Speech at the Areopagus
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If I have a life verse, it has to be:
Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
When someone asks me what kind of christian I am, what type of church I go to, I describe myself a Berean, because I listen to what people say, then go back to Scripture to see if it’s so.
After Berea, Paul went to Athens, then called for Silas and Timoth to join him.
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
While Paul was waiting, he saw the state that the city was in.
It was given over to idols.
People worshiped all kinds of things, that is except Yahweh.
Paul’s spirit was provoked:
Urged on.
Irritated.
As we wait for the return of Jesus, is our spirit provoked?
Do we see that this world, this county, this town is given over idols?
Do we see the worship of all kinds of things other than God?
How does your spirit react?
Is it provoke to action, or dulled by complacency?
Are you moved to action, or simply to have another church event?
Paul’s spirit was moved to action.
He reasoned in the synagogue, the Jewish church.
He reasoned in the marketplace, where everyone gathered.
He reasoned with both Jew and Gentile.
What do you do?
Paul’s actions eventually drew attention.
Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.
“What does this babbler want to say?”
They called Paul a babbler.
Literally a “seed picker” or a “word scavenger”.
We’ve met people like this, haven’t we?
Someone who likes to show off their knowledge.
Someone who will use a $10 word when a 50¢ one will do?
I’ve been accused of being nit-picky about words,
So I guess I’m in good company.
It seems these people wanted to hear more about what Paul was saying,
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
Oh goodie, something new.
Sound familiar?
The latest fad, the latest trend, the latest strategy to grow the church, or your wallet.
Interesting how we live in a world so similar to Athens,
But it seems not to want to hear the type of message Paul is going to bring.
Addressing the Areopagus
Addressing the Areopagus
Paul jumps right in,
But not in the way we would expect a preacher today to.
Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 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:
Paul was not like the men in sandwich boards, screaming "Repent, for the end is near!”
He points out that the men of Athens were very religious,
Just as so many people today claim to be religious, or “spiritual”.
Paul even points out they have an alter to the unknown God.
And what does Paul do with that little tidbit?
You know there’s an known God,
Let me introduce you to Him.
How many of us, were we to find ourselves in Paul’s situation, simply curl up and hide?
Or if we did stand up, would start out by attacking their beliefs and trying to prove we are right,
Rather than simply introducing them to the God they do not know?
Who is this God the Athenians do not know?
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.
First of all, He does not dwell in your temples.
Neither does He dwell in our churches!
God made the world, and everything in it,
He does not need you to build Him a house.
Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.
God doesn’t need you.
God doesn’t need your hands to get things done,
He made your hands.
He made you.
He gave you life, breath, and everything you have.
So God is not waiting around worrying of you’re going to do what He’s asked.
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,
We often talk about race and race relations,
But there is only one race of man, the human race.
God created it, yet man has seen fit to divide them up based on useless categories.
Then use those meaningless differences to steal, kill and destroy.
Just as the thief Jesus talked about in John 10.
Maybe we are of our father the devil, as Jesus said in John 8.
But if we are all one race, why has God created so many nations?
Why has He set their times and places?
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;
So that we may search for the Lord.
To seek Him out, in the way He wants.
To grope, as blind men in a dark room, seeking the ultimate light switch.
Not one that illuminates the room, but our hearts.
God is not far, but our searching is flawed.
We’re like the teenager who cannot find what they are looking for, even though it is right under their nose.
By creating different peoples, with different ideas, we can search for the one who answers everything.
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.’
Mankind thinks they can exists without God.
But without Him, we do not live, we do not move, we do not exist.
We are God’s children, which should mean something to us.
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.
Are you the child of gold or silver?
Did you come from a rock, word, or piece of art?
Then why do we look to these things as embodying God?
When we shape things to represent God, we are trying to make God in an image we can understand,
But do you really want a God so small that we can understand Him?
That we can place him in an idol, or sculpture, or building?
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 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.”
God may have overlooked our ignorance in the past, but now He has spread His Word throughout the world.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
Not by the flawed definitions of man, but the only Man who could righteously judge, Jesus.
Not surprisingly, there are certain ideals that people have a hard time accepting.
And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.”
Some mocked what Paul said, while others wanted to hear more.
What was Paul’s reaction?
So Paul departed from among them.
Wait, Paul didn’t develop a more “seeker friendly” message?
He didn’t attempt to get everyone to go to his church to get them saved?
Nope, Paul walked away.
Just as Jesus often walked away.
Why?
However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Because those who believed, joined him.
It wasn’t Paul’s job to get people saved,
It was to spread the Gospel.
So when his work was done, he moved on.
Conclusion
Conclusion
What can we, what should we conclude from Paul’s actions in Athens?
First, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Idol worship is part of fallen man.
Whether it be a golden statue or a wooden cross.
A book of sayings or a book of prophecy.
Mankind has ALWAYS tried to place God in a box.
To find a way to control Him.
It has never worked, and it never will.
Second, when we see this idol worship, what is our reaction?
Do we turn out backs and thank God that we are not like those filthy idol worshipers?
Do we attack and attempt to prove we are correct?
Or do we attempt to introduce these lost sheep to the Good Shepherd?
And have you ever considered just how good your introduction is?
Lastly, how do we react to their reactions?
Do we try to draw them in so we can get a chance to keep working on them?
Have you considered the fact that tricking people into thinking God is one thing in order to show them He is something else is a bait and switch?
Do we compromise God’s Word in order to not offend others?
Or do we walk away and let God bring whomever God wants to bring?
Paul’s time in Athens is an excellent example of doing what we are called to do, not what we think we should do for God.
Sure, some will look at however many actually followed Paul and think he left so many potential believers on behind.
Others may call Paul arrogant and inflexible.
But do you know what the most important opinion will be?
“Well done, good and faithful servant.”