the lord of heaven and earth that is he is the sovereign master over all that there is daniel 4 34 and 35 say this god's dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom endures from generation to generation and all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing but he does according to his will in the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and no one can ward off his hand or say to him what have you done in other words this sovereign is accountable to no one and that's one of the things about him that makes him god and you and i not god he is not accountable to us we are accountable to him and at best when those things happen in our lives we have to acknowledge the sovereignty of god who does encourage us by saying nothing happens apart from my sovereign will and he encourages us in the new testament when he says that all things work together for good he didn't say all things are good and i'm glad he didn't but he said all things work together for good and what is that good health comfort prosperity some would say go to the next verse verse 29 of that same chapter in romans chapter 8 and you discover that the purpose of god is that you be conformed to the image of his son that's his purpose and oh the writer of scripture said see how he learned obedience through the things that he suffered psalm 103 19 says the lord has established his throne in the heavens and his sovereignty rules over all now what right does god have to rule over all that there is well paul answers it here god is the rightful ruler of heaven and earth because verse 24a god made the world and all things in it and you know why the heart of of unregenerate man resists the idea of the creator god because of god created everything that there is he has the right to rule everyone who lives so we must resist the idea that he created everything that there is otherwise i might be accountable to him as creator god and paul will go on to declare and this is a rather sticky point with unregenerate man that mankind will one day be accountable to this creator god if he created all things then he has the right over all that lives this is his planet not mine this is his human race not mine this is his animal kingdom not mine these are his resources not mine this is his destiny not mine this is this is his time his span his planning not mine that somehow if we can resist the idea that he is creator of all if we can keep that domino from falling then you don't have to worry about being accountable to the creator god and so we have to stay over here and dig our heels in and i can understand full well why but paul declares here my god made it all and you might notice that nowhere in act 17 does paul ever attempt to prove the existence of god he simply declares he is just like the beginning of your bible in the beginning god and then he doesn't list 10 proofs of god's existence simply declares it in the beginning god in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth now if paul were in a synagogue he'd start with the old testament law perhaps he would begin with scripture he'd begin from a basis of of the prophets but he's speaking here to an athenian crowd who doesn't appreciate the word knows little of it and so he takes them back to the place where god began he goes and he basically redeclares genesis 1 1 god existed and god created all that there is and it's up to us as to whether or not by his grace we will believe it in faith in isaiah 45 18 the prophet describes god as the god who formed the earth and made it jeremiah picked up the same theme as he writes it is he who made the earth by his power who established the world by his wisdom and by his understanding he has stretched out the heavens you go to the new testament and discover the same truth ephigians that god created at all god created all things one of the passages that we read as we as we worked our way musically through this attribute of god is creative ability in colossians we discover that jesus christ is that person of the godhead specifically directing the creation of all that there is and so in colossians we read as it points to jesus christ that by him all things were created that is by the second person of the godhead by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created by him and for him creation is where paul begins it's a great place to begin with maybe your friends because if a person can believe in a creator god he is prepared to believe in the second creation he can believe in the first creation of genesis wanting believe in the second creation but a man be in christ he is a new what creation those who place their faith in him becoming a new creation then are allowed to be part of the third creation when god according to revelation wipes all this away and he recreates a new heaven and a new earth now go back to verse 24 again paul states the god who made the world and all things in a paul's original word translated world here's the the greek word cosmos you're familiar with that word it's a very clever choice of words simply because a revered athenian who lived centuries before paul named homer used the word cosmos in fact another one that would come along a brilliant philosopher by the name of plato would use this same word homer used it in the sense of the order of grecian democracy it still was unrelated to the universe plato then chose that word cosmos and used it to relate the order of a woman's cosmetics he talked of how she put this layer on and then this layer and then this layer and then this layer and then probably got into a lot of trouble with mrs plato for for doing that but at any rate that's how he used the word then the word developed and eventually began to be relegated only to the idea of order in the universe the cosmos an ordered universe and so that's what he is talking about here is he uses that word in an interesting way as you referred to all that god created having order and fashion and form in fact one of the arguments for creation uses that greek word the cosmos or the cosmological argument if you're taking notes that's one of the two that i've put there since we see the effects of order this cosmological argument says since we see the effects of order there had to have been a cause of order another argument is the teleological argument that is there is complex design in creation and complex design demands a divine what designer let me give you a couple of examples and as i give you examples even as i have referenced the cosmological and teleological arguments i want you to know they do not produce faith any evidence that you can give to somebody will not produce faith for those of us who have faith let me give you a couple of illustrations and i want to let you know before i do especially because of this first one which is out of the world of science that i am way over my head i'm going to admit that right now uh i i took science just so i could graduate from high school and college and that was about all that i that i got i made the mistake one time a few years ago giving an illustration from memory where i talked about the number of chromosomes in the human body and i i messed up the number and ended up giving us a lot more than we were supposed to have and somebody came up after the service who knew the number and promptly told me so at any rate i'm i'm treading on thin ice here i kind of feel like the five-year-old boy that that was really excited when he came up from church because his sunday school teacher had told his class about adam and eve and the creation of adam and eve and how god took one of adam's ribs and created eve out of it and he was so excited about that little five-year-old boy he was running around the house a few days later and he came to his mom he said oh mommy my side hurts i think i'm having a wife well that's my speed okay the first illustration of a creative wonderful design that demands a designer comes from the writings of an unbeliever this book was published last year and it has created a firestorm darwin's black box written by a biochemist if you particularly enjoy this kind of a reading you will be fascinated by what he has discovered in the laboratory and how it demands somebody have some answers as it relates to darwinian evolution because it doesn't make sense let me read uh some some edited thoughts by gentlemen in our church who's actually working through this book and giving me some of the digested truths in the 1800s darwin's time the cell was just an unopened black box that's the idea behind the title darwin assumed that the inside of a cell was simple ernst haco a darwin disciple believed that a cell was quote a simple little lump of carbon now this was before the invention of the kind of technology that allow us to see inside a cell at all the complexity but darwin didn't have the ability but here's what darwin went on to say if it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous successive slight modifications my theory would absolutely break down well with the advent of the electron microscope it has allowed the investigation of the complexities at the cellular level fascinating now for the average person who's been taught darwinian evolution since grade school more than likely they have not been told of darwin's own personal anxiety and doubt his own level of discouragement over even what he had discovered and yet i came across a quote here it is here's a letter that darwin wrote here's a little brief line or two from it these were published later after his death where darwin writes these words i grieve to say that i cannot honestly go as far as you do about design evidently he's writing a creationist a friend 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 a result of design again i say i am and shall ever remain in a hopeless muddle well the apostle paul centuries before darwin surrounded by pantheists whose writings would cut across the grain of the deists the panentheists the atheists he clears away the muddle as he writes in act 17 in just one brief phrase in verse 24 god who made the world and all things in it that is every separate thing it was created by a divine designer one more illustration this time from a medical doctor a man by the name of paul brand who wrote a fascinating book listen to what he says okay hang with me just a few more minutes and i'll let you out of class locked away inside each cell nucleus is a chemically coiled strand of dna once the egg and sperm share their inheritance the dna lateral ladder splits down the center of every gene much as the teeth of a zipper pull apart dna reforms itself each time the cell divides two four eight sixteen thirty two cells each with the identical dna along the way cells specialize but each carries the entire instruction book of 100 000 genes dna is estimated to contain instructions that if written out would fill a thousand books each 600 pages long a nerve cell may operate according to instructions from volume four a kidney cell may operate from instructions found in volume 25 but both cells carry the entire set of books the dna is so narrow and compacted that all the genes in my body's cells would fit into an ice cube yet if the dna were unwound and joined together end to end the strand could stretch from the earth to the sun and back more than 400 times fearfully and wonderfully made the apostle paul declared to this group of people gathered on mars hill you've searched for the truth of origins the truth of the supernatural he says i'm here to give you the rosetta stone the one that translates your questions into meaning his name is jesus christ and this wonderful courageous grand ambassador of christ there at the areopagus says to this crowd and to all of us my god is more than a monument and my god made it all the people living around you and the people working with you have the same needs and the same desires as the citizens of ancient athens they need to be introduced to their creator and i hope today's time in god's word has challenged you to be an ambassador for christ thanks for joining us today you've been listening to wisdom for the heart our bible teacher is stephen davey stephen is also the president of shepherd's theological seminary you can learn more about our ministry at our website which is wisdom online.org that site gives you access to all of our resources there's also a form you can use to fill out and communicate with us if you need to send us a message we're always delighted to hear from you and we'd love to learn how god's using this program and our ministry to strengthen your faith one resource that i want to point out that you'll find on our site is a clear and concise gospel presentation that'll help you share the truth of god's word with others the presentation is called god's wisdom for your heart it's available on our website and also on our app if you'd like printed copies to share with people we have those available as well and you'll find those in our online store thanks for joining us today come back next time as we continue through this series on wisdom for the heart you
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