back to indexMark Zhakevich | "Paul on Mars Hill" | Math3ma Symposium 2024
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My name is Mark Zakevich. I'm one of the pastors at Grace Church and a seminary professor. 00:00:13.000 |
And so it's a delight to be here with you this morning, kicking us off with a little devotional. 00:00:17.000 |
But before we do that, do you mind if I pray as we start our day? 00:00:21.000 |
And then we'll go into Acts chapter 17 for a few minutes. 00:00:28.000 |
And help us to remember that every single day is a blessing and a gift. 00:00:32.000 |
And we are responsible to steward the hours that you give us every single day to the honor of your name, 00:00:38.000 |
within the professions and the callings that you have given us. 00:00:42.000 |
As we think about this day and this entire weekend, we do entrust it to you, 00:00:47.000 |
asking that you would encourage every single person here to be faithful in the place that they find themselves in, 00:00:56.000 |
And as they look back on their lives, that they would confidently say, 00:01:04.000 |
And this morning, as we think about Paul in Athens, 00:01:09.000 |
Acts chapter 17, help us to be refreshed by the thought of your sovereignty. 00:01:14.000 |
We pray this to the honor of your name. Amen. 00:01:19.000 |
Well, this is what I'd like to talk about this morning, as I said in my prayer. 00:01:25.000 |
Paul in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 17. 00:01:29.000 |
And I'll have the passage on the screen for us, to kind of get us going devotionally, 00:01:34.000 |
so you don't have to look at your Bibles, but you're welcome to, if that's your preference. 00:01:38.000 |
And as I begin, there is a man by the name of Samuel Rutherford, 00:01:41.000 |
I think some of you may know and maybe even read some of his works, 00:01:45.000 |
who's a very famous pastor in Scotland in the 1600s. 00:01:52.000 |
He wrote many letters, many sermons, many books, devotional and academic works. 00:01:58.000 |
He was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, 00:02:00.000 |
where he was asked to become a professor, but declined. 00:02:03.000 |
And then he was given a professorship offer at the University of Utrecht, 00:02:10.000 |
Ultimately, he became a pastor and a professor at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, 00:02:15.000 |
then shortly after becoming director of that university. 00:02:20.000 |
He became one of the four commissioners sent to the Westminster Assembly from Scotland. 00:02:26.000 |
So now that gives us an understanding of who he was. 00:02:29.000 |
A significant, influential, spiritual leader in Scotland in the 1600s. 00:02:35.000 |
And it was said of him, and I quote, "He was always praying, preaching, visiting the sick, 00:02:42.000 |
catechizing, always writing, and always studying." 00:02:47.000 |
And he wrote letters to his congregants, encouraging them as they wrote, 00:02:52.000 |
asking questions on how do you live the Christian life. 00:02:56.000 |
And this is what he wrote to a woman that was struggling in embracing God's providence in her life. 00:03:05.000 |
"The great master gardener, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ in a wonderful providence, 00:03:11.000 |
with his own hand planted me there, whereby his grace in this part of the vineyard I grow. 00:03:18.000 |
I dare not say, but Satan and the world," one of his pages whom he sends on his errands, 00:03:26.000 |
And here I will abide till the great master of the vineyard think fit to transplant me. 00:03:33.000 |
But when he sees meat to loose me at the root, and to plant me where I may be more useful, 00:03:39.000 |
both as to fruit and shadow, and when he who planted pulleth up that he may transplant, 00:03:53.000 |
It's a wonderful reminder that where you find yourself in life is exactly where God wants you. 00:04:01.000 |
I have no idea what's happening in your life right now. 00:04:04.000 |
Maybe you're at the peak of your career, maybe you're just starting, 00:04:07.000 |
or maybe you're going through the most difficult season of your career. 00:04:11.000 |
And that can apply to a personal life, or perhaps to your spiritual life. 00:04:15.000 |
But whatever's happening now, we're not faulting God for the problems in our lives, 00:04:20.000 |
but we are trusting that God has us exactly where he wants us. 00:04:27.000 |
And if we trust that kind of a theology, then life becomes a bit more enjoyable, 00:04:34.000 |
and I think our stewardship becomes a bit more fruitful. 00:04:39.000 |
Because instead of pushing back and praying against God's providence, we embrace it. 00:04:44.000 |
I think that's Samuel Rutherford's intent in encouraging this woman 00:04:50.000 |
to embrace whatever God has given to her in this season of her life. 00:04:55.000 |
Now as we think about providence, our pastor, Pastor John, has defined worship as reflecting God's providence. 00:05:05.000 |
So I'm trying to make a link for us between worship and providence. 00:05:08.000 |
And if you read the book of the Psalms, you know that the Psalter frequently does that. 00:05:13.000 |
His worship is in response to his reflections and meditation on the providence of God in his life or in the universe. 00:05:22.000 |
And so as he trusts God's sovereignty and embraces it, he responds in worship. 00:05:29.000 |
So as we look at Acts chapter 17, we know the story a little bit contextually. 00:05:35.000 |
In chapter 16, Paul is chased out of Philippi. 00:05:38.000 |
Chapter 17 opens up with Paul being chased out of Thessalonica and Berea, 00:05:47.000 |
And as he lands in Athens, he ends up on what we call the Areopagus, 00:05:52.000 |
a place where all the philosophers were theologizing about the different deities that they were worshiping in their pantheon. 00:06:00.000 |
And so Paul finds an altar to the unknown God. 00:06:03.000 |
This is the actual altar to the unknown God, a picture from Rome, one of the museums in Rome. 00:06:10.000 |
And as he enters that arena, he is trying to find a way in, an on-ramp, into evangelism. 00:06:20.000 |
How do we speak to these individuals about the unknown God? 00:06:25.000 |
And so this is what he does, and I'm going to read for us this passage beginning in verse 22 to kind of get our hearts set. 00:06:35.000 |
So Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 00:06:43.000 |
For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription to an unknown God. 00:06:51.000 |
Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 00:06:55.000 |
The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, 00:06:59.000 |
doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, 00:07:05.000 |
since he himself gives life to all people and breath and all things. 00:07:10.000 |
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to inhabit all the face of the earth, 00:07:16.000 |
having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation. 00:07:20.000 |
That they would see God, if perhaps they might grope for him and find him, though he's not far from each one of us. 00:07:30.000 |
Even as some of your own poets have said, "For we are all also his offspring." 00:07:36.000 |
Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, 00:07:41.000 |
an image formed by the craft and thought of man. 00:07:45.000 |
Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, 00:07:52.000 |
because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. 00:07:58.000 |
In righteousness through a man whom he had determined, having furnished proof to all by raising him from the dead. 00:08:07.000 |
So you can imagine Paul not attacking their religions, not criticizing, not mocking, 00:08:15.000 |
but finding a connection by saying, "You're very religious." 00:08:20.000 |
Thereby understanding that God made every single person to be a worshiper. 00:08:26.000 |
Now they are worshiping the wrong things and we know that, but Paul's approach to evangelism is to say, 00:08:32.000 |
"I recognize that deep down you are a worshiper and I'm going to appeal to that desire, but I need to redirect it." 00:08:40.000 |
As you find yourselves in your professional environments, I hope this gives us an example on how to evangelize. 00:08:46.000 |
Sometimes we are so aggressive in our love for Christ, so committed, that sometimes we come across as a little bit hostile. 00:08:56.000 |
Let's be honest about it, especially when we just get saved, right? 00:08:59.000 |
We're so zealous that everything is important all the time and we have to make sure that the person believes everything in the Bible immediately. 00:09:09.000 |
I remember for the first time believing in the sovereignty of God and I was going to take on the entire Russian Baptist Union, 00:09:18.000 |
I had my stack of sovereignty of God books and I was ready to battle anybody. 00:09:30.000 |
But I think we sometimes evangelize that way and I have as well. 00:09:34.000 |
And then we look at Paul and Paul says, "Hey, there is something inherently embedded by God in each person to worship." 00:09:43.000 |
You just don't need to worship the right God. 00:09:47.000 |
Because our understanding of God will ultimately frame our entire life. 00:09:56.000 |
It was Tozer who said, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. 00:10:04.000 |
The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion. 00:10:10.000 |
And man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. 00:10:18.000 |
Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. 00:10:24.000 |
For this reason, the gravest question before the church is always God himself. 00:10:30.000 |
And the most pretentious fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, 00:10:36.000 |
but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. 00:10:40.000 |
We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. 00:10:48.000 |
That is, we frame our lives and our thoughts to our understanding of God. 00:10:56.000 |
So since that is true, Paul says, "Let's begin with the sovereign God." 00:11:04.000 |
And so as we think about the beginning of worship and the foundation of worship 00:11:12.000 |
being a grasp and an embracing of the sovereignty of God, 00:11:18.000 |
we then understand it will frame our entire life. 00:11:26.000 |
He said, "Let me introduce you to the sovereign God." 00:11:30.000 |
And God's sovereignty is manifest and really expressed in your life in three ways. 00:11:37.000 |
The first one is that Paul presents him as the author of your life. 00:11:43.000 |
Verse 24 said, "The God who made the world and all things in it, 00:11:50.000 |
In verse 26, he says, "He made from one man every nation of mankind 00:11:56.000 |
And he doesn't need man to serve him because he gives life to all people, breath, and all things. 00:12:04.000 |
Paul says, "He is the Lord of heaven and earth." 00:12:07.000 |
Everything that's above you and everything that is below you. 00:12:12.000 |
Ultimately saying we're talking about the entire universe. 00:12:16.000 |
We're not just talking about an aspect of creation. 00:12:19.000 |
The entire creation is in Paul's mind when he says that God is the author of life. 00:12:28.000 |
In verse 10, "Every beast of the forest is mine. 00:12:58.000 |
So Paul says he doesn't need a temple to dwell in. 00:13:04.000 |
Because, verse 25, he gives life and breath and all things to all people. 00:13:11.000 |
I think that's what we need to embrace and recognize. 00:13:13.000 |
That our life, that's why I prayed at the beginning. 00:13:17.000 |
This passage has been in my mind so it's appropriate to reflect that way. 00:13:23.000 |
And whatever the day holds, thank you for at least letting me get out of bed. 00:13:33.000 |
And Paul says, in case you missed it, let me repeat it in verse 28. 00:13:36.000 |
"For in him we live and we move and we exist." 00:13:43.000 |
There's no we are apart from God's sovereign care of us. 00:13:49.000 |
This is the first truth that Paul says, embrace the God who is sovereign because he's the author of your life. 00:13:54.000 |
But secondly, because he is the architect of your life. 00:14:00.000 |
"He made from one man every nation of mankind to inhabit all the face of the earth." 00:14:05.000 |
"Having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation." 00:14:10.000 |
And so what I think Paul is doing here, is he says, God determines your last name. 00:14:19.000 |
The idea being, he places you in a specific nation. 00:14:23.000 |
You were born where you were born because of God's design. 00:14:26.000 |
In that specific nation and then you get granular in that specific family. 00:14:31.000 |
God is the reason why you have the last name that you have. 00:14:39.000 |
But, God also does determine your last name in that case as well. 00:14:45.000 |
Because if you believe in providence, he also has a play, a role to play in that, doesn't he? 00:14:50.000 |
So, the first thing that we see of God as the architect of our life is that he determines our last name. 00:14:58.000 |
But he also determines the length of our lives. 00:15:01.000 |
That's why Paul says, he determined their appointed times. 00:15:06.000 |
Their appointed times when they live and how long they live. 00:15:15.000 |
And third, he says in verse 26, the boundaries of their habitation. 00:15:22.000 |
So, now we begin to think about God moving people from place to place. 00:15:28.000 |
From city to city, whether it's for school or for work or for ministry. 00:15:39.000 |
Sometimes immigration that takes place is out of deep poverty. 00:15:45.000 |
Where you can be more useful because God is transplanting you from one continent to another. 00:15:50.000 |
From one country to another in order to make you more fruitful. 00:16:04.000 |
Whatever is happening, it is God's perfect and just and loving plan for you right now. 00:16:13.000 |
Because he's behind the scenes setting it all up. 00:16:18.000 |
If there's a medical issue in your life right now, God is bringing that into your life. 00:16:23.000 |
Ultimately to refine you, to conform you into the likeness of Christ. 00:16:35.000 |
Now you can interpret this as God is in control and I'm just a pawn in his hand. 00:16:46.000 |
Or you can think about it from the perspective of an architect. 00:16:49.000 |
Whenever an architect designs a house and he follows certain regulations. 00:16:53.000 |
And in LA is the worst because there are too many regulations. 00:17:00.000 |
But generally speaking outside of Los Angeles, it has good intent. 00:17:04.000 |
They're trying to be safe and to protect you from the roof from collapsing on you. 00:17:10.000 |
And so there is an element of safety and care and protection implied when the architect designs a specific building. 00:17:22.000 |
He's not just trying to control as much as express his love for us. 00:17:27.000 |
And so God's care is demonstrated through him being the architect of our lives. 00:17:37.000 |
Psalm 139 reminds us that God has protected us from the top, from the back, from the front. 00:17:42.000 |
And he's holding our hand as we move through this life. 00:17:48.000 |
God in those moments of weakness that we have isn't afraid or isn't ashamed to come and encourage us. 00:17:58.000 |
And so many stories in the Gospels coming and actually physically touching those who are ostracized. 00:18:10.000 |
Those who were deemed to be cursed by God because of their physical ailment. 00:18:15.000 |
And yet Jesus comes and lays his hand upon them. 00:18:30.000 |
Well because ultimately he's the authority over us. 00:18:33.000 |
I think that's what Paul is ultimately going after. 00:18:35.000 |
If you embrace God as a sovereign God over the universe and over your life, 00:18:40.000 |
then you recognize that there's something looming for every single person that God is trying to protect you from. 00:18:54.000 |
In verse 28, verse 26 rather, he said he set the boundaries of their habitation. 00:19:01.000 |
In similar language, imaginatively speaking, where Job writes that God told the sea thus far you shall go and no further. 00:19:13.000 |
Where God controls the sea and the waves and they stop where he tells them to stop. 00:19:18.000 |
In the same sense, he controls the habitation of our lives. 00:19:23.000 |
But there's a progress toward intimacy in Paul's passage. 00:19:28.000 |
He starts out by God as the creator of the universe. 00:19:34.000 |
And then in verse 28 he says we are all his children. 00:19:39.000 |
Now it becomes very personal and very intimate. 00:19:42.000 |
Where now God sees you as a child that he has created and is caring for and is protecting and is leading with his hand. 00:19:52.000 |
What he's doing here I believe is he's trying to use general revelation to pull us toward special revelation. 00:20:01.000 |
Because in verse 27 he says God did all this that they would seek him. 00:20:06.000 |
Perhaps they would grope for him and they would find him though he is not far from each of us. 00:20:15.000 |
And God is using general revelation to pull people toward himself so they would become worshippers. 00:20:25.000 |
But as the author and the architect he now is the authority because of what we read toward the end of the passage. 00:20:35.000 |
God is commanding man that everyone everywhere should repent. 00:20:40.000 |
Because there is a fixed day when he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he determined having furnished proof to all by raising him from the dead. 00:20:51.000 |
In John 5 it says that there is only one judge and God has entrusted all judgment to Jesus. 00:20:58.000 |
In Romans 2 verse 16 it says God will judge the secrets of man through Christ Jesus. 00:21:06.000 |
And that's the authority aspect that ultimately God will judge. 00:21:14.000 |
In verse 2 he says how can a man be made right before God? 00:21:18.000 |
Verse 15 he says though I were right I couldn't answer. 00:21:22.000 |
I would have to implore the mercy of my judge. 00:21:25.000 |
In verse 28 in the same chapter he says I know that you will not acquit me. 00:21:32.000 |
Verse 32 he's not a man as I am that I may answer him that we may go to court together. 00:21:38.000 |
Verse 33 there is no umpire between us who may lay his hand upon us both. 00:21:43.000 |
Do you see the desperation and the hopelessness in Job's cry? 00:21:48.000 |
I wish there was somebody who could actually stand next to me and defend me before God. 00:21:56.000 |
There is no social parity between the two of us and I can't just show up to him or with him. 00:22:08.000 |
And that's what I think Paul is picking up here. 00:22:11.000 |
He says there is a looming dark cloud of judgment coming. 00:22:22.000 |
And so what Job was crying out for Paul answers in 1st Timothy 2 when he says there is one God. 00:22:39.000 |
And this man Paul calls in 1st Timothy 1.1 our hope. 00:22:44.000 |
And the way he says it in the original is Jesus is the embodiment of hope. 00:22:53.000 |
He wants us to understand that our hope is actually contained in Christ. 00:22:58.000 |
Which is why in Hebrews 6 we read it is impossible for God to lie. 00:23:02.000 |
We who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. 00:23:11.000 |
A hope both sure and confirmed and one which enters within the veil. 00:23:16.000 |
Where a forerunner has entered for us Jesus having become a high priest forever. 00:23:26.000 |
So as we embrace God as the author, the architect and the authority of our lives. 00:23:36.000 |
But I would say secondly as you so faithfully are at the forefront of a very difficult environment. 00:23:44.000 |
Yesterday I got a text from a friend of mine who is a fireman here in LA. 00:23:48.000 |
And he said his superior told him to fly the gay flag today. 00:23:52.000 |
I just got a text a few moments ago right before I walked in. 00:23:56.000 |
He said because it's drizzling they decided not to raise the flags. 00:24:08.000 |
I hope we don't just say well that's coincidental. 00:24:10.000 |
No there is an answer where God protected my friend from having to wrestle in his conscience. 00:24:24.000 |
I'm sure you have your own stories where God is leading you and you are in moments of difficulty. 00:24:30.000 |
Trying to make decisions about faithfulness at work and faithfulness to God. 00:24:35.000 |
But if we embrace God as the sovereign one we can trust him. 00:24:40.000 |
That everything is coming from his good hand. 00:24:42.000 |
Which is why I would like to end this from a prayer from the Puritans. 00:24:46.000 |
The prayer is called the God who is the source of all good. 00:24:50.000 |
The heavens, oh Lord God who inhabits eternity. 00:25:00.000 |
Thy presence fills immensity yet thou hast of thy pleasure created life and communicated happiness. 00:25:07.000 |
Thou has made me what I am and given me what I have. 00:25:12.000 |
Thy providence has set the bounds of my habitation. 00:25:22.000 |
For the unclouded revelation of him in your word. 00:25:25.000 |
Where I behold his person, character, grace, glory, humiliation, sufferings, death and resurrection. 00:25:35.000 |
Give me to feel a need of his continual saviorhood. 00:25:42.000 |
Let me know the need of renovation as well as of forgiveness. 00:25:50.000 |
Impress me deeply with a sense of thine omnipresence. 00:25:55.000 |
That thou art about my path, my ways, my lying down, my end. 00:26:03.000 |
If we embrace God who is sovereign over every detail in our lives. 00:26:14.000 |
Thank you that we can embrace every detail trusting you that you saved us. 00:26:22.000 |
And so we appeal to you even now as we start this day. 00:26:25.000 |
That you would continue to bless every speaker. 00:26:35.000 |
We would be more faithful in our environment to the honor of your name.