SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP SERVICE, 19 April 2026
Sermon Series: “The Acts of the Apostles” (#27)
Sermon Text: Acts 17:16-34
Main Points:
Introduction
I. A city full of gods but empty of truth
II. The God who cannot be confined, constructed or controlled
III. The world must now respond to the risen Christ
Conclusion
About twenty years after the death and resurrection of Christ, the Apostle Paul arrived in a city renowned across the ancient world for its achievements. Athens stood at the centre of Greek civilisation – celebrated for its wealth, philosophy, culture, and artistic brilliance. It was, in many ways, a city that embodied human excellence at its peak.
When Paul entered the city, what we now see as ruins would then have been a place of striking beauty and grandeur. Temples, statues, and public buildings displayed the confidence and creativity of a people who believed they were at the forefront of wisdom and civilisation.
Paul had come alone, waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him from Macedonia. The atmosphere in Athens was markedly different from Philippi or Thessalonica. Here was a city shaped less by political turbulence and more by intellectual refinement and cultural pride. Even for someone like Paul – himself no stranger to academic and philosophical environments – the city would’ve appeared impressive.
Yet, his response was not admiration but deep spiritual disturbance. As he walked through the city, he was not drawn into fascination but provoked in his spirit by what he saw. Moving through Athens, what first appeared impressive quickly revealed its true character. The very things that made the city great in the eyes of the world – its temples, its statues, its religious devotion – became the reason for Paul’s distress. What others admired, Paul grieved over. What others celebrated as culture, Paul recognised as idolatry. Behind the beauty and intellectual energy, he discerned something far serious: a city filled with religious activity, yet estranged from the true God.
He was meant to wait for his co-workers. After the hardship and opposition he had recently endured in Macedonia, he could easily have justified rest or quiet recovery. But he could not remain idle. The spiritual need before him was too great, and the message he carried too urgent. So, he began to engage the city – speaking of Christ wherever he went, proclaiming the gospel in the marketplace, and calling people to the truth he could not withhold.
I. A City Full of Gods But Empty of Truth
And this is where we must begin. Athens was not lacking religion – it was overflowing with it. Altars, images, and shrines filled the city. When the Roman Empire absorbed Athens in the 1st century BC, it was said that there were more gods than people. Historians suggest there were dozens of active temples and hundreds of smaller shrines throughout the city.
So, the Athenians were deeply religious, but profoundly mistaken, because they did not know the true God. The problem in Athens was not religion, but misdirected worship; not the absence of gods, but the ignorance of the true God. A city full of gods – and yet, empty of truth.
Before we consider that lack of truth more closely, it is worth seeing just how advanced and sophisticated this city was. Athens was the birthplace of democracy. While democracy became the dominant political system in much of the world only in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Athens, it had already taken shape around 500 BC – more than two millennia earlier. The citizens did not merely elect leaders; they understood themselves to participate directly in governing.
Athens also shaped the world of theatre as we know it. Tragedy and comedy were developed and performed in places like the Theatre of Dionysus, a vast open-air venue that could hold up to 17,000 people.
Its architecture was not only grand but carefully ordered according to mathematical precision. The Doric and Ionic styles established a visual language of authority that continues to influence public buildings today – from courts to parliaments.
And, in the 1st century AD, Athens remained one of the foremost centres of higher learning in the Roman world. It was, in effect, the ‘Oxford’ of its time. Influential Romans such as Cicero and Horace regarded their education as incomplete without studying there.
I mention these things not simply to rehearse history, but to help you see how surprisingly familiar this city actually is. Athens in the 1st century is not as distant from us as we might think. In many ways, it resembles the great modern cities of our world – places marked by wealth, education, culture, and confidence. Even cities like Perth reflect something of that same spirit.
You might object that the comparison goes too far. After all, we do not see temples and shrines dominating our cities in the same way. Nor do most people regularly attend places of formal worship.
But, spiritually speaking, there’s no fundamental difference. The people of our cities, like the Athenians, are deeply religious – their devotion is directed toward anything but the true God. The Athenians gave themselves to gods of their own choosing; modern people, in a similar way, elevate the self as the ultimate object of choice – shaping identity, purpose, and meaning according to personal desire.
In both cases, the problem is the same: a lack of the knowledge of the true God, and a wilful substitution to idols instead of the true God. Full of gods in their lives and city, yet, empty of truth.
II. The God Who Cannot Be Confined, Constructed or Controlled
Now, let us look more closely at the problem of idolatry – both in 1st century Athenians and in our own time. What lies at the heart of it? If we grasp this, we’ll better understand the apostle’s message – as he confronts the idolatry that darkens the human mind.
Paul exposes the heart of idolatry in a simple but penetrating way. Idolatry is every attempt to bring God down to the level of human being. It is the effort to confine Him, to construct Him, and ultimately to control Him.
First, people assume that God can be confined to a place. But Paul declares, “The God who made the world and everything in it … does not live in temples made by man” (v. 24). The Athenians filled their city with temples, as though the divine could be located and assigned to particular spaces – temples, shrines, and sacred sites. If a god could be located, then he could be approached, managed, and dealt with on human terms.
But, that is impossible. God is the Creator of all things. How can the Creator be confined within what He has made? How can He be reduced to something smaller than His own creation? A designer is not contained within the structure he designs; he exists beyond it and exercises authority over it. In the same way, God is not within the world as one part among others – He is over it as its Maker and Lord.
The same logic applies today. The unbelieving mind may not build temples, but it still assumes that God is distant – somewhere removed, beyond reach, outside the ordinary course of life. In this way, people draw boundaries and assume that God remains outside them, unable to intervene. This is simply impossible.
So, whether in ancient Athens or in the modern world, the attitude is strikingly the same: God is kept at a distance, confined – whether to temples or to the margins of life. But the truth Paul proclaims is this: the Creator God cannot be confined; He is not far from each one of us.
Second, the Athenians believed that God could be constructed. They did not merely house their gods – they shaped them. Their gods reflected human imagination, artistic skill, and cultural values.
But the apostle exposes the absurdity of this. In v. 29, he says, “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 direction is completely reversed. It is not God who is shaped by human thought, but human beings who are made by God. No matter how refined or sophisticated, human thinking cannot reconstruct God. To do so is not insight – it is idolatry.
This is no different in the 21st century. We may not see people carving images, but the impulse remains. God is reshaped in more subtle ways – redefined to fit personal beliefs, or reduced to those attributes that feel most comfortable. In this way, God becomes what people prefer Him to be. For some, He must be only loving and forgiving, and not the just and holy Judge. For others, He is treated as casual rather than sovereign – more a companion than the Lord of heaven.
And third, God cannot be controlled. This is the deepest layer of the idolatry. In pagan religion, offerings and rituals often functioned as transactions – that is, giving something to a god in order to receive favour in return. Such a system assumes that the god is, in some sense, dependent – that he can be influenced, managed, and even obligated by human action.
Paul overturns this completely. In v. 25, he says, “nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” God is not one who receives because He is in need; He is the One who gives everything.
Idolatry, at its core, seeks to reverse the relationship – placing humans in control and God in a position of dependence. It is a complete reversal of the truth. And this is not confined to the ancient world. The same appears today. Even among those who profess faith, there can be a subtle tendency to treat obedience as leverage – thinking, ‘If I do this, God must bless me.’ Others approach God as a means to personal ends, assuming that outcomes can be negotiated on their own terms.
But the true God cannot be confined, constructed, or controlled. This is the message Paul brings to Athens – they must abandon their religion; they must repent and come to the true God.
III. The World Must Now Respond to the Risen Christ
The way to abandon idolatry is to turn to the true God and to believe in the Saviour He has sent. This brings us to the final – and most important – part of the message.
Paul presses this with unmistakable urgency. In v. 30, he declares, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.” This is not a suggestion, but a universal command. Why now? V. 31 gives the reason: “because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness.” God has appointed a definite day. History is moving toward it. And when that day comes, there will be no further opportunity for repentance, no second chance to seek God’s favour.
Some may question the urgency, since that day has not yet arrived. But, the certainty of that day is matched by the uncertainty of our own lives. Each person will face the end – whether sooner or later, expected or sudden. The call to repent is urgent, not because we know when judgment will come, but because we do not.
When a person turns from sin, the question follows: to whom do we turn? Paul answers: to Jesus Christ. This is the One through whom God will judge the world. And God has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.
Though Paul states it briefly here, the meaning is profound. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world to bear the sins of His people. He died, and God raised Him from the dead, declaring Him to be the appointed Judge of the world and the Saviour of all who believe.
So, the message is clear: God has fixed a day of judgment. He now commands all people to repent – to turn from idolatry and to trust in His Son. This is the only way to life, the only truth to hold, the only hope for sinners. And the time to respond is NOW!
Conclusion
Those who mock this message and dismiss it as nonsense will one day stand before the righteous Judge, with no escape from that encounter. But, for all who receive it and turn from their sins in faith to Jesus Christ, there is the assurance of God’s favour. Their present life is already transformed by grace, and their joy will deepen and increase until it is brought to completion on the day of judgment.
That day, which God has appointed for the world, will be either the day of final justice or the day of everlasting joy – justice for those who reject Him, and joy perfected for those who belong to Christ. So, repent and believe in the Son, and have life! ***
St Columba's Presbyterian Church 