Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Attention

What drives your life?

What makes your heart tick?

What is most important?

I know we’re in church and so there is a “right” answer, but I’m not interested in that right now.

I want you to consider, what is the lens through which you make decisions?

Recap

We’re squarely in the middle of Paul’s second Missionary Journey.

It starts by tracing his steps back through Galatia where he did the bulk of his first journey.

They then travel west in an attempt to get into Asia, but the Holy Spirit forbids them.

As they are trying to figure out what to do, Paul has a vision of a Macedonian man.

At that point, they head into Macedonia.

Their first real stop in in Philippi.

They have an adventure there and then are asked to leave.

At which point they head to Thessalonica, are expelled and come to Berea and a similar experience awaited them there too.At the end of his ministry in Berea, he was escorted to Athens where he was to await Timothy and Silas as they stayed on at Thessalonica.

Context

Athens is the political and intellectual capital of the Attic region of Greece and had been an influential city for over 1000 years by the time Paul arrived.

Athens influenced the Western world, including what we now experience, through the passing on of Greek culture and beliefs.

Athens contained a large university where students would come and attach themselves to philosophers of the day.

Two of the popular philosophies of the day were stoicism and epicureanism.

Stoicism - logically based, rejected greek mythology but lived socially ethical lives.

It’s summed up in this: Ethical living and indifference to the inconveniences of life led directly to personal happiness."

- Judith Odor, “Stoicism,” ed.

John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

Epicureanism - A philosophy that took its name from the Samian philosopher Epicurus (41–270 bc).

Its central tenet was that pleasure was life’s greatest good and goal.

- N.T. Parker, “Epicureanism,” ed.

John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).

In short, epicureanism’s philosophy was maximize pleasure, minimize pain

Easton’s Bible Dictionary (Areopagus)

AREOPAGUS—the Latin form of the Greek word rendered “Mars’ hill.”

But it denotes also the council or court of justice which met in the open air on the hill.

It was a rocky height to the west of the Acropolis at Athens, . . .

and consisted of nine archons or chief magistrates who were then in office, and the ex-archons of blameless life.

The magistrates would be called Areopagites.

Read

Need

At issue in Athens was where they placed their allegiance.

They had a pantheon of gods that represented almost every sphere of life, submitting to their whims and requirements.

What Paul found fascinating was that they were so worried about appeasing the right god, they worshiped an “unknown god.”

Paul saw that their faith, allegiance, was in an attempt to appease gods and find their favor.

In our day, we may not bow the knee to idols, but we do have our own things that we put our allegiance in: money, security, identity, nationality, people, and politics.

Our idols are no less dangerous to us than the idols of Athens were to the Athenians.

The thrust of Paul’s message in Athens is that in God's patience, he gives us the opportunity to repent of our idolatry and live in his rule and reign, but don’t wait because judgment will happen.

Paul’s Experience

This passage is broken up into two main sections: Paul’s experience in Athens and then his message in the Areopagus.

The first portion is verses 16-21.

Paul is stirred up, distressed, when he sees the sheer number of idols in the city.

The stirring up is an inward experience The city was full of idols

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Chapter 17)

Petronius, a contemporary writer at Nero’s court, says satirically that it was easier to find a god at Athens than a man

Some commenters said while the city of Athens contained around 10,000 people, there were about 30,000 altars or idol to various gods.

John Stott’s comments on what the CSB renders “deeply distressed” are really helpful to set the context of what happened next:

 The clue to interpreting the nature of Paul’s emotion is that *paroxyno* is the verb which is regularly used in the LXX of the Holy One of Israel, and in particular (such is the consistency of Scripture) of his reaction to idolatry.

Thus, when the Israelites made the golden calf at Mount Sinai, when later they were guilty of gross idolatry and immorality is relation to Baal of Peor, and when the Northern Kingdom made another calf to worship in Samaria, they ‘provoked’ the Lord God to anger.

Indeed, he described Israel as an ‘obstinate people…who continually provoke me to my very face’ So Paul was ‘provoked (RSV) by idolatry and provoked to anger, grief and indignation, just as God is himself, and for the same reason, namely, for the honour and glory of his name.

Scripture sometimes calls this emotion ‘jealousy’ - https://johnstott.org/bible_studies/14-oct-2015/

In this righteous jealousy, Paul goes about his typical methodology in any city: start in the synagogue.

He was without his co-laborers, so he didn’t have much support, so he likely set up a tent shop in the marketplace in order to engage with Athenians outside of the synagogue.

His teachings caught the ears of the Stoic and Epicureans of the city and they begin to debate with him while others called him names.

Acts—The Church Afire (The Prelude of the Athenian Address (Vv.

16–24))

The word translated (ignorant show-off in the CSB) “babbler” is literally “seedpicker.”

Originally used to describe birds picking up seeds and grain, over the years the word came to mean one who peddled others’ ideas as original without understanding them—a plagiarist, a chirping gutter sparrow who went around peeping borrowed ideas!

This was undoubtedly a very “in” word with this crowd: “seedpicker… gutter sparrow… ignorant babbler.”

Apparently, Paul’s message seemed unclear to Athenians and they thought he was proclaiming foreign deities, so they escort him to the Areopagus, but in a turn of irony,

In verse 21 Luke gives his evaluation of the Athenians: All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.They were the babblers!

Isn’t this something that we do too?

We spend time listening to TED talks, podcasts, radio show, TikTok, and other things to know what are the newest and trendiest ideas.

Don’t we like to do that too?

Paul got to contribute to the Athenians love of hearing about new ideas as he was brought to the Areopagus.

Paul in the Areopagus

The address comes in three sections: Introduction, background, and response.

The introduction is a courteous description of what he saw around him in Athens and why he is proclaiming what he’s proclaiming.

He saw their religiosity and their desire not to leave out any gods.

This was his launch pad for a brilliant Jewish speech made to a Gentile audience.

We’ve talked before about how Rabbis would hide things in their teachings, like easter eggs.

This was for two reasons.

First, a Rabbi had the text memorized and was so steeped in the Scriptures that they would just think in references to Scripture.

Second, the Rabbi wanted their disciples to go looking and engage with the text as well because the allusion would be to a verse, but that verse wasn’t the point of the quotation.

It was typical for a Rabbi to teach on a topic, but the hint from the Old Testament would contain a fuller picture of what the Rabbi was talking about.

We looked at how this deepened our understanding of Paul’s message in Pisidian Antioch as he proclaimed the inclusion of the Gentiles into the family of God.

Here Paul is going to hide a ton of Easter eggs which will help us understand in a deeper fashion what his message actually was.

Let’s read again the bulk of the message that Paul gives (slide, please?)

Acts 17:24–29 (CSB)

The God who made the world and everything in it (Is 42:5)—he is Lord (Maker) of heaven and earth (Ps 115:15)—does not live in shrines made by hands (Is 66:1).

Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything (Ps 50:1-12), since he himself gives everyone life and breath (Jb 12:10) and all things.

From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live (Dt 32:8).

He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us (Jr 23:23-24).

For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’

Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination (Is 44:9-10).

Before we get into what I think is underneath the surface bringing depth and clarity to Paul’s message, I want to show you how one of these Easter Eggs works.

In verse 24, Paul says that God does not live in shrines made by hands.

The word that Luke uses in recording this message is one that is used only a handful of times and all but one reference has to do with a temple made with hands.

Luke only uses it one other time in Acts 7:48.

This is Stephens speech before he is killed.

In this speech Stephen talks about the temple not being made with hand and then quotes Isaiah 66:1-2.

The quotation seems to agree with Stephen’s argument, but if we take a deeper look at Isaiah 66, we get to the end and read this in verses 18-23.

So when Paul uses this word, he might even have this passage in mind.

He’s talking to Gentiles about their inclusion in the family of God and the fulfillment of his Kingdom on earth.