Sermon Date: May 14, 2023
Prayer of the Day:
O God, the giver of all that is good, by Your holy inspiration grant that we may think
those things that are right and by Your merciful guiding accomplish them; through
Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
Acts 17:16-34
“16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he
saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the
devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said,
“What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign
divinities” — 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 that you are
presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what
these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend
their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in
every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your
worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you
worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in
it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served
by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and
breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the
face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,
27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is
actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as
even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 29 Being then God’s
offspring, 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. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now
he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will
judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given
assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of
the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went
out from 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.”