More Strange Ideas
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More Strange Ideas

Acts 17:24–34  (ID: 0554)

As Paul made clear in Acts 17, Christianity begins with the conviction that God is the creator, sustainer, and ruler of the world. God therefore reserves the right to judge our thoughts and actions. This thought is unnerving to many, leading them to choose materialism as an attractive alternative. In this message, Alistair Begg points out that the eternity in our hearts longs for something more. Will we have the courage to allow those longings to lead us to God?


24The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,3 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26And 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, 27that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;4

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’5

29Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because 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.”

32Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33So Paul went out from their midst. 34But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Copyright © 2024, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.

Alistair Begg
Alistair Begg is Senior Pastor at Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Bible teacher on Truth For Life, which is heard on the radio and online around the world.