SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/12/2018
8:23 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 Intro to Acts 17:16-34
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
17:16-34
Message of the
verses: “16 Now while Paul was
waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was
observing the city full of idols. 17 So he was reasoning in the synagogue with
the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with
those who happened to be present. 18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic
philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, "What would this
idle babbler wish to say?" Others, "He seems to be a proclaimer of
strange deities,"-because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know
what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? 20 “For you are bringing
some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things
mean." 21 (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to
spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)
22 So Paul stood in the midst of the
Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious
in all respects. 23 “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.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 "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; 25 nor is He served by
human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people
life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of
mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed
times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if
perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each
one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own
poets have said, ’For we also are His children.’ 29 "Being then the children of God, we
ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an
image formed by the art and thought of man. 30 "Therefore having
overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people
everywhere should repent, 31 because He
has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man
whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from
the dead."
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection
of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, "We shall hear you
again concerning this." 33 So Paul went out of their midst. 34 But some
men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and
a woman named Damaris and others with them.”
I will begin this SD the same way that John MacArthur
begins the 10th chapter of his second commentary on the book of Acts
which covers chapters 13-28 of the book of Acts. He entitles this 10th chapter “Getting
to Know the Unknown God,” and as we go through the verses that go along with
this section of Acts we will perhaps see that people today certainly need to
hear the words that are in this wonderful sermon that Paul preaches to a group
of idol worshipers from the city of Athens.
MacArthur begins his commentary on this section by quoting a couple of
paragraphs from Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s morning message that he preached on
January 7, 1855:
“It has been said by someone
that ‘the proper study of mankind is man.’
I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the
proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the
Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest
speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a
child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and
the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father…..
“Would you lose your
sorrows? Would you drown your
cares? Then go plunge yourself in the
Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity, and you shall come forth as
from as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul;
so calm the swelling billows of grief and sorrow; so speak peace to the winds
of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.”
MacArthur further comments on this sermon: Although spoken well over a century ago,
Spurgeon’s words speak forcefully to today’s church. In this age of liberalism, neoorthodoxy,
pragmatism, psychology, emotionalism, experientialism, and man-centered
theology, the church desperately needs a proper perspective God.” I will have to admit that MacArthur’s words
that he has written here are what I was trying to say, but he says them more eloquently.
The message that Christ gives through His gospel (good
news) is what the world needs most of all.
The things that mankind does to give him temporary pleasure is as stated
only temporary and actually does not satisfy the soul. The good news of Christ give a person what is
needed and that is a relationship with the triune God, something that was lost
when Adam sinned in the garden, and something that mankind can never, ever get
back on their own.
I have often said in my Spiritual Diaries and also in my
Sunday school class that the very best thing that a new believer can do, and
this by the way is a lifelong process, and that is to get to know the God who
saved you. The study of God’s attributes
from the Scriptures is the best way to learn who God is, but before this can
happen a person has to realize that they were born a sinner, and are in need of
salvation that can only come from confessing your sin to the Lord and then to
believe with all your heart that God has provided salvation for you through
sending His Son to planet earth to take your place on the cross (and while
hanging on the cross God took out His holy wrath on Him for those three
darkened hours) and accept what Christ did for you and you will go from
darkness to light. You will become a new
creature in Christ and will be assured of heaven where you will live with
Christ forever.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I desire to
continue to study who God is by a continued study of His attributes as I see
them in my study of His Word.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that as I study for my Sunday school
class that God will put onto my heart the things that He wants me to bring out
in our study of the fifth seal judgment from the 6th chapter of
Revelation.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Jesus” (Matthew 22:21).
Today’s Bible question: “What was the land later known as Palestine
called during the time of Abraham?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/12/2018 8:59 AM
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