A City Filled with Idols

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

To reverence Christ as Holy means to believe that Christ, not one’s human opponents, is truly in control of everything. To have such reverence in your hearts is to maintain continually a deep-seated inward confidence in Christ as reigning Lord and King.

Yet our response or stance toward the unbeliever must never me merely passive or neutral, we are to prepare to actively engage in giving witness with will win the unbeliever to Christ.

If you were to go to court today and mount a defense for why someone should turn to Christ to save them from the penalty of eternal death in hell would you be prepared to give a defense. By the way this is not a request made in scripture, it is the responsibility of every follower of Christ.

Acts 17:16–18 ESV

16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

Introduction

You may hear someone ask you if you are a follower of Christ or a Christian, but have you ever had someone ask you if you are an apologist for Christ?

What most believers fail to understand is that all Christians are called to be apologists for Christ. An Apologist for Christ or (Apologia) means to give a defense for Christ. Unfortunately, the Apologia of this age are few and far between. Fewer believers today are fully formed, informed, and transformed followers of Christ.

Paul’s trip to Athens is possibly one of the greatest examples of how we should engage the lost and pagan world around us. Paul has an uncanny ability to adapt his message and methods depending on the people he tries to reach. Many Christians who have lived their whole life in the Christian bubble struggle with engaging the outside world.

Paul the Switch Hitter

Paul was an ambidextrous evangelist; he could adapt his methods to reach the Jews or pagans, throwing gospel strikes with both his right and left hand, we might say. He could switch approaches from the synagogue to the marketplace, always preaching the same gospel.

A City Void of the God of the Bible

What happens when we visit a culture that is dominated by non-Christian ideology and religion.

It is a magnificent, decedent, cultural diverse society that is devoid of morality and basically deceived and dead.

We now see four parts of Paul’s reaction to his first trip to Athens.

What Paul Saw

1. What Do You See When You Look at Your City?

Note: We see that Paul was greatly distressed when he saw all the idols and idol worship.

The word used in the ESV is that his spirit was “provoked,” meaning to call forth an action or to stir someone up to anger or discontent.

Paul is in one of the most magnificent cities in the world of its time. Paul could not even appreciate the beauty or brilliance of the city for all of the idols he saw in the city.

How should Christians today interact with the pluralistic society around them? How should we engage the skeptical intellectual society of 2024?

Most believers fail to have a Paul-like experience because they do not see the world like Paul, do not feel like Paul, speak like Paul, and do not talk like Paul.

THE ANATOMY OF AN IDOL

What is an idol? Well, its anything that we would place our reliance, allegiance or trust in the place of a wholehearted reliance and trust in the true living God. So, you can see that would cover an extensive and never ending amount of things.

So, God is so jealous for our direct, personal dependence on him, and reverence for him, and adoration for him, that he disapproves not only of competing so-called gods represented with idols, but even the creation of idols presuming to represent him in your life. This is defined even further in Psalm 96:5

Psalm 96:5 ESV

5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens.

Paul saw past the splendor and magnificence of the city because he had a healthy Christian Worldview. A Christian worldview has been defined by theologians Michael Goheen and Craig Bartholomew in the following way:

Christian Worldview Definition

[It’s] an articulation of the basic beliefs embedded in a shared grand story that are rooted in a faith commitment and that give shape and direction to the whole of our individual and corporate lives. (Living at the Crossroads, 23)

*Basically, it is a set of beliefs about the fundamental issues in life: origin, meaning, morality, and destiny.

When a person truly becomes a Christian, the way they see the culture and world around them changes. This is because embedded in the Bible's storyline is a set of theological beliefs about God, such as creation, humanity, sin, redemption, and the kingdom. This storyline shapes how Christians view the world around them.

Have you ever noticed in conversations with non-believers that the way they see the world and themselves in it are completely different from how you see things? One thing that a Christian world continues to reveal is that we are in a world filled with idols.

*Underneath our sin, relationship, and intellectual problems is a profound WORSHIP problem.

*An idol is anything we turn to when we need something only Jesus can provide.

Modern Day idol Worship

1) We worship at the alter of materialism which feeds our need to build our own egos through the acquisition of more “stuff.”

2) We worship at the alter of our own pride and ego. This often makes us obsessed with our careers and jobs.

3) We idolize mankind through naturalism and the power of science. We cling to the illusion that we are in control of our own lives. We are the Lord or our own destiny to God-like proportions.

4) We worship at the alter of self-fulfillment to the exclusion of all others and their needs and desires. This manifests itself in self-indulgences through alcohol, drugs, sexual sins, and food.

What Paul Felt

2. How does the World’s idol Worship make you Feel?

Becoming a Christian also changes our emotions and feelings towards things that at one time we might not have given a second thought or glance towards. We read in Isaiah 53:3 says that Jesus was a “man of suffering, who knew what sickness was. “He wept and got enraged. Paul, too, speaks of emotions in numerous places, writing things like “as grieving, yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor. 6:10). So it shouldn’t surprise us that Paul was very distressed and provoked in his spirit when he witnessed the idol worship all around him.

The Greek word from which we get provoked or paraxino is a difficult word to translate into English. It literally means a seizure, spasm, or outburst.

We see in the Old Testament the thing that provoked God to anger more than anything was idol worship. Those things that the nation of Israel continued to chase after over, and over again. We all remember the scene at Mt. Sinai when Moses was receiving the law from the Lord the people were down below pushing Aaron to form for them a golden calf to worship as God.

Deuteronomy 9:7 ESV

7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord.

*Paul’s indignation is out of a love for God and people.

Why did God want people to worship him alone? His answer is that God loves us with everlasting love.

Paul must have experienced a mix of emotions: righteous indignation for the name of God and brokenhearted compassion for people who blindly worshiped false Gods. He was motivated by a deep love for God and his neighbor.

Where Paul Went

Acts 17:17-18.

3. Where Do You Go to Reason for Your Faith?

Paul’s Evangelism takes place in three Different Places

1). The Synagogue (in church)

2). The Marketplace (our day to day lives)

3). The Areopagus (the intellectual hubs, Universities, sceince)

Diversity in Evangelism

We must admire Paul’s ability to relate the gospel in three completely different forums in Athens.

America is a place of spiritual diversity, we have everything from the Bible Belt of America where there is a church on every corner to places that have practically no knowledge of the Bible or basic Christian concepts.

You find this even more so represented on our major University campus, many have little or no understanding of words concepts or words like God, sin, Heaven, redemption. D. A. Carson said that when ministering to university students, he finds that an increasing number of them don’t even know that the Bible has two testaments (“The Cross and Christian Ministry”).

Dialogue with Intellectual Skeptics: Philosophers who called Paul a babbler.

The word babbler is translated ignorant or show off. The word literally means here “seed picker.” It was used for several seed eating and scavenging birds. This means that they philosophers were comparing Paul to a bird picking up an idea here or there, without having any coherent idea to share.

Because they could not understand his categories they accused him of speaking for foreign unknown god’s.

2 Schools of Thought

1). Epicureans emphasized chance, the escape, and the enjoyment of pleasure.

2). Stoics emphasize fatalism, submission, and the endurance of pain” (Message of Acts, 281).

In other words, “one group said, “If it feels good, do it; there are no consequences,” while the other group said, “Grin and bear it; there’s nothing you can do about it anyway.” Both worldviews were hopeless and meaningless.”

Much of this may sound familiar in Today’s cultural and intellectual philosophies.

Adherents live for the here and now. Importantly, culture often accepts the skeptical viewpoint as the intellectual one. Thus, anyone who believes in the God of the Bible and accepts his or her need for salvation must therefore be unlearned, naive, and primitive.

You may Hear People Say.......

I am going to live my best life now!

I am going to be the best version of myself!

Carpe Deim “Seize the Day.”

The growing number of “nones” in Western culture illustrates society’s general lack of desire for eternal, ultimate matters.

The “nones” are those people who classify themselves as having no religious affiliation. About one-third of American adults under the age of thirty align themselves with this category, the highest percentage of people ever to do so, according to Pew Research.

These men and women live without any real sense of God. Thankfully, Paul gives us a mighty example of how to engage such a culture.

Skeptical Intellectuals need the Church to speak up for Truth!

What Paul Said

Acts 17:19–31 ESV

19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. 22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

4. How do You Speak the Unchanging Message of the Gospel?

In light of Paul’s teaching the philosophers led him to the Areopagus to further explain himself. The Areopagus or Mars Hill is either a court or hill. Athenians would regularly meet here to discuss and debate ideas.

Like many in our modern culture the Athenians loved new things. There is nothing like sitting in that new car smell, or getting a new shirt or pair of jeans.

People today love to listen to the daily news, or add new songs to their playlist. Enjoying new things is not wrong, however, what Paul was offering to the Athenians was something that is unchanging. The ancient of days that has always been. “The one who was, and is, and is to come.

Paul has the great opportunity to of offering to the Athenians the unchanging Jesus Christ.

MASTERS CLASS IN APOLOGETIC'S

*The Point of Contact

Some People would see this as Finding Common Ground

The reality is that Christians and non-Christians really do not have a common ground in the sense that we think, talk, and act differently from each other. The common ground we use in apologetics is finding a framework to begin a healthy dialogue. Here are some keys with engaging the skeptic.

1). What do you believe? Attempting to understand what the person believes. (issues such as climate change, the death penalty, abortion, and Jesus)

2). Why do you believe it? Why does the person hold these beliefs? (what is the deeper reason for their unbelief)

3). Where do we agree? Then, we find common ground with the person. (recognizing shared beliefs and building bridges)

4) Where do we disagree and why? Exploring areas of disagreement.t.

Paul first identifies a point of contact with his listeners. He identifies with his religious listeners. Paul understands that humanity is incurably religious. It does not matter where you go today you will find some sort of religion.

*The Point of Conflict

Every good apologetic inserts tension in the defense.

The tension is the statue to the unknown God. There is a God they did not have a name for but wanted to make sure there was a statue.

Paul fleshes out this tension by sharing the core Beliefs embedded in the Christian Story

1). God is the Creator (17:24).

Regarding the Stoics, Paul states that God is distinct from his creation; regarding the Epicureans, Paul states that God is not aloof but involved in creation.

The whole earth is in fact the theater of God’s creation. Romans 1:20

Romans 1:20 ESV

20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

The truth of God’s existence cannot be escaped as the Psalmist writes in Psalm 139 “Where shall I go from your presence oh Lord.”

Have you noticed that today you can hardly buy anything that is not stamped made in (China). Its the same with the physical Universe is stamped with the truth of the Creator God. God’s finger prints are undeniably placed on all of His creation.

2). God is the Sustainer of Life (17:25).

Paul now proclaims that the Lord who created the earth and everything in it also sustains it. If Jesus had not held everything together, it would have all fallen apart. Colossians 1:17

Colossians 1:17 ESV

17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

This brings home the point that while God is distinct from his creation he is still intimately involved in his creation.

God Does Not Need you … You Need Him!

A. W. Tozer said, “[God] needs no one, but when faith is present he works through anyone” (The Knowledge of the Holy, 36)

When God called Moses He told me that “I Am,” was sending him.

3). God is the Ruler of the Nations (17:26).

Athenians divided people of the world into two races: Greeks and Barbarians.

Paul challenges this belief by turning to Genesis' account of man's origin. Without mentioning his sources, he establishes the creation account that God is man’s creator.

So, out of one man, Adam, God created every nation of the earth. There is only one race, the Human race, out of which came many ethnic origins that have populated the earth.  (This debunks critical race theory) It was Darwin and early evolution theorists who created categories of humans. So, there is only one race, according to scripture, the human race, and many people groups.

4). God is Knowable (17:27).

In stark contrast to the beliefs of the Epicureans, who viewed the gods as being detached and uninvolved in daily affairs, Paul teaches that God’s purpose in creating humans was that “they might seek God.”

Paul uses the language of the doctrine of sin. The image given is of blind people groping through the darkness looking for God. The Greeks had a wall known story of the Cyclops by Homer. The one-eyed giant Cyclops captured Odysseus and his men. Odysseus got the cyclops drunk and blinded him with a sharp stake. Though Odysseus wanted to get out of the cave and find his men, doing so was difficult because the Cyclops was “groping around” to find and kill the hero.

It is as if Paul is saying, we are as unseeing as the blinded Cyclops.

5). God is the Father of Humanity (17:28-29)

In verse 28,, Paul quotes two pagan poets who, by the common grace God offers, caught a glimpse of the intimate relationship between God and man. He first quotes Epimenides of Crete, who wrote of God's nearness and sustaining power. Then Paul quotes a Stoic author, Aratus, who wrote of man’s creation in God's image.

Paul quotes these men to describe the truth about human nature to his audience

These writers caught a glimpse through the common grace of God that is available to all humans. Ecclesiastes 3:11 God has put eternity into man’s heart.

Warning against assuming people have the same worldview as we do and are not just incorporating Jesus in with anther worldview. Missionary in India who planted several churches only only to find people professed to accept Jesus based on the Gospel presentation only to find the absorbed Jesus into their larger pantheistic views.

6). God is Both the Judge and the Rescuer (17:30-31)

Paul’s use of the word overlooked does not imply that God overlooks human rebellion. In God’s great mercy, he did not immediately visit humanity with the judgment they deserved. However, with the coming of Jesus, a decisive turning point is taking place in redemptive history: now, everyone must repent or face God’s judgment.

2 Peter 3:9–10 ESV

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

CONCLUSION

Some have concluded that Paul’s apology fails because he did not mention the cross once in his dialogue with the Athenians. Some even go further to say that Paul was so moved by his failure in Athens that in Corinth, we read in 1 Cor. 2:2 resolving to know nothing else but “Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.”

First, we must understand that we only have the outline of what was most likely a lengthier speech. We do not see anywhere else where Paul does not discuss the resurrection and the cross together.

Some claim that this failed Paul because it brought about so few new conversions. I think Paul had a good day! Ultimately, we should never evaluate Paul or any other Evangelist-based results but by his or her faithfulness to boldly proclaim the gospel of Christ.

In this one setting Paul encountered:

1). Religious Pluralism

2). A Great Diversity of Worldviews

3) Intelligent ye Biblically Illiterate people.

Challenge for Us Today

Today’s world needs a bigger gospel, the full gospel of Christ: Many people reject our gospel today not because they perceive it to be false but because they perceive it to be trivial. You cannot talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ without the doctrine of God, the cross without creation, or salvation without judgment.

We do not speak as Paul Speaks because we do not See and Feel as Paul does: Do you feel a deep indignation when you see the idols of this generation? Do you have a divine jealousy stirring within your soul?