30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
02 Acts 14 08-20 THE MINISTRY AT LYSTRA 37 Acts 14 15-17 All nations must repent
📖 Acts 14:08-20
37 – Thu, 27 Nov 2025 – *All nations must repent*- _Acts 14:08-20_ – THE MINISTRY AT LYSTRA – _Acts 17:22-31_
_Acts 14:15-17 and saying, "Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, *and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them*, (16) who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. (17) Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."_
Barnabas and Paul were pleading with the people of Lystra to stop their foolish ways of worshipping gods of their imagination and turn to the living God who created them.
_Acts 17:22-31 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; (23) 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*: (24) 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. (25) Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. (26) And He has made from one blood 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, (27) 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*; (28) for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.' (29) 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. (30) Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but *now commands all men everywhere to repent*, (31) because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."_
Man is created in the image of God, and so man is always seeking God. There is eternity in the heart of man. There is a yearning in the heart of everyman to be connected to that which is eternal. Man knows somehow that life is not just for the physical and material world in which we live. _Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also *He has put eternity in their hearts*, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end._
Since in his heart man longs for the eternal, God has purposed that man of his own volition must seek God. God is not far from each one of us. *No one can say that he did not get the opportunity to know God. If a person does not come to faith in Jesus, it is that person’s responsibility for not seeking to know God.*
Paul found an altar with an inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. This one altar tells us the heart of man. It was from this point that Paul brought them to an understanding of the living God. This is the transition that all of us must learn to bridge in our everyday conversations, for we will come across the same status in people.
Paul presented Christ by presenting the purposes of God. The God of all creation does not dwell in temples made by man. Think of the vastness, power and wisdom of creation. What is man in comparison to the immensity of nature? _Psalms 8:3-4 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, (4) What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?_
It is God who sustains life for all things consist in Him. _Colossians 1:17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist._ Man must fall before Him in deep dependence. God cannot be appeased with anything.
People of all nations are all of one blood. God has set their appointed times and dwelling places. We are born in a cultural setting because it is God’s purpose for us. (Moving to another cultural surrounding, purely for economic reasons, without considering the purpose of God, would be a grave blunder.)
*God’s heart is for man to grope for Him and find Him.* Paul makes it known that we live and move and have our being in God. It is here that Paul once again bridges the people to the writings of their own poets. *We are the children of God, and we cannot shape God to man’s imagination and invention.*
Since God has made Himself known to man, God wants man everywhere to repent and submit to Him. *There is no excuse for people of any culture to say that they can stay in their own belief system and not submit to the God of heaven and earth.*
```God will judge all nations by Jesus, for He has been raised from the dead.```