Acts 17:26-28 Bible Teaching

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So we left off with Paul standing on Mars Hill and providing the Athenians a response to the question what do you believe.

We recall from last week that Paul decided to point out that he had seen an alter or edifice dedicated to the unknown God and that he chose to use this as the launch pad to explain the True and Living God to them.

He began by saying in verses 24 and 25:

“God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things . . . “ and we talked all about this.

In some very profound ways this situation speaks to us because here we have the Greeks admitting, through their own edifices, that there was a God out there they was unknown – and Paul was there to introduce Him to them.

Why?

Because, as Jesus said in John 17:3:

“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

In other words, Paul was seeking to introduce the Only True God (who to them thus far was unknowable) and Jesus Christ so that they too could have LIFE ETERNAL.

This is what we are all aiming for, if you will – Life Eternal or from the Greek, age-abiding life.

To not know them is to be in death – to exist in a realm that has no lasting value – no matter what it is – gold, fame, home, family, health, physical strength, career, knowledge – none of it possessing any eternality without a knowledge of the Only True God and His Son.

Most view this passage as evidence that many will not ever experience life eternal. I do not subscribe to such thinking. But what I do subscribe to is the fact that there is no real life, no eternal life, without knowing God and His Son.

Paul knows this too. And so walking among the whited altars of Athens he was stirred – moved – to teach and tell these curious men about Him – the true and living God.

So he began by explaining Him as the creator of all things, and then he explained that there was nothing we could do to heal Him (in other words we could not ply Him with food and gifts to make him healthy or whole).

He goes on with our text today beginning at verse 26, and lobs some real bombs into our hearts. Ready?

Acts 17.26-28
March 12th 2017
Milk
Ac 17:26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

Ready for a shocker? All the families of men are descended from one origin, one stock. One common parent. Doesn’t matter the race, complexion, hair texture or facial structures, we all came from one man and one original woman.
The Greek word is HA-EE-MA and it is used to describe blood, race or kin, and the juice from grapes.

We all originated from one grape folks.
Malachi 2:10 reads:

“Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?”

Job 31:15 says, “Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?”

Even socio-economically, like when we compare the state of third world peoples compared to first world, God authored them all as Proverbs 22:2 says

“The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all.”

Since the Word completely supports the idea that all the human family are descended from the same ancestor we must believe that the differences in complexion and facial features are the result of something other than blood differences – to some other cause.

I personally believe this is where the genius of God is proven through genetic mutation and adaptation which some of evolutionary studies find a home.

In other words, I tend to think that built-in to the original man and his human blood came factors that allow for human beings to physically adapt to environmental forces (and other stimuli) that over time cause changes (or mutations) in them.

Human beings living in hotter places tend to have darker thicker skin and courser hair.

People who live in cooler climate tend to have thinner lighter skin and finer hair. Even the genetic mutations of disease like Sickle Cell Anemia (which typically only affects blacks) or Tay Sach’s (which is primarily found among Ashkenazi Jews) are the products of breeding and selective genetic mutations.

There is no such thing as black or white or red or yellow blood – there are only types of blood shared by all human beings.

Paul may have introduced this idea to them to show these Greeks that he saw them as his own brethren and to help break down walls between them.

Not easy to do as we tend to observe outward differences and believe that we are somehow the product of different origins.

Not so when it comes to God and this basic understanding goes a long way in helping each other SEE each other as originating from His singular hand.

Now, if he formed the nations of the Chinese and Swedes and Polynesians and African out of that first singular blood I see no reason to quibble. The passage plainly states that we all came from the same God, and from the same singular blood. Therefore, ALL brothers and sisters.

It is the master manipulators, seeking to capitalize and capture groups they have divided and conquered, who promote the “different blood” agendas.

Always have. It’s foundational to their establishing an “us verses them” mentality.

“And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth . . .”

The Greek translated nations here is ethos and it best means ethnicities.

“Of one blood God has made all the ethnicities of Man “for to dwell” to live and inhabit “on all the face of the earth,”

(LISTEN)

“and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation”

AND has marked out a time when these countries and nations and ethnicities would be established – through migration and dispersion – AND “the bounds of their habitation.”

So apparently God, in his plan, fixed the times when each country should be settled; the time of the location, the rise, the prosperity, and the fall of each nation. There is an implication that

(1.) that these times had appointed BEFORE they occured; and,

(2.) that it was done in His wisdom. It was his plan; and the different continents and islands had not, therefore, been settled by chance, but by a wise rule, and in accordance with his arrangement and design.

It also implies that God – at least originally – placed limits (by boundaries) on the reach of each ethnicity.

In otherwords He appears to have established that the ethnicity of the Italians would come from a boundary called Italy. Italians would not come from the boundary called Brazil, etc.

This is getting pretty wild folks because in this planning God must have also known that within these ethnicities (these cultures) that there would be unique customs, laws, inclinations, dress, foods and habits.

Lifestyles! Morays and modes of living.

Humans have a very fixed and limiting way to live our lives – God knew this too.

Even here in the US, east coast ways and west coast are very different, as are the ways of the north and the south – and then of course those who live in the middle!

God has established all of this. God knew the Germans and their boundaries, morals, and ways. God created the people of South America, God created the culture of India – and in His wisdom and ways He fixed the boundaries of habitation.

Now stay with me because we are about to break through a glass ceiling or floor, depending on how you look at it. But my guide is the Bible – not always what is done in the Bible but what is taught.

And since God fixed the boundaries for these ethnicities, when Man decides to conquer and dominate other ethnicities outside of their own GOD GIVEN DOMINION – God is not the author! He established these boundaries from the beginning in my opinion Man has no right to seek to overtake them in any way –

Not to police, not to change or impose, not to indoctrinate – because God is the author of the ethnos, the boundaries of their habitation and therefore all that they represent.

Any studied anthropologist would point out the negative results when one culture steps in and tries to dominate and change another that has long been established.

Now hand with me because we are about to get out there for a second. This includes the sharing of Jesus with other peoples!

And this point OUGHT to help us see that this sacred faith is NOT cultural, it is not to be defined by cultural applications or demands, and that it is a faith that dwells in the hearts of individual believers and can be expressed by them according to who they are, the ethnos they came from, the boundaries of their habitation, and the morays and codes of their respective lives.

One of the problems with missional outreaches to other countries is that those who are doing the reaching simultaneously are doing some demanding.

So in the name of Jesus missionaries have long sought to dress natives in more modest apparel – when in fact their toplessness was a problem in their culture in the first place.

The list of such Christian culturalizations go on and on and on.

God has imputed a wonderful safeguard against such things by making the faith a matter of the heart and not a matter of external laws – which is why it is emphatically taught this way.

But again MEN and MAN have taken the simplicity of the faith and used it like a club to beat people into submission who differ from them BECAUSE they come from a different boundary established by God.

Got all of that? So after explaining to these Athenians that it was God who made all people of one blood, and God who, in His time, established the boundaries of the nations for all peoples, he adds . . . (verse 27)

27 That (in other words the bottom line purpose of all of His planning and purposing is “that” . . . “they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.”

This is a huge statement folks. It shows the foreknowledge, the love, the planning of God, to set forth before all peoples – all whom He has created – from every land and every clime – the truth, Himself.

But notice the two way street here. God has made us from one blood. He has established the ethnicities (with all of their variables) and He has established their boundaries in His time so THAT . .

“they (all those who He has created) should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.”

For some reason, God desires, wants, perhaps hopes, for His creations to seek Him.

He wants to be sought after and He seems to respond when such a mission is embarked upon by the individual.

All the way back in Deuteronomy 4:29 Moses said to the COI:

“But if from this point forward thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”

Again, the purpose or condition of the heart plays a role in our finding Him. He knows if our search is real and seems to respond accordingly.

The setting seems to include the fact that God blesses and provides and gives us everything necessary – every opportunity, every witness, every evidence – to seek Him but He will not step in an reveal Himself unless the individual from the heart desires to find Him.

To me this is a perfect loving balance of His desires reaching out to our free will.

I would imagine that afterlife punishment continues on their trajectory with God providing the impetus to seek but all men having the right to refuse – until they break.

From what Paul says here the very design of God placing man on the earth (in their specific habitation) was so that at some point in time they would choose, desire to seek Him and thereby come to a knowledge of his existence and character – and therefore obtain life eternal.

This is where it gets a bit dicey. “Have all nations, though existing in different regions, climates, habitations, cultures and ethnicities had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with God?”

Of course they have! To suggest otherwise is to propose one heck of a bad plan on behalf of God to redeem us.

The problems arise when WE believe that THEY must become acquainted with God in the ways we deem effective.

In other words, have ALL ethnicities heard the Romans Road preached to them? Of course not. Has everyone on earth had the chance to “ask Jesus, born of a virgin, in the Little Town of Bethlehem, who died on a cross, and was resurrected on the third day” into their heart?”

Not in human history.

But again, these are OUR questions. The real question is “have all peoples, though existing in different regions, climates, habitations, cultures and ethnicities, had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with God?

And the answer is not only a wonderful, comforting, yes – God is that capable of reaching those who seek – the answer ought to enable all who know Him to trust Him and His ways far more than the fears and fumbling attempts of Man.

Read with me these two passages again – slowly. Ready?

“God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
That they . . . (the African, the Italian, the German, the Native American, the Scotsman) “should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far” (Paul says) “from every one of us”

Paul makes this clear in Romans 1 when he wrote (and I’m reading this from an easy to read translation which says):

“For from the first making of the world, those things of God which the eye is unable to see, (that is, his eternal power and existence), are fully made clear, he (God) having given the knowledge of them through the things which he has made, so that men have no reason for wrongdoing.”

The King James translates this last line as, “so we are without excuse.”

So from this we know that God has made FULLY CLEAR (Romans says) his invisible existence and power) to all THROUGH the things which He has made.

And what has God made? All things! So all things speak of Him – claim Him – testify of Him.

In other words no matter where a person has lived, no matter how they have been affected by traditions and culture and the wisdom of Man, God has created around all of us wonders which speak to Him.

Romans says, therefore we are all without excuse. But here in Acts 17 Paul is giving us a more positive result, saying that God has done all of this . . .

“That they . . . (the African, the Italian, the German, the Native American, the Scotsman) “should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us”

I suggest that all seekers find – and have from the beginning of the world. All. And they find God according to what they have, what they know, what they are given and that it is all possible by and through His Word, which created all things, became flesh, was crucified, resurrected, rose on the third day and ascended into heaven on our behalf.

Whether the reality of God is revealed through what His word created in the heavens, or on earth, or around us – seekers will discover Him through His Word and in the end Jesus will be glorified.

We do NOT need to worry or fear that God has failed to reach everyone. We do not need to fret and sweat that we’ve got to get to Africa to share Jesus with the Natives. We have our own who don’t know Him in our own back yards.

We seek to share because that is what God tells us to do. It’s another means by which He reaches all. But the words of Paul here are very clear that He has abundantly set the table and it is up to all people to chose to eat.

The fact that Paul and the apostles specifically were told to go out to all the ethnicities and share the Good News was directly related to the eminent end of that age.

But even in that case Jesus said to them in Matthew 16:28

“There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.”

And also in Matthew 10:23

“But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.”

So getting back to Paul in Athens, he has said to them

“That they (all humans) should seek the Lord . . . if haply they might feel after him,

The phrase for “if haply” best means, “if perhaps they might “feel after him.”

The meaning seems to be,

“So that they might make search for God, in order, if possible, to get knowledge of him and make discovery of him, even if they were able to feel their ways to him with their hands, though he is not far from every one of us.”

The idea is more intended as imagery and illustration rather than literal.

In my opinion, what Paul is saying is, “God has established all of this so that people can make a search for Him, as if feeling around in the dark for Him (therefore the search is not that easy) though he is not far from every one of us.”

Why is he so difficult to find? What is it that makes Paul use this imagery of someone feeling around in the dark for a lost or obscured object.

We’ll let’s think about his. We feel about for something when we . . . can’t see.
When we are blind or in the dark.

So while God, whom Paul admits is not far from us, andhas provided ample evidences of His existence, our discovering Him is not an easy task – and I would say that this is because we – all peoples – have been blinded by the prince of this world.

Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 4:3

3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

As a result, we pray that the blinded minds will see, the deafened ears will hear, the fatty hearts will melt, and the Gospel which is hid to them that are lost will know.

Apparently, knowing Him, despite all He has done to prove Himself, and despite the desires many claim to possess to find him, is not an everyday thing.

Scripture provides us with innumerable reasons but the reality is few be there that find it (or Him) even though Paul says:

“Though he be not far.”

We might suggest that Paul was verbally reassuring them that the heart felt search would be rewarded and knowing this God was possible and so he reassures them that “He is not far,” either in and through His creations or Himself.

In Jeremiah 23:23-24 God says:

“Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.”

1st Kings 8:27 says “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?”

And of course Psalm 139:7-10

7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

Is this the same thing as God being in everything – I personally don’t think so but if He is let God be true and me a liar.

But in the next verse Paul gives us some clarification. Let me re-read the previous passage in conjunction with verse 28:

Ac 17:26 And (God) hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Because of the way this passage reads instead of our saying that God “is in everything” we might suggest that everything is in God.

Look out.

Now in terms of mechanics I have no idea how this would be – especially how God abide in the presence of sin as we are want to suggest.

But perhaps real koinonia, real communion with God here and after this life does not consist of all of us being in Him but includes the fact that He is in all of us.

And this was the need for Jesus – to cleanse the human heart (which is wicked – who can know it) so that by His sacrifice God can be in all of us too.

In this light God is no longer just acting upon us (because we are all existing in Him) but He is acting in and through us – which is the real definition of life eternal – to not only be in Him (which everything is by virtue of us being created beings) but that He then is actually IN US. Something only possible by and through Christ.

At the present, and due to this passage in particular, this is how I understand God and all created things – He is Spirit, and if you will, He acts as the universe of all things which exist, and move and orbit around IN Him. By this He knows all things – even a sparrow or a hair of our head falling to the ground.

But the miracle, the true eternal relationship consists of HIM abiding in us and NOT just us in Him.

The difference might be we could take a trip to the pacific ocean and all jump into the middle of it and simultaneously go under water together, and if the ocean itself had a soul it would know of our every move.

But in order for us to really truly understand the soul of the ocean, it would have to invade every cell of our bodies – something we resist because in the example of being filled with the ocean we would die.

And just maybe that’s the case with God too.

Okay, I’ll back down.

But last week Diana asked if God was in everything. I would emphatically say no. But I would add that everything is in God and His desire is to reside in us all.

Paul goes on to justify his statement that we are in Him saying:

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, “For we are also his offspring.”

Paul was raised in Tarsus, a Greek city of Cilicia that was under Roman control. He was familiar with Greek writers to a certain extent even though a devout Jew.

We’ll in Cilicia was a poet by the name of Aratus and he wrote a hymn to Jupiter that includes the line, “For we are also His offspring.”

Appealing to the wisdom they possessed Paul cites this particular poet of whom he would have known perhaps better than any other since he originated from Cilicia.
That being said the same quote can be found in the writings of other Greek poets too, especially one named Cleanthus.

The word translated offspring here is also translated, “kin.” Are we “kin” to God?

We are His only kin as we are made in His image. (which is an entirely different topic but understand, we were made in His image – and so as literal creations made in the image of the invisible God (which I believe means we have the ability to reason and choose) we are, in fact, His offspring.

But I’ve gotten ahead of ourselves on this last verse for today. Paul has said:

“though he be not far from every one of us:
For in him

we live,
and move,
and have our being;

“as certain also of your own poets have said, “For we are also his offspring.”

Again, I can’t help but think of Him simply being and all of the created universe orbiting around inside of Him.

Right or wrong, we do know that IN HIM

we live, (zao)
and move, (kineo)
and have our being; (esmen)

These are exhaustive words to describe the whole of us!

ZAO – to live, to be alive in
KINEO (where we get kinetics and kinesiology) – to stir or move
ESMEN -are, to be, being.

(Beat)

This study has caused me to rethink my spiritual world-view. I used to think that we are all outside of God pushing to get in. No more.

I tend to presently think we are all in Him. And those who accuse Him of being an absentee manager will someday realize their misperception was entirely wrong.

He has taken full responsibility for His creation to the point that all that He has composed exists within Him.

This helps explain His omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence. And it also explains His utter love that He has not aborted any of his works but is so Good He does NOT force himself in us.

That is the personal human choice. This take also goes along way to explain His love, and the Love we experience when we choose to love others – all others – especially those who harm us and abuse us.

We are thriving, moving, living IN Him. To choose to respond as HE would respond is to be in harmony with Him. And this love conquers all.

But when we are out of sorts with His agape love we are out of sorts with Him, with our very environs of life – and we discover ourselves feeling lost, alienated, abandoned, alone.

In Him we have our very lives, our every move, our being.

Let’s stop here for today.