Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 17:22-31 (June 8, 2026)

June 8, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 17:22-31

Good morning on this hot desert day. It is wonderful to be back home in Tucson, and with the community of faithful people at American Ev. Lutheran Church. We drove around about 75% of the coastline of Lake Michigan, and Jared and Jesse were even brave enough to run to the water on the beach in Ludington, Michigan, and stick their toes in the lake. The water temperature was 44 degrees. We told them they could take a dip in their clothes, but the greater part of valor was to stay dry once they discovered just how freezing cold the water was. I am certain that this will be my last trip to the area of our country where Melody and I grew up. In Grand Traverse Bay we watched a three-masted schooner ply the water. It was the first time I had seen a ship of that size with sails on the Great Lakes, and that's after I worked in the Merchant Marine on Lake Michigan. Today is good for another reason, this is the day that we get back to the study on Paul's mission and ministry in the Acts of the Apostles.

Today we are in chapter 17:22-31. Here we find Paul wandering around the city where he is by himself in Athens. The city is home to many Philosophers, and to the multiplicity of gods which the people there worshiped. Paul becomes aware that people there were superstitious, and the number of altars to gods is proof that they want to be certain that every possibility for not offending some god is available, and yet in a place called the Areopagus Paul discovers an altar to an unknown god. It is here that Paul uses the opportunity to speak with the people about how they have missed the opportunity to worship and honor the Creator of all things, who has called for the repentance of all people, who is the God who has the right to judge everyone, but has chosen redemption rather than condemnation when His children are living faithfully.  Paul makes the following points in his speaking about the Athenian unknown god:

1. God is not made (images of statues and other human created art) God is the maker who cannot be worshiped through anything made by the hands of people!

2. God has guided all of history. His actions both build and destroy nations.

3. God has made people so that they instinctively seek Him. People search in the darkness because God has created them.

4. The days of endless unfulfilled hunting in the darkness for God are over. In Christ, the light and grace of God is revealed for all people.

5. The journey to God is not contained in the thinking of the Philosophers, nor in their search to be absorbed by their god, or to extinction. God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, calls all His children to His judgement throne upon which His Son Jesus Christ sits in judgement of everyone.

6. The proof of the pre-eminence of Christ is in His Resurrection from the dead! This is no unknown god, but the Risen Christ Himself.

Paul was indeed confident in his mission work, looking for a way to break into the many gods of the Greeks, and there in the midst of Athens he found the answer to which his lonely journey had guided him. In our lives, we are found to search for answers from God to the difficulties which we face, and the answer is always the same, the answer, the light, the hope, the love, and the Grace of God reside in our Savior.

God bless you. Stay safe in the heat and keep the needs of others in your heart.

With love in Christ, Pastor Kim