For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

Acts 17:22-25


22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.



"Is Your God Known?”



What do you ask first when you meet someone that you want to bring to Christ? The general answer would be “Do you believe in God?” That was what I used to do. But I changed my question after I got feedback from a missionary. The missionary told us, “if you ask anyone in the mission field with the question whether they believe in God or not, the answer will be mostly positive.” Most, if not all, people believe in god no matter where you go. The question is whether they believe in true God or false god. So the suggestion from the missionary was that we should ask “Do you believe in Jesus?” instead of the generic word “god”. That was a very helpful advice. Man is a religious being. Religion is everywhere. God is everywhere. But is your God true God whom you know personally? Does your god know you personally? Apostle Paul was visiting Athens. It was an era of the Roman Empire. But the intellectual foundation of the Roman empire was Greek. The Greek language and culture were used and respected in all territory of the Roman empire. For that reason, Apostle Paul might have expected something better from Athens than the rest of the cities in the region. But he became totally disappointed. He even felt angry. The whole city was filled with idols with various titles. They even worshipped “the unknown god”. To me, the title “unknown god” whoever made it, seems better in a sense than others. Who really knows what their lifeless idols are? Do they really know what Zeus or Athena is? They all pretend to know them by giving them fake identities. “Unknown god” at least shows some honesty. Out of anger and compassion for the people, Paul stood up and preach to the Athenians about the “Known God”. I am as much disappointed and upset at the citizens of the world today who basically wasn't changed a bit from Athenians that Paul saw. Why are they still following lifeless idols that are basically all unknown? Why don’t they come to the “known God” who revealed Himself clearly to us? This “known God of us” is the creator himself not created by human hands. This known God not only is known to us but also He knows us. He knows my name, my joy, my hurt my tears. My life. He is not a taker, but a giver of life and love. Are you perhaps Athenians of the 21st century? Is your God known? Does your God know you? Come to the true God who is known and knows you. He is calling you and waiting for you. Amen!