May 14, 2023               Text:  Acts 17:16-31

Dear Friends in Christ,

With the advent of online banking, bill paying, and credit card payments a problem arises people get their identity stolen.  And to think in college we got our grades by our social security number.  It was hanging in Schroeder and Stevenson Hall for all to see.  A few years back I knew someone who did have their identity stolen.  It was a mess.  Bank accounts opened, purchases made, and phone call after phone call trying to get things back to normal.  It took them well over a year to finally have their identity back.

What is your identity?  Is who you are a self-construction, or are you instead a creation of someone else, namely God?  The people in Athens have a problem with who they are.  They are not the product of the one, true God, but the product of many gods.  Paul, not shy about confrontation, addresses them in our text.  We are reminded that we have . . .

“OUR IDENTITY IN JESUS CHRIST”

Athens was a city of many idol statues and temples.  The most prominent was Athena, patron goddess of the city.  Whose temple was the Parthenon.  Because of Paul’s location in the Areopagus, when he spoke to the Athenians, he could see the Parthenon.  He spoke to two philosophies – Epicureanism and Stoicism.

The Epicureans were seeking a pleasurable life, but not in a sensual way.  The Stoics stressed the natural order of nature, and they urged people to accept their fate within it.  We don’t talk much today about being Epicurean, but we still call people stoic – without emotion.

These people were so confused about who they worshipped that Paul found “an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown God.” (v. 23).  Because they had so many gods, they didn’t want to miss one.  They built “temples made by man” so that their gods had a place to live.  Isn’t that nice?  Their identity was all confused.

I chuckle at people who say the Bible is outdated or doesn’t address the problems of today.  They miss what is right in front of them.  Man and woman have no idea who they are today.  They become a symbol or a letter in a jumble of letters.  Why are people killing themselves or others at an alarming rate?  Because they have no idea who they are.  They don’t fit in.  Isn’t it amazing that the people who don’t believe in God, are the ones telling everyone else what to do?  These were the people in Athens. 

Paul had a gift.  When he addressed the men of Athens, he called them “religious.”  He uses the term in a neutral manner, neither insulting nor condoning.  By doing it this way, these men were more likely to listen to what he had to say.  Here is what he says, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.  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, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him.  Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’” (vs. 24-28a)

There is our identity.  We are God’s creation.  He gave us life and breath.  He determined we will live on earth at this time in her history.  We live and move and have our being in God.  We know God because he became human, flesh and blood.  Jesus was precious but his sacrifice was needed on the cross so that we didn’t just identify with our sin.  We have our identity in Baptism, “God’s own child, I gladly say it.”  We have our identity in being living saints awaiting our glorious transport to heaven.  Christ says these words in our Gospel, “Because I live, you also will live.” (Jn. 14:19)

Paul ends with these words so appropriate for the world’s folly, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 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.” (vs. 30-31)

How do you take those words?  Scared?  Happy? Content?  For the identity of the believer, they are the assurance of what we have in Christ.  As repentant believers, we need not fear judgment.  We know who we are.  This is another reminder to you hanging on the ledge of your house, that God knows what He is doing.  Trust him.  Believe his words.  We live in “times of ignorance” that you might feel God is overlooking.  But he has patience.  He has a plan.  He wants every man and man come to a knowledge of the truth in Christ Jesus.  That is where our identity comes in.  This is the purpose we have.  We share the message like Paul.  Maybe we can’t get an audience like the leaders of Athens, but don’t we know someone worshipping “an unknown god” who is misguided?  

If you read the verses just past the text, you will see some mocked Paul, but some believed.  Your witness can make a difference.  When you know who you are in Christ, people see that.  Christian believer.  That is an identity that cannot be stolen from you.

Amen.