The Apostle Paul was brought into a city called Athens as a place of safety due to conflicts he had encountered as a result of preaching the gospel in Thessalonica and Berea in northern Greece. While he waited for this brothers in the faith, that is, Silas and Timothy to arrive, Paul was provoked in his spirit to preach Jesus Christ as the city was full of idol worshipping.
He reasoned with the Jews, God-fearing Gentiles, Epicurean and Stoic philosophers daily in their synagogues and in their market places. Mostly he was referred to as an ‘idle babbler’ and a ‘proclaimer of strange deities’ because he proclaimed the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ and His resurrection. The people however had a desire to listen to what he had to say to them so they often came to listen to him.
Paul’s message was simple. He said unto them, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to inhabit all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring.’ Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the craft and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:22-31 LSB).
Paul’s message is still very significant to our world today. A lot of people in their quest to know God have resorted to different kinds of religious practices just like the men in the city of Athens. Through Jesus Christ, God has reconciled all of humanity unto Himself. There is therefore no salvation in any other apart from the name of Jesus, as God has highly exalted His name above all other names. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son; that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus died for the sins of mankind. Whosoever believes with the heart and confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord becomes saved from sin, the kingdom of darkness, God’s wrath and His eternal judgment against sinners.
The Bible says in Romans 10:9- “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved”. It does not matter how far away you have gone from God or the multitudes of sins you have committed. It is time to get back to God and be saved. Accept and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour and you shall be saved.
Boldly declare the prayer of salvation below.
God bless you!
