Clash of Cultures

Acts 17:16–34 CSB

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed when he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some said, “What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?” Others replied, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities”—because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, and said, “May we learn about this new teaching you are presenting? Because what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new. Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath 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. 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. 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. “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him, but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.” So Paul left their presence. However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Introduction: This week, I had an opportunity to speak with a young man named Spenser. He grew up Catholic but now claimed to be an atheist or agnostic.

Spenser is one of many young people who have deconstructed their faith.

You are probably asking what does deconstruction mean?

Joe Terrell wrote: “deconstruction has become a “catch-all” term for a wide range of spiritual experiences. Depending on who’s using the word, deconstruction can be a complete demolition of Christian belief, a critical re-appraisal of one’s faith tradition, or an honest acknowledgment of doubt and questions.

When I asked him how he came to deconstruct his faith, he responded that he began to question the picture of God presented in the Old Testament versus the God of the New Testament. The God of the OT was an angry vengeful God while the God of the NT was easy going. Spenser admired the teachings of Jesus but saw him as little more than a mere man and a good teacher.

We had about a 20 minute conversation about his concerns and I stood firm with the gospel. He thanked me but walked away unconvinced.

We face many challenges when attempting to reach our culture with the gospel. Yet we proclaim the one message that can impact the culture more effectively than any other. The gospel.

We have the very same message as Paul proclaimed. Those who opposed the preaching to the gospel accused Paul and his companions of turning the World upside down.

I wonder why we don’t see the same results today. Has the gospel lost it’s power? By no means. Has the church lost confidence in the power of the gospel? Maybe so.

Let’s observe what Paul did when he went to Athens.

Paul Proclaimed the Unadulterated Truth

The culture of Athens was very much like the culture in our nation right now. Athens had been a center of culture and education. Now it was in a state of decline. It’s glory days had past.

It was a pluralistic culture.

Acts 17:21 CSB

Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new.

The religion of Athens was very man- centered - much like the secular humanism of our day. It lacked any moral power.

Paul was provoked when he saw that the city was filled with idols. The running joke about Athens was that it was easier to find a god than a man in that city. The population of Athens about that time was 10,000. The numbers of idols was around 30,000.

The primary antagonists of Paul were the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers.

Epicureans believed the chief end of man was pleasure and happiness. The Stoics believed that a “great purpose” was guiding and directing history and that man should align himself with this purpose through tragedy and triumph.

When Paul recognized their spiritual condition, he reacted by proclaiming the unadulterated truth.

Acts 17:17 CSB

So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

We could say that Paul preached the truth of Christ both in the church and on the streets

So how should we respond to the culture of our day?

The same as Paul did.

He didn’t ignore it and hope it would go away.

He didn’t run for it or hide from it.

He didn’t become angry and storm off to launch a protest.

He didn’t compromise with it and become culturally relevant.

He confronted it head on with the gospel.

Much of what we see today in our culture is the spirit of anti-christ.

When we legalized gay marriage, we opened the doors for gender confusion, sexual perversion, and the movement to normalize things like pedophilia. You should ask yourself, why do drag queens want and need access to children?

The people who once protested that we need to stay out of their bedrooms are now, not only asking us for acceptance, but demanding that we celebrate their sexual preferences.

We also see cultural marxism being pushed on us trough the teaching of Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. What passes for education in America is more like indoctrination.

We also see cultural marxism being pushed on us trough the teaching of Critical Race theory and Intersectionality. What passes for education in America is more like indoctrination.

Satanism is on the rise being promoted by popular entertainers and celebrities. Some schools are allowing after school Satan club to meet on campus.

All of these philosophies to one degree or another are against Christianity.

There is only one way to turn back the rising tide of darkness and that is with the light of the World. We need gospel proclamation that leads to life transformation.

Paul Preached the Unequaled Christ

Paul was brought before the Areopagus which was a distinguished judicial body that had jurisdiction over religion and education.

He had been accused of preaching foreign gods. This council had the authority to prevent Paul from teaching his doctrine in Athens. However, it seems that they were more curious about what he had say than they were in preventing the spread of his ideas.

As Paul stood before them, he engaged them with the message on a level that they would have understood.

“you are extremely religious in every respect.” This wasn’t a complement. He actually recognized them as being more superstitious than anything.

He acknowledged their objects of worship including an altar that they had set up to an unknown god.

Hundreds of years before Paul ever went to Athens, a plague hit the city. Despite all their efforts to appease their gods, they were unable to stop the plague. They surmised that there must have been a god that they had failed to worship so they built this altar to the unknown God and they prayed to this God who then answered their prayers and stopped the plague.

Paul said, “what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.”

He then unapologetically presented Christ to them as CREATOR.

EPICURIANS were for the large part, Atheists and said that there was only matter and that matter always existed.

STOICS were pantheists so the believed that everything was God. God didn’t create anything but only organized existing matter an imposed order on the things he organized.

But Paul declares that the God he worshipped created everything.

Atheism and agnosticism is becoming more popular these days and it all grows out of the evolutionary worldview being taught to our young people today. To believe evolution is to believe that nothing created everything and the non-life somehow became life.

If atheism or agnosticism is true then man can live any way he pleases.

Paul unapologetically proclaimed God as the PROVIDER. God doesn’t dwell in man-made shrines neither does he need to be served and provided for by man. Instead, he is the one who provides life and breath to all things including man.

According to Matthew 5:45, God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. He does so because of his goodness and kindness which should lead people to repentance according to Romans 2:4

Romans 2:4 CSB

Or do you despise the riches of his kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

Paul is barely into the message and he has already destroyed the Athenian philosophy and religion.

The idea of God as provider goes against the idea of man’s self sufficiency. We don’t need God - we can solve our problems on our own. We can use science to find the answer. We can legislate and regulate the answer.

Paul unapologetically proclaims Christ as the rightful RULER of man.

Acts 17:26 CSB

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.

The Stoics believed that God was real but he was not concerned with the affairs of men. He was distant.

Acts 17:27 CSB

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.

The New Bible Commentary 16:6–18:22 The Second Journey Becomes a Missionary Journey

The point being made is not ‘he is close, so people can find him’ but rather, ‘people cannot find him, but that isn’t because he is far away

He also points out that their idolatry was foolish and in vain. He was our creator and we were made in him image. Therefore, it was foolish to make gods in our own image.

John Calvin called the human heart “a perpetual idol factory.” How true is that. We continually manufacture god’s of our own imagination.

Finally, Paul unapologetically proclaims Christ as the only SAVIOR. (v. 30)

Acts 17:30–31 CSB

“Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

This by no means meant that man was not responsible for their sin all that time. He was patient with man’s sin and ignorance. He held back divine judgement and in due time, sent a Savior to die for our sin.

The cure for the cultural decay that surrounds us today is found in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we must call people to repentance and faith in Him alone.

Paul Called Them to an Unwavering Commitment to Christ

This ought to be our approach when dealing with the culture. There are three responses shown here to the gospel.

Some people detracted from the gospel. In other words, some mocked Paul. (Especially regarding the resurrection.)

Even before he spoke about the resurrection, some had already judged him to be a ignorant show off (Or a seed picker).

It referred to a small bird that walked about picking up seeds. It described a person who picked up the ideas of others and peddles them as their own.

There is no lack of people out their today that mock the gospel. In OCMD this last week, I lost count of how many young people walked by us and said, “Hallelujah” or “Praise the Lord” in a mocking tone. One white lady walked by us and turned to the white man in here company and said, “All old white men, all old white men!” Another lady walked by us while my friend Mark was preaching and exclaimed, “Disgusting!”

1 Corinthians 1:18 CSB

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.

There were some of his audience that delayed in coming to Christ.

“Others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.”

Is this necessarily a bad thing? Perhaps they were genuinely curious and wanted to learn more. We don’t know if they ever came to Christ because Luke doesn’t mention them anymore.

But know this, a delay in trusting Christ is the same thing as saying no to Christ. And there is no guarantee that you will have tomorrow.

2 Corinthians 6:2 CSB

For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!

Then there were those who Decided to trust Christ.

We read about 2 that were mentioned by name. 1 was Dionysius who was a member of the Areopagus. We don’t know much more about him. And Damaris, a woman.

It says there were others with them but we are not given the total number.

It shows that there were people in the city that were searching for answers.

There are people in our culture today who are searching for answers. Athens was a university city and therefore more resistant to the gospel. Yet some people were open. The same is true for us.

Paul didn’t stay in Athens very long - only a few days. But he planted the seeds for the church and God gave the increase.