What is an Evangelist ?

INTRODUCTION

If I asked you what an Evangelist is, what would you say?

Would you say that it is a type of Christian that is particularly skilled in the art of proclaiming the Gospel in the lives of their friends and family?

Would you say that it is the guy who goes out to big outdoor events and hands out Gospel tracts and does open-air preaching?

Or maybe you would say something like, “Billy Graham! That’s an evangelist!”

Now, what if I changed the question a bit and I asked, “Are you an Evangelist?”

What would you say?

Would you say, “No—that’s not really my thing?”

Would you say, “No—that’s not really my calling?”

I have a fear that when many Christians think of evangelism or someone who is an “evangelist,” they immediately think of other people. Someone else.

And yet, in Peter’s first letter, listen to what he says:

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

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,

This is not a command for someone else.

This is a command for you—because you are a Christian.

Jesus told His followers—all of them, not just the 12 disciples—that they are the Light of the World.

Matthew 5:14 ESV

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

The way that Jesus is talking, it is like if you had a spiritual ID card that listed out the details of your identity on it, this would be on there—Light of the world.

So while we would say that God especially gifts some for the task of being an Evangelist, we are all called to evangelize.

We are all called to make a defense. We are all called the light of the world.

In some sense—we are all called to be evangelists—people who bring the Good News of the Gospel to the world.

CONTEXT

This morning we will finish up Acts 17 and in this passage, we see Paul in Athens.

He fled there when the Thessalonian Jews came to Berea stirring up trouble. Silas and Timothy remained behind with plans to meet up with Paul later.

And as Paul arrives in Athens, in the middle of his 2nd missionary journey, we see the Apostle as an Evangelist.

The man who would tell Timothy to do the work of an evangelist, is doing the work himself in Acts 17.

And as he does, we will learn four things about an evangelist that will help inform us about who we must be, as those heralding the Gospel of Christ.

We will see that:

1. The evangelist chafes at the idols of the world (v. 16)

2. The evangelist cries out with the Gospel of Christ (v. 17-21)

3. The evangelist confronts the wisdom of man (v. 22-31)

Acts 17:16–34 ESV

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. 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. 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. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 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. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 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, 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, 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.’ 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. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 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.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

CHAFING AT IDOLS (v. 16)

Let’s start with our first observation this morning:

1. The evangelist chafes at the idols of the world (v. 16)

As Paul is waiting for Silas and Timothy, something happens. He sees all of the idols in the city and Luke says that his spirit is provoked within him.

Many Jewish scholars in the 1st century used a Greek translation of the Old Testament called The Septuagint.

The word that Luke chooses for provoke here is the same Greek word that the Septuagint used to describe God’s temperament toward idols.

One example would be Deuteronomy 9:7

Deuteronomy 9:7 ESV

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.

The chafing and irritation in Paul’s spirit is not sinful.

Instead, he is demonstrating a sort of zealousness for God’s name that actually reflects the very heart of God toward idolatry.

This is a godly feeling in Paul.

The reason Paul is provoked is because of the overwhelming idolatry in Athens.

The historian Pliny suggests that Athens had an estimated 73,000 statues, altars and temples to false gods and goddesses.

It is easy then to understand Paul’s provocation.

Even as he goes into the marketplace in verse 17, he would have seen to the south a skyline of temples.

Zeus, Athena, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Nike—even one for the Roman emperor, Augustus.

A CULTURE OF IDOLS

We understand some level of what Paul is feeling, don’t we?

We live in a culture of idols as well.

We may not have temples built to Greek gods and goddesses, but we see people worshipping that which is not God all around us.

RC Sproul used to say that idolatry is the most basic sin in the whole world.

It lies at the heart of all our rebellion—rejecting the worship of God for the reverence of something else.

I remember seeing a movie last year and when I got out, I heard all this singing and screaming from a theater by the bathrooms.

Inside, there were grown women, in the middle of the day, watching a Taylor Swift concert on the big screen.

They were jumping around and singing with their hands in their air, knowing every single word.

Tell me that we are not made to worship.

The problem is that most people worship anything and anyone but God.

We see it in the painted faces at football games.

We see it in the obsessive celebrity culture around us.

We see it in exaltation of money and riches.

We see it in the desire for power that rules so many who are desperate for influence and prestige.

But we also see it in the worship of the SELF.

America is obsessed with the person in the mirror. The person in the solo selfie.

The consuming, unholy love for the “self” is not only the greatest idol—it tends to be the root of all sorts of idolatry.

It is a rejecting of God so we can worship what we want, how we want, when we want.

We live in a culture all about self-love, self-care and self-esteem that only fuels the ego.

As we see people worship all these counterfeit gods, we should be provoked.

Our hearts should chafe at the prospect of all this glory being stolen from God.

CRIES OUT WITH THE GOSPEL (v. 17-21)

2. The evangelist cries out with the Gospel of Christ (v. 17-21).

In v. 17, Paul goes to the synagogue, as is his custom, and he is reasoning with the Jews and the Gentile God-fearers there.

God-fearers were non-Jewish people who had not fully converted to Judaism, but they participated in aspects of Gentile life.

But the synagogue isn’t the only place he goes—he also goes to the marketplace or the agora and he reasons with them as well.

When Luke says that Paul reasons, we know what he means.

He is doing the same reasoning and explaining from the Scriptures as to why Christ had to die and rise again, that he did in Thessalonica and Berea.

As he is in the marketplace, in the shadow of the idols, he has Epicurean and Stoic philosophers talking to him.

Epicureans were a group that believed, if there is a god, he is distant. They believed existence was an accident.

They taught what I will call Deistic Darwinism.

They believed in a distant deity who just set the world in motion and doesn’t really get involved in human affairs.

This deity allows survival of the fittest to pan out.

Stoics on the other hand, were just the opposite.

They believed in a close Deity that was the organizing power behind all things.

The world is controlled by fate and you must live in it with virtue.

They taught emotions were always bad.

As they converse with him, they have two main accusations:

First of all, some of them call him a babbler.

The Greek word for “babbler” refers to a bird who scavenges around to pick up all sorts of food that does not belong to him.

Think of a pigeon at a baseball game.

By calling Paul this, they are essentially calling him a religious hack.

They are saying he goes around stealing ideas from others and regurgitating them.

Some of the others call him a preacher of foreign divinities, because he was preaching Christ and the Resurrection.

This was actually more than an accusation. This was a bit of an official charge.

In Athens, if you wanted to introduce a new deity to the polytheistic pantheon, you had to present it to the Areopagus first.

The Areopagus a civic and religious council that served as the chief court of the city.

If you wanted to introduce a new god, they had to approve it.

This explains why Paul is taken to the Areopagus in v. 19.

They want to hear about this new teaching (v. 19)

They want this strangeness explained (v. 20)

Athens was a place filled with new ideas and the Areopagus was there to hear them out and determine if they were compatible with the Athenian way of life.

If not, the telling and the hearing of news things would be met with rejecting and condemning.

So as Paul head to the Areopagus, it is not quite a trial, but it’s definitely more than a debate.

You might say that Paul’s teaching is what is being put on trial.

ARE YOU PROVOKED?

Now, as we consider Paul’s response to the idolatry of the city, we have to ask ourselves, would we respond the same way?

Would our provocation lead us to proclamation?

I’ll illustrate it this way—Imagine you are a parent sitting in your house and you start hearing the worst words coming out of your child’s room.

You realize that you ten year told has stumbled on to a stand-up comedian on YouTube and every other word coming out of the iPad are things you can’t say on TV.

You are provoked. You don’t want the soul of your child taking these things in...

BUT…You are drinking a really nice cup of coffee and you have a lot to do today and the news is on TV.

Plus it will feel a little confrontational to go in there and tell your kid that this isn’t okay, so you decide—Meh—what can I really do?

Of course, I know you wouldn’t do that. You would be in that room snatching up the iPad and possibly the child with it.

Why? Because when you are truly provoked, you are called to action.

You provocation would lead to you proclaiming to your kid that this language is unacceptable and maybe you putting some more stringent parental controls in place.

THEN YOU HAVE TO PREACH

You get the point. If you are truly provoked by the idolatry of the world, then you will take action by proclaiming the Gospel in all of life and to specific people in your life.

If you are not moved to proclaim the Gospel and offer the only hope that exists for the human soul in Jesus Christ, how provoked are you?

Now, I know that sometimes we like to say that we will preach the Gospel always and use words if necessary.

I understand the sentiment, right? Holy living is a great witness.

But ultimately, it is a statement that falls very short of the biblical call to faithfulness in evangelism.

When we think about the word evangelize it means spreading the good news.

When we think about the word preaching, it is meant to recall the picture of the king’s messenger in the town square, straightening his back and loudly heralding the message of the King.

When we think of the word proclaim, we don’t think of passivity and silence. We think an official public announcement.

While we want to holy lives that are full of love in order to point to Jesus, at some point, we have to preach.

At some point, if we want to truly do the work of an evangelist, we must tell them of God. We must tell them of sin. We must tell them of Christ. We must tell them of the response of repentance and faith.

Our good intentions will not see someone into the Kingdom, but the Good News will.

Faith comes through hearing and hearing through the Word of God.

Romans 10:17 ESV

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved, but how can they call on Him of whom they have never heard?

A true evangelist is not just provoked by idolatry, they respond by proclaiming the only way to salvation in Jesus Christ.

A true evangelist doesn’t just sit in their house watching the news, lamenting that the world seems determined to rebel against God all the way to eternal Hell.

They go and love their neighbor well.

They serve them. They live holy before them.

But they also warn them of the wrath to come and tell them of salvation in Christ.

CONFRONTS THE WISDOM OF MAN (v. 22-31)

3. The evangelist confronts the wisdom of man (v. 22-31).

This is an inescapable reality. It is the part that tends to make us uncomfortable when it comes to evangelism.

What we know deep down is that the Gospel we preach, which is the wisdom of God, is going to end up colliding with the false gospels of the world, the wisdom of man.

Paul certainly experiences this as he comes to the Areopagus and presents this supposedly new foreign deity named Jesus.

THE UNKNOWN GOD

Paul stands in this midst of this council and he tells the men of Athens that he perceives they are very religious. (v. 22)

This is no compliment. He isn’t applauding their intellect or morals.

At the very least, he is making a somber observation about their polytheistic city.

Some commentators even think he is mocking them, suggesting that the Athenians are a superstitious people.

He knows they are very religious and idolatrous because he saw all of their objects of worship (v. 23) as he passed along.

In fact, they are so religious that they even have this altar made up for “the unknown god.’

Paul says, “What you worship as unknown, I proclaim to you.”

Now, aside from how clever it is for Paul to use this altar as an illustration in his preaching, we should also mention that there is a very practical reason as to why he is doing this.

His message is on trial. He is being brought before this council because he is preaching a so-called new idea. A new foreign deity.

But Paul is telling them that is not the case.

He is saying, “I am not proclaiming a new deity to you. I am here to tell you about the God you have already acknowledged with your altar to the unknown god.”

“You say what I am teaching is novel, but it isn’t. What you worship as unknown, I am simply here to make known to you.”

I believe this is the same reason that Paul will quote from their own Greek poets in v. 28.

A lot of people have read this text over the years and said, “See! When we witness, we need to be able to use the culture to reach the culture!”

So they think their sermons and their preaching needs to be filled with movie clips and Adele lyrics.

They think they need to use the world’s text to convince the world to believe.

I think they are missing the point of what Paul is doing.

In quoting the poets, he is doing the same thing as when he points to the altar.

He is saying, “What I am saying is not new. Even in your ignorance, you have acknowledged it on some level. Now I am here to give you the full picture.”

PAUL’S MESSAGE (v. 24-31)

Now look at verses 24-31—this is where Paul truly goes at the jugular of their whole idolatrous, polytheistic belief system.

There are not many gods, there is one God (v. 24).

The God who made the world and everything in it, bring Lord of heaven and earth...

THE God.

These words assume that the God Paul is talking about is the only God—the only Maker of the world and everything in it.

And this God is Lord of heaven and earth.

The kyrios. The Master and Owner.

He has all authority.

He does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, nor does He need anything. (v. 24-25).

The Greek gods and goddesses were believed to live in a cloud palace just above Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece.

They were very needy and very moody.

This is why it was so important for the people bring offerings and sacrifices into the temples for them.

But Paul is telling them of the biblical, Triune God, who is in need of nothing.

The true God of the Universe made everything and it all depends on Him, not vice versa.

He cannot be appeased with temples.

He is not desperate for tribute.

The Greek gods and goddesses needed the life and breath of mankind in order for them to be appeased.

God has no needs. He gives life and breath and everything to all of humanity.

Paul’s message in verses 24-25 are very reminiscent of what he wrote in his letter to the Romans.

Romans 1:19–20 ESV

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 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.

Why is there an altar to the unknown god? Why do even the Greek poets express bits of the truth?

Because what can be known about God is plain to them.

God has revealed his invisible attributes and his eternal power and divine nature in creation, since the beginning of creation.

This testimony leaves men and women with no excuses about God.

Paul continues on here in verses 26-27 and he begins to tell the Athenians about the creation of humankind.

God made every nation from one man and He has determined humanity’s seasons and boundaries, that they should seek God (v. 26-27).

In verse 26, he is talking about Adam.

God made Adam from the dust and Eve from Adam’s bone and all of humanity came from these first parents.

As history has moved along, nothing has happened in the history of humanity or in the forming of sovereign nations that has not occurred under God’s governing hand (v. 26).

This is what Paul means regarding allotted periods and boundaries.

People say— “God’s hand was in the forming of the United States!”

They are correct. But according to Paul, God’s hand has been in the forming of every nation that has existed, exists or ever will exist.

The Greeks believed the gods and goddesses had control over every part of their lives.

Paul is saying—there is one God and He has control over not just your lives, but everything that is happening in the world at all times.

And according Paul, it is God’s desire that people would seek him and feel their toward him and find him.

But the Greek word that Luke records Paul using for the term “feel their way” indicates that it is a search with uncertain results.

It is like a man waking up in the middle of the night in an unfamiliar hotel room, trying to grope through the darkness and find the bathroom.

It is a seeking and searching in ignorance.

Once again, Paul’s letter to the Romans compliments what is being said here:

Romans 1:21 ESV

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

The fallenness of man relegates his mind to futile thinking and foolishness of the heart, unless God does a work of grace.

This is why the seeking and searching is so uncertain.

In truth, the man in the dark hotel room has a much better hope of finding the bathroom in the night.

And yet, Paul also wants them to know that The transcendent Creator, who is above and beyond us, is also immanent and near (v. 27-28).

If the Athenians would have ears to hear and they repent, they will find God is not far from them.

Psalm 145:18–20 ESV

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

This is not a God who is far removed from us.

He sustains us in the sense that we live and move and have our being in Him.

Our life. Our movement. Our existence.

They are second by second in Him, in the sense that He is the Sustainer and we are completely dependent upon Him, whether we want to admit it or not.

We are the offspring of God and not vice versa (v. 28-29).

God made us—we did not make Him.

The idols that littered Athens were all the product of human hands. They were formed and fashions with wood and metal and with heat and blade.

And yet, people would bow down to the thing they made!

Isaiah confronts Israel for buying into this backwards way of thinking in Isaiah 40.

Isaiah 40:18–20 ESV

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.

Later Isaiah says that the idol-maker bows down to the thing he has fashioned because of spiritual ignorance.

Isaiah 44:18 ESV

They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.

God has given them over to their sin.

Once more, this is exactly what Paul is saying in Romans 1 about the darkened, idolatrous, human heart:

Romans 1:22–24 ESV

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

And then finally, Paul moves from talking about the first Adam and the human race that came from him, to talking about the Second Adam, who will come again and judge the entire human race.

We are living in the last days and Christ will soon judge (v. 30-31).

When Paul says that the times of ignorance God overlooked, he is not suggesting that there was a time in which the nations had no culpability for their sin.

Instead, he is saying that God has been patient and merciful with the ignorance of the nations, but that judgment is drawing near in the Person of Jesus Christ.

People must repent of their sin against the Creator and trust in Christ.

A day is coming when Christ will judge the world and we know He has this authority because He has already proven it in overcoming the grave.

AN ISSUE OF WORLDVIEW

Ultimately, what we are seeing in all of this is that when an evangelist confronts the wisdom of man, worldviews are colliding.

Your worldview is the lens you see the world through. Your framework for interpreting the times and how you should live in them.

Everyone has a worldview, even if they don’t know it.

In this passage we see a polytheistic worldview and monotheistic worldview crashing into each other.

We see man-made religion and God-given revelation coming together and there is much friction.

We see the Apostle standing on the wisdom of God and he is confronting an Areopagus that stands on the wisdom of man.

We can expect that the same will happen with us as we go out into the world.

When I was a kid, I would play NASCAR video games. One of my favorite things to do was to get on a short track like Bristol and drive in the opposite direction and cause absolute carnage on the video game.

What I found is that if you drive in the opposite direction of everyone else, you will get into collisions pretty fast.

We are driving on the short track of the last days.

We aren’t going backwards. We are actually driving the right way if God’s truth is directing us.

But the world is driving in the opposite direction.

And they have a lot of cars on the track.

If we do the work of the evangelist, there will be confrontation and collision.

THE SECULAR CONFRONTATION

For us, we probably don’t know too many people who worship Zeus or Athena.

And frankly, most of the folks in your life probably don’t go to a mosque or follow Buddha or even attend a Mormon temple.

The collision that we are going to come into contact with again and again is a secular, godless mindset that rules the day in the Western world.

Even the things Paul has said in his address to the Areopagus are in direct opposition to the secular stance.

God made the world and everything in it.

The secular story says that existence is a result of randomness and chance.

There are many working theories from the secular world, but they all boil down to one big effort to write God out of the equation of creation.

He made from one man every nation of mankind.

The secular story says that life on earth came from abiogenesis.

They say that 4 billion years ago, through a long, complex process of random chance, life came from non-life.

You are not made in the image of God.

You are skin bag full of bones, blood and chemical and when you die, it is really no different than when a hermit crab dies.

God commands all people everywhere to repent.

The secular story says, “You do you.”

Express yourself.

Live how you feel and you’ll feel how you want.

There is no objective truth outside of you that dictates right and wrong—you get to do that. Live your truth.

God has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man.

The secular story says we will be in a Mad Max apocalyptic world, having wars over water in just a few generations.

I know people from my college years that have purposely had no children or intentionally minimized their child-bearing because they didn’t want to bring more children into the microwave of the earth with its melting ice caps.

I am not joking.

This narrative is a direct attack upon Fill the earth and multiply.

And it is being believed and trusted in the way that a Christian would believe and trust in the Word of God.

CONCLUSION (v. 32-34)

But as we wrap up chapter 17, I want to encourage you this morning.

I have a feeling many of you do chafe at the world’s idols.

In the lives of your co-workers.

In the lives of your friends.

In the lives of your neighbors.

Some of you chafe in your hearts with so much pain when you see the idolatry eating up the lives of your precious children whom you love.

And I’m talking specifically about those of you who are broken daily over the lostness of your adult children.

You chafe at this. You are provoked by this.

And I have a feeling that the Spirit who dwells within in you compels your spirit to rise up and proclaim the Gospel.

You want to cry out.

But it is this business of confrontation that is so intimidating. So daunting.

Particularly if you tend to be a more passive person.

Well, I want to tell you that your confrontation with the world and your collision with the secular worldview will likely have mixed results.

As you go out as the Light of the World, there are some who will look at you and say, “You don’t bring light. You bring darkness.”

They might even call your message oppressive or unloving.

In verse 32, Paul gets yet another taste of this sort of rejection as he is mocked for preaching about resurrection from the dead.

Others were willing to hear more about it all.

But look at verse 34.

As Paul goes out from their midst—one of the members of the Areopagus actually believed and joins up with the new Christian community in Athens.

A woman named Damaris also comes along, as well as a few others.

Church—the work of evangelism can feel like a hard task.

It can be intimidating.

It can be discouraging.

You might be made fun of and rejected.

You might be mocked.

But take heart. God is a Savior.

And just as He sovereignly governs the world, He sovereignly saves out of the world.

Just as He made Adam from the dust, He will remake a man with the power of His Word and Spirit.

And He will use an ordinary sinner like Paul for the work.

He will use an ordinary sinner like you as well.

And so as you leave here today, leave here saying--

I am an evangelist.

When provoked by the idolatry around me, I will proclaim.

When I proclaim and my confrontation with the wisdom of man comes, the Lord will be with me.

And since He is with me, I trust Him to use His Word in His way, in His time.

You are an evangelist.

Go tell the world.