Quest For The Unknown
Acts17:16-34
QUEST: A seeking; hunting; pursuing
As hounds who have caught the scent of game
You & I - for 1999
History’s Quest
- 1999 World Almanac
Nobel Prize in Medicine = Viagra
- The most influential people for the last 1000 years
• William Shakespeare
• Isaac Newton
• Charles Darwin
- Mine would have been Christopher Columbus
1. A Quest Involves a Search
2, A Quest Results In A Discovery
3. The Quest Demands a Change
4. The Quest leaves a Record
1. The Quest Involves A Search - v.21
- Acts 17:21(KJV)
(For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)
- 17:16 - Athens - Surroundings
- Paid no taxes to Rome
- A city of cultural pride
- The center of enlightenment in science, art, and literature
- Temples galore
- Full of breathtaking Architecture
Areopagus - Center Piece
- “Ares’ Gk. god of war was murder
- Corresponds to Roman god “Mars”
- Hill is 370 ft.
- Place where homicide were tried
- 3 sides have benches
- 2 white stones where the defendant and accuser stood
- Called - The Stone of Shamelessness
- The Stone of Pride
Our Athens
- We want familiarity with our surroundings
- Maintain a standard of living
- A routine with out risk
- Give to our families
Our Areopagus
We want morality to be legislated
but not our hearts
- 17:16 - Idols - Feelings
Acts 17:16 (KJV)
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.
Acts 17:22 (KJV)
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
- NKJV - you are very religious.
- City crowed in every direction with temples idols and objects of worship
- Our idols today is on a tree shaded lot
- Is parked in the driveway
- Seeking an education for our kids
- Having great vacations
- Most often the color of our idol is green - $$$$
17:18 - Philosophers- (Ideas)
Epicureans
- Teaching Personal Individuality
- Personal Happiness
- Present Happiness over future Happy
- No life after death
- Materialism
- Paul did not criticize pleasure but the denial of the Resurrection
- Personal experience most important
- If I have to risk let me risk it on an amusement ride
- If my marriage is unhappy - get out
- Get rich schemes
Stoic - Acts 17:28 reference comes from the
Stoic poet Aratus quoting from Phenomena”
- “For indeed we are his offspring”
- Thinking above feelings surpress your desires
- Live disciplined lives
- Live in harmony with nature
- Pantheism god is in everything
- Protect the environment but not the unborn
- Today’s thinking New Age - we are gods
17:20-21 - Exchanging ideas
2 The Quest Results In A Discovery
* Jesus - v.18 - Takes God’s Wrath
Acts 17:18 (KJV).
Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.
• Resurrection - v.18 - Central to faith
Acts 17:18 (KJV)
....... " because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection
Romans 10:9 (KJV)
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
• Regenerates our Sp.
Philippians 3:10 (KJV)
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
• The power that raised Christ works in us
Ephesians 1:19-20 (KJV)
And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
• For victory over sins’s power
Romans 6:5-6 (KJV)
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
• Power for ministering
Acts 1:8 (KJV)
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
* Creator - 24
Acts 17:24(KJV)
"God, who made the world and all things therein,......
• We trust in His created work
• Why not His new work in us - 2 Cor. 5:17
* Lord - 24
Acts 17:24(NKJV)
..... seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;.
* Life giver - v.25
Acts 17:25(KJV)
Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
* Provider - v.25
........and all things.
3 The Quest Demands A Change
* Faith in the Lord
Acts 17:24-25 (KJV).
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
• Seek the Lord - v.27
Acts 17:27 (KJV)
That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
• Respond to the Lord v.28
Acts 17:28 (KJV)
For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
• Repent before the Lord - v.30
Acts 17:30 (KJV)
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
4 Quest’s Record
• Ridicule - v.32
Acts 17:32 (KJV)
And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
• Procrastinate - v.32
Acts 17:32 (KJV)
......"We will hear thee again on this matter."
• Trust - 34
Acts 17:34 (KJV)
Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
- Your search and quest ends at the cross with Jesus Christ
- Stop your searching and come to Him
