Although I had read Acts 17:22-31 many times, I had always looked at it as a way to evangelize people who were completely unfamiliar with Christian concepts. This time, I personalized it and examined my faith. I asked myself what it meant to seek and find God, and I found 5 ways to seek God.
This post is an adaptation of a meditation I gave to the women of Calvary Chapel Beaumont. For the full teaching, visit this link to YouTube.
Before Moses died, he gave the Israelites this promise from the Lord.
“But from there [the Promised Land] you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. ” (Deuteronomy 4:29 NKJV, emphasis added)
Seek and find the Lord!
In Athens, Paul first went to the synagogue and shared the Good News. He also shared the Gospel in the marketplace.
“What is this babbler talking about?” asked the Epicureans and Stoics.
The word for “babbler” is “seed picker”! Picture a bird pecking in your lawn and picking up tiny seeds. “Babbler” was also used for people who collected scraps of truth and put them together, but didn’t understand the meaning.
“Bring him to the Areopagus where the Council can hear him,” they commanded. The Council guarded Greek religious worship and enforced the laws.
Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:” (Acts 17:22-23 NKJV)
Photo by Jimmy Liu on Unsplash
Imagine yourself walking the streets of Athens and beholding giant sculptures … hand-carved marble and stone that represented the Greek gods.
You stop at each one of the idols. Athena, the patron goddess of Athens, the city protector and goddess of war, handicraft, and practical reason. Zeus, the chief of the gods and the ruler of the sky and weather. Just two of their gods.
I imagine Paul’s prayers were intense as he walked through the city and stopped at each of the idol altars.
As I meditated on Acts 17, I began to ask myself if I had any idols in my life.
How many times a day do I pick this phone up?
When we pick up our phones, what are we looking for? Likes, thumbs up, hearts?
Looking for affirmation … praise … attention! Could my phone or what I get from it be an idol? It’s with me wherever I go.
Hmmmm! I think I need to examine myself!
In verse 24, Paul introduces the UNKNOWN GOD to the Council.
Our Creator Is Lord of All
Some of the Council members believed that particles collided together to create the universe—they didn’t believe in a Creator.
“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped [served] with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. (Acts 17:24-25 NKJV)
Our God needs nothing from us. He gives us all things.
And He has made from one blood [Adam and Eve] every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, ” (Acts 17:26 NKJV)
The word for “nations” is ethnos [eth’-nos]. It means “a multitude of individuals of the same nature …, a tribe, a people group.”
The Creator of the Universe who gives life, breath, and all things determined the times of the nations, the people groups, and their boundaries.
Our Creator is Lord of life. He is the Lord of individual men and women, and nations.
If God is the Lord of life, what shall we do?
How do we know the Lord of Life?
Seek and Grope for the Lord
“so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;” (Acts 17:27 NKJV emphasis added)
From the previous verses, we see that God determines the rise and fall of nations or people groups and their boundaries not the idols.
Why? So that they would seek God and find Him.
How are you seeking and groping for the Lord?
The word for “grope” means to “to handle, touch and feel.”
After Jesus’ resurrection, He appeared to His disciples. They were troubled, but He said in Luke 24:39,“Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
How are you handling or touching God?
Take a moment and write down one way you are touching God.
Like the Epicureans and Stoics, the world seeks intellect, the works of our hands, pleasure, wealth, health, and much more over a relationship with God. We’re wanting to handle the things of this world rather than the things of God.
Things of the world … Are we being guided by things of the world like ChaptGPT?
ChatGPT has between 800 and 900 million users every week. Some are using it as their personal mentor. A personal mentor in artificial intelligence?
Could there be an idol there?
How many hours do we spend watching television or surfing the internet?
Where’s our focus? God said in 2 Chronicles 7:14 that we are to focus on Him.
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (emphasis added)
In this verse, God tells us how to heal our land. Humble ourselves. Pray to God Almighty. Seek Him as a priority. Turn from our sins.
But how do we seek God?
Jesus said to him (the lawyer who asked Jesus what the greatest commandment in the Law was), “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” [Matthew 22:37-40 NKJV]
If we love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds, we will seek God. We will want to touch Jesus.
5 Ways to Seek God
Here are five ways to seek God. Focusing on these may generate even more ways. Let them sink into your mind and heart.
1. Creation.
“For since the creation of the world His [God’s] invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead …” (Romans 1:20 NKJV)
It’s looking at a rose and noticing the intricate petals that unfold and praising God for the beauty He has blessed us with. The colors. What if this world were black and white? It’s breathing in its fragrance and thanking God.
2. Remembering.
“Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth.” (Psalm 105:5 NKJV)
As we remember how God has worked in our lives and the lives of others, we will eagerly seek more of God and His blessings.
3. The Word.
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12 NKJV)
As we dig into God’s Words, we discover how much He loves us.
4. Prayer.
“pray without ceasing,” (1Thessalonians 5:17 NKJV)
Paul tells us what that means.
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV)
Prayer is fellowshipping with God. It’s worshipping Him, telling Him our desires and emotions, confessing our sins and asking for forgiveness, and listening.
5. Fellowship.
“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship [Koinonia] with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7 NKJV)
Seeking God through fellowshipping with others. Talking about Him and sharing what we’ve learned about Him.
Seeking God … Groping for Him … Touching the God of the Universe through Creation … Remembering … The Word … Prayer … Fellowship.
Paul was one person consumed with seeking God and sharing the Good News with others. His passion for the Good News spilled over onto others, and Christianity spread.
It takes one person to start a movement. Let’s seek God … grope for Him with all our hearts, minds, and souls.
Our passion for God will be noticed by others. We’ll begin to reflect God’s love on one another. Our families may begin to grope for the Lord and begin to radiate God’s grace.
Is your church is proclaiming the Good News and making a difference in our surrounding communities? As your communities bless others in the name of the Lord, your state may experience an awakening. Our Father in Heaven is gracious.
God is not far from us.
Let’s seek Him with all our might … grope for our Father and touch Him. Take Him by the hand and let Him lead us. It takes one person to start a movement. One church to start a movement. For God is near.
God Is Near.
“for in Him we live and move and have our being,” (Acts 17:28 NKJV)
It reminds us of what Paul wrote to the Galatians in Galatians 2:20.
- “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
We live by faith in Jesus. For in Him, in Jesus, we live and move and have our being.
‘For we are also His offspring.’ “Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.” (Acts 17:28b-29 NKJV)
We are God’s offspring. When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we became God’s daughters.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13 NKJV)
Jesus loves you and me so much that He will come again to do away with idols, to do away with sin, to usher in holiness in all creation. Jesus is coming again as Our Righteous Judge.
Our Righteous Judge
“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, (Acts 17:30 NKJV)
God commands all men and women to repent of their sins. Repenting requires turning from our sin … doing a 180. And why are we to repent?
“because He [God] has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man [Jesus] whom He has ordained. … (Acts 17:31 NKJV)
Jesus will judge the world in righteousness. Why?
I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the more I understand how much I sin. At the end of his life, Paul claimed he was the chief sinner.
“He [God] has given assurance of this to all by raising Him [Jesus] from the dead.” (Acts 17:31b NKJV, explanations added)
God appointed Jesus, God’s Son, to enter flesh and become a Man to walk this earth sharing the Good News that God loves us so much that He sent Jesus into the world to take our sins upon Himself on the cross and die in our place. Jesus paid the price we owe, death, separation from God. He was buried, and three days later, He rose from the dead.
Jesus is coming again! He will judge the world and rein in righteousness.
How do we know this will happen? Jesus rose from the dead!
This was the statement that led the Areopagus Council to dismiss Paul. Some mocked Paul, for they did not believe in an afterlife or resurrection from death. Others said that they would hear him again, but they never did.
Please talk to the Lord about the following questions. You might use these as journal prompts.
- What evidence is there that Jesus is Lord of your life?
- How are you seeking and groping for God? List three ways.
- What steps are you taking to become more aware that God is near you?
- If you were to stand before our Righteous Judge today, what would He tell you?
Points to Ponder
- Examine your day. What are you focused on throughout the day?
- Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any idols in your life.
- Seek God … Grope for His touch … Seek your Heavenly Father.
Please Share Your Ideas