Sermon Notes — May 10, 2026
“We Are His Offspring”
May 10, 2026
Acts 17::22-31 (CEB)
Rev. Dr. Mary Beth Bernheisel
We are a long way from where we started.
Two weeks ago, which was the Fourth Sunday of Easter, our scripture introduced us to the brand new church that was born on the Day of Pentecost. On that day, according to Acts, three thousand people in Jerusalem decided to follow Jesus and structure their lives around this new community. They studied together and prayed together, and they shared their lives together without any social or economic barriers between them.
Last week, on the Fifth Sunday of Easter, we met Stephen, whose declaration that Jesus was the Messiah and sat at the right hand of God got him killed. After he died, all of the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem – those first three thousand plus many, many more – began to be persecuted and harassed, and it got so bad that most of them had to leave. They scattered into the larger region of Judea, and into Samaria, and on into the rest of the world.
A man named Paul was watching the crowds when they murdered Stephen. He approved of their actions, and we will find out later that he himself hunted followers of Jesus and took them to Jerusalem where many of them were put to death.
But today we see a different Paul. This Paul has met Jesus. This Paul is proof that Jesus loves us where he finds us and loves us enough not to leave us there. This Paul has traveled throughout the world and told people over and over and over again about the Jesus who forgave him and offered him a new life and a new mission. This Paul is a new man.
Will you pray with me and for me?
If you’ve never read the Book of Acts, it’s a great read – especially if you like geography and history. I’m not going to get us bogged down today in all the places Paul has been in all of his travels, but today he is in Athens, a long way from home.
Antioch is where he started. Athens is where he is today. Athens in the first century was still part of the Roman Empire but was the intellectual and cultural hub of the Mediterranean region. Children of the powerful and wealthy went to Athens to study rhetoric and debate at the world’s most elite schools of philosophy. And the writer of Acts tells us
all Athenians as well as the foreigners who live in Athens used to spend their time doing nothing but talking about or listening to the newest thing.
Along comes Paul. We read in Acts 17:16 that when Paul entered Athens he was deeply distressed to see that the city was flooded with idols. Remember that Athens was home to the Parthenon, the temple to Athena – hence the name Athens – and a multitude of other temples and statues for worshiping other gods.
Paul started by talking to Jews living in Athens, and then started talking to anyone and everyone in the marketplace. He catches the attention of some Epicureans and Stoics, which were both schools of philosophy in Athens. They are intrigued.
Since Paul is the newest thing and he’s talking about the newest thing, they bring him to Mars Hill, also called Areopagus. Here’s a picture of Mars Hill today. For those of us who like Greek and Roman mythology, Mars Hill or the Hill of Ares was where the god of war, Ares, was put on trial by the other gods for the murder of Poseidon’s Son. Mars is the Roman name of Ares and voila we have Mars Hill.
This was where the people gathered to do nothing but talk about and listen to the newest thing. And so they brought Paul to Areopagus and asked him to share this new teaching with them.
People of Athens, he begins his famous sermon, I see that you are very religious in every way. If we were reading the King James translation Paul would say, “I believe that in all things you are too superstitious.” Both translations are correct. Very religious and too superstitious. That’s part of Paul’s genius. He could make insult sound like flattery. He continues his flattery by telling them that he has spent time in their city and he has paid attention to their objects of worship. He even found, he said, an altar that was inscribed with these words:
To an unknown God.
St. Augustine of Hippo famously wrote in his Confessions that
Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee.
Paul recognizes in the Athenians an intellectual curiosity for which he has some respect. It is their interest in all the newest things that opens the door for him to tell them about Jesus. But he also recognizes their restlessness, their constant searching for something to give ultimate meaning and purpose to their lives.
And so he tells them about Jesus. Like any good rhetorician, he starts by finding common ground.
I can tell you about this unknown god, he says. This is the god who made heaven and earth and everything in it. This is the god who made you and me and gave us a purpose and a place in the world. Because of this god we all exist, and all of us are children of this same god. In verse 28, Paul even quotes Greek poetry. And so we can imagine that Paul has their attention. They are right there with him. This all sounds really good.
And then, right when he has them eating out his hand, he hits them with the resurrection. God has given proof of all that I have just said by raising a man from the dead.
Now I won’t pretend to know why a god raising someone from the dead is a bridge too far for the Athenians. But these Athenians, who like to spend all their time talking about new things, and listening to other people talk about new things, cut him off right there. Some of them make fun of him, and some of them are angry, and some of them, we read at the end of the chapter, join Paul and begin to believe what he said.
Let’s talk about Paul for a minute. Paul is, what shall we say, an acquired taste? Most of our New Testament is made up of letters that Paul or one of his protégées wrote to churches in and around the Mediterranean, churches that Paul and his co-missionaries planted. They are our earliest documentation of the new church born at Pentecost. And while we might not care for some of what Paul says or how he says it – sometimes he seems a little too big for his britches, a little too self-righteous and self-aggrandizing – he was, as far as we know, the most prolific church planter in the years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. He gave as much of his energy to making disciples of Jesus Christ after his conversion as he did to arresting disciples of Jesus before his conversion. We could say that he was motivated by guilt or shame, or that despite all of his talk about grace he still believed that he had to make up for his bad behavior. And some of that may be true. But what he really wanted in his heart of hearts was for people to know the same Jesus that he knew. The Jesus who knocked him to the ground on the road to Damascus and forgave him for his unforgivable sin and gave him a new life. The Jesus whom God sent so that we could know God. The Jesus, who Paul says in verse 27, isn’t far away from any of us.
Paul realizes that the Athenians don’t need one more god to think about or to philosophize about. They don’t need another god to be the object of their speculation. They need a God they can know. They need a God who knows them. Maybe all of their talking and hypothesizing was because they wanted a God that they could keep at arm’s length – a God that they could talk about and think about and wonder about without actually having to risk being known by that same god. But I also wonder if they just couldn’t imagine that there existed a god–the same god who created the universe – who wanted to know them. A God who created them for himself – a God who could, in fact, be known.
Churches in our denomination have access to a cool resource called MissionInsite. MissionInsite uses census data to tell you everything you’d ever want to know about our community. I’ve found great information there and I haven’t even scratched the surface of the information that it can provide. So I looked at some reports this week because I was curious. If we’re in the part of the church calendar focused on The Story of the People of God, is it possible that the People of God gathered in this very room at this very moment have friends and neighbors who also need to hear a word about this God who not only wants to know about us but wants to be known by us? Is it possible that our friends and neighbors live with a restlessness in their hearts and souls?
So this is just a snippet, and like I said, the rabbit holes are endless. But I created two reports – one focused on zip code 37069 and one focused on Williamson County. And this report lists the top 15 life concerns of people living in both of these areas. And in both cases – for both the zip code and the county – the top life concern was fear of the future or the unknown, Only two concerns registered as a Very Strong Concern. The other was Social and Political tensions
Now, do not hear me say that there is something wrong with being concerned about the future and about the unknown, or that being concerned about the future and about the unknown is unChristian. But here are some of the other options on the list. Will and Estate Planning, Losing Weight, Savings and Retirement, and so on and so forth. There were only two or three on the list that I believe the church has the authority and expertise to speak to, including Making the Right Choices and Finding Direction and Stress, which ranked third and fifth respectively, for 37069 and third and seventh respectively, for Williamson County.
But by far the greatest life concern for our neighbors is fear of the future and the unknown, and friends, what you and I have for our neighbors is not an answer or a quick fix, but the offer of your experience God of the universe who not only knows us but wants to be known by us. God who created all of us for himself, who is not far away from any of us, who is both greater than what we can imagine and as close to us as our own breath.
We can’t offer a god who will zap all of the hardships out of our lives or magically fix the future for us. But what we can offer is a God who is with us through the hardships, a God who is already waiting in the future to be with us in the difficulties and in the scary places. A God who came in the person of Jesus so that we could know God, so that we could know how deeply and eternally we are loved.
As we leave this place today, remember what Terry reminded us of a few weeks ago…we do not cease to be the church when we leave the building. We take the good news of Jesus with us into our community and into every interaction with our neighbors and coworkers and friends. I hope that today you will ask God to show you who in your life might need to hear this good news, for the first time or one more time, of the love that does not let us go or leave us alone.
In the name of the one who created us for himself and invites our restless hearts to rest in him.