| PAUL IN ATHENS |

The people of Athens were confused. They had a large number of gods that they worshiped that they thought were in control of various parts of life. What they did not understand is that there is actually one God who is in control of all of life. Paul (whom we saw yesterday, converted to Christ) explains to them that there is a God who made all things, “the world and everything in it.”

Paul goes further to say that God is not made of wood, silver or stone. God is not an idol. This is important. You may not worship a statue or an idol, but there is a good chance that you have treated created things like they are of greater importance than God. Idolatry isn’t just when a person creates a statue out of wood. Idolatry is when we treat anything, even a good thing, as though it were a God thing.

Only Jesus is truly God. Paul proclaims that Jesus is the resurrected Lord of all things. If we were to read all the letters of Paul in the New Testament, we would quickly see that Paul is willing to proclaim Jesus as Lord in spite of multiple times that people would mock him or even physically assault him.

Why does Paul endure such mocking and other sufferings? Because “some men joined him and believed.” The goal of Paul and every believer is that we would leverage our lives so that those who do not know Jesus might come to know him and trust him for forgiveness and life.